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]

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."

[bitten_notshy]

"I can't blame her," Jack said, with a blunted edge in his voice. "It throws you off, people getting into your head."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, cause I'm doing it for my own amusement," Rose flared up. "Instead of because it's my duty. She comes first, and I'm going to use whatever I have to protect her."

[bitten_notshy]

And that was about where Jack made a mental note never to discuss being psychic with a psychic; it never ended well.

Which, he suspected, was on him.

He put a careful hand on her arm. "Rose, I wasn't accusing you of prying. Just -- I've had a psychic in my head. It's upsetting no matter what their cause. I believe that you do everything to protect her."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

She glared at him, not quite shaking the hand off. "Yeah, if it's someone you don't know at all. Liss isn't the same" Rose made a face, her shoulders drooping. "And it's stupid cause I can't protect her now anyways so whatever."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack wanted to tell her it was weird even if it was someone you knew, but had enough sense to stop himself.

"We can't change it tonight, anyhow," he said, as soothingly as he could manage without making it patronizing. "Should we do something else, or talk about something else? Or is there a way I could help you get home?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose snorted, shaking her head. "Couldn't get in, but thanks. St Vlad's is more of a castle than this school is." She shrugged, rolling her eyes at him. "It's fine. 'M sorry for getting whine all over your bed."

She'd've said emo, but she didn't know if he'd been introduced to that bit of 21st century.

[bitten_notshy]

He ran his hand up and down her shoulder, almost trying to turn it into a hug. "Rose, you can do that anytime. I've heard worse," he said honestly, "and I don't mind listening."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"It's still nice," she pointed out, her hand sliding up his arm, and she leaned into the touch. "And, hey, it cleans up better than coffee. So win there."