A Night With Shane
Last night, I got to hunt with my brother. We ran through the woods west of Columbia, tearing after a deer. Took it down, the two of use, and between me taking the blood and him the meat, we didn't waste a thing.
For twenty years, I dreamed of being able to run and hunt with him. And now? Now, it's a memory I'll cherish.
The similarities between Shane and I are... uncanny. We're different creatures, him and I, but our paths run side by side.
Turns out that he's the new Alpha of Pack Firebrand, the pack that I was saddled into helping when Amber dragged me to Missouri in the first place. From the sound of it, he made Alpha at almost the same time as I finished my last trial for Alpha of the Gangrel in Lamar. We talked a bit on the experiences; not really going into details - there's so much that we just can't tell each other, so much that the other would be happier not knowing anyway - but just sort of the general feel of it all: honoring territory, dealing with problems, that sort of thing.
Also found out that he knows at least one of the lupines down in College Station that apparently killed Emerson. We didn't give each other names or any of that, but he's agreed to give me some quiet help by asking some discrete questions about the incident. With a fair bit of luck, we might be able to piece together what really happened... and whether or not Em was set up.
We did talk a bit about the animal deaths that have been happening in Delphi (again, without specifics of names and places). Told him what I'd seen, that flickering form that disappeared. Shane's opinion pretty much matched my own: that it's a spirit or ghost of some sort. He understands spirits a good deel better than I do, and postulated that the thing might have started by emulating us on our hunts, took it a step farther, and now it's got a taste for killing. He even offered to come down and help take care of the thing, but I had to turn him down; brother or not, vouching for him down here in Lamar would happen about three seconds before someone shoved a stake in my chest and opened up on him with a shotgun or twenty. But now that I understand a bit more about this thing, I've got an idea; with tomorrow night being Hekate's Deipnon, a crossroads offering might help to settle the thing down. We'll see how that goes.
Didn't see Amber when I was down there. Frankly, that's for the best; she well and truly hates what I am now, and there's no point in poking her with a stick. But while I was there, Shane mentioned that she was still trying to find her kid in the foster care system. In fact, they've had some wolf-blooded trying to get into the computer records without much luck. So, I made a peace offering of sorts. Had Shane take me to the hall of records... and then I used my strongest protean gift to get inside and get to the actual paper record. Shane will give Amber the address for where her kid is, and if the time is right, he'll let Amber know who got it. Might make her calm down about me. Might just piss her off. Or might leave her wondering which to do.
That was Carlos' reaction: not sure whether to kill or kiss me. When I'd cleaned out Brainpan's cave, there was more than what I took with me, and one of those things was apparently the ashes of this Father Grubb guy that was important to their pack. When I overheard Shane talking on the phone about the missing ashes and how they thought that "a leech called Brainpan" had them, I let him in on Brainpan's death and that the ashes were probably still in the cave. So now, they've got the ashes back, and I've apparently got something resembling respect in the eyes of Carlos.
Same as I have with Steve, who is the new guardian of this "hall of heroes" they have in an old church down there. That was the initial reason that I was heading to meet up with Shane, anyway; I had an old letter from Brainpan's stash from that Father Grubb guy to the then-guardian of this hero hall, and after what happened with that spirit thing, I decided I should probably return it to them. Shane took me to meet this Steve guy to give him the letter directly. Whatever Steve was expecting, it wasn't me, but by the end of it, he shook my hand and only flinched a little bit when he did so.
You know, a year ago the last thing I'd have wanted to do would be to spend a night dealing with a bunch of fucking werewolves. But with Shane... hell, it was actually a good, if occasionally tense and somewhat frightening, night. And it was worth every awkward moment for that wonderful run with my brother - twin wolves on the hunt. If I can hold onto nothing else when torpor someday claims my memories, if there is no other glint from my past that I can recollect, I hope to keep that moment in my mind until my final night.
For twenty years, I dreamed of being able to run and hunt with him. And now? Now, it's a memory I'll cherish.
The similarities between Shane and I are... uncanny. We're different creatures, him and I, but our paths run side by side.
Turns out that he's the new Alpha of Pack Firebrand, the pack that I was saddled into helping when Amber dragged me to Missouri in the first place. From the sound of it, he made Alpha at almost the same time as I finished my last trial for Alpha of the Gangrel in Lamar. We talked a bit on the experiences; not really going into details - there's so much that we just can't tell each other, so much that the other would be happier not knowing anyway - but just sort of the general feel of it all: honoring territory, dealing with problems, that sort of thing.
Also found out that he knows at least one of the lupines down in College Station that apparently killed Emerson. We didn't give each other names or any of that, but he's agreed to give me some quiet help by asking some discrete questions about the incident. With a fair bit of luck, we might be able to piece together what really happened... and whether or not Em was set up.
We did talk a bit about the animal deaths that have been happening in Delphi (again, without specifics of names and places). Told him what I'd seen, that flickering form that disappeared. Shane's opinion pretty much matched my own: that it's a spirit or ghost of some sort. He understands spirits a good deel better than I do, and postulated that the thing might have started by emulating us on our hunts, took it a step farther, and now it's got a taste for killing. He even offered to come down and help take care of the thing, but I had to turn him down; brother or not, vouching for him down here in Lamar would happen about three seconds before someone shoved a stake in my chest and opened up on him with a shotgun or twenty. But now that I understand a bit more about this thing, I've got an idea; with tomorrow night being Hekate's Deipnon, a crossroads offering might help to settle the thing down. We'll see how that goes.
Didn't see Amber when I was down there. Frankly, that's for the best; she well and truly hates what I am now, and there's no point in poking her with a stick. But while I was there, Shane mentioned that she was still trying to find her kid in the foster care system. In fact, they've had some wolf-blooded trying to get into the computer records without much luck. So, I made a peace offering of sorts. Had Shane take me to the hall of records... and then I used my strongest protean gift to get inside and get to the actual paper record. Shane will give Amber the address for where her kid is, and if the time is right, he'll let Amber know who got it. Might make her calm down about me. Might just piss her off. Or might leave her wondering which to do.
That was Carlos' reaction: not sure whether to kill or kiss me. When I'd cleaned out Brainpan's cave, there was more than what I took with me, and one of those things was apparently the ashes of this Father Grubb guy that was important to their pack. When I overheard Shane talking on the phone about the missing ashes and how they thought that "a leech called Brainpan" had them, I let him in on Brainpan's death and that the ashes were probably still in the cave. So now, they've got the ashes back, and I've apparently got something resembling respect in the eyes of Carlos.
Same as I have with Steve, who is the new guardian of this "hall of heroes" they have in an old church down there. That was the initial reason that I was heading to meet up with Shane, anyway; I had an old letter from Brainpan's stash from that Father Grubb guy to the then-guardian of this hero hall, and after what happened with that spirit thing, I decided I should probably return it to them. Shane took me to meet this Steve guy to give him the letter directly. Whatever Steve was expecting, it wasn't me, but by the end of it, he shook my hand and only flinched a little bit when he did so.
You know, a year ago the last thing I'd have wanted to do would be to spend a night dealing with a bunch of fucking werewolves. But with Shane... hell, it was actually a good, if occasionally tense and somewhat frightening, night. And it was worth every awkward moment for that wonderful run with my brother - twin wolves on the hunt. If I can hold onto nothing else when torpor someday claims my memories, if there is no other glint from my past that I can recollect, I hope to keep that moment in my mind until my final night.