Announcement

**Retias** · 04-03-2015, 04:49 AM

Akule settled in his quiet, cramped apartment, running a hand through his messy hair with a sigh. A few hand crafted items were set around the room, including a traditional set of clothing for celebrations and the like. But it had been a while since he'd been involved in any of that.

Turning his mind away from the morbid thoughts, he headed into the kitchen, starting to throw a small meal together. Akule had come into this self imposed exile a time ago, despite his family's best efforts. He dealt with other werewolves from time to time, but he still struggled to accept that part of himself. Despite that, the lonelesiness of having no true, no bond.."

He sighed and bit into the mostly raw steak. "Things might change, but he wasn't sure it was safe for tem to do son.

And that was then.

**Amravanti** · 04-04-2015, 05:16 AM

-Months Prior-

Indiana woke inside a small bedroom with bare white walls and cheap carpet. Her bedroom. She stretched her long wolf legs and took a minute to orient herself. Even though she had been renting a room in this family's house for almost a year now, it still didn't feel like home. It probably never would. Indiana looked around. The room would be entirely empty if the floor weren't strewn with various articles of clothing, empty food wrappers and other assorted knick knacks.

While they may seem meaningless, those knick knacks were her trophies, items she had pinched from her conquests - This is how she referred to the criminal element of Victory City. Those that she had disciplined or otherwise terrified, they were her conquests. Those that she had yet to punish, well she just called them lucky. The trophies were proof of her progress. Or lack thereof. Lately the spectre of hopelessness had begun to creep into Indiana's thoughts, and already today they threatened to overwhelm her. Indy knew there were bigger problems than the mugger she stopped on the East Side last night. But what could one wolf do against the tide of troubles that plagued the neighbourhood?

Indiana reluctantly forced the Change - her skin stretched and tightened, the dark fur on her long limbs slowly shrinked and vanished, leaving just her olive brown skin. Immediately she felt her senses dull, she felt her awkward limbs move clumsily to keep up with her intentions. She picked a few items of clothing at random from the pile on the floor and she got dressed. She couldn't skip work again today. Not if she wanted to live on more than the neighbour's pet cats. But tonight she would hunt again with the Moon at her back.

She unlocked her door. Even with her hearing as it was now, she could tell there was no one home. The parents were at work, and their children were at school. Good. She had managed to go a few months without having to make small talk. A few weeks without even seeing them at all. It was lonely, but this was how she liked it. These people were not her family.

She thought back to what the Root Walkers¹ had said to her when they paid her a visit a few months back. "A Wolf without a Pack is merely the shadow of a Wolf." She knew they were right. Every fibre of her being told her as much. More than anything she yearned to hunt one day with not just the Moon at her back, but a Pack at her side.

¹Root Walkers - A pack of Hunters in Darkness whose territory is the entire city's sewers. Helped Indiana after her first change and through her tribal initiation.

**Barbrarilen** · 04-04-2015, 09:50 AM

-Two Weeks Ago-

A whole lot of things in the world were amazing. The heavens. Technology. Good food. A baby's laughter. Cities. Cities were full of all the other things - and even more things besides them - so really, cities were a good place, maybe the best place, to look for amazing things. That's why Aliza loved her home.

Even people who lived in cities seemed to forget just how amazing they really were. They knew the patterns of their own lives - the obvious ones they acted in, at least - but the complexity of a city laid atop of something as small and insignificant as how a person went about their day? It turned rats-in-a-maze into a fascinating ballet.

Cities were patchwork quilts of superstition and habit and territorial pride which went far deeper than any cosmopolitan aspirations. You could hear the capital letters and oftentimes the fear and alienation when locals spoke of Little Italys and Chinatowns and The Projects and The Docks - each one as clear a division as a bridge over a river. People would walk a half-dozen blocks too far just to stay within their own circles. They would ignore the parish an eight minute drive away, with all its money and people, and keep shuffling into the poor, old, decrepit church they were raised in - griping the whole time, but not thinking to drive eight minutes east instead of six south. Streets and avenues with names like 'Barrier', 'Wall', 'Crossing' and 'Far' weren't just holdovers from history or random choices by the zoning board - they were vigils kept and oaths followed by ignorant masses of soldiers retaining traditions for generations.

