"Excellent thing to not do."
Jul. 22nd, 2012 08:00 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
renferretEx meets Tim more officially, meets Alexandra without frenzying, and then nearly gets herself killed when she meets April. Two out of three ain't bad (yes it is).
Edgewood House: Meadow(#1390RJh)
A long, hard-packed dirt road winds almost a mile through the forest off Sunrise Road, eventually opening out into a small front yard, and coming to a stop in front of a large house, which may be the very definition of ramshackle. The house is not visible from the road, nor can one hear anything but perhaps a gunshot. Its foundation and general structure are solid, but its once crisp grey-and-white paint needs updating, and some of the trim is having trouble staying attached. A fixer upper, one might say. Off to the left, there's a former garage, long since converted into something of an in-law apartment. A connecting flyover attaches it to the second floor of the house.
There are no fences surrounding either the front or back yards. In the rear of the property, the yard (larger than in the front) eventually comes up against a well built garden, with the very beginnings of sprouts. Shaded and obscured by surrounding trees, there is a small (but deep) natural pond, with a chuckling brook leading out of it, into the woods. There's a rope swing hanging from one of the trees. The yard to the southeast of the property stretches on for a time, and then is eaten by woods, into which there may or may not be a path; it apparently fades away quickly. There's a certain looming feel to these woods.
Contents:
Tim
Obvious exits:
Narrow Path Sunrise Road Front Door Barn/Garage
Ex stands in the rough middle of the meadow, looking a mixture of uncertain and faintly pleased. She has a poorly treated sketchbook under one arm, and there's a half used pencil stuck haphazardly behind one ear. Her hair, what there is of it, is sticking out at odd angles in a wondrous example of bed-head, though the cub doesn't look tired.
Tim comes out onto the porch with a mug of tea (something citrus and spice and sweet, to sharper noses) in one hand and a book covered in Devanagiri script in the other. Someone--maybe him?--has taken the time to light a few citronella and eucalyptus candles and set them around the porch to ward off the more annoying bugs. Sans jacket and hoodie, the huge rattlesnake tattoo in bold black, red, green, and blue is hard to miss as it meanders up his left arm; his t-shirt is white and appears to be for a local brewery. He spots Ex as soon as he moves to sit, and pauses, sipping from his tea. "Hey," he says, sounding noncommittal.
Ex turns her head at the voice. She squints in Tim's direction, and then takes a few hesitant steps toward him, followed by ones that are a little more certain, and a little faster. When she comes closer, her eyes obviously focus far more on the tattoo than his face, and her head tilts a little to regard it more carefully.
Having another drink of tea is the only move Tim makes. "They finally let you out of that fine, gated community in the city?"
"Kind've," Ex replies. Her eyes don't leave the tattoo. After a moment, she lifts her gloved right hand, and reaches toward Tim's arm, though she doesn't touch; more traces her fingers in the air over it, slowly and thoughtfully. "Visiting the Furies. The cheerful girl said I could go where I wanted, if I was back by morning."
Tim remains still, posed just so without a single tremor. He thinks about that desccription, mouthing, 'Cheerful girl', then tries, "Chandini? Melodie?" He sounds quite hopeful when saying the first name.
Ex lets her hand drop to her side, and shakes her head at the first name. "Melodie."
Tim sighs, and moves to have a seat. He sets the book aside (it's creased in numerous pages, and has scraps of paper sticking out here and there, more script scrawled on them in bold red and black), along with his tea. "Ah well. I can hope. But Mel's good people, so."
Tim: Er, in numerous *places*
Ex studies the book for a few moments. Eventually she looks back to Tim. "What are you?"
Tim arches an eyebrow at Ex as he settles into the old, creaky chair. "I'm Tim," he supplies, eyes twinkling. "Unless you mean, what Tribe or something like that."
"Yeah," Ex says. "Everyone comes with a bunch of titles and shit. What are yours?"
"You really wanna hear them?" Tim looks like he expects the answer is no, but continues anyways. "Tim, from Owl's Tribe. Golden in other forms. In--" He stops, looks a little sad, then shrugs it off. "Mostly still Packed under Dragonfly. Adren." He fortifies himself with some tea. "You said you were called Ex? Like the letter?"
Tim: Oh, he left out auspice. Well maybe he's being a twit.
Tim: /s/maybe/definitely
Ex nods once, and then, with an air of sharing, she pulls up her hoodie sleeve so that Tim can see, tattooed neatly on the inside of her forearm in black, 'X75V-31'.
Tim leans in and peers at the tattoo, taking care not to invade Ex's personal space as he does so. He leans back and looks at her, frowning; a hundred questions flit behind his eyes. "Does that, ah, have anything to do with why you're a cub still? I mean, you said your First was sometime around 14? And now you look like you're past High School age. So..." His expression invites a story but doesn't necessarily expect one.
Ex shrugs unhelpfully. "I guess so. I keep saying I haven't signed on for your war thing yet, but it doesn't seem to matter much."
Tim takes that in, looking thoughtful. "How did you wind up at the Walkers's joyful abode? They find you somewhere and drag you in?" His eyes fall on his own tea mug. "Oh and since I wasn't born in a fucking barn, did you want something? Tea, beer, smoke..."
"Fezzik kidnapped me." Ex says it rather matter-of-fact. She considers Tim's tea, then shakes her head.
"Fezzik? Don't think I know who that is. But we don't all get to know each other super well." Tim shrugs that aside. "So you had a Frenzy in public, that sort of thing?"
Ex hesitates. "I...guess? I don't remember. I didn't eat anyone."
