5/10/2005

09:25 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waxing New Moon phase (15% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from variable directions at 5 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.17 and rising, and the relative humidity is 93 percent. The dewpoint is 53 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius.)
It is currently 21:01 Pacific Time on Tue May 10 2005.

Big Red Barn(#3420RA)
The barn is built in the old style, a vast three level structure that is greater in height than a mere three stories, actually closer to five. Great wooden posts support the weight of the upper levels and roof, sunk into the hard-packed dirt floor of the first level like a sparse forest of regularly spaced, naked trees. The stalls and flagstones which once were here have been torn out to leave a rather open area where even crinos Garou may roam freely without fear of running into anything but the supports or the walls or the ladder at the back which allows access to the other two levels.
The first two levels are relatively open to each other, the second being only little wider than a catwalk going around all the walls but the front one, which has massive, twenty foot tall doors set into it. The third level is a true second floor except for a place cut out that allowed hay to be tossed down to the ground floor when the farm was actually worked. Now, it is a hayloft where Garou can sleep outside of the house.
(Non-Garou, please "+view curse")
Contents:
Masao
Cy
Dances Shadows
Obvious exits:
BarnYard  

Cy follows the older Ragabash in a bit more slowly, and she snorts as she watches her drop into lupus. Scuffing her feet through the hay on the floor, she swings a glance up at the rafters, then back down to Masao, eyeing the kid's reaction to the woman-turned-wolf.

Masao blinks a bit watching the change with abject amazement, a little fear, and a noticeable shudder as the sounds are truly unnerving. She sidles off to one side of the barn door and crouches down, making a tiny ball out of herself. "Geezus christ on a cracker with a side a'fries...wild shit, wiiiild shit." she says openly, shaking her head and chewing on her lower lip lightly.

Dances Shadows continues to roll, coating her otherwise dark fur with a fine layer of dirt and dust from the barn floor. /Stinks/, her body-language continues to complain, augmented by flattened ears and a wrinkled nose. In this form, the otherwise faint, nearly undetectable smell of damp and body rot that is clinging to the three of them is damn near intolerable.

The barn door creaks open to admit and sound the entrance of another, the Shadow Lord Philodox. Kenneth's short cut hair hangs wet, one hand running through it as a makeshift comb. The twin gold rings hung about his neck clink together as he walks in. The youth's eyes swing up from the ground, almost immediately realizing there are others in the barn as well. His gaze then squints, adjusting to the dimmed light within the barn. "Evenin'," he greets after a pause of scrutiny.

The red-haired girl switches her attention from Masao to the new arrival sharply, and a frown slams over her features. "Evening," she grunts, giving the boy a wary look. Her posture's stiffened, and she crosses over to where the tiny girl is crouched in a vaguely protective stance. "You okay, kid?"

Finally satisfied, or at least resigned to the fact that she's not likely going to get any more of the offending odor off of her by coating herself in barn floor-dust, Dances Shadows rolls back to her feet and gives herself a firm shake. Kenneth is greeted with a brief and neutral chuff, before her attention turns back to Cy and Masao. The latter is approached slowly, with a slow, half-hesitant tail wag.

Masao starts a bit at creak of the door, head swiveling first to the new presence, then back to Cy. The other cub gets a tiny smile and a tentative nod. "Uh, yeah, I will be...I think. Just...wild shit, y'know?" She looks back at the young man, giving him a quick once over and waiting for one of the other two for clues as to how to take this one. When neither seems to have too adverse a reaction, she uncurls a hand to wiggle her fingers. "Hi...don't mind me, I'll just be over here with the rest of my brain."

Kenneth peers more intensely at the red-haired Cy, the recognizeable one, for a long moment before combing his hand over his head again and moving over to a haybale that is further back. The Shadow Lord makes little introduction, although he does give the wolf a slightly longer glance as he passes.

