Currently in Saint Claire, it is mostly sunny today. The temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 6 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.92 and falling, and the relative humidity is 76 percent. The dewpoint is 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius.)

Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (42% full).

Dominion Estate

The Dominion estate spreads out over a small hill, giving the mansion built at the peak a view of the surrounding suburban countryside. The grassy lawn is dotted with statuary and encircled by hedges grown up to hide the stone wall which surrounds the estate. A gravel driveway snakes elliptically up from the front gate northward to the house, east from there to the garage, then back towards the front gate. Preparations for some sort of garden have been made on the western slope of the hill.

The house itself is old and appears to have had had work done it over the years. The original, main part of the house is made of gray stone and reaches four stories high with the tower. The east and west wings appear newer and are made of brick and wood. The previous decay and disrepair can still be seen, but there also seems to have been some effort put into fixing the place up.

Coming down the street is one returning face, not seen by most of the sept, save a few faces, for the last week or so. Joshua slowly walks down the side walk, wearing a jacket that looks scavanged out of a dumpster somewhere. The youth has the arms of a sweater tied around his neck like some middle school aged prep, and his hands shoved into his pockets. Otherwise he's much cleaner than Natalie would have ever seen him: Freshly showered the day before and his hair pulled back into a tight bob. He seems bound for the gate.

The gate awaits his coming patiently, making no comment on the Ahroun's lack of style. When he's just about to the gate it buzzes, the sound cutting stridently through the otherwise quiet afternoon. Far up at the house the front door swings open as well, someone's form just barely visible within.

Joshua stops and peers at the gate, clearly not having expected to it to do it. He cranes his head forward, poking at the gate hesitantly.

The gate doesn't poke back. Nor does it send out killing electric currents, or even squeak ominously. It does, however, swing fractionally open.

Joshua pushes the gate open the rest of the way, shutting it behind him. A small grin crosses his face, clearly not having expected this either. He shoves his hands in his pockets again, headed for the door.

The buzzing cuts off as soon as the gate's well and truly open. While Josh makes the trek up the driveway Nat steps out of the front door. She fusses for a moment with the door - open? Closed? - and settles for leaving it half-open, standing in front of it with her arms folded. No jacket today, just her usual jeans-and-sweatshirt.

Joshua eyes Natalie from across the way, the grin fading fractionally as he does. He pulls his hand out of his pocket, waving idly to Galliard as he paces in. He, pointedly enough, doesn't call out to her.

"Joshua," the Galliard acknowledges coolly, her chin lifting. She doesn't seem to be all that surprised at his return, now does she? Her eyes flick over him from head to toe and back, then she jerks her head toward the house and heads within, leaving the door open.

Cockroach Mansion -- Downstairs

The heavy, dark opulence to this mansion known as Dominion is perfectly exemplified by the room vistors first enter, this front hall. Dark-stained wood serves as paneling on the walls, gleams with high gloss in the hardwood floor, and supports a semi-circular balcony in carved pillars. The heavy double doors, made of oak, open into the hall from the south, opposite the huge, hourglass-shaped staircase composed of red and black gneiss which soars up to the balcony; both are fenced in with a wooden railing of simple spiraled posts. Several doorways can be made out on the second floor, nearly blending in discreetly with the back wall. The wall to the left of the front doors is composed entirely of windows which run from the forty-foot-tall domed dark wood ceiling to the floor; if drawn, the heavy velvet drapes of deep red would completely mask them from view, but when parted, as they often are, one has a marvelous view of the grounds outside.

A doorway to the right of the front doors leads to a parlor, and towards the back are the kitchens, the large dining room, and Salem's office.

Obvious exits:
Tower Stairway Elder's Office Front Doors

Joshua is a little slow in his pace, closing the door behind him as he enters. He pulls out a note pad out his jacket almost immediately, putting it against his thigh to write a brief note. He straiten up and turns to Natalie, brow raised and note extended to her. 'Is lee here?'

