[Marni] So, she doesn’t come to the Broho often. So rarely, in fact, that one of kin in the kitchen that she knows has her jaw openly FALL to see Marni when she peels off a layer or two and drapes them over her arm. There’s laughter, and she is loaded up with a plate, and finally heads upstairs.
She is, after all, eating for two. (even if, at this stage, she looks like she’s already eaten a rather large watermelon…)
So this is Marni: tattered jeans, with the top button undone, because there’s zero chance of it buttoning around the 8.5 month swell of her belly. An oversized t-shirt, and socks that don’t match. At the bottom, sturdy shoes and socks that don’t match, and at the top, a mop of curls and dark eyes that twinkle with a joke no one else is privy too. She’s got a coat and a sweatshirt over her arm, and a plate piled high with food in the other.
She stops at the top of the stairs to take a breath, before heading into the common’s to find a seat she won’t need a crane to get herself out of afterwards.
[Cordelia] So, she stands there. Steps away from Thomas and Asha and edges away. That qwoman is… intense. She inhales and puts her hands in her pockets. Cordelia is… definitely dressed down. Comfortable, yes. Glamorous? Certainly not. She pushes her glasses up again.
She watches as a pregnant woman comes up the stairs. Her brows raise, and the next thing that comes out is a half-voiced aww.
Baaaabiiiieees.
[Asha Singh] “He forgot his stick.” Asha informs Katherine, and it is difficult to tell whether Asha is scandalized by the oversight or simply prefers to make a scene. “So we’ve got to go and get it before we can have a proper introduction. I don’t think it’s right otherwise. It’s just not the same to clap one’s hands. I like the stick. It makes a very proper rap against the floorboards. So we’re going to go get it. We’ll be right back!” she finishes, brightly, elbowing the poor gentleman charged with announcing her presence before she goes into rooms.
“If you are that concerned about propriety, Miss Asha – ” continues Thomas, precisely, a hint of a smile cresting the corner of his mouth. “Perhaps you should not run ahead of me, but should instead allow me to precede you and announce your entrance before you have actually entered the room.”
“Only – ” says Asha, rather darkly. The bloody thing in the ziploc bag slaps wetly against her thigh. ” – if you promise to bring it next time.”
It seems that introductions must be postponed, once more. Asha goes stomping down the stairs. Thomas gives Marni a polite smile. And so on. In the end: out they go!
[Asha Singh] (must sleep darlings! night!)
[Marni] In the end, she opts for the couch, because ooooh comfort… and someone will help her up when she has to pee for the 18th time this hour, anyway. Maybe. She drops her coat and sweatshirt on the arm of said couch, and then sits with a “oooooof” before taking a moment to just… breathe.
She sets the plate on her belly and mutters under her breath “Bean, I’m THIS CLOSE to servin you ya eviction notice… stop kickin my damn spine.”
Only then does she really look around to see who’s here. She heard the half voiced awww, and snorts. Nothing aww about it at this point. But that good-natured twinkle in her eyes? Never diminishes. “Go on, ya wanna ask if ya can touch it, I know. Everyone does.
[Cordelia] She can touch it?
This is the exact moment where she looks at Katherine to be sure that it’s okay, and all things be damned, permission forgotten, the stork crouches next to the woman who is going to pop at about any second. She reaches out and tentatively touches her belly… Marni is huge.
“Boy or girl?” because that’s the all-important question, see?
[Marni] She chuckles and slides the plate out of the way, and grabs Cordelia’s hand with her own, adjusting it to the top swell, and pressing firmly. The Kin is rewarded with a firm nudge, and the roll of the belly underneath her skin. Marni pats her hand, letting her know it’s ok not to be tentative, and then grabs a fry from her plate. Everyone thought she was a bottomless pit before – she eats near constantly now.
The question… “Dunno yet. We decided to wait to find out – it’s one of the few mysteries left, right?”
That, and she hasn’t been to a doctor even once. The Bean feels healthy. That’s all they know.
[Cordelia] Cordelia squeels immediately, as though the movement was completely unexpected. She looks at Marni like she’s Mother Theresa and… well.. she’s been infested with a tiny food-sucking parasite. She pulls her hand back immediately- the kind of reaction one would have expected from a startled four-year-old and not a purebred kinfolk.
