"What's with alla this metis love?"

[hazlogs]

It is currently 22:10 Pacific Time on Sun Jun 15 2003.

Currently the moon is in the waning Full Moon phase (91% full).

Harbor Park -- Fountain

Situated in the center of a large, open meadow is a clustering of six trees, a flower bed, a few steel-and-wood benches set firmly into concrete, and a flagstone courtyard that is dominated by a large fountain.

The fountain is a wide circular pool of water some fifty feet across and about five feet deep in most places. The sculpture in the center is a mix of old and new, traditional and modern: eight concrete-and-stainless-steel slabs about six feet high are set in a rough Stonehenge-like circle around the center of the fountain. Water flows from their tops, cascading in bright mesmerizing sheets to the pool below. Rising above the steel circle is a large marble statue of the Water Bearer, an androgynous figure draped in robes of flowing water. It bears a large jug carved with various Greek symbols, from which pours a seething torrent of water into the pool at its feet.

Cars on the nearby street have an excellent view of the park as do any residents of the tall buildings which line the waterfront.

The murky waters of the Columbia River flow swiftly along the east side of the park. Bracketing the park to the west is First Street and the city of St. Claire. Recent construction work is creating an earthen berm several feet high all along the borders of the park in all directions.

Salem prowls the area near the fountain with full-moon restlessness, handrolled cigarette dangling from his lips and trailing smoke. He's watching the area, keeping alert, but his expression's withdrawn and abtracted, like his mind's let his senses go on autopilot while it deals with other things.

Kaz, a french fry stuck in her mouth, clambers over the earthen berm and heads toward the fountain. Or maybe Salem. It's disappearing as she gets closer, slowly but surely. She waves at Salem as she approaches.

Salem blinks once, the blank look on his face vanishing as he spots and focusses on Kaz. He halts as she approaches and takes the cigarette from his mouth, tapping the excess ash from it before inhaling a lungful of smoke. "Evening," he greets, in a curtly amiable kind of way.

Kaz perches on a nearby bench. "H'lo t'you, too. H'goes?"

Salem shrugs. "Full moon. Feeling pissy. Caern's likely to get assraped the next time the Wyrm comes calling. Otherwise, just dandy." His mouth twitches into a sardonic smile that quickly vanishes. "You?"

Kaz says, "Been worse. Been better, too. I got Gnawers down in Cali and messenges to pass when I ain't got Gnawers, but every time I get anywhere near here, I want to put down roots and never leave, which is kind of impossible right now." She looks off into the distance and mutters, "Fuckin' /Chugs/." Then she refocuses on Salem and asks, "Assraped? Why now?"

Salem arches an eyebrow. "You didn't hear?" He takes another drag and exhales smoke. "Ouro left. Andrea's Warper mother needed her help. Pack went with her. And Nightfire's pack? Have decided to fuck around in the park to guard the true wolves." Underneath the tight control, the Walker's fuming. "Sepdet's here, occasionally, but not enough, and Robert... I don't honestly know _what_ Robert intends."

Kaz says, incredulously, "You're shitting me." After one look at his face, she says, flatly, "You're not." After another moment, she says, "Owen, Nightfire, Rides-Fire, Shadow of Blood, Andrea, Susan, Touch Deer, Patrick, and Elan have all left. Who the /fuck/ is in charge here?"

Salem takes another drag off the cigarette. It's doubtful that it's his first for the night. "Robert's still Warder, as far as I know. Luke's claimed Master of the Rite. That still leaves Master of the Challenge and Alpha." He stares at her flatly, his face half-shadowed; it's the bad side that catches the dim lighting and the dead eye gleams like a half-moon. "I keep turning it over in my head. Robert _may_ step up to the position, but he didn't before, when it was Andrea, so it's possible he won't now. Do you _know_ who that leaves for the Alphaship? Especially if I pass my challenge?"

You paged Kaz with 'What's Kaz's perception and her empathy like?'.
Kaz pages: Fairly high on both. Why?
You paged Kaz with 'Well, that's he's stressed is pretty obvious. But if you didn't know better you'd swear that was a bit of terror underneath. . o O ( I could be alpha. Holy FUCK. Do I want this? _Should_ I want this? How the FUCK did things come to ME being the fucking SEPT ALPHA? FUCK. )'.

Kaz sucks breath inward through her teeth. "Shit, man." The fact that she didn't even know he was challenging is ignored. "Fuckin' A." She gives him a careful once-over. "That's fuckin' /scary/. But--" She stops, and then goes on, "For all that you wouldn't be Andrea's kinda Alpha... If it came to that... you'd be a good kind of Alpha've your /own/."

