geekfest

Marissa Samuelson

Wed 07:28PM CST
The building is an old brick factory or warehouse, half a block long and at least five stories high, with wide, sweeping windows where once shuttered lightsinks sat squat in the crumbling exterior. Everything has been redone on this block, even if the next one is still essentially a squalid slum.

There is - as promised - the doorman waiting to buzz almost any and everyone in to the small, lightfilled lobby, and to usher them clearly over to the elevator bank, directing them to the third floor and keeping a careful eye on the guests until they are launched in that direction, ready to toss out the first person caught pissing in the potted palms.

Marissa Samuelson

Wed 07:36PM CST
There's hardly any sound leaking into the hallway, but inside the music is loud, bright, and blaring. Whoever refurbished the old factory took good care to soundproof the walls, which is likely why such parties such as this are tolerated in the building. Inside: a huge open floor plan with several changing levels, open-faced brick on two walls, clever intricate paneling hiding a host of doors (dressing room; bathroom; study; pantry-prep area, the necessary clutter of life hidden away; whatnot) on the third, and almost floor to ceiling windows made of tensile, bullet-proof/spatter-suicide proof glass on the fourth wall.

The furnishings are stark and spare: a low, large platform bed in the far corner of the huge room, on a raised sort of platformish section of the floor, a large, L-shaped leather sectional angled toward a plasma television, a dining table with wide, generous chairs in tigerwood and green velvet upholstery, filled with an array of catered food, even if it is, for the most part, little more than chips, dips, Cheetos, and cocktail weenies (mmmm. weenies!) in a secret glaze and - of course - a fine selection of cured meats and jerkies for the 80% of the female population in the room currently "on" Atkins, nevermind that they're guzzling carbs by the gallon as they toss back those funny blue martinis the bartender keeps tossing at them whenever they go up for a cosmo.

Loads of people, loads of bodies, a gen-u-ine DJ, at least two kegs, one on either side of the room so as to minimize the time guests must spend walking across the room for another beer and maximize the amount of time guests may spend actively getting drunk. The bartender has set up shop on the long, sleek kitchen counter facing outward, lined with stools just like a real bar. Bottled beer, wine - mixed drinks, everything, even if, generally, he seems to make only red and blue things in martini glasses, and screwdrivers in highballs, and sloppy green slushies into the margarita glasses.

The pungent scent of marijuana hangs in the air, and there are a couple of bowls of assorted pills in both bathrooms, tucked a bit out of sight, an open secret. Harder stuff, well, that's about too. It just takes a bit more looking, doesn't it?


Victoria Santorelli

Wed 07:59PM CST
Needless to say, at least half the people at the party are underage. So it is that yet another comes drifting aimlessly in, no one offers a second glance. If they HAD, however, they might have seen the red-haired girl (grrrrl!) in the way-too-wide cargo-pants and the black see-through tanktop (with convienient pink halter undernearth). CLEARLY no stranger to raves (though, for those who know, nowhere NEAR as familiar with a certain friend...), her hair currently resides in two long-ass pigtails, and her fingernails are neon-green (with SPARKLES~!).

Bounce bounce bounce... she almost bops along, in time with the music.

Summer Anne

Wed 08:23PM CST
Summer's no stranger to movement. Half the time she's moving to fast, the rest of the time she's still as a snake about to strike - but that's likely because she's sleeping - but she don't bounce, exactly. Bouncing ain't something she deos. Trailing in the wake of the red-haired grrrl with two long-ass pigtails, and sparkly neon-green nails is someone CLEARLY getting into the spirit of things, dressed up like a cowgirl. Look at that hat! How kitschy - retro! Very 1999 Madonna, isn't it?

Summer's got a pair of sort-of pigtails, too, except they aren't bouncy like Vickie's. They're flat, heavy plaits snaking down her back like she's gonna go audition for Little House on the Prairie II: It Wasn't Boring Enough the First Time For You? And while Vickie's dressed in appropriate garb, it took all the convincing in the world to get Summer outta her peasant skirt and halter-top, very Grateful Dead Groupie circa 1985, all twirly and shee-it. Instead, Summer's get up involves worn out jeans tugged down onto her hips to make 'em into low riders and a white t-shirt with red sleeves (Cornhusker, it announces, in faded red script) that got shrunk several sizes too small in the wash (even the sleeves: once 3/4, and now short sleeves), enough to reveal the flat tanned skin of her stomach.

Summer tried stuffing her bra, incidentally, but Vickie said it looked like she had lumpy mashed potatos instead of actual-factual boobs, so: yeah. No enhancement, and she still has some rather well-endowed women in mind, trying to stand certain ways before realizing how STUPID she looks thrusting her chest out and collapsing back into a sullen teenaged coil.

"It's loud - " gesturing, because it is, and it isn't country, or blues, or whatever. " - and THAT GUY'S STARING AT YOU!"

Weird, ain't it, how the music always cuts out just when you're saying something along those lines.

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 08:31PM CST
"IT'S SUPPOSED TO BE!" She grins, mimicking having a walker. "Like they say, if it's too loud, you're too old!"

And then her head and eyes snap back, looking in that 'oh-no-I'm-not-looking-not-me' sort of way. "Really? Where?! Is he cute?"

Summer Anne

Wed 08:36PM CST
And lo and behold - that guy IS staring at Vickie, even if he's now also staring at Summer, oblivious apparently hick (or possibly so-trendy-she's-behind-and-therefore-ahead-of-the-current-trends) loudmouth. Since her loud-mouthery wasn't about herself, however, Summer isn't blushing. Well, not much, anyway. Not really. Had she offered BOY ISN'T HE CUTE - or some such similar declaration wildly into the world, well, she would be blushing. But she didn't. So she ain't.

And anyway, she has the brim of her cowboy hat, beneath which she may hide everything but her grin, which is wide and sheepish and spontaneous.

That guy looks like he belongs to Vickie's tribe. Not her Tribe-tribe, but just her distinct portion of the spectrum of urban life, and his nails are painted the same effing color of neon-green, complete with sparkles(!) even if the paint has flaked off a bit from biting his nails, tearing off the cuticles of his fingers while he works out the intricacies of the apocalyptic module to end all modules of [Insert Game Name Here], that will put his screenname - willybean2004, of all things - on the tongue of ever geekheart and gamergrrl from here to AT LEAST Urbana, Illinois, if not freakin' Gary, Indiana.

Vickie's looking-but-not-looking, Summer's snorting and rolling her eyes at the GlassWalker's antics - "I'M NOT OLD! THIS IS - " - holy shit, that's obscene! They can't say that in music, can they?! . Summer Anne is shocked to silence and misses the whole tableau as willybean2004 hitches up his oversized drawers and gives Vickie ye old eye.

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 08:53PM CST
Finally, she catches sight of the guy in question. Oh, EWWWWW. Dudes with nail polish? DEFINITELY out. Especially when they're CRAMPING MY STYLE!!! Though, if she only knew about the module (OH, THE MODULE!)...

And then, of course, he gives her the eye, and she's obligated, right? Well, maybe just quick. And he IS cute... and so, she drifts over, cometoid into his orbit, tilt of the head.

"Sup?"

Old Shakespeare himself could not have written better romance.

Summer Anne

Wed 09:03PM CST
"Bored." Ole (all sixteen - maybe seventeen, oh, give him the freakin' doubt, he could even be eighteen, a high school graduate, ready to Take On the World) willybean2004 hitches his shoulders upward in a shrug. Because, uh, he can. Because, uh, he's cool, really. Has himself a choker and a couple of other necklaces (They're masculine, baby! - his ex-girl sexxytawnytart_gurl1231 told him when he showed her via the webcame. Or rather, what she ACTUALLY typed was thouse r kewl. ROXOR!!!!!1 lol, but it got the general idea across.) and a tie-dyed t-shirt with Bob Marley's face to swallow his (admittedly) skinny torso (but he's using his dad's Bowflex, so in three or four weeks, he'll be a regular Ahnold).

Bored is the answer of answers, right? It's what teenagers say they are, constantly. That's why they fill out so many online quizzes, but willybean2004, a cute, skinny, whiteboy-in-a-Bob-Marley-tee sort of geek is smarter than your average bear, and realizes that that isn't much an intro. "Just, you know. Hangin'. You look pretty hot."

[...and somewhere, lost a bit in the crowd, but always easy to find what with that cowboy hat adding to her height, Summer Anne watches Vickie make her moves, maybe tries to listen in. Ammunition: she needs ammunition and DETAILS. Vickie and nameless boy, sittin' in a tree. Totemphone is so useful in situations like this.]

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 09:18PM CST
"I know." Ooooh - whip-crack smooth. Smoove. This girl is hot and she knows it (and the fullmoonrageanimalunderneathdontgetburnedbytheflame only makes it worse - this girl is dangerous, but you LIKE danger, don't you?) She makes a show of eyeing him up and down (bitch), before nodding to herself a bit. "You're not half bad... but I hope you have more game than that. Unless you're a nihilist, in which case, you can probably get away with it."

Summer Anne

Wed 09:33PM CST
"Yeah - ?" Uh, go genius. Way to fucking go genius. There's a REASON you once vowed only ever ever to go out with girls you met online, first. Gotta find a better way to smooth through these openings. It's not like some effing dating RPG [though, seriously, that would ROXOR, wouldn't it? If life were just a little more like an RPG?], where you've got five answers from which to choose and you know one of 'em is right and you can always go back and try all five of 'em secretly if you don't get in her pants the first time.

- uh, her pants. That's not quite where he's staring, and more than a little unsettled by her direct, hard-edged gaze and frank appraisal of his body, willybean2004 is starting to crackle about the edges, snapping like oil/heat/water. "Heh, yeah, well - " he shrugs diffidently, hands now buried in the oversized pockets of his oversized jeans. " - I got more game than that, just you know, gotta have a reason to whip it all out. You got a name, or I gotta make one up?"

[ - and Summer Anne, bumping her way through the crowd, repelling as many as she attracts, with the moon full and heavy in the sky, in pretty good control of herself all considering. 'Cept, in social situations like this, her runner's athletic body feels awkward to her, too tall, too long, too big, too-too-too, and so she just keeps out of Vickie's way. Well, keeps out of Vickie's way except for a faint chorus of First comes love - in the back of her packmate's mind.]

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 09:39PM CST
And Victoria's CLEARLY ignoring the cheering (leering?) section in the back of her brain as she takes perverse glee in cutting the legs out from under her prey. Power - you either got it or you don't... and dating is just another First-Person Shooter.

Eyebrow raises as he "retaliates" - well, points for that, anyway. For a moment, she tries to decide which name to offer (yeah, like either of them doesn't come with a joke attached - minus 10,000 points if he goes for it). Finally, she waves a hand, idly. "Victoria. You?"

Summer Anne

Wed 10:02PM CST
[Ignoring the leering section does abso-freakin'-lutely nothing to, you know, stop the barrage of commentary, though maybe if Vickie ignores it all long enough, Summer'll give up and look for another target for her, uh, peculiar brand of second-grade humor.

Then again - nah. She probably won't give up and go away. Where's then fun in that? K-I-S-S-I-N-G - crap, did Summer get a grade-school taunting chant wrong? Shoulders up, shoulders down. Straight posture, or the inverse parabola of "I'm-16-and-trying-do-induce-scoliosis-slouch" - Summer can't seem to decide, and is starting to look like a rabbit on crack, what with all the hopping up and down.]

"Yeah?" - it sounds like a genuine question, as if she'd actually lie about her name. Or, as if she'd CORRECT herself if he echoes her statement with a follow-up, nebulous, idiotic conversation-placeholder of a question. willybean2004 shrugs a shoulder, vaguely, as he tries to figure out the next thing he's gotta say, incidentally trying to skim some of the dark hair flopping down into his face away from his eyes. "Victoria, huh?"

