Ornature

[Linus] The Godi is much more used to the comforts and styles of Umbral travel. Moreso then he was when first arriving in Chicago. It has been an uphill battle to push back much of the Cityscape's lesser qualities and unpleasantness from the Pack's territory, nevermind the city proper itself and it's hell tide of incompetence and destitution. Less of a comfort within the unbalanced despair of a Scab and more of a necessity.

Thus, it's not much of a surprise to have the Godi interrupt the moment, heralded by a pressurized pop that cracks the air as space inserts itself instantly into air. His shape blinks into place just inside the double oak doors at the House's front. He's dressed in the familiar black hoodie and a pair of dark green cargo pants, the pockets empty, the belt somewhat loose. Both hands, decorated in the cheap dollar store felt gloves, fingers missing and the ends tattered, raise to push against the doors as if to check their solidity.

A pair of cheap sneakers, squeak against the marble floor, freshly cleaned and darts off to one side with a grimace. The circle beneath his eyes are something of a regularity these days, so when Linus' face lifts to regard Kora and then flick to a familiar blond head, the look on his features might be taken to seem a little more severe because of them, then it actually was.

Surprise, doubt and finally what might constitute irritation.

"Dee?" And a quick glance at Kora, as if seeking confirmation, already peeling around the remaining obstacles to close the distance. He looks around, almost hurriedly.

"Where's Mel?" The other of the twins, his tone a touch alarmed. Years of reflex, identified Melissa as Mel over Melody. Dee was Dee. Always had been. Always would be.

[Rain] Rain had been sent away, off to safer havens during the trials at the pack house of late. She'd packed up her guitar and a change of clothes and a strode out the front door like she'd known where she was going -- which was half for show and half best intentions. Now the sky has faded out to darkness, lost the wash of heathered color, turned cold with the evening but not as cold as the weeks before. Rain's gotten used to muscling her guitar on and off of buses, hauling it down the dark Cabrini streets.

There's a scrape of the heavy front door against cold stone floor, just after the quiet thud of her shoulder leaned against that frame, nudging it open. Then the solid sound of it closing behind her. The quiet hum of strings tied to a body that bounced a little in its hard-sided case.

Rain waits a little in the introit, casts about with her senses before pushing into the packhouse proper. There's time for a No, wait! to reach her before she steps into something she oughtn'ta.

There are voices within, one familiar and one not. An absence of the voice she'd hoped to hear, to hear strong and warm and familiar. Roman's not awake yet, perhaps not well enough to be up and about. It's an odd sort of silence that follows her in. Rain clears her throat a little, tires of waiting, and heads toward the sounds of someone she knows.

[Melody Himinndottir] Her eyes go a bit wide as Linus appears out of thin air, and then wider when he calls her Dee. With a faint smile, she turns to Kora, expression turning into mock annoyance. "See, HE can tell his sisters apart at least."

She turns back to Linus. "Liss is home. She's fine. Mom's fine. Dad's fine." Lips twist in a wry little grimacing smirk. "The little master of the house is also fine. And still as irritating as ever."

And she glances over at the newcomer hearing the clearing throat, but says nothing. Hardly her place, after all.

[Kora] Kora's reassured by the sleeping presence of her healing packmate at the back of her mind. She does not nudge him awake, mind or body, just opens the back and begins slathering on the most generous layer of cream cheese onto her fresh - freshly sliced - bagel. There's a certain stillness about her - in her shoulders, in the line of her narrow spine, visible as the line of bony articulations pricked out against the fabric of her soft gray t-shirt - when Melody says without saying that Kora never calls home. It's been five years.

She made a phone call, once, as she sat sullen on the deck of a small fishing vessel, carrying her off into the unknown. Full of accusation: you knew. you knew. why the fucking didn't you tell me? Doesn't remember who answered the phone, Dee or Mel or Nicholas. Maybe it was Linus; it could've been three a.m. - but that was years ago, and the years shift sidelong, changed and changing. "I've been meaning to," is all she says, low-voiced, quiet. "Been busy lately."

Her chin rises when Linus appears, a brush of her mind against his, confirming his question. She came alone. When the wooden doors swing open, Kora shoots a glance across her shoulder, dark eyes touching on the kinswoman, defined as much by the shadow of her guitar case as by her silhouette in the shadows. "Hey Rain. Want a bagel?" A brief pause, the offer made silently to Linus, too. "I got olive cream cheese."

[Kora] A sharp snort of air flares her nostrils. "The time I saw you you were eleven," Kora informs Melody, "and had spent the last two months switching places constantly. Your teacher, the one with the hairy wart? Marched the two of you home. Mom and dad were out to she complained at me until I slammed the door in her face."

[Melody Himinndottir] She grins. "You should have been paying better attention, then." Eyebrow raised again. "Or, you know, visited once or twice in the last, oh, half decade. I'm sure both mom and dad would love to hear from you, you know. I know Liss would."

[Linus] Linus' gaze remains with Dee for a long moment, lips pulling down into a vague, even faint frown of...something. He's sucking in a breath that is both stilling and expelling of whatever uncertainties pin those features into such plain...disapproval. Kora speaks of old memories and times, Rain enters behind him and the faintest whisper of Roman's presence somewhere nearby. Each of them seems a secondary thought that is dispatched under the weight of the Godi's steadily hardening stare.

"You shouldn't be here." It is flat. Direct. Abrupt. He nearly interrupts Melody's sentence, instead coming in just on the tail end of 'Liss would'. His jaw clenches and his face takes on a note of seriousness that belies much of Linus' attitude and personality since arriving in Chicago.

"You should be back home."

[Melody Himinndottir] Eyes narrow as she turns back to Linus. "Oh really?"

[Rain] There's a certain sort of hesitance in the way Rain approaches. A little well-meaning wariness. After all, the kinswoman doesn't have the best track record this month with strange new Fenrir who just... drop in, metaphorically speaking or not. But she smiles, all the same, and it's a warm and welcoming thing.

There's nothing about the kinswoman that gives away her background. No Breeding. Obviously no Rage. The wide brown eyes and pale complexion could fit any of a handful of families. She's generic, for all intents and purposes within the Nation.

Listening to the banter between siblings? Foster siblings? She raises a bit of an eyebrow as she glances over at Kora. It's clear to the immediate triad that Rain feels more comfortable with their Jarl than either of the others.

"Thanks, Kora." She says. There's an agreement hidden in there. She'd like a bagel. Yes. To the olive cream cheese, she appends: "Oooh, fancy," in an easy tone of voice.

The girl ditches her messenger bag and guitar at the end of the rear pew and heads over. Foolishly straying into the collection of siblings and their reminiscing, and their family spats.

[Linus] "Yes, Really and don't give me that fuckin' tone either." True irritation now, a mingle of Rage shaved off shoulders and brow.

"Chicago's-" He freezes, a recognition of where they are and their company clamping down on his tongue. He sucks in another inhale. "It isn't safe here." Though that argument sounds flawed to Linus as it probably does to the rest of them.

[Melody Himinndottir] She smiles sweetly at Linus, the most innocent look in the world. But he of all people should know that looks like that can be deceiving from her. "So why are you here?"

[Rain] At that little flare from Linus, Rain stops coming closer. She pauses, and instead hangs back. Her hands slide into the back pockets of her jeans and her shoulders round a little. She'll wait it out, to see where this might be going, before getting any closer to the tangle of Fenrir.

[Roman Turner] Somewhere that tickle of rage reached in to a mostly slumbering mind, causing Roman's eyes to snap open as his now active brain shot a query across the link.

