crazy frenchwoman.

[Wendy Berber] *What is a kin with a bottomless appetite and no fridge to do when she has the midnight munchies? Well.. find a place with food of course. And its to that end that Wendy is locking up the front door of "James' Odd and Rare books" at nearly 2 am. The bookworm is leaving to hunt for sustenance.*

[Alexander Vaughn] And here we have a fine specimen of Assholeus Maximus.

2am and the Mag Mile is hoppin'. The stores are all closed but still bright. Global warming? Energy conservation? What's that? The bars are open, and so are the clubs -- the theaters, the coffee houses. Music rumbles through the walls of some nightclub called SAIGON, down at the end of the Mile where the Mile gets less Magnificent. It's across the way and about half a block down from a hole in the wall bookstore where Alexander never goes.

Alexander does, however, go to SAIGON. Tonight, anyway, he's leaning against the outer wall, slouched down, enjoying the cool night, a beer bottle dangling from his fingers. He looks a little more than tipsy; he looks a little more than drunk. His pupils are a little dilated when he rolls his head to the side without lifting it from the brick. It takes him a moment to recognize Wendy, though surely she's one of the most distinctively mousy faces in the city.

"...heeey." Alexander's mouth curls at the edges. "It's the bookworm."

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy does a double take, staring in shock at the last person she'd intended on seeing right outside her home. Perhaps the last person she'd hoped to see, with the exception of furry descending doom. * Uh.. Oh!

[Liadan Whelan] The doors to SAIGON open, and a big, burly man who is obviously a bouncer steps out, big meaty hand clamped around the upper arm of a redhaired woman with cat-eye glasses. She's wearing a brown fedora, the bulk of her red hair is twisted into a messy knot at the base of her skull. Líadan is not dressed as she's normally been seen to dress, covered from head to toe in geek clothing. Her halter top is distinctly Chinese in design, and green with a floral pattern. She's wearing black capris and a pair of strappy sandals with two inch heels. She's dressed for the night clubs.

And she just got thrown out. She's not the only one. A man is held in the bouncer's other hand. He obviously doesn't care what the two do to each other once they're outside. As soon as his back is turned, Líadan pounces on the other man's back, getting him in a headlock. “Say it again, asswad! I dare ya!” The man staggers, lowers to the ground in defeat. As soon as his knees touch the pavement, Líadan goes to adjust her grip. The man breaks free, and bolts.

“YEAH YOU BETTER RUN!” She turns around, brushing off her bare arms, and then she spots a familiar face. “Aaaaaaleeeeex! How are you?” His attention was on the mousy brunette with the glasses. “And who is this cute li'l thing?” When the Fiann walks she sways drunkenly, but she's not so far gone she stumbles. And she doesn't fall. She never falls.

[Alexander Vaughn] That was unexpected. No matter. Alexander's reflexes are cat-quick. Liadan's victim -- was she making a habit of beating on unsuspecting guys? Did she fuck this one too before she jumped on him all too literally? -- flees toward Alex, which is a mistake, because Alex casually sticks his foot out. The man goes sprawling. Alexander barks a harsh, hard laugh, takes a swig of beer.

The guy's too freaked out, too beat-up, too damn cowed to fight. He scrambles to his feet and runs. Alexander aims a kick at his ass, which misses, and, laughing, sinks back against the wall.

"Babydoll." Maybe it was a day/night thing. Maybe it's how she's dressed. Another swig of beer, and then he points the butt of the bottle at Liadan. "This's the hottest piece of ass in the city, as long as she's not throwing shit at you." And at Wendy. "This's the biggest geek in the city, as long as .... well, there's really no qualifier there." And he shrugs.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy has plastered herself against her door, keys dangling in her hand as she watches the scene in obvious horror. Wendy recognizes the woman from somewhere but she can't quite place her, and doesn't immediately care to, watching the back of the fleeing man as he disappears around a corner. She swallows and looks from Laiden to Alex. Deer caught in headlights.* um.. evening..

[Joss Lehrer] She's still working her way around the city - after all, the only way to find your way around is to get good and truly lost - and she's very good at doing that. She swings off the bus - knowing damn well it's the last bus of the night and she'll now be walking home, not that a little walking would hurt her, of course - and waves to the driver with a smile.

It's all lights and bustling fun in the Mile near SAIGON, and Joss has the look of a little girl at Christmas with all the glitz and glamour, and noise and... She spins in a slow circle, her skirts fluttering around her calves as she does so, her hand resting on the bag that hangs at her hip, the strap disecting her torso diagonally. Her heavy dreads are pulled back with a leather thong, hanging heavily down the back of her sweater. All her clothing is earth toned, and her shoes of the light slip on type, and of little note.

The lights glitter in the deep brilliant blue of her eyes, and a little smile lingers along her lips. It's just all so pretty!

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan laughs. “That, my dear Asshole, is a lie. There is no bigger geek in the city than me.” She walks over to where Wendy stands pressed against the door. Thanks to her heels, the two women stand at the same height. The redhead presses her hand flat against the wall, leans in close to examine the other woman. “Nah, looks like a nerd t'me. So, y'know, close.” She pushes away from the wall to give Wendy some space. Líadan appears to be very drunk.

But then, Líadan can appear to be many things.

“Evenin', princess." She smiles, and it is perhaps not the most charming thing Wendy has ever seen.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy presses back into the door, leaning back as the redhead leans forward, until her head hits the door with a thump. She averts her eyes as the drunk woman examines her, knuckles white around her keys.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] The doors to Saigon open again with a wash of heavy bass and beneath this the chatter of voices. Two more figures emerge but these two are not ceremoniously ejected from the nightclub. Rather, they are voluntarily exiting the suffocating mass of gyrating bodies for the crispness of the night air.

It is a male and female, the latter of which is laughing into the face of the male, clutching at his arm as she holds a half-consumed bottle in the fingers of her other hand. The woman, whose face was half-concealed by a loose jumble of blonde waves was dressed for the occasion in a black mini skirt and silver sequined top that glittered in the light when she moved; her feet housed in stilettos that gave her height she truly did not require but emphasized the long legs that ran to mid-thigh before they vanished beneath the snug fabric of her skirt.

