Have A Little Hope

1/19/2005
06:33 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous Moon phase (63% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 59 degrees Fahrenheit (15 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the east at 9 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.08 and falling, and the relative humidity is 69 percent. The dewpoint is 49 degrees Fahrenheit (9 degrees Celsius.)

Forest North of Kent Crossing(#3819RJ)
A large expanse of second-growth forest grows about you. Douglas Fir and Western Hemlock are the dominant trees, with more deciduous species present closer to the west. The woods are light, with sunlight or moonlight trickling to the floor of the forest on the occasions when the skies are clear. While some large houses and the sporadic older farmstead dot the few small roads that wind their way through the wilderness, most of it has returned to the natural state. The remnants of human inhabitations past can be seen in the rectangular shaped meadows that were once farms. A few abandoned buildings and the rusted remains of farm machinery lay in some of these grassy areas.
To the west of this area, the Columbia River pushes through the land, with the city of St. Claire on the opposite bank. Interstate 90 crosses the Columbia to the north, following it north-south for a few miles on this side, but generally maintaining its east-west path. To the east is Sunrise Road; one of the more inhabited country roads in the area and to the south is the sleepy town of Kent Crossing.
Contents:
Hope
Obvious exits:
Into the Den  East  Southwest  South  

[look Hope]
Hope appears to be a frail and sickly child, little more then eleven years old. Her head has been shaved bald and a dozen small permanently embedded bits of metal poke out from the scalp. In the girl's right arm, is an arterial catheter, which allows for the easy injection of any liquid. Most disturbingly of all, is that the girl breaths through her throat, due to a tracheotomy. A small white device covers the hole in her throat, preventing foreign particles from entering her lungs and moves faintly with every breath drawn. The girl is dressed in a patchwork of discarded clothing, but still lacks shoes.

Hope is in the same place she has been for the last few months. There are several completed puzzles on the dirty floor, the place smels a bit, since the bathroom doesn't work properly. Hope is curled up on her 'bed', sleeping away in one corner of the room.

Coming out of south, Yi makes her trek along the forest in near darkness, given the time of night. Navigating by instinct and certain landmarks rather than sight, the Gnawer walks along without much stealth to her gait. The crinkle of a large brown paper bag can be heard with each step, all the way up to the door of the abandoned shelter. "Hope?" Yi inquires aloud, sounding - with attempt - friendly. She opens the door afterwards, blinking a couple of times at the smell of the place, but deeming to ignore it for now.

Hope sits up and rubs at sleep filled eyes, blankets falling from her shoulders. The girl grumbs softly in the darkness, squinting at Yi.

Yi steps inside some more and shuts the door behind her. "Hello Hope," she greets again, noticing how she'd awoken her. "I brought some dinner, and some more things I thought you might like..." Setting down the paper bag and unrolling the crinkled top, the Gnawer begins to extract things out of it. Yet Another Puzzle, this one at 1000 pieces to arrange into random flowery landscape, some easy to read, grade schooler books it looks like, a slightly chewed upon teddy bear missing an eye and a couple of styrofoam boxes that contain slightly lukewarmed noodles, aka Dinner. "How are you feeling?"

"Bored," Hope mumbles, running a hand over her metal implants. "Still here. Bathroom stil doesn't work."

Yi looks upon the implants and her lips tighten visibly. "Well, this place doesn't have very many people," she admits with a glance towards that bathroom. It probably hasn't worked for some time. "But I'm here? Would you... like to do anything?"

"Have a shower?" Hope asks. "I've been stuck here for a long time and nothing in the bathroom works. I smell bad."

Yi puts a hand to her lips, trying to think things out. "Besides the shower... do you have any sort of..." She pauses, trying to work out a certain phrasing, then decides to forgo it. "How can I trust you not to run away on me?"

"Where would I go?" Hope states, rather simply. "I don't even really like it outside. There is no ceiling."

"No ceiling?" Yi echoes, glancing up almost in reflex. Then she looks back and laughs softly. "But the open sky is very beautiful when it is not cloudy. The moon always shines bright, though the cloud masks its beauty..." Then she levels her gaze at the young girl. "Do you miss him? The doctor, that is."

"Don't like it," Hope mumbles. At Yi's question, the girl's jaw tightens and there is Rage reflected in her eyes. She is trying not to seem upset, but is failing, miserably. "Yes."

Yi nods slowly, eyes straying over to the noodlebox. "I don't think any one here has really decided on what is to be done. You see, Hope... we... I... never saw anyone like you before. I've never met someone like Doctor Vissum before. But, what I don't understand... is why you let him do all - all of that to you." She gestures to herself, but indicates broadly she means all that metal headgear.

Hope huffs. "He looked after me. Why does everyone assume that he was in charge?"

"Because he was with you when we found you," Yi says evenly, "but if he wasn't in charge, then who was?"

Hope rolls her eyes. "He looked after me. Thats what he did. He was with me, because he was trying to keep me safe. There were others in charge. Different people in charge of different places. Dr. Vissum looked after me, made certain that I was happy."

Yi blinks twice, then her eyes widen. "You mean there are more like you? With other people looking after them too?" The Gnawer is genuinely surprised - perhaps inwardly repulsed. Regardless, her tone tightens with the thought. "You are Happy, looking... like that?"

Hope shakes her head. "No. Only me." She sounds down right perturbed. "Like, in charge of food, keeping things clean, or the lab. Things like that. Why not? I've been this way for as long as I can remember. I liked being with Dr. Vissum. He was always nice to me. A lot nicer then most of you have been."

