/My/ way. Mine.
Jul. 22nd, 2012 06:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
renferretDay one at the Fury House does not go the way anyone expected.
This woman looks young, early twenties at best, with a build that appears to be all bone and little muscle. Her face is all sharp angles, with pronounced cheekbones and a strong jaw, and might at one time have been considered mildly attractive; but now it's too severe, too lacking in even the slightest bit of softness. Old, long healed scars stretch from the corners of her mouth to the bottom of each ear, two neat and precise lines that only seem to add to her feature's sharpness. Another precise, thin scar is just barely visible below her hairline, stretching from one side of her forehead to the other. She has black hair, only an inch or so in length, growing rough and uneven; there's been no attempt whatsoever to tame it, and so bits stick out here and there where they will, especially around her ears. Her eyes are a striking ice-blue, but they seem almost feverishly bright, with a gaze that's uncomfortably intense even at the best of times.
She's wearing a slightly oversized grey hoodie which nevertheless seems to do little to hide her lack of curves. Like the rest of her clothing (non-descript jeans, cheap running shoes, plain socks), the material seems fairly new, but is already showing signs of wear, especially in the elbows. The only thing truly out of place about her clothing, however, are a pair of black gloves. She has her hoodie's sleeves pulled down over them to her wrists, so as not to show a scrap of skin on her hands or arms.
Greek House: Common Area(#2409RAJ$)
This is the central hub of the house. From here, you can still see the entrance foyer to the west, as well as the stairway that heads to the second story. Towards the eastern side of the common area is a set of glass doors that lead out to a courtyard. To the north, an arched doorway leads to what apparently serves as a less formal lounge, with a couch and an armchair, and to the south, an arched doorway leads to what appears to be a kitchen and dining area.
There are several chairs here, simple, elegant, yet functional in their design and intent. The room has a comfortable feel to it, but is a bit ascetic in design. The walls are off-white, the molding dark cherry wood and decorated with acanthus-leaf ornamentation at the corners. A pair of antique spears are hung crossed against each other on one wall, and a wall-relief depicting a scene of Grecian warriors hangs on the other. Above the mantle of the fireplace is a small statue of Artemis, on either side of that, dark metal candlesticks with ivory pillar candles. The entire room is a study in the contrast of light and dark.
Contents:
Thea
Wallchart
Obvious exits:
Downstairs Upstairs Courtyard Out
A large board, covered with paper. At the moment, it reads "KL's Big Challenge Planning Board" across the top. A marker pen on a length of string hangs from the side.
Quiet guitar music comes from the living room. A young woman with curly dark hair sits on the couch, curled around the instrument, head bent in concentration.
Ex meanders in from the direction of the bathroom (and wherever it was that she slept), looking bleary and rubbing at her eyes. She has an exceptional case of bed-head, and her clothes certainly look as though she slept in them, gloves included. Under one arm is a rather abused sketchbook, and stuck haphazardly behind one ear is a half run down charcoal pencil. The woman stops as she finds the source of the music, and frowns at Thea from the doorway.
It's hard to tell if the guitarist notices; maybe she doesn't. The flamenco goes on, spreading through the house.
Ex continues to frown at her; she seems disinclined to do anything else, just yet. The hand not holding her sketchpad curls repeatedly against her pantleg, and occasionally around the edge of the doorframe.
Finally it fades out, and Thea frowns a little herself as she silences the strings.
"Who're you?" Ex 'asks'. It sounds distinctly unfriendly.
Thea glances over, not quite startling but certainly surprised. She takes in the sight of the girl, and then rises, setting aside her guitar, leaning it on the couch. "I'm Thea," she says, in a voice that's mellow and pleasant, a low alto. She steps over, offering a hand. "Half-moon, of the Furies. You?"
Ex turns that frown on the offered hand. Her own, gloved hands remain at her sides. "X," she says. "Some people have been calling me Rogue too."
Thea turns the proffered hand smoothly into a gesture, her smile kindling further. "Cool. Like the X-men? That's awesome."
There's a faint, barely perceptible brightening. "Yeah," Ex says. "'Cause nobody fucking touches me."
Thea tips her head, watching the shifts of expression and posture. "Cool. Is that 'cause you don't want them to?"
"Yeah," Ex says again. She flexes her gloved hands, and then shoves them into her pockets. "I'm visiting, I guess."
Thea's smile deepens a little. "Oh... I don't live here," she says quietly. "So I'm just visiting too."
Sue has arrived.
Ex's eyes trace slowly over Thea's face. That frown of hers still hasn't gone away, but at least a lot of the suspicion has faded. "Where do you live?"
"Kent Crossing," Thea answers. "And the city, kinda."
"Kinda?" Ex echoes.
Thea smiles faintly. "As in, I have an apartment but I'm not there much."
Ex nods slightly. She doesn't say anything else. Her eyes go to the room, but there's a clear sense that she's still watching Thea in her peripheral vision, keeping track of her.
There's a knocking at the front door, then. Once, twice, sharp knocks and then silence.
Thea goes to get it, a swift smile dawning as she sees who's on the other side. "Hey," she offers. "W'sup?"
Ex vanishes around the doorframe and up several steps at the knock. She perches there, the sketchpad still under one arm, and narrows her eyes.
Sue hesitates even as the door's open, a rather nervous glance at the threshhold. He tightens his grip on the hiking pole, steps in, and skittish, glances back to the door. "Heya," Sue responds. "not much, came by to see how Ex is doing?"
Thea gives him a slightly helpless look, and lifts a shoulder. "C'mon in."
Ex shifts her weight on the steps, her lips pursing.
Sue steps in, and he walks slowly enough today, no actual hurry to get to where he can glance at Ex. "So," he says. "How're you doing today, Ex?"
Thea closes the door quietly, and looks over to the stairs.
"Just woke up," Ex says. Her tone is neutral, though her eyes are still hooded and narrow, and her head is turned toward the sound of Sue's voice.
Sue nods, shrugs, and doesn't press the question any further. "Alright," he says, instead, heading for the less formal sitting area, sitting down on the floor.
Thea's guitar is there, leaning against the couch. "So, ah." She glances to Sue. "You guys know each other?"
"Horse-feet guy's always at the other place," Ex says. The tone is less neutral now, though not accusatory.
"My name is Sue," the metis says, not quite snapping. "And as long as you are here you will call me by my name. Sue-rhya, Stands-Between-rhya, Deer-rhya even. But you will call me by my name, Ex."
"Respect is important," Thea agrees, her voice far milder by contrast. She leans against a wall, casually.
Ex's eyes narrow a little further. She doesn't say anything, not yet.
Sue clears his throat and pushes to his feet, sitting down for not very long at all, and looks at Ex. "But, you will call me by a name that I choose to be called by, rather than some name that you arbitrarily decide on. In fact, you will apply that to everyone here, in terms of how you address them..." There's a moment of discomfort, visible and then he pushes it away. "Do you understand me? This is the same as you told me not to call you 'kid'."
"...Horse-feet guy isn't respectful," Ex says slowly, in a tone of grudging agreement. She flicks her glance toward Sue. "Phil's better."
Sue clears his throat again, louder. "My name," he repeats, "is /Sue/. Or Stands-Between. Or Deer. You may pick one of those three."
Thea raises an eyebrow. "Phil?" she asks, glancing over to him.
Sue chews his lower lip, turning to watch Ex, though there's only a little bit of challenge and dominance in the gaze.
"Philoctetes!" Ex says, as if it were obvious. "It's /Greek/."
Thea nods minutely. "Okay, but..." She looks to Sue again, curious.
Sue doesn't look at all pleased, though his expression is still neutral. Just hard. "Ex," he states, volume up one pitch. "My name is Sue. It is the name I chose for myself, and what is _respectful_ is to acknowledge that and use that when you address me, or speak of me." There's another pause. "If you truly want to, there are people at my old Sept who called me Ioseph, but it isn't a name I choose for myself and I'm not fond of it."
Ex sounds a little bit combative now, though she remains on the stairs, and for all that she tries to glare back, she doesn't seem quite capable of meeting his eyes. "Sue's not respectful."
"If it's what he chooses," Thea says quietly, "then it *is*."
Sue raises his brows at Ex's words, and the glare doesn't /quite/ cease. But there's effort, and the metis tones the look down a little. "Why?" he asks her. "Explain why you think that?"
"It's a girl's name," Ex says, in that same, combative tone. "You're a guy. You're a guy with the Furies. They can deal."
Thea's eyebrows lift a little further. "I think I'll just... let you guys hash this out," she says dryly. "I need some air, anyway."
Sue shakes his head, swiftly. "I chose it," he explains. "I chose my own name, and they can deal with... me having a girl's name, too. Trust me, some of the daughters of Pegasus... aren't exactly thrilled with it." He takes a breath. "That's why some of them, at my old Sept, called me Ioseph, and Deer, even when I had chosen my name. But I chose Sue, and therefore you _will_ call me that."
Ex scowls darkly, and this time she's clearly challenging. "Why?"
Sue juts his chin up. "I chose it because I like the name," he says. "The end."
Ex shakes her head roughly. "No, why am I going to call you that?"
"Doesn't he have the right to make his own choices?" Thea says quietly. "You can *choose* not to pay any attention to what he wants, but..." She lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. "That has consequences too. I mean, how would you feel if I just decided to call you Rosie?"
The intensity of the glare from the metis increases, shoulders set in a tight line. Then Thea speaks, and there's a breath pulled in and he lets /her/ deal with it.
Ex's gaze moves to Thea, and then turns expectantly to Sue.
Sue chews his lower lip, chin jutting up still and no backing down in his posture. "Because it is, in fact, my choice as to my name," he says. "Because I want to be called by it, because I respond to it, and because, as we just said--respecting that choice and calling me what I ask to be called is the respectful option."
Twitch opens the glass doors and enters the house from the courtyard.
Twitch has arrived.
Thea's expression shows a flicker of pride. She picks up her guitar on the way across the room, and slips out into the courtyard.
Thea opens the glass doors and heads out into the courtyard.
Thea has left.
"Well, it's my choice what I call you," Ex returns. She watches Thea depart, then looks back to Sue. "So if you want me to be respectful, you better fucking look at me."
Sue has something to say for a moment, and then he doesn't, but his gaze doesn't depart from Ex. On the other hand, there's that still hard edge to it, and the little bits of dominance that he can dredge up in his posture. "And I gave you options as to what you may call me," he repeats, tone losing a bit of the patience. "You may call me Sue. Or Stands-Between, the name which I was rited to for my deeds. You may call me Deer. Or you may call me Ioseph, though I would truly prefer if you call me either Sue, or Stands-Between."
"Look. At. Me," Ex says slowly, with a decided bite. "I'm /here/. I'm a /person/. I need to fucking know shit. I'll call you Sue when you actually look at me like I'm actually here, instead of a piece of your kaleidoscope of problems and feelings."