"Excellent thing to not do." Tim nods in confirmation this was, in fact, a good thing, that people were not eaten. "Anyone figured out your auspice? What moon you were born under?"
For this, Tim earns yet another shrug. "The Bitch said it was new moon? I don't know what that means."
"The...Bitch." Tim looks like he's sure that *isn't* said Garou's actual name, but doesn't ask further. "New moon, right. Hey, I was born under a new moon, so we've got that in common, and basically nothing else." He raises his mug in a salute, swirls the tea, and has a drink. "So, you're not sure you're going to sign on? What else would you do?"
Ex shakes her head. "I don't know. But I don't want to go die for some cult war."
Tim taps on the side of his mug. "What about saving the world?"
Ex squints at Tim, one eye narrower than the other, clearly a little skeptical. "Saving the world?"
"Well yeah, I mean if it was just some cult thing I could see your point. But it's not a war between cults, it's a war to stop bad shit from destroying," Tim indicates the meadow with his free hand, and maybe by extension much more, "everything. I mean think about it--the oceans and rivers and lakes are polluted to hell, cities are paving over the wilderness so fast that wilderness only exists if people *will* it to, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer..." He pauses, and adds, "That's what we're at war with. All of that."
Ex gives the most minute shake of her head. "How do you go to war with /that/?"
"Same way you make war on anything. You try to get to the source." Tim makes a thrusting gesture. "Try to understand it, stop it, root it out, and clean up anything left. Problem is, we--I mean, us, the Garou--don't agree on how to do it. Hell even Garou in the same Tribe don't, necessarily."
There's another tiny headshake. "The source is people being stupid assholes. Stupid assholes full of /shit/." There's fire in that last sentence, even if it is pretty juvenile.
Tim tilts his head at Ex. "But why are they stupid assholes? Is something drawing them into stupidity and assholery?" He sets his tea aside. "We think there is. And that's what we fight--the thing behind all of that."
Ex's jaw works a little. "I dunno. I think they just are."
"I'll grant you some of them *are* just like that. But not all of them." Tim laughs; it's a bitter sound. "It would be easier, in a lot of ways, if it was just some people are dicks and some aren't. Take care of the dicks and then it's solved, right? Even if there's a lot of them, over a few millenia, you'd get it taken care of." He shakes his head. "But that's not how it works. We've got a name for the thing we think is doing the Corrupting, and that's what we fight." He clears his throat. "Unfortunately we were made by Luna to do exactly that, and I'm sure even beofre you had your First you'd heard all about what wars do to the people fighting them."
Ex's eyes wander away from Tim now, seeking out his tattoo instead. "Some, I guess," she says, a little quieter. "You're talking about the worm thing."
Tim nods. "That's what we call the Corruptor," he confirms. "We believe that's why shit is so incredibly bad. We're trying to fight it, and stop it from destroying Gaia. The world."
Ex exhales slowly, causing her nostrils to flare. She folds her arms over her chest, sketchbook included. "That sounds really weird," she tells him.
"I guess it probably does if you've gone through," Tim nods at her arm, maybe meaning her tattoo, "whatever gave you that. I'd already turned into a werewolf and back by the time they laid all of that on me, and I mean--was anyone else going to give me a *better* explanation?" He raises his eyebrows.
"Yes," Ex says, calmly. "Or anyway, it'd make more sense. You wouldn't like it at all."
Tim thinks about that, then looks down at his watch. "Well, look, you feel like telling me some time in the future? Lay it on me. Unfortunately," he nods out to the north, "I've got some business to attend to just now." He starts to get up, then hesitates. "Did Mel, ah, warn you about the plants?" He gestures out towards the forest.
"Pl...ants?" Ex echoes, slowly. "Kavi said something was wrong out here. What plants?"
Tim grunts. "Yeah. Thorns, mostly--brambles." He gestures out towards the wild, teeming woods with his now-cold mug of tea. "The plants out there, around the forest's edge? They're possessed right now. They will fuck you up if you get too close, so just, steer clear. If you're dying to get near them, take an adult with you." He pauses, maybe aware of the ludicrosity of what he's just said, and explains, "I mean, someone who's not a cub, not, you know, someone older than you, since most of the cliaths aren't older than you and definitely aren't 'adults'..." He stops babbling and squints at her. "Just make sure someone's with you. We've had people get hurt pretty badly by them."
"Someone responsible?" Ex says. "Sure. Okay."
"Responsible would be great, but you might have to settle for 'not a cub'," Tim says, and rolls his eyes in exasperation at whomever he's thinking of. "There's food and drink in the house, and you can sleep in the garage or any room that's not taken. No shifting inside."
Ex looks up at the house itself, once it's mentioned. Her eyes narrow faintly, and she studies it with an echo of the intent she studied Tim's tattoo. "Okay," she says again.
Tim surveys Ex one last time, then fetches his book. As he heads into the house, he says over his shoulder, "Road rise to meet you." A minute later, the back door can be heard opening and shutting, but no sound or sight betrays where he went.
Ex has taken up a spot on the house's steps, lounging with one knee bent and the other leg stretched out. She looks relatively relaxed--relatively. That palpable tension that surrounds her at all times has not gone away, but she's in the process of drawing something in a rather abused looking sketchbook with a pencil that's half worn down, using the light from the porch to see by. Whatever she's drawing, the motions are rough and heavy.
April has arrived.
A small white light appears from the direction of the street. Too small to be a car or motorcycle, and there's no sound of an engine, either. As it gets closer to the house, it becomes more clear that it's a headlight attached to a mountain bike. The girl riding it slows and comes to a stop in front of the house, dismounting and removing her helmet. Alexandra looks a little surprised to see Ex sitting on the steps, but despite the frenzy of the last time they met, her greeting isn't unfriendly. "Hey. They move you out to Edgewood full time, or are you just visiting with one of your elders?"
