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[doooooog]

// jtd

TEXT • AUDIO • VIDEO

XIMILIA

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text | un: iris | on mushroom planet, after finn tortures iris i mean takes him out for a hike

[inventure]

jake
your brother???
a certified MENACE

text | un: jtd | laughing alone in a tree

[doooooog]

what he do, boo

[inventure]

tried to kill me again, that's what!!









he made me hike

action; (during ciraiwei)

[blackfire]

（ on the seventh day, he seeks solace in silence. an open space beneath starlight, a small fire made of tiny dried branches and bits of moss, and the slow roast of one of the little silvery minnow-like fish in the pond.

the last time gwen had been separated from them, little pieces of venom had remained with him. spiders tucked away inside pouches and pockets, shaken out of his hair at odd intervals. now, there is nothing. no sense of her at all, her network ID unregistered. it feels almost like an omen, and he aches with the loss. being alone is selfish of him, when he knows wei wuxian will need him — but itachi knows he would not be especially fit company for him tonight.

for a long time, it seems like the fire holds his attention entire. he sits seiza, hands on his thighs — unmoving, but less the way people refrain from motion and more the way water does, a sense of inimitable current beneath the almost impersonal pose. stars spin overhead, the smell of roasting fish saturates the air. gwen is gone, and this world may have seen the last of its seasons, but for tonight all is calm. it is enough. it can be nothing else but enough.

there is no telling how long he was aware of the presence of another — his self-recrimination would state not nearly as long as he should have been — but after a broad swath of heartbeats — ）

You may join me, if you're hungry.

[doooooog]

[ The sun was already dipped low behind the trees when Jake awoke to the smell of distantly roasting fish. His body was stretched into a vine, twining around the trunk of the tree he'd chosen as an anchor for a day of rest and dropping eaves. There wasn't much activity in this particular stretch of forest, but that suited Jake fine. The solitude allowed his mind to wander, passing the time by cataloguing his desires and discarding them one by one. He must have dozed off.

Jake blinks into the darkness of the clearing, nose and empty gut working together to draw him down from the tree and back to his preferred doggy shape. Trotting through the forest on all fours, nose raised in the air, Jake follows the scent until it leads him to the distant glow of a campfire just ahead. Jake approaches with care, pads of his feet hitting against the soft grass as he makes his slow advance. You could never be too careful in unfamiliar woods.

Though apparently Jake wasn't careful enough. The invitation both surprises and encourages him, stepping out from where he'd been observing the scene with a quick shake. The man in question was an Orber, that was obvious just from looking at him. But then, what was he doing all the way out here? ]

Seriously? Thanks, man. [ Jake steps over to the fire, sitting in front of it. The warmth was particularly attractive after a day spent slowly gathering dew in his fur. ] Smells great.

[blackfire]

（ if the visitor being a dog holds any grand mystery to him, he keeps it to himself. hadn't wei wuxian said...? hm, in any case.

he doesn't speak again until the fish has been decently cooked, and then he cuts pieces from where it's speared through. he always brings supplies with him — the window of mission preparedness being ten minutes doesn't seem to have affected him at all — which means he has both rice and small tin plates, as well as a small teapot that smells like fragrant sencha. he portions out the food — kakashi's dogs never had any difficulty with human cuisine, so he does not forego the rice — and then gives the dog a rather curious look. ）

My apologies. On the ground, or...?

Audio | UN: Wei Wuxian

[singlelogbridge]

[The call comes out of nowhere after days of silence following that miserable experience they'd shared. He would have come around to texting Jake again eventually, but it would have taken a few more weeks at least. He really had been terrified.

But some things matter a hell of a lot more than his own stupid fear. (and this isn't the conversation that should be held over text.)]

Jake. [His voice shakes with the single syllable.]

time to die

[doooooog]

[ Jake had been meaning to contact the guy. He really had. The night of, it felt better to wait until things cooled down. Then the next morning, something in him still felt it was too soon. Another day passed, then another, and before Jake knew it almost half a week had gone by and suddenly the question of too soon had become the hurdle of too long.

Jake missed when their communications felt natural and easy, almost like two friends who had already known each other a long time. Of course, knowing someone's cadence, sense of humor, and philosophical musings wasn't the same as knowing someone's soul. Jake just wished the universe could've picked a less bombastic way of reminding him of that.

When Wei Wuxian's username flashes into his head, anxiety and relief springs up in Jake simultaneously. One of them had to take the first step towards repairing what was fractured, and Jake is selfishly glad Wei Wuxian took on that burden this time. As Jake moves to listen to the message, a few fleeting moments of ignorance make his heart feel lighter than it had been in days.

Unfortunately for that lightness, the universe wasn't done with her game.

At the sound of his own name in Wei Wuxian's throat, something in Jake instantly changes. There was fear there, but that wasn't all there was. Something was wrong. ]

Wei Wuxian?

[ He asks, voice suddenly firmer than the younger man would have much occasion to hear from him. Even during their darkest conversations during the fate of Ciraiwei, there was a warmth to Jake's tone that kept that darkness at arm's length. The urgent question in his voice now isn't what is it, it's what happened. ]

: )

[singlelogbridge]

[He doesn't even flinch at the sound of Jake's voice despite the fact that he knows he's a dog now. It doesn't matter that he's a dog, it only matters that he's Finn's brother. Wei Wuxian might be terrified of what Jake looks like, but he knows what it is to be an older brother. He knows what it is to find your sibling broken and bleeding at the hands of someone else.]

Someone hurt Finn. [He says, direct to the point because it's what he'd want if it was him. No beating around the bush, not when Finn needs him. His voice softens then, gentling in a way he couldn't have ever dreamed he'd gentle it for a canine.] Doctor McCoy is already looking after him. He says he'll be fine, but you should be here.

