More Metis

[hollowstorm]

Met another of the Sept's metis today.   They have a lot, but I guess that's to be expected.   I've heard that they even had a metis alpha for awhile, and their beta is a rank four metis Walker right now.  If that isn't enough to encourage the metis population to this area, I don't know what would.   Something off with his legs.  He's also Fury - which strikes me odd.  I'd been told they'll keep their male metis, but not their regular males, or often, not their female metis.   Seems very odd to me, but it's not like I know their ways.    Sue seemed nice enough though, and he's going to teach me a rite when I become an official member!

It's the middle of the day, and the Edgewood house has quieted down from the occasional bustle of activity that happens. With that quiet comes space and time to think, not quite spare time but something close to it. Although it isn't terribly cold inside or out, the Fury has still settled as close to the hearth as he can get (and thusly out of the way), legs folded beneath him.'.

Down the stairs comes a new face. There's a lot of energy to her steps as she practically skips two at a time, but upon seeing another inhabitant in the house, she freezes up a bit and offers a sudden, "Oh, uh, hello."

Cools-the-Flames twitches one ear up, not really startled out of anything. The metis had heard the other coming, but it doesn't seem to have prepared him for actually being talked to. He picks his head up, and as he moves a little, exactly what he is becomes more obvious. Hello. There's a pause, and a briefly inquisitive whiff, before he stands all the way up-- and shifts to homid, smoothly but without any particular hurry. "Hi there," he offers. "Sue. Cools-the-Flames, cliath half-moon of the Black Furies. Metis. Packed in Winging It, under Swan." He's too polite to finish it with 'and you are?' but the tone of voice he uses implies it nonetheless.

"Oh. Hello then. Again. Jenelle Moravec, Wrath's Hollow Storm. Cliath theurge of the Shadow Lords. Just Elle's fine though. You're male," she offers very matter of factly. While the girl seems past highschool age, there's an innocence about her that might suggest the garou-side of life is a more recent endeavor.

Sue takes a seat on the nearest couch, and nods. "Yeah," he acknowledges, catching his lower lip in his teeth for a moment. "I'm Fury, and I'm male, and I'm also metis." In that order, it seems. "Nice to meet you," the metis says, and this time there's no hidden reservation behind the words. "Either you're new, or you came to the Sept while I was away...?"

"New. And I meant no offense, it just caught me off guard. My home sept wasn't populated by more than my own tribe and a small smattering of Get. Anything I've heard of the others has been from the cubhood crash course." She takes the last couple of steps and then moves to settle into the couch. "So you from here and just back, or just visit a lot?"

There's a bit of a grin. "Well, then," Sue says. "I should warn you, most of my tribe sisters here-- and most places, actually-- don't hate all men, either." He shrugs. "I know the feeling. When I first got here, I'd had very little interaction with those outside my tribe, even though there were a few other tribes at the Sept I grew up in. Here... you have everyone, and people with every view. I... I was gone for the better part of last year. I've been back since January, but I'm never going to catch up on everything that happened while I wasn't here." Sue glances between Jenelle and the few embers in the fireplace. "That's why one of my tribe sisters is a galliard."

Jenelle smiles at that, nodding. "It's good to not just make decisions based on stereotypes and bias." She draws in a breath and then pulls her feet up under her as she nestles into one corner of the couch. "Where did you go when you went away?"

"That's a refreshing thing to hear," the philodox muses, brow ticking upward for a long moment. "I..." He pauses, and swallows, and then seems to get a hold of himself again, whatever brief it was that happened. "I got lost in the Umbra. Ended up a lot of other places that weren't here, and when I finally managed to come back, over six months had gone by."

Jenelle winces at that in a show of empathy, "I've heard of that happening. I can't imagine it myself, I mean- I spend time there with my studies and all, but longterm residence like that?" She shivers a bit, "It's good to have you back in that case." At this, she bends her knees to her chest so as to wrap her arms about them, "I did get shuffled around via the umbra though. The Gatekeeper of my home sept did something to get me away from our caern when it was being attacked. I went from being on the east coast, to the west coast." She snaps, "Like that."

Sue closes his eyes briefly. "All of that happened while I was lost, mostly," he says, and there's perhaps a twinge of guilt to the words. "It wasn't six months for me. A few weeks, more or less, but I'm not really sure how long. There were some places I ended up which had nothing to mark the passage of time /by/, and others that were too much for me to... to grasp." He looks back at the Shadow Lord. "The Sept I grew up in fell too, I found out. Golden Gate, down in San Francisco, even though I've been here... almost three years now."

Jenelle nods gently at this, "It's not easy for anyone. And anyone who suggests otherwise is lying. But we'll make it, right? This place I hear, has a really good track record. And if one place can manage, then it gives the others motivation and encouragement to keep up the fight."

At that, the Fury grins a little bit. "More or less, yeah," Sue agrees. "I've not been that many places other than here, and where I grew up, except for a number of them along the way and that only briefly. But there's something special about this Sept. And what can I say, it's home now."

"Home huh? So you'll be staying on for the long haul this time? I mean, not doing much traveling after this point?" The Shadow Lord can't help but fight off a small yawn that catches her, but she manages without being too rude.

