World of Darkness World of Darkness: Attrition - Better Late Than Never

[SalmonMax]

It was a good thirty minutes early that Ariel showed up at Declan's house. Though it had irked her, she'd gone in to the precinct office that day and -not- resigned. It wouldn't be a habit, she repeated to herself. But this shitfest with the church and the hunters might need some department resources to resolve...and frankly she needed a little cushion time to work out her next move anyway.

Her desk was a mess. It wasn't much better after the better part of a day working either. But it was familiar, and therefore oddly comforting.

Even so, after her trip to the mountains and back, it felt kind of alien too.

With a grocery bag balanced on her right hip, in her leather jacket and yellow t-shirt and old patched up favorite jeans, she peered through one of Declan's windows in her sunglasses before giving up and knocking on his door with sharp raps of her knuckles. Policemen knocked on doors a particular way, she thought ruefully. She'd still knock that way when she was a grandmother, old and feeble. Probably bust her knuckles wide open someday. The thought brought a grin to her mouth.

"Dec!" she called. "It's me. I'm early. Open up."

[Owns-The-Night]

"Alright, alright." The deep-chested, growling voice of the Blood Talon was somewhat surly, but he had a slight smile on his face as the door opened, the smells of cooking meat wafting out behind him. He seemed to her cop-vision to have something on his mind, but the smile was genuine enough. "No need to call SWAT for the breaching ram, officer. I'll come quietly." The smile became a grin and he waved Ariel in.

"Make yerself at home, girl. The action's in the kitchen right now, but I figure we can move into the lounge to talk if folks want." Stepping in, Ariel could see that the lounge was still almost as sparsely-furnished as she remembered, though at least the Rahu had bought a stereo and some extra beanbags were strewn around the couch and easy chair. Owns-The-Night, wearing jeans and a white t-shirt that stretched taut across his shoulders, led the way into the kitchen, waving amiably at the table for the Elodoth to set her burden down. The table was occupied with Dec's usual idea of haute cuisine, which was plates of meat, plates of a different kind of meat, a few extra types of meat for the choosy, and baked potatoes as the sole and outnumbered representative of the vegetable kingdom. Oh, and sauces, pickles, and various condiments. That went well with meat, obviously.

"Take a load off." Dec invited her. "Want a drink? Milk, juice, smoothie or beer."

[SalmonMax]

Ariel set her grocery bag on the kitchen counter. Dec couldn't see inside, but his keen wolf senses and insight suggested to him that it might contain not-meat and was therefore of little interest. She followed him into the lounge and took it in, but didn't sit down.

"No thanks," she demurred to the drink offer. "Or rather, later."

The red-haired policewoman and werewolf looked around at Declan with a cautious sort of assessing look. "Couple of things I wanted to talk to you about before the others got here."

"First...we're going to do this. We're going to make a pack. Now, Amber, Moss, Swara...I don't see much, if any, problems with them. You I'm not so sure of. When the chips are down, I want to be sure I can count on you. To be available, and to do your part even if you might not agree with the call."

"Second...what the hell went on with the old church out there? I'm asking you first because as I understand it, you were taking charge of that."

[Owns-The-Night]

He sighed and leaned against the wall. "Yeah. That was a real fucked-up situation. I've been going over it ever since it happened." He looked Ariel squarely in the eye. "Right from the first it was FUBAR, Ariel. Step one - Intel. We were told seven to nine hunters, there were eleven. We were told no more than five of the hard-case pros, there were six. Step two - Recon. We sent Sarah up to snoop around in her bird shape. She did one overflight of the church, spotted two sentries, and that was that. If I'd been thinking right, I'd have booted her feathery ass back up there to peek in the windows and see how many were inside. But we'd already spent so much damn time jawin' that we were all impatient, me especially." He raised a hand. "Fault, Dec."

"Step three - Tactical. I put Amber and Noctis to take out the sentries. Mostly to test Noctis and see if he was a shill. If he was, Amber would have throated him and we could have faded. Moss had one door, Sarah had one door, I had a door, and Noctis and Amber would come in the front. But the plan was already screwed because we didn't have an accurate count on the enemy. Could have sorted that out at any point, but too much balls to brain ratio." The hand went up again. "Fault, Dec."

