Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 53 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius). The wind is calm today. The barometric pressure reading is 29.95 and steady, and the relative humidity is 71 percent. The dewpoint is 44 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius.)

Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (56% full).

[The Farmhouse]

Flash lies sprawled out on the couch, his nose buried in a dogeared copy of King's _Desperation_. On the floor nearby is a can of cola and a plate with some crumbs on it.

It's a beautiful day - the sun is shining, the birds are singing, and even Nat doesn't seem to be in a bad mood as she throws open the door to the porch. "Damn, I love spring," she announces to the world at large. From one wrist a medium Target bag dangles, hints of bright colors within.

Flash looks up from his reading with a faint smirk, his eye going from the Walker to the bag she carries. "Happy Easter."

"Flash, m'man." The Walker closes the door with a shade more care than how she opened it, glancing up the stairs. "Hope I didn't wake anyone up. You want a Peep? Snickers egg? Something else equally tooth-rotting?" She comes into the living room, pushing up the sleeves of her sweatshirt, then poises a hand expectantly over the mouth of her bag.

Flash's eyes light up, and he kicks himself into a sitting position, swinging his bare feet down onto the floor. "Ooo. Tell me you have a Cadbury egg in there, and I will marry you."

You say "Tease." She pulls open the bag and makes a show of examining the contents. "I believe you are in luck. One, or two?"

Flash clutches the King novel to his chest. "Oh my god... spirits and ancestors forgive me... two. Pleeeease."

Natalie grins and flops down in one of the chairs, a leg hanging over the arm. So relaxed. So comfy. "I must like you," she tells the Metis, placing the Target bag on her lap for easier delving. "'Cause most of these are mine. But... ready?" She tosses two of the multi-colors orbs his way.

Flash drops the book quickly enough to catch the foil-wrapped chocolate-and-other-stuff candy eggs, and drops one into his lap in order to peel naked the other. "You're a gem," he tells Natalie, before stuffing it whole into his mouth. He says something more, but it's mumbled and indistinct.

Taslyn comes tromping down the steps from her bedroom. "Hey everyone." As she goes right on into the kitchen and pulls out a soda, "Anybody want a soda?"

"You say that to all the girls," the Galliard retorts good-naturedly, grinning over at the Metis. She twists around to give Taslyn that same beam. "I didn't wake you, did I? Nah, no pop for me. I've got enough to rot my teeth here. Target run. Speaking of, you want some sugar-coated sugar?"

Flash leans against the back of the couch, his face tipped upward, eyes half-closed and cheeks bulging as he chews. "Mmmm. Mmm-MMMMmmmm..."

"Chocolate? Always up for chocolate." As she comes back in with two sodas. "Brought an extra just in case." She smiles and settles into a chair.

Alicia pushes open the door and heads inside, carrying a couple huge bags of groceries, stumbling a bit as she goes. "...help..." She squeaks out.

"Snicker egg, Milky way egg, or plain ol' boring Uncle Hoppy?" asks Nat, plainly having indulged in a bit of sugar of her own on her way over. Good thing she didn't get pulled over. At Ali's entrance she twists again, but isn't immediately capable of more than a couple of 'erks'.

Flash swallows, getting his mouth clear enough to say, "Ought'a be against the Litany, mmm..." One eye rolls over in Alicia's direction, but the metis makes no move to get up and assist.

Taslyn hops up and heads to Alicia. "Hey. Thanks for the groceries. Trevor and I went yesterday but we forgot some stuff." She reaches to take a couple bags.

Natalie stops struggling to wresting the nefarious Target bag from her lap when it's clear that Taslyn will be able to help Alicia. "Hey Alicia. You want some sugar?" Flash's comment earns him yet another grin. "What, Litany 14? Thou Shalt Not Indulge in Cadbury Creme Eggs Unless There's Enough for All?"

