Lists Are Good

Who: Herbert and Sammy
Where: Riding home from school
When: After school

Because he knew he'd forget if he didn't, Herbert had made a list of things he wanted to talk to Sammy about. It had wound up being a rather longer list than he'd expected, and as he came down the front steps after school, eyes, ears, and nose already questing for some sign of Sammy, he had it folded neatly in his pocket.

Geo.
Vampires.
Sign language.
Lunch meeting thing.
Ducklings.
Texting.
Spending the night.

Sammy was sitting on the wall again - or on the pillar-y type thing at the end of the wall, anyhow. He had a wonderful view of everyone walking into and out of the school, and so when Herbert walked out of the school and down the steps he was able to spot him easy. The cement of the pillar scraped against the back of Sammy's shirt as he slid off it, then turned around to grab his bag before turning again to wave hello to Herbert.

Brightening a bit at the sight of his friend, Herbert waved back, to prove he saw him, then angled that-a-way through the crowd. "Hallo!" he said when he was close enough that he didn't have to bellow over the sound of the other students leaving. "S'good to see you." Felt like he hadn't seen a lot of his friends in too long, Sammy included. "How are you?"

"A'ight." Since he'd known he'd be seeing Herbert after school, he'd left a notebook and pen out of his bag when he'd left school. Much better than having to dig around for it, definitely. "Not so great, but alright." Luckily the not-so-good could be written off as worrying about Geo and Herbert and their vampire run-ins, and - yeah, ew - Helen being in Marquette. He didn't have to go into the fact that his bad dreams factored in. "Liking how quiet the town was last night. How are you?"

"Kind of a lot like you," Herbert admitted with a little grin. He led the way the short distance to his bicycle. "Could be better, but could be a lot worse, too.... Do you think they're really gone?" The news had said so, the past two days, but it didn't quite seem real. Even though he was very happily picking up his routine again so he could just forget about it. It was two drastically different mindsets, existing in the same space at the same time, which was really pretty uncomfortable, actually.

"If they weren't really gone, I think the town would be a worse mess now. As it is, it isn't, so...yeah. I think they're gone." And oh, how he hoped his idea was right and the vampires were truly gone. It was really, really important for them to be gone and for the bad to have actually stopped. He really wanted that to be the case. "Which is, really, really really what we need right now. Yeah?"

"Really really," Herbert agreed fervently as he unlocked his bicycle. "I'm still being kind of careful about being out after dark, though, honestly... Just in case." No more biting. Or even opportunity for biting. Just... No. "You and Geo are, too, right?" he added, giving Sammy a stern glance. After all the trouble... Just no. No more.

"Of course." And this time it was the truth - neither of them had been outside at night since...yeah. Since the eye-gouging had taken place. Sammy set his notebook down and then held up both hands to show that none of his fingers were crossed over each other - he was telling the truth. They hadn't been outside. Not only hadn't they not wanted to be outside, but their parents had made sure they wouldn't go out as well.

"Good." Herbert slung his backpack ofer the handlebars then gave Sammy's shoulders a brief hug. Nothing more was allowed to happen to any of his friends. It just wasn't.

Sammy almost stiffened at the contact, but managed to stop himself and actually give Herbert a hug back before stepping away. "Was that a 'glad we're not all dead' hug?" He asked, once he'd picked his notebook and pen back up from where he had set them.

Herbert was okay with making it short, and all. He didn't want to make Sammy uncomfortable, he just wanted... well, he didn't know. Just to make sure Sammy knew he was glad he was okay. "Was mostly an 'I'm glad you're not dead' kind of hug, but there was a 'we're all' in there somewhere, too. I just like hugs." He offered a hand for Sammy's backpack to hang it on his handlebars, too, and grinned a bit. "Maybe it's just the bear in me."

"Yeah, when people say you give 'bear hugs' they can say it and be telling the honest truth!" Sammy had to laugh a little as he wrote that, letting Herbert take his backpack from him - a nice, new, fixed backpack that wasn't held together by safety pins. "Though they might not now how true what they're saying is, right?"

"Some of the people I've told about me were completely not surprised," Herbert admitted. "Well, once they got over the surprise surprise. I think Peyton even brought up the bear hugs thing." Backpacks both settled on the handlebars, and after a brief invitation a raven-boy seated on them as well, Herbert started off down the street in the direction of the Williams house. "How's Geo's eye doing?" he asked, with some concern. He remembered that was at the top of his list, asking about Geo.

