Jacob Davies (cryogenetic) wrote in reality_dome, @ 2014-05-13 19:39:00 |
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Sin was slowly starting to adjust to her new sleeping schedule, though it was still extremely hard to keep her ass in bed past two in the afternoon. Especially when Mitch was awake long before that and meowing for food and attention of some sort. At least she could stay inside when she was awake long before planned, though after today’s incident she wasn’t quite certain that was such a good idea. Mitch had crawled into her lap while she was propped up on her bed against the headboard, reading a book on her tablet. What had started out as innocent petting here and there had led to an actual cradling in one arm. That would have been fine and dandy, no witnesses to tell that Sin was rather attached to the creature, but there was something about the way he had smelled. She had set her tablet down to bury her face in his fur and figure out exactly why he seemed so appealing, but before she knew what she was doing, she had bitten into the side of her kitten’s shoulder area and had a small amount of blood rushing past her lips and dancing over her tongue. The taste was…better than raw hamburger that was for sure. About ten seconds in she realized what she was doing and tossed the cat away from her and onto the floor. He let out a small yowl and ran out of the cracked open door to safety. Wonderful. Now her appetite had wandered towards living creatures. Wouldn’t be so bad except she was being destructive towards something she actually liked. She was going to have to learn to control this nonsense before she ended up switching to humans next and actually attacking someone she didn’t mean to, an actual friend-type of person. She put on a pair of sunglasses and headed to the keep for an actual lunch against the eye-stinging sun. Maybe this would only happen if she let herself get hungry. That had been earlier today and it was long after dark had fallen. Now that she was alone in her room with Mitch again, she needed to get out and away from him for a while. After earlier, he probably wouldn’t fair too well if her stomach decided that it wanted him for yet another snack. It had been a while since Sin had hung out with Jake. Despite warnings of reanimated animals being on the prowl, and suspiciously close to the cabin areas, Sin headed out under the cover of darkness to go visit him. She could see much more clearly in the darkness than she had ever been able to before, which helped a bit to try and keep distance between herself and anything that moved. She’d prefer to not get close enough to see if the animals were a zombie or that of normal status because by then it might be too late to prevent an attack and she was trying to manage to get out of this week without any mishaps. After last week, she was done with the fuckery of the dome if she could be. If anything seemed to even look in her direction, she took off in a short jog to make sure it wasn’t going to give chase. Before too long, she was rapping on the outside of Jake’s new cabin door. ______ With the thermostats working and the temperature outside not quite cool enough for him to want to sleep with the windows open, he’d once again set them as low as they’d go. He was enjoying the constantly cool temperatures inside, and he wondered if it would be enough the next time they had a desert or a jungle or something too warm for his tastes. He also wondered if, like the TV and gaming systems, the thermostats were a temporary fixture. If he’d have to eventually go back to camping out in the freezer when it was too hot outside. Without Doug’s laptop this week -- the only upside to last week -- Jake had been relegated to playing what interesting games there were on the laptops. He was working on a few of them semi-simultaneously, though none of them were particularly hard to beat. They were a way to kill the time though, and there was always beating his prior score. When he heard the knock, he exhaled and clicked the pause button before setting the computer aside and moving to the door to open it. He was -- perhaps surprisingly -- dressed tonight. If one considered PJ pants and a tanktop dressed. It was better than just boxers, right? “Hey,” he greeted her curiously, wondering what she was up to or if this was just a random visit. “What’s up?” He prompted before lifting a brow and making a vague gesture in case this was a come in and chat rather than a drop by and pass along a message visit. ______ While Sin waited for the door to be answered, she looked over her shoulder to make sure that nothing had followed her or was trying to sneak up behind her in the darkness. Luckily enough, she was alone with just the regular noises of the night, if you could call them regular with the weekly change of them. Hopefully her trip back to her cabin would be equally uneventful but there was no way to know for sure. It might be nice if someone here did end up