8735/Fangs For The Company

Fangs For The Company
Date of Scene:	19 November 2021
Location:	The Midnight Mission
Synopsis:	Tim and Jubilee share a meal (figuratively speaking: they eat two very different dinners). Vampirism, relationships, and why they answered the Call are the topics of discussion for the evening.
Cast of Characters:	Jubilation Lee, Tim Drake

---

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    'Should you need a more secure, safe, and hidden place to stay, there are a number of rooms beneath the Mission. They are windowless. Sealed. And protected from intrusion and the sun.' Mr. Knight's offer of an emergency safehouse was a kind one but Jubilation Lee didn't think she'd be taking him up on it so soon. She was a mere instant from frenzying against the others who were with her the other night, notably Tim Drake, Phoebe Beacon, and Jonathan Sims. This is where she fled.

    The door to her windowless, sealed, protected room opens up and Jubilation struts on out. She's dressed in a pair of apricot colored, fleece short-shorts, a black tank top, and pink fuzzy slippers. Her hair is pulled up into a girlish ponytail, revealing two white earbuds in each of her ears. She moves quickly to the beat of a song only she can hear, dancing gracefully with whatever amount of joy she can muster up. Dried pigs blood is caked into the corners of her mouth and chin...

    "I'm a rocket ship on my way to Maaaaars, on a collision course, I am a satellite...I'm out of control...." she sings, loudly (and badly) as she enjoys her own little world under the halls of the Midnight Mission.

Tim Drake has posed:
    When Tim first answered the Call and came to the Mission, he said he'd give himself a self-guided tour rather than taking up any of Moon Knight's time. It was partially to be respectful, but also partially so that he could stick his nose into places he didn't belong with impunity. So he has a general understanding of the layout of the building, including its underground areas.

    So here he is. No, he doesn't need protection from the sun, but he's a bit impartial to cave-like spaces as a rule. He's been tucked up in one with his laptop, which is a beast of a machine despite its portable nature. And he has a figurative stack of reports from the analyses he'd performed on the samples from the vampire nest, waiting for him to go through.

    Eventually he surfaces for air, and for food. Which is where he's returning from this very moment, the smell of spices wafting from the paper takeout bag in his hand. Tim, however, comes to a full stop in the middle of the hallway as Jubilee dances her way across.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I am a sex machine ready to reload! Like an atom bomb about to....." Jubilation continues to sing at the top of her dried-up husk lungs, eyes tightly closed, mouth pointed up at the ceiling as she dances through the hall. She's in the groove, enjoying the moment, and totally overlooking the smells traveling through the hallway and getting closer and closer to her nose.

    "Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Oh! Explode!" Jubilee wails happily. As soon as the lyric is done, the moment's grip on her attention snaps and she can now finally smell the brown takeout bag and hear the unfamiliar heartbeat of Tim Drake. She opens her eyes.

    "Ahhh!" Jubilee screams, arms flailing akimbo as she steps back from Tim. "Give me a heart attack, whydon'tcha!? I mean, if mine, like....beat." She reaches behind herself and pulls her phone from the waistband of her shorts, peeking just over one of her buttcheeks. Tap. The music is paused and the phone goes right back where it was.

    "What are you doing down here?" Jubilee asks, brow lowered. "I thought..." She glances at the doors in the hallway. "...I thought, you know, uh, 'members only'?" Vampires.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Ahh. See, this is what happens when you don't take the guided tour! Jubilee's screaming culminates the slow climb of Tim's eyebrows up towards his hairline that began with her dancing and singing. "Is it?" Tim asks, eyes going wide as he looks around. "Sorry, my bad. I didn't realize. I just wanted a place where I could get some work done." Dark corners where people aren't laible to go looking for you are good for that, usually.

    His weight moves from one foot to the other, and he looks down at the paper bag in his hand. "Uh--let me just go grab my stuff and I'll head upstairs to find somewhere to eat my mapo tofu that's out of your hair." And then Tim, looking a bit guilty, slinks along past Jubilation to head into one of the other rooms, leaving the door open.

    Where he's already somehow set up a little base. Expensive coffee machine, a blanket (inexplicably printed with a dinosaur pattern), a change or two of clothes in a duffel bag, among other things.

    Well, somebody settles in fast.