"The basic plan was sound: blow in through all four doors, scare the amateurs into running, take out all but one of the hardasses and leave him with a bite so we could track him down when he was with his buddies later." Dec shrugged. "Naturally, it all went to shit as soon as the bullets started flying. Those six jesus-SWAT dudes were pros. Real pros, Ariel. When I was out in Somalia, I saw some Delta Force guys training. These guys were -that- good, no shit. They hardly even fazed at the sight of the Dalu, just moved into pairs and ripped into us all but good. Next thing I knew, I was in Kuruth and running, but I got a picture of what happened afterwards from the guys. It was a nasty, knockdown, drag-out fight. Three of the hunters got away, Moss went rabbit not long after me, and the other three of our guys picked up the pieces and hauled ass out of there." Dec spread his hands. "So there it is, and yeah, most of that Charlie Fox attack was my fault. I've been thinking ever since what I'd do different, but that doesn't change what happened. The only consolation I have is that none of ours died."

[SalmonMax]

Silently Ariel thanked herself for getting her anger over this out the night before. Hearing Declan's report rekindled it, but it was just a gleaming ember now, not the bonfire it had been. She took a deep breath to steady herself.

"I'll save my speech about this for when the others are here. Right now I just need to know a few things. First, did they see anyone's human face? You said someone was attacking in Dalu. Who was it? Second, did any of you manage to bite any of them? And finally, you said you were told 'seven to nine' hunters. Who told you that?"

[Owns-The-Night]

"Me and Moss started the attack in Dalu. Yes, Moss put a bite on one of the ones that got away. And Noctis told us. Or at least, people who he trusted told him, and he told us." Dec eyed the female uratha. "I guess you feel like readin' us the riot act. Maybe I'm wrong there. But in case you do, consider a few points. One: we're all alive, and it happened months ago. Two: we weren't acting as a pack, we were acting as a bunch of buddies who decided to get a little payback for the attack on Sarah. And three?" He looked her in the eye. "You weren't here. And we still ain't a pack yet, let alone with you as the leader. So if you're looking to nail some balls to the wall you might want to put your damn hammer away or this'll turn out as a brawl, not a pack meeting."

"Now." He turned and moved back into the kitchen, opening the fridge. "You ready for that drink?"

[SalmonMax]

Ariel shook her head. "Relax Dec. I'm not planning on chewing anyone out. What's done is done, and you're right, I wasn't here so I haven't got much to say about what you did or how you did it. I'm not going to dwell on what was."

"I do however mean to spend some time on what I think went wrong...not in terms of tactics, but in terms of underlying..." she paused for a second, looking for the right word, "...philosophy. And I mean to go over how I want us to do things differently from now on...the most important of which is that we will be a pack."

She smiled then. "But don't worry, this is all coming from the Oaths and from the Path of Harmony. No more humanizing here."

"Just a water for now, thanks."

[Owns-The-Night]

"Well, alright." Dec grinned at her as he stepped back over with a bottle of water. "Philosophy ain't my strong point. I've been working on Rahu stuff, tryin' to prep myself to play my role right, and I can't say I haven't made some fuckups. But ya gotta keep gettin' up for another swing, ya know?" He handed Ariel her drink.

"I think our biggest problem is gonna be Swara. That kid's alright, but mixed up." Owns-The-Night considered that, then barked a short, sour laugh. "Hell with what I'm sayin'. Show me a new Uratha that ain't mixed up."

[SalmonMax]

Ariel chuckled and took a sip.

"I prefer to think of her as a chance to get a new perspective, you know? Anyway, that girl has some strength in her. That spirit's the worst thing I've ever seen, and she still managed to fight it...not all the way, not all the time, but she was fighting it right up to the end. That has to mean something about who she is. Something good."

"Anyway! I brought some stuff to add to your meat collection." She started unloading groceries. Fresh veggies and some boxes of different pasta noodles as well as a few jars of sauces. And chips and dip. "Where're your pots?"

By the time the next packmate-to-be arrived, the smells from Declan's kitchen were of a richer and more various texture than usual...

(Calling all werewolves! Come on in! Sarah...sun's still up, but don't worry you haven't got long to go! )

[Swara-Ann]

She'd slipped away from the apartment earlier to run to the store and then she did what she did best: kept running. The power in her legs was incredible as she dashed through back alleyways and leaped easily over parked vehicles, much the shock and awe of young kids playing on the streets.

