Video; UN: Wei Wuxian || Text; UN: jtd

[singlelogbridge]

[Even before the feed flickers into life, anyone literally anywhere in the sunlight room is probably aware that there is something going on thanks to one very shrill scream immediately followed by several minutes of panicked shouting. When the feed does flicker on, the view is oddly…tall? It's at height with the tops of the trees in the sunlight room which is because Wei Wuxian is making this post from the top of one of those trees.

The reason why becomes immediately obvious when he pans down to the familiar form of Jake barking up at him from the base of the tree. Jake's expression is partially obscured through the foliage, though a close study will find more fear in Jake's face than threat. Whatever he thinks he's looking at, it isn't Wei Wuxian.

Finally, the view shifts to Wei Wuxian who is wide eyed and panicked, his face completely bloodless as he holds onto the tree with one arm and gestures at Jake below with the other.]

Why? [He squeaks out in a desperate whisper, eyes darting back to Jake again before he lets out a soft whimper and returns his attention to the feed.]

Why is there a dog?

----

[ Jake's post comes through almost simultaneously, text somehow communicating volume as much as his urgency. ]

I FOUND THE GHOST. I REPEAT, I FOUND THE GHOST. GOT IT UP A TREE IN THE SUNLIGHT ROOM. PLEASE ADVISE ON NEXT STEPS AND/OR EXORCISM.

[ooc: please indicate in the comments which you're responding to!]

Comments

[heyciri]

Jake, has anyone ever run from you screaming in fear before?

Because that's how I sound and look when I'm running away from something that scares me, and I'm not a ghost. Am I?

[doooooog]

[ Well that is all well and good, Ciri, but he's not looking for a life lesson on tolerance at this point in time! He is LOOKING for an EXORCIST. ]

i'm sure all sorts of bad bananas can look scared, kiddo, doesn't mean they won't suck your SOUL through your FACE HOLES, chew it UP, and then SPIT IT back into you!

[ Yes, he's still barking. It's a fear reaction, okay?? ]

[heyciri]

( what in the world is a banana? also, has he met some of the beasts that geralt has? almost sounds like it. )

Jake...

... Do you need a hug?

( because it sounds like you've got a little ghost trauma going on there, and she has no way to fix that (nightmares be nightmares after all), so there's just one option.

... okay, or more, but she can't banish things from people's minds as far as she knows. )

I know what it's like to be scared and want something to just go away. Even if that something isn't what you think it is, or isn't there. It still feels like it is. It feels so big, and frightening, and you want it gone.

1/2

[doooooog]

[ Why is this sweet child being so wonderfully kind when he just wants to go apeshit? ]

2/2

[doooooog]

[ Jake's big brother energy is at war with Ciri's keenly assessed Ghost Trauma(tm). It really shouldn't be this fifteen year old's job to calm him down or offer him hugs, and yet here he was, definitely wanting to accept her soothing words. Not exactly the most becoming shade for a dog on the wrong side of forty. ]

you are cute as a button, you know that? but i can't have you coming ANYWHERE out here, hon, i have it on good authority that this ghost is NOT screwing around

1/2

[heyciri]

( she doesn't try listening or reading too hard to figure out good authority, if one is speaking up here, because she's not seeing any of it sensibly, and Ciri is about as prone to waiting before acting as...

... well, as yujin, or geralt, or even yennefer could say. so instead: )

Jake, I'll be right there. I can handle ghosts, and I care about you.

2/2 lights, camera, she's probably still broadcasting this so welcome to cirivision ACTION

[heyciri]

( in which she's since scooped her blanket off her bed, and tossed up a protal to bridge the distance between her room and the sunlight room. wei wuxian's vision is what helps her there: she can tell where they are, though her portal opens a touch too high, and she comes jumping out of it a good two feet above the ground, landing with a grunt.

she's focussed on jake, though. jake, who talked her to sleep about his children, his family. who means well and has different thoughts and ways to look at things than her own. wei wuxian she knows in a different, quieter way, and fear is something she understands too deeply to not be compassionate to, but jake? jake is someone she feels she knows.

enough that she's got her blanket draped over her arm, and she's calling out to him: )

Jake? Jake, it's Ciri. You're such a good boy, Jake, watching out for us. A good boy, a very good Jake, the best of Jakes.

