Decker Rohl

Decker Rohl

Sun 11:39PM EST
Half-moon.

He feels better. Lounging on the back porch, blowing lazy smoke circles into the sky, one of Livingston's tapes jamming softly on the boombox, he lets the night pass him by. Didn't want to think about anything today. Didn't want to think about that today, particularly.

A half-empty bottle of beer by his chair, down where his hand would dangle. An ashtray he doesn't bother to use, superfluous as an umbrella in August. A cushion behind his head, and the October Playboy rumpled on his knee, forgotten. Eyes shut, feet up, unwinding.

The Garou Nation should declare holidays now and again.

Rune

Sun 11:47PM EST
Another beer, colder, brushes against his hand. Offering. The glass bottle clinks gently as Rune places it on the concrete beside him, then continues across the narrow little patio-yard to the concrete retaining wall, hoisting herself up onto it with her usual lean economy of motion.

She doesn't say anything. Not yet. Not now. She just sprawls in the deliciously cool night air and turns her face to the stars.

Decker Rohl

Sun 11:50PM EST
He makes a sound in the back of his throat as the cold glass brushes the back of his hand, opening one eye while she's leaning down to set it there.

Shuts it again.

A wind rises and rustles the yellowing leaves on the trees. Then it dies away, and it's cool, and it's calm, and he bestirs himself to lift the new beer into his lap. "Thanks."

See, he was learning.

Rune

Sun 11:58PM EST
He was learning.

"My pleasure," Rune replies, her voice distance and a bit thick with smoke. The retaining is not particularly narrow, but not exactly wide, either. Nevertheless, Rune manages to lean back and lie down in apparent comfort, dark head pillowed by one crooked arm. The other manages both her own bottle of beer and her light cigarette. "You've been out here awhile. Figured you needed a fresh one."

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:01AM EST
"When you fall off," hissss, as he untwists the top, "I'm gonna laugh."

With that charitable statement, he upends the beer, sinking back down onto the patio chair. Setting the bottle down with a clink, he wipes his mouth and shrugs. "Just relaxin'."

Rune

Mon 12:02AM EST
"I won't fall off," she announces, slinging a sly, sidelong glance across the little yard at him. "Wanna up the ante a little, make that a bet?"

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:05AM EST
Decker snorts, sits up a little. "Bet whether you fall off or not?"

Rune

Mon 12:06AM EST
"No, bet whether the sky is blue." The faint roll of her eyes, the familiar smirk on her red mouth, the audible snort accompanying these words: classic Rune. "Yes. Bet whether I fall off or not."

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:09AM EST
He stares at her for a minute and then flops back, making the joints of the chair squeal. "Ain't never heard anythin' so stupid in my life," he pronounces.

Eyes drifting to the distant points of light that marked the cities' hearts, he takes another swig. "...how much you wanna bet?"

Rune

Mon 12:19AM EST
"Well that all depends on what you want," she drawls, exhaling a cloud of cigarette smoke. "...and what you're willing to risk. Money'd be pretty boring, wouldn't it? You name what you want me to put up, and I'll name what I want you to put up. That work?"

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:23AM EST
His attention stays on those lights for another moment, and then it comes sliding back to her, sidelong. After a delay, he turns to face her, hoisting himself upright in the chair.

"All right," quiet, a gleam of interest somewhere beneath all the disinterest. "You fall off? I get yer car. For a week. Anywhere I want. Anytime I want."

Rune

Mon 12:33AM EST
"Well then," she murmurs, some faint grin turning her red lips up at the corners, some gleam dancing in her dark eyes. "...I better not fall off. An' if I don't fall off -

"I get you. For a week, Anywhere I want. Anytime I want. That is, if you're man enough to handle it." Resting her beer on her stomach, Rune pauses and twists her head to get a better look at Decker. "By the way, pushing? - doesn't count. So don't even think about tryin' it."

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:37AM EST
Decker chews his lower lip, considering. Didn't sound that bad either way, though did sound awfully like putting him on a leash her way.

"Gotta have a timespan," he says at last. "How long you gonna stay up there without fallin' off for it to count?"

Rune

Mon 12:41AM EST
"Damnit, Decker," she grins, and winks, "...you're getting too fast for me. I was hoping you wouldn't get that far.

"Alright. How's a half-hour sound? Long enough to be tedious, but not so long as to be fuckin' ridiculous."

Decker Rohl

Mon 12:47AM EST
"Too fuckin' short," he snorts, getting up to move over, resting his elbows up on the retaining wall, the right one close to her head. Looking out at her parking lot, his ugly Ford in space 25A-1, her sweet little Beemer in space 25A-2, he takes a sip of his beer. "Gotta let me push you if yer shootin' for a half hour."

Rune

Mon 12:54AM EST
"Hardly be fair if you pushed me around now, would it Decker? It's not like I'd have a fair chance against that, you down there all safe on the ground, me up here layin' around on the damn wall." Rune shrugs, shaking her head. "...you wanna make it a contest like that, you gotta be up here on the wall too, so I can defend myself properly. Or at least you gotta let me sit up, and it's gotta be shorter, like ten minutes or something. You wanna make it just pure me layin' up here on the wall, I guess I can go an hour."

[like what you see?]

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:42PM EST
Corner of Third and Fulton. Cabs go by muddy from the last rain and the smog lingering in the air. A convenience store squeezed in between a secondhand clothing store and an adult video store sells cheap liquor on half of its shelves, over-the-counter drugs, floss, cookies and magazines on the other half. Across the street, a lone streetwalker displays her wares, pretty at a distance but already old at 23 up close. It's a cold night, but she's got a stone heart, and she doesn't even feel it anymore.

A businessman in a failing firm hurries by clutching his briefcase. He looks at her for a moment, tempted; automatically, she shifts her weight to a provocative pose so mechanical and practiced it leaves him cold. He scurries on. She relaxes, stifles a yawn, and looks longingly toward the bottles glimpsed vaguely through the convenience store's door.

A half-block behind the businessman is her pimp, thin as a rail, strong as a wire. A half-block down the cross-street, the thuggish young Modi trudges up the sidewalk, cupping a flame to his last half-a-joint. Across the street, Jimmy's swigging his own bottle; he doesn't notice.

He reaches the corner at the same time the pimp does. The men bend their heads together and consult. Decker looks in his wallet and mutters. The dealer gestures. Decker adds something; the dealer rolls his eyes, and pulls out the goods. Money for addiction. The pimp pinches his girl on the cheek and walks off. Decker looks her up and down and wanders off across the street. Maybe later.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 05:44PM EST
**takes another swallow, his eyes already a little unfocused as he heads towards the big man he's seeing for the second time**

Arianna

Sat 05:45PM EST
Yeah. Maybe she'll have better luck in NJ, hm? probably not, but what the hell. Another cyber cafe, another dollar. She steps outside, and swings her backpack to her shoulders, stretching (tenderly feeling jaw just in case - but whoever the hell fixed her did a good job) before heading... thataway.
Just in time to see the prick from last night do his bitta dickering, a roll of her eyes, a smirk at the not so hot piece of ass, and a lifted brow at Jimmy. must they be the way she was headed? sigh. Shuolders straighten, pack hitched into comfortable position, and off she goes.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:47PM EST
When Jimmy starts heading toward him, Decker slows and turns to face him, tucking his new stash into the pocket of his cargoes, which look suspiciously like the same pair from last night. The shirt, though, has changed: a t-shirt this time, a size too small, white, holes on the hem.

He says nothing. His posture waits, confident, half-slouching to the side.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 05:49PM EST
takes another long pull from what must be a fifth. "Aye there." he says quietly just loudly enough to be heard

Arianna

Sat 05:50PM EST
Hand tuckes in pocket and wraps around trusty blade - even as she looks longingly at that bottle.. easy, confident (though not overly so) strides bent on ignoring both of them... a block away now.... just keep on truckin.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:51PM EST
Still no reply. A faint nod of his chin upward. Heavy-lidded eyes, grey irises not the slightest bit bleached by the diffuse, all-permeating light of the southern summers.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 05:53PM EST
*shrugs and turns away alittle, no sense drinking with someone that wont talk**

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:53PM EST
And when Jimmy turns away, Decker clears his throat. That quiet Southern drawl, somehow hard on his voice, "What d'you want?"

Arianna

Sat 05:54PM EST
Yup, steady as she goes, girl. cross the street, same block, eyes ahead - no eye contact lest she smirk and have to pull the blade again.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 05:54PM EST
"I thought you'd wanna share a drink or three." he shrugs.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:57PM EST
Distrustful, he tilts his head back another notch and frowns at Jimmy out of the bottom of his eyes. "The fuck happened to the chivalrous knight act from last night?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 05:58PM EST
"What act. I still think you're dirt. But your dirt thats a cousin."

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:00PM EST
A snort. A quirk of his mouth. "Fianna." All just bitter cause the Get kicked 'em outta Britain ages ago - or that's what the Forseti that saw him through his first year told him. Not that he bought too much of the propaganda bullshit. Just crap they feed you to make you a willing lemming on a suicide run into the Wyrm's maw. Maybe if there's enough of you, you'll choke the monster on your way into his belly.

Puffing out a mouthful of smoke, he ashes his joint, looks at the battered third remaining, and holds it out to Jimmy. "Name?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:02PM EST
**takes the joint and a polite hit** "Jimmy Donovan, Fostern Ahroun of the Fianna." he says the last part quitely barely audiable

Arianna

Sat 06:04PM EST
half a block to go now, enough to hear them as they speak, hair tucked behind her ear, the other hand joining to wrap it up in a ponytail gathered from her pocket to keep it out of the way before oh so nanchalantly she tucks them back in her pocket and saunters near.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:06PM EST
**holds the fifth towards Decker**

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:10PM EST
Decker nods, his eyes drifting away to the hooker across the street. Another tired businessman walking toward the bus stop that'll take him to his subway stop, and from there, to his rideshare parking lot. She straightens up, puts herself out for him, and he looks with the eyes of a man at once too beaten down by the world to care that she was old and tired and too beaten down by the world to take what he wanted.

He walks by. She slouches back against the lightpost. Decker takes the offered fifth and takes a swig, passing it back. "Decker Rohl. Same, of the Fenrir."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:10PM EST
**gestures with the joint towards Arianna** "Think we should go make peace with her?"

Arianna

Sat 06:12PM EST
Yeah. Sure. he gets a fucking introduction instead of the 5th degree. fucking men. pigs. all of them. Jimmy maybe not so bad - but still. Ugh. Keep on walking chica.. keep on walking.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:13PM EST
**passes the joint back taking the fifth and a swig**

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:13PM EST
The thug snorts, bringing the joint up to his mouth with thumb and forefinger to suck off another hit. Smoke rings puff into the air as he leans his head back against the wall. "Ain't no 'we'. You ain't done nothin' and it'd be best if I stayed away from her. Ain't got no business with her."

Tapping ash off again - cheap cigarette paper, burned too damn fast - he adds, "Just need to get in touch with her people." Looking up, eyes narrowed against a stray breeze that blows smoke back in his face, "Know any?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:14PM EST
"Fangs." he chuckles. "Not if I kin help it. But we should go talk to her. Kin are kin and none of them should be wandering here'bouts unprotectected."

Arianna

Sat 06:16PM EST
Well, quite obviously she can get her own licks in. Against better judgement she stops when she comes abreast, and then arches a brow.
"Don't need protection. Evening Jimmy."
And Decker is pointedly ignored.
"spare a swig?"
Nod to the bottle..

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:17PM EST
Decker compresses his lips, thinking of the nameless dead, left to rot. "Best not," he says at last. "She don't like me, I don't like her...just askin' for trouble with that moon in the sky."

...and, lo and behold, there she came. Decker just sticks his joint in his mouth and ambles off across the street.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:18PM EST
**offers her the bottle.** "Sure. And you dont know whats wanderin around here."

Arianna

Sat 06:20PM EST
Take sthe bottle, and a swig, then smirks as she nods to decker.
"Yeah I do. Stupid fuckers without an inch of common sense. Like I told ya last night I woulda takled to him had he just fucking told me who the fuck he was. But he didn't. So fuck'im"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:20PM EST
"Do you really wanna do that?" he asks arching an eyebrow. "I'm sure we can find a place for you two to crash if thats all you want."

Arianna

Sat 06:21PM EST
Blinks.
"Really want to do what?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:22PM EST
"Fuck 'im." he says smiling, obviously joking

Arianna

Sat 06:24PM EST
She looks at him and just rolls her eyes.
"oh fuck you."
And she turns to walk away.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:25PM EST
"Hey lass it was juss a joke." he smiles and puts a hand on her shoulder. "No harm done."

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:26PM EST
Trotting up on the sidewalk on the other side before slowing, he holds the last of the joint out to the hooker.

"Hey Decker." She doesn't look him in the eye. None of them did; what they saw there drove their eyes off. "Was wondering if you wanted a little somethin' tonight."

"Cherry," he acknowledges. "Don't got no more money tonight, sorry."

"Oh." A shrug, as if to say, oh well. Her manner cools considerably, and he doesn't really expect any different. It was business. Oldest profession in the world, isn't that what they said?

"Listen," he says a little later, when she passes the joint back, "there was a girl killed on the abandoned tract over on George and 12th. Wonderin' if you see anythin'?"

Arianna

Sat 06:27PM EST
She jerks her shoulder away and turns around to face him again.
"Don't touch me. And the fucker broke every bone in my face last night - and no harm done by insinuating I have ANY wish to fuck him? Please. Fucking me is a priveledge none of you will have. Ever. "

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:28PM EST
growls slightly. "I've been kind lass. I've been friendly. Dont piss me off. Look up in the sky, see what's shinnin down on us. Ya know what that means. You have no idea what it's like to try to control what that brings out."

Arianna

Sat 06:34PM EST
"Ya also been insultin - just like the rest of them."
She shakes ehr head and sighs - before, voice low and tight.
"Look. Just cuz I'm fang kin doesn't mean I know shit. Doesn't mean I have anything to do with any of them - or that I like them any more then you do. I been through shit that you all put on your Kin - and seen even worse. Let's not forget who the chosen are - and it ain't me. You want pissed off? He attacked me unprovoked based on what I smelled like. He didn't even introduce himself to let me know it was safe to tell him anything even if I did know anything. Which I don't. So don't talk to me about pissoff's. Ya'll can't control SHIT. Ya been kind - in all but listenin to my side of the fucking story. Ya helped them get me someplace to get fixed and I said thank you. Wanna take me behind the building and get your dry fuck everyone purebreed is entiteld to with one of my "nobel" birthright? I am rabble among the chosen and I know it. That does NOT mean I have to like it. So don't you growl at me. To anyone of you assholes I'm no better then the whore over there he's trying to pick up. Are ya any different? Prove it. By not getiing all pissed off when someone shares her opinion after getting the fuck beat out of her by the little prick."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:37PM EST
"I'm not getting pissed off. And I'm trying to control it." he growls belying his wards. "I saw your fucking story, I'm the one that cradled you in my arms trying to get you help. And I'd be happy to hear the rest of your story. And yer not a whore to me, nor do I think ya are to 'im either. I'm trying to be nice. I have no interest in whats inside yer pants. But please live and let live damn it. All these grudges don' do anyone any good."

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:41PM EST
He hands the joint back. She sucks a hit, blows out smoke, shrugs with one shoulder. "You know we walk the other way if we see somethin'."

He exhales, shifting his weight, idly running his hand over the fresh-healed pink skin over his gut where that damn lupus had torn him open. Livingston hadn't touched that, leaving it to heal itself. Stingy bastard. "Yeah, but - seen anythin', heard anythin' at all? Maybe she was one o' yers. Heard somethin' about someone killin' you girls a while back."

Another shrug, a tired smile. "Well, that's stopped. Thank God."

"Think she was a blonde. Probably pretty. Mighta seemed highborn."

Cherry shakes her head again. "Like someone like that'd last a week out here." One last drag, and she hands the joint back. "Sorry, Deck. Can't help ya. But you're scarin' away the customers, so."

"Yeah," mutters Decker, tired of running up a blind alley, taking his joint back and having a last drag before tossing it down and stubbing it out. "Later, Cherry."

Arianna

Sat 06:45PM EST
"An I said thank you - that's all your gonna get. And I don'tgive a shit what I am to him. Shoulda gutted him when I had the chance."
Smirks, and turns to lean back against the wall.
"Ya'll are holding last night against me, ain'tcha? not against him. All I did was stand my fucking ground. And I'll continue to do so."
A roll of her shoulders, and sha shakes her head.
"I'm pissed off. Gonna be for a while. I got all the right in the world - same as you. Don't like it, sorry. But ya take me as i am - or I can just keep walking."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:46PM EST
**moves up right beside her. "I'm not holding shit aga'n ya." he says calmly. "I already told him that 'sfar as I'm concerned he's dirt."

Arianna

Sat 06:47PM EST
Nods, and reaches for the bottle again.
"Had a real affect on him, I'm sure. I hate people like that."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:48PM EST
he shrugs. "Cant change 'em, why try?" he says giving her the bottle

James

Sat 06:50PM EST
so they say ya got class
or somethin;
Decker knew the local folk
and he knew the local.... folk
the little folk that is

everybody has their own little associations and their own little tricks of the trade
and it seemed his packmate had at least found the trick if not the trade

used and abused Cochran's scuffstep over the sidewalk
black BDUs in realization a few more stitches may be in order
gray tank pulled from the dregs of his pack
he'll have to dedicate it sooner or later
his shirt is soaking up the remains of the Fang kin
dreads tied back beneath the black paisley bandana

lower lip nibbled in thought as he finally crosses the street towards "the corner"

Arianna

Sat 06:51PM EST
Takes the bottle and a long swig before handing it back and wiping her mouth.
"You should see it from my side. Gets right depressing knowing you can't change them, no matter what tribe they are. For every half decent one there's half a dozen pricks just like him."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:52PM EST
he nods "I know." he says quietly

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:53PM EST
Right about then's when Decker leaves Cherry to her trade, shoving his hands into his pockets to cross the street to yet another corner, at right angles to both Jimmy and Arianna, and Cherry. Leaning against the wall, he raises his head to see James scuff his way up, and raises an eyebrow as if to ask, any luck?

