Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (48% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it is partly sunny. The temperature is 62 degrees Fahrenheit (16 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the north at 10 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.21 and falling, and the relative humidity is 64 percent. The dewpoint is 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius.)
It is currently 14:59 Pacific Time on Fri Jul 13 2001.
Sophia's Apartment(#4128RAJ$)
Small, bare, and uninviting, this little apartment is clearly not the dwelling of a homebody, nor of a person accustomed to entertaining. The sitting area has only bright white plastic lawn furniture that looks as if it might have been manufactured by Tupperware. Makeshift shelves of cinderblocks and 1"X8" boards bow with the weight of scores of books. Titles like "Rescuing the Bible From Middle America" or "Zarathustra: Modernism in Antiquity" can be seen here, along with dozens of dime-store paperbacks.
The kitchen looks as if it might never have been cooked in. A small microwave on the counter is still blinking "12:00", no one having bothered to set the clock. Beside it is an electric can opener. The only evidence of use is a single glass in the stainless steel sink and a few fast-food bags in the trashcan. The sole decoration on the refrigerator is a postcard bearing a photograph of a monstrous, grimy power plant with "Come to Hanford!" printed on the bottom in fluorescent green.
Through a door opposite the kitchen, the tiny bedroom looks slightly more lived-in. On top of a black particle-board dresser sit a hairbrush, a few hair-ties, and several plastic hairclips, along with a small pile of cheap costume jewelry. A frame designed to hold several of snapshots is hung squarely on the wall. The small writing table is bare, nothing on top, nothing inside. The bed is made, a bright yellow bedspread bravely trying to cheer up the room.
Sophia is on the phone, pacing back and forth.
Dizzy opens the door, walks in, and tosses her jacket over one of the lawn chairs. "Hey, Sophia," she greets her roommate with a grumble as she walks around said chair and flops in it.
".... so, if you see her... Wait. Nevermind. She's here." Sophia hangs up the phone and turns to Dizzy with exasperation in her eyes. "Where did you go, Diz? You can't just take off without letting someone know first. Did you have permission?"
Dizzy grumbles, "I just went out and got something to eat." She sighs, sinking lower in the chair, bringing her hat down to cover her face.
Sophia throws her hands up in the air and continues to pace. "Look, you don't know what kind of danger you're putting yourself into! The boogie man is /real/ now, Dizzy! There are banes and monsters out there that would just love to have a nice fresh cub for an afternoon snack! Surely, if I'm not allowed to take you grocery shopping by myself, you should know better than to go wandering out of the safehouse alone! Shit. What were you /thinking/? There's food here!"
Dizzy sits up, pulling her hat off and looking towards her roommate, surprised at being chastised like this. "Sophia," she starts, "I just went down to the local McDonalds. There's people there and it was the middle of the day. If we can't do freaky stuff in public, they can't either, right? Roger said something about that."
Sophia frowns. "Look, it's not like I have the authority to do anything about it. But I'm pretty sure it'll come down on me that you were gone and I didn't know where you were. At least I called John and not Roger; he'd probably break my legs. But damn, sweetie. You just can't do that. You need to have permission before you go out like that. Fuck." She shakes her head, furious more with herself than with Dizzy. "I shouldn't have been taking you out. Givin' you the wrong fuckin' idea about how this works. I mean, you're a cub. You're like a puppy. And you may think you know how to take care of yourself, how to live on your own, but you don't. Not yet. What happens if someone tries to rape you? Oh, sure. You can defend yourself. But can you do it without accidently changing in front of him? Can you do it without losing your fuckin' mind and going berserk?"
Dizzy's eyes grow wide at the mention of the angry-guy, "Oh, you didn't..." she says, very scared. Sinking back in her chair and covering her face, "Great, I'm gonna get killed for sure now." She's definately not talking about being out without permission.
Sophia runs a hand through her hair, pressing hard on her head as her fingers move back. "He's not going to cull you. He probably won't even kick your ass unless you do it again. I mean, it was a lame-brained, idiotic, half-wit thing to do, but it's not like you broke the litany...... Did you?"
"Depends on if dumping soda all over a cliath is violating the submission one," comes the reply.
Sophia smiles, relieved. And then frowns. "Who? And how did you find out in a restaurant that they were a cliath?"
Dizzy sits up again, hat falling into her lap, glad that Sophia appears to be finished lecturing. She waves her hand, "Because I had already met her, at the Farmhouse the other night."
Sophia's eyes widen, and she exhales hard, shaking her head as she speaks. "Oh, no. You didn't. Who was it?"