~Trouble?~

He was on his feet in the blink of an eye, fur bristled as the general feeling of alarm and irritation came across. Mixed in there were a few baser feelings. Pain warring with the need to void his bladder.

[Kora] "He's right." Kora agrees; low-voiced, dark eyes touching on the younger girl. The younger sister. One half a an identical pair, strange as it is to see them severed. A brief, lifting glance up toward the place where the ceiling opens up, soaring toward a high, singular spine. In places, holes in the roof are covered by blue tarps that shine wetly, casting little darkling shadows over the churches interior. "We're Garou, Dee, Fenrir. We're not meant to be safe."

A brief, supple glance over her shoulder at Rain, rounded shoulders, hands in her back pockets. The edge of a half-smile, as if that might dispel some of the Fenrir temper in the place. "Roman's better," she says, quietly. "Injured but healing. You want an everything bagel, or a sesame?"

[Kora] A subtle, mental negation in response to Roman's query. Then the explanation: Little sister's come calling.
to Linus, Roman Turner

[Linus] "Because I've already got one Sister standing with incompetents!" He snaps. The Godi's hoodie is plucked at, pulling at his sleeves in order to remove the Article. It is a brief struggle as Kora explains to Dee her own measure of agreement to his statements, though the oddity of her proof leaves a vague click in Linus' mind and he doffs the sweater with a grunt and a hand raised to his brow. Scrubbing. Face dragging.

"Dee, introduce yourself to the Jarl."

[Linus] There is the unsubtle click over from english to something like the crackling of fires. Linus cursing in spirit speech, the choice of elements a perfect fit for something so utterly deriding and explosive. It's the only response to Kora's declaration across the Totemlink. Generally agitated.
to Kora, Roman Turner

[Rain] Roman's better, Kora says. It lifts Rain's chin enough, bolsters to look over at the Skald with a small and growing smile. She draws a slightly deeper breath, breathes it out into the cold-but-not-frigid air in the sanctuary. Relief washes over her features, momentarily displacing the wariness she has for the siblings and their reunion.

"I'm glad to hear he's getting better," she says aloud, but that's hardly a necessary thing. The subtle cues surrounding her have already said as much.

"Sesame," she answers, around whatever is transpiring between Linus and Dee, who Rain is watching curiously, from time to time, from the corner of her wide brown eyes. She skirts the cluster of siblings to bring her up closer to Kora. Perhaps this is the wrong thing to do in the moment. Rain wouldn't know. No one's taught her Fenrir manners.

[Melody Himinndottir] She looks over at Kora. "Et tu?" She reaches up, putting a hand to her chest as if she's just been stabbed.

Then she looks back to Linus, smiling just as sweetly again. "In that case, I suppose it's totally a good thing I'm here now to keep you both out of trouble, hmm?"

And then she actually offers a curtsy to Linus, before turning back to Kora. "Forgive me, Kora-rhya. Melody Himinndóttir, Cliath Rotagar of the Get of Fenris, former member of the Sept of the Burning Sky, greets you with heartfelt respect and esteem." She turns back to Linus. "That more or less what you had in mind?"

[Linus] He barks something unintelligible. The sound, not unlike the snapping of a large log that's been in a bonfire for too long. Crisp and crumbling and startling. He's pacing. Hands on hips, a T-shirt aged years and faded from repeated washings with the chipped and degenerated image of 'Super Mario' fist in air and gleefully smiling under his moustache, displayed on the front.

[Roman Turner] It wasn't till several minutes later that a sleepy eyed, tousled haired teen turned up in the opening to the room. His eyes were still puffy from sleep as he scrubbed at his hair trying to smooth it down. He'd tugged on a pair of red flannel pajama bottoms. The long sleeved tee shirt was tucked in one side but not the other and there on his feet were those big ole bear clawed slippers that made him look like he had cartoon feet.

"Lord have mercy, good thing I weren't dead cause ya done would of shook me out of my grave with all the racket in here."

[Kora] Rain requests a sesame bagel; Kora pulls one - presliced - out of the white paper bag, so crusted with seeds that they rain down into the bag as she handles it, without any appreciable diminution in seed-to-crust ratio. She's holding it out to Rain, mostly by instinct, aware of the kinswoman's presence by her side thanks to a bright awareness of her periphery, the shadow in the corner of her eyes.

Then her features go - well nigh blank, and Kora simply stares at Melody in a single, quiet moment of open-mouthed shock. Bagel in right hand, she crumbles the bag full with her left, leaning forward as her dark eyes swing from Melody to Linus and back again.

For Roman - and likely Rain - it's like walking into a season finale half-way to the cliffhanger, with the barest familiarity with the players.

"Are you kidding me?" To Melody; then, a sharp winging glance toward Linus, pacing back and forth, hands on his hips. " - Linus, did you know this?"

[Linus] "Of course I did!"

A flare of anger directed at Kora. This wasn't about Jarls and alphas. Not right now. This was family and the stormcloud of Linus' features is both heated and pink with his travel through the chill outside and the welling irritability.

"...And so would you if you kept in better touch. She's been gone from home for the last two years. Mom, mentioned it the last time she sent me a Letter." He sucks in a calming breath that has only a slight visible effect, continuing to pace around the couches and tables, eyes drifting finally toward Melody again. He doesn't speak in that scrutiny, tongue flicking out to dig into the corner of his mouth. Then his head shakes. His eyes travel quickly to Roman as the ragabash makes himself known.

"Your wounds..." A question without the emphasis to make it one. Better?

[Melody Himinndottir] Melody doesn't step in between Kora and Linus, but once Linus turns his attention away for a moment, she turns back to Kora. "It's not as if I was the only one who wasn't being 100% forthcoming right out of the gate." And then that innocent smile again. "How long before you were going to mention that you're pregnant?"

[Rain] It may be like walking in on a cliff-hanger, but Rain's figured out a few things. Dee is somebody's sister. She's also mouthy, in a way that makes her sound like the youngest of a brood. Or near the youngest. She has a twin, another half, who is not here.

She's True.

That much is news to Kora.

Rain takes the offered bagel and narrows her eyes slightly at the way Kora's left hand crushes the bag. Manners dictate that now's the time to say Thank you, but her survival instinct told the songbird to shut up and stay still. So she stays still, with that bit of bread and spread balanced in one hand, and her frame a little more tense that it rightly needs to be. Rain's gaze slides from one True to the next, warily, until it lands on Roman.

And then she smiles, broadly enough to show that she'd be heading his way, just now, if she thought it was safe in the slightly conceivable way. For now that smile would have to do, warm enough to bridge the distance, relieved to see with her own two eyes that he was standing and part-way hale.

[Roman Turner] "Hold on."

One moment he was holding up a finger in a halting motion, then he had turned and vanished back through the shattered doorway to the kitchen. Rummaging around came, then he returned with arms full to gingerly sit on a pew. Armed with a can of beer and a box of Lucky Charms. Patting the seat next to him in invitation for Rain to join him.

"Now where were we? Oh yeah. I'm still breathing so that's a good thing, right?"

Despite the way his chestnut colored hair stuck up at odd angles.

[Kora] Kora spent all her rage this night last; but it came running back to her, coursing through her veins with the first sight of the moon hanging in the sky. It makes her tense, the moon, brighter and sharper as a creature. It makes her blood sing with the promise of war and -

- crushing a bag of bagels is not enough to spend that promise. The creature exhales, looses her fingers from the bag, which offended no one, physically works to still the roar of her blood over the folds of her mind.

Kora presses her generous mouth together, glancing up once to meet and sheer away from the flare of Linus' anger. Then her dark, steady gaze returns to find his own blue eyes, hollows bruised from lack of sleep, and she holds the look, a sour note of shame on the back of her tongue, and something else that is entirely nameless, deep enough that she cannot begin to define it.