Arianna

Sat 06:54PM EST
"Do ya now."
quirks a half grin, but shrugs, arms crossing as gaze continues to glare holes in the hide her blade tasted just yesterday.
"So what do you do, Jimmy Donovan, other then rescue battered kin..."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:55PM EST
he shrugs. "Nothing any more. I just got offa boat a week ago or so." he seems briefly sad and looks up at the moon. "I wont be goin' back home though."

Arianna

Sat 06:57PM EST
Arches a brow, slightly.
"So what you do before - and where's home?"

James

Sat 06:57PM EST
a bit of a nod
a bit of a smile

"More mojo."

but his right hand raises upon the crinkle of a paper bag
Sunshine Donuts
this morning's, cold, little stale
but still good

eat first, talk later
Mother Rat's been kind

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 06:57PM EST
"Belfast. I live with my da' and worked in factories. Till I had to leave."

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:59PM EST
Decker leans over to glance into the bag, shakes his head. Not hungry, especially not for something that sick-sweet.

"Where at?"

James

Sat 08:03PM
more for him
few bites taken of a maple bar chewed in thought before nodding back from whence he came

"One apartment building's had a few more gunshots than normal, in the last month..... few mice said they saw a real pretty lady entering before the latest round but they didn't see her come out."

real pretty
blond

"Care to go sniffing around?"

his nose is still full of the pine sol from being in the Barrens only a few days ago
he also doesn't know what to look for
but he knows where to look

Arianna

Sat 08:06PM
And after Jimmy's moving on - she still leans against the wall, staring a whole in Decker. Flicker glance of recognition for James, but the jerk has her full attention. Toothpick rolled lazily with her tongue as she swings her pack around and grabs her walkman, slipping the phones on and turning it up.. just watching.

Decker Rohl

Sat 08:09PM
Decker shrugs. Another building another gunshot another death. What else is new?

Real pretty lady.

"Yeah, okay," he agrees, nudging off the wall. "Just one thing. Go tell the fuckin' Silver Fang bitch across the street to quit glarin' my way."

No way was he going over to risk about confrontation.

James

Sat 08:15PM
Silver Fang bi...?
a glance across the street across the last bite of the bar

"Ooooh.... I thought after last night you'd developed a fan club"

waggling fingers before they're licked clean
he can hear the walkman from here
no use in calling out

the bag handed over for safe keeping
and the Gnawer is up and at'em
heading on over to the other side (once again, it seems)

Decker Rohl

Sat 08:19PM
"Fuck you," scowls Decker. Fan club. Fuckin' Gnawer who thought he was funny.

As James moves off, Decker looks into his bag of treats. Yueech. Crinkling the top closed, he lets it hang by his side while he walks into the convenience store to flip through skin mags. He couldn't pay up tonight, but he could still look.

Arianna

Sat 08:20PM
Not bloody likely. A lift of brow, but fingers lift and waggle in return, headphones pulled off to drop around her neck as james heads her way. Pause. Wait. Then a smirk.
"Evenin James. A message from his royal asshole?"

James

Sat 08:24PM
funny? no, learning the pack's sarcasm, maybe
a chuckling nod before a twist to lean against the wall

"MMMhmm..... Evening Arianna. Now, I may be taking liberty with the translation, but I think it boils down to mind your manners or next time he won't hold back, or bring Livingston in on it."

he heard all about it last night
and probably has figured more out than Decker let on
he knows it wasn't entirely his temper
or at least, figured it out once "she" narrowed down to Arianna

Arianna

Sat 08:28PM
She just, stares at the boy.
"mind my.. oh you gotta be fucking kidding me."
She shakes her head - nope, no different here either. So much for James not being so bad, hm? a shake of her head and she tucks her toothpick into her pocket. They're all the fucking same.
"Whatever."
Yeah - a WHOLE load of shit narrowed down to a single word.

James

Sat 08:37PM EST
muscle rolls shoulders into a shrug
hands held up in that "nothing personal" way

"I'm just delivering what was said, and trying to turn it into English over slang. He outranks us both."

as if that explains everything
well
it does, come to think of it
even if a brow lifts the bandana on his forehead
he knows there's more than 'whatever' stored up in there

Arianna

Sat 08:40PM EST
Smirks.
"Everyone outranks me, which is why no ones bothered to tell the whole story or even hear my side before passing judgement on the SilverFangBitch. They're all the same. All that remains to be seen is if you are any different."

James

Sat 08:43PM EST
there's a bit of a laugh at that one

"Well you are a bitch."

grinned

"So what's your side?"

Arianna

Sat 08:49PM EST
"Yeah, and he's an asshole. With not one wit of fucking manners. Should have gutted him when I had the chance."
Wry grin, though she looks over a james.. actually having not expected the question, what with Lexi's "no wonder he decked her" and jimmys poor us look what we have to put up with routine. A slight nod
"Was headed back to my friends pad, and fucker reached out and grabbed me, started demanding that I tell him shit - no introduction, no nothing. How the hell was I supposed to know he was on your side, hm? I told him he wasn't getting shit without telling me who he was, and thats when he grabbed me by the throat snarled some macho bullshit and shoved me."
a pause, a shrug.
"I stood my ground and returned the favor. Asking again for some sort of introduction and why I should tell him anything. That's when he decked me. I only held the blade to him - I had no intention of using it, just of getting him to back the fuck off."
Shrugs, and gares toward the door of the convenience store.
"Had he been civil and at least told me who the fuck he was - he'da found out I didn't know where my so-called "family" is anyway and that I came alone. But he has no manners and even less common sense."

James

Sat 08:53PM EST
there's a nod
no defending his packmate
no damning him either
Decker is Decker and it's not his right nor mission to change him

"He seems to be a little touchy about blades."

dark eyes take a gandering glance over

"He tell you what we found last night?"

Arianna

Sat 08:57PM EST
A slight smirk. A little touchy indeed.
"A simple introduction and request and he never would have seen the blade."
A shrug. Simple as that and yes she's still pissed of. When you come from where she has... yeah. anyway. A slight shrug.
"Snarled something about a chick in the woods before my world went black and red."

James

Sat 09:09PM EST
"A chick in the woods.... just like you..... but a great deal smaller. I wrapped everything that was left to bury in my t-shirt, and probably didn't need that much. Decker knows who did it. I think he was more concerned with not having a repeat performance rather than formal introductions and requests."

again the smooth shrug
that easy smile
perhaps Decker does have common sense
maybe even compassion

in his harsh, trailer trash, brutal sort of way

but you won't find the Gnawer saying that out loud
let them each think what they want
he knows what he knows

"Next time, glare at his boots, or at least smile when you think the dirty thoughts. There's something to be worried about far more dangerous than him, and a lot closer than what we found the other day suggested. You know where Rune's is, they're pack..... so you know how to find me if you need me. Be careful out there, hm?"

Arianna

Sat 09:14PM EST
She just shakes her head.
"I didn't say shit about formality - but is 'names decker, this is what's happening, you know anything to help?' too much to ask? And I did ask. three times. I don't think he's concerned for shit. But again - whatever. My condolences."
There won't be a next time. She pulls from the wall, and nods.
"Later man."
He still has her card - she won't be looking them up. They need her, they can come find her. A roll of shoulders resituates backpack, and she heads thataway once more.

Rune

Sat 09:16PM EST
"Try this one."

The distinctive flapping of glossy pages against glossy pages: the magazine rattle. Decker's view of Miss October is interrupted by a another Miss October: same silicone breasts, same bleached blonde hair, more blatant pose.

James

Sat 09:18PM EST
he said if
he doubts it
but the offer was still made
Mother Rat still heard it

young ones these days, they really need to learn to listen

but the boyman finds his way back down and across the street
and into the store
stopping to half peer at the skin mag in question

"Anyone interesting?"

glancing nod for Rune

Decker Rohl

Sat 09:20PM EST
Decker starts, looking up with a wild light in his eyes (dangerturnbiteKILL--oh.) that dies down to the usual slow muted seethe of his Rage. Looking down at the better picture, he smirks faintly and shakes his head.

"Check out page 87."

Probably not what they expected. The girl there is the most...plain? No; none of the girls were plain. But normal might be a good word for it. The least fake. The breasts might almost be real; the hair is dark and smooth; the pose, a recline, all sleek sloping planes and gentle curves. One of the amateurs, and probably one that barely made the cut into the issue.

Strange what you start longing for after a few years of the wild, the exotic, the unnatural, the War.

Rune

Sat 09:24PM EST
"We'll take it," Rune says to the clerk, with a bare-lidded glance when the Playboy is open to page 87. Pulling out her credit card, she glances at the boys. "Anything else y'all want?"

It wasn't exactly the time or place to discuss what they might've learned.

James

Sat 09:28PM EST
the normal woman gets what could almost be a smile
the credit card a look of almost confusion
before he remembers himself
(old habits die hard)

ones that work still somewhat of a treasure to him

reaching to grab a Belly-Washer while the offer is still open and holds it up with a nod

Decker Rohl

Sat 09:33PM EST
Decker just shakes his head, taking his Playboy in its nice discreet brown paper bag outside when Rune's done paying for it.

"We were gonna go scope out somethin' James found earlier," he says. Cherry was gone. Either got some business or gave up, he figures.

Rune

Sat 09:37PM EST
Rune tosses in a packet or three of rolling papers and a five pack of cheap lighters. She grabbed her prized Zippo off the street last night after tossing it to some strange, but has decided to be prepared. Next time someone asks her for a light, she'll just give them one of these.

The clerk takes an imprint of the card, and Rune signs one of her many aliases, then strides out of the convenience store as she stuffs her bounty into the deep pocket of her leather blazer.

Pausing on the sidewalk beside Decker, she lights up a cigarette. "So. Where to?"

James

Sat 09:40PM EST
it's all about Stuff
while he may have no personal use for the Courage the Cowardly Dog top on the drink
someone else might
and bartering has worked since the beginning of time
sipping on the daily dose of vitamin C in the berry drink
dreads bob in a nod

"Thank you, Rune."

outside
already heading towards the area in question

"It's about six or so blocks up"

better than sixty miles this time, eh?

Decker Rohl

Sat 09:40PM EST
Decker, waiting for James to lead the way, asks Rune, "You find anythin'?"

Rune

Sat 09:46PM EST
"Don't mention it." Rune falls into step alongside the James, and her strides are long and even tonight. It seems she remembered to wear sensible shoes, rather than the tragically hip heels she usually favors. Tucking her hands into the pockets of her leather blazer, Rune shrugs to Decker. "Not really. Didn't think I would. I can usually do some information gathering the other way around. Gimme a location or a name, and I can have some folks I know dig up records and so on. But out here, this ain't really my turf so this sorta canvasing shit ain't my forte."

Decker Rohl

Sat 09:52PM EST
Decker nods, hands in his pockets, trudging along. Though he's somewhere between James and Rune in height, his slouching, prowling gait leaves him several inches shorter. Pant-cuffs scrape along pavement, wearing new frays and new holes into the hem as he keeps pace.

"James' people said they heard gunshots in some apartment." He fills her in not to make conversation but out of pack instinct. What one knows, the pack knows. "Said a pretty lady walked in that day 'n never came out. Figure it's worth a shot."

Lagging briefly behind to ditch the paper bag in the general direction of a trashcan, he shoves the skin mag folded up into the back of his cargoes and then trots to catch up to them again. James' long easy stroll matches Rune's hipswaying slink matches Decker's slow thuggish swagger. Three abreast, the urbanesque Garou prowl the pavement, easily and unthinkingly matched in pace and stride.

"Should probably send word to her people somehow," he adds.

James

Sat 09:53PM EST
Cochran soles lug across the neatly shaped cement
silent in thought and sip for awhile

"Well.... we might have a location for you. More wicked mojo, just going to sniff around."

considering last night's events
it seemed the best way to go about it
dark eyes glancing up the streets ahead
and pulling to a stop mid-block

"But it seems we've got about seven complexes to choose from."

Rune

Sat 10:03PM EST
"There's a Caern in Central Park," Rune comments, offhanded, to Decker. Maybe we can pass on the word to them, they can get in touch with her people. Put the word out, find out who's missin' what, and so on. Probably not many - if any - of her folks up there, but they'd know where to go better than we would. I don't have any idea about other Caerns close by."

Nodding to James as he draws to a stop, Rune continues, "...I'll have my uncle see what he can dig up on what we find. It's all a mismatched patchwork of databases, and so on, so there's no guarantee, but could be he can give us some clues. Any idea on where to start?"

Decker Rohl

Sat 10:09PM EST
Nodding mutely to Rune's suggestion, he keeps pace and listens to his packmates.

"Let's go Umbral," Decker interrupts when Rune asks where to start. "Ain't gonna be able to tell which building it is from this side, but might be that we can from the other. Look fer taint."

James

Sat 10:12PM EST
the three amigos
the three stooges
or
the three horsemen avenging their fallen comrade

he's not sure what to think of it
but it's comfortable to walk with a pack again
this it how it's done
this is how it should be
no matter past mistakes

"Arianna's the only one I know of her family, but she's about as out of contact with them as we are, the only Others I know of are up in the Barrens, seems you know them too. We were on the outskirts of NYC, so not too in touch with the goings on there outside of hearsay and rumor."

what he finds out in Jersey is what will get the home Sept back in the proverbial loop
a Bone Gnawer investigating a Fang Kin's disappearence
little brother's good for something, it seems

"Mouse said she saw a real pretty lady walking into a dark building a little while before the last volley of shots."

that narrows seven down to five
not even breaking stride to turn into an alley
already looking like he belongs there
already able to tell it's uninhabited
(it's a homeless thing)
exhaling as his body slims to squeeze through

it's always easier.... in the city

Decker Rohl

Sat 10:16PM EST
It's always harder in the city.

So Decker doesn't try to do it alone. He grabs Rune's hand and lets her pull him across, hoping her spirit can add to his measly one. All muscle and no mind, is Decker. All rage and no gnosis.

Pop. One of those subaudible subdermal noises, like someone releasing a pressure seal far, far away. Sound is just pressure, so why not? On the other side now, crawlerling spiders all around gleaming silver-grey with eyes the color of electricity, purple and blue and white all at once, Decker lets go of Rune and shakes out his fingers.

Webs everywhere. Pattern everywhere. And beneath that, seething and jarring, the everpresent stench of Wyrm. Smog, pollution, despair, jealousy, abuse, hatred.

Just another day.
How could they stand it, Rune and James?

Rune

Sat 10:20PM EST
The faintest shake of her head - acquiescence, no doubt - scatters inky strands of hair around her face. Rune as they enter the alley, smoothing them back with a slim white hand.

Glancing at James - perfectly willing to follow his lead here - she nods to herself and pulls out her lighter, then leads Decker through the thick webbed strands of the umbra.

The viscous gauntlet is familiar enough for her, and the stained, shattered penumbra just another reflection of home. She begins a slow circle in place, getting her bearing and keeping a careful eye out for the million hazards to which they might fall prey. The landscape is ghostly, ghastly, a strange multilayered history of the site. Half the current buildings - more - haven't yet made their imprint here, while others from another age cling stubbornly to their little spiritual plot, slowly fading to nothingness.

James

Sat 10:27PM EST
maybe this is why his kind are always looked down on
not the First Legend of old Boney's tricks
not the mangey, downbred.... domesticated... bodies
but that they're so damn comfortable here

this is home
the beast forced to grow and adapt to the sprawling, infested, seething, rotting concrete jungle
the primitive boy becoming the urban man
the animal evolving into something better.... or worse

a deep breath clears his head
no more pine-sol
even with the hazards ready to drag him into the darkness
that easy smile hasn't left
that pace doesn't slow
weaving through and around the scattered half-shadow ghosts of forgotten memory demanding it's share of conscience as easily as if walking down an empty street, already numb to the stained, vicious leftovers of what once might have been - he knows he lays a trail safe for them to follow as they search

Decker Rohl

Sat 10:32PM EST
So he follows closely, now and then casting quick glances to either side. He might be passably familiar with the city's realmside, but this was a different situation. He didn't want to be bringing up the rear here. The odd superimposed landscape with its endless shining mirror-webs confused him, misled him, made him fear that he might lose the path if no one was there before and behind him.

As he moves, almost without realizing it, he takes his favored war-shape, the brooding thug becoming a grey-furred direwolf, claws ticking on the now-slick-as-glass, now-rough-as-concrete surface of the ground they tread upon.

Rune

Sat 10:36PM EST
Rune's lips twist into her usual faint smirk as Decker choses the middle position. Her laugh is soundless, and mostly mirthless, as she falls into step behind him.

Hip-sauntering gate bleeds into a wary prowl, watchful and ready and alert. Tension sparks through her body, electric, livewire, but she stays loose and ready as they explore.

Except for the ceremony wherein they called Eagle, she hasn't been Umbral in a good long time. Familiar as she is with this urban horrorscape, she wouldn't dare it without pack. Pack - how unsettling, how bizarre.

James

Sat 10:45PM EST
the Get prowling the hunt behind enemy lines
the Walker tense with awareness' electric current
the Bone Gnawer taking a walk through the park

up, down, around
side to side
put your left foot in, put your left foot out
put your left foot in, and hope it doesn't get ripped off
you do the lookey-lookey and ya may get turned around
that's what it's aaaalll about

straight and narrow
a simple path
they won't get lost
they can look around
he'll make sure they don't make that left at Albaquerque

twisted as the landscape is
cities are cities
integrally, they're all the same
that's the beauty of it

a quick glance back
silent

anything?

Decker Rohl

Sat 10:53PM EST
He's looking around, grey eyes in a grey face, white on his shoulder. He looks at the facades of the ghostly buildings one on top of the other, looking for things that didn't belong.

The city is old; there's a lot of blood. What's he's looking for, though, is fresher. And more...wrong.

Nothing, he rumbles, so far.

