1 Serving serves 4

Bianca · Wolf a la Rouge

1 Serving serves 4

Harry Canyon · Taxi Driver

-: When Memphis got back to the Pack House from town he pulled in and could immediately see Bianca's bright red hair sitting on the front steps. Talk about simplifying things. Parking the big yellow Taxi he climbed out and shut the door behind him with a loud clang and headed up to the house. Between his lips the thick stub of a cigar was being clenched by his teeth. Even though the cigar was unlit he would often be found with it in his mouth. :-

"Heya Red."

-: He and Bianca hardly knew one another at all but that didn't stop him from plopping himself down on the step beside her, hunkering his large body forward so his forearms were rested on his knees in a relaxed pose. They lived in the same house so the names, titles, and all that shit were old hat. Looking out across the expanse of the vineyard he took a chew at the end of the cigar in his mouth before using his tongue to roll the fat stub to the corner of his mouth so he could talk around it. :-

"The bossman seems concerned that you might get yourself hurt trying to help Malcolm."

-:Harry was as blunt as a bag of rocks to the head.:-

"So I'm gonna be sticking to you like white on rice kiddo. As I see it you got two choices. You can look at it as a great way to make friends with your Freki and have fun investigating whats happened to Mal. Or you can get all beligerrant and try to give me the slip. In which case my choice is gonna be to tie you up and carry you around in my trunk for awhile."

-: White-blue eyes looked sidelong at her and he was smiling around the stub of his cigar as though he found the whole thing humorous. Memphis wasn't a smart man. Not particularly witty either. But he was friendly mostly, and loyal to his pack and Ulfric. If Ash said to watch Bianca then he'd be her shadow till he heard otherwise. With single minded simplisity he'd follow the orders. And he was real good at following orders. :-

"I'm hoping you go with option one. But it's up to you."

-: For a moment his brows scrunched together and his forehead creased. Nostrils flared a bit as he sniffed at the air. Beyond the smell of her and her cigarette he was getting a whiff of something else with his sensitive nose. :-

"Uhhh, you burning something there Red?"

Archeology Queen · Eat your heart out Indiana Jones

-Dressed in a simple baby blue button down shirt and a pair of white shorts she had been enjoying a small session of daily reflection in her room when a smell made her crinkle her nose. Anya rose from her seat, hands smoothing down the front of her shorts, warm palms touching the smoothness of her thighs a moment as she left the room to investigate. Once she was in the hall headed towards the stairs the smell grew stronger. A sort of rubbery smell that she associated with burning cheese. Personally she didn't eat any processed foods, but she was getting used to all kinds of odd kitchen smells from being in the pack house.-

-Bare feet made hardly a sound as she headed down the stairs, seeming very fluid as she moved on the balls of her feet with one hand lightly gliding over the banister. The smell was definitely coming from the kitchen and she followed it in there and over to the oven. Nose scrunched up she pulled back the overn door and was met with a face full of blackish gray smoke clouds. One slender hand waved at the air to dissipate the smoke somewhat as she reached for the nob on the stovetop that would turn on the overhead vents so they could hopefully avoid a full on fire alarm screaming debacle.-

-Searching for an overn mitt she opened and closed drawers quickly. Anya had lived with the monks too long and found that she was just too accustomed to raw fresh foods to go back to casseroles and pizzas, so her general knowledge of where the kitchen supplies were was limited to the tea pot and the juicer. Finally though she found an orange fluffy over mitt and slipped her hand into it before turning to the open oven drawer and pulling out the pizza pan.-

-It did not look good. Blackened around the edges and smoking slightly she set the pizza down on one of the brass trivets on the countertop and kept her other hand waving at the smoke to try to clear it towards the venta-hood. Only then did she realize that the maker of this blackened pizza was nowhere in sight and just as her blue eyes looked towards the front door it was opening as.......-

Bianca · Wolf a la Rouge

When the big yellow hunk of a clunker parked near by Bianca sat up all nice and proper, checked her cigarette butt and snuffed the sucker's life out in the gravel beneath a boot heel. With her back ram rod straight she even affected a polite smile. Not a scowl, although having to ditch her ciggy before it was even half way done kind of made her twitch. Plus she was way too lazy to go and find a proper ashtray.