A glance back at the singular twin is accompanied by a supple flare of breath, too forceful to be simple a voiceless laugh, not forceful enough to be anything more than that. "I thought that was elephant-in-the-room obvious."

[Melody Himinndottir] "Still, it's nice when people talk about obvious things. Or, you know, introduce people to other people who may wander into a room without either party in question knowing each other."

And if her smile was merely innocent a moment ago, it turns almost angelic now as she shifts her gaze back to Linus. "Just like it's nice when people actually, you know, come over and hug younger siblings they haven't actually seen in a while. A duty someone in this room is clearly shirking."

[Rain] The tension between the siblings did not stay merely between them. It translated out into the space, strung the nerves of the kinswoman near them up like tight things, sharp things, something about to break. Rain backs away a bit, and carefully skirts the siblings again to end up at the pew beside Roman.

By the time she's navigated the space, the warmth of her smile has gone somewhat ashen. She drops down onto the bench beside him, holding that bagel with both hands, careful not to shed seeds everywhere. Rain is careful, but she keeps close to him. Close enough to press the side of her leg against his, or rest her shoulder against his. It's a small touch, but she initiates it, she wants it.

Rain glances over at him, and then back at the siblings. Then back at Roman, and shrugs a little.

[Linus] Linus' stares at Melody and then, with a sour expression more reminiscent of the Godi's usual, marches over with fists at his side and gathers up his younger sister in a crushing embrace. Sort of clutch that reminds of sarcastic comments, bullying of boyfriends and boys, thumb nosing clownery and the half-assed excuses and lies you made for one another sneaking out windows. Older times.

"...Fenris chose you to fight. He didn't choose you so that you could throw that away on a place like this."

It's a firming statement. The Godi has settled some, releasing Melody. He is seemingly remorseless for the heat that had been climbing off his shoulders. A shallowness to his tone, gaze settling once more on the youngest of the three siblings, each baring a different name from one another. A differing of lives led and fought and broached. His gaze travels to Kora.

"...Kora was the first of us and the freedom she had led her here. That she's chosen to stay is-" A grim thing under his jaw. Linus has always been vocal about his distaste for the methods of maelstrom "-is a choice she stands by. That's enough reason for me to stay. That and Him-" He nods at Kora's belly and the burgeoning child within.

"This place has eaten whole chunks of our tribe and doesn't show any sign of promising less in the future." It's a warning. A threat, even. He flicks a glance at Melody, then nods around at those gathered.

"...We've got family back home that need caring for. You would have done well to stay by them."

[Roman Turner] Like Kora, his rage had been completely spent. Unlike Kora, his rage was a tiny thing to begin with. When Rain joined him on the pew, he welcomed her with the box of cereal, offering her a dig in to the box before he pulled out a handful himself to shove in his mouth. Starving, what he really wanted was red meat, the rarer the better. For now he'd make due with beer and cereal. His voice was low to begin with as he whispered to Rain.

"Family, gotta love em even if ya can't always live with em and sometimes want to smack the glory hallelujah out of em. Bless their little hearts."

[Rain] "Mmmm, yes," she replies. Lifting her eyebrows just slightly in agreement. He offers her cereal, she offers up half her bagel. Rain knows what he'd rather be eating just now, and she has half a mind to go fetch something if there's naught in the kitchen, but the Fenrir are between her and her bag. "Bless their souls, indeed."

Once the division of food stuffs is settled, she bites into her bagel. Chews. Swallows. Then adds, in a quiet voice, mostly for his ears: "I talked to August last night..."

It's a leading statement. She's giving him a chance to wave that conversation off. Like he might wave off talking to her, in person, about Erek, were it to come up. But that's not what Rain leads with, and she keeps at least half her attention on the trio before them. The rest is for him.

[Melody Himinndottir] And she hugs him back, certainly with a bit more force than she did Kora. Not that he's in any real danger of being overpowered by her (grr!) mighty strength.

"If Fenrir chose me to fight, he picked a strange moon for me to be born under." Her tone isn't quite as self-mocking as the words might imply. "Though, again, if Chicago is such a horrible place, but the two of you stubbornly refuse to leave, why, it would seem perfectly obvious that Fenrir has chosen me to keep an eye on you." Again the grin, and a wink.

"Besides, mom wanted to get away from all this. They're all probably a hell of a lot safer without Garou hovering around." And she gives him a penetrating look. "And you know as well as I do there's almost certainly eyes on them regardless."

"Though... tell you what." There's a mischievous gleam in her eyes. "You and Kora promise to come with me and stay, and I'll happily head back. Everybody wins, right?"

[Roman Turner] He was watching the trio like a soap opera. His jaw worked as he chewed, washing down cereal with beer. Rain mentioned August and got.

"How is Miss August and her baby?"

Polite as the day was long. He'd been on the I hate men receiving end of August's pain. And he'd tried to offer her what solace he was capable of giving. Now he'd fallen back on the cautious side of politeness in regards to the woman.

[Rain] Roman had a few advantages over Rain when it came to politely keeping distances from the other kinswoman. He's polite, though, when he asks after her and Rain has no real excuse to sulk, so she's polite, too. More or less.

"She's doin' well. Miss Ella's well, too. Miss August says she's growing up fast, and they're both looking forward to spring." These are the usual things Roman might expect to hear. Rain skips over a lot of the conversation they'd had, and then leaves out the part where someone was flirting with someone else.

"She said Miss Drew came to see her, about her apartment or something. Seemed pretty vexxed about that. I just thought I'd mention in, 'cause she may be bringing it to you."

There's something about the way that Rain tells him this that makes it perfectly clear that she's done nothing to incite or rile up the situation, in fact she'd wash her hands of it if August wasn't now considering her some sort of pal, or at least making a pull for solidarity. Rain takes another small bite of her bagel, chews it quietly; she eats a bit like a bird.

[Linus] "Oh fer..." He clips his language almost reflexively, gaze snapping toward Kora. The irritation is back again and he's moving off toward the nearby Tables and couches to find a seat of some sort or another where he can exhale in peace. A hand waves at the Jarl of Chicago.

"S'like talking to you when I first got here." A beat. "Only she's better at it." A grunt as he sits, one hand slipping beneath the T-shirt, to rub absently at a spot just to the right of his collarbone.

[Roman Turner] His brows furrowed, a crease appearing between them as he turned his head to look at Rain with his next question.

"Who was vexed? Miss Drew or Miss August?"

Two sorts of trouble with a common root.

[Kora] (sorry, it stopped refreshing on me. so now I have 912031232 lines of text!)

Kora shoots Melody a brief, sharp-framed look, her generous mouth a twist, her dark eyes still above it. There's the shadow of the sullen adolescent she was lingering there in the frame of her face - that touch of rage - but otherwise, she has changed, almost entirely. Melody needles, and Kora reacts with a shift of her dark eyes toward the pair of Gaians sitting on the pews farther on. Does not introduce her sister to them; just - steps back, cutting a still moving look back as Linus pulls Dee in for a bone-crushing hug.

She breathes out then, something like a sigh - long and slow - all the air her lungs had been holding, all the residual capacity, deep in the lobes. "My story about this place is different than his." Is all she says, after the Godi has lectured Melody about Maelstrom's failings, and his own reasons for remaining here.

Then, a twist of her mouth, back to Linus. A shake of her pale head as her look swings back to Dee. "This Caern is a fucking miracle, Li." This is an old argument; they have rolled the bones of it between them a half-dozen times or more. Her tone is still, intent, driving, " - raised by the sons and daughters of Fenris, defended by them ever since. I've made a commitment to the living and the dead here, and I'm not leaving.

