Werewolf: Appalachian Moonrise, Ch 1

[LadyTevar]

"I can get him there," Galileo replied, "Although Hattie was just feeding him, so he might not be hungry." Breakfast was just an example of Hattie's idea of 'feeding'. Dinner and Supper were just as hearty. "You can tell me what you found and when we get there. Cya then." Galileo finished, hanging up the phone.

He walked back out to where Hattie was just handing Joe a large sandwich. "That was Arianne. She's going to be meeting us at the Pantry."

Hattie looked up and snorted. "As if I don' feed 'em enough."

[General Havoc]

Sophie was meanwhile trying to translate the directions the computer gave into something approximating sanity. She was not having an especially large amount of luck doing so. It wasn't that the computer wasn't working, it was that the roads here made no damn sense.

Highways, city streets, grids and paved byways the computer could handle. Dirt backroads were another story. She switched to a satellite view and scanned by eye for the places they needed to go.

"I think it's just over that hill," she finally said, as the others returned into view. "Up that road about a mile and on the right before you hit the next junction."

She finally lowered the computer's screen, tired of staring at bare dirt photographed from three hundred thousand feet in the air.

"So who is this guy we're chasing?"

[Cynical Cat]

Alex slid into the backseat of the Jeep. "We got a good look at his paw prints in Lupus. Almost exactly my size and I'm far from being the world's smallest wolf. That fit with Crier?"

[rhoenix]

Climbing into the jeep less gracefully than Alex, Sees-Faces-In-Stars nonetheless sat gratefully down, still holding his right pa...er, hand. His stomach audibly growled, and he quietly told it to hush in the Garou tongue. He still managed to bring his attention back to the present. "Him smelled wrong, like Destroyer likes him."

[General Havoc]

"So is anyone going to explain who this 'Crier' guy is?" asked Sophie, glancing at Arianne. "If he's some kind of Black Spiral Dancer, I'd really like to know about that before we find him."

[Jason_Firewalker]

"Thank you Hattie, for this meal. May Luna guide you." Moving over to Galileo, Joe nodded at Hattie and then at her. "So how do you want me to get to this 'Pantry' place?" With a smirk on his face Joe rubbed his belly. "That sure was a fine meal."

[LadyTevar]

"I'll drive you," Galileo answered, looking to Hattie. "I won't be gone long."

Hattie just snorted. She knew Galileo too well. "Joe, you'll be meeting Arianne Heart of Steel, Fianna Ahroun; Sees-Faces-in-Stars, Stargazer Theurge; Adahy Breaths-the-Winds, Uktena Galliard; Sophie Aran, Glasswalker Philodox; and Alexander Stormwalker, Shadowlord Ahroun." The last was said with a touch of warning.

"Arianne's Alpha, although they have not yet formally declared as a pack," Galileo added, motioning for Joe to follow him around the back of the cabin to a Jeep. "Get in, I'll tell you what they're up to on the way."


((Firewalker, by the time you get to the restaurant, you'll know all the IC information that I gave the others, including what they found at the college.

Everyone else, if you want to skip to the restaurant, we can start with meeting in the parking lot.))

[Cynical Cat]

Alexander slid out of the Jeep as Arianne killed the engine. "Let's get this over with and back on Crier's trail ASAP."

[Devonie]

Arianne eyed Alex. "Keep your pants on Shadowlord. Galileo's bringing the new one to meet us. We're waiting here until they show up."

She smiles at Sees-Faces. "You'll like this, Joe; it's another of those Homid things you just can't get out in the mountains."

[rhoenix]

Perking up, "Joe-Smith" leaned forward as much as the black straps around his chest let him. What Arianne said intrigued him and made him very hungry at the same time, thinking of how much of a thrill it was to chase down his own food.

Her comment about "You just can't get out in the mountains" made him think buffalo, and bison, and elk. His stomach audibly growled again, more insistently, which made him speak up out of curiosity. "I can get elk?" he asked excitedly.

[Cynical Cat]

Alex chuckled at Joe's question.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Pulling up to the pantry Joe noticed a bunch of people hanging around a jeep. Getting out Joe walked over casually. "Joe Feather-Fall." Extending a hand to the large chuckeling man.

[Cynical Cat]

"Alexander Stormwalker," said Alex as he extended his hand. "Being a big bad Shadow Lord I subsist almost entirely on a diet of kittens and babies so I"m concerned about this place's menu."

[rhoenix]

Getting out, "Joe-Smith" grinned at the newcomer. "I too am Joe! Now, let us feast," and began purposefully walking into the diner with the others.

The smells were dulled in his homid form, but they were stomach-growling-making noises nonetheless. He really hoped they had elk, he could already taste it.