Yi sucks in a breath, bothered by the girl's statement. Looking back after a couple of silent seconds, she wets her lips. "I'm sorry Hope. Our ways of life are hard, because there are things out there that would be even meaner to us than we have been to you." She takes off her baseball cap, running a hand through her hair. "Did you ever get to meet anyone outside of the lab?"

Hope shakes her head. "No." The girl sighs softly. "Am I going to get a shower?"

Yi looks back up again, her thoughts running off somewhere until the shower question brings her back. "Oh? Uhm. Yes. I mean..." There is a little bit of thought as to precisely How one will find a shower out here, but Yi thinks some more. "Well there is a small river near by..."

"No, a shower. You know a real one, with hot water?" Hope half-snaps, temper starting to flair. "Its cold here, it smells, there is no water, except for the stuff you bring in bottles. I'm alone most of the time and you took Dr. Vissum away from me!" A growl has entered the girl's throat and her hands and clenched into fists.

Yi senses the increasing Rage, her own prickling up in her blood. "The only real shower is miles from here!" she snaps back, trying to keep her temper in tact. "And unless you feel like shifting and running with me, it will be hours of walking in the dark before we reach it. I'm /sorry/ that our hospitality cannot be more than what you hoped for, but This is the Real World, Hope. A world that does not bend to demands of anyone so easily. You could not be hidden forever - that is your Fate."

"Staying somewhere warm, with running water, really that much to ask for?" Hope growls, feet shifting under her as she starts to stand. "You took Dr. Vissum away from me! You left me in here! You took away everything I ever knew. You kill people and say that its okay, because /Gaia/ says so. Everything you've told me is that you're going to kill me anyway, because I don't believe in this Gaia, whatever that is." Tears appear in the girl's eyes and start to run down her cheeks. "I just wanted to be normal. To stay with Dr. Vissum."

"Dr. Vissum will be DEAD one day," Yi retorts with her own bitter grief swelling forth. "If not by our hand, by someone else's, or even just by old age. He must be at least 40 years older than you. And then what will you do? When he has left you alone, and all shun you because of what you are, what will you do? You are Not Normal, Hope. You aren't even human!"

Hope's nostrils flair and she growls, low and threatening. "Erik said there was a way to be normal. What gave you the right to..." The girl stops, almost as if she has hit a solid wall. "He isn't dead? I thought that you had killed him already." The girl swallows hard, then starts to ball her eyeballs out, crumpling into a seated position. The crying sounds even stranger, as air gasps in and out of the hole in her throat.

Clamping her lips closed for a moment, Yi turns away and closes her eyes. Torn on what exactly to do, she listens to the girl's sobs for a short while before she looks back and walks over. "He's not dead. At least, I have not heard that anyone has done anything to him, but as Dr. Vissum was not in charge where you were, I am not in charge here." The Gnawer ragabash slowly sits down upon the edge of the makeshift bed. "You're not the only one who wants to be normal, Hope. Even I would have been happy just being who I was. Going to school, being with friends. But it all changed the moment I changed."

Hope continues to dry for some time, brfore bringing herself back under control. "Why can't I stay with him?" She asks, quietly.

Yi lowers her eyes, sighing out quietly. "Because... because it would just be living another lie," she replies. "Dr. Vissum isn't one of us - I mean, isn't a Garou. Most humans are not able to be around us for a long time. And even if it were possible, he sees us as monsters."

Hope shrugs. "He doesn't see me as a monster."

"You really think that?" Yi asks, an eyebrow arching up. "Even if you take on the crinos form?"

Hope scratches at the back of her neck. "Crinos?"

Yi uses her arms as a gesture for effect. "The really big, half-wolf, half-human form. It is what the Garou call Crinos, or the war form. The form that we take to when fighting against our enemies... though some times it is for the sake of getting closer to the balance of our two sides. We are not wolf. We are not human. We are simply Garou."

Hope ohs quietly. "Wouldn't be the first time. He knows what I am and he loves me anyway."

Yi wets her lips again. "I wouldn't know," she murmurs. "Tell me... have you changed to any other form besides that one before?"

Hope shrugs. "Wolf, but I don't like it. Tend to fall down."

Yi vaguely smiles. "That's just because you need practice with it. Just like learning to walk with crinos. And there are two other forms too. One we call Glabro, which is... kind of like a caveman. The other, we call hispo, is like the ancient wolf." The Gnawer chews on the inside of her cheek a few times, before she looks to the girl. "Would you like to try it? I said the nearest shower was quite a walk away, but... we can get there faster if we run like wolves."

Hope sighs softly and wets her lips. "Is it warmer there?"

Yi nods once. "A lot warmer... but there are many rules there too. And you could meet others, like you. Like me." She runs a hand through her hair again. "If you shifted to the wolf form... lupus, we call it, you would already be warmer."

Hope rubs at one of her arms. "Don't feel really comfortable and it stinks in here."

"I don't imagine you would be comfortable," Yi replies, her tone died down and sympathetic. "But the least I can do is bring you to a place that is warm and has running water. Even a wolf would want that." She stands, walks off a few paces and picks up the noodle box. "But if you can bear through it - even just for this one time - then there could be hope for you, Hope."

Hope huffs out a heavy breath of air, mouth remaining closed as she does so. "Okay." With that, the girl starts to strip. Disguarding her clothing in a neat little pile.

Yi lifts a hand, about to say something or other, but then decides not to and slips her baseball cap back on. She watches the girl change out, and goes instead to open up the door. The weather is chilly, but not as unbearable as the days before with freezing rain.

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