Further Than That [Gina, Matthieu, Erek]

[Gina McClaren] *The Heartland Mall was not the hot-spot it used to be. Tuesday shoppers mill through over-wide halls listless and bored. Too cheery elevator music is pumped over top of the low hum of electronics as customers drift in and out of stores, watched resentfully by underpaid clerks impatient to lock up and be done with their second rate jobs so as to get home to their second rate lives.

Off the food court, in the hall between the pastel hell of a children's clothing store, and a cheap knockoff of a bed-bath-and-beyond, are four long tables set in a square. In the middle stand two kin, Owl and Fenris blood, tending to half a dozen puppies in showcase cages.

Gina for her part, holds a wiggling daschund mutt puppy in her arms, singsong calling out at passersby.*

Support yer local Animal Shelter! Breng home a new dag taenecht!

*Yes. Bring home a new "Dag". The tawny kin is all warmth and smiles as she holds a struggling wiener-dog to the cushion of her bosom. Freud would have a hayday.*

[Drew Roscoe] Yesterday had been an odd, rough day. That was a great way to describe most of the past week, truth be told. She'd needed something of an escape, away from the house without going to the Church, or the Brotherhood. A break from seclusion, from the repetition of work-home-Garoudrama-work-home-work-home. Gina was the first logical place to go, she could vent frustrations and stories into her ear, the Owl kin could do the same, and they could talk without hiding, but not have to fret over who they were impressing, or who overheard what.

From the phone call came a brilliant idea. Puppies cheer anyone up, and Gina'd spotted an ad, heard a word somewhere that a shelter was having an adoption drive and could use a helping hand. Drew and Gina were impossible to turn down on their own, and when they appeared side by side batting eyelashes and insisting that they were best for the job? Hell, secret services would let them in to the Oval Office with guns in at their hips and vials of poison in their pockets.

Gina's got a wriggling long-bodied pup in her arms, calling out about 'dags' and making men stare a little longer at the phallic little dog squiggling against her ample chest. Drew's got a boxer pup with a cast on it's back leg in her arms, and is beaming precisely as warmly and openly as Gina is. Her voice is more alike to the native Chicago residents, she grew up only a hundred or so miles away after all. It's quite the contrast to Gina's sing-songy pikey speech, but goes well with it anyways.

"They're all spayed and neutered, most paper-trained! How can you resist these faces?" While holding the puppy's face up next to her own, only for it to lick spastically at her cheek.

[Erek Skulason] *It's a bad week for our boy Erek. Confused and misused, the young lad is moving through a phase that has more to do with being a rebellious 18-year-old than a Garou. In the short time he's been here, his hormones have runaway with him, and his head has twisted in so many ways that his emotions are in a jumble. The gang banging he received from Hunter and John at the BroHo seems to be the pivotal point to all the angst that has escalated since his arrival. A few weeks to him feels like a year.

He roams the mall, hands stuffed into the pockets of the jacket that Drew had got him, blond hair curling along his ears and the back of his neck, spilling across his brow to fall into his eyes. The flat line of his mouth pressed firmly into a permanent frown, giving off this broodish appeal that has a small group of teenage girls stalking him from store to store wherever he went. After rounding past the food court a few times to lose them, he starts to head out.

It wouldn't be difficult for him to pick up that songbird voice of the little gypsy woman, such a caramel delight to the senses, and Erek clears his throat. He inhales deeply, huffing out in a sigh as he follows the sounds of Gina's voice. To his surprise, Drew also happens to be with her, and it makes the young Get of Fenris duck his head down between his shoulders*

[Gina McClaren] *A ruddy brown muzzle is pressed against Gina's chin, ribbon of wet pink tongue lapping at her with carefree enthusiasm as the dachshund tries to climb mountainous cleavage to its natural conclusion, and ends up more or less perched atop boobage, clutched close as Gina fights not to get licked all over.*

Och - L- Pleh. Look o' thes Puppy love! Ye c-blecht!

*Whatever singsonging announcement the strider kin was going to make to the population of the heartland mall is derailed entirely by raucous laughter as she attempts to dodge a dedicated mouth licking. Veering towards Drew and beginning to fumble with eyes closed at the latch of the Dacsi's cage.
A wash of hot liquid down the pikey's stomach announces the arrival of Erek, Gina's eyes flying open to look first at her satin shirt turning from light blue to dark in the wake of puppy piddle.
Then to the now yowling puppy in her arms.
And as a wash of rage approaches more closely, dark eyes slip to the cause.

AH. Garou.

Erek gets an exasperated half smile as the pikey's hand rises and falls at her dripping shirt, before she chimes at Drew.*

Bogey incomin darlin. Bes' lock up yer dag oor ye'll be covered en pess.

*A wry quirk of her lips as she stows a yowling puppy away.*

[Drew Roscoe] Drew was chuckling at the dog trying to turn the shelf of Gina's breasts into a bed, shaking her head and moving the puppy she was holding, slightly older and all long gangly legs (probably why one of them was broken, it was such an ungainly little thing) so it was standing on one of the tables, so she wasn't holding it against her stomach anymore. Gina's having trouble with her squirmy thing, trying to lick at her mouth and nostrils, and then all the puppies that were in their cages started to make some varying degrees of ruckus-- from yowling like Gina's puppy to whimpering and trying to hide its face under an elbow like Drew's.

Rage bubbles up, strikes terror in the little animals while it only prickles the Kin. Gina gets wet with puppy urine, Drew's puppy was on the table so it winds up cowering in its own puddle. She made a face, sympathetic to the plight of the little creatures, and put the boxer pup back in its cage, pressing firmly on its rear end against the press of little paws and claws on the bottom of its kennel, not wanting to go in, wanting to stay with a Person, someone who could keep it safe. It was forced in anyways, and went to curl in the back, whimpering and shivering with a stuffed squeak toy at its paws.

