Lola Hawkes
It's Sunday morning, and as much as Lola would have liked to have been the first one to wake up, to be the one to get coffee ready for the other two and prove that she could be a good hostess, no matter how gruff.... That was not the case. She slept long and deep these nights. She would be up and to the bathroom often, of course, but that was in a barely-conscious state and she would be asleep as soon as she was back in the bed once more.
It's likely that Rina is up before Lola. Possible even that Hector is-- he had fallen asleep earlier after all. When she awakened, Lola made enough of a pit stop out wherever Hector and Rina may be (provided it's as far as the kitchen, living room, or front porch) to say good morning before she retreated for a shower.
She came back clean, dressed in the single pair of shorts with an elastic maternity waistband that she owned, a black T-shirt stretched tight over her stomach. The forecast called for a day where the temperatures would be up into the eighties, so Lola opted for sunscreen over clothing to protect her skin and wore socks and sandals (hiking sandals, according to Anthony, and though Lola was still skeptical of the concept they were much kinder to her feet than her boots were anymore).
She knew that Hector was planning to take Rina into the Bawn, up to seen the Caern. Lola had it in her mind that she would be coming along to help as a guide. Hector may be a Galliard, better suited to singing the history of Forgotten Questions, but Lola grew up here and has made it her personal duty for over the past five years to walk these lands and keep them safe. She knew them like the faint and faded scars on her knuckles.
"When are we headed out?" Would be her question, of course, when Hector's ear is available to hear it.
Hector Ghosh
Without a torrent of medication coursing through her Rina doesn't sleep near as much as she had grown accustomed to sleeping. Though her son hasn't developed a parent's ability to awaken at faint noises he has shared a bed with Lola since September. The frequency of her rising in the night has increased the further the pregnancy has progressed. It takes little to rouse him. His brain has wired itself for vigilance and even if he knows it's only his mate getting up to come right back it drags him awake every time.
Rina is up before the sun and Hector isn't far behind her. The moon is fattening and even if Hector is not strictly bound to its light and crippled by its dark it's no secret that he becomes more moody the closer the gibbous moon draws. He spends nearly half the month enthralled to the threat of a frenzy.
The coffeemaker burbles at Lola when she drifts into the kitchen to seek out her people. A plate of food has been left out for her but the stove and counters are clear of detritus and the front door is open so she has a clue of where to start looking when she's ready to leave.
The smell of pot smoke greets Lola when she pushes open the screen door. Rina is sitting far enough away from her son that the breeze takes it and Hector doesn't have that glazed-giggling look he used to get when he was younger and stoned. Pot is medicinal now.
When the door opens they both look over at her. Rina looks placid but prepared. As if she is centered in the moment but not relying on it to stay peaceful. Hector looks relaxed but in that jangle-nerved way that comes to him when he's gotten himself riled up and come back down already. His eyes soften when he sees her and he smiles without realizing he's doing it.
When are they headed out.
He thought she'd never ask.
Hector springs to his feet. Despite the threat of heat he's wearing dedicated boots and jeans. His REAGAN | BUSH '84 t-shirt isn't a t-shirt anymore. He's torn the sleeves off of it. Between the hippie-long hair and the aviator sunglasses he has achieved a level of not-giving-a-fuck that is almost transcendent. If he weren't effectively hiding in the woods until his child's birth he would be making a fine leader in this hopeless war they're fighting.
Rina gives Lola a patient smile and eases herself to her feet. She's wearing a plain t-shirt and khaki shorts and worn-in hiking boots. Her silvered hair is braided and clipped off her neck.
"Good morning, sweetheart," she says.
"What time is it?" He glances skyward. "Shit. Let's go now, I wanna get back before it gets hotter than hell."
Lola Hawkes
A long-time smoker of pot herself, Lola immediately recognized the smell when she stepped out onto the porch. Before they were aware of her pregnancy Lola would join Hector out there on the porch, with the mason-jar kit set up on the table between chairs. These days though, and a ways into breastfeeding as well, Lola was realizing, she had to abstain. The smell would occasionally hit a flint of envy within her breast, but Lola got over it quickly. She's known much worse things than being denied a hit.
