The GarouMUSH Log Page of Clemency Haynes

Farmhouse: Kitchen and Dining Room
Homey is the first word to come to mind when looking at the farmhouse's kitchen. Dark, wood-paneled wainscoting covers the walls to about waist height, dark beige wallpaper continuing to the ceiling. Twin refrigerators occupy the north wall, facing the large six-burner stove on the south. The kitchen counter runs the length of the eastern wall, broken only by the double-basin sink. Cabinets run above and below the counter and a twin-pane window is set in the wall above the sink. A small pantry is set into an alcove alongside the refrigerators, presumably holding the deep freezer as well as shelves of dry goods.
Some twelve feet above the floor, a large chandelier hangs from the ceiling, lighting the dining room and casting long shadows over the bar to the kitchen. A long table occupies the center of the dining room, three chairs setting along each side, and one on each end. On the west wall, a large window looks out on the trees alongside the western pasture. Set into the north wall is a large cabinet, its glass doors closed on shelves containing a full compliment of fine china and glassware as well as a few decorative nicknacks. On the east, a wide bar separates the dining room from the kitchen.
An opening in the southern wall allows passage to the front entryway of the house, while a sliding glass door in the kitchen opens to a clearing behind the house.

Mathias is in the kitchen, a kettle of tea has already been made, though it seems to be growing cold. At the table he has a mound of papers which he is sorting through slowly, signing his name here, there...on that dotted line, and the four lines below it. Ugh!

With a clatter the back door opens and Clemency comes stomping inside, looking tired and drawn. She pauses inside the back door, eyebrows raised silently.

Mathias turns and looks towards Clemency a moment before he says "Fair greetings.", though it seems he drops the name as to avoid the thing about honorifics. He turns back to his mound of papers, and continues to work, muttering something about 'No I didn't do that in the last fiscal year.'

"Who the fuck are you and what are you scattering papers all over the kitchen for?" Clemency snaps ill-humoredly.

Mathias pauses for a moment. "I am Mathias, of the alpha tribe. I'm currently figuring out my finances so I can get a new home in order instead of having to live here."

Clemency seems to become even colder. "Ah. Perhaps this has something to do with me turning up to the house that Jervis bought mere months ago and finding it repossessed?"

Mathias gives a simple shrug. "Honestly? I'm still a guest to this sept. It's kind of bad form when a guest has to make sure that you have a den to come home to. But whatever, parents are sending me more money, so that we can have a den at all."

Clemency seems to come to a belated realisation. "Whoa. Whooooa. Did you meet me in lupus out on the bawn, a few days ago? Me and KL coming in from the woods out east?"

Mathias points to his hair, there's a blue streak, just like his ear would have been in lupus. "I believe so, when I said that Blackriver-Rhya had taken elder from Justin-Yuf? Right, honestly, we've got two claims to Alpha, and there is only one real way to solve it. Otherwise, I would have to stand by Blackriver-Rhya because she had beaten me bad during a challenge."

Clemency growls. Quite impressive to do that in homid. "Would Justin and Blackriver be as fast to leap into my grave as they would to take eldership from me? KL and Laura told me that they knew I was alive and safe in the Umbra. I guess nobody in the tribe bothered asking them."

Mathias holds his hands up for a moment. "Why are you trying to convince me? I knew it as well that you were alive, but since we didn't know where you were or when you'd be back, someone had to be elder to provide direction to the tribe. Go up to Blackriver, take back eldership, and there won't be anymore problems. Other then that, I'm trying to figure out what would be best to get...we could have one of the new homes at Kent Crossing..."

Clemency pushes up alongside Mathias at the table. "Who says I want eldership, if our Russian friend desires it so badly?" she mutters before poking at some of the sheets of paper. "So you're the tribal treasurer, huh?"

Mathias shrugs for a moment. "Then don't take it back. Since I'm not qualified to take it myself, then I'll follow whoever has it." he pauses a moment. "Treasurer? More like the kid with the rich parents. I had to write to them to get them to send more money, so we could afford something other then a run-down 2 bedroom apartment. At least with the Kent's Crossing home, we could have 3 bedrooms."

"And be nearer the caern," Clemency muses. She pulls out one sheet and stares at it blankly. "So what're you signing? Have you already decided on someplace?"

Mathias ughs. "Havn't even started to look. I'm trying to set up a credit history for myself, then to get a loan on the down payment that we'd need for a house. Then I need to make sure the money is routed into a new account that can both be accessed for things like food and to pay for the house without my intervention. But looking? The warder Jamethon-Rhya said I need to learn a rite from Gunnar. Then the whole chiminage? The tire fire? Ugh, I'm swamped."

Clemency winces as though the very talk of money and credit is making her feel unwell. "It sounds like a whole fucking lot of hoops to jump through," she complains. "Enough to make you want to live in a cave like the old days. Or like the Fianna still do, I hear. Show me the piece of paper that's got the actual house on, Mathias?"