[look Dances Shadows]
A she-wolf, slightly smaller than the average sized lupus, but with a lean, fit appearance. She has a dark grey undercoat, slightly lighter beneath, and a thick black overcoat that mostly covers up the lighter cover. The fur seems healthy and well groomed. Her walk is almost feline smooth. The eyes might draw attention the most--they are the usual wolf yellow, but they appear almost unnervingly calculating and intelligent--this is a clear predator.
Carrying:
Fang of the Wyrm

[look Cy]
There's not much to look at beneath the ratty shock of crimson hair; she's scrawny, and 5'4" would be a generous height estimate. The girl has a pale, weak-featured face that adds to her apparent youth--she could be taken for about twelve at first glance. Round cheeks, snub nose, and large brown eyes are haloed by a hacked-off bob of hair that's been dyed fire-engine red, with an inch of dark roots starting to creep back in. She's not wearing any piercings, but her earlobes are notably stretched into loops more commonly seen on people in tribal body-modification documentaries. She rarely smiles, and tends to squint; her eyes seem to be incessantly dark-circled from lack of sleep. On the occasion she does show her teeth, it's obvious that she's missing her upper left incisor.
She's in a worn black t-shirt and baggy jeans rolled up at the cuffs, belted around her hips with braided leather. Though clean, none of it fits her quite right: it seems like the garments are hand-me-downs. Halfway hidden by her large clothing, she's got a sexless build with a short torso and wiry limbs. There are black no-name sneakers on her feet, and her small hands show evidence of compulsive nail-chewing.

[look Masao]
Short. Androgynous. These are the two best words to describe Masao at first glance. Barely standing 4'1" or 4'2", the kid's thin, pale body has little to suggest that it is decidedly male or female. The wan skin has a faint yellow cast, suggesting Asian blood and a decided lack of sun exposure. Starkly outlined high cheekbones and delicate features offset slanted eyes of a very dark hazel-green that glints brown in the light. Shadows darken the eyes, lending an air of the waiflike to the presented appearance. Slim limbs and extremities only lend to the street-urchin air. Masao's hair is a shockingly pale color, nearly white but not quite. It's cut in a ragged mass mostly that brushes the chin save for one long, inch-wide, braid that appears from underneath and is coiled like a necklace around Masao's neck.
A pair of grossly overlarge sweats cover the kid's form, limbs swimming in the heathered grey folds. Her feet are bare.

[look Kenneth]
Surrounded by an invisible but 'black' aura, Kenneth is a tall dark stranger waiting to happen. The uncomfortable atmosphere penetrates his otherwise decent social graces, making him seem at first impression, unapproachable. But, he is young and in reality rather attractive. His body is lean, not intimidatingly muscled but nonetheless carries in it a high athletic potential. His dark hair is trimmed to a decent length and styled in a fashionable manner. The majority of his forelocks sweep to one side while a secondary section pokes off the other direction. The body flows back to feather out at the tips, giving his hair quite a bit of a young TV star appeal.
Hairtips hanging just over his eyes, they accentuate the features and shape of his face. At first impression, he may seem completely Asian by heritage, but at a more direct glance, there are a few traits that hint at a mixture of bloodlines both Western and Eastern. What stands out underneath the mild slants of his eyebrows are his nearly black eyes that rarely highlight with a grey color in strong lighting. The cold neutrality of his gaze is of one that wishes to prove the worth of their existence, but more than anything makes him seem alone.
Casually dressed, Kenneth has on a white, collared button-down shirt left open at the top and hanging out of his pants at the hem. It covers over a thin black tanktop, and accompanies a pair of dark blue jeans and white sportshoe. Around his neck, a long thin ball-chain loops around with a unique and expensive looking pair of twin gold rings, both with a small glittering emerald setting.

Cy takes a step back as the wolf approaches Masao, giving them breathing room. Crossing both arms before her chest, she eyes the interaction--and more pointedly, does not look at the young man on the other side of the barn.

Dances Shadows is making an obvious effort to appear somewhat less feral to Masao--and since she's in lupus, it's obvious she's doing it on purpose. She approaches the newest cub slowly, head down, ears back, tail swaying slightly behind her. Her muzzle nudges slightly at one hand with a wet nose as she informs Kenneth that this is a new cub, a lost cub.

