Colin's posts

Jaden looked to be extremely confused and concerned for a moment.

"What....? N-no...?" he stammered.

"That's... no, I mean... but..." he went on, clearly losing his articulation.

"No. No, I can't be." he said.

"How can I be a hunter?" he asked her.

"I don't even have a trait or anything."

"..." Jaden was silent for a moment.

"Sure." he then said, before pausing.

"...wait." he muttered.

"Like me..." he mumbled further.

"What do you mean by that? Hunter-born?" he asked.

"I'm a dhampir, born of a vampire and a mage."

"Not sure if it's messing with my mana." Jaden responded.

"But it IS hurting like hell." he told her.

"Seriously, the pain won't go away." he went on.

"Hurts worse than any injury I've ever gotten in the past." he admitted.

"Seriously, it's frightening how much this stings."

Jaden did his best to keep his wound hidden, placing a hand over it as naturally as he could, and sighed.

"I've dealt with worse." he told her.

"And I'm sure this is karmic payback for SOMETHING I did in the past." he went on.

"Pretty sure my karma bank's gonna be overdrawn for a bit still." he lamented.

"So don't worry about it."

Jaden thought for a moment at her offer.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Yeah, that can work." he said.

"Hang on." he told her.

He then stopped at a wall and placed his hands on it, causing two black holes to form that almost seemed to pulsate with mana. He then reached through one of them, and pulled out a container of some sort of salve, and a cloth which he used to wipe the blood off of his face. He tossed cloth back into the one as it closed, before reaching in the other and pulling out another shirt.

"All right, let's go."

"Come on, then." Jaden said, as the two started to walk, but he then paused.

"...hm." he muttered.

"Hold on." he told her, looking at the stained red patch on his shirt.

"Uh, before we go to dinner, I may want to wash my face of the blood, change my shirt, and deal with the wound that the little asshole gave me." he reasoned.

"Pretty sure it's still leaking blood." he went on.

"Thankfully I have some stuff that'll close it up quick, as he pretty much just nicked me." he continued. "But damn, it hurt."

"Right." Jaden said.

He then sighed as he looked at the scene of the attack, and shook his head.

"Yeah, we should go." he told her.

"Odds are Rene's gonna show up soon, or have Anna show up, and clean up all this mess." he went on.

"And we DON'T want to be here for that." he muttered.

"I'm parked about 5 minutes away, so let's go."

"Both work." Jaden responded.

"They're mage-friendly, but non-mages frequent there sometimes, too." he told her.

"...also, not sure if you want ME to be the one doing mana transport." he then said. "My method is... uh... well, let's just say it's 'turn-your-guts-into-a-painful-knot-if-you're-not-used-to-it'..." he mumbled.

"I DO have a vehicle, though." he then said.

"You got a preference for how we get there?"

Jade just sighed in response.

"No, I don't have a preference for where." he told her.

"And you don't need to, but I'll accept it as such." he then said.

"YOU have a preference?" he asked.

"Someplace you'd prefer to go?" he asked further.

"...because I just remembered of this little hole-in-the-wall place that'd be good. Dunno if you've heard of it." he told her.

"Maria's Bistro, but the people that know about it generally called it Mama Maria's Kitchen." he chuckled.

Jaden wanted to say something about her stutter. However, his immediate reactions were quelled by the sense of manners and common decency that his mother had beat into him after he'd had his phase of being a rebellious little shit.

So he just sighed, and thought about it.

"Hm." he mumbled.

"Not really." he said.

"Maybe Italian, if you don't have a preference, yourself."

Jaden raised an eyebrow for a moment.

"....attacked and then offered dinner." he said.

"Sadly, not the roughest start to a date for me." he told her with a laugh.

"But no. I haven't eaten." he then said.

"Was thinking about doing so after the graffiti cleanup."

Jaden then hung his head.

"....god damn it." he said.

"I can't argue that." he muttered.

"You saw what you saw and reacted accordingly." he went on, before looking at her slightly.

"...the freak comment was uncalled for, though..." he then said quietly.

Jaden was silent for another moment, before sighing. Heavily.

"Ah." he said.

"Mom's mentioned you once or twice." he told her.

"...I admit, you're more violent than you've been described." he went on, slowly getting to his feet.

"Really hurt my back."

Jaden just leaned against the wall, still sitting on his ass.

"Yeah." he said.

"She can be." he agreed.

"But that's neither here nor there, what does that-" he started to ask, before pausing.

"Wait." he said.

"How do YOU know my Mom?" he asked her.