*stare*

[hazlogs]

It is currently 17:42 Pacific Time on Fri Dec 19 2003.

Currently the moon is in the waning Crescent Moon phase (26% full).

Cockroach Mansion (The Dominion)

In the parlor, Rina draws in a hissing breath as she stands, pain darkening her expression briefly. "Wolf," she adds, with an amused glance to Josh. "Call Jack a dog, and he might get pissy. Specially right now..." She trails off, giving Cat a preoccupied half-smile. "Shuah." Ah, sweet home Chicago. She sounds like an extra in a Mafia film, sometimes, especially when she's tired and her diction slips.

In the parlor, Joshua turns his look from, shaking his head no, "No thanks..." Looking back to Jeremy, he pushes himself off the couch, morbid curiosity having gotten the better of him. Stepping over to the proffered seat and sitting down, he looks at Jeremy intently. A little too intently.

In the parlor, "Alright. I know this is hard to choke down, but you are indeed a werewolf. You had the dreams for probably months now. You pick fights, you don't get along with people, and in a way, you kinda felt you never exactly fit in." Explains Jeremy as he bobs his head. "This has been going on since the dawn of time, and even tho' I am surely no Galliard, I can try my best to bring you up to speed. You see.. there is no God. You know, like Christ? Or if there is, he's not as big as everyone thinks he is. The world was created by Gaia, the spirit of the Earth." He lets that settle in. "She created you, she created the sky, the ground, the everything."

Rina rumples Cat's hair as they come out of the parlor.

Scar limps down the stairs, favoring his left foreleg, the big bad wolf in flesh and fur and unnervingly silent.

The smaller boy smiles shyly- it's brief, but there, as he helps Rina into the kitchen. When she's able to stand on her own, he quickly sets about making her some coffee. "How'd you get like that?" he asks her quickly, concern furrowing his brow. "Did that kid do that to you?"

In the parlor, Joshua shifts uncomfortably in his seat, listening to Jeremy. "So all the stuff they taught us in religious ed was..." He trails off for a moment, as he grimaces. Best leave that subject alone, he figures. Instead, he asks, "... uh, Gilliard? Wha's that?"

Scar pauses, mismatched eyes solemnly watching Rina and Cat move into the kitchen, then for a moment slips over to the doorway of the parlor, ears cupped forward to listen.

Rina notices the injured wolf, but says nothing as she crosses the hall toward the kitchen. She does give a little movement of her head toward the parlor, however, and a significant glance.

When she and Cat have reached the relative privacy of the kitchen, she turns the oven on and lounges against the counter. The look she gives him is bemused, and then sudden comprehension comes. "Jesus, no... no, that was, well, we don't know what it was exactly."

In the parlor, "Well, A Galliard is one of five auspices that a Garou is born under. You see.. Garou are born within a certain phase of the moon. New Moon, Crescent, Half, Gibbous and the full. Depending which one you were born under, you tend to lead a certain role among our kind and tribe, and it gives good reason for your behavior. When is yer' birthday? Month, day and year?" Jeremy asks, opening up his laptop again, toggling a window and pulling up an Auspice counter.

Cat makes a grumbling noise in his throat. "Is he staying here? At the house?" He starts swirling the creamer into the black liquid, focusing on that task.

In the parlor, "April 24th... eighty six." Josh leans forward intently, his brow furrowing. While Jeremy does his thing with his laptop, he glaces about the room, wondering where his bag had gotten to... "Um, 'scuse me, but what's a Grue?" He asks, turning back to Jeremy. "Ain't they supposed to be somthing form Zork er somthing?"

"For now, yeah," Rina answers. "Seems like a nice kid. He's just kind thrown by the whole thing... we only brought him in last night."

In the parlor, "Ah. Ahroun. You are a full moon born. Which means you follow the way of the warrior. Probably why you got in so many fights at school. Its all in your veins. The instinct to kick somoone's ass." He pauses for a moment. "OH. You mean Garou. Ah.. its a word that is associated with the Mother's tongue. It means 'the people'."

Rina frowns. "Or night before last... I forget."

Scar exhales a soft breath, one ear tilting backwards ruefully. He looks over toward the kitchen, somewhat wistfully perhaps, then snorts and limps into the parlor to join Jeremy and Joshua.

From the front hall, "He's not staying in my room," Cat volunteers grumpily, carefully offering to steaming cup to Rina and then pausing. He's not sure how to hand it to her and then get her seated again. "Y'want to head back in there, and I'll carry it for you?"