When Memphis, that was his name right? (It would be awkward if she called him Murry by accident. "Hey Murr....phis!"), said hello, Bianca lifted her hand and gave a wave. If they were guys they'd probably have just grunted at each other, but B wasn't about to go all hyper "Hi what's up? How you doing? Long night huh?" on the poor man. She didn't know him well enough to be that obnoxious. Yet. Turning her head she waited for him to pass her by and head off to his destination so she could light up anew, but then he sat. And then he dropped the bomb on her.

At first Bianca just sat there and blinked at him. Because surely this was some kind of weird hallucination she was having. Someone clearly switched her tobacco for something way wackier...but no. He was flesh and blood. She could smell it. And just like that Bianca laughed. It was a burst of sound deep from within and it spilled out in a flood. It took some mental elbow grease but Bianca managed to get the giggles under control. Although the humor was still there in her voice when she spoke.

"Man, you describe option two like it's a bad thing."

The grin that split her face in two could only be called wolfish. Hungry and sly, but it was gone just a squickly when a sober thought popped into her head. Like it or not, agree with it or not Ash had a point. It was easier to be away from a temptation and have a buffer between yourself and it instead of constantly being around something that made you itch. Bianca couldn't really fault the Ulfric for being vigilant about the safety of his people. She respected that about him. The babysitter however? Ouch, her ego just took a punch. And still she grinned as she looked over at Mur...Memphis and tilted her head to the side as she looked him over.

"Okay. I'm good with the supervision dealie. So you gonna wear like a cool uniform. Maybe a ca..."

The odd scent in the air made her blink.

"Cap."

Bianca finished slowly and then frowned at Memphis as he sniffed all suspicious like. Burning? Her? What?

And that's when the scent caught her attention. It smelled like smoke. Acrid and tangy like. Fuck. Cheese! "Oh shit!!!" Lurching to her feet, Bianca spun on her heels and made for the house. The gravity taking the freshly presented opportunity to wrap itself around her feet and tug her forward to expedite her movement which ended up in Bianca doing a fantastic impersonation of a puppy on a slick surface. Which was a fantastic treat for her ego. Still the lycanatural reflexes kicked in just before she was about to do a face plant and promptly righted herself without external influence. Flashing a look over her shoulder at Memphis, Bianca hooked a thumb at herself. "I'm good. I'm okay...no worries." Except the pizza was probably a goner by now. Damn. Without wasting any more time on aero-gravitational aerobics Bianca headed inside, making a bee (heh) line for the kitchen about ready to get out the fire extinguisher and hose down the oven when she quite literally ran into Anya.

Yelping in surprise Bianca jumped backwards away from the tall blonde, smacking her back into the edge of the door frame in the process. Wincing with more than just pain she blinked in surprise at seeing Anya there. Then coughed as the remnant of smoke found its way into her nose. Ironic that just a few minutes earlier she was actually trying to suck in as much smoke as her lungs could take.

"Um...whoops? Sorry, I didn't see you."

Feeling her cheeks flush slightly, Bianca reached up and smoothed her hand through her hair for what ever reason suddenly quite aware of what a frizz ball mess it was right now. Oh and the pizza was DOA. Looking at the charred thing on the rack, Bianca mentally cursed the gods of Cooking. She tried to do something nice and they spit on that. Although the tiny blue sparks coming form behind the controls on the oven might have something to do with that. Well shit. Recalling Memphis and his promise to keep on her like white on rice, Bianca moved away from the doorway to make room for the Freki, and while she was already in mid motion she went for the burnt pizza, picking it up and tossing the damn thing in the trash.

"Well, that'll teach me to cook. From now on, it's take out only."

Which was kind of fortunate because she just happened to know someone with a big yellow car.

