The Entrance

[adrienne]

Adrienne leaned tiredly against the side of the van for a long moment, having zoned out on the ride back she felt like she could sleep for at least two days without waking up once. She looked at Austin, her eyes searching his face as she reached back to slip her sword sheath from its spot on her shoulder.
" Austin." She said softly, lightly letting the tips of her fingers touch his cheek.
"Let's go get that drink, we both need it and a shower both." She gave him a wan half smile, hoping against the feelings in her heart at that moment.

[Austin]

Austin smiled and kissed her fingertips softly, his eyes not leaving hers
"that would be a great idea"
he murmured

[Austin]

Please Note
Time Jump Initiated
All following events are at least two months after those above

[Damaris Y Blaidd]

((Continued from the Streets thread.))

A few minutes later, Damaris arrived at the entrance to the Night Watch's HQ with Zin in tow. She ran through the security protacols, announcing Zin as a guest and the door slid open to admit them. She helped the younger wolf into the warehouse, the door closing behind them. There didn't seem to be anyone in the part of the large building that served as a kind of foyer. That was probably a good thing, it might not be a great idea to throw Zin in at the deep end with her fellow Watch members. Still, somebody that spoke Zin's language, whichever one that was, would be helpful....

A thought struck her. Cindy, of course... she's good at languages. Damaris had a certain disdain for the blond aristocrat, she was smart but she had no common sense and, in Damaris's opinion, was entirerly too obsessed with her appearence. That said, it was probably her best option at the moment.

"Cindy?" She called loudly. She had no idea where the other woman would be, if she was even in the building at all, but she didn't want to leave Zin alone incase she wandered off and got hurt again or ran into somebody else who got the wrong end of the stick and mistook her for an intruder. "Cindy, are you here?"

[Cindy Harker]

Cindy's visits to the headquarters had diminished over the last year. She spent more and more time at her luxurious mansion, or, when she could, away at parties. She insisted it was more for the appearance of things (as her becoming a total recluse in a little known town would look strange to the outside world), but the truth was she found Edgehaven difficult to stomach.

She did, however, try to dedicate her free time to research. Even if it brought her no closer to finding the truth behind what happened to her father, it often came in handy to be fully prepared in this town. She knew a lot, but she still didn't know everything there was to know, and having made all of her previous learnings off simply the written word, she now had to go back and re-evaluate everything having learnt that quite often the ancient texts weren't entirely accurate.

She had come to the headquarters to aid with this very research. She'd moved most of her books to the HQ so that they were readily available for Watch members, and unfortunately that meant when there was something she had to check, she had to make the journey to Edgehaven. She supposed she could computerise the entire system, but computers were one thing Cindy couldn't get on with. She found it hard to type and preserve her manicured nails, for a start.

She had been waiting at the headquarters for somebody else to get back. One of her fleet of rolls royces was parked in the garage, but she didn't feel safe driving it back to the outskirts of town without an escort. But they usually didn't call out her name or seem to want to do this. She hurried to the warehouse, the origin of the call.

As usual, the scent of expensive perfume and the clicking of Parisian stiletto heels announced Cindy's arrival long before she could manage her meek;
"Hello?" as she entered the warehouse. She didn't really feel at home in the warehouse, it was another one of the places she wished she could avoid. It really wasn't the type of place an aristocrat was used to hanging out.

"O-oh. Damaris. Hello." She managed upon sighting the werewolf. Cindy always felt slightly intimidated around Damaris, being in her opinion one of the wilder Watch members. She had seen some of the things Damaris wore when she first arrived, and could hardly believe it! "You've brought a friend. Oh. Hello." She smiled, slightly worried that she no longer seemed to question the arrival of a yellow bathrobe wearing dirty looking stranger into her life.

[Damaris Y Blaidd]

The scent of expensive perfume and the approaching clack of heels on the hard floor told Damaris that Cindy was indeed at the HQ and had heard her. She knew it had been a long shot; the blond didn't spend a lot of time there any more, although she got the impression that she hadn't been there much anyway when she wasn't needed.

