Kaz is flopped on the couch, dead asleep, her flute case opened on the coffee table.

Bernie had curled up for the night in her sleeping bag in a far corner of the room, and is lying there still, though she's been awake at least an hour, flat on her stomach, propped on her arms and reading her current book, quietly. For once, she isn't snacking at the same time, possibly because her backpack's out of reach.

Jay knocks on the door of the apartment, ruffling up his bangs a bit as they dip down in front of his eyes.

Kaz starts upwards, grunting a little. "Shit," she mutters, lurching to her feet. Blinking once or twice, she mumbles a "Good morning," to the cub, and heads over to unlock the door. "It's open," she calls, and flops right back onto the couch.

Jay pushes open the door slowly and peers inside, waving lightly, then steps in, closing the door and locking it behind him. "Good morning guys. How did everyone sleep?"

"Well," the cub replies, looking up with a grin, "first I turned th' lights off and lay down, and then I just closed my eyes and sort of turned off my mind for th' night..... 'morning," this last word directed to both of you, "How's it going?"

"Like a log," is Kaz's answer. "Once I got offa patrol, anyways." She's lying on her back, staring at the ceiling. She rolls over to look at Bernie, and asks, rhetorically, "Why can I never go back to sleep after I wake up again?"

Jay shrugs slightly and slips down next to Bernie, grinning a bit. "I slept well, except for Nevada's christmas socks continually going off in the middle of the night."

"Question's gotta have a false premise," Bernie points out cheerfully, completely ignoring the fact that it's rhetorical, "...that is, 'less last ngiht was your very first an' only snooze. In which case," she presses a hand to her heart, voice going melodramatic, "I'm honoured that you'd share such an experience with me..." She blinks twice and pretends to wipe away a tear, before Jay's comment registers. "Christmas socks? They, like... play Jingle Bells or something?"

Kaz grins, a touch, and rolls over again onto her back. "Well, I'm honored t'share it with you in general." At the cub's question, she groans. "They /do/. They're annoying as shit. Hopefully they'll run outta batteries soon or somethin'."

Jay chuckles and nods his head. "They play jinglebells. I have yet to find a way to turn them off...an well...he likes them, and I don't wish to hurt the cub's feelings." He grins a bit. "So..Bernie right? Have you had the chance to shift yet, take another form?"

Bernie giggles, shaking her head. "When do they go off? When they get too smelly? ...an', uh," she glances over at Kaz, and then back, "Yeah, I did... and by the way," her head turns back to the other woman, her tone becoming almost incredulous as she asks, "..."Sic 'er"?!"

Kaz lurches up into a siting position, leaning against the arm of the sofa, and then ducks her head, looking a little ashamed of herself. "It was a spur of the moment thing. Anyway, it ain't like Jules'll eat you or nothin'. She's cool."

Bernie shakes her head, chuckling a little. "Well, I -guess- that's comforting..." She closes the book and sits up herself, still cocooned in her bag. "So... there any plans for me for t'day?"

"Well, see, my general approach to shit right now is, basically, I talk at you about the Litany, about the tribes, about whatever y'curious about, an' when I ain't doin' that, you can figure out shiftin' and shit. An' we can spring you outta here sooner rather than later, 'cause keepin' people locked up, it's a pain in the ass. For both of us." The metis shrugs. "Workable?"

Bernie nods, looking slightly preoccupied as she twists herself into sitting indian style within the sleeping bag, her knees straining against the fabric. "Guess that works for me... now good for you? I'm not lovin' the locked up part, really. Not that this isn't a pretty decent place t' be stuck if you gotta be."

"Yeah, well, now's as good a time as any." The metis hops off the couch, asking, "Want a Coke're somethin'?" she heads into the kitchen. After a moment, she comes back with three Cokes, some hot dog buns, and some butter, and plops back onto the couch. After looking vaguely around, she goes back into the kitchen for a knife. "Oh," she adds, coming back out, "I got somethin' for you."

