It's doubtful Owen's even thinking about her, and she'd probably be in a world of pain if he saw it, but Kaz looks amazingly sympathetic for just a brief moment, before snorting softly at Max and heading over to find her coat, over by the door.
Rotem remains close to Max as he whispers in reply. "Do I have to? He's a get after all" A brief grin offered before standing back up.
Signe scowls in response to Owen, irritation darkening her own eyes. She offers no apology or explanation, either.
Joey is quietly smoking on the side of the room. In enough time, he steps out the butt on the floor, and shifts downward. The dog-wolf pads over to the new cub, sniffing around him a little.
Max smacks Rotem semi-lightly with the back of her hand to his mouth. She looks back at him. "You go there 'n ain't no one gonna save you. B'lieve me, puppy. I's been there." Max drops her hand and turns her attention on the end of the discussion between Signe and Owen with a glance tossed in to follow Kaz until it's clear where the galliard is heading.
Kaz rummages in her pockets. She calls, "She's been there kinda often, in fact," and finally finds the Coke she's looking for. Large pockets, evidently. "An' may I say," she adds, heading Maxwards but talking to Rotem, "It ain't a lifestyle choice I recommend."
Rotem chuckles. "I won't comment on that, seeing a-as in my experiance t-the gang types are all bark, no bite." He grins, then realises he just said that outloud. He backs up slightly towards the pew.
Midheavy clumping resounds from the basement stairs as Yi comes up, rubbing away at her now healed arms. She stops at the top and blinks, taking on the view of such a crowd.
Owen isn't about to ask for one from Signe, either. Not really paying attention now to the others here, he eventually gets to his feet and dusts himself off just to chill-out for a moment.
Smokes-the-Weed was sniffing around Rotem, but backs up as he moves, going to sit by Max, watching this as well, waiting to see just how the cub handles himself in the situation.
Kaz stops to give Rotem a dubious look. "'Streak, you gotta start engagin' your brain before you let your mouth in gear."
Signe's eyes follow Owen as he stands, and their conversation has had most of her attention. But as he moves off, her eyes drift back to the Gnawers. Now she realizes they are all pretty much centered around Rotem, who she doesn't know. The cub has Signe's full attention now.
Yi clicks her tongue in the back of her teeth lightly, then also glances to the cub. Her attention, or at least part of it, remain on the two Get.
Max simply shakes her head at Rotem's sudden lack of brain. When Smokes hops up onto the pew beside her, Max scruffles his fur a little. Now her attention is on Signe and her lips tip into a little half smile, measuring at the very least.
Rotem nods softly to Kaz, "I t-think you're right." He smiles, looking to Signe. Desciding to take Max's advice. "Greetings, I'm Rotem, Ahroun cub. Although people tell me I talk like a new moon." He grins, hoping to ease the tention slightly. He extends his hand towards Signe.
Max murmurs with a faux-cough. "*puppy*" Her attention flicks briefly to the emerging Yi and back to Signe once more.
Owen half-smirks to himself even as he finishes straightening his jacket. "Signe, if you don't go over there and rearrange his ribs, I'm gonna lose all respect for you."
Kaz mutters, "He -thinks-," and sighs, flopping onto the pew on Max's other side. She's lying down, stomach to the wood, but she's got her head propped up on her fists, watching.
"Except no-moons know when to stop pushing," Yi mutters softly before proceeding in a roundabout route towards the rest of the group and more Kaz's way. "Afternoon, Signe-rhya." Her head dips to Owen in greeting.
Smokes-the-Weed's ears lift, as he ponders the idea of finding more healers in the Gnawers, as it sounds like we're gonna need them but quick, if worse comes to and all.
Signe takes her time studying the cub, and her assment, apparently, lacks any positive impression. Yi gets a brief, distracted nod of greeting, and then she answers Yi's statement first, "Not all of them." A glance to Max has at least some minor amusment to it, all that this moon will allow the extremly rage-filled Get Jarl, then her attention returns to the cub to answer his introduction. "I'm Signe. Skadi's Defiant Storm, ahroun of the Get of Fenris. Jarl, and alpha of Fenrir's Teeth. And if none of that means anything to you--which I'm thinking it doesn't yet--all you really got to know is 'listen to Kaz', so you live to see tomorrow."
Kaz waves a hand, chin resting on the one arm only. "That's me!" she says, cheerfully, and then gives Yi a somewhat distracted smile.
Rotem nods softly, glancing to his arm for a moment, re-reading the letter 'Signe=Ow.' before replying. "Umm, Ma'am, what is a Jarl?" He looks up towards her, withdrawing the offered hand.
Owen finishes, idly crossing his arms over his chest. "Well, damn. There goes my respect, you old bitty."
