KL

With thanks to MyLittleTalon for GMing fight scene.
Brownstone: 4th Floor Apartment(#1417R)
This two-bed apartment is plainly inhabited, but equally plainly, whoever lives here is either very poor or just hasn't gotten round to putting much furniture in. One bedroom has a dirty mattress on the floor, the other is stone empty. The main living area has one ratty brown sofa with the stuffing coming out of the arms, likely a sidewalk trophy, a small portable TV set, and a few packing crates and cardboard boxes, one of which seems to be serving as an impromptu laundry hamper. Out of place among the junk, a guitar case rests against one wall next to a Laney amp and a portable mixer and effects board.
Obvious exits:
Out

    Now in her early twenties, KL has lost much of the teenage stroppiness that characterised her younger self. It has been replaced by a slower burning, though still as fierce, intensity. She is still on the short side, standing perhaps 5'2" tall in her bare feet, and has a slightly built and slender frame, with a tight musculature that speaks of plentiful exercise.  When she moves, she displays a compact grace, poise and balance. Even if she still occasionally slouches.
    She has long, mid-brown - uncharitable people would say mousy - hair which she usually wears in a long plait that falls down between her shoulder-blades, secured at the top and the bottom with wide black leather bands. She's really quite attractive, perhaps not a pin-up, but far from ugly, with a cute upturned nose and wide expressive hazelnut eyes. There's something off-putting about her, though - she has an aggressive posture, a tendency to glare at people - particularly people she doesn't know, and an air of barely-restrained violence.
    She has pale skin decorated in two places - on her left upper arm is a largish tattoo of something that looks a little like a bear, with its jaws spread wide and slaver falling in droplets. It has the words "No Mercy" written with gusto beneath it. On her right shoulder-blade, if visible, is a second tattoo, two-inch-square, of a winged horse.
    Unless obscured by clothing, visible across her throat is a fairly horrendous scar, an angry stripe running from the bottom right corner until it terminates just below her jawline on the left side. More likely to be obscured is the scar in the small of her back, faded and older, but just as horrible.
    She is wearing a pair of blue jeans that look brand-new, and have a designer label clearly visible on the rear, a pair of combat boots that also look new. On her upper half she is sporting a rather snazzy black leather jacket over a clean new white t-shirt.
    Her ears are pierced, twice in each lobe, with small steel captive-ball rings through them. When she opens her mouth, it's just possible to make out a barbell piercing her tongue. Around her neck hangs a pendant, an oval disk made of some kind of bone. It looks like it's been decorated with carved designs, which are somewhat hard to make out on casual inspection. The pendant is hung on a leather thong. She's also wearing a pair of killer Lara Croft-style shades, which go some way to disguising the rampant hostility of her gaze.
   
Morning at the Brownstone. Outside, the sound of a fairly powerful motorbike draws up, and some minutes later, the door of Viv's apartment shakes with the kind of violence that usually implies Bailiffs.

Perhaps fortunately, Viv knows that at least one regular visitor to her abode (and not a bailiff) tends to knock that way. In less than a minute the door is pushed open and a very bleary Viv blinks through it at KL. "Nnng?"

Outside the door stands the Fury Elder, dressed in a set of biking leathers, black, with the word "Fury" emblazoned in blue down her right leg. A helmet hangs in her left hand, and tucked under her arm is a little gift box, wrapped. "Good morning!" she says, despicably brightly. "Merry Yule, Christmas, Hanukkah or holiday of your choice." She pulls the present out from under her arm and holds it out towards Viv - it's a rectangular box, perhaps 10" long and 5" by 2".

"Oh, keerist," mutters Viv and rubs her eyes. "You didn't have to... uh... Come in," she invites, taking the box somewhat dubiously and examining it as though she's not quite sure what to do with such a thing.

"I don't think I am," KL says, walking in. "I think the second coming would probably not be a Garou. But maybe I'm wrong." She plops herself down onto the couch, dumping her helmet down by her feet. "So, how have you been?" she asks. It's almost as if she hasn't noticed how unawake the Get is.

Viv hurries ahead of KL into the living room, and quickly sweeps something off the couch into a bag to make room to sit down. "Cult of the divine garou," she muses. "It'd be a Silver Fang if it was anyone..." She stretches enormously, and plonks herself onto the couch. "Surviving," she says in response to KL's question. "Wha'bout you? That scar a keeper?"