And, weirdly, he's cuter the longer someone looks at him, despite his stammering incoherence. Thick dark lashes swimming in wild profusion around dark eyes of the sort that girls usually covet, floppy dark hair of moderate length, tipped in fading green of a match with the chipped nailpolish, and a lean, sk8r's body.

"That's a kewl name." He continues, after a breather. His heartbeat's up, and he's wondering if she can hear it. That's not ALL he's wondering about, but we won't go into the rest in polite company. Hell, Vickie can almost hear the different pronunciation, kewl versus cool, but maybe the sheepish grin he offers her makes up for some of the dork-factor-number-5 he's exuding. "I'm Mi- " uh, no. Most girls will think you're a TOOL for using that name, and it sounds sort of stupid outside of your headset, doofus. He finishes with another sheepish, shifty grin. " - William."

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 10:10PM CST
"Miwilliam?" Oh, so cruel, that smirk. Around my finger, you shall go... even if she DOES have a thing for dorks, he's not getting off THAT easily... meow. "Is that Scottish?"

Summer Anne

Wed 10:22PM CST
"NO - !" Miwilliam manages to express his great, deep outrage at her casual, causal cruelty while maintaining a certain dignity appropriate to a LordCreator of Fell City. Except for, you know, the fact that he didn't manage to maintain any cool, at all, considering the sputtering, defensive outrage he's exuding.

willybean2004 shuffles improvidently, like Fred Astaire doing the old soft shoe, and manages to tear his eyes from her face (uh - boobs, really, but CLOSE ENOUGH), staring, instead, down at his shuffling feet. "It's William. It's just William. I think Scottish people all have Fitz in their names. Or lots of ys and hardly any other vowels." He shrugs again, shoulders rising and falling above his concave torso, but a good bit of that equilibrium has returned, what with the making-fun-of-scottish people he was doing, even if his comments weren't that funny.

"I just got confused, you know. Screenname. Ain't important or anything, though. So, uh - " - and he looks up again, although this time it is purely experimental. In fact, he's looking up to see if she's still here, of if the geekiness is still being counterbalanced by the implicit cool of a tie-died Bob Marley t-shirt and a cowrie shell and leather necklace worn ironically, without self-consciousness. "So, you uh - go to school?"

Around here, he means, but doesn't quite manage to actually vocalize that part of the question.

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 10:28PM CST
Predatory grin - maybe the REASON she's playing shark (blood in the water!) is because of that tendency to not make eye-contact... and good thing she's not Scottish, right?

She grins at the question - "Nope." - and no matter what his original meaning, he'll have to guess what her answer meant. Though, at the mention of screen-name, her eyes go wider. "Ohh? What's the screen-name?"

Summer Anne

Wed 10:37PM CST
"So - uh," and of course, he assumes she knows what he meant, and therefore assumes that she was answering the implicit question, which anyone his age would answer, right? So, uh - jeez, this conversation thing is hard. Why don't girls come with manuals? Or push buttons? Heh. He could push her buttons! - and with that thought, his mouth splits into a wide grin that is currently charming and may well be dangerous in another three or four years. Looking up, now, and this time he manages to get PAST her, uh, chestage areaness up to her {whoa - she has a - !) face. " - where you from then?

"Oh, heh." Shoes - shoes?! Where are his shoes? Oh, oh! There they are. Hullo again! Missed you guys! - but willybean steals another glance at Vickie's face, his charming smile gone hangdog, sheepish, geekmeister. Mumbling. Because she - the green-nailed, red-haired goddess of his dreams - could not possibly be interested in his screenname. " - mistwraith. Uh, though, that ain't my AIM name. Was already taken, probably by some trashgoth loser with one of those "dripping blood" graphics and a taking skull and a midi of fiendish laughter on his page that ain't been updated since 1996."

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 10:50PM CST
"Mistwraith?" She blinks - shock at how dorky it is? "MISTWRAITH?!" She shakes her head. "Dude, I so TOTALLY fragged your ass the other day in Underworld!" She grins, clearly enthusiastic now, all signs of 'too-cool-for-the-room' blown to dust. "Pandora? Werewolf. I beat you to death with your own arm. THAT was cool. I was all like, sneaky, then riiip, SMACK!" The last punctuated with a hand-motion like a snapping whip, or what one might imaging beating someone to death with their arm might look like. "Damn, that was great."

Summer Anne

Wed 11:06PM CST
"Dude!" - the next universal word. Miwilliam, William, Billyboy, willybean2004 - is all smiles, now. The charming grin is back, wide and unconcerned and unselfconscious. " - holy shit, that was YOU! I figured it was some 45 year old guy in his underwear in a moldy basement eating snails and froglegs. Holy shit, if I'd known it was YOU I would've let you beat me more, until I was like, sub-dead, you know, deader-than-deadly-dead.

"Except - " clearing his throat, straightening, pulling vaguely at Bob Marley's - oh, maybe his nose, maybe his ear, a nervous habit once he starts really going with the geektalk, unconscious. Is it a good thing or a bad thing if your girlfriend (because he can see it now, lazy days spent beating each other up and blowing each other away, followed by - uh, best not to think about, Billy Boy.) And eyes, EYES. Look at her EYES. - well, okay. That's closer to her eyes, anyway. " - you know, I wouldn't've been so effing easy to knock off with the arm and shite if I hadn't been working on - you know - "

Now he cracks out another grin, trying to be all casual, never quite hitting the right notes. There's something too boyish and eager at the edges of it, seeping through like light around imperfectly fitted window blinds. Casual, conspiratorial - that's what he's going for as he drops his voice (as if someone listening in might try to STEAL the idea from him) and steps closer, giving her a two-fingered gesture that says confidential, in his mind's eye, at least.

" - my module. It's called Revelation, sort of apocalyptic, and it's gonna be rockin'. You know," - an idea! a genuine idea flares to life in his eyes. Vickie can almost see the lightbulb popping into existance (or did she eat one too many blue pills?) above willybean2004's head. " - I could use some beta-testers."

[Meanwhile, back-of-the-mind taunting has fallen silent. The crowded quarters and loud, unfamiliar music are no longer quite as entertaining as they had been, and Summer Anne's starting to get antsy-pantsy. Some girl not quite scared off by the vague aura surrounding the young Ahroun on such a night stepped on her toes, and Summer head back whatever response was her first one, but it was a hard thing. Instead of some sing-songed message about a babycarriage, there's another message in the back of Vickie's mind, almost plaintative. - you almost done? - garbled - outta here?]

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 11:16PM CST
Rippling across the mindlink - "Ohh, don't be such a party-pooper. Go get a drink! Something to eat! FOR GOD'S SAKE, MINGLE!!!" Though it's all smiles for William - be damned if you would have EVER beaten me, programming or no. "You're making a mod? Cool. Which game are you doing it for? Underworld? Splinter Cell? L5R?"

Summer Anne

Wed 11:35PM CST
[Standing on one of the "raised" platforms in the apartment, Summer Anne stares across the sunken living room and catches sight of Vickie right where she left her. The auburn ponytails are pretty signature. There are other redheads in the room, but most of them are bottle girls, and only moderate to half-way decent jobs done of it. Instead of replying to the vague thought, she tucks her hands into the pockets of her jeans and goes into powersulk mode.]

" - yeah, it's almost done. Weee-eell - " that was an exaggeration, but for her it WOULD BE almost done, even if he had to eat, sleep, breath, shit, and ma - uh, shower coding for the week 96 hours without pause. His drawn-out well is a shifty thing, snapped off between his white teeth with a clacking little grin half-stolen from good ole Skeletor, as he rises to the tips of his toes, actually meeting her eyes without even a stop in the chest area in his excitement.

" - actually, almost done for beta-testing, and it's a kick-ass end of the world scenario for Underworld, you know? I'm still working on the hellfire, it's gotta be badass, you know? I don't want cheap shite that looks like, well, some effing high school brat programmed it, I want it to be perfect, think I've almost got it done, 'cept for some dialogue options and - " He's talking nonstop now, closing the space between them what with the music being so loud. It's not babbling, since there's a direction and purpose guiding his voice. " - you know I still need to record some dialogue, I need a female voice-over. Was gonna get my sister, but - "

And he's still, stock-still, half-considering getting down on one knee, because asking a hot girl you've just met to do the voice-overs for your mod - which will be the biggest thing to hit the game of Underworld since that guy down in Arkansas added the Black Dog-style Zombie: the Deliquescence to the game world - is a good sight more important than the other major points of a young man's life involving women (namely: a. prom; and b. marriage). But, no, he's gonna act cool, and he even steps BACK a halfstep in order to achieve something like it. " - think you would wanna maybe read the dialogue for me? Do the voice over?"

Victoria Santorelli

Wed 11:45PM CST
She blinks. "Voice-over? You're doing voice-over? That's like, full-on scenario work, not just combat mod. Whooo...."

For the first time in this conversation, she's impressed. Score one for the boy! "I'd LOVE to do voice-work! Oooh! I'll be a Seiyuu!" She grins at that... though the grin slowly fades into something slightly less innocent (which he quite likely misses entirely). "Maybe I could even, you know, make a suggestion here and there for the plot?"

She almost flutters her lashes. But not quite.

Summer Anne

Wed 11:57PM CST
"Yeah - " he says, hard on the heels of her question, because he's more excited about the whole thing that he's ever been about anything else, even the time he hacked like, five free accounts at AnimeGrrls.com AFTER finding his dad's Hustler in the trash can, even more excited than he was back when he made the Science Olympiad team his freshman year which no one else in the ENTIRE history of his ENTIRE school had ever done, even if - as a sk8r, which he most assuredly is - he's way too cool (uh - not) for such geeky things. " - yeah, absolutely, full-on scenario, and it's gonna be big. I've been working on it practically since the game came out, writing and scripting and coding and all that. It's gonna be so effing sweet, you know? It's just seriously, man - "

His grin is confident, his posture almost swaggering, as he reaches to brush his shaggy forelock out of his eyes again. " - man it's sweet, and I would effing love it if Pandora gave me effing advice on the scenario and scriptiing. I mean, I think it's not bad, but I don't want it to be not bad, I want it to be ass-kicking. I want it to be - "

willybean2004's running out of air. It's like he's trying to suck all the oxygen in the room into his lungs in one fell swoop, and then spit it out again in similar fashion, and he's talking to quickly, so furiously, so bright-eyed passionately that he's coming close to hypervenilating and it probably looks like he's on crystal meth, but he isn't, no sirree.

Right about now, it hits him that she has agreed to his request. Billy pauses, looks up, stares flatly at her face for a moment before his smile threatens to split his skull clear open. "Holy shit! Yeah - this is the best fuckin' night ever - My cell's 555-MIST. Gimme a call when you wanna do it? I just need a couple more days to finish the framework and then I'm ready for you." Heh. To inner-Beavis and inner-Butthead, that sounded almost dirty.

And right about then - right about then (of course!) Trevor (aka Luciferz_Wings) comes up behind Billy and grabs him by the elbow, hissing hard - "Hey man - " a tight grin toward Vickie, as he pulls Billy away, and a wave. " - dude, I hafta have my mom's minivan back by 11:30 or I'm fuckin' grounded from the computer for another two weeks. We're going NOW or you're getting stuck here - "

And while Billy would be more than happy to get stuck here with Pandora, the devil in the green nail polish, he knows he has no other way home, no money for a taxi all the way out to Islington Woods, and that he needs to finish his coding so that his angel, his savior, his soon-to-be-girlfriend, can come and fix the story, and add her heavenly voice to his story about vampires and werewolves at the end of the world.

(Considering his tendency to overblown language as demonstrated above, Billy's mod will be greatly improved by Pandora's master editing skills.)

"Gotta go - !" Billy offers, as Trevor pulls him away, melting off into the crowd. " - gimme a call!!!!"

timeslip

AH

Thu 09:40PM CST
"This way. We're almost there."

