8442/Scary Old Witch

Scary Old Witch
Date of Scene:	26 October 2021
Location:	The Laughing Magician
Synopsis:	John Constantine is trying to sleep off his post party bender but Jubilee has other plans. They discuss her role in the Night Brigade and come to an understanding: she's there to hunt monsters. Nettie drops in and she and Jubes get to know each other better. Jubilee realizes that Nettie isn't a 'scary old witch' at all!
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, John Constantine, Nettie Crowe

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    The door to the Laughing Magician opens with significant force, perhaps too much for a polite entry, and a ghost barrels in, stumbling blindly against the frame. A ghost, in this case, meaning a person covered head-to-toe in a sheet. The sheet is thrown off, revealing Jubilee! She's wearing the same mini-dress from the birthday party, though from her hair and makeup, it looks like she's had a busy night.

    Immediately after removing the sheet, Jubilee starts gathering it up into a ball and steps further into the Laughing Magician proper. "Hello?" she calls out. "William?" Pause. "Nigel?" Pause. "John?" That last name is announced with some hesitation, like she almost doesn't want to say it.

    "I'm robbing the place!" she shouts, looking around for any reaction to that.

John Constantine has posed:
    John's here this early in the morning because, apparently, he never left last night. He's there, on his Pauper's Throne. He's still dressed in the same clothes he had on last night. There's an empty bottle of scotch on the bar in addition to another that's three fourths of the way gone and a bit left in his glass. His ashtray is just about running over.

    ...and he's asleep. Arms folded on the bar in front of him, head resting on his arms.

    It wasn't a peaceful sleep either. Not at all, it was terrible and fraught with horrible nightmares. So Jubilee's entrance has him bolting upright, hair all sticking up this way and that, big red mark on one cheek, blue eyes wide and unfocused and...

    ... and just a tiny bit of Hellfire dancing in one hand. It doesn't last all that long, maybe a beat before he comes more fully aware and douses it.

    "Don't *do* that, luv." There's irritation in his voice, almost anger, but it's easier to hide the fear that he nearly roasted her alive behind anger than show the *fear*.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee shrieks with surprise, not expecting to hear a response. When will she just learn to check /that/ spot at the bar? She shakes her head and tosses the balled up sheet onto one of the empty tables she passes on her way further into the Magician and towards John's little birthday-party-for-one. "Sorry, sorry," she replies, grinning a little. "You know, John, if this place actually had windows and if I wasn't so allergic to it, this would be when I'd throw open the curtains and annoyingly announce what a beautiful day it is."

    Jubilee vaults over the bar like it's nothing at all and swipes her hand towards the not-quite-so-empty bottle. She pairs it with its matching cap and turns, perhaps to find its rightful spot. She shrugs and puts it near other bottles, undoubtedly in the wrong spot. William-Nigel will figure it out when he gets in.

    "We missed you at the party last night," she notes gently, continuing to gather bottles -- now the empties. "I wanted you to meet Noriko. She came." Jubilee smiles, eyebrows hiked.

John Constantine has posed:
    John has to take a second to let his heart rate slow to something that might not be threatening to have it explode from his chest... and light a Silk Cut before, "I wasn't finished with that," gets groused in Jubilation's direction.

    Bring it BACK!

    He reaches up to scrub at his face with one hand, little dried drool there, but it's not vomit, so it's a win! "I was busy," is his simple reply to that last bit. "You can bring her by another time."

    He sits up, stretching his back... after having slept on a fucking bar stool. "Anyway, you're here early. Everything okay?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Look, if I'm going to /never/ be old enough to get drunk, you can go thirsty for a few minutes," she teases. It's just play, as Jubilee casually returns the bottle to its spot on the bar. She dumps John's ashtray into what she assumes is a trash can. It might have been an ice bin, who knows? That mistake will make itself known all in good time.

    "Oh, you know, everything is /fine/... I just wanted to see if you wanted to get breakfast...watch Regis...do the morning crossword puzzle together," Jubes drones on and on, obviously getting a kick out of herself. She uses her hands to raise herself onto the bar top, using it as a seat.

