He has to lean against a wall, breathing through the adrenaline, once the two are down.

"Fighting is. Interesting," he says as his heart slows. It feels like a roller coaster sort of fun - the bottom of his stomach dropping out as some part of his brain screams and the rest roars. "I hear there's usually more in the center..."

Jamie takes a moment to clean himself off.

That was really intensely fun - I feel like I just pierced the moon and broke it into pieces - I keep getting tempted to ask questions about pacing but I think that I will avoid it, it’s not strategically important for me to know exactly what’s going to happen next - I don’t know what sort of bravery it must have taken, to enter in here without the ability to blind, to try to take on this kind of threat without magic in your hand, I’m not - 

- I really like you and I’m going to stop jabbering, now.

"I like you too!"

"Like, next in the dunj, or next after we get out of here?"

I keep getting tempted to go ‘exactly how long are you planning to rest, which direction do you think we’ll be going after this, what speed do you think we’ll be going at,’ and it’d be a waste of time to actually ask those questions - don’t bother answering them. I’m not accustomed to anything, but I’m exceptionally bad at dealing with not - regulating my own movement, I think. I’ll get over it.

"I'll be resting in short bursts only, probably less after this, I just needed a moment to adjust. You can offer opinions on direction? You might have instincts for this, I don't know, I've never been in one of these before."

He starts walking. "Right now I'm mostly following labyrinth rules - take a left every intersection so you don't get lost - though I'm tempted to start turning towards 'most monster' parts..."

Turning towards monster infested areas might be wise. If we do reach the portal stone, and break it, then we’re back on Earth, and it doesn’t matter whether we can’t retrace our steps; increasing our risk of not reaching the portal stone because we’re being too cautious about contingencies for if we don’t reach the portal stone seems - circular.

"The left turn thing's to avoid going in circles and so you don't miss stuff while going in circles, but yeah, I think I agree."

Into the thick of danger, then?

"Onwards!"

Turning towards monster gatherings, quite predictably, puts them in the thick of monsters!

This is unfairly fun.

(And Jamie is becoming substantially less paranoid about Connor’s potential motives, at this point, and becoming substantially charmed - it turns out that athletic men heroically thrusting themselves into danger out of altruistic motivations are attractive, or something. This may or may not have magical effects.)

Cooper's getting better at coordinating with him, and the blindness inducement seems to be spreading more aggressively, but it's marginal changes per. Still, by the time he's lurking out of sight of a gathering of at least ten there's a noticeable improvement over the first monster.

... Jamie is not going to distract Connor in any way while he’s sneaking around a probably-unmanageable group of opponents! It would be stupid. 

Sneak sneak sneak he is not particularly good at softening his footfalls, he always got caught by his parents when sneaking around - 

One hears him and alerts the other.

He is, however, decently able to run and therefore string them out for fighting since they're not all the same speed.

Jamie is very confident about his role here and it is ‘assist in stabbing them’. He accordingly assists in stabbing them.

(He’ll ask about which efforts have been taken to ascertain that they aren’t sapient, later, but as is he hasn’t seen any substantial evidence pointing towards that conclusion, it’s just a stray thought.)

(Cooper unfortunately would have to research that.)

After the stabbing happens, Cooper finds a monster-free little alcove, sits down, and says, "I'm going to need to rest for a bit, if you want to turn back human."

I would.

He'll provide the mental nudge that seems to help it along, then, while he swings his backpack down in front of him and pulls out a water bottle.

And Jamie will resume being humanoid.

”... can I hug you?”

"...Sure!"

Hugs! For what feels like a reasonable amount of time, even though he has no actual experience at hugging people and has to guess at what ‘a reasonable amount of time’ is based on vague concepts and innate muscle memory! 

And then he steps back.

”Thanks. Would ‘telling me about yourself’ be sufficiently restful?”

"Yeah! Um, not super sure where to start. I'm Cooper, don't really like my family name - if my old man had his way I wouldn't have any legal right to it at all, which uh sorry to get suddenly deep like that... Anyways, I live kinda semi-rurally, like I could technically walk to town but it'd be a long walk. Grew up on a small farm out in the woods, kind of getting in and out of trouble a lot as a kid. Some wild stuff. Uh, not the stupidest thing I ever did but once we were playing chicken - which is a game where whoever's bravest or stupidest wins - with a solid gate at the bottom of a steep hill. Idea was we'd ride our bikes at it, whoever braked so they stopped closest won. And then my brakes failed. I jumped clear, and mostly learned I should check my brakes before relying on them. The lesson of 'maybe risking a broken neck because there's nothing better to do isn't quite bright' took a while longer."

“I think - traits come in bundles. It takes a while for people to pick through them and find which they need to keep, and which they need to discard, and sometimes people take a while to get around to it. And I think that recklessness often comes bundled with bravery, that there’s some impulse towards doing that people need to redirect towards what needs to be done. And it’s commendable to have that impulse, instead of being the sort of person who sits at home and does nothing, even if sitting at home would be safer or wiser in common circumstance.

I’m surprised that I have opinions that complex when I’ve existed for less than a day, but I do.

- what are your hobbies, now that you’ve abandoned ‘nearly dying in order to kill time’ in favor of ‘nearly dying in order to save the innocent’?”

"Hm... I like working on things. Repairing machines, mostly - I fixed up an old ATV recently. Built a radio as a kid, still like listening in to the ham radio stuff. Keep dreaming of fixing up some antique car, but haven't gotten my hands on one. Mechanics is neat. What else... I hike, some? Probably need to do that more, this's proving I'm way out of shape."

“This is normally when I would tell you about my hobbies, I think, but I don’t have any yet. 

Do you ever go on hikes with other people? I might want to acquire the skill, when we’re done here.”

"Some! And it's a good way to get to know people, definitely."