Tense Talk in the Park

[hazlogs]

It is currently 20:48 Pacific Time on Sun Jun 23 2002.

Currently the moon is in the waxing Full Moon phase (90% full).

Currently in Saint Claire, it's a sunny day. The temperature is 68 degrees
Fahrenheit (20 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the
west at 13 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.10 and steady, and
the relative humidity is 58 percent. The dewpoint is 53 degrees Fahrenheit
(11 degrees Celsius.)

Harbor Park -- Fountain

Reggie, his arm draped over bubbly Alicia's shoulder, is grilling a young
man. "Okay, now we got that clearing of your throat out of the way, what
do you have to say?"

Kaz enters the glade in the middle of the open meadow.
Kaz has arrived.

Alicia can't help but smirk, poking Reggie lightly in the side. "How're
you doing Leonard?" She asks the young Wendigo.

Tom raises a brow lightly. "Am I suppose to say something about
something?" he asks Reggie.

Leonard watches Tom like a silent older brother, arms folded, as Reggie
goes to town. He shrugs. "Want my caern back."

"He speaks!", Reggie shares his discovery with Alicia.

Alicia mock gasps, glancing to her Uktena friend, then bursts into a round
of giggles. "I want my Caern back too, Leonard."

Kaz wanders into view along the river. Faint humming can be heard, which
means she must be humming fairly loudly.

Coincidentally, Salem is walking along the river as well, though coming
from the opposite direction as Kaz.

Coincidentally, there's a pigeon pecking at crumbs on the ground halfway
between the two.

Tom blinks lightly. "Yes, I speak," he muses with a wry smirk. "Ah, who're
you?" he asks curiously.

Kaz ignores the pigeon, as she pauses to take a long look over the water,
humming dying down.

Leonard glances up upon hearing the odd humming, and watches Kaz approach,
eyes narrowed. He glances at Tom periodically.

Alicia tilts her head towards the humming and grins. "Hey Kaz, Salem." She
says, waving them over. "I'm showing off my fiance'."

"I'm Reg", Reggie replies to Tom, giving him as short an introduction. "A
good, short name likes yours, that doesn't twist the tongue or require
intrumentation."

Salem's steps slow. He eyes the pigeon for a moment, then the Gnawer
across from it. He looks up at sound of his name and, after a moment,
stalks over toward the group, bleeding off anger vibes.

Tom ohs softly. "Ah, yeah, I'm Tom, but you know that already."

Leonard senses more than hears Salem coming like one feels the air change
before a storm hits. He looks over in the rageful philodox' direction,
then back to the soap opera.

The metis ignores Leonard's glance, since she's still staring out over the
water, but Alicia's call gets Kaz glancing around. She manages a slight,
tight smile, and heads over to the group. "S'hey, yo."

Alicia squirms out of Reggie's arm and meets Salem and Kaz halfway,
grinning. "Hey there...." Her eyes lift up to her pack brother, features
flickering a tad. "You alright?"

Reggie confirms Tom's suspicion, "Yeah, I knew. Listen, do you play
pool?", he drags in a topic.

"I didn't know you had a fiance," says the Walker as he comes into
conversational distance, and though his voice is perfectly even and
controlled, the undercurrent of full-moon rage makes the remark less than
pleasant. He answers Alicia with a dry, "Peachy."

Unaccountably, after a short pause, Kaz gives Reggie a searching look. But
she drops it after a moment, and says, "Hey, wasn't he just a boyfriend
before? Hey, Tom, how's tricks?"

Leonard seems to decide now would be a good time to be elsewhere. He slips
out without a goodbye.
Leonard steps out of the glade and into the surrounding meadow.
Leonard has left.

Tom actually is fidgeting now. So many Garou, such a little space, it's
getting to him, even if he does know why it's hard to ignore. "Pool? Ah, I
use to. I don't go to pool halls much these days."

Holding up her hand, showing off the diamond on her finger, Alicia beams
over. "Yah, he proposed to me shortly before all this crap went down
ya'know? We're planning on it hopefully by January of next year."
Curiously tho', she studies Salem for a bit. "Is everything alright tho'?
Anything happen?" She glances to Kaz too, searching.

Salem says, only, "I'm fine," and that curtly. He studies Tom with a
critical eye, unconsciously looming.

Kaz manages a grin, even if it's a little strained. "Rockin', you two!
Congratulations!" Then she's shrugging. "Anything's a fairly broad topic.
There's a lotta shit goin' on, though..."

Reggie's nod at Tom is brief. "Well, hell, I got one, you should drop in,
play a round or two before you lose any chance to." He himself takes the
chance to see who's arrive, and addresses "boss-lady" with, "I was just
looking for you. Campaigner was saying to quit asking her and just ask
you."

Kaz blinks in confusion. "Campaigner?"

Tom smiles, "Thanks, I'll..ah, see." He shifts his weight a bit, hands
folded behind him as he goes quiet.

Alicia smiles and heads back to Tom, sliding her arms around his waist,
leaning up to press her lips against his, gently. "Reggie owns the pool
hall that I frequent a lot with Nevada, or used to. I shark up in that
place for extra cash."

