[WAMH] A Darkened Corner

[Tereza Rozanov]

The Sunset Club really didn't care what you were and so many took advantage of that. Tereza leaned back in her booth in one corner, watching all the approaches with yellow-flecked eyes. Her fingers drummed on the table and her tongue fidgeted at her teeth in an animalistic gesture.

((Open))

[Red]

A tall woman walks in, easily over six feet and with visible musculature playing beneath her pale skin. The sides of her head are shaven, but wild red hair trails from the top down to about waist-length. She's wearing a tank-top, showing extensive tattoos across her back and down each arm. She's got a leather jacket clasped in her hand, draped over one shoulder as she looks out at the others at the club. Her leather pants show some dust on them, a sign that Tereza has probably seen on motorcycle riders.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza's eyes appraised her for a minute. Yes, the one we're looking for, the spirit hovering by her ear whispered. She raised a hand and beckoned, trying to catch the other woman's attention. With that gesture, the spirit, a wolf by appearances, settled around her shoulders.

[Red]

The woman tenses almost imperceptibly, her yellow-green eyes drawn to the movement. Then she blinks in confusion at the appearance of the spirit, looking around to others at the club and realizing that they can't see it.

She walks towards Tereza's booth with some urgency.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I was about to think you wouldn't show," Tereza said with an air of familiarity that she probably should not have possessed.

[Red]

"I don't know what you're talking about," she says with a palpable brogue, narrowing her eyes at the woman.

"What is this?" She says with a headcant towards Tereza's shoulder. Her nostrils flare for a moment, struggling to take in Tereza's scent among the acrid tang of booze and bar patrons.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza definitely had a canine scent to her, though she was wearing a perfume that masked it from casual detection. "She's my friend. She told me you would be here." Her own eyes flared yellow for a moment, "She's rarely wrong when she's insistent so I've found it helpful to listen to her."

[Red]

"You're... like me?" She asks warily, still staring at Tereza.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"That depends on your definition of 'like'," she said, gesturing to another seat in the booth. She eyed a gentleman who smelled like blood as he walked past and disappeared back into the crowd.

[Red]

"I don't have a lot of definitions for things," she says, curling a lip as she smells the same thing Tereza does, her glance going that way.

She slides her large frame into the booth.

"I've been like this... awhile. Not many answers." She finally says when her attention turns back to the woman.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Oof, no support group. That makes for hard times. We can start with names. I'm Tereza." She gestured at a serving person and held up two fingers. The serving person nodded and turned towards the bar.

[Red]

"Sam," she offers.

"And aye, people look at you a bit funny if you tell them what happened to you."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"You start seeing things that other people don't see. Start wondering if you've gone crazy?" She smiled sympathetically, "Let me guess. It all started after some mangy wolf-dog-thing bit you?"

[Red]

"...aye," she says, narrowing her eyes at Tereza in suspicion.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza held up her hand, "Wasn't me, I swear. It's just a common enough story among our kind that it's my go-to guess." The serving person returned with the drinks, setting them down on the table. "Tell Wanda to put them on my tab," Tereza said to the man, "I know she's here, so just do it." The man gulped slightly and nodded, retreating from the table.

[Red]

"Easy for you to say, our 'kind.'"

"Sounds almost polite."

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza snorted before sipping at her drink which smelled suspiciously like vodka. "I could introduce you to some others if you want, but I think it's probably enough to absorb for the moment that you're not alone. Unless you just want to strip down and dive into the deep end."

[Red]

"Feel like I already have. This... changes you more than you'd think."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Story of our life, even the lucky bastards that didn't have to get bit to end up this way," she said with a nod. As the people in the place milled around, it was apparent that there was a wild mix of walks of life. It didn't look like the club catered to a single demographic. Young, old, business people and biker types like Sam, it seemed like there was quite the variety. Tereza raised her glass, "To howling at the moon."

[Red]

"...suppose I can drink to that," she says, picking up the other glass and raising it to touch Tereza's, before slugging it down.

No stranger to hard drinking, apparently.

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza looked mildly impressed. "We can get you something else if vodka's not to your liking. Do you have somewhere to stay in London or did you just arrive?"

[Red]

"Been traveling most of the time since I ah... figured some things out. Odd jobs, usually some pub that needs a bouncer."

"After awhile you just... get into a routine, aye?"

[Tereza Rozanov]

Tereza nodded, "Well, you can crash at my place tonight. Not going to turn out one of our own unless they've given me cause. Especially not when she led me to you." She gestured vaguely at the wolf spirit.

[Red]

"I suppose it'd be... easier to talk, there." She nods as she reasons through it.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"We can certainly call things what they are there. Not everyone here knows exactly what it is they're sitting next to, so you have to be a little circumspect unless you want to deal with a particularly tall woman's anger."

[Red]

"Not mine?" She snorts.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Owner. Wanda. I'll talk more about her elsewhere. Everyone's welcome here unless they can't behave themselves and she enforces that a little ruthlessly."

[Red]

"That was your excuse to get all your Irish and ginger temper jokes out of your system, but duly noted."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"That was not the opportune moment. I have to save them for the opportune moment." She grinned, "So I assume you have your own ride. Does it have a second seat?"

[Red]

"It can seat two. Bit cozy, but it can."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Good, because I came via bus and foot power, so I'd have to call a cab otherwise." She chuckled, "Need another drink?"

[Red]

"Need?" She snorts.

"Probably not, but it'd take more than this before the ride back would be a bit more exciting than you probably want."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Yes, that's one of the easier things to figure out," Tereza said, sliding out of her chair and standing up.

[Red]

"Being able to drink people under the table?" She asks with a toothy grin as she slides out and rises to her full height.

"Won a few bets that way."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"I love the looks on their faces," Tereza said as they headed outside.

****
After the ride, Tereza let them into a stairwell next to the entrance of a curry shop. "Flat's over the shop. Smells like curry, but on the plus side, you don't smell garbage and exhaust and shit from the street."

[Red]

"I swear, I never get used to the smells," she says as she follows Tereza.

[Tereza Rozanov]

"Saves your life on occasion though," she said. Up the stairwell, she unlocked another door. The spirit on her shoulders flowed into the apartment, curling up on a cushion in a corner of the main room. The apartment was decently comfortable couple of rooms with a combination living room/kitchen/dining area and a separate bedroom. Tereza gestured to the large futon in the living area. "Make yourself comfortable, I'll grab us some beers." Everywhere on the walls were pictures of Tereza in various places. There were a few repeated faces in some of the London pictures, but it looked like when she'd been travelling, she did it by herself.

[Red]

Sam is on edge as she steps in, her nostrils flaring as she sniffs around.

"Oh, this... this feels odd. I don't think I've ever been... you know."

[Tereza Rozanov]

"In a place inhabited by another werewolf?" She chuckled as she fished the beers out of the fridge and opened them.

[Red]

"...aye, there's the elephant in the room," she says, managing to calm herself down.