DATE:  Wednesday, August 20, 1997
Place:  Merin's loft


---- Recall start ----

Hawkmoon's Loft
Contents:
Merin
Obvious exits:
Lift  

JJ Malone's desc:
All but the least perceptive would notice that there's something not /quite/ 
   right with this person. J.J. is adult in size, about 5' 11", and around 
   140-150 pounds but the shape of the body is neither the typical inverse, 
   broad-shouldered, narrow-waisted triangle of a man nor the hourglass 
   semi-circles of a woman. Instead it's wiry, flat-chested, with nothing 
   hinting at a gender. When she speaks, the voice could either pass as a deep 
   alto or a high tenor, the tone self-confident, some may even say arrogantly 
   so. However, in those words, J.J. commonly refers to herself using feminine 
   pronouns.
She appears to be in her late teens or early twenties, although it's hard to 
   judge. Her hair is cropped short and close on the sides, looser on the top, 
   brown roots fading up through blonde to platinum on the ends. Her facial 
   features have a slightly foreign cast under lightly olive-toned skin, 
   although the predominant feature is the mirrored aviator sunglasses worn no 
   matter the weather, time of day, or her location. She is dressed casually 
   in a white T-shirt, ripped jeans, black leather jacket, and low-topped 
   combat boots.

JJ Malone comes in without warning, carrying a pizza box across her arm and a 
   two-liter of Coke in her other hand. "Food," she announces without preamble.
Merin is hidden behind the bedroom partition, coming out when she hears the 
   sound of the lift. "JJ. Hey. Oh, thanks. Make yourself home."
JJ Malone is already moving to drop the pizza with a splat on the coffee table 
   and herself into the couch at the imperative, so takes up the offer and 
   finishes both. Smoke curls up into the lemony lamplight. "How're you doing 
   today," she asks, not waiting for Merin to come out before opening the 
   pizza box and grabbing a slice.
Cutter opens the gate of the lift and steps off. The metal clinking of the 
   gate follows as he closes it behind him.
Cutter slips out of the lift and quietly closes the doors.
Merin is tucking the edge of a white t-shirt into the belt of her jeans, 
   looking like she got out of the shower not long ago. "Fine," comes the 
   reply, said in a cheerful tone hat does little to convince the Walker of 
   its sincerity. The Galliard moves restlessly to the kitchen, "You want a 
   drink?"
"Glass'll be fine," the ahroun says, then, "Yo, Cutter," as the theurge comes 
   in. "You sure, Merin?"
Merin brings back a glass for the Walker, a beer for herself, and greets 
   Cutter with a soft, "Hey."
Cutter dips his head. The circles under his eyes are far less pronounced than 
   they've been in at least a month. "Hey. Heard you were back in town."
"That's the rumour." She says to Cutter, taking a drink of the beer and 
   folding into the chair opposite the couch. JJ doesn't get an answer to her 
   second question.
Cutter says "It was... you guys were at the pool hall last night, right?"
JJ Malone offers Cutter some of the pizza on the coffee table, even as she 
   takes the glass and pours some Coke out into it. "A-yup. I was wondering 
   what happened to you. I was late, too, got held up in traffic."
Merin nods to Cutter and takes a sip of the beer. "Yeah. What happened?"
Cutter shrugs. "I was even later. Beat somebody with a table and bailed out 
   the window to try an' figure out what was goin' on." He moves forward and 
   takes a piece of pizza, looking it over casually.
Merin gives a sort of small snicker, "That was Dillan."
Cutter flinches a little.
Merin just looks a little amused. "He's fine.
JJ Malone snorts. "Yeah. Soon as I find him, he and I are going to have a 
   Talk," the ahroun promises direly. "Merin, what the hell were you doin' 
   speaking in Garou?"
Cutter blinks. "Uhr?"
Merin stops the beer halfway to her lips and gives the Walker a vague shrug, 
   "Nothing happened."
JJ Malone mutters out of the side of her mouth, at Cutter, not unkindly "You 
   heard me." Then louder, to Merin, "Why'd'ja do it, though?"
Cutter chews his pizza thoughtfully.
Merin sets the beer down on the arm of her chair and runs her free hand across 
   her mouth, thoughtfully. She shrugs again, "I don't know. IT 
   just..happened." The frown deepens in her brow, irritated.
JJ Malone's mouth twists in irritation that she barely manages to control, but 
   the tension surrouding the ahroun is thick. Rather than risk more speech, 
   she takes a bite of pizza that fits nearly half a slice in her mouth.
Cutter says "Uh. So what'd Dillan do?"
Merin's manner, while not as intimidating, perhaps, as the ahroun's, is 
   nonetheless almost as tense and brooding. She looks up at Cutter, all 
   humour gone, "Well, he didn't shoot himself this time. He apparently forgot 
   his gun."