    "So, I can't come tomorrow night," Jubilee says, getting right to the core of the issue. "And I just wanted to give you the chance to chew me out about it directly or accuse me of not being serious about all this stuff, or whatever you're going to say."

John Constantine has posed:
    "If you're blowing it off to shag your girlfriend, then... you're not taking it seriously enough," John mutters before he snatches up that bottle as if a long lost friend has been returned to him. He fills his glass, he downs it... it's not even lunch time, he's not even had breakfast, but he fills it and downs a second.

    "So, are you missing it just to shag your girlfriend?" Now that he's had his breakfast, he shoves that cigarette between his lips and just leaves it there.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's face sours. "...Do you pre-plan that?" she accuses, eyebrows rising in mock astonishment. With her reposte fully delivered, Jubes can now get bent out of shape about it. "I swear, you know, like, two things about me as a person and you weaponize one of them," she points out, rolling her eyes. "No, I am /not/ blowing it off for /that/," she answers, obviously frustrated by the implication. "I mean, I don't think she supports /this/ but..." She lowers her eyes and shrugs. "...We haven't... I haven't really told her much about it. Or why I'm doing it." She sounds remorseful about that, as though it has already started to cause issues between them.

    Jubilee leans towards John, using her elbow to support herself against her thigh. She points her index finger right up to the man's cigarette and snap crackle and pops a tiny little cloud of fireworks against the business end of his cigarette to light it.

    "I just have something back at school and missing it isn't an option. They're already doing a lot to work with my...situation," Jubilee explains. She leans away from John and frowns. "I mean... They're doing /some/ stuff..." She lowers her eyes again. Anyone familiar with Stockholm Syndrome might detect traces of it, as Jubilee's life is arguably made worse by her school's response to her current state.

John Constantine has posed:
    "World's full of weapons, luv, get used to the pain of them." John returns, tone just flat. It's not that he has no fucks to give, it's that he's hiding any that he does have. Just like he tries to hide all of it. At first his head jerks back from that snap, crackle and pop and he *almost* goes on the offensive. He's jumpy.

    His brow furrows, faded denim blues all red-rimmed and dark circled take just a moment to study the girl standing there. "Mmmhhhmmm, sure they are," he comments. "And my liver's healthy as a horse," he adds before he fills his third for the morning and takes somewhere between a sip and a swig. He lifts the glass in Jubilation's direction all 'toast like' and winks.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, as healthy as Sergeant..." Jubilee mutters. Sergeant is the name of the bitey horse in the Xavier's stables. The one she murdered in the early nights as a vampire. She doesn't linger in that moment for long, instead raising an invisible glass of nothing to clink against John's.

    "So, like, I /get/ that you aren't into, like, being friends or whatever, and maybe you don't care about the nuts and bolts of this," Jubes accuses. "But... I /am/ serious about this. I know, like, I don't know /magic/ and you or Nettie aren't showing me, but I /am/ serious about being here..."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    As if summoned by her name, Nettie pokes her head out of the back room, wearing the same skirts from last night but baring a T-shirt with David Bowie's face on it, make-up having run down her cheeks, she looks like an evil version of Cyndi Lauper from the 80's. Her hair looks like she touched an outlet and is all stand up, all over the place. She's bare foot, her toes painted alternating bright sparkly purple and black matte. She stumbles out a moment, aquamarine eyes wild, and she comes over to the side of John, pushes herself over the bar and grabs a bottle of some cheap brown liquor, twists off the top and then downs some of it straight from the bottle -- and then just leans against the wall.

    And then blinks.

    "Morning, luvs!" she smiles, and raises her bottle in toast.

John Constantine has posed:
    "Did I say you weren't?" John's tone isn't bitey on that one, he seriously seems to be trying to figure out if... he actually said that. He reaches up to rub, no dig, at his eyes with his thumb and index finger. Looks like he might just pop'm on out with the pressure he's putting on them.

    He lowers his hand finally and then spreads his arms out a little and says, "So, here I am. Bloody magic, what do you want to know? It fuckin' sucks balls most of the time, but it gets the job done. It's messy. It hurts..."

