Waiting For Rain IC: Spring Slowly Comes

[Deadly]

Charlene shrugged a little. The casual lack of interest didn't strike her as particularly unusual in the situation.

[the_druid_droid]

Jon took note of the photo, relieved to finally see his family, even if it was only as an image, although the the presence of his fetch in the picture disturbed him slightly. He took a moment to ask the girl for directions to the bar from campus before setting out toward it.

In some ways, this arrangement might be better - if they could meet in a social setting, he could at least talk to her, and try to work up to a way to describe what had happened.

As Jon walked, another thought struck him though, and he silently hoped that her boyfriend wouldn’t turn out to be a complete tool.

[Thanqol]

The bar was a bit of a mess.

Piles of tables and chairs had been stacked around the far end, forming a kind of staircase up to the top of the pool table. On the pool table was a very large and plush chair. On the throne sat a wolf made out of wood and leaves and thorns, drinking mead and throwing the bottles on the ground. Broken glass covered the floor like a carpet.

Half a dozen other wooden wolves surrounded this impromptu-throne, awkwardly playing pool on the table under and around the feet of the king. Their eyes were polished black glass, their teeth sharp enough to bite the necks off bottles and crunch the glass.

The smell of honey filled the air, and the wolves had several open jars of it strewn around, which they ate with large spoons. They spoke in gutteral English, making off colour - but relatively tame, considering - jokes and jibes. Some kind of rock music was playing in the background.

Jessica was off to the side, chatting to one of the wolves. She looked like she'd been at it for a while, well into the swing of an endless descriptive monologue and the wolf was rolling it's eyes and nodding out of boredom. There were several other students in here, some drinking at the bar and looking vaguely hostile to the wolf kids, others the sort of suck-ups and hangers-on that typically congregated around any popular and/or powerful group. It was like a twisted version of a royal court.

[BlasTech]

Isabelle followed Jon into the bar. She'd almost stayed behind, wanting to speak to the roommate a little more to find out what the goss might have been with the boyfriend. But the others had left, meaning she could stay with them or get left behind.

On the walk over, her mind stewed on the possibilities. When coupled with the janitor's warnings, she found herself relatively unsurprised to find that madness had once again triumphed over mundanity.

Huh. I was expecting vampires. She thought to herself, surveying the bedlam with a cynical eye. I think I'm getting the hang of how this goes.

[BlasTech]

"How do you want to play this Jon? The offer for us to try talking to her first is still on the table." Isabelle asked.

Recalling Vorel's words, she tried to imagine how the scene might have looked from the view of a normal person ... would they see the honey or all the broken glass? Or did it look like nothing worse than a rowdy frat party?

She noticed that Jon was still silent, and gave him a poke in the back to get his attention.

"Hey, you okay?"

[Deadly]

Charlene looked around at the scene in front of them. It honestly wasn't what she had expected, but then ... she wasn't sure exactly what she had expected, so it couldn't really surprise her. She got a little nervous about where this could go, and looked at Jon to see how he was reacting

[the_druid_droid]

When he walked into the bar, Jon stopped short, reaching out a hand to grope for something to steady himself. Demons he might have been able to handle, but the wolves were a thing from his nightmares - like the hounds of his Keeper returned - and here they were so close they could catch him with a single bound...

He would've run then, if the shock of seeing so many of the things so close hadn’t turned his legs to rubber, and the sight of his real, flesh-and-blood sister given him a glimmer of hope to cling to.

Propped up against an unoccupied booth, Jon averted his eyes from the creatures and tried to get the world to stop spinning around him. At last, an idea struck him - he didn’t think he could handle this surrounded by wolves... but maybe if he saw them as people, he could pretend everything was normal long enough to get a conversation started.

He owed that to Jessica - he couldn’t just run away again if there was any other way available...

Jon closed his eyes and concentrated, feeling the world shimmer as the smell of rain-soaked leaves grew strong, washing out the alcohol-and-sweat smell of the bar. Slowly, he opened his eyes and tried to see the bar as his sister must be seeing it.

[Spending 1 Glamour to see the mask]

[Thanqol]

All the tables and chairs were still in their throne-esque setup. But the wolves were gone, replaced with a gang of Greasers. Actual 1950's-style Greasers - leather jackets, sunglasses, greased back hair, the whole shebang. Their leader, up on the throne, was wearing a white pinstriped suit and twirling a cane with a head shaped like a microphone around his fingers.