Dizzy nods, "That Alicia girl. Guards the street corner." She lets a bit of a laugh escape at her own joke.
Sophia opens her mouth to speak, but just closes her eyes in defeat and sits down, leaning over her knees.
Seeing her roommate's reaction, Dizzy goes back to frowning again. She decides to change the subject, "You know, if we go browsing for yard sales, we can probably find you a good bookcase for all of your books."
Anger burns in Sophia's eyes as she looks up at the girl. "First of all, she's my friend. Don't you /ever/ call her a whore in my presence again. And second, why in Gaia's name would you /do/ a thing that? She's a nice, sweet person! She's a CHILD of GAIA, for CHRIST'S SAKE!" Spittle flies from Sophia's mouth as she speaks, her tone as defensive as if she personally had been the butt of Dizzy's joke.
Dizzy rolls her eyes, great, the world's against her. She looks away, choosing instead to see the beautiful view the window gives. "Yeah, I know. But that doesn't mean anything. People are people no matter where they come from. You said yourself that they're just stereotypes. Alicia happens to be a Gaian who's a total bitch."
Sophia stands, grabs herself something to eat, and says, "Ok. Let's hear your side of the story, then. I promise, I won't say a word till you're finished."
Dizzy raises an eyebrow, "I've been to highschool, thank you. She's your friend, I'm a new girl. A new girl who butted her way into your house and takes the bed. I'll just stay in the house now. I've got better things to do."
Sophia looks at Diz like she's gone out of her mind. "Excuse me? No, I don't think you /do!/ Because you aren't leaving this house without permission, and there's no one here who can give it to you. Now what the /fuck/ happened? Or are you to ashamed to repeat it?"
Dizzy _is_ ashamed to repeat it, becase she is in the wrong, but she's not going to say that, so she concentrates on minute, "Hello? Did I not just say that I'd be staying inside? I'll just sit in this redneck appartment appartment and rot."
From downstairs, the door bell goes off and there's a series of knockings.
Sophia clenches her teeth and snarls through them, "You will answer me. Enough games." At the sound of the doorbell, she screams in anger. She points at the chair and says, "Stay." in a tone so bitter there is can be no doubt she will enforce it if she needs to.
Dizzy watches her roommate leave and rolls her eyes. Did she not just say _twice_ that she was going to stay here?
Dizzy hasn't moved from the lawn chair, she's keeping herself busy flipping her hat around in her hands.
Sophia throws open the door and stands in the frame. "March." she says, pointing at the stairwell. "You have company."
Dizzy stands up, smooths out her clothing, sets her hat back on her head and puts on her red-tinted sunglasses. "Ooooh, who's come to see me?" she asks, frowning, "No matter, unless it's Jeremy, they're probably mad at me." Dizzy walks past her roommate and down the stairs.
Walker Safe House(#2832RAJL)
This small tenement building, is a that work any interior decorator could be proud of. The building is somehow filled with light, and space. Despite the fact that the room is far from large. Mirrored surfaces and lush, green pot plants are much in evidence - jarring only slightly with the video cameras that perch unobtrusively in various locations. A small sign on the wall lists the number of apartments upstairs as eight. There are no names next to the apartment numbers. Downstairs leads to a very thick door, with no visible method of being opened - except a keypad next to it.
The lobby branches off into what appears to be a small recreation room; for use only by residents and their guests. Much like the rest of the building, mirrors are prominent. There is a pool table set up in one half of the room, while the remainder is dominated by a large home theater system, with an incredibly expensive-looking couch in front of it. The couch nearly screams out, 'Don't spill anything'. For those who might, there are also two matching side-chairs, and a bean-bag on the floor - far too close to the television to be good for anyone's eyes.
Dizzy comes down the stairs, obviously in a pissy mood. Who she spots in the lobby only makes her mood worse. At the bottom of the stairs she just stops and crosses her arms.
The cliath galliard is wearing a pair of loose fitted jeans and a baggy Nike shirt now. Her hair is done up in a pony tail across her back. No make up this time, she actually looks quite plain and mundane compared to her usual wild and outgoing styles. Plopped down in a chair, legs crossed, she's picking through one of Jeremy's magazine's, one brow raised upwards. "...Um.. whats... a Pentium..." Blink.
Sophia frowns. "A weaver thing for computers."
Alicia closes it and shrugs, placing it gently and neatly to the side. Her dark eyes gazes over towards Dizzy for a moment, then pats the seat next to her, throat clearing.
