Tapestries: Pablo - Thursday, March 01, 2007, 9:47 PM

Despite Cursor's slight misgivings, he's agreed to take the pack over to Hope's uncle, in hopes to find some more info about what happened to her care ... and her other things. It's a short drive, about ten minutes, into an older part of the city, and Hope directs Cursor to pull into a parking lot next to a small restaurant: 'DeRosa's Pizza'. "They'll be here," she says, "this is their place."

Tony is feeling odd about this visit to the uncle. Hope is more than likely listed as dead or at least kidnapped or something. If she shows her face to a relative, well, news like that ought to spread like wildfire. And he bets a Slord or two will hear about the wayward cub having come back for whatever reason.

Yiska is also a little worried, but if it's important to Hope he's not going to get in the way of it. Also, he's wondering what pizza is.

Shay huh's. The family in the money owns a tiny pizzaria? He smiles a little bit, though. Hey, there's the possibility they might get pizza! Which he hasn't had in forever. Like everyone else, he's concerned for Hope, but she's of tougher stuff.

Hope doesn't seem concerned, in fact, she's smiling broadly, despite the fact that everyone else seems worried. She leads the group confidently into the little shop, and a small black-haired waitress chewing on some gum asks, "How many?" before she looks at Hope and goes all-wide-eyed, hugs the big ahroun and squeals, "Oh my God, Hope!" And then she calls to the back of the rather empty place, "Mama, Papa, it's Hope!" Cursor stands there, smiling a little at the reunion, though his eyes are darting around, checking out the place, and probably looking for emergency exits... and/or danger.

Tony suddenly smiles as he walks into the shop with everyone else and Hope gets a warm hug. He remembers George reacting the same way. Perhaps things won't be too bad after all, he thinks. There's another thing on his mind now, too, as his nose gets a full dose of the air here. Pizza. Oh, good God, PIZZA.

Yiska makes sure to stay in the back - he's still horrible around homids and likely to get spooked by any sudden noises. Like the girl jumping at Hope. He gets wide eyed and glances around. Then the smell hits him.. what in the world..

The girl, who is actually probably about your ages, or maybe a bit older, is soon joined by an older man and woman, both big and a bit chubby. They could fit a number of stereotypes about Italians, though when they talk it's with the same accent most native Wisconsinites have. They too give Hope a huge hug and look at the rest of you curiously. Hope is happy to do the introductions: "Everyone, this is my Uncle Leo and my Aunt Serena, and my cousin Angela." To them, she continues, "These are my friends from the boarding school, Tony, Yiska (he's really shy, don't mind him), Shay, and Bits, and, ah, one of our teachers. We all call him Cursor." The athro ragabash seems quite pleased by Hope's deft explanation of her absence, wondering if she just came up with that. He stands forward and shakes the hands of the adults in a friendly manner. And they greet all of you with smiles, though they are slightly more reserved. Hope then asks her Uncle, "What happened to my things, uncle? And my car? I went over to 

I went over to the house, and..." This prompts her uncle to give Hope a brief hug, and says to her, "Most of it I have, whatever the police did not keep for... well, let's not dwell on that, shall we? Come upstairs with me and I'll pull the boxes out of the attic." He turns to his wife and daughter, saying, "Show Hope's friends to a table in the private room, and get them a couple pizzas while they wait." Which she does, as Hope leaves with her uncle, and a few minutes later, you're left alone in the back room, with three extra-large pizzas with everything.

Tony stands by with the others, smiling back and nodding at the introductions. Boarding school! He should have thought of that. He could have told his father he was accepted into some private school, or something. Bah. What's done is done, he can't untell his lies. The mention of free pizzas does wonders to stop him from going down a depressing line of thought. "Awesome," he can't help but say aloud.

Yiska opens his mouth to ask Bits what a boarding school is, but thinks better of it and instead asks, "What's a pizza?" He stares blankly at the smaller packmate, as the group is led into their own little private room.

Bits is happy to explain to Yiska, "It's a kind of food. It's yummy." She nods and grins, like most of the others, it's been a while for her. Cursor has them fairly often (typical geek food of course), but, still is pleased about the prospect of the free pies, especially from a small family restaurant. And when the food arrives, along with a couple pitchers of soda and water, the ragabash is among the first to dig in, though it's difficult to beat Shay, who almost dives headlong into it.

Tony grins and pats Yiska on the shoulder. "Oh, bud, you're gonna find out. It's the best. Meat, bread, cheese, and tomatoes. It's like every food group in one." He sits down in the private room with everyone, thanking Hope's aunt and cousin for the free food, and then digging in hungrily.

Yiska just seems so bewildered at all the strange food. Pizza looks GROSS.. and what is that bubbly black goo in the picture? He gingerly takes a slice of whatever happens to be closest and sniffs at it.. "It looks like someone vomited on bread." He takes a bite.. and finds it tolerable. It's not meat.. but.. well, it has some meat on it. This cheese stuff is kind of gross though.

