Chapter Six: Confessions
October 18th, 2006- evening
I took a cab home instead. It was easier to deal with one pair of rude eyes than the many that would have been on the bus. Rather than going for my punching bag, I instead chose a good bottle of wine from my fridge and drew a hot bath. I even indulged and used the really expensive perfume in the water.
Pouring glass of the 2002 Pinot Noir for myself I stripped and slipped into the scented water.
So.
That was that.
By the next publishing date, the university paper would carry the interview. Everyone will know I'm Immortal. I wondered how much Dart would make up, or if he would try to find me again to fill out the article - I hadn't told him very much.
And there was another Immie on campus - Adam Pierson. Maybe Dart would go to him instead.
I sank lower in the water, closing my eyes and mentally reviewing what I could remember of the man. I didn't want to have to challenge him, but if it came down to it, it would be better to be prepared than sorry.
He was lithe, ambidextrous, and fought with an Ivanhoe sword (so he probably preferred mediaeval-style hacking and slashing fighting. Did he get that from his teacher?). He had originally been opposed to the VWL, looked like he was in his early thirties, but had to be at least roughly thirty-seven years older than that. He was Welsh according to the accent, spoke Latin and Greek, and if the media had been correct, had masqueraded as a Watcher in the late nineties.
I frowned.
Watchers.
Buncha peeping Tom sickos with too much time on their hands if you asked me.
That line of thought brought me around to Garret. I clenched my fist around the wine glass in my hand, and heard the glass groaning in protest. What the hell was I going to do about Garret? Three years he'd been my best friend. Three years we had gone almost everywhere together. Done our homework together. Gone to McDonald's and the movies together. Three years I'd told him everything about my current life, the woes of a fictional twenty-one year old girl. Three years.
Three years he'd been writing down everything I'd said and did and ate. Three years he'd probably making copies of all our phonographs and sending them off to some secret organization full of people who dissected my life. For all I knew, these whacks could be jacking off to my pictures.
And, oh god, those times Garret and I had gone to bars together and I'd left with some random one-night stand... did Garret photograph that too? Had he followed me even then?
That thought made me furious. He had no right! NO one had any right to know about my private life! I'd been upset about the idea of Watchers before, but now that I knew I actually HAD one, and one that I thought was a person I could TRUST...
Still dripping, I stormed out of the bathroom clad only in a towel and stomped into the kitchen. I was going to call that goddamned Watcher's Hotline they'd set up so the mortals could report Quickenings and scream at anyone and everyone until I got the head fucking honcho himself. Then I'd find out where the sicko lived and take HIS damn head.
My hand was on the phone's ear piece when my doorbell rang.
I briefly considered not answering it, considering my state of sopping undress, but curiosity got the better of me. "I'll be right there!" I called out, then raced back into the bathroom to pull on my bathrobe. Tying the sash as I hurried to the door, I forced myself to pause and look through the peep hole.
I was glad I did.
There, in the hallway outside of my apartment, scuffing his sneakers against the cheap green carpet, stood the very Watcher I didn't want to see.
"Fuck off, Garret." I turned away from the door.
"Abby, please!" I heard him call out as I pressed my back to the door. "Abby, come on!"
"No! Go spy on someone else you sick peeping Tom!"
"Abby, c'mon it's not like that!"
"GO AWAY."
"NO!" Garret's voice was more determined than I'd ever heard before, and I was unable to suppress the urge to look at him through the peep hole again. His hands were balled into fists at his sides and he was glaring back at me. "Abigail Deirdre, you let me into this apartment or so help me God I will scream so loud that this entire building will know exactly what you did in Milan in October of 1856."
I wrenched the door open, water flying everywhere as I shook with rage. "You wouldn't DARE!"
He opened his mouth and took a deep breath. I shot out a hand and dragged him inside my front hallway and let the door slam behind us. He let out an "eep" and I tossed him, none too gently, at the couch in my living room.
"Sit!" I snarled. "And don't TOUCH."
I left him, wide-eyed and bewildered, in the living room and stomped into my bedroom, which was just off it. Furiously I towled dry, tried to sop as much water from my hair as possible, and threw on a pair of comfortable lounging pajamas. Taking a deep breath I forced myself to look in the mirror. A pair of glittering blue eyes stared back from under a muddle of damp, dark curled hair. My cheeks were flushed, but I couldn't tell if it was from the heat of the bathwater or my anger.