Sat 11:01PM EST
Crouching on the cracked cobblestones of a street-that-was, fingers half-trailing over a few sickly, waving weeds, Rune studies the ghostly structures with a careful eye. In the middle of one of the apartment buildings, the remains of an old church. The lines of the squat, shambling tenement are barely visible, little more than a suggestion of structure, like a cage, around boxlike little church. White clapboard glows luminous in the dingy Umbral twilight.

"Wouldn't be a bad place to live, that," she remarks to James, soaking it in a moment more, faint smile turning her red lips upward, before shifting and stalking forward.

Different angle, new view. The 1-A in building two throbs low and bitter, the almost solid walls coated in a gelatinous substance that might've been blood, but the feel is old - is ancient, even. Glancing up - there? - Rune points to the fireescape hanging above the blackened windows. The structure leads her gaze upwards, the faint spillage of something bright against the dull black iron. Rune points. "What's that? Can you find a way up there?"

James

Sat 11:15PM EST
without even being told, he stops
perhaps to smell the flowers alongside the park path
glancing to the little picket fenced structure hiding in all the ghostly dreams
it brings something of a smile to the young Gnawer, too

reminds him of home

dirt stained fingernails scratch at the base of his neck when the gaze raises
contemplation a moment's silence
pinpointing the strange smear of... whatever.....
barely

"Sure. Just don't go anywhere."

that easy grin in tease as the empty juice bottle is resecured in cargo pocket
hands rubbed together before stepping towards the building
shall we dance, madam?
the faintest of lip curls when he grasps the pattern web
sticky woven strands clinging to his palms
his boots
ach, gah, his hair on a badly-timed glance down
while there's progress
it isn't quick
he's avoiding the windows

"What am I looking for again?"

simply waiting for something to reach out and grab him
too many horror movies, Jamey-boy
...... right?

Rune

Sat 11:20PM EST
"Third floor," Rune calls, watching James climb the pattern web with (relative) ease. She's not entirely absorbed in his progress though, keeping an eye on the blackened windows, and sweeping her watchful gaze up and down the street. "Bright, like a crumpled bit of foil. Too irregular to be part of the web."

Shading her eyes to catch a glimpse of... whatever it was, to see if it's even there anymore. "See it?"

James

Sat 11:30PM EST
if there's anything that will make a Gnawer opt for a bath.....
he's cleaner than most of his Family, but still
pine-sol isn't quite as bad

it's called a web for a reason
he's making progress as quick as possible so not to find out why
he's heard enough tales about enormous eight-legged electromagnetic freaks from outerinnerspace
let's try to keep them stories
shall we?

bright
foily
shiney
irregular
and thirty feet up in the air - whee!

but he finds it

"It's smeared....."

bandana wrapped heat tilts
eeeew

".... no..... splattered, looks like.... I can't smell anything though."

one hand lets precariously go, withdrawing a piece of paper from yet another pocket
and wiping it across the stain
caaaarefully folded into a little packet
and dropped down to them below

Rune

Sat 11:35PM EST
Rising to catch the packet as it drifts and floats aimlessly toward the ground, Rune prays that it doesn't catch on any of the smaller, encircling webs. Gaia was keeping an eye out for them, or perhaps they're just lucky tonight.

Scooping the pack up from the cobblestone street, Rune unfolds the little packet, careful not to trail her fingers through the smear, then presents it to the direwolf for inspection.

Decker Rohl

Sat 11:43PM EST
Carefully stepping amongst the webs, Silence pushes his nose into Rune's palm and inhales, exhales, inhales again.

Snorts.

Asher. And one other. Female. Maybe kin. Can't tell very well.

James

Sat 11:49PM EST
Asher
fantastic
just who he wanted to find

no... seriously

a quick glance counts the windows (he can see) from one side of the building
but more the relativity of the window to the fireescape
and, yep, that's right, down comes the Gnawer
he's not risking that window
you have no idea the tales he's heard
no matter how much at ease he seems to be
dusting himself off as best he can once back on their level

"There seemed to be a little on the sill, too, like it started inside."

not quite suggesting that's where they head next
pack instinct
they should know

and all

he'd rather attempt the next part on the other side

Rune

Sat 11:55PM EST
Standing and streching, Rune absorbs the information silently, keeping an eye out for James as he climbs down the tangled webbing.

And without a word, she turns again, waiting for James to take the lead back to the alley, with Rune the alert rearguard, and Silence between.

James

Sun 12:01AM EST
over the webbing and through the sludge
to reality's house we go
gnawer knows the way
t'wards light of day

snap out of it Jamey-boy!

the path is quick, retraced
counting the steps, yards, blocks
back to the alley they came within

giving Silence the time to return to more street savvy form before exhaling.... and stepping through

Rune

Sun 12:06AM EST
Rune catches Decker's hand and breathes out a long, singing breath, then leads him back to the other side a few seconds behind James.

There, she shivers a capable hand through her hair - must be a nervous habit - and smoothes it back into place. Eyes half-closed, Rune superimposes her memory of that world over this as if it were a transparency. Grim-faced, she is, no longer her usual smirking self, and absorbed with the task at hand as they pace from the alleyway back onto the street with barely a glance for the few passersby, so intent on the building is she.

Decker Rohl

Sun 12:11AM EST
Once on the other side, Decker lets out a long breath and rolls his head on his shoulders. Then, moving again, he follows his pack into the depths of the building.

"Your people say anything about this building," he asks James, low, "or is it pretty much like all the rest?"

James

Sun 12:14AM EST
unodostresherewego

instinctual the check that everybody made it back safely
all hands, eyes, ears, arms and tails kept inside the moving vehicle at all times
good
each step a rhythm, a song, a backbeat to be remembered and retraced
just like a song to lead them back to the building

run down
slummy
dark bricks

yea.... there's no place like home
and his head shakes

"Nothing special..... those I found hadn't been inside."

Decker Rohl

Sun 12:21AM EST
I can only hope they close. their. eyes.

Three of them, in through the door of what passes for a lobby. There's an old man with rheumy eyes who leans heavily on his cane and looks up at them, shaky, shaken, his eyes white in his dark face. Ignoring him, Decker heads straight for the narrow door marked STAIRS.

The lobby had been lit by a few pale fluorescent lights, low-ceiled. The stairwell is darker, only a few sodium lamps burning in cages to light their way. The stairs themselves spiral tightly up on along all four walls, large numbers painted on the walls to show them the floor. One, two, three.

Open door. Musty hallway. Windows at both ends, murky with dirt. Brass numbers on the apartment doors, faded gold against stained brown. "Which one?" Decker utters, looking one way, then the other.

Rune

Sun 12:25AM EST
Rune doesn't belong here - the Prada blazer, the low-slung linen pants, the silky white blouse and the shit-kickers - doesn't belong here at all, but she's almost as comfortable slumming it up as James is.

Hands sunk into the pockets of the blazer, she scans the street with a practiced eye, looking for anyone who might be looking at them.

Well, looking at them more than necessary, or more than usual.

She paces down the sidewalk then, head canted up, studying the windows for lights - anybody home? - then ducks her head and follows Decker and James into the lobby, up the moldy stairs stinking of piss.

"This way," she points, the corners of her mouth quirking downward in a puzzled frown. "One of those two, though I don't know how they're laid out, so I couldn't begin to guess."

James

Sun 12:28AM EST
this seems like a right nice place, actually
four walls
relatively dry
sturdy flooring
oh, ceiling is good too
pleasent, quiet atmosphere

if it weren't for the taint outside the window and all

lower lip sucks in to nibble upon pause in the hallway
mentally re-counting counting the windows and ticking off the doors
estimating floorspace
(Rat bless the Frankenwielers and their blueprint studies)

"This one."

suddenly pointing to 302

Decker Rohl

Sun 12:30AM EST
Decker looks between his packmates, and then goes forward to knock on Door A.

And waits.
And waits.
And waits.

Rune might be about to suggest some clever alternative - going Umbral to peek, etcetera - when Decker draws back a step and slams his booted foot into the door. Doesn't even try the lock first - which doesn't matter now, anyway, since old wood splinters and breaks. Shakily, the door wobbles inward and the three Garou, crowded shoulder to shoulder, look in to see...

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 12:52AM EST
It's nearly one am, and perhaps not the best time to be going a scene of a recent crime. Particularly one where no one is left to guarding the scene. She has her reasons, though, and sometimes waiting until the next day allows a trail to go cold. Or an inkling of an idea to fade, the spark washed out. Or destruction of evidence. So, after informing all of the appropriate people (some of them twice) and insuring there was someone at the office (there is always someone at her office) knew where she was, here she is, parking a nondescript car beneath a street lamp, and beginning to unbuckle her seatbelt and slide out of the driver's side. Rounding the car and opening it's sizeable trunk, out comes a heavy case, slightly out of synch with her slender frame as she hefts it, carelessly tossing the strap over one shoulder as she shuts the trunk with a single hand. And here she goes, to do whatever it is she does with her job (after all, if it was just cutting up bodies, she'd never get out anymore)

James

Sun 12:53AM EST
the keyring he was pulling out of his pocket is slid right back home as Decker unlocks the door for them
so much for subtlety

even if it gets something of a grin from the Gnawer

until the scents from within the apartment spill out into the hallway from the quiet, stale darkness within
underlying the pizza, the rats, the dust, and all the forgotten memories

there's violence
death
destruction
corruption
and overwhelming hate

whatever happened here was unspeakable

even though he's used to being the bottom of the barrel
forgotten
abused
violated
trashed
dumped on
and generally ground beneath society's heel
the Ahroun halts a distasteful step back

some seriously bad mojo

Decker Rohl

Sun 12:59AM EST
They can flinch if they want. They can roll over and vomit for all he cared. They're Glass Walker and Bone Gnawer.

He's Fenrir. Weakness is not allowed.

Biting back the immediate urge to turn and vomit, the Modi - standing with his weight balanced on the balls of his feet, ready for anything to charge out of the darkness - relaxes his weight onto his heels. A cough, a shake of his head like a musician missing an easy note, and then he steps forward and puts a hand on the door to halt its rebound. The other hand gropes along the wall for a light switch, finds one, flicks.

Nothing. Bulb's burnt out or smashed. His voice sounds oddly flat in this place so choked with hatred, "Anyone got a light?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 01:05AM EST
Into the fluourescent lit lobby, eyes trailing down the lobby as she shifts the weight of her bag, heading toward the doorway marked Stairs in capital letters. Up the spiral staircase, keeping hands away from dingy looking railings (you don't know where those have been) trying to decide which floor to start with. By the time she reaches the third floor, the burn in her knees and legs indicates that apparently, it will be this floor, whille doubling for a silent and blatant reminder that she should get to the gym more often (ever).

Third floor it is. The hallway smells of mould and reminds her vaguely of a wet dog smell as she steps in, eyes sweeping the walls and door ways, thoughtfully, wheels churning to the ideas that had been previously brainstormed, the entire reason she's come here in the middle of the night.

Rune

Sun 01:08AM EST
The sour taste in the back of her throat is familiar by now, and so it should be easier to take.

It isn't easier to take of course, and so Rune lingers outside the door squaring her shoulders and summoning her scant spiritual reserves to form some sort of thin, frail armor, then walks inside. From the pocket of her blazer, she pulls out the packet of cheap lighters she purchased earlier and tosses them to Decker. Then, from her other pocket, Rune pulls out her wallet and slips a slim flashlight shaped like a credit card from within. Squeezing the plastic, Rune directs the thin beam around the room. "Best I can do."

James

Sun 01:17AM EST
lip curls upon stepping inside
he doesn't have that Get mentality about weakness
but he's not about to back down

the crunch of glass beneath Cochran signifies.... he knows why the lights don't work

dark eyes follow the trail of the mini-beam
the broken door at the other end of the living room
should be about where that fire escape was, too
a bit of a sigh
here we go.... again

but he stops at the doorway
the smells thicken
even as old as they are
once Rune catches up he understands why

the bloodsplatters fairly evenly dispersed along the walls
floor
even ceiling
pooled on the bed

Rune

Sun 01:23AM EST
"You had to break down the door, didn't you?" muttered, the words, as Rune tosses a glance over her shoulder toward the dingy hallway. She does what she can to push the door (mostly) closed and steal a breath or three of relatively fresh air. She spends a few beats staring at the blood pooled on the bed, forcing herself to get used to it, then flashes the beam around the room. "Let's see what we can find. If you gotta touch something, try not to leave print. No reason to bring the damn cops to our door."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 01:28AM EST
She will, in approximately thirty seconds violently curse a variety of deities and gods from Gaia and God and Jesus on down, for the poor luck of a Cornish woman who just happens to end up in the same god-fucking building and the same bloody floor as these three. All this was was a hunch. A search for evidence.

Her foot steps are whisper quiet outside the door, coming to a complete halt as she sees what is left of door number three, with the faint murmer of voices within, body edged toward the wall, and listening. She is quiet, but she is not perfectly quiet. Those who listen well, might catch the sounds of another presence; or she might just as easily be ignored.

Decker Rohl

Sun 01:31AM EST
Decker coughs again and just grunts. Passing within a foot of him is like pushing through invisible bramble thickets. Rage and revulsion spiral out from him in jagged loops, and he heads across the room to stand at James' shoulder.

A bedroom. Or it was. Blood everywhere, soaking the sheets, dried on the walls, congealed and sticky and evaporated on the ground. The place is a fucking slaughterhouse.

No words out of this one; no reply to Rune's cool comment. A thick sound emerges from him, and nothing else, as he shoves past James to look at the prints in the blood on the floor, if there are any left. From the way the blood is dripped and then smudged, it's clear that someone towed something - a body, or perhaps it (she) was still alive - out to the fire escape, over.

This is the trail he follows, gingerly sticking his head out the push-up window to look out. To get a breath of fresh air before turning back. Deep breaths. One after another. Asher. Asher.

"Find anything?" - the words scrape out like sandpaper.

James

Sun 01:36AM EST
the window opens
the drapes flutter
.....shredded

and the Gnawer's eyes flick to the wall

"Bullet."

doing his best not to step in the dried leftover splatters that were once a woman
peering at the hole in the wall just beside a tacky (even in his opinion) painting

"Pried out, looks like."

good boy
not touching anything
just eyeing the scrape marks on the wall surrounding the hole
what he can see in the strange darkness, anyway
oooonly looking
course, not like he has prints on file, either

"From the looks over everything else, I'll assume at him, and not from him? Whoever she was..... helluva struggle."

no Forensics team
but from the mess and broken.... everything
well
it's obvious

Rune

Sun 01:44AM EST
"Gimme a chance to look around," Rune mutters, irritation creasing her features. Pulling her hair out of her face, tucking the stray black strands behind her ears, she crosses the apartment gingerly. She, too, avoids the spattered blood as much as she is able, settling into an easy crouch beside the bed, shining the thin beam of her little flashlight beneath it.

Nothing on the nightstand, only a half-empty bottle of cheap shampoo and a tube of toothpaste squeezed from the middle, maybe a thin sliver of soap left in the soapdish, and a half-roll of TP sitting on the tank of the toilet.

Nothing, nothing, nothing.

Emerging from the bathroom, Rune shakes her and skims the flashlight across the apartment at her packmates. Shrugging faintly, she announces, "Nothing else I can find."

Decker Rohl

Sun 01:47AM EST
He doesn't see any of what James and Rune might be deducing. Even if it were full light outside, even if all the lights inside worked, even if he had the training and the knowledge, he wouldn't.

After his first circuit of the room, he's wandered his way to the middle, where he stands slowly turning, looking at the splashes of blood on the walls, the drip and fall of it, the puddles and the ooze on the ground, irregular like the edges of a continent. He wonders who she was, this nameless, faceless, lifeless kin whose last remains rotted in a field miles from here. Silver Fang (get of fenris, did it make a difference?) kin, blonde, lovely until Asher (Bjornsen. Rohl.) tore in here, terrible and huge, and left her a ruin.

A queer little smile on his face, he murmurs, "Fighter...huh?"

Wonder what she said. Wonder what she thought in those final fatal moments. Wonder if her eyes were blue, or if they were grey. Wonder if she'd been someone's mate, someone's mother. Wonder if she'd ever wanted more from life that whatever life gave her.

Wonder if she'd wanted to see the world, alone.
Wonder if she smiled like sunshine.

Wonder if she'd screamed at the end.

"I gotta get outta here," mutters Decker, and shoves his way out of the bedroom.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 01:49AM EST
Perhaps it was that there was something akin to guts in this woman that she will walk up to a broken in door and peer in, or perhaps there was something caught or recognized in any of their voices, or perhaps when she was born she was, quite frankly, lacking in the one trait that has permitted humans to proliferate for eons. A survival mechanism; the idea that 'this might kill me' stops most people. But then again, it seems to be a rather distressing lack in more than a few kinfolk. In either case, the decision is made and she is crossing the last few feet heading toward what remains of the doorway.

James

Sun 01:59AM EST
and he seconds the motion
tapdancing around the splattesr and back out into the main room
his head tilting at the sound of little rat feet scurrying across the ceiling
away

a quick grunt

someone's at the door

Rune

Sun 02:03AM EST
Rune's gaze slips briefly to Decker, and she nods acquiesence. Not that he needed it. Not that the Get needed her permission to do anything.

She pauses in the living room, studying the arrangement - a broken lamp on the floor, a straightbacked chair missing the lower part of a leg tilted against the wall - and is walking toward the kitchen when James grunts.

Not another step.

Turning silently now, dark eyes flashing in question toward the two of them, Rune pauses, poised at the edge of the open kitchen. Waiting.

Decker Rohl

Sun 02:09AM EST
On one side of the room, the bashed-in door. On the other side of the room, Decker. Homid form, thankfully: head down, fingers pinching the bridge of his nose as though he had an incurable headache.

Hearing the approaching footsteps, his packmates' and someone else's, he looks up, giving a quick shake of his head before leveling a look at James. Company expected?