"Eee!" Masao squeaks in a rather common reaction to one not expecting a wet nose. Blinking guardedly at the wolf, she lifts her hand and gingerly extends it to sort of hover around the dark-furred head. "Y'know, if I hadn't seen you do that, I wouldn't have believed I'm lookin' at the same person." she murmurs in lessening disbelief, not touching but more tracing the outline of ears and muzzle as she sees them.

Kenneth looms somewhere in the shadow, taking the three in. "That's nice," he mutters, "But that still don't help that I don't know who you two are." Cy gets another eyeing, but shortlived as the Lord's gaze falls back on the wolf to read her response to his comment.

"Cy Larsen, Glass Walker Philodox. Cub." The red-haired girl straightens her spine a bit, with an almost challenging look towards the young man. She jerks a thumb towards the wolf. "Jeren's with me. Masao's the kid. New pick-up, I guess." She's a lot moree talkative than the first time she and Kenneth met, and a bit less wary... though not by much.

Dances Shadows lifts her muzzle, nudging again at Masao's exploring hand, and inviting her to touch her, and prove it's real. Then her head turns toward Kenneth, and a small amount of irritation seeps into her form--which is alleviated by Cy's explanation, though she still makes a growly noise of complaint at having to repeat introductions in this form.

Masao smiles a bit at the invitation and runs her small hands over the wolf's head, some of the fear easing out of her posture as the girl uncurls one leg and rests it on the ground. "Wow...fur...kinda soft but not, cool. An' it's real...damn." she murmurs, her exploration gentle and respectful. Her name distracts her a bit, and she looks up at Cy questioningly and follows her gaze to the young man, giving him much the same look as her fingers rub lightly around one of Jeren's ears.

Kenneth flicks his gaze over to Cy once more as she explains who's who, and then at the growled complaint he replies with a silent baring of his teeth, lips twitching back to reveal the tips only. After another moment, the Shadow Lord grunts out and hooks a knee around with his arm, observing again. "'Nother lost one huh," he remarks. "Gettin' damn irresponsible."

Cy looks at Kenneth for a long, hard moment before shrugging tightly. Turning her attention back to Masao, she curls up one corner of her mouth in an expression that's almost fiendish. "Wanna see something even cooler?"

Dances Shadows is very clearly enjoying this particular form of attention, as she turns her head into Masao's hand, encouraging her to continue with the ear rubbing. This, coupled with her eyes being half closed, means she misses Kenneth's slight teeth-baring, though Cy's remark earns a small tail wag, and a warning not to scare her too much.

Masao looks back to Cy with a bright expression of interest and nods, a bit too enthralled with the fur beneath her fingers to really be too wary. "Yeah! I'm game..." she says, grinning as she turns back to the wolf for a moment and giggles a little. The language of the tail wag is completely lost on her, enough that she mistakes it for happiness. "That's good, huh? Okay, I won't stop..."

Kenneth simply leans a bit forward, nearly imperceptibly, to see what is this 'cooler' thing that Cy claims.

The red-haired girl's smirk cracks into a larger smile, showing the roguish gap where she's missing a tooth. The expression is gone quickly, though, as she moves to stand in the center of the barn--quite a few safe feet away from kid and wolf. She plants her feet apart, pulls in a breath... and does something that probably seems impossible to the virgin eyes of Masao. Skinny limbs bulk, clothing fades to ruddy brown fur, and joints rearrange themselves into a hulking beast without a sound. Where there was once a teenage girl's smile, there's now a massive jawful of gleaming teeth, and a pair of dark-amber eyes staring down. The creature rumbles and hunches into a three-point crouch, one ear flicking as it watches the tiny kid. Cy-turned-monster makes no sign of moving, though; her posture holds no threat.

Dances Shadows turns her head just slightly at the sounds of shifting, only far enough that she can see Cy in her peripheral vision. A chuff follows the transformation, showing her amusement, though at the same time she increases the tail wagging for the sole purpose of setting Masao at ease.

If Jeren's shift to lupus inspired amazement for the form it showed, Cy's shift inspires something else in Masao. Fingers still suddenly, the cub's body freezes stock still, and dark eyes turn into veritable saucers. Her breath catches in her throat as the change happens, and the words out of her mouth are barely audible, "Fuh-kin-aaaay..."