The door to the courtyard cracks open a little, pushed aside by a nose and muzzle. Then a little further it swings, fur covered head and ears preceding the rest of a lupine body. The wolf's ears are set forward at the sounds of... conversation? Two-legged babbling that makes little sense, but the tone of it piques her interest.
Sue bites his lower lip, then takes a breath, and walks over to the bottom of the stairs to look up and at Ex. There's a bit of easing in his posture, less glaring, more observing... and he's silent for a long moment before he speaks. "I know that," he says. "I also know that you didn't /ask/ to trigger all of my problems, and it's unfair that you end up on the brunt end of it." He takes another breath in. "And I know you're a person. And I know what it feels like... to be treated as less than a person, but none of this makes it okay for you to ignore what I say to be called. Because that doesn't make it any easier to treat you as a person in return." Twitch gets a glance, fingers held down for the wolf cub to sniff at should she want to. "The wolf's Twitch. She's a cub here, wolf-born," Sue adds. There's a pause, and Sue continues, more quietly yet. "And every time you call me 'horse-feet guy', it pushes me towards where I'm just that metis cub that no one wants. Even though I'm not, anymore." Another pause. "Your turn, Ex."
"I don't care what's okay." Ex's gaze flicks several times toward Twitch as she speaks, though she's clearly still talking to Sue. "You do something for me, I do something for you. That's how the whole fucking world works. So you do /that/, and I'll call you whatever you want."
Twitch casts a passing glance at the fingers held her way, but continues forward until she's at the base of the stairs. Ears still drawn forward, she looks up at the young woman. Her forepaws move onto the bottom most step and her neck cranes, stretching to allow her to sniff at the stranger.
Sue bares his teeth at her. "You're not out in the rest of the 'whole fucking world'," Sue retorts, a hardness in his tone again. The profanity is clearly, clearly uncomfortable. "You're here right now. And you're going to play by the way things work /here/. It doesn't work the same here as it does out there."
"/No/!" Ex snaps at him, and then swiftly retreats three steps further upward. She smells of the city...somewhat. The tenement, certainly, and recent car exhaust. There's a faint hint of old blood, a small amount of self neglect, that persists in spite of stronger scents. "No orders, no 'because I said so', no leashes, no chairs, no schedule, no fucking questionaires! It won't fucking kill you to treat me like a human being."
Sue winces at Ex, and the metis takes a long, deep breath, before turning away from her. "No," he says. "The rules don't suddenly not exist for you, Ex. You are not in charge, here. You do NOT have the say-so." His voice echoes with rage, controlled. "You are, in fact, Garou, and a person, and I will treat you as such, but YOU MAY NOT BUCK THE RULES. You WILL submit to my authority, and that of EVERY OTHER FURY HERE." And then, after he's done raising his voice, the Fury panics, stumbling backward a few steps until he abruptly shifts to lupus, and takes off for the farther corner of the living room, the couch, anything he can hide under. The hiking pole clatters to the floor in his wake.
Twitch edges upward another couple of steps, continuing to snuffle in Ex's direction. The words, two-legged things, are largely ignored as the wolf might ignore the wind or the passage of a vehicle. She's cautious, however, mindful of distances, body showing wariness for the yelling if nothing else. Sue's abrupt change causes her to twist back and watch the Metis, a snort following his flight. Deer-wolf. Like prey, only sick.
Ex straightens, clearly for a rebuttal...and then that happens. She stares after the retreating metis, completely baffled.
Sue scrambles across the floor towards the coffee table, and then manages to worm his way half under it. His eyes are wide, his ears are back, teeth are bared, and it's easy to see the alarm and panic in the metis's body language.
Twitch lifts her head and looks up at Ex again, unsure of what to do about the foxing Metis as well. After a moment, she edges upward another couple of steps, closer now, to sniff at the girl's feet.
Ex pulls her shoes away from Twitch's nose, and eyes the other cub suspiciously. "Don't touch," she warns.
Stands-Between's ears twist towards the sound of Ex's voice, and it only serves to make the metis panic /more/, backing himself all the way under the table.
Twitch's head pulls back as soon as Ex moves, ears flattening slightly. She lets out a little bit of a whine, and her gaze lifts to the young woman again, tail lightly sweeping the stairs behind her.
Ex looks to Stands-Between, and then to Twitch, frowning. "Uh." She squares her shoulders a little, and tells Twitch, "Good."
Stands-Between pulls a little further into his hiding spot, lips curling back from his teeth, head down so his neck isn't exposed.
Twitch's tail stops wagging, head cocking to one side in question. Still no recognition for the words used, though after a beat, she takes another step toward Ex, and the tail sweeping resumes. Play?
Ex scoots another step upward. "No. Um. Bad. No."
Twitch turns and hops halfway down the few steps she'd risen. After stopping, she twists around to face Ex again, posturing excitement. Her tail arcs upward and she jumps down the last few steps to land in a play bow, chest against the ground and hind end in the air, facing the other cub. Her head lifts and she yammers, drawling in half note vocals.
Ex stares at Twitch in utter confusion. She looks to Sue for help, before remembering he's not in a state to be of any help whatsoever.
All of this commotion doesn't seem to be doing very much good for the panicking metis, either. He whines, loudly and almost threateningly, eyes widened.
Twitch hops up again and turns a full circle. Come! Play? Facing Ex again, she mock pounces toward the stairs, chuffing, and once her paws touch the bottom most step she bolts for the kitchen.
Ex calls after Twitch, "I don't want to!" but by that point she's already in the kitchen itself. The young woman sighs, nose wrinkling, and then looks back toward Stands-Between. "/You're/ fucking weird.
Stands-Between scoots further back, until he accidentally gets out from under the table. Which prompts another hasty scramble, and this time he ends up against a wall, head craning to look at Ex. There's that same wide-eyed, lips-curled, ears-back look of utter terror still, and wariness, and looking around for a better escape route.
Ex glowers at him for several minutes before she seems to come to some sort of a decision. She puts her sketchpad and pencil down, stands up, plods down the stairs, and, upon reaching the bottom, closes her eyes and clenches her fists. Crinos comes fairly easy, all things considered.
Rogue(#1291Pc)
As crinos go, this one is not quite so intimidating. She lacks in muscle mass and fails to achieve the kind of height many of her fellows do; it's a modest eight feet at best. Her fur is black, but looks somewhat unhealthy and uneven in length and thickness. Discolored grey fur marks a number of scars; not the wild gashes of battle, but rather thin, clinically neat. By far the largest and thickest stretches down from the middle of her chest to her abdomen, where it intersects with a smaller, horizontal scar that stretches from hip to hip. Two matching scars adorn each cheek, from the corner of her muzzle to the bottom of each ear, and another, nearly invisible, across her forehead. Her right forearm appears to bear some kind of marking, but against the dark fur and blue-black skin, it can't be easily made out. Ice-blue eyes, intense, smoldering with Rage, are the most noticeable feature at a distance.
The appearance of a crinos doesn't seem to help either, and the metis scrambles backwards along the wall, having spotted the glass doors to the courtyard still being open, then takes a dash for them. Out.
Rogue snarls and charges after the fleeing metis, fast but without finesse, attempting to cut him off or grab him before he can get outside.
With some effort, the cub does in fact manage to catch the metis. Stands-Between squirms, hooves kicking every which way and there is clear attack and trying to bite at his now captor. The only thing on his mind seems to be getting out of her grip and for the door.
Rogue manages to get a tight grip on the scruff of his neck, though nowhere else. When she feels teeth through the thick fur, she snarls again, and lifts him bodily right off of the ground, and away from her body, like someone might hold a smelly old sock. Her head turns, looking around for anything to help this situation. It's another few moments of consideration before she unceremoniously attempts to knock the squirming lupus's head hard against the ceiling.
There's a yowl and a screech, abject /terror/ quite audible in the lupine cries. One might think she's torturing him, not just banging the metis on the ceiling. And then suddenly, Stands-Between goes a little more limp, though still squirming and trying to flee.
Rogue huffs, grips him more tightly--she's actually trying to be mindful of his neck--and smacks him ceilingward again. Whump.
Twitch's head, through all this, has poked around the corner of the wall separating the kitchen from the rest of the common area. She watches with rapt interest, ears erect and eyes unblinking on the crinos manhandling the metis.
Abruptly, the metis is unconscious, and with that, reverts to his birth form. So instead of holding a lupus, Ex is left with the heavy weight of a crinos.
Rogue topples over, letting out a gruff sounding yelp at the sudden pull on her arm muscles. She has to work her claws free of his thick fur, and, once done, she scrambles backwards. There's no grace in her movements; they're thick and uncoordinated, if at least a little better than the average, raw cub's attempts. Breath puffs through her nostrils, the fur along her spine bristling faintly. Her scent and body language read as uncertain, and aggravated.
Twitch creeps forward, giving as much caution to Rogue as to Stands-Between. Sick, she asks, stretching her neck to sniff distantly at the Metis. Deer-Wolf? Sick? Reaching, she swats at the Cliath with a paw, toes curled to catch briefly.
Stands-Between is well and thoroughly unconscious for the moment, not even moving as Twitch swats him.
Rogue swats at Twitch in return, with the back of her large hand. She makes a noise that's unintelligible, but this time her body language manages to unconsciously pick up the slack. /No/.
Twitch scrambles backward, the Crinos hand just grazing her shoulder. She looks up at Rogue and lets out a whine, low tone sounding fairly apologetic. No biting, she pleads, tail tucking while she sidles forward and toward the other cub.
Rogue tilts her head at Twitch, one ear lifting than the other. Breath snuffles through her nose, and her tongue doesn't work the way she wants it to. Another huff. No, she repeats, less forcefully.
Pup good. Twitch's ears splay along with her promise, and not swatted at again, she sidles right up next to the other cub, shouldering companionably beside her. Watch. Deer-Wolf sick, sleeping. Her muzzle and gaze point toward the Cliath. See. Watch.
Rogue gives a jerk at the contact, and just refrains from another swat. /No/, she insists with a rumble. No touch.
The metis starts to stir, eyes opening, and when he spots Rogue still in crinos, there's a distinct amount of panic. If not the frenzied panic that had gripped Stands-Between, there's still a lot of fear there. He smells like fear, too, and tries to start to stand. His throat is bared, his entire posture screaming submission.
Twitch flinches, as if expecting a strike to come. But when nothing is thrown her way from the other cub, she relaxes, if inched slightly away from contact. Another whine follows insistence of being a good pup. Her ears snap forward when the Metis finally awakens, forelegs going stiff in surprise. No! Safe! Safesafe two-leg not wolf! Don't be sick! Not sick, Deer-Wolf!
Rogue angles her muzzle toward Twitch, and gives a very experimental sniff. Good, is her response. Good. And then Sue awakes, and all of her attention shifts to the metis, her nose still twitching. Her body language is, at first, baffled, and then something else pushes forward. When he stands, she stands too, ears erect, stance dominant.
