Jade Takes a Stand...Sort Of ((Open))

[Jade Stone]

On her way down from the third floor, Jade was making a racket coming down the flights of stairs. Sure vampires were supposed to be graceful and she wasn't so badly rated on the grace scale, but even a vampire could only be so agile when they were carrying three large pieces of luggage, all of which were hugely bulky and packed to their limit. What could she say? The Three had told her to spare no expense for her comfort in return for their request that she stay here, and there'd been many a day where Jade took it upon herself to do some shopping. Serious shopping. So she was currently hauling out a lot more than she'd come with.

Yup, hauling out. That was her plan, anyway, though she'd be the first to admit she wasn't the best at master planning. All Jade knew was she couldn't stay here anymore. No no - she wouldn't stay here anymore. Well really…it was kind of both. Couldn't and wouldn't. And Jade had spent the time since the sleepover trying to figure out how to check out of this place without the Three realizing it, until she was the one who realized - she didn't have to check out of here to go somewhere else! She could keep the room, the Three could keep paying for it, and she could stay over here sometimes to keep up appearances that she was doing her 'duty' while she stayed somewhere down the road the rest of the time. And the Three could pay for that place too. Only they wouldn't know it, because she'd be sure to pay in cash.

For Jade, this was a master plan. And she considered it one hell of a masterful master plan. But at the same time she wasn't kidding herself - she knew that the Three would find out eventually, that Damon would find out eventually, and that the day of reckoning would be at hand. But she wasn't worried. The only reason she had the courage to do this in the first place was because she had an ace up her sleeve. One who'd sworn to be her protecting white knight and she'd 'hired' him, because Jade always, always depended on the kindness of strangers. Not a lot of white knights would be able to do squat against the St. Louis coven or any of the others. But - and maybe she was stupid for this - Jade believed him when he assured her that he could.

Once she made it down the stairs to the second floor, Jade dumped her luggage somewhere quasi out of the way and slipped an envelope under her bff's door, which contained a brief but pleadingly sincere note. Even though Jade was keeping her room here, she would feel awful if Gwenie kept knocking on her door on the days when she was staying at a new place. Especially since they had plans to have a do-over sleepover soon, Jade had to let her best friend know. After what Gwendolyn had witnessed herself at the sleepover, Jade hoped her closest friend here would understand, and not mind walking down the road sometimes to see her.

Going back down the hall to pick up all of her luggage, she hefted it all again down the next flight of stairs. While one of the bags slipped down to the first floor before she did, by the time her feet touched first floor nothing was broken. Stepping over the fallen bag, Jade put the other two down. Putting a second envelope out of her pocket, this one went under one of the doors on this floor. Her only other friend here, they had helped her realize that she really wasn't as trapped here as she'd like to think, and just like Gwenie she wanted to make sure this friend didn't think she'd disappeared either.

Standing in front of this door, she paused and considered knocking. Green eyes shifted, looking at the pile of her bulky bags by the stairwell. The longer she stalled at carrying those damn things down the street to the other residence she'd scoped out, the less likely it would be that she'd go through with this today. So while she didn't want to, Jade turned away from this door and went over to her bags, shifting them around until she had a way to carry them that was 'comfortable'.

It was time to take a stand, tackle the last set of stairs, and to get herself out the inn's front door.

[Xavier]

Who would be entering the front door at that precise moment but Xavier. Still confused as to why his room was locked and his name was removed from the ledger....he had discussed his temporary departure with both Epiphany and De'Ryanna....he was about to make his way to the common room to have a seat when he saw the young woman.

"Hello....I was about to head to the common room, and you look as if you could use someone to talk to. Care to join me?" He gave a sniff, smiled, and sort of winked. "Not to worry, I do not bite." He chuckled at that, obviously making a joke. "Sounds kind of odd, considering our species...me saying I won't bite and all. Still, I'm a decent listener....and to be quite honest, I'd enjoy the company."

[Jade Stone]

Bottoms of her boots halted like squealing tires as Jade put on the breaks to keep herself from slamming into the guy who was going out as she was coming in. Stopping short like that with all the weight that she was hauling with the three bags, the laws of momentum dictated that if the guy on the other side of the door didn't watch out he was going to get beaned. If he was, it was a total accident on her part. She figured getting knocked by a bag was better than getting knocked by several plus her.

A bunch of things blurted from her lips all mixed up, her words victims of the frazzle that came from this unexpected run in. Maybe there was even a flicker of fear in her eyes at first, until those green eyes got a good look at him and confirmed that he was not from the coven that she was currently trying to dupe with her departure. "Eeek. Sorry. Join you? I - wait, bite? Our species? Are you…?" Green eyes narrowed a little bit as she asked that, the blonde scrutinizing him to seek out the telltale signs that would tell her he was a vampire, like her. She didn't see any, and truth be told…Jade wasn't the brightest or most experienced when it came to sniffing out what species was what. She'd never met a werewolf to know what one would smell like, either - or at least she didn't realize she had, which was kind of the same thing in this situation.