“It’s huge! I don’t think it liked that, it moved!”
[Katherine Bellamonte] [I think we lost Angelina! Did we? ANGELINNNNNNA!]
[Marni] Marni just laughs. “Oh it moves all right. All the fuckin’ time. Kicks me in my spine, the bladder, rolls over, basically makes getting comfortable completely impossible. But it likes to be touched and patted – ya ain’t hurt it, or me at all.”
She plops another fry in her mouth and grins. “I’m Marni by the way. An ya already met the Bean.” said with a pat of her belly. “Oh – wanna see something fun? Gotta cold soda can or somethin?”
[Cordelia] “Cordelia,” she offers. Cor-deh-lia, not Cor-deal-ia, “encantado.”
She lokos at marni, and her eyebrows raise. She is enthralled. Marni could well be Cordelia’s kryptonite at this point, because… well… she’s just so damned fascinating. All big and swollen and uncomfortable-looking and laughing about it all. It’s not disgust or horror, just fascination.
“I’ll go get one,” she says. And gets ready to retreat to get one.
[Marni] She grins, and nods. “Alright – ain’t gotta be soda – jus’ anything cold.” And her eyes twinkle like she has a great secret. Marni – no matter what people say, no matter what reputation she has – is exactly what she seems. Fun. She reveals in life, she enjoys every minute of it, and she makes people want to smile along with her.
Well, with certain exceptions. Like Kate, most likely.
[Cordelia] Cordelia eventually comes back with a plastic baggie full of ice cubes and a glass of water- sans ice cubes. Obviously, it seemed that she wasn’t going to be putting these ice cubes to waste any time soon. She hands Marni the plastic bag of ice cubes and she waits. This is proof that she should be mostly fine with children. After all, she can put up with Cordelia.
[Marni] She grins and sets her plate on the arm of the couch when Cor-deh-lia comes back, and takes the ice cubes with a grin. “This works with just bout anythin’ cold. The Bean, see, can hear an’ see an’ feel an’ everthin’ right now. S’just gettin fatter at this point. Least that’s what my book said. Anyway – watch.”
She carefully stacks the baggy on the swell of her belly, making them into a little pyramid inside their plastic case, so they are topple-able. She pulls her hands away, and takes a slow breath, so that it’s clear it’s not her moving the ice…
then there’s a moment.
two.
then three…
then?
her belly rolls and the ice? goes toppling off to the side, as Marni chuckles. “Ain’t that the shit? Totally toppled a bowl of ice cream off m’belly the other night.”
Marni can put up with near anyone… she just hopes the babe gets used to her rage enough for her to get the chance to handle The Bean, too.
[Kristiana Coleman] After a trip to the restroom to hyperventilate, generally panic, and worry herself to an ulcer, she splashes some water on her face and breezes back to the common room as if nothing at all is amiss.
[Katherine Bellamonte] In her absence, another Garou has arrived, and Asha plus her Kinsmen Herald have departed. Katherine has been dusting her face with powder, and listening half-attentively to the antics between the Bone Gnawer and her Kinswoman, Cordelia. Now, as Kristiana returns; she glimpses her and snaps shut her little mirror and puff.
She’s smiling.
It’s still somewhat unsettling; given the moon phase, but it feels less troublesome without the added pressure of the Ahroun’s presence.
“Better?” She asks, in her prettily affected voice.
[Cordelia] “… can you drink coffee when you’re pregnant?”
Important question for the Spaniard.
[Kristiana Coleman] Uhohshe’sstilltherenowwhat? She offers her best, most respectful smile and nods, scooting to Cordelia’s side. “Yes Ma’am. Thank you.”
[Marni] She shrugs, a little. “Books say ya ain’t supposed to do a lot of shit – but also say is ok in moderation. Coffee raises the blood pressure, see? An’ there’s already extra stuff goin on that can do that, so ya wanna just do it in moderation. So it ain’t too bad – have a cup every once in a while an’ it ain’t gonna hurt no one. Same with wine – though I ain’t drunk nuthin since we found out about the Bean.”
