3/16/2005

01:57 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Half Moon phase (41% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it is raining lightly. The temperature is 46 degrees Fahrenheit (7 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the east at 15 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.66 and falling, and the relative humidity is 82 percent. The dewpoint is 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius.)
It is currently 13:34 Pacific Time on Wed Mar 16 2005.

Sunrise Road, North of I-90
The new-looking but unpainted asphalt of Sunrise Road ends here, curving upward smoothly into a ramp that leads up to I-90. On the overpass above, the sounds of cars and trucks zipping past makes a dull thrumming sound. Under the bridge to the north can be seen the wide expanses of forest that have not been touched by developers of any kind. Here on the south side, the overpass stands in a mostly cleared area, though the woods close in the further south the road goes, in an almost funnel-like manner, eventually closing right up to the road in the southern distance. A large sign proclaims the distances to Kent Crossing, Highway 22, and Wolf Woods, all of which lie to the south.
Sunrise Road runs away southward into the woods, toward Kent Crossing and Wolf Woods National Park, and I-90 can be accessed up the nearby ramp.
Contents:
Stacey
Obvious exits:
Interstate 90 South

Judging by the rather extreme damp that trickles down the locks of the Shadow Lord's hair, Kenneth has been waiting a long time. Any longer and he'd have started to dig a track into the roadside where he paces impatiently. The collar on his warmup jacket turned up, the halfmoon mutters lowly to himself as he waits. Reflexively, he checks his wrist but there's no wristwatch there, so he heaves out a breath and looks skywards.

Stacey makes her way along the road until she spots the Shadow Lord. Raising her hand in greeting, she makes her way over to him. She is breathing heavily, as though she had been running. "Hey, Kenneth. What's up?"

Kenneth looks over at the voice sharply, on such an edge that it's impossible to ignore it. "Stacey," he greets back, although it's as cold as his gaze right now. Biting on the urge to rebuke the girl for being 'late', the halfmoon jerks his head away from the road and a bit towards the treeline. "C'mon. I gotta talk to you, like, Now. But not out here in the open." Leading off, he makes his way a bit into the woods far enough so that the road and what sparse activity there is can be heard just as an echo. Breathing out, he looks back to her, eyes grave. "Alicia came by last night. And she was /pissed/. You know why?"

Stacey follows Kenneth into the woods and stops as he turns back to her, wincing at bit at the mention of an angered Alicia. She nods her head. "Yes, I believe I do. We were walking together when we found Lucas. He turned on us and we fought him, until he was rendered unconscious. She called Cutter-rhya, and we all took him to the Compound and cleansed him... Am I right?"

Kenneth stares for awhile at Stacey, as if waiting for a further reaction from her. Then, he turns away and puts a hand on a tree, leaning heavily against it. "That's not what I'm here to talk to you about though, Stace. I'm here to warn you." Looking back over his shoulder, he says lowly, "I told you about Lucas. That means you knew. And if the others find out that you knew, then you're screwed." Turning back around, he faces the Child head on. "Don't you get it? Alicia's your fuckin' tribe elder. I don't think she knows that you knew... but if she finds out, Stacey... you're gonna be in Deep, Deep Shit."

Stacey bites her lip and nods. The Child actually does look frightened. Pale with wide eyes. Kenneth would probably be able to see that her hands were shaking if they weren't in her pockets. "I know," she says miserably. "She doesn't know I know. No one except you three do... I don't think there'd be a reason for anyone to expect it, but... would they find out? And what would happen?"

Kenneth nods, and jabs a finger at the ahroun. "That's why I called you out here. I'm pretty damn sure you don't have the balls to have told Alicia, since she pretty much doesn't know that you know. That leaves Dillen. And Dillen's a galliard." The finger drops. "But more importantly Stacey... this ain't your fall to take. Got it? I'm out here tellin' you now, to Don't Say A Word about knowing this beforehand." The halfmoon takes a step closer. "If anyone's gonna go down, it'll be Luc, me, Dillen, an' Jarred. Not you. And fuck all... I'm gonna make sure Dillen doesn't say shit about you."

Stacey swallows and then nods. "I won't say anything if that's what you want, if you think it's best. I mean, it's not like I want to get in trouble." She frowns and then looks down at the ground. "I would feel bad though, about you guys getting in trouble when I knew as well."