I closed my eyes and forced myself a few more deep, calming breaths.
Yes, I was angry. Yes, I hated the Watchers and I was pissed at Garret for being a Watcher. But it would do no good for me to get so worked up that I chopped off his head. I would get arrested, it what I would get. I let a smile surface for a brief second. I'd also get satisfaction. But I would definitely get 25 years, too.
When I came back into the living room, Garret was sitting in the middle of my sofa, his hands folded on his lap and his eyes on my sword, where I had left it on the coffee table.
"Abby, I'm sorry--" he began, but I held up a hand and he trailed off.
"I'm mad at you," I said pointedly, towering over him. "You knew all this time what I was, and you didn't tell me. I understand that Watchers are supposed to be secret, but the world has known about them... I'VE known about them for almost two years. And you didn't TELL me. I thought we were friends, Garret."
"A friend would have told me about being Immortal," he snapped back, his green eyes glittering with the same rage as I'd seen in my own.
"I didn't need to! You knew!"
"But you didn't know that I knew," he protested.
"What I am is supposed to be a secret!"
"Me too!"
We glared at each other for a short while, breathing heavily and pissed. Neither of us were going to give an inch. I knew that from experience. Heaving a sigh, I plopped down onto the sofa beside him. There was a moment of awkward silence and I could feel Garret's eyes on me. Pah. Let him look - It'd be something for his damned report. He was probably memorizing the exact shade of my pjs.
"This is stupid," Garret finally whispered, breaking the silence. "We're both mad at each other for keeping secrets that we're supposed to keep."
I shifted and crossed my arms over my chest. "I consider your crime worse. Immortals are just trying to live normal lives. Watchers are sick little spies."
He made a sort of choking sound in the back of his throat. "We are not!"
"Oh! Then tell me you don't tell them what I wear and where I eat, and who I fuck?"
"Abby!" I finally looked at him, and was slightly startled by the hurt in his eyes. "Abby, you don't really think that's why we do it, do you?"
"I don't KNOW why you sickos follow us around. The press releases never SAID."
Garret sighed and slumped. "I don't tell the council anything about your ..." his nose wrinkled briefly, "preferences. I don't tell them what you eat and when. You're not an... an experiment, Abs. We... the Watchers follow people to ... to ensure that ... that when the time of the Gathering comes, and the Game ends, the winner is... Is worthy."
I eyed him for a moment. His own gaze was on the cushions between us where he was picking at a ball of fuzz. "What do you mean?"
"The Watchers Council was created thousands of years ago to follow Immortals - if the Prize is really dominion over the World, as many people think, then the Watchers are there to make sure that the Winner is worthy. We don't want so psycho with all that power."
"And how will you make sure of that?"
Garret shrugged. "If there were some scary Immortals, we sometimes leave clues for decent ones to find that will lead them together. Then we hope that the decent one wins. If one's really bad, we sometimes take matters into our own hands. And if the One who wins the Prize is crazy, then we... well, we have contingency plans, and a Watcher for almost every Immortal... the best we can hope is that we get his, or her, head before something really bad happens."
I repressed a shudder and closed my eyes.
"So you're judging us."
"No.... yes, a little."
"... and do I pass?"
I heard his little gasp. "Abs?"
"I asked, 'do I pass', Garret!" I uncrossed my arms and sat up and grabbed his wrist. I turned his arm forcefully until the tattoo that marked us as opposites was visible. "Or are you an your little cronies going to chop off my head if I get too powerful?!"
"Abby, ouch!" he yelped and I let him shove my hand away. I suppose I was stronger than him - I had two hundred something years of sword skills to strengthen my grip. He rubbed his wrist briefly, then raised his gaze to meet mine. "My official statement said that I thought you perfectly capable of winning the Prize if you grew powerful enough, and practised hard enough, and should that be the case, that you would be worthy."
I 'humped' and leaned back. "You really think I'm worthy?"
"I think you're compassionate and intelligent, and despite your mischievous nature you know what you have to do and do it."
I laughed softly, startled by the burning in my throat and eyes. I swallowed hard, trying to force away the tears that were threatening. "Well, I think you're a nosey-know it all and a bit of a prat sometimes... but you're a true gentleman and you're always very nice."
He laughed outright. "I never included in my report what a sarcastic bint you are, but maybe I should!"