with the power of telling the future, though maybe not if they saw something horrible that couldn’t be avoided. The sound of the door opening made her turn her head back forward, a small hint of a smile twitching the corners of her lips upwards a hair as her eyes landed on Jake. “Hey.” She replied. “Just figured I would get out of my cabin for a while. Might as well come to, uh, check on you after last week.” It was a little late into this one to be doing so but it was as good an excuse as any and much better than telling him she was there to make sure she didn’t drink her cat to death. Sin entered the cabin when he gestured it was okay. It was cold but at least she was wearing jeans and a long sleeve shirt, never knew what kind of terrain she’d have to run through or what trees she would have to try and climb if she did come face to face with something half-rotted looking to take a bite of her, so it wasn’t as bad as it could have been. “Obviously you made it through.” He was still here. “I’m…glad.” She admitted, though her voice did drop slightly as if it were a secret and there were other ears around to hear it. If he left, Sin would miss him and the dome would feel lacking of something important. _______ “Check on me,” he echoed, a little amused. “Better late than never,” he teased her, given that this week was nearly over. This … remarkably calm week. Sure, there were zombies, but most of them were ridiculously equipped to handle a threat like that. And threat, he thought, was putting it lightly. They were slow, and unless they managed to get the jump on someone -- like rumor had it they had with Alex -- they weren’t even a remote threat. His brows lifted and he shrugged slightly. It had been close. Closer than probably most of them knew. When the thoughts of the cameras had gotten too strong, when he knew it wasn’t just people here watching -- staring -- but people he couldn’t see, couldn’t guess at. “Everyone did. What’re the odds of that?” He quipped in return before he gestured for her to have a seat if she was inclined. Though if she had come by just to check up on him, he imagined it’d be a short visit. _______ “I read once that fifteen minutes was considered fashionably late. Figured if I waited a few days then…” She couldn’t remember exactly where she had been going with that but it wasn’t going to be as funny as originally planned so she just let the sentence trail off. “Besides, if I had shown up directly after scenery changes,” Not that she could have if she wanted to, all the sleep she’d lost worrying over being alone had caught up to her as the fear seemed to ebb and fade and she had drifted off into a dreamless night of solid rest, “It’d probably have been even more confusing. Don’t want you to think I care or anything.” She joked right back. “Little bit surprising. I wondered if it was going to be enough to push anyone over the edge and make them resign.” But no one had and that was a good thing. Everyone was still here to do their part. Well, almost everyone. Alex was still missing last she checked. Sin took the seat that was offered, not caring if it did make her reason for being here see-through. “Do you think they’ll find Alex?” She questioned. It didn’t matter to her either way as long as in the end she could get Ches from whoever had him. But other people would probably care. Jake might. Besides, it gave her small talk to bring up to prevent a lull into silence for her thoughts to drift too far into wondering about the pulse in his neck and what he would taste like, even if her eyes seemed to keep going back to that spot as she spoke to him, quick glances before shooting right back up to his face. _______ “Is it still fifteen?” He asked as if this was a serious discussion to have. “Thought they’d upped it to twenty fifty or so years back,” he replied with a grin. “So you’re going for super fashionista then?” He quipped, his brows lifting. He laughed faintly, shaking his head. “Christ, I think I slept through most of Monday,” he muttered. Which wasn’t true, but he had slept more on Monday than he usually did. Naps a plenty. He’d had a busy week, all things considered, and he shook his head a little. “Oh that,” he said. “She apparently found herself yesterday. Dropped down on Jaime’s porch a bloody mess. She -- Jaime -- was sleeping it off when I went to visit Mike that afternoon.” He frowned a little. “Poor Jaime. They’ve got to be running her ragged this week,” he reflected. Between finding kittens and healing people … he was willing to bet she’d be glad to see next week. “Poor … everyone getting attacked,” he amended with a faint laugh. But mostly, as far as he was concerned, it was poor Jaime. He’d known her longer, he knew her better, and he knew she was the sort of person who’d give until she didn’t have anything left to. He wondered, a little curiously, if Sin was concerned for Alex’s welfare, and she couldn’t imagine it. The last he knew, they hadn’t exactly gotten off to the