"Figure it out."
Jul. 4th, 2013 07:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
renferretIn which Ex is the absolute worst.
Dawn-Chaser paces around out of the kitchen to peer into the den, the rear door left swinging open behind him.
Maddie says, "Maddie supposes they are monsters from the human perspective. But they are also _not_ human. Duke and Lin were raised as humans, perhaps, but they are still no more human than Maddie is, who was Garou from birth. Limiting themselves to the human perspective would be foolish. They are Gaia's protectors -- warriors born to defend their Mother against any that would threaten her."
Duke once again scowls at Lin, though there's something thoughtful in his expression as well when she speaks. He nods sharply at Maddie's words, clearly in agreement.
Ex opens the door with a great deal of force and noise, and shuts it with even more. "/Shit/, guys, things are fucking exploding out there. Holy shit." Her too-bright eyes are especially so tonight, and there's a wild energy about her that is impossible to miss.
The arrival of one more person, and the noise, is enough to make Lin clearly uncomfortable. Her blanket is discarded, and from where she is on the couch, she nods as she starts to pull herself upright and towards and into her wheelchair. "Apparently," she remarks, accent colouring the words and marking her as not a local, "it's some sort of hol tonight. Fourth of July, Independence Day. Fireworks." She gets the rest of the way into the wheelchair and then starts to turn, lifting her legs to settle them onto the footrest and then do the lap belt.
Dawn-Chaser settles into a seated position still just inside the kitchen. The vociferous entrance of Ex gets his attention for a moment, and the the motion of the cub into the wheelchair gets a curious look.
Maddie offers Dawn-Chaser a wave of greeting, then extends it to include Ex as well. She doesn't add anything further to Lin's explanation for the fireworks, watching as the Gaian cub moves over to the chair with as little of the human concern about staring as the Silver Fang.
Duke turns sharply to Ex when the door opens and he drops instinctively into a ready stance. He glances to Lin with a look that suggests she might be speaking some foreign language and then turns back to the other cub. "Where? Is it monsters?"
Ex rolls her eyes in the most exaggerated way possible. "Yes, I know what the fucking Fourth of July is, /thanks/. Who the fuck are you?" She stares at Lin, eyes moving over those legs, and the chair, and the belt. One eye narrows. Only Duke's question seems to distract her. "Huh? No, it's fireworks. Big ones."
"Linnaea Griffin-Macey," Lin responds, most of her focus on settling into the chair and rearranging her legs with her hands, then pushing to sit up, a backpack picked up from the couch and put over the back of the chair. There's no offer of the short form of her name, and a small amount of sharpness in her words. "Theurge cub of the Children of Gaia. And who the blazes are you?" Once she's settled, Lin undoes the brakes, rolling over to next to where Maddie sits and re-parking her wheelchair once she's closer to the elder theurge.
Dawn-Chaser looks back and forth between the talkers like it was a tennis match. His ears sply, the light lupine smile he carries beginning to fade.
"Cub?" Ex echoes, incredulous. "Wow, are you ever /fucked/."
Maddie reaches over to give the Gaian's shoulder a squeeze. To Duke, she says, "If it _were_ monsters, Maddie should point out that they have a Guardian pack that patrols the bawn to deal with them. He may be called upon to fight as a cub, but likely not until a tribe has claimed him."
A flash of frustration shows across Duke's features, though it subsides somewhat when Ex allows that no monsters are involved. "That's X," he says to Linnaea. "She's the one that helped me fight the dog monster," he says, but even as he's explaining to the Gaian cub, he's turning to share that information with Maddie. "If there's monsters, I can fight them. I fought lots, already. I'm not gonna let her get eaten, just because I didn't join a tribe, yet."
Linnaea lifts a hand and sets it on Maddie's for a moment, and then her chin rises and she looks at Ex. "No I'm not," she states, determinedly. "And who are you to say that?" Duke gets a similarly sharp look as though Lin would have rather heard it from Ex. "I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to learn everything I can, and Topsy-rhya and Keir-rhya and Maddie-rhya and Charlene-rhya and I will figure it out. Topsy-rhya said so, said she hasn't run into something she couldn't fix yet. And I'm /going/ to rite eventually."
The Gaian takes another breath and glances at Duke once more, with a bit, this time, of a smile. "Thanks," she offers, almost hesitantly, not sharp at all anymore. "One day I'll be a proper theurge and get to heal people and all, too. I /will/."
Ex's rather narrow, flat chest puffs up a little as Duke names her as one of the co-dog killers, but this brief flash of pride--is it pride? It's hard to tell, really--doesn't last. "Okay," she says flatly. And then she marches straight for Lin.
Dawn-Chaser brings his ears forward at the continued display before him, looking briefly up to the ceiling for, well, no apparent reason ashe gets up to his feet. He doesn't move from his spot however.
Maddie's eyes narrow as Ex marches over, prepared to intervene if necessary, but for the moment just keeping an eye on the cubs.
When there's no argument from the metis, Duke crosses his arms, lifting his chin some as he shifts his focus to Ex.
Sheer stubbornness keeps Lin exactly where she is, hands coming to fold in her lap, and she looks up at Ex. "What do you want?" she asks the other girl, quiet and level.
Ex doesn't stop until she's right up next to the chair. "Figure it out." With sudden lightning violence, and a clear use of Rage, she grabs the nearest arm of the wheelchair and attempts to shove it right over onto its side. Whether it's too fast for Maddie or not, she's clearly got the force in the motion to succeed.
Linnaea: Wheelchair doesn't have arms.
Ex spends Rage and a Willpower there. :) Dex 3 for the record.
Linnaea: Has wheels, though.
Ex: Then back or wheel, yeah.
The kitchen door is suddenly blocked by a wall of white fur. there is no snarl nor growl escaping from Dawn-Chaser in his war form, only a force of personality carried by a heavy voice, commanding attention and compliance. ~Every cub. Flat on the floor. Now.~ All the more commanding in that he even spoke clearly for once. The rattling of the sword on his side against the door frame is also present.
Ex is fast enough, particularly fueled by rage, that Maddie can't intervene in time, but she does ensure that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Her hand lifts up, and then it sweeps to the side. The gesture looks no more like an attack than a handwave -- until the contents of every trash can on the lower floor of the house come flying at Ex at high velocity. If Ex is quick to obey Dawn-Chaser, however, then Maddie will abort her target, and the cub won't find herself covered with all sorts of unpleasantness.
As soon as Dawn Chaser is in crinos, shouting across the room, Duke is in crinos as well, crouching, ready, looking for all the world as though he expects an attack to come at any second and just as ready to meet it. His lips pull back from his teeth in a warning snarl.
Maddie pages: And even if Ex doesn't, there's not going to be any significant physical damage (actual damage would be accidental, rather than deliberate.) Just, y'know, a place like Edgewood generates a lot of slimy, nasty, smelliness that no one wants to be covered in!
