The Witch Doctor is In

dark islanders au: Jem 

wicked, dangerous, fiercely protective, vengeful & unforgiving, brutal

When Jem woke up in the hospital after that attack, his first thought was on his friends. And then when he saw the laying in beds, slowly recuperating, that was it. He tore off everything he was hooked up to and stormed out of the hospital. The way he sent people and things flying out of his way prevented anyone from stopping him. 

He grabbed to of the five attackers by their throats and told them that if they wanted him and the tribe gone, to meet him at midnight in the cemetery and whoever lost the fight would leave town. 

Jem promised no magic.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

He lied. 

It took the leader a good minute or two to get Jem pinned to ground. Jem grinned evilly though, no damage shown on him at all. He asked the boy -and all the others with him- he what they thought their ancestors would say f they could see them now. At first their replies were “who cares?” then they asked why Jem posed the question.

His eyes glazed over and she shoved his fists into the earth beneath him. And up rose an army of zombies. Their zombified ancestors. The zombies took one look then lunged forward, grabbing the boys’ ankles and prepared to do what zombies do -eat. But before their teeth could break the skin, Jem ordered them to stop. He sent them back to their graves keeping the two wildest ones on leashes as defense pets.

And thus began his reign of terror on New Orleans. 

The boys decided not to skip town. The condition being that they spend their days making up for their trespasses against against Jem and his tribe. His father nearly met his end at Jem’s hand after a reunion attempt turned degrading. Jem’s tribe at first fascinated by the things he was doing and able to teach, soon decided to return to their people pleasing and healing ways.

Luckily, Jem was trapped and caught and taken to the island by the officials that the tribe called out to.

Rather than a merman, Jem is a cecaelia or -as Disney called it- an octopid. Human from the waist up only to have 8 slender black tentacles from the waist down. Blessed with magic by Calypso, he is the witch doctor of the seas with a potion for almost everything.

Although revered and loved for his talents, there was a time when he was chased out of the undersea neighborhood he lived in because of them. He spends most of his time now in his lair (a large cave), rarely ever visiting his former home.

Cave-dwelling, potion giving, problem solving, half-octopus sea witch. Got it, right? Don’t be fooled by Ursula, Jem’s intentions are 1000000% pure. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The Mother of Sea Unicorns came to Jem one day with the biggest problem Jem would ever need to cure: she needed to become human and find the friend taken captive by pirates.

Jem had to go for three reasons:

1- only he knew where the sunken ship from a long ago crash was and how to make it sail again and ranimate the corpses on it to bend them to V’s will.

2- only he knew how to heal what would be a very damaged merman if and when they found him

3- as a sort of priest to Calypso, he would be able to tame the seas to their needs and he had a special plan in mind for those who dared steal from Calypso’s waters.

As they plow the seas in their search, Jem keeps the corpses in line and, when possible, keeps the winds and waters as calm as he can. He works on his potions in a room just next to Captain Vanity Fair’s. And all seafolk know that when that strange corpse ship takes port, they can sneak to the docks at night and get their remedies and potions before Jem and V storm the town looking for information. Vanity Fair using her siren charms to get information, Jem using truth serums or intimidation if V can’t get something out of them.

Having to teach yourself voodoo rituals and spells was not the easiest thing in the world. Trial was fun, error not so much. But Jem thought that maybe he had the ritual down now. He gave the dead deer (he found it, not killed) a rather close-to-proper burial. Fine, more proper an honoring than any dead deer ever got.

A sacrificed animal (a creepily large rat that he was all too glad to kill after it attacked him) laid close to Jem, its wound open and bleeding onto the crystal. Jem sliced his palm letting his blood mix with the animal’s on the stone as he began chanting. His eyes were squeezed shut partially in pain but mostly in focus and a rumble came from the shallow grave of the deer. 

As usual for rituals, when Jem opened his eyes, they were white from corner to corner. The deer came up from its grave, bleating loudly as if it was being born. Which in its defense it sort of was..? Its eyes were glazed over as well.

Jem’s eyes came back to normal and he took in the dr. He smiled, nearly laughing out of pride at his work. The deer’s eyes were back to normal as well. It started sniffing around and nibbling o what baldes of grass it could find. Huh... Now for the next part of the test.

Jem let his eyes glaze over again. “Stop. Sit.” The deer stopped eating and sat down, turning to Jem for its next order  Jem’s eyes came back and he laughed at how well this was working. 

His eyes flashed back to white. “Er... um... let my cat ride you like a horse.” He waved for Cy to come down from the branch she an Shesha were watching from. She climbed up the deer’s back and stat as the deer rose and walked around sniffing for more grass.