Tapestries: Pablo - Sunday, August 27, 2006, 11:49 AM

A loud 'thump' comes from the downstairs and some growling and muffled noises before you hear a vaguely familiar voice, that of Cursor's, calling out: "Kelly? Are you here? Need a hand here, please."

Charlene (OOC) says, "What time of day is it?"

Pablo (OOC) says, "Important thing to know, yes. Let's say, around midnight."

Charlene (OOC) says, "Kay."

Tony just got up a few hours ago, and is re-reading his Potter books a few books behind Bits. Might as well, since he hasn't been given the go-ahead to get to the library yet. This nocturnal schedule is messing with his head a little, like constant jet-lag. He supposes it'll take a long time to get used to. Hearing the noises through his open doorway, he sets the book down and investigates the source. "Kelly's not here," he calls down ahead of himself. "What's up?"

"Grand," mutters Cursor, and there are more muffled noises. Bits comes out of her room a moment or two after you do, peering curiously after you. You both head down the stairs to find Cursor standing next to a girl ... a young woman, really. She has long, straight black hair tied-back, and a dark complexion. She looks tall, and athletic, but it's hard to tell right now because she's hog-tied, with a bandana stuffed in her mouth as an impromptu gag. She's wearing a black and white basketball uniform, which says 'Angels' on the front and has the number '55'. She's also got some dried blood on her skin, and looks like she's taken quite a beating recently. She's struggling furiously against the ropes. Cursor looks up as the two cubs come down the stairs. "I need you two to go find Crys... no, wait. Better idea. You watch her," he points to the trussed-up girl, "And /I'll/ go get Crystal."

Tony stops in the kitchen doorway, briefly blocking Bits from entering. What in the fuck? Staring rather openly right now, the scene hits his senses like some weird tableau. Shocked as he is, it takes him a minute to process Cursor's words. "Wh... what? Who is she?" he asks, stepping aside to let Bits into the room at her insistent nudging. Please don't tell me that they eat human flesh or... need sacrifices or some shit. It seems every day he learns some small but important detail here.

Cursor probably thought it was obvious, so it takes him a second to answer. "Oh," he says, a little offhandedly. "Another new cub." This makes the girl struggle and, apparently, curse under that gag, "She's had a bad day, though, so, just leave her as she is until we get back, okay? Just keep her here." Bits gives Cursor a salute, saying, "Yes, Captain, my Captain." And Cursor shakes his head and heads towards the back door.

Tony glances at Bits, then gives this new girl his full attention. "Uh... hey," he says awkwardly, moving to close the door behind Cursor and then stand in front of it. If he wants him to watch this chick, he's not going to let her near the exit. Even if she is tied up... If she's a Garou, then a crinos might come busting out of her at any time. "Bits, why don't you, uhm... get some wet clothes and we can maybe wash some blood off. Are you okay...?" he asks the girl, knowing the answer.

Bits nods quickly and heads up off to the bathroom to get the requested items. When you're the only one left, the girl starts to glower at you and your question, but then just droops and says something incomprehensible behind the gag.

Tony fidgets. Isn't this a scene from some movie? he wonders to himself. He could untie the gag. And put it back on if she starts wailing. "I'm gonna take the gag off, okay? Please, please don't yell. I don't even know why you're here yet or anything, okay?" Carefully moving behind her, and waiting to make sure she's isn't going to start squirming, he undoes the clothe tie.

"Are you one of those monsters, too?" she grumbles, spitting out the gag when you loosen it? "'Cause I'm not afraid of you. And if I don't show up at practice, someone's gonna tell my dad, and then all of you are going to get in serious trouble." Bits shows up at this point, with two washcloths. "Um, did you want hot or cold? 'Cause I got both."

Tony takes the warm clothe. "Thanks, Bits," he says, and offers it towards the new girl's face. He won't touch if she jerks away. "Monsters? Oh... Oh. Uhm. Yeah. I guess I am," he admits with a wry smile. "But I'm new. So please don't yell at me. Let me guess, though. You just got kidnapped right off school grounds or something, right?"