This didn't actually bother the wolf much, she and Cindy didn't seem to get on very well on the rare occasions she was there anyway. The other woman always seemed somewhat uncomfortable in her presence; Damaris suspected that it was at least mostly, if not entirely, because her own appearance and nature differed so much from Cindy's. The fact that, at their first meeting, Damaris had been blood-stained, filthy, dishevelled and generally a mess probably hadn't helped. Or the fact that Damaris carried weapons almost everywhere whereas Cindy

As Cindy came into view, managing a timid greeting, Damaris wished she could roll her eyes without being seen. As always, she was immaculate in her appearance, sporting heels and a dress that Damaris wouldn't have been seen dead in. And those completely impractical nails! If she was ever stranded away from people, Damaris would give her about a day before she either went mad or got herself killed. Or possibly a week if she stayed still and starved. Frankly, Damaris often found herself thinking that she was little more than a life-size Barbie doll. But a Barbie doll that speaks a lot more languages than you do, she reminded herself.

"Hi, Cindy." She said with as much enthusiasm as she could muster. "I know you're probably busy, but this is sort of an emergancy... well, kind of." She gestured to Zin with her free hand. "This is Zin.. from what I can gather, she's alone and lost and she doesn't speak much English. Well, hardly any, actually," she amended, remembering the blank looks she'd gotten when she tried to speak to her. "I wondered if you'd be able to speak to her, find out where she comes from and if there's anyone we can contact for her, that sort of thing? I'm not sure what language she speaks, I'm afraid." She paused, wondering if there was anything else she ought to tell her. "Oh, and she's a newly-bitten lycan, so try not to make her angry."

[Zin Siripong]

Following meekly behind the caucasian woman, Zin peered around at everything around her, she felt like she needed eight more sets of eyes just to take everything in. She had taken to burrowing her nose into the collar of the abducted dressing gown as the reek of petrol and oil and other such things threatened to make her light headed and drunk on fumes. She could handle the reek of cigarettes and alcohol better than petrol.

"Chahn yoo teeni?" she asked quietly, not really knowing how to ask her question in English. When she didn't receive a reply she assumed she hadn't been heard or the other woman didn't understand - so was getting someone who could.

She jolted and almost clapped her hands over her ears when the woman - Damaris she reminded herself - called for someone else, a Sindee she believed, it sounded like a feminine name but Westerners had odd ideas about names. She tilted her head curiously, like a dog hearing rustling in the bushes, as the sound of heels clacking reached her.

The woman that appeared was the complete antithesis of everything Zin had grown up knowing and experiencing. She was so glamerous that for a split second the teenager felt almost painfully inadequate and insecure, both Damaris and Sindee were caucasian with beautiful bodies - though of a different kind, Damaris sporting a feral, wild sort of natural beauty while Sindee was a Lady of fine things and high society. Something Zin had only ever seen at a distance and through the wire mesh of a cage where she was sweating and bleeding for their entertainment.

That idea only made her straighten her spine, yes, this woman was beautiful and elegant but Zin could still beat her to a bloody pulp should she desire. She doubted if this Lady could defend herself if she had to, she doubted this Lady had ever slept rough, rummaged in dumpsters for food, stolen wallets on the underground, gotten into streetfights for money, she doubted this Lady would be able to survive the last three months that Zin had to.

Then the smell hit her.

The metallic cloying bitter tang of the woman's perfume.

Zin choked and gagged, her hands flying to her mouth and nose as she turned away, she couldn't breathe, her eyes were watering. She burrowed her face into the bathrobe and whimpered as the smell mixed and joined with the alcohol and cigarettes and made her stomach churn and her throat burn[/b].

[Cindy Harker]

Cindy nodded and listened to Damaris's reactions, trying to relax at the other woman's more friendly tones. More than that, Cindy was happy to be able to help for a change. Okay, she began to consider, there were quite a few nationalaties that-

She suddenly stopped as Damaris asked her not to make the girl angry, and Cindy's nerves suddenly returned. She gulped nervously, and took a tiny step forwards, obviously now frightened and wanting to make sure that Damaris stayed between them. Especially if the girl changed or became feral.