    Then Nettie comes out of the backroom like she never went home last night and one of John's eyebrows raises independently of the other when he asks, "Did we shag last night?" He looks down at his lap and adds, "I don't feel like we did."

    ... Born in a BARN, he was.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Well, you /did/ ask me if I was blowing off the meeting for sex," Jubilation points out, grinning a little. "So it's kind of implied..." The moment has passed as far as she's concerned. It's pointless to be angry at John for his social missteps, she's already learned.

    "And I don't need you to teach me that stuff, John. I'm not magical. I just want to kill monsters," Jubilee reveals, finally stating plainly what she's in this for.

    Nettie's arrival commands Jubilee's attention, taking note of the woman's nail polish, then the T-shirt, and finally the hair and makeup. Jubilee's smile grows as large as it's ever been, fangs unapologetically on display. Her index finger wags back and forth between John and Nettie. "...Did..." She lets John's question interrupt her own with no small amount of glee.

    "Good morning, Nettie /and John/..."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    Nettie in fact did not go home. She went exploring. That shirt is not hers. Nettie replies pleasantly, and she wiggles her bottle.

    "We talking magic? Love magic. It's messy and wonderful and kills the pain of normality some times and bloody fuckin' hurts in ways that you cannot imagine until it happens to you -- but you should be focusing on using your physical prowess, in my fine opinion. You're Vampiric. You're stronger, faster, an' angrier than a normal human." she points out, and she gives a bright smile.

    "Not any answer the pup needs to know."

John Constantine has posed:
    "Is that my shirt?" Color him so confused. He hasn't worn that t-shirt in years if, that indeed, is *his*. Who knows, Nettie could have her own Bowie t-shirt that looks *just* like his.

    Normally? John doesn't actually get *drunk*, just keeps a constant 'dull the pain' buzz going. It takes a lot to get him there, so much more than the average person between his tolerance for the stuff and the demon blood in his veins. But he's not remembering a whole lot after he threw Jon out of the bar last night.

    He snap points at Jubilation and says, "Killin' monsters, kind of my thing. We can work with that, luv. I think I even have a few primers for that." Intro to Killing Monsters, Killing Monsters for Dummies... something of that nature.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation waves her hand in the air, perhaps to further make her point about not needing to learn magic. "Yeah, I'm not worried about all the magic stuff," she says, shaking her head at Nettie. She may have been out of earshot when she told John she's not here for that. John's sudden approval, however meager it may be, lights up Jubilee's face.

    "Yes!" she enthuses. "Yes! I can /read/... I want to know this stuff. I feel like, like, dead weight. I'll read up if you have stuff for me."

    "So, I'm not human, Nettie," Jubilation explains softly, lowering her eyes just for a brief moment. There's a little bit of an innate shame that comes with this, just a bit, but Jubilee lifts herself right out of it. "Before I turned, I mean. I wasn't a human. I was a mutant and..." She falls silent, eyes lowering for real now. What should she say? What /can/ she say? Oh, hey, that fancy boarding school I go to even though I have no parents and no income is secretly an elaborate recruiting tool for the X-Men? No.

    Instead, Jubilee reaches up into her mini-dress, dragging her fingers along her thigh...And....Pulls out her smart phone. "No pockets," she explains, glancing up at John and Nettie. Jubilee smooths her mini-dress out and taps on her phone screen a few times before turning the screen to face the two adults that might have spent the night together.

    The phone shows a video of Jubilee in what appears to be the mall in Westchester, perhaps security footage that was downloaded. She's surrounded by snarling, feral vampires all dressed like Orange Julius employees. She makes quick work of them, trading punches and kicks with a speed and accuracy that suggests years of training, both in gymnastics and combat. The Jubilee on the screen downs one of the vampires with a leg sweep and then launches herself to stradle him to the ground, finally delivering a final death with a stake to the heart. The next one goes down after she immediately yanks the stake free and throws it right into his chest.

