2020.11.03:Mead Cleanse
Tuesday, November 03, 2020, 9:47 AM
In Scene: Killigrew, Karmen, & Taika
Scene Summary: Taika is trying to learn the Rite of Cleansing and things go horribly wrong when a Fianna Ragabash's joke exchanges pure water for weak mead. Taika almost frenzies as he is in his moon phase. Karmen calms him down and Killi goes SKWERL.
United Salvage - Scrap Yard
The junkyard spreads in all of its magnificence from this central point. Mountains of crushed cars frame the horizon with paths snaking off into a giant maze of twisted metal and shattered glass. Some cars lay gutted, stripped of everything useful and balanced precariously on blocks. Others seem nearly intact, just waiting to be dismantled or rarely repaired for use again. The ground here has been torn to bits with traffic, some of it from tires and some from the treads of the heavy duty forklift the junkyard uses to move cars that will no longer move themselves.
To the east is the entrance to the workshop from the yard and to the west the car crusher. Further north is a veritable maze of crushed and semi-flattened cars arranged in a maze of rows and columns.
Taika is in the middle of the ritualistic car henge with a serious look on his face. He is sweating and looking generally frustrated, which given that he is in the Skald moon phase, is never a good thing. The Maori warrior has a small table with a bowl, a few jugs of who knows what, and what looks to be a ladle made of bone with an ornate wooden handle.
It's chilly and misty, so the kin arrives wearing black and white striped stockings, her buckle boots, a solid black knee length skirt with a jolly roger dead kitten on it. Her top is hidden under the hoody and leather jacket she likes to wear.
Spotting the Taika in the stacks, she pokes her head around and starts over towards him. "What's up, Taika?" she asks, spotting the frustration and sweat on him. "Everything alright?"
Taika looks up as Killigrew calls out and he takes an audible deep breath in, which is followed slowly by a deep breath out. "Nah, yeah. She'll be right." So - maybe? He squats down to look at a circle around the make-shift alter. Normally, he would have his butt away from Kill, but he seems buried in thought and mutters, "The circle looks in tact, my runes look right. I have my willow branch ladle to scoop up the pure water and cleanse the spirits with, but when I howl, it doesn't seem to work as intended. Would you mind stepping into the circle and letting me try the Rite of cleansing on you Zoe?" He looks up over his shoulder as if his muttering made perfect sense to you. With his back towards you most of that time, you might not have even heard him. Taika is more intense than usual and is not acting his usual goofy self.
"Um, sure. Do I need to do anything?" she asks, moving to step into the circle of runes. Taking in the symbols of the ritual, she smiles at him, not wanting to ruin his concentration.
Hands are kept warm in her pockets, and she sways in place a little, rocking on her heels while she waits.
Taika is standing in the stacks in the early evening hours and looks - off - a little more dishelved than usual, a little more on edge. You can see it in his eyes. He is also mumbling slightly as he tries to perform what appears to be a ritual without luck. Killigrew has just arrived too and offered to help him with the ritual. The Maori squeezes the bridge of his nose and waves his hand for Killigrew to get into the center of the circle. "Just stand there," he snaps a bit and then frowns, "Please. Sorry, I'm - Skalds are affected by the Gibbous moon. It's no excuse, but I'm trying to be good here." Maybe not the best time to be trying something you're failing at. Taika says something under his breath to the bowl, then a little louder in another language (Te Reo - 'The Language' of the Maori), followed by the language of the spirits. He dips the bone and willow ladle into the bowl full of some sort of fluid, and starts walking around Killigrew as he does so. Once, twice, three times around the circle, and as he calls out to the spirits, he sprinkles that ladle with the fluid towards Zoe each time. She would be hit with a weird smell as he is doing this.
The gentle thrum of a well-tuned engine can be heard, and it grows steadily louder, until the Vincent Black Knight growls into the yard. Karmen is atop it, looking like she dressed to match the age of the bike. If she started saying "groovy" and "daddi-o" it might not be entirely incongruous, in that dress. She quickly hops down and secures the motorcycle, before wandering around the yard, poking things with a certain detached professionalism. She's a kid. This is a sweetshop. And... wait, what's going on over there? She must investumigate!!!
