#jak and daxter headcanons

[radioactivepeasant]

Brief note on small worldbuilding things for my aus:

So, like the JnD wiki, I've been calling their species "human" this whole time because...well, because of one deleted line where Praxis says "we're only human" in the second game.

But it never fit right with the long ears high on the skull and the body proportions more like a Lombax than a human. So in my particular aus, I was inspired by what humans are called in Dungeon Meshi and have decided to call them hu'men instead. With the backstory being that when Precursors and Ottsel Precursors interacted with the sentient species on the planet, the Ottsels called Jak’s species "the huge men". And then over time, "huge men" became the contraction "hu'men".

Admittedly some of this is so I only have to make minimal edits to my documents, but I apologize for nothing.

[astrathechinchilla]

*clears throat*

Dark sides are awesome and lots of people (mostly Naughty Dog) suck at writing them.

WARNING: EXTREMELY LONG RANT!

(This is mostly gonna be for my benefit, so I hope you don’t mind me screaming into the void with my headcanons)

Also, another warning: Mentions of how trauma is presented in media.

Also, PS: If you actually like my long rants about headcanons and critiques I have, you can ask me how I feel about certain subjects or characters, and I can make more stuff like this.

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A while back, we all went through a small burst of Keira appreciation from multiple individuals, myself included, and that made me ruminate on the source of why she was treated so poorly by the writers of Jak 2 and onward. How she was poorly handled and sacrificed on the pedestal of early 2000’s tropes wasn’t okay and was a complete waste of her character.

This led me to remember that there are many other concepts and plot elements in Jak 2 onward that go absolutely nowhere in terms of story and only show inklings of being interesting in any shape or form. AKA: Going to waste.

Tonight, I’d like to talk about one specific element of Jak 2 & 3’s story that wasn’t even remotely touched on and was a waste of a plot device. I’m talking of course about Jak’s Dark Side- and by extension, Eco Sides as a whole.

They are just the sickest concept that Naughty Dog came up with, and it’s in the one of the very first scenes of Jak 2. It shows that something else is lurking inside Jak trying to break free, immediately catching your attention when our protagonist struggles to keep it buried inside him.

What is this being? Why is it causing Jak to react this way? These are two base-line questions that ND writers leave unanswered, only referring to the being later in vague tones. The only other time it’s brought up again is in Jak 3, again at the beginning, and then they introduce another new side, Jak’s Light Eco form, of which we barely see as well. They never truely touch on any of these concepts, only using them as the basic game mechanics of the Jak series that they are.

This isn’t a bad approach, per say. No approach is above any other, and it mostly depends on the person writing them. Sometimes things being simple, like them being simply forms Jak takes when channeling Eco and not sentient beings themselves, is fine. Kind of boring, but fine.

However, that doesn’t stop us from making them more than just that~

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The way I view it, those two questions I posed earlier could be answered in many different ways, and many of you have already found your own personal answers. Perhaps Jak’s Dark side is an ‘Evil Alter Ego’, a darker part of Jak’s being that was only just awakened by the Dark Eco he was forcefully injected with. Or, maybe, he’s a raging beast, simply a manifestation of all of his animalistic urges taking the form of the dark essence now flowing through Jak. But for me, I find a particular view of Jak’s Dark Side much more compelling than many other approaches.

I think it’s more interesting to consider that this entity could be a manifestation of Jak’s psychological trauma, his emotions and pain that he felt at the hands of the Baron’s torture that comes back in a physical form, splitting off from the main part of Jak’s subconscious. He’s a defense/coping mechanism made in response to all the horrible things this boy has endured. He’s Jak’s new friend, one that knows him better than he knows himself.

Welcome to my headcanons, nerds😈

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Before I continue, I just need to let everyone know that what I’m about to say isn’t to bash self insert characters that fit in this category. Self Inserts are a form of self love and care that I have no qualms with personally(I have even made my own personal ones in the past) , and you should make them care free. I don’t take them on a level of serious critique solely for this purpose, because they are only for good fun.

Now, with that out of the way- Let me quickly explain how I write Dark Sides personally. I’ll be using my original character, Ebony(the girl in the art in this post of you didn’t know already) as a point of comparison of her dark side to Jak’s.

I write Dark Sides as simultaneously having their own personalities and character, but sharing the same hopes, dreams, goals, and memories as their other halves. I also write them with having their own aging process separate from their other halves entirely.

Example: Ebony’s other half can speak fully developed english and talks like a wiser old woman would than an eighteen year old. The language she uses is almost akin to that of a scolding mother at times, most likely because of the influence in language she received from the people around Ebony when she was younger. All of this is because Ebony received her side at a very young age and it grew alongside her as she grew older.

On the opposite end of that spectrum, Jak’s can’t speak at all, only able to communicate via guttural noises and physical gestures because he was only ‘just born’. However, he also remembers things Jak can’t, like memories from his young childhood in Haven before all the time travel stuff happened, because he’s directly tied to Jak’s subconscious. Sure, it may be blurry and blocked off due to Jak’s subconscious suppression of his memories, but he can still see it unlike Jak.

I also design anyone with a dark side with their own unique physical traits being different. Ebony’s other half has those tear stains not only from a side-effect, but also a representation of the emotion she feels the most: sadness and grief.(I’m gonna be honest that was kind of on accident that I stumbled into, but I’m gonna act like it was deliberate cause I’m a bitch) This could mean that Jak’s horns and sharp claws are representations of his hatred and rage, his burning need to fight back.

Both Ebony’s and Jak’s trauma, like normal people’s trauma in real life, take very different forms and change differently overtime. I write these sides as partially being a metaphor of sorts for that trauma they experienced, while also partially being a representation of how they deal and cope with it.

And when I talk about their trauma, I don’t just mean a source of ‘angst’ for these characters you can just switch on and off when it’s convenient for your story, I mean something in their lives that has fundamentally changed everything about how they experience the world, and they have to learn to cope healthily with it. They won’t be able to ‘grow past it’, as if it didn’t happen, but they will be able to cope with the experiences of the aftermath and find comfort in each other and the people around them.

I specify the word healthily, because Jak obviously wouldn’t be coping healthily at first. He’s a frightened teenager who just went through hell and back, and to him, his personal feelings are getting in the way of him acting with a level head. His Dark Side acting out and going ‘out of control’ is proof of his unhealthy coping mechanism. It’s only acting out because of how Jak really feels deep inside, and him burying his emotions only makes it worse, cause all of those feelings pile up onto his other half. It suffocates his Dark Side, which inevitably could lead to Jak losing himself if he doesn’t change how he copes. He needs to talk to someone, someone he trusts and who knows more than him about his condition.

This is one of the main reasons why I made Ebony in the first place, to explore these concepts. I made her to act as a mentor/sister figure to Jak who helps him to understand his new side and how to better work with him to cope healthier. But, as I wrote her, she became a more hypocritical kind of character, who also stayed silent about her emotions and feelings. Her hypocrisy doesn’t come from pride, though; she doesn’t want to tell anyone, especially Jak, about her own problems when he already has plenty of his own to worry about. It’s a place of misguided and idiotic care for him.

However, instead of this solely staying a psychological problem, it expands into it forming into a physical ailment. Ebony literally almost dies because of her trying to bury her emotions.

Yeah, this is the big difference that I go for in my work. I’m gonna explain my personal three set rules about channeling Eco that really more people should try considering before making characters who use Eco powers willy-nilly(but I’m not the fun police, you can just ignore these. I’d only criticize you if you were to go out of your way to show me an overpowered character ya made and ask me to take it seriously)

The only kind of people who can use Eco safely are Eco-Channelers(AKA: Jak, Keira, and any of the Sage Characters. Possibly Metal Heads) People can be made Eco-Channelers many different ways, via a trial or by the Precursors themselves, or can be born a natural Channeler.

The only alternative way to channel Eco would be to use a catalyst; a piece of technology or a device that uses Eco as power/fuel/ammo(AKA: Jak’s Morph Gun or the Shield Wal)

Anything that deviates from these two groups, living or otherwise, could have serious side-effects that physically impair or seriously harm the individual in question.

