Rotem is sitting at the table, slightly haunched over, his head in his hands. He appears to be reading something.

Yi opens up the church door, slipping in and closing it with a click. "Yo," she says as she spots the cub. In her hand is a beer bottle, empty, as she walks down the center aisle nearer towards Rotem and slides into a pew. In the dim lighting of the church windows, she holds up the beer bottle and looks at it pensively.

Rotem glances at Yi and shakes his head, then returns to reading the book, speaking without looking away from it. "You're smashed."

"Smashed?" Yi blinks at Rotem, the slang word not reaching her. However, she isn't anywhere near drunk. Maybe buzzed, at best.

Rotem shakes his head, "Nevermind", and flips the page.

"What're you reading?" Yi asks. Evidently, her powers of sight must be pretty darn good if she's drunk as the cub presumes.

Rotem flips another page, then rabbit ears it and closes the book. "Here." He offers the book to her.

Yi gets up from her pew and walks over with a curious brow raised. The bottle goes into the front pocket as she reaches with the other hand to take the book and look at the title.

She'll notice it is a book on Tai Chi, and the rabbit ear is near the end, evidently Rotem has been reading quite a bit.

Yi's brow rises some more, with an evident smile creeping over her features. "Tai Chi," she says softly, reminiscent. Handing the book back to the cub, she nods in what looks like approval. "It's good for the spirit. If you ever want a practice partner..." her eyes go to the book, then to the cub. "I'll be glad to accompany you."

Rotem nods softly. "Sure, Just drop by in the morning sometime." He replaces the book on the table then turns to look to her. "Helps keep me calm."

Yi tilts her head curiously to Rotem. "Who suggested it to you?" Her legs fold beneath her, and she sits cross-legged beside the table, eyes shining in the dim light with inquiry.

Rotem says "Uncle Chugs." Is the simple reply, he leaves out the rest of the story for now. "He mentioned it."

Yi nods with an impressed air. "You got to meet him. That's cool," she says, slipping out the bottle from her pocket and gazing at it.

Rotem points to the bottle. "So, why the poison?"

"Poison?" Yi glances up at Rotem, then back down to the beer bottle. "Oh," she chuckles softly. "Nothing too big. Signe offered me a drink. Thought it would be impolite to refuse it, so I drank it." She grins wryly. "Guess I should get used to the taste. Lots of the Garou drink this stuff. I think I like sake better."

Rotem shakes his head. "All the same poison for the brain."

Yi shrugs, and sets the bottle down. "So how've you been? That book good?" The newmoon's head tilts towards Rotem, interested in his interest to the art.

Rotem nods softly. "Yeah, its ok. I just like it because it helps me keep calm, and plain old meditation only makes me feel jumpy."

Yi nods, "That happens. But it's good to see you're not as hyper now. What've you been up to lately?"

Rotem shrugs. "Fixing up the church, reading, not much all in all. Since I can't go outside."

Yi gazes around the dimly lit building and does notice some of the church is in better condition. "You've been doing a pretty good job of that," she notes. "When do you figure Elan will allow you out?"

Rotem shrugs. "When I'm ready, or when people tell him I am." He looks to the bottle then back to her. "I trust he'll know when."

Yi rises back to her feet in a smooth motion and moves over to the closest pew to sit. "Gotta track down Elan-rhya for some reasons too. Did you hear Kaz challenged him?"

Rotem nods. "Aye. Kazzie Ma' newsgirl. Hope s-she wins."

Yi smiles and nods. "I hope she does too. I hear she's been here long enough and done enough to easily get fostern, if the challenge rules are right." The bottle is set down before her, and she gazes up to the cub. "Has anyone told you about Stuff yet?"

Rotem shakes his head. "Depends on what stuff, so go ahead."

"Stuff. It comes with a capital 'S'. I guess it's how they would translated here. This is important for all Bone Gnawers," Yi says, looking at the bottle. "Stuff, isn't junk. Most people wouldn't want it though. Sort of like, collecting things. Just like Rat likes to collect things and keep them as her own, so we do that with Stuff." She glances at the cub, to see if he understands what she just said, even if she's not quite sure of what she just said herself.

Rotem arches an eyebrow. "Huh?"

Pursing her lips together for a moment, she tries to come up with a decent, understandable explanation. Getting up from her spot on the pew, she slips a hand into her pocket and pulls out the bottlecap to the beer. Setting it down on the table carefully, she looks thoughtful for some more seconds. "Like, when people collect things, that probably have no use except to just be there. Like this bottle cap here." She taps the cap on the table. "We Gnawers, we don't have much property. Glass Walkers can have really big buildings they own, Shadow Lords could have nice cars... but we Gnawers, are not that high on the money scale. So, we settle with what we call Stuff. Usually, it's things we find and collect." She pauses, and comes up with a word, "Trinkets." Her head tilts to the cub again. "Sort of understand?"

