Aiden didn't really know how to handle Jesse at the moment.
He could handle them crying.
(By either snapping at them to stop or just patting them on the back and muttering the best comfort he could, which... wasn't all that comforting.)
He could handle them scared.
(By again snapping at them or just comforting them the best he could.
Actually, he was just bad at comforting Jesse in general, so maybe that was his problem. They seemed too young to be seventeen. Actually, maybe his problem was that he wasn't good with kids.
Then again Radar was fine with him... but then again Radar was sixteen and thus a teenager.)
And Jesse had been scared, and they had been crying.
Except by the time they'd gotten back to the others, Jesse had just drawn themselves into a silent, dark little place.
Harper had scooped them out of Aiden's arms (he'd seen her face tick, change as she scooped them into her arms, but she said nothing and just carried them over to a corner) to wrap them in a blanket and murmur things to them. Reuben had whined a little bit.
And Jesse had said nothing.
Just hugged their knees and rocked back and forth silently with the blanket around them, a mess of tear-stains on their face and big sad eyes that were hollow and glazed and almost empty, which seemed to be worrying everyone.
Sure, Jesse didn't SEEM like they were going crazy or anything, which was great. Aiden could handle scared or awkward or crying.
Crazy was... less handleable.
But they'd still trapped themselves into a dark place.
No speaking.
No smiling.
(No pretending they were okay, smiling up at the others with a crooked little smile that just didn't look quite right.)
No Jesse.
And Jesse (the shy, quiet, strange bubbly thing that was Jesse) remained missing all the way up until they reached Boom Town.
Boom Town was... well, it was Boom Town.
Sure, there was the nice addition of the safe zone– generally the area around where the baron would live, but Magnus was apparently crazy and lived in the giant obsidian (was it obsidian? Aiden really couldn't tell) spire with the center blown out, rather than in the safe zone.
Instead, the safe zone was just a small collection of houses with little communal beds and bathrooms that nothing violent could happen in.
Literally. You couldn't use magic in the safe zone.
Or weapons.
Or TNT.
It just flat out wouldn't light or do anything, and weapons either wouldn't work (in the case of Aiden's, the whip wouldn't come out) or just bounced off like it was made of rubber.
Lukas and Maya figured it was an enchantment going on and had once devolved into discussing what kind of enchantment would disable the lighting of TNT, the usage of weapons, AND magic in a certain area. They'd come to a consensus that it was probably a large multitude of enchantments.
That being said, Aiden had barely listened after the first twenty seconds, and he still didn't know if that was actually the reason for it. Isa sure never said, although she was hardly an expert on magic herself.
"Alright, for courtesy's sake," Petra said, shooting the little still ball that was currently Jesse a worried look, "we should try to say hello to Magnus. It's just... more polite."
Lukas shifted his weight. "Do we have to? I mean..."
He glanced at Jesse, concern writing itself over his face. "I'm sure Magnus would understand if we didn't. He's a pretty isolated guy, anyway."
"Yes, but we made the trouble of saying hello to Soren; we might as well say hello to Magnus too," Maya pointed out as Mevia gave Jesse's back a somewhat kind rub.
"Plus you get to hang out with me and that's kinda cool, right?"
Petra actually jumped; then spun around and punched the large male that had just materialized behind her.
She was still grinning widely, though.
"Holy fuck, you can't do that, Axel!"
The boy chuckled. His eyes were the darkest shade of red Aiden usually saw on demons, to the point of almost being brown, and his black hair was as short and messy as ever. He'd changed from a hoodie with a white scarf (Maya had pointed out that it would stain easily. Axel, at the time, had retorted that it would look cool with bloodstains on it, and that was apparently that.) to a black t-shirt with a skull on it and a red-and-black flannel, as well as brown shorts. He was easily taller than Petra and Gill, and definitely taller than Jesse.
And probably heavier than Lukas, Petra, and Gill combined, although most of it was from muscle.
"Sorry, man. You know that's just my thing."