Stands-Between backs up, away from Rogue. Out of her reach before he crouches to bare his throat, still scared. The way his gaze tracks over the room, however, suggests that he's not all the way present. ~Go away,~ he pleads. ~Go away.~
New cub. Twitch stands as well, tail sweeping. She takes a chance to sniff at Rogue before addressing the Metis again. Porcupine. Good cub, just new. Like Twitch pup. Sick not sick Deer-Wolf is safe here. So is Porcupine cub.
Rogue stares at Stands-Between, clearly baffled. She tilts her head, then looks down at Twitch.
Stands-Between doesn't move, except to further bare his neck. The pleading continues, though it's wordless now, and very, very scared.
Twitch looks up at Rogue, tail wagging again. Good pup. Not bad pup. Her ears flick back and she looks at Stands-Between again. Porcupine should be two legs? And Deer-Wolf should be two-legs? Yes yes. She noses, without touching, toward Rogue, prompting. Two legs, like ape.
Melodie comes down the stairs from the second floor.
Melodie has arrived.
Rogue rumbles, deep in her throat. The noise tells more of frustration than anger, though in this form, her Rage is palpable even in the best of moods. Her ears flick back, and then, with another look toward Stands-Between, forward. She stands up straighter, jaws parting, and huffs in his direction. /My/ way. Mine.
~Go away, go away,~ the metis repeats, louder this time. ~I didn't do anything go away.~
Twitch whines again, circling around the two. No no. Not wolves safe. Porcupine good, not bad. Deer-Wolf knows his place. Mule should be in two legs. Porcupine in two legs. Stop stop stop.
Suddenly, the door is thrust open, and the very small figure of the current Fury elder storms in. She does not look happy. "Why are there..." She looks between Stands-Between and Rogue, and puffs herself up, raising her voice very loudly. "WHY ARE THERE FUCKING CRINOS IN MY FUCKING LIVING ROOM! Stand DOWN, RIGHT NOW!" Her eyes look murderous, though the very perceptive might notice a flicker of doubt behind them.
Rogue's ears go completely flat, and she cringes away, not so much from Sue as from Melodie's sudden entrance. Her fur bristles all the further, but any sign of dominance has been replaced by alarm and confusion.
Stands-Between's attention and focus shifts to Melodie, but it takes a moment for the metis to recognise her, and all of the submission is turned in her direction. Throat bared, ears back, entire body tucked into a crouch. ~Go away,~ he pleads. ~Let me out let me go.~ The residual panic is evident.
Twitch startles at the sudden explosive and angry tone from the Fury elder, twisting around to look with ears pinned to her head and tail fully tucked and touching her belly. She slinks backward a step, then skulks back into the kitchen, once more her head just peeking around the corner of the wall to observe.
Melodie steps forward boldly, fighting back a smile as her trick seemed to work. She clenches her teeth theatrically, and snarls out, "I'd truly /appreciate/ it if you two would shift down to homid. /Please/." The last word sounds very much like a threat somehow.
Rogue shrinks back a little further, breathing heavily. It takes her a few moments, either to process what Melodie said, to remember that homid is a thing, or both, but eventually--with effort--she shrinks back down to her birth form. And then she pushes back the sleeve of her hoodie and /licks/ the bleeding holes where Sue bit her, then grimaces and spits to one side.
Stands-Between bares his teeth to Melodie, frightened, and backs up another two steps until he can't back up any further because there's a wall.
Twitch ducks back behind the wall to hide again. A beat after the elder has spoken, she cautiously pokes her head around again.
Melodie pauses, surprised when Rogue switches back down. "Oh! Nice to see you here, anyway. Um, let me deal with Sue first, try and breathe, okay?" She then turns her full attention to Stands-Between. "Hey. I dunno what exactly happened here, but the scary part's done now, okay?" Her tone has dropped back to a more normal, gentle, soothing sound. "Come on back, turn your brain back on, we're going to do something else for a while."
Ex licks her arm and spits again, then wraps both arms around herself. "He shouted and then he freaked the fuck out," she says, lowly. "He was going to go outside. Then he woke up and he freaked the fuck out /again/. He's making weird noises."
Stands-Between whines, very quietly, very lowly, his throat bared to Melodie, and then there's some recognition of who she is. ~Can we go outside?~ he asks, more quietly.
Ex gestures toward Stands-Between. "See?"
Twitch remains in the kitchen, head still just poking around the corner, watching.
Melodie nods to Stands-Between, "If you can manage to switch down to homid. We're pretty isolated, but not enough to run around in Crinos outside. We've got some work to do later, but for now, just do what you gotta do." She then turns to Ex. "Well, I'm not thrilled, but you held back from doing serious damage to him. Sometimes we've got to get our aggression out on each other. Stopping yourself before you lose it, that's actually a good thing for a young cub, with or without a nasty past." Poor Twitch remains ignored for now.
Stands-Between swings his head back and forth in a rough shake and crouches against the wall. He's still radiating fear, but also working on pulling his breathing to level, getting to where he can shift.
Ex scowls. "I didn't /do/ anything. We were just arguing. I just wanted him to stop--" she gestures at the metis again. "/That/."
Melodie bites her lower lip, looking at Sue out of the corner of her eye. "Well, here's how I see it. Every one of us here is a work in progress. You, him, her," she points down at Twitch, "Moros, April. Even me. I've just been working on it longer and figured out a few more tricks. The important part is, we try and work together and all get stronger."
Phoebe has arrived.
When Sue makes it back down to homid, he's still crouched, throat tipped back, and his breathing is ragged. He focuses on Melodie, and says, quietly. "Foxed. I'm sorry, Melodie-rhya." There's something in the tone that approaches /begging/, pleading, and still a lot of fear.
Ex starts to speak several times, but each time ends in a frustrated twist of her mouth. Eventually, she manages, "I just want him to see things other than himself."
Mule Deer-Wolf knows his place. This the lupus cub offers helpfully, still mostly hidden behind the wall. She ducks back a touch more, half obscuring her face behind the corner. One eye remains visible, still watching the three in the common area. Ran like prey and Porcupine caught him. Loud noises first, no sense. No sense. Like birds, squirrels, noises only.
A black shadow appears beyond the glass door to the back yard. The shadow grows vague, shifts, changes, and then a dirty, ragged young woman with matted hair a month's worth of grime and dirt slips in from the outside. Mel, if no one else, would recognize Phoebe, though perhaps it might take a moment. The young Fury ahroun takes in the crowd when she makes it to the common room and asks tentatively, "What's goin' on?"
Melodie gives Sue a sympathetic look. "I've done that. One time I nearly frenzied when we ran out of tampons. Broke the bathroom in the Farmhouse we had back then. Shit happens. But you might think about what Ex just said, try and see others points of views before you react. That's your homework." She then stops as Phoebe comes in, and a smile spreads across her face. "Pheebs! Hey, nice to see you! We were, apparently, testing our boundaries. It was educational, and we're going to try and not do it very often again."
Sue pays attention to what Melodie says, but the wolf-cub's comments have his attention, and there's an abrupt lurch in that direction that ends up with Sue falling flat on his face and scrambling to try and get up, but finding nothing to pull himself up /on/. Teeth are bared in Twitch's direction, and the metis snarls, loudly, hostile and aggression but not quite formed into words. The sounds are more lupine than human, though.
Thea has arrived.
Ex looks toward Melodie, and something in her posture seems to ease, just a little. Even when she turns a suspicious, uncertain look toward Phoebe, that tension doesn't return.
Thea comes in from outside, kicking off muddy boots and depositing them by the front door. "Whoa," she says, looking around.
Twitch's teeth show just a touch at Sue's sudden aggression, however hers is defensive rather than aggressive. Bad bad. No. Deer-Wolf stops. Pup good, no bite!
Phoebe had become guarded when she first came in--not knowing the situation or even some of the people gathered in the Fury house--but Melodie's words put the ahroun at ease, at least for the most part. She makes her way in further, continuing to take in the situation and the mood as best she can. She makes no comment except to nod in return to Melodie, and when Thea appears on the stairs, she says, "Hey Thea."
Thea offers Sue a hand, mutely.
Melodie gives Thea a little wave as well. "Hey, almost everyone's home tonight, neat! Oh, if you two haven't heard, I've stepped up and taken the Elder position. I'm sure KL's fine, but she hasn't been around in months. If you don't like it, well, you know what to do, but we've got a lot of young Furies right now, so you'd have to be nuts to want to take over." She gives a wry grin. "Oh, and this newest one is Ex, who was staying with the Walkers, but is here now for reasons I don't know yet, but I'm really glad she is." She points over towards Ex.
The aggression display towards Twitch doesn't stop, though it might be odd enough to hear Sue growling in homid. Eventually, a moment passes and he composes himself, accepting the hand up and getting to his feet, then quietly pointing out to Thea where his hiking pole has gotten too. Which is too far for Sue to get, himself.
Ex looks distracted now. She edges her way toward the sliding glass door, and mumbles, hands clenched, arms still wrapped around her torso, "I'm...visiting."
Twitch huffs at the Metis when his attention turns away, dismissing of what passed herself. She sidles around the wall, skirting past Sue and Ex to nose her way to Melodie to briefly greet before turning her attention on Phoebe.
Phoebe watches the exchange between Sue and Twitch, and then Thea. It's Ex that grabs her real attention, however. As the visitor to the Fury House comes a little closer, Phoe examines her more closely, keenly. She takes the comment as an opening to an introduction and follows accordingly. "I'm Phoebe. Fostern ahroun of the Furies. Called Life On the Line."
Melodie gives Ex a big smile. "I'm sure that ultimately, they'll let you decide your own path. Walkers just have to do things their own way. I'm sorry it's not as quick as I may have led you to believe, I really did try and talk to them, but we didn't see eye to eye. So we've got to have a little faith that, well, everyone means well and it'll all work out, just a little more slowly than I want." She shrugs. "It's hard to trust people that haven't had your best interests at heart in the past, but sometimes that's how we're tested, I guess. If I went in teeth bared, I'd /never/ get what I want." She sighs, clearly regretting knowing that. She's also positioning herself so that Thea and Sue are a little bit separated from the main circle of Furies, creating a sense of them having a little bit of space despite the number of people in the small room. And she gives Twitch a friendly scritch as she passes by.
Thea goes to get the stick, a flicker of worry in her glance as she looks to Ex. She hands off Sue's walking stick, and then goes to find a chair in a corner.
Sue looks around, a moment, glancing between everyone present, and then wanders to follow Thea, sitting on the floor near her feet. A pause, and he looks at Melodie. "Have you... have you heard from Zeke-rhya?" he asks, when there's a chance.
Ex eyes Phoebe sidelong, with part of her attention still on everyone else in the room. Her jaw works briefly. "Ex. Some people call me Rogue, too." Her gaze flicks back into the room, but quickly returns to the Ahroun. She makes a tight, agitated gesture with one gloved hand toward her. Minus the tension, it's fairly close to a general 'move' gesture.
