Tamsin
Tamsin has spent the day, really the whole day, began early before the sun rose in order to watch any sun-greeting rituals, near the heart of the Sept, umbral-side, trying to coax out stories about the Sept Elder and the Septs, trying to learn. This serious-eyed earnest Fianna with a silver-tongue, can convince you to walk on your hands before you realize that's not a great idea, just: obnoxiously present. Not loud, oh no, not loud necessarily, but: following, following, following, at least the moon is waning and thin, a theurge's moon, rage can't be that high. Maybe she had a good day, messing around. Maybe there were hours of nobody, nothing but this spiritual reflection of the world- except it isn't a reflection. The physical world is a reflection, the spiritual world is the real world-
Anyway, the point is, Tamsin's tired and hungry now, and Fog brings her voice plaintively to Hector, fills his head in that true-voice way the spirits grant though doesn't Fog sometimes like her jokes and leave a question?
Where'd you get to, Uktena Boy [Samwise]? You still around? Think I'ma sleep here tonight. I'm bone tired. But hungry [starving] (ate a rabbit), what about getting McDonalds [gross (so good) mm Shamrock Shakes (go Faux-Ireland)], bringing it back (I'm thirsty [want to get trashed] (trashed is not recyclable but you recycle your stories when you're trashed so it's a conscientious way to live)? I want McDonalds (no I don't [do I?]) (mm, rabbit fur) (gross teeth need floss).
He knows she's tired because there are lots of layers to her totem-voice.
Lola Hawkes
Thomas said that her logic lined up with that of many other gun-happy Kinfolk, and she shrugged her shoulders and went on to explain: "Well, it's pretty much our only option. S'why I shot that kid first, really. I mean, the Silver Fang pretty much tells us the Wyrm's about, and then this kid with blacked out eyes comes at me swinging.... Half of the time when that happens they sprout fangs or spit acid at you, so I put him down before he had the chance."
She didn't sound remorseful for what she did, and that may be the part that was most disturbing-- what kept Keisha from getting close with the Kinfolk at all (though she was certainly polite, and that was good). She was justifying it, though, and that must mean that she saw the error that she made. After all, she wouldn't be defending herself if she didn't think that she needed to.
"Had no way of knowin' that kid would revert back after the necklace got taken out of the picture...."
Hector had, when threatened to have the flute taken away, responded by pointing it at her and starting a retort, but ending it on the same word it began with. The tweeting flute noises did cease, though, because he went back to honing the instrument further with the knife. When the conversation had lulled the Kinswoman rubbed at her closed eyes with her forefinger and thumb and sighed. "Man, the night wore me out for some reason."
Hector Ghosh
Something neither of the others can hear has Hector's deft hands stilling stutter-brief. Nothing they can react to like all the birds gone silent or an inhuman noise in the stream nearby but he does stop and he does hear and that something makes him breathe out laughter enough to make them question his sanity because it doesn't come at a point in their conversation that would make sense for him to laugh.
Okay okay we'll go get McDonald's. Come over here and say Hi to Thomas and Lola. We're by the Big Rock and she can see the impression of it sent as imagery and she can feel the path her feet ought to take you might run into Keisha. Don't say anything about killing rabbits if you see her. Comeherecomeherecomehere.
Wood shavings fallen between his akimbo knees and he considers the kinswoman with stitch between his brows. It isn't like her to voice a complaint. She has a high threshold for starters and she isn't one to make known a weakness in mixed company and just as quick as any other impulse he ever has fires his merriment leeches away.
"You sure you're alright?" he asks.
Thomas Delacroix
"It was the right thing to do." He shudders and swallows. Not because of the kid. That kid's brain could have stayed on the pavement and Thomas would have hardly registered it as anything but unfortunate. "Their eyes...around here, right now, I'd recommend killing anything that's eyes go all wrong like that. And then maybe do it again. Sometimes once isn't enough." Lola...Lola may not even know what he's talking about. Hector heard him tell the story once, but he was practically another person then.
"You know-" He rolls onto his side, and then up to half crouched. But he doesn't quite rise to leave.
Tamsin
The Theurge Still Waters [There was a theurge called Still Waters and still waters run deep and she-]? Uh, okay, why, does she have a pet rabbit? Is she trying to make nice with the rabbit spirits and they told her she can't kill any for a month or else they'll eat her Gnosis and leave her without a leg to- the Big Rock? K. I'm comin. Wait Lola's there [:(] [:)], ask her if she has a [tampon] NEVERMIND [wait haha do it] or- [being rude (stop texting), coming! Does Thomas have a car? Can he take us to get McDonalds?
And silence while Tamsin gets from Point A to Point B, finds a likely place near the Big Rock in order to sluice out've the umbra, one moment a rocky hill the next moment a girl coming out've the brush, red ants crawling up her shoelaces, then clomping that-a-way. She sees a pretty stone and picks it up. Then another, and picks that up, too.