Bernie nods, lifting a hand to catch one if thrown, "Sure, Coke's always good..." She eyes the knife a moment before asking, "'s not that, is it?"

Kaz tosses her the Coke, and snorts. "Nah. I only knife cubs when they do somethin' stupid." It really only shows clearly in her eyes how obvious it is that she's kidding, but there's a slight smile as she says it, as well. Rummaging in her pocket, she comes up with a not-at-all-expensive necklace chain. Several portions of it appear to have been replaced by links from a dog tag chain, but it's at least there. "Thought you might want this." She tosses it after the Coke.

Bernie manages to catch both, though she comes very close to losing her balance as she snatches the chain out of the air. "Hey! Thanks..." She looks it over, and reaches over to the reasonably neat pile of clothes by her sleeping bag, pulling the broken necklace from the pocket of her jeans and transferring the charm. The can of Coke sits on the floor beside her, defizzing... one hopes. "'s nice of you..."

Kaz shrugs. "You need it, I can get it, why the fuck not? You're stuck, I ain't, I do stuff f'tribe." Popping her own Coke open, she takes a swig. "OK, right, so Litany. You remember the first one I tol' you?"

Bernie fastens the pendant around her neck on the new chain, nodding again. "Lessee... 'Garou shall not mate with Garou,'" she quotes, looking up at you as she resettles the charm, "...right?"

"Bingo." As if just remembering, the metis asks, "Did you wanna see the other stuff, that ain't eye related?"

Bernie takes a second to make the connection, which she does with a sudden, "Oh! ...sure, what th' hell? Lessee."

The metis, very slowly so as not to cause alarm, shifts into glabro. Her voice is a bit hoarser as asks, "Y'see why I ain't goin' out in public with these."

Bernie tilts her head as she watches the change, and then regards the ears silently. "Funky," she declares, eventually, "Yeah, I c'n see why... people'd notice an' all."

Kaz shifts slowly back down into homid. "Yeah. 's why my Garou name's Ears. They's kinda distinctive. Anyways. Next law's kinda easy, too, if y'know what the Wyrm is. 'Combat the Wyrm Where It Dwells and Whenever It Breeds.' As in, whup butt alla time."

"Hold on," Bernie says, scooting back to use the wall as a backrest and popping open the soda, which fizzes dangerously. She slurps up the potential overflow quickly, and then continues, "c'n I ask you t' give me the reasons for 'em, too? Like, I get that for number one, it's 'cause th' babies don't come out quite right, right? An' for this second one... from what y'all were saying, doesn't that kinda mean we'd hafta be in fights, like, constantly?"

"Bernie, m'dear, if you /didn't/ ask questions, I'd think your brain was broken. So feel free to ask anything you damn well please, 'cause I'll answer just about anything. Although folks like Signe, they's less enthused." The metis takes a swig of Coke. "Thing with number one is, most tribes say, firmly, it means no kinda sex at all. Us... well, just don't have kids. Anyways, with the Wyrm thing -- You can't fight /all/ the time, obviously. Like, I'm here now, hey? It's just an exhortation t'keep AT it, t'keep whackin' at Wyrm, t'keep fightin'. An' it's partially a law 'cause some folks'd rather whack at Weaver, and we ain't got time f'that."

Bernie raises a hand; too many hours in classrooms.... "A'ight, I get the 'constant vigilance, never give up' angle, but what's 'Weaver'? Aside from an occupation that got made pretty much obsolete in th' Industrial Revolution." She sips the soda, and glances around for her bags, suddenly hungry.

Kaz starts buttering a hot dog roll. "Well. See. OK. The world, it's made up of spirits, right? Or, anyway, so I tell you, and I can prove it later. The biggest mahonkin' spirit of all is Gaia, Mother Earth, basically. Then you got these three personifications right below her, called Weaver, Wyrm, and Wyld. In a /natural/ cycle, they're all in balance. Wyrm's destruction, Weaver's /con/struction, and Wyld, it's chaos. It's energy and wildness, and shit. Now, the reason we're fightin' Wyrm is, the /Weaver/ gained consciousness and kinda went whacked, so it's makin' stuff without any clue it's overwhelmin' us. But it's not corrupted. The Wyrm, it is. It gained consciousness, got all whacked, /and/ got corrupted, so it's tryin' t'destroy everything and corrupt it, too. So it's kinda, well, dangerous."