Leading the way, Ancient Heart walks carefully through the ruined yard. Whatever this place once was, it was clearly the heart and home of some eccentric. The ancient brick walls tower up around the yard, casting it into shadow, making it a gloomy pit of rank weeds and dark bushes. But, hidden amidst the plants and undergrowth rise massive sundials, gnomens rising up four, five feet, the earth, when scuffed, revealing roman numerals. Having pushed threw a rent in the wire fence that surrounded the abandoned property, Ancient Heart had led Summer down the driveway, through an arch and into the heart of whatever this old edifice used to be.

"I call it the Time Yard. But I'm not quite happy with that yet. Something better's stirring in my mind. The... Garden of Chronos. The..." Musing, he walks to the center of it all, and turns, hopping up onto the slate dial face that is raised some four feet off the ground, a massive circular sculpture of smooth stone, the gnomen which must have risen like a spire towards the distant sky, like an accusing finger, snapped midway off. Turning, the asian kid smiles at Summer. "The Garden of Lost Time. Of infinite loss. Let loss be infinite while it lasts, let these ruined time pieces remind us that time is but an illusion, a neon snake that flies through the dark, determined to bury us under weariness and woe. But." Reaching out, he fingers the top of the rough edged gnomen. "It's an illusion. And can be... defeated." Musing, thinking inwards, till he turns and smiles at her again. "What do you think?"

Summer Anne

Thu 09:53PM CST
"That's real good - " squinting, because she can't do anything but, it sometimes seems, like she's always looking up and away and into the distant sun, Summer Anne tips her chin upward to keep Ancient Heart in her line of sight as she sinks easily to her haunches. Fingers brush across the tip-tops of the weeds. They're wild, but not like they'll be in three months or so, topped by just forming flowers, the beginnings of seedpods. It's still early in the season. " - hey -" half-rising, reaching over the rangy grass to strip a few sprigs of leaves off some darker, squatter, greener plant, " - there's mint. Want some? - "

Summer crushes one leaf, smearing the greeny oil across her finger tips, then tuckes it neatly into her mouth before rising, hand held out to her packmate. Looking around while he picks one (or eschews the gift). "it's kinda like the place in the Lion King, 'cept it's all clocks and stuff. I like the neon snake thing, 'cept I don't see why time's always gotta be about woe and what-all. Some people don't mind gettin' old an' havin' kids and seein' their kids grow up to have more kids. Though it does kinda look like some old god took up ever-what he had to his name and plunked it right down here," so she rambles, her grin spread wide beneath the shadowed brim of her cowboy hat, easy as pie.

AH

Thu 10:03PM CST
He leans down, pulls some mint up in a jerk-stretch, his spine bouncing him back. Hiking up one foot, he places his heel against his butt and leans back against the gnomen shaft. Draping his elbow over the raised knee, he rubs the mint between forfinger and thumb, looking up at the walls that extend at least five floors towards the sky.

The smell of mint suffuses the air around him, and he purses his lips in thought. "I don't know. Maybe we see time differently then." His voice distant. "I - I have this sensation - this feeling of wearing time like a leaden cape. It's not just me. Not just my seventeen years that I feel. It's - it's as if I were the center of an onion. The core, you know? About the size of the tip of my thumb. Curled up, and around me, enclosing me, are the lives of my ancestors. Going back... fuck, I don't even know."

Reaching up, he slips a piece of crushed mint into his mouth. "A few months ago, when we were on our way up to this city, I was lying in the back and looking up at the moon, you know? Through the back window of the car? And for a moment, those horizontal wires that run through the glass - the ones that heat up the window so that ice will melt in the mornings - for a moment, they just faded away, and it was just the moon, and I realized, almost like being in a dream, that I was seeing a moon an ancestor of mine had seen over six hundred years ago. I think. He was there, around me, in me, he was me, and I could feel it, the centuries, like taking a breath forever so that you just expand to fill the world..." Ancient Heart shakes his head. "Just... I don't know. And all of them - almost all of them - died so young..."

Summer Anne

Thu 10:16PM CST
"You know, lots of folks like mint." Seems like they're in the middle of different conversations, maybe, or so anyone listening in would think. Summer's still crouched, the rest of the stripped leaves in the center of her palm being slowly pierced by the the crescent sharpness of her left nail. The plantsap oozes heavy and fragrant onto her finger, gooing up her nail, staining her palms green. " - but it's a problem, you gotta plant it in a tire, or somethin' like that. In a barrel, or it'll grow all up around in and everywhere, just takes over everythin', like kudzu down in the south. But you keep it in a barrel or a tire, it's a real nice plant to have around."

She's still staring at the tangle of new-growing mint. "In another few months half the yard will be choked out by it, all the chicory and chickweed and sedgy grasses." She seems disinclined to leave her easy crouch, but stillness doesn't come naturally to her and after a moment - restless - she's standing up, rising, stalking through the strange ruins. The weeds rustle around her like the wake of a boat. "You don't know when they're gonna come, do you? Can't tell or nothing?" She stops again, glancing over her shoulder at her packmate, eyes narrowed in careful study, like she could pick those other lives off'a him - onion skins - and toss 'em in the dispos-all, or at least the compost pile. "I wouldn't want all them other people rattlin' around in my head."

AH

Thu 10:23PM CST
He doesn't look at her. Head tilted back, his throat exposed, he gazes up at the passing clouds. Takes a deep breath, his rib cage expanding, and then, slowly, deflating. Just dwelling on her words, on the imagery she evokes.

"Like the Wyrm. Out of control. Maybe we should find a big ol' fetish tire or something." But his humorous smile fades.

"Nah, I can't tell. Well - it's hard exactly to describe. It's like - they're there. They're always there. It's not like being in a room, and having one of them walk in through the side door every other day. It's more like - being a star, hanging in a distant galaxy. And having a million other stars around you, so that they and you appear to be a fine mist, almost. They're there all the time, around me, a mist that's in me and part of me and completely not me at the same time. And - at times - I become attenuated to one of them. Maybe something I'm seeing will overlap with the vision of one of them, and for a moment we'll be in perfect sync, double vision, and then I take another step, turn my head, and it's gone. Or emotions will call one forth, my rage calling to the rage of a Garou dead one hundred years, so that his fires stoke mine and I grow with him within me. Or... sometimes they take a personal interest, and then watch, and if I do something without honor, or if I lose dignity - like the time I fell off the boat - one of them punches through, aligns himself with me, overlays me, and then I fall away, my star reeling and dying, into the darkness, like being at the bottom of a well, and I can only watch as the world passes by in tunnel vision..."

Summer Anne

Thu 10:34PM CST
"Yeah. They's lots of things like that. Plants like that, folks think they're real pretty, pick 'em up, then they just go wild 'cos they don't belong there. Honeysuckle's like that, and them briar roses, they're real bad for it, and English ivy, that's a bad one, it's like a swarm of snakes up an old tree trunk, just chokes everything out, and that zoysia grass too." Her hand flattens; she drops the crushed mint leaves and they fall heavily to the scabby soil, the tangle of dry roots and last season's thatch.

"I was wonderin' what happened that day," the girl continues after a silent moment, maybe a respectful moment, subdued the way the beam is subdued when you put your hand over the top of a flashlight, and it shines through and leaks out around the edges, the edge of your palm, your fingers shining like your skin was on fire from the inside. "I'm real sorry about that - you know, and it scared me real bad when you started talkin' funny. I still don't even know what you - what he? - done said."

AH

Thu 10:37PM CST
"I don't either. I don't understand Chinese." He lowers his face and makes a wry expression at her. "I bet my ancestors would yell at me less if I took the time to learn it though. But... fuck. I'm not them. I'm not a heartland Chinese, you know?" He leans forwards, leg sliding down the side of the clock, hands gripping the edge. "I could - but I won't. I don't want to learn Chinese. I don't want to become what they were. I want to be me. Raised in Orange Country, Daric Wu, American. I'm not - " He makes a face, closed, hard, and looks away. Pushing himself to his feet, he places his hands on his hips and looks down at her.

"Pinky's pretty upset about how Luca handled that boat scene."

Summer Anne

Thu 10:46PM CST
"Maybe you can make them learn English - ?" the fast edge of her grin, diving quicksilver as her head sinks and her mouth is lost in shadow. Her head slants to the side, though - precipitously to the side - sufficient for one a sidelong stare, squinty with amusement. "Give 'em a sub- sublimi- sub - subliminable tape at night an' you kin make 'em learn like that, soak right on through your head like a good rain?"

Then her chin falls again. She reaches out and grabs a highgrown stem of grass near its fibrous base. The slick outter sheathing squeaks as she works it free of the soil. "I don't care about that, none." Or, if she had, it's all over now. Resentments don't become her. "I was just worried about you, and never said I was sorry or nothin'."

AH

Thu 10:49PM CST
Ancient Heart places both feet halfway out over the edge of the clock, and then points his toes down to the dirt, causing his shoes to rasp down and out so that he drops the four feet or so and lands with a thud. Moving over to Summer, he throws a companionable arm over her shoulder, locking it around her head and yanking it down some, grinning as he forces her to start walking with him.

"Ah, get over it. It's what I love about you, chica, the fact that you could rip a dock down without even noticing. Keeps things exciting." Laughing, he releases her head.

Summer Anne

Thu 10:56PM CST
"That is SO completely not true!" - so comes the protest, a rising curve of utter outrage so vibrant that her voice almost squeaks at the end of the statement and she sucks in another deep breath to make an even GRAND-er statement but can't really think of nothing grander to say and so she sort of lets the breath out, half-whistling, and instead substitutes a baleful stare as she falls into step. Sulk. "I definitely would've noticed if I'd actually done ripped it down." Elbowing him in the ribs, just for emphasis. "That is so not fair!"

AH

Thu 11:00PM CST
Smiling innocently, looking up as he walks, arm thrown around her neck, he uses the other for emphasis.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the jury, we have before us the case of Summer Anne. An innocent, lass, raised on buttermilk and taught to roll in the hay by the finest hicks in Moo'sbury Town, she is nontheless a reckless dock breaker - and worse yet -" Here his voice lowers, and he extends a cautioning forfinger to the invisible audience, "She doesn't notice the damage and destruction she leaves behind in her wake. If she does not even see the destruction she causes, how can she repent? If she does not repent, how can she be forgiven? If she cannot be forgiven..." His face becomes stern, solomn. "Then... she must receive the maximum sentance!"

Summer Anne

Thu 11:10PM CST
"You're ly - " she grabs another breath, gesturing wildly, inarticulately at the imaginary audience. " - he's lying he's a big fat liar I never drank buttermilk almost the whole time of my life we didn't even have hardly ANY livestock you know that just Buttercup my GOAT and some PIGS and you are - " It is amazing, how many words one girl can manage to voice powered by but one gobstopping breath. Of course, her mouth hangs wide wide open, then, because there's another subject she has to address and her cheeks are already burning hot, beet-colored beneath her rich tan. Deep breah and " - we didn't even HAVE no hay an' it was King's Crossing, I don't make fun - " elbow, elbow, elbow, searching for vulnerabilities. " - of you bein' from someplace what got itself named after a FRUIT just a borin' old juice."

Her free arm rise, hand held against the brim of the cowboy hat to keep it from falling as she shakes her head toward the invisible audience, winding down to a conclusion after a speech that managed to miss the whole main point of the case. Good thing the girl's not a Philodox. " - so, I think you just outta say nay nay nay I'm not listening, because he's a liar and ever-what all he says, gotta be a big fat lie, especially that stuff about - well, ever-what all he said."

AH

Thu 11:14PM CST
Pausing, his arm slipping off from around her neck as she elbows him, grinning, black hair falling across his face, he bends over, only to snag her hand and turn her into a piruette, leading her round and then at the last pushing her away so she stumbles off into some bushes.