"Oh, fan-bloody-tastic," I said, but I was smiling. A few tears did escape, and I wiped at them with the back of my hand. "They'll take my head because I'm too much of a mouth."
"I won't let anyone take your head," he said softly, and I was startled to hear the... the warmth?... in his voice. I turned my head and parted my lips to ask him what he thought he was going to do about it when he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
Time stopped.
And then it sped up, pulsing in time with my heartbeat and Garret's fervent kisses, and the motions of his tongue against mine.
For a second, for the briefest of seconds, I was happy. I was tempted. I wanted to reach out and wrap myself around him and just tell the rest of the world to fuck off for a few days. But that second passed and I instead pushed him away gently.
"Abs...?" he said softly, his eyes flicking over my face and his lips slightly swollen from the kisses.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm kissing you," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and leaned back in to prove his point. I put a hand against his chest and held him off. "Abs?"
"Garret... why?"
"I've wanted to kiss you since the second I met you, but I couldn't. Watchers can't get involved. But you know now, so it's okay. Abs, I love you. I've known you for three years and I love you."
"I'm an Immortal," I said, confused.
"I don't care. So I'll die before you do. I don't care."
"Or maybe I'll have my head taken tomorrow," I added and he frowned.
"I won't let anyone hurt you."
"You can't get involved."
"I don't care!"
I shoved Garret off me and stood. I rubbed my arms, willing my short hairs to lay back down, and stared at him. "You can't protect me Garret. And I... I don't know if I feel the same way about you. I thought you were... you're just my friend."
"But, Abs!" He stood and tried to grab my hands, but I tucked them into my pockets. "Abs, please... couldn't you tell? I'm in love with you. And now I don't have to hide the truth from you."
I pondered for all of five seconds. Garret was a good kisser. And I had always wondered why he'd never had a girlfriend in the three years I'd known him. But it wouldn't work. I still hated Watchers.
"Get out," I said softly. Perhaps too softly, because I couldn't be sure if Garret had heard me. I didn't want to repeat myself. "Please, Garret. Leave."
"But Abs!"
"I'll see you at school tomorrow. Please leave."
I turned away from him and walked into my bedroom and shut the door. "Abs!" I heard him call out again, then silence. After a few minutes I heard his defeated, "Right... at school," then the click of my front door opening and closing.
I peeked out of my bedroom cautiously, to make sure he had indeed left. My apartment was empty. With a heavy sigh I stripped as I walked towards toe bathroom, leaving my pajamas on the floor, and sank back into my tub of now room-temperature water. Pulling the plug to allow some of the cool water to escape, I took a long pull straight from my wine bottle, then plugged the tub, and ran some more hot water into it.
When it was sufficiently hot enough and I was sweating, I set aside the practically empty bottle and drowned myself.
I wasn't suicidal. It's just that death by asphyxiation always made the muscles in my back relax.
When I awoke a few minutes later, hacking up bubbles and perfumed water, but strangely refreshed, I drained off the rest of the bottle and started to scrub my hair.
~~~
Author's notes:
0_0;; She DROWNED herself? Geeze, even I didn't see that one coming.
Responses:
Jentri: Thank you very much. I've been swamped under final exams, but hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently now.
Starcat1: Please feel free to go ahead with the writing challenge. That goes for everyone! The challenge is "Write a story with this story's first chapter as your first chapter".
Lilaeth: I'm trying to make her very "normal" - it's sort of the point of the story. In the TV show we see all these fantastic thief and boyscout and psycho characters but we never get to see "normal" Immortals.
Daughter1: You're telling me!
Ann: Oh, trust me, "Adam"s not going anywhere!
Kate: Thanks. I'm actually an avid studier of the Mary Sue techniques - I find the Mary Sue phenomenon fascinating. I'm also on the MakeMineMarySue mailing list in Yahoo!Groups.
Amy: Thank you! I really hope the future chapters live up to your praise.
RaMeryt: Interesting name. Sorry I didn't update sooner. Yes, I can seed Adam as a very confident fellow when he's in a situation he knows he can control - his is kinda arrogant. And yes it's optimistic, but I wanted to try something different besides the "Humans Kill All Immortals" AU that most people write. I mean, does no one have faith in the Human Race? We're scared of what's different, true, but in this day and age a lot more has become acceptable to society than ever before (it's legal for gays to marry in my province, YAY!). Don't you believe that Immortals could be accepted as well?
