Currently in Saint Claire, it is a cloudy day. The temperature is 50 degrees Fahrenheit (10 degrees Celsius). The wind is calm today. The barometric pressure reading is 30.26 and rising, and the relative humidity is 93 percent. The dewpoint is 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius.)

Currently the moon is in the waning New Moon phase (8% full).

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 aluminum and vinyl-upholstered chairs - 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.

Emma chuckles and shakes her head, "I don't want to think about that. Gross Kevin." Emma sits on the couch in a rather relaxed slouch, the only difference of note would be a still healing right hand/arm that bears claw marks and mangled- but nearly healed flesh. She has a newspaper to her left.

Kevin chuckles as well, but keeps his legs crossed. "It's a guy thing. Any time something nasty happens to another man's privates, all the other guys start making jokes about it, and thinking to themselves 'Dammit I'm glad that wasn't me'." The cub is sitting by Emma and looking fairly relaxed; at least the two aren't obviously about to spring at each other and fight, going by their body language.

Emma snorts and after a moment blushes furiously, "I told him there was a silver lining to that cloud;" she pauses, "He could have his kin girl Rillie kiss it to make it better."

That revelation makes Kevin frown. "He's got a girl?" The British cub appears surprised at the news. "Hooboy." He shakes his head once or twice, but says no more than that.

Emma snickers and nods, "Sorta. It's one of those had, lost, getting back things. But that's not my story to tell." Her stomach rumbles and she glances around. "I need to mooch," she admits with a grin.

Kevin's face remains in a frown. "Well, we can see you're not a Galliard," he quips. "If you start telling any more stories and then go 'But I can't say any more than that, you'll have to ask someone else', I'm liable to explode with curiosity." The frown fades and is replaced by a slight smile. "Mooch around all you like. I am. I reckon you've earned a break."

Natalie breezes out of the Walker half of the house in t-shirt and jeans, aiming for the row of coat hooks set into the stairs before she looks over into the living room. "--Hey Emma. Kevin. I was wondering where you'd gotten to." Raised eyebrows mark the pair, though her voice is fairly easy-going.

Emma looks at Kevin and narrows her gaze. "What is there to mooch though?" Her question is paused as Natalie shows up and a jovial, "Hey Nat," is offered. "I was looking for you. I need help looking up some info online and junk."

"How'd ya mean, what is there to mooch?" Kevin queries, his British ears possibly confused by the slang term, as he raises one hand to greet Natalie. "I'm here," he says to the galliard redundantly. "Not many places for me to hide in the house."

"Right," Nat agrees, turning away from the coats to come lean on the half-wall, "But you weren't in the basement where I expected you to be. And," she adds with a pointed head-tilt for the Ahroun, "Our 'moochables' are getting low. I don't have a job until Friday, so go easy on the shoveling-food-into-your-mouth, huh? That goes for both of you."

Emma grins a bit, "I'll bring some from Mitch's apartment tomorrow so that your cub doesn't starve. Moon's getting skinny, I'll be tucked away with the boy soon." She pauses in thought at this, "Actually, I have a bunch of leftover Chinese from last night, I'll go grab that and bring it back here. It'll just go to waste at the Brownstone. I'll be back in a flash."

Kevin seems to undergo the Rite of the Dropping Penny. "Ah-HA. To mooch is to scrounge food? Back home it's just generally to lounge round, and waste time. Stone me, it makes 'Minnie the Moocher' take on a whole new light." He gives his elder an apologetic smile. "I was just getting used to the new cub dormitory. The cellar floor's a bit hard."

Natalie drops Emma a nod as the Ahroun scoots past her, though doesn't move out of the Get's way. Once the door is closed she turns back to the cob. "Yeah, mooch. Beg for handouts. The Gnawers are best at it. --Well, I've got a couple more things coming in from Goodwill later today. Washer and dryer for one - those are going down in the basement - and a desk for your room. We'll have to see about getting you going on school stuff, though we won't have to do anything about classes until..." Her head tilts to one side as she considers him. "Well, until you're Cliath. Probably. Doesn't mean you can skimp your lessons, though."

Kevin regards Natalie thoughtfully. "I'm not the most brilliant scholar ever but I'm not thick either. What've you got in mind for lessons? Is this all part of the fake-ID scheme you were mentioning?"

"Enh," the Galliard says, "Only partially. I'm thinking GED if we can't get you slipped into the school system to graduate. It's a hell of a lot easier to get jobs - hell, to get post-secondary teaching - if you've got at least a GED." A tight little smile, almost a smirk, curls up the corners of her lips. "We live in the city. Means we have to move in the city. Means we have to bring in money, because we can't just take over a handy cave. The kin help - help a lot - but they can't do it all. That's why I go out and pick up hours during the small moons. Well, I will once the house is finished."

