Fucked up.
Tuesday, 17 July 2012 21:45![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flint_garouFine is not an accurate descriptor.
17 July, 2012
The moon is in the waning New (Ragabash) Moon phase (6% full).
The breakroom is quiet, not quite empty. There are two empty beer bottles on the dining table, and in the kitchen, Flint leans over the sink. The other empty bottles are clearly and easily visible, three of them at the top of the recycling. The teen is dressed in loose jeans and a loose teeshirt, which leaves his lower arms visible as they support him against the counter, and both arms have been haphazardly makeshift bandaged from wrist to elbow, though blood wells through in places.
Kavi opens the stairwell door, but he holds it for the others, rather than simply stepping through.
Rina comes through, windblown and a little sun-kissed, her smile fading when she sees Flint. "Jesus, what happened?"
Pack> Flint quite clearly is too drunk to stop the emotional bleed-over of surprise joining the constant of pain that's been there for the past hour plus some.
Pack> Alexandra exhibits a flash of concern. "You okay? I was planning to stay here with Harper, but if you need me…?"
Ex comes in shortly after Rina; she's shoulder hunched, though there's color to her cheeks where there hasn't been in some time, and her hair has a reason to be disheveled beyond lack of care. She remains slightly behind Rina, peering toward Flint from under hooded lids.
Kavi lets the door close behind him and he follows the others into the breakroom. He moves faster, after Rina speaks, and he comes to where he can see the cliath, brow furrowed.
Flint bends over further, elbows on the counter and retching for a moment, head tilted forward. Nothing's said, yet, though, and shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. "Had to, saw April today, got out of there before I lost it on her," Flint says, words slurred but perhaps more coherent and with less of the usual word salad. "But."
Pack> Flint says, slurred even over the link. "'m fine. Kavi, and Rina. Are here. They shouldn't…"
Pack> Alexandra doesn't seem at all convinced that 'fine' is an accurate descriptor, but there is a measure of relief when he says that Kavi and Rina are with him.
Pack> Flint amends. "Fine, 'm not fine. Will be, though."
Rina lets out a breath, walking across to Flint with worry in her eyes. "Christ."
Ex's eyes slide from Flint to Rina, and then to Kavi. Her face scrunches up a little; there's clearly a remark there, sitting on her tongue.
Kavi tenses as he sees Flint more clearly, as he hears the boy's explanation. He swallows, and when Ex looks to him, he gives a little shake of his head. "Thank you," he says to her, his voice too soft to travel across the room.
Flint reaches, turns on the water in the sink, and there's a dry heave even as he does so. Turns the water off again, and though there's a nod of acknowledgement to Rina, the younger galliard doesn't look at her, just down at his arms. "I'm fine," he say slowly, but it comes across rather flat. "'ll be fine."
Rina drops to one knee by the couch. "Tell me what happened?" she asks softly.
Ex chews on the unspoken words for a moment, and then clearly says something else. "Who's April?"
Kavi draws in a breath and then lets it out again, slowly, control evident. He gestures toward the area by the computers, giving the other two space as he moves out of the doorway. Looking back to Ex he answers, his voice still quiet. "She's one of the Furies. She. She knows how to… to make people angry. And. And doesn't always know when to stop."
Flint leans over the sink for a moment longer, then moves, slowly, steps not straight, to sit down on the couch, looking at Rina. "Don't want to shift," he says to Rina, one hand wrapping around the other wrist, around the bandages.
Rina's eyes are haunted. "You don't hafta, kiddo," she says softly.
Ex follows after Kavi, with one last glance over her shoulder. "I can do that," she tells him. Her voice is quiet, but there's confidence there. She doesn't seem to consider this a bad thing.
Kavi's eyes close for a moment and he nods as they open again. "You can," he agrees, and his lips pull downward in a frown. "But you don't have to." He glances toward Rina, and then the doorway, before returning to the cub again. "Anyone… Anyone who can read people? Anyone who can… can understand people? Can use that skill, that knowledge, to make them angry. But it's not… It's a dangerous thing to do. Not just because of… how we might react? But. Because if you do it enough? You lose. You end up… without anyone." Though his voice remains soft, it isn't a whisper, and his words may carry to the much closer couch.
Ex 's mouth tugs downward as she crosses her arms over her chest. "I am without anyone," she points out.
Flint takes a deep breath, hand closing a little tighter around his wrist. If nothing else and the younger galliard doesn't shift, it'll need to be rebandaged. "Lex an' I," he starts, now obliging with Rina's request, "were at the park. Her friend Harper went into the water to go after some, some kid? And. Firsted, and so. And the girl was really. Was plainly Fury, and." The boy's shoulders shake, a little, and he swallows.