Salem takes another pull off the cigarette. He grunts at the compliment, though seems to hardly acknowledge it. "I hope so. It's just... eh. Life is damned strange." He shakes his head. "I figure that we'll have to pull in, keep our heads down, and regain strength... and pray to Gaia that last summer doesn't repeat itself until we're ready."

Kaz chews her lip as she stares at nothing in particular. "Yeah," she says, flatly. "That would be real good." There's another silent moment, she shakes her head. "T'state th' obvious, I'm only around intermittently, but you can f'damned sure count on me when I /am/ around."

Salem nods sharply. "Good. I figured on that." He toys with the cigarette, gaze making a sweep of the area. "Caught up with Renee yet?" he asks, turning back to the Gnawer.

Kaz nods. "Yah. Fell down went boom after runnin' into your crowd-- I'd been travellin' all day. But I went an' gabbed with her right after I woke up. She said... a whole lot."

Salem arches an eyebrow, Spocklike. "Oh?"

Kaz nods. "Yeah." Voice a mixture of confused, amused, and just slightly wary, she asks, "What's with alla this metis love?"

Salem's brow furrows; he squints at her, confused. "Pardon?"

Kaz, still perched on the bench, doesn't quite look at him. "That whole thing with makin' her have the kid or you'd accuse her b'fore the whole Sept of charachin'."

Salem grunts. "Oh. That." He takes a pull off the cigarette and exhales smoke before answering. "I've known too many good Metis. You for one. Malone for another." He pauses -- perhaps as if to add more -- then continues. "I don't condone _deliberately_ making them, of course, but it seemed a... waste, for it to be aborted."

Kaz nods, as she sits there, fiddling with a piece of string in her hands. She seems, for once in her life, wordless. "'s a complex subject," she finally says, voice almost uncertain.

Salem grunts again. "Offered to help her, of course. She refused me. Not really a surprise." He cocks his head slightly, eyeballing her. "Why? Do you think I made a poor judgement?" His face is guarded, but he sounds honestly curious.

Kaz doesn't bother asking her usual "do you want the short answer or the long one?", she just starts talking. "I was born in West Virginia. Caern near the capital, Charlestown. Was stuck in glabro til I was 10. An', I mean, I'm me, so it ain't like I could hide what I was. And no matter how much us Gnawers go, "Oh, we're Gnawers, we don't give a shit," well, it's a lie. We do. I mean, we do a pretty good job of hidin' it, an' we all of us make friends and packmates outta metis, but metis are still metis. An' that ain't even gettin' into how other tribes treat metis, because you know all that junk. So. Well. It ain't a good life." She pulls the string taut between two fingers. "On the other hand, it /is/ a life, and we /do/ need more folks workin' f'Gaia." She starts rolling it around her index finger. "So basically, I think you made a just judgement, although, weirdly, it might notta been the /compassionate/ judgement."

Salem makes a little 'mm' noise and sucks on the cancer stick again. "Probably not, no. But I'll settle for being just." He exhales. "Have you seen it? Him, her?"

Kaz says, "Ain't nothin' resemblin' /settlin'/, Salem. 's the hardest thing there is, an' one've the most worthwhile." She starts unrolling the string, and shakes her head. "Not yet. I'm gonna go harass Renee once I'm done here. I hadda go bug Trouble folks last night. But I mean, I've tol' her I'll bring th' kid down to Cali with me once she's weaned, an' Renee needs alla emotional s'port she can get around about now, even if she ain't gonna admit it t'anyone. So."

Salem nods. "She's brave," he admits. "She has guts. Needs to work on her temper, though. She has a habit of letting it and her attitude run away with her."

Kaz says, "Gee, I hadn't noticed," in her best deadpan. "Her temper's what makes her nothin' like a Mama, but she's got the best interests of the tribe at heart, unlike /Elan/." She shakes her head. "Dipshit." She finishes unwinding the string, and shrugs. "Anyways. Always more t'talk about, but I should go talk t'Renee. I'm, um." She stops. Tentatively, she says, "I only just found out and shit, but even so... if I can reconcile m'activities in Cali with shit here, I have to admit, I'm thinkin' about maybe doin' somethin' with th' Master of th' Challenge. But I... Dunno. But I thought you oughta know."

Both of Salem's eyebrows reach for the moon, and he actually smiles slightly. "You'd have my support." Then, with his usual solemnity, he nods. "I'll catch up with you later. My cell number's the same."

Kaz, at Salem's smile, purely grins. Then she nods. "Ayup. Catch you 'round." She's off the same way she arrived, over the berm.

"Be seeing you," the Walker replies, then returns to his patrol of the park.