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The Only Rules That Matter: Bloodlines (Corsair&Madam Mim)

"Nam?" Jessie folded his arms across his chest and narrowed his eyes disapprovingly. "The hell you doing here then, boy?"

"So how'd you meet our little Mayflower?" Nate asked, sliding his hand up to her midriff and trying to keep the peace. "Wouldn't think a soldier'd be down for her scene."

"New roommate," May answered dreamily, still holding Jack's hand and swinging it back and forth lazily. The acid didn't hit immediately but the promise of the impending trip was relaxing after having spent a few weeks away from her friends, working doubles and triples to make ends meet while she searched for a new roommate. In her time away from the group she had been on edge, even when she smoked, and it was a relief to be with them again. Nate's fingertips played lightly over her midriff, making her skin tingle pleasantly and her nipples press against the fabric of her shirt. Nate was subtler than most other men, he knew the little things.

"That so?" Jessie asked, still clearly suspicious of Jack.

"Mm. Didn't know he was, y'know...one of them. But he's been pretty awesome so far. Met Mr. Franklin and everything when he came down yesterday once..." May paused and chewed her lip, tension creeping back into her shoulders. "Once my dad left." Both men's expressions darkened and Nate's hand paused in its light-touched meandering. "It was just yesterday and I didn't get a chance to use Jerry's phone. I'm gonna tell Max once he gets off the stage, I promise."

"Yeah coz you don't want us telling him." There was a vaguely threatening note in Jessie's tone, but May ignored it and instead squeezed Jack's hand and laid her head against Nate's chest.

"Anyway, Jack's a good roommate," May reiterated, trying to turn the topic once again. "Real groovy dude."

Over the next 45 minutes Nate made repeated efforts to draw Jessie into small talk with Jack, but Jessie remained suspicious of the outsider from the military. May occasionally put in, but after twenty minutes, when the acid hit, got distracted by the texture of Nate's shirt...then by the way her skin and Jack's contrasted and the difference in pigment between the palms of peoples' hands and the backs of them...then by the way the light caught Jessie's hair. She was very touchy, with the acid enhancing the way she felt texture and the feel of Nate's hands on her body, and it was very clear what would happen the moment they left the rally. Finally Max left the stage and joined them, followed by half a dozen hangers-on, several of them women and all of them white. There was much enthusiastic greeting on all sides and ownership of May went from a sort of group effort to solely Max's property.

"And who's this?" His smile was warm but his eyes were steely as he sized up Jack.

"May's new roommate," Jessie informed him as though it were an accusation.

"He's real groovy," May giggled, playing gently with Max's beard. "Got sent to Nam, wanted to come protest...got us kicked off the bus." She giggled again as her fingers wandered from his beard to his chest and played with his buttons.

"How high are you, Mayflower?" Max's tone was paternalistic in a way she usually wouldn't appreciate, but was too focused on the way the threads of fabric in his shirt were woven together.

"Pretty high...Been a while..."

"Yeah I know." There was a very subtle edge to his tone but he stroked her hair. "We'll talk about it when you're come down. You got plans, Jack? We're planning on going back to our place after the rally."
 
Jack chatted pleasantly with Nick, who seemed to have a stick far less up his ass than Jessie. Mostly, he answered questions about the war, and about being a soldier, and about why he was interested in the peace movement. Not too truthfully, though. Nobody really wanted to hear what the aftermath of a napalm strike looked like, or what it felt like to kill a man. And, he suspected, these two white boys really didn't want to hear that the biggest reason he was here was he was bored and the hot white girl he'd fucked last night had invited him. The same hot white chick that was putting on one hell of a show, now that she'd taken the acid - stroking Nate's hands, and pressing up against him, and all but damn near dry-humping him on the street.

The pang of jealousy he felt was unexpected. May wasn't his girl, really.

Finally, the oh-so-famous Max joined them, shaking hands and greeting people and groping May as she hung all over him. "And who's this?" the man asked, looking at him with eyes that weren't lit by his friendly-looking smile.

"May's new roommate," Jessie snarled.

"Jack," jack said, offering his hand. Max didn't take it.

"He's real groovy," May giggled, playing gently with Max's beard. "Got sent to Nam, wanted to come protest...got us kicked off the bus." She giggled again as her fingers wandered from his beard to his chest and played with his buttons.

"Really?" Max looked him over again. "What happened?"

Jack flashed him a grin. "Seems folk ain't heard we're equal now. Some people didn't like seeing a white lady sitting in the back of the bus with a bunch of niggers, and called the cops."

"And..?"

"And so I made a little scene, and May joined in, and then we cut and run while they were looking like damn fools." Jack laughed aloud, and Max cracked a little smile. "Shoulda seen them, man. Lead cop tripped over an accidental foot, and we were out the door." May giggled, sweet and high in more ways than one.

"How high are you, Mayflower?" Max's tone was paternalistic.

"Pretty high...Been a while..."

"Yeah I know." There was a very subtle edge to his tone but he stroked her hair. "We'll talk about it when you're come down. You got plans, Jack? We're planning on going back to our place after the rally."

"Got no plans," he answered. "Registration doesn't open for another week, so I've got some time to kill. How long is this thing, anyway? Should I be grabbing a sign?"
 
"Ssshhh!" May leaned forward and pressed a finger to Jack's lips. She stared at it for a moment, squishing it against his lips, before shaking her head a little and remembering why it was there. "You shouldn't say that word," she admonished. "It's a bad word."

"Now May," Max chided, reaching out and pulling her hand back and holding it firmly, "hands to yourself, remember? And...?" he added to Jack, prompting him to finish telling the story. He cracked a smile when he told him about the cops looking like fools, but the smile still didn't reach his eyes. He didn't like the looks of May's new 'roommate,' but he liked cops even less. Fuckin' pigs always sticking their noses where it didn't belong made him sick. He stroked May's hair as he asked Jack whether he had any plans, intending to take her aside for a little talk once they got home.

"You can if you want," Max shrugged at the question of holding up signs. "Mostly it's chanting, making sure the pigs can't get to the stage. Events like this, it's all about show of force, showing folks that they may think we're some fringe group but there's more of us out here than they think. There's nothing really you're supposed to do, just do what you feel would be most effective." He'd shown up at a few of Dr. King's rallies, mostly for appearances than anything else, but he thought the organized, subtle way that King had just hadn't been as effective as it could have been. "So, registration huh? College boy now?"

"He's on the GI Bill," May put in, remembering vaguely their conversation from yesterday. "Coz he's soooooo smart."

"That's nice honey." Max patted her head distractedly. "So where are you registering?"
 
"U of M," Jack answered. "Gen eds right now, but I'm thinking pre-med." He flashed a quick, sad grin. "Figure I had to kill enough people over there, trying to keep myself alive. Maybe I can do some good, now."

He jammed his hands into his pockets, acutely aware of the ache in his leg and the eyes on him now. "Do what I fee'd be the most effective, huh? Hm. Got me an idea." With that he pushed through the crowd, pulling himself up on the stage. The response from the audience was mixed, some cheers and some catcalls and mostly some incomprehension. He wasn't the folksinger that was tuning up, after all. He was a big black man in an army jacket. But Jack didn't care, not now. He'd had an idea. "Hey, everyone!" he called.

They stared at him, mostly confused now. "Hey," a few voices called back, unsure.

