Jamie Bevans

"Well, I liked the cold a lot better when I didn’t spend half my life in shorts - and I could turn the heating up.”

OOC: This one. 

" “It seems a great big hole to me,” squeaked Bilbo (who had no experience of dragons and only of hobbit-holes). He was getting excited and interested again, so that he forgot to keep his mouth shut. He loved maps, and in his hall there hung a large one of the Country Round with all his favourite walks marked on it in red ink. “How could such a large door be kept secret from everybody outside, apart from the dragon?” he asked. He was only a little hobbit you must remember.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien

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Jamie was giving him a lot of information– even the more mundane information was making his head spin. “A cabin bed from the 1800s doesn’t sound very luxurious,” he thought aloud, “then again the best you’ll get out here is made of palm leaves anyway, yeah?” He pursed his lips. “Your brother as well…” It wasn’t so much a question, more an observation. He and Lark had never shared a room. Never shared anything really. Not their father’s affection– that was for sure. Their mother had treated them wildly different. Katie and James had gotten along well enough but there was no denying she was closer to Lark, almost on a spiritual level. Sharing a cabin with his brother would be a nightmare that was for sure. 

James chuckled at the other man’s correction. Mate, in his mind, was just as affectionate as love… and while Jamie seemed like a nice man they weren’t exactly close yet. Not to mention no one had ever called him their mate. Love on the other hand… Lillian had called him love. Elias called him dear once, which felt close to love. “Alright, well it’s nice to hear I’m not the first one filled with questions. Wouldn’t want to sully this…” he looked around. “Island paradise,” the sarcasm was dripping off his lips. 

Jamie took James’ hand and he jumped at the sudden touch, but didn’t pull his hand away. Maybe because such a response would be rude– likely because that touch just flooded him with too many thoughts. Lillian’s hand on his shoulder and Elias’ hand on his back and all the times he had wanted touch but denied himself it. Jamie, already, was so different from him. So open and light, carefree… Attributes James didn’t think he could hold onto and survive in the world. Yet here Jamie was, doing quite fine on this ‘island paradise.’

Once inside the cabin, James took a seat at Jamie’s request. He opted for the bed, curious as to how soft the thing actually was. Sitting on it felt nice. Better than a sleeping bag. Finally Jamie let it spill what had happened to it. James leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees and listening with intent. It was a terrible death to be sure. At least in the moments before he died James was with someone he loved… that someone betrayed him sure, but he had done it first. 

While James had a lot of questions about this ‘bizarre place in the middle of the universe’ Jamie had answered his intrusive questions without a fight. So James opted to do the same. “I was hiking. Slipped and fell off a cliff.” So much for being open. That was hardly even a statement the police would accept. James sighed, forcing himself to give more details. “My wife and I were on holiday in Ireland. We always go camping and hiking, away from it all. We were around County Clare near the cliffs of Moher but far enough away we could have some privacy.” He paused a moment. This was where it got tricky. It didn’t matter how kind and welcoming Jamie was he wasn’t going to find out about the argument he and his wife had been having for hours before she finally pushed him. He wouldn’t even tell Jamie– or anyone for that matter, that Lillian was the reason he fell. “I got to close to the edge…” He said finally. 

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Jamie laughed. “Exactly,” he said, “I’ll take a slightly rubbish genuine mattress over anything I might be able to cobble together any day. I’m not much of a builder, if you want to know the truth. Christ knows how I’d be living if I wasn’t here with Teak.”

“Are you good with your hands?” Jamie asked earnestly, “That’s a talent that’ll go a long way round here.”

“And since this is a carnivorous ‘island paradise’, you needn’t worry about sullying it with anything - least of all important questions. I’d worry about you if you didn’t have questions.”

He felt James stiffen slightly when he took his hand, but when the other man didn’t pull away or scold him for the liberty, Jamie didn’t let go. Human contact, he thought, was a good thing, especially here on Meridium, and he hoped, maybe in some small way, that James might find his touch comforting. Real. And he led him off toward their intended destination.

