auspex_caelo | And the Stars Turned Back [for smartass

Under the circumstances Jim can surely be excused for getting a bit whiny at people, but Felix can guess he'd find it pretty embarrassing when he was back to his 'old self'. And the more unfamiliar people around, the more stress that means for a kid.

"Ten years older than me. Which makes him... thirty-five? His birthday's in a couple of months." It's an unusually long gap in a human family with only two children, especially for a culture like Tamriel's. Felix adds in explanation, "The Great War came in between."

Felix mostly remembers food helping childish moods, so that's what he's going with. Food, sunshine, and someone who's... probably about the same age as Stratos right now, he just looks younger and smaller. Being half-Bosmer (and the other half Breton, to boot) will do that.

"Hi-" The boy coughs, trying to act more like his station. "Erm, hello." He looks up at Felix seriously. "He isn't a new squire, is he sir?"

Felix shakes his head. "Not at all. Jim, this is Enfys, Sir Celann's squire. That's sort of an apprentice knight. Enfys, this is... ah, Captain James Kirk. He's a friend of mine, and he's usually a fully grown man. But just now he's under the effects of a curse and so he's staying here while we work out how to break it."

Enfys blinks his wide green eyes at him, then at Jim. Then back at Felix, and there's the hint of suspicion in the back of his voice when he asks, "Really?"

He doesn't dare say he thinks Felix is screwing with him, but...

Edited (Realized Felix never answered Jim's question... :o) 2016-07-31 12:54 (UTC)

"Son of a bitch." Jim is not that old even when he's all grown up. Felix does outrank him and he is not at all pleased to know that. To his child mind, it confers a level of authority he really does feel at least somewhat obligated to listen to. Older kids are different than adults. Jim sees him more as someone he can relate to, rather than someone to be feared or rebelled against at all costs.

"Yeah usually I'm waaaaay taller and cooler and fighting big ugly people. When i'm here. That's happened before." He nods helpfully, as though his word really makes it all the more believable. "That'll teach 'em to think I'm some kind of fucking wuss."

Felix has to laugh at Jim's discontent. But then he's clearly forgotten how much age counts for when you don't have very much of it.

When Jim comes out with the f-word, on the other hand, Enfys looks a little bit shocked. "Hey! Watch- I mean... um... you shouldn't use words like that." Just a bit awkward scolding the younger boy when Felix is right there looking amused.

"Chevaliers have more delicate sensibilities than common soldiers," Felix notes to Jim. Even though Enfys doesn't have anything of the knights' accents: he sounds a lot more like the Nord bandits actually. "Best go gently with them. And Enfys, there's no need to look so doubtful. He really has been known to teach bandits a lesson or two."

"Why not? Grown ups say it all the time." And Jim is a grown up, as he has just patiently explained to the squire here. Felix never gets mad when he says bad words. He usually just laughs, really. He automatically looks up to Felix for some kind of explanation, and he doesn't have to wait long for one.

"Isn't that like, the opposite of being useful? Being more delicate than the ordinary guy?" Jim shakes his head, but it does make a certain amount of sense. Like all the stuffy bureaucrats he has to report to every now and again back home. They don't like that kind of language either. It's not Jim's fault that sometimes, the word 'shitshow' is the most accurate description of his missions.

Not that this is his fault, most of the time. These things just happen.

"It's okay. Felix doesn't mind that kind of words." Jim reaches up and pats Enfys on the shoulder. Well, as close to it as he can reach anyway. He's still mighty small for a camp full of full grown soldiers.

Enfys frowns at Felix for encouraging this bad behavior. "Well Sir Celann minds. And so does the tribune. If you talk like that people will think you're ignorant and ill-bred and they won't treat you well." Judging from the way he's talking to Jim, he's having a really hard time accepting this 'really an adult' business. And there's the matter of loyalty: "And Sir Celann is not delicate, he's the finest swordsman in the camp!"

"All right, Enfys," Felix says patiently. "I'm sure Jim understands. But right now we're both very tired and we need to eat. What's on the fire?"

"Um... venison stew. And there's some bread and honey from this morning, and some pastries from yesterday..."