best start. “How’s Dahlia doing?” He asked. “I’ve been meaning to stop in and check on her, but … this has been a queerly busy week.” _______ “Oh.” So she was alive. Apparently Sin was going to have to argue over the cat with her after all and not just with…whoever it was that was her roommate. Sin hadn’t bothered getting a name because as of now he was still new and unimportant. “Probably.” If she was dropping like Sin did, then she probably had been spending a great deal of time dead to the world if she was fixing everyone. And that was without the added finding Jaime had been doing. “Gotta say, kinda glad it’s not me anymore.” To be fair, a lot of people in the dome were probably of the same mindset because they didn’t have to deal with her at all now if they didn’t want to. And Alex had to be extra happy because Sin wouldn’t have bothered to fix anything on her that hadn’t been life threatening, not that she knew what sort of condition she’d been in when Jaime healed her. “Maybe next week there will be less chance of injury and she can have a legitimate break.” Unless, of course, they also needed to find things then too. “She’s…Dahlia.” To be fair, Sin hadn’t really spent much time with her talking since they had been placed together. She was going to give her the week to get reacquainted to life without the fear they had given her before she went probing into exactly how Dahlia was doing and if anything had changed since last time they had an in-depth conversation. Hopefully they had and for the better, even if it was just by a small amount. If not, well then Sin would have to see if she could be of more assistance. “Out of everyone here, I have to say that I am also happy with who they stuck me with when they moved us.” She would be able to keep a better eye on her since she was the only one, as far as she was aware, who Dahlia had opened up to somewhat. Neither girl would have to pretend they were something they weren’t while in the cabin and both were accepting of the other. None of this was voiced out loud, though. “I like her.” She finished up, as if that was extremely explanatory on its own. “Do you ever get sick of being on your own?” Probably not because then he didn’t have to argue about the temperature with anyone or anything else he wanted to do inside of his cabin, but she thought she’d ask anyway. _______ Jake laughed softly. “I think everyone’s glad it’s not you anymore,” he replied, unaware he was pretty much echoing her thoughts. “She’s … you know, just a little more people oriented than you are,” he teased her before he exhaled a heavy sigh. “Maybe,” he replied. “I’m starting to wonder if we really get breaks anymore though.” He guessed they’d see. Maybe next week would have fields of wildflowers and horses for her to ride or something. And maybe it’d be cooler, though he was pretty sure they were due for some sort of temperature extreme. He nodded slightly. From what he’d heard or picked up on, most people were pretty happy with their roommates. Which made him wonder if they were somehow encouraging coupling up or deeper bonds or something. And what did it say they’d put him in by himself? “It’s a little fucked up,” he began. “You realize they’ve dropped our potential cast size down to 20 from 24? Makes you wonder why, if you’re the wondering sort,” he murmured. “What’s up with it.” He drew breath to continue before deciding there was no point in wasting breath on pointless speculation. He did wonder though. He shook his head slightly. “I never minded being alone. And if I want company, I know where the Keep is and where my favorite people live,” he added with a little smile. _______ “People oriented. I guess if that’s what you want to call it.” Sin laughed, the gleaming tips of her fangs making an appearance. She wasn’t offended in the least that people would rather look to Jaime for their healing. The only bad part was that, like Jake said, she was run ragged and this would probably be a continuing trend in the dome between challenges and exploration of the scenery. Someone was probably going to always end up hurt and she was too nice to just be able to say no like Sin would have. But that was on her head and not Sin’s so she wasn’t going to worry too much about it until the day Jaime looked really bad off. Then Sin might step in with her, probably unwelcome, two cents. “That is a good point. I don’t know if they could even make a week where everyone was perfectly content.” But they hadn’t really broken anyone yet so maybe as long as they made it look like they were trying to be nice…eh. “No. That part I hadn’t noticed.” There were other things she’d been trying to deal with that didn’t pertain to how many of them there could be in there at any given time. “They’re probably sick of having to bring in as many new people and trying to get them to learn their tricks.” Sin couldn’t imagine it was very fun behind the screen if the only actual displays of power were ones they’d already seen