#jame was all but YANKED through the gate and crashed into tori and things are TENSE

[words-writ-in-starlight]

*kicks down your door* YOU'RE REQUESTING ASKS IN FANDOMS AND I'M IN 3/4 OF THEM AND TWO ARE VERY OBSCURE AND I THINK THAT'S VERY CASH MONEY OF YOU. ahem. 1, 2, 3, and 7 for jame, with extra credit if at least one is fluffy?? (look i know me my source material but also let her be happy!! for five seconds!!)

My week got hectic so I am returning to this ask meme mmmmm A LITTLE LATE, and I think that is very on brand.  For this ask meme!

1) Their physical weak spots

Jame has the massive advantage of dwar sleep, so that old injuries don’t often leave weaknesses to be targeted later.  Instead, her greatest physical weakness isn’t a single spot, nothing that she can fix or strengthen or make disappear.  It’s just--Jame is small.  Even for a Highborn, she’s delicately built, bird-boned, and among Kendar she looks like a wide-eyed hungry child.  Taken off-guard, or facing an enemy she isn’t willing to kill, Jame is acutely aware of the way that her stature puts her at an acute disadvantage.  And she knows, she knows, that no matter how much she trains, no matter how much Shanir power she throws into a fight, she’s just always going to be...small.  

Anyone who knows Jame would be shocked to hear that she thinks about this.  She might have to look up at anyone else at Tentir, but if there’s one word they wouldn’t dare ascribe to her--certainly not in her hearing--it would be small.

2) Their emotional/moral weak spots

At the end of the day, Jame is always ready to put her life on the line for what she believes.  Putting her peoples’ lives on the line, or gambling their welfare on her own decisions...not so much.  Sometimes this means she’s careful with them.  Other times, this means she’s so paralyzed by the potential fallout that she doesn’t make any decisions at all, and they all pay the price together.  This isn’t really a headcanon, it’s sort of a major plot engine in Gates of Tagmeth, among others, but I’m still real invested in Jame’s plot being less “gain power, fight evil” and more “make connections and learn to direct power away from collateral damage.”

In terms of strict headcanon, I will die on the hill of Jame’s best-hidden emotional weakness being that she wants a home and family that loves her.  She’ll barely even admit it to herself, how deep that craving runs--if she did, she would be faced with a sudden onslaught of grief that she sort of doubts she’d even survive.  Her departed mother, her mad father, her terrified brother, her near-miss-consort-uncle, her Senethari-uncle, her sadist half-brother...if Jame sits and tallies up everyone who hated her, everyone who abandoned her, everyone who died on her, whether they meant to do it or not, she thinks she might never trust the Kencyrath again.  But she does, every time, because she wants it.  She wants to be at home in Gothregor, the stronghold of her house, she wants warmth and welcome and all the things that go with a family.  The Master almost brought her down twice with that longing.  Jame thinks, sometimes, privately, that she understands the Dreamweaver better than she likes--Tori, coming to her with open arms and a soft smile, could convince her to do many things.

3) Scars or painful spots

Jame knows that it’s not obvious.  She knows that Kencyrs have scars.  She knows that she’ll probably die with far more than a single straight scar, healed by the finest healer on Rathillien.

But she hates the scar on her cheekbone.  It says helpless and prisoner and worthless, and she knows that Kallystine desperately overstepped her bounds by laying hands on her, she saw Torisen repudiate the woman on behalf of both of them, but....  Jame still hates the scar.

7) Their tickle spots

Everyone wants FLUFF, so listen, here is the fluff:

Jame and Tori have identical ticklish spots, under their ribs, behind their knees, and, with a light enough touch, the nape of their necks.  As children, in the dark of the moon as they waited up to see if the world would end, they would prod fingers into sensitive spots to win giggles, and shush each other in hisses and whispers as they scuffled.  They matched, in this as in everything, and that meant an uncanny advantage of being able to see and strike for openings while the other person was moving.