"You all don't know me," he called, grabbing the singer's stool and unlacing his boot. "Uncle Sam sure as shit didn't know me either. But they sent me to Nam all the same. None of that mom, baseball and apple pie shit for me." He looked up. "Nam, or jail. I thought Nam'd be the easier way out. Shows what the fuck I know." He looked up again. "I'm Captain Jack Sparrow, folks. United States Army. Or I was, at least. Until the Army chewed me up and spat me out." Pulling off his boot, he waved the stump of his leg at the crowd. "Check that shit out, people. I got off easy, too. Plenty of our boys go over there, they come back in body bags when we can find enough pieces to ship them home! Some come back in wheelchairs, or blind, or missing more bits than this!"

Angry now, he jammed his leg back into his boot and tied it again. "And I sure as shit had to kill me some Viet Cong! And you know why? Because they saw me as the invader, because we're invading their fucking country!" He waved his arm in the general direction of the west. "We bring good men and women home in body bags, or broken, or not at all, so we can kill perfectly decent people that just want to life their own goddamn lives! How does that make any goddamn sense? How does that make any goddamn sense at all?"

Uncaring about the ache in his foot, he stomped across the stage. "You, right there! Yeah, you! You know who'se fault this goddamn war is?" He scowled at the shouted answer. "No, damnit. It ain't the soldiers. It's the generals! It's the politicians! They're the ones who set up the draft! They're the ones sending us to die! You know what? Fuck them all!" He shook his fist in the air. "Fuck 'em! This isn't a war about freedom, or democracy, or anything else. It's about power!" Wild eyes scanned the crowd. "The power they stole from us!"

At that moment, he felt wild stir in him. "LBJ and his men," he called out, half chanting, "stole our boys from their bed, and bound them off to die. But this country is ours, and by the powers, where we will we'll roam!"

The folksinger was strumming along slowly now, adding a familiar tune he'd never heard but had always known. With a wild gesture he lashed out, grabbing an American flag from one of the protesters. "Hey you, all of you," he called out, waving it in the air. "Hoist the colors high! Stand up, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"

"Now some have died, and some are alive, forced to fight away from home. But we'll have our say, and the Devil to pay, and we'll lay to LBJ's lawn!"

It was doggerel, and part of him knew it. But the chorus caught on, rippling out across the protesters. "Hey you, all of you," the tune swelled, amplified by a hundred throats. "Hoist the colors high! Stand up, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"
 
May's eyes widened as Jack stomped around the stage and she swayed to the slow, steady rhythm of the chorus. The swaying crowd turned into an ocean--a literal ocean--and the flag became a Jolly Roger as Jack stood on the deck of a ship, swaying and moving with the deck beneath him. She reached out as she sang, touching the waves and letting the waters run over her fingers. Or were they her fingers? Yes, her fingers were definitely one with the waves as the song of the ocean swelled up around her. For once, she wasn't afraid.

"Hey you, all of you! Hoist the colors high! Stand up, thieves and beggars, never shall we die!"

May swayed so far to the left she would have toppled over if Max hadn't caught her. He held her firmly while she swayed and pressed her fingers into the cheeks or backs of several people around her and watched Jack up on the stage, but he didn't sing. The Army nigger had taken the crowd very quickly, and he didn't trust someone like that. He would have to keep a very close eye on May until they could find another place for her to live. It was probably best to get her out of that neighborhood, anyway. When Jack finally stepped down from the stage, Max smiled and clapped him on the shoulder.

"Well, that's one take on it," a foreign-sounding redhead muttered as she passed by to the man following her with a mincing, swaggering gait. "Not a great take, but a take."

"That was really somethin, man!" Max congratulated Jack. "You're a natural at this!"

"'Course he's a natural," May agreed, sliding her hands over his chest and up to his shoulders as she became one with him, "he's an oceanchild. Don't you hear the ocean, Jack?" The waves were still singing, though it was a different song. "Listen to the waves!"
 
"Well, that's one take on it," a foreign-sounding redhead muttered as she passed by to the man following her with a mincing, swaggering gait. "Not a great take, but a take."

"You tailor it to the times, love," replied the man. "And it wasn't bad, for improv."

"That was really somethin, man!" Max congratulated Jack as he made his way back down from the stage. "You're a natural at this!"

"Maybe," Jack demurred. "I had some experience, talking to groups. But I..." Suddenly, his arms were full of redhead as May seemed to melt into him. Damn but she was distracting, rubbing against him and sliding her long bare legs over his.

"'Course he's a natural," she agreed, sliding her hands over his chest and up to his shoulders, "he's an oceanchild. Don't you hear the ocean, Jack?"

"No...." he said slowly, cocking an ear. "We're not close enough to the harbor, here."

"Listen to the waves!" May insisted, tugging up his shirt to explore his stomach.

"Uhm, yeah." He looked about helplessly, trying to fend May off as she insisted on being fended on. The others weren't any help, though. Nate looked amused, and Max looked speculative, and Jessie just looked annoyed. "We'll go do that, I promise. Just, uhm, not right now. All right?"

Finally, with a little laugh, Max seemed to take pity on him. "Come on, Mayflower," he said, pulling at her shoulder a little. "We should be heading back to the chapel. It's almost time for communion, after all." He caught Jack's eye. "You wanna come?"

"I ain't never been much for church," Jack answered truthfully. "Except for when it got me off a detail."

Max laughed, slipping an arm around May's shoulders and guiding her down the street. "It's not that kind of church, Jack. Come along and see!"
 
"You can hear them," May insisted, sliding her hands over his abs then around and up his back, "just try." She suddenly cupped his head with both hands and made him look her in the eyes with her enormous pupils. "Try Jack," she said seriously. "Promise me you'll try to listen to the ocean, and you do what she says alright?" She pulled him down to her to kiss him hard while the others looked on and laughed.

Finally, with a little laugh, Max seemed to take pity on him. "Come on, Mayflower," he said, pulling at her shoulder a little. "We should be heading back to the chapel. It's almost time for communion, after all."

May grinned broadly and staggered along willingly at that. Max slipped one arm around her shoulders to guide her down the street while sliding his other around a pretty blonde named Eliza, though these days she preferred to go by Rayne. Rayne was also rather giggly and "out of it," though it wasn't certain what sort of drugs she was on. She and May held hands behind Max's back before gingerly pulling away from him and going skipping hand-in-hand down the street ahead of the others, laughing madly. May tripped with a whooping noise and took Rayne tumbling down after her, and the two lay on the pavement staring at the color variations in one another's eyes and feeling the textures of each other's hair. When he caught up with them, Nate swooped down and scooped May up before tossing her over his shoulder, potato-sack style.

"Your grandma would be very upset, Jack," May teased, wagging her finger at him from over Nate's shoulder. The ocean had faded into sand. "She's a good woman and she wants you to go to church! Oh look!" She pointed excitedly near Jack's feet, though in reality there was nothing there. "Lookit the crabs!" A hoard of smooth, white crabs followed him, single file down the street.

~

The "chapel" was in reality an abandoned warehouse. The first floor remained abandoned and trashed, the windows broken and the walls graffitid. Some of the group--about a dozen and a half of them, maybe five women among them including May--took the stairs, but Max led the way over to a cargo elevator which was still able to be operated by hand like an enormous dumbwaiter. On the third floor there was nearly a thousand square feet of concrete and steel which had been fixed up to make it livable. Mattresses littered the floor and there were several sitting areas set up with third-hand armchairs and sofas, a decorative style not unlike May's "Salvation Army chic" look. In one corner there were hot plates and an ice chest and bare lightbulbs had been hung from the rafters and jury-rigged to light the area, though the daylight coming through the patched windows was enough to pick their way around the floor for now.

