Happy? birthday

[shelbyrou]

It is currently 17:43 Pacific Time on Tue Jun 29 2010.
Currently the moon is in the waning Full (Ahroun) Moon phase (80% full).

The Country House

The Ragabash cub certainly doesn't tumble out of Zosia's car - that would be undignified - but there is a certain lightness to her step that wasn't there over the weekend. "So I tried climbing the tree again, and I got stuck in the same place," she reports, politely waiting for the Theurge before heading up to the house. "I finally figured it out, though. If I bounce a little, I can swing up to the branch. Or if I'm fast, shift to glabro and jump."

"You know, it wouldn't hurt for you to practice jumping out of a high branch and shifting to lupus before you get to the ground." Zosia's calmer than the cub as she exits her car but the tug of the full moon is palpable. "I've fought many creatures big enough that shifting mid-air proved valuable." She unlocks the door and starts to enter.

Shelby says, "I did. Or, well, not lupus, but glabro. A couple of times." She hangs back to let Zosia go in first, ready to get the door after them both. "Before I figured out how to get up there. I didn't try jumping to the other tree, though."

"You can use your Rage to shift too," Zosia says slowly, tossing her keys onto a table in the entryway and leaving her shoes on a little rug. "We have to be cautious when we do that since we're small moons. But you can."

"Tim said that too," Shelby agrees, likewise slipping out of her shoes before heading toward the kitchen. "He said I should ask Chandini to show me how. I will, maybe on Friday." She turns at the doorway, eyes slipping to the couch before returning to Zosia. "I really like her. Thank you for letting me learn from her."

"She's all right," Zosia says neutrally. The cake sits on the kitchen table, innocently. "She knows what she's doing."

"--You don't like her," the cub observes, and rather than head down that path, retreats into the kitchen. Two steps in, anyway, before there's an, "Oh!" and the patter of running feet, and the sound of the box being opened. "--You remembered!"

"I don't dislike her. I just don't like her." Which isn't actually the same thing. Even though it sounds like it. Moving to the fridge, Zosia smiles faintly. "Yes, I did."

Shelby is still staring at the cake, a crooked finger coming up to delicately blot at her under-eyes. "I didn't," she starts and stops, gathers what sang-froid she can and turns to face the elder. Her, "Thank you, Zosia," is only a touch wobbly.

"You didn't think I gave a damn enough to track that sort of thing," the theurge says, her voice mild for now. "Well, you were wrong. Good bakery too. Tristan gets my cakes from there."

"I didn't think anyone remembered," corrects Shelby, which isn't actually the same thing. "You're staying for supper, right? And, well - dessert?" The more important of the two.

"Yes. Moon's too big, can't go home." Zosia's silent, staring into the fridge. "I want to go home. But I can't. So."

"You might have gone back to the bawn," the cub points out, glances back at her cake and sniffs. Another quick blot and she moves to investigate the fridge as well. "I could make some spaghetti. Or a pizza margherita - the basil's fresh."

"Pizza, I guess," Zosia says restlessly before shrugging. "It'll work, at least. And no, I need to get out to the tribal territory later and that I have to drive to so no point in going back to the bawn."

Shelby nods and moves away to collect both the olive oil and the basil, currently sitting in a glass on the windowsill. "Tomatoes are in the crisper, if you'd get them please?" Belatedly, she remembers to turn on the oven. "What are you doing out there?"

Zosia looks a bit lost for a second, pulling at drawers until she finds what appears to be the crisper. "Patrolling," she says, selecting two tomatoes and turning them over before taking a seat. "More umbral than realm this time of the month but still both."

Shelby casts an eye over, gives an approving nod before drifting back to collect the naan. "Could I go with you?"

Zosia flicks her fingers, indicating that from here on out, Shelby's cooking. "If you want. It's a hike out to the location but worth it."

"I'd like that." Shelby gets everything neatly laid out - bread, oil, tomatoes, basil - before starting the washing and prep. "Which reminds me - if I want to talk to that Mouse again, how would I find her? Can I talk to just any Mouse I see, or does it have to be that one specifically?"

"You would go to where you met the Mouse last and see if you can find her. If she wants to be found, she will. Otherwise, you just try to find a Mouse spirit and start fresh." Zosia kicks one leg lazily. "Each spirit like that is an individual so the bargain of that sort only matters to the individual you bargained with."

Shelby says, "I was thinking, you know," and pauses to give the basil a quick shower, "of going back after I'm Cliath, like you said. Or even before, just to, I don't know, give her some more fur or something."

"Or something she might ask of a Cliath that she wouldn't ask of a cub," Zosia says, nodding. "Not a bad idea. If she wants you to find her again, you will."

Shelby shakes off the basil before stripping the leaves. "Right, but she won't ask that yet, because I'm not one. Do you like your basil fresh, or fried a little?"