"What do you think?" Felix leans down to ask Jim.

"Does he?" He really didn't seem to when Jim was back in the tent with Felix but then this kid reminds him of Chekov a lot with his energy and enthusiasm. And, oh lord, he's smaller and younger than Chekov by quite a lot like this. The baby of his crew is more than twice his age and twice his size. Jim takes a moment to think about that, a blank expression on his face. This time, when he swears, he does so breathlessly and in Andorian so as not to offend this squire's delicate ears (though Felix is sure to have heard Jim say it quite a lot, usually when he's stressed or in the bedroom).

Because that's not distracting when a child says it. Jim doesn't remain lost in thought for long, snapping back to attention when they start talking about food.

"Sounds good. I've never had deer before. Or elk, whichever you call venison here." He nods up at Felix. "An' the sweets sound good too!"

Enfys nods seriously in answer, giving Jim a suspicious look at that last outburst. For a kid with such a stick up his backside, he does know the sound of invective when he hears it, even in a foreign language. Besides, he can see Felix trying not to grin.

Nonetheless, he wipes his hands and dutifully finds a couple of pewter bowls to ladle some stew out for them, after checking it's reached the edible stage. He points out the box where the dumplings are to Felix, who unwraps their cloth covering and sniffs them before picking out a few.

"Some of these might have snowberries in them," he frets under his breath, "but they're red, so it should be easy to tell them from the apple ones..."

The look Jim gives Enfys is entirely too innocent for it to have actually been innocent and gosh even when he was little he has a smile that can light up a room when he's trying to. And he is definitely trying to. You heard nothing squire look at this face would it ever say a naughty aside from all the times it just did? Never. Not in a million bazillion years. Probably.

Maybe.

"What's a snowberry?" Jim scrambles onto a log bench before accepting the bowl of stew, spoon already in his mouth by the time he asks Felix his question. "Do they taste like blueberries? Or maybe Blackberries? Those muffins we had at Nana's, or the jelly I got you at the market the other week? Or something else entirely."

As serious as the squire's trying to be, it's hard to keep totally stern when Jim smiles like that. The kid would be a great pickpocket's accomplice...

"I'd say snowberries taste a little like a blackberry, a bit like a strawberry, and a bit of cinnamon. Thank you, Enfys." Felix takes a bowl himself and sits beside Jim. "They grow up here in the cold north and they're a warming food. I use them in some of the potions I make for cold resistance."

Warming food is clearly the order of the day around here, because the stew is rich and flavorsome, a little bit spiced and loaded with meat and leeks, potatoes, carrots and onions. There might be a dash of wine in there. They know how to handle their meat, too: the venison's pretty tender, dark and gamey.

"I can't have strawberries." Jim pouts a bit there, spoon hanging out of his mouth as he does so. Enfys look at him he is adorable. So adorable and eating and at least that means he's not swearing. His mouth is full and he seems quite content to be eating the stew. His feet swing happily while he eats.

"Th'stew ish really guh." Jim don't talk with your mouth full. But he's pointing at the bowl and grinning at Enfys so too late there. He didn't want to be rude and not compliment the cook when given free food, was all.

"It sucks too. I got to have 'em when I was in Naugus' body. And they taste really really good. I had a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for the first time then! I can't have either, usually."

Enfys clearly softens up at the compliment. He hasn't been doing this very long and the grin he gets is genuine. Even if he still speaks as deliberately properly as before. "Thank you. I'm still learning to cook properly. And the others showed me how to prepare the meat, but I helped them hunt the deer."

He goes back to working on the salmon, still listening. He pipes up curiously when Jim returns to the subject of strawberries. "Why can't you eat them? I had some before in- uhm. Solitude."

That makes him turn red for some reason. Felix shoots him a glance over his bowl of stew and guesses they were swiped from a stall.

"Some types of berry make Jim feel very sick," he says mildly. "I wonder if snowberries count, but maybe it's better not to take a chance. I can vouch for the apple dumplings being delicious too, anyway." And they just need to fill up on food so they'll have strength for the unsanctioned magic experiments.