Linnaea yells, incoherent and wordless and angry and loud as the chair is tipped, and there's a failure of an attempt to take Ex down with her. Linnaea's just not fast enough, or dextrous enough to do so and still deal with being pushed, and she chooses to deal with being pushed. The straps keep her from falling out of the chair, at least until she starts to undo them, biting down on her lower lip to keep her composure and get the chair upright. "Duke, no," she calls out, shaking her head. Ex gets harsher words. "Takes a really big person to bully someone who can't fight back. I hope your elders will be proud of you."
Ex obeys immediately, almost before she has a chance to think. She gets down on the ground, just below a crouch, and only then does she answer Lin. "/Yes/. I'm a cub. /That/ means that if you somehow get your rite then we might have to work together, and /that/ means that I have to watch out for you, and /that/ means that maybe you shouldn't be such a fucking stuck-up /bitch/ to the werewolves that are going to be protecting you, just because you've got a tribe that's going to coddle you and we've got to work for ours."
Dawn-Chaser steps into the den lightly, not a hiar bristed in anger at the moment, instead just an aura, a presence, permeating from him. Duke gets a whithering look from him that doesn't need words to convey, no matter how new he may be. ~No figting in this place. Broken rules.~
Ex's lip curls, though she doesn't raise an inch from the floor. "Fighting means she actually defends herself, she's just letting you babysit her."
Duke remains in that low crouch, a cornered animal, ears flat against his skull and teeth bared. A low growl sounds in his throat and the snarl comes again. ~Not Fighting!~
When Ex obeys, Maddie redirects the target of the garbage -- there's too much for her to manipulate it as readily as she could her trash puppets, but she can at least concentrate it all somewhere that it'll be easy to clean up later. To Duke, she says, "They are not to fight in the house, or to shift in here unless told to. He will return to his human form at once."
Linnaea continues to haul herself back into the now upright wheelchair, rolling back and away from Ex, grabbing her backpack and setting it into her lap. This time, she doesn't even do the belt. "You should try being decent to other Garou for once in your life instead of being a Gaia forsaken bully, or no one's ever going to trust you to watch their back," she says, and then she's at the very least got Maddie all the way in between her and Ex. "And no. I'm not. But I don't know how to fight yet. I barely just had my first change, I haven't practised shifting, and while I know how to shoot a gun I neither have mine here, nor do I think that's very polite to another Gaian Garou. And you know? I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to work harder to even get my Rite than you ever will. You can walk. You can fight. You can defend yourself. You don't have to prove your worth every minute you breathe."
Ex snaps, "Then /shut up/. /I/ know how to fight, I have fought, I can shift as good as anyone. I /do/ have to prove my worth, you stupid cunt. I didn't get to hide behind anyone when I got here, /or/ before." As much as she hasn't moved from the floor, it's clear her Rage is up, and getting higher. "You're running away, but you won't shut the fuck up. You're a /fucking coward/. Come here and tell me I haven't had to work for shit, you fucking baby!"
Dawn-Chaser continues his hard stare at Duke, the purer lines of his tribe unmistakeable, though he continues to speak into room. ~The cub instructs the Fostern Philodox?~ And at the next explosion, ~And I said flat on the floor.~ His words are as cold as steel, still not a hair raised.
Maddie says calmly to Ex, "Maddie does not know the entirety of the story, though she knows enough to be aware that Lin was very, very wrong to imply that Ex has not had to work far harder than most already. And yet Ex _did_ have not one but _two_ tribes that many Garou would claim were coddling _her_ by not culling her long ago. Would she deny another the same consideration that was given to her?"
Fear and anger mix in the cornered cub's eyes and through his posture. There's a slight twitch at his ear, in his shoulder, when Maddie speaks and another at Lin's last words. But it's Dawn Chaser's continued glare, the continued growl, that seems to finally send him over the edge. His eyes go wide, all sense in them lost, and he launches himself from his cornered position, all teeth and claws and fury, aimed at that nearest threat.
Linnaea settles, turning her chair back to face Ex again. "You're still a bully," she says, quiet and level and lips pulling back from her teeth, stubbornness in every inch of her posture. "Pick on someone else, someone your own size." The tone of voice, however, edges on apology. And then Duke loses it, which more than anything else, effectively cuts off the theurge cub's exit, and she edges to lean slightly against Maddie, her own Rage at the very forefront of her being, minimal as it is comparatively to the other cubs.
Ex hisses through clenched teeth, "I just want her to shut--" But that's all she manages before Linn speaks, and Duke explodes. The Fury cub's eyes go wide, and just that little bit more mad, and she /shudders/. She remains in homid, but there's nothing homid about how her lips are peeling back from her teeth, her eyes almost rolling, a little bit of drool collecting near one corner of her mouth.
Dawn-Chaser does something perhaps slightly unexpected, perhaps brilliant. He's in lupus in an instant and already darting out through the kitchen and out the backdoor which was left conveniently open earlier. He snarls loudly, keeping himself in the cub's mind, leading him out into the meadow beyond, using his own rage and lupine speed to stay ahead.
Maddie grimaces as Duke snaps. To Lin, she says, "Lin should get to safety as best she can. Maddie will help to keep him from coming this way." And then she turns to Ex, but her request for assistance is cut off as she sees just how bad a time the Fury cub is having at the moment, and her priority turns from helping Dawn-Chaser to getting Lin to safety.
Duke is on all fours, charging after the fleeing wolf, nothing in his posture but the visible desire to rend and kill.
Dawn-Chaser leaves the house through the front door.
Dawn-Chaser has left.
Duke leaves the house through the front door.
Duke has left.
Linnaea doesn't say anything more to Ex, though from her expression there's a lot more she could say. But she knows, at least a little, when to stop, and backs up the wheelchair. When Duke's out the kitchen and then out the door into the meadow, the Gaian cub moves--and she can move quickly in that wheelchair, even the pile of trash not stopping her or hindering her--for one of the lesser used doors out of the living room, the library briefly visible through it. And then the girl slams the door shut behind her, and there's an audible click as it locks.
Ex lets out an audible snarl at the fleeing cub, and her eyes get a little wider--but again, she appears to manage to hold it in, if only just. Her fingernails scratch at the floor.
Maddie, for her part, says nothing, not knowing Ex nearly well enough to know if words would help or just be a trigger. She settles for giving the cub space, reaching for her walking stick as she shuffles back over toward the library.
Ex breathes heavily, with her tongue practically hanging from her mouth. Gradually, very gradually, some of the immediate tension leaks out of her arms, and her eyes get a little more sense in them. It's clear when she's regained at least some semblance of control, because she raises her voice and snarls, "Fucking /coward/!"
