The Christmas Invasion

Ginnie got her boots on and zipped, then went to the little cubby next to the door that held her weapons. It was on a laser thumbprint scanner along with a brief DNA examination taken from the same thumb. She gave a tiny hiss at the sharp stick, then pulled the door open when it snicked loose.

She pulled on her shoulder holster, tucked in an inner-pants holster at the small of her back, a knife sheath on each wrist, and one on her left ankle just inside her boot. She then placed the respective weapons in each, checking each first. She debated on and decided against the long blade that went down her back for an upside down draw. She had a neck draw holster as well, but didn't use it often.

"I won't keep you in the shooting ranges all night Shay. I think we'll get you checked out on at least three weapons, get you fitted for holsters and body armor, then you can decide what to do with the rest of your night. I could take you out shopping or you can hook up with Dayle if her work is done."

She pulled her coat off it's hook and draped it over her arm, she didn't plan to come back home before leaving the domicile and one did not go out in pubic visibly armed to the teeth. She crossed to Alec and press a kiss to his lips, slipping her tongue quickly in to dance with his then pulled away.

"I'll call you later."

With a gentle pat to his cheek, she moved back to the front door and held it open.

"Shall we?"


((Ginnie out, pending responses.))

"I guess I should grab a jacket too, if we're not going to come back after the training. My temperature seems a little out of whack still, but better to be prepared."

Shay couldn't pin down why sometimes she felt cold, when other's didn't appear to, and then why sometimes she felt warm in that same way. Maybe she had always been like that, but only having days of memories made it nearly impossible to predict much of anything about herself. The one thing she was now getting a grasp of was how little patience she seemed to have, and how her emotions seemed to run rather hot and cold. One minute she was excited, and the next blas'e, and the next bouncing off the walls again. She imagined that could get pretty tiresome for those around her, and thought about how she might temper herself better.

That would be something to think on, for sure, but now she bounded to Dayle's side again, the Christmas ornaments again forgotten.

"Have a good day, dear friend, and I suppose I'll see you when I see you."

A quick peck on the lips, shared with a hug, and Shay was following after Ginnie. Before she went through the door she smiled at Alec, then Dayle again.

"Y'all don't work too hard, ya hear?"

And accompanied by a small fit of giggles, Shay traipsed through the door.

(Shay out)

Dayle was surprised somewhat at the display of affection Shay gave her. 'Dear friend?' 'See you when I see you?' Did the young vampire think that, in her wish to speak with Alec, to allow Shay time with her mother, that Dayle had rejected her?

Women confused her sometimes.

She waved with a smile at Shay and Ginnie as they exited and sat back upon her still-warm cushion.

She sipped the dregs of her tea, marvelling at the lack of tea flakes in the bottom of the cup most Americans seemed to bless their tea with and didn't move for a few moments. She pondered her last thought; Ginnie wasn't really, technically an American, and made one hell of a cuppa. Setting her cup in its saucer before placing it on the table, she turned to Alec.

"I think both of us wanted to talk to the other, albeit for different reasons. You first."

Smiling, Alec watched his women leave. Now, he had to know. Sitting down directly across from Dayle, he put on his 'all business' face and asked the burning questions...

"So...her hunting. How did it go? I mean, aside from the drug thing. That'll take time to learn. And has she displayed any talent signs to you? I would really like to know what her abilities will be...anything that you might have picked up on will be helpful."

"It wasn't hunting. I took her to a salon that I knew was sympathetic to us, that had employees that might offer themselves as a snack. It didn't go too well, because the experienced 'donor' there had taken an extreme amount of nitroglycerin, and I noticed that she'd been eating a glut of fatty foods recently. While I know that gives me the urps, I wasn't sure what the effect would be on Shay. She seemed almost hyperactive within moments of taking of the woman, reacting to the nitro. I scolded the donor and told her to make sure she saw her cardiologist..." Dayle digressed with a quiet sigh, as she knew Alec didn't care much about the donor, but about his 'daughter.' "But as far as Shay is concerned, she handled the feeding well, biting cleanly and cleaning up nicely. I don't know how she'd actually hunt - that's Ginnie's prerogative, after all - but with a willing donor she did splendidly for her first time. She could use," Dayle mused with a tilt of her head, "A little pointers on the 'forebite' preparation for the donor, though."

