Welcome to Chicago [Evan/Lonna]

then again, Evan didn’t look like he should have been able to do it, too.

He asks whose tribe she belonged to, and she turned and offered something of a half smile. Maybe she was just shocked, who knew. Maybe she was knocked for a loop with the timing of all things; this was the second time within forty-eight hours that she’s found herself staring at dead bodies and holding a smoking gun. But that has nothing to do with her tribe.

She stops, she looks back at the other Gaian, and she nods.

“I’m a Child of Gaia,” she tells him. “So… uh… I guess… we’ve got that in common.”

He gives her ammunition, and she slips it into her purse.

At least that’s what it LOOKS like she’s doing, playing with it.

In reality, she is searching, and the stone is leading her way – but who would ever believe that? The wind tugs and whips her hair about her slender torso, the long dreads held at the base of her neck with a ribbon. She’s dressed simply – a sweater that looks warm ragged at the same time, a skirt that falls almost to the tips of the well worn hiking boots she wears. Her makeup is minimal, and what catches the eye first – after the dreads – is the multiple facial piercings. Two lower lip, two small studs on either side of her nose, and her ears.

Unique, she is – just like everyone else.

She pulls her lower lip between her teeth as she turns the corner – conveniently to the street where a cleanup is in progress. Funny how that happens – considering the Questing Stone and all…

“Okay I am gonna get rid of these bodies. And then we can talk some more.”

he grabbed onto the pair of bodies that laid there. Pulling them towards a dark spot in the alleyway behind them. Grabbing whatever parts he could, leaving nothing behind. And once the coast was clear, he sidestepped, moving over to further shift up, claws looking to dessimate the bodes even further.

She was a Child of Gaia who carried a rather hefty, rather lethal gun in her purse. That might have been a recent addition, but she was pretty damned good with it, so one had to wonder how long she’d owned it. That, of course, was neither here nor there.

She ran a shakey hand through her hair, watching him pull the bodies off to wherever they needed to be- they would talk later. She nodded. And, well, she stood to be a lookout. And then?

Then she was looking at a girl with facial piercings, dreads, and was distinctly intense.

“… uh, we kinda have a visitor.”

It’s hard to miss the pretty Kin. Let’s be honest, it’d be near impossible to miss Lonna in any situation. Joss lowers her hand to her side, letting the stone fall against her thigh as she offers the other woman a smile. She captures a wind tosses dread in her free hand, and tosses it back over her shoulder once more, as she continues walking that way.

She can’t be much older than 18, Joss if that, and is pretty – but not in a traditional sense. Average height, average weight, average looks… average.

(She is anything but average.)

Of course that also meant cleaning up the mess that were these bodies. And that he did. Hacking and slashing. He couldn’t very well let them stay in the middle of the street. And afterwards he came back, moving back into the streets from the alleyway. Blood covering every last bit of his form it seemed. He had wanted to shed his shirt to keep the blood off, but that was not possible when a beast comes down on you.

And as he steps into the street he looks at the average woman, with average height, average weight. Average everything. He was not so average now. Covered in blood. He was a mess of blood now as he looked at the woman. He was exausted from the fray, drained mentally and spiritual. The inner beast quelled at this moment. And he couldn’t deal with anymore today.

His light green eyes fell on the girl as she continues to walk. He could feel it burning in her, the rage burning deeply within her. Boiling away. Eyes just watching. Patient.

The adrenaline had worn off, and now? She was just tired.

“Anything I can help you with, ma’am?” Polite as ever. Personable as ever. It was the best self defense mechanism she had.

When she stops near him, to where her voice and the name she chooses to use does not carry farther then him and the lovely kindswoman, only then does she speak. “Well, that was easier than anticipated. Finding one of you, I mean. Having a spot of trouble, Judgment of Sterling Silver?”

Perhaps on second look he may recognize her, perhaps not. The Sept of the Storm Hammer is not a small sept, and he did not grow up there – only attended moots with his pack. She recognizes him, though. Everyone knows of those that run with the Eagles. Either way, her knowing and using his deed name may come as a shock. Probably why she did it.

Lonna offers help, and she laughs softly, easily. “I should be asking you that considering…” she gestures absently to the bloodied pair, “…don’t you think?”

“And you would be?”

Even in his tired form he still held himself up, held himself high. He was Eagle, even after the shit hit the fan they stood tall, they stood proud. They stood strong.

No matter how much his body asked him to just lay down.

That’s a tale for another day.