Kaz contributes, both hands holding up her chin now, "Elder of the Get. That means she beat the rest of 'em up." There's a short pause. "That means she's damn fuckin' good at what she does."
Yi arches her brow and briefly nods at Kaz in reply-greeting as Owen calls the Signe an 'old bitty'. Her comment goes unspoken as she leaves Kaz to educate the cub.
Signe flashes Owen with a fairly malicious look before answering the cub, and therefore her answer is more edged than she intended it to be. Kaz beats her to it, though, so she only adds, "And, pretty much, beating is what I do."
Rotem smiles at this, although the smile is obviously a nervious one. "Then y-you can teach me? They s-say that's gonna be my job too. W-would you mind?"
Max slides down with a thump to the pew seat proper and chews on the capped pen like a cigar. There's a slight choking sound from the cub at Signe's statement before she says, her tone strained and her face a little pink from some obscure effort, "Fuckin' A."
Kaz blinks. Though she looks surprised, she doesn't seem to -object-.
Signe's eyes go over the cub once more before she looks at Kaz. Seeing no objection from the Gnawer galliard, she shrugs beneath her leather jacket, adjusting it more comfortably on her shoulders. "Maybe," is the only he answer he gets, for now.
Yi slips into a pew, sitting atop the back of it with her feet planted on the seat below. Eyes keep their gaze on the Jarl and the cub. And she doesn't seem surprised much by Rotem's words, though her eyes blink at Signe's reply.
Kaz snorts, softly. "If you're ever in th' mood for it, Sig, I think it'd be good for him."
Kaz mutters, leaning into Max's hand a little, "Gnawers a food, what a surprise."
Yi simply gazes at Rotem, quite visibly thinking that if he gets away with this, Signe must be in one of her very good moods.
Signe seems to tire of the cub's 'ass kissing', if that's what it truly is. She may not be the most perceptive of people, but everyone else's reaction to the cub makes her wonder how sincere Rotem is being. And this draws her lips down in a frown. She asks of Kaz, sincerely, "You think there's hope for him?"
Rotem actually was being sincere, but anyway...
Kaz swivels to sit up and study the cub, and then turns her attention to Signe. Talking about him as if he's not there, she says, "Well, he's kinda an asshole sometimes, and he ain't got no sense of decorum, and the idea of submission's still gettin' through his thick skull, but that does tend to take awhile, even for the best of us." She carefully doesn't look at Max. "But, well, he /tries/. An' anyone who makes an actual effort, I'm gonna try'n help. An'... We need everyone we can get, yeah?"
Yi nods slowly, keeping her words to a low mutter. "Respect all those beneath you..."
Signe grunts at KAz's explanation, and Yi gets a brief glare--though, since she's right, it holds very little venom. Finally, she simply nods. "If he behaves himself, then I'll teach him. And, of course, if he doesn't behave himself, I'll still teach him, but I make no promises he'll survive that lesson."
Kaz says, as if this is a good deal, "Works f'me."
Rotem smiles at this. The prospect rather exciting. "Thanks." Is all he says, the tone of his voice rather happy.
Yi also nods again to the words of the Jarl, though Rotem gets a brief boost of respect for taking this on, and Signe even more boosted in her courage...and patience.
Max's smirk is largely introspective as she listens to the arrangements made between Signe and Kaz.
That settled, Kaz glances back to Rotem. "So hey, fuckhead --" again, it sounds, if not fond, at least friendly, "What'd I tell you about Totems, yest'day?"
Signe returns to a seat among the pews, but now she's much closer to Max, and the rest of the Gnawers. She briefly looks for Owen, to see what he's up to, then turns her attention to Max's tagging of the cub. A faintly bemused smile curls her lips.
Yi turns her gaze from Kaz and Rotem as Signe comes over to sit a bit closer. Here, she leans just a bit towards the Get, and tells in a low voice, "Signe-rhya, I've a question to ask of you."
Rotem shrugs. "Well, they ain't the big wooden thing. Then we got sidetracked." He winks and touches his nose. "Remember?"
Kaz snaps a finger. "Right." Getting up onto her feet, she pads closer to him. "Well, you believe there's spirits around, yet?"
Max, now flanked by a lying-down Kaz on one side and Signe on the other, slouches down a bit more. She uses Kaz's back as an arm rest and only now and again casts sidelong looks up at the jarl beside her. Yi, sitting a row ahead and turned around, earns the majority of Max's attention. As Kaz moves away, Max follows after her with a hair-veiled, sharp gaze.
Signe lets Yi distract her from cub sirit lessons easily enough. She looks the no moon Gnawer over and says, "What's up?"
"Down under, more like," Yi replies, keeping her tones low not to detract from the cub's lessons. "Banecruncher is back in his head, and expressed a wish to go kill some baitspawn. You now lead Fenrir's Teeth. I ask you, if you wish to take a third hunt down into the blight and clean out."
