auspex_caelo | And the Stars Turned Back [for smartass

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And the Stars Turned Back [for smartass_captain ]

Once they’ve picked up Felix, Stratos leads the way back through their door. It’s left to his little brother to unseal the wards and stay back to set them back in place before following. The tribune-turned teenager conjures a light – that he can do, still – and shows Jim up the sloping tunnel beyond. The stone walls look like a mix of natural erosion and worn masonry, lit by intermittent torches mounted along the way.

It looks like a straightforward path, bending this way and that but leading steadily upward. Stratos, however, is well aware of the illusions laid to give that impression and he keeps Jim close. He’s frowning deeply as they climb, trying to ready himself for what’s to come. Trying to convince himself that all will go well when he presents himself to his subordinates.

It feels like a much longer climb than usual, though his legs can’t be that much shorter.

“Are you hungry?” he asks Jim over his shoulder abruptly. That’s one thing he can be sure of remedying anyway.

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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."

Jim is always excited over Felix's ideas. Especially when he gets that glint of mischief to his eyes that makes them shine. He gives a huge toothy grin back up to Felix, though it has none of the wickedness Felix's does.

"Yes! This is the best idea! Why didn't Stratos just use it on us already you have the best ideas!" Jim breathe. Also, don't bother whispering if you're going to whisper so loud the you might as well be talking.

Jim is like an excited puppy, peering around at everything in the camp and constantly making Felix have to stretch his arm out as Jim hurries this way and that while thye head across the camp.

"He'll have to see how awesome you are at stuff and life."

"Shh, Jim, keep your voice down." Felix tugs him back onto the proper course. "Stratos doesn't have the strength or- probably anything he needs to pull it off now. And Stratos always thinks he's the only one of us who can handle truly powerful magic. I'll just have to change his mind by doing what he can't, right?"

It's unspeakably endearing, how interested and excited Jim is by what seems a thoroughly mundane place to Felix. He can't help remembering how he used to feel, when he was allowed to come along and visit his family's friends in the castle barracks or (on one special occasion) a Legion fort. Maybe that's why he winds up slowing down to point out the more interesting features to Jim, like the little practice ground where he goes for sword drills, or the banners around depicting a spear twined with lightning.

"That's the banner of Sir Celann's order, so whenever you see people bearing that you know they're friends of ours."

When Felix admonishes him Jim shuts up entirely, though those bright blue eyes are still shining with excitement. He nods several times at Felix's claims. Truth be told even if Jim were the proper age he'd be all over this plan. Bending the rules a bit because people don't think you can do something so you have a chance to prove them wrong is practically how Jim got to where he is today.

Captain of a starship, not nine years old and running around a Tamrielic camp.

Though he does slow down a bit and look properly at the various things Felix is pointing out. The banners look neat and the training ground makes him nearly jump with excitement.

"Can you teach me how to use a sword too?"He remembers why they're snooping around but he's excited okay.

Edited 2016-08-25 13:06 (UTC)

"Of course! You'll need it if... when... you're visiting here." The thought that Jim's going to be returning indefinitely, all the time - it's hard to quite take in, but it makes him smile. Jim's not ~~likely~~ going to discard him, not going to fall prey to typical Tamrielic hazards. Every other kind of danger, of course...

He mulls this over while he steers Jim to a smaller tent. "Do people... not fight with blades in your world? I'm a little surprised you don't..."

"Not really. Mostly we use phasers. There's security experts trained on weapons but mostly we don't hurt people."

Which really explains a lot about how Jim deals with anything. The most violent he gets is a good brawl, unless he's pushed into a real bad corner. Or PTSDing because he was captured and starved for days. He knows how to use more powerful weapons like plasma rifles and the like, but he isn't exactly a weapons specialist.

"There's some really formal blade training people can get for fun or tradition though. It's more of a sport than a survival tactic. Sulu, my pilot, is real good with blades because of that. I should ask him to train with me more in the gym huh."