"Aside from it...yeah, being gone?" Sammy looked up at the sky before shrugging and glancing back down at his notebook. "It's not too bad. It's doing what it should be the doctors said." His back shuddered as he shivered, tipping his head to the side. "I just want to scream at them sometimes, though, because no, it's not, it's gone, so it isn't doing what it should be doing." He looked over his shoulder at Herbert. "It should still be working. There. But it's...healing, they say."

"Is it really gone-gone?" Herbert asked unhappily. "I wasn't sure, and I didn't ask... I just saw all the bandages." The thought of losing an eye wasn't nearly as bad as, say, losing his nose, or even an ear, but it was still pretty bad. And it had to hurt like nothing else, he bet. "What happened, exactly?" he continued, a bit tentatively. "Geo was kind of fuzzy about it all." Which, given silver and eye and probably bleeding like crazy, he could understand.

Samy hurried to clarify, shaking his head so curls bounced against the back and sides of his neck and itched at his skin. "No, it's...there. But it's gone like it...doesn't work." He shifted uncomfortable on the handlebars of the bike, hooking his feet easier - yeah, this subject wasn't fun at all, but he couldn't imagine Geo saying much about it, so Herbert's curiosity definitely made sense. "The vampire had, like...some sort of metal things over his fingertips. They were pointed on the ends. He jammed one into Geo's eye."

That actually made Herbert wince, even though he knew it already. "And they don't know if it's going to get better enough to use again?" He really wanted to ask about the other vampire, but this was really rather more important, knowing about Geo and what the diagnosis was. Or prognosis. Or... okay, so Herbert wasn't so good with medical terms, really.

“It’s not going to get better. The vampire did too much damage to the eye, so…yeah.” The skin of Sammy’s throat pulled tight as he swallowed, wincing. “He won’t be seeing from that eye again.” And for the millionth time since Tuesday morning Sammy cursed his and Geo’s stupidity – why couldn’t they have just stayed inside where nothing was trying to suck their blood or maim them in some way?! Gods, they’d been stupid.

Herbert winced a little, too. Again. This was a very wince-worthy topic. "Aw, no... I'm sorry. Is he doing okay with it all? I mean... is it bothering him a lot?" Not in the "it hurts" way, but in the "I lost an eye" way, but Herbert really didn't know how to put that into words. "I don't know if it'd bother me losing an eye so much as, like, my nose, but still... it's got to be awful."

Sammy was 'quiet' for a few seconds before he began to write again, pen scritching over the paper. "He's kind of..." He paused, considering his brother for a second before raising his shoulders in a quick shrug. "Out of it. A bit. They still have him on pain medications and things like that, so...it's hard to tell."

Nodding a little, Herbert said, "Makes sense.... Hopefully he won't hafta be on the medicine long...." He looked at Sammy with a concerned sort of look. "He said another vampire saved you guys."

Sammy looked over his shoulder in time to see the look and nodded, grinning slightly. "Yeah. Vampire named Corwin. He's been helpful, too; gave me his email address and I've been asking him questions about, well, vampires. Like stuff books might not have?"

Herbert made a bit of a face. Same vampire, all right.... He guessed it wasn't so surprising, given the small town and all. How many tall vampires with rescuing habits could there be out here? "True stuff? I mean, if you could tell, and all. I doubt I'd be able to tell, I don't know anything about vampires, really, but...." Herbert didn't ramble much, so when he caught himself doing it, he shut up again, just adding, "My roommate knows him. I wasn't sure if he was... really trustworthy and all."

"Yeah, true stuff." At least Sammy thought it was true. Some of it wasn't so pleasant, and really? Who would lie and tell you stuff that put himself and others in a bad light? Most people lied and put themselves and others connected to them in a good light. Not a bad light. "I mean, I think it is. Apperently there are, like...a whole lot of different types of vampires. Which makes sense, 'cause he looks different than, say, the ones who were attacking and, like..." Was he supposed to keep Jericho silent? "...another one I met. Who was a Faryngel?"

Herbert wasn't sure what the types were, though yeah, it was pretty obvious there were different types. He shook his head slowly, frowning and rumbling a little with concern. "I don't know much of anything, I guess. Olivia's... friend, or whatever he is. Corwin. He definitely looks different, so I guess there'd have to be...." He gave Sammy a slightly mournful look. "It's hard trusting somebody who bites people and doesn't have a heartbeat, y'know?"

