Cerebrus.

[Kora] The night sky is clear through the scrim of haze and light pollution that shrouds the city. Away from the museums and the marina and the piers, Grant Park is a dark edging to the city's glittering brilliance, tucked neatly against the dark screen of the lake, which reflects - tonght - both waning moon that hangs heavy in the sky and the city's office towers, bathed in light. There is a jogging path that follows the curve of the shore, lit here and there by a series of artfully wrought gas lamps, and a copse of trees between the lake and the city meant to mimic the natural shape of a young forest. Some of the trees here are older than one might find anywhere else in the city, great spreading oaks and maples, dense with overgrowth, with the sort of massive canopies that children always draw, huge and full, rounded and green.

The air smells like summer. The remnants of a barbecue somewhere close. Car exhaust and the memory of a hot, blazing sun. A city worker whistles as he walks down the path, emptying the garbage cans the path into a rattling metal bin. He's the only person in this area of the park tonight, although some tourists linger near the Millennium Fountain, awaiting the last show of light and water. He is he only person here, except a young woman seated on the railing overlooking the water, swinging her legs. She smells of bleach and cleaning products. And blood, underneath.

[Thoth Massri] In a city full of structure and hard edges, straight lines and immovable towers, it was often more difficult to get one from one point to another then one might believe, or at least longer then one might believe. Grant Park made for an excellent short cut, and a reprieve from the concrete and metal of the city proper.

And so the mountainous man, because he was quite big, strode purposefully through the greenery, making an unusually minimal amount of noise as he did so. His stride was well spaced and even paced, it was the walk of a man who had seen many...many miles behind him, and would see many many more before the day was out. He breathed in the air, briefly, and his nose wrinkled oh so slightly at the smell of bleach and cleaning products, not because they were there...but because of what lay beneath.

[Kora] The young woman on the railing isn't human. That, however, is not obvious at first glance. She's dressed in worn jeans and an old black t-shirt, washed so many time it has become soft, more gray than black. Her pale hair is pulled sharply back from her features, twisted into a knot that is held in place more by the way its weight pulls against itself. The large man - with his purposeful strides - is not wholly silent as he walks down the path, and when he is close enough to smell the sharp scent of bleach in the air around her, he is close enough for her to hear his approach. She turns, lifting her chin as she glances over her shoulder, eyes dark in the shadows flickering over him as he walks. There's a certain curve to her mouth even now, when she is still and expressionless, one of those Mona Lisa smiles, half-formed, inartful.

" - yuf," she greets him, low-voiced, sure. "I'm not sure we've ever met formally."

[Thoth Massri] The man pauses as the young woman addresses him, not in the manner of humans, but in the manner of garou, it takes a moment for the man to ply his mind, to search through memories of the moot's and of his interactions with the other garou of this city. At last he recognizes her, and while he knew her name...he had never spoken with her.

"You are correct." The man says curtly, his voice rumbling like thunder in the distance as he changes his direction and steps towards her. His eyes gauge her, watch her...they sarch for weakness or fault...a judges gaze.

"I am Thoth Massri...known as The Scales Fulcrum." He says as he stops before her.

[Kora] "Kora," she names herself, swinging easily over the railing, with this supple physical confidence that seems to be written into her sinews. There is no pure blood in her to mark her tribe, and her accent is entirely American, the broad tones of the suburbs and cable news, without any sort of regional inflection. Except when she gives the next name, which she pronounces wit the precision of a native speaker of some exotic language. "Eyjólfsdóttir, to my kin, in the Sept of Wind and Rain where I fostered in Hjaltland.

"Just," the faintest curve of her smile, here. "Kora to most now. she who offers sorrow to the Nation, Skald and daughter of Fenris. And Jarl of the tribe, such as it is." Both legs swung over the railing, she pushes off and slides easily to the ground. A human would offer a hand shake now, but she merely slides her hands into her front pockets, her dark eyes gleaming on him. There's nothing to be read n her gaze - not judgment, not assessment. You follow Mila, yeah? Twister, is it?"

[Thoth Massri] "I have followed her for sometime as her Beta." He says as he watches her as well, no intention of offering his hand. He simply stands there opposite of her, considering her. "My purpose has kept me apart from much of this cities social gatherings. It is...pleasant to meet you at last."

He says without any real pleasure in his voice, but then his tone has been neutral from the beginning, perhaps that is just the way he talks. She has smiled at him, but he has not returned the smile, not yet at least.