Natalie didn't stick around to wait on Joshua, nor to bar his way inside or anything. Maybe she's a pod person. So instead Josh gets to wave his note at the Galliard's back: she's heading for the kitchen.

Joshua's shoulders slump the rest of the way, the grin disappearing the rest of the way. With a grimace, he follows after into the kitchen, standing by the entry way and holding out the note from where he stands.

By the time he gets there she's waist-deep in the fridge with a paper bag on the floor at her feet. She places two or three items - eggs? Milk? - in the bag and tucks a fridge pack of Coke under her arm before retreating, checking the door closed with a hip. "What's that?" This time the chin jerk's for the note though her attention's on collecting the bag while not letting anything spill.

Joshua offers a weak smile, quickly taking off the sweater from off his neck. Even under the bandages, the complete lack of throat is visible, leaving the neck misshapen slightly under the neat layers of gauze. He then offers the note again, brow upraise again.

Natalie's eyebrows scoot upwards. "Charming. All right..." she crosses to the table and sets her refrigerator booty on it before crossing to claim the note. "...Leala? Hell if I know. You could check her office," a head jerk indicates Salem's old door, "or try upstairs." "...There's a notebook in the drawer near the sink," she adds after a moment.

Joshua nods his head minutely (all he can manage with the bandages on) in thanks, turning and shuffling off for said office. After a few minutes of knocking he can be heard walking up the stairs.

Natalie shrugs and recollects her bag and box. Some minutes later she comes up the stairs after him, shooting a half-curious glance his way before disappearing into her - Rina's - room.

Joshua was pacing down the hall, but turns around as Natalie enters Rina's room, and he stops dead in his tracks. The youth backpedals a few steps to peer back over, a clearly confused look on his face.

Pack> Emma says "Ill be on later? :) *snugs*"

Natalie's suitcase - or at least one would assume it was the Walker's suitcase - is open on the bed, nearly full. She tosses a last bit of clothing - something purple and shirt-ish - into it before crossing to zip the bag closed, not noticing the Ahroun until she's heading for the door, bag in hand. "Something in your eye?" she inquires sweetly, stopping just outside the door. "...I'm moving out, Josh. Got my own apartment. Maybe if you ask nice Rina'll let you use her room next."

Joshua shakes his head a 'no' at the last suggestion, the ahroun frowning slightly as he fumbles through his pocket for a pen that looks 'borrowed' from a bank. Paper comes out, and a very quick note is jotted and held out. 'why?'

Natalie rolls her eyes at the rigamarole but obligingly bends to read the offered note. "Bunch of reasons. The one I'll give you is that it's not smart to keep all our eggs in one basket, or all our Walkers in one mansion. Get it? I never planned on staying here all that long anyway." Which would be why she's lived here for two months now, right? "So what happened to your neck, anyway? Someone take offense at you?" Her tone suggests that this person was wise beyond knowing.

Joshua's shoulders slump again as she rolls her eyes, and if he could he would sigh. The youth shakes his head 'no' at the last question, looking hesitantly to Natalie to see if she was expecting more than that.

Natalie says, "Uh-/huh/," clearly not believing him. She lets it lie, however, asking instead, "So, Leala in?"

Joshua shakes his head 'no' again, offering a 'what can you do?' sort of half smile.

Natalie flicks her fingers at his face - or, more likely, the gaping wound laughingly referred to as his neck. "When's that gonna heal? You oughta be in glabro, you know."

Joshua places the paper against his thigh again, scribbling a responce to that. 'not know. was in big + ugly for night, went back to look for lee. when i go back i'll go to big + ugly again.' The note is patiently proferred to Natalie, the youth smiling a little to cover up his embarrassment.