Out on the porch Lola offered a small smile back to Hector, but then shifted her eyes to Rina with the greeting of 'Good morning, sweetheart'.
"Morning," is her answer, plain and simple.
Hector checked the sun to gauge the time, and Lola did the same thing automatically when he'd asked for the time. Rina would probably observe that they do this rather than checking wrists for watches or pockets for phones to know the time in precise, computer-monitored and world-agreed numbers. She would see things during her time here, small things and big things alike, that would help her understand how close to the Wolf these two lived their lives. Or, how far away from the Spider and her Web, anyways.
It's agreed that they should go, and Lola noted the attire and preparedness of the both of them. They'd been waiting on her. So, Lola nodded and gestured back over her shoulder. "My pack's back in the room, but it's got plenty of water and food packed away already." She'd made a point of packing it and replenishing the supplies within last night. She'd pointed out the obvious that her one pack wouldn't carry supplies for the day for all of them, if for nothing more than to prompt Hector to be sure that there was another to go along with it. The fact that Lola was looking specifically at Hector when she mentioned the location of the pack told him already that she was going to ask him to go get it, but she'd follow up with words anyways: "Would'ja fetch it please?"
While Hector was complying, which really didn't even require the 'please' but Lola figured he deserved the good manners anyways, Lola took her walking stick from where it was resting against the wall near the front door on the porch. The stick was gnarled, rubbed down and oiled smooth and cut from a good, heavy branch. She had a couple bundles of sage tied near the top, left to dangle from their sort lengths of twine like small gray-green ornaments.
Walking stick in hand, Lola looked to Rina and raised her eyebrows, then gestured toward the corner of the house they stood in front of, though she was trying to gesture to the shed/garage that was just out of sight from where they were standing.
"Got another walkin' stick in the shed, if you want it?"
Hector Ghosh
And she knows even if she had issued the request in a gruffer tone without the magic word Hector would have nodded and rushed off to grab it for her. It's rare that she asks for help and if she can recall the last time he denied her anything she asked for a long time has passed since then. The Galliard gives a quick vocal confirmation and ducks back inside the cabin.
It leaves his mother and his mate alone but that had happened the night before already. It's going to happen a lot over the course of the next month. All Rina is planning on doing between now and some nebulous time in the future is helping her son and the mother of his child prepare themselves.
Hard to tell if Hector seems calmer or not. For a child of Fog he has always been a loud creature. They can both hear him as he clomps through the house into the bedroom. Rina follows the gesture with her eyes and gives Lola one of those wan but genuine smiles when she offers the use of a walking stick.
She and her husband are from California but Rina has the wasted musculature of someone who spent nearly four years without an appetite or any real hope for the future. The loss of her youngest child has left her wiry. The muscles of her forearms and legs are lean but without much fat to camouflage them and loud blue veins stand out against the olive of her skin. She looks tired.
"Oh, I'll be alright," Rina says. Though she doesn't drop a term of endearment the warmth stains her tone all the same. More thumping inside. "Thank you, though."
Hector trots across the house with the packs on either shoulder and bursts through the door like he has time to be fixing a busted screen. It does not bust the screen but he has more energy than he knows what to do with.
"ONWARD!" he says and the volume of his voice coupled with his Rage is enough to startle Rina but she forces a smile anyway.
It isn't a far walk to the Sept. Telling his parents Lola works for Roxborough wasn't a difficult lie to sell for the proximity of it. They start off.
Lola Hawkes
The offer for the second walking stick had been a courtesy, but one based in a small amount of concern. Rina looked small and thin. Though Lola didn't worry that she was sick, she was worried that a long hike in the heat might take its toll.
The offer was declined, though. Lola shrugged and let the matter be.
Soon Hector was joining them again, a pack slung over either shoulder. His bellow for them to move forward was threaded with Rage, but Lola did not startle as Rina had. She just smirked a little and put out a hand in an offer to take one of the two packs. If he didn't relinquish hold, though, she wouldn't press the matter. Less weight to carry wouldn't be any skin off Lola's nose.
