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He shakes his head. "Not my clan, no, not in the terminology of my world. Packs are... If a clan is an extended family, a pack is the chosen nuclear family.

What is a clan where you're from?"

"Hm. In a way, that might be more clear than what we have. But, it might be that things changed after the accords were struck. I've never asked Erik about that..." But he's getting off-topic.

"It's organized as Clans, Houses, and lines of succession. Where the Clan refers to all the vampires under a certain regional Jurisdiction. My ma- former master's region is a large swath of the Central Midwest from Oklahoma, Kansas, Arkansas, Missouri, all the way to the border of Chicago, Illinois. He is the Lord and arbiter of that territory. Within it, however, are different houses.

"Those, I suppose, could be considered more like nuclear families. But they can also be quite large like extended families. Each house has a head, and a line of succession that dictates a pecking order. It's all a lot more...political than anything. You can leave a house and join another as many times as you want. Some even choose not to join one at all.

"The closest thing to familial bonds I can think of is the relationship between Sire and Childe. A Sire is obligated to stay at their youngling's side and teach them for as long as it takes to make them independent."

Well, terminology confusion then, but he does recognise some things. Won't lay them all out for Max, partly also because it will quickly grow complicated and dip into politics that might get problematic fast if they get back to the other Kindred here. But he's happy to explain Clans, to a certain degree. Siring, too. Direct attention.

"Usually, a Clan where I'm from dictated by a common sire, waaaaay back." He makes a grand gesture, indicating a great passage of time. "Doesn't necessarily mean that anyone of that line is part of that Clan, but they usually are. You know - theory is great, but life is more complicated." And sometimes people don't manifest Clan markers.

He pauses, thinking. "You don't happen to know how old the oldest vampires in your world are?"

"I think some vampires in my world are better than others about keeping track of their lines. Maybe they would be better if they did it that way, but they don't."

In his world, the strength of a sire doesn't necessarily dictate how strong the vampire they turn will be. So, there was never any impetus to keep 'bloodlines' pure or any such ideas like that. Strength could be something built from the ground up. His master Erik is proof of that.

"How old?" Max thinks on that. "To be considered and Elder like Erik, you have to have ten centuries under your belt. There's a decent number of those. I've met them during business meetings. As for the oldest... the oldest vampire anyone has heard of is Mother.

"She is ancient, even by immortal standards. She was there and old already when humans were just beginning to develop. All vampires are descended from her and her thirteen children. They all have her blood in them.

"It was Mother who struck the Accord with humans, by giving them some of her own blood. Doing that meant giving them power over any vampire they wield that blood against. It was a scared bond of trust. IOPSA is the custodian of that trust between humans and vampires."

[Sometime in the week after the circus comes to town, Jackie will find a letter shoved under his door, made of a scrap piece of paper, and a longer, folded list.]

Hey, Jackie~

Just wanted to say thank you and sorry for the weekend. It was hot as hell, but I know I was kind of dumb. Thanks for looking after me, I owe you (another!) one!

I was thinking of doing this anyway, but it made me get my arse in gear: here's a proper kink list for you. I wasn't particularly detailed the other day, so I tried to be more so here. Obviously we can talk about it any time, but it's nice to have things written down for references. If anything major changes I'll let you know.

Also, cuz I figure you'll be as excited about this as I am, I have a shower in my room now! If you ever want me to fuck off so you can use it in private, you just have to say. I can make up a key for you so you can use it while I'm out and lock the door behind you if you want (we can check sometime if the door will open when there's a key in it from the inside so I can't accidentally walk in on you). Just let me know! Heaven knows I owe you enough favours!

See you around
~Rowan

[The kink list actually gives him pause, because for all that he's been talking about those things with Max and is trying to get his not!ghoul to figure out his comfort zones, and for all that he's talked about it with Rowan before, a list of this kind is not something that he has.

Not something he ever had, really. It was always more tailored talks ahead of time and strategic use of safewords or similar methods.