Turning back to the imaginary crowd, he raises a hand, commanding attention, and then, with a truly lecherous smile and an exagerrated wink at the Ahroun, he raises his hand to his mouth for a stage whisper and says loudly, "Methinks the lady doth protest too much."

Then, as if the case has been won, he bows to the north, the east and the west.

Summer Anne

Thu 11:28PM CST
There's this, at least: her hat stays in place, what with her hand clamped on the crown, holding it firmly onto her head as she stumbles off into the bushes and Ancient Heart takes his bow. Somewhere in there it happens, quick-rising as a flash-flood. Mere fury becomes fury and the tanned girl's green eyes spark, smoke and flare like kindling given to flame. She stamps hard against the ground, her athletic frame limned with wreathing tension, the way electricity crackles around a closed circuit and closes her eyes, scrunching them hard, remembering all them exercises and counting and things and the sky and the stuff she's supposed to think about when it happens, when it just happens like that.

"You know that's not true." Her voice is quiet. There's neither fury nor Fury in it, except in afterecho, some harsh resonance to throatier consonants. Then, almost abruptly, she tips her chin upward and offers Ancient Heart a fierce, half-wild grin. It's not in her to remain mad - or self-conscious - for too too long, but the rising wave of rage needs more outlets than just breathing and she wants to run. "Catch-me-if-you-can." Singsonged as - turning - she tips her hat and takes almost to wing, like the wind.

just a pleasant afternoon on the water

Summer Anne

Thu 07:26PM CST
Summer Anne stood outside the rental shed, staring at herself sideways in the reflective glass of the shed's front window. B O A T S O R R E N T the window declared, since some crazy enterprising person had - at some point - endeavoured to peel away the "F" from the glass.

After spending about precisely 2.4 seconds staring at the rows of old rowboats and speedboats and whatnot, wondering who's great idea it was to "get a look at the city from a whole different perspective" the girl had gone back to studying her reflection in a suspicious and somewhat covert manner. She shifted from foot to foot, spilling off restless energy, before straightening and throwing back her shoulders, tugging down the fabric of her t-shirt, and tossing another cross-eyed glance at her reflection in the mirror.

AH

Thu 07:31PM CST
The bell connected to the door jangles as Ancient Heart pushes it open, emerging from the shed's gloomy interior, a brief snatch of harmonica music played on an old, scratchy radio cut off as soon as the door swings closed behind him.

"Alright, we've got three hours." Smiling, he holds up a pair of keys, and then snatches his fist closed around them as if the other two might make a grab for them. Reaching up, he rakes his long, black hair back and points over to a filthy yet fast looking boat off to the left. "I believe her name is Cloud Chaser. And... I drive."

Luca Oliverio

Thu 07:34PM CST
"Fine with me, I want a chauffer." He's coming around the corner now just as Heart comes out of the rental place. "I can sit back, get some sun and look studly while you worry about alla that stuff."

Head turns, body slowly following as he looks toward the boats. "Well, let's find it."

Summer Anne

Thu 07:38PM CST
"Hey!" - belatedly, glancing up from her reflection and tipping her chin up to get a good gander at the keys. Grievance is bright in her voice. Rat bastids, all of them. "I wanna drive - !"

Slouching again, vaguely self-conscious, the girl swings into motion, grabbing for the keys. "I do - I wanna drive, why do you git to drive?" She didn't, though, or hadn't known she wanted to drive. But now, damnit.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 07:40PM CST
Beep-boop-beep-click-ka-pow!

The tinny, electronic noises come from a Game Boy Advance, currently held in the hands of a red-headed girl who is trying her damnedest to rid the universe of the Mother Brain. From time-to-time, she bites her lip and tenses a bit - must be one of the more difficult parts - only to eventually relax once more.

She's sitting on the dock, cross-legged, not too far distant from the heretofore mentioned rental shed. It had taken her all of about 2 minutes to grow bored, and about 20 seconds after that to pull the game out of her pocket and start playing. But, as the trio starts talking, her brown eyes flicker up to watch, thumb unconsciously flicking the Start button.

Ding!

Pinky

Thu 07:42PM CST
::Pinky has one power and ONE power alone -- to wander into the exact right circumstances at the exact right time. ( Its a G' thang - Galliard that is.)You don't see her so much as hear her or some Pinky-like imitation of her inside the boathousde singing along with the old radio tunes. However after Luca speaks her head pops out of the boathouse window, bouncy blonde ponytail bobbing behind the spectacle of bright blue eyes and strawberry-flavored lipgloss::

"Luca?"

AH

Thu 07:43PM CST
Laughing, holding the keys up and out of reach, the tall asian kid shoulders Summer aside and walks down the length of the shed, shoes thunking on the old, weathered boards. A sharp wind is blowing off the waters, cold and penetrating, whipping the water's surface so that the waning sun causes a million sparkles to scintillate on the peaks of the waves.

"You don't get to drive because I am holding the keys." Infallible logic. Looking over to the Alpha, he snorts and shakes his head. "And just who is going to be admiring your ass out there on the water? You thinking about hitting on some large fish or something?"

He stops, arrested by the sound of Pinky's voice, turning so that he's walking backwards slowly as he spots the girl's head sticking out of the window, one arm still outstretched to fend off Summer.

Summer Anne

Thu 07:48PM CST
"I wouldn't be surprised - " Summer snorts, rolling her eyes in mock outrage at Luca's philandering ways. " - s'long as it's a girl fish. How the fuck do you tell that, anyway? What's a girl fish and what isn't and - " Stomping in Ancient Heart's wake only adds to the vibrations of the deck. Keen insight, and Summer reverses course briefly, retracting her arm and wheedling - " just lemme see 'em - " half-turning her back, ready for a surprise attack.

Her gaze flickers over the dock at the sound of Pinky's voice, all the way back to Vickie. "Come ON!" - a subtle glance over her shoulder, waiting for AH to let down his guard while she shouts over the sound of the wind, the slapping waves, the unnatural groans coming from the warped old dock. "We're gonna LEAVE withOUT YOU!"


Victoria Santorelli

Thu 07:51PM CST
"Pbtbtbtbtbtbt!" She sticks her tongue out at Summer. Nevertheless, she hops to her feet fairly quickly.

Shwoop! Into one of the endless pockets in her pants goes the Game Boy, as she trails along after the rest of the menagerie.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 07:53PM CST
"Heya pinky. Sup?" He grins as he looks on to the younger pack member. Then turning to Heart, smirking in that evil way.

"Don't make me leave you out of this fat J me an' Summer are about to roll. Which-" he adds. "I cannot roll while steering a boat."

Pinky

Thu 07:53PM CST
::Cute. Not beautiful, not lovely, not a vision of sex appeal -- but the girl was DANGED cute. And forgetful, a perplexed expression crossing her face as she stares at Summer, Heart, and Luca. (Wait, uh I was supposed to meet them here? Why did I come out to the boat house...) She turns back inside towards the boathouse disappearing long enough to smudge that pink tinged lipgloss -- and then the girl is clambering through the window. Ridiculously heeled sandals clip-clopping across the dock as she runs for the boat.::

AH

Thu 07:56PM CST
Ancient Heart stops moving altogether, not falling for Summer's ploys, keys gripped securely in a clenched fist behind his back. The other hand quick goes to stabalize the slipping backpack strap as it begins to slide down the slope of his shoulder, hitching it back up. Pinky begins to emerge from the window, and with that assurance that they were all going, he backpedals a few steps, spins on his heel and then breaks out into a run, backpack jouncing heavily, feet pounding along the dock as he runs towards the rusty red speedboat at the end. Thick, lustrous black hair flopping around his face, glances shot back over his shoulder at the no doubt pursuant Summer.

"Mine! Mine! Girls can't steer!"

Pinky

Thu 08:02PM CST
"...tonite ah' feel ambitious and so does mah' foot as it sinks on the pedal it presses t'the floor.."

::She's up on the plank her calves tensing and flexing as she bops up and down to some inner-song you can almost hear with her motions -- laughter pealing from her lips as she double teams AH with summer for the keys::

"--Cuz its so perfect, I'm so perfect, we're so perfect, everyone's here, I hear the change in gears!"

Summer Anne

Thu 08:03PM CST
"ARGH." It not so much a fully voiced expressed as a huge breathed illustration of outrage that - well - damnit, erupts outta her like a (say it) volcano. Or, at least like a buffalo gettin' ready to charge. Summer Anne wrinkles her nose, casts Vickie another brief too-wide-eyed-'30s-horror-movie style stare and returns the stuck-out tongue, then takes off down the docks after Ancient Heart.

Flat out pounding the boards, a pure sprint that is nothing short of poetry in motion. By the time she's half-way down the dock, she's forgotten (mostly) what she was running for, in the essential joy of running. Even with one hand flung up to hold on her cowboy hat - putting off her precise and well-balanced gait - she's gaining on Ancient Heart. She might even stand a chance of overtaking him, if she weren't running so fast and so hard that the end of the dock is soon looming and she's about ready to pitch forward into the water but somehow manages

(last moment, sideswipe)

to redirect and jumps - wildly - off the dock and into the old red speedboat. Thud, the impact resounds and sends the water lapping like this were an ocean and not a goddamned lake near big as an ocean, and Summer's strewn half-way across three seats, having barked her shin on the foremost one. Leastways, they know the damn boat is sound.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 08:05PM CST
Watching the hijinks, she shakes her head. "We are SO going to be lost at sea. You know this, yes?" Her words aren't specifically directed at anyone, and neither is the song she starts to sing under her breath on the way to the boat.

"A three-hour toooooooour..."

Luca Oliverio

Thu 08:14PM CST
"Quittit...." Directed toward the scoffing packmate. "Anybody gets lost at sea it's cause we decide you're flotsam." Teasing smile as he acts like he's gonna push her an' that damn game boy into the lake.

He hops in, directly next to Summer, the surrogate little sister. And sits. "Who else is smokin'?"

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 08:17PM CST
"Nonsense! I'm jetsam. Get it right, old-timer." For a moment, she mimics walking with a hunch, and makes "coughing-up-dust" sounds.

Seconds later, she's hopping off the dock, and into the boat with Summer and Luca. "Alley-oop!"

Pinky

Thu 08:22PM CST
:: Three words: Strawberry. Flavored. Lipgloss. Being reapplied as the barbie-knockoff (...life in plastic - its fantastic!) leans against the side of the boat to reapply eyes closing as she does so. The reapplication of lipgloss has become a new style of meditation. Be one one with the universe - beautify. beautify. Beatify. Long legs stretch out from the denim cutoffs, with the cartoonish daisy patches. And, if you don't think they don't perfect accent her 'Atari' printed T-shirt and sparkly painted nails.... you have NOT been paying attention::

"Dang, anybody got suntan lotion."

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 08:24PM CST
Suntan lotion? The girl is FRECKLED, for God's sake. Red hair + pale skin + sun = bacon. Of COURSE she has lotion. SPF 2000, most likely.

"What's it worth to you?"


AH

Thu 08:24PM CST
The speedboat can comfortably seat six - two upfront in bucket seats, while the back is hollowed out with two padded minibenches facing each other. An intrepid Garou warrior could also brave the spray and crawl out onto the extended nose of the speedboat, and lie starfished out, gazing across the surging waters. The boat's easily a decade or so old, with the name, Cloud Chaser, barely legible in gold ink across the side. The once bright red has now faded and washed away to a pale burgandy, the crimson padding on the seats now cracked and stiff.

Ancient Heart pauses at the edge of the dock, watching the others pile in, and then unhooks his packback and tosses it down to Luca. It's heavy, filled with beer cans and snacks, but the intrinsic connection between them all makes it certain that his Alpha wouldn't even be taken by surprise.

Resting his fists on his hips, he gazes out over the waters, eyes narrowed, and nods.