There’s a longing there… she’s SO gonna enjoy her first beer as soon as humanly (…HA!) possible…
“Course, there’s lots of shit bout me the books ain’t even touch on, so.”
[Katherine Bellamonte] The Half Moon nods, and takes from her purse a small card; it has neat print on one side; listing Katherine’s own name and beneath it simply an address in Lake View. “This is my personal home, it is called the Loft. It is also a safe haven of sorts for our tribe in Chicago.
Should you find yourself in danger,” the pale eyes are very focused, now. “Or merely need my council, you are welcome there, Oui?”
Her eyes stray to Cordelia, she nods.
“Ms Diego knows its location, also. She is a competent member of our tribe here, you should look to her for advice if you need another Kin’s knowledge.” With that, the Elder rises, draping her coat over her arm, smiling down at Kristiana with her red, red lips.
“I shan’t keep you any longer tonight, but our meeting was long overdue.”
[Kristiana Coleman] “Yes, Rhya. I apologize. Ivan Rhya offered to pass your contact information along, but I wasn’t able to reach him again after that night.”
[Cordelia] She’s paying attention to whatever it is that Marni says. You can have coffee, but in moderation. You shouldn’t be drinking anything too much or too little or nothing of the fact. She perks up and looks over at Katherine. She stands up a little straigther, and she feels… pride. Something that swells and resides firm and comfortable in her chest.
Cordelia doesn’t say anything to Katherine, she just smiles. It’s… thankful.
[Marni] Cordelia stands and looks over at Katherine, who calls the kin a competent member. She looks like she was handed a cookie. Marni manages not to snort out loud, just goes back to eating her food.
[Marni] [dashing to pick up the kid from work – brb]
[Katherine Bellamonte] “I did not realize you were familiar with Ivan,” she says with some small amount of surprise overlaid in her voice. She pauses, coat in her hands and her eyes flit thoughtfully from Kristiana to Cordelia; rest there a moment as if she would say things with the weight of her gaze, then flit back.
She does not depart quite yet.
“What happened on this night you mention that you should no longer have contact with a member of the tribe?”
[Kristiana Coleman] Breathe, Krist. Just breathe. “He escorted me back to my hotel to make sure that I made it safely.”
[Marni] [back]
[Kristiana Coleman] “It isn’t that I don’t have contact with him, it’s just that I’ve been doing other things and haven’t caught up with him.” She offers a smile again, this one extra, extra charming.
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She’s figuring that enough time has to have passed by now, and she hops her way back up the steps. She’s whistling some ungodly, shrill and annoying song as she does so, all the way until she sees that the whole thing is still going on, and freezes in midstep. Her facial expression is in midwhistle, the sound dying out as her eyes scan from person to person.
[Katherine Bellamonte] [Per + Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)
[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine tilts her head to one side; it’s almost avian, the manner she cocks it like that more than wolfish. She’s still smiling a little, which is at once discomforting and reassuring. Her Rage thrums around her, ebbing and rising like the waves against the shoreline.
“Aha,” she says lightly, nodding as if that made sense. “So there is no other reason why you do not have contact with him, after this night that he escorted you home, then.” She lifts her brows, as if curious.
[Kristiana Coleman] “I’ve been busy with meeting people, and Matthieu….” She blushes again, ducking her head.
[Marni] Marni – well. She watches this little exchange like it’s a tennis match, her head turning back and forth, her curls bouncing. She kicks off her shoes, and sets her feet up on the coffee table with a sigh of relief, and rests her plate on her belly as she eats and listens.
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She coughs, clearing her throat, with a short, weird whistle-like sound emerging in the process. Something like that of a songbird being strangled and having its head beat repeatedly against piano keys. “Ooh…ahem. Sorry ’bout that. Frog in my throat, and shit.” She straightens up, moving away from the steps.
[Katherine Bellamonte] Now, there’s a genuine flicker of amusement in the Philodox’s eyes. Her lips thin to a line and she lets out a little sigh.
“Very well, Kristiana. I am not here to bombard you questions regarding your personal life. I am here to facilitate your safety while you are in Chicago. You do understand this, yes?” She waits for a nod before going on. “If you have things of a delicate, or personal nature, do not bring them to my door unless they threaten your life, or the lives of others. If they are breaking some law, you may consult me.