    But all he does is grab his laptop and shove it into a backpack.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilee's face flattens as Tim slinks past her. She spins around on one heel and follows him to the doorway of the room he claimed. "No, it's okay if you stay," she protests. "I don't, like, /care/. I was just surprised. I didn't think anyone used these rooms who wasn't, uh...dead." She really does go out of her way to avoid saying the dreaded v-word. She lingers in the doorway, leaning her hip against the framing of the threshold.

    "Tim, right?" Jubilee questions, one eye squinting as though it might help her remember. There really wasn't much time for the two of them to get acquainted either time they met. "I'm Jubilation. So, like, you're in this little club too, huh? The Heliopolitans. I don't get it." She shakes her head and shrugs.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Looking up from one expensive thing (custom laptop) into another expensive thing (bougie high-end backpack with padded laptop pocket), Tim blinks once or twice at Jubilee before he repeats what he just did but in reverse. Out comes the laptop, and he sets it back down on the table next to the bag of takeout.

    "Thanks," he says, and then he shrugs one shoulder. "I tend to get pretty focused when I work, so I try to find a place where I reliably won't be interrupted. Still, I've been reminded enough times by Phoebe that I do actually need to take occasional breaks," and here he nods to his food, "So I'm trying to be good about that."

    He sits down at the table, laptop still closed and pushed aside. Right now, Tim's focused on the food, which he begins to unpack. "Yep, that's me. Do you prefer Jubilation or Jubilee?" he asks. Then, "It's weird, but we're doing good work. I think. A convincing argument was made to me about how Khonshu is a benevolent deity."

    Mapo tofu indeed makes an appearance in the first to-go container Tim opens, and then there's a bowl of mushroom congee as well. "Do you want to join me? I know it's not to your tastes so I won't offer to share, but I wouldn't mind the company."

    Though then Tim pauses and straightens up slightly, his hands going to the back of the chair he'd been about to sit in. "Uh, unless... do you eat food?" Did he just commit some sort of supernatural faux pas? Oh no.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Doesn't matter!" Jubilee replies with a shrug. "Jubilation. Jubilee. Jubes. I've heard 'em all!" Her eyes lower to the little tableau of food that Tim begins to set out. The first item flattens her smile. The second item draws out a look of actual disgust.

    "No, I can't," Jubilation replies, staring at Tim's lunch in mock disbelief. It's as though she's watching him gut a fish right in front of her. Not only is she not able to eat real food, she's actually now disgusted by it. Jubilee reaches up and wipes away the dried viscera of pigs blood from her lips. "One second."

    Jubilee's form disappears from the doorway in a blur and reappears just a couple seconds later holding a clear plastic container in one hand and a really long, ridiculous pink straw with several loops and twists bent into it. She lingers there, still in the doorway, flirting with the notion of entering.

    "I mean, I /guess/ we're doing good work. I don't really /get/ what this whole thing is about. I'm just here to slay monsters and look hot doin' it!" She grins a fangy kind of smile and rests her cheek against the doorframe.

    "So, like, can I come in?" she asks, eyebrows hiked up. It was implied that she could, maybe, but she can never be too careful. "You, uh, have to say it."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Well, that's as good an answer as any. One less thing about vampiric existence that Tim is curious about, at least. He's taken his seat in the few seconds Jubilee vanished to go fetch her own lunch, and though he's obviously aware of what it is she's going to be drinking, thus far he appears remarkably placid about it.

    "I've identified sixteen different victims so far from that nest," he says as he leans over, reaching into his backpack. Out comes a little roll of fabric, which reveals itself to be a set of reusable silverware. Including a pair of metal chopsticks. "DNA is a match on four to various criminal records, though for minor issues. Trespassing, vagrancy, that sort of thing."

    Tim pokes his chopsticks into the mapo tofu, stirring things around distractedly as he frowns. His brow is furrowed too, thoughtfully. "Best guess is that they were targetting the local homeless population. Easily attainable source of blood that, unfortunately, wouldn't garner much--if any--attention."

    He shakes his head. There's a grim set to his expression, mouth flattened to a line, though he's not otherwise outwardly perturbed.

    In fact, he's unbothered enough that he leans forward slightly and pops a piece of tofu into his mouth. Immediately after, his head tips back and he sucks an inward breath. Spiiiiicy.