"Yep," KL says, a little grimly. "Nadine's getting an ultrahound device, or something, to check what damage is inside." She smiles. "Still. Glorious battle." She turns, watching Viv, and then peers towards the bag. "Got something there?" she asks.

"I guess," Viv sighs. "I feel a bloody fool for losing it... but how the flip was I to know Gunther was going to come charging out of the fucking umbra like that?" She closes her eyes a moment, then opens them and looks directly at KL. "No, not really," she replies flatly.

KL looks back, eyes steady. "Really?" she says. "You hurried past pretty quick to get rid of it. And yeah. Gunther was brilliant. And you fought amazingly. So did Poe. For a galliard." The grin that accompanies this doesn't spread to her eyes, which are deadly serious.

Viv keeps up her steady gaze at KL. Then, somewhat astonishingly for an alpha wolf dealing with a beta, she breaks eye contact and looks down at the box which sits unopened in her lap. She doesn't say any more.

KL remains motionless, though tense. "Open your present," she says. And that tension transmits through her voice. Even if it wasn't evident in the whiteness of her knuckles, her fingers digging into the leather over her knees.

Viv stares at the box a moment more, then rips into it with, perhaps, unnecessary ferocity.

Inside the paper is a wooden case, nicely varnished. Inside the case is a hunting knife, with a wooden handle. Engraved on the handle, neatly, is a little picture of a weasel, and the motif "No Fear". Below that, in smaller letters, is "Meatgrinder Victorious", and the date of the fight against the BSDs. The giver is still stuck in that pose, watching the Get's reaction.

Viv croaks faintly. "Je..sus." She picks up the knife with something like reverence. Then she holds it up, and gazes at it, and beyond it at KL. Thunderstruck.

The Fury Elder grins, but it still doesn't transfer beyond her mouth. "I thought you'd like it," she says. "It's the biggest battle I've ever been in. Worth remembering."

Viv slides the knife back into its case carefully and regards KL again. "Can I hug you?" she asks faintly.

"I don't know," KL says. "I'd sort of like that, but I'd like to know what you're hiding from me, as well." There's a certain element of disbelief in her voice, as if even she isn't sure how they got to this point.

Viv looks at the box again, and then back at KL. "Oh, what the hell," she says, resignation coming into her voice, and she picks up the bag she was previously at pains to conceal from KL and passes it to her.

KL peers into the bag, as if expecting something to leap out at her at any moment.

You paged Kathryn-Laura with 'It contains drug paraphernalia. Specifically, the hardware required for shooting up heroin.'.

The Fury Elder's eyebrows raise. She looks at Viv, then back in the bag, then at Viv again. "This isn't dope," she says, eventually.

"Give the little lady a cigar," says Viv. "No, it's not."

The Fury's head rises again, and she stares at Viv. "Does it leave you tainted?" she asks, colourlessly. "Can it taint you?" She's not really hiding the dismay she's feeling very well.

"/Any/ shit can taint you," Viv points out defensively. "You can get tainted off a /candy bar/ if it's got the right shit in it. I'm a garou. I can shift and burn it out of my system if I need. Never get needle tracks." But her normal assertiveness is absent, replaced by a kind of resignation. It's almost as if she's a schoolgirl who's been caught out by a teacher.

KL continues to stare at her. "We all have feet of clay," she says, eventually, pushing the bag aside. There's still a pervading air of disappointment about her. "So," she says, eventually. "What happens now?"

Viv frowns. "What timescale are you meaning? The next hour? The next week? The year 2009?"

"All of them," the Fury says. She looks away, really for the first time in ages. "This feels wrong." Suddenly she looks back, eyes hard. "Why does this feel wrong? Why do you feel wrong to me all of a sudden?"

"You think this is a problem?" Viv asks forthrightly. "Because if so, say so. I can handle it. I've been doing it on and off for years. It calms me down, damn it. There's times I'd have frenzied my head off but for this shit." She sits back on the couch, closing her eyes and rubbing her forehead with stress.