Rotem nods softly. "I've more or less come to t-the conclusion that whatever you guys tell me is true. Spirits, Werewolves, vampires, dragons. I wouldn't be surprised if superman flies in carrying s-spiderman in his arms, while running a-away from a horde of radioactive aliens who want to steal a-all the chocolate from earth to power their death r-ray." He chuckles and then with a mock serious tone, "That's not g-gonna happen, is it?" He almost sounds worried.
Kaz says, "Spiderman and Superman, no. Vampires, yes."
Rotem chuckles. "Radioactive chocolate covered aliens?
Owen has resorted to carving a small hole into a pew with his hunting knife over the last few minutes. "Dragons, yes. Killed me one. Was gonna bring it back as a trophy, but it exploded."
Kaz says, as if fairly certain, but not completely positive, "Them, no. Anyway, so there's spirits all over the place, right? I'll show you the Umbra another time, th' place where they live. But so we, as tribes, and as packs, we got special connections to some spirits. They help us, we help them. C'n you think why Rat might be somethin' we gotta connection to?"
Signe's expression darkens once again. The Get's mood almost seems to fluxuate palpably, and right now she seems very displeased, though thankfully it doesn't appear aimed at the Gnawer she's speaking to. "You say he's back in his head, but I'm not following him anywhere, much less into the sewers. We'll go. I've got no problem helping clean them out, but if you thinking following 'Bane' is the way, then we got a problem."
Rotem grins, "Neighbors?" He grins and looks to Kaz, "Oh, and because That is our tribe spirit. Big Dog said so.
Kaz says, "Well, no shit it is. But why would we, as Bone Gnawers, adopt a spirit like that? I mean, rat ain't real respected, right?"
"Rat rocks," Max pipes up around the mouthful of marker. She casts another sidelong look up at Signe, not giving in to any impulses to move out of arm's reach just yet.
Rotem rolls his eyes, "So? Fuck that, /WE/ ain't real respected." He chuckles at this and then looks back to Kaz.
Yi shakes her head at Signe's words. "I wasn't planning on having Cruncher lead. I was only saying he would come. If we need another scouting first, then we should go while the moon is still big." Her eyes flicker back towards the lessons briefly.
"Yo," Max notes quietly to the much nearer Yi. "I's there f'you wannanother 'basher."
Rotem turns his gaze towards Max now, "Fight? I wanna come!"
"No. We ain't. But it's more'n just that. The thing is, your Totems gotta reflect who and what you are. They gotta make some sense for the location you're in. And in a city, you got a lot of different beasties. You got pigeons. They're /stupid/, though. Don't know enough to get outta the rain. You got cats, but they don't give you the fuckin' time of day, let alone any help. You got mice, but they're breakable. You got dogs and stuff, but they got domesticated a long time ago. You got cockroach, but they're already claimed, and they're ugly ass, to boot." She pauses. "Rat, though. Rat's smart. Rat'll fight, when she has to, but when she's outnumbered or she's too weak, she'll retreat, 'cause she's smart, and she knows that there's /always/ another day, someday. And rats, well, strength in numbers, just like us, y'know? And She'll survive anything, but She'll also give anything she has to her kids, if they need anything. An' the thing is, Rat" -- Kaz has long ago strayed into capital letter territory -- "Rat knows /everything/. There's so many've Her children, just like there's so many of us, She'll learn everything, if you give her enough time." Kaz shrugs. "So, reasons. Thassal. We claim her, or she claims us, don' matter which."
Signe seems about to answer Yi, but Max's words bring her up short. She eyes the younger of the two no moons thoughtfully. "I'm not in a hury to lose this one, but it might not be a bad idea to see how she handles some scouting." Rotem's interruption brings another dark scowl, and she corrects the cub by glaring. "Listen to Kaz's lesson, fuckhead."
Max flicks a look over to Rotem. "Sooner you learn your shit, sooner you come with, Tantrum." There's the faintest of looks of empathy in those dark eyes of hers.
Kaz then adds, "You ain't fightin' in no sewer till you get an actual lesson or 20 in fightin'."
Max meets Signe's gaze more fully now, her current slouch leaving her a good foot or two lower on the pew than the jarl. "I ain't no sock, Sig." The marker in her mouth wobbles a bit as she nibbles.
Owen makes a hard stab into the top of the pew, letting the knife go to let it shake there in the wood. "Someone break him already."
Yi nods at Kaz's words, seeing as how the galliard explains a lot better that she could. The questions remains though, if Rotem actually heard her. "Stay your course, Rotem. You've got more to learn before you get your hands dirty." She turns to Max and nods, then to Signe. "If another scout's in order, then we'll go as soon as I can find a few more. Not too many, but enough to keep us alive and see what there is to see. And also to find a few crescents. Talens are needed, if we're going to get anywhere." Her look is as if she already has a few seers in mind.
