homeless_pard | We'll just see about this...

Entry tags:

jason au

We'll just see about this...

Who: Requiem and Jason
When: A day after the shopping trip? (long enough to set lights and get planters planted)
What: Trying to piece together just what the hell is going on here.

He was still braiding his hair when he stepped into the donor quarters. Sure, it was easier to just go to the club, but he wasn't always in the mood for the lights and noise, hence seeing if any of the donors were still available and willing...

...the donor quarters were always slightly brighter than other areas because the most common occupants were not vampires (not that the Circus was ill lit by any means) but it seemed even brighter than normal. Perhaps one of his meals yesterday had been high? It would explain the mild headache and sensitivity to light today? And would explain why he was loathe to go to the club. He was never at his best when post-drugging.

He tied off his braid with a leather thong then nodded, pulling his hood up. It was a 'necessary part of his character' the cape, and comforting besides, fewer people dicked around when it came to donating when he was caped. Something about the mystery and darkness inherent made them bend their necks to him easier.

Appearances. Feh.

He finally glanced around then blinked, those were...grow lights? Not sun lights, they didn't hurt, they were just bright. And plant troughs had been added, he could smell the damp earth and the tease of herbal scents just under the smell of bee balm blossoms. Well, that was new, he wasn't certain who had decided the donors needed such but he certainly wasn't going to complain?

He was half way to the planters, curious about what had been seeded, before he spotted the man on the couch. What was Jean Claude's pomme doing here? Their Master would have said if the man had fallen out of favor, and yet these were the general quarters. "...Jason?" Perhaps he'd brought a lover and fallen asleep waiting while said lover recovered in a room?

It seemed the most plausible answer honestly.

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He thought about that quietly. "I spent enough time under Raina to make me offer whatever I could to get a little of my own feet under me. So I get it. But I wouldn't have survived at all without help from strangers who just wanted to offer some kindness. And now they're some of my best friends."

Nathaniel. Stephen. Even Richard for a long time until the ardeur and triumvirate's power twisted his mind.

"And she has spent her life owing," he countered gently. "And attacked for what a woman may give bandits. Let her keep her tally if it helps against terror that will make her run from you." A suggestion.

"You are, likely, her first example of a kind stranger. "

Jason blinked at that and then his face darkened. "Wait, what? Is that what she meant...?" A sudden rush of energy prickled through the car, but it was impossible to tell if it was anger, frustration...sadness? Maybe a mixture of all of it. "I didn't realize..."

He swallowed, forcing himself to focus on his driving.

"Even in this era women often should not travel alone," he noted quietly. "I watched her as she spoke." While Jason had...puttered.

"Another reason I...worry. She may not take even gentle teasing in that regard well." And Jason was a bit one tracked in regards to women.

"She was upset, but I thought it was that Hunter chasing her for so long. She was so afraid of him...I didn't really think about what she said about bandits..."

Jason was oddly serious as he watched the road. "I thought it was just that old-fashioned upbringing; the things they told her growing up in the abbey."

"She has had much reason for upset. Layers of such. Therapy may be a very good idea." He was serious about that honestly. As a man who was once a doctor how could he not be?

"And a foundation of low self esteem, yes."

"Do you really think she'd go to therapy and talk? Modern people have trouble talking about their trauma; how would you even find someone she'd be willing to open up to like that?"

He was still at a low boil sitting there. Yes, the same could have happened here. Hell, the same happened here frequently. And not just to women. But she'd gone through all that, while being hunted and all the while looked down on for how she looked.

He was suddenly feeling very uncomfortable over the feelings he'd had when she looked at him.

"I think I may ask Lillian to meet her," he admitted. Older, comfortable woman in the medical field, if Khem would open up to anyone, well...

...Lillian was the best demographic he could think of. Their lives didn't attract comfortable females after all.

"Naturally I will be reporting everything to Jean Claude as well." Hopefully the man would spread a hands off order no matter how the vamps in the kiss fed.

Jason nodded softly. "Oh yeah, Dr. Lillian. I guess she'd be as good a person as any to try."

He slowed as they pulled up to the Circus. "Yeah, I'm sure he'll have more questions for me later, too. Probably good that I found all this out now before we had another chance to talk." He sat in silence for a moment. "What you said before...I do think she's fascinating. And she is gorgeous. But I'm not that much of an asshole...just so you know."

