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]

Well, this might be interesting. Now that such a classic tale had been stripped of all its inherent magnificence and degraded down to nothing more than a low-brow computer action movie, some of the children in the class might actually know something about it

[feelingthirsty]

In reply to Crysta's statement, Jasper only nodded kindly before turning to leave. Although her emotions were muddied and unclear, the uneven pounding of her heart was as loud as if she'd been rapping it out with her knuckles against the desk. Human developed small crushes on them all the time, that was nothing new, considering how closely the Cullens liked to live with them. But fostering false hope was not a trait of Jasper's.

It wasn't until he was completely outside of the big school building that he could breathe more easily again, without the confines of a hundred different blood scents clouding his nose and his head. Relaxing in the cooled night air, he set off across the campus, book in hand, for someplace relatively quiet to read. After that last class, he was feeling more like an ordinary student than usual, and rather than go straight home to his television and his computer, actually felt like playing the part a little longer tonight.

[crystamaye]

English was the same as usual, dull, but she still took notes like the diligent student she was. Her focus though was off tonight. She pawned it off on lack of sleep, but something else nagged at the back of her mind that told her she knew better. The clock ticked on slower than her previous class, seeming to drag on for hours. She was used to how late this class usually ended, but it just seemed too much tonight. 11:30

[feelingthirsty]

By the time Jasper finished with his book, it was nearing midnight. Usually he had another class on this night of the week, but it had been cancelled so that the students had a chance to do some research for a paper. Jasper had finished his paper days ago. Everything was so much simpler now, with computers, though the drawback was that many youths now considered libraries to be obsolete. With what they assumed to be the entire world at their fingertips, there was just no teaching them any better

[crystamaye]

Crysta was, understandably so, terrified. The man was too close to her, his breath uncomfortably disgusting against her neck as he leered down at her. She was tempted to knee him in the groin and take her chances in running, but the bite of cold metal against her flesh made her hesitant to do so. She hadn't been cut, but any jerking movement and she would be. That she wasn't willing to risk right now

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper's irritation only grew as he watched the entire scenario go straight to hell, made worse by the mugger's lewd comments and disgusting behavior. It took most of Jasper's self control to keep from stepping in right then and there, if only to cease these disgustingly filthy feelings from his mind. They were powerful enough to drown out Crysta's fear, which in itself was powerful enough for Jasper to actually pick up on.

He'd already formed several plans to terrify this man as soon as he took the girl's money and left, but they disappeared in a flurry of anger and disgust when, instead of leaving, he chose the idiot's path and grabbed her. Jasper wasn't about to stand about and watch this kind of thing--he would never stand back and let this happen, no matter who was being victimized

[crystamaye]

Suddenly, over the man's shoulder, she saw Jasper. Her eyes widened and it wasn't until Jasper crushed the metal of the blade, crushed, that the man turned away from her. She stumbled back away, but only a few feet before she froze again to watch what unfolded before her. How had he done that? He..with is bare hand. She was busy trying to comprehend it while Jasper had the man by the throat, almost dangling him up from the ground with just one hand

[feelingthirsty]

This was the time for the kill. The man was staring up at Jasper weakly, his aura drenched with panic and horrified disbelief rather than anger. He knew Jasper wasn't human. No human boy could hold him down like this so effortlessly, or meet his eyes with such a predatory look, such a dark, deep red they were nearly black.

But Crysta was still here, and as much as Jasper disliked men like the one he had pinned to the ground now, it had been a very, very long time since he'd derived any sense or pleasure from playing with his prey. He had to end this now, and end it quickly. But in front of a small girl? No. Then he would have to kill her too, and that was something he wouldn't be able to live with afterward.

"Go, I said." The words came out as a growl, as Jasper shot the redhead another dark look, annoyed that she wasn't listening. The bloodlust brought on by the pounding of the mugger's heart in Jasper's ears was making him thirsty, impatient, eager. In a last bid for escape, the man fumbled for a hidden knife in his back pocket

[crystamaye]

Crysta felt that prickling again, but that wasn't why she turned and fled. It was the look on Jasper's face. The way he demanded she get out of there. He was desperate for her to leave, she could tell. Crysta paused still, looking deep into his eyes before she knew she should listen to him. She ran, the night air cold against her burning skin as she ran from Jasper and the man she knew she would never see again.