"Fantastique!," rejoiced the woman in a language that sounded rather like french, her words slurring together only slightly and her presence -- indeed the presence of both -- swirled around the humans, almost staggering for a moment before the air seemed to return.

"You cannot dance at all well, Samuel." She teased, straightening with a smile still twitching her lips.

[Sam Modine] You can't ever forget losing everything but Gaia be damned if you can't try for awhile.

The glitz, the lights, the cool breeze in the summer weather the comes refreshing off the lake and the statuesque blonde beside him are all reminders of a time when they'd all been just a little more care free. Tonight though is about having fun, Katherine had assured him, that burning out much of his Rage in battle this afternoon might be a blessing, rather than a liability.

The two of them even to human eyes are really something to be seen together. They stand tall, proud, there's a fury about both that either pushes one away or draws one in like an electromagnetic inferno depending on your particular polarity. They're good looking, both, and blonde, regal though he wears it easily like a layer of skin, the female Garou does it with the polish and poise of decades spent in royal circles. A queen and her Rook, out for an evening on the town.

Garou see the same, they only have the added benefit of knowing exactly how well bred the two are.

They're happy, it looks like, coming out of the place. Her suggestion it seems has taken. They always do. She's in silver and swirling around and into the man in blue who holds her around the waist and slurs back a "Can so..." When she jests at his ability. "I think I dance just fine!" He releases only moments later, assured she's back upright, as Katherine is always upright. Falling, even as inebriated as the two have gotten so far is not an option.

"Oh my gosh I know that girl." Sam points. One isn't supposed to point.

[Sam Modine] You can't ever forget losing everything but Gaia be damned if you can't try for awhile.

The glitz, the lights, the cool breeze in the summer weather the comes refreshing off the lake and the statuesque blonde beside him are all reminders of a time when they'd all been just a little more care free. Tonight though is about having fun, Katherine had assured him, that burning out much of his Rage in battle this afternoon might be a blessing, rather than a liability.

The two of them even to human eyes are really something to be seen together. They stand tall, proud, there's a fury about both that either pushes one away or draws one in like an electromagnetic inferno depending on your particular polarity. They're good looking, both, and blonde, regal though he wears it easily like a layer of skin, the female Garou does it with the polish and poise of decades spent in royal circles. A queen and her Rook, out for an evening on the town.

Garou see the same, they only have the added benefit of knowing exactly how well bred the two are.

They're happy, it looks like, coming out of the place. Her suggestion it seems has taken. They always do. She's in silver and swirling around and into the man in blue who holds her around the waist and slurs back a "Can so..." When she jests at his ability. "I think I dance just fine!" He releases only moments later, assured she's back upright, as Katherine is always upright. Falling, even as inebriated as the two have gotten so far is not an option.

"Oh my gosh I know that girl." Sam points. One isn't supposed to point.

[Alexander Vaughn] "Bullshit." Alex is talking to Liadan, but he's looking at Wendy. "Geeks don't fuck like that."

Both of them are looking at Wendy. Lee was leaning over her like a predator a moment ago. Alex is still slouched against the wall, which means he's not quite as in Wendy's face as Lee was -- but then, Lee's just fucking smashed. Alexander is ... not quite as smashed, but a little more hopped up.

He rolls his balance to one shoulder. Leans against the wall like that instead, facing Wendy now.

"So where you going, peach?"

[Joss Lehrer] That girl, this girl, the other girl - there are a great many girls, and guys and everyone seems to be drunk but her. She doesn't seem to notice - many have accused her of being drunk, but it is only on life. Currently, anyway.

She finishes her little circle, and picks a direction in which to meander. It, of course, takes her toward the SAIGON and those exiting and in nearby areas including nearby bookstores. She stands out, in her earthy colored and slightly (ha!) out of touch fashion sense, but she doesn't seem to notice, or mind, at all. Some would wonder if she's even paying attention to anything but the pretty lights...

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy's face turns a shade of red natural to tomatoes, her eyes flicking wide to Alex a moment before she averts her gaze once more.* I'm.. I was just, um.. I was going home, sir. *She lies, turning her back slightly as though to shield herself, trying to get her shaking keys into the door so she might escape.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] "Oh, so?" The Silver Fang returns with an arched brow and leans away from him as if she would better regard him with a tilted head. "Is not alcohol intended to distort one's view of themselves?"

Sam points, rather indiscreetly toward that girl that he knows and his once-Alpha turns her head [and the rest of her body as well] toward the girl in question, loitering it would seem with two others. Katherine Bellamonte, drawing herself straighter cocks her head toward the Modi. "Shall I ask how you know her, Samuel? Ah--," She lifts a painted nail and holds it out against his lips so he cannot interrupt her.

Filled with alcohol, the Philodox's eyes gleam more than ever, their pale depths filled at present with mischief. "Non, but I shall ask her myself. Come along, Sam."

She instructs, as if he were an errant pupil, pulling him along by the hand and rapidly walking toward the trio of drunken Kinfolk, her expression one of devious enthusiasm.

[Liadan Whelan] With her back to SAIGON, Líadan doesn't see the approach of the two tall blondes. And in all honesty, it probably wouldn't have mattered if she had. She does take a few steps away from Wendy. The redhead may be drunk, but not so drunk that she'll ignore the obvious unease of the tall bookworm. It's true that, had Wendy's reaction been someone less fearful, Líadan would likely have hit on the girl seriously. But she didn't, and Líadan has not hit on a woman since the one that pushed her away.

“Oh? Are you calling me a liar, sir? Is there some test you would like for me to take to prove my geekishness. Geekiness? Geekery?” She breaks into a fit of the giggles.

[Sam Modine] His own drink is in a glass. It's very, very strong. Something in fact called a car crash. Before the first one, Sam had found that ironic. The second tasted like fruit punch. Four and a half in and even his remarkable constitution is giving in under the weight of so many shots. The fact that they come in pint glasses should've been an indication.

The Modi is about to explain to his returned friend where, in fact he'd been the previous night. Sam never actually gets the chance though and quickly he's being led over toward Lee and the others. Joss catches his eye as they tread toward the group and he raises one hand in an exaggerated hello far above his head. "Kat. Thassa....thassa Fostern over there."