"You don't look like it." A vampire, she meant. Concluded with sort-of confidence, as she raised her chin up a bit to highlight her savvy. Or to make herself look a little older than, you know, eternal high school teen queen. Or both. "But if by enjoying my company you mean 'yes please I'd love to carry some luggage,' you're hired." And look at that, she was already stepping forward to press the large suitcase in her right hand towards him to demonstrate how it was ripe for the taking. "Not that that the common room doesn't sound like a blast and a half, but I've already broken the foosball table once and to be totally honest, I really freakin hate it here. Hence the luggage."

[Xavier]

He grinned, shrugging nonchalantly. "Foosball was never my thing. I'm more of a skee-ball guy myself. And surely you're not in such a hurry that I couldn't interest you in a drink. Oh, as for my comment on species, I'm a werewolf...and unless I miss my guess, you're a vampire. We share a common trait there...both of our races get a lot of bad press. Light, you'd think that Fox News reported on our comings and goings...I can practically hear Glenn Beck now. 'Vampires. Werewolves. They're a threat to our way of life. I'm almost certain they're all registered liberals! Why am I crying? I'm just a guy who loves his country, and wants to see it safe from their kind! Also, I have a tummy ache...'"

He broke into a chuckle then, obviously having been introduced to "fair and balanced" broadcasting not long after being introduced to television. "Sorry, that guy is funnier than all three Stooges. Still, if you're intent on going, I could help you with your things....not like I have much going on right now. I didn't introduce myself....before I encumber myself, I'm Xavier Cauthon." He extended his right hand with a dazzling smile, hoping to put the young woman at ease.

[Jade Stone]

"I like skee-ball…" A quiet revelation, more for her benefit than his. It'd been a long time since she'd played skee-ball, she'd been human last time she'd played it in fact, on the last of the family summer vacations to the shore. Just over fifteen years ago. What a different life that was. How weird something like skee-ball was driving that point home for her for the first time in a while. God Jason should thank his lucky stars he was dead, or she'd punch him in the face for doing this to her. Then again, Jason would've probably picked a punch to death if he had a choice. But she barely knew anything about when he died. It was during the time she was trying that failed experiment called college.

"Wait you're a what?" A little double take as she snapped out of lala land. It was kind of a good thing he kept talking. Not that she knew who Glenn Beck was, Jade kind of stayed away from news programs like they'd give her hives. But him talking gave her time. To figure out how she was supposed to feel about this guy telling her he was a werewolf. "Really?" The disbelief slipped out, she couldn't help it. "Really really?" If there were werewolves, how come she hadn't met any before? That seemed like exactly the kind of major trouble she was prone to stepping in…wait, was she stepping in major trouble now?

She did a mental review. He'd asked her to go to the common room. To talk. He'd called her out on being a vampire, but he'd called himself out too. He'd offered a drink (did he realize what that could imply to a vampire?) He mentioned Fox News - wait a minute. "You know Earth?" As she shifted her luggage she couldn't help looking at him with a mix of interest…and suspicion. "Do you know St. Louis? I mean, you weren't sent here to find me…were you?" If he was, asking him point blank probably wasn't the stealthiest way to get the 411. But Jade is not as stealthy as the summer day is long.

She'd asked the question and already she was deciding the answer for herself…would the Three send a werewolf after her? That would be leaking out their business here, that wouldn't make sense. So looking down at his offered hand, she decided why the hell not. Until she remembered why the hell not - her hands were already encumbered with luggage. Each hand gripping a handle and the third piece precariously crunched under her left armpit. Standing here in the doorway with all of it was a moment of vampire strength come in handy. "Um." She popped out her right pinky to shake with, but that didn't seem like much. So instead she'd shake with luggage - in other words, she passed off the piece of luggage in her hand into his extended hand. A suitcase shake, he could consider himself officially encumbered.

"Jade. The Old Saybrook Inne has two bars for drinking. One's an outdoor bar. By the pool. And no one there named Epiphany." Yeah, she was really intent on going.

[Xavier]

Xavier grinned, nodding slightly and taking a few bags. "Skeeball is demi-godly. And no, I've never been to Earth, I was introduced to the television aspect of it not too long ago. As for being a werewolf....yes, I've been one my entire life. We aren't as bad as people think....but of course, neither are vampires." He smirked at that comment, winking slightly as he turned to the door.

"Come on....we'll take your things and head out. I'd love the chance to talk you out of leaving, Jade. You seem like a nice young woman, and I'd kill...metaphorically speaking...for a skeeball partner. It just so happens that I know a place not too far away that has a ton of skeeball tables, as well as a few pool tables and some other things. Maybe a few games will help!" Yes, he was all for making new friends, and he felt that he had just done so.

[Jade Stone]

"Oh no, that's where you're wrong. Vampires are total assholes, trust me." Present company of herself excluded, maybe? Maybe. While Jade thought way highly of herself one minute, she knew she had a bitch and a half of a temper. As for the rest of the vampire kind, the coven was on the rock bottom of her list of people she'd say anything nice about, which is why she jumped on the opportunity to get that off her chest. "If it wasn't for vampires, I'd be home right now." Totally grumbled. And home wasn't this inn. A slight frown. "Wherever I'd want home to be, anyway." It wasn't like she had one, outside of mooching off St. Louis. They were skilled in being the Hotel California of covens. Damn them.