"It's a - " But she finishes with a flat twist of her mouth. They share human family; eighteen years or more. The same furniture, the same shower curtains, the same tater tot casserole on tuesday nights. They don't share history as Garou, though. Whatever drives her is not what drives them.

"There's a reason I'm here; and I'm staying." A brief, narrow shake of her pale head, like she cannot credit the whole situation. "I'll tell you the whole story some other time, though, yeah?"

Then, a shake of her head. "Jesus Christ, Dee. How the - " a sharp, helpless look then at Linus, like the Godi could explain this. How three of the five of them are true born. "Nicholas?" A glance between them, the inquiry nearly soft. "'Liss?"

[Linus] "If Nikki's fuckin' Trueborn I'm done!" He claps once, raising hands with wide eyes. "So very done!"

[Rain] "Both," Rain answers. It's the worst of all possible answers. "I've'nt talked to Drew, and I'm not gonna unless she brings it up. I don't even want as much in the middle as I am already," she says making a No thank you gesture with the hand holding her bagel, sending a few seeds into her lap.

"Who's Nicholas?" she asks him, in reference to the reunion going on around them. There's a measure of oh, sweet Gaia, there's more of them? to it. It's faint. It's mostly teasing.

[Melody Himinndottir] "Liss is just Kin." A simple and direct statement - but with so much left unspoken. How must it hurt for a wedge that deep to be driven between two people who were almost two halves of the same whole? "Nicholas too. As far as anybody can tell." And then she gives Kora a wry smile. "After all, you and I probably fooled a lot of people, too."

And she glances over at Linus. "Might be worth it just to see your head pop right off. You know he'd totally want to follow you around everywhere like he was Robin to your Batman."

She pauses for a moment. "I also notice that we're still terminally short on introductions here." She looks back at Linus. "And you're trying to tell me you don't need someone here to keep you two on track? I'm amazed anything got done here without me."

[Roman Turner] "I don't know."

He very nearly shrugged with the question about Nicholas, but thought twice about that movement. Talk of two troublesome women was starting to make his stomach curdle, or maybe it was the combination of blue stars, green clovers, yellow moons, pink hearts and beer?

"I don't imagine either Miss Drew or Miss August would be the easiest folk to live with. The two together has to be up there with sitting barbed wired fence in your all together during a lightning storm."

[Roman Turner] Melody mentions a shortage of introductions again and that's about when Roman lifted his voice, calling out with a wave of his beer can.

"Don't mind us, y'all go ahead and have your get together. We'll just ogle and stuff. Course, if you're real concerned about introductions, take a hand in handling it yourself."

[Linus] "We get shit done just fine!"

It's a clarion cry against Melody's indications, Linus sitting up with another grunt and a scowl of hurt pride. Nothing he doesn't shake off within a half second of displaying it of course. The godi leans forward, settling elbows to knees in the process, hands and forearms dangling between legs and eyes. Roman pipes in with a call and Linus' speaks out of the side of his mouth.

"S'ok Roman, she's a fuckin' No Moon too. Pair of you are gonna get along great, taking turns making fun of shit and wearing Goofy Outfits!" He seemed content to wait on Kora to do proper introductions. The Skald had a better way with words than her younger Brother. At least as far as eloquence went.

[Rain] "Lovely image, that," she says, droll, carefully wry and not without its own resident amusement. However, they seem to have reached a kind of quiet agreement. Or close enough for Rain.

She glances over at the box of cereal and the corners of her mouth tuck in just so. Worried a bit, mildly disapproving.

"It's not too late, yet --" Roman's voice calls out to the newest Fenrir, suggesting she take introductions into her own hands. Rain grins, waves with her free hand, and goes right back to what she was telling Roman. " -- If ya tell me what sounds good t' eat, I'll go get you something proper. All those colored mallows probably aren't good for y' just now."

[Melody Himinndottir] "Exactly." She quips after Linus' little outburst. "I am teaching them via stern mockery and humorous rebuke. How will they ever learn, otherwise? Can't do everything for them, after all." She winks at Roman. "You can't imagine how long it took our parents to housetrain Linus." Again the angelic smile.

[Linus] "One Time! ONE!" He throws his hands in the air and climbs to his feet with a brief struggle, already aiming for the cooler and the beer within.

[Roman Turner] He snorted, though he took in every little thing that he'd seen and heard so far. Rain mentioned food and got his attention again.

"Ya don't have to mother me Miss Rain. Ya got enough ya try to take care of now. Besides...."

He tilted the cereal box towards her.

"...they're magically delicious, remember?"

[Kora] There's that echoing grandeur in the space, enough that fragments of conversations move back and forth between the trio of siblings and pair of tribesmates; sometimes settling without resonance into some odd corner, some dead space defined by reconstructed materials.

Linus declares that they get shit done just fine! and Kora gives him a brief look, the shadow of her familiar half-smile curving across her mouth.

"He's right," she says quietly, that echo, quiet and still. Not a night past Roman hounded something that had curled up inside his mind like a malignant seed to materalize in these old stone halls. Caustic and foetid, full of ash and fire, terrible enough to withstand the concerted assault of six Garou. And they ended it. "We do get shit done just fine."

She's inserting all this between the sibling-spat, half-removed from it as the eldest, the weird one.

"C'mon, Dee," a glance between them and the Gaians. "I'll introduce you."

Then a quiet shake of her pale head.

"You weren't around for the housetraining of Linus, anyway." She defends her put-upon brother as she leads Dee over toward the Children of Gaia. "I was."

[Linus] "Oh shut up the both of you!"

The Godi offers from somewhere in the shadows. The sound of clinking beers hits the air.

[Rain] "I'm not mothering," she tells him. "I'm offerin'. 'Sides, you'd have to tame that god-awful bedhead if you were goin' to the store." She eyed his wayward hair. "That could take days..."

[Roman Turner] "Wait a minute, when did ya get house broke Linus?"

Rain insulted his hair which earned her a look of horror. His eyes went wide.

"Ouch, ya grew claws. Must be hanging around them two vipers a little too much. Dang."

He spit on his hand to smooth it down over his hair in an effort to flatten things out.

[Melody Himinndottir] She winks at Linus. Needling between the two is old hat by now. And for those sensitive to those sorts of things, it's not as if Melody has honestly shown any real signs of tension or anger throughout the whole conversation...

Well, maybe at the "go home" part. But it passed quickly.

And then she nods her head, deferring towards Kora. Though whether it's due to the age distance, a touch of instinctive Garou behavior to defer to the higher ranking/Jarl/alpha, or simply knowing when to stop pushing buttons, who can say? She waits politely.

[Rain] She had been joking, but then he tried to smooth out his hair and the needling smirk-smile faded. Her eyes softened a little in apology. He asserted that she'd grown claws, and she immediately recanted.

"Mmm, sorry," she said, softly. Rain glanced away and reached up to push her hair back over her shoulder. These two Gaians were not so good at communicating with one another, however proficient they might be at talking to other folk. She'd misstepped, again.

[Kora] Kora's in dark colors. Melody is - literally - wearing a pink wool coat. Like Fenris' raided Barbie's closet before getting dressed in the morning. The Skald leads her sister past the tables - with the bagels, the last (empty) pizza box - the coolers - out among the pews, under the broken roof. Shoots a brief glance back at the Godi glowering at them from the shadows. Her dark eyes find the place from whence his voice echoes, unerringly, and her half-smile deepens. Nearly peaceful, settled, lovely - doubtlessly welcome after the troubles of the last several weeks.