[Charon]

Breathes-the-Winds had been mostly quiet, as the group was beginning to see that he did quite often. When the newcomer arrived 'Adahy' looked at him closely and then adjusted his ball-cap. "Hello little brother." 'If that's what you are' he did not add. "Come, join us for lunch."

And with that the Garou was up and following 'Joe-Smith' towards the diner.

[Cynical Cat]

Alexander pulled open the door to the diner and held it open for everyone else.

[Jason_Firewalker]

Entering the diner with the others Joe FeatherFall sat at a large corner booth and beckoned the others over. When the group joined him he waved over the waitress and began to browse the menu.

[LadyTevar]

The Pantry was a little restaurant that had been open 24/7 since the 1950s (barring Holidays). Once upon a time, the road outside was a major thoroughfare, and truck drivers would stop by the Pantry daily to get a meal and chat with the owner, Shirley. Shirley's chicken and biscuits were legendary, but her pies were what the truckers adored. Fruit pies in season, always at least three offered daily, alongside custard pie, graham cracker pie, and a lemon meringe pie with a cloud of fluffy meringe sky-high and a sweet/tart lemon that melted in your mouth.

This home-style cooking made the Pantry stay popular, even with the Interstate took the traffic away. Cars were always in the parking lot, people filling the whitewashed brick bulding and crowding into the little wooden booths that lined the outside walls and the inner support wall. Pictures of famous people who'd eaten there were on the walls, as well as scenic shots of several Kentucky landmarks. The photo of Cumberland Falls was a night-time shot capturing the faintly glowing moon-bow, and the frame had a small plaque: "From your friends at the Park".

Galileo followed the youngsters in, shooing the cubs to one of three corner booths. Each of the three booths was rounded and took up their whole corner, giving large parties room to sit. "Here, Joe... sit down and scoot to the middle so the rest of us can sit," the Elder said with a grin, anticipating confusion as both 'joes' reacted.

[rhoenix]

Replying to Galileo with a shrug, Sees-Faces-In-Stars was momentarily confused at the suggestion, seeing the long, corner seated place was with one booth, not three.

Finally having figured it out in his mind, a grin lit up on his face as "Joe-Smith" walked to the center of the "three tables" and after moving some small things out of the way sat in the middle of the center table with his legs crossed, awaiting the others with a calm smile.

[Cynical Cat]

Running people through is not a productive course of action, Alexander repeated to himself as he sat down. He wasn't very hungry, but it was either eat now or stop again in a couple hours and he didn't want the later. He slid over, close to the center and scanned the menu's lunch items as he got comfortable. Then he saw Joe sitting on the table.

"No," said Alexander and he put his hand on the Stargazer and gently, but firmly pulled him in the seat beside him. "You know better than to do this shit, so don't," he said in a not unkind, but stern manner.

[General Havoc]

Sophie parked herself, at Galileo's request, on one of the booth seats just in time to watch Sees-Faces sit on top of one of the tables.

...

Apparently the stories of Lupuses weren't exaggerated...

She slid around into the middle of the booth, to give the others room to sit, and as she slid over, she took the opportunity to grab Sees-Faces' hand and tug him towards the seat next to her, just forcefully enough for him to get the message that he might want to follow her example as to how to sit at a human table. Hopefully to all the other humans it would look like 'Joe-Smith' had just decided to vault over the table rather than scooting around the booth.

Being without the protection of the veil herself, Sophie had always taken extreme pains to blend in with Homid society. It was second nature to her, to the point where she had once asked her uncles how it was that all the other Garou seemed to think that being without the veil was such a terrible thing. It wasn't like it was particularly hard not to get "outed" as a werewolf if one was sensible, was it?

She was begining to re-evaluate that position...

[rhoenix]

Looking at Sophie oddly for a moment, Sees-Faces moved all the way across the rest of the table to sit in the softer part of this "three tables" next to Sophie. Now somewhat confused, he whispered to her (though he remembered to whisper in English): "Am I in middle? Do I have to scoot?"

[General Havoc]

Sophie shot Alexander a stern look. Plainly Sees-Faces did not know better than to do this shit.

"You're fine right there," she whispered back. "Just... never get on the table. It makes people stare." It did a mite more than that, but she didn't want to confuse him more. There was no use risking getting thrown out...

... not when they appeared to have lemon meringue pie...

[Jason_Firewalker]

Looking up and down the menu, Joe was a little perturbed to see the other Joe seated on the center of the large table. "Such a kidder that kid..." he said non-chalantly to Sophie. Lowering his volume to a whisper "I'm Joe FeatherFall."

[Devonie]

Arianne sighed. She wondered idly if Sees-Faces really was that naive... probably. She remembered how hard it was for her when she first started interacting with the Garou, having been brought up Homid.

She slid into the booth warily. She hated sitting in booths - someone was always blocked from a clear exit. At least this place didn't have a salad bar.