For the longest time, Yi has been sitting atop the rafters, peering down towards the dark spot on the wall. Her eyes fixate along the path of the blood still uncleaned, the gun as of yet unmoved from the spot on the pews. It's as if no one was there -- her figure crouches on the rafter like a stone gargoyle, watching from above.

Quiet, like the brush of windblown leaves on stone, there are footsteps outside, the rasp and creak of aged, battered wood as the door draws open wide enough for a skinny girl to step inside. Anneka, with shadows beneath her eyes and a determined countenance. She wraps her coat about herself when she steps inside, her nose wrinkling faintly as she catches the scent of blood, dried. It stops her there, at the portal, and then she closes her eyes and walks inside.

"Even a house of life, reeks of death," Yi murmurs, her form shadowed above in the rafters. "Still the world goes on." She sighs, a wisp of breath pushing away her hair. "How are you Anneka?"

Joey is wandering, tonight, and soon decides to find himself in the Church. To that end, he opens the door and walks inside.

Anneka's step is slow and careful, or so it looks at first: Careful isn't that tense. She stops when she can see the blood, the gun on the pew and closes her eyes, focused enough on keeping herself still that she doesn't start when Yi speaks. She takes a slow, shallow breath. "Here. I've been thinkin'."

Yi turns her eyes from the wall to the cub. At Joey's appearance she moves, a little stiffly from having stooped there for awhile now, to wave. "Thinking about?" comes the query.

Joey looks around, and is about to ask a few questions, like 'what is Anneka looking at,' before Yi asks a question of her own, and he also wonders what Annie is thinking about. His weight shifts to his other foot.

Anneka tilts her chin towards the blood smeared along the wall and floor, the gun, her hands jammed deep in her oversized coat pockets. "That."

Joey looks over, of course, and his eyebrows shoot up far enough to be lost under his cap brim. "What in hell," he blurts out.

Yi unwinds from her spot on the rafter, moving along until she drops down lightly on a spot protruding from the balcony's inner platform. Coming down the stairs, she clasps her hands lightly behind her. "The gun, I gave to him. It's the same one." She moves to the spot, careful in step. "It smells like Rotem had it last." She sits down slowly, on the very spot where Rotem had sat. Lifting her hand to her right temple, she pulls an invisible trigger. "Bam." Then she gets back up, and glances from the wall, to the spot where the gun lies a few feet away. "Doesn't make sense though."

Joey looks a little dumbstruck. "For real," he asks. "I mean...Jeez," he says, becalmed. He wheels around, and around again, as his pacing starts a lazy orbit, not going near the scene itself. "What doesn't make sense?" He looks up sharply, a little edge to his voice. "Sorry. Been out of the loop."

Anneka fixes her eyes on the spot where the Ahroun died, long enough that tears just start to limn her green eyes. Then she looks away, stepping along the far side of the aisle, then to a pew away from the spot, where she sits. She glances over at Yi as well, cants her head.

"Doesn't make sense, that he would choose this way," Yi replies calmly. Perhaps, a little coldly. "The last thing I saw him doing, he was begging for another chance at life. 'A Gnawer survives,' he said. And even if he wasn't granted that... he would have chosen to go out fighting. This..." she motions to the gun, to the wall. "This isn't fighting." She exhales slowly. "Maybe he really -didn't- understand."

Joey just sits down. Somewhere else. "Wait...I know Elan told him to...well, die with Glory right soon now. And then he blew his head off?" He muses. "And this was after he asked to be spared?"

Yi nods curtly. "I took him up to the rooftops. Showed him St. Claire, and told him about his responsibility, as Garou, as Gnawer. Shaved his head, gave him new clothes, even... even new sunglasses so he could walk around town. Even showed him how to eat pizza without attracting attention." She walks over and picks up the gun, looking at it. "They were going to send him down into the sewers, with Banecruncher. To die fighting, with honor and glory. He didn't want to go. I even spoke up in his defense, stood up to Elan and Kaz to let him live. To give him another chance." Her lips purse, and she turns, aiming the gun but with the safety on. "So why... this way?"

Joey shakes his head. "Ok, I ain't been here long, an' I asked around. No one ever heard of Elan culling a cub. 'Fore this."

"It sounds like he was tryin' a lot of things, t'keep from dyin'. But--" Anneka shakes her head. "If he didn't want t'die he coulda run off or somethin', coulda waited t'see if someone else'd take him. It-- didn't hafta happen like this, it's just broken."

Yi looks like she's about to say something more, but then she stops. The gun is kept pointed towards the pew. Looking around the sights, she paces closer and closer, up to a point where the end of the barrel would have been earlier. Her eyes narrow a moment. Then she shakes her head and turns back to the others, lowering the weapon. "That's right. He could've ran. But any one of us with the Questing Stone could have tracked him down. If he ran, he would have surely been caught and killed." She glances at Joey. "And to this day Elan hasn't culled any cubs yet."

Joey nods his agreement. "I mean, even if there was a cub that had a serious problem, he'd send them to another Sept. Case-by-case," he says.

Anneka blinks twice. The questing stone hadn't occured to her at all. She pulls her legs up and wraps her arms around them, rests her chin on her knees. "Then he couldn't run, really. He had t'face things here, whatever happened." She stops, listens to Joey before continuing. "It's just-- He was always tryin' hard t'be more'n a cub, t'fight, t'get people t'spect him. This--" She looks to the bloody rose on the wall. "That's-- th'way y'die when you're 'fraid, an' y'think there's nothin' left, and nothin' y'can do t'change it."

Again the gun lifts, pointed to the invisible right temple more or less. Yi looks at it from this viewpoint, and her mouth opens softly to say something before shutting again. A whole minute passes, her eyes watching the spot and replaying something in mind. Then she takes her finger off the trigger and glances at the gun, shaking her head. "I don't know... but Alicia and I were... well I don't know if we're holding a Gathering for him. He can't be buried at the Burial Mounds." Her eyes turn towards Anneka. "Do you know if Kaz found out?" Her lips tighten to a thin line again.

Anneka blinks. "Yeah. Adam said he couldn't be buried there. So there's gonna be a Gatherin' for him. He's gonna be buried in th'woods, somewhere." She reaches up to rub her forehead, brush her hair away from her eyes. "I don't know when, but Kaz does."

"Right.. ok." Yi slips the gun away, turning to move down the center aisle and towards the doors. "I'll go find Kaz now then." She stops at the doors and turns back. "Maybe it will be after the moot, tomorrow. In any case, I'll be back sometime later." With that, she opens up the doors and slips out.

Joey is still sitting on the pew, waving to Yi as she leaves. He's looking at the scene itself, the spray of blood on the walls, and the stained pew.