"Tis a fine day for Snark hunting." Looking down imperiously at the gathered packmates, he grins. "Summer? Heads up." And then the key is lobbed up into the air, the keys glittering as they fall down into the girl's lap. "Get behind that wheel, and let's blow this town." Looking over his shoulder, he sniffs. "This place is dead anyway." And then he hops of the dock and into the boat.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 08:29PM CST
Bag, is caught, i a quick turnaround as a wooden kenjutsu training sword flashes seemingly from nowhere as hit taoo crawls up his arm to become the intrument in his hand. Said sword whips out sliding easily inside of the bag's shoulder rungs while the other end is caught in his hand leaving it to hang off.

He sets down said back and allows the weapon to become part of him again. A very proud look comes over his face while he opens it for a beer. "Cool trick huh?"

Pinky

Thu 08:30PM CST
"Whats what worth to me?"

::Blink. Pinky looks to Victoria her nose wrinkling even as the girl shoves the lipgloss into her pocket. Even as her shoulders roll back to absorb the sunlight - Drugs? Pinky's got perma-high. And then? She asks Victoria--::

"Hey y'got suntan lotion?"

::Words are ALWAYS followed by a giggle - is she FOR real?::

Summer Anne

Thu 08:33PM CST
In the interim, Summer Anne has managed to gather herself together again. Nursing her barked shin, recovering her sent-flying-almost-into-the-water cowboy hat and taming the wealth of dirty blonde hair that spilled out when the hat holding it up when flying.

"Gimme some of that - " when Pinky pulls out the lip gloss. Pressing her mouth together and making a queer face, eyes crossed toward the tip of her nose, tongue spiking out - "I thank I'm'a gittin' chapped." And then - " the hell happened to the blue raspberry? Like that one better." Half-distracted, she nevertheless looked up as Ancient Heart loomed above them, ready for some far-seeking declaration to send 'em off to the ends of the earth and then - then! -

then

- like the holy grail, like the one ring, the keys fell right. into. her. lap.

"Hell yeah!" the girl shouted, scrambling up and over Pinky and Vickie, narrowly avoiding stomping a knee at least in her Alpha's gut (or lower, rendering him briefly sterile) to the driver's part thingy.

Lurch. Lurch. VROOOOM. (Uh-oh. They're in motion -) " - hey!" Summer's steering with one dang hand. The other, of course, flung up to hold on her beloved beaten-up hat. Her voice rises raw over the sound of the engine, the sudden assertion of cold wind, roaring in their ears, the slap of the waves. "HOW LONG WE GOT THIS HERE THANG FOR?!"

Hope everyone can swim.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 08:35PM CST
She sighs, theatrically. "Why me, oh "insert-non-denominational-deity-here"? Why me?"

Shaking her head, she passes the tube of sunblock over to the terminal blond. Moments later, she lurches back into her seat as Summer floors the throttle.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 08:43PM CST
No one. Thought that was cool.

Damn.

A defeated look as he sits down and cracks his beer open, tossing a second low to Heart. [Share and share alike.] He tips a bit in his seat when the engine is gunned. "Oh fucking Gaia almighty....." [I don't trust her not to kill me riding shotgun in her truck....]

"Anyone else wnat one?" Holding open the backpack as he looks, still all defeated like at the non-driving girls.

Summer, your grandpa is gonna be seriously disappointed if you die in a damn boat.

Pinky

Thu 08:47PM CST
::Pinky catches the tube in her left and pushes off from the boat's rail with her right. All smiles [..with a halo of rainbow sparkles trailing off behind her...] as she uses her right to tug Victoria up half dancing as she sings into the tube::

"--beacuse you are the Wiiiiiiiiind beneath my wings!"

::Luuuuuuuuurch and Both girl go tumbling forwards. The leap by Pink after the unclasped suntan lotion seams to occur in slow motion::

"Nooooooooo!!"

AH

Thu 08:47PM CST
"Fucking -" Lurching, throwing himself over, he grabs the rope connecting the boat to the dock, and slips the knot split seconds before the boat rears up like a stallion and roars out over the waters. It's so close - had he not already been meaning to do just that, Ancient Heart would not have made it in time, resulting in their either pulling a good section of the dock down into the water and after them, or ripping the mooring out of back of the boat.

As it is, his forwards momentum coupled with the boat surging out from under him results in Ancient Heart finding himself balancing precariously on the very back of the speedboat for one seconds, arms windmilling, and then, eyes wide, a mouth a large, dark hole, he falls over the back of the boat, falling into the foam and churning fury, disappearing into the opaque water with a splash who's sound is drowned by the roar of the motor.

Summer Anne

Thu 08:53PM CST
Praying is about all they can do. Summer's never been on a boat before. Summer's never been on a lake before. Closest Summer's ever come to a lake before is the reflecting pool at the civil rights memorial in downtown Lincoln. Or bridges: she's been on bridges before. Driving, so maybe driving a doddering old speedboat on the wilds of Lake Michigan is somethin' like driving a doddering old truck on a bridge over the Mississippi. Both involve an engine.

"WE AIN'T DYIN'!" Happily, even blithely, the reply comes back over the totemic link AND via actual soundwaves blownback by the damp and ever-more-bitterwind. She flings a brief glance over her shoulder and tries to hold out a free hand ( - ? confusion, almost taking her hand off the steering wheel, though she absolutely refuses to surrender the hat to the wind. ) VRRROOOOM. "SOMEONE GET THIS'N FOR ME!"

Her hat hangs in the air, catching the draft of the wind and pulling her arm down then suddenly up in regular and regulated rhythm, just hanging there as she waits for someone to grab onto it so she can put both hands back on the steering wheel (or one on a can of beer and one on the steering wheel) but no one's grabbing it and briefly she turns and it's a combination, sight and sixth-sense, the speedboat comes around, a hard 115 degrees from starboard, spinning as Summer cuts the engine all at once. And, sputtering, it dies to a low lurching idle. Summer barely keeps her footing -

- "uh - ?"

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 08:53PM CST
Knuckles even whiter than normal grab the side-rail of the boat, clutching for dear life. "For fuck's sake!" And it's not precisely clear if she's commenting on Summer's pilot skills, Pinky's improptu karaoke, or the fact that she forgot to leave a copy of her Last Will and Testament on her computer at home.

"Summer, if you kill us, I'm never speaking to you again!"

Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:00PM CST
"Summer." He begins calmly, crawling now toward the boat's forward sections. "I'm gonna say first-" Looking at the can rolling from where his throw missed the falling galliard. "You shook up hearts beer. He's gonna be pissed. Second-"

He stands and takes her hat. "Either you jump in and get him or the hat does. Capiche?"

Pinky

Thu 09:06PM CST
::Diiiiiiive. It looks cool for a split second as she saves the bottle of suntain lotion, and then MAN does it hurt as Pinky goes CRASH half on the back seats half off. [Can we say, owwie?] She's skinned her knee and smacked her funnybone -- prepare for howling countdown in 5... 4...::

Summer Anne

Thu 09:09PM CST
"Fuckin' HE-yell." The lurch and grab toward her stolen hat is automatic, the outrage enough to momentarily eclipse the rest of the situation (you know: drowning your Beta. Shaking up his beer.), but she's not quite as single(absent)minded as Pinky, and - toeing off her hiking boots, first the left then the right - flashes Luca a smoldering, sullen glance that must be what passes for apology (or, you know, humiliation).

And so, Summer abandons her hat to the Alpha's grip and slides crawls across the couple seats toward the back, then climbs up on the rusting side, pulling up flakes of old paint. The girl sucks in a deep, solid breath, closes her eyes, and launches herself into the water, letting out a shriek of utter horror as she gets swallowed by the frigid water and bobs there, briefly overcome by shock. Another squeal, and she takes off in the direction of the dock, short quick strokes, a no-nonsense crawl. Suck it up, girl, suck it up.

AH

Thu 09:10PM CST
Over their communal spirit link, the pack is blasted with a sense of shock and of vibrant, profound surprise. FUCK - he bellows silently, bubbles erupting from his mouth, and then he feels it, a sense of outraged vertigo, a sensation of chasms yawning within him, his sense of self bottoming out, echoes and overtones swamping his mind, innundating him. His vision doubles, and suddenly the voice that comes over the totem link is doubled, as if he spoke with an echo, or two voices were emanating from his spirit, disorientated and scared, "Come back t'sing jiao le and get - get wo hanjai go ling! get me!

Struggling, his head breaches the water, but even as his mop of plastered black hair surfaces, he goes back down.


Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:16PM CST
A satisfied nod when Summer hits the water, kind of a harsh lesson for the girl but, Heart doesn't like the water and somone's gotta take the fall for this one. He takes the boat controls turning it about and coming to face them on the port side about halfway to the dock from where they had been, drawing to an idle. Then it's on to the back potion of the boat, on one knee in front of Pinky. "You okay kid? You can shift when we get further out onto the water, or I can heal ya now." He shrugs. [Anything for my pack.]

And sips his beer.

Summer Anne

Thu 09:19PM CST
In the water, it's all business. The rhythm of the stroke is like the rhythm of running, the half-edged necessity of focus - she drives her body through the waves, forcing deeper breathes into her lungs than want to come every time she turns her head to the side for a breath. Not quite as natural in the water as fish, but sleek and strong, the Ahroun follows the feel of her packmate in the back of her mind more than the sound. Her legs (should've taken off her jeans. The denim's getting wet and heavy, weighing down her stroke) scissor out behind her, churning up a small head of foam in her wake.

At last, she kicks out firmly and dives and reaches, blindly, knowing she'll grab some part of her Beta, struggling to drag him back to the sound of Luca's voice and the back of the boat.

She doesn't say anything, though. Doesn't even think anything over the spiritual link, nothing at all.

Pinky

Thu 09:22PM CST
::Its enough ( the shock that is..) to make Pinky blink up forgetting her boo-boo. Enough for her to do a quick headcount as Summer dives off into the water -- and Pink [Fainthful, Pinky] blinks at Luca. Shocked to high heavens at -- the situation. Awareness its a strange and splendored thing when it happens. But the boat is turned around and now pinky is clattering around the boat looking for a god-danged life preserve -- high and low. Cuz ainto NO way she's getting in THAT water.::

"Well not unless she REALLY has to."

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 09:23PM CST
"Life preservers? WE HAVE LIFE PRESERVERS?!" Plaintative almost-howl, as she finally lets go of the railing. "Why didn't someone tell me BEFORE?!"

Shaking her head, even as she starts what could eventually evolve into a rant (but probably won't - at least, not a SERIOUS one), she ducks down, reaching under one of the seats ('cause that's where they usually keep them, right?). Fingers closing over the neon-orange material, she pulls it out, tossing it to Pinky.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:24PM CST
"No." He looks not hard, but somthing in esque of authoritative. "Ya know how much I hate pullin' rank on you guys, but right now she needs this. The water's cold, But she put us all in danger, she's gotta face up to that." He hangs his head a bit. "You get in that water you're doing training sessions with me every morning at 5am for the next month."

"I'm sorry." He face is solid as he can make it, but it's bit torn at the edges.

AH

Thu 09:27PM CST
He's sunk perhaps a yard into the pitch black water, his body folding slowly into a fetal ball, forarms wrapped tight around shins, forhead pressed against patellas, clothing logged with water, pulling him down. That explosion of shock had pressed all the air from his lungs upon impact with the lake's surface, and without a chest full of bouyancy, he's sinking, down towards the murky, weedy shallows of the lake.

His voice goes dead over the communal link, that strange overlay of Chinese and English cutting out suddenly, so that both Summer and he are now voids, empty blips on their spiritual map, their intrinsic pack connection.

Summer reaches down, groping, hand reaching, fingers snaring locks of hair, and then he explodes into movement, and over the link, suddenly: Wo ni kai lung gao xing la! It's a snarl of fury, and then a hand grips Summer's wrist and jerks it away, body kicking out for the surface, so that his head breaks the water's surface again, and he simply treads water, eyes slitted, gazing venomously at those on the boat. His face sullen, flattened, thoroughly alien.

