Currently the moon is in the waning Gibbous Moon phase (61% full).

A doorway under the curve of the stairs leads from the main floor down to the basement. The exit from this part of the house is through a heavy door in the living room, which leads out to the area set up for communal use by the Sept's Garou.

All throughout the morning there's been work going on over here - sounds of things being shifted or dropped into place, and every half hour or so, a repetitious *fshh-thunk*. This noise repeats for ten minutes or so, then pauses. The hydraulic paint sprayer, used to such swift effect Sunday and Monday, currently waits just on the other side of the half-wall from the door, empty and forlorn though the smell of paint still hangs in the air. Nat's finally pulled open the bundles of composite wood flooring and is slowly building, like a two-dimensional Lego project, a covering for the floor. Yet another of her esoteric power tools lurks nearby, the cord twisting to an outlet, and the Galliard herself is dry-fitting lengths of flooring, setting tongue into groove. She's a bit less than halfway across the large living room.

Kevin is looking the calmest anyone's seen him for days. Not the clean-cut preppy nervous kid he was in his first days in garou society, and he still looks a little pale and hollow-eyed, but his step is firm enough as he enters the building site, picking his way carefully across the work-in-progress and ensuring he doesn't tread in any damp varnish or on any sharp nails. "Natalie," he greets the bearer of that name as he comes to the edge of the floor that's so far been laid down. "You've been at this for hours. Surely you deserve a break? Cup of coffee? Ten minutes with your feet up?"

Natalie looks over her shoulder at him, amused, then turns back to sliding a six-foot length of board into its groove. "I've just gotten back from lunch, but my knees thank you. Well," she amends, pulling out her clamshell phone and eyeing the readout, "About forty-five minutes ago. You can help me, though," she adds helpfully, beaming at the boy. "Tu stopped by earlier."

"Anything I can do, just say the word," the Briton responds affably enough. "For you or for him. I liked him a lot when I met him, though I've not seen him since my first day here."

"He's a good guy," Nat agrees, settling back onto her heels. "I hoped you two'd hit it off. OK, here's the plan: I'm dry-fitting about three feet of boards, not gluing them together or nailing them down or anything. It's kind of like a giant Lego set - have to make sure no edges match, that sort of thing. Once we've got about three layers down, then we slide them apart and I use the pneumatic nailer," a nod toward the blocky power tool, "to keep 'em in place. What I need you to do is to hand me lengths of board when I call for them. Tu did a little sorting by size, so go ahead and do that if you want." She flashes the boy a grin as she slips her phone back into her pocket and adds, "It'll build up your muscles."

Kevin gives the stack of flooring and the nailer a once-over, approvingly -- evidently the youth shares the fascination of many of his gender for big noisy toys that plug into wall sockets. "I read you loud and clear," he responds, hopping over to squat next to the boards. "Tongue and groove, right. I guess you know about making sure they're all the right way up, if they're that kind of floor..." Well! Girls need help with DIY! Don't they?

This girl merely raises her eyebrows at him. "Teach your grandmother to suck eggs," she invites politely. "But yes, yes I do. Now get me one about..." Nat eyes the next space, "Oh, six feet long. No, seven. And while you're carrying, give me your thoughts on things. Regret making the choice you did? Want anything in particular?"

Kevin selects a plank of the required description and hoists it up in both hands, carting it over carefully when Nat's ready for it. "Looks like I've committed the crime of being obvious again." The cub hands off the wood and remains next to Nat. "I did want to talk about a few things. Most importantly, I'm guessing there are house rules here, like they were at the farm. Probably more so, if we're in the heart of the city with more people to see if anything goes pear-shaped. Want to fill me in on them so I don't break any accidentally?"

"Well, the big one's no shifting where anyone can see. --Thanks." She shifts over to the open spot while he's fetching, then takes the board from him with a nod. "Upstairs will be your bunk room - I'm thinking at least a couple of beds up there plus a heavy bag. I'm also going to do something to the windows to let light in but give you guys privacy. I'm thinking this floor will have untreated windows, but the second floor and the attic - when it gets done," she adds with a wry twist of her mouth, "plus the basement will be OK to shift in. Oh - you've seen the basement, right?"