Because Ebony isn’t a natural eco channeler, she is dying because of the Dark Eco that inhabits her body. The only way for her to channel the eco safely would be to become a channeler herself.

This is a major problem I have with a few of other original characters with Dark Eco powers is that they don’t set limits or try different things most of the time. That takes away the most interesting parts of a character’s story, the changes they go through when faced with the challenges posed by their faults(AKA: A character arc).

The only memorable instance of someone trying new and interesting things with the concept of Dark Side characters is @sonicringnoise ‘s fic Nothing More, Nothing Less.

THEY MADE SEEM REALLY COOL GUYS, IT’S AMAZING!

You don’t even have to write the dark sides themselves to do this, you just need to make having them be an actual challenge to have, which most writers actually already do. This is the low bar that most of us have already passed, which can’t be said the same for Naughty Dog.

So yeah, long story short, I find dark sides really fascinating, and I believe more interesting things can be done with them outside of having them be a source of ‘angst’ for Jak. It doesn’t have to be specifically the way I posed, and you could find a completely other way to write these and make it interesting.

Hell, writing them *at all* is a miracle of itself, and a low bar that many of us have already passed. Naughty Dog, you had one job, and you failed miserably.

Bye bye~

[torn-slander]

random relatives headcanon time

The Mayor is the Praxis' ancestor, insert generations feeling spited that Mar just showed up, built Haven and took over the government, Baron Praxis taking the chance to overthrow Damas to put his family back where they belong

The Blue Sage is Vin's ancestor, blue sage helped w the power grid, it went down the line as a family trade

The Gambler is Daxter's dad (same type of accent, same type of lifestyle/attitudes, and he's the ONLY person in TPL that Daxter doesn't say a word to, my whole headcanon is that Daxter was originally from Rock Village but ran away from his gambling father and ended up with Samos, who only took him in because he knew his role in everything with Jak later, and got a maid while he was at it)

and whoever Erol's ancestors were, they came from Rock Village

[twistedvines]

Hello!! I’ve been working on these sheets for a couple of days. Here are my interpretation of Ottsels (which are more heavily based on mustelids), I made this more for myself and for a Jak and Daxter DND one shot I’m planning on doing.

Along with the Ottsels I wanted to try figuring out what’s going on with the dark makers as well. They seemed to be like metal heads where they’re a mix of organic and inorganic, and they kept the look for the precursor robots in their design. So I tried making it look more like they were wearing armor.

Thank you to @scrunchicus and @fenrichs for letting me Ottselify your guys for these sheets!

[troblsomtwins829]

You guys ever wonder where Daxter came from? I wonder sometimes if there was another village nearby Sandover or more likely Rock village that suffered from a landslide.

Daxter, too young and small to help anyone buried, is one of the few survivors

[getvalentined]

Have you done tess or keira for the ask meme?

TESS

🎟️ SEXUALITY HEADCANON: Tess is a big bisexual babe

⚧️ GENDER HEADCANON: Cis woman, nothing else to it for her

💕 A SHIP: I really love that Tess and Dax are canonically a thing, even if I don't precisely like the "girlfriend as reward" thing at the end.

🖇️ A BROTP: I mentioned how much I like Torn+Tess over on his post, but for Tess I really like her and Keira hitting it off; they're both engineers that are routinely underestimated because they're teenage girls, they have so much in common. Likewise, the differences between them would be a great way for them to bond, since Tess is so much harder than Keira, and could help her figure out how to survive the rougher sides Haven on her own.

🚫 A NOTP: Torn/Tess is a no-go for me! (No shade to anyone who ships it, it's just not my vibe.)

💭 A RANDOM HEADCANON: Tess is Jinx's niece; her parents passed when she was 10-11, and it was Jinx that took her in for the next few years, getting her into weapons development and taking her with him on pretty much every job he ran, no matter how dangerous. This is how she wound up falling in with Torn—who may be Jinx's third cousin on his mother's side, although Jinx may also be lying about this, it's very unclear—just a few months after the collapse of the holy district. Torn was still very much in recovery at this point, and Jinx had to run a job that he couldn't bring Tess on due to limited space, so he asked Torn if he'd be okay having Tess stay with him for a day. Torn was like "...why the hell do you have a teenage girl?" and the rest is history. Tess has been working with Torn ever since! (This is also why Krew hired her to work the bar so readily, since he's the one that hires Jinx most often and thus had some experience with Tess already, leading him to consider her trustworthy but naive.)

🗣️GENERAL OPINION: I love Tess! I appreciate that she's not just fanservice, because she could have been quite easily—instead she's a valuable member of the Underground, working intelligence and espionage, and later she works in weapons development for the Freedom League. Nobody questions that she can do any of these things, she's openly relied on by Torn and Jak, while the affection between her and Daxter is sincere and genuine. She's a sweetheart with sharp parts, and I adore that about her.

(For the character ask game.)

[jak2gooberglub]

JAK X, JAK 3, JAK 2 AND JAK AND DAXTER TPL

HEAD CANNONS AGAIN BC THESE ARE FUN TO THINK OF

⚠️Spoilers obviously⚠️

Looking at jak's new racing outfit in jakX I noticed he doesn't have the same metal ring at his chest like he did in the 3 previous games (ill add photos for proof). That could mean it's his new "racing outfit" but I believe that this is a sign that he's come to terms with being just Jak.

Not Mar, not some fabled hero from the future or the past that liberated haven city, built haven city, the user of eco, the saviour of the world.

No, he is just Jak.

He could have also copied damas's armor by having there be a strap across his chest in his racing outfit, similar to the armor plating that was across damas's chest.

Or it's just a chest strap.

Here's the concept art/ art made officially by naughty dog for jak's outfits as well as damas.

And Jak can no longer harness eco anymore due to the dark eco expirements.

Just because he got the "light balanced within him" from light eco, doesn't mean he's back to his old self, or cured in any way. He still has outbursts of anger and turns into dark Jak, and that was proven in jak 3 after damas died.

If he was normal again, he wouldn't still be using health packs from krimzon guard crates. He'd be able to get green eco from the creatures he fights. If he was able to harness eco he wouldn't still be able to channel dark eco either.

Because if you remember, gul and myia, they couldn't use other types of eco, they had to use a robot to channel eco types.

With dark eco in this series, it's all or nothing it seems.

You might say "but didn't jak use green eco to heal plants in jak 3 in the haven forest?"

And to that I say, he used the zoomer to channel the eco as well as the eco vents.

Let me be clear, in jakX, jak isn't canceling eco to use as weapons himself when racing. It's the car that uses eco for weapons, speed boosts, health ect.

The car is a machine outfitted to use eco and dispurse it through weapons, similar to the guns in jak 2 and 3, those weapons had colors corresponding to the eco that it uses.

The eco was stored in ammunition.

He cannot channel eco anymore. And he must have realized it recently too. He was too busy fighting metal heads and saving haven city more than once to realize his own gifts are gone. And he's stuck with only light and dark eco, one that makes him an angry, sick monster that destroies things, and the other light eco, protects, and heals him from enemies.

In addition to my previous hc that jak cut his hair, he also got rid of the eco harnessing part of his outfit. After damas's death he probably had a mental breakdown, cut/shaved his hair, and changed his look. Around the same time he was getting to legal drinking age in haven city, so I wouldn't be surprised if he's bar hopped a few places, given how much drinking he and daxter are doing in JakX, it's pretty much cannon.

And, since daxter and tess are a couple, daxter wouldn't pay much attention to jak. Not that he does anyway.

In jak x, daxter most likely misses tess so much to where he's drunk, which we see in a lot of cutscenes in jak x, so between racing, nearly dying, fearing for their lives, and heavy drinking, daxter probably wasn't up to talk about his feelings. Regardless, daxter would probably yell and complain like he always does.

He does care for jak, but at the same time, jak is in a better relationship with Kira and has been around her more, so daxter would assume jak is doing fine. When really, he is not.

Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk/hj

[havens-most-wanted]

I miss the Jak fandom's slut era.

