Infidelity, Thy Name Is Woman
1/3/2009
08:19 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.
Currently the moon is in the waxing Half Moon phase (50% full).
It is currently 20:18 Pacific Time on Sat Jan 3 2009.
Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 34 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 9 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.82 and rising, and the relative humidity is 82 percent. The dewpoint is 29 degrees Fahrenheit (-1 degrees Celsius.)
Thunder Cave(#1410RA)
Once you enter this cave, you see it is much larger than you originally thought. From the small opening it widens and takes a sharp turn, providing a natural windbreak. Looking around, you see a spacious chamber, long ago carved from the limestone by running water. Quartz veins scintillate in the light. In the center of the room, a small fire burns, more for light than heat, as the room is quite well insulated. Looking up, you see the smoke drawn through small cracks and holes that allow for more than adequate ventilation. This cave used to be the home of Distant Thunder, a Shadow Lord Galliard, and some say that his spirit still lingers here, protecting this spot.
You can leave the cave by crawling out the cave entrance to the south that leads down to the clearing below. A passageway leads deeper into the cave. No one is sure how deep it goes.
Contents:
Danae
Obvious exits:
Clearing
Shadows cling to the darkeness within the cave fully. Daylight savings making the outside world a carpet of spilled ink of night. Within the cave, there is a fire burning upon the hearth, tempered for warmth and not an inferno. Before the flames, is the back of a female, curved in a delicious fashion. Her dark hair restrained back and her clothing more sensible for this time of year. There are also a few packages sitting beside her as she contemplates the dancing embers before her.
At the entrance of the cave there's the sound of footsteps. Shortly following it, Kenneth slips in through the small entryway and squints as the sight of fire and light interrupt his adjusted night vision. The halfmoon himself hasn't changed his clothing to fit, save for an extra jacket layered over old clothes. After a pause once he's spotted the figure at the fireside, he offers up a verbal, "That you, Danae?"
Danae startles just a bit as she turns to look over her shoulder. For a moment, her green eyes seem to glow because of the fire behind her. She watches the elder enter and allows the fall of her lashes to drop. "I brought you some stuff and wanted to talk about something kin related." Her voice is softened and not an ounce of her normal siren calls.
Kenneth ventures closer to the fire, rounding around the kin and the number of packages to sit by the flames. A hand runs over his short hair which makes him look a little bit of a jarhead. "Yeah, I heard. Veronica said you were looking for me," he mentions idly. Distractedly. Grumpily. "What for?"
Danae lowers her brows a bit at Veronica's name. There might have been a spike of jealousy in her eyes before she smothers it. "I would like your backing as an elder to keep the Garou out of the safe house. I mean I understand if there is an attack they should defend their kin. However, we need a place you guys don't go into." She shifts her eyes away, so she's not looking at him.
Kenneth cocks his head to a side, eyeing her. "What safe house?" he asks after a pause. "And why do you need an elder's backing for it? Are we talking about your penthouse out in the city?"
Danae keeps her eyes focused on the fire. "No, I have a .. house. I bought it in the city. It is called Redemption House. I want it to be for kin alone and I need the elders to back me on the decision. That way if it becomes an issue the other Garou know elders agree with it. It is just a place to go if moon is too high or rage is happening. Maybe even for those that have just become clued." Her voice is softer spoken now as well.
Kenneth looks over the fire at her, squinting through the flames. "You expect there to be some kind of issue?" Though not spoken in an interrogating manner, the tone with which it comes out doesn't sound very convinced to the cause.
Danae nods her head. "I do. I think there may be issue with it. There is a particular Garou with an axe to grind against me. Trust me, it has been horrible. Quentin even told him to be respectful and he ignored it. He came to my home and got really angry. So I don't know how it is going to go with him."
Kenneth straightens up in his seated position at that, and she could tell the bristling beginning already. "Who?" grates out the halfmoon monosyllabically, the one word weighing in with an annoyance at the news.