"Place where I was at had a real bad famine when I was little." Jim's feet stop swinging. His gaze locked down on his bowl of food. "Well, older than I look now, but. Lots of people died. Hurt each other to survive. I was one of the few who survived but I got real sick from it, and now lotsa food and medicines make me sick. I don't know if it counts right now since I'm all small an' stuff again, but. I don't really wanna find out neither."

He takes a shaky breath, staring into the bowl of stew. The memories are still there, even if the pain is lessened slightly from this weird disjoint he feels from being this small. Before it all happened. It feels like telling someone else's story right now, even if he knows it was him.

"People don't have allergies here?" He glances up at Felix finally, eating his food much slower now.

Felix just about spits his stew back into the bowl.

It's not that he doesn't know most of this. Between what Jim was willing to say directly and the details gleaned from disturbed nights and the inferences he could draw himself, Felix has a fair picture of Tarsus now. As much as he can without having been there, without knowing it the way Jim does.

It's that Jim just doesn't talk about this. Barely even to him, and never out in the open.

He's too busy wiping his mouth ungracefully and giving Jim a worried look to even think about how Enfys will react. But the squire sets his knife aside, giving Jim a wide-eyed, serious look that's... kind of more understanding now. "Oh. Sorry."

Felix's arm slips quietly around Jim before he focuses his mind on the question. "They do. It's just, unless you're well educated - or you happen to be allergic to something commonly eaten in your homeland - you probably won't know much about them. Or you might not work out what's causing it. Some people just put up with getting sick once in a while and blame the bad air."

"There was a woman in Solitude who got sick if she ate fish," Enfys chips in, glad to have something he can say. "She paid a lot of healers to try and cure it, but I don't think it worked."

It's the sort of thing Jim would be mortified with himself if he was his own age and size again, this is very true. Jim does not usually talk about Tarsus. It's not something even Bones is aware of, because Jim doesn't want people to know what happened to him. What he lived through. There's shame there at everything that was done to him. But right now the pain doesn't feel real. It's like a bad dream rather than a haunting memory. It's easier to bring up.

"You didn't know." He says to Enfys, before looking back at Felix. He's still for perhaps the first time since he's found himself at this size.

"You okay, Felix?" He pauses to listen to them talk about allergies, and nods along with what they're saying. "Yeah, it's like that for me, just with lots of stuff."

"I'm fine," Felix murmurs, peering at him very closely. "How are you feeling?"

Enfys doesn't hear such soft inquiries over the sounds of the fire and his knife on the wooden chopping board. Or at least he discreetly pretends not to. "That's awful! It must be really hard to find food. But I suppose if you're a captain then other people get it for you..."

"I don't feel sick." Jim reassures him, even though the smile he gives is faint rather than bright. He doesn't feel very cheerful, talking about Tarsus like that. Even if it doesn't feel like it happened to him, he has enough memories in his head that it does feel like a rather awful nightmare.

"...Just a little sad, I guess." Jim admitting to feelings? What strange hell is this.

"My best friend is a healing specialist, and he knows what I can and can't have. I'm good, most of the time." Jim hasn't forgotten about you Enfys. you gave him food, you are good people.

Admitting to feelings does have benefits. For example, it prompts Felix to set his bowl aside and immediately give Jim a reassuring hug, just gently enough so the boy doesn't spill whatever stew he has left. He squeezes his arms with careful affection, cheek against Jim's temple. He may be sad, but he's not alone.

Enfys stops to blink at all this public and unexpectedly honest affection, but on balance he's not too surprised by it. He's already aware Jim is Felix's mystery friend from before. He puts his head down and keeps working, allowing a polite silence before he ventures, "That's real- really lucky. There aren't a lot of proper healers around."

Jim's blue eyes go wide at the hug, and for a second he doesn't quite know what to make of it. It makes his eyes water and for a moment he thinks he's going to cry. Instead he tilts his head up and kisses Felix gently on the cheek.

Muah.

"I'm okay. Pinkie promise." He holds up a small hand until Felix mirrors him and hooks their smallest fingers together. "Now you know I'm not lyin'." He sets his own bowl aside.

