Hazmat Tells Tales

[hazlogs]

Scott steps in from the porch, closing the front door behind him.
Scott makes his way in the front door, calling out,"Hello, anybody home?"

Hazmat is sprawled out on the floor near the couch, a plate heaped high with 
  assorted leftovers before her. She looks up. "Yah. Who're you?"

Scott raises an eyebrow as he looks tha other over,"I could ask you the same 
  question. I'm Scott."

Hazmat pops half a hot dog into her mouth and chews. "Hazmat."

Scott nods once. "I think I heard of you."

Hazmat looks rather quizzical. "Yah?"

Scott mirros the question, a slight smile comign to his face,"Yah."

Hazmat scratches the back of her neck, still looking up at the Fang from her 
  place on the floor. "Wha'd yuh hear?"

Scott shrugs,"I just heard your name once or twice. From Mac, I think."
Scott wanders over to one of the charis and plops down.

Hazmat immediately becomes alert. "Mac? D'juh say Mac? He still around?"

Scott nods once. "I believe so. He was going to pack with a friend of mine, 
  but she passed on to the next life." He's quiet for a long moment, his 
  expression taught,"I haven't seen him since, though."

Hazmat chews on a lower lip, fingers twitching frenetically at a piece of 
  bread. "Huhn. He still out inn city, yuh think?"

Scott nods. "That'd be my guess, yes."

Hazmat bites into the bread. "Hafta go out there, then," she notes, mouth 
  somewhat full.

Scott nods once. "I don't know if you'll be able to find him, like I said, 
  he's been a bit scarce."

Hazmat nods again, rather dolefully, and sighs.

Scott takes in a deep breath,"So, as I said, I'veheard of you, but not seen 
  you about, is there reason for that?"

Hazmat continues to eat, speaking between mouthfuls. "I went away. Up north, 
  tuh get away from stuff."

Scott says "Where north?"

Hazmat gestures with one long arm, vaguely. "North. Where it's cold an' there 
  ain' really any humans."

Scott nods once. "Okay, I can understand that, I guess." His words and 
  expression don't entirely match.

Hazmat tilts her head, grey eyes slightly narrowed. "Yuh don' know, yuh should 
  ask," she says, rather sharply. "It ain' tha' hard."

Scott shrugs. "I just don't see a need to get away from people, I guess. Kinda 
  like them, in general."

Hazmat licks off her fingers. "Yuh weren't here, back when Cassius screwed 
  everything up, an' there wuzza problem between th' Wheel an' th' city Garou, 
  an' Rat wanted me tuh do *this*, an' I hadda also do *that* 'cos I wuzza 
  Gnawer, an' then there was stuff I hadda do 'cos jus' 'bout all my friends 
  were Wheel, bu' they hated Rat 'cos Cassius made 'em hate Rat and..." She 
  exhales, sharply. "Fuckin' tryin' tuh hunt millions of prey atta same time, 
  so I hadda say 'screw it' an' leave."

Scott nods slowly. "That makes sense to me. I hadn't known that. It's 
  interesting how little some people here talk of the Wheel's past."

Hazmat reaches under the sweatshirt, scratching idly at her scarred belly. "I 
  c'd talk. I ain' a Galliard, bu' I c'd talk."

Scott nods. "Well, I am a Gallaird, and I would like to hear it."

Hazmat grins. "Wha' yuh wanna hear, exactly?"

Scott laughs. "What do you want to tell of?"

Hazmat thinks for a moment, still scratching at her belly. "Uhm. Huhn. I c'd 
  tell yuh 'bout a totem quest I was on."

Scott nods. "That's a start."

Hazmat settles herself with her back against the couch, legs sprawled out on 
  the floor. "Okay. This wuz, uhm, back when it wuz me an' Mac an' Joshua 
  Net-Dancer an' Matt. We wuzza pack, called th' Invisibles, an' we were 
  tryin' tuh win th' favor of Rat. So, uhm, one day we were all in th' 
  factory, an' this Rat spirit comes up an' says, 'Hey, you! C'mon, we need 
  yer help!' Or somethin'. So, like, of course we go an' follow 'im."

Scott nods. "That seems like a good way to please Rat, yah, to help him out. 
  What did he want?"