[sonicasura]

Past/Present/Future Trio

I figured why not put this on a different post as I didn't want to clutter the other one. Basically how the group dynamic between Jak, Link and Jim affect their respective companions. Enjoy.

Jak, Daxter and Link show up in Jim's world during the exodus to New Jersey. The Demolition Duo from a warp ring jump (during Jak 3) gone wrong while Link arrives through the Lost Woods when leaving Termina. It was an absolute miracle that a misunderstanding fueled fight didn't start between the four.

Link is constantly encouraged to act like the gremlin kid he is by everyone else especially from the trolls. (Troll whelps are a huge rarity so they take any accompanying children, troll or not, very seriously.) If a task needs to be done, the Hylian is given an option to help unless its an all hands on deck thing. Same option is extended to Jak, something Daxter approves as his best friend isn't a full on errand boy.

Dark Jak is seen as a young troll to the entire Trollmarket to his utter befuddlement and Jim's amusement. He isn't the only troll youngling in the group anymore! "Horns? Quite a fine pair! Claws? Nice and sharp. Fangs? I definitely see tusks beginning to grow. Thrive in the dark? You are a young troll, Jak!" - Blinky.

Link helps Jim improve on his swordsmanship, Daxter shares wingman moments with AAARRRGGHH, Jak and Claire bond over their dark powers. A certain ottsel also gets himself a pair of pants alongside a knife after so long. Blinky just happy that these kids can bond more with people their age.

Constantly comparing each other's worlds and experiences, later on the traumatic ones. Everyone pretty much deemed Haven City worse than Ohio. Jak, Daxter and Link are deemed honorary trolls quite quickly alongside offered a home with the group. There were obvious tears from the two blondes.

Jim and Jak(as Dark Jak) tend to cross horns with each other, kinda like deer. The former does it mainly outta troll instincts plus the eco channeler is the perfect sized opponent. Daxter often records it like its the super bowl.

Epona gets some custom horse armor so Link's dear companion has extra protection. Jak tends to spoil her with a fresh apple or sugar cube when given the opportunity. Jim makes sure they have horse care products on hand.

Light Jak and Dark Giant Jak threw everyone for a loop. Angels are considered super rare that the Eco Channeler's light form is the closest they seen. Everyone agrees with Blinky about Dark Jak being a troll as Dark Giant appearance has the traits of a full-blown adult. (I'm redesigning the Dark Giant form later.)

Link laughed his ass when he used the Fierce Deity Mask before the travelling group. Jim is already salty about Jak but gets even more salty that his little brother in trauma can turn into a god! He wants to be able to switch between his troll and human form too!

Jim, Daxter and Jak find out that the Fierce Deity is a Fierce DADity. They're collecting dad figures like Pokemon cards at this rate. Fierce fixes Jim's armor issues and now the Trollhunter can finally change outfits. Blinky got dragged away by AAARRRGGHH before he could give the deity a shit ton of questions. Guaranteed group fishing trip the moment they end up near a lake.

Jak, Daxter, Link, Jim and Claire absolutely trade swears in different respective languages much to Blinky's horror. The Demolition Duo curse in Trollish very often as they picked it up better than Hylian or Spanish. Jim and Claire sometimes curse in Hylian. Link swears like a sailor in both Spanish, Trollish alongside Precursian. Jim shared some swears to Toby and it quickly spread amongst the friend group in Arcadia.

Link comes across an abandoned yet fully functional Heartstone thanks to his dungeon crawling expertise. It's quite a rough job to make a new Trollmarket there but otherwise perfect as its about two fifths distance between Arcadia and New Jersey. Two homes were made specifically for Link and the Demolition Duo.

Jak may have accidentally found but also activated a warp gate near the Heartstone. A sudden nighttime trip that drags Jim, Link, Daxter and him outside the Monk Temple in his world. They're found by a relieved Damas, man been freaking as he grown attached to the Demolition Duo, then quickly taken back to Spargus before sunrise.

Link and Jim get adopted pretty quickly cause the King of Spargus has Batman's adoption habit. The half troll gets a special outfit so he can travel during the day with no issue. Doesn't take long for Claire to figure out what happened or have the warp gate fully functional.

Beneficial relations between Spargus and Trollmarket? Absolutely. Both have goods that can benefit the offer but also take a huge load off of Jim when it comes to his responsibilities as the Trollhunter. The warp gates makes it easier to visit the now extended family especially since a deactivated one been found in Arcadia.

The three are super protective of each other. Jim legitimately growled whilst bearing his fangs and Link brandish his sword straight at Samos alongside anyone else from Haven City who treated the Demolition Duo poorly. Exile their brother plus his best friend to the desert to die after making the two your errand boys? Yeah fuck you guys.

Link may(definitely) stolen some paperwork, clothes, books and tools from people who mistreated the Demolition Duo for Jim to eat. Flimsy or false Precursor Metal is apparently quite tasty to trolls so it only tasted better to the half troll. Jak and Daxter were laughing their asses off when they caught Jim eating Kleiver's stolen shirt.

Two certain blondes alongside one ottsel get doted on by one Barbara Lake once they visit Arcadia. Just immediately adopted especially since Jim already considers Jak, Daxter and Link as brothers. They FINALLY get a mother figure.

Instant shenanigans once Toby joins in on the group antics. Water balloon fights with a tiny bit of powers and magic involved? A heat seeking balloon might've hit Stricklander in the face while he was on a coffee date with Jim's mom. They immediately ran afterwards but the man got his revenge later via ice water buckets.

A warp gate to Hyrule is later found but Link ultimately chose to stay with everyone else. He's practically a cryptid in his world, visiting alongside different companions and vanishing without a trace. The Hero of Time finally found a place to call home once more.

And that's it for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you at the crossroads between Arcadia, Spargus and Hyrule. (Yes, triple gif.)

[transmascblueblur]

What if Jak was trans? (Part I)

[Content warnings: semi-graphic descriptions of afab puberty (menstruation and unsafe binding in particular) with mentions of amab puberty, medical abuse/trauma/torture, mentions of ftm top surgery and HRT, some slightly transphobic & misogynistic phrasing/language, a brief mention of forced detransition, and subtext suggesting that cis adults see a trans minor naked without his consent, though NOT in a sexual way (as well as all the standard stuff you’d expect from the game Jak II, mostly violence).]

Out under the burning sun of the Wastelands, King Damas of Spargus is blessed with a gift from the Precursors: a baby girl.

Or so he thinks.

The heir to the Spargan throne enjoys desert life, riding the leaper lizards, watching the sand fly up behind the buggies as they speed out of the city's gate, sneakily observing the monks as they chant and perform their mysterious rituals. It's a happy, blissful time.

It doesn't take long, though, for the kid to realise that he's not a girl like everyone says he is, and communicates his feelings to the people around him as soon as he knows how. Damas, the leading reject in a city of rejects, a man ruled by nothing more than fatherly love, who would wage war on the blazing sun itself for his child, doesn't turn his back on his now-son, but embraces him. (Perhaps there are even other trans people in Spargus that ended up there for that reason, if Haven is generally a transphobic place?) He changes his former-daughter's name from the feminine Mara to the masculine Mar (or perhaps it was always Mar, in a gender neutral fashion). He cuts his son's hair, lets him wear his little dungarees, and since Mar is so young at this time, nobody who isn't already aware has no reason to suspect that Damas' son was ever anything else.

But then Count Veger strikes.

He hears that the banished King Damas, descendant of the House of Mar (and likely skilled in eco channelling), has had a son. Children are a lot easier to kidnap than adults, even the children of kings, and Veger needs someone who can channel eco for his experiments. In the night, he kidnaps Mar, whisking him out of his desert home and into the heart of metallic, miserable Haven City.

Damas' grief could swallow stars. He'll never stop looking, even if he has to empty the Wastelands of sand one grain at a time. Even if it kills him.

As surprised as Veger is to eventually discover that Mar isn't exactly a typical little boy, this doesn't affect his experiments, so he's content referring to Mar the way everyone else does, as a boy. All he truly cares about is unlocking the Precursors' secrets, anyway.