Bernie nods, and is quiet for a few moments, looking thoughtful. "Kinda reminds me of th' Fates, that trinity thing. Uh, in th' sense of three-part thing, not th' whole religion thing... so I'm just takin' your word for it on th' spirits for now, but, these three, are they spirits, or, like concepts? An' how do you fight destruction? Don'tcha kinda play into it if your destroyin' things?"

The metis grins, just slightly. "I once asked that. Some theurge talked my ear off for a week, afterwards. Lemme answer that in parts, 'cause if I did it in just one sentence, I'd have to say "Yes, it's playing into its hands, but no, it's not." Thing is, the Wyrm, all three of them, it's one big ass spirit that embodies the entire concept of destruction, but also smaller spirits that just piss people off. Or interest them, depending." She pauses to munch on her roll. "Anyway, so these smaller spirits, they wander around tryin' to kill things, or make 'em into somethin' evil, and they can be sorta /banished/, though we don't destroy them even when it /seems/ like we do. And then, they corrupt shit, which we then /heal/, see. Got some Rites that help with that. So when y'talkin' fightin' the Wyrm, you ain't necess/arily/ talkin' whompin' on, although a lotta Garou got limited attention spans so that's most of what they focus on, and frankly, I think focusing only on destruction /is/ playin' into its hands, but that ain't a popular viewpoint."

Bernie looks fairly satisfied with that answer. "A'ight... we'll be doin' detail on that kinda stuff later, I guess, right? So: number one, no having kids with werewolves, number two, don't forget t' fight evil, number three....?"

There's a quiet knock on the door, followed by Yi's muffled voice. "Hello? Someone there?"

Kaz nods. "We be detailin' Wyrm later, amen and selah. Ok, number three -- Well, you know how wolf packs work, got territories and shit? Kinda like gangs, only politer. Anyway, so Garou got packs, too, so the third thing is, 'Respect the Territory of Another.' Y'know, don' take it over and tell 'em if you wander around in it." She grunts, and pads over, hot dog roll in hand, to unlock the door. Grinning slightly as she sees who it is, she says, "Yo. Litany-fest. C'mon in."

Yi grins and walks in, a brown bag in her arms. "Hello. I thought I'd drop by," she says in a quiet tone. "Brought some food from the Chinese restaurant downtown."

Kaz relocks the door. "Y'mean the good one, on Riverside?"

Yi sets the bag down and brings out a few takeout boxes, complete with the happy face and 'Have a Nice Day' imprinted on them. "Ah," she nods, "actually I cooked them myself. Part time work there." She smiles and opens a box, filling the room with a warm steam and aroma of fried rice.

Thump thump thump. A fist hamered three times against the door. It's Ethan, cursing again the lack of ever remembering to grab a key for the place.

Kaz, Pavlov herself, immediately starts saliva going in her mouth, as she yells, while opening the door, "Bring your damn key /with/ you, sometimes, Jesus."

Bernie, still cocooned in her sleeping bag, but sitting propped against the wall, smirks as she sees who enters, and remarks, sotto voce, "If _he's_ Jesus, no wonder I'm Jewish..." Apparently, she hasn't completely forgiven him for his assholery the day before. In a more audible voice, with a wave to Yi, she asks, "So whatcha got in there?"

Alas for all involved, Ethan's mood doesn't seem to have improved much with the passage of time. "Yeah yeah yeah," he mutters to the Gnawer. He's got McDonald's food, slightly cold now and just enough for him, leaking grease onto the paper bag. "Signe oughtta charge you guys rent."

Kaz fetches several plates, and more than a few forks, and sticks them on the coffee table next to the Chinese. "Hey, I supply the Coke and junk food, she lets me crash. Works f'me."

