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Post by Orfeo on Nov 21, 2016 7:01:06 GMT -5
(( Jewel , sorry it took me a while to post it!)) Jailean tried to spend some time thinking about the request Avery made, but in the end simply let Jua handle the smaller specifics. He had trained her a little when it came to fighting - due to the more recent events her training was cut short. Needless to say, it was obvious to her and no doubt to him that she wasn't exactly the best fighter out there. Still a novice, really. It didn't mean that she couldn't take care of herself, but she was unsure of herself when it came to such a request as that. It was something... big. Unexpected, to be quite frank. She was just glad that for the time being Jua wasn't pushing too much for her. Maybe it was because, to them at least, she was still simply a human, and they knew that this was still all very new to her. But she did make it clear to Jua that when he needed her, if he needed her help with anything, she'd be there. It was always the case, from the moment that he and Leo rescued her and gave her a home. But Jailean did feel stressed out because of this, and thus, for the amount of time that passed since then, she found herself inside the the privacy of a room she had been given for the time being. Despite still feeling uncomfortable in the alien home, Jailean found some slight solace in her meditations. Each session, arguably shorter than what it should be, put in a place that wasn't the then and there. These small, brief, trances which helped in keeping her own powers in check served to create a sort of figurative wall around her for which she could hide behind and simply... unravel; take a deep breath and for a second feel like she wasn't overwhelmed. Too nervous and shy to ask for the proper materials she needed in order to perform each meditation, and too hesitant to take up an entire room for herself, Jailean found that these latest sessions, though comforting, were also incredibly frustrating. The candles were missing, the ambiance was dead, and she needed to cram an hour to two hour procedure into the span of five to ten minutes. It sometimes came to the point where she almost decided that they weren't worth it anymore, and in her struggle to come up with an answer as to what she should do, she'd end up huffing and hitting a fist against the only thing that wouldn't break: the floor. Funny enough, too, was that as soon as she finished one, her mind would go back to Leo, and if he was recovering. She ended up pushing that thought process as the fact that it was still all too recent a memory to see him dying as she desperately tried to press his wounds shut - his blood seeping in between her fingers, making it seem as if all her effort was for naught. The strange and uncanny coldness that had etched at his skin the more time passed, and how long the minutes seemed to tick by as the world rushed by the car's windows. Trees, sky, road signs, rocks - all of these objected blended into one blur as her panic ingrained itself deeper and deeper, her focus only kept on the one constant that lay at her hands. Trauma that she wasn't ready to experience, yet ironically should have been. However, Jailean never thought it this far through. Even if she tried, she'd end up forcing herself away from such memories, which resembled a past that she dared not bring back into her life once more. At this point in time she was starting to become nervous that she was going to become an annoyance to Leo with how many times she checked up on him and his recovery. Jailean felt like he didn't need the attention or the help, but couldn't stop herself from checking in on him to see if he needed any water or food, or simply keep the man company by idly sitting in the same room as him, even if the two wouldn't speak on that particular occasion. Which was how she found herself now, immediately after fixing herself up a bit following a small five minute, frustrating, and calming, meditation session. Her hair was a mess of knots she hadn't bothered to fix tied to the back of her head in a loose bun. Her clothing, a borrowed grey shirt and khaki jeans, made her feel somewhat uncomfortable, as if she was wearing someone else's skin, but didn't make a fuss over it and was actually quite thankful for the generosity, despite her internal feelings. She sat in the same room that Leo was, on one of the available plastic white chairs. Her eyes would lazily look around the room, distracting herself with this or that, before looking over at Leo whenever she could tell that he wasn't looking at her. Just looking to make sure he was alright. She yawned and stretched out her arms behind her back, then scratched at the back of her head before curling her legs under her body on the chair.
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Nov 29, 2016 19:05:04 GMT -5
So maybe he shouldn't have gotten up so quickly from the table. Maybe then he wouldn't have been put on bed rest. He was doing perfectly fine. And then Avery had to come along. He lost consciousness, standing up so quickly. Ripped a lot of stitches on his way down, too. Afterward, here was a yelling match between him and Jua about whether or not he was being a brat.
Now he was on strict bedrest unless doing physical therapy. Who told him so? The doctor Avery had for a sister-in-law. Thankfully, his father wasn't as strict about physical therapy as Jewel was (even though she called on Skype once a day to compensate for the distance between here and her office).