And then there's a lizard, and she chases it.
And then she realizes she's chasing a lizard, which isn't very dignified, and she stops, and then she can hear voices, so she covers her eyes and squints up at the rock itself to see if she can see silhouettes or what-all.
Lola Hawkes
Fingers moved away from her eyes, and she shifted the focus of her gaze over to Hector to see the concern sketched on his face. His brows were furrowed together, and he wanted to know if she was sure she was okay. He was right, she wasn't one to complain. She'd driven home with pain and stab wounds and little organic needles still stuck in her ankles after a fight against Fomori once. She barely flinched or bothered to take notice when she cut her arms up on broken glass after busting through a window. It was odd that something as simple as being sleepy would be groaned about outloud, especially out here away from the house where others can hear.
But, as far as Lola was concerned, there was no problem in Thomas being aware of her drowsy spell.
"Yeah, probably," she told Hector, and with a low huff she sat up straight and leaned forward, away from the rock that she was propping herself up against previously. "Maybe I'm just fighting off the flu or somethin'. Ain't bruised or bleedin', so I'll be alright." She didn't stop to question his odd giggle or that he had become stiff-alert at something that she and Thomas didn't notice. She assumed it was something spiritual, something she could never hope to pick up on, and let it pass without comment.
Thomas was rolling up, getting ready to stand but not quite committing to the motion. Lola held up her water bottle in offer, raising her eyebrows in a silent question as to whether he wanted a swig for the road or not.
Hector Ghosh
And then he zones out again as Lola is answering him. He's struggling so hard to pay attention but it's like having someone draped over his shoulders and prattling along in his ear and he sits with a confused expression on his face for several seconds while staring at Lola's lips like he can filter her words through whatever it is he's hearing.
Thank Gaia Hector wasn't born under a thinner moon. If the spirits talked to him more often than his packmates did he'd be even more of a pain in the ass.
"Sorry, Tamsin's incoming," he says, shaking off the conversation. "Wants to know if someone has a tampon and will drive her to McDonald's."
How do you like them apples, Tamsin.
Thomas Delacroix
Thomas makes a slight face at the mention of the destination, then sighs. "I was about to leave anyway. I can take her, I guess." It is practically the least engaged he has been with Hector yet, even watching him messing with the flute Thomas had been more really present. He waves off the offered water, but probably he'd wave off about anything at the moment. Visions of being attacked by the headless mess of someone you tried to save just don't make for wanting things.
But it is Lola, and so he gives her a very tiny, strained smile. "Thanks though."
Tamsin
Tamsin likes those apples well enough. They're not the apples she'd pick out at a supermarket, but let's be honest: Tamsin doesn't know the difference between different kinds of apples, unless the kinds are 'green' and 'red' or 'rotten' and 'not rotten,' and sometimes the difference between the latter two isn't as clear as -- the point is. THEM APPLES, them apples. Them apples mean once she sees no silhouettes and then a stir-of-movement that is Lola pushing from rock she's leaning on, the first words she actually makes out are 'can take her, I guess,' and that means the Fianna galliard is beaming when she is finally close enough to raise-her-voice and say, "Hey Hector and Lola and um Thomas," the um, because she only knows him from moots, right? Moots and reputation, "What's up?"
Lola Hawkes
Hector had appeared distracted when Lola offered her guess to the cause of her lethargy. She figured she was fighting off the flu, because while her immune system was harty and she was very seldom sick with anything, even the common cold that almost every American caught at least once per cold season, she was still susceptible to illness. She hadn't had the flu since she was about sixteen years old, but who knows?
Thomas shook his head and forced a tiny, weak smile and thanked her for the offer anyways. Lola eyeballed the Shadow Lord suspiciously, an expression he's seen on her face when she's staring him down once before (back at the Botanical Gardens, when he'd gotten wistful over some man that was mentioned). After a handful of seconds she let it pass, though, apparently deciding against calling him out on his melancholy and asking him what was up.
He said he was on his way and he could take Tamsin into town to a McDonald's if she wanted. Hector had advised that she was on her way and needed a ride and a tampon both. Lola raised her eyebrows, thoughtfully, then leaned forward and started to paw around in her pack. When Tamsin arrived she got a glance from the Kinfolk, then a smile. "Heya Tamsin," she advised.
"Hector said you needed a plug, and I think I have one in the first aid kit." She pulled free a small red pouch, straining against its zipper and made of a tough canvas material.
Hector Ghosh
"You're a GOOD MAN, Thomas Delacroix!"
And just like that Hector is alive and on his feet again and it's like the totemphone hijacking of his attention and energy never happened. He sheathes the knife and thrusts the flute at Thomas that he might have his hands free as his packsister comes out of the clearing and joins them at the rock.
