Take It Slow

12/20/2008

05:40 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (46% full).
It is currently 17:38 Pacific Time on Sat Dec 20 2008.
Currently in Saint Claire, it is lightly snowing. The temperature is 25 degrees Fahrenheit (-3 degrees Celsius). The wind is calm today. The barometric pressure reading is 30.14 and falling, and the relative humidity is 86 percent. The dewpoint is 21 degrees Fahrenheit (-6 degrees Celsius.)

WWNP: Blue Mountains(#3854RAh)
Stiff winds cause what little forest remains to bow before the might of the sky. Twisted trees and low tough bushes soften the stony faces up near the summits. There, and along the lines of ridges, only bare stone shows through, sharp and unyielding. From here, you can look down upon the more forgiving terrain of the forest of Wolf Woods. Among the twisting false trails and creekbeds wind scenic hiking trails that are marked by WWNP posts detailing elevations and giving directions lest the unwary traveller become lost and wander off a cliff.
To the north is the boundary of the national park, beyond which the mountains continue. To the west lies the main body of the park itself, more forested and less rocky.
Contents:
Coriander
Obvious exits:
Plateau  Mountain Bowl  Southwest  West  North

The snowfall in the city makes for heavier precipitation out in the mountains. The blanket of white covering the area is abated at least in one spot of Masquerade territory: underneath the Tree of Peace. From its direction, there's even a familiar smell of burning herbs. Marijuana, that is. It's faint enough to suggest the quantity that's been burned is very little. But it's there, and its smoker for once is the Shadow Lord philodox. Kenneth sits up against the broad, old tree, blanket covering his form such that only his slightly fuzzed head pokes from the top and the tiny orange light of the joint is sticking out of the opening in the middle.

Trotting up in Lupus, Curiosity makes her way into the tucked away homebase for the pack. And, with that Lupus nose, she's quick to sniff out her favorite treat. Making her way over to Kenneth, the nearly hairless wolf sniffs him over before she shifts through the forms and into Homid. "Hey!" She says, her hands on her hips. "That's mine!"

Kenneth looks nearly to have dozed off in the cold. Were it not for the in and out slow breaths that steam from his lips like the smoke from the joint in between his fingers, it might appear that he were naught but a statue. As it is, though, bleary eyes look up to the theurge and blink slowly. The symptoms of a high are already quite present. "Oh... hey Cori," he responds mildly. With no indication of what 'that' is, he looks around in an exaggerated manner and says, "What? The blanket? This one's mine. See? Even got the..." Sniff, sniff. "Smell."

"Not that," Cori says, reaching to make a swipe for the joint, "This! Kenneth!" She lets out a huff and drops down next to him on, tugging on the blanket in an effort to make the Shadow Lord share.

Kenneth hardly looks in the position to be fighting for possession of a joint, especially as it's snatched away. The blanket too, is easily pulled aside for sharing purposes. He grunts as the warm air escapes into the cold, and huddles closer in on himself in what remains. It's several seconds' worth of lag before he even offers up a protest. "And... and I never - never - do drugs. Never." Pause. "It was just one joint, Cori. And it was /there/. It's half moon, and it was there." He eyes over next to him at the Child.

Coriander lets out a sigh as she settle in next to him, the much colder garou nuzzling up to the warmer. "You could have said something..." However, she can't help but smile at his protests, "Hate to break it to you, Kenneth, but you /so/ do. At least this time you aren't up in the tree telling me you learned a gift that lets you fly." Oh, the teasing.

Kenneth turns his head, peering more intently at the theurge beside him. "That was Different," claims the halfmoon. "That was, was a mistake. That I won't make again." He doesn't even get into the part of his actually jumping from the tree and breaking a bone or two. Thank Gaia for regenerative healing. He looks towards the joint in her hand to reach out for it again.