"Okay. I-I can try a few languages. Um, mandarin maybe, and perhaps-" Cindy began, before stopping again and seeing the girl break down into a coughing fit. Cindy's natural reaction was to take a quick step forwards, keeping an eye on Damaris to make sure that this was okay, and try and find out what was wrong.

"<Um, are you alright? Hello?>" Cindy tried in mandarin, but didn't recieve a response. She wasn't sure if it was because the girl was too busy coughing, or whether something else was wrong. Cindy wanted to help, but tried not to get too close. What if she was transforming? Okay, so Cindy had never read of a werewolf transformation like this, but she'd never actually met a newly turned wolf before.

"<Hello? Can you understand me??" Cantonese. Nothing. Maybe she was Japanese? She didn't quite look it, but she decided to give it a go regardless. "<Hello? Are you Japanese?>" It wasn't the most intelligent question to ask, but she had run out of options. That didn't work. What if she wasn't even asian? Just because she looked it didn't mean she grew up there. What else was there? Possibly another obscure Chinese language, but it was unlikely.

"<Greetings. I Cindy. You Vietnamese?>" She tried, not being a natural in that language. She had only ever met one Vietnamese person and hadn't had to master the language. Shame. She heard they were good dress makers.

"Uhhh.... <Thai? Can you speak Thai? Have you any luck in understanding me?>" Cindy could speak Thai, but it was only with a very posh accent, and incredibly formally. She had learnt it when visiting Thai aristocrats and only learnt to speak it in the very most upper class tones. That said, Cindy hadn't minded. It was how she felt comfortable speaking anyway.

[Zin Siripong]

Zin held her breath and waited as the woman continued to speak, trying various languages, normally she would be slightly insulted if someone tried to talk to her in Japanese but she couldn't find it in herself right now.

Her head jerked up when she heard her mother tongue though, "<You speak Thai?>" she squawked, this was the first person she had encountered in this whole country who did speak the language!!

[Damaris Y Blaidd]

Damaris watched Cindy's attempts to find a common language to speak to Zin with slight agitation. What if Cindy couldn't help? What if they ended up stuck with a girl they couldn't speak to at all? She closed her eyes briefly. That would be a nightmare. Her heart lifted a little as Zin's head snapped up and she responded to Cindy in something that sounded vaguely familar. She caught one word that she recognized - Thai. So that's where Zin was from! She smiled faintly, this might work after all.

She noted the girl's reaction to, she assumed, Cindy's perfume with some interest. She wondered if it was because of an allergy or just that the younger wolf's smell was much stronger than hers. There was the possibility that she was just used to Cindy's perfume by now too. She shrugged.

"Uhm... Cindy, I'm going to make some food, Zin's probably starving and truth be told, I'm quite hungry. Do you want anything?" She asked, mentally running through a few Thai recipies she'd learnt.

[Cindy Harker]

Cindy couldn't help but smile when she finally reached the right language. Thank god! She had been really worried she was going to turn out to be just as useless as everybody thought then.

She turned to Damaris with a terrified 'you're leaving me here with her' look on her face.
"N-no. I'm fine. I suddenly seem to be surprisingly unhungry." She explained in her usual posh accent, before turning back to the stranger.

"<Indeed. I am quite capable of speaking Thai.>" She answered the best she could, knowing that she sounded even posher in Thai than she did normally. "<My name is Cindy Harker. The lady who found you is named Damaris. May I request the honour of knowing your name?>" Cindy paused for a moment. In retrospect, she really wished she'd learnt 'who are you' instead. It seemed a much easier way of asking, but at the time, Cindy had never even interacted with anybody outside her class barrier, let alone expected to have to behave in this situation.

"<Damaris is going to serve you food>." Cindy explained, again using the best words she could. "<Are you quite alright?>" She added, wanting to make sure the strange girl was still okay after her choking fit.

[Zin Siripong]

Zin nodded, a little put off by the formal language the woman was using, "<My name is Zin. Zin Siripong.>" At the mention of food she placed a hand over her rumbling stomach and blushed slightly, her nose still buried in the dressing gown, "<If its not too much trouble,>" she said quietly, she hated having to rely on others, even when she was injured she was about as stubborn as a mule when it came to taking care of everything. It drove her mother insane.

