[Marni] [nothing to see here]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7) Re-rolls: 1
[Marni] The city will provide – if you’re patient enough. Marni is plenty patient, especially now that she actually has a place to stay, not that she ever minded curling up in an cardboard box somewhere. What she does mind, however is a growling belly – which she’s decided to fill. Gnawers are known for sniffing out the best of the discarded food that can be found, and the short n’ stacked curvy Ragabash is a credit to her tribe.
Which is why she’s currently waist deep in a dumpster, reaching and stretching and straining to grab that container over there… they JUST threw it out – it shouldn’t be that ha…. “Ah, GOTCHA.”
She stands up, and closes the lid of the dumpster with a clang, before hopping up to sit on top of it – the Queen of the Dumpster – and dig into the still warm leftover chow mien someone just tossed. Still half full even. Score!
[Bai Chou] Rawr…rawr rawr rawr rawr rawr
A series of barks started to clamor further down the alley. They weren’t the barks of a big dog…in fact it had the yip and yap of a smaller dog that thought it had bigger balls then it should. Then bounding up, a small cairn terrier with mismatched patches of brown and black fur came. It barked and then circled around Marni…hopping around…even dancing on its hind legs. There was no collar to it…nothing to note it as some one else’s..
Then it barked again…tensed as if to say don’t move with a small growl bark and then bound away, barking at something else. Footsteps followed as a voice spoke up.
“…I’m coming I’m coming…let’s see what you’ve found Patches…”
The owner was a short man dressed in a peacoat, cigarette hanging from his lips unlit. His hair was smoothed down over his ears, more to protect the piercings that tried to poke out then to hide them from the cold of the night. Blue eyes paused and stared at her and then he glanced to the dog and then back to her.
“..well hello new face.”
[Marni] The dog bounds up and barks at the dumpster she’s sitting on, and Marni just arches a brow at it, while scooping chow mien from the container into her mouth. She eats like she hasn’t eaten in days – though it’s likely been less than 24 hours. The Dog growls at her and she snarls back in return, growling low in her throat. “Getcha own…”
Before she chuckles as it runs off again, and she takes another bite. She eyes Bai, and lifts her fingers – coated in the sauce from the container, which distracts her as she licks her fingers one by one. “Hey.”
[Bai Chou] Bai reached into a pocket…crouching down to give it to the small dog, the terrier soon pouncing onto the pizza crust….pizza bones…for a moment the Uktena paused, glancing to the side as if he had heard another voice…correcting him on the term for the doggie treat. The eyes then flicked away from memory lane as he looked over at Marni.
“There’s better eats behind Hwang’s by the way. They dump the stuff individually rather then just into trash bags or bins.”
Bai said, not ashamed to admit he’s been on the bottom of the barrel himself as he finally moved to slide out his matches. The dog makes a little growl at the crust as it continues to attempt to conquer something almost the size of its torso.
“I’m Bai Chou.”
[Marni] She nods with an easy grin. “I’ll remember that. This ain’t bad though – saw the guy toss it”
She scoops up another bite, chewing contemplatively, as she watches him with the dog. Then she licks her fingers once again, wipes them on her jeans and offers a hand from atop her perch.
“Marni.”
[Bai Chou] Bai glanced at the hand before he took it…gave it a shake and let it go. The fingers move back to his smoke as he inhales, gauging her for a moment before he inhales and exhales, more a sigh then him trying to smoke.
“How long have you been Chicago and have you gone to see Maelstrom?”
Bai gauged her again…he didn’t ask questions of new faces without some precaution. That was where the lost pup spirit played in…manifested, it looked like a normal dog but unless you had the Words, none of what it did made sense. Patches had helped him identify similar denizens in Chinatown for him…in turn…he had always made sure it had some place to lay its head.
[Marni] She arches a brow slightly. “Ask all strangers that? If so, ya ain’t so smart.”
She scrapes out the last couple bites before she answers chewing and swallowing them away, before she opens the other side of the dumpster to toss the container back in. She licks off her fingers, dries them on her pants, and only then does she answer.