Anneka curls up tighter on her pew, resting her forehead against her knees. You see nothing interesting in that direction.

Joey looks up, and goes over to sit next to Anneka, not saying anything.

Anneka looks up again after a long, long while and rests the back of her head against the pew, her eyes turning up to the ceiling, the darkened rafters above. Then she slowly glances over to Joey. "When I first met him, he-- got ketchup all over me. I got mad, but-- he was just sayin' h'lo. He was happy." She takes a deep breath that catches as she takes in the scent of blood. Her eyes close and she bites her lower lip.

Joey thinks on this, and calmly puts an arm around her shoulders. 'Talk," he says, "If you want to."

Anneka shrugs, faint enough that it wouldn't show save for Joey's arm being about them. "I just keep thinkin' that sometimes y'only have a chance to do somethin', and then it's gone. You can't go back an' say that it was a mistake, that y'wanta start over." She reaches up, drawing her fingers through her hair. "It's gone. But I keep thinkin' that maybe I coulda done /somethin'/. It just didn't happen..."

Kaz, whose hair looks as if it might like to eat her, stomps upstairs from the basement.

Joey is sitting on a pew, his arm around Anneka's shoulder. "Well, you're right. There is only one chance. Can't go back, and you gotta go with what happens when you do stuff."

Little Tim enters quietly, trailing cigarette exhaust like an old clunker of a truck. He takes a moment to glance around, gives a short, still silent wave, then finds a seat at the back of the church. After another moment, he tries to catch Kaz's attention.

Anneka nods slowly, then looks up as Kaz and Tim arrive. Her eyes follow Kaz for a few moments, then lower again. She manages a quick wave.

Kaz gives Anneka a somewhat wry smile, and then gravitates toward Tim. "Yeah, hey?"

Little Tim kicks both boots up on the pew before him, slouches, then drags hard on his cigarette before saying - voice pitched low so as not to carry to the front of the church - "How's that Rotem kid doin'?" The calculation in his eyes says that's a loaded question.

Joey turns his eyes in the direction Anneka does, nodding to each in turn before he does speak up. "He isn't," he responds to Tim, without humor, without malice. That wry, tired smile fades, but only very slowly. "Rotem. Rotem Rotem Rotem." She leans against the pew. "Rotem ain't doin' nothin' anymore. Because he fuckin' decided he din' wanna cope no more."

Little Tim nods, gives his frayed laces a little perusal, then flicks his tired butt to the floor where it smolders indignantly. "Yeah. Heard that much. Since he din't want to cope, what the hell /did/ he decide to do?"

Shadow Eyes pads in quietly, pushing open the soor with his muzzle.

Joey indicates, with his free arm, the blossom of bloodstains on the wall. "Bullet to the temple. No note, no words."

Kaz puts a finger to her temple and pulle the proverbial trigger to demonstrate. "Big ol' fuckin' gun. I dunno where the fuck he got it, but it sure did a damn fuckin' good job." She's speaking a little quieter than usual, a little more subdued. "Found him yestiddy afternoon."

Joey perks up, filling in at least one blank he knows. "Think Yi gave him the gun."

Little Tim gives the bloodstain - which, apparently, escaped his notice - the same lazy examination he gave his bootlaces: steady, unmoved. "Yeah, well," he says. "That there says 'nough." When Joey speaks, Tim turns from Kaz to the younger Gnawer. "Like, with intent, or what?"

Kaz glances from Tim to Joey, and then adds, a little dubiously, "Yi says she smelt Jarred around. Fresh, too. I'm gonna talk t'a rat're two 'bout that sometime soon."

Joey shakes his head, leaning back. he has yet to notice his Elder enter. "Not that kind. She wanted him to have Yet Another Chance, even after Elan said "Poof, Rotem, begone, you're going to the sewers to be useful before you die right shittin' now." Shaves his head, gave him sunglasses, gun, and a go for a new start."

Anneka nods slowly, her words dried up it seems, for the moment.

Shadow Eyes simply moves to one side, content to watch and listen for a bit. He nips on an itchy place in his fur, a few times.

"Oh, man," Tim says to himself when Kaz mentions Jarred. "His little buddy an' all. Too bad the Rotter didn't have the cojones to try an' catch some bad guys with a bullet or two first." After a moment, he says, "I didn't know the big E put all that down for the kid, though."

Kaz nods. "Yeah. Me'n Elan said either die right then an' there or fight'n the sewers. He took fightin', /then/."

Shadow Eyes flicks his ears a bit.

Joey looks up sharply. "Yeah, an' then he up and says he wants another chance, from what I'm told, and then goes and does this, instead of going out like a fucking man." He stands up. "I mean, I heard stories, and it takes a fucking lot for Elan," And he looks to Elan now. "And hi there. Feel free to jump in." Back to our regularly scheduled rant. "Takes a fucking lot for Elan to send a cub to another /Sept,/ let alone saying that someone's that lost of a cause to be offed. If anyone...and then he does this." He glares at the stains on the wall. "Kick my ass if ya want, but what coward shit."

Kaz says, with a mixture of vast annoyance and immense anger, "Fuck second chances, he got people from /three different fuckin' tribes/ to come whine at me and try and get me to change my fuckin' mind. Pussy," she grates. "Wanna live that bad and then just fuckin'..." She trails off. "Hell."

Shadow Eyes has to agree. This is why he will not know the peace of the burial mounds.

Joey turns to Kaz after nodding to Elan. "Didn't you have three tribes before asking us to off him in the first place?"

Little Tim is impressed by this. "Keepin' him out? Shit, that's a big deal. But, the dude was enough to piss off the whole damn sept." This he says to Joey, at his comment.

Shadow Eyes has had many requests. He looks around the room. But if I can ever help it, only Gnawers will judge Gnawers. We would have taken care of him ourselves, and woe to any other tribe that took his life but us.

Joey turns, a few barbs on hsi tongue as Tim speaks, but he rains in his temper. "I had heard the folks at the Farmhouse sent him back here. Is this right?"

Kaz thinks. "Uh. Walkers. Furies sorta whined about him. Gaians barred him from the Farmhouse, but they ain't about to be askin' me to cull anyone. /I/ shoulda culled him for what he said t'th' Fangs. But yeah, like Elan says, it's our damn job."

Shadow Eyes snorts. Shines Like Silver had it coming. Stupid git.

Little Tim shakes his head, gaze going to Shadow Eyes for a moment, but keeps any comments to himself.

Kaz turns to give Elan a raised eyebrow. "Hello? So you'd /encourage/ morons like Rotem to tell Brittany, two minutes after meeting her, that she's a backstabber from a tribe of backstabbers? Havin' it comin' is one thing, fuckin' the tribe over while givin' her what she needs is another fuckin' thing entirely."