From the front hall, Rina rolls her eyes. "Like there aren't enough rooms to go around in this fuckin' castle," she grumbles. Taking the cup with her right hand, she says, "I can walk /fine/. Pop the pizza in the oven, willya? I already set the timer, so it'll ding. I can walk okay, it's just getting up is a bitch and a half... cracked a rib."

"Oh." Josh does not seem to believe Jeremy on the Auspice bit, though. Sounded a lot like astrology to him... but then again, he hadn't believed in werewolves until last night. "Guess that makes sense." As Salem pads in, Josh catch sight of him out of the corner of his eye. Scooting backwards in his seat, he tries not to stare at him. "Er... hey." He mutters in greeting, hoping that Salem didn't catch the 'dog' comment..."

From the front hall, Cat watches her limp off with the coffee in stubborn hand, sticking the pizza into the oven with an air of reluctant duty. "I miss salad," he mumbles, more to himself than anything else, really.

From the front hall, Rina takes a sip of the coffee, waiting for him. "Oh, this is Jeremy's. The cub is just starving, poor guy. I'll cook tonight, if you'll be my hands?"

"It makes a lot of sense. Anyways, you are what we call a Glass Walker. Its one of twelve tribes of the Garou nation that still exist today. What that that means to you, is that you are a born survivor." Jeremy says with a faint grin on his lips. "The Walker's tend to run the cities, where most of the others run the woods. We got our paws in politics, money, weapons, mafia, gangs, yadda yadda." He says softly. "We tend to have a lot of urban power."

The wound in the wolf's shoulder, something of a cross between a bulletwound and a burn, is noticeably closer to healed than it was last night, though it seems that he still can't quite put his whole weight on it. Limping, the Walker Elder moves over toward the armchair he was sitting in the other night and leaps up into it. Circling once, he lies down, watching the two of them -- but Joshua mostly.

Frowning as Jeremy carries on, he turns back to the Twenty-somthing. "You don't expect me to do any thing with a gang... do you?" He asks, horrified at the prospect. "I don't think I could do sumthin' that."

From the front hall, Cat smiles faintly. "Okay," he agrees, and the prospect of cooking seems to cheer him up. He glances at the timer. "Wan' me to wait here for it?"

"You don't have to. I am just saying that our influence and power crosses over into such territory at times." Jeremy nods his head. "We also got a lot of expertise in science, mechanics, computers and engineering. We are like the Apple Computer of werewolf tribes. Think different." He grins, offering up the silver metal'd laptop that is in his lap. "I am what you call a Monkey wrencher. I work on the inside of humanity and I packrat information for the tribe. Some Garou are good at that too, if not way better -- but, of course..its hard for most Garou to co exist within humanity as it is. There is a reason for that, its called the curse, an abstraction of the delerium."

From the front hall, Rina wrinkles her nose, and nods minutely. "It's only five minutes... should still be pretty warm." She sips at her coffee, looking distractedly toward the parlor.

Scar shifts his weight a bit, leaning his right shoulder against the arm of his chair and stretching out the other foreleg. He's perfectly at home, comfortable if not in a particularly good mood.

Joshua seems relived at the news that they weren't going to force him to join the Mafia, and even cracks a smile at the Apple joke. "That's good... I like computers and machines. Well, except for Gil Amelio." Hey, he even attempted one of his own! "But, uh... Yer probably getting to it, but what's the delerium?"

From the front hall, Cat nods, crossing his arms and leaning against the side of the counter as he waits for the timer. "Peopl've been coming and going when I was in my room," he mumbles.

Grinning widely at the joke, Jeremy nods his head, softly humming. "You better watch out, absurd as it sounds, 'Cause Apple is about, to lose a few pounds, cuz Gil Amelio is coming to town." A knowing look passes over towards the cub. "The Delerium is a defense mechanism that was installed in the Garou back in the old days. Its kinda like when you go all fuzzy, people freak out, see something else, an then soon forget about it. Its not always reliable, but, it helps in a stressful situation." He says. "Long ago, the Garou got punished for killing off a crap load of humans way back in the medieval ass times. So.. to punish us, Gaia took away our hang out rights with humanity. Its why you'll notice humans will act kinda weird towards ya. They'll edge away, get kinda nervous, if not instinctivly afraid of you. That is the curse. Its like a repellent. It makes living with the humans hard, very hard. Thus why you got us kinfolk to do it for you, to pass the buck."