Rina wets her lips, relaxing on her heels. "Fuck."
Kavi shakes his head, a sharp denial of Ex's words. "No," he says aloud. "You have me."
Ex looks at Kavi for a moment, and then glances toward the other conversation. "I don't understand."
Flint runs one thumb along the bandaging, up towards his elbow, presses down at some point along it, enough that he draws in breath through his teeth, but it seems to help Flint concentrate. "We took her t-to Edgewood," he says. "Lex was gon' stay with her and Ky left a note with the Furies t' come pick her up, but. But when we, when we got out there, April was all already there."
Flint takes another, slower breath in, and adds. "Tristan was— he was at the park. His driver gave us a ride, he made. He dealt with all the people and made sure, we had space, clothes for Harper."
Rina takes a breath, and gives him a small nod.
Kavi catches the edge of his lip between his teeth. His gaze follows Ex's and then returns again to search her face. "Ask me," he says, his voice once again dropping to a near-whisper. "Ask me anything, and. I'll help you understand."
Ex gives a faint sigh. "Is this all because she said mean words?"
Flint leans over his lap, leaning on his elbows, and tears creep down Flint's cheeks. Just a few. He doesn't look at Rina anymore, but at least he doesn't seem to be paying any attention to Ex and Kavi. "April was April. Harper was— at the park, last time. That 'some girl' I, I mentioned. And Harper recognised April and April started, threats, spewing stupidity about, about men and all," he says, "and other stuff, and I. I left. I came home." He pauses, then adds, more quietly yet. "The… the first aid kit's still up on the roof."
Rina nods minutely. "I'll go up and get it." She touches a hand to Flint's knee. "Ya did good, kiddo."
Kavi's expression changes, hardening, but only slightly, and he stands a little taller. His voice, though, remains soft, remains both quiet and gentle. "We all. All of us have scars. Have things that… that put us back into our worst days. Sometimes, all it takes is words." He glances across to Flint and then returns. "I don't know what it was. When he's ready, he might tell me. And the more we heal, the… the harder it is for someone else to put us back in that place."
Ex looks away from that hardening expression, and one hand lifts to scratch harshly at the cheek scar on the cheek closest to Kavi. She continues frowning, and again she glances toward Flint. "What's this men shit? Fezzik said something about that I think."
Flint takes another breath inwards, this one closer to a hiss. "I tried to shower, first. Tried other things that didn't make it better, didn't help," he says, very quietly. "And…" the younger galliard looks at Rina, now. "I. I think my knife… is still on the roof, too? It… by the garden."
Rina gives his knee a little squeeze. "It's a'right. I'll get it."
Kavi's eyes close at the question, and he takes a moment to draw in another deep breath. His eyes open again, but it's still several seconds before he tries to answer. "Every tribe believes different things. We all… We all have the same core. About Gaia and our purpose. But. Every tribe has a different way to serve that purpose. The Furies. They believe." As he speaks, the tension in him rises, and his voice takes on a slightly different tone. The whisper changes from an attempt at quiet, to a tightening of the throat. "They believe that women should be in charge. That men… That we're not worth…" He pauses, and when he begins again, the words flow more smoothly again. "They have no men in their tribe. Only metis, because they feel shame for bringing them into the world. The rest. They give away. They used to kill them. But now they give them away to other tribes."
Rina rises, and slips out.
Ex blinks a few times during Kavi's explanation, but her expression remains more or less the same. Eventually, after a few mouth twitches and a slight narrowing of one eye, she says, "…There's a tribe with a 'No Boys Allowed' rule?"
Flint glances up, and his gaze tracks Rina out, lingers on the doorway for a long time. It's uncertain if Flint's paying attention to Kavi's words or not. He switches which wrist is held in which hand, presses down hard and bites his lower lip, silent.
Kavi looks to Rina as she slips out, watching the doorway for another moment even after. He nods to Ex as he returns again. "Some… Some just don't want men in the tribe. But some. Some take all their anger and use it against us. Some…" He trails off without offering anything more.
Ex shakes her head slightly. "That's a real weird thing to make a whole tribe around." She pauses. "But they've got men in the tribe. Fezzik's a guy, and the horse feet guy is a guy. Why's metis different?"
Flint rises shakily to his feet, moving back to the kitchen. His steps are slow, slow enough to be steady despite the teen's drunkenness, and then Flint goes about getting down a cub, to fill it with water. This is done almost with no regard for his current injury, though there's strain evident in the lines of his posture.
