Thomas declined anything other than the glass of orange juice. He took a sip of it as Abe started talking. And when Abe started talking about angels, Thomas's eyes opened wide.

"Wait, are you actually asking me if I am an angel," Thomas asked. "I haven't heard anyone use that question since Phantom Menace. Nor have I ever drunk coffee or alcohol. And though I must say that that I wasn't entirely comfortable in that club, I wouldn't have called it the Valley of the Shadow of Death. And of course I took care of her, any gentleman would have done the same."

"So something actually happened? My dream actually meant something to you?"
This message was last edited by the GM at 12:50, Mon 02 Mar 2020.

Abe's eyes narrowed slightly at Thomas's response.  Not what he had expected.  He  "You're probably the most upstanding person I know, so I'll trust you with this.  Swear to me that when the end of the day comes you'll go along with whatever we need to do to keep lives safe, and I'll lay my cards on the table."

"I'm reluctant to make a promise without knowing what I am promising." Thomas said. "My word is my bond and it is important to me. And I am not in the habit of doing that which is immoral or illegal. Nor do I share people's secrets. If that is sufficient for you, I will help you."

He looked around at the staff and the other patrons. "Depending on what your cards are, this may not be the best place to reveal them."

Abe shrugged.  "That is nearly enough.  I wouldn't ask you - or anyone else - to do something illegal or immoral, no worries there.  The main thing is, this information is restricted to certain types of individuals - on pains of death.  Because of the club, you've already got eyes looking your way and it seems like you might be a qualified individual.

  "Are you willing to help me try to figure out what's going on with you, and if it comes down to it, to have someone make you forget what you learn today until I can substantiate you as a person allowed to be in the know?  I don't want to leave you in the severe danger of ignorance, but I refuse to leave you with a death sentence hanging over your head either."

"Something's going on with me," Thomas asked. "I don't do hypnosis or drugs, so your friend would have to have some other means of making me forget." You could see him shiver a little. "And no beating me to death or scrambeling my mind." He paused. "Well I might not have to worry about you or your friends beating me to death if you want to keep me alive."

"You're making me curious. So what's going on?"

Abe nodded to Thomas's conditions.  He then reached across the table to swat him upside the head... gently.  "I'm a Marine.  You're safe from me as long as you don't go Taliban... or Air Force."

Abe looked around to determine whether there was enough privacy to really get into things here.

OOC: Also wondering how effective Abe's teleporting is currently, but guessing I'd need to call Sparrow for it.

Thomas laughed and a lot of heads turned towards him.

"And I'm Navy or at least NROTC. So there will be no Taliban or Air Force in my future."

[OOC: As for your ability to teleport, you can teleport yourself and what you're wearing, but you cannot bring anyone else yet.]

Abe noticed the number of people noticing Thomas.  He finished his orange juice and left a ten on the table for the bill and tip.  "Let's start moving toward somewhere we can talk."

He texted Sparrow.  "I'm with Thomas - guys got enough integrity that I'd trust him with my sister and has promised not to break the secret and to let himself get mind-wiped at the end of the day if we can't let him know.  I'm wanting to bring him up to the apartment for somewhere quiet and safe to talk.  Want to have us use the front door or to open us a gate when we're somewhere out of view?  Assuming you want to be there as we puzzle this out.  If you don't want him knowing about your apartment at all, feel free to tell me to find somewhere else for this.  But I don't want it to be the Lux."

Thomas joined you after he too had finished his glass of juice and you exited the establishment.

Sparrow returned your text. "Use the front door please."

Abe brought Thomas to Sparrow's, keeping talk about the weather, local sportsball, and whatever other mundane things would burn time.  He did take time for a few serious questions that tangentially touched on Thomas's connection to the supernatural, but without letting it get specific: when he had started practicing religion, and which; whether his parents did; and the like.

Thomas conversed with Abe. He told him that he had been religious his whole life, raised in the faith by his parents, and that he was a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. He also asked Abe about his religious faith, basically mirroring the questions he had been asked.

Abe was raised Christian.  Mom was Catholic and Dad was Baptist, and they used to be much more fervent but had mellowed out a lot in marriage to make peace with each other... to the point that they were both pretty much nominal at this point.  Abe had become a non-denominational Christian in his teens.  While he was pretty serious about it, he generally avoided trying to stir the pot with it.

