6/12/2004

01:39 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Silver and Ellicott Streets, Midtown
Office buildings rise along Silver Avenue, several stories tall, but further north, towards Ellicott, the buildings dwindle to small specialty shops: little stores selling jewelry, clothing, or soaps, and several small, specialty bookstores are tucked along the several streets. Delicatessens, bakeries, and ice cream parlors, along with other small restaurants, cater to the businessmen along Silver Avenue and to the casual shoppers along Ellicott, in a small business district stretching from Third Street to Twelfth.
Contents:
Dakota
Obvious exits:
Whispering Pines  East  West  

[look Dakota]
Though only 5'4", her slim athletic body is well toned with tight, sleek muscles. Her skin is a pale cream, left free of most cosmetics. Faded lines of white mark her wrists and arms, barely seen on her light complexion. Noticeably, however, is an ash-darkened scar running the length of the top of her right hand - though lately it has been covered with fingerless black gloves. Naturally dark brown eyes have been given contacts to alter their color, changing them to a very deep and dark blue. From her childhood, her hair has been long and wavy, a rich, dark auburn brown. Now, it's been straightened out and dyed dark, a black that still holds highlights of red. Clothing, normally casual, has taken on a gothic twist, and pants dripping with chains and shirts with smartassed saying now appear on her person. Around her neck can sometimes be found a golden chain, but the golden ring that was once on it has been moved, this time to where it belongs - on the finger of her left hand. The only other piece of jewelry she seems to wear is a barbell through her right eyebrow, gold in color.
(( Picture: http://www.rachelsmusic.com/gallery/soak/1.html ))

Currently the moon is in the waning Crescent Moon phase (35% full).

Currently in Saint Claire, it is partly sunny. The temperature is 60 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 8 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.07 and falling, and the relative humidity is 55 percent. The dewpoint is 44 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius.)

Ah, summertime in the city. A perfect chance for a bit of sports. Or, was. Kenneth makes his way down the street, eyes traveling to and fro to the small shops and cafes on Silver Street. His hair is wet, slicked and shining in the sun - at least he showered after the session. The youth carries with him a large tennis bag, black, blue and silver in bold color with the brand of RAPTOR along with a stylized logo blazed across it. Stopping in front of a Starbucks across from the apartments, he ponders.

Patrolling the streets, with the idea to browse and protect, is Dakota. Reluctantly she passes by a bakery with huge, glossy cakes and golden pies, cookies thick with filling and rich, fudgy brownies. Drool. The next store to get her attention is a bookstore, and as she eyes the musty pages in the window, the Gaian wonders just how long it's been since she's had time to read.

Eyes wandering from the coffeeshop to the bookstore, Kenneth arches up a brow as a thought enters his mind. Read? That sounds like a great idea, for once. The normally recalcitrant feeling against reading is abolished in favor of having something, a magazine at least, in hand before getting lunch. Walking along past the cakes, pies and cookies, the youth ends up walking not too far from the Coggie. Head turning briefly, he nods to the girl. "Nice glove," he comments, a compliment from a random stranger.

Dakota quirks up a slender black brow and eyes the boy, offering a faint smile back to him. "Thanks." She says as she gives him a curious look over.

Nodding again, Kenneth looks back to the books displayed in the window. "Y'know, I couldn't help but think, you look kinda familiar," he starts to say, shifting hid gaze again down to the girl. "You go to St. Claire's?" The question implies, St. Claire High, but as with most students, they just mention bits of the name.

Dakota shakes her head, "No, I'm...out of school." She says, "Though I wouldn't be suprised if someone looked like me. It happens." Her thumbs hook into the belt loops of her pants, her head tilting to one side slightly.

"Hunh," Kenneth replies, offering a amiable enough smile. "My mistake then. You do look like someone I know though. Maybe it's the clothes." A hand slips up from the tennis bag to adjust his headphones.

"Yeah, well, my style ain't exactly unique." Remarks Dakota with a smirk, shifting in her stance with a jangle of chains. "I don't have the time to make my own, so I gotta borrow from ones already in place."