time and again while all the new people figured out what the hell to do with themselves. “Or maybe with the amount of people who’ve quit, funding’s running out.” Or something like that. Production value might be getting to the limited end because of too much turnover. Didn’t really matter in the end, she supposed, and just let it go. Favorite people. “Trying to say something?” She questioned teasingly. She was trying her best to maintain eye contact but there was still that little voice in the back of her mind that kept prodding at her to think about the way his blood might taste and her gaze kept sliding back down to his neck, just like it was doing again now. She was just hoping that each time she caught herself and moved her eyes back to where they should be that she hadn’t been staring at him like he was a prime cut of meat and she hadn’t eaten in a week. _______ “No,” Jake said. “I think there’ll be some weeks where everyone is some degree of miserable, and weeks where some people are all right and other people are struggling to cope. But I don’t think we’re ever getting a week any time in the near or eventual future where everyone gets a chance to chill.” Maybe. But he wasn’t going to bet on it. Not anymore. Not this late into things. He nodded. “Same number of cabins, but four of them are set up for singles. So that’s four people less they can accommodate.” He paused, and grinned. “Unless people start coupling up and freeing up bedrooms, and then some poor bastard gets stuck in a cabin as a third wheel.” Well, obviously some people had already started coupling up; he was pretty sure MIke and Jaime had been sharing a room since he’d come back. He tried to imagine being a third in their cabin and just … couldn’t. He’d probably spend way too much time harassing them outside their bedroom door, and he kind of grinned at the thought of it. “Who knows,” he murmured. “Maybe in another three months they’ll drop us down even more,” he continued thoughtfully. Maybe the first three months had been a sort of selection process to refine their criteria to take in people. And now that they had a decent, presumably solid group … maybe things were just going to continue to intensify. He laughed softly at her teasing, his shoulders shrugging. “I know who’s in every cabin, and we’ll leave it at that,” he returned, amused. He sort of kept his focus on her even as he turned his head slightly to see if he could figure out what she kept glancing at. Him? Something over his shoulder? He didn’t see anything though, and his brows lifted slightly in silent question, which he guessed she could opt to ignore if she was so inclined. _______ Sin wrinkled her nose. Third wheel didn’t sound like something she’d ever want to be a part of. Between the noises and the tamer pda in the outer parts of the cabin, or she’d hope for the sake of whoever got stuck like that -if anyone got stuck like that- would be enough to drive anyone batshit…probably quicker than the dome itself could. It did make her wonder how many people were pairing off in general though, and how many of those were to the room-sharing point. She didn’t pay too much attention to that sort of thing and other than Jaime and Mike, who’d been flat out stated were together, she was unsure of the status of the rest of the group. She’d seen Chrissie and Otis holding hand once or twice but she wasn’t sure if that actually meant anything or not. Or if the kiss Dahlia gave to Aiden had ever turned into anything more. That was definitely on the agenda of things to ask her next week, if she could find a way to do so without looking like she was prying. “If they ever move us again and I get stuck in that position, think I’m gonna ask to borrow your couch if you’re still alone.” And if he wouldn’t mind. She couldn’t say she’d sleep very well the first few nights but it would be better than being subjected to couple’s bullshit. “Do you think?” Would they be cutting the ones who weren’t so useful or just getting rid of empty spots not taken? To be on the safe side, Sin was going to have to attempt to have more social interaction, even if it was of the unfriendly variety just to try and keep some sort of eyes on her and stay in the running just to be safe. There were people here she’d like to keep an eye on and know they made it out alive. Sin opened her mouth to reply to his words but closed it when he started looking slightly over his shoulder, her eyes dropping to the carpet. Yeah, she was going to have to learn to get a handle on that. “It’s…uh…” How did she explain this without making him raise his eyebrows in either utter confusion or disgust? “With the fangs and the sunlight sensitivity comes the rest of the package.” She cleared her throat, hoping he would pick up the vampire reference to understand. “Blood makes me-“ Sin stopped and tried something else. “You look like you would taste good.” The words were slightly mumbled but probably intelligible if he was paying close attention. And