Rotem nods. "Why do w-we collect them?"

Yi lowers down to sit against the table again. "I guess it's to give us satisfaction in knowing we have something to call our own. Many Gnawers are homeless, so they have almost nothing except the clothes on their backs. Collecting Stuff, trading Stuff, it gives us something to be proud of, even if none of the other tribes understand it." Her hand goes to the bottle cap, and pushes it to the cub. "This bottlecap, I'm going to give to you. I guess, it's sort of a way to remember who we're cool with too." She rubs the underside of her chin. "When you go to other septs, and there are Bone Gnawers there, you can bring Stuff with you, and give it to them as a gift for letting you run around on their space. And like the Litany says, how the greatest in station gets the first share? Well, the Big Dog has the best Stuff." She looks to Rotem again, eyes asking if he gets it.

Rotem silently stands up and takes the cap, he looks at it for a moment, then says simply. "Wait here." And turns down towards the basement, returning in a moment without the cap and in his hand a small metal object. "I want you to have this." He says, offering to her a small metal switchblade from his collection of knives.

Yi's eyes go down to the switchblade, and she blinks. A small smile that gets wider crawls onto her face as she nods, dipping her head low and slowly takes the knife. "You understand," she says softly, opening up the blade with a reverent awe. "Thank you, Rotem." She closes up the knife, and pockets it. "You know what I meant. But now I have to tell you, that a knife is such a great gift compared to a meager bottle cap." She laughs, and takes the cub's hand. At first it's empty, and then into it plops a box. A deck of cards, slightly battered on the box. "Joey and I exchanged one deck of cards before, when I taught him a gift. He gave me a deck to remember him by, and I gave him one of a different color to congratulate him on his learning a gift from me. I give you one, so you can remember me in addition to that silly bottlecap. I think this is more useful to you anyway." She smiles. "Now you can play cards or something while you're bored in the church."

Rotem takes the cards, looking down to them. "Thank you." He looks at them. "Is it against the Litany to hustle other Garou out of their cash?" he looks up to her, already thinking of a nice little game of five card monte.

Yi laughs and shakes her head. "Nothing in there, no," she grins. "Though I would be cautious before ripping off someone you know isn't too kindly to that sort of game." She gives the cub a short salute and a wry grin. "I have to get to patrolling, but I'll see you soon, na?" Her smile is warm. "Maybe you and Joey can teach me a thing or two about playing cardgames sometime." She chuckles, remembering the '52-Pickup'

Rotem shakes his head slightly. "Yi? Can I ask you a favor?"

Rotem looks to her, his eyes genuinely pleading. "Please let me go on patrol with you? I promise if there is trouble I'll stay out of the way."

Yi looks at Rotem appraisingly, though it's with a short smile. "You promise?" Her question is softly toned as an eyebrow rises to accompany it.

Rotem nods softly. "Unless you're getting your ass kicked by something. I'm not gonna let you just crash and burn." He shakes his head. "And you know I can fight pretty well if cornered, I'll be ok."

"Doubt there's anything too interesting out there," Yi notes with some thought. "It is a crescent moon though." She glances at the cub. "Question is, am I going to get in trouble if I do."

Rotem arches an eyebrow. "Why would you get in trouble? You just took me out for a walk." He grins. "And we just happened to walk up upon some big hairy smelly thing that wanted to kill us."

"Elan-rhya was the one who said you weren't allowed out. It's his word against mine," Yi replies softly. "But... I guess it'll be ok, as long as we don't run into anything big, hairy and smelly. In which case, we don't fight it unless we know what it is and how to dispose of it." She glances to the cub. "The last time I let you out of this church, we almost killed one another. In essence, we both would've died, were it not for Adam-rhya's healing touch. I'd like to call this a truce, since we exchanged Stuff. And, I'll let you out again, if you give me your /word/, as a Garou, a fullmoon, and Gnawer, that you won't re-affirm the cubnames you earned before. Sound good?"

Rotem nods softly. "Ok. I promise." He nods softly. "I give you my word." He pauses. "But if there is something that needs ripping apart, you'll let me know, right?

Yi chuckles. "If there's something that needs ripping apart, we'll see what we can do about it," she nods. "Welcome to the ranks." She grins with a side quirk and motions for the cub to follow her outside.

Rotem follows Yi outside, He removes a rather fierce looking knife from his back pocket. "Protection." He hands it over to her. "Ya like?" He asks, "For those times when you just c-can't go crinos."