Along the tree line near the direction of the bawn, Shifting Briar moves along carefully. She avoids as best she can, the foliage that abounds the place, her wolf body lending the dexterity to get by so close to the trees. Silent and fairly slow, she moves along as if inspecting, slowly coming along the side where she can see the front of Edgewood.
Ex's pencil comes to a stop once she becomes aware of the approaching light, and she watches it carefully up until Alexandra removes her helmet. There's no change to the young woman's expression, no sign of anger or relief at the recognition. "I'm visiting the Furies," is her reply. "The cheerful girl said I could go where I wanted, if I was back by morning."
Alexandra says, "It must be nice getting to be out and about some after being confined to the Tenement." A short pause, and then she adds, "I never got to complement you after last time. You did an excellent job of concealing your intention to attack prior to leaping. That's a useful skill to have, though you'll be more dangerous when you can do it while also keeping control."
Shifting Briar keeps pacing the treeline until the movement of others by the house catches her attention. A last glance towards the shadowy interior of the forest is given before she veers off and pads towards the small gathering. Her steps are easy going as she takes her time to give the others a chance to see her as she approaches.
Ex's forehead wrinkles a little. "What do you mean?" She does notice Shifting Briar fairly soon after the Fury leaves the shadow of the trees, and she peers over in that direction. Her drawing is forgotten in her lap, for the moment.
Alexandra glances over in the direction that Ex looks, offering the wolf a nod of greeting, though she turns back to Ex. "When you frenzy, you're dangerous, but the rage is controlling you. You attack any enemy that gets in your way. You wanted to come at me, but when Devon and Kavi got in the way, I didn't matter anymore. If you control the rage, instead, then you can still pick the enemy you want to attack, and you can choose the best way to attack them even when conditions change."
Shifting Briar slows her pace as she gets closer and shifts up to homid to approach the rest of the way. "One should always be careful when those are around. I do hope that no one got injured." She states, looking from one to the other.
Ex gives a few, tiny nods. "Kavi was teaching me how to fight. I'm going to ask Fezzik next. He looks like he could fight /anything/." She's distracted again by April. The newcomer gets a careful, faintly suspicious looking over.
Alexandra shakes her head and tells April, "Nothing that wouldn't heal quickly, at least." To Ex, she says, "Learning from multiple teachers is a very good idea. Fezzik?"
"Good." April replies before frowning a little at the looks from Ex. "Multiple teachers can be a good thing." She agrees before adding, "As long as they do right by you."
Ex nods at the question. "Yeah. He's a giant. He looks like he could snap trees in half with just his fingers." She looks up at April, unintentionally echoing the frown. "Kavi was a good teacher."
"That could describe a couple of the Get I know and one Fury who I just met the other day," Alexandra notes. Rather than address the issue of Kavi directly, she adds, "It sounds like your giant will have a very different style of fighting, which is the important part."
"Well, you're entitled to you opinion on that one." April murmurs before shaking her head. "Only giant I know around here is Moros." She eyes Ex a little more. "Are you the one visiting the Furies?"
"Yeah," Ex says. "Him." To the second question, she also nods, but then she looks from Alexandra to April, and focuses on the latter. "Has Kavi ever trained /you/?"
Alexandra asks April, "You've never met Owen-rhya or Jamethon-rhya? Both of them are about the same size as Moros." She takes a moment to walk her bike over to the side of the porch -- the one farthest from April and Ex, just to be safe -- and props it there, hanging her helmet on the handlebars.
April smiles a little, "I've met both, and you're right, both are fairly large." she remarks with a nod of her head as she remembers the two. She looks back to Ex then and her smile turns into a smirk. "He wishes he could train me, though after our last talk, I think he'd rather rip me in two and call it training."
Ex lifts her chin to look up at April. "If he's never trained you, how can you have an opinion on whether he's a good teacher or not?" She looks toward Alexandra. "Who're they?"
Alexandra says "Jamethon-rhya is an Adren Get of Fenris Theurge and the Groundskeeper of the sept, or will be again once we have the bawn back. Owen-rhya is an Adren Ahroun Get, and their Jarl -- that's what they call their tribal elder. They have different names for the auspices, too, but I don't know those."
April rolls her eyes a little, "Because I watch how he works with those he does supposedly train. But I'm not going to get into that. As I said, you're entitled to your opinion." She looks to Alexandra as the two adren are explained.
Ex sighs up at Alexandra. "You know what I just heard? Jamethonria is words words words Owenria blah words blah blah. How many crazy words do you people /have/?" Her eyes flick back to April. She's quiet for a moment, and then she says, directly, "It's not my opinion, it's my /experience/. Don't fucking badmouth Kavi."
Alexandra frowns slightly, though it's concern rather than anger. "Yeah, there's a lot of new words -- you have to learn one entirely new language, and communicating as a wolf takes some getting used to -- but you haven't been taught the ranks and tribes yet?"
April raises a brow as she hears Ex. "I've not even begun to badmouth the man, and I don't intend to start with you around here." she states, a frown slowly forming. "I think I'll leave you to your lessons."
Ex doesn't respond to Alexandra. She looks down at the drawing in her lap--and then the next moment she's sprung up, swinging a fist toward April's nose. The action is clearly Rage-fueled, because it's blindingly fast--but she's not shifting. No frenzy. The sketchbook goes tumbling off to one side, penciled pages flapping. Alexandra might get a glimpse of twisting, thorny vines on the page she was working on.