That James made himself at home so easily pleased Jamie, and he was more than a little touched at the way his new acquaintance listened so intently to Jamie’s misfortunes - and when the older man began to speak, to recount his own arrival on the island, Jamie showed him the same amount of respect, unable to keep his feelings off his face. “Oh my god, you poor thing,” he said, reaching across to take James’ hands again, “And your poor missus, stuck there, helpless.”

“I’m so sorry, James. You must miss her desperately. What’s her name?”

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“Yeah, sure seems like it,” Libby nods along to Jamie’s notes about her status on the other side. It does feel like that, in a way – an island divided in abilities, at least among those who dared to enter the Labyrinth. As for what to make of it, well, Libby doesn’t know. She just knows she’s sick of the quivers of the earth feeling like they’re traveling up her spine.

“What does that mean, one time thing?” She frowns, dismayed to have a solution dismissed so quickly. Not that she’s not used to that (thanks, jungle), but it’s still not a feeling she’s fond of. “Have you tried to reverse it, then? I haven’t even known where to start…” Other than staring hard at rocks and silently begging them not to move. Didn’t work. Clearly.

The innate talent for drowning is, of course, what Jamie brings up first as having returned. Libby makes a small noise in her throat at that, but nods, picking up an orange slice. Picking at it instead of popping it into her mouth. Once the smell of citrus has filled the air and Jamie has raised a question, she shrugs. “Oh, y’know. My teeth keep chattering and I start to think it’s because I’m cold but it’s really because I’m basically buzzing all the time. So dentists might not like me right about now, and yeah, my head kills. But hey, weird dirt powers. We’re blessed, or whatever.”

Snark won’t get her far, Libby knows that, but some of it feels due. She moves on, though, to some curiosity: “How long’ve you been here, Jamie?” As she peels another orange. “I mean, is this all mostly new to you?” Is that the issue? People who’ve had these attunement-thingies for decades versus those who haven’t? 

Deciding to put it to the test, Libby sets aside the orange and ducks under the table, reemerging with the largest rock of the bunch. She puts that on the table gently, then slides her palms away flat, as if she’s dealing cards and trying not to show their faces. Really, she’s just not trying to shoot the thing toward the ceiling again. But as for Jamie… “Can you move this?”

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“Well, I just sort of meant that it was special circumstances and all. After all, the stream dried up and the little grove of trees died just after we’d all made our choices - and I don’t know about you, but I’ve eaten plenty of mangoes since being here, and drank enough springwater that didn’t change a single bloody thing that it just seems as though that had to be specific to a particular moment in time.” Jamie shrugged. “But honestly, what do I bloody know? I mean, we’re talking about flaming magic - there may not be any rules that apply.”

“Mostly my trying to reverse it has been in an elbow grease and concentration sort of a way. I just keep trying to will it back into being - with a mixed bag of results.”

Jamie made a sympathetic sound at the news of Libby’s chattering teeth and ongoing pain, not missing the sarcasm behind the notion of being ‘blessed’ with weird dirt powers, but he chose not to comment. After all, he’d already made it know that he wanted his powers back again, how Libby felt about her own was her own business.

Her question caught him a bit off guard though and he answered it with a mouth full of orange. “About two months now,” he said, flushing at his own bad manners, chewing quickly and swallowing, murmuring an apology. “So pretty new, yeah. Do you think that makes a difference?”

But when Libby pulled the large rock out from under the table and set it in front of him, asking if he could move it, Jamie certainly intended to give it his best shot, and he bit his lip, raising his hands in front of him, intending to guide the psychic ‘push’ somehow. “Let’s see, yeah?” he said, eyes focused intently on the stone. And then slowly and a little shakily it began to move back towards Libby.

Jamie smiled proudly. “Not bad for a first attempt, eh?”

OOC: Cheeky, warm, slightly self-deprecating on occasion, easy and constant. Jamie loves a good laugh, and he’s especially proud if he can draw one out of somebody else.