By means that remain unknown, perhaps after only a few days, or perhaps after many months, or something in-between, Mar is freed. Maybe Veger, or even an assistant of some kind, lets his guard down for just a second, and the sly little kid sneaks away, stumbling out of the lab and finding himself alone in an unfamiliar place — bare-footed, traumatised, silent. A stray croca-dog, just as dirt-covered and lonely as the boy, forms an attachment to him. With saliva dripping from flesh-rending teeth, he protects Mar from those that would harm him long enough for him to be found by Samos and taken to the Underground, where he also meets Kor.

Samos realises what that amulet around the child's neck means. As long as the kid sticks around long enough to be put on Haven's throne when Praxis is done away with, it doesn't really matter if he has shoes or not, right? Besides, as The Shadow, Samos has bigger priorities than babysitting. To the rest of the Underground, a scruffy little kid with short hair, dungarees, and a big croca-dog looks enough like a boy, so they have no reason to question whether he's a real boy or not. Besides, a lot the Underground's members generally prefer knowing that the heir to Haven isn't a girl, even if they can't quite justify why when Tess asks them.

Kor, meanwhile, already knows just who this child will become. Whilst baby Mar is now with the Underground, his older self has already come through the warp-gate and fallen into Praxis' hands, so Kor has seen the kid's older self at least once, and has seen at least a hint of the man - the hero - that he will grow into. (If he doesn't kill him first.)

And then, of course, shenanigans ensue. Mar meets Jak (thinks he's really cool) and Daxter (thinks he's really cute), is told to attempt the Tests of Manhood (and the door opened for him at first — he always knew he was a boy!), and gets kidnapped by Kor to open the Precursor Stone.

In the end, Mar watches as his former carer's severed head skids along the ground towards Jak's feet. (Gross. But also kinda cool.)

Then Mar realises that Jak is actually himself in the future, and gets the validation and euphoria he never knew he needed. He takes on the name Jak for himself, and travels back in time to Sandover Village with Samos, remembering nothing of his old life but the fading light of the warp-gate. (Unfortunately, he forgets that warning about the wumpbee nest.)

(Due to time loop issues, this means that the name Jak just appears from nowhere, since the Jak living in Sandover Village was given it from his older self that he met as a child in Haven, who heard it from his older self back when he was a kid, and the loop continues. If we want a satisfactory answer to the true origin of Jak's name, time-loop aside, my personal preference is this:

The Kid isn't speaking at all when he first arrives in Sandover, and Samos was always content to refer to him as just "The Kid" anyway, so without a way to clearly communicate his desire for a name with Samos, that's how he stays for a while. Over time, The Kid gets to know Keira, Daxter, and the villagers, and they get to know him. United by the same adventurous spirit, The Kid and The Explorer grow closer, and The Explorer then becomes known as Uncle. Samos is content to have someone else caring for The Kid, now that he has a daughter to take care of, and is happy for him to have some semblance of a family, so when Uncle suggests, you know, maybe giving the poor lad a name, Samos agrees. Keira and Daxter also suggest names, of course, but Samos flat refuses to let them, Daxter especially, who is currently a scruffy urchin but who he knows will one day be an animal, name the future hero of Haven. Furthermore, Samos is perfectly aware of the grim fate that Sandover Village will suffer when the warp-gate is reopened, so he allows The Explorer to name Jak as a small way for Sandover's people to live on.)

Time passes like thick honey in Sandover Village. The sea caresses the shoreline of Sentinel Beach, wind whispers and howls through the trees of the Forbidden Jungle, and yakows chew hay lazily over at the farm. Life is good, peaceful.

Jak grows up a bit, grows closer with Daxter and Keira, gets stung by some wumpbees, does a lot of exploring, makes a lot of trouble.

Eventually he finds himself able to talk sometimes, rather than just using the sign language he and Daxter invented for themselves, and doesn't mind doing it now and then. Then Daxter's voice starts dropping. A sudden jealousy starts gnawing at Jak, so he decides to keep quiet most of the time, even in the moments he can speak. (Daxter prefers the limelight anyway.)

Growing up has other downsides, too. Jak finds himself using whatever the women of the village recommend — certain types of grass, cloth, wool — to stop the bleeding that feels constant, even if it only comes every few weeks. And sweet Precursors, it hurts. (Not to mention the other strange stuff — headaches, tiredness, his gums feeling weird, an unsettled stomach, and the urge to cry and throw things, to name a few.) Keira, going through the same thing, gives advice and support, and whilst that makes it easier to bear, other boys don't have to suffer this, and that's all Jak can think about.

And then Jak's body starts really changing, visibly — especially his chest. All the while, Daxter enjoys a flat chest, a (small) growth spurt, no stomach cramps or bleeding, and a voice that cracks pleasantly, even if he himself finds it embarrassing (as well as apparently some... interesting dreams, but Daxter refuses to talk much about them).

When it gets too much to bear, Jak starts flattening his chest with bandages and suffers through the pain, periodically repairing the damage to his ribs and lungs with green eco. He has no other options. He'll always have to live this way, he knows. It's a horrifying truth, but perhaps it’s worth it when your two best friends - and all the other villagers, for that matter - can see you for who you are. But even when he begs Samos to please do something about all these awful, awful changes, the sage refuses, because even he doesn't know what to do. (Although, having already met Jak's older self, Samos knows that one day Jak's voice will be deep, his chest will be flat, and wonders how in green tarnation that will happen. It takes him a while to realise that the answer is not a happy one.)

Life goes on, and Jak grows older. For the first time, he finds himself truly envying his homeless, ill-treated, buck-toothed best friend, which just makes him feel worse, since Jak is objectively the luckier of the two (he's never accused of stealing, and always has a place to sleep). If Daxter notices Jak's jealousy, he's nice enough not to say anything. But no amount of envy on either side is enough to hurt their relationship, and they just grow closer the older they get.

More shenanigans ensue after the boys visit Misty Island (an inevitability, Samos knows, even if he did try to warn them). It all ends in a darkening sky, horrifying creatures crawling and fluttering out of a warp-gate, and a monster's voice cracking the tropical air like thunder,

"You cannot hide from me, boy!"

(It also ends with Daxter remaining short, furry, and bright orange. Overnight, Jak's envy is replaced with guilt as solid as the mountains.)

And just like that, Jak is back in Haven, lost and confused with nobody but an animal companion by his side for the second time in his life (but the first that he recalls).

But it doesn't last long. Seconds, at most.

Commander Erol has already received his orders from Baron Praxis, who was himself given a tip-off from Onin, and is expecting to pick up a teenage boy at the pier, and drag him to the prison kicking and screaming if necessary (through preferably with less fuss than that). Erol and his team retrieve the boy as planned, and Praxis is thrilled to finally have the most promising candidate for the Dark Warrior Program in his clutches. Imagine their surprise, perhaps when making Jak change into his prison uniform, when they notice something strange — he's not quite as male as that old soothsayer had made him out to be.

At first, the Baron is baffled. Onin had said a boy, but whoever this kid is, they're definitely the one. Their eco powers speak for themselves. Perhaps he sends Erol to ask Onin for an explanation, and perhaps she says just what she said the first time. So Praxis thinks about it. He's heard of people doing this sort of thing before, changing their sex, though he can’t quite fathom it himself. Of course, he could simply force this kid to live as female, change his name, warp his entire identity into what Praxis himself wants him — her — to be.

But then the Baron thinks some more. Jak wants to be a boy, badly. The tight bandages on his chest are a clear testament to that, and if the wise old Onin says he's a boy, she's probably not wrong. All it would take is some injections (which Jak will be no stranger to, since the eco will need to go directly into his bloodstream) and maybe some surgeries here and there. If Jak doesn't need to bind anymore, doesn't have to worry about menstruating anymore, and can grow the strength and muscle of a real man thanks to the testosterone, he will be a better warrior, and that works in Praxis' favour. Furthermore, it might even make Jak feel indebted to him, could even inspire some loyalty. After all, what use is your perfect Dark Warrior if he hates your guts, resists all of your commands, and is probably constantly plotting to kill you?