"You'll have to translate as you go along," Kevin says. "What's a GED and how do you get one? I've got six GCSEs, but I'm guessing they're pretty much dead paper because they're wussy British qualifications. As for money... it's ironic. I've got scads of it back home sitting in a trust waiting for me to either leave school or turn eighteen. But I suppose that's not a lot of use either."

"Make you a deal," Nat says as she pushes herself off the wall and comes around to the living room. "I'll translate if you will." She stays quiet until she's seating herself in the chair across from the boy. "GED - stands for General Equivalency Degree. Means you've got the skills equivalent to a high school diploma, even if you don't have the diploma itself. You can get one before you'd be old enough to graduate - eighteen - but we'd need to do some hoop jumping." The jumping's dismissed as inconsequential with a single-shoulder shrug.

"And how difficult is it?" Kevin queries. "I mean... look. GCSE stands for General Certificate of Secondary Education, and in England you sit them when you're fifteen or sixteen. I got English Language, Mathematics, Art, French, History and Chemistry. Failed a few more, but I was never gonna be a rocket scientist."

Natalie says, "Uh..." with another blank shrug. "Hell if I know. I didn't think it was that hard to graduate - well, not the school part of it anyway. Attendance was a different matter." She considers him for a second while chewing on the inside of her right cheek. "Make you a deal. We'll see if we can find some info on the GED while we're out today - maybe grab a book of SAT practice-tests or something - and let you review. If you're ready to," she makes air-quotes, "'graduate' now, then we'll just see about getting you set to do that. Then you can figure out what sort of post-sec work you want to do. I figure you'd do better learning something from Tu or Jon than swinging a hammer, but that's just me."

Kevin shrugs. "Whatever you say, O Queen. As long as the test isn't full of US-centric stuff like 'Who was president after Abraham Lincoln' or 'How many cents in a dollar?'..." The youth doesn't seem to be entirely serious. "Besides, if you're gonna make up a new ID for me, can't you make up a GED certificate too while you're at it? And a driver's licence, perhaps. I know I'm not sixteen yet but if I keep growing these bristles I'll soon be able to pass for seventeen or eighteen..."

Natalie snorts a short laugh at him. "Fake where you have to, but get real where you don't. It's easier - and safer - to get you a real GED than it is a fake one. And that's why we'll check out GED stuff today, to see what sort of boning up you'll need to do. If it's too bad, if you're too far behind, we'll just get you into classes. But if you're close..." Another shrug. "We'll see. Gotta walk before you can run. I'll also have you do all the research to find out... well. Now I'm the one who's running."

Kevin makes an 'Aw, you're no fun' face in return, but nods assent. "Classes. Certificates. I thought one of the plus points of this new life was I'd finished with all of that malarkey. Do you mean real classes? Like, school? Isn't that kind of dangerous... what if I flip out at full moon and reduce the teacher to a smear on the wall for telling me I got something wrong?"

Natalie levels a finger and another smirk at him. "You don't have as much of a chance of doing that as I did. Do. That's just another part of your lessons, Kev. If you're going to live in the city, you've got to learn how to deal with the humans. How to make them as comfortable as possible around you, despite your Rage. Watch them sometime. A lot of people - a lot of people - don't like being around me. I don't clear a room like Signe does, but it's still pretty obvious. It's because I'm a big moon. You small moons don't have the same effect on people. Generally."

Kevin nods assent. "Well, the problem I have is making myself shift, not stopping myself, as you know. So if you think it's okay, it's okay. Hell, that guy Jeremy hung out with me back when the moon was only just past full and I never even growled at him. I'm just a sweet normal little kid." He folds his hands in a choirboy pose and tries to look angelic. This is not a notable success.

Natalie actually bares her teeth, her lips peeling back to reveal her shiny whites. "And that was a damn foolish thing for Jeremy to do. The idiot's just looking to become salsa. I've told him and told him to stay away from here when the moon is big. One day his luck's going to run out and Scratch or I will come down the stairs at the wrong moment and just snap."

Kevin's angelic smile fades. "Don't blame me, it was before you warned me to keep away from the kinfolk. Anyway..." He unfolds his hands and flaps one of them. "Money. I know I'm eating up food while I'm here, and I owe you for these shoes still. I don't know what I can do till I've got some kind of paper existence, but if you need me to go and get a job at 7-11 or somewhere stacking shelves, I guess I'll do what I need."