She really had been in the jungle too long. Who was this guy? Amelia didn’t even recognize him. Had the ship really always been that loud? It seemed impossible that she had never even noticed that before. “I’m fine, I’m just-” She cringed and straightened up as he reached out his hand, back thudding against the metal of the ship. She needed to get a grip. “Sorry, I-” Amelia squeezed her eyes shut for a seond and shook her head. He was probably just trying to shake her hand. People did that, it was how you said hello. “I’m Amelia.” 

He rattled through an introduction and information and called her pretty and– ok, objectively it was not something Amelia disagreed with as a simple fact, she was not a bad looking person, but in all the time she’d been here her appearance had been inconsiquential and no one had complimented her like that in a long time and this was already one of the oddest encounters she’d had in years. “I don’t know Teak, I used to- panic attack?” Amelia rubbed at the back of her neck, already realizing that trying to refute his claim when just saying the words had made her voice rise an octave was foolish, but still, “I don’t- I’m fine, it just caught me by surprise.” 

Amelia could handle panic, though, half her life had been about managing it. She just needed to breathe and be quiet. She clasped her hands behind her back and took a deep breath, wincing as the noise inside the ship rose again. “Yeah- yes. Somewhere quieter.” Amelia was quiet for a while as they moved away from the ship, all that sound still rolling around in her head. The stories she could write in a place like that. “I… Don’t spend a lot of time out here. So, it’s all a bit strange.” 

-0-0-0-

Jamie watched in horror as Amelia cringed back from his extended hand, and he quickly dropped it again, taking a large step back to give her some more room. “I’m sorry,” he murmured, his words coming urgent and apologetic, “I was just trying to shake your hand. I never even thought-- anyway, I’m sorry.”

She told him that she didn’t know Teak, then rather unsuccessfully denied any sort of a panic attack too - which Jamie immediately took note of. This was clearly not a woman comfortable admitting to anything she saw as weakness, regardless of what she might need. So Jamie changed gears, thinking that any help he might offer would have to come with a lighter touch; nothing too on the nose or Amelia would be climbing the nearest tree to escape him. And Christ knew what lived in the nearest tree anymore. 

He smiled gently. “Of course, yeah. Just a surprise, eh? Still, let’s still find you a quieter place to get your head together.” He readjusted his sack of fruit, then walked with Amelia down to the shoreline, careful not to crowd her.

“If you don’t mind my asking, where do you spend time, if not out here?” he wondered aloud, quiet and cautious, “I don’t think I’ve ever seen you before - are you new?”

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“Wait till you see our place,” Emre bragged shamelessly.  Give Jamie the ‘grand tour’ and all, such as it was.  “Privacy for ages.  Granted, still haven’t worked out how to soundproof from them air-magic, innit.  Them’s the worst, can hear for miles, so they say.  Anything and everything.  Imagine that, bruv.”

Emre’s friendly chattiness, with little deception (for Emre) was new.  He had no friends in London.  He had mates who he could never quite trust, nor could they ever fully trust him.  Yet on Meridium, Emre hid so much of himself, and yet it felt oddly freeing at the same time.

“Hmph.” Emre tried not to let Teak having friends bother him.  Instead, he snorted at the idea of him and Teak’s similarities as older brothers.  “Or maybe little brother just prefers not to know all the dirty stuff innit.  Let big boy handle the rough bits, yeah.  Yeah.”  After all, Jamie could ask.  Iyaz could ask.  They just chose not to.

Emre felt an inkling of connection to Teak, and then promptly resented it.  No; him and Teak were nothing alike.

“Here we go then, just drop that on the planks over there, yeah,” Emre said, once they reached his homestead.  It was about a quarter built - it stood on short wood stilts on a rock base, the main room mostly built and roofed.  The kitchen was a work in progress, the foundations for the two bedrooms planned.  The outdoor loo was still a work in progress.