"You should, yes. At least if you ever want to beat me," he teases. There's a seriousness underneath it, though. He wants to keep Jim safe - as safe as the captain is capable of being - and though he loves the man's noble intentions, admires his self-sacrificing kindness... Felix does worry they'll get him killed. Particularly here, where the dangers are ones he knows and can quantify in his mind.

He pushes open the tent flap for Jim, a little self-conscious as he says, "Well, this is, ah. Where I sleep. In theory, of course."

There's not much to it - dirt floor, fur-lined sleeping roll with straw under it. A stool, a small chest - and a small table bearing books and bits of candle wax. It smells a bit like Felix does, too - smoke, leather, the bitter fragrance of alchemy.

"Sit wherever you like," he says, crouching by the chest to root through it. "I just need to find the notes. I had an idea for hiding them, you see, because if you use a phone to take pictures it turns out you can pay someone to put them on actual paper..." And thus Jim has inadvertently enabled the theft of state secrets (possibly).

"Well I gotta learn first, duh." Jim rolls his eyes at the taunt, but there's a petulant frown that gives away that he's taken the bait. Jim can beat anyone at anything if he puts his mind to it. He's James freaking Kirk for crying out loud. He's gonna march right back to that ship and ask Sulu to teach him how to fence.

Felix will have to be impressed with him then! Yes, this plan is perfect and cannot possibly fail (unless he forgets it).

Jim's attention is entirely on the tent once Felix admits that it's his, blue eyes wide and flickering with the candlelight. This is Felix's room? Well tent, but. Jim takes a moment to look at everything, small hands tracing the walls of the tent gently.

"Felix..." Jim's voice is quiet. "How come you've never brought me here before?" He looks up at the Imperial with a soft expression. A smile creeps across his face. "Were you worried what I'd think? It...fits you. I like it."

"I..." Felix looks up from the chest, swallowing suddenly at that soft smile and bright eyes. It's a very direct question, one he doesn't have a quip or a ready answer for. He hefts out the tome he was looking for, sets it on the table while he considers what to say.

"I suppose I just... didn't think you'd want to see it. It's not important, after all. It's not important, after all, it's just... a place I spend time in." He leafs through the pages, sneaking a glance at Jim as if to check his expression. Adds more casually, "I'm glad you like it, though. It's rather... rudimentary compared to what you're used to."

"And my quarters is?"

Jim snorts, and for a moment it's a very familiar expression on his face. Despite his childish features, it's the exact reaction the Jim Felix knows so well would give to such a question.

"It's fine, Felix. I spent like forever tied up in a cave here, this is pretty much amazing by comparison." It's about then that Jim takes a seat at the edge of the bed roll, smiling up at Felix with his bright excited grin.

"So what's this kickass spell you stole?"

"Your quarters don't have damp straw under the bed," Felix points out, but he's teasing. Face it, Jim, you have the fanciest bedroom around, the lack of velvet and heirloom swords notwithstanding.

But he should get to business. Felix pulls out the printed photographs hidden within the other tome. He sits on the stool facing Jim, grinning back conspiratorially.

"It's a spell for dispelling powerful magic safely. We have weaker spells that do the same, but they're only for cleaning up laboratories after experiments. This is the kind of spell you can use against combat magic, any time, anywhere.. We used to have plenty of other spells like this, lost after, well, all the disasters of the last two hundred years. Stratos obviously thinks he's rediscovered this one, and I trust him."

"No, but you've got a bed and your own space. I'd be happy here."

Don't think too hard about what he's saying Felix, he's too little right now to mean anything innuendo-ish about it. He just means it's your space and you'd be there, ergo it would be awesome. The other benefits will have to wait until he's properly aged again.

"Neat! What do we need to make it work? Eye of newt? Raven feathers? Sugar, spice, and everything nice?" He doesn't know how magic works, despite all the time he's spent with Felix. If he wasn't so goddamn excited Felix might be forgiven for thinking Jim is teasing him.

He just wants to do things and better yet possibly help Felix do things!

"How can I help?"

Every time Jim speaks it's to make him grin a little more. Felix has to wonder whether he'd feel the same way if he wasn't in love with the captain already: at best he normally has a cordial truce with children. Either way, it's clear that Jim has a talent for making him melt at any age.