"When you go back?? Look, kid, if I were you I'd be shifted every moment I could. That's not gonna heal on its own, you know." She glances toward Leala's bedroom door, then down the stairs before returning her attention to him with a sigh. "Shift. I'll leave Leala voice mail you're back and give Tony a heads up too. Where the hell 'back' are you going to go? ...Oh cripes, let's go back downstairs. You're gonna run out of paper. You still hauling your laptop around?" She sounds more like a bossy older sister than anything.

Joshua blinks, trying to figure out how to respond to that. So he shakes his head, 'no' to the last question, then does, albeit it begrudgingly, what she tells him. He grows up to Glabro with a very pained wince, the bandages creaking as they stretch. The no longer youthful looking youth turns for the stairs, heading back down stairs.

Natalie doesn't follow immediately, instead pulling her cell off her hip with a put-upon sigh. A few short moment's talking and she follows him down, trading suitcase at the door for the bag of food.

Joshua made his way into the parlor, standing off to the side with a pad of paper and that liberated pen with decent sized explanation already written out and a still rather embarrassed look on his face. He waits there for the Galliard to follow.

Natalie hauls the bag back to the kitchen and replaces it in the fridge before joining him there. "...All right, lay it on me."

Joshua hands the entire pad to Natalie, holding his hands behind his back as he looks down to the floor. 'was staying out in warehouse district, south of Jer's place. Anthony doesn't want me here, and i figure since he lives here and I don't I shouldn't step on his toes. I've been kind of living out of there since I left the gnawer place, since no one comes there since they're afraid of the gangs. Same place I stayed when pre-change. Besides, I would probably say or do something dumb here and piss you or lee or tony off, so this way i have less chance of making you angry.' Joshua, for his part, fidgits with the pen behind his back.

Natalie reads the note once, twice, one foot tapping. "First off, whether you can stay here or not is Leala's decision. Right now, it's my decision, and right now you're a walking Veil breach. You're not healing unless you're shifted, and frankly, I don't trust you to shift somewhere discreet. So unless you want to play tracheotomy boy for the rest of your life, you can just stay here. Next."

Joshua grimaces and blushes at the browbeat, the pen falling still behind his back. He can't exactly argue any of the points, though.

"Frankly," Nat continues, "I'm surprised you haven't shown up here before this. ...You able to eat with that thing?"

Joshua extends his hand to Natalie, expecting the note pad.

Natalie hands it over before refolding her arms.

Scribble scribble scribble. Josh twists about to place the pad against his leg once more, writing out another note. He's still blushing and grimacing, very hesitant as he hands the pad to Natalie. 'I did. Came out of Umbra after long journey. Tony did not want me here, so I left. And cannot eat. Yet. Need to see ali or maybe cat if he can heal, as have not eaten since revel.'

"There's a coffee table right there," the Galliard points out dryly as she takes the note and crosses to sit. "Jeez Louise, Josh, you are that stupid, aren't you? The revel was what, a week ago? And you haven't eaten since? Lemme guess - you've spent less than a day of that week shifted, haven't you?" She considers the ahroun then stands, pointing imperially at the couch. "Sit. Let me take a look at that neck of yours, see how bad it is."

Joshua's shoulders slump, slowly following after Natalie to across the coffee table. First, he writes out a responce on his pad, ripping th paper off and sliding it across the table: 'Well, Jacinta had me @ wendigo lands and she had me restrained, help me see I was/am not right in head and was taking it out on other people. After that, my time as guardian was over, so I had to hurry here bc megan said I had to be here once I was done. And then I get throat torn out by renee when she mistake me for Craig's killer or something stupid (no apologie for attacking me for nothing. stupid charach), and then I have to finish journey here. I arrive, leave, go to gnawer place again and sleep there in glabro, spend day in big + ugly for while, then leave before I end up fighting with renee, so I go to my place and sleep there in glabro for night, then come here. So have gotten some healing in. .' All the while he's removing the gauze from his neck, and if that's healed, then it must have been horrid before. Josh is totally missing his throat. Almost the entire thing. About the only thing that makes it a wound he could walk away from was the fact that it barely missed the blood vessels.