Maddie shakes her head and sighs as Ex calls out her insult, leaning back against the library door while doing her best to keep an ear open for any loud noises from outside. Not that she'd have a prayer of catching up to them in time if she _did_ hear anything.
The library door is very clearly locked, and there's no sound from the inside, except for perhaps Linnaea very quietly hitting something muffled.
Without the Fang's presence to keep her on the floor, Ex shoves herself up. The woman still looks as though she'd like nothing better than a violent fight, but as no target presents itself but Maddie, she ends up cupping both elbows with gloved hands instead. "Someone's going to stomp on her head if she talks like that," she tells the metis.
Maddie doesn't have any particular inclination to keep Ex there, now that she's got her wits about her again. She tilts her head slightly, and asks, "Maddie wonders if she sees the similarities in their situations, then?" She seems genuinely curious; there's no suggestion in her tone or posture that the question is a veiled threat.
Ex gives a rough shake of her head. "Nope." She eyes the door balefully for a moment.
Linnaea is a petite young woman. Dark hair with auburn and even lighter blond highlights is cut in an uneven and slightly messy, carefree style that frames her face and hangs to her shoulders, the occasional bang falling into her face as well. Her skin is fair but tanned towards ruddy, with freckles across her cheeks, and light brown eyes, and her features are not delicate as much as simply there. Linnaea tends to dress in casual and practical clothing, loose jeans and a ice-grey screenprinted tee (featuring soft kitty) with light, slip on shoes towards slippers that aren't meant to be walked in outofdoors.
Also notable is her wheelchair, a lightweight rigid chair with no armrests, and no push handles, a slightly more than half-height back. The frame of the wheelchair is black anodized aluminum, the wheels slightly cambered, and the front casters are light-up in the center like might be found on children's shoes. The wheels, however, look to be meant for offroad as well as indoor use, with tires and tread. She sits upright and confident, but also strapped in with a lap belt system of some sort, and wears a pair of practical fingerless gloves to push herself.
"Ah, well. Maddie supposes it doesn't matter. The next time, though, she would be better served by challenging than by simply starting something physical inside their place of shelter," Maddie notes.
Ex frowns at Maddie. "I don't have to challenge her. I've been ready for riting for ages. I beat the Reed kid in a staredown. I've killed two monsters, one the size of a fucking van. She's a brand new cub. She was challenging /me/."
Maddie says "Ah, but if she were as ready as she claims, then she would have taken a few moments to _think_. To consider the consequences of her response. If she is correct, and it was Lin that was challenging her, then she had simply to accept the challenge and demand it be moved elsewhere -- she would have accomplished her end just as effectively, and demonstrated wisdom in the process."
Ex's nose wrinkles. "You wouldn't have let it happen. I did think. I thought she was a disrespectful bitch, and then I thought about how I've been fighting not to get killed by you people, and she's got all these Garou talking about how they'll figure it out for her, fix all her problems, so she gets to rite and then maybe /I/ have to take care of her and get killed because she can't run away. But me, I'm fucking crazy, so then your rules apply."
Maddie says "That depends on the challenge, and if Ex is the challenged party, then it would be hers to choose, would it not? A fight? No, Maddie would not have allowed that to happen, any more than she would with _any_ cub who cannot control her shifting yet. But was born to the new moon, was she not? There are any number of challenges, physical and otherwise, that she _would_ have." She lowers her voice, then, conscious of the listener on the other side of the door. "And if Ex thinks that all of Lin's challenges will be overcome by another, then she truly is a fool. Ex said it herself when Lin first spoke of being a cub, and there is a very good chance that she was right. But she _will_ get the chance to fight for her life, just as Ex had her teachers among the Glass Walkers and the Black Furies to give that chance to her."
"I don't care about her chance," Ex says. "I'm not saying to fucking kill her, I'm saying she was being a /bitch/. She said the elders would figure it out. I pushed her over and told her to figure it out. If she's going to talk down to me, then I'm going to hit her. It's not fair and nice. None of you are fair and nice. Nothing's fair and nice." She pauses, breathes in, and says, "They didn't give it to me, I took it. I took it before /any/ of you met me."
The faint sounds from the library continue, something heavy and solid *thump*ing against the door with surprising accuracy not long after Ex's second sentence and then Linnaea goes back to beating up on what's probably the armchair.
Maddie says "If she cannot see how much leeway she was given _after_ they met her, as compared to most cubs, Maddie is obviously not going to convince her of it. But as Maddie sees it, her situation and Lin's are simply reflections of one another -- the same, but inverted. Ex came to the Hidden Walk physically strong, but facing immense hurdles to integrate socially, and facing dire consequences if she could not, enough so that had she been taken in by the wrong tribe, she would now be dead. Lin comes to the Hidden Walk as a kinfolk, so socially strong, with knowledge that should put her ahead of most cubs, but the physical hurdle that she must overcome is no less than the social one that Ex still contends with."
Ex's teeth briefly show, but there's no sign of further loss of control. "They locked me in a /room/." She jabs a finger into the air, and takes an aggravated step to the side, eyeing the door at the thump like an agitated tiger. More words, half formed and soundless, touch her lips, but she doesn't manage to voice any of them, she just paces in a tight back and forth line, watching the door more than Maddie.
Maddie bobs her head, not disagreeing with her. "Maddie admits that she does not know all of what was done, either here or before. But those here, she knows well enough to be certain that what was done, was done because they believed it would keep Ex alive. Topsy and Maddie will do the same for Lin."
Ex stops pacing and points at the door. "If she's going to be Garou, then she has to be able to act like one. You can't say she's going to be like me, and then say I can't hit her like everyone gets hit when they're talking like that. I didn't even hit her, I pushed her. She can't hide and then say she's Garou."
There's another thump of an object against a door. Someone's clearly still listening.
Ex turns toward the door, "You can't hide!" she says, with a raised voice, "and still say you're Garou!"
Maddie says, "In time, she will lose that protection, yes. She will defend herself or face the consequences of not doing so, whether her opponent is in the right or otherwise. But as Maddie has already said, she will not let _any_ cub too fresh from their first change to control their shifting be attacked. She has also pointed out how many other ways that leaves them to settle matters of dominance."
Ex's nose wrinkles again. "I didn't attack her."
Maddie asks, "Maddie wonders what she would do if another cub were to charge at her and push her over? Would she really react so differently than if that cub had used a fist, instead?"
"I'd get up and punch them," Ex says, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "And my teachers would expect me to."
Maddie bobs her head, the response exactly what she expected. "So she agrees that she did attack Lin, then." She considers for a moment. "Ex put Lin into the equivalent position of Ex having to remain calm and respectful to an angry elder that she did not know a week after she was found. She could do it now, very likely, but she could not have done it then."
Ex points out, "The angry elder hit me until I stopped moving."
