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

[R.I.P.]

Alright. I'm on my way over. Make sure it's got a clean blanket. I'll see if I can ring up the farm real quick, too, just in case.

Are you coming over?

_{[He sounds surprised--surprised, but not unhappy. Seventeen years' worth of memories tell him the kindness of strangers is rare. Scraps of seventeen years' worth of other memories tell him Nyx would--will--come if he calls. He's still not sure what to think of that. It's a mixed feeling, one without a name that seems to be caught somewhere between wishing both sets of memories were true and denying the reality of one.

Class Zero would come if he called, too, he thinks. Class Zero would like Nyx.

His chest pinches so suddenly with the weight of torn feelings that he has to pause and inhale. Time to enough to chase those thoughts out of his voice before he keeps going.]}

O-okay, I will. Bring food! It'll probably be hungry, right? Babies get hungry? _{[Away from the phone:]} Shhh, do you hear that? Someone else's coming, so just... hang in there.

Of course I'm coming over. This is important. [Duh.] Just stay calm, make sure it stays warm, and I'll be right there.

[He hates this phone system. Being plugged into a wall seems so inefficient. But he makes do as he ends the call with Jack in order to ring the farm for advice.

Within twenty minutes he's knocking on Jack's door, a bag over one shoulder.]

Thank you! I didn't know who else to call. I'd say I owe you one, but I think it's more than a few by now.

_{[Every minute alone with this thing as it squirms its way to freedom makes Jack itch and want to pace. He'd planned to get this far--but he hadn't really planned for it. And this thing already seems like a rebellious child, refusing to listen to him to chill out with the hatching for a little bit.

Guess he can't blame it for being in a rush to see the world. Must be boring staring at the inside of an egg for weeks.

Nyx barely has time to knock twice before Jack is wrenching the door open with gusto, practically bracing himself on the door frame to keep from careening outward. The phone is still in his other hand from his network conversations, the cord wrapped around a side table and pulled taught around a in a bread crumb trail of his recent travels.]}

Thank goodness you're here! Careful, keep your eyes out for a couple of girls with horns. You can never tell what mood the gatekeepers are gonna be in.

[It's okay, Jack, everyone owes him eventually. He collects favours like currency with no intention of cashing in.

Nyx steps back as the door is wrenched open, then glances around him to the strained cord pulled past its limit. He doesn't even have to say anything, his raised eyebrow is judgmental enough.

The words about the gatekeepers makes him pause, however. He can't explain why girls with horns would make him so uneasy. Jack's familiarity should keep them just above strange novelty, but there was something...

Focus, Nyx. One crisis at a time.]

How's it doing?

_{[Unfazed by the look, Jack immediately steps back inside in unspoken expectation that Nyx will follow him in. Phone conversations now at an end, Jack doesn't so much disentangle himself from the cord so much as step over it and toss the receiver aside on a side table.

"Always pick up the phone," they say, but it doesn't really count if the phone's off the hook, does it? Jack can't bring himself to care if he happens to be breaking a few rules. He's got bigger things to worry about.]}

C'mon, you've got to see it to believe it.

_{[You'd think he was talking about the Second Coming of Christ the way the newness of watching an egg hatch for the first time in his life leaks into his voice. There's so much he hadn't expected to experience in person--and this is one of those things.]}

[The worry is set aside as Jack's infectious excitement starts to sink in. They've been curious about that damn egg from day one, and they still were no closer to any answers how they got it. He follows him into the other room, ignoring the phone and all the warnings in favor of setting his bag down.]

I don't know, belief is a luxury.

_{[Jack's room has an unlived-in air about it, more or less still staged the way the Pines' Happy Home Association had left it. Writing desk bare beside a small stack of books. Bedding tucked in with military neatness. On the floor beside the bed, though, is the cobbled-together incubator made out of a cooler and heating pad that's been Eggbert's home these past few weeks. The blanket the egg rests on is sprinkled with flakes of eggshell, the source being a quarter-sized hole that's opened up near the top.

Just as they're entering, it emits a rustling sound, shifting ever so slightly. Jack steps to the side, letting Nyx have the run of the room. His high energy hides a fair amount of apprehension.

His mother should be here handling this. She leads, he follows, that's how it should be.]}

See, it's getting all frisky.

[Nyx places the bag down, entirely distracted by the sounds coming out of the shell. This is the most exciting thing to happen in a long while, not counting their accident. Jack isn't the only one with nerves now that it's right in front of him.

He moves to crouch next to the cooler, peering closer.]

You're right. Little guy must be impatient to stretch. [There's a quiet awe in his voice, and he's suddenly reminded of his first few memories of his sister. She'd been equally as precious.]

001 | voice

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