In an early vignette Jamil tells Trey that Riddle and Kalim “are alike in their ability to cause ceaseless stress,” and we see many examples of Jamil spend much of various storylines being stressed.
During Firelit Sky it is revealed that Kalim would access security cameras on his family’s property to hunt Jamil down when he would seek out privacy on his breaks from being a child servant (“Don’t abuse your privileges like that!”), and Trey observes, “Jamil can’t catch a break even on his breaks…”
When Kalim says that their time playing together in the park as children were “such fun-filled days” Jamil responds, More like stress-filled…” and when Kalim reveals that he would win the games they played together Cater whispers, “C’mon, let’s be real. Jamil totally took a dive. Poor guy’s been driven half neurotic.”
Jamil shares a story of a time his sister stole his lunch on a day when servants were not provided with meals, leading him to make lunch for himself and others on Kalim’s family’s staff. Their compliments on his cooking reached Kalim’s parents, which led to him having to cook for the Asim family (Kalim has around 30 to 40 younger siblings), and how he is expected to make a family lunch for the Asim’s several times a year, with Kalim inviting even more people over (“And these were not the sort of people who should be served simple home cooking from an amateur”).
Jamil says, “You wouldn’t believe how hard I racked my brain in the lead-up to those lunches..”
During an evaluation at STYX Leona is immediately aware of a simulation meant to measure blot accumulation and informs Jamil, possibly affecting the accuracy of their results, with Idia saying, “Jamil’s stress levels barely moved,” and, “How did these guys ever overblot?”
In a scene from before the new school year’s opening ceremony we see Jamil stressing over Kalim’s running away to try and get the headmage to change the color of their robes with limited time before the ceremony is to begin, dismissing Jamil’s calls for him to return, running bodily into Malleus and providing a flippant apology, resulting in Jamil apologizing on his behalf. Kalim then listens to Malleus’ advice after ignoring Jamil and almost forgot his magical pen, which Jamil provides for him.
In another vignette we see Jamil stressing over Kalim unilaterally deciding to throw a party with less than 24 hours to prepare, assign cooking and decorations to Jamil and insist on managing a parade himself, arguing with Jamil until he relents.
Jamil then faces additional stress when he goes to Vil for assistance, has so little time left to prepare that he is forced to agree to prune all of Heartslabyul’s rose bushes in exchange for Trey’s help, and when Kalim declares that he will be releasing animals without any preparation (“This is all entirely too stressful”).
During the party itself Jamil is further stressed when Kalim fails to arrive for his planned appearance, leaving Jamil to adlib a way to keep Crowley entertained and, when he looks to start cleaning up, Kalim then falls off his magic carpet, with Jamil intervening again to keep Kalim for harm. Jamil says, “I-I thought…I was going to have a heart attack.”
Jamil experiences similar stress during Tsumsted when Kalim again producing his magic carpet to give a tour to his tsum, only to again almost fall, and again be saved by Jamil. Jamil describes the experience as “anxiety-inducing.” When his own Tsum leaves at the end of a separate event he tells it, “Today was actually more relaxing than what I’m used to -and it was all thanks to you.”
Jamil is also seen being stressed about a concert that Kalim threw after being told to cancel it, which results in Floyd leaving the Scarabia lounge “in shambles.”
In another early vignette where Kalim causes an explosion in Scarabia’s kitchen in an attempt to “alchemize giant crackers” Jamil’s first suspicion is that Kalim may have been attacked by one of his treacherous relatives.
Jamil silently tries to calm himself down and offers to teach Kalim how to do his homework, but his stress reaches a boiling point when Kalim says they ought ignore his homework in favor of repairing the kitchen that he damaged so that Jamil can prepare for a party that Jamil did not know about but is expected to cook for, despite Kalim also having had a party the previous day.
Jamil: “And the hosting? The cooking? Who was going to be in charge of that?”
Kalim: “Why, you, of course.”
Jamil tells Kalim that the party is to be canceled but Kalim throws the party anyway, telling Jamil he meant the party as an opportunity for Jail to socialize with others in their year only to then send Jamil away to cook for him instead of socialize.
Another stressful situation in the school cafeteria is seen in another vignette where Kalim eats both meals tat Jamil had prepared Kalim and himself for the day before: Kalim offers to stand in line for their food vy way of apology, but brings back cream stew for Jamil when he’d ordered cream pasta. Kalim then starts running with the stew in his hands as he had forgotten a spoon, resulting in the stew spilling and Jamil begging Kalim to stop. (Jamil: “We only came here for lunch. Why do I feel so exhausted?”)
The Firelit Sky event is a parade of stress for Jamil, beginning with Kalim insisting on bringing more people than planned. Jamil refuses to invite anyone himself, saying, “I wouldn’t be able to properly host even if I did invite someone,” leading to Kalim deciding to invite even more, and running away before Jamil can stop him. (“So we’re bringing six people after all. Ugh…this is turning out to be a real headache.”
Jamil become flustered during the car ride on the assumption that they have inadvertently offended Malleus, and more so when Trey and Cater assume that Malleus must be carsick.
Jamil stresses about Malleus getting wet in a fountain (“It would be terrible if we let the prince of Briar Valley go around sopping wet”), but in his hurry to protect Malleus from the water gets soaked by the fountain himself, courtesy of a barrier spell Malleus casts to protect himself.
After Grim jumps into the fountain (Jamil: “For goodness’ sake… I JUST toweled him off”) Kalim decides to join him and Jamil responds, “Don’t even THINK about giving me more work!”
Jamil apologizes to a sailor in the canal when they are scolded for Grim’s antics, and to Malleus when a vendor keeps dangling ice cream out of Malleus’ reach (Jamil: “АAАННН! I am SO SORRY”).