Danae shrugs, "Jason. He's a Fianna. Quent said he'd talk to him, but." She shrugs again. "I'm sure he's just being a jerk. I won't sleep with him. He said I should learn my place and everything. He's just got that view on kinfolk, but knowing that. I just want some safety measures."
Kenneth sucks in a deep breath. "What's that supposed to mean? 'I won't sleep with him.' What's that got to do with..." The philodox blinks once, twice, and cuts his own question off to simply say, "Tell me what happened."
Danae shakes her head. "The more I think I get it the less I really do. I met Jason at a club before I was with Quentin. He had his tongue down my throat before he knew my name. In fact, I left with his number after pleading I was a virgin. Then he met me with Quentin. He likes to flirt with me and I admit, well you know me, I did a bit of teasing back. Then he just got mean. He won't use my name. He glares at me, even on an off moon. So there was a metronome that was possessed and I.. I wanted to check with you or Quent before I handed it over to them. He got all angry. He shoved his finger in my face and said denying Garou get them mad and they are likely to kill when they get mad. He said I can't call all the shots. Then he threw his fist into my wall on his way out the door. I begged them to leave three times. I.. I was trying to do things right and.." She trails off with a sigh, still not looking at him.
Kenneth listens in silence. The fire has more chatter in its crackle than the philodox as he takes in the woman's words. Barely withholding much worse, he asks in a quieted manner, "You told Quentin all this, and all he said was he'd 'talk to him'?" After a second's pause, he pushes up from his seated position by the fire.
Danae looks up a moment, swiftly as there is movement. Then she adverts her eyes away. "Yes, he said he would talk to Jason about it." She offers as she drops her eyes to the packages. "He may have done so too."
Kenneth regards the kin for a minute longer. Where her gaze drops, his doesn't. "This is such complete and utter bullshit," he growls outwardly, although by tone it's not directed towards the woman. Sharply, he turns around and paces away from the fire deeper into the cave, footsteps audible. He only goes a few yards into the back, however, before the steps stop.
Danae lowers her brows a bit and then takes a shuddering breath as he moves away from her. Last time she followed him, it was an impressive argument. Her eyes lift to follow his steps as she tries to figure out what she did this time. Then it is just sort of a defeated look, that he most likely misses. She finds her own feet then. "I'm sorry." She's not sure for what though. "I um.. I brought you some more items. I'll go."
Kenneth hangs on a silence for a time, but then half turns back to the kin. "Why go? You didn't do anything wrong," he responds to her movement and statement. "Not that I'm saying it's a particularly good idea to be out here... but I can stand to be less of an asshole. I'm just... it's not you." He struggles around his own statement before rubbing a knuckle beneath his nose and sniffing lightly. "It's just been one helluva week." The halfmoon turns around more fully at that, facing her.
Danae turns to look at him and offers a soft smile. "I know." The words carry a lot of impact as she comes to her original position. The fire between them as she watches him through it. She doesn't approach and she doesn't play the come hither game. "Anything I can do for you?"
Kenneth shakes his head at first, but stops as he comes to a thought. "Actually, yeah. You can tell Quentin that I'd like to speak with him some time. On neutral territory if he needs it to be. Edgewood or the bawn or the caern, it doesn't matter." He takes a couple steps back towards the fire, letting his face with its dark gaze come into the light. "All you have to do is keep yourself safe. That's all you ever have to do."
Danae lowers her brows to this for a few moments. "Why do you need to talk to Quent?" The last comment seems to throw her off as well. The green of her eyes glow intensely in the fireglow as she takes one more step forwards towards it. "Are you mad at me?" It isn't the normal childish gesture she normally picks, but one where she's really seeking information.
"No." The answer is flat, but carries little anger. Kenneth gradually returns to the fireside and settles down, gaze moving to his hands on his knees. "Cori's in some trouble, and she's gone for a while," he says, "and if you're concerned about Quentin, I just want to talk to him. Catch up on things, you could say. Haven't seen him since the day he came asking for you. Or rather, haven't seen him face-to-face." At that, his gaze lifts to look towards her.