"I'm not as young as I look." She figured she needed to point that out as they headed out the door with her luggage, because…well, because she passed for eighteen on a good day when she tried at it, and she looked younger on any other day. "I'm thirty-one." The way she said it, it was like thirty-one was actually three hundred and thirty-one. But the age thing was important to her, something that bothered her a lot even if she couldn't see her reflection in the mirror not getting a day older than fifteen.

"I'm not going far. The Saybrook's just down the street. And I didn't check out of here, I kind of have to keep my room. And stay here sometimes." Yeah, she'd leave it at that. She just met this guy, she wasn't about to spew how she was going to try and dupe three vampires, two whom could celebrate millennials. "I seem nice now, but if she showed up here you'd see how nicely I want to kill sometimes. Not metaphorically speaking." It was why Jade knew she had to leave here. Because if she didn't, next time she ran into Epiphany she wasn't going to be able to resist letting out her ugly. It was going to be hard enough avoiding Epiphany when Jade came back sometimes.

"Earth's nice. You should go sometime." A not-so-subtle change of topic. Just thinking about Epiphany made her gums ache. And she did not want her fangs growing in, not right now. "Tell you what. If you'll sign up for helping me drop off my luggage, I'll sign up for games." Now that they were outside, Jade edged out in front of him and hung a left. That's the direction the Old Saybrook Inne was in.

[Xavier]

He chuckled, nudging her with his elbow. "So far, you aren't an asshole. Unless of course you're putting on a show so that you can drink deep of my life's blood at some point in the future...." He let that go, laughing his rich, almost melodic laugh. She would know he was joking around with her from the expression on his face.

"Thirty-one? Damn, I wouldn't have thought....well, hell, my father is over two-hundred, and the guy looks like a thirty-five year old competitive athlete. Who's to say?" He shrugged slightly, then smiled. "I'm nineteen, so feel free to make with the 'kid' jokes. As for Earth...I'd kind of like to visit. From what I've seen on television....Fox News aside....it looks like a beautiful place. I'd especially like to visit Scotland. Side note on the Fox thing.....would it be considered a bad thing if Bill O'Reilly or Glenn Beck were found mauled by a wild beast under mysterious circumstances?" He smirked, shooting her a wink. "Ignorance is no excuse for the bile they spout....now, skeeball! And for the record, no pouting when I kick your ass at it!"

[Jade Stone]

"I could be." At least she was honest, even if he was joking? There was total uncertainty to her tone, though, and it was genuine. Because when it came to that stuff, she never really knew for sure. Some nights she could captivate and hunt like a champ, others nights hunting was a total heap of calamity, and still others she just sat in her room with bottled watching television and feeling sorry for herself that she was on this planet that sucked. Well, she thought it sucked, anyway. A shrug followed, much easier to do now that he was the one balancing her three huge suitcases. "But I don't think so. I don't know anything about werewolf blood…."

"Two hundred?" That caught her attention, Jade casting a curious look at him. The stats he just gave about his father rang a bell, even though she knew because of the last name difference that she was thinking about someone else. Still, back where she was from if she was chatting anyone up outside the covens, age was a thing that stayed in the double digits, and sad but true she just hadn't gotten friendly with enough people here to realize the potential aging difference between planets until now. "Is living that long common around here?"

Green eyes turned back to the road as she added, in a tone a bit weightier, "I don't make age jokes." Pause. "Usually." She had once recently, but it was out of self-defense. Otherwise, age was something she took a little too seriously. Because it was something she physically didn't have. There was a reason that where she was from it was a crime to make vampires as young as Jade, and Jade's agony over her eternal teen queen appearance was it. They weren't far from the Old Saybrook Inne now, as they followed the curve in the road Jade could see it ahead. The facade had a resort appearance to it which was a contrast to the quaint name, but the facade was not far off. Most of the amenities in the place had a resort-esque flair.

As Xavier talked, Jade watched the Saybrook grow closer as they closed the distance. Until he mentioned people. Then she glanced over at him, gaze vacant with non-recognition. "Who and who?" Pause, and then she made a slight context clue guess. "Oh. Are they news people or something? Yeah…I kind of avoid the news like it's my job, I mean it's not like they're going to talk about anything that I really have to worry about…" While her teacher would firmly disagree, and maybe Jade even knew that, she just couldn't bring herself to watch that stuff. For her eternally immature attention span, anything newscasty was Boring to her with a capital B.

"Here we are," she gestured to the front doors of the Saybrook as a bell hop came forward to meet the two of them. It was that kind of pampering place, which was a good fit for Jade who flocked to pampering like a moth to flame. "And for the record I'm a terrible loser." Just so he wasn't surprised if he got a skee ball chucked at his head…because she was a horrible loser, she really was.

[Xavier]

He unloaded himself with a smile, digging into his left pocket for a few gold crowns to give the bellhop as he did so. "I don't know for sure, but I've heard that lycan blood is bad for vampires. Maybe we're too high in cholesterol or something?"

He shrugged at the question on his father's age. "I don't know, really. Myself, I hit puberty hard, been shifting since before I could walk, and haven't really aged much physically since about seventeen. But you know, anyone can say they're immortal, but all it takes is for someone else to have one good day or lucky shot...."

