This Is Not Happy


10:46 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

3501 Montrose Circle - Lobby(#3501RAJLVh)
With its sparse, elegant decor and plain design, this building has the look and feel of slick modernity--even though the exterior is that of an old factory building. In the lobby, the old freight elevator stands like a piece of retro sculpture. It appears to still be in working order, and an artist's rendition of the design and mechanism is framed on the wall nearby. To the right, a slender brushed-metal console table holds a Japanese flower arrangement, the Ikebana off-center under a row of mailboxes. The directory list by the boxes includes both names and businesses, apparently.
To the left as you enter, a large pair of glass doors leads into the art gallery that occupies most of the first floor. A zigzagging stairway, the walls around it ripped away and the entire structure enclosed in a shining metal cage, leads to the upstairs tenants on the second, third and fourth floors. From that direction a sound of birdsong can be heard, day and night. The doors that lead back out to the street are glass, reinforced by a grid of metal wire, the handles thick and utilitarian. There doesn't seem to be any sort of buzzer system for entry; during the day a security guard is employed by the gallery, and at night the building is locked.
Contents:
Rina
Obvious exits:
Upstairs  Dark Horse Gallery  Street  

The phone rings in the afternoon.

Yi on rare occassion is in her apartment, napping after a long night. The ring of the phone wakes her, and the Gnawer picks up with a low mumble. "Hello? Who's this?"

"Hello, Yi?" Her throat is scratchy. "It's me."

There's a pause on the Gnawer's end. Then, "Rina? Is that you?" Not stopping to wait for a confirmation, another barrage of questions follow. "Where are you? Are you ok? Do you want me to get you from somewhere?"

Rina swallows. "I'm okay. I'm out of the hospital... I thought I should at least call and apologize to you." Her voice is soft, almost meek.

Yi listens Very carefully, not to be taken by surprise again. But when she speaks, it is with a forcibly calmer, and great deal warmed and relieved tone. "Thank Gaia," she breathes out, falling back into a beanbag laid out on the floor. "Where are you now? Do you still want me to get you from somewhere?"

"I'm home," Rina says softly. "I'm home. I'm really--" Another swallow. "I'm sorry, Yi."

Yi chews on her tongue lightly, listening intently to the voice on the other line. "It's ok," she replies after. "We all.. get a bit crazy sometimes. And, do desperate things." She wets her lips, before continuing, "Do you want me to go over there?"

Rina swallows. "I'd understand if-- if you don't want to see me."

Yi furrows her brow, and her tone ladles on another scoop of concern. "Don't be ridiculous," the Gnawer replies, "Why would I not want to see you? If I didn't want to see you, I would not have offered to go to you, right?" She shifts about in the beanbag chair, and then gets back up with a short grunt of effort. "How about I meet you in a few minutes?" A pause. "Well, maybe more than few minutes. If the Mystery Mobile wants to operate tonight. If not, then I'll have to take a bus."

"Do you want anything? If you haven't eaten, I could... maybe make you some dinner or something..." She sounds, if anything, nervous.

Yi shakes her head, though that doesn't translate through the phone. She does smile though, trying to send that over the line. "It's ok. Maybe I will just drop by for a cup of tea?"

Rina sniffs. "If you like, sure," she says softly. "I'll see you in a bit."

It's around 20 minutes later, as Yi had said. When the Gnawer does come a'knocking, she's wearing nondescript clothing, a black bandanna wrapped over her head and then topped with a cap. When she does get let in, though, the first thing the ragabash proceeds to do is give the kin a big hug.

Rina's thin, half-dressed in sweats and a tank top. She's taken by surprise, blinking in the embrace a moment before returning the hug.

The studio is transformed, the walls no longer background but foreground, covered with the kind of evocative media-collage that seems to be one of her favored styles. It's a bit on the dark side, and disturbing for another reason--the surfaces of rusted metal and decayed brick and flaking paint bear an uncanny resemblance to the Umbral city, or some dark Apocalyptic vision of the urban landscape. There are shards of mirror to catch the light, and here and there deep, jewel-dark colors show up like dim sun coming through stained glass; behind the couch, the wall is a sunburst mosaic, a rose window lacking only light, reflecting the lamps back into the room. Against the bizarre wallscape, her paintings are almost like windows into normalcy, rather than the windows to otherness they seemed before.