Mathias pushes through some paper, before he finds a local realtor's paper, and pushes it. "I'm sure...second page, has a picture of the new homes in Kent Crossing. It'd be a matter of finding one that's in the right place, and getting my name on the paper before anyone else does."

Clemency opens the paper, glares at it for a minute or so with a look that begins as mild discontent and ends up looking fit to make the newsprint smolder. Then she slaps it down on the table. "They're building a huge fucking commuter overspill suburb in Kent Crossing? Right there, only a mile or two from the bawn, if that? And your answer to this threat is... to move into one of them?! I can't believe my fucking ears!"

Mathias shrugs, "We ruled out explosives and demolitions already to stop it. And, if you wish, I'll ask Blackriver to keep a spot in her den open for you, and me and Justin will live in the new home."

Clemency flops into a chair and thumps her fist on the table, though not with full strength, more as a gesture of despair. "I just can't see us being happy, or at home, in some little new-build brick-box suburb. That sort of place is full of housewives with nothing better to do all day than spy on their neighbors' comings and goings. We'd fit in like a melon in a bunch of grapes."

Mathias hmms softly, then looks at Clem. "Have a different idea? Otherwise, I don't think we'll ever truely have a place to call 'home'. Just a place to rest our heads while we sleep. We could build a huge treehouse though, with amish laborers."

Clemency snorts. "Well, don't ask me, ask your Elder. Oh, dang, I forgot, your Elder thinks 'home' is a hole in the ground." A sigh. "Well, perhaps we'll be okay, I don't know. It's hardly what we're used to but... You say your parents put the dough forward for this?"

Mathias looks at Clem. "Hey, I said to go and take it back. But yes, my parents are paying for all of it. I mean, do you see me having a job? I would have burned out if I had to pull a 40 hour work week on top of it all."

"I don't recall your introduction mentioning your parents," Clemency says crisply. "But that's lupus intros for you. What is your heritage?"

Mathias ehs. "Kinfolk. Lots of kinfolk. In fact, I only had a kinfetch out of tradition, not that they actually expected it to take. First Garou was my great great grandfather...we don't even have his deed name, just that he was known for having this grand klaive. On the other hand, the Klaive was destroyed when he died, due to a pact with the spirit in it."

Clemency gives Mathias a surprised look. "Your family doesn't know its own history? Was it attached to a sept?"

Mathias ehs. "If only slightly. They only got reconnected after I firsted. They weren't too happy, but in the end, they knew that they had to support us. So yeah, our history is sketchy at best. You? You have some family of importance?"

"Well," Clemency says with a shade of self-deprecation in her voice, "I am a direct descendant of Pyotr Tchigorin of Garbistan, the klaive-maker who returned the Bracelet of Wriotheseley to its rightful place... and my grandfather was alpha of the Sept of the One Bright Star for something like eight years..." She smiles as though to say 'beside those, who am I?'

Mathias leans over and gives a small prod. "Then why the heck would you let Blackriver keep eldership? I'm surprised the Wyrm hasn't been running scared because you were on the warpath to take back what was yours. You've got the bloodline spunk to pull it off and one day take alphaship from Vera."

Clemency pushes Mathias' prodding finger away, though not violently. "For all that she's a feral bitch and dumb as rocks, Blackriver still isn't a psychotic bitch like me. You don't know me yet, Mathias. You've never seen me in a towering righteous rage at nothing in particular because Luna got fat and spoke to me. You'll have plenty of time, if you're going to become a Sept member, to learn to hate me like everyone else."

Mathias gives a simple shurg. "Then one day, I'll take eldership from Blackriver. It may be a long while, but I will." he pauses. "I need to get back to work with all this paper here. It won't do itself, and I'm sure the banks would pitch a bitch because it's not perfect for them."

"I'm still going to talk to Blackriver, and Justin too," Clemency qualifies, "but until I do, I'm not making any plans. Vera-rhya is a cunning old crone and she keeps a close watch on me. She probably does on all of our tribe, given the well-known history between ours and hers. So be aware. I doubt she'll actively try to sabotage our plans, but she's the sort of elder who likes to know everything that's going on in her domain."

Mathias just laughs. "Yes, I know. She's already set in on the smear campaign on me, calling me honorless. It is because I did not want the charachs to die, and wanted them to live. Yes they were wrong, but we need thier claws more then we need thier blood spilt."

"The charachs? Oh, those urrah you mentioned. They were spared, in the end, though?" Clemency asks. "I thought you said they were in the front line at the tire fire."

Mathias nods, "They will be, and yet, Vera went around spreading that I was honorless because of it. So yes, I know of Vera, and I am wary."

"Good man," Clemency says. "Let me know as soon as you find any more out about the house."