Currently the moon is in the waning Full Moon phase (80% full).
Currently in Saint Claire, it is mostly cloudy. The temperature is 55 degrees Fahrenheit (12 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the north at 7 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.20 and rising, and the relative humidity is 77 percent. The dewpoint is 48 degrees Fahrenheit (8 degrees Celsius.)
It is currently 21:54 Pacific Time on Wed Sep 5 2001.
Harbor Park Meadow(#194RJ)
One of the last bastions of green left in the city, occasionally mottled and withered grass and weeds covers the earth like a badly stained carpet. The vegetation seems marginally healthier the further it is from the river and much healthier towards the central area of the park around the fountain. Overpowering the scent of living vegetation are the exhaust fumes from a busy street to the west and an unpleasant stench from the Columbia River to the east. A rusted chain link fence delineates the territorial boundaries between the park and the encroaching city. Unchecked hedges and vines interweave through the fence, as if the park wanted to distance itself from the city--or the local community wanted to distance itself from the eerie park. Despite the foliage, the majority of the open meadow is easily seen. People in tall buildings or on boats have an excellent view of any goings-ons. In the center of the park, a small glade of six tall trees and a flower bed surrounds a lovely... plywood barricade.
The murky waters of the Columbia River flow swiftly along the east side of the park. Bracketing the park to the west is First Street and the city of St. Claire.
It's just 10 at night, but the park itself is mostly deserted. Save a lone woman standing in the middle of the grassy mini-meadow. Her black jacket lies on the ground somewhere close by, and from the sweat on her shirt it looks like she's been exercising.
From the parking lot comes a second occupant. She casually walks up to the exercising woman, hands in her pockets holding her jacket tightly around her. "Um... Hello," she greets without much confidence.
As Dizzy nears from the lot, Yi is already turning to face her... but instead of greeting, she starts into a new kata. Striking invisible opponents all around, the Gnawer whirls in a graceful dance of martial arts. This is not Parappa the Rappa. This is Kung Fu. When the hello is sounded, a roundhouse kick aimed for the speaker's jawline is stopped in a tangible whoosh just a few centimeters from contact. Then a couple blinks later, Yi bends her leg back downward to set her foot down on the grass. "Hello." A short pause for recognition. "Dizzy, right?" The Gnawer reaches down to grab a small white towel and wipes her arms and face off. Should one have noticed, her entire course of action revolved around the carefully folded towel in the grass.
Dizzy stands stunned, almost being hit with a kick of death. The astonished look doesn't fade for a couple of seconds as she just nods in agreement. "Yeah... your name was.." she pauses, looking up. "Ah.. I forgot, actually," she admits sheepishly. "John told me I might be able to find you here."
Yi nods a short dip, wiping off her hand with its exposed scars up the forearm towards Dizzy. The manner is somewhat congenial. "Song Yi Ling. Just Yi, to keep it simple." Mention of John arcs up an eyebrow. "He wanted you to find me, or?"
"Well, actually I wanted to talk to you," Dizzy informs her, pointedly trying not to stare at the scars. "I was wondering... well, you see he seems to respect you, and suggested that you might be someone I could come to for training. I came to ask you if you would help teach me." She quickly appends, "How to fight, that is."
Yi looks almost surprised, but it flies away as a breeze wafts through the park. Do not suffer yourself, he'd said. The prospect of cub teaching proposed a few nights before still hangs fresh as well. "Okay," Yi nods to the newmoon Walker. "But I warn you that I'm not as good as everyone seems to think I am..." The latter bit said in a shying tone, she looks up from a few more towel swipes around her neck - which also bears scars.
Dizzy looks incredulously at Yi. "What are you talking about?" she asks, pointing out, "I saw what you were just doing. You're like Jackie Chan or something."
Yi almost winces at the comparison, quickly shaking her head. "Jackie Chan... is a lot better. In a creative way. He is very... " the Gnawer trails to find a proper word. "Coordinated?" A quick shrug of indecision on that one. "And what I just did is basic. Sifu, my teacher, hadn't taught us much." Noting her respected teacher flashes a few steps of painful reflection in Yi's features, but she hastily wipes at her already dry face. "And fighting this way... is nothing like fighting monsters." She almost rumbles it out under her breath, and leans down again to drop her towel on her jacket. "So, what kind of fighting did you want to know?" Her head turns to regard the cub. "And you know that our first job isn't fighting, right?"
"Yeah," Dizzy agrees, in that sort of Californian 'I agree with whatever you say out loud but my opinions are still right' type way. "But I really need to start learning from other ragabashes. John tought me a little about fighting in crinos, but he's an ahroun, so my training was mostly getting beaten up." She looks off to the side while admitting that last part.