He had no patience for it. And he snapped and growled at his father every time he pushed him over his tolerance level. Which wasn't very high to begin with. Though he could sit up now. And once again he was reminded how he and Jailean switched positions. When they first met he had been in the chair, making sure that she wasn't anything other than a passing human as she slept in his guest bed. This time, she was in the chair, making sure he wasn't dead. It always made him smile ruefully.
Right now, he was indeed sitting up, with the bed's blanket covering him from toe to hip. His hair, freshly washed and a few shades darker than the wheat color it usually was, hung limply around his face. Under the black tee he felt the tightness of the bandages going around his torso. He. Hated. It. So he needed to forget it. "Jua's supposed to find a place for us to stay," Leo said to break the silence. "Or he could be looking for Avery's kid and not doing as I said." He shook his head slightly, irritably. "I can't stand it here any more." His eyes found her face a few short seconds afterward. Searched it, more like. Seeing the ... exhaustion there. "Have you been getting enough sleep?"
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Post by Orfeo on Dec 3, 2016 4:04:00 GMT -5
"Hm?" Jailean turned her body a little to look over at Leo as he spoke, rubbing at her eye for a few seconds before giving him her full attention. She hadn't minded the silence, but was glad that she wasn't the one to start the conversation. She couldn't shake the feeling that whenever she did it felt forced. She watched him for a couple of seconds, then looked over his shoulder quickly to see if anyone else was around. "Well, whatever he's doing, I'm sure Jua will be back soon enough." Jailean turned her body around and looked across the room. She didn't want to say it, since she wasn't sure who was listening in, but to be honest, she hoped he was doing as Leo said. Having their own place would be nice. At the very least the two of them would stop being small burdens.
Besides, she didn't need Leo to tell her that he didn't stand it here any longer. It was in his face and his actions. Even now Jailean wasn't fully aware as to why he had such a distaste for the place and the people the lived in it, but she also felt like it was best to not know as much either. Complicated family matters, perhaps, that she wasn't willing to push herself into yet. Or at all, in fact.
"Sleep?" She mumbled the word slowly, savoring it, and found herself craving some sleep out of the sudden. "A little bit. Not as much as I'd like to though." She turned her gaze on Leo once more and gave him a half-weary smile, trying to show him that she wasn't worried to much over her lack of sleep. It wasn't that she didn't try, but that the thoughts in her head kept her from doing so as much as she wanted. But she didn't know if this was something that Leo was willing to listen to, or if it was just nonsense. Jailean decided that, for now, she'd keep that bit of information to herself.
Looking to quickly move the topic to someone that wasn't her, Jailean did the only thing that she could think of, and immediately attempted to push it back to him. "Not as much as yourself, Leo. I don't think I've seen you sleep as much as you have lately. But that's good, you know. Sleep helps with recovery, and by the looks of it, you're doing pretty well." At least, she hoped he was. She wasn't sure what exactly was going on inside the man's body. All she knew was that because he was, well, not entirely human, he did recover faster. How much faster was up for debate in her mind.
She brought her arm close to herself and scratched at the side of her neck, then stretched out her fingers one at a time until she heard and felt a satisfying crack of resettling bone. "How are they doing, by the way? The injuries, I mean." She opened her mouth to say that they looked pretty bad when he first got them, but quickly shut it and stopped herself by exhaling lowly.
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Dec 10, 2016 22:44:11 GMT -5
For what seemed like a long time, Leo studied Jailean. The bags beneath her eyes and the slowness of her words just reenforced what she had just said to her. He was reminded, again, how human she was. Shifters didn't need so much time to rest, even if Leo was the type to sunbathe. They can pull a few all-nighters if needed. Humans? Eight hours, approximately, to function properly. With how much time Jailean spent in here, he was not surprised that she only got a few hours of sleep.
He was ... concerned.
Highly uncharacteristic of him, he knew, and he'd rather not show it. But it was there, beneath the irritation. "Sleep? Here? Where the hosts are anything but hospitable? Please," he scoffed, somewhat playfully. Then he looked down at his chest, where a white bandage was peaking out from his shirt. "I suppose they are. Better than what they looked before. At least, I'm not at the brink of death."
It was pretty hard for him to admit. That he was so weak that he almost died. It was difficult holding on, especially when the darkness offered such peace. He was going to succumb to its embrace (not that anyone would know), yet something stopped him. Voices, he had heard. He heard Jailean and Jua. The white man that came to take over the pride with his grandfather. Chanting, too, in a language that he didn't know. Drums.