"I can understand the age joke aversion. Now, if I were a gambling man, I'd wager you were sired in your early teenage years and didn't get the chance to physically grow up, so to speak. Tell ya a little secret....it's not about what we look like. It's what's between our ears and in our hearts, along with what we do. A wise man once said that the person you are when no one is looking is the person you truly are." He smirked, chuckling softly. "That would make me a messy bum that watches way too much television and prefers comfortable socks and boxer-briefs to finery."

"It is for the best that you've never heard of them. I wish I hadn't.....they give the folks with the torches and pitchforks a bad name.....talk about xenophobic!" He shrugged, smiling at her comment about being a horrible loser. "Well, then, it's for me to teach you how to lose gracefully." Another chuckle came from him as he began looking for the skeeball room, waiting for her to follow as he did so.

[Jade Stone]

Taking the bags from Xavier the bellhop loaded them on his cart, smiling and thanking the young man for the tip. He handed his small pad and a pen to Jade. While she was scrawling down her room number and signature, green eyes looked up slowly to confirm that sure enough, the current topic of conversation had the bell hop looking between them with thoughtful scrutiny.

"Interviewing him for a school project," said hurriedly as she pressed the pad and pen back into the bellhop's hands, making sure not to brush fingers with him so he wouldn't know how cool to the touch she was. Her tone was saccharine, perhaps even too sweet - a sign that she was lacing her voice with the bewitching nature of her thrall. Just enough to make sure the bellhop not only heard her, but he believed her too. Even if it wasn't true. "Thank you." A nod to the bellman with a fangless smile that said 'see, look how I'm so cute and human'.

Jade was totally not above lying if she didn't want people to know what she was. Ever since she was turned, one of the greater calamities of her existence was that when people found out what she was, disaster soon followed. She didn't want that here, not when she was just moving in, not when she finally got the guts to (sort of) leave the Tel'ranaemyn.

So Jade was totally following Xavier's lead. Making a beeline back down the road even as the bellhop went inside with her stuff, to make sure that encounter was good and over. "I kind of don't tell most people what's between my ears and in my heart" Murmured quietly to him as they made their way down the road to his skee ball place. Considering the fact Xavier just watched her lie like a pro she figured he deserved an explanation. "I get that most people are really 'out' here, different from earth, but…I tend to attract disaster like it's my job."

That said, she was thinking about what the wise man once said. Who was she here when no one else was looking? Usually she was depressed, sulking, and wondering when someone was going to come her way so she could turn on her charm. What did that mean about her? Her lips curled down in a pensive little frown. But a moment later she picked her gaze up to watch the road ahead of them, and she dropped the train of thought like a hot potato. She wasn't going to think about it. Not right now, anyway.

[Xavier]

As the bellhop walked away, Xavier couldn't help but let out a snicker. "And the Daytime Emmy goes to! That was some pretty good on-the-spot countering, Jade. Oh, your performance was much better than daytime television....or their Emmys. The one woman that deserved an award, for sheer perseverance if nothing else, they made wait some twenty years to get one! And bloody hell, the woman was married as many times as she had years on the show, in the meantime!" He realized what he was talking about and grew shifty-eyed and sheepish. "Er....the informercials were driving me nuts and making me want to buy a strange towel from the odd lazy-eyed guy, so I watched...er, once or twice." Shifty-eyes....yeah. Once or twice a day.

As they began to walk, not long after he shut his trap about the trials and travails of Pine City, he shifted to a hands-in-pocket walking pose. "I understand. It's dangerous in places to let people know who you really are. In the Waste...that's where I was for a few weeks before I came back, the Aiel Waste....you can be yourself turned up to twenty if you want, and no one will say a word. Too many ears around here, though...and forgive me for not guarding my tongue. I've gotten lax in my keeping-my-mouth-shut exercises." He sighed, then looked down. "Keeping secrets and misinformation has led to almost every fight that Titania and I have ever had. I didn't tell her who I was...well, not really...when we first met, then I had to pretty much say 'surprise! That's not really me, I'm not a big idiot!' and it was awkward...."

He had trailed off, thinking of her. The thought made him sad, not because of her, but because of the absence of her. He'd have to make a point of seeking her out as soon as he was back close to the inn....this whole 'give her her space and don't smother her' thing was crappy advice. He'd have to stop listening to that idiotic advice guy from Texas, as charming as his Texas drawl was...the man was as much therapist as Xavier was a pacifist! "Yeah, sometimes I feel like I'm a magnet for f-ed up luck and divers alarums, as the old-time playbills said long ago. Still....if you wanna be somebody else, change your mind." Sister Hazel was a great band, Xavier thought, and whomever wrote their lyrics must have been a philosopher.

Finally, he looked around, realizing he was lost. "Damn me and my big mouth, chattering away like a poo-throwing monkey. Hold on....er, I hope magic doesn't freak you out." He seized Saidin, closing his eyes briefly with a small smile as the liquid fire scoured his bones and made him feel alive...heightening senses already superhumanly heightened and bringing the world into high definition clarity. He glanced back at Jade and was stricken by how sad she looked, really, and how the casual observer wouldn't notice it. He'd have to try and cheer her up somehow....ah, he'd think of something. Anyway, he pointed ahead of them, forming a Gateway to where he knew the arcade was located. The silver line spun, the stretched into a semi-oblong opening big enough to admit a large, broad-shouldered man on a horse, and he blushed. Still didn't have the level of control he needed...well, maybe she was unfamiliar with the Source and wouldn't notice! "Riight this way....and no worries. This is a much safer mode of transportation than those metal boxes people seem to prefer. No one dies...well, unless the Gateway opens on them, which cuts them in half, or they enter from the back...no one has tried that, and since it's not been tried in recorded history, there's most likely a reason. Still! I'll go through and show ya it's safe...." He bounded through the Gateway, then back out, grinning. "See? Totally sa-ohmygod, where's my arm!" Snicker. "Kidding.....come on, let's get our skeeball on!"