Ex adds, with suddenly vehemence, "And the Greedy Bitch /stole/ my thoughts!"
Maddie blinks a bit at the second part of that outburst. Her response, though, is more to the former. "And to keep that from happening -- or at least help it to happen less -- they kept her away from many other Garou until she was ready." Maddie frowns a bit. "Maddie would prefer that not happen in this case, but perhaps it will come to that. Her tribe will have to decide on that."
Ex gives Maddie a thoroughly exasperated look. "No they didn't." She paces away from the door, away from Maddie, and back into the living room. Her hands are clenched into loose fists, but she doesn't visit any violence upon the furniture or walls.
There's a while of a wait, after Ex leaves and then some. The sound of the chair being beaten on more, and things being thrown at the door even after the conversation's over, and then the sound of things being picked up, and then Linnaea queries, still as soft-spoken as she tends to be, "Maddie-rhya?" The lock unlocks, but the door doesn't open. Yet.
Maddie has long since scooted over to sit beside the door instead of in front of it, but when the Gaian cub calls out, she replies, "Maddie is here."
Apparently for now, Lin's content to sit on the other side of the door and have the conversation through the door. Her voice shakes, a little. The first question, though, is a simple one, one word. "Why?" A pause. "Bullies bloody well suck. I meant it when I called her that. I don't care why, she's still a bully. A really /small/ one if she needs to stoop to bullying me to feel big and powerful and secure in herself."
Maddie asks, "Maddie wonders how well she can feel the anger burning in her heart? Feel her temper drawn more tightly than usual, because of the moon's tug? All of them feel it, to greater or lesser degree. And the Garou are warriors. Their first instinct, often, is to fight. A slight, however minor, or even if imagined, can be all the excuse that they need. And the rage runs very strong in that one." A faint frown. "And Maddie wonders if, perhaps, Ex _does_ see the inversion of their situations, or at least enough elements of it to disturb her."
There's another pause, and the door opens, and Lin pushes her way out of the library, leaving the door open behind her. A makeshift cot has been set up in there, and her backpack is on it, and she's all the way belted into the chair now, but lacking the fingerless wheelchair gloves, and her knuckles are red and at points bloody and raw . Apparently not all the things the cub hit were soft. "I can feel it," she says. "It's... there. Angry and it made everything that Ex said a million times worse, too. I..." she hesitates and then continues. "I threw an empty cup at Reed-rhya earlier today when he said something in a way that pissed me off, using the word help. I felt it on the last full moon, and more now, Charlene said, because it's crescent right now."
Maddie bobs her head. "Now take that, and amplify it several times over. That is the closest Maddie can come to imagining what the rage is like for the Ahroun, and others for whom the rage burns extra fierce. Throwing a cup? A physical attack, an implicit challenge should he have chosen to accept it. And the fact that she does not yet know how to fight would not have protected her, though being a newly changed cub grants her _some_ leeway."
Linnaea nods, folding her hands in her lap and fidgeting. "I apologised. As soon as I realised I'd thrown it. I didn't mean to throw it, it just... happened."
"And that is something that she must learn to remedy as quickly as she can," Maddie replies. "She cannot afford to let the rage control her."
Once more, the cub nods. "I know," Lin says, quietly, and then glances in the direction of the front door, before leaning back a little in her wheelchair, head against the wall. "It's just new to me." She pauses, and then asks, "Why's that other cub have to be so mean? I mean, there are Garou with Rage who aren't horrible, nasty people. And I'm not stuck up. If anything, /she/ is," though it's clear that Lin isn't even capable of believing that, or of truly being mean, because she shakes her head. "She's not the fucking boss of me, I don't even know her, and I don't bloody well /want to/. And the way she went on, I wouldn't want her watching my back anyway. I'm not some burden, t' get people killed."
"A burden for a different reason than Maddie was, perhaps, even if for a reason that is no more of her doing," Maddie replies, "But still a burden until she proves herself otherwise, and that will take her some time to do. And she needs to know that though Ex may have been more aggressive than many, cubs establish dominance just as any other Garou, and just as often physically."
Linnaea's lips pull back from her teeth in clear displeasure. "Fuck if she's stronger. She's still not the boss of me and might doesn't make right or any of that, she can take her high horse," the Gaian cub says, her volume rising slightly, though it wasn't much to begin with, "and ride it right back out!" Her hands clench into fists in her lap. "I can't count the number of times people think it's funny, or the thing they should do. Tip my chair over. Push me down the hill. Push me into the wall. Tip me backwards. Hit me upside the head. It just makes them smaller. More wrong. Not more right."
Maddie snorts. "Maddie admires the sentiment in principle. In practice, it may well get her killed. She is vulnerable, and the Garou do not grant vulernability even the slight protections that it offers among humans. If another Garou is stronger, she must either submit or be clever enough to change the game to one in which she can compete. If she does not, she is at the other's mercy."
"Nothing she did suggests she should be the boss of anyone, anyway," Lin says, brow furrowing sharply. "Respect. It's a two way street and shoving someone over isn't demonstrating none or earning any. And Topsy-rhya said this place was the safest for me to stay at," she adds, and shakes her head. "I don't want to stay here," is said more quietly than the earlier words. "It's not. How can it be if she can get away with that-- not that you let her get away with that but she'll do it again. Bullies always do. And she's got so much Rage. Even if I wanted to punch her, that'd be dumb, I can't even reach."
Maddie says "If Topsy allows it, she would be welcome to stay at the Library." A glance back into the room Lin just left, "Maddie's tribe's library, she means. But she does need to understand that while Ex may have been rude, she did nothing truly wrong. She broke none of the rules or social conventions of the Garou. Lin should not confuse dominance and respect, either."
Linnaea nods at the first, and doesn't seem happy with the second. "So it just lets her get away with being a bloody bully and treating me like some... I don't even want to /say/ half the words she said. That's stupid. This is all stupid!" The cub frowns in her frustration. "They're stupid for teaching her that hitting people you're supposed to fight alongside some day is right. She's stupid for calling me a bitch when she was the one being a bitch. It's stupid she can't only pick on people her own size. She needs to learn to be a decent person. We might not be human, but we're still people, and we interact." She sighs, and looks at the elder theurge. "Stay?" she asks, half asking, half a plea. "I... I think I should sleep. But." The but hangs in the air.
Maddie shifts from homid to lupus in answer, picking up her walking stick in her teeth, at least long enough to drag it into the library. The deformity of her feet and rear legs is even more obvious in this form, where she doesn't have clothing covering it, but she's also able to get around a little better with the added stability of four legs. She goes as far as the cot, curling up underneath one edge.
Linnaea doesn't seem at all bothered by the metis deformity, and follows the Gnawer into the room, rolling over to the cot, parking the chair, and flopping herself down into it without even bothering to change into pyjamas. The girl settles with her head at the same edge as the elder theurge, and not so quickly, not so quietly, falls asleep.
