#snippets of information

[sandwichmustbetasty]

i'm crying

whattt 😭😭😭

he's like what the hell, no way

trying very hard not to be tempted

his gossip girl scholar's soul could not let that rest, he just needs to know

cirdan knows how to pique his interest

elrond's mad and doesn't really want to talk to you?

*holds out a piece of juicy information*

elrond has been summoned

you may talk in the exchage of juicy gossip

screaming

it just keeps getting better and better

daeron an insufferable whiny bitch confirmed

[whump-and-other-misfortunes]

cw captive whumpee, injury, betrayal, tortured for information, intimate whumper 

After hours of torture, of beatings, of sleep deprivation, Whumpee finally gives in. Coughing up a mouthful of blood onto the ground at Whumper’s feet, they beg, “S-stop, please. No more, I can’t—I'll tell you, I-I'll tell you everything.” 

“You lasted longer than I thought.” Whumper crouches down in front of them, taking Whumpee’s chin in their hand and tilting their head up. Their expression is almost sympathetic as they take in Whumpee’s teary eyes and bruised face. “But it’s okay. It’ll all be over if you give me the information I need. And then, just think how nice it will be to finally rest. You can sleep in a real bed while your injuries heal.” 

Whumpee doesn’t need any more convincing. They choke out the information through sobs, clinging to Whumper, and each heave of their chest sends pain shooting through their broken ribs. But it will be over soon—Whumpee doesn’t know why they even held out this long if they were just going to break anyway. 

Whumper strokes their hair gently as they give up the secrets they were trained to die for. Endangering their team’s entire operation and perhaps their lives. But then again, it’s not like Whumpee’s team came to rescue them—as Whumper had reminded them countless times. And they were right. 

“Good…that’s perfect, Whumpee,” Whumper praises after they’ve finished spilling every bit of information that had been requested, and then some. “Thanks to you, your team won’t stand a chance against me, now.” 

A sense of relief washes over Whumpee. It's done—the suffering is finally over with. They want to sleep until the pain no longer clings to their bones and laces every movement. However, their relief is quickly replaced by a fresh bout of fear at the realization of what they’ve just done. “They’ll know it was me,” Whumpee whispers brokenly.  

“Of course they will,” Whumper says, matter-of-fact. “And they will go looking for you. And if they find you, they will kill you.” 

Whumpee shakes their head. “Worse,” they correct. “They’ll do so much worse than just kill me.” 

A sharp pain shoots through their side and they groan, clutching at one of their wounds. Whumper gathers them into their arms before they collapse completely, and assures Whumpee, “That’s why you will be staying with me. In exchange for giving up the information I needed, you will be under my protection.” 

Whumpee can’t possibly have heard them right. They must be delirious from the pain. “W-what?” they stammer. Everything is growing fuzzy, and now that they’re being held in Whumper’s arms, they just want to let their eyes fall shut and surrender to sleep. 

The gentle fingers brushing back Whumpee’s hair lull them further into unconsciousness as Whumper murmurs, “I can’t just give you up now, sweetheart. I think you’d make a valuable addition to my team.” 

Whumpee hums in agreement, not quite sure what they’re agreeing to, but if it means an end to the pain, they’ll do just about anything. 

“You were never cut out for this line of work, were you?” Whumper says teasingly. They lift Whumpee in their arms and begin carrying them somewhere, but the gentle rocking motion of their steps eases Whumpee into sleep long before they find out where they’re being taken. 

[jazzy-art-time]

Big shirt and shorts combo goes crazy after a breakdown

[wackywatchdotcom]

Rewatching episode one, I noticed that when Ragatha and Jax are talking to each other about Jax having a key, Pomni flinches away from, and lifts her arms to protect her face and head, when Jax toys with the key and catches it near her.

I wonder if she is that jumpy around others normally or if it's just when she's in a stressful situation (like suddenly being trapped in the circus) what do you think?

OK. ok. you mention this. and ive never said anything about it but i have genuinely noticed this almost every time ive seen that scene. i think about it a LOT but i havent been able to figure out my thoughts on it. but i think about it genuinely a LOT...

