And An Island Never Cries (IC)

[alderwitch]

Taylor sat down next to Lynn on the ground, folding her legs up under her tailor-style. She accepted the phone back and vanished it back into the void with a flick of her fingertips.

"Sometimes, we work together. I mean, I help him and he helps me out. We also still tend to do our own things, too, of course. We both lead pretty 'mundane' lives." Taylor actually made the air quotes sign with her fingertips around mundane. Leaning back on her hands, she added, "I've run into Dark Star. Wasn't ever close to Arrowhawk. Ace still shows up to hassle me often enough that nothing's changed there. As for Scarab, I'm giving her some time before I talk to her again. There was a lot of nasty things said that night, so it seems prudent to let everyone cool down."

[Avenger Assembled]

A black Lexus finally pulled up in the parking lot near the ladies, and Jack stepped out. The tall, elegantly-dressed men in the perfect black suit was a sharp contrast to the grim, crouching Avenger, but he walked right up to the two women with a confident look on his face. "Lynn. Taylor. Nice to see you." His arm went around Taylor's waist automatically, and he planted a kiss on her cheek. "Thanks for waiting for me." He shot a wary look at Lynn. No crosses. Good. "So, I understand you have some concerns."

[Heritage]

“Yeah yeah, my concerns, my many concerns…†Lynn sighs and rocks back on her heels. “Look, the number of questions I have is…large, but I don’t wanna grill you for three hours, and I don’t want you to lie to me, so I’m gonna keep it simple, okay?â€Â

“The main thing I need to know – well, actually there’s two things I need to know.â€Â

She ticks her questions off on her fingers.

“One, what are your feeding rules? I know you’ve got ‘em, otherwise Taylor wouldn’t let you touch her. And two…how many vamps in this town don’t follow the same rules.â€Â

[alderwitch]

Taylor shifted uncomfortabally at the feeding thing again, one hand going to Jack's back. She understood Lynn's need to ask, of course, but for someone as private as Taylor was in general, the whole conversation was more than a little uncomfortable. Except for the flags of color burning on her cheeks, she did a good job of keeping her face studiously blank at the questions.

"I'm not so sure that things can be made 'simple', but we'll give it a go."

[Avenger Assembled]

Jack gave Grim a long look. "Not every vampire in town follows my authority. If you see one who's acting dangerously, he probably is dangerous. I'd appreciate a heads-up about something like that, if the circumstances allow it. As for my eating habits and my relationship with Taylor, I don't see that's any of your business," he told her with surety he hadn't had a few nights ago. "If you trust me, and if you trust Taylor, that should be enough."

[Heritage]

"Not every vampire in town follows my authority. If you see one who's acting dangerously, he probably is dangerous. I'd appreciate a heads-up about something like that, if the circumstances allow it. As for my eating habits and my relationship with Taylor, I don't see that's any of your business," he told her with surety he hadn't had a few nights ago. "If you trust me, and if you trust Taylor, that should be enough."

Lynn shakes her head and smiles. "You're right, the details of your relationship are none of my business, and I hope you guys are happy together; heck, I actually like you, Jack."

Then she becomes very serious indeed.

"But your feeding? Well, that's a public health issue, Jack. The way I see it, you're a junkie who's addicted to people; sure, you provide a valuable public service in return, but that just means you're a mosquito who leaves a tip. You're still a parasite, Jack."

She turns and takes a few steps, gesturing as she speaks.

"I'm sure you both think I'm being an unreasonable, self-righteous bitch, and you're right, I am. Guily as charged."

The young shapeshifter spins on her heel to face them once more.

"But you have to look at this from my persepctive; among my people, blood is sacred. When we slaughter a cow, we drain it completely of blood, as it's stated in Leviticus: 'And any man of the House of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among them, who eats any blood, I will set My attention upon the soul who eats the blood, and I will cut him off from among his people.'"

She shrugs.