Kevin returns to the stack of floorplanks. "'Where anyone can see' could be interpreted pretty broadly, or pretty narrowly," he comments. "I'm asking because I'm guessing there's no equivalent here to the barn out at the farmhouse for me to run round on four legs when I get the urge. Which," he adds, "I am... it's been a couple of weeks, and that was my first time ever. The basement? No. First visit I didn't go down there because..." He pauses. "Because Saul was in it. And I've not been down since out of... well, respect for the dead I suppose. Arriving here when I did, it's hard to shake the idea that I'm filling a dead cub's pawprints."

Natalie grimaces but delays answering until the plank is fitting well. "You aren't. You aren't Saul 2.0, and I don't want you to be. I was hoping the pair of you could... Yeah, anyway. You can shift anywhere on our side of the house as long as you can't see out. Like I said, I'll be tweaking the windows upstairs, and of course the basement is safe. Next door, in the public safehouse... eh. Just don't shift there. But go ahead and practice what you need to do over here."

Kevin, though a little solemn during the talk of Saul, perks up somewhat at the suggestion that he'll be able to practice his weak point of shifting. "So was the basement not Saul's room, then? I kind of assumed it was... back home we kind of have this stereotype that teenage Americans live in their parents' basements."

Natalie snorts amiably but answers, "No. Um... eight foot now, please." Again, while he's fetching the wood she moves over to the bare patch. "You'll have to go down there. It's just a basement. Unfinished, but... well. The one key feature is what they called the 'rumpus room' when I was a cub. It's the concrete block cell in the corner. It's for frenzies - easier to toss you in there sometimes. If you need to just let it all hang out, head down there."

"I'll check it out later," Kevin promises, hoisting up a longer plank from its stack. As he brings it over he poses another question. "So, out there's a city. With people in it. Would I be right in guessing it'd be a bad idea for me to go wandering around in it? At least for now, at least unaccompanied?"

The sounds of someone downstairs eventually turns out to be Tu, who finds his way into the room where Natalie and Kevin work. His usual neat-looking attire has been swapped for jeans and a T-shirt, though both of these look fairly well kept. "Sorry I'm late...", he begins as he arrives, "...Oh. Kevin, Hey." He turns to Natalie and finishes his thought, "There is not one single decent realtor in all of St. Claire, I've decided."

"Have to make do with a fake-tor then," Kevin interjects with a snigger.

"Yup," the Galliard answers immediately, only to be interrupted by Tu's entrance. "Oh hey, Tu. Cool, now I've got two extra sets of hands." She gives Kevin's joke a blank look, but it's to Tu she speaks. "Marcus worked with a woman named Jenny. I'll take a look through his things and see if I can find her number." The work takes her attention for a few seconds and then, "Oh! Nearly forgot. Yeah, Kevin, I don't want you wandering around. But you can ask any cliath - any Walker cliath - and they can take you out. There'll likely be more people eventually, but I'll let you know who's on the OK list. For now, until we've gotten to know you better, I'd like you to stay away from the Kin. At least, don't spend any time alone with them. You probably won't flip out, but I don't want to come home and find Kin-flavored salsa because you lost it for a second."

Tu makes an exaggerated show of frowning for the cub. "You get points for timing, but your puns need work." That said, he turns back to Natalie. "That would be great, because I'm close to becoming known as the gold-jacket killer."

Kevin doesn't pretend to look pleased at this restriction, but he doesn't protest. He merely gives Tu a thumbs-up and a grin of greeting as he responds. "Fair enough, I suppose... though I've already met a couple of kinfolk. Rina and Jeremy. Jeremy was dead nice to me. Lent me his iPod... it was so good to listen to music again, even if a lot of it was goth-rocker weirdness. I didn't bite either of them," he smiles. "As for cliaths, that would be... you two, I guess? And... Scratch? No, he must be higher rank still, he's ancient."

Natalie gives Tu, on the other hand, half of a smile. Favoritism! "Short one, please. Um... about three and a half foot. And no, actually, Scratch is still a Cliath too. Most of the Garou you'll meet around here are." And then, lest Kevin think this is going to be easy... "Give me the five ranks, kiddo. I won't make you do them in order yet."