"Fried rice, and some..." Yi pauses, trying to remember what the owner called it in english, "mushroom chicken?" With a laugh she pulls out the second box with the second entree, and a couple of plastic forks, chopsticks, and spoons. Add a couple of soy sauce bags. She blinks as Ethan enters, wondering who he is.

Ethan certainly acts like he owns the place. Heading into the kitchen, the smell of greasy McDonald's fare competes with the Chinese food to fill the living room. "You seen Joey around, Kaz?" he asks rather casually.

Kaz jerks a thumb at Yi. "She's a Gnawer. Yi, that's Ethan, he ain't got any manners, but he's a Get, and he lives here, so he's ok. Joey?" She shakes her head. "Not since a couple days ago. Why?"

Bernie mms, eyeing the boxes hungrily. "Sounds good," she says, looking at Yi, "Remind me to worship you later." She scoots forward in her bag and snags one of the plates, ignoring the purple-haired boy as she replies to Kaz's earlier comments. "So, okay, I get rule three in theory, but how d'ya know, in practice? Y'all tag, or what?"

The metis snags some rice, and some chicken, and settles on the couch again. "Yeah. We do, in the city. The Rangers, out woodswards, they pee on stuff. Like wolves do. It's pretty clear whose territory is whose, that way."

Ethan recognizes the name. From the kitchen, he calls back, "No moon, right?" Wow. He almost sounded civil there for a moment, which is just a short hop, skip, and a jump away from the realms of politeness. Meanwhile, he snags one of those Kaz-supplied sodas from the fridge, to cheap to spring for even a discounted soda with a combo meal.

Yi smiles and hands Bernie the whole box, knowing there are plenty more in the big brown bag. Standing up, she dusts off her jeans and bows her head briefly to Ethan. "New moon cliath of the Gnawers, yes. Three-Blades, to Gaia's children." Her voice after sounds a bit rushed, "I don't like entering and running, but I am only on lunch break, and should be going." Giving Kaz a nod, she smiles and jogs out.

Bernie accepts the box, and abandons the plate, taking hold of a pair of chopsticks and waving a farewell to Yi with them before she takes a bite, getting comfy again. "Mmm. 'kay, then.... think I've got one through three... four? How many _are_ there, anyhow?"

Kaz explains, "13. T'see why this one's important, you gotta know we deal with who's in charge of stuff by challengin'. Doesn't have to be a fight, it can be a riddle contest or somethin', but that's how we do stuff. So." Again, with the slight change of intonation that indicates rote memorization, she goes on, 'Accept an Honorable Surrender.'"

Ethan emerges from the kitchen with his soda and his McDonald's, and plops himself on the floor somewhere near all of Signe's exercise junk. He starts in on the McDonald's bag, quarter pounder with cheese and slightly cold french fries to match. "This supposed to be a cub?" he asks Kaz, somewhat dubiously.

Jay knocks on the door, once more today, with his faithful pooch Sheeps at his side. "Yo Kaz, ya home?" He calls through the door.

Kaz shrugs. "She hadda Kinfetch, she's changed, she seems pretty cubbish t'me." Given as Ethan's on the floor and she's not, she gets up to fetch the door /again/. "It's grand central, I swear."

Faithful pooch Sheeps is trying to eat Jay's shoe, wagging his tail like a maniac. Must be gum or something on there.

Jay swipes his foot at Sheep's head and huffs, pushing open the door, heading inside. "Hey Guys, Brought some burgers." He holds up a McDonald's bag, sniffing slightly at the air. "But...I see everyone ate."

"Accordin' t' th' menu, it's _supposta_ be a hamburger, but I realise many people find it hard t' tell, with McDonald's," Bernie replies to the boy, with a far too sweet smile that doesn't quite reach her eyes. The door opening catches her attention, and she waves the chopsticks toward the arrivals, with a much more genuinely cheerful, "Heya, Jason. 'sup?" Her gaze travels somewhat suspiciously over the dog.