    A little bit of rapid blinking later, and he's ready for the next bite. "So I'd say we're doing something goo--oh, oh! Right, sorry. Yes, please come in." Then Tim gestures towards the chair opposite himself.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Targeting the local homeless population. Jubilation's thoughts linger on that one for a moment, imagining that warm, velvety liquid trickling out of such a dirty, shameful vessel. "Homeless? Ewwwww," she drones with a sour expression. It's not the most generous display of humanity by a vampire. Not even a little. Nevermind the fact that Jubilation Lee, like many mutants, was homeless herself for a while. Now, homeless people are kind of like food that has fallen on the floor.

    Now given permission to come in, Jubilee struts on it like she owns the place and flops into the available seat. She sets the plastic container on the desk, just next to the food laboratory being set up by Tim, and peels off the container nonchalantly. It's blood alright, with thick chunks of viscera floating at the top. Pigs blood from a local butcher, most likely.

    "Yeah, they didn't seem too picky," Jubilee comments before jabbing the pointy end of her silly straw into the little container of blood. With her eyes fixed on Tim, Jubilation lowers her mouth to the straw and puckers her lips. She begins to draw the thick liquid up into the plastic roller coaster that leads to her mouth.

    Instead of hissing in some air like Tim, Jubilee's display of satisfaction comes as a deeply contented smile. She closes her eyes and enjoys that pleasant warmth that's going down her throat. "You seem pretty okay with all this," she points out, opening her eyes to study Tim's reaction to the question. "What's in all this for you? You have a thing for killing us?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    Though Tim's eyes widen slightly at Jubilee's reaction, he doesn't otherwise comment on it. Whatever he thinks about her lack of... well, humanity, he keeps to himself. While also internally acknowledging that she's no longer quite human.

    He's also more curious than disgusted by the container of blood slushee that she puts down on the table. The lack of disgust is probably indicative of prior exposure to human viscera, though only Phoebe will know exactly how much he's seen. Still, he keeps eating--suffering through the spice level--without being visibly put-off.

    "I'm from Gotham. There's really nothing that surprised me any more," Tim admits. He takes a break from the mapo tofu to spoon up some congee and let the burn fade from his tastebuds.

    The bowl ends up balanced between his knees as he draws his legs up into the seat, sitting cross-legged. "I don't have a thing for killing anyone. I just... have skills, and resources that can be useful in this sort of thing. I guess that's why Khonshu rang." Tim pokes his spoon around in his food for a lingering moment.

    "How about you?" he asks. "Unless it really is just 'look hot while fighting monsters.' Is that enough motivation for you? Uh... no judgment if so, I guess. Whatever floats your boat."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Gotham..." Jubilation repeats. It sounds so weird coming out of her mouth, as though someone with her stereotypical Beverly Hills accent has never said the word without at least some disgust come out. "Sounds, uh, exciting..." She leans forward to reattach herself to the silly straw again. Sluuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuurp.

    "I'm here to make sure everyone's following the rules," Jubilee explains, closing her eyes again so she can enjoy that mouthful of blood as it goes down. Mmm. "Vampires like the other night are bad for business. Bad for everyone. But, like, not all of us should be killed. So, I'm making sure the stakes are pointed in the right direction."

    Jubilee leeeeans back on her chair, causing the front legs to tip off the ground. Thanks to her supernatural grace and balance, she has virtually no difficulty keeping it from falling backwards. She just reclines in a relaxed fashion. "Most humans think the world belongs to them," Jubilation continues, staring up at the ceiling. "But we've been with you since the beginning, so, it's just as much ours." Vampires. Mutants. She's talking about both.

    "So, if there's gonna be slaying, I'm gonna make sure it's the right slaying," Jubilation summarizes. ".../Plus/ look hot doing it!" She grins her fangs at Tim and lets her chair fall forward into a normal position.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Despite a truly staggering amount of pride in his home city, Tim doesn't actually have much to say in response to Jubilation's dislike of Gotham. Maybe he just acknowledges it's not for everyone. So he returns back to his mapo tofu without a word, though he does glance up, over the table towards Jubilee, at the mention of rules.

    And then of course she fills him in on precisely what she means by that. Tim pops open the lid of a thermos that's been sitting on the table as he listens, and takes a long drink from it. It's coffee, which Jubilee's nose will no doubt be able to pick up. Probably addicted to the stuff, given the pourover setup Tim's chosen as one of the first things to bring into the room he's claimed for himself here.