"We aren't limited to just three forms," Kenneth rumbles out. "Five, in all." The Shadow Lord speaks, if just to clarify for said lost cub, even if she isn't hearing him in favor of being in awe at the Crinos.

One black-tufted ear tilts backwards irritably, at the sound of the male's voice. The dark-furred crinos continues to lock eyes with the flabbergasted kid, amber orbs narrowing into slits. Despite the fact that she's not advancing, the creature seems to quiver full of barely-restrained energy and danger. An enormous tongue slides out to lick across black lips, running over the edges of those formidable teeth.

Dances Shadows nudges Masao's hand one final time before she pulls away, approaching the Crinos with what an unknowing onlooker might consider extreme recklessness. Shift to wolf. She sneezes and gives her head a slight shake. Shift. I will see if she can join us. And with that, the wolf is human again--albeit one on all fours, with dirt in her hair. The Ragabash flashes a grin at Masao, and offers, "You want to try?"

Jeren's moving breaks Maso out of the thousand-foot stare she's got going. Following the Walker with her eyes, she blinks at the change back and peers closely from her position. At the question, she flushes and glances between Cy and the shadowed man with a bit of a caged look forming in her eyes. "Um...uh...I dunno. I kinda remember ending up without my clothes last time. Scuse me if I'm a bit shy and stuff." She does, however, prove that she heard Kenneth as she focuses on him for a moment and frowns. "Five?"

Kenneth lifts his chin a touch. "Yea," he answers straightforwardly. "Five." Cy's irritation is not lost on him, but the Shadow Lord seems to be actively ignoring it.

The hulking beast continues to loom in place for a moment, then with a shake of her bristling mane, shrinks down into the shape of a human teenager again... all clothes intact, strangely enough. Cy straightens her posture and rakes a hand through her trainwreck hairstyle, adding flatly, "Homid, Glabro, Crinos, Hispo, and Lupus. Y'learn them all eventually." She's eyeing Masao apprehensively, as though waiting fro a bomb to go off, and recrosses both skinny arms in front of herself.

"Take them off," Jeren suggests helpfully. "Later, someone can dedicate your clothing to you, so it won't shred whenever you shift, but for right now, it's better you get past this particular taboo. You'll find we're not all that interested in seeing each other naked."
Long distance to Masao: Kenneth's inner ragabash goes: But the furred forms are all naked anyway.

Masao swallows hard and stands up, arms curled tightly around herself as she looks at each of the three. She focuses on Jeren and trades nervousness for a scowl, "I've already freaked out -one- person this week. Scuse me if I don't feel like being stared at again." She backs up until her back is against the barn wall, looking at just about anything but the other Garou. "I'm not normal, tha's all I'm sayin'."

Kenneth leans forward a touch more, peering at Masao in inspection. His eyes glimmer a moment with thought behind the cold facade. "I could do it." The Shadow Lord flickers his gaze to the two Walkers briefly before looking back to Masao. "Though those clothes don't look like they belong on her."

Cy flicks a look over at the Shadow Lord, as though perturbed to be reminded of his presence. Nevertheless, she responds: "That dedication thing, y'mean?"

"I can too," Jeren says, simply. "That isn't the point." She turns her gaze on Masao, also squinting, though there's a hint of sympathy beneath the somewhat hard line she takes with the cub. "Masao, you are what you are. Whatever it is you're hiding is not going to change within the next few days, and you're going to /have/ to learn to shift. You're effectively naked in three of your forms, so we're going to likely see it anyways, sooner or later. No one here," and at this she gives a very, very fierce glower to both Cy and Kenneth, "Will say a thing." There's an unspoken /will you/, attached to that.

Masao looks down at her too large clothing and gets a bit redder in the cheeks, picking at a rather blousy sleeve. "'S not mine, it's Dominic's. I didn't own anything other than what I was wearing when I...changed." she mutters, casting a glance up through her hair at Jeren. Something in the woman's tone gives her something to latch on to, a possessive glint sparking in her eyes. "You -promise- me that? Not a fucking word? I don't want to end up on somebody's behind-the-back finger-pointing list."