Danae lowers her brows at the comment about Cori. She then seems to be steeling herself for something. Fear flashes through her gemstone eyes matched only by uncertanity. It is finally then that she steps around the fire. There is a momentary pause before she continues to his form. Danae stops right before him and looks at his eyes for a brief moment. She's not the sultry princess of temptation today. There are no cosmetics on her, she's not in power suits or heels. She looks younger than her years as she steps forwards. Her arms reach out to attempt to wrap around his mid-section to draw him into a hug. There isn't a word spoken. However if he allows the touch he will feel her fear of rejection.
Kenneth tenses up considerably as she comes before him. Though there are no words, there are still questions. Things he doesn't ask through anything but that gaze upon her. The changes are duly noted in their obviousness. When she approaches for a hug, his body stills to a dead non-movement. For a few, it doesn't even seem like he breathes. As her arms wrap about him, he breathes again - first a long intake, then a sighed out exhale and very gradual loosening of a minute amount of the tension. The philodox blinks. "What are you doing?" he asks, volume no louder than a mutter.
"Hugging you." Danae offers in a soft voice. She doesn't expand on it or anything else. Instead, she tucks herself into him the best as possible as her cheek lies against his form. There are no words given or taken as her arms tighten slightly about him.
Contrasting her softened nature, Kenneth remains sharp and tense, if only a few degrees less so. He takes a long moment, closing his eyes and opening them again with a meditative breath before he moves again in a shift of his shoulders. The minutes lag as he feels edgy until finally he grunts out, "You could let go. Anytime now." It follows with a small clearing of his throat.
Danae loosens her right hand to reach out for his arm, attempting to draw it to her side. She repeats with the other one. "You could hug back. Anytime now." The words aren't full of humor. Her hands moving to wrap back around him. "I'm sorry about Cori. Is there anything I can do for you?"
Her hand might reach his, but it doesn't budge. Kenneth moves his hands, but they are to push her hands down. Face to face, he searches her gaze for some ulterior motive. "I'm sorry too," he says vaguely, meanings layered in the statement. And in answer to her, he adds, "You could tell me what's in those boxes you brought."
Danae doesn't have an ulterior motive that shows. There is a moment of hurt in her eyes but then she just nods and turns her back to walk back over. Her voice is more hollow when she talks this time. "I brought a couple pair of jeans, some thermals, long sleeve shirts, a heavier winter coat. There is a larger sleeping bag and two blankets. There is also a pair of warm boots, as I always forget to check your shoes."
Kenneth pursues the kin with just his gaze, tracking her back to the boxes. "That for all the tribe?" he inquires, checking his own shoes, sneakers that they are.
Danae looks towards the man. "Well I can purchase it for the rest of the tribe but I will need their sizes. This is just yours, actually." She looks nervous. Then she lets out a breath. "Okay, Kenneth. What is it? There is like this .. elephant here and I'm not sure what it is."
Kenneth looks to the boxes next, brows pinching as she announces those are his. Eyes flick between the boxes and the kin, finally coming to rest on the woman. He gains a touch of confusion after. "Elephant?" he repeats awkwardly, "What are you on? There's no elephant." The literal missing object is pointed out with a cast of his hand around to indicate the cave.
Danae sighs and pinches the bridge of her nose. "I can't do this." The words are given to herself as she looks at him for a long moment. "What is going on between us that makes it so awkward? Why does it always feel like you don't want me around you?"
Kenneth looks back up to the kinswoman at that, but it's long moments before he provides any sort of answer. "Maybe we're just fated to be star-crossed." He pushes up to his feet, rounding around the fire to come to the boxes, but more to reside in the vicinity of the kin. Looking upon her, he takes in a breath. "I can't help that you're kin, and you're beautiful, alright? And I can't help that no matter what, this thing you have with Quentin is going to irk me inside. I'll my damned best not to show it since it'll clearly make you feel uncomfortable. Not to mention make you choose sides." He looks off briefly, eyes narrowing. "And that ain't fair to you."