Several others, including Jessie, were busy lighting candles at the far end of the room where what looked very much like an altar had been set up. In front of the altar were four mattresses pushed together. The mattresses scattered around the warehouse had been covered in whatever linens their occupants could scavenge or afford, including mismatched fitted and flat sheets or pillow cases, but the ones in front of the altar were all clad in the same scarlet sheets and surrounded by dozens of white pillar candles. The people who had followed them here from the protest knelt in groups of three on either side of the altar.

"May and Nate, obviously," Max said with a benevolent chuckle as he put a hand on Nate's shoulder. May's legs were around his waist and he was holding her up with his hands planted on her rear, gladly receiving her enthusiastic affections. She detached herself from his face long enough to lean over and kiss their leader in gratitude before returning back to Nate. He paced in front of the others who were clearly awaiting a decision. "Rayne," he decided at length, putting a hand on her head, "Raven, and...Jessie." His hand landed on each of them in turn and they smiled as the others got to their feet and formed a circle around the altar, sitting cross-legged.

"Come receive communion, Jack," May pleaded, finally detaching herself from Nate and setting her feet back on the floor.

"Maybe Jack just wants to see what it's all about for now, May," Max suggested, giving Jack a look that spelled out that he did, in fact, only want to watch.

May pouted but accepted this judgement and disrobed then knelt with the others--who had done likewise--on the mattresses. Nate was already throbbing and slid his hand to May's thigh, and Jessie was also clearly aroused. Several in the circle around the mattress began playing bongos or other percussives, chanting rhythmically. Each on the mattress received in turn a pill of unknown origins placed on their tongue as though Max were a priest bestowing them with the Holy Eucharist. He paced before them as though considering his options before finally kneeling in front of Rayne and kissing her passionately. Rayne groaned and tangled her fingers in Max's hair as he leaned her back across two mattresses and they were surrounded by the others. The women peppered the men and one another with kisses as the men availed themselves of the women's bodies, including Rayne's. It wasn't long before Nate pulled May on top of him, away from her attentions to Max's neck and shoulders, and pulled her hips against his.
 
Jack hadn’t been raised with much in the way of religion. Oh, sure, he went to church on Christmas and Easter. But he’d also attended Apache medicine rituals, and visited a few Buddhist temples in Nam, and generally he tended to assume that God was real and that He (or She, or They) we’re far more concerned about you not being an asshole than about any specific doctrine or creed. As a result, his response to worship services was mostly described as “polite curiousity”. After all, you never knew what you might learn.

This, though, wasn’t much like any church service he’d ever seen. The drugs themselves weren’t a shocker, given that he’d eaten peyote with an old Apache Medicine Man a week before he left for boot. But the next step in that ritual hadn’t been to start making out with the old man, which is what May and the other women were doing. It was fucking hot, sure, but he looked at it a little askance even as May invited him to participate and Mac pretty much encouraged him to back right the fuck off. Which was fine, for now. Things looked to be just a touch crazy, and Gramma Sam had once warned him (after a few shots) not to put his dick in crazy.

Grandma Sam had a lot of odd, unsolicited bits of advice. Much of it from direct experience, he gathered.

Things went pretty much where he was expecting. Max braced himself on his arms above the blonde, grunting and gasping as his dick pumped into her. She was moaning beneath him, hands slowly ding over his chest as she said something about allowing her to cleanse his chakras. Meanwhile, May was riding Nate, head thrown back and thighs flexing as she slid up and down his cock. One of Nate’s hands rested on her ass and the other played with her lit, and he was grunting something about her being a goddess. Adjusting his pants to make his hard-on less uncomfortable, Jack had to admit he had a point. That girl could fuck.

Other hands joined his on his crotch. It was the brunette... Raven? He’d been so busy watching May that he hadn’t seen her stalk across the floor on hands and knees until she was unzipping his fly. “Let me purify you,” she said, tugging at his briefs. “You’ve spent years... oh. Oh, my.” She stared, startled and hungry, at his massive erection.

“No, no,” he said, trying to do gnire the warm, soft hand that curled around him. “I showered just... oh, fuck...”. Her tongue slid up his shaft to circle the tip before her warm mouth swallowed his head. “Oh, fuck,” he repeated, going just a little glassy eyed as she sucked noisily on him.

“I’m a Person-Mover All-Goddess,” she declared, looking up at him. A little strand of saliva stretched from his duck to her lips. “Fill me with your Inner Soul Force, that I may release it to the Universal Divine Spirit.”

“What?” he managed to ask. And then Raven’s mouth was on him again, tongue and hands stroking his shaft as she sucked hungrily on him.
 
As Max came closer to being one with the Universal God-Soul--something most of them knew on sight--blotters started going around the circle. The drums started to fade as others began to embrace Rayne and the two other women who hadn't been chosen for this communion. Jessie made a noise of annoyance when Raven slipped away from him to crawl over to the newcomer. He hadn't yet expelled his negatively charged divine force and grit his teeth in frustration when she started sucking on him.

"You've become disconnected from the Universal God-Soul," he explained, sliding his dick back into her and groaning as he gripped her hips. "She purifies your karmic force and moves it back into the Universal God-Soul so that you can become one with the divine All." Jessie moaned and leaned down to kiss her back as he thrust into her, sliding one hand around to rub her clit. He gasped and came with a choked sound as her walls pulsed around him when her inner goddess-self was awakened and her third eye opened, and he fell back while she dutifully continued sucking off Jack.

The orgy ended in what was essentially a pile of bodies and entwined limbs. Once May had cleansed Nate's Inner Soul Force she had taken two, sometimes three men at a time to ensure everyone could partake in the communion; she was known to be generous and caring like that. Max sat half-clothed and cross-legged in front of the altar with her head in his lap as she stared up at him with clear admiration while he preached to them. Distractedly he stroked her hair--and that of the other woman who had cuddled up to him--while she stretched languidly out across the mattress where Nate planted slow, deliberate kisses and otherwise worshiped her breasts. The smell of sex, the slowly moving bodies, the lazy curiosity as they explored the textures and colors and people around them, and the general comfortable, comforting attitude lent the chilly warehouse a cozy but surreal feeling.

"May, can I talk to you?" Max asked quietly. He was done with his sermon on their connection to the Universal God-Soul and May was slowly coming down.

"Mm?" She looked up at him sleepily, enjoying the way he stroked her hair. Nate had fallen asleep on her chest half an hour ago.

"Now."

May frowned at the seriousness in his voice, the hardness of his gaze, but she slowly extracted herself and pulled a blanket from nearby around her shoulders to follow Max to one of the makeshift sitting areas. He sat on the dilapidated sofa, but gestured to the floor near his feet. Her frown deepened but she knelt obediently on the concrete and looked up at him. He leaned forward, elbows on his knees, and looked down at her.

"May I need you to unburden," he said quietly but firmly.

"Unburden? But I haven't--"

"You've been gone for weeks," Max pointed out sternly. "You've missed seven communions. Am I really supposed to believe that you don't need to unburden?"

