Currently the moon is in the waxing Gibbous Moon phase (64% full).

Whispering Pines - Apt #214

This apartment gives a look of high expense, not in the building itself, but it's contents. The walls and ceiling are painted pure black, and the carpet matches the darkness, save for some off color fuzz, being that it's a pretty new carpet. Across from the door in the living area is a large black entertainment center consisting of a not suprisingly black 42" TV, a large fully digital stereo system with CD and tape players, AM/FM stereo, a setting for the TV, and a useless setting called 'phono'. There are various gaming systems tucked into the entertainment center as well, baring names like Dreamcast, Playstation and Playstation 2, various systems with the word 'Nintendo' upon them... 3D0, NeoGeo, and finally something called a 'colecovision'. This system is complemented nicely by a high quality Bose surround sound speaker system. Two black leather couches are on the left and right of the living area, angled at the entertainment center. A large chest rests on the ground between the couches and the entertainment center, working as a foot rest. The only sources of light are the LEDs on the stereo, the TV, and a small blacklight bulb in the fan in the center of the apartment. A door to the right of the apartment leads to Roger's bedroom(+view) and the small kitchen is visable on the right side of the apartment, almost a part of the living room. The kitchen is lit up by a hallogen lamp, resting next to the front door, pointed towards it.

Contents:
Ashley
Dakota

Obvious exits:
Whispering Pines

Ashley heads out of Sean's room, rubbing a towel through her hair, dressed in a pair of khaki shorts and a baggy black shirt that says Boston, simply, across it. Her hair is wet, frazzled and sticking up in all directions.

Dakota just got back a few minutes ago and is putting away her gym bag, depositing her workout clothes in the hamper which she just changed out of. Quirking a brow up at the knock on the door, Dakota eyes the monitor on her way there and then opens it up, offering Natalie a grin. "Hey, what's up?"

Natalie's caught with one fist lifted to knock on the door again. "....Dakota," she says, managing to not sound too surprised. "Is Jeremy in?"

Tossing the towel into the Fianna kin's room, Artemis shuts it with a soft thud, then makes her way into the living room, combing her fingers bakc through her hair. She stares past Dakota's shoulder towards Natalie, staying quiet as she listens.

Dakota shakes her head and jerks a thumb towards Ashley, "Her mate stole mine to go buy booze." She remarks with a soft huff, "Want me to give him a message? I'd give you an estimate on when they'd be back, but frankly I have no idea."

Natalie's chin lifts at the sight of the Fury. "Didn't realized you were married. --Oh wait, no. That Sean guy." Back her attention goes to the Gaian. "Sure - I sent him an email a while ago, and he hasn't replied. That's not Jer, so I wanted to make sure he was all right."

Yawning, Artemis finishes mussing up her hair, then stands at Dakota's side, chin lifting up a bit. "Yeah, that Sean guy." She says with a grin on her face. "So Natalie, I talked to Signe earlier today about what I saw in the Umbra during the Russian attack. We figure we got another run to do."

Dakota chuckles softly and gives her head a nod. "Well, when he was in the process of being stolen he was fine. Hey, common in... no need to stand in the hallway." She adds as Ashley speaks, stepping aside to give Natalie room to enter.

Natalie glowers as the Fury speaks, reflexively glancing up and down the hallway. It must be empty for she lets her breath out, then steps into the apartment, closing the door behind her. "...Yeah?" It's an equal-opportunity acknowledgement, suitable for all tribes!

"Well, there was a spirit in the Umbra that I was fighting with during the entire thing. It was the crest emblem of Russia. A bird with two heads and two crowns. This spirit was able to freeze others in place so they could not move. Vex and I chased it off." Artemis explains. "The thing is, the spirit was a manifestation of someone else..." She frowns. "I've been thinking about it. Either they got a Garou in their group who is a Theurge, or, a mage."

When Dakota disappears back down the hallway Nat plops onto the sofa with her legs stretched out in front. "What do you mean, it was a manifestation of someone else? You have to use small words with me, Artemis - I haven't spent much time in the Umbra. Usually I'm a get in, get out kinda girl."