And a thought - none of them have ever heard him speak Chinese before. Ever.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 09:29PM CST
"Guess it's a good thing I can't swim, then?" She smiles innocently at Luca, even going so far as to flutter her eyelashes - well, she TRIES to, anyway. God only knows what she really accomplishes. "Well, okay, I can doggie-paddle, sure..."

And then she turns to face out across the water, towards Summer and Ancient Heart. "Think he's going to beat nine kinds of hell out of her when we're back on dry land?"

Pinky

Thu 09:29PM CST
::Pinky grabs Vicki's life preserve and since she's already in the back sorta turns around hanging over the back seat -- her left foot still clothed in one ridiculous sandal while the other was lost somewhere on the ship's deck. Pinky just stares at Luca -- disbbelieving her eyes starting to water to a bright oceanic blue::

"You-- you can't tell me not to help my packmates! You can't do that!" ::Yup tears. As if they weren't Luca's packmates too:: "--I don't care avout the stupid training Session--"

::Halt. Did AH just speak Chinese, the girl with the tears on her face just blinks, and HOLY-MOLDY-CHEESE she's scared.::

Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:34PM CST
"If he tries he gets that wooden sword upside his head. The kid made a mistake, she's payin for it now. No need to pick on her." When Pinky makes her rush for the side of the boat he moves toawrd her, arms extending into, yes a hug. [What is this an episode of fucking full house?]

"Kid... you gotta understand, I'm glad you're gung ho about getting in there to help out. When it counts I know you're gonna be there. But this, she did for herself, i'm not picking on her and i'm not mad at her. Plus, the kid's a good swinmmer. She'll be okay."

One of you say one word about this to anyone else I swear to Gaia it's asskickings all the way around.

Summer Anne

Thu 09:41PM CST
The girl surfaces about 2.5 seconds after Ancient Heart - a breaching whale, almost, up and out of the water, an awkward outflung motion that wants to drag and get away at once. Confused by the freakin' cold water and the freakin' funny sounds and now some of the girl's discipline begins to dissipate and her breath spins harsh and short, the quick breaths she takes when shocked or beginning to hyperventilate. Her arms swim, sullen snakes in front of her, adding to her buoyancy, and Summer Anne glances up sidelong, sharply toward the boat and their Alpha, a despairing glance, the hard sense of fear rough and cold as the waters of Lake Michigan, ricocheting back to the pack across the totemic bond.

It's mastered a moment later, a hard full-stop on her emotions. "Stop! - " more felt than heard, though her mouth moves, sucking in a half-breath of nasty lakewater that comes choking back up on a sputtering, flailing cough. Sun, warmth. Something's growing, somewhere. " - you're scaring me!"

Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:45PM CST
Over the totem link the Alpha's cool even voice sounds. Heart, everything's cool bro. Quit with the speaking in tongues and such, you're scaring the shit out of Summer, who by the way, can get her pretty ass back in the boat as I think she's learned her lesson. When she gets here, she can slowly drive it to pick you up. Nodding softly.

Second chances.

Then, his cell phone, that little prepaid number starts beeping and vibrating in his pocket. "Just a sec. He turns from pinky and extends the antenna whilst pushing the button to take the call.

"Hello?"

Pinky

Thu 09:50PM CST
::Hugs. Normally Pinky loves affection, attention of any sort is sort of absorbed the way a sponge might. But not she's just staring at those eyes and chewing on her lips her gaze flicking nervously from Ancient Heart to Summer. (Oh please don't be mad, Oh please don't be mad...) She's back to leaning over the edge of the boat before she kicks off the other sandal and settles on the seat again practice swinging the bright ORANGE flotation device at the scary packmate.

Aaaand toss. Damn good arm that Pinky.::

AH

Thu 09:51PM CST
The Galliard does not respond to either Summer's entreaties or the Alpha's commands. He continues to tread water, his face partially submerged in the water, eyes flickering back and forth as he examines those present. The leaden eyes of a viper, the cool, comfortable poise in the water of somebody who is suddenly much more at ease with his limbs, his physical form. As if Ancient Heart had suddenly grown into his teenage body in a way that had been denied him before.

"Ni de piao xing hia pijio." The words harsh, the very inflections and tone sharp, alien, different. He begins to slowly swim backwards, away from the boat and his pack, towards the dock, tense as if expecting an attack.

He manages only a few strokes, however, his body twitches, his eyes roll up in his head, his head goes under and over the spiritual connection comes a cacaphony of voices, as if a dozen men were howling and cursing in that foreign tongue from far away, Ancient Heart's own words emerging, ascending back into dominance, hands suddenly floundering in the water, till he suddenly seems to pass out and ducks down under the surface once more.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 09:55PM CST
"Heyyyy Ami," He chuckle a bit now along with her. "can you wait just a second?" So polite now as he tucks the phone to his shoulder for a moment.

The life preserver is caught after bouncing off his chest. It is off course tossed lightly back. "Heart might be in trouble. Get him, now."

What the fuck is going on out there Summer?

Phone pressed back into the side of his face. "Sooo Ami, I actually was wondering, are you seeing anyone right now?"

Ami Yanagi

Thu 09:56PM CST
She giggles at his smooth greeting. "Sure thing, I'll hold." Ami sits in her car looking out the window for some sign of The Knights.

Summer Anne

Thu 09:57PM CST
Still chattering like a pair of mockingbirds with somethin' to gossip over and soaked to the skin (and maybe even to the bone. Does water sink in that far? Sure feels about like it, or it would if she could think about it. But she ain't (really) just wants to get out of here and not EVER EVER go near another stupid BOAT again in her whole damn LIFE.)

Backstroking toward the boat with the reprieve - wary and watchful, eyes narrowed against the glare of the dying sun on the water cast toward her packmate - Summer doesn't even cry out when he takes that weird, foreign talk again. Doesn't even cry out when he sinks, neither, but just kicks out with her leaden and near-frozen limbs, forcing the long arms and legs into furious motion, burning her good bright rage for even more speed to dive toward her apparently unconscious, sinking packmate.

Somewhere in the .0045 seconds between action and inaction, she's no longer a sixteen-year-old girl and is, instead, a cliath Garou. It's just someplace different in her head, some different clear filter that makes it all click again.

Ancient Heart. His name, driven like a spear across the connection. Anybody home?

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 09:58PM CST
"Umm, guys?" She's watching as he goes back under, and wonders to herself if this little improptu "lesson" might being going sour. And then she glances back over to Luca.

With his words, she decides his call to inaction is effectively over - and she half-hops over to the wheel of the boat.

How hard can it be, right? She was always pretty damned good with the boats in Grand Theft Auto - and she's a hell of a lot more cautious than Summer was as she eases the boat around, aiming it towards where Heart was floating not too long ago...

Ami Yanagi

Thu 09:59PM CST
She gives her head a shake and pays attention to the voice in her ear coming through her cellphone.
"Oh hey Luca..uhm..sorry. Did you just ask me if I am seeing anyone..like as in a lover?"
She blushes a little, sitting in her parked car still.

Pinky

Thu 10:00PM CST
"Oh Jeezus."

::And ripping out a SECOND goddamn floation devive, the teenager jumps in the water after the other two. Maybe she'll make it worse - she probably would - but at least she tried.::

AH

Thu 10:01PM CST
That shaft of thought sent down through the water at the floundering and now sinking packmate.
"Ancient Heart. Anybody home?"

For a few moments nothing comes back - and then - weakly, dazed, a whisper, "Summer... The voice his, the words English, his limbs beginning to struggle into movement once more.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 10:02PM CST
Okay, simple physics. No brakes, yes? So, need to cut back the throttle before reaching the point where you need to stop, so you can coast to a stop in time. It would suck if she wound up sailing right past the two (soon to be three - impetuous Pinky). It would suck more if she wound up sailing right over (through) them.

In the end, she's able to pull it off (SOMEhow), and gets the boat pretty close. Then it's back to the rear of the boat, and looking under the seats again.

"Rope rope rope rope... why are we on a boat with no rope?!"

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:03PM CST
While looking out the window, she spies a familiar BoneGnawer guy walking out of the alley. Idly, Ami watches him from inside her environmentally-friendly Hybrid car.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:03PM CST
He stifles back a laugh, because that is the funniest fucking way he's ever heard it put.

"Yeah, you know a boyfriend, or...whatever." He decides to cut to the chase as the boat moves closer to heart and he peeers over the edge. "You wanna go out sometime?"

Update me, now. And get his fucking head above water. [Delegate.]

He really, really, hate this job somtimes.

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:06PM CST
"Well uhm, I've been seeing Trey Bishop." She toys with a lock of red-highlighted silky dark hair.
"He hasn't Claimed me or anything so official but we're seeing each other. If you wanted to go out for a drink or something casual and friendly sometime, that could be fun."

Summer Anne

Thu 10:08PM CST
Here. There's not much room for anything else, all her energy for thinking and making and forming words is diverted now into the plodding-sure swim. Coming.

Strange, ain't it? The stuff about underwaterlight, how sometimes the air swims with it. Normally, Summer swims with her eyes closed, and only ever in an Olympic sized swimming pool or three times in her WHOLE life at the wave pool outside Grand Island, and now she's swimming with her eyes open and her hair spilling living snakes around her head, air bubbling tickling her eyelashes, eyes stinging from the muck and pollution, the skim of oil so close to the docks. Above you. Coming down.

And with a another swift and certain kick of her strong legs, Summer dives toward Ancient Heart, arms opening to snag him around the waist, aiming to lift him with the edge of her shoulder quickly to the surface. Stray awareness of Pinky trailing behind her.

Get ready. Pink's got you a life preserver.

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 10:10PM CST
"...rope rope rope... ROPE!" GRAB, and the length of rope comes sliding out, all coiled up. To the side-rail of the boat, where she begins tying - if you can call it that - a massive knot to anchor the rope. And then she tosses the other end out after her water-logged packmates. "Grab on!"

And then there's nothing to do but watch. And wait.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:10PM CST
A joking tone enters his voice. "Well, casual and friendly wasn't what I had in mind, but it's a good start I suppose. I'll definatly take you up on that."

Still listening on the totem phone, waiting for the slightest movement to come from beneath the water.

"Though I gotta say, you're the cutest thing i've seen in the city so far."

Pinky

Thu 10:11PM CST
::Goddamn Teenager so hormonal, one minute thier saving suntan lotion the next thier jumping into FREEZING-ICE-COLD-WATER there is the initial sputter to be sure she expected it in large or small part due to the other packmates and yet raw idealism and energy could only take you so far in icy water. Pinky is a passable swimmer, but she's tireless when fixed onto a mission and so she goes. Stroke after stroke closing in On Summer and Ancient Heart's position.::

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:12PM CST
"Oh well..thank you. I'm flattered."
She giggles softly into the phone as bashfullness overcomes her.
"It would be nice to talk to you more and know who you are."

AH

Thu 10:12PM CST
Thankfully he's not too far under - perhaps a couple of yards at the very most. When she grabs him this time, he doesn't resist, but continues to move, his head craning about. Arms and legs moving - not weakly, but as if in confusion, as if trying to adjust to something that should be so natural the very fact that it's no longer so disorienting him.

But he doesn't fight, and when Summer manages to raise his head above the water, his handsome, palid face is definately his once more, albeit dazed, eyes widening and closing, finally focusing on Pinky as she closes in on them.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:16PM CST
"Most definatly. You got a place?" Words into the phone to the girl across town.

Good he's come up. Pinky, hook him up to the life jacket. Can you two drag him to the boat? They're close but the girls must be tired after that swim.

Me and Vic can pull him up once you get here. You up to it?

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:17PM CST
"Yes, I have a home." She laughs a bit. "Do you?"
Then she thinks a moment.
"I'm in my car right now in fact, parked outside of Nookie's. Where are you right now?"