"Now I'm fairly sure you're not a Jew, so I'm not condemning you on those grounds, but I am saying that you are depriving people of their life essence, and I have a serious problem with that. However, if you're not killing them, if you leave them breathing, then I can try, for Taylor's sake, to imagine you giving them cookies and orange juice when you're done, and giving them cab fare to get them home safe, and a little sticker to wear that says 'Be Nice To Me, I Gave Blood To Jack.'"

Her lips press into a thin line

"And I can see you avoiding the anemic, and the pregnant and the people who are sick or on blood thinners. I can see this all in my my head, and I can see you and Taylor being happy together, and I can force a smile, and in time, that may even be a real one. But it's not going to be easy."

She sighs and looks down at her small sneakered feet.

"I'll be honest, that sounds like a lot of work to me, Jack; I don't see us palling around a lot or doing shots, but maybe I'm wrong, maybe we can work this out."

She shrugs again, jams her hands into her jacket pockets and looks out to sea. "That's it, I'm done; I've run out of bitchy things to say."

[Avenger Assembled]

What about a pig? Jack restrained the urge to make an unfortunate comment he'd only regret later. "Well, I'm glad we could get this far." He gave Lynn another serious, deeply probing look. "Vampires really aren't something you should mess with, Grim. If you don't know them, the only way to know if my people are trustworthy is to actually talk with them. There are monsters on the street worse than..." He thought for a minute, then shook his head. "I was going to say there are monsters worse than any human, but that's not true. The monsters are so bad because they _are_ human." He studied her carefully, then added, almost unguardedly, "My soul isn't something you need to bother worrying about. But I appreciate the fact that you do. Okay, are we square?"

[Heritage]

"Okay, are we square?"

Lynn shakes her head. "No, you're square, I'm super-cool." She laughs at her own stupid joke, shaking her head.

"Yeah, we're as good as we're gonna get for now, but it'll get better. Give me some time, y'know?"

She walks over to Taylor and smiles wryly.

"See, no one killed anybody, and we can still hang out; I'll just make snotty comments now and then, becuase I probably won't be able to help myself."

She claps her hands together.

"Okay, awkward group hug time, let's do it."

[alderwitch]

Taylor glanced between them as they hashed things back and forth, managing to refrain from wincing until Grim brought up the group hug. Considering she was the least invested in the emotional turmoil of the day, it did seem a little churlish to cringe into Jack's side. If terribly tempting. "Can we do one at a time awkward hugs instead? It's easier to get out of if I phase at inopportune moments. Otherwise I end up half in one person and half in another and then it just gets weird."

She did scoot out from under Jack's arm to give Lynn the promised hug, still rambling, "Not that phasing through someone isn't weird to begin with. I can't help it as a startle reflex though."

That alone led to occasional awkward moments. Fortunately, Jack knew full well what was likely to happen if he snuck up on her.

[Heritage]

"Not that phasing through someone isn't weird to begin with. I can't help it as a startle reflex though."

Lynn chuckles as she warmly hugs Taylor, gently patting her on the back.

"You are one weird chick, you know that? Not that it's a bad thing, of course."

She lets her go, smiling, then stiffens up slightly as she faces Jack, squaring her shoulders.

"Okay, C.H.U.D. muffin, get over here."

She gives Jack a firm hug, not as warm or long as Taylor's, then steps back, swinging her arms to loosen up.

"Alright, good talk! Uh, is anybody up for some grub? Oh wait, you have to get back to school, right Taylor?"

[Heritage]

Once the young lovers depart, Lynn just stands there for a while, staring out to sea. All this was a lot to take in, and she in't sure she'll ever get used to the idea of the undead roaming her city, evil or otherwise. She'll have to find out more, so she can make an educated decision about what to do next.

"Time to hit the books, I guess."

She takes one last deep breath of salty ocean air, and then turns to make her way to the Freedom College library, to start her quest for knowledge.