But he's got his other hand and Sam would never deny her so they continue crossing toward the tiny pack of kinfolk.

Drunken predators amidst flat-toothed apes who know no better than to stay in when the sun goes down.

[Alexander Vaughn] "Yeah?" Alex grins, all teeth. It's about as pleasant as Liadan's princess. "Really? You came all the way out just to go back in, huh?"

And he comes up off the wall, steps a few steps across the sidewalk and tips his head back, his spine curving backward so he can look up at her flat as though he were looking at a skyscraper; at mount everest.

"You live up there, huh?" And he straightens up. "Nice. Looks cool." Liadan wants to know if there's a test to take. Alexander's hazel eyes flicker to her, hold for a moment, come back to Wendy. "Can we come up?"

[Joss Lehrer] The drunken blonds catch her attention, briefly, and then a second time as Sam sorta points over his head in her general direction but continues to be pulled toward a little trio by the bookstore. Its in her general direction anyway, so she angles her footsteps in that direction, hands tucking into the pockets of her skirts, that same little smile lingering along her lips.

Her steps even, and graceful, she's clearly the only in the group that has had nothing to drink, except for the poor panicked girl that's trying her best to crawl through that door- open or not.

[Wendy Berber] I was.. uh.. *Wendy cringes, no good at lying. It was too dangerous a business. She sighs in defeat, ducking her head and unlocking the door with a click. Narrow shoulder slump as she whispers. *Ok ... just.. there's.. um.. not much room.

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine's glossy mane of hair whips across her bare shoulders as she turns her head in an almost comical motion. Fostern [authority>power>ally] to Kinfolk [playthings] and back again three times before she gives a little tut and turns in a pretty little spin to face her original destination.

"Non." She says it almost crossly, her brow certainly lined, eyebrows drawn down over her pale lashes. "I must ask this girl a most serious question first." And how must she appear, must they both appear to these strangers -- stalking -- or, rather in Katherine's case loping with the graceful ease of a cat toward their impromptu gathering. The air prickles a little around her, the blonde with the fierce expression that, as they descend on the drunken trio half shouts:

"Arrêt!"

And then, with a little half-run, half-hop-skip, her bottle slopping its contents, she levels those pale eyes on Liadan. "Pardon me, but I must ask you a question."

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan raises her eyebrows at Alexander. The unspoken question is What is your game, man?

To Wendy she says, obviously impressed, “You live in a bookstore? Nice! Do you get--”

Someone says Stop in French, and Líadan's more than a little inebriated brain immediately switches gears. Sam and Katherine are upon them, and the beautiful blonde woman is looking at Lee, telling her she has a very serious question.

"Oui? Comment puis-je t'aider, mademoiselle?" Her accent is flawless, if a bit slurred with alcohol.

[Alexander Vaughn] Liadan wants to know what Alexander's game is. Alexander's look is bland: a nonverbal duh.

Then Wendy has her lock undone. "Sweet." Alexander shoulders it open almost before she can pull her key back out. He nearly precedes the girl into her own home, though he pauses, head turning, when Katherine comes running after them.

It only takes one glance to see that Alexander is fucking plastered. And hopped up. And quite possibly on the prowl. He's a compact man, medium height, quite athletic; there's a lazy ease to his motion tonight. His pants are heavy, rather baggy, off-white. He wears a brilliant orange shirt over it, which fits close to his body, showing off the sort of tight, ripped musculature that must take him hours and hours and hours at a gym every day to maintain.

His eyes flicker carelessly from the blonde to the blond to the redhead. Then he says, "Babydoll, I'm heading up first. You wanna bring your pretty french friend, that's cool with me."

[Sam Modine] "Holy crap was that hot."

Shhh. Sam doesn't know that didn't stay in his head. Still he's a little taken aback when Lee responds to whatever Katherine said with...well similar sounding words that Sam can't make out more than one in ten of. He's stopped when she has and stands behind quietly, save for the random outburst he seemingly still doesn't know he made.

Eyes flick back and forth between Alex, Wendy and Liadan, each getting different measures, each different intensities. None though stay too long because he can't stop looking back to Katherine, just waiting for her to open her mouth and embarass him again and knowing there isn't much he can do about it at this point.

[Joss Lehrer] And we have French, and part of the party heading inside, and all others generally drunk and clinging and hanging on. Her eyes are for Wendy though, head tipping slightly to the side as Alex pushes past her, and she seems so... so...

scared.

Closer, and closer still, and outright, obviously, listening...
(wait, whats that over there? Oooooooh... no.. back and listening...)

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy tries to grab the door, but Alex is already inside snooping around the main floor of James' Odd and Rare Books. The store floor. She hurries in quickly, leaving Liadan preoccupied with the French woman, and shutting the door behind her. She lingers a moment.. then doesn't lock it. She'll be right upstairs. The spidery kin flicks on a light, and walks towards the storage room like a prisoner heading to the gallows.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine, were she in a less buoyant mood, were she slightly less warmed and vital with the alcohol already being burned from her veins by her preternatural makeup might have had an entirely different reaction to Liadan Whelan responding to her in her mother's tongue.

As it stands however -- she is not -- and gives a rather intimidating display of white, white teeth that unbeknownst to her make her suddenly all the more a predator than a well groomed aristocrat. "Oh ! Vous parlez du français? Très bon!," she returns in rapid french, her voice gurgling with purred laughter, her throat warm with the beer she's consumed as if she were nothing more than a commoner.

Then -- Alexander Vaughn chimes in and Katherine casts him the briefest of looks up and down -- before returning her blue eyes to Liadan, a hand reaching to lay against Sam's sleeve. "Mon ami dit qu'il vous sait et j'ai décidé de le taquiner un peu. Me dire, vous bien êtes mis au courant ? Il ne parle pas de français et j'admets qu'il me plaît de le partir se demandant que je dis." She is smiling as she finishes, and the look she casts Sam is equal parts amusement and anticipation.

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan hears what Sam said. Her only response is to arch a brow.