Archeology Queen · Eat your heart out Indiana Jones

-The feel of Bianca so close made her beast whirr into a frenzy that Anya had to settle with a few deep breaths. There it was again, that odd sensation of knowing this woman in a deep dark way that she wasn't yet ready to bring to light. She had meant to tell Ash about all of it when she'd first come from Tibet to join the pack but he'd been busy, she'd been busy and really she was just full of excuses not to let the cat out of the bag, so to speak.-

-As Bianca moved away to throw the pizza in the trash Anya looked at memphis coming in and gave him a warm welcome, her cheek brushing his lightly. She and the Freki got on fairly well for two people of completely opposite lifestyles being thrown in a house together, but she'd enjoyed sharing Evie duty with him. At the moment Evie had been delivered safely to the house and was now as safe as anyone could hope to be surrounded as she was by werewolves.-

"So...." -unsure quite how to finish that thought Anya went towards the fridge to pull out a cool bottle of water and twist off the cap.- "What are you two up to? Besides burning food?"

-She pulled out one of the kitchen stools that sat on the opposite side of the island and took a seat, not having to try hard to sit on the tall stool since she herself was over six feet. Taking a long drink from the bottle of water she looked from the Freki to Bianca and back again and was tempted to laugh. The serenity coming off her was almost palpable as she used a hand to flick the end of her blonde braid back over her shoulder.-

"You could start with explaining the hospital set up beside the Ulfric's bedroom."

-A long tapered finger pointed towards the room where Malcolm was. She'd poked her head in to meet Ryver but the boy looked so lost she hadn't felt like drilling him with questions. Malcolm and his bizarre condition had preceeded her arrival to the packhouse so she wasn't in on the unfortunate circumstances. Letting Memphis take the stool beside her she gave her full attention to Bianca who it seemed was the one who should be telling this tale.-

Bianca · Wolf a la Rouge

Heh. Heh. Heh. Was it hot in there or was it just her. Bianca decided it was just her. Wearing leather during summertime might not have been such a brilliant move on her part after all. But when she caught sight of her reflection in the semi reflective panel of the oven, Bianca had to admit that the red leather pants she was wearing did things for her ass that a little sweat a perfect price to pay for.

With an exaggerated swing of her hips, Bianca leaned back against the kitchen counter that allowed her to face Anya and Memphis and after a second through, and considering she was damn hungry now, pushed away and went for the fruit basket near Anya. As Bianca reached for the apple, she couldn't help but feel the press of the woman's beast against her own and the dark shadow creature inside rose its head a thrill running through it's body. Which weirded Bianca straight down to her toes. The hell?

"Um..."

Giving her a minute to collect her thoughts, Bianca took a large chunk out of her apple (very lady like) and chewed slowly (and with her mouth closed) before finding just the right words. Making sure she didn't do the girly thing and choke up was also a factor.

"Mal is in a bit of a...Coma."

At the look the two werewolves gave her Bianca just shrugged. Coma. That was the technical term. She wanted to say a mystical cocoon of some weird ass magical energy that she both hated and liked and wanted to mess with...Coma was better.

"The doctors at the hospital aren't sure about the why and the how of it and since they can't do anything for him there he's now home here with his family. I was thinking...I could do some research, see what's up you know?"

Maybe they did, maybe they didn't, but it was better than just standing still and waiting for things to resolve themselves.

Glancing over her shoulder to where Anya was pointing, Bianca bit on her bottom lip, fighting the urge to start chewing on it. She kicked the habit years ago, but it was so tempting to start it up again.

"You know, Ryver's been in there day and night though. Poor guy needs food and rest but he won't leave his brother."

Using the half gone apple as a pointer, Bianca gestured lazily towards the Pizza corpse in its trash coffin.

"I was actually trying to make him something to snack on. Didn't work though...and since everything else in the fridge is raw or ... raw. Whose up for a Pizza run to the city?"