Nothing that she did was impossible for a regular human being, Swara had possessed the capability leap over a parked cars hood long before her first change, but there was something to be said about the increase in stamina. She could run for literally an hour at a quickened pace before she eve n felt fatigue set in.

She loved it.

She hit the grocery store, then launched into a full tilt sprint towards the college campus. She paced herself and slowed down to a walk several blocks prior to Declan's house to give her body time to cool down. With a chipper leap -running always made her happy- she cleared the first three steps of the porch and hopped the last one with a bouncy stride.

Her flopsy ponytail was soaked from the afternoon sun but very little sweat seemed to be getting past the puffy pink head band she wore and that matched her shiny pink and white spandex shorts and sports top. Every visible muscle on the girls body seemed honed to measure of perfection that only the change could bring about, and she wore it all well. Her eye gouging pink and white 'Hello Kitty' backpack -that was actually a large cats head that zipped open on top- was resting snuggly on her back as she rang the door bell.

The scent of the cooking caught her awareness and it sure smelled good. Relax, don't freak out. Sarah said all would be cool.

[Owns-The-Night]

After a ten-count the door opened on six foot 'n' change of sleekly-muscled menace, eyes glinting like shards of molten silver in the setting sun as he squinted at her. At first, the young and nervous werewolf thought that the squint heralded a scowl or worse, a snarl. But the momentary frown became a smile of recognition.

"Swara-Ann. Hey, c'mon in." The big guy's voice was deep, but not growly, and had a laid-back rural quality that was only slightly more 'Cali' than hers. What the fuck is she wearin'? Dec thought, trying to keep from grinning at the sight of a werewolf wearing so much... pink. Okay, I was kinda prepared for this... But still: damn. He kept his demeanour non-aggressive, which was hard with a strange werewolf at his door normally, but Swara was so inoffensive that he just couldn't summon up the 'we be cool but don't fuck with my territory' vibe that practically every other first-time visitor to his house got.

"Amber not with you?" He started to ask, then shrugged, waving her in. "Nah, don't fret it. She'll be along in her own time. Food's on the table: you want something cold to drink?"

[Swara-Ann]

"Nope!" she said with a chipper squeak of cuteness. "She said she'd be along, but I left for a run and decided to just keep on until I got over here. It was only about six miles or so."

She rummaged about her backpack for a few moments and suddenly thrust her hand in Declan's face dangling a bag of... cookies? "I brought snicker-doodles! Packed with cinnamony goodness." Her icy blue eyes were wide and giddy. "Mmmm....," she bit one gripped it in her teeth as she looked around the place. "Niph pwaph."

[SalmonMax]

At the voices she heard, Ariel managed to wrench herself out of a beanbag and come over to the kitchen. Her face lit up in a delighted smile at who she saw there.

"Swara! Look at you!"

Ariel came over and laid her hands on Swara's shoulders, looking the other woman up and down admiringly.

"You're up and about and looking fine, that's awesome!" she enthused. "Oh hey, cookies. Thanks!" Ariel took a snickerdoodle and chewed it up.

"So how have you been? You were still out when I had to take off. I heard you're staying with Amber, how's that going?"

[Swara-Ann]

"Ugh," she rolled her eyes, not missing a beat for the fellow snickerdoodle fan. "It's a nightmare. It's like she was toilet trained at spear point or something. I think she's crazy."

She smiled. "Yeah, physically I'm okay, Amber's still pissed cause I'm still not eating meat, but hey, seriosuly how hungy would anyone be after the spend months devouring South Central, y'know?" She seemed to either really be able to quip about it, or was making jokes to keep the painful memories around for her own personal torture. "Didn't take long, I still think I need therapy with all the nightmares, but c'mon how do I tell a shrink 'hey, I was possessed and ate babies, now the dreams make me cry. Fix me.' She sighed and shrugged. "My life sucks, welcome to it."

She shook the bag loudly at Declan, in an attempt to pep herself up again. "C'mon. Have one. They're all the rage in... uhh, Snickerdoodleville...." She looked from side to side trying to follow that with something. "Just have one."