"The spirit was a reflection of someone in the real world. So, it was a spirit bound to someone." Artemis says, trying to make it simple.

Natalie cocks her head. "You mean, like your basic Umbra tree is a reflection of the trees in this one? Or vice-versa, depending on which one you think is 'real'?"

Ashley nods her head. "Exactly. Its what Vex says."

Natalie rubs behind one ear. "Well, he'd probably know. OK, so who might this guy - and I'm gonna assume it's a guy, because Boris and co didn't exactly show any liberated feminist tendancies - be? ...Cripes, that kinda goes with what I was going to talk to Jer about. Boris had a son - did you know that? - anyway, now that Boris is gone, what happened to Junior?"

"That I do not know. I only know what I've been told, and that was to kill Alex and Boris." Artemis says with a roll of her shoulder. "I'm no Galliard, just a spirit drinker." She says with a soft breath. "I won't be much help."

Natalie snorts as she regards her packmate. "You won't be much help in what?"

"As far as getting information for you. I don't know anything beyond bad guy, go kill it. I'm just waiting for Signe to give the next word." Artemis explains. "Until that spirit resurfaces, I have nothing to go on. I don't even know who is left that we need to get rid of or where they are hiding at."

Natalie ahs. "Well, last I heard we still had two guys to deal with - Boris Jr and the doctor. I don't have a clue what's going on with either of 'em, because hell, I'm just a Galliard, no one needs to talk to me. So. My guess is that this Russia thing might be Junior, 'cause if it isn't, then we have yet another dude to deal with. I don't think it's the Doctor; he doesn't seem like that kind of guy to me."

Ashley nods her head slowly. "Well, then perhaps we should go to Junior's house if he is still living there. Or else, go in there and use the Questin Stone rite to track it."

Natalie ticks two important points off on her fingers. "Don't know where it is, don't know it. Like I said, I sent Jer an email to try and get some information, but I haven't heard back from him and I haven't seen him around the place. I was starting to get worried, so I thought I'd stop by."

Ashley nods her head. "He's been here, hanging out with his wife." She says with a shrug of her shoulders. "Don't you guys know where Boris was living at originally? If we go there, get some of this kid's stuff, I can use the Rite to track him easier because I'd be attuned to him."

"If by 'you guys' you mean 'people who aren't me', then yes, I'm sure that you guys know where Boris was living." Nat does her best to remain calm under the repeating unanswerable questions, following the mantra of 'look calm, be calm'. So far it's working. Mostly. "Perhaps I wasn't clear: I don't know. Jeremy does. I haven't talked to Jer in a few days. He..." She stops, mouth twisting up into a grimace as she puts the kibosh on whatever she was going to say.

Ashley grins slightly. "He's not answering his emails and you came over to find out if he's OK." Artemis finishes for you. "Well, I guess we have to wait for him." She flexes her fingers a bit, flopping onto the couch and wrapping her hands around her knee.

Natalie levels a finger at her. "Bingo. So. You talked to Signe? What did she say?"

"She doesn't know what to do either. She summed it up that she's a Get and thinking isn't her style, so, we're ganna have to do some hunting most likely." Artemis says with a grin.

Natalie says, "...Right. OK. So - step one. Get Dakota or Sean to tie Jer to a chair and make him reply to my email."

Ashley nods her head with a chuckle. "I'm sure Dakota can find a way to 'tie him down'." She says with a raised brow. "She's probably why he hasn't answered his email yet. Getting married does things."

"Yeah, well," Nat rubs behind her ear again. "I'll happily put the smack down on Dakota if I have to. This is a little more important than playing hide the sausage."

Ashley smirks slightly. "I'm sure it is more than that." She says with a shrug of her shoulders. "So, speaking of getting smacked down. You deal with Josh yet?"

Natalie glances over at the Theurge, but doesn't meet her eyes. "How do you mean 'deal'? Yeah, I talked to him. Talked to Megan too, damn her. He's a Walker until either he's dead or Megan relents. Obviously I'm hoping it's the former."

