#jse comunity

It stopped as suddenly as it came. That was his first clue, his second, the deafening silence in the other room. Jack stopped everything, nearly tossing his headphones in the rush to get them off and get out the door. The egos were never this quiet, and to be so so suddenly was not good. Especially after a headache like that, the last one had been a little over a month ago. Resulting in Jamie's appearance.

He finds everyone in the living room, Henrik and Chase in the middle of the room, so close they’re nearly touching. Jackie, Jameson, and Marvin are off to the side on the floor, their card game now abandoned. They were all staring at something behind Henrik and Chase.

He checked over them, making sure that everyone was ok, “Morning everyone.” The sudden noise startled all of them, Jackie and Marvin are on their feet in a second, moving to loosely shield Jameson. Chase and Henrik quickly move apart from each other. There, in the corner of the room, just behind the two, about as stable as a newborn fawn, stood Anti.

He hasn’t taken notice of anyone yet, too busy trying to get his balance, Jack can’t help it, Anti’s noise of triumph, over finally finding his footing, is adorable. Even more so when he being finally notices everyone, “Hi.” It was almost shy, but his face split into an uncharacteristic smile. He doesn’t miss Chase’s flinch, nor Anti’s.

He feels bad, nobody is willingly going to greet him, so he takes the initiative, “Hello Anti.” The smile that splits across the demon’s face is so uncharacteristic and genuine, that Jack can’t help but smile too. Anti bounces on his heels a bit, like an excited child, and a glitch distorts his body for a second. Just long enough to make the other egos uncomfortable, their quiet murmuring slows, and for Anti to completely freeze.

It's concerning when he sees real fear in every move that Anti makes while examining himself. And it hits him, Of course Anti has no clue what’s going on, unfamiliar with everything even himself, and his stress is just causing more glitches to rip through his body. Causing him to jolt, small sounds of distress leaving him with each wave.

The others are standing closer now, when had they started moving to shield him? “Guys, you need to chill.” The silence that had held all of them is suddenly broken, and everyone is trying to talk over each other, still trying to keep mostly quiet.  JJ was signing too fast for anyone to read, but Jack swore he saw ‘calm’ multiple times.

Chase is the first to be heard clearly over the others, his voice a harsh whisper, “Chill? This is Anti we’re talking about! Do you not know what he’s done to all of us!?” The anger and anxiety was practically bleeding off of him.

“Chas-”

Jackie was quicker, “You seriously cannot be asking us to be calm around that glitch!”, interrupting before Jack could explain. They were all talking over each other again hushed tones slowly getting louder.

“Enough!” That got all of their attention, “Guys! He has no idea what’s going on, for fucks sake he barely knows who he even is!”

“How do I make it stop?” It’s barely audible over everyone else, but just like that everything is silent again. There are tears pouring down Anti’s face, a hiccup making his body jolt slightly, yeah no, that was enough of that.

Jack’s hurried over to the glitch before anyone else can react, gently gripping his arms to try and give him something to ground himself. Speaking in a low voice, he attempts to comfort the new ego. “Hey, Anti, I know you’re freaking out, but I need you to listen to me. Take a deep breath, ignore everyone else, and listen to my voice.”

Another glitch rips through Anti at the contact, but he looks up. Green, tear-filled eyes meet calm blue ones, and the ego shakily follows Jack’s instructions. He takes a deep breath, and another few for good measure, then twists his hands to grab at Jack’s arms in return, the static and stray pixels slowly fading as Anti focuses on Jack’s steady form. The tension in the room slowly dying the longer Jack holds Anti and nothing happens.

The younger shifts slightly, his body mostly hidden by Jack’s, but now peeking over his shoulder. “...Why are you all scared of me?” Jack can hear the others shuffle around behind him, that was a loaded question. He stole a glance at them, Chase had grabbed Henrik’s hand, Jameson had put a hand to his own throat, and Jackie and Marvin were shoulder to shoulder comforting each other subtly. He could only begin to imagine what it had brought up for the others.

Anti’s body had begun to shake again, “It’s too much.” his grip was getting tighter on Jack’s arms, not enough to cause pain yet though.

“Anti?” His breathing was picking up again, it was confusing, he had just calmed down. Why was he panicking again? Jack didn’t understand what was going on.

“Please make them stop,” The younger was starting to cry again, “it’s too much.”

Jack may not have understood, but this poor boy had cried too many times in his extremely short existence. He turned them slightly, so he could address the others. “Guys, I'm gonna need all of you to leave the room please. We'll talk more later, okay?”

Nobody moved, staring at him in disbelief. Jamie's slow movements caught his attention, the young man suddenly nodding to himself. Moving so his signing can be seen, ‘I trust that you know what you're doing Jack,’ he's gently grabbing Chase's hand, making slow circles on it with his thumb while signing slowly to the overwhelmed father ‘why don't we go play a game?’ Chase looked to him quickly then to Henrik before nodding, the two walking out, Chase quietly mumbling to Jamie.

Marvin managed to heard Jackie out of the living room mere moments after, with the promise of whatever ice cream Jackie wanted.

“And then there were three”, Henrik just stood there for second before sighing defeatedly, finally moving to leave, the urge to get away from Anti had won out now that everyone else had left. “I'll be taking care of some papers,” Henrik lingered in the entryway, his voice laced with worry and fondness “If you need anything Jack…”

He couldn't help but smile, they were all just concerned for his safety after all, “I'll call for one of you, Henrik, I promise.” but they also had faith that Jack could handle himself.

With that the two were left alone, and he could finally get a better look at the newest ego. Anti was small, maybe the smallest of everyone in the house. He wasn't really that different from his canon, but his hair was a lighter green, almost blonde. And though he had yet to see Anti's neck clearly, Jack hadn't seen any blood.

It took some maneuvering, but they'd ended up on the couch. Anti curled up, leaning into his side, practically melting as Jack ran his fingers through his hair, “Are you alright now Anti?”

Anti’s voice was muffled, “Thank you...Jack, Sean?” he pulled away slightly, finally relaxed again, to Jack's relief. Anti had pulled back enough to just make his neck visible. Thankfully there was no cut, but there was a scar, it wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. Just a thick, pale line across Anti's neck.

“You can call me either, I'm sorry about all of that though.”

“They were loud?” Anti looked confused, like he wasn’t quite sure what he was saying.

He'd ask Anti about that later, but right now Anti deserved some rest. “Hey, how about I show you your room?”

The youngest ego lit up instantly, “I have a room?!” only to grimace as his excitement caused a small glitch.

Jack rubbed his back to soothe any aches Anti may have had. “Of course, well it’s a guest bedroom, but you can have it.”

The room was cozy, baby blue wallpaper, a small bed in the corner, and a dresser up against the opposite wall.  “What do you think? Closet is a bit small, but you have a nice dresser to make up for that.”

Anti looked on in wonder, already walking over to the bed, “It's really nice, thank you for letting me have it.” a yawn interrupting him.

“Of course Anti, dinner is in a couple hours, but I'll come let you know when it's ready.” Anti had laid down, already half asleep, trying his hardest to keep listening to Jack. The first day was always the hardest on the egos, he went digging through the closet for a blanket. “I know you probably have a lot of question, but we'll get to them later ok.”

“ok.” Anti rubbed at his face tiredly, and Jack's heart just about melted at the sleepy tone. He threw out the blanket over Anti and tucked him in, his breathing had evening out almost instantly. And as Jack turned out the light, ready to leave, he lingered in the doorway.

“Welcome to the family Anti, rest well.” the door clicked gently shut, bathing the sleeping ego in quiet darkness.