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

[Okami]

Joseph waited for some time after they left the library before speaking. They were all defaulting to Aliza, and it was clear to anyone she was functioning as the pack alpha. The question remained though, as to whether or not she was up to the task. If not, they needed to find out, and soon. At first he held his silence in difference to the spirits of silence. Then they were out of range and she told them they were heading to Behemoth territory. He guessed right then, to her the first task was turning others before taking care of themselves. There was wisdom in what Aliza proposed, ignoring each other in this city was something the packs of Victory City could not afford. Still, it was so like a Cahalith to want to hurry and get the story started. A slight smile found itself on his face, vanishing before he finally spoke up.

"Is this the first move we should be making? We have no territory, no spirit pack member, we are wolves in name only and as of yet have done nothing. The Behemoth's have lost their alpha to an opponent I am inclined to think they do not understand, nor do we."

He stopped to make the point.

"If I were them, whatever words we have to offer would be a waste of time. They need to acknowledge us as Pack first before they treat us that way, we go now and they will only find us an unwanted distraction. I know I would. Our first goals need to be to find our territory, get our totem, hunt. We do that and the Behemoths will understand they are hearing another pack. Not a group of pups not even acting on their own."

It was an oddly long speech for him, but he kept his eyes on Aliza. The question now was how would she respond?

[Amravanti]

Indiana sniffed the bag and frowned at the prospect of giving away her breakfast. It seemed a poor way to start the day, feeding strangers while the pack went hungry. What a waste it would be to give away all this meat, fresh from the butcher, for a gesture that could prove unnecessary. "How about we just buy them coffee instead?" She offered, but Joseph had already started speaking. As usual, her timing was off and she couldn't be sure anyone had heard her.

They had stopped. It seemed there was some disagreement about whether the pack's first course of action was indeed the best one. Indiana listened intently as Joseph made his case. She agreed with Joseph points, though not quite his reasoning. He was right that the pack needed to mark their formation with the binding of a spirit first hunt. She mulled the points over and over in her head.

"But we are not a pack in name only. Nor were we ever. We were a pack when we said the words to each other, and those words are binding. To me at least. No spirit can change that." she said, absent mindedly.

"It is traditional for a pack's first hunt to involve binding a totem spirit to the pack." Or so she'd been taught. "It is a celebration of all parts of the soul of The People: The Hunt, the Pack and the Spirit."

It was a little while before Indiana realized she had said all that aloud - and that she had been reciting word for word what her mentor had taught her. A bit embarrassed, she continued. "Well, that's what I was taught, at least. No reason why we can't do things our own way."

She looked away before she added her last bit. "Don't see why they need our meat though..."

[soonmot]

Violet listens, grinning when Indy spoke, she liked the woman even if she enjoyed the violence a little too much for Violet's tastes.

"Um, well... you're both right," she shrugs noncommittally."

The soft click-click-click of her bike chain rotating filled the brief silence as the courier collected her thoughts, "Okay, you guys know I bike all over town, right? Been doing this since forever and since going through the Change, it means I pass through other packs territory all the time. I wouldn't really say that everyone knows me, but I think they know of me.

"Sometimes I meet other People. Sometimes we talk. Gossip 'round town says that the Behemoth hang out at a roadhouse just off the main onramp to highway 127. Makes sense, since they claim the whole damn highway as their turf. They respect diplomacy, but they're also tough motherfuckers and really respect a show strength. With their alpha being, um, gone, who knows how stable they're gonna be. I think Sending me ahead to announce us is going to be good, but when you guys show up, we need to stand as one.

"Indy's right, we are a pack. Territory and a totem are great, but it's you guys standing shoulder to shoulder that make us more than just a bunch of lone wolves. They'll see that. They'll respect that."

She pauses again, an impish glint her eye, "and if they don't I'm hiding behind Akule."

[Retias]

The said Akule gives Violet a long stare. "No. Not alone." That was a contrast to his feelings of protecting other members of the pack. "We're best to gin together, announce ourselves if we want to try being nice and sweet, but not alone. And if the Behemoth are weak now, we need to know. If they can't hold ground to us, then we make sure to grow stronger from it so their weakness doesn't harm us."

[Barbrarilen]

It was Indiana who received the warmest smile, but Aliza listened to all of her fellows patiently as they chimed in. Maybe the question was where to start? But she rather thought Violet had answered Joseph sufficiently, and Indiana's resistance was just as easily leveraged by Akule's comment. "And if they aren't weak, we would rather an ally than a rival. That's why your lunch might be a decn t peace offering. You dont feed your enemies before you fight them."

