#ALL THE MISERY WAS NECESSARY ;( v: post canon )
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Series: Semblance Title: Patriciate Fandom: Jak and Daxter Chapters: I | II | III | IV | V | VI | VII | VIII | IX | X | XI | XII | XIII | XIV | XV | XVI Characters: Jak, Daxter, Samos, Keira, Kid!Jak, Ashelin, Torn, Tess Tags: Worldbuilding, Accidentally King of Haven!Jak, hurt/comfort, things go wrong, things get better, things get worse again, slow build, slow burn, slow to update, cross posted, fantasy racism, canon divergence, been meaning to share this here Summary: âItâs yours,â Jak said softly. âKeep itâŚremember where you come from. At least one of us should rememberâŚ.â
If Jak knew the consequences of that one, selfish choiceâŚwell, heâd probably have made the same decision either way.
Bloodlines mean a lot to any Havenite, whether you were actually born in the city or not.
Jak let the sounds of the Naughty Ottsel wash over him. He kept his forehead down on the table surrounded by his arms, a glass of whatever Daxter grabbed for him from the bar in his hands. Occasionally his ears twitched as he registered a conversation from elsewhere in the bar, but for the most part he let his mind drift in a sort of laze reminiscent of his time on the beaches of Sandover. Here Jak remained simply Jak. Not King Jak. Not Jak of the House of Mar. Just simple, old Jak who happened to absorb dark eco like water and turn into a monstrous beast when angry.
Jak never felt more grateful that only a select number of people even know about the kid, let alone the kid and him being the same person almost thirteen years apart.
âYou know the Commander is looking everywhere for you?â
Jak huffed. âIsnât everyone?â he grumbled, morosely, but didnât bother to look up at the young Underground soldier Daxter all but adopted. He could hear her laugh faintly at his misery, or possibly at the irony of the situation. Jak sighed and shifted until his chin rested on the table. He debated the merits of nudging the drink over to tilt against his lips; could he maintain the necessary balance or would he spill the precious mixture all over the table?
âNo one knows youâre here, if thatâs what youâre afraid of,â she said. From this angle Jak could see her chin nestled in the palm of her hand, and he had to fight down a rather violent flinch. He couldnât stop his earsâ twitch back, even if he could contain his facial reaction.
Fire-bright, darkly amused stared down at him; a face nestled on a hand with a grin heâd begun to loathe, a twisted smile, painâso much pain, so much fear, hatredâhe couldnât stop it. He tried. He tried.
She sighed, shifted, and turned her head away.
âSorry.â
Observant, Jak grumbled internally. He let his head fall back against the table, if only to hide the sudden burst of shame that wanted to grace his features.
âI know I look like him.â
Jak snorted.
âYou and a prick,â Jak mumbled.
âAinât that the truth?â she laughed self-depreciatingly, and Jak could hear her tug up the red scarf that almost all members of the Underground seemed to wear. He wondered, not for the first time, if it actually marked them or not.
Jak also wondered if the red scarf he woreâthe one now tightly wrapped up like a hood over his hair, the one heâd worn for over two years nowâmeant to foreshadow his eventual membership into the organization. Such thoughts inevitably lead down the road towards questions of his own independenceâwere his thoughts actually his anymore?âso he quickly stomped them down.
Still, Jak huffed another sigh and shifted to peer only at his drink, she made for decent companyâher uncanny resemblance or not. He just wished she were less observant.
âYou never ask for my name, you know?â she murmured. By the sound of the way the cloth moved, Jak figured she shifted her head in the direction of Daxterâs voice. Jak figured by the rise and fall of a story told it came from somewhere over by the bar itself.
âYou donât seem to mind Daxâs nicknames,â Jak shrugged, âand you donât offer it.â
She hummed, tucked her feet upâprobably towards her chin. She stood taller than himâeveryone stood taller than him except for Tess, Jak admitted grumpilyâbut with better proportioned limbs than Jakâs gangly own.
âIâve not really had a nickname,â she said. âNot one I liked before.â
âDaxâs good at âem,â Jak murmured, then shifted his drink closer to his face.
âYouâll get your clothes soaked doing that.â
âSo?â
âDo you want to ruin your lovely red hood?â
âDrat.â
Jak let his head slip back down again, let the noise wash over him. Even her, the sound of her breathing and heartbeat, of her voice, he found more soothing than the time at the palace. He wondered if he could just sleep behind the bar at night instead of the plush bed Ashelin all but ordered him to use.
âThink Tess would mind if I slept here from now on?â Jak asked.