really, it could be taken as a sort of compliment if you put into perspective the opposite being looking like you would taste disgusting like rotting trash in a dumpster. _______ Jake laughed softly at her expression, but he could relate. Some people had low tolerance for PDA, and he was just grateful no one (yet) seemed the sort to shove it in anyone’s face. He was more the sort to start goofing off and generally bringing down the mood if people were being publicly affectionate in front of him. He wondered if that would ever become an issue here, and he hoped not. “Man, I hope they don’t ever.” He did wonder if they’d move eventually back up to 24 spots, or if they really would go down. He shook his head, then shrugged. “I don’t know. I know they do repeat tricks, but I’m not sure if that’s a repeatable trick. If they’ll leave it as is but stop replacing us as we drop off.” Not that he anticipated any drop offs now -- anyone who’d made it through the week prior was probably a solid bet for the future -- but he didn’t know for sure about the new people yet. “Rest of the package,” he echoed, fairly certain he got where she was going, but kind of hoping he was missing it entirely. He laughed faintly, running his hand down over his mouth when she elaborated. Or clarified. The producers, he decided, had a remarkably sick sense of humor. Turn the one dome-publicly confirmed murderer into an actual vampire. Nice. He shook his head, turning his attention briefly toward the window before he set his blue eyes back on her. “So have you …” His brows arched slightly in an attempt to communicate the rest of the question. “Tasted anyone else?” He concluded finally, not completely sure he really did want an answer. _______ Sin shrugged. It hadn’t been the first movement, if you counted when they’d drug Thomas elsewhere when they gave her the ants and just left him there. For all she knew, they’d be shaken up and tossed around every time they got comfortable and used to who they were currently residing with. “If they do then it’ll be important that we try to keep as many people from resigning as possible.” They’d need each other’s powers eventually and if they stopped replacing the lost ones, the people who were here until the end were going to be royally fucked. Sin shook her head. “No, I haven’t sunk my fangs into any people.” She answered honestly. He hadn’t asked about animals and Sin wasn’t going to offer any extra information that he might not like hearing. She didn’t want him to suddenly feel less safe around her or look at her strangely, not after she’d worked this hard on establishing a friendship. “I don’t think anyone would appreciate me randomly grabbing a bite when I walk past them in the keep.” And no one in the dome that was still around, had Jane still been here it would have been another story, made her to the point where she felt like legitimately ripping their throat out. There was always the chance someone could from this point on but she had the feeling that those who put up with her would only be accepting of so much. A murder probably wouldn’t go over too well, no matter how pissed she was or how bad the craving got. Maybe she’d get lucky and someone would be shoved in here that everyone hated and no one would look twice if she snacked on them here and there. Raw hamburger helped a lot but who knew how long that could really last, especially since she’d now had fresh. Which reminded her she should check on Mitch again whenever she did find her way back to her cabin, make sure he still seemed alright. She hadn’t taken that much of his blood, but he was a small animal so he probably didn’t have too much he could lose with no repercussions. Green eyes trailed from the carpet back to his face, trying to judge his reactions and to make him see that it wasn’t as bad as it sounded. Yet. “I mainly try to not think about it but it’s hard. Kind of like the beginning of last week with the fears when they were just starting. Always there, bugging me, but not enough to make me lose all rational thought.” _______ “Easier said than done if no one talks to us,” he pointed out. Some people did; he knew Mike and Jaime had done a lot of talking each other out of it last week. But he also felt like there were some people here, some people who’d been here a while, who just … wouldn’t say anything. They’d just leave. Though he guessed those people weren’t connected enough to anyone to really have an impact -- which was kind of funny (but not in the ha-ha way) if he thought about it. But he didn’t disagree in the least. People here, now, who’d been in for a while had their powers advanced enough to be useful. Newbies needed to be taught, not scared off, and given enough time to develop their powers. And that worked not nearly often enough. Jake listened and exhaled thoughtfully. “Do you think it’ll be like the fears? Escalating to a point where that does become a legitimate concern?” He wondered if her tasting blood would