"They ate my shoes! Rotten porcupines!" Lone Wolf Circles leapt down out of the tree he'd been dangling from, a pair of shoes hanging around his neck.
"You have shoes?" an incredulous comment from Ghiyath. Lone Wolf simply held up the pair of shoes in question.
"What's a porcupine?" from the foreigner. Lone Wolf liked him better, he didn't ask silly questions. He also had an amusing way of talking. He pronounced things oddly.
"They're slow sweet tasting animals that are easy to catch...if you use a stick."
"What's a stick got to do with it?"
"They've got big spines on them that come out when you touch them and hurt really bad. So you use the stick to flip them on their back and then eat them."
Azhar looked perplexed still. "So it's like a turtle."
"But furry."
"You have furry turtles?"
"You have shoes?" Ghiyath seemed to have been wandering around in a daze ever since Lone Wolf had assumed Homid form. Apparently he had the impression that Red Talons only had forms with four feet. Lone Wolf snorted in amusement at the mental image of a human with four feet.
"You two have shoes, why can't I have shoes?"
The Silent Strider spluttered. "But...you're a Red Talon! They don't wear shoes! They don't wear clothes! You're doing both! What the hell kind of Red Talon are you!?"
"The practical kind. I can not go into the city with you on four feet so I have to go on two. The ground is cold and there are sharp unpleasant things on the ground there, so I will wear shoes. Wearing shoes because of necessity is different than doing so because I want to."
"Furry turtles ate your shoes? But you still have shoes..." Lone Wolf sighed. Dealing with these two was going to be a real test of his patience. Humans seemed to have this strange desire to have everything explained.
"Porcupines are like big prickly beavers. And they just chewed on them. They like the salt from sweat."
"What's a..."
"A big rat that swims in water."
"Ooooooh. So porcupines are like spiny mice." Azhar seemed to have had his question answered finally. Of course, now Lone Wolf had some of his own. The image of a mouse sized porcupine formed in his mind. That's not even worth bothering to try and eat.
"Mice don't have spines."
"And Red Talons don't have shoes! Or clothes!"
Lone Wolf sighed and finished tying his shoe laces. Apparently Ghiyath still hadn't gotten his question answered, and wouldn't be satisfied until the stupid thing had been. "Well I do. It makes it easier to go into the city when necessary. I don't like the city, its loud and stinks and things move every which way with no sense, but sometimes we do need to know what is going on in town. People do not talk to wolves. They do not talk to naked shoeless people either. I have clothes and shoes so I can go talk to them if I need to. It is called being prepared. Being prepared to do something does not mean that I enjoy doing so, or will be called on to do so, just that I can do it if the need arises. Just because Azhar know nows how to kill a porcupine doesn't mean he has any desire to do so, or will ever have to, but he knows how if he needs to."
"That makes sense. You must be very clever to prepare so much in advance. I guess speaking English falls into that too?"
"Yes, people that don't speak English are not well liked here. They send men in blue outfits after you who try and stick you in cars and take you somewhere if you don't speak English and have no clothes."
"But Red Talons don't speak English and don't go to town!"
"I am speaking English right now, and I am going to start walking into town right now, so I guess we do."
"But...but...but... things like this just don't happen!"
"You can stand there and sputter, or you can come along and see this truly impossible thing. Silent Striders always like to see new things, right? Then you should love this!" Lone Wolf started off with Azhar in tow, leaving Ghiyath sputtering for a few moments before the Strider hurried to catch up with them. He liked the Strider. He was very entertaining.
"What's that one say?"
"Er...it's an ad to buy a car at a specific place."
"How about that one? With the bear?"
"Buy furniture."
"So they all say to buy something?"
"Well, all the billboards do."
"This reading thing can't be so hard then." Lone Wolf looked over at Azhar, who wore a fairly bemused expression. "Do you have a question?"
"Not really, I think I'm starting to agree with Ghiyath that you're not very much what we expected out of a..." He looked around at the other people on the bus, most of whom were sleeping, including Ghiyath. "Well, a you know. You didn't even balk once when we suggested we take the bus to Rutland."
"I haven't ridden a bus before." He scrubbed an arm across the window again as he accidentally fogged it again from pressing his nose against the glass.
"Exactly. I mean, it's kind of high tech, for your sort at least. I thought you guys didn't like the Weaver."
"Exactly. That is the reason I ride the bus and do many other things that we do not do."
"I don't understand."
"The Weaver is stagnation and the death of possibility. If we never, ever, ever wear clothes or shoes, speak English, or ride the bus, isn't that ensureing the Weaver wins by denying possibility? I don't have to like riding the bus, or even do it more than once, but it is a little thing I do to keep the Weaver from winning. It's slowly killing us, and perhaps by denying that we are anything more than what we are now, or could ever be more than that, we are helping it kill us."