“Bonsoir, Sam. Venez-vous ici souvent?” Her tone is bland.

The blonde woman asks her something in French. Líadan smiles.

“Nous ne sommes pas bien connaître. Il est un bon garçon. Excuse-moi. Je dois garder un oeil sur cet homme.”

And with that she turns to follow Wendy and Alexander into the shop.

[Sam Modine] "Hey." Sam tugs at Katherine's hand. "Hey."

But then Lee greets him and the incredibly tall drink of water stands a little straighter. "I don't speak French but that sounded nice." He closes his eyes and makes a face that seems to be holding back a less pleasant face and leans from foot to foot. "I didn't ge-" And then she's saying something to Katherine and he's stopping halfway so as not to interrupt. Even drunk he's polite enough to waste a perfectly good opportunity and just let her walk back inside.

"Aw. Man." Upper lips rises just enough to express disappointment and he kicks the ground. "What just happened?"

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine giggles.

And shoots her co-conspirator a sharp-eyed glance. "Nothing that prevents from following through. Come!" And with a half-gasped laugh the elder Bellamonte daughter is shooting through the doorway before it shuts closed, and pulling her former packmate along with her for the ride.

[Wendy Berber] *In the store room are - you guessed it. Lots of books. Crates, and Crates, a small employee bathroom, and a rickety set of wooden stairs, leading to a hatch. The hatch, opens to a small hot room with a laptop on a mattress with sheet, a lamp, a hotplate, and 7 floor to ceiling stacks of books on everything from the occult to Artificial intelligence. There is hardly any room for more than 4 people to stand comfortably without knocking books over.*

[Joss Lehrer] And lo, they all disappear inside.

And she continues on.

[Alexander Vaughn] Alexander isn't exactly snooping. He doesn't have a whole lot of interest in Wendy's books, odd or rare or both. He doesn't necessarily have a lot of interest in her either; he has no fucking idea what he's doing here, really, which is a good enough reason in and of itself.

So when Wendy heads up the stairs, he's two steps behind. And then the door opens again, and Alexander's halfway up, and he turns to look over his shoulder and it's Babydoll, who's also known as Lee, who was also the woman who tried to brain him with a fucking laptop.

What are you, fucking crazy?
The answer being, quite obviously: yeah.

It's pretty dark in here. He flashes her an indistinct grin. Then he's talking to Wendy again, catching up by a step, quieter now. "Hey," he says, "relax, peach. You look like you ate a goddamn grenade and found the pin stuck in your back teeth. We just wanna chill for a while. You don't need to look like you're going to the gallows."

...and then the door bursts open again. And both the blonds spill in.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy nods, too embarrassed to be escorting someone into her, well, her attic. Let alone a man who clearly dislikes her as much as Alexander does. She backs into the far corner of her little attic room, unplugging the hotplate and stacking it on a pile of books to make room for someone to sit if they wanted to do more than gawk at her living accommodations. Her face sad and vaguely apologetic.* Sorry.

[Sam Modine] "Who's house is this?" Eventually his eyes adjusts to the change in lighting and Sam realizes that this in fact is not a house at all.

It's a bookstore. He does his best to keep up with Katherine, grinning like an idiot at this point every time she ups the ante and pushes on after the kinfolk and the two unknowns. "Katherine we don't..." The Modi tries and fails not to chuckle. "We don't even know those people." But She'd said fun, and he's drunk enough so that when he finishes the last of his fifth cocktail in just a few hours and sets the empty glass on a shelf it's exactly what he's resolved to keep having.

"I'm so glad you're home." That makes probably ten of those tonight.

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan pauses when she enters the store area and thinks Holy shit, she really does live in a bookstore. Wicked!

She hears someone going up a flight of stairs, looks around, catches Alex's grin as he follows the tall thin girl upstairs.

If asked at this particular moment in time what Líadan was doing following the two up the stairs, she would have a couple of options as answers. She could say that she just wants to make sure that Wendy is safe, that Alex isn't about to throw her down and have his way with her. The girl doesn't look like she'd be able to fight back very well, after all. Hell. Líadan hadn't been able to fight him, and she had been the one trying to bring the pain.

Her other option is to say she doesn't want to be left out. In her short heels that bring her up to six feet in height, she clatters up the stairs after the two, bursting into the room after Alex. “Oh hey, cool.” Her dark eyes scan the room, noting the sleeping arrangements more than the books. “Nice place, princess. It's, uh. Cozy.” Líadan sways suddenly. Her hand darts out to grab something to hold onto. It finds the wall.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy stands thin and tall against the back wall of her little attic, chewing nervously on a fingernail.* um.. th-thanks. Its not mine. I um, I just r-rent it. Sorta.

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan gives a little giggle.

“It's like Harry Potter's room under the stairs with the Dursleys! So cute! Do you have spiders?”

She looks around, as if she expects to see a little eight-legged crawly thing skittering off into the shadows.

[Wendy Berber] Well, some. *She nibbles her finger further, wincing. If she did have harry potter like magic powers, she wouldn't have her home invaded by strangers right now. She swallows nervously, keeping an eye on her books warily.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] "I have very little idea." Katherine answers Sam on the stairwell, and then issues forth a gurgle of laughter at his continued mantra about being glad that she was home again. In all honesty, she had not yet realized she was home again and was, in some small manner, denying the fact by her very participation in tonight's activities. The two of them burst through the door in a cacophony of laughter and rage and straighten almost instantly at the reception awaiting them.

Katherine Bellamonte, for her part, does little but drop into an exaggerated curtsey that would put many gymnast's to shame for the manner she can incite her legs to lower almost to the floor and rise again as if it caused her little strain and says with the flawless french to put any aristocrat to shame: "Comment vous faire fait, I am Katherine Bellamonte and this is Samuel Modine."

[Sam Modine] Sam stops behind her, runs a hand through his hair and smiles so wide his face could tear if it went any further. He catches the Fian' kin's eyes and gives the tiniest shug and a nod in his Alpha's direction as thogh to explain everything.

"What she said." Slurred, that. Though he does stand straighter and it seems to stop him from swaying quite so badly as his body wants to.

