Room 222, Monday Evening

[bitten_notshy]

When Jack decided he was going to do something, he usually made it happen, and the sheer perversity of technology be damned. And so it was that he came to spend Monday night relaxed on his bed, Count Orlok playing on a portable DVD player propped on a pillow in front of him.

It wasn't so different from the films he'd seen at home, really. Just .... longer. Longer and darker and who could possibly think vampires looked like that? But the plot was easy enough to follow once he recognized Stoker's novel. A tad ridiculous, but still easy to follow, and not much like Darkest Night at all.

He idly scratched notes on a tablet as he watched. He might claim they were for Mitchell or for Sebastien, but mostly they were for himself. The door was cracked so he could see people coming and going in the hallway, even though he had no reason to expect visitors.

[OOC: Open room post, yep. Nosferatu being out of copyright is WIN -- unless you're one of Murnau's heirs, of course.]

Comments

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Symmetry, Schmimertree. But Rose oh-so-graciously allowed him to have a bite.

"Coffee," she decided. "And then when they preach about me in church, everyone will have coffee instead of wine."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack sipped his coffee and smiled. "Would there be tea that turned into coffee when the priest blessed it?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Not unless you're throwing me up into Son of God territory," Rose said dryly, taking a sip of her own coffee.

[bitten_notshy]

"He never got to have any fun," Jack answered. "So no miracles. Alas."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"The whole saviour gig really doesn't sound all that fun," she agreed, finally leaning over him to get her doughnut. "So if you wanna turn water into wine, you'll have to get some grapes. Or just buy wine. That sounds easiest."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack took advantage of her lean to try to kiss her ear lightly. "Bought wine probably tastes better anyhow."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose smiled, tilting her head into the kiss as she came up with her pastry. "You could say that about a lot of things."

[bitten_notshy]

"... that they're better when they're paid for?" Jack wasn't following. It was possible that the kiss, and the effort needed to keep his coffee upright, were distracting him.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose laughed, sitting up again. "Less jailtime involved?"

He might not've been following, but no one said she was making sense.

[bitten_notshy]

"Don't tell me you speak from experience, Rose."

If she wasn't going to make sense, why should Jack bother?

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Nah, I had Lissa to keep me in line," Rose said lightly. "No jail birding for me."

[bitten_notshy]

"Ah," Jack nodded, and finished the rest of his donut before speaking again. "Can you ever talk to her?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"We email, yeah," Rose said. "Not really the same but-" she shrugged.

[bitten_notshy]

"Not the same," Jack agreed flatly. "I know how much going home helps me. Letters aren't the same."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Lucky," she said lightly, looking down at her cup. "How often do you go back?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Whenever there's nothing going on over a weekend," Jack said lightly. There was an internal wince; he shouldn't have brought this up. "Three times, so far. It takes almost as long for the carriage to get there as I can stay."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"And how do you decide that?" Rose asked, throwing him a look. But it was too ingrained in her very self that they - the moroi - came first, and even if Jack's mentor wasn't moroi, he counted, for Rose to take his decision as anything but proper. She looked amused. "Even if I was allowed, it'd be the same traveling for me. Except Liss' thousands of miles away."

[bitten_notshy]

"Whenever it feels right," Jack said, giving her a milder version of the same look. "More than once a month, less than every week."

He finished his coffee and set the cup aside. "Baltimore by carriage is ... not so bad, really. Four or five hours." His sense of 'not so bad' was skewed. "Would you have to go in an airplane to see Lissa?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose leaned back, half against a pillow, half against the wall. "Yeah, a plane to Montana would be that long. Or you could drive but...that'd be like days." She glanced at Jack for a quick moment. "It'd be easier if she were closer. I could feel her that way at least."

[bitten_notshy]

"Feel her?" Jack stopped even pretending to watch the movie, there. "Touching, you mean?"

Except it was an odd way to phrase the idea, if that was what she meant.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

She shook her head. It was weird talking about this, but it had just come out of her mouth somehow. "It's weird. It's called a bond - guardians and Moroi used to have them all the time back in the day. I can feel her thoughts and stuff. Know when she's in danger. But it's too far away here or something."

[bitten_notshy]

"Like a psychic connection, but only to her?" Jack asked, once he'd untangled that. "That sounds -- handy, for protecting her."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"I'm not psychic," Rose said quickly. "Not like the people here. It's just with her." Yes, Rose, that still means it's psychic. "She's always - she always used to be in my head. So I always can protect her."

[bitten_notshy]

"I don't have anyone at all in my head," Jack pointed out skeptically. "But all right. Not psychic if you don't want to call it that."

He was intrigued. "Do you know everything she thinks?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"You're not a guardian," Rose pointed out, giving him a quick smile. Even if she was the only guardian who did now. Shh. "Yeah, if I concentrate. Mostly it's emotions and stuff that come through on their own, but I can feel more too. Lissa's not so fond of that."