For her part, Alexandra makes no move to intervene. The Shadow Lord Ahroun leans against the rail of the porch and watches quietly.
April staggers back a couple steps as the cub strikes. What was left of a decent mood though, heads right out of the area as she regains her balance. The cub might not shift, but the angry Theurge who's moon is in the sky does. She takes a single step back towards Ex, swinging her large clawed hand in a backhanded swipe at the cub!
Ex catches the blow full on in the chest, and there's what might be the crack of several ribs as she flies several feet backwards into the porch steps, and then rolls to the ground. The young woman wheezes where she lands; there's a flash of teeth, but no explosion from her. Instead, the wheezing turns into a weak, maddened sort of laugh, short and brittle. "Now /you/ have a little experience too." She lifts her head; her eyes, usually feverishly bright, are practically gleaming.
Daphne emerges from the garage through the simple wooden door.
Daphne has arrived.
Alexandra is apparently no longer content to remain on the sidelines, blurring into crinos to interpose herself between the angry Fostern and the cub, studying the Fostern to get a better feel for her intentions. ~You want to approach her, you take homid first. Otherwise I assume you're planning to finish what you just started and attack.~
A car drives up toward the house, headlights flashing, wheels on gravel making that familiar sound.
Shifting Briar glares towards the cub as she starts to laugh and then growls as the other steps into her way. ~The cub struck, time the cub learns.~ she replies. SHe stands her ground where she is, but keeps her crinos form as she waits for the one blocking her way to move.
Ex, meanwhile, eases into glabro with painstaking slowness. It takes obvious effort; she's clearly still learning basic shifting. She turns her head and looks down, watching and listening as her bones start to knit back together.
Seeks-Raging-Water shows no sign of moving. ~Actions have consequences. I've got no problem with that. But you're not doing it the warform on your moon against a cub that hasn't shifted. You shift down, I stand aside.~
Shifting Briar flexes her clawed hands as she considers the words from the crinos before her. ~It would drive home the lesson better like this.~ she grumbles, seeming to weigh the options of trying to get to the cub past the Ahroun.
A moment later, the car's engine stops--the vehicle halting some thirty yards up the driveway, as the too-large figures become obvious.
Those bright, annoying headlights vanish abruptly.
Ex returns to homid once she judges the damage healed, though she's rather unsteady as she attempts to clamber up the porch steps to retrieve her sketchbook.
Seeks-Raging-Water considers that a moment. ~Take glabro, then. Do what you need to do, if she can even still move after that, and order her not to shift until you allow it. Still gets your point across.~ The car, especially once the headlights are darkened, gets ignored.
A leggy figure gets out of the car and heads down the drive, toward the house. The pace is decidedly cautious.
Shifting Briar is silent for a long moment. ~You defend her, you become responsible. Take her home before she gets herself killed.~ she grows towards Seeks-Raging-Water. A last glance is given towards the cub past the crinos as well she can without leaning too far before she turns, still in crinos, to face the one who would step closer to such a scene.
Ex tucks the battered sketchbook under her arm, and the pencil back behind her ear. Only then does she turn to stare briefly and uncomprehendingly at the two crinos, followed by the approaching figure.
Daphne halts, a little wild-eyed as the beast turns to face her. She stops, then, still at a distance of twenty yards or so; her gaze focuses past the Fury, to the one human. "Ex?" she calls out uncertainly. "You okay?"
Seeks-Raging-Water looks a bit confused at that. ~Why would I take her to the Vault? She's not a Shadow Lord. I'm not entirely clear whether the Glass Walkers or the Black Furies are claiming her at this point. I defended her because I saw a cub in homid being attacked by a Fostern in crinos -- that's not a lesson, it's a slaughter. I would hope that you'd have done the same if our places were reversed. My understanding is that the Black Furies are supposed to be the _protectors_ of women.~ And then her attention turns to this new voice.
Shifting Briar glances back towards the crinos with a growl after those words before looking back towards Daphne. Slowly, she shifts down to Glabro as she approaches towards the woman. "She'll be fine." she states, words still a bit harsh with her lingering anger.
Ex picks herself up now, still a little wobbly. ""But you see, Meg," she mutters quietly, "just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist." If she heard Daphne's question, she doesn't respond to it.
Daphne takes several hurried steps backward before she recognizes the woman. "Okay, I'm going I-- I'm going--"
With April now in glabro, Seeks-Raging-Water relaxes enough to begin to shift down as well, returning to her birth form. "You're safe. At least if it was me you were worrying about," she calls out toward Daphne. Turning her attention to Ex, she says, "You and I should go inside. She's welcome to join us, if you'd like her to."
April pauses a moment to face Daphne. "Just go inside. It's dangerous out here tonight." she states, almost with a sigh before she turns her steps away from the others once more and starts down the drive.
Daphne's brow furrows in confusion, as she studies the Glabro and begins to recognize... "April?" she asks in that rasping voice.
Ex holds up a finger to Alexandra. Her forehead wrinkles. "As the skipping rope hit the pavement, so did the ball." She pauses, then continues the muttered...whatever she's muttering. "As the rope curved over the head of the jumping child, the child with the ball caught the ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers." The young woman breathes, then turns for the door. "Okay."
Alexandra's brow furrows in confusion, no recognition of what it might be that she's quoting, if indeed it is a quote of anything, but she doesn't interrupt it. Once it's clear that Ex is agreeing to go in, though, she starts for the door herself.