Sue catches his lower lip in his teeth, and lifts his shoulders. "I get restless sometimes," he acknowledges, "but this is home. Really, it has been since not... too long after I got here, even if it took me a while to realise it. Stubbornness, you know? If I leave for any length of time-- and given things, I'm not really planning to, but it might happen at some point-- at the very least I'm not doing it planning not to come back."

Jenelle grins a bit. "I tried another sept before I got here, but it didn't feel like a fit. We'll see how things go here. There aren't a lot of Shadow Lords, but that might be good for me. Less immediate expectations. I don't usually perform well enough to meet them, so the less on me the better." She offers with a bright, but forced smile and shrug of her shoulders.

Sue furrows his brow a tiny notch, and then offers gently, "I don't know what it was like where you were, or at the first place you tried being at, but here, people's expectations aren't everything." There's a pause, and the metis looks down at his lap a moment, quiet.

"Well, Shadow Lords are, exceptionally good at being motivated. Which isn't to say I'm not. I just, well, I guess you could say I'm klutzy or something. But, my family too, long line of important types. You know how it goes." Jenelle lifts another shoulder, "It's okay though, I'll just keep trying until I get there."

Sue nods. "You'll get there," Sue says. "Seems like you've got a pretty good handle on things as it is." He looks towards the kitchen for a moment, and pushes to his feet, and offers to the Shadow Lord. "I'm going to make some tea, I think. Would you like some?"

Jenelle considers this for a moment and then nods, "I'll come with. I usually drink coffee, but I can try tea instead." She hops from the couch and then settles in behind the metis, eyes glancing down a bit to study the other a bit more.

Sue grabs the hiking pole from next to the couch (where it has apparently been all along), and gets up. There's no rush in his steps, and no uncertainty, but his gait is odd at the least. In the kitchen, Sue moves over towards a counter, refilling the kettle from on the stove and putting it back up to heat. A tin of tea is taken out from one of the drawers, and set to one side on the counter. "I'll drink coffee if it's there," he says, grinning. "And there is a coffeemaker. But mostly I drink tea, and sometimes soda." The tea bears a label in both Greek and English, as well as some blocky writing identifying it as belonging to the metis.

Jenelle narrows her gaze as she watches, but says nothing. Once they reach the kitchen she takes a seat at the table and props her chin up with one hand. "When you joined here, what did you have to do for chiminage?"

The Fury gets down two cups from a cabinet, and then turns to lean against a section of counter and face the other while they wait for the water to boil. "When I joined here, Little Silvertip-rhya was alpha. Anyway, I had to teach, rites or gifts to members of the Sept. I taught one of my tribe sisters the Contrition rite, and then I taught some other rites to people not from my tribe. I... it worked out pretty well, overall. I like teaching. I always have."

Jenelle mmms and nods. "Seems pretty standard. Except when the person coming in has nothing to teach really." A deep breath follows, "I'm teaching something to Dakota, but I really don't know much."

That slight furrowing down of brow returns, though less this time. "Then you know some, even if not as much as people older than you or I do," Sue says, quietly still. "Swan... one of the things my pack totem asks us, is to work on improving ourselves. Through learning, and also through teaching, and however works towards growth the best. It's something I didn't understand as well, before. But one of the things that Swan has taught me is that we all start somewhere."

Jenelle nods at this, keeping her chin in her hand, "Oh I know. It's just hard to get chiminage sorted out if you don't know much. I'd have lucked out more if it was like, 'Do dishes for two weeks straight' or something." That smile tips back again, "Thane is working with me on it though. Once I'm official, then I'll start really working on things. Getting stronger, learning more. Making sure that-" she cuts off short at the last, "That I am being helpful.

If Sue notices the stop and change of what the other is saying, he says nothing of it. He's a good listener, overall, attentive without being patronising when he does so. The kettle goes off, and the metis turns, continuing to speak as he gets the tea ready. "Better you doing the dishes than me," he says jokingly, a bit of a grin. "I break them half the time I carry them. But really, that seems like a plan. Once you've got your chiminage sorted out, too, come find me. If nothing else, I know the Sand in Shoes rite; that's useful for everyone, but even more so for theurges I'd think, and I'd be happy to teach it to you."

"Sand in shoes? What does it do?" asks the Theurge, that hand dropping finally as the rite catches her interest.

The metis catches his lower lip in his teeth again, and glances over towards Jenelle, carefully carrying one of the two cups of tea to the table, then moving back to lean against the counter and pick up his own. "Careful, it's hot," he cautions. The tea smells like chamomile, and somewhat like peppermint, and somewhat like lemon, all at the same time. "The... the rite helps you find your way back, on the other side," he explains. "Gives you a tie to wherever it was that you went into the Umbra, that can be... be felt."

Jenelle ohs at this, taking the tea cup with a thank you. "That does sound useful. If you'd really be willing to teach it to me, then yes, once I'm all official, I'll come see you about it!"

Sue smiles a bit. "Given everything, it's... it's a rite I. I think that... everyone should have the opportunity to know," he says, and then he tilts his head towards the front room. If he notices the slight stutter that's come into his words, the Fury gives no notice, or simply doesn't care one way or the other. "It was nice to meet you. I'm sure I'll see you around, yeah?" A little bit later, and the metis has taken his cup of tea in one hand, and his hiking pole in the other, heading out the front room and then out the front door and towards the garage.