Gina announces that there's a 'Bogey' coming, and Drew blinks at her once, then straightens up and glances about the mall aisle to try and pick out of the crowd who she could be talking about. She's got her arms over her head while she looks, adjusting the ponytail that her hair was tied back into so that puppies wouldn't chew on it. She's dressed in a faded out long-sleeved Bears shirt (we ignore who won the Superbowl here in Chicago) and a pair of jeans.

Eyes pick Erek out of the crowd, and her face is still for a second, like she doesn't know how to respond.

It lands on a smile. It was slightly apologetic toward how he ducked his head and hunched his shoulders. "Erek," she called, and waved.

[Erek Skulason] *Erek's rage borders the middle of the line, it wasn't high enough to send humans fleeing from him like a flock of birds stirred up, it sits right on that line between comfortable and unbearable. He does make the humans give him a second look. His main focus was on Gina, watching how she handled the pup and avoid getting a tongue bath. His eyebrows lifted up high on his forehead as it leaked on her. He looks away, a hand pulled out to cover his mouth as he tried not to laugh*

Oh fuck!

*It's muttered behind his hand, a chuckle muffled into his palm. He tilts his eyes to take in the scope of Drew as he approached them. Dropping his hand down he offers her a small grin*

Am I disrupting the puppy peace?

[Gina McClaren] Yer disruptin somethen, Chancer.

*Chimes Gina from a few feet away, clicking the lock shut on a cage with one hand, and plucking at her soggy shirt with the other. Despite her condition, her voice is rich with warmth and teasing melody, pikey shaking her head and moving to dab at herself with one of the wetwipes provided versus just such puppy accidents. Still looking at her sullen shirt, she sings.*

Ye adoptin a puppy darlin, oor lookin tae crawl entae a cage yerself?

[Drew Roscoe] Drew's glancing from Erek to Gina, handing her an extra wipe to replace the one that fades yellow with the urine it's wiping away from the Owl Kin's clothing. She grins, faintly, and shakes her head. "I keep an extra set of clothes in the truck," she explains, but shakes her head because they both know that wouldn't work, "but I doubt they'd fit you." Not for being broader at the waist, but because Gina's bust size positively dwarfed Drew's. They were not the type of friends that could share clothes-- maybe shoes but that could be all.

Gina jostles Erek about adopting or climbing into a kennel, and Drew glances between the pair with a chuckle. Her knees bent, well-developed leg muscles pressing on the denim that covered them, and she stuck her fingers through the kennel of another puppy, a little mop of brown-and-tan fur. The animal whimpered and cowered and refused to come close to the front of the pen, and Drew clucked her tongue sympathetically.

"Wouldn't honestly recommend the adopting. S'why I gave Basil another home, this here."

[Erek Skulason] Looking to crawl into a cage and see if some young lady will take me home and adopt me.

*He says this in a false cheery tone, wearing a smile for Gina that lacks any real emotion. The ladies can see dark circles forming under the boy's nice blue eyes, and if he hadn't healed last night, they would see have been privileged to the wounds he bore when a pair of Garou beat him into unconsciousness. His chest rises again, stretching the double layer of thick fabric of cotton and flannel tightly over his torso as he breathes in, holding it for a second and then releases it out through his nose. Normally, he breathes through his diaphragm, but not today*

I guess I shouldn't be hanging around here. They ain't liking the looks of me too much.

*He snorts softly, looking over at Drew as he dips his head in a nod of agreement. He looks from the puppies to the two kin, trying not to focus on just one person as much as he'd like to*

[Gina McClaren] *Drew has seen this look before. Gina's head tilting, dark eyes squinting just a little more, as the little brown woman taps into whatever nigh magical power it was that that allowed her emotional X-ray vision. Her dabbing of soiled fabric becomes listless. Lips pursing as she singsongs*

Malls closin en fifteen, puppy keepers arrivin tae peck these fellies oop shortish like.

*Dark eyes slip from Drew to Erek and back again, before Gina's shrugging and gesturing from one Get to the other with her head.*

Why dinnae ye an' tha lad 'ave yerselves some tater-tots while ye can gi' em? Ah'm aulready covered en pess. Ah'll hold tha fort fer a few...

[Drew Roscoe] Gina was talented in several ways. She couldn't run a mile, got winded easily, but she could see through people like they were made of tissue paper. She looked between Erek and Drew, then chirped merrily while gesturing between the two, suggested they go get something from the food court while Gina held down the fort until the people from the shelter arrived to pack the remaining pups into the van and take them back for the night. Drew's eyeing her, mouth set in a straight line for a second, then relents after she got a pitiful lick on the knuckles from a puppy in a kennel and rises back to her feet.

She tugs the hem of her shirt down over the back of her pants, those pesky things had a habit of riding up when you crouch down and lean forward that way. "Alright," the Fenrir Kin says, and walks around out from behind the tables. "You want anything? I could pick up a shirt and you can just hit me back for it later... That way you don't have to go out in the cold all wet like that."

She's moving over nearer to Erek's side, keeping a decent buffer of two feet between their elbows. Comfortable without being close enough to suggest relations. Her hands stuffed down into the hip pockets of her jeans, and her eyebrows lifted as she surveyed Gina, one a little higher than the other. More than likely Drew would insist, guess on a shirt size, and go hunt something down for her. Knowing Drew it would be practical rather than to Gina's tastes, but it would probably at least keep her warm and dry until she could change.

[Erek Skulason] I think Gina's a large, but you'll probably want to avoid a slim cut as it'll just accentuate her ...