A young man in his early twenties, Tom stands at a little over six feet
tall. He has a head of auburn hair cut short on the sides and left a
little long on the top. His eyes are a very light blue, almost to the
point of being grey and are framed by the handsome features of his face.
He's a handsome fellow ranging more toward gentle and boyish than toward
ruggedly handsome. His clothes are casual, though stylish. He wears a
simple blue pull-over shirt with no design on it, a pair of blue jeans and
a pair of sneakers.

Salem turns his predatory one-eyed gaze away from the kin and, arms folded
across his chest, focusses his attention on the other Garou.

Reggie nods as if Kaz should be familiar with the meaning. "Yes--what was
her name?", he thinks momentarily before snapping his fingers, while
rolling the r. "R--r--something. Royce, Randy, One of those. Close to it."

Apparently, Kaz knows very few people whose name begins with R. "Renee?"
she guesses.

Tom looks to Alicia as she returns and nods slowly. "Ah, I...see."

Snap! goes Reggie's fingers at Kaz's naming.

Kaz nods. "Yeah, she's one of my bunch. What'd you wanna know?"

"How you found out about the Fang", Reggie states.

"Oh," Kaz says, face darkening. "I just used Questing Stone, that's all."

Alicia leans against Tom some more, wrapping his arms around her waist as
she watches the others converse, her eyes flickering from each one.

"So obvious", Reggie spreads his hands, "It was the first guess. She
didn't know, and there was nothing for it but to ask the horse's mouth, as
she point it." He shrugs about Renee's temper. "There's some talk of a
mage involved in all of this?"

Kaz shrugs. "That's Sepdet conjecturing. The mage that ate the Caern's
energy's dead, but he apparently had spirit allies, and she thinks they're
back for revenge or something. But that's just on the strength of visions,
so who knows?"

Salem jerks his head in a sharp nod of agreement with Kaz. "A vision can't
be trusted to be literal. Or even true."

Reggie bobs his head as he huh-uhs at Kaz. "Any way of finding out one way
or the other? If there're allies, then breaking the relationship would be
a good thing."

Alicia gives Tom a quick kiss goodbye and sends him on his way, then turns
back to rejoin in the conversation, stepping closer to the three.

Kaz says, "I dunno..." but trails off. "Well, you're an Uktena, ain't you?
Don't you guys go on spirit quests alla time? Ask Sepdet about where them
allies came from an' shit; I dunno what she's been workin' on about them,
lately."
Kaz, stereotyping with the best of them.

"Yeah, I got to go ask Sepdet", Reggie gestulates, "But she isn't here,
and I keep having to ask everyone in existance who isn't here." Spray from
his spittle wets the air.

Kaz doesn't seem very sympathetic. "Dude, the whole of life is tracking
down people that ain't here right this instant."

Salem's mouth thins, the corners twisting downwards at Reggie's flying
saliva. "Sepdet's been around," he notes, coldly.

Reggie inhales. "Yeah. And you've been doing that. The Fang. And
War-leader. Speaking of tracking down. I found out you guys left Rialto.
Where'm I supposed to find you?"

Kaz says, vaguely, "Around." She adds, "You want my cel number? Easiest
way to track me down, lately."

Reggie says, "Sure."

Kaz reels off her number. "We're kinda scattered."

Salem mutters, "Safer that way."

Reggie shakes his head, "I'll never remember that unless you put it to a
jingle, make a word out of it, or write it down, and I don't have a pen."

Kaz nods. "Though," she adds, in Salem's general direction, "We ain't much
into isolation." She snaps a finger at Reggie. "Sorry, right, /I/ ain't
good at numbers that ain't on paper, either." She quickly writes it down
and hands it over.

Reggie studies the paper, and asks, "Now, is it ABC for 1, not 9, and
there's no Q?", as he starts trying to see if it'd make a word.

Kaz's eyes cross just slightly as she thinks. "Q's on the 7."

Salem gives Kaz the ol' hairy eyeball at her remark, then makes a 'hnh'
noise of assent and nods.

"--and nothing on the zero. How does this work when there's a zero in the
number and no vowels", Reggie runs up into difficulties, then recalls an
issue to help distract him from the task, "There'll be a gathering for the
spirits--Drags-Buffalo-around--I mean Leonard--he's doing that. There
going to be one for the Get?"

Kaz suggests, "Use the zero as a vowel?" and then asks, in a 'just
checking' kind of way, "Y'all hear the stuff about how three outta the
four folks we tried Silver Forge on're gone, and about how I want to
fuckin' attack them on the Full even if they don't got no Ritemaster no
more? And about how Robert's some weird ass place that ain't here, but
Andrea don' think he's dead?" She blinks. "Don't know. Want one. But we
got 2 /other/ people we have to do Gatherings for, and we got an assault
comin' up, so we might wanna... maybe do a group Gatherin' after the
Full." Kaz, optimist.

"Not dead... but the Questing Stone can't find him?" Salem sounds dubious.
More, pessimistic. And tense, let's not forget tense.