Azhar was quiet for a few moments, thinking. Lone Wolf scrubbed at the window again, trying to wipe his nose prints off the glass. He watched the mile markers whiz by. I wonder what these signs are trying to sell me, they have no pictures. But the things that they are trying to tell me to buy aren't always what is in the picture. He looked up at a billboard he'd seen before, one showing a girl wearing practically nothing. That one wants me to buy clothes, but she's not wearing any. Perhaps it is meant to make me feel like that starving cold person who has no warm fur so I will be glad to get my own.
"You put a lot of thought into that didn't you?" Lone Wolf gave Azhar a look. "Alright, that was a stupid statement. Of course you did. But, I mean, why? You are supposed to be the keeper of the ways, not the questioner."
"What if the ways are wrong? It is difficult to understand sometimes, but the one who stands and watches, or prevents something from happening when it should, is just as evil as the one who does evil honestly. They are worse foes than those who do bad because they do not know they are good in their hearts, but evil in their actions and inaction."
He looked out the window at the passing scenery. "Sometimes these thoughts come to me, and I feel I need to act on them, to do these things to try and judge for myself what is truly good, what is necessary, and what is just done because it has always been done so. They say these are the End Times, and if they are, than there is no way to deny the world has changed and we have not. Either we die or we change and, I think, sometimes, that my tribe perfers the easy way out, to die."
Azhar shook his head. "It's not just your tribe. We're all dying because we will not change. My family is disgraced because we were...different, because we weren't quite like what they expected."
Lone Wolf smiled awkwardly, unused to the expression, and patted Azhar's leg. "I know. None of it is ever easy. One day we will either be heroes and prophets, or we will be the last ones, the one who stood by and watched it all die. What kind of monster would you like to be?"
Azhar had no answer and so simply sat and watched Lone Wolf looking out the window, wondering what other terrible thoughts the Talon had.
"Alright, we need to find the Never Ending Fire Pack. They're usually in this area." Ghiyath indicated a sprawling area of warehouses, cheap industiral sites, and dilapidated multifamily homes. "We should be able to safely split up to find them."
Lone Wolf looked at him. "Shouldn't we howl to announce ourselves before we come into their territory?"
Ghiyath looked a little nervous. "Normally I would, but last time I was through, they asked me not to. The people here tend to call the cops to deal with the wild dog problem if they attract too much attention and some of the cops don't exactly count as people anymore."
"Ghiyath, maybe we shouldn't split up then, if there are such nasty things around. I mean, you're still hurt and..." Azhar seemed genuinely concerned.
"I'm fine."
"But you're still tired and you've got the cub to carry, so even though it'll take more time, we should stay together."
"It's not heavy, not with the backpack for it to ride in."
"I don't feel I should leave your side, though." Azhar fixes him with a significant look.
"Care to weigh in Lone Wolf?"
"What?" I hate slang. I hate these...the word that I am forgetting, the one for phrases that don't mean what they say.
"What's your opinion?"
"It is safer to keep together. There are many twists and turns and there is a lot of background noise and foul smells. It would be very easy to creep up behind someone here and if there are dangerous creatures here, they will try to do so."
"Alright, alright, but this might take awhile."
It did indeed take almost an hour before they found the pack, who were happily hidden away in an alley with their "neverending fire", a 55 gallon drum with a fire going in it. Only three were immediately in evidence, a mangy looking wolf that was loudly snoring with its feet stuck straight up in the air, a huge patchy wolf with its snout shoved into a bag of nacho snax and a thin young white man who was feeding the fire.
The snacking wolf looked up as they approached and grunted something at the man. "Hey, hey, if it ain't our favorite home boy, and he's brought his hood with him this time." He smiled as he got up, clearly not meaning it seriously.
Lone Wolf and Azhar both gave each other a confused look. The young man gestured around his head. "It's a pun. He's got the hooded sweatshirt and, y'know, black guys in the hood." From the looks Azhar and Lone Wolf were giving him, they clearly didn't.
"Who're your buddies that they missed the reference?"
"Is the boss lady around?"
"You answer my question, I'll answer yours."
"It's kind of important to know if she's around before I introduce them."
"Whatever. She's off with the not so bossy lady patrolling, said she felt like something bad was coming, trouble with the Lords she thought. Y'know premonitions, tricky things."
"Good. This is Azhar Serpent-Slayer, he's a Silver Fang from Israel," as he pointed at the Fang, who smiled shyly. "And this is Lone Wolf Circles. He's from THAT sept." Lone Wolf scowled at the comment.