This is a lanky, lean young mongrel. Splotched with asphalt blacks and gutter browns, his rumpled yellow fur covers the jutting ribs that slat his sides. Two pointed shepherd ears perk from the top of his head, and his muzzle is long and stamped with a wet coffee-colored nose. His eyes are a doggy brown, shifty and vacant.

Ethan rests himself up against a wall, legs bent at the knees, feet planted. While he's munching on french fries he studies Bernie. It's not critical a look, more curious, and a lot part like he's sizing her up.

Kaz closes, locks, and flops back onto the couch, giving Nevada a grin as she does so. "Dude," she tells the dog, "Long time no see."

Sheeps trots in all waggily, forgetting the tooty frooty gum stuck on the underside of Jay's shoes. At least, for the moment. He trots on over to the Galliard, pressing a cold wet brown nose against her knee. He looks like a retriever of some kind, all yellow and smiley, though looking a little dusty. His brown eyes turn to the new cub, and he wanders towards her, pink tongue lolling.

"I'm doing pretty good Bernie. This is my brother, Nevada. But we call him Sheeps-Clothing, cuz he's always stealing people's clothes an putting 'em on." Jay replies as he plops down next to her. "I got some apple pies up in here, ya want one?" Offering the bag.

Kaz gives Nevada a brief, but firm, scritch, before he wanders over to his fellow cub.

Ethan pages to the room: Kaz already went over the first law. :P

Bernie grins at the approaching dog, and plants the chopsticks in the box of chinese before holding out her hand to sniff. "Heya, Sheeps-Clothing, niceta meetcha... I'm Bernie, like he said." She glances over to Jay, adding, "An' yeah, if you got extra, those things are pretty decent. Y'all have th' fried ones or th' baked ones up here?"

Ethan picks at french fries, still watching Bernie with idle curiosity. It's only inevitable that he open his mouth again soon. "Aren't you a little, uh..." He struggles a few moments for the proper word here. "...fat to be a Gnawer?" Okay. Maybe that wasn't quite the right word. He's blunt though not purposefully rude, and it's not his fault that the two are easily confused under the context.

Kaz stares at Ethan as if he'd just grown horns. "You ain't seen Chugs lately, have you." To which the answer, obviously, is no.

Sheeps sniffs his nose over the Ragabash's hand, then gives a nice sloppy lick. Up close, the pooch smells like gasoline and bubblegum.

Jay glances idly over to Ethan and raises a brow, snorting once, then turns his head back to Bernie. "Um..its the baked ones I believe."

Oddly enough, Bernie doesn't seem all that upset by the comment, shrugging slightly as she eyes the boy. "I dunno," she drawls, "I haven't met 'em all. Somehow I wasn't gettin' the impression we had the swimsuit competition comin' up." The corner of her mouth quirks up, her gaze on his hair, "...aren't you a li'l mammalian t' be a thistle?" She scritches Sheeps behind the ears a little, wiping her hand off on his fur while she's at it.

Kaz grins, just a little, but notes, idly, "We ain't gotten to the submission thing yet, Eth, so go easy on her."

Ethan chews through another few french fries. That last bit goes right over the boy's head. "Huh? What's -that- supposed to mean?" he asks, shifting his visual attention briefly toward Kaz, then back on Bernie again. "It's just I haven't seen many Garou who are so, uh..." He does a more extensive brain search this time, coming up with: "...big-boned."

Jay can't help but chuckle at the two's antics, taking out a few apple pies from his bag, tossing one to Ethan, then slides another out of the package. With, he hands it down to Nevada, waving it temptly over his nose.

Sheeps lazily sits down, panting some. He likes this cub. The apple pie gets his attention, his brown eyes crossing to focus at it so close to his snout. He licks his muzzle, then tries to bite at the Mickey Dees.

Jay jerks the pie back playfully as Sheep's snaps at it, a wry grin crossing his features.

Kaz tells Ethan, "We'll work it off her, that's all. Leave it be, thistle-head."