*This is where his cheeks go aflame for just a second as Erek's blue eyes cut a direct path across Gina's ample accoutrement. He wipes a hand over his mouth, the left corner of his mouth tilting up in a boyish smirk that has more emotion in it than Gina read earlier. That's not to say he wasn't going to try and wear a false smile still, but he's definitely distracted*

Food, yes, sounds awesome. I haven't eaten all day. You don't think it'll harm my girlish figure will you? I'm trying to slim down to fit into this nice size 2 that I bought recently.

*Humor bleeds through as Erek strikes a girly pose for the ladies, sweeping his hands down the side of his body as he tosses his hair back, shaking it vigorously to flip his head out of his eyes and purse his lips, which makes him laugh*

[Matthieu] Matt showed up at the Mall a little later than he had intended. He was chatting on his iPhone as he made his way through the shops in question to pick up a few accessories to decorate the office. He wasn't really thinking much about his surroundings and was apparently far more interested in whoever was on his phone.

He hadn't expected to bump into anyone he had known, or anyone he didn't know. He had simply expected to get in at the last minute and get back out. Too many important things to be bothered with the day to day affairs of the peons swarming around him like ants. Honestly there was a slight look of displeasure on his face... He didn't care much for the smell of most humans they had this stench to them. Not the stench of deodorant, that was pleasant when they were kind enough to wear it. They had the stench of creatures who would put anything they wanted in their bodies for absolutely any reason that popped into their vacant little skulls. Humans were such disgusting vile little creatures most of the time, there were only a rare few that any decent individual, like himself, could stomach for any length of time.

In and out Matthieu. Just make sure none of them touch you... The oils secreted by the poor are like blood they never wash out no matter how hard you try. You can always see the marks left behind. not physical marks something deeper as if they've penetrated the very soul of the fabric.

[Gina McClaren] *A snort of laughter as the pikey bends down to fuss with one of the cages under the table, disappearing for several moments. Singsong muffled.*

Jest a cheap t-shert'll be peachy darlin. Ah'll pay ye fer et when ye g'back.

*A brown hand waves above the table as a cage of chihuahuas that care little for what dress size Erek's trying to fit into begin a loud chorus of terrified yipping. Their ballsy response to a looming predator drowning out everything but the basic melody of whatever it is Gina says upon standing. Exasperated, the pikey waves her hands in universal "go!" wincing apologetically as she strokes yowling dogs through the bars of their cages.*

[Drew Roscoe] Drew smirked a little while Erek blushed at nearly blurting out what his mind had done with Gina's body figure would it be set in a cinched style of a shirt. Her answer was to adjust her ponytail again, then sink her hands into her pockets once more. "Nothing wrong with a bit of flaunt. You should wait for summer when she dances." Her smirk broadens into a full grin, and she's nodding to Gina when she insists that a cheap T-shirt would do the job.

Dogs yowl and yap, Gina flinches and waves for them to go, and Erek is tipping a hip out, tossing his shaggy blonde hair, and laughing at his own cheesy impersonation of Jessica Rabbit. Drew answers by bumping his hip with her elbow, just enough to throw his balance, and turning to venture out into the hall. She's making a bee-line for a clothing store only two storefronts up from where they were stationed. She'd get the shirt first, and then worry about food... Even though Erek's stating that he hadn't eaten yet today had drawn a scowl of concern onto her face.

Once they're away from the table, she's half-muttering up to Erek: "You're supposed to be keeping yourself fed. Do you need me to palm you some food cash? Trust me, I'd much rather be feeding you than forking over deposit money on this damn August-girl's two-bedroom apartment..."

She's speaking half-under her breath, but loud enough to be heard over the background noise that was ever-present in a mall.

She doesn't see Matthieu up ahead, he's worried about staring at a particularly unpleasant example of a human, some girl with too-tight pants and too-short of a shirt, with her bleached out hair in a tightly slicked back ponytail and a baby stroller in front of her. They're on a course for collision, because there was no better way than that to meet around here.

[Erek Skulason] *Erek's presence is obviously making the puppies uncomfortable, people were going to start noticing any moment now. He edges away from the tables and cages, dogging after Drew like a lost puppy himself. His eyes slipping away from Gina as he flashed her a quick smile. He rakes a hand over his scalp a few times, ducking his head down like an scolded dog as he listens to Drew going on about his lack of eaten. It makes his eyebrows dance up and down over his forehead*

I wasn't in the mood to eat much since I was recovering from getting my ass beat down last night. Two of the wolves over at the BroHo decided to gang bang in the hallway just outside the bathrooms. John held me down while his buddy laid into me with fucking stone-hard fists. I wasn't pretty after that.

*He shrugs his shoulders at her, tucking his hands into the pockets of his coat* It looking good as usual, I'm glad I got to see you, Drew.

[Matthieu] [Beast Speech Roll!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Matthieu] Matthieu might not care so much for men and women but the sounds of whimpering in the halls of the Mall capture his attention. Not only was there whimpering but there was fear in the voices of puppies... Puppies... Who love everything. If there was someone scaring puppies then that meant that something was up and Matthieu wasn't about to sit idly by and let someone bring harm to innocent puppies.

Many might miss it... The responsibility his tribe holds to the animal kingdom is a great one. Anyone who would call the Lion the king of Beasts obviously hasn't met Matthieu Louvel de Ponthieu! His ears begin to decipher the message from the puppies. Monster eh? That doesn't sound good. Hmm I suppose a slight detour couldn't hurt!

So soon enough Matt was headed in the direction of the poor whimpering Puppies. Matthieu had rage himself but he had an edge or two in dealing with Animals that many garou did not. He was no Red Talon or Child of Gaia... But he wasn't a commoner he was a King!

