Hobo Pow Wow

[Degnar]

Smudge , Forn Clakes

Degnar slithered his way through the lonely streets of Sacramento. Things were much more quiet at night, and he liked it that way. There was also his aversion to daylight; one of those things he had picked up during his time in Arcadia. The shoeless Darkling continued to walk for about twenty minutes or so, until he finally reached the spot Smudge had told him about.

"Hello?" he called out softly. Degnar was still not too sure about this whole "making friends" thing, but the Ogre didn't make him feel as uncomfortable as others did.

Maybe this was a bad idea...

[Smudge]

As Degnar reached the place, there was a burning metal wastebin with Smudge standing over it, holding a stick over the flames, watching them carefully. Next to his feet lay the guitar case, open. At the sound of Degnar's voice, he looked round and took a deep sniff that wasn't at all creepy.

"Hey, Deg, glad ya came. Fancy a rat? I've got marshmellows if not."

[Degnar]

The Darkling began to smile, but then forced himself to stop as he rememberd what the Ogre had said to him during the Winter Coronation. "Hey Smudge," he said as he gave him a nod. "A rat sounds great actually, marshmellows are a little too soft for my liking..."

The Tunnelgrub slithered a few steps closer to the fire. "Nice place you've got here."

[Smudge]

Smudge looked around at the outside of the abandoned warehouse, pointing up at one of the boarded up windows with the skinned carcass of a rather large rat.

"Thanks. I had to do a few modifications, set up some boundary issues, piss along the borders, that kinda thing." Smudge looked at the rat and extinguished the burning tail with a pinch of his free hand before passing the stick over towards Degnar. He then poured out two beakers of whiskey from a bottle in the guitar case, a case that also had a fire axe laying within it. "Drink?"

[Degnar]

Degnar nodded as he accepted the rat on a stick. "Thank you," he said and then began to chew on the cooked rodent. In between bites, the Darkling spoke up again. "That's why I live underground, less assholes to deal with," he said and then took another bite; the sounds of tiny little bones being crushed by his pointy teeth could be heard in the quiet night.

"It's mostly just me and the rats down there, which is great because it makes it easy to find food." Degnar took a couple more bites, finishing up the tasty treat. He belched loudly and then smiled, tiny pieces of rat meat still stuck in his teeth. "Sure, thanks again Smudge," he said as he accepted the drink being offered to him.

[Smudge]

Smudge passed the drink before taking a swig of his own, savouring the taste. Listening to Degnar crunch the bones, he had to smirk as he bit into the meat of his own well-cooked rat.

"Yeah, I can appreciate that but I like the outdoor life personally. All the smells, all the people. Sometimes, there's nothing better than just fucking the world over 'cos let's be honest, no-one likes us. That's why I try to protect people like us, the disenfranchised." For a moment, it seemed his only eye flared in his zeal but then it was gone, just like that. "How's the rat?"

[Degnar]

Degnar took a swig of his drink, taking a moment to enjoy the bitter taste of the whiskey. It had been quite sometime since he had tasted something like it.

"I guess you got a point there," he said in response to the Ogre's words. "I'm just not a big people person I guess...I deal a lot better with rats actually, I even learned to talk to them and all." He shrugged and then picked some of the meat off his teeth with one finger, looked at it and then put it back in his mouth.

"The rat's fairly good actually," he said with a slight grin. "I had forgotten how good a well-cooked rat tasted; I guess I've gotten used to eating them raw."

[Smudge]

"Impressive, I bet that can come in handy. Do rats understand you though? Can't imagine they're big conversationalists."

He took another swig, sighing happily. He then picked up another dead rat, already skinned, from a box next to the burning bin and skewered it on a stick.

"Raw rat?" Smudge replied, his eyebrow raising as he grinned. "Are you some kind of freak?"

[Degnar]

Degnar shrugged. "They were the only ones around to talk to when I first got out," he said as he took another sip of whiskey. "They don't understand very complex concepts, but they can be useful sometimes..."

The Darkling couldn't help but chuckle a bit at Smudge's last words. "Aren't we all?"

[Smudge]

Smudge moved over to Degnar and banged the side of his beaker onto the Darklings, laughing so hard, his lungs wheezed, forcing him to cough up a wad of acid spit.

"That we are, Deg, my ol' chum, that we are." He knelt by his guitar case and took out the bottle once more, filling his own beaker before re-filling Degnar's. "You taken the Oath yet then? I never got a chance to at the pow-wow-do-dah-thing."