Not that this is necessarily a bad idea. It's just not a thing he's made for himself before.

A few days later, though - and this happens to be after Rowan and Max have had their conversation - he'll call the Brit:]

Hey, I've been thinking about your list. Are you up to meeting sometime and talking it over?

Oh, hey! Yeah, course. I said, anytime.

I got a couple of hours before I need to go out to work, are you free to drop over now?

Sure, I've got nothing else going on at the moment. Your room?

Now that sure is something that he doubts any Kindred of even remotely old age would ever do. No matter what.

"What was her reason for that?"

Yeah, sounds good! You know where I am, right? Spring Wing, look for my name. The door's open, so come straight in.

I'll find it.

[And sure enough, not much later, Jackie is going to wander into Rowan's room and close the door behind him. He has the list in one hand, along with some paper and a pen, but otherwise isn't carrying anything.]

Hey.

[Rowan's room isn't as disorganised as Jackie's, but only because it seems fairly sparse. There's nothing on the floor aside from a basket slid under the bed and a towel dumped in the recessed area of a shower set into one wall, but the bed is unmade, a book tossed carelessly onto the bedside table. However, the walls tell a very different story, and they're covered in pinned up sketches of Rowan's pack and family. They might not be to Jackie's skill level, but there's a level of detail that makes them decent; faces recognisable from picture to picture.]

Hey! Make yourself at home!

[Rowan seems cheerful as ever, although there's a touch of tiredness to the corner of their eyes. They don't bother to rise, though, sitting cross legged on the bed as they indicate the chair, only recently relieved of a stack of clothes which are now hidden in the wardrobe.]

How've you been?

No different from normal, [he answers, though not fully there - he doesn't hide that his eyes are first drawn to the shower, and then to the sketches on the walls.

...which is why he comes over to the chair, but then lingers, looking back towards the sketches.] Can I look? [He is, for once, simply plain curious, without any second thoughts and considerations to the request.]

Yeah, 'course. [Rowan smiles, welcomingly.]

It's my friends and family. I don't have any pictures of them, so when I ain't got nothing else to do... [They shrug lightly.]

[He puts down what he was carrying and wanders over to look at the pictures. He eyes everything with interest.

Mothers, he figures, or similar figures. Siblings, probably, going by faint resemblances with the older women.

Then there's one child that looks different from the teenagers but resembles a woman that's a bit older than Rowan, and he stops in front of her for a while. She reminds him of Elle, and he never thought he would miss the young-old girl who shares his siring heritage. But now, suddenly, he thinks that so much here would be easier if she was around. Not that she would be, he doesn't think - her apparent age would lock her out of here, he's pretty sure of that. Still, she was a hack at manipulation and moulding her surroundings according to her wishes.

His eyes come to rest on the young woman who resembles her and thinks, she could do a clothing trade with Charley and nobody would notice - but they don't really look alike - and then his eyes travel on to a young woman who reminds him of Olivia. Maybe Leila looked like that when she was physically younger, too.

And he stops himself at that thought, because it's getting ridiculous. It's like when he saw Annika in Ren. He's just looking for reminders where there's nothing proper to see. ...Except for the kid. She really does remind him of Elle. His eyes are drawn back to her.]

[As Jackie gets drawn into the sketches, Rowan does actually rise, unfolding their slim legs and coming up along side him.]

That's Revvie, Ami's daughter. [They indicate another picture above the desk that shows the pair of them together.] She's cute, right? [But Jackie said that he was an only sibling.]

She is. [He doesn't sound entirely convinced, but that's because he's still thinking of Elle - and then shakes his head, trying to dislodge that association and not bring his feelings about Elle into this conversation.]