[Kora] "You seem," she replies, when she does, in that same voice - rich and low and confident, "pretty contained for someone who follows Twister, yeah? I thought Twister was all - movement and destruction, the wisdom that comes after everything's been torn down. Mind you," Her thumbs are out of her pockets, her fingers buried to the first knuckle. The night around them is dark here, the nearest streetlamps are out, and those further away seem - cushioned somehow. The humidity from the lake, maybe, the way it texturizes the air.

"It's not really my scene. Nor my place to judge." There's a certain - rustle in the upper canopy of the largest trees as the wind picks up over the lake. It carries with it that dark scene, shadowed water, vegetative rot, oil slicked and sunbaked.

[Imogen Slaughter] Late night. Not many people about.

Imogen moves along the pathways, her body silhouetted by the lamplight above as she passes through the pools of illumination, then shaded as she steps into the shadow. She moves without hesitation or discomfort of her surroundings - as a woman might under these circumstances. Late night, isolated pathways, empty, shrouded park. The kind of place that should require a quick step and furtive glances.

The kind of place that, in a horror movie would end in Imogen's certain death.

She walks through this the way she'd walk through it on a summer day: alert, but unafraid; or perhaps merely brave. It's impossible to tell anymore. There is no one left to whom she'd admit fear.

And maybe she has none anymore.

Whatever: Dark night, slender woman walking along the pathway. The Garou are at the railing over the water. She sees the blonde of Kora's hair, the darkness of Thoth's skin. Both familiar, one more than the other. She moves their way.

[Thoth Massri] Thoth raises a brow now, perhaps the first real reaction in his face since they had begun to talk, and he shook his head slowly from side to side, the look on his face was of slight ever so slight annoyance but in the end there is the slimmest of smiles that cross his face.

"Is the sky and the land not calm and quiet before twisters arrival, before destruction...death and rebirth?" He asks of her as he stands there. "Twister is many things, and capable of much, it is...a shame, that few see it for what it truly is."

Another body approached, another...woman to be precise and Thoth's gaze briefly turned to regard her, he remembered her...but from where?

[Kora] Two wolves, one kinswoman, whose breeding is so sharp it flavors the air around her. There are old stories inside Kora, dimly remembered, and then only when she is haunted by her ancestors, by the living past that too-often inhabits her body - overlaying the present, this startling sense that there is something just beyond the reach of her conscious mind that she can almost touch in the living memory that is Imogen's blood. Thoth will hear the way the Skald draws in a brief, sharp breath through her nostrils, before she lifts a hand to Imogen from a distance.

No matter the horror movie setting, the depth of the shadows, the loneliness of the path, the silence fall of Imogen's steps on the decomposed granite walkway, her blood calls across the distance, and Kora identifies her with that first winging glance. "I've never been in a tornado," the Skald replies, quiet sensibly, that half-smile still on her mouth. "So I don't have personal knowledge," she continues, with a neat, faint shrug of her narrow shoulders. "but since you follow the whirlwind rather than the land, I don't know. I'd expert more -

" - whirl, yeah?" There's a rustle in the trees, the breeze from the lake dropping lower. Low enough that the underbrush, the brambles, the vines, the dogwood and floribunda roses shiver in the beeze. Kora glances at the foliage, then looks back at Imogen. "You know the doc?"

(Everyone can roll perception + alertness!)

[Imogen Slaughter] (perception+alertness)
HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Kora] Kora: Per + Alertness
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Thoth Massri] [Per+Alert]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Kora] The wind is not low enough to hit the underbrush. There's a specific area that's moving, and just that area moves.
to Imogen Slaughter, Thoth Massri

[Kora] Imogen hears something low - from behind the underbrush. A low growl, something like it.
to Imogen Slaughter

[Imogen Slaughter] Imogen glances briefly at Thoth, answering for him. "We've met - " though her sentence was complete, the final word cuts off a little more abruptly than perhaps it should have.

The doctor's head turns toward the underbrush, a line forming between her eyebrows.

"Are either of you expecting a friend?" she enquires, her voice deceptively mild and low. "Perhaps of the animal nature?"

[Thoth Massri] "It has been sometime since we had last met." Thoth says as he watches both woman, but then his eyes turn and catch on the underbrush watching it move, listening to Imogen talk before the man shook his massive head.

"I am not." He comments as he turns towards the disturbance fully and steps towards it, his fists closing as he did so. "Kora?" He enquires with just her name, a brief look in her direction before he returns his gaze to the underbrush, his eyes narrowing as he did so.

