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K’s got broken ribs and Boudy-boots is dead.
They’re about to leave, but Sam suddenly feels a lot calmer, and is struck with the need to investigate more of the island. It’s like the island is calling her name.
“We didn’t meet the whatever is the Qohlye for this place—I wanna go do that now,” Sam says, and starts walking towards the sloping valley that sits at the center.
K, Evan, and Jammer all look some combination of concerned and confused.
K follows, having to put forth a little effort to keep up, “The, embodiment of the island? But I thought we agreed to, ya know, get going,” they say, pointing their thumbs back towards the hoopty in an arc.
From behind Sam, Jammer says, “Yeah we know this island is bad news, we don’t wanna hang around here longer than we have to,”
Sam smiles, “I know guys, but it’ll be fine, just a hop skip and a jump over to the center of the island, look, we’re already halfway there,”
And indeed, it’s abruptly as if a great blue fog has rolled in, there’s a sense of getting closer to something, to more.
Evan follows after, “What about the hoopty?”
Sam rolls her eyes, smiling,
“The hoopty will be fine, the island will protect it,”
Evan’s brow furrows, stepping in front of her, “The island didn’t—“ he shakes his head, letting go of the thought, letting his next words take precedence,
“Sam, I think something is happening to you right now, probably because of the magic of this place that’s been fucking with us since we got here, and I don’t think you or any of us should be anywhere near the middle, I think we should all stay far away, and go to a completely different island—preferably one where we can heal K, but anywhere is probably better than here,”
Sam lightly knocks the idea out of the air, almost flippant, “Psh, guys, I’m just being polite, and they’re just a little hungry—it’ll be fine,” Sam side steps Evan and continues walking.
Evan’s brow raises, “Look, we don’t owe anyone politeness, we just got attacked—“
Sam rolls her eyes. “Guys seriously, stop, I’m going to say hi, and you can’t stop me,”
Jammer takes in a deep breath and resigns himself, “Then I guess we’re going with you,”
K says, “I think Jammer’s right and we should stick together,”
Evan sets his mouth in a line, “I guess I’m out voted, but we’ll just see how this goes,”
They pass the rest of the walk in silence, at times crossing the distance in the blink of an eye, surrounded by cool mist that clings to their skin, hair and clothes, and a gradual blurring of the picturesque landscape into blue until:
“Oh hey, there’s the two headed camel, like on the hoopty,” Sam says, pointing.
Indeed, they’re just standing there at a distance, somehow completely visible despite the thick blue everywhere, chewing cud. When she blinks, there’s the after image of them burned into her retinas.
There’s a mild ache in her stomach.
Evan, K, and Jammer look around.
“I don’t see anything,” Jammer says.
“Yeah, I’m not seeing much besides blue,” K adds.
Sam huffs, impatient, “Come on guys, it’s literally right there,”
Evan gives Sam a look, placing a hand on her shoulder, but whatever he says is lost.
All she can hear now is her own inner monologue.
“I’m just gonna ignore you guys and chat it up with my new buddy Seeg, can I call you Seeg?—Hi, I’m Sam,” she smiles, waves, and blinks, and suddenly, the double camel is extremely close, close enough to touch, surprising her a little. She takes a half step back.
“Woah, that was pretty cool, how’d you move so fast? Well, I guess you’re not really here, you’re just like, a representative for the magic that’s pooling everywhere. You’re always really hungry, it’s never enough, that must suck. You’re the magic of changing hearts and minds, and people don’t even notice it’s happening, it just feels like something they already know and want, like what’s happening right now,” she finishes, unconcerned.
The camels flick one of their four ears, and slowly blinks two sets of doe-y wet eyes, pausing in its chewing.
Sam suddenly feels full of energy, like the pretend-magic-coke, but with this feeling comes a noticeable hunger, almost like the munchies.
She kicks her foot at the ground with excess energy. A small white stone with a natural hole through it bounces, disappearing through the double camel and into the blue oblivion, the sound of it colliding echoing with a metallic clang, and some soft sound, like whispers.
Suddenly, all seems right with the world, and everything makes sense. She knows she could do anything she wanted, end world hunger, end homelessness. Whatever she wants, she has the power to do it, right now.
“Woah, I feel kind of amazing, like a girl boss —like super confident,” but even as she speaks, her stomach is a hollow empty thing, hunger creeping in ever more intensely. She can push it away, though, if she tries.
Evan is holding her by the shoulders, trying to catch her gaze, looking so, so worried.
“Sam?! Sam, can you hear me?”
Sam looks at him, instead of through him like she had been, licking her lips.
“Hmm? Oh yeah, I’m fine, I just need a snack or something,”
“Sam, you like zoned out for like two or three minutes just now, whispering, like a—a fugue state,”
“Oh, sorry, I was just really focusing on what I—what Seeg was saying, but I’m fine,”
K bites their lip, brow creased in worry and says, “This is—“
K’s expression smooths out, eyes glowing blue “—Perfectly safe, guys, Sam’s right. They’ve just given Sam a taste of their power. They can offer more, but only if you stop interrupting; you’re being pretty rude,”
Jammer’s brows shoot upwards “What the hell, this—something got K,”
Sam frowns, impatient, crabby, “Guys can you like, shut up for a second, so me and Seeg can talk?”
“Seeg?” Evan questions, “Like Seeganpelater? You’re talking to the magical being, like the Qholye?”
“Duh, yeah,”
Evan and Jammer share a look. K has their gaze fixed on a point in space, a beatific smile on their face.
“Okay,” Evan says, carefully, “We can’t see them, and I guess we can only see them if they let us? And they’re here, right now?”