"You need music." From nowhere he decides it's so. The thought is addressed aloud to no one in particular his eyes are searching through the small place in a pan-scan all the way around himself.

[Wendy Berber] W-W-Wendy Berber, Mam, and um.. Si-sir. *She Introduces herself reflexively, ducking her head in submission.* I'm sorry. I don't um h-have m-m-m-music. Sir.

[Alexander Vaughn] They're in ... an attic.

And Wendy's six feet tall, all bones. Sam's well over six. Katherine isn't far under six. Lee, in her heels, is six. Alexander's easily the shortest of the bunch, 5'9", solid, dense.

And relaxed. As if he owned the goddamn place. He wanders in, peers out her window if she's got one, looks at the pile of books on which she's stacked her hotplate. Then he throws himself down on her mattress, which, conveniently enough, is the only seating in the room.

"I like it." He grins at Wendy. "It's ... yeah. Cozy."

He tongues a molar as Samuel says she needs music, and Katherine introduces them. Insolently, Alexander eyes Katherine for a long, considerative moment. Then his eyes flicker to Liadan.

"Hey, Lee, I think your friends are making Princess Peach" oh, how long was he saving THAT one up? "here nervous. Why don'tcha show 'em the bookstore or something."

That's right: he just threw her under the bus.

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine turns her face and stares down at Alexander as he eyes her. She does not shy away. He suggests they are shown the bookstore, but Katherine sets her bottle atop something -- probably a dusty tomb -- and speaks down at the man. "What if I do not desire to see the bookshop? What if I desire to remain right here?"

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy just swallows, pressed against the wall to make room, as they make up their collective minds.*

[Wendy Berber] *She's trapped, in a room, with drunk angry people. She looks at the window above the matress as though considering her options.*

[Liadan Whelan] If Líadan were more sober, there's a good chance she would have responded a lot differently to Alexander trying to get her to leave.

If she were more drunk, she probably would have left, taking Katherine and Sam with her, totally oblivious to the situation Princess would be left behind in.

Instead she's somewhere in the middle. It's not the first time she's met Alexander Vaughn's arrogance with a bit of her own. She plants her hands on her hips, and glares down at him. She moves to stand between the bed and where Wendy is pressed against the wall. She considers holding out a hand to help him up, but instead she just stands there.

“Sorry, Mario, but I think your princess is in another castle.”

[Wendy Berber] *The air in the room is heavy with the scent of old rotten wood, dust, paper, and Wendy's general scent. Its also getting very warm and stuffy, very quickly.*

[Sam Modine] There are a lot of them in these tight quareters and Sam is needing to move a little to keep his head from hitting the ceiling where it drops. "I don't think it's a bad idea." Looking slightly over the top of the woman of great Rage he's show up with to the man he hasn't met. ""C'mon Leeeee," Her name stretched a little at the end.

"Show me and Kat around."

The look he shoots the other man is amused, some. He thinks at least he understands what the other is up to. His newly returned Alpha gets a small touch, a push just in the small of her back as if to prompt her but Sam does his best not to be overt about it. "I'm sure we can occupy ourselves."

[Katherine Bellamonte] "I will stay here." His accomplice responds, quite stubbornly.

[Wendy Berber] *So many people in such proximity makes Wendy have to work hard to keep her breathing normal. One two, in out, don't hyperventilate. Her eyes are a little glassy behind her coke bottle specs. She holds onto the wall like she's trying to ooze through it.*

[Liadan Whelan] A hand shoots up, index finger pointed to the ceiling in the universal sign of Shh! Just to make sure the drunken Modi gets the hint, Líadan says, “Shzzzt!”

Her attention is back to Alex, waiting for him to make his move.

[Sam Modine] Sam shuts up.

[Alexander Vaughn] "What the hell else do you desire?" It could be a line, and a pretty bad one too. But Alex gives the question a sardonic pull, a caustic, smirking twist.

Then Liadan's setting up camp on his other side, between him and Wendy, as if she expected him to just ... lunge for the goddamn bony bookworm.

Alexander tips his beer back. He still has it, remember? He drains it down to the dregs and then sets it down on the floor beside the mattress. Then, with a groan, he just sprawls backwards, his feet sliding out until he's stretched full-length at right angles to the long axis of the mattress.

"You people are ridiculous. Go on, Babydoll, show 'em the books. I'll save a starpower for you."

He really is a gamer.

[Wendy Berber] *The wraith thin Glasswalker kin bites her lip. Hard. Hard enough that the pain from her teeth overrides her oncoming panic attack with more immediate sensation. She brings a hand to cover her mouth, swallowing and waiting for everyone to make up their damn minds.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine turns her head; it's a gesture for Sam alone, to go and leave her.

She had no fear of what he is leaving her with. A mousy excuse for a Kinfolk and one who believed himself -- what? Impervious to her presence. Katherine does little to settle either of the two who perhaps remain when the others decide to flee. Rather, she exasperates at least one of their fears by stretching herself as if fatigued and blocking the doorway entirely with her tall frame.

What the hell ease do you desire? the male asks and she laughs.

It is nothing but derisive, even drunk.

"Nothing that you can deliver."

[Liadan Whelan] “No no. I think we've overstayed our welcome, goomba. Princess looks like she's gonna have a heart attack and die if we stay here, and frankly I don't want to deal with the paperwork. C'mon.”

She leans down and grabs two handfuls of shirt and attempts to haul Alexander at least into a sitting position. The only problem with that being that Alexander spends an ungodly amount of time at the gym making sure his muscle mass is at its peak density, and Líadan is not that strong.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy remains, plastered to the wall, hoping there's not a violent altercation in her attic. She finds her voice, meek and hesitant.* Um.. If anyone w-w-w-would like..I, um. there's a a r-restuarant down the street.. open all night. It um, might n-not be as d-d-dusty or um, crowded.. . *She cringes as she sees the red head grab Alex*

[Alexander Vaughn] (empathy: DEW U WANNA FUK?)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
to Liadan Whelan

[Sam Modine] Sam's been given the option to leave or to stay on his own terms.