The walk wasn't a terrible one, really. Lola and Hector both have walked that foot trail worn into the dirt through the trees back toward the park and the Bawn many times before. Their pace could be comfortable, the trees had leaves on them enough that they provided shade when walked under. Lola moved at a steady pace, she was inexhaustible before pregnancy but even that only slowed her down to an average level.
The walk was lengthy enough for conversation, though. Lola was warning Rina in a tone that wasn't grave, not really, but still sounded a little bit like a disclaimer to be listened to.
"You might see some weird stuff while we're here. Like shifting, and fighting. This is one of the safest places to be, though, so don't get spooked okay?"
Hector Ghosh
He does no such thing. Hector shoulders the heavier of the two packs and gives his mother a glance. She with her thin calves and her floppy hat and her look of aged resignation now that the drugs are out of her system. She looked tiny stood next to Lola even before the imminency of the baby's birth became a physical presence. But then so did Maria. Maria was no taller than five-foot-four and built like a teenager but she had an energy and a humor that gave the impression of a greatness her body didn't afford her.
More often these days Hector sits hunched over a table writing down things he doesn't show other people but isn't reluctant to share either. No more reluctant than he is about anything else at least. It's a fresh journal that he bought from a store in town. Into it he's putting every thing he can remember about being Garou. If he can find the time he'll fill another one with every thing he can remember about the Wyrm but Echoes of the Lost is known for the breadth and depth of his occult knowledge. Riddles don't stand much of a chance when he starts to pick them apart. He could spend the rest of his life writing about the things he's seen and all that would accomplish is to drive him mad.
Some would argue he's already half on his way there but in the sunlight walking with his mother and his mate Hector looks content. His face turns towards the sunlight and he breathes deep of the mountain air and he doesn't talk of his worthlessness or his dwindling hope for the future.
Don't get spooked. It's sound advice but Rina still does look uncertain about all this. Like she has to have made some kind of mistake agreeing to come out for all this. The human part of her brain wants to tell Narendra what their son is up to but the rational part, the part that will aid her in accepting the part of her that is Kin to these creatures, knows that Hector isn't Narendra's son anymore. Not really. He belongs to this Nation now.
"Okay," Rina says and her tone rings with that uncertainty but it doesn't drip.
She holds up on the walk as well as they could expect her to. She doesn't complain and takes the water when Hector begins to dole out bottles. Once they arrive at the park proper he rolls his neck until it pops and stands listening for a few seconds. The more she's around him the more Rina realizes her son can and does sense things neither she nor Lola can sense. If it isn't a sound off in the distance or a scent their noses don't detect it's something more spiritual than that. Something she can't begin to define or identify.
Being around Hector unsettles her a little but no mother wants to admit to being unsettled by their own child.
"Alright," Hector says. "Ma, you ready?"
Rina gives a brave little nod of her head but doesn't speak.
Hector offers her his arm to escort her and she takes it.
Lola Hawkes
The journals were new, and Lola was keeping an eye on Hector's habits with them. She was daughter to a Theurge. She'd seen a Garou become lost in their works before. There had been several occasions where Javier has needed to pull his wife away from a circle of salt drawn on the earth. Rituals oughtn't be interrupted, but after weeks out in the woods alone, barely moving, enough had to be enough.
Lola knew that a Galliard could become equally lost in his histories. She's heard cautionary tales warning against blindness for many Auspice stereotypes. She grew up in this world, after all. So she had inquired once or twice about what he was putting in his journals, but never critiqued or actively read through them. She found that to be invasive-- his works were still in the works, after all. Curiosity sated, she was content to simply watch and make sure he didn't start to become lost in ink and paper.
It hasn't gotten to that point yet, so there was no real worry.
Along the walk Lola kept her pace without trouble or throwing herself into labor for the effort to keep up with the Ghoshes. She huffed on the inclines, but was fine otherwise. When they reached the park proper Lola straightened up with her hands pushing the small of her back to stretch it. When a water bottle came her way she drank a few big gulps before screwing the lid back on.
Rina's voice wasn't shaky, but she did sound nervous. Lola cast a glance over to her, from the woman to Hector, and then away again, over the horizon. Hector would be the guide on this one, really. Lola tended to let him take the helm in matters more social anyways, and this was a learning expedition anyways. Who better than a Galliard to explain to someone the story and culture of their people?