The young Walker lifts both eyebrows at Jeren's glower, and snorts a little. "I'll do ya one better, and leave the barn," she replies. "--Gonna check out the house, get some grub." She pauses, passing an almost sympathetic gaze over Masao. "You'll be a'right," she murmurs, more of an observation than anything. "Come get me if you need me, Jeren." She turns and heads for the exit, but not before levelling a flinty look in Kenneth's direction.

Kenneth returns the looks sent his direction with an ice-cold stare, particularly when Cy gives him that less than savory eye. The Shadow Lord waits until the halfmoon cub makes her exit before turning his black gaze back upon Jeren and the lost cub. He says not a word, as if upholding his end of this supposed promise.

"I promise," Jeren says, with just the slightest bit of a teeth-bare, making her expression all the more feral. "If anyone says a word, here or out there, I'll thump them." Of course, she doesn't promise she'll actually win, but...

Masao relaxes just a bit and bobs her head in a short nod, watching as Cy leaves with a chew of her lip. "All right. I'll do it. You're right...can't hide myself forever. At least, not anymore." she says with a resigned sigh, pushing herself away from the barn wall. Padding on dirt-dusted bare feet to about where Cy had been standing, the cub takes a deep breath and closes her eyes as if steeling herself for something inevitable. It takes her scant breaths after that to shed the sweatshirt, leaving her thin, boyish torso bare. A few slight heaves of her shoulders, and she drops the sweatpants, too. Eyes still closed, she turns to face the other two Garou and opens her eyes and shivers, expression weakly challenging them to say anything. Masao clasps her hands behind her back, forcing herself not to bend over and pull the pants back up. "There."

Kenneth watches the cub move and then shed her clothing, though his expression seems to go bland neutral a moment as she shrugs out of the sweatshirt. The dropping of the pants garners a browlift, and an inevitable looking Down There, though cursory at first. The Shadow Lord is still without words.

Masao does as she's asked, expression guarded as if waiting for the hammer to fall and someone to either laugh, point, or say something crude. "Angry. I think I've got somethin' for that." she says flatly, stepping aside and toeing her clothes away for good measure. Releasing her hands from behind her back, she cups them in front of herself and closes her eyes. Slowly, as a frown etches into her features, her hands curl into fists. Her chosen thought is likely a good one, as the cub gains a few inches and some bulk gradually, hair frizzing at her head and becoming more visible on the rest of her. After that, she clenches her fists hard and makes a growling sound in the back of her throat that deepens as she sort of explodes up into Crinos and stops there.

Jeren looks /quite/ pleased. "Good! Excellent. This form is called the 'Crinos' form. It's our warform, the one we take when we go into battle. It's also the form you likely took a few nights ago. In this form, normal humans can't bear seeing us--usually they cower and go into a fit, or run for their lives. Almost all the time, they'll forget what they saw, or they'll rationalize into something believable. A bear, or something like that. We call it the Delirium, and it is a very, very helpful thing to us." She paces slightly to the side, and then says, "Now, I want to see if you can take the lupus form. That's what I was in a short while ago, the one that looks like a wolf. Think angry again, but this time, imagine yourself as a wolf. Imagine what shape your limbs must take."

Kenneth remains silent throughout the shifting and the explanation, eventually shifting his own weight about on the haybale, trying to get comfortable but not finding the right spot just yet.

Jervis all but appears in the barn door, leaning against the threshold edge, a drag from his lit cigarette finally giving his presence away; those less perceptive will note his arrival has been fairly recent, those not... The Fang says nothing, just watches, looking more preoccupied than amused in his neutrality.

