Blood from Stone [AU]

[Carver Amell]

Carver glances at his sisters; a momentary worry wrinkles his brow, then a stern, stubborn look comes across him in its place. "I want to hear."

[Marian Hawke]

"I... I suppose I can share," says Liz, swallowing. "As long as it's not Cindy's privacy."

[Helene Dakesh]

"Grand," says Helene, unrolling the scroll. "Question one: Please rank on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being no attraction and 5 being frequent or habitual attraction, your feelings of attraction toward those of the female gender."

[Tethras Clan]

"Five," comes a chorus from Beth, Merrill and Jassinth in near perfect unison.

[Carver Amell]

"Four," says Carver, nearly the same time, then he blushes and says "I-I mean five"

[Marian Hawke]

"Uh," says Liz, then, "Five? Five." 

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene nods. "Please remember to write your answer down before speaking aloud, so that you do not influence the answers of others. Second question: Please rank on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being no attraction and 5 being frequent or habitual attraction, your feelings of attraction toward those of the male gender."

[Jassinth]

Jass opens his mouth, then pauses to let people write before giving the same answer again. And sneaking a peek at Carver to catch his reaction, his body slight tensed.

[Bethany]

"Just a one." Beth wrinkles her nose as she answers. Two or three out of some couple of thousand... zero is 'never' so it's more like point one but...

[Tethras Clan]

"Four?" Merrill seems a bit hesitant with her answer, then shakes her head. "No, three. Women are prettier than men but some men are very nice." She grins at Carver, then winks as if to make extra sure he realizes he's one of those men.

[Carver Amell]

Carver flushes, his mouth working in silence for a moment (which gives time for Liz to say "Five"). 

"I... uh... I... uh..."

Beet red, unable to look at Jass, he says, "Three."

[Helene Dakesh]

Helene barrels on, oblivious to the byplay going on: "Third question: Please rank on a scale of 0 to 5, with 0 being no attraction and 5 being frequent or habitual attraction, your feelings of attraction toward those of other or no genders."

[Tethras Clan]

That stumps Beth, causing her to simply sit, pondering, while Merrill scribbles down an answer. "Twoish? Some spirits are really pretty but only a few have genders like mortals do."

[Jassinth]

"...I'm not sure I entirely understand the question?" Jassinth admits this with an apologetic look, rubbing the back of her head with one hand.  Does, err, they mean- oh!  Duh. They mean like them. But do... "Would non-mortal beings that accept female address for simplicity count?"

[Helene Dakesh]

"Ah, whatever the being identifies as?" they ask, hesitantly. "Objections noted. Feel free to leave the question blank if need be."