She reminds me of Elle, [he explains his tone, hoping that that will stop a misunderstanding] who was... well, is. Back where I'm from. [He extends a hand in a one-armed shrugging gesture.] She's a part of my friends group back home, little sister of one of the others who just dropped in with us and really is calling the shots half the time. Prodigy student of a teacher who rejected me when I tried to pick up the violin back in the day, something about me not having enough talent. I never picked up any instrument after that, so that's... a point of contention for me that's really not her fault. Always makes it weird, though.

I don't know what kind of kid Revvie is, but Elle sure knows how cute she is and uses it for evil. [He grins, indicating that he's joking, even though - well, a lot of things that Elle uses her ten-year-old looks for, many people would call evil.]

"The cruisades," Max answers solemly, "Humans were hunting vampires almosty as brutally as the vampires were hunting humans. It was turning into an ugly, bloody conflict.

"I think, maybe, It broke her heart to see her children falling to the beast like that. She wanted them to remember their humanity... I don't know. Whatever her reason, it worked. It's sometimes an uneasy peace, but it has held all this time." As for Mother, no one has seen her since.

[Ah, that explains it. Rowan smiles and nods, taking in the additional information about Jackie's life back home.]

Nah, Revvie's just a sweetheart. The worst she does is get under your feet sometimes, and maybe a tantrum every now and again. [And that's understandable, since for so many years she was more or less cooped up inside. Their tone is a little drawn, though, buried under fondness. They miss her.]

[His eyes still are on the girl, but then wander back to the whole wall.] ...I should see if I can get some pictures of my friends.

[Not Elle, he doesn't so much care about his current pack past the obvious ways in which he does care. Vinculum bond and all. But his old pack... He did have pictures of them on him no matter how small his luggage, they just didn't make their way here.]

...but that's not why I came here. [He turns to Rowan.] You made me a list?

[Rowan nods in agreement. They're hoping that they'll be able to get their phone back from their patron soon, they're starting to get desperate for it. Thus the sketches.]

Right. It wasn't too much, was it? I was writing one out for Max and Lucas so I figured it didn't take much to do another copy for you too. I know I was kind of vague the other day, 'cos as much as I know the rules and stuff, I've not thought about the options a lot.

It wasn't too much at all. I just don't have one that I can return to you, and since I'm ...limited in many ways anyway, I figured the easiest way to go about this would be to just take yours and talk about that, add what I gotta say about myself while we're at it.

If you wrote ones for Max and Lucas, I guess that's where the options that... wouldn't work for me keeping on all my clothes come from. [So that is cleared up.]

For your hard nos, that's pretty much my list too for what I would want to do to someone - and then add, of course, that I would not want to have you touch me anywhere where there's normally clothes.

What do you mean by anything with teeth that's not biting?

Okay, that's good, I didn't know if I was getting ahead of myself.

[Rowan crosses back over to the bed and sits down there. They hesitate for a moment, before offering Jackie a smile.]

Actually, before we talk about all of that, can we talk about Max? [Better to get this over and done with, before they get any hopes up about what they might get a chance to play out with Jackie.] He told me about the journal you want him to write. I know what you meant by it, but you realise the people he sleeps with really can't consent to that?

[...that's not a conversation he expected. He falls quiet for a moment, cocking his head, and then puts the list down on the floor, pulls his knees up to his chest, and bobs forward on his feet until he's crouching on the front of the chair.]

What do you think I meant by it?

You're trying to get him to actually work through stuff, right? He told me about his old master and what he did to him. And I know that stuff's messed him up, that he - Erik, the master - used a collar against him.

[Rowan pauses for a moment, and then reaches over to the beside table, pulling out a card from the drawer and holding it up. It's one of the ones that Jackie made for Max.] The fact that you thought these were necessary makes me assume you thought the same I did, that he's been trained to not think of himself and to say yes blindly to anything.

And I get that going over stuff helps, but the thing is, even if this helps Max now, in the long run if people here found out what happened and are angry, that could be just as bad. For both of you, to be honest. I mean, I don't like the idea, and it's I've not bared all for you to see before. But what happens between me and Max is private, you know?

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