[PRP] A Lifelong Investment (Jamie & Renard)

[saedusk]

Sometimes it's funny how life takes turns you don't expect. Jamie was used to the big ones by now, the ones that impact everything you know and even what you don't. This new world was no exception to that. It left him trying to figure out who he was and, honestly, there were more questions than answers.

The start was small, but he found himself at Rider-Waite seeking a few of those answers. When he opened his eyes, though, what he saw wasn't brochures about animal biology or environmental science. It wasn't what he'd come here for. Instead it was paintings and sculptures and other works of art lining walls or set atop pedestals dotting the the room. Jamie wasn't sure why he was here or when he'd stopped paying attention long enough to wander this far out of the way, but it wasn't so bad. It was kind of funny, after all.

"A gallery, huh..." he muttered to himself, looking up at one of the paintings, "I think I'm in the wrong building."  

[shibrogane]

"It depends," said Renard, "on where you wish to go."

He looked older now, much older: in his early fifties, maybe, nearly twice the age of Sibyl Liberties on that stage. There was still that arresting androgyny there, though, a curve in the hips. Renard was small-waisted even as a man. "If you're looking for the environmental sciences classrooms, you'll want to go out and to the left," he said, pointing towards the exit he meant. "If you want something else, I'm sure I know where you should go."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The voice made Jamie visibly jump; his attention had been so taken by the painting. When he looked at Renard, his eyes were wide and clear and surprised. "How did you-" he trailed off, hands folding awkwardly at his stomach like a defense mechanism. In the pause, he considered the face he looked up to.

It had been only a split second in the void, but Jamie remembered the look he'd seen in those eyes. It lingered with him more than anything else he could remember about Renard or Sibyl, who he'd silently admired.

"How... did you know what I was here for?" he finally asked. Environmental science was the last thing on his mind now, though.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard didn't shrug. Shrugging was gauche. Renard did frown impressively. "I was given to understand you'd been to a memory of the first time I lived through the eighties," he said. "You once lived in my guest bedroom for two years."

He looked away. (This probably qualified as an admission of great emotional import to him.)

"You like fish," he said. "I always thought that was what you would've worked with, given the chance."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

It was an admission that made Jamie's hands drop, losing their defensive stance. His fingers played gingerly at the hem of his sweater where a loose thread was dangling. "We were runaways," he muttered, despite knowing full well it wasn't news to Renard. "Shiloh and I... lived in your spare room because things had been bad back home. There wasn't time to find out much else."

Or maybe there was. Maybe they hadn't used their time wisely enough. Jamie still harbored undue guilt over watching the memory degrade as if he could've done something to prevent it.

"You're... right, though. I want to be a park ranger." Jamie was looking at Renard even after he'd looked away. "It's kinda silly, I guess..."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"It's fine," said Renard. "You're not the same Jamie. I'm fine with that." He'd had centuries to be fine with it. "It's not 'silly'." He didn't roll his eyes, but he thought about it, and sort of almost did, but not quite. It looked like he had a twitch.

He said, "I think you will do well at it. But as you're here, may I ask you a question or two?"

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Jamie had no response to that reminder. No, he wasn't the same Jamie, but it showed on his face that he felt a bit bad anyway. "Sorry," he said instead, "I've been trying to, um, get better about that. Talking myself down, I mean."

Then he shook his head because he didn't want to dwell. Honestly, he had questions, too, but he'd hold back the ones about their past lives unless a good opportunity presented itself. "Thank you, though... If you wanna ask some stuff go ahead, but... would it be alright if I asked some things in return, then?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"I suspect they're similar questions," said Renard dryly.

Nevertheless, he nodded and said, "What have you done with the spell structure? The glowing rock you had in the void."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The spell structure. It was minimal, and what exactly it meant Jamie didn't know, but even having something to call it besides 'that rock' was pretty eye opening already. "I held onto it," he told him, "I have it somewhere safe." He brushed the imaginary dust off the end of his sweater, stalling shortly before continuing, "You said it was your life's work, but I... I want to know what it really is."

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"It was the outline of the spell to prevent my friends from dying," said Renard. He had lowered his voice; it wouldn't carry even in the open spaces of the gallery. "I had to study the illness, and address each part as it came."

He crossed his arms, scoped the area: no one opening the doors. Nothing to see.

"I would like to take a look at it," he said. "If you don't object."

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

Jamie wasn't sure if Renard expected 'somewhere safe' to be 'on his person at all times,' but the last thing he wanted was the stone as some sort of lure creating danger for his non-magic parents when he wasn't home. Not that anyone knew he kept it outside of Shiloh, Renard, and possibly Liam, but Jamie was nothing if not paranoid considering how many people had seen him with it in the void. Sometimes it kinda sucked to be so on edge, but he'd do anything to make life easier for the ones he loved.

"Here?" he asked, reaching into his large, koi pond motif messenger bag and producing a lockbox that looked only big enough to hold the spell structure. As of yet, the key was nowhere to be found. "Is it okay-" he looked around too, "-out in the open?"

Admittedly, Jamie was cautious about allowing Renard to see the rock, but he knew more about it than anyone. If he wanted to learn, it felt counterproductive to hide it entirely. And, well, Jamie knew what it was like to want to save your friends.

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

"They won't know what it is," said Renard. "It was a... revolutionary spellcraft at the time. I doubt that's changed." He held out a hand. That terrible look of hunger was in his face again. Against the dark of his skin, Renard's eyes looked bluer than the ocean bottom, almost lit from within.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

The look in his eyes didn't sit well with Jamie. It was just like back then, just like in the void. As much as he wanted to trust Renard—because Jamie was a trusting person despite everything he'd been through—he found it difficult. Even so, from beneath his sweater he produced a necklace and dangling from it was a simple silver key. He used it to open the box.

"I went back for this because I thought it was important," he said as he pulled the stone from the box. Like always, it pulsed. "You told me to be careful with it and I... I'm gonna keep watching over it." Jamie looked serious as he held the stone out, but hesitated before placing it in Renard's hand. "You'll give it back, won't you?"

shibrogane

 

[shibrogane]

Renard took it, cradled it carefully in his hands. "Yes," he said. He probed gently at it with his fingertips, and some kind of strange branching lightning lashed beneath the purple surface of the rock. "It's not good for me to have this. I've never done well with temptation."

He nodded to himself, though, at whatever he saw in the stone. He popped it into the air, spread his hands on either side of it. The structure enlarged itself within the circle of Renard's fingers: it looked like nothing so much as a pop-culture map of the brain.

"What did you want to ask me," he asked as he looked at the structure.

saedusk

 

[saedusk]

It took time for Jamie to gather himself enough to speak after watching the structure unfurl between Renard's hands. There were definitely dangers that came with knowledge. Temptation was one of them, but in that moment he was far more awestruck and interested than hungry. He could only speak for himself, of course.

"I just... wanted to know how to use it. If there was anything I could do with it. Anything good." His eyes briefly hit the floor and he added, "I want to be able to help this time."

shibrogane