So the Baron makes Jak into a man and, as they will soon see, into a monster.

(It takes Praxis longer than it should to realise that, despite the surgeries and testosterone that he wouldn't have otherwise been able to access, Jak will never feel even an ounce of loyalty to him.)

Erol, meanwhile, has no qualms with Jak's transition. If anything, it makes him feel slightly better, because now he knows for sure that it's not a girl he's hurting (and this, for some reason, makes a world of difference to him).

Time crawls by like some dying insect as Jak rots in his cell. He's forced to train until he drops, takes beating after beating from the guards, suffers Erol's relentless sadism, screams and thrashes in the injection chair. It feels like years. He still remembers Daxter’s last words to him,

“Don’t worry Jak, I’ll save ya before ya know it!”

He wonders how long ago that was. He wonders if he’ll ever see Daxter again. He didn't know it was possible to miss someone so much, and wishes he never had to know that feeling.

Finally, the time comes. Sure, he’s a man now, and much stronger than he was, but no amount of dark eco in his blood is making him into the superweapon that the Baron has been searching for, and Jak is his last hope. (He's already seen the other four die, one at a time, wondering when it will be him.)

Praxis orders Erol to kill Jak that night. The Commander, now apparently bored of using him as his personal punching-bag and lab rat, gleefully agrees.

So Jak is left alone, lying limp in his restraints, the agony of another dark eco injection still blistering through his veins, only vaguely aware that at last, his suffering will end.

At one time he’d hoped to escape, to tear Praxis limb from limb, to make him suffer, but apparently that time has passed.

Now there’s nothing he can do but wait for death.

But then a familiar voice, like the sun through stormclouds, rings out through the sterile silence of the prison.

[radioactivepeasant]

Free Day Friday: untitled Jak oneshot/ Daxter Snaps And It Doesn't Go Well

(This takes place right after Jak finally gets to return to Spargus in Jak 3, because I had some Feelings about the Dark Eco Oracle and its well-loved shrine having been either moved or destroyed in Haven. Also for reference: since the original Jak concept art was a cat/foxlike alien child, hence the ears being set so high on his head in TPL, I'm hereby deciding that their species can purr. Because I said so.)

This is Quite Long, so I'll probably crosspost to AO3 later.

TW: panic attack

Jak hadn't been surprised by the summons when he'd returned from Haven. He knew he was in for it. Damas had started trusting him with more and more responsibilities and then Jak had screwed it all up. Running off to Haven and then getting stuck there immediately after? Not a good look.

Honestly, Jak was just grateful he wasn't being "escorted" up by city guards.

Part of him wanted to go in fighting. That's all Damas cares about, right? a small, bitter corner of his heart muttered.

The rest of him was too afraid. He finally knew better than to look to anyone in Haven for affirmation or examples. Damas had been the closest he'd ever come to an authority figure he trusted. What if he lost that, too?

The second his and Daxter's heads were visible in the elevator shaft, Damas was already raising his voice. Perhaps he was simply projecting his voice to reach them, but Jak's stomach twisted into knots regardless, and his breathing became quick and shallow.

"Where have you been?" Damas demanded, rising from his throne. "It's been a month!"

The elevator locked, and Jak crept out onto the pathway like a skittish animal. He didn't meet Damas’s eyes. The confused anger and hurt he'd seen in them the last time flashed in his memory, and he winced. An oppressive silence fell for a few unnaturally long seconds, punctuated by the creak of the water wheel. Damas was waiting for an answer.

It's not our fault, Jak tried to reassure himself, Just another betrayal. We didn't do anything wrong.

When he didn't answer Damas, the king’s expression twisted between outrage and disbelief and-

And disappointment.

"Nothing? Really, Jak?" He took one step down from the dais, clenching his fist at his side. "Why didn't you tell anyone where you were going?"

Daxter took it upon himself to answer when Jak wouldn't -- or couldn't.

"Oh lay off!" he hissed, puffing himself up to look bigger, "Don't you have friends to kill in your gladiator ring?"

"Dax!" Jak gasped. Too late.

The words were already out and a black look fell across Damas’s face. His entire posture went rigid.

"Excuse me?" he asked in a frightful facsimile of calm.

"Daxter, don't," Jak pleaded, but it was far too late for that. When Daxter got this mad, he didn't even hear Jak.

"You heard me!"

Daxter leapt off Jak's shoulder and stood on the first stepping stone as if blocking the way between them.

"You tried to make us kill one of our only real friends, and threw a tantrum when we wouldn't! And if you think I'd trust you with Jak's location after that, those spikes must be diggin' into your brain!"

Jak couldn't breathe.

Either Damas was going to cut them off, or Daxter was going to get hurt, and either way everything was going to crumble. He'd finally escaped Haven and there was going to be nothing to escape to.

His core pulsed, obeying signals he didn't even know his brain was sending. It tried to respond to the fight-or-flight instincts quickening his pulse and shortening his breath. In Haven, he would have gone Dark in response. But he'd used all the dark eco. There was nothing left. Nothing but adrenaline and panic.

A strange, almost echoing sensation pushed at the inside of his skull, and the room spun. He couldn't breathe. His lungs felt like they'd been fused shut. He couldn't breathe!

"Jak!"

Between blurs of brown and green, Damas -- or an unfocused and staticy version of him -- approached rapidly.

As if from another room, Jak heard Daxter snarl, "Stay back! If you hurt him, I'll rip your spikes out!"

"I wouldn't hurt him!"

"You already did!"

It was too much. He couldn't- he couldn't focus. He couldn't find the light eco. Jak's knees gave, and it was a struggle to stay upright. Hands caught his upper arms, preventing him from collapsing entirely.

"Breathe, Jak!"

Damas sounded worried this time.

"You have to breathe!"

"Can't-!" Jak gasped, breath squeaking.

Then the world turned sideways and he was in the water. Or partly in the water.

His legs twitched with the shock of the new sensation, surprising him enough to suck in a deep breath. A compressing sensation against his chest and arms tightened in response.

"Focus on the water. Find your feet."

It took four tries to get his boots on the rocky bottom of the pool. His chest hurt, but he managed another deep breath.

"That's it. You can do this."

A small hand took his, pulling against the pressure around his shoulders, and pressed it against a narrow chest.

"L- like we practiced, bud-"

Oh. There's Daxter.

"Just breathe when I breathe, remember?"

Distantly, he heard Damas ask Daxter, "Has this happened before? In- in Spargus, I mean."

"Don't think about it, warrior," the other voice encouraged -- Damas? Is that Damas? But he's mad at us! -- "Just do as your friend does."

"If Jak wants to tell ya, he'll tell ya," Daxter said sourly. "You and I are not on speaking terms right now."

"...that is understandable."

One by one, his muscles relaxed. His breathing was much too fast, but it was easier to get full breaths at least.

When the ringing in Jak’s ears at last began to subside, he picked up a new sound. It was faint, barely audible at all, but he could just make out a nervous rumble. A laryngeal vibration he could feel through the back of his shirt. With conscious thought on standby mode, Jak's body responded to long-forgotten cues unbidden. His glottis rapidly dilated and constricted with his breathing, creating its own vibrations in a bid to self-soothe. It was how he'd learned not to cry out loud as a young child -- although blessedly, he would never remember that.

It wasn't the first time Damas had walked one of his people through a panic attack in the throne room, and it wouldn't be the last. But this one hurt.

"You're safe. There is no danger here. This is a safe place."

Shame raked its claws down his chest and Pain reached through the incision, grasping at organs and prying bones out of the way.

Jak didn't trust him.

And it was his fault.

"I'm sorry," he whispered- to Jak, to Daxter, to either-

A memory loomed damningly before his eyes. Mar had just started walking, and nearly toppled into the pools. Damas had yelled at him to get away from the edge, and the baby had burst into a loud, terrified wail.

"I'm- was it the shouting? I-"

"I'm sorry, it's okay, it's okay now- I know, I used the Big Voice, Daddy's sorry! You scared me, Bug!"

