The 'S' Word [ Leyla ]

[Jesse Fforde]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Jesse Fforde had tomed back from the raid not too long ago; he'd checked in at Gresse's, hanging around to do a bit of work. Of course when it gets slow, however, he checks the computer. Inevitably always ending up on the family Crow. It seems to be a bit more active recently, which makes him happy. Such a stupid thing to make him happy, but it does. The one thing he had noticed, increasingly, is that Leyla never seems to be in a good mood. And yes, he knows it's a lot to expect a good mood from someone who'd been brought into this life like she had. But still. He wants to check in. In lieu of Leyla's missing sire, Jesse has to step up and do the job that Felicity isn't. He pushes through the front door and vaguely checks the ground floor rooms, before he heads down to the basement. He'd asked Leyla where she is but had got no response. So he searches for her while he waits.


* Leyla was in the basement among a few of her sleeping family. Laying on a bed with a book in her hands, on her stomach with her feet in the air. The ear buds in her ears blared and she head bobbed as her eyes managed to follow the lines of her book. Having no clue that both Jesse had replied and that he was looking for her. She was deep in the story.


* Jesse Fforde doesn't take long to find Leyla where she lays. Paying absolutely no attention to the world around her. And so she doesn't need to, either, here in the sanctuary of their home. Jesse meanders around the bunks, de-shoeing himself and basically getting comfortable before falling into one of the armchairs. Sometimes it works. Staring. If he stares long enough, like a creeping creep, she might look up. She might feel the hairs rise on the back of her neck, or something.


* Leyla moved her head to the beat of the song. It was a loud Metallica song and for some reason it helped her concentrate- but then she felt the tiny hairs all over her body stand up. When she read and listened to her music it was like time sped up and she had no idea how many hours or mere minutes she would miss. Her head snapped up and her eyes found Jesse sitting there like a creep. "REALLY?" she shouts but that's because her music was still blaring, dropping her book to lift a hand and yank her buds from her ears.


* Jesse Fforde smiles. It doesn't take long, really, for Leyla to realise he's there and staring at her. Five minutes, maybe, if that. He sprawls like a man content in his own kingdom, his legs stretched out in front of him and his hands resting idly on the arms of the chair. He doesn't answer the question; there's not really much to answer. He just nods, and then shrugs. "What are you angry about? Specifically?" he asks. He'd already given her the once over and could not detect any wounds. Which meant, maybe, that something else is going on.


* Leyla would be glad to know that it hadn't been very long. It would have embarrassed her if it had taken her longer than that to notice him. She was supposed to be a badass vampire now but she didn't see herself that way. No, she was just the same Leyla but 'gifted' with different problems. "I can't seem to hold down more than one feeding." she said honestly, her hand grabbing her iPod to use her thumb to turn down the music.


* Jesse Fforde frowns. That seems to be a common thing, but normally only when someone's so fucked up that their body rejects more than a certain amount of blood. Had Jesse missed something? Again, his eyes scale the length of Leyla's body, narrowing just a little, but he still can't see anything. Unless it's covered up; unless it's internal. "Are you still injured? An injury that would be critical to a human but just a really big inconvenience to us?" he asks. Better to ask the question than to assume.


* Leyla moved to sit on her knees once her music was off. "I actually.. I don't know." her mouth twisted into a frown as she adjusted her body to sitting on the bed and facing the head of her bloodline. "I've been good about the Sun and I switched classes for nighttime." she put her book over her lap and wrinkled her eyebrows.


* Jesse Fforde leans forward, his elbows on his knees and his hands clasped in front of him. But then he changed his mind and pulled the chair closer to the bed, where he reached out and laid his hand on whatever part of Leyla's body that was nearest (and not inappropriate). He infuses her with that same healing power he's used on others - for now. "Any better? Did that work?"


* Leyla watched him scoot closer and this time she didn't flinch. It didn't bother her to have him close, she knew he meant no harm and she didn't mind him too much. He was growing on her like a toy she didn't want at first but ended up not being as half bad. It was when his hand landed on her shoulder that she turned her head and squinted. Ugh. The power though, it rushed through her body and her eyes slowly blinked when she flt better. "...Yes, actually."


* Jesse Fforde nods. "Okay. Less angry now?" he asks. He knows what it's like to be hungry and angry because of it. It's the way he lives his life, and why he has such a short fuse the majority of the time. It doesn't take much to piss him off, especially the longer he goes without siring. Once upon a time he used to be a guy who'd laugh away most offences and gave no shits what anyone else thought. He's lost a bit of his carefree nature, but he tries to be aloof.


* Leyla blinked a few extra times before she laughed and nodded her head. "Yeah, especially when I get to go out and feed." she actually smiled at the man now. More grateful for what the man had done for her than she would say out loud to him or to anyone else. The man was taking place of what she assumed her sire's job was- to look after her and help her. It only made her more angry with whomever had done this and just left both her to scramble around and poor Jesse to take on after.


* Jesse Fforde smiles. He's not one to beat around the bush, really, though he knew he would check in with Leyla the next night to see if she is still having the same problem. It might be some curse that no one in their small circle had yet encountered, and something they might be able to solve in their stride. "Now, okay... if I mention the 's' word again are you going to stay here...?" he asks. There's a sly grin on his face - obviously teasing, in that way he has.