But a kinfolk with fiery hair and who's nearly drunk as he is lifted in the air a single finger as though to show him where he's wrapped and he'd gone quiet. It really did last record time for this state. At least a full minute.

"Come on." He intones once more, trying his best to make it sounds like the place to be. To leave the short loud guy to his book worm and just come down with them. "It'll be fun." Of course now it seems like getting Katherine down will be it's own ordeal.

[Liadan Whelan] [IUNNO. DEW U?]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 4, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)
to Alexander Vaughn

[Wendy Berber] *Any moment now. Violent doom. She's sure of it. *

[Alexander Vaughn] Liadan grabs a double-fistful of Alexander's eye-scorchingly orange shirt. There are two thin pinstripes across the chest, a logo where the left breast pocket would be -- indiscriminate in this light. He's an inch shorter than her but heavier, and stronger; he doesn't budge when she tugs him.

He looks at her though. For a moment his eyes are disconcertingly clear. He reads her for a second, and whatever he sees there makes him laugh softly. It's not really humor.

"God, you are fucked in the head, aren't you?"

He lets her pull him up. Rather, he sits up, rolls easily to his feet. Dusts the backs of his pants off, nods at Wendy.

"All right, okay, wouldn't wanna give you a heart attack, Peach. I'll see you around, 'kay?"

[Wendy Berber] Kay. Um.. goodnight sir....mam. *She murmers, just happy that Laidan and ALex aren't engaged in mortal combat on her mattress.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] Katherine doesn't leave, despite any of their infantile designs to do so. She merely eyes them, as the stronger species might regard the latter and walks to approach Wendy, her eyes perhaps less friendlier than her smile. "If your friends do leave, follow them we will." Closer still the Silver Fang crept, till her lips brushed the other woman's brow.

"Until we meet again, oui?"

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy cowers against her wall, relief suddenly swept asunder by the Silverfang stalking towards her. Her face crumples as Katherine touches her and she makes a choked squeak, anticipating a blow that doesn't fall. Her eyes squeezed shut, Wendy nods in response.*

[Liadan Whelan] Alexander rolls to his feet while Líadan still has fistfuls of shirt in her hands. He almost knocks her to her feet but, maintaining her grip on the obnoxious fabric (didn't she just tell someone the other day that orange was not a favored color this season?), she catches her balance. She straightens, smooths out the fresh wrinkles in the shirt fabric, and makes sure she follows him out the door.

“You're one to talk.” He's not the only person who can read people.

She sees Sam. Shakes her head. She does not like drunk Sam very much.

Líadan stops at the door, turns to face the frightened girl she doesn't know is a fellow kin. The Katherine woman is brushing her lips against the girl's brow, and the look on the girl's face is not a happy one. “Sorry, kid. See ya around.”

[Wendy Berber] *No response from Wendy. Bookwormish kin frozen with a nasty piece of work like Kat looming so close and sinister.*

[Sam Modine] "Katherine, Come one, we're going."

He offers the scared thing in the corner a wave of hand that doesn't move entirely smoothly before catching the door behind the two exiting kinfolk. "I'm sorry if we..you know...you have a nice place, miss." He nods vehemently, Sam, and heads down the stairs. Expecting Katherine directly behind.

[Sam Modine] ((*Come on.))

[Alexander Vaughn] "Hey." Sharply, Alexander speaks up as Katherine swoops in on Wendy, 0 to 60 in 0.4 seconds; lazy to snapping in the same time. "What's your problem, Claire?" That would be Katherine. She speaks french. In his world, apparently that makes her a Claire. "First you come marching in here, then you tromp upstairs, then you refuse to leave, and now you're deliberately scaring a spineless little bookworm?

"Where do you get off, lady?"

[Katherine Bellamonte] She's a little drunk.
Not insensible.

Sam tries to instruct her as if she were his to instruct and the blonde creature who had led him thus far elicits a hiss that is far more animal than human toward her second in command, demanding his instant obedience. Thus spoke, when Alexander addresses her Katherine turns on him --

"Who are you before you ask me my name, Sir?" she demands, turning her face toward Alex. She bears down upon him as if he had little meaning to her name.

[Liadan Whelan] “Whaaat the fuck?” Líadan wobbly spins around to watch shit go down. A part of her almost admires what Alexander leaps to accomplish. And another part of her remembers watching Taggart break his face.

She's already moving across the room. It looks like she might be about to try to wedge herself between the two.

“Not here, guys.” Dark eyes dart from Alexander to Katherine. “Outside.”

[Sam Modine] [WP// You little shit vs. now I remember why we can't have nice things. -2, +2 diff drunk]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 6, 6, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 8)

[Alexander Vaughn] "Alexander Vaughn. And I wasn't asking your name. I was asking you where the hell you get off."

Lee's trying to wedge herself between them. Alexander reaches out and snags her by the wrist as she goes by, hauling her back behind him.

[Wendy Berber] *Her voice is small and hollow, kin staring straight ahead, eyes swimming with tears.* P-Please.. s-stop... *Wendy's knees give out and she slides down the wall, shoulder pushing over a towering stack of books. Texts bounce off her mattress and crash down onto her laptop loudly. Her lamp falls sideways, now lighting the ceiling more than the room.*

[Sam Modine] "There's not much talking to her when she's like this." That's addressed to Liadan just before the yelling gets out of control and even drunk Sam does an admirable job of not ripping the ears off this particular Gundark.

"Shoot." This under his breath as he's moving also toward Katherine but putting her into a bear hug from behind, if she tries to resist much he's do what he can to hold onto her, one way or another he's lifting the Silver Fang off her feet and carrying her toward the door.

"Drop it." Eyebrows raise over her shoulder to the much shorter man before turning again to Wendy who now seems to be having trouble standing.

"I'm very shorry, miss."

[Liadan Whelan] [manip+intimidation] [AH SAID OUTSIDE!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 4, 4, 10 (Success x 1 at target 6) [WP]

[Katherine Bellamonte] 'Tell me first", the Silver Fang demands, turning her body and her attention toward the male of their group, lifting her brows as if she were somehow impressed by his masculinity. "Where you find the courage to address your better in life?" And then Sam has her around the mid-section as if she required his aid and the Philodox in his arms snarls as if she would show Alex precisely what she meant.

