Rocco Santos
It’s late afternoon and the sun is still warm on the sidewalk. The weather isn’t unpleasant and the worst of the Tenderloin are not yet roaming the streets. Rocco and Jael sit at a last-row table outside a take-out place. They serve skewered meats, gyro’s, along with some chips and fries and burgers. The broad Uktena enjoys his meat spiced and heavy garnished with garlic sauce drizzled across the top. This time he’s eating it from a piece of flat bread, rolled up with a bunch of soggy lettuce, tomato and onion all wrapped within. There’s a soda within reach and a bunch of fries between them.
“What others have you met?” Rocco asks the man across from him. He’s referring to Garou or Kinfolk, anyone that has been spotted or spoken to within the city limits. For the most part the Ahroun seems to keep to himself. He had done in Chicago and much the same seems to be happening here.
While he waits to be briefed, he grabs a couple of fries and pops them into his mouth to chew. He’s watching the street. Not in some paranoid way, but in a subtle manner, getting a feel for the people and the faces around. He looks for the streets rhythm.
Jael Zanko
He sits with burger and fries in front of him. He’s dressed in jeans and a polo shirt. The slightly smaller man was chewing as the Uktena talked. He looked relaxed enough even though, like the Ahroun, he was aware of his surroundings.
“I know of Ezra, member of my group as well as Simon and Mila, who came from Chicago, a Fury too… Beside that, there’s Luana, my ward Daoi, her sister in law Nessa…also I have heard of a Milosk and a Bridget all related to my family. I’m almost wondering if this city as members of other families beside mine. At least on our cousins side”
He eats a few fries before taking another bite from his burger. He doesn’t precise who Luana is because Rocco knew the name well, having been introduced once.
Kiana Knowles
The street here breathes. It has it’s own rhythm, it’s own life, it’s own existence. There are those that fight against it – walking disjointedly through, looking over their shoulder, clutching their pepper spray, their keys, walking from point A to point B at almost a run.
Then there are the others. The ones that live and breathe the streets, that know the alleys and back streets and paths through muck and dirt and city grime like they know the back of their hand. There are those that slink from place to place, who melt into a crowd only to slip away from it unnoticed…
Those like Kiana.
Torn jeans, a tattered t-shirt edge showing under a beat up hoodie. Her hands are in the ‘roo pocket, her hood is up covering her features, and her steps… oh her steps. The way she walks is fluid, like a dancer almost, sliding here and there, never letting anyone actually breech her personal space, let alone touch her. She is aware, she is graceful, she is the Tenderloin…
Rocco Santos
The grunt he makes his more thoughtful then displeasing, and he doesn’t speak until he’s swallowed what was in his mouth. “Does not surprise me that there are many of you.” You being Shadow Lords, of course. Given the reputation of the city, he expects them to flock here. Shadow Lords and Get of Fenris. He’s a little more surprised by the lack of his own Tribe.
From where he leans against the table with his forearms, he drops down the flattened gyro to the torn wrapper it was served in, and took a moment to quickly suck sauce from his thumb before reaching for his opened soda. “Any worth meeting?”
Jael Zanko
He shrugs “My ward is smart, studies how the enemy leaves a trace on people, how it affect them, she’s also well versed in the physiognomy of the opposition’s soldiers. And of course Luana is worth knowing” He says with a slight grin
“Ezra seem like a creep to me, Simon I heard is a loud mouth idiot, Mila..Mila is well behaved around me but man, she sing country music. The other ones, I only heard in passing..though Nessa is supposed to be..hmmm easy? She has lots of kids, supposed to be trouble and all that.”
He shakes his head “The kin I would drown to better the family”
Jael Zanko
(*The kind of kin i would…)
Kiana Knowles
She nears the eatery, where the two sit on the patio and talk and people watch. She doesn’t seem to notice anything, which means of course that she sees everything. She sees the way Mr Connors yells at his stock boy for the way he’s sweeping the walk, she sees the gang members on the corner exchanging cash for packets of powder, she sees the men on the patio discussing things and eating.
She sees all this, and more, even though her head is down, her body fluidly tracking the movement of someone up ahead. She spins around someone who almost breeches her comfort zone, and when they snarl a “Hey watch it!’ she just snorts, and keeps moving…
She has nothing of note that would draw the attention of the gentlemen discussing the Nation, nothing at all unless they note that she doesn’t follow the same wide path around the walk that others do unconsciously. She wanders, unafraid.
Rocco Santos
Another sound, this one a huff of amusement at the remark about Luana. He knows who she is by now and the relation. He’s also wise enough not to comment on another Garou’s mate, not even in jest or otherwise. Rocco is sure that he would be a possessive sort and can see the same in Jael. It’s one of those No Go Zones.
But the others are fair bait. “If I want to leave my seed, I know where to go.” Not that he would, but the idea strikes him amusing in the moment. Perhaps not so much when Luna grows fatter. This is Rocco at his calmest.
Swallowing down a few mouthfuls of fizz, he sets the soda aside and picks up his food again. There’s an art to eating gyro’s full of shaved meats, sauces and salads. The Uktena does well enough with big hands.