Kora's still in her boots; they make a soft sound on the old marble as she walks down the aisle and pauses by the seat Roman picked earlier. "Dee, this is my packmate Roman Turner. He's a Child of Gaia and a Ragabash. This is Rain, she's kin to the Children of Gaia, and is under our protection. She lives here at the church. Roman and Rain, this is Dee, our sister, a cliath Rotagar. We've got another packmate, a Fianna named Patrick Prayers to Broken Stone who's just joined us.

"And Dee, I should let you know, I'm pregnant."

[Roman Turner] ((ack! didn't refresh!))

[Melody Himinndottir] Melody waves at each as they're introduced - one gets the impression that she'd probably hug them in greeting too, if she wasn't still somewhat unsure of what sort of reaction that would get from them. And then Kora finishes, and gets another hug for her troubles.

"See? Now that wasn't so hard, was it?" And she follows up with a kiss on the cheek.

[Roman Turner] Slowly, carefully he rose to his feet to meet Kora and her sibling.

"Howdy Miss D, nice ta meetcha. Oh and Miss Kora is expecting."

He had to do it.

"Excuse me a moment. Like Miss Kora said, this is my Kinfolk, Miss Rain, who needs a little help with her hair."

With that he started making those sounds in the back of his throat like he was working up a big juicy wad of flem and spit as he turned towards Rain.

"Here let me help ya Miss Rain."

[Rain] Rain knows her place. She is the last to be introduced, of those present. She waits until Roman has said his helloes before greeting Dee in turn. Despite all that's transpired within the stout stone walls, echoed up to the rafters, carried down the hallways -- despite all this sound and rage, Rain's smile is warm. It's welcoming. It's a sort of good-natured grace that wells up from somewhere deep inside; it has to be genuine.

Rain rises, and there would have been a greeting for her, in truth. It was on the tip of her tongue, but then Roman made that disgusting sound, heralding up a wad of phelgm and other grossness, and her nostrils flared. The kin's attention snapped to him -- and it wasn't playful, this time. Rain had no desire to be toyed with, even playfully, so soon after her toussel with Erek.

"Don't you even --" It may be the first time any of them has heard her talk back to a True, or tell one of the full-bloods what they could or couldn't do, voice hardened by the long-ago remembrance of having had a brother of her own (one who was not coming back [one who was even more Lost than she had been]). She's already half-turned to run if Roman tries to make good on that threat.

[Roman Turner] She nearly dared him with that Don't you even. He smiled wide, pure devil in the depths of eyes the color of faded denim. And continued to make those wonderful sounds as he rubbed his hands together like some mad scientist about to create his new monster.

[Kora] Melody wraps her arms around Kora in another hug, and kisses her on the cheek. It's so human, that form of affection; it's so rare and the Skald might well duck away from it except there's Roman, rising and making noises at his kinswoman. Kora's pale brows draw together in a sketch of lowering frown.

"Don't even think about it, Roman." - Says Kora, her voice full of a sort of raw command when he starts making spit noises, ready to launch himself after Rain. " - or so help me god I will fucking throat you if you do, wounds or no."

[Melody Himinndottir] "What is it with boys always finding disgusting ways to pick on girls?" She asks almost wistfully (trapped in a memory?), not-quite looking over at Linus.

[Kora] This sharp note of correction in their minds; like drawing a pair of reigns back on a horse. A note of something deeper, their - the impression of Erek, washed in a rich band of anger deeper than his little game with Rain might warrant that goes entirely unexplained. Still: that memory, brief and bright and strong. Like a leash.
to Linus, Roman Turner

[Roman Turner] He stopped, both brows knitting together as he looked between Rain and Kora.

"Dang Miss Kora, when did ya age so much?"

Girls always seemed to pack together when it came down to the nitty gritty.

"Fine, everyone's lost their sense of humor. I'm gonna go back to bed. Nice to meetcha Miss D. I apologize for funning with ya Miss Rain."

[Roman Turner] From his end of things came confusion, insult and hurt with the impression of Erek. He was missing a big ole huge chunk of what exactly went on. But he knew he was somehow put in the same category for it to come across like it did.
to Kora, Linus

[Kora] [OOC: Just as a note, Kora wasn't comparing Roman to Erek. She was reminding him about what Erek did to Rain and maybe he should be... considerate of her for a while. :) ]
to Linus, Rain

[Linus] (Fack! Wasn't refreshing guys, sorry. I've actually gotta drop off here for a bit so consider linus having left to do a quick patrol into the Umbral expanse. He only came back to grab something to eat 'n drink before heading back out. If you're still up 'n 'round when I get back I'll hop back in. Sorry about that!)

[Rain] She's willful, for a moment. She asserts some sort of boundary and Roman comes right across it, and what stops Roman for hacking something disgusting and possibly still tainted up into her hair is Kora stepping in. It is just like having a brother. Perhaps Roman felt left out of all the sibling rivalry from a moment before. She still narrows her eyes at him a little, until she's certain he's cease-and-desisting.

She shoots the Jarl a small, grateful look. Something that wears a little prettier on her features than the wariness she'd evidenced so far tonight.

"It's only fun til someone gets slimed... again," she tells Roman, but already that tension is fading. "I hope y' feel better soon." It's a far stretch more gentle than Kora's threats of reprisal. And lugey-threat or no, it's a genuine well wishing.

And now, in a round about way, she gets back to the newcomer and introductions. "It's nice to meet you," she echoes, casting a warmer smile to Dee now.

[Trent Brumby] So it's late, and it's a Friday night. With work over for the day, and even though he has to get up to do some more tomorrow, he's made his way to the Church with a late night ice-cream run and Pringles emergency, because, let's face it, Kora's had a horrible last few weeks and he's notice it taking its toll. Not that he ever mentions this, he only comes with a recycling shopping bag in his hands with the junk he detests but his mate adores. She had to practically force a hot dog from a vendor down his throat once.

The door opens and is immediately shut behind him. Jeans, a pair of leather loafers (because he does make an effort when he knows he's coming to see her), and a long sleeved, black fine knit sweater with a v-cut and a white t.shirt beneath. Black hair is left to the world, needing a trim soon it's starting to curl on the top again, and he's groomed up his shadow jaw and mouth for the late night food run. Smells like he showered before it too. Don't mention it.

[Roman Turner] He'd withdrawn with the warnings. There were lines he couldn't reach across with Rain and it had come clear to him from two directions that he needed to remain on the other side of the line on the polite side. His response was a murmured.

"Bless your heart."

Which covered a whole world of meanings in his part of the country. He was heading back to his room to shift and heal far, far away from the fairer sex. Mumbling a faint greeting as he passed Trent.

"Mr. Trent."

[Roman Turner] ((Thanks for the play. Heading to bed.))

[Trent Brumby] "Roman, it's Trent by now," he tells the passing young man with a quick quirk of his mouth and unexpected warmth in his eyes.

[Kora] There's this sharp exhalation from Kora; that moment's ease slipping away as her shoulders grow firm beneath the shape of her long-sleeved t-shirt. Roman apologizes for funning with Rain, accuses the Fostern Skald - older than anyone in the room except her mate - of getting old, and she shakes her pale head once, dark eyes tracking the Ragabash's path through the church.

A noise in the back of her throat, quiet. A still, steady look toward Rain. "I'm sorry about that." Her gaze slipes away to follow Roman moving through the aisles. "Hard to believe he's ready to challenge for Fostern, sometimes."

Then the steady looks softens, like smoke into the brief grace of another half-smile as Trent comes in the wooden doors, carrying his emergency supply of ice cream and reconstituted potato chips.