[Drew Roscoe] They're just outside the store, about to walk in, when crucial point words coming from Erek's teeth and tongue had her snatching him by the wrist of his coat and hauling him off to the side of the store front, out of the doorway, away from the glass windows that were lined with mannequins and into a stout little hallway of brick wall, out of the way, housing only a drinking fountain, a fire extinguisher, and a heavy door that read 'Employees Only' in bold black letters on the front.

She's speaking in a hushed voice, but there's plenty of tension behind it. Her eyes are wide, teeth clamped together, and the anger and disbelief on her words seem to be grated only further by the fact that she was all but whispering her distress to him.

"John did what? Who was the other guy? What the hell was it for?"

She bites the words short, looks past him toward Gina trying to wrangle all the puppies and keep them calm in the remaining ten-or-so minutes before the shelter employees showed up to take them back to their pens and pavement floors, then looks back up into the Rotagar's face. She's reading it, eyes hopping from one features to the next. She frowns hard, shakes her head and looks down as she pulls her wallet out of her back pocket and opens it up. Two twenty dollar bills are fished out and tucked into his coat pocket so that he doesn't have a chance to refuse if she tries to hold them out for his fingers to claim instead.

"Get some food, find somewhere warm. I'm gonna talk to him."

[Gina McClaren] *A wet nosed pug-cross gnaws worriedly at Gina's fingertips, yelping in between needle toothed bites at soft brown skin. Drew and her puppy torturing kinsman move off, and Gina rests an abundant hip against the newspaper covered display table, sighing deeply at the slowly fading cacophony around her. Mall patrons were beginning to scowl at the dusky owl-kin and her yapping animals, and she's mid-wince when she spots a familiar cut from too expensive a cloth to belong here. Matthieu Louvel de Ponthieu. Her expression cast fond as she raises her free hand in resigned hello.*

Allo!

*A sharp yip of pain, and this time not from the puppy, Gina snatching her hand back from the cage, holding her fist to her chest with a deepening scowl.*

[Erek Skulason] *Erek flows with the motions as the little kin in front of him grabs a hold of his coat and sweeps him away to the side of a storefront. His features twist into a light scowl, looking around at the customers that walk by them. His hands pull from his pockets, reached out to clasp on her shoulders, long fingers gently squeezing them as he can feel the tension in her body. She whispers her distress to him, and he's shaking his head at her*

Drew, don't do that. You'll just make things worse, and it'll look bad on me if I got some kin coming to my defenses and trying to fight my battles with me. Things'll blow over.

*He says nothing about the money she stuffs into his coat pocket, tells him to go get food. He pulls his hands from her shoulders, cups the sides of her face and leans down to touch his forehead to hers. Blue eyes meeting brown. He breathes her in for a seconds, shutting his eyes and releases her, sliding out away from the wall*

Stay adorable, Drew, you're cute when your angry.

*He chuckles, walking backwards as he moves off into the crowd, hands in his pockets, unsure if she'll listen to him or not. He banks on the thought that she'll likely charge off anyway*

[Matthieu] Matt gave a little smile as the whole world seemed to disappear. It was as if the lights were turned down in the world surrounding him and only the light directly above Gina shone from overhead. Indeed the world was his stage and his imagination did as it pleased. She stood there as he folded his way out of the cloud and came to stand before them. He looks directly into Gina's eyes, and his smile lifts so very very slowly into something far more charming. A hand lifts to adjust his tie and he glanced around before stepping a little closer in response to her wave. He took the time to smile at Drew, a charming little grin shining through and oh how those eyes stared.

Matthieu carried himself with the grace and certainty any would expect out of royalty and his clothing practically shouted out to anyone looking at him that he was simply better than them in every conceivable way. Not to foreshadow Matthieu's humility which was also likely far greater than most as well, just to emphasize the simple truth that is the Silver Fang. The man was born to rule and everything about him radiated power even to the common man who stepped aside to let him through.

"Hello... I heard the cry of puppies calling out for help and..."She was in pain and now holding her hand. Matt was quick to step a little closer and tilt his head curiously."Let me see that!"He says softly asking for Gina's hand. His warm smile showing through.

[Drew Roscoe] Erek had learned a trick in the time that he spent with Drew. Tapped into a fond memory of hers and let a finger or two stay in that particular memory pie. He'd touched his forehead to hers on one occasion before, and she'd cried because the gesture meant more than just the physical touch alone. It was the memory of a friend (again, that word was far too weak and flimsy for use here), and it slipped her off the topic at hand and onto something else entirely. Distracted her. Subdued her.

So when Drew was gnashing her teeth and threatening to go fight a battle for him, he took her by the shoulders, then by either side of the face and tapped his forehead against hers with a light, momentary touch before drawing back and standing up straight. She blinked once, then frowned (but more gently now) up at him and shook her head slowly. He told her to stay adorable as some variant of a farewell before walking away, and she stood in place for a second, scrubbing her fingers against her forehead and frowning.

He was right, though. It'd make him look weak to go pick a fight in his place. She'd just have to let this one be.

Her eyes hop to the man standing in front of the table full of yowling puppies, reaching for Gina's hand. She hesitated, searching the other Kin's face, making sure that she was alright. There was some recognition on the Owl Kin's face, she seemed happy enough to see the man that was unfamiliar to Drew. So, content for now, the Fenrir kin turned and entered the store that she was originally headed toward. To go pick out a shirt that Gina could wear home.

[Gina McClaren] *Mattheou has seen Gina in more favorable situations. He's watched dark eyes open beside him in the orange glow of Italian sunrise. He's met her tipsy and full of raucous spirit, needing a firm hand on her back to keep her giddy self upright. And now he's met her bleeding and covered in dacshund pee.

The honeymoon is definitely over.