"And who smells like dirt," Sammy added. That was the one problem he had with them that didn't revolve around the drinking blood. Dirt was a bad smell - well, for a Raven!were anyhow. The sky was everything, so someone who smelled so much like earth to him...was a bit off. But only a bit. "But, really, they are kind of like weres. They can choose to be evil, or they can choose to be good; drink without permission, or be nice and drink from someone who's permission they have. We can't say they're all going to be nasty, right?"

Though he had to make a face at the idea of someone who'd give their permission to get bitten by a vampire, Herbert had to reluctantly nod. That was what Geo had said, to... About the werefolk being judged by the bitten werewolf standard. Maybe all vampires were judged by the group who had come to Marquette. Herbert still wasn't sure he liked Corwin, but apparently he'd saved three lives that he cared about, at least, so he'd at least have to put up with him. "Suppose you're right," he said, a bit reluctantly. "Can't go around hating all of them just because a few are rotten." He gave Sammy a smile, then tried to remember what else he'd needed to bring up. Blanking, unsurprisingly, he sat back on the bike seat and fished in his pocket for his list, pulling it out and unfolding it to check.

Sammy looked over his shoulder at the paper sound, blinking at Herbert for a minute before he laughed. "That? Is a really good idea." That was enough on the vampire subject in his opinion, so now he was going to be amused by the fact that Herbert wrote down what he wanted to talk to Sammy about. "Then you don't forget, like, important things you want to discuss, right?" It was a good idea, really. Especially since Sammy had a habit of forgetting things the longer he waited to discuss them. Didn't mean he was going to remember to do what Herbert had done, but it was still a very good idea.

"Exactly," Herbert said, looking up from the list with a grin. "I mean, there was kind of a lot, and some of it that I keep meaning to ask you about, and I didn't want to keep forgetting. So. List!" It seemed perfectly logical, to the werebear. "Like how I was supposed to ask you last week about this meeting thing we're having tomorrow, about supernatural stuff and what we know and what we can do next time and stuff. Do you want to come?"

It didn't take any thought, really. As soon as Sammy processed the question from Herbert he was nodding vigorously. Then, to further clarify, he clicked the pen tip out again and wrote his answer. "Yes! ...well, once I know when it is." Hopefully it wouldn't be when he had a class and other people had, like, a free period. That wouldn't work so well. "Is it during lunch?" It was a good time for it, he would think, and maybe it would be then. Since it would work for...whoever all was coming.

"Tomorrow at lunch, yep," Herbert agreed. "Out on the side of the building, on the grass. Hopefully it won't be raining, or anything." He felt better with Sammy wanting to go, really. The more people who were in on the info-network, the better, or so he figured. "Good, then. Now I just have to ask Stacey." Stupid statistics, making him late for English so he couldn't talk to her....

"Think she'll come, too?" Witches would be good to have around in Sammy's opinion. Well, the good witches, anyhow. The type that did protective wards and healing. He wasn't so sure if having voodoo type witches around was such a good idea - he could be wrong, sure, but he still wasn't so keen on the idea of those types. Same with black witches.

"I hope so. I figure, really, the more we all know the better off we all are, right?" And he wanted Stacey to be better off, too. "And it doesn't hurt just to go and find out what we're doing." Herbert didn't know anything about magic except how it smelled, and that Stacey could do it, so any kind of witch was fine by him, just then. "I'll have to call her when I get home...."

Sammy started to swing his legs, but remembered quickly that that probably wasn't the safest idea on a bike and stopped, settling for tapping his free, pen-holding hand on the handlebars. "Yeah. The more people informed, the better! Even if we don't, like, stick with the group or whatever."

"Oh, they're good people, I don't see why not to stick with them," Herbert said readily enough. "Or, everyone I know who's going, is. But if you don't like what we come up with, it's not like you have to do it." He just thought it would probably be a good idea. After all, he wasn't all that good at coming up with ideas, to begin with. He gave Sammy's shoulder a light little tap. "So when are you going to teach me sign language, so you don't have to keep that pen and paper out all the time?" That was another thing on his list, he remembered.