Twitch presses her nose against Phoebe's legs as she snuffles, then turns back to Melodie at the scritching. Twisting back toward the elder, she settles to lean against the Adren.
Phoebe's lips quirk into a smile at the introduction. "Rogue?" she echoes, then adds a quiet, "Cool." The gesture is noticed, and for a moment Phoe doesn't react at all. But then, after a second, she slides to the side, allowing Ex access to the door if she wants it.
Thea looks over to Ex. "You wanna go for a run in the wolf, maybe?" she asks quietly.
Melodie turns her head, and shakes it negatively at Sue. "Not yet. But I mailed the letter off, so we'll just have to wait and see." She turns back to Ex. "Rogue? That's cool, I like that more. Like in that old Superhero movie, that hot chick that hung out with Wolverine!" She settles in against Twitch, giving her some physical affection in the way that wolves enjoy.
Sue sighs and takes a deep breath in, turning his focus inward and away from the rest of the Furies.
Ex shakes her head once. Instead, she sidles into the spot Phoebe left; with easy, immediate access to the outside, though her attention is still turned inward. She doesn't attempt to go through the door itself. "Who's Zekeria?"
Phoebe takes a step towards the stairs, but Ex's question brings her attention back around, again. The amusement returns to her expression. "Not Zekeria," she says, before repeating Sue's words with clear definition between the name and the honorific. "It's Zeke. Rhya. Rhya's one of our garou words. It's sort of like...a term of respect."
Twitch tilts her head back, muzzle lifting so she can sniff at the Fury elder. After a second or so, she angles her attention back to Phoebe and Ex, watching their movements. Noisy, she asides as a sigh. Her forepaws walk forward until she's laying on her belly. Like birds, always noisy.
Melodie nods along with Phoebe. "Yeah. You could call me Melodie-rhya if you want, but I don't much care. But Zeke, he was my teacher when I was a cub, and we've invited him to come visit and help us out with a few things. He's not a looker, but I bet you'll like him anyway, he's pretty wise."
Thea glances to Mel. "That's cool. Be good to have more of us around." She heads for the door, with a look over to Sue. "I'm going for a run."
Ex moves out of Thea's way, though not so much that she entirely vacates her position. Phoebe and Melodie both get a faint frown, but no verbal response.
Sue looks at Thea, and shakes his head, not getting up to follow, yet.
Thea opens the door and heads out to the front lawn.
Thea has left.
Phoebe continues studying Ex for several moments, her expression shifting from mild puzzlement to sincere intrigue. Eventually, her gaze is drawn away and redirected to Mel. "I'm going to get a shower and wash off the half ton of the valley that I brought home with me. Maybe later you and I can have a sit down and catch up?"
Melodie gives Phoebe a thumbs up. "Absolutely. Things are healthy here lately, it's really nice. Even if sometimes a little messy." She seems to sense Ex's unease. "A lot of Garou, especially those with a stronger connection to their wolf heritage, really like hierarchy and rules. And titles, and respect, and all that. I prefer to be more intuitive and inclusive in our tribe."
Ex wets her lips. "I don't." She's quiet, but there's more force behind her words than before. "There's too many fucking walls already."
Sue bites his lower lip, and then where he's sitting, shifts to lupus, curling to lay down, head on his front hooves and sprawling just a little, if still quite evidently uneasy.
Phoebe gives Ex one more look, then without saying anything more she disappears up the stairs and into the bathroom for a shower.
Phoebe heads up the stairs to the second floor.
Phoebe has left.
Melodie tilts her head at Ex's comment. "Want to go to the backyard? It's probably too dark for Archery, but we could, I dunno, do night Yoga, or just stargaze. Sometimes sitting on the grass looking up, it feels really right. And Twitch can understand that too, I bet."
Twitch huffs at Stands-Between again, ears twisting backward. Deer-Wolf mule. Be wolf, not like prey. Sick. Too much noise. Ape two-leg noise. Go and go and go. She lets out another breath and rolls onto her side. An ear flicks toward Melodie as her name is spoken, otherwise the words are largely ignored.
"Archery?" There's a gleam of interest from Ex, there and gone. "I mean...I mean rules. Expectations. People telling you what to do. They're all walls too."
There is a surprising speed with which the metis picks himself up and runs toward Twitch. Dominance creeps into his posture as he looks at Twitch, teeth bared, and then he turns to put the elder between himself and the cub. Twitch cub is WRONG, he insists.
Melodie pauses for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "There is a set of rules, which we call the Litany. We'll go over that later. But overall, I think we're a lot more free than normal humans. I want to help you, you know, find a path you want to follow, not cage you up. Maybe right now, I should just ask, what do you want to do?"
Twitch twists and pulls herself into a defensive posture, teeth baring again. Her hackles rise, a ridge forming in fur that travels down her spine. No, has an odd amount of venom to it, coming from the wolf born cub. Definitely not her own. Not wrong. Deer-wolf is wrong. Born wrong. Dirty, foul. Acts like prey. /Wrong/.
Ex gives Melodie a look that's confused and uncertain, though her temper flares right through it as she jerks her head toward Twitch and Sue. "For /fuck's/ sake. You're both being jackasses. /Knock it the fuck off/."
Stands-Between bumps into Melodie's leg a little and snaps, very aggressively at the wolfborn cub. Twitch needs to listen to herself, not her ancestors. Deer in the headlights is Garou! Metis are NOT sick!
Melodie sighs, and turns around to deal with the two she was ignoring. "Sue, you're emotionally worn out tonight. Hit the showers, or take a nap or walk or something." She turns to Twitch, and tries to speak in Mother's Tongue, which only sort of works in Homid. ~Metis not sick. Making Metis sick. Metis must... be best they be.~ She frowns a little, not quite having all the sounds she needs, though the human voice is good at mimicry is one is persistent.
Twitch growls, lips pulled fully away from her teeth and focus split between Ex and Sue. She nearly ignores Melodie as well, the hybrid forming of mother's tongue in a homid mouth is questionable enough that it's unclear how much the lupus cub understands. But at the elder's pause, she looks up at her.
Ex tells Melodie, with a faint frown, "I want to go places. I want to go outside, and be able to come back inside, and then go outside again. How far can I go?" She eyes Twitch and Sue. "And I want to hit people."
Stands-Between sticks relatively close to Melodie's legs, and there's a snap in Twitch's direction and then in Ex's direction too, before the metis twists his ears in acknowledgement. Will go. Will be at Edgewood. Come talk later? And then the metis circles around Melodie one more time, bumps into her hand, and heads for the front door of the house, the unblocked exit. Hiking pole is left, forgotten.
Ex abruptly bares her teeth and lunges toward Stands-Between, though she remains in homid and she doesn't go far enough to actually reach him. Still, the noise she makes in her throat doesn't sound very human.
Melodie is surprised, and steps between Ex and Stands-Between. "Whoa. Let him go, Rogue. We'll work on your hitting things desire a little later. If you play nice, I'm gonna say something you'll really like on the other thing. And I'll have to go over a few things with our wolf friend, but I'm just too worn out to figure out how to do that." She pulls her hair back frustratedly, despite being between two dangerous animals.
Twitch is drawn back to the Metis when he snaps in her direction. And unlike her fellow cub, she doesn't hold back. Instead, she lunges in full committal, snapping teeth to clamp around his tail. She misses, but barely. She stands, part way out the door, watching Stands-Between leave.
Ex continues showing her teeth toward where Sue departed for several moments after he's fully vacated the house. Eventually her upper lip lowers, and she looks toward Melodie, though the tension and temper remain, simmering away. "...I'm not going to run away," she says, eventually. "I heard you've got magic shit to find me."
Melodie is momentarily distracted by Twitch. "... Yeah, maybe more work there than I realized." She turns her attention back to Ex. "Yup, you got it. I trust you. Be back here by dawn, or we'll come looking for you. Go where you need to go, don't go calling anyone or anything. But if you want to get a slurpee, or run in the woods, or whatever, I trust you. And you really, deeply need some alone time. See you in the morning." She looks down at Twitch. "I still like you, but we're really going to have to learn some manners."
Ex stares at Melodie in utter disbelief. "...Oh. Okay. Uh. Who would I actually call?" She rubs the back of her neck furiously. "What's that other place? The Edgewood place? Is it close?"
Twitch's ears twist back at the talking behind her, but her attention remains outside for another long moment. With a gruff, throaty sound, she turns from the doorway and starts for Melodie. She pauses once, to look back, briefly, then sits again and regards the elder silently.
Melodie nods to Ex. "Sure. Give me a minute, and I'll walk with you and point it out. And then I'll come back here and take a nap, so, you can go there later or whatever. I'm gonna have a word in wolf-speak with Twitch." She then shifts back down to Lupus. Gosh, she's cute, being small. Twitch-cub. I know it is easy to see what is wrong with Metis, and we should not make them. But even they are of Gaia, and can do good. We must let them be free to be good, or we drive them out to the enemy. Does this make sense? Can you learn to treat them as tribe, or pack?
Twitch's ears twist back, again as if catching some sound behind her. Like prey, she seems to agree before her ears turn toward the elder again. Be wolf, not hide. Family pack needs wolf for hunting and protecting pups. Deer-Wolf safe, but too much hiding. Hide from Porcupine.
"Yeah," Ex says, seemingly in agreement with Twitch. That does seem to be the only thing she can manage to say, though. She looks thoroughly overwhelmed. She turns and moves for the stairs at a swift clip, where she retrieves her abandoned pencil and sketchbook.
Melodie listens patiently. Yes, he needs to learn to not be afraid. We're working on it. But he doesn't learn like a wolf, we have to be slow with him. He can't learn when he gets too scared, so best to let him go and tell him later. Males are weird.
Twitch does seem to agree with the oddness of males quite readily. Though one ear angles off as if listening to someone else yet again. Pup can. Listen. Yes. That ear joins its partner in facing the Philodox again. Teach Deer-Wolf wolf ways, not be like prey. Like pack.
Ex plucks up the sketchpad and sticks the pencil back behind her ear, then meanders, slower this time, back into the room with the others.
Melodie twitches an ear. Yes. That might help. We'll all try, and see what works. I am going to walk new girl to the house on the edge of the woods now, are you all good here? I am sorry that it is hard to talk with you when there are so many others around, still.
So much noise. It's almost complaint from the lupus cub. Almost. Then. Twitch stays? Goes to Shifting Briar and listens to not noise. But stays. Sees the Shrouded Arrow again?
Ex waits relatively patiently now. It helps that her attention seems to be focused on the two wolves, her forehead wrinkled and eyes slightly squinted.
Melodie thinks that sounds good. I will be back soon. It should be quiet here for a bit, enjoy it!
Melodie then shifts back to Homid. "Okay, let's go for a walk!"
Twitch looks at Ex, chuffing quietly at her in a far more pleasant tone. She turns away from the other cub without waiting for any reaction and starts up the stairs to find April's room.
