Here we are, in our temporary spot in the unadorned nowhere room where the True Blood Anonymous group meets. Viking’s Lover brought a peanut butter candy cake and I was thrilled. I could smell the salty sweetness of the peanut butter and the lovely vanilla smell of the cake co-mingling, as if a jar of Jif got together with a pound cake and made a yummy, sweet baby….but I digress. Westexan brought in her thermoses of hot coffee and I smiled at the decaffeinated thermos she brought for herself. God Speed set down the bottles of Irish Nevermind. We smiled at each other.
“Agent 99 ½,” I said to GS.
“Agent 665,” he said back to me. We had been fomenting a little minor coup over at the AS.org forum by posting non-AS things and I (gasp) had changed out my neutral siggie and avatar for ones devoted to my favorite Vampire in the whole world, Bill Compton.
Liz came in with Mel, the later looking frazzled, muttering to herself over and over “Computers are our friends, computers are our friends,” It was her mantra but I doubt she anywhere near believed this. Still, we were getting used to the “refugee camp” and we were planning a party a God Speed’s. I was still working on our Mythology thread…I mean blog…and still making puzzles and in a fit of frustration, went on ahead and opened up nominations again for the award show. You just can’t keep a junkie down.
Eric Lover came in and sat her big bag crazy in her usual seat and went to get coffee and nevermind and I sat down and lit a cigarette. Ilovetheviking and True Blood Fan and Viking’s Lover sat down. Hoyt came in, skirting the coffee table, casting an evil eye upon God Speed. GS sat down beside Westexan. Westexan smiled at me and rolled her eyes. Jessica junkies, impossible.
I slouched further in my seat and sipped my coffee. Personally I was riding a mild high. I had been looking at season one and I was a bit stoned from the Bill I had done. But I was maintaining, unlike Eric Lover who was a little hung over. Someone should have warned her that hard Viking would make her hyper. She sat down beside me, ate her cake, and sipped her hot cup of wake up and cadged a cigarette from me.
Minnie and Violet, Mistress of Kleenex, came in, got their snacks and sat down, waving merrily.
“Aslinn, I saw that birthday greeting you put up for the lovely Brit. So sweet,” she said, smiling at me.
“Well, I couldn’t let his big day go by without recognizing it, even though we aren’t really sure of when the big day was….some people were so shy,” I said.
“That is okay, Aslinn, I am sure SM will love it,” said Minnie. “Oh and I can’t wait to try some of your banana pudding. When we get back to our house, you should post it on the Merlotte’s menu.”
“I will,” I said. My mouth was watering over the menu for the big party.
Finally, as it was part of our ritual, the lights went out except for the center panel and the counselors arrived. I sat up a little straighter and saw the outline of my counselor, sitting in his accustomed spot and I could hear the voices of the two females behind me. I could tell it was all GS could do not to turn and look at them. And then there was the lead counselor, the one who troubled me, the one I longed ignore, but simply could not. His big shadowy form leaned easily against the door.
“How are you?” asked my counselor and my heart skipped a beat. “Is everyone doing okay since the end of our last adventure?”
“Well, we are managing the best we can with us still refugeeing in the other forum. And of course our Aslinn is doing her bit, by having two blogs set up for our mythology and other stuff,” said Liz.
“Yes, I have visited her blogs. They are quite lovely,” he said. “I was wondering if anyone would like to start the discussion with Jessica?” asked my counselor. It was the first time a counselor suggested a topic. This made me nervous and a little wary. What could this mean?
“Well, what I want to know is: Is Jessica in serious trouble? Did she kill that trucker? What will happen to her if she has begun a rampage?” asked God Speed. “Will she have to be taken before the magister?”
“It isn’t fair,” said Hoyt. “She doesn’t have any guidance. I don’t blame Bill precisely, but she is left on her own and she is a new Vampire and she doesn’t know how to control her impulses as yet.”
“Bill isn’t a good maker, but look at the stellar example he had for a maker,” I said sarcastically.
“Do you think she and Hoyt will make up? Maybe if she sees Hoyt again and they make up, she won’t do that again,” suggested Eric Lover.
“Yeah, but she doesn’t like the True Blood and Bill said two-thirds of all Vampires don’t survive their first year because of the problems they have with feeding. You know, if they had stayed in the coffin, nobody would know that the drained bodies were victims of Vampires,” said True Blood Fan. “I think Jessica has developed that eating disorder that she warned Bill about.” I heard a squeaky little gasp behind my back and I automatically took the tissues that Violet offered me and I passed them back to the counselors behind me.
“But will she be staked for that? What sort of punishment might the magister impose?” said Ilovetheviking. “And what would happen to Bill? He is responsible for her as her maker.”
“Which,” I reminded the group, “he was forced to make at the behest of the magister to begin with.”
“Which he had to do because he killed Long Shadow,” reminded the female counselor.
“This is all Eric’s fault,” said Hoyt.
“How do you get to that?” asked Eric Lover. When a user of hard Viking gets riled up, they are unpredictable. I shifted uncomfortably.
“If he hadn’t brought charges against Bill and just let it go, Bill would never have had to go to the magister in the first place,” reasoned Hoyt.
“And where would that leave you, Hoyt? You and God Speed wouldn’t have Jessica to mainline if he hadn’t,” she said tersely. That shut Hoyt up right away and God Speed just looked sad, a desperate look on his face. “Besides, what if Hoyt finds out what she has done? Will that scare him off forever?”
“We can only hope,” said God Speed, giving Hoyt an evil look.
“Well, we will leave it right there for now…” said the Lead counselor. “We will be at God Speed’s for your autumnal solstice party just at dark.”
I got up to snag one more piece of cake and a cup of coffee. The room emptied out and I turned and went to gather my purse and found a small package on the seat of my chair. I sat down in the chair Eric Lover had been occupying and opened the package. They were cigarettes, in a foreign package. I opened one and sniffed the tobacco inside. It was very sweet and aromatic. A card fluttered onto the floor and I bent down to pick it up.
“For you dearest,” it read.
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