October 18th, 2006- evening
I took a cab home instead. It was easier to deal with one pair of rude eyes than the many that would have been on the bus. Rather than going for my punching bag, I instead chose a good bottle of wine from my fridge and drew a hot bath. I even indulged and used the really expensive perfume in the water.
Pouring glass of the 2002 Pinot Noir for myself I stripped and slipped into the scented water.
So.
That was that.
By the next publishing date, the university paper would carry the interview. Everyone will know I'm Immortal. I wondered how much Dart would make up, or if he would try to find me again to fill out the article - I hadn't told him very much.
And there was another Immie on campus - Adam Pierson. Maybe Dart would go to him instead.
I sank lower in the water, closing my eyes and mentally reviewing what I could remember of the man. I didn't want to have to challenge him, but if it came down to it, it would be better to be prepared than sorry.
He was lithe, ambidextrous, and fought with an Ivanhoe sword (so he probably preferred mediaeval-style hacking and slashing fighting. Did he get that from his teacher?). He had originally been opposed to the VWL, looked like he was in his early thirties, but had to be at least roughly thirty-seven years older than that. He was Welsh according to the accent, spoke Latin and Greek, and if the media had been correct, had masqueraded as a Watcher in the late nineties.
I frowned.
Watchers.
Buncha peeping Tom sickos with too much time on their hands if you asked me.
That line of thought brought me around to Garret. I clenched my fist around the wine glass in my hand, and heard the glass groaning in protest. What the hell was I going to do about Garret? Three years he'd been my best friend. Three years we had gone almost everywhere together. Done our homework together. Gone to McDonald's and the movies together. Three years I'd told him everything about my current life, the woes of a fictional twenty-one year old girl. Three years.
Three years he'd been writing down everything I'd said and did and ate. Three years he'd probably making copies of all our phonographs and sending them off to some secret organization full of people who dissected my life. For all I knew, these whacks could be jacking off to my pictures.
And, oh god, those times Garret and I had gone to bars together and I'd left with some random one-night stand... did Garret photograph that too? Had he followed me even then?
That thought made me furious. He had no right! NO one had any right to know about my private life! I'd been upset about the idea of Watchers before, but now that I knew I actually HAD one, and one that I thought was a person I could TRUST...
Still dripping, I stormed out of the bathroom clad only in a towel and stomped into the kitchen. I was going to call that goddamned Watcher's Hotline they'd set up so the mortals could report Quickenings and scream at anyone and everyone until I got the head fucking honcho himself. Then I'd find out where the sicko lived and take HIS damn head.
My hand was on the phone's ear piece when my doorbell rang.
I briefly considered not answering it, considering my state of sopping undress, but curiosity got the better of me. "I'll be right there!" I called out, then raced back into the bathroom to pull on my bathrobe. Tying the sash as I hurried to the door, I forced myself to pause and look through the peep hole.
I was glad I did.
There, in the hallway outside of my apartment, scuffing his sneakers against the cheap green carpet, stood the very Watcher I didn't want to see.
"Fuck off, Garret." I turned away from the door.
"Abby, please!" I heard him call out as I pressed my back to the door. "Abby, come on!"
"No! Go spy on someone else you sick peeping Tom!"
"Abby, c'mon it's not like that!"
"GO AWAY."
"NO!" Garret's voice was more determined than I'd ever heard before, and I was unable to suppress the urge to look at him through the peep hole again. His hands were balled into fists at his sides and he was glaring back at me. "Abigail Deirdre, you let me into this apartment or so help me God I will scream so loud that this entire building will know exactly what you did in Milan in October of 1856."
I wrenched the door open, water flying everywhere as I shook with rage. "You wouldn't DARE!"
He opened his mouth and took a deep breath. I shot out a hand and dragged him inside my front hallway and let the door slam behind us. He let out an "eep" and I tossed him, none too gently, at the couch in my living room.
"Sit!" I snarled. "And don't TOUCH."
I left him, wide-eyed and bewildered, in the living room and stomped into my bedroom, which was just off it. Furiously I towled dry, tried to sop as much water from my hair as possible, and threw on a pair of comfortable lounging pajamas. Taking a deep breath I forced myself to look in the mirror. A pair of glittering blue eyes stared back from under a muddle of damp, dark curled hair. My cheeks were flushed, but I couldn't tell if it was from the heat of the bathwater or my anger.