Galliard reaching for her hand and far smaller woman turning her shoulders away from him, singsonging teasingly above the ruckus of yowling puppies. *

Here tae coddle me, Fang?

*Dark eyes slip down the mall to catch Drew and Erek parting ways, a moment's attention to ensure everything was alright, before she focusses on the dazzling blonde and relinquishes her palm into his with a raise of her eyebrow.*

Thenk ah'll live?

[Matthieu] He caught the smell of urine and it made him smirk a little. The poor girl is in quite an embarrassing situation now isn't she? Then she turns away and he chuckles softly to her then shrugs his shoulders."I was here to do some shopping when I heard those puppies screaming out that someone was trying to hurt them and I thought to myself... Who would want to hurt a puppy? More importantly what kind of monster could cause a puppy to respond like that."He laughs to himself then nods his head."I should hope you will live. You need a shower! This would be a terribly humiliating way to die."He says softly to the strider kin with a voice denoting familiarity and fondness.

He chased back the pungent scent in the air in favor of other memories. Besides he was part wolf himself so it wasn't as if he was entirely unfamiliar with the scent. Even Silver Fangs have Lupus who make use of their urine in all manner of dirty ways.

He looks over towards Drew and offers a little wave and a polite smile."Evening... I heard the cry of puppies and thought I should investigate."

"I trust their howls had something to do with your friend there?"He motions in the direction Erek had left before looking back towards the cage and kneeling down. Now Matt had rage but where Matt differed from most was the fact that the noises he made at the puppies were actually understood in the same way one might understand a language. He did not make their fear go away but he conveyed to them that they were safe and that he would protect them from any monsters! Though the Kinfolk present might not even realize this is what he was doing. He had a way with animals that most garou did not!

He soon stood and looked between the two."Are you trying to give them away?"He asks curiously to either one who wishes to answer.

[Gina McClaren] Lookin fer a folk tae adopt em. Reckon the shelter folks'll be picken em oop soon.

*Drew veers into a store, rather than approaching the royal and his pee soaked peasant, and Gina shakes her head. Settling a hand on Matt's chest before remembering herself and looking around the Silverfangs shoulder for quick to accuse company.*

Sae, wha brengs yer illustrious self tae tha mall? Doesnae seem yer sort o haunt darlin..

*Translation - are you alone?*

[Matthieu] He smiles a little then looks at the puppies and then back to her."Well Puppies are usually adopted easily enough from the local shelter. Though if you wanna make certain they all find good homes..."He takes his iPhone and begins searching for a local address."... Most local dog rescues are happy enough to take in puppies and they're a little more strict on where the dog goes to. All we gotta do is find you one and they'll make sure they get into a good home."He says with a nod."If you'd like I can even drive them out there."He adds.

"Passing them out like free samples at a local Mall is one of the major reasons we have shelters in the first place. No need to add to the problem no?"He asks her with a smile when he finds a number and dials it up.

"I was just doing a little shopping for the office before heading home myself. Long day."He adds with a little nod.

[Gina McClaren] Peaches.

*Its flat, as Gina gestures to all the posters and pamphlets marking the dogs as adoptable from a local shelter, her mouth set in a wry grin. Enough said, bloody fingered hand teasing through her hair as she looks at agitated dogs and sighs.*

Reckon ah'd best be gi'en these wee fellies back tae customer service. Deliver em tae the shelter folks.
Ah'd keep wan meself effen ah didnae 'ave yer kind prowlin around aulways. Stirrin em oop. Sides.. Ah'd need a house fer tha.

[Drew Roscoe] "Fellow, if we were asking for you to scrutinize us for getting puppies out of a kennel in a dark room and, at the very least, played with for a few hours..."

Drew returned to the table, moving around and behind Matthieu with a small plastic bag in her hand, white with pink and purple flowers dappled all over it from the store that she'd purchased the item from, and tossed the bag loosely, lazily to Gina. She'd bobbed her arm and made eye contact with the other kin so that she was ready for the catch before she lightly tossed the bag, underhand of course, to Gina.

Drew had pulled her hair down out of the ponytail sometime while she was in the store, with the elastic snapped around her wrist and her thick, almost too-lengthy rich brown hair tumbling haphazardly down her back as it pleased. She moved behind the tables, eyeballing Matthieu with uncertainty on her face. Whatever Erek and she had talked about when she'd dragged him into that small out-of-the-way corner intended more for mall janitors and security guards than anyone else, it'd set her on some kind of an edge.

She doesn't finish the sentence that she'd let trail off but instead nods to Gina. The shirt in the bag was a size large, a broad and comfortably cut faded yellow sweater with some white designs printed into the fabric-- out of style because it was trying to imitate the 80's and people didn't care about the 80's as much this season as they did last. Drew'd pulled it off the sale rack.

"Go on and change, Gina. I can wrap up here."

[Matthieu] He gave a little grin first to Drew and then he glanced back at Gina."If you have the time I'd like to offer you a ride home or the like. We can grab a bite to eat or something... Nothing too fancy or formal. I just thought it would be nice to chat again."He says to Gina as she makes her way off to change.

His attention turns back to Drew."Well if you're helping the Shelter then you're doing a damn fine thing and you should be applauded for all your hard work here. In fact I am going to call the local Shelter first thing in the morning and tell them what a fine job I think you are doing and leave behind a little donation to help them out. It might not be much but it will at least be enough to get these dogs some light in their kennel... We can't have puppies living in shelters with no light can we?"He asks her with a little grin."Which shelter is this you are working with?"

[Drew Roscoe] Drew's eyes were nothing but skeptical on Matthieu's handsome, charming face. Drew wasn't one taken to beauty so easily as the girls that trail by, letting their eyes linger on the Fang long enough to taste the thrill of danger that was his Rage before continuing on were. She recognized it, appreciated it from time to time, but it didn't hold near as much water with her as maybe it ought to.

