A used couch and a pair of recliners are grouped around a coffee table in the living room, with a foursome of wooden chairs claiming the bump out for quieter conversation. The dining room boasts a white laminate table with four vinyl-covered - too new to be 'vintage', too old to be trendy. The appliances and cupboards in the kitchen are new - or at least refurbished to look like it - and a door leads out to the backyard from there.

Up the stairs are a number of empty rooms where anyone affiliated with the Sept can crash and an office for private meetings. The Glass Walkers have their own area accessible via a locked door off the foyer. The main doors themselves lead back out to the front porch of the house.

Natalie blinks startlement but lets the Alpha in, closing the door behind the other woman before offering more than a surprised, "Megan-rhya." The smell of paint hangs faintly in the air, along with the even more faint odor of wood. The downstairs is empty, though from upstairs comes a thumping bass. "Can I get you anything? Coffee? Juice?"

Megan glances up at the ceiling out of curiousity, while saying, "I don't want to inconvenience you, but juice would be lovely if you must." Her hands go into the pockets of her overcoat.

"I'm Minnesotan," Nat quips drily. "We habitually serve a several-course meal and call it 'a little lunch'. Juice isn't a problem." She cuts around the half-wall to head down the hallway, then stops and turns. "Cripes. I almost forgot. Can I take your coat?"

Megan trails after Natalie, lagging as she looks around to take in the site of the place, and grins slightly at the nicety. "Depends on whether or not you'll think I'll be here long. If not," she flaps the edges of the front of the coat. "I'm good."

Natalie looks politely doubtful. "Long enough to drink juice, anyway. And... have you gotten a tour yet? Of the finished place?" As she speaks she retreats back toward the Philodox, hands extended.

Megan moves to shed her coat at the indirect suggestion, offering it out to the Galliard. "This is the first time I've been here, in fact. I've been wanting to come in to see it, but..." She shrugs her right shoulder helplessly. "Juice and a tour would be great."

Natalie takes the coat and hangs it on the pegs on the angle of the stairs, then turns to face Megan, her hands migrating to her hips. "Well, this is the living room, obviously. The halfwall is concrete block, to give us hard protection should - Gaia forbid - they come in the door. Back this way," she turns and heads down the hall, nodding to the the open dining room but not stopping, "is the dining room. And back here's the kitchen." Which is fair-sized, enough for two active cooks. "Bathroom's just there," she adds, jerking her head toward a closed door on the left. "I'm figuring no shifting down here, though I might relax that rule for upstairs, depending."

Megan nods once as she once again trails along, peering into everything pointed out to absorb it all. "Sounds reasonable," she agrees amenably. "Anyone other than the Glass Walkers staying here yet?"

"Emma's staying here during the big moons," Nat says as she pulls open the fridge to retrieve a half-gallon carton of orange juice (high pulp, extra calcium and Vitamin D!). She turns, hipping the door closed, and adds almost casually, "Because Signe's especially moody now that she's pregnant." There's a decided repressed excitement in the Galliard, and her eyes never leave the Philodox's face.

Megan's nose wrinkles reflexively at the 'Extra Pulp' on the side of the orange juice box, but is distracted by Natalie's casually dropped news. Her eyes narrow speculatively, her chin raising a fraction. "Oh, is she," she more states than asks, but does leave it at that.

"That's what both Emma and Signe say," Natalie reports, not without a grimace. "So now she's just got to do the hospital thing." She may be disappointed - and is, judging from that grimace and the blandness of her delivery - but turns to find a couple of mis-matched glasses without another word. "Now I just have to find someone to Challenge."

"She also has to carry the child to term," Megan corrects diffidently, finding a counter to lean back againat as she watches Natalie prepare to decant the beverage. She shows no reaction to the dropped comment. "How *is* the 'hospital thing' going?"

Natalie says, "That's why Emma's spending the big moons here," as she pulls down a peach glass and what looks like a highball. "Let's see... what other news? Oh." This last is delivered on a descending note; she reaches for the carton but doesn't pull it close. "--Saul didn't survive his Rite of Passage test. He got killed in the Umbra by spiders."