It was an amazing thing. Aliza still liked to follow the borders, trace her way along the stitching, the weak places and no-man lands between one area and another. There was such frustration, such confusion, such heartbreak when misunderstandings and viiolence broke out - when people were so caught up in what they were doing that they forgot to respect the lay of the land. Awareness was key... but that was all something for the Mennina to teach.

A thought had been filling Aliza's thoughts for days now. She slept and it came to her, she woke and it faded, she made a cup of coffee and lost herself in the ripples on the surface as she added her sugar, seeing words and ideas form and vanish too fast to appreciate. It was all coming to the same conclusion however: there were places, there was territory, in this city - areas unclaimed that needed shepherds. Much the way Aliza herself, restless, undirected, needed the same.

That's why she was walking the edges and the borders. She was looking for others - other People - that didn't fit in a space, that were giving each territory their room and limping around the corners and edges because they had no where else to go. The feeling she was lacking, the thing she was missing, was a home. Was territory. That was something else the Mennina could tell her all about. She didn't need the details, though - she just needed to get this story started.

**soonmot** · 04-04-2015, 12:28 PM

Violet - One week ago
With the vampire only seconds behind her, Violet leapt from the rooftop without slowing, her body transforming in mid flight from lithe brown and gray wolf into a well muscled, thick limbed woman with a jutting jaw stretched into an ecstatic grin. Her strong fingers grasped at fire escape, dislocating her shoulder but slowing her fall just enough that only one leg ended up broken as she crashed into the darkened alleyway.

She lay there panting as the vampire, himself transforming from a wolf into a man, carefully climbed down the fire escape attached to the building Violet had just jumped from.

“You are fucking crazy, V,” he said looking up to the roof of the six floor building.

Violet only shrugged, her shoulder twisting and warping before with an audible “SNAP” resocketed itself.

“What can I say, Devon, when you're an unkillable monster, you take risks,” she began to laugh only to be cut short with a hiss of pain as the bones of her leg began the slow process of healing.

Panting slightly, the musclebound woman again transformed, this time into skinny young woman with nondescript brown hair, “It really fucking hurts though. You know, you almost had me, I can't believe you didn't know about the shortcut through the internet cafe on 6^th!”

“Oh, I knew about it,” Devon countered, incredulous, “I just didn't think having two goddamn wolves bust through their front door and out the back was a good idea. Damn, don't you people have rules?”

Violet shrugged, “I don't really know. The guy who found and trained me sort of pushed me out on my own. I'm supposed to look up some librarian, form a pack. It's all very... wolfy. You know? I met her and she seems nice enough, but.... Fuck.”

Devon watched her, his dark eyes intent, “Listen, I'm saying this as a friend. My clan, we're really the only vampires that deal with werewolves on anything that approaches a regular basis. I hear a lot of shit, I don't know what's real and what's lies and what's just wishful thinking. One thing that I always hear, though? A lone wolf is a target.”

He lets the words hang in the air before continuing, “I like this little thing we have going. Really wish I met you when I was alive, but whatever. Thing is, I don't go telling other licks that I have a werewolf pal because if it ever got out that there was a young, solo lupine running around here, some elder would scoop you up so fast.”

“This shit is scary, D,” Violet muttered.

“Hey, I fucking died and came back and now I need to drink human blood just to exist, I know scary. Some of the shit I hear guys get up to after a couple decades? What I do know is that young vamps like me gotta have a pack of our own. People who have each others back. You're telling me you feel this pull in your blood. You gotta answer the call, V. You gotta.”

Her eyes fixed on the toes of her shoes, Violet flexed her leg, it was almost fully healed, another minute or so and she'd be able to walk. “Yeah. I guess you're right. Wolfs gotta wolf. I better take up Aliza on her offer.

“You're okay for a bloodsucking abomination, you know that D?”

“Fuck yeah, I know it. You're not so bad for giant slab of fur, claws, and murder.”

“Thanks, man. Same time next week,” Violet asked, rising to her feet.

“You know it. I'm gonna win next time too,” Devon grinned before walking towards the lonely street.

Violet knew what she had to do.

**Okami** · 04-06-2015, 12:46 PM

Joseph- One Day Ago

He looked down again at the scrap of paper in his hand, the address and description written in his former teacher's clean flowing script.