The young man seemed taken aback for a moment. "No. You're pulling my leg. He's way too, y'know, good looking to be a Talon. Don't joke with me like that, you know how she feels about them."
Ghiyath shook his head. "Sorry, can't say I'm lying. But let's skip telling her."
"I think she's going to notice no matter how pretty he looks. Nice job cleaning him up by the way."
"Thank you." Lone Wolf smiled, showing off far too many teeth. "I would be happy to say the same about you but," he sniffed slightly, "apparently I can't. There's this stuff called soap, you should try it."
The young man scowled at him, clearly not amused. The wolf definitely was, as he snorted hard enough to send the celophane bag skittering across the ground. He wandered over to sniff at everyone, his head level with Lone Wolf's elbow.
"I'm Cheesy Puffs. That's Haunts-the-Skyline. He thinks he's clever, he hates meeting anyone who's smarter. Especially anybody who's supposed to be dumb." He shoved his head into Lone Wolf's side. Lone Wolf leaned back into him and ran his hands across the wolf's jaws. "You are very strange for one of those."
"I know, but that is not why we are here."
"I know too. Ghiyath, you didn't introduce you other friend." The wolf grinned up at Lone Wolf. "Haunts thinks thinking smarts are the only kind of smarts."
"I do not, Puffs. Not my fault I can't find Ghiyath's invisible friend!"
"Not invisible, small."
"Well it's a baby, actually." Ghiyath wiggled out of the backpack he'd let the cub curl up in the bottom of. It made a slight disgruntled noise at being disturbed when Ghiyath scooped it up. Then it yawned broadly and wagged its litle tail at the new people.
The wolf sniffed at it experimentally and then noisily slurped the pup. It squeaked and squirmed and wiggled happily. The young man looked it over without touching it. "Real cute. Looks just like you."
"It's not mine!" Ghiyath snapped and then immediately cooled down. "Well, it's not MINE, but I am taking care of it, sort of. I found it. Some Spirals tried to sacrifice it and its mother for some ritual, but they didn't quite kill it." The pup nuzzled at his hand affectionately and then clamped sharp little teeth around his thumb. "Ow."
"She is probably hungry." Lone Wolf volunteered as he took the pup out of Ghiyath's bleeding hands. He avoided letting her chew on his fingers.
"She?"
"I looked earlier, it's not that hard to tell. But it's been a few hours since she was fed, so she is likely getting cranky."
Ghiyath shook his head. "It's not like she's had a chance to nurse since her mother was killed, and that's at least a day, even more since they'd been out for awhile. She should be hungry."
"I caught her a rabbit before we left."
"She can't eat meat yet, can she?" Ghiyath looked at his thumb speculatively.
"Not by herself. I chewed the meat for her."
"What?"
The big wolf shoved his head against Ghiyath. "If you don't know what he meant, you don't want to. I can go make something for her to eat, though, something squishy."
"Perfect. That's why we brought her to you guys, with the two ladies we figured you would best know how to take care of her. I'm not really sure what a metis pup needs." Lone Wolf was greatly amused with this. Listen to instinct and it will tell you what to do with a pup. Perhaps that is why humans are so confused, their instinct does not tell them how to care for their own pups anymore. So far he is a good protector, but a very bad caretaker. At least he knows when he doesn't know. He deftly avoided letting the pup gnaw on his fingers again.
"Well Talon boy's got a pretty good clue apparantly. Why not leave it with him?"
"I am called Lone Wolf Circles for a reason. I do not have a pack. If there are Spirals after the cub, I cannot defend her by myself. If I cannot keep her, caring for her is rather irrelevant. And she IS hungry, if one of you two would like to do something about that or point out where I can go hunting...?"
"No way, you've got the moves to keep your fingers. Puffs will make her something. Get her all big and strong real fast." Lone Wolf looked at the huge bulky wolf. Some of the size apeared to be due to fat, but that was often hard to tell with someone so large.
"Perhaps not that big, that fast."
The wolf growled slightly, "Are you making fun of my size?"
"No, she's a cub. If she got too big too fast, she will be very, very clumsy, and that is a very bad thing with a metis pup. Wolves are awkward enough when they are growing quickly. Imagine a clumsy Crinos."
"Yeah, I suppose that'd be kind of bad. I'll go make food." He trotted off to go rumage through a pile of stuff, shifting up to a huge lumbering Homid form to get out the things he needed to cook with.
"Do you think Fade will want keep the pup or just give advice?"
