"If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then, this parting was well made."

Safehouse: Common Area(#2947RAJ)
The foyer of this house is set off from the living room with its octagonal bump-out by a four foot high halfwall. Stairs lead up from the foyer, turning and disappearing to the right, and a wooden door with a keycard lock claims the wall opposite the living room. The rest of the main floor is taken up by a small bathroom across the hallway from a dining room which is separated from the kitchen at the back of the house by another half-wall. The decor is decidedly sparse - white walls, beige carpeting in the living and dining rooms and down the hall, unremarkable vinyl in the foyer and kitchen.
A used couch and a pair of recliners are grouped around a coffee table in the living room, with a foursome of wooden chairs claiming the bump out for quieter conversation. The dining room boasts a white laminate table with four aluminum and vinyl-upholstered chairs - too new to be 'vintage', too old to be trendy. The appliances and cupboards in the kitchen are new - or at least refurbished to look like it - and a door leads out to the backyard from there.
Up the stairs are a number of empty rooms where anyone affiliated with the Sept can crash and an office for private meetings. The Glass Walkers have their own area accessible via a locked door off the foyer. The main doors themselves lead back out to the front porch of the house.

Kevin lies on the floor, on his tummy, a ratty piece of paper by his head which he's staring it. It's so covered with pencil marks, arrows, dotted lines and such like that it's very hard to even guess what it might be. The pencil which may have made some of those marks is in his mouth, being chewed.

Coming from upstairs in his pants, with a towel hanging over his head, Basil strolls down the steps with his hands in his pockets. Pausing to look at Kevin for a minute, he walks over and gives him a light prod in the leg with one bare foot. "Hey packie. Having a nap or something?"

"Nah," Kevin says round the pencil. "Still trying to puzzle out a strategy for tomorrow." He points at the paper with one forefinger. "This is the tire yard... meant to be."

"Mm? We've got a Get commander. There is no strategy." Basil replies, settling down on his knees next to Kevin. He leans over to look at the paper, then looks over at Kevin. "Guess we'll see what we'll see when it comes. Fortune favors the brave."

Kevin rolls from his stomach onto his side. "You feeling brave, Basil?" he asks, looking up at the ahroun.

Basil smirks and shakes his head at Kevin. "No. I don't want to even think about fighting that thing after the stuff it did to you. But I haven't got a choice. So what good is worrying about it all the time going to do?"

"I'd worry a great deal less," snorts Kevin ruefully, "if you weren't gonna be there as well as me. Did Emma say what she was planning to do with you?"

"We're going to be soldiers." Basil replies. "We aren't going to be on the front, but if Emma tries to separate us, I won't let her." He reaches over and fuzzles Kevin's hair, flashing his packmate a brief smile. "You're worried about what'll be like more if I die and leave you, than if you die, huh?"

Kevin shakes his head vigorously. "I'm not thinking about it. Not at all. If I think about it," he says, superstitiously, "it's more likely to happen. Or so I've been playing games with myself. If I can go an hour without thinking of you dying it won't happen."

"Now you're just being silly. Cute, but silly." Basil replies, sprawling out on the floor beside Kevin and pulling his arms behind his head. "We've done all we can. The only other factors left are our strength and our willpower. And our luck. Someone'll die tomorrow, probably. But it's a one in eight chance, or less.""

"Do you know who else is gonna be fighting by us?" Kevin asks. "Thomas Grey said he would, which is cool. Because if any garou in this sept is bombproof it's Grey."

"Ha. Then we'll probably just get along fine. Grey will frenzy on the thing and kill it before we even lift a claw." Basil states with a grin. "I'd fear him more than that Bane any day."

"He's a pussycat really," Kevin confides. "Took me a long time to find out that by god the guy's human after all... well, not human, but you know what I mean... Who else do we have?"

"Some spirits. Some from James, some from the fire, and some Wildfire guys or something I guess. I don't really know." Basil says, lifting his hands and dropping them. "I guess it doesn't matter for us all that much."

"I like to know who I've got at my back," Kevin says. "I'd trust most any of Havoc... specially KL..." He gives a small smile at something. "Or Dillen for that matter. We took each other's backs the night Tamara bought the farm..."