April motions back towards the house without slowing or turning again. "Go inside, Daphne." she calls back as she continues to walk. Before long, she starts to run and then shifts to her lupus form to better run off in between the trees and back towards the Fury House.
Edgewood House: Meadow(#1390RJh)
A long, hard-packed dirt road winds almost a mile through the forest off Sunrise Road, eventually opening out into a small front yard, and coming to a stop in front of a large house, which may be the very definition of ramshackle. The house is not visible from the road, nor can one hear anything but perhaps a gunshot. Its foundation and general structure are solid, but its once crisp grey-and-white paint needs updating, and some of the trim is having trouble staying attached. A fixer upper, one might say. Off to the left, there's a former garage, long since converted into something of an in-law apartment. A connecting flyover attaches it to the second floor of the house.
There are no fences surrounding either the front or back yards. In the rear of the property, the yard (larger than in the front) eventually comes up against a well built garden, with the very beginnings of sprouts. Shaded and obscured by surrounding trees, there is a small (but deep) natural pond, with a chuckling brook leading out of it, into the woods. There's a rope swing hanging from one of the trees. The yard to the southeast of the property stretches on for a time, and then is eaten by woods, into which there may or may not be a path; it apparently fades away quickly. There's a certain looming feel to these woods.
Contents:
Tim
Obvious exits:
Narrow Path Sunrise Road Front Door Barn/Garage
Ex stands in the rough middle of the meadow, looking a mixture of uncertain and faintly pleased. She has a poorly treated sketchbook under one arm, and there's a half used pencil stuck haphazardly behind one ear. Her hair, what there is of it, is sticking out at odd angles in a wondrous example of bed-head, though the cub doesn't look tired.
Tim comes out onto the porch with a mug of tea (something citrus and spice and sweet, to sharper noses) in one hand and a book covered in Devanagiri script in the other. Someone--maybe him?--has taken the time to light a few citronella and eucalyptus candles and set them around the porch to ward off the more annoying bugs. Sans jacket and hoodie, the huge rattlesnake tattoo in bold black, red, green, and blue is hard to miss as it meanders up his left arm; his t-shirt is white and appears to be for a local brewery. He spots Ex as soon as he moves to sit, and pauses, sipping from his tea. "Hey," he says, sounding noncommittal.
Ex turns her head at the voice. She squints in Tim's direction, and then takes a few hesitant steps toward him, followed by ones that are a little more certain, and a little faster. When she comes closer, her eyes obviously focus far more on the tattoo than his face, and her head tilts a little to regard it more carefully.
Having another drink of tea is the only move Tim makes. "They finally let you out of that fine, gated community in the city?"
"Kind've," Ex replies. Her eyes don't leave the tattoo. After a moment, she lifts her gloved right hand, and reaches toward Tim's arm, though she doesn't touch; more traces her fingers in the air over it, slowly and thoughtfully. "Visiting the Furies. The cheerful girl said I could go where I wanted, if I was back by morning."
Tim remains still, posed just so without a single tremor. He thinks about that desccription, mouthing, 'Cheerful girl', then tries, "Chandini? Melodie?" He sounds quite hopeful when saying the first name.
Ex lets her hand drop to her side, and shakes her head at the first name. "Melodie."
Tim sighs, and moves to have a seat. He sets the book aside (it's creased in numerous pages, and has scraps of paper sticking out here and there, more script scrawled on them in bold red and black), along with his tea. "Ah well. I can hope. But Mel's good people, so."
Ex studies the book for a few moments. Eventually she looks back to Tim. "What are you?"
Tim arches an eyebrow at Ex as he settles into the old, creaky chair. "I'm Tim," he supplies, eyes twinkling. "Unless you mean, what Tribe or something like that."
"Yeah," Ex says. "Everyone comes with a bunch of titles and shit. What are yours?"
"You really wanna hear them?" Tim looks like he expects the answer is no, but continues anyways. "Tim, from Owl's Tribe. Golden in other forms. In--" He stops, looks a little sad, then shrugs it off. "Mostly still Packed under Dragonfly. Adren." He fortifies himself with some tea. "You said you were called Ex? Like the letter?"
Ex nods once, and then, with an air of sharing, she pulls up her hoodie sleeve so that Tim can see, tattooed neatly on the inside of her forearm in black, 'X75V-31'.
Tim leans in and peers at the tattoo, taking care not to invade Ex's personal space as he does so. He leans back and looks at her, frowning; a hundred questions flit behind his eyes. "Does that, ah, have anything to do with why you're a cub still? I mean, you said your First was sometime around 14? And now you look like you're past High School age. So..." His expression invites a story but doesn't necessarily expect one.
Ex shrugs unhelpfully. "I guess so. I keep saying I haven't signed on for your war thing yet, but it doesn't seem to matter much."
Tim takes that in, looking thoughtful. "How did you wind up at the Walkers's joyful abode? They find you somewhere and drag you in?" His eyes fall on his own tea mug. "Oh and since I wasn't born in a fucking barn, did you want something? Tea, beer, smoke..."
"Fezzik kidnapped me." Ex says it rather matter-of-fact. She considers Tim's tea, then shakes her head.
"Fezzik? Don't think I know who that is. But we don't all get to know each other super well." Tim shrugs that aside. "So you had a Frenzy in public, that sort of thing?"
Ex hesitates. "I...guess? I don't remember. I didn't eat anyone."
"Excellent thing to not do." Tim nods in confirmation this was, in fact, a good thing, that people were not eaten. "Anyone figured out your auspice? What moon you were born under?"
For this, Tim earns yet another shrug. "The Bitch said it was new moon? I don't know what that means."