Ethan fumbles a catch of the apple pie, and looks surprised for it. "Hey, thanks," he says to Jay. There it was, a glimpse at civility again. He'll be careful that it doesn't happen again. "Thistle, what the hell are you talking about, thistle?"

"So I'm special," Bernie replies dryly, and adjusts the sleeping bag that she's sitting crosslegged within, visible only from the waist up, really, as it pools around her. "Guess I missed where they posted the weight guidelines in the application. Oh, wait, I forgot; I got shanghaied...." She shrugs, and wipes her hand off a second time, this time on the sleeping bag, before reclaiming the chopsticks and taking a bite of her mushroom chicken.

Kaz points at his head. "Purple. Thistles is purple. Plus they're prickly, so if you sit on 'em, they're a pain in the ass."

Sheeps stands up, tail wagging once, restlessly. He watches the pie, every speck of his usually limited attention focussed on it. He licks his chops, and barks once.

Jay chuckles at Sheeps, standing up, holding the pie at least five feet up in the air. "Jump boy, jump!" He says playfully, his eyes dancing. "Maybe we should make a deal..the pie....for.. 'the socks'."

Bernie looks over at Jay, and grins, leaning comfortably back against the wall again. "Oh, riiiiight. I almost forgot about th' fabled socks...." She watches the other cub eye the pie.

Sheeps huffs a little, then, in the sudden way dogs have, he sits down and abruptly begins scratching an ear. His choke chain collar jangles. There's no tag on it, but there are a few rings and an actual keyring strung on the links. He wonders how it is the cub knows of the sacred socks?

Kaz blinks, suddenly, and fetches her backpack. "Yo, Eth!"

Ethan takes advantage of the eating lull in conversation to interject his own introduction. "I'm Ethan, by the way, or Finds-the-Lost. Not," he continues, shooting a sharp look at Kaz, "Thistle-Head or shit like that. I'm a ragabash of the Get, Get of Fenris, and in the First Strike pack. And cliath, so that makes me your elder. Remember that when-- huh?" He cuts off with a look toward Kaz.

Kaz tosses him a small box, wrapped in the Sunday comics. "Happy natal whatever, huh?"

"I'm Bernie," the cub replies, pushing a stray curl back with the clean end of the chopsticks, "...an' not anything else far as I know, 'cept," s he glances at Kaz, as if to check if she's getting this right, "'parrently I'm a ragabash of th' Bone Gnawers. An' I dunno what a cliath is, yet."

Kaz quirks a grin, nodding at her attempt, and adds, "You're a cub. Stick that on, people don't assume you know shit. A cliath's a Rited Garou, adult in our eyes. First rank. Troops, in other words."

"Something you ain't," Ethan answers as he snags the incoming package. First he shakes it. Then he starts ripping off the comics, without bothering to read them at all first. "This is for my birthday, Kaz?"

The metis grabs her Coke from under the couch, and takes a swig. "No, Ethan, I give you random presents alla time. /Yes/ it's for your birthday. I figure, I'm half livin' with you, I'd never hear the end of it if I didn't."

Sheeps cocks his head, looking with doggy curiousity toward Ethan and his mysterious box. Kaz, can I get a ~bomb~ for my birth day too?

Ethan tears off paper and opens the box to reveal... fudge. Just what the kid needs, -more- sugar on top of a week's worth of Halloween candy. He actually doesn't open it up further, which isn't to say he looks disappointed at all. "Cool. Thanks, Kaz, and you're right, I would've given you grief for weeks."

Bernie's smirk flits back for a moment. "Hell, there's _lotsa_ things I ain't... stupid, skinny, an armadillo, purple-haired...." she tosses off, casually. "I get the adult thing though; you guys got some kinda b'nai mitzvah sorta thing, huh?"

Kaz says, generally, in a long suffering tone, "See what I have to put up with?" It would perhaps make more of an impact if she weren't grinning a lot at the same time. "Yeah, Bern," she adds, tearing her attention off Ethan, after shooting a grin at Nevada, "Rite of Passage. Kinda obvious name, but there you go."