Lola, she was better suited as a sentry anyways. That's precisely how she looked, posted on the small ridge that they'd paused at, looking into the park and in toward the heart of the Caern. While Hector was looking to his mother, offering her his arm and reassurance through it, Lola's eyes narrowed out into the grass and trees.
"Someone's coming to meet us," she announced, and casually removed the lid of her bottle to take another drink.
She was right-- through the narrow cluster of trees up ahead someone was barely visible through shadows and leaves and bushes and tree trunks. Headed their direction, though, so they'd be identifiable soon enough.
Hector Ghosh
As far as Hector is concerned they have the rest of the month to tell his mother all of the stories she can absorb. Longer. They don't know when the baby will come and his mother has already taken a leave of absence from work. It's the end of the school year and she kept to herself the red tape she had to cut through in order to secure the time. These aren't things she needs to share with her son and his young wife when they have so much else to think about and Hector doesn't ask her how her work is going.
Maybe if things had turned out differently Hector would have been the kind of son who called his mother once a month and showed an interest in her life but Hector doesn't understand her life anymore. Took him long enough to understand his own and now the rest of their people look to him to explain the things that happen and to give vision to the events that would otherwise fade away and he doesn't know how to talk to his mother anymore.
But they don't have to cram every story they can think of into her head today. Hector just wanted her to see. To introduce her to Tamsin and to Thomas. To show her the cabin where the Kinfolk gather during moots and explain how the memory-spirit protects them from humans. How the earth has forgotten more than any of them will ever remember and that's how the place got its name.
He can explain the notion of a Caern or a Sept better than Lola can. He's been to the heart of the Caern. He knows what it means to conduct a Gathering for the Departed and what it means to not.
They're coming up on a year since Celduin lost both their Ragabashes and then their alpha. It doesn't hurt Hector to talk about it anymore but there's a sadness in him that wasn't here before. When he first came to Denver he was in denial. If he just kept moving he'd be alright but then he settled down. That's when everything comes rushing in.
That's another story he'll tell his mother before she leaves.
Right now they have a visitor.
If it were anything worth worrying about one would hope Hector would sniff it out.
No more of a sniff than anyone else would draw in to fill their lungs normally and Hector snorts it back out when he narrows down who it could be. Doesn't really matter who it is specifically. He addresses everyone in his echelon in the same casually disrespectful tone in private. Can get away with it because he stands up in front of the Nation and immortalizes them every month.
So he calls out:
"Hey! Pocahontas! Quit prancing around in the woods and come say hi!"
Lola Hawkes
The sort of moving about in the trees that's happening doesn't stink of threat and danger. Hector and Lola have both been in situations, together and apart both, where they've been able to sense the battle in the air before it was about to hit hard. There's a certain feel, a slinking approach, when someone (or something) is walking toward you with ill intent.
That's not how this person walks, though. They're standing upright, pace even, no longer making any effort to mask steps or movements, not like they possibly may have been doing before they recognized the people on the horizon themselves.
Either way, when called out, the answer that returns is a man's voice.
"Prancing? Is that what you kids call taking a piss these days?"
Soon to follow, the figure made their way out into open visibility. He was a white man, six feet tall even with an average build made to carry muscle thanks to expectations both within his Nation and his Tribe. He had red hair that was buzzed short along the sides and back, but kept long and combed back on top. He was wearing a pair of jeans and hiking boots, a brilliant pink tank-top, and kept an evergreen canvas backpack on his back. He squinted through the sun out at the three children of Uktena, smirked with immediate recognition, and approached.
Hector would recognize the man from moots and time spent around the Caern in general-- his was a distinct appearance. He'd probably have the name before Lola announced it across the distance in her own special manner of affection.
"Eddie Luske, ya fuckin' barbarian. Come say hello."
"Real fuckin' gas, being called a barbarian by the likes of you."
But he does-- come over to say hello, that is. He was approaching all the while anyways, and stopped first before Hector and Rina. His hand stuck out for Hector's-- formalities and all. They've no doubt met before, but he still offers a firm shake of greeting for his fellow Galliard, and even goes so far as to hit him with a: "Good morning, -Rhya."