make it better or worse, and he pursed his lips thoughtfully. If she did get to a point where she couldn’t control it, they could have a really bad accident on their hands. And since she was living with Dahlia, his concern for her becoming a victim yet again was present. Now that they were apparently both on nighttime schedules due to their light sensitivity, that made it a fairly deep risk. He didn’t think Sin would ever hurt Dahlia on purpose, but he didn’t doubt that it could come about accidentally. “Or do you know if there’s a way to … curb it before it gets that bad?” _______ “True. I think you’d have better luck with being told about it before it happens than I would.” Sin would like to think that the people she considered friends would say something to her first but there was no kind of guarantee that would happen. Hell, maybe people leaving wouldn’t want to admit it to anyone and would rather just be noticed missing after the fact. No one could be certain exactly what was going through their heads at the time. That was a good question, one she didn’t have a legitimate answer to. “I’m hoping not.” If it did she was going to have to stay far away from people she liked, or be drug away from people she liked kicking and flailing, and locked away somewhere until she…was that even going to be possible here? Sin wanted to promise that she had it all under control because he looked like he was thinking and she didn’t know if those were thoughts of the good or bad variety. Didn’t want to know either. But after what she’d done to Mitch, she was in no place to swear anything and she was doing her best to not lie to Jake. “Picking at raw meat helps a little.” Or downing part of a pack of dethawed hamburger before she realized what she was doing as the first time went. “Makes it sort of go away for a while.” Sin had thought it made it go mostly away but that was before she had tried to eat her cat. Telling him that might not last forever wasn’t going to make him feel any better so she kept it to herself. “If I had a volunteer…” Sin started and then paused. Finding someone to bite would be difficult, but not as much as finding someone she would be willing to bite. So far the blood lust, now she sounded like something out of a b-movie, hadn’t seemed to replace the tingly feelings blood originally gave her before all of this started. No, they had a nice partnership in her brain. That could make things awkward. And who was to say that small amounts here and there would suffice and she wouldn’t start needing more and more in the future? She couldn’t make that call without trying it. “I don’t know if there’s enough trust anywhere in here for that.” She mused out loud. _______ “Maybe,” Jake murmured before he grinned. “Probably.” While he knew Sin and Jaime were friends (or friendly, or something in that area), he also knew Jaime’d tell a lot of other people if she was planning on cutting and running. He hoped, anyway. He also hoped she’d come to him if she needed help talking someone else into staying. These days though, it was hard to find legitimate reasons outside of money, stubbornness, and principle to use as arguments for someone to stay. Jake nodded at her explanation, rolling his lower lip in his mouth as he considered what she was saying. Power downsides, ahoy, he reflected with something like amusement. “What if we …” he hesitated. “Caught you a deer or something? You think that’d work?” He was pretty sure he could down one with an icicle or an ice ball to the head. He hadn’t missed the comment about a volunteer, but he also wasn’t keen on offering his arm or his throat or anything unless it became a matter of necessity. If there were other pathways, he’d be interested in exploring those first. Or at least seeing if she was inclined to venture down them before they jumped right to human sacrifice. So to speak. _______ “A deer?” Sin questioned, an eyebrow raising at that statement. It was clear that was not her first choice in meals but beggars couldn’t be choosers and it would be better than nothing. But what if it was sick? She already was in danger of catching E. Coli off the raw meat, didn’t wild animals carry even more risk of diseases? And wouldn’t that be something, making it through all the weeks of hell to die of something as ridiculous as that. Was probably better than letting it go until it did get to the point where she possibly attacked someone, though. If it worked. Sin felt like she’d just dropped fifty feet on the totem pole though. She knew Jake was just trying to be helpful, point out realistic ways of how she might be able to manage this, but it didn’t feel that way. Was this how it was for vegetarians when people offered to just pick the meat off of their plate before giving it to them? “I guess I can try it.” She finally replied flatly. “See if I can find one on the way back to my cabin or something, sneak up on it.” Maybe next week there would be more appetizing animals on the menu. Or