[Owns-The-Night]

"Why not?" Owns-The-Night smiled and shrugged. "It ain't like I regularly eat sugary stuff. Used to love 'em as a kid." He reached into the bag and helped himself to a snickerdoodle and munched into it. "If ya don't mind some practical diet advice, though... Sugar ain't too bad in moderation, but be careful with caffeine and chocolate." he said as he chewed. "They're bad fer canids, and when we shift form we become lupine in biology, so if we shift with too much in our system we get problems, maybe even seizures. A few snickerdoodles won't wreck us though." He smiled reassuringly at Swara. "Thanks for that, it was appreciated."

"And that's why I eat mainly meat, too." he said as he gestured for Swara to grab a beanbag. "I like to be ready to shift pretty much anytime, so I don't want to spend the first five minutes as a wolf hurling up a caesar salad." He grinned as he plopped into a beanbag himself. "Weird, ain't it? It was for me: Just when I thought being a werewolf was weird enough, the guys that took me through my First Change and inducted me to the Blood Talons gave me dietary advice."

[Swara-Ann]

"Well... not a problem for me." She smiled as bet she could. "No shifting for me. Like, ever. I just ran a lot, so I tend to treat myself with a slight bit of sugar and some water, gawd too many and I get all hyper. Morgan about killed me one night after I downed a bucket of Red Vines, oh gawd was that funny. I never knew a person could swear so colorfully."

She zoomed in close to Dec, resting her hands on his legs and looking over his face, completely violating his personal bubble, "How's the jaw by the way? Dude, she clobbered you." She snerked a bit.

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber rolled over and shut off her alarm. "Fuch," she growled, hating the world. Swara had run off to get there early, and Amber sighed, hoping she was ok. The concern on her face would have shocked the Pink One, as Amber sometimes called her. Mostly only in her head - mostly.

She dragged herself out of bed and ambled into a quick shower, then out the door. It was a half-hour of LA traffic to get to Dec's, but it gave her time to wake up.

Amber walked up the steps, knocked on the door, then let herself in. She was expected, and Dec'd let her know if that had pissed him off. Of course, he might still be in a pissy mood after the hanging he'd received at the party. "Hey," she said, smiling at the smell of the food. "Now there's a way to get greeted - with the smell of someone else's cooking. Mostly because mine isn't anything great - even Antoine couldn't teach me."

With a touch of shock, she realized she was over him. Saying his name didn't hurt. Smiling, Amber looked around and asked, "We just missing Moss?"

[Owns-The-Night]

A sudden chill entered the air, borne on the wings of a deep warning growl (with an option to become a full-fledged snarl held in reserve) that rumbled in Dec's chest as he was reminded of the previous night. He stared Swara in the eye, less-than friendly all of a sudden. "Yeah. She clobbered me. The jaw's fine. And thanks for not mentioning Morgan... Oh, wait. You did." He looked over at Amber, swallowing his anger enough to smile at her, though the expression was a little strained. "Hey, Amber. Yeah, we're just waiting on Moss. Food and drink is where it always is."

He stood up, forcing Swara to make a quick choice to move or be brushed aside, and stalked out to the kitchen. "Going to get something to eat." he grated over his shoulder to the other three Uratha. A few moments later, the women heard a snarled curse and a loud thumping *crack* reverberate from the other room. One that might, say, be caused by a large fist hitting a wooden cabinet door with enough force to shatter it like an egg.

[Swara-Ann]

The growl about stopped her heart and as he moved she moved, and quickly. "Chill... geez." She mumbled silently. "I was only kidding."

As Amber entered Swara tried to smile a greeting, sort of in the same way a child with an abusive parent tries not to draw attention to themselves, and the moron was pulling it off nicely with shiny pink and white striped spandex and a matching sports bra that almost screamed 'yes they're real, come touch them' to just about every frat idiot on the campus. "Hey Ams." She said silently. Deep down she was terrified of the Rahu and was waiting for the day her favorite sports team lost a game and she went ballistic and devoured a bus load of nuns or something... it wasn't far off.

"Umm," She sheepishly rounded the doorway into the kitchen. "If we're still waiting on someone, you mind if I use the shower and change? You're kinda giving off the abusive step-father vibe who was kinda just in it for the sex from mommy and now is stuck with a bunch of kids he didn't want, and that's okay, I mean the cabinet had it coming and all that... ugly color anyway."