Ex eyes Melodie briefly, then nods and turns for the door.
This woman looks young, early twenties at best, with a build that appears to be all bone and little muscle. Her face is all sharp angles, with pronounced cheekbones and a strong jaw, and might at one time have been considered mildly attractive; but now it's too severe, too lacking in even the slightest bit of softness. Old, long healed scars stretch from the corners of her mouth to the bottom of each ear, two neat and precise lines that only seem to add to her feature's sharpness. Another precise, thin scar is just barely visible below her hairline, stretching from one side of her forehead to the other. She has black hair, only an inch or so in length, growing rough and uneven; there's been no attempt whatsoever to tame it, and so bits stick out here and there where they will, especially around her ears. Her eyes are a striking ice-blue, but they seem almost feverishly bright, with a gaze that's uncomfortably intense even at the best of times.
She's wearing a slightly oversized grey hoodie which nevertheless seems to do little to hide her lack of curves. Like the rest of her clothing (non-descript jeans, cheap running shoes, plain socks), the material seems fairly new, but is already showing signs of wear, especially in the elbows. The only thing truly out of place about her clothing, however, are a pair of black gloves. She has her hoodie's sleeves pulled down over them to her wrists, so as not to show a scrap of skin on her hands or arms.
Greek House: Common Area(#2409RAJ$)
This is the central hub of the house. From here, you can still see the entrance foyer to the west, as well as the stairway that heads to the second story. Towards the eastern side of the common area is a set of glass doors that lead out to a courtyard. To the north, an arched doorway leads to what apparently serves as a less formal lounge, with a couch and an armchair, and to the south, an arched doorway leads to what appears to be a kitchen and dining area.
There are several chairs here, simple, elegant, yet functional in their design and intent. The room has a comfortable feel to it, but is a bit ascetic in design. The walls are off-white, the molding dark cherry wood and decorated with acanthus-leaf ornamentation at the corners. A pair of antique spears are hung crossed against each other on one wall, and a wall-relief depicting a scene of Grecian warriors hangs on the other. Above the mantle of the fireplace is a small statue of Artemis, on either side of that, dark metal candlesticks with ivory pillar candles. The entire room is a study in the contrast of light and dark.
Contents:
Thea
Wallchart
Obvious exits:
Downstairs Upstairs Courtyard Out
A large board, covered with paper. At the moment, it reads "KL's Big Challenge Planning Board" across the top. A marker pen on a length of string hangs from the side.
Quiet guitar music comes from the living room. A young woman with curly dark hair sits on the couch, curled around the instrument, head bent in concentration.
Ex meanders in from the direction of the bathroom (and wherever it was that she slept), looking bleary and rubbing at her eyes. She has an exceptional case of bed-head, and her clothes certainly look as though she slept in them, gloves included. Under one arm is a rather abused sketchbook, and stuck haphazardly behind one ear is a half run down charcoal pencil. The woman stops as she finds the source of the music, and frowns at Thea from the doorway.
It's hard to tell if the guitarist notices; maybe she doesn't. The flamenco goes on, spreading through the house.
Ex continues to frown at her; she seems disinclined to do anything else, just yet. The hand not holding her sketchpad curls repeatedly against her pantleg, and occasionally around the edge of the doorframe.
Finally it fades out, and Thea frowns a little herself as she silences the strings.
"Who're you?" Ex 'asks'. It sounds distinctly unfriendly.
Thea glances over, not quite startling but certainly surprised. She takes in the sight of the girl, and then rises, setting aside her guitar, leaning it on the couch. "I'm Thea," she says, in a voice that's mellow and pleasant, a low alto. She steps over, offering a hand. "Half-moon, of the Furies. You?"
Ex turns that frown on the offered hand. Her own, gloved hands remain at her sides. "X," she says. "Some people have been calling me Rogue too."
Thea turns the proffered hand smoothly into a gesture, her smile kindling further. "Cool. Like the X-men? That's awesome."
There's a faint, barely perceptible brightening. "Yeah," Ex says. "'Cause nobody fucking touches me."
Thea tips her head, watching the shifts of expression and posture. "Cool. Is that 'cause you don't want them to?"
"Yeah," Ex says again. She flexes her gloved hands, and then shoves them into her pockets. "I'm visiting, I guess."
Thea's smile deepens a little. "Oh... I don't live here," she says quietly. "So I'm just visiting too."
Sue has arrived.
Ex's eyes trace slowly over Thea's face. That frown of hers still hasn't gone away, but at least a lot of the suspicion has faded. "Where do you live?"
"Kent Crossing," Thea answers. "And the city, kinda."
"Kinda?" Ex echoes.
Thea smiles faintly. "As in, I have an apartment but I'm not there much."
Ex nods slightly. She doesn't say anything else. Her eyes go to the room, but there's a clear sense that she's still watching Thea in her peripheral vision, keeping track of her.
There's a knocking at the front door, then. Once, twice, sharp knocks and then silence.
Thea goes to get it, a swift smile dawning as she sees who's on the other side. "Hey," she offers. "W'sup?"
Ex vanishes around the doorframe and up several steps at the knock. She perches there, the sketchpad still under one arm, and narrows her eyes.
Sue hesitates even as the door's open, a rather nervous glance at the threshhold. He tightens his grip on the hiking pole, steps in, and skittish, glances back to the door. "Heya," Sue responds. "not much, came by to see how Ex is doing?"
Thea gives him a slightly helpless look, and lifts a shoulder. "C'mon in."
Ex shifts her weight on the steps, her lips pursing.
Sue steps in, and he walks slowly enough today, no actual hurry to get to where he can glance at Ex. "So," he says. "How're you doing today, Ex?"
Thea closes the door quietly, and looks over to the stairs.
"Just woke up," Ex says. Her tone is neutral, though her eyes are still hooded and narrow, and her head is turned toward the sound of Sue's voice.
Sue nods, shrugs, and doesn't press the question any further. "Alright," he says, instead, heading for the less formal sitting area, sitting down on the floor.
Thea's guitar is there, leaning against the couch. "So, ah." She glances to Sue. "You guys know each other?"
"Horse-feet guy's always at the other place," Ex says. The tone is less neutral now, though not accusatory.
"My name is Sue," the metis says, not quite snapping. "And as long as you are here you will call me by my name. Sue-rhya, Stands-Between-rhya, Deer-rhya even. But you will call me by my name, Ex."
"Respect is important," Thea agrees, her voice far milder by contrast. She leans against a wall, casually.
Ex's eyes narrow a little further. She doesn't say anything, not yet.
Sue clears his throat and pushes to his feet, sitting down for not very long at all, and looks at Ex. "But, you will call me by a name that I choose to be called by, rather than some name that you arbitrarily decide on. In fact, you will apply that to everyone here, in terms of how you address them..." There's a moment of discomfort, visible and then he pushes it away. "Do you understand me? This is the same as you told me not to call you 'kid'."
"...Horse-feet guy isn't respectful," Ex says slowly, in a tone of grudging agreement. She flicks her glance toward Sue. "Phil's better."
Sue clears his throat again, louder. "My name," he repeats, "is /Sue/. Or Stands-Between. Or Deer. You may pick one of those three."
Thea raises an eyebrow. "Phil?" she asks, glancing over to him.
Sue chews his lower lip, turning to watch Ex, though there's only a little bit of challenge and dominance in the gaze.
"Philoctetes!" Ex says, as if it were obvious. "It's /Greek/."
Thea nods minutely. "Okay, but..." She looks to Sue again, curious.
Sue doesn't look at all pleased, though his expression is still neutral. Just hard. "Ex," he states, volume up one pitch. "My name is Sue. It is the name I chose for myself, and what is _respectful_ is to acknowledge that and use that when you address me, or speak of me." There's another pause. "If you truly want to, there are people at my old Sept who called me Ioseph, but it isn't a name I choose for myself and I'm not fond of it."
Ex sounds a little bit combative now, though she remains on the stairs, and for all that she tries to glare back, she doesn't seem quite capable of meeting his eyes. "Sue's not respectful."
"If it's what he chooses," Thea says quietly, "then it *is*."
Sue raises his brows at Ex's words, and the glare doesn't /quite/ cease. But there's effort, and the metis tones the look down a little. "Why?" he asks her. "Explain why you think that?"
"It's a girl's name," Ex says, in that same, combative tone. "You're a guy. You're a guy with the Furies. They can deal."
Thea's eyebrows lift a little further. "I think I'll just... let you guys hash this out," she says dryly. "I need some air, anyway."
Sue shakes his head, swiftly. "I chose it," he explains. "I chose my own name, and they can deal with... me having a girl's name, too. Trust me, some of the daughters of Pegasus... aren't exactly thrilled with it." He takes a breath. "That's why some of them, at my old Sept, called me Ioseph, and Deer, even when I had chosen my name. But I chose Sue, and therefore you _will_ call me that."
Ex scowls darkly, and this time she's clearly challenging. "Why?"
Sue juts his chin up. "I chose it because I like the name," he says. "The end."
Ex shakes her head roughly. "No, why am I going to call you that?"
"Doesn't he have the right to make his own choices?" Thea says quietly. "You can *choose* not to pay any attention to what he wants, but..." She lifts a shoulder and lets it fall. "That has consequences too. I mean, how would you feel if I just decided to call you Rosie?"
The intensity of the glare from the metis increases, shoulders set in a tight line. Then Thea speaks, and there's a breath pulled in and he lets /her/ deal with it.
Ex's gaze moves to Thea, and then turns expectantly to Sue.
Sue chews his lower lip, chin jutting up still and no backing down in his posture. "Because it is, in fact, my choice as to my name," he says. "Because I want to be called by it, because I respond to it, and because, as we just said--respecting that choice and calling me what I ask to be called is the respectful option."
Twitch opens the glass doors and enters the house from the courtyard.
Twitch has arrived.
Thea's expression shows a flicker of pride. She picks up her guitar on the way across the room, and slips out into the courtyard.
Thea opens the glass doors and heads out into the courtyard.
Thea has left.
"Well, it's my choice what I call you," Ex returns. She watches Thea depart, then looks back to Sue. "So if you want me to be respectful, you better fucking look at me."
Sue has something to say for a moment, and then he doesn't, but his gaze doesn't depart from Ex. On the other hand, there's that still hard edge to it, and the little bits of dominance that he can dredge up in his posture. "And I gave you options as to what you may call me," he repeats, tone losing a bit of the patience. "You may call me Sue. Or Stands-Between, the name which I was rited to for my deeds. You may call me Deer. Or you may call me Ioseph, though I would truly prefer if you call me either Sue, or Stands-Between."
"Look. At. Me," Ex says slowly, with a decided bite. "I'm /here/. I'm a /person/. I need to fucking know shit. I'll call you Sue when you actually look at me like I'm actually here, instead of a piece of your kaleidoscope of problems and feelings."