“Bit of a dog’s dinner right now, but it’s coming together.”  Emre let Jamie look around, following him about and picking up this or cleaning up that as he meandered.  He basked in hearing Jamie saying that Iyaz had it worse.  “He is devastated,” Emre agreed, sounding grave about it.  

“You and him are about the same age and all, yeah?  And you know heartbreak, and erm, all that man-loving ting innit.  Think you could help?  Maybe it’ll help you a bit too.  Plus, always good to have an in with the doctor, yeah.” Emre smiled, watching the back of Jamie’s head as he followed.  “Good treatment next time you get done in by oceanlife.”

It had been a long time, since Emre had tried setting up a playdate for his little brother, but.  Here he was, doing it again out of habit.

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“Can they really hear that far?” Jamie asked, eyes a little wide. “I didn’t know that. But I’m looking forward to seeing your place,” he added as they walked, “I mean, jellyfish and all, I love the Leander - but you’re doing proper building, so it’s hard not to be a little impressed.”

Fairly aware by now that Teak and Emre’s mutual enmity was going to remain a fixture in their lives, Jamie thought over what Emre had said about little brothers being content to be swaddled and protected from the big bad world, and nodded his head thoughtfully. ‘You’re likely right,” he said, “You lot want to take care of us, and we’re not in any great hurry not to let you.” 

“It’s a hard habit to break, after all; being looked after. But I bet that Iyaz might like the chance to look after you too, sometimes. I know I would with Teak. Not that big brothers are at all comfortable admitting to being less than superhuman.” He gave Emre an amiable little nudge with his shoulder. “At least in my experience.”

When they reached Emre’s new home, and the man himself proclaimed it a bit of a dog’s dinner, Jamie shook his head, setting down his basket and taking a look around. “Are you mad?” he asked, “This is brilliant. You can already picture how everything is going to be when it’s finished.” 

Jamie grinned. “You’re quite a man, Mr. Akbar. Many talents and all that, eh?”

The conversation shifting back to Iyaz though, Jamie felt a tug at his heart when he heard Emre’s obvious concern in his voice, and he was just opening his mouth to lament that he wished there was something he could do to help, when Emre made the suggestion that there was exactly something he could do, being that Jamie and Iyaz were roughly the same age and were possessed of certain shared interests. 

Walking about examining Emre’s craftsmanship, Jamie chuckled about having an in with the doctor, then asked, “Are you sure? I mean I work with Iyaz in the apothecary all the time, and he never seems as though a personal conversation is what he’s craving.”

‘...I’m afraid I’d just make him uncomfortable.”

"I think there’s a certain amount of arrogance that has to exist for you to believe you’re the only real person going, so, no, I don’t ever doubt that other people exist. On top of which, I don’t think I’m creative enough to dream up someone like Joaquin, or Madi. I’m just fortunate enough to have got to know them, that’s all.”

"I never used to be afraid of the dark at all, even when I was little, and I hesitate to say I’m afraid now...but Meridium has certainly given me a healthy respect for the dark and everything living in it.

—oOo—

“Oh, I can control it.”

Teak could not, in fact, control it. 

The gouts of napalm (Jamie had hit on exactly the right word for it) shooting from him in huge handfuls started to spin in unexpected directions as Teak threw them, swerving as if he was a professional pitcher throwing curveballs at stunned batters. But Teak wasn’t curving them on purpose. The blobs and globs started landing on the grass too, some of them only a foot from where he was standing, one dropping down a few inches from Jamie’s right elbow.

“Okay, maybe we better shake a tailfeather,” Teak revised his estimation of the situation. He shook his hands out, drops of lava streaking from the tips of his fingers, and held his arms out stiffly alongside his body so his fingers were pointed straight down. They were bubbling heat, he could feel it radiating against his thighs, and Teak said, “You run ahead of me through that clearing, I’ll be right behind you, Jame. I don’t want you coming behind me in case this fire goop comes flying back while we’re running. Okay?”

