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

Gonna be late to class

[crystamaye]

"Oh...hell." Crysta flung the strap of her messenger bag over her shoulder quickly after a glance at the bright red numbers glaring from her bedside table. She had only wanted to take a quick nap before classes, she had been up since 6, covering a coworkers shift as a favor. Not to mention the extra cash. Then after working the coffee shop she had gone straight to her second job at the bookstore. At least she liked it there. But it wasn't exactly sitting around. Hauling books and stocking the whole time that day

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper didn't have to look up to notice the big bundle of frazzled nerves that slipped into the classroom with barely a minute to spare. It was the dulled one, the female whose emotions he couldn't quite sense the way he was supposed to, but who had been frantic enough at the thought of being tardy that she hadn't been very difficult to pick up on tonight, hurrying down the hall. Jasper had been wondering where she was, offhandedly. She didn't seem the type to show up late

[crystamaye]

Crysta had that feeling again, tingling at the back of her neck as she sat. This is when she thought he was looking at her, but long ago waved that thought away and declared herself some sort of crazy. She never turned to check, too afraid to see that her mind really was that deluded. Or maybe too afraid to see that he really was...looking at her

[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

On the road

[feelingthirsty]

Usually, when Jasper's thirst struck him particularly powerfully and it hadn't yet been long enough since his last human meal to justify another, he could make do roaming the Manistee National Forest for a night or two. Every now and then, however, that just wasn't good enough

[crystamaye]

Crysta was not amused. In fact, she was mad at her car for deciding now would be the time to kick the bucket. "Damn piece of..." She cursed, kissing the tire as she got out of the car after managing to pull it to the side of the road. Lucky for her it had been late and not that many cars had been around. Also, if she thought about it, unlucky. Her Oldsmobile, like what it was called, was old. Very old. Though it had been cheap, so at the time she could have cared less. But now she was stuck on the highway, in the dark, and she could swear she could see the welcome sign to Wisconsin not but a few feet away

[feelingthirsty]

Now was a good time for Jasper to see whether or not he had any control over Crysta's emotions through the fog. With a glance first at Crysta and then over the car, noting the year and model, he pretended nothing was up as he stepped around the human to peer beneath the hood. Proximity usually made this easier. If her anger was going to dissipate at all, now would be the time.

"What happened to it?" Frowning at the state of the engine, Jasper had to waft away the smoke before he could get a good look at the smaller parts. The car was old, but not that old. Perhaps he could fix it and get her on her way again.

[crystamaye]

Her anger and frustration didn't change, not that he could tell her emotions anyways. Crysta huffed, crossing her arms as she leaned back and let him peer at her engine. Though his proximity wasn't lost on her, she was just too upset to think too much about it. "I really don't know. It just...sputtered and shut down on me. It's a miracle I managed to pull it to the side of the road." She sighed, pushing her thick hair from her face as she looked over his shoulder. "Do you know anything about cars?" She asked, gnawing her lower lip as she looked away from the smoke to the side of his face.

[feelingthirsty]

If Jasper was going to be honest with himself, he worked on that car so diligently as an excuse to avoid Crysta for the next few days. He didn't consider himself spooked, but there was definitely something going on here, and it made him uneasy. Alice didn't call him about just any human, and he'd known her long enough to trust in what she said no matter how much he disagreed with it; then there was the fact that he kept running into this human, and that he couldn't read her, let alone influence her. It was like Bella all over again, except less...demanding. Less insistent. Less irritating. Thank goodness for that

[crystamaye]

The week was a slow and long one. Crysta found herself in deep thought more often than not. After the weekend it was back to work and school for her, which oddly enough she was grateful for, something she never thought she would be before she met Jasper. Just, thinking so much about him was putting a toll on her peace of mind. Her sleep was restless, when she did sleep. She was distracted when she needed to write papers or do assignments, at work she would find herself putting books away idly, in the wrong places. Why was she so wound up about this

[feelingthirsty]

With the sun still glaring down overhead, Jasper had to stop to pull his jacket hood up over his head before he could climb out of the car. He'd caught sight of Crysta waiting for him on the steps as he'd pulled up, and, as he closed the car door behind him, was still busy trying to remind himself that it wasn't that uncanny for a human to be so perceptive. She had a gift. It had stuck itself on him--there was no such thing as an ability that focused solely on a single person, so that had to be it. She may not be interested in learning how to use what she could do, but neither was Jasper interested in being on a human's radar for the rest of their life

[crystamaye]

His mood wasn't lost on her. She could tell he was happy just from the look on his face and the way his movements seemed relaxed. Jasper liked fixing up the car. "Hey." Crysta stood after she caught the keys, stepping down to look over at the car. "You must be a miracle worker because you drove that thing here without a sound." She looked it up and down, noticing it looked new as well. He was good. Crysta had no idea the amount of money Jasper must have put into it, but she was grateful for it anyways. She turned to him with a full smile then, the sun bouncing off the color in her hair. "Thank you Jasper, really

[feelingthirsty]

Although Jasper wasn't usually one to duck his head and hide from an uncomfortable situation, he did consider himself intelligent enough to know when he should step out of the way and avoid a potentially bad one. He wasn't sure how Crysta felt. He wasn't sure, therefor, how to act around her, what to say, what to keep to himself. This was worse than a potential situation, this was a potential disaster, if it hadn't breached that wall already. Jasper wasn't going to risk it anymore. There were too many variables, not enough input. There weren't enough contingency plans in the world to cover all his bases with that girl.

And so he did the unthinkable, and emailed his professor about a bug going around. Oh wonders of technology. He knew he couldn't avoid Crysta forever, but a week or so should help him find his bearings back, at least. She didn't have his number or his address, and neither did anyone else. He wasn't hiding from her, per se, just giving them both a chance to take a step back from one another and reevaluate what they were

[crystamaye]

That night when she got home, her facade crumbled. She hadn't realized how much she willed herself to stay together for the sake of Jasper. Crysta knew instinctively that if she had acted the wrong way Jasper would have been long gone forever. Though he probably saw her indifference as annoying. She leaned over the counter in her kitchen when she returned to her dark apartment, steadying her breath as she fully absorbed the impact of the confession she had received earlier

[feelingthirsty]

Jasper narrowed his eyes at her. He was one hundred and sixty-eight, going on a thousand. If he wanted to skip an undergraduate English class or two, he could damn well do it.

He briefly considered closing the door and walking away, but knew even before the thought had completed itself in his head that he wouldn't. He simply didn't do things like that--to anyone but Edward, anyway, who was massively invasive even in his most unobtrusive of times. Although maybe now was the time to make an exception.

Instead he ended up pulling the door open for her to come inside. He wasn't having this conversation with the sun shining in his eyes and playing across his skin like a damned wind chime.

"Come on."

[crystamaye]

Crysta arched a brow at the invitation, stepping in when he open the door wider. Her eyes were drawn to his skin as the sun briefly did something odd and danced across him like he was made of glass or diamond. That was...interesting. Though everything was when it came to Jasper. But just as quickly, is was gone because he shut the door behind her.

It wasn't hard to tell he was mad about her being there, but at least he hadn't disappeared completely, which she found relieving. She relaxed slightly as she looked over at his face, which seemed to be drawn into a sort of scowl. "Look, I'm sorry I came over unannounced, I was just.." She paused, dropping her arms from where she had crossed them defensively. "I was worried about you."

[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.