It was too weird to say anything about it. NDEs are too weird to talk about, period.
"Is there anything you need in order for you to sleep?" He knew that she was trying to get the conversation off her; he had been a boy once, trying anything to get out of trouble. He used the same tactic. "A body pillow? Candles? Bubble bath?" And then he stopped himself with a snap of his jaw. Did he really just say "bubble bath"? God, was he stupid. He cleared his throat. "Tatiana likes to take baths. It helps her find her 'inner self'." He air quoted on the last part. But he couldn't deny there was a heat in his cheeks. He hoped Jai didn't say anything about it.
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Post by Orfeo on Dec 20, 2016 1:20:32 GMT -5
Jailean couldn't help but roll her eyes at his playful remark, but didn't feel like it was necessary to give him an answer to it. She watched him, not too closely this time around, and nodded her head a little. "Yes, at least," she replied to him in the next moment. "Too close for comfort, no doubt. But that's good. I knew you'd get better soon enough." Jailean smiled at Leo a warm smile, feeling much better now that she finally heard it from him that his wounds were finally healing well.
She had to admit that she was amazed. Very rarely did she get the chance to see the healing properties of a shifter in action. From time to time, as she watched a child scrape his arm or her knee, she'd watch as they merely brushed it off, and in the few hours that came the wound would be gone. This time, having watched Leo closely, she finally thought she understood why there was so little concern now as there would have been if it had been her in his position. The rate of recovery was almost frightening, but also fascinating.
Pretty much the same as every other thing she'd experienced since they became a part of her life.
"Bubble bath?" Jailean raised her eyebrow and turned to give him a somewhat confused look, then finally cracked a small smile and shook her head. "Body pillow. Candles. Bubble bath. Come on, Leo. Do I really look that girly to you?" She questioned, teasingly, but somewhat seriously as well. "No, Leo. None of those things. I kind of just, well, plop down and knock out. Although," Jai thought for a second, sighed, and rubbed at the back of her head as she adjusted herself where she sat so that she could be in a more comfortable position while she stared at him. "I guess doing a little meditation beforehand helps. 'Inner self'," she said with air quotes, "but not quite that either. And, well, some candles help too. And a bubble bath wouldn't hurt from time to time, but then who has time to actually take a bubble bath these days?"
Jailean closed her eyes and let her head roll back and face upwards whilst one arm dangled lazily off the side of her seat. "I never liked body pillows. They're weird, constricting. I don't like feeling constricted when I sleep. It makes me want to punch whatever's holding me." She raised her head a little and opened her eyes. "Do you like body pillows, Mr. Lion? Maybe I should get you one."
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Jan 7, 2017 1:53:24 GMT -5
"Ah, someone has faith in me," Leo joked, followed by a cheeky grin and a chuckle. And that chuckle turned into a rumbling laugh. Man, it was great that she didn't say anything about his reddened cheeks, or his concerned tone of voice. Indeed, she was not girly; if she was, she'd gush about how much he cared. Even though he did ... at least a little bit.
He caught on to the hints of seriousness in her voice. Was in a rhetorical question? Did she want to be seen as girly? Leo couldn't give an answer, so he only just shrugged his shoulders. At the word of 'meditation', one eyebrow quirked up, showing his interest before that brow settled back into a relaxed state. "When you get mauled by a monster, you'll find yourself with all the time in the world." He closed his eyes, snorting at how fortune-cookie-like he sounded. Older beyond his years. At least, that's how he portrayed himself as. "I bet you'd get a good bubble bath in now before anyone else can check up on me. Go ahead. Take a dip." He exaggerated a wink before rolling his eyes.
Normally, he would have been irritated, having Jailean teasing him about something that he thought she might want. But today, he was in a strangely good mood. Still concerned at the bags under her eyes, yes, but still in a good mood. Rarely ever did one see him joke and laugh and not growl. Especially when he had a reason to growl all the time and not joke and laugh. Was there something in the water on the bedside table his father gave him? Possible. And the surprising thing was? He didn't really care.
"I've got plenty of pillow for me, thanks," Leo assured, patting the one padded pillow propping him up with a wry smile. Then both his hand and his smile dropped, and he opened his mouth. "What does meditation consist of?"