The pen was still for a moment then it was moving again, Sammy scratching out a response to Herbert’s question. “Whenever you want me to, really,” he replied with a grin, a little excited by the prospect. Not that he thought he was a fabulous teacher or something, but it was still going to be fun. And, yes, it would definitely be easier than having to write out all of his responses to the werebear. Not that writing was bad, really, but it was annoying, plus he had to be careful with his handwriting. “Just say the word, right?”

"Could start this weekend," Herbert suggested. "What with no school, and all." He did have a nice, fat pile of homework, to try and catch them up on all the school everyone had missed, so far, but that wouldn't take him all weekend. "I could bring Elda over, and the ducklings could play while we did."

“Just don’t call it a play-date and it could work,” Sammy agreed as they pulled up in front of the house. “That would be a little too weird. So, signing and ducklings sometime this weekend. Probably best if you come to my house, since mama is still all worried about things considering the past week, you know? Does that work for you?

"It does," Herbert said with a smile and stopped in front of the driveway, holding the bicycle steady so Sammy could hop off. "There was something else, too.... Something to do with the weekend." He went to pull the list out again. Geo and vampires, check. Ducklings and sign language, check. Lunch meeting, check. "Oh! Um, if your ma's not so happy about you going places during the day, too, I guess that means you and Geo're not gonna be able to stay at my place, tonight or tomorrow night, are you?" That was kind of sad... he'd been hoping to be able to invite someone over to fill the emptiness.

Sammy made a face at that as he was forced to nod his head, curls bouncing against his shoulders. “Right in one.” He said, before sliding off of the handlebars and retrieving his bag from where Herbert had hung it before they had taken off from the school bike rack. “She wants us to sleep where she can check on us because of, well…” His frown grew as he shrugged, face just a little miserable though it passed quickly. “Everything that happened, you know?” He figured Herbert – even if he was disappointed – would get that. Herbert was definitely understanding; loyal. Which reminded Sammy of something he had to tell Herbert.

Sighing, Herbert nodded. "Figures... Olivia's just out of town, and the apartment feels kind of empty. But that's fine. I'll maybe rent some movies, or something." Even though his parents had never been particularly protective like that, he could certainly see how the Williams' parents could be, especially given everything that'd happened, as Sammy said.

“Wish I could come and stay the night.” It would be fun – he hadn’t gotten to do something like that, in, well, months. Since he left Skokie. It really needed to be remedied. “Maybe once this all blows over and fades we can spend the night? It’s better than never spending the night, right?” He shifted, looking up at the sky briefly before looking back at Herbert. “So, I like to figure out what I think people’s totems are, right?” it was a rapid change of subject, but he had to mention it before he forgot.

Herbert was about to nod, smile, and agree that later was better than never, but the subject change made him blink. He knew about totems, of course; his tribe had them, though not in the typical "totem pole" sense from the western coast. Different clans had different totem animals, different individuals had personal totem animals... he guessed this was something similar. He'd never actually figured any for his own, though. "Yeah?" he said, inviting more information.

“Well, not all people, but, like, friends anyhow…” Sammy didn’t try and figure out what celebrities were, or people who he wasn’t likely to meet ever again, but people he planned on meeting he would. It sort of helped him feel like he knew them better – plus he could leave anonymous-ish notes for them using a little drawing of the animal he associated with them as their totem. “Like you. I figured yours out this past week.” He scratched absently at his neck for a second then stopped when his fingers hit scabs. “You’re a dog.” …and didn’t that sound wrong, even though the dog was a good totem?

One of the reasons Herbert never found any personal totems was, really, because he wasn't sure what they all meant to his people. Or to any people's. "A dog, eh?" He offered a grin. "What's that mean? Aside from, say, Man's Best Friend and all that." He wondered idly if that had anything to do with anything totemic, or if it was just a saying that had come over from Europe.

Sammy chewed on the end of his pen for a couple of minutes then grinned. “Some of their attributes are loyalty, protection and ability to smell trouble from a distance.” He shifted again, driving his heel into the ground next to the sidewalk. “They’re all about companionship, which ties in with…the apartment-empty bein’-lonely thing. Being alone wouldn’t be so nice.”

"Smelling trouble," Herbert laughed. "I like that one. And you're right, I'm not good with being alone all the time." Even if it was weird for bears, in general. Maybe he was just a social bear. "I think it fits just fine. What's yours?" Because surely Sammy had one for himself, and now he was curious. Spirits bless, he'd love to know what totems Sammy had for anyone, but he really didn't think now was the time to quiz him about every mutual friend. Maybe they could do that tomorrow, during the sign language thing.

