Taking The Reigns

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Jacky lay down on the beach, trying to ignore the loud robotic pounding of Cass's robots as he read a copy of I, Robot he had brought with him. He thought the coincidence was amusing.

He heard the other dwarfers talking about Jaxx. He heard his name used. He refused to get involved. This would sort itself out. Things sort themselves out all the time. I'm certainly not involved, he thought. No sir.

Evelina came over. She's just passing through, he hoped. She doesn't want to talk, she's probably very busy.

"Jacky?" she said to get his attention.

Jacky put his book down and tried to appear nonchalant, forgetting to bookmark his page in the process.

"Er, yeah?" he asked.

"A lot of people are trying to... well, they're talking about... you see, the thing is..." she stumbled.

"Jaxx." Jacky said, knowingly.

"Yeah. It'd mean a lot if you explained what happened." she said, hopeful.

Jacky sighed.

"Well, he didn't try to kill me. He was just trying to scare me to safety." he said.

Evelina smiled.

"Of course, he could have just told me to go to safety instead of having me fear for my life."

Evelina frowned.

"That's the thing about it, really. Jaxx doesn't think." Jacky said, bluntly.

"Hey, that's not-" Evelina started.

"Mind you..." Jacky interrupted. "Had he not been introduced to us when he was, we could have been killed by pleasure GELFs. But he didn't spend much thought on the decision to eat them."

"Eat them?" she repeated.

"Indeed." Jacky said. He decided not to linger on that point. "The problem with Jaxx is that he's got power, but he hasn't the responsibility to use it properly. He doesn't think."

Evelina was silent for a time.

"That's..." she started to say, but didn't finish.

Jacky didn't really know what to say. But he had a lingering feeling that he had made things worse.
<SNIP>

Evelina thought about what Jacky said as she went back to helping Jamie after picking up some more vines. The sad reality was that Jacky was right. Jaxx had the skills of a great fighter but the mind of a child. Thinking was not one of Jaxx's stronger points. As Evelina flashed back to her adventures with Jaxx she remembered Jaxx preferred to use his strength to solve his problems. It wasn't fair that Jaxx was judged by the others for his natural failings. They all looked at Jaxx like he was a human. The truth was he was made to be a combat GELF with shark dna for crying out loud, and even though he lost his memory and taste for meat his natural instincts were to survive and protect what was close to him still emerge naturally. As much complaining as the others said about Jaxx not one of then ever seemed concerned with trying to correct his bad behavior. Perhaps they were just too afraid to say anything to him. As Evelina thought about what Jacky said she came to the conclusion that since Jaxx listened to her she was going to have to be the voice of reason in his life.

Evelina was terrified by the thought of being Jaxx’s conscious since she couldn’t face her past bullies without her friends the Rowdy Girls. After a sigh Evelina realized she didn’t have much of a choice. She was going to have to take the reigns of their relationship and keep Jaxx out of trouble as much as possible. The only problem now was how was she going to get Jay and Cass to put Jaxx back into his body? So far her charm failed and her arguments didn’t do much better. Evelina thought to herself, “What’s a girl gotta do to get a break around here? Maybe something will come up while I help Jamie.” Evelina brought Jamie the vines and continued to help him finish his projects.

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