John Constantine has posed:
    John blinks his eyes a few times, not just a normal old 'blink', but the sort where they go really wide on the open; the sort where it looks like he's trying to focus them. The he watches that video.

    "Huh, should be calling you Buffy, not Elvira. Just need to get you taught up on what kills what... sometimes fists and stakes aren't all it takes."

    He snorts a mirthless laugh. "That rhymed."

    John half slides, half stumbles off his Pauper's Throne though and adds, "I need a shower. I feel gross." So maybe they *did* shag? KIDDING. "I think something died in my mouth.... twice."

    "So, one of my things is illusion, Buffy. I can make it seem just as real as the nose on your face." He doesn't explain further why that matters, although it might be obvious. Magic, technology... sometimes they can be interchanged to the same purpose. Just find a field somewhere and John can throw illusions of all sorts of nasty at Jubilation. Fun times, right?

    "I'll see you girls later, aye?"

    He shoots Nettie a look... a 'did we'? look, but shakes his head to dismiss the thought and heads toward the backroom.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "We did not, for your edification. You went home, I sat and meditated in a circle and tried to suss a couple things out with crystal balls." Nettie states, and she looks to Jubilation.

    "Next door there's a lending library. Wouldn't take any books out of there, mind, and not all of 'em are easy reading, but I supplied a couple from my own collection." she points out, and she stretches her arms up over her head.

    "And no, this one's not yours. I'm pretty sure I borrowed this one directly from the source." she chides. Does she mean David Bowie? Who knows?

    "So, if you're studying how to hunt monsters, John's a good teacher for it. Just... make sure to give him room to work." she adds in a gentle voice, and takes another nip from the bottle.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "You have crystal ba---" Jubilee replies, almost getting the whole thing out before she changes her mind. Some jokes just aren't worth it. She can just privately enjoy it for herself, grinning a little as she imagines a conversation that would result in her finishing that sentence. "Yeah, take two," Jubilee jokes instead. Two showers for John Constantine.

    Jubilee glances in the direction of the Curio and nods her head a little. "Okay, I'll check it out," Jubilation promises. "I mean, vampires I already know..." She mimics jamming an invisible stake into her own heart. "Stake. Fire. Sun. Crosses...." She shakes her head and shrugs. "Though, I'm starting to think we're not all the same... I mean, that /other/ one can eat food." That other one being Lydia. It's clear that Jubilee doesn't hold her in high esteem, perhaps equal parts subconscious vampire tension and also her known affiliations with the Brotherhood of Mutants.

    "You mean..." Jubilee's voice trails slightly as she considers what Nettie might mean by 'give him room to work.' "...You mean, like, how a chili dog looks like crap but tastes really good?" She watches for Nettie's reaction to her analogy for overlooking John's attitude. She's only been a vampire for a few months, but food is already a disgusting thought to her, so she sounds somewhat unsure at her description of the 'really good' taste.

    "Hey, Nettie, what's the deal with that bird?" she asks suddenly, leaning towards the witch with both elbows on the bar, chin in the palm of her hands.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Two. Big ones. Go 'clack clack clack' when I walk down the street." Nettie replies. She's extremely amicable this morning, and gives a soft hum as she just sits on the bar and leans against the wall.

    "Of course. All vampiric entities have some variation, depending on region, blood line, some apparently in relation to closness to Cain. For instance, I know of a Jiangshi who doesn't hop because she's all good now. I've met vampires in my time in Eastern Europe who have grown cults around themselves so that they can feed with impunity over many different people. I know one vampire who can light cigarettes with little fireworks -- neat trick, by the way. I wouldn't presume to know presicely how vampirism works with mutations, and there are serious and considerate *ethical* questions about trying to find out that would make John rather cross with me. And as I'm permitted to drink his booze for free --" she wiggles the bottle again, before tipping it back.