Stand there. She can do that! That's easy enough. Sprinkled with the, what IS that? Nose crinkling up, the Fury kinfolk lifts the sleeve of her jacket to her nose and sniffs a few times. "Taika? Hey, this is mead?" Lick. Thpt-thpt-thpt. Working her tongue like a lizard. "Yeah, you sure there's mead in this?" she asks, making a face at the after taste on her tongue.
Hearing a bike, she looks over that way, then focuses back on the edgy Maori Get.
Taika finishes up the ritual and - - - - - - NOTHING HAPPENS. His eyes buldge, his teeth grind fiercely, and he takes another deep breath in and out. "I don't know what," and then Killigrew mentions something about mead. "Mead? What, no, it's supposed to be pure water. There was a Fianna that said he would give me some." He rushes over to the jugs and picks one up, smells it, takes a sip, and spits it on the ground. "I'm going to rip him to shreds. I bet that egg was a Ragabash and is toying with me." His rage isn't quelling - it is growing.
Karmen appears and watches this unfold. "Hey, kitties...wait, what... what are you doing, exactly? Do you need to be alone? I'd hate to be a gooseberry..." She observes the annoyed garou being annoyed. "Easy, now! It's definitely not the right time to be smashing stuff to pieces. I'm fragile! I bruise easy! Go to your happy place!"
Angry big guy? Getting madder? Zoe makes a subtle little motion for Karmen to back up, maybe. Meanwhile, the Fury turns and scampers for the nearest stack of cars. Getting smaller as she goes until she's having to hang onto her clothes to keep them from vacating her shrinkening self that is sprouting orangeish red fur, and furry tips on her ears. And, yeah, that's an itty bitty nubbin tail.
Taika's skin is rippling. His eyes are buldging out of his skull (more so than usual even for a Maori Warrior), and his cheeks balloon in and out as he continues to try to go to his happy place. He takes the bowl of mead and throws it out into the stacks. It is lost to the scrapyard for good. The jugs get smashed and cut the man's hands, which cause him to get even angrier. He is on the verge of shifting into Crinos, in fact you can actually see him growing and shrinking and growing again when two things happen. One, Karmen calls out to him and her voice strikes a cord. Go to his happy place! Two, Killigrew starts shrinking and shifting into something else. The two cause him to grow confused and he sits back, visibly exhausted, still angry, but his curiosity and intellect are peeked. He stammers, "Right, happy place. Sister. Love, family, don't hurt anyone again. Woods, mother, Mother, the hunt, the challenge, the fight, the victory, the defeat, growing stronger in defeat..." He is saying this quickly, his eyes focusing and staring at Karmen as he calms himself down by listing all of the things he enjoys. He continues to breath heavily, but it looks like he is coming back around. That is until the panic starts to climb again, "Where's Zoe. What did I do? Did I kill her?" Yup, starting to lose it again.
Karmen quickly moves to the man's side, and speaks in soft, reassuring tones. "She is just fine, you didn't go anywhere near her. Or me. And I am proud of you. It takes a lot of restraint to calm down like you did. Just take a few deep breaths, and it'll all be just fine. I am sure she'll reappear once she realises you are not going to hulk out or something. You want me to run your shoulders?"
Clothes hit the ground when Zoe out-shrinks them, a rusty-brown blue darting under one of the ruined cars with a flick of floofy squirrel tail and a worried chittering. Chitterchittersqueak. There's a flash of movement and she pokes her head out from the wheel well at the other end of the car, nose and whiskers twitching.
Taika continues to breathe. He spots Zoe's clothes on the ground and pleads, "I didn't go near her? She is okay? Why are her clothes there then? Don't lie to me. Don't." He is still on edge, his skin is still crawling, but he is focused on Karmen's face fully, even though he is noticing the clothes out of his peripheral vision. And then 'Squirrel', a blur goes chittering under the cars and Taika's head whips, "What was that? Did I summon something that killed Zoe?"
Karmen winces internally. How did she end up in this situation? But she keeps her voice reassuring. "Not at all. Zoe just changed into a little fluffy and unnecesarily adorable squirrel so she could hide. You did not summon anything, and you did not hurt anybody. It's all absolutely fine now. Just take a moment, try to relax." She moves to sit behind, and lays her hands on his shoulders. "In... and ouutttt... Happy place. You're in the woods, in a nice glade, with sun shining through yew trees, and a scent of flowers. And there's a picnic. With... stuff you like." Karmen is not very good at this, but she's not exactly a people skills sort of person. SHe fixes cars, not the superego...
