"If they wanted you to fail, the task would have been much more difficult."

[hazlogs]

It is currently 08:36 Pacific Time on Wed Apr 23 2003.

Currently in Saint Claire, it is raining lightly. The temperature is 42 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the south at 7 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 29.78 and steady, and the relative humidity is 96 percent. The dewpoint is 41 degrees Fahrenheit (5 degrees Celsius.)

Currently the moon is in the waning Half Moon phase (54% full).

Harbor Park -- The Meadow

One of the last bastions of green left in the city, mottled and withered grass and weeds covers the earth like a badly stained carpet, with the construction work turning what is left into just bare dirt. The vegetation seems marginally healthier the further it is from the river and much healthier towards the central area of the park around the fountain. Construction work is ongoing here: a raised earthen berm about five feet tall is being built all around the park perimeter, with two breaks each at the Bridge Street entrance and the First Street end. Wooden posts are being erected at regular intervals all along the earthen wall, while tasteful iron gates and fences are being added at the entrances. Overpowering the scent of living vegetation are the exhaust fumes from a busy street to the west and an unpleasant stench from the Columbia River to the east. From the street view or river view, the park is now isolated, as if it existed apart from the city. People in tall buildings have an excellent view of any goings-ons for now, though. In the center of the park, a small glade of six tall trees and a flower bed surrounds the fountain.

The murky waters of the Columbia River flow swiftly along the east side of the park. Bracketing the park to the west is First Street and the city of St. Claire.

Adrian walks up, bundled up in a beaten up leather jacket.

It's a chilly, rainy morning in St. Claire -- typical April weather, in other words. The dark figure of the Walker Elder can be seen over by the river under a black umbrella, walking slowly.

Adrian smiles and hoped to have found him here. He bounds over, "Mr. Salem, got a moment?"

Salem turns around, eyes obscured behind dark glasses and a handrolled cigarette burning between his lips. "Morning, Adrian," he says, somewhat cool but polite enough. "What can I do for you?"

Adrian smiles, "I need help." He looks around, noting anyone else, "Ya see, I have this major test at school and if I don't pass it, not only will I fail, but I'm sure I'll be expelled. Think maybe you can help me with it? You're smart." He smiles as he talks in code.

Even without the rage, the halfmoon's image is an intimidating one. That, coupled with the early hour and the poor weather ensures that there is no one within earshot of the two Garou. Even so, Salem keeps his voice pitched low. "Having trouble finding stories?"

Adrian nods once. "I'm getting worried that the teachers don't like me and want me to fail." While he may be becoming tougher and more Get-like as of late, at the moment the crack in his voice betrays his true fear.

Salem lifts an eyebrow. "I know something of your teachers, and the tradition they come from," he says, shifting the umbrella to his left hand and taking the cigarette from his lips with his right. "If they wanted you to fail, the task would have been much more difficult. Your, mm, school is very fond of impossible tasks that are likely to cause the death of the test-taker."

Adrian shakes his head, "I don't mean my own teachers, I mean them all. I can't seem to get anyone to tutor me. I was hoping maybe you would...?"

Salem purses his lips. "What, precisely, do you need?"

Adrian looks at Salem, "Maybe a tale?" He smiles, "I'll fight ya for one."

Salem snorts, mouth twitching into a thin half-smile. "Not necessary." He takes a drag from the cigarette and gives the park a habitual glance-over. "Any type of tale in particular?"

Adrian shakes his head, "Not really, but something of Ga..." He shuts up and hesitates as he thinks, "uhh... of... uh... various teams working together? No one in particular, I just wanna see how people who might not get along otherwise might do so." he hopes he covered that well.

Salem considers this, taking in another lungful of smoke as he does so and exhaling slowly. "Any of the big threats has brought all the factions of our, mm, organization together. The hostile takeover last summer, for example, or the other couple of times when the place has fallen and had to be brought back to power, or protected. The very rediscovering and awakening of the place required several disparate elements."

Adrian nods, "Yeah, I know, but... how do I put this... no offense Mr. Salem, but that's boring." He sits down with a sigh. "You're telling me nothing else anyone else has and in the same damn fashion." He thinks, "You ever seen the movie, "The Princess Bride?"

Salem's mouth thins in displeasure, but his voice remains even. "I have," he answers.

Adrian nods, "So, which is better?" He stands up, "So, this girl falls in love with her help. He leaves, but he comes back. They fall in love again and kiss." He bows, then stops and looks at you, "or this..." He stands up, "So Buttercup and Wesley are these young innocent kids who fall in love, but he's forced to leave. She thinks he dies and gets courted by a charming, yet evil, Prince whose plotting her death. Wesley, disguised as the infamous Dread Pirate Roberts returns to rescue her and the battle the evils of the Fire Swamp together. He gets captured, tortured and killed, yet through a miracle (by the name of Max) he's revived, defeats the evil Prince and saves Buttercup and they share True Loves First Kiss?"