"The...Bitch." Tim looks like he's sure that *isn't* said Garou's actual name, but doesn't ask further. "New moon, right. Hey, I was born under a new moon, so we've got that in common, and basically nothing else." He raises his mug in a salute, swirls the tea, and has a drink. "So, you're not sure you're going to sign on? What else would you do?"
Ex shakes her head. "I don't know. But I don't want to go die for some cult war."
Tim taps on the side of his mug. "What about saving the world?"
Ex squints at Tim, one eye narrower than the other, clearly a little skeptical. "Saving the world?"
"Well yeah, I mean if it was just some cult thing I could see your point. But it's not a war between cults, it's a war to stop bad shit from destroying," Tim indicates the meadow with his free hand, and maybe by extension much more, "everything. I mean think about it--the oceans and rivers and lakes are polluted to hell, cities are paving over the wilderness so fast that wilderness only exists if people *will* it to, the rich are getting richer and the poor poorer..." He pauses, and adds, "That's what we're at war with. All of that."
Ex gives the most minute shake of her head. "How do you go to war with /that/?"
"Same way you make war on anything. You try to get to the source." Tim makes a thrusting gesture. "Try to understand it, stop it, root it out, and clean up anything left. Problem is, we--I mean, us, the Garou--don't agree on how to do it. Hell even Garou in the same Tribe don't, necessarily."
There's another tiny headshake. "The source is people being stupid assholes. Stupid assholes full of /shit/." There's fire in that last sentence, even if it is pretty juvenile.
Tim tilts his head at Ex. "But why are they stupid assholes? Is something drawing them into stupidity and assholery?" He sets his tea aside. "We think there is. And that's what we fight--the thing behind all of that."
Ex's jaw works a little. "I dunno. I think they just are."
"I'll grant you some of them *are* just like that. But not all of them." Tim laughs; it's a bitter sound. "It would be easier, in a lot of ways, if it was just some people are dicks and some aren't. Take care of the dicks and then it's solved, right? Even if there's a lot of them, over a few millenia, you'd get it taken care of." He shakes his head. "But that's not how it works. We've got a name for the thing we think is doing the Corrupting, and that's what we fight." He clears his throat. "Unfortunately we were made by Luna to do exactly that, and I'm sure even beofre you had your First you'd heard all about what wars do to the people fighting them."
Ex's eyes wander away from Tim now, seeking out his tattoo instead. "Some, I guess," she says, a little quieter. "You're talking about the worm thing."
Tim nods. "That's what we call the Corruptor," he confirms. "We believe that's why shit is so incredibly bad. We're trying to fight it, and stop it from destroying Gaia. The world."
Ex exhales slowly, causing her nostrils to flare. She folds her arms over her chest, sketchbook included. "That sounds really weird," she tells him.
"I guess it probably does if you've gone through," Tim nods at her arm, maybe meaning her tattoo, "whatever gave you that. I'd already turned into a werewolf and back by the time they laid all of that on me, and I mean--was anyone else going to give me a *better* explanation?" He raises his eyebrows.
"Yes," Ex says, calmly. "Or anyway, it'd make more sense. You wouldn't like it at all."
Tim thinks about that, then looks down at his watch. "Well, look, you feel like telling me some time in the future? Lay it on me. Unfortunately," he nods out to the north, "I've got some business to attend to just now." He starts to get up, then hesitates. "Did Mel, ah, warn you about the plants?" He gestures out towards the forest.
"Pl...ants?" Ex echoes, slowly. "Kavi said something was wrong out here. What plants?"
Tim grunts. "Yeah. Thorns, mostly--brambles." He gestures out towards the wild, teeming woods with his now-cold mug of tea. "The plants out there, around the forest's edge? They're possessed right now. They will fuck you up if you get too close, so just, steer clear. If you're dying to get near them, take an adult with you." He pauses, maybe aware of the ludicrosity of what he's just said, and explains, "I mean, someone who's not a cub, not, you know, someone older than you, since most of the cliaths aren't older than you and definitely aren't 'adults'..." He stops babbling and squints at her. "Just make sure someone's with you. We've had people get hurt pretty badly by them."
"Someone responsible?" Ex says. "Sure. Okay."
"Responsible would be great, but you might have to settle for 'not a cub'," Tim says, and rolls his eyes in exasperation at whomever he's thinking of. "There's food and drink in the house, and you can sleep in the garage or any room that's not taken. No shifting inside."
Ex looks up at the house itself, once it's mentioned. Her eyes narrow faintly, and she studies it with an echo of the intent she studied Tim's tattoo. "Okay," she says again.
Tim surveys Ex one last time, then fetches his book. As he heads into the house, he says over his shoulder, "Road rise to meet you." A minute later, the back door can be heard opening and shutting, but no sound or sight betrays where he went.
Ex has taken up a spot on the house's steps, lounging with one knee bent and the other leg stretched out. She looks relatively relaxed--relatively. That palpable tension that surrounds her at all times has not gone away, but she's in the process of drawing something in a rather abused looking sketchbook with a pencil that's half worn down, using the light from the porch to see by. Whatever she's drawing, the motions are rough and heavy.
April has arrived.
A small white light appears from the direction of the street. Too small to be a car or motorcycle, and there's no sound of an engine, either. As it gets closer to the house, it becomes more clear that it's a headlight attached to a mountain bike. The girl riding it slows and comes to a stop in front of the house, dismounting and removing her helmet. Alexandra looks a little surprised to see Ex sitting on the steps, but despite the frenzy of the last time they met, her greeting isn't unfriendly. "Hey. They move you out to Edgewood full time, or are you just visiting with one of your elders?"