"I took communion," she argued while trying not to sound argumentative. May was meek in the face of the powerful men in her life, and Max was no different, particularly when he looked at her like that.

"You took communion? With the Disconnected?" Well when he said it like that... "And what about Esther?" Esther had been a Person-Mover All-Goddess, the high priestess of sorts before May...then she'd gotten a job in a bank, sold out to corporate America, and cut off ties with them. May was the only one who had seen her in six months, and there was no point in lying to him about that; he already knew.

"She came into the deli for dinner last week," she confessed with a sigh, hanging her head. "I took her order, I gave her the food, I cleaned up when she was done. We didn't talk or anything."

"May, interaction with Fallen is forbidden, especially for the Great Goddess. You know that." Max folded his arms across his chest and looked down at her like a disappointed father. "You should have refused her service."

"I couldn't, Max! I need that job and I needed the money while I was waiting for a new roommate."

"That's the other thing." Max glanced over his shoulder at Jack, who he couldn't tell whether or not he was listening, then looked back to May. "Jessie told me your dad showed up yesterday. Jack seems cool and all, but between that and this whole rent fiasco I think it would be best if you moved into the chapel. The Great Person-Mover All-Goddess shouldn't be so dependent on the trappings of the world nor so vulnerable to those who would do her harm."

"But...I like my job..." May took his hand as he reached down to her and pulled her up on the couch with him, leaning back and pulling her naked body against him.

"Of course you do, honey," he purred, pulling her hair away from her face and allowing his hands to wander, for the good of her third eye, of course. "And you don't have to quit. I just don't want someone so divine, so important, to have to be so worried about rent and electricity and all that jazz. Ya dig?" May nodded and leaned against him.

"Can Jack come? He just moved in...I don't wanna stick him with the whole rent or anything like that when he's only been living there two days."

Max glanced over his shoulder again. "Sure, if he wants."
 
Pleasantly exhausted, Jack propped himself up on one arm and took a hit off the roach that had been passed around. "So," he laughed, holding it up for someone else, "what the hell was that?"

Raven draped herself half over him, her naked skin warm on his as she took the proffered cigarette. "That was marijuana," she laughed.

Jack rolled over onto his back and took it back. "No shit?" he laughed, taking another hit. "Well, I guess I'm in some trouble now. But seriously, I thought this was a church." He looked around the room, taking in all of the naked and partly-naked bodies. May stood out, over where she was talking to Max. "Ain't never seen a church like this in Texas."

"Texas, hmmm?" Raven purred, running her hand over his stomach and gripping his cock. "Things really are bigger there, aren't they?"

Sniggering, Jack slapped her hand gently away. "Naw, I'm serious. Ain't never fucked in church before." He took another puff, and let the smoke stream from his nostrils. "Well, there was that one time. But it wasn't part of the service."

Jessie crawled over, plucking the cigarette from his fingers and taking a long drag. "Yeah, but they aren't enlightened. They haven't seen the truth. All of this," she gestured around, "it's like I told you. It's about cleansing the God-Soul that resides within you. Allowing you to expel your negative vibrations, and commune with the Universal."

Blinking, Jack tried to think about that. "I am either too stoned to understand that," he declared, taking the cigarette back, "or not stoned enough. So, what's the fucking got to do with any of that? And I can promise you I wasn't thinking about any 'God-Soul'."

"You aren't expected to," Raven said. "You accept the ministrations of the Person-Mover All-Goddess, and achieve ecstatic union as you release your negative karma. And then we experience the same ecstatic union as we cleanse your karma and release it into the universe once more." She licked her lips and kissed him, inhaling the marijuana smoke that he exhaled. "You must have had quite a bit of negative karma, because I achieved a great deal of ecstasy."

"Yeah, well, there ain't nothing ordinary about me," Jack laughed. "Guess there ain't anything ordinary about my karma, neither."
 
"There certainly isn't," Raven giggled, sliding her hand back down to Jack's cock and nibbling on his lip. "But you've been walking around your whole life with aaalll that negative karma. The first communion almost never cleanses you entirely. I want to help you, Jack." Her lips moved down to his throat. "We all want to help you become one with the Universal All."

"But it can only work once you truly believe," Jessie reminded him, sliding a hand over Raven's flank. He still didn't seem impressed with the newcomer. "The karmic force of the All repels the negative vibrations of the Disconnected. And--"

"Look!" Raven giggled and laid her head on Jack's chest. "Watching the High Goddess and the Great Ascender is just one of the most...divine experiences. Don't you just feel your karmic balance reach peak vibration frequency?"

Jessie followed her gaze to see May arching over the arm of the couch in orgasmic pleasure as Max thrust into her, sliding his hands over her breasts and down her arms to lace their fingers together. He threw his head back, grunting and groaning as he came inside her before gracing her with a kiss and strutting away to clean off. May watched him leave and grabbed a towel to clean off before coming over and, seeing that Jack was otherwise occupied, cuddled up with Jessie.

"Always a cosmic experience to watch such a union of two great souls," he murmured in agreement with Raven, pulling May close and kissing her. "Max talk to you?"

"Mm," May grunted, laying her head on his chest. She reached over to draw a hand across Jack's palm then take the spliff as Raven's lips continued their journey downward while her hand pumped up and down his shaft. "Max thinks it's for the best if I move into the chapel. You coming, Jack?"
 
"Max thinks it's for the best if I move into the chapel. You coming, Jack?"

Jack leaned back, enjoying the feel of his dick stirring to life under Raven’s attentions. “Probably,” he groaned, feeling the woman’s lips on his head. “Might take a little while, though.”


He hadn’t really unpacked, other than digging through his duffel for clean clothes. Hell, he hadn’t even slept in his own bed - not that he was complaining, mind you. So, why was he feeling so reluctant about moving already? Rent would be a lot cheaper at May’s “church”, to say the least. And if that service was anything to go by, he’d probably get laid regularly there. Although as open and forward as May had been, that probably wouldn’t have been a problem anyway. But something felt... off.

“I don’t get it,” he said, dumping the duffel bag in the hall as he walked into May’s bedroom. The ginger woman was sitting on the slowly deflating water bed, using her weight to help gravity push the water down the hose into the bathroom. “This is a nice place, a whole fuck of a lot nicer than the bill it’s I had in service. Why’s Max want you to move?”

He carefully sat, then squawked as the mattress gave under his weight and sprawled him backwards. “I mean,” he added, floundering as he tried to sit back up, “it’s not like that warehouse has a rectory, right? Seems likely me, if he’s worried about the Grand Goddess Mover like bing somewhere nice, he’d be better off helping you make rent.”

That wasn’t going to happen, clearly. A few of the boys from the churc were coming by this afternoon with a van to load up her stuff. It was probably just as well he didn’t have a lot here yet, because Max hadn’t seemed all that inclined to help him move as well. Was he like that with everyone May fucked? Dude must have a mad on at his entire church, then.

Jack tried sitting up again, only to follow d he couldn’t get a purchase on the rapidly softening mattress. “Fuck me,” he complained. “I’m gonna die here, eaten by a wat r bed. Hey,” he added, grabbing May’s wrist and hoping he could use her to pull himself up, “what’s up with your church anyway? I got something about fucking your karma clean, but I honestly wasn’t paying much ch attention.”
 