(i went on a huge tangent abt her thats like. only sporadically related to this specific moment SORRY. it was hard to address this moment without discussing a LOT about her i feel)

for the sake of clarity in the event someone reading this is unfamiliar, what this ask is referring to is this:

with the way that she so quickly dissociates and HARD (not that most people Never experience dissociation or smth, but its the intensity of it and how quick into this situation she starts dissociating is like. it makes it seem like its smth her body and mind are Used To Doing) she REALLY gives off the feeling that she had pre-existing mental health problems (i struggle to place anything TOO specific with the limited information we have but i feel like theres definitely a few things she has going on) before she even got to the circus, and like she COULD just be a naturally jumpy person, but with the dissociation thing and general distrust towards others, it feels like her jumpiness is also related to these issues

while her being naturally nervous is sort of implied and clear (though i think the extent of it is exaggerated by the circumstances of the pilot in particular) there ARE a few other examples that stand out to me

i THINK this can largely be passed off as her just being on edge from the horror adventure, but i this is IS notable that she reacts genuinely pretty strongly to what is a relatively minor 'jumpscare.' it happens later too w kinger pressing the tape recorder

in general she seems VERY easily startled by people, and frankly it reads a lot like it stems more from people being near her than just things happening abruptly. she notably doesnt jump hard when the angel arrives- she DOES get scared, but she isnt necessarily startled. she DOES react very strongly to ghostly, but i think its notable that she seems to find his visual appearance frightening and debatably not necessarily startling, but thats not really 100%. the times she reacts the strongest have to do with people, which imo ties HARD into her not trusting people

episode 2 breaks down her distrust of people well, and i dont think its a self consciousness thing. it seems more that she just doesnt tend to find people trustworthy- if something bad was happening to her, she would sooner assume theyd let it happen rather than help her. it could be argued that its partially a guilt or projection thing with ragatha, but im not actually so sure. pomni seems to be ashamed of leaving her behind, but particularly through ep 2 she doesnt seemed Plagued With Guilt by the way she acts towards ragatha, which implies that the dream didnt have to do with her projecting that shame in a way shed assume ragatha would turn back on her, too

it instead seems to be that she doesnt trust ragatha just... in general. the 'im not a child' thing, while a legitimate problem for pomni to have with ragatha (i love ragatha, and from my place in the audience i know her concern is genuine, and that she truly wants to encourage pomni, and is trying, but from the perspective of people around ragatha, its not an unreasonable assumption that shes JUST being infantilizing and belittling), does illuminate how pomni is seeing ragathas attempts at cheering her up- that it comes from a place of seeing pomni as immature or generally unstable. that pomni is incapable of managing herself and needs to be coaxed. it implies pomni doesnt see ragathas attempts at help as genuine. combined with her dream, that ragatha would allow the worst to happen to her even when she was asking for help, makes it very clear that, even with the 'nicest' person in the circus, pomni just... doesnt really trust her

(it is worth noting that pomni DOES seem to genuinely want to help ragatha in the pilot. she DID try to find caine. but she bolts at the first opportunity. she does care about people, but when stressed, she operates on keeping herself safe first and foremost, that she needs to do anything to get out of a bad situation even if that means leaving someone behind- and with her dream, it does seem that she generally assumes other people operate similarly, or otherwise in their own best interest)

this does, of course, improve by the end of eps 2 and 3. the funeral, and ragatha offering to include her, and how the others talk about abstracted players (combined with her conversation with gummigoo, someone who she has to assure has genuine friendships with those around him despite the lack of a true reality for them to be based upon), are able to convey that oh, these people do actually care about the people around them. theyre being genuine. they arent just looking out for themselves and thats it- they care when bad things happen to each other. and theres no true reason for me to be an exception. which is ALSO why i dont think its a self consciousness thing, she seems able to reason that shes not an exception to the intents of others, so much that when she cant assure herself that others' intents hold her safety as any sort of priority as well, any trust goes out the window. she WANTS to help if she can, but esp in the pilot, as far as shes concerned, its everyone for themself when shit gets bad, including herself

ep 3, she seems more trusting of ragatha- she has neutral and positive interactions w her, rather than assuming a lack of sincerity in it. but its not just ragatha, actually, because even before her talk with him, you can see it in how she interacts with kinger as well

she initially tries to help him run, which isnt too out there- with how she genuinely DID initially try to help ragatha, it doesnt require her to go out of her way to grab him and RUN. she can run AND take him with her. she can help without putting herself in extra danger. but then she DOES go back, which is one of my favorite and imo underrated pomni moments. because THIS is what i think actually highlights an improvement in how she sees the others before her apologizing to ragatha or taking kingers hand. because she puts herself BACK into (percieved, since its not actual sure WHAT the angels intentions were her) danger in order to get kinger away too