"NO." Kenneth comes up to the ahroun, face to face, expression twisting with effort to maintain the poorly made mask of calm. "No, you /don't/ feel bad for any of this, Stacey. Jus' 'cause you knew doesn't mean you /knew/. You're a newcomer when it comes to this whole thing, got it? Cause that's how it's gonna be when you're up there. When Megan or Layne-rhya come down on you to tell what you know, you Don't Say that you knew. I'll be damned if you go down too, 'specially when your elder's Alicia. You don't say shit, because that'll make Alicia look bad, and that'll just piss her off even more. Got it? There's some things you just have to suck in and hold. This is definitely one of 'em."

Stacey looks up at Kenneth as he approaches her, her expression anxious, extremely so. When he finishes speaking, she nods again, still frowning. "All right, Kenneth, I'll do my best. But... if they ask me about it, wouldn't they be able to tell if I lied or something? Of course, maybe they won't even think to ask me much, maybe just about finding Lucas." She looks down at her shoes then, her forehead creased in worry. "Have they said anything about what's gonna happen to him?"

Kenneth breathes out a sigh, and turns away once more. "No. The other elders are all dancin' like they got fire ants poured down their undies right now, though. They're finding out just how far this went, an' how many people knew." He quickly spins back around. "Which you don't. You take the 5th and shut the hell up. You're not on their radar yet, so you do what you gotta do to stay off of it. You know how to avoid lying? Is to not get up to the witness stand at all, that's how. Yea, and if you get up there, you don't go an' tell 'em, 'Oh yeah sure Kenneth told me all about it.' You know? Think about it before you say anything. Just remember, you /don't/ want to make your elders look bad. But Requiem, and Jarred? It's too late for us. So cover your bases, and just don't say anything about it. I don't think they'll ask you, so just act... I dunno, act Normal. But not Too Normal."

Stacey takes a deep breath and then nods. "You're probably right. I'll do my best to stay out of trouble, all right?" She shrugs, trying to appear calmer, although she's still extremely anxious. "It might help that I won't really be around here and all. Staying with Joey at the Odeon." She frowns and then looks up at Kenneth. "I'm sorry this is happening. I mean, it's awful that you and Dillen will be getting in trouble for this." She looks back down. "I appreciate that you're trying to help me, though."

Kenneth sucks in a long, deep breath. "I didn't sleep at all last night," he mutters, definitely coming down the hill that he's worked himself up onto. "But sh--.. I mean, Joey?" He moves over to a tree, leaning back against it. "Ok. Yeah, just... I bet Olga's gonna want Lucas dead if it comes out to tribal elders voting or some Survivor shit like that. But you're stayin' with 'em... yeah. Don't let on, 'k? Don't be sorry either. Dillen an' I, we screwed up. Our loss. We're just lucky that Lucas isn't dead already." Glancing back to her, the tired circles under his eyes seem to be more prominent. "If they start talkin' about it, just, I dunno.. take the 5th. You're a Child of Gaia, so they'll probably expect that outta you. I dunno." The back of Kenneth's head thunks against the tree. "Christ. I didn't know he was Tainted, but I should've seen it comin'. Guess it's about time that the fuse reached the bomb huh?"

Stacey glances over at the Lord and then shrugs. "I promised her a favor," she explains, shrugging again. "I don't think it'd be that hard for me to keep quite around Olga or Joey. Joey, I think, looks up to me a bit. Helping her be braver, fight better and stuff... So, she'd probably just accept whatever I said. And Olga, she'll probably hardly notice I'm around. But, yeah, I'll plead the fifth or something. I know how to be diplomatic when I want to be." She grimaces then, sighing. "Yeah, he was tainted. I didn't really see that coming either. It's a shame we weren't able to get a hold of Jamethon before this. Alicia was really upset. She wouldn't even heal Lucas."

"Fuckin' Bullshit!" The halfmoon's temper finally breaks from its hold, as he slams the bottom of his fist against the tree. "I know Jamethon said he'd help, but why I even believed him, I don't know. Why did we wait so goddamn long? God, we were like... 'Oh a little fresh air and runnin' around will keep him okay.' BULLSHIT!" Heaving out another sigh, Kenneth puts his head in his hands. "This is just so. Fucked. Up." Shaking his head, he looks back at the ahroun. "What really happened? You said he turned on you an' Alicia."