    "And no, poppet. I mean give him physical space to work. John Constantine is a malestrom. If you don't have a strong tether to something outside, you get swept up. And I mean that in the most calm and loving manner that I can, because he *is* a dear friend of mine."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "And Corvax is precisely what I said he was. He's a damned man whose soul I bound in a bird. And now he does surveillance and checks up on my pups for me."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jiangshi. This word seems to impress Jubilee, or perhaps impressed that Nettie knows it. The Chinese vampire legend. "Oh, wow... My lao lao used to tell me scary stories about them..." She grins and shakes her head. "It's a good thing I'm a Chinese...vampire and not a Chinese Vampire." The wordplay draws out a grin, though it fades.

    "John said he's never seen one like me before," Jubilee admits quietly. "He said I wasn't bitten. It was a curse. So, like..." She trails off there. It's a weird situation, all things considered. "...It's just me. No, like, sire. The start of something new..." She shrugs, as if to dismiss her own difficulty conceptualizing it.

    Jubilation lifts her hand, palm up, and begins lighting up the air in colors, pops, and sparkles. They crackle harmlessly as the air surrounding them is ripped and burned apart. "Plasmoids," she explains. "That's what Hank calls them, you know... Science. I guess as far as the mutant lottery goes, I lucked out, maybe, if that's even possible..." She puts her hand down and lets the plasmoids fizzle out.

    "I'm trying to figure him out," Jubilee mutters. John, that is. "...He acts like he hates me but, like, he's done so much for me, so quickly, and doesn't seem to want anything back. People I've known for years have pulled me out of my home and stuffed me in some empty apartment. For safety." Those last two words are said with such venom.

    "...Does he hate you? Corvax, I mean," Jubilee wonders. "For making him a bird."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I spent time in China before it kind of... eeeh." Nettie gives a slight sound of dismissal. "Before the Sino-Japanese war, anyway, and World War Two. So between the World Wars?" she thinks "Pick up tongues pretty easily, me, so I was studying a bit along the boarders. Lhasa is my second lengua prima -- Lengua Secunda?" she questions, Latin wasn't her strong suite. That was John's.

    "And no. You're unique in many-a-way, Poppet." Nettie gives a smile. "An enigma. A question, and if there's one thing John Constantine abhors it's a question he can't answer." she comments quietly, and she considers, quietly, watching the fireworks, and she takes another swig from her bottle.

    "Bullshite. A major existence change happens and you're isolated? Enough to make a girl go mad." she mutters, "At least I had my family when I had... my accident." she grumps a moment. "My father an' my uncle, my mum. All my siblings. 'Sides the two who were dead. But if I had my way, I would have had them too -- but remember, magic is messy. Necromancy is damned messy." she points at Jubilee, and she gives a smile. The question of John is left to hang a moment as she considers.

    "Aye. There were mutants, as they might have been called now, back in my day. They weren't called as such, I would think. Witches. Demons. Possessed, or fae-taken, back before we could look at those wee strands of DNA and determine who was different. That... by the by... is why I still considered Mutants 'normal humans'. You're Darwin's dream. Evolution. Me?" she pauses, and she taps herself down. She makes a face. "Ugh. My vest and my cigs." she mutters to herself, and she leans over, taking a look to see if there was a secreted pack of silks hiding beneath the bar.

    There was not. She grumps.

    "My family were all witches and occultists. Down to me and my brother. All dead and buried, now. Or burned alive. Messy business, magic." she remarks quietly.

    "John Constantine --" she remarks, straightening back up "Actually hates very few people. And those very few people are probably bound in chains in Hell, or soon for it. Most of all he hates hisself, for not being able to fix issues with a click of his fingers. Why the man is always learning something. A new trick, a new way to cheat a system he hates, but he doesn't hate you, Jubilation Lee -- or you wouldn't be able to cross that line into his safe space."

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "As for Corvax..." Nettie frowns a moment. "Corvax has been at my side for more than a century and a half, poppet. That's most of his existence that he's not been in Hell."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Never been there," Jubilee says softly, shrugging one shoulder. "After my parents were killed, it just... It kind of seems pointless to go." She delivers that fact as plainly as she can. It was many years ago and blubbering about it to someone on a random Tuesday just isn't happening. Whatever Nettie might have meant with her audible dismissal of China goes in one of Jubilation's ears and out the other, not offering a care in the world about it.