Natalie snorts as she reads. "Damn straight you weren't right in the head. ...Who the hell's Renee? ...Oh hell, don't answer that. Jeez Louise, Josh, everything you touch turns to crap, doesn't it?" She tosses the notebook onto the coffee table and crosses to him, hands reaching out to grasp at the sides of his head.

Joshua grimaces at the crap comment, but the gesture quickly turns to pain as his head is manhandled around. He couldn't respond if he wanted to, really.

Natalie's nostrils flare as she examines the ruins of his neck, mouth tightening and skin going pale. "Well, hell. It's all a hash - not that you didn't know that. I'm guessing, though, that we could pour something down your throat so you don't starve. Ensure, Gatorade, something. I don't have the first clue when that'd heal on its own."

Joshua shakes his head 'no' the best he can with the galliard handling him. Apparently that is something that he is not eager to return to, having stuff crammed down his throat.

Natalie releases him and steps back quickly, wiping her hand convulsively on her jeans. "What do you mean, 'no'? You want to starve? Damn it, Josh, don't you dare play the martyr with me. You've got a choice - let me feed you best way I can figure out, or I'll go get Signe and Emma to hold you down while I do it. You got it? Cockroach didn't haul her ass out to Indian territory to claim you just so you could kill yourself through stupidity and stubborn bloody-mindedness, you hear me?"

There's a suitcase and an open fridge case of Coke just inside the front door. Nat and Josh are in the parlor, voices raised. Well, Nat's voice is raised. Joshua's voice would undoubtedly be raised if he had one. He's currently missing a good chunk of his throat, leaving trachea and esophagus open to the air. There's a pile of grubby gauze on the floor, and a notebook on the coffee table.

Joshua cringes at the further verbal browbeat. He reaches for the pad, writing something down very quickly and much more sloppily than his usually neat writing. 'Olga put water in me two days ago. Can go long time without food, have in past. Not near starving yet.'

Anthony heads in through the front door, eyeing the suitcase in the entryway for a moment before wandering into the parlor, checking if anyone else was around.

Natalie twists to let him get the pad, scowling as she reads the writing on it. "Let's do try not to be more of an idiot than you have to, Josh." The Galliard's got her back to the door, arms folded as she stands aggressively over the Ahroun. "I say again: you trying to starve to death? You want to be tribe Omega, that's fine with me. I've got Signe on speed dial. Trust me, she'd love to come over here and keep you quiet while I feed you. So. Last chance: you going to behave or do I call my packmates?"

Joshua slumps, head tilting back to show throat. Well, lack of throat. He tilts his head back to show a gaping hole that was his throat. Either way, the message is pretty clear on that mark.

"What's going on?" Anthony asks curiously, stepping into the room and looking over Josh. "How come you still haven't got that looked at yet?" he adds, gesturing to his own throat as if a detailed explanation of which body part he was talking about needed mentioning.

Natalie chuffs at the submission, jerking her own chin up as she steps away from Josh. "Good choice. ...Oh hey, Tony." She seems remarkably good-tempered for, well, for it being Josh and Natalie alone in the same room. "You know anything about medicine? I was gonna grab that Gatorade and pour it down his throat, then go get some Ensure or something. Says he hasn't eaten since the Revel, the idiot."

"No, not really," Tony says. "It might be kind of dangerous forcing him to drink like that; kind of an embarrassing way to kick the bucket, too." He pauses, then jerks a thumb towards Josh. "Oh, some Gnawer came by here looking for Leala, wanted to talk to her about you-know-who."

Joshua tilts his head back down, sinking back into the couch. He doesn't respond to Anthony... not that he can, anyhow. He glances at Natalie reluctantly, but snaps his eyes over to Anthony at the mention of Renee. That got his attention.