[Kora] "Do you see that?" Kora says, quietly to Thoth. She lifts her chin, in a slow rising look toward Imogen, her dark eyes steady distance, then tips her head toward the thicket at the base of a great, spreading oak tree. This is a public park, so those little signs Thoth and Imogen pick up could simply be - part of that, movement in the park, someone walking a dog late at night. Her voice is low, controlled. She shakes her head once, sharply to Imogen' question, then holds out her index finger, her middle finger, then, after a pause, her ring finger, counting out one, two, then the pause, maybe three.

"Get ready." The Skald warns them, very, very quietly.

[ -1 WP, Resist Pain!]

[Imogen Slaughter] Imogen's mouth draws tight - it's a sharp, sudden expression that then fades merely as she nods in Kora's direction.

Her hand lifts, sliding beneath her black blazer. The snap of the gun holster's restraint is barely audible, the weapon large and improbably in her hand as she slides it out. She moves backward and away from the Garou, keeping her line of fire on the bush clear.

Her gaze flicks over their surroundings as they move, a quick appraisal for humans; for unwanted witnesses.

[Thoth Massri] "Fight us...and die." Those words were instructional it seemed, it certainly sounded like it. Thoth seemed to have no illusions as to what was about to happen, he was simply illustrating the quickest and most efficient way that this...thing could get through the next few moments.

His eyes never leave the bush, he waits there, prepared to catch or perhaps to simply annihalate that which appears...the calm before the storm indeed.

[Kora] There's a low bark, then an answering bark - deeper. The parks are doglike and meaningless to the Garou. Underneath the second bark, a low snarl that starts as a rumble of warning and turns into something rather more vicious, liquid underneath. The sound of the last half-second before a dogfight erupts, the rustling of the leaves and behind it, the snap of a leash. The sharpest ears among them might hear someone ordering, rather frantically plotz. plotz. one (?) of the dogs about to fight, but then there's a break and a crash, and a great beast of mutt leaps out from the thicket -

- with two heads, and a huge spiked collar surrounding its massive neck, a leather leash trailing behind it. The two-headed dog is shorthaired, with a mottled coat and the big, pugnacious build of a pitt bull. Except that it exceeds a pit bull's size by a good two or three hundred pounds, not quite a match for a Garou in hispo in terms of size, but close. One of the heads has the snarling snap of a rottweiler's mouth, its ears turned forward, slavor swinging from its maw as it charges toward the trio. The second head has the curl coat of a standard poddle, though its mouth is pulled back from its sharp teeth, a vicious growl rumbling in its chest.

A half-second later, the owner plunges through the thicket after the two-headed dog, lunging for the leash. His head is hidden by a black cowl, but his hands have elongated, thickened nails, with the fingers fused together in two groups of two.

Imogen sees no humans in the immediate vicinity. The closest are a good walk away at the Millennium Fountain.

[Imogen Slaughter] (+9)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10

[Kora] in homid, Kora, +7
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1

[Thoth Massri] [in Homid +5]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4

[Kora] Cerberus, Jr. +4
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10

[Kora] Charon! +6
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6

[Kora] ze order is:

Imogen 19
Cerberus, Jr. 14
Charon 12
Thoth 9
Kora: 8

[Kora] Kora: [Rageshift to hispo!] 1a. BITE 1b. BITE; Rage 1: BITE, Rage 2: BITE. Starting with Cerberus, Jr. Moving to Charon.

[Thoth Massri] [Rageshift to Chrinos] 1a: Claw Cerb, 1b Claw Cerb, Rage 1 Claw Cerb.

[Kora] Charon: 1. Molt!

Cerberus, Jr. - Poodle: 1. BITE Thoth. Rage 1: BITE Thoth.

Pit Bull: 1. BITE Kora. Rage 1. BITE Kora.

[Imogen Slaughter] Split action:
1. 3rb Charon
2. SHOOT Charon

[Imogen Slaughter] Three round burst
HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Imogen Slaughter] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Charon - soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Imogen Slaughter] Shoot!
HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 4, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Imogen Slaughter] Damage!
HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 8, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Kora] Imogen shoots the 'owner' of the dogs, who plunged through the underbrush chasing after the leash on which they were kept. Both rounds connect, the first going through and through his shoulder, the second hitting him in the gut. He staggers back, reeling, blood slick on his hands, his eyes glazed, stunned. His skin was already turning liquid, moving like ripples of water down a beaded line - but that is all he does, staggering backward, coughing up blood, struggling to remain concious and standing.