Well, there's no getting out of this one for Dizzy. She could go back up to her room, but there's nothing keeping Alicia from following her. Plus, Sophia doesn't seem to pleased either. Dizzy walks over and sits in a single person seat. If she's gonna get chewed out, it's not going to be next to the Gaian.
Sophia stands aside and watches, her posture closely resembling her teacher's favorite pose.
Alicia tilts her head over towards the girl and stares at her for a few moments, then relaxes her hands into her lap. "Well, first thing I'm going to ask, is what is it you have against me?"
Dizzy is a tad surprised by Alicia's apparent calmness. She shifts uncomfortably in her chair. "Nothing," she says, resigning. "I'm sorry I dumped the soda on you. If it makes you feel any better, I spent the extra 39 cents to supersize it."
"I saw the way you looked at me last night at the farm, and the way you did today. I never met you before and it seemed that you decided to jump out and just judge me." Keeping her eyes on the cub, the Cliath clears her throat. "But apology is accepted. I will not hold any ill will towards you."
Sophia's lip curls slightly, but she continues to stand aside. There will be plenty of time to slap the girl silly later on, she decides.
The troublesome Walker cub hangs her head and stays silent.
Alicia stares at her for a moment and clears her throat. "So... whats really wrong? And be truthful, because my tribe knows when others lie to us." A slight smile tugs at her lips. "I know something is wrong, or else you wouldn't have done that."
Sophia can't stand down any longer. "What's wrong? We have been remiss in teaching this cub respect. I will make certain that there are no further problems."
Alicia lifts a hand to Sophia and waves her off for a moment, touching a finger to her lips.
Dizzy takes a stand, and stands, she's tired of everyone teaching her lessons lately, "What's wrong is the way you dress and carry yourself like some hooker off the street. It's because of girls like you we don't get any respect. God, don't you have any respect for yourself?"
Sophia clenches her fists and bites her tongue, the coppery taste of blood soothing her for now.
A soft electronic beep and the clicking shut of the lobby door are the only warnings of John's arrival. The big man takes a few soft steps to stand in the doorway of the rec room, watching the trio, and taking in the almost palpable tension in the air. Dark and sombre, he just watches neutrally, for the moment.
Dizzy looks over at the new arrival, glad for something to break the air, but seeing who it is makes her spirits fall. It's the angry guy and if he doesn't know it yet, he's going to have a good reason to be mad at Dizzy soon.
"Yes, I do have a lot of respect for myself." Says Alicia, who right now is actually dressed very decently in a pair of jeans and a baggy shirt. "But Dizzy, sometimes I dress like that just because I want to feel good, it /is/ Summer afterall and there's nothing wrong in going jogging in shorts and a sports bra. Or showing up at McDonald's and having some fun with boys my age." Shaking her head, she sighs. "Just because I'm a Garou, doesn't mean that I have to be dead, or act like an old lady. Not sure if you've realized it yet, but a lot of us don't even live to see the age of thirty." With that, she stands up and glances over to John, dipping her head. "Like I said, apology accepted, its not a big deal."
John listens carefully, and interrupts, in the quiet. "Don't expect to see me alive at age thirty. Live hard. Die hard." he grunts, then pulls away from the doorframe, to head for the basement steps.
Sophia looks the girl up and down. "What makes people lose respect is that they see people like you harrassing others. If women weren't treated poorly for the way they dress by /other women/, there wouldn't be a problem. How can you claim to have a concern for respectability at heart when you behave like that?"
Dizzy sighs at what the Gaian tells her, "Yeah, that's probably the biggest problem. My problem. More than half the people around teaching me are either younger than me, or my own age." She shrugs slightly, "It's hard to take advice from peers," she glances at Sophia, "Or kids." The way she says it, one could swear that it was a term of respect. Sophia's taught her the vast majority of what she knows.
John stops, only a few metres out of the doorway, looking over his shoulder, and nodding with approval at Dizzy's comment, before making his way back down into the basement. There's the faint sound of the keypad and lock.
Sophia is more offended by the comment than anything that has come out of the Ragabash's mouth. "Your own attitude should convince you that age and wisdom do not go hand in hand."
"Trust me, I know how it is. Dante and Adam are both my age and they outranked me for a long time until I passed by Rite and became their equal. But I don't see rank in terms of age, I see it as experience. Its kinda like learning a new video game off a 10 year old who's been playing it for months. You are a cub and the world should be a huge question for you. Just keep asking new ones." Alicia heads for the door and peers over her shoulder. "If you want, you know, to ever have a girl talk or something, I'm always good for it. I'm a Galliard, I got a mouth full of advice."