Shadow Eyes flicks an ear. Something to be punished for, yes. Not something to be killed for. Well, not normally.

Kaz says, a little heavily, "After the fuckin' /litany/ of times he did fuckin' similar shit to that, it was the thing that pushed /me/ over the damn edge, yeah."

Joey nods. "And how many times did I hear about 'who ripped his stomach open this week?"

Kaz thinks. "I think that was just Signe. Though she mighta done it twice, y'never know. Well, Signe and Tim here."

Anneka is very quiet, very still, her eyes focused on a point along the arc of the dias, her arms wrapped about legs pulled up close to her body. She's listening though, her chin lowered, the night's shadow giving her face a sharp, lupine cast. She reaches her hands up, draws her fingers through her hair. "Too many things, and once they're done, they can't be taken back." She looks over to the bloodied wall. "He didn't even die right," she whispers.

Shadow Eyes pads over to Anneka. A good lesson, a hard one to learn, sometimes. No, he did not die right. He died the coward's way, or like an old sick Garou. Not even true to his moon.

The doors come open again, with Yi following something in her hand. She glances up and sure enough, there's Kaz. And the people she left and then some. "Hey," Yi closes her fist around the stone with a short murmur to her hand before slipping the stone into a pocket. "I was looking for a certain galliard, about this high, with a lot of hair in her eyes..."

Kaz blinks. "Uh. Yeah?"

Joey is standing up now. Between the wall, and Tim and Kaz. Elan is next to him, as in lupus, he is talking to Anneka.

"Wanted to ask if...when...we'd have a Gathering for him," Yi says, taking out the gun from her side hidden inside the vest. "The gun, had Jarred's scent on it, but I believe Rotem was the one who last held it."

Shadow Eyes will do the rite for him.

Kaz grunts. "/That/ don't mean nothin'. /Shit/. Fuckhead." She lightly punches the pew. "I'm gonna have to find me a rat, when we all ain't crowdin' the place up." She glances to Elan. "When? T'night, 'r after th' Moot?"

Shadow Eyes can do it either night. Tonight is still his moon, though, so it would be more appropriate.

Anneka nods, slowly, her gaze drifting towards Shadow Eyes, then off towards Kaz and the others. Listening again, quiet.

Joey just looks. With a pinky, he clean out an ear, just to make sure.

Yi nods, putting the gun away again. "You don't suppose, well... just out of chance, that someone else did it?" Her eyes stray to the area stained with blood.

Kaz says, a little grimly, "I aim to fuckin' find out." Then she looks at Elan. "You wanna do it now? Even with --" she glances at Yi -- "This?"

Yi tilts her head at Kaz, unsure of what the galliard is implying. "Go ahead," she motions with a free hand. She's not one to object.

Shadow Eyes looks to Yi, then looks to Kaz. What do you mean, 'this'?

Kaz says, "I dunno, man..." She trails off. "Jarred's a good guy and shit, but -- if Jarred had his hand on the damn gun... Do you wanna be doin' a fuckin' Rite when we don't even know if it /was/ suicide?"

Shadow Eyes looks to Kaz. So.. do you, in fact, think there is room for doubt? He looks about the room.

Yi shrugs. "Retribution will come, any way. I don't know for sure, and I don't want to make false accusations...but as a questioner I have to." She pulls out the gun, walking back over to 'the spot'. Here she takes out the gun and points it where Rotem's head would have been. She glances at Elan and Kaz. "What do you think? Someone, who could come in, threaten him with a gun to his head... make him sit here, and then shoot." She glances down the sights, looking at the splatter beyond.

Kaz growls. "/I/ don't know." A moment later, "Aw, fuckit. I'm doin' the same fuckin' thing I was doin' before -- tryin' to find an excuse for the asshole." In a slightly higher voice, she says, "It couldn't have been him wanting to die! It must have been someone else!" Going back to her usual voice, she says, "Fuck that, maybe he was just more of a damn coward than I thought -- he sure went to enough tribes to /whine/ to try and get out of dyin'."

Anneka nods slowly. "He didn't seem 'fraid of dyin' when he didn't know f'sure he was. But when it was real, when it was goin' t'happen, he tried hard to keep it from catchin' him." She rubs her forehead. "Three tribes."

Kaz says, with a wry almost grin, "Four, if you count Yi here." Any anger she had at Yi over that seems to have disappeared over the past few days.

Joey looks around again. "IS there some sign of a struggle I ain't seeing?"

Shadow Eyes will, then, do his Gathering. If we find out different, later, we will bury him differently. There are precedents for this.

Kaz says, "Works. Out'n the woods, right? Robert suggested by the mountains..."

Yi flips the gun upwards, tucking it away. "This gun I gave to him. To use...as he wished." She glances at Joey. "It was his moon. Had there been a struggle... given his history... the death would have been a lot messier. No... there wasn't any struggle." She nods at Elan. "Give him a place to rest first."

Shadow Eyes will do that, then, if Peacekeeper has suggested it.

Kaz nods. "Rock. We wanna get over there, then?"

Yi nods to them both, and glances at the others in the church.

Shadow Eyes agrees.

Anneka slips from her seat, and stands, turning towards the others. She sticks her hands in her pockets and nods.

Bawn: Foothills of the Mountains(#2986RAh)
The hills that rise here are roughened by the frequent rains, and rocky places show through the grasses and shrubs that grown in the clearings. Trees grow as often from shallow soil on rocky hillocks as from real loam. Occassional boulders show through like the bones of ancient creatures, covered with spreading patches of moss and lichen. The land is rough, and the weight of the ancient hills gives the place a chilling quality. The stones seem to resent intrusion.
No visible delimiter marks the eastern edge of the Bawn, only scent-marks and occasional scratches on trees. To the west, the hills become softer and the covering forest thicker, while to the east, the rocky slopes of the foothills become mountainous in truth, and the tree cover thins. I-90 to the north and the railroad to the south provide the remaining edges to this region.
Contents:
Anneka
Shadow Eyes
Kaz
Obvious exits:
Two Eagles Bluff Silent Valley South North East Thunder Cave West

Banecruncher lays on the ground with his head on his forepaws.

Joey comes up behind the others, not really into this mountains and forest and all that. But, he doesn't complain about this.

Shadow Eyes movs quietly through the dark night, following the waning full moon up into the hills.

Anneka drifts out from the forest's edge, her steps slow and quiet as she draws her eyes along the mountains framing the eastern horizon. She stops, reaching up to draw a hand through her tangled, curly hair, then pads slowly to where she can stand near one of the boulders, reaching up through the ground.

About 15 minutes later, Kaz, in lupus -- which should be vaguely surprising in and of itself -- comes loping up toward Elan. She looks a little grim. Once she actually gets near the group, she shifts up, and asks, "Boss? Can I talk t'you f'a sec?"