I closed my eyes and forced myself a few more deep, calming breaths.
Yes, I was angry. Yes, I hated the Watchers and I was pissed at Garret for being a Watcher. But it would do no good for me to get so worked up that I chopped off his head. I would get arrested, it what I would get. I let a smile surface for a brief second. I'd also get satisfaction. But I would definitely get 25 years, too.
When I came back into the living room, Garret was sitting in the middle of my sofa, his hands folded on his lap and his eyes on my sword, where I had left it on the coffee table.
"Abby, I'm sorry--" he began, but I held up a hand and he trailed off.
"I'm mad at you," I said pointedly, towering over him. "You knew all this time what I was, and you didn't tell me. I understand that Watchers are supposed to be secret, but the world has known about them... I'VE known about them for almost two years. And you didn't TELL me. I thought we were friends, Garret."
"A friend would have told me about being Immortal," he snapped back, his green eyes glittering with the same rage as I'd seen in my own.
"I didn't need to! You knew!"
"But you didn't know that I knew," he protested.
"What I am is supposed to be a secret!"
"Me too!"
We glared at each other for a short while, breathing heavily and pissed. Neither of us were going to give an inch. I knew that from experience. Heaving a sigh, I plopped down onto the sofa beside him. There was a moment of awkward silence and I could feel Garret's eyes on me. Pah. Let him look - It'd be something for his damned report. He was probably memorizing the exact shade of my pjs.
"This is stupid," Garret finally whispered, breaking the silence. "We're both mad at each other for keeping secrets that we're supposed to keep."
I shifted and crossed my arms over my chest. "I consider your crime worse. Immortals are just trying to live normal lives. Watchers are sick little spies."
He made a sort of choking sound in the back of his throat. "We are not!"
"Oh! Then tell me you don't tell them what I wear and where I eat, and who I fuck?"
"Abby!" I finally looked at him, and was slightly startled by the hurt in his eyes. "Abby, you don't really think that's why we do it, do you?"
"I don't KNOW why you sickos follow us around. The press releases never SAID."
Garret sighed and slumped. "I don't tell the council anything about your ..." his nose wrinkled briefly, "preferences. I don't tell them what you eat and when. You're not an... an experiment, Abs. We... the Watchers follow people to ... to ensure that ... that when the time of the Gathering comes, and the Game ends, the winner is... Is worthy."
I eyed him for a moment. His own gaze was on the cushions between us where he was picking at a ball of fuzz. "What do you mean?"
"The Watchers Council was created thousands of years ago to follow Immortals - if the Prize is really dominion over the World, as many people think, then the Watchers are there to make sure that the Winner is worthy. We don't want so psycho with all that power."
"And how will you make sure of that?"
Garret shrugged. "If there were some scary Immortals, we sometimes leave clues for decent ones to find that will lead them together. Then we hope that the decent one wins. If one's really bad, we sometimes take matters into our own hands. And if the One who wins the Prize is crazy, then we... well, we have contingency plans, and a Watcher for almost every Immortal... the best we can hope is that we get his, or her, head before something really bad happens."
I repressed a shudder and closed my eyes.
"So you're judging us."
"No.... yes, a little."
"... and do I pass?"
I heard his little gasp. "Abs?"
"I asked, 'do I pass', Garret!" I uncrossed my arms and sat up and grabbed his wrist. I turned his arm forcefully until the tattoo that marked us as opposites was visible. "Or are you an your little cronies going to chop off my head if I get too powerful?!"
"Abby, ouch!" he yelped and I let him shove my hand away. I suppose I was stronger than him - I had two hundred something years of sword skills to strengthen my grip. He rubbed his wrist briefly, then raised his gaze to meet mine. "My official statement said that I thought you perfectly capable of winning the Prize if you grew powerful enough, and practised hard enough, and should that be the case, that you would be worthy."
I 'humped' and leaned back. "You really think I'm worthy?"
"I think you're compassionate and intelligent, and despite your mischievous nature you know what you have to do and do it."
I laughed softly, startled by the burning in my throat and eyes. I swallowed hard, trying to force away the tears that were threatening. "Well, I think you're a nosey-know it all and a bit of a prat sometimes... but you're a true gentleman and you're always very nice."
He laughed outright. "I never included in my report what a sarcastic bint you are, but maybe I should!"
"Oh, fan-bloody-tastic," I said, but I was smiling. A few tears did escape, and I wiped at them with the back of my hand. "They'll take my head because I'm too much of a mouth."