âI think itâs more if Lady Praxis would mind, instead.â
âAshelin can shove it,â Jak grumped, and then opened his mouth to continue on when his companion tapped the table with her nails. It stood for the unspoken warning signal that someone grew close to listening distance who wasnât aware of Jak being more than simply Jak.
âHi,â his companion chirped, and Jakâs ear twitched to the sound of feet that thumped and thunked in an even rhythm.
âHello there, firecracker,â Sigâs deep baritone eased what little tension that drifted into Jakâs shoulders away, and prompted Jak to raise a hand in greeting. âHello there, cherry. You drinking yourself into a stupor?â
âI wish,â Jak growled. He sighed and sat up, gaze stubbornly and morosely on his drink.
Gorgeous, firecrackerâwhatever nickname people used for her in the momentâshifted over so that Sig could sit down beside her. Jak glanced up, took in the weary features, and glanced back down with a frown. Sig looked worse than the last time Jak saw him. How long ago had that even been? He remembered Sig at the party, but after that? Jak sighed again. He sighed a lot lately.
âYou look troubled, cherry,â Sig arched an eyebrow, and Jak shifted one shoulder up. His arm twisted slightly, his brow ticked downâwithout Daxter no one really noticed the full meaning in the motion. âBoring, huh?â
âClose,â Jak mumbled, âand yeah, kind of. Not a lot to do, I guess.â
âNot a lot youâre getting to do,â Firecracker pointed out, and Sig arched the other eyebrow. âCommander Torn has Jak on âhero leaveâ for the time being.â She even did the finger quotes and eye roll that Daxter would at the words, even added the little sneer. Jak wouldâve called it cute, once, except now after all this time he found someone mimicking Daxter a bit creepy.
âThat what he calling it?â Sig questioned with a snort.
âThatâs what Daxâs calling it,â Jak corrected faintly, picked up his drink, and took a sip. Tess wandered over, dropped Sig off his drink, and then wandered away with a smile and a wink. âTorn calls it needed rest.â Jak scowled. Ashelin called it getting caught up on all the shit Samos shouldâve taught, Jak internally grumped. Like he even really wanted the lessons to begin with.
Precursors he was the King of Hell. Jak dropped his head back to the table with a faint whine.
âI just want to shoot things in peace,â he sounded like a whiny teenager, damn him, but he hated politics.
âI hear ya,â Sig nodded, tipped back his drink, and sighed. âWhat with this crazy traveling embargo Havenâs got up and running I canât go salvage crap.â Sig glanced to Jak. âYour friend Ashelin tell you anything about that?â
Jak huffed. âIâve had enough of Ashelin right now, Sig.â
âThat bad?â
Jak scowled at his drink, sighed, and stood up.
âIâm going to go find Keira,â he mumbled, and started off. He only paused when Sig called out, âBy the way like your new headpiece!â For a moment Jak thought Sig meant his hair, then he remembered his scarf and grinned.
âTrying something new,â Jak shot back, and slipped out the door of the Naughty Ottsel.
Keira peaked her head out from underneath the zoomer she worked on when Samos went quiet. Sheâd just begun to actually fall into a rhythm to the tone of his lecture, so the sudden stop felt almost jarring. The aged sage stood tiredly, a contemplative frown on his face, gaze off in the distance. Keira sighed, pulled herself completely out from under the zoomer, and wiped her hands down with a rag.
âDaddy?â she asked, a faint tilt to her head in curious worry.
âHm? What?â Samos jerked around twisted around, the logs at his feet clacked noisily on the metal-and-stone ground of the garage. âAh, Keira. Yes, where was I?â
âDaddy are you okay?â Keira questioned. She set the rag down on the bench and walked over toward Samos, hands snapped out to grab him by the elbow. âMaybe you should sit down?â
âKeira Iâm fine,â Samos brushed her grasping fingers away with a harrumph. âThere is merely a lot on my mind, so much to prepareâŚso much you need to know!â
âIâm not going to take up anything political for a few years, daddy,â Keira pointed out carefully. âJust because you and the rest of the Underground decided toâŚpush Jak into this doesnât mean I have to suddenly do everything either. Iâve got a good job here, a good thing goingâŚand after everything that happened this city needs a good mechanic and some decent distractions.â
Samos sighed and didnât resist as Keira moved him towards the couch set up on the other side of the mechanic pit. Kiera had the thing installed after the fourth time Jak popped up with the kid out of nowhere, intent on hiding from KG patrols. There was even a bowl for Krieg, the crocadogâalthough where the darn thing got off to Keira didnât know.