I don't know what happened yet. [A half truth. He knows it was Felix and that it happened during training, but this was no training accident. This was a grown man beating on someone younger than him for no other reason than he lacked self control entirely. (And perhaps humanity as well.)]

You just need to come.

text; un: y.mikotoba

[softshoes]

[Before he posts to the network, Yujin sends one quick message to Jake, along with his location:]

I am with Emerton
He's giving us the harvester codes
Will message again within next hour if all is well

[doooooog]

[ Jake wasn't always the best texter when it came to mind messages. An affection for midday naps meant most of the messages he received usually had to wait anywhere from twenty minutes to a couple hour for replies as simple as "ok."

This reply, though? This reply comes through immediately. And it's not because of the urgency of their mission, either. ]

whoa whoa hold up, you're WITH emerton? with him where?

[softshoes]

[SORRY JAKE, you have to wait another several painstaking minutes for Yujin's reply while he flexes his Mikotoba rizz convinces Emerton to give up the aforementioned codes, then tells the whole network it's happening.

He's having a busy evening.]

We WERE at the gala. I'm in his car right now.

voice ↪ un: unohana

[kenpachi]

Jake.

（ have a sweet, melodious greeting. ）

Do you have a moment to speak?

voice; un: jtd

[doooooog]

[ Have a husky, Bender-esque one right back, lady. Finn and Itachi were both out, which gave Jake all the time in the world to make himself useful. ]

Oh, hey there, lady. Sure, I'm all yours. [ Jake replies, all friendliness as he lays a truly impressive blonde tangle of shower-drain hair in Finn's bed. ] Just taking care of some housework. What's up?

[kenpachi]

I don't suppose you might know where to get Momotarō tomatoes?

（ a woman has needs, you know?

sometimes those needs are just a really nice salad. ）

action...ish

[softshoes]

[Once they're all safe and sound at the normal station, Jake will-- at some point-- find a half-torn scrap of paper on his bed. There's no words on the page, just a collection of stick-men scribbled onto it, organized into a neat line.



Beneath the first page is a second sheet of paper folded into a small square. This time, however, the dancing figures are arranged into a grid with the key to the substitution cipher made clear.

Yujin is nowhere in sight. Seeing as this is torn from his personal journal, however, the page probably smells a little like him still. 😘]

i love this so much thank u for waiting for me

[doooooog]

[ It wasn't just the smell that pinged Jake's mind as he unfolded the paper with his paws, nosing at the cipher and its code. Who else on this ship would shove homework under his door and run back off into the night again? Yujin was a lot of things, but the thing Jake enjoyed most was this kinda thing. You'd never know it to look at the man, but he had a real flair for dramatics.

It takes Jake longer than most to puzzle out the message, settled on Finn's bed as he traces a paw along it. In the second it took for his eyes to travel from the note to the cipher, Jake could only half remember which man he was supposed to be looking for. But he loved language, always had. Letters, characters, glyphs, little dancing dudes -- they were all just shapes. And shapes were Jake's business.

Well done, Jake. It was practically encoded into his DNA to wag his tail at the praise, though the compliment came through with a bittersweet edge and that instinctual enthusiasm flags quickly. Jake studies the cipher a few minutes longer, memorizing a message of his own before taking a deep whiff of the note and hopping off the bed.

It doesn't take him long to reach Yujin's quarters; door locked, of course. That was hardly an inhibitor for Jake, but he still knocks once before stretching a paw through the impossibly tiny crack in the door. On the other side, his flesh stretches into the message he'd studied before coming. ]

↪ action;

[blackfire]

（ it is jake's message that concerns him. perhaps he is simply more attenuated to the dog's tendency to deflect than he is to others — but it does mean that shortly after sabriel's disastrous post that itachi goes searching for jake.

he is still anbu-trained, and has never exactly fallen out of tracking practice. little pawprints in dust, a few errant strands of short yellow fur here and there, and he has found where jake has made a small, doggy refuge for himself in an old box stuffed full of worn, moth-eaten blankets. itachi sits down beside the box, and murmurs softly: ）

Jake.

[doooooog]

[ For a dog accustomed to hearing his name shouted, whined, screamed, or otherwise yelled, it couldn't have sounded gentler than in Itachi's low voice. It was the man's signature soft touch at work, countering every assumption one might make about a man with as much fire in him as he did.

But the man had another signature: being sneaky as heck, even to Jake's attuned nose. Throw in blindness and a migraine to end all migraines and it's no surprise that Jake yelps, body thumping as he springs to his feet in surprise. ]

Bark bark-- uh, bark... [ The more recognizably canine sounds fade into Jake's regular voice as he realizes what's happening, noting the absence of smell that he's come to register as Itachi. After the momentary shock, Jake realizes he's not surprised at all, settling back into his blanket nest with a soft huff. ] How'd you find me?

[blackfire]

I am a shinobi.

（ it's said with a certain wry amusement. come on, jake, you should know by now that itachi has an uncanny eau-de-cryptid ability to Drink Tea and Know Things. ）

How are you feeling?

Text; un: 苣屋

[dispassioned]

So, you know how make eggs Benedict and cookies. Do you know how to make dango?

text;

[doooooog]

the little chewy rice ball things on the stick?

[dispassioned]

Dumplings, would be more accurate. But yes.

text.....

[softshoes]

[One evening in the first week of the Hhial mission, Yujin sends Jake... a suspiciously contextless message?]

Is there a tier for kissing that isn't on the mouth

oh buddy

[doooooog]

[ not that contextless, Yujin. ]

Good morning to you too, buddy.