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Post by Orfeo on Jan 7, 2017 3:16:46 GMT -5
If she hadn't been grinning before, she was now. Laughter was rare, especially in these times. She was glad that she managed to get that out of him just this once. The man always seemed so serious. Jailean wouldn't have blamed him if he didn't even show joy. In his shoes, she probably would hate people until she was fully recovered. Jai shook her head, bit at the inside of her cheek gently, and rubbed at her left eye with the back of her hand while stretching out her other arm up in the air. "Fingers crossed, then. But let's downgrade from a monster to... uh... a puppy. Or a kitten. Or something a hundred times less dangerous." She caught that exagerared wink and stifled a laugh.
Nothing has ever looked stranger to her than seeing Leo wink like that. It was almost creepy, but not in the bad way. "Poor Leo," she thought to herself, smiling, and then spoke up.
"I would take you up on that bubble bath suggestion, but then that means that this would end this conversation. And I-" she yawned, stretching out the 'I' sound for a few seconds, "am actually quite enjoying it." She raised a finger and wagged it from side to side. "You're not ridding yourself of me that easily."
At his question she did sit up a little and remained silent for more than a few seconds. Not that she didn't feel like answering, but in that second, Jailean realized that nobody had ever asked her to describe her meditations. Not that there was ever any need to begin with. It was only until recently that anyone even knew she could levitate items for crying out loud. "Well," she thought for a little longer, a couple seconds at most but it felt like a much longer time to him, "kind of like..." Jailean sat up straighter still. "Well, if you want to picture it, it's really almost super cliché. I'm talking like what you see in movies or television shows about the occult. You know, how you see the devil worshippers with their candles forming a circle? Well, kind of like that, but remove the whole-" Jailean waved her arms in the air a little, "-devil worshipping thing."
She laughed, wondering if any of this was making in sense to him because her explanation sure as hell didn't make much sense to her yet. "It's not as easy as it sounds, actually. I mean, you're just sitting and clearing your mind and trying to be pure or what not, but it takes a hell of a lot more effort. In my case, at least. To be flat out honest, I wouldn't even do it if I didn't have to. Unless, of course, you want everyone to end up missing an eye or something." Despite the seriousness in her voice, she still managed to crack a smile. Her own attempt at trying to tell Leo that it wasn't as bad as she made it sound.
"Honestly it... it isn't as interesting as it sounds." She reached up and started to twirl a couple strands of her hair around her middle finger, looking away and down from Leo for a few seconds. "Like I said," again, she looked up at Leo and gave him a small smile, "I do it because I have to. I mean, it's there to, well, keep my powers in check. If that makes any sense? Like... uhm... Oh! So, imagine, like, a battery. Only, instead of it constantly depleting, it's actually charging up more and more. Right?" Jailean stopped and looked around to be sure nobody else was listening in other than him, and then she continued. "That battery is me and my ability, yeah? The more time passes, the stronger and stronger it gets. Okay? Sure, doesn't seem like a bad thing. But now imagine that this battery had all this juice stored up, with nowhere for it to go. Well, now you have a problem. If the battery can't efficintely handle this constantly growing power, it's gonna blow up.
So, in my case, things around me start floating around without my permission, and then people panic, and then I panic, and then people get hurt. So the meditation is kind of like... a way to deplete the battery. Reset. Keep things in check so they don't get out of hand. Wouldn't have to do it if I could control it," she added, some clear frustration lingering in her voice, "but I digress. Like I said," she finally leaned back and got into her previous comfortable position, keeping her eyes on Leo, "it's nothing too interesting, really."
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Jan 13, 2017 11:48:33 GMT -5
At first, Leo was confused. He could tell that Jai never really had this question asked. He wondered ... why? Surely someone would be the least bit curious. He was; a human with no magical background having a supernatural power like levitation? Preposterous.
But as she kept talking, and her battery analogy clicked, Leo suddenly realized that he hardly knew anything about her. Not about her history. Or what she liked or disliked or anything. Was it because she wasn't the type to blurt her life story? (He could recall the place she used to live - the dark streets and homely apartments. He wouldn't either.) Or maybe he didn't really care until now. This was more plausible. More logical. He remembered that he didn't want anything to do with Jailean because she was human. When he found out she could levitate things, he was freaked out, but intrigued.