If you are needing my protection, it goes without saying.
But I am not your mother, or your sister. I do not have the time or inclination for meaningless chit chat, or skirting around issues. I have asked, you have answered as you see fit. There lays the end of it.” She flits a hand.
[Cordelia] Cordelia sits down and gets fairly comfortable near Marni. Whatever it is, the female seems content to watch the same tennis match as the Bone Gnawer. Realistically, there can’t be that man differences betweent he two, except that Cordelia’s probably half a foot taller and decidedly underweight while Marni… well. Marni has a whole ‘nother person living inside of her. Suffice to say, it’s a little cramped. What they have in common, however, seems to be their vague interest in the verbal tennis match. Cordelia’s attention, however, wanes.
“So,” she starts, “does the baby do the same thing with warm things?”
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She walks over to the table, snagging the remote and giving a smile to Marni and Cordlia. “Evening.” She takes a seat on the floor, flicking her way through channels. “S’up?”
[Kristiana Coleman] She swallows hard “Yes, Rhya”
[Marni] A whole ‘nother person, that’s due in just a couple weeks, even. Which means said little person is considerably cramped, and Marni shifts her position slightly as Cordelia sits. Not to get away or get closer, just to try and get The Bean to shift slightly and get off her spine. Or kidney. Or whatever it’s currently crushing.
She offers some of her fries to the kin, and shakes her head. “Not exactly – The Bean tends to curl up closer to the warm stuff, instead of actively kick it off. Before I got so blasted huge – i look like a fuckin WHALE, don’t I? – he’d chase light too, when we shined a flashlight on my belly. Now there just ain’t much room…”
[Kristiana Coleman] (Sorry guys, I’m crashing out and I need to be up in about six hours. Krist will head up to room 8)
[Cordelia] Now, she knows good and well that she shouldn’t decline food, and down the hatch it goes. They’re friees. They’re good fries at that- Cordelia isn’t aware that Marni’s a Bone Gnawer, but if she did she’d know that they don’t just share food with anyone. Food’s a sacred thing. She does know, however, that pregnant women will eat the ever-loving crap out of some french fries.
“You don’t look like a whale,” she says, “I don’t think you’d be very mobile in water at all.”
She just grins, ear-to-ear and so much fake innocence there.
“When’s the Bean due?”
[Marni] “Actually!” she says, with that incorrigible grin… “Water is awesome – takes a lot o’the weight off, and pressure too. An’ well, since we’re pretty sure that’s where we started th’Bean anyway… well. We like water. A lot.”
She wiggles her brows, and then chuckles. “February 3rd.” She pats the belly, and shakes her head. “Though if ‘e wants t’ make an’ early appearance, I wouldn’t be opposed. I miss seein my feet…”
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She glances back at Marni and Cordelia, then smiles to herself and just leans back, continuing the channel flipping. She tosses a look over to Katherine now that Kristiana’s gone, watching her.
[Cordelia] “Well, they’re still there,” she looks at Sarita and raises her brows, “verdad? I’m not lying to her and they are there.”
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She glances back now at Cordelia, then makes a show at looking for Marni’s feet. “Oh…yeah, there they are.” She grins. “Yeah, ya got feet, chica. No worries.”
[Marni] She laughs, and nods. “Yeah, else it’d be a problem walkin in, I figure. Though I give up on tryin t’tie my shoes, or anything that involves bendin over the Bean. ‘e ain’t like it much. Figure’s ‘e’s all smooshed up in there enough.”
She wrinkles her nose, and then chuckles. “Ain’t all that bad. Jus’ been a while. Ain’t like feelin like I ain’t able t’protect shit, ya know? Specially The Bean. February cain’t come fast enough.”
[Lukas] The nights Lukas spends in the Brotherhood has been gradually diminishing over the past year or two. He’s here tonight, though, coming up the stairs with herb-crusted lamb from the kitchen. Best in the city, he swears, and given the amount of lamb he seems to devour, one may as well believe him. There’s a bottle of red under his arm, a copy of the latest Economist in his right hand, and … a wineglass in his mouth, stem held delicately in his teeth.