Shadow Eyes flicks his ears. Certainly.

Kaz crouches down and murmurs something to the Fostern.

Yi stoops down not too far from the head of the covered body, gazing out over the surroundings. She glances back as Kaz in lupus (gasp) comes and immediately goes to speak with Elan. She doesn't mean to pry, but..well. Her ears are about as open as they can get.

Joey looks back as Kaz approaches. He doesn't seem fazed by her appearance.

Shadow Eyes grows very still. And you are very sure of this.

Kaz shrugs, once. "I don' have no fuckin' half moon gift, but it's what the rat tol' me."

Anneka turns to look towards Kaz and Shadow Eyes, her brow slowly furrowing.

Bernie wanders in, looking rather subdued, her backpack hanging heavily over her shoulder. She tilts her head a little, catching Kaz's comment, and heads toward her. "...that idea worked?" she asks, almost surprised.

Joey now fully turns around, hearing the last.

Yi reads more of Elan's body language than the actual conversation going on. Her gaze darkens visibly as she watches the tribe elder suddenly still himself.

Banecruncher's ears fold back as he watches the BigDog's body language. If there's gonna be a fight, he wants in.

Anneka crouches down near the stone, her eyes never drawing from Kaz, narrow shards of green. She tilts her head, slightly.

Ragabash body not quite symmetrical or straight in its forward motion, Bruises lopes into sight. She slows, her tail low, as she approaches those gathered, then circles around, gathering information in the form of scents and tones before she comes to a halt beside Anneka, her sharp gaze on Kaz and Shadow. Her coat shifts a little as if something were disturbing the skin beneath.

Shadow Eyes ponders for a few minutes. He looks back at Kaz. I..am not sure what this means. Sometimes our friends are not the best of observers.

Kaz, still crouched, barely acknowledges Max's presence, though she does register it. "No. They ain't. It's true. And -- a lotta things coulda happened, between what the rat said and reality. But --" She stops. "Ah, hell. If you don' wanna go with it, I don' give a shit."

The Shadow Lord approaches the group, his expression somber. "I'm sorry. I came as soon as I could."

Shadow Eyes simply wants to know. Perhaps there is a more sure way of knowing. If such a thing has happened, we must know before we act. He glances to the others, then back to Kaz, still staying close to her.

Anneka draws her eyes over to Bruises, quick, then edges subtly closer to the wolf. She lowers her chin, watching.

Leonard just...appears, rather unnervingly, at the edge of the gathering. He stuffs his hands in his pockets, watching the assembled quietly.

Kaz shrugs at Elan, says something briefly to him, and then rises from her crouch. "Yo. Jarred. I'm sorry I din' get you earlier." She sounds fairly sincere.

Shadow Eyes turns and slowly /looks/ at Jarred.

From afar, to the room, Shadow Eyes pings with Sense Wyrm

Bruises doesn't move away from Anneka when the cub edges nearer. There is quiet snort of warm breath from her in acknowledgement of the younger teen, but her gaze is rivetted to the two Gnawer elders and the body.

Yi looks up when Leonard appears, standing up and moving towards him to help usher him in it seems. Her eyes when she looks to the Wendigo are cold, dull with some curtain masking anything behind them. "You came," she says quietly. Obviously.

Jarred looks down, darkly, his voice oddly hoarse. "I killed him, Kaz... I killed him... I didn't pull the trigger, but I killed him..."

Bruises's gaze flickers to Jarred now, a quiet sound rolling low in her throat, hardly audible.

Joey just gives Jarred a look. "Come again?"

Anneka's eyes narrow as she looks sharply to Jarred. A faint growl stirs in her throat as well.

Leonard glances at Yi and starts to respond, but stops when he sees her eyes, and instead gathers her into his arms and holds her.

Bernie slips her backpack off her shoulder, and lets it rest against a tree. In homid, she doesn't growl. She does keep her eyes on the Shadow Lord, though, and moves in closer to the others.

Shadow Eyes flicks his ears up.

Shadow Eyes moves to one side, padding there quietly. Maybe it's apparent he's flanking Jarred, maybe not.

Kaz blinks, twice, and then stares at Jarred. "Say hey?" She takes two steps toward him. "You wanna explain that, dude?"

Yi raises her arms slowly, holding back still as she returns the Wendigo's hug for a few moments before turning back to the rest of the Gathering. She moves over towards the group again, dull eyes flickering towards Jarred since everyone else seems to be looking at him.

Jarred says "Rotem killed himself because of me. It was my fault..."

Leonard follows her, glancing at Jarred as well.

Very carefully, very slowly, very much trying to keep in control of herself, Kaz says, "Because of you. Explain this. In words that I can understand, 'cause I'm kinda /dense/ right now."

Shadow Eyes does, indeed, demand an explanation.

You sense Leonard hovers mentally, worried but not wanting to intrude.

Eyes dark, Bernie moves in a bit more, to a position where she can see this more closely, and perhaps not coincidentally, add to the impression of a gradual surrounding. At least, this is three sides closed off. She waits for this explanation as well.

Leonard senses "Yi is rather good at masking emotion when she wants to. Though there is something in her posture, perhaps her ever so slightly tense jawline, that indicates restraint of something. Waiting."

Banecruncher yawns and stretches, shifting a little to add to the boxing in.

Yi waits just as patiently, or impatiently, as the others for the Shadow Lord's explanation. Her eyes watch him with a quietly unnerving calm. One of interrogation via reading body posture.

Jarred's eyes seem dull, tired. "I came to the church to tell Rotem that I could not accept him as a Shadow Lord cub and Rite him. I had promised him before that I would consider it, to save him from the claws of his elders, or a bane beneath the streets of the city. When I arrived, he had the gun out, loading it. He spoke to me in a cold, neutral voice.. as if he knew what my answer would be... I explained why I could not take him as one of my own. He just said something about looking out for number one, and that I had never really cared for him, or anyone else for that matter. I asked him what he planned to do with the gun, and he became enraged... initiated a staredown... that didn't last long, fortunately, and he submitted. I demanded that he give me the gun. He refused... I used my gift of Persuasion. He relented, and we sat down. It was then that I explained to him why all this was happening. I pressed and pressed until he could think of no reason why he should be kept alive. At last he understood why he had to die. I saw it come over his face... and as I saw the cloud fall before his eyes, I knew that the solution was in front of us. If he took his life, he saved the Gnawers from losing renown if they decided to keep him alive. He saved them from the withering contempt that would fall upon them from those who disapproved of the culling. His last act was a sacrifice... for you all. I saw it. He saw it. I laid the gun down on the pew, and I left. The shot went off before I reached the door. I didn't look back. I'll never look back..."