The door to the courtyard cracks open a little, pushed aside by a nose and muzzle. Then a little further it swings, fur covered head and ears preceding the rest of a lupine body. The wolf's ears are set forward at the sounds of... conversation? Two-legged babbling that makes little sense, but the tone of it piques her interest.
Sue bites his lower lip, then takes a breath, and walks over to the bottom of the stairs to look up and at Ex. There's a bit of easing in his posture, less glaring, more observing... and he's silent for a long moment before he speaks. "I know that," he says. "I also know that you didn't /ask/ to trigger all of my problems, and it's unfair that you end up on the brunt end of it." He takes another breath in. "And I know you're a person. And I know what it feels like... to be treated as less than a person, but none of this makes it okay for you to ignore what I say to be called. Because that doesn't make it any easier to treat you as a person in return." Twitch gets a glance, fingers held down for the wolf cub to sniff at should she want to. "The wolf's Twitch. She's a cub here, wolf-born," Sue adds. There's a pause, and Sue continues, more quietly yet. "And every time you call me 'horse-feet guy', it pushes me towards where I'm just that metis cub that no one wants. Even though I'm not, anymore." Another pause. "Your turn, Ex."
"I don't care what's okay." Ex's gaze flicks several times toward Twitch as she speaks, though she's clearly still talking to Sue. "You do something for me, I do something for you. That's how the whole fucking world works. So you do /that/, and I'll call you whatever you want."
Twitch casts a passing glance at the fingers held her way, but continues forward until she's at the base of the stairs. Ears still drawn forward, she looks up at the young woman. Her forepaws move onto the bottom most step and her neck cranes, stretching to allow her to sniff at the stranger.
Sue bares his teeth at her. "You're not out in the rest of the 'whole fucking world'," Sue retorts, a hardness in his tone again. The profanity is clearly, clearly uncomfortable. "You're here right now. And you're going to play by the way things work /here/. It doesn't work the same here as it does out there."
"/No/!" Ex snaps at him, and then swiftly retreats three steps further upward. She smells of the city...somewhat. The tenement, certainly, and recent car exhaust. There's a faint hint of old blood, a small amount of self neglect, that persists in spite of stronger scents. "No orders, no 'because I said so', no leashes, no chairs, no schedule, no fucking questionaires! It won't fucking kill you to treat me like a human being."
Sue winces at Ex, and the metis takes a long, deep breath, before turning away from her. "No," he says. "The rules don't suddenly not exist for you, Ex. You are not in charge, here. You do NOT have the say-so." His voice echoes with rage, controlled. "You are, in fact, Garou, and a person, and I will treat you as such, but YOU MAY NOT BUCK THE RULES. You WILL submit to my authority, and that of EVERY OTHER FURY HERE." And then, after he's done raising his voice, the Fury panics, stumbling backward a few steps until he abruptly shifts to lupus, and takes off for the farther corner of the living room, the couch, anything he can hide under. The hiking pole clatters to the floor in his wake.
Twitch edges upward another couple of steps, continuing to snuffle in Ex's direction. The words, two-legged things, are largely ignored as the wolf might ignore the wind or the passage of a vehicle. She's cautious, however, mindful of distances, body showing wariness for the yelling if nothing else. Sue's abrupt change causes her to twist back and watch the Metis, a snort following his flight. Deer-wolf. Like prey, only sick.
Ex straightens, clearly for a rebuttal...and then that happens. She stares after the retreating metis, completely baffled.
Sue scrambles across the floor towards the coffee table, and then manages to worm his way half under it. His eyes are wide, his ears are back, teeth are bared, and it's easy to see the alarm and panic in the metis's body language.
Twitch lifts her head and looks up at Ex again, unsure of what to do about the foxing Metis as well. After a moment, she edges upward another couple of steps, closer now, to sniff at the girl's feet.
Ex pulls her shoes away from Twitch's nose, and eyes the other cub suspiciously. "Don't touch," she warns.
Stands-Between's ears twist towards the sound of Ex's voice, and it only serves to make the metis panic /more/, backing himself all the way under the table.
Twitch's head pulls back as soon as Ex moves, ears flattening slightly. She lets out a little bit of a whine, and her gaze lifts to the young woman again, tail lightly sweeping the stairs behind her.
Ex looks to Stands-Between, and then to Twitch, frowning. "Uh." She squares her shoulders a little, and tells Twitch, "Good."
Stands-Between pulls a little further into his hiding spot, lips curling back from his teeth, head down so his neck isn't exposed.
Twitch's tail stops wagging, head cocking to one side in question. Still no recognition for the words used, though after a beat, she takes another step toward Ex, and the tail sweeping resumes. Play?
Ex scoots another step upward. "No. Um. Bad. No."
Twitch turns and hops halfway down the few steps she'd risen. After stopping, she twists around to face Ex again, posturing excitement. Her tail arcs upward and she jumps down the last few steps to land in a play bow, chest against the ground and hind end in the air, facing the other cub. Her head lifts and she yammers, drawling in half note vocals.
Ex stares at Twitch in utter confusion. She looks to Sue for help, before remembering he's not in a state to be of any help whatsoever.
All of this commotion doesn't seem to be doing very much good for the panicking metis, either. He whines, loudly and almost threateningly, eyes widened.
Twitch hops up again and turns a full circle. Come! Play? Facing Ex again, she mock pounces toward the stairs, chuffing, and once her paws touch the bottom most step she bolts for the kitchen.
Ex calls after Twitch, "I don't want to!" but by that point she's already in the kitchen itself. The young woman sighs, nose wrinkling, and then looks back toward Stands-Between. "/You're/ fucking weird.
Stands-Between scoots further back, until he accidentally gets out from under the table. Which prompts another hasty scramble, and this time he ends up against a wall, head craning to look at Ex. There's that same wide-eyed, lips-curled, ears-back look of utter terror still, and wariness, and looking around for a better escape route.
Ex glowers at him for several minutes before she seems to come to some sort of a decision. She puts her sketchpad and pencil down, stands up, plods down the stairs, and, upon reaching the bottom, closes her eyes and clenches her fists. Crinos comes fairly easy, all things considered.
Rogue(#1291Pc)
As crinos go, this one is not quite so intimidating. She lacks in muscle mass and fails to achieve the kind of height many of her fellows do; it's a modest eight feet at best. Her fur is black, but looks somewhat unhealthy and uneven in length and thickness. Discolored grey fur marks a number of scars; not the wild gashes of battle, but rather thin, clinically neat. By far the largest and thickest stretches down from the middle of her chest to her abdomen, where it intersects with a smaller, horizontal scar that stretches from hip to hip. Two matching scars adorn each cheek, from the corner of her muzzle to the bottom of each ear, and another, nearly invisible, across her forehead. Her right forearm appears to bear some kind of marking, but against the dark fur and blue-black skin, it can't be easily made out. Ice-blue eyes, intense, smoldering with Rage, are the most noticeable feature at a distance.
The appearance of a crinos doesn't seem to help either, and the metis scrambles backwards along the wall, having spotted the glass doors to the courtyard still being open, then takes a dash for them. Out.
Rogue snarls and charges after the fleeing metis, fast but without finesse, attempting to cut him off or grab him before he can get outside.
With some effort, the cub does in fact manage to catch the metis. Stands-Between squirms, hooves kicking every which way and there is clear attack and trying to bite at his now captor. The only thing on his mind seems to be getting out of her grip and for the door.
Rogue manages to get a tight grip on the scruff of his neck, though nowhere else. When she feels teeth through the thick fur, she snarls again, and lifts him bodily right off of the ground, and away from her body, like someone might hold a smelly old sock. Her head turns, looking around for anything to help this situation. It's another few moments of consideration before she unceremoniously attempts to knock the squirming lupus's head hard against the ceiling.
There's a yowl and a screech, abject /terror/ quite audible in the lupine cries. One might think she's torturing him, not just banging the metis on the ceiling. And then suddenly, Stands-Between goes a little more limp, though still squirming and trying to flee.
Rogue huffs, grips him more tightly--she's actually trying to be mindful of his neck--and smacks him ceilingward again. Whump.
Twitch's head, through all this, has poked around the corner of the wall separating the kitchen from the rest of the common area. She watches with rapt interest, ears erect and eyes unblinking on the crinos manhandling the metis.
Abruptly, the metis is unconscious, and with that, reverts to his birth form. So instead of holding a lupus, Ex is left with the heavy weight of a crinos.
Rogue topples over, letting out a gruff sounding yelp at the sudden pull on her arm muscles. She has to work her claws free of his thick fur, and, once done, she scrambles backwards. There's no grace in her movements; they're thick and uncoordinated, if at least a little better than the average, raw cub's attempts. Breath puffs through her nostrils, the fur along her spine bristling faintly. Her scent and body language read as uncertain, and aggravated.
Twitch creeps forward, giving as much caution to Rogue as to Stands-Between. Sick, she asks, stretching her neck to sniff distantly at the Metis. Deer-Wolf? Sick? Reaching, she swats at the Cliath with a paw, toes curled to catch briefly.
Stands-Between is well and thoroughly unconscious for the moment, not even moving as Twitch swats him.
Rogue swats at Twitch in return, with the back of her large hand. She makes a noise that's unintelligible, but this time her body language manages to unconsciously pick up the slack. /No/.
Twitch scrambles backward, the Crinos hand just grazing her shoulder. She looks up at Rogue and lets out a whine, low tone sounding fairly apologetic. No biting, she pleads, tail tucking while she sidles forward and toward the other cub.
Rogue tilts her head at Twitch, one ear lifting than the other. Breath snuffles through her nose, and her tongue doesn't work the way she wants it to. Another huff. No, she repeats, less forcefully.
Pup good. Twitch's ears splay along with her promise, and not swatted at again, she sidles right up next to the other cub, shouldering companionably beside her. Watch. Deer-Wolf sick, sleeping. Her muzzle and gaze point toward the Cliath. See. Watch.
Rogue gives a jerk at the contact, and just refrains from another swat. /No/, she insists with a rumble. No touch.
The metis starts to stir, eyes opening, and when he spots Rogue still in crinos, there's a distinct amount of panic. If not the frenzied panic that had gripped Stands-Between, there's still a lot of fear there. He smells like fear, too, and tries to start to stand. His throat is bared, his entire posture screaming submission.
Twitch flinches, as if expecting a strike to come. But when nothing is thrown her way from the other cub, she relaxes, if inched slightly away from contact. Another whine follows insistence of being a good pup. Her ears snap forward when the Metis finally awakens, forelegs going stiff in surprise. No! Safe! Safesafe two-leg not wolf! Don't be sick! Not sick, Deer-Wolf!
Rogue angles her muzzle toward Twitch, and gives a very experimental sniff. Good, is her response. Good. And then Sue awakes, and all of her attention shifts to the metis, her nose still twitching. Her body language is, at first, baffled, and then something else pushes forward. When he stands, she stands too, ears erect, stance dominant.