"No real preference," Zosia says, leaning her head back on the top of her chair. "In a few days, I'm going to be working on teaching you a rite. I haven't decided which one yet."

Shelby nods and sets the leaves aside, turns to the tomatoes. "Oh? Tim - Tim-rhya - asked me if you'd taught me anything yet. I knew you were planning on it."

"Yeah, someone else did too." There's no explanation of who or what, precisely. "I've about finished learning my most recent rite, feeling comfortable with it. I'd be able to give you my attention."

"What are you learning?" asks Shelby, politely. "--Oh! I forgot the cheese!" Halfway to the fridge she stops, uncertain. "You do want mozzarella, right? Some people don't."

"A pizza isn't a pizza without cheese," Zosia says firmly before examining her rather ragged looking manicure. "Something they were teaching me at Sunlit Waters when I was there. It thins the Gauntlet of an area, gives a better sense of what the area is like. It's a tribal rite, a secret one." She glances up, her eyes intense. "If you're following me."

Shelby nods her agreement and continues on, bending to pull out a container with milky liquid inside. "You mean don't tell anyone you have it." She throws an unreadable look over her shoulder before returning to the sink to drain the cheese.

"Don't tell anyone that the Silver Fangs can do it. Every tribe has secrets. It's true. We know it. Some tribes have more secrets than others. The Uktena--and their secrets and pursuit of them make the rest of the nation nervous. The Silent Striders do. And the Silver Fangs. We know many secrets in our tribe. And we like them to stay secrets." Zosia smiles slightly, a quiet little smile. "We are the Children of Falcon, for example, but we also honor Helios more than most. We know how to thin the gauntlets and many of our mystics know the secrets of Death itself."

"Tim keeps telling me to watch people, to figure out what they're doing," the cub reports as she pulls out a paper towel to pat the cheese dry. "So he, at least, is always looking. --You told me that," she adds with a nod. "About the secrets, and Helios."

"How the hell do you think we get the secrets?" Zosia counters. "Of course you always watch. And you assume that others are as well. But there are many rites, many things, that we can do that others can't. We're closer to our ancestors and they reward us for it. We are better able to use rituals to affect the Gauntlet. Like that rite you saw me do with the mirror. But we must be, as a tribe, gracious and polite and open seeming. People like to share what they know if you are."

Shelby says, "Or if they think we are," as she continues the pizza prep. "My problem is there are so many things I don't know, and I don't know that I don't know them. But that will come with experience."

"Yes. You won't know everything as a cliath. Or a Fostern. And so on. We'll always be listening and learning and expanding our knowledge." Zosia wrinkles her nose slightly. "Frustrating, really, that it takes so long to learn things. But you have to learn them right."

The Ragabash throws another look over her shoulder. "Hopefully I am." She slices the mozzarella into untidy rounds, frowning at them but setting them aside to drain anyway. "How is your pack doing? Mostly I only see August."

"Good. Busy. We end up spread out all over the bawn, frankly, but we're in each other's head so it's okay." Zosia relaxes, her face lighting up. "It's good being in a pack. Feels right."

"Good," Shelby says, just as though Zosia were waiting for her approval. "I was thinking of packing with Kerr, but not anymore. I don't know who I'd pack with, once I'm Cliath."

"Part of it will be figuring out who you are as a cliath. Sounds trite, I know, but it is different once you are. Do you like the city, do you like the bawn, do you like a little of each. Do you like to learn about rites, are you a scout, are you good at fighting and so on." Zosia waggles a hand.

Shelby sighs. "All questions I can't answer. I liked Saint Claire, what little I saw of it, but it's so different from Sunlit Waters." She drizzles oil onto the naan, layers on first the cheese and then the sliced tomatoes, then sprinkles basil over all. "I think I've met some people I could pack with, but I hardly know them."

"The Sept is more open than Sunlit Waters," Zosia replies immediately. "You only saw that Sept as a kin. It is very different as Garou. And...if you go back, you won't be greeted in the same way. You will be a visiting Garou from another Sept. It...changes your reception."

Shelby looks back again. "No - I meant... Saint Claire itself. The city. It's a long drive from Sunlit Waters to the city, and it isn't here. So I don't know if I'd like it there, because I don't - because I've never lived in a place with so many people." Pizza heads off to wait beside the oven.

"Oh. Well, my statement stands," Zosia says, recovering quickly. "And St. Claire is much bigger than any of the cities near there. But. That's in the future. You need to focus on the now."

Shelby drifts back to the prep area to tidy up, washing the knives, cutting board, and so forth. "Yes, Zosia-rhya," says she with another sigh. "I am, really."

"I know. But it's good to think about it a little." Zosia draws a circle on the counter. "Because the future will become the now before we know it."