unknownrival | [RL - Tea with Vanessa after lunch.]

Vanessa put the cup back in her hands so she'd have something to grasp. That was...well. She'd have to learn more first before she could just sit there and indulge her own sort of moral high ground. "And the older monks, how old were they?"

This was really starting to sound Greek to her.

"...I don't know. It varied?" Issei offered. "It's not a practice I advocate bringing back, I was just saying that as far as me not being interested in women goes, it's only recently that for monks that would be viewed as a bad thing."

It. VARIED. she thought in her mind, taking in a deep breath of air. No reason to get uppity about other people's sexual desires, was it? No. This wasn't right. This Chigo wasn't beneficial in the least. Harmful to the mind of a teenager, someone whose brain hadn't fully formed yet. At least they weren't young boys, not...

The thought of it led her to grip the cup so hard that it shattered in her hand, one brilliantly sharp part of it slicing right into her palm. She grimaced at the pain but did nothing about the blood coming out, just lifted the cup. "Sorry about that. I just...was shocked."

"V-Vanessa?!" Issei squeaked, jumping in his seat. "You're bleeding! Hold on, I'll go get you some bandages!"

And with that, he raced out of the room. A guest was hurt, there was no time to waste!

"So I am," she murmured before he could run out of the room, holding her hand over the table so the blood wouldn't get on the floor or get on her clothes. She was still shaking from what was probably a mixture of anger, confusion, and even disgust. It wasn't something she felt often unless a certain owner of a certain paper was around. Or when people like Mike tried to destroy Shillers from the inside out. No, it was a feeling she'd mostly lost a long time ago after about halfway through her first month with the company. A wonderful, frightening experience she wouldn't trade for the world.

So she just sat there, blooding pooling beneath her hand.

A little while later Issei returned with a disinfectant and some bandages. "This might sting a little," he warned her before spraying the wound with disinfectant. As he started to treat her wounds, he commented, "I'm sorry for bringing it up. I don't endorse it at all."

She didn't even cringe at the sting. She was used to much worse pain than this, and so it had little effect on her at all. She let him spray and bandage her without a word, thinking over this Chigo thing and being completely and utterly disgusted by it. Religion was sure fucked up, which was the main reason she stayed away from it in the first place. And when it turned out all those priests were touching little boys during confession, well, she wasn't completely surprised but she was angry as hell. Fortunately she was out of her parents' house and in college by then so she didn't have to worry about getting into any fights over it.

"Sorry about that. I got a little too worked up," she remarked after a moment. "That's...it's good you don't endorse it, because I would probably just have to get up and leave if you did."

Issei sighed and shook his head. "If you go back any length in time in history, someone will have practices that are absolutely abhorrent to you. I try not to think about it too much, honestly." He paused, then added guiltily, "You're not going to get angry with me because I like someone who's twenty-eight, are you?"

Vanessa blinked, snapping to and his sudden honesty with her. She looked at him, clearly confused, but said nothing for the moment, just watched him bandage up her hand. There was a puddle of blood on the table, and yet she didn't feel faint in the least. Funny how that works out.

"Twenty-eight?" she asked, blinking twice. "No, I suppose not. You're of age now and can make your own decision. William's...fourteen years my senior, and Albert's about...twenty-six years older, I believe it is. He's old enough to be my father, at least."

Issei went to work wiping up the puddle, since eww, blood. He sighed in relief after hearing her words. "That's good. Nothing would have happened anyway, since he has as much interest in dating me as dating a skunk, but I would be unhappy if you thought that age gap was too much."

He probably wouldn't have let it affect him all that much - he liked him enough to put his life on the line for his welfare, after all - but it was good that she didn't think it was that bad.

"No, I definitely can't say anything about age gaps," she replied after a moment, turning her bandaged hand over and about as she inspected the job he'd done. She'd have to lay low, undoubtedly, until it was healed up fine enough. Otherwise people would assume it was William and she just couldn't have that anymore. He was under enough stress as it was...she'd be his lapdog until she'd wormed her way back into his trust enough and then the real damage could be done. "I've been with clients old enough to be my grandfather."

"Eww," he commented quietly. "I'm sorry about this, I had no intention of injuring you. Are you all right?"