Yi lets go only after she has had a brief examination up close of the woman, looking her up and down. "Change is change," she intones from somewhere down inside, and then offers a bit more of a smile. "But I /am/ glad to see you, Rina. Do not believe otherwise."

Rina's brow furrows, and she looks into Yi's eyes, dark meeting dark. "I don't get it," she says quietly.

Yi gestures towards the new decor of the studio. "It is different in here. And, we both are never the same person at any moment." She wets her lips, slipping off the bandanna and cap to reveal her rather bald looking head. "So, I heard that you were soon moved from the hospital to another place outside the city."

Rina's brow furrows. "Did you... run into the same thing as the Fianna kid?" she asks, concerned.

Yi tilts her head, question forming through her expression. "Fianna kid?" After a bit more pondering, she realizes. "Ah, Cole you mean. Uhm... yes." The Gnawer scrubs a hand over her head, just the barest hints of stubble starting to grow out again. "It was some kind of poison air spirit that burned." She quirks a bit of a grin. "I suppose my luck was not with me that night."

Rina reaches carefully to touch the girl's temple, trace the line of her skull. "You have a pretty head, at least." One corner of her mouth tugs upward. "You look like a Buddhist monk, or somethin'.

Yi laughs softly, ducking her head a bit lower so that the kin could feel much as she likes. One thing about the Gnawer's head stands out without her hair to cover though, and that is the thin scar that runs around her forehead and down the sides. "I bet my teachers would think I was making a joke of their callings if they saw me like this," she remarks with a smirky grin. "You. You even got me to talk to Thomas Walker." She crooks her finger at the woman, but not in any hostile manner. "Next thing, maybe I will even speak to Natalie some time again."

Rina's brow furrows slightly. "Someone try to scalp you, Yi?" She traces the line of the scar, gently, her touch light.

Yi looks up, eyes following the kin's finger. Her own hand slides up, one finger too touching the scar. That's when the smile fades down. "I... well, you could say that..." she notes in thought.

"Glad they missed," Rina murmurs quietly. She looks over her shoulder for a moment, as if someone is there; then, slowly she runs her hand over the fuzz again. "Sorry about askin'."

Yi shakes her head, her hand moving to touch the kin's. "They didn't miss," she murmurs. "But they didn't strike the final blow in time." The ragabash tilts her head a little. "And you don't have to be sorry about asking questions. Especially to me."

A faint, sad smile comes to Rina's face. "You've always been--" She swallows, tears suddenly kindling in her eyes. "Thanks, Yi."

Yi's lip corners turn up wide, the Gnawer smiling broadly. "You are a very important person to me, Rina. The only thing I could ever ask of you, is that you smile."

Rina's own smile widens a little, softening her eyes. She frames Yi's face with both hands, and touches a chaste kiss to the woman's forehead.

Yi blinks a couple of times, smile dimmed with surprise at first, then it melts back into a warmer version of the broad, quirky Gnawer's way of grinning. "So, how about that tea?" she asks, assuming a more casual gait to the conversation. "What was the place outside the city like?"

Rina turns away, ducking her head. "It was okay. The doctor I had was sensible enough to see I didn't need to be in there for weeks, anyway." She heads for the kitchen, not quite as changed as the rest of the studio. "What kind? You want jasmine, or somethin' herbal, or black?"

Yi follows, pausing at the threshhold of the kitchen area. "Your choice," she answers, the smile replaced with a calm. She hesitates for a moment longer, before venturing, "I never liked hospitals."

"Me neither," Rina says quietly. "And add to that I had some... bad experiences, in the psych ward at Hilliard." Her face is turned away, but there is no disguising the stiffness that comes to her jaw, her shoulders, her neck. She puts on the kettle, and gets down a teapot and a couple of boxes of tea.

Yi nods slowly, crossing the distinguishing 'line' into the kitchen. "Wyrm's bastards are all in there," she mutters. "I don't want to say I was worried you would not get out of there, but... it is /very/ bad in there, Rina. And... and I hope that if something goes wrong again, that you don't turn there."

Rina shakes her head minutely. "I din't turn there to start with," she says tersely. "I'm lucky to not be hauled up in front of the judge for resistin' arrest, how hard I fought those cops." Her head is down, the lines of her neck taut.

Yi wets her lips and steps closer. "I guess I mean, that you do not end up there. I never liked police either," she mentions, coming up behind the kin. "What happened?"