Bruises remains directly beside Anneka, watching and listening.

Anneka stirs, standing and jamming her hands into her pockets. Her eyes remain fixed on the Shadow Lord, narrow and sharp.

Kaz swallows, as she watches him, as she listens. Then she looks at Elan. A little hoarsely, she says, "I ain't no half moon. An' it don't jibe with the rat. But -- it makes too much fuckin' sense."

Shadow Eyes flips his ears down, close to his skull. If you think that was a way to keep us from losing renown, then many of the things they say about your tribe are true. It was a coward's act. If he had gone into the sewers, as befits his moon, he could have been laid to rest with honors. Now, he is simply crow food.

"What'd th' rat say?" Bernie asks, eyes staying on Jarred, thoughtfully.

Bruises grunts quietly in what could be agreement with Shadow's statement. She turns her head and snuffles quietly at the knee of Anneka's pants for a moment before looking back to the discussiion a few yards away.

Jarred turns to Shadow Eyes. "With all respect, Shadow Eyes, I disagree. Rotem was the cause of your tribe's dishonor among the others of this sept. If you had left him to die alone in the sewers, eaten alive by a bane, you would have earned the scorn the Chidren of gaia and others... if you had let him leave the sept, or simply kept him alive, you would have lost renown with the rest of the sept. Rotem knew that there was no way out that would relieve you of that burden."

Jarred says "No way except one."

Kaz says, her own eyes on Jarred, "It said Rotem gave the gun to Jarred. And then the gun went off." But her eyes seem to agree with what Jarred's saying.

Banecruncher snorts. Cub was a lot of things but a quitter was not one of them.

Leonard listens to the words said, staring over Yi's shoulder at the railroad tracks. His jaw works but he says nothing.

Jarred nods. "Rotem did give me the gun. And though I did not fire it, I might as well have." He turns to Banecruncher. "Don't you see? Rotem chafed at the control others had over him. His incredible rage would not allow him to submit. He did this because it was his to do. He was in control of his own destiny. You think he relished the thought of walking into piles of slime to his own sure death, when it was not his choice to do so?"

Jarred says "He didn't quit. He won."

Yi stoops down slowly, at the head of the covered sheet. For the moment, she's silent, staring with masked eyes down at the sheet once her eyes have dropped from the Shadow Lord. "Then I suppose..." she says quietly, "that I was disgracing my tribe and myself, by standing up for him when he wanted to live. Is that it?" She glances up to Jarred. "I stood up against Kaz and my tribal elder, to beg for him, to argue for him.. only when it was doing dishonor?" Her eyes grow hard. "He was convinced that if he had to die, he would die fighting for Gaia in the sewers, alongside his auspicemate and tribemate, Banecruncher. What did you tell him, Jarred, that would have turned him from that belief?"

Bernie nods a little; whether to Kaz, Banecruncher, or both, it's unclear. "Thing you said 'bout not bein' a Philodox. I could go get one, if that'd be helpful. I think we oughta cover all th' bases we can. Don't you?" Still watching Jarred, though she seems to be addressing Kaz, mostly.

Kaz shakes her head. "Hold up a sec. How the fuck is this winning? And --" She breaks off, nodding, at what Yi says, "Yeah. That." She looks thoughtfully at Bernie. "Yeah. A Rited one. No offense," she adds to Anneka, without looking at her.

Anneka draws her fingers down to brush the top of Bruises' head, an ear. She nods, slowly, to Kaz perhaps. "None takin'."

Yi half-lids her eyes. "Or, was he just telling me what I wanted to hear?" Her gaze flicks down momentarily to the covered corpse.

Bernie nods. "A Rited one," she agrees, stepping over to the tree and picking up her backpack again, "...I'll go see who I c'n track down first." With that, she finally stops staring at the Shadow Lord, and glances to the covered corpse as well, before starting toward an exit of the clearing.

Jarred is clearly growing angry. He rounds on Yi. "You... /You/ dare to question me when it was your foolish orders that led him to the attack that exposed him to the police? You have the gall to accuse me of murder, when I was the only one in this sept who bothered to consider talking him on as one of my own? Took him into my house... my very /home/ to try and teach him...? You sit there and speculate as to the mistrust and dishonor of the Shadow Lords, when you yourselves are filled with mistrust?" The Shadow Lord swears, incoherently. "Always it is the same..."

Kaz snaps, "Hold it," to both Jarred and Yi. "Cool it. Now. Before we start fuckin' losin' our brains. Please."

Jarred says "I was responsible for Rotem's final act, Kaz. I came here to admit that. But I wasn't responsible for the garou he was.. the garou he became. That, my friends, is /your/ cross to bear."

Kaz bites off her words. "Thank you. I am aware. Now stop digging yourself even more of a hole here and shut the fuck up."

Leonard puts a preemptive restraining hand on Yi's shoulder as Jarred speaks.

Now there is a distinct sound of disagreement from Bruises in response to Jarred's logic. Shifting to homid she suggests neutrally, "This ain't 'bout fixin' the shit that was wrong with Tantrum. S'about what th'fuck happened, yeah?" She quiets, leaving space for Jarred and Kaz to speak, then adds, more under her breath but still audible, "Ain't /that/ convenient." Assessing dark eyes glimmer behind Max's stringy bangs.

Yi snarls right back, standing up and brushing off Leonard's hand. "And when you knew that he shot himself in the head, you didn't think at all to let one of his tribemates know? You just left him there to bleed his insides onto the pews for us to find?" She pulls out the gun from her side, inside the vest. "I -gave- him this gun. It was to show my trust in him to handle himself from the time I stood up for him to the time Elan would give me and him a final decision. Who should I trust, Jarred?" Her shoulders tense, her hand closing around the gun handle tightly. "Who?"

Shadow Eyes lifts his lip to show bright white fangs. Yes, indeed. Why wait until now?

Banecruncher growls softly in agreement with Yi and BigDog.

Jarred looks around him in muted disbelief, finally throwing up his hands. "So be it, Yi. So be it, all of you. It is clear that you have made your decisions. I see it in your eyes. You now hold in martyred sainthood a cub who you held in such high regard that... you guessed it... you were planning to throw him away. How very ironic.. that the one who showed the most kindness to him be painted as his killer. I am through with you. I am through with this.... I have said my piece. I will say no more in this matter." He glares around him in defiance.

Kaz shakes her head. "You're not getting it, dude. Want me to explain it to you?"

Bruises slouches to her hip which brings her a little closer to Anneka. She turns her head and murmurs low near the cub's ear.

Anneka blinks twice, then turns, her eyes drifting away from the Shadow Lord as she murmurs back to Bruises. Her hands close into fists.