"I don't know," KL says, standing up from the couch. "I just don't know. Fuck, I've smoked dope. Once. I coughed a lot. And the Gaian's do it all the time. But you're the first Garou I've known who does... this." She runs a hand through her hair. "It just feels like all of a sudden, you aren't who I thought you were."

Viv gives one snort of dry laughter. "Who did you think I was, KL? I have to know."

The Fury Ahroun rounds on the Get. "I thought you were better than someone lying on a fucked up couch getting off their fucking face on fucking drugs." She looks away, then back again. "I thought you were tough and I fucking well looked up to you."

"I'm tough enough to kick your ass or anyone's ass," Viv responds, a touch of her normal fire returning to her attitude. "And for that matter I'm tough enough not to need anyone looking up to me."

"You can't kick my ass," KL says, almost studiedly casual. "You just got lucky last time." And there it is. A gauntlet on the floor.

"Can I not?" And Viv is up from the couch now too. "I seem to recall I fucking kicked it before." She's getting closer and closer to KL. "Had you... forgotten that?" She comes to a stop right at the edge of KL's personal space, her body tense.

KL glares at the Get, and then deliberately takes a step forward, invading Viv's personal space. "Anyone can get lucky once," she says, looking at the other Ahroun. "I want to go again."

"Then you got it," Viv says. "Now, or later?"

"Now," KL says. "Bawn?" And now that the challenge is there, she's noticeably more relaxed, and she steps back. "Fancy a ride on the bike?"

"You didn't used to have a bike," Viv says, also stepping back and eyeing the Fury thoughtfully.

"I got bored of walking to and from town," KL says, with a grin. "And so I got a bike. I thought it would be sexy." She pulls a pose. "And less world-destroying than a car. I ended up getting something slightly more powerful than I intended." She looks sort of guilty at this. "But it's quite fun. Especially when the needle thing goes past the big number."

A smile comes onto Viv's face. "Tell me it's a Harley and not a fucking rice-burner. Please, girl."

KL shrugs. "You think I'm made of money?" she says. "It is a 1999 Yamaha YZF 600." Her voice is careful as she recites this. "And it goes very quickly and makes a nice noise. Also, it's blue and black."

"Kidding," Viv says. "Just picturing you on the back of a hog." The look on her face suggests it's a pleasant picture for the Aussie to imagine. "Wanna show me your machine, then?"

The Fury nods, definitely. "Come on," she says, grabbing her helmet. "I've got the spare helmet with me, so you'll be good." She leads the Get down to where the bike is parked. It is as she described, a rice-burning crotch rocket. It looks sparkly, like it's been washed frequently. "There," she says, climbing over it, looking small. She hands over the spare helmet, and looks over at Viv. "Strap yourself in."

Viv walks round the Yamaha twice. Then she nods, as though she approves. "Definitely a beaut," is the verdict she pronounces. Then she fastens her leather jacket about her, and slips the helmet over her head with practiced style. Evidently she's ridden on two wheels before.

Even if she's ridden on a bike before, she might be a bit taken aback by KL. The combination of reflexes and an entire lack of fear means that the ride is... well, it doesn't take long for them to get to the Fury House, and from there onto the bawn. As they go through the Fury House grounds, Viv might notice a reproduction of Michaelangelo's David, that wasn't there before. It appears to have been modified with a chisel to the vulnerable areas.

Viv nods at the statue as they go past. "That a dreadful warning to any guys who happen by?"

"Someone... some people... broke into my house, put up posters of guys everywhere, and delivered that. I improved it," KL says. "I think they thought it was some kind of joke. I'm trying to work out who it was."

Viv snorts. "If you find out, I hope you kick their asses from here to Portland," she says. "There aren't half some fucking idiots around."

"I'm not annoyed about the joke," KL says. "It was quite funny, in a misogynistic way. I'm a bit irked about the territory violation, though." They've reached the forest on the western bawn, now. "Conditions?" she asks, as they enter a little clearing.

Viv shrugs as though the conditions barely matter. "What did we have last time?"

"I think we stuck to homid," KL says. She takes off her jacket and hangs it over a tree, stretches her arms, walks in a little circle and then approaches the middle of the clearing, a wild grin stretching her lips.

"Yeah, I think so too," Viv agrees. "No gifts? Mano a mano?"