"If there was anything I wished Sifu had done more, it would have been to beat me up more," Yi notes in a quiet, offhand manner. Her dark eyes scan the Park's vicinity like night vision. "We're newmoons... and so what fighting we do is usually for purpose of stalling. Surviving." She glances up at Dizzy. "And since we are the ones who walk different paths when it comes to tradition, our ways of fighting would be different from the ahrouns." Yi turns up her lip corner in a smirkful manner. "We aren't so quick to rip things apart whenever something doesn't go our way... we are the questioners. Asking questions, while fighting."
The Walker cub nods thoughtfully at this. "Okay... could you maybe give an example?"
Yi gazes skyward for a minute, mind trailing for an example within the stars perhaps. "Ok..." Yi utters after a short bout of thinking. "It's an ahroun's night tonight. Full moon. Walking home alone, a robber jumps out at you, along with two of his friends. They have knives, you have only a jacket. The quickest way to end this fight of course, is to change and kill the opponents as quickly as possible. The slowest way, is to talk them out of making you a victim. What do you do? Say you had skills to fight, like me." Her brows lift in quest of the cub's answer.
"Well," Dizzy says, stalling for a second, trying to come up with an answer as quickly as she can, "I don't want to kill anyone, because, well, I dunno. I don't think I _could_ kill anyone, you know. And if I shift, then I've got to do that to perserve the veil. If all they have is knives, then they really couldn't hurt me, not that I couldn't heal." She shifts her weight, thinking about this. She's been beat up, ripped up, and shot up, and it all eventually healed. "Persionally I'd just run and try and get somewhere safe, like the Walkerhouse."
"Ah. But, would you risk the security of the safehouse, if they follow? Robbers tend to do that. Underestimating an opponent is a big flaw in a lot of them." Yi lifts her jacket up onto her shoulders, slipping into it to push out the cold that settles with the sweat. "If you killed them, right there, you risk being identified, not to mention that you'd have to clean up. To shift, would be the worst thing to do. You have the right idea with running... but the place you should run is someplace where you can either protect yourself in, or escape without being followed. A narrow alley would work." Yi follows her words with a motions of her hands to illustrate. "You first find an escape route with your eyes. Quickly. Then, take care the greatest threat to that escape route. Knock out the one blocking your exit. Then run. When you run, the others will follow. When you get to an alley you know, then you can turn and fight them one at a time. It's almost guaranteed that when you take care of at least half the group, some will find it not worth the trouble to pursue their adventure for pocket change."
Dizzy nods, sort of having been taking off guard with this impromptu lesson. "I see, but if you can't take out that one blocking you, then what? I didn't even dream of fighting until about... two months ago." The last bit is spoken as more of a question. It's hard to belive it's been that long.
Yi tucks her towel into a part of her sweat pants pocket, nodding slightly. "There's always another target. Another route. In that situation, anyway. Pick the one you can disarm. Maybe grab his arm and twist it behind him. Use their own kind as a shield, and as a distraction until you can get away." Yi shrugs a bit, then tries modifying. "So say that one of them has a gun. The one blocking your exit. Then, you pick one with a knife. It takes a little bit of luck, but distraction is a key to a newmoon's fighting. Ours is not one of taking blows straight on, but to deflect them so they don't hurt as much. So to the example... even if the guy with the knife is much bigger, much stronger... there's possibilities. Maybe you can trip him. Send him off balance before grappling. Like magicians...it's waiting for the right moment to pull the trick."
"Wow, thats pretty cool," the Walker cub tells the Gnawer. "But, what about when we're off to fight the Wrym, or whatever," she asks, changing the topic a bit, "Then we have to fight, right? Because that is our duty as garou, right? Fighting the Wyrm? We have to know how to fight for that."
Yi nods solemnly, senses up alertedly despite it being quite clear the park this late at night is deserted. "I'll admit that I'm not that schooled in the area of fighting tooth and claw. My fight with the Wyrm is done by finding its weak points. I am a scout, a spy... an assassin." She fills in that last blank with an air of gravity. "But you may find, that your side of the dark moon isn't the same as mine. Yours may be coming up with ideas on how to fight. Or keeping plans of attack sound by questioning the unclear parts. Or making sure the leaders are not sending you on any suicide missions." She glances about the park, then looks upwards at the stars again. "Does John set a time for you to return to the safehouse?"
Assassin? Dizzy suppose maybe that's how she got all of those scars. Though, Roger has all of those guns and such, so maybe this chinese girl is an assassin, just like in the movies. She shakes her head at the last question. "Not really," she answers, giving a small shrug, "Expecially if I'm with someone, it's cool."