Gina had to reassure her. Before she left to change, she'd touched Matthieu's arm with familiarity, letting her fingers edge down the length of it, and looked at Drew pointedly, telling her that he was Matthieu, and he was 'good folk'. Then she was on her way to change, and Drew was leaning over the table to do busywork-- shuffling pamphlets and taking down signs. The adoption drive was over for the day, the mall was going to start closing up-- shops were dropping their gates and kiosks were getting covered with tarps. Matthieu wanted to know what shelter she worked for, was offering donations and the like, and the petite Kinfolk with a whisper of Great Fenris in her blood was rolling up a sign that had been hanging off the front of one table, tying it with its own strings so it wouldn't unroll again.

"I don't work for the shelter, Gina and I were just volunteering to help out today is all. But it's the Lakeview Humane Society, and I'm sure they'd love whatever donation you'd be willing to leave." Her voice is losing the terseness that had been there initially. Instead she sounds tired. Not physically, she doesn't move like she's lagging, like she needs to sleep. She doesn't have circles under her eyes and her skin isn't sallow. She looks healthy-- strong even, her jeans fit her thighs and rear snugly, not for bountiful curves like what Gina had but for muscle, stuff built up from years of gymnastics, pushing and pulling hard stunts that most wouldn't even imagine attempting.

The halls are quieter now, customers are being ushered out. Matthieu is close enough to the girl working the adoption table, and his Rage is plentiful to the point that no one bothers to ask him to leave. It's easier to just assume that he's with the Shelter Girls and leave it at that. The dogs are whining and whimpering in their kennels, and Drew's stacking flyers up and slipping them and the pamphlets into a tote bag.

"Listen... It ain't my place, I've only just met you, but I've known Gina for a long, long time. She's as close to a sister as I've ever had. I don't want you jerking her around, okay?"

[Matthieu] Matthieu watched the woman with a bit of a smirk on his face and his eyes drew over the woman oh so slowly. He seemed to pause to ponder everything that the woman said. Her every word was carefully weighed within his head... he was obviously thinking about what she said and about how to respond for a moment or two before shrugging his shoulders and smiling oh so lightly.

"That is funny... Because I've seen the way her tribe and the rest of the sept seem to treat her. I see in her eyes a desire and a want to smile to share a genuine smile that will light up the world around her but something seems to be stopping it from getting out."He shrugs his shoulders."I've seen her happy... Truly happy... Mostly happy and I would like to see more of that but I fear this place has an effect on the poor woman."He skoffs softly and traces his tongue over his teeth as he looks the woman directly in the eye.

"I've no intention of jerking anyone around. I simply wish to see Gina and make certain she is doing well. I don't see how that is anyone's business but she and my own."He adds with a little shrug of his shoulders.

[Drew Roscoe] His eyes are following the lines of her body, studying it as well as he analyzes her words. She's built compact, he can tell by the way she moves that she's got a strength and a grace to her that has everything to do with controlling one's own body, but not a lot to do with physically dominating others. Even in Homid he could subdue her without too much of a fight, he was sure. She didn't look much like the blood in her veins told him she should. She was not tall, long legged or statuesque. Her hair was brown instead of blonde, her eyes brown as well rather than the vivid, icy blue that was so trademark to her people. She was tightly muscled in the arms and belly under her shirt. Stout was a decent word for her, even though she was slim at her waist and modest with her bustline. 'Made from the earth' was an easy thought to come about with her.

But that aside, her mannerisms, expressions, how her face was soft and rounded and her eyes were large and doe-like, they were all outlandishly cute. She inspired in others a desire to protect. To look upon her was to look upon the last mewling kitten left in a box on the side of the road with 'free' inked in marker along the side of it.

Still, as he's talking about Gina, how he wants her happy, and how that's only his and her business, Drew is frowning at the second sign she's rolling up and speaking in a low voice to him. "If that's the case, and if what I understand about your wilting lily of a to-be-mate is true, then you should keep your eyes somewhere above my chin."

The second sign is tied up, and she's opening her mouth to speak further, but stopped when she notices a pair of women-- one in her twenties and the other, shorter with gray hair-- coming toward her but stopping short. They both wore white button-up shirts with an insignia for the Lakeview Humane Society on the left breast. They were hesitating, looking at Matthieu, unsure of whether to approach or not with him there. Drew sighs, sounds tired again, and lifts a hand to scrub her palm over her face, then wrangles her hair and twists it into a knot that comes to rest behind her left ear, securing it there with the elastic about her wrist.

"Look, I'm sorry. If you really wanna continue this conversation we can, but I'm gonna help these ladies load up. You should probably be scarce, though. I know how normal folk tend to be 'round you guys."

[Matthieu] He rolls his eyes and sighs. She was under the impression, like so many, that any glance below the neckline was intended in a sexual manner."Oh is that what you were thinking?"He asks with a hint of a laugh."That because my eyes happened to wander somewhere below your chin I was showing some veiled interest in getting you into bed? I will admit you're a lovely woman and certainly full of all kinds of spunk but I am not that kind of man. I do know the kinds of dirty tainted sniveling whelps you are used to dealing with my dear but I will assure you right now that I am not one of them. Misconceptions like that can leave a girl looking or seeming foolish in the wrong company."He leans in and lowers the tone of his voice a hint."That I hold Gina in high respect and that you are her friend I will be willing to let it slide and reassure you that sizing another person up is a habit that comes with having to tear them limb from limb on a daily basis. I apologize if it was seen as anything more than that!"He says with a polite bow of his head the annoyance drifting before he gives another nod.