Tail flicking, the squirrel watches, whiskers wiggling. When Karmen mentions that she's just fine, Zoe-Skwerl hops down and runs for Karmen, zipping up the woman's leg in a spiral and settling on a shoulder to chitter and watch Taika with a nervous flickiness to her bushy tail.
Taika continues to focus on Karmen, "Squirrel?" The shoulder massage gets him to relax, which is good as his muscles are flowing knots that shift under Karmen's hands. "Shrimp barbi, fish and chips, hangi," and just like that, he is calm. He continues to breathe after some time, tears actually flowing silently down his face as he knows what he almost did. When he opens them again, he blinks at the squirrel on Karmen, "Squirrel?" He wipes away his tears and looks to Karmen, then the skwerl, then says, "Churr, seriously..."
Karmen twitches when the skwvirrel runs up her leg. "Hey hey hey!!! Mind the threads, this is dry clean only! You might have oil on your paws, you fluffy tailed nut gerbil!" She continues to work on the shoulders, which is a bit like knuckling a bag of anvils. "I am serious. Zoe's a pretty amazing person. She's been known to change into any number of potentially annoying fauna. Be glad she opted for a squirrel. I am! If she took the other option, there'd be a talking moose on my shoulder about now."
Flickflick. Skwerl zips to Karmen's other shoulder, then hunkers down and jumps onto Taika's - little clawsies scrabbling before she gets settled and chitters in his ears, whiskers all tickly and nose snifflesnuffling near his ear. It's me! Zoe-o.
Taika just can't right now. It's too much overload. Zoe is a squirrel - moose - other fauna? He gives a bit of a smile and says again, "Thanks, but eh...I've gotta go." And with that, he gets up and runs full speed away.
When Taika bolts, Skwerl tumbles right off, tail over nose to land in a thump, staring up at the sky. That's -really far- when you're this smol.
Karmen stays hunkered down on her heels, and looks onto the squirrel. "You ok down there?" she reaches out a hand carefully. "So, he doesn't know you can shape shift, huh? SO you can turn into something and mess with him... not sure that'd be a good idea today, though. What the hell were you guys doing, anyway?"
Chitter, squeal, flickflick, squeak. Ears flick back, then perk as she flips to her belly and then rears back, little paws grabbing onto Karmen's hand before she bounds off towards her clothes, hopping up and down on them. Not ABOUT to be hanging around nekkid here.
Karmen follows, and picks up the clothes. She weighs them in her arms, and then get a rather impish expression. "WEll, if there's no Zoe here, I know she wouldn;t want her clothes left on the ground to get all dirty, so maybe I'd best just drive them back to my place until I can find her..." oooooohhhh, she WOULDN'T... would she?
Ack! Chitterchitter! That's SO far! Zoe-Skwerl twists aorund in a tight circle and squeaks, then dashes behind a messy stack of ties, working on taking back her usual skin. Even if she might be cold and naked. Karmen can;t help but laugh in a very naughty way. She follows, holding out... well, whatever there is to hold out. I mean, it would be awfully wasteful not to take a chnce to see what a squirrel wears as undergarments, wouldn't it? "Okay, okay! Just hang on, I'll not let you run about in your birthday suit. Although if you happen to know where you hid some nuts, a little payment might be appropriate..."
Nuuuuuu! Not the filly skivvies hanging out. Flailign as she works the changes on her body, Zoe's squirrel noises give way to human spluttering. "No don't leave those out! Just... gimme!" Both hands held out making grabby movements. The worst part is the underthings could be part of a sexy maid outfit. Or loligoth. Definitely worth being embarrassed over.
Karmen passes the garments over, though she does take a moment to admire the garments and the frills. "Now these are panties with a purpose. Is there a story attached to these? You know, if you are going to get embarrassed when your underwear suddenly gets displayed, you either need to stop wearing sexy girlypants, or stop turning into small woodland animals. Though I am pretty sure I could rock these myself..."
