#fenixtj

*******

Symond comes up from the workshop cavern looking excited

"Boss lady Jessica, I got .. the thing!"

She dangles what looks like a steam punk skull

"Um. Yes. That is a thing.... what thing is it? Do I want to know?"

"oH yeah, worked with Fawnn and two feathers... what you got here is a translator device. You speak while holding it, and it translates it into any language you want even if you don't know it"

"That... that could be amazingly helpful. Is... um, is that all it does? I mean, any... surprises?"

"Don't think so" She hands it over to her "here, say something in Spanish and think how yo uwant it translated to English"

"-Think???-"

"GENIUS takes guts..." She insists "And field work"

A pause "Sometimes blood"

Blink.

"Is it going to bite me?"

She ponders for a moment

Then "no?"

"Symond, don't think I'm not grateful. Or excited. Just... looking to know what I'm getting into. Sometimes, an invention has, um, unintended side effects. Any idea on that in this case?"

"Not without you TRYING it, no. I tried it and it worked fine"

"Ok......."

"Thing is, I pretty much speak Spanish. Shouldn't we test it to see if it can translate to something I -don't- know?"

"Then how would you know what it said so it worked?" She points out

"Right. Look, is Fawn or John around? They've been working with me on other languages but I'm not so good with them."

"I ain't seennn em today. Look I just worked 13 hours straiht FINISHING it, could you atl east TRY it ?"

"Of course, Symond, sorry. I guess I could try Spanish..... Um.... "

"Do I turn it on or anything?"

As Jessica holds it and says that, it trannnslates

"HEY KNOBHEAD, " It says "This thing have an on and off switch or did you set it contantly on go because your GENIUS didn't think of that?"

"See," She says "it works!

"

"Um.... after a fashion, yes."

"Right! There you go... use it to speak Nunehi"

"I... Um, I'll consider it."

"If I want to Fuck up ANY chance of Diplomacy, this is my Go to" It translates

"-IS- there an off button?"

"Off Buton! Yes or no? It's not fucking rocket science" the skull snaps at Symond for Jessica's sake

"Oh" she pushes a socket near a cheek bone. It vibrates and settles "there you go. Press that spot again to turn it on again. "

"That is -not- what I meant..... thank you, Symond."

"No problem. Keep it, practice with it..." She walks off back to her workshop "Let me know if it overheats and melts..." And..she's gone.

Leaving Jessica with the steampunk translation skull

She considers where to keep it. Her chambers would be safe and out of the way....um, no. No, on second thoughts, not there. She has a box there, though, that would be a start. She heads in that direction.

Jess gets to her room, puts the translator in the box, and takes it to her office where the minutia of running a county is kept.

And so it does

Jess find a corner for it. Out of the way. It's a nice box, though, good for display. Place of honor, sort of thing. Nice and.... closed tight.

Where it can't do harm

Jessica certainly hopes so.

there's a knock on the door

"Come in." she goes to look through the latest snowfall of paper on her desk; as neat as she likes to make it, more paper always arrives......

Zane comes in "I was just going to say thank you for lettin me stay. I'm goinng to head back, at least for awhile, to Rivervale. Did you wannt me to drop off a message?"

"I was just there myself. Say hi for me."