Lying here, he saw the fatigue. A trait that he never really associated with any of his pride, because they were the strongest people he knew. Jailean was his pride, though. And as an alpha, he had a responsibility to take care of their needs and other things. Easy enough. He did just that with minimal contact with them. But Jailean showed him something that he didn't know he was missing until now.
Companionship.
He thought he was taking care of a desire of hers when he suggested to go take a bath. It wasn't just that, he realized. Jailean had only teased about him getting rid of her. Yet that was what he subconsciously did. "Actually," he said, a furrowed brow on his face, "that's actually quite interesting. And informational. When was the last time you meditated?"
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Post by Orfeo on Jan 16, 2017 22:37:16 GMT -5
Interesting and informational? Two words she wouldn't have chosen. The analogy didn't make much sense to her as she thought back to it, and she felt as if she were ranting over the details that had no meaning to them. It took her by surprise that Leo continued asking more questions, but at the same time she felt at least somewhat relieved that he didn't want her gone in the next minute. In this way she could keep a better eye on him. Not that Leo needed it. By this point it was more to put her own nerves at ease. To give herself the small comfort in the way that a child would find comfort in asking a parent to check if there were any monsters in the closet.
Jailean almost laughed, but held it back and ended up coughing lightly instead. She reached up and rubbed at her left eye with the back of her hand. "A couple nights ago," she replied after thinking for a couple of seconds, "but normally I try to get in one a day every day. Mostly before I go to sleep. But with everything that's been happening, well," she threw her head back a little to look up at the ceiling, "you know. Schedule changes were necessary. Nothing to be concerned over, though. The one a day thing is me just wanting to stay on the safe side. It doesn't hurt. And it's a nice little escape from time to time."
"I don't want to sound like I'm tossing around blame, though. Honest, it's not something I've never done before. I just had to get used to the new surroundings and the situation, all the jazz, as they say." Her fingers cracked one after the other as she pulled each one back, an attempt to keep her hands busy and her mind on something that simply wasn't herself. She was enjoying the questions, but somehow it also felt a little strange for her to be the centre of the conversation. Not something that she was used to, especially when it came to Leo.
For her it almost seemed out of character for him to be asking so much. Then again, Jailean never considered herself to be a good judge of character. She should know this by now but it always caught her off-guard.
"Anyway," she continued, "I need to ask. What do you consider yourself?" She sat up a little, but still maintained a relatively comfortable position. "Question I've been wondering from day one, to be honest. I just never really found the right moment to ask it." And she wasn't even fully sure if this was the right moment either. "I mean, do you see yourself as a man that can become a lion or a lion that can become a man? Or, where do you draw the line? Or, I mean, what's the more dominant trait here?"
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Feb 12, 2017 1:32:50 GMT -5
"That's a really tough question."
Leo was satisfied with the answer she gave him. Not once did he think that she was pinning blame on anyone. He let his mind stop worrying, trusting her when she said that she was fine. Without a complaint from him, the subject switched from her to him.
But maybe, it wasn't such a good idea. It was such an innocent topic – one that any typical human would ask. Yet, it took him a few minutes of opening and shutting his mouth to finally get out his response. It wasn't a light-hearted response. On the contrary, he was agitated that he couldn't actually answer it. He never really gave much thought to it.
Until now.
"I … don't think I have a line," he started out, his brows drawing together in his signature frown. And then, as if a dam broke, words came tumbling out. "I've never considered myself human, nor have I seen myself as beast. Essentially, they are man and lion, just generalized terms. Seeing myself as a man would mean that I follow the rules of man. But being a lion implies that I give into the primal urges that go with being an animal."
Then he stopped talking, realizing how weird his words were. "Rules of man," he suddenly scoffed. He rubbed his eyes like this conversation tired him out. "I'm not making any sense, am I?"
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Post by Orfeo on Feb 16, 2017 0:07:39 GMT -5
"But in a sense that would be better, would it not?" She questioned in response, suddenly sitting up a little, finding herself enjoying all the information that Leo was giving her. It wasn't simply a look into the mind of a shifter, but into that of Leo as well. Both were interesting creatures. Jailean didn't really think she'd be satisfied until are her questions were answered. But then again, she was a woman with a lot of questions in her mind, and she doubted that Leo would want to be bombarded with things that delved into the philosophical and the moral.
She'd leave that for later, for when they were in a better position. Good enough to do that too, since it gave her more of a reason to strive to get somewhere good after all the bad that happened.
