text + video;

[jaywalks]

[ locked to: korra, bolin, kaldur'ahm, cassie sandsmark, john grimm, and hermione granger ]

[ august 15th: ]
the dragon inside the egg is shaking and moving a lot more than it used to. just a heads up. updates to follow. is the situation at redgate still the same?

[ august 16th; ]
none of the shadow monsters you've seen have been two stories tall, have they? [ nothing suspicious about this question, nope. also don't worry, he's pretty sure it got dog'd. ]

[ august 17th; ]
i think it's going to hatch soon.

[ august 19th, 11:45 PM, video; ]
[ mako looks tired, half shadowed in the dim light of a lit branch of candles. thank goodness for firebending, or he'd have no light at all without calling for the healers. he stifles a yawn with one hand, holding the locket in the other, and speaks as a quiet scratching noise fills the night silence around his words. ]

She's hatching. Sorry I couldn't get her to hold off longer.

[ don't ask him how he knows the dragon is a girl, now, after weeks of being an it — he just does. and, as proof to how well he's been mending, when most of the communication with his friends has been through text, mako reaches over and slips the locket's chain through the middle of a heavy book and actually pulls his injured ass out of bed to set the book against the footboard, giving the locket a full view of the egg, nested in a slightly singed blanket in the middle of the bed, and mako's workstation (books. books EVERYWHERE. and two cats watching the whole spectacle.) in front of the open windows. his stomach still hurts him enough that he has to keep one hand on the wall, or the bed as he finishes lighting the rest of the candles in the room, and then drops himself back on the mattress with a little more force than he'd necessarily use if he... you know... weren't still healing. he settles back against his pillow pile with his legs folded up in front of him in a tailor's cross, and tugs a book onto his lap to wait. and wait.

and wait.

with the new light, a spiderweb of cracks can be seen across the top of the egg, places where the sheen has been disturbed by a crack. mako breaking the tedium by lighting a cigarette as he divides his attention between the egg and the book and notes in his lap. minutes pass, and more, and then halfway through mako's second cigarette, the sound of an eggshell breaking finds its place in the air. mako looks up from his book, smoke leaking from his mouth in his own impression of a dragon, and he stares at the egg, finally catching sight of the first chip falling away. soon, a second chip falls, and another, the progress painfully slow, but steady.

originally, she might have been a different species of dragon. she might have looked more like sura himself, or her mother did, but the dragon that manages to free herself from the egg is something much more like the dragons at home that he knows of. his shard helped, pulling magic from him and his thoughts, the image of what a true dragon was to him shaping the growing infant within the egg as the weeks past. her green eyes are bright as the candles, and scales the color of summer and jade are slick with the film of a newborn dragon. the tiniest tufts of a mane are visible at the meeting of her skull and neck, and a thin stripe trails down her spine, as gold as the precocial down of baby feathers on her tired, dragging wings. her horns are barely nubs, bone white against the green and gold.

she chirps quietly, finally free, and mako sucks in a breath as she finally turns her gaze to him, hurriedly putting the book aside and dropping his cigarette in the empty flowerpot he's been using as an ashtray. she's tiny, barely longer than his forearm, fingertip to elbow, at her full length, and as thick as his index and middle fingers at her widest, her wings two useless hand spans at her sides. he leans forwards, the muscles in his abdomen trembling and aching, and picks her up carefully, sliding one hand under her head, and his forearm under her body, leaning back to cradle her against his chest with a quiet greeting in the soft tones of his home language. ]

Hello, sunshine.

[ she trills in response, the note high and clear, and mako can't help but grin as he picks up the corner of the blanket that nested her egg, and begins to dry her off. it feels like it takes forever, but he's careful and gentle the entire time, talking to her softly in words only bolin and korra will know, trying to keep her calm as he rubs away the coating. her mane fluffs, the tufts of her tail fanning out like a feather, and her wings flutter faintly as they're dried, and she regularly shifts her head to look up at mako's face; each time, he has to pause in his cleaning, to settle the feeling that fills his mind, and each time he continues on until the locket finally shuts itself off. ]

Comments

17th idk

[bolincredible]

situation hasnt really changed i guess. korras getting fed up. oh wait maybe its more like shes already fed up? things are tense. still a nice place though!

and that was an oddly specific question about the shadow guys are you okay?

and can you ask the egg nicely to wait until were all back in the castle again to hatch? have you tried?

17th.

[jaywalks]

so no progress on getting permission. have the unseelie caused any trouble?

yes.

i haven't tried, but i will, but i don't think it actually understands anything i say, just that i'm talking.

17th.

[bolincredible]

yeah see alyoshas really great but its also kind of this thing where the dragon killed her family so. tough negotiation. wouldnt say the unseelie have caused trouble exactly though. not the best situation. theres kind of a diplomacy thing going around at least. plus we basically avoid each other and that helps.

are you sure? two stories is a little on the tall side. seriously on the tall side actually. did that get handled? should i plan to bring a dog home or something?

what matters is that you try. if it doesnt work its not on you.

15th;

[sangilak]

I found you some great new boots?