    "So, like, how much messier is 'damned messy' over 'regular messy?' Jubilee asks, a smile forming again. "Because I ---" For just a moment, she falls from that pedestal of gregariousness and lets the joke just die. "...I'm sorry." That's it. I'm sorry.

    Jubes makes a frustrated sort of sound, a little tsk under her breath. "Darwin's dream. You sound like Magneto," Jubilee mutters. She shakes her head and sighs. Truly sighs. The vampiress actually sucked in some air to fill her dead lungs and let it out just for the effect of it. "...That's kind of why they hate us." Jubilation stops, considers her words, and corrects. "...That's kind of why they hate /them/..." Is she still a mutant? Who knows, but it seems clear she doesn't identify as one anymore.

    "I mean, the Brotherhood is all 'we're here to replace you' and we expect humans to be okay with all that? Fuck them," Jubilation frowns, clearly finding a sore spot within herself. She sighs again -- same laborious effort -- and shrugs. "It doesn't matter now," she realizes. Her concerns are new ones: chiefly, the sun, the stake, and the Dark Passenger she fights with on the regular.

    "Nettie... Do you..." She hesitates before finding the right way to ask. "...Do you ever hate them? For doing that to your family?"

    The conversation about John Constantine, at least to Jubilee, falls to the side for now, as she finds common ground with the scary witch sitting at the bar.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "I don't think Magneto ever met Darwin in a cousin's drawing room." Nettie replies cordially, but she gives a small, sad smile.

    Sitting *on* the bar. Her bare feet wiggle a moment as she considers.

    "I cut a bargain for the color of my hair and eyes. I used to be a brunette." she states, and she motions to the white-gray hair, and the inhuman aquamarine of her eyes turns sad. She fiddles for a moment with the bottle.

    "Necromancy, the magic of dead things. I started with raising a baby crow and feeding it the entrails of the executed that I would travel to London to capture and salt. And then I broke its neck and placed a soul inside of it, and graduated to breaking into tombs and grave robbing at the tender age of twelve for materials." Nettie replies with a small smile. "A very different time, to be sure; harder to do now-a-days without a significant amount of effort put through. And a lot of cash. That part hasn't changed." she reflects a moment.

    "The Majority have always hated anyone who was different. Woman was too uppity in Salem, so nineteen people were dead by the end of it. Manipulation for land grabs and power. Old man lives out in the woods, but some of your sheep go missing? Must be a werewolf. They speak a different language, worship a different god? Must be worshiping The Devil. Mutants are just the latest in a long, long line of 'Others', Jubilation. Not to cheapen the experience." she states quietly, and she taps her fingers together a moment. "I had to overcome a lot of my own assumptions when I fled England, so I don't broker much pity for those who can't change when faced with the reality of each other's humanity, in the general sense. That's why I take no issue with you as a vampire. You're at least putting forth effort to save yourself. I can respect that." she states, and gives a tired wink.

    And she purses her lips a moment.

    "Yes." she admits quietly. "Just like I hate my traitorous student who told the SS where my team of nurses was trying to spirit children away from a village. Like I hate the Nazis that stole my wife from me. Like I hate the Neo-Nazis who tried to steal away punk spaces in the 80's and 90's. And every day, poppet, I struggle against the power I know I have. That I could track down those I hate, their children, grand children, great grandchildren. I could steal from them the security, the love. I could take from them and return to them terror that they would feel in their bones until they wished that Death would release them."

    Nettie looks at her bottle.

    "Just like you could strike terror and give into that voice that whispers most darkly from the edges of your conciousness. Just as easily as any of us could fall far and hard."

    Her eyes flick over to Jubilee.

    "But we don't."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee wrinkles her nose at the mention of feeding a baby crow dead people. Her mouth hangs open when it progresses to a broken neck and deposited soul. Tombs and grave robbing brings her eyebrows up. Blink. She looks down at her hands, awkwardly finding herself without an affectation she can find comfort in. She can't eat. Can't drink. She just sits there, alone with the images her imagination is cooking up while it's fueled by Nettie's lecture.