Stacey jumps a bit at Kenneth's outburst, but she just nods miserably as he speaks. "Yeah, well, he was already gone when he found him," she says, finding her own tree to lean against. "Didn't know it was him at first, just some creature that was unnatural and runnin' from us. So we chased it an' caught up with it. It was Hispo and turned and rushed towards us. Alicia ran one way, I ran the other, and he chased me. Didn't hurt me though. I went Hispo and fought back and all, Alicia did too. She got a hold of his throat and choked the air out of him. I mainly just wounded him and helped hold him." All this is said in a distant, almost monotone recounting. At this point she grimaces. "He tasted bad."

Kenneth doesn't even wait for Stacey to be halfway through her telling before he's facing the struck tree and muttering low 'sunnovabitch'es everywhere. "All those times he was 'goin' out for some fresh air'..." The halfmoon thunks his head against the tree. "Then? You know where they took 'im?"

Stacey shakes her head. "Not after the cleansing. I stayed to help with that, and it looks like we succeeded in that. Afterwards, though..." she shrugs. "I stayed long enough to see Cutter dragging his body back to the car and driving off towards the city."

Kenneth drags his fingers through his hair, which looks longer than usual now as well. "Damn," he mutters wearily. "Gotta find Cutter too, then." Seemingly calmed down a touch from his outburst, the philodox turns to lean with his back against the tree, sliding down roughly to a sit on the wet ground. Hands hanging over his knees, he thinks aloud. "So that at least means, so far, you're in the clear. One good thing that'll come outta all this crap at least... so long as you don't say anything, and Dillen doesn't rat you out."

Stacey frowns and looks over at him. "Do you think he will?"

Kenneth lifts a fist up to his forehead, closing his eyes. "I don't know Stace. He's gotta be the one who told Alicia everything - at least, most of it. And I've been keeping careful not to drop too many names. So, just... keep quiet and ride it out. I don't think they've started puttin' up the nooses just yet."

Stacey raises up her brows, looking concerned. "Told... Alicia? What does she know now? I mean, I didn't realize she'd already found out more than what we discovered on that night."

Kenneth shrugs his shoulders, head sinking a little as if a heavy weight was burdening down. "Alicia at least knows that Jarred knew, and I don't know what she knows about what Jamethon knew. I know I didn't tell him anything, but Jarred said he was gonna talk to Jamethon... something like that. But considerin' Dillen took up bein' Requiem's pack alpha, you'd think she probably went to dump on him first. After Megan and whoever the heck else. You see why I told you not t'tell her in the first place? Alicia, in the least, is like... fuckin' Super Galliard or somethin' the way she gets news out."

Stacey sighs and shakes her head as he speaks, although she does chuckle at his desciption of Alicia. She can't help it. "Well, I guess I'll find out soon enough if he mentioned me, then. Although I don't see why Alicia would think to ask if I knew or not. Although... eh, I don't want to think about it anymore. No sense worrying about what other people are gonna say, I guess. I'll just have to prepare myself for if it happens," she mutters, talking aloud. "But, yeah, Alicia does spread news quickly. As soon as she saw the bones she was on the phone."

"Just hope to God it doesn't get out," Kenneth grumbles, though seeming too tired to say much more. "Yeah... I just... wanted to warn you." His eyes shift sideways to look at her, though his head remains unturned. "Don't be dumb, an' just lie low for now. I don't think anyone's gonna be lookin' to you." Finally, he turns his head and looks straight on at the ahroun. About to say something more, he stops himself before it can get out, and just shakes his head again, looking away. "That's all I got now. You don't gotta stick around here much longer."

Stacey watches him solemnly, frowning slightly as he seems to have had something else he wanted to say. The preteen takes a deep breath and then lets it out in a long sigh. "Thank you, Kenneth, for everything. I... well, I hope everything doesn't go too badly for everyone. And I will lie low, and I'll do my best to stay out of trouble and all."

Kenneth only shrugs again, and then clambers up to his feet. "I'm gonna head back. Big ass shitstorm's gonna be headed our way for sure." The halfmoon swallows down what's left of his nerve, and turns off to head back towards the road. "See you later, Stacey," the halfmoon rumbles with a rather unenthused wave of his hand.