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The Perk, Wednesday After Classes

It was a pleasant day, and Jack enjoyed his walk into town. Being out in the fresh air -- or, in a cool shop -- gave him a welcome distraction from anything else he might be thinking about.

He got a cup of chai and took a seat near the front the window of the Perk, puzzling over his copy of The Scottish Play with half a mind as he watched the people come and go. He still wasn't sure he knew who Marshall was, but he'd figure it out.

[OOC: For one but it's a public coffeehouse. I'll be on SP for a couple hours this evening. AND it always said Wednesday.]

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The best part about having very few workshops over the summer was that Sookie had entire days to do with as she pleased.

And while taking a walk around the island might not be the most exciting way to spend that time, it was a nice enough one, and lent itself well to a detour into the Perk to get some iced tea. When she saw Jack, she gave a small wave.

Jack had seen her around. Somewhere. Welcome picnic? Give him time, he might even remember her name.

Not that he objected to new friends.

"Would you mind some company?" he asked, gesturing to the spare seat at his table.

She smiled, shaking her head. "Don't mind at all," she said, taking a seat at the table. "We met at the picnic, right?"

"I think so," Jack agreed, sitting up straighter. "It was all a bit of a blur, but I know I've seen you somewhere. It's Jack, anyhow."

"Sookie," she said, gesturing to herself and resisting the immediate urge to poke into his head. "Are you settling in okay?"

"Emmett's friend?" Jack said, placing the name. Emmett had mentioned her when they talked about artificial blood.

... which reminded him he should find Emmett again.

"I think I am," he said, answering her question. "I'm one of the time travel people, but it's not as hard to adjust as I thought it would be. And I'm getting to like some of the technology. How long have you been here?"

"You know Emmett?" she asked, smiling. "I'm a time travel person, myself. I've been here since winter, but I'm from ten years in the past. I understand."

Jack nodded once over a sip of tea. "He stopped by my room once. Hard person to forget." Was it an insult to call a vampire a person? Jack always felt a bit as if it was.

"How different was it ten years ago?"

"Probably not as different as it is for you," she said, tilting her head curiously. "How long has it been for you?"

"A hundred and ten years," Jack said, fiddling a little with his hair. "And my universe is a little different. There's no United States -- America is still colonies and Europeans only live on the coasts. We emigrated from Spain a few months ago."

His accent was English, though.

She peered at him. "Then you must be from some kind of alternate universe thing, too, huh? If there's no US and all."

"I'm from the same place as Professor Garrett, if you've met her," Jack said. "No U.S, there's magic and vampires, and some of the technology is different -- I think because the history is different."

He frowned thoughtfully. "You said too."

"Yeah, I am too," she said, nodding. "We've got vampires and stuff at home, but from what I can tell, that's not something that happens around here in this time."

"It seems like everyone I talk to who has vampires has ones that are a little different," Jack observed, leaning forward in interest. "What are yours like?"

[Fleeing, SP please?]

She crooked half her mouth in a smile. "Well. I've never seen one at home," she noted. "But they just want rights and stuff like anyone else. They came out of the coffin two years back, ever since the Japanese figured out synthetic blood."

[sure thing!]

"Emmett mentioned that," Jack said. "The synthetic blood part, anyhow. At home being a vampire is still a capital crime in America."

He frowned a little. "There can't be many, if you've never met one?"

[Sorry for vanishing so fast last night, we were having toddler meltdown]

Edited 2009-06-11 13:08 (UTC)

"There are," she assured him. "Bon Temps -- my little town, in Northern Louisiana -- is just real small. But there's loads of 'em in New Orleans, and even up in Shreveport, from what I've heard."

[no problem! boyfriend was demanding my attention anyway. :)]

"Novelle Orleans is still French at home," Jack said, almost apologetic. "There aren't so many of them at home. The old ones -- well, sometimes they walk into the sun. There aren't even supposed to be any in Baltimore."

From his tone, it was clear Jack doubted this entirely. He thought there were always vampires if you looked hard enough.

[Boyfriends, toddlers, kind of the same :-)]

She eyed him. "Do you mean they can go out in the sunshine? Or...they kill themselves?"

"Kill themselves," Jack said evenly. "I'm sorry. I'm being morbid."

He'd been afraid Sebastien would try something similar, the last few months in Spain. Evie's loss had shaken the vampire, and it hadn't been pleasant for anyone around him.

"They can stand a little indirect sunlight, but more than that and..." He gestured, a miniature explosion. "Morbid again."

