In Spite of all the Danger

"You're welcome"

Jan watched his sister with interest at the casual question regarding the plush dolls. He wondered just what it was about Arin Björn that she found so appealing. The man was safe, attractive, distant, he supposed.

He thought of getting a plushie made. There were people out there that made those things he was sure. Fan chicks will make a plushie out of anything. Truth be told he probably shouldn't encourage her but he loved this crush of her's. It was so young and fresh and it reminded him that despite Nova's more brusque manner she was much younger than most of them. Like a parent or maybe an older brother, he would like her to be able to keep that small bit of childish fun and innocence as long as possible.

But like a good brother he laughed loudly when she managed the smooth maneuver that resulted in a straw in her eye. Nova might not be a polished society doll but she was definitely real, and he liked that about her.

"Subtle. Lady Grace."Â?

Grinning at her remark, he looked thoughtful as he took another sip.

"Well according to all the stories and several of the theories.... you have."Â?

Jan personally did not subscribe to the we're evil undead theory himself. He reasoned that he felt alive, looked alive and that was enough to convince him that he was still part of the living. If his heart had really stopped beating or his flesh was grey and cold then maybe he'd believe that walking death theory but it just didn't make sense to him, not that he really cared one way or the other.

Nova laughed grandly at the title Jan gifted her, still trying to clean up the mess she had made of her shirt and mostly succeeding in getting little pills of wet paper everywhere.

“Our Lady Grace. I like that, has a nice ring to it.”

She took another sip of her drink, unfettered by pesky straws now, then frowned in thought.

“Isn’t that the name of a band?”

Figuring drinking more was a good way to remember, she did just that while she mulled over her own question.

“Oh, never mind I’m thinking of Our Lady Peace.”

She gave Jan a weird look at his next remark, setting down her glass with a healthy thunk.

“Geez, you know how to turn things morbid. But I think calling weird assed fanatical cult beliefs ‘theories’ is pretty darn generous of you.”

Snickering, she went back to her glass, shaking her head. “Okay, I guess if you know how to turn things morbid I know how to turn them ornery. Gets my goat sometimes how even people in the know can spout all this bullshit about what we are and what we’re not. And a good chunk of it comes from our own kind! It’s a problem. People should be more reasonable.”

She nodded firmly at the close of her mini rant, then broke into a smile at the thought of just how ‘reasonable’ she could be at times.

Jan decided while Nova was busy being amused that should they EVER, not that it was likely, be sent on some top secret mission that Nova's code name would HAVE to be Grace. That did leave him momentarily worried about what she would come up for him.

But about that time she offended the world of music.

“Blasphemy! That's Our Lady...”

She corrected it herself and he was mollified but still gave her a suspicious green eyed glare over his glass before letting it drop and promptly no longer worrying about it.

He gave her an unconcerned shrug at the line between crazy cult beliefs and scientific theories.

“You know a lot of times there isn't a great deal of difference. I hate to be the one to break that to you. I believe it was some scientist who decided we needed to be worried about the sheep emitting too much methane into the atmosphere.”

He rolled his eyes and then watched her pointedly.

“Actual money went to study this....”

Leaning back, Jan stared at the ceiling while considering the state of their being.

“So is it really more crazy that some people believe we're dead? I mean I don't feel dead... I only occasionally... okay so I regularly look dead but its a cool gothy dead none of that moldy corpsified zombie look so I really don't think it matters whether we are or aren't. I suppose you want the exact nature of our existence spelled out in some dry lab report?”

He thought of the religious or superstitious wackos that she referred to and frowned slightly.

“There is such a thing as taking the whole idea too far. I mean hell, I remember this one guy who told every vampire he met that we were all cursed and that eventually the whole world would be over run with our kind and we would have to eat each other to survive and that all this was some form of divine punishment from some ancient god.”

Leaning up to look at her and grinning with a flash of fangs, he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

"I volunteered to put him out of his misery before that happened. Funny, he didn't take me up on the offer."

Nova snorted at Jan’s criticisms of scientists, nodding her head.

“Oh, don’t get all indignant, it’s not like any of –your- money went into it. And sure, scientists believe some crazy things; I think the nature of innovation is that it has to stem from a belief that anything is possible. There’s just also an expectation that your ideas are going to withstand careful, methodical scrutiny. Sadly, a lot of people, some of them even scientists, don’t uphold themselves to those standards.”

At Jan’s question regarding the degree of crazy, Nova considered for a moment before replying.

“It’s crazy because it can’t hold up to the scientific method. You can’t just dream up ideas and run around calling them theories without a process, and that process has to involve more than ‘concentrating really really hard on believing something you say is true’.”

She shrugged at Jan’s mention of a ‘dry lab report’.

“Well I think it would be an interesting debate if more people took it seriously. Scientists can’t even agree on a universal definition of life, though most of us have some common standards. We fit them, in my opinion, even if some could be considered a stretch. But instead people just want to pull wild claims out of their asses with no methodology behind them. It’s frustrating.”