She would be…? “…looking for you. Or more precisely, Silence.” Her voice is startlingly free of accent, other than what she picks up from those she spends a lot of time with. “I am Joss Lehrer, Gossamer Wing, Fostern Godi. I have come from Storm Hammer.”

She had come here from Storm Hammer, she had come here on foot it seemed. She had come here on the string and stone that had tracked out the Eagles. He was tired, but hell this was about pack, this was about his Alpha. And no one goes to see the wizard, not nobody, not no how. Unless they have a good reason.

“And what is it, you are looking for with Decker, if I may inquire?”

He had moved a little more now, moving towards his kin of his tribe. She was his kin for the moment as he was the only Coggie he knew in Chicago.

“You may,” inquire, that is. “Rumor filtered back home that you are in need of a Godi. I have come to offer my services, should I pass muster, of course.” It really as simple as that.

For now.

Then he was back and towards the godi before him.

“Well I think we need to clean up before he continue this conversation. I mean chicago is not like storm hammer. More eyes that shouldn’t see things.”

He looked to Lonna, then towards her car.

“Do you have any extra clothes to change into?”

The offer is simple and heartfelt, as she follows his lead. He knows the area better than she does, he knows exactly what must be done to shield the prying normal eyes from discovering their existence. “if not, ma’am, i may have something in my pack that might fit…” Though Lonna is considerably more well endowed than she herself is, a t-shirt will stretch… right?

Lonna started to make her way over to her car, clicking the alarm off and then she opened the trunk and started to rummage through to find clothes. Her car was a mess of laundry and wrappers. Lonna was distinctly bustier than the godi, but something about that made her stop, made her smile mid search and then?

“I appreciate it, thank you,” she said. The hunt for clothing continued, though, and did not stop until she found what else was left. It wasn’t people-presentable clothing by any means. Paint splattered running shorts and a tee shirt.

she slipped into the back of her car to change. May as well.

Evan had just played punching bag with something that should have died some time ago, as… oh damn that flesh had smelt bad in retrospect. And what the hell did that thing bite people just to get more blood into it. When did the human body have that much blood in it.

Understood.

He had watched as the coggie woman started away for a second and then he turned back to the Godi as the kin slipped into her car to change.

“Who did you run with before? What happened to them?”

Yeah he was going to handle it, even if he was about to pass out.

Then she blinks and gets back to the questions at hand. “I ran with my father’s pack since my change, through my right of passage, and my fostern quest. They still run strong at Storm Hammer, and it is with their – and their totem’s – blessing that I have come to Chicago.”

“And what totem was that?”

This girl was not the normal Get he had seen at storm hammer. Most of them were rough, hardened, damned forged in hellfire. She was… nice, accomadating. Odd really.

She doesn’t offer him the pink shirt. She’s not entirely stupid. Likewise, she digs past the black one with the gold sparkles and instead hands him a simple gray shirt with small gold lettering that declares “a e i o F U” to be “irritable vowels”

“That should fit well enough for the trip home, anyway. Totem? Wolverine.” She says it easily enough, as if it’s not difficult to imagine her – Godi or not – a member of a pack under such a ferocious totem.

Maybe she is more rough, hardened, forged in hellfire than he thought….

She was tired. Then again, she didn’t have the spiritual awareness that Evan had to be that kind of tired. It was a differnet sort of tired, the kind that came in the form of being up past her bedtime. The kind of tired that came from a sort of mental and emotional fatigue. For her part, she wasn’t curled up in the fetal position-

She stopped that train of thought where it was, and she folded her arms across her chest. She didn’t know quite what to do with herself for the time being.

Then again he was Beta of the Eagles for some reason.

“A strong totem. Totem of war. Good.”

A bit reckless at times. But still a strong totem, Decker might find that suitable.

“Okay. But what brings you down here? Why leave such a beautiful place to be…” He looks around. “this city? What makes you think you can run with Eagle?”

Evan asks why, and she gives the question the thought it deserves. Then… “All my life I have been prepared to become Godi. When I changed, I was then taught and prepared and always pushed for the next thing. I could have stayed at Storm Hammer, it’s true, but when you feel called elsewhere, you answer it. My Father’s pack still has him as Godi. Storm Hammer is a sept that is strong. Chicago is a city that needs more to defend it. Eagle is a pack that needs a Godi. It seemed that the path I was to take next was well marked.”