Dizzy rubs her temples, with that comment, Sophia is starting to sound her age. She nods at Alicia, responding, "Yeah."
Alicia twists the knob of the door and opens it up, then glances over to Sophia. "And take it easy on her k'?" A slight grin. "We all start out rough." With that, she slips out.
A few muffled thumps and 'bangs' sound, and then John emerges from the basement, carrying a bed under one massive arm. Mattress and all. He could almost be the size of one of the cubs in Crinos, whilst in the near-man form... His teeth are bared slightly, showing the extended canines, and his eyes are physically red. Pointed ears and faint tufts of hair at his cheeks add just that extra degree of animality to his appearance, though it doesn't really detract from it. The Ahroun growls as the bed bumps against another wall on the way up the basement steps.
Sophia blinks. "Do you need a hand with that, boss?" She's glad to have something to distract her at this point.
Dizzy just watches John as he moves through the lobby. "Oh god," she says quietly.
It's strange to watch that animal face in motion, still showing the intelligence behind red eyes. He looks up into the rec room, and raises an eyebrow. "No, I'll be fine." he grunts, in an abnormally deep voice, and manouvers the bed into a better position for going up the stairs. "Bed for Dizzy."
Dizzy grins at her roommate, "No more need to sleep on the floor, eh?" She stands to follow John up. Once that bed's in, it's going to need to be made.
Sophia smiles. "Cool! Only... I hope it fits." She walks up the stairs ahead of John so she can unlock her door.
Sophia's Apartment(#4128RAJ$)
Small, bare, and uninviting, this little apartment is clearly not the dwelling of a homebody, nor of a person accustomed to entertaining. The sitting area has only bright white plastic lawn furniture that looks as if it might have been manufactured by Tupperware. Makeshift shelves of cinderblocks and 1"X8" boards bow with the weight of scores of books. Titles like "Rescuing the Bible From Middle America" or "Zarathustra: Modernism in Antiquity" can be seen here, along with dozens of dime-store paperbacks.
The kitchen looks as if it might never have been cooked in. A small microwave on the counter is still blinking "12:00", no one having bothered to set the clock. Beside it is an electric can opener. The only evidence of use is a single glass in the stainless steel sink and a few fast-food bags in the trashcan. The sole decoration on the refrigerator is a postcard bearing a photograph of a monstrous, grimy power plant with "Come to Hanford!" printed on the bottom in fluorescent green.
Through a door opposite the kitchen, the tiny bedroom looks slightly more lived-in. On top of a black particle-board dresser sit a hairbrush, a few hair-ties, and several plastic hairclips, along with a small pile of cheap costume jewelry. A frame designed to hold several of snapshots is hung squarely on the wall. The small writing table is bare, nothing on top, nothing inside. The bed is made, a bright yellow bedspread bravely trying to cheer up the room.
Sophia quickly turns the key in the lock, opening the door and entering ahead so she can move the living room furniture out of the way to allow for the bed.
John bumps the bed against walls a few times, lightly, along with muffled curses, too low to be made out properly. Approaching the door, he dextrously angles the bulky object through the door, though he barely fits through the doorway, himself, and winds up shifting down to get both himself and the bed in. "You put it wherever you want." he says mildly, leaning on it as he stands, waiting for the cubs to shift furniture.
"Uh, Rhya," Dizzy asks from behind the Ahroun, "I need to go down to the college to make sure all my paperwork is in order. Is it okay if I go?"
Sophia grimaces, trying to think of a place to put the bed. After a pause, she pushes the desk out of the bedroom into the living room, and starts to tug on the bed, ignoring everything else.
John tilts his head at Dizzy, and his mouth twists a little. "Hmm. Really, you're old enough that I think you can go pretty much anywhere you please, Dizzy. Others in Garou society might be younger and more experienced in the ways of Garou, but you're an adult in human society. Hold back anything Garou, don't go anywhere where you think you'll get stressed enough to change, and you'll be fine. You're not a child." He eyes Sophia, warningly.
Sophia taps John's hand. "You're leaning on it, boss." She points to the bed.
John gets up with a wry expression for Sophia. "I'm not that heavy. And use what Gaia gave you, if it'll make life easier."
Dizzy sighs with relief and a smile. She grabs her jacket off the chair where she left it, checks the pockets for her keys and phone, and takes off with a wave, "See you guys later."