(theres probably a case to be made that ragatha didnt seem to be in immediate danger- she was in pain, that much was clear, but kaufmo had ran away by then. but even still, pomni couldnt have known kaufmo would shift gears and start chasing her instead of ragatha that first time. and i dont know if she actually knew death wasnt possible here yet. which isnt very flattering for pomni but also people do not act in flattering ways under extreme stress, esp given a predisposition to not trusting others, which ill elaborate more on in a second here- not that pomnis abandonment was ok OR that it was like evil of her or smth. shes just a person. there is no way she was prepared to know how to act correctly in this situation, and she didnt)

theres also this

which is SUBTLE but highlights a genuine increase in trust even before their heart to heart. now that she knows the cast (save for jax, who she seems to react to the harshest, which is worth noting imo) are not acting solely in their own best interest, that they WILL consider the wellbeing of those around them including her, that their concern for one another is genuine (which is concerning that she even assumes that to begin with, which ill circle back to momentarily), she very clearly has way more faith in them and the idea that she should stick around the others for safety

and of course, ive said it before, but her taking kingers hand has little to do with her enjoying holding hands. its her knowing that, if kingers wrong, this is going to end very, very badly. if holding their breath isnt the solution theyre BOTH going to get possessed, and who knows how theyd get out of that situation. but she decides in that moment that her trust in the others isnt ONLY about looking out for them and believing that theyre sincere in their concern for her. but that she is willing to let the others put her at a potential massive risk. getting possessed was a blatantly immediately traumatic experience- and she lets kinger put her at risk of it happening again. THATS why she holds his hand, at least symbolically. she doesnt like contact. but she can brave something that she doesnt like, she can let him lead her into and through something potentially horrific, because shes deciding to trust him and the others, that theyre not just people she can interact with without fear of ill intentions, but that theyre people who she is going to coexist with. the best thing she can do for herself and the others is trust them and work with them actively

anyway that got off-track, the point being that her having to have these ideas instilled in her at all through shared experiences and trauma implies that, while these issues with distrust may have been exacerbated by the stress of everything, they didnt come from nowhere. these are problems she likely already had to some degree. its great that theres been improvement but that improvement directly implies thesse were improvements that needed to be made to begin with. and the fact that the person she gets repeatedly most startled by is jax. who, even with episode 2, she explicitly doesnt trust. in the pilot, at least, her distrust is more vague (i think the dream sequence in ep 2 IS what highlights it best) so her flinching from jax can be passed off as related to a general lack of adjustment to the new environment and situation shes in. but it happens again with jax in episode 3 (and, notably, she pauses afterwards but it takes a moment for her to relax even knowing its just jax), after shes adjusted somewhat, and after shes gained some trust with everyone except for jax (given his absence from the scene at the end of ep 2). it also happens when barons voice plays abruptly next to her

point being that imo, she IS naturally jumpy. she says herself that she doesnt handle jumpscares well, which somewhat implies this even outside of the circumstances of the circus. but with how she reacts to things, it feels like her general jumpiness is far, far worse when it comes to people she doesnt trust (be it because jax is Like That, or because shes not familiar with baron). the way i see it, then, her distrust extends to perceiving physical threats easily around people she hasnt ensured are safe to be around. she IS able to gain this trust in people, but she seems to automatically place the intents of others as being Potentially Unsafe from the jump, especially under stress. she can jump back from it fairly quickly for what its worth, but to be honest, it seems more like she operates on some general, everpresent level of hypervigilance thats just sometimes worse based on the situation

and frankly i dont think we know enough about her as of ep 4 to fully determine if there IS a reason for this. because someone can have a reason to be this jumpy around others, or they can just... be nervous and dislike people moving suddenly near them. combined with the dissociation thing, though, im inclined to think the circus did not cause this, just made it more extreme with more unpleasant stakes. there is hardly any time between her entering the circus and this happening. she hadnt even seen kaufmo yet in that very first example, but she was already on alert for a physical threat, and i just. i think about it all the time...

i think the main takeaway from all of this is that i think she isnt necessarily jumpy like that all the time, but i think trust is not a given with pomni, and her jumpiness massively depends on how much she trusts people near her and the situation shes in to not be a physical threat to her. its definitely worse in the circus, but i think it was probably still something present in a different context in the real world, too

[catzz089]

SNIPPET!!!!!!! bet charles was NOT sorry at all for making max stay behind for a few more hours...this man will do ANYTHING to keep max for awhile more hshdhshdh

max has zero (0) survival skills whatsoever...I also want him to get kidnapped to see charles have the opportunity to swoop him and save him HAHA (also I'm holding on to any hope that we see rico...pls...)