Kavi brings a hand up to rub against his eye, and his fingers rake through his hair before he brings it back down. "Did anyone tell you about… how metis come to be? About our laws, or. Or about what it means to be metis?"
Ex shrugs and shakes her head. "Metis are GLS-2," she replies. "They've got some weird handicaps, I guess. The horse feet guy said that weird shit about killing GLS-2 babies."
Flint sets the cup of water down on the counter, wordlessly, slow-moving as he goes to take the two bottles from the table to the recycling. Then, carrying the water in both hands and still not avoiding spilling a little, Flint makes it back to the couch.
Kavi casts a quick glance toward Flint, brow furrowed. "Weird handicaps…" he repeats, and then nods. "Metis. Our laws say that no garou is allowed to mate with another. When we do? If someone breaks that law? A metis is born." He pauses there, and his brow furrows again, lip caught between his teeth. "You. You're homid. At least one of your parents was human. Or kin. And you were born in this form. If one of the parents is wolf, or wolf kin, then the child is born in lupus. But a metis? A metis is born in crinos. And. A lot of the time… Even an infant crinos is dangerous. A lot of the mother's don't survive."
"What, you mean they're born like…" Ex's forehead wrinkles. "How the fuck does that work?" She sounds incredulous, at best.
Flint sits down on the couch and returns his attention to his lap, his arms, poking at the cuts underneath the bandages. The water's set on the coffee table, the younger galliard zoning out a little.
Kavi shakes his head. "It… It doesn't always. And then. They can't change until they're older. They can't live as humans, and they can't live as wolves. A lot… They get locked in cages." Again, the galliard's voice takes on that edge of tension, as the topic obviously cuts too close to home. "Raised in cages." He shakes his head to clear it, and draws in a breath. "But. It's important to understand. They all have… deformities. Some so severe they can't survive, some just… make things more difficult. And all of them? Male or female? All of them are sterile. They can't have children. Ever."
"Which, in our world, kinda affects your standing." Rina's voice comes from the doorway. The words are hoarse, flat.
Kavi's eyes close, tight, at the voice from the doorway, and he swallows hard, but doesn't turn.
"That is fucked up," Ex says, sharply. Loudly. "Fucked up." She actually straightens and steps away from Kavi a foot or so, apparently so that she can turn back to him and repeat, "Really fucked up."
Kavi swallows again before he opens his eyes. He nods to Ex, not even trying to find words, and then turns to look toward Rina.
Flint is backed into a corner of the couch and focused inward enough, on the pain from his actions, that he's more or less oblivious to the conversation. Of course, that could be due to drunkenness and blood loss, too.
Rina's attention falls on the Cliath, and her expression darkens visibly. The kit's still slung over her shoulder, as she heads for Flint.
"Fucked up," Ex says, and now there's more temper to it, more bite. "What the fuck." She breathes. "Nick was talking about you people like you were superheroes or something. Like you did all this great stuff, even though it was hard. But." She gestures with a sharp motion toward Flint. "All I see is people getting into stupid fights and half killing each other! And you're like, you're…" She looks back to Kavi, eyes narrowed, but whatever word she's looking for, it doesn't seem to come.
Kavi follows Rina's progress, still without speaking, but when Ex goes on again, he turns back to Ex with another nod. He holds his hands out a few inches at his sides, palms toward the cub. "We aren't heroes. We just are."
Flint doesn't quite register Rina's return, and his face is streaked with tears, though the tears have since stopped. His right hand is clenched around the bandage on a part of his left arm, though why is perhaps uncertain.
Rina glances toward Ex. "You'll see the rest soon enough," she says gently. Then she heads over to the boy, taking both of his hands in her own, still standing. "No," she says firmly.
Flint is compliant, at least, and his grip tightens around one of Rina's hands. "Don't make me shift?" he asks, very quietly. "Please?"
Ex's jaw clenches tightly, and she says to Kavi, through clenched teeth, "Well you need to be!"
"I won't," Rina says, her voice still gentle. Her brow's lined with worry, though. "Why?"
Kavi keeps his focus on Ex, now, without even a blink. "We do what we can. What we need to do. Because we need to. But we aren't perfect. What we can do? It's not… We haven't been made better than humans. We can be strong and fast. And we can heal. But it isn't because we're better than humans. We can hurt. And we have so much anger, more anger than we can contain, sometimes. We're not heroes. We're garou."
Flint shakes his head, minutely, slowly, wincing and squinting his eyes shut at the jolt that brings to the world. The younger galliard doesn't let go of Rina's hands, and doesn't quite answer the question. "It helps," Flint says, barely audible. "It makes everything slow down."
Rina sits down, finally, without letting go. "What does, hon?"
