Edge of the Pizza Blade | Jack + Jack + Melvin | Daycare Car

Roadie 🪶Jack

After some amount of struggle, a certain little guy finally managed to get himself hanging upside down from the middle of the monkey bars. His braid still swung a good distance above the floor, and from his expression it was slowly becoming clear he wasn’t sure where to go from here. Apparently he wasn’t one for planning ahead.

Jack, meanwhile, had only run into the kid once so far. But here they crossed paths again, huh. Seemed like the kid was having a good time. Why wouldn’t he be? Didn’t even have any work to do here. What a place.

Blankly Jack crept up behind him. Before either knew what the passenger was doing, Jack had a knife just brushing the front of the kid’s neck. The flour child froze, unable to see what was going on despite a valiant effort to flick his gaze around without moving his head. He at least seemed to feel he shouldn’t make a lot of sudden movements right now. Not that he had been anyway.

“Whaddaya think?” he muttered, too low to actually be talking to him. “Might as well go ahead and kill you now, huh? While you’re still happy.”

“Be the kind thing to do, yeah? Ahahaha.”

He stood there another second before suddenly pulling away, beyond range. After a moment’s frozen hesitation, the kid finally started twisting himself free… only to lose traction and gracelessly smack into the foam tiles below. Oof.

Jack just watched silently, flipping the knife in his hand, gaze unfocused.

Melvin Greene

Okay, so Melvin didn’t really hear Jack muttering to himself or anything. He didn’t need to for there to be an inordinate amount of concern over what he had seen, which looked like Jack threatening one of the kids. Sure, he pulled away, and didn’t actually do anything, but hello??? Hello? What?? What? WHAT??? On one hand, the immediate threat was resolved and he didn’t need to bail to go find Not-Atsuko who, uh, he doesn’t actually know if she’d be able to stop Jack. Maybe if she was a secret kung fu nun or something.

On the other: hmm. Yeah, this seems like a situation he should in fact try to involve himself in. Even if they were just little flour sacks, he really doesn’t want to think too much how he’d feel seeing any of them, uh. Destroyed? Can you kill flour? Either way. He’d prefer to not wind up on the business end of the knife either. He uses all his brainpower to figure out a way to approach this that maybe might work on Jack, hopefully. He tries and only partially fails to act casual about it.

“Jesus, man, careful with that thing. You wanna get choked out by the statue again or something?” Not that pain seemed to deter him from doing… a lot of things, but that had seemed nasty enough that it might at least give him pause. He spares Sack (flour sack jack) (presumably) a glance just to make sure he’s like. Still moving and not dead on the ground over there.

Roadie 🪶Jack

It was a good several seconds of Jack staring ahead blankly flipping the knife before he seemed to register Melvin’s presence at all. But better to look ignored for a few seconds than immediately have a knife at your neck, right?

Melvin Greene “Jesus, man, careful with that thing. You wanna get choked out by the statue again or something?”

But even with his blank look moved to Melvin, it took another several seconds to catch up. Probably not a nice sensation in the interim.

“Why, you gonna make her choke me out again?”

Melvin Greene He spares Sack (flour sack jack) (presumably) a glance just to make sure he’s like. Still moving and not dead on the ground over there.

The kid wasn’t facedown on the floor for long before pushing himself up a bit and literally shaking it off. Hopefully whatever flour dust was settling was just the equivalent of… dead skin or something, because it didn’t look like he should have been bleeding. Flouring. Whatever. He sat up enough to look around, but that didn’t give him a whole lot of information on what just happened. He frowned and fussed with his braid.

Melvin Greene

Roadie 🪶Jack But better to look ignored for a few seconds than immediately have a knife at your neck, right?

Oh absolutely.

Roadie 🪶Jack But even with his blank look moved to Melvin, it took another several seconds to catch up. Probably not a nice sensation in the interim.

Also absolutely.

Jack on principle weirds Melvin out on a good day, though, so the lack of immediate knifing (better than expected) and lack of immediate response (terrifying) balance out surprisingly well to somewhere only barely south of neutral.

Roadie 🪶Jack “Why, you gonna make her choke me out again?”

“What? No. Why would I- I didn’t wanna see it the first time, I sure as– uh, I don’t wanna see that again.” Even if you could make an argument for it being deserved, which he probably wouldn’t refute, he didn’t exactly take any pleasure in witnessing a man get strangled by a burning whip. No matter how terrifying and prone to Killing said man was. “And I don’t think even you would actually wanna do that to a kid, man. Come on.”

It absolutely did look like Jack was totally ready to knife a kid literally moments ago. But he hadn’t, so, maybe??? Not??? He’s a little wary taking his eyes off of Jack, but he’s pretty sure these kids aren’t supposed to be… leaking. What do you call it. He doesn’t think flouring. So far, he doesn’t exactly think he’s been… stellar with the kids (though if we’re being real, as an aside he’s way better with them than he gives himself credit for) but it doesn’t feel right to just Leave Him Sitting There. Most of his actual training pertains to potential kitchen mishaps - and it isn’t usually the flour sacks you need to worry about getting hurt.

“Looked like a rough fall there, kid. You good? I can go grab your sister or, uh, whatever her name is.” That’s just her name. Probably……… it’s definitely Not Atsuko back from the dead don’t think about it don’t worry about it because if that’s Not-Atsuko then that has some implications he doesn’t even want to consider right now.

Roadie 🪶Jack

Melvin Greene “What? No. Why would I- I didn’t wanna see it the first time, I sure as– uh, I don’t wanna see that again.”

“Ahh, so y’ just wanted to hear it? T’ each his own, I guess.” Jack sounded like he was just messing around with that one… but who knew.

Melvin Greene “And I don’t think even you would actually wanna do that to a kid, man. Come on.”

Oh, you’re gonna make it sound like a challenge?

“You don’t know me very well, do ya.” By the end of the sentence his voice was so low you could hardly even hear it in this place. Probably for the better, really.

“These things even count as kids, anyway? Not like they’re real.”

“Actually might not be a bad idea to take one along… Have a good food base on hand ’f I get stranded again, yeah?” You don’t think he’d commit a particular atrocity? Better say he’d do much worse! He sure could, in theory. In practice… he didn’t have enough brainpower right now to say.

Melvin Greene “Looked like a rough fall there, kid. You good?

The kid straightened up immediately upon being addressed and put his hands in his lap. A moment after that, he actually looked to whoever was talking. “I’m okay! The ground’s really soft.” He nodded for emphasis.

Melvin Greene I can go grab your sister or, uh, whatever her name is.”

Jack tensed, but he didn’t open his mouth before the kid was already on his feet.

“Wait, she is here? Where?” The flour child paused. He didn’t know this guy. What was he doing? “I mean—please? Um. Please tell me where she is. …Sir.”