"Right then... I will just go stand over there and wait for the two of you to finish up over here."He says with a soft little sigh. Annoyed to all hell that he would have to wait on account of frightening the other volunteers. They were hardly worth his time of day or notice. Sometimes it was almost easy to understand why the Red Talons think as they do.

[Drew Roscoe] She's straightened up, is tugging the hem of her shirt so it fell well past the waistline of her somewhat faded denim pants, and Matthieu is leaning closer, across the table, and lowering his voice to address her. Many Kin would drop their eyes to the side when a Garou gets this near, lets their voice slide into that low, dangerous level where the Galliard's was now. They'd grow anxious and shift their weight about when he mentions that he habitually tears things, people, limb from limb.

Drew, however, just meets his eyes with her doe-brown ones and appears annoyed, obstinate even.

She's quiet after his speech, but when he says that he'll stand to the side and wait she flashes him a smile as sweet as a box of chocolates, and her voice perks up into something bubbly and catching. "I appreciate it, really."

So he moves aside, out of range for the two shelter workers to be so worried. Drew explains him away-- college friend or some limp excuse like that. Open ended and vague enough that the women do not press into the volunteer's business. It takes perhaps ten minutes total of back-and-forth trips to load all of the puppies and their kennels in. Drew would pat a few on the heads, get a nose lick or two before they were loaded up into the back of the humane society's van and they were on their way.

The Kin comes back in through the food court doors, fingers and face red from the insanely cold weather that she had stupidly ventured into without a coat. Just the remaining five minutes of standing out there without a coat, gloves or a hat to load the puppies in had left her frigid and shivering. She's walking back toward Matthieu with her hands scrubbing rapidly together, trying to get feeling back into her numb fingertips, shoulders hunched up and still trembling every couple of seconds as her body fights to regain and maintain core temperature.

"So," she says as she nears him. "We've concluded--" pause for a hard shiver that quakes through her spine, "that we both care about Gina's well being." Wherever that girl wandered off to, as she was apt to do. Probably halfway to whatever motel she was staying at by now. "...I'm just looking to make sure you... don't plan on making her the Other Woman. She deserves better than that."

[Matthieu] He was waiting patiently across the way. He knew Gina would return eventually and from the look of things Gina honestly wanted to talk to him so he was willing to wait as long as he needed. In the meantime her kin friend came to rejoin him. He smiles a little and watches the woman crossing his hands behind his back and standing tall before her."I am sure you know what it is we do... And how our lives are. How we hold to ideals like duty and responsibility and how they come before everything in our lives even the things we care for most in our lives no?"He asks her in a stern and serious tone.

"Do you know what that is like? To have something soft, and beautiful... That you wish only to hold and protect? To have something that you long only to touch and spend all your time with... Only to know that when duty calls it must be ripped from your arms and you must accept that this is how your life is and how it must be. Because this is duty and it is a painful and bloody thing but you accept it and you live with it."He shrugs his shoulders.

"We don't always get what we want or what we deserve. Sometimes we get what we get and that is all. Life was never intended to be fair equal or just. There is no divine cosmic balance that makes everyones lives function exactly as they should. There is only the life... The one life... And there is only what you do with it."

[Drew Roscoe] "Look."

She's still shivering a little, but not as badly. Her hands are tucked into her armpits, her nose and cheeks still bright red from the abusively freezing temperatures outside. She shakes her head, the fight seems to be dialing back some, in degrees. She's confrontational but doesn't want to be. Gina says he's good folk, but Drew still felt defensive. This was ample opportunity to vent, to have a cause to be aggressive towards that she could dump all of the week's frustrations into.

But that wasn't fair. So she was trying to at least remain civil, if she possibly could.

"I understand that life ain't fair. If anyone gets that, if there's a club? I've got my membership card in my back pocket. But that ain't the point. It's unfortunate to you that you've got your duties. I know how you Fangs are, your arranged marriages and all that. I know that you probably deserve more than what's being handed to you?" Her eyes are up on his face again, and her brow is pinched together, creased with displeasure at the topic. "But Gina deserves a faithful mate, one that'll roam with her, and all the family she wants. You can't be that person, you've got your duties elsewhere. She needs more than unclaimed bastard children, more than an on-the-side relationship.

"I'm sure you're nice? I'm sure you guys like each other? But I don't want to hear her broken heart lamenting over you some odd many months down the road." There's a pause, then an afterthought: "Please."

[Matthieu] "Look she says... I'm gonna tell it to you like it is. I am gonna give you the answers in plain black and white because that's how it is. Let me ask you something... If you had to choose between the night and the day which would you choose? If you had to decide between your mother or father's life which would you chose? I don't need to be lectured and have it explained to me that love can only exist in one set of pre-determined judeo-christian ideals because by their ideals I am a creature of the devil and deserve nothing less than to burn in hell for eternity."He shrugs his shoulders and shakes his head.

"Passion, and beauty are bigger than any one person. They are as complex and frustrating as any trial or ordeal that anyone can deal with. They cause both pain and they cause joy... We are tethered to them. Sometimes we control them and sometimes we are dragged around by them like puppets on a string but one thing is certain when you lose that fire inside yourself that makes you burn a part of you will die..."He says as he turns to face her.

"I want to snatch that woman into my arms and hold her like I have not been able to since her return. I want to draw her into my bed and spend passionate night after night... I want to hear the sounds of our children running through the halls... I want to have her waiting for me anxiously each night when I return from one battle or the next. I want to have that woman in every way... I want to claim her and have our hearts meld into a love story that will be told for the ages! But I cannot have those things... I cannot have that luxury because of who I am and who I was born and what I must do for my tribe and my people. The least you can give me is the chance to spend a little time with her without having to feel like the entire world is staring at me and judging every decision I make!"He says this in a furious tone and his eyes manage to flare as he says this facing her, such startling anger within him.