"Victory City is a dangerous place, split between us and Pure living on an ice sheet they call a truce. No more than a breath and it will shatter. The only thing keeping them from each other is the Beshilu. Still, you need a pack, and this isn't the place for you. Go there and you'll find one. Hm? I seem sure? Is that so?"

Now here he stood, watching the spirits of this old diner lazily mill around the clear glass front, feeding on the essence of lethargy, gluttony, satisfaction, calm, comfort and so much more made by these places. He had been briefly communicating with the werewolf organizing them, Aliza, for some time, but this would be the first time he met them all in person. He crossed the street exactly when the sign told him to go, keeping in the middle of the crosswalk, before finally making his way upon hitting the sidewalk and buying a newspaper. He barely read them, keeping mostly to any puzzles or perhaps a major event, but the habits of working adults always created such bans in these places, and the spirits were to be respected. He tucked the thick bundle of newsprint under his arm and headed inside.

**Dusksage** · 04-11-2015, 02:03 AM

(Prologue - The Room With No Windows)

Joshua - Tonight

The moon was shrouded by a thick layer of clouds tonight. Joshua C. Remus was glad for that as he lay in bed with the covers pulled up to his chin. He will be thirteen years old in another two weeks and had recently became very self consious of how other perceived him, but tonight was different. Tonight was the night of the full moon, and tonight he would rather feel safe than appear brave.

Joshua was a part of the wealthiest family in town, and as such he lived with them in Lakehights Tower. The skyscraper was the tallest building in all of Victory City, and stood as a monument to his family's contributions to the city as well as to the great bird that nested at it's top. The bird protected his family and their buisness and in exchange they built monuments of glass and steel to honor the great bird. All was well for a time, and he and his older sister Serra lived a very happy life roaming around the building's many floors. Always a new sight to see, always a new shortcut to discover, soon there was no room in the entire residential section of the building they had not entered or discovered the purpose of...except one. There was a large room with no windows at the heart of the upper residential section of the building, but below the nest of the great bird. It was too large to be a broom closet and too rarely used to be a kitchen or recreation center. For years he and his sister wondered what lay beyond it's sealed door, that is until the night of the full moon, the night when his sister Changed.

Two years ago Joshua awoke to find his sister in pain and holding her head like it was about to explode, she tried to calm his fears and lie that everything was going to be alright even through tear filled eyes. And then the clouds parted, and the full moon shone down upon his sister.

Suddenly the clouds look like they're about to break, and Joshua quickly pulls the covers over his head to hide from the sight of the pale beast in the sky. He shivers and tried not to cy.

In what could have been an instant or an eternity his sister erupted into a thing of nightmares, a wolf-beast with silver markings burned across her twisted body, and looked at her brother with the eyes of a predator who's just caught the scent of their prey. Joshua ran, and if not for the timely rescue of his father and cousin then he would have died that night. More than anything though he remembers the pain of his sister's face when she returns to who she was, the anguish that realization brought and what this would mean from then on out.

Joshua hated the full moon.

They took his sister to the room without windows three days after her Change. Their cousin came to collect her, dressed in a white robe that covered up all but her beautiful face and blond locks, and bore the look of one who knew that what would come next would be excruciating. She stayed in the room for one full week, and even one floor below Joshua could still here the screams and howl that would come from that room. After the week his sister was like his father and cousin, a purified being, and she left with them to live with the great bird at the top of the tower. Even as she said goodbye he knew that the sister he knew was no more, and that now there was more wolf left than the person. They still shed tears though, for she knew as much was true as well and did not ever want to endanger her brother again.

Joshua hated his family for taking his sister to the room with no windows and making her pure.

Exauhstion began to finally set in. Joshua had to sleep...

A nightmare awaits him in the fitless realms of sleep. He saw a great battle between his family and another pack of wolves. The great bird swooped down upon their enemies but an elephant of fire and engine oil gored it with it's burning tusks. He saw his father signal the retreat, and the shame of his face. He saw his sister get pinned down and his cousin try and free her only to feel the fire of the elephant of flame herself and be thrown through the window of a nearby building. The leader of the enemies walks over to his sister's prone form. His claws are stained red with blood. He still bears the moon brand upon his flesh, his sister does not. The man is going in for the kill, even though he know it's against his way. He hates his sister like Joshua hates the moon.