Natalie looks away, out one of the windows, and sighs. "You're... you don't need to. Not yet." Her temper already back under control, she turns back to the boy. "Right now you're a cub, so we're responsible for you. Even if you had access to your fifty million pounds we wouldn't take it. You're square. Don't worry about it, huh?"

"'Snot as much as that," the Briton corrects offhand. He stretches. "Okay. I'll not stress about money, but I'll try and be frugal when it comes to eating and stuff. Peanut butter's cheap anyway."

There is a knock at the door, followed by a, "Food's here."

"That'd be appreciated," Nat nods, stretching her legs out before her. Kevin's still on the couch, but now she's taken the chair directly facing the boy. "Normally I wouldn't worry about it, but..." She cocks her head, frowning, then cranks her head around toward the door. "That the door? Yeah, looks like it." Up she gets, flapping a hand at Kevin. "I'll get it."

Emma grins as the door is opened, holding out an armful of white plastic. "Chow mein, chop suey, chop cat, your pick." She gives a second for Natalie to let her in, then scoots into the household.

"You can just take it on back to the kitchen," Nat directs, glancing around the neighborhood before closing the door behind the Get. "Thanks. Kevin and I were just talking about schooling, among other things. You still looking into your GED?"

"Emma too? We could sign up together!" Kevin adds with a chuckle. "Misery loves company..."

Emma nods at this as she walks to the kitchen and sets the food stuff down, "Yah, I mean, at this exact point it's not priority, but I would like to get officially past high school." Some rustling can be heard as she unwraps some stuff, and then returns to the front room with an egg roll, cold, being eaten.

By the time she's back Nat's once more ensconced in her chair, looking as though she'd never left. Well, Kevin and I are going to pick up some study materials when we're out running errands this afternoon. You can take a look at them when he's done. --Oh! Kevin, have you told Emma your new name yet?"

Kevin nods. "She was the first one to hear, apart from you." He looks from Emma to Nat quite proudly; for a moment the scene could almost be a happy family snapshot. Then the snapshot fractures as Kevin speaks again, turning to less everyday issues. "Emma, did you mention to Nat just what you want to look for on the net?"

Emma ohs at this and nods, munching down her egg roll quickly and swallowing overly loud. "You heard about the pit bulls that attacked on the bawn the other day?" This spoken as if she is sure the other must know about it. "I wanted to see if there is someplace online, that may be local to St. Claire, that has like lost pet ads, or what not. Get a listing of shelters and humane societies in the area, see if any are missing dogs or what not."

Nat's head snaps around to stare at the Get. "The what on the bawn? No, I hadn't heard. You know what passing news is like between city and farm. If I don't do it, it doesn't get done." She manages to keep her voice only lightly bitter. "--But yes, there probably are. Or you could just call them too. A lot of times they won't have their entire animal list online."

"I hadn't heard either," Kevin confirms. "I know everyone's always busy with this and that and the other but when I make it through to cliath -- " he doesn't say 'if' -- "I'm damn' well gonna make it my business to go out there regularly and bring any news back, if nobody else does."

Emma frowns, "Well I figure my trip out here would do the trick if you hadn't heard. I'd have come sooner but spent a few days healing up out at the farm. Vicious dogs. Tainted, poisonous, and faster than anything I've seen naturally. Brom and I were going to snoop out any links we might be able to find, and," she pauses to let out an exasperated sigh, "Jacinta both knows about us helping and is cool with it. Requiem wants in too, the lil' fuckers. Anyway, this is on top of a giant sized cat that Brom ran into out there as well. It's getting kind of to be routine. So far all domestic."

The galliard flicks appeasing fingers at Kevin, but her eyes remain on Emma. "The hell? Requiem's place is in the city. On their own damn territory. Megan-rhya wants me to drag them in to following up on the Brothers, but I haven't had a chance to hunt any of them down yet."

Kevin takes the hint from Natalie's fingers, and remains silent for now.

Emma nods, "That's what I said to Dillen, and he just replied that he is eager to show people that his pack is ready to go out and do stuff." She chuckles, running a hand through her hair, "Course the same could be said of me poking my nose at it, but I'm just trying to help those bawnside folks figure out what may be causing it to spread out of the city. It certainly doesn't help White Bear's opinion on things past the forest. He chased that poor Doberman till who knows when." "-The Doberman was the prey to those Pits, as far as I know I don't think he was messed up, just a victim."

Natalie rolls her eyes - and makes no show of hiding it - when the Ronin's name comes up. "Please. No, Requiem's got no business on the bawn as a pack. If they want to help singly... well, that's up to Ridgeline. And as long as you don't try and make this a Havoc thing, you looking into things is fine too." Her attention drifts back to Kevin with another dry snort. "And how lost are you, little boy?"