Yi nods a bit, then vaguely looks a little embarrassed. "Well perhaps we should go there anyway... to talk more. With privacy." It's almost as if she's feeling eyes watching her, ears listening in. Paranoia - a healthy obsession. "If I think I remember correctly... there weren't any newmoons of higher rank for the Walkers. None that I know of, anyway..."
"Yeah, we can go there," Dizzy says, "I drove here, so it's not a problem. And you're right. I've heard of a Lucca that's supposed to be a cliath new moon, but other than that, Corey and I are the only Cockroach raggies in the city."
Yi can't help but smile faintly at the totem of the Walkers. It's funny, in a way. "So speaking of tribal spirits... have you met the Big Bug yet?" Is that a bit of old humor poking in? Maybe. Maybe not. Yi glances around for the vehicle, eyes towards the parking lot.
Standing out underneith a streetlamp is a bright yellow VW New Beetle in prime condition, pretty much the only car on the lot. Dizzy points out to the vehicle. "No, not yet," she admits, "I just went into the Umbra for the first time today."
Yi sets out for the yellow curvy car, finding its design quite amusingly fitting for the cub. "How was it? If John was there, likely it was a rather interesting experience."
Dizzy fishes the keys out of her pocket as they walk towards her car. "Lots of spiders... and webs." She pulls out the keys and hits a button, causing the Beetle to beep, indicating an alarm turning off. "Hops was being an idiot, as normal. He's going to get himself killed."
"Hops?" Yi glances briefly at the Walker beside her, not pausing in step at all while still conversing. "I gather he is another cub?" She pauses at the left side of the car to get in, until she realizes the steering wheel is on that side. And then circles to the right of the car, looking a little embarrassed for the slight.
"Yeah, he's a cub," Dizzy informs the Gnawer. "What are you..." she starts to ask as Yi attempts to enter on the wrong side. She shakes her head as the elder newmoon walks around to the other side and unlocks the doors. "I don't think I even know his real name, now that I think about it. He was introduced to me as 'Beer-boy.'"
Yi clears her throat quietly as she gets into the car. "Interesting name," Yi comments with a sort of detached interest. "Is he a newmoon too? Seems like it, given the mouth." She takes a moment of silence to feel odd sitting on the right side without a steering wheel. It's clear that she doesn't drive all that much, if at all. And if she had, it certainly wasn't quite in this country. Roving eyes look over the dashboard, the mirrors, and anything else within the vehicle.
"He's a theurge, actually," Dizzy says, starting the car. "Corey's a newmoon and really funny, too, though." She pulls out of the parking lot. "I've still got to think of a punishment for him, for John."
"For one with a mouth? The easiest is ignoring. But that doesn't always teach the lesson," Yi notes while thinking about the situation. "John would likely slap him around and be done with it." She turns her head to look outside along the passing night scenery. It's so different in a car. "But given the natural ladder of ranks... it shouldn't be long before he realizes that if he wants to get anywhere, he better start acting more maturely."
"Nonono," Dizzy says, shaking her head, but still keeping her eyes on the road. She seems to be a highly competent driver, the ride is very smooth. "John wanted me to think of a punishment for Corey. Something really humiliating."
Yi ohs quietly, dipping her head in a quiet apology for the mistake of information. "Why does he have to be punished?" she queries inquisitively.
"Because Hops played a prank on John, and Corey was in on it, and got in trouble for it," Dizzy explains, pulling the car over and parking it. "And John asked me to come up with his punishment."
"And ... 'Hops' didn't get a punishment?" Yi asks with the hint of oddity in her voice. Getting out of the car she glances about again reflexively before heading towards the door to the Walker safehouse. "What ... was the joke?"
"I'm not exacly sure," Dizzy admits, getting out of her car and closing her door. "They put a CD player outside of John's door playing gunshot sounds. Apparently John came out, guns blazing, because he thought someone had come for him or something." She hits the button on her key ring again and drops it back into her pocket, the car responding with a beep indicating that the alarm has been activated.
Yi shuffles uncomfortably at knowing that much. "That wasn't very smart... particularly since it was John they did it to..." Yi murmurs as she glances from the beeping beetle to the door. "John, like others you'll find... has quite a past." She slips a hand down to rummage for the towel, which is obviously there but her fingers brush along it for some unseen purpose. "And a ragabash knows which buttons to push... and when to stop pushing."
Dizzy bounds up the stairs quickly and swipes a card through the electronic lock, allowing the front door to be opened. "Well, apparently it was all Hops' idea, and he's very... strange. A lot of trouble has come around because of him."
