[Mama Ankle-Biter] It was sweltering a hot summer night in the city, the breeze that rolls off the river does little to ease the heat that clings to the air. It offers some relief as it cools the sweat across the skin, but not much else to alleviate the temperatures. The water ran dark at this hour, the lights of the city twinkling like stars in a blackened sky, bobbing up and down across the wet surface. One little Gnawer combs the edge of the riverside, her hand braced against her left shoulder, fingers scritching at the small brown object that writhes under her attentions, squeaking and twitching its nose, the long tail of the rat-spirit coiling around the gnawer’s slim wrist.
Her eyes were dark against the horizon, darting about as if in search of something as they span the horizon, every now and then, she turns to the rat, speaking to it in the voice of the spirits.
[Marni] No one knows the Chicago streets as well as Marni. There are hidden nooks and crannies that she can get so lost in that very few would be able to locate her. She’s spent the past week in those places. Hiding, scrounging… something. Each night, as she’d promised him, she returns home to Ray. But all day, every day, she’s on the streets, she’s patrolling, she’s…
..existing.
[barely]
Along the banks of the river, there are numerous little places to squeeze into, and she’s currently occupying one of those – along a dock, tucked between two pilings, practically hidden in the darkness. Her legs swing out over the water, swaying idly. Her head rests against a piling, curls pressed against rotting wood, her hands resting idly in her lap. She eyes the distance, seeing nothing.
[Mama Ankle-Biter] They lack the connection of pack, their minds no longer touching. A wedge driven between the pair of Gnawers that the Theurge had put there herself in anger. Marni had suffered the most at the Fostern’s decisions, flighty and irrational as they were. It takes the cajoling of the rat-spirit to help Ankle-Biter find the wayward No Moon, unable to track her down any other way. Marni knew the streets of Chicago better than Mama.
Every nook, every little dark place to hide.
Her nostrils flare out, boots scuffing over the warped wood of the dock as she finally found the other Gnawer. The rat-spirit squeaks out, jumping from the Gnawer’s shoulder to run along the ground, disappearing into the shadows to vanish from sight. It had done its job. Now, Mama clears her throat, hands tucking behind her back as she looks at the curly haired girl sitting on the dock.
“Marni…”
[Marni] She doesn’t move. She doesn’t turn to look when she hears the footsteps, when the rat goes running. She’d expected to be found sooner or later, at some time and place. All she does, is take a breath. Hold it. And let it out again.
Then, softly, and without any power or any of her former vibrancy behind it – two words.
“Go away.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] It doesn’t take psychic to know that she had hurt her tribe mate, likely lost the trust and confidence the other Gnawer had in Mama. She furrows her eyebrows, mouth twisting open to speak and the promptly closes. She doesn’t turn away, her steps are silent on the warped wood, watching Marni’s back.
“Ain’t going anywhere, baby. Done told ya that.”
Her voice rumbles in a soft growl of frustration, “Marni…” sighing, “M’sorry, it ain’t gone be enough, don’t expect ya to accept it.”
[Marni] Ain’t going no where, done told you that.
“You lied then, didn’t ya.”
There’s no question that she’s hurt, that she expected more from them, because they promised it would be different, that it would be ok, that she wouldn’t have to go through the loss of another pack like she had Indira, Max.
Disturbingly, there’s no heat behind her words. There’s nothing there – as if she only speaks because she’s expected to, not because of any feeling behind it. Apathy at it’s worse.
[Mama Ankle-Biter] You lied then, didn’t ya…
Her shoulders flinch, chest rising as she sucks in a deep breath, holding for a few seconds and then allows it to explode past her lips. Blond eyebrows furrow inward as she doesn’t abruptly defend herself against that accusation. “If’n ya want to see it that way, possibly, maybe not, figuring as Mama’s still here, some truth to it. Ain’t left like Karl done, Marni.”
Her hand rose up to scratch at the back of her neck, peeling the wet blond curls off her shoulders, lips twisting into a snarl at the sticky feeling the humidity leaves. She moves forward, shifting closer to Marni as she comes to stand at the edge of the dock. “Never did make the best decisions at these kind of things… can’t rightly make it up to ya, ain’t no way of knowing how. Didn’t lie to ya, ain’t left ya in the dark, Marni, still here. Not dead yet.”
[Marni] She swings her feet, and then hooks them on the edge of the dock, standing – her hand on the wood beside her. She takes a breath, and then turns to face Mama.
“Bullshit. You severed the link. You commanded the Charm to leave us. You abandoned us, just as much as Karl did. You stand here, and tell me you’re not dead and that’s supposed to be enough. It’s not. It’s not enough.”
Finally, some fire. In fact, by the end of it, her eyes are burning, and she’s itching to shift, to change, to tear and destroy. She does not have the rage of many, but what she does have borders on raging out of control..
“You SWORE that you wouldn’t leave us – that you would lead us. You swore we’d be the pack that the Sept needed, that we’d stick together. Then you let him take lead. Then you let him leave – and worse yet? You chose then to fuckin rip the totem from us without a word… NOT A SINGLE WORD. You left us in the dark. YOU.”
