Monday Evening - Deck

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

The sun had set, and darkness was falling, but Rose didn't want to go up to her room.  She also couldn't quite shake the feeling that something was going to come out of the trees, and that it wasn't safe to stay outside without a weapon or a patrol.

Which was the reason that Rose sat down in one of the chairs, trying not to think about anything other than fun way she'd spent the afternoon and playing with her phone until it was late enough to text Lissa.  She wasn't going to let some stupid fear worry about a world that wasn't hers drive her inside before she was good and ready to go, dammit. 

[Not having a roof on the deck, it seems to be open!]

Comments

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"Uh huh," Griff nodded, he had a whole section of sketches around that theme. "He seemed to like hunting that girl's boyfriend a lot."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"That's what happens when you don't have a soul," Rose said.

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"But where you're from, some of them have souls?" Griff asked, remembering she was some sort of protector.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose nodded. "If you have a soul, you still have a connection to the earth and God if you believe in him and all that. When you lose it, you lost all your morality, all your magic, everything that makes you a person. You just want to kill and feed and torture."

She paused. "I protect the ones with souls."

It was almost a joke.

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"And they need protecting?" He was all about twenty questions, it seemed.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose was surprisingly okay with answering Griff's questions. If only cause he'd trusted her over there even when it seemed messed up. "Yeah, they're not as strong as the Strigoi - the ones without souls. And they won't use their magic offensively because it's-" now there was an eyeroll "-offensive to the earth or whatever."

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"Sounds like a good way to get killed," Griff decided. "Can't imagine giving up what you can do. It'd be like refusing to walk or breathe."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"You'd know," she pointed out, giving him a quick, sharp glance. "They stopped doing it like hundreds of years ago. They still use the magic, just only in peaceful ways. To build things and help the earth." Rose shrugged. "It's probably all ethical, but what do I know - I'm just a Guardian."

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"I use mine," he said, "I just don't tell people about it. Often." There was a difference in his mind. "Guardian's the name for what you do, then?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"No one will hear it from me," she reassured him. She'd promised before but Bobby's worry was still in her mind. "How long have you known how to do what you do?"

Rose nodded. "Yeah. Technically I'm not one yet - haven't sworn, but I am."

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"Wouldn't think swearing would make you more of something if you already act it," which she'd done for him.

"I've been jumping since I was five and people been after me for it ever since. I'm not worried about you telling so much as I'm worried about them using anyone who knows to get to me."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Rose couldn't help smiling at the comment because it was one thing when Liss said so, but totally different when someone did. "Thank you. Hopefully they'll see it the same way," she said, reaching up unconsciously to touch the back of her neck where the promise mark would be.

"Who's them?" She asked, watching him. "They don't approve of it?"

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"S'pose not the way they've been trying to kill me for eleven years," he said, a little too matter-of-factly. "But there's never been any explanation as to who they are or why they want me that I've heard. Seem governmental types, but they've come for me in the U.S., Mexico, and the U.K., so what government's anyone's guess. It's okay though, I keep going." He didn't need her thinking he was sadder than she'd already seen, after all.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

Not sad so much as someone to guard. Which wasn't the same at all to Rose. Though also the situation sounded weirdly similar to Bobby's.

"Okay or not, that pretty much sucks," Rose said. "Which you've probably already noticed, yeah."

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

He had. "I just keep going. No fun letting them win, right?"

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Fun in smashing them all though," Rose said. "If you got to a point and needed hand with it -" she held up hers.

One day Rose's subconscious would realise he wasn't under her protection still. For now - they come first.

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"Thanks," he said, giving her a little smile. "I'm currently in hiding here, so there's little chance I'll need it for a few years."

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"Seems like it'd be a good place to hide out," Rose said with a small smile back. She tossed her hair back over her shoulders. "Few years is fine. Plenty of training time between then and now."

[youcantfollow.livejournal.com]

"And the added bonus of them leaving my friends alone while I work." He was fond of this plan.

[guardianborn.livejournal.com]

"It's what we call a win-win situation in the business," Rose said, teasing.