Amber pointed to the bathroom, "Go." She said sternly, mostly to save the child from evisceration and she scooped up her pack and was gone for a few moments.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel frowned at the display of raw temper and gave Amber a quizzical look.

"What was that about? I thought he was going out with that new girl at the party. Is he still moping over Morgan? It's been ages."

[Rorx]

Moss choose that moment to arrive at the front door, preceded by the sound of a motorbike pulling up.

"Hey Dec, get the door I've got my hands full" is called through from outside.

[Owns-The-Night]

Dec let No-Moss in, giving the other male a friendly enough nod of greeting considering the mood he was in, then went back to the kitchen to help himself to one of the steaks.

[Rorx]

Moss nods back to Dec and follows him into the kitchen, toeing the front door closed behind him. His hands are full of his crash helmet and a box with a variety of wrapped meat and couple of cartons of pineapple juice.

"Evening all. Dec, I brought a variety pack for you, got some venison in there as well for a change."

Putting the box on the side in the kitchen he returns to the lounge to put his skid lid down and to take his jacket off.

"So, I'm the last to arrive am I? Well, I guess Sarah will be along later though?"

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber said, "I don't believe this moment is the time, Ariel. Later. Not that I'm sure of the whole thing myself." They'd never been an item, as far as Amber knew - they had danced around it and played around with the idea, but nothing solid. She didn't care either; so long as Dec's girlfriend didn't case trouble, Amber could care less who he fucked.

At Rorx's words, her head came around. "Sarah? What the hell for?" she asked, her voice just shy of a growl. "I thought we were discussing pack business." This had better not be going where the fuck I think it is.

[SalmonMax]

"We are. And we'll get to that," Ariel promised. "You guys want to eat before we start, or get to the main event? Amber, how much time do you have?"

[z-Amber Wren]

"The night. Told Theo I had business, and he didn't have any, so it worked out." Amber shrugged. "He's willing to work with me on stuff like that." Sarah had said something about coming to the meeting. Man, I do not fuckin' like this.

"What's first, then?" Amber asked, then said, "I'm not trying to start without Swara." She flashed a grin. "Just gettin' the agenda, as it were."

[Owns-The-Night]

Dec took a deep breath and blew it out before turning away from the countertop he'd been leaning on, his rage receding back to it's usual simmer in the back of his soul as he looked at the other Uratha. "Let's sit down and eat." he suggested. "Swara can join us when she's done showerin'. And then we can talk shit over with food in our bellies."

He waved the others to the table, taking a chair himself. His kitchen table was a large cicular one, six chairs arranged around it. Despite the lingering remnants of his sour mood he smiled wryly over at Amber and Ariel. "Kind of a family thing, eatin' together. I thought it'd be a good start if we're thinkin' to be a pack."

[Rorx]

Moss shrugs and takes a seat before loading up a plate, all the time waiting for Amber to blow up at the mention of the p-word, especially as Sarah had been mentioned as coming to the meeting.

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber nodded, instantly feeling oddly content as she sat down. Eating together was a a social activity, and werewolves were very social creatures. They just generally had a hard time being social with non-werewolves. "Yeah, let's fuckin' eat."

[SalmonMax]

Ariel sat down and enjoyed the meal as well. She'd kind of wanted to get the Sarah thing taken care of first, but once she'd eaten her first bite all that vanished, and she was just eating among friends. Later, as she was finishing her glass, she decided starting off with what might be a bummer would probably have been a mistake after all.

She pushed back her chair a little and looked at the others. They looked about done too.

I have no idea what to do.

The thought made her smile, weirdly enough. Everyone here wanted the same thing as she did. This was going to be a friendly audience, made of friends. There was nothing to worry about.

Ariel cleared her throat. "Dec, that was some awesome cooking. Thanks for throwing all this together. You didn't have to."

"So I guess it's pretty obvious why I asked everyone to come out here. We've all had our own things going and we always will...but it's time we stopped letting that get in our way. I want us to be a pack. A real, honest to Luna pack, with a totem, with a territory...the whole thing. I know there's some rough spots we have to iron out, and that's why I wanted us to have this chance to get that started."