Alicia passes a bag to Taslyn and lets out a breath. "Geez. Lots of food I bought. I think Tom is ganna pitch a fit. Hey guys, I'm cooking up an Easter dinner, as usual. If anyone wants to help, they are more than welcome." She says, heading for the kitchen. "No sugar for me Nat, thanks. There is going to be plenty of that."

Taslyn laughs hard. "You have those? I want one!" She looks back to Alicia. "Easter Dinner? That sounds good."

Flash swallows again and grins, his teeth full of chocolate. "'Garou shall not eat chocolate with Garou'. Because, yanno, chocolate is sex." He licks his lips and starts unwrapping the second. "Speaking of which, y'wanna go upstairs, Nattie-babe?" He leers at the Glass Walker. "I can show you some magic with lights that'll rock your roachy world."

Natalie retorts, "You gonna lick the cream out of that with your tongue?" "--Uh, yeah, Taslyn, I've got another. You sure you don't want one, Alicia?" Almost reluctantly she slides her leg of the arm of the chair and sits up 'proper'. "...Ah cripes, here. I'll just leave the bag down here and let you have at it. There better not be any candy left when we come back down or I'll have someone's ears." As a threat, it's amazingly non-threatening. Maybe it's the lazy delivery.

"Weeeelll... maybe just... one." Alicia says with a grin to Nat, winking as she carries the large bag into the kitchen. "You guys got any requests for dinner tonight outside of Ham and cheesy potatos?"

Taslyn places the bag on the kitchen counter and then jumps into the living room claiming a Cadbury Creme egg for the land of Tas-Mania. "I claim you for my gut!"

Miguel carries in more groceries in for Alicia.

David Miguel Corona is a young man of about 17 years old. He stands just a hair under 6 feet tall. He stands straight, and portrays a sense of grace, as if he is comfortable in his own skin. He appears lean, with small but well defined muscles, perhaps about 175 pounds, and has broud shoulders. His hair is black, gelled, and tousled into spiky perfection. He has medium-brown skin and dark brown, almost black, piercing eyes. His visage is almost hawk-like. He has a strongly masculine face, but has no facial hair at all, not even stubble. His bone structure features a prominent nose, and very high cheekbones, making him not only appear obviously Mexican, but harkening back to his Aztec ancestors. He wears clothes which makes him look like he stole everything off a mannequin at Abercrombie and Fitch. He wears a puka shell necklace around his neck, and has the latest style of button-down shirt and khaki pants. Something about the way he moves seems almost quiet, as if he is trying not to stand out too much. When he speaks, he has a habit of pausing a second to think before he begins, and his voice, though deep, is soft and slightly quiet. Around his waist he wears a rosary of carved wooden beads, which he occasionally unconsciously touches.

Flash grins broadly. Leaving the dogeared _Desperation_ on the couch, the sloppily-dressed Ragabash hops to his bare feet and heads for the stairs, pausing only to crook a sly come-hither finger at Natalie. He's stuffing the Cadbury egg into his mouth as he jogs upstairs.

Flash mounts the stairs, pausing briefly at the landing before continuing up to the second floor.

Natalie leaves the candy-filled Target bag on her abandoned chair. Within are sweets galore - Peeps, various filled and stuffed eggs, even the ubiquitous chocolate bunny. "Enjoy," is all she says as she heads upstairs after the Stargazer.

Farmhouse: Upstairs

Hardwood floors creak beneath your feet as you step into the hallway. A single lamp hanging just above the stairway sheds enough light to prevent serious accidents but allows shadows to shroud the majority of the ceiling and the several doorframes on both sides of the hall at night. During the day, however, sunlight streaming in from the windows at both ends bathes the hall in golden light.

A room converted into a small, private infirmary is through one of the doors to the west, while the door to the east on the farthest end leads to a stairway up to the attic. The stairs down lead to the main floor of the house.

(Non-Garou, please "+view curse")

Contents:

Flash

Natalie tromps up after the 'Gazer, la belle dame sans Target bag.