Sigh......he's really just a big kid sometimes.

[Jade Stone]

It wasn't until he was talking about strange towels that Jade pulled herself out of her mire of self-whateveritwas. "….the ShamWow? We have those back at the coven house." Lord only knows what a coven of vampires was using the ShamWow to mop up, and Jade wasn't about to specify. "If you don't hang them to dry right boy do those things start to stink." Gross.

"I hate it here because all I have to do is stand here and people seem to know what I am. And they all seem to think they know what I am better than I do. And that they have the right to just broadcast it to everyone." The flood gate on the issue was officially open, and Jade's mouth was off and running as they walked. "One time, I made the mistake of trying to actually be social and join everyone for breakfast back at the other inn that you caught me moving out of? The waitress didn't even ask me if I wanted food, not even as a courtesy. Then to make matters worse, she made this announcement that the whole room could hear that the people she didn't serve was because it was her understanding that our kind didn't eat. It was so freakin' horrifying. And then she tells the little kid working for her to open up the curtains and let the sun in. I'm sure she was disappointed I didn't burn to bits. Just reason number two thousand and one that I'm glad to be out of there." Reasons one through two thousand probably all had to do with Epiphany. Which was a whole different bag of bones.

"I've tried being somebody else…a whoooole bunch of times." God that was so true. Talk about disaster prone. Every time she tried to create a life away from the coven everything came tumbling down, usually right on top of her, usually in a huge danger-danger kind of way. Considering that at this very moment with the move into the Old Saybrook Jade was once again trying to create a life away from the coven's wishes….yeah, they needed to talk about something else before she found out firsthand if vampires could hyperventilate. "Is Titania your girlfriend?" That seemed like it would be a nicer thing to talk about. Rather than ranting about her problems to a guy she just met, a werewolf guy when she didn't know a whole lot about werewolves to boot.

"Magic doesn't freak me out." Once upon a time she'd had Owen, the sneaky little Houdini who could know things just by touching her and had a few magic tricks up his sleeves. And then there was her white knight that she'd hired, who's protection she was counting on should St. Louis decided to bang down her Old Saybrook door. Because of what she was she would feel the energy Xavier was using, and how it shifted as he used it, but she didn't know anything particularly specific about it. "I have a bra that's - " Halt. WTF, Jade, was what she said to herself, serious case of TMI. Besides, she didn't want anyone to know what that glamoured bra could do for her that nothing else including time could. That was her precious secret. Or almost secret, since she wasn't the one who did the glamouring. "- magic sturdy." That's how she'd finish the awkward bra sentence, and kidding about losing arms aside, the girl made a beeline through the Gateway to get away from the foot that she'd nearly put in her mouth.

[Xavier]

"We're here!" Xavier exclaimed as he stepped through the Gateway, knowing by the tug of Saidin that she was right behind him in the Gateway. "I dunno if you've ever been to Jersey before, but if you haven't, allow me to welcome you to Asbury Park. Best skeeball in...well, anywhere. I found the place by accident, playing around with Gateways.....anyway, I need to pop over to the dude's tent....oh, the dude! He's this guy...I don't think he's really human, but he keeps his scent masked like a pro...anyway, he can convert any currency into any other currency in a snap. So, since I didn't plan to travel and all I have on me are gold crowns, let's go get some...what was that phrase....fat stacks of cash?"

He enjoyed himself here, as no one knew him from Adam's house-cat, and therefore didn't know his actual race. "Oh Light...was that you?! That waitress....she's a Lycan. Er, heh, my twin sister." He stopped, then started again. "Er, she spent the larger portion of her years of training in the Aiel Waste, which is a gigantic desert, and she's geared more like the people there. She doesn't intend to be cruel, or snide, or hateful....it just happens sometimes."

"Good thing that magic doesn't freak ya....part of my training is to use the Source as much as possible. I'll learn my limits faster and grow stronger that way.....and don't worry. I didn't hear a word about any undergarments." As he walked, he looked back to her and winked. "Not everyone is unyielding. After all, learn from the lesson of the reed and the oak tree: if you don't bend, eventually you'll break. Magic sturdy works fine...for like....running and stuff." He wasn't slow in the least, so he sort of had an idea of what she was driving at. From what he could figure, she was turned at some point before her natural maturation had finished. Being stuck in the middle of puberty forever...that was at least three levels of hell and a holy sh!t to boot.

[Jade Stone]

It was a good thing he looked back at her as he started to walk, because he'd see she didn't get very far at all and that she was a frozen statue of stuck. He'd given her a whole lot of information just then, but half of it went whoosh over poor Jade's preocupied head because she was sort of reeling from the first part - New Jersey. He'd opened up this gateway to Earth.

