talkative | ic inbox.

After the race, and after getting a good long rest, Max shows up at Jackie's door. He has some explaining to do and the longer he waits the worse he feels. Better to get this all cleared up as soon as possible.

"It's me," Max says as he knocks on the door. "Can I come in? I wanted to talk to you about something."

There is a moment's silence, and then Jackie responds: "Come in!"

He needed a minute to get to his usual perch, the armchairs by the empty fireplace, but now that he's settled he calls the human in. This time, he does not gesture for the other armchair, instead just indicating the key that, as before, sits in the lock on the inside. "Lock the door."

He's secretly pleased that Max came, even though he won't show it. He gave him this much time before he demanded that the man explain his defiance because he wanted to test him, see if he would seek him out in a timely manner to address it - and Max passed the test. Now they'll have to see if he passes the other one and can explain the defiance to the vampire's satisfaction.

By now, Max is starting to pick up on the pattern. He enters and locks the door behind him without looking, then walks to the second chair. But he doesn't sit yet. Not until he's told.

"It's about before, with Lucas. I'm sorry I had to take that tone. But there's something you should know."

"I should hope so." To all of that - the apology, the awareness that the tone was not on without excellent reason, and the information being given itself.

There's no invitation to sit, not yet. Not before Max has said his piece. "So what is this something?"

"I've told you that, in my world, vampires are public knowledge. Well, there's an organization that's been created to help police the supernatural, and help keep the peace between normal people and everything and everyone else, including vampires. It's called IOPSA."

His fingers fidget in front of him. This feels like ratting Lucas out. A part of him is uneasy with it. But...his master needs to know.

"Lucas is an officer of IOPSA. Vampires aren't his specialty, ghosts are, but he's very observant. More than he lets on. I worry that if we aren't careful, he might start looking a little too hard at us."

At the last second, Max decides to hold back one detail. Lucas is a Medium with some supernatural abilities of his own. But that's such a private matter, he can't bring himself to divulge it. He cares too deeply about Lucas for that.

"I couldn't warn you with him sitting right there. So that's why... I did the only thing I could think of."

"You thought well.

...sit." Or in other words, Max's reason for taking the tone he did was solid, and Jackie is thankful that he did do so. And isn't that just a lot of juicy information...

"What do officers of IOPSA do, exactly? And do you think he might do something ...rash, if he found out what I am?"

The offer to sit makes him smile. He settles eagerly into the chair with hands on his lap.

"Hm. It acts like a police force but is structured more like the military. If something supernatural is hurting humans, like demons, zombies, ghouls...those kinds of things. It's their job to stop it or investigate it. Beyond that, they do other things. Like, Lucas helps investigate hauntings. As I said, that's his specialty. "

That second question gives him pause. What would Lucas do...?

"I don't think he'd be happy if he found out I'm feeding you, but he won't do anything to you. Vampires are perfectly legal. They have rights and they have a place in human society. Vampires can feed on humans as much as is safe with no consequences so long as everyone is consenting and no one gets hurt. For the most part, IOPSA leaves them alone to mind their own business.

"Which means, if he does find out about us, all he needs to hear is that I agreed to it, and his duty to stop it should end there." His professional duty that is. Max isn't so sure about what duty he might feel as a friend or a lover, so it's better never to test the theory.

"I only wanted you to know because I know your secrecy is important to you. You have nothing to fear from him. He's reasonable and honorable. He wouldn't hurt you."

Jackie can read well enough between the lines that his thoughts follow the same lines as Max's - the man and Lucas seem close, friends perhaps or more. Distant family, lovers, long-term friends... do they know each other from home? He could ask. Max would probably answer.

For the moment, though, his thoughts are on how Max's world functions. Attitudes, and practicalities. It's all interesting, and now also of practical interest if due to multiple people from that world being here more dynamics are being ported over. One person adjusts; two or more people recreate. He's seen that in these kinds of places more than once.

...back to Lucas, though. "Lucas seems close to you. Is there anyone else here who is as close or closer to you than him?" Anyone else to worry about getting themselves involved for less-than-professional reasons? He's seen it before, family or friends of Kine that got into Kindred crossfire getting uppity. It is, if he's not mistaken, where the Hunters recruit a good deal of their members, but also just where inconveniences can come from in general. Not that he's generally been confronted with issues he created, being part of a fairly nomadic pack, but he's encountered human issues in response to Kindred actions on their loved ones before. He'd like to be warned.

"He is." Max is trying to keep his expression neutral but it's hard to hide the fondness in his voice or the way his eyes soften at the corners when he thinks of Lucas. Fuck it. He can't hide this, not even to try and protect Lucas.

Plan B.

"We've gotten very close." The firmness in his tone makes it clear that's not something he's willing to give up. "And I care a lot about him." So much that he would would be a lot less of an obedient pet if something were to happen.

To answer the rest: "Well, I don't know if you've noticed, but I've been very social. Rowan might be just as close with me as Lucas. And there's Michael, and Edgar, Vax, Corbin...Kesh..." The list goes on from there but Max is starting to feel fidgety about having to list out his entire line of friends (and lovers) like this.

"Uh, suffice it to say I've got a wide social circle. But, none of them have any idea what's going on here and I plan to keep it that way."

Rowan. Huh. Well, at least neither of the people that Max is this close to are strangers to Jackie. One of them in a more biblical sense than the other, but to follow up with the earlier misunderstanding, that might need fixing...