He hadn't gotten any better after losing Mar, had he? He still shouted when he was afraid. And look how that had turned out.

Damas tightened his hold on Jak and rested his chin on the crown of the boy's head. The apologies were bitter on his tongue, but necessary.

"I...I triggered this, didn't I? I'm sorry- gods, I'm sorry, Jak. I'm- you scared me. I couldn't find you! No one could!"

"You...thought we defected?" he asked through numbed lips.

The panic was slow to fade, still muddling Jak's mind. He couldn't quite make sense of what he was hearing.

"I thought the Marauders had taken you! Or you'd collapsed somewhere in the Wastes where we couldn't find you!" Damas answered. The dregs of that old fear still stained the edges of his voice. He shuddered.

He swallowed hard, interrupting the agitated purring for a moment. "I...did not handle the...situation as I should have. I damaged your trust. And I deserved worse than the silent treatment. I understand that. But to keep it from Sig, too?"

"You can't just run away like that! I- I understand why you didn't tell me-"

Painfully slowly, Jak drew his legs back out of the water and onto the rocks.

"They wouldn't let me," he mumbled. "They didn't let us leave."

Damas shot a concerned look at Daxter, who shrugged and looked away.

Shifting his grip to have one arm around the boy's waist, Damas heaved himself to his feet, taking Jak with him.

This promised to be a very unpleasant conversation, the least he could do was find them somewhere more comfortable to sit.

They were silent for a time, each processing the whirlwind of events. Jak was deeply, thoroughly, confused. No one had ever apologized like that before. Acknowledging his pain and the specific way their actions had caused it? It would be a cold day in hell before Samos ever did anything like that.

He didn't understand.

They'd defied Damas, then run from him. Daxter had just challenged him to his face.

Yet he spoke like a man anxiously awaiting the return of a prodigal son.

"Who wouldn't let you leave, Jak?" Damas asked him, far too gently.

Jak shut his eyes. "Haven."

"Haven?!" Damas sounded horrified. "What were you doing there?! Is that where you've been this whole time?"

Miserably, Jak nodded. "I was just- we were just scouting. Just- it wasn't supposed to be-"

He gritted his teeth.

"They locked down the air trains," he croaked. "And- and there's force fields blocking off the city exits. The only way they'd let us go was if I fought on the frontlines for three weeks first."

Fighting down his anger lest he trigger Jak's panic again, Damas forced himself to ask, "What made you go back to that city in the first place?"

A hostage. His boy- The boy had been a bloody hostage, and he'd had no idea! Damas felt something dark and dense fluttering between his ribs. If he found the person who ordered this, he would drown them in the sands.

Jak winced and passed several looks back and forth with Daxter.

"Ashelin...called me to the oasis," he said at last.

Damas stiffened beside him.

"She want- she wanted me to come back to Haven. After everything they did to me, she wanted me to come back."

He felt the hints of the anxiety returning, and wrapped his arms around himself for comfort.

"Ashelin Praxis?" Damas demanded. He curled his lip. "I might have known. I hope you told her where to shove that offer."

Daxter scoffed. "Oh, he did. Even told her "I have new friends now", which was a little too generous considering what you said to my pal."

Jak gave the ottsel a weary look, and Daxter grudgingly subsided.

"I told her to leave. She- she wouldn't drop it. Said the friends we still had were going to die. That it was my responsibility because of-"

He flipped a hand in the air in frustration.

"I don't know! Dead people I share some common blood with!"

"Pal, I'm pretty sure that common blood stopped bein' responsible for that dump when Princess Scribbleface's darling pappy took over," Daxter grumbled.

"Common blood?!" Damas startled, but Jak had already moved on, hastily trying to explain himself.

"We didn't believe her -- I- I mean, why would we? But when I asked the Oracle in the temple-"

"How did you find the Oracle?!" Damas spluttered.

"The stupid thing called me," Jak growled. He leaned forward and pressed his face into his hands. "Said the whole planet was in danger and my friends would die if I didn't find the catacombs."

He muffled a snarl in his palms.

"I hate them. I hate those rottin' things. They don't tell me when something is a trap. They only tell me what fits their agenda."

Jak could speak to Precursor Oracles.

Only monks were supposed to still be able to do that.

Monks, or Heirs of Mar taking the Trials.

"And...was it a trap?" Damas asked, fearing he already knew the answer.

A painful, wishful image of Jak in the Tomb of Mar wormed through Damas’s thoughts. If life had any semblance of fairness, or restitution, it would have been reality. It was not what he deserved, not after how many times he'd failed the people he cared about. But Jak deserved it. He'd been isolated enough.

Jak's face was like stone.

"All they cared about was getting me into Haven to find the catacombs before that nutcase Veger could. And all Haven cared about was keeping us there."

A deep, ominous creaking filled the room. Harsh shadows stretched and yawned as the terrible old statue beside the dais flickered, then lit up. A suffocating sense of dread filled Damas as he beheld the monolith. It wasn't a real Oracle. It was a shell, made to hold pieces of the water wheel. It wasn't made to have any kind of lights.

Daxter yelped and scurried up to Jak’s shoulder as the water wheel ground to a halt.

The silence was unnatural.

Jak's chest heaved, and Damas feared for a moment that he was going to panic again. But an answering light flickered in the boy's eyes. White, incandescent rage.

"What do you want now? You're not welcome here!" Jak snarled, standing up with a jerk.

"Angry one-"

It said in warning, a rolling, ancient voice that echoed off the stones and twisted in their eardrums.

Jak clenched his fists.

"No! I'm not afraid of you! You're no "holier" than Onin. You aren't even a Precursor!"

A sense of fury shook the room, and the water trembled.

Jak held his ground though his legs shook.

"You can't do anything to punish me," he challenged, angry tears glowing in his eyes. "The worst you can do is withhold information that would protect me, and you do that anyway! If- if you had power at all, you wouldn't have let Veger destroy Crius!"

Crius? Damas vaguely remembered that name. Hadn't he been one of the Bonekeeper's heralds? The memories were fuzzy at best. Father forbade Mother from speaking of the Bonekeeper when they married. Any communing with the patron of dark eco was done in secret, and as a child Damas had only caught her once.

"The dark shrine was all those people had!" the anger was slipping away from Jak now, replaced by something closer to grief. "He gave them hope! He gave- he gave me hope! And you couldn't save him. So what makes you think you can scare me now? Hu'mens are worse than you."

And the Oracle, miraculously, quieted. The waters stilled, and some of the dread receded. Jak fell back to the steps, having exhausted the last reserves of his emotions.

"Yeah! You tell him, Jak!" Daxter cheered, breaking the silence, "About time you put Sparky in his place!"

He ruffled Jak's hair -- the hair he could reach at least -- and leaned against his arm comfortingly.

"Next, we get Loghead!"

The Oracle remained lit, but speechless. All this time, had rebuking the heralds really been an option? Ever the pragmatist, Damas decided to follow Jak's example.

"As the boy said." His voice was quiet at first, but gained courage with each new word.

"This is not a place of seers and soothsayers. Respectfully: we do not require your guidance at this time."

"Heir of Mar-"

the Oracle began, almost wheedling.

Rage loosened his lips and he lost the last shred of reverence he'd held for the messenger.

Jak went rigid and Damas felt an anger of his own. How dare this entity try to leverage his bloodline when the Precursors had turned their backs on him!

"Hold your tongue! Unless you can comprehend the trouble you have caused, keep your counsel to yourself."

Resentfully, the Oracle's eyes flashed.

And with that, the lights were gone. The water wheel resumed its gloomy rhythm. The statue was hollow once more.

"So be it. You wish to hear no truth from me? Then you, Damas of the Wastes, shall hear no truth from me."

Something about the acquiescence -- or threat -- made Damas uneasy. Withholding information again, just as Jak had said. But he had the feeling it was hinting at something important. Taunting him.

Bloody seven hells.

He'd sooner cast the bones himself and call upon the Dark Lady directly as his mother once had than ever deal with that thing again.

"Little wonder you're always so on edge, dealing with that," he said; a poor attempt at a joke.

