Making Friends and Influencing People

[Bleeds Well]

Lawyers... Bleeds Well shrugs in hishu, his word quota for the day is nearly full.

"We can keep up the word play, or we can just step aside and give the stray a proper tour." Hector gets a quick look, "We adopting this one? I like him better than the last two that showed up with a rain motif, can we keep him?"

[Tiny]

As the conversation starts to flow, memories of stories around campfires and fireplaces and one particularly memorable night under the stars in the Rockies comes to mind. He looks at Hector with a new recognition. "I'm in the Wintery business personally." He loosens his tie, thunderbolt catching the light. "You're one of Roman's boys right? Blackjack let me crash at his place for a few months, swap stories, hunt a little. He didn't tell me, to, but I know he'd want me to say hi for him. He's got his own pack in Boulder now, has two kids."

He looks at Emily, "I'll have to tell you some of the stories she told me, and you can swap back what she missed. She was with Firebringer when shit went really sidewise. I seem to remember hearing about an Iron who hunkered down and weathered a couple spiritual hurricanes. The Sac Prepper. That you?"

With Bleeds Well's suggestion of filing adoption paperwork, Tiny knows that now is the time to offer his chiminage. "Thank you, please accept this welcoming gift"
He pulls out a couple of mini bottles from the bag, tossing a mini of Tito vodka to Emily, Maker's Mark to Hector, and Glenlivet to Bleeds Well.
"Let me know if I guessed wrong, I've got a few other choices. The nice thing is the law stops you from drinking in parks, but only if they catch you actually in the act of drinking. Carrying an open and empty bottle is perfectly legal."

He raises his bottle along with everyone else who does,
"To new friends."
He opens his own mini bottle of Laphroig and downs it in one go.

[Hector]

Hector's demeanour shifts slightly as Tiny reveals his affiliations. The Alpha should have known but he missed the significance of the tie and had pegged the little old man for one of Death Wolf's get.

He actually bobs a small bow when Tiny recognises his connection with Max Roman, the Silver Syndicate, and the Rocky Protectorates.

"He does. Oh that is good news. Such good news. Roman had me learn the lore of the tribes at the feet of the great packs... As they were when I was over there. I was just a new pup at the time really and it was such an honour."

Then surprise.

"You knew Firebringer? Oh wait! You knew someone who knew Firebringer!?"

There is awe, pure and unsullied, in this Cahalith's voice.

"Yes! Yes! We are the Pack of Sacramento. Clarion's Call. The Call. Necessary Guile is our Totem: a spirit of the streets and the city and silence. We will always welcome new blood, be it intending to stay or simply passing through."

He saluted and guzzled his bottle shamelessly.

"So you go by Tiny? Well then. Guess you are part of the pack now because this Alpha see's you."

[Emily Makerith]

Emily sniggers at Bleeds Well's gruff words. She might be the older, but it certainly didn;t mean she had to be mature all the time.

The Creescent offers a small, sad smile. "Firebringer. Everyone knows that name." Pale eyes blink with surprise. "Uh, hunkered down?" She smiles awkwardly. "More like too stubborn to leave. I guess that is me. I'd love to know who's telling my stories. Far as I knew there was no-one left to tell them."

She snatched the bottle out of the air, and grins to Hector. "More slick than our last few visitors, I'll give him that." The Crescent matches Tiny's toast and drains the bottle in one.

[Bleeds Well]

Scotch for the Suthar Anzuth. It's an interesting choice. The self-proclaimed lawyer might be saying something about his assumption of each of them based on first impressions...

BW doesn't take it personally, but smiles and raises his little body to the small man after Hector's declaration.

"Cheers brother" The gathering is all family know. Alpha declared it, that's all the Rahu needs. A thought crosses his mind and he chokes back emotion.

[Tiny]

Tiny nods at the Alpha, "I knew someone in his team, yeah. Her name was River Angel. She got every rib broken fighting an othersider. She was just a pup then, and apparently so was he. I'll have to tell you the story sometime when we are in a better place.
Speaking of, what are the places I should know? Where's safe, and where is no go? Any other teams to know about? And whats does Guile request of us?" He spits out the safety questions one after the other. it wouldn't be very wise to get walloped by a spirit court or get lost in a shoal in the first week in town.


"Yes. Tiny. Its a play on small words having big impacts, and a short joke all in one." His laugh is small, like him. "thanks for welcoming me in."


He looks at Emily with a smile: "You've got a name for yourself, I've heard it from a couple of otherside folks. There just aren't that many of us for someone to truly be unknown. And its hard to not do something impressive if you want to stay alive. And remember, spirits talk. Hisil, you can't get many of them to ever shut up. There was one hot pink car that would not stop talking for close to an hour singing your praises. <<She can wrench free a rusted screw with only her pinky nail, and her smile can make old headlights as bright as new.>> You have a few admirers. Is it true you held your shop against a magath?"