Bits beams at you, and tries to smile at the new girl, too, but she just gets a scowl in return, as do you. "I was going back for basketball practice, if it makes a difference." She doesn't pull away, trying to show a brave face, but she does wince when you dab around the growing bruises on her face.

Tony is as gentle as he can be. He knows his way around cuts and bruises well enough. "Sorry to hear it. I was kidnapped, too, about two weeks ago. Right off my front lawn. I think I still have the bump from where I got punched in the back of the head," he says, wiping away the blood diligently. "This is fucked up," he sighs, dropping the blood-tinted clothe into the sink and running water on it. "These guys need to find a new method of getting people to cooperate."

Bits murmurs a response to that, "It used to be different, you know. When there were more, and everyone knew where their Kinfolk were, and people didn't move around so much. It was easier, then." The new girl just grunts, looking away. She tests the bonds again, but apparently, whoever tied her up did a pretty good job.

Tony gives a little mumble at Bits. "They knew where my mother was, but they didn't keep track of her dying." He doesn't mean to be sour at her, but it's the truth. To the new girl, he looks apologetic. "So, who are you? I mean, if you want to say. I imagine you're pretty pissed."

Bits doesn't have anything to say about that. She just stuffs her hands in her pockets, and looks down. The new girl looks at you, hard. "Hope DeRosa. And I'm seriously going to be missed. By a lot of people. And, hell, yeah, I'm pissed."

Tony nods his head. "I know you are. So was I. You probably saw my face on the news, right? I'm Tony Meyer. My father had the police looking for me a week or more ago. Cause I was kidnapped. But it's cool now. Well, sorta." He scratches his temple, frowning. "Not cool, no. But it's... I understand what's going on. Mostly. Anyway, trust me, it'll make a kind of sense when you get the whole thing explained to you."

Hope grunts. It almost sounds like a growl. "Great. So it's like some sort of monster kidnapping brainwashing cult. Wonderful. If you're trying to make me feel better, you're doing a really crappy job." Well, at least she's not screaming. Or struggling, too much.

Tony sits up on the table, nodding again. "It does involve some brainwashing stuff, you could say. At least, they show you stuff you probably don't want to see. There's rules you're not going to want to follow. It actually really sucks, for the most part. But... it's important. It's really important," he says, recalling his encounter with the Wyrm. "There's a war going on, and we don't get to pick soldiers. Someone else picks them, and we have to make sure they'll fight."

Bits has sat in silence, listening to you, and Hope is about to respond, when the back door opens, and you hear Cursor's voice, "... so the Slords say she's one of yours. You know, she's got the whole Mediterranean thing going on, and she sure fights like a damn Fury, but, you know, they are Slords, how much can you trust what they say?" A voice in response says, "Not at all. But we'll take her, regardless. It's not a problem." Then, through the kitchen door appear the Glass Walker, and a very large woman. She's easily a few inches taller than Tony, and must weigh something in the range of 350 or 400 pounds. Her black hair is streaked with grey, and her face has distinctive Greek features. She surveys the cubs present, and heads right towards the bound girl.

Tony hops down from the table when he hears the others approaching. Wow, that's a lot of woman. She must be Samoan or something. He shuffles away from the new girl, giving plenty of room for whatever it is she intends to do. Should he tell them her name, or anything? No. These guys are professionals, as it were. He'll just stand over here with Bits and silently observe.

Hope shoots you another look, though this one is more of a pleading look of help. The large woman grunts, as she inspects Hope, then shifts up into the war-form in an instant, and scoops up the new girl over her shoulders in a fireman's carry. Hope's too stunned to move, at first, and she's secured up there, so even when she starts to struggle, she's getting no where. In Crinos, the large woman is, of course, even larger. Her fur is black, like her hair, and streaked with gray. She is, though, probably the first werewolf you've seen with rolls of fat on her. She focuses her gaze on you, then, and growls: ~You, pup. Come to my tree sometime soon for proper introductions. Too busy right now, though.~ With that, she turns and stalks away, carrying the newest cub with her, out the back door. Once they are gone, Cursor sinks into the couch, letting out a long breath, shaking his head.