Dawn-Chaser paces around out of the kitchen to peer into the den, the rear door left swinging open behind him.
Maddie says, "Maddie supposes they are monsters from the human perspective. But they are also _not_ human. Duke and Lin were raised as humans, perhaps, but they are still no more human than Maddie is, who was Garou from birth. Limiting themselves to the human perspective would be foolish. They are Gaia's protectors -- warriors born to defend their Mother against any that would threaten her."
Duke once again scowls at Lin, though there's something thoughtful in his expression as well when she speaks. He nods sharply at Maddie's words, clearly in agreement.
Ex opens the door with a great deal of force and noise, and shuts it with even more. "/Shit/, guys, things are fucking exploding out there. Holy shit." Her too-bright eyes are especially so tonight, and there's a wild energy about her that is impossible to miss.
The arrival of one more person, and the noise, is enough to make Lin clearly uncomfortable. Her blanket is discarded, and from where she is on the couch, she nods as she starts to pull herself upright and towards and into her wheelchair. "Apparently," she remarks, accent colouring the words and marking her as not a local, "it's some sort of hol tonight. Fourth of July, Independence Day. Fireworks." She gets the rest of the way into the wheelchair and then starts to turn, lifting her legs to settle them onto the footrest and then do the lap belt.
Dawn-Chaser settles into a seated position still just inside the kitchen. The vociferous entrance of Ex gets his attention for a moment, and the the motion of the cub into the wheelchair gets a curious look.
Maddie offers Dawn-Chaser a wave of greeting, then extends it to include Ex as well. She doesn't add anything further to Lin's explanation for the fireworks, watching as the Gaian cub moves over to the chair with as little of the human concern about staring as the Silver Fang.
Duke turns sharply to Ex when the door opens and he drops instinctively into a ready stance. He glances to Lin with a look that suggests she might be speaking some foreign language and then turns back to the other cub. "Where? Is it monsters?"
Ex rolls her eyes in the most exaggerated way possible. "Yes, I know what the fucking Fourth of July is, /thanks/. Who the fuck are you?" She stares at Lin, eyes moving over those legs, and the chair, and the belt. One eye narrows. Only Duke's question seems to distract her. "Huh? No, it's fireworks. Big ones."
"Linnaea Griffin-Macey," Lin responds, most of her focus on settling into the chair and rearranging her legs with her hands, then pushing to sit up, a backpack picked up from the couch and put over the back of the chair. There's no offer of the short form of her name, and a small amount of sharpness in her words. "Theurge cub of the Children of Gaia. And who the blazes are you?" Once she's settled, Lin undoes the brakes, rolling over to next to where Maddie sits and re-parking her wheelchair once she's closer to the elder theurge.
Dawn-Chaser looks back and forth between the talkers like it was a tennis match. His ears sply, the light lupine smile he carries beginning to fade.
"Cub?" Ex echoes, incredulous. "Wow, are you ever /fucked/."
Maddie reaches over to give the Gaian's shoulder a squeeze. To Duke, she says, "If it _were_ monsters, Maddie should point out that they have a Guardian pack that patrols the bawn to deal with them. He may be called upon to fight as a cub, but likely not until a tribe has claimed him."
A flash of frustration shows across Duke's features, though it subsides somewhat when Ex allows that no monsters are involved. "That's X," he says to Linnaea. "She's the one that helped me fight the dog monster," he says, but even as he's explaining to the Gaian cub, he's turning to share that information with Maddie. "If there's monsters, I can fight them. I fought lots, already. I'm not gonna let her get eaten, just because I didn't join a tribe, yet."
Linnaea lifts a hand and sets it on Maddie's for a moment, and then her chin rises and she looks at Ex. "No I'm not," she states, determinedly. "And who are you to say that?" Duke gets a similarly sharp look as though Lin would have rather heard it from Ex. "I'm going to work hard, and I'm going to learn everything I can, and Topsy-rhya and Keir-rhya and Maddie-rhya and Charlene-rhya and I will figure it out. Topsy-rhya said so, said she hasn't run into something she couldn't fix yet. And I'm /going/ to rite eventually."
The Gaian takes another breath and glances at Duke once more, with a bit, this time, of a smile. "Thanks," she offers, almost hesitantly, not sharp at all anymore. "One day I'll be a proper theurge and get to heal people and all, too. I /will/."
Ex's rather narrow, flat chest puffs up a little as Duke names her as one of the co-dog killers, but this brief flash of pride--is it pride? It's hard to tell, really--doesn't last. "Okay," she says flatly. And then she marches straight for Lin.
Dawn-Chaser brings his ears forward at the continued display before him, looking briefly up to the ceiling for, well, no apparent reason ashe gets up to his feet. He doesn't move from his spot however.
Maddie's eyes narrow as Ex marches over, prepared to intervene if necessary, but for the moment just keeping an eye on the cubs.
When there's no argument from the metis, Duke crosses his arms, lifting his chin some as he shifts his focus to Ex.
Sheer stubbornness keeps Lin exactly where she is, hands coming to fold in her lap, and she looks up at Ex. "What do you want?" she asks the other girl, quiet and level.
Ex doesn't stop until she's right up next to the chair. "Figure it out." With sudden lightning violence, and a clear use of Rage, she grabs the nearest arm of the wheelchair and attempts to shove it right over onto its side. Whether it's too fast for Maddie or not, she's clearly got the force in the motion to succeed.
The kitchen door is suddenly blocked by a wall of white fur. there is no snarl nor growl escaping from Dawn-Chaser in his war form, only a force of personality carried by a heavy voice, commanding attention and compliance. ~Every cub. Flat on the floor. Now.~ All the more commanding in that he even spoke clearly for once. The rattling of the sword on his side against the door frame is also present.
Ex is fast enough, particularly fueled by rage, that Maddie can't intervene in time, but she does ensure that for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Her hand lifts up, and then it sweeps to the side. The gesture looks no more like an attack than a handwave -- until the contents of every trash can on the lower floor of the house come flying at Ex at high velocity. If Ex is quick to obey Dawn-Chaser, however, then Maddie will abort her target, and the cub won't find herself covered with all sorts of unpleasantness.
As soon as Dawn Chaser is in crinos, shouting across the room, Duke is in crinos as well, crouching, ready, looking for all the world as though he expects an attack to come at any second and just as ready to meet it. His lips pull back from his teeth in a warning snarl.
Maddie pages: And even if Ex doesn't, there's not going to be any significant physical damage (actual damage would be accidental, rather than deliberate.) Just, y'know, a place like Edgewood generates a lot of slimy, nasty, smelliness that no one wants to be covered in!