Teak gave his brother a great big dazzling (what he hoped was) encouraging grin, all his many white teeth gleaming. “You’re short but I’ve seen you run when you need to and you make trails, bud! So let’s see some hustle out there! Andale, andale!” He waited until Jamie started running and then took off after him, arms still held down and away from his body, feeling blurps and blorps of thick, molten hot fire plopping down into the grass as he ran.

—oOo—

Jamie ran as though his arse was on fire - as it might be if he lagged behind - following the path the jungle continued to lay out and looking back every few minutes to make sure Teak was still with him; finally arriving at another stream and a motley collection of survivors with Esther and Seamus at the head. 

But Jamie’d barely had time to catch his breath or have a clear thought when the jungle erupted violently again, catching ankles with vines and tugging hard - and he yelped helplessly, just in time to see the survivors, those like Teak whose powers had increased exponentially, fight the malevolent greenery back again, sending it scuttling off to lick its wounds. And only then, once they were safe, did the lagoon becomes apparent; the moonlight drawing everyone closer, beautiful and serene. 

The serenity is short lived though, because by then the trees are visible and have shocked everyone into silence of a more painful variety. 

Jamie shifted closer to his brother, still conscious of Teak’s firepower, but never more grateful to have him close, and he watched him, imagining how it must feel to see someone you cared for lost like that with nothing to be done about it. “Love you, Ketts,” he murmured softly, before allowing the grief stricken shock it’s quiet once more.

Meridium, Jamie thought. Just another day in the life, wasn’t it?

OOC: Jamie would take for granted that it’s him plus four, so his choices would be @teakmiddleton, @madibyrd, @sagetomashardy and @libbyblum.

OOC: Jamie would have that ridiculous “Hang in there, Baby!” kitten poster, because it makes him laugh - and who doesn’t love kittens and affirmations. Or, if not that, then maybe John Barrowman dressed as Captain Jack Harkness, coat and all. He meets all of Jamie’s older man needs. lol

—oOo—

The stream trickled away into nothing, just a bare furrow in the ground that rapidly started filling upwards turning green, and Teak looked over at Jamie in alarm when he heard his brother making high, pained, animal noises. Curling up like a little fetal bullcalf and moaning fit to burst, sounding miserable and agonized.

Everything in Teak’s (otherwise non-existent) protective instincts riled up, but he couldn’t move. He couldn’t yell. He couldn’t do anything except lie on his stomach against ground that was now perfectly level and unscarred as if nothing had ever been there other than grass, as it felt like his insides were freezing up. Was that what the stream had been? Was it neutralizing his fire powers?

The thought made Teak bare his teeth in a grimace – all he could manage – but then the freezing sensation whooshed out of him. In a gust, and when Teak let his breath out to follow it, the cold air turned rapidly to something hotter, first dampening and then starting to wilt the grass he was lying in.

“Jame!” he shouted, scrabbling up only far enough on hands and knees to launch himself in his brother’s direction. He turned Jamie over, rolling him to try and get his attention. “Are you okay? Are you all frozen inside? I can–”

But Teak leapt away from Jamie, having felt prickles of fire run in circles along the insides of his palms. He turned his hands up, looking at them, and then yelled, “–stay DOWN, Jamie!” as fire sprayed from his hands in blobs and jets, like lava. Teak turned, aiming himself towards the trees, watching in amazement at his own power as the globs of fire hit the trees and didn’t even incinerate them – it melted them. 

“Jamie,” Teak said, voice full of delight at the wonders of his own body, “we are getting the heck outta here.”

Jamie felt himself being rolled over, just as the pain began to dissipate and he sat up, reaching for his brother. “Ketts, something’s wrong,” he managed but before he could say anything more Teak was yelling at him to stay down, and Jamie did as he was told, gawping at the fire - the napalm - spraying from Kettle’s hands, melting everything it came in contact with. It was terrifying, and mesmerising, and utterly destructively beautiful.