"He thinks I'll be safer with the group," May said with a shrug, giggling when Jack fell backwards and struggled to get up. "I mean, I know it's not a super great neighborhood. We all look out for each other, but there's thugs and the occasional white mob. The riots after Dr. King's funeral started right across the street, you know." She sighed and pushed a bit of hair out of her face. "Max said that the Great Person-Mover All-Goddess--that's me--shouldn't be surrounded by the trappings of the corrupt world like this, that I should be focused on my movements in the universe, not on making rent and bills and stuff. I mean, I'm still working at the deli and everything, but it'll be a lot easier to not have to worry about rent or anything. And besides, the world is full of the Disconnected, and the Fallen are out there trying to tempt us from the true path and disconnect us, make us as miserable as they are..."

Jack tried sitting up again but couldn't get purchase. May laughed when he swore and grabbed her wrist, asking her what her church was all about. She smiled and tried to pull him up, but only succeeded in accidentally getting pulled down instead. She laid there and laughed with Jack, rolling onto him and laying across his broad, strong chest. It was strange, how safe he made her feel, especially when he held her in those big, strong arms.

"We are all part of the Universal God-Soul, or the All," she explained. "We come from the All when we're born, and when we die we go back to the All, but without enlightenment every moment between birth and death is pain and suffering. We can only have peace when we're one with the God-Soul. Women are Person-Movers. They have a piece of the God-Soul inside of them, which can cleanse another person's karmic force and move it back into the All through the sacral chakra, but only if her Ajna--her third-eye chakra is opened. The Ajna is what keeps us in tune with the All; it's responsible for our perception of movements of energy, our intuition, our wisdom, and our access to mystical states, like what you saw at the communion. Person-Mover All-Goddesses are the enlightened women, trained by the Seekers--they're like priests--who seek sanctification and cleansing. These women are trained to properly receive the offerings of self to the God-Soul."

"Men, on the other hand..." May looked up at him with some pity. "They can only absorb the Divine Karmic Force of the Universal God-Soul through their crown chakras. It flows through the meridians of the body to cleanse the Inner Soul-Force. Imagine like...a piece of the All broke off and was put into a vase, and you're the vase, and that's the Inner Soul-Force. But because of the nature of the world, the Inner Soul-Force gets all mixed up in there with the negative forces put out there by the selfish nature of man. Greed, hatred, war, capitalism, all of these things keep men from true oneness with the All. However, with the Sacred Sacrament of the Divine Inner-Light and concurrent communion with a Person-Mover All-Goddess, a man can expel these negative karmic forces through the sacral chakra by the milk of the lingham. The All-Goddess purifies the negatively charged Divine Karmic Force and through meditation, sacrament, and intent releases it back to the Universal God-Soul through her sacral chakra. And so, with each cleansing, a little piece of the Inner Soul-Force is being cleansed and released back to the Universal God-Soul until you're completely one with the All. When that happens, all the pain and anger and hatred and fear just...floats away. Nothing on this earth can hurt you anymore."

May looked up at Jack and laughed at his expression. "It's a lot to take in," she admitted, managing to push herself up and straddle him. "I didn't entirely understand it when I first joined. But Max studied with the sacred nuns in Tibet and he's real good at explaining it. Basically...sex is a sacred act for us." She leaned down and kissed him. "Each time brings us closer to enlightenment, and when you've taken the Sacrament it opens the secrets of the universe to us. We are all one with the Universal God-Soul which longs to be whole again, and sex...communion...it all brings two pieces of the Soul together, and it's just so beautiful." May grinned again. "A lot of people call me some stoner hippie or something for it, but it's honestly the most beautiful, fulfilling thing I've ever been a part of. I can't imagine ever going back to the way I was. I was miserable." Of course, she had been miserable because she had been living with her father and had fallen in with Max not long after arriving in Baltimore. But his church had shown her the way to letting go of her painful past and she had been reborn as someone entirely new; happy, trusting, and loving.

"Fridays we go to the youth and battered women's shelters and minister to the Disconnected," she added, squeezing his hips affectionately with her thighs. "We used to just go out on the streets where a lot of the homeless hang out--that's where Max found me and Nate--but the cops told us we needed a permit to street preach. Most of them weren't really receptive anyway. The teenagers and the women--abused, helpless, unloved, but wanting so badly to be loved--they always listen more closely. That's where we found Raven, at one of the women's shelters."
 
He hadn't intended to show how skeptical he was, once she started explaining the doctrines of the Universal God Soul church, but clearly he hadn't been successful at hiding it. Luckily, she didn't seem to mind. She must have gotten that a lot, when she talked about her faith. And about the things she did to help people on the streets, the kind of people that society let slip through the cracks. No wonder she was into the peace movement as well. "Okay," he said slowly, more than a little distracted by the way her body felt straddling his. "I..." He made a short bark of a laugh. "No, no, I'll tell the truth: I didn't understand more'n half of what you said. But you clearly do, so that's the important part. Right?"

Fuck, she felt good on him, the way her thighs were gripping his hips and her soft breasts flattened against his chest. But she felt... right, maybe? Something about laying here with his arms around her waist felt good in a way that wasn't sexual. Well, wasn't just sexual. Long strawberry hairs tickled his nose, making him wriggle it and then blow upwards. The strands danced in the air, then fell back down and tickled again. "I mean, sounds like it got you out of a bad place. That's something to say for it."

Something about what she'd been saying bothered him, but he couldn't put his finger on it. Especially not when he could so easily put his finger on her cute little ass in her short cutoff shorts. "And besides," he said, not bothering to hide the distraction her bare breasts spilling out of her fringed vest caused, "lotsa people believe lotsa things. Who's to say who's right or wrong, right?" He grinned as he let his big hands cup her rear. Fuck, but he was hard as a rock now, and she could probably tell. "So, uhm, what else do you guys do? I mean, it isn't all just fucking, is it?"
 
May giggled at the way Jack wiggled his nose and blew at the hair which fell over her shoulders and onto his face as she leaned over him. He was hard and huge underneath her, which made her nipples hard as her breasts spilled out of her vest. His arms felt good around her waist and his dick felt good beneath her jeans as they talked. It felt...comfortable in a way she had rarely experienced before. It felt right. When he mentioned that it sounded like it got her out of a bad place she nodded.

"I'd probably be dead or back with my dad if it weren't for Max," she agreed. "So...dead either way, I guess," she added frankly with an uncharacteristic flatness. Jack stared at her breasts and she rolled her hips, grinding against him as his hands moved to her ass. He mentioned that there was no one to say who was right and who was wrong, and though she disagreed she didn't say anything. Conflict wasn't her bag. "Well, maybe if you're still confused I can help you understand it better," she offered with a smile, rolling her hips again and tossing her head so that her hair flung back over her shoulders. Her hands slid up Jack's stomach to his chest to brace herself as she rode him. Max had said, after all, that while enlightenment may come more easily naked, clothes couldn't stop the Soul-Force from being released back to the all so long as the All-Goddess consumed the milk of the lingham.

"So, uhm, what else do you guys do?" Jack asked, clearly distracted. "I mean, it isn't all just fucking, is it?"