Tu looks around for a way to be helpful, since Kevin has the coveted 'hand boards to Natalie' position. "I'll help you out", he says to Kevin in response to Natalie's quiz. "The first one is either cub or Cliath."

Kevin pokes around for a piece short enough for Nat's needs. "Five ranks are cub, cliath, fostern, aidrin, glabro... no, athro... and... hang on, elder makes six." He slides some wood aside and snatches up a short piece from under. "OK, which one was wrong?"

Natalie grins and lets Tu answer this one, merely waits back on her heels for the short piece of wood.

Tu smiles. "Actually, all in all not too bad. You did, unfortunately, give six answers instead of five, which means you have to sleep on the porch. Care to guess which one didn't belong?" A pause, then he adds, "It's easy, it's the one most people don't think matters much."

Kevin hands off his plank to Natalie, and rubs his chin thoughtfully. "In that case, I would venture... that a cub is the absence of rank rather than a rank in itself and so is the odd one out. Can I come back in yet, it's cold out there at night?"

Natalie continues to keep out of this one, letting Tu handle the cub. She does say, "Last one for this row - another six or seven feet, please. No, closer to six and a half."

Tu nods his head in acknowledgment. "Right. Which is a bit insulting, but you're stuck with it for now." He thinks a moment, not having prepared a lesson plan, then asks, "Do you know enough of the laws to tell me which one says I should be nice to you, even though you have no rank? Get it right, and you can sleep indoors."

Kevin uses the excuse of searching for a floor piece of suitable length to have a think about that one. He looks thoughtful as he finds one, lifts it, carries it across the room to Nat, and passes it to the elder. "Respect those beneath you, for all are of Gaia?" he hazards.

"He's good," Nat comments, apropos of nothing. "And I'm gonna be a bitch here and point out that it's 'adren', not 'aidrin'."

Tu smiles at Natlie. "I thought it was his accent." He turns his gaze back to the cub. "Okay, so it looks like they...", he trails off, then corrects midstream. "You've learned a few things. Here's a Ragabash part of the quiz. Which one of the words in that law is the 'weasel' word, which would allow me to smack you..." Another correction. "...treat you poorly and not violate the law?"

Kevin cracks a pleased smile at Nat's compliment. "Thank your packmate Emma for that. She's the one who really knocked the litany into me, more than Trevor. And... looks like she and I've sorted things out some," he adds to Tu. "She's gonna let me live even though I'm not following Fenris. Hope the other Get don't chew her out for being so conciliatory..." He shuts up again as Tu quizzes him once more, and thinks once more. "Hmmm. This is a guess at best. As a cub I'm outside the rank system. So strictly speaking I'm not beneath you. So strictly speaking you can spank me with an axe and get away with it. But I rather hope I'm wrong."

Tu says "I'll give you partial credit. I was going for 'respect'. I think that means being patient and not sweating the small stuff. Someone else might think it means beating the litany into you. A third person might think that means forcing you to run around in Lupus for a week, eating nothing but mice and pinecones, so that you're 'in touch' with your wolf."

Kevin wrinkles his nose, and speaks a little louder as Nat gets busy with the pneumatic nailer. "I guess the real lesson," he comments, "is that the litany is capable of having holes picked in it by barrack-room lawyers, so I shouldn't count on laws like that one to save me from getting creamed if I annoy the wrong people." He shrugs. "Hey, I can cope with that. I used to be a past master at finding loopholes in my school rules, back in the ol' country."

*Fssh-thunk* goes the nailer as Nat moves along the pulled-apart boards, letting - for now - the older Ragabash have the teaching of the younger.

Tu smiles at Kevin. "See, you're a natural. Every one of the laws has at least one weasel word, some of them more than one. Know how to use them will get you into trouble, and out of trouble, and generally annoy those around you." He takes a moment to rub his chin. "Well, as far as I can tell you're ready to challenge. Any questions?"