Aiden sighed and rolled his eyes, although he was smiling faintly. "I still don't get how you manage to sneak up on us when you're heavier than an elephant."
Axel punched Aiden on the shoulder, resulting in a quiet "ouch". "I still don't get how you manage to be totally unsubtle despite looking like a stick insect," he replied, although the insult seemed more amused than anything.
He bowed to the lords upon spotting them, doing the usual courtesies in his clumsy way, before he straightened back up and noticed the tiny ball of human crouched on the bed with their vessel creature from where Mevia, who'd taken them from Harper (with much arguing between the two) for a good majority of the trip there.
"Aw, dude, you're super cute." Axel reached out and ruffled Jesse's hair.
He probably meant it as a light, gentle gesture, but Axel patting you gently could really just feel like he was clapping you on the back as hard as someone humanly could, so Jesse got rattled around a little bit.
It did seem to startle them enough that they were taken out of the dark place they'd drawn themselves into for the past few days, and they lifted their head to look at him, blinking big green eyes.
Reuben perked up, rubbing his little pink head against their leg. Harper seemed faintly relieved herself, but it was pretty hard to read her facial expressions sometimes. Isa breathed a quiet sigh of relief, though, so Aiden could assume all of the lords were relieved that Jesse hadn't just gotten stuck in that dark place.
"Oh... mm... thank you," Jesse replied, meekly.
Axel grinned even wider and crouched down so he was more on eye level with them. "Oh man. You're adorable."
He spotted their eyes after a moment, and his smile widened– not in a predatory way, just... almost excited. Aiden could see Axel's eyes sparkling. "No wonder the lords are keeping a human around; you're way too cute to eat."
Maya winced, but Jesse thankfully didn't take offense or get traumatized (they'd been too traumatized already). They just blinked in faint surprise at him.
"Um... thank... thank you... um..." They seemed to be searching for some semblance of a compliment to reciprocate to what must've been like a giant randomly appearing to talk to them.
Finally, they settled on, "You're... um... you look like a teddy bear."
Petra had to hastily rescue Jesse from being plucked right into the air like they were a doll by a rather excited Axel at this compliment.
A/N: Heyo presto we've met Axel.
He really likes Jesse xD
Inktober is interesting. I'm doing the list of MCSM prompts, rather than the given list of prompts... it's nice. xD
My college dorm room has been decked out with lots of interesting thing for Halloweens. Including some stains on the ceiling from my roommate putting some fake blood window decal on the ceiling and then... yeah, it seeped into the ceiling. xD
RQTC: Are you dressing up on Halloween? If so... who or what are you dressing up as?
I actually want to keep mine a surprise for the most part; if you want you can go on Tumblr on the 31st and see the picture I post. Or Twitter. xD
I am paper. Reviews are ink. I'm drenched. xD
Responses to reviews!
Northern Goshawk: A little bit, but he's not going to be very obvious about it xD / They have come up. xP / Two reasons: 1, Jesse is asexual. Thus any charms that succubi try to or inadvertently give off (like Stella) are basically ineffective on them. 2, there is some heavy implication in early chapters that Jesse has been, um, violated before, and has PTSD from that. Thus sexual advances are... yeah, they don't like those. / Thank you!
bungaMawar001: Yeah... / Heh, yeah. He's doing his best. / Ahaha, yeah. He's more of a 'kill people' person, not... 'I'm going to be super caring and soft.'
Guest: Hehe.
DarkbeastDend: Thank you.
HappygoluckyMegami: Yeah, he gave it a go. / Tara Strong's neat, yeah. Did you know Mevia's voice actress actually Shandra Jiminez (that reporter lady) in Gravity Falls?
TheAmberShadow: Hehe. / Control your temper, there's alternate ways to delete your anger for this site. Let's get with the program and update our thoughts for this website. / He's trying. xD / Hehe. / Oh, you bet.
Toni42: He tries xD / They're gonna do their best, but humans don't handle stuff like that as well. Especially Jesse. / nyaaaaah
That's all for now! See ya, so long, and g'bye!
x.X. A.L. X.x