“Teak?” Jamie asked, still lying on the ground because he hadn’t been told to move yet, “Teak, can you-- I mean, is it-- can you control it? Or am I just getting behind you and following whilst you burn this whole place to the ground till we run out of jungle?”

Mindful of Teak’s hands and the spray of the lava, Jamie sat up again, still just completely stunned, mouth open, eyes wide, and he gaped at his brother. “You’re in charge, Ketts. I just want to go home.”

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“Alright, we’re alright.” Lark comforted, continuing to pat Jamie’s back as he choked up seawater. Then the man sat up, shaken and shaking, and proceeded to shower him with gratitude. Lark blushed at the persistant thanks and praise. It was clearly coming from the state of shock Jamie was in, but none of it was stuff he was used to hearing and he had trouble compartmentalising it or knowing how to react. Eventually he just shook his head, and raised a hand to stop Jamie from continuing, “Please, don’t thank me. Really. I’d be a villain if I saw you drowning and didn’t do something about it. I’m just— I’m glad you made it out alive.”

He cracked a warm smile “Also, I think those that are less delicate are sometimes easier to carry.” He said this without thinking and wasn’t quite sure what he meant by it, but he reckoned it sounded good… or at least like it could make some sense to someone somewhere.

There was a momentary lull and he scratched the back of his head awkwardly. He hadn’t really been alone with Jamie since he’d royally cocked up their first encounter. This was a far cry from the cordial, passing interactions they’d had since then. “So uh…” His eyes darted to the ocean, then back to Jamie, creating his own little tide pool with the water dripping off him. “What were you doing out there anyway? Aren’t you earth-attuned? I thought…” he made a conscious effort not to say anything stupid, but this was also a big ask of the bird-brained boy, “Didn’t you say you couldn’t swim?”

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Jamie paused in his thanks, then barked out a rough sounding laugh. “You know, I suppose that’s true,” he said, “Only someone with no conscience at all would pass a drowning man and think, ‘Yeah, probably serves you right.’”

“But still - it means the world to me, mate. Don’t pretend like you did nothing.”

Jamie grinned when Lark said that sturdier sorts were easier to carry, giving his ample bottom a smack. “Finally,” he laughed, “-it’s good for something except pulling. It can double as a flotation device.”

But when Lark asked what Jamie had been doing out there in the first place, being that he was earth attuned and couldn’t swim, the younger man flushed a little and said. “You’re right, I am and I can’t - but I ate a mango in the jungle and lost my powers, and I figured rather than moping I should try to find something positive in being just regular old me again. So I thought, swimming, yeah? Teak gave me a few lessons before we realised I sank like a stone, so I thought I’d put them to some use. It was then that my powers decided to make themselves known again, and I nearly swallowed up half the sea trying to splash my way back to shore. I won’t be doing that again, I can tell you that much.”

“What about you though? How did you fare in the jungle?”

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“Oh, I’m mildly concussed at best,” Libby quips back, then because she sounds a little too serious: “I kid. I was, uh, experimenting with some… rocks.” That also sounds strange. She sighs. “Anyway, yeah, it’s a fine time. My new hobby attempt fell a little flat, that’s all. C’mon in.” 

She nods at the mention of attunement. Good, that’s good – except. “Damn.” She mutters. Another person deprived of their… powers? Is that what they should be called? Instead of getting the weird bolstering that she’s been going through. “Is that the pattern? Mangoes means less? Shit, I’ll go eat twenty of them…” Really, she will. Anything to stop her hyper-sensitivity to every movement in the earth, each footstep feeling like a little seismic shift. Until she actually does cause a seismic shift. Or a reaching vine. Or a parting of trees. Or –

“I am, yeah.” Libby cuts off her own internal diatribe, sitting down at their little table and wiping off a knife. “Stronger, and I can’t remember the last time I ate a mango, so maybe that’s the issue here…” For now, though, she slices into one of the oranges. Once a few slices are carved out, she slides them over to Jamie, then works on a half for herself. “So you’ve got none of it? No vibrations, or, like, tremors, or… anything?” She tries and fails to ward off jealousy from her tone.