Charles loves an opportunity to increase his Max time, but it's conflicting with his Max-centred morals and desire for Max to get his full eight hours, although if it works out well for him he may just have to do it more...

Me searching for Max's survival skills:

Charles would do literally anything to be able to show off in front of Max, he's just that desperate.

You'll know it's Rico when you see him, believe me

[sometimeswritingsometimesdying]

as we draw near the release of the next issue here's my list of (not completely serious) sweet sixteen predictions:

jesse and nicholas fight that feels really brotherly even if they don't know yet. i'm saying hair-yanking, kicking shins, fingers in the face. they're playing fully unfair.

seiji gets benched and they put nicholas in instead of him (way back there was a panel about how the closer should never be replaced by the reserve....... foreshadowing perhaps?)

this leads to seiji complimenting nicholas and NOW we get nicholas realizing he has a crush too (this either spurs him on during the next bout or causes him to have a crisis)

seiji and marcus sweet moment where marcus compliments seiji and it actually means something to him because he was his idol as a kid

harvard gets to say fuck, aiden engages in more internal turmoil than normal

confirmation (as far as there has been the implication) that aiden and nate are exes and everything that comes with that

we discover whether robert coste knows about nicholas or not (my bet is on not) but jesse doesn't find out in this issue

we get some kind of insight on jesse's relationship with fencing (whether he's just a natural talent, it's just for the family, or is as obsessed with it as seiji, ect)

kyle somehow fucks shit up bad. or he has a really funny one liner. like either he's fundamental to the plot of this issue or he's just there to look back and forth between jesse and nick going "oh what the hell"

ok but seriously: harvard and marcel will probably speak during the tournament and aiden will fuck shit up either for himself or others, mayhaps along with someone actually getting him to talk

someone who's not a trusted adult discovers nicholas's relation to the costes (bobby, aiden, or kyle?) and it either gets out, so nick deals with the fallout of that, or they have the moral dilemma of telling someone (coach, robert, or perhaps nick himself)

williams/lewis crumbs lol

haiden kiss. for me specifically. it won't happen but i so wish that it would. and if it does happen it should give us insight on why aiden refuses to apply himself to fencing and harvard's relationship with being captain and responsibility, and they should be deeply troubled and shaken up by it

some more insight on nicholas's dynamic with his mom and maybe information he has about her and robert's relationship?

for the giggles: team finds out seiji never celebrated his 16th because he was in france, so they set up a little celebration for him (hence "sweet sixteen") (this is my favorite one out of all of these) (i have many emotions about seiji being in france, alone, for a year)

last but not least: someone gets carded at least once and someone yells at the refs (happens without fail at every team comp)

[tinytimism]

he makes me feel the way beautiful girls made sean kingston feel

[millenniumringg]

I’m sitting on a huge cowboy au that has been maybe 15% written out but I can’t keep it inside like this for much longer I’ll go insane

[leifyposting]

New Jarch celebration ask! If you were to write a modern (<-optional) AU inspired by your own life/hobby/passion/whatever activity you practice yourself, what would it be like? (This is meant to be Jean centered, but information about other characters are more than welcome too!)

fun fact about me is that i’m a marketer by trade but a journalist by training. so…

KoF newsroom au okay hear me out

jean is the managing editor of a failing newsroom. public trust in journalism is down. half her staff has left for more stable jobs in PR and marketing. her editor-in-chief is off on a sabbatical to barbatos-knows-where and keeps posting gorgeous beach pictures on his instagram story

she looks at the accounts and comes to the realization that they’re bleeding money. they’re running on a skeleton crew with no room for layoffs and she’s already slashed her print issues from 6/year to 4/year. if they don’t get subscriptions up by the end of the year they’re going to have to shutter operations

to save the newsroom she loves, jean and her motley crew of reporters are going to have to put on the biggest talent show break the biggest story this town has ever seen

meet the cast:

jean, the managing editor, is a rising star in the journalism world. she honed her reporting and investigative skills at international gigs in liyue and sumeru before returning home to pick up an editor position at the mondstadt times. she isn’t technically supposed to be in charge of the finances… or of the editorial direction… but with her editor-in-chief on sabbatical and her director of operations off to greener pastures, she kind of just does everything that needs doing. you can often find her and her red pen at the newsroom long after everyone else has gone home

