LOG oo1; Jasper and Crysta...wherever they happen to be.

[feelingthirsty]

Who: Jasper and Crysta
What: discussing Beowulf in class
When: ...you know, I'm not actually sure
Where: a university classroom in Chicago
Info: In which Crysta is nearly late to class and, Jasper is a grumpbucket, but he could be worse.

Who: Jasper, Crysta, and a very foolish mugger
What: a mugger has a very bad night
When: later that night,

Comments

[feelingthirsty]

Vampires didn't sweat, but Jasper was sure that if they did his clothing would be soaked. It would be dark in a couple of hours. The heat of the sun made no difference to him--he felt the burn or sting of the elements, of course, but discomfort lost its meaning when you knew it couldn't harm you. Crysta, however, would be completely blind at night, and while the thought of testing her under such conditions was appealing, the thought of leaving her alone for indeterminable amounts of time in a dark forest was not. It wasn't even guilt, at this point. He liked her. She was interesting. He wanted to keep her safe, actively, and that included protecting her from his own aggressive curiosity

[crystamaye]

It had been a very long time since Crysta had had this sort of opportunity to sit outside, enjoy the weather, and the comfort of a book in her hands. Jasper already knew about her lack of time to do anything for herself lately, let alone take down time to read a book for leisure. But the sound of the flowing water was relaxing and so was the warm beat of heat filtering through the trees to the open area Jasper had set her in for him to "test" her abilities. But as relaxing as the environment was, she wasn't quite as...relaxed as she would have liked to be. For one, she could tell, simply by the sound of his voice every time he called her, that Jasper was growing increasingly frustrated by her failure to get any more specific in her description of his whereabouts when he asked. She just didn't know what to give him. And it wasn't for lack of trying either, she truly was, for him. Because he seemed to really want her to and well, she sort of didn't want to disappoint him. But because she had never even known about this odd ability of

[feelingthirsty]

Her reply drew a quick glance from Jasper, closely followed by a longer look when he noticed the guilty slump curling her frame. Damn it. He really wasn't used to this. The newborns had never felt badly for disappointing him, only angry or desperate or sad that they wouldn't be able to feed that night, knowing full well that their more talented rivals were busy gorging themselves. Jasper knew this because he kept close tabs on every one of them; for decades he had allowed himself to drown in their sea of emotions, never once coming up for air lest he miss the vengeful, murderous intentions brewing in the back of someone's mind, of which there were many

[crystamaye]

Tipping her head up, she glanced over as Jasper settled down on the edge of her blanket. At least he didn't look as tense as before. That made her feel slightly better.

She took note of his wind whipped hair and torn and dirtied clothing. It still left her in a bit of awe when she saw his skin glimmer like that in the sun, mesmerized though by almost every aspect that was Jasper. Physically and personality wise. He was just so interesting. Even though he tried his hardest to hide most everything about himself from her. She had noticed his aversion to short sleeves though and was curious if it was due to the sun thing or something else.

Giving a small shrug, his words eased her, but only a little. Still felt like she could do better somehow. "I'm just sorry for all this work you're doing and there isn't really anything to show for it." Though it seemed like they were both just blaming themselves for things that weren't their fault.

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper noticed the same thing about them, and had to shake his head at himself with a small, wry smile of amusement. This was all so silly. He was asking these things of her like she was a newborn critical to the survival of his coven, on a mortal deadline. And for what? He had no reason to push either of them so hard.

"There doesn't have to be anything to show for it." He shrugged as well, and repeated that to himself internally. It was such a new concept, easy to grasp but difficult to accept. He'd had no idea he was still clinging so firmly to these old habits of his.

"Mayhap we should take a break for a while," he sighed, looking out over the water. It was such a nice day out. He should be enjoying it, and he tried to, leaning backward on his hands and stretching his legs out in front of him. Here he was, sitting beside a pretty young girl alone out at a river's edge, thinking about bloodwars and centuries past. If Alice were here she would laugh at him.

[crystamaye]

"There doesn't?" Crysta asked, lifting a brow as she watched his lips actually twitch in a tiny smile. Sometimes she really wondered what went on in Jasper's mind. She could feel like she knew him better than she thought possible and then other times she remembered she didn't know him at all.

Nodding, Crysta was relaxing back against her tree once more, stretching her own legs out right alongside Jasper's. "A break sounds nice. Though, I would think you need it more seeing as I really haven't done much but sit here all day while you ran around." It was nice to be sitting with him here now though instead of being alone. He always had a calming

And Alice didn't need to be there at all to be laughing at Jasper's situation right now. She would have given him another call by now if she didn't think that Jasper should be going through this alone. He needed to learn as much as Crysta did.

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper shook his head, both at her question and her statement. "It doesn't tire me to run." That was a lie, but a small one. Physically, he was just fine. But he would need to hunt later. He would try his best to keep his prey from being a human.