Adrian bows again, "See, everyone's giving me basics, an outline, but no details. Outlines are boring and don't inspire very well. Am I supposed to make stuff up from the basics folks give me? What if I make a mistake in my creativity? I know youre not as dramatic as some, but I swear, there are no decent storytellers around here."

Salem grunts. "Part of your job as to dig for those details." He pauses for a moment, as if something's occurred to him. "For example, if I were you, I would pester Andrea about the story of the Consumer of Stone. Her group and the Walkers worked on that one together." He takes another drag on the cigarette. "I was only on the periphery. I can tell you about how the Walkers broke into Turner Enterprises, and the way the Walkers with Andrea's group recovered the Consumer, but those two scenes are near the end of the tale." He glances at his watch. "Everything else, all I can give you is basic details."

Adrian notes the glance to the watch, "You're busy, Sir. I'll let you be, thank you for your help." The young blonde starts to move away.

"If I was busy, Adrian, I would tell you," the Walker says, a trifle sharply. "I was merely checking the time."

Adrian turns back around with a smart ass smile, "Sorry, Mr. Salem, my bad." He sits back down, "I don't think I've met Andrea."

Salem lifts an eyebrow at this. "Really? You should. She's quite approachable. Moreso than me." He puts the cigarette back in his mouth and makes a beckoning gesture. "Walk with me." He starts moving through the rain, slowly, to a less-used portion of the park.

Adrian nods and stands, "Rabid doberman pincher slash pitbulls are more approachable then you, Sir, but well, I've known you a long time." He follows along with smile.

"Hmn," says Salem, sounding marginally amused by the remark. He keeps walking as he talks, his voice pitched at a low, conversational level. "This takes place several years ago, when I was still relatively new to the city and before Gray Sky, the Sept in Seattle, fell. Elder of the Walkers at that time was an Ahroun named J.J. Malone." His lips thin. "Unfortunately, I'm the only Walker still in town, so most of how we first got involved in this affair is lost, unless Andrea or someone else knows it. A cockroach spirit might help you, if you can get a Theurge to help you find one old enough and intelligent enough. Anyway." He pauses a beat, then continues. "There was a fetish that could be used to control the Consumer, but it was in the hands of a woman named Ashley Turner, head of Turner Enterprises, and she was no mundane businesswoman. Our first raid of the place was Walker-only -- myself, a Ragabash named Lisa Bullet-to-the-Knees, and Jayson, a Theurge." He takes a drag off the cigarette before going on.

Adrian nods, listening intently, "Whats the consumer?"

Salem shrugs. "All I know, all I _knew_, was that it was a powerful Wyrm spirit. How powerful, what type, the specific dangers it presented, how Ouroboros learned about it... not a clue."

Adrian nods and shuts up.

Salem flicks ash onto the wet ground. "Lisa was there for the scouting. She'd found us a way in via a cargo truck. We smuggled ourselves in the back. Jayson was our resident hacker. We were going, primarily, for information, things on computer that couldn't be obtained without being there. I, being an Ahroun at the time, was the muscle." He shrugs. "In case it was needed. ...Lisa got us there and Jayson broke through the electronic doorlocks to get us in. It was night, of course, and we got to VP's office without incident, where Jayson broke into the computer files and downloaded what we came for. Too much to read while there, of course. Would have taken too much time."

Adrian nods and listens.

Salem shakes his head, remembering with a grimace. "It went smoothly. _Too_ smoothly, I was thinking, and unfortunately, I was right. Just as Jayson was getting done the power went out and Turner herself started mocking us over the fucking intercom. She knew we were there, what we were doing, and what we _were_. So, things went a little to hell. Guards, big guns, that kind of thing. Fucking setup." Again, he shakes his head. "Lisa vanished, and I covered Jayson's escape. We got out, grabbed a truck, drove through the gates. Galliard named Murphy, another Walker, was waiting for us. Somehow, Lisa was with him. Don't ask me how. Ragabash trick... she was good at that."

Salem inhales more smoke, thinking. "We talked to Malone about it afterward. Some of the data Jayson had gotten had been corrupted, but he rebuilt enough of it to work with. I gather... and I may be mistaken about this ... that Turner had been involved in the area for a long time, and had some influence with some of the members of Gray Sky." His nose wrinkles. "It's no wonder that Gray Sky fell, but that's another story, and not the kind you want for your Rite."