Summer Anne

Thu 10:23PM CST
"Gimme rope!" - Summer sputters, surfacing a scant few seconds after the Beta. One arm firmly around his chest, cinched beneath his arm, the other flailing in the general direction of the boat. The struggle's wild, about five fold, not unlike a fight - to stay up to stay breathing to stay focused to stay OUT of the way of the boat's hull and still get them all there and it's like there's a weird map in her mind and an opening sliced in time, the way it all sort of blooms hard and fast in mind - what to do and when.

Breathing hard, shoulders sluicing frigid water with each gasp for air, she continues half-steering the Beta toward the boat, half-holding him up half - something else, she can't quite name.

'M okay. Y'all grab.

"Boat, hey - " her voice, in Ancient Heart's ear, harsh from all the water she's swallowed and short of breath, but ridiculously familiar, like breathing. "Here's Pinkster." Free hand curling about the rope (who knew gamers were this practical) Vickie tossed, floating in the water beside her. "Got it!"

Pinky

Thu 10:25PM CST
::Pinkster. Peh. Pin-Ky. But she doesn't argue hher teeth are chattering and the younger girl has been kicking for all she's worth, her blonde curls sagging around her even as the glossy shine of lips has washed away. BUT! Pinky has the life Preserve which she helps Ancient Heart into, punctuated only by the stacattoo percussion of pearly whites::


Victoria Santorelli

Thu 10:30PM CST
Simple equation - Heart in jacket, Summer holding Heart, Summer holding rope. If then, equal to PULL. And she does - bracing her feet and tugging the rope, dragging as hard as she can.

Of course, she's pulling three water-logged people, with all of 100lbs on her side. Definitely a problem.

"A little help over here?" Through gritted teeth, directed towards Luca. Of all the times to use up your Anytime minutes.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:30PM CST
"Yeah a little apartment, we've all sorta crammed into. It's nice." The other end of the rope is grabbed pulled with all his strength. Slowly the beta begins easing out of the water, with Victoria's help of course. "I'm currently pulling cold wet pack mates from a boat, not far away actually. I think after this a meal on me is in order, so we might head over, if they're feeling up to it. Either way, I can meet you there if you want."

Pull harder dammit.

AH

Thu 10:30PM CST
Working together, as a pack, it doesn't take too much effort or coordination to haul Ancient Heart's lanky frame out of the water, sodden and soaking, over the gunwhale and onto one of the padded benches.

Shivering already, the asian teenager hugs himself, pupils dilated, seeming to be unable to focus on anything.

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:33PM CST
She gasps with alarm and concern. "Oh wow, shit..are they okay? Sure, you can meet me here. Uhm, I dunno if LeRoy is around but I can help out some how I'm sure. I see Jim outside here on the sidewalk."

Summer Anne

Thu 10:37PM CST
First Ancient Heart, then Pinky - (Summer, arms curling around her packmate, lifting her over the - uh - side thingie, or pushing, some scrambled combination of the two.) - then Summer Anne. The boat lists to the side and she spills even more freakin' water into the bottom, streaming off her hair and limbs.

Shivering and almost sullen in the middle seat of the little speedboat, a vague, pleading glance toward Vickie. "Kin you git us back t'the dock?"

Gritting her teeth to keep from chattering, Summer buries her hands between her thighs, chafing them together for some vague semblance of warmth, and kicks Ancient Heart's ankle. " - earth to - " a vague glance away. What the hell was she thinking about? " - sorry 'bout that. You okay?" Shifting squelching on the torn seat, uncoiling her free hand to cuff Pinky's arm. "Thanks."

AH

Thu 10:42PM CST
His natural, quiet confidence is gone. No longer is he the quiet center of the pack, the Beta who's patience and wry good humor often diffuses the more antic and instinct driven packmate's potential arguements. Instead, he seems smaller, his hair plastered around his face, the shape of his skull clear, eyes strangely sunken. Gathering himself, he forces himself to sit up, chin sinking to his chest as he convulses with cold, and then his teeth begin to chatter. Sliding his hands into his armpits, he looks about at his packmates with an expression that can be only one thing:

Fear.

"That... I think that was... Gao Lung. An... ancestor... of mine." Words broken up by his chattering. Again he looks at them all - Luca, Summer, Pinky, Victoria - and then lowers his eyes to the bottom of the boat, still shivering.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:44PM CST
"Thanks for the offer, not sure if we'll need it or not. But I gotta tend to these folks, i'll be by later. Much love Ami." After her response he presses the end button on the phone and deposits it in his pocket.

"Summer...I... dude I'm sorry." Then looking to Ancient Heart, shivering cold, and what the fuck ever else that was in the water...

"You gonna be okay?" Without looking up the totemphone speaks to Pinky and Pinky alone. You did an amazing job kid. Thanks.

Then comes the ancestor revelation. "Well, he scared the shit outta me, but as long as you're breathin' everything's okay. For now, let's just dock the damned boat." Two hours early but who the hell cared at this point.

"Got more of that GTA-fu for us Victoria dear?"

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 10:45PM CST
"Umm... I'd probably put us THROUGH the dock... maybe you can do it?" Idle glance back towards her elder, before squatting in the boat (eww, it's wet down there now)near Ancient Heart, concerned. Clearly hovering in that "I want to say something, but have no idea what, precisely, I should be saying" moment.

She puts her arm around him, gently. Physical warmth or emotional support, take your pick.

Ami Yanagi

Thu 10:46PM CST
"Sure thing Luca. Take care." She ends the call and sighs.
Her cellphone is replaced safely inside her purse.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 10:49PM CST
"Yeah, I can do that. But thanks for the quick thinkin' earlier, you did fine." The smile, lazy as ever returns, hesitantly but back in it's full glory nonetheless. He saunters to the front of the boat sits in the captains seat and sets the engine to throttle up, slowly. A large circle to come around back toward the space they were in gives him time to look back.

"Eveybody okay?"

Pinky

Thu 10:50PM CST
::Shiver. Shiver. Her clothes stuck to her body the girl nods to her alpha barefeet alreadu back on the boat looking for blankets:: "Where are the blankets?" :: Your resident medical expert it seems or just possessed of the common sense god gave a girl scout. She's fishing for something anything dry -- and yeah its cold but like we said Pinky can seem tireless sometimes. Must be that residual sugar cache::


Summer Anne

Thu 10:51PM CST
Abashed, Summer looks down, the wet matted tangle of her hair heavy around her shoulders, whipped wild, but plastered to her head. Less drowned rat, and more drowned cat, least after all the piss and vinegar has been drained outta it and ain't nothing left but that vague rigid embarrassment of almost-motion.

"Kind'a'a scary bastard - " the girl murmurs, hunching forward against the cold and drawing her knees up to her chest. " - maybe let 'em loose on th' next wyrm creature?" Her head drifts back toward the Alpha, sinking toward the side. "M'okay. Dunno 'bout him."

AH

Thu 10:54PM CST
"Yeah. Yeah!" His agreement ends with a burst of nervous laughter, and then he draws his knees up close to his chest, resting his chin on the patellas, arms wrapping around his shins once more, leaning into Victoria's warmth, drawing a basic, crucial strength from her proximity. "God." His teeth continue to chatter, and then he closes his eyes.

"I can feel him, even now. Gao Lung. And Xiao Bao. And God, Hunjai Kiu. And more of them. All in me. Or - or - around me, I don't know. And they're - they're all so fucking pissed at me, as if I did something - I don't even know - and I don't even understand what they're yelling -" He stops, still shivering.

Luca Oliverio

Thu 11:02PM CST
"Okay." He pulls into the dockspace, backwards of course and fairly straight. "If, anyone wants to eat, or catch up on tribal events," Turning slightly to Vickie, "You can soooo come too, it's not Child only." As if that comment was an aside he turns back. "I will be spending the last of what i've got to buy dinner for everyone at Nookie's, if you'd accompany me."

Turning to Heart, eyeing him over, making sure he's okay then to the rest looking for an answer. "Sound like a plan?"

Pinky

Thu 11:04PM CST
::Blanket not found. But the boat is already at the dock and Pinky is ITCHING to get off this not-so-joyous ride. Poor babrbie needs a bloydryer at the very least and as soon as they are close enough she's at the door waiting to abandon ship::

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 11:06PM CST
"Sure, I'll come along to bring the light of culture into your benighted world." The mischievous grin and wink that follows shows just how serious she's being. "Besides, far be it from me to pass up a free meal." Arm still around Heart - and probably will be, until he shakes her off, or until they hit land.

Summer Anne

Thu 11:06PM CST
"Hafta learn kung fu, mebbe," Summer mutters, mostly into her chest. "Or y'all hafta like, learn'a talk kung fu." The girl turns her head to the side, and rests her chin on her shoulder, not really looking at anyone yet. Her oft-narrowed eyes narrow further as she sends another suspicious glance toward Ancient Heart, mouth pressing firmly together. " - y'mean for real?"

Was he playing a trick on her?

Summer Anne glances up, surprised, as the boat pulls into the dock, and rises real quick-like, ready like hell to be outta there. That was stupid. She hates boats. What was she thinking? Et cetera - the internal stream of reproach is briefly interrupted as she shakes her hair out and scrambles toward the dock. "Don't even know what they're sayin'?" Reluctant, her over-the-shoulder glance, almost a concession as she claws her way onto the dock and struggles to her feet. "I'm'a need t'change, first, though."

Luca Oliverio

Thu 11:10PM CST
"Me too." Though he is so not making a big deal out of getting a little more presentable. Though even now he knows the girls are gonna pick him apart once Summer connects the dots. He exits the boats with the rest, a bit behind.

"We gotta make it sorta quick though." Don't want the damned girl ta leave now do we?

Victoria Santorelli

Thu 11:12PM CST
to MULTIPLE: ((You can assume that Victoria goes along for the ride, but the player is bowing out because he is old and needs sleep to live. Catch y'all later. ~winks~))

Pinky

Thu 11:18PM CST
:: And pinky is off the Boat directly after Summer Anne - the galliard was strangely qy=uiet then again. Who WANTED to draw attention to themselves when they looked like a half-drowned rat?::

AH

Thu 11:33PM CST
Needing to gather himself, to collect his mind and come to terms with that shocking dunk in the lake, Ancient Heart excuses himself, and goes back to the apartment, wanting nothing more than to shower and crawl under the sheets.


---------

Luca Oliverio

Thu 11:41PM CST
It's a little while later, they've gotten cleaned up, Summer surprisingly enough didn't spill things about the girl from the previous night [Gaia if she forgot i'll never smoke dope again...well... not often...well...ok, fuckit, i'll owe you one.] Vickie found one of her games that made it so much more exciting and asked for a takeout and Heart and Pinky for some reason didn't even feel like that much. And so, he collected the ten he was owed by pinky, pooled it with the rest of his whopping $23 dollars and decided to take his surrogate little sister out to dinner.

They're a couple blocks away at a redlight, in his truck of course, because while he told her he just didn't want to make her waste the extra gas withe heavy camper on back he ralyy meant 'no way in hell am I letting you drive me anywhere.' when the Alpha asks. "So what'd you think of that Ami girl, the one from last night?"


Summer Anne

Thu 11:46PM CST
"Uh - " Summer's curled in the front seat, in much the same posture we last saw her: knees drawn up to her chest, arms wrapped around her knees. It isn't that hard to manage in the cab of Luca's boat-like truck. It's strange to see the girl pensive - shy, sure, wild, hell yeah, but pensive? She only gets pensive over Orlando Bloom. Does she have two thoughts to rub together that do not involve the Lord of the Rings or cross-bred wheat? - jaw working overtime on a straw she stole from somewhere, Summer lifts her chin briefly and casts a frowning glance at Luca, wet hair sliding around her shoulders, staining her fresh t-shirt somethin' fierce. " - dunno? Erm - short?"

The girl's eyes narrow in sudden suspicion and she shifts her stance, almost rounding on her Alpha. " - izzat a trick question?"