From the front hall, Rina glances over to him, raising an eyebrow. "They do that." She lounges again, relaxing a little, leaning on the counter and drinking down some more coffee. "Man. That codeine shit gives me a frickin' hangover. So, Cutter Jack and I were up at the park... and we saw some weird-lookin' guy all muffled up in a hat and scarf and trenchcoat and stuff... and then a little later, something invisible hits Cutter upside the head, then runs off and tackles Jack and starts punching him. We could kind of see him /sometimes/ cause it was rainin'. So I yell for Jack to stay down, and I try to shoot the invisible man, and then-- well, I guess you can't really say disappeared, can you?"

From the front hall, If Cat should look surprised at the talk of invisible attackers, he's going to be a disappointment. "Invisible doesn't mean disappeared," he agrees. "Guess he was still invis'ble. Is that....is that who hurt you?"

From the front hall, Rina nods minutely. "Coupla minutes later, I went flyin' through the air. Maybe about thirty, forty feet, straight into that fucked-up Stonehenge around the fountain. Broke a few bones in my hand, and fractured a rib. Salem tried to chase the guy down, but... how d'you chase what you can't hardly see?"

Chuckling, Josh relaxes noticeably: that something as simple and stupid as being around another apple fan was enough to take the edge off spoke volumes of his state of mind, but he needed something familiar to latch on to. Listening intently, he nods. "Guess that makes sense...'nd, so, yer a 'kinfolk?'"

From the front hall, The blond kid shrugs, staring at the oven in thought. "Carry paint with you," he suggests.

From the front hall, Rina nods. "Yeah. Paintball, is what I'm thinkin'... maybe you can stock us up, a few of the guns and lots of ammo. And everybody can carry some, in case the guy shows up--" she makes a face-- "--or whatever--again."

Scar keeps his attention on the two speakers, where a dog or some other dumb animal would have long since gone to sleep or wandered off or started licking itself. He breaks the flat, steady regard once or twice to glance toward the parlor doorway, but always his mismatched eyes return to Josh and Jer. Pointed ears perked alertly forward indicate that he is listening to Jer's teaching quite carefully. Supervising.

Jeremy bobs his head. "Yup. I came into the werewolf thing when I was seven years old. Had a cousin of mine do a dumbshit thing an shift in front of me when picking a fight with my Uncle. I found out I'm surrounded by 'em. Both my parents are kin also. My mom is a stay at home housewife and my dad is a financial advisor." He offers a wry grin. "I can't turn into the big and fuzzy, but, I can do shit like get a job inside a corporation that is screwing up the world, and find out why, and bring 'em down, without alerting or scaring people." He says. "The Garou do have a purpose. So, being a Werewolf isn't a big party. We fight the Wyrm. Its Worm, with a Y. W-yrrrm." He says in explanation. "The Wyrm is a darker for of Gaia. You know.. kinda all the shit that goes wrong in the world. There is evil forces out there. This is where I come off sounding like a comic book or whatever. We fight the bad guys, which.. happen to be evil werewolves, vampires, those who activly seek to pollute an tear down the world. Um.." He trails off some. "Evil spirits.. its hard for /me/ to explain, since I am not privy to most of it, but." He says after a pause. "Your resident Garou expert, Salem, can help ya out with that later."

From the front hall, The oven beeps sharply, several times, and Rina moves, to tuck a roll of paper towels into her sling.

Now this, however, is meet with a dubious look from Josh, as his brow creeps up at the mention of Vampires, evil spirits and the like. Nodding his head, even though he doesn't a word of it, Josh straiten out his face: another topic to avoid. Instead, he aks, "Why was it stupid for your cousin to change infront of you? Wouldn't it be a good way to find who's kin and who ain't?"

From the front hall, Cat rotates his shoulder absently. "Could carry watercolor in a bottle." He takes the pizza out of the oven gingerly, transferring it back into the carboard box it was delivered in. "Dinner is served, madam," he jokes lightly.

From the front hall, "C'mon." Rina leads him intop the parlor, her coffee held carefully in her good hand, the roll of paper towels stuck ludicrously in the sling.

"If there was other humans present who were not kin, then that'd have broken the veil. The Veil is like code.. you know.. um.. its that curtain which exists between reality and what we let the humans see." He says slowly, thinking that sounds right in his head. "If humany figures out about us, then they may go a'hunting and well.. you know how it goes. Mass genocide, good bye population werewolf." He smiles up to Josh. "You probably don't believe me 'bout vampires and shit eh'? Well.. last night you didn't believe in werewolves either. You know all those stories you heard as a kid? Urban legends and spooky tales? Well.. they are all forms of the veil, altered in a way to be 'normal' and mundane among human soceity, without giving us away."