( forgive her, this is definitely how she's heard people talk to their barking dogs before in the past, when they're being kind. )

Jake, please come here? I've got a nice blanket, and it smells like... me, probably. Um, but that's not the worst, I do bathe, and you're such a good boy! A good boy, who wouldn't hurt anyone, ( on purpose??? probably? she doesn't think he would, not right now ) and a good boy who deserves a great, big hug for doing a good job. I'm proud of you, Jake. Please come here?

( no one be listening to this but jake, Please, she's keeping her voice pitched low and soothing and also ignoring any sounds coming out of the tree (or from her earpiece), as much as she can. )

[doooooog]

[ At the sound of her voice, Jake briefly whips his head around, large eyes bulging. ]

Ciri!? What did I tell you, get outta here!

[ But she doesn't, and Jake can't bear to stay turned away from the ghost any longer than a moment.

How many times can one person say his name? It might be weird if it wasn't kind of nice, activating some primal part of Jake's wolf-turned-dog-turned-mutant-turned-sentient brain. The allure of the good boy praise was hard to ignore, even as his growling fear keeps him pointed towards the tree. ]

Kid, you gotta go I'm trying to--[ Okay, well, he takes a step back. Ciri had a comforting smell; the kind of thing that was also somewhat primal. The people you were fond of always carried an associated feeling with their scent. For Ciri, it was ozone and soap and some sort of warm, sweet spice. He takes a few more steps back, still facing the tree. ] This could go real bad real fast if we're not careful.

[heyciri]

We're okay, Jake, we're okay.

( She hasn't stopped coming toward him, but she makes small steps, steady, to match his steps back, his focus unerring from the tree. )

You're a good boy, and we're okay, Jake, you and me and Finn and everyone and even Wei Wuxian ( with time ) will be, we're okay.

( When she's close enough, she's gentle in letting him step back into the blanket, and she's down low, where she can see about sliding her arms around him, when he's this size and not some other size. )

You were trying to keep us safe, Jake, I know you were. I won't let a ghost get you, and you won't let a ghost get me. So come with me, Jake, you good boy, you. Come with me so that you can help Wei Wuxian too, you great boy, you good Jake, okay? We're okay, we're safe, and we're scaring him. The ghosts here are in our heads. They're in our hearts, Jake, and you're scared, and that's okay.

( If he lets her hug him, she will, still talking what is largely turning into repetitive nonsense, soothing in voice. Like she's been soothed before. She can't really pet him through a blanket, but she can run her hand over it in small, soothing motions like petting, when he's still staring, staring, staring up that tree. )

Come with me, good boy, good Jake. We'll be careful, we'll go slowly. Because we care, right? Because you're a good boy. Because no one wants to be scared, and it's okay that we are, but we don't have to only be scared. We're okay, Jake. We're good.

[doooooog]

[ Jake takes another step back, glancing over his shoulder at Ciri, and then back at the tree, and then up at the ghost in the tree... ]

Dahhh... you've kinda hit a point of diminishing returns with the 'good boy' schtick, kiddo. [ It's voiced as a gentle criticism, but the sentiment doesn't reach his eyes. He may be kinda embarrassed about how well this was working on him, but it was working.

He's close enough for her to touch now, though any attempts to grab him will result in a reflexive jump away from her.]

But... yeah. Yeah, we're good. It's staying put.

[heyciri]

I'm starting to like the sound of it. And it's true. You are a good boy. A good dog. And a good Jake.

( Is her own return, not quite with a note of amusement in it: the only person she's called good like that was Roach, but Jake doesn't need to know her experience with this is summed up as soothing exactly one horse.

He's close, so she does try for the touch of her fingertips to his ... side shoulder area, and a sort of stroke that follows. Petting? Petting. The blanket at this point is more in her lap than not. )

Jake? Will you hold my hand? I'd really like that right now. Just one good squeeze from my good Jake.

🎀 (for now)

[doooooog]

[ Far be it from him to resist the request of a kid who needed him, though he'd done plenty of that in his Real Life, with his real children. Obtusely and without realizing it, yes, but that didn't make much of a difference to his actual children. Gestures meant something, even if her efforts weren't quite as transparent as they needed to be for this to be a foolproof plan.

That was the danger in trying to help someone. Sometimes it didn't work, and then were what do you do? It's an internal point of tension that kept Jake from ever fully understanding Finn down to his core. And the same was true now, of Ciri. At the last moment, he withdraws his paw with a shake of the head. ]

Sweetheart, I gotta work this out here. I can't-- [ He sighs, frustrated, at himself more than her, before turning back to the cornered "ghost." ] I can't play this game with you right now.

[ It comes out more cutting than he realizes. Something to answer for later. ]