* Leyla looked over at Jesse and frowned when he brought up the 'S' word. Whatever, he hadn't exactly brought it up the first time like roses and rainbows. It had been blurted out at a party like it wasn't some big deal. Well, it might not have been to him but it was to her. The 'S' word had just dumped her off like day old trash. "No, I won't just.. leave." she muttered, yawning softly then. "I'm too tired to run." her bones ached from fighting zombies. She was determined to make something of herself.


* Jesse Fforde nods. He clears his throat. "Her name is Felicity. Tall, thin, blonde thing. She was the first I ever turned," Jesse says. He and felicity had had some good times. And then she'd drifted. She'd disappeared. Jesse had moved on, and moved her stuff out of the apartment. The apartment that he and Grey now lived in, quite happily. Felicity had seemed to move on herself, she got over it okay. Maybe. "Last time I spoke to her, she told me she was blacking out a lot. She comes and goes and when she disappears she doesn't know where she goes or what she does. This... split personality I assume she has? I've never met it. But I assume that's who left you on our doorstep," he explains, slowly.


* Leyla watched him easily, her hands though needed to be busy so she turned her textbook around in her hands. It was a nervous tick that she had. The action more or less calmed her down. "Your first childe? Wow." she muttered, looking down at her textbook then back up at the man. "Split persons?" she sighed then, it was a lot. This new world. She never would have assumed she'd have to fight zombies before now. Her biggest worry before was paying bills and getting good grades. These nights she was hiding from people and feeding. "So you're saying that normally she wouldn't have?"


* Jesse Fforde shakes his head. "Yes, I'm saying she normally wouldn't have, and it's odd. And I'm sure once she comes back, the real Felicity, the Felicity I know, she'll show remorse and she'll ... well I can't promise she'll stick around but she'll probably try," he says. Not sure whether this makes it all better or worse for Leyla. Jesse is still. Leaning forward on the chair with his hands clasped in front of him.

[Leyla (DELETED 6554)]

--The following transcript was a live chat roleplay--

* Leyla was thinking long and hard. She looked at his face, but then she turned and looked towards a wall. It gave her the feeling of privacy she needed to think her feelings over. At first it was a hard thing to swallow but Felicity wasn't her Mom. This wasn't the life she was accustomed too. It was something totally different. The rules were different and she needed to adapt to survive. She would survive. Her gaze went from the wall back to Jesse. "She can keep her remorse. I just want to thrive." honestly speaking. "I want to be able to be the best that I can.. I've been given forever in this.." she gestured around them, "place. I want to make the best of it."


* Jesse Fforde grins. He straightens in the chair. That's more like it. The zest and enthusiasm is refreshing and Jesse doesn't even know why. It's not something he understands just yet, the way he's seeking some kind of refreshment. Happiness. Kaelyn's good for it, mostly, but sometimes he wonders whether he's drowning in depression that isn't his. Everyone's always got a problem. Or a hundred. "That's the spirit!" he says, genuinely happy to hear it. "If you need any help with that thriving, just shout. Yeah?"


* Leyla knitted together her eyebrows stubbornly. This one was a fighter. But then she laughed at Jesse and shook her head at him. He was such a Dad. He oozed it. It was funny to her. "Of course, Jesse. I'll shout or hunt you down or something." she held her textbook to her chest and gave him an actual smile.


* Jesse Fforde arches a brow. He does that staring thing again; he constantly wants to know what's going on in the heads of other people, and they're not always so forthcoming. Not anymore. People used to tell him more when he was mute, he's noticed, and he kind of wishes, sometimes, that he'd never found his voice. Go back to the simpler way of life. So he likes to stare, to figure out people by watching the way they sit or react or... laugh. "What's so funny?"


* Leyla tipped her head with that smile on her face and shrugged her slender shoulders then at him as if she had a secret that he wanted to know. Of course, she didn't know that he really wanted to know. With those raised shoulders and that smile she just said. "Well.. you." she laughed again, as if he should know.


* Jesse Fforde 's brow remains arched, eyes narrowed just a little as he replays the conversation they'd just had in his head. He still can't figure out what was so funny. But he shrugs it off. If she doesn't want to answer then she doesn't have to answer. He smirks and rolls his shoulders. "I knew I was hilarious. Comedian, I am. Always destined to be one," he says, leaning back in the chair with his knee swinging back and forth in front of him.


* Leyla brushed the thought of Jesse being a destined Dad away from her mind for now. It was just making her laugh in his face and that was rude. She smiled at his smirk anyways and rolled her eyes at him playfully. "A comedian?" she asked, eyebrows raising then. Pfft. "I'm going to school for Astronomy."


* Jesse Fforde shifts in his seat. He laughs. This time, he laughs at Leyla. Kind of. But the pieces fell together in his mind and he found it ironic. Or in the very least, fitting. He'd never wanted to be a comedian. But surely Leyla would know he was kidding. But that doesn't matter. "Astronomy? Well that fits. You don't need to be around during the day for that," he says. "Better... vision, to see the sky with," he says. He almost has the itch now, to wander out to the edge of the city, find a hill and saunter to the top of it. Lay down. Stare at the sky. That could be a thing.


