"Give me my book."
Aug. 3rd, 2012 08:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
renferretThrowing rocks at Edgewood results in a lesson about the Litany. Then things go from bad to worse.
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.
Obvious exits:
Narrow Path Sunrise Road Front Door Barn/Garage
Stands-Between emerges from the garage through the simple wooden door.
Stands-Between has arrived.
Ex is throwing rocks. She's managed to find a few that are the perfect size for her palm, and she's currently in the process of lobbing them with increased force against the side of the house. Every time she runs out of her small stockpile, she trudges forward, collects them all, returns to her previous spot, and starts throwing again. At this point she's throwing hard enough to threaten to chip the paint. Her sketchbook is tucked under one arm throughout, as if she isn't comfortable with putting it down, even when no one else is around.
The small door in the garage pushes open, and a wolf comes out. Stands-Between has the distinct look of being growly, and grumpy, and possibly that the throwing of rocks against the house woke him up, and he bulks to hispo as he sees the source of it, letting out a warning growl, teeth pulled back from his lips a little. ~Stop it.~
Ex pauses, half in the process of throwing another, and gives Stands-Between a blank look.
Stands-Between bares his teeth a moment longer and then clops over, putting himself squarely between Ex and the house and then sitting, head tilted in quite evident annoyance. ~People sleep in the house. Stop. Throwing. Rocks.~ The words are growled out, though he remains just far enough away from the cub as to only be _slightly_ threatening.
Ex continues to stare blankly at Stands-Between. After a moment, however, she pulls back her throwing arm and lobs the rock high over the Fury's head. It doesn't strike the house very hard, due to the arc.
Stands-Between growls a warning when she throws the rock again, then carefully pulls his lips to stop showing his teeth, and with that massive head, bumps into her throwing arm. Stop, he repeats, a much more lupine communication this time.
He certainly gets a reaction this time. The moment he touches her arm, Ex yanks it back, and then surges forward at him with a snarl that is anything but human, though she remains in homid and doesn't actually touch him, the frenzy just barely held in check.
Stands-Between holds his ground, ears twisted forward. He's watching very, very carefully, and then once she's had a moment to compose herself, bows his head a little bit, almost apologetic, and shifts back down to lupus, less threatening, but not giving any ground. Do not throw rocks, he repeats.
Ex bends down, picks up a rock, and grips it tightly in one gloved hand; but she does not actually throw it. "Why?"
Stands-Between huffs, a slight amount of approval, and then fixes his gaze on the cub. People sleep in the den, he says, clearly referring to the house behind them. Throwing stones disturbs people sleeping.
Ex rolls her eyes skyward. "It's not time for sleeping. Not my fault they're fucking lazy."
Stands-Between looks up at the sunny sky. It is time for sleeping, the metis counters. If Garou do things in the Shadow... the lupus communication isn't terribly clear, and there is a frustrated whine before he takes a few steps off, and shifts to homid. Now he's definitely annoyed. "It is, actually. It's not a matter of lazy. Has anyone taught you about the Umbra yet?"
"Are you actually going to teach me something?" Ex counters, entirely aggressive. "I went there last night."
Sue nods, and grins a bit. "Sure," he says, though it's through gritted teeth and trying to work through his own tension. "Anyway. Daytime can be time for sleeping, if people have things to do in the Umbra. Because in the Umbra it's dark in the daytime, and lit by moonlight at night. So some people adjust their schedules accordingly, especially during the full moon."
Ex scowls at the grin, her eyes narrowing. "Don't know why they'd want to do that anyway. That place is fucked up."
"It can be very, very beautiful in places," Sue responds. "Parts of the Umbra are a reflection of what the world's supposed to be. Areas of the forest, for instance." He sighs. "Parts of it, like in the city? Are pretty ugly. Those parts are called the scab. But Garou are half spirit, and half flesh. In the Umbra, we're connected to our spirit side."
Ex snorts. "You're all fucking /batshit/. It's really hard to get there, and when you get there, it's /fucked/."
Sue raises a hand to his forehead. "Explain why it's fucked," Sue asks, enough force in the words to point that he expects her to answer it. "And it can be hard to get there for some. Mostly, the Umbra is the realm of the crescent moon, the theurge. They have more connection to the spirit side of us, out of all the auspices." Sue unfolds his hiking pole from wherever it was tucked in his clothing, and leans on it. "And the breeds have different amounts of connection, of gnosis, too. Wolf-born Garou have the most. Human-born Garou have the least... metis are somewhere in between."
"It'ssss," Ex says, with exaggerated slowness, "fuuuuuuuuucked." She inhales sharply, lifts the rock, and then lets her rock-holding hand drop back to her side. "Everything around here's completely fucked! I did research on the thing Fezzik mentioned. Rape culture, feminism? Your Furies didn't do any kind of fucking research! And the Other Bitch is fucking /bossy/. And I want to fucking /break/ shit." She pauses long enough to breathe deeply. "You should throw some rocks too."
"If you want to break shit," Sue says, taking a breath to keep moderately calm, "there's a punching bag, in the garage. That's what I do when I want to break shit. Which, well..." Sue may do a better job of controlling his rage, and dealing with the lesser level, but he lets it through enough so that the cub can see that desire to, as she says, 'break shit', is there. "There're some boards and a set-up to break them, too." He turns the hiking pole in his hands. "Who's the 'Other Bitch'? Not calling people by their names makes it difficult to tell who you're talking about sometimes, Rogue."
"The bossy one," Ex says, as though Sue should already know this. "The Fury one, not the Glass Walker one." She hefts the rock in her hand. "You don't /break/ punching bags."
Sue takes another deep breath, a little exasperated. "April?" he asks, confirming, and there's a clear, evident rise of anger at the mention. "My aunt is an *idiot* who needs to remember the Litany. Respect those *beneath* you, *all* are of Gaia."
Ex seems rather appreciative of Sue's additional insults, but she ends that little moment with a sigh. "What the fuck is the Litany? People've said that a few times."
"They're laws," Sue says, flat, voice tense. "They're laws, that the Garou follow, that keep us... doing Gaia's work. There are thirteen of them. They're... specifically, law and balance is the aspect of the philodox, the half-moons like me and Thea and Melodie-rhya? It's our responsibility to enforce them, and Judge and if necessary punish those who break them."
"Garou cops," Ex says, pulling up something she's said before. "Okay, what laws? And why do we have to follow them? And who made them? And who's Gaia?"
Ex adds, "And how do you punish them? Do you have Garou jail or some shit?"
Sue points to the grassy area in the sun. "Sit, please? And please don't interrupt, you can ask all the questions after, and we'll discuss whatever laws you want to in more detail," he instructs. And then without waiting for her to, he sits down on the grass, sets the hiking pole aside, and takes a deep breath, clenching fists for a moment. Then he starts, just a breath of pause between each tenet. "The first law is that Garou shall not mate with Garou. The second law is to combat the Wyrm where it dwells and whenever it breeds. Respect the Territory of another. Submission to those of a higher station. The first of the kill to the greatest in station. Do not eat the flesh of humans or wolves. *Respect* those beneath you, *all* are of Gaia."
Sue pauses for breath, and to compose himself, and then continues. "The Veil shall not be lifted. Do not suffer thy people to tend thy sickness in death. The leader may be Challenged at any time of peace. The leader may not be Challenged in time of war. Take no action that causes a Caern to be violated."