"He's th'best one there is, back where I'm from, but stuff's different there. I've got a better shot getting fixed up normal here." Jim nods at Enfys, making no attempt to break away from the physical contact with Felix.

There's a particular sort of grin that Jim's good at surprising from Felix, unguarded and a little lopsided. That's what he's getting right now as their fingers curl together.

"Well, that's a great relief," he murmurs honestly. And he always thought he was good at being the adorable one. He gives it a minute, and Jim another squeeze, before pulling away so he can get the dumplings to offer Jim. Dessert time!

"Is that why you, um, came here?" Enfys asks. He shoots a look up at Felix. "I know I'm not supposed to ask where you're from. Because it's to do with..." he waves in the rough direction of the cave mouth, "secrets."

The pinkie promise is not a charm to be taken lightly, Felix. It is the strongest of all childhood incantations, save for perhaps 'I dare ya'. Heaven forbid anyone ever incur the double-dog dare. History is forever changed when those words are spoken.

"I'm from a place really far away." Jim agrees seriously. "But I'm close with Felix and friends with Stratos and the other guys in there seem okay except the scary man-lady who always glares at Felix." Huff! Such a wrong opined woman he has never met before.

"I like it here. It's real different and things are always happening."

"Man-lady?" Enfys looks befuddled; Felix laughs.

"Sir Yolande, I assume."

Which figures, of course. The squire shrugs, offers, "She's real nice if you don't do stuff to make her mad." ...Felix. "Anyway, Skyrim's mostly boring unless you're in an army or an adventurer or something. Although I guess it's sort of exciting now with the dragons and the vampires and the war."

"Well, yes," Felix says dryly, "but that's all."

"She'd be nicer if she wasn't the Queen of Wrong Opinions." Huff. Felix is awesome okay and everyone should know how awesome he is. He saves lives and does magic and summons ghost puppies and Jim like-likes him so much you don't even know. Loves him even, wow it's easy to get swept up in his childlike mentality the longer this goes on.

"There's bandits to beat up an' dragons and all kinds of neat things." Jim nods before peering at whatever Felix is digging around for. Something smells sweet. Dessert? There is always room for dessert.

Edited 2016-08-17 17:31 (UTC)

Enfys frowns at him, but he's smart enough to get that he's... probably not going to convince Felix's new 'best friend' any differently. Felix definitely isn't going to buck up and improve Yolande's opinion of him by now. So he bites his lip and gets on with preparing those fish before the sun gets to them. Even in northern Skyrim, it's not chilly enough to dally.

Felix breaks part of a pastry to double-check it solely contains apple filling, nodding at Jim's words. "We should see if we can find some... after a nap, of course." Except he winks on the word 'after', handing Jim his dumpling. As soon as the younger boy's done eating, it'll be time to make a pointed yawn and take their leave of Enfys.

Edited 2016-08-20 17:02 (UTC)

Little Jim almost sulks at the mention of a nap. He's not a baby Felix! ...Even if he is more tired than he can ever remember himself being ever in his life. Pride insists he stay awake as long as the adults do because he is Also an Adult and Important, huff huff. But he catches sight of the wink and his eyes light up.

"Obfioushly." Jim don't talk with food in your mouth. He kicks his feet while he shovels the pastry into his face, trying not to vibrate right out of his seat with excitement that has temporarily staved off sleep for yet another little while.

Jim stays quiet while Felix does his acting, not speaking up until the moment Enfys is out of sight. Then he's immediately tugging at Felix's hand.

"Where're we really going huh?"

Felix has to stifle a grin himself. It's so gratifying to see Jim all aglow just because he knows Felix has a scheme up his sleeve. People don't often get excited over his ideas - at least, not as excited as he feels.

He finally lets the grin out when Jim tugs at his hand, a trace of wicked delight in it as he looks down at the boy. "We're going to go raid Stratos's notes for a spell he doesn't know I know he has yet. And then, we're going to try it out and see if it dispels this curse of yours.

"And when it does," he adds, leading the way to another tent (this one smaller, the leather exterior traced with very faint lines of magic), "he'll have to admit that I should be rather more than his apprentice."

And the Stars Turned Back [for smartass_captain ]

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