Hazmat continues, warming to the tale. "I'm gettin tuh that. We travelled 
  through the Umbra 'til we got to this place, an' could see this shinin' city 
  all spread out. It was, like, *big*. Real big. Big as... well, real big. 
  Bigger'n Sea-At-Till. An' it was all Weaver everywhere. We went down inna 
  somethin' like a subway, bu' it was all clean. Like, uhm... like when it's 
  so clean it's *too* clean, yuh know? Th' sewers wuz th' same way."
You say "Yah, so we knew somethin' wuz wrong. An' we got to this big warehouse 
  or somethin', an' it was *full* of rats. I mean... *full*. An' they was all 
  scared, ain' got nowhere tuh hide. Then these humans come burstin' in an' 
  start sprayin' shit all 'round, killin' th' rats." She grins toothily. "So 
  we killed their asses."

Scott inclines his head his expression a littel quizzical. "You, ummm, killed 
  the Orkin man?"

Hazmat shrugs. "There was more'n one'a 'em. An' they was killin' th' rats. 
  Anyway, see, that was th' problem. Th' place was so fulla th' Weaver tha' 
  there weren't no place fuh th' Rat spirits. Or the Cockroach ones," she 
  adds. "I' was like th' Weaver outta control, all Order an' stuff. Yuh get 
  me?"

Scott nods and mutters a name to himself, that sounds vaguelylike Red Man, and 
  then watches the other for ehr story to continue.

Hazmat pauses a moment to collect her thoughts. "We went an' searched a coupla 
  buildings, an' it was, like, more th' same. There wuz humans there, bu' they 
  was all like... like they ain't got no minds. Yuh seen inside an office? All 
  little walls wi' people in 'em? Tha's wha' it was like. An' us... there was 
  this voice, real loud, like onna loudspeaker, callin' us an In-fes-tay-shun 
  tha' was pretendin' tuh be Citizens. So, like, we were really in fer it if 
  we got caught. We hadda all be in Homid form, an' he hadda swipe these 
  overalls-things."

Scott nods slowly, his brow furrowing.

Hazmat sits forward, eager as she gets to the really *good* part. "Bu' we 
  found th' Overseer -- I think that wuz his name -- an' his control place. 
  An' he had these things like big metal spiders... or somethin'. Really 
  *mean*. Mac pulled out his chainsaw and musta killed *two* of 'em besides 
  destroyin' th' 'puter 'quipment, th' monitors an' things. An' I kept tryin' 
  tuh get to th' Overseer an' throat 'im, bu' th' spider-things was in my 
  way." She pauses, thinking. "I kinda frenzied, so I don' remember too much, 
  but we killed him an' broke th' Order, an' then all these Rats and Roaches 
  an' stuff came in, an' this big Boss Rat came up an' said he was real 
  pleased, an' thanked us, 'cos now they could make th' realm a home. An' then 
  this lil' rat spirit came up an' tol' us how he was gonna be our pack 
  totem." She grins. "I got tuh pick th' name. Named 'im Pizza. S'what I was 
  gonna name my daughter."

Scott looks a little surprised,"Your daughter?"

Hazmat hesitates, hand going to her scarred belly. "Yah." Her voice has gone 
  quiet. "Las' year. Las' summer. I was gonna have a pup."

Scott nods slowly, and swallows once. He says quietly,"You have 
  my...condolences."

Hazmat shrugs a shoulder, uncomfortably, and plucks a breadcrumb from her 
  plate. "Tha's a whole 'nother story, anyway, an' it's kinda a story fuh 
  Echen tuh tell, or another Fianna. 'Cos it's about Nightmare-ikthya."

Derrick steps in from the porch, closing the front door behind him.
Derrick has arrived.

Hazmat gets up, picking her (now empty) plate from the floor and glances over 
  at the new arrival. "Hi!"

Derrick ambles in, munching on an apple. At the sight of Hazmat, he waves. 
  "Hi, didn't know you were around."

Hazmat looks quizzical. "'Course I'm around. I live here now."

Derrick says "Oh! Cool. What with all the people trooping in and out, I dunno 
  who lives here and who's just here to drop a cub off and go fight in the 
  barn."

Hazmat grins, heading into the kitchen to dump her empty plate in the sink. 
  "Yah, figger I'd stick 'round an' help out some. 'M na' ready tuh live inna 
  city again."

Derrick, leaning on the door frame between kitchen and living room, moves back 
  a bit to let Hazmat through. "If it werent for the fact that no one knows 
  I'm here, I wouldn't mind stickin' here for, I dunno, lotsa time."