"That's horrible," Sookie said, eyes wide. "I...why would they do that?"

"I don't know," Jack said, also looking troubled by the turn of the conversation. "I think they get lonely. They live so long, and people are always outgrowing them."

He wouldn't. He'd promised himself that.

"That's so sad. We don't really hear too much about stuff like that at home," she said, frowning.

"It's not something most people worry about," Jack said, debating if he should explain why he did to this pretty blond girl. "Maybe it doesn't happen in your world, if they're a part of society. They're still on the margins at home, even where it's legal."

"Well," Sookie admitted, "they're not really, um...accepted, for the most part. There's a whole culture thing with them, now. Like, there's sort of vampire groupies, and there're people who...do bad things to them, for themselves. But most people, 'least in the South, seem to still be figurin' them out."

"... people let themselves get bitten?" Jack asked, wondering if he was understanding her correctly. 'Groupies' was a new word, but he'd heard it in context enough to know what it meant. "By one vampire, or by ... anyone?"

"They aren't easy to figure out, either way."

"Um, I think there're people who just go to vampire bars to let themselves get bit. It's a real unsafe practice, in any case. And people don't, um, talk too nicely about those kinds of people," she replied.

"They aren't part of polite society at home, either," Jack said. Prostitutes, really, was what they were, but he couldn't say that in front of a girl who seemed relatively mannerly. "The vampires I've heard the most about keep courts of people to feed from, and that's seen as a little better, but not by much."

Jack had intimate knowledge of that particular arrangement, after all.

Sookie wrinkled her nose. "I just don't understand why you'd ever let anyone bite you. Particularly with TruBlood and all out there."

"It might feel good," Jack said, with what would seem like mild disinterest unless you knew him well enough to recognize his guard going up. "Or, in a world without TruBlood, it might be they bite you or they die."

"I guess I just never thought of humans wanting to let someone feed from them like that," she said, eyeing him curiously. His answer was enough for her to lower her own mental guards, dipping lightly into his mind out of curiosity, now.

Jack had wanted it enough to beg for it for four years before Sebastien decided he was old enough. That slid wryly through his memory, coupled with the sweet sting of his last bite (now healing on his thigh). "People want all kinds of odd things, I suppose," was all he said, though.

Sookie's eyes widened, her own legs crossing instinctively. "And," she ventured, "I suppose if you're in, um, an intimate relationship with a vampire, it's like, a form of affection, almost, right?" It was a guess, and a perspective she hadn't considered. "Brings a whole new meaning to the term 'love bite.'"

"A form of affection," Jack agreed, guessing that she'd guessed something. "Of course there are bad vampires -- mean ones or ones who just don't know what they can do -- but usually they don't hurt."

Or, more accurately, the pleasure outweighed the hurt, but there was no way to explain that without giving himself away completely.

She'd already gotten that, in any instance, and was more curious about that aspect than anything else. "And I'd bet eating from, um, a human you're fond of is better for a vampire than seeking out some other willing person, or an animal or something."

"If the human and the vampire care for each other, yes. They can watch out for each other," Jack said, memories giving his voice some fierceness. "Of course, at home they don't eat animals, so that might make a difference."

"The word," he added, "is courtier or courtesan. For the human, I mean."

[And I crash out again, night!]

Sookie read enough romance novels to know what 'courtesan' usually meant, and it made her arch an eyebrow. "How come they don't eat animals? I'd think that'd be a good solution." It worked for Emmett, anyway.

Jack knew what it meant too, which was why he blushed a little at the arched eyebrow. "It doesn't work at home," he said. "Living human blood only. I don't know why."

"Strange," she commented thoughtfully. "Well. I could get you some synthetic blood to offer to any vampires you might know at home, if you'd like me to."

Jason was going to think she'd joined some kind of crazy cult, at this rate.

"I might know one who would like to at least try it," Jack said. He'd mentioned the concept to Sebastien on his last visit; Sebastien had expressed a bemused willingness to tolerate the fad. "Could you get a pint or so a week? I'd pay, of course."

She nodded easily. "Shouldn't be a problem. I'll have my brother pick some up and send it to me. Do you have a brand preference? I think the liquor store just has TruBlood, but I bet if we hunt around we could find some of the others."

"We can start with TrueBlood and see if we need something different," Jack said. "We don't know if it'll work at all; no point in going too far out of your way. And thank your brother for me."

Edited 2009-06-13 03:15 (UTC)

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The Perk, Wednesday After Classes

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