Dayle recalled the time they spent laying in the park. "She seems to be exhibiting a few of the pointers of being perceptive. She heard a conversation far off in the distance, among other things. Since we didn't have any non-perceptives in attendance, I have nothing really to base the possibility off of, but it's a start."

Dayle paused for a moment, collecting her thoughts before broaching her next topic. "I had a thought about the source of her amnesia."

Somewhat surprised at himself, Alec discovered that he was disappointed that her first feeding wasn't the real McCoy. Still, fresh blood was better than bagged any night of the week. She'd not made a botch of it, though Dayle seemed to be somewhat concerned for the donor. Alec supposed that for people that fed from the farm that their well being would be more important. He liked his blood...what was that term going around?...ah, Free Range. None of the veal humans for him, thanks.

Nodding in mock understanding,

"Yes, I suppose keeping the stock in good health is a good concern. It might be time to retire her if she is having heart trouble, though. I know my first brush with nitro left me pretty...hm...edgy? Restless? Somewhat dizzy, too."

Perking back up at the park revelation, Alec grinned.

"That'll be good times...and most of the people she knows right now can help her out in different ways. Both of us can work with her on that skill should it mature. Excellent."

At the sudden departure from the previous topic, he cocked his head a bit. If she was bringing it up so suddenly it was most likely something that she didn't want to forget to mention...so probably important. Still, fast revelations sometimes contained bad news, so that could be an unfortunate sign. Curious, Alec nodded her on. Perhaps it would give him further insight into his own creation process.

"She was definately hyper and wired. Could probably see if there's a database tracking all that and add the reaction."

She did nod at Alec's suggestion about helping Shay learn more about Perception. "We will definately want to compare her to some non-Perceptive Clanmembers, though. I wouldn't want to get her hopes up; I think she's kind of anxious to discover what 'else' she can do."

Broaching the subject of Shay's turning had been her idea, and she definately needed to speak out about the theory she had regarding it. "As you probably know, your amnesia as a vampire is rather rare. This is both an advantage and a disadvantage. We don't know who your creator was; you yourself said that you had been left to fend for yourself after your turning. It's very well possible that your creator had been amnesiac as well. This becomes a disadvantage because we cannot track your unfortunate acquisition of it linearly through parent and child as we could, say, telekinesis or perception. This is an advantage because if we had a lot of amnesiac vampires running loose, we'd have a major problem. Which brings me to my theory." Dayle steeled herself and did her best to keep any emotional overtones out of her face or posture and instead tried to relate everything as matter-of-factly to Alec as she could. "I think Shay gained her amnesia indirectly from you. Through a small series of wild assumptions and leaps of logic I think that, somehow, your blood-genes somehow became meshed with Ginnie's. Even without further knowledge of the individual who initially attacked Shay, I must therefore assume that, what with Ginnie's locking in the final bite with her own enzymes and then allowing Shay to drink... Upon forcing Shay to drink from her to survive and subsequently turn, the amnesia 'gene' for lack of a better term, was passed onto Shay."

"Well, Ginnie doesn't posses the ability, so we can even run home tests. No lab time needed."

Alec blinked a couple of times after hearing Dayle's theory. He started to speak, then stopped. Scratching his chin with his thumb, he considered.

"Hm. Amnesia as a communicable disease? I suppose it isn't any more outlandish than vampirism in general. There is even argument that it could be a positive mutation of our kind, so it might be a bit more tenacious than other flaws. The best part of your theory is that it will be easily testable and researchable. We can just go through the database and see if any known amnesiacs have created offspring. If your theory is correct, all of them should be amnesiac as well if even secondhand it becomes communicable."

Alec didn't know of any amnesiacs with offspring, but that didn't mean that Dayle couldn't find out about one. Frowning, Alec considered another angle.

"Of course, I'd like you to keep your theory hushed for the time being. I'd rather not be viewed as a Typhoid Mary before it is proved or disproved."