She leaned in a little closer and placed her hands on her lap. "For there to be no line, I mean. It sounds like it would be a lot more free. Like you said, you don't necessarily have to follow the rules of man nor do you need to be a beast with no intelligence." Jailean shrugged a little and fell back on her seat. "If I wasn't content with what I was, I would admit that I'd be a little jealous of you. Not just you, but others like you as well." She sighed, thinking to herself, and her eyes for a second seemed to drift off into another land. Then she blinked and smiled. "It sure seems like a wonderfully dangerous worlds that you live. Something that never really gets boring. It's not this monotonous routine that you follow every single day. It's not like you are simply stuck with the hand that you are dealt."
"Wonderfully dangerous. Yes, I think that's the best way I could put it. At least, based on what I've seen and experienced since meeting you." She realized how strange that phrase sounded, but couldn't help herself either. She could have thought of a dozen other terms to label the life that Leo and the other shifters had, but in the end the phrase she chose generalized everything nice and tidy in her mind.
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Mar 14, 2017 16:02:58 GMT -5
Wonderfully dangerous? Leo couldn't help but laugh. Well, it was more like a chuckle than anything. Jailean was amusing, really. So naive Yet it was her naivety that set her apart from everyone else. Despite her ability, she was still human. A human that just recently found out her kind wasn't the only intelligent beings in the world. She thought having to be ina pride deeply-set in their traditions was wonderfully dangerous, Leo hoped she would never meet anyone outside the pride.
Well, people that were stronger than the pride. His father, brother, and sister were not counted in that group.
"I'm one of the lucky few, actually," he said after the small silence he let into the conversation. "There arent many who have control of the animal part. There are also some that - if human - there is no such thing as beast. If beast, no sign of intelligence. Only instinct. That can be very dangerous." He shook his head, smiling ruefully. "I'm surprised there hasn't been a sighting of someone shifting. Then again, there might have been. The pride just isolates itself."
He went silent again, and in his silence he felt the sun's rays come in, fighting against the blinds to come in. His eyes closed, truning his face slightly to the windows. It was so warm, that the majority of his body felt cold. Despite the fact that he was mostly covered in the blanket his father provided him.
"Have you always been able to levitate things? You know, since you were born? Or were you some science experiment?"
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Post by Orfeo on Mar 16, 2017 0:08:12 GMT -5
"I'm surprised that I never heard of this before. Sometimes people make it sound like shifters like you are more common than one would initially believe. Maybe everyone is as isolated as you? Or, maybe, everyone is just good at covering up the evidence." She paused for a second in thought and then added lowly. "Human or otherwise."
She took the moment of silence herself to study Leo for a couple of seconds, and then she looked away into the other room. She didn't see nor hear a soul stir, almost as if the two were alone in the home. And maybe they were. She wasn't exactly sure and her attention to her surroundings hadn't been entirely on a fine edge ever since she began to focus most of her energy on tending to Leo. Not that it bothered Jailean, but at times she felt that she should be even a little more attentive to whatever else was going on around her. Even if it was just to show that she cared a little.
His question took her by surprise and almost made her flinch. "Hm," she rubbed the back of her head and thought for a second. "Well, I mean." She didn't feel like answering the question, and almost made herself tell Leo this fact. But the man had shared more of himself to her than she had to him. It didn't really matter if she didn't want to answer the question or didn't feel comfortable doing so because, in the end, it wouldn't really be fair. So, as an effort, Jailean did her best to not show her discomfort, and simply gritted her teeth and forced her mind away from these previous thoughts.
"Not one or the other," she began lightly, "but a little bit of both." She stretched out her arms and groaned a little. "I don't want to say this is something spiritual, even though at first I thought it was. Just another mutation, you know? Strange to say sometimes, but nothing really special when it comes to how I got it. DNA mutates a specific way and codes itself in some way and, voila, you have me." She leaned back and rested a hand behind her back, trying to seem like this conversation wasn't much bother to her at all. Like something she shared on a daily basis.
"Baby me wasn't exactly able to do any of the things I do now. But give enough prodding and perform enough invasive procedures on my body, and you're bound to do something right. Not exactly, you know, morally correct, but then again what's morals to the advancement of scientific knowledge? On the other hand, that's were I learned to use computers so there's that. I think... Make it a good eighteen years of my life, and by the time I managed to get out of there, I pretty much had the whole levitate things in hand. Funny enough, had I stayed longer, they probably would have either killed me or made me stronger. I didn't want to take that chance, so here I am now."