Danae frowns softly to that. "Am I really so much of a trinket?" She sounds not offended, but hurt by that. "What is wrong with all of you?" Her voice still soft. "You are only irked because as you said, you are a poor loser. It has nothing to do with me. You would be irked if it was anyone." She shuts her eyes. "Do you know all I want is for someone to hold /me/ and tell /me/ it is going to be okay? Yet no. I go to Quentin and he tells me to change everything about me, because it is too stressful for him. I come here and you tell me I'm weak. Well you know what Kenneth? I am. There you have the honesty. I'm terrified too. I'm scared I'm going to say something and you are just going to wash your hands of me. I'm scared that it frightens me more than I admit. I'm hurt that you think I am a trinket, just another kin. You used me to hurt him and in the process hurt me. One off handed comment to test him and now he bristles and pushes me away at your name. I'm pregnant. I'm scared that if I'm me that the father will leave me. He has all these women he's slept with and I'm not fully convinced he's not still sleeping with them. I got caught in a whirlwind. I'm watching my political career start to tick by since he won't marry me in the human side of things. I hate that I'm drawn to you and that you are drawn to me, but for diffferent reasons. You want a one night roll before the fire to get me out of your system before you move on. I want the guy that's going to hit Jason in the mouth when he says I'm just a commodity. I want the one that is going to understand what I am and why I am." She falls softly quiet and looks back away from him. "I just want someone to tell me it's going to be okay."
Kenneth turns his gaze back and flexes out a balled fist subconciously rolled at his side. "You think I only think of you as a 'trinket'?" he starts, his voice low and quiet. "You think I'm just here because I want to bang you? 'Get you out of my system'?" He turns back to the woman, dark eyes focusing on her. The air of disbelief hangs before him, invisible yet clear to see. "I can't believe you think that." He shakes his head and jerks his gaze away from her down to the boxes at his feet. His brow furrows forward into a tight, pained sort of look that he wars against.
"It isn't as if you ever really talk to me, Kenneth. I asked you once why you told him you wanted me during the challenge. You said that you wanted to test him. I have left you plenty of spots to just.. just offer me what I need. Whenever I think I get close, you growl or walk away from me. I've had enough people leave me, Kenneth for you to be another one." Danae is doing something really strange. She's being completely honest. She starts to step towards him and then stops. "I have told you more about me, then I have my own mate. I.." She stops. "I almost told him not to come to you after you kissed me the first time. I care for Quentin. He is exactly what I need. He can be in the city with me. He pretends well enough to like me. He's faithful, I think." She looks at the pained look and immediately looks guilty for causing it. "Do you think I can live in a cave? Are you really going to raise another man's kid? I'm stuck, Kenneth. I've been stuck since he won the challenge. You told me once this is my life and to accept it. It hurts me to look at you sometimes. I think sometimes about what if you would have come sooner? What if you would have won?" She's not rubbing it in his face. "So let me in. Tell me all the embarressing things you are trying so hard to hide from me. Don't ask me the point in it, because the point is right now, I'm hanging out here by myself. Hang with me."
Kenneth keeps his gaze on the boxes below him. "It was just a /test/," he growls from between his teeth. "Goddamnit, is the man that insecure in his relationship with you? If your bond is that weak as to be shaken by that lack of faith, that idea of disloyalty..." When he finally does lift his gaze, he straightens and clamps down his arms at his side. "It used to be that I preached the only source of unconditional love was God and Jesus. I was a pastor's adopted son," he says as he regards her. "So you can ask me about raising another man's kid, sure. And even now, I'm watching over pups that our oh so esteemed former sept alpha decided to whelp and ditch. Kin of our tribe. Garou pups, even. Don't you start on that. I look after the tribe's kin, goddamnit."
"I didn't want it to just be a test." Danae offers to the first part before she nods to the rest of that. She drops her eyes towards the boxes and then moves to straighten them. A breath taken then before she offers. "I didn't mean to insult you." Her voice growing quieter and there is a spark of something that could be pain in her voice. She, however, doesn't look at him again.