Cutter nods slowly. "That's why he's busted?"
Merin says "Busted?"
Cutter shrugs. "Sounds like you two are gonna bust him."
JJ Malone takes another huge bite of the pizza slice, nearly finishing it off, 
   and says with her mouth full, "I was going to." The way her head moves, 
   she's giving Merin a glance, half-seeking her approval, half-sullen 
   challenge.
Merin snirks a little, lifting the beer again. "No, I was just commenting. 
   Although, it might prove useful to teach him to handle himself." She nods 
   to JJ.
Cutter looks up from his pizza. "So am I on the list of folks to get busted?"
Merin answers with a questions, looking across to the theurge, "Should you be?"
Cutter shrugs and looks down at his slice again. "Just been away a lot. Not 
   very pack-oriented."
Merin's tone carries a strange mixture of innocent curiousity and mild 
   antagonism. "Why is that? What exactly have you been up to?"
Cutter's shoulders slump and he tosses his pizza on the table. "Look. If you 
   want to play games like that, there are other Lords who're more fun." he 
   mutters.
JJ Malone stews in silence, reaching for another slice of pizza to keep her 
   mouth quiet with.
Merin scowls. "What the hell's wrong with you?"
Cutter looks away. "Look. I just feel like I went through a lot of shit 
   without people I feel like I trust adding a few knife pokes to amuse 
   themselves. Okay?"
Merin leans forward in her chair, "Cutter, I'm not even sure what you've been 
   through, and that was my /point/." With that, she gets up to put the empty 
   in the kitchen.
"Me, neither," J.J. pipes up in a gruff mutter.
Cutter sighs and runs his hand across his hair, turning all the way away now.
Merin returns from the kitchen with another cold one, resuming her seat and 
   looking at Cutter, expectantly.
Cutter takes a breath, and releases it. "Okay. Begin at the beginning. Senye 
   and I took a trip into the umbra. She fell into this ugly chasm and got 
   eaten by something."
JJ Malone blinks. "Who the hell is Senye?" she asks reflexively.
Cutter says "The Alpha's fiancee. Anyway. I figured I'd gotten her killed. 
   Told Echen. Fun stuff like that. Next night was Rina's opening night."
Cutter says "This... *thing*-- maybe a bane, I dunno-- this thing that'd been 
   feeding off 'em the whole time they rehearsed, that I shoulda found when I 
   scouted the place out a fuckin' week ago..."
Merin shifts in her chair, scowling further as she slistens.
Cutter says "I was fucked up -- utterly unable to do my job protecting those 
   kids. Lots of 'em died that night. Others ended up in the hospital."
JJ Malone's hands clench spastically, her jaw so tight that the skin along it 
   is white. With sheer force of will, she keeps her tongue and her seat.
Cutter lifts his head, apparently staring at the ceiling. "While she was in 
   the hospital, fed through a tube weak and drugged, some sick bastard used 
   her like a personal play toy." His voice is small and cold, coming from 
   somewhere deep inside him. "I took him away and killed him after he 
   confessed."
Cutter says "First time I'd actually done my job. Since then, I've kept doin' 
   my job. Watching her, helping her get better."
Cutter shrugs, his voice back to normal now. "So. That's how I spent my 
   fuckin' summer vacation."
Merin's eyes narrow, "We had a talk," she starts, "When all this was going 
   down, and you didn't want to tell me, then, what was up. Why is that? I 
   mean, who are we, anyway? A minute ago you were talking about not wanting 
   people who are supposed to care about you, digging spurs into you. But what 
   are we supposed to do when you play Lone Ranger?"
Cutter doesn't turn around. "I didn't wanna tell you now." he says quietly.
JJ Malone is very, very still, breathing harsh, with a tension that implies 
   that moving is a mistake right at this second.
Merin doesn't seem to notice JJ's condition, focussed on Cutter like she is, 
   "Why, the hell, not?"
Cutter wraps his arms around himself. "I don't remember what I told you then. 
   How much had gone on. I've... I slept with the Alpha's girl. Not something 
   you tell everyone. I'd... made a mess, and I wanted to get it cleaned up 
   before it affected anyone else."
Merin says "That's what packs are for. Jesus, I don't get you Lords. I really 
   don't."
Cutter says "No. Packs are for getting together and doing what can't be done 
   alone. Not for mopping up a mess that I made and I should deal with."
JJ Malone suddenly snaps, and snarls as she launches herself off the couch, 
   sending pizza and Coke flying, at Cutter, trying to take him to the floor. 
   "You stupid god damned *mule*!" she roars, attempting to throw a punch at 
   his head on the way down.
Cutter drops and throws his hands up to his face. "Jesus! Crazy fuckin' 
   bitch!" he howls, trying to curl up on himself.
Merin is up out of her chair to join the fray. Well, to break it up, more 