“M’ a Lynx.” Sammy shoulders moved slightly with his laughter. “I don’t like smaller cats, but I have a huge one as a totem. Makes no sense, really.” He worked his totem off of the chain it hung on with his Nana’s and Geo’s, already planning on looking for one for Herbert, too, when he had the time to. He held it out towards his friend so he could look at it. “They’re keepers of secrets, listeners and guides.” There was more, but it was…sort of private, in his opinion. It was stuff he had to figure out.

Herbert accepted the little carving and inspected it with interest. The bird with a car for his totem-- and a bear with a dog. How random, but oddly fitting, that was! "I don't know, it makes sense enough to me. You're facing something that you don't like and turning it into something good for you, eh?" He held the totem back to Sammy with a smile. "And you see yourself as a guide?" That was definitely interesting.

Sammy returned the totem to the chain he hung it on before answering Herbert's question. He felt like chewing on the end of his pen, but this time he forced himself not to - if he was chewing on it, he couldn't write, could he? No. "Of a sort." He nodded, tapping the end of the pen against his notepad. "It's one of the things I still need to figure out more, you know?" finally he looked back up from his notebook to Herbert, grinning. "But the whole reason I'm telling you this - besides thinking you should know what totem I consider yours - is because sometimes it works better to leave notes addressed and signed with totems rather than names, and I figured I couldn't leave you a note addressed to a dog without telling you why."

Herbert chuckled, delighted at the very idea. "Totem-nicknames," he said. "I like it. Like some kind of code." While the werebear wasn't so keen on keeping secret from friends, silly sorts of secrets like this with friends were another matter entirely. "All right, then. Dog and lynx." He shook his head with a smile. Anyone who knew about them would laugh themselves silly-- a bear and a raven, as a dog and a cat.

"Exactly!" Sammy nodded eagerly, glad that his friend had grasped the idea. Not that he'd doubted that he would, but still. It was nice. "And if someone finds it and the note says something about weres or something supernaturaly like that?" He spread his hands briefly, shoulders rising in a quick shrug. "It doesn't matter. 'cause there are no names."

"Well, unless it's in one of our lockers," Herbert said with a grin. Though that'd require people actually poking around in their lockers, which really wasn't so likely a prospect unless they already had some kind of suspicion of strangeness. "But it's a good idea, I like it. I'm just going to be chuckling over the 'dog and lynx' part for a while, I think, that's all."

When he thought about it, it was funny. Raven and bear were both totem, but neither of them had wound up with their were-animal as there totem. Instead both had wound up with something completely different than what they were. Though maybe a dog could sometimes be mistaken as a small bear? There was no way a lynx could be mistaken as a raven, though. "It is funny, isn't it?" He looked over his shoulder at the house. "But anyways...what time is the meeting tomorrow, again?"

"Lunchtime," Herbert confirmed with a smile. "I'll meet you at your locker before, how's that?" Since he was the one Sammy knew best of the people going to be there, he thought, and well, he'd like going with someone to a group thing. Made him feel more as if he belonged there.

"Sounds good," Sammy agreed, his thoughts mirroring Herbert's pretty much - it was better to go with someone rather than have to show up by ones self. It helped to do away with some of the nervousness caused by meeting what was sure to be a bunch of new people that he really didn't know. And that was a plus. "That way I don't get lost or something trying to find the side lawn." Since that was always a possibility - he hadn't been there too much.

Herbert laughed lightly. "You're not going to get lost. But we'll go together, anyway. I'll see you tomorrow, then?" Seeing as Sammy probably wanted to get inside already, he had a duckling and a phone call and homework waiting for him, and he thought he was done with his list. Anything he forgot he could always ask later. It wasn't as if Sammy wouldn't be there.

Sammy thought for a minute trying to remember if he had anything further to say to Herbert, but finally decided he didn't, not that he could remember anyhow. If something came up he always had a phone (well, his mom's phone) that he could send text messages from. "I'll see you tomorrow, yup!" Unless a hole opened in the time-space continuum, and then he wouldn't. But that wasn't going to happen. "My locker, before lunch. Stay safe." With that taken care of Sammy turned and headed up the walk, pausing once to wave over his shoulder.

Waving back, Herbert swung his backpack back onto his back and himself back onto his bike. Time to get home and get to work. Unfortunately.