It was easy to tell them, even through the Mask, apart from the copycats. The wolf-Greasers had a kind of movie theatre perfection to their style; custom made clothes, personal flourishes, no brands or logos, like they'd been gone over by stylists before getting here. Easy contrast to the kids with too much product in their hair trying to fit in.

[the_druid_droid]

When he opened his eyes, Jon’s fear had receded a little, although it was now joined by a tinge of surprise at the greaser outfits the wolves had on. Still, there wasn’t time to wonder about what was going on - soon enough the wolves' true forms would show through and Jon would freeze up again if he didn’t get moving.

A little unsteadily, Jon made his way around the bar and toward the booth where his sister was seated. He swallowed at something that seemed to be trying to seize up his throat, then summoned up his best attempt at a smile.

“Hey, sis!”

[Thanqol]

A pool cue cut him off as he tried to walk past the throne. Two burly greasers blocked his view of Jess, who didn't seem to have noticed his approach yet.

"Oi! Freshman!" shouted the king on the pool table. He grinned, really wide. "You haven't brought us any presents! You think you can just walk into our bar without bringing us gifts?"

"Someone needs to explain dis kid the rules," said another greaser, really slowly.

"I think a suitable gift from you would be... a flank of venison!" The greasers laughed and hooted and high-fived each other. The king stood up and gestured dramatically, "Go! Fetch us our dinner!"

[BlasTech]

"Oh, come now boys." Isabelle smiled as she laid a hand gently on the pool cue. "Do big, bad, wolves like yourselves really need someone else to fetch you your food?"

[Thanqol]

"Oh, come now boys." Isabelle smiled as she laid a hand gently on the pool cue. "Do big, bad, wolves like yourselves really need someone else to fetch you your food?"

"OoooOooooo!" all the wolves turned their attention on their leader. A challenge to his authority had been made.

"We could get it ourselves and we wouldn't even have to chase you very far," the leader said with a smile.

"OoooOooooo!!" The wolves hooted and howled and laughed like the leader's joke was hysterical.

[Deadly]

Charlene was tempted ... so very, very tempted to go get a nice, big piece of honey-glazed meat, fill it with enough horse tranquilizer to put out Dumbo ... then paint mustaches on their sleeping faces or something. But that'd be wrong, so very, very wrong. Some things you just didn't do, no matter how fun it sounded. Not that the thought didn't make her smile guiltily on the inside.

Instead she tried to stay calm and think. The wolves did make her hair stand on end. If it had just been herself she'd have run and hid. But she couldn't turn her back on her friends. Something inside her wanted to bare her teeth and puff herself up instead, but that'd do no good. She resisted the urge and instead placed a hand on Jon's shoulder, hoping to calm him as well.

Don't provoke. Just turn away, and hope like hell they only laugh at you and call you a coward.

"Perhaps we should leave the boys alone," she offered. Better to let them have the 'victory' and take the humiliation, run off with your tail between your legs so to speak, than end up in a pointless fight. They could always come back with a new plan, or wait for Jon's sister to leave the bar.

[BlasTech]

"Aww, you want to chase little old me already? But we've only just met!" Isabelle mock pouted, clearly enjoying herself as she parried the verbal thrust and not noticing Charlene's hushed comment. "I'm sorry, but you guys are going to have to at least buy me dinner and a movie first!"

[Thanqol]

Assume, from this point on, every single sentence is punctuated by general howling, hooting, and laughing.

"Dinner and a movie? Baby. Baby," the wolf on the stage produced a comb and ran it through the leaves on his hair. "You move fast, and I like that. What say we pike this bail and swing by the drive-in? I'll bring the wheels, you bring the pretty,"

[BlasTech]

"Ah, I'm flattered." Isabelle said, with a deferential dip of her head towards the throne. "But it will have to be another time. I'm really just today to help a friend, uh ... shall we say, reconnect with what was lost?." She gestured to Jon.

[Thanqol]

The hooting now was a lot more mocking.

"Turned down? Baby. Baby. You're turning me down?" the wolf combed his hair again. "I'm not sure how I feel about that, baby. Cutting me deep."

[Going to be a social roll here; Manipulation+Socialise total modifier of +2 because you played their game]

[BlasTech]

"Oh just put a little ice on it and you'll be fine" Isabelle smirked. "We can't let it be said that the little girl managed to really hurt the king of wolves after all, now can we?"

