Christine Returns

9/18/2005

05:15 PM
Logfile from GarouMUSH.

Currently the moon is in the waning Full Moon phase (99% full).
It is currently 17:12 Pacific Time on Sun Sep 18 2005.

Odeon - Lobby(#4049RJ)
The Odeon's lobby is testament to a faded and perverted glory. The deep crimson carpet is thick in places but in others stubbly as velveteen, and the rich pattern of tangling flowers is everywhere marred by dark stains. The walls are clothed in kingly purple tatters of wallpaper, and covered with faded posters featuring women and men in various states of undress, posing with various degrees of tastelessness, and screaming out titles like "Male Service", "Bang Bang: a Sexual Explosion", and "A Slip of Her Tongue" in garish lettering. There's no light in the room but what comes in from the street, and during the day the actresses look grey and ghoulish, and the bright reds and purples of the room faded and dusky; and at night, the place might as well be covered in thick black paint.
Immediately in front of the entrance is dull matte turnstyle which no longer turns, where once tickets were taken. To the right are a pair of doors which some joker has labelled "Pimps" and "Hos" with red spraypaint: these are the washrooms. To the left are a pair of doorways which lack actual doors, and opposite is a grand set of boarded doors which lead into the theatre proper.
Please check +view for further description.
Contents:
Touch Deer
Christine
Obvious exits:
Upstairs  THeatre  Street  

Crumpling a gnawed on, chewed up, should-be strings instead of paper bag of X-brand cheap dog food kibble, Yi busies herself with cleaning up the Odeon. At least, cleaning in the sense of making it look uninhabited on the outside. She's nearby the closed theater doors, kept that way to keep the mini-crinos and dog kin from escaping out into the Odeon proper. A soft tune is hummed as the fostern 'cleans.'

Knock knock. Touch Deer raps at the double doors. He's wearing his 'street' clothes, some faded jeans and a tshirt with scruffy tennis shoes to match.

Christine appears at the end of the street outside and strolls unhurriedly down the cracked sidewalk. Her dress takes casual to an extreme--she's got on a worse-for-the-wear T-shirt, and jeans with a belt that has several straight tears in it connecting what used to be buckle holes. She stops, about half a block from the marquee, and watches the man at the entrance.

Yi looks up from her chosen chore, hum twisting to a querying end note. Slipping the bag beneath an arm, she goes over to the door to unslip the chain from around the inner handles and open the door, first a crack and then some more. "Touch Deer, hello. Come in, come in." The ragabash steps back a pace, keeping the door open for the Wendigo.

Touch Deer dips his head in a silent hello, but doesn't venture in just yet. He looks left, waves at the small figure watching him from the corner. Not a 'hello' wave, a 'come hither' motion. "One sec, I see Chris."

Christine, once spotted, lifts a greeting hand. She hoists up a little duffle bag that she carries onto one shoulder, and starts quickly towards the door. "Hey there," she says to Touch Deer, before she can see who's in the Odeon to meet her.

[look Christine]
She is an Korean girl of middling height and athletic build, in middle adolescence. Her black hair is cut severely straight, right at her ears, and the jaw that juts out below there is small and pointy. There's never a hint of makeup around her dark brown eyes, or her serious small mouth. She wears only a T-shirt, brandless jeans, and secondhand sneakers.

Yi tilts her head slightly. "Chris?" she echoes, query implying some boy or other. When Christine is the one who pokes around, the ragabash backs up in surprise. "Christine. I did not..." The newmoon suddenly smiles widely with delight. "You look so different! Come in, come in. Oh, I did not know you were back already." She ushers the two Garou in.

Touch Deer moves in, and nods to the young cub signaling his returned greetings. Once inside, he says, "I was just on my way through the area, wanted to say hello, see how you're doing, Yi. Where's everyone?"

Christine looks faintly abashed, before she smothers that with a heavy dose of nonchalance. She ducks her head and steps in, elbowing the door back behind her. Once in, she takes the opportunity to look around the place she hasn't seen for most of the summer.

Yi is a bit in shock with the change of the cub, nearly missing TD's question. Her eyes flick back to the ahroun in distraction. "Everyone? Oh, yes. Basil is at the farmhouse. Masao is out in the city. Aaron is also at the farmhouse. It is a full moon, after all. And time for the Autumn Moon Festival, no less." She refocuses upon Christine, looking the younger girl up and down, still in disbelief at the change.

Touch Deer mms, nods. And his eyes go to Christine, interested in the girl that's garnered such shock from Yi. "Where have you been?"

Christine scowls at the scrutiny, and concentrates hard on looking at things other than Yi. If those things happen to consist mostly of pictures featuring half-naked women, well, it can't be helped. "I saw Basil, and, uh--" She glances at Touch Deer. "Road trip, sort of. South Bend, Indiana, a lot of small towns."

"Olga decided to send her to a friend's home," Yi elaborates a little, but looks thoroughly glad to see the girl. "You were at the farmhouse already? That is good... good. Well, there is not very many seats to offer out here, but we can move into the theater. You really must tell us about what happened on your trip, Christine."

Touch Deer bows slightly, an apologetic half-smile on his face. "I wish I could stay but I need to get moving...scouting with Birdseye tonight." He dips further, a goodbye bow. "See you both soon, Christine, I'd like to talk to you about training, when you have time, soon." He's out the door, waving, "All good medicine."

Christine chews on her lip and watches Touch Deer's departure over her shoulder. "Good medicine to, uh, you too." She finds a clean corner, and dumps her duffle bag. "I don't know why you guys haven't got rid of those posters yet." So some things change, and some things stay very much the same.