Jak dropped his face back into his hands.

"I'm so sick of them. Jak do this. Jak go there. Suffer for us, Jak! It's Fate!"

Damas scoffed. "Fate, eh? Wastelanders make their own fate. If this is who my monks consult, it's no surprise that they believe the world is coming to an end."

"They are pretty worried about the creatures in that space ship," Jak admitted reluctantly.

"Bah."

Damas waved it off.

"When the metalheads invaded our world, we survived with or without the Precursors they hunted. We will do the same if these creatures land."

He jostled Jak's shoulder -- shaking Daxter by proxy.

"Ey! No manhandling!"

Daxter slithered away down the steps and into the water. He glared up over the step like a little croc.

"You keep your emotionally constipated hands away from me!"

Damas let out a startled laugh, and Jak shook his head and grinned.

"I...guess you're right. Spargus is pretty tough."

"We are Wastelanders, boy," Damas declared, "We carved out a home in the places where nothing else survives. We'll carve out our fate the same way, with the same tools our ancestors used."

"...with eco," Jak said quietly, as if experiencing a revelation.

"Our minds think alike."

Damas’s wry grin faded.

"Jak...I'm...sorry. That I made you feel you couldn't contact me for help. If I had known you were being held in Haven against your will, I would have come for you."

The boy fixed him with a bewildered expression.

"You would have?" Jak asked, "You're serious. You. Leaving your people to come after me?"

The king met his stare evenly.

"Yes."

"After the- the thing, with the Arena-?"

Damas winced and looked away.

"I. I did not warn you, I was not permitted to. But the final trial of a Spargan is one they are supposed to lose."

Jak bristled. "What?!"

"It's a test of whether they can put loyalty to their city over the commands of a tyrant. Sig wasn't supposed to throw down his gun, he was supposed to goad you into a sparring match." Damas ran his hand over his shaved head. "I should have told him before he went in that it was you. I didn't know that you knew each other, but- maybe he wouldn't have panicked if he'd known it was a Final Trial. Maybe I wouldn't have panicked."

Jak stared at him in disbelief for several seconds. For reasons he couldn't quite explain, he blurted out an accusation with no bite to it.

"What, did you forget I didn't grow up here?"

When he was met with chagrined silence, his eyes widened.

"Oh my gods you did. How?! You're the one that found me out there!"

Clearly embarrassed, Damas shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know what to tell you. There are days when it just...seems as though I have known you for much longer than seven months."

Jak took that statement, turned it over in his mind. The version of Damas in his head wasn't quite matching the one in front of him. Even before things had become strained between them, he hadn't had the context to understand the way Damas saw him. He still didn't- not completely.

"Sorry," he said suddenly, and gestured to the soaked trousers. "I um. I don't usually...not in front of people, I mean-"

He leaned back against the stairs and stretched his legs out before him. The linen stuck to his legs in sodden wrinkles and folds, nearly transparent against his calves. It would dry quickly once he stepped outside again -- and the evaporating water would serve to cool his skin nicely. But for now, it drew his mind to his panic attack.

"Don't apologize." Damas laced his fingers together loosely and leaned his elbows against his knees. "May...may I ask what it was that sparked that kind of fear?"

Jak met Daxter's eyes, down in the water. The ottsel winced. He knew he'd taken it too far. He was just so sick of people acting like Jak was a trained dog with no autonomy of his own. And sometimes his desire to protect Jak’s emotions didn't mesh completely with what Jak needed at the moment.

Jak broke their gaze and began to pick at a scar on his elbow.

"...thought I was going to have to choose sides. Between you and Dax."

"Why would supporting Daxter cause you to panic?" Damas pressed.

"Because," he muttered with a shrug.

He'd assumed without question that Jak would take Daxter's side. Jak didn't know whether to be amused or grateful or just tired.

"Because?"

"Because I- I wanted this to still be home." Jak made a vague gesture encompassing the room, and its occupants.

"This is your home," Damas insisted. He glanced to the empty Oracle with a thoughtful frown.

Something lingered in the corners of Jak's eyes. A concern he wasn't voicing. Did he still believe he could be so easily forsaken?

"If this is where the desert brought you, then this is where the desert meant you to thrive."

But then, he had been cast out of Haven on the flimsiest of pretenses. His faith in hu'menity was shaken. For a moment, Damas considered changing the subject. He could talk about the coming trials, give Jak something else to think about.

Or he could meet him on his level. Show him the same vulnerability he'd so unwillingly displayed.

The words stuck to his tongue, stabbed like needles into the roof of his mouth as he forced them through his teeth.

"I...had a son. Some years ago."

"Had". Was there ever such a horrible word?

"He was like you -- or, he would have been, when he was older."

Under his breath he added, "if he ever got the chance to get older."

Jak's brows knit together, then went slack. From tiny pinpricks in the centers of his eyes, horror flooded out to the rest of his face.

"You have a child?"

After a moment to collect himself, the king nodded.

His head dipped lower, nearly brushing the steeple of his fingertips.

"I did. He was taken from me, by some of the same people who seem to have orchestrated your own suffering."

"I pray that my son still lives but- he was so young. So small. So-"

Damas’s voice cracked.

"So very small."

Guilt played across Jak's face for a moment, then was swallowed up by a deep sadness that welled up from within. Haven was a city of devils. He wondered if Damas’s child had been taken during the time when Praxis was snatching children en masse in his search for Jak's childhood self.

Did that make it his fault that Damas was so bereaved?

"That's-"

That's not fair. It's an abomination. Hurting a kid should be enough to make the Precursors strike you dead on the spot. Errol should've died the first time he put me in the Chair-

Jak's thoughts spiraled out of control, and he had to fight to return his focus to the moment.

"That's terrible."

Inhaling sharply, Damas raised his head and straightened his spine. One warm, callused hand found its way to Jak’s shoulder and squeezed.

He felt his throat closing up, snapping his voice into grating pieces.

"The reason I tell you this is so that you will understand this: It would take more than a little teenaged defiance to make me turn my back on you."

"I lost my son, Jak," he croaked, "I cannot lose you, too."

The laryngeal vibration began again -- from Jak, this time. The nearly autonomous response was as much a subconscious desire to comfort Damas as it was self-soothing. Even so, his chest ached dully. How old, he wondered, had Damas’s son been when he was taken? He must have been so scared! Did he call out for his father? Did Damas call out for him?

"In...war," Damas said hesitantly, "Sacrifices are sometimes required of us. In my case, I had to stay and rebuild the part of the wall the attackers destroyed. To protect thousands from the storms and the Marauders. I knew that, but it still took days for Sig to convince me to send him to Haven in my place."

"Yeah," Jak muttered, "I know about sacrfices."

But Damas shook his head. "It's hardly a sacrifice if someone else chose it for you out of convenience. That's just betrayal."

Silence fell again, but there was no tension to it. A sense of introspection lingered between them, each consumed with his own thoughts. Even Daxter's anger had muted itself -- now overlayed with guilt, berating himself for jumping to fight Jak's battles without bothering to see what Jak himself wanted.

The moment of quiet ended with a crackling of the city radio from which Damas monitored all official channels.

"Oh not now," the man groaned with a most unkingly attitude. "Can I have a moment of peace?"

"No way," Jak scoffed, finding a glimmer of humor in the situation, "You jinxed it by letting us take a break. Now something crazy is going to happen."

Damas narrowed his eyes. "Boy, if you will that into reality-" he warned, with no real way to finish the threat.

The second he picked up the receiver, he knew it was going to be a headache.

"Sire! We've got three different Marauder patrols converging on the city gates! There's a fourth on the radar crossing the river now!"

Daxter pulled himself out of the water and cringed. "How many cars is that?"

"Twelve, at least," Jak gulped.

Damas did not take this information the way he normally would have. He seemed to be fuming as he stood up and stomped up the stairs to retrieve his staff. Jak could hear him muttering under his breath.

His voice rose to something more audible. "I'm not in the mood for this, Egil," he snapped, addressing the thane of the Marauders as if he were present.