Ethan tells Bernie, rather smugly, "I'm an adult. I passed my rite of passage -months- ago. I had to fight three things at once." And so the victor writes the story.

Sheeps flops down near Bernie's feet, stretching a little. He wonders when his Rite will be. He wants to fight the Wyrm too!

Bernie huhs, taking another bite of the cooling chinese food, "What kinda things?" From the way she presses her lips together briefly, it looks as if she may have decided against saying something more.

Kaz tells Nevada, "Gettin' closer, dude, but not /real/ soon, yet. Month, two months, I think you'll be ready." Taking a swig of Coke, she volunteers, "Me, I hadda clean out the Umbra of a homeless shelter, and then run a publicity drive for it."

Ethan gives a shrug which, given the passage of time, is rather casual. "Demon dogs with glowing eyes," he answers Bernie. No talesinger himself, he launches into the story anyway. "We were looking for this scroll, see. And this was after we fought a troll and trudged through snow and almost died. Anyway, I found the scroll, but it was down this narrow shaft. And J.D.'s butt was too big for her to fit, so she had to lower me on a rope."

Kaz adds, "And he was drunk, but that's just 'cause he had to be. There was this banquet, see."

"And missing a foot," Ethan adds at the end of Kaz's words. "That was because the troll ate it, though." Of course, he seems to have both of them now.

Sheeps's ears perk.

Kaz points at one of Ethan's feet -- who knows if it's the right one? -- and asks, "Anyone told you about Garou regeneration yet?"

Bernie is looking from one of you to the other with a look of both amusement and fascination, and a bit of excitement, as well. "Damn, it really _is_ just like a roleplaying game. Trolls, no shit? Funkalicious." She shakes her head at Kaz, "No... you, I mean we, regrow limbs?"

Ethan leans over, making a fake karate chop at ankle level on his left foot. "I wasn't lying when I said it ate it. Took me... uh, I think it was between one and two weeks for it to grow back. I'm not just talking gone, I'm talking eaten." He straightens back up again after that, and takes another quick bite of pie. "Anyway, so I get lowered down this shaft on a rope, and drop into this room. Find the scroll. And these three glowing-eye demon dogs burst out and try to eat me. That's when I sobered up, quick. I killed one of them before I caught the rope again, and J.D. hauled me up."

Kaz hops off the couch. "Yeah, unless we get beat up /too/ bad. Even we c'n get fucked up so much we can't regrow shit. But it takes a lotta effort." Heading into the kitchen, she fetches a knife, while listening to Ethan with a slight grin on her face.

Sheeps listens to Ethan's story, looking over his left foot. His eyes wander from the Get to Kaz as she passes into the kitchen, and as she picks up a knife, he tries to mask a look of uncertainty.

Kaz shifts slowly up into glabro. "You maybe wanna demonstration, Bernie?"

Ethan, too quick, asks, "Want me to stab you, Kaz?" That somewhat eager gleam in his eye isn't too settling, either.

Bernie looks fairly enthralled at this story, and grins, shaking her head. "Cool. Def'nitely..." She eyes the foot, asking, "...'dit hurt though? I mean, b'fore it got all regrown an' all..." as Kaz reappears, wielding the knife. "Uh," the girl replies, somewhat taken aback, "...sure?"

Kaz tells Ethan casually, "Nah." Dropping a towel on the floor, she proceeds to stab herself fairly deeply with the knife. Holding out her arm to the cub, she lets her watch as the cut closes itself with fairly remarkable speed. Her gritted teeth are the only thing really indicating just how painful that was.

Ethan tries not to look too terribly disappointed. "It hurts, yeah," he confirms for Bernie. "I mean, I was sort of in shock when it got bit, because I was wired. Then it hurt, but us Get have ways of sucking up pain. And then it felt funny while it was growing back. Itched a little."

Sheeps watches, head tilted. He wonders why it is that wounds won't heal so quickly when he is like a human?