maybe it would always be the way it had been this afternoon, no thought about it at all other than the coppery taste flowing over her tongue until partway into it, or not at all if she just let herself run with it. “Thanks for the suggestion.” She tacked on to the end of her words. At least he had tried rather than just looking at her strangely and telling her it sounded like a personal problem. “It’s just really hard to get too enthusiastic about…the whole ordeal.” _______ “Or … “ Jake gestured. “Badger? I’d rather not go after something that’s going to kill me,” he said. He didn’t find the idea of her drinking blood remotely appealing, though if it was going to turn out to be something she was going to have to do, better animals than people. At least as far as he was concerned. There’d been too many bloody accidents in here as it was; he didn’t need Sin accidentally killing someone they both liked. Or … killing someone she had an altercation with deliberately. He didn’t miss the change in tone, and he exhaled softly. If push came to shove, he’d offer an arm, but he’d rather it not come to that. Vampires drinking blood was all well and good in fantasty books and Dracula movies, but in real life it lost some appeal. Maybe if he’d had some sort of vampire fetish it’d be different. But he didn’t. So it was just kind of squicky. “I’d help,” he said. “I’m sure … other people would help out.” If they weren’t going for killing blows, he could at least freeze the thing’s legs so it couldn’t move. But if they wanted to kill in traditional ways, he was sure he could borrow Mike’s bow. “I … bet,” he said. He personally wasn’t sure he could stomach it, but maybe if he was afflicted with her particular mutation, it wouldn’t be the issue it was. If something about what they’d done to her had changed her to want to drink blood, it clearly wasn’t gross for her, now. Though for all that, maybe it hadn’t been before, either. ________ “You don’t have to go after anything. It’s not your problem.” She stated matter-of-factly, namely because if he went with her to find an animal there was a chance he’d stick around for the show and Sin would rather not have that happen. She wasn’t sure but she imagined it would probably be extremely difficult to look at someone in the same light after you saw their lips stained with the blood of some random creature. Or worse just watching her eat, for lack of a better phrase in her thought process, it. Sin shook her head. “It’s fine. My issue, not theirs.” And she’d rather not owe anyone anything in here that she didn’t want to pay them back for, especially if someone happened to volunteer miraculously that she wasn’t even on friendly terms with. Help subdue a large enough creature and you get a bonus of watching your own, personalized gore fest. She rolled her eyes at the commentary in her head. “I mean, would you really want to eat an animal?” In any other context that would have sounded ridiculous because the majority of people did anyway. Cows, pigs, and the like. Just not in this fashion. That was going to be the worst part, if she really was reduced to indulging in random dome critters from time to time. The blood itself didn’t bother her at all, which she wasn’t going to go into detail on- this was probably enough for his squick level as it was without breaching the oh by the way I get extra happy from it too subject- just where it might wind up coming from. She’d like to think that someone, either here already or an eventual newcomer, would be on board for the idea but the chances of that combined with the chances of her actually wanting to put her mouth on them was rather miniscule. “I promise to not keep you updated with all the details.” And that playful grin was back, pushing her actual feelings and thoughts as far away from the surface as she could get them. Being open was starting to seem as bad as it was when she first came here now and it was so much easier to shut it all down than it was to work through it. _______ “It’s not, but I’d like to help out,” he replied as he glanced over to her. Mostly so it didn’t become a wider problem. If she needed help catching a meal, so to speak, he’d lend a hand. While he could argue that it might be her issue right now there was potential for it to become a group issue, he opted against it. Right now, he didn’t think it would serve any purpose, and he was sure she was aware of the potential bad scenarios. His brows lifted slightly, because he did eat animals. Frequently. Granted, they were in a form that wasn’t readily recognizable as former animal, and he more or less got where she was going with that. He did shrug though, glancing briefly away. “I don’t know. I’m not in your shoes. I’d … rather risk killing an animal than killing a person though,” he added softly. Maybe once she had a handle on it, after she’d experimented with it, worked out the parameters of the threat level, it wouldn’t be such an alarming thing. Right now though … the