Yi takes the knife briefly, finger running lightly over the edge to see the sharpness. Her eyes shine with a definite like, as she hands it back to Rotem. "It's a good weapon," she notes, "though I'd much rather knock something out and deal with it than spill blood that I'd have to clean up in case of Veil breach." She grins. "But that is a right sharp dagger there." Pushing open the doors, she steps out of the church.

You pull open one of the two doors and walk down the stone steps to the street.

Jermantown Avenue, Industrial Sector
From warehouses a few blocks away from the river, across a chunk of city more than a dozen blocks wide, factories brood over the streets like dark dragons over their piles of treasure, greedy and all-encompassing. Huddling around the factories are smaller, less imposing buildings that are probably warehouses, or storage locations for trucks. The factories spill fumes into the air, darkening the area and blanketing it in a stench to mark humankind's domination over the world. Some of the warehouses stand empty, some are boarded over, and some, on the northern and western fringes of the area, have been converted to bars, with bizarre lighting, frequent brawls, and music that blares loudly at all hours of the night. There are no residences here for anyone to complain, and the factory workers populate the bars thickly. Throughout the area, trash and oil mingle together on alleyway streets, impeding the paths to the dumpsters at the ends of many of the alleys.
Contents:
SCPD Patrol Car
Truck
Obvious exits:
Filthy Alley Forgotten Church East West

Rotem comes out of the old church and down the stone steps to the street. Rotem has arrived.

Rotem replaces the knife in his back pocket and follows Yi. "So, where we going?"

Yi shrugs. "I usually take the route towards Bridge Street, head over towards the park, and come back. Of course, I go slowly, and wind around on Regan and Elson. Sometimes head up towards Silver avenue, but that's pretty far off." She glances around, taking a momentary sniff of the night air.

Rotem pauses for a moment. "Ok.. Umm, there is this.. well.." He pauses for a moment. "You won't call me crazy, right?"

Yi turns to Rotem, tilting her head oddly at him. "Mm?"

Rotem motions in the direction of the park. "I thought I saw this.. Well, I didn't really see it I guess. This t-thing. Down under the park fountain."

"Thing? Under the park fountain?" Yi turns to the cub fully, brow furrowing. "What'd you see?"

Rotem shrugs. "Dunno, some.. Thing." He shakes his head. "Was probably nothing, nevermind."

Rotem nods. "Want me to show you where it was?"

For a few moments, Yi's gaze is troubled. "Something under Harbor Park isn't good either. That's supposed to be the greenest, probably purest part of the city." She nods to Rotem. "Sure, let's go check it."

Harbor Park Fountain
Situated in the center of a large, open meadow is a clustering of six trees, a flower bed, a few benches, and a plywood wall barricade. The area where the fountain was, and presumably the new fountain will be, is currently enclosed by high plywood walls. There is a door in one of the walls, firmly locked with a stout-looking padlock. The walls enclose much of the flagstone area, now, only leaving a little around the edges of the old courtyard. Scraggly hedges line one side of the courtyard, just behind some mostly graffiti-free benches and a chain link fence. Cars on the nearby street have an excellent view of the park as do any residents of the tall buildings which line the waterfront. The park is almost constantly devoid of people as its reputation for being one of the most violent and dangerous places in the city spreads.
The murky waters of the Columbia River flow swiftly along the east side of the park. Bracketing the park to the west is First Street and the city of St. Claire. A meadow surrounds the small glade.
Contents:
Rotem
Flowers
Obvious exits:
ManHole Harbor Park Meadow

Yi and the cub make their way into the park, as she's been mostly silent and vigilant through their walk. They near the fountain, and she looks to him, sparing a glance to the plywood and the surrounding area.

Rotem motions to the grate of the manhole. "I used to eat pizza here." He pauses. "and I would see stuff down there." He motions to the manhole, not completely covered either. "Just shadows and sounds, but heck, when you d-dont have a tv..."

"What sort of sounds?" Yi asks curiously, approaching and stooping at the grate.

You paged the room with 'Didn't know manholes had grates.'.

Rotem pages to the room: They do here.

Long distance to the room: Yi goes with a grate by the manhole, since it's probably to drain the water that might have overflowed if the fountain were working.

Rotem shrugs. "Noises, was probably rats or something. L-like I said. I was bored."

"Rats are a good thing," Yi notes, straightening up from her stoop. "Rats are a sign that things are well down below, as bad as that might seem to normal people. Some of us can talk to the rat spirits, and even the rats themselves, though I don't know how." She motions down towards the grate. "They can act as our eyes, ears and nose about things we don't normally see. Just how we Gnawers act as the city rats for the others." She carefully keeps her words to a low tone, the whole time glancing around the park's edges.