"And likely she can offer an avenue toward work Khemrys enjoys," he added, liking the idea more as he considered it.

Then, well, he was looking at Jason soberly for a long moment, "I think, Jason, that you are incredibly young ang far too used to having women easily. You would not have thought to ask the questions you learned answers to tonight, and so you could have hurt her, yes." Deeply. "I do not believe you casually cruel, simply...uninterested in depth."

Jason's lips pulled into a grim line as he fought the automatic urge to snap back. "I'm not going to hurt her. You think you know me, Requiem, but you don't."

He irritably unfastened his seatbelt and pushed his door open. "I'm going to start getting this stuff downstairs."

"Could, and deliberately would, Jason are very different things," he snorted. "Wording can be important." And this hearkened back to the 'very young' comment.

"We all have the potential to be incredibly damaging. With revelations tonight, your potential is slightly less so one hopes." But he could carry bags as well yes.

Jason shook his head, loading as many bags as he could carry and not bothering to look back. "Yeah, we all do. But just because I'm under a century old doesn't mean I can't read a fucking room."

Thankfully they saw him coming up the steps and the door was already opening when he arrived at the entrance, or he might have been a little extra at the door.

"And I love," he continued almost bitterly, still not looking back at Requiem, "how I've only tried to help her since she got here, but I'm the one you think is going to hurt her."

"...yet I had to explain her run in with the bandits," he pointed out with a sigh, being slightly less exuberant with his load, but then he had nothing to prove really.

The door open was useful though, and a murmured word had some others going to help unload the car!

"And again, Jason, that is why I am warning you. Because you are the first in her life to show such kindness your words and actions will carry more weight, by far. The fact you cannot tell warning from threat worries me."

He stopped short, his shoulders tense as he worked to calm himself. Why was he so upset over this? Over what Requiem might think of him? Or over what Khemrys might? When he spoke he sounded very tired.

"What do you want me to do that I'm not doing, Requiem? I'm trying my best, here."

"Be aware, pay attention, temper your natural tendencies," he listed simply. "Or don't, and I'll end up having to explain what upset her down the road." Just truth there really.

"This isn't a shallow situation, get to know the woman, you may need to study for that."

There was a long pause before he made the barest nod. Then he silently moved again towards the donor quarters with the bags.

He nodded back easily, following. Then...sighing when they got into the donor quarters properly..."I had forgotten how few cupboards there were..." And they would really have to pack carefully to fit things in the fridge.

Eesh.

Jason set the bags down to be unpacked. "We can get facilities upstairs to build something. But I'm pretty sure there's some bookcases packed in storage; I'll go see what I can find to store things on until then."

That weariness still seemed to follow him, but he moved quickly into the deeper parts of the Circus.

"I will....work on the fridge." Situation. Thing.

Oh dear there were leftovers in there, haphazard order out cartons and boxes and such. That left a general call of "ANYONE WITH LEFTOVERS IN HERE COME CLAIM THEM NOW!" He needed the space.

They'd answer or things would get tossed!

And as many had already cleared out for the night, it was probably safe to just start pitching things. Besides, there would be much better options soon...

Jason reappeared some time later, pulling a large wooden bookcase on his back. Or rather, the bookcase lumbered in, with what may have been Jason beneath it.

Yes, most things were being pitched and the ever present box of baking soda in the fridge was being...considered...when Jason managed to...slide in. Turtle? Would that be called turtling?

"That is...one way to do it," he mused, coming over to lift a side?

He didn't seem strained or winded when he stepped out from under the bookcase. "It seemed the easiest way: the damned thing is twice my size. But I figure she can have the dried stuff and baking stuff on the shelves."

And maybe even hang her herbs around it. Oh, they were going to have to get jars...

No, but awkward could get annoying! "Well, there is wall space..." the common room for the donors wasn't truly decorated beyond the small rug under the couch by the television?

Well and the herb boxes now.

"Should you tell her? So she can arrange things as she likes?"

He glanced at his phone. "I'll see if she's awake. You want to call upstairs and see if they have a delivery time yet?"

He went back down the hall to his room and paused, listening at the door. He really didn't want to wake her if she'd fallen asleep, especially since he knew she'd likely be up early again.

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