Megan grimaces. "It's always a tragedy when a young one goes down in the line of fire," she says quietly, not without sympathy, then sighs. "We'll miss having him around."

Natalie only offers a quiet, "Mnh," as she pours the two glasses, then returns the carton to the fridge. Both glasses in hand, she offers the taller to the Alpha. "Kid didn't even get to see the bane he was supposed to take down. I don't know if he panicked or what, but Scratch and I found him in a house, covered with spiders. I swear we were only gone for a minute, but still. Even if we'd been there we couldn't have stopped him, or that would've made him fail."

"Fail, but alive," Megan muses, but there is no accusation in it. She studies Natalie briefly, simply holding the juice glass, before shrugging her shoulder again, raising the glass slightly as if in toast, "To better luck to him the next time through."

Natalie hoists her glass silently, but makes no comment before sipping. "Let me think... Oh - you probably know already, but Kevin decided he wanted to join the tribe. He's upstairs," a glance is thrown that way, "That might be his music. Probably is Scratch's, though. Turns out Scratch was the one who brought him to the farm in the first place, which I only learned last week."

Megan tilts her head. "He was out there, what, a few weeks, right?"

"Uhh..." Nat says, delaying her answer with a drink of juice. "--Yeah, that sounds right. Well, a couple of months. End of December, I think, is when Scratch brought him in. So eight weeks? He's picked up a lot of the basics. Tu's going to take him to the flipside in the next couple of days, before it gets too dark. --Which reminds me," she adds, lifting her glass but lowering it again, "I got a call from David last, no two weeks ago. Something like. He says that the problem with the Brothers is taken care of. We haven't done any follow-up because he suggested staying away from them for a bit, but I'm thinking it's been long enough that I could go take a wander through their territory and see if there's anything funky."

Megan's eyes narrow. "Jacinta mentioned the same thing." She nods curtly. "Yes, please do. Requiem's territory is near there as well, isn't it? Ask them to look around as well."

"Jacinta mentioned...?" Nat echoes, eyebrows lifting. "And, no, not really. Requiem's territory is on the other side of town, near the wharfs. Havoc claims the far west side: Fourteenth, Fifteenth Avenue. I don't think the Brothers' territory goes all the way across town, but I can look into that, too. I know the place where they've holed up is in our territory.'

Megan doesn't elaborate at Natalie's trailing off question, simply saying, "I'd like as many eyes as possible looking at it, especially given how it all started. Not so many as to tip off another riot, but more than one opinion."

Natalie opens her mouth, closes it again without protest, though she looks slightly unhappy. "Yes, Megan. Speaking of Jacinta... do you still want to do the organized apology? Or have us do it? I'm willing, but I don't know how much longer this can - should go without it being meaningless."

"I'd like to, yes," Megan says, some tension entering her posture. "I spoke to Jacinta about it--she wasn't happy. She was planning on Challenging you on it," she comments. "And I thinks he doesn't think she did anything wrong, so was even less happy when I told her I want apologies out of both of you. If you'd prefer dealing with it in Challenge again, I'll respect the wishes of you guys, but I just want it settled one way or the other that you'll both at least accept. If it's a more palatable outcome to you--I'm fine."

"Oh for the love of...!" bursts out of the Galliard before she cuts herself off, nostrils flaring and eyebrows knitting. "She wants to Challenge me over it? Again? OK, granted, the first time was beating me down so she can insult me to my face, but good gods. She's gotta take the stick out of her butt. I'm willing to apologize for accidentally tromping on her toes; I'll give her that. But she thinks she needs to formally Challenge me too? No." Her free hand makes a short, sharp, dismissive gesture. "No. That's just ridiculous."

"She wants to challenge you over the note you left," Megan clarifies. "Which she considers a separate incident. And that's what I told her she needed to apologize for."

[They agree that they both want Jacinta and Nat to apologize to each other, and Megan gets a tour of the finished Safehouse.

[End of log]