Rina announces, "Food." She lowers herself gingerly to sit at the pillow-strewn end of the couch again, and sets her coffee on the side table. Then, with her hand free, she can pull out the roll of paper towels. Offering a wry smile, she puts those on the coffee table. "Best I could do for plates," she says. "Just mind the furniture.

Scar lifts his muzzle, sniffing the air with an air of interested dignity, wet black nose taking in the scent of pizza. Then he snorts, almost a sneeze, and lays his head back down on the arm of his chair.

Joshua's brow goes up again, as he opens his mouth to point out that werewolves and Vampires are two totally different things, but the sentence is killed before it even starts as Rina comes in with food. At the smell of the pizza, his stomach growls, and he looks to Jeremy as if asking permission to eat... although he says nothing.

Jeremy bobs head to Josh, giving him a thumbs up and a smile, leaning back to lift up the top of his notebook again, toggling the screen saver free.

Cat sets the box on the table next to the coffee, opening up the box and wrinkling his nose as hot pizza smells waft up. The black wolf's snort gets his attention, and the boy shifts down quickly, padding up to Salem and playbowing at a fair distance, before giving a low chuff.

"Mangia," Rina says firmly, waving Josh toward the pizza. "I could hear y'stomach growlin' from across the hall." Her smile is touched with something slightly ironic. "So. You got questions; ask."

Joshua nearly bolts out of the chair for the food, but manages to maintain some dignity: he only fast walks over to the cardboard, taking a piece. He /was/ going to pray first, but his glance flits back to Jeremy, then to Salem and Cat, not sure what to do. With a soft sigh, he shrugs, and proceeds to tear into the piece with all the fever of someone who hadn't eaten for way too long. Stuffing the crust into his mouth, he looks to Rina with a puzzled look. After a moment, he swallows, nodding minutely. "I got questions, but I don't know what to ask..." he says quietly, as if ashamed at the apparent depth of his ignorance.

The wolfcub chuffs again. I heard the Gnawer elder -shot- you, he blurts out. Then his ears splay- that clearly wasn't the first thing he meant to say.

Scar's ears twitch, flicking backwards; his hackles rise slightly at the memory. He looks over at the healing wound in his shoulder, examining it and affirming -- in body language, not sound -- that what Cat said is true.

Cat lies down on his belly, staring at the wound intently. Then he growls; softly, but it's there. Gnawers bring trouble, the curl of his lip says. They're liars.

Rina nods slowly, watching Josh with her haunted eyes. "Yeah, it's kinda overwhelming. Especially all at once. This... changes your life." A flicker of remorse, even pity, crosses her expression--there and then gone, a fleeting instant. "It isn't just that we need you... you were born to this. If we left you alone... you'd probably flip out at some point, within the next couple of years--the way you did last night--and people would get killed." She lowers her eyes. "We can't afford that. And we /want/ to help you."

Joshua goes for a second piece, which survives just about as long as the first one, and as he chews, he stares at Cat and Salem. Blinking twice, he stares intently. Swallowing the recently deceased bite of pizza, he looks back to Rina. "Uh... I guess I got a question." He points to the two wolfs on the floor... "I'm understanding what their, uh... saying, I guess. That supposed to happen?" Left unsaid: Or have I truly lost my mind.

Scar bristles at something Cat says and corrects him shortly, with a twitch of ears and muzzle, without verbalization. Not all, he tells Cat, and then looks directly at Joshua.

Rina glances over to Joshua, sharply. "You might understand some of the sense of it, from instinct," she says quietly. "Just like if a wolf came up to you and asserted dominance, you'd be able to guess what to do. Wolves communicate one way, with body language and some sounds. And then, the Garou have their own language, too." The dark eyes narrow slightly as she glances to Salem; she raises an eyebrow at him, and tips her head in an obvious questioning gesture.

Tapping away at the computer, Jeremy looks to have found himself something to do keep him busy. Could it be hacking a bank? Getting millitary codes for nuclear weapons? No.. he is playing the addicting game of Bejeweled.

"Ah." Josh responds, now very sure he's loosing his mind. Well, if in doubt of what to say, go back to eating. And Josh does just that... albeit, all the while, looking down at Cat and Salem, not sure what to make of any of this.

Scar snorts and glances over toward Rina. His head cocks to the side -- looking back at her just as questioningly.

"You say yes, I say No. You say stop, I say go.. go go.." Jeremy murmurs as he plays with the keys on his laptop, listening to the music jingle in the background. "You say Good-bye. I say Hello. I don't know why you say GoodBye, I say Hello."