Masao takes a moment and opens her eyes, staring down at her now clawed hands blankly. Holding them up to her face, she turns them back and forth and flexes the digits. In an attempt to say something, she sort of rumbles and looks confused for a moment, gingerly patting her chest with one paw. Without realizing it, one ear flicks and follows Jeren's voice with a growled sound that tries to convey both her acquiescence and her feeling a bit lost. As if to help herself out, she bends over and plants her hands on the ground and hunches her back slightly. This change doesn't go nearly as quickly as the first, as Masao tries to imagine herself as being four-footed instead of two. When it doesn't come as easily, she actually whines and shakes her head before ducking it a bit more and grunting. It takes her quite a few minutes before her form sinks down into lupus and she opens her eyes again and yelps at the sudden intensity of her senses. Bracing all four paws out stiffly, she looks a little wild-eyed, nostrils flaring at the assault of stronger scent.

Jeren waits patiently throughout Masao's struggling. Only the occasional twitch betrays that she hasn't actually turned to stone. And when the cub manages to take lupus, she takes a step backward--and then surges quickly through the forms down into wolf as well, tipping her ears back.

Kenneth sniffs once, giving the shifting cub the benefit of the doubt that she'll change. When Jervis more or less 'appears', he looks up towards the pinpoint of orange light that emanates from the end of the Fang's cigarette. "Jervis," he greets with a low, almost-rumbled greeting. The cub and her unofficial teacher are for the moment, left out of the Lord's gaze.

Jervis takes a long, thoughtful drag, looking at the teaching being performed before him...and also utterly, obviously not. His eyes look beyond the two shifting garou, to the barn wall beyond them, focusless. A moment passes, and he more than belatedly responds to Kenneth, not averting his gaze. "Kenneth," he greets, softly. "How are you?"

Masao shakes a bit, not quite sure whether it's safe to move and trying very hard not to whine again. Her nose flares and twitches as she tries to make sense of all the things she smells and her eyes dart here and there as they catch things they missed from the human side of things. The stink of her own clothes and fur is definitely strongest, and actually spurs her to move. The cub stumbles in a gangly and uncoordinated fashion away from the sweatclothes and sneezes, shaking her head violently.

Dances Shadows trots after Masao. She keeps her head down, and her forelimbs slightly bent, so as to provide a slightly smaller figure to the confused cub. If nothing else, the gentle wave of her tail should hopefully prove familiar. The elder Ragabash cheerfully informs the younger that she will get used to it.

Kenneth's eyes swing off the silhouetted figure at the barn's entrance. "Decent as one can be, in a place like this," he replies towards the Fang, albeit with distraction. Watching the cub stumble about, the philodox slowly stands up from the haybale.

"That bad, huh?" Jervis asks, his eyes finally snapping back to usual sharpness and offensive focus, smiling growing on his face. "Well, I don't blame you..." he head tilts, finally turning to face Kenneth proper, and takes a drag, perhaps sensing the Shadow Lord's imminent departure. "Tell your alpha he should be more careful about where he leaves his trade tools...and that carelessly left severed appendages...don't do much to help keep safe the Veil?"

Masao finds her new limbs a challenge, that much is obvious as they refuse to cooperate at first. Catching sight of the other wolf, she startles a bit before it kicks in that the perspective is different. For the moment, rather than make a complete ass out of herself, she plops her tail down and sits with a thump. Her ears droop slightly as she lifts a paw to rub at her nose as if rubbing fingers at it.

Dances Shadows looks over her shoulder, her ears swiveling forward, as Jervis' remarks reach her. She chuffs loudly, pulling her lips away from her teeth in agreement and irritation at the topic of conversation. Then, turning her attention back to Masao, her demeanor returns to patient, careful probing. She nudges the cub several times with her nose--twice the shoulder, once the nose itself. Talk to me, talk to me. Her tail is waving lazily back and forth.

Kenneth is indeed, departing. Walking simply in a straight line for the barn entrance, he doesn't say anything until he's there. Then as the Shadow Lord passes by the Silver Fang, Kenneth can be seen to have a tightened line on his lips. "Yea," he notes as he passes by the smoking ragabash, "I'll make a note." His voice is low in volume, though likely still audible to all and especially the wolves. "Night." The Shadow Lord's hands slip into his pockets as he paces away and down towards the barnyard.

Jervis chuckles, a bit on the loud side, as Kenneth responds, but lets the Lord go, muttering, moreso to Jeren. "Better man than I...poor thing has to deal with Hammer-Time on a _daily_ basis..."