James shakes his head. Instead, his dreadlocks swing as he juts his jaw at the door. The Modi exhales, drops his hands to his sides, loosening and flexing and then loosening, before crossing the room to stand at the left side of the door, out of the line of sight.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 02:13AM EST
In the last few steps toward the door, her brain wars with two logics. One that it was idiotic to poke her nose where it wasn't needed; unless there was a dead body in there, or someone about to be dead (and thus in the need of an autopsy) she really didn't need to see. Then again, what else was she to do? Wander away to leave whatever it was happening happening?

Yeah. Right. And so, the hallway light, dim as it is is obscured as head and shoulders sneak over the corner. Anybody home?

Why, yes, yes there is.

Rune

Sun 02:24AM EST
Still, frozen between living room and kitchen, cheap carpet and cheaper linoleum, she draws in a half-rasped breath as the door swings open, and takes another step back away from the light. Rune's gaze flickers to Decker, the closest of the pack to the door, and she remains still, waiting for him to make a judgement, and move.

Dark in there, and reeking with the scent of old blood. Some of the dry and crusted film scrapes away as Imogen peaks around the half-broken door.

Decker Rohl

Sun 02:26AM EST
As a familiar head and shoulders inch through the door, Decker curses. His luck was tainted. His luck didn't exist. "Fuckin' hell." The rest of the breath escapes in an exasperated rush as James looks over, raising an eyebrow in question - you know her?

Which left him with the question: how the hell does he respond? Answer one way and it left his pack with the problem of how to explain their presence. Answer another, and...

"Rune's neighbor," Decker says, his eyes on Imogen, and unreadable. "Forensics somethin' or other. Let's get outta here before she calls the cops on us."

Stubborn to the last. Never mind the pure breed staring the rest of the pack in the face.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 02:32AM EST
"Jesus fucking wept!" she curses, a little more picturesquely in her cornish tones, as the titian woman stares at Decker in shock. He speaks, and she blinks several times, now it's her turn to be at a loss as to how to respond. Leave, and it appears like she's about to call the cops. Stay and ... well... that might make things more awkward.

Never mind the pure breed that stares him and his packmates in their face (this is why she has to try so hard...), a glimmer of heritage, buried beneath a life time of humans. The decision is made to at least pull back from the door way, falling back several steps.

Buying time.

Rune

Sun 02:39AM EST
Pure breed.

Rune fixes Decker with a brief glare, and her red lips quirk upward into her usual smirk. She, too, exchanges a brief glance with James and snorts softly, shaking her head.

"I'm not stupid, Decker, and you obviously know her," muttered, the words, but likely not so low that Imogen couldn't make them out if she cares to. In the darkness, though, it's doubtful that Decker can see the faint roll of her eyes. "Talk to her, Decker. Make sure she doesn't call the fuckin' cops, cos I'm not really interested in moving, just yet. Me and James'll slip out the fire escape."

Decker Rohl

Sun 02:44AM EST
The glare is returned full-force, but her words make his eyes drop away, flicker aside half-ashamed. Not much of a liar, obviously.

When she adds a few words, the grey's back on her. "Hey," he says, brow knit, jaw back in its square set, "we don't tell Gabe nothin' about her, alright?"

Rune

Sun 02:51AM EST
"I'm not tellin' anyone about anyone," Rune snorts, audibly. She shakes her head. "I'm not a goddamned census taker, 'specially not for that holier-than-thou twit. But I'm serious, Decker. You better be damn well sure she's not callin' anyone."

Turning, she addresses James briefly, "...c'mon. Let's get outta here." then heads for the open window.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 02:51AM EST
She does care to make out the words, remaining where she is against the wall of the apartment, eyes flickering shut for a moment in brief fatigue mixed with utter frustration. She'll wait where she is.

Decker Rohl

Sun 02:58AM EST
There was a pecking order established here. It might've been there since the start, but it's suddenly set in stone. Rune's the Beta, and with their Alpha elsewhere, she was ranking dog in this situation. End of story.

"She ain't gonna," Decker replies.

James looks between the Fenrir and the newcomer again, flashes something of a grin to the latter, and tails Rune into the other (red.) room with its open window. Same escape route the killer took.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:04AM EST
She doesn't bother coming to slink back into the room as she hears the faint sounds of departure, instead sinking to her knees for a moment to refasten a pocket of her heavy duty bag, the teeth of the zipper clanging together as she pulls the tab.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:04AM EST
She doesn't bother coming to slink back into the room as she hears the faint sounds of departure, instead sinking to her knees for a moment to refasten a pocket of her heavy duty bag, the teeth of the zipper clanging together as she pulls the tab.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:14AM EST
If he did, they would disappear. Or become tainted and unusable in court. Or never matched with his name. Or... or... or...

She turns her head up to look at him from her crouching position, resting her elbows on her knees, "Apparently, I'm part of some big pathetic farce of fate," she replies sardonically, "I was 'ere on business, but I think I can do wit'out it now. You?" Her eyes snap toward the broken down door.

There's no way she couldn't have smelled the blood.

Decker Rohl

Sun 03:17AM EST
His eyes follow the direction of her gaze, albeit slower. He kneads one hand with the other, the other with the first, and drops them both as he leans down to pick her bag up.

"Business." Terse as that. "You don't wanna go in there."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:20AM EST
"I can--" she begins to protest before shrugging it off absently, glancing in the direction of the room before turning to look at him, straight on, "Can ye honestly think I haven't seen worse?" she inquires idly, without a single iota of reproach or drama in her voice. She means either because she is kin or because she cuts up dead people (and if a body is ever found, that body might end up on her table...or may have alreadly been there)

Decker Rohl

Sun 03:24AM EST
Already halfway down the hall, he stops and turns around, a wrinkle in his brow becoming a frown becoming a scowl. A glance down at her bag, so heavy that he wondered if she had bricks in there, and then he stomps back and opens the door the same way he had before.

When the door was done rebounding, he stands at her shoulder, looking in. Quietly, he holds her bag out to her. "Go on, then."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:26AM EST
She pauses and looks at him for a moment, reaching and taking the bag, "D'ye want people ta know that things happened here? Not that ye and yer... pack," uncertainity in the rarely used word, "were there," she interrupts herself with that quickly, before continuing, "But that something happened? Because if not, I'd rather not know; so I can't say one way or another." It is heavy, and it's with some difficulty that she hefts it, pulling the strap across her shoulder.

Decker Rohl

Sun 03:32AM EST
He opens his mouth, turns away. There's an inhale, as though he were about to speak, but it comes out as a sigh. In the end, he says, almost flippant, "I really don't give a shit, either way. Cops already looked into it once. That ritual murder couple of weeks ago, this is where it started. That field where they found the remains was just where he--" a falter. A clench of his jaw. He finishes, "Tore her apart."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:36AM EST
"The pelvis." She says, more to herself than to herself, head turning to glance toward the grisley scene, less seen than smelled, "Lord dying jesus." Again, more to herself, before shaking her head slowly, "I don't need," don't want "to see it."

Decker Rohl

Sun 03:42AM EST
He lingers at the door, which he shuts again after she was inside. No need for nosey neighbors to come and gawk at the bloodshed.

"More in the inner room."

And there is. Blood everywhere, overturned furniture, streaks and smudges on the ground that indicate a struggle, and a body dragged out the window. Gunshot holes in the walls, two or three. All that she'd see if she looked - as well as that the closet was full of clothes that obviously belonged to a man, nothing for a woman.

"She was kin too," he adds later, unsure (dead sure) of why it should make a difference.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 03:51AM EST
"What tribe?" she asks absently as she slides a hand down to her heavy bag, drawing a zipper open and pulling forth a heavy duty flashlight. Eyes flickering to the windows, pinpointing them, and that most of them are at least motly shielded from the outside, she thumbs the switch, causing a beacon of light to bring the world into living colour. Eyes scan the place as she picks through carefully, avoiding blood puddles and coagulated gore to avoid placing foot prints and marring the scene further. She moves slowly without disgust, eyes absent as the flashlight lights up this pile of bloodied sheets, and that broken lamp shade that lies dejected in the corner. Thrown away just like the woman who's rib cage was smashed against it was.

Echoing in her own mind she can hear the whispers of dead and family members who require closure and who need things as this to be solved. The dead have no voice, and so she has become their interpreter; however, this is a case where it might be better if the human world never solved it.

Decker Rohl

Sun 04:02AM EST
Decker watches her move, careful as a heron in a mire. It's something else to focus on; something to tune out the rest of the apartment with. The air is so heavy with hatred that it made it difficult to breathe for creatures half made of spirit. He didn't want to - didn't dare - cross to the other side to see what awaited him. She didn't belong here, even less than he did, and if there was any shred of compassion within his hard, rough shell, it cried out against this.

But he had his duties, and she had hers. "Silver Fang," he answers, simply.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 04:09AM EST
Even in some way, the heavy hate and ... for lack of a less dramatic (though what is more dramatic than this) word evil, has caught her attention as well, as her free hand rubs fiercely against the back of her neck (someone walks over her grave), and as the movement is caught in the light of her flashlight, he can see the gooseflesh that ripples across her arms, because they are bare from a t-shirt.

She stops, somewhere in the middle of the room, as close as she can get without disturbing the evidence, and slowly pans the flashlight in an arc illuminating every last gorey shred in the room, mercilessly bared in the harsh light of the torch, brought to cold reality from the hidden cloak of darkeness. The walls smeared with blood, the broken furniture. A broken life.

"jesus christ." a bare whisper of breath as she takes it all in before turning her eyes toward Decker, not quite directly at him, not out of a natural submission to him (though one would think she'd have it) but mostly to keep him from seeing just how deeply disturbed she is by this. "I've seen enough." She'll have to come back in the daytime. A tedious job of stringing needs to be done, and it will have to be done alone because any other witnesses means that any evidence she finds cannot disappear.

Decker Rohl

Sun 04:17AM EST
It doesn't matter. By then his eyes are downcast; he had looked away as she began to pan her flashlight around. Didn't want to see; didn't want to have to think about it: someone who had moved and lived and breathed and thought and loved and felt, dead. Someone's daughter, dead.

A kin to his kind, one he had the most duty to protect and shield against the Great Serpent, who had died here. Alone. Terrified. Fighting.

And he didn't even know.

He slides down to sit in one of the few clean spots on the ground. When at last she speaks, he looks up, and his eyes are dark. Guilt and drive and anger and ...hate. "Yeah." Getting up, he opens the door for her. "Let's go."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 04:20AM EST
She thumbs the flashlight off, placing to rest the death for now, staring at Decker for a long moment in the darkness. She is not an unperceptive woman, and Decker is not a Garou to hide his feelings well, but for weakness. He can feel her eyes on him a moment before they fade away and she leaves it alone, walking out the door and settling the heavy bag against her slight frame and beginning to head toward the stairwell.

Decker Rohl

Sun 04:29AM EST
Clik. Darkness.

And he knows she's looking. It's in the prickle of his skin, that fabled sixth sense setting him on edge. It's a knowledge that strips him to the bone, leaves the truth painfully bare. Didn't matter that she probably couldn't make out the details of his face, or his expression, or the storm that rides behind his eyes, conflict to tear him apart. Didn't matter at all, and he cannot speak until she has moved past.

"Hell were you looking at?" Even the sneer, the jeer, enough to wither a woman, seems weak to him. He grabs her bag from her shoulder, as though to substitute physical strength for what he lacked. "Like what you see? Fuck."

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 04:38AM EST
She makes half an attempt to grab the bag back, before her mind belatedly reminds her instincts who and what he is, and she lets him take it from her. His words wash over her, the sneer and jeer setting her teeth on edge, her jaw clenching and grinding together, a flash of pale blue eyes, even in the darkness.

After a moment, she simply doesn't answer, which is her response when she will not back down, but has the sense to keep from pushing him any farther. Toward the end of the hall and into the stair well. Boots clang muted against the steps as she begins to walk down the three flights of stairs, perfectly silent, unless he prods her further, insisting on an answer.

Provided he doesn't, they reach the exit from the building without incident, and as they reach a car, a large black behemouth that is not the one he's seen her drive at home, she turns on her heel to face him, holding out a hand to take the bag from him, stoney silent.

Decker Rohl

Sun 04:47AM EST
She doesn't say anything, so he doesn't say anything. All the better if you ask him. He descends the staircase like a stampede of elephants, tails her all the way out to her car. Sees her safe to her car. Whatever.

She holds out her hand. He looks down (his nose) at it, then at her. Those grey eyes, that perennial sketch of a frown. Finally, with a snort that might be a steamrolled patronizing laugh, he shrugs her bag off his shoulder and holds it out. Even when she reaches for it, he holds it a second before letting the full weight sink to her arm.

"Drive careful," he smirks.

Imogen Slaughter

Sun 04:52AM EST
Her arm buckles somewhat beneath the weight but she straightens her elbow and forces the strap to slide across her shoulder as she unlocks the car door, half tossing the bag into the passenger seat, "Try not to crash your truck inta a tree, eh?" she smirks back as the door slams behind her, the car being thrust into ignition and drive, peeling away from the curb and off into the night, leaving Decker and his personality to himself.

Arianna

Fri 10:57PM EST
Lean, mean, sexy machine - or at least the attitude of one. YOu'd expect her to be in leather, actually - which is precisely why she prefers denim. Low slung jeans, babydoll t, and the ever present docs that slap a tattoo along the walk as she heads toward the nearest cyber cafe and the computers within... reaaaaaally need to get her own setup.... justa couple more jobs, right? right. Just another streetpunk, just another city.

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:09PM EST
It was a dark and stormy night...and along came...the other lean, mean, sexy machine.

Or not. The mean part, certainly; something of the lean part. Though solidly muscled, the boy was eighteen: shoulders like a young bull's tapering to lean waist, slim hips. Perhaps even something of the sexy part, if he weren't so. Damn. Intimidating.

It's the eyes. Grey as steel. Grey as a storm. It's the eyes, the poverty, the muscles; the brooding sneer, the palpable wave of Rage he pushes ahead of him. People shy away from him because they expect him to do something bad.

Let's take it from the top again. White wifebeater; charcoal-grey sweatshirt, circa 29BC pulled over it. Even through it, the impression of massive biceps, corded shoulders. Belted low on his hips with a flat white canvas strip are a pair of scuffed camouflage-print cargoes. Good choice, that: helps hide the bloodstains. And there were often bloodstains. Hooked over his shoulder is a crowbar, the tip suspiciously rust-red. He moves low to the ground, neither fast nor slow, eyes roving from left to right. A street thug walking in a city, down a street. Right to left. A street punk coming up the other way, in the city, up the street--

Pause. Lock. Hangonaminute. He slows; he stops, putting out a hand to grab Arianna by the arm right as she goes sauntering past. "Wait."

This is what your mother warns you about.

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:11PM EST
~ She is dressed in a Chaosgirl T-shirt and a pair of flared jeans…carrying a backpack…she has long jet black hair…with a white streak down the side. (battle wound) She is only 21, but has been through shit most 21 year olds haven’t…her green eyes sparkle and she carries herself with confidence~
This confidence however different then any who used to know her…
Athletic and toned, she doesn’t look like one to mess with…Something about the way she carries herself, or the way she looks at you…her strength exposed in each step and movement, her pure breed apparent.

What exactly was she thinking…wandering the city, an unfamiliar city at that….Was she still looking for Erik? (of course not…) Or was she looking for something fucking exciting for a change…..
She missed Grendel, she just about ran that place…Missed the clubs there, the riverfront…all of St Louis…but she, Gabe and Erik had all ended up in the same place… (isn’t it ironic…much more ironic then a black fly in your chardonnay) So here she was, walking up the street, of who knows where, eyes peering along as she heads up..
ugh, this isn’t where I wanted to be, this looks lamer then north jersey did
Alas, where to go when you aren’t familiar with a city…
and where the hell was Erik

Arianna

Fri 11:16PM EST
He. grabed. her.
Arm is jerked away and gaze narrows as freehand slides into back pocket and those dark eyes bore into (blank,steelish, stormy) gray.
"back. the fuck. off man."
Very polite, isn't she. Lets take it from the top indeed, a flick of lashes that lower and raise again take in entire appearance as hand in pocket tugs those lowslung jeans a tad lower on her left hip (is that ink? certianly) and a step (away)back is taken.
"What do you want."
Demanded, rather then asked. A touch (ha!) of arrogance shining through voice alone.

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:25PM EST
She jerks her arm away, and he lets her.
Yeah. You heard right. He lets her.

A faint smirk twitches the side of his mouth. He settles his weight on one foot, thumbs hooking into the back of his belt as he cocks his head up at her in a standard ghettotrash nod. Incidentally, it also lets him sneer down his nose, slightly crooked from one too many fights, at her. Probably wasn't used to being looked down on, purebred princess like her. "You from 'round here?"

Blistering rage. A hurricane of it. And here he was talking to her like this. What the fuck, maybe he was trying to pick her up, goodlooking girl like her. Stranger things have happened.

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:27PM EST
None of her own ink is showing, thats cause she didnt want it to be...
The empty streets are boring to her...
Sooner or later she was bound to find something entertaining...

Eyes go to the front of a cyber something..
ahh interesting
the smirk begins to cross her lips, slowly... as she approaches...
what was he doing out here...and who was the chick

Moving slowly towards the pair she watches...before speaking...

didnt have anything to say yet

Arianna

Fri 11:30PM EST
Actually, you'd be surprised what she's used too. her own smirk settles across lips as she arches that brow at his sneer, rolling her eyes. One of those isn't he.
Stranger things indeed. rabble among the chosen, she knows her place - be it use of her talents or a dry fuck behind a tree. A shrug of her shoulder as she continues to rest narrowed gaze on grayish hurricane.
"Maybe, maybe not. What's it to you."

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:34PM EST
Ignoring the question, he pops her another. Even standing still, there was something vibrant, primal, physical about him. Something always in motion, like a fuse was seething away under his skin, like a gunpowder trail was burning away to the grenade that replaced his heart when he Firsted. "Yer family live 'round here?"