It's to much for Joshua to bear, and then...a church bell sounds. Somewhere in Victory City a bell tolls, and the rats who lurk beneath the city chew through the membrane that seperates dream from reality. A nightmare seeps across the battlefield, and Joshua is there. An understanding like no other come to the young man's slumbering mind, even though the morning light will banish it like any other dream. If he must Change, then let it be by his command. And he does, but not into a wolf.

He Changes into the nightmare.

And bites the man with the bloodstained claws in half.

No man, wolf, or spirit will hurt his sister ever again. And the church bells call to him to sieze his destiny.

Joshua is no longer afraid.

**Dusksage** · 04-11-2015, 02:14 AM

Book 1 - The Perfect Prey

(Chapter 01 - A Sudden Start)

- Downtime -

A message is sent to the newly formed Pack. You haven't known eachother for that long, but you have known eachother long enough to trust that sticking together will be far safer than staying alone. Especially after you recieve this dire news: Malcome Vance, Alpha of the mixed Pack Behemoth's Wake, has vanished along with a Pure intruder in Behemoth Territory. Malcome's Pack mates reported that they sniffed out an Ivory Claw operation to bring Wolf-Blooded into the city and into their territory, when the Pack interviend a fight broke out. The Behemoth's totem wounded the Pure Pack's totem and managed to capture one of the intruders when a thick black fog began to issue from the sewers. A terrible cry was hear and after several minutes of confusion the fog cleared and both Malcome and the intruder were gone.

- Begin Player Actions -

**Barbrarilen** · 04-11-2015, 04:34 PM

A nod was all Aliza needed to pay the man at the desk as she exited the library. No tips, no nine-dollar coffees or two-dollar burgers at the Victory City Public - just a shy-looking man with an oddly-long neck and a harelip, wearing a sweater vest and organizing a cart of paperbacks for reshelving.

Aliza liked the smell of the library - dusty but clean, fresh but old - quiet but full of people - careful organization gave all the little contrary matters a way to coexist.

She had gotten up from the squashy couch in the lounge/reading area because she'd seen one of her new pack approaching the library through the window. While they were still without territory it made sense to stick to public places - and this one wasn't far from Behemoth lands.

She strode down the stone steps, looking graceful and relaxed despite the power and predatory mein her kind exuded at all times. It wasn't just one of them, she realized. They were punctual - scents on the wind, getting closer. She turned and headed along the sidewalk to meet them.

**Okami** · 04-11-2015, 11:35 PM

The spirits of silence wrapped around the library like wisps of fog, fading in and out of sight. Combined with the various spirits of knowledge and calm that could exist in such places Joseph knew full well just how valuable of resources they could be and was glad that wasn't lost on their Cahalith. He hoped, given their proximity to the Behemoth's, no one would get caught up on the topic of recent events. Whatever spirit had disrupted the fight between their neighbors and Pure was dangerous certainly, he would have to contact their Ithaeur about the thing, but for now they needed to focus on claiming a territory, and a totem. The lack of both meant that they were a pack only in name.

Their footsteps slowed and grew quiet, perhaps more than normal, as they got closer to Aliza. His head tilted down in greeting despite his eyes lingering on the stone building just to their side.

**soonmot** · 04-12-2015, 09:42 AM

A courier lived and died by the clock and, Violet, being exceptionally proud and uncharacteristically competitive about her delivery times, put immense stock in being on time. Cruising through the crowded streets, Vi took a corner wide, weaving between two slow moving cars. The library in sight, her ego took a bruising when it turned out that Joseph was already there, walking towards Aliza.

Cutting off an oncoming hatchback, Vi screeched to a halt next to the curb, wisps of coffee brown hair poking from the back of her helmet. Hardly breathing any faster than normal, she dismounts and pulls the bike onto the sidewalk, then unsnaps her helmet.

"You have a plan yet, boss," she asks Aliza?