Kenneth reaches out a hand when she starts to move again, this one to place on her shoulder and stop her from straightening the boxes. "Danae... that's enough. Enough now." He looks to her face, though his gaze travels in a general sweep over her person and back again. "Bad enough you had to come all the way out here in your condition. I don't think you need more stress," he remarks.
"In my.." Danae's eyes travel to his eyes. "I'm pregnant, not incapable." It almost seems like she's confused by someone thinking of her. She straightens and looks at him. There is a pause, too long of a pause. "You were hurt that I thought you wanted me for a roll. Why?" Her eyes fall from his to his necklace and then back up to him. She stands too close.
Kenneth starts to talk back again, but he catches the words in his throat. The hand on her shoulder retracts. Her close proximity makes the halfmoon once more, edgy, but this time he doesn't withdraw. "After all that shit I gave you about being loose with who you slept with," he says after collecting his thoughts, "you think I'd turn around and be a hypocrite by sleeping around myself?" The halfmoon blinks a couple times and looks off from her to the fire, indicative of other reasons unspoken.
Danae reaches her right out slowly. Her fingers barely touching his jaw to attempt to round his eyes back to hers. "And?" The soft word is prompted for the other reasons that remain unspoken.
Kenneth's head turns with the touch, his eyes glinting with the hint of grey color resulting from the fire's highlight. "And... it's just unbelievable." He looks anywhere but directly into her eyes, although the brief drop of his gaze to her mouth is quickly lifted. "I'm not that sort of guy. I /never/ was. Because... I'd like to appreciate the fact that I've been given the second chance of recovery. Not just from... from not being able to... the point is, Danae, I'm not like that."
Danae's eyes soften. The hard brilliance becoming something more intimate, though not the hint of sexual energy; something more affectionate. It is an accidental unguarded moment in her world. Her eyes instinctively drop to his lips as her mind acknowledges where his own fell. Her fingers stay upon his jaw, loose in touch as she allows them to trail to his chin. There is a hesitation as if she's preparing to press her lips to his, however, she stops after pitching slightly forwards. Then her eyes lift back up to his. Whatever wit she had dying on her lips before ever birthing to sharpness.
Kenneth swallows down, a bob of his Adam's apple transferring the motion. Another rise and fall of his chest later, he notes, "If that isn't reassuring enough... I've only been with one woman, ever. And that was pretty much Cori's fault. She said I needed to know what it was like after... after I finally got everything back. Down there." He shifts his gaze to a side though his head doesn't turn. "Children and their 'free love' crap, you know." Yet, the statement is less harsh than the words used to formulate it.
Danae still is silent as she observes him. There is a difference to her touch though. The fingers still run against his jawline, as they have in the past. This time they are more tender though, as well there is a subtle shift to her mood. A slight shifting of her guard as she moves her form forwards. The heat of her lips can be felt against his, even though she does not join them. Finally, her voice softened to the confines between them breaks forth. "Look at me."
Kenneth lags in compliance, but eventually his eyes find hers. Their faces so close together, his breath can be felt being eased out in as shallow, restrained a manner as possible. He looks at her. "Please, Danae. Don't make this harder."
"My heart is already torn, it can't be any harder, Kenneth." Danae offers lightly. Although, her eyes show the sting of rejection, her fingers start to fall from his jawline. Emerald eyes claiming his still as she says nothing more. There is only the crackling of the fire as she waits. She's just not sure for what.
Kenneth's head tics to a side as her fingers start to come away. And almost immediately, his hand is there to stall. "I don't want this to hurt you," he breathes out slowly, eyes locked on and searching hers. "And I won't make a move... until you say so." He too leans forward just a touch, almost to start that contact between their mouths, but stops just shy. "Not until you say so," he repeats quietly, tone so low it's almost lost.