Yi nods again, arching a brow at the mention of scouting, but waving a farewell and wishing good luck to the departing Wendigo. She glances back to the theurge then, shrugging an 'oh well'. "There is really little reason to," she considers. "So what have you heard? How was your trip?" She skips a beat, adding, "Are you hungry?"

Christine says, "I'm starving, yeah." That's the first perky thing out of Chris yet. "I haven't heard much of anything. Farmhouse is full of new kids, clueless. Oh, Basil said Rites are soon, which I'd pretty much figured."

The door from the theatre creaks open, pushed enough to allow a small dark nose to poke through. Nostrils flare at the scents in the lobby, going still at a new, yet familiar, odor. The nose disappears quickly, and soon a fuzzy white-blonde head pokes through the door in its stead. "Christine? That you? Or did my nose deceive me?"

Yi digs around in her pocket, not finding any cash immediately on her person. At the sound of Masao's voice, she glances over her shoulder. "Masao! Look who has come back." She shows off Christine, Vanna White style.

Christine smiles faintly. "Hi Masao," she says. "Oh, you remind me--I brought some souvenirs and stuff. I got down to Mt. Rushmore even. I wish I'd known where Joey was..."

"Christine!" Masao cries enthusiastically, squeezing free of the door and shifting back to lupus. As soon as all four paws are on the ground, she's bounding across the lobby towards the other cub with her tongue lolling. Hellohellohello!

Yi wisely ducks out of the way at incoming lupus. She just smiles, truly glad to see both cubs at the moment.

Even in human form, Christine looks something like a great dane with an enthusiastic puppy leaping at her ankles. She seems pleased, if still a little embarrassed. "I would, but...these aren't dedicated." Then she leans over and scratches Masao about the throat.

That seems to be the magic signal, as the lupus ragabash attacks Christine's face with... her tongue! Bounding a little in place to complete the celebratory washing of the new arrival, Poker wags happily and makes rumbly noises in her throat for the scritches.

Yi laughs softly, scratching a bit behind her own ear before she goes to stow away the empty dogfood bag strips behind a corner of a doorway. "When did you return, Christine? Does Olga know?"

Christine laughs deep in her own throat, even as she swats the lupus' muzzle away. "The weekend. Olga, nah, I don't think so, unless word's moved quicker than me. I gotta find her."

Poker relents and pads back a bit to shake herself all over and wag some more before retaking homid. "Couldn't resist. That was fun!" Grinning happily, she runs her hands through her shaggy hair and hums idly.

Yi grins, coming back after depositing the bag. "I would have done the same thing." Going over to Masao, the older ragabash bumps shoulders with the younger. "So Christine. You must tell us: what was it like?"

"Well," says Christine. "I got real tired of eating out of truckstop diners." She squats down to unzip the duffle bag. "It was really hectic. We were just travelling and sleeping in cars for half the time. Then they got an RV from these Gnawers in Missouri who weren't using it, but that was worse--overcrowded, a lot. Olga's friend was always out, I mostly looked after her kid." From the bag she takes a prepaid phone card with a picture of a Yellowstone gray wolf, a snow-globe with a miniature Mt. Rushmore, a pane of etched mica, and a bunch of pencils embossed with the names of various nowherevilles. "I learned to drive. And I got to see a lot of Septs, which was pretty surprising."

Masao giggles at the bump and wriggles her nose before craning her head inquisitively at the small pieces. "Oooh, pretty globe. I didn't get close ta Rushmore...didja go through New Mexico at all? Sounds like a hella trip, anyway."

Yi's eyes stray over the lot of souvenirs, though she's more interested in the returned cub. "Then you two have seen far more than I have," she comments with a soft laugh. "What were they like? The other septs?"

Christine says, "Well, I thought that all places had all the tribes, or most of them. So I saw places with just Gnawers, it was weird. And one or two towns so far out in the country that Gnawers, you know, aren't really any different from the rest of the tribes. Even if you live in "town", you're still just one of a couple houses in the middle of this huge forest. So it's like, the Get are sometimes still all 'You stupid urrah. You live only forty miles from the nearest city, but /I/ live forty-five."

"By that point, you're down to a pissin' contest to see who's farthest." Masao says, shrugging a little and rubbing the back of her neck.

Yi nods slowly, no doubt curious for more details. "And, how are you feeling? Did you want to come back here, after seeing what you saw?"

Christine shrugs. "Yeah, sure. I mean, I don't want to watch someone's kid for the rest of my life." Leaving the bag by the wall, with the souvenirs strewn beside it, she moves towards the stairs. "But I'm exhausted, so I think I'll pass on food. If Olga shows up, wouldja tell her that Sylvie's looking for her--she hasn't shown up yet, has she? I know if she doesn't catch her this time around, she'll see her on her way down from up north."

Yi smiles again, nodding in understanding. "I will. In the meanwhile, do take a rest. Masao and I can look for something to eat out in the city and bring it back." She glances to the other cub. "Oh, as one extra note - do not let the kin out of the theater. They... might have rabies, and we are trying to keep them under watch."

Masao wiggles her fingers after Chris and manages a smile over that last bit. "Sleep well, or try to. Good to have ya back."

"Fabulous," says Christine, fatalistic and cheerful both. "Thanks guys. But hey, I've got a question. Are kinfolk dogs the dogs that don't freak out when a human turns into a wolf, or the ones that don't freak out when a wolf suddenly turns into a human?" Apparently it was a rhetorical question, because she's already up the stairs.

Yi smirks a touch, looking up the stairs. "Both," she answers. "But if I were a kinfolk, I would 'freak out' at either case." She nods to Masao, and starts for the door. "Let's go find something to eat. A cub's return is cause for celebration."

Masao bounces a little in place and grins as she follows, "Yeah! Par-tay! I'm down with that."

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