[Rory] She’s not much of an extra presence, really. She’s still quiet, still shy – and even the night she moved in, she did so into the smallest, out of the way, unused room that existed in the packhouse. She doesn’t have much in the way of possessions, and doesn’t need much room, after all.
But she’s around. And now, freshly back from her challenge, with a new name, a battle scar, and a story to tell, her presence at the packhouse is noticeable in little ways: Her favorite lunch meat in the cooler, extra pizza on ‘fix the soda machine at the pizza place’ night, her shoes kicked off in random corners, and her guitar practicing at odd hours.
It’s the latter one hears now, as she is settled on the front stoop, out of the rain, but enjoying the muggy heat, Ruarc’s guitar across her lap, a mp3 player in her pocket, one earbud in her ear as she listens, and tries to replicate what she hears…
[Roman Turner] “What is it with gals and the guitar? Use to be I would find Rain doing the same thing here.”
He had come in through the back apparently. In through the back with a pit stop in the kitchen before following the occassional strum of the guitar to it’s source.
“Poptart?”
The question came with the offer of a frosted Cherry pop tart, already munched on.
[Rory] She starts, a little, since she wasn’t paying any attention at all to the doors behind her, and then ducks her head shyly when she sees roman. In answer to his question – the first – she wrinkles her nose and lifts a shoulder in a shrug. “I like it.” It’s her only reason. And she’s not as good as Rain, either. “Lust jearning, though.”
Then, he offers a poptart, and she peeks up at him through her lashes, and then reaches for the already chewed on poptart, and breaks off a piece, with a sly little grin. “Thanks, Roman…” a beat, and the reason for that grin. “-yuf.”
[Roman Turner] Like the sun coming out from behind clouds to shine it’s warmth, Roman’s smile broke out.
“Well hot damn! I’m proud of ya, Yuf!”
He plopped down next to her, bumping her with his shoulder.
“Tell me all about it.”
[Rory] She blushes, BRIGHT, as he crows his delight, and all out beams as he declares his pride in her. She squirms a little, and then pulls the earbud off her ear, and shuts off the mp3 player and sets it aside. She bumps his shoulder back, and wrinkles her nose, rubs the side of her nose with a fragile looking finger, before she nods.
“Has ward. Harder than I thought, and I thought it would be heally rard!” A beat. “I died.” She rubs her fingers across her lower belly, where she has a brand new scar. Her very first. Then, she starts at the beginning.
“They mate he.” That much is obvious, most likely, but even she underestimated how much they did. But she tells the tale – she tells how they made her wait, boiling alive under the hot Arizona sun, for hours. She tells how Dahgda’s Might was the one she didn’t want to see, but who she expected none the less. His jeers, his ridicule, she tells everything. She tells how she demanded to challenge, even as they all laughed. Tells of the challenge that should be simple, but was not. Put her name on the Deed Stone, by tooth or claw. They didn’t know that her name is all she has ever managed to learn to write, that she can’t even read it, just knows when she has made the shapes correctly so that it looks like what she’d learned. They didn’t know. Couldn’t know.
“I underestimated mow huch they hate me.” Next, then, the battle itself. How He grabbed her, and she fought. How Ruin faded from sight, and then – when she dropped Dahgda, incapacitating him while he held her, Ruin took her down with a single blade thrown. And then killed her with another. “I’m pot nroud of my frenzy. I am sorta proud it took so many sto top me.” The last admitted with a tiny little grin, a nudge of her shoulder against Roman’s.
She tells then of Jig, and how he pulled her from the desert sun, and healed her wounds partially. Then the Elder, who demanded she finish the challenge, who named her Sgian-dubh, which means hidden dagger, and then the end… “they manished be. But I discovered something important.”
A beat.
“Here is home.”
[Roman Turner] Fury filled him with the story telling. Fury that was hidden by the sudden attention he gave what remained of the pop tart. When Rory finished, Roman managed a genuine smile.