"Isn't about being perfect," Ex retorts. "Locking babies in cages isn't not being perfect, it's fucked up! And you've gotta be—" She pauses again, visibly wrestling with her own temper, before stabbing a finger in Kavi's direction, "You've gotta be better than humans. Okay? You need to be better."
Still with his gaze locked on Ex, Kavi nods. He looks as though he might speak, but he makes no move to do so, yet, not even to draw in a deeper breath.
Flint's grip loosens, one hand letting go, and he very slowly points that hand at the opposite arm, barely touching the bandages, but clearly indicating what he's done. "It… feeding the earth. It. Made it slow down, makes it not hurt like it did." There's almost guilt, shame in the cliath's tone.
Ex starts to say something further, but she's distracted. Her glance goes sharply to Flint, and remains there. She stares.
Pain creases Rina's expression, adds years to her age. "Oh, honey," she says, almost a sigh.
Kavi follows Ex's gaze, but his goes not to Flint but to Rina, and he swallows again.
More red seeps through the makeshift job of bandaging that Flint's done, bandage wrapped hastily around to partially stop bleeding as well as he could, some areas soaked nearly through. The cliath swallows, eyes squinting shut, and his shoulders are wracked with an unvoiced cry, but he's compliant, quiet.
If anything, Rina radiates acceptance, understanding—it's something about her posture, the look on her face. She twists around to pull the coffee table closer, so she can put the kit there. "It's all right," she murmurs. "I know. I know."
Ex's hands both clench into fists. She's still staring at Flint.
Kavi watches for a moment more and then turns back to Ex. "Come with me," he says to the cub, and then heads for the door.
Flint doesn't notice the cub's presence at all, right now, doesn't seem to hear Kavi's words either. His focus is forward, and he nods, quietly, focusing on Rina. His breathing evens again. "Needed to make it slow down, after this afternoon," he says, barely above a whisper.
"But," Ex starts to protest. And then she heaves a sigh, teenager-special, and slumps off after Kavi.
Rina presses her lips together hard, looking at him. "I know," she says softly. "I know how it—" A breath, and she twists away to put a few things in her lap: gauze, sticky vetwrap, scissors. Her gaze is on her work, as she begins replacing the bandages.
It's bad, but Flint's compliant, half-dazed, almost more at ease now. Each arm's rather a mess, not quite a whole and single elbow-to-wrist, but several smaller, deep lengthwise cuts, none of them neat.
Rina works efficiently, layering gauze and applying a minute of pressure to slow things down further. "It's all right, kiddo," she says gently. "It's fine."
Flint's breath pulls in through his teeth at one point, and he nods. "I-I'm sorry," he whispers, the guilt still there, another few tears escaping. "I. I had to." He pauses, then, even more quietly, adds, "Thanks."
"Ya don't gotta be sorry," she says, eyes on her work.
Flint nods, and just breathes through the rest of the process of the redoing bandages, holding himself still and the occasional hiss of breath of not wholly unwelcome pain. "I…" there's another whisper, and he looks up, at Rina. "Won't, do it again unless… I, really need to, yeah?"
Rina looks to him, then, something deep and compassionate in her eyes. There's pain, as well, but it's pain shared, rather than suffered. One hand comes up to touch his cheek. She gives a little nod. "I know," she says quietly. "Why y'think I got so many scars?"
Flint bites his lower lip a little, and nods, no words coming though he opens his mouth for a moment. "Thank you mom," he whispers. Flint runs his fingers gently over the newly done bandages, and eye contact breaks off, gaze dropping to his lap. There's a breath in. "Can I… get the knife back… tomorrow, or. Or, a few days?" Slight uncertainty creeps into the very quiet tone. "I. This' enough, but. I'm not, if I had it, I…"
He doesn't have to see the telltale shimmer in her eyes, when he addresses her that way. Or the ache of empathy. "Y'don't feel safe, yet?" she asks, and at least her voice is reasonably composed.
Flint nods, slowly, then again, quiet as he folds his hands in his lap and leans forward, head bowing.
"It's aright," she says quietly, a husky near-whisper. She tucks a stray lock of hair back behind his ear.
Flint's breathing is level, even, a calmness that's half-daze, and he manages a faint, tiny twitch of a smile. "Will be," the teen agrees. "It will be." He curls into the corner of the couch a little, rather than move, eyes starting to close.
"You wanna stay here?" she asks softly. "I'll get the blanket."
Flint manages to nod, again. One hand wraps around the opposite wrist, but it's not with the same forceful intensity as earlier, not hard, and the teen's dozed off, in and out and such, nearly before Rina's finished asking.
