“Maybe, or maybe there’s one option we could look into that would give us our best shot at a straight answer. Probably best we don’t say anything to Mom about it though.”
“What option is that?” She hadn’t been able to think of any herself and she had been curious about all of this for years. “Well, yeah, mom doesn’t like mentioning it at all unless she’s trying to make sure we’re not going down that path..”
Jayne returned the nod in acknowledgement. Besides, he didn’t exactly want to cause shit for anyone who was just trying to get by in what was left of the world like he was, and they’d already shown him they weren’t a threat to him, so he’d keep their secret.
“So, what happens now then?”
“I suppose that’s up to you. We won’t interfere in your life or anything of the sort. You don’t even need to speak to us or anything like that if you do not wish. Although, I will say, Tal has taken a fondness to you. She gets attached to people rather easily. You have free will in all of this.”
More so than anyone on his end did, he supposed, knowing well enough that if one of the elders in his family stated they were to keep an eye on Jayne, he would have to.
Jayne waved away the apology and shook his head as though he didn’t need it.
“Guess we’re both in unfamiliar territory, huh?” he shrugged, his tone low and a little resigned.
“Not even sure what I’m doing right now. Most people around here would probably think I was batshit crazy if I told any of them about you guys. Don’t worry, I know this is probably something I’m supposed to keep my mouth shut about, regardless, right?”
He cracked a smile at that and nodded. There was no use denying the truth in his words.
“I would appreciate it. Sort of a safety precaution when people tend to hunt that which they do not understand and, subsequently, fear.” They really didn’t want any more people to die, especially if they came gunning for them. After all, they were just trying to keep what little balance remained.
Jayne stared blankly, the information just washing over him for the time being.
“Please, just… It’s kinda hard to get my head around this shit, so can we leave any details out for now? One thing at a time, yeah?”
He was trying, he really was, and he didn’t mean to sound rude, but even as a kid, it had been easy to overload him with too much, and his coping mechanisms only stretched so far without everything collapsing into an unintelligible mess that would take him far too long to sift through without exhausting himself in the process.
“Sorry, I don’t…usually have to explain anything to anyone,” he answered sheepishly, ducking his head a little. The last he wanted to do was overwhelm the other.
He fell silent, letting Jayne choose what he wanted to know and how much at once. It was probably easier this way for both of them.
He caught the little hesitation in Xander’s words, cementing what he’d suspected after he’d had a chance to process things.
“You mean Talyse, right?” he asked casually, his expression saying that he’d be grateful for complete transparency if he was going to accept these things existed.
“I mean, ain’t no dogs I’ve ever seen come close to her size, and most of the native wolf population are way upstate out in the wild. It’s usually only the sick and injured ones who drift back into the city looking for an easy meal, and Tal is neither of those things, so I figure she’s like you and Lux, at least as far as my general area of experience or explanation.”
Xander nodded, trying not to look completely guilty. “Was sort of trying to ease into that one.”
“She’s…similar. Her mother was a werewolf, her father is one of the Oneiroi. Dream weavers. Lux is half angel, half harpy. Which makes Lux an oddly good judge of character despite her inability to blend in well. I’m a little more muddled. My father is angel, death spirit, and a touch human. My mother is half dream, but her grandparents are Persephone and Zeus. Her grandfather is not one any of us choose to associate with,” he explained, trying to lay it all out without it getting too confusing.
Jayne’s eyes glazed over a little at mention of other beings. It was still too much for him to even try to imagine the scope of what he was dealing with right now.
“Yeah, well before this week, I ain’t never known about any of this shit, so.” he shrugged, tugging on a t-shirt that had a few small tears and stains in it, but was still wearable, given the circumstances of how they lived now.
“You might be surprised with what you’ve met or stumbled across. Most are better at blending in than Lux or..” he paused before shrugging, not really wanting to blow the cover on Tal just yet. He had seemed comfortable with her in her fur.
“I was, er… just seeing if it worked.” Jayne confessed, looking more than a little sheepish.
“It’s not every day someone tells you that you can contact them by burning a feather. I mean, it’s not really any day at all for me, until now.”
It was obvious that Jayne was still trying to find some kind of logical explanation to hang it on and coming up spectacularly short, at least in terms of anything within his own realm of knowledge. Another moment passed and he suddenly realised he wasn’t wearing much by way of clothing on his top half, leaving his scars more uncovered than he usually felt comfortable with others seeing, so he scrabbled to grab a shirt to hide them.
“I figured you would want to test it, it’s why I gave you more than one feather.”
He shrugged, hands sliding into the pockets of his hoodie. It kept him from fidgeting. While he was better with mortals than Lux was, he still wasn’t exactly great at it, a little more on the introverted side if he was honest.
“It was never a common occurrence, even before. There are less hunters these days which, in a sense, does make it safer for the other beings, such as shifters, to survive and hide.” It also made policing the more violent ones easier too, but it had the drawback of making their attacks more detrimental to humanity as a whole. None of which he bothered to mention.
Jayne startled visibly, pretty much jumping to his feet as Xander appeared out of nowhere.
Of course, Jayne should have realized he’d come by the shadows again, but it hadn’t registered that in doing so, it would still spook Jayne a little with how strange the whole thing was.
“Uh, hi,” he faltered, his surprise quickly turning to a small amount of embarrassment, like he’d been caught doing something and now had to awkwardly deflect his way out of it.
“I must admit, I thought it would be a few more days before your curiosity got the best of you,” he remarked casually, rubbing a hand over the back of his neck. He was trying to be as unobtrusive as possible, but he had lost a lot of that ground by literally appearing out of the shadows of the room.
A small smile touched his lips though, the idea of being able to let Tal know that the boy was doing alright was a good one. The hybrid was going to be beyond enthusiastic when he told her.
Jayne had given it a few days. Taken some time to get his head around what had happened and exhaust all the ways he could try to convince himself that it wasn’t real. At best, some part of it had to be wishful thinking. Still, here he was, trying to shake the feeling that maybe part of him wanted to know more about things his brain kept trying to tell him were impossible.
He walked over to the other side of the room and took one of the feathers Xander had given him out of the pocket of his coat, which was tossed semi-lazily over a threadbare armchair that had splits in the upholstery, but still served its purpose well enough, before returning and sitting down on the edge of his bed, studying the feather for a long moment with a skeptical look on his face, then shrugged, picked up an old Zippo from the table next to the bed and lit it on fire, expecting nothing to happen other than the feather to burn to ash like everything else in the world had done.
Xander had been trying to read one of the old spell books his grandmother had managed to keep safe through everything when he felt it. That weird little tug in his back that let him know one of his feathers had caught fire somewhere. It was enough to cause concern and he closed his eyes, focusing for a moment before bringing himself to where he felt it.
Honestly, he was relieved to see Jayne was unharmed, but he had been expecting it to take a few days more for the boy’s curiosity to get the best of him. “Hello.”
“Why do I…? Erm…” Lola faltered, blushing a little deeper at the question.
“Uh, I guess I’m just not used to people calling me that and meaning it. I mean, I’ve been called it before, but that was mostly just by guys in bars looking to get in my pants.”
Lola’s answer only further puzzled the brunette, her features scrunching up a little as she glanced down at her pants.
“Boys fit too? Pants not big. How fit?”
ofviolentdeath 