Kenneth nods again, glancing involuntarily at the sparkling chains on the girl's pants. "The gloves go with the outfit," he notes, considering the chains and pants and... goth. "You into the whole goth scene?" It's not meant to be an insult, merely an inquiry. By the expression on his face, perhaps he doesn't expect most people to be drawn to that type of culture. At least, not where he is from.

"Well, suppose you could say I am." Dakota replies with a tone of voice that suggests the answer is deeper than just a yes or no, gesturing with the gloved, scarred hand. She takes note of his face and grins, "Not from around here? Or just never been near the Temple?"

Kenneth's brows lift slightly at the questions, before he assumes a half-smile of irony. "I may look old enough to go there, but my guardians would skin me alive if I did. S'not that you know 'em, though my family is way too religious." He rolls his eyes at the mere thought of his adopted father's words, should he ever hear that Kenneth was at the sinbin that is the Temple.

Dakota grins faintly at that, "I could imagine some of my own family frowning on it too, but, they're not here." She says with a lazy shrug. "That's family tho'."

The saying of 'Don't talk to strangers' has apparently been kicked right out into the snow on its ass. Kenneth nods understandingly, if not a little sympathetically. "So, guess you're not from around here either. Kenneth. From North Carolina." He puts out a hand - the one with the bracelet. He's left handed.

Dakota shakes accordingly, the golden ring on her finger shining briefly before the sun ducks back behind another cloud. "Not too far away, just from Portland. My name's Dakota, nice ta meetcha."

"S'a cool name," Kenneth replies, short term memory filing it away. Blinking once as the ring's shine catches in his eye, he withdraws his hand, looping around the strap of his bag. "Hey. You want to get a cup of coffee or anything?" Seems weird to ask, but whatever the reason, the teen is offering.

Dakota seems to think this over for a minute, biting the inside of her cheek as she thinks. A clock posted on the wall of the shop next to them is regarded for the time, and then with a shrug, she replies. "Oh hell, why not? I don't have anything else to do." Not like a grown Garou has to worry about being mugged by a boy, right?

Kenneth gestures for Dakota to follow with as he walks for the Starbucks. He really isn't threatening. Really. He's just got that funny Curse-Rage thing starting to really bud. Though it would be difficult to tell who's causing the actual draw of eyes towards them, or some random huddles down closer to the steam from the froth lattes, but as the two walk into the shop, they don't really have a particular problem of finding a table to sit at. One person looks up from the paper as the pair approach, and gets up from the smaller tables, deciding that's quite enough crossword puzzling for the day. "What would you like? I'll order up at the front."

Dakota is used to the odd stares and doesn't take any note, or a hint it's anything but her own Rage nipping at the people's heels. She settles herself down into a chair to officially claim the table as theirs, observing the menu as she does. "Chai tea, hot. Medium's fine." She shuffles into her pocket, pulling out the money for it and offering it over to him.

Kenneth blinks at the money as he sets his bag down. "Right." He takes the cash offered, and goes off to order up. In remarkable time, he returns with tea and a cup of coffee for himself in hand, and hands over the change before sitting. Change adding for just her tea, as he paid for his own drink. "So you're from Oregon? What's it like?"

Dakota puts away the coinage and dips her head as he holds the hot cup in her hands. "It's boring, I'll tell you that. 'Course, I think everyone says that about where they're from." She adds with a brief grin. "Lived there all of my life, moved here last November."

"Yeah? For school?" Kenneth sips at his coffee - black with sugar, it looks like. "I guess everyone'd say their hometown's boring." He smiles just a little, the expression tinged with a faint nostalgic sadness.

Dakota shakes her head slowly, "Nah. It was time for a change of scenery, and I don't regret leaving at all." She takes a drink of the spicy, creamy tea. "Claire's may not be the greatest dot on the map, but I'm rather fond of this place."

Kenneth nods slowly. He may not have first liked it when he came, but admittedly there are a few reasons why he's starting to settle into the new ways. "Same here I guess. Friends, family. Guess you work? Or, your husband..." He slips in the reference, seeing as the golden ring on her hand is rather evident, and a little surprising. Dakota, to Kenneth at least, looks rather young.