Harry Canyon · Taxi Driver

-:The brush to his cheek by Anya was met warmly and as she stepped away he lifted a hand and rubbed his roughened palm against his bald head. That blonde was one sexy woman, but he had the feeling she was batting for the other team. Besides, Memphis's luck in the romance department was so bad that people were known to die. So best not to even think those thoughts.:-

-: Heading to the fridge in Anya's wake he caught the door before it could close and openeing it up to look inside. Pushing aside bottles of water and healthier things he grabbed for a bottle of beer in the very back. Kept cold cause these damn euros had no idea about how to keep a beer. Warm piss beer was not wat he liked. Grabbing the neck of the bottle he shut the fridge and twisted off the cap in his hand, tossing it in the wastebasket as he passed.:-

-:Taking the seat beside Anya he leaned thick arms against the bar top and chewed on the end of his cigar as he looked from one girl to the other. As Bianca explained the situation he understood a bit more about what was going on, but still wasn't completely sure why Ash wanted him watching Bianca. What the hell could a werewolf do about a coma victim? What the hell was a werewolf doing in a damn coma anyway.:-

"Research what exactly? I mean. He's a lycan. We don't get comas. Ain't gonna find anything about that from watching Greys Anatomy."

-:Like most things when the thought had come into his head he'd just gone ahead and spoken it aloud. Memphis's voice a smooth low pitched rumble as he pulled the cigar out of his mouth and took a swig of beer. Looking back to Malcolms room at the mention of Ryver he smiled faintly remembering the poor kids freak out on the trip to Rome from Barcelona.:-

"He's tougher than he looks. That kid. How bout we order him some chink food and then we can try to figure out what kind of research we need to be doing."

-:"We" Because he was now thrown into this. He didn't know if Anya would want to help but it looked like Bianca would need all the help she could get. Plus since he was ordered not to leave her side he might as well lend a hand.:-

Archeology Queen · Eat your heart out Indiana Jones

"A coma?"

-Dark blonde brows drew together at the word. Anya hadn't thought that it was possible for a lycanthrope to go into a coma. There was obviously more here than met the eye, but what that could be she wasn't sure. Fingers softly stroked against the plastic of her water bottle making lines through the condensation that had gathered there as the temperature of the room warmed the bottle. She had a feeling Bianca was hiding something, or possibly several somethings, but on one thing she agreed with both Bianca and Memphis.-

"That's a good idea. Though, 'chink' food might not have been the term I would have chosen. I think there's a chinese delivery menu somewhere around here."

-Serene blue eyes seemed to momentarily chastise Memphis for his choice of statements and then she was slipping out of the stool, leaving the water where it was, as she headed to look in the drawer beneath the phone for a menu. Pulling open the drawers she scooted aside other odds and ends like pens and slips of paper, clips and rubber bands, and searched until she found the menu. With that in hand she used her hip to slide the drawer back into place.-

"Would you guys like me to order enough for you as well? Or just for Ryver?"

-That seemed like a silly question since most lycans seemed to be almost permanently hungry. Picking up the chordless phone she dialed the number on the menu and while listening to what Bianca and Memphis wanted she placed an order that was so large there would probably be a few other happy wolves coming home to a dinner ready for them. For herself she would settle for what she had stored in the fridge when she got ready to eat.-

-As she ordered she moved back towards the island and her abandoned stool. Sitting down again she would set the phone on the counter when she was finished with the call. Now that the food issue was taken care of she and Memphis were once again left looking to Bianca for answers. Poor girl. Not easy to be on the receiving end of those searching looks from creatures who could smell a lie. But really, if Bianca wanted to help Malcolm she'd need to let them in on what was going on.-

-- Edited by Archeology Queen on Saturday 22nd of August 2009 07:16:38 PM

Bianca · Wolf a la Rouge

Oh come on! Was what Bianca was thinking when Memphis invited everyone and their Aunt Fannie to the party. What was supposed to be a tasteful and private affair was turning into a House Party, keg and sofa's on the lawn included. Biting down on her bottom lip she forced the words she was about to say back into the dark recesses of her mind where they belonged. Because whining never got anyone anything useful. When she sighed it sounded somewhat resigned. Short of running away there was no way to dodge the twin spotlights that were being directed at her right now anyway. At least Anya bought her some breathing room while she ordered food, although B couldn't help but be slightly suspicious. Chinese food in Italy. God she hoped there was no pizza sauce or cheese on things that weren't supposed to have pizza sauce or cheese in them. Lo Mein was not Spaghetti damnit!