She shrugs, and grins up at Evan. “As for Eagle, I intend to prove myself worthy to run you. I do not expect to be merely accepted because of my word, my past. I welcome your trial by fire, Judgment of Sterling Silver. I will not disappoint.” She is confident, though she does not come across as overly so. Maybe it’s the smile. Maybe it’s the ease with which she stands before him, comfortable within her own skin, her role in this city, in this life.

“Oh its not my trial by fire. I assure you.”

He turns to his kin woman afterward. Smiling to her after all the hell she had seen tonight. A smile that was there to try and warm her heart, ensure that everything was okay, That it was okay to be tired. A smile of acceptance and gratitude.

“You did well tonight Lonna. I am impressed how well you handled the situation.”

“This… is the second time I have shot the ever-loving crap out of something in as many days,” she said. She self-censored.

It was odd, because they were both adults, but she was surprisingly clean in speech and manner. She didn’t say shit tonight, and the F-word seemed to be reserved for dire situations (like dying or fucking.) Lonna looked at Evan and gave an upward nod.

“Please tell me this city slows down.”

He turns to address his kinswoman, and Joss slips her hands back into the pocket of her skirt, and listens. She says she has shot things to death twice in two days and a brow lifts slightly, but that smile never wavers, so much as simply lingers.

Do cities ever slow down? While Lonna hopes so, part of Joss does not.

Or maybe one day Gaia will get tired of it all and just wipe away everything, start from scratch. Yeah that could happen too.

“Sometimes.”

A lie, a horrible lie.

(Mapi+Subterfuge, comfort Lonna in a lie)

She was clueless, and for that Lonna could be thankful.

“Good,” she said. “And thanks, I appreciate it.”

The compliment, that is. About handling herself well. About not falling apart on the ground and becoming a useless, quivering, sobbing mass of Child of Gaia kin. It has happened before.

She does not fidget, she doesn’t shift her weight, she simply watches and listens.

“Will you be okay enough to get home? If you need anything you can call me. I am the only Child of Gaia in chicago… except for within the bawn.”

He paused, no they were not going to think of taking on a kin. They had to portect the caern, this was her sept afterall.

“At least last I knew.”

He offered her his number if she needed anything. She was of his blood, cousins. If she needed to rely on him he would help, whenever he could. Then back to the Get, just nodding.

“I’ll call you,” she said. “Not for anything crazy though… if you and your wife need anything though, you know, you can do the same.”

She was silent for a moment, and then? Well, she had to ask. She had to ask because, finally, she was standing up and meeting the garou of the city and someone might know and-

Okay, Larson, breathe here.

“I.. uh… hey. I’m-” breathe, Larson. “I’m looking for a friend of mine… who…”

Spit it out.

“He died here about a year ago and… I was wondering if you could help me visit him.”

“I’m sure we’ll meet again soon. I’ll leave you to tend to your kin.”

She lifts a hand to wave to Lonna, before heading toward the phonebooth down the way – hoping there’s a phone book hanging inside.

“And that would be? I will help if I can.”

He ran his hand through his hair now. Blood still caked on his hands and in his hair now, up his arms and everything.

Stated. Tried to make it sound easier, more professional. Just visiting friends. Truth be told, she had rolled across the country with a bunch of very angry, glory seeking males for some time. She had a lot of friends across the country, and a lot of them were pushing up daisies. It didn’t make it any easier, it just made it a fact of life.

They’re garou. It happens.

He’d help if he could. She seems relieved.

“Yes, I was here when he… fell. I know where he is buried however I cannot take you there. I am sorry….”

He scratched at his check, pondering.

“But I think I may know someone who can help you. If he is willing.”

But he has other things on his mind, and seemed a bit busy, so she was certainly not going to impose. Instead, she looked up the number and address of The Brotherhood of Thieves. Once found, she slips her cell phone from the pocket along the strap of her pack, and goes about getting directions.

Gaia bless GPS.

Silver lining from one who was said to have sterling judgement.

“I really, sincerely hope he’s willing,” she said. “Who is he?”

He looked at the kin now, somber.

“Issac is buried within the bawn of this city. I am not allowed on that land. Not until my pack makes amends and returns to the sacred land here in Chicago. But I will ask him, I will let him know you wish to see Issac’s grave.”

She is Godi.
The last thing she is, is in her right mind.

“That?… would be appreciated, but don’t go out of your way. I mean, favors are… favors are a big deal, and I wouldn’t want you cashing in something so big on my account.”

Though, that was not to say that she wouldn’t love it if he did.

“Thank you, Evan.”