She sighed, realizing her politics were showing like neon pink underwear through white pants. And she didn’t even –like- politics, preferring a borderless approach to life and work. It just seemed to be a necessary evil that scientists had to confront.

Snorting at Jan’s story, she shook her head and finished off her drink, setting it on the edge of the table so the waiter would come by again.

“See, no appreciation. You make an offer out of the kindness of your heart and what do you get?”

She rested her elbows on the table, cupping her chin in one hand.

“Although if all the humans die and we have to resort to cannibalism…I say we eat the Anantya first.”

Jan raised his eyebrows at her expectation that he should not get indignant over such blatant musical ignorance but smirked shortly there after. She would have given him the same horrified expression if he called her car a Toyota.

Taking another swallow of his drink, Jan considered her point.

"That is what works for you, my dearest kin. You're a scientist and that is what makes you tick. Not everyone feels that belief must be measured out with a scale and studied on a petri dish. I would not call every belief sound....or even sane but I would not call them all crazy."Â?

He smiled at her.

"Now the buggers that think we're dead. Yeah, I think they're nuts."Â?

They were, of course, arguing for the sake of arguing. In any other instance they would be arguing on the same side of the belief and he figured they both knew it. He settled down and paid attention when Nova became more serious about it. He did not know the subject bothered her so much. She was young, he forgot sometimes what that was like. Had he given up on wondering the purpose and place of vampires in the grand scheme of things. What were they? Was there a God? Were they damned if there was?

"Perhaps you should speak to more scientific vampires. They seem to be a rarity though. I'm not really one of them but its interesting to listen to. If you find out what makes us tick then that would be cool. Its as noble as a goal as any."Â?

When did this become such a deep discussion? Can they be deep while drinking? It would seem they could. Jan smiled and put a hand to his chest in feigned pain and angst.

"I was wounded. Let me tell you. Rejection hurts me so."Â?

He wrinkled her nose at the suggestion of eating Anantya first.

"They are probably dry and stale tasting. You're right though; we should eat them first before they go bad."Â?

Jan took the last swallow of his drink and considered whether he should ask for more. Probably not the greatest of ideas. Standing up, he looked back at Nova.

"We should do something. Go to a movie and see something cerebral. You know...with lots of violence and weaponry."Â?

Nova snorted at Jan’s response before she realized he was being halfway serious, then threw up her hands, grinning good naturedly.

“Believe whatever cr…believe whatever you want! Just don’t call it a theory; then you’re on my turf.”

Grinning, Nova sipped her drink, sans straw.“Nuts in a fruitcake,” she said in solemn agreement with Jan’s final assessment. When her brother offered up his advice on furthering the debate, though, she leaned forward with her elbows on the table, a more intense look on her face.

“Oh, I do just as much as I can. Hell, I communicate with as many scientists in general, vampire or not. You’re right, though; this is really only a productive discussion among vampire scientists, which is a pretty small community, or humans in the know. And there are…other factors involved in opening up the discussion even to humans. Somewhere along the way people started believing that their race, their creeds, their politics and nationalities, were more important than discovery. Hell, maybe it’s always been that way. Point being that science, while logical as an institution, is run by people.” She tilted her chin up, looking thoughtful. “I’m using the same argument religious people use to defend their crimes against humanity; no no, the Bible’s still good, it was the people at the time who were corrupt!” She gave a dry laugh and polished off her drink. “It’s true though; I’d love to live in a world where we could share ourselves with human scientists and work together to understand ourselves, but it’d be a mess!” She shook her head, somewhat sadly. “Science without borders. Maybe it’s a pipe dream.”

Realizing her conversation was less intellectual and more drunken rambling by the moment (and worse, freakin’ Evenhet-leaning drunken rambling), she was sort of relieved when their chat lightened up.

“Rejection should hurt –them- so. Good kick in the face ought to make them regret saying no!”

She waved her fist in a vaguely martial gesture, though she had a silly grin on her face. At Jan’s reminder regarding the Relics, though, she pulled a face and nodded with a grim expression.

“That’s what my moms always said. Right in between ‘get me another pack of cigarettes’ and ‘go to town and find your father at the bar.’ ‘Eat them oldest leftovers before they go bad.’” She gave her head another shake and repeated the phrase in Hopi, giving a reasonable impression of her mother.

Meanwhile Jan had finished up his drink, and neither seemed anxious for another. Her brother was getting up, so she stood along with him.

“A’right, let’s blow this popsicle stand.”

Nodding at the suggestion of going out and doing something, she suggested: “You want to shoot me an email? I got some lab stuff to do but I’ll be around, a movie sounds cool to me. You pick.” She grinned amiably enough, genuinely happy Jan had invited her out.

He really was a good brother. That realization had been startling at one time but now it was just pretty cool.

/ooc Nova out pending response.