Kiana had got nothing more than a glance when someone shouted near her way. And while his eyes roam around, they do not lock on her for long, returning to watching idle. It’s said to note that the two of them are speaking to themselves, not loud and boisterous across the area, and rest at the last table on the sidewalk outside the take-out shop.
Jael Zanko
He grins about the seed comments “Good thing you have a tough constitution..I don’t guarantee the sanitary value of the woman….then again I’m being unfair. I don’t know her, just what I heard. She might be nice….” He doesn’t add that he doesn’t believe it.
Too many kin were good at only one thing, getting laid but it wasn’t particularly useful, at least not for a Shadow Lord
He takes another bite of his burger, he look in the direction that Rocco was looking, seeing the woman. Maybe she was his type. Even if she was human, no harm in looking. He did hope his friend would find someone like he did…but everything happens in due time they say. So eventually the Uktena will find the one for him.
He picks a few fries and eat some “I think that soon, we should go on that journey we talked about last time we were here” Here being the tenderloins. They did talked about going spirit hunting then.
Kiana Knowles
It’s the scent of food that brings her attention their way, really. And why wouldn’t it? She’s a gnawer after all, and the hunger is always there. She sniffs, and sniffs again, and then makes a sharp turn to head into the establishment.
She’s worth looking at, too, human or not. Pretty, well built, lean and strong. She moves gracefully, and easily, light on her feet – with an ass that just begs to be stared at.
She isn’t inside long, before she makes her way to the patio, her gyro in hand, perching on a seat at a table near them, though she’s not eavesdropping. She’s too involved in her food for that.
Rocco Santos
Good thing that he wasn’t in the middle of swallowing then, he might have choked on his laughter. “You have a way with words, my friend.” Shaking his head, he continues to eat, coming down to the last, sodden bites of his gyro.
There’s a glimmer of laughter shining in his eyes even moments later, when there’s talk about their proposed hunt. It sobers him some, but not completely. He’s nodding and about to say something when Kiana comes and sits down nearby. Wiping his mouth, he turns his head to look at her, while she’s engrossed in her food, then looks back to Jael again.
“Soon.”
Kiana Knowles
.
Jael Zanko
He grins “Yeah, all that studying and law knowledge has to be useful sometimes. Made me clever” At least most of the time. Rocco would know that he could make monumental mistakes. Yet he learned from them as well.
His eyes glances at the movement at the nearby table but registering no threat, he look again at Rocco “Soon is good” They were already pack mates in the way they lived and acted. Making it official will just enhance their bound.
He finish his burger, then start on the rest of the fries, dipping them in ketchup.
Kiana Knowles
Rocco glances her way, and she catches his eye, evenly. A slender brow arches, as she takes a bite of her gyro, before she turns her attention to catching the drip of sauce off her fingers, sucking them clean, with a happy little sound at the back of her throat.
Kiana Knowles
Rocco glances her way, and she catches his eye, evenly. A slender brow arches, as she takes a bite of her gyro, before she turns her attention to catching the drip of sauce off her fingers, sucking them clean, with a happy little sound at the back of her throat.
Kiana Knowles
[the post so nice I posted it twice.]
Rocco Santos
“That makes one of us.” Rocco’s education had not been quite the same. Not that it made him lacking in intelliegence, because clearly he had some smarts about him. With his gyro finished, he scrunches up the paper it was eaten over and leaves it in a ball on the table to be tossed in the waste later.
The chair creaks when he shifts his weight back, stretching his stomach to help digest the knot of food. He’s a large man. Not the biggest built, but certainly he has some muscle beneath the black t-shirt he wore. Jeans fit his long thighs, and the boots he wore were the hiking sort rather than combat, and were well worn. His length of black hair is bound at the nape of the neck, curling towards the thickness of his shoulders. The eyes that shift another, brief look at Kiana are a pale green with flecks of brown.
A small nod of his head towards the woman, has a silent question asked of the man across the table from him. Know her? or maybe it’s See her? They’re still learning these small clues from one another.
Kiana Knowles
.
Jael Zanko
He nods at his friend’s words. He knew that Rocco’s education laid elsewhere..spirits, banes, street knowledge, survival….so he would never think his friend dumb for his lack of formal schooling.
He wipes the grease and ketchup off his fingers
He leans in the chair, watching the man in front of him, his glance at the table beside theirs. Without looking back at Kiana, Jael simply shrugs and give a little shake of the head. No he didn’t know her…and well didn’t care much about doing so as well.
“Still satisfied with the apartment?” He had chosen it and Rocco had moved in. Still it didn’t hurt to ask..it was their territory…their packhouse after all. This couldn’t be a one sided decision.
Kiana Knowles
She attracts their attention again, as her phone rings in her pocket. she pulls out the cheap little pay as you go phone, and checks the message that comes through, texting back with one hand as she takes another bite of her sandwich. Then she gets up, with a huff of amusement, wraps up her sandwich in a napkin, and turns to go as quietly, as gracefully as she came.
She moves past them, glancing up only to tip a wink in their direction – a wink of the ‘I saw you looking, but you sure can’t touch’ variety, before she slips out to the street, and into the back alleys she calls home.
Kiana Knowles
[thanks for the drive by scening! It’s bedtime soon. :) ]