Luca Oliverio

Thu 11:49PM CST
"Naw." Light turns green, as the one not fifteen feet ahead turns yellow. That. will make a theurge frenzy on bad day. "I respect your opinion. You know I think of ya as a little sister... an' I just though maybe you might have some sorta insight or somthing. So... anything besides short?" Truck cruises to a stop at the now red light.

"She seem cool?"

Summer Anne

Thu 11:54PM CST
Startled (perhaps only briefly) out of her gathering sulk, Summer Anne stops and just stares at Luca, jaw dropping by slow degrees, like the sun falling to dusk in a lazy sky. There's a helluva lot about her that's like the sun, it seems.

"I dunno?" Her voice rises at the end of the sentences to form those irritating almost-questions that so many teenaged girls are apt to utter. "I, uh -" did he USUALLY ask her opinion? Wet hunks of now-dark hair fall across her face as she studies him. " - didn't get much chance to figure out much about her? Didn't know you was gonna - ?"

Wait, wait. THAT much she had to've known. The faint hint of color unfurls in her cheeks, suppressed into a rueful little grin. " - sorry, should've known. I'll look, uh, more'n stuff?"

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:01AM CST
"Thanks." he smiles as the light turns green. Thankfully they don't hit the next two and he pulls in directly behind Ami's hybrid. Getting outta the truck he adds to the previous conversation only, "Thanks dude, I think she's like probably the cutest thing i've seen since we got here and she seems nice, on th phone anyway." He turns to walk in and

oh my fucking god.

[Ever make a complete ass of yourself?]

"H-Hey Ami..." Hope shedidn't hear that. "Who's your friend?"

Summer Anne

Fri 12:05AM CST
Summer Anne climbs outta the truck when it stops, staring at the little car. Can't wait 'til they start makin' 'em for tractors and trucks and whatnot.

Hah! Cinching her cowboy hat down on top of the wet mass of her hair (wonder if that'll make it mildew?) she saunters around the front of end of the truck and falls into step behind her packmake. Swallowing a snicker - did he just fuckin' stutter? - that'll have her crowing for days!

Looks like bein' the third wheel's gonna be a heckuva lot more inneresting than she done thought. The girl hooks her thumbs into the belt loops of her jeans and watches the pair of them from behind the screen of 1. the floppy brim of her cowboy hat; and 2. a shit-eating grin.


Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:11AM CST
She nods to Jim's response then...a truck pulls up behind her parked car.

Standing in front of a closed Nookie's Diner, there is Ami with a booze bottle in her hand standing with Jim.

She hears the man's greeting and jumps a bit. Clearly, Ami is startled and a little self-concious.
"Oh hi Luca!" She chuckles nervously and waves her non-bottle encumbered hand to him and Summer.

Jim Larson

Fri 12:16AM CST
Jim looked up drunkenly and his bleary eyes focused on the newcomers and he scowled a bit. He was drunk and he was an ahroun, it was near the last half of the full moon, the rage in him was almost pulpable tonight

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:17AM CST
"What's up?" He nods to the guy beside her. Nervous chuckling follows as he walks toward her slowly, absolutly sure summer has that shit eating grin on her face right behind him.

"You got started on the drinks without me." Smiling now as he peeks to see what they're drinking.

Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:19AM CST
She blushes and holds up the bottle for Luca and Summer to see. "This is something Jim gave me. Moefugger's Malt Liquor. It's harsh stuff with a mega powerful kick. Very hard core."

Then Ami smiles at Summer looking all wet and nods. "How are you doing? Oh uhm..have you all been instrodused yet?"
Yikes! Was that some slurring going on there?!
"Uhm, have you all met?"

Summer Anne

Fri 12:26AM CST
"Hard core?" Echoed from behind Luca, the tall girl who is certainly nowhere near drinking age. They breed 'em young, these Garou. Change young, fight young, die young, and the golden Nebraskan farmgirl ain't no different. "...an'a very to boot?"

Holy kentucky-fried goatfeathers, batman. Summer Anne was in a position of power in re: relationships and what-all. Luca would never live it down. But that doesn't mean the girl's gonna tip her hand, hell no. She tips her chin up and flashes Ami the edge of a vibrant grin - (that's a full moon in the sky, shining on through the girl's toothsome smile). "Don't think we've been innerduced."

Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:30AM CST
Ami hands the bottle to Luca and then offers the farm-girl a hand to shake.
"Call me Ami. This gentleman is Jim. Shall we all go inside? I have a key for the diner."

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:30AM CST
He drinks then, heavily from the bottle, "yeah, sound like a great idea."

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:30AM CST
"Ami, Summer. Summer, Ami. Mysterious Stranger, meet summer an Luca." He grins a bit at his own joke. "Well, i'd catch up if i'd brought somthing."

Was she slurring? She musta started when they got off the phone. "You gonna be able to drive?"

Jim Larson

Fri 12:32AM CST
jim gives luca a sour appraising look and nods "jim." he seemed a bit distant tonight.


Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:37AM CST
"Cool, okay." She smiles at the three of them and nods.
Ami digs through her purse for her keys and then unlocks the front door of Nookie's Diner.
Inside, she flicks on a bank of lights.

Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:39AM CST
"Hiya Summer!" She chuckles and waves her to follow. "The more the merrier, really. I can make us some tea."
Then I can sober up. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Jim Larson

Fri 12:41AM CST
Jim looks at his now empty bottle and shrugs tossing it over his shoulder into a wall where it shattered then he grabbed his case of beer, at the moment in the mood he was in the sound of breaking glass was almost soothing.

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:41AM CST
"C'mon!" Dragging the surogate sister, by the arm. You gotta be my wingman tonight! Make sure everything's Kosher.

He just follows them inside, taking a long shot from the bottle before handing it off to Jim.

Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:46AM CST
To Ami, the sound of breaking glass makes her feel anxious. It makes her twitch.
She walks toward the counter, looking back over her shoulder at Jim and Co.
"Pull up a stool here."
The Kinfolk girl takes off her coat and begins bustling around in the kitchen to get some tea brewking.

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:50AM CST
He follows into the kitchen, leaving the other two for a moment. S'cool, he seems ok, try and make friends, we need 'em.

"Can I help?" The young man asks when he enters behind Ami. "i'm glad we could get together tonight. Might get to -hic know each other a bit better." And goddammit he's not holding out as well as he should have.

Hardcore stuff indeed.

Jim Larson

Fri 12:52AM CST
Jim looked at the bottle and held up a hand in gruff tones said "keep it..." He took up a stool and pulled another bottle from his case and popped the top and drank. he wanted to get drunk, and Moe Fugger was helping him out (moe fugger liquer is something i put in for snicks it's not a real liquer.))

Ami Yanagi

Fri 12:54AM CST
When Luca follows her into the kitchen, Ami looks up at him and smiles. "Oh uhm..okay. You could grab some cups I guess. Are you hungry at all?"
She fills a kettle with water and sets it to boil.
"Yeah, I'm glad too." She giggles at his hic and nods.
"Moe Fugger. I know. So, I heard last night that you're an Alpha of your pack. That's cool. Uhm, is your tribe the Children of Gaia as well?"


Summer Anne

Fri 12:54AM CST
Summer Anne must be the wisest person in the whole dang diner, since she ain't drinkin' that unpronounceable shee-it. Instead, she draws herself up a stool right beside Jim there and sinks her wet head on the counter, staring sideways at the angry drunk.

"Wanna know what I done today?"

Jim Larson

Fri 12:57AM CST
Jim looks at her "Not really. but you can tell me anyway, i'm guessin yah took a bath in the river, from the smell, that river's filthy, I should know."

Luca Oliverio

Fri 12:57AM CST
"Where are the cups?" When told he of course begins hustling bout to get them. "Nah, not real hungry. And yeah, i'm alpha, it has it's moments of coolness, but...I dunno somtimes it makes for tought decisions." He continues on bringing her the cups. "Mostly, we do have a glasswalker, Vickie, she's a riot somtimes man." He's smiling as he describes his packmate, as it seems he would with all of them. He's that kind of Alpha.

Ami Yanagi

Fri 01:01AM CST
"Not hungry? Okay. Hmm..wonder if the others are."
Ami looks around and points to a shelf full of cups and glasses, for Luca.
Then she looks for the boxes of teas. "Hmm..what kind do you like? I'll have Green Tea."
When he brings her four cups, she smiles and watches him talk.
"Yeah, it must be tough at times being a leader with so much responsibilty."

Summer Anne

Fri 01:04AM CST
"Y'kin smell it even though I done showered?" - the pretty girl lifts both arms and waves her hand, like she was sniffing for that scent. Maybe it's just sunk so far into her skin that she can't help but smell like it. "Naw, I started a boat 'cept the thang was still tied up and I drove it too fast and m'Beta got flung off an' I had t'go git him outta the water an' he went all crazy an' started talkin' in them foreign tongues and what-all."

Rueful, her half-smile. "So I had a right shitty day. An' now I smell like Lake Michigan."

Luca Oliverio

Fri 01:05AM CST
"Whatever you're having's fine." A nod. "It is, especially since they're my best friends, makes it tough to pull rank, you never know whose feelings are gonna get hurt. "Hell, had one of our Galliards cryin' today." He stops for a moment. "It was an accident, I never woulda made her cry on purpose."

Jim Larson

Fri 01:06AM CST
Jim nods "It clings." He looked into the kitchen and watched ami and luca through the diner shelf. "Sounds like yah had quite a day.. I'm jes tryin' tah ged drunk an' fergetit"

Ami Yanagi

Fri 01:07AM CST
"Okay, Green Tea it is." She smiles and looks around for a large tea pot. All she can find are those small personal sized tea pots.
"Hmm." hearing Luca's answer, she stops and turns to face him with a concerned expression.
"Aww, what happened? Uhm..sorry, it might not be any of my business."

Summer Anne

Fri 01:09AM CST
"To fergit what?" That's easy enough. The girl turns her wet head, smearing her sopping hair across the counter, resting her cheek on the formica while simultaneously half-spinning back and forth on the counter stool.

Helena Kouklakis

Fri 01:09AM CST
One has to wonder what could have dragged the slender, dark-haired woman out of her quite comfortable apartment at such a late hour. Away from her spagetti that she was simmering, away from her herbs and potions, away from her...oddities. One has to wonder.

Still, there's little to be done about it now. Dark of hair and eyes, the woman known alternatively as Helena or the Eyes-of-Medea stalks down the street, boots clicking on the pavement with each step. She wears a pair of worn blue jeans and a black tank top, her hair is unbound, flowing down her back. Around her neck is a thin silken cord from which dangles a small vial filled with some sort of grey dusty substance. Following her nose (or, more likely, Roadrunner), she heads towards Nookie's Diner.

Luca Oliverio

Fri 01:10AM CST
"Our Beta fell in the lake, it was summers fault so I told her to swim out and bring him in. Pinky of course started cryin' when I told her she couldn't help summer out." He shrugs. "I hated makin' her dive into that water, but hell she put all of us at risk driving the boat like she did, and She put the Beta in the same cold water." He nods sagely. "I didn't handle it badly did I?"

Ami Yanagi

Fri 01:12AM CST
Ami listens to Luca with a thoughtful expression. "What you did sounds fair. Was anyone hurt? I mean, did everyone get out of the water safely?"

Jim Larson

Fri 01:14AM CST
Jim looks at summer "A' th' moment? Whaddaya got?" he was definitely drunk and in a foul mood.

Summer Anne

Fri 01:49AM CST
Summer Anne tips her head toward Helena as she enters, watching with a lazy eye. The blonde girl, though, is tuckered out. She's not even drinking, she's not even trying to drink. It seems the whole day must've taken it out of her. Her head sinks, chin rolling to the side, cheek cradled against the back of her hand, and gradually her eyes close.

The gentlest of snores, plum tuckered out.

[Too tired to concentrate. Fade.]