"Hi." That brief twist of her mouth deepens. She doesn't call him baby, not in public, but there's a kind of intimacy to the greeting as she beckons him over. "I guarantee he's bringing ice cream," Kora assures Rain. Then, to Dee. " - and before I get haranged about introductions, c'mon." That said, she leaves the pews and begins walking toward the door. Leaving the matter of Roman's behavior for another day.

[Rain] Bless your heart.

Rain doesn't answer that, but she does cross her arms low and loose over her middle. She's a thin thing, lean enough to almost look hungry, though her time with Last Watch has taken that particular edge of neediness from her. She watches Roman leave, with something mildly confused and concern muddled across her features.

The songbird is easy to read. It takes almost nothing but catching her eye in the right light to look in. Right now those waters are murky, troubled, unclear.

"Hey, Mr. Trent," she voices the greeting warmly enough. It carries the same honorific that Roman's greeting had. For all they couldn't seem to talk to one another, the Gaians were two peas of the same pod. Rain waves a little; happy to see him, neverminding the comments of ice cream.

[Trent Brumby] "I have ice-cream and pringles." This is the first thing he says as he lifts his bag up for emphasis, walking further into the church. He smiles easily for Kora and extends it to Rain. "Evening Miss Rain." See? he can do it too.

Once he approaches his mate, he offers her out the bag but only when she's near enough for him to touch her hip lightly and kiss her cheek. "How you doing?" he asked her quietly with the brief brush of his mouth, chaste and polite considering the depths of his gray eyes when he looks at her. There is no doubt that this tall, strong built Kinfolk, with his gruff, very masculine features, is simply devoted to her. It's that sort of air that can even make some uncomfortable.

Melody had a polite questioning glance given to her.

[Melody Himinndottir] Still quiet and the very avatar of politeness, she follows silently behind Kora. She remains silent as Trent steps up to Kora, with only the slight raising of an eyebrow in response to his greeting.

And then, as he looks towards her, she smiles faintly, and turns her own gaze towards Kora, expectantly.

[Kora] The church is darker beneath the choir loft. There are fewer windows here, and the light from the high windows of the clerestory reaches only the old wooden timbers of the loft above them. Still, there's enough glow from the space heaters and the braziers hung about - along the stone walls, from every other pillar - to cast their faces in flickering relief.

Kora reaches out to accept the the bag of treats, curling her fingers through the handles. "Bacon Double Cheeseburger?" she asks; meaning - the Pringles she cannot stop eating. Possibly the most grotesque flavor ever invented. What this says about the likely tastes of their as-yet unborn child will remain a mystery for years. There's that flicker of a half-smile when he asks how she's doing. "Better," she assures him, a certain steadiness underneath that makes it true, nevermind the waxing moon. "Restless. Wish Roman would - "

A noise of quiet frustration there. Grow up. Something. She doesn't know what and so she swallows it back, lifting herself onto her tiptoes to return his chaste kiss with a brief brush of her own mouth against his jaw before she steps back, body language opening to include Rain and Melody.

"Dee, this is Trent, my mate. Trent, this is Melody, my little sister. She's a Rotagar, and a cliath. Made a bet that she could track Linus and me down, and here she is."

[Melody Himinndottir] "Oh really." And there is quite possibly something in the tone of that which might set Trent on edge. Something in how she manages to stretch out the syllables in that one word to lengths which promise... well, something.

It's not helped by the fact that she's also started to look him over with narrowed eyes... and oh god, now she's taken a step closer, arms clasped behind her back, leaning slightly forward as if she's trying to examine every facet of his appearance for something wrong.

What is it with Kora and her siblings, anyway? Is this one going to be as grating as Linus was when they first met?

[Rain] Trent calls her Miss Rain and it curls the corners of her mouth up a little, toward something sweeter, something a bit less troubled and worrisome. While their making family introductions, Rain weaves her way back to the row of pews where she'd set her bag and her guitar case when she first came in. She gathers them up, carries them close, and makes her way back slowly toward the living area under the choir loft.

There's a wistfulness in how she looks to Kora, Trent and Melody when no one's looking. They're family, all jumbled up in their expectations of one another; close kept, heart-tied. They're Tribe, and whatever's going on there is for Trent to weather -- he seems strong enough to stand the tides.

Rain settles herself on the floor, leaning back against one of those pillars without its own brazier. She frees her guitar from its case and loops its strap over her head. From that corner of half-light, quietly, comes an almost foreign sound. Rain hasn't played at the church in weeks, not even musing little quiet things in her room; the exception would be for a gathering of kin only. She keeps this quiet, not letting it rise to overshadow their conversations but rather to backfill the quiet.

[Trent Brumby] "Yes," he assures Kora with a small nod and smile. But that vanishes when there's mention of Roman, not knowing until then that there was potential problems there. "I can speak to him if you'd like." Man to man, ask him to man up or something. He's not entirely sure what the issue is, but they can speak of it privately, like they do everything else.

Then there's Melody and the way she talks, then looks at him. Kora has just introduced them and he's remembering just how he and Linus hit it off. The way she approaches him now doesn't win her any brownie points. He stands a little taller, lets his hand drop from his mates side and, despite the way his features are hardening, he nods to her politely. "Nice to meet you, Melody."

[Melody Himinndottir] "Do you love her?" The question is abrupt. Without emotion, good or bad. Almost clinical. Eyes still narrowed, as if weighing him in the balance.

[Kora] "Dee - " there's a subtle note of warning in Kora's voice when Melody steps up to begin her inspection of Trent. His hand falls away from her flank, and somewhere in the middle of this Rain begins to play. The sound of the guitar's strings fills the narrow places first, a background like falling water, inobtrusive but clear and sweet. Kora turns, following the movement of the notes in the air, glances at Rain, dark eyes settled briefly there, a twist of her generous mouth by way of a smile, like thanksgiving, or invitation.

"Haven't seen her since she was eleven - " Kora begins, turning back to Trent, her voice low, but moving in a liquid line, the way it does when she begins a story.

Then, of course, it all goes strange.

Do you love her? Melody asks. Kora cuts the Rotagar a glances, shifts the bag full of Pringles and ice cream from one hand to the other and reaches out to touch her mate. A hand on his flank, the flare of his obliques evident beneath his sweater, the quiet pressure of her four fingers on his back.

"What the hell?" To the younger Garou. "Dee - that's pretty private. Boundaries, yeah? Even Rotagars have to respect some."

[Trent Brumby] He's getting sick of her family, already. There's this annoyance that flies across his face and he reminds himself to take a slow breathe, nostrils flaring as he does so, swallowing down whatever he's feeling and tries for some patience. The Garou is young. All young Garou think they own the world.

Raising his hand he rubs the bridge of his nose and closes his eyes briefly, before dropping his hand and opening his eyes to look at her. "I do."

So much for coming to see his mate and enjoy it for awhile.

[Melody Himinndottir] If Melody hears Kora, she gives no sign. And whether or not Rotagars have to respect some boundaries, it seems clear that, perhaps, sisters don't.

Or at least this one doesn't necessarily think she does.

Her gaze never moves off of Trent, and when he answers, there's the faintest hint of a nod, and the slightest raising of an eyebrow. "Does she love you?"

[Rain] She's playing, but that doesn't mean that Rain can't hear them. Can't listen in to Melody pushing all sorts of boundaries she oughtn'ta. The music stops, doesn't fade in a slow swell out, no, just stops. Rain exhales a bit, it's a tired and somewhat tried sigh.

From the half-light she glances over at Kora, trying to read the Alpha's body language. Trying to pick on up the cant of the shoulders of the man beside her, her mate, her support structure in the madness that happens within these walls. It's not her place to interject, but Rain is oh so very close to speaking up, not unlike Kora had a few moments before.