It isn't as if he hasn't seen her recently and won't see her again. Matter of fact Thomas is going to be seeing them a lot sooner than he'd probably care to see them but he doesn't know that yet and the other two Galliards aren't saying anything. But his pleasure at seeing her is muted by the fact that Lola is trying to feed him a line about having the flu.
He walks up to the kinswoman and puts the back of his hand against her forehead like that's going to prove anything.
"Tamsin!" he calls. "Thomas is gonna drive you to McDonald's! I'll perform the Rite of Cleansing on both of you when you get back."
Thomas Delacroix
Tamsin's arrival and Hector's sudden reanimation leaves him a little bit at a loss for quite what to do. And he has a flute in his hands. He gives it a curious glance then rises and walks over to hand it to Lola. Which is in no way at all moving toward the person currently making the fewest demands on his capacity to deal with things right this very second. He just wants to give the flute to someone who is not leaving.
"Hey," he says to Tamsin, but it's more reflex than interest right this moment.
His eyes do flick to Hector at the comment about the cleansing, and he manages a smile that is at least less of a lie than the one he'd just given Lola.
Tamsin
"Yay!" The word 'yay,' not a cheer. This is an important distinction to make, and Tamsin hovers like a Tamsin-shaped Lola-shadow while the kinswoman unzips her first aid kit, "If you have one, you're my hero with the lustrous hair deep and dark and full of night, or something," and then Hector puts his hand on Lola's forehead, and Tamsin cuts him a what-the-heck-are-you-doing side-look, and then smirks, "I'll perform the Rite of Ate All The Fries. ALL OF THEM. Uh, hey, do you have a dollar I can borrow?" - soulful eyes, cue, just trained on her alpha, and then: that expression dissolves so that she can better regard the languishing Shadow Lord (yuck [knee-jerk reaction, trained into her]) galliard (oooh, he's so pure-bred) thoughtfully, "You ready to go now? Thanks, man. I am really hungry for junk food."
Lola Hawkes
The Garou came to converge around the big rock that Hector had originally lounged on but Lola was set up to sit against now. She wasn't sitting against it anymore, though, just near it, with her legs crossed indian-style and her torso leaned forward so she can access her pack. Thomas handed her the flute, which Hector had handed him first. She blinked when the little wooden instrument was pressed into her hand, but grinned a bit and moved the flute to salute the Shadow Lord with it.
Tamsin hovered behind her, letting her know that she would be her hero if she did in fact have a tampon to spare. Hector, though expressing excitement that Tamsin had come to join them, paused close enough to reach down and press the back of his hand to Lola's forehead. She's just a little bit warm, but not feverish at all. He only has enough time to figure this out for himself before Lola's jabbing at his fingers with the tampon she'd found in her first aid kit.
"Oh, get on," she told her Tribesman. "I'm fine, I told you."
And then the tampon is passed up to Tamsin. "Here ya go. You can sing a song about my hair after you've gotten your food." As for the dollar, though Lola couldn't help. She didn't carry cash out on patrols.
Hector Ghosh
"Ew!!" he says when the wrapped tampon hits his fingers. Doesn't even make a grab for it the way he would have if she'd swatted at him with the flute.
As for whether anyone has any money Hector heaves the most put-out sigh ever sighed in the history of sighs and unties his medicine bag from his hip. It is barely large enough to fit his hand inside but Tamsin knows and Lola knows that it contains at least one small healing gourd and at least one small Nightshade and that's about the extent of their knowledge of what all he puts in there. Something clicks and something jingles and he fumbles out two beat-to-hell dollar coins and deposits them in Tamsin's palm.
"You're such a mooch," he says and maybe she thinks she's going to get away with it but then Hector is lurching forward and wrapping her up in a big gangly-armed one-leg-wrapped-around-her-knees-so-she-can't-escape hug. "HAVE FUN DON'T TALK TO STRANGERS I LOVE YOU BYE."
And then he's all but leaping around the rock to evade from any retaliatory kitten-like attacks. Points at Thomas from behind his kinswoman to offer: "Don't drive like an asshole. Also don't let her talk when you get to the drive-thru, one time she tried to order in Elvish and the kid almost called the cops on us."
Thomas Delacroix
Thomas laughs, muted but at least not forced and shakes his head. "Okay. Come on random starving new friend. Let's go get you food. Are you sure you want McDonalds?"
His hand brushes lightly over Lola's shoulder as he walks away, more a graze with his fingertips than anything. "Night," he murmurs to her.
Hector gets a wave. "Okay. I will try not to kill her or unleash her on the unsuspecting. See you maybe later."
Thomas Delacroix
[And I must flee. Thank you all for awesome scenes! You guys are the best! :D]
Tamsin
[And I will vanish with Thomas for a while. Thank you for letting me drop in!]
Lola Hawkes
[Thanks for dropping in!]
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