amber is the newspaper’s one and only reporter on the breaking news beat. the times moved away from breaking news a few years ago to focus on more longform stories but amber has stubbornly stuck around. this beat is particularly gruelling because of how quickly news moves - you have to be on your toes all the time, filing sometimes 3-4 stories a day - but amber works tirelessly and with so much enthusiasm that jean sometimes wonders if she’s found something stronger than coffee to get her through the day

lisa is technically the features editor, but since they’re so shorthanded, she’s taken up the responsibility of working with the freelance fact-checkers as well, which jean is desperately grateful for. she doesn’t pull the long hours that jean and amber do, but she gets an incredible amount of work done in her 7-hour workdays. noelle is one of their longtime fact-checkers who’s incredibly meticulous and good at her job - she’s been gunning for a full-time position forever but jean just doesn’t have space in the budget to bring her on

albedo, the lightly mysterious science-prodigy-turned-reporter, heads up the investigative journalists. journos in general tend to be driven by curiosity (read: they love drama) but this bunch in particular loves to stick their noses in things. half their sources only offer information “not for attribution” (their quotes must remain anonymous) or “on background” (they cannot be quoted directly at all). sucrose is a relatively new addition to the team who’s been killing it (somewhat to jean’s surprise) because her inoffensive demeanour makes nervous sources more likely to want to speak with her

eula works the politics beat, which was itself a big headline when she joined the times. no one trusted a lawrence, scion of one of mondstadt’s oldest and most corrupt political dynasties, to report accurately on national politics. but eula has proved herself an invaluable addition to the newsroom - she’s earned a reputation for tough questions and hard-nosed reporting, and has gotten herself thrown out of city hall more than once for refusing to back down from a line of questioning. mika is a younger reporter on the international news beat - he doesn’t have eula’s doggedness, but his head for geopolitics is unparalleled

kaeya is in charge of the lifestyle section - he writes (or assigns) all the fun fluff pieces on celebrities, culture, fashion, food and wine, etc. despite leading the lowest-stakes section, he’s been known to bring jean massive political stories before eula or albedo even catch wind of them. jean suspects he maintains contacts from his time on the crime beat - but when she asks he always just blinks innocently at her and doesn’t respond. he’s also unofficially in charge of babysitting klee, who at the tender age of 8 is the times’s only unpaid intern (mostly because, when alice dropped her into jean’s care, it was easier to give her a title and let her hang around the newsroom than find an after-school program capable of keeping her from causing chaos)

[static-radio-ao3]

mariah carey, mistletoe, and other christmas clichés

Regulus Black is in middle-of-nowhere Godric's Hollow to find his brother. He isn't expecting to find anything else there, least of all love. But well, maybe there is such a thing as a Christmas miracle.

chapter one out now!

[focsle]

The seachest is home with meeee. I carefully sit in the worn and warped spot where he sat for years. I sit across from it and play it little ditties on the concertina. I stick my head in there to smell the camphor that still lingers after 170 odd years. I put an antique fid in the till because I think they both might appreciate the proximity. I hope it’s happy being here with me. It has such an overwhelmingly warm and loving energy that really has surprised me because it’s not the vibes I expect from a seachest tbh. Every time I go near it it feels like a hug. I feel like whoever this belonged to had a family who really loved him, who he loved in return, because that is the strongest emotion I feel attached to this beautiful little box.

[lesbiangiratina]

Yay someone mentioned daisuke’s previously untranslated comments about testament’s pathetic nature and incomplete existence on their wikipedia page i can yoink this for my cooler wiki without feeling like i will be killed

[ashleyknoxtrilogy]

MIXED FRIED mode ON🦐🦐🦐🦐

(chronically randomly late WRITING SHARE)

Thank you for the tag to : @the-golden-comet for Seven-ish Sentence Sunday AND Nine Lines, Nine People Tag ,

@wyked-original-writing with Seven Sentence Sunday Monday , any day now

AND @willtheweaver for First/ Last line tag

****

I don't know what I'm doing anymore but fuck it we ball 💀

Re-edit snippet from draft zero chapter two The scarred angel

****

...........

"You're overthinking, you should try to live a little" 

Or the power to send frustration and anger feelings inside her skyrocketing but not untangle her from those ropes.

Amy's also aware that her craving for blending in and possibly disappear completely will definitely turn to be a problem if she's to stick within this line of work.

A couple of day before taking her leave she decides to make a last stop at the police headquarters before heading to her hotel.

.......