There becomes a defining moment in a person's life. In fact, they have many as they go through their lives. It is those heartbeats that they can look back on and know it altered them in some way. A moment they will walk away from and never quite be who they were before they entered it. Danae's breath catches as she realizes this is her moment. Her mind flashes over all the people that are here and effected by her choice. In her mind's eye she can see Quentin's face laughing and then again looking at her with scorn for her birth. She can see Kenneth when she first saw him. Awakening after Viktor's anger, shoved against a wall while he demanded answers from her or forfeit of her life. It happens in a span of seconds as the memories tick by in her mind. She can see Quentin's flipant responses to her annoucement of pregnancy, then his eyes filled with awe at the sound of the heart beat. Kenneth again inside this cave as he spoke of Jarrod and the raw pain of regret. Then traveling to the city to meet outside her work. She recalls the moment his lips first touched her and then she is back in the moment. All she has to do, is push him away and honor Quentin. All she has to do is pull him closer and surrender. The young woman stands at her own ravine, staring at her paths as they lie before her. Each with the ability to cause pain, to rip something asunder that she doesn't want to lose. Her eyes start to glitter in the lights of the fire with the tears of indecision in them. The girl, sans the woman, stands before the young man as a portrait of a torn heart; with neither direction appropriate. Slowly, her lips part to give into the travesty of decision. "Kiss me." The words roll off her lips as her heart thunders into her ears, preparing her for the descent of a path unlit and unwalked.
At that moment, at those words, he needs no further command. Kenneth takes her into his grasp, moving forward to finally fulfill the desire echoed by the kin. Lips closing the distance, he presses forward to push her back, back towards the smoothly carved, stone-cool walls of the cave. Countering it, the heat of the fire and more than that the passion with which he nearly crushes his mouth to hers. It is no restrained gesture of affection, but one more reminiscent of the carnal instincts. All that comes flooding forth from the fierce touch of his lips to the way he runs up his hands to weave his fingers through her hair. No more restraint. No more deception.
Danae has been kissed by him before. They have been quick, or fierce. It was always on the edge of his good bye to her. Now this one is unexpected. Danae feels the cool walls of the cave against her back as she wraps her own arms about his neck. Her mind shifting out the thoughts to not think, just to react, just to submit. It calls in her blood and she answers his passion with her own. The fingers weaving through her hair is answered by a feral noise in the back of her throat. Her body shifting to move closer to his as she gives fully into his kiss. The passion erupting with all the tension, all the stress, all the pain and misunderstandings to be sated by what exists now; regardless of definition.
Kenneth doesn't hurry the kiss the way he'd done before. There's no hint of a goodbye waiting at the split second's break for breath. Who knows how long the time is that is spent against the wall. Running his fingers back through, he doesn't let her go. No abandoning. "Let me," he whispers faintly at a pause, half-lidded eyes searching through hers. Even at this junction, he manages to hold. One last chance to slip away.
Danae's pulse is racing, so loud that she fears he can hear it. Her eyes staring up at him as she just studies him. The indecision causes her to open her lips to run away. Then they close again without permission or denial. He can feel the uncertanity come from her as she studies his eyes. Those brilliantly beautiful green eyes meet his. They are deepening towards black with her desire and her lust. There is a deep sorrow in the back of her eyes as if she knows someone could be hurt by this. She doesn't say anything as her lips shift to meet his again.
Even if he could, Kenneth's own must be beating so hard, it should be tangible through his layers. A hand extracts from behind her amongst the locks and slowly reaches to run a knuckle gently down her cheek. As her mouth meets his once more, that seems to be the deciding, overriding factor as he curls his arm about her and holds her to him. With her in his arms, he slowly backs up to release her from the pinned state against the wall. With her, he guides her back further into the cave and away from the exit, the course finally set.
The path is not a surprising one, it was potentially edging to it since their first meeting. Her hands on his form tremble lightly as she moves further into the cave. Danae feels the worry as she walks with him. It is as if she's pondering just what she is betting this time. Finally, she nods her head, a lift of her hand to free her hair.
[Fade to Black.]
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