The young woman tilted her head back in Joseph's direction, trying to decide if she needed to answer his question or not. It seemed only fair.

"As for why I would rather visit the Behemoth than establish ourselves? We don't have the luxury or the time. If the Behemoth refuse to accept our help... Then we are going to prove ourselves anyway by beating sense into them. Word will spread. That alone will be enough currency to earn whatever territory we claim. My dreams have been fearful. I think they are involved. I think the whole city.might be involved. If Luna blessed me with the change when she did, just because she needed someone to see the message of what was coming - I am not putting my own gain ahead of what She requires."

That said, Aliza rolled back a shoulder which popped softly. A light spring sweater and blue jeans didn't look like war gear - more like she was hosting company - but again, this was diplomacy
"If you want to go ahead, Violet, then go right up to their border and just wait there. You will be giving them the courtesy of knowing we are coming. That, or stay. I don't want you risking yourself when we want to show a unified front, please."

[soonmot]

"Sounds good, boss."

Violet shrugs off her backpack and unzips it, "Toss that sammich in here. If they don't sense me, they'll smell that. I'll wait for everyone across from that roadhouse."

Once Indy decides if she's giving up her breakfast, Vi zips up the backpack, snaps on her helmet and zips off through traffic. Angry shouts and blaring horns follow in her wake as she fearlessly cuts across oncoming traffic, scatters pedestrians as she hops a curb and vanishes into an alley.

[Amravanti]

Indiana gave in. She dropped the bag into the backpack and watched as Violet sped off, straining her limited sight and hearing to follow the bicycle until the girl eventually disappeared from view. Indiana always worried a little about Violet. Violet was capable, fast, and probably a lot tougher than she realized herself - but she seemed to shy away from the wolf inside her. She seemed to not trust her teeth and claws as much as her helmet and her tightly laced sneakers.

Because of this, Indiana felt a little protective of Violet. Especially when she was on her own, which she often was. She liked Vi, and she worried that If things went south, Violet wouldn't be able to let the wolf take over. Still, she knew that if Vi was on her bike there wasn't really anything that could catch her. She put the worry from her mind and walked onward with the rest. She was hungry, but she tried to put that from her mind as well.

[Okami]

Joseph found Indiana's sincerity touching when she spoke. The girl had never been part of a pack before, couldn't see the spirits, her response was natural. She would learn in time. He couldn't help but furrow his brows at his packmates responses however. Like other early packs he had been a part they felt too eager, took avoiding the Behemoth's as a kind of weakness. Aliza's comment about what would happen if the Behemoth's did not take them seriously in particular worried him. They were going to go to the Behemoth's untested and unprepared, good intentions or not the packs he had met outside of Victory City would never think such a pack had anything to offer in terms of help, or worse would take it as an insult to their own strength, and Aliza seemed to think challenging them to a fight was a simple way to prove otherwise. The notion caused a bitter taste in his mouth, his eyes cast down in thought as Violet sped off to announce their arrival. He was no coward, but challenging experienced werewolves with their totem on their territory (assuming they disregarded their offer of assistance, which they very likely would) wasn't brave or gutsy, it was simply foolish. The more he thought the more troubled he became.

Aliza had referred to their claiming of territory and totem as a luxury,as if as wolves Luna called them to some other purpose. His teacher had warned him it was not his place to measure the dreams of the Cahalith, but surely Aliza understood that whatever vision she had been given flowed from such a natural state, claiming territory, hunting, such things would show them the wolves they were, nothing else. These thoughts buzzed in him like the hum of the traffic-light spirits and more than once he would stop or cross the streets at odd timings, specifically only when both the lights on each side of the gauntlets were in sync. Spirits were to be respected. Every now and then he wanted to make an argument and his gaze would snap up, he would prepare to speak only to quiet himself once more. The words of his old mentor from the Steel Runners came back to him.

'Never underestimate watching and waiting pup. Most fools will confuse that for inaction, but they don't understand what watching truly means. Watching means your open, it means your accepting what the world's putting in front of you and understanding what its trying to tell you. Too often young ones will find themselves arriving at the wrong answers because all they did was ask with their mouths rather than their minds, expecting their own words to produce what they want. Like you did with that spirit of sickness. If you have a question watch, really watch, and wait. You'd be surprised what the world will tell you in time.'