Flash's cheeks bulge with chewing as he leads Nat into a currently-empty bedroom. He's already got something set up, it seems; there are a couple of pillows set down on the floor on either side of what appears to be an electric version of a crystal ball. A cord snakes out from the base that the translucent sphere sits on, and when Flash plugs it in, the sphere glows, then comes alive with arcs of tamed lightning.

"Funky," Nat comments, leaving the door ajar behind her. "That's one of them... whats izzits. Something or other spheres, right?"

"Yep," says Flash, and then, "Oh, almost forgot!" He hops up again. "Siddown, siddown," he says, waving her toward the other pillow as he closes the door, the window-blinds, and then turns off the light. Now there's only the dim glow from the lightning-sphere, shifting and changing as the arcs of blue electricity climb one by one up the inside of the sphere.

Natalie eyes the darkening, but obligingly plops onto the pillow, her feet tucked under her knees. "You're not going to make me say 'ohm', are you?" Her attention's about evenly split between the glowing ball and his movements.

Flash chuckles. "Only if you think it'll help." He kneels on the pillow across from her, the sphere between them, his hands resting on his thighs. "You're in luck, actually, because I learned this one from one'a your people. Prime ingredient..." He taps the surface of the sphere lightly with a finger, drawing the electricity toward him. "...Anything with a shifting pattern of light. Could be this, a fire, light on rippling water, sunlight through moving leaves, a lava lamp, a screen saver... Whatever you're most comfortable with."

Natalie looks from his face to the ball and back again. "All right. Just something, hmn, non-static to concentrate on, right? Candle flame good, forty-watt bad?"

Flash nods. "The moving light is... think of it like a visual mantra." As he explains, the Stargazer's affable-idiot demeanor drops away in favor of something much more serious. "Watch the lights and empty your mind of everything but them. Forget the world, your body, even the problem that you're wanting to solve. Just watch the lights." His voice slows, becoming almost hypnotic. "Watch the lights and forget all else. When your mind is emptied, the truth you seek will be able to speak, and when it speaks you'll be able to hear it."

Natalie flicks a last skeptical look at his face before engaging in a flurry of last-minute fidgeting and hand-shaking. That only takes a minute, though, and soon her hands are loosely resting on her knees, eyes fixed on the shimmering play of electricity. "...It's the empty your mind bit that's gonna be hard."

Flash nods slowly. "I know. The spirits will help you, though, when you focus on the lights." His dimly-lit face is dreamy, his eyes half-lidded. "Let go. Watch the lights and let them carry you. There's no rush, no hurry... no time limits... no deadlines. Just the lights."

"No way to do it wrong," the Galliard agrees. The little unconscious signs of tension around her eyes and mouth slip away as the minutes pass, relaxation dropping onto her shoulders like a heavy blanket.

Long minutes pass in silence, with only the dim sound of noises from elsewhere in the house and the hum of the device. Gradually, though, that too begins to fade away, until there is nothing but what's in that part of the house. Then nothing but what's in the room. Then nothing but the lights, the arcs of blue lightning climbing up the inside of the sphere.

Natalie's eyes are only barely open, her breathing slow and regular. Quite likely someone could set the house on fire and she, at least, wouldn't notice.

So it is that she's likely quite startled when, suddenly, there's a click and the sphere's lights go out. "That was just lovely, beautiful," comes Flash's voice in the darkness; he sounds like he's smiling. "And for someone who said that emptying her mind would be hard, y'did it like a natural."

Natalie jerks a little at the abrupt absence of light; the movement's barely visible but the vibration is easily felt through the floor. "...Gah. What? ...I did? How do you know when you're done, though? Or what if you do it and you don't get an answer?"

Flash rises in the darkness, his bare feet nearly silent on the wooden floor as he moves toward the window. As the shades come up, sunlight floods the room. "When you're done, you know. And if you don't get an answer..." He shrugs. "You put it aside and try another day. You know as well as I do that no ritual works all the time."