The metis looks at Ex again now, his gaze having wandered off her as he talked. "These are the tenets of the Litany. They're fairly old, they were agreed upon... I don't know, actually. In prehistory, something like that. We'll get to why they need to be followed in a bit, one thing at a time. But without the Litany, without the laws, we'd be a squabbling angry rabble of werewolves who didn't do any good in fighting the Wyrm because we're always too busy fighting each other. This way, at least, we have rules about fighting each other, and such."
Ex is half obedient: she doesn't sit down, and doesn't look like she plans to anytime soon, but neither does she interrupt, even though a few of the laws appear to inspire nose or forehead wrinkling. She waits a long beat after Sue has finished, and then says, combatively, "Like you aren't that /already/?"
The metis actually laughs, at Ex's comment, but it's brief, and his tone is serious. "We can be. But we're not fighting each other *all the time*, the way that... it was, in the old days. Then, tribes used to invade the Caerns and Septs of other tribes, and they waged outright war, and the Wyrm was able to flourish unchecked because the Garou were too busy losing track, to fight it." Sue grimaces. "And no, we don't have Garou jail. But we do have ways to punish Garou. Some of them are Rites, that make it known to the entire Sept what the crimes that have been committed are." He takes another breath, tense, looks away, and when he speaks, it's carefully, almost flat except for the rage that fuels the words. "Sometimes, for some offenses, Garou are branded. So that everyone will know, *always*." It's hard to tell whether the philodox agrees with this practise or not. "Especially for charach--breaking the first law." Another pause. "Sometimes Garou are... there's a rite that strips the Garou of rank. If they're fostern it makes them cliath, if they're adren, it makes them fostern. There's a rite that strips the Garou of their belonging to tribe, and of all rank, and of all renown, makes them Ronin."
Ex opens her mouth a few times, but doesn't actually interrupt. "...Doesn't that mean the evil werewolves get them?" she says to the last.
Sue looks over at Ex, and nods. "Sometimes. Sometimes, they can find a new tribe willing to accept them, willing to give them a second chance. Sometimes they kill themselves rather than live with the shame of what has happened." There's a pause, and a slow shrug, and Sue turns his attention to his breathing for a moment. "The Satire rite, and the Lone Wolf rite--the last two I mentioned--are extreme. They're meant for if a Garou does something /horrible/. Knowingly betrays a Sept to the Black Spiral Dancers, allows a Caern to be violated, things of that magnitude. Sometimes, at that magnitude? The offender is simply killed."
"Well that's fucking /stupid/," Ex accuses. "Why would you go and give someone to the /bad guys/?"
Sue raises his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know. I've heard of the Lone Wolf rite being used in other Septs, occasionally, but never seen it myself, it was never done at Golden Gate in my lifetime, that I know of. Nor do I know the rite. Nor do I /want to/," Sue says. His shoulders are drawn, tense. "Satire is one thing. Sometimes, they Satire people for charach, too, if the person was important, held position, because people who are higher up should know better, and such. But, the other thing, is that Philodox of different tribes have different ideas about what the appropriate punishment for an offense should be. Hell, sometimes within the same tribe there's different ideas." Sue pulls out a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter, and lights one. "And it's also the burden of the philodox to make sure that when someone is punished, it is done fairly." He pauses a moment, puffing smoke into the air, but it doesn't stop the look in his eyes from getting fairly towards murderous, as angry as Ex has ever seen him, perhaps. "And Thea and I *are* going to be talking to April, *soon*. It's not my place to Judge April, right now, because I've got problems with her, and so I'm biased."
Ex's eyes flick from his cigarettes to his face. "What are you going to be talking to her about?"
Sue seethes quietly for a moment, taking his time to let the Rage pass over him, without letting it control him, just sitting there puffing at the cigarette as he sits, before he finally answers. "Her actions. Her behaviour. The fact that she thinks that, because she is Fostern, she can expect respect due to her, without respecting in return. She has forgotten." He takes a breath. "She says things, and she doesn't realise how, or why they're hurtful. She says the same things as the Furies at Golden Gate--where she and I are from--said. It's why she's bossy. From what I've heard, it hasn't stopped at how she's treated me, and she *needs* to understand that her overall lack of respect for those beneath her, and for males, is not going to go unpunished." Sue is on his feet quickly, cigarette ground out in the dirt and the butt stuck into the pack of cigarettes, and he barely remembers his hiking pole as he stalks towards the garage. But he doesn't seem to be dismissing Ex, entirely.
Ex watches him as he turns to go, as he starts off, and she actually lets him get a few feet before saying, "Maybe she should die." She says it in the same way someone says 'maybe it'll rain later today' or 'maybe I'll go to the store this afternoon and pick up a gallon of milk.'
Sue pauses, and turns around to face Ex, and shakes his head. "That doesn't accomplish anything. She should be punished, in some way, so that she learns, so that she learns why her attitude is wrong. And she should live so that others learn from her mistakes, too." He pauses. "I'm going to go punch shit. You can come if you want. But if you want to throw rocks, go throw them at the trees." There is, remarkably, authority in Sue's voice right now. Or maybe he's just too angry to put up with bullshit.
Ex shrugs roughly. "Whatever." Notably, however, she turns away--from both Sue and the house, and stalks toward the treeline.
"Don't get too close to the trees, don't eat the fruit," Sue calls out, loudly enough to carry to where the cub is. And then he disappears into the garage, and the door slams behind him.
Sue goes into the garage through the simple wooden door.
Sue has left.
----
Ex has changed up her target location a little, but not enough for it to be a different wall. On the bright side, she's accurate enough (and possibly, sensible enough) not to throw stones at the windows, but that's about all that can be said. She's gathered a somewhat larger pile of stones, and she's hurling them as hard as she can at the house. It isn't just boredom throwing this time. There's real anger in the motion and intensity of her petty vandalism.
The door of the garage is /slammed/ open, and Sue bulks up to glabro, taking steps towards the cub. It's perhaps with some effort that he doesn't shift to his birth form. "ENOUGH!" he shouts, nearly roars, and he moves until he stands two or three feet in front of Ex and just /stares/ at her, teeth bared. The metis is clearly Displeased, and his hands flex for a moment into fists, then unclench.
Perhaps Ex was waiting for this. Or perhaps she's just quick in general. As the garage is slammed open, she hurls a rock and then snatches up what she can while still keeping hold of her sketchbook, then bolts away from the angry Fury, around the house rather than away from it. "Fuck this, FUCK YOU!" A few more steps, and she throws another rock at the wall. "FUCK you!" The swearing seems rather...un-directed, for all that it's Sue that seems to have set it off.
Dagny exits the house through the front door.
Dagny has arrived.
Mourns-The-Living exits the house through the front door.
Mourns-The-Living has arrived.
Sue snarls in wordless frustration and takes off after Ex. The snarl grows as he shifts through crinos and to hispo, and it is in hispo that he catches up with Ex, knocks her flat forward and then sets a heavy head to /pinning her down/. For all of the force used for that, the metis is otherwise gentle. There's no teeth, he avoids her sketchbook. But he's CLEARLY unhappy.
The sketchbook tumbles from Ex's grip due more to her own flailing than anything Sue does. As it turns out, this is fortunate, because no sooner does she attempt--and fail--to get out from under him than she's in crinos; mindless, tearing at the ground, frothing furiously. The position Sue has her in prevents initial injuries, though she does her best to try to twist around and get at him.
There is a snarl that is more towards a sigh, and Stands-Between redoubles his efforts to keep her pinned face-down, with a heavy forehoof and weight put into it. And then his other forehoof moves to strike, backed by the force of rage, at the cub's head, the end goal of simply ending the frenzy.