There's a long quiet, the sudden absence of sound punctuating Melody's request, highlighting its starkness. Then Rain goes back to playing, keeping half an ear out for a moment when she might suggest that one No Moon accompany her through the cold and dark to the store, to get things to help another No Moon heal.

[Kora] "What the hell do you think." returns Kora, a flare of temper underneath her skin as she steps forward, subtlely moving in front of the kinsman she claimed, her voice a dangerously low thread. Her fingers slide down his flank, then let go as she steps forward, frowning narrowly down at the Rotagar.

She's taller than Melody by a solid four or five inches, and she holds herself so straight and sure through the spine that she seems to add another half-inch to her already tall frame.

Trent is taller still, with a larger frame, the shadow of his bulk framing the narrow line of her shoulders and once-boyish torso. Her anger has a bright cast to it, and a illiquid depths underneath. Trent is the one thing she has that is her own and no one else's and the space they share between them, quiet and complicated, is private and assured.

Until Melody pushes it, looking to crack it open.

"What is wrong with you, Dee? For - " This strangled sound in the back of her throat, then. She's clearly bristling. "I'm pregnant. I'm having a child with him in a goddamned war zone. What the hell do you think.

"Back the hell off."

[Trent Brumby] Kora gets angry. She doesn't need to be. He ignores Melody altogether now, which is rude and uncharacteristic of him.

A hand touches Kora back and he gently pries her fingers off the bag, taking it from her. "I'll put them away and get you a spoon?" It's either that or he's going to make an excuse to turn around and leave the Church altogether. This isn't at all what he came here for and he's never had any like for Garou that push Kin like this. His patience is not limitless. She knows this. He has a temper under the surface, and it's closer to rise these days because their time together is limited and her bad mood also is contagious. He hates the fact she deals with all this.

Never mind that she's carrying their child and he worries himself to death every day.

[Rain] Melody has run Kora's kin off. The quieter one, who sits at the margin of the Nave, where it meets the space under the choir loft, she went first. Then Trent, who heads for the kitchen and quieter spaces. They are not impervious to whatever goes on between the sisters. Rain keeps her head down, lets the sounds she makes distance her from the argument brewing. Trent uses walls.

It's to the same effect: they're not part of the conversation. Whatever solidarity or support they might offer must be done from afar. Trent has a temper and Rain has deep wounds that surface all too easily these nights. Unsettled and dark places. She picks at the strings; the music is lofted, hangs in the high spaces of the sanctuary proper.

It endures, just a little longer, before there's a scuffle of feet on stone and the sound of Rain setting her voice back into its case. Without further ado, the songbird heads for the kitchen to offer her hands or even just her company to Trent. To let the walls separate them both from the two Fenrir.

[Melody Himinndottir] "I think," she says quite firmly, "that I asked him a question. Which he has yet to answer."

And her eyes finally flick away from Trent, finally, towards Kora. Still judging, however. "I also think that love is hardly required to conceive, no matter where it happens. Doubly so when you're talking about..." And her hand waves, as if to encompass some nebulous principle. Garou. How many Garou HAVE fucked more out of a sense of duty than any real feeling beyond the lust of the moment?

And then her eyes flicker back towards Trent. "I also think I didn't ask you how you feel about, Kora. I asked him. Does she love you?"

[Melody Himinndottir] (Ack, crap, ignore that post. Too many mistakes)

"I think," she says quite firmly, "that I asked him a question. Which he has yet to answer."

And her eyes finally flick away from Trent, back towards Kora. Still judging, however. "I also think that love is hardly required to conceive, no matter where it happens. Doubly so when you're talking about..." And her hand waves, as if to encompass some nebulous principle. Garou. How many Garou HAVE fucked more out of a sense of duty than any real feeling beyond the lust of the moment?

And then her eyes flicker back towards Trent. "I also think I didn't ask you how you feel about him, Kora. I asked him. Does she love you?"

[Rain] She's meaning to leave the room before her voice escapes her lips. Rain is meaning to, but it doesn't happen. She stops, midway between the loft and the door to the kitchen. Out in the sea of pews. In the place parishoners once sat and lofted their prayers to heaven above.

And heaven does the girl have a voice, when she chooses to raise it. When she lifts it toward a thing she can put the whole of her weight behind, all of her feeling. It seeps out of her, muddies the richness in her tone. It implores: Rain is Captivating, there is no two ways about it. Even without blood to sing in her veins. Even as only what she is, a Lost and adopted cousin.

"Stop," she tells the Rotagar. It beseeches more than commands. "Just leave it be. You call her your sister, but you push push push -- you attack her, in her home, in front of her kin, in front of her mate. What honor is that? What wisdom?

"You're family, Miss Dee, in more ways than any of the rest of us are. You're blood and tribe and sisters at that. Leave well enough alone, and act it. Kora does right by us, and she deserves better than this."

[Trent Brumby] "It's none of your business. If my mate wants to speak about how she feels, then you may ask her." This is with a little heat this time, and he takes the bag from Kora with this growing hardness in the pale of his gray eyes.

Then Rain speaks up and he looks towards her, nodding once and sharp. He respects what she says, and it's enough to push him past the boundaries that his blood Tribe had ingrained in him. It's enough to make him come to stand at Kora's side, almost putting his arm before hers and shifts back his shoulder at the last minute. But he's dangerously close to standing in front of her, protective like she had of him seconds ago.

"I suggest not giving my mate any grief. I know she's fully capable of defending herself, and I wouldn't dream of threatening you physically. But if you want to be welcome around here, you're going about it the wrong way. I already don't like you.

I don't like you because you're being disrespectful, and I'm getting sick and tired of people taking advantage of the fact my mate can't throw down because she's growing our child. I look forward to the day when that will no longer be what stops her from showing why she's the Jarl of the Get of Fenris."

He's practically seething by this point. His voice is low and his testosterone is pumping.

"She has a long memory."

[Melody Himinndottir] She remains quiet, almost stony, when Rain speaks her peace. She's still as Trent offers his outburst. And then, in the almost palpable silence that hangs in the air after he finishes, one can only wonder what sort of harsh reply she might be preparing to throw back at him...

And then she smiles, as if there was never any tension in the room at all, all sweetness and light. She turns back towards Kora. "Oh, I like him." A glance over her shoulder towards Rain. "Her too."

[Melody Himinndottir] (grr. peace = piece)

[Kora] "Dee," that cautionary note clear in her voice again. The spark of rage evident - the smolder of her dark, moving gaze, the tension in her muscles, the shoulder complex, the traps, the long slabs of muscle that flank her spine. Even the taut abdominal muscles stretched to accommodate the child growing inside her womb. Quiet, it's swallowed back when Rain speaks.

There's enough rage in her - tonight, underneath her moon - that her blood is bright and hot, her vessels dilating, the flush of her heartbeat evident beneath her pale northern skin. There's a lifting glance as Rain begins to speak that stays there without seeing - not precisely. A sort of abstracted acknowledgment, the dark-eyed look for Rain.

The creature's mouth parts in a faint intimation of an animal snarl. "When my Alpha died, he was there. Listened to every fucking story I had of him. Didn't flinch or turn away from the worst of them, and still remembers the best ones.

"He's mine. My mate, my territory. Mine. You've neither leave nor right to speak to him like that. And if you - "

The rest of it goes unspoken; it's all written into her body language, more feral than any human has the right to be. The way she makes herself larger, standing ready, nearly swaying, on the balls of her feet, her pale hair sliding in a loosening knot down the back of her neck.