Beside his own jean-clad legs, Crysta's skin glowed bare in the dappled sunlight. Jasper found his gaze drawn to them. She was so human looking, he couldn't quite get over it. Not like Alice at all, or even Maria. She was attractive, in a forbidden sense. He knew he could never touch her; she was too fragile, she would break beneath his rough hands. But it wasn't often that he had to remind himself of such things. It wasn't often that he thought them in the first place

[crystamaye]

Crysta noted, with mild amuesement and envy, that even with his hair torn back from being wind swept from his run, jeans frayed and dirtied from brushes against trees and dirt, shirt disheleved and torn from whips of branches, Jasper was of course as always breathtaking to look at it. How he managed to still look like some sort of greek God was beyond her, the clothes hardly changed that fact. And he didn't look particularly tired or worn out, except for the ever present almost blue black circles beneath his eyes. "Are you ever tired?" She asked, always it seemed curious about Jasper

[feelingthirsty]

Tired. Always, Jasper wanted to say, every minute of his stupidly long life, with no respite for such a simple thing as sleep. But he knew that wasn't the kind of tired she was asking about, and so he shook his head again, as if constant awareness was no big deal. "We don't sleep

[crystamaye]

"You don't..." Crysta blinked, giving him a surprised look. "You don't sleep, like...ever?" She couldn't imagine what that could be like. Well, perhaps a little bit, considering she hardly had time for sleep herself these days. But to never sleep. And for however long Jasper had been alive. Unimaginable.

When he turned to frown at her, she shifted a bit under his scrutiny. She wasn't very good at lying, she knew. And now she knew for certain as he studied her that he hadn't believed her for a moment. At his insistence that she tell him when she was tired, she furrowed her brows, giving a slow nod. "Of course Jasper." But then as soon as the frown touched his lips, his expression was changing once more, the change to amusement confusing her more. His thought process was obviously much quicker than her own, because she wasn't following him at all.

As he looked down to his lap she found herself leaning in to him a bit more unconsciously. "Feel my edges...what do you mean?"

[feelingthirsty]

"We don't need it," Jasper explained, though his voice came out sounding more weary than he'd have liked. "We don't need anything at all, save the one." And he was sure he didn't have to clarify what that was. But he didn't like talking about it; not with a human, the very prey he lusted after every moment of every hour of every day. Such an urge was simply incomprehensible to a being with so many different needs. They didn't sleep, they didn't tire, they didn't even thirst; their bodies, by whatever magic, ran on one thing and one thing alone, and for as long as they were alive they would crave it

[crystamaye]

No. He didn't have to clarify at all. Not about this at least. Even though she knew what he was, what he must do to survive, Crysta had never really put real thought into it before. The whole...blood thing. And she knew better than to ask. That was just asking for a pissed off Jasper. Or at least an aggravated one. He was so mum about who he was as a whole, she had this feeling that bringing this up of all things would be a sore topic for him

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper's fingers slowed to a halt at her words. He was surprised by the way they affected him, that they even affected him at all. Did he trust her? Of course not. He didn't trust anyone; he knew better than to make that mistake, had exploited it in others more than once. And he had his reasons, and they were good ones. Most people didn't trust others because of reliability issues, but Jasper knew exactly where he stood with everyone he interacted with, and often knew their limitations better than they themselves did. No, that had never been his problem. He simply knew better than to trust anyone with himself, with his sordid history and perversions. Edward and Alice knew him better than anyone in the world, and there were things he simply didn't discuss with them, that he knew better than to even broach. It was bad enough that he couldn't completely filter his thoughts around his brother. Luckily Edward mistakenly considered it an even trade that he couldn't completely filter his desires around Jasper

[crystamaye]

Crysta took note that Jasper actually seemed to be fidgeting. It was fascinating really, to watch as pale long fingers plucked at bright green blades of grass, tore at it absently and yet almost meticulously. And it was while she took note of this that she really noticed for the first time how focused on him she seemed to always be. It took no effort on her part to notice these small details about Jasper, she just...did

[feelingthirsty]

She said that now. That was so easy for her to say right now. Hopefully this "friendship" of theirs didn't end the way a few of his earlier ones had

[crystamaye]

Fascination. Would it ever go away? She doubted it, at least, when it came to him. But she just couldn't help it. He was more fascinating than any book she had ever read before, more complex than any panting, just...more. So of course there were questions, tons of them that she had pushed into the back of her mind since the moment he admitted what he was to her. Well, perhaps questions she had from even before then. And that she had known better to ask. Because Crysta wasn't a fool, before now Jasper hadn't been ready to answer anything from her, she knew that. So she diligently kept most of her curiosity to herself.

She had to keep from looking much too...amazed at the way he ground that stick into pure dust between his fingertips, how easily, how strong he must--

"Really? Well...thank you." Because that was his sort of way to admitting he trusted her and that meant more to her than she would have thought. "I do have one question right now though, that I've had for a while..."