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:36PM EST
Not noticed and no less bored then she was before she just chuckles,
not caring if he heard
and turns to head back the way she came...
Certainly not wanting to rain on his 'pick up' parade

The chuckle lingers as she shoves her hands in her pockets, and readjusts the backpack before beginning to walk back the way she came

Arianna

Fri 11:38PM EST
A shake of her head as she glances around to see the retreat if Madison before turning again to Decker.
"Depends on what you mean by 'family'. My so-called parents are in Georgia."
May as well answer and all.

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:41PM EST
"I meant the Fangs."

He doesn't talk loud. He doesn't carry a big stick either, though he did carry a crowbar tonight. But that's just ornamentation. If he gets pissed, he had other weapons that were worse. Nonetheless, those words probably get her attention, even as his is caught by the low chuckle.

Doesn't miss much in terms of hearing, Decker. He had ears like a...well, like a wolf. Automatically, his eyes flicker to the source of the laugh, narrow on Madison. Did he know her? Yeah, sure he did. Girl that conveniently vanished when the Spirals came out to play. She laughing at him?

He snorts. Loudly.

Arianna

Fri 11:43PM EST
A slow smirk and she archs a brow over dark gaze..
"Why don't you. tell. me. You seem well versed in the matter."
And like she really gives a shit if they do, or don't, exist in the near vacinity.

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:46PM EST
Not at him, figures hed be that egotystical to think so, no actually she was chuckling at the whole situation, just chuckling in general..
Her head turns and she eyes the girl, then Decker...
(conveniently disappeared? yeah right...((hey no fair it was RL )) )
She didnt have to prove anything to anyone, shit this was the one who was pretty happy when he thought she was a stripper...

She stops and looks at them....(nice snort, mm how attractive)

"dont look at me like that, i dont know shit about any Fangs" she smirks...
(which was the truth)

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:48PM EST
A step closer, and the rage is almost suffocating. He's grown another inch or so since he got her: the last growth spurt of his life. Up close and personal though, behind the mantle of rage, he's younger than he might've seemed, not quite nineteen.

"Either they's in town," she's not the only one that can bite words off, though his aren't clean-cut. His ooze; they slide, they drift on the back of a deep-south accent, "or they isn't. Which is it. Little girl?"

Just a flicker of a glance at the no-moon. He wasn't talking to her, and he makes that plenty clear.

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:53PM EST
Ask and you shall receive....
entertainment you wanted, so hell make some..
She heads towards Decker...eyes on the girl....
"in town eh?" she smirks.."that could be entertaining" her eyes move to the girl...
But she doesnt speak to her, naw why bother, Decker had it under control, she would just hang back for a bit, could be fun or at least entertaining...

Madison Cassidy

Fri 11:53PM EST
Ask and you shall receive....
entertainment you wanted, so hell make some..
She heads towards Decker...eyes on the girl....
"in town eh?" she smirks.."that could be entertaining" her eyes move to the girl...
But she doesnt speak to her, naw why bother, Decker had it under control, she would just hang back for a bit, could be fun or at least entertaining...

Arianna

Fri 11:53PM EST
And she stands her ground, that smirk still playing across her lips
"Ohhh an English major, are ya. Well, you little puke. Whether they are or aren't is none of my concern. I wouldn't know, and furthermore...."
And now she steps closer, and tongue moistens her lips in a slow swipe befo she continues
"I wouldn't care."
She steps back again, and arches a brow, giving Madison the once over again before she returns her attention to the idiot boy before her.
"Again, what's it to you?"

Decker Rohl

Fri 11:58PM EST
His nostrils flare in a sharp inhale. The promise of violence hangs in the air like poison. It's a gibbous moon. Eagle just seriously mindfucked him last night.

It's not a good night to piss around with him.

Slowly exhaling, he tilts his chin a fraction of an inch, arrogant, contemptuous, not backing down an inch. There's a coiled air about him, like a constrictor, like a caged wolf. He murmurs the words, "Answer the fuckin' question, kinwoman."

Madison Cassidy

Sat 12:02AM EST
Hmmmm she didnt like men much, but she obviously didnt like fangs either..
who to side with...
neutral for now...i think ill watch
She really didnt care who won this fight...she pulls out some gum, that grape smell, and pops it in her mouth

My my
I'm a wild and an untamed thing
I'm a bee with a deadly sting
You get a hit and your mind goes ping
Your heart'll pump and your blood will sing
So let the party and the sounds rock on
We're gonna shake it 'till the life has gone
Rose tint my world
Keep me safe from my trouble and pain

Arianna

Sat 12:03AM EST
She chuckles softly and shakes her head.
"And why should I do that? Because someone without half a brain, and without the common sense to provide an introduction tells me I should? Why not tell me who you are, why you want to know, and who the hell got your panties in such a goddamn bunch that you'd be such an all out prick in the middle of the street to someone you've never met, hm? Then, then I may answer your question - one I've already answered, by the way - but I'll be sure to speek in monosyllables so you can understand this time."

Madison Cassidy

Sat 12:04AM EST
OOPS
she laughs at that one, she cant help it....
trying to hold it back she bitesher lips...
wanting to say
dammmnnn this ones really got the spunk but refrains from saying shit, if she had to bet, Decker ((not damon)) would be striking any minute..of course maybe not physically, but words...ohhh this should be fun to watch

Decker Rohl

Sat 12:49AM EST
"Shut up," he mutters, and she goes on. "Shut up," again, and still she goes on. "Shut up--"

And he snaps.

Fast - fast as a striking cobra; faster - his hand comes up to clench around her throat, unbelievably strong, hauling her up on the tips of her toes without effort. His chest rises and falls, fast, inhaleexhale inhaleexhale, pistonlike, machinelike, eyes glaring furious, grey as gunmetal, grey as a sea before a hurricane. Death is what's reflected there; death is what pulls every muscle of his body taut.

I'll break you in two.

"Listen, cunt," he seethes, and later he won't know how he managed to have the coherence he does, "there's a woman laying in pieces in a field in North Jersey where a fuckin' Spiral left her. My Godi thinks she's one o' yer tribe's, so you see why I need to talk with a fullblood of yer tribe. Now either tell me where the fuck I can find yer ass-suckin' relations, you spoiled bitch, or get the fuck outta my face."

With that, he sets her down - hard - and shoves her back. The rest of that breath escapes in a rush, and then he looks down at his own hand flexing and unflexing at his side.

(Like father like son.)

Madison Cassidy

Sat 12:52AM EST
Whoa
ok wait a second, Decker wasnt tryin to be tough or get laid....

Dead woman...pieces...what the fuck

you wanted entertainment and lack of boredon, here it is..
She moves closer to the girl...now eyeing her--no longer is it funny

"You really ought to answer him, youd hate to get him mad"

Arianna

Sat 01:00AM EST
and he. snaps.
And she?
Calling her Cunt was a mistake.
She just waits, and as she's shoved back (a flicker of interest about the woman but that's all. that's all. the rabble among the chosen.) that hand comes out of her pocket and silver blade is flipped free as she steps right on into him again, knee planted firmly against the boys and blade against his side in a smooth (practiced too many times) motion.
I'll gut your ass right here, fucker.
"Until I get a fucking introduction you get SHIT. And that goes for you friend too. And don't fucking call me names - for all I know you're the one who put the girl in pieces with your fucking crowbar. Find some fucking manners, asswipe."
Knee jerks higher - HARD - and she steps back and starts to walk away.
"and for the record - I came to town on my own, you idiot, which you'd have learned if you had a shred of tact or decency."
A nod for Madison.
"My condolences. and I don't give a royal fuck if someone pissed in his cheerios. He's got no right to piss in mine."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:05AM EST
A woman's in pieces. There's a mild irony in the fact that Imogen would likely be the type of person to be dragged off in the middle of the night to such a body. If certain people found out. One would hope that Decker would insure that those certain people did not.

It certainly would make it easier for him. And for her, though it's unlikely to cross his mind. Missing information, however, has turned up too often in Dr. I. Slaughter's career, and she would prefer it did not show up again for a while. Particularly when it's not her case.

That was hard to explain, and looked even worse on review.

One in the morning, as she comes out of the front gate, turning to wave a chapped hand in the direction of someone within the stone grey government building, as she walks toward the gates. Keys jangle as she breathes a half sigh, a muttered hum of some half forgotten song beneath her breath. The chain is unlocked (security is important, of course, thinks the woman who walks alone) and the gate slides open to permit her exit, turning to lock it behind her again, shoving the keys into her pocket once more. Another wave toward the building, a quirk of a smile touching her lips as she turns to glance down the half darkened street (the sounds of commotion just reaching her ear drums) frowning before shrugging her slender frame further into her long jacket.

One foot after another, after all. The car is parked at some parking lot. That's the problem with being called in. There's never any bloody-damned spaces in the dinky goverment lot. She's parked some six (mother-fucking) lots down. Left foot, right foot. One foot after the other. Boots scrape against concrete.

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:07AM EST
There's a split-instant where he stops breathing, where the world holds it breath the way it does before an earthquake.

Then - fast as that - he lashes out with a right hook that catches her square on the jaw and smashes her back, sends her sprawling six feet. Literally. It's supernatural; no human could possibly be that strong. Left in the wake of his violence, half-crouched, he brings that devastating fist down and touches his side where a long line of blood is beginning to ooze.

(...killherkillherkillherkillher...)

Quivering from Rage held unbearably in check - he spits to the side and forces the words out evenly. "Get her. Out of my sight, Madison. Please." His jaw works. He swallows. "Now."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:08AM EST
**sees the woman go sprawling he jogs towards the altercation** "Hey now." he says loudly his irish accent pronounced

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:11AM EST
ahhh shit..this isnt good..
fuck
Just a nod and the Fury is taking a hold of the girl and clamps on to her arm....pulling her around the corner to an alley..

"What are you fucking retarded" she mumbles...
"set on of us off like that, you're liable to be ripped to shreads..not cause of anything but its the beast inside" she shakes her head
dumbass tough acting kinfolk
You have a fucking death wish or something..all you had to do was answer him, and jeesh you think someone doesnt piss in his cheerios every day?"
she still holds onto the girls arm
tight
"and you try to cut me and ill fucking make it so you regret it, thats not a threat, its a promise..."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:12AM EST
White hand reaches up to brush away a vibrant shock of red hair as pale eyes are drawn toward movements some block or two away. A hulk of a man smashes a woman to the ground and a man with an irish accent calls on it (and Decker).

Beneath the carress of suede fine hairs on fine skin raise as she nears it, an instinct begun by something she can't name (... smell... sight... a vision.... the curse...) causing her muscles to tense. Were she a wolf, her hackles would raise.

She is not turning around and going back. Which leaves her with one of two choices. Standing there like a 'scarecrow red-heided ijjit' or continuing to walk forward. One foot in front of the other. Five more blocks to go.

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:15AM EST
Decker doesn't watch Arianna get pulled off. That's the worst thing to do on a night like this: look at what's pissing you off. Just let her go. Let her walk away. Don't look. Don't think about it.

JesusfuckinchristiwannaKILL.

"Back off." Soft, soft: this is how the big bad wolf speaks to the would-be heroic hunter. "Just back the fuck off. This don't concern you. Just walk away."

Arianna

Sat 01:15AM EST
And she. goes. flying.
Supernatural doesn't even begin to explain it as she falls to the ground, jaw, cheekbone shattered... and the smack of her head on pavement on the cement isn't soft either, is it.
Madison's pull isn't even felt man - her words swimming on multiple lips as head lulls and dead weight is pulled.
Did she think to check if her NECK is broken before she MOVED her? no... and who knows the damages that is being done as she does nothing to indicate she even understands Madison.. try to cut her? hell man - she can't even manage to lift that arm let alone swing at the 6, 7, 82 girls that swim through her vision...

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:16AM EST
**runs forward crouching beside Arianna, looking up at Decker, bright green eyes more than a little angry**

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:21AM EST
She's across the street, so she gets quite a bit closer than perhaps is comfortable before she stops to stare at the altercation, the woman who has become a mimicry of a blood splattered ragdoll, jaw at an awkward angle, head lolling. The man who threw the punch, the man who appears to be challenging the situation, and the woman who has begun to try and drag the injured off.

Her jaw sets, tightly, grinding molars against molars, to the detriment of a new filling, and hands shove further into deep jacket pockets as lips tighten into a thin line of indecision.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:21AM EST
Nope she didnt so shit before she moved her
*duh* if she would have, then Decker would have snapped for sure, and her damage would have been worse...

around the corner she stops and looks at the guy approaching..
"what the fuck, you a doctor or you getting involved in something you shouldnt" she looks him over,
pure breed meets pure breed
"eh fuck it.....you take her"
he leaves her for whoever that was
her job was done, moving AWAY from Decker..

Now to get Deckers agression out...

moving back around the corner she calls to Decker..
"hey dont you go anywhere.." she stands there, she knew what he needed....

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:24AM EST
He could feel the throb of rage pounding on his skull; he could feel the tantalizing call. All he had to do was let. go.

And it'd all be red.
And it'd all be over.
--NO.

As Madison drags Arianna aside, Decker sags back against the nearest wall, leaning down to brace elbows on knees, to shove fingers against his temples. Fuckin' Christ.

"Go away."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:25AM EST
**lifts the girl off the sidewalk, his face blank stareing at the man who'd strike a defenseless woman who's back was turned, he takes a slow step back supporting arianna's neck with one hand cradling her body with his arms**

Arianna

Sat 01:25AM EST
Of course he would have.. but no matter. Crupled, left in the ally, fingers work to tighten around the knife - a present, it was. Can't. Loose. it. something mumbled through the mush that is the remainsof her mouth, but it is unintelligible... a cough, and blood sprays - leading her to choke slightly... but legs move as she attempts to find purchase and push away farther.. aw christ it hurts... consciousness fading..

Arianna

Sat 01:27AM EST

She doesn't feel the lift either.. though fingers tighten against blade (must. not. lose. it) as she is lifted and supported, not in any shape to resist. Hope the crackheads fucking balls ache. They sure will next time.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:29AM EST
"no..im not..walk with me.."
its in your best interest
she doesnt say that, but its obviousl from her tone..
"walk with me

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:31AM EST
He isn't going anywhere. Best interest or not. He stays right where he is, head down between his hands spidered over his temples, not moving.

"I said go. away."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:31AM EST
**another slow step away from the brute, adjusting his grip so he put the arm holding the knife against her chest so she can relax**

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:33AM EST
After several heartbeats, hands that were already shoved within are forced deeper and she keeps walking down the street, titian hair a vibrant beacon even in the dead of night.

It is, however, a beacon on the other side of the street, and head bent, shoulders hunched, so maybe it is a beacon (witness) that will go unnoticed.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:34AM EST
She doesnt need to be told twice, she doesnt even know Decker well...
"yeah ok" she chuckles
"thought you were a little smarter then that" she begins to walk away from the whole situation...
a good spar with one of his kind would be smart..
maybe the girl was right, perhaps he was an idiot
(no matter) She shakes her head..."you should get off your ass right now and walk with me, but im walking away now"
Eyes move to the girl across the street...as she heads that way...

on to the next bit of entertainment

Arianna

Sat 01:34AM EST
Jimmy swimsthrough her vision (all 15 of them complete with stars and all the little birdies go tweet tweet tweet and christ what is that ringing noise) and arm comes to rest and fingers tighten then relax again as eyes close and she gives up the fight, sliding into unconsciousness on the shredded agony that races through her.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:35AM EST
Well, it was a nice hope to have anyway. An obviously ineffective one, but a hope nonetheless.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:37AM EST
**another slow step back, he whispers quietly into the girls bloodied hair** "You'll be just fine lass. We're heading to the hospital. You got run down by a bloody truck right lass?" he says slowly turning

Rune

Sat 01:37AM EST
The swing of the café door, open. The spill of light and sound onto the street - someone's laughing, someone's shrieking, someone's singing in a very off-key manner to a madonna song beneath his breath, and half-a-dozen someones are holding half-a-dozen conversations as china and flatware clink, espresso machines froth, and orders are ordered up.

Rune pauses, half-framed by the light spilling from the door as it swings back closed, and surveys the street as she selects a cigarette from a box striped with all the colors of the rainbow. Her lighter flares, and the flame is reflected in her dark eyes as she sparks the tobacco and draws in a deep lungful.

Fuckin' health ordinances.

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:39AM EST
A good spar might've been smart; a good spar tonight would've degenerated into a bloody mess, and one of them would die. Of that he had no doubt.

Left to himself, he waits for the pounding to subside. Easy. Easy.

Then the door opens, and a twinge runs through him. Pack. God, not now. Lacing his hands together against his brow, he turns his head without straightening, opens his eyes, looks.

Rune.

He looks away.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:41AM EST
Hands remain in her pockets her steps even and measured walking with a careful step of someone who is not quite in a hurry. If Madison is making no undue attempts to hide her strides, there is a pause in Imogen's own movements, a hitch in her stride, and the firey haired woman glances warily over one shoulder.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:41AM EST
Eyes moving to Imogen she tilts her head and flashes a smile
this could be fun?
She stands there, head turning once to see Decker...
whatever
She sees him look at someone she didnt know...obviously someone he recognized by the way he reacts...
should have walked with me
She could have handled herself, thats for sure, and a spar is EXACTLY what he needed

She looks back at the girl...and stands there...

Arianna

Sat 01:41AM EST
Fine.. perhaps.. after surgeries and months of having her jaw wired together - if they can locate all the pieces. limp - she doesn't respond though. Run down by something thats for sure - but she isn't stupid, contrary to what is believed at the moment.
He shouldn't have called her that. Anything but that.
but she doesn't respond other then slow broken (shattered) moan.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:43AM EST
"Don' say nothin' lass." he murmers heading towards the light of the door Rune came out of. "'Xcuse me miss."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:44AM EST
Madison stands there. And for a moment, Imogen stands there too, a woman of medium height and slender light weight. Her eyes drift away from the standing woman, no answering smile brushing across delicate lips, toward the man carrying the injured woman. She stares after them for a slow, poignant moment (something about this goes against the grain) and with that, she turns, and begins to walk away again, back turned on Madison, boots whispering against the concrete.