"I can't agree to that," KL says. "But I won't use any gifts I have any choice over." She grins. "Some of them are kind of stuck on."

Viv unfastens her jacket, takes it off, and hooks it over a nearby tree branch. Then she windmills her arms around for a few seconds, limbering up. "Count of three?" she asks KL, in a voice that's almost too casual.

The Fury Elder nods, laughing. "Whatever happens," she says. "Still packing with you." She stretches again, moving closer towards the Get. The two are in a small clearing in the Western bawn, about to fight each other. "Count away."

"One... two... two and a half..." Viv grins sharply. "...three." And she heads straight in for KL with fists swinging.

KL almost goes on the two-and-a-half, but then she's flying to meet the Get, calling on the fire within her to fuel her punches, which she launches in a flurry at the face of her opponent, before finishing up with a spinning pivot kick, aimed at the head of the Get Ahroun. She's careful, though, to maintain distance, and not allow the Get to grapple her.

Viv's blow would have been solid, but meets only air as the Fury proves light on her feet. Kathryn-Laura's flurry comes up against a determined defense, the Get's quick wits and experience fending off the worst of the Fury's attack, but one slips through a gap to hit lightly.

Viv falls back for a second, realising that KL has already tapped into Rage. Then she seems to decide that sauce for the goose is sauce for... the other goose, and comes back in on the offensive, tapping her own supernatural powers -- although unlike KL, she keeps both feet on the ground and confines her blows to fists.

As the Get attacks, the Fury chooses to spend most of her time avoiding her blows, giving ground gracefully, her movement smooth and her footwork neat.

Luck, or skill, does not serve the Fury so well this time. One of the Get's fists connects, snapping Kathryn-Laura's head back hard. Somehow she manages to shrug off the worst effects of the blow and keeps her feet.

Viv grins savagely as her blow connects to KL's face, and she does her best to press home her attack before the Fury can fully recover, keeping up a speed of punching that no pure human could match.

KL laughs too, and it's as if the blow to her face just increases her enthusiasm for the fight. As the Get attacks, she attempts to grab one of the outstretched fists and turn and throw her, disengaging as quickly as she can to avoid being dragged into a wrestling match.

It's a clash of fighting-styles, and the result is a standoff. The Fury's enthusiam walks her straight into a punch which she doesn't even seem to notice. Her attempt at a throw puts Viv off-balance but not down, and that pull back out of damage range gives the Get time to recover.

Viv skips back for an instant to regroup. Then, taking the attitude that if KL doesn't want to get into a grapple, that's all the reason she needs to attempt just that, she throws herself forward again, this time trying to entangle herself with the Fury and get to close quarters, or even get them both down on the ground.

KL attempts to step out of the way, and at the same time use the Get's motion, essentially attempting to punch her on the side of the head as she passes. She also leaves a foot behind, in what might be the oldest "trip" move in the book.

Viv's experience saves her, and the Fury's attempt to do two things at once is her undoing. Kathryn's punch catches the Australian Get a clump on the ear as Viv's shoulder meets her in the stomach and carries her down onto the ground beneath with a thump.

"Hah!" crows Viv triumphantly. Now that KL is down, her priority is to get on top of her, stay on top of her, and pummel the Fury into submission.

KL's priority is to get out from beneath her, as fast as possible. She grabs for the Get's hands, looking to grasp a wrist, pull her out off balance and out of the way and get out and back onto her feet.

There's a confusion of fists and limbs as Kathryn-Laura scrabbles to regain her feet and Viv tries to keep the upper hand. It's strength and weight against slippery grace, and the match is a close one. The Fury manages to wriggle free, having caught a punch in the arm, leaving Viv still down on the ground.

Which is not at all what Viv wanted. The Get rolls away from KL quickly and tries to regain her feet before KL can get any blows in against her while she's still on the deck.

KL, on the other hand, is very interested in repeatedly kicking the Get, in just about any soft and vulnerable areas that she can get access to, ideally without allowing the other Ahroun to knock her over again.

Viv is back on her feet quickly, staggering from two swift kicks from the Fury but showing no signs of being slowed by them.

"Have to do better than that," Viv taunts KL as she comes back in to resume drubbing the Fury with fists.