And then, next, murkily colored hazel eyes hopped down and over to the woman in the floppy hat. "And good morning to you." He wasn't the sort of Garou who would only address other figures of authority and war like himself, but rather than directly asking Rina who she was, Eddie directed the question back to Hector instead: "Who's this, your ma?"
It was a pretty easy guess to make, when it comes down to it.
Hector Ghosh
By the time Eddie has come out of the trees Hector has given his mom back her space and she is intend to stand on her own. She murmurs to Hector and he hears her and acquiesces the smaller of the two packs to her. She shoulders it and she is holding onto the straps when the stranger comes out of the trees.
The Uktena's eyes are concealed by the sunglasses but the Fenrir can read his respect and his pleasure at having the Cliath's company again all the same.
Who's this, your ma?
"Yeah," he says, "so watch your fuckin' mouth." Nice, Hector. "Ma, this is Eddie. He's a talesinger, like me, and uh..." He rubs the fingers of his right hand against his palm like something just dawned on him. "You probably don't wanna shake his hand." He wipes his palm on his pant leg and then punches the Skald in the shoulder. Pissing in the woods and shaking people's hands afterwards. Fuck, man. "Eddie, my mom." A beat. "Missus Ghosh."
"Good morning, Eddie," says Rina. She works in a middle school. This behavior doesn't faze her.
Lola Hawkes
Eddie wore no sunglasses-- he spent so much of his time out roaming the land with the Guardians that the brightness didn't quite register with him so much as it would with Hector's possibly still-bloodshot eyes. His skin was red from the sun (even though he did smell like sunscreen up close) and though he was somewhere around his and Lola's age there were crows feet beginning at the corners of his eyes too. This life aged them, Rina could tell. These were both boys, children in her scope of things, with gray hair and wrinkles developing prematurely.
This life, whatever it was, it aged them quickly.
The catch about not shaking hands was met with a laugh, and Eddie had bunched his shoulder up and turned like he was using his own bicep and shoulder as a shield for his chest and stomach. Like he's used to retaliation striking there instead. Though his shoulders themselves weren't particular broad, the muscle laid upon them was thick and defined and put on display by the lack of sleeves on his shirt. Still chuckling, the Get of Fenris made a show of rubbing his shoulder gingerly before looking back to Rina again. As he was minded, he kept his hands to himself, but still gave a smile full of big square white teeth when Rina bade him good morning in return.
"Mrs. Ghosh. Downright pleasure."
All the while, Lola had been posted a dozen feet away or so, where she had been before while scoping out the Caern's lands before them. She had been futzing around with a lighter and her walking stick, and only once she'd managed to light one of the two bundles of sage did she pocket the lighter and come to join. Eddie chose to acknowledge the Kinfolk's approach by swinging around and putting his arms out wide.
"Bring it in, Hawkes."
"Puaj, I don't want your hug."
This must be a common complaint, because Eddie utterly disregarded it and closed in anyways He made a show of trying to figure out what angle to approach from, then settled for one side and wrapped arms about her. Lola grunted, tolerated the affection for a tick of the second hand, and fended him off soon after with her walking stick and a complaint of: "You're covered in sweat already, Jesus man."
Naturally, Eddie wiped his forehead on her cheek before stepping back, hopping out of range of the walking stick. Rina sees something like a big brother harassing their little sister in the exchange, whereas Hector can find more of the truth to it. These two would have been packmates, probably until one or the other shuffled off the mortal coil, if Lola had ever Changed. While Lola wiped her face and grumbled to herself in Spanish, Eddie clapped his hands together and addressed Hector once more.
"So, what's the business? Are your parents coming to join Forgotten Questions now?"
Hector Ghosh
"It's a long story. I'll tell you later."
Or he probably won't. Uktena and all. This must be the nascency stages of his learning how to lie effectively. His story isn't one of glorious origins even if the line did start glorious. It's one of spiraling and madness and rape and lost birthrights. The woman standing next to him has a sharpness to her come of a difficult early life and she looks her age. Lola can see the Uktena in Rina even if she cannot sense her breeding. Dark intelligent eyes and mixed genes.