"You want me to deal with it?" Artemis asks seriously, drumming her fingers along the table. "I can pick a fight with him and chalk it up to pissy Fury horemones. If he attacks me first, mistakes happens."

"...He's fast," Nat advises, balancing one foot atop the other. "You really want to, go ahead. But be careful. ...I've got an idea for him anyway. He still going on blathering about avenging Craig's death, d'you know?"

Ashley shrugs her shoulders. "I don't know. I don't talk to him, which would make it even better a reason me to kill him. I got no emotional ties or strings attached to it. I can hardly care if he lives or dies." She says with a grin. "He's fast? I'll be faster."

"He's an Ahroun," the Galliard warns. "With some halfway decent training, plus he's insane. Once you get him riled up he's hardly capable of speech. He's all about the instincts. I dunno, Artemis, you're welcome to go for him if you want. I just don't want anything... stupid to happen. I don't expect anything good to happen to our boy during the next couple of months - and after that, well..."

"Well, look at it this way. I kill him, you got a weight off your shoulders. He kills me, don't gotta deal with me anymore." Artemis says with a grin on her face, reaching up to rub the battle axe marking on her shoulder.

Natalie shoots a sharp look her way. "Uh-unh. He kills you, Havoc's without a Theurge. I don't think Signe'd be too happy with me if I had to tell her I egged you on to fight the bastard and you ended up with a serious case of dead because of it."

Ashley grins slightly. "Plenty of Theurge's to choose from. I'm as replaceable as the next Garou that comes into the area." She tilts her head a bit. "Tho' I'll admit, we have been getting along lately."

Natalie continues to eye her still-balancing feet. "Yeah, well. Maybe it's not 'that time of month' anymore. Or maybe being packmates is part of it. Either way, I'm not gonna argue." Her lips twist up in a smile. "Besides, this way I can focus all my energy on the nutjob."

Ashley grins slightly. "You know, some shit went down when you were knocked out and Alex was looking to stomp a hole into ya. I was going to give him a gutting and Salem told me to stand down or he'd kill me." She rises upwards, picking her jacket up and slinging it over her shoulders, heading for the door. "I told him that if Alex killed you, that I'd kill him in return." She glances over her towards you, before tugging the door open by the handle. "In my eyes, pack runs deeper than rank, and I wouldn't care if Gaia herself told me to kiss her ass and to hold axe. No one dies on my watch."

Natalie looks up, surprised, and gets to her feet in turn. "You heading out? ...Yeah, I'll have to get the story of what the hell happened after I went night-night. All Emma or Doc'd say is that we got 'em, and I wasn't in any mood to sit around and play twenty questions."

"...anyway," Nat adds, "Salem's more important to this tribe than I am. He's Fostern, I'm just Cliath. There's another one of us Rited every minute."

"Yah, well, Salem isn't here anymore, is he? I guess you are more important than to the tribe right now." Artemis says, leaning into the doorway some. "You can come with, I'm just getting out of this house. Too much Weaver stuff gives me the willies."

Natalie eyes all of Jer's toys before snorting and shrugging. "I guess. Yeah, sure. Lemme just... ah hell, he won't have anything as mundane as a post-it around. Otherwise I'd leave a big ol' note slapped on a monitor that says, "CALL ME YOU IDIOT"." She aborts her path for the wall o' gadgets and heads for the door, yelling, "Oi! Dakota! We're leaving!"

The Child of Gaia calls out a farewell from her bedroom as the Fury slips out the house with you in tow, stepping into the hallway. "Its always quiet here. The neighbors either are freaked out by the curse or they just never come home."

Natalie says, "I'd go for A, myself," as she heads west along Silver Avenue, her hands tucked into the pockets of her jacket. "...So I gotta be nosy. You don't like 'Ashley', but how come people keep referring to you by it? And why 'Artemis', for the love of Pete? Makes you sound like a complete mong: Hi, my parents named me Bob, but I prefer 'Yahweh'."