Once the two other werewolves (and this might have been a good indication of how odd her life had become that Bianca even had a thought along the lines of "these two werewolves, are ones I need to be honest with.") sat down, Bianca leaned against the island counter and glanced at Memphis's beer. It wasn't Tequila (for all the good it'd do her) but it was something cold and with at least 5% alcohol content by volume. Reaching out, Radical B swiped the beer and promptly flashed Memphis a toothy grin as she took a swing and let the bottle remain in her hand for a bit before she sat it back on the marble top and pushed it back to Memphis. The liquid pretty much room temperature and flat despite the cold glass that surrounded it.

"Okay...here's the skinny but it doesn't go beyond this kitchen alright? No need to stir the beehive for nothing. If it is nothing. You know?"

Glancing over her shoulder Bianca squinted into the dark hallway beyond as if she expected half the pack house to dodge back around the corner. Snickering about how they were nearly just caught snooping. But all was well and quiet and B turned back around although her voice got just a smidge softer when she spoke.

"Think the big sparkly elephant in the room is that Mal IS in a coma. Come on, Lycan in a coma? That shit just doesn't happen, so I figure there's more to it. Something is keeping him in a Coma. It's just the what that is that's a bitch to figure out."

Pausing, B reached out and plucked another apple from the fruit basket and set it on the counter in front of her, using the tip of her pointer finger to roll the thing back and forth as if it were a physical manifestation of her thinking possess.

"And we know it ain't drugs they could have been slipping him at the hospital. He's home now so they shoulda worn off it he was being drugged." At the look the two no doubt were giving her, B snorted and kept her focus on the apple. Ash gave her the same look but hey someone had to say it, might as well be her.

"Anywho, are you two familiar with the concept of Oaccam's Razor? Basically all it says is that out of all the explanations you have available the simplest explanation is always the right one" Big words coming out of someone that looked B and that was the whole purpose of her appearance now wasn't it. But back to her point. Standing straight up Bianca tossed the apple into the air with her right hand and caught it with her left while she spoke. "So let's see. It's not drugs, it's not physical, so it must be....wait for it...Mystical! Yeah, magic. I know right? Mal? Why the fuck? So here is where I come in. I know something about the magical side of things and what ever's happening to him reeks of it. Ash agrees and he gave me a couple of places to start looking, figuring hey since I know something about this stuff I may get lucky and figure this out. Soooo..."

Lifting her shoulders, Bianca shrugged and bit into her apple, shutting herself up before she revealed that the reason Memphis was probably watching her was to make sure that if she did find what she was looking for she didn't implement it and make bad things worse. Because that wouldn't do anybody any good.

And as the werewolf looked from Anya to Memphis and back again, B grinned and swallowed her bit of fruit as she shifted the apple from the right to the left again (sans throwing it up this time) and held out her fist, knuckles out towards the other two in a blatant invitation for a fist bump. "So you two in? I mean I'm not saying it may get us anywhere but it's better than doing nothing." Plus werewolf familiars? Come on, that's just awesome!

Harry Canyon · Taxi Driver

-:Shit just got wierder and wierder around this place. But at least now Memphis was in a better place to deal with what had to be done. So ok a pack mate was in a mysterious coma. So ok they couldn't tell people. So ok they needed to find a fix for it. Good deal. Can do.:-

"Alright." -:Clapping his hands and rubbing them together he looked from Anya to Bianca.:- "Let's get to it then."

(lame ending but will continue this little adventure in play.)