Reggie tries humming a couple of the digits, trying out its potential as a
jingle. "No, yes, no, no really?", he answers in the same humming tone.
"If he's somewhere that can't be found, going to be hard to get him back."

Kaz nods. "Andrea says our focus oughta be on whupping butt at the Caern,
and she and her pack can go look for him later, if and when we finish
whupping butt over there."

Salem unfolds his arms and pushes his hands into the front pockets of his
jeans, scowling. "Good sense. Any word on any _plans_ for the assault?"

Kaz shakes her head. "That's the other thing she done said, she basically
said, only politer, that she ain't no ahroun, an' the kahuna 'rouns gotta
do the plannin'. So I guess they're off doin' that."

"And the war leader's gone", Reggie adds, although it isn't news anymore,
"Another daisy eater's taken up the role, word is."

Kaz echoes, "Dai... Oh, Nightflash, right? Lupus dude, don't talk much."

Salem nods in reply to Kaz, his gaze moving eastward, past the river. He
glances sharply back at Reggie's comment. "Hardly a daisy eater, that
one," he notes.

Reggie confirms the name with a huh-uh and a nod. "That one. Night
something."

Kaz nods. "He's kinda into, um, well, anyway, ask Sepdet about him."

Reggie looks curiously from Kaz to Salem. "Oh ho. Well, I'll take a wild
guess that he doesn't have a cell phone or a homing signal, so I'll go put
on my tramping boots. Full moon's coming up."

Kaz nods. "He sure the fuck don't. He hangs around Wolf Woods these days,
over toward th' Mountain Bowl."

Salem adds, with dour helpfulness, "Owen packs with him, I believe."

Kaz adds, given Reggie's memory, "Owen being the big Get with an attitude
problem."

Reggie adds, freely stereotyping away, "They're all big Gets with attitude
problems."

Kaz grins. "Yeah, well, this one calls Robert 'French Bob' and goes around
swearing inventively."

Reggie states, "Okay, the first part is likely unique but the second part
isn't. I'll just find the most inventive swearers, line them up, and ask
what they call Robert. Failproof."

Kaz asks, "Any chance you might wanna learn th' Questin' Rite someday?
Instead of doing police lineups of random Garou?"

"We have a total of three Get that I know of," says Salem, humorlessly.
"One's female. One's a theurge, and fairly fucking calm." Unlike the
Walker himself at the moment. "Owen's the other one. Bald. Bearded. And
vulgar."

"There's an idea", Reggie replies to Kaz, "But got no time for that now. I
got to get tramping."

Kaz manages a slight smile. "Well, ok. Bug me, when you /do/ got time for
it."

The Uktena heads off to find bald, bearded, and vulgar people for a lineup.

Kaz mentions, not-at-all casually, after she's watched the Uktena out of
sight, "You know. He smells Wyrmy. But then... He's an ahroun."

Salem stares after the grubby Uktena for a moment, then tilts a look down
at the less-disreputable Bone Gnawer. "Rage, you think?"

Kaz continues to watch where Reggie disappeared to. "Well. I don' smell
stuff too good, out here, so I dunno. I /think/ he's only a lil' worse
than most Ahrouns. An' he ain't never done nothin' to harm the place." A
pause. "As far as I know."

Salem looks back in the direction that Reggie tramped off to, and his
upper lip twitches away from his teeth. Still, he points out, "He was with
us Thursday."

"An' he was with us when we took back the Rialto," Kaz admits, finally
looking over to Salem. "But I'm gonna be payin' attention to him."

"Good idea," says the Walker darkly. Then he looks back at the Gnawer.
"You need my new contact number."

Immediately, Kaz says, "Yes. Yes, I do."

Salem reaches into a back pocket and draws out a folded scrap of notepad
paper, all prepared. Just for her? He offers it between two fingers.
"Don't share it. With anyone."

Kaz starts to say something, then stops, and looks at him appraisingly. "I
like that. Do you got more than one? You can't narrow folks who're
blabbin' down if you give it out to more'n one person, after all..."

"The few people who have this number are those I'd trust with my life,"
Salem says, looking her right in the eye.

One or two identifiable and unidentifiable emotions flit across Kaz's
face, as she meets that gaze; slight shame, surprise, respect. Then the
smallest corner of her mouth turns up, and she nods, just slightly. "OK."

The stern, cold set of Salem's saturnine face hardly changes. "Good."

The metis exhales, looking off at the river again. "When," she asks,
almost bitterly, "Did I start trustin' you?"

Salem folds his arms across his chest and, himself, decides to examine the
fountain. "I assume that's rhetorical."

Kaz mutters, "Yeah, I guess. But /goddam/ this is..." She trails off.

"Strange bedfellows, yes." Salem turns head just enough that he'd be
eyeing her, if his dead left eye had any vision in it.

Kaz manages the barest of smiles. "Yah." She shakes her head faintly, and
asks, "Anyways. You got all the news you need?"

Salem nods curtly. "I think so. You're heading to patrol?"

Kaz nods. "Yeah. Umbra, t'night."

Salem acknowledges this with a grunt. "Walk safe."

Kaz wanders off toward the river, and a more secluded spot, without
pausing to pick up any trash.