Alec didn't know of too many amnesiacs out there...and all were fairly young, as he and Shay were. It was possible that it was a new response due to some societal conditioning, like the anachronism that some Anantya displayed...but rather than an incredibly strong tie of identity to a time and place, the opposite was occurring. Was it possible that the homogenization of culture, especially in the Western world, was creating this manifestation in his kind? Or was it a disease?

Well, that'll keep you up nights.

Contingency plans for either possibility would need to be created. He had some work ahead of him. If Dayle's theory proved correct, he certainly did not look forward to the conversations that it would produce.

"I'm not saying it's a disease. Knowing that Ginnie had never turned anyone prior to Shay, it makes my theory a bit more dubious, but if she never carried the Amnesia trait, I think that something occurred that caused your trait to be superimposed onto her own vampire DNA." Shrugging she pointed at herself. "Listen to me. I'm neither a doctor nor a scientist, and I'm just rambling over stuff I thought of on the throne after watching Jurassic Park. But you have to admit, something odd could possibly have happend, whether it be evolution'ry or not." She shook her head with a sigh. "We just don't have that sort of biological technology, that I'm aware of anyway, to investigate much further."

Gracefully she did blush a bit as she commented, "You're not a Typhoid Mary, Alec, but I think perhaps you and Ginnie might want to try to abstain from turning any more nearly dead novelists until we figure out more."

She pointed offhandedly in the direction of the bedroom. "Though I'm relatively certain Perception doesn't come in Ginnie's bloodline, so either it was an evolution on her part, or something else caused the change to her makeup."

She leaned forward and peered at Alec earnestly. "I won't tell anyone, though Simon should be notified. I don't think you should have to worry, too, Alec, but please, just be careful."

Shaking his head, it did make a sort of sense.

"Well, I certainly carry both amnesia and perception, and for the last year have been sharing blood with my lover. The blood that she passed on could have been incompletely incorporated into her body...heh...like a mother bird regurgitating food for a baby bird...or maybe it is a more lingering change like you describe. It is also possible that Duibne might have something that someone could adapt to investigate. But that certainly isn't my department."

Shrugging, Alec wondered how honest he should be with Dayle. Well, in for a dime...

"Honestly, amnesia is a two edged sword. Sure, I have no memory of who I was or how I came to be, but I also don't have the preinstilled moral hangups that so many others of our kind have regarding our food. It has given me a flexibility and faster learning curve than many of our kind because my mental state was not as rigid, and allowed me to survive without tutelage in the ways of our people, whereas many unschooled vampires don't tend to last long. The biggest setback are the social issues, but even those can be overcome fairly quickly. Shay also seems to be indicating the rapid reassimilation of knowledge and open minded learning. I almost wonder if it isn't a blessing in disguise.

Of course, neither of us planned on laying the bite down on anyone, so I don't think we'll be clamoring for any more children around the house just yet. But I would like to know for sure. I think we should wait on talking with Simon until we've a full body of work to present, but I defer to your judgment on that as this is primarily a social and scientific matter rather than a business or tactical matter."

Well, shit. This conversation hadn't gone as planned, at all. Maybe he would go and shoot things. Or get some fresh blood. Even better.

Dayle shrugged with Alec. She too was not a scientist and could only make half-arsed guesses based upon too many medical movies novels and telly hours.

"While the perks and cons of being amnesiac as a newborn vampire are quite likely going to become heavily discussed soon, I don't think I view it as a blessing in disguise. I also can't help but wonder if we're doing Shay a disservice by not trying to help her recover more of what she lost... but then, our not doing so is her choice entirely. Then again," she said, indicating Alec with an open palm, "You yourself are an excellent poster child to spearhead the argument 'for' allowing an amnesiac vampire to rebuild themselves entirely."