Hazmat pauses a moment, puzzling this out. "No one knows you're here?"

Derrick thumps a fist on the wall, softly. "Yeah." He looks at his feet for a 
  second, and then realizes, "Oh, I don't mean Garou. Every Garou within a 100 
  mile radius seems to know I'm here. I meant my parents."

Hazmat runs a bit of water on the plate and then leaves it in the sink, moving 
  back toward the living room. "Oh. S'right, yuh Homid, ain'cha? Who's yuh 
  parents?"

Derrick takes a final bite out of his apple and tosses it into the trash. 
  Grabbing a Coke and following Hazmat back into the living room, he says, 
  "Yup. My parents... My dad's in something having to do with finance and my 
  mom doesn't do much at all. They're annoying and they keep trying to make me 
  sorta like a Fang, only in a human sense, but I miss them."

Hazmat flops down onto a couch, kicking her sneakers off and tucking her feet 
  under her. She frowns, puzzled. "They're Kinfolk, nuh? How come they ain' 
  been let in on things?"

Derrick sits down on a cushion and leans up against one of the chairs. He 
  frowns, clearly puzzled. "Brittany told me that no one's supposed to know 
  about us. But you say that my folks can be?"

Hazmat tugs at a tangled lock of hair, pulling out knots. "Kinfolk're special. 
  They don' go bugshit when they see a Crinos, an' there's always more'a 'em 
  than us. They don' got Rage, so they ain' gonna frenzy an' freak out on 
  people, an' they don' make *normal* humans nervous th' way we do. Kinfolk're 
  important."

Derrick takes a swig of Coke and coughs slightly. When he's able to talk 
  again, he objects, "Wait a sec, so they're kinda like Garou who don't 
  actually change shape? So, like, this Veil stuff doesnt' apply to them?"

Hazmat thinks. "Well, they ain't got Gifts neither, an' I don' think they can 
  go into the Umbra... but yah." She frowns. "Bu' yuh better ask yuh
  elders first."

Derrick snorts in the general direction of his Coke can. "I'll take learnin' 
  from any direction I can get it. But I guess for the Gospel truth I should 
  appeal to the folks who're responsible for me. This kinda changes stuff, 
  though, 'cause if they're Kinfolk I don't have to lie to them. Uh, my 
  parents, I mean. Anyway, I will ask Brittany when I next see her."

Hazmat grins crookedly. "Tha's wha' I meant. Ask yuh elders 'fore yuh go off 
  tellin' 'em stuff. Yuh don' wanna get in no trouble."

Derrick says, "Oh, well, Timothy tol' me he'd talk to them, he just didn't say 
  when. I don't doubt he will, it's just stickin' in my mind anyway. And this 
  bit kinda makes things different. Anyway, nothin' can be done about it right 
  now, so there's no point worryin' about it." Having said this, he tries to 
  change the subject. "Where're you from, anyway? I can't figure your accent 
  out."

Hazmat scratches at her neck. "Na' far from here, I guess. I don' know 
  exactly. Mebbe few days runnin'."

Derrick wrinkles his forehead. "Huh. I guess it's just that I'm from the East 
  Coast and can't figure out anyone's accent around here. What town?"

Hazmat shrugs. "I dunno. I don' 'member much of it."

Derrick says, "Oh," and goes back to the kitchen to rummage in the shelves. "I 
  guess you already ate," he calls, "Or I'd ask if you wanted anything." He 
  comes back with some cereal and plops onto the floor. "Anyway, I
Derrick er, "I'm not sure if I ever got your name?"

The girl grins. "Hazmat."

Derrick says, "Derrick," and goes on, "You're a Bone Gnawer, right?"

Hazmat nods. "Yah. Ragabash, too. An' lupus, an' Cliath."

Derrick stops in the middle of raising the spoon to his mouth, and puts it 
  back in the bowl, realizing, "Oh, you're lupus. So the State's not divided 
  up into towns, it's divided into distances." He adds, for formality's sake, 
  "Ragabash cub, me, but you knew that." He munches some more cereal, and then 
  drinks the rest of the milk out of the bowl.

Hazmat half-curls up on the couch, knees drawn up to her chest. "Yah. I ran 
  here an' Mac found me an' his Mage friend Feinan found out I was Garou an' 
  then Mac brought me out to th' Caern." She scratches her nose. "Wuzza real 
  long time ago."