Felix laughs at his first suggestions, though. Sorry Jim. At least he doesn't seem to think you were being serious. "No alchemy for this, it's much easier."

He spreads a couple of pages out on his lap and traces the diagram covering one with his fingertips. A few slow, rhythmic breaths, then he lifts his eyes to Jim's. "I've studied it already: I just need you to hold as still as you can - and trust me. I don't know how this is going to feel to you, you understand? But I won't let it hurt you."

It's when Jim gets still that he really looks his age. Without the gesturing or the talking he's just another small child with big blue eyes and blonde hair. But there's something here in his expression that wasn't ever there when Jim was really this age.

Trust.

He nods once, gaze never leaving Felix's eyes. He shuts up. He stops moving. He's standing next to the conjurer and clinging to the sleeves of his borrowed tunic with his fingers.

Felix gives him a smile, all reassurance. He means it, of course: if he loses his grip on the spell, if it falls apart or dissipates too much uncontrolled power, he knows it'll be directed away from Jim. That's the whole purpose of this spell, to break magic and remove it.

Just to be sure, he double-checks the notes and then sets them behind him on the table as he stands. He spreads his hands, palms upward and head bowed as he concentrates on forming the spell. The light which gathers in his hands is greenish, tinged with a yellow color quite unlike the gold of his healing magic. Felix takes his time bringing his hands together, making a weaving series of gestures before he casts the spell on Jim.

He has the strength for this - barely. He knows that from trying it out before. The light wraps around Jim, seeking the magic bound to him and tugging, trying to unravel and dispel it. The question is whether this spell has the power to actually counter a curse of this strength...

...And either way Felix must have missed something in the casting instructions, because when his spell dissipates it comes apart with a bang, directed outward from Jim and strong enough to rip the tent from its pegs. Good thing the hide isn't too heavy.

"Felix!"

Jim forgets about secrets, forgets to be quiet, forgets everything the moment the spell rips apart and he screams the Imperial's name even as the tent uproots itself. He doesn't know what happened. Doesn't know why it didn't work. What he knows is that he's okay but all of that energy threw Felix back.

There's desperation in Jim's voice and no color to his face as he scrambles forward to check on the conjurer. His eyes are wide, shaking, wet. No, no this can't be happening.

"Felix!" Small hands scrabble to pull him up as Jim panics about the Imperial's safety. He's starting to sound hysterical.

Felix is blinking at the sky before Jim's hands tug at him. He's more stunned than hurt - though there'll be bruises later - and he'd be content to just lie there for a bit, until the yelling arrives.

Except Jim's panic penetrates the haze. Reluctantly he pushes himself up, wincing as weight settles on his rear. His face and clothes are sprinkled with dirt and straw, his hair's disheveled and his movements are feeble - but his eyes are focusing and he's aware.

"Hey, I-" He catches sight of Jim's face and alarm comes pounding in. He reaches an exhausted arm to pull the boy closer. "Jim? Jim are you...?"

Never mind the shouts from around the camp or the approaching boots. Stratos is going to be very unamused but Felix can't even try to enjoy that thought.

He doesn't care that there's tears streaming down his face, doesn't care either that his voice has that shrill pierce to it only a child's fear can create. He's shaking from head to toe and as soon as Felix is pulling him close Jim is scrambling, getting into Felix's lap and clinging as though he'll be swept away if he doesn't.

"I'm sorry. I shouldn't have told you to do it I'm so sorry Felix are you okay?" He only breathes when the necessity is there, drawing a sobbing gasp from him as he clings desperately. "I'm sorry I'm sorry...."

Jim doesn't take heed of the sounds of approach, rocking back and forth and clinging like he is. Jim hates to show weakness in front of others, but now others may as well not exist as Jim sobs into the conjuror's shoulder.

Oh no. Oh Talos, he didn't mean to... Felix sucks in a breath, wrapping his arms around Jim and hugging him tight while he tries to get his head together. Stratos is there already, glaring at him but looking more concerned for Jim and telling Celann to shoo away the others.