“Mhm! Sort of!” Sam nods, and instantly regrets it. She feels sick, and it’s getting harder to push away.
Jammer pulls his lips behind his teeth in a nervous gesture, “I don’t like the way this feels, and I don’t give a fuck what the camel wants, we’re getting out of here,”
Sam goes rigid, and can feel something in her eyes. She feels a powerful desperation, and a strength along with it.
“No! We should stay—It’s about my powers, like the mukbang thing at Gowpenny. Remember how everyone thought it was super cool and wanted to do it too?
If I accept the power Seeg’s offering, I can do things like that even easier,and I could do it all the time, everyone would have to listen to me, and I could influence more people, the whole world.
I could make people stop fighting with each other, there’d be no more war or anything like that,”
Jammer frowns, “I don’t think I wanna live in a world that’s only peaceful because you make people that way—Sam we need to go,”
Evan tries to pick her up bridal style, but she’s able to resist, clawing at Evan a lot like Teddy with his sweater. “Sam, please,”
Sam snaps, “I’m fine!”
It’s getting colder. There’s frost on the ground.
She continues as if she wasn’t interrupted, speaking quickly, “—I like the part about ending wars, but I don’t like the part where everyone is mind controlled, like that’s really weird and creepy, like I don’t wanna force someone to do something they don’t wanna do, I want people to wanna do something because they wanna do it, not because I force them,”
she feels so confused, so cold—she doesn’t want what the double camel is selling, but she doesn’t want to leave either, not yet. There’s still something here for her, she can feel it.
K smiles impishly, eyes still blue, their breath coming out as a cloud of vapor, “You’re suuuure you don’t want limitless power, the power to change hearts and minds, for everyone’s benefit? Even with all the good it can do?” They wiggle their fingers.
Sam feels that rush of energy and power again, insistent, feels that gnawing hunger that has her swaying on her feet, thinks about snapping her wand in half, or Jammer’s.
That would warm her up for one. She reaches for her wand, hands shaking, hurting.
She could go back to the hoopty and break Tabby open, take in enough magic to do anything she wanted.
She could give up T2.
But the second she thinks of that, it steals her breath. She doesn’t want that. How could she want that? She holds her stomach, gritting her teeth. God she’s so hungry. She needs magic.
But T2 is her familiar, and Tabby is a friend, a best friend. She could never do that to him.
Evan, Jammer, and K are her friends too, her best friends, and she doesn’t want to force them to do anything, or break anything of theirs no matter how much she needs the magic, doesn’t want to force anyone to do anything, not even a little bit.
To do it feels so horrible, wrong; she is horrible, wrong for even entertaining the thought for a second.
She doesn’t want to be. She won’t.
With effort, she digs deep, and straightens up, throwing off the magic with as big a smile as she can manage. Her teeth are chattering.
“Yeah, I’m sure,”
There’s a sense of increased air pressure, of bearing down, a breaking down of a wall.
The double camel fixes their gaze on Jammer. Jammer’s eyes go blue, and his breathing relaxes. She can see his breath coming out in even puffs, “Fine, suit yourself,”
he says, scuffing a foot at a clump of ice, affecting an overly casual manner.
Jammer continues, “They don’t know why you’re denying this part of you, denying your nature—maybe when you need more power—which is gonna happen soon—they can work something out with you,”
When he looks into Sam’s eyes, she knows what he could do, what he woulddo, under Seegenpelater’s influence.
Evan catches the look on Jammer’s face, horrified for just a moment before the double camel looks at him, too.
He blinks and relaxes, straightening to his full height. His eyes go blue, like everyone else’s.
Sam holds her breath, waiting to see what will happen.
The message Seegenpelater wants to communicate is pretty clear: they can do whatever they want, whenever they want.
But they want Sam to come to them.
“They’ll take their leave now,” Evan says.
The air pressure relaxes again with Seegenpelater gone.
A spasm crawls up Evan’s spine as the blue leaves his eyes, and he twists his head, flexing his shoulders. She can’t see anyone’s breath anymore.
Sam can feel a tight band of pressure around her head, a throbbing there, and she leans into Evan, shivering.
Evan rubs her arms, fighting off the chill that seeped into her. Her hands are freezing, slow, “Ugh, that was awful! I am, So sorry,”
she says, looking into each of their eyes.
K triple blinks, rears back slightly, and Jammer shakes his head, scrubbing a hand over his hair.
K winces, putting a hand to their brow, rubbing, “Hey, it’s okay, Sam, we know it wasn’t you.” They shiver. “Ugh, that was horrifying!”
Jammer groans in pain, shutting his eyes and says, “It okay, Sam. Yeah, that was scary as hell, like it was scary that it wasn’t scary when it should have been,”
Evan digs the tips of his fingers into his temples, face pinched, “I don’t blame you, Sam. I’ve had a lot of fucked up things happen in my life, even just in the last 24 hours—and that might be the scariest thing I’ve ever experienced…and I think Seegenpelater gave me a migraine,”
Sam nods, pushing away the guilt and shame that comes up, “Ouch, yeah,” throwing a hand out as the motion makes her a little dizzy.
“Let’s go back to the hoopty and—“
They’re already at the hoopty. They get the sense that maybe they blacked out during the trek back, and probably on the way there, too. They’re all a little more tired than they were before.
“Welp, time to go before anything else happens,” Evan says quickly.
Jammer nods “Yeah,”
K gives a thumbs up, “All for it,”
The hoopty takes something from each of them and in exchange they peddle into the storm, and onto the next island.