She laughed and shook her head. "No not all of it," she admitted. "Fridays we go minister to the Disconnected, like I said. We're going this afternoon, if you wanna come with. We have service and take Communion on Monday and Thursday evenings, and Sundays we cook and everyone who doesn't live at the chapel brings a dish and we have a brotherhood supper." She bit her lip as she rolled her hips again, eyes clouded with lust but continuing to focus on explaining what it was like to be a member of her church. "We have a garden up on the roof of the chapel where we grow most of our food and keep some chickens and bees. We barter for most of the rest, and only use money for non-food like clothes and toilet paper. Being a part of the All means caring for the All, which means reducing how much you use as much as possible and trying to leave the world better than you found it. It means producing more than you consume. At the end of each harvest season we donate any extra we have to the local soup kitchen where we volunteer on Saturdays." She ran her thumb over his nipple as she rode him. "About half of us work so we can buy non-consumables and Max takes up collections at the end of the month for anything we got left over and gives it to a charity for victims of the war. The rest are creators." She sounded like she greatly admired the creators of the group. "Art, music, theater...they're the ones who organize the protests and set up art shows to benefit nonviolence groups. We actually raised a bunch of money for the King family earlier this month." She leaned down and kissed Jack, grinding against his throbbing cock but still not moving to unzip his pants. "It's nice to feel a part of something bigger."
 
Jack, to his credit, really was trying to follow what May was saying. Really, he was. But, well, damn was May distracting. The way her hands slid over his chest, and the enthusiastic way she was grinding on the erection she'd clearly noticed, made focusing on her explanations really, really hard. Not to mention his cock. She was making that really, really hard as well. "Creators, huh?" he managed. "Anyone... I might have heard of?"

Her response was a slow, enthusiastic kiss as she ground herself on his dick. She had to press the length of her body against his as she did, and with his shirt pushed up the feel of her bare breasts on his skin was amazing. "It's nice to feel a part of something bigger," she assured him.

"Is it?" Jack replied, sliding his hands up her waist and gripping the fringed vest she wore. Slowly he pulled it off, tossing it to one side. "I guess it would be." Hands slid over her ribcage and upwards, cupping her firm breasts as she reared up to offer herself to him once more. His thumbs circled her nipples as he watched her throw her head back. "I didn't like being in, but the Army gave me that. Being part of something bigger, I mean." His dark hands squeezed slightly, flattening her breasts against her chest as he pinched the nipples. "I wouldn't go back, ever. But I wouldn't mind being part of something again."

Damnit, with the waterbed half emptied he couldn't get the purchase he needed to sit up. So he settled for rocking his hips against hers as he crunched his abdomen and brought his lips to her stiff nipple. Firm flesh resisted the pressure of his lips as he suckled, then ran his tongue over the aureola. As he did he ran his fingers down her sleek abdomen to undo the buttons of her jean shorts. There was no way he could get them off her in this position, but with her fly open he could slide his thumb down inside her shorts and find her clit. "And... and you're the chief priestess, I guess?" he asked, stroking the warm, damp flesh he found.
 
"Not unless you're really into the local art scene," May admitted before leaning down to kiss him slowly, grinding against him. "But it's nice to feel a part of something bigger."

Jack slid his hands up her body before pulling off her vest slowly and tossing it to one side. His hands felt good on her ribs, then on her breasts as she reared up to present herself to him. She bit her lip and let her head loll back as his thumbs circled her nipples and he admitted that he missed being part of something bigger than herself. May's mouth fell open slightly and she cupped his head to her breast as he suckled at her nipple. She gasped quietly as his fingers deftly undid her shorts and slid inside to find her clit. He called her the chief priestess and she shrugged.

"More or less, I guess," she admitted, interrupting herself with a moan as he stroked her clit. Still she didn't move to undo his pants. Not yet. "You should join us, Jack. You'll get that feeling back, that being part of something bigger than yourself...not that much is." She giggled and winked as her hips rolled forward again, pressing his thumb against her clit as she reveled in the feeling of his constrained cock against her. "You'll be part of a community, part of a family, where we're all equals and we all help each other to succeed, where we live in harmony with the earth and the God Soul. Where every act of consummate love is an act of devotion and piety. Where you'll love and be loved, unconditionally, forever." She pulled his shirt the rest of the way off and moaned before letting her head loll back again as she rode him and his finger stroked her.

"May honey? Me and some of the other neighbors--oh!" Mr. Franklin, holding a casserole dish, poked his head through the beaded curtain before pulling it quickly back out again. He leaned against the door frame, averting his eyes. "We didn't realize you was leavin' til we saw these young men bringin' your couch down to their truck, so we figured we'd have a little going-away party before you left for good. I'll uh...I'll tell 'em you just got outta the shower." The old man shuffled awkwardly back down the hall.

May burst into a giggle fit, shaking her head. "Guess there's some advantages to doors," she admitted with more giggles. "Guess we better hurry up and get out there, huh?"

Hurrying, apparently, didn't mean quitting altogether. Aching, longing for release, but knowing her duty she leaned down and kissed Jack before kissing a line down his chest. Carefully she managed to find the hard edge of the bed with her knees, then lowered her feet to the floor and stood between Jack's spread knees. With a mischievous grin and a pang of need she unfastened his jeans and wrapped her hand around his throbbing shaft, freeing it from his clothes, then bent over at the waist and wrapped her lips around his head. With a quiet groan she sucked gently on it before taking as much as she could at once. Her throat swelled slightly as she took his dick deep down her throat and carefully swallowed around it. It was difficult to look innocent while deepthroating an enormous cock, but when May turned her eyes back up to him somehow she managed.
 
“I’ve never,” Jack managed, finding it hard to think as May worked herself against him, “been much for joining...”. He’d have loved to say something more, to sound all witty and charming, but he was having a hard time thinking clearly. Well, thinking clearly about talking at any rate - he had some me very definite thoughts in mind. “Still, you might...”

“May honey?”

“SHIT!” Jack missed most of what the terribly-embarrassed neighbor had to say as he looked wildly around for something - anything - to cover up with. The half-deflated water bed didn’t provide much cover, though, and all the sheets and blankets were already packed. And it didn’t help that May just sat there, mostly naked and unconcerned and amused, as the man backed out stammering apologies.

"Guess there's some advantages to doors," she admitted with more giggles. "Guess we better hurry up and get out there, huh?"

“Yeah,” Jack agreed, nodding his head. “I don’t really need an audience, y’know?” Although he’d had one at the church, he supposed, but since everyone had been fucking it didn’t seem like the same thing at all. Which, goddamn it, wasn’t helping his hard-on at all! And neither was the way she was ? by her way down his stomach and undoing his fly. “Damn it, girl. What are you doing?”

As if it hadn’t been obvious, she gave him a sly, sexy smile and swallowed his aching dick. “Holy...” he gasped out as he felt her throat squeezing his shaft, “oh... fuck...” Fuck, but she was good at that! The way her lips and tongue worked up and down his thick shaft, her soft hands sliding up and down the part that she couldn’t take in her mouth... “Aw, fuck baby,” he groaned, fingers digging into the plastic mattress to keep from tangling in her hair and fucking her throat hard. “We... oh, fuck! We... we outta,,, outta stop, May...”

He made the mistake of looking at her, and the sight of those innocent eyes staring at him with her mouth stretched around the birth of his cock nearly made him blow his load. “Fuck, May,” he gasped, they... they’re waiting for... for...”. The warning just seemed to encourage her to pick up her pace. Speech became impossible as he gasped and groaned. Then he was biting his hand, a strangled sound of pleasure escaped him as he climaxed.
 