Rina moves around more quietly, after that, putting the kit away and draping a blanket over him.
17 July, 2012
The moon is in the waning New (Ragabash) Moon phase (6% full).
The breakroom is quiet, not quite empty. There are two empty beer bottles on the dining table, and in the kitchen, Flint leans over the sink. The other empty bottles are clearly and easily visible, three of them at the top of the recycling. The teen is dressed in loose jeans and a loose teeshirt, which leaves his lower arms visible as they support him against the counter, and both arms have been haphazardly makeshift bandaged from wrist to elbow, though blood wells through in places.
Kavi opens the stairwell door, but he holds it for the others, rather than simply stepping through.
Rina comes through, windblown and a little sun-kissed, her smile fading when she sees Flint. "Jesus, what happened?"
Pack> Flint quite clearly is too drunk to stop the emotional bleed-over of surprise joining the constant of pain that's been there for the past hour plus some.
Pack> Alexandra exhibits a flash of concern. "You okay? I was planning to stay here with Harper, but if you need me…?"
Ex comes in shortly after Rina; she's shoulder hunched, though there's color to her cheeks where there hasn't been in some time, and her hair has a reason to be disheveled beyond lack of care. She remains slightly behind Rina, peering toward Flint from under hooded lids.
Kavi lets the door close behind him and he follows the others into the breakroom. He moves faster, after Rina speaks, and he comes to where he can see the cliath, brow furrowed.
Flint bends over further, elbows on the counter and retching for a moment, head tilted forward. Nothing's said, yet, though, and shoulders rise and fall with a deep breath. "Had to, saw April today, got out of there before I lost it on her," Flint says, words slurred but perhaps more coherent and with less of the usual word salad. "But."
Pack> Flint says, slurred even over the link. "'m fine. Kavi, and Rina. Are here. They shouldn't…"
Pack> Alexandra doesn't seem at all convinced that 'fine' is an accurate descriptor, but there is a measure of relief when he says that Kavi and Rina are with him.
Pack> Flint amends. "Fine, 'm not fine. Will be, though."
Rina lets out a breath, walking across to Flint with worry in her eyes. "Christ."
Ex's eyes slide from Flint to Rina, and then to Kavi. Her face scrunches up a little; there's clearly a remark there, sitting on her tongue.
Kavi tenses as he sees Flint more clearly, as he hears the boy's explanation. He swallows, and when Ex looks to him, he gives a little shake of his head. "Thank you," he says to her, his voice too soft to travel across the room.
Flint reaches, turns on the water in the sink, and there's a dry heave even as he does so. Turns the water off again, and though there's a nod of acknowledgement to Rina, the younger galliard doesn't look at her, just down at his arms. "I'm fine," he say slowly, but it comes across rather flat. "'ll be fine."
Rina drops to one knee by the couch. "Tell me what happened?" she asks softly.
Ex chews on the unspoken words for a moment, and then clearly says something else. "Who's April?"
Kavi draws in a breath and then lets it out again, slowly, control evident. He gestures toward the area by the computers, giving the other two space as he moves out of the doorway. Looking back to Ex he answers, his voice still quiet. "She's one of the Furies. She. She knows how to… to make people angry. And. And doesn't always know when to stop."
Flint leans over the sink for a moment longer, then moves, slowly, steps not straight, to sit down on the couch, looking at Rina. "Don't want to shift," he says to Rina, one hand wrapping around the other wrist, around the bandages.
Rina's eyes are haunted. "You don't hafta, kiddo," she says softly.
Ex follows after Kavi, with one last glance over her shoulder. "I can do that," she tells him. Her voice is quiet, but there's confidence there. She doesn't seem to consider this a bad thing.
Kavi's eyes close for a moment and he nods as they open again. "You can," he agrees, and his lips pull downward in a frown. "But you don't have to." He glances toward Rina, and then the doorway, before returning to the cub again. "Anyone… Anyone who can read people? Anyone who can… can understand people? Can use that skill, that knowledge, to make them angry. But it's not… It's a dangerous thing to do. Not just because of… how we might react? But. Because if you do it enough? You lose. You end up… without anyone." Though his voice remains soft, it isn't a whisper, and his words may carry to the much closer couch.
Ex 's mouth tugs downward as she crosses her arms over her chest. "I am without anyone," she points out.
Flint takes a deep breath, hand closing a little tighter around his wrist. If nothing else and the younger galliard doesn't shift, it'll need to be rebandaged. "Lex an' I," he starts, now obliging with Rina's request, "were at the park. Her friend Harper went into the water to go after some, some kid? And. Firsted, and so. And the girl was really. Was plainly Fury, and." The boy's shoulders shake, a little, and he swallows.
