Discovery

[Viola Jones]

Viola did not like this. At all.

What the fuck did She have planned now that three fucking Cahaliths were necessary?

Uncomfortable, but familiar lines of paranoia begins to climb her spine. Doesn't stop her from smirking at what Iseult says about the others, and snorting at what's said of her eyes. Sounds about right.

"Were not a merry band." can a flat voice spit? Her gaze travels to each of them that had gathered. "Yet." she amends, just because she was cursed didn't mean she wasn't lonely. And Fuck, if She was responsible for all of them here, now. Maybe they could take all the shit that seemed to follow her. Or maybe they couldn't. And they'd become just more she'd end up mourning.

Her lips flatten out once more as Hector tells a tale, "I doubt that's the truth. Knowing my luck, they're here. Covered their scent trails, waiting to murder us." she rolls her shoulders. "No other signs of the People, we get curious, easy enough to imagine a scenario where some fuckin' hole becomes a kill box." the hard lines of her mouth downturn. "We need to find out for sure what the fuck's up. Like you said, Sacramento's a big place."

[Kid]

Nothing like watching another Gibbous Moon pick up the thread. As Iseult supplies each of them with a name, Kid grins his appreciation, nodding along. And when she reveals her allegiances, he gives the Blood Talon a respectful nod. Every pack needs warriors, and Suthar Anzuth revel in that role. Rightly so.

"Well, Iseult," he starts, pausing briefly to pick a piece of loose tobacco off his tongue, "I've never been called a Prince. My Ma used to say I was a son of a bitch. Didn't seem to realize what that made her." A chuckle, wreathed in smoke.

Suddenly, he's serious, his eyes locked with the Blood Talon's: "And I'm not looking for friends. It's Brothers and Sisters I'm after." A pregnant pause as his big blue eyes shift between his new companions. "All I'm saying is: sometimes you don't pick your siblings. Sometimes they pick you." Another puff of smoke, his gaze returning to Iseult: "And sometimes, just sometimes, Something Else entirely makes that choice."

Crouching now to pick up his beer, he gives Hector a wave of his hand at the other Cahalith's statement of debt: "Nothin' owed, friend." Standing again, Kid takes a big sip off his Tall Boy. Listening to what Hector reveals about the city's History, absorbing it. "Well, I'm not sure the slate's been wiped. Maybe, though, we can find some small corner to make our mark." The Cahalith drops his butt and grinds it out with a boot.

"This place is big, that's for sure," talking to Penny now, "But I ain't seen no signs around these parts, have you? And trust me, I've been looking." Then, Viola seconds the Elodoth's point. Their caution is laudable. But too much caution is just as dangerous as a lack of the stuff. Like booze, really.

A nod toward the Rahu, a sign of respect for her position, and understanding: "Listen, I'm not saying we go running off claiming every little thing we see. I'm not saying we assume we're alone." A sip of beer. "What I'm saying is: we're here, together, right now. And whether this city is crawling with Whoever or whether it's a ghost town....Well, We always do better together. Shit, we may not be Merry. But--and I don't know about you--I could sure use a Band."

[Iseult]

Up till now, Iseult had been fronting, and fronting hard. She knew the others knew it, but they were all fronting in their own way. It was a survival mechanism, a mixture of peacocking and boundary pushing, presentation and evaluation, a way to be seen as valuable and see how compatible the others were. And, for Iseult, most of her fronting came down to the evaluation. She'd wanted to see how they'd react to weakness, even if it was only a weak rhyme game, and now she'd seen what she needed to, so she met the Kid's stare with serious eyes when he spoke.

And, when his words ended, Iseult added her own again, though without as much posturing this time.

"We have claws and teeth so that we use them. We hunt. We fight. It's our way. But what happens when you run out of prey? When fallen bodies are all that's left on the other side of the field? The same thing we always do: find new enemies, find new prey. What was once Pure became prey. It's no mystery."

Iseult paused a beat (a...Caesar-us?), letting her words sink in before she continued.

"But, that's more reason to make a band. Worst to worst, some of us part ways. Best? We avoid becoming prey. And we're the People. Fenris to vouch for me, yours to vouch for you. So I say we do it. Maybe find some place better to talk and share a meal, learn more about our new Brothers and Sisters, and lose our the dust from the road."

[Hector]

Hector lay on the grass, beer and cigarette in his hand. His eyes were still wide as the flowed around the group, following the flow of talk. Not chatter. The People rarely chattered.

"The wolf must hunt," he said to underline Iseult's point. Afterward he let his eyes roam around the park, looking for potential eavesdroppers. Satisfied he settled back down.

"I don't mind running with you for a while. I have been... alone... for too long. I need lessons in... companionship. Yeah. That works. Look - how about we hang out for a while, at least until we know whats what around here. The city is a big place, right? Five pairs of eyes is better than one. And once we know... well... thats up to you."

Adaption - Cunning - was working with what you had.

Red Wolf's child flicked the Blood Talon a quick look, framed in a more self aware face than he normally wore. "We can speak here. I doubt any of them have noticed much. But I get your concern. What kind of place were you look for? If you want privacy there is a block of houses downtown near the stadium; they're ruins about to be demolished but if you want privacy, I doubt anyone will disturb us there. Or maybe a spot under the overpass that cuts through the city south of here. I doubt they'd see us at night - and I'm sure we could sense anyone getting too close... Out there at night, they'd only have one reason to disturb us (and we know what we'd do there!) Unless they is People."

His eyes drifted over to Penny, curious to see how she would take his opinions.