"Now is that personal enough for you? Since you feel you seem to have some important role to play in how I feel towards this woman even though you and I have never met! But this is apparently very important to you so there it is. Now may I please have the honor of Driving Gina home? Perhaps taking her to a nice quaint little dinner where she and I might have a few moments to ourselves?"

[Drew Roscoe] Matthieu's speech about what he longs so much to do but cannot should be stirring. It was his job to illicit the responses that he wanted from people, to evoke their passions and have them following in line behind him, refusing to sway from under his leadership. Some topics, though, people cannot be convinced on. You can be as charismatic as you want but you still will not get the good religious boy who's about to go on a mission to come dance naked in the woods with you.

She's keeping his eyes with hers, stern and resolute. Rage boiled under his skin, lapped against her like a tide coming in, rushing against rocks in a tidepool, threatening to trap her in a oceanside cave and potentially drown her if she didn't get out fast enough. The Fenrir raise them stubborn as hell, though, unflinching, refusing to show weakness. She'd withstood Rage that would blow over Matthieu's any day of the week, had it attacking her from two sides at once. She was calloused to the stuff, but not numb. Her pulse quickened, the cold of her fingers was a far thing from the sweat that threatened to break at her chest and back.

But she held strong, and further than that she shook her head.

"You're being selfish. All of it is what you want, what you wish you could have. This is all I'm hearing. You've seen her happy, sure, and so have I. So have many. Not so much these days, but really... Really, do you think she'll be happy to have a night with you, only knowing you'll be going back to another the next day? You might want to have both, might think you can pull it off, and you can insist that I'm being 'judeo-christian' all you want to, but it doesn't change the fact that you can't fill that slot, and to pretend at it for a night, for a couple nights, is only gonna hurt her more in the end.

"I'm not trying to drag you through the dirt. I'm just trying to make sure that the last good friend I have left alive in this fucking town doesn't get scalded by a deluded prince."

[Matthieu] Eyes were white hot as he stared back. He could be terrifying and dangerous but most of all he was passionate, this is what he lived for and what drove him even though at times he could seem oblivious it was his passion that drove him to speak on end about matters that needed explaining. He locked eyes with drew and that fiery side of his shone through as she spoke to him.

"Again you jump to conclusions... Again you assume that my intentions are more than they appear and now you accuse me of selfishness while asking at the same time that I not so much as speak to a woman who holds my heart in the palm of my hand."He sighs and shakes his head."Don'y you tell me that I am the selfish one. I have kept to myself... I have opted not to call... I have opted to keep myself restrained and my hands to myself because no matter what you think of me Gina's happiness is the only thing that matters to me here. Yet I see her in person and all I want is a dinner with a friend who means everything to me and you don't think that would be appropriate."His upper lip quivers just a hint and distaste shows in his eyes.

"Where were you months ago when Gina needed you? When she was lost and fleeing from the very sept who was sworn to protect her. Where were you when Gina was afraid of the very tribe sworn to protect her? She was not my kin but I stood ready to protect her because no woman deserves to be treated like she was being treated. She was being treated as property by her own tribe and now you wish to continue to treat her as just that."

"She's not a dog, she is a living breathing human being with her own heart and brain and emotions and feelings. You're not protecting her... You're attempting to hide her. You're attempting to shelter her from the world... You're attempting to be for her the very thing I wanted to be the second I laid eyes upon her. But I know that locking her away in my pocket, sheltering her from the world will only stifle her. I want nothing more than to see her flourish so I have done everything I can to leave her to do just that."

"So if you believe I haven't earned the right, and privilege of taking Gina out for an evening and talking and seeing how she has been doing in the weeks since I have talked to her last then you can go to hell. Because I am taking her out to dinner, and we are going to talk, and laugh, and if all goes well I might even give her a hug or a kiss on the cheek. But I will not let you stuff her into a hole... Gina is not your pet."He says this with a commanding certainty nd he looks her dead in the eye even as his rage piques.

[Drew Roscoe] Drew half-snarls when Matthieu questions where she's been. The sound is quiet, strange and frustrated in the throat of a human, and she's flexing her arms overtop of the hands she's got tucked under them, perhaps as an effort to keep them pinned down so she doesn't do something stupid like jab in him in the chest or punch him in the gut.

"I was out of state at my mate's side, where I was supposed to be. Her tribal leader was-- is a piece of shit. I haven't met him, but from what I hear tell from Gina he's awful. But where I was isn't the point, because in the end I know there's nothing I can do to keep her safe from him. That falls in the hands of those that can use the Law. Kin can't use it, not even to save themselves.

"She ain't a pet, but she's a friend. You wanna take her out to dinner, have a talk, maybe a kiss or a hug. But you think that the want that burns in your chest doesn't radiate back from her? You think, if she feels the same about you that you do her, that she doesn't watch your back when you walk away and cry for the fact that she's all she'll ever see of you? Quit fucking around. If you can't commit completely, then why even tease her, huh? It makes the heart hurt worse, to have someone right in front of you but be unable to really be with 'em."

She snap her teeth, they clack quietly but audibly, and she takes a step back, releases her hands from under her arms to let them swing loose by her sides, curled into loose, open resemblances of fists. "You're gonna do what you want, though, so is she. I just hoped I could talk a little sympathy into you, because you spoiled the shit out of her then tossed her away when you remembered who you are and what you're supposed to be doing. Just hoped."

She shakes her head and, unless he reaches out to stop her or calls for her, to tell her he wasn't done with this conversation yet, she walks back to the folding chair left out from the display still and seizes her winter jacket, drags it on and buttons it up, applies hat and gloves and scarf from its pockets and depths as she stalks toward the doors.