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O'Brien House: Main Area

The main living area runs two-thirds of the width of the house, occupying most of the middle and a bit of the northwest corner. The main body of it is a large living room, anchored in the center by a stone fireplace, flanked on both sides by picture windows. Opposite the fireplace is a stone wall to the south dividing the living area from the front foyer; two open doorways on either side of the wall allow access to that long hall which serves as the main artery of the house.

The living room is simply furnished with a sectional couch and matching armchair with the faded look of being used and a simple entertainment center bearing a TV, DVD player, and VCR. A few DVDs are stored on the shelves, but not many. The dining room is tucked into the northwest corner of the area, a step up from the living room, and about half the width. A metal chandelier illuminates an simple pale-wood table and matching chairs set with an autumnal fake floral arrangement. A couple of framed posters of Irish landscapes decorate the walls, hinting at the ethnic origins of the current occupants.

Exiting the house through the main door in the foyer eventually brings one to the streets of Kent Crossing.

Obvious exits:

Kent Crossing

It's been just over a week since Natalie called and left the message for Megan to get in touch with her. Finally the stars have aligned to get the two women together; Nat's little green truck pulls into the driveway of the O'Brien home, then Nat herself is admitted to the house. "Did you have a good trip, Megan?" Nat asks once the initial greetings are over.

Megan's expression is a little reserved and more assessing as she admits Natalie in and fields the initial question, pushing the sleeves of her sweatshirt and underlying turtleneck up her forearms to below her elbows in a careless gesture. "Longer than I would've wanted but the timing of the full moon, couldn't be helped. I'm assuming since you called instead of leaving a message at the Farmhouse that this isn't horribly urgent, so, what's up?" And turning her way towards the kitchen, she pauses to look over her shoulder at the Galliard and add, "Can I get you something? I have a pot of water on for tea."

"Tea's fine, thank you," Nat says carefully as she trails after Megan. "And actually... it is, well, if not urgent, at least not something I want everyone at the farm house to know about. Alpha's ears only for now, though this is likely going to be told at the next Moot, too." She takes in a quick breath before saying, "It's a Veil breech in the city, pretty major. Signe. We went into this expecting a poodle and found fifteen saber-tooth tigers instead."

Megan's motion reaching for the tea pot on the back of the stove is arrested, the outstretched hand clenching into a fist for several seconds before relaxing once more, the forward progress resuming, only to pick the teapot up to move from the back to the front burner before it is down once more, her hands going along the edge of the stove to lean on it. "First Erika, and now Signe," Megan says nearly under her breath. "Fucking Christ." She lets out a gusty sigh, before coming out of her lean and once again taking up the teapot. "I'm not hearing anything yet that wouldn't make this Sept ears," she says in clipped tones, moving to fetch two mugs of tea and tea bags. "Go on."

"Yes, Megan," Nat says with a grimace. "OK, go way back to the beginning. End of October, Harold - that's one of Jacinta's kin - calls us - that's Signe and me - to tell us about a kid named Kenny in his precinct who's getting fatal threats from a gang. This gang's territory overlaps with ours, so I tell Harold we'll go chase them off. We do. Frighten off the driver and the gunman and chase after them. The driver gets tossed out of the car, so we corner him. A little 'persuasion' and he gives us names and things. Big D is one - in fact, he was the gunman in the car - and Captain Plague another. We scare him back onto the straight and narrow. So far, so good."

Natalie continues, "When we head back to Kenny's house, his mama says the car pulled back up and Big D tried to take a few shots like they were planning. Signe'd used a gift to block the guns, so he threw them into the street and took off again. Everything stays quiet for a few weeks after that, so I figure we've scared the gang off Kenny for good." She pauses, then, to see if Megan has any questions or commentary.

"Harold," Megan says with recognition. "Jacinta introduced him to me, once, and I saw in the paper he was elected to the St. Claire city council. How'd a Native politician hear about some kid on the streets being threatened by street gangs?"