Rune

Sat 01:45AM EST
Rune's nostrils flare as she exhales a fine stream of smoke, which coils in upon itself, dense in the nasty orange glow of the sodium vapor streetlights.

Pivoting casually, Rune turns and ambles in Decker's general direction. The cigarette dangles loosely between the fore and middle fingers of her left hand, while her right hand is still curled about the pack. Her footsteps aren't exactly silent, as the painfully high heels of her all-too-fashionable sandals click against the concrete with each measured step.

She can read his stance, the tight set of his shoulders, and so she pauses an armslength away and holds out the pack of cigarettes without a word.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:45AM EST
Pulling out a smoke she calls to the woman, putting on her best smile..
"yo, you got a light?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:46AM EST
**growls under his breath, a rumble only Arianna can feel, if she can feel, his head turning as the woman walks away, he continues down the street towards Imogen**

Arianna

Sat 01:47AM EST
She.....knows, sees, says nothing.... can we say blood covered rag doll? Iknew we could....

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:49AM EST
A glance at the pack. A glance up at the Glass Walker, the palm of his fist pressed against his brow. A shake of his head.

He inhales, exhales, and straightens. Couldn't let her see him sulking like that like some whiny Bone Gnawer. "Hell you doin' here?" - raspy. He clears his throat.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:50AM EST
She turns to face Madison, a twist on a booted heel, one hand reaching up to brush away an unruly curl from her face. Three steps toward the woman, stopping some six feet away as her head nods in the direction of Rune and Decker, where Rune's ember burns dimly in the darkness.

One for details, she is, "I'd believe tha' woman does," she replies in a drawl which is definitely not southern, fine british stock her, though this is not the Queen's English, no sir. This is cornish, a strange mixture of scots, welsh and english, that sings in the ears, and belongs in smokey old pubs, with old men drinking ale. Eyes flicker toward the man who draws nearer.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 01:52AM EST
aww couthern belle, this WOULD prove to be fun...
eyes move to the guy heading towards her...
ugh...not in the mood....

"yeah maybe she does.."
she looks over towards Rune with Decker and starts off that way
if the guy was smart hed go talk to Imogen and not head towards Decker and Rune..
but whos been smart so far tonight?

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:52AM EST
**walks as quickly as he can towards Madison and Imogen** "Ladies." he says loudly

Rune

Sat 01:53AM EST
Shrugging easefully, Rune returns the pack of cigarettes to her back pocket. Her gaze flickers away from Decker now, so as to be - and remain - unobtrusive. It's a strange sort of delicacy, this, and instinctual rather than learned.

In response to Decker's question, Rune hooks a thumb over her shoulder, in the general direction of the café. "Cybersex. You know how we are."

Rune

Sat 01:53AM EST
Shrugging easefully, Rune returns the pack of cigarettes to her back pocket. Her gaze flickers away from Decker now, so as to be - and remain - unobtrusive. It's a strange sort of delicacy, this, and instinctual rather than learned.

In response to Decker's question, Rune hooks a thumb over her shoulder, in the general direction of the café. "Cybersex. You know how we are."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:56AM EST
**sighs and walks more quickly, irritated and a little scared for the woman in his arms who needs a doctor** "Miss, I dont have a licence in this country. This woman needs a doctor?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 01:56AM EST
She pauses to stare at the man who is carrying a woman around like a ragdoll, her brow furrowing, and her jaw tightening as she stares at the irish man, silent as pale blue eyes stare, quietly cursing everyone from God on down the line.

"You're gettin' blood on yer shirt," warm elegant tones from cornwall declare soberly, ironically, as her eyes twitch toward Madison and the people beyond and back toward the other man.

Decker Rohl

Sat 01:57AM EST
He looks at her, half-suspicious, as if he thought she might be making fun of him in some sly, sidewinding Glass Walker way. Slowly, the edge of his mouth twitches.

"All you hadta to was ask," he murmurs. Some part of him appreciates her delicate sidestepping of the issue. Rune was no idiot. Bleeding woman with half her face smashed; Decker looking like he was biting back a frenzy, with a long scratch on his side that bleeds with the profusion of silver allergy. Two and two is four.

There's something of a delay...
"I ain't meaned to do it."

Fat lot of good that did now, but it was something he had to say, like a child who'd just shot his brother dead playing with guns. He pushes both his hands over his face, and back. "Think Livingston'll heal her if we took'er to 'im?"

Arianna

Sat 01:58AM EST
Rag doll, heaven's little beauty, rag doll daddy's little cutie...
another broken moan as the quickened pace races through her broken (shattered) form. then silence. eerie. silence.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 01:59AM EST
he stops at the moan, going to his knees being as gentle as possible** "Aww lass, dont bleed out on me now." he murmurs

Madison Cassidy

Sat 02:00AM EST
Ok situation with Decker is under control it seems..
maybe time to depart
She obviously count do any damage nor help at all...she didnt know these people...not well the one she did know...

She sighs and the smoke dangles from her mouth
merely calling to Rune from where she stands...about 20 yards away
"you got a light?" she turns her head to the girl in Jimmys arms
"you think i should help over there?" she shrugs..
Shed rather not be involved....but
fuck she should probably help..

Rune

Sat 02:02AM EST
"I know you didn't," her tone cool and distant, which bleeds it of any condescesion that might soak through those words. "I think that's a good idea. Gimme the keys to your truck. You can follow in my car."

The woman glances up as Madison calls out to her, and for a brief moment, her groomed brows narrow with irritation. Then, with a faint, put-upon sigh, she fishes her silver Zippo from her back pocket and tosses it in Madison's general direction.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:02AM EST
Her eyes drift down toward the woman, before hardening her resolve against it.

She can't do anything anyway, not without the right area. "This woman needs about five years of surgery, you," she replies after a moment before exhaling sharply in resolve "Carry her tha next five blocks to me car and I can drive ye t'hospital. She won't bleed out, facial fractures are painful, and so is a concussion. You need ta keep 'er awayke, and not move her so bloody much, in case ye damage her face anymore. And try not ta jostle 'er in case there's any damage to neck or spine and such."

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:02AM EST
**moves his hand under her nose feeling for breath**

Arianna

Sat 02:04AM EST
Breath slow, but there, she's merely succumbed to unconsciousness.

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:05AM EST
Decker grunts and feels for his keys, eventually finding them and tossing them at Rune. "Tell the redhead medicine woman she don't need to get involved," he adds.

Fine fuckin' time to keep his little promises.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:05AM EST
**speaks softly, like to a sleeping child** "Ya gotta wake up lass." the woman whos car is five blocks away her orders are conflicting, dont move her but take her to the car**

Madison Cassidy

Sat 02:06AM EST
She turns to them...
without waiting for an answer from Rune or Decker
"walk her 2 blocks, youll have an ambulance waiting there"
she calls to them

and pulls out that fucking cell phone she hated..
she pauses....
and looks at Decker...
"you dont want me to call 9-11"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:07AM EST
Her features are unwavering, stony, as she stands some several feet away, coming no where near him, nor the baggage he carries. If she realizes her orders are conflicting or understands that he thinks so, she does not qualify them.

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:07AM EST
Coolly, belying his turmoil, his clenching gut, he shrugs at Madison. "Call 911 and yer gonna have a whole shitload o' dead cops."

Arianna

Sat 02:08AM EST
...no response...

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:09AM EST
"Come on lass, wake up. Dont go nodding off on me." he gently touches her neck feeling her pulse**

Madison Cassidy

Sat 02:10AM EST
She just mumbles.."yeah gee and whos fault is that"
she turns her head and shakes it, dropping the unlit smoke from her mouth...
she had better things to do then help this mess

at least she got the girl away before Decker killed her

That was her good deed of the day..

and she starts walking away from the 2 on the sidewalk, and the other 2 as well
walking away from it all

and cellphone to her ear, she calls another number..
"yeah...2 peperoni pizzas, yeah...no delivery.." she smirks and looks around...picking an address on the street...now not near the 2 anymore, merely a prank..

"4698 Main Street" she smirks.."names Johnson" she nods a few times and hangs up..pocketing the nusance of a cell phone
and heading away from the others

Rune

Sat 02:11AM EST
Rune's keys are already in hand, and she tosses them to Decker as she catches his in the same smooth motion, then flicks her cigarette to the ground and grinds it out with the ball of her sandaled foot.

Dark eyes flicker to Madison. "Don't call 911. I've got it taken care of."

Then she looks to Imogen and Jimmy, crossing the distance with her sauntering stride, utterly comfortable in this environment, even with her ridiculous shoes. "Truck's a block away. I'll bring it around, and take her to the hospital myself. Only room for me an' her though. If you'll stay with her until I come back, sir, I'd appreciate it."

Arianna

Sat 02:12AM EST
...pulse is strong, steady... shattered and broken, but not destroyed...

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:13AM EST
**sighs in relief turns his head to glare at Decker** "Dead cops" he mutters "Is that all you fuckin' know is killin'" he growls

Madison Cassidy

Sat 02:14AM EST
She cant help it she hears Jimmy
"shut up" she calls to him
"stay with the girl, and dont start shit you dumbass" she shakes her head
like they dont see when someone is close to frenzying
stupid folks out here
She turns her head and continues to walk away

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:15AM EST
Stone wall.
Ice cold.
Locked down.

Leveling a flat grey stare at Jimmy, Decker just shrugs, pocketing Rune's keys. "Yeah. Why not? All I'm fuckin' good at." A quick tilt of his head sideways, pointing with a nod. "Get the hell outta here. I'll watch her 'til my partner gets back."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:15AM EST
She simply stares quietly at Rune the faintest nod of a firey head indication that she has at least heard the words that were spoken, hands leave the pockets of her jacket and migrate to the back pockets of her jeans, eyes narrowing silently at nothing as she stares down an alleyway.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:16AM EST
"Why should I leave her with you?" he looks directly at Rohl.

Madison Cassidy

Sat 02:17AM EST
again, her words seemingly wrong as Decker calls his own shots...
fuck it
she shakes her head..
let him dig his own grave, either of them, she didnt give 2 shits

this the exact reason her tribe didnt like men much, so fucking stupid

Rune

Sat 02:20AM EST
Rune's mouth is close-lipped and thin now, the only overt sign of her tension. Her shoulders rise and fall with a faint, steady rhythm as strives to steady her breathing, and thus keep a tight reign on her own temper.

"Decker, this neighborhood's for shit. Don't really wanna have my car stripped. It's in public lot in front of the supermarket, so it should be safe, but you never know. I'd appreciate it if you picked it up before someone picks it clean." Shaking a pale hand through her dyed-black-hair, she looks back to Jimmy. "You wanna help her, right? Wouldn't do to go startin' another fight now, would it?"

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:21AM EST
He tilts his head the other way now - slowly - popping the neck joints. Straightening, shifting, settling again: the tension gone from his shoulders, relaxed as an adder in the sun, remorse and turmoil swept away, cleverly hidden, one or the other. Move on; forget. Keep going.

"Whatever." Grey eyes on Imogen; not a whit of recognition. "Need a ride, girl?"

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:21AM EST
"I'm not starting a fight. I asked a question." he says calmly. "I'm not letting her out of my sight till a doctor sees her or she can walk."

Arianna

Sat 02:24AM EST
..pain keeps growing through comforting fog.. soft moan... silence again..

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:25AM EST
Among these burning flames she is a dull flickering candle, through frustrated and tense by the lines of her body. Beneath the shape of her jacket the shape of a slender frame is tense, singing like a wire pulled too tight. Decker, the large man speaks to her, and her eyes draw away from her point of disinterest to look at him, and answer his question, "Yeah, looks like," she replies after a moment, vibrant head ducking in a half nod.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:27AM EST
**his eyes turn to Arianna** "Come on lass wake up"

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:28AM EST
"Suit yerself," he sneers. Nodding at Imogen, "C'mon then." Ka-ching. Pick-up completed. Go fig. Maybe the girl liked violent men.

Or something like that. Jimmy might get the feeling he's missing something, but by then Decker's walking off toward Rune's BMW, parked under the brightest light in the supermarket's lot.

Rune

Sat 02:30AM EST
"Yeah? Sounded like you were goading him. Might wanna invest in a Dale Carnegie course." The smile that accompanies these words can be described - at best - as wintery. "Give me two seconds. I'll be right back."

Whatever.

Rune saunters off down the street, her long strides shortened only mimimally by the stricture of her fashionable shoes, heading toward Decker's truck. Once there, she struggles with the rusted door and - muttering a curse under her breath - manages to muscle it open and climb into cab.

Less the a minute later, the dilapidated wreck of a vehicle draws up alongside Jimmy and Arianna. Rune leaves the motor running and climbs back down from the cab, then circles around to the bed, searching through the junk for a board or something, to put beneath Arianna's neck and back.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:31AM EST
After all, some are repelled by it, others are drawn by it. Boots hiss against concrete as she follows, likewise heading toward the supermarket and its occupant, the precious BMW.

Lexi

Sat 02:31AM EST
She har her blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail and the sweat is drying in the cool air...the spandex shorts and the t-shirt a little wet still
hell of a workout
she heads up the street to her piece of shit car....parked in the same lot as the BMW...noting Decker coming towards her...she smiles
no clue of whats gone on tonight
"Hey there, funny where we bump into each other..." she pauses..glancing to the girl..then back to him..
"where you headed?" she puts the gym bag in the trunk of the Aries K and closes it with a squeaky slam...
"anywhere good?" she smirks

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:31AM EST
**slowly very slowly rises to his feet**

Arianna

Sat 02:33AM EST
Another groan, but she really wishes disembodied voice wouldn't pull her from softness of dreamless sleep into jagged areas of pain again and again... even if it does continue to pull her toward the (shattered) surface..

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:34AM EST
"Come on lass." he says again quietly, open your eyes for me." he grins a little at her groan,

Rune

Sat 02:39AM EST
There's an incredible amount of junk back here, enough that Rune starts to wonder if Decker was planning on auditioning for some remake of Sanford and Son. Eventually Rune muscles out a narrow board that someone might've used to patch the roof of his falling down trailer - or perhaps it was purchased (stolen) for that purpose. Pale hands curled around the rough edges (manicure ruined by having to rummage through the junk in the back of the truck) Rune walks back to Jimmy and Arianna.

She kneels beside Arianna, and places the board on the ground beside the battered young woman.

"Give me a hand, and we'll get her on the board, then put her in the cab. Don't wanna make anything worse." Rune's eyes flash to Jimmy, some indeterminate shade - black or brown or green or blue - that is merely dark in this dull light. Black hair falls around her pale face, emphasizing the blatant scarlet of her lipstick.

Jimmy Donovan

Sat 02:40AM EST
**he appearently has some first aid knowledge, he takes his belt off to help fix her to the board, but otherwise follows Runes orders assuming she knows more**

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:40AM EST
All the way there he says nothing, lapsing into a moody silence Imogen isn't foolish enough to interrupt. As he begins to cross the parking lot, though, he notices Lexi heading over.

A subaudible grunt. Fingertips grazing Imogen's elbow to catch her attention, then drifting down to press the car keys into her hand, he mutters, "Fuckin' family circus night. Take the car 'n leave if you wanna."

Slowing then, he turns toward Lexi, shrugging. "Home."

Rune

Sat 02:43AM EST
"Alright," Rune nods, apparently satisfied. She crouches with thoughtless ease on Arianna's left side, positioning one hand beneath the board, the other beneath the girl's knees. Thinking better of that, she rises and crouches by the girl's head. "Support her legs, I'll get her up here, and we'll carry her to the car."

Lexi

Sat 02:44AM EST
She looks at Decker and then to Imogen..
back to Decker, those blue eyes stopping on the grey ones..
"yeah, well you want a ride or something?" she shrugs slightly and pulls the elastic from her hair shaking it down...still a little wet
"you dont look so good, everything ok?"
probably a dumb question, but she didnt always think before she spoke

Jimmy donovan

Sat 02:45AM EST
**does as she orders** "But the trucks right here?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:45AM EST
Imogen is many things, but foolish is not one of them. Silence reigns into Lexi breaks it, and then Decker with his mutter. A faint hiss of breath that might be a chuckle or an exhalation of a tense sigh as she takes the keys, rolling the jagged teeth around in between her fingers, metal catching against her roughened skin, as she contemplates the entire situation, taking a few easy steps out of the way.

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:46AM EST
Didn't know he was so fucking transparent. Thought he had a pretty good poker face, Decker did. Making an irritated sound, he shrugs again. "Fuckin' peachy." Perpetual frown; easy nod upwards. "You?"

Lexi

Sat 02:49AM EST
She smirks and shrugs..."eh had better days, but went to kick a bunch of peoples ass in a martial art class i take, so hell at least i got my aggression out" she leans against the 2 toned Aries K...
eyes moving to Imogen...she smiles shes tall, probably a good 5'10...built like Xena, big, strong, but feminine nonetheless...
"hello there"

Rune

Sat 02:49AM EST
The faintest upcurl of Rune's lips: a smirk, a veritable smirk. "Car, truck, same different. But yeah, that's what I meant.

"Ready?" Slipping her fingers beneath the board, she waits until Jimmy is supporting Arianna's legs and stabilizing her thus before lifting. Arianna's light enough that Rune could easily carry the girl herself, but not without some awkward jostling that could only make things worse.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 02:50AM EST
**he nods taking hold of the girl as directed** "Ready."

Decker Rohl

Sat 02:54AM EST
Another wordless noise as he takes a few more steps forward, slows, stops. "Yeah?" Half-distracted, his eyes skate over her car, come back to her. "Martial arts, okay."

A blank pause.

"You waitin' for somethin'?" He could be Mr. Etiquette.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 02:55AM EST
Imogen is perhaps standing at five feet, two inches, her frame slender and swallowed by the long jacket she wears, hands shoved into her pocket. If there is feminity within, it's hidden by the folds of the straight lined trench coat. Hair of auburn, roan and curls of near blonde stand out sharply against the dark fabric, swishing against the cloth as she turns her head, assuming that Lexi had not been about to say 'hello there' to Decker. After all she'd already greeted him. Lips move in a mask of a smile of greeting, though unspeaking as Decker continues his discourse.