He stops at the top of the stairs, seeing the common room occupied. Then he makes some sort of vague hello sound at Katherine, nods to everyone else, and goes to sit …
well, in his usual spot. Dead center on the long arm of the sectional, putting his heaping plate down in front of him.
“Thought I heard you putting the fear of Falcon into some kin,” he says, ripping off three lamb ribs to hand to his packmate. “Did you scare her off already?”
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She throws her attention to Lukas when he walks in, head tilting as he gets an appraising once over.
[Marni] And enter Lukas.
There’s a moment, where the expression is clear on Marni’s face, though it’s there an’ gone so fast it’s as if it didn’t exist at all. It helps that she was shoving the last bit of fries into her mouth about that time, too, but it exists. She sets her plate aside, pulls her feet back, and slips them into her boots by feel.
“Speakin’ of – it’s time I got home. Jus’ had cravin for some fries, an’ since I done killed the plate of em..” She winks at Cordelia, and goes about trying to leverage herself out of the couch. No easy doing. “Give us a push, will ya?”
Push or not, she gets to her feet, and pulls on her sweatshirt, her coat. She grabs her empty plate, and with a general wave, heads out the same way she came.
[Cordelia] Wyrmbreaker’s a good looking man, let’s make no mistake about that. However, there is only so far raw looks and prowess can go before it gives way to ridiculous. Then, of course, Marni is asking for a push up, the female positions her arm under marni, and gets a good hand on her rear.
Cordelia gives Marni a nice, healthy shove up… which is to say it isn’t quite a shove, because even if she is a fairly strong young woman, Cordelia is a bird-boned young woman, and strong for her frame is probably not strong enough to do more than give a pregnant woman a little momentum.
“Goodnight… Marni, yes?” she waves.
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] She looks back to Marni, getting to her feet when it becomes clear the Gnawer is trying to get up and offering a hand. “Here, lemme help.”
[Marni] “Yeah.” she says – it’s Marni, and for their help leveraging her oddly balanced frame up.. “Thanks!” Because, believe it or not, she has it in her to be polite – when she wants too.
[Katherine Bellamonte] Kristiana has had enough, perhaps, of Katherine. Or she’s simply in need of a respite from the constant aura of Rage around various individuals in the room. Whichever it is, she excuses herself with Katherine’s blessing and the Silver Fang is then left to her own devices — for a few moments.
Then Sarita is eying her, and gets the privilege of a lifted brow in response.
Lukas appears, and there’s a fondness in the female’s voice as he carries his lamb and accessories toward the sectional. “Oh, you know Lukas, it’s my monthly scare sense into my subjects event.” Then; the pregnant Gnawer is rising to leave, and Katherine bids her stay only long enough to add:
“I have some left over baby items like formula at the Loft from August Grant’s stay before she gave birth. They are yours, should you need them.” Then she’s offered lamb chops, and sits down, coat aside to carefully nibble at one.
[Sarita Ecos de la Risa] “You bet.” She smiles to Marni and sits down, taking a moment to look back to Katherine with curiosity. Apparently, the Fang intrigues her.
[Lukas] “Mmf,” Lukas says, mouth full, A lamb bone falls by the side of the plate, picked clean. He wipes his hand quickly on a napkin, then twists a corkscrew into his bottle with quick, practiced turns of his wrist. When it’s in the Shadow Lord — because he is that, unmistakably so, never mind that he’s apparently on good terms with this Silver Fang he’s sharing his meal with — pulls the cork free with utter, thoughtless ease. Still impaled on the corkscrew, it goes by the wayside. Lukas pours himself a glass of wine, then passes the bottle to Kate as if he really expected her to drink directly from it.
“You get all the hot kinfolk and the juicy drama. I’m jealous.” He doesn’t sound it one bit.
Lukas takes a sip, catches a spilled drop of wine off his lip with the side of his thumb. It’s discreet. He eats with a sort of innate, thoughtless ease; a carnivorous grace that isn’t quite the same as Katherine’s well-entrained courtesy. When he lifts his eyes, they go with instinctive unerring directness to Sarita. Now there are two pairs of pale, piercing eyes on the Strider, both blue. Lukas gestures at the lamb on the platter, invitational, as he sits back with a rib in hand.
“Care for a bite?”