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As he’d been experimenting with rocks himself of late, Libby’s new hobby didn’t sound odd in the slightest to Jamie, and he followed her through the door happily, wondering just what exactly she’d been attempting to do.

“Ahh, so you’re on the other side,” he said, “What’s that like, if you don’t mind me asking? I mean, losing my powers was rubbish and I’m still nowhere close to where I used to be, but I can’t imagine having everything suddenly turned up to eleven has been any great joy either.” Jamie chuckled slightly at Libby’s hopes that a more mango enriched diet might help her ease her attunement back again, then said, “I think it was a one time only event with the mangoes - but if you like, I’ll bring you one up here tomorrow and you can try it for yourself.”

Jamie took his orange slices with a murmur of thanks, immediately popping one into his mouth and savouring the tart sweetness, dropping the skin back on the table and reaching for another one. “I’ve got some of it,” he said, “In very light doses. I mean, I sink like a stone in the water again, and I can feel some faint vibrations; mess about with the sand, crack a rock or two - but it’s nothing like I had before. I’m treating it like an atrophied muscle; something I need to work on building up again.”

“How have you been feeling?” Jamie asked, “Just if you’re rolling with every little shift and tremor, your head must be killing you, yeah?”

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James looked around and spotted the gangplank a few meters from where he climbed. “Ah,” he said then chose to pretend like the gangplank didn’t exist. At least he knew his body wasn’t completely wrecked from washing onshore. He turned his attention back the man, walking ball of sunshine he was. James never knew how to handle the sort, the people who were always happy (at least seemed it) even when things were outright shit. He had a secretary like that once. Transferred her to someone else as soon as he could and got an old hag who fit his personality much better. “Your cabin? You live here?” He looked down at the rotted wood. “Hope rent is cheap,” he mumbled.

Hearing how apologetic the man was caught James off guard in a new way. Good god the man was sunny and empathetic. Here he thought waking up drenched in seawater with sand stuck to every bit of skin was the most uncomfortable he’d be today. Another apology came and James was starting to feel bad. He tugged at his ear, wondering how it was he managed to flub such a simple introduction. He was a businessman– he should be good at this. “I suppose I have too many questions,” he admitted. “I’d drown myself in my own questioning before you could even answer.”

He paused. “Jamie,” he repeated. Well that would be annoying. James and Jamie. At least his name sounded nicer. Fitting that the nicer of the two got the nicer sounding name. He let out a heavy sigh. “Alright, Jamie uh… sorry to get so personal but did you perchance… die? A little maybe?”

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Jamie laughed at James’ hope that rent was cheap, knowing that the ship did look a little rough around the edges, then said, “It’s better than it looks, I promise. It’s sturdy and reasonably dry and it comes with an actual bed, so there’s a selling feature if ever I heard one. I share my cabin with my brother. I’ll introduce you later, if you like.”

“And don’t worry one bit about your questions, mate -” Jamie smiled again, a little softer now, “Sorry. James, not mate - I promise you can’t scare me off. I was full of questions when I first got here, and I’d like to be able to help if I can.”

Jamie nodded when James repeated his name, but when James let fly with his first real question, Jamie reached out and rubbed his arm a bit. “You know,” he said, “I think maybe my cabin should be first stop on our tour, yeah? Then we can have a bit of privacy to chat.” Taking James’ hand Jamie led him up to his and Teak’s cabin, currently empty, and beckoned him to sit down in a chair or on the bunk as he shut the door, smiling gently when he turned back around. “Don’t be sorry, as a matter of fact, I did die. More than a little.”

“I was out on the lash after a bad breakup, drowning my sorrows, when I was mugged with a knife and pushed into the canal. I woke up here shortly thereafter. But it’s weird because Meridium doesn’t give any indication that it’s the afterlife. We can still get hurt here, still be killed... it’s just this bizarre place in the middle of the universe. And some parts of it aren’t entirely friendly.”