There is a chuckle for his reply, but when he reaches for the joint, Cori, the more clear-minded one at the moment as odd as /that/ is, bats his away so she can take a hit, too. Only then does she pass it back over to him. "And to think, I was off in the Umbra while you were stealing from my secret stash. A Philodox should know better!"

Kenneth so denied, screws up his features into an annoyed expression and starts to try again. Only, she passes it back and he plucks it from her fingers to take a hit and hoard the smoke in his lungs in those few sections. The exhale is fast, jetting from his lips like a dragon's smoke. "A Shadow Lord ought to know better," he modifies in implicit agreement without sounding like he agrees completely. "And it wasn't secret if everyone could smell it out with two sniffs," he protests.

"Well, then, you should doubly know better," Cori says with a nod, "The box has my name on it and everything!" She grimaces lightly at him and reaches to take the joint back again, "It's not my fault you smell like a wolf. It would be secret if we were normal people. How much of if did you take?"

Kenneth doesn't seem to notice the lack of marijuana in his fingers until he brings the hand up to take a puff and gets nothing. He looks back to Cori and opens his mouth to speak. It is several seconds before he responds, "Your name on the box was the way I knew it was yours and not someone else's stash. Besides, I said it was just one joint. Or... or two." The empty hand goes to rub at his face, and he shakes his head. "Just didn't want to /think/ tonight, you know? I start thinking, and I'll just get angry thinking about stupid shit. Like... girls and stuff."

"Better only be one or two," Cori mutters, taking the opportunity to smoke a little more as he talks. "Girls, huh? You got girl troubles, Kenneth? Already? Sly dog," she says with a wry smile. "See? This is why I'm not a lesbian."

Kenneth makes a face at Cori, sticking out his tongue at her in more of a lupine show of 'hey now'. "It's about my Kinfolk," he grumbles out. "I haven't done anything with any of them. I ain't got laid with any of them, or anyone, since... that one girl. Petra."

Coriander reaches a hand over to put on his shoulder. "Well, that's okay. You looking for like... a girlfriend girl? Or just a girl for fun? Because we could hit the clubs again now that we're alive and look mostly normal again," she says as she continues to smoke. "If it makes you feel better, I haven't had anybody since then, either. AJ. And never with a kin, either. Unless you count the one that turned out to be a bad guy. And Jarod. But that one didn't go well, either." She furrows her brow, takes another hit, then turns to look at him, "You know, /boys/ are trouble, /too/."

Kenneth doesn't move to shrug off the hand from his shoulder, and instead lifts his own hand to place over hers. "You know. It's just nice to have a girl. My pa was all about it. Said he stuck around even though my ma, Garou that she probably was, got crazy during the full moons. Said it wasn't about those times when they were arguing and she was damn probably near frenzy, but the quiet moments. The... happy moments." A beat. "And probably 'cause everybody looked at that pervy ol' man like he was the luckiest bastard alive." He looks over at the theurge, straight on. "Why are all my kinfolk running off to go lookin' for other guys, huh? What's so... what's so wrong with me? Am I really just that much trouble?"

"That's the sweetest thing I've ever heard, Kenneth," Cori says, opinion possibly skewed by the drugs. "My dad, you know, didn't really have anyone special. In a romantic way. Your dad does sound lucky." But, as he goes on, sympathy comes to those features. "Oh, Kenneth," she says, leaning over to plant a kiss on his cheek. "Nothing's wrong with you. And you're not /too/ much trouble, just enough to be interesting! And nobody wants to be bored. And you're cute!"

Kenneth grunts out a doubtful, if slightly pathetic noise that borders on a whined growl. "That isn't the problem," he mutters as the high puts a fluffy dampening effect on an otherwise Rage pulled demeanor. "It's... it's Danae. You know, she thought I was with another girl. Er, woman. Julie... Veronica. And she was... jealous? But then she went on and on and on about Quentin, and tribe stuff and how she's pregnant. And all I could really think was..." That statement doesn't finish as his thoughts dissolve into just that. Thoughts.