Walker Safe House(#2832RAJL)
This small tenement building is a work that any interior decorator would be proud of. The building is somehow filled with light and space, despite the fact that the room is far from large. Mirrored surfaces and lush green potted plants are much in evidence - jarring only slightly with the video cameras that perch unobtrusively in various locations. A small sign on the wall lists the number of apartments upstairs as eight, though there are no names next to the apartment numbers. A very thick door leads downstairs, with no visible method of being opened - except a keypad next to it. A monitor is perched above the entrance, showing images from the hidden camera that watches the outside of the building.
The lobby branches off into what appears to be a small recreation room; for use only by residents and their guests. Much like the rest of the building, mirrors are prominent. There is a pool table set up in one half of the room, along with a small fridge for storing drinks and a cabinet for snackables. The remainder is dominated by a large home theater system, with an incredibly expensive-looking couch in front of it. The couch nearly screams out, 'Don't spill anything'. For those who might, there are also two matching side-chairs, and a bean-bag on the floor - far too close to the television to be good for anyone's eyes.
Yi nods with a sort of 'mm' emitting from her lips, dipping her head in respect of territory before stepping into the Walkerhouse. She'll wait for Dizzy to close the door before announcing herself. "I suppose I'll have to meet him sometime to see for myself." After a little bit, she changes topics back to some previous thoughts. "So, besides fighting... what else would you like to know?"
Dizzy lets go of the door and lets it close on it's own, pushing it a tad with her foot to make sure it closes completely. "Well, not really. General 411 on being a ragabash helps, though. Most of the other cubs fit nicely into their auspices, and I'm just trying to find my place in mine."
Yi tilts her head at the Walker cub, giving her a sort of once-over before averting her eyes to other things like the lovely concrete walls. "Mm. It could very well be... that you are 'common sense'. In this crazy world, everything gets turned inside out sometime. Your wit, your smarts, find themselves outside the madness and guide the others back to their places." She gazes back at the Walker cub. "A scout is the guide for the rest of the pack. And every battle is not always a physical one." She smiles again, the faint twinge of it in her eyes.
Yi furthers it with a murmur, "Isn't it, Protects-Others-From-Themselves?"
A wry grin crosses Dizzy's face, "Yes, yes. I really need to work on living up to that name, though. It's literal meaning and the meaning with which it was given are not really the same. It's a good goal to try and work towards, though."
"A name isn't something taken lightly either," Yi nods with some agreement. "Not just for ID, but for oneself to know how the outside world views them." The Gnawer eventually makes her way towards the couch and leans up against a sturdy part. Her gaze meanders lazily towards the stairs, then back at the cub.
"Yeah," says Dizzy, taking a chair. "Most garou I've met have names that pretty accurately describe them, but some names are really weird, and hard to figure out, you know?"
Yi nods at that. "Some names have pasts behind them. Mine is Three-Blades, unchanged since the first time I changed and ran the streets of Hong Kong." Her eyes take on a sort of distant, even slightly wistful look, if only a bit pained.
Dizzy cocks her head to the side a bit and raises her brow, "Three-Blades, huh? How'd you get that?"
"By killing off a gang leader and his two companions. A machete a piece," Yi replies softly, eyes closing slowly in memory. "Revenge for what he did to my best friend." A dark curtain of sorrow seems to fall over the newmoon, but the veil seems thin. "None of the elders really thought it necessary to rename every one of us after our Rite... my ritemates and I. So, my name has stuck.. until I prove myself worthy of another." Her gaze opens back up and she looks at Dizzy. "It's a little late... perhaps I shall be going, to not further disturb the safehouse."
Dizzy listens intently during the story, and after it is done, she nods, "Well, it is getting late, but I doubt you'd disturb anyone around here, most of the walls are pretty thick. Do you need a ride home?"
Yi shakes her head, pulling up from somewhere a mask of a smile though the hint of grateful appreciation is in her eyes. "I'll walk, but thank you for the offer." The Gnawer makes her way towards the door. "If you ever want to stop by... the apartment is number 15... at McAffe Court on Bridge Street. John has the phone number..."
Curious, Dizzy pulls out her cellphone from her jacket pocket and starts playing with it. "John gave me a bunch of numbers one day, yours might be on it." She concentrates on it, searching. "Here we go," she announces her success with a smile. "And you're sure you don't need a ride? It's no problem."
Yi waves the offer away with a hand, the other reaching for the door handle. "Best to keep the gas in the tank, not wasted on a Gnawer," she says in a joking manner. "No. Really. It's a nice night out. I'll walk back. And if I run into any robbers, I'll remember. Good night, Dizzy." She smiles back towards the cub, then opens up the door and slips out before any more offers of transportation could be uttered.
Dizzy eyes Yi curiously as she leaves. Asians are _way_ too polite, it makes them hard to guess. "Good night," she says with a small wave.