   precisely, but if she gets a few shots in, that it seems would be ok to her 
   too, by the look in her eyes. She steps over the edge of the table to lay a 
   hand on JJ's shoulder to yank her off the Lord.
JJ Malone for the moment manages to fight off Merin's exertions, and gets a 
   few more shots in on Cutter. "Fucking the Alpha's woman! Ignoring your 
   fucking *pack*! I should tear your *head* off!" she howls, before a mighty 
   tug rips her free from the Shadow Lord and sends her sprawling 
   unceremoniously on the floor, crashing into the coffee table.
Cutter lies curled up on the floor, clutching his ears and shaking his head as 
   he mutters to himself.
Merin actually grins, "Damn. Now I need a new table." She pulls Cutter up off 
   the floor, too, and pushes him toward the couch.
Cutter bumps solidly into the couch, as if he couldn't find it, then drops 
   onto it.
"You gotta learn," Merin says to Cutter on her way back herself, "That 'pack' 
   is for everything, even cleaning up each other's shit."
Cutter draws his knees to his chest. "Learnt ever'thing else by gettin' 
   th'shit beat outta me. Guess this ain't any different."
JJ Malone fails to see the humor in things, her expression flushed darkly with 
   the deluge of rage coursing through her veins, but Merin's interference has 
   re-instated a tenuous thread of control. She fixes the sunglasses knocked 
   askew in the flurry of attack, hiding the yellow eyes from view again.
Merin mutters, "Sometimes it's the best way. What do we have to do to convince 
   you we aren't just 'anyone'?"
Cutter purses his lips. "I don't-- It's not that--" He sighs loudly and rests 
   his forehead on his knees.
JJ Malone lashes out verbally, giving vent to some of the continuing to simmer 
   anger. "Then what is it?"
Cutter lifts his head high enough to stare at JJ over his knees. "Jesus. 
   You're a freak too. You should know." he says quietly.
The strike lands right on the mark, and the Glass Walker suddenly pales to 
   sickly grey under the light olive tone of her skin, reeling back. 
   "Cutter..." she suddenly says softly, more softly than anything either of 
   them has probably ever heard before, a sudden exposure of a pained and 
   frightened child. Then defenses slam back into place, and she gets to her 
   feet drunkenly, turning away from the theurge and Galliard, away, away, 
   blindly to another part of the room, back to them.
Cutter hides behind his fortress of legs and arms. "You know." he murmurs. 
   "Only time people were friendly and helpful is if they wanted you to put 
   your ass on the line or draw you out enough to get a good ass-kickin'."
Even the Fianna's strange exuberance seems subdued, and she finds her chair 
   again, falling into it quietly.
JJ Malone's shoulders are squared with tension, her harsh breathing the only 
   thing coming out of her at Cutter's monologue.
Cutter sighs and rests his chin on his knees. "I don't honestly think you 
   guys're gonna do that. But... it's like learning to fight. You don't all on 
   a sudden use a new style."
Merin clears her throat, though her voice is still somewhat subdued when it 
   comes, "Point taken. Beers on me." Gettting up, she makes her way to the 
   kitchen to get few fresh ones, thinking maybe they'll help.
Cutter quietly stares at nothing in particular, just on the other side of the 
   congealing oil on the pizza slices.
JJ Malone glances over as Merin leaves, then moves over to Cutter while she's 
   busy, or trying to do it while she is. Confusion distorts the normally 
   self-assured ahroun's features, and hesitation where normally she's sure, 
   then she offers out her hand to the theurge, and says under her breath for 
   his ears only, "Peace, brother."
Cutter deconstructs his fortress enough to lend JJ a hand and nods. "I *am* a 
   fuckup. I deserved it."
Merin is in the kitchen for what might be considered an inordinant amount of 
   time--enough to where some might think it done one purpose. There's no 
   chance she overheard the exchange, as the noise of clinking bottles and 
   other rumaging comes clearly to the two garou in the other room. Finally, 
   she emerges with three new beers, offering them around casually.
Cutter leans on the door and watches her leave, setting changed but elsewise 
   echoing last night's departure.
Cutter takes one in a friendly manner and downs a good portion of it.
JJ Malone says under her breath just before Merin comes back out, "Just don't 
   let it happen again." She waves off the beer, and gathers the shredded 
   tatters of her dignity around her. "I need to go take a walk. Drink it for 
   me," she asks the Fianna. With a lingering glance at Cutter, she heads for 
   the lift with no more of a good bye.
Merin's eyes linger on JJ a moment, and then, in answer, she lifts the beer. 
   "You got it."

---- Recall end ----