Currently in Saint Claire, it is partly sunny. The temperature is 52 degrees Fahrenheit (11 degrees Celsius). The wind is currently coming in from the southwest at 7 mph. The barometric pressure reading is 30.28 and rising, and the relative humidity is 71 percent. The dewpoint is 43 degrees Fahrenheit (6 degrees Celsius.)

Currently the moon is in the waxing Half Moon phase (43% full).

Burial Mounds

This wide clearing in the midst of short, dark pines is rough with wild grass and bare stone. The air is a bit cooler up here in the foothills than below, and the majestic peaks of the nearby mountains rear up over the eastern treetops. There is a vine-covered boulder standing under the edge of the somber evergreens to the east. The air here is prenaturally still and the grass waves not at all for there is no breeze that blows through the pines. It is silent, no call of bird thrown from the treetops to dance gaily in the open spaces. Occasionally chill fingers run up your spine.

A faint path leading downhill to the west is the only exit from the clearing.

Contents:
Joshua
Cutter

Obvious exits:
Forest

Joshua's jaw sets slightly, taking a deep and slow breath as the Shadow lord turns away, The bloody Ahroun doesn't seem too aware of the tapering rain. "What... what type of Urrah Medicine is it, Cutter-Rhya?"

Cutter doesn't turn back. "It's peyote, son. Traditional urrah have been using it for hundreds of years, and it can be a little hard on delicate stomachs."

Just outside the clearing a wolfen shape surges up to Crinos, shrinks down to two legs. A half moment later Natalie emerges, still looking like she's tangled with a raspberry patch but healing. She brushes a bit of wet hair off her face as she squints around the area, looking for that certain someone.

Desc:She looks like she got into a fight with a raspberry thicket and lost, with a god's-plenty of scrapes and gashes over face and neck, probably some under her clothes as well. There's a large scab on her right neck that goes underneath her shirt, as if something had gouged into the muscle there.

Joshua frowns again. "Peyote... where have I..." His brow furrows, and you can see the gears crunching and turning inside his noggin. Finally: "Cactus." He looks up from the dirt, shaking his head. "That isn't Urrah medicine at all, Rhya. Least I don't think it is."

Cutter says "The urrah were much smaller scale in those days. Collections of monkeys weren't as big."

Cutter:

Tall, lean and wiry with long legs and an angular face. The current look evokes young Sinatra--the blue eyes topped with short well-kept red hair and a felt fedora with a black feather tucked into the band. He wears a retro-cut black suit and sunglasses with black leather loafers. The spot of color is his royal purple tie.

Natalie spots Joshua - not that hard a task, especially considering his current 'attire' - and heads over, stopping politely some feet from the two. She waits, hands tucked behind her back, and apparently content to wait for a while.

Joshua's posture changes yet again, chin lifting a half a degree as he looks over to Natalie, before he flicks his gaze back to Cutter. "Well... if you would be willing to help on that note, Rhya... I would..." Oh, and it sounds like he's about to kill himself with this: "... Appreciate it. Greatly."

Cutter's smile is hard to see, with his back to Joshua, but it doesn't look pleasant. He dips his head again. "I think it can be arranged," he says.

While Cutter's back is turned Nat flashes Joshua a bit of throat. Her voice, however, is far from submissive. "Pestering other tribes for information again, Joshua? Strange, I clearly remember Megan saying that was a no-no."

"Funny that. I clearly remember her saying, to me, that I was not allowed to look into a new tribe. Not that I wasn't able to get instruction from others." He growls back, turning his his gaze to the Errant Elder. "I'm not looking into a new tribe. But what would I know... after all, you being there when Megan-Rhya and I had that private conversation..."

Cutter turns toward the new arrival, offering a smile. "Why, hello there. Welcome to the graveyard. I assure you, if Megan has forbidden this young fellow to speak to those from other tribes, I have no intention of crossing her."

Natalie clamps her teeth down on a reply to Joshua and instead inclines her head to Cutter. "Natalie Baker, called Holds-the-Line. Galliard and Walker Elder. And I assure you," she adds, glancing at Josh before returning her eyes to Cutter, "that Megan has made it quite clear to me what her instructions regarding this Glass Walker are." From the tonelessness, it's also quite clear what Natalie thinks of those instructions.

"Get a damn half moon here, then. If you're going to bloody well call me a liar." Josh snarls head still pinned firmly in the direction of Natalie. "What I was told quite clearly was to spend two months after I'm done out here living as a Glass Walker.... And being a bloody Glass Walker does not mean I cannot ask for advice on rituals. Furthermore, I was never even actually told that I couldn't ask other tribes about their ways... the only reason I don't is because it is keeping with the spirit of the order. And if you're going to call me a liar, get a bloody half-moon here to back it up."

No longer 'in the Army', Joshua has lost the 'draftee' look. He stands about 5' 8", his frame covered by a layer of muscle visible under his skin from obsessive training. He lacks almost any fat, lean from months of slim eating. His skin seems stretched over his frame, pale. His face is cold and lined, no real defining features present: dull brown eyes, thin lips, a smaller nose. His head is covered in longer dark-red hair, having grown out with benefit of being cut. The Ahroun has a near constant disheveled, almost feral quality about him in spite of how clean he keeps himself.

