The ship that Jack had rather creatively named Black Bird for it was black and in the shape of a bird and was having a rather relaxing first flight. No space storms, giant squid, or weird space stuff happening far and wide which was certainly not the norm. However, the moment of peace allowed them to search and acquaint themselves with the ship and its equipment. The ship was made up of a kitchen area, five bedrooms and a common room, which seemed to be too much space inside too small a ship according to Jack, all Ted could say to that was not to think too much about it. Regardless of dimensional restrictions aboard bird-shaped ships, Jack and Lyra were sitting together in the common room on one of the two long black couches. Jack had gotten himself a cup of tea and Lyra was nibbling on a sandwich, ham and cheese to be precise.
“I’m thirsty, “ Lyra complained slouching down on the couch.
“Would you like me to get some tea or coffee? A soda?” Jack offered, slowly running out of drink options.
“Not really feeling soda at the moment,” Lyra said, looking at Jack with what could only be described as puppy dog eyes.
At this point, Jack remembered the whole vampire thing Ted kept on rambling on about, “I suppose you want something redder than a soda?”
“You could say that…”
“Alright, you can have a little if I get some of the sandwich,” In retrospect that seemed like a terrible deal but Jack wasn’t one to be impolite and deny somebody aboard his ship a drink.
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“Oh really, that's a deal!” Lyra beamed and started scrambling through her deep jacket pocket.
“I’d rather you not use a knife or something like that.”
“Nothing as crude as that,” Lyra smiled, revealing a long spiralling metal straw with what seemed like a small syringe tip at one end, “We have developed more civilised methods to do these things by now. Can I borrow your arm?” She reached across the table to his arm and moved it to her side and with surgical precision inserted the straw and took a sip, “mmh, very good smoothie, give it a solid four stars.”
“Thank you, I guess…” Jack said nearly to himself, “Never had somebody compliment the taste of my blood before. Also, did you just say smoothie?”
"Yeah, the straw has some sweeteners and stuff in it, blood gets bland sometimes, you know?”
Jack did not know.
Jack started eating what remained of the sandwich while Lyra drank her ‘smoothie’ from Jack’s arm. All was peaceful till the doors to the cockpit opened. Ted walked out wearing the pilot's uniform he got and somehow managed to attach leather parts to it. He looked at them for a second and immediately pulled out his gun. “Get away from him, you leech! I knew we shouldn’t trust you!”
“It’s okay I gave her permission,” Jack said speaking with a mouth full of ham and cheese.
“It’s okay I got permission,” Lyra said looking up.
“You are letting her drink your blood?” Ted asked incredulously.
“It’s not much different from donating blood, it’s really not that bad. Plus I got this sandwich!”
“Please, for the love of all that is holy, tell me you know that you can get sandwiches without having someone drink your blood.” Ted said his face buried in his hands, “The food creator is literally right there,” he pointed at a little machine about five meters from Jack’s position.
“But that’s so far!” Jack complained, “I just wanna sit here.”
Ted looked at Jack and then Lyra and back to his new leader, sighed and walked straight back into the cockpit. Jack could barely make out the scream at the other end, “I am surrounded by weirdos! I need something to drink!”