Linnaea yells, incoherent and wordless and angry and loud as the chair is tipped, and there's a failure of an attempt to take Ex down with her. Linnaea's just not fast enough, or dextrous enough to do so and still deal with being pushed, and she chooses to deal with being pushed. The straps keep her from falling out of the chair, at least until she starts to undo them, biting down on her lower lip to keep her composure and get the chair upright. "Duke, no," she calls out, shaking her head. Ex gets harsher words. "Takes a really big person to bully someone who can't fight back. I hope your elders will be proud of you."
Ex obeys immediately, almost before she has a chance to think. She gets down on the ground, just below a crouch, and only then does she answer Lin. "/Yes/. I'm a cub. /That/ means that if you somehow get your rite then we might have to work together, and /that/ means that I have to watch out for you, and /that/ means that maybe you shouldn't be such a fucking stuck-up /bitch/ to the werewolves that are going to be protecting you, just because you've got a tribe that's going to coddle you and we've got to work for ours."
Dawn-Chaser steps into the den lightly, not a hiar bristed in anger at the moment, instead just an aura, a presence, permeating from him. Duke gets a whithering look from him that doesn't need words to convey, no matter how new he may be. ~No figting in this place. Broken rules.~
Ex's lip curls, though she doesn't raise an inch from the floor. "Fighting means she actually defends herself, she's just letting you babysit her."
Duke remains in that low crouch, a cornered animal, ears flat against his skull and teeth bared. A low growl sounds in his throat and the snarl comes again. ~Not Fighting!~
When Ex obeys, Maddie redirects the target of the garbage -- there's too much for her to manipulate it as readily as she could her trash puppets, but she can at least concentrate it all somewhere that it'll be easy to clean up later. To Duke, she says, "They are not to fight in the house, or to shift in here unless told to. He will return to his human form at once."
Linnaea continues to haul herself back into the now upright wheelchair, rolling back and away from Ex, grabbing her backpack and setting it into her lap. This time, she doesn't even do the belt. "You should try being decent to other Garou for once in your life instead of being a Gaia forsaken bully, or no one's ever going to trust you to watch their back," she says, and then she's at the very least got Maddie all the way in between her and Ex. "And no. I'm not. But I don't know how to fight yet. I barely just had my first change, I haven't practised shifting, and while I know how to shoot a gun I neither have mine here, nor do I think that's very polite to another Gaian Garou. And you know? I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to work harder to even get my Rite than you ever will. You can walk. You can fight. You can defend yourself. You don't have to prove your worth every minute you breathe."
Ex snaps, "Then /shut up/. /I/ know how to fight, I have fought, I can shift as good as anyone. I /do/ have to prove my worth, you stupid cunt. I didn't get to hide behind anyone when I got here, /or/ before." As much as she hasn't moved from the floor, it's clear her Rage is up, and getting higher. "You're running away, but you won't shut the fuck up. You're a /fucking coward/. Come here and tell me I haven't had to work for shit, you fucking baby!"
Dawn-Chaser continues his hard stare at Duke, the purer lines of his tribe unmistakeable, though he continues to speak into room. ~The cub instructs the Fostern Philodox?~ And at the next explosion, ~And I said flat on the floor.~ His words are as cold as steel, still not a hair raised.
Maddie says calmly to Ex, "Maddie does not know the entirety of the story, though she knows enough to be aware that Lin was very, very wrong to imply that Ex has not had to work far harder than most already. And yet Ex _did_ have not one but _two_ tribes that many Garou would claim were coddling _her_ by not culling her long ago. Would she deny another the same consideration that was given to her?"
Fear and anger mix in the cornered cub's eyes and through his posture. There's a slight twitch at his ear, in his shoulder, when Maddie speaks and another at Lin's last words. But it's Dawn Chaser's continued glare, the continued growl, that seems to finally send him over the edge. His eyes go wide, all sense in them lost, and he launches himself from his cornered position, all teeth and claws and fury, aimed at that nearest threat.
Linnaea settles, turning her chair back to face Ex again. "You're still a bully," she says, quiet and level and lips pulling back from her teeth, stubbornness in every inch of her posture. "Pick on someone else, someone your own size." The tone of voice, however, edges on apology. And then Duke loses it, which more than anything else, effectively cuts off the theurge cub's exit, and she edges to lean slightly against Maddie, her own Rage at the very forefront of her being, minimal as it is comparatively to the other cubs.
Ex hisses through clenched teeth, "I just want her to shut--" But that's all she manages before Linn speaks, and Duke explodes. The Fury cub's eyes go wide, and just that little bit more mad, and she /shudders/. She remains in homid, but there's nothing homid about how her lips are peeling back from her teeth, her eyes almost rolling, a little bit of drool collecting near one corner of her mouth.
Dawn-Chaser does something perhaps slightly unexpected, perhaps brilliant. He's in lupus in an instant and already darting out through the kitchen and out the backdoor which was left conveniently open earlier. He snarls loudly, keeping himself in the cub's mind, leading him out into the meadow beyond, using his own rage and lupine speed to stay ahead.
Maddie grimaces as Duke snaps. To Lin, she says, "Lin should get to safety as best she can. Maddie will help to keep him from coming this way." And then she turns to Ex, but her request for assistance is cut off as she sees just how bad a time the Fury cub is having at the moment, and her priority turns from helping Dawn-Chaser to getting Lin to safety.
Duke is on all fours, charging after the fleeing wolf, nothing in his posture but the visible desire to rend and kill.
Dawn-Chaser leaves the house through the front door.
Dawn-Chaser has left.
Duke leaves the house through the front door.
Duke has left.
Linnaea doesn't say anything more to Ex, though from her expression there's a lot more she could say. But she knows, at least a little, when to stop, and backs up the wheelchair. When Duke's out the kitchen and then out the door into the meadow, the Gaian cub moves--and she can move quickly in that wheelchair, even the pile of trash not stopping her or hindering her--for one of the lesser used doors out of the living room, the library briefly visible through it. And then the girl slams the door shut behind her, and there's an audible click as it locks.
Ex lets out an audible snarl at the fleeing cub, and her eyes get a little wider--but again, she appears to manage to hold it in, if only just. Her fingernails scratch at the floor.
Maddie, for her part, says nothing, not knowing Ex nearly well enough to know if words would help or just be a trigger. She settles for giving the cub space, reaching for her walking stick as she shuffles back over toward the library.
Ex breathes heavily, with her tongue practically hanging from her mouth. Gradually, very gradually, some of the immediate tension leaks out of her arms, and her eyes get a little more sense in them. It's clear when she's regained at least some semblance of control, because she raises her voice and snarls, "Fucking /coward/!"
Maddie shakes her head and sighs as Ex calls out her insult, leaning back against the library door while doing her best to keep an ear open for any loud noises from outside. Not that she'd have a prayer of catching up to them in time if she _did_ hear anything.