Rina wets her lips, relaxing on her heels. "Fuck."
Kavi shakes his head, a sharp denial of Ex's words. "No," he says aloud. "You have me."
Ex looks at Kavi for a moment, and then glances toward the other conversation. "I don't understand."
Flint runs one thumb along the bandaging, up towards his elbow, presses down at some point along it, enough that he draws in breath through his teeth, but it seems to help Flint concentrate. "We took her t-to Edgewood," he says. "Lex was gon' stay with her and Ky left a note with the Furies t' come pick her up, but. But when we, when we got out there, April was all already there."
Flint takes another, slower breath in, and adds. "Tristan was— he was at the park. His driver gave us a ride, he made. He dealt with all the people and made sure, we had space, clothes for Harper."
Rina takes a breath, and gives him a small nod.
Kavi catches the edge of his lip between his teeth. His gaze follows Ex's and then returns again to search her face. "Ask me," he says, his voice once again dropping to a near-whisper. "Ask me anything, and. I'll help you understand."
Ex gives a faint sigh. "Is this all because she said mean words?"
Flint leans over his lap, leaning on his elbows, and tears creep down Flint's cheeks. Just a few. He doesn't look at Rina anymore, but at least he doesn't seem to be paying any attention to Ex and Kavi. "April was April. Harper was— at the park, last time. That 'some girl' I, I mentioned. And Harper recognised April and April started, threats, spewing stupidity about, about men and all," he says, "and other stuff, and I. I left. I came home." He pauses, then adds, more quietly yet. "The… the first aid kit's still up on the roof."
Rina nods minutely. "I'll go up and get it." She touches a hand to Flint's knee. "Ya did good, kiddo."
Kavi's expression changes, hardening, but only slightly, and he stands a little taller. His voice, though, remains soft, remains both quiet and gentle. "We all. All of us have scars. Have things that… that put us back into our worst days. Sometimes, all it takes is words." He glances across to Flint and then returns. "I don't know what it was. When he's ready, he might tell me. And the more we heal, the… the harder it is for someone else to put us back in that place."
Ex looks away from that hardening expression, and one hand lifts to scratch harshly at the cheek scar on the cheek closest to Kavi. She continues frowning, and again she glances toward Flint. "What's this men shit? Fezzik said something about that I think."
Flint takes another breath inwards, this one closer to a hiss. "I tried to shower, first. Tried other things that didn't make it better, didn't help," he says, very quietly. "And…" the younger galliard looks at Rina, now. "I. I think my knife… is still on the roof, too? It… by the garden."
Rina gives his knee a little squeeze. "It's a'right. I'll get it."
Kavi's eyes close at the question, and he takes a moment to draw in another deep breath. His eyes open again, but it's still several seconds before he tries to answer. "Every tribe believes different things. We all… We all have the same core. About Gaia and our purpose. But. Every tribe has a different way to serve that purpose. The Furies. They believe." As he speaks, the tension in him rises, and his voice takes on a slightly different tone. The whisper changes from an attempt at quiet, to a tightening of the throat. "They believe that women should be in charge. That men… That we're not worth…" He pauses, and when he begins again, the words flow more smoothly again. "They have no men in their tribe. Only metis, because they feel shame for bringing them into the world. The rest. They give away. They used to kill them. But now they give them away to other tribes."
Rina rises, and slips out.
Ex blinks a few times during Kavi's explanation, but her expression remains more or less the same. Eventually, after a few mouth twitches and a slight narrowing of one eye, she says, "…There's a tribe with a 'No Boys Allowed' rule?"
Flint glances up, and his gaze tracks Rina out, lingers on the doorway for a long time. It's uncertain if Flint's paying attention to Kavi's words or not. He switches which wrist is held in which hand, presses down hard and bites his lower lip, silent.
Kavi looks to Rina as she slips out, watching the doorway for another moment even after. He nods to Ex as he returns again. "Some… Some just don't want men in the tribe. But some. Some take all their anger and use it against us. Some…" He trails off without offering anything more.
Ex shakes her head slightly. "That's a real weird thing to make a whole tribe around." She pauses. "But they've got men in the tribe. Fezzik's a guy, and the horse feet guy is a guy. Why's metis different?"
Flint rises shakily to his feet, moving back to the kitchen. His steps are slow, slow enough to be steady despite the teen's drunkenness, and then Flint goes about getting down a cub, to fill it with water. This is done almost with no regard for his current injury, though there's strain evident in the lines of his posture.
Kavi brings a hand up to rub against his eye, and his fingers rake through his hair before he brings it back down. "Did anyone tell you about… how metis come to be? About our laws, or. Or about what it means to be metis?"