"No, I believe you'll have to say more about it later. Now, though... Now I will let him lie in peace." Yi uncocks the safety to the gun, moving over the corpse and setting it to her left forearm. "This blood is for you, Rotem. I would have shed it for you, anytime. Because you were my tribemate, because you were a Gnawer. No matter what anyone says, I believe you would have passed if you were given just one more chance. With that, she pulls the trigger and grits her teeth to bite back a scream as the bullet goes through and blood splatters to the other side. Her eyes gaze back to Jarred coldly, as she re-safeties the gun and slips it in the inside of her vest. There's a few moments before she actually shifts up to heal, still glaring at the Shadow Lord.

Jarred looks around him. "What am I to say?"

You have shifted to Glabro form.

Bruises's gaze is now sharp on the cub and she continues the low-murmured the exchange.

Leonard sighs, keeping an eye on Yi, face expressionless.

Shadow Eyes watches, taking in everything.

The metis lets a breath out, slowly, wincing at the shot. She gives Yi a long look and then turns to the Lord. "All /I/ was ever saying, Jarred, was that we should take care of our own. Even if we were gonna off him because he couldn't cut it, he was /still/ ours, we /still/ loved him, and that's /why/ we're still givin' a shit now. All we wanted was the chance to let him go out th' /right/ way, the way Gaia intended him to, t'go out fightin'. Because he was worth /that/, at least. I mean, who the fuck /cares/ what the fuckin' Gaians think, it's /our job/ to do what's /right/. An', well, whatever happened, you took that away from him, an' from us." She shrugs. "That's why /we're/ so pissed, anyway."

Anneka lowers her eyes, then looks up to Bruises again, her voice the barest whisper. Jarred says "And how do you think /I/ feel, Kaz. I was more of a friend to him than most others, and I agreed with his reasons for what he did. They may not have been what you all would have chosen for him, but he was renown for making his own choices, even if they were stupid ones."

Shadow Eyes flicks his ears. And that is why he is being given a Gathering. Shall we?

Yi turns her eyes away from the Shadow Lord, having said her piece and given her offering to the cub's spirit. The invisible curtain falls back down over her lightened eyes, and she takes the rest of the Gathering in silence.

Jarred turns to Shadow Eyes. "Am I welcome here, or am I not? I will leave if you wish it."

Bruises dips her chin once in silent response to Anneka's murmur, her gaze sliding back to the exchange, more specifically to Kaz.

Kaz looks from Elan to Jarred to Yi, and then just shakes her head minutely and steps back a few feet, toward Max. Crouching down she mutters something to her.

Max sinks down to a crouch facing Kaz and exchanges a few quiet words with her. Kaz glances from Max to Anneka. Then she mutters something.

From afar, to the room, Jarred has to run to bed, folks. Let me know what you all decide. Jarred will not, however, submit to some interrogation by a philodox.

Kaz pages to the room: That should make life fun.

Jarred pages to the room: He's given all the information he will ever give.

Shadow Eyes thinks that as the person most involved with his death, you should stay, Brings-Death.

[Er, well... we'll assume Jarred stalked off in that flowy cloak the Shadow Lordish way]

Anneka closes her eyes tight, then opens them again, looking from Kaz to Max and back. It's taking the cub some effort to keep her voice low and quiet, her hands tucked into white-knuckled fists.

Max flickers a look from Kaz to Anneka and murmurs quietly. "G'head, Streetfish. Ain't nothin' bad's gonna happen. Zee's got this, like, way of hearin' shit."

Anneka nods, her voice still low. She doesn't seem aware that the Shadow Lord has left.

Kaz mutters something under her breath.

Max reaches over to lightly rest her hand around Anneka's ankle in a show of support while her gaze remains upon Kaz. "/Slippery/ fuckers," she states more audibly.

Shadow Eyes howls into the night. We gather, to remember the short life of the cub Greenstreak, who has died by his own hand. Children of Rat, the Bone Gnawers of the Hidden Walk, we Gather.

Yi simply flickers her eyes between corpse and her arm, watching the bullet wound every so often to make sure it heals itself. She's going to need a new shirt, dangit. With the slightest of leans, she touches her packmate's shoulder with her own.

Anneka nods twice, her eyes on Kaz, then looks around. The rest of the world is there, a revelation that appears to surprise the cub slightly. She nods again, her eyes drifting to Max, then sharply over to Shadow Eyes. She takes a breath, quick.

You sense Leonard glances at you. You okay?

Kaz can't quite seem to stop baring her teeth, but she leans a little into Max and watches Elan, eyes hard.

Max pushes to her feet and quiets in respect to both Shadow Eyes and the opening statement.

Max's hand drops to the back of Kaz's neck, fingers pressing for a moment and then simply settling there.

Leonard senses "Yi is fine. The arm might sting a bit, but whatever comes is what comes."

Shadow Eyes looks to whoever wants to start.

You sense Leonard smiles slightly. That's not what I meant.

The metis sighs. From her crouch, she says, quietly, getting more intense as she goes, "He was a pain in the ass. He was a fuckin' stubborn asshole. He had no idea of what actual submission meant. But he /tried/. The lights he made for the sewers, that bird... The first time he saw the Caern an' almost cried... Th' first time he saw the Umbra..." She trails off. "He was one of /us/, dammit, and that's all that matters." She's looking at the body now, fixedly, not looking away for a long time afterwards.

Max leaves a space after Kaz finishes speaking to contribute, herself. "Tantrum dinnit even get it right with the god-damned 'structions written on him. He followed the Lord 'round an' only learned t'be more ev'ryone-re-fuckin-volves-round-me." She shrugs, "Dude. You never looked past the stink 'n the bite t'see us unnerneath. T'figure out whatchoo coulda been. But we kept on comin' at ya cuz we could see what /you/ coulda been. Won't forgetcha. Won't back down." Max moves away from Anneka and Kaz to approach the covered body. She sinks to one knee and draws the word 'L I S T E N' in the earth beside him. "Sleep good." Pushing back to her feet she walks back over to the pair she was standing between.

Anneka steps up to the body, her eyes shadowed by tumbled-down, sandy hair as she looks down to it. "He was one of us, an' on his moon, when he coulda took his anger out on me, he didn't. I won't know if we ever coulda been friends, but I do know that he was /family/." She closes her hands to fists again. "He was a stupid goof, but he was a Gnawer, an' I won't forget him." She reaches into one of her pockets, drawing out a shell, a pale crescent with a band of red, sets it down on the earth. "We all got our stories. Sorry I never learned yours."

Anneka stays there for a while, before standing up and drifting back to stand near Kax and Max.