    "You said yourself vampires come from Caine," Jubilee reminds, apparently sounding like she was familiar with that detail previously. "...So, we kind of were around since the beginning, anyway. Just like humans. Just like mutants. So, we've got as much right to be here as anyone does." It's an odd concept, but it's sound. "It's not like we showed up one day and decided we wanted the Earth for ourselves."

    Still, Jubilation gives Nettie's story the reverence it deserves, staring blankly as she imagines the hardships experienced over the many years she has walked the Earth, having experienced more than her fair share of the dark side of humanity. When it's all over, Jubilee meets Nettie's gaze and smiles with one side of her mouth and nods. "Yeah," she replies with clear fondness in her tone. "You're right. We don't." It's a wonderful moment, one that Jubilee would likely look back on fondly if she didn't mess it up immediately with...

    "Jeez, Nettie," she blurts out. "You're not a scary old witch at all!"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Some vampires. I'm not going to assume all." Nettie gives a shrug, and she takes another round from the bottle direct, and considers a moment.

    "... old, witch, aye. Scary?"

    She leans forward a moment, and she peers at Jubilation Lee.

    "And no. I know you didn't just 'show up one day' poppet. Mutants, I mean. No more than witches." she gives a wry little smile towards Jubes.

    "So, you staying on with John then? Could always use a spare hand after sundown at the Candle."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation grins, perhaps just a touch of embarrassment lingering in that smile. "...I mean, that's what they /say/..." she explains, a little bit of a twinkle in her eye. Mean old witch.

    Some vampires, though. A fair point. "You know, vampires used to just be things in movies Nori and I would watch when we secretly just wanted to make out," she admits with a nostalgic smile. "And now, here I am, in the middle of it all, thinking about what color the interior of my coffin should be..." She grins even wider and shakes her head at her self.

    "I'm just saying... Humans think they're the rulers of this world, that it belongs to them, but we've all been here the whole time. Mutants. Vampires. And, yeah, witches." She grins at Nettie and shrugs one shoulder. The grin fades as she finds her point again. "...But they, humans, act like we don't belong and need to be destroyed. Like, if someone staked me tomorrow it would be no big deal. I think we can all /share/... I mean, I haven't hurt /anyone/ and I haven't drunk anyone's blood who didn't offer it to me. Or donated it thinking it was going to a hospital. Or... uh, was a horse, I guess." Each bullet point gets worse and worse.

    "Staying on?" Jubilee questions, tilting her head to the side. "What do you mean? I thought we're all on the same team. The, you know, 'Night Brigade.'" She says it with a little bit of mockery in her tone. Dumb name, John. Dumb name.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Sparkly purple velvet." Nettie replies, and she leans her head back. "With one of those fuzzy pink pillow things. Or a corgi." she considers quietly, and she gives a slight grin.

    "It would be a big deal if someone were to stake you tomorrow. John would view it as a personal failing and hunt them down. An' I would probably help him. No one deserves to perish because of what they are, only what they do." she replies quietly, and she gives a bit of a smile.

    "Oh, I mean workin' at the bar. After dark. Poor Nigel probably could use a hand that's not the owners' daughter..." and she makes a face.

    "And goodness knows Chas needs coverage to see to his little one."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "It should also have air holes in case Noriko sleeps over," Jubilee adds, her eyebrows rising in amusement as they start brainstorming her coffin. Right now, anything would be a step up from the cardboard wardrobe container she's been using.

    "I shouldn't have said 'me' for the staking..." Jubilee realizes aloud, shaking her head. "I just meant that humans seem to think they're the ones who're supposed to be here and everyone else /isn't/ but, we've all been sharing since the beginning, haven't we?" She shrugs and waves her hand in the air. "Anyway!"

    The comment about the bar draws out a sudden laugh. "Work in John's bar? Yeah right! There's no way he'd be cool with that," she answers. But then... Jubilation shrugs her shoulders and drags the back of her fingertips down her side, going from her shoulder down to her hips. "Still... I'd probably be really good for business..." Her smile grows, confidence proudly on display.