May couldn't help but smile around his shaft as he groaned and feebly protested that they should stop. Sure they ought to stop...but he certainly didn't want her to. One hand wrapped around what she couldn't take and the other braced herself on his thigh as her head bobbed up and down Jack's throbbing cock. She groaned, sending vibrations up his shaft, and swallowed around him, a pang of need thrilling through her as he looked down at her with lust-clouded eyes. He was right that they were waiting for them, which meant she couldn't prolong the pleasure like she wanted to. Instead she picked up her pace, enjoying the gasps and groans she pulled from Jack as she ran her tongue along the underside of his shaft and carefully swallowed again. It had taken a couple years of practice, but she managed not to gasp in surprise as he throbbed in her throat and she swallowed with a quiet groan.

"Sure you don't wanna join my church?" she teased with a wink after easing his shaft out of her throat. She straightened and strode across the room to retrieve her vest. "Not that I'm trying to bribe you or anything. If you don't wanna that's fine; we can still hang out and be friends and stuff...kinda. But Max wouldn't want you living at the Chapel if you were Disconnected." Or worse, Fallen. But that wasn't something May was willing to consider right now. "No pressure. We just won't talk to him about it," she assured him, shrugging her vest back on so that it was "socially acceptable," whatever that meant. "You can pay me back once the neighbors are gone, yeah?" With a wink and a kiss and a clatter of beads, May was out in the living room with the neighbors. It wasn't as though Max hadn't left her wanting before; to be able to serve without being served was a mark of selflessness and holiness.

Apart from May, the only other white people in the apartment were the men from the church moving furniture down the stairs. One of them excused himself to borrow the phone in the machine shop below, and the others graciously declined the offer of food. Along with Mr. Franklin's casserole--actually made by Mrs. Franklin, a squat, greying woman who looked at once stern but friendly--there was potato salad, collard greens, dinner roles, and cupcakes. With most of the furniture gone all but Mrs. Abernathay stood. The oldest of them at nearly 90, the Greens in #2 across the hall brought a rickety chair from their own dining table for Mrs. Abernathay to sit. Jack and May were the youngest, with most of the other neighbors middle-aged or nearing retirement, and May accorded them with the appropriate respect and manners despite the friendly admonishment of several about her indecent clothing and whether she would be safer where she was going than she was here. All the time the men from the church quietly moved in and out, saving the water bed for last but eventually getting that too."

"A word, son?" Mr. Franklin said softly in Jack's ear, laying a hand on his shoulder and steering him toward the empty kitchen. He folded his arms across his narrow chest and leaned against the stove, considering the younger man for a long moment. "You seem to have a decent head on your shoulders, Jack," he said at last, "and you're either very stupid or very brave to go gettin' yourself tangled up with a white girl, but you obviously like her well enough. May's nice, but that li'l girl don't use her head like she should and I want you to watch out for her, y'hear?" He looked very seriously at Jack over the rim of his half-moon glasses. "I've seen the folks from that church of hers, ain't like no church I ever heard of. Most of them're pretty harmless, but there are some of 'em I wouldn't trust 'em as far as I could throw 'em. That bearded Bob Dylan wannabe he just...somethin' don't sit right about him." Mr. Franklin sighed and shook his head. "So you look out for her, alright? She trusts everyone and ain't got the sense God gave a goose."
 
It might not have bothered May to head straight out, but Jack felt a powerful need to clean up a bit before joining the crowd in the living room. So, as she bounced from the room, he dragged himself to his feet and stumbled into the small bathroom. As he wiped down, he considered her offer - the church one, specifically. ‘Repayment’ wasn’t anything that needed deciding, but joining Max’s weird little cult? Well they did have some fine chicks, but there was something off about it.

On the other hand, getting blown like that might make it all worth it.

Making a sound somewhere between a snort and a snicker, Jack did up his pants and pulled on his shirt as he headed out into the living room. The only person her recognized was Mr. Franklin, although a few of the church people looked familiar as they bustled about hauling furniture down the stairs. A stocky black lad with greying hair had cornered had pigeonholed May and was busily giving her advice, so Jack just waved at everyone and wandered over to the food. Greens and macaroni and cheese and potato salad.

"A word, son?" Mr. Franklin said softly as Jack dug in.

"Sure thing, sir," Jack responded, chewing down a mouthfull of macaroni and following him into the empty kitchen. "What can I do for you?"

He folded his arms across his narrow chest and leaned against the stove, considering the younger man for a long moment. "You seem to have a decent head on your shoulders, Jack," he said at last, "and you're either very stupid or very brave to go gettin' yourself tangled up with a white girl, but you obviously like her well enough."

"Six of one, half dozen of the other," Jack laughed, swigging down a mouthfull of iced tea. "My family's always, uhm, defied convention."

Mr. Franklin gave him a patient look. "May's nice, but that li'l girl don't use her head like she should and I want you to watch out for her, y'hear?" His expression turned serious at Jack's questioning look. "I've seen the folks from that church of hers, ain't like no church I ever heard of."

"Not much like any I've seen, either," Jack agreed.

"Most of them're pretty harmless, but there are some of 'em I wouldn't trust 'em as far as I could throw 'em. That bearded Bob Dylan wannabe he just...somethin' don't sit right about him." Mr. Franklin sighed and shook his head. "So you look out for her, alright? She trusts everyone and ain't got the sense God gave a goose."

She's not my girlfriend. The words died on his lips because, to be perfectly honest, he wasn't sure what sort of relationship he had with May. They'd only known each other for a couple of days, after all. And fucked a few times. But... "Yeah," he agreed slowly. "Yeah, I see what you mean." He ate a few more bites as he collected his thoughts. "I... yeah. I'll keep an eye on her. I think Max is pretty harmless, really, but I'll watch out." He grinned. "Hell. My grammas' would kick my ass if I didn't help a woman who needed it." He turned serious again. "So don't worry about her, Mr. Franklin. She'll be fine."

Mr. Franklin nodded. "You're a good man, Jack."

"Maybe," Jack agreed cheerfully. "But don't let it get around, all right? I got me a reputation to keep up."
 
Mr. Franklin chuckled and shook his head. "Oh yeah, real thug you are. Real bad news," he laughed, clapping Jack on the shoulder before heading out of the kitchen.

When Jack stepped out of the kitchen Max was talking animatedly with Mr. and Mrs. Gershwin from the top floor, #5. He held a plate loaded with macaroni and cheese, potato salad, and dinner rolls, with Mrs. Franklin occasionally trying to ply him with more greens or casserole. The building was familiar with him, since he could often be seen around here when May wasn't at the Chapel, and the women were fond of attempting to fatten him up, perpetually complaining that he was too skinny and that they wouldn't hug him for fear of getting a papercut. May was still chatting with the greying man--Mr. Green--but now from Max's side instead of her former place by the window. At Jack's entrance Max looked up and nodded.

"Hey man," he called after excusing himself from his conversation with Mr. Gershwin about carburetors and the war. May excused herself from Mr. Green to follow obediently, a nervous look in her eye though she smiled at Jack. Max shook Jack's hand heartily, squeezing just a little too firmly to be casual. "You a package deal with May then?" he asked, resting a hand on her shoulder. "By the way, you ready to roll Mayflower?" May bit her lip, looking around at her neighbors and the food, then nodded reluctantly.
 
"Hey man," Jack heard Max call as he followed Mr. Franklin through the kitchen door. The preacher, or whatever his name was, seized his hand in a tight grip and shook it. "You a package deal with May then?" As Max asked, his grip tightened.