--

And it changes in a half-second. Melody declares that she likes them both, and Kora closes dark eyes, exhaling the tension coiled in her frame in a long, deep, moving breath.

"Let's just go home," she says at last, to Trent, low-voiced. It's not a plea for calm. She wants the space he gives her. The peace it affords, as unsettled as that has been these last nights.

A lifting, perceptive look toward Rain. "You're okay tonight, yeah?"

[Rain] The Gaian kin is not okay, not in the truest sentiment of the word, not in the way she was becoming okay over her early tenure at the packhouse. Things have happened, recently, that are scored as much into the cant of her shoulders and the shape of her mouth as the dark things are in Kora's own. So many things have piled up in dark corners that they have not talked about; it is more reminiscent of when she first came to them, the sleepless nights, the strange distances between them. The loneliness of not belonging.

None of this is new. None of it is unbearable. None of it drags down the curl of her voice, warm like smoke rising off the hearthfire; welcome like glow in distant (home) windowpane.

"Yeah," she tells the Jarl. "I'll be fine." Go. Steal your moments of silence and solace. Rain rolls her shoulders a bit, tries to straighten up her posture more convincingly.

"Linus'll be back in awhile, right? And Roman's here. So it's not like I'm alone," which is the biggest worry of all. Alone. Kora knows the reasoning, if no one else here does. Rain doesn't even particularly care how it reads to the Rotagar; she's developing an intense dislike of even the way that word, Rotagar, settles on her tongue.

[Trent Brumby] "That's fine, but I still don't like you." Trent tells Melody, clearly not impressed and not about to say it's all fine and dandy now, just because the Garou has done her little test. He thinks it's bullshit and all the rest. Well, he's said what he thinks.

Kora wants to leave and he's fine with it, but he doesn't immediately usher her out of there. Instead he looks over to Rain. He looks at her for a long moment, where there's this tension still in him that says he really wants to act on some violence right now or shout a lot and get into someone's face.

"Why don't you come with us? I'll make up the sofa. It's warmer then here." And there will be no Melody. He cuts a quick look to Kora to see if this is alright, hoping that it is since he already opened his mouth.

[Kora] Kora gives Trent an approving little hmmm in the back of her throat for the invitation. "Roman's still healing," Kora explains, quietly as much to Rain as to Trent. "And Li's still working to pull things through, make sure we got every bit of that spirit yesterday. And didn't attract unwanted attention. And there's ice cream."

Our heroine does not offer to share her Pringles. Then, a lifting look back at Melody. "You should see if you can track down Linus," the temper is still in her voice, sharpening it, but this is not a counterattack, nor a settlement. " - get him to show you the packhouse on the other side."

[Melody Himinndottir] "You don't have to like me." That grin again. "After all, that's what family is for." She winks. "Now at least I won't have to despair over Kora being with someone who doesn't deserve her."

And the smile fades a bit, almost as if sincerity demands a more somber face. "Still, you should consider what it means that I feel strongly enough about her to care. And what it says about you that you apparently pass. And," she pauses for a moment, looking over at Kora, then back to Trent, "I'm not saying that as a Garou, or a Fenrir, or a Rotagar. I'm saying it as a sister."

And she shrugs at the implied discussion going on around her. "No need to leave on my account, though. I was just heading out. New in town, sights to see, hearts to break. Small town girl in the big city, don't'chew know."

And when she puts it like that, it's maybe a bit easier to see her more as the 17-year old girl she is rather than some monsterous war-wolf in human form. Maybe. Though how can anyone who isn't Garou themselves honestly tell where the human ends and the wolf begins?

She turns around, heading back towards the entrance. As she goes, she raises a hand over her shoulder and wiggles her fingers in an odd sort of wave. "Lovely meeting you, Rain. Goodbye, Kora."

And then there's a slight pause, before she tacks on "And, you know, you really should call mom."

[Trent Brumby] "I don't care for your reasons. You're willfully ignoring your Sisters wants, and you do so in the name of some test, as if her choices aren't good enough." Trent shoots back at Melody and there's now this righteousness about it, almost. A level calm.

[Rain] Rain takes a moment to glance between them, to make sure they're not offering just to be polite, and then she nods, retraces her steps back to the edge of the Nave where her bag still rests, and her guitar. The latter she latches up tight and leans against the wall. Barring any overt acts of asshattery or negligence, it will be there when she returns. The bag's strap is slung over her shoulder and then she walks over to join Trent and Kora, ready to leave whenever they are.

She's been couch surfing for at least a day now, another one won't hurt her. And it's warmer. And they have ice cream. And they drive a rather clear point home: whenever they agree on a thing, they're probably right.

"G'night, Miss Mel-oh-dee," her name comes out in three drawled syllables. The fire and push falls out of Rain's voice faster than Trent's. Maybe she simply has less at stake, or less conviction, or less reason to hold on to these angers.

"Thanks for having me over tonight," she says to Trent and Kora. It's a low thing, for their ears and not the Ragabash's. It admits some quiet truths she wouldn't have said aloud to the whole of the church, among them is gratitude.

[Rain] And then, after the Rotagar disappears from view and earshot: "She's not staying ... is she?"

Hopeful. Oh so very hopeful. Rain is ever the optimist. Clearly Melody is only a limited time engagement, here to annoy Kora and Linus for a week, tops, before blowing through to find some far flung cousin or another. (Please, Gaia, please.)
to Kora, Trent Brumby

[Kora] "Dee - " Kora calls out before the Rotagar leaves. " - be careful." Low-voiced, still. "We're at war. Just - " A back of her throat sound, indented with frustration. " - be careful, yeah?"

[Trent Brumby] "Don't mention it," he tells Rain, and when he looks at her he's able to swallow back those convictions - that's exactly what they are. The way he's raised, his core values for simple things such as courtesy. But there's only so much to give to one without them as far as he's concerned, and once the bridge is broken it's always hard to build back. He's one of those people.

Adjusting the bag in his hand, he offers his hand out. "Let me carry that for you." The bag he means. Even if she looks perfectly fine to carry it, it's the way he is and he doesn't think twice about offering it to her. He does the same for Kora. He shovels snow and salts side walks just in case the Garou doesn't slip. It's ironic really, but entirely true.

"And not only do I have ice-cream," he's telling both these women as he begins to the door after Melody is out it, opening it for the both of them, "I have hot chocolate, marshmellows and bath salts." Obviously a bath as well, and warm fluffy towels.

As he's standing there waiting for them to head out, he says, almost offhandedly (but Kora knows it's not). "I'm going to get a bigger place." Because he has people that need somewhere warm and comforting to go to and he has a child due very soon.

[Melody Himinndottir] "Since when is a sister obligated to worry about what her sister wants rather than what she needs? Still..." And she shrugs.

And then she laughs - for the first time tonight, an almost silvery sound. "And since when are we NOT at war? Always and everywhere, blood, killing, rage..." And then her voice goes a bit more quiet, a bit more somber, but still just loud enough to be heard. "Almost enough to make a girl think that maybe her sister should be with someone who really cares about her, and not just out of some sense of duty."

And then she's gone.

[Trent Brumby] "I really don't like her," said low and unpleasantly.

[Kora] "You're welcome," this supple twist of Kora's generous mouth, in response to Rain's thanks as they walk. "I think we need to talk soon, yeah? Except maybe not tonight." Tonight's for ice cream, hot chocolate, a long soak in a real tub in a room without the ceiling falling in. She brushes Trent's flank as they go, casually intimate.

"No idea." Says Kora, to Rain. "I didn't know she was true-born." Then, a half-second's musing consideration later. "She has a twin, too." Be glad there's only one about?