Rune

Sat 02:56AM EST
"On the count of three. One. Two.

"Three." Together they lift Arianna, with her head, neck and most of her back at least stabilized by the rough board. Far from elegant, it is at least a workable solution. Lifting her high enough to slide her into the cab of the truck without tossing her about is an awkward pickle, but with some readjusting Jimmy and Rune handle it well enough. Rune slides Arianna over most of the seat, and frowns faintly at her legs, which still dangle over the edge.

"I'm gonna get in the driver's side," she says, "then we'll slide her in as far as possible. You'll hafta prop up her feet before you close the door, okay?"

Jimmy donovan

Sat 02:56AM EST
**he nods* "Aye." he says quietly,

Lexi

Sat 02:57AM EST
She purses her lips.."nope.." she walks to the door...opening it..
a familiar smell comes from it
"you driving that" she eyes the BMW..or you want a ride" she nods her head to the ashtray...but doesn make it all that obvious

Arianna

Sat 02:59AM EST
...and that gets reaction - no matter HOW gentle the lift pulls louder pained(agonized) moan from swollen bruised lips over shattered mushmouth, though it fades again as familiar fog gatheres her close.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:00AM EST
**sings quietly maybe to Arianna as they arrange themselves in the truck** "Ten years ago, on a cold dark night there was someone killed neith the town hall light, just a few at the scene and they all did agree that the man who ran looked alot like me."

Rune

Sat 03:01AM EST
"Okay then," Rune replies, slipping out and striding around the back of the truck, where she pauses to fling the rusted gate closed. When she gets to the other side, she climbs into the driver's side and struggles to slam the door home, pulling Arianna as close as she can and still have room enough to steer and break. The truck's old, and the cab is spacious enough, though nothing like some of the modern monsters. It'll carry the Fenrir three abrest, so at least Arianna's head and torso will fit on the bench seat. "See if you can pull the seatbelt around her somehow. I'll drive slow, but I don't want anything to happen."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:03AM EST
**he nods fastening the seatbelts around her as best he can still singing softly** "She walks these hills in a long black veil, she visits my grave when the nightwind wails, nobody knows lord and nobody sees nobody knows but me."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:06AM EST
he climbs into the bed of the truck getting as comfortable as possible**

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:06AM EST
He cranes his neck to look at her heap of shit with the pot. Tempting, but...

"Got my own." Like he was going to pass up driving that Beemer. Rune'd probably never give him the keys again if she knew he handed them to a stranger, even for a second.

Lexi

Sat 03:09AM EST
She nods..."right on" she smirks..
glancing to the girl...
yeah you got your own ride allright
She startes the engine, and rock music comes bellowing from the speakers..
"we'll hang soon...have a good night" she nods to the girl and smirks...
good for him...

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:12AM EST
And the small woman with rioting red hair remains silent enough, though there is the faintest breath of a snort at the hints of innuendo. Amusement, maybe. As Lexi begins to pull out of her parking spot, keys are produced from one of the deep pockets of her jacket and offered to the Fenrir silently.

She doesn't know Rune at all, but somehow, she too, doubts that Decker's roommate (she's not used to words such as packmate) would appreciate the keys being handed off, let alone someone driving it.

Rune

Sat 03:13AM EST
Rune's gaze flickers to the rearview mirror, studying Jimmy as he gets comfortable amongst the heaps of trash in the bed of the truck. Briefly, her red lips twist upward in a smirk. She spent a few minutes digging through that pile of trash. There's no way she'd ride there. She's crawl. She'd walk on her hands. She'd balance on the tips of her bloody fingers over a sandbox full of ground glass, first.

The truck pulls out, not at all smoothly. The engine coughs and sputters, grumbles and wheezes, and generally sounds like someone dying of emphysema in the ICU before finally catching and leaping forward and off, down the street.

Down the street, right past the hospital, and out onto the parkway, without a backward glance.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:14AM EST
**frowns and taps on the glass of the backwindow as they pass the hosptial, and points**

Arianna

Sat 03:16AM EST
Shuddershake of the old truck that rumbles around her and hands fumble for purchace, blindly, tightening around the blade still held against her chest, and as the truck finally smooths out the groans slide again to silence...

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:17AM EST
"Fuck off, Lexi," he mutters, turning to take the keys. Unlocking Rune's Beemer, he gets in.

Now. This was a car. The baby hugged his body sitting down. Buttons everywhere. Seat heater, electronic seat adjustment, the works. Black leather interior, soft as a baby's butt.

Decker barely notices. Shoving the keys in the ignition, he starts it up. The Z3 convertible doesn't cough the way his old truck does; it purrs and, purring, idles smooth as silk.

Decker? Barely. Notices.

He flicks the headlights on and pulls out of the lot. First, second, third gear. City lights streak overhead; he doesn't say anything.

Rune

Sat 03:19AM EST
Once more, her gaze slips to the rearview mirror, and rests briefly on Jimmy's form reflected back at her. That's the only reaction he receives, and the truck only continues accelerating.

Jimmy has about three choices now: 1. he can break the glass and start a fight that would undoubtedly kill them; 2. he can jump outta the bed and find somewhere to call the cops and set 'em on Rune; or 3. he can sit back and enjoy the ride.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:19AM EST
**he sighs and growls to himself glancing at Arianna**

Lexi

Sat 03:19AM EST
"fuck off lexi" she nods...muttering to herself..
She wwas not being a smartass, she genuinely thought he was hinting he wanted to be with some girl..and what would it bother her, nothing at all...she didnt wanna screw Decker, just liked hanging with him, he was like the other Gets she knew...
And if he had given her a compliment she smiles..
Fuck off Lexi was like his way of saying later have a good one

She pulls out and heads on the same street, many cars behind...

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:21AM EST
She slides into the passenger side, a blue glance darting sideways out of the corner of her eye as she leaves the cab of the car to remain in silence, only the sliding sound of her seatbelt being drawn across her torso, and the click of the seatbelt. After all, what other choice would be given to her? Try and force his bad mood out of him with psychobabble? Yeah. Right.

The silence hangs as the beemer purrs and the street lights streak, passing them by.

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:24AM EST
But he breaks the silence, maybe halfway home. First a cough, then a wince as he moves on Rune's leather upholstery to give his slash some room. Fucking hell. First some crazy lupus tries to tear his guts out, then some stupid Fang kin tries to gut him like a fish. With silver.

Finally, he glances over at her, setting the cruise control for 75 on the southbound freeway. "You saw?"

Lexi

Sat 03:25AM EST
She drives behind them a few cars back...music blaring as she taps to the beat on the steering wheel...

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:29AM EST
As he glances over, he catches a faint flare of nostrils as she catches the smell of blood, as his movement reopens the wound and adds just a little bit more to the smell of blood that now just colours his own regular and unsavoury odours. It's strong particularly when it's familiar, and she glances over sharply, as much as a reaction to him speaking as curiousity. She had not seen him slashed with the knife, "I saw you smash her face in, yeah." She replies after a moment, shifting her weight to better look at him through the gloom.

Lexi

Sat 03:30AM EST
Turning to head home she sings along to whatever is booming

in a perfectly good mood

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:32AM EST
**rides passively in the truck bed**

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:33AM EST
He makes that sound of his, half laugh, half snort. "Fuckin' Christ," he curses as he flexes his hands on the wheel, reaching automatically for the crank to lower the window before realizing it didn't have one. Power windows. Press a button, let the night in. He exhales and frowns. Opens his mouth. Closes it. Opens it again, "Hell were you doin' there anyway?"

Rune

Sat 03:34AM EST
Decker's truck can manage - perhaps - 65 without making so many terrible noises that it seems like its about to explode, so that's about how fast the trio go.

Out, south down the parkway. They pass exit after exit with the friendly blue H for hospital, but Rune takes none of those exits.

Perhaps forty-five minutes later, the rusted old truck starts slowing at some anonymous exit. Beyond is the usual suburban sprawl - acres of strip malls, each an island of construction surrounded by a moat of blacktopped parking lots, all of which they pass. Soon enough, the truck turns onto an anonymous side road, no different from any other. There's a sign announcing the name of the development - Millbrook Farms, or Brookfarm Chase, or something similarly middlebrow and bucolic - but the lights are out, and it's rather difficult to make out the name. Several islands of condos later, and they're pulling into a parking space in front of one building of many, no more remarkable than the next. The engine dies as the truck rolls to a stop in the spot, and Rune slams on the brakes, hard, to keep it from rolling further.

She winches up the parking brake with a struggle, then climbs out of the cab of the truck and circles to the passenger side without a spare glance for Jimmy.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:34AM EST
**hops out ready to help despite not knowing where he's at**

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:36AM EST
"Workin' late," she replies as she shifts her weight, fingers brushing down the car door to find her own window button, unlocking the automatically locked doors once in an effort to find it, before dropping her window down some, allowing a slow breeze to pass through the the beemer's cab, exchanging unpleasantly scented air for the air of the night. "What'd she do?"

Arianna

Sat 03:37AM EST
that hard slam on the brakes throws her against the belt not fastened to allfire well and the comfort of rumbling cruise shattered with another cry... why can't they just. let. her. sleep..... fade, fade, fade...

Rune

Sat 03:38AM EST
"It's the first one on the right." Rune tosses Decker's keys to Jimmy then slips her hands beneath the board and lifts Arianna "Unlock the door for me, would you?"

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:38AM EST
**catches the keys and jogs towards the door* "Aye." he says as he moves

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:39AM EST
"Shouldn't work so late," he replies automatically, vaguely. "Walkin' around alone like that 'n shit."

He glances at her popping the locks on and off and finds the button, presses. Pop, locks back on. Maybe he thought she might try to jump out of a car moving at seventy-five miles an hour to escape him soon.

"Nothin'," he says at last, and laughs - a strange, bitter, cold sound. "Absofuckinlutely nothin'."

Lexi

Sat 03:43AM EST
** a car moves up behind her...following closely....she notices the guy while looking in her rear view mirror....heart races...not again
She speeks up
*as much as the Ariek K can speed up*
passing her street, she continues looking in the mirror, the car is still there, only backing off a little...
heart begins to race...what the fuck

She pushes the petal down more....hoping for some miracle of speed....
She has passed her street..and continues up the road....

She taps her breaks, to make him have to do the same, and then makes a u-turn right there....

squeeling at bout 45 miles an hour, but it sure sounded dramatic

She heads up the street...losing the car as she turns up and down different streets...

no sign of him none at all

what the fuck was that?
She feelsher hears still racing, as the black car could pop out from any corner....
She drives, her hands a bit sweaty....moving up and down the street....
She pulls into Deckers apartment parking lot...amlmost instinctively...shit he may tell her to fuck off, but hed just as soon let her hide for a second if something was following her...or something wasnt following her anymore...


She gets out and looks around...she wasnt sure exactly which one it was

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:44AM EST
"I prob'ly woulda been okay, if I'd not walked down tha street ye and yer family were on..." she replies distractedly before turning back to look at him for a very long moment before repeating, "Nothing," her tone caught somewhere between a statement and a question. Either not believing his statement or preferring to hope that it was incorrect. Hope, after all, makes the world go 'round.

Rune

Sat 03:44AM EST
Rune stops long enough to kick her shoes off, then lifts Arianna carefully, one arm under the board, the other beneath her knees. Thus she carries the young woman into her darkened apartment. As she brushes past Jimmy, she mutters, "...grab my shoes and shut the doors to the truck, would you?"

She has half a mind to lock him out. She's not sure she wants him in her apartment, and it'll be even worse when Decker gets back.

The alternative is worse, though. The homeowners association would not take well to a crazed Garou standing outside her apartment yelling in the middle of the night. It would probably be a bit worse than Decker living in his trailer in the parking lot for a day or three, though not much.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:44AM EST
**he nods running back and gathering her shoes and shutting the doors**

Lexi

Sat 03:50AM EST
isnt that deckers truck?
where was the BMer and who was the frantic guy...
she stands by her car, not saying a word...she merely waits...eyes glancing to the street once in a while for any sign of the black car

Decker Rohl

Sat 03:50AM EST
He looks at her again, longer. "She--" he begins; stops.

Returning his attention to the freeway, a belt of red and white, a sea of cars moving parallel and antiparallel, united in motion, he shakes his head. "Nothin' that deserved that."

A moment later, he puts the blinkers on and slides out to the exit lane, peeling off the freeway. She'd recognize the road. It's the road she takes every night to get home. 8pm, 9pm, 10pm if she was lucky. 3am if she wasn't.

The dead, as they say, need no rest.

Arianna

Sat 03:50AM EST
bright white.. its not the light to move towards, but rather shy away from... she's been beat before. She's been used before. There's a lot of things she's suffered - but single(mindedasshole) punch that shatteres all? fuck. Jostling pulls moaned cries, fighting to stay in the warm fuzzy grayish void that looks nothing like stormcloud eyes. just. wanna. sleep.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:52AM EST
*opens the door and comes indside (presuming it's unlocked)) and sets the shoes beside the door**

Rune

Sat 03:54AM EST
With a word, Rune de-activates the condo's security system and turns on the lights. She may not be a tech geek, but she's got connections, and is used to such conveniences. The Clash comes blaring over the speaker, fighting with the clamor of CNN for audiological supremacy as Rune and Jimmy walk into the condo.

The cleaning women came yesterday, so the place is acceptable enough. Rune walks through the living room, past the big-ass leather couch, and deposits Arianna on the breakfast bar. She pauses long enough to mute CNN and ratchet the Clash down about 80 decibels, the grabs her cellphone off the coffee table and starts dialing.

With a faint nod in Jimmy's direction, she mutters, "...make yourself comfortable," as the phone rings.

And rings. And rings. And - rings right back at her from the back patio, where Livingston is tripping out, Bob Marley blaring on his headset, oblivious to the world, and to the cell phone blaring an electronic version of I Shot the Sheriff in his front breast pocket.

"Fuckin' hell."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 03:55AM EST
**kneels down besides Arianna, caressing her undamaged cheek, and singing softly to hear, inaudiably over the Clash, and CNN**

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 03:57AM EST
She rubs her hands against her face, scrubbing at the fatigue, washing it away with a concious effort. Forcing sleep away from her mind. The dead need no rest, so the speakers for the dead, the keepers of their secrets learn to live without it (they learn, quite simply, to live), or to live in deficit of it over extended periods of time. Her hands drag through the riot of red and curls, and it's a long time before she says anything again, caught between two modes of mind. The way of thought that drove her away from this way of life (No, nobody deserves that), and the way of thinking that kept her away (anyone who knows what you are should be smart enough to keep their mouth shut); in the end, nothing is side, and she simply nods staring as the road passes by.

Rune

Sat 04:02AM EST
Rune blinks at Jimmy, her red lips curling upward in another smirk, and though she knows exactly how she'll describe this damn scene to her uncle in the next email she sends him, she has enough couth (tonight) not to say it to Jimmy's face.

Shaking her head (absurd. This is absurd. Where are the Militant Grammarian of Massachusetts when you need them? - not that anyone in her current pack was literate enough to get the damn joke.) Rune stalks through the kitchen and onto the back porch, yanking the headphones from Livingston's head, and the joint from his lips, sending him back to the kitchen with a few mumbled words.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:03AM EST
**glances up at Rune and blinks at her**

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:06AM EST
He'd be ready for her to pry. Defenses were up and ready with a withering retort, and then she...

...doesn't.

Different. Which isn't to say he didn't appreciate her tact in this matter. From the freeway he pulls onto a boulevard; from the boulevard, a sidestreet; from there, the parking lot of the condo complex. Whatever the fuck it was called.

Rune

Sat 04:09AM EST
Rune stays outside, settles into her (HER) damn patio chair, and sucks in a deep lungful of smoke from the joint Livingston so thoughtfully lit from her, as Livingston head back into the condo.

He's a tall man, ghetto-grunge, and his eyes are half-obscured by a tangle of dreadlocks falling about his face.

"A'ight," he announces to Jimmy, as he comes upon them. "You gon do her right there a-fore I fix her up, or you wan wait 'til aftah?"

Lexi

Sat 04:10AM EST
Sees the Bmer and moves to it before it parks, not getting in the way...still a little shaken...
sorry to ruin your date she didnt know it wasnt a date...

She looks to Decker, obviously something was up...or she woulnt be here
and how she got there this quickly.....

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:10AM EST
**looks up at the dreadlocked man eyes narrowing a little.** "I'll let ya fix her up. I dont intend on 'doin' her at all. It would be kinda counter productive wouldnt it?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 04:12AM EST
Whatever it was. It was a great place to leave if you didn't want to have to work hard on having something that looked nice. Nosir, you won't be seeing any of these residents doing yard work though they're always perfectly immataculate.

A hand reaches to roll up the window as an eyebrow arches at the sight of Lexi approaching, "Your family is 'ere again." she notes, breaking the silence of her own accord for the first time this night.

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:13AM EST
"Motherfucker," growls Decker under his breath, shoving the Beemer into a space. An annoyed flicker of a glance at Imogen, "Yeah, you think?" before he cuts the engine and slices the door open, getting out. Helped that he hadn't put a seatbelt on.

"The hell?"

Lexi

Sat 04:16AM EST
She looks over at him.."look dont go all freaky on me, imnot here to rain on your parade" she glances to the street...and her voice lowers..
"had someone on my ass, black car, following me, it was weird, i spun a u-turn and lost him, ended up here, im not heading back yet...but i never turned down my street...so im probably fine...but i need to hang for a few"
eyes move to Imogen
shit i didnt mean to ruin the night
"if thats kewl"
she looks back to the street...and shifts nervously from foot to foot

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 04:16AM EST
She snorts softly, lips twisting into a mild sneer, "Clever," she mutters at him as he exits the car, momentarily ignoring his bad mood for her own. Fingers reach down and undo the seatbelt quickly, beginning to pull herself from the BMW.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:16AM EST
**continues to kneel by Arianna**

Rune

Sat 04:16AM EST
"Yeah, yo you lookin' a leeeetle shady to me, a'ight, crouchin' over this heyah fine little piece o' injured ass like like like a dayum beagle a-lookin' for a leg to hump." Livingston favors Jimmy with a broad, toothy grin, then crouches down beside Arianna, studying her wounds briefly. He stretches his hands out in front of him, popping the knuckles with a satisfying crack, then half closes his eyes and settles his hands on the worst of her injuries.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:18AM EST
**sighs understanding now** "I dont intend nothin' like that either."