Their elders are, the cub amends darkly, before glancing over his shoulder as well. Meeting Joshua's eyes, his ears splay out in a flicker of annoyance. My name is Cat, the talking wolfdog tells him, looking perfectly serious. I'm a crescent cub. I live on the third floor in my -own- room. And he twitches his whiskers, waiting to see if the new kid's got anything to say.

Rina makes a face at Cat. "Be nice, you. C'mere." She holds out her hand to him. "I know what those ears mean."

Scar's ears twitch irritably. Then he seems to calm, reverting back to a more passive, disinterested manner, as cool and aloof as a cat. The feline kind, not the kind that's trying to assert dominance over the new guy.

Joshua tries not to cringe, as Cat 'talks' to him. Well, if Rina thought he said the same thing, he must not be entirely nuts. Nervously, Josh tries to respond. "'m Joshua Doyle, I usually am in Harbor park, or on Reagan street..." he tapers off, not sure if that was entirely true anymore. "Nice ta' meetcha'."

Snaik pages: You can hear the sound of a dripping tap in the kitchen. Quite a persistant noise.
You paged Snaik with 'Persistant enough to make itself annoyingly heard over the conversation here in the parlor?'.
Snaik pages: Persistant enough to be heard by lupus ears, yes.

The grudging attitude flickers for a moment, as Cat glances over to Rina. Nice to meet you, he replies gruffly to Josh, before getting to his paws and padding over to the ladykin. He turns around and sits primly, ears well within reach of her hand as he tries to look as dignified as he can.

Rina's brow furrows, her expression darkening. "What about y'family?" she asks, quietly. Her hand settles behind Cat's ears, scritching absently.

Scar glances somewhat distractedly at the doorway, his ears flattening in irritation. He gets up and jumps down from the chair, mindful of his injury, and limps out of the parlor and toward the kitchen.

In the parlor, "They're in the 'burbs. West of St. Claire... Stonebridge. " Josh reports, again becoming embarressed. He blushes, as he adds. "My dad kicked me out me 'cus we kept getting in fights, and I finally won." He's not exactly why he's telling Rina this... "'n the people was bunking with moved out of town, so I... I didn't have much choice."

Snaik pages: In the ktichen you find a dead body draped across the stone worktops. One hand looks to have all five fingers cut off and is positioned so that blood from the injured hand runs down into the sink. The other hand has a single wound, looking to resemble stygmata through the palm, and from this blood is dripping to the floor and creating the noise you hear.

In the parlor, The young woman's expression turns slightly pained, but she gives a nod of understanding. "Well. Least you won't hafta worry about a roof over your head. You'll stay here, while you're learning." She glances toward the hallway, as the wolf pads out of the parlor.

In the parlor, Cat's ears prick forward when Salem leaves. He bumps his head into Rina's fingers again, looking vaguely uncomfortable.

You paged Snaik with 'Any scent?'.
Snaik pages: Yes. Blood, fear, sweat, all the stuff you'd usually associate.
You paged Snaik with 'Does it disappear if I touch it, like the body in the shower did?'.

In the parlor, Joshua's face twists slightly, at the mention of staying here. Reaching more pizza, he tries to bury the uncomfortable feeling with some food. Chewing, he asks quietly, "Learning what?"

Snaik pages: Yes.

In the parlor, Rina's dark eyes look back to him. "What you are. How to survive. How to fight." She scratches Cat's head a little more, gently. "There's a lot. Garou have their own law, a set of rules that we hold above the laws of mankind... that's one of the first things any cub is taught."

In the parlor, Joshua sits back down: tired of standing, or a little unnerved at the prospect. "Oh..." Chew, swallow. He waits for a moment. "... 'nd if I don't wanna be a Grue... uh Garou?" Josh asks queitly, looking down at the floor.

In the parlor, No choice, Cat says simply, glancing at Joshua. After a short pause, he adds, It's not -bad-. I like it a lot. I'd never go back to the way things were before. He tosses his head and then lies down, chewing on his forepaw and smoothing out the fur.

In the parlor, Sympathy touches Rina's expression, as she watches him. "Not much you can do about it," she says softly. "Kinda like if I decided I don't want to be Italian, or a woman... some things you're stuck with, y'know?"

Long distance to Rina, Cat, Joshua, Snaik, and Jeremy: Scar ums. Actually... I think I need to go to bed. I feel incredibly run-down all of a sudden. Sorry to bail on y'all, especially with Snaik in a mood to torment and stuff.

In the parlor, Jeremy perks up. "You don't /have/ to be a woman." He says softly. "They do got quite the life altering abilities in the hospitals these days."