15th;

[jaywalks]

oh. i guess i did bleed all over my old ones...

thanks.

15th;

[sangilak]

[ wow okay just talk about it like it's the most casual thing. ]

Don't mention it. They're steel-toed, I think? Carpenters and blacksmiths wear them.

16th;

[sangilak]

Wait, why was it two stories tall? Mako what's going on, are you okay??

16th;

[jaywalks]

everything's fine now, it's taken care of. there was a big one that was wrecking shit at the castle earlier, i'm okay.

i think nico's giant dog got it, based on what i've been hearing, but i wanted to know if you'd heard of anything like it out there...

16th;

[sangilak]

No, I haven't. Naga's been jumping on them as soon as they pop up.

[ we think she's suffering hunting withdrawl. ]

17th;

[sangilak]

What?? No!!

17th;

[jaywalks]

it keeps scratching at the inside of the egg.

17th.

[chromosomes]

you should try and record it on the locket, if you can.

two stories?

17th.

[jaywalks]

i'll see what i can do.

roughly. i've heard conflicting reports, and didn't get to see it myself before it went down. i'll ask around more later.

15; 16; 17; because I'm cool like that (private|locked etc etc)

[waterbearer]

15
Little headway has been made, but there is also an Unseelie Team present.
I have another matter I would ask you to look into.

I received intel stating the following:
'14TH SIGIL LOCATION IDENTIFIED'
'EMERGENCY COVENANT MEETING, WREATH FESTIVAL, TREUN'

If you could investigate, quietly, I would be grateful.

16
No. Though several have become rather large. Should this be a concern?

17
This is good news. I hope that we may return with a dragon mentor for it.

15; private.

[jaywalks]

[ splitting these up for ease of coding on my phone ]

got it. any context?

-- also, i already asked bolin but... [ he can tell he's nervous about it ] he's being shifty about telling me

i need names and descriptions of the unseelie there, if you have them.

16; private;

[jaywalks]

i don't know if it's an isolated case or not, i'm looking into it as i can

17; private;

[jaywalks]

if you guys don't make it back in time, i'll try and send you footage of it happening -- john asked.

text | 17th

[brainiest]

Is it making noises? Is it wiggling? They wiggle when they're about to hatch. Were you keeping it over a fire?

text | 17th

[jaywalks]

i can tell its moving inside, and it's been scratching at the egg almost all day. no fire, but i can keep it hot on my own

dragon hatching;

[bolincredible]

[ Bolin's welcoming himself to the tired-looking party here (on probably later on the 21st-ish or 22ndish depending on what gets hashed out and i'll toss it in the subject line when it is), as you've basically established that club singlehandedly over your lifetime, Mako. Initiation's been rough. Talk about a long couple of days. Weeks. Months-ish. However long he’s been in this particular world. Whatever.

It's not that he's a huge weenie or anything, but he's a huge weenie, and finally getting to check back up on messages to find a check-in text and a video that features a long stretch of Mako... sitting there being Mako, with the quiet tones and the words from home and everything generally being okay on the home front? Those are honestly a couple of the things that Bolin needs the most right now. So uh. He maybe just kind of watches that hatching a few times, huddled over the locket like he's been in the desert and got a free glass of water. And then he gets around to replying. nOT THAT HE... DIDN'T THINK ABOUT IT OR ANYTHING I MEAN... ]

Oh, she's cute. [ womp. he's trying okay that was totally almost an effort.

also hey bro how's it going ]

dragon hatching;

[jaywalks]

[ oh no, that's a really subdued response from bolin (though he's glad he's getting a response at all, after sura's grim arrival at caer glaem, and the answers korra couldn't give him) so naturally he's worried. now, a day later, doll sits on his shoulder and watches the proceedings with bright eyes and a swaying tail, occasionally climbing across mako's collarbones to switch shoulders, or tucking her nose in his hair and whrffing softly as she smells his hair. ]

Yeah, she is. Are you okay?

[ you're not hurt, are you? ]

dragon hatching.

[chromosomes]

[ John's reply doesn't come for a few days, and when it does, it's short -- text, to the point. But he's watched the video multiple times, and he's saving it to look at later. ]

what are you going to call her?

dragon hatching.

[jaywalks]

[ by now he's more or less got most of the story from korra, and they're just waiting on everyone coming home... ]

i'm not sure how you'd write it on the locket. rizhao? the fairies can't pronounce it, so i think they think her name is "dollface" instead.

[ mako does that mean you've... called her dollface out loud.... omf you big softie... ]

text; 19th

[blundergirl]

you know you make one adorable dad.

[Can you HEAR the smirk in that text, Mako? Can you? She is gonna cherish this forever. It's especially a nice way to pass the time in a prison cell.]

she's adorable, wish we could've been there in person but thanks for sharing the video

text; 19th

[jaywalks]

[ sdjkh omg cassie shut up //// ]

thanks cassie [ she can probably hear the begrudging fondness in his won text because... omg shut up it's not like he hasn't had a lot of practice, okay? ]

you doing okay?