Along the tree line near the direction of the bawn, Shifting Briar moves along carefully. She avoids as best she can, the foliage that abounds the place, her wolf body lending the dexterity to get by so close to the trees. Silent and fairly slow, she moves along as if inspecting, slowly coming along the side where she can see the front of Edgewood.
Ex's pencil comes to a stop once she becomes aware of the approaching light, and she watches it carefully up until Alexandra removes her helmet. There's no change to the young woman's expression, no sign of anger or relief at the recognition. "I'm visiting the Furies," is her reply. "The cheerful girl said I could go where I wanted, if I was back by morning."
Alexandra says, "It must be nice getting to be out and about some after being confined to the Tenement." A short pause, and then she adds, "I never got to complement you after last time. You did an excellent job of concealing your intention to attack prior to leaping. That's a useful skill to have, though you'll be more dangerous when you can do it while also keeping control."
Shifting Briar keeps pacing the treeline until the movement of others by the house catches her attention. A last glance towards the shadowy interior of the forest is given before she veers off and pads towards the small gathering. Her steps are easy going as she takes her time to give the others a chance to see her as she approaches.
Ex's forehead wrinkles a little. "What do you mean?" She does notice Shifting Briar fairly soon after the Fury leaves the shadow of the trees, and she peers over in that direction. Her drawing is forgotten in her lap, for the moment.
Alexandra glances over in the direction that Ex looks, offering the wolf a nod of greeting, though she turns back to Ex. "When you frenzy, you're dangerous, but the rage is controlling you. You attack any enemy that gets in your way. You wanted to come at me, but when Devon and Kavi got in the way, I didn't matter anymore. If you control the rage, instead, then you can still pick the enemy you want to attack, and you can choose the best way to attack them even when conditions change."
Shifting Briar slows her pace as she gets closer and shifts up to homid to approach the rest of the way. "One should always be careful when those are around. I do hope that no one got injured." She states, looking from one to the other.
Ex gives a few, tiny nods. "Kavi was teaching me how to fight. I'm going to ask Fezzik next. He looks like he could fight /anything/." She's distracted again by April. The newcomer gets a careful, faintly suspicious looking over.
Alexandra shakes her head and tells April, "Nothing that wouldn't heal quickly, at least." To Ex, she says, "Learning from multiple teachers is a very good idea. Fezzik?"
"Good." April replies before frowning a little at the looks from Ex. "Multiple teachers can be a good thing." She agrees before adding, "As long as they do right by you."
Ex nods at the question. "Yeah. He's a giant. He looks like he could snap trees in half with just his fingers." She looks up at April, unintentionally echoing the frown. "Kavi was a good teacher."
"That could describe a couple of the Get I know and one Fury who I just met the other day," Alexandra notes. Rather than address the issue of Kavi directly, she adds, "It sounds like your giant will have a very different style of fighting, which is the important part."
"Well, you're entitled to you opinion on that one." April murmurs before shaking her head. "Only giant I know around here is Moros." She eyes Ex a little more. "Are you the one visiting the Furies?"
"Yeah," Ex says. "Him." To the second question, she also nods, but then she looks from Alexandra to April, and focuses on the latter. "Has Kavi ever trained /you/?"
Alexandra asks April, "You've never met Owen-rhya or Jamethon-rhya? Both of them are about the same size as Moros." She takes a moment to walk her bike over to the side of the porch -- the one farthest from April and Ex, just to be safe -- and props it there, hanging her helmet on the handlebars.
April smiles a little, "I've met both, and you're right, both are fairly large." she remarks with a nod of her head as she remembers the two. She looks back to Ex then and her smile turns into a smirk. "He wishes he could train me, though after our last talk, I think he'd rather rip me in two and call it training."
Ex lifts her chin to look up at April. "If he's never trained you, how can you have an opinion on whether he's a good teacher or not?" She looks toward Alexandra. "Who're they?"
Alexandra says "Jamethon-rhya is an Adren Get of Fenris Theurge and the Groundskeeper of the sept, or will be again once we have the bawn back. Owen-rhya is an Adren Ahroun Get, and their Jarl -- that's what they call their tribal elder. They have different names for the auspices, too, but I don't know those."
April rolls her eyes a little, "Because I watch how he works with those he does supposedly train. But I'm not going to get into that. As I said, you're entitled to your opinion." She looks to Alexandra as the two adren are explained.
Ex sighs up at Alexandra. "You know what I just heard? Jamethonria is words words words Owenria blah words blah blah. How many crazy words do you people /have/?" Her eyes flick back to April. She's quiet for a moment, and then she says, directly, "It's not my opinion, it's my /experience/. Don't fucking badmouth Kavi."
Alexandra frowns slightly, though it's concern rather than anger. "Yeah, there's a lot of new words -- you have to learn one entirely new language, and communicating as a wolf takes some getting used to -- but you haven't been taught the ranks and tribes yet?"
April raises a brow as she hears Ex. "I've not even begun to badmouth the man, and I don't intend to start with you around here." she states, a frown slowly forming. "I think I'll leave you to your lessons."
Ex doesn't respond to Alexandra. She looks down at the drawing in her lap--and then the next moment she's sprung up, swinging a fist toward April's nose. The action is clearly Rage-fueled, because it's blindingly fast--but she's not shifting. No frenzy. The sketchbook goes tumbling off to one side, penciled pages flapping. Alexandra might get a glimpse of twisting, thorny vines on the page she was working on.
For her part, Alexandra makes no move to intervene. The Shadow Lord Ahroun leans against the rail of the porch and watches quietly.