"Not the time, Egil, this is not the time to test me! Just got my kid back, got threatened by a bloody Oracle-"

Jak decided, for the sake of being able to focus during a fight, to just pretend he hadn't heard Damas referring to him as his own kid. He could come back to that and freak out later. Right now, there was a fight to be had. He held an arm down for Daxter to use as a ramp, then stood.

"Where do you need me?" he asked.

Damas gave him a searching look. For an instant, his gaze flicked to the lifeless Oracle. That seemed to reinforce his resolve.

"With me," he said shortly. "We're taking the Dozer. You're on the turret gun."

The way Jak's -- and even Daxter's -- eyes lit up almost made up for the hassle Damas knew this skirmish was going to be. He cast one last look at the Oracle before shepherding them to the lift.

Keep your counsel, he thought, and I will keep mine. I don't need your permission to add a son to my House. What of that, eh? The Heir and your renegade Pawn allied against you!

"Hey, maybe I should drive," Jak suggested as the lift began to move."

"Hm." Damas pretended to consider it. "No."

"Why not?!"

"You can't reach the pedals yet."

He could have simply explained that he preferred to drive his favorite vehicle himself. But, the slightest bit giddy at the thought of open rebellion against fate, Damas instead bent slightly to offer a teasing grin.

"What?! Oh come on!"

The elevator sank out of sight, and the water wheel trembled. The statue vibrated and the pools bubbled and boiled with the helpless fury of a falconer whose birds had long since slipped the jesses to fly free. But the boy had not spoken falsley: it was not a Precursor, merely the echo of one's memory. In the face of hu'men defiance, it was helpless to retaliate in any meaningful way. Even withholding the truth of the Hero's identity had been robbed of its intended effect, considering the Fallen Heir and the Hero had gone ahead and reformed the broken bond between them anyway!

The Oracle could not comprehend their motives, nor could it ever hope to understand the complexities of the hu'men mind.

It could only watch and seethe.

[astrathechinchilla]

To expand on my idea I did remember that Maia from Jak 1 experimented with Dark Eco which made herself look younger. Perhaps a sign of vanity and fear of aging and Dark Eco just simply appealed to that aspect of her.

The most curious one is Daxter, he was always a braggart who views himself more important than he actually is. Yet in-spite of his flaws he doesn’t have a bad bone in his body or any debilitating vices. Perhaps that’s why Dark Eco turned him into an Ottsel. It sorta fulfilled his wish by turning him into a Precursor, the most important figure in their world.

Dark Eco is powerful yet unknown no one wants to risk figuring out how it works and for good reasons. No one is perfect not even the Precursors who created it as shown with the Dark Makers.

(I still can’t use the :readmore: function I’m sorry scrollers)

This line of observation makes me think of a specific question; if dark forms represent the individuals inner self as a physical embodiment, like with what you said about Maia and Daxter, would that dark side also change physically if the person in question’s inner self truly changed?

Say for instance, throughout Jak 2 and partially 3, Jak theoretically experiences a whole character arc of learning to calm the rage in his heart and use those emotions in more productive ways, which in turn shows that he’s fundamentally changed as a person.

His motivations change, his personality somewhat shifts the more he grows throughout the story, meaning his dark side should also change and grow with him. The entity is more reserved, calmer after all of his experiences in life with Jak and from learning from the individuals around them.

He may even develop traits from Jak’s close friends, possibly from Daxter. Wouldn’t Darkie making a silly attempt at a joke just be the best tho?

His dark side’s horns could potentially disappear, his claws growing shorter, but still present. Overall, his appearance would appear more tame, and if we also add my personal headcanons to this equation, he could also speak somewhat, vocally communicate once he’s a more stable presence, something that’s been around for a while and able to learn from his surroundings.

A dark side is always fluctuating and changing like the person it embodies.

[torn-slander]

hm

interesting

hm

INTERESTING

anyways so I have some headcanons/ideas about light eco and blah blah

the reason that light jak in TPL looked like this:

and not like blue boi - is because the light eco Jak channels to defeat Gol and Maia is made from the sages' ecos, not naturally found in the world which is what he channels in Jak 3/what light Jak is made of

was thinking on the whole precursors saying eco contains their DNA - what if precursors ARE blue like what came from the precursor stone - and for whatever reason take ottsels as forms (maybe to interact w the world in a state that isn't light eco? idk im not 100% solid on this lmfao and I don't think the game writers were either)

and then dark markers are precursors from dark eco ofc but yeah anyways that was the whole thought not much else behind it LMFAO

[adhdavinci]

JnD queer headcanons

ft. autistic/adhd hcs too :3 happy pride

(Part 1)

Jak: bi + some flavor of trans; autistic

Daxter: pan + nonbinary (animalgender); ADHD

Keira: aro + lesbian + demigirl; autistic + ADHD

Tess: pan + trans woman; autistic

Torn: bi + demisexual + trans man; autistic

Ashelin: bi + aroace + trans woman; autistic

Sig: gay/queer + genderfluid

Jinx: demiro + pan + genderqueer; ADHD

Seem: omni + nonbinary (3rd gender); autistic

Errol: bi; ADHD

[troblsomtwins829]

While I'm on the theory train of thought, I wanna add that as of today, I officially headcanon that Tess has an old HAM radio that she uses to listen to KG radio chatter, but also contact people outside of Haven.

Her call sign would be 'Pink Diamond' because she loves pink, and we all know from Marilyn Monroe that diamonds are a girl's best friend.

[getvalentined]

Has anyone asked about Seem for the character ask game?

HIGH PRIEST SEEM OF THE GOLDEN ORDER

🎟️ SEXUALITY HEADCANON: Seem is completely and totally pansexual. Sex and gender don't matter to her at all.

⚧️ GENDER HEADCANON: This depends on which version of her I'm working with, but generally I read Seem as some flavor of nonbinary. The devs refer to her with she/her pronouns, while the only pronoun ever used for her in-game is they, which is pretty distinct—particularly for a game that came out in 2004.

💕 A SHIP: Jak/Seem is my #1 top favorite pairing in the entire series. The progression of their canonical relationship is one of my favorite things, because it takes the entire game to get to the point where they admit any kind of reliance on one another, and at that point they're so comfortable with each other that neither of them question the other—I don't think it's much of a jump to assume that could develop into something other than a platonic relationship with more time.

🖇️ A BROTP: In canon, Seem+Daxter for sure. The idea of the two of them taking turns dragging Jak away from his more self-destructive behaviors, conspiring with each other to make sure he eats and sleeps and slows down is one of my favorite things. In a different world, I love love love the idea of Seem and Gol Acheron getting to know each other. I've RP'd and plotted out multiple AUs with this concept, generally resulting in Gol referring to Seem as "the little Light Sage." She's studied his research for her entire life, so she has a healthy dose of respect for him, megalomania notwithstanding.

🚫 A NOTP: Would you believe people used to ship Seem with Veger? Not like...a lot. But it happened. That one gets a yikes from me.

💭 A RANDOM HEADCANON: Seem is Onin's granddaughter; Onin was the leader of the Order when Praxis had the Precursor monks banished from Haven following the fall of the holy district, but she apostatized in order to be allowed to stay and continue to provide guidance to city leadership—because that's what she was supposed to do, Onin is omnipresent in time due to overexposure to light eco in early adulthood, so this wasn't an act of selfishness but an acceptance of fate. (Y'know Everything Everywhere All At Once? Onin is kinda like that, but it's less of a constant jumble.) Seem was obviously very young at the time, but given that her mother died in the aforementioned destruction of the Sacred Site, that made her the next in line to become High Priest; regardless of her age and inexperience, not to mention the fresh trauma of her mother's death, Onin allowed Seem to be thrown into the wasteland to die along with everyone else. The fact that she not only survived but thrived, reuniting with Damas and reclaiming the Order's oldest temple, is irrelevant to Seem with regard to her feelings on the situation. She's never forgiven Onin for this, and she never will.

🗣️GENERAL OPINION: Favorite character in the whole series. I named a cat after her. I love her more than I can express.