For the second time in as many days, Dag comes out of the Edgewood house to the sound of Something Stupid happening. The Get comes around the side of the house just in time to see the misshapen hispo move to pummel the crinos in the back of the head. For a moment, she can only really blink. Hands find their way to her hips and her head tilts. "What the /fuck/."
Rogue does a very good job of tearing up the ground beneath her, but that's all she accomplishes. Sue's hoof connects with her skull. Thunk. The second strike puts her out for good, and she very rapidly shifts back to her birth form beneath the metis. Her sketchbook, poor, abused thing, is lying half open about a foot away. There's some.../thing/ drawn on the most easily visible page. It has more eyes than humans have teeth, all scattered about a lumpy head and half concealed behind folds of wrinkled skin. No mouth.
Some time after the Get's arrival, an emaciated jackal makes its way out of the house, pumping off some major 'you are messing with my inner peace', and snarling something fierce. The snarling dials back a notch as the Strider spots the cub being beset upon by hoofed kicks, but only slightly.
The Fury lets on the cub the moment that she shifts to her birth form, only then turning to notice the Get's presence. ~Frenzy,~ he explains, visibly seething, then standing up and shifting to homid to glance down at the cub. If he notices the Strider's presence, it's acknowledged only with a slight hardening of posture, and Sue's attention is split between the unconscious Ex, and Dagny. "She Frenzied when I knocked her over because she was throwing rocks at the house."
Dagny picks her way over to the battling pair and, instead of grabbing either of them, she gently lifts the sketchbook and swipes her hand across it to rid it of dirt and grass. Sue's explanation is heard, as acknowledged by a grunt. She glances over at the Jackal for a moment, brow twitching. "Who does Ex belong to, Tribewise? I don't want her around Edgewood unsupervised until she learns to behave herself. Whoever is in charge of her needs to know that. If I see her around here again, on her own, before she's been given proper lessons on Garou shit, I'll start removing limbs as a teaching tool."
Mourns-The-Living takes a moment to sniff at those gathered, before directing his attention to Sue's explanation of events. He does not seem the least concerned with any hardening of posture by the Metis Fury, indeed, once he has heard the man out, majority of his attention is directed at the cub, but then, rather abruptly, he turns away, still snarling, and lopes back around the house and out of sight.
The sketchbook has been rather ill treated. The cover is dirty, bent, with quite a large number of wolf sized teeth marks in it, and the pages themselves are looking rather tatty, if intact. On the page opposite the multi-eyed monstrocity, there's a picture of a bird. Or, at least, one presumes the intention was a bird. It has the body of a sparrow, but when it comes to the bird's head, the beak is curved and serrated, like a carving knife, it has bleeding, pus filled holes rather than eyes (and what looks like maggots crawling out of them), and the feathers have become sharp and unpleasant looking, in some places even curling like leaves into twisted, stylized shapes. It's as though an example of a decent life drawing exercise was being eaten by Salvador Dali's nightmares.
There are also quite a few loose, printed pages stuffed into the sketchbook.
Stands-Between watches the Strider for a moment, one hand curling, and then takes a breath as the jackal leaves, turning his attention back to Dagny. "She's under the protection of the Glass Walkers, and she's staying, for the moment, with my family." The words are, barely, level. "You'll need to bring it up with Melodie-rhya, I guess, after telling Ex when she wakes up." There's another pause, and then Sue adds. "As for that... I'll... tell you the rest of what I know later, tonight." Pointedly, Sue glances down at the unconscious cub and takes several steps away from her, as if offering an explanation for why not /now/.
Dagny does not outwardly look concerned with the drawings. She does, however, leaf through some of the pages to make sure the rest are intact, pausing here and there to check the snippets of print for anything. When Sue speaks again, the Get arches a brow and fixes him with a look. "C'mere." She says, a bit gruffly, eyes returning to scanning the pages.
Sue takes another deep breath and then looks at Ex for a moment longer before crossing over towards Dagny, gaze somewhere not quite all the way to her. "I was teaching Ex about the Litany a while earlier. After the first time she was throwing rocks. Apparently, 'throw rocks at the trees not the house' didn't stick."
All intact, more or less, and any actual damage doesn't look to be the result of the recent scuffle, merely the general wear the sketchbook appears to have gone through. It isn't full, but it's been quite used; perhaps half, or somewhat over half, of the pages have been filled. The drawings tend to share a similar theme, and are clearly drawn by the same person; either grotesque monstrocities, or animals in the process of becoming one. Many of the monstrocities look humanoid, and quite a few of them are wearing coats or hoods. Most are faceless; those that have faces would be more comforting without. She seems particularly fond of a hooded, faceless figure, ill proportioned, with varying sets of large blades instead of hands. One even goes so far as to have blades coming out of its spine and shoulders.
The loose pages seem far more mundane in comparison, and appear to be webpage printouts. Articles on feminism, written by feminist writers, a wikipedia entry on 'Rape Culture', and another article entitled 'Rape Culture 101' which appears to contain a great many links to examples.
One of the drawings, a two page spread, consists of a vine gradually becoming a tangled, thorny nightmare and both strangling and tearing a werewolf to shreds. The werewolf itself appears anything but benign, subject to the same, stylized, surreal twisting as the rest of the figures in the book.
Dagny coughs and uh... AFK's for an indeterminate amount of time. Assume Dag took the sketchbook inside. Ex will not get it back until we next scene. I may return shortly, I might be indisposed. Apologies.
Sue nods once at Dagny when she turns to go inside, and moves back to crouch near--but not too near--to Ex, waiting for the cub to regain consciousness.
It takes a while, but not too long. Eventually she stirs, groaning, and brings one gloved hand to the back of her skull. For the moment she remains facedown in the churned up dirt.
"Next time throw rocks at the forest, *not* the house," Sue says. The tone, however, makes it far closer to an order, and the metis is only paying half attention to Ex. More of his attention is internal, on his control and composure and just *dealing*.
Ex's inhale is almost more snarl than breath, and she shoves violently up from the ground. A mistake, since this sets her head to spinning, and she nearly passes out again.
Sue doesn't move, just half-watches Ex. There's no further words offered, either.
Ex pushes herself up again, after a moment, and turns a dirt smeared glare on Sue. Then she looks for her sketchbook. Her sketchbook that isn't there. There's a sudden, alarmed straightening.
Sue looks at Ex, though there's no hostility in his gaze. Or at least, not much beyond a promise of violence that's uncommon for the philodox. "Furthermore, this is not your house to throw rocks at, do you understand?"
Ex's eyes lift, searching the grass further out. She looks to her sides, she looks behind her. Each movement seems to gain in urgency.
The metis stands, hands in his pockets and possibly in fists. And then Sue realises what it is that the cub is looking for. "Dagny-rhya has it right now. She's inside, you'll get it back." No room for question given, and his voice is... level, but off a little. "In the mean time, your throwing stones has lost you the privilege of coming to Edgewood unsupervised. You may come here with another of the Furies to supervise you, but I am not going to. You are going to leave, so that I can go inside again."
It's questionable whether or not Ex even hears anything after 'Dagny-rhya has it'. She's on her feet in a moment, stalking--with quite a lot of wobbling--toward the house.
"No," Sue says, and then he's shifted to his birth form and then to hispo, and puts himself in the cub's way. Until Rogue can behave, and does behave, Rogue is not allowed at this house. That includes inside, the metis explains.