Tony opens his mouth in alarm, almost sure that something violent just happened to make the woman go Crinos. But, no, she's just hauling off the new girl, it seems. He meets Hope's eyes, his face scrunched up in a look of utmost pity and impotence as she's carried away. Christ, the poor girl. At least he wasn't hauled off like a sack of potatoes on a Crinos. "Jeez. Why the extra security?" he asks Cursor.

Cursor grins wryly. "Because she has a hell of a right hook." He becomes more serious for a moment. "The Slords gave her to me done up like that. Apparently, she frenzied on her family and killed them all, and then gave the Slords quite a fight, too. Girl's probably an ahroun. Or the angriest ragabash ever."


Tony's eyes widen. "She /what/?" he stammers. "Who are the Slords? Why would they tell you that?"

Cursor scratches his head, "Oh, sorry, I'm using slang here. Shadow Lords. They are one of the 12 tribes of Garou. They run the Ring of Raccoon sept down in Racine County." He twists his mouth in a frown at the second question. "It happens. More often than we'd like, when no one manages to find a cub before their First Change. Especially with the more Rage-filled auspices. I've no reason to doubt their word. But, then, we're not on the best of terms, so I've no reason to trust them, either. Except that they called me and brought the cub to me, instead of keeping her themselves. Probably because I brought them a cub of theirs I found a couple years back."

Tony's brows knit together. "I don't mean to be calling out someone as a liar, but... that's gotta be horeshit. What did she do, kill her family, then calm down, put on her jersey and head to practice? If she went crinos, her clothes woulda been ripped to shreds."

Cursor shakes his head, "That's the story I was told. The blood was under her jersey. But the Shadow Lords certainly didn't treat her with kid gloves. I guess I'll read the paper tomorrow and see what it says about her folks." He shrugs. Bits looks, well, forlorn at this whole situation.

Tony looks unconvinced. The girl told him she was on her way to basketball practice. If she had murdered her family - even if she didn't remember doing it - there's no way she got dressed afterwards in the same house without seeing any mess. "Where does she live?"

Cursor shrugs, "Down in Racine somewhere, I guess." He looks up suddenly, and gives you a stern frown, "Oh, no, don't think you're going down there to check it out. First of all, that's not our territory. Secondly, the place is absolutely crawling with cops, now, I'm sure." He closes his eyes, then opens them again, "Look, Tony, I understand you're sympathetic to the girl, but, Rage... Frenzy... it makes us do odd things sometimes. Horrible things we don't want to admit. But it also lets us fight faster, harder, and without feeling pain. It's a blessing and a curse."

Tony folds his arms. "I won't. But you could. And if it's crawling with cops, then you'd know she did something horrible. And if it isn't... Well. Then you've got some questions to ask the Shadow Lords, wouldn't you? All I'm saying is that it doesn't smell like she freaked. It doesn't add up."

Cursor shakes his head and smiles. "I'm going to get my ass kicked because a cub's giving me a guilt trip." He smirks, "Are you sure you're not a Coggie?" Then he puts his hands up in the air. "All right, I'll go check it out. No one is better than me at that kind of stuff anyway. It'll be like the old days."

Tony smiles back. "We are all Gaia's children," he replies with a lopsided smirk. "Awesome. Thanks, man. And I'll owe you one, promise." He sure as hell hopes Cursor finds nothing there. Her family making a few calls, perhaps.

For some reason your smirking response makes Cursor bust out laughing. He stands up after a nice laugh, and then says, "You might owe me two or three, but that's okay, who's counting?" He nods, and then heads out the front door, presumably to go investigate. Bits finally says something ... you'd almost forgotten she was there, with how quiet she'd been ... "That was very nice of you," she comments.

Tony almost jumps when Bits talks. Jeez, she's like a shadow sometimes. "What was nice of me?" he asks as he heads into the kitchen to clean off that bloody rag in the sink.
Bits follows you, talking all the way. "To care about Hope's family, and, you know, ask Cursor to do that, and stuff."

