fandomtownies | The Causeway, Sunday Noon

Entry tags:

@causeway,
jak

The Causeway, Sunday Noon

The first thing Jak noticed after he hurled himself through the portal was that it was white. White like the snow back in Haven. That couldn't be right-- he could swear it should be the summer season back here.

Unless 'back here' wasn't what he'd banked on it being. Shit.

The second thing he noticed was that the weight on his shoulder was absent. "Daxter--?!" Nothing. Shit.

The third thing he noticed, as such things were, was the tell-tale spire of the castle and the asphalt under his feet. "...I made it," he said, "But... where is 'it'?" He looked behind him. Nothing. No portals, or anything.

With a wary frown on his face, Jak began to walk back across the causeway. Everything seemed almost intangible. "Dax?"

"I'm reading ya, buddy," Jak's communicator crackled, suddenly, "This portal's giving me no love! It like... ran out of mojo." He breathed an internal sigh of relief.

"Got it, Dax," he said, thoughtfully, "I'll get back to you... after I check this out."

[[ thread with jak locked to one, but open for your causeway-y needs ]]

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Tara had been back on the island for a day, but she hadn't really talked to anybody yet. Home was still home, her mother was still refusing to move out, and, even if they couldn't call her a demon anymore, her dad and brother still made it clear that being a witch wasn't all that much better.

She was thinking she might just not go home next time.

Anyhow, she was headed over to the mainland on a quick errand when she spotted Jak on the causeway. The smile he got was slow, but mostly genuine. "Hey," she said. "On your way back to school?"

A startled look shot past Jak's face like a bullet; it faded just as quick. That was a face Jak remembered. What had her name been, again? "...Tara?" Yes, that. "Uh. Hey."

At least he was in the right place? There was something a little confusing about the question, though. Something really, really disconnected.

Tara blinked, which could be forgiven, since this was two more actual words than she had ever heard Jak utter before. She noticed a few other slight differences; his hair was a bit longer, his face somehow -- older?

Maybe it was the weather.

"Hey," she returned, again. "Uh ... merry christmas or happy new year or ..." she shrugged. "Seasons' greetings works, right?"

"Yeah," Jak said, his arms crossing as he tried to place that, too. "I... kind of thought it'd be summer." Maybe the seasons didn't work the way he thought they did. Maybe there'd been some kind of reunion call for the island, and that's why she wasn't surprised to see him.

Maybe that explained why she was looking at him like he wasn't quite right.

And that was decidedly hinky.

Tara shook her head, frowning slightly. "No, no, still December. Uh, the ... 27th?"

She let her eyes focus on his aura for a second. The frown deepened. He looked like -- like Rose, but worse. Rose's was just sad and dark. His was angry and disturbing, and she involuntarily fell back half a step.

"How long were you gone?" she asked, stammer in full force.

Edited 2009-12-27 17:51 (UTC)

Was she backing away from him now?

Of course.

"A couple of years," Jak said; there was a distinct shift towards thunderclouds in his expression. "It's been a long trip. Why?"

Tara shook her head rapidly, partially in the hopes the dark aura would clear away like a speck in her eye.

It didn't.

She didn't fall back again, but she did make herself smaller.

"Jak, I feel bad saying this, but, um ... the last day of classes was just over a week ago."

Jak wasn't sure whether that made him angry or concerned.

Wasn't like he was unused to people cowering away, these days. But that last part kind of knocked that strain of thought straight out of his brain. "...I've time traveled again." It was the only conclusion he could get to, anyway. "But what-- how?"

He looked away from her-- mainly to check out the layout of the island. Looked exactly the same.

Tara ... couldn't help him with that. "I don't -- don't know how any of that stuff works," she said, relaxing a little now that it seemed he wasn't going to launch an immediate attack.

"Sorry." Quit saying you're sorry, Tara. "Bad -- bad time at home?"

"Something like that."

He got his eyes to drag back down. Yeah, being treated like a potentially dangerous wild animal really never got old. "You don't have to look so terrified." Although coming from Jak these days, that could've sounded much, much harsher than it did.

"Sorry," she said uselessly, for the third or sixteenth or 587th time. "It's -- you look really different."

And he was talking. Somehow, that was almost up there with the aura for weird.

"Really different," she repeated, but she'd quit physically cowering even as she debated whether she should mention the aura to him, so that was something. And then she asked something that felt like a stupid question. "Do you need help with anything?"