Black with white lace, kind of cute, definitely on the more risque end of styles and cuts. Taking the clothes, there's muttering from behind the stack of tires as Zoe gets dressed again. "You just want to say you got into my panties." she accuses playfully, making a face at Karmen. Karmen stands on tip toes, and rests her chin on top of the stack, so she can peer over the top. "Well, I wouldn't say no to that. Possibly not right here though, and not while I am wearing this outfit. I do not want to get grease and oil all over it. I mean, I have a whole wardrobe full of stuff like that. I went a bit crazy when I arrived here and started getting a salary. Food? Nope. Electricity? I forget to pay it. Expensive lingerie? Drawers full of it!"
Killigrew acks and tugs her shirt on a little quicker when peeped at. Just a plain grey tee to go with the black skirt and black and white striped stockings and boots. "I just like nice underthings." she says, cheeks bright red as she finishes dressing, sliding her hoody and jacket on over her shirt and zipping them up to get warmed up.
Karmen crosses her eyes and blows her cheeks out comically. Then vanishes, and comes around the side of the stack. "Oh be serious, I've seen it all before, remember? Anyway, I wanted to ask you advice. What do you think of MY outfit? I am assuming that Jaycob will actually call me, and I need to make a lasting impression so he trips over his tongue. That way I'll get a lot more from him when he paints me, or whatever he plans. And he is also cute."
"You are a handful." Zoe declares, hip bumping Karmen and heading towards the spot where the ritual wasn't working, brows furrowed as she starts to clean up the scattered items. "He was tripping over his tongue last night anyway. I do like the outfit, and Ithink he will be totally swooning for you."
Karmen grins. "Good! It's a truth universally acknowledged, that if a boy thinks you look hot, he'll spring for the calamari. Or whatever it is you want that costs a lot. And I am two handfuls." She looks down at her cleavage. "Depending on the size of your hands. I am sort of stuck with these now. They used to be modular."
Taika comes walking slowly back towards the ritual area and calls out, "Zoe, Karmen. You right? I'm right. I think." He grumbles and stretches some. "Can I come over? Is it safe to?" For him or for them?
Killigrew looks from Karmen's boobs to her own, then back and -sighs-. "You are..." she starts, pausing when Taika comes on back over. "Yeah, we're alright." she says, moving over to meet the big Get. See? No blood. "Now that Karmen is done judging my underthings." She shoots ht eother one of those fakey fake dirty looks.
Karmen makes her eyes go bink-bink-bink in complete innocence. "I don't know if it is really safe. I might bite!" Then she beams widely. "You're fine. Are you sure you are ok? SHould we all go find a place with some decent hot chocolate and pancakes? Make the day a bit better?"
Taika grows bright red, "Eh? Not Bergin coming in. You better be dressed." He comes over with his hands over his eyes and peeks through, "Bugger you all." He nods to Karmen and says, "I think I'm good now. The moon is pulling me strongly in this phase. Everything is a hair pin trigger waiting to push me over the edge." He does brighten up about, "Hotcakes sounds good actualy."
Killigrew goes bright red when Bergin is brought. "He hasn't seen..." oh jeeze. She hides her face in her hands and groans softly. "Pancakes are safe. I know a waffle house, but maybe not a good idea to go to the city. Does, um, is there stuff for making pancakes here?" she asks.
Karmen just chuckles impishly, and trips lightly out to the main yard. "You can't bugger me unless you bring me flowers, silly wolfman!"
Meanwhile, as Karmen yells out about the most effective ways to... 'Bugger' her, Jaycob has only recently arrived with his courier bag slung over one shoulder, and a warm jacket to help fend off the dropping tempatures of the California air. In one hand, he carries a case of the cheapest beers around, in this case, PBR. At least its a six pack...
Generally, he's looking around to see what's what, this seeming to he his first time in the United Salvage. As he hears Karmen calling out, and then emerge from somewhere around the bend, his lips curl into a soft, amused smile for her and he tilts his head backward at her. "Should I add that to my notes?" He offers playfully, and then lifts the case of beers towards her invitingly.