**Amravanti** · 04-12-2015, 09:08 PM

Indiana was leaned against the wall of the apartment across the street from the library, her light blue hoodie hanging loose around her frame. She brushed the tangle of hair from her face as she waited for the rest of the pack to arrive. She had arrived about a half hour early, using the time to scout the area before the pack gathered. The library was a curious place to meet, and definitely would not have been her first choice. She would have chosen a quieter place. for starters. She had been assessing it from across the street when Aliza came striding down the steps, brimming with purpose. There wasn't much Indiana could do to secure their meeting place, she finally admitted to herself. The area was exposed - it was a fact. The stone steps of the library was light on foot traffic, but the street below was another story. Still, the sound of engines whizzing by would mask the sound of conversation, and a group gathering in front of a library would attract very little attention. It made some sense.

As she was revising her opinion about the choice of location, Joseph caught her attention. He had just turned the corner and was walking toward Aliza, though the distant look in his eyes told her he had his sight in the world of spirits as much as the world of stone and concrete. Indiana moved to cross the street, waiting for a gap in the oncoming traffic. She waved to catch Aliza's attention, but Violet had just sped on to the scene and all eyes were on her. Indiana shoved her hands back into her pockets and crossed. As she pulled behind Joseph and Vi, she realized neither of them had noticed her yet. Aliza however, had met her eyes. Indiana managed another wave, and this time it was returned. She didn't know what else to say, so she smiled and waited. This place wasn't too bad. Still, they were definitely exposed...

**Retias** · 04-13-2015, 06:02 AM

Akule arrives himself, having taken his own chance to check out the area for potential threats. Like Indy though, he'd found that the number of humans nearby caused significant issues there and he decided he liked none of it. The pack received a nod and a slightly gruff grunt in greeting, that seeming to exhaust his current desire for conversation. He did, however, pretty much thrust a paper bag into Indy's chest, the contents giving off the smell of freshly cooked meat, just this side of rare. There was enough for the pack as a whole, but it was Indiana who received the delivery. "It's a fucking mess." He eyes Aliza. "Sewers, teeming with Beshilu and who knows what else? We can go down there and mess around with everyone else, or we can try sorting things properly. What do you think is best?" He reaches up, absently collecting his messy hair into a braid that he ties off to keep it out of his eyes. Currently, the young Rahu has donned sturdy clothes, not enough to stop a knife thrust, but maybe to lessen the impact of a sideways swipe.

**Barbrarilen** · 04-13-2015, 06:47 AM

As her fellow pups approached, the young woman only had eyes for Indiana. Joseph's head-bow was all well and good - a bit formal and a bit odd if they *had* drawn attention, but her mother always taught her to show proper courtesy to others, so she took it in good grace -- but departing from that, Aliza's eyes remained locked on Indiana with interest.

She didn't approve. It was in her nature, maybe? There was no reason to hide - this was broad daylight and they were on a diplomatic mission - skulking would not help them with the People and the Herd would accept their place: no good epic would begin with them all huddled in an alley, least of all their origin story.

"They are a bigger problem than we are equipped to deal with." Aliza replied to Akule, voice smooth and neat as a matron's at tea time. Not that she had ever had a tea time. When she was little, Lizzy had been more one for 'teacher' than 'princess' for some reason. "For now."

Her dreams had not been calm since the Change, true, but her most recent ones had been foul and portentous. No sooner had Akule spoken of the rat-host than her dream's chittering slid to the forefront of her mind, and with that her hackles rose and nostrils flared. Maybe that was the meat. Speaking of.

"We will talk as we walk. Leave your meal for now. We might need to use it.". A hungry dog thrown a bone was plenty more likely to let you pass, and there was a question of how well the Behemoth were tending to themselves after what had happened to Malcome.

With all assembled, Aliza led their way towards Behemoth territory.

The young woman looked back over at Violet once they had gone a block in silence. Rats. How bad could they be, to even infect the Moon's blessed dreams? "We go visit the Behemoth. We want to make friends while they all think we are too young to be a threat. First impressions, y'know? Anyone has a better idea on the way, then let's hear it."

The light changed. Aliza led on.

**soonmot** · 04-13-2015, 01:04 PM

Walking her bike to the rear of the pack, Violet shrugs.

"Good as anything else, I can ride ahead, announce us?"

Dusk: My contacts (werewolves) give Violet any idea on where the Behemoth pack like to hang out?

Announcement

IC The Wolves of Victory: Dusksage's PbP Werewolf the Forsaken 2E Chronicle

IC The Wolves of Victory: Dusksage's PbP Werewolf the Forsaken 2E Chronicle

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