Bernie blinks, watching with her lips slightly parted. "Whoa," she exclaims, as the wound heals before her eyes. "...so how come I never healed like that, then?"

Kaz shrugs. "They just don't, I dunno. Lupes don't heal in lupus, either. An' Bernie, it only begins workin' after y'first change. After all, you don' /heal/ like that in homid."

Ethan says, "And sometimes they don't heal at all." He starts picking at fries again. "One of my packmate's is missing an eye, and a couple of fingers. Another one has a face that's all scarred up."

"Yeah, exactly, that's the part I mentioned about how if you get hurt too much, you won't heal. So it ain't all roses and stuff. Anyway." She searches under the couch for her flute case, and eventually finds it. "I gotta get outta here, so -- see you guys later, huh?"

Bernie nods a bit, taking this in. "So I'd hafta be not-human for that to maybe work," she translates, setting aside the nearly empty box of mushroom chicken, and giving Sheeps another scritch while she's there. "A'ight... we were on what, five next? Pick up there later?"

"Yep. Be seein' you after patrol." She smiles, a bit, then is out the door, carefully locking it behind her.

Sheeps helps Kaz find the case, mostly just doing a lot of sniffing and some sneezing from the dust. He continues to sniff around there before he pokes his head out, twitches his nose, and barks at the other Galliard. Bye, Ears!

Ethan finds himself left with two Gnawer cubs. He looks between the two, shrugs a little, and pulls himself to his feet. The hamburger he had never did get touched, passed over in favor of fries and apple pie. "So you're fresh meat, huh?" he asks, more to Bernie than to Sheeps.

"No one's ever accused me of bein' spoiled," Bernie replies, with another shrug as she stretches her arms a bit. "Guess so."

Ethan heads into the kitchen, to dump things. "And you're a 'basher?"

There's several seconds silence as Bernie looks rather blank, flipping through her mental files for 'basher'. "Don't think anyone mentioned that term yet..." she answers, "so I dunno."

Ethan sounds a touch impatient as he explains. "A 'basher, a ragabash, no moon, rotagar, whatever word the Gnawers got for it. You one of them." He returns from the kitchen to slouch up against the door jam, eyes on the no moon cub.

"Oh, _that_," Bernie nods a bit, "Yeah. 'apparently so."

Ethan gives a mostly satisfied grunt. "Me too. Questioner of ways. I was the Fool at the last moot," he says proudly, though to an unclued cub that no doubt sounds like a dubious honor at best. "And I scout, Realm or Umbra. Kaz told you about the auspices, right, and about what a no moon does?"

Bernie lifts a hand, tilting it back and forth parallel to the ground. "Kinda," she replies, "not a lotta detail or anythin', though. An' I know all th' words in what you just said, but seein' as it doesn't parse I guess some of 'em mean other stuff than usual?"

Ethan stares at Bernie, blankly. "Doesn't parse, what the hell does that mean?" A rhetorical question, though, because he skips right over it easily enough. "Ragabash is a tough auspice. It's our job to make Garou -think-, and they don't like that so much. I've gotten smacked around before just for doing my job. You get used to it. It's not like just being a smartass about everything, though, -you- have to think, too. That's why it's real important to learn all this stuff, the Litany, the creeds, all of that. Because you can't question what you don't understand."

Bernie looks as if she's debating whether to explain parsing, but lets it go and just nods. "Yeah, I get that... I just gotta learn all this stuff." Mostly to herself, she muses, "..maybe I oughta take notes or somethin'. ..nah."

Ethan shoves off from the door jam. "Just pay attention and keep your head on straight, that's the best advice. I don't think any Gnawer cubs have ever gotten culled, so you should be safe until your rite of passage at least. Anyway. I need to go find Joey. So don't get into trouble."

Bernie points a finger at you, simply replying, "Check. See ya." That done, she picks up the book sitting beside her, and opens it to the bookmark, immersed in it before the door even shuts.

Ethan heads upto the ground floor.