"It's going to be an interesting Moot tonight, and hopefully in a good way."

[hazlogs]

15 July 2003.

Full moon.

Porch

A lathe-turned wooden railing runs the length of the porch save where the steps are, well-worn with use. To the right of the stairs, a wide swing is suspended from the overhang which shelters this area; to the left, a small table is the centerpiece for several chairs pulled around it, all of which face out to the front yard and the fields and trees beyond. The entire area holds an atmosphere of peace and comfort during these summer days, lending itself well to evening reading, small talk, or just watching the stars. Low shrubs snuggle up to the porch held back by the railing, their flowers filling the air with the sweet scent of greenery.

An aging screen door newly refurbished stands between the heavy inner door of the house and the outside air. Four steps lead down to the lane, a number of pots with small flower seedling carefully arranged alongside them.

Kaz comes out from the house, closing the screen door behind her.

Salem is, underneath the veneer of formal calm, seething quietly as his boots clomp down the steps and crunch gravel.

Kaz clatters out a few moments afterwards. "So yeah, can I babble at you?"

"It's a free country," Salem replies flatly. "More or less."

You descend the steps and walk out into the lane.

Lane

Stretching a good quarter mile from the road, this gravel lane leads back to the Escrowe farm. Trees line the lane, leaves filling out on the limbs to fill the sky with fresh green clouds. In the distance, the farmhouse looms above the treetops, gleaming white as the snow from its yearly coat of paint. Silence prevails here, save for the rustling of the tall grasses in the fields when the wind blows.

The front entrance to the farmhouse is on the porch alongside the gravelled road which continues on around the eastern side of the house back to the barnyard. The opposite end of the lane turns back west to empty out onto Sunrise Road.

Kaz walks out into the lane from the front porch.

Kaz snorts. "Well, accordin' to some people, anyway." She stuffs her hands in her pockets. "This Leo thing..." she trails off. "I dunno how to put it. It's like, he's headin' hell bent for leather toward total stupidity, but you're kinda... followin' him."

Salem stops short and turns, eyeing her with a frown. "Pardon?"

Kaz shrugs. "You're following him. You're letting his fucked up bolshoya bullshit influence how you're actin'. I mean, it's hard /not/ to, because he's the one takin' the initiative on all this shit, but you're headin' in a bad direction with all this."

Salem folds his arms across his chest and gets that tight-jawed, stubborn look. "I already told Luke I'd let it go to a Philodox, or the Master of the Challenge."

Kaz shakes her head. "That ain't the problem. You can go off and talk to a philodox all you want, but it ain't the letter of the law I'm thinkin' about here."

Salem's frown deepens into a grimace. "Elaborate."

Kaz sighs, and finds a tree to sit down against. "It's like... It /ain't/ like Vegas, because, seriously, you are actin' sane and reasonable compared to that dipshit, but I could see it turnin' /into/ that." She sighs again. "Prollem is, every time I think about this, it basically means you gotta act like a saint. You can't let him provoke you into actin' like a... like a solo artist. Like /he's/ actin'. You can't... Well, you gotta look at it globally." She scowls into her Coke, then, slowly, feeling her way to what she's trying to say, says,"It's... an Alpha thing... where you gotta act like an Alpha, not just a guy who leads people around."

Salem listens, his shoulders tight and his expression dour. "I have to think of the good of the Sept, as well," he says flatly.

"Yeah," Kaz says, irony reeking from her tone, "And ain't /that/ just so entertaining." After a moment, she adds, "An' I don't /think/ I'm sayin' you can't defend y'own Tribe, or act in y'tribe's best interests. I mean, I ain't never bitched about that leech you guys got an agreement with, 'cause that's a Walker thing."

Salem shakes his head slightly, his gaze shifting away from Kaz toward a nearby tree. "I have this bad feeling that Leonard is going to get off scot-free, or as close to that as makes no difference." His voice is low, his expression dark. "I can be... short-sighted sometimes, I know, but he cares about _nothing_ unless it's for the benefit of the Wendigo."

Kaz grunts. "Which is why he ain't never gettin' nowhere in this Sept, and why, when I'm here, he's gonna be watched real closely, because he's fuckin' dangerous. He's shortsighted, and he's got a hair trigger. If he gets off scot free, after fucking /kidnapping/ a Kinfolk..." She trails off. "Well... I'm a Bone Gnawer."