Spoiler

Show

Manipulation (4), Socialise (1), Modifier (2) - Total 7 dice.

Result
5 - 5 - 8 - 7 - 2 - 5 - 8 (Avg: 5.71428571429)

Two successes.

[Thanqol]

"All right baby. This time. This time," the king kicked one of the pool balls, which sank another, and slumped back onto his throne. The rest of the wolves laughed and elbowed each other but generally got out of the way of the changelings.

[the_druid_droid]

Jon closed his eyes again and tried to focus on his goal. There wasn’t much time until the Glamour wore off.

They’re not wolves. Just *******s.

It wasn’t the best mantra, but it kept him from bolting out the bar. He’d dealt with plenty of jerks in his time; he could handle these too. Somehow.

Jon was so intent on thinking up a plan that didn’t really notice Isabelle playing the wolves, and when the pool cue moved away, he was briefly at a loss. At last, he processed the fact that someone must have done something and thanked his lucky stars, before trying again to catch Jessica’s attention.

[Thanqol]

"Hey, Mike. What's up?" said Jessica. She didn't look surprised to see him, just vaguely confused.

[the_druid_droid]

A genuine smile spread over Jon’s face, replacing the forced one that had been there. He hadn’t been Mike in so long it almost hurt.

“Well, I found some unexpected time off and I thought I’d see how you were doing out here.” He took another step toward the booth, almost convinced the whole trip had been worth it just to see Jess alive. “And there’s something I wanted to talk to you about. It’s been on my mind for a little while now.”

This last part was added a little quickly - there were probably better ways to begin, and he would have given almost anything to linger and chat, but the visit had a purpose and he couldn’t let the opportunity slip.

[Thanqol]

"All right, sure. Oh! Mike, Coulton, Coulton, Mike," Jessica said, gesturing between Jon and the wooden wolf she was talking to. It was completely indistinguishable from the others other than that it looked kind of bored, and offered a paw as if in a handshake.

[BlasTech]

Seeing that Jon's "reunion" was under way, Isabelle stepped back in order to give the siblings some privacy. She felt glad to have been able to help, even if it was just by talking down some rowdy frat wolves. At the same time, though, her happiness for her friend only served to remind her just how far she was from her own family.

Sometimes that gulf seemed infinite.

She gave Charlene a nudge as she got back to where the other woman was waiting. "Want to go get a drink? Or shall we see what the story is with the boys club here?"

[Deadly]

Well, that went better than it could have, Charlene thought, although she hoped Isabelle could get herself out of it later ... unless she actually intended to go along with it, of course. But that was a worry for later, and for Isabelle, she supposed.

She watched Jon approach his sister, and prayed quietly that it would go well. Maybe she was pessimistic, but she couldn't stop thinking of the earlier run-in with the Fetch. If this ended poorly too, it would be a hard blow for Jon.

She turned to Isabelle at the question. "A glass of water or something would be alright."

[We seem to have an ability to ninja each other lately ]

[BlasTech]

"Barkeep, one glass of your finest tap water, and a lemonade if you please" Isabelle ordered, popping a couple of coins down on the bartop from the money Talmage had given them.

She handed the glass to Charlene before settling down next to her, trying to think of what to say.

[Deadly]

Charlene sat down and looked around for any no-smoking signs or people smoking. If there was a sign, she figured based on the current clientèle, it was probably 'decorated' in such a way as to suggest it was fine to ignore, but it paid to make sure anyway.

She took the glass with a thanks. "So, do you have any plans yourself?" she asked after a brief moment.

[BlasTech]

"Plans?" Isabelle replied. "Well, I guess we'll head for Vikrum next. I don't really like the idea of seeing Gammy Snaps after dark, but if we have to I guess we have to."

[Deadly]

"I was thinking more about ... the past, your family," Charlene said, knowing she was touching on a sensitive subject. "I can understand if you don't want to think about it."

[the_druid_droid]

Jon took the paw, a little gingerly, and managed a "Nice to meet you" to cement the introduction.

"I'm guessing you two are friends," his look suggested that Jon was neither quite that optimistic nor so naive, "Actually Jess, if it's ok with you I was hoping we could maybe talk alone for just a sec. It... kind of involves family business in a way..."