Bruises and cuts are scattered across his frame; one could deduce that he gets in more than his fair share of scrapes. Currently, Joshua is wearing a abused black t-shirt tucked into a battered pair of blue jeans. Off to the side of the belt is a broad leather sheath. A wood handle pokes out the sheath, a well kept, sharp and large steel blade attached. His feet are clad in a pair of shin high muddy hiking boots, the pair broken in from overuse. Not particularly attractive, he stands out only in the blandest sort of way.

Cutter seems not to notice the outburst. "Cutter Thomson. Knife Moon and elder Shadow Lord, but not Shadow Lord Elder. And Megan has not seen fit to make her instructions clear to me. The young man asked me about talking to spirits. Nothing about how to change tribes."

Natalie ahs? "Then my apologies." She gives Cutter another little nod, then tilts her head curiously. "The same Cutter Thomas - Salem - wanted to pack with? Nice meeting you at last. Which then means you must be one of the 'good'," she provides air quotes, "Shadow Lords." Yes, she completely ignores Joshua's outburst. Healthier all around.

Joshua looks very badly like he wants to knife the Elder. His hand starts to stray down to it when instead he grasp it behind the small of his back, a sharp scowl set on his bloodied face as he does not turn away from Natalie.

Cutter says "The very same, the infamous Cutter Thomson. Bad influence, honorless urrah and treacherously self-interested. Which, I suppose, does make me one of the Good Shadow Lords. And congratulations on your promotion. I hope it works out for you."

Natalie grins at Cutter. "Thanks. We should get along fine as long as you're not as slimy as that little twerp Konstantin. --Oh," and she 'suddenly' remembers her original errand, and Josha. "I've got something for you." The Galliard reaches into her back pocket and pulls out a folded piece of notebook paper, offers it to the Ahroun. "You were wondering about the Walker's vision quest? Well, it's called 'therapy'. There's a couple names of Walker kin psychologists back in the Cities. They might know of someone around here, or at least be someone you can talk to."

Joshua falls silent for a long moment. "I think..." He states slowly, chin lifting as he looks slightly down at the other. "... that I will pretend like you did not just do that."

Cutter wrinkles his nose. "Nobody's as slimy as Konstantin. He's prodigous. We should keep in touch, keep each other up to date on what's going on in the city. I'm sure Jarred means well, but I don't think he's up to taking care of the whole scab, especially while he's stuck on the Bawn."

Natalie shrugs and tucks the bit of paper back into her pocket. "You don't want my help, fine. I've heard of another something with some heavy drugs, but that's about all I know of it." Paper rehidden, she crosses her arms and turns back to Cutter. "Yeah, he about takes the cake for slimy. I half expect to find him under every rock. Well. I'm packing with Signe now, under Wolverine. You want my cell number too?"

Joshua cross his arms, turning his back and pacing across the wet earth. "I may be Dumb-as-a-bear, but don't think I missed the insult, Natalie." He calls back simply, heading his way out of the Burial Mounds. "Cutter-Rhya, thank you. I hope to see you again soon about that then."

Cutter touches the brim of his hat to Joshua. "Soon, then." Turning back to Natalie, he says "So that's where Signe got herself to. I wondered when she stopped coming to tea with me, after the pack broke up. Yes, we should trade information."

"Insult," Nat snorts, sotto-voice, not bothering to hide her eyeroll from Cutter. Then more conversationally, "Yeah, if you've got a pen I can give it to you here. You want email too, or is that too high-tech?" Naughty Cliath, to tease the Fostern so.

Cutter reaches into his pocket, tugging out a small PDA. "Sorry, I don't actually have a pen. But I'm at 208-344-2917 and I'm sanguinity at bigtime dot com."

Natalie gasps and clutches at her chest, about to die from a mock heart attack. "You brought that out here and weren't promptly stoned? You are Urrah." She grins, though, and gives him both her cell and email address. "There. So. Anything you need to know about the city? Anything I don't know about same, d'you think?"

Cutter shrugs. "There's Mister Invisible, the Russian Mobster, and the zombie machine gun death cult. I figure everybody already knows about the ninja vampire gang by now."

Natalie ticks off freaky weirdo number one. "Well, Mister Invisible - aka Alex Ironskin - is well and truly dead. So's his boss, Boris. I haven't heard about zombie machine gun death cults or... no wait, I have heard about the ninja vampires, I think. The katana gang? A couple of people suggested we try and sic the katanas on the mobsters. But that's all I know about 'em."

Cutter dips his head. "The katana gang, yeah. Dead, huh? I'm sorry I missed out on that fun. I hope it was exciting at least. Annnd I got the impression that the vampires were already het up on the Russians."

Natalie says, "Havoc took care of 'em, plus Jacinta and Thomas," neatly glossing over details. "Maybe they are, but I'm not. Care to clue me in? Katana-wielding vampires sounds a little too Weekly World News to be true."