April staggers back a couple steps as the cub strikes. What was left of a decent mood though, heads right out of the area as she regains her balance. The cub might not shift, but the angry Theurge who's moon is in the sky does. She takes a single step back towards Ex, swinging her large clawed hand in a backhanded swipe at the cub!
Ex catches the blow full on in the chest, and there's what might be the crack of several ribs as she flies several feet backwards into the porch steps, and then rolls to the ground. The young woman wheezes where she lands; there's a flash of teeth, but no explosion from her. Instead, the wheezing turns into a weak, maddened sort of laugh, short and brittle. "Now /you/ have a little experience too." She lifts her head; her eyes, usually feverishly bright, are practically gleaming.
Daphne emerges from the garage through the simple wooden door.
Daphne has arrived.
Alexandra is apparently no longer content to remain on the sidelines, blurring into crinos to interpose herself between the angry Fostern and the cub, studying the Fostern to get a better feel for her intentions. ~You want to approach her, you take homid first. Otherwise I assume you're planning to finish what you just started and attack.~
A car drives up toward the house, headlights flashing, wheels on gravel making that familiar sound.
Shifting Briar glares towards the cub as she starts to laugh and then growls as the other steps into her way. ~The cub struck, time the cub learns.~ she replies. SHe stands her ground where she is, but keeps her crinos form as she waits for the one blocking her way to move.
Ex, meanwhile, eases into glabro with painstaking slowness. It takes obvious effort; she's clearly still learning basic shifting. She turns her head and looks down, watching and listening as her bones start to knit back together.
Seeks-Raging-Water shows no sign of moving. ~Actions have consequences. I've got no problem with that. But you're not doing it the warform on your moon against a cub that hasn't shifted. You shift down, I stand aside.~
Shifting Briar flexes her clawed hands as she considers the words from the crinos before her. ~It would drive home the lesson better like this.~ she grumbles, seeming to weigh the options of trying to get to the cub past the Ahroun.
A moment later, the car's engine stops--the vehicle halting some thirty yards up the driveway, as the too-large figures become obvious.
Those bright, annoying headlights vanish abruptly.
Ex returns to homid once she judges the damage healed, though she's rather unsteady as she attempts to clamber up the porch steps to retrieve her sketchbook.
Seeks-Raging-Water considers that a moment. ~Take glabro, then. Do what you need to do, if she can even still move after that, and order her not to shift until you allow it. Still gets your point across.~ The car, especially once the headlights are darkened, gets ignored.
A leggy figure gets out of the car and heads down the drive, toward the house. The pace is decidedly cautious.
Shifting Briar is silent for a long moment. ~You defend her, you become responsible. Take her home before she gets herself killed.~ she grows towards Seeks-Raging-Water. A last glance is given towards the cub past the crinos as well she can without leaning too far before she turns, still in crinos, to face the one who would step closer to such a scene.
Ex tucks the battered sketchbook under her arm, and the pencil back behind her ear. Only then does she turn to stare briefly and uncomprehendingly at the two crinos, followed by the approaching figure.
Daphne halts, a little wild-eyed as the beast turns to face her. She stops, then, still at a distance of twenty yards or so; her gaze focuses past the Fury, to the one human. "Ex?" she calls out uncertainly. "You okay?"
Seeks-Raging-Water looks a bit confused at that. ~Why would I take her to the Vault? She's not a Shadow Lord. I'm not entirely clear whether the Glass Walkers or the Black Furies are claiming her at this point. I defended her because I saw a cub in homid being attacked by a Fostern in crinos -- that's not a lesson, it's a slaughter. I would hope that you'd have done the same if our places were reversed. My understanding is that the Black Furies are supposed to be the _protectors_ of women.~ And then her attention turns to this new voice.
Shifting Briar glances back towards the crinos with a growl after those words before looking back towards Daphne. Slowly, she shifts down to Glabro as she approaches towards the woman. "She'll be fine." she states, words still a bit harsh with her lingering anger.
Ex picks herself up now, still a little wobbly. ""But you see, Meg," she mutters quietly, "just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist." If she heard Daphne's question, she doesn't respond to it.
Daphne takes several hurried steps backward before she recognizes the woman. "Okay, I'm going I-- I'm going--"
With April now in glabro, Seeks-Raging-Water relaxes enough to begin to shift down as well, returning to her birth form. "You're safe. At least if it was me you were worrying about," she calls out toward Daphne. Turning her attention to Ex, she says, "You and I should go inside. She's welcome to join us, if you'd like her to."
April pauses a moment to face Daphne. "Just go inside. It's dangerous out here tonight." she states, almost with a sigh before she turns her steps away from the others once more and starts down the drive.
Daphne's brow furrows in confusion, as she studies the Glabro and begins to recognize... "April?" she asks in that rasping voice.
Ex holds up a finger to Alexandra. Her forehead wrinkles. "As the skipping rope hit the pavement, so did the ball." She pauses, then continues the muttered...whatever she's muttering. "As the rope curved over the head of the jumping child, the child with the ball caught the ball. Down came the ropes. Down came the balls. Over and over again. Up. Down. All in rhythm. All identical. Like the houses. Like the paths. Like the flowers." The young woman breathes, then turns for the door. "Okay."
Alexandra's brow furrows in confusion, no recognition of what it might be that she's quoting, if indeed it is a quote of anything, but she doesn't interrupt it. Once it's clear that Ex is agreeing to go in, though, she starts for the door herself.
April motions back towards the house without slowing or turning again. "Go inside, Daphne." she calls back as she continues to walk. Before long, she starts to run and then shifts to her lupus form to better run off in between the trees and back towards the Fury House.