    The thermos remains just before his mouth as he tips his head slightly. "Makes sense," he replies, and that's that for him. No more explanation necessary.

    "I took samples from the vampires we slayed, too. Not sure if there's a commonality--do you know the mechanics of your own, uh, situation? This one seems fairly biological, not magic or curse based or anything." Well, the analysis he's examined so far has, at least.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "I would be shocked if I was like them," Jubilation replies sharply. Her eyes lower, lips pout. "I'm not like the others." Still looking away, she brings the straw up to her mouth and draws from it again. No sense waiting just for dramatic effect.

    "No one mouthed on my neck if that's what you mean. No one drank from me," Jubilee explains. "I died at the side of the road and came back to life like this. John said I was cursed and that it's super rare." She says it like it's not a big deal at all.

    "So are you, like, a big nerd or something?" Jubilee asks, just letting the question fall out of her mouth like a ton of bricks. "I mean, nothing against nerds, but, like, the computer, and, like, you're the one doing the science projects in this group, I think."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim opens his mouth, but then closes it again quickly, apparently rethinking whatever it was he was going to say. Shoving another bite of too-spicy (but delicious) tofu into his mouth is a good cover, or so he thinks at least.

    "I understand that there's a lot of variety to the, uh, mechanisms of..." He pauses to come up with a diplomatic word. "Your, um, kind. And the creation of them." His cheeks have started to go red with the heat of the spices in his food, which is exceptionally obvious on his Gotham-pale skin. Unlike most people from New Jersey, it's something of a joke that none of the folks from Gotham ever get any sun.

    Too much cloudcover, too much rain. The whole city is so depressingly grim that even the local weather reflects it.

    He sets his chopsticks down. "I do R&D work, so... yeah. Engineering, chemistry, computer sims, whatever. Nothing magical, just," and he knocks a knuckle against his temple. "Everyone needs a nerd on their team."

    For what it's worth, he doesn't seem bothered at all if that ends up his designation. Though Professor Science certainly has a better ring to it.

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "We're a diverse bunch of corpses, I guess," Jubilation declares. She pulls the silly straw out of the carton of blood and sets it down on the table, leaving behind little red droplets on the surface like they're just crumbs from a sandwich. She presses the container's lid back on top with a snap and reaches up to wipe the sides of her mouth.

    "You writing a book or something?" Jubilee teases. "'Variety to the mechanisms...'" Her voice lowers in a bad impression of Tim's voice so she can do the impression justice. Jubilation grins a gain and raises both eyebrows. "I don't know how we're made. I just know, for me, I died and then, BAM!, woke up. And it happens again every single day. What a /pain/..." She rolls her eyes.

    Both of Jubilation's feet are put up on the desk as she leans back in her chair, swaying forward and backwards as she flexes and relaxes her knees. And then out of nowhere: "Isn't Phoebe a little young for you?"

Tim Drake has posed:
    "So it seems." That's certainly the impression Tim has from his admittedly limited exposure to the world of the supernatural, outside Gotham's very specific brand of weird. His eyes flick down to the blood drops on the table, but only for a second.

    He gestures to his laptop. "Not a book, but I'm trying to compile a database. From what I can tell, a lot of the magic community seems to operate on tribal knowledge--which us, uh, corp-speak for information only a select few employees know that isn't recorded anywhere," Tim explains, and then he stops long enough to take a sip of coffee. "It needs to be codified, so that even us boring people know how to defend ourselves from the stuff that goes bump in the night."

    Both the containers for the mapo tofu and mushroom congee are closed back up tightly and set aside, Tim's appetite satisfied for the moment. Instead he leans back in his chair with his thermos to nurse that sweet, sweet caffeine.

    Though he jerks back into a more upright position when Phoebe is mentioned. "What--no. *No*. It's not like that between us, she's my best friend." His fingers tighten on his thermos, and his heartbeat picks up. The tinge to his cheeks no longer has anything to do with spicy food. "I have a boyfriend."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Oh, yeah, there are books like that," Jubilation answers. This is a rare moment for her. For once, there's talk about the supernatural and she's the one in-the-know. This basically never happens.

    "They're called grimewursts." Grimoires, Jubes. Grimoires!