The library door is very clearly locked, and there's no sound from the inside, except for perhaps Linnaea very quietly hitting something muffled.
Without the Fang's presence to keep her on the floor, Ex shoves herself up. The woman still looks as though she'd like nothing better than a violent fight, but as no target presents itself but Maddie, she ends up cupping both elbows with gloved hands instead. "Someone's going to stomp on her head if she talks like that," she tells the metis.
Maddie doesn't have any particular inclination to keep Ex there, now that she's got her wits about her again. She tilts her head slightly, and asks, "Maddie wonders if she sees the similarities in their situations, then?" She seems genuinely curious; there's no suggestion in her tone or posture that the question is a veiled threat.
Ex gives a rough shake of her head. "Nope." She eyes the door balefully for a moment.
Linnaea is a petite young woman. Dark hair with auburn and even lighter blond highlights is cut in an uneven and slightly messy, carefree style that frames her face and hangs to her shoulders, the occasional bang falling into her face as well. Her skin is fair but tanned towards ruddy, with freckles across her cheeks, and light brown eyes, and her features are not delicate as much as simply there. Linnaea tends to dress in casual and practical clothing, loose jeans and a ice-grey screenprinted tee (featuring soft kitty) with light, slip on shoes towards slippers that aren't meant to be walked in outofdoors.
Also notable is her wheelchair, a lightweight rigid chair with no armrests, and no push handles, a slightly more than half-height back. The frame of the wheelchair is black anodized aluminum, the wheels slightly cambered, and the front casters are light-up in the center like might be found on children's shoes. The wheels, however, look to be meant for offroad as well as indoor use, with tires and tread. She sits upright and confident, but also strapped in with a lap belt system of some sort, and wears a pair of practical fingerless gloves to push herself.
"Ah, well. Maddie supposes it doesn't matter. The next time, though, she would be better served by challenging than by simply starting something physical inside their place of shelter," Maddie notes.
Ex frowns at Maddie. "I don't have to challenge her. I've been ready for riting for ages. I beat the Reed kid in a staredown. I've killed two monsters, one the size of a fucking van. She's a brand new cub. She was challenging /me/."
Maddie says "Ah, but if she were as ready as she claims, then she would have taken a few moments to _think_. To consider the consequences of her response. If she is correct, and it was Lin that was challenging her, then she had simply to accept the challenge and demand it be moved elsewhere -- she would have accomplished her end just as effectively, and demonstrated wisdom in the process."
Ex's nose wrinkles. "You wouldn't have let it happen. I did think. I thought she was a disrespectful bitch, and then I thought about how I've been fighting not to get killed by you people, and she's got all these Garou talking about how they'll figure it out for her, fix all her problems, so she gets to rite and then maybe /I/ have to take care of her and get killed because she can't run away. But me, I'm fucking crazy, so then your rules apply."
Maddie says "That depends on the challenge, and if Ex is the challenged party, then it would be hers to choose, would it not? A fight? No, Maddie would not have allowed that to happen, any more than she would with _any_ cub who cannot control her shifting yet. But was born to the new moon, was she not? There are any number of challenges, physical and otherwise, that she _would_ have." She lowers her voice, then, conscious of the listener on the other side of the door. "And if Ex thinks that all of Lin's challenges will be overcome by another, then she truly is a fool. Ex said it herself when Lin first spoke of being a cub, and there is a very good chance that she was right. But she _will_ get the chance to fight for her life, just as Ex had her teachers among the Glass Walkers and the Black Furies to give that chance to her."
"I don't care about her chance," Ex says. "I'm not saying to fucking kill her, I'm saying she was being a /bitch/. She said the elders would figure it out. I pushed her over and told her to figure it out. If she's going to talk down to me, then I'm going to hit her. It's not fair and nice. None of you are fair and nice. Nothing's fair and nice." She pauses, breathes in, and says, "They didn't give it to me, I took it. I took it before /any/ of you met me."
The faint sounds from the library continue, something heavy and solid *thump*ing against the door with surprising accuracy not long after Ex's second sentence and then Linnaea goes back to beating up on what's probably the armchair.
Maddie says "If she cannot see how much leeway she was given _after_ they met her, as compared to most cubs, Maddie is obviously not going to convince her of it. But as Maddie sees it, her situation and Lin's are simply reflections of one another -- the same, but inverted. Ex came to the Hidden Walk physically strong, but facing immense hurdles to integrate socially, and facing dire consequences if she could not, enough so that had she been taken in by the wrong tribe, she would now be dead. Lin comes to the Hidden Walk as a kinfolk, so socially strong, with knowledge that should put her ahead of most cubs, but the physical hurdle that she must overcome is no less than the social one that Ex still contends with."
Ex's teeth briefly show, but there's no sign of further loss of control. "They locked me in a /room/." She jabs a finger into the air, and takes an aggravated step to the side, eyeing the door at the thump like an agitated tiger. More words, half formed and soundless, touch her lips, but she doesn't manage to voice any of them, she just paces in a tight back and forth line, watching the door more than Maddie.
Maddie bobs her head, not disagreeing with her. "Maddie admits that she does not know all of what was done, either here or before. But those here, she knows well enough to be certain that what was done, was done because they believed it would keep Ex alive. Topsy and Maddie will do the same for Lin."
Ex stops pacing and points at the door. "If she's going to be Garou, then she has to be able to act like one. You can't say she's going to be like me, and then say I can't hit her like everyone gets hit when they're talking like that. I didn't even hit her, I pushed her. She can't hide and then say she's Garou."
There's another thump of an object against a door. Someone's clearly still listening.
Ex turns toward the door, "You can't hide!" she says, with a raised voice, "and still say you're Garou!"
Maddie says, "In time, she will lose that protection, yes. She will defend herself or face the consequences of not doing so, whether her opponent is in the right or otherwise. But as Maddie has already said, she will not let _any_ cub too fresh from their first change to control their shifting be attacked. She has also pointed out how many other ways that leaves them to settle matters of dominance."
Ex's nose wrinkles again. "I didn't attack her."
Maddie asks, "Maddie wonders what she would do if another cub were to charge at her and push her over? Would she really react so differently than if that cub had used a fist, instead?"
"I'd get up and punch them," Ex says, as if that were the most obvious thing in the world. "And my teachers would expect me to."
Maddie bobs her head, the response exactly what she expected. "So she agrees that she did attack Lin, then." She considers for a moment. "Ex put Lin into the equivalent position of Ex having to remain calm and respectful to an angry elder that she did not know a week after she was found. She could do it now, very likely, but she could not have done it then."
Ex points out, "The angry elder hit me until I stopped moving."
Ex adds, with suddenly vehemence, "And the Greedy Bitch /stole/ my thoughts!"