Tony grins a little. "Well, jeez. If she iced her family, and she obviously has no recollection, it's something she's going to want to know. And if she didn't, then there's some lies floating around. And I hate lies. Hate them." He squeezes the clothe in his hands, red tinted water draining over his fingers and down the sink.

Bits is silent for a long moment as she watches you wash your hands. "Not all lies are bad," she says, "Some are made for the greater good."

Tony looks back at her. "You mean the Veil? Mm. I don't think so. I think that if humans had been left in the loop from the very beginning, there'd be no need for the Veil. They act like Garou are somehow magically gifted with greater reasoning ability, that if humans knew, there'd be pandemonium. And probably there would be, at this point, after living without knowledge of it for so long. But in the end, we'd have every intelligent mind on the planet working at a solution, rather than some shadow war going on behind the curtains. Hell, it's us who have anger issues, isn't it? With our Rage."

Bits giggles a little bit. "Cursor's right. You do sound like a Gaian." She thinks for a moment, then, and starts to argue, but stops before she does, a couple times. Finally, she says, "That might be true, but, you know, we can't change the past, can we? We just have to play with the cards we're dealt. And... I don't think it's fear of pandemonium that makes the Veil go, I think it's self-preservation."

Tony sighs, drying his hands. "You're right about that. We can't change the past. And now we're stuck with how things are. But that doesn't make the Veil lie a good one. Necessary, but not good. And not something I'm ever going to like. Not when I've got a couple of friends out there who don't know that there's a war for their very spirit going on and they don't get a say in it, or even get to fight."

Bits yeahs, softly, looking down at the ground, then back up at you. She smiles, softly, and says, "You know, I learn a lot from you, it kinda surprises me. I'm glad I came here." Her eyes twinkle a little bit.

Tony looks surprised himself, and his smile turns to an embarrassed one. "Yeah? Well, I'm glad you came here, too," he says. "We should have been friends growing up, I'm sure of it." He gives her hand a squeeze.

Bits giggles again, and nods. "That woulda been hard, since you were around here and I was in North Carolina!"

Tony aahs. "Is that where you're from? Holy crap, that's quite a distance, isn't it? Why did you get put all the way over here?"

Bits laughs and sits down. "I was running away from home, and I had $118 and Milwaukee was as far away from the Reservation that Greyhound would take me for that much money!" She shakes her head. "It seems like it was a very long time ago, though."

"You were running away? Why?" He sits down across from her, arms folded over his legs. Seems odd. Didn't she say the bracelet was given to her to help her find her way when she got here?
Bits seems a little uncomfortable talking about it, as she shifts a bit in her seat. "My dad... well, I hate to sound like some sort of stereotypical sob story, but, you know, he'd get drunk and beat on us." She shrugs, "I was tired of it, and I wanted to get away."

Tony shakes his head quickly. "I'm sorry to hear that. I've never liked alcohol and what it does to some people. God, could you imagine a drunken Garou on a full moon? Anyway. How did you end up here in particular? Did you... frenzy?"

Another shake of Bits's head. She doesn't comment further about her abuse. "Nope. Luckily. Ragabashes don't tend to have very much Rage. You know, the fuller the moon you were born under, means generally more Rage. Um, I guess, it has something to do with my bracelet. I didn't have a regular kinfetch, but I had this thing." She scratches her head, "I guess I should have asked Mary Night-Talker about that. But I kinda forgot, with all the learning and stuff."

Tony sits up a little straighter. "Not a regular kinfetch, huh? Okay. Well... how did the bracelet help?" he asks, curiosity flaring up again. He really wants to know what's up with it, since Gabby told him about it.

Again Bits shrugs a little, "I guess that my kinfetch was in here, or something." She frowns, "Now I'm all curious, I don't know why I didn't ask."

Tony is virtually bobbing in his seat. "Well, we can go ask? I'm sure Gabby is over at her place. But..." He fidgets, frowning. "We should wait for Cursor to get back. Or you could go ask, and I'll wait here?"

"Um," she says, "Okay, I'll go ask, and I'll come back later?"