"Combat the Wyrm wherever it dwells and breeds," quotes Kevin just a little self-righteously. "Me? I'm one of the Lost Boys. I flap around this old abandoned castle on a cliff, and sing 'People Are Strange'."

Emma looks from Natalie to Kevin, a big strange gaze given to the boy. "You are strange." She pauses a moment in thought and then takes a big breath as she readies a question. "What is a ronin technically? Brom brought it up when he talked with Jacinta, and she seems to think - no, she seemed to convey that White Bear was not a Ronin because he didn't choose to be without tribe."

"Jacinta's whacked in the head," Nat snorts as she crosses her ankles together and brushes a bit of hair behind one ear. "He's tribeless. So he's Ronin. End of story. I'm surprised Megan-rhya's let him hang out as long as she has. Or that that holier-than-thou conservative would let him stay in her pack. Hell, that she'd let him in her pack in the first place."

Kevin hums a little tune as he listens. Could it be 'People are Strange'?

Emma gives a nod, "I just wanted to make sure I knew how the rules specifically go about that sort of thing. If you ask me," she gives a dramatic look as her hand comes to her chest; as if her opinion were the most humble thing in the world, "That by refusing to act like his tribe he did make a choice. Or rather, his ex-tribe. Whatever."

"Every action has an equal and opposite reaction," quotes Natalie. "So yeah, I'd say Feral Boy dug his own damn grave. I don't see why Megan-rhya hasn't chased him out of here with his tail between his legs. That whole damn tribe's messed up, if you ask me. First for pandering to him in the first place, then by packing with him, and now by continuing to pack with him even though no totem'll give him the time of day. And they bleat about their so-called 'purity'." She snorts, scowling, and folds her arms over her belly. "Their elder's the worst of the lot."

Kevin is far too fascinated by this dishing of dirt to actually remind the other two that he's here. He just listens up.

Emma nods her head, "She basically offered Brom a spot in her pack, dunno if he'd pack up with them though, not with the White Bear thing. Has anyone asked Megan why she is okay with letting this just sorta, go all loose and laid back? Not that I would, I seem to like, even breathe wrong when I am around her."

Natalie boggles at Emma before flinging a disbelieving, "Are you nuts?" at her packmate. "I walk on eggshells around Megan-rhya, especially when it comes to that Ronin. She throated me more than once last year about him. Nuh-unh. That's a topic that I'll leave for Signe or one of the other Fostern to bring up. I may be Elder, but he's not any of my damn business anymore. Thank Gaia. --Speaking of," she adds, deliberately unfolding her arms and resting them on the arms of the chair, "I'm going to try and Challenge Layne for Fostern at the next Moot."

Kevin 's ears stay metaphorically pricked, but he's still lyin' low and sayin' nuffin.

Emma nods her head, "I wasn't saying you, I was just asking if anyone had. I'm in your boat Nat, I ain't touching that at all." She looks down and flicks a crumb off her pant leg, perking up once the challenge is brought up. "Oh yah? That's cool. I'm rooting for ya." She says with a smile, sincere and genuine even!

Natalie nods at Emma, taking the Ahroun's enthusiasm as only her due. "Yeah. I figured it was time I tried again after the Owen fiasco. I wanted to ask Alicia-rhya, but..." Her lips snap together. "Well." Her eyes flick away from the Get, brushing over and then lighting on the little pitcher as if she'd forgotten he was there. "--Getting an earful?" she asks, wryly amused.

"About half of it makes sense," Kevin nods, "but it's all very entertaining. Especially because Emma told me I'd have to ask you about White Bear. Ask you? More like, sit back and listen to the band play." The cub does seem to be extracting vicarious pleasure in listening to the two Cliaths let their hair down.

Emma clears her throat a little, "I told him that it was not place to fill him in on details of anything. I only noted that White Bear may treat him more..." she searches for a word, "He'll be a bigger asshole to a Glass Walker or Gnawer than he would most of the other tribes." She shrugs.

Natalie snorts at Kevin again before pushing out of her chair. "There's a mighty fine line," she drawls at Emma. "I need to run upstairs for a few, make some phone calls. You two going to be all right by yourselves?"

Kevin shrugs. "Guess so," he says. "Emma? Is any of that Chinese still up for... 'mooching'?" The Briton drapes the word in tentative inverted commas in a fine piece of verbal snobbery.

Emma holds her hands up innocently towards Natalie in defense that she meant nothing by it. Kevin gets a look and a nod, "Brought it for everyone. There's tons left. And yah mum, we'll be fine. As long as he stays on his side of the couch."

