Day 90; Video 003

[bostonhowler]

[The breeze pushes her heavy hair behind her. She takes a deep breath and then puts a smile on for the camera. It's tentative, but there.]

I owe apologies. Quite a few of them. Riley, Charlie, St. Raphael, Derek....

[She pauses.]

Dilandau.

I had some personal trouble recently and lashed out at those that didn't deserve it. I apologize for not being able to keep my temper and for not explaining anything.

[Another pause.]

And for still not explaining anything.

I just... Please accept my apology. For those that don't wish to, [Dilandau] I understand.

I'm going to be staying at the lighthouse a bit, I think. I need the perspective and if something happens again, there won't be anyone to take the brunt of it. Except some seagulls, but they're usually pretty forgiving.

Comments

[bostonhowler]

[Brigid bites her bottom lip and has to go over it in her mind several times before figuring it out.]

Is féidir liom iarracht a mhúineadh agat.

I can attempt to teach you? I read it better than I speak it.

[undomesticated]

Really? That would be kind of neat. You, um, interested in learning another language in return? I'm best with Portuguese and Afrikaans, but mom kept trying to cram French in there too.

[Her ear always love to hear the sound of Gaelic, the words always sounding melodious to her.]

[bostonhowler]

[Brigid smiles and shakes her head.]

Thank you, but no. I've got to get fluent in Gaelic. It'll help me a lot in what I want to do: transcribe ancient Irish myths and legends.

[undomesticated]

You mean for a living? Huh...

[And here Riley still didn't even know what she wanted to do for a career.]

[bostonhowler]

Teaching would be my living. I'd translate the old mythologies to use as teaching aids and for fun.

[Why not?]

[undomesticated]

Yeah? If we were out of here, I'd get you to talk to my mom. She's the one that homeschooled me and my brothers and tried getting me to learn French. My not picking it up that well is my fault, not hers.

[It hadn't crossed her mind. She was supposed to go out for her year of wandering before she decided anything. So she'd been living that to the letter.]

[bostonhowler]

Really? I wanted to try homeschooling but Da said no. He worked too much and the Alpha's wife refused. I thought it would be better than dragging around all the books all the time.

[Weird.]

[undomesticated]

We moved around too much for us to settle in school, not to mention that we changed countries a lot. Mom thought it was best if we had a consistent schooling regiment.

[Welcome to werecat thinking.]

[bostonhowler]

See; I just wanted to do it because I hated the history classes at school. When I got to start university classes in junior year that was completely different, since I could take courses that didn't treat me like an idiot.

[undomesticated]

Schools like that always seemed to be primed towards the 'average' student. So the ones above and below the quo get kind of boned.

[bostonhowler]

Nowadays, it's more like they're set toward the lowest common denominator, so pretty much everyone gets boned.

[She sighs.]

It's just the way it is.

[undomesticated]

Yeah, but you're not in regular school anymore, right? College is supposed to be more involving.

[bostonhowler]

It is and it isn't. I mean, I started university when I was a junior in high school. So, I really didn't have the difference thrust on me. Plus, I live at home, because I'm local.

[She shrugs.]

It's more independent, especially in a few ways, but in others, it's the same drudgery as before.

[undomesticated]

What parts about it do you like? I mean, you must like something if you keep doing it.

[bostonhowler]

[Brigid loves talking about education, Riley. You were warned.]

I love that I can get such a diverse range of things, and even within a broad spectrum of a course, there are nuances that I can focus on that aren't wrong, aren't "unnecessary" and will still serve me in passing the course. The independence is freeing, too. In high school, you were given a subject and that was what your paper was about. In college, they give you a topic and how you approach it, how you decide to approach it, makes all the difference.

And, there's something to be said for the anonymity of it, too. In high school, you have people that you share classes with, consistently. Even in my huge high school. But in college, you might be that red headed girl in Professor so and so's class but if you say no, no one badgers you about it and it's easy to slip away.

[undomesticated]

So, you like the diversity and the anonymity.

[It sounded like Brigid liked being able to not have to stay in the strict and regimented rules of high school, but also liked not having some hugely watchful eye over her all the time as well. But that could be Riley reading too much into what she'd heard of Brigid's alpha.]

What about, um, extracurricular?

[bostonhowler]

Definitely. It's nice not being punished for following a different train of thought.

[Which, she hadn't been, since she knows how to tell the proper answers that authority is looking for. But it is annoying.]

What do you mean?

[undomesticated]

Like, things outside of classes and studying. You do anything for fun? Sports? Hobbies? Hanging out with friends and doing stupid things?

[bostonhowler]

[Brigid laughs. This is the same conversation she has with other people. They don't understand either.]

Every full moon we go up to the cabin, and the entire pack goes for a run. Other than that, I translate, I work at the church. Those things are fun for me. Well, and cooking. I do that a lot.

[undomesticated]

Hey, I'm not knocking your fun. I guess I just have a different view on what fun is. Aside from the cooking. I kinda like doing that too.

[bostonhowler]

[Brigid smiles and shrugs.]

I would cook for the entire week, when Da was alive. Then, just freeze everything so that we could have what we wanted during the week. Sometimes, he'd grab extras because there was a new rookie, or someone's wife had a baby. The police station was almost as much a family as the pack is. I think I almost miss them more.

[undomesticated]

Oh, your dad was a cop?

[She hadn't known that little piece of information, curious despite herself.]

[bostonhowler]

[She sighs, leaning against Riley's side.]

He was, yeah. A-15, street patrol, third shift out of Bunker Hill Street. He was also Special Operations. Meaning he sometimes worked weird hours because they needed him.

[undomesticated]

[The shift surprises her, especially given how they'd started this conversation, but it also pleases her. She'd missed having people to be close to, Balthazar the only one willing to put up with her draping herself over him at any given point.]

Special Operations? Is that like SWAT?

[bostonhowler]

[Derek isn't cuddly, and Brigid is missing the piles of wolves that usually happen on movie night.]

I think there was a big change around, so SWAT is now Special Operations or something like that. I never really paid attention, except when there was this big standoff a year or so before he died, and Da got called in to help out. I was in school on lockdown.