Snippets: Free Day Friday
Fragile Things (the one where Damas time traveled)
Spargus: a month and a half after Damas rescued Jak from Haven.
Jak seemed to have been waiting for him -- unless he had been stealing dates from the palms in the throne room again, which was a very real possibility.
Damas ruled this out when he saw the conflicted look on the boy's face.
"You're up here early," he said by way of greeting, "I thought you were going to join the field trip to Tributary to get parts for your talk-box."
Jak shrugged and hopped from one stepping stone to the next. "That's later. Had to ask you something first."
He looked...nervous. Like he didn't really want to ask, but couldn't bear to hold the question in.
"Ask away, little one." Damas tousled Jak's hair as he passed him.
He was never going to get over how small Jak was at thirteen. The Jak he knew before almost always managed to dodge him. This Jak never saw him coming. Stranger, this Jak never minded. The Before Jak soaked up any little scrap of kindness with a painful desperation, and so did the Present Jak. But this one didn't shy away from touch. Sometimes he even ambushed Damas in the market to hug him playfully and then run off to get into more trouble.
The second he'd turned to face Jak, the question was flying out of the boy's hands.
"Are you actually my father or something?"
He cringed.
"Sorry. It's just- Never had anybody help me like you, except Daxter."
He didn't use exactly the same signing dialect that Spargus used. It was faster, and a little hard to distinguish tense indicators sometimes, but not so different that Damas couldn't work out what he meant. Jak vocalized sometimes, when he felt comfortable, but they were sounds more than language. And Damas did remember Jak telling him before that he'd spent much of his childhood nonverbal. But it was more jarring than he'd expected when it came from a smaller, softer face. One that reminded him, over and over, of Mar.
"I-"
"And- and Samos always helped Keira but not me and Dax because we weren't his kids, so I couldn't figure out why you're so nice to me if you're not like, y'know, my-" Jak's face reddened and his signs became small and faster. "My dad or something. Sorry. Sorrysorry just forget it."
Damas blinked and realized he'd stopped breathing for a moment. He took a breath and slowly lowered himself to sit on the dais, waving Jak over to sit beside him.
"No, nonono don't apologize. It's- I've been trying to think of how to tell you this for weeks. It's just...going to sound strange."
"As strange as going through a giant transport ring and time going weird?" Jak asked as he gingerly sat down.
"Oh, absolutely." Damas rubbed his chin and glanced at Jak from the corner of his eye.
"I...do not know how closely we are related, to tell you the truth. But the longer you're here, the more certain I become that we do share blood. I just...don't know how many generations back our common ancestor is."
It was the only explanation he could think of for why Jak resembled Mar so closely. Why he looked at him sometimes and saw both of his sons in one face. Why the boy had the same prism-potential in channeling.
"Oh." Jak sat up a little straighter. "Really? I thought I didn't have any family! I mean, there's Uncle, but he's gone all the time."
Damas cleared his throat awkwardly. "There's ah, there's something else."
"What is it?" Now far less tense, Jak leaned in eagerly.
"I...do not know how to explain it, truthfully," Damas sighed, "But I...somehow I lived three years into the future, or saw a vision -- I'm beginning to wonder which it was -- and in that future you- you were there. You- I had taken you in as my own son."
Jak tilted his head, then his eyes flew wide. His mouth dropped open a little. "You saw me? And I was your kid on purpose?!"
"On purpose," Damas agreed, smiling a little at the turn of phrase.
"That's why you came to attack that commander? You were actually looking for me?" Jak scooted closer, and an eager expression began to replace his slightly nervous one.
"Yes," Damas answered gravely, "Because I had seen my future son and I could never leave him behind, even if he didn't know me."
even if you're not interested in being family this time. As long as you're safe, I'm happy- just as long as you're safe!
Jak made a thoughtful sound and propped his chin up on his fists. For a worryingly long time he stared off into space, thinking. Then he smiled, bright and innocent.
"Oh, okay."
Damas blinked. "Okay?"
"Yeah. I was just wondering. I'm glad I asked." He hopped to his feet and stretched.
"You're way nicer than Samos is. I'd rather you be my dad than him."
Damas shoved away memories of a certain Arena debacle. "I...certainly hope to live up to your expectations, my boy."
"Also, it would be weird if Samos tried to be my dad because he's been mean. And because then Keira would be my sister and I don't think she'd like that. I wouldn't either."
The child hopped down the stairs and balanced on one foot on the stepping stones. He pretended to wobble before grinning and hopping to the next stone.
"I'm gonna go to the field trip thing now." Jak beamed and waved. "Bye Damas!"
He all but bounced to the elevator, humming happily.
Damas stayed sitting, not entirely sure what had just happened.
"Well," he said aloud, "that could've gone worse."
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