"These auspices are certainly pretty accu -- " Kevin chokes off that sentence with a look of amazement. "Challenge? Me? Now?" he squeaks, in a voice several tones higher than its normal level. "You're kidding. I don't speak a word of Garou. I've never been to the Umbra, I know sod-all about it. I've not even met Megan-rhya or been to a moot." He splutters to a halt, as though several more reasons why he's not ready to challenge have all tried to get out of his mouth at once and, like Macbeth's 'Amen', stuck in his throat.

Natalie's trying really hard not to laugh, her shoulders twitching as she refuses to turn around. She's nailing. Honest.

Tu, having less tact, laughs a little bit. "Oh, well. If you think you're not ready, then maybe we should take it a bit slower. I'll cancel the reservation at the banquet hall." He pauses, and goes back to what Kevin started to say. "You know all of the auspices, and all of the tribes?"

Kevin evidently feels back on safer ground with that question. "Ahroun, galliard, philodox, theurge, ragabash. Unless you're Get, who have their own names like rotagar and skald. Tribes..." He takes a breath and starts counting on his fingers. "Glass Walkers. Get of Fenris. Fianna. Bone Gnawers. Black Furies. Wendigo. Uktena." Another pause for breath and for thought. "Silver Fangs. Alicia's lot... Children of Gaia. Shadow Lords." He gives a frown at that one. "That's ten... who'm I missing... Silent Striders... aaand... Red Talons, the ones I've not met any of and aren't likely to here in town." He relaxes, then jumps quickly back in. "And Stargazers, except they're kind of not a proper tribe any more... and Black Spiral Dancers, who are really REALLY not a proper tribe any more and who are wyrm-ridden monstrosities to be killed on sight."

Tu seems please with the extent of knowledge, if not a little bored with having it recited. "Okay, then. Last question from me for today. What's the biggest drawback of being a Glasswalker? You get points for brevity" He stops for a beat, then follows with, "That means keeping it short."

Kevin keeps it short, as requested. "The less urban tribes think you're icky?"

Natalie continues nailing, keeping one ear cocked for their conversation but still keeping quiet.

Tu grins. "Right, but we get cable and pizza delivery, so that makes it okay." He looks at the ever-busy Natalie, "Ummm, I'll probably take him to wonderland in the next few days, while we still have some light. Anything you want me to specifically cover?"

If Kevin's stumped by the reference to wonderland, he doesn't mention it. He just looks, like Tu, to the elder and her powertool.

"On the flipside?" Nat retorts, setting down the nailer and straightening. "Just the basics. Don't go there alone, watch out for the webs. Oh, and how to move around in there. I'd probably take him out to the bawn for the first few times, at least until the newness has worn off."

Tu says "Okay, got it." He looks back at the cub curiously. "You have anything that you're good at? Computers, painting, guns?""

Kevin perks up at the mention of the bawn. "Hey, does that mean I get to run round in lupus for a bit? I know we're mostly city based, but I'm still... itchy for more time in lupus that's not in a little room." To Tu he adds, "Apart from sarcasm, irony, and annoying my elders and betters, all I really do well is run. That's the reason I was over here in the States... for an under-16 athletics tournament. Just think, if it had been a week earlier or a week later, I might first have changed back home in Somerset, and you guys would never had had to worry about me."

"I like worrying," Nat chimes in, immediately shooting Tu a 'hold your mouth' glare. "And we'll see what we can do for you. We'll definitely get you started on guns. I'll have Jer arrange for an email address for you too. Probably a cell, though you might not get that for a couple of months."

Tu nods with Natalie, after she finishes. "You should definitely think about some non-running skills. Running is good when everything else has gone wrong, but having some other skills can help prevent that. It will also help you find a job when the time comes."

"I'm not scared of guns," Kev states with perhaps the slightest edge of defensiveness in his voice. "We don't get to tote them around back home of course, but I've shot rifles at targets at school. I know it's not the same thing as using 'em in anger, but it's hopefully better'n nothing. As for a job... that's one of the things I wanted to ask. I'm effectively an illegal immigrant here. I left my passport at the stadium in my bag before my first change. I don't have any ID at all. Can you guys find a way round this little problem? I really don't want your president to decide I'm a terrorist and throw me into detention camp. Veil breach or what?" He laughs, but with a note of trepidation.