Ex snarls at Stands-Between, and this time she follows that up with a shift--not smooth, but quick enough--right up into crinos. She snarls again, louder now, teeth bared. The unspoken message is clear. /Move/.
Stands-Between stands his ground, and bares his teeth right back. No.
Rogue's response is immediate. She lashes at Sue's muzzle, claws out, with Rage-fueled speed.
Stands-Between launches himself forward, ignoring the claws to his muzzle, and using his greater familiarity with the hispo form to leverage his weight, knock her over, and then his hoof connects with her head, fueled by rage. And then his other hoof connects with her head as well, the same goal as before of knocking the cub out.
It isn't nearly so clean this time. She's not frenzying, and while she's quite raw in experience, she has access to Rage and her own wits, and she is intentionally trying to damage him. Rogue tears and bites at his muzzle, his face, his forelegs. She kicks furiously at his underside. The blows connect, and while her eyes roll back, she isn't quite out this time.
There is an enraged, annoyed snarl from the metis, and he brings hooves to connect with her head, the side of her jaw, again. The first two blows this time are rage-fueled, punctuated by threatening growls and curses in the garou tongue.
Rogue shrieks blind hatred into his face. There's a wildness about her that seems set apart from a frenzy, a desperate, rage fueled, hate sparked energy that persists despite the punishment to her head. It's as though she maintains consciousness by the sheer desire to lash out at him further, but not even this stands up against Stands-Between's efforts for long. Eventually she collapses again, once more returning to homid as she loses consciousness.
Stands-Between snarls at the unconscious cub and stalks towards the house, licking his wounds. A little later, the metis shifts up to homid. The lesser of the wounds have already healed, leaving a gouge to his face, his arms, his chest that start to seep through his clothing. Two minutes later, he returns from inside the house, her sketchbook in hand, and sits down on the porch to wait for Ex to regain consciousness. It's been straightened, dusted off, though it still seems as much the worse for the wear.
It takes longer this time, a lot longer. Bruises are starting to form by the time Ex comes back around, though they'll quickly be gone as soon as she shifts. She rolls slowly onto her stomach, heaves a few times without anything actually coming up, and then pushes to her knees.
Sue sits on the edge of the porch closest to her, and he pages through the sketchbook carefully, now looking at the drawings, brows raised a half-tick eventually. "You and I are going to *talk*," Sue snaps, irritably and there's still very real anger behind the words. "And then I will give you the sketchbook back. And then you are going to go back to the house, and you are not going to come here without being accompanied by one of my sisters or my brother."
Rogue rubs her knuckles against the side of her mouth. At the sound of Sue's voice, she lifts her head, and, on seeing the sketchbook, she jerks toward it.
The metis growls, despite being in homid at the moment, and then closes the sketchbook, tucking it under one arm such that he's not letting go. It's followed by what sounds to be cursing, in what sounds to be Greek, probably at the pain from movement. "/*Gamoto* horia sou, ante *gamisou*, ay *gamisou* malaka *sihama*./" Then, Sue points at the porch near him, and the ground near him, takes a deep breath. "Come over here and sit down. We are going to *talk*, and you are going to *control* yourself, and you are going to *listen* while it's my turn. Your actions have *consequences*, Rogue."
"Give me my book," Ex says. Her tone is very quiet. Rather chilly. She remains exactly where she is.
Sue shakes his head. "After we talk." His voice is level, but just barely. "And if we don't talk, then you have *one* option, and that's that I drive you back to the city and you stay with the Glass Walkers, by their rules, without open space, or freedom, or choice."
Ex appears to spasm, her eyes going wide, spittle on her lips. She reigns in the would-be frenzy, and repeats in a tone that is, perhaps, even quieter and colder. "Give. Me. My. Book."
Sue shakes his head again. "No," Sue says. "The fact that I have the sketchbook right now is one of the consequences of your actions. If I give you the sketchbook back first--and you draw well, by the way, if a little disturbing--you are going to *sit* here, and talk with me."
Ex's volume increases. "I didn't say you could look!" She sounds angry now. "You don't want to talk /with/ me. You want to talk /at/ me."
Sue takes the sketchbook and sets it in his lap, but he's not looking at it, he's looking at her. "You're *wrong*," he says, flatly. "I want to talk *with* you. I want you to *understand*. And you need to understand, but none of your actions show understanding right now. What they show is that you have some idea that you can choose who's the boss of you, that you can choose what you rules do or don't apply to you, that you can act out *just* because you want to break shit and kill shit."
"You want, you want, /you/ want," Ex says, quiet again, but hot rather than cold. She slumps back onto her rear and crosses her arms very tightly.
The metis in fact lets go of her sketchbook, letting it sit in his lap. "Why did you throw the rocks earlier, the second time?"
Ex's gaze flicks toward Sue's face, to the book, to his face, and then away. "Because they wouldn't /shut the fuck up/."
Sue raises his brows a moment. "Who's they?" The tone of his voice is still harsh, angry, but it's no longer directed at her, at least.
Ex throws her hands up. "The doctors! The buzzing, chatting, hissing, whispering, fucking machines."
Sue listens and nods, then sighs, for a moment. "You're out in the woods, Ex. You're out away from the city, they're not here. There's no Weaver, no machines." He falls silent for a moment, then picks up the sketchbook again, holding it out towards her. "Throwing rocks at the house is *not* going to help that, you know. And it's not acceptable. For the time being, you need to be actively *with* one of my tribemates to come out to this house, so that someone is around to be responsible for your behaviour. I'll let Melodie-rhya know what happened when I get a chance."
Ex snatches the sketchbook back the moment it's held out to her. "It's not like I fucking /hurt/ it. I just /annoyed/ you."
Sue shakes his head, folding his arms across his chest. "You annoyed Dagny, too. And this is Dagny's house. It is her right to ban you from it." He stands, patience visibly wearing thin. "You are not allowed to throw stones at the house, because no other cub--no one else, period--is allowed to throw stones at the house. It's disruptive, I just happened to be the one around for it."
"Fuck /that/ bitch," Ex says immediately. "She called me an 'it'. When's the last time someone got banned for throwing stones at a house?"
"Leave," Sue says. It's nearly a snarl. "Leave, *now*."
"But she's nice to /you/," Ex says, suddenly hot again. Her volume doesn't race, but she's talking rapidly. "She's nice to you, and that's all that fucking matters, ever. Guess you don't want to talk after all."
Sue takes a deep, steadying breath. His hands clench into fists. "When the moon is smaller." He takes another breath. "Dagny is my packmate. You will talk about her with respect, even if you do not *feel* that respect. For that matter, you will speak of April with respect as well. They both outrank you. Remember the litany, earlier? Submission to those of higher station." His voice is ice, backed by rage. "And to answer your question, no one else, since I've been here, has thrown stones at the house. But had I thrown stones at the house, in Golden Gate? I would have had my tongue torn out and my fingers ripped off, as punishment." He pauses, and then repeats himself. "NOW LEAVE."
Ex snaps back, furious, "Respect those beneath you, all are of Gaia!" She's on her feet now, but there's no sign of her leaving. "Didn't you /just fucking say/--weren't you /just/ complaining--neither of them respect /me/, I haven't signed up with you yet, and if the 'good guys' are /this fucking SICK/, you can keep your fucking teaching, I'll take my fucking chances on my own!" Her volume has risen steadily, so that the last few words are nearly shouted. "No /wonder/ they want to cure you!"
Sue keeps whatever he's thinking to himself, and glares at Ex, rage in his voice again. "Go back to the Greek House. Go. Now."
