Fic Prompts: Free Day Thursday
Adopted Dadmas universe, set a few weeks after Damas called Samos out for harassing Jak. Keira has started questioning her upbringing for the first time, and is seeing some of her past interactions with Jak in a way she doesn't like. Warnings for past Samos being, well, typical game-characterization-Samos and being nasty to children.
"You're awful quiet," Tess observed. She put down her angle grinder for a moment and observed the younger girl seated at her workbench.
"Hey. You okay, sugar?"
Keira stared off into space for several seconds before remembering to inhale. She turned a guilty face to Tess and said, "I think I'm a bad person."
Tess’s hands stilled on the prototype.
"Oh," she sighed, "this is about y'all's messed-up childhood again, right?"
"He made Daxter sleep outside! He would pretend he couldn't understand Jak until Jak did exactly what he wanted!" Keira burst out, "How could I have ever thought that was normal?!"
Tess’s lips narrowed, and she imagined the bolt she was twisting was the sage's neck. "Well, because people like that work hard to convince kids that their behavior is normal when they're too young to know better. Gives 'em the control they're so desperate for. It wasn't your fault, Kiki."
"But I knew he was being mean!" Keira cried, throwing down her blueprint. "I knew everyone treated Daxter like dirt. I knew they made Jak and Daxter do too many of their chores! But they were so nice to me and I- I- argh!"
She shoved her bench back and paced the room angrily.
"Was I weak? Or just a- a brat!? A spoiled, selfish, mean little brat!"
Tess left the table to grab Keira by the shoulders. "Hey, whoa! Whoa whoa whoa! That's my friend you're talking about, there!"
Keira tried to shove Tess away, but Tess had an uncanny strength that belied her appearance.
"Hey. Look at me, sugar. I get it. Feels like revenge, right? Revenge on yourself? Like "how dare you feel good about yourself when your friends were so badly abused right under your nose". But baby, what does that accomplish, really? No, look at me. How does you calling yourself names help Daxter and Jak now?"
Keira dashed a hand across her eyes and shrugged sullenly. "Maybe it doesn't. Maybe it only helps me."
Tess scowled. "So Samos chooses to hurt those boys again and again and instead of holding him accountable the reasonable thing to do is hurt you? Put yourself down so you can feel as bad as they did? Girl, I love you, but how does that help?"
Keira didn't have an answer.
"I'm...I'm not trying to have a pity party," she finally admitted. "I'm not the victim here. I know I'm not- I'm like, the opposite of the victim. I'm complicit, Tess! How do we come back from that? How do I fix this? I can fix everything else? Why can't I just..."
She made a frustrated groan and let Tess pull her into a tight hug. "I'm so mad, Tess. At Daddy, at myself, at this whole stupid city. And I don't know where to put that anger."
Tess grimaced, but squeezed her friend tight. "Well. That puts you a little closer to understanding how Jak feels a lot, doesn't it?"
"I've been like. The worst friend."
"Doesn't mean you can't start being a better one," Tess countered.
For a few breaths, Keira was silent. It was hard not to give in to the recriminating thoughts. She had been the unwitting accomplice to so much harm, kept sheltered with blinders on as a tool to enforce a sense of normality on a "hero" who should've had the same childhood she did. And then even when free from Samos's influence for two years, she'd found herself gravitating towards people who manipulated her in the exact same way. And she'd taken Errol's side in a fight. The side of the very man who had caused all the traits she'd criticized in Jak. Thinking about it now made her want to vomit. How had she fallen under the sway of such people for so long? And how could she ensure it would never happen again?
"Tess," Keira sniffled, pulling back from the hug, "Can...can I ask a favor?"
"Of course, Kiki," Tess answered warmly, "What's up?"
A feeling of resolve hardened in Keira's chest as she took a deep breath. "You're a spy. You know how to read people like a book. Can...could you maybe teach me? How to tell when people are, are lying, or being manipulative? Stuff like that?"
She looked away. "I want to help the guys. And if I want to do that...I need to help me, too."
Tess’s sympathetic expression stretched into a wide grin. To anyone who knew her well, it would have been an ominous sight.
"Sugar, I thought you'd never ask."
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And meanwhile, the absolute Mood Whiplash of what's happening just outside the city, in the mountains
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"I miss our dog."
"Your dog," Daxter corrected, without bothering to open his eyes.
"That's cold, Dax," Jak whispered, "How can you just disown our boy like that?!"
"Remember when he pooped in my kitchen??" Daxter asked incredulously.
"He's just a baby! He can't help it!" Jak hissed back. He rolled over on his cot to poke at Daxter's hammock. "C'mon. Don't tell me you and Tess aren't gonna have pets when all this is over. You aren't fooling anyone."
Daxter leaned out of the hammock to swat at Jak's hand. "Oy! Decent folks is tryin ta sleep, here! And for your information, we're gonna have a cabbit hutch! And a butterfly garden! And Chopper is not allowed to eat my butterflies!"
"You don't know that he would!"
Jak sat up, about to further argue the merits of the dog he'd left with Tess, when a sound akin to a growl rose from the other side of the tent. Both boys quailed and settled back into their beds.
"Jak started it!" Daxter tattled, then pulled his blankets up to his nose.
"Sorry, Pa." Jak smirked and ducked under his own woven blanket.
Damas flung his arm over his eyes and grunted disapprovingly.
"We're on the move at dawn," he reminded them, "I suggest you use the remaining hours wisely. The clan rendezvous point is a four hour hike, so for the record, depriving your father of sleep is not a wise choice."
The little scoff of laughter he heard on the other side of the tent did not sound particularly like a pair of teenagers about to heed common sense. But as it could just as easily have been Jak still delighting in the novelty of someone deliberately claiming the title of his father, Damas could let it go. For now. If they didn't quiet down, though, they were both going to be walking down the mountain while he rode in the commandeered hellcat.
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