âI know, Keira,â Samos said wearily, âI just donât want you to be unprepared. I didnât anticipate this outcome, andâŚ.â
ââŚnow Jak is floundering,â Keira rolled her eyes. âYeah, daddy, Iâve heard the story. Daxter wonât stop about how you shouldâve told Jak somethingâeven if it was just stories.â
âI triedâŚI did, Keira,â Samos shook his head. âThat boy never listened. In one ear, out the otherâif only he listened then none of this would be the way it is!â
Keira frowned. Sheâd heard Samos make the same arguments, and yeah she understood his concerns. As kids Jak, Daxter, and sometimes even herself were quite willful. Jak and Daxter always got into trouble, always into a mess or a location they shouldâve been well away fromâa part of Keira worried about them, tooâbut in the years in Haven theyâd grown up. They were stronger, older, and world-wearier than Keira even expected to see.
âDaddyâŚâ Keira said softly, and nibbled on her lip. âWeâveâŚput a lot on Jakâs shoulders.â
âHeâs a strong boy,â Samos waved off her concerns. âHe can handle it.â
âWe put a whole city on his shoulders,â Kiera pointed out. âSandover was one thing, saving the Sages was one thing, stopping the Acherons was one thingâŚit involved travel and danger and fear, but daddy? This is a city. This isnât just the Sages, or the Acherons, or dealing with Lurkers. Thereâs so much to Haven and JakâŚI think Jak needs a break.â
âHeâs fine.â
Keira didnât believe Jak to be fine. In fact he barely reminded her of the Jak she knew. Sure the zoomer races made her think of the times Jak helped her test the A-Grav, and the few times she saw Jak on the hoverboardâit was like Jak surfing on land instead of off the beaches of Sandover. There were little things, small snippets of the fourteen year old boy she knew, but the majority of Jak stood as a tightly wound ball that just waited to go off. Kiera didnât like to admit it, but she feared Jak in a way now. She feared what Jak became, what had been done to Jak these years in Haven.
âDax said he spent two years in the prison,â Keira whispered. âThat he spent two years looking for Jak.â
âProbably did the boy a world of good,â Samos harrumphed. âA little solitude to think never hurt anyone!â
âDaddyâŚâ Keira sighed. âIâŚdonât think thatâs what prison was like for Jak.â
Erol never once mentioned Jak being in prison, back in the first year that sheâd asked. In fact he seemed completely unaware of who Jak actually was, unlike during the races this past year. More times than Keira liked to admit Erol came into her garage, charm and wit in equal measure, just to ask her about the mysterious racer whose zoomer she worked on. Keira didnât mind gushing to Erolâthis was Jak, after allâand given Erolâs response at the time he obviously knew who Jak was.
âBe careful, Keira. Your friend is dangerous, more than you know.â
âDonât be ridiculous,â Samos waved aside her concerns.
âIf you say so, daddy,â Keira mumbled, and not for the first time wondered how long Samos sat in the prison.
Jak never did tell her just where he found Samos, but given the haunted look in his eyes it wasnât anywhere nice. Keira patted Samos hand, gave him a wane sort of smile, and shifted over to her zoomer.
âYou go back to work, dear,â Samos sighed, âand I think Iâll head over to Main Town and the Palace District.â
âOh?â
âI have to reintroduce myself to what remains of the sage lines,â Samos continued with a huff. âNow that they know what I did in my errant youth there is quite a lot to make up for. Not that what I did was wrong; dare I say half this city wouldnât be around if it werenât for the Underground!â
âIf you say so,â Keira said offhandedly, and Samos hobbled his way out of the garage. Keira watched him go, lips pressed thin. She looked back to the zoomer, and then looked away. Too much noise in her head, too many thoughts and concerns. Too many memories.
âKeira, I mean it; be careful around Jak. Heâs not the boy you knew.â
Keira closed her eyes.
âNeither were you,â she muttered to the memory, and stepped around the zoomer. Maybe tinkering with the precursor artifacts were a better idea. Zoomers, right now, had too many bitter memories.
Halfway towards the Stadium and Jak decided not to visit Keiraâs instead. He turned his feet over toward Main Town, and from there toward the upper noble houses. He kept his walk toward the shadows and fingered the passes in his pocket. Over the year heâd gotten quite the collection going. Red, the original card heâd found, then green, and then yellow for the areas connected to the agricultural sectors. Once, somewhere in the middle of the year when his rage started to mellow into something a bit less uncontrolled, but still fairly feral, Jak was given a pass for the upper crust of Main Town.
Now Jak found himself in control of two, but then he never did mention the first pass to anyone but Dax. He picked out the two passes from his pocket and stared at them contemplatively. Vin, way back in the early days, actually manage to lock the passes together into a wallet and Jak meant to use itâhe didâbut he always seemed to forget about the thing somewhere. Ashelin gave him something similar after being named Kingâsaid he should keep it on him at all times. Jak stuffed it into the sock drawer back at the palace in disgust.