Rotem nods softly. "So, wanna go down and have a look? I don't mind the smell."

Yi shakes her head in a definite 'no way pal'. "No. Simply, no." She gazes down towards the grating. "There are things down there, that I prefer not to tangle with on such a small moon." She turns her eyes back to Rotem. "Trust me on that one," she says, suppressing the quiet shudder. "We're safer up here, and in the real side of the coin." Glancing around, she motions for the cub to accompany here at a bench nearby. Sitting down, she draws up a foot and curls her arms around her knee, hugging it to her chest as she again pings the area with her eyes.

Rotem motions to Yi. "That some sort of Gnawer sit? I mean e-everyone I see sits like that. You, Julie, Kaz."

Yi blinks, arching an eyebrow as she glances down at her position. "Not that I know of," she replies puzzled. "It's comfortable. No one seems to mind, either. I find it easier and faster to get up from this way, rather than just sitting normally." She demonstrates by using her planted foot on the bench to hop off quickly with just the motion of unbending her leg.

Rotem shakes his head. "Well, ok." He sits down, imitating her, arms wrapping about his legs. "If you ask me, I feel like I'm about to be shot o-out of a cannon."

Yi chuckles with amusement. "You don't /have/ to sit like I do. It's just a habit of mine. Maybe it's an unknown Gnawer trait." She grins and then looks off towards the treelines. "When there's a bigger moon out, you should get someone to bring you to the shadowside here."

Rotem arches an eyebrow and goes to ask something, then stops. "Oh, umbra." He mumbles and looks back to the trees.

Yi tilts her head so she can watch Rotem with an eye. "Something wrong again?" Her tone in inquiring, perhaps concerned maybe she said something wrong /again./

Rotem shakes his head. "Nah, just realised you ment the umbra."

Yi nods slowly, glancing around, then up towards the sky. "You ever miss your home?" The question is barely spoken, more like a whisper. "Like, you said your father was still around."

Rotem shakes his head. "No." He answers. His voice deepening as he says the word, and looks away from her.

Yi wets her lips with a flicker of her tongue, as she draws out the switchblade Rotem had given her. Her eyes go to examining the knife, finger drawing over the length of it slowly. "Thanks again, for the blade," she tells the cub in effort to move away from that touchy subject.

Rotem looks to her. "Oh, yeah, no prob. Just some.. Stuff." He grins. "I guess I should start a collection too, eh?" He looks around the park. "I know just what I'm gonna start with." He smiles softly.

"Oh?" The newmoon's head quirks with curiosity. "What would that be?" Her eyebrows lift with interest. "Where'd you get your knife collection?" She puts away the blade, sliding it into a pocket as her eyes shine in question to the ahroun. Rotem flips his hand. "Friend of mine g-got nabbed by the cops. S-so he didn't need them for the n-next ten to twelve." He chuckles. "A-anyway, I'm gonna collect cans. All sorts. M-make a whole big collection of s-strange ones."

Yi thinks about this, and glances to Rotem. "Where are you going to keep them?" She blinks, then holds up a hand. "Well, don't tell me if you don't want to. Sometimes, it's best to have a secret place and keep your Stuff there. Some people bring it with them, like Bernie."

Rotem grins. "I know just where I'll keep mine. Gotta talk to Julie first." He smiles. "This sounds fun."

Yi smiles and nods to the cub. "Well," she stands up, again with that smooth motion of unbending her leg, "Let's head west and back, na? Nothing happening much out here."

Rotem nods. "Yeah, I guess a boring patrol is a good one." He hops up onto his feet. "Oh, wait." He pauses, walking over to a trash can nearby. "Gotta check for Stuff."

Yi nods and moves over to the trashcan with the cub. "You might want to do that afterhours too," she notes. "And, ah, careful of what you pick up. Not sure if the sanitation crews come around often."

Rotem removes a can of diet pepsi, and rummages through some unidentifiable items. He eventually finds a can of grape fanta as well. "Ok, not bad. Lets go." He holds a can in each hand, if he keeps up rummaging like this in the trash and doesn't start showering, he wont /need/ Odius aroma to keep people away.

Yi pauses, then moves towards the river that borders the park. "Here, let's..wash those off." She motions towards the Columbia.

Rotem follows behind Yi. "I'm /not/ washing in that." He points to the river. "Maybe when we get to the church I'll clean off, ok?"

Yi glances at Rotem, then shrugs and nods. "Sure thing then." She chuckles and the two of them exit the park to head back to the church.