Yi gets up, taking out the gun and laying it atop the sheet with splattered blood. Then, the Canto-Gnawer shifts down to a travelling form. Her foreleg seems to still be healing, but she chuffs to the others. I will go get Stomper, so she can say a few words for him. Without much warning, she trots off to find the Bernie.

Shadow Eyes looks at the body and simply say, I'm sorry. I wish things had been different.

Leonard steps forward, nervously. "I didn't know him very well, but a cub is a cub. I offered to teach him for my packmate's sake. He always seemed to take one step forward and two back. But he tried. I wish he would have died like a warrior. I wish I would have taught him how to face death with honor. His failure is mine, too." He sighs and begins singing, chanting in his own language, voice high and slow. After about a minute, he stops, bows his head and steps back.

Max watches Leonard with a glinting, narrowed gaze from behind her stringy bangs. When he begins to sing, her head tips a bit and she gets a look about her reminiscent of a dog about to shake out its wet fur. Refolding her arms across her chest she leans toward Kaz in her own characteristic slouch while Leonard steps back.

Shadow Eyes howls into the night.

Banecruncher pads up and nudges the body with his nose. Stubborn willful cub. Had spirit enough for a pack of ahrouns. Shoulda had wit to go with it. Go get 'em, cub.

Barnyard
The lane wends its way back and around the farmhouse to here, where it widens into a broad, grassy sward contained only by the woods which encircle it on three sides. Buildings break up the purity of the landscape: an open-sided structure which serves as a garage and the big barn, empty of livestock, to the east. A good-sized vegetable and herb garden furrows the land south of the barn, while a pyramid-like pile of rocks, of similar consistency to the gravel of the lane, rests a few yards south of the garage.
North of the buildings, the fields have long been fallow, hastening a conversion from farmland to natural prarier. A sliding glass door allows admittance to the farmhouse, the interior obscured by Levolor(tm) blinds in a wood-grain pattern. The lane leads out around the house to the southwest. The discerning can just barely pick out the beginnings of a faint path into the woods towards the southeast.
(Non-Garou, please "+view curse")
Contents:
Bernie
Obvious exits:
FIelds BArn Farmhouse Lane Woods

Bernie emerges from the back of the house, looking troubled, and starts back toward the bawn.

The brush sways with the sound and displacement of a lupus travelling through it, following the scent of a ragabash. When the sound of boots clomping out of the house come to her she looks up over from the edge of the brush and barks. Hey, are you coming to say a few words for him?

Bernie blinks, running a hand through her curls. "You started? Uh, I was plannin' to, yeah. But I didn' find a 'dox with th' gift, yet. I was 'bout t' hunt down Adam, or maybe Tecmessa if I can't find him..."

Three-Blades licks her muzzle side, and chuffs. It doesn't matter now. First we will let him rest in peace. Truth will come in time. Come on.

Bernie bites her bottom lip, eyes flashing dark and stubborn for a moment. But the point is true; the search will keep, the Gathering won't. She sighs, and nods, jogging along with the lupe back to the group.

[Jog jog jog...jog jog jog...]

Bawn: Foothills of the Mountains(#2986RAh)
The hills that rise here are roughened by the frequent rains, and rocky places show through the grasses and shrubs that grown in the clearings. Trees grow as often from shallow soil on rocky hillocks as from real loam. Occassional boulders show through like the bones of ancient creatures, covered with spreading patches of moss and lichen. The land is rough, and the weight of the ancient hills gives the place a chilling quality. The stones seem to resent intrusion.
No visible delimiter marks the eastern edge of the Bawn, only scent-marks and occasional scratches on trees. To the west, the hills become softer and the covering forest thicker, while to the east, the rocky slopes of the foothills become mountainous in truth, and the tree cover thins. I-90 to the north and the railroad to the south provide the remaining edges to this region.
Contents:
Little Tim
Rotem
Leonard
Banecruncher
Shadow Eyes
Kaz
Obvious exits:
Two Eagles Bluff Silent Valley South North East Thunder Cave West

Little Tim doesn't seem all that concerned that he missed the bulk of the ceremony. To Shadow Eyes he tosses a lop-sided shrug, saying, "Go ahead and close it. Ain't too much friendly I'd say 'bout the dude anyways." His gaze does wander toward the body, though, where it lingers thoughtfully.

A distant howl comes over the forest on the wind, urgent in hoping the Gathering hasn't finished yet. It's Three-Blades' voice, if those listening can recognize it.

Bernie slows from a jog to a walk, following Three-Blades back to the hills as the pair come into view. She runs a hand through her hair, glancing around to take in the current state of affairs, and then slides her backpack off, setting it on the ground.

Kaz crouches down again, silent.

Shadow Eyes flicks his ears at Bernie. Come, speak.

Eyeing the blood splattered atop the sheet again as she rounds the corpse, Three-Blades trots back over to Leonard's side and resumes her silence. The gun laid atop the bloodied linen gets another glance before she nuzzles the Wendigo.

Leonard glances at the little black wolf and flashes her a brief smile, stroking her head before scratching fondly behind one ear.

Leonard senses "Three-Blades of course can't hide her emotions as well as she can in other forms. Though the nuzzle's affectionate, there's still hints of sadness through that swiss cheesy curtain of wolven attempt to act nonchalant."

You sense Leonard offers what comfort he can through the link. We'll talk later?

Bernie presses her lips together, and nods a little to Shadow Eyes, moving forward a bit. "Um. Well. So public speaking's maybe not my best skill. But anyway. Rotem was just 'bout th' only person 'round here who had th' knack for totally pissin' me off, an' for a while, I was kina regrettin' gettin' Adam t' keep him from dyin' that one time he had that fight with Yi. But then I d'cided t' give him another chance, an' try an' act'ly get t' know him some, an', I mean... he wasn't a bad kid. He kept fuckin' up, but he kept tryin'. Sometimes, even, he showed all this potential... I still think he had it in him t' be a good Garou, someday. I wish that coulda happened." She pauses, and bites her lip again. "But, y'know. If wishes were horses." She leans down and opens the backpack, pulling out a bottle of Guinness, which she places on the sheet at about hand-level, and then sprinkles a small handful of, apparently, various bottlecaps on the sheet. "G'bye, Smithers. Hope it's better for ya beyond." She steps back, then, and returns her hands to her jacket pockets.

Leonard senses "Three-Blades grunts softly in some consent."

The theurge steps back a pace or two and howls again into the night. Greenstreak is remembered. Let him go with the Mother; This Gathering is ended. He paces briefly, and then fades into the woods.

Three-Blades sniffs softly at the blood, then lifts her voice up to howl to the skies. Gaia watch over his spirit, until he returns again in the next life.

Little Tim folds his arms over his chest and watches Rotem's body as Elan howls. There is none of the antagonism that generally characterized his conduct with the cub, but he remains noticeably silent as others howl. Without further comment, he slips to Kaz's side and leaves with her when she goes.