Natalie beams smugly, patronizingly, at the cub as she drops the nailer a bit closer to the far side of the wall. "Kevin, we're Glass Walkers. They day we can't arrange fake identification is the day the world ends. Don't worry about it. Hell, we can even change your name, if there's something you'd like better. So yes, we'll get that for you. And get you started on guns - sometimes flashing one will defuse things so that we don't have to go big and hairy."

Tu smirks at the Galliard's response, but can't help add his own. "We can probably change your face, make you shorter, or whatever." He lifts his eye to the ceiling, maybe checking off a mental list. "Did you learn anything about gifts ?"

Kevin gives Nat an unfathomable glance. "I'm proud of my surname. It was my father's. He was a good man and I'm not giving it up unless there's absolutely no alternative." There's a moment's pause. "Gifts? You mean like Jeremy saying I'd probably be given a laptop and cellphone?"

"Just a suggestion," the Galliard replies, unfazed. "And no, Gifts." The capital letter is almost audible. "From Gaia. They're based on your tribe, your breed, and your auspice. Us homid-born, for instance, tend to be very good at getting our way. We call it Persuasion."

Tu says "You wouldn't be giving anything up", Tu adds. "You'd be adopting an alias, so if you get arrested or something, your real name doesn't come into it. As for gifts, they're kind of like magic tricks. They can help you out in a jam."

Kevin clicks his fingers. "Ah-ha. Yes. I've come across one of them, I think. Emma and Scratch both have this ability to knock you to the floor by only laying a finger on you. At a guess that'd be a full moon trick." He gives Tu another unfathomable look. "Well, that's cool, I guess. Speaking of names... when d'you think I'll get a wolf-name, like you all have? I thought at first it came with your Rite of Passage, but Stacey had one before she did hers, and Rae too I think."

"So did Saul," Nat says, heading across the floor toward her toolbox. "Yup, you'll get one. If you can think of one that fits you can have it, but often they're given to you by your teachers. They're generally pretty... hmn, fluffy. Like Chaney was 'Many-Faces'. Because of Lon Chaney, and because, well, she's a shifter." She crouches down to paw through the yellow box, letting the boys chat.

Tu shoots a curious gaze towards Natalie, but then tries to keep the cub entertained. "They tend to be earned, either for good deeds or not-so-good deeds. Or habits. Don't worry too much about it, that will take care of itself."

"Emma kind of tried me on with one," Kevin mentions, "but I really wasn't keen on Runs-Like-Rabbit. It sounded a bit... cowardly. I guess Kevin'll do me fine for now... had it nearly sixteen years. And we Walkers --" he says that 'we' with a little emphasis, as though for pride's sake -- "probably go by human names far more often than Garou anyway, yes?"

"Generally," the elder agrees, metal clanking as she pushes through the tools. "Though it's nice to have... hah!" She turns, triumphant, with a vicious looking stapler in one hand. "--Nice to be able to know who we are in the other forms, too. Tu, you know the gift that allows you to twiddle...?" She trails off, but nods meaningfully at the gadget.

Tu makes a show of lifting his hands and wiggling his fingers at the staple gun. While his actions are comical, a look of concentration takes over on his face. Suddenly the handle depresses and with a loud crack the staple gun goes off, shooting a staple across the room.

And no, Natalie's hands were nowhere near the handle.

"Oh yes, Gifts, we were getting off-topic," Kevin exclaims. He bends over to examine Nat's new toy. "Stone me. You could staple someone to a cross with that," he blasphemes, apropos of nothing. Then he leaps back like the rabbit to which he so recently reported being compared as Tu mysteriously makes the stapler fire one of its metal payload mere inches past his inquisitive nose, letting out a yawp of surprise. "Hey!"

Natalie grins at them both - at Tu for the trick, and at Kevin's surprise. "One of the gifts Cockroach gives. Here." She offers the cub the 'gun' for his examination. "It only works on simple machines - mechanical, not electrical, so I couldn't turn on my nailer from here - but in certain circumstances it's damn useful."