"Artemis is the Greek Goddess of the Hunt and Wilderness." Artemis explains as she walks with you. "She was an Olympian and the daughter of Zeus and Leto, twin sister of Apollo. She was born of the Crescent moon and always weilded the bow and arrow. She was also known as the daughter of fertility. I was named it by my sisters back east, for my abilities to hunt and speak to the spirits, as well as hit anything with an arrow." She shrugs. "The daughters of Luna give themselves named after the Goddesses of Greece, because their history is rich with ours."

"I knew some of that about her - also called Diana by the Romans, right? --Yeah. Anyway. So how come you let people call you Ashley, then? That's what Jer called you when he told me about you in the first place." She stops at a traffic signal, oh so law-abiding. "...Do you guys have any gossips around here? I gotta talk to Emma about that too. I don't know much about either of you, and that's gotta change." [Natalie]

"I don't want people calling me Ashley. Sean can call me it, if he wants, but outside of him, I'd prefer to be called Artemis. Perhaps Sean told Jeremy my real name. I don't know. Ashley is the name my parents gave me, and I'm no longer a human child any longer. I left that life behind me dead in the ground, and I am who I am today now." Continuing forward into the street, Ashley either doesn't see the traffic signal, or, doesn't know what it means. Cars slam on their breaks, cursing arises, and yet, she still walks, head held high, as if she doesn't see a thing.

Natalie shakes her head and hurries after the oblivious Fury, slapping a hood when the driver takes offense at the jay-walking. "Uh, hello? Physics says Mr. Car wins, Artemis. Did you even look to see if there were cars coming?"

"Aren't they supposed to stop for people that walk across the street or something?" Artemis asks honestly, blinking her eyes owlishly once she crosses the other side, tugging her jacket tighter about her shoulders as she heads down the sidewalk.

"Were you raised in a barn?" Nat tosses back, slowing her steps once she's reached the other woman's side. "Yeah, theoretically pedestrians have right of way, but theoretically doesn't mean much when an SUV clips you. Besides, we had a don't walk. I don't think any lawyer worth his salt'd take a case like that."

"What do you mean we had a Don't walk? I wasn't raised in a barn.. just in the woods." Artemis says, glancing around her surroundings, furrowing her brows a bit more. "I didn't experience cities like this."

Natalie grabs at the other woman's arm and points to the upcoming stoplight. "Ok, basic survival, then. When the light is red, don't walk. See that little orange hand thing? ...It just started blinking. That's for pedestrians. When it's OK to walk, we'll get a little white walking dude. Yeah, a lot of people blow off the signals, but if it says don't walk, you need to at least stop and make sure there's no traffic coming."

Ashley blinks slightly and looks even more confused as she stares at the lights. "A machine tells us what to do?" She asks slowly. "We follow lights? How are you to pay attention to your surroundings if you are constantly looking for lights? What if someone tried to sneak up on you from behind to kill you? But you couldn't do anything because you were too busy staring at lights?"

"Who says you have to stare at 'em?" Nat lets her hand drop and tucks it back into her pocket. "Just watch. Same as if, oh, I dunno, if you saw tracks of a grizzly bear out in the forest. You wouldn't watch only those, would you? Nah, 'cause the grizzly or half a dozen of his closest friends could leap out of nowhere and chow on your brain. Think of traffic lights like that, and the cars as grizzlies, if you have to. When the signs say grizzlies are coming, you don't do anything stupid like roll in rotten fish. Well, when the lights say cars are coming, you don't walk out in front of them. Got it?"

Smirking slightly, Artemis nods her head slowly. ".. Alright. I'll keep that in mind." She says, before continuing once more down the street. "Here's a secret, I don't know much of the human world. I spent four years in the woods on the bawn in the Sept I grew up in. I was mostly in the Lupine form because I found it most comfortable. After awhile, you forget how to do things, like tie your shoes, or ride a bike. I never drove a car, watched much TV as a kid, and the last time I went to a movie was when I was twelve."

Natalie ambles after her packmate. "...Yeah? Well, you're not really missing much. Movies, that is. TV, there's a few decent shows on. ...How old are you anyway, if I'm not being too damn nosy?"