Najma’s appearance is also stressful for Jamil, rendering him momentarily speechless. The situation worsens when he tries to send her home only for Cater to invite her to join their group instead, with everyone then joining in to pressure Jamil into relenting (Trey: “It’s not every day we get to see Jamil all flustered.”).
Najma then soon comments on Malleus’ strange headwear, again panicking Jamil, and again when she teases him about having baby pictures of him when she doesn’t.
Later Malleus disappears from the group, further contributing to Jamil’s stress. At the end of the event he says, “I do a high-pressure job every day,” a sentiment that is echoed in Glorious Masquerade when he tells Deuce, “This is nothing compared to what I usually deal with.”
Jamil is stressed even in his own dream of Book 7, with Ortho explaining, “Kalim is a source of stress for him, just like Neige is to Vil. But Kalim exerts an outsized influence over Jamil’s personality and capabilities in reality…Removing a figure that influential would make the dream more prone to major paradoxes.”
We see examples of Kalim causing Jamil stress throughout various events: Kalim unilaterally goes into town without apparently having informed Jamil and runs into Ace, who says, “Poor Jamil… He said he was worried about Kalim and took off toward school on a broom the moment the basketball game ended…I’Il bet he’s at the dorm right now panicking about where Kalim could be.”
We see Jamil panicking over where Kalim could be in another event (Sebek: “You look distressed”) when Jamil leaves Kalim alone to get drinks and returns to Kalim having left with students of Scarabia and not picking up Jamil’s phone calls (“What?! I told him clearly and repeatedly not to leave the bench…!”).
During another event Kalim again does not respond to Jamil’s efforts to contact him, showing the Lantern Event team multiple messages that Jamil has sent and Kalim did not answer because he was busy eating (Jack: “You can tell how stressed Jamil is”).
Jamil is also stressed during Tsumsted, with Kalim volunteering his services to the tsum (Jamil: “Now hold on a minute! I never signed up for this”), Kalim ignoring his warnings, and then and then going the wrong way to the nurse’s office (Jamil: “Now I’m stuck tsumsitter-sitting”).
Jamil also joins Kalim in a panicked dash across the campus in pursuit of Kalim’s tsum, expressing relief when Kalim agree to allow it to go home, but then ends the event at a party that Kalim decides to throw (Jamil: “Good grief. So much for no parties today”).
The Cloudcalling event is also a stressful time for Jamil, who arrives at Kalim’s hotel to wake him up (“We’ve got a busy schedule today”) only to discover that Kalim is gone. It seems that Jamil spends a significant amount of time trying to find Kalim during the event (possibly the entire time), seeing him during his bout but not actually managing to reach him until the tournament is over, joined by other staff that seem similarly panicked (Lilia: “They’re all so sweaty. Must have been real desperate to catch us”).
At the conclusion of the Spectral Soiree event the ghosts ask if the students do not want to join their party and Jami responds, “I could afford to cut loose a little after all that stress.”
The party is not entirely stress-free, however, with Kalim suddenly ordering Jamil to have workings begin renovations on Scarabia Dorm the following day (“I’ll line the walls top to bottom with glass cubes. Oh, and cover all the couches and cushions in sequins! I’M GONNA BEDAZZLE IT ALL!”).
When Ortho begins explaining his various abilities Jamil provides overexaggerated reactions and flattery, indirectly convincing Kalim to to abandon his renovation idea.
The Nightmare Before Christmas event is similarly stressful for Jamil, with Jade, Azul and Riddle concerning about being trapped in Halloweentown for another year due to reason such as boredom, being held back at school and the food (Jamil: “None of you are worried about what ACTUALLY matters here!”).
At a sudden sound Jamil is described as suddenly having “gone rigid” and “standing on the tips of (his) toes,” and he reveals his stress at Halloweentown’s insect situation: “Where do they even come from?! You can’t look anywhere without seeing a line of them creeping and crawling..RIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, TOO! Do they style themselves as full-fledged Halloween Town residents?! I can’t STAND that brazen attitude of theirs..!” (Jade: “He must’ve been holding this in ever since we came to Halloween Town.”)
Jamil explains, “My heart skips a beat every time I hear a noise. There’s no telling when they might come skittering out of the woodwork…” and he soon after has a caterpillar thrown directly onto his forehead, which Riddle removes only to insist that he look at it (“WHOA! Stop! Get away from me with that thing!”).
Riddle abandons the group to recite a poem and Azul follows after him to ensure that they will not get sued, and Jamil exclaims, “What is WRONG with those two?!” Jamil’s stress does not get any better when Jade declares that they ought join the chase, and he unleashes a tirade on Jade, who follows with, “Those two are almost certainly putting on some truly hilarious sketch comedy. We should go have a laugh at them together.” (Jamil: “THAT’S NOT FUNNY!”)
Jamil is also seen to be stressed during Vargas Camp, with Floyd setting up his tent successfully within their limited time frame only to decide he would prefer a different tend in another color (Jamil: “*sigh* I question whether the Basketball Club can last the whole three days out here”). Grim reflects, “Jamil’s always gettin’ run through the wringer by his dorm, and his club ain’t lookin’ much different.”
Book 6 is also a stressful time for Jamil, who regularly tries to sacrifice himself in order to protect Leona (“I’m prepared to pay the price, even if it means my life”), to the point of being injured, and is regularly dismissed. Even after acknowledging that he is at risk of burning through his magic reserves he argues with Leona, insisting on taking on all the risks alone only for Leona to rescue him. Jamil also refuses to take a break during a rare opportunity to rest, saying he was unable to relax.
Jamil is then again rescued by Leona and again lectured for his flaws until he is finally goaded into a confrontation.
Jamil also seems stressed during Book 7, repeatedly trying to keep Kalim out of danger as Kalim repeatedly runs away without listening.