"Not 'eww'," she corrected him gently, watching as he finished cleaning up her own blood. It was...interesting to watch, at least. She wondered who'd cleaned up her own after the post with Albert had happened. William? Probably. It wasn't as though that Tyrant ever did anything for anyone other than himself.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," she replied, waving her hand dismissively. "It's only a flesh wound."

Issei's lips curled up a little at that despite himself. "If you say so. But please, let me know if I can get you anything. More tea, perhaps?"

"No thank you; I'm fine."

She looked at the spot where the blood had been before looking at the bandaging over her own palm. There were a few medium-sized blotches of red showing through, but she couldn't see what was underneath. Perhaps she'd call Franken and see if he could stitch it up for her...without the tests on her...sexual state, that is. If that was even possible for when the two of them met up.

"Sorry about that. I can replace the teacup."

"We have enough to spare, don't worry about it," Issei assured her. "It was my own fault anyway. ...And here I thought our conversation was getting less awkward..."

He wasn't cut out for this, obviously. He'd already injured his guest and offended her sensibilities. What next, insult her occupation?

It would have been much, much harder for him to insult her occupation than anything else he'd done already. Which, of course, he hadn't injured her, but that was neither here nor there. She'd had a lot of insults thrown her way about her job, but she wasn't brought down an inch by it. She had her reasons, she loved it, and aside from one or two...interesting fetishes she'd encountered, she didn't give two flips about any insults that may be thrown her way.

"Oh no, no no no, it's not your fault in the least, Issei, please don't think that."

"Well, if you say so." Issei still thought it was his fault, since she'd been squeezing the cup so hard because of what he was talking about, but okay. "Is there anything else you'd like to talk about?"

"No, it's really not," she assured him. She put her other hand on his elbow hesitantly, just a reassuring method she'd found useful in the past, nothing she wanted him to shy away from. "You should see the things that happened to my pencils in my Military History class. I must have gone through two packs a week with just my infuriation—which isn't a word, actually—at the things people like Stalin and Hitler and Castro and the Nazi Doctors had done. It's really fine."

As long as she wasn't calling him cute during it, physical contact was perfectly fine. "I'm glad my history classes didn't go into all that much detail, or else I might have been sick," he admitted. "I feel terrible for the people who study those kinds of monsters."

"Yes, well..." she started, stopping herself as she looked off at the broken tea cup, picking up the biggest shard of it and looking over it. "History will repeat itself if we don't use the knowledge of it for the greater good."

Like she wasn't doing with Albert and William and Excella. She already told Excella she didn't endorse it...but what on earth could she actually do to get them to stop?

Nothing.

"...It's good that we know that all of that happened and how to to keep it from happening again, but I don't know that if something were to happen, I could do anything to help."

After all, he could barely help the people close to him. If something horrible were to happen, wouldn't it be out of his reach?

"You know..." she started, fingering the concave part of the cup that had made it out all right. "My boyfriend and his partner? They're trying to destroy their entire world. Infect the world with Uroboros that most everyone will reject and turn into monsters and die from, and the few 'worthy' ones will survive. They say they're doing it to better the world, but William's going to be the last human left if that ever happens."

She sighed. "And there's...nothing I can do about it. Not a thing."

"Th-that's horrible!" Issei squeaked. As if killing everyone wasn't bad enough, they wanted to turn them into monsters first? "But I, I don't want to give up hope so easily. You know that they're doing these things, right? Someone on the community must be able to stop them."

He wasn't confident in his own ability to help, but he hated to give up hope. If this place existed, than anything could happen, and anything could be stopped.

"The people from Devil May Cry are getting themselves involved slowly but surely, and that mutant Kitty Pryde tried to get herself involved as well," she replied thoughtfully, trying to recall everyone. "That and the rest of his people here on his own world are after his arse as well. I'm tempted to phone Trish with the exact location of their lab just so she can go kick Albert's arse here and back again."

She sighed, a fake smile crossing her pleasant features. "But I would never do that. I'm a coward. I'd rather just tell him tidbits of info, stay on his good side, and not get my throat slit again."

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Stealing someone else's computer.

You fiend.

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