"It's all right! It's all right, I promise. I'm fine Jim, look. Just fine. Just... made a fool of myself." He strokes Jim's hair with one hand, the other at the boy's back, ignoring the soreness of extra weight on his forming bruises. "It's my own fault. Are you all right?"

"I'm f...'m fine."

Jim hasn't bothered to wipe his eyes or any part of his face off really. He'd have to let go of Felix for that and that is so not happening quite yet. He shakes in Felix's grip, sobbs starting to trickle off into hitched breaths while he tries to wrangle his childish emotions under control.

"Didn' hurt me at all. J..just like you said. You didn't say it was gonna hurt you though..!" Sniffle. "Don't get hurt you can't get hurt I need you..."

"I'm sorry," Felix says softly, nuzzling against the boy's wet cheek. "I'm not really hurt, I swear. I didn't mean for that to happen, it was just a little accident. That happens sometimes when you're experimenting with something new..."

"It shouldn't," Stratos says sternly. He straightens up from rooting under the collapsed tent, flaps a tattered handful of pages at Felix. He should probably let Jim calm down a bit before he starts this, but as a teenage he has less patience and the irritated impulse to call his little brother out on thieving and getting himself (nearly) hurt. "And you shouldn't have these. How did you get them?"

Oh, right. Oops. "I, ah, found them." Felix shrugs. He knows Stratos knows that he stole them; there's no point trying to muster a cunning story here. Frankly the elder Stratos knows to expect that sort of snooping.

"He was trying to help us both, Stratos."

Jim looks up from where he's sitting, finally realizing there's anyone else in the entire world at this moment than Felix. His grip on the younger Caelus' leather loosens, and Jim's already pushing himself to his feet. Arranging his face into careful and in control, though it's less believable than it usually is. His emotions are much harder to control at this age.

"He knew you wouldn't have enough magic like this, and he's trying to fix this for both of us instead of just relying on you all the time. I'm the one who told him t'do it. If you're gonna be mad at someone, be mad at me."

Stratos blinks, taken aback by this interruption. From the way he stares at Jim, he plainly wasn't expecting the younger boy to join the argument. Celann is keeping a tactful distance and trying not to get caught up in it, having wisely sent Yolande off to shoo away gawkers and reassure their comrades they're not under attack.

"I'm not mad at you," he insists. Why would he be mad at Jim? Jim's the one who got upset! "Felix is older - and he studies magic, I mean. He ought to know better. He definitely shouldn't go stealing my notes and using them without me." Have a renewed glare, Felix.

"Someone had to try," Felix answers unrepentantly. He still has a steadying hand on Jim's back as the captain gets to his feet. "What's the point of collecting these old spells otherwise?"

"...Yeah but..."

Jim looks back at Felix, then up to Stratos a few times. With it being clear that Felix isn't hurt Jim's a little bit better at holding himself together but the roller coaster of emotions coupled with the day's events is wearing him thin. He's exhausted now as the adrenaline begins to ebb. Jim doesn't have the energy to get in the middle of this too much.

"We just wanted to help fix it..." He tries again, voice quieter and without it's attempt at an adults authoritarian edge. He sounds apologetic, really.

"Then why didn't you tell me?" Stratos almost sounds hurt now. For once Felix isn't going to help. He's burned out from the over-powerful spell and the question is met with a roll of his eyes.

"Because you'd have just forbidden it," Felix points out. "You'd never have let me try it."

"That's not true! I'd have... I..." Stratos trails off, realization tinging his upset expression. After a quiet minute he says in hurt tones, "Things like this we always do together."

"Did," Felix corrects him tiredly. His next words are a little too mean to just be exhaustion, though. There's a sore point here. "It hasn't worked that way in a long time. Don't you remember?"

Stratos stares at him, face scrunched up and swallowing hard. After a few seconds he takes a deep breath, trying to speak steadily. "You should talk to Celann if you're hurt. Otherwise put your books away and go let Jim sleep already. You can use my tent."

And the Stars Turned Back [for smartass_captain ]

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RL is being exhausting, sorry about the slowness!

Same here, though. Training is intense.

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