****

Fuck it, we ball with a drink 🍻☕🍷☕ 🍹🍻

Tag NP :

@zackprincebooks @abiteofhoney @jacobwren

@deanwax @alinacapellabooks @wyked-ao3

@vesanal @inadequatecowboy @bluefiredesire

@aalinaaaaaa @orphanheirs @lullabynorth @dismalstation @oleanderbailey @lunaeuphternal

@malignant-biomass @theeccentricraven

@lapetiteceinturesworld @castiels-favorite-hunter

@dierama-mojo @distortedsense @mapplesand

@dnschmidt @badscientist @thecomfywriter

@ryns-ramblings @tragedycoded @legalownerofufoemoji

@kaeru483 @aspiring-dreamer @illarian-rambling

@lychhiker-writes @riveriafalll

@cloudyempress8888 @pertweefan1970 @agirlandherquill @authorcoledipalo @leahnardo-da-veggie

@lavender-gloom @saturnine-saturneight

@cowboybrunch @words-after-midnight

[sweetpaintedladie]

keith richards & patti hansen by ronnie wood, early 80s

[radioactivepeasant]

Snippets: Free Day Thursday (Second, sillier part to follow Friday)

Poll Results: Trespasser Jak

Picking up from HERE, Jak and Daxter have been taken back to Spargus

The drive back to the city was not quiet. Every couple seconds, the kid with the amulet he shouldn't have had was pointing to something else, talking a mile a minute to the fuzzy orange thing. The red rock bluffs fascinated him. The crocadeer on the clifftops fascinated him. The frith-rotted cactus was interesting to this stranger.

Jak started to lean out of the seat again, trying to take in every speck of the horizon.

"Will you stop that?" Damas asked irritably, "You're going to fall out, and I'm not turning this car around to go get you. What are you so entranced by, huh?"

Jak's enthusiasm wasn't dimmed in the slightest. "After they took us to Haven- I thought there was nothing left out there but wasteland!"

"You're in the Wasteland," Damas reminded him.

"Nah."

Jak stood up despite the driver's protests and clung to the turret gun to watch a flock of birds.

"This place isn't wasted. It's alive."

"And you won't be if you don't sit down right now-!"

Damas’s headache only multiplied -- exponentially. once they had actually returned Spargus.

The stranger gawked at everything, sometimes lagging as many as ten behind to look at the most mundane things. Forges. The communication hub/post office. Leapers. A stray chickalope he tried to pick up-!

Getting him into the Gate District garrison building took five minutes longer than it should've, by which time Damas’s patience was almost completely gone. It was all he could do to keep some modicum of professionalism as he herded the boy and the talking spirit thing into a clean, well-lit room for interrogation. He left them with a stern warning to wait there until someone came to figure out who they were.

Then he left to make a very strong pot of coffee. He wasn't going back in there without it.

He quickly decided that needed another kind of drink when he returned ten minutes later only to find Jak, barefoot, sitting on top of the table like a moody teenaged gargoyle. That ratty blue winter tunic was tied around his waist now, and the loose scarf and oversized undershirt didn't quite cover a surprising amount of scars for someone his age -- or maybe not so surprising if he was an Heir, given the proclivity of Haven to put those through the wringer-

No. No jumping to conclusions.

Old burns on the soles of his feet that looked roughly six to seven years old -- a childhood accident or stubborn adventure, most likely -- were the most benign of them. Damas saw old, healed clawmarks, and strange fractal-like patterns not unlike those struck by lightning, crossing his upper arms, shoulders and chest. Here and there he saw raised lines -- the telltale sutures of do-it-yourself shrapnel removal. Regardless of whose blood flowed in his veins, this kid was a soldier. And it looked like he'd been a soldier for a depressingly long time.

Damas pushed the thoughts from his mind and took a seat in the chair the trespasser had ignored.

"Alright. Let's get this over with as quickly as we can, shall we? I have a lot of work to do today."

"Oh...kay...?" Jak gave him a puzzled, wary look and scooted back across the table to rest his back against the wall. "I mean, I can't answer everything, and half of what I do tell you won't sound believable, but that's honestly not my problem."

Patience, Damas. Inhale, slowly. You're just stressed. You can't kill him if he's related to you.

Damas took an exaggerated breath and folded his hands on the top of the table. "I don't much care about your activities in Haven. My agents deliver news regularly enough. No, I want to know how you opened a locked door with a Seal of Mar on it."

The kid looked surprised, and then intrigued.

"Mar? Wait, really? He made it out here too?" Jak looked almost impressed. "Huh! Guy got around!"

"Answer the question."

The orange one answered in the kid's stead.