KL decides to match fire with fire this time, launching her own punching response, temporarily abandoning defence to allow her to get some blows onto the Get's face and chest.

Both Garou feel their blows strike home this time as the pair stand up and duke it out in best bar-room fist-fight manner.

Viv stands her ground despite a growing collection of cuts, abrasions and bruises, and keeps on smacking KL about determinedly, as though she's decided that this battle will be won on offense and not defense.

KL, too, has gotten bored with all that dancing around, but just when it looks like she's settling down to a fist fight, she flicks a low kick, aimed at the Get's kneecap.

As stone against fire, Viv's steady and determined assault stolidly batters against the Fury's defenses, as Kathryn-Laura's sneaky toe-flick catches the Get painfully on the knee. Both Garou are now looking battered. Of the two it would be hard to say who is the worst off, but Viv's slow-and-steady approach has survived against KL's initial flurry of attacks and now leaves her with a deeper reserve of Rage to tap into.

The kick on the knee makes Viv lurch but doesn't knock her over. It does, though, seem to make her annoyed. With a hissing intake of breath, Viv throws herself on KL and if her previous punches were hard and fast, these are harder still and quicker yet.

KL, too, redoubles her efforts, aiming blow after blow at the face, throat and chest of her opponent.

It's a whirl of fists, too fast for a mundane human eye to follow. Viv's first punch swings wild and wide, and the Fury's hand hits her hard in the throat as the Get's other fist catches KL in a stunning blow to the solar plexus. The Get gets in another swift swing in the Fury's direction, the punch landing only lightly as both stagger from the effects of the battering they have taken.

Viv staggers back, coughing from the effect of the fist on her throat, but nothing loth, she throws herself back forwards again and into the fray once more. She's looking badly worn at the edges, now, and is tiring fast -- but then so is KL. Surely it won't be long now.

KL throws her fists furiously at the Get. How much damage can this woman take? Blood flows from her nose, tasting tart in her mouth, and spraying over the surrounding countryside whenever one of the Get's punches land. Gathering all her remaining strength, she puts her whole body into a punch, thrown more out of desperation than anything else.

When the end comes, it comes quickly. Viv staggers backwards as KL's punch hits home right on her nose, which snaps bloodily. She bumps into a tree, lurches back forwards, clutches hold of KL's clothes desperately in an attempt to stay upright... which fails. Ungracefully she slides down and lands in a heap at the Black Fury's feet, gasping for breath with only partial success through the torrent of blood coming from her broken nose.

KL stands over her, slightly disbelieving, panting hard, blood still flowing freely. She looks at her hand, which has almost no skin on the knuckles, then down at Viv. "Submit?" she asks, trying to make it sound authoritative but it comes out more hoarse than anything else.

For a second Viv's hand clutches KL's ankle and her head moves as though she's about to bite her on the leg. Then her grip relaxes and she makes a gurgling sound which, though indistinct, definitely sounds positive rather than negative.

And then in an instant KL is kneeling down beside her, shifting herself into Glabro to heal. "Shift," she says. "Heal." Her hand rests on the other Ahroun's shoulder, reassuring. She suddenly blinks, and then wipes some of the blood from her nose with a hand, and then wipes that hand across one of the open wounds on the Get.

"Gnnnng," says Viv. And she shifts into Glabro. Lying on the cold ground, her wounds start to heal of their own accord. Her pride, however, appears less easy to mend. She remains curled in a semi-fetal position.

KL's own wounds seal, and she shifts back down to homid, wiping off the last of her blood. She looks tired, but healthy now, and goes to fetch her jacket. And then collects the Get's, dropping it by her. "Get up," she says. "And I'm going to tell you how it's going to be, for a bit."

Viv wearily sits upright and regards KL with dull eyes. "I'm liss'nin'."

The Fury looks bright-eyed, now, if still a bit tired. There's something else going on, that's fueling her. "You're going to be staying with me for a bit. Out here. Where the air is pure." She smiles, though this looks a bit vicious. "And you can train with me, and we'll go running, and spar, and lift weights."

Viv wipes some of the blood from her face. "What about the cubs?" she asks, in polite rather than defiant tones.

"Whose?" KL replies. "Mine will be fine. Are you training any at the moment?" She looks at the Get, her chest rising and falling. "And I really should get back to the house," she says.