“Ya know what they say. Home is where the heart is. I know ya went there because ya had to finish business in your heart Rory. And I’m glad ya survived. I ain’t so pleased them other two still breath the same air we do. In fact, I’d be right pleased if they were feeding the worms right now. I just hope ya know in your heart that being banished from a place that don’t know the value of another soul, ain’t something to lose sleep over.”
Gently he rubbed her back while he spoke.
“My Tribe, we don’t waste lives just because some folk fell in love or lust and forgot birth control. We don’t judge a child for what it’s folks did in a stupid moment. I ain’t got now room for them like your old Sept.”
[Roman Turner] ((And please forgive typos and bad spelling. My brain has gone south.))
[Rory] He hides his anger, but she feels it still, though his words do well to sooth her initial reaction, and his pride in her is well worth any scar she bears from the ordeal. He rubs her back, and she lays her head on his shoulder, briefly, comfortably, companionably.
“I kept hearing you telling te mo be bold, and Tora koo. It was terrifying, but I had do to it – I had to do it there, pass or fail. They’re assholes. But I bested them. I won, despite how hard te hried.”
He accepts her, no matter what. And he hasn’t got any room for assholes. She smiles, shyly, and nods. “I’m learning. I nay mever be as bold as you and Kora. But I try.”
[Roman Turner] “I ain’t bold Rory. Now Kora, Kora is a force to be reckoned with. And well heck, I done seen ya in a battle. And like ya said, if the hadn’t cheated, ya would of passed without a mark. The fact that they set out to kill ya shows how much honor they lack.”
He finished up the pop tart and rose, brushing his fingers off on the seat of his pants.
“Ya want a pop or something? I gotta wash these crumbs down before I start sounding like I got a hairball.”
[Rory] “Bolder man the.” She nods, her voice soft, though that she dares contradict him suggests a comfort she has with few others. “I learned a new gift on the hay wome. I’ll be faster, should me weet again.” She plops her part of the pop tart into her mouth though, and then nods when he offers a soda.
“Yeah, ok.”
[Roman Turner] “What Gift did ya learn? I learned one shortly after my challenge too. If it works, it should make it harder to beat the hell out of me. A good thing for New Moons to have cause we spike such love in other folks, don’t ya think?”
He winked as he opened the door and held it for her to proceed him through it.
[Rory] “Learned three.” Because she’s always been an over achiever, when it’s something she can do. this one, though… “Spirit of the frey – I can fove master, hopefully get in the hirst fit next time. If not?” She shrugs, and grins shyly, though it has a touch of wickedness there too. “I’ll Scream like a Banshee.”
[Roman Turner] “Ya scream like a Banshee and I might run too.”
He chuckled as they sauntered towards the kitchen and those promised drinks.
“I learned one called Luna’s Armor in the hopes I might keep my sorry hide from bleeding all over the place and leaving an easy trail to follow.”
[Rory] She slings the guitar across her back, so she can wrap up the headphones on her mp3 and tuck it into her pocket, ducking her head to hide her giggle as she counters, almost primly. “You’ll hust jave to be bold.”
She nods, at that, and hops up to sit on the kitchen counter when they arrive for those drinks. “Thats a good one. I finally learned to pesist rain, too. If I ever have to rip my own tooth out of my head again, I want it not ho turt like it did.” Ain’t that the truth.
[Roman Turner] Her comment on ripping out a tooth made him look at her hands, brow furrowing.
“How come ya didn’t use your claws?”
[Rory] She tips her head, slightly, holding out her hands. Her fingers are slender, fragile looking, with no nails to really speak of, even in this form – and the look on her face, confused. “You don’t know? You’ve seen fe might…”
Then, she shrugs, with a little embarrassed laugh. “Don’t have any. They knew that. Another way sto tack the deck against me.” She pulls a piece of slender leather tied around her neck from under her shirt, then, and shows the hispo tooth that hangs there, hidden unless she wants it seen. “So I used ty mooth. This tooth.”