"Jak here's got the distinct misfortune of being descended from the guy-"

*Allegedly," Jak interrupted. His voice was distinctly harder than before.

"What "allegedly"? Dragging me into the frickin nightmare tomb wasn't enough for ya?"

"Everything we know about that guy we got from Krew, or Samos," his companion argued, "And most of the Oracles didn't bother to warn us that Samos was lying to us our whole lives. So no, I'm not taking that on faith."

Clearly this was a sore spot for the young man.

It just so happened to also be a very sore spot for Damas.

They were just going to act like they so happened to "conveniently" let slip that this boy was supposed to be related to him? Did they think he was a fool?

"What are you playing at?" he snapped, startling them both. "Do you think I am so easily taken in?"

"What-?"

"Tell me, boy," Damas said, much more quietly, "What makes you either brave enough or stupid enough to try to pull that story with me?"

And Jak blinked at him with eyes that were a little too familiar. Wide. Full of shadows and pain and anger but still clinging to the vestiges of innocence. He narrowed his eyes and tilted his head.

"Um. Who? Are you?"

If this was a con, the kid was a decent actor, Damas had to give him that.

"You're telling me you're a survivor of the House of Mar."

"No? I said other people told me I was related to that guy. People with a vested interest in controlling me."

Jak scoffed bitterly and spread his arms wide.

"Little "abandoned" orphan boy kept isolated to train as a soldier, so he wouldn't know what they planned for him. Wouldn't run. And then magically suddenly he's heir to the worst city on the planet? Give me a break. The guards in Praxis's lab came up with better lies than that."

Damas wanted to agree with the kid. He wanted so much to agree with him. Whatever else he might be, clearly Jak was not the kind of person who bought into delusions of grandeur. In fact, he sounded like he actively resented the thought. Damas could appreciate that. Rot, he could even sympathize with the kid.

But.

He had opened a sealed door.

And the river-weasel had just said something about a Tomb.

He really really didn't want to be right, but if they could give an accurate description of the Tomb at some point, that information would be pretty hard to fake.

"Why did they think they could pass you off as Haven's heir?" Damas asked bluntly.

"Because I can make old Precursor crap work, I guess? And the Oracles like me." Jak folded his arms and shrugged. "They're useless when it comes to actually protecting anyone, but at least they tried to help after the fact. More than most hu'mens did."

Oh. Alright, okay. Maybe he's a sage prodigy and he's never been trained. That would make sense-

"Pal, the Oracle called you a "chosen one". That's gotta mean something."

"Chosen for what? Time looped torture?" Jak's entire posture had become rigid. He was beyond agitated, but Damas couldn't quite pin down if it was anger or fear or something closer to grief.

"....I...sorry." The orange one looked down, clearly ashamed. "That's- fair point. I won't bring it up anymore."

Damas didn't want to hear another word of this. Not one. Without stopping to think lest he talk himself out of it, he drew a knife from the back of his belt. The boy tensed even further, looking like he might snap as he watched Damas pull a sheet of paper haphazardly from the notepad that came standard in all the interrogation rooms. Damas ignored him and placed the tip of the blade to the pad of his thumb, pushing until two large drops of blood dripped onto the paper. The boy's tension eased slightly, but he still looked vaguely alarmed.

Damas wiped the blade and, steeling himself, held it out hilt-first to Jak.

"Your turn."

Jak glared at him.

"Are you nuts?"

Damas remained stonefaced. "You want to prove those people wrong? Blood comparison. Computer will be able to identify if it matches old records or not."

"Then why'd you cut yourself?" Jak challenged.

"Control sample," Damas answered shortly, staring until the boy gave in and set the blade against the tip of his little finger.

He declined to specify whether he meant for or against.

Jak twisted his pinkie between his fingers and let a single drop of blood fall onto the paper. He narrowed his eyes at Damas.

"And this is supposed to take...how long?"

"Two months if they're not busy."

Jak unfolded his legs and slid off the tabletop. "Months?! What good does that do me? They'll probably have found a way to guilt me into going back to Haven by then!"

Hm.

Damas leaned back in his chair and studied the boy with a new perspective.

"You're a runaway. Aren't you?"

Jak scowled and folded his arms.

"I'm not! I'm just...there's something I have to do out here. And I can't go back yet."

Suspicion trickled in cold at the back of Damas’s mind. He folded the edge down over the bloodied paper and tucked it into his belt.

"And what," he asked warily, "is this "something" you intend to do?"

The boy's ears dropped, broadcasting uncertainty despite his belligerent posture.