"Paul... and Charisma," Viv says. "They're both at Edgewood..."

"Then you're closer to them," KL says. "I mean, it's at most ten minutes walk." She peers at the Get Fostern. "Can I make something clear? You're done with that shit. And I've seen enough to know that you will lie and cheat and do just about anything. So if you fucking well try and play me, I will fucking well rip your head off." She takes a deep breath. "But. Go to Edgewood. Teach your cubs. Come back. There's always food in the house, and usually company."

Viv looks thunderstruck for a few seconds. Then she looks as though she'd like to get up and start the fight all over again. But then the anger chokes down and she gives a sullen nod. "Can I come back to yours first off?" she mutters. "Clean myself up and stuff."

"Yes, of course," KL says, smiling easily. "We have a shower and everything. It's not quite the boondocks. And some books to read. I could teach you to do leatherwork." She starts to head back towards the house.

KL's cheerful air of positiveness does not seem to go down very well with Viv, but she pulls herself together and climbs back to her feet, ready to follow the Fury back home.

Greek House: Common Area(#2409RAJ$)
    This is the central hub of the house. From here, you can still see the entrance foyer to the west, as well as the stairway that heads to the second story. Towards the eastern side of the common area is a set of glass doors that lead out to a courtyard. To the north, an arched doorway leads to what apparently serves as a less formal lounge, with a couch and an armchair, and to the south, an arched doorway leads to what appears to be a kitchen and dining area.
    There are several chairs here, simple, elegant, yet functional in their design and intent. The room has a comfortable feel to it, but is a bit ascetic in design. The walls are off-white, the molding dark cherry wood and decorated with acanthus-leaf ornamentation at the corners. A pair of antique spears are hung crossed against each other on one wall, and a wall-relief depicting a scene of Grecian warriors hangs on the other. Above the mantle of the fireplace is a small statue of Artemis, on either side of that, dark metal candlesticks with ivory pillar candles. The entire room is a study in the contrast of light and dark.
    Uncharacteristically, there's a spider web in the corner of the room nearest the glass doors. Beneath it, a sign has been stuck to the wall which reads "Disturb this spider web and die - KL"
Contents:
Kathryn-Laura
Obvious exits:
Downstairs  Upstairs  Courtyard  Out

The two Ahrouns arrive back at the Fury house. Which is quiet and peaceful and generally boring as all hell. Apart from the spider web. KL leads the way in through the glass doors at the back. "You know where the kitchen is, feel free to help yourself to anything. If it's pink, sparkly and full of sugar, it's probably Melodie's, but she's fat enough already, so don't bother to replace it."

Viv gives a snort of laughter. "If I find any white powder in your kitchen," she says with heavy sarcasm, "I shall leave it well alone. If it's sugar Mel won't want me to touch it, and if it's not, you won't want me to touch it."

The Fury Elder laughs. "OK, upstairs we have the main bathroom, my, Helen's, Mel's and Zeke's rooms. You're welcome to use the bathroom, and go in my room if you want some peace and quiet if I'm not around. It's the one that has my old t-shirt on the wall." She looks around. "OK, couch and stuff are over there, for relaxing. There's some books and things." She grins. "We make our own fun around here. Though I suppose everyone does. If you don't make it yourself, it's not fun, it's entertainment."

Viv goes over to the couch and takes a seat on it. "If I were to play my guitar in here," she says, "would it be seen as fun, entertainment, or a fucking racket?"

KL considers. "What sort of guitar?" she asks. "I guess it would be OK at reasonable times. I go to bed quite early and get up quite early, but it should be fine. Drums are right out." A pause. "Melodie sings, and I think Zeke's girlfriend sings and plays something."

"Usually it's an electric, a PRS," Viv says. "But given that playing that got me slung out of the Glass Walkers' place by Jack Salem, I could stick to the acoustic for a spell." She looks up at KL and asks the crunch question. "How long am I to be your... guest here?"

"Guest," KL says. "And as long as I say." A pause. "Until you're clean." She bites her bottom lip. "Until I'm sure you're clean." She folds her arms over her chest. "Because I care about you." She turns away at that point, leaving the Get on the couch and heading into the kitchen.