"I don't work, but he does, yes." Dakota says with a lopsided grin, then adds, "I do volunteer work out near the national park, wildlife services, upkeep, that sorta stuff." Another sip is taken, and then a question asked. "So what brought you all the way out west?"

Kenneth laughs in that soft, ah-I-see, fashion. As for his own family, the boy looks back down into his coffee cup. "My, uh, father." The term is applied far less than lovingly. Rather distant, comparatively speaking. "He's a pastor. So, the church has a branch up here at SCCU and he was offered a change of area. Family thought it'd be a good change of pace, so we came here."

Dakota nods her head in a slow, understanding way. "I've never been out to the east coast, actually." She says in a slightly off-topic voice, "Heard about it and all, but I've never gone. Family never had the time for vacations, and I certainly don't now."

Kenneth looks back up from his cup, taking a drink from it. "Guess I can't say I've gone anywhere really. A few places for aikido tournaments and such, but nothing this far out. Maybe there's some theme park nearby, or something." He tilts his head. "Maybe you've been to the sports facility before, down the street a ways?" Apparently he's still trying to figure out whether he's seen Dakota before or not. But in a city of a million or so people, who's gonna know?

Dakota thinks about it a second before, "Nope, don't think I have been. I mean, I may have checked it out once or twice, but I don't go there." She rolls the rim of her half empty cup around in small circles on the tabletop, like some people might tap their foot or drum their fingers. "I don't really go to a whole lot of places in town, just wander the streets."

Kenneth hunhs, only slightly disappointed that he didn't guess it. Oh well. "Guess not," he says with a dipped nod. "They got pretty good courts there. And the pool's a good size. Almost Olympic." He glances at the girl again, a curious look in his eyes. "You... 'wander the streets'?" Maybe she just likes shopping.

"M'not a prostitute, if that's what you're thinking." Dakota says with a supressed laugh and a smirk. Though given her tribe... "I just like roaming, really, see what other people are doing with their lives, peer in store windows, kick the occasional purse-napper's ass when I pass one."

Kenneth blinks in surprise, eyes widening briefly. "No, no, sorry. Didn't mean it that way." His hand is up, trying to wave away the unexpected offensive implications of his words. "I mean, I don't know that many people 'round here who go out to walk around and kick ass."

Dakota chuckles post-sip of Chai. "Come on now! I don't get all dressed up for nothing." She says jokingly, "Nah, I don't go out looking for trouble, but you know the saying, trouble always finds you."

Kenneth's grin colors with a smirk. "Most people don't really give a shit if someone's gettin' hurt. Pretty rare to find someone who cares nowadays." His coffee, now nearly down to a few final sips, is swirled about. "Your husband's a cop or something?"

"Nah, he's a professional nerd." Dakota remarks, leaving it at that to take a long drink of tea to polish off the cup. "Works with computers. Sells them, builds them, sleeps with them."

Kenneth really does laugh at that. Give him a little credit -- he's just fourteen. "That bad hunh? Sounds like a couple guys from school." He too, finishes up his coffee and sets the emptied cup down, pushing over a napkin for Dakota as well as taking one himself from the small amount on the table. "Well, guess I better get goin'. Told the PUs I'd be back before 5 and all."

Dakota collects up the napkin with a nod of her head, "I should be going myself. I have trees to be hugging." She says in what must be a reference to her job. "Was good to meetcha, hope you find that person that looks like me. I'd like to meet 'em." She says with a grin.

Kenneth chuckles again at the tree-hugger reference. Considering how she's dressed, Dakota looks far from his impression of Smokey the Bear's best friend. Then he stands up, giving the girl a short nod of his head while he lifts up the heavy tennis bag. "Yeah. Probably 'round school or something. Was nice to meet you too, Dakota. Maybe we'll meet again someday." Oh, just maybe they will.

"Wouldn't doubt it." Dakota says as she rises from the table, taking her cup and napkin to be tosses. "It's a small world, afterall. Take care of yourself, Kenneth."

Kenneth makes a mock-wince as Dakota's quote reference puts that ever so unwanted song into his head. Once he too properly busses his cup, he walks with the Coggie out the door of the Starbucks and goes on his way with a departure wave.