Ex shrugs and shakes her head. "Metis are GLS-2," she replies. "They've got some weird handicaps, I guess. The horse feet guy said that weird shit about killing GLS-2 babies."
Flint sets the cup of water down on the counter, wordlessly, slow-moving as he goes to take the two bottles from the table to the recycling. Then, carrying the water in both hands and still not avoiding spilling a little, Flint makes it back to the couch.
Kavi casts a quick glance toward Flint, brow furrowed. "Weird handicaps…" he repeats, and then nods. "Metis. Our laws say that no garou is allowed to mate with another. When we do? If someone breaks that law? A metis is born." He pauses there, and his brow furrows again, lip caught between his teeth. "You. You're homid. At least one of your parents was human. Or kin. And you were born in this form. If one of the parents is wolf, or wolf kin, then the child is born in lupus. But a metis? A metis is born in crinos. And. A lot of the time… Even an infant crinos is dangerous. A lot of the mother's don't survive."
"What, you mean they're born like…" Ex's forehead wrinkles. "How the fuck does that work?" She sounds incredulous, at best.
Flint sits down on the couch and returns his attention to his lap, his arms, poking at the cuts underneath the bandages. The water's set on the coffee table, the younger galliard zoning out a little.
Kavi shakes his head. "It… It doesn't always. And then. They can't change until they're older. They can't live as humans, and they can't live as wolves. A lot… They get locked in cages." Again, the galliard's voice takes on that edge of tension, as the topic obviously cuts too close to home. "Raised in cages." He shakes his head to clear it, and draws in a breath. "But. It's important to understand. They all have… deformities. Some so severe they can't survive, some just… make things more difficult. And all of them? Male or female? All of them are sterile. They can't have children. Ever."
"Which, in our world, kinda affects your standing." Rina's voice comes from the doorway. The words are hoarse, flat.
Kavi's eyes close, tight, at the voice from the doorway, and he swallows hard, but doesn't turn.
"That is fucked up," Ex says, sharply. Loudly. "Fucked up." She actually straightens and steps away from Kavi a foot or so, apparently so that she can turn back to him and repeat, "Really fucked up."
Kavi swallows again before he opens his eyes. He nods to Ex, not even trying to find words, and then turns to look toward Rina.
Flint is backed into a corner of the couch and focused inward enough, on the pain from his actions, that he's more or less oblivious to the conversation. Of course, that could be due to drunkenness and blood loss, too.
Rina's attention falls on the Cliath, and her expression darkens visibly. The kit's still slung over her shoulder, as she heads for Flint.
"Fucked up," Ex says, and now there's more temper to it, more bite. "What the fuck." She breathes. "Nick was talking about you people like you were superheroes or something. Like you did all this great stuff, even though it was hard. But." She gestures with a sharp motion toward Flint. "All I see is people getting into stupid fights and half killing each other! And you're like, you're…" She looks back to Kavi, eyes narrowed, but whatever word she's looking for, it doesn't seem to come.
Kavi follows Rina's progress, still without speaking, but when Ex goes on again, he turns back to Ex with another nod. He holds his hands out a few inches at his sides, palms toward the cub. "We aren't heroes. We just are."
Flint doesn't quite register Rina's return, and his face is streaked with tears, though the tears have since stopped. His right hand is clenched around the bandage on a part of his left arm, though why is perhaps uncertain.
Rina glances toward Ex. "You'll see the rest soon enough," she says gently. Then she heads over to the boy, taking both of his hands in her own, still standing. "No," she says firmly.
Flint is compliant, at least, and his grip tightens around one of Rina's hands. "Don't make me shift?" he asks, very quietly. "Please?"
Ex's jaw clenches tightly, and she says to Kavi, through clenched teeth, "Well you need to be!"
"I won't," Rina says, her voice still gentle. Her brow's lined with worry, though. "Why?"
Kavi keeps his focus on Ex, now, without even a blink. "We do what we can. What we need to do. Because we need to. But we aren't perfect. What we can do? It's not… We haven't been made better than humans. We can be strong and fast. And we can heal. But it isn't because we're better than humans. We can hurt. And we have so much anger, more anger than we can contain, sometimes. We're not heroes. We're garou."
Flint shakes his head, minutely, slowly, wincing and squinting his eyes shut at the jolt that brings to the world. The younger galliard doesn't let go of Rina's hands, and doesn't quite answer the question. "It helps," Flint says, barely audible. "It makes everything slow down."
Rina sits down, finally, without letting go. "What does, hon?"