Jade had a whole lot of feelings when it came to New Jersey - had to, since it was where she grew up. Not in Asbury Park, and actually it was Point Pleasant that had been her North Jersey fam's beach and boardwalk of choice, but that's not why she was having such a heaping and horrified hesitation. Jade didn't check into the Tel'Ranaemyn Inn by choice, she'd been assigned there. By her coven - well by its leaders more specifically - who where hugely old and hugely powerful and who would be hugely pissed off if they found out she was shirking her assignment by moving down the road to the Saybrook like she was, so right about now Jade was imagining their uber-anger at discovering she'd shirked herself all the way back to Earth to boot.

"XAVIER!" She was hissing it at him in an urgent whisper. After just taking a single step out of the Gateway, and the only reason she'd been willing to take that step was becuse she'd was afraid it'd close on her and chop her head off or something. With her furtive look back at it he might realize that she was seriously considering jumping back into it and bolting all the way back to Rhy'din at super vampire speed. "I thought you said the place was not too far away! I can't...I can't be here. On Earth. Bad. Very bad. Dangerous, serious death-type danger."

She didn't want to explain more. Not until they were out of the earshot of...well, this planet. And everyone on it. Because while New Jersey didn't have a coven of its own, New York certainly did, and man did she hate every last one of them. Serious St. Louis butt-kissers, that's who the Big Apple vampires were, and they'd probably jump at the chance to dump her misbehaving ass on the St. Louis doorstep like a cat with a dead bird. "Exit stage left? Please?" She sounded so intensely pleading and desperate. Probably a little bit of fear in there, too.

Which was only the tip of the iceburg of the whole LOT of internal fear she had going on right now. Not that she didn't hear the rest of what he said, and she would be more than willing to pick up their conversation where it left off - once they were back in New Haven.

[Xavier]

Xavier's expression was calm, almost cool. "Relax, kiddo. You're here with me. I don't mean any disrespect, but I've held my own against many beasts...Trollocs, Fades, vampires, other Lycans.....I'm sure I can manage. Remember, we're here for fun.....not to dwell on past things. So stop worrying and let's enjoy what Asbury Park has to offer. I'll even foot the bill for the skeeball.....well, until you start winning, that is." His smirk would tell her that he was kidding her about the skeeball...that is, if his wink didn't do the job.

After a moment, he sighed. "If you really want to go back, we can. I figured you needed a break from the non-anonymity that RhyDin offers. As I said, we're here for fun, and well, if anyone jumps us, I'm more than capable of holding my own...and then some. Just relax, have a little fun, and I promise not to mention your magical wonder-bra to anyone. Deal?" He smirked, shaking his head nonchalantly. Of course he wouldn't tell anyone, but she didn't know that...unless she caught the crap-eating grin that he wore.

[Jade Stone]

"Kiddo?" She sounded kind of shrill. Shrill was probably better than her snarling at him, which would have been the other patented Jade Stone temper-flare reflex response. "I'm not a kiddo, you're a kiddo!" The aim was totally a somewhat childish 'how do you like it?' kind of thing. Not to mention true, she was about ten years his senior. Like she told him earlier, the age thing was a huge sore spot with her. The fact he called her kiddo kind of set Jade off to hear everything in the style of him telling her that she was a cute, sweet but misguided overreactor, which had her bristling like she was about to spit venom.

So while he was winking she was clenching her fists and counting to ten like that totally stupid anger management class she had to suffer through one summer told her to do. If it was totally stupid, why did she do it? Because her temper was about as kind and reasonable as a rabid bat out of hell with its wing on fire - case in point, now - and considering she just met Xavier she didn't think it'd do so well for her image if she kicked him in the groin or went for his throat or the tons of other things Jade tended to do to her immortal friends when they ticked her off. That was the total drawback to hanging out with vampires most of the time - it made a level of rough that wasn't safe for most other people a habit.

...nine...ten...eleven...twelve...thirteen... Jade decided to go beyond ten. Silently counting to herself the whole time he was talking. Which turned out to be a good thing, because she heard the rest of what he said from a quasi-reasonable place, which meant she could give a quasi-reasonable reply. Which got more reasonable as it went along, thank god. Because with Jade, sometimes the spiral went down down down instead and the cute little teen queen could get off-with-your-head ugly!

"PAST things? I don't know about your situation, but I asked to go back because of my right-this-very-second. You're right, I think Rhy'din is a shithole and I hate it but I'm there for a reason. And standing here I'm giving the middle finger to my coven." Jade had to emphasize the word. Hopefully he'd get it. That to a vampire here, covens were important. Even if they weren't in Rhy'din. She emphasized the word with her lips not her voice, glancing around to make sure no one heard her before looking back at him. "While I'm totally disobedience girl sometimes," how well she knew it considering most moving out of the Tel'ranaemyn was her totally being disobedient, "Being here is like spit in the face of the Pope disobedient, okay?"

Now it was her turn to sigh. Rubbing at her face, she dropped her hands and tried to level with him. "Look, you're a nice guy and I'm all for having fun, but...I mean is there seriously no skeeball back there?" A thumb over her shoulder at the portal, or where it was if it wasn't there and open any longer. "Or what about bowling? Pool? Tennis? Miniature golf? Pick a ball, any ball and I'm your girl if we do it on that side of the fence, but...relaxation here is seriously a non-happening for me. Not when I know that by just being here I'm giving a huge FU to people who...I just really shouldn't."