[Kora] Poodle! Biting Thoth
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Kora] Rottie, biting Kora!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 7, 7 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Kora] damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 5, 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] Claw! [Dex+Brawl]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Damage!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Kora] Cerberus: soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 5, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Claw 2!]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[Kora] Kora: 1a. BITE!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 4, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 5)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 3, 3, 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 6, 6, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Kora] Cerberus: soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] 1b. BITE:
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 3, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 5)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 6, 6, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Poodle: bite thoth!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 5, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Soak]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Kora] Rottie: bite kora!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 2, 3, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 6, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 1, 4, 7, 7, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] Claw!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 5, 5, 5, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 5, 5, 6 (Failure at target 6)

[Kora] Rage 1: Kora
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 9 (Failure at target 5)

[Kora] Rage 2: Kora!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 5) [WP]

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 5, 5, 5, 7, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 3, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Cerberus +4
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 4

[Thoth Massri] [Init +6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[Imogen Slaughter] (+9!)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 5

[Kora] Charon +6
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 10

[Kora] Kora: +9
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9

[Kora] Kora: 19
Charon: 16
Thoth: 15
Imogen: 14
Cerberus: 8

[Kora] Cerberus: 1. Poodle: Bite thoth! Rage 1: Bite thoth!

2. Rottie: Firebreath! Rage 1. Bite Kora!

[Imogen Slaughter] 1. 3rb
2. Shoot!
Target: Charon

[Thoth Massri] [Declare 1a Claw, 1b Claw, 1c Claw, Rage 1 Claw [starting with cerberus moving to Charon]

[Kora] Charon: 1a. Enshadow! 1b. Run run run run run away!

[Kora] Kora: 1a. BITE. 1b. BITE. Rage 1: BITE. Cerberus, then Charon.

[Kora] 1a. BITE
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 5) Re-rolls: 1

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 3, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Kora] 1b. BITE
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 4 at target 5)

[Kora] Damage!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 8, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 5, 5, 6, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Kora] Charon: enshadow!
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 6, 6, 6, 8 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Claw]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Damage]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 2, 4, 4, 6, 6 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] [Claw]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 5, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Thoth Massri] Claw
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 10 (Failure at target 6)

[Kora] x.x

[Imogen Slaughter] I SEEEEEE YOOOOOOOOOU
(I hope)

HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 3, 3, 7, 7, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6) Re-rolls: 1

[Imogen Slaughter] Three round burst!
HAIL KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 3, 4, 5, 5, 5, 6, 6, 7, 7, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 7) Re-rolls: 2

[Imogen Slaughter] Damage!
HAIL ALMIGHTY KAHSEENO!
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 4, 5, 6, 6, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Kora] Soak!
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 6 (Failure at target 8)

[Kora] x.x

[Kora] The massive, two-headed dog falls first. The beast is already wounded sorely - enough to lay out even a Garou flat on his back - but still furious, mindless, slavering, the pooble and rottweiler heads working together only because they are fused together, the two brains strengthening the massive, muscled body beneath. Sorrow tears it open; and then at last the Strider ends the thing, popping an eye and tearing the poodle's head half away from the falling corpse.

The broken man, with his fused fingers and his faintly bubbling skin, pulls shadows around him to obscure his position and then turns to run back through the brush. Imogen remembers when he started, though, and levels her weapon at the shadows, aiming through the darkness - and hears the satisfying crash of a body through the brush as he falls, the shadows peeling back from his body when he dies.

In the end, only the Fenrir is wounded, a hunk of flesh torn away from her shoulder, though she cannot feel the wound through the curtain of the gift which keeps the pain at bay.

[Imogen Slaughter] Imogen lowers her gun and turns her head to look about herself, about them, their surroundings. Her gunfire has an advantage - several, in fact, but it's one main disadvantage is noise. Gunshots in Grant Park.

Again.

She really should stop coming to the park, one of these days.

The tendon in her jaw shifts and tightens, then releases as she brings herself back to reality: that there are three very strange bodies in the middle of the park of which they need to dispose.

She holsters her gun and sets to work.

[Kora] The hispo Garou plunges through the undergrowth searching for other scents, other enemies, other ambushes. The others can hear her circling through the copse of trees as she noses through the brush, returning when she is satisfied that nothing else remains hidden amidst the leaves and trees.

When she returns - human skinned now, a young woman instead of a monster, the wound hidden by her t-shirt, the blood essentially invisible in the darkness, where it soaks the black fabric. - she wipes off her hands on the hem of her t-shirt, and joins Imogen in the bloody, unpleasant work. No smalltalk, not now - and no evidence of that injury when she moves for some time yet. Even when the pain returns, she will grit her teeth and continue, working quietly, quickly, until the grosteque work is finished.