* Leyla put her textbook down over her lap and smiled at the man. Now she was less amused by him and his so called comedian ways but focused now on her dream job. "It's funny too, Jesse. I've always wanted to do it." Her right hand smoothed a palm over the glossy back of her textbook. It was hard and smooth. "Now I don't have to sleep and I can focus better in class. I have higher hopes for my education now." She paused then asked. "Who ever thought that would be a perk being a vampire?" now laughing at herself too.


* Jesse Fforde considers it. He'd never been to University before. Or college. And class in high school had been an optional thing for Jesse - at least in his own opinion. The only one he'd really shown up for was art class, and even then he never really did as he was told. He just liked to use the supplies. "And you don't have to get up and pee every ten minutes. Win win, in my opinion," he says. And to think, she'd been so furious about it to begin with. Now she seems to be coming around.


* Leyla laughed again at the mention of not having to pee every ten minutes. Yes, that was a perk for certain. She contnued to smile at the man and nod herself. "I'd have to agree. It's hard when I think of my family or the fact I'll never have one.." she trailed off, her features twisting with her pain. The anger had been replaced. It was replaced with pain for everything that had been taken. Thankfully, it was under all that anger and pain that she still had hope and fight in her.


* Jesse Fforde sighs as his smile falters, just a little. That seems to be the common ailment and one that he can't entirely sympathise with. He hadn't left a family behind, and was trying to create one here, from scratch. A different kind of family, for sure, but he had faith that the motley crew of strangers could grow to trust and love each other. In a way. But he figured telling someone they ought to replace what they had with what he has to offer might be going a bit too far on the insensitive asshole scale. "It's not really a consolation, but you aren't alone."


* Leyla nodded a few times. She knew it. She tried not to dwell on herself- well when she wasn't pissed to high heaven. "I know. It's not something I have to go through alone.. and that I have all of you." she put her textbook aside her then. "What should I do after I manage all the zombies?" she asked, trying to re-lighten the mood she had dropped.


* Jesse Fforde takes a breath and holds it, before he lets it out and shrugs his shoulders, palms upward. "I don't know. Aside from Astronomy, what are you into?" he asks. She seems like a pretty straight-laced girl and the things that come to mind don't seem to fit. But, not one to judge by appearance, Jesse figures it's best to get to know the ins and outs before deciding what she might like.


* Leyla thought about this with her eyebrows furrowed. Really, she hadn't had the time to explore many things so she shrugged those shoulders again. "I'm not exactly sure, honestly. I'm liking everything so far and when I had to take my pre-test or whatever for rituals.. I didn't really get it." the memory made her scowl.


* Jesse Fforde smiles. "Are you the kind of person who gives up on the things she doesn't really get, or do you keep at them until you master them? Is that you saying that you are leaning toward rituals, or are you crossing that off the list?" he asks, curious. If she chooses the former, he can help her more accurately than he could help her with anything else.


* Leyla wrinkled her nose at the thought of being a quitter. It had been hard but she knew with some time she would master this just as she had any other thing in her life. "I would like to learn. Are you any good with them?" she asked, looking at him hopefully.


* Jesse Fforde 's smile is luminous. He holds his palms up, shoulders lifting and chin high--as if he were prince muck, or King of the world. "Rituals are my specialty," he says, then dropping his hands to his knees. "They're a ***** to get started, but you do get used to them. You can wrangle the fae to your bidding in no time," he says.


* Leyla snorted at his response. The cocky man! She laughed soon after though and nodded. She trusted Jesse even if it was he that she fought with more than not. "I see." she eyed the man once before she muttered. "The fae's a damn *****."


* Jesse Fforde shrugs. "Mm, they can be. They still get me every now and again but how do we know they're not playing, hm?" he asks. Violence is a natural thing to Jesse these days, and a few gouges mean nothing much to him. He did finally get there, in the end, after a few struggles with the fae. He stands. "I should let you get back to your study. Soon, though - you let me know when you've beaten those zombies down and we'll work on the rituals, yes?"


* Leyla followed Jesse standing with her eyes and she nodded. "Yes, I really should.." she turned then to pick up her textbook again. "It's always a good idea to brush up on the information first." Her hands squeezed her textbook then. Clearly, she was excited. "But as soon as I'm done with the zombies - I'll call you and we'll work on them, for sure." she smiled bigger, ready for the challenge.


* Jesse Fforde nods, satisfied. He shifts a little closer to Leyla and teasingly pats her head. "Alright then. I'll ah... be around, anyway," he says, gesturing to the house in general before wandering off toward the door. He'll head out to Gresse's, probably. Do some more work. "Have a good night..." he calls behind him, not looking back.


* Leyla scowled once again when he teased and patted her head. hmmph, she wasn't a damn child. Well.. maybe she was. "You always are." she muttered, narrowing eyes at him before she looked down and he walked away. As he called for her to have a good night she was already opening her book to where her class syllabus said they would start. What a nerd.