Salem scowls. "I have enough things to worry about to lose sleep wondering when a rabid Indian is going to kidnap or murder someone just because I wouldn't let things go his own way. Or whether or not I'm going to end up with a silver arrow in my back. Isn't that what happened the first time a bunch of traditional Wendigo came here? One of their Ragabash murdering a Shadow Lord who'd argued with him?"

"Like I said," Kaz says, almost gently, "I'm a Bone Gnawer. Ain't gonna /be/ no silver arrows doin' no silver things. Not if he gets off scot-free, anyways."

Salem cocks his head, studying Kaz carefully for a moment. Then he nods slowly. "Of course..." He exhales a breath, some of the tension easing out of him, and admits, "I've gotten used to people disagreeing with me."

The wryness creeps back into Kaz' voice. "Yeah. Well. There you go." After a moment, she shakes her head. "So anyways, I gotta question that actually gets back into, um, more prosaic turf issues."

Salem makes a vague 'go ahead' sort of gesture. "I'm listening."

"Yeah." Kaz stuffs a hand in her pocket and comes up with (another) Coke. "I don't actually disagree with tellin' Lenny he can't come into the City no more, but the only problem with it is, th' place /ain't/ just your turf."

Salem closes his eyes briefly, restraining a flicker of impatience. "I agree," he says evenly, opening his eyes and looking at the Galliard again. "It's not. It _is_, however, the turf of the tribe I'm elder of, as well as the tribe that Renee's elder of. So, I made a snap decision. I still believe it was the right one." He folds his arms across his chest. "Bitch at me, if you will, for not discussing it Renee first, but she wasn't there, and she's had plenty of time to challenge me on it... and hasn't." His nose wrinkles slightly. "In fact, if I didn't know better, I'd say she was avoiding me."

Kaz leans back against her tree. "Actually," she says, in a not-at-all antagonistic voice, "I'm not bitching, I'm trying to get parameters set. It's different, I promise. Honestly, I agree, Lenny needs not to be here, specially if he's... doing this kind of shit. And I also agree that if she's got a problem, she can challenge. I just mean, in future, try and find ways to adapt. That's all."

Salem grunts and nods once, curtly. "All right, fair enough." He paces restlessly, keeping to a short area of ground. "I didn't want this job, you know," he says after a moment.

Kaz just looks at him for a moment. Eventually, she says, irony thick in her voice, she says, "Oh, sure, of /course/ you did, that's why you went and got Malone killed, then kicked Dakota out, an' got John killed, too." It's only a short moment later that she adds, "I'd kinda /gathered/ that, Salem."

Salem snorts -- it's almost a laugh, but not quite -- and pauses briefly to give her a wry look. "I know." He exhales a breath. "It's going to be an interesting Moot tonight, and hopefully in a good way. Hmnf. Hopefully."

Kaz suddenly says, "Scuse me, speech coming on. Feel free to look at me dubiously. Thing is, none of us want this shit. Ain't none of us are any good at... organizin' people, orderin' 'em around. Suitin' our lives t'fit th' needs of what's required. We all-- well, anyways, /I/ suck at it. I don' want to have to deal with whinin' kids an' cliaths that don't know the time of day. But y'know, I appear t'be the one that /deals/ with this shit, mostly 'cause I ain't died. So, you know, you just keep goin' on." After a moment to take a sip of Coke, she adds, "Gonna be a damn /full/ Moot."

Salem nods. He's pacing again, a few short, measured steps to each side, arms folded across his chest and expression pensive. "Yes. My challenge, Renee's challenge to you, Layne giving judgement on the Leonard thing, _probably_ a discussion about kinfolk and whether they're territory or not..." He grimaces at this. "Tobin, I think, has something. People declaring themselves for various roles, and if Quentin's back in town in time, he'll tell his story and finally finish his Rite of Passage." He snorts. "The Revel will be almost _relaxing_ by comparison."

Kaz scowls. "I don't see how the fuck there /can't/ be a discussion of kin as territory, not given both fucking Luke /and/ fucking Lenny. So yeah, given that, the Revel /is/ gonna be kinda fun. Speakin' of which, where we aimin' for with that, d'y'know?"