She's quiet through it all. Respectful in the way parents tend to be when meeting their children's friends and yet this is a different sort of quiet.
"This is Ma's first time at a Sept, so I just wanted to show her around." These two grew up together. They grew up here. He seems to expect already that the Skald is going to want to whisk her off: "Or, you know. I told Lola I wanted to show her around, and Lola was like 'Great! You can be my pack mule, and I'll show her around!'"
Being a month away from giving birth doesn't protect Lola from her mate's ball-busting any more than it protects her from her friend's hugs. She wasn't a delicate flower eight months ago and she sure as hell isn't now.
Lola Hawkes
Eddie Luske has spent some time around a couple of Uktena's children-- he knew Maria growing up, of course, and Lola's parents as well. There were some other Uktena about the Sept as well, and Eddie was good at watching and listening and learning. So, when Hector expressed that he'd tell the story later, the Skald didn't quite believe him, but knew better than to call him out on it or try to press the subject. Maybe he'd follow up asking for the story another time. For now, though, he shifted his focus over to Lola while Hector centered his ball-busting on her instead. Watching the would-be Ahroun ball-bust back was typically a good time.
And good old reliable Lola...
"Ain't my fault that me and mine have been with this Caern since before either of you even knew it existed." She took another drink of her water before offering the bottle to Eddie, who accepted the offer but was quick to drink and did not take much from her reserve. As though retaliating or accepting the drink was a one-or-the-other option, he didn't contest her insistence that ancestral right was something that made you a good guide.
While Eddie drank, Lola cut through a cloud of gnats with the sage-smokey end of her walking stick and looked to Rina, who had been keeping her quiet and watching and learning since the Skald had joined them.
"Is there a place you wanted to check out first? The cabin, the graves....?" Lola's tone was borderline monotonous, as often was the case when it was neutral, but it had an edge of concern to it. Like she was worried that Rina wasn't having a good time.
Hector Ghosh
Her son is not the most emotionally literate creature currently serving Gaia but when he glances over at his mother he can see the wrenching that the question does to her. Rina is not wavering between glazed automation and teary acceptance like she did during their first and what will likely be their only trip to San Jose but this is a heavy experience for her.
Just last night she'd likened accepting Hector's new life to converting to Hinduism for her husband. In reality it's more akin to suspecting her son had joined a cult and now she has to suspend her disbelief until she has proof to the contrary. And how the hell can a couple of moon-dancers prove that spirits and Gaia and all of that actually exist. They can talk about it. Shift into their war forms and show her that they're part something that isn't human. But Rina has lived the entirety of her fifty years as a human woman.
This scares her. They haven't even gotten into the park yet and the meaning of all of this scares her. She's already lost her son once because these people kidnapped him. She's trying though.
"I don't need to see the graves just yet," Rina says.
Something in her tone stings him as shrapnel would sting him and Hector snaps in a breath. Can't put a hand on her back because she took the pack from him. The moon is fattening but not swollen to the point where he cannot control himself. It isn't as if he can blame the moon for all his moods anyway. It isn't even the fault of the Rage.
He feels helpless awaiting the baby's birth and he feels guilt over what his disappearance did to his mother and Tamsin and Lola have both used the word 'Harano' in a sentence to describe what they're afraid might happen to him but while he has flirted with Harano they have not consummated the courtship yet. He was in a shitty mood yesterday and he's in a shitty mood today and when he speaks his tone is like a note strummed on a string drawn too tight. The string doesn't snap but the note doesn't sound right either.
"Lola," he says, "she's never been to a Caern before." He doesn't say fucking Caern but they can all hear it. "You wanna show her around, or you wanna wait in the cabin until we're done?"
This is why Rina brought a bottle of Valium to Colorado with her.
Lola Hawkes
I don't need to see the graves just yet.
The answer had caused Hector to suck in a quick breath. Lola had picked up on the tone, but didn't react so sharply as her mate. She didn't have the passions of Rage to stoke her emotions, and it wasn't her mother who sounded so wrung out, so worried. She'd simply nodded, understanding that the prospect of visiting evidence of much death may be best skipped over, left for later after Rina's had more time to learn about the Nation and its War.
