[Mama Ankle-Biter] It was unseasonably warm. The sun peering through the large puffy blankets of clouds that roll over the bright blue skies, casting long shadows over the pavement. A small figure of a girl or woman sits on top of an overturned trashcan, her legs bouncing back and forth, the heels of her boots drumming out a tattoo on the metal can as she watches with interest at the little scene going on behind the dumpster.
A small hill of furry little bodies – browns, grays, blacks and mottled colors – were crawling and fighting for the tasty morsels of junk food and leftover pizza that was thrown out near the hole in the wall of an abandon building. The rats feasting like kings – courtesy of the frizzy haired blond that watched them.
[Marni] A streetrat always pays attention to other streetrats, especially when they’re little furry ones with long little rat tails and swollen bellies and speak of a feast. If someone’s feeding them, there’s a reason, and Marni is following the trail…
Marni’s also eating. After all, she’s trying to compensate for the gnawer gnawing at her insides, demanding more from the curvy girl with the high metabolism – she thought she was always hungry BEFORE… but now? Now, it’s lunchtime and she’s got herself another hotdog with the works because the guy at the AMPM thinks she’s cute. And she is. Even with mustard on her nose.
She slides up next to Mama’s throne, and finishes chewing her bite, and watches the rats feast. “Hi Mama.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Her nose twitches at the smell of the hot dog, stomach rumbling with the need for sustenance, but Mama does not dare take a slice from the pizza on the ground. She defers to the rats as the highest in station, and so watches and waits. The small fasting will do no harm.
She tips her head to the side, glancing over at Marni with an all-to-wide smile, chuckling under her breath as she smooths her hands over the thin layers of sundresses that she wears over her knees. “How ya feeling, baby? The little one holding up for now?”
The Gnawer glances back over at the little furry minions that start to vanish once they were done devouring their feast. She tilts her head, sniffling once, and sighs. “They’s so cute sometimes. Hurt like a bitch when they’s bite though.”
[Marni] Marni automatically offers her hot dog to Mama, specially when she hears the rumbling of her belly. Sharing is automatic, and honest, and true. Mama is Fostern, and Tribe, and all the things Marni might some day grow up to be – if the Lords don’t kill her first. At the question, she makes a face, though it’s a little amused. “Guess so – Ain’t been this hungry since I was at the Green an’ we fasted forever.” Which, to a gnawer, is like 12 hours. Or so. “I fuckin eat all the time. I’ma be so fuckin’ fat…”
Not a chance, really. And she rubs her nose – spreading the mustard around a little before managing to clean it off, and nods with a chuckle. “Yeah. Sent a horde after the Fenrir jarl once, cuz he’s a raciest prick. Sweet Honey’d him… He aint ever gonna mention it, I’m sure, since he ran screamin like a girl…””
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mama graciously takes the hot dog from Marni, she peels off what is left in half and gives the rest of it back to the Gnawer, knowing that the No moon’s need for food outweighs her own. She pops her half into her mouth, licking the mustard off her fingers. Her chest lifting up as she sighs happily.
Another sniffling, eyebrows start to furrow in thought at what Marni says. “Joey and Bob and myself caught a Spiral last night torturing rat-spirits. He was using them as some kinda bait to summon up banes.. two died before we could save’em. The Spiral done run off after we took out the banes. Joey and myself tracked it down to some part of the umbra that looked like an alley.”
Her small frame starts to bristle up, tension bleeding out of her as every muscle grows rigid. She balls her hands up into tiny fists and shakes them in the air defiantly, “Joey was stupid and started to bait the Spiral Theurge in the alley, and it wouldn’t come out. Mama’d just barely manage to warn her that it was a trap before that Fenrir done gone in to spring a trap – they tried to ambush us.”
She grins, bringing up a hand to tap fingers on her temple, “Mama was smart though, summoned a Rat-spirit to halp, asked for vengeance. He agreed and done bring on the Swarm… pretty scary sight seeing a sea of rat-spirits consume three Spirals… but oh so beautiful.”
[Marni] Marni takes the rest of the rest of the dog back, and plops it into her mouth, licking her fingers clean afterwards. Then her hands tuck into her pockets, her shoulders rolling briefly under the straps of her pack as she listens. Brow furrows slightly, as she hears what happened, and how Joey was stupid.
She grins though, to hear Mama and the Rats saved the day. That’s worth smiling about, for sure. She nods, slightly. “Yeah, I bet it was.” Beautiful, that is. “Need help feedin them? I got some places I can get stuff from.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] “Nah.”