Ex tucks the sketchbook under her arm, gives Sue one final look, then turns and starts walking. It's not in the direction of the Greek House. It's not in the direction of the Bawn either.
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.
Obvious exits:
Narrow Path Sunrise Road Front Door Barn/Garage
Stands-Between emerges from the garage through the simple wooden door.
Stands-Between has arrived.
Ex is throwing rocks. She's managed to find a few that are the perfect size for her palm, and she's currently in the process of lobbing them with increased force against the side of the house. Every time she runs out of her small stockpile, she trudges forward, collects them all, returns to her previous spot, and starts throwing again. At this point she's throwing hard enough to threaten to chip the paint. Her sketchbook is tucked under one arm throughout, as if she isn't comfortable with putting it down, even when no one else is around.
The small door in the garage pushes open, and a wolf comes out. Stands-Between has the distinct look of being growly, and grumpy, and possibly that the throwing of rocks against the house woke him up, and he bulks to hispo as he sees the source of it, letting out a warning growl, teeth pulled back from his lips a little. ~Stop it.~
Ex pauses, half in the process of throwing another, and gives Stands-Between a blank look.
Stands-Between bares his teeth a moment longer and then clops over, putting himself squarely between Ex and the house and then sitting, head tilted in quite evident annoyance. ~People sleep in the house. Stop. Throwing. Rocks.~ The words are growled out, though he remains just far enough away from the cub as to only be _slightly_ threatening.
Ex continues to stare blankly at Stands-Between. After a moment, however, she pulls back her throwing arm and lobs the rock high over the Fury's head. It doesn't strike the house very hard, due to the arc.
Stands-Between growls a warning when she throws the rock again, then carefully pulls his lips to stop showing his teeth, and with that massive head, bumps into her throwing arm. Stop, he repeats, a much more lupine communication this time.
He certainly gets a reaction this time. The moment he touches her arm, Ex yanks it back, and then surges forward at him with a snarl that is anything but human, though she remains in homid and doesn't actually touch him, the frenzy just barely held in check.
Stands-Between holds his ground, ears twisted forward. He's watching very, very carefully, and then once she's had a moment to compose herself, bows his head a little bit, almost apologetic, and shifts back down to lupus, less threatening, but not giving any ground. Do not throw rocks, he repeats.
Ex bends down, picks up a rock, and grips it tightly in one gloved hand; but she does not actually throw it. "Why?"
Stands-Between huffs, a slight amount of approval, and then fixes his gaze on the cub. People sleep in the den, he says, clearly referring to the house behind them. Throwing stones disturbs people sleeping.
Ex rolls her eyes skyward. "It's not time for sleeping. Not my fault they're fucking lazy."
Stands-Between looks up at the sunny sky. It is time for sleeping, the metis counters. If Garou do things in the Shadow... the lupus communication isn't terribly clear, and there is a frustrated whine before he takes a few steps off, and shifts to homid. Now he's definitely annoyed. "It is, actually. It's not a matter of lazy. Has anyone taught you about the Umbra yet?"
"Are you actually going to teach me something?" Ex counters, entirely aggressive. "I went there last night."
Sue nods, and grins a bit. "Sure," he says, though it's through gritted teeth and trying to work through his own tension. "Anyway. Daytime can be time for sleeping, if people have things to do in the Umbra. Because in the Umbra it's dark in the daytime, and lit by moonlight at night. So some people adjust their schedules accordingly, especially during the full moon."
Ex scowls at the grin, her eyes narrowing. "Don't know why they'd want to do that anyway. That place is fucked up."
"It can be very, very beautiful in places," Sue responds. "Parts of the Umbra are a reflection of what the world's supposed to be. Areas of the forest, for instance." He sighs. "Parts of it, like in the city? Are pretty ugly. Those parts are called the scab. But Garou are half spirit, and half flesh. In the Umbra, we're connected to our spirit side."
Ex snorts. "You're all fucking /batshit/. It's really hard to get there, and when you get there, it's /fucked/."
Sue raises a hand to his forehead. "Explain why it's fucked," Sue asks, enough force in the words to point that he expects her to answer it. "And it can be hard to get there for some. Mostly, the Umbra is the realm of the crescent moon, the theurge. They have more connection to the spirit side of us, out of all the auspices." Sue unfolds his hiking pole from wherever it was tucked in his clothing, and leans on it. "And the breeds have different amounts of connection, of gnosis, too. Wolf-born Garou have the most. Human-born Garou have the least... metis are somewhere in between."
"It'ssss," Ex says, with exaggerated slowness, "fuuuuuuuuucked." She inhales sharply, lifts the rock, and then lets her rock-holding hand drop back to her side. "Everything around here's completely fucked! I did research on the thing Fezzik mentioned. Rape culture, feminism? Your Furies didn't do any kind of fucking research! And the Other Bitch is fucking /bossy/. And I want to fucking /break/ shit." She pauses long enough to breathe deeply. "You should throw some rocks too."
"If you want to break shit," Sue says, taking a breath to keep moderately calm, "there's a punching bag, in the garage. That's what I do when I want to break shit. Which, well..." Sue may do a better job of controlling his rage, and dealing with the lesser level, but he lets it through enough so that the cub can see that desire to, as she says, 'break shit', is there. "There're some boards and a set-up to break them, too." He turns the hiking pole in his hands. "Who's the 'Other Bitch'? Not calling people by their names makes it difficult to tell who you're talking about sometimes, Rogue."
"The bossy one," Ex says, as though Sue should already know this. "The Fury one, not the Glass Walker one." She hefts the rock in her hand. "You don't /break/ punching bags."
Sue takes another deep breath, a little exasperated. "April?" he asks, confirming, and there's a clear, evident rise of anger at the mention. "My aunt is an *idiot* who needs to remember the Litany. Respect those *beneath* you, *all* are of Gaia."
Ex seems rather appreciative of Sue's additional insults, but she ends that little moment with a sigh. "What the fuck is the Litany? People've said that a few times."
"They're laws," Sue says, flat, voice tense. "They're laws, that the Garou follow, that keep us... doing Gaia's work. There are thirteen of them. They're... specifically, law and balance is the aspect of the philodox, the half-moons like me and Thea and Melodie-rhya? It's our responsibility to enforce them, and Judge and if necessary punish those who break them."
"Garou cops," Ex says, pulling up something she's said before. "Okay, what laws? And why do we have to follow them? And who made them? And who's Gaia?"
Ex adds, "And how do you punish them? Do you have Garou jail or some shit?"
Sue points to the grassy area in the sun. "Sit, please? And please don't interrupt, you can ask all the questions after, and we'll discuss whatever laws you want to in more detail," he instructs. And then without waiting for her to, he sits down on the grass, sets the hiking pole aside, and takes a deep breath, clenching fists for a moment. Then he starts, just a breath of pause between each tenet. "The first law is that Garou shall not mate with Garou. The second law is to combat the Wyrm where it dwells and whenever it breeds. Respect the Territory of another. Submission to those of a higher station. The first of the kill to the greatest in station. Do not eat the flesh of humans or wolves. *Respect* those beneath you, *all* are of Gaia."
Sue pauses for breath, and to compose himself, and then continues. "The Veil shall not be lifted. Do not suffer thy people to tend thy sickness in death. The leader may be Challenged at any time of peace. The leader may not be Challenged in time of war. Take no action that causes a Caern to be violated."