She had been about to move forward. Lola's lips parted and her head had turned-- she was about to say something to Eddie, but paused when Hector spoke instead.
While she wasn't the most socially graceful thing, Lola was not blind or deaf to the moods of others-- especially not to Hector. She heard the things unspoken, but seemed to be more focused on the things said instead. Her brow flexed and the Kinswoman frowned. She rubbed the side of her stomach and the frown went through a couple of stages-- thoughtful, conflicted, bothered.
Then:
"You go on ahead." She sounded like there was another sentence to follow that one, but had swallowed it back. Paused, and chose to replace it instead with another. "I'll see you back home. Got work to do on the garden anyway."
From there, she glanced back to Eddie and raised her eyebrows. "Wanna help build some planter boxes?" To which Eddie simply shrugged. Lola shrugged back, and looked to Hector and Rina again. Her body language was stiff. She wanted to start walking, clearly, but was waiting for some kind of confirmation or agreement first.
Hector Ghosh
Just before Hector disappeared he and his mother argued over whether he was going to eat breakfast before he went to school. All he had had was a glass of orange juice and Rina was concerned that he was getting too scrawny. Like she could hear his anger eating him up. He had always been a hyperactive child but towards the end was when she stopped recognizing him. What Hector will probably never forgive himself for is that the last time he saw his mother he threw a plastic tumblr into the sink and stormed out of the house and then he never came home that night.
She has no idea what just happened. No Rage roils up in her son but he reacts to something that the rest of them don't even sense and then Lola lets him go. Whatever he thinks or feels when she puts her hand to the side of her belly he keeps to himself but contrition comes to him fast.
"Keep an eye on her, man," Hector says. Tries to pass it off as a joke but the moment has grown tense and knowing Lola as they both know Lola it isn't much of a joke at all.
When he turns to keep on walking it's with a hand to Rina's elbow and a low C'mon, Ma but the lost kinswoman stands still a moment longer. Clearly confused by what just happened and uneasy around her son in this place and they can both see she doesn't want to be rude. The smile she gives them is weak but warm. The Fostern walks quickly and just as he's realizing his mother isn't moving she's forcing herself to.
"It was very nice meeting you, Eddie," she says.
And off they go.
---
Later on that afternoon Hector returns Rina to the Homestead and is barely there long enough to drink water straight from the hose before his packsister shows up. Tamsin greets Rina with enthusiasm and Rina is happy to meet her. Heard so much about her and wow isn't that something one of Hector's friends doesn't tower over her. Tamsin whisks Hector off and neither of them give much explanation as to where they think they're going.
They'll be back later. That's all the explanation is mother gets. Maybe they have to go practice. Hector earns a little money here and there playing shows with Tamsin but she's the singer and their little band's face and she's the one whose name people around town know.
"Okay," Rina says. Lifts a hand to wave to them but they've already turned to go.
Whether Lola was there for Tamsin's arrival or still out in the garden she has a line of sight on the woman as she adjusts her hat on her head and crosses her arms over her chest and watches the monster that used to be her son walk off with his friend. Can see if not hear her as she draws a deep breath and lets it out in a sigh.
Lola Hawkes
The foursome parted ways without much more said on the matter. Eddie just jerked his head upward in a motion of affirmation and acknowledgement and smiled when Hector advised him to keep an eye on Lola. It was a silent No worries.
The Get of Fenris, more pleasant than the tribe was stereotyped to be really, gave that smile to Rina too and echoed the sentiment with a "An honor. Take care, ma'am."
He and Lola then went back to the Homestead, taking a less-direct path and following a trail that their feet knew well. They spent the time talking: about Rina's being out here, about the fact that the woman was Lost up until Hector went back to find her again. How all of this was new. How Rina's being out here was supposed to help comfort and calm Hector, and now he was behaving as though he simply had one more thing to worry about.
They made their way back to the house their own due time, but Eddie was only around long enough to help put up two sides of the planter box before he was called away. Some business somewhere, who knew. But when duty called, you went. So Lola had set to work, and by the time the Ghoshes got back she had finished two boxes before calling it 'way too fucking hot' and going back inside.