Even if she doesn't look around, KL can almost feel Viv's eyes boring angry beams of fire into her back. The Get snorts, and fidgets around on the couch, saying nothing more for now.

"Do you want anything to eat?" KL asks, as if oblivious to the anger of the Get. "I can make you my "pasta surprise". People talk about that for days afterwards."

Viv nods slowly to KL. "Food'd be good. Please. Can I help?" She's obviously making a real effort to be polite and respectful to her new alpha despite her entire nature's tendency to make her be a sulky bitch instead.

"Sure," KL says. "Come in, grab a knife, try to resist the urge to stab me with it, there's a chopping board and some veggies." She moves about the kitchen easily enough, hanging her jacket over the back of a chair. "We try...well, I try, and make the others, eat reasonably well."

Viv follows KL in and picks up a knife as directed. She holds it up, and eyes KL meaningfully, before grinning darkly and getting to work on the cookery.

It takes a little bit of time, but the pasta surprise is soon ready, with chicken fried in a little sesame oil and veggies. The surprise appears to be that it's edible. KL pours it into bowls, then sets one before the Get. "Attack!" she says, a little bit of laughter in her voice. She settles down with her own, but first studies the other woman. "Do you hate me?" she asks.

Viv stabs a piece of chicken and pauses to formulate a reply. "No," she says in the end, a short answer for the time she had to think about it. "Do you still respect me?" she counters.

"Yes," KL says, confidently. "Of course I do. I'm a bit disappointed, and a bit worried, but we'll sort that out. And you still fight like a whirling dervish. It wasn't anyone else who was alongside me at Spokane."

"You really are making a storm in a teacup, you know," Viv says, sounding very reasonable. "If I was some washed up human bum hocking my guitars to buy smack, then you'd be right to worry. But..." She shrugs, as though to show that words won't suffice to demonstrate how different she is from that.

KL stares at her. "You aren't a washed up human bum. You are a Garou of the Get of Fenris. A Modi of the Get of Fenris. A Fostern." She stabs a fork in the air, though only vaguely at Viv. "So the standard is a bit higher."

"Don't quote my own damn tribe's standards at me," Viv snaps, the polite facade crumbling. "You're not a fucking Modi and you wouldn't call yourself one. You're an ahroun. So are you going to tell me I mustn't drink or smoke? Or fornicate?"

The Fury Elder looks at her for a long moment, not really taking the heat out of the moment. "Drinking is fine. In moderation. Smoking is OK. I guess. Fornication is fine, especially if you have the right sort of baby as the result." She shakes her head slowly. "And you're right, I wouldn't. But I've met some. I know what they're like. And what you should be like."

"And you think I'm not? Just because I shoot a little H?" Viv's question could hardly be more direct, or more loaded.

"I'm not sure that you shoot "a little" "H"," KL says, almost pronouncing the quotes. "You're behaving like an addict." Her eyes go deadly serious. "And yes."

Viv raises one thin eyebrow. "Just how do you think an addict behaves? Do I look malnourished? Am I hallucinating? Am I unable to perform my daily duties and chores? Jesus fuck, KL. Do you /want/ me to frenzy all over your ass every full moon? Because without a little calm-me-down, that /will/ happen."

"The moon's not full now," KL says, staring back at her. "Is it?" She finishes her pasta, without ever taking her eyes of the Get. "And I don't know. How good could you be if you *weren't* on it?"

"Well not /yet/ it's not," Viv says irascibly, "but once a month it is. It's getting fatter every second, tick tick tick..." She pushes her plate away. "How good do /you/ think I could be? Think I could make Athro? Take out the Jarl of all Jarls? Kick down the gate of Malfeas?"

"Why the hell not?" KL says. "Who the fuck knows? But I know that you fucking well aren't going to do it lying in some fucking apartment with a fucking needle in your arm." She's not really angry, directly. The swearing appears to be more for cadence than felt.

Viv leans back in her chair and slides down a little. "I guess there's one way to find out, huh? And we're going to find out..."

"Yes," KL says. "Also, selfishly, I like spending time with you, believe it or not. You're the reason I'm *in* this pack. So, we're going to spend some quality time together." A pause. "It will be fun, you know."

