The pack, the shadow, the city

[ParanoidAndroid]

((Continuation from the Sworns' latest Den thread - the intervening hour will likely be used for mood posts and/or chat scenes))

Gwen sits on the floor, her right eye twitching as it concentrates on the physical world. She holds up two fingers to get Vincent's attention and interrupt whatever lovely humor he was about to spout. "Get ready, here they come."

Before she can get up, though, Mateo starts to fade in, slowly, and Cory appears straight out of nowhere. Gwen, despite herself, sighs in relief. No more waiting.

[roadnottaken]

Narration:

The Shadow Realm is much like the material world, only everything seems smaller, deflated. Looking around, you can see several motes drifting about, but nothing larger. Even more discomfitting is the silence. Nothing moves, nothing whispers.

Moon is Crescant.

[Writer]

Cory looks around, feeling the resonance of the locus echoing in the back of his mind. He isn’t sure which is more disturbing, the resonance of the Locus or the silence of the Shadow.

“Did I miss anything?”

[Mateo Benavides]

"Well, that sucked, you know me with the whole impatience thing..." Mateo says with a smile. "Just a warning, the basement is probably gonna smell like cigarettes for a couple days."

"Okay, everyone ready? Lets do this, Cory, your on point, Gwen your taking the tail, I'll stick in the middle with Vincent."

Mateo growls a little, shifting to the near-wolf form. The massive wolf before them's fur had dark grey fur mimicking his tattoos down its left side, and his "skunk-stripe" stood in bright contrast to his dark black fur.

[ParanoidAndroid]

"Everything's good. Just so we're clear, we talk before we kill. There's already nothing in these parts, let's not make it less than nothing. Vincent, stay real close."

With all of that said, she drops down to four legs, and shifts to Uhran, becoming slightly smaller than Mateo's four-legged form in the process. She sniffs a few times, getting used to the scent of not-much around her.

It's amazing, she reflects, just how confusing it is to have expanded senses, and yet smell nothing more than the packmates around her.

[Vincent Bailey]

As Gwen and the others appear across with him, Vincent is strangely silent as if taking in the weirdness of this place. He has so many questions but feels that now maybe isn't the best time to indulge in mindless prattle. Besides, the cross over seemed to shake Vinny's nerves a bit as if a spider was slowly crawling up his leg, one hairy step at a time, sidling ever closer to his face. Vincent started to sweat at the very thought. He done what he was told and stuck close to Mateo. He even changed into urshul for the hell of it.

urshul form

1 Essence to shift

[Writer]

Cory heads upstairs and outside, using his Hishu thumbs to handle the doors. He leaves the doors open for his pack, but once outside, he shifts to Urhan form. His wolf form is more lanky than burly. His fur is generally brown fading to a dull grey on his belly. Black patches mark his sides.

While he waits for pack to file out of the house, he sniffs, searching for anything, garbage, food, dirty dishes, that might attract a cockroach. The absence of background scents makes his nose feel 'blind', almost numb.

[Mateo Benavides]

Mateo marches out of the house slowly, keeping a decent pace so Vincent knows to follow, once outside, he sniffs around, trying to sniff out anything possibly related to decay, or something similar that a roach might make home. He waits for Gwen, and Vincent to make their way outside.

[ParanoidAndroid]

Gwen waits for the others to exit, and then makes her way outside, already taking the tail position. Once she's outside, she kicks the door closed behind her and sticks her nose up in the air, to try and catch a scent. Any scent really. She wolf-speaks some basic info to the rest, as best she can. "Up to two streets down that way," she nods with her head, "I've already covered. Start elsewhere."

[Writer]

Cory glances at Gwen, acknowledging her information with a nod.

"Garbage," he barks. "Hospital food."

The medical refuse should be separate from the regular garbage, and no one really finishes a hospital meal. Well, I would, but most sick people don't.

Cory remembers when his grandmother was in the hospital. She let him eat from her tray. She said it tasted worse going in than coming out. Cory had just shrugged and slurped down the jell-o before taking the chicken leg.

He trots off at a steady pace towards the nearest hospital.