Edited 2009-12-27 18:30 (UTC)

Of all the questions on the planet, that was the last one Jak had seen coming. "Uh," he said, his arms back to crossing mode. "You're sure it's been a week?"

If Tara could read narration, she would have wanted to know what the first one was.

"Yeah?" she said. "I mean, I didn't talk to anybody yesterday, really, but everything was pretty much the way it was when I left Thursday, so ... I figure today is Sunday."

'Where do you think you're going, ecofreak?' would've been a good contender.

"Right," he said, filing that one away until further notice. "Sunday. I'm starting to get why Samos hated portal travel."

"Where were you trying to get?" Tara asked, since here didn't seem to be the answer and she had no idea who Samos was.

"A Fandom that made sense," Jak said. "Guess one out of two isn't bad."

Despite the dark energy crackling away from Jak, Tara couldn't stifle a slight giggle. He was looking for sense in a place where snow had dyed her bright green a few weeks before.

"I didn't think Fandom ever made sense."

Giggling was way, way better than backing away from him, so... score. Or something.

Daxter would've probably had something stupid but snappy about giggling Betties, but Jak would just have to plow on without his commentary. "I'm not sure life's doing much of that, either."

"Something went wrong," Tara blurted, and wished she hadn't, because she was aware she sounded absolutely insane, to go from the giggle to that.

She plunged ahead anyhow.

"It's -- I see auras, sometimes, and usually they have a certain -- flow that matches the person? Yours changed. Almost like you were possessed."

Which was nicer than saying he looked like somebody dumped a big container of extra-strength eeeeeeeeeviiiiiill into his soul.

See, and now it actually might have been nice for Dax to be there; he was a little better at the whole 'so, yeah, about Jak...' thing than Jak himself was. To be totally honest.

"Something went pretty wrong," he admitted, finally. "Ran into some trouble. I'm working on it."

If by 'working on it' you meant 'trying to kill the guy who did it'.

"Oh," Tara said, folding her own arms. The energy crackling off him gave her a slight idea what 'working on it' might mean in this context. "I'm really -- sorry."

She moved her mouth to the side, thoughtfully. He had a girlfriend, didn't he? "Do you think you'll stick around? Should I, um -- should I call anybody and say you're here?"

"I just figured out where to find the portal," Jak said. Just because he was keeping up with friendly didn't mean he trusted her. Not really. "I'm just scouting things out. I got places to be."

"Okay, so ...." Tara was back to frowning, not sure where that left her. "So should I just say 'bye and let you go?"

She didn't sound like she thought that was the best idea.

Edited 2009-12-27 19:48 (UTC)

He opened his mouth to say yeah, but there was a really weird sense about it.

Maybe it was just the bit where she wasn't happy to see him get out of her hair. Although that might just be the fear that he'd do something, which would bring Jak way back to square one.

"I might stick around for a few days," he settled on.

It was half that she liked Jak, half that she didn't think she wanted to know what he'd do once he got out of Fandom. Either way, she wasn't ready to wave him off.

She tried to remember why she'd been on the causeway. Nothing -- a book the store in town didn't have. She could get it later.

"I'll walk you back to the dorms," she offered, trying to sound more like a friend and less like a military escort.

"Guess Jono's still in my room," Jak mused. "Might as well say 'hi'."

That was a yes, if she was paying attention.

"I'm pretty sure he is," Tara said, twirling casually and taking the first step back toward the school.

She realized, in an abstract way, that room whatever-it-was would be soaked in auras that made her uncomfortable.

"Think he had time to miss you?"

"Who wouldn't miss me?"

... That was sarcastic. Not arrogant.

Tara took it as a rhetorical question, anyhow. She flashed a smile that would have been bigger if she wasn't slightly preoccupied trying to ignore the aura.

"You didn't miss anything on this end, anyhow," she volunteered, after a moment. "We aren't even done signing up for classes yet."

She cut her eyes sideways at him. "... do you want to talk about it?" she asked, expecting him to say no.

"Talk about what?"

He was nothing if not all about living up to expectations.

"The way you --" She stopped. He knew what she meant, and that was his answer, and, what, was she going to tell him she was sorry another 500 times? Way to not be helpful, and she went pink and silent.

"Never mind." Another pause. "I'm around if you need me, though."

"Yeah."

There was a pause that might've been overlong.

"Thanks. Tara."

He wasn't sure what to do with that. Exactly.

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The Causeway, Sunday Noon

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