pinesnet | 001

Hey, wait. Not yet, hold on. You can't come yet, I have to call somebody fir--whoa! _{[A stifled intake of breath. A pleading note.]} Oh, come on, give me a break. Not yet!

_{[The message starts with a Jack's voice drifting in and out of range, like somebody caught between talking away from the receiver and turning into it. Urgency threads through the words.

There's a distant squeak of bed springs, another hissed breath.]}

Ohhhh, I see something! _{[That urgency ramps up to something closer to awe and terror of the unknown.]} It's pink in there! I can see it moving around! I forget what I'm supposed to do! I was just getting used to having Eggbert around and now he's falling to pieces on me.

_[Faintly:]

Oh, shit...

_{[Even fainter, the sound of a delicate, barely audible cheep.]}

What the hell is that? You gotta come over and bring the dog food or something-- Wait. _{[Now there's a sudden silence as a perplexed somebody realizes this isn't the private call he thought he was making. Goddamn phones, where's a moogle when you need one?]} This isn't even the right line! Lemme try that again.

_{[That there is the definitive 'click' of a hang up.]}

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

I came from nowhere but here!

[ her hearing is very good. still, ibaraki's only 4'10", and anyone building a house worth it's salt knows to build at least part of the basement above the ground... so windows are kinda high up even from the ground. so the image he sees through the glass is something like this:

]

Even if your thing is a dragon, we should eat it! Dragon meat is delicious — though, without the red archer, we must eat it plain or find someone to make the sauce — but I will settle for chicken as well!

_{[When the garden gnomes attack, this is how it's going to look.]}

That's even worse! Have you been lurking outside my window all this time?

_{[He wouldn't put it past these ladies... and it's the exact reason why he's been hesitant to leave Eggbert unattended when he knows Ibaraki is home. A girl who can eat three times her weight in anything and everything that gets near her mouth is super weird, and he thought he knew what weird was when he started getting memories back of sword fights and l'Cie with glowing brands.

Probably going to the window and opening it to talk to her is counterproductive in keeping her away from her next potential snack, but Jack does it, anyway. Do you need, like, a step ladder, or some warm boots to stand out in the snow like that...?]}

I'm not sure what you're talking about-- _{[An underwhelming way of saying most things out of Ibaraki's mouth are a trip and a half.]} --but I put a lot of work into getting it this far, we can't give up now! I think this little guy's ready to meet the world.

_{[Pro-life pep talks from the guy who probably wouldn't stop Iba from eating it if it weren't connected to his past somehow...]}

[ how dare you. she's too cute to ever be a shitty garden gnome. ]

Do not be a fool! I was cutting the new deer! [ so they can save it for later... which explains why there's... a mess of red... all over the giant tee shirt she's wearing. it's all over her hands too, which you unfortunately can't tell until she finishes scrambling up in through the window, and leaves bloody handprints in her wake. ignoring any protests from jack, she trots over closer to the egg mess, and crouches down to get a better look. ]

You have a point, egg boy. An infant dragon would be much less filling than a grown one. But the meat would be tender!

_{[The new deer? Is there another one he doesn't know about...]}

Do you have something against buying hamburgers at the store? _{[Biting his tongue on a plea (please don't tell me that's what I think it is) is his response to the smeared red hand prints left in Ibaraki's wake as she barges right in, despite her invitation being lost in the mail. He has only himself to blame for staying in this funhouse past a single night.]} Sure... come on in, I guess.

_{[Jack really doesn't know what he's going to do if she unhinges her jaw and dives in for an afternoon snack or whatever she's used to doing, so he ends up standing slightly behind her, hands awkwardly hanging at his sides, watching. Hard to tell what's going to be worse on his blood pressure: egg or oni.

As Ibaraki kneels, there's a small cheep and a rattle from inside the egg. Jack's eyebrows shoot up. It'd been quiet for the longest minute, he was starting to wonder if he should get off his bed and look.]}

Listen, listen! There it is again! Does that sound like a dragon to you?

Do you not like fresh meat, egg boy? [ and oh boy is it fresh. it's very fresh alright.

for now, she does nothing, just takes a seat on the floor next to the egg to watch, knees curled up against her body, getting bloody handprints on even more carpet. there's something about this town that gives her a previously unseen sort of docility, which makes her outbursts seem extra outlandish — even though in chaldea, there's enough chaos that it's just part of the norm to begin with. ]

Baby humans do not sound like grown humans! Why would dragons?

... Are you not wearing shoes?

_{[That's what you choose to focus on instead of the blood-smeared demon using your room as her own personal paint-by-numbers? Apparently it is. Perhaps it's because cleaning a little blood from the carpet is one thing he can do after a morbidly large amount of his life washing opponents' bloodstains from his gear.

But live like a civilian? Take care of a baby animal? If only Ibaraki were hiding an instructional manual under that baggy shirt.

Letting the phone receiver fall to the bed, Jack hops down. If she's going to get close to it, he can't be seen as afraid to do the same. With a sigh, he joins her on the floor.]}

It seems a little small to be a dragon egg. But I do know this one's special, so no making mincemeat of it, 'kay? This one's going to help me fill in the blanks in my memory, I just know it.

_{[Humans are great at wishful thinking.]}

[ with a flat stare, she extends one leg to set her foot on Jack's leg, toes wiggling, which only makes the inch long claws at the end of each wiggle as well. ]

Human shoes do not work! And unless I have a contract, there is no reason to be wasteful and wear human feet instead.

[ she leaves her foot there (thankfully, it's redness only comes from the natural color of her skin and oni patterns, not any blood like her hands), and grumbles under her breath. ]

Human memory is useless. You will forget again before you die, so why do you care so much...? I am hungry, that is more important...

I see your point. Pun intended with those nails. I'm just impressed you don't get frostbite lurking outside people's windows in this kind of weather.

_{[Or some blood-borne disease from mucking around with dead animals, for that matter...

Jack searches his memory, but he can't recall a time in Rubrum where he was ever touched as casually as he is here, like some kind of barrier between him and the rest of the world has fallen away (though in Ibaraki's case, it's more that she doesn't care about barriers in general). With the underside of her foot exposed, it's reflex to reach out and gently draw his fingertip along the curve of her arch. Do demon girls get ticklish? We're finding out here and now, folks.

The combination of the tangy smell of blood and something about her words--you will forget again before you die--gets Jack frowning slightly. There's a boulder in his head he's waiting to fall and her choice of words pushes it a few centimeters closer to the edge.]}

That's just the thing, it's the other way around. I'm alive and there are things I have to remember. People I have to get back to. _{[Soon enough that frown turns upside down and he turns back to her, wearing the wry result.]} Didn't you say you have a deer? Mmm, venison! Think of that tasty deer meat!

001 | voice

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