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This is Rosita. I'll hit you back when I can.

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He's been cured since before he came to Duplicity, Rosita. I've known that for a few months.

Still not something that even deserves a mention, just in case?

Cured how?

Edited Date: 2023-02-24 07:24 pm (UTC)

They gave him a new body after he died. One that had never even been to his old world.

Who is they?

Aliens who ran the system he was in.

[Which would sound absurd and he wouldn't have bought it back home. But they're stuck in a sex city where no one can die, so.]

[There, finally, is a little wiggle room in her own kneejerk reaction: she did know Drake was somewhere else before here. He told her that already, and it made no more sense then than this does now, but she did know.

She doesn't trust them any more than she does Duplicity, though.]

We don't know what any of the rules are here. Has he been checked since he got here?

His virus is different. It's not a dormant thing like ours. If he was infected, there's no hiding it.

Jesus.

He wouldn't look normal. He'd be eating brains. And because there are no brains here to eat, he'd be a monster.

He's human and he's cured, Rosita. As human as we are.

I know you like him. I know you want this to not be a thing here.

We. Don't. Know. The rules.

We know the rules of his illness--something he was cured of by getting an entirely new body, Ro.

And still, I talked him into going to Grayson, who is actually undead, actually feeds on people, to get checked out. That's enough for Carver. What about you?

Edited Date: 2023-02-24 08:09 pm (UTC)

Maybe just tell me that instead of making me fucking fish for it?

It's not just our bodies, or did you forget what my head put out into the city when I first got here? What if it had infected someone or something just because it would have fucked with me, or whatever the whole point of any of that was? What if it happens again?

We don't know anything.

We know some things. Like that he's as human as we are.

What am I missing, Jesus?

That I'm feeling like there's a pretty big double standard here.

And what is that?

Do you know what vampires can do? Everything they're capable of, that Grayson can do? Before you let him heal you?

You trusted Carver enough to trust Grayson. Why don't you trust me about Drake?

I put myself at risk to test that, and I did it with backup nearby. I don't trust Grayson. I specifically said that, which is why I hadn't brought you in yet - and I don't trust whatever he did to Carver, which is why I broke his confidence and did tell you that.

I don't trust this because you're making me push for answers and dodging giving some of them. Would you have told me if Carver hadn't found out?

I told you he was from a world like ours. I don't think of him as being infected because he's not. [And there are so many layers to it that Jesus can't wrap his head around.]

This wasn't a secret, Rosita. It's his past.

[And they don't talk about old world pasts--and this piece is literally two worlds away]

I'm at work right now.

I'll find you after shift.

I work at Marked tonight, come by for closing.

She's calmer by the time she shows up, or at least reserved for a different reason; being on a hair trigger at her current job doesn't exactly lend itself well to peace of mind, but she makes it through.

She's able to think more clearly, although she paints the line down her neck and slips in just before closing, actually, so she can ask: "Any way I can get a double of something stiff before you lock the till?"

He gives her a little smile and pours for her. The club is quiet, Vrenille somewhere else, the other staff already clearing out the guests. He nods at the bouncer to indicate Rosita is with him.

"How mad are you now?"

It's been hours, and not that Rosita isn't perfectly capable of holding a grudge as long as she needs to, but she's not feeling surprised and defensive anymore. She shakes her head and taps her fingertips on the bartop.

"Mad isn't the right word," she admits. "You know how it is when someone gets infected. What a gutpunch it is, how fast you have to be - and how there's always one person thinking this one is going to be different because it's someone close to them."