Arianna

Sat 04:20AM EST
pained cry has hands directly lay on crushed bone fingers tightening whiteknuckle against blade and into fist at bored even as the agony starts to slowly seep away... real slow though as Decker did a number on her, bigtime...

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:21AM EST
"It'll be alright lass." he murmers, not enjoyin' being helpless to ease her pain

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:22AM EST
Head down, Decker runs his hands back over his bristly hair, shaking his head. Turning, he slams the door of the BMW shut loud enough for Rune to hear, back porch or front porch, earth or the moon. To be left alone: to have everyone, every-goddamn-one, vanish just for one night. Was it so damn much to ask?

"Yeah, all right." Turning back, cooler, he pockets the keys. "Imogen--" pause. Thought. "Night," he resolves.

"C'mon then," he says to Lexi. Rune was gonna have another housemate.

Rune

Sat 04:24AM EST
Livingston remains crouched beside Arianna, his eyes half-lidded and distant as the night sky, where they aren't hidden by the falling dreadlocks.

He grunts once, and softly under his breath, but doesn't reply to Jimmy. He's probably not fully aware of the other man's presence anymore. Rocking faintly, forward and backward with rhythmic ease, he continues his work.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 04:25AM EST
One hand waves dismissively as Decker departs, and she starts across the short lawn, walking few feet difference to her own place, beginning up the steps to her condo, keys jangling as she lets herself in.

Lexi

Sat 04:27AM EST
SLAM she wants to look at him like
shit man, where else was i supposed to go
but instead she shrugs..
she doesnt argue, shit Decker was generally an ass, it was his way,and she wasnt going home right now..
rune had a houseguest for a few hours...not a housemate..
She watches Imogen go to another place..
ohhhneighbor D'oh
she blushes a bit realizing she was completely off, not that she cared, she just hadnt thought the girl WASNT one of Deckers girls..

"i wont stay long" she says to Decker

Arianna

Sat 04:28AM EST
cries slowly fade, moans trickle away as bone reforms and swelling and bruising fades.. hands relax as pain washes from battered form, (single[mindedasshole]punch) and the rest of her form follows suit breathing falling to normal, and dusty lashes fluttering as if to open.. soon.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 04:28AM EST
The door shuts behind her with a muted and reassuring click as she leans up against the cool frame of the door, before chuckling, a small and ironic sound, "So much foh the radar, eh?" she half mutters under her breath before departing toward the kitchen, the fridge, and a beer.

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:29AM EST
He doesn't seem to have heard her at all. Trudging ahead, hands in his pockets, he realizes there was going to be a mess in there, and then Lexi would know. Fuck.

Up the stairs he goes, two at a time, and then pounds on the door while he waits for Lexi to catch up.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:29AM EST
**continues to stroke her cheek gently, his manner calm and as gentle as any ahroun gets**

Lexi

Sat 04:34AM EST
She is right behind him...and is quiet now

Rune

Sat 04:35AM EST
Satisfied, Livingston grunts and rises again, then exits... stage left.

Out the back door, back onto the patio, where he reclaims his MP3 player, headphones, and the now half-smoked joint he rolled from Rune's stash.


Enter: Rune. The scent of marijuana sifts around her, wafting in from the patio on the night breeze. Sighing, she opens the fridge, pulls out a beer, and pops a couple of Xanax for good measure. Slamming the door of the fridge shut with her foot, she pads through the kitchen, circling Arianna and Jimmy and heading toward the front door.

Should've taken two more fuckin' Xanax.

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:37AM EST
Make that four more. When the door opens, Decker's standing there with Lexi over his shoulder. One glance tells Rune all she needs to know: family. His family, to be precise.

Pushing past Rune, he heads straight for the fridge, tossing the words over his shoulder. "This's Lexi. Got spooked by some black cars."

Can we keep her, mom? Pleeeease?

Arianna

Sat 04:38AM EST
And lashes flutter and gentle touch filters through finally, completely, and after a murmured question (some name, perhaps.. some place, some dream) and suddenly she is wide. fucking. awake. His voice, near - too near - and coming on fast. She rolls instinctively, fingers cluthing at blade as she falls of breakfast bar and sinks to a grouch with a muted growl...
...before blinking... fingers lifted to feel face that should be destroyed.. but isn't.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:39AM EST
Raises a hand still crouched moving between Arianna and Decker "It's alright lass." his voice is low as calm as it gets,

Rune

Sat 04:39AM EST
The front door swings open - "forget you have a fuckin' key?" - and Rune's eyes flicker over Decker and Lexi before she turns and heads back into the living, mentally counting the current guests in her condo.

"Nice to meet you Lexi. I'm Rune," she mutters, without a glance back. "...the people currently sprawled on my kitchen floor? I have no fuckin' idea who they are. The guy jammin' to Bob Marley on the patio? I know him, but I have no fuckin' idea how he got into my fuckin' house. It's a charmed life I lead."

Decker Rohl

Sat 04:42AM EST
"I ate the keys," he mutters, leaning down to rummage through Rune's fridge. "Right after I drove yer Beemer into the Atlantic."

Turning around with one of her funky foreign beers, he glances at the Fang girl, the Fianna boy, and his face darkens. Great. Still here. He'd really prefer just to forget. At least for the next twelve hours.

Taking Rune's keys out, he tosses them her way.

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:43AM EST
**ignores Decker focused on calming Arianna**

Arianna

Sat 04:43AM EST
Brow furrows as she looks around, clearly confused and a little(a lot) rattled... she blinks back to Jimmy..
"who're you?"
even as gaze narrows at Decker as she stands.. feeling quite outfucking numbered and rather. well. pissed off.
"and where the fuck am I."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:44AM EST
"I'm Jimmy Donovan lass." he says quietly "As to where we're at I don' rightly know but everything's gonna be fine."

Lexi

Sat 04:47AM EST
She smirks, this one she liked
nodding to Rune..
"sorry to barge in like that, had some freaky thing follow me, so i ended up coming to find Decker" she shrugs as she looks around at the many people..
"i promise i wont be here long" she nods.."a couple hours maybe, if thats cool"
She glances to Decker...then to the others,
ahh that smell should she offer what she has to them, or wait

Rune

Sat 04:47AM EST
Rune does manage to spare a glance to Arianna as she comes to, though much of her earlier calm has bled out of her, and with it a fair amount of her good humor. Rune catches the keys as Decker flings them to her, then tosses them onto the coffee table.

"Welcome to the ninth circle of hell, chica," smirk. Smiiiiiirk. "...otherwise known as my life. Hope you enjoy your stay. On second thought, it'll be my pleasure to call you good folks a cab, if you'll just tell me where you wanna be dropped off."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:51AM EST
"I'll see her to where she's going if'n she likes."

Jimmy donovan

Sat 04:54AM EST
**he rises. "I'll keep an eye out for the cab." he says heading out the front door.

Rune

Sat 04:55AM EST
"Make yourself at home," Rune shrugs to Lexi with apparent unconcern, tossing her head back and taking a good long pull on the beer. "...everyone else does."

There. There. Half-a-joint and a few happy pills are beginning to work their magic, so Rune stalks through the living room, back to the kitchen, and starts rummaging through the fridge, tossing little boxes of left-over Chinese and a large box of pizza onto the counter by the stove.

"...anyone want anything to eat?" she asks the room in general. "There's half a pizza left - well, there's a piece of pizza LIVINGSTON - and some other shit. I dunno. Grab a beer or whatever, Lexi - uhh, Jimmy Donovan and uhh... whoever you are, Silver Fang."

Arianna

Sat 05:00AM EST
She nods, slightly, at Jimmy - though she doesn't believe it'll all be fine for a second. 9th circle of hell feels about right.. a moment, a nod.. though she'll be damned if she's gonna say where she wants to be dropped off.
"A cab, yeah. thanks."
She studies Jimmy... then gaze hardens and slides to Decker again.
"Thanks - but don't take it personal when I say this - I've had enough fucking testosterone today.."
She smirks at his little exit, and the smirk widens at the band of visable crimson. She wipes her blade on her jeans and stands.. clicking silver closed and tucked in her pocket.

Not her kinswoman. She has no fucking idea who it was or what happened since he never once introduced himself. Should have fucking gutted him. Selfish? yeah. that's what she is.

"Thanks to whoever fixed my face. And someone aughta keep that bastard on a fucking short leash. and tell the asshole the next time he wants fucking info - introduce himself and fucking ask."
and now she heads toward the door. Rune's quite obviously not looking for company.. though she does appreciate her help, that much was clear.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:00AM EST
She'd been curled in her overstuffed chair beer in her hand and book laid against her lap, trying to force her mind toward the political intrigues of C.J. Cherryh. She starts as someone slams on her door, tossing the book onto the coffee table, and padding barefoot over to the door, peering out the little sight hole (as if she could think of anyone else that would come knocking on her door other than the police, or Decker), the door slides open and the smaller woman glances up with him with a slight arch of an eyebrow, moving somewhat to the side so that if he wants to, he can enter. Dressed down from half an hour ago, the pressed slacks and suit are gone to be replaced by a pair of jeans and a black close fitted t-shirt. The riot of curls are marginally contained by an elastic band at the base of her neck. Her head rests lightly against the straight line of the open door, as she raises the beer to her lips, swigging some back as she waits for him to either enter or tell her what he wants.

Lexi

Sat 05:01AM EST
Ok she had walked into something and she shouldnt really be there....
She watches the girl, who hardly looks injured, leave..
eyes move back to Rune..
ok this is REALLY comfortable..
"hey...um sorry he brought me up here...im sure the car is gone, thanks for letting me hang for a few, ill get going" she shrugs..

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:06AM EST
Door opens; he has nothing to say. Having leaned his elbow on the wall beside her door, his brow on that forearm, the rest of his body slung from that point, he turns his head in the direction of Rune's place. "Girl's still there gettin' patched."

He straightens. She didn't say it, but her posture told him she wasn't going to complain if he walked it. Or at least that she wouldn't fly at him with silver in her hand. So, moving past her, he goes sink down on the couch of her conservative, tasteful, utterly-different-from-Rune's condo.

"Never sleep, do you?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:08AM EST
"Well, sometimes I do, but sometimes people come knocking on my door at four in the morning so I usually make sure that's not going to happen before I put meself ta bed." A flicker of a sardonic smile touches her lips as she gestures at him with the bottle of beer, "Want one?"

Rune

Sat 05:09AM EST
Rune blinks as Arianna begins to speak. Mid-way through the diatribe, though, her dark eyes are hardening and her hands are curling into fists at her side.

"Christ," Rune snorts, shaking her head. Maybe the comment is directed at Arianna's retreating back, maybe the comment is tossed off toward Lexi. "No fuckin' wonder her decked her."

The faintest of shrugs follows. "No problem. Make yourself at home and whatnot. Beers in the fridge, Livingston has my stash out back. You can have the couch or the floor or whatever if you wanna wait until daylight to head out."

Lexi

Sat 05:10AM EST
A shrug..."you smoke..i got some killer stuff id love to share" she shrugs..
damn a beer would be good she doesnt go get one yet..
not completely sure she should be sticking around anyways...

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:12AM EST
A glance at her clock. He knew where it was now. "Five a.m," he corrects her, and then shakes his head, tilting it back against the back of her couch and closing his eyes for a moment. "Had one."

Tired. He was fucking tired. "Go to bed if you gotta," he adds, opening his eyes and looking at her without raising his head. "Can let myself the hell out later."

Arianna

Sat 05:14AM EST
She pauses, hand on he doorknob. Shaking her head slightly. jaw clenches... and she ponders a reply... but she said thanks for the heal for a wound that never would have happened if he had some fucking couth and the common sense to tell ehr who he was. Not like she has all the fancy shit "the chosen" have. She's got her blade. that's it.

But a moment's contemplation, and a snort of the "not fucking worth it" kind, and door opens and slams shut behind her.

No wonder he fucking decked her she say. Different city, same old stuck up, holier then thou dogs.

She doesn't even slow down that stalk as she moves right past Jimmy and starts hoofin it. She'll stop the cab before it gets here or bloody well walk all the way back. right now she doesn't give a fuck.

Rune

Sat 05:16AM EST
"Yeah," Rune grins, faintly, finishing off her beer and diving into the fridge for another one. The plan for tonight is the same as it is just about every night: get as fucked up as she possibly can, so that she can pass out and sleep without dreaming. "Out back though. Don't like to smoke in the house, even if I break that rule every other day."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:17AM EST
"Well, this is a new record for you." She shrugs indifferently as she sinks back into her chair, resting herself against it for a moment, propping her elbow against the armrest and resting her forehead against her long slender fingers, "I might just do that," she replies, raising beer again to him in gesture, "Gotta finish this first, though." Another sip, before she raises her head to look at him, fatigue seeming to be written in ever line of him. An eyebrow arches just slightly, "If you're absolutely tired you can stay on tha couch if you want. Since I'm assuming you have some reason for bein' here and not over there."

The statement is very simple as she leans herself back against the chair. Again, much of the living room is caught in shadows with her chair (it must be her favourite) pooled in light from a single lamp.

Lexi

Sat 05:18AM EST
She smiles and shrugs her shoulders.."hey i can handle that" she nods...pulling out the danky green pot in the small baggie....
"i assume tonight was one of those nights?" she chuckles...

Rune

Sat 05:23AM EST
The faintest of flashing smiles, as Rune pauses and calls a pair of cabs for Arianna and Jimmy. Normally she'd even pay for them, but she's not in the mood to see what the hell Decker might've done to her car, so she saunters out onto the back patio and kicks Livington outta her chair.

"Every night's one of those nights," Rune smirks, shaking her head again. "Every single fuckin' night."

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:24AM EST
"Liver cancer," he says absently in regards to her beer, turning his head back to stare at the ceiling, "or whatever it's called. Emphysema?"

Shaking his head, then, "Naw. Goin' back in an hour or so." No elaborations. He'd told her the girl was still there, which admittedly wasn't exactly the most descriptive explanation, but it was all she was going to get. Tonight, at least.

He didn't mind the shadows in the room. Darkness was good. Hazed out boundaries and lines and edges, reduced everything to nothing, and somehow the endless headache of his unreasoning anger wasn't so hard to live with.

"Why'd you lemme in?" - this, a little later.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:30AM EST
"Cirhossis," she replies absently, taking another swallow of the beer, the light catching the bottle and the fluid within indicating that it's half empty by now. Silence again.

He asks his question and she shrugs, languidly, glancing at him through eyes that are rimmed with darkness, almost like a bruising against her fine skin. "I didn't have a good reason to keep you out," she replies after a moment.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:35AM EST
He. Laughs.

Head back against the sofa's back, sprawled in dark, smelling like night and blood and the rest of his many and appealing scents, he laughs. "Yer a fuckin' crazy woman," he says at last. "Fuckin' insane."

Subsiding - he never laughs long, if at all (first time in weeks. Last time was sitting here too.) - he falls silent again, lost in his own conflicting thoughts. "Cirrhosis," he repeats at last, like it meant something.

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:39AM EST
She smirks faintly, disconcerted by his laughter, rare as it tends to be, and not quite sure how amused she should be with being called insane; fuckin' insane, no less.

Cirrhosis. "Yeah. Emphysema is a condition ye get from smoking. I haven't smoked in years." She doesn't drink all that much, either, though that is in comparison to perhaps some bad examples, namely tribesmates and colleagues.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:42AM EST
A frown sketches across his brow, sheened in the light of a parking lot light. He lifts his head and looks at her.

Opens his mouth and spits out a standard Deckerism: "The fuck do I care if you smoke 'r not?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:44AM EST
"The fuck do you care if I drink or not?" she shoots back, swallowing half of what was left of her brew, leaving a quarter in the bottle.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:45AM EST
Open mouth, close mouth. She made him a fucking goldfish. Irritated, he throws a hand over his forehead. "Shit off. I don't. Go to bed."

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:47AM EST
"Yes sir, fenrir sir." she hisses in irritation as she gets to her feet, swallowing what is left of the beer and leaving it on a coaster to be picked up in the morning or afternoon whenever she got back up.

Decker Rohl

Sat 05:49AM EST
He sits up, grimacing in disbelief, annoyance, something in between. "You tryin' to tick me off? Wanna end up like the girl next door?"

Imogen Slaughter

Sat 05:56AM EST
She stares at him, blue eyes dangerously close to a stare down (she just never knows when to back down) a blue glare and angry silence her only answer for a moment, "I," measuring her words out carefully, not as if she thought he was stupid, but in an effort not to mouth off, or snap, "am not trying to tick ye off." The very logical part of her brain screams (albeit immaturely) he started it!!!

"But tha fact you can pummel me into a bloody pulp isn't always going to stop me if I think ye're wrong. Neither will threatening me." this is among the many reasons why she no longer gets near Garou, "Good night, Decker." Turning and walking toward her stares, "Thanks fer coverin' me ass tonight." She doubts he cares, whether she thanks him, or not, but she does, so the words are tossed over a shoulder as bare feet begin to pad up the stairs.

Decker Rohl

Sat 06:01AM EST
"Goddammit," he seethes, sitting up completely now, leaning forward, "you think I'm threatenin' yer ass? You think I wanna beat you into a bloody pulp?"

Get up. Walk out. It's the smartest course of action right now, and it's what he does: gets up, heads for the door. "Night, Imogen," he snaps in reply, booted feet in contrast to her bare ones stomping their way across to the door. For the thanks, nothing but a grunt.