Stands-Between backs up, away from Rogue. Out of her reach before he crouches to bare his throat, still scared. The way his gaze tracks over the room, however, suggests that he's not all the way present. ~Go away,~ he pleads. ~Go away.~
New cub. Twitch stands as well, tail sweeping. She takes a chance to sniff at Rogue before addressing the Metis again. Porcupine. Good cub, just new. Like Twitch pup. Sick not sick Deer-Wolf is safe here. So is Porcupine cub.
Rogue stares at Stands-Between, clearly baffled. She tilts her head, then looks down at Twitch.
Stands-Between doesn't move, except to further bare his neck. The pleading continues, though it's wordless now, and very, very scared.
Twitch looks up at Rogue, tail wagging again. Good pup. Not bad pup. Her ears flick back and she looks at Stands-Between again. Porcupine should be two legs? And Deer-Wolf should be two-legs? Yes yes. She noses, without touching, toward Rogue, prompting. Two legs, like ape.
Melodie comes down the stairs from the second floor.
Melodie has arrived.
Rogue rumbles, deep in her throat. The noise tells more of frustration than anger, though in this form, her Rage is palpable even in the best of moods. Her ears flick back, and then, with another look toward Stands-Between, forward. She stands up straighter, jaws parting, and huffs in his direction. /My/ way. Mine.
~Go away, go away,~ the metis repeats, louder this time. ~I didn't do anything go away.~
Twitch whines again, circling around the two. No no. Not wolves safe. Porcupine good, not bad. Deer-Wolf knows his place. Mule should be in two legs. Porcupine in two legs. Stop stop stop.
Suddenly, the door is thrust open, and the very small figure of the current Fury elder storms in. She does not look happy. "Why are there..." She looks between Stands-Between and Rogue, and puffs herself up, raising her voice very loudly. "WHY ARE THERE FUCKING CRINOS IN MY FUCKING LIVING ROOM! Stand DOWN, RIGHT NOW!" Her eyes look murderous, though the very perceptive might notice a flicker of doubt behind them.
Rogue's ears go completely flat, and she cringes away, not so much from Sue as from Melodie's sudden entrance. Her fur bristles all the further, but any sign of dominance has been replaced by alarm and confusion.
Stands-Between's attention and focus shifts to Melodie, but it takes a moment for the metis to recognise her, and all of the submission is turned in her direction. Throat bared, ears back, entire body tucked into a crouch. ~Go away,~ he pleads. ~Let me out let me go.~ The residual panic is evident.
Twitch startles at the sudden explosive and angry tone from the Fury elder, twisting around to look with ears pinned to her head and tail fully tucked and touching her belly. She slinks backward a step, then skulks back into the kitchen, once more her head just peeking around the corner of the wall to observe.
Melodie steps forward boldly, fighting back a smile as her trick seemed to work. She clenches her teeth theatrically, and snarls out, "I'd truly /appreciate/ it if you two would shift down to homid. /Please/." The last word sounds very much like a threat somehow.
Rogue shrinks back a little further, breathing heavily. It takes her a few moments, either to process what Melodie said, to remember that homid is a thing, or both, but eventually--with effort--she shrinks back down to her birth form. And then she pushes back the sleeve of her hoodie and /licks/ the bleeding holes where Sue bit her, then grimaces and spits to one side.
Stands-Between bares his teeth to Melodie, frightened, and backs up another two steps until he can't back up any further because there's a wall.
Twitch ducks back behind the wall to hide again. A beat after the elder has spoken, she cautiously pokes her head around again.
Melodie pauses, surprised when Rogue switches back down. "Oh! Nice to see you here, anyway. Um, let me deal with Sue first, try and breathe, okay?" She then turns her full attention to Stands-Between. "Hey. I dunno what exactly happened here, but the scary part's done now, okay?" Her tone has dropped back to a more normal, gentle, soothing sound. "Come on back, turn your brain back on, we're going to do something else for a while."
Ex licks her arm and spits again, then wraps both arms around herself. "He shouted and then he freaked the fuck out," she says, lowly. "He was going to go outside. Then he woke up and he freaked the fuck out /again/. He's making weird noises."
Stands-Between whines, very quietly, very lowly, his throat bared to Melodie, and then there's some recognition of who she is. ~Can we go outside?~ he asks, more quietly.
Ex gestures toward Stands-Between. "See?"
Twitch remains in the kitchen, head still just poking around the corner, watching.
Melodie nods to Stands-Between, "If you can manage to switch down to homid. We're pretty isolated, but not enough to run around in Crinos outside. We've got some work to do later, but for now, just do what you gotta do." She then turns to Ex. "Well, I'm not thrilled, but you held back from doing serious damage to him. Sometimes we've got to get our aggression out on each other. Stopping yourself before you lose it, that's actually a good thing for a young cub, with or without a nasty past." Poor Twitch remains ignored for now.
Stands-Between swings his head back and forth in a rough shake and crouches against the wall. He's still radiating fear, but also working on pulling his breathing to level, getting to where he can shift.
Ex scowls. "I didn't /do/ anything. We were just arguing. I just wanted him to stop--" she gestures at the metis again. "/That/."
Melodie bites her lower lip, looking at Sue out of the corner of her eye. "Well, here's how I see it. Every one of us here is a work in progress. You, him, her," she points down at Twitch, "Moros, April. Even me. I've just been working on it longer and figured out a few more tricks. The important part is, we try and work together and all get stronger."
Phoebe has arrived.
When Sue makes it back down to homid, he's still crouched, throat tipped back, and his breathing is ragged. He focuses on Melodie, and says, quietly. "Foxed. I'm sorry, Melodie-rhya." There's something in the tone that approaches /begging/, pleading, and still a lot of fear.
Ex starts to speak several times, but each time ends in a frustrated twist of her mouth. Eventually, she manages, "I just want him to see things other than himself."
Mule Deer-Wolf knows his place. This the lupus cub offers helpfully, still mostly hidden behind the wall. She ducks back a touch more, half obscuring her face behind the corner. One eye remains visible, still watching the three in the common area. Ran like prey and Porcupine caught him. Loud noises first, no sense. No sense. Like birds, squirrels, noises only.
A black shadow appears beyond the glass door to the back yard. The shadow grows vague, shifts, changes, and then a dirty, ragged young woman with matted hair a month's worth of grime and dirt slips in from the outside. Mel, if no one else, would recognize Phoebe, though perhaps it might take a moment. The young Fury ahroun takes in the crowd when she makes it to the common room and asks tentatively, "What's goin' on?"
Melodie gives Sue a sympathetic look. "I've done that. One time I nearly frenzied when we ran out of tampons. Broke the bathroom in the Farmhouse we had back then. Shit happens. But you might think about what Ex just said, try and see others points of views before you react. That's your homework." She then stops as Phoebe comes in, and a smile spreads across her face. "Pheebs! Hey, nice to see you! We were, apparently, testing our boundaries. It was educational, and we're going to try and not do it very often again."
Sue pays attention to what Melodie says, but the wolf-cub's comments have his attention, and there's an abrupt lurch in that direction that ends up with Sue falling flat on his face and scrambling to try and get up, but finding nothing to pull himself up /on/. Teeth are bared in Twitch's direction, and the metis snarls, loudly, hostile and aggression but not quite formed into words. The sounds are more lupine than human, though.
Thea has arrived.
Ex looks toward Melodie, and something in her posture seems to ease, just a little. Even when she turns a suspicious, uncertain look toward Phoebe, that tension doesn't return.
Thea comes in from outside, kicking off muddy boots and depositing them by the front door. "Whoa," she says, looking around.
Twitch's teeth show just a touch at Sue's sudden aggression, however hers is defensive rather than aggressive. Bad bad. No. Deer-Wolf stops. Pup good, no bite!
Phoebe had become guarded when she first came in--not knowing the situation or even some of the people gathered in the Fury house--but Melodie's words put the ahroun at ease, at least for the most part. She makes her way in further, continuing to take in the situation and the mood as best she can. She makes no comment except to nod in return to Melodie, and when Thea appears on the stairs, she says, "Hey Thea."
Thea offers Sue a hand, mutely.
Melodie gives Thea a little wave as well. "Hey, almost everyone's home tonight, neat! Oh, if you two haven't heard, I've stepped up and taken the Elder position. I'm sure KL's fine, but she hasn't been around in months. If you don't like it, well, you know what to do, but we've got a lot of young Furies right now, so you'd have to be nuts to want to take over." She gives a wry grin. "Oh, and this newest one is Ex, who was staying with the Walkers, but is here now for reasons I don't know yet, but I'm really glad she is." She points over towards Ex.
The aggression display towards Twitch doesn't stop, though it might be odd enough to hear Sue growling in homid. Eventually, a moment passes and he composes himself, accepting the hand up and getting to his feet, then quietly pointing out to Thea where his hiking pole has gotten too. Which is too far for Sue to get, himself.
Ex looks distracted now. She edges her way toward the sliding glass door, and mumbles, hands clenched, arms still wrapped around her torso, "I'm...visiting."
Twitch huffs at the Metis when his attention turns away, dismissing of what passed herself. She sidles around the wall, skirting past Sue and Ex to nose her way to Melodie to briefly greet before turning her attention on Phoebe.
Phoebe watches the exchange between Sue and Twitch, and then Thea. It's Ex that grabs her real attention, however. As the visitor to the Fury House comes a little closer, Phoe examines her more closely, keenly. She takes the comment as an opening to an introduction and follows accordingly. "I'm Phoebe. Fostern ahroun of the Furies. Called Life On the Line."
Melodie gives Ex a big smile. "I'm sure that ultimately, they'll let you decide your own path. Walkers just have to do things their own way. I'm sorry it's not as quick as I may have led you to believe, I really did try and talk to them, but we didn't see eye to eye. So we've got to have a little faith that, well, everyone means well and it'll all work out, just a little more slowly than I want." She shrugs. "It's hard to trust people that haven't had your best interests at heart in the past, but sometimes that's how we're tested, I guess. If I went in teeth bared, I'd /never/ get what I want." She sighs, clearly regretting knowing that. She's also positioning herself so that Thea and Sue are a little bit separated from the main circle of Furies, creating a sense of them having a little bit of space despite the number of people in the small room. And she gives Twitch a friendly scritch as she passes by.
Thea goes to get the stick, a flicker of worry in her glance as she looks to Ex. She hands off Sue's walking stick, and then goes to find a chair in a corner.
Sue looks around, a moment, glancing between everyone present, and then wanders to follow Thea, sitting on the floor near her feet. A pause, and he looks at Melodie. "Have you... have you heard from Zeke-rhya?" he asks, when there's a chance.
Ex eyes Phoebe sidelong, with part of her attention still on everyone else in the room. Her jaw works briefly. "Ex. Some people call me Rogue, too." Her gaze flicks back into the room, but quickly returns to the Ahroun. She makes a tight, agitated gesture with one gloved hand toward her. Minus the tension, it's fairly close to a general 'move' gesture.