"I won't let anyone take your head," he said softly, and I was startled to hear the... the warmth?... in his voice. I turned my head and parted my lips to ask him what he thought he was going to do about it when he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
Time stopped.
And then it sped up, pulsing in time with my heartbeat and Garret's fervent kisses, and the motions of his tongue against mine.
For a second, for the briefest of seconds, I was happy. I was tempted. I wanted to reach out and wrap myself around him and just tell the rest of the world to fuck off for a few days. But that second passed and I instead pushed him away gently.
"Abs...?" he said softly, his eyes flicking over my face and his lips slightly swollen from the kisses.
"What are you doing?"
"I'm kissing you," he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, and leaned back in to prove his point. I put a hand against his chest and held him off. "Abs?"
"Garret... why?"
"I've wanted to kiss you since the second I met you, but I couldn't. Watchers can't get involved. But you know now, so it's okay. Abs, I love you. I've known you for three years and I love you."
"I'm an Immortal," I said, confused.
"I don't care. So I'll die before you do. I don't care."
"Or maybe I'll have my head taken tomorrow," I added and he frowned.
"I won't let anyone hurt you."
"You can't get involved."
"I don't care!"
I shoved Garret off me and stood. I rubbed my arms, willing my short hairs to lay back down, and stared at him. "You can't protect me Garret. And I... I don't know if I feel the same way about you. I thought you were... you're just my friend."
"But, Abs!" He stood and tried to grab my hands, but I tucked them into my pockets. "Abs, please... couldn't you tell? I'm in love with you. And now I don't have to hide the truth from you."
I pondered for all of five seconds. Garret was a good kisser. And I had always wondered why he'd never had a girlfriend in the three years I'd known him. But it wouldn't work. I still hated Watchers.
"Get out," I said softly. Perhaps too softly, because I couldn't be sure if Garret had heard me. I didn't want to repeat myself. "Please, Garret. Leave."
"But Abs!"
"I'll see you at school tomorrow. Please leave."
I turned away from him and walked into my bedroom and shut the door. "Abs!" I heard him call out again, then silence. After a few minutes I heard his defeated, "Right... at school," then the click of my front door opening and closing.
I peeked out of my bedroom cautiously, to make sure he had indeed left. My apartment was empty. With a heavy sigh I stripped as I walked towards toe bathroom, leaving my pajamas on the floor, and sank back into my tub of now room-temperature water. Pulling the plug to allow some of the cool water to escape, I took a long pull straight from my wine bottle, then plugged the tub, and ran some more hot water into it.
When it was sufficiently hot enough and I was sweating, I set aside the practically empty bottle and drowned myself.
I wasn't suicidal. It's just that death by asphyxiation always made the muscles in my back relax.
When I awoke a few minutes later, hacking up bubbles and perfumed water, but strangely refreshed, I drained off the rest of the bottle and started to scrub my hair.
~~~
Author's notes:
0_0;; She DROWNED herself? Geeze, even I didn't see that one coming.
Responses:
Jentri: Thank you very much. I've been swamped under final exams, but hopefully I'll be able to update more frequently now.
Starcat1: Please feel free to go ahead with the writing challenge. That goes for everyone! The challenge is "Write a story with this story's first chapter as your first chapter".
Lilaeth: I'm trying to make her very "normal" - it's sort of the point of the story. In the TV show we see all these fantastic thief and boyscout and psycho characters but we never get to see "normal" Immortals.
Daughter1: You're telling me!
Ann: Oh, trust me, "Adam"s not going anywhere!
Kate: Thanks. I'm actually an avid studier of the Mary Sue techniques - I find the Mary Sue phenomenon fascinating. I'm also on the MakeMineMarySue mailing list in Yahoo!Groups.
Amy: Thank you! I really hope the future chapters live up to your praise.
RaMeryt: Interesting name. Sorry I didn't update sooner. Yes, I can seed Adam as a very confident fellow when he's in a situation he knows he can control - his is kinda arrogant. And yes it's optimistic, but I wanted to try something different besides the "Humans Kill All Immortals" AU that most people write. I mean, does no one have faith in the Human Race? We're scared of what's different, true, but in this day and age a lot more has become acceptable to society than ever before (it's legal for gays to marry in my province, YAY!). Don't you believe that Immortals could be accepted as well?