After Tamsin had come and collected Hector and gone again, Lola was left to stand not far off from Rina, also bidding the two farewell as they went. For this proximity, the sigh certainly does not go missed.
Her father and sister weren't around to comment on how much Lola sounded like her mother when she-- without turning her head to look at her-- said to Rina:
"You're worried already."
She sounded a lot more like Lola and less like Knows the Whispering Ones when she followed up by unsmilingly, but genuinely, reassuring the other woman. "You'll get used to that. It's like the first stage of becoming a Kinfolk." And Lola would know all about that, wouldn't she?
Hector Ghosh
As the weeks pass a rhythm will establish itself. In everything Hector has always expected excellence and his behavior now that he is a Fostern is no exception. That he feels himself cracking under the pressure of welcoming their child into their lives is a constant source of aggravation for him and his mother has only been here for two days. She too is having to adjust her entire life to make room for her child. Not even six months ago she was taking medication to get through her days. Still has to. His reappearance didn't fix everything.
Like as not this is simply one more thing he has to worry about. But they will get through this. By this time two weeks from now Hector and his mother will have started to sort out how to talk to each other again. He will have started building fires in the backyard again. Sitting out by it smoking pot and talking to his mother. Telling stories. Reminiscing as a means of reestablishing their relationship.
In time Rina will be able to say Hector's name in the same tone his father uses and it will correct him even if it does not calm him. His father might have been a better candidate for this task but they could never bring his father to the Caern. And now they're asking Rina to keep secrets from the man with whom she's shared everything the last thirty years.
This sucks.
Before he leaves he puts a hand on the back of Lola's head and rests his forehead against hers before tattooing the space with his lips. He's gone when she sighs.
Rina's worried already. The tiny woman looks over at her daughter-in-law and gives her a tight smile. With her hands rested on either elbow and her weight distributed equal between her two feet she looks easily broken and as if she would persevere anyway.
"Of course I'm worried," she says. Gentle. Easier to speak to Lola gentle than to speak to Hector gentle. Lola doesn't make her nervous. "I've already lost him once." Oh well. She releases her elbows and turns back towards the house. "Let's have lunch."
Lola Hawkes
On at least one occasion when Lola had observed Rina quietly and stoically, as was her way, she'd had the same thought occur: Narendra may have been the more ideal choice for who to send out after all. Not because he was a medical doctor (not that kind of doctor, but still), but because he struck Lola as a man who did not shake. She was surprised by how well he held up to Hector and his Rage, impressed with him.
He was human, though, and this was no place for him to be. If either were to come, it had to be Rina.
But when Lola looked at her with that tight smile, those thin shoulders, that small frame, she creased her brow with the very thing they spoke of-- worry.
Still, she just nodded and went inside when Rina suggested they have lunch. It wouldn't be until they were eating that Lola would try to spark a conversation again.
Lola may have cooked, or Rina may have offered, or it may have been a dual effort. Whatever it is they wound up eating, Lola recommended that they go to the patio table and chairs on the patio out back. The heat wasn't so terrible if you weren't hiking and climbing around. The sun tea that Lola brewed a few days earlier was chilled and refreshing and helped cool them also. The heavily pregnant Kinfolk had downed a third of her glass quickly before leaning back in her chair. One hand settled on top of her belly, pressing slow and idle like she could somehow shift her squished-up organs around to make more room for the contents of her stomach.
"Rina." She said the woman's name to begin. Were she to glance up at her daughter-in-law she'd find the severe looking young woman all but staring her down across the table. Like she was full of resolve and intent, though, not threat and violence. That was a very different stare that she probably wouldn't ever have to see.
"We can talk at you about the Nation and all of this until our lungs collapse and not begin to cover all of it." Her use of a pause is misplaced. It makes it seem like she's about to end there, and Rina might be about to prompt Lola to continue or try and sum up a response that would work by the time Lola finished her thought. "You'll take more away from here if you ask questions. You must have some by now?"
[[ Faaaade away. There was much conversation about things that are Garou related. ]]
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