In truth, Jack hadn't really thought about it too hard. Moving was sort of spinning by quick-like, and he'd sort of vaguely planned on crashing at the church for a day or two while he found a new place - they owed him that much, he figured. But Mr. Franklin's comments, and the possessive way Max talked to and about her, changed his mind. "Well, hell," tightening his own grip and smiling at the way Max's face paled, "I figure I am. She's been telling me about the church," he squeezed just a little tighter, "and it sounds like a good thing. So I'm taking her up on her offer of joining."

He released his grip and watched as Max tried to discretely massage life back into his hand. "That's, that's good, Jack. So, uhm, we need to..."

"Enjoy this little going-away party May's friends are throwing for her?" Jack interrupted, flinging an arm around Max's shoulders and steering him back towards the food. "That's a great idea, Max! Have you tried the mac and cheese? It's good, really good."

"We do need to get going," Max managed.

"Yeah, yeah, but we don't want to be rude. Right?" Jack smiled. "Need to set a good example, win some hearts and minds for the faith and all that."
 
"Jack that's wonderful!" May threw her arms around his middle and hugged him tightly before pushing herself up and tugging his shirt to pull him down slightly to kiss him. There were some disapproving looks, particularly from Mrs. Abernathay, not because of their racial differences but because she'd been hanging all over Max ten minutes ago. Well, mostly not because of their racial differences; there were a few who lived in the building who thought May was a nice enough girl but was trying a little to hard to get with a brother. "If he can't use your comb don't bring him home," as Mrs. Green had admonished her once.

Max laid a hand on her shoulder, however, and she let go of Jack and took a half-step back. He had never hit her--she would have been long gone if he had--and to her mind had never abused her. But the thought of losing Max's love and friendship was terrifying to May, and she felt dangerously close to that after the talk they'd had in the hallway. He subtly massaged his hand, also assuring Jack that it was good he was joining before mentioning that they needed to get going. May followed closely, grabbing up another dinner roll while they were by the food and waiting for the men to decide what to do.

"We've tried ministering here," Max said flatly, "and we're expected at the shelter. We need to go." This last he said slightly louder to inform the rest of the room, leaving Jack no other option. "We minister to the Disconnected on Fridays," he informed Jack as one of the women made a plate for each of them, covering it with Seran wrap, "and it's almost time we were there."

After many hugs and good-luck wishes, and then even more hugs and promises to drop in every now and then, the neighbors finally let May be on her way. Max led the way down the stairs, where the church men had already left with the last load of furniture and a beat-up old pickup waited. May took Max's plate and slid into the middle as Max got behind the wheel, balancing both plates on her lap. She chewed her lip and stared at her lap as Max leaned across her and fished for something in the glove compartment, then pulled her hair to the side and affixed a choke collar around her throat. She perked up a little and smiled when he kissed her cheek before starting the engine.

"I'm really glad you've decided to stay with us," she said excitedly to Jack as they pulled onto the street, looking up at him but leaning onto Max as they turned. "And it's a great day to do it. You can see our work in the community! It's just incredible to watch people lift themselves up through faith and turn their lives around." She grinned, balancing the plates on her lap to take his hand and squeeze it.
 
Max’s ride was an old, beat to hell pickup, the kind that Grannie Sam drove around the rez with a callous disregard. She’d heard the phrase ‘defensive driving’, and immediately decided that the best defense was a good offense. But he was woolgathering. So he tossed his duffel bag in the bed, shoving it under a couple of, then climbed in after May. The air smelled of patchouli and weed and hot vinyl, and the cab didn’t quite fit three comfortably. Not that Jack minded being pressed up against the petite redhead, but Max was more of the “three” in “three’s a crowd” than in “threesome”. Especially when Jack had to push back in the sest to let Max dig around in the glove compartment.

And why did he have to do that? All so Max give May a little gift, a scarlet choker that tied around her neck with silk ribbons. It didn’t seem her style, but she accepted it and the kiss Max planted on her cheek. Then he started the truck and pulled out into traffic, and Jack learned that the shocks on the truck weren’t any better than the shocks on Granny’s.

"I'm really glad you've decided to stay with us," May bubbled, juggling the paper plates to take his hand.

“Yeah, well,” Jack replied, thinking about his brief conversation with Mr. Franklin. “It just seemed, well, like the right thing to do.” Some mighty fine pussy at the church, too, so it wouldn’t be all that bad. Hell, maybe he’d manage to do May and Raven together again.

"And it's a great day to do it,” May assured him, breaking his train of thought.

“Hm?” He nodded and n realization. “Oh, yeah. The shelter.”

“You can see our work in the community!” she gushed. “It's just incredible to watch people lift themselves up through faith and turn their lives around."

“Sounds good,” Jack told her, slightly surprised to really see he meant it. “Be nice to help some people, for a change.”

“Instead of killing them, you mean?” Max interjected, sounding huffy.

“Yeah, man.” Jack didn’t flinch. “Instead of killing them.”
 
"They made him," May was surprised to find herself jumping to Jack's defense, but she didn't like the way he'd been accused of being a murderer. Max arched an eyebrow and looked sideways at her momentarily before turning his attention back to the road.

"The Man can't make you do anything you don't want, Mayflower," he informed her, as though instructing a child. "We're all free and sovereign citizens of the world. He can't make you go to war, can't make you pay him what he ain't earned, can't make you shoot a gun, can't make you turn a dog on a protester. Saying 'they made me do this that and the other' doesn't make you a victim; it makes you weak-willed. That's part of what makes someone Disconnected, May: they don't have the will to cut out all the noise of the world and listen to the All, and they use it as an excuse."

May chewed on her lip, frowning and thinking this over. That was the great thing about Max: whenever she thought she'd learned all he could teach her, he taught her something new. But then...where did this leave Jack? "I wish there was some way we could all cut out that noise," she admitted after some thought. "Then nobody would be Disconnected."

"That's a good wish, sweetheart." Max favored her with an approving smile. "And maybe there is a place out there for us, away from the world and closer to the All...but for now that's what the Cleansing is for, right Jack?" He reached over May's head and clapped him on the shoulder, squeezing a little and jostling him in what was supposed to be an affectionate manner. "All your trespasses are gone and all the extra noise is blocked out for the truly faithful, and you're just that much closer."

They had to park a block away from the battered women's shelter and as they walked May explained that they alternated between that and the homeless shelter across town. As they walked she carried the plates the neighbors had made for her and Max and had indicated that Jack should bring his as well. In her cut-off shorts and her vest, walking at the end of a leash Max had clipped to the collar, which was just long enough for the two of them to walk close together but with Max's arms swinging normally, May received more than a few looks and catcalls. The first two homeless men they came across she bent to give them hers and Max's plates, and even then one of them had asked Max "how much," a question which was summarily ignored by both of them though May looked embarrassed.

"Any extra food we have that we don't need, we give to who does need it," she explained to Jack. It was implicitly clear that while he was free to do what he wanted with the plate, he was expected to give it away. When they arrived at the women's shelter Max held the door open for them, and the church members already there looked at May with either curiosity or disappointment, but said nothing about her new accessories and handed each of them a stack of pamphlets to give out. Max handed the leash off to Jesse, who took it without question, before disappearing.

"We're on the third floor today," he informed her before eyeing Jack. "You can come with us, if you want. See how we minister."
 
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