"Seconds anyone?" He shakes the brown bag, the clinking of several bottles against each other echoing from within.


"So Bleeds Well, Emily's a mechanic, Alpha is a full time job, what do you do?", he looks curious at the quiet wolf.

[Hector]

"I won't say no to another," Hector's malleable face raced through three sets of smiles.

"Tur is safe. Safe as we can make it. So far it has kept the Izidakh is order when they approached us. The heart of our protectorate is the railyards just north of the city heart. That is where the Call first laid a claim and where had our first victory against a Megath. We are pretty safe there, too. But this Tur here is... closer to where the action is. Closer to where we need to be right now."

His face darkened.

"I'd like to say we claim the heart of the city and all the way to the river but we got pressure from Anshega on our flank there. So... Watch yourself around (here*). Oh we will be dealing with them in due course. Pure have a claim north of the river and I want to put this little bridge head down as soon as possible."

"Guile requests that we bring the spirit courts to order and kick out the Anshega. Our totem likes quiet and cunning and stealth. Maybe some trickery. We're... not so good at the quiet part."

He lapsed into silence and let Emily take over as the discussion turned more toward the spirit courts.

*The area / neighbourhood where Bleeds Well found the Ivory Claw's club.

[Emily Makerith]

Emily listens, smiling a little. "Hot pink? I didn't even realise that thing was awake. Must be slipping." She chuckles, a little nervously. "I.... think that might be exaggerated. The Magath never came close - it stuck to the Railyards until Hector and a few others took care of it, and they found me. The Spiders were the worst. Fought those bitches tooth and claw for nearly five years."

And threw myself into Kuruth for a lot of it just to feel. Gods, that wasn;t a good time.

She nods for a second bottle, slipping the old one in a pocket. "Speaking of, avoid the South and South East sides of town - that's Azlu territory, in a bad way. Seven-eight years of overgrowth has them ruling that whole section, and there's only so much we can do with the Pure breathing down our necks." The Crescent starts pulling out a tobacco pounch and begins rolling a cigarette. "Spirits are.... well. There's a bit of turbulence between some nature and object choirs. Me and a few others are looking into it. try and smooth the whole thing over."

[Bleeds Well]

The Rahu takes the offered bottle, it'd be rude not to.

The little man asks a questions of him and he shrugs, unsure the best way to answer. "I hit things with fist and hammer. If you need a spirit spanked or a fetish body forged, I'm your fabricator. I'll also call you on your sins, so mind the laws. Herd lawyers have a reputation for attempting to circumvent them through superior knowledge and pretty words. The Ralunim do not abide such dances with the Oath." His words are stern but without menace.

[Tiny]

Tiny tosses another bottle, Cazadores Tequila to Hector.


"Thanks for the explanation. What was the magath made of? or was it even recognizable at that point? Magath were interesting, most couldn't be reasoned with, but there was the odd tale of the ithaeur or elodoth who managed to talk one down early in the process. They didn't get better, but they didn't become rampaging gluttons.


"Yeash, spirit courts to order and Anshega out and quiet? Thats quite a list." Damn, it must be a jaggling for that much ban.


"I'll bet you actually woke it up. Spirits tend to imprint on their wakers in... somewhat obsessive ways." And there were few ways of impressing a spirit more than illuminating it to sentience. She must be a hell of a mechanic. He tosses her a bottle of 209 Gin, some local brand he hadn't heard of.


"So we have Anshega, Azlu, and courts in disarray. Sounds like another tuesday." While Tiny had never dealt with the spiders before, their ways were well known. Deceive, breed, webs. Webs everywhere.


"Nature and object choirs? I wonder if its Tool spirits. They can be pretty easy to reason with, nature spirits tend to get a little overgrown and demanding if left alone too long. Usually you do favors for both sides and make threats for the recalcitrant side. Which court seems the more pleasant to be around? I'll be happy to help assist with that, let me know when you are going out."


Looking at bleeds well, he sees every businessman who got on the wrong side of a better lawyer,
"I get it. our profession has a reputation. Where the oaths are clear, you will find no better ally than I in enforcing them. Honor demands it. And when oaths are unclear, I will do my best to help make them clear in a fair and just way.


Speaking of, I would love to discuss some of the finer points of the Oath with you. The Wolf Must Hunt is of particular interest to me, especially with its ambiguity." because the definition of hunt is no easy starting place, and that's ignoring the stipulation that its The Wolf and not The People must Hunt, and that's a whole bottle of whiskey's worth of theological arguments. Which meant an opportunity to drink and figure out the Ralunim worshipper. He tosses him a bottle of crown royal, seemingly pulled at random from the bag. There is still some clinking, but certainly less than before.