As they talked, the duo arrived at Sparrow's building. And soon they were in her apartment.

Sparrow and Thomas greeted each other. He didn't seem to react at all when faced with her unearthly beauty.

Abe made introductions: Thomas as a college NROTC acquaintance, Sparrow as his new friend and mentor.

He explained the dream-night to Thomas, "The night of your dream, the four of us in the driving group got exposed to the world beyond what you consciously know.  My transition was the least painful for myself - Sparrow freed me of a binding that had been placed on me as a child to.  The other three more or less died - Tom slightly less than died - he's now a Hunter that doesn't die easy, while Jack and Dean fully died but woke as vampires."
This message was last edited by the player at 13:54, Thu 05 Mar 2020.

"Really," Thomas asked. "Vampires are real? Wow. I have a bad feeling about this." He paused. He seemed to ponder something. You're not sure what he was thinking about, but he seemed to have accepted the existance of vampires very easily. "So on to the million dollar question. Why are you sharing this with me?"

Abe nodded.  "Originally I wanted to ask if you are an angel or something like that.  But it seems like you don't know either.  Here's what we do know: you had a prescient dream.  If it was just that I wouldn't have said anything.  But then you showed up out of nowhere on a flight with my sister.  And then when some predators tried to approach you two at the club, they were forced to veer off and go somewhere else."

"You make it sound like I teleported in or something," Thomas said. "I bought a plane ticket like everyone else and was seated next to your sister. Though this was obviously one of the reasons why I was placed next to her. And because your sister doesn't have supernatural powers and I have already shown that I do, you're thinking that I unconsciously made those predators go somewhere else? I didn't see anything strange at the club, who are these predators you are talking about?"

Since Thomas was either joining the supernatural community or getting his mind wiped, Abe was open with him.  "Vampires, or people who are semi-supernatural and work for vampires... with an interest in having you or Jayne added to those that they use for sustenance.  But you made them turn away before I could."

"Vampire food," Thomas said. "Yeah, I definitely wouldn't have wanted to become vampire food. But the thing is, I didn't do anything. So what is it about who or what I am that vampires, or these semi-supernatural people who work for them, don't like?"

Abe shrugged.  "My genius ideas were asking Sparrow and asking you.  Sparrow's pitched true faith as an idea, but I don't know that that would explain the mostly-humans being redirected.  She also pitched Ta'veren if you've read Wheel of Time.  Barring any new thoughts, that seems most likely to me, even if we've got no actual basis in reality for knowing anything about them as far  as I know."

"I'm not familiar with Wheel of Time," Thomas said. "But I am familiar with the concept of true faith. In the stories, they had to exert that faith. It didn't just happen. But the easiest way to find out would be to test it. And two of your friends are vampires. One of them might be willing to test your theory."

Abe nodded.  He texted Jack and asked him to come up to Sparrows, if she didn't mind.

While they waited on Jack, he explained, "In the books, Ta'veren was a condition certain people had that caused chance and fate to warp around them.  It gave them metaphysical weight, and caused them to shift the lives of those around them.  Sometimes for better, sometimes for worse, almost always to bring the Ta'veren closer to his destiny."

"Okay. So they're some kind of supernatural black hole that catches people in their gravitational field. And instead of people moving in a straight line the way they had intended, the Ta'veren curves them through space and onto a different trajectory."

Abe texted Jack.

[OOC It's still daylight, so it will be hours before any vampire will be able to come to your aid.]
This message was last edited by the GM at 04:03, Sat 07 Mar 2020.

"If I were clever, I'd have met you in the evening.  We've got a few hours to kill before we can meet with my noctournal friends."  Abe said to Thomas.

He asked Sparrow, "So, for developing new magics, do we run the risk of things going horribly wrong a-la-Micky Mouse Fantasia or a-la-overchanneling burnout like in Randland?  Or is it just that the spell doesn't work until we get it right?"

"No worries," Thomas said.

"I've always wanted to see Fantasia, but I've never gotten around to it," Sparrow said. "And I'm not familiar with Randland. But yes, things can go horribly wrong, death is possible. As Fae are inherently magical, losing magic isn't possible."