Natalie tilts an eye back toward Kevin. "She breathes your air, just let me know, and I'll pound her for you." A flash of a grin for the two teens, and she heads for the steps, taking them two at a time.

Kevin watches Nat depart, head on one side. He then takes a piece of imaginary chalk out of thin air and mimes drawing an equally imaginary line down the centre of the room, bisecting the couch. "Respect the territory of another," he declares, and trots into the kitchen area (which just so happens to he on his side of the line), emerging shortly thereafter with a plateful of various Oriental leftovers.

Emma looks at the cub with a playful sneering of her eyes. "Ya know Kevin, I don't mind getting a pounding now and then." She taunts him with a slight giggle as the Galliard heads upstairs. "Throw me another egg roll would ya? And hey. Don't get me in trouble with your elder. Geez."

Kevin returns to the kitchen for the Get's second eggroll, and hands it ceremoniously over the imaginary line as though it were a customs checkpoint. With a laugh he drops the pretence and flops back on the couch, popping a porkball in his mouth and chewing happily. "Mmm," he says, swallowing, and regaining his speech ability. "C'mon, Emma, I'm only a new-moon cub, how am I gonna get you in trouble with your own pack beta? Tell her you stomped on a cockroach?"

Emma just gives him a knowing look, the kind a mother would give a child after he came back with a bad excuse for doing something wrong. "It'd be very easy. Like, I dunno, my saying something I shouldn't have and you turning around to say it to her?" She hmphs, "Not that I would be saying things to frazzle your stylish new Walker wiring up here," she points to her head, "At least not intentionally, and that's the problem."

Kevin regains a modicum of seriousness. "Look Emma. I don't know whether you actually realise this, but I like you. I'd sooner be spitted alive than go tale-bearing on you even if you had done something naughty-naughty. Is this still about that weird dipshit White Bear?"

Emma lifts a shoulder, "I dunno. Not sure what she was considering the line, only that her tone suggested I be careful about whatever line that was. I was just trying to give you an honest warning. Didn't mean to start up on the whole fiasco that it was."

Kevin gives a thumbs-up to Emma. "Least said, soonest mended, as far as I'm concerned." He takes a forkful of miscellaneous Chinese vegetables and regards it approvingly before cramming it into his mouth. Quite how the cub maintains his athletic figure is a mystery given how much he seems to pack away.

Nat's return is heralded by the clatter of feet on the steps; the Galliard appears soon after and ducks back around the wall to return to her chair, though not without a curious look between the other two.

Emma lifts her eyebrows up in a casual manner, "What? He is completely Get-germ free, I didn't breathe, cough or sneeze at him." She chuckles, "But the food was handled by Get all last night, so... no saying what he catches from that."

Kevin chews his mouthful of Chinese food, then mocks jerking upright and rolling his eyes. "Fight... GOOD! Fear... BAD! Wyrm... DESTROY! Hut hut!"

"Gaia forbid," Nat begins on a laugh, only to be cut off by Kevin-the-Get, which coaxes a full-blown chortle from the woman. "Oh, that's it, Emma. I'm gonna pound you." She settles deeper into her chair, smirking, and flicks one finger over at the Ahroun. "There. Consider yourself pounded. Dammit, what've I told you about infecting my cubs?"

Emma grins a bit, "Cmon, I am like ninety-eight percent harmless. Anyway, I should get going. Is there a time when someone is around that can help me with the computers to get the info for the local shelters? I know you probably don't want my unattended fingers going to town." This is said with an understanding and good-natured grin.

Kevin starts to laugh so hard at his own charade that he pays a heavy price: he tips his plate of Chinese food over into his own lap. "Sod it!" he curses ruefully as he scrapes it back onto the plate and looks at his stained sweatpants. "Scuse me while I go change these... " He dumps the plate unceremoniously back in the kitchen and heads for the Glass Walker's 'door into summer'.

Natalie pulls her feet back so Kevin doesn't have to trip over them, pulling herself more vertical in the process. "Well, I'm gonna be in and out all this afternoon," she tells the Get. "Tonight is move-in, so there isn't going to be anyone around to hold your hand. Tomorrow, maybe? Eh, just give a ring before you come over."

Emma nods her head, "Yah cool. Thanks Nat. I'll leave the food here, I can't eat it more than three meals in a row, and looks like Kevin can. Especially since he gets more of it on his lap than in his mouth." She grins and then lifts herself up, "I'll give ya a call."

Natalie tosses the girl a lazy wave, but doesn't move to see her out.

[End of log]