Shifting slightly, she nodded at Alec's comment about them not clamoring for more 'children.' "What Ginnie did is most commendable; she saved the Clan from losing a resource, even if that resource was not 'officially' so to speak an actual familiar. While we may put a bit more effort into retooling 'the resource' -" she folded her fingers in a 'quote unquote' manner "- I think everything will come out just fine. I also have a more unofficial hope that she does become - or rather solidify her budding growth of being a good person and does learn to interact with the rest of society. Both societies, I guess. And perhaps we'll learn something through her, as well..." Dayle's voice trailed off.

"Anyway, enough of my overly forethinking rambling. Was there anything else you could think of that we needed to talk about? Or were you only curious about her possible talents?"

Alec bowed his head slightly at the compliment, though he disagreed with her tendency to want to rebuild Shay's past. That would be between them if they chose to head down that path - he wouldn't assist his charge in a painful and complicated course when the road to becoming Tacharan was cluttered enough without throwing family and exes into the mix. Still, a compliment was a compliment and to be gracefully acknowledged.

Nodding in agreement with Dayle's preservation of clan resources, he kept the other portion of his opinion to himself on this matter. She would be a naturally skilled recruit, a fast learner and was already chomping at the bit in both expanding her utility and her freedoms. She would do well, indeed. At the same time, he did wish that Ginnie hadn't risked herself in the situation. All's well that ends well, though, and things appeared to have transitioned smoothly. Or would have if Alec's dirty blood hadn't been in Ginnie.

Stop thinking that.

"She will do well. The skillset that she is coming over with will help her quickly acclimate into Tacharan regardless of whether she chooses a mercenary life or a support life. In either role she will have a wealth of skills to contribute. Her hunger to experience the world will also serve her in the long run...as long as she is prepared for the potential ills delivered by others. Once she is prepared for the physical dangers, we can work on preparing her against the social ones so that she doesn't venture into that arena unarmed either. Our kind heals faster physically, but seem to be just as fragile emotionally and mentally as our human cousins."

Smiling at Dayle, he shook his head.

"No...I am just anxious to know the person that she will become. Watching the emergence of abilities firsthand has revealed an impatience I hadn't realized I'd possessed. It is...refreshing. On another note though...if what you say turns out to be true...I am as much her blood father as Ginnie is her blood mother. Perhaps that is a part of the connection that I feel to her. Obviously, this is a new experience for me, so I have no parallel to draw. Well, unless there is anything else, I am going to get out of these clothes and go spy on my women. Thank you for your input and thoughts."

"Strong in this one is the Force," Snickering as she attempted an approximation of Yoda's voice, she listened to Alec's self-realization about his role in Shay's life. While Dayle hadn't brought forth her theory on the transmission of the amnesia gene to make Alec feel bad in any sense, she instead garnered a new impression as he spoke that he would make sure to take closer interest as his 'daughter' 'grew'.

"No, Alec, I think that's all. You know how to find me if you think of anything else or just need to vent." Rocking herself off the couch into a standing position, she smoothed her jeans and smiled, then looked down at her empty teacup.

"I could do the dishes really quick before I go... one last 'babysitter' task?" she asked with a grin. Then she affected a valley girl pose and squeaked, "But I want a raise! More soda pop and definately need a pizza party!" Snorting at herself, she commented, "Or I could just stop being a nit and head on out."

Smirking, Alec shook his head.

"No, dishes are best done in tandem with someone, so I'll let them sit until Ginnie is back. And I hereby declare that your salary has increased by one Dew a session and a pizza party eligible as a monthly bonus for exceptional service. Though that reminded me of one of my observation subjects - she's also a babysitter. Well done."

Walking with Dayle to the door, they exchanged goodbyes before he headed back to his bedroom. Dayle'd given him a lot to think about, and all of it pointed to waiting. He'd accomplished the goal he'd hoped for, but also found a new dark streak through his life. So it was a draw, but he could lie and call it a win. With a slight smile, he stripped out of his gleaming whites and slipped into his shadowy dark grays, putting on a full combat kit. Normally he didn't when staying in the Domicile unless doing a formal training...but in some ways that was exactly what it would be. Even if he didn't help in the instruction, he'd get to see Ginnie shoot, and that was just all kinds of hotness.

Gearing up, he reset the security and made his exit.

((ooc: all out, lock'er up!))