Derrick sticks his bowl under the chair, and clasps his knee to his chest. 
  "How long've you been here? An', um, I should prolly know this, but who's 
  Mac?"

Hazmat wrinkles her nose slightly. "Mac's a Gnawer. Guess he's jus' not around 
  much anymore. I been here, uhm..." She thinks, counting seasons on her 
  fingers. "Two years. Total."

Derrick drums quietly on the chair leg with the spoon. "Mac's prolly around. 
  There's lotta people I don't know." When he hears Hazmat's length of 
  service, he huhs. "Huh. You must've seen a lot..." He trails off, fishing 
  for a story.

Hazmat grins. "Yah. I have. I 'member when th' Uktena elder, Stormcrow, tol' a 
  Fang cub tuh tell Justice, who has Fang elder, tuh take a flyin' fuck atta 
  rollin' donut. Those exact words."

Derrick, who's heard a few tales of Justice, *blinks*. "Why? An' did the cub 
  actually *tell* Justice that?"

Hazmat giggles. "Yah. See, Isaac's cool, bu' he's also, uhm... a little dumb. 
  An' Justice wanted tuh take th' Wolf away from him, bu' she said she'd give 
  him a choice, an' tuh talk tuh Stormcrow. Stormcrow tol' him tuh tell her 
  tuh take a flyin' fuck atta rollin' donut -- tuh tell her those *exact* 
  words -- an' Isaac did." She rubs the back of her neck. "Boy, was she 
  pissed."

Derrick can't quite figure out what he wants to ask first, and spends a moment 
  not saying anything. He finally gets a question out. "Take away the wolf? 
  Why would anyone wannt do -that-?"

You say "'Cos he was, uhm..." She touches her forehead. "It's like he was 
  missin' an arm or leg, bu' up here, you know?"

Derrick says "He was dumb? What's that got to do with takin' the wolf away?"

Hazmat shrugs. "Justice din' think he could learn how tuh shift an' control 
  his Rage an' stuff. So she was gonna do this Rite on him tha'd take away his 
  ability tuh shift. S'called Rite of the Stolen Wolf."

Derrick says in confusion, "Yah? And what happens after that? I mean, all us 
  cubs, Dillan an' me and that new guy Nikolai, we keep gettin' told, "you 
  gotta be Garou no matter what," but now that's not so either?" He hastily 
  adds, "I'm not sayin' I don't wanna be a wolf - that part's the best thing 
  to come outta all this."

Hazmat shrugs. "I dunno. Stormcrow said he'd seen folks who'd had th' Wolf 
  taken from 'em, an' it was like they lost part a' themselves. Like becomin' 
  a ghost."

Derrick says, "Huh." Returning to the main topic, he asks, "So, like, what'd 
  Justice do to Isaac?"

Hazmat shrugs. "Nuthin', really. He kept th' Wolf. Bu' her an' Stormcrow hadda 
  real fight over it, 'cuz what he tol' Isaac to say."

Derrick says "Yah? She whomp him some?"

Hazmat pauses, trying to remember. "Huhn. I think they *both* whomped each 
  other. Stormcrow had some pretty nasty Gifts. Makin' th' ground come up 
  at'cha an' stuff."

"Gack," says Derrick. "Did they actually challenge each other or somethin'? 
  I'm not real clear how challenges work, but it seems like someone like 
  Justice'd get kinda pissy about someone tellin' Isaac to do that."

Hazmat nods. "An' th' fact that he tried to stop her when she tried to *kill* 
  Isaac fuh bein' dirtied by wha' Stormcrow tol' him tuh do."

Derrick says, stunned, "She tried to kill him?"

Hazmat yawns and stretches. "Yah. Justice was like tha'. Real bitch, kinda 
  crazy." She wrinkles her nose. "No 'fence, bu' she was like she hadda stick 
  up her ass alla time, worse than Brittany." That said, the Gnawer gets up 
  off the couch, making as if to wander off.

Derrick says "None taken. I'm a Fang, but that doesn't mean I had to have a 
  stick surgically inserted at first change."

Hazmat grins at the cub. "Good."

Derrick says "C'n I talk t'you more about stuff like this sometime?"

Hazmat pauses on her way out to the back door and glances back, pleased. 
  "Sure! Anytime, yah?"

Derrick says, "Yah, anytime. See you 'round."

After sliding back the kitchen door, you pass through into the back yard of 
  the farmhouse.