20/02/2006
Christopher is sitting in the living room, reading The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan. He has a glass of coke next to him, and he is more relaxed than he has been in a while.
Veronica enters the farmhouse with the demeanor of a wild animal expecting a trap. The Wendigo cub casts a wary eye at the kitchen, then the living room. When she spots Christopher, her demeanor changes subtly, some of the caution vanishing. She still looks a little uncomfortable with her surroundings as she approaches him. One hand comes up in a bit of a finger-wave. "Hey."
Christopher looks up from his book, and smiles. "Hi Veronica. How are you doing?"
"Good," she answers shortly, looking over the title and cover of the book. "Pretty good. You?" The girl finds a place to sit, and plunks herself down.
The book is a paperback, completely black apart from a yellow band accross the top, golden writing stating the name of the book and the author, and a strange symbol on the front: a wheel with seven spokes, with a snake twisted into the horizontal 8 symbol for infinity, swallowing it's own tail. Christopher says, "I'm fine thanks. I had a word with Cole yesterday. He plans to challenge Vera-rhya for me."
Veronica smiles thinly. "Cool. Maybe he'll even manage to do it," she says, glancing at the stairs as though the mighty Shadow Lord may appear at any moment. "Good luck to him, I guess."
Christopher frowns, as he sees how cautious Veronica seems to be being. "What's wrong?"
Veronica studies him a second, then shifts around in the seat. "Lots of stuff. There are a lot of people who live here, and she's one of them, and I'm so used to being outside, in the woods...I thought I'd be happier to be in a house, but it just feels weird."
Christopher smiles kindly. "I see. I think I know how you feel. It sounds a lot like how I feel in large groups."
Veronica huhs. "How do you take it, being in here all the time? Do you get to go out and run in the woods, or are you stuck here, and in the barn?"
Christopher sighs. "I think I'm allowed in the woods if I've got someone supervising me, otherwise I have to stay on the farm. So I end up either reading in here, practicing what I've learned so far in the barn, or going on a run around the farm."
Veronica shakes her head. "It took me a whole month to earn my way away from the lake, but it's all wilderness there, except the Longhouse. I ended up just sleeping in the woods, and mornings are sooo nice in lupus..." she trails off. "I guess I'm not really helping. What've you learned so far? Like, just fighting?"
Christopher shakes his head. "Not even that. I've learned shifting, and I tend to practice either moving around in the different forms, or practicing my Karate in Glabro, to get used to the differences between that and Homid. I've only been in Lupus the once, but I enjoyed it. For some reason, I just wanted to play," he says, smiling at the memory.
Veronica grins. "I just ran everywhere the first little while when I was practising. Like, ran. Full out. It was awesome, just being able to feel the wind, and my muscles moving. It was so cool."
Christopher nods, grinning as well. "I know what you mean. It took a few minutes to get used to, but I ended up chasing Clemency-rhya around the barn. What was more surprising was that I could understand her when she was in Lupus form. I hadn't expected it to come so naturally."
"Hey, maybe you're like me!" Veronica perks up, one hand flattening on her chest. "I have ancestors who talk to me, in my dreams! From a long, long time ago, too. Like...before all of the white people came, I think."
Christopher frowns. "I've never had dreams like that, I'm afraid. According to Clemency, we Garou are part wolf, and understand wolves on an instinctive level."
Veronica chews her lip. "Well, yeah, she's right. Do you know how to talk back, yet? Like, have you learned the wolf tongue? It was pretty easy, with Circle Keeper to learn from. He's...really good at it."
Christopher frowns. "I can talk, for lack of a better word, in Lupus. I don't know how to talk in Crinos though. I understood basic themes and suchlike in that, but I haven't actually learned how to understand it properly, and I haven't learned how to speak it yet."
Veronica crosses her arms over her chest. "This is why it's good to be outside. I could just Change, and I could teach you some stuff. Bleah. You're smart though. You'll get it quick. What else have you learned? Any good stories or anything?"
Christopher chuckles. "If only. I haven't had chance to learn much over the week I've been here. Peter Abraxas-rhya plans to start my training tomorrow, but with luck he'll be saved the trouble."
"Who's he?" The Wendigo cub comes closer, finding her way to the couch and flopping down on it. "I mean...he's like, a Shadow Lord, right? But what else?"
Christopher sighs. "He's a Metis Shadow Lord with a chip on his shoulder the size of a house. The first thing he tried to teach me was that all Metis should be hated as abominations. I can't say I agree with that, but I can't exactly argue the point with him. You been learning anything interesting? Well, more interesting than the usual, I should say."
Veronica waves a hand at the farmhouse around them. "I only just got let go here. I'm sort of on my own...Fledgling out of the nest." She grins. "I'm kinda learning about everything that isn't being Wendigo. Mostly, right now, tracking. Every morning, I have to track down my elder to go for a run with her."
Christopher nods. "Sounds interesting enough. I've only been taught basic ettiquette and which tribe is which so far."