"I...don't know yet. There's just...something was calling me. And I can't leave until I know what it is."

This boy was going to be a walking migraine trigger, wasn't he? But unfortunately there was a reasonably high probability that he was Damas’s kinsman, which meant that under no circumstances could he just toss the kid back to Haven and say "not my circus, not my moncaws".

Just get through this until the blood tests come back. Who knows, maybe the guy will find a place here in the meantime. Or he might decide to fight the squid and die horribly. One step at a time.

Damas opened the door and beckoned to one of the district guards down the hall. Commander Shui left her subordinates immediately to respond.

"Sir?"

Damas nodded back towards the trespasser.

"Have someone show him to the showers. Once he's cleaned up, see if you can't determine his age."

Shui glanced at Jak, but never lost her stoic expression. "Understood. Is he a candidate for the trials?"

Damas ignored the harsh whispering between the boy and the...okay that was called an ottsel apparently. Didn't have those out in the desert.

"I doubt even he knows. For the moment, we will proceed as though he is a refugee."

He sighed.

"I have matters to attend to. Inform me if he causes any problems."

Jak wasn't sure how to feel about this turn of events. Six days of maddening dreams of eco comets and a broken string of beads. Five days of something pulling on his eco core, or his soul, the way the Precursor Stone had.

He wasn't sorry for leaving Haven in the middle of the night. The Grand Council had been getting more and more vocal with their more...Praxian...views on his right to life and liberty, and Samos just kept telling him to focus on what was "more important", fighting metalheads and new Krimzon Deathbots.

When the Call took him down that ancient eco mine, it had felt like an escape. He'd told himself he'd go back after he found what was at the end of the tunnel. And he'd meant to, if only because he thought he had nowhere else to go. After all, Daxter had built a life in Haven. He had a mentor. A girlfriend. A whole business!

But regardless of all the pretty lies Samos and Onin and Ashelin filled his ears with, Haven was not Jak's home. He would not take responsibility for their evil. And even if he was descended from their founder, they all let Praxis kill whatever blood relatives he might've had! They decided the line of Mar had no say in government, so who was Jak to contradict them?

It was strange -- almost unfathomable -- how his perspective could have changed with a rebalancing of eco. The Oracle down in that desert temple, it had pushed through old scars, given him access to light eco, when he'd thought the substance didn't exist anymore. The constant aches that ruled his every waking moment when it was even slightly cold out, the irritability, the burning in his core, it was gone.

How had he become so accustomed to at least low levels of pain as a daily companion? Jak hadn't realized how bad his condition had been until it was gone. And his mind felt clearer than it had in months. Maybe even years. Home was far behind them now. Sandover was forever lost to them, along with all remains of Jak's innocence. Because of Onin. And because of Samos.

Without his thoughts dulled by pain and lack of sleep, Jak thought of his heartfelt thanks to the manipulative old sage and wanted to be sick.

And now he was on an island, eighty nautical miles from Haven. A wild, living, sanctuary of Wastelanders and open wilderness. They called it "wasteland", but Jak couldn't understand why when it was so beautiful.

That Call still pulled at his heart, told him he wasn't done here yet. And he was relieved, because the longer he spent under clear, blue, sky, the more he hated the thought of returning to that corrupted city.

Just because he'd told Ashelin it was worth saving didn't mean he belonged to it.

Damas -- the angry man he'd startled when they came up out of the catacombs -- left, and a well-built woman about his height entered the interrogation room.

"Holy crap, a lady Sig!" Daxter hissed in his ear.

The Wastelander did have a prosthetic eye -- her left, not her right -- of the same make, but that was really the only similarity. She carried herself like Ashelin -- someone in command, used to cooperation if not obedience -- and that alone put Jak on-edge. He met her searching gaze with a hard stare, determined not to be the first to flinch.

"Hm." The woman clicked her tongue disapprovingly.

"I see what he means. When's the last time you washed?"

"Do pools of water count?" Jak asked. If there was sarcasm in the tone, so what? "Expendables don't get time to wash."

"Eesh." The woman curled her lip. "Well that's not going to fly in my garrison."

She turned to shout down the hall, "Strom! Get the rookie to the showers before the flies move in!"

"Oh rot you!"

[heartfeltletters-written]

I was finally able to write something worthwile in chapter 3 of devotion, so as a treat here's a snippet

She had wanted to answer but the heat had become unbearable now, her skin was burning to the touch, desire only rising in her stomach, the only thing she craved was completion — completion at the end of Xaden’s touch.