[Liadan Whelan] He grabs her wrist, just like the other day, and he's shoving her behind him. And then Wendy's sliding down the wall, and books are falling everywhere. Líadan twists out of his grip if he hasn't let go already, and this time she does move to stand between Katherine and Alexander.

In her heels, she's taller than him. She uses this to her advantage, moving so she looks him straight in the eye. Her voice is low, angry. “I said outside.”

[Liadan Whelan] [1 WP burnt]

[Alexander Vaughn] (WP!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Katherine Bellamonte] (Manip+ Intim)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4 (Failure at target 6) [WP]

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy clutches one of the books that'd fallen onto her when her carefully organized stack toppled over, eyes far away, tears rolling lazily down her cheeks. She twitches as Kat snarls, and swallows. But the tall kin doesn't appear to be entirely home right now.*

[Alexander Vaughn] (annnd i really gotta roll WP to avoid alex doing something stupid(er). +2 diff, intolerance!)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 5, 5, 6, 7 (Failure at target 8)

[Alexander Vaughn] It's not that he's immune to Rage. It's not that he doesn't feel their Rage in the air. Alexander's face is taut with strain, hard with anger. Sam tells him to Drop it, grabs the woman around the middle and starts hauling her out.

It's very good advice. And for a while he's taking it. Katherine glares at him and it rolls off him like water off a duck's back. Liadan does the same and he doesn't even bother to meet her gaze.

And then Katherine says your better in life.

Something in Alexander snaps, just like that. "Fuck you, lady," he snarls. "You're no better than I am. Money doesn't buy you nobility. It doesn't give you the right to do whatever the fuck you please. And all your goddamn posturing doesn't buy you an ounce of my respect. You're nothing but a goddamn bitch and a bully."

[Sam Modine] [WP//I could just drop her and let her eat his face vs. not your house to clean blood from the floors]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 6, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[Katherine Bellamonte]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[Sam Modine] Sam only tightens his hold on the other Garou and rushes harder for the door, opening behind him and trying to for the stairs. Seeing tears on Wendy's face is at least partially sobering and the way Katherine's Rage snaps around him like wildfire has it's own, similar effect.

"No, Katherine we need to go outside now." He huffs. "I don't care what he just said he can be wrong in the nice woman's house while we go down and get some air." It's comical the way Sam tries to answer protestations before they arise, or would be if it weren't a half moon with the Rage Sam himself had back when he'd first changed.

"Calm down and just get your butt down here, please."

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy's teary eyes slowly roll up to fix on Alex. He was definitely about to get eaten. She looks numb, and sad, as though she'd seen this all play out before. Her bony knuckles are white around her book as she just watches, breath coming in short sharp rasps.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] Sam retrains her -- just.

It is clear that were she let lose on him of her own free will, Alexander Vaughn would not be quite as cocky as he believed he was. In fact, the honest truth was that if she was free, he would not have half the face he had at present to speak to her.

"I will teachhim who he owes respect that pauper in rich man's court!"

She yells, with nothing less than a rich man's heir's tongue.

[Liadan Whelan] There's nothing she can do to stem the tide of what's to come. No matter how close he seems to rational action, Alexander just keeps snapping back to the things that will get his face broken all over again.

So Líadan turns her attention to the tall skinny girl crumpled on the floor. She's never been the comforting sort. As a child, Líadan had always had to dry her own tears, and apply her own bandages. She just didn't know what to do when someone needed help, needed comfort. But she's seen people who knew what to do. She watched as Aidan rushed without hesitation to Taggart's side when the garou popped out of an alley with a horrible bite wound on his shoulder. Líadan just needed to act and not think about the fact that Wendy could freeze up, could push her away, could tell her to go fuck herself.

She pushes past Alexander and kneels beside the girl, awkwardly wraps an arm around her thin shoulders. “C'mon, princess.” She pulls at the girl, trying to get her to rise to her feet. “I think we better get you moved.” Her intention, provided Sam is able to get Katherine out the door and down the stairs, and provided Alexander follows, is to simply get the girl over to her small mattress.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy's more than capable of walking on her own, blinking rapidly to stem the flow of tears, but she lets Liadan help her, stepping over fallen books and sitting on the mattress however it seems Laidan would like her. She's still unsure that the angry woman and her blonde boyfriend won't be barging into the attic to take their revenge for whatever slight caused this mess.*

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan sits down beside Wendy on the mattress, intending to just wait out whatever happened downstairs. If, in a few hours, no one came to tell them it was over, then she would go out in search of bodies.

She picks up the beer bottle Alex left behind, peers down inside. It's empty. She sets it down by her feet.

“Sorry about this.” She tilts her head to look at Wendy. “I'm Lee, by the way.”

[Alexander Vaughn] The look in Katherine's eyes is sheer murder. The look in Samuel's is ... control, and something like desperation. His priorities are clear: get her out of here, get her downstairs, get her out of range. His priority is simply damage control at this point.

And some part of Alexander does understand: Sam doesn't have to do this. In the world they live in, whether he likes it or not, whether he admits it or not, Sam has every right to let go. Katherine has every right to claw his fucking face off.

Alexander has ... no rights at all.

He keeps his goddamn mouth shut. He doesn't look away, he doesn't unclench his fists -- as if all his fight training would do him any good at all should one or the other pop fur -- he doesn't unclench his jaw and he doesn't say another word. He can hear Sam dragging his (once-)packmate all the way down the stairs, to the first floor, out the door.

When that door shuts, Alexander lets out a slow, ragged breath. Then, like a marionette with its strings cut, Alex drops gracelessly to his knees, brings his hands up to his face and presses the heels of his hands to his brow, folds on himself for a moment. His head is pounding. His jaw aches from clenching. His blood pressure is high enough to explode his goddamn cerebral capillaries.

Jesus fucking Christ, he thinks to himself. Jesus fucking Christ. And a moment later: What the fuck is wrong with me?