"Bugger in Kiwi isn't necessarily sex. Also, I'm no Skux...eh, the male version of a skank. Sorry, I don't always remember who knows my slang and who doesn't." He follows and says, "I know Miss Mary has pancakes. I really need to finish my cane and sell it so I can start paying my own way here. I mean, I'm helping sort our scrap, but still." He sighs and can't do anything right during this moon phase. Noting Jaycob, he brightens though, "Woo boy. You right? Welcome to the scrapyard. Not sure where Bergin is, but Miss Mary is," and then right on queue, the owner of the establishment shows up and accepts the drinks. "Thank you sir," she says. The elder kinfolk lady greets him with a smile at least, even if it is only PBR. The Boyz aren't picky.
"Skux? Interesting, never heard of skank being gendered before." Zoe says, coming out of the stacks with the others. She's wearing knee high buckle boots, black and white stripes tights, a black skirt with a kitten skull jolly roger, and a hoody and spiked leather jacket. "Jaycob! Evening, kinsman." she greets, smiling warmly at the shorter-than-her fury kin.
Karmen rests her hand on her bodice. "La, sir, are you trying to get me drunk, so you can have your wicked way with me, an innocent out of town girl, unused to such caddish ways from the experienced lounge lizards of the metropolis? If so, make it a decent European beer, I have standards." She finds a spot to perch herself which is safely clean and unlikely to ruin her outfit. "So, then. Pancakes it is! Though I can't eat too many. I'll rip my girdle."
Zoe and Taika both make an appearance, as well as Bergin who secures the beer from him, and Jaycob nods softly back at both of them. "Woo boy." He echoes, his lips curling with amusement at the title he has been given amd then he peers back at Zoe with a deeper smile forming on his lips. "Hey there. Good to see you. Staying out of trouble?"
Then he chuckles softly back at Karmen, peeking towards her and playfully shrugging a shoulder at her suggestion. "Seems you've foiled my plan. Still, I'll try to keep in mind the request for a European beer, then." He offers as he shifts some, both hands cupping around his courier bag, one at the strap, and one down on the bag itself.
Miss Mary brings the beer into the shop and comes out with /better/ beer and chilled glasses. Only the best for the ladies. "Enjoy," she says, mostly to Karmen. Taika takes a seat and looks behind Jaycob for a moment, before looking back at him, "All beers matter. We appreciate the gesture." Yes, but the beer they are drinking is not the PBR. Urk. To Zoe and Karmen, Taika intones, "We were not just talking about bodices and buggering out in the stacks. We were practicing rituals when something happened." He leaves it at that.
Killigrew laughs, her face still red from the teasing on the way up. "I got to be a squirrel for a minute." she says, resting a hand on Taika's broad shoulder for a moment. "Oh, did I tell you, Taika? Some wolf threw a dead deer on me at the caern. Bergin and Dalibor thinks it may have been flirting."Karmen accepts the beer, and lifts the glass in salute. "I think you." She sips it daintily. "I can't drink a lot, since I have the bike here, but when I do drink, I like it to be delicious. So, Jaycob - you had more thoughts about reproducing me in art?" I mean, she went to the effort of getting all fancy and dressed up! "I am sure we can recognise the wolf that did it, Spike! We got a pretty good view of its butthole. I'll never forget that, and it was quite distinctive."
Certainly, if better beer is being provided, Jaycob hardly looks like the type to be offended by the exchange, likely knowing he's a broke boi. Especially, he doesn't seem to mind if he's being invited to participate in the drinking of better beer. "No worries." He informs Taika, and then he chuckles as Zoe mentions the flirting she was made to endure as he makes his way to a place to sit, securing one of the glasses, and one of the better beers for himself, even if he wasn't directly apart of the invitation to partake. With Karmen mentioning her art though, his gaze turns towards her, his lips curling into a more amused smile and he nods his head softly. "Absolutely. Watercolor for sure. I'm willing to take the commission, of course. Just say when and we can find a place to get that going."
The Kiwi asks, "So, you can just turn into any woodsland animal or something then? How do you do that? You aren't Fera though, so what are you exactly?" As Killi notes the wolf and deer, he coughs, "Flirting? Yeah, nah, just hunting likely. Wolves are funny like that." He coughs again. At the note of the butthole though, Taika nods. "Did you happen to catch a name?"