The sound of her feet were loud in her ears as she finally got to her apartment, panting as she stopped on the front steps. She turned her head, looking back towards the way she came. She of course couldn't see them anymore, but it was like she had some tie to Jasper and could still feel him...

A part of her mind scolded her for being so crazy, she was just suffering from shock, that was all. She swallowed, whipping her head away and scrambling up into the building and to her apartment. She locked the door behind her and stumbled to her couch, collapsing on to it and burying her face into a pillow, smothering the tears.

[feelingthirsty]

If Jasper was smart, he would have stopped coming to English class he shared with Crysta. It wouldn't have been the first time he'd ducked out of a human's life without a word, and he'd avoided them for reasons far less implicit than what Crysta had seen him do to that mugger the other night. It wasn't that humans were dangerous when they were scared and confused--if they were actually stupid enough to try and tell anyone about what they'd seen, they were rarely believed--but it was simply easier to avoid them than to deal with them personally. They always wanted to know things. They assumed they had the rightSighing, Jasper slunk down further into his seat and pretended very hard to be engrossed in his book. He was acting very foolish, coming back here. But it got to be so tiring, after a while. He'd only just gotten to this city a few weeks ago, and had intended to stay long enough to earn a degree. He wasn't ready just yet to disappear again, start all over again, just because some silly little girl had seen him knock a man down to

[crystamaye]

Class. Well she was on time today. She was starting to believe she imagined everything, or at the very least had a weird dream. And yet... When she stepped through the door her eyes went straight to his seat. There he sat like always, book laid out before him. He looked the same, but was she expecting him to look any different

[feelingthirsty]

It was impossible not to notice when Crysta entered the classroom; she was a big blank void of emotion, a blurred patch of near nothing enveloped in the bubble of everyone else's collective aura. Jasper didn't look up when she passed, didn't so much as lift her eyes when she sat in her seat with her envelope. It wasn't until confusion bubbled up strongly enough for him to catch that he risked a glance in her direction, and left it there when he realized she wasn't looking back

[crystamaye]

Crysta sat facing forward, not sure if she was capable of processing so much odd, broken information. She could always ask him, but something told her Jasper wouldn't be very willing to tell her anything. She could picture his eyes, dark, a mix of strange colors as he stared at her, willing her to go home before he did lord knows what.

And she could still feel him behind her. Feel was the best word her mind could come up with, she didn't know how else to explain it. It was like after that night she had some sort of connection to him. She furrowed her brows, concentrating on her thoughts instead of the professor who had long since walked in to start talking about Beowulf again.

She wondered if he felt the same connection or if it was just her slowly going mad. Crysta was seriously starting to worry about the well being of her mind. She had never encountered a feeling like this before. She bit her lip, wondering. Her thoughts turned solely to Jasper then, focusing all of her curiosity on him as she tried to figure things out.

[feelingthirsty]

Class wasn't so bad. Although significantly muted, Jasper could tell Crysta was curious about him, to the point of distraction. But she didn't sit there and stare at him accusingly--nor, in fact, did she really glance back at him at all. If only more humans reacted this way; perhaps he wouldn't be so loathe to interacting with them

[crystamaye]

Crysta seemed to come aware when she realized people were moving around her. What had she missed? She looked around, piecing together from the looks of it that they were partnering up again. Her eyes scanned the crowd, automatically searching, landing on Jasper's back as he turned to leave.

Something compelled her to stand once he slipped out the door unnoticed. The professor had disappeared into his office for a moment, so it wasn't like he would notice her slide through the room after Jasper and out the back door as well.

The night air was oddly refreshing, not too cold like it tended to be. She paused, looking around and wondering if this had been a smart idea.

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper wasn't surprised to hear Crysta following after him, though he didn't exactly welcome the idea. Unfortunately there were students around, and while it might have been doable in a pinch to disappear from the stone steps leading down to the quad, exercising such speed now, for so silly a reason as to avoid a simple harmless little girl, seemed excessive and ultimately not worth the risk of being noticed by anyone else.

So he tucked his book beneath his arm and trotted down the shallow steps, in a manner more befitting of I have somewhere to be than I have someone to get away from. With any luck, the girl wouldn't be able to pick him out from the throng of students milling about, and he could disappear around the side of the building as naturally as possible, no harm done.