[Wendy Berber] S'okay. *She murmurs, looking at her knobby knees.* I'm W-wendy, miss. *Alex dropping like a sack of potatos gets her attention, and she raises her head to look at him.* ((assuming he's in the room))

[Liadan Whelan] Líadan waits for Alex to go stomping after Katherine and Sam, except he doesn't. He just drops where he stands. The redhead glances from him to Wendy, and back again. She scoots forward, rolling to her knees until she's kneeling beside him. It's time to see if this comforting thing works twice in a row.

She puts one hand on his shoulder, lightly, and just waits for him to react. It is the most timid she has been around him. The look on her face says that clearly she expects him to slap her hand away, but she leaves it on his shoulder anyway.

[Sam Modine] At the bottom of the steps Katherine Bellamonte will feel the bottoms of her feet touch the floor. But Sam's arms grip one another tightly still, his chest drawn against her back. "That's a human man up there you almost set on like the Beast~of~War, Katherine." He huffs, the buzzing in his thoughts slowing them and mixing things about so that the Get of Fenris must speak slowly and choose his words very carefully.

"You were about to knock his face in. Not that he wasn't completely obnoxious and way out of line but... Kat jeez...I mean...." Sam is frustrated, but he does whisper slowly.

"May I let go?" It's a very nice way of asking if she's going to try and run back upstairs. It's as though he's asking her permission to keep her captive or not to.

[Wendy Berber] *Wendy looks like she might up and crawl over to Alex as well, moving to the far edge of her mattress so she might reach out and touch him. She's shell shocked, and somehow a kick in the face doesn't seem nearly as bad as getting it torn off. She'll take her chances apparently* Alexander.. sir? *A hand rests feather light on his leg, trembling a little.*

[Katherine Bellamonte] It's like trying to secure an enraged cub.

The instantaneous rage is there, as sudden as any passing storm. Sam secures Katherine down the stairs and out the door perhaps but once they are there he loosens his grip enough to lean and speak against her ear. To huff logic against a half-deluded mind. "That creature which has no comprehension of its place is like the beast of war, Samuel," she whispers in a broken husk, acknowledging his freeing of her arms with a flexing of those muscles and turning of her stern eye upon him.

"All those who oppose me are against me, Sam." A flicker, and a smile returned to her and again, logic became her. "All those who oppose Gaia are against me, Sam."

[Alexander Vaughn] That's exactly what Alex does. The second Liadan's hand touches his shoulder, he doesn't even think. He reacts -- instinctively, skillfully. He doesn't so much slap her hand away as he grabs it, reverses it, shoves it from him.

"Don't touch me." This, before Wendy even touches him.

The other hand drops from his face a moment after. He straightens his back. His buzz is pretty much killed by now. He draws a breath, steadier than the one he'd drawn right before he collapsed in a goddamn pile like a traumatized .... kin.

Alexander strives for something like civility: "I'm fine." He picks himself up, looks around Wendy's pitiful, slightly trashed little room. "Fuck. I'm sorry about the ... the mess." He means all of it.

[Wendy Berber] *She backpedals onto her mattress. No touching. Good enough. She just ducks her head once she's safely in the corner of her attic.* Doesn't m-matter. S'ok.

[Liadan Whelan] Her hand is grabbed, shoved back at her. And that's that, then. Her arms drop limply to her sides and Líadan just...shuts down. Just like the day she threw a laptop at Alex.

She rises to her feet, unsteady only because of the heels of her shoes. “It was nice meeting you, Wendy.” She tries to infuse a bit of warmth into her voice. This poor girl hadn't asked for any of this to happen in her own home. Líadan knew a thing or two about being afraid in a space that was supposed to be safe. Knowing that she had played a part in all of this made the Fianna kinswoman feel like the lowest of the low.

Then she turns on her heel and heads for th door. Maybe that comforting thing only works on women.

[Sam Modine] This is much more like what he's used to hearing and it makes him smile. "But some battles are beneath your notice, you know?" He points up the building's exterior. "You think some doofus dressed like a construction worker's opinion of you matters?"

Sam's hands find Katherine's own, lightly, moving them up and down every few words to emphasize what he's saying. "I sure as heck don't. I think your pack, you tribe, your nation and your Goddess are the only ones that get to judge you and matter Katherine Bellamonte and you've got those pretty wrapped up."

Sam can't help but smile. "Now lets go back in the bar, Dance to another song or two, you can use that Jedi mind trick and figure out a way to get us some bottles to go. We'll go home, get so drunk we can't see straight and dance all by ourselves until we pass out?" He shrugs.

"Or you pick something. I'm all ears. Just don't let that a-hole get to you."

[Wendy Berber] G-goodbye, L-lee mam.

[Katherine Bellamonte] She scowls. "His opinion is like the rat that gnaws at the carcass of greater things." She tosses her thick mane of hair and purses her lips together. "Yes, let us dance and forget that your girl led us to ugly things, oui."

Katherine decrees this, as if it were somehow Liadan's fault entirely that they had followed her up the stairs.

[Alexander Vaughn] Liadan's heading out. Alexander doesn't rush to follow. Truth be told, he's just going out onto the stairs to listen and wait until Sam and Katherine were well out of earshot. Then he'll leave.

Wendy stammers -- g-goodbye, L-Lee mam. Alexander grimaces and half-turns. He's frowning in profile.

"You could try to grow a goddamn backbone too, Wendy." It might be the first time he's actually called her by her name. "I mean you don't have to be fucking suicidal, but they're never going to give you a scrap of respect if you can't even look them in the eye once in a while."

[Sam Modine] "Please don't insinuate there's something..." He follows but doesn't finish until they're almost near the door again.

"I like this one Katherine. I mean it, she's really nice. Please don't chase her off."

With that he's opening the door for his companion.

[Wendy Berber] *She rubs her eyes and looks down at the flickering screen of her laptop, half buried under books. Alex tells her to grown a backbone and she curls her legs further under herself, raising accusing blue eyes to him. She shakes her head and whispers.* Goodnight Alex s-sir. *It appears thats as close as she's going to get to telling him to go fuck himself.*

[Alexander Vaughn] The sound Alex makes is somewhere between a hard laugh and a snort. He slams her attic door behind him when he leaves. She can hear him descending the stairs outside, noisy as a man twice his size.