The young man scratched his head. "I don't really know. If you really have Spirals after you, maybe not. There's lot of problems around here as is. We don't need any of those added in. We'll know when she gets back, assuming she doesn't mystically sense there's Talon here and fly off the handle. It's not a Talon pup is it?"
"I don't know what tribe it's from."
Azhar finally joined the conversation. "If no one claims it, maybe it will end up being a Talon pup. The sept that helped defend it from the Spirals lost two warriors so will need to rebuild their strength. They might take the pup if it is healthy. It looks healthy." He peered at the pup for a moment as she squirmed around trying to grab one of Lone Wolf's fingers.
"Some problems are less obvious than others. Sometimes they take time to develop. But that's not very important right now." Lone Wolf looked Ghiyath in the eye for a moment. "I think the more important question is do you want to give the pup up?"
Ghiyath was silent for a moment as everyone looked at him expectently. "I...I don't know. I've only had her for about a day, but I was meant to find her, I think. An Uktena told me her name before I found her..."
"Which I don't think you told us." Azhar prompted.
"Paradise, her name is Paradise."
"Sounds like the name for a stripper." Haunts-the-Skyline quipped.
Ghiyath scowled. Azhar and Lone Wolf eyed each other for a moment and spoke together. "What's a stripper?"
It's time for a review of what the GenCon tournament is all about!
To summarize (for those that heven't read it yet):
Ghiyath, Lone Wolf Circles, and Azhar decide to take Paradise to see the
Never Ending Fire pack in Rutland because they feel they will know how to
care for the pup, since many of the pack members are metis. Once there,
they discover that the pack may not be willing to take the pup since
there's some sort of trouble going on with the police. If the Spirals
are that close on their tail, the pack can't manage to deal with their
own troubles and the characters too.
And the lady in charge, Fade-to-Black, doesn't like Red Talons.
Positively hates them, in fact. She doesn't know Lone wolf is a Red
Talon, but if she finds out, she may order the pack to attack the
characters.
So, here's the questions that the GenCon tournament is designed to
answer:
1. Does Fade-to-Black find out about the Red Talon in their midst? If
she does find out, how badly does she take it?
2. The origins close had Nuntisiwas sending Banes to check out the Uktena
so he could follow the characters. Does he choose to interfere? If so,
which way? Does he attack, or merely show himself to keep the characters
from allying with the Never Ending Fire pack?
3. there is no number three! (it's tradition)
4. If the pack agrees to help, does Ghiyath give Paradise to them, or
does he merely ask for help and advice and keep her?
5.What about those Banes? What mischief are they getting into with the
Uktena?
How these gets answered:
1. simple Gaia on Gaia total. Heavy indicates Fade has found out and
takes it badly. Low indicates she either hasn't found out or took it
well (not likely). This will partially also be decided by what character
show up in decks. If the Red Talons make a very glaring and public
appearance, good guess Fade noticed!
2. This is where the Wyrm gets to shine. Heavy Wyrm on Gaia would
indicates aggressive action from Nuntisiwas (and his Banes who are
elsewhere). If the Wyrm appears in force, but doesn't attack Gaia much
(relying instead on Victims to get Renown) it indicates they're taking a
more subtle tack. Heavy wyrm on Wyrm may actually indicate Nuntisiwas,
for his own diabolical reasons, has decided to help the characters out!
What's with this guy anyway!?
4. This is a difficult one, but will probably rely heavily on the
outcome of number 1. If things go badly between the packs, good guess he
won't leave Paradise with a bunch of angry Glass Walkers and Bonegnawers!
Non-combat renown will count heavily towards how this turns out. If the
Gaia packs are on friendly terms, the amount of non-combat renown will
decide what Ghiyath decides. Lots of it, and he'll probably decide the
wise choice is to stick with the pup the Uktena witch prophesized he'd
find.
5. This is primarily determined by the actions of those playing the
appropriate groups. a good decks stocked with banes that makes a fine
showing indicates they have their way with the hapless Uktena. A good
showing from the Uktena indicates the Banes have trouble. (I will also
accept Wendigo decks for this)
Incidentally, I just got back the written tournament records from
Origins. Nobody wrote me little love notes except
Talks-to-Voices-in-His-Head. He sent me his phone number and what room
he was staying in. We can see where his mind was... :P~~~~~~~~
I'd love to get little notes about how your deck did and how you think it
answers the questions posed here. You can even e-mail me afterwards and
give me a blow for blow, if you're so inclined. I love to hear these
things so I can give you guys a better feeling that your actions really
do impact the storyline.
Fenris Lorsrai
Caern of the Screaming Electrons | The Tournament Archives | email Lurks-Between-Bytes