33 Apocalypse Avenue, Friday Morning, 1/11/13

[bitten_notshy]

Exactly one year before (and 110 years, a continent, and a universe away) Jack had been waking up in a hospital bed to a world that would never smell or sound exactly the same way to him again.

Funny, how it seemed both like he’d been a werewolf all his life and like he’d been bitten yesterday. How he felt Sebastien’s ongoing absence as if it were a missing hand but made no real efforts to track the man down. Jack could find him easily enough – of that he was certain -- but he held back out of the fear the century had changed Sebastien and the bite had changed him, and any reunion would be too awkward to bear.

At 21, Jack was coming to believe there were some things it was better not to know.

He didn’t do anything in particular to mark the rather macabre anniversary – bite-o-versary, some part of his mind that thought he was funny supplied -- but it was very much on his mind as he turned on the living room TV this morning. Usually he didn’t watch TV except as a social lubricant, but he’d never found anything better at getting his busy brain to silence itself.

… or it was when the first thing he turned on wasn’t a report on a vicious dog attack. He changed the channel and found a Paris travelogue, changed it again and saw a Wendy the Werewolf Stalker rerun.

The island, he decided, was in a spiteful mood.

[OOC: Open post.]

Comments

[not_a_whiner]

"...God, that is so twentieth century."

Kaidan hadn't meant to interrupt Jack's TV-watching, weird as it might've been. But sometimes his mouth got the better of him if he saw something out of the ordinary (or... a particularly bathroom-tile-like floor), and the special effects on this...

Okay, 'out of the ordinary' might be charitable. It was enough to make him stop halfway into the room, though.

[bitten_notshy]

"I know," Jack said, after the seconds it took him to get away from woe-is-me and into an acceptable conversational mood. (In fact he didn't know, but he understood what Kaidan meant; the show looked pretty cheap.) "It's slander against my kind, too. I should start writing letters."

[not_a_whiner]

"Maybe it's a blessing in disguise," Kaidan offered. "I mean, they'd be running around looking for a werewolf that looks like, well, that. And, uh." Beat. "I don't know the show. I'm sure there's some way you can use it."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack smiled a little. "What not to do, maybe," he suggested, gesturing to the torrid graveyard embrace on the screen. "For example, I'm almost certain it'd be a bad idea to fall in love with someone who was sworn to kill me. Those things never end well."

[not_a_whiner]

"Depends on how badly they want to go ahead with it," Kaidan said, dropping into a chair. "Unless we're talking about, say, being sworn to the mob..."

[bitten_notshy]

"Now there's an interesting question," Jack said, grateful for the distraction. "I might take a werewolf hunter if my other choice was someone in the mafia. At least the hunter would be honest about it."

Jack and Derek might disagree on this point.

[not_a_whiner]

At least Kaidan's own distractability was occasionally good for something?

"And probably less likely to turn on you in the middle of the night." Kaidan paused, thought about it, and added, "I guess. I'm not really familiar with werewolf hunters."

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm not an expert myself," Jack said, shrugging. He knew what Derek said, but Derek was hardly an unbiased party. "But I don't know that much about the mob, either, so why let it stop me from having an opinion?"

[not_a_whiner]

"You could just say you'll burn that bridge when you get to it," Kaidan said wryly. "Or not."

[bitten_notshy]

"I'll take the not," Jack said, equally wry, and glanced away from the TV and toward Kaidan. "Not that it's terribly likely to come up, anyhow. How's your week been?"

[not_a_whiner]

"All right. New class is going okay," Kaidan said. He considered leaving it at that, but... well, since they were looking at terrible representations of someone currently in the house already... "The Alliance's given my likeness rights to a bunch of movie producers, which is not okay, but I'll deal."

[bitten_notshy]

"Seriously?" This was actually more interesting than Jack's woe-is-me-ing. "How did that happen? Do you get any say over who plays you?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Humanity has only been part of galactic society for about twenty years," Kaidan said. "We're part of the Council now, but the other species are still kind of... iffy... about us having that much power. So the Alliance decided it's in my and every other human's best interest to help produce a movie about the Battle of the Citadel. Just in case the galaxy forgot who saved their asses."

He snorted a little. "And... no, I don't get to choose who plays me," he said, "but I have the 'bragging rights' of being considered a notable historical figure."

[bitten_notshy]

"Huzzah," Jack said, with notable sarcasm. "Not on the war hero bits, that's actually impressive, but this" -- he nodded to the TV -- "doesn't do much to promote film as a medium."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan shrugged gently. "I don't know what kind of movie it's going to be," he said. "I could raise a stink. I'd probably get my name out of there, at least, but it won't help much, and it's a great way to piss off the brass, so..."

[bitten_notshy]

"And you did it," Jack said. "May as well keep your name in it. Fake names just make everyone confused down the line."

He was thinking, not without bitterness, about Sebastien and "Amedee Gosselin." That still seemed like the kind of thing his guardina might have brought up at some point.

[not_a_whiner]

"The thing that just gets me is Shepard," Kaidan said, leaning forward. "I mean, he didn't have any next of kin - they can do whatever they want with him."