She blushed though when the woman asked if she was alright, "<Its... I'm allergic to perfume. And... I don't know everything is just so strong here. I got attacked and when I woke up everything was different.>"

[Damaris Y Blaidd]

Damaris shot Cindy an "honestly.... just don't offend her" look. "You can come through to the kitchen if you want to, we'll be eating in there anyway," she told the apparently terrified woman. She ignored everything that was being said, mostly because she didn't understand a word of it except her own name and read the body language instead. As usual, Cindy seemed uncomfortable and Zin... well Zin just seemed happy to have someone who could speak to her properly, although she guessed the hand placed over her stomach meant that Cindy had mentioned food.

"Kitchen's through here," she said to Zin, although she doubted that Cindy knew where it was either - she didn't seem like the type to cook her own food. She took her arm from round Zin's waist - she didn't doubt that she could stand on her own, mostly she'd had it there to reassure her that she wasn't leaving - and stepped through a door to the right of where they stood, leaving it open behind her.

The Night Watch's kitchen was quite large, but not overly so, and had a large breakfast unit and high stools in the centre. Damaris made her way to the fridge and rifled through it to see what was there. Now that she knew Zin's country of origin, she wanted to cook her something that would make her feel a little more at home - apparently jerky wasn't her favourite thing.

She found a plastic-wrapped pack of fresh chicken breast and a surprisngly large bowl of leftover rice, which she assumed was from the curry she'd made herself the night before. I had no idea I cooked so much... she thought. Ah well... She removed them both from the fridge, sliced up two of the chicken breasts and then hunted in the cupboards for some appropriate spices and things. It wouldn't be fancy, but it would be filling and that was probably the most important thing at the moment.

[Cindy Harker]

Cindy listened to Damaris's advice, and decided that once the pleasantries were out of the way, she would lead Zin through to the kitchen.

She was a little taken back by the comment about her perfume.
"<O-Oh. I see.>" She managed curtly, taking a step back as if that would help. She tried not to sound annoyed or angry, but Cindy prided herself on her perfumes. She had an entire room dedicated to storing hundreds of bottles back at her mansion, most exclusively designed just for her. It had never factored to her that somebody might be allergic. "<I-I apologise.>" She said, although she didn't mean it, given how she couldn't understand how anything could be wrong with the perfume she viewed as perfect.

"<We have been given permission to follow Damaris through to the...>" Cindy paused. "<...To the..> Um, <...To the...>" That wasn't very useful. When learning upper class Thai, the word for 'kitchen' hadn't come up. It really showed how often Cindy thought about such things. "<...room...in which...food....is....heated...>" She managed at last, stringing together the best description she could.

"<You should dine with us, and then we shall discuss the situation. How much do you know about what has happened to you?>" She asked. She didn't know if they had werewolves in Thailand. She knew there weren't any legends, but that didn't mean the curse hadn't spread over there more recently. Oddly, 'werewolf' wasn't a word she had ever learnt in Thai.

[Zin Siripong]

Zin got the feeling she may have upset the older woman with her comment about the perfume, her tone became a little more clipped than earlier. She knew the blonde wasn't sorry about the perfume but to be honest, she hadn't known Zin was allergic, in fact she probably had no idea Zin even existed so there was no harm.

"<The kitchen,>" the teenager supplied almost absently as she swivelled her head around to look at everything around her, ears pricking at the sound of activity and her stomach growling audibly as the smell of rice and chicken struck her senses like a freight train.

She swallowed and pressed her lips together firmly, eyes glued to the chicken that Damaris was handling, she took only cursory attention of Cindy's question, "<No, not much. Just that... I'm... different now. I smell and hear things more, too much. Like your perfume. I may not have been able to wear it before, but I still liked the smell of it.>" She smiled slightly, "<Mother had lots of nice perfumes and pretty things.>" Things she hadn't been allowed to touch when she was younger and when she got older, didn't care for - too interested in fighting and being 'one of the guys'.