    Jubilation puts both hands behind her head and leeeeeeans back in her chair again, idly dragging her tongue across her fangs, as though the entire conversation was tugging at some lingering deficit in her attention. She doesn't bother saying anything about that uptick in Tim's heartbeat but she does smirk to herself.

    "And he's okay with you doing all this stuff with us?" Jubilee wonders, peering across at Tim. It's a loaded question, peppered with her own relationship difficulties of late.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim's mouth opens again, and once more, it snaps back shut after he thinks better of whatever he was going to otherwise say. His fingers twist against the metal of his thermos. "Right," is all he says.

    The next drink of coffee that he takes is a very long, very slow one.

    His own relationship difficulties have less to do with the relationship itself and more to do with... everything around it. "Yeah, sure. We keep our noses out of each other's business--we're both the type to value our independence, so it works out best that way," he answers. Then the corners of his lips twitch, like he's struggling to suppress a smile.

    "Besides," he begins to add. "A little bit of plausible deniability goes a long way."

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    Jubilation frowns gently. "Yeah, but..." she begins to protest. "But, like, what about the danger? You know, doesn't he worry about you?" She's still rocking forward and backwards, using her legs to pivot the legs of her chair in a gentle sway, still staring up at the ceiling.

    "I mean, like, even right now," Jubilation continues. "I could just rip your neck open six ways to Sunday! Don't think I haven't thought about it." It's an awkward way to try and make the point that an association with this group brings dangers around every corner. Jubilee relaxes her knees and allows the chair to return to a normal position.

    "My girlfriend worries," she adds quietly. "I don't think she wants me involved in this stuff."

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim's head begins to tilt to the side. "What about it?" he asks. "Both of my parents were killed in home invasions. Life is inherently dangerous. I'm not going to lock myself in a padded room and try to pretend it's not."

    Despite how long it's been since both incidents that took his mother and father away, Tim's voice is briefly choked up as he talks through it. But he soldiers on. "Lonnie--my boyfriend--he wouldn't ask that of me, either." He looks Jubilee up and down for a long moment. There's something sharp, exactingly considering in that look, as if he's reading more from her than would be otherwise obvious. But then it's gone, and his expression is placid.

    The threat to his life barely earns a blink. All he does is shrug, as if to say, 'Sure, that's a thing you could do.'

    "Have you talked to her about it? Your reason why you're here--the rules?"

Jubilation Lee has posed:
    "Yeah, but..."

    Jubilation's protest is half-hearted. Tim's right. But, then again, it's not hard for her to understand the worry. She doesn't continue. Maybe some other time.

    The almost 'nothing' response to Jubilee's point about what the beast inside her is telling her to do to Tim's throat draws out a private smile from Jubilation. She knows she's a monster but she also knows that she's not. It's nice to be around someone who isn't afraid of her.

    "It's complicated," is Jubilation's answer to Tim's question, said somewhat stubbornly as she looks away from him. She freezes like that for a few moments before standing up suddenly. Jubilation summons that saccharine smile and enthusiasm Tim might remember from earlier in their conversation. It's like her entire personality has shifted. The performance resumes.

    "I better let you get back to your experiments, Archimedes!" Jubes chirps with a sudden fangy grin. She grabs her plastic container and straw and heads for the door. Jubes lingers there and tilts her head in Tim's direction. "Oh Tim? Your secret? You and Phoebe, I mean... Secret's safe with me." She nods her head and then grins widely, unable to contain her laugh.

    "'Lonnie'... Really..." She shakes her head and giggles, apparently tickled that Tim would think she'd believe it. With that settled, Jubes disappears into the hallway.

Tim Drake has posed:
    Tim folds his hands together around his thermos, eyebrows raised as Jubilee stands. He communicates his agreement to her summation of things as 'Complicated' with a silent nod, and then his mouth starts to twist as he watches her step back into character.

    "Sure. Thanks for the company."

    When she mentions a secret, Tim's lack of reaction is noticeable in its rehearsed nature. It isn't until she's laughing as she walks away that he realizes what secret she thinks she's uncovered.

    And that makes Tim laugh too, into his thermos.

    Better than any of his real secrets being revealed. He opens up his laptop and gets back to work... though not until he's pulled a packet of disinfecting wipes from his backpack and scrubbing the blood drops off the table.