[bitten_notshy]

Jack grimaced slightly. "They have to keep him a hero, at least," he said. "But the rest of it -- I can see why you wouldn't want it."

[not_a_whiner]

"I don't think it's any use hoping this isn't gonna be tacky," Kaidan muttered.

[bitten_notshy]

"If they stick to the battle it might not be so bad," Jack suggested optimistically. "The tackiest bits are usually the ones about the loved ones back home."

[not_a_whiner]

"Thanks," Kaidan said, glancing his way, "Now I'm going to be worrying about that."

[bitten_notshy]

"That's why you live with me," Jack smiled. "So I can think of terrible things you wouldn't come up with on your own."

[not_a_whiner]

"Thanks for the great service," Kaidan said dryly, though the corner of his mouth had quirked up with a little bit of amusement. "Anyway, that's my woes. How're you doing?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Class was an interesting mix," Jack said, mulling over where to start. "I think I may like teaching. Oh -- I was supposed to ask you about flying cars."

[not_a_whiner]

"Flying ca--" Wait, he'd heard that one before recently. "You been talking to the new people?" Kaidan asked.

[bitten_notshy]

"Josh Lyman," Jack nodded. "He came into the club. I can't believe I never thought to ask you about flying cars before."

In part because he hadn't known they were a thing, but now that he knew they were ... it was a hard concept to resist.

"He wanted to know if the house had space for a third."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan rubbed at his forehead. "I told him he couldn't drive one. Because he doesn't know how," he said wryly. "Should've known someone would ask about that eventually."

He took a moment to mull about the other thing, though. "Move in...? Well, he's a nice guy..."

[bitten_notshy]

"You could teach me how to drive one," Jack suggested slyly. (Well, he thought he was being sly.) "And I liked him? I told him if you didn't have a problem with him moving in, I didn't."

[not_a_whiner]

"I guess I can't really think of a reason not to let him," Kaidan said.

Slyly ignoring Jack's slyness, yes. "Sure. Why not."

[bitten_notshy]

"Sure Josh, or sure the flying car?"

This was an important point to clarify

[not_a_whiner]

"Sure Josh," Kaidan said, and shot him a dry look. "Do you even have a driver's license?"

[bitten_notshy]

"I'm offended you would ask," Jack said, reaching for his wallet to produce a perfectly legitimate-looking British license.

Granted, it had been purchased from Chuck Bass years before for a few hundred dollars, but most Americans couldn't tell the difference. Jack drove with it when he had to, and not badly.

[not_a_whiner]

"I'm not teaching you or Josh how to drive a flying car," Kaidan said firmly. (He was... slightly dubious about the legitimacy of Jack's license, but he didn't know enough to be able to tell the difference.) "For one, it's going to be absolutely useless unless you spend large amounts of time in my universe."

[bitten_notshy]

That was hard to argue with.

"... well fine, if you're going to be rational about it," Jack said, sliding the license back into his pocket before Kaidan could spend too much time pondering how exactly he'd gotten it. "Given I didn't even know they existed before this week, I suppose I can manage not to have one. But take me up in one if the chance comes up?"

[not_a_whiner]

"Fine, fine," Kaidan said, holding his hands up. "If you ever make it to my Vancouver, I'll take you for a tour in my mom's SkyCar. That okay?"

[bitten_notshy]

"Fair enough," Jack said, not wanting to press his luck on this point too much further. "I can see where cars zooming above the Fandom skyline wouldn't much match the island."

[not_a_whiner]

"We'd probably wind up crashing into the school if we're not careful," Kaidan said practically. "And the distance you could cover is... well, easier to take a rickshaw."

[bitten_notshy]

"And it'd get a little more attention if I took it into Baltimore than I need," Jack granted. "Just tell me this, are they as fun as they sound?"

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan could've brushed that off with I don't know, I grew up with them, but that would be kind of disingenuous.

"Yes," he said. "Yes, they are. Just don't ever let Sh-- I mean, it depends on whether you're driving."

[bitten_notshy]

"Less fun with the wrong driver, then," Jack said. (Which was not a surprise. Horses weren't much fun with the wrong driver, either.)

[not_a_whiner]

"That goes for most vehicles, though."

Boy, did Kaidan have some Mako stories to share...

[bitten_notshy]

Jack snorted his agreement. "I grew up with horses. Get in a carriage pulled by a horse who's sick or in a bad mood or with a driver who doesn't know what he's doing, and you'll wish you just walked."

[not_a_whiner]

Kaidan chuckled. "Okay, we had this one vehicle, for terrain exploration," he said, "The Mako. Came with wheels and everything. Had this feature where you could leap it straight up into the sky for up to like, fifty feet. Otherwise, it was real clunky to control unless you knew what you were doing. And Shepard-- Shepard never knew what he was doing behind any wheel. Puking in the Mako was practically a Normandy hazing ritual."

[bitten_notshy]

"Did you warn the newbies before they went out with him?" Jack wondered, also chuckling.

[not_a_whiner]

"Ash never let me," Kaidan said wryly. "She thought it was funny. 'A real kick in the nads' kind of funny. Of course, usually that was when she didn't have to come along."