Maddie blinks a bit at the second part of that outburst. Her response, though, is more to the former. "And to keep that from happening -- or at least help it to happen less -- they kept her away from many other Garou until she was ready." Maddie frowns a bit. "Maddie would prefer that not happen in this case, but perhaps it will come to that. Her tribe will have to decide on that."
Ex gives Maddie a thoroughly exasperated look. "No they didn't." She paces away from the door, away from Maddie, and back into the living room. Her hands are clenched into loose fists, but she doesn't visit any violence upon the furniture or walls.
There's a while of a wait, after Ex leaves and then some. The sound of the chair being beaten on more, and things being thrown at the door even after the conversation's over, and then the sound of things being picked up, and then Linnaea queries, still as soft-spoken as she tends to be, "Maddie-rhya?" The lock unlocks, but the door doesn't open. Yet.
Maddie has long since scooted over to sit beside the door instead of in front of it, but when the Gaian cub calls out, she replies, "Maddie is here."
Apparently for now, Lin's content to sit on the other side of the door and have the conversation through the door. Her voice shakes, a little. The first question, though, is a simple one, one word. "Why?" A pause. "Bullies bloody well suck. I meant it when I called her that. I don't care why, she's still a bully. A really /small/ one if she needs to stoop to bullying me to feel big and powerful and secure in herself."
Maddie asks, "Maddie wonders how well she can feel the anger burning in her heart? Feel her temper drawn more tightly than usual, because of the moon's tug? All of them feel it, to greater or lesser degree. And the Garou are warriors. Their first instinct, often, is to fight. A slight, however minor, or even if imagined, can be all the excuse that they need. And the rage runs very strong in that one." A faint frown. "And Maddie wonders if, perhaps, Ex _does_ see the inversion of their situations, or at least enough elements of it to disturb her."
There's another pause, and the door opens, and Lin pushes her way out of the library, leaving the door open behind her. A makeshift cot has been set up in there, and her backpack is on it, and she's all the way belted into the chair now, but lacking the fingerless wheelchair gloves, and her knuckles are red and at points bloody and raw . Apparently not all the things the cub hit were soft. "I can feel it," she says. "It's... there. Angry and it made everything that Ex said a million times worse, too. I..." she hesitates and then continues. "I threw an empty cup at Reed-rhya earlier today when he said something in a way that pissed me off, using the word help. I felt it on the last full moon, and more now, Charlene said, because it's crescent right now."
Maddie bobs her head. "Now take that, and amplify it several times over. That is the closest Maddie can come to imagining what the rage is like for the Ahroun, and others for whom the rage burns extra fierce. Throwing a cup? A physical attack, an implicit challenge should he have chosen to accept it. And the fact that she does not yet know how to fight would not have protected her, though being a newly changed cub grants her _some_ leeway."
Linnaea nods, folding her hands in her lap and fidgeting. "I apologised. As soon as I realised I'd thrown it. I didn't mean to throw it, it just... happened."
"And that is something that she must learn to remedy as quickly as she can," Maddie replies. "She cannot afford to let the rage control her."
Once more, the cub nods. "I know," Lin says, quietly, and then glances in the direction of the front door, before leaning back a little in her wheelchair, head against the wall. "It's just new to me." She pauses, and then asks, "Why's that other cub have to be so mean? I mean, there are Garou with Rage who aren't horrible, nasty people. And I'm not stuck up. If anything, /she/ is," though it's clear that Lin isn't even capable of believing that, or of truly being mean, because she shakes her head. "She's not the fucking boss of me, I don't even know her, and I don't bloody well /want to/. And the way she went on, I wouldn't want her watching my back anyway. I'm not some burden, t' get people killed."
"A burden for a different reason than Maddie was, perhaps, even if for a reason that is no more of her doing," Maddie replies, "But still a burden until she proves herself otherwise, and that will take her some time to do. And she needs to know that though Ex may have been more aggressive than many, cubs establish dominance just as any other Garou, and just as often physically."
Linnaea's lips pull back from her teeth in clear displeasure. "Fuck if she's stronger. She's still not the boss of me and might doesn't make right or any of that, she can take her high horse," the Gaian cub says, her volume rising slightly, though it wasn't much to begin with, "and ride it right back out!" Her hands clench into fists in her lap. "I can't count the number of times people think it's funny, or the thing they should do. Tip my chair over. Push me down the hill. Push me into the wall. Tip me backwards. Hit me upside the head. It just makes them smaller. More wrong. Not more right."
Maddie snorts. "Maddie admires the sentiment in principle. In practice, it may well get her killed. She is vulnerable, and the Garou do not grant vulernability even the slight protections that it offers among humans. If another Garou is stronger, she must either submit or be clever enough to change the game to one in which she can compete. If she does not, she is at the other's mercy."
"Nothing she did suggests she should be the boss of anyone, anyway," Lin says, brow furrowing sharply. "Respect. It's a two way street and shoving someone over isn't demonstrating none or earning any. And Topsy-rhya said this place was the safest for me to stay at," she adds, and shakes her head. "I don't want to stay here," is said more quietly than the earlier words. "It's not. How can it be if she can get away with that-- not that you let her get away with that but she'll do it again. Bullies always do. And she's got so much Rage. Even if I wanted to punch her, that'd be dumb, I can't even reach."
Maddie says "If Topsy allows it, she would be welcome to stay at the Library." A glance back into the room Lin just left, "Maddie's tribe's library, she means. But she does need to understand that while Ex may have been rude, she did nothing truly wrong. She broke none of the rules or social conventions of the Garou. Lin should not confuse dominance and respect, either."
Linnaea nods at the first, and doesn't seem happy with the second. "So it just lets her get away with being a bloody bully and treating me like some... I don't even want to /say/ half the words she said. That's stupid. This is all stupid!" The cub frowns in her frustration. "They're stupid for teaching her that hitting people you're supposed to fight alongside some day is right. She's stupid for calling me a bitch when she was the one being a bitch. It's stupid she can't only pick on people her own size. She needs to learn to be a decent person. We might not be human, but we're still people, and we interact." She sighs, and looks at the elder theurge. "Stay?" she asks, half asking, half a plea. "I... I think I should sleep. But." The but hangs in the air.
Maddie shifts from homid to lupus in answer, picking up her walking stick in her teeth, at least long enough to drag it into the library. The deformity of her feet and rear legs is even more obvious in this form, where she doesn't have clothing covering it, but she's also able to get around a little better with the added stability of four legs. She goes as far as the cot, curling up underneath one edge.
Linnaea doesn't seem at all bothered by the metis deformity, and follows the Gnawer into the room, rolling over to the cot, parking the chair, and flopping herself down into it without even bothering to change into pyjamas. The girl settles with her head at the same edge as the elder theurge, and not so quickly, not so quietly, falls asleep.