"Harold works - worked - with one of the neighborhood groups in our area," Natalie explains, tucking her hands behind her back. "When it's something like this - something the police can't handle - a lot of times the neighborhood group is who you turn to. They handle all sorts of things, from finding low-income housing to organizing block parties. Neighborhood groups really have a finger on the pulse of their neighborhood. We worked with them a lot back in Minnesota."

The water is poured over the tea bags and the teapot returned to the stove with a bit of a *clang* before Megan turns back to the Glass Walker, jaw set. "Fine. Go on."

Natalie nods and continues, "Then, oh, early last month - call it the third or fourth - I get a call from Harold saying that the gang had cornered Kenny and given him a beating. --In gang-land, that means they'd regained some face from him saying 'No thanks'. It wasn't fatal, just painful. Again, not much of a problem. Signe wasn't too happy about it, but I wasn't worried, especially since But then just a week or so later, the gang corners Signe to apply the same sort of tactics." She pauses, studying the Philodox without meeting her eyes. "They got her on a street corner, right next to an open store. Six of them, with bats and knives, and at least one gun. That was Big D, I figure, since he was the one to lose face during the Kenny incident. Not important enough of a job for Captain Plague to handle himself."

Natalie says, "Signe killed three of them; one ran away before anything really happened. Unfortunately, she also had to shift to Glabro to heal up - since she didn't go down easily, like she was supposed to, they went a little schitzy and were going to kill her. She figures two people saw her in Glabro - Big D, and another kid who ran off She wasn't in any shape to chase after them, and no one was close enough to help with clean up, especially as there were already sirens. That was the article about the attack dogs, if you remember it. When she told me about what happened, we immediately started making plans to raid the gang's headquarters and take them out. That's why you haven't heard anything until now - we were trying to get things cleaned up as quick as possible."

Megan's eyebrow lifts, that single motion along with her expression making plain both her disagreement with the decision to go along with the displeasure generated by the recitation about the Veil Breach. And the fact that she stays silent may be more unnerving than if she was yelling and screaming.

Natalie doesn't know Megan well - certainly not well enough to interpret her moods. She waits a few heartbeats longer for the Alpha to make some verbal comment on the tale, then launches into the next bit. "Scratch and I did a little scouting, and we found their place easily enough, a couple blocks off Bridge. Signe and Emma took the main headquarters, Scratch and I took their drug house. We went in over the roofs just before dawn, when most of them would be asleep, and the plan was to clear out both of the houses, killing everyone we found. Well, as soon as we got to the roof we found a problem - the lookouts had silver weapons. Pretty crappy ones - crosses on crossbow bolts - but silver all the same. The rest of our house went pretty slick - Scratch and I took out, oh... call it fifteen on our end. Set the house on serious fire, too - they'd had Molotovs. We get back to the car, no problem."

Nat says, "Signe and Emma, though... they had a problem. Emma comes back in Glabro, lugging Signe back through the barely dawn. Signe'd been shot all to hell and back. We got her back to the safehouse, and she didn't come to until mid-afternoon. Their side of things wasn't as tidy. They killed at least as many people, sure, but Signe'd apparently waded straight into a firing squad. That's what took her down. At least one of the bullets in her was silver, too. I checked that afternoon for both Big D and Captain Plague, and they were both still alive, so they managed to escape the houses. At least we took out a major chunk of their income - if we can just get the leaders, that's gonna destabilize the entire area and take the Bridge Street Brothers - that's the name of this gang - out of major player contention for a while."

Natalie shifts her weight from foot to foot. "We gave things a couple of weeks to settle down a bit, then started making plans to find the bastards again. Last Friday - that was the 28th - Signe told me to talk to you and tell you everything. Like I said, expecting a poodle, found saber-tooth tigers instead. That's when I called and left the voice mail to get hold of you. I didn't think it was something everyone at the Farmhouse needed to know, or could help with. We still wanted - want - to keep this as low-key as possible. Then on the first I got a call from David, the Mage I've been talking to. He told me that there'd been a bulk purchase of silver bullets. Doesn't take a genius to figure out who it was. I asked him if he could help, and he said he could. I wrote down what we knew of Big D and the Captain, as well as where they were holed up and our plans to go in and get them."