Natalie squints against the light, one hand coming up to protect her eyes against the light while the other rests lightly, reassuringly, against the orb. Still there. "...True. I suppose you'll also tell me it'll take as long as it takes, right? Y'sound like my old Sensei that way. Tell me: are all Stargazers as... hmn, cryptic as you? Do they make it a requirement of your Rite of Passage?"

Flash grins. "Hey, we're Chimera's babies, what else do you expect from us? Besides, it's true."

Natalie snorts dryly. "Figured. Heh - you think if I give a couple of convincing screams and moans we'll get some company thundering up the stairs?"

Flash's grin widens, a sudden and dangerous glint sparking in his eyes. Swiftly, he yanks off the _Toxic Avenger_ t-shirt and leaps for the door, yanking it open and crying out, at the top of his lungs, and in a tone of orgasmic bliss, "OH GAIA YES YES YES YES!"

Natalie nearly loses it, collapsing onto her side while attempting to stifle laughter. She waves a hand - stop it? Wait a minute while I catch my breath? - hand at him, barely able to breathe through her squeaking.

You paged the Farmhouse with 'From upstairs come a few incriminating thumps.'.

Flash, meanwhile, wriggles out of the gray sweats -- nothin' but yellow smile-face boxers underneath, and bangs himself repeatedly and rhythmically against the wall, thrashing and moaning all the while. Puts his whole body into it, he does.

Flash pages to the Farmhouse: Very incriminating thumps and moans.

Taslyn mounts the stairs from below, coming to the second floor with a soft creaking of floorboards.

Natalie manages a couple of strangled, "Ohs!" as she struggles first upright, then to her feet. "Oh! Oh FLASH!" Ah yes, much better. Easier to fill the old lungs when they're not all squished like that. She plants her hands on her hips and laughs soundlessly at the Metis, enjoying herself thoroughly.

Taslyn comes up and looks at the two of you. "And right outside my bedroom." Not phased in the bit. "At least keep it down. The sound that is." She looks at Flash. "I doubt he could get it up in the first place." She winks.

Flash falls out of the spare bedroom he and Natalie had been using, laughing like a rabid hyena and dressed in only his boxers. "Oh god, oh god, she's killed me... thighs of iron..."

"Get back in here!" comes Nat's voice, the Galliard sounding slightly winded. "I'm not through with you yet!" A moment or so later she appears in the doorway, fully dressed and grinning like a banshee. "...Oh hey, Taslyn."

Flash rolls onto his back and smiles sweetly up at Taslyn. "Hey, baby, wanna make it a threesome?"

Taslyn raises a brow and just shakes her head. "I wish you would do things like that around where cubs can hear it. Looks bad on the both of you." She gives a bit of a shrug. "Not that anything matters to you, Flash..." She shakes her head again and opens the door to her bedroom, walking in and then looking down at Flash. "You aren't my type." She says with a wink.

"Say that again after a few drinks!" Flash calls after her, then rolls to his feet and gathers up his clothes. "Keep practicing that rite, Nattybaby. You'll probably have it licked within a few days."

You say "He's pretty good, just kinda stringy." As endorsements go, that certainly is one. "Oh c'mon, Taslyn, loosen up a bit, huh? Have some more chocolate, get your blood sugar up." She shakes her head after the Fianna's back, still grinning. "I will. Get a decent screensaver or something, and work my way to Carnegie Hall."

Flash grins, headflicking hair away from his eyes. "I'm gonna go shower, get nice and tidy for dinner. Make sure they save me some ham?"

"You're enough of a ham for the whole damn Sept," Nat tells him fondly. Fondly? Be still my beating heart! "...You want me to clean up in here, or should I leave it?"

Flash waves a hand dismissively. "I'll get it. You go have fun."

Natalie steps over his legs and heads down the stairs. "Will do. Maybe if you're a good boy the Easter Bunny will leave something for you. I'll catch you later."

"Hoody hoo!" yelps the Stargazer, then vanishes into the bathroom to use up as much hot water as possible.

[End of log]