Joseph slowly moved his gaze up, he had lagged slightly behind the rest of the pack and he watched their backs, their legs moving in steady rhythm. Joseph realized then he did not want his pack to immediately begin to claim territory or hunt their totem, he wanted to know why they did not feel they needed to, and instead found another pack more important. He wanted to know what this city would say to such a pack. In that case he would watch and stand with them. They would answer him in time.
'

[Dusksage]

- Downtime End -

[Dusksage]

- Begin Scene -

The Wild Rose Roadhouse was not a tourist attraction, nor was it a hole in the wall. It sat adjascent to the Southwest On-ramp to the 127 Highway and next to a rather new looking broker's office. On an average day the sounds of jutebox music and hardy laughter would be heard in regular intervals coming from the Roadhouse, causing all of the office workers to be forced to close their windows to keep out the noise. Today though, not a single sound came from the biker's sanctuary. This made the office workers close both the windows and the blinds.

Violet is the first to arrive on the scene, and it is up to her as to what happens next.

- Begin Player Actions -

[soonmot]

(Posting from work on a bad keyboard with no spellcheck, please excuse how terrible this will probably look!)


With the roar of traffic from 127 rolling over her, Violet skids to a stop across from the Wild Rose and unsaps her helmet, removing it and hanging it from her handle bars. A bandanna apears, almost by magic, as she mops sweat with one hand, staring at the bar. Despite her posturing, the courier was nervous bordering on scared. She didn't know any of the Behemoth pack, not really. One or two she had seen before but there was no relationship there. Akule may have been right, this could have been a very dangerous mkistake. Still, she had to do it, this was her job and if personal bravery was a trait she sometimes lacked, she could fake it for the pack.

Collecting herself,Vi finally unstraddles her bike and lets the battle scarred transport clatter to the ground. Eyes fixed on the door across the way and the incessent drone of cars and trucks helping to shut out stray thoughts, she sits, cross legged on the ground and waits. They would notice her soon.

[Dusksage]

Violet sits cross legged for a good ten minutes before the doors to the roadhouse open. During that time through the glare of the sun overhead she can barely make out slight movement from a few of the side windows on the building. On occasion she will see the glint of light that hints at eyes watching her from the windows, and by the gleam she wonders if the light is reflecting off of human eyes.

After ten minutes the doors to the Wild Rose open and a dark skinned man of about medium hight walks into the glare of the sun. He's wearing a leather biker's jacket that's not buttoned up at the moment with a navy blue shirt underneath. His eyes fall upon Violet and by the sheer force behind them her instincts immediately kick in. He's one of the People.

The man slowly walks up to Violet, he will be in front of you in moments now. What will she do?

[Barbrarilen]

Travelling across Victory City is much more difficult after becoming a Werewolf than it was before. Things like buses, subways, and trolleys are bad enough by yourself, but as a pack? That's just asking for trouble. Traveling in a claustrophobic metal box with four of your fellow murder-machines while someone is coughing and someone else has their legs spread too wide like an asshole and someone else is doing their civic duty by cursing out the kid who isn't being courteous and letting an old lady get by? That 's literally the recipe for murder.

As a result, the pack travels above ground, by foot, undisturbed. It takes a while. Then again, that's why they sent Violet up ahead. While they travel, Aliza lays out the game plan: they are there to help. Period. They started with a signal that they're on the up-and-up by sending one of them without back-up. Then a delicious, meaty, peace offering. Then the rest of them, there to involve themselves --- Aliza reveals to the pack that she's been having dreams as of late involving a great battle amongst the Pure and the Forsaken, wherein a giant bird sits atop a tower, and all ends in falling into skittering ,endless darkness. Her explanation is vague, but then, again, so is the dream - it is better to not confuse message for fact - the truth remains that Luna has told her there is a great conflict coming, and the conflict amongst the People is secondary to it. That is enough, and now that the Behemoth suffers, well, that is reason enough to believe that Luna is calling her chosen in Victory City to act for a reason.

So they travel on, hoping to meet and find Violet in good-health and welcoming company.

[soonmot]

Violet rises and, ever so slowly, unzips her backpack and pulls out the sandwich. She resists taking a deep breath, but does square her shoulders before offering the meaty bit of goodness.

"Hey, I'm Violet, the courier. I'm with the new guys. We wanted to stop by and pay our respects see if there was anything you guys wanted us to do to make sure whoever was behind what happens pays for it."

The sandwich is held out before her, half offering, half shield.

[Dusksage]

The Man examines Violet as he approaches her. He doesn't appear to acknowledge that she had even spoken until his eyes finished examining the wolf at his Pack's door. He stops at the edge of the sidewalk, the street becoming a barrier between diplomacy and savagery. Then he speaks:

"My name's Hank, and while we appreciate the gesture we're currently not seeing any guests at this moment."

He crosses his armed as he speaks, and his tone is heavy with either sarcasm or stoicism.