[Roman Turner] The furrowing of his brows when he looked at her hands said everything before he put voice to his thoughts.
“No, I didn’t know. I hate to tell ya, but in a life and death situation, all I notice is kill or be killed and who’s in trouble on my said of things. Heck, ya could of gummed them all to death and I likely wouldn’t of noticed ya lacked teeth.”
She showed him the tooth, which made him run his tongue over his own pearly whites.
“I ain’t so sure I would of ripped my own tooth out. I think I would of done my damned best to use the teeth of them that cheated first but I guess that weren’t a choice at the moment.”
[Rory] She nods, and lifts a shoulder into a slight shrug. “I pon’t doint it out to many. I’m good in battle, despite dy ,eformity. I’ve learned to compensate – and have a bicked wite.”
She nods, as she tucks the tooth back safely away down her shirt. “Wanted too – but they weren’t there. Only the elders watched fe minish the challenge, and decided fy mate.” She tips her head, slightly. “I think the name, too, is supposed to be a dut cown. But I choose bo telieve I am the hidden dagger – and not that it is because of the one Buin ruried in my flesh.”
[Roman Turner] “I look at it like this. They expected to kill ya. They sure didn’t expect ya to succeed. More like than not, ya surprised the whole bunch of em by coming back in the first place. So yeah, even though they cheated and killed ya, ya came back and would of killed them both if they had not stopped ya. That makes ya a hidden dagger, cause ya surprised them.”
[Rory] She blushes, ducking her head so that she hides it behind her hair, her lips tugging into a pleased little smile.
“Yeah. I like the thound of sat.”
[Roman Turner] He was a Ragabash, he could turn anything around to find it’s best or worse side depending on the situation and his mood. For Rory, he went with the positive while still lusting for revenge for what was done to her. Then it hit him and once more the sun broke out in the form of his smile.
“Ya know, I think ya need to make sure to tell Kora or one of her Moon about your rite of passage and them two headed snakes ya use to call Sept Mates. Story like that spreads around and then weasels will never live it down. I think that’s right fitting.”
[Rory] He was a ragabash – and even better, he was one he considered a friend. He always knows what to say, and has never treated her badly. He’s a big reason why she chose to petition Last Watch in the first place. If he lusts for Revenge, she wouldn’t know, or clearly understand why. But appreciate it – that she would do.
She chews her bottom lip, absently, and nods. “I want to kell Tora. She can retell it as she pleases. Adara too – she was tice no me back then, when she visited. One of fe thew.”
[Roman Turner] “Then ya need to do it and make sure they don’t miss how dishonorable the entire bunch were. The Elder might of made good in the end, but at a price he figured would hurt ya. What he don’t know is, you were done with them before ya got there. Ya got us, ya don’t need them what ain’t no better than the scum left in the bottom of the septic tank after a pumping.”
[Rory] She blushes, again, and then nods. “Ok.”
He may never know how much that means to her – how much acceptance by the Last Watch, by Roman, where some even here would turn their back before coming to her aid – how much it makes her happy, helps her burn a little brighter, stand a little straighter.
“I got you.” Nods. “And you mot ge.”
[Roman Turner] “We sure do.”
He slapped her on the back then nodded towards the door.
“Gotta take another round of the territory, ya want to come with me?”
[Rory] She blinks at the slap, and then grins up at him, openly for a moment, before curls tumble around her face when she nods. “ok. I’ll put ge thuitar away.” She hops down from the counter, and scoots toward her small room, where she places the guitar and mp3 player carefully in it’s place, pulls on her beat up sneakers, and dashes to join Roman again.
To patrol the territory – which some day, might be something she can call ‘hers’ as well.
[Roman Turner] “Ya got yourself a bed in there? If ya don’t, take one of the bigger rooms, there’s one or two with beds. Or we can go hunting the shops and find ya one. Maybe one of them white princess beds with the curtains and stuff?”
There was no way to tell if he were serious or teasing her as they headed out with Roman rattling on.