Kaz adds, "You need whompin' folks, I'm around."
Rotem gazes over towards Owen, then looks back to Kaz. "Ok, So I get it, we're joined at the hip, with Rat t-that is. How does she help us? I m-mean, most help I've ever gotten from a rat is.." He pauses, "Come to think of i-it, none."
Rotem blinks suddenly, standing up and points to Yi. "The Rat! Holey fucking s-shit, that rat!" He stammers, looking like someone who just saw a ghost. Or more accurately, just realised he saw one."
Kaz explains, patiently, "Mostly, just by attitude and what we learn from Her. But, also we get Gifts from her, and we get protection, sometimes." She breaks off to look at him as if he's a little confused. "Huh?"
Signe answers Yi, leaving MAx's comment hanging for the moment. "I'll tell you what's down there. Every fucking mother's sone of a bane, that's what. The place crawls. We've been down there three or four times and got chased out. The problem is the quarters are too tight, and they have the place covered. The only strategy I can think that will work is a straight out, piece by piece battle. Unless your seers can come up with some kind of spiritual 'draino'."
Yi is about to answer Signe until Rotem's outburst and pointed finger comes to her view. Her brow simply furrows a bit, perhaps annoyed to be so rudely addressed.
Rotem keeps his finger pointed at Yi. "That rat! The one b-before you took me outta the r-resteraunt! Crap, That wasn't a rat, was it!
"Probably," Kaz says, starting back to the door, "It was a spirit. But I gotta go patrol, so I'll see y'all later, yes?"
Signe looks from Yi to the cub again and her eyes appear fairly irritated.
Rotem sighs, nodding. "Thanks anyway, Kaz. Oh, where has Nev been hiding out?"
Max listens to the particulars, only mirroring mild smirk a moment before elbowing the jarl with a slight jab while looking to Yi.
Yi nods to both Rotem and Kaz, handwaving the galliard departing. "Yes, it was a spirit. We call them kinfetch. They come get the nearest Garou around, when there's a cub about to pop." Then, her brow furrows more at mention of Nevada, jawline tensing.
Signe's irritation gets directed at Max, thanks to the elbowing. "What?" she asks, and then remembers the comment. "No, you ain't a sock, kid, and it's time you pulled a little weight. You up for sewer crawling?"
Max nods with an emphatic but low-spoken, "Shit, yeah. Who's going?"
Owen retrieves his knife, puts it back away, then heads back out the way he came without another word.
Signe, at that, looks back to Yi.
Owen opens one of the double doors at the back of the church, leaving for the streets.
Owen has left.
Yi thumbs to her fellow no-moon, then herself, and Signe. "You and I, we will be two of the scouters. Joey, if he comes. I've yet to teach him Blur, but once he knows, we can add one to the ranks. Signe's pack. Banecruncher, Kaz too. And if we can get Elan... it would be a plus. Any other suggestions?" Her eyes briefly turn to glance at Rotem, then back to the war council.
Max suggests without pause. "Julie."
Signe very begrudgingly adds something, to Yi. "You might want to talk to the Strider mule. They tell me she knows the sewers."
With a nod at both Garou, Yi files that away too. "Yes, I'll speak to Sepdet-rhya. Julie, Max, if you can find her, another won't hurt. And I'll keep my ears and eyes open to any non-city who wish to come as well."
Signe asks, "When were you thinking, exactly?"
Rotem rises up and starts moving towards the basement. "Well, I guess I am going to head back to my place, unless someone is willing to let me out anytime soon."
Yi glances to Rotem and nods to the cub, turning back to Signe and the matter. "If it is possible, before the full moon is completely gone. If not, then we'll just have some more time to prepare."
Rotem slides down the steps to the basement, mumbling something indescernable under his breath.
Signe says, "The sooner the better." The grating tone of her voice suggests the Get Jarl is eager.
Yi nods. "As soon as possible, would be the phrase. But if gathering Garou is like herding cats, then I'll have a bit more of a challenge." She rises from her spot on the pew, hopping off neatly. "I'll spread the word. As you are an ahroun and respected Jarl of the Get, I hope there will be some strings you can pull as well to bring a few fighters in."
Signe snorts, but she also nods. "You know where I live? Have my number?" she asks, getting up and ready to leave now.
"Where you live yes. Phone, no." comes the no-moon's simple reply.
Signe borrows Max's sharpie to write two phone numbers on Yi's palm. The first gets labeled 'brownstone', the second 'Rachel's'. Then she hands the sharpie back to Max.
Yi glances at the numbers, and then nods to the Get. "When the time's right." A quick dipped headbow, and Yi travels to the center aisle, exiting the church with a swish of the tarp.