She'd leave her magical bra out of this, for now. Even though his guess, while not totally correct, wasn't totally far off either.

[Xavier]

Xavier chuckled, opening another Gateway and motioning. "My mistake, kiddo. There is a decent game room in one of the older places in RhyDin proper, so we'll go there. But....you should seriously consider my words. See....the kind of vamps that would do you harm? I'm what they have nightmares about. They taste awful, but I've gnawed the necks out of a few of them. And no, not you. I don't bite....well, unless I'm forced to."

A moment passed as he pondered her words. "Maybe your coven deserves a middle finger or two. I have a low tolerance for people who try to control others. Call it a foible........I just don't care for it. As for the FU? Warranted. Maybe you'd like to see me make some of them squeal like a little girl.......ah, never mind all that, let's go." With a smile, he motioned for her to follow as he entered his Gateway. Destination? Skeeball!

[Jade Stone]

following xavier back through the gateway, jade was totally quiet.

for really good reason, beyond the fact that him calling her kiddo again made her blood boil. if she were to say something right now, she knew it'd be something like, 'i totally know what you mean. i'd rip your sister's body into her own death shroud, the snobby bitch'. nevermind if her reply was true or not true, that wouldn't be jade's point. the blonde had a habit of relying on exaggerated sarcasm to get her point across - you know, the 'how do you like it?' method, which wasn't the most mature in the world but that was jade for you. and the past couple minutes all he did was tell her how he would (and had) attacked vampires and how that could and would include the ones in her coven.

hearing him talk like that made her seriously uncomfortable. like the difference between calling your own brother a jerk, and hearing someone else say that and more. she'd had this trouble when it came to the coven thing before with owen, who was a human and didn't know a thing about vampires or covens but wanted to learn what her life was like. even wanting to learn owen had trouble understanding and not arguing with some of the stuff she told him, so she didn't want to go there with xavier who seemed to have a really aggressive stance on vampires and covens already.

so sure, she was really pissed off at the Three for assigning her here to a place she didn't like in a building that was run by someone she couldn't stand. and she'd defied them, today, by moving out to another place. but that didn't mean she hated their guts. it definitely didn't mean she wanted them hurt, maimed or dead. and it did mean that what xavier was saying was pushing both her discomfort and loyalty buttons, to a point where she didn't know what the hell she'd say if she opened her mouth.

considering jade didn't exactly have a good poker face - or any kind of poker face at all - it may have been obvious. maybe in her struggling-to-be-calm-cool-and-collected tone it was too as she mustered up a couple words as she followed him back through the gateway. "rhy'din proper sounds great."

god, she never thought she'd hear herself say that.

[Xavier]

Xavier stopped for a moment, studying Jade. "I was joking, Jade. When I called ya kiddo the second time, it was me being...well, me. Just trying to lighten your mood....maybe get you to talk about what's really bothering you. Anyway, the skeeball awaits us."

He paused for a moment, growing serious. "I know what it is like to have to follow orders that I do not want to follow. Light knows I do. When I bumped into you, I sensed you needed someone to talk to.....whether or not you do is your choice. I'll not force a conversation....but I will make you a wager. I win, you sit down and talk to me, as an equal. You win...well, in that unlikely event, you can make something up. Sound like a square deal to you?" He smiled, holding out a hand to be shaken, if she agreed.

[Jade Stone]

"pointing out my age deficiency isn't going to get me to talk about anything." blunt and honest. which was probably preferable to the other route jade's temper could have taken her, which involved growling, punching and black eyes. because kiddo was just not something she would ever let anyone call her. not even damon. not even the Three. not even her bff. "it's not a joke. ever." but most people didn't seem to get that, it was true. how could they, when they aged? to the aging, not aging just seemed neat.

it was not neat, not in her opinion.

as she followed behind him through the gateway, she probably looked a little bewildered. he said he wouldn't force a conversation out of her, but, "isn't making a bet like that trying to force a conversation?" she wasn't the brightest bulb in the box granted, but that's what she thought those kind of bets were. a fifty-fifty shot at trying to win a desired outcome. "i think i'd rather just play skeeball. you know, for fun."

fun was something that had been seriously lacking in jade's life pretty much the entire time she was at the inn. she didn't like it there, she didn't like a lot of the stuff that had happened to her there, and her moving out was her way of trying to put a stop to feeling heavy and unhappy all the time. this was supposed to be her awesome day of secret liberation, so she didn't have to bog herself down with the seriously depressed thoughts anymore. bet or no bet, that chapter in her life was one she didn't want to talk about right now. which is why she was honest, and added, "even if we did make the bet and you won, i'd probably make something up anyway. how would you know the difference? one sob story's the same as the next."

though the prospect of making one up kind of amused her.

[Xavier]

"For fun, then." He smiled, opening another Gateway and pretty much pulling her through. When they emerged from the other side, they were at what the humans of Earth called a batting cage. A motorized 'pitcher' shot baseballs out at you, and you were supposed to hit them back at it.