"Isn't about being perfect," Ex retorts. "Locking babies in cages isn't not being perfect, it's fucked up! And you've gotta be—" She pauses again, visibly wrestling with her own temper, before stabbing a finger in Kavi's direction, "You've gotta be better than humans. Okay? You need to be better."
Still with his gaze locked on Ex, Kavi nods. He looks as though he might speak, but he makes no move to do so, yet, not even to draw in a deeper breath.
Flint's grip loosens, one hand letting go, and he very slowly points that hand at the opposite arm, barely touching the bandages, but clearly indicating what he's done. "It… feeding the earth. It. Made it slow down, makes it not hurt like it did." There's almost guilt, shame in the cliath's tone.
Ex starts to say something further, but she's distracted. Her glance goes sharply to Flint, and remains there. She stares.
Pain creases Rina's expression, adds years to her age. "Oh, honey," she says, almost a sigh.
Kavi follows Ex's gaze, but his goes not to Flint but to Rina, and he swallows again.
More red seeps through the makeshift job of bandaging that Flint's done, bandage wrapped hastily around to partially stop bleeding as well as he could, some areas soaked nearly through. The cliath swallows, eyes squinting shut, and his shoulders are wracked with an unvoiced cry, but he's compliant, quiet.
If anything, Rina radiates acceptance, understanding—it's something about her posture, the look on her face. She twists around to pull the coffee table closer, so she can put the kit there. "It's all right," she murmurs. "I know. I know."
Ex's hands both clench into fists. She's still staring at Flint.
Kavi watches for a moment more and then turns back to Ex. "Come with me," he says to the cub, and then heads for the door.
Flint doesn't notice the cub's presence at all, right now, doesn't seem to hear Kavi's words either. His focus is forward, and he nods, quietly, focusing on Rina. His breathing evens again. "Needed to make it slow down, after this afternoon," he says, barely above a whisper.
"But," Ex starts to protest. And then she heaves a sigh, teenager-special, and slumps off after Kavi.
Rina presses her lips together hard, looking at him. "I know," she says softly. "I know how it—" A breath, and she twists away to put a few things in her lap: gauze, sticky vetwrap, scissors. Her gaze is on her work, as she begins replacing the bandages.
It's bad, but Flint's compliant, half-dazed, almost more at ease now. Each arm's rather a mess, not quite a whole and single elbow-to-wrist, but several smaller, deep lengthwise cuts, none of them neat.
Rina works efficiently, layering gauze and applying a minute of pressure to slow things down further. "It's all right, kiddo," she says gently. "It's fine."
Flint's breath pulls in through his teeth at one point, and he nods. "I-I'm sorry," he whispers, the guilt still there, another few tears escaping. "I. I had to." He pauses, then, even more quietly, adds, "Thanks."
"Ya don't gotta be sorry," she says, eyes on her work.
Flint nods, and just breathes through the rest of the process of the redoing bandages, holding himself still and the occasional hiss of breath of not wholly unwelcome pain. "I…" there's another whisper, and he looks up, at Rina. "Won't, do it again unless… I, really need to, yeah?"
Rina looks to him, then, something deep and compassionate in her eyes. There's pain, as well, but it's pain shared, rather than suffered. One hand comes up to touch his cheek. She gives a little nod. "I know," she says quietly. "Why y'think I got so many scars?"
Flint bites his lower lip a little, and nods, no words coming though he opens his mouth for a moment. "Thank you mom," he whispers. Flint runs his fingers gently over the newly done bandages, and eye contact breaks off, gaze dropping to his lap. There's a breath in. "Can I… get the knife back… tomorrow, or. Or, a few days?" Slight uncertainty creeps into the very quiet tone. "I. This' enough, but. I'm not, if I had it, I…"
He doesn't have to see the telltale shimmer in her eyes, when he addresses her that way. Or the ache of empathy. "Y'don't feel safe, yet?" she asks, and at least her voice is reasonably composed.
Flint nods, slowly, then again, quiet as he folds his hands in his lap and leans forward, head bowing.
"It's aright," she says quietly, a husky near-whisper. She tucks a stray lock of hair back behind his ear.
Flint's breathing is level, even, a calmness that's half-daze, and he manages a faint, tiny twitch of a smile. "Will be," the teen agrees. "It will be." He curls into the corner of the couch a little, rather than move, eyes starting to close.
"You wanna stay here?" she asks softly. "I'll get the blanket."
Flint manages to nod, again. One hand wraps around the opposite wrist, but it's not with the same forceful intensity as earlier, not hard, and the teen's dozed off, in and out and such, nearly before Rina's finished asking.
Rina moves around more quietly, after that, putting the kit away and draping a blanket over him.