"All you could think was what?" Cori prompts a little before she passes the joint back over. "And maybe this Danae's a little torn. It sounds to me like she's in a little over her head. I mean... didn't they just get together? Maybe she's getting a little cold feet. And here you are, in her tribe and you got that angry bad boy thing going on that some girls are into, maybe she's regretting moving so fast, yeah? I mean, I can't really say what she feels for Quentin, or what he feels for her, but it does seem like there's something contradictory there, yeah?"

Kenneth doesn't deign to finish the statement, but he does pick out the joint as it's passed over and puffs vehemently on it. Perhaps, too enthusiastically. He holds in the last puff a little before letting it out and stares towards Cori. "She got her head up in his business. She can get it out," he claims. It follows with a couple more blinks of random silence before he blurts, "She's fuckin' hot and she keeps coming on to me. What am I supposed to do? Take her?"

Coriander blinks at the outburst, pausing a moment before she answers. "Well... it's an /option/, but I don't think it's very /smart/. Wars start over pretty girls, Kenneth. If she's chosen another, then she has. If she's doubting that choice, then she need to /do/ something about it before trying to snag another. And you don't need to be pulled into some daytime TV love triangle, ya know? You're a Elder. Shadow Lord Elder."

Kenneth shakes his head too, groaning at the dilemma before him. He willingly pushes the nearly gone joint back in Cori's direction, and sighs. "You're goddamn right I'm elder. I'm a fostern. I'm supposed to handle this stuff. So maybe I don't give her enough credit. She's doing some good things, I guess. She's got the nicest damn penthouse apartment I've ever seen short of the mansion the other's got. But what's she seeing in Quentin that she ain't gettin'? It don't make a lick of sense to me. Damn women." He growls under his breath, and leans back against the peace tree, staring up into the branches.

The joint is taken, but Cori can't help the crooked smile on her face at his speech. "Sometimes when you get everything you want, you find out you're still not satisfied. Sometimes, you just keep wanting more." She lifts her shoulders in a shrug, bringing the joint back up to her lips. "Question is... what do /you/ want, Kenneth? I'm hearing a lot about what she's doing, what she wants or doesn't want. What do /you/ /want/?"

Kenneth takes a deep breath and this time it comes with starkly crisp, cold mountain air. That alone seems to be sobering. With the question though, comes his poignant silence. He doesn't answer the theurge for a long, long time. Minutes tick past. And increasingly the feeling that he isn't going to answer the question grows. Until, he sits up straighter and turns to the Child. "You know what I want? I want... I just want to take it slow. Day at a time. One girl, or a lotta girls, it don't matter right now." He grunts as he sits back again and nods physically as well as mentally through his tone. "Next time I see her, we'll see what comes of it. I ain't going to let her get to me. Yeah."

"Yeah... that'd be nice," Cori says, leaning her head over against him. "Maybe we should take a vacation, ya know? The pack. Go take it easy someplace. Maybe Western Eye again." She doesn't seem to be teasing there, but meaning it as a real suggestion. "I think that's probably all you can do with this girl, Kenneth. Take it one day at a time, and see what happens."

Kenneth reaches up to scratch underneath his chin in actual consideration of the suggestion. "That'd be nice," he agrees briefly, "but right now isn't the time." He casts his gaze down towards the top of the theurge's head leaned against his shoulder. "I think I'm going to challenge Kaz for her position. Master of the Challenge, that is. And besides, Stacey and me are both elders. We'll have to make arrangements before we go anywhere."

"Well, we'll see about making plans." Cori looks up at him at the news, a wide, bright smile coming to her face. "Really Kenneth? Oh, do it! You'd be great! And you'll have your pack cheering you on from the sidelines."

The theurge's big smile is faintly echoed in the Shadow Lord's expression as the high keeps and is added to with a plot. "Let's see Jacinta take it on basis of rank /this/ time," he utters lowly, eyes staring forward out over the mountain plateau scape covered with snow.

Back | Next | 2008 Logs | Main