Jamie sat down opposite James. “Can I ask how you got here? As much as you remember, anyway.”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

It didn’t really click for Madi right away what Jamie was saying. In her mind, the mango caused a total and final power loss - hers was still gone, after all, and a little bit of time has already passed, so it must be permanent, at least in her mind -, so she figured he must have gotten the power boost and the control was lost along with it. It only hit her when she was sitting down next to him that he was talking about going back to the basics, not just getting back the control.

“Wait, are you saying– did you eat the mango in the jungle, too? That is what you mean? And it all went away and now it’s coming back?” Her stomach dropped at the idea of that. She honestly didn’t think that was possible. She raised her hands for a moment, turning her palm around a couple of times, but it still felt fireless.

When Jamie managed to crack the rock and beamed at her, Madi smiled back - he had such an easy, delightful joy about him that was contagious and hard to resist. “Nice, good job. I don’t think I really have any influence on it, but I’ll take the lucky charm title anyway. How much did you– how much could you do before?” She was still unsure about this before, but she wanted to know the difference. Maybe it was just a drop in control, not full disappearance of power.

At the question of how she was doing, she pulled her legs under herself and gave a small shrug. “I’m okay. Sorry for not being around that much, the jungle– well, not the jungle, that isn’t correct, the lagoon, kind of messed me up. A friend of mine– she’s among the tree people, so I’ve been spending some time with her.” She paused for a moment before adding, “But hey, at least my attunement is gone. Properly gone. Hopefully for good. That was one good thing about everything that went down that day.”

She grabbed a handful of the sand and started slowly seeping it through her fingers, drawing weird shapes onto the ground. “What about you? How are you doing these days?”

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

“I did eat the mango in the jungle,” Jamie explained, “Never one to turn down a snack, me. And almost immediately there was this horrible pain, and then once it had passed I just felt sort of hollow, like something was missing. It took me a minute to realise it was my attunement because then we were dealing with Kettle’s amped up firepower. And that was by far the bigger priority.”

“It was actually gone entirely for days - but then I went for a swim like a numpty, and it decided to make itself known again.” Jamie snorted out a laugh at his own expense. “Lucky for me Lark was passing, or I’d have ended up shark bait just offshore over there. He pulled me out, and I realised that my attunement had just been playing hard to get, that it wasn’t gone at all. I could feel it again. The vibrations in the earth. And I knew I just had to find a way to bring my powers back to the forefront.” 

Jamie grinned. “So here I am. Practising.”

He leaned over and gave Madi an affectionate nudge with his shoulder. “Hey, you’re my lucky charm if I say you are,” he said. “And I clearly work better with an audience.” He turned his attention back to the rock and deepened the crack, obviously quite pleased with the outcome. “Look at that,” he said, “Getting better all the time.”

“As far as what I could do before goes though, I was really just getting a handle on it - but I could cause tremors in the earth and little earthquakes, and force the ground to shift according to my wants of the moment. Now, I’m lucky just to shake a sandcastle apart again after I’ve built it.” Jamie turned to Madi and smiled. “But like I said, it’s getting better all the time, so I just have to be patient.”

Jamie set down the rock and made a soft sympathetic noise as Madi explained her experience of the lagoon. “I’m so sorry, Mads. That must be awful. Still, it’s good of you to go be with her. Do you get the sense she knows you’re there?” And when Madi told him that her attunement was gone now, seemingly permanently, Jamie grinned, remembering how much her fire had pained her. “That’s wonderful,” he said, “I’m so pleased for you.” He wasn’t as convinced it was gone forever as Madi was - but he hoped so, just for her, because she wanted it so badly.

Jamie watched as Madi began to sift the sand through her fingers, drawing odd little shapes and patterns on the ground, then smiled. “Me? Well the first thing about me is that I require a proper fireproof hug - and from there, I suppose I’m alright. Did you hear about the jellyfish that ended up in my cabin?”