A small beeping noise emanates from his coat. He walks over and pulls out his palm pilot, flipping it open. " Oh, right", he says, mostly to himself. "Sorry to shoot and run, but I'm suppose to go look at some office space." He gathers his stuff up hastily. "I'll let you know what's going on with Signe, Nat." he says as he gathers, then looks to Kevin. "I'll come by in the next few days and drag you to woods and teach you how to step through the looking glass. You may want to bring something to drink." That says, he makes his way to the door.

Kevin takes the stapler suspiciously, as though suspecting further trickery. "That was you, Tu?" he queries his fellow new-mooner. "Neat... I'll see you!" he calls out to Tu's departing figure. "/Was/ it him? Or was it... who's Cockroach?" he asks Natalie. Ah, sweet innocence of youth.

Natalie flings a wave of farewell after the older Ragabash and tucks her thumbs into her jeans' pockets while Kevin examines the stapler. "That was Tu," she agrees. "I can do it too, but I figured it would be more effective for him to do it, since he was obviously nowhere near me." The question causes her to blink, nonplussed. "Our tribal totem. You know about totems, right?"

Light evidently dawns on Kevin. "Ahhh. Like the Get have Fenris Himself. Um! I'm not trying to sound cheeky, but you have a cockroach?"

Natalie says slowly, clearly not getting it, "Well, there's cockroaches in the basement. Don't do anything to them, or else. Is that what you mean?"

Kevin is talking equally at cross purposes. "I meant, how come the Get have a totem from mythology who's all glorious and warlike, while your... our... tribe has a cockroach? Doesn't sound quite in the same league."

"Well..." Nat begins. "See, there's... well, hell. See, that's the difference between our tribes. Between all of the tribes, really. Each tribe has a different totem, a different viewpoint, a different goal. Cockroach has been around for millions of years. He's a survivor. I'm sure you've heard the saw about how they'll survive a nuclear war? That's us. We survive and adapt. The Get, they're all about the scream-and-leap. The Gnawers follow Rat, who's all about slinking around, staying in the shadows. You see?"

Kevin nods slowly, assimilating this information slowly but steadily like a Borg assimilating an Enterprise captain. "So as Cockroach is hard to kill, so we're hard to kill... yes? Did I read somewhere you can cut a cockroach's head off and it'll still survive for several days, till it starves because it can't eat any more?"

But without the red glowing eye. "...Sort of," she hedges. "More like ants, though. You kill one ant, the hive survives. Kill one roach, and there's half a thousand behind it. So being one of Roach's children doesn't make you any harder to kill. It's more of a tribal thing. An outlook. You'll need to get Scratch to give you his point of view sometime. And I'll definitely want to introduce you to Roach on the flipside."

Kevin looks at Natalie for a long moment. "The flipside... Umbra?" he asks. "Is that where he lives? Is that where all the tribe totems live? Am I asking too many questions?"

Natalie bobs her head. "The Umbra. Exactly. Yes, they all live there, along with all the other spirits. I don't know precisely where, though, and I don't know of anyone who does. I'll have to see if I can talk a theurge into summoning one. But anyway. That'll be for later. For now I need to keep working on this floor. Why don't you head down into the basement and practice your shifting for a bit? Maybe think about the cockroach while you're down there too. I'll come and get you when it's some for supper."

"Sorry," Kevin smiles, "didn't mean to distract you from the job. One last question before I go downstairs...? Was Tu serious about me being ready for riting? Because I really, surely, need to be taught the language first, as well as being shown the umbra?" He walks over to the basement door, placing his hand on the handle, turning hopefully to await the elder's words of response.

Natalie doesn't disappoint: when he turns around she's shaking her head, smirking. "No, Tu wasn't serious. You're doing a damn fine job, but sending you on your Rite now would be throwing you to the wolves. Literally. I'm thinking... oh, probably summer sometime. And I'll talk to you about it beforehand, so it won't be a surprise. Now g'wan, shoo." She flaps her hands at him as if shooing chickens. "Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is to tell me at supper what a roach smells like when you're in lupus."

"Yes MA'AM," Kevin grins, snapping a salute with the hand that isn't holding the door-handle. Opening the door, he pops inside and carefully down the steps. And if Natalie stops using the power-nailer in a short while and listens at the door, she may be able to hear the faint pad of four wolven feet from the basement as Kevin gets to know the local roach families.

[End of log]