    But then, her true colors come out as Jubilee shrugs again. "Here...there... I'm just happy to help out however I can," she answers simply. "I mean, the Magician and the Candle both have to run for all of this to happen, right?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "That's the spirit, poppet." Nettie gives a smile, and she stretches her hands out again, and looks to the bottle.

    "Ah well. At least I've gotten the taste of wormwood out of my mouth. An' I'm sure he would consider it. After all, place is warded. Any time you're in here, you're under his protection. No place in New York is better protected than any place John calls his, and I'm sure if he knows where the ones he cares about are --" she touches her chest a moment, right over her heart, and she gives a sly smile "Maybe he can catch his breath."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "And the Candle... Is that... It's a book shop?" she questions. Jubilation really isn't too sure. She looks around at the punky kind of vibe this place has and shrugs. There /is/ blood here and that's, well, extremely convenient for everyone, really. "If that's a book shop..."

    "This place might be a better spot to pitch in..." Jubilee idly comments. It's as though the thought never occurred to her. "Maybe I'll see if I can figure out how to ask John if he wants me to...Though, I already have a job at the Bur---" Her eyes open wide. "...Oh shit."

    "I haven't been to work since I...well, since I died!" Funny how things fall to the side after a little thing like death.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Apothecary, mostly, disguised as a new-age shop and tea bar." Nettie replies. "I supply occultists with materials and reagents. Occasionally send people on trips to get it for me." she gives a smile.

    "And it sounds like you're in need a job, poppet, if you haven't been since you were toe-tagged."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "They really do that!" Jubilee exclaims, grinning a little. Toe tags. "They really do! Mine was like, a faint yellow color. Manila."

    Occultists. Reagents. She shrugs her shoulders. "So, like, selling them monkey paws and eyes of newt?" she asks, perhaps joking, perhaps serious. "...Or... here. Where creepy old dudes stare and catcall me while I give them drinks?" Pause.

    "Here sounds like a better use of my talents, doesn't it?"

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Selling graveyard dirt, different sorts of teas, occasionally someone buys out my entire stock of fertilised red mantis eggs before they hatch." Nettie states with a shrug, and she considers. "Mostly it'd be help stocking the books, garmenting, running about at night with deliveries and what-not. Just a thought. And eye of newt is just a codified word for 'mustard seeds', girl." Nettie gives a small smile.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Nettie..." she almost whines. "As much as I would guess that working for you would be way less... uhh, 'yell-y' than here... And as much as I'd hate to piss off the one everyone tells me is scary..."

    If Jubilee needed to breathe, this would be where she holds it.

    "...All of that sounds /awful/." She lifts her gaze to watch for the witch's reaction to that. There's a nervous energy about her.

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    "Not as exciting as went I send people to Scotland at midnight to collect dormant sundew, aye, I wager. Or the next one I'm sending is a particular version of liana in bloom on an island off the coast of Argentina, but that's neither here nor there. I understand. Given the choice? I'd probably work for John too. Far more excitement." she gives a wry smile.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Let's not get ahead of ourselves, here," Jubilee reminds. "There's no way John'd go for it and I'm not even sure I'd want to. I just do know I want to figure out some way to pay him back for all he's done without him realizing that's what I'm doing. So, maybe working here for less than I'm worth is the way to do that. I dunno."

    Suddenly, Jubilation's eyes widen. "Fuck! Fuck fuck fuck." She leaps off of her seat and runs over to the empty table where she stashed her bedsheet. "I need to go. Stupid heliocentrism..." Jubilee shakes out the bedsheet and gets ready to put it over her head. "Thanks for hanging out, Nettie. You're not really as scary as they say."

    With that handled, Jubilee flashes a quick peace sign, pulls the sheet over herself so she's in true bedsheet ghost form, and starts to blindly stumble for the door. It's a short run to the Curio but still a risky one!

Nettie Crowe has posed:
    ". . . who says I'm scary?" Nettie questions in confusion, and she looks under the bar again. "... I don't think I'm scary."