[Viola Jones]

Kid keeps drawling, in that easy way that carried words. Speaking to the earthy brunette but it's Viola frowns. That's what I'm afraid of. Memories flash, and there's always blood, flesh and bodies. Friends and Family, both.

Viola snapped back to now, because loosing focus was a quick way to get dead. Becoming just another body for someone else to remember. Which came with another depressing thought. This chance meeting, these four 'wolves....they would be the only ones left who'd remember her. Which was shit. They wouldn't remember her, because she wasn't anything to any of 'em yet.

Fuck. Shit. Forcing her mind away from this depressing shit, she realizes that the shit rap stops, but the rhythm still flows. Iseult's voice made to keep it, and Viola wondered why the fuck she even tried to rap if speaking normally gave a better flow.

Viola follows Hector's sweep with one of her one.

"Urum Da Taku." flat voice, solemn tone. Not standing straighter, because she always stood to her full five two, but with more pride.

She takes a second swig, and considers setting down her bag.

"And it's easier to hunt together then alone." the Rahu cuts the Cahaliths' lengthy speech into a sentence. It was a gift.

"Fine. Whatever. Talking. Now, and again. And shit. More then that even. S'what makes bounds. Or at least the beginnings of 'em." the 'corpse smile eyes' turn to Kid and Iseult. The Hunt, battle. That's where bonds are tested and strengthened. That's when you find out what you're and they're made of. "And, I want to find out why there's no sign of anything-one here. That's fucking weird." A nod, and an internal fuck it. She drops the bag from her shoulder.

Her flat stare, turns to the Elodoth as she speaks, "Revolution? Isn't there supposed to be an opposition, so we can revolt?" she picks at a tooth with her tongue, thinking and trying to get a bit of lunch out of there. "Which brings us back to no one being here. Or nothing obviously seen, or scented. Which is not making me happy." as if that wasn't already obvious.

[Kid]

"Urum da Taku." Kid whispers it almost at the same time as Viola. Which is no surprise really. For their type, it's a prayer, a credo, a mission.

Voice still low: "And I get you, Iseult. Prey changes. The Hunt itself, well that's forever." You could say it stops when the Wolf stops. But there will always be more Wolves. And the Hunt is bigger than any individual among the People. It is the People themselves. It spans and animates the People.

And what is the basic unit of the People, what is the means by which they carry the Hunt onward in time? Well, the Pack of course. And things are looking up in that category, from Kid's estimation anyhow.

Kid looks around at their position, set off from the road to the docks, hard against the river, in a corner of the park little used. He likes it here, Meninna habits already making him feel somehow tied to this corner of the park. But he understands Iseult's need for privacy. "Well, I'm not too familiar with the local bolt holes. Not yet anyway." A nod toward Hector, "But if we want to get out of the sun and talk things over some more, sounds like Hector's Stadium Bungalows may be the ticket." A shrug. Kid'll let them decide. He can talk anywhere. Which should be obvious.

Penny's half-moon words elicit a string of nods from Kid. She's talking sense, and he's listening. "That's right, that's right," he adds. "Though I'm not sure I believe in chance." A wink. "But it don't make too much of a difference far as the situation is concerned, what I believe."

Turning to Viola now, as she questions Penny's statements: "Well, maybe not the first. But sure as hell the Only. From what we've all seen. Not a revolution then, you're right. More of a scouting party, or an advance settlement. Frontier shit, right?" He pauses, measuring the Rahu with his honest and open stare. "And frontier folk gotta stick together. Especially when there's no sign of previous settlers."

Those blues now travel from Viola around the circle of his new acquaintances. "So, we're all agreed then, yeah? We stick together. Learn this ground. Protect it. Keep it clean. And in the process, we find out what, if anything, happened to the People--and the Others--who were here before us." As he says all this, Kid rolls another cigarette. When he places it between his lips, it's comically crooked. He lights it.

"Sounds like a damn fine arrangement to me," he finishes in a puff of smoke, grinning ear to ear.

[Iseult]

"Doesn't make sense to wonder all about what happened here without wondering about what happened to bring each of us here," the Blood Talon imparted, shrugging off her jacket and tossing it towards the base of a tree that stood not far away from where the Uratha had chosen to gather.

"And, we're here now," she pointed out, taking a seat next to where Hector lay sprawled in the grass. "Might as well share more words while we're at it. So, s'pose I'll go. I came from a pack out East. Mostly Anzuth, like me. Thing is, when another pack decided they liked our piece of turf, we didn't know what we needed to keep it. Had no Shadows. No ritemaster. All our problems looked the same, but the other pack was older, smarter, and saw things differently. We got driven out and those of us still walking decided to go our separate ways. Don't know where the others went, but I think you can guess where I decided to point my feet. That's why I talked about Prey changing. I've seen it happen."

She shrugged then, to sign that her story was over for now.

[Hector]

The crazy cahalith's attention had started to wander. His eyes grew dull. He found that tree rather interesting. After all, the meeting seemed to be going ahead quite nice without him. Now they were accepting the idea of being a pack, simply because they were the People at hand.

And there was a mystery. He loved the idea of a mystery.

Still... That damn tree...

His mouth makes a noise as his attention snaps back to the group.

"I haven't really had a pack. I moved through several but never been, like, party to their rits and stuff. Yeah - I was there for study. I learned some of the Lore from the... I studied the oral traditions of our People from some of the old guys and girls. You know. The one's with the brands to prove it. So. Yeah. Then they sent me out to find a legend of my own."

He shrugged stuffed the cigarette back in his mouth.