A step then, toward Mama, her eyes flashing with anger, pain, rage and fire… “You are not fit to lead. Not a pack. Not a tribe. I challenge you right here and fucking now – the Gnawers need a leader that won’t abandon them when she gets angry, but will FIGHT for them instead. I will fight for them. Right here, right now.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Marni swings her legs beneath her, pulling herself up to turn on the blond Gnawer. Mama braces for the confrontation that is to come. She pivots, turning to face Marni, arms swinging around to pull up across the small expanse of her chest, folded tightly with hands tucked against her ribs.
“Mama did severe the link. There wasn’t much of a Charm left after Karl done walked away from it. He wanted to lead, Marni, he’d done challenge me for it once already and Mama’d set him in his place. How as she to know that he’d drop us like he did and pack up for whatever the hell’s happening in Germany.”
Features set tightly in her face, brows furrowed as the left corner of her mouth curls backwards, “Swore ya and me would would stick together, Marni, ya and me. Ain’t much of our numbers in this city to really lead, girl, ya know how Gnawers go. We ain’t a bunch’a fangs, baby, we’s barely a tied together as a tribe as it is.”
She shakes her head, “Ya wanna challenge me for the right to lead the tribe? Who ya gone rally around to bolster the ranks.” She wrinkles her nose up, growling softly at the accusations of bein ill-fit to lead a pack, this she accepts, but to lead a tribe… “Challenge accepted.”
[Marni] “Karl weren’t the whole fuckin’ Charm, Mama. that’s a weak-ass excuse.” She snorts, and then at the end just shakes her head.
“And just who have you rallied together, Mama? You left me. You swore it’d be you n me, and didn’t even see fit to TALK to me before doing so. At least Karl did that. At least he talked to me first. You didn’t. I ain’t never done no one wrong just because I was in a snit. We may be barely fuckin tied together, but that knot should be someone who ain’t gonna walk away when th’goin gets rough.”
Challenge is accepted, and she nods. “Good. Here and now.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] She grunts.
“Here and now.”
Lips pursed together, she draws a hand up in the air, running it back through the blond curls to peel it off a sweaty brow, “Since ya so insistent, pick the challenge.”
[Marni] “No. You’ll do it honorable or ya walk away an’ forfeit right fuckin’ now, Mama! I challenged, you name th’challenge, I name th’time an’ place. You know how it fuckin works. Do it right, or accept defeat now, an’ walk away.”
She snorts, and tucks her hands into her pocket.
“Ya good at that, already.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] “Ya so determined to lead, Marni Geller, then here’s how it goes. Ya have til the end of the next half moon to find those of the tribe that dwell in the city, and get’em to follow ya as a leader. Ya gone take the mantle of an Alpha during this time, so best find ya some warm bodies and git to gitten.”
Her arms remain tight against her chest, head lifting as she watched Marni. “It’s kinda like pot to kettle when the only thing ya did was go bonk ya boy toy while we’s out fighting, Marni. If’n I ain’t fit to lead a tribe, ya ain’t fit to fight in a war.”
[Marni] Her voice is dangerously soft. “So ya lied then, too, did ya.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] “If’n it pushes ya away enough to think that, then so be it.”
She quirks an eyebrow, “Terms accepted?”
[Marni] She’s furious, but more than that – she’s hurt. Deeply, desperately, and unforgivably hurt. Her voice is still so very soft.
“Accepted. And know this – even if they ain’t gonna follow me? That right there assured I’ll never follow ya again, Mama. Ya said that what I was doin was just as important, that I’d be fightin again soon enough, to not risk th’baby… ya said” and here she quotes her exactly… few know just how good a memory Marni has… “Ya said… Ya ain’t forsaken ya duties, ya’ll be back to fighting condition soon enough. Ya’re doing a blessed thing, carrying this pup, baby. It’s honorable. It’s what Gaia has us do, just cuz we’s garou don’t exclude us none from doing something as precious as being a mother. Trust me, baby, done bore two litters worth of pups already, done my duty for the nation. Being here with us, participating in talks, decisions, that’s still stuff ya doing with the pack. Ya can always halp out with little things that needs to be done, like halping Victor take care of samples for the totem, to halp the shrine grow… other things that won’t put the pup in harm’s way.”
She shakes her head again. “… an now ya accuse me of letting you down.” A silent moment, and then she turns back to the water… “Ya wanted t’push me away…” She glances back once, then simply turns to settle to sit on the edge of the dock again.
“Mission accomplished.”
[Mama Ankle-Biter] Mission accomplished, in deed.
The blond Gnawer turns, pivoting on her feet to look the other way, her eyes skimming the horizon as she looks away from Marni, angling her head up, “Done deal then.”
Silence passes between them, her hand moves along her jaw, scratches nails under her chin as she appears thoughtful, head shaking slowly as her shoulders roll forward, “Best of luck, and good night…” One foot plods in front of the other, stepping off the dock to walk away from Marni, her thoughts pulled together in a furrowed reflection as she thinks on their talk.