Adrian blinks in awe, "You escaped? FUCK!" He looks at you as if you are a God. "believe it or not, you'd be surprised what i want for my Rite."

Salem grunts. "All I know about Gray Sky is that it fell, and that there were vampires involved. John could have told you more, since he came from there." Brooding, he flicks ash onto the ground. "So, that's how the Walkers raided information from Ashley Turner." He glances at his watch, keeping track of the time, nods to himself, and looks at the cub again. "You want to hear about how we and Ouroborous actually got the fetish away from Turner?"

Adrian smiles and nods, "Does a bear shit in the woods?" He's eyes sparkle as he listens.

Salem snorts. "Hm, yes." He pauses a beat. "So. This was near the end of things, because after the fetish was recovered, Andrea and company bound Consumer into it. The group that went and _got_ the fetish included myself, Malone, Nigel, a Theurge of the Walkers, Patrick of the Uktena, Cassandra of the Furies, Soren of the Get, and Andrea. The last four were all members of Ouroboros." He frowns. "No, wait. Nigel went there with us, but didn't go in." He eyes Adrian. "Always make sure there's backup, even if it's just a healer with a cellphone."

Adrian nods, taking in advance as readily as a tale.

"We went shadowside, into the Umbra," Salem continues. "I remember it being very quiet, hardly anything moving but a bit of a breeze. A couple of us had gone into lupus and said they smelled rot on the air. Typical. We took it slow and quiet and steady on the approach. It was just like the raid I'd done with Jayson and Lisa. Quiet. _Too_ fucking quiet. Fortunately, though the building existed in the umbra, the fence didn't, so we had no trouble getting close." Another drag on the cigarette.

"The Fury heard it first. Something metal moving under the ground. We didn't have much time to react after that before the trap doors opened up. Two of them, and one... _thing_ for each." He grimaces. "Metal spiders with human heads. The Wyrm borrowing tricks from the Weaver. One was up front near Cassandra, the other behind us near Malone and me. Malone fired a couple of shots into that one while I took Hispo. Everything after that's a blur." His mouth thins as he remembers, eyes narrowed behind dark lenses. "Not frenzy-blur, just... it happened fast. Malone shot the head off the damned thing and got a metal leg through the gut. He was in Glabro, of course. I tore into the fucking thing while it held him. Whatever it was doing to Malone must have hurt, because he was howling like a banshee, and Malone wasn't the type to lose it easily."

Adrian cringes a bit and frowns. This is what he gets to look forward to?

Doesn't it sound like fun? Salem continues talking, flat-voiced and dour, a battle-scarred veteran who has seen and experienced much, much worse. "I wasn't alone beating the thing that had Malone... Andrea was there. Patrick too, I think. Cassandra and Soren were dealing with the other." He smiles thinly. "A Fury and a Get." he pauses to let that sink in. "Between us, we managed to kill both the damned things. There were no others. Then Cassandra heard the corpses ticking. She and Malone were both badly hurt and needed to be helped away." Wait, didn't he say this was a _successful_ raid? But, clearly, he's not finished, though he pauses again to take another drag off the cigarette.

Adrian leans in, taking in every word.

"Some kind of final self-destruct. They blew. We got knocked down, shrapnel everywhere. Cassandra... got unlucky. She got a large piece right through the chest. She didn't make it, despite Soren and Quiet both using the healing gift on her. Malone wasn't much better off... for a while, I thought _he_ was dead, too, but he was alive. Barely." Salem's voice has darkened again, as when he talked about Gray Sky. "Battlescarred, though... he never regained the use of his legs." He grunts, takes another drag. "I stayed behind with Malone and what was left of Cassandra while Ouro finished the job and got the fetish out. That was when I found out Malone was still breathing. So." He looks down at the young Get. "There you go. You've got a start now, yes?"

Adrian nods, "Yeah, thanks. Sorry for their loss."

"Hazards of duty," Salem replies. He squints at the rain-spitting sky. "Andrea's usually around the caern, though her pack's territory is by Lake Arthur. You'd do well to go visit her."

Adrian nods, "I'll do my damndest." He watches Salem a bit, "You ain't all that bad Salem."

Salem grunts. "Thanks." He gives his watch another glance. "And now, I _do_ have to go, or be late for work."

Adrian nods, "Thank you, Sir." He tries to playfully punch the elder in the shoulder.

Salem allows it -- kind of the way a big tiger will sometimes let a human it knows slap it on the shoulder. "You're welcome." He starts moving away, toward Bridge Street. "Be seeing you."