"I dunno about you, but when things have me to the point of wanting to bite someone, I find that hitting something works wonders. Interested?" He walked over, paying the attendant for the both of them, and came back with two aluminum bats. "And no, I didn't get you a girly bat. Besides, if I did so, I'd expect to find it meeting my cranium." He cracked his knuckles after leaning his own bat against his leg, and smirked. "So? Who goes first?"

[Jade Stone]

maybe it was the jarring reality of the gateway where you blink in one location and open your eyes in another, or maybe it was because her mind was a throw-up mess of thoughts about all sorts of way-too-weighty things that she'd moved out to forget, but it took her a blink-blink's time to realize where they were and what he was holding out to her. "ohh, baseball." the fact that she recognized the sport was a good sign, right? jade in gym class…well, let's not even get into that.

point was, were there helmets around? xavier should really think about putting on a helmet, unless he happened to have a skull that was uncrackable. after he handed her the bat jade turned it upward, moving her hands along the bottom part to try and figure out a good grip on the thing - she hadn't held one of these since high school over fifteen years ago, and even then jade in gym class…was the thing we're not even getting into.

point was, she stopped fiddling with the bat long enough to say, "when i want to bite someone, it turns out that i pretty much just…you know, bite them." a small but ironic smile was given to him, and the shrug that followed was her way saying without words that what she said was ironic only because it was true. that's what fangs were for, after all - at least for a vampire. "it's kind of in my best interest, hitting bruises more than bleeds…" fish gotta swim, birds gotta fly, and vampires gotta feed.

her green eyes lifted, taking a look at him and his batting stance. yeah, he seemed to know what he was doing. so watching him would probably lessen the chance that she'd lose her grip on the bat and send it flying to accidentally kill the attendant, or some other jade-quality mishap. so she was absolutely confident in her verdict, which was, "you go first."

[Xavier]

He grinned, seeing her looking a little unsure. "Okay, to cover all the bases.....the white stuff in the little pail is sort of like chalk. It improves your grip on the bat, so no one will have to die should someone lose their grip. The helmets are over there, right next to the cage door.....I usually don't use one, though. Something about wearing someone else's hat makes my fu....my hair kind of crawl."

After he had spoken, he winked. "I'll take first go, but you gotta outdo me. Them's the rules, Jade!" He chuckled, hoping she'd come around and start having a little fun, then nodded to the attendant, who started the machine. Xavier's first swing was an epic-level fail....he beat the hell out of the air, but nothing else. The ball thumped harmlessly into the netted wall behind him. "Okay.....time to get serious." He growled the comment mostly to himself as he choked down his grip on the bat. The next ball came at him, and he took his swing.

A startled jerk and gasp from the attendant, plus a few folks coming over to see what exactly that sound was, had Xavier looking around sullenly. "What?! They should make them of better quality!" The ball had....well...sort of crumbled. It lay in a pile about two feet away from Xavier.....and if one noticed such things, the aluminum bat he had used had a rather noticeable dent in it now. He cleared his throat, blushing, and stepped back over to her. "Your turn." He wouldn't look at her, but she would be able to tell that he had embarrassed himself quite profoundly.

[Jade Stone]

She noticed he didn't say anything to her biting comment. Because Jade has this big bad habit of watching non-vampire people too carefully whenever she brought up the fact that she was a vampire, or referenced it in some way. Sure sign of someone self-conscious, but then again she was the first to admit that fact. What it meant that he'd just jumped straight into the baseball talk she didn't know exactly, but she knew it meant something.

"I don't see any bases…" When he'd mentioned he'd cover them all, Jade was looking around the batting cage for those white squares or diamonds that she always saw on her school's baseball field to mark and represent bases. Took hearing him talk about chalk and helmets for her to realize that he wasn't talking about literal bases. "Oh. Those bases." Yeah, she grimaced. Way to look like a less than intellectual, Jade. But she figured by now it was no secret to him that she wasn't an expert in America's favorite pastime anyway, so she tried to tack on a question. "But what about holding the - "

Bat. He was way eager to get swinging, and she didn't even have time to get her question out to make sure her own personal batting bases were covered. When Xavier took his first swing, Jade's eyes didn't follow the path of the ball as it sailed by him, because she was too busy trying to memorize the position of his hands and fingers as they gripped the bat. The fact that he missed the ball was the farthest thing from her mind because…well…she was hardly a jock. Not even a short-but-painful-mommy-made-me-sign-up-for-it-at-the-age-of-ten-recreation-softball-or-soccer jock. Her mom had tried to drag her recreation soccer, but getting ten-year-old Jade to even set foot on the field had turned out to be the real sport.

When he annihilated the ball, it made a weird sound that made her start. Jerking her gaze away from his grip in time to watch the ball fall to the ground with a plop that was definitely unhealthy. Her eyes lingered on the now useless baseball, as memories of the day she'd broken the foosball table in the Tel'ranaemyn lounge were coming back to her. At least now she wasn't the only one who had their not-so-human strength get in the way of her trying to do oh-so-human activities. It looked like werewolves had that problem, too.

" - bat." She finally finished her question when Xavier came back over to her. "How do I hold it? Maybe we should be asking that guy…" Green eyes looked over to the dumbfounded attendant. Because for all she knew, how Xavier held the bat could've been part of what made the ball pop itself apart like that!

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