"Probably not a lot of good stuff about us," Veronica says. "I didn't learn a lot of good stuff about your tribe. Either of them. But less good about the Shadow Lords." She pokes her tongue out, then draws one knee up to her chest.
Christopher smiles ruefully. "Vera-rhya told me only one thing about the Shadow Lords: that they are willing to do whatever they feel is necessary to win the war against the Wyrm. Unfortunately, a lot of Shadow Lords have put the war to one side and decided to try and rule for it's own sake, and those are the ones that most Garou seem to remember. Or so she says. I can see what she means in some respects; I mean surely not all Shadow Lords are as evil as they are made out."
Veronica wraps her arms around her knee. "I hope not. You're too nice to be evil, and I don't want to have to like, fake a hate-on for you. Couldn't you be a Child of Gaia or something? Or a Bone Gnawer?" She grins and pokes at him with a toe. "Someone I'm allowed to be friends with?"
Christopher chuckles. "I met a Silver Fang cub not too long ago. Clemency-rhya expected us to start a new War of the Rage, whatever that's supposed to mean. I'd rather make my judgements based on something a person has control over, such as their actions, than something they don't, like their tribe, and anyone who disagrees can go to Hell so far as I'm concerned."
"I've met...um...three cubs so far. Noisy Ghost hates me, Poe...well, he was insulting my elders, so he doesn't count...and you." Veronica scratches at the side of her nose. "I think it's like, all personality. And I think, like, some tribes get people who have personalities that are alike. Like, all the Get think they're right, all the time. And um, Uktena are supposed to be smart."
Christopher smiles softly and shakes his head. "Unfortunately, that isn't always the case. All the Get are bad tempered, supposedly. Apart from Emma-rhya, who's only usually bad tempered on a full moon. Shadow Lords all stab other Garou in the back for selfish reasons, except for me, because I'd never do that. There are exceptions to every rule."
"She was pretty bad-tempered with me. Even though I was trying to say things right." Veronica leans back in her seat, giving him a critical look. "And, you're not a Shadow Lord yet. Not until you finish your Rite of Passage. So there's still hope." That look evaporates into a grin.
Christopher chuckles. "I said usually. Again, an exception to a rule," he says grinning back. "You talk as though the Rite of Passage is guaranteed to change who I am. I doubt it would do that any more than my eighteenth birthday would have back in Human society."
Veronica stretches. "Hey, Rite of Passage marks you forever, as a member of one tribe and only one tribe. It does change you. I mean, it probably wouldn't turn you into like, a ninja assassin and make you start plotting against all kinds of stuff against everyone else, but you'd still be a Shadow Lord. And you'd be kinda like them, because that's what training's for."
Christopher sighs. "I know how to fight. Does that make me violent? If I knew how to kill a man with my bare hands, would that make me a murderer? If I knew how to use all the nasty tricks the Shadow Lords tend to use, either against each other or against the Wyrm, would that make me any less trustworthy?" Christopher adds, "Actually, I just missed the whole point of what you said, didn't I? I can see what you mean: after the Rite of Passage, I would have already had the training given to the average Shadow Lord, and I would most likely be willing to use it if doing so meant saving Garou lives."
Veronica points to him. "Exactly. I mean, like, you're just starting your training. Before I started learning anything up at the Lake, I got lost in the woods, and I didn't know anything about being an indian. I didn't know any stories, and I was just a red-skinned qussaq girl. I didn't like, _know_ anything. I couldn't hunt, I couldn't really sing...I'm getting more and more like Jacinta-rhya and my other elders every day." She licks her lips. "You'll still be Christopher, the nice guy who didn't hit me too hard or make me look stupid when we were practising fighting, but you'll also be a Shadow Lord."
Christopher nods. "I'd be capable of stooping to depths that other Garou wouldn't even consider. I'd never actually do it, but I'd be capable of it," he says, not exactly coldly, but with the voice of someone speaking hypothetically. "No wonder the Shadow Lords aren't trusted very much..."
Veronica visibly shudders. "Did I mention that one of them was eating people? And that the one that got shouted at at the moot covered it up?" She goes a bit pale, one hand moving to rest on her stomach. "Yech. I hope you never have to deal with anything like that."
Christopher looks towards Veronica. "You mentioned it, and I'll make my judgements if and when I know the circumstances. I doubt there was a good reason for breaking the Litany, but there may have been a good reason for covering it up."
Veronica sighs. "I'll shut up about it eventually, it's just so creepy. Sorry. Sorry. Um...want to talk about something else? Do something else? Work on fighting or something?" She rubs the back of her neck and drops her eyes.
Set.
Christopher smiles fairly kindly. "Don't worry about it. I can't say I'm comfortable with it either. I think it's about time I got something to eat though." With that, he stands up, and finishes his drink. He walks over to the bookshelf and returns the book, after which he turns back to Veronica. "See you later, I hope."
Veronica gives a quick nod. "Deal. I'll go and...grab my dinner from wherever I find it." She looks at the door, then the other cub.
Christopher heads through to the kitchen, carrying his glass with him. "Later," he says, and heads towards the fridge.
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