Banecruncher joins in with the howl.

Leonard does also, though stays in homid for it.

Kaz doesn't howl. She stays, unsurprisingly, in homid. Once everyone's done howling, she sighs, looking up into the night. After a long moment of this, she looks back down, at her packmates, and then turns quietly to go.

Bernie glances around, as people leave, and over to Three-Blades, in particular. "...aren't we going to bury him tonight?" she asks, brow furrowed.

Three-Blades gazes from the body to Bernie. She ponders this, then shifts upward to warform, to gently lift the body and move it to one side. ~Shadow Eyes would leave him here, like we do with lupus to have their body return to Gaia naturally.~ She growls softly and digs into the ground with her own claws. ~But, we said we would bury him. It is your tradition, I believe. So bury him we will.~ She's already tearing out scoops.

You have shifted to Crinos form.

Leonard goes to help Yi, shifting up into hispo. ~ Put him in facedown. ~

Banecruncher joins in the digging, shifting only as far as hispo to give bigger paws.

Bernie nods. "Yeah. Thank you," she replies, moving the backpack farther away. Her jacket ends up atop it, and then her tank top, though she faces away form the others as she does that, despite wearing a bra under it. "...why face down?" she asks, as she starts shifting to a better digging form.

Leonard dog-digs fast and furious, widening the hole considerably. ~ So he doesn't come back. ~

Stomps-The-Wyrm pads over to the grave, also in Hispo, and shakes her head a little. ~He won't. He's gone.~ She starts in with the digging as well.

Leonard shakes his head, an odd gesture in a wolf. ~ People who die like this... just lay him face down. Trust me. ~

Three-Blades concentrates on digging, though her ears turn towards Leonard curiously. ~I'll be surprised if he does,~ she quips with a short growl. Sooner than later, the four of them come out with a decently sized hole. Yi picks up the body, laying it into the grave face down as Leonard suggested. Then, she places the gun in the grave as well. Her ears and eyes go to Bernie. ~His Stuff?~

Stomps-The-Wyrm looks at Leonard, pausing a moment in her digging. ~We can't. It's... you aren't supposed to let the body be face down. Oh, and the washing...~ She looks as though she's kicking herself for something. ~I brought some of it. I don't think he'd want it all buried with him, so I didn't bring all. I wish we had a proper box...~

Leonard growls at Stomps. ~ This is-my- home. Up there -- ~ he jerks his head, indicating further up the mountains, ~ -- the Wendigo live. And I will not have his angry ghost here. ~

Three-Blades quirks her head to one side. Such complications. ~Because he believed something else?~ She glances down at the sheeted body, then back up at Bernie. ~He is a Garou. Let him lie as any Garou would. Without hard barriers that keep him from Gaia's touch.~ She shrugs with a roll of her shoulders and sniffs at Leonard. ~No more fighting over him, please.~ She glances back to Bernie. ~Go ahead and put his Stuff in. Either way, I don't have a feeling he can complain much about it.~

~Sideways,~ Stomps-The-Wyrm asks after a moment's consideration, ~would on his side do? That would be all right, I think...~ She moves back a bit from the hole, to shift back up to a form with hands that can grip Stuff.

Banecruncher looks at the others. You decide?

Leonard snorts in disbelief. ~ No it is NOT alright! Face DOWN! I have to live here and I have pregnant kin to think about. ~

Three-Blades growls quietly. ~At this rate, he might as well roll in his grave like being turned on a spit.~ She glances from Leonard to Bernie. She gives the other ragabash a short 'Just let him have it his way' look with her ears splayed to either side. ~I think this is why we opt to burn our dead, instead of bury them.~ Insert sigh and readiness to wait all night for a resolution.

"You're not supposed to do that either," Bernie says softly, going back over to the bag, "it's... it's considered disrespectful to God. And to th' dignity of th' deceased. And stuff." She runs a hand through her curls again, and sighs. "I'm sorry, Rotem," she murmurs to herself, "I already fucked it up as it is..." Just loud enough to be heard, but without turning around, "...do it your way."

Little Bear does so, rolling the body in and making sure its face down before starting to scrape dirt back on top of it.

~Gaia, God, Buddha, oneself,~ Yi growls softly. ~Either way, his spirit is gone on and his body will return to the earth.~ She motions for Bernie to drop in the items she has, and sets about pushing the dirt back into the hole.

Banecruncher sees the others have decided and begins scooping dirt back into the hole.

Bernie returns with a selection of the Stuff, and kneels beside the hole to place it in there. That done, she sits back on her haunches, then stands and goes back to her backpack, pulling out a small book, and her flashlight. Quietly, she reads something aloud from it, in Hebrew.

Three-Blades steps back once the body is buried, gazing at the mound of dirt with a thinly veiled sadness. Ears tilting back, she then shifts down to her birth form and looks to the others. "That's all we can do now," she says softly.

You have shifted to Homid form.

Little Bear shifts back as well, looking at his dirty hands. "I'm going to go get cleaned up."

Banecruncher shifts back to his birthform and pads back down the trail.

Bernie finishes, and takes a breath, then, it seems, begins again, same tone, only in English, now. "May the great Name of God be exalted and sanctified throughout the world, which he has created according to his will. May his Kingship be established in your lifetime and in your days, and in the lifetime of the entire household of Israel, swiftly and in the near future, and say Amen. May his great name be blessed, forever and ever. Blessed, prised, glorified, exalted, extolled, honoured, elevated, and lauded be the Name of the holy one, Blessed is he, above and beyond any blessings and hymns, praises and consolations which are uttered int he word; and say Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life upon us and upon all Israel, and say Amen. May there be abundant peace from Heaven, and life upon us and upon all Israel, and say Amen. He who makes peace in his high holy places, may he bring peace upon us, and upon all Israel, and say Amen." She sighs, then, and closes the book, turns off the flashlight, and puts them away in the bag.

Yi tilts her head somewhat curiously at all of the words, taking them in quietly until Bernie is finished. Then she moves over and pats the other newmoon on the shoulder. "A lot of words, for such a cub. I'm sure he appreciates it." Her eyes give the grave one last look, before she moves over, and takes out from her pockets a crumple of blondish hair to lay on the grave. Then she stands back up, and nods to Bernie. "Let's go."

Bernie looks almost suprised to see her shirt on top of her jacket, and blushes slightly as she picks it up and puts it back on, then the jacket itself. She zips the backpack, and nods, pulling it onto her shoulder, prepared to follow Yi out.

Yi doesn't seem to have noticed any of the skin show, and turns to follow the path Banecruncher took back into the forest. Her pace is slow though, alongside Bernie's as they return towards the city.