Ariel looked at Amber. "One of the rough spots is Sarah. And I'd like to get her ironed out first."

[z-Amber Wren]

Amber felt herself stiffen. She didn't understand. Why did the others insist on including a fuckin' corpse in their family? It was okay to run with Sarah; she'd proven that she would fight and could be trusted, to a point. But allying with her was worlds away from making her family. "What's to iron out, Ariel?" Amber asked, shoving her plate away, leaving a piece of meat behind. She had no desire to eat anymore.

[SalmonMax]

"Whether or not she's in the pack," Ariel replied.

"I feel like we've been stringing her along, to an extent, and I don't like it...especially when I factor in exactly how much we owe her. She's been nothing but a help to us, risking her life over and over again with no complaints or expectation of reward. The only thing she wants is to be considered part of this. I think she deserves consideration. But I also realize that in some ways she'll never really be a pack member, and further, that it's pretty unorthodox to do something like that...so on this issue I'm putting it to vote. And if it's not unanimous, then it's not happening. No one's going to be forced to agree to this."

"I asked Sarah to come for two reasons. First, I thought that before we decide, she should have the chance to make her case in her own words. Second, so that when we've decided, we can tell her to her face. At the very least she's earned the respect it takes to get her answer, straight clear and honest."

[Owns-The-Night]

"That's fair." Dec nodded around a mouthful of food. He swallowed before continuing. "She deserves a straight answer from us, one way or the other." His eyes went around the table to each of the others present. "Like Ariel says, it's everyone's call. The real question in my mind ain't whether she deserves to be part of a pack, any pack. It's got nothing to do with right and wrong, fair and unfair in that way. The real question tonight is Do WE want her in OUR pack? Whatever we tell her, yes or no, should only be the answer to that question."

[Swara-Ann]

A quick eight minute shower and Swara-Ann was out. Her hand wiped down the mirror, clearing what little steam had built up thanks to an open window. Declan was a very neat guy for a crazy person. Everything in the bathroom was neatly folded or set out and organized where he could find it. She couldn't help but notice that the room smelled a lot like how one would expect it to; spicy and rugged, like a real should.

...and he's like my 'brother' now or something? Figures. She sighed, leaning against the sink with her thoughts on the surface. Guess it's not all bad, he turned out to be a cheater too. What is it with guys? Still... he's hot... I wonder if 'Kentucky Cousin Rules' apply? The lovely blonde suffered a giggle fit at her own internal humor, trying to find something in all this madness that had become her life, that might bring her cheer.

She looked up into the mirror, gasping with shock as her eyes caught the luminous white wolf sitting patiently in the empty tub looking at her. She snapped her head about to look in the tub, damp hair flailing in a wild arc only to find that the tub was empty. She relaxed with a sigh and looked into the mirror again, and there was the luminous wolf, the black "Y" upon its forehead screamed out somewhere in the deepest of her memories. She knew this wolf, it was hers.

"Very funny." She murmured softly so those eating dinner, or second breakfast, or last kill of the day, or whatever werewolves ate at this time, wouldn't think her mad for talking to herself. The wolf simply whimpered and tilted it's head to the side as if it didn't understand.

"I'm sorry." The blonde's voice was soft and sorrowful. "I can't help you. I don't know what you want. I can't be... like them."

Again the wolf simply whimpered. She could hear the pain in it's whine as well as she could feel it deep within herself.

Her eyes welled slightly with tears as her own reflection was mingled with that of the luminous wolf looking over her shoulder. "I don't want to be a monster." She swallowed hard. "Not again." Her eyes closed tightly and when she opened them a moment later the beast was gone from the mirror. I'm sorry. She thought while reaching for her underclothes.

---,--‘-{@ @}-,--‘---

Quote:

"Like Ariel says, it's everyone's call. The real question in my mind ain't whether she deserves to be part of a pack, any pack. It's got nothing to do with right and wrong, fair and unfair in that way. The real question tonight is Do WE want her in OUR pack? Whatever we tell her, yes or no, should only be the answer to that question."