The metis looks at Ex again now, his gaze having wandered off her as he talked. "These are the tenets of the Litany. They're fairly old, they were agreed upon... I don't know, actually. In prehistory, something like that. We'll get to why they need to be followed in a bit, one thing at a time. But without the Litany, without the laws, we'd be a squabbling angry rabble of werewolves who didn't do any good in fighting the Wyrm because we're always too busy fighting each other. This way, at least, we have rules about fighting each other, and such."
Ex is half obedient: she doesn't sit down, and doesn't look like she plans to anytime soon, but neither does she interrupt, even though a few of the laws appear to inspire nose or forehead wrinkling. She waits a long beat after Sue has finished, and then says, combatively, "Like you aren't that /already/?"
The metis actually laughs, at Ex's comment, but it's brief, and his tone is serious. "We can be. But we're not fighting each other *all the time*, the way that... it was, in the old days. Then, tribes used to invade the Caerns and Septs of other tribes, and they waged outright war, and the Wyrm was able to flourish unchecked because the Garou were too busy losing track, to fight it." Sue grimaces. "And no, we don't have Garou jail. But we do have ways to punish Garou. Some of them are Rites, that make it known to the entire Sept what the crimes that have been committed are." He takes another breath, tense, looks away, and when he speaks, it's carefully, almost flat except for the rage that fuels the words. "Sometimes, for some offenses, Garou are branded. So that everyone will know, *always*." It's hard to tell whether the philodox agrees with this practise or not. "Especially for charach--breaking the first law." Another pause. "Sometimes Garou are... there's a rite that strips the Garou of rank. If they're fostern it makes them cliath, if they're adren, it makes them fostern. There's a rite that strips the Garou of their belonging to tribe, and of all rank, and of all renown, makes them Ronin."
Ex opens her mouth a few times, but doesn't actually interrupt. "...Doesn't that mean the evil werewolves get them?" she says to the last.
Sue looks over at Ex, and nods. "Sometimes. Sometimes, they can find a new tribe willing to accept them, willing to give them a second chance. Sometimes they kill themselves rather than live with the shame of what has happened." There's a pause, and a slow shrug, and Sue turns his attention to his breathing for a moment. "The Satire rite, and the Lone Wolf rite--the last two I mentioned--are extreme. They're meant for if a Garou does something /horrible/. Knowingly betrays a Sept to the Black Spiral Dancers, allows a Caern to be violated, things of that magnitude. Sometimes, at that magnitude? The offender is simply killed."
"Well that's fucking /stupid/," Ex accuses. "Why would you go and give someone to the /bad guys/?"
Sue raises his shoulders in a shrug. "I don't know. I've heard of the Lone Wolf rite being used in other Septs, occasionally, but never seen it myself, it was never done at Golden Gate in my lifetime, that I know of. Nor do I know the rite. Nor do I /want to/," Sue says. His shoulders are drawn, tense. "Satire is one thing. Sometimes, they Satire people for charach, too, if the person was important, held position, because people who are higher up should know better, and such. But, the other thing, is that Philodox of different tribes have different ideas about what the appropriate punishment for an offense should be. Hell, sometimes within the same tribe there's different ideas." Sue pulls out a pack of cigarettes, and a lighter, and lights one. "And it's also the burden of the philodox to make sure that when someone is punished, it is done fairly." He pauses a moment, puffing smoke into the air, but it doesn't stop the look in his eyes from getting fairly towards murderous, as angry as Ex has ever seen him, perhaps. "And Thea and I *are* going to be talking to April, *soon*. It's not my place to Judge April, right now, because I've got problems with her, and so I'm biased."
Ex's eyes flick from his cigarettes to his face. "What are you going to be talking to her about?"
Sue seethes quietly for a moment, taking his time to let the Rage pass over him, without letting it control him, just sitting there puffing at the cigarette as he sits, before he finally answers. "Her actions. Her behaviour. The fact that she thinks that, because she is Fostern, she can expect respect due to her, without respecting in return. She has forgotten." He takes a breath. "She says things, and she doesn't realise how, or why they're hurtful. She says the same things as the Furies at Golden Gate--where she and I are from--said. It's why she's bossy. From what I've heard, it hasn't stopped at how she's treated me, and she *needs* to understand that her overall lack of respect for those beneath her, and for males, is not going to go unpunished." Sue is on his feet quickly, cigarette ground out in the dirt and the butt stuck into the pack of cigarettes, and he barely remembers his hiking pole as he stalks towards the garage. But he doesn't seem to be dismissing Ex, entirely.
Ex watches him as he turns to go, as he starts off, and she actually lets him get a few feet before saying, "Maybe she should die." She says it in the same way someone says 'maybe it'll rain later today' or 'maybe I'll go to the store this afternoon and pick up a gallon of milk.'
Sue pauses, and turns around to face Ex, and shakes his head. "That doesn't accomplish anything. She should be punished, in some way, so that she learns, so that she learns why her attitude is wrong. And she should live so that others learn from her mistakes, too." He pauses. "I'm going to go punch shit. You can come if you want. But if you want to throw rocks, go throw them at the trees." There is, remarkably, authority in Sue's voice right now. Or maybe he's just too angry to put up with bullshit.
Ex shrugs roughly. "Whatever." Notably, however, she turns away--from both Sue and the house, and stalks toward the treeline.
"Don't get too close to the trees, don't eat the fruit," Sue calls out, loudly enough to carry to where the cub is. And then he disappears into the garage, and the door slams behind him.
Sue goes into the garage through the simple wooden door.
Sue has left.
----
Ex has changed up her target location a little, but not enough for it to be a different wall. On the bright side, she's accurate enough (and possibly, sensible enough) not to throw stones at the windows, but that's about all that can be said. She's gathered a somewhat larger pile of stones, and she's hurling them as hard as she can at the house. It isn't just boredom throwing this time. There's real anger in the motion and intensity of her petty vandalism.
The door of the garage is /slammed/ open, and Sue bulks up to glabro, taking steps towards the cub. It's perhaps with some effort that he doesn't shift to his birth form. "ENOUGH!" he shouts, nearly roars, and he moves until he stands two or three feet in front of Ex and just /stares/ at her, teeth bared. The metis is clearly Displeased, and his hands flex for a moment into fists, then unclench.
Perhaps Ex was waiting for this. Or perhaps she's just quick in general. As the garage is slammed open, she hurls a rock and then snatches up what she can while still keeping hold of her sketchbook, then bolts away from the angry Fury, around the house rather than away from it. "Fuck this, FUCK YOU!" A few more steps, and she throws another rock at the wall. "FUCK you!" The swearing seems rather...un-directed, for all that it's Sue that seems to have set it off.
Dagny exits the house through the front door.
Dagny has arrived.
Mourns-The-Living exits the house through the front door.
Mourns-The-Living has arrived.
Sue snarls in wordless frustration and takes off after Ex. The snarl grows as he shifts through crinos and to hispo, and it is in hispo that he catches up with Ex, knocks her flat forward and then sets a heavy head to /pinning her down/. For all of the force used for that, the metis is otherwise gentle. There's no teeth, he avoids her sketchbook. But he's CLEARLY unhappy.
The sketchbook tumbles from Ex's grip due more to her own flailing than anything Sue does. As it turns out, this is fortunate, because no sooner does she attempt--and fail--to get out from under him than she's in crinos; mindless, tearing at the ground, frothing furiously. The position Sue has her in prevents initial injuries, though she does her best to try to twist around and get at him.
There is a snarl that is more towards a sigh, and Stands-Between redoubles his efforts to keep her pinned face-down, with a heavy forehoof and weight put into it. And then his other forehoof moves to strike, backed by the force of rage, at the cub's head, the end goal of simply ending the frenzy.