Viv eyes KL as though she's far from certain about this. "Of course," she says, "if you /are/ right and I'm a hopeless addict about to go cold turkey, I wouldn't say 'fun' was quite the word you were after..."

"I had considered that," KL admits. "But it's like being sick. And... I don't desert my packmates. Ever." There's an edge to that last word, a mixture of definiteness and bitterness. "So, what happens happens."

"Thanks." Viv's voice is a mix of bitterness and gratitude. "So, well, you're alpha now. What're you going to do with it? Had any plans? Or is it too early?"

"We need a couple more people," KL says. "But, really, I had no intention of challenging you this morning. I was bringing you a present and I wanted to show off the bike." She grins, tightly. "And then things rather got out of hand. So."

"That was a totally awesome knife," Viv recalls. "Did you make it all yourself?"

"No," KL says. "I mean, not the knife. I did the engraving." She grins. "It took me forever, so I'm glad you liked it. I can do a belt in about two days, but engraving wood...well, let's say that I got to practice my shift to glabro fairly frequently."

"You can chisel quicker in glabro?" Viv asks, possibly missing the point.

"No, I can recover the result of what happens when I fail to chisel in homid in glabro," KL says, holding up her hand. "It hurts."

"Ahh," says Viv, realising now what KL meant. "Even so... I'm gonna treasure that blade the way you're gonna treasure your scar. Seriously," she adds, in case there was some doubt.

KL smiles, genuinely. "Oh," she says. "I'm pleased. Now, should I show you your room, and the gym?" she asks, standing up from the table, leaving her bowl behind.

"Yeah, if that's okay," Viv says. Once more she's the polite and appreciative guest.

Down the stairs they go, and through an area laid out like a gym, with a floor mat, a punchbag with lots of glyphs on - all the tribes, auspices, "wyrm", "weaver", etc, and some free weights. KL points this out. "Melodie got that for me," she says. Then points at a door. "Utility room." Then opens another one, revealing about six bunks, with little wardrobes and chests. It's plain, but decent quality. "Myra's bunk is there," she says, pointing at one. "So you have a choice of five."

Viv checks out the weights, and then the bag, which gives her cause to smile wryly for some reason. Then she peers inside the bunkroom. "Mmmkay. Where's Myra now? And who else lives here, apart from Mel, these days?"

"OK," KL says. "Helen's here, but she keeps herself pretty scarce. Zeke spends about half the time here, half with his girlfriend in town. Melodie. Phoebe's being a Guardian, but she drops in quite often. Myra is probably running around the bawn somewhere." She gives a little nod. "So, it's quite quiet, except when Zeke and I get to fighting."

That gives Viv pause for thought. "You and Zeke fight a lot?" she asks. "I'd have thought you would've kicked his ass every time." Then she adds as an afterthought "After all, you kicked /mine/!"

"Argue, rather than fight," KL says. "When we fight, I win." She pauses. "Last big fight, I finished by ripping his tongue out." She looks thoughtful. "He's been much better behaved since then."

Viv rubs her nose thoughtfully. "I see." She looks at KL as though she's unsure whether it is appropriate to pursue this line of conversation further.

KL looks thoughtful. "We should go back and get some of your stuff. You know, clothes and the like. I mean, we're not so different in size, you could borrow a few t-shirts, but it would get old quickly." A pause. "Only some of your stuff."

"And the guitar," Viv adds. "Which is just a guitar. And doesn't have any hidden compartments. Or a machine gun inside like in that movie.""

The Fury Elder nods. "Sure. And you should totally sing with Melodie and Mog while you're out here." She smiles, like this is the best idea ever. "OK. Want to go now, or have a rest?"

"If we're going on your bike," Viv says, "perhaps a rest first. For both of us. That was quite some boxing match we had."

"Yeah," KL says. "It was." She grins. "OK. Go have a rest, lead-hands." The Fury Ahroun looks pleased at this naming.

Viv for her part doesn't seem too offended by the epithet either. "Okay. Bags I... this bunk." She picks the nearest lower bunk which isn't Myra's and hops straight onto it without further ado.

"Sleep well," KL says, heading for the door. And then she pauses, and looks back, as if just checking that Viv gets into bed OK. A few moments pass, and then she walks out, switching off the light and closing the door behind her.