If a wallet Jak must use, then heâd use the one Vin gave himâwherever it mightâve gone. He trusted Vin over anyone else with matters of technology, if only because Vin made sure Jak could follow along. Sure a lot of what the older man said went right over his head for the most part, but the fast-paced speed talking always felt like a slice of home. The way his eyes virtually glowed when he finally took off his goggles, the way they swirled like liquid blue eco, felt familiar. It reminded Jak that eco saturated blood beyond dark eco still existed in the world. That there was more than just dark eco here if you knew where to look. It felt like a slice of heaven in hell.
A house, lopsided and more âold worldâ compared to the metal walls set in square designs with neat and perfect gardens, loomed up ahead. It looked rickety, worn and well cared for, and still somewhat chaotic and stranger. Tubes, wiresâelectronic devices of some make or model that Jak couldnât understandâpoked out of holes and out of a couple of windows. The eclectic design felt reminiscent of the Blue Sageâs hut that Jak sometimes visited as a child.
Jak slipped out of the shadows and into the blinking lights of the house in front of him. He pushed open the gate, ignored the way it creaked and groaned, and slipped past the overgrown front lawn. The flowers were pretty, as were the weeds that had over taken it, and the few pieces of discarded technology that seemed to thrive with the overgrowth. Calmly Jak picked his way towards the front door, raised his hand, and waved with a sort of faint smile.
âUhm, hi,â he said, and shifted nervously on his feet. âIâmâŚsorry I didnât call ahead. Iââ The door swung open before Jak could continue, and Jak closed his eyes. He took in a shuddering breath and stepped past the threshold. Behind him the door slid back shut, and when Jak looked up it was into the eclectic, electric eyes of the person he came to visit.
âJak.â
Jak breathed out a heavy, shuddering breath. âHi, Zoe,â he mumbled. âSorry I havenât called.â
Matriarch Zoe smiled softly, the drawn lines of her aged face gentle and caring even as she lightly brushed her fingers against the red of his scarf, as if to tuck invisible hair behind his ear.
âYou came now, child,â she said carefully, âand thatâs all that matters. Thatâs all heâd want.â
Jak nodded once.
âTea?â Zoe asked. âI was making Vinâs favorite.â
âYeah,â Jak muttered. âThatâd be great.â
â
#fic: patriciate#fic: semblance#jak and daxter#accidentally king of haven#canon divergence#wip#fanfic
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tag dump 2
#LET ME GET WHAT I WANT THIS TIME ;( au: modern )#I'VE BEEN LIVING ON THE ROAD ;( v: pre canon )#ALL THE MISERY WAS NECESSARY ;( v: post canon )#;( FAYT LEINGOD )#;( CLIFF FITTIR )#;( SOPHIA ESTEED )#;( NEL ZELPHER )#;( ROGER S. HUXLEY )#;( PEPPITA ROSETTI )#;( ADRAY LASBARD )#;( MARIA TRAYDOR )#;( MIRAGE KOAS )#;( GLOU NOX )#;( KING ARZEI )#;( COUNT WOLTAR )#;( DUKE VOX )#;( SHELBY )
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Tag dump 1.
#I COULD BRING MY SHAME ;( aesthetics )#ALL OF IT TO MYSELF ;( likes )#I MIGHT GET VIOLENT ;( weapons )#ALL MY WRITING'S ON THE WALL ;( headcanons )#I'D RATHER BE YOUR ENEMY ;( shippng )#I FORGET WHAT IT FEELS TO REGRET MY SINS ;( self )#ALL TO BLAME IS YOU ;( musings )#HE WAS COLD AND HE WAS SO UNFORGIVING ;( face )#LET THE WORLD LISTEN ;( music )#WE USED TO WALK THROUGH LIKE A TRIUMPH ;( airyglyph )#WHO ARE YOU TO JUDGE ;( aquaria )#JUST DON'T BLAME IT ON ME ;( au: demon)#I WAS BORN TO BE RECKLESS ;( au: fea )#I'VE BEEN LIVING ON THE ROAD ;( v: pre-canon )#WE'VE BEEN LIVING IN A COLD WORLD ;( au: fef )#IN MY CITY I'M A YOUNG GOD ;( v: main )#A WORLD WITHOUT AN END OR BEGINNING ;( v: childhood )#HOME WILL FEEL LIKE HOME AGAIN ;( v: future )#JUST LEARN TO LOVE PAIN AND BE PATIENT ;( au: got )#ALL THE MISERY WAS NECESSARY ;( v: post canon )#I'VE BEEN LIVING ON THE ROAD ;( v: pre canon )
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