"You-know... Oh, Josh?" Nat doesn't seem to have any problem talking about the ahroun like he wasn't there. "Yeah? What'd she say? Anyway, I wasn't just going to open and dump. I was thinking a funnel, or something. Looks like both his esophagus and trachea are wide open, and I sure as hell don't want to get 'em mixed up."

"She just wanted to talk to Leala about him; said for me to tell her to meet her at the zoo. I didn't get any names or anything." Tony cranes his neck to look back at Josh for a moment. "I think putting anything down his throat right now'd probably kill him one way or another, though..." He trails off, leaving the 'even though that'd probably be a good thing' part tacit.

Joshua slumps even more, a deeply etched grimace forming on his face as they talk amongst themselves. The unsaid bit by Tony isn't lost on Josh, closing his eyes and trying to pretend to himself that the two weren't there.

Natalie frowns as the Ragabash speaks. "Yeah? Well that's the last thing I want to do." Someone call the paper, stop the presses! "You know medicine?" she asks again. "I'm willing to give it a shot - I mean, I know which bits are supposed to stay in, but I'm not an EMT. But Cockroach dragged herself out to Wendigo land for him. I figure the least we can do is try and save his sorry butt."

Joshua stands up finally, shaking his head feverishly. He picks the pad of paper off the and scribbles a short notes, ripping it off the page and sticking it out for either of them. 'Aubrey. Theurge. Kent's Crossing. Phone number is on file.'

Anthony takes it first, looking it over and chewing his lip thoughtfully. "What about her?"

About five-foot-six with a stocky build, Anthony appears to be of Mediterranean descent, in his late teens. He has deep brown eyes framed by bushy eyebrows and high cheekbones, and his curly brown hair is close-cropped, a pair of thick sideburns running from above his ears down the sides of his jaw. Most of the time, he's slouching or leaning against something. He speaks quickly and in a North Jersey accent, evidence of his ancestry.

His loose black windbreaker hangs unzippered on his shoulders, revealing the thin gold chain around his neck and the red-and-black bowling shirt underneath; a cellphone holster hangs off the leather belt on his beat-up blue jeans. His mudstained yellow work boots have seen better days, as has the creased, faded blue Yankees cap he wears.

Natalie echoes, "What about who?" She leaves Josh - not without a backward glance - to come read over Tony's shoulder. "...Aubrey? Never heard of her. ...I'm willing to go pick her up, though, on my way to get the Ensure." She spears Josh with a gimlet gaze: he's not getting out of it that easily. And he thought being a pariah was bad!

"She's a Fianna, I think," Anthony says, offering the note back over his shoulder to Natalie.

Joshua's shoulders slump again, that grimace not going away. He shrugs, the youth turning back for the couch and slowly setting himself back down on it. He rotates slightly, laying his head down on the arm of the couch while he lets the two speaking people talk.

Natalie's teeth click together thoughtfully as she considers the note, then the Ahroun. "...Right. I'm gonna take my stuff to my apartment, then head toward Kent's Crossing. Tony, can you try and get hold of this Aubrey, tell her I'm on my way? Then give me a call with directions. I'll pick her up and bring her back if she's willing. That work for you?" Josh, unsurprisingly, doesn't get a vote.

"I guess." Tony takes the note back, crumpling it and tossing it at a wastebasket. "Why Aubrey, though? Why not someone else? Like maybe Alicia?"

"Call her too," Nat tosses over her shoulder as she heads for the hallway. "Hell, call anyone you want. Just let me know who I'm picking up, if anyone. S'alright?"

"Maybe I'll call all the theurges I can find, we can have a creepy party," Anthony offers.

Joshua is still on the couch, eyes closed. He knows when he's been cut out of the decision making process.

Natalie snorks as she arabesques to pick up the suitcase. "Sounds like a plan. We'll have popcorn and watch movies." She casts the ahroun and ragabash one last look. "...You two play nice now. I'll be back soon as I can." Out she goes, the door snicking closed behind her.

[End of log]