She strolled into the kitchen, now in just jeans and a while button-up shirt with some faint pink showing though underneath it. She avoided looking at Declan, since after his outburst he seemed like the kind of guy who would get drunk drunk while watching a game and take it on mommy later when his team lost. Amber she gave a small smile to, Ariel got the same. No-Moss she felt like recognized from somewhere, but really wasn't sure. Half of reality lately didn't seem to make sense, so what was forgetting a face or fifty?

"Um, hi guys." She said softly, feeling out of place a bit. She looked at the counter and the table where there seemed to be enough food to feed a small army. She pointed around a bit, counting off her choices. "Meat, meat, meat... double meat... meat with meat dressing... meat with a touch of meat... meat in meat sauce..."

With a polite point of his fork and an amused wink, Declan gestured to the small counter top by the fridge where a salad made for one had been prepared. Not a wimpy salad either, a big robust chefs salad in a large bowl that was a meal unto itself. Sometimes the big guy was thoughtful, he figured with her coming there was no point in forcing the carnivore issue at this point, baby steps and all that.

"Sweeeeeet!" she squeed and she giddily plucked up her garden variety meal and took a seat.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel grinned at Swara-Ann and scooted over to make room for her. Then she looked at the other werewolves and said, "Another thing I want to talk about is this whole 'hunter' thing. I've already talked to Sarah and Declan about the church and what happened, and I'm not going to get down on you about that...at least not directly. To be honest, right now I'm just VERY glad that all my friends are still alive coming out of that."

"We have what I think will be a great pack here...and the loss of any of us would just be...well, lets not even go there. Not unless we have to."

She cleared her throat. "Aside from all that, we'll have to get a totem of some kind and we'll have to work out how we want to patrol our territory. We have a very...sort of sprawled out territory, but it covers at least three loci which means it's valuable. We'll need to figure out how to keep it...or how much we CAN keep."

"And I think that covers the basics. Am I forgetting anything?"

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

Meanwhile, out in back of Declan's house, the winter sun had finally set and Sarah stirred once more to her semblance of life. From the half-concealed spot amongst the shrubs, she rose from the soil as she did nearly every night. Brushing herself off, Sarah remembered why she had havened here in the Rahu's territory. This was her chance, she knew - maybe the best chance she would ever have.

Nervous but hopeful, she knocked on the back door and waited.

[Rorx]

Moss looks up from his food as Swara comes in and as she finds a place at the table he waits for Ariel to finish before he turns to introduce himself, "Hey Swara, we meet on-line a while back, people call me Moss, or No-Moss. I was also part of your 'rescue' team."

Turning back to Ariel he adds, "No, that sounds like it covers most things to me. Although I guess we should also mention what we are going to do about 'Weaver' or whatever that spirit's name is?"

[Owns-The-Night]

"We'll need to see about Weave. Maybe it'll make a good totem, maybe not." Dec said to No-Moss as he wiped his mouth on a napkin and rose. "Right now though, we got other business to take care of first. Our Elodoth there's pretty much covered the high points." He nodded to Ariel as he crossed the kitchen to the rear door.

"I already said last week I didn't want to buy any perfume, and my soul's safe enough, thanks!" he shouted through the closed door before smiling wryly and opening it. "C'mon in, frail. Yer expected."

[Sarah Dead-Wolf]

If anyone could take the edge off of Sarah's nerves, it was Declan, and once again he succeeded. A warm smile creased her cold lips as she stepped through the door. "Thanks, Dec."

The smile faded back to a small and slightly nervous thing as she looked around the room at the soon-to-be pack. Things were already crowded around the table, and none of the fare was particularly useful to the vampire at any rate; instead, she moved to what appeared a good standing location, back up against the kitchen counter, and nodded in greeting to the group. "Thanks for letting me come; good to see you all."

A look to Ariel made clear that Sarah was ready and waiting for whatever was to come, for good or for ill.

[SalmonMax]

Ariel gave Sarah a respectful not, then said, "Sarah, we're here to form a pack. You need to understand that I won't force this on any of us. Our decision to include you will have to be unanimous."

She stood up and turned to face the vampire who would be a werewolf. "If you have anything to say to press your case, this is the time. Once you've said your peace, I'll ask you to step outside while we make our decision. We'll then call you back in to hear it."

"I can't say what the result will be, Sarah, but at least the waiting will be over."

Ariel sat down again and nodded with a little gesture towards Sarah. The Dead-Wolf had the floor.