For the second time in as many days, Dag comes out of the Edgewood house to the sound of Something Stupid happening. The Get comes around the side of the house just in time to see the misshapen hispo move to pummel the crinos in the back of the head. For a moment, she can only really blink. Hands find their way to her hips and her head tilts. "What the /fuck/."
Rogue does a very good job of tearing up the ground beneath her, but that's all she accomplishes. Sue's hoof connects with her skull. Thunk. The second strike puts her out for good, and she very rapidly shifts back to her birth form beneath the metis. Her sketchbook, poor, abused thing, is lying half open about a foot away. There's some.../thing/ drawn on the most easily visible page. It has more eyes than humans have teeth, all scattered about a lumpy head and half concealed behind folds of wrinkled skin. No mouth.
Some time after the Get's arrival, an emaciated jackal makes its way out of the house, pumping off some major 'you are messing with my inner peace', and snarling something fierce. The snarling dials back a notch as the Strider spots the cub being beset upon by hoofed kicks, but only slightly.
The Fury lets on the cub the moment that she shifts to her birth form, only then turning to notice the Get's presence. ~Frenzy,~ he explains, visibly seething, then standing up and shifting to homid to glance down at the cub. If he notices the Strider's presence, it's acknowledged only with a slight hardening of posture, and Sue's attention is split between the unconscious Ex, and Dagny. "She Frenzied when I knocked her over because she was throwing rocks at the house."
Dagny picks her way over to the battling pair and, instead of grabbing either of them, she gently lifts the sketchbook and swipes her hand across it to rid it of dirt and grass. Sue's explanation is heard, as acknowledged by a grunt. She glances over at the Jackal for a moment, brow twitching. "Who does Ex belong to, Tribewise? I don't want her around Edgewood unsupervised until she learns to behave herself. Whoever is in charge of her needs to know that. If I see her around here again, on her own, before she's been given proper lessons on Garou shit, I'll start removing limbs as a teaching tool."
Mourns-The-Living takes a moment to sniff at those gathered, before directing his attention to Sue's explanation of events. He does not seem the least concerned with any hardening of posture by the Metis Fury, indeed, once he has heard the man out, majority of his attention is directed at the cub, but then, rather abruptly, he turns away, still snarling, and lopes back around the house and out of sight.
The sketchbook has been rather ill treated. The cover is dirty, bent, with quite a large number of wolf sized teeth marks in it, and the pages themselves are looking rather tatty, if intact. On the page opposite the multi-eyed monstrocity, there's a picture of a bird. Or, at least, one presumes the intention was a bird. It has the body of a sparrow, but when it comes to the bird's head, the beak is curved and serrated, like a carving knife, it has bleeding, pus filled holes rather than eyes (and what looks like maggots crawling out of them), and the feathers have become sharp and unpleasant looking, in some places even curling like leaves into twisted, stylized shapes. It's as though an example of a decent life drawing exercise was being eaten by Salvador Dali's nightmares.
There are also quite a few loose, printed pages stuffed into the sketchbook.
Stands-Between watches the Strider for a moment, one hand curling, and then takes a breath as the jackal leaves, turning his attention back to Dagny. "She's under the protection of the Glass Walkers, and she's staying, for the moment, with my family." The words are, barely, level. "You'll need to bring it up with Melodie-rhya, I guess, after telling Ex when she wakes up." There's another pause, and then Sue adds. "As for that... I'll... tell you the rest of what I know later, tonight." Pointedly, Sue glances down at the unconscious cub and takes several steps away from her, as if offering an explanation for why not /now/.
Dagny does not outwardly look concerned with the drawings. She does, however, leaf through some of the pages to make sure the rest are intact, pausing here and there to check the snippets of print for anything. When Sue speaks again, the Get arches a brow and fixes him with a look. "C'mere." She says, a bit gruffly, eyes returning to scanning the pages.
Sue takes another deep breath and then looks at Ex for a moment longer before crossing over towards Dagny, gaze somewhere not quite all the way to her. "I was teaching Ex about the Litany a while earlier. After the first time she was throwing rocks. Apparently, 'throw rocks at the trees not the house' didn't stick."
All intact, more or less, and any actual damage doesn't look to be the result of the recent scuffle, merely the general wear the sketchbook appears to have gone through. It isn't full, but it's been quite used; perhaps half, or somewhat over half, of the pages have been filled. The drawings tend to share a similar theme, and are clearly drawn by the same person; either grotesque monstrocities, or animals in the process of becoming one. Many of the monstrocities look humanoid, and quite a few of them are wearing coats or hoods. Most are faceless; those that have faces would be more comforting without. She seems particularly fond of a hooded, faceless figure, ill proportioned, with varying sets of large blades instead of hands. One even goes so far as to have blades coming out of its spine and shoulders.
The loose pages seem far more mundane in comparison, and appear to be webpage printouts. Articles on feminism, written by feminist writers, a wikipedia entry on 'Rape Culture', and another article entitled 'Rape Culture 101' which appears to contain a great many links to examples.
One of the drawings, a two page spread, consists of a vine gradually becoming a tangled, thorny nightmare and both strangling and tearing a werewolf to shreds. The werewolf itself appears anything but benign, subject to the same, stylized, surreal twisting as the rest of the figures in the book.
Sue nods once at Dagny when she turns to go inside, and moves back to crouch near--but not too near--to Ex, waiting for the cub to regain consciousness.
It takes a while, but not too long. Eventually she stirs, groaning, and brings one gloved hand to the back of her skull. For the moment she remains facedown in the churned up dirt.
"Next time throw rocks at the forest, *not* the house," Sue says. The tone, however, makes it far closer to an order, and the metis is only paying half attention to Ex. More of his attention is internal, on his control and composure and just *dealing*.
Ex's inhale is almost more snarl than breath, and she shoves violently up from the ground. A mistake, since this sets her head to spinning, and she nearly passes out again.
Sue doesn't move, just half-watches Ex. There's no further words offered, either.
Ex pushes herself up again, after a moment, and turns a dirt smeared glare on Sue. Then she looks for her sketchbook. Her sketchbook that isn't there. There's a sudden, alarmed straightening.
Sue looks at Ex, though there's no hostility in his gaze. Or at least, not much beyond a promise of violence that's uncommon for the philodox. "Furthermore, this is not your house to throw rocks at, do you understand?"
Ex's eyes lift, searching the grass further out. She looks to her sides, she looks behind her. Each movement seems to gain in urgency.
The metis stands, hands in his pockets and possibly in fists. And then Sue realises what it is that the cub is looking for. "Dagny-rhya has it right now. She's inside, you'll get it back." No room for question given, and his voice is... level, but off a little. "In the mean time, your throwing stones has lost you the privilege of coming to Edgewood unsupervised. You may come here with another of the Furies to supervise you, but I am not going to. You are going to leave, so that I can go inside again."
It's questionable whether or not Ex even hears anything after 'Dagny-rhya has it'. She's on her feet in a moment, stalking--with quite a lot of wobbling--toward the house.
"No," Sue says, and then he's shifted to his birth form and then to hispo, and puts himself in the cub's way. Until Rogue can behave, and does behave, Rogue is not allowed at this house. That includes inside, the metis explains.
Ex snarls at Stands-Between, and this time she follows that up with a shift--not smooth, but quick enough--right up into crinos. She snarls again, louder now, teeth bared. The unspoken message is clear. /Move/.
