Private Finished Laying it on the Table

When Evan had first arrived, his sole purpose was to simply digest what was happening. Not even to understand--simply to accept. He hadn't seen his parents in years. It felt like coming home again after a long time to see them again, even if he was an only child in this universe.

But the longer he stayed, the more different things became. His parents were at first subtly different, and then increasingly separate people from the ones he'd known in his world. Above and beyond the standard my parents are people, not just parents, his new parents seemed far more interested in the shadier side of the world than his parents had ever been. He'd grown up on the straight and narrow, and he couldn't help but feel that his parents were, at a minimum, firmly in the grey.

Jugemu was also a matter for consideration. His family had employed a cleaning service, but they hadn't had butlers. They'd had a security system, but not bodyguards. The need for it, especially on a literal magic island, seemed unecessary at best and alarming at worst.

But it was the push for Jugemu to seen but not heard that bothered him the most. It was such a minor thing--why should that bother him more than any of the other shit he'd seen--and yet it bothered him just the same. Jugemu was a person, but it didn't often feel like it. He felt like a slave. He felt like what Evan had been only a few months ago, worked to the bone until he dropped dead.

And Evan wasn't going to have it.

He picked out a nice little restaurant, requested a quiet booth, and then took a seat with his very best I'm not having this shit face on.

"We need to talk," he said.

No. No no no no no. Evan was having a hard time staying calm as Jugemu offered his solutions, all of which were not just bad, but almost offensively so. He'd missed the point so hard he wasn't even in the same solar system as the fucking point.

"No," Evan made himself say out loud. "The opposite of that. I want you to interact with me like a normal person. Like we're friends. Not like a slave."

Because he was really, really not down for that. Feeling like he had a slave. He'd pretty much been a slave, and he knew what it was like, and even if Jugemu was getting paid--he was getting paid, right?--it still didn't sit right with him.

"I know you were probably raised with the whole... seen but not heard thing, but I don't want that. I just want... normal conversation. I literally don't have a single person on this island who I've known for more than two months. I don't need a servant right now, I need someone I can talk to."

Jugemu's lack of reaction did not bode well for the conversation. He didn't get upset. He wasn't happy. He didn't seem to react at all, and Evan frowned a bit at his question.

"Yes," Evan said. "This - whatever this is - isn't working. It's just going to lead to trouble. We need to figure shit out, and make it work in the long run. I'm not kicking you out or anything, but I literally..."

Evan paused for a moment, shifting from the discomfort of the line of conversation.

"I literally don't have a single person in this world I actually know. Like, really know. I have some people I've gone out drinking with, but they don't really know anything about me. I need someone who has my back. A friend. Not a servant."

Try. Try was probably the very best he was going to get out of Jugemu, even if he wanted will instead.

But things to share. It seemed like a good time to pour his heart out, but there were still some things he didn't want to talk about.

"Turns out there's at least one other person from my origin world here," Evan said. "Chloe Black, if you know her. We caught up, sort of. Didn't really cover a lot, but we're from the same place. I brought her up to speed, but from what she said I'm the only person she's ever run into from our world, and she looked into it a lot."

He didn't bring up the concerns she'd brought up at the end.

"She found out that it was impossible to go back," Evan said, before immediately deciding to head Jugemu off at the self-destructive pass. "Not that I want to, but I'm... curious about the how. How'd I get here? It doesn't really make sense to me that she couldn't even go back to visit despite all her efforts, but I could slip through by accident."

Suspicious. Really suspicious. And there'd been no one on his side who could have pushed him, which meant it was a pull. So someone on this world had most likely handled the swap.

In theory.

Or Jugemu. That was the trick. It was obvious to Evan that someone on Manta Carlos had organized the swap, but he wasn't quite sold on it being his parents. Jugemu was just as likely, and nothing that Jugemu said ruled that out. He could still be it. He could be playing along to frame his parents.

But Evan didn't really believe it. He wasn't ruling it out, but just from how they behaved he suspected it was his--or really Evaristus's--parents. They were good at hiding it, but Evan was around them a lot. He saw more of them then he even saw of Jugemu, thanks to there being several of him.

"But why?" Evan said, his fingers drumming on the table. "What's so important about me? Family honor?"

Jugemu was breaking down. That's what it was, even if he didn't want to admit it. The way he swallowed, his adam's apple bobbing. The way his hands moved. Everything he said. Evan was tense, just as tense as Jugemu was, and nothing he said really convinced Evan that he wasn't involved.

He didn't understand. Not really. He didn't understand why it was important, or why he was important. Replacing their own son with a doppleganger? That was an extreme, ridiculous action to him, and yet they'd seemingly done it.

"I'm still a Sideralis," Evan said firmly. "I'm not this world's Sideralis, but I'm still a Sideralis. I know the importance of family."

He wasn't going to leave.

"I'm not going back."

"I plan to find out the truth," Evan said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world. "As long as I don't know, there's the chance someone might try and put me back in my own world. When I said I wasn't going back, I meant I wasn't trying to go back... but it also means I'm not going to let anyone else put me back either. So I'm going to find out what's happening, and I'm going to make damn fucking sure no one tries to swap back."

Evan paused for a moment, considering the implications of his words, and then frowned. Maybe Jugemu still missed Evaristus. And Evan had all but said he'd never come back.

So he did his best to adjust his wording slightly.

"If they want to bring Evaristus back, that's fine, but I'm not swapping back."

"Well," Evan said with a small wave of his hand, "hopefully you don't have to do anything. I'm looking into things. Hopefully I can just... find an answer. Maybe it was an accident. Maybe it was something else. Fuck if I know, I don't know anything about magic. Not this kind of magic, anyway. In my world people just have powers, but those powers are just powers. Not... actual magic."

Not like the Sideralis of this world, who were a whole lot closer to mages.

"It'd probably be better if you stayed out of it, honestly. Don't take this the wrong way, but I'm worried if you start digging, they'll start to suspect. Meanwhile, I can dig wherever the hell I want, because I'm learning all this stuff for the first time, effectively."

He suspected Jugemu wasn't going to take it well. He was eager to help. Maybe too eager. He would probably take the order--because he'd probably treat it like one, even though it wasn't--but he probably wasn't going to like it.

Evan absolutely was overestimating how much they cared about Jugemu and his kin. The fact that Evan still hadn't learned Jugemu's father's name should have been the most telling point. He was... in so many ways an absolute non-entity in the house, seeming to vanish in the very room he was in, and appearing only when needed. Was that really what Jugemu wanted? To vanish like that?

Probably yes.

"I can handle it," Evan said, sounding very sure of himself, even if he wasn't quite. "But if I need you, I'll let you know, alright?"