Cutter slips a hand into his coat pocket, fishing for something. "One thing I can say with a surety, they were the most candy-ass vampires I've ever run into. Went down like a wet box of Kleenex."

"There a lot of vampires in the city?" Nat asks, studying the Shadow Lord's face. "Thomas was going to fill me in on the nitty gritty, but we only got to the nit before he scampered. The only other real city Galliard I've met, Alicia, is too interested in making sure I've heard how John this and Roger that and Synthesis blah blah blah to talk about the here and now."

Cutter shakes his head. "These were the first ones I'd seen here. I tangled with a few back in New York. Nasty shit, really bad bad asses. Not to be fucked with lightly."

Natalie says, "As opposed to these. Well. So what's with these machine gunning zombies?"

Cutter says "They're apparently part of some weird death cult straight out of the movies. Holed up in a warehouse downtown; I'm trying to get enough strong arms together to take them out once I get enough no-moons to scout the place out." He pauses. "I'm not doing particularly well at it, I'm afraid."

"Talk to Tony and Leala," Nat advises. "They're the Walker ragabashes. Leala's challenging me for Elder, so it'll be good for her to have something else to think about." Her toothy smile has very little warmth to it. "And I'm sure Havoc'd be willing to give you a hand. ...Unless you and Signe are on the outs?"

Cutter cocks his head. "I surely don't think so. I mean, we were almost in a pack together which shocked the hell out of me, so I figure she can't hate me *too* much more than usual."

Natalie says, "There's an... hm. Owen? around to distract her. Yeah, I think that was his name. Another Get ahroun Fostern." She's just Miss Newsflash. "Yeah, she said Thomas would've been the glue that held you together. I think he was looking to put me in there too. So you see, we're practically siblings."

Cutter says "Then it's a good thing we finally met. Who's the alpha for Havoc?"

Natalie holds up her hand, fingers outstretched. "Signe." The thumb goes down, then each of the fingers in turn as she names the rest. "Plus Emma, Doc, Artemis, and me. Two Get, two Furies, and a Walker."

Cutter shakes his head. "Feel like an old woman stuck in a home. I hardly know any of those names."

Natalie says, "I don't know how long the Furies have been in town, but Emma's grass green. She Rited with the headcase," a jerk of her head toward the path indicates the long-gone Walker, "And another cub of ours, Cat. Theurge. I've only been in town a few weeks myself, since mid February. So I'm still putting names to faces myself."

Cutter smirks and dips his head. "Good. Then I don't feel quite so bad. Cat went and got himself rited, huh? That's good to hear."

Natalie says, "Yup. He's... the Rite really made a change with him. I was surprised, and pleasantly so. He's off in the Umbra right now, hunting down spirits to teach him Gifts. At least, that's what he was doing last time I heard." She unfolds her arms and reaches up to massage the gash on her neck. "...What do you think of the hea - of Joshua, by the by?"

Cutter looks inscrutable for a long moment. "I'm impressed he survived to get Rited. With any luck he'll live long enough to be useful cannon fodder. That's kind of what full moons are for."

Natalie offers over a thin-lipped smile. "Indeed. Which leads us, round about, back to what Megan said about him. Once he's finished with his stint as a Guardian, he's got to give being a Walker a decent chance. Two months, at least. If he gives it the ol' college try good enough to satisfy Megan, she'll run the Rite of Renunciation on him and let him pick another tribe. He doesn't, she won't. Plus he's not allowed to scout out other tribes between now and then. Trust me, the only person these conditions make happy is Megan herself."

Cutter finds what he was looking for, fishing out a half-burned cigarette and popping it into his mouth. "Far as I'm concerned, it's between the tribe and the alpha. I'm happy to go along with whatever the rules are -- no mind to go digging up trouble when I've already got plenty on my plate."

Natalie concedes him the point with another nod and an open hand. "True. I'm a Galliard, though; can't help but talk the ear off everyone I meet. Plus you deserve to know what the hell's going on with him. Josh isn't known... hmn. Let me put it this way: Josh is better known for telling people the parts of conversation he wants to remember, instead of everything. Y'see?"

Cutter smiles around the cigarette. "I surely do. And I appreciate the information. Just wanted you to know that I'm not trying to go behind your back on this matter. What with my reputation preceding me and all."

"Thomas trusted you enough to pack with you," Nat answers simply. "That puts you square in the 'good guy' category in my book." Little bit of hero worship there? Nah. "Remember what I said about Tony and Leala, and Havoc. You can't get much more 'big gun' than a City based Wolverine pack, right?"

Cutter says "And I'm certainly glad for the pointer. I'd like to see this matter taken care of. And maybe they can get me up to speed on the Mob situation." He glances up at the sky. "I need to get headed out soon if I'm going to make it back to town before dark."

Natalie says, "I'd give you a ride, but I've got a couple of people to look up. Still, leave me a note if you want one. The green Toyota pickup's mine. Nice meeting you, Cutter."

Cutter touches the brim of his hat. "Pleasure to meet you. Don't worry about the ride. I can do with the exercise."

Natalie nods and heads out of the clearing, shifting down to lupus as she goes.

[End of log]