[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] Lukas does not keep in close contact with his kin. The last time he and Ray were even in the same room was Jesmond's dinner party, and it was something of an anomaly to see the Ahroun so relaxed, enjoying the company of his blood-kin.
After dinner, there were drinks in the living room, lounging on couches and armchairs. They convinced Mila to sing for them. They told stories, joked about kolaches. Lukas's mate rejoined him, and Lord and kin sat next to each other on the sofa, the female leaning against the male's side in what might be a rare hint of their warmth toward one another.
Perhaps that was unpleasant for Ray to watch, his own situation taken into account. Perhaps he didn't care. Regardless, though he doesn't know it, Danicka is a large part of the reason Lukas calls his kinsman today and leaves a message on his machine.
We should talk. It's important. Coffee at 4?
Which is where they meet, then -- in a quiet corner of an independent european-style cafe, where the servers know when to stay away from private conversation. It's hot in Chicago these days, muggy and summery. Lukas is in short sleeves and jeans, the one pale silvery-blue, the other darkwashed. He looks casual. He looks sharp, but that's par for the course.
"Ray," he says when he sees the other. "Have a seat."
This feels vaguely familiar.
[Ray Ostermann] Ray is dressed to impress, though that may be from the simple fact that he just got off work. He's dressed in that classic slate grey suit of his, and he is ready as ever for a meeting with his warder and as pleased as ever of late.
He does manage to put on a good business ready smile as he moves up to the Shadow Lord elder and unbutton's his coat so that he may sit down. The man is used to the suit...and the heat, so he seems completely comfortable as he eases himself into the chair.
"Lukas." He says with a nod and a business friendly tone. "What can I do for you today?"
[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] Lukas waits until Ray is seated and settled and, waiting, sips from his coffee, sets it aside. "I have something to tell you," he says, "and I have something to ask you. Please listen carefully.
"First I'm going to tell you what it means to leave the Tribe. I'm not telling you this to intimidate you or browbeat you. I'm telling you because I'm not sure anyone has ever told you before, and you need to know.
"We are not like humans, whose spirits have become dull and separate from them. Our lineage is not merely blood and genetics. It's spiritual too. I am not flesh and blood and bone. I am flesh and I am spirit, one half of each. You too have spirit in you. It is not a human spirit. It never was and never will be.
"When a human dies, his spirit wanders in the Dark Umbra. But when you and I die, our spirits will return to our Tribal Homelands. There Grandfather Thunder welcomes us back to his presence and prepares us for our next life. There we will again remember all our previous lives, and we meet again all the friends and lovers and comrades we have known and loved through all our lifetimes.
"It doesn't matter that you have no purity to your breeding, that the heroes of your lineage are so long-gone that they no longer echo in you. You are still Shadow Lord, and your history still lies with Thunder.
"These are not fairy tales I'm telling you. I have seen the Homelands with my own eyes. But a Tribe's homelands are closed to all but their own. When I die, my spirit will not enter the Glass Walkers' homeland; Cockroach would not have me. Nor Falcon, nor Fenris, nor any of the others.
"And that's the crux of it, Ray. If you are claimed by another tribe, your spirit will no longer be Thunder's. And so the spirits of Thunder will no longer recognize you as their own. And so when you die, you will go to the Homeland of the Bone Gnawers. This may not seem so terrible to you right now, living with only the memories of this lifetime as a kinsman in your mind. But your spirit is far older than this one life. It remembers who you were before; all the heroes of Thunder that you may have been in another life, and all the friends and compatriots you may have known then. It may very well mourn the loss. Furthermore, your unborn descendants will lose their ties to the Tribe as well. Henceforth, your lineage will be Rat's. Your cubs will be Bone Gnawers. Their cubs, too.
"And that, Ray, is why we Garou guard our kin so closely. Not merely because we are territorial, but for the same reason we are so reluctant to join Tribes not of our own bloodlines. We do it to protect histories and ancestries and entire lines of descent. Countless spirits past and present that will be affected by the actions of one lifetime."
He's said a lot. It's a lot to lay on a man who was, a few months ago, entirely ignorant of the Garou Nation. Lukas pauses for a moment there, finishes his coffee. When the mug clinks down he speaks again, gently.
"So that's what you need to know. Now I'm going to ask you a question.
"Do you want to be claimed by the Bone Gnawer Marni Sticky-Fingers? For the sake of knowing your offspring, are you willing to forsake your spiritual heritage?"