Salem shakes his head. "No idea, but Robert's the Wyrmfoe, so it'll be on the Bawn." He shrugs. "Perhaps a general clearout. I hear that Alicia and Yi ran into some corrupted spider spirits, so between that and our lack of numbers in the Guardian department, the Bawn could use a good sweep by the Sept." He stops pacing abruptly and looks at her. "He's got this idea that if I'd immediately dragged Mel over to meet him, she'd be, I don't know, fucking around in the Grotto and drinking. I tell him she's not fucking _interested_ and he thinks I've got some, I don't know, hold over her or something." In motion again, he snorts. "She's more headstrong than _Rina_."

Kaz takes a swig of Coke. "He has great faith in his brainwashing skills, apparently, despite th' fact he's got as much charisma as that rock over there. He don' seem t'get th' idea of friendship /first/, -then- recruiting." She shrugs. "Typical, really."

"At least the Shadow Lords don't _pretend_ to be friends with their kin," Salem remarks dourly. "It's not like I denied her access to her family. Hell, when I told her she had family, actually _blood_ family, in Boston, I offered to pay for her airfare. She is, simply, not _interested_. As for Sarah..." He grimaces again.

Kaz sighs. "Yeah," she says, tightly.

Salem nods. "Yes." He shrugs, pushing his hands into the pockets of his jeans. "Bad luck that this would happen so soon on the heels of Luke's bitch about Mel and me. Typical."

Kaz says, dourly, "I'll have to be all eloquent and shit tonight."

Salem gives her a wry, crooked smile. "And I have no doubt that you _will_ be. You're quite the Galliard, Kaz."

Kaz shakes her head. "Problem is, any argument I got against Kin not bein' territory comes down to /Garou/ not bein' territory, an' there's too many Garou that don't think Kin's equal to Garou."

"Such utter fucking bullshit," Salem mutters. "I should know. I've been there. I've _thought_ that way." He shakes his head. "We are, though, both preaching to the choir."

Kaz nods. "What /did/ sell you on, well, changing your mind?"

Salem purses his lips. "Being Ronin, I supposed. Part of it. When you're outside of... things, you start seeing them in a different light."

"Mmmp. I'm hopin' to grab people that ain't never been Ronin and ain't never gonna /be/ Ronin, though." The metis shakes her head. "I mean, seriously, I ain't never run into this before. Maybe I just wasn't payin' attention, back in Pittsburgh."

Salem shrugs. "The other part was being a Glass Walker. And getting to know people like Rina and Rhiannon and such." He grunts. "One thing I _can_ say for the Gnawers is that they treat their kin well, from what I've seen. I recall visiting an enclave once, before I came to St. Claire, and it was impossible to tell who was kin and who was a Garou who just hadn't shifted out of homid."

Kaz brightens. "Yeah, ain't it great? I mean, sure, with some stuff, you gotta pay attention to the fact they ain't as strong and shit, but fuck, most've them are a pantload smarter about /most/ stuff than I am, so it all evens out in the end." She shakes her head. "Anyways, so it's a whole big cultural gap, an' all I got is emotional arguments."

Salem nods, nose wrinkled. "I know." He shakes his head slightly, glancing off in the vague direction of the caern, looking pensive. After a moment, he shrugs and turns back to her. "We'll see how it goes. Ideally, you know, I'd like to have a return to allowing kinfolk on the bawn. But it can wait until after the moot to bring that up with Robert." He smiles cynically. "And be shot down."

Kaz shrugs. "He let that Fury chick do it. I bet if you're committed 'nuff to it..."

Salem nods. One hand goes absently to the back pocket of his jeans, then moves away, an aborted gesture. He crosses his arms across his chest instead. "We'll see." He exhales a breath, then glances up at the sky. "There are a few things I have to get done before the Moot tonight. Renee and Yi are doing the Litany and the Fool, you know. Between that and me as Truthcatcher, it'll be an urrah-heavy Moot." He smirks faintly.

Kaz just grins. "It's an urrah-heavy /Sept/, I'd /hope/ it'd be an urrah heavy /Moot/, too..."

The Walker chuckles -- a short 'heh' of amusement, little more. "That _might_, of course, work to our advantage. But, anyway. See you there?" As if there were any question.

Kaz says, "You bet, cap'n." After giving a mock salute of the finest caliber, she adds, "Gotta go catch some folks." She lopes off into the woods, vaguely Caern-wards.

Salem smiles thinly at the Gnawer's back, murmuring, "Be seeing you..." He glances at his pocketwatch, eyes the sun again, and heads for his car. It's going to be a long day.