"Stop thinking about death." Basil calls, nudging Kevin in the side. "Ever hear of a self fulfillin' prophecy? Besides, I'd like to think a few nights with me is worth facing possible death." Basil turns his head, brushing his nails across his chest then examining them with a cocky expression. "The best stuff always costs the most."

Kevin gives a theatrical sigh. "You tell me to stop going on about death," he challenges Basil, "while all the time you go on about sex. Six of one, half a dozen of the other."

"That's because it never fails to derail your train of thought, make you blush and think, or whatever. It's funny. Hell, if we ain't got anything else anymore, at least we've got laughter. That's something the Wyrm can never take away." Basil bows his head with a snort. "Maybe I'm a child of Coyote and none of us know it."

"I could die laughing," Kevin says. "Speaking of... I had the weirdest dream the other day. Dreamt we were at a moot, and you and I were doing a stand-up routine in front of all the garou. Making them laugh like crazy, we were. Well... you were. I was more the straight man... and don't make the joke."

"Sounds like something we'd do. Except the last bit." Basil replies, then leans over and wraps an arm around Kevin, laying close enough to let his head rest against Kevin's side. "If I do go tomorrow, Kev, don't hate yourself. It won't be your fault, or anyone else's but the Philodox. I don't want you to avenge me. I don't want you to lose yourself." He lifts his head enough to look at Kevin, then touches him on the nose with a smile. "Just live, 'kay?"

Kevin looks into Basil's eyes from a distance of mere inches. "Deal," he says quietly. "And back at you, gorgeous. If I fall, you get on with your life. You're back on the right path now... and hell, without me, you and Aimee might find you have a lot in common. Hell, you already did..."

Basil smirks a little at Kevin, then he just shakes his head. "I doubt that'll happen, because you'll be coming back to have her for yourself. Besides, she's a Glass Walker, an Glass Walker Kin should have Glass Walker pups eh?" He nudges Kevin in the chest, then yawns suddenly and fans his face. "Oh, s'cuse me. Guess I'm just wakin' up still."

Kevin holds his hand in front of Basil's mouth. "OK, so you still have to learn manners," he grins. "So let's stop frowsting around inside. Let's go out and live it up tonight, really take our minds off this stuff. Wanna go out on the town?"

"Actually... Well." Basil settles his head down on Kevin again and closes his eye, smiling all the while. "I just want to stay here with you, unless you had something special planned. Nothing 'funny', just, well... We might not see each other again, but I still love the hell out of you. I just want to remember what it's like to lay here and just be with ya, packie."

Kevin's eyebrows go up to his hairline in surprise. "And you're the one who's always telling me that I ought to live it up because you never know when it may be your last chance to!" he points out. "But hell... of course I can... let's just be here. Together. There's a line in Shakespeare..." He frowns as he tries to remember. "If we do meet again, why, we shall smile; If not, why then, this parting was well made."

"To me, this is living it up.. To a degree." Basil murmurs, nestling down to rest his head against Kevin's chest. "What did you have planned anyways? Going out and drinking, and then that's about it?" Basil asks, only briefly looking up at Kevin. "Such a poet. Maybe you should have been a Galliard or something, huh?"

"Wasn't planning on drinking," Kevin says. "But I thought maybe a meal out, see a film... go down to the river and walk along it... not as territory patrol for once, but to enjoy it..."

"A date without the sex, huh?" Basil muses, then rises up to his feet with a moment of hesitation. He pulls his hair out of his face, then gestures his head over his shoulder. "I'm going to go get my shirt and shoes on."

"Call it that if you like," Kevin says evenly. Then, "Why? You gonna come out with me after all?"

"No, I just thought I'd get dressed for no particular reason." Basil remarks on his way upstairs, but he's soon back out on the landing in his mesh and boots, heading right back down with a smile and a quick step.

Kevin has moved up onto the couch by the time Basil returns, clad for going out. "So you were joking, again," he smiles. "I'm starting to figure when you're not being serious. Something in the way your mouth goes."

"Well at least someone is. It's kind of annoying to not be serious and be taken badly, and the other way around. Really annoying, actually." Basil nods at Kevin, then walks to the front door and yanks it open, stepping out onto the porch.

"You do deadpan so well, though," Kevin compliments Basil as he follows the Bone Gnawer out. He closes and locks the door behind them with something of the air of Bilbo Baggins leaving his hobbit hole on his great adventure. "Where first?"