"Somebody musta seen me on the bridge," Rina says quietly. She gets out a couple of teabags, jasmine and toasted rice, and drops them into the empty pot. "Cops showed up. I fought like hell."

Yi furrows her brow, a hand lifting and reaching out for the kin's shoulder. "I said I didn't like police. But, maybe just this once I will say I am glad they were there." Her dark eyes gaze steadily at the woman.

Rina looks over to her, dark eyes windows into the abyss. She swallows, then, and after a moment lowers her eyes. "Maybe," she whispers. "Maybe I would have done it. He's--" Pain flickers through her eyes, and the tears break free to slide down her cheeks. "He's hurting. Fighting. I thought maybe it'd be better if I--"

Yi's hand lifts, fingers moving to brush the tears away. "This I don't understand," she utters softly. "John is back with the Mother. His spirit, we performed a Gathering for him, to speed his spirit to Her. What do you mean, he is hurting, and fighting?"

Rina swallows, and shakes her head minutely, turning her face away. "He's still with me," she whispers. Steam begins rising from the kettle, then, and it clicks.
The distraction of pouring the boiling water into the teapot seems welcome.

Yi is indeed distracted by the steaming kettle, if but for a scant few moments. And as the woman pours, she doesn't say anything. Once the cups are filled, the ragabash licks her lips again, rather at a loss. "Only if you keep him," she notes quietly.

Rina presses her lips together, and glances over to the Gnawer. "How could I not?" she whispers. "It's all I have."

Yi's grip around her mug tightens, and then she sets it down. Her eyes don't look to the woman, but down at the liquid in the cup. "Is that... really what you believe?" The ragabash asks, voice quiet. "That all you have left in this world, is just the memory of a man?"

Rina shakes her head minutely. "No," she says tearfully. "It's all I have left of him. Of us." She swallows, ducking her head for a moment, trying to control her tears.

"How is it that you can live like this?" Yi questions, her brow knitting together as she fights inwardly too. "John was so much more, yes, but... but, Rina, I feel like all you remember about him... is how he left."

"No," she whispers, her voice strained and still on the edge of tears. "No. I remember everything."

Yi shakes her head. "And that is it? All you are going to do is remember?" She turns, looking at the woman now. "What about now? What about tomorrow? What about the others... others who want to see you, and be with you?"

"They keep me alive. And so does he. It's... almost like it was before." Her voice is hoarse, a fragile thing. She pours, filling the two cups with pale tea.

Yi puts her hand down on the counter. "It /can't/ be like it was before, Rina," the Gnawer asserts. "It will never be like it was before. Those times are now past! I do not say 'Don't Look Back', or 'Don't Remember', but how long will you stand here and say to me in that... that weak voice... that you are alive?" She swallows down, eyes closing as she shakes her head again. When she looks back up, Yi sighs. "I just want to see you happy. That's all. And I cannot in my good mind, say this," she gestures with her free hand out towards the dark Apocalyptic walls, "is happy."

Rina turns to look at her, offering a cup in both hands. "Yi," she says desperately, "I am trying. I am. Angela makes me happy, Jenny makes me happy, my friends-- you, and Cole, and Thomas make me happy." Strange to say those words with the shimmer of tears in her eyes.

Yi looks down at the cup, and takes it into her own with a rather gentle touch despite the tense words said. She looks back up to the woman, and with resolution, nods slowly. "I will believe you," she notes. "But it take more... to convince this." She points a finger towards her nearbald temple, then towards the other woman's head. "And this." The hand withdraws, placed palm down over where her heart is.

With a swallow, Rina lowers her eyes and begins to drink. "I'll be all right," she says quietly. "I'll be all right." It's a mantra, a spell.

"We... We'll be alright," Yi offers, finally taking a few sips of her tea cup, visibly savoring the soothing flavors. She watches the other woman for a time, and then again ventures, "Do you want me to stay?"

Rina's brow furrows, and she looks to Yi in confusion. "You mean, tonight? Or--"

Yi tilts her head, and then nods slightly. "Tonight, tomorrow night... Rina, I am here if you need me." And slowly the smallish smile of the ragabash returns. "I promise I won't overstay my welcome, or eat all your food, if you are worried about that."

Rina sniffles, drawing a hand across her cheeks to clear away the tears. "I--" Her voice is hesitant, uncertain. "I think it-- would be okay."

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