Well, everyone seems to be enjoying themselves, and Yiska's not forced to eat too much of it because the homids are happy to devour it. Bits murmurs, "Hope'll be sad she missed this," in between bites. It's just a few moments after everyone is done that the door to the private room opens and three men walk in -- a shorter one buffeted on either side by two men who could probably be described as 'goon-like'. They're impeccibly dressed in suits and they grin, looking around. It's stereotype night at the pizzeria, apparently. Cursor stands up suddenly and the expression on his face turns from one of pleasure to one of, well, annoyance, perhaps a bit of anger. The shorter man speaks to the Walker ragabash when he stands. "Hello, Cursor. Funny to see you here," he speaks with a moderately thick slavic accent, "since no one bothered to tell /us/ that you were in town. I see you've brought the nursery with you, too. How sweet. Where is the girl, though?" Cursor mutters under his breath, before smiling, "If it
"If it isn't Bob the mad Romanian." This epithet draws a scowl from the shorter man, and he puts his arm up to block one of the bigger guys stepping forward. "Surely," 'Bob' says, "surely we can all be reasonable about this? Just tell me where the girl is and no one has to know that you're running around disrespecting someone else's territory."


Tony is certainly having a good time, sharing jokes and witty commentary with Bits and Shay and laughing as Yiska takes a drink of soda. "The tingle means it's working," he replies to the lupus' coughing. The fun seems to come to an awkward halt as the three new people walk in. They know Cursor's name and are looking for 'the girl', and apparently concerned with territory. Must be the Slords. Tony stands now as well, but he doesn't say anything just yet. Merely examines the three newcomers from head to toe in an open manner.

Yiska stays in his seat as the strangers enter. He quickly takes a good look around the room, locating possible exits or anything else they might need to use if a fight breaks out.

Shay's not 'wolfing' it down as fast as can be, but he's certainly not leaving without his fill. To the point of taking the crusts of those who are done, and otherwise being a scavanger. The habit of 'eat as much as you can when you can because you don't know when the next meal is' is hard to break. Though when 'Bob' shows up, Shay's made the same connections as Tony. There's no way that the theurge is going to get in a fight with these guys; the two guys beside 'Bob' are enough of a threat. Three old garou are no match for them, especially without their ahroun. But he suspects that Cursor isn't going to let them leave with Hope, and he is damn sure the rest of the Pack isn't.

The two goons give the evil eye to all of the cliaths, sizing them up and, similarly, obviously being smug. 'Bob' steps towards Cursor, and the Walker does not back down in the least. "What do you care? Why would you want her? Your sept gave her to us fair and square, payed a debt." His words confirm Shay and Tony's conclusions about who your guests are. "Oh," 'Bob' says, laughing, "I don't want to /keep/ her, just talk to her. I want to know her intentions about her father's ... business." Cursor considers this, then nods. "All right. We can find her and talk to her, but leave the goon patrol outside." Goon number one growls, but Bob makes him back off. "Acceptable," 'Bob' says. [more]

Cursor turns to you. "I'm not leaving the parlor here, so you can hear me if there's any trouble, okay? I promise I'll look out for your packmate."

Shay trusts Cursor. Not so much the Slord and his guys, but Cursor is smart and alone 'Bob' isn't going to start a fight with two Garou unless he's *good*. The theurge just nods to the Walker, though he looks to Tony first.

Tony carefully follows the brief trade of words between Cursor and this other guy. Her father's business? Hope's family must be truly notable indeed if the Shadow Lords are interested in the business left behind, whatever it is. Turning to face Cursor when he is addressed, Tony contemplates for a moment. "Alright. We'll be listening," he says, giving a nod to Cursor.
After the others leave, Bits worries a little bit at the remaining packmates, "You have to trust that Cursor knows what he's doing, right?" She smiles a little, "He's nice, you forget he's an athro."

Tony shakes his head at Bits. "I didn't forget," he murmurs, sitting back down. "I trust him, though." He keeps his eyes on the stairs, hands resting atop the table.

It's a long uncomfortable wait, though it's probably only a few minutes. Yiska seems unhappy with the way the pizza is sitting in his stomach as well, just to add a little bit more tension to the wait. When the doors swing open again, though, Cursor and Hope are together, and the ahroun is laughing and carrying a shoulder pack, obviously in good spirits, as well as good health. The Walker grins and waves to you, "Come on, let's go. Everything is fine. Hope will explain in the car." She grins a little, "In my car ... do you still have my keys, Tony?" After she asks, she doesn't wait for an answer before giving a farewell hug to her aunt and uncle and cousin, and thanking them profusely for everything.

After Tony fishes out the keys and hands them to Hope, she leads the pack to her little silver hybrid car, holding her pack over her shoulder. The car is small, and a bit of a tight fit for five adults, luckily Bits and Yiska, at least, are thin. Yiska looks over the back seat and considers whether or not the hatchback would be a better place to reside than stuck in between Shay and Bits, riding on the hump, as it were. Hope puts the car in gear and pulls out, following Cursor in his SUV... though the newish car does have a GPS navigation system. "So," se says, after a little while, "everything is going pretty well, I think, here. I got the car and my stuff and also, well, apparently there's a little trust fund for me that I can use to buy groceries and stuff for all of us. Uncle Leo set it up for me, with my inheritance."

Hope's hands tense around the wheel a little bit, some anger rising in her, before she concentrates and pushes it aside. "So, apparently this Bob guy wanted to know if I was going to come back and try to take over my father's business. And," she smiles, "I laughed in his face. My father was an abusive asshole of a mobster who thought he was Tony fucking Soprano. The last thing I want is anything to do with how he wasted his life. And that satisfied the Slord. And me, and now we can go back home and get to kicking some Wyrmy ass!" She's thrilled at this prospect, obviously, grinning from ear to ear.