"Don't worry. You have given me no reason to hold any ill will towards either - any - of them." The words are focused on Max and carefully kept in the past with intent - anything could happen in the future, and it will be Max's fault, is implied. Even though, and he doesn't think that Max isn't aware of this, Jackie's ability to enact consequences is severely limited in comparison to the worlds that both of them are from, he's still many things - intelligent, manipulative, aware, sharp around the edges, physically capable, simply much more than his jovial surface - that Max has seen much more of than anyone else in Ainmhian. He might be limited, but that doesn't make his threat toothless.

Not that he holds any interest in having to follow up with anything like that. More trouble than it's worth, and he would prefer Max to be happy and willing.

"And I feel like I don't have to worry, either. You seem to be handling things well." Following up the stick with the carrot. Making it clear that Max doesn't have to worry - right now, anyway.

Max feels his spine stiffen at the implications being placed before him. If he screws up, his friends could pay.

He does know that the how might be different here than at home, but when he thinks of the kinds of things Jackie could do... he could still put ruinous holes in every relationship Max has. Words can be as sharp as fangs. That would be painful enough.

"I have my flaws," Max says with a slow nod and slight hint of pride, "but I do know how to follow my Master's orders."

He lets himself relax back a little now. The immediate threat to Lucas, or anyone else, has been mitigated. He can keep up his end to make sure it stays that way. Now that he knows the rules, he can play the game.

"By the way, there's something else you should know. About me. I asked for something from my patron that I think will make both our lives a little easier."

He nods approvingly at Max's words, and accepts them as a statement of intent and promise to live up to that intent. Good.

And really, with all that he's seen so far? Max doesn't seem to be trouble at all, no more than any person in the know would be automatically. Complicating things, yes, but worth it.

It's that thought into which Max's last words intrude, and he blinks in surprise and then raises an eyebrow. "What is it?"

"I asked my patron for...how do I put this? I asked her to make it so I would recover from blood loss faster. Now, it will only take a week, tops, before I'm back to new like I never got bitten at all.

"I know you need to take a lot more than I'm used to in order to be satisfied. Now, it should be a lot less of a problem. I won't even need to go looking for iron pills."

He whistles lowly. Okay, that's both useful, and impressive, and ...in a way, disturbing. The fuck, Max.

"Good thinking," he says instead, and grins. "That will make this all a lot less complicated."

Sorry, Jackie, his master trained him to be useful. This makes him more useful. He views it as a practical choice.

"I'm glad you're pleased." He smiles, proud of himself. "That's what I thought too. It made sense to go ahead and ask. If I could do that back home, I would have already. Then I wouldn't have so much down-time."

Who needs self-care when you have magic?

Jackie leans forward, patting the back of Max's hand in an approving manner - very well done, indeed - and then leans back with a thoughtful expression.

Because that made him wonder. "Your interactions with your old master were limited to feeding times?" That hadn't been the impression that he got earlier, but...

Just that simple pat on the hand makes his face light up. He is so glad to have pleased his new master.

"Oh, no. Not at all." He shakes his head. "I'm -was- practically his side-kick. He didn't travel without me. Didn't even like to sleep without me..."

Max decides maybe this is as good a time as any to explain just what life has been like so far.

"Let me explain. My usual routine most days is to get up around five a.m., do my fitness program, eat, then work around the house. Evenings are less structured. That's when I'd get to do my own thing more often... except on the days he's hungry. Or horny.

"If he feeds, then I have to stay in bed the rest of the day, and the day after sometimes too. That's what I mean by down-time."

Cumulative feedings, after all, means he's in an almost near constant state of mild anemia. He takes precautions with pills and strict diet plans (and the fitness regimen helps) but there's no getting around the fatigue that often follows the immediate aftermath.

"So you have reversed schedules." Makes good enough sense to him; if he had someone around back home who could watch their backs during the day, he'd make them be awake during the other side of the day, too.

Though, there's something niggling that doesn't fit, and then he realises what it is. Max just said that Erik didn't like to sleep without him. Hyperbole? Probably? But an odd placement for such...

"Hm. A little?" Max says, trying to understand exactly what Jackie means. "He does tend to sleep in longer than I do. I usually don't see him up until ten unless he has some kind of early appointment..."

Oh. Wait. Now he thinks he knows what the confusion is.

"Maybe I wasn't clear. He keeps a closer to human schedule. You know, because doing business with them requires keeping business hours during the day. I'm usually in bed by no later than nine P.m. on a normal week day, and he'll usually come join me around midnight or sometimes later. That's if he's going to sleep at all. Technically, he doesn't need to, but he says he likes to."

"He can do that?"

That actually breaks Jackie's stride a bit. He'd known that vampires where Max is from are different from Kindred, but that... is seriously surprising.

"You can't?" Max asks, just as surprised.

"Not back home, no."

He'd be more careful with that admission in his own world, but it doesn't apply here. And if it did... well, Max would be the person he'd tell to watch over his sleep, because he's as good as blood-bound.

"The moment the sun is up, I sleep like the dead. Some vampires you could wake up and they would be semi-functional if groggy, but ...not me."

"Oh. Wow. That...sucks." Oh shit. He probably shouldn't have said that.

"Sorry. I mean, that's pretty inconvenient." Not to mention how vulnarable it would make them.

"Did the fae make it different for you here?"

"Yes. Quite obviously," he winks and gestures towards the window, where the afternoon sun is filtering through the curtains. "It was rather jarring, I can tell you.

And it does suck." He's not going to reprimand Max for that statement; it's true. "Particularly where I'm from - means that in the summer, you get only a handful of hours of activity each day.

Which is why my pack liked to only go home in the wintertime."

Max glances guiltily out the window. Right. Obviously.

"Pack?" That's a different word too. "Is that your family...or...your group? We'd call it a clan in my world."

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