She shakes her head, sharing a smile with Marni. “It’s something Mama has to do for chiminage for helping.” She looks back to the rats again, watching as the last one scurries away into some dark hole in the wall of the building. She hums to herself, shuffling around on her seat until she faced Marni.
“Mama’s come to a decision.” She claps her hands together, rubbing dirty palms together, “Ya shouldn’t be alone. We’s need to take care of each other, and we benefit greatly as a pack.”
[Marni] She nods, understanding that, and then as the last Rat scurries off, and Mama faces her, she arches a brow… it hitches higher, once, and then she laughs softly, oh so sadly.
“I ain’t good for no packs. When I find em, they get lost or…” She mourns the loss of Indira deeply, still, and that shadow slides through her eyes, telling of the sorrow she tries so hard to hide, even now. She lifts a hand and scrubs at her face, briefly, and looks away, the muscles in her jaw working as they flex and clench, before relaxing again once her emotions are for sure under control again.
Only then does she look back at Mama, and tip her head. “Be awful brave of Mama to want to risk herself like that…” Unspoken, the loss of the Fostern would near kill Marni too. In the end, though, curiosity wins out… “…who’d we follow?”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mama was banking on Marni’s curiosity flicker at her prospect. She swings her legs back and forth, running her greasy, dirty fingers back through blond curls to push them out of her eyes. All full of smiles as she replied, “Ain’t nothing brave about it, baby, Gnawers need to stick together. It’s a part of life that we’s gonna die, this much Mama’s come to accept since Moonshine died.”
She knows the pain that Marni goes through with the loss of Indira, the little Gnawer had to go through it herself when she first set a paw into the city. “Mama’d like to follow our tribal totem if’n she can find willing participants. Rat’s never done us wrong and she’ll provide for us.”
[Marni] She chews on her lower lip, and watches where the rats had scurried off too, slipping into the little holes in the wall, the little gaps in the chain, the underbrush of the city as it were. They’re unseen, but still there, somewhere. They always are.
She runs fingers through her curls – grungy now, as she’s not bothered with a daily cleanup since she hasn’t gotten the nerve up to see Ray yet – and she’ll be damned if she’ll set foot in the Brotherhood again for a bit. But the fact is, she knows she shouldn’t be alone – she knows Mama’s right. It ain’t natural for a wolf to be alone, and Marni’s never been one that does well without a pack. And she needs someone that understands… specially now… and of all the others in the city, there is likely none other she’d follow willingly.
Finally, softly. “If Mama ain’t worried, then I’ll try not to be too. Rat ain’t never let me down, neither.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mama giggles. It’s a happy little growling noise she makes. Her hands clap together, arms flung up into the air waving around excitedly. They drop immediately to either side of the trashcan as she leans her weight on them and pushes off. The little Gnawer turns suddenly, pouncing on Marni with flailing arms that are thrown around her and squeezing the other Gnawer in a hug.
She practically squeals in delight. “Mama ain’t worried one bit, baby!”
[Marni] Mama giggles, and then suddenly launches herself at Marni, and she can’t help but laugh a little as she catches her and hugs her back. She’s not worried at all, but that’s ok, as Marni will worry enough for the both of them.
The 2.015 of them.
She takes a breath, filling her senses with Mama’s scent, her confidence, her ability to make things seem ok, and then nods once, twice. “Ok, then.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mama loops an arm around Marni’s neck, pulling her down to lean up and nuzzle the Gnawer’s cheek in a very lupine way, and then leaves a motherly kiss on top of Marn’s forehead. She lets her go, pulling back to stuff her hands into the hidden pockets sewn into her dresses to find her coin purse.
She pulls it out, holding it up to her ear and jiggles it. She is rewarded with a loud jingle of metal coins clicking together musically. “Mama thinks… she has enough change to buy two ice cream cones. It’s getting hotter than a damn frying pan out here, what say ya, we go get some cones and make fun of the fancy people that have to stand in line with us.”
[Marni] She can’t help but laugh at the nuzzle, and the kiss, before she too listens to that jingle. She starts sifting through her own pockets, and soon has some change herself.
And says with a straight face. “An’ I got enough for a pickle to go on top.” Then she grins and winks. “Jus’ kiddin – I mean for a dippin in hot fudge too. I think makin the fancy’s squirm is the perfect idea.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mama tucks the change purse back into the folds of her dress. She loops her arm through Marni’s and starts to drag the other curly-haired Gnawer off for some ice cream… all the while, trying her damnedest to not break out into show tunes.