She adds hastily, "I was deliberately vague about how we were going to get into the building. I just said we were going to sneak in, plug Big D and the Captain, and sneak out again. Umbra-side, obviously, but I've asked him if he knows anything about us, and he doesn't. So I'm trying to keep the Veil there. Anyway, he called me Monday night, and said he'd given the place a quick once-over, but he didn't have any details. I told him that was fine, since we were going to let things settle down a bit longer, and he said he'd get back to me in a few days. He hasn't, yet." Again she pauses, and her eyes drift over the Philodox's face, not once lifting to the level of her eyes. "That's the whole story, from start to finish. We screwed up, and we need help."

Megan's one comment is a sarcastic, "Just like a Wolverine pack. Four Garou against a gang who looks prepared for something, and they think sure, we can take 'em without help." Anger bleeds into her voice and colors her motions as she retrieves tea bags from the mugs, buying her time before she has to reply again, and the anger is lessened. Her expression is drawn taut, skin sharp over cheekbones and jawline. "You should've come to me when Signe was jumped."

"It was monkeys with guns," Nat offers apologetically. "And we didn't know that they'd figured out what the hell until we got there. Even then we figured we'd catch them with their pants down. But yes, I see that now. If we'd had a few more people, they could have staked out the back to make sure no one got away."

"You still should've come to me when Signe was jumped," Megan says forcefully, presence coming to bear like a palpable weight. "Even if it had been two guys and a slingshot, it was a Veil Breach, and the rest of the Sept's resources should've been mobilized to listen if it's spread farther than the four of you perceived. Fuck, Natalie, a mage knows more about this than the Sept Alpha. I see a problem with this."

Natalie uhms, visibly shrinking. "Yes, Megan. I - Alicia knows about it too. Knows something, anyway. She's got a new kin at the police department. Harold was feeding us some information as well, but that all stopped flowing just before Christmas. I haven't had a chance to talk with Alicia's kin yet, but I can call him tonight and get together with him next week."

"I'll talk to Alicia," Megan says peremptorily. "She's mentioned wanting me to meet someone, I'm assuming it's probably him. So, where are we at this point?" she asks sharply. "At least one, possibly more people on the loose who saw Signe shift to glabro--why fucking glabro--," she snaps, "Christ, I mean at least try to invoke the Delirium if you're going to break the Veil," she asides, before reining in her temper once more with a quick, deep, shaky breath, going on at the exhalation. "And no idea who might've seen her in the farce of trying to take down their hangouts. So, the only safe thing at this point would be to destroy the entire gang down to the last man. Did I miss anything?"

Natalie raises a finger as if to tick off points. "At least two people, I figure, who know about werewolves. That's the term David used being tossed about. Big D, and the Captain. I don't think Big D has enough pull in the gang to make sure everyone's got silver. He's only a lieutenant. However, he probably was able to convince Captain Plague." A second finger lifts, but she folds them both down and tucks her hands behind her back again. "Um... well, I know why Signe didn't use Crinos. She got caught right out on the street, and there was a store open next door. Anyone could have walked out and seen her. I guess she figured it was dark enough that Glabro wouldn't have been noticeable. I assume that Signe and Emma were going through the headquarters in Crinos. That's what Scratch and I did. So anyone who managed to survive our attack isn't likely to remember it."

The Galliard pauses, then adds, "Way I figure things, if we wait a month or two for things to cool down, it'll help. They'll stop being so damn hyper, for one thing - they won't expect us to attack them. For another, once we get rid of the two biggies, the rest of the gang's likely to scatter. Even if they believe in werewolves, they're not going to want to stick around and find proof. Plus it's not likely that the news is spreading any farther than the Bridge Street Brothers - gang leaders don't sit around taking tea and gossiping about what's going on. They just don't. So if we can take out Big D and the Captain, that ought to be enough to quash things."