It takes the Fury nearly a full minute to reply to you. Glancing down, she counts on her fingers slowly, murmuring the numbers outloud to herself. ".. Twenty-One." She confirms, looking embarrassed to not answer something so simple as easily as most.

"Yeah?" The Galliard casts a look sideways. "Me too. On the 16th. How about yourself? When's your birthday?"

"Um.. thirteenth day of winter. Er.. November I think.." Artemis says with a soft breath, rubbing her neck. "The one where they have Thanksgiving in."

Nat repeats, "November 13th? Hell, you're practically ancient, then." She 'ducks' away from a possible retaliation, grinning. "But cripes, I... I mean, I thought you could never forget how to ride a bike."

"I haven't touched once in years, so I wouldn't know if I could or not." Artemis says with a shift of her eyes, poking you in the shoulder slightly at the ancient jab. "The fact we are both twenty-one, alive, and still Cliath's either make us poor Garou, or just not in the need to rush out and claim rank."

Natalie claps her teeth together and is silent a few steps. Finally she says, "Look, Artemis - I don't care if Boris and etcetera aren't a problem any more. It's still not a good idea to toss some terms around in public. Got it?"

"Look about you, it's an empty street Natalie, and Garou been talking among themselves for thousands of years without much in the way of hoopla. The way I see it, our enemy knows who we are and where we are at. At least the Wyrm does. If it wants, it can come at us just as easily as we can come at them. Far as the cattle goes." Artemis says, glancing about as she goes. "Humans are stupid. They have 'gangs' they go by and they do stupid shit like give themselves lil nick names and whatever. Lets be honest, your tribe isn't the most 'secretive' of Garou when it comes to dealing with humans. I don't see anyone walking around in the war form, do you?"

Natalie stops, forcing the other woman to turn around if she wants to continue the conversation. "Maybe they aren't, but I am. Call me paranoid, maybe, but I know it's not impossible for this so-called 'deserted' street to have plenty of listeners. And all you need is for one wrong word to fall into the right ear and bam. This is from Megan herself, by the way, if you don't want to listen to me: keep your head down and nose clean when you're in the City. To me, that means using discretion, not just relying on what you see or think you don't see. Will you trust me that maybe I know a little more about the city and what can happen there than you do?"

"I trust you in that regard." Artemis says. "I'll talk about something else, which will just become boring because honestly, I don't know anything else then being what I am. I guess thats my sob story, eh'? All work and no play makes Ashley Donovan a dull girl."

Natalie doesn't move. "We don't have to stop talking about it, just use different words. We're both smart girls, I'm sure we can figure out what the hell we mean. And if we don't, well, we can head to Sig's place or mine and jabber to our little hearts' content."

Ashley smirks slightly. "I wouldn't consider myself 'street smart'. I'm no good in subtlety if you haven't noticed or not." She says, glancing up to the sky for a moment, then once more along the streets, hands slipped into her pockets of her jacket.

Natalie glowers after her, but resumes walking once more. This time she takes her own sweet time catching up again, and when she does, "I'm not talking street smarts, Artemis. I'm talking common sense. I'm a gossip. You're a... a seer. Signe's a figher. You see? Now. I figure if we're going to run in the city, we should all live here, or at least spend most of our time here. 'Ve you talked to Sig about our turf?"

"I haven't had the chance to." Artemis admits with a soft breath. "I think all of us are going to do that soon though. Right now we're just coming down off the whole Russian high."

"Like riding a nuke," Nat agrees with a thoughtful frown. "You've got my cell, don't you? ...And some way to call it? Where are you staying, anyway? Out on your cousin's farm?"

Ashley thinks for a few moments. "I can talk to Sean and use his phone." She says, turning around to face you, nodding.

Natalie nods. "That'll do. Look, you need a ride anywhere? I've gotta get back to the house."

Ashley nods her head. "If you want, drive me to the edge and I'll back to my... cousin's farm." She trails off a bit.

Natalie grins and takes a sharp right to... cut across the middle of the block! Naughty! She does check both ways for cars first though; at least that's something. "Sounds good. C'mon, I figure it's about six blocks back this way."

[End of log]