“Long enough, and o’course – have YOU?”
Sorta.
[Bai Chou] “I have…and I don’t ask all strangers that…only ones he finds.”
He points down to the little terrier as it glances up, licks it chops, almost as if grinning at her before returning to its prize.
“Its a neat little trick we developed as part of our chiminage.”
He gave a grin before he rolled the cigarette to the side of his mouth.
“I’m known as Godslayer…I walk amongst the Uktena and Chinatown is my home.”
Bai pointedly avoids saying territory…something he would have used freely before. He knows better now…he learns…time does that. And diligent smartasses who liked to remind him how big this part of the city was. One Garou couldn’t take care of it on their own.
[Marni] “Ahhh.” she says, and eyes the little dog again, clearly suspicious still, but she just swings her legs a little, letting them bounce against the side of the dumpster with a clangclangclang. Full of energy, Marni.
“Sticky Fingers, Gnawin’ that bone, and proud member of the Spitfire.”
He calls Chinatown home – but avoids the use of the term territory. She nods, slightly, accepting that easily enough. “We’re over in Back of the Yards.”
[Bai Chou] “Just felt like some lo mein?”
He glanced at her…she wasn’t the first stray into Chinatown…wouldn’t be the last. Bai had a feeling even if he had a pack to call the place turf, he’d still be rather lenient unless someone pissed off the resident spirits.
“I walk alone myself…not for lack of trying. The Spitfires are a new name though. Recently formed?”
[Marni] She grins. “I tend to wander. Go where the El and the Bus lines take me.” course, she never pays for a fair, but she doesn’t tell him that. Like as not he’ll hear tales soon enough about the crazy chick that keeps Surfing on top of the public transit systems.
He walks alone. “Ain’t meant t’walk alone.” They’re not. Obvious, that, but she just shrugs. And about the Spitfire. “Recent enough – couple weeks ago.”
[Bai Chou] “…no…we’re not.”
He echoes her own words as he smoked, eyes drifting out the alley way before he looked back.
“So, tell me about Spitfire some…who it runs under…things like that.”
[Marni] She grins, her heels still hitting the side of the dumpster. Bongbongbongbong.
“We’re a buncha daredevils with a cause – four of us now, a fifth to join later on, likely. Follow Volcano. All change and attitude – a regular Spitfire. Alpha’s Stands in Defiance – Modi.”
[Bai Chou] Bai cannot contain the grimace at the Get term…he cups his hands over his lips as he takes another toke on the hand-rolled smoke…thoughtful for the moment before he spoke.
“…since I walk alone, I’m making a small area for myself of doing support work here and there. If you’re shaman ever gets into a bind or if you think you need an outside opinion…its not hard to find me. I have a few markers here and there across the Shadow that lead to where I stay.”
[Marni] He makes a face at the Get name – and she does the same at the term ‘shaman’ – to each their own, her point. She doesn’t tell them they don’t have one, though they have a Fianna who has a passel fulla rites. She just nods.
“Sure, no problem.”
[Bai Chou] Bai seemed about to say something else but the cairn terrier interrupted as it gave a yap bark and started to stand on its hind legs, sort of dancing around the Uktena. Bai arched a brow and amusement almost seemed to paint his features before the eyes flicked to Marni.
“Seems I have to part ways here. My cohort here is reminding me that I promised him I would finish making a little spot for him in the shop to call his own.”
[Marni] She grins and waves, before she hops off the dumpster. “Sure, no problem.”
And then she adjusts her pack on her back, and heads deeper into the alleyway, soon disappearing in the darkness as the Children of rat are known to do.
[Bai Chou] Bai smirked, watching her go before he looked down at Patches, soon walking with the lost pup spirit back towards the store.
“Yeah yeah…I know I was nice. You gonna keep giving me shit about it? Yes, I know you think she smelled a lot like her…but that’s because they both smelled like dumpsters….no…I don’t think she carries around pizza crusts in her pocket…”
Bai argued with the little dog as he walked…ignoring the stares he got from the few pedestrians out in this weather.