A muscle in Megan's jaw works, sharply defined in the planes of her face. "Not likely to remember, but still possible. I know this from personal experience. And I don't want to wait. You guys have already misjudged their reactions--badly--already, I don't want to risk that you're wrong about this, too. It needs to be squashed, and squashed now, and if there's a high body count, well," she says, hanging the sentence with a look leveled at the Galliard. "What kind of resources do you need to track down the rest of this gang's hideouts?" she asks, putting her hands spread more than shoulder-width apart on the edge of the counter serving as breakfast bar and separating kitchen from hall, between Megan and Natalie, and leaning forward. "We have at least two more packs in the city, one designed specifically for information gathering, plus Resonance, and we can call in Crescent Wing and Scourge to take them down."

Natalie grimaces, her eyes finding a spot on the wall past Megan's head. "How do you find out everyone who's in a gang? You don't. I don't think even Captain Plague knows everyone who claims he's a Bridge Street Brother. There's the hard-core gangers like him and Big D, then there's the ones who are only there part-time, and then there's the, well, they used to be called molls. The girlfriends of the gang members, who are now sometimes carrying guns on their own. The only way I know to hunt people down is to know their name. There's no... no other bond than that, really. Not even something spirit... u... al." Head cocks with a thought. "That's a possibility, maybe. I don't know if it'd work, but if you got a major mojo spirit, it might be able to track down who's a Brother."

"Start with the hard-core gangers," Megan says imperatively. "We find out where they hang out. Which of them are likely to be gang hangouts and which ones may be innocent. We take note. And then we take them down." Her tone continues on as one of command, and one not open to discussion. "I want the rest of the Glass Walkers and the Bone Gnawers involved with doing that. I'll talk to Yi and Olga myself, and call Signe in. Do you foresee a problem with this?" she asks, as if daring the cliath to answer affirmatively.

Natalie might, but she's hardly going to say so, now is she? "I'll leave a message for Harold tonight," she says, "Asking him to get me names or people who... no, just to get names by Monday. I'll get any other Lieutenants and anyone else with pull in the gang. It's going to be messy, Megan-rhya - lots messy. Going after everyone instead of just those two we know about... it's gonna be messy."

"Yes," Megan responds levelly, "it is."

Perhaps unwisely, the Cliath continues to nudge, to try clarify. "I don't mean messy as in 'spilling a lot of blood'. I mean that it's going to be a lot of work. --Not that that's bad, just... oh, cripes. I don't know how to explain it."

Megan simply looks at Natalie, while the seconds tick by and the silence grows, until finally saying mildly, "Then don't. I'll appreciate it when you can get me the info on the names."

Properly smushed, Natalie says, "Yes Megan," again. "Do you want me to tell Harold to call you and leave the info too, or do you want me to come track you down once I have it, or leave a note at the farmhouse, or what?"

"One of you call me," Megan replies. "I'd like the names written down both so they don't get garbled in Telephone or one of them isn't forgotten as the information gets passed. Whether that's a note here or at the farmhouse, I don't care. I check both places daily."

"I'll have him call both of us," Nat decides, "and I'll leave a note with the names out at the farmhouse, too. Belt and suspenders. What should I tell Signe, that you're handling things now? Who's warleader and organizing this?"

"I'm going to call Signe as soon as you leave," Megan replies with remarkable calm. "She'll let you know what we decide."

Natalie considers that before bobbing her head in agreement. "All right. Oh - about this Mage. He doesn't know much about us that I can tell. I assume you want to keep it that way? I haven't told him that I'm not Elder, for instance, or that I'm not in charge of Havoc."

Megan's response is simple and straightforward. "Yes. He shouldn't be told anything at this point."

"He's a mushroom," agrees the Galliard. "I'll try to keep the level of truth down to a bare minimum. Other than that, I'm calling Harold and getting names of gang leaders. Anything else?"

"Yes," Megan says succinctly. "Do your job, Galliard. I'll see you to the door," she adds, calling an end to the discussion.

Natalie doesn't even try to hide her grimace, just says, "Yes Megan," again before heading off for the door.

[End of log]