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[scarcastically]

// jaguar

TEXT • AUDIO • VIDEO

XIMILIA

Comments

un: aragaki; vaguely forward dated to post-heist, waves hands

[petsthedog]

[The message comes at some ungodly hour. Shinjiro Aragaki, having trouble sleeping? Quelle surprise.]

hey
can i ask you something

[scarcastically]

Sure. What's up?

[petsthedog]

[There's a brief hesitation, just long enough to be noticeable. Shinjiro almost gets cold feet on asking him at all, but he has to talk to somebody. Funnily enough, Erik is the person he trusts most among the Orbers.]

what's your regret?
the one you're trying to fix, i mean

[From their conversations, it sounds like a lot of regrettable things have happened in Erik's life.]

'fuck off none of your business' is a fair answer, for the record

[scarcastically]

[ it's a long couple of minutes before erik responds. ]

It's me. I'm my own regret.

@PARKOUR

[webdesigned]

yo, still game to talk to viv?? if not i can go on my own, no worries ✌️

[scarcastically]

Yeah, I'm game. I'll meet up with you.

[webdesigned]

sweet. wanna meet up by the cafeteria? i may or may not already be there

text ↪ un: 朱

[blackfire]

What is your opinion on the princess?

（ zero preamble. just. suddenly this. ）

[scarcastically]

I think people are buying it at face value, but our group is gunshy. We've left damage in our wake and no one wants to handle more than they can.

[blackfire]

（ what is 'gunshy'... ）

They are concerned about the possibility of firearms?

（ sorry, erik, while his world is oddly anachronistic at times, his only exposure to 'guns' has been on the ximilia.

#weirdlyliteralninjathings ）

text. un: barnes.

[starer]

Sam's still unconscious. Viveca doesn't know how long it'll last.

I need a favor.

[And hello to you too, Erik.]

[scarcastically]

[ well, well, well. this is a surprise. ]

What is it?

[starer]

Shuri got the Winter Soldier programming out of my head. The orbs put it back in.

I need you to start carrying tranqs. Take me down if I get triggered.

in lieu of christmas trees

[blackfire]

（ at some point, erik may notice a small origami jaguar outside his room.

how did it get there? who did it? hard to say.

it's not exactly a present, either, it's just — something he sees as a duty. ）

[scarcastically]

[ oh, that's sweet. thoughtful. in a way, he's not sure what to make of it but in a completely different way . . . he understands it completely. ]

special delivery

[bossily]

[On the evening of the 24th, Clara drops a little unwrapped box off at the door to his room. She knocks and runs off, so he'll be able to open it alone. Inside is a small stuffed jaguar.

There's also a note.

I know you don't celebrate Christmas, so think of this as a gift from one clever cat to another. I thought of you when I saw it sitting in the supply drop, and how you're softer on the inside than you want people to believe. I want you to know that no matter what, I consider you to be part of my family that I've found here. So there's no givesie backsies on the stuffed animal.

- Clara]

[scarcastically]

[ everyone keeps leaving him gifts . . . what is he supposed to do with that?

it's like being a kid again. he sets it up in his room. his collection of jaguars. perhaps that is his pride now. ]

[bindsthedead]

[Sabriel's gift arrives wrapped in dark blue paper, tied with silver ribbon.

Inside the box is a spellbook discussing the enchantment of objects with Charter magic, silver wire in several different gauges, and a long dagger, washed in silver and imbued with spells of sharpness and durability, along with breaking and unraveling and other marks to make it an effective weapon against the Dead and other creatures more easily wounded by magic than steel.

There is also a small charm, made of braided silver wire and imbued with protection spells.]

[scarcastically]

[ for the first time, erik realizes that the people here know him. not just the person he pretends to be in front of them, but all the inner workings too.

it's heartening and terrifying all at once to know people keep him close in the space left over in their hearts. ]

voice | un: m.cabrera

[naloxone]

[ sometime after marta has gotten settled in the infirmary to recover from her injuries after scorpion's bend, she finally had the wherewithal to reach out to erik. her voice is worn and tentative, but no less sincere in her gratitude. ]

Erik? Hi, it's Marta. I hope you got back to the station alright.

I wanted to thank you again for what you did for me back on that planet. If it wasn't for you, I don't think I would have made it.

[scarcastically]

[ a pause. ]

It's fine. We all need to help each other out to make it through. You would have done the same.

[naloxone]

I would have.

[ she doesn't have any doubt about that, nor does she want him to doubt it either. but that's not really what this is about.]

But that doesn't make me any less grateful, or what you did any less worth thanking.

text; un: aragaki | after communications are back up

[petsthedog]

[He sends this message like, a good few hours after communications go back up, because Shinjiro finds it entirely too awkward and presumptuous to just reach out to him right away as though they're friends, or something. There's probably others he'd rather hear from first. Less complicated, awkward ties.

...At the same time, Erik is the only person here who really knows him in any meaningful way, and there's been something strange about being cut off from even the decision to contact him if he wanted to.

(It might be something like loneliness, were he at all willing to acknowledge it)

When Erik does get that mental ping of a new message, it's at some unearthly hour, almost as though the sender had hoped he would be asleep when he sent it.]

hey

[Five entire minutes later:]

you're alive and shit right

[scarcastically]

yo.

[ he's a bit surprised and maybe a little touched. he keeps forgetting people keep tabs. ]

i'm in one piece. there was a bit of a mess here, still looking to untangle it, but i'm good.

[petsthedog]

a mess?
i heard about the people getting arrested up there
did you get caught up in that or
something else happen?

[That definitely reads like concern too. Shit. Fuck. Thought to speech betrays his feelings too easily. ...It's fine. He'll deny it if he's called on it.]