[Ray Ostermann] That...is a bit of a shocker, it is indeed a lot to take in, far more then he had anticipated in all of his wildest assumptions about this little meeting. He takes a moment to loosen his neck tie and leans forward, resting his elbows on his knees as he looks over at Lukas with something akin to disbelief.
He seems to mull it over, his face at last turning to look at Lukas' directly. "Wait....so your telling me there is an afterlife...one that matters?" He leans back in his chair and takes a deep breath. "Well...thats not very good."
[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] In spite of himself, something like amusement breaks across the Ahroun's face. "It's not a judeochristian afterlife," he says, wry. "You don't get sorted into heavens and hells depending on your behavior. You just have to live with your own memories. And sometimes with the pain of separation from your loved ones from another bloodline."
There's a small pause. Then he adds, musingly, "The Homelands were created by the spirits of our ancestors longer ago than we can imagine. I suppose back then the Nation didn't mix the way it does now. So this sort of choice would have never been necessary even two hundred years ago. The spirit world changes slower than the world of flesh, though. That's how it's always been."
[Ray Ostermann] "Well Lukas I have to tell you that is a major decision to make. One i need some time to think on. Do I have that time? Or does this deal have a limited window of viability?"
He run's his hands along the already flat lines of his pant's normally he would do it to smooth wrinkles out, this is ore a sign of nervousness, he'd made tough deals before without a sweat, but a tough deal regarding his soul? That was an entirely different matter.
He looks at Lukas then, awaiting the man's answer. It would help to know that at the very least before moving forward on this.
[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] The corporate jargon that creeps into Ray's language, possibly without his even realizing it, makes Lukas smile again -- slight, a little ironic. Then the expression fades, and he's serious again.
"I can give you tonight. But there are active challenges over you right now, and they're hinging on your answer. I'll need to know by tomorrow morning."
Which, though Ray might not realize it, is almost unheard-of for their Tribe. The fate of a kin decided not on the whims and power-plays of the Garou, but on -- quite fundamentally -- what the kin wants for himself.
And his descendants. And his ancestors. No; it's not an easy choice at all.
"You have my phone number," he concludes. "I'll be waiting for your call."
[Ray Ostermann] "One night to determine my future and my past....well if this isn't the deal of my career I don't know what is." He says as he goes to stand, and pulls out a cigarette, and quickly followed by a lighter.
"If you'll excuse me Lukas...I've got some thinking to attend to." And from the looks of it, quite a bit of smoking to attend to as well, understandable given the situation.
"I'll have an answer for you by tomorrow morning, bright and early." Ray says without any hint whatsoever towards which side he was leaning, his ancestory, or his family, kin since birth might call it an obvious choice, but for a man who hadn't known of the tribe or the nation till just recently...the choice was not so clear cut.
[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] [and wrap!]
--
Conclusion OOC'd out:
Ray chooses Marni, but asks why he can't simply be guarded by Marni, be in contact with his child, and remain a Shadow Lord. Lukas replies that if Ray doesn't have the courage to sacrifice everything for his child, then he doesn't deserve to know him.
Subsequently, Lukas contacts Marni:
--
Lukas
The message on her voicemail:
"The kinsman Ray Ostermann is yours, Marni, but you did not win him on your own merit. I found your answers insufficient, immature and selfish. If I had acted on my gut instinct, I would have denied your claim.
"Nevertheless, I am allowing him to go to you. I'm doing this because I have informed him of the consequences of his actions and allowed him to make his own choice. He chose his child over his Tribe. I will honor his wishes."
There's a brief pause.
"My honor, and my mate's counsel, has much to do with my leniency. However, this does not settle our score. You continue owe my tribe a debt of honor for violating our kin. Another, for violating my edicts.
"You will repay the first debt by treating Ray better than you have. You claim to care for him, and yet you did not challenge for him honorably. You claim to have his interests in mind, and yet he didn't even know what he was giving up until I told him. When backed into a corner, you've blamed the situation on him and his womanizing; snuck around to see him against my express orders; sulked and complained at me because I was the convenient villain in your little romance; waved your unborn child around like a moral bartering piece.
"Grow up, Marni. You're a Garou, not a child. You have a mate and cub now. Take better care of what is yours."
Another brief pause.
"As for the second debt: I will contact you if and when I need to collect."
Marni
A return message. Actually - technically, two The first one there's an intake of breath, and then "First: Thank you. Second: y.."
and then nothing - the call is cut off, there is no more message, there is nothing until a minute later. All it says is this:
"Done."
And nothing more.
celebration.
9 years ago