Twitch presses her nose against Phoebe's legs as she snuffles, then turns back to Melodie at the scritching. Twisting back toward the elder, she settles to lean against the Adren.
Phoebe's lips quirk into a smile at the introduction. "Rogue?" she echoes, then adds a quiet, "Cool." The gesture is noticed, and for a moment Phoe doesn't react at all. But then, after a second, she slides to the side, allowing Ex access to the door if she wants it.
Thea looks over to Ex. "You wanna go for a run in the wolf, maybe?" she asks quietly.
Melodie turns her head, and shakes it negatively at Sue. "Not yet. But I mailed the letter off, so we'll just have to wait and see." She turns back to Ex. "Rogue? That's cool, I like that more. Like in that old Superhero movie, that hot chick that hung out with Wolverine!" She settles in against Twitch, giving her some physical affection in the way that wolves enjoy.
Sue sighs and takes a deep breath in, turning his focus inward and away from the rest of the Furies.
Ex shakes her head once. Instead, she sidles into the spot Phoebe left; with easy, immediate access to the outside, though her attention is still turned inward. She doesn't attempt to go through the door itself. "Who's Zekeria?"
Phoebe takes a step towards the stairs, but Ex's question brings her attention back around, again. The amusement returns to her expression. "Not Zekeria," she says, before repeating Sue's words with clear definition between the name and the honorific. "It's Zeke. Rhya. Rhya's one of our garou words. It's sort of like...a term of respect."
Twitch tilts her head back, muzzle lifting so she can sniff at the Fury elder. After a second or so, she angles her attention back to Phoebe and Ex, watching their movements. Noisy, she asides as a sigh. Her forepaws walk forward until she's laying on her belly. Like birds, always noisy.
Melodie nods along with Phoebe. "Yeah. You could call me Melodie-rhya if you want, but I don't much care. But Zeke, he was my teacher when I was a cub, and we've invited him to come visit and help us out with a few things. He's not a looker, but I bet you'll like him anyway, he's pretty wise."
Thea glances to Mel. "That's cool. Be good to have more of us around." She heads for the door, with a look over to Sue. "I'm going for a run."
Ex moves out of Thea's way, though not so much that she entirely vacates her position. Phoebe and Melodie both get a faint frown, but no verbal response.
Sue looks at Thea, and shakes his head, not getting up to follow, yet.
Thea opens the door and heads out to the front lawn.
Thea has left.
Phoebe continues studying Ex for several moments, her expression shifting from mild puzzlement to sincere intrigue. Eventually, her gaze is drawn away and redirected to Mel. "I'm going to get a shower and wash off the half ton of the valley that I brought home with me. Maybe later you and I can have a sit down and catch up?"
Melodie gives Phoebe a thumbs up. "Absolutely. Things are healthy here lately, it's really nice. Even if sometimes a little messy." She seems to sense Ex's unease. "A lot of Garou, especially those with a stronger connection to their wolf heritage, really like hierarchy and rules. And titles, and respect, and all that. I prefer to be more intuitive and inclusive in our tribe."
Ex wets her lips. "I don't." She's quiet, but there's more force behind her words than before. "There's too many fucking walls already."
Sue bites his lower lip, and then where he's sitting, shifts to lupus, curling to lay down, head on his front hooves and sprawling just a little, if still quite evidently uneasy.
Phoebe gives Ex one more look, then without saying anything more she disappears up the stairs and into the bathroom for a shower.
Phoebe heads up the stairs to the second floor.
Phoebe has left.
Melodie tilts her head at Ex's comment. "Want to go to the backyard? It's probably too dark for Archery, but we could, I dunno, do night Yoga, or just stargaze. Sometimes sitting on the grass looking up, it feels really right. And Twitch can understand that too, I bet."
Twitch huffs at Stands-Between again, ears twisting backward. Deer-Wolf mule. Be wolf, not like prey. Sick. Too much noise. Ape two-leg noise. Go and go and go. She lets out another breath and rolls onto her side. An ear flicks toward Melodie as her name is spoken, otherwise the words are largely ignored.
"Archery?" There's a gleam of interest from Ex, there and gone. "I mean...I mean rules. Expectations. People telling you what to do. They're all walls too."
There is a surprising speed with which the metis picks himself up and runs toward Twitch. Dominance creeps into his posture as he looks at Twitch, teeth bared, and then he turns to put the elder between himself and the cub. Twitch cub is WRONG, he insists.
Melodie pauses for a moment, collecting her thoughts. "There is a set of rules, which we call the Litany. We'll go over that later. But overall, I think we're a lot more free than normal humans. I want to help you, you know, find a path you want to follow, not cage you up. Maybe right now, I should just ask, what do you want to do?"
Twitch twists and pulls herself into a defensive posture, teeth baring again. Her hackles rise, a ridge forming in fur that travels down her spine. No, has an odd amount of venom to it, coming from the wolf born cub. Definitely not her own. Not wrong. Deer-wolf is wrong. Born wrong. Dirty, foul. Acts like prey. /Wrong/.
Ex gives Melodie a look that's confused and uncertain, though her temper flares right through it as she jerks her head toward Twitch and Sue. "For /fuck's/ sake. You're both being jackasses. /Knock it the fuck off/."
Stands-Between bumps into Melodie's leg a little and snaps, very aggressively at the wolfborn cub. Twitch needs to listen to herself, not her ancestors. Deer in the headlights is Garou! Metis are NOT sick!
Melodie sighs, and turns around to deal with the two she was ignoring. "Sue, you're emotionally worn out tonight. Hit the showers, or take a nap or walk or something." She turns to Twitch, and tries to speak in Mother's Tongue, which only sort of works in Homid. ~Metis not sick. Making Metis sick. Metis must... be best they be.~ She frowns a little, not quite having all the sounds she needs, though the human voice is good at mimicry is one is persistent.
Twitch growls, lips pulled fully away from her teeth and focus split between Ex and Sue. She nearly ignores Melodie as well, the hybrid forming of mother's tongue in a homid mouth is questionable enough that it's unclear how much the lupus cub understands. But at the elder's pause, she looks up at her.
Ex tells Melodie, with a faint frown, "I want to go places. I want to go outside, and be able to come back inside, and then go outside again. How far can I go?" She eyes Twitch and Sue. "And I want to hit people."
Stands-Between sticks relatively close to Melodie's legs, and there's a snap in Twitch's direction and then in Ex's direction too, before the metis twists his ears in acknowledgement. Will go. Will be at Edgewood. Come talk later? And then the metis circles around Melodie one more time, bumps into her hand, and heads for the front door of the house, the unblocked exit. Hiking pole is left, forgotten.
Ex abruptly bares her teeth and lunges toward Stands-Between, though she remains in homid and she doesn't go far enough to actually reach him. Still, the noise she makes in her throat doesn't sound very human.
Melodie is surprised, and steps between Ex and Stands-Between. "Whoa. Let him go, Rogue. We'll work on your hitting things desire a little later. If you play nice, I'm gonna say something you'll really like on the other thing. And I'll have to go over a few things with our wolf friend, but I'm just too worn out to figure out how to do that." She pulls her hair back frustratedly, despite being between two dangerous animals.
Twitch is drawn back to the Metis when he snaps in her direction. And unlike her fellow cub, she doesn't hold back. Instead, she lunges in full committal, snapping teeth to clamp around his tail. She misses, but barely. She stands, part way out the door, watching Stands-Between leave.
Ex continues showing her teeth toward where Sue departed for several moments after he's fully vacated the house. Eventually her upper lip lowers, and she looks toward Melodie, though the tension and temper remain, simmering away. "...I'm not going to run away," she says, eventually. "I heard you've got magic shit to find me."
Melodie is momentarily distracted by Twitch. "... Yeah, maybe more work there than I realized." She turns her attention back to Ex. "Yup, you got it. I trust you. Be back here by dawn, or we'll come looking for you. Go where you need to go, don't go calling anyone or anything. But if you want to get a slurpee, or run in the woods, or whatever, I trust you. And you really, deeply need some alone time. See you in the morning." She looks down at Twitch. "I still like you, but we're really going to have to learn some manners."
Ex stares at Melodie in utter disbelief. "...Oh. Okay. Uh. Who would I actually call?" She rubs the back of her neck furiously. "What's that other place? The Edgewood place? Is it close?"
Twitch's ears twist back at the talking behind her, but her attention remains outside for another long moment. With a gruff, throaty sound, she turns from the doorway and starts for Melodie. She pauses once, to look back, briefly, then sits again and regards the elder silently.
Melodie nods to Ex. "Sure. Give me a minute, and I'll walk with you and point it out. And then I'll come back here and take a nap, so, you can go there later or whatever. I'm gonna have a word in wolf-speak with Twitch." She then shifts back down to Lupus. Gosh, she's cute, being small. Twitch-cub. I know it is easy to see what is wrong with Metis, and we should not make them. But even they are of Gaia, and can do good. We must let them be free to be good, or we drive them out to the enemy. Does this make sense? Can you learn to treat them as tribe, or pack?
Twitch's ears twist back, again as if catching some sound behind her. Like prey, she seems to agree before her ears turn toward the elder again. Be wolf, not hide. Family pack needs wolf for hunting and protecting pups. Deer-Wolf safe, but too much hiding. Hide from Porcupine.
"Yeah," Ex says, seemingly in agreement with Twitch. That does seem to be the only thing she can manage to say, though. She looks thoroughly overwhelmed. She turns and moves for the stairs at a swift clip, where she retrieves her abandoned pencil and sketchbook.
Melodie listens patiently. Yes, he needs to learn to not be afraid. We're working on it. But he doesn't learn like a wolf, we have to be slow with him. He can't learn when he gets too scared, so best to let him go and tell him later. Males are weird.
Twitch does seem to agree with the oddness of males quite readily. Though one ear angles off as if listening to someone else yet again. Pup can. Listen. Yes. That ear joins its partner in facing the Philodox again. Teach Deer-Wolf wolf ways, not be like prey. Like pack.
Ex plucks up the sketchpad and sticks the pencil back behind her ear, then meanders, slower this time, back into the room with the others.
Melodie twitches an ear. Yes. That might help. We'll all try, and see what works. I am going to walk new girl to the house on the edge of the woods now, are you all good here? I am sorry that it is hard to talk with you when there are so many others around, still.
So much noise. It's almost complaint from the lupus cub. Almost. Then. Twitch stays? Goes to Shifting Briar and listens to not noise. But stays. Sees the Shrouded Arrow again?
Ex waits relatively patiently now. It helps that her attention seems to be focused on the two wolves, her forehead wrinkled and eyes slightly squinted.
Melodie thinks that sounds good. I will be back soon. It should be quiet here for a bit, enjoy it!
Melodie then shifts back to Homid. "Okay, let's go for a walk!"
Twitch looks at Ex, chuffing quietly at her in a far more pleasant tone. She turns away from the other cub without waiting for any reaction and starts up the stairs to find April's room.
Ex eyes Melodie briefly, then nods and turns for the door.