Stands-Between stands his ground, and bares his teeth right back. No.
Rogue's response is immediate. She lashes at Sue's muzzle, claws out, with Rage-fueled speed.
Stands-Between launches himself forward, ignoring the claws to his muzzle, and using his greater familiarity with the hispo form to leverage his weight, knock her over, and then his hoof connects with her head, fueled by rage. And then his other hoof connects with her head as well, the same goal as before of knocking the cub out.
It isn't nearly so clean this time. She's not frenzying, and while she's quite raw in experience, she has access to Rage and her own wits, and she is intentionally trying to damage him. Rogue tears and bites at his muzzle, his face, his forelegs. She kicks furiously at his underside. The blows connect, and while her eyes roll back, she isn't quite out this time.
There is an enraged, annoyed snarl from the metis, and he brings hooves to connect with her head, the side of her jaw, again. The first two blows this time are rage-fueled, punctuated by threatening growls and curses in the garou tongue.
Rogue shrieks blind hatred into his face. There's a wildness about her that seems set apart from a frenzy, a desperate, rage fueled, hate sparked energy that persists despite the punishment to her head. It's as though she maintains consciousness by the sheer desire to lash out at him further, but not even this stands up against Stands-Between's efforts for long. Eventually she collapses again, once more returning to homid as she loses consciousness.
Stands-Between snarls at the unconscious cub and stalks towards the house, licking his wounds. A little later, the metis shifts up to homid. The lesser of the wounds have already healed, leaving a gouge to his face, his arms, his chest that start to seep through his clothing. Two minutes later, he returns from inside the house, her sketchbook in hand, and sits down on the porch to wait for Ex to regain consciousness. It's been straightened, dusted off, though it still seems as much the worse for the wear.
It takes longer this time, a lot longer. Bruises are starting to form by the time Ex comes back around, though they'll quickly be gone as soon as she shifts. She rolls slowly onto her stomach, heaves a few times without anything actually coming up, and then pushes to her knees.
Sue sits on the edge of the porch closest to her, and he pages through the sketchbook carefully, now looking at the drawings, brows raised a half-tick eventually. "You and I are going to *talk*," Sue snaps, irritably and there's still very real anger behind the words. "And then I will give you the sketchbook back. And then you are going to go back to the house, and you are not going to come here without being accompanied by one of my sisters or my brother."
Rogue rubs her knuckles against the side of her mouth. At the sound of Sue's voice, she lifts her head, and, on seeing the sketchbook, she jerks toward it.
The metis growls, despite being in homid at the moment, and then closes the sketchbook, tucking it under one arm such that he's not letting go. It's followed by what sounds to be cursing, in what sounds to be Greek, probably at the pain from movement. "/*Gamoto* horia sou, ante *gamisou*, ay *gamisou* malaka *sihama*./" Then, Sue points at the porch near him, and the ground near him, takes a deep breath. "Come over here and sit down. We are going to *talk*, and you are going to *control* yourself, and you are going to *listen* while it's my turn. Your actions have *consequences*, Rogue."
"Give me my book," Ex says. Her tone is very quiet. Rather chilly. She remains exactly where she is.
Sue shakes his head. "After we talk." His voice is level, but just barely. "And if we don't talk, then you have *one* option, and that's that I drive you back to the city and you stay with the Glass Walkers, by their rules, without open space, or freedom, or choice."
Ex appears to spasm, her eyes going wide, spittle on her lips. She reigns in the would-be frenzy, and repeats in a tone that is, perhaps, even quieter and colder. "Give. Me. My. Book."
Sue shakes his head again. "No," Sue says. "The fact that I have the sketchbook right now is one of the consequences of your actions. If I give you the sketchbook back first--and you draw well, by the way, if a little disturbing--you are going to *sit* here, and talk with me."
Ex's volume increases. "I didn't say you could look!" She sounds angry now. "You don't want to talk /with/ me. You want to talk /at/ me."
Sue takes the sketchbook and sets it in his lap, but he's not looking at it, he's looking at her. "You're *wrong*," he says, flatly. "I want to talk *with* you. I want you to *understand*. And you need to understand, but none of your actions show understanding right now. What they show is that you have some idea that you can choose who's the boss of you, that you can choose what you rules do or don't apply to you, that you can act out *just* because you want to break shit and kill shit."
"You want, you want, /you/ want," Ex says, quiet again, but hot rather than cold. She slumps back onto her rear and crosses her arms very tightly.
The metis in fact lets go of her sketchbook, letting it sit in his lap. "Why did you throw the rocks earlier, the second time?"
Ex's gaze flicks toward Sue's face, to the book, to his face, and then away. "Because they wouldn't /shut the fuck up/."
Sue raises his brows a moment. "Who's they?" The tone of his voice is still harsh, angry, but it's no longer directed at her, at least.
Ex throws her hands up. "The doctors! The buzzing, chatting, hissing, whispering, fucking machines."
Sue listens and nods, then sighs, for a moment. "You're out in the woods, Ex. You're out away from the city, they're not here. There's no Weaver, no machines." He falls silent for a moment, then picks up the sketchbook again, holding it out towards her. "Throwing rocks at the house is *not* going to help that, you know. And it's not acceptable. For the time being, you need to be actively *with* one of my tribemates to come out to this house, so that someone is around to be responsible for your behaviour. I'll let Melodie-rhya know what happened when I get a chance."
Ex snatches the sketchbook back the moment it's held out to her. "It's not like I fucking /hurt/ it. I just /annoyed/ you."
Sue shakes his head, folding his arms across his chest. "You annoyed Dagny, too. And this is Dagny's house. It is her right to ban you from it." He stands, patience visibly wearing thin. "You are not allowed to throw stones at the house, because no other cub--no one else, period--is allowed to throw stones at the house. It's disruptive, I just happened to be the one around for it."
"Fuck /that/ bitch," Ex says immediately. "She called me an 'it'. When's the last time someone got banned for throwing stones at a house?"
"Leave," Sue says. It's nearly a snarl. "Leave, *now*."
"But she's nice to /you/," Ex says, suddenly hot again. Her volume doesn't race, but she's talking rapidly. "She's nice to you, and that's all that fucking matters, ever. Guess you don't want to talk after all."
Sue takes a deep, steadying breath. His hands clench into fists. "When the moon is smaller." He takes another breath. "Dagny is my packmate. You will talk about her with respect, even if you do not *feel* that respect. For that matter, you will speak of April with respect as well. They both outrank you. Remember the litany, earlier? Submission to those of higher station." His voice is ice, backed by rage. "And to answer your question, no one else, since I've been here, has thrown stones at the house. But had I thrown stones at the house, in Golden Gate? I would have had my tongue torn out and my fingers ripped off, as punishment." He pauses, and then repeats himself. "NOW LEAVE."
Ex snaps back, furious, "Respect those beneath you, all are of Gaia!" She's on her feet now, but there's no sign of her leaving. "Didn't you /just fucking say/--weren't you /just/ complaining--neither of them respect /me/, I haven't signed up with you yet, and if the 'good guys' are /this fucking SICK/, you can keep your fucking teaching, I'll take my fucking chances on my own!" Her volume has risen steadily, so that the last few words are nearly shouted. "No /wonder/ they want to cure you!"
Sue keeps whatever he's thinking to himself, and glares at Ex, rage in his voice again. "Go back to the Greek House. Go. Now."
Ex tucks the sketchbook under her arm, gives Sue one final look, then turns and starts walking. It's not in the direction of the Greek House. It's not in the direction of the Bawn either.