She sighed, feeling a tremendous weight on her shoulders. For now, she wasn't exactly keen on sharing the details on how exactly she got away. "Sorry for the info dump. Don't talk about it much, as you probably guessed, and I'm not exactly sure on how to word it well. There were a lot of scalpels involved, eighteen years worth of them, and I'm not exactly keen on going through all that again. Which is why you found me in the shitty area of town, laying low even after all this time. With someone like me? You never know who's out looking for you."
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Jewel
Healer
Loyalty comes in many forms. Some are more obvious than others. -Thorn
Posts: 2,195
Pack Status: New Dawn, Nighstar, Rogue, Other
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Post by Jewel on Mar 16, 2017 23:35:26 GMT -5
Leo didn't know why he had asked. It had just ... popped out of his mouth with no filtering through his thought process. Usually, he didn't do that. Speaking without permission, he did a lot. But asking such personal questions. With Jua and his family, he didn't pry because he's been with them since he was a babe and knew them practically inside-out. His pack, he didn't care to know them; he just needed to take care of them.
Jailean was ... different. And he didn't know why.
It was ... unnerving, for a lack of a better term. He had never cared much for humans. Then again, he hasn't this close to one. Physically or otherwise. Why, such a common-looking woman, was she so different from the rest? "More common? Possibly. But there aren't any packs or prides or groups around us for at least half a state away. There's still quite a few rogues, though. Have to - had to deal with them every day."
Lazily, he opened one eye partway to look questioningly at Jailean's beginning of an answer. And when she continued to speak, he slowly roused at sat up, the skin that was bathed in sunlight being shaded and chilled. He'd like to say that he was merely joking about her being a science experiment. Yet he can't say that, mainly because he wasn't expecting the question anymore than she had; he could tell that she was at least slightly uncomfortable. Her sigh, the way her shoulders slumped a bit more. There was a twinge in his chest. It squeezed his heart before letting go, leaving him even more cold than he already had been. Was it guilt? He had felt a similar thing when Avery was put in the hospital. Or maybe sadness?
He couldn't give any comforting words. That wasn't in his nature. As he turned his body slowly to face Jailean, his gaze was like golden flint. Being clad in just a tee and a pair of shorts, with his hair still wet, he didn't look all that intimidating. Yet his facial expression showed that he didn't like at all what he had heard. Maybe it was because of how it made him feel, or a bit of compassion emerged from the depths of infinite aloofness at her explination of being in that crappy part of the closest town from the pride. Either way, or even if there was a different reason he didn't want to know, he could only say a few words before the front door opened and footsteps slowly came up the stairs. "You have us to look out for you, now. And I'm not going to let some white coats take you away."
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Post by Orfeo on Mar 17, 2017 4:17:17 GMT -5
His words made her smile despite the freshness of her memories, because for a good second, she believed him. Jailean now found herself among a group of people that actually cared for each other and didn't seek to do harm to one another, but rather, they wanted the safety of the other. His words seemed honest, and his behavior didn't tell lies. She wasn't used to being treated in such a way, but then again, she wasn't used to a family. "Thanks, Leo," she replied a little quietly, enjoying the warm feeling she felt across her skin and inside her ribs. He hadn't had to say it though. She had already felt somewhat safer ever since she had set foot inside the lands of the Pride.
It's why she was glad that they took her away from that shitty apartment that one night. Honestly, had this conversation occurred a few weeks ago, she would have told herself that things couldn't get any better. The warm feeling was quickly replaced by a cold sensation at the injustice that Leo had been dealt within the last few nights, one that he and her and Jua had all been dealt. She could imagine her life right now had she not met them, and it wasn't one she was looking forward to having. Though she tried to live a comfortable life, and she mostly did, there was always the fear in the back of her mind. Jailean could never walk more than five minutes before she nervously glanced over her shoulder. She always made sure to use her powers indoors after doublechecking that nobody was looking through any windows.
Her using her powers in front of Leo and Jua had been careless, but emotions got the better of her that one time.
She wanted to tell him that he needed to be careful, that her past could very easily come back at any moment to haunt her and cause troubles for them, but at the sound of footsteps, she simply sighed and rolled back into the chair, closing her eyes. "You're all good people," she finished, exhaling softly while relaxing her arms against the chair.
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