idea of her accidentally killing Dahlia, or April, or Mike, or anyone else here wasn’t something he was real willing to contemplate. He smirked faintly at her offer. “Thanks,” he replied with a slight chuckle. “I appreciate it.” He did regard her for a moment or so in silence before he exhaled. It was an interesting situation, and he felt sort of bad it clearly hadn’t gone the way she would have preferred (though he wasn’t quite sure which way that would have been). He was sure they’d all pull through it though, in the end. One way or another. _______ Sin was silent for a moment as she weighed it all over in her mind. Her own thoughts. What he might be thinking, though it was hard to ever be able to tell for sure. While she’d rather do this on her own, she didn’t want him to feel like she was being a cunt about it. “Fine.” She said after a very long pause. “How about this? I’ll try it on my own.” Like she wanted, no gawkers. “And if I can’t manage to catch…whatever is around at the time,” Because clearly this wasn’t going to just go away one day and leave her free from the cravings for a week, “Then I’ll ask for your assistance.” That should be reasonable enough for them both. Hopefully. And there it was, probably the real reason he had asked to help. He was afraid she would hurt someone. It was a justifiable fear, one that could very well happen, but they said more to her than what was actually coming out of his mouth. Another giant difference between the two of them. He cared if anyone got hurt. She only cared if she could keep her fangs out of the people she actually had some sort of investment in. Another reminder that she was never going to be like the rest of them, that she shouldn’t have bothered to try to make any of this work. There were always going to be clear cut lines drawn everywhere, matter how much she tried to blur them away. The problem was, once you started to care, to want to try, it probably wasn’t as easy to revert back to the same state of mind as before all of that. She didn’t have an actual reply to that. Sure, she’d like to tell him she wasn’t going to hurt anyone just so he would feel better and it would be so easy to give a reassuring look and say what he wanted to hear, but there was no point in lying when she wasn’t sure she could right now. It was easier to say nothing at all. “I figured. Plenty of people don’t mix well when blood comes into the picture.” Especially ingested blood. Even with all the things running through her head she was still able to keep up her end of the conversation in the same light tone. She’d had entirely too much practice with this pretending bullshit but she was glad for it now. Things wouldn’t seem any different from anyone else’s perspective if she kept at it. “Could have been worse. You could have lost your dinner the minute I brought it up.” Though if he had she would have shut up about it and things that had been said probably wouldn’t have been. “So points for that.” He did better than Tran would have. But that quick flicker through her mind gave her the perfect excuse to get out of there and back into the night air where she could breathe and process the jumble in her brain. “It’s getting late.” For most people. “If I’m going to try and catch anything tonight, I should probably get on it so I can get back to feed Mitch one last time. Otherwise, he’s going to be yowling for breakfast long before I’m ready to be awake.” Sounded good to her anyway as she rose from the couch. _______ Jake wondered a little if there was some sort of unspoken something or another to her compromise, but he also figured any sort of pushing for reassurance wasn’t going to fly here. So he nodded to accept her offer, regarding her for a moment. While he did wonder what was going through her head just then, he wasn’t sure he really wanted to hear, so he figured it was better not to ask. While he could’ve taken her words to imply he was squeamish, he didn’t think that was the issue. Most people, he thought, save those with particular fetishes or something were probably not actually interested in watching (or hearing about) someone ingesting animal blood. In other countries, maybe, other cultures, but not so much this one. “Thanks,” he replied with a chuckle. “I’ll start a running tally of points earned,” he quipped playfully. He wasn’t exactly surprised when she dredged up an excuse to take off, and he didn’t fight it. He doubted sincerely it was exactly late for either of them, but he’d let it stand. “Sure,” he said with a nod. “Good luck. I’ll probably be up a little longer if you decide you want help.” He nearly offered ‘or company’ but reasoned he, right now, wasn’t her preferred company. Nor was he particularly useful at night. So he’d let it stand and give it time. “See you later,” he added, watching as she rose from the couch. Part of him thought there was more to say, something else to add, but nothing was coming to him. So he remained silent, blue eyes following her. |