"No, I didn't get a name. Real pretty, though. Golden colored. Kind of dorky." Killi says to Taika, then nods. "Anything alive that exists in the world. And I can just do bits and pieces, too. I could have gills in the water, or claws, or a long floofy tail." she says, taking the beer and having a drink of it before settling down on a bit of log that hasn't been split yet.
"She also turns into a pigeon that attacks disco music." Karmen adds. "And I so wish I was joking, but I am not." More beer is sipped. "Watercolours? I can live with that." She rises, and then drapes herself across her vintage motorcycle suggestively. "Paint me like one of your wolf girls! AWOOOOOO!!" A dry chuckle comes from the direction of the compound's gate. "Now... any context would totally ruin that beautiful moment." A Wyld Tabi appears, with a grin. "Morning peeps. 'Sup?"
While Killigrew discusses her unusual ability to turn into anything alive that exists in the world, Jaycob arches a brow at her suspiciously, sipping at the beer for a moment and then he shifts his attention to Karmen as she agrees to watercolors. Then he laughs happily as she drapes herself onto the motorcycle, shaking his head at her lightly. "Well now that sounds like fun." He mentions, lifting the beer towards her in a playful toast. "Like I said, just say when." He murmurs, and then peeks towards Tabi as she arrives, lifting his beer towards her as well.
Taika has never heard of anything that can turn into whatever they want, "So, eh, you can turn into a Crinos too? You're like a mimic spirit of some kind?" He looks a little more distrustful of her, "You've not come to body snatch us?" He's watched one too many old movies. When Karmen asks Jaycob to paint her, the Maori coughs again, "Like in Titanic - except in water color." The additional info on the wolf goes untouched by Taika. It's a mystery, yup, that's it. Looking at Tabi as she calls out for context, the Maori chuckles, "What you see is what you get. Cuzzybro Tabi."
"Hold my beer." Zoe says, pressing her drink on Taika. "And don't let Karmen flash my underoos at everyone." She says, closing her eyes and focusing. She starts to shrink down, taking on canine-like features. But something shifts partway through and what's a calm process turns into twisting around on the ground like a dying snake. Clothes get all dirty, and then go still. What pokes it's head out of the clothes is a black footed ferret. Black leggies, lighter belly and darker mask and tail tip. The cat-snake turns around and around, twisting itself up and screeching.
With a rather chirpy smile, Karmen adopts a less ridiculous posture. "Actually, I think there's a few places it would be nice to have as a setting. The woods near the caern would be nice, so long as being painted there does not break some rule or other. Also, at the fountain pool, in Serenity Grove. In full sari, or a beautiful anarkali. My mom would love that. Although myself, I think it would be amazing to be painted actually in the fountain, with full jewelry regalia... pectoral, tika, the whole works. Pale gold on naked skin, light shimmering on both, reflection in the water... Not sure I could send that home to mother, though. Not unless it comes complete with a marriage licence and a full set of bank statements for the last five years..." She breaks off as Zoe shifts form, always finding the sight worth watching... and then actually squeaks! "FERRET! Adorable!!!"
Tabi quirks an eyebrow, and grins like a mad, little bear. "That. Is. Sooooo. Cool."
There is a gentle nod, Jaycob's attention being mostly leveled on Karmen as she discusses her interests of being painted with him, and he adjusts his weight for a moment in consideration, tilting his head a bit. "As far as the rules for creating a painting in the caern goes, I'm not sure about that. I think as long as the veil isn't violated in anyway, we might be okay." He observes thoughtfully, and then smiles warmly as she mentions the latter idea for being painted, and he nods his head at her. "I can do both, if you'd like. One for... Sending home to your mother, with modesty intact, and the other..." He trails off, and then shrugs a shoulder loosely. "For your own personal business."
Though as Zoe begins to transform, he peeks towards her with his lips curling into a delighted smile at the show, taking another sip of his beer as he watches her shrink, twist and twirl into this new shape. "That... Is some amazing talent." He observes thoughtfully.
Taika holds her beer and nods, "Impressive, but not a Crinos?" he states with certainty. To Karmen's locations and 'regalia', he chuckles, "Definitely not what you should send back to your mother. She would probably come get you herself and bring you back home kicking and screaming right?" At that time, one of the Boyz calls out to Taika about a phone call. Taika sighs and nods. "Enjoy yourselves all."
