shotgun.

[bad bad people.] It's almost midnight. Spring has come at last, and the trees have filled out with leaves. By day it's lovely here -- dappled green shadows and the cool humid smell of the earth -- but by night it's dark, and the trees blot out the sky.

There are no roadlamps. The highway is desolate and narrow, one lane in each direction winding along switchback turns and blind curves. Danicka's Beemer's HID headlights sweep across tree trunks and foliage that briefly wash brilliant white, and then fade back to shadows. Hers is the only vehicle for miles around, it seems.

It might almost be a relief when she pulls up behind a large, slow-moving 18-wheeler truck. Or it might simply be an annoyance. They're going about 30mph, and the road is too dark and too torturous for her to attempt to pass.

[bad bad people.] ....where is Ryan?

The last thing he remembers is dinner at the roadside diner about 20 minutes out of Chicago, a place he used to go to when he did the long haul from Oklahoma City to Chicago. It's a bit out of his way, but it's hard to find pot roast and apple pie so decent, for such a reasonable price. No; wait; that's not his last memory. There's more after that. He paid his check and got up to go, but his bladder was starting to nag at him. So he ducked into the bathroom, and then ...

That's it. The rest is a blank.

So. Where is he?

Somewhere dark. Dark and stuffy. Can't see a thing. If he tries to move, he can't. Paralyzed? No; just tied down so tightly he doesn't even have a millimeter of give. And worse than that -- a distinct queasiness in the pit of his stomach that tells him don'tshift,don'tshift,don'tshift, because all his restraints are, at the very least, plated in silver.

What else do his senses tell him? He can hear rumbling. He's driven trucks long enough to know the sound of eighteen wheels and a diesel engine. He's in a truck, and not in the cab from the way the sound echoes -- in the trailer. He can smell wood too, like shipping crates. Was he in a goddamn shipping crate? Someone put his ass in a goddamn shipping crate, and stuffed him in the back of an 18wheeler?
to Ryan Shepherd

[Danicka Musil] Truth be told, though it won't be, Danicka likes driving. This is her first car, and it's positively delightful. She doesn't have anything dangling from the rearview mirror, but she has a 1G flash drive plugged into the face of her stereo, filled with an eclectic assortment of music that is, still, mostly indie. She's been easily distracted all night, lost in her thoughts at any point when she and Liadan haven't been talking.

Coming out here had been her idea, though. She didn't have much to do, other than follow Lee around and look at the Wondrous Beauty of Nature. Which was all right. The Wondrous Beauty of Nature is, in a way, her religion.

That and sex.

Now she yawns quietly on her side of the car, music playing lowly and a couple of cans of intensely caffeinated beverages sitting in the cupholders in the center console. She blinks at the 18-wheeler, slowing down from her earlier pace, and out of nowhere chirps up: "We made a new friend, Dai!"

[Ryan Shepherd] It wasn't that he had something against The Brotherhood. It wasn't that he was ashamed to show his face after Hatchet was so loud last night. It wasn't even that he felt trapped in that big building with so many people all around him at all hours of the night, with other big buildings stretching up as far as he could see when he got outside during the day and came back at night. It's just that Ryan's been trucking since he was eighteen years old, been working on cars and the road since long before that, and it doesn't seem natural for him to be this comfortable, this calm, this... settled.

So without really letting anybody know where he was going he got himself into the Umbra and hustled it out to that old truck stop he used to go to, and he's pretty sure the food would have tasted better with some company, but he's had a lot of that the last week or so. He's used to being by himself, and that's how he is when he finishes his meal and gets up to go to the bathroom.

And now everything in him is screaming that he should have brought Hatchet, he should have brought someone, because it's dark and it smells and the road is rattling his bones and he can't move anything, can barely will a dang finger to move, because his stomach his nerves his brain all protest every time he even thinks about testing his bindings.

He doesn't despair. Not yet. He seethes.
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 4, 4, 6, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Liadan] Liadan sits hunched down in the passenger seat, her long legs bent and parted to keep her knees from jamming into the dashboard. Her pale face is lit with the ghostly glow coming from her automatic camera's view screen. She's aimlessly scrolling through the hundreds of shots she's taken today, picking out the ones that for whatever reason just aren't good enough. She's hardly listening to the music on the stereo, though what's penetrated the inner layer of her consciousness she's liked. The forest was lovely, and she can't wait to find an opportunity to ask Danicka to take her out here again.

“Hm?” she says, lifting her head and looking around them like a dreamer waking. It's darker than she thinks it should be. Light streams back through the windshield, reflected off the silver backside of the semi in front of them. “Oh. Heh, too bad you can't get around him. Maybe we could get him to honk his horn.” Her grin is lopsided, mischievous in the pale electric light.

[bad bad people.] Well, at least there are air holes in his ... crate. Or whatever it is he's in. So he's not in danger of suffocation. Oh, and his eyes aren't glued shut, or blindfolded, or anything. It's just pitch black in here.

Even so...

... gradually, inexorably, Ryan becomes utterly convinced that he's not alone back here. He's being guarded.
to Ryan Shepherd

[Administrator] Breeze, welcome to Tekakwitha Woods (Night)

[Breeze] (Mind if I watch?)

[Ryan Shepherd] His breathing is coming in harsh and ragged from his temper barely keeping itself reigned in. What good would letting it go do? He's bound, he's boxed in, but as he becomes more aware of the milieu outside his cocoon he becomes aware that he is not only not alone, but he's being kept an eye on.

Growling softly, he tries to move his fingers and feet again but everything's starting to fade away from him.

[Alertness+Perception.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[bad bad people.] The truck is moving really slow.

This part of the road is, admittedly, not easy to drive. Visibility is obscured. There are deer in these woods -- once in a long while, the women can see their eyes reflecting back at them in the darkness. That's how thick the foliage is, how wild. The road is itself narrow and the blacktop is old, full of potholes. It's not the sort of place you want to drive a large vehicle very fast at night -- what is an 18-wheeler doing out on this tiny little byway, anyway? -- but all that said: it's not 30mph-hard.

In her sporty little coupe, Danicka could probably get away with doing 50. She might even manage 60, but that might scare her passenger. 30? 30mph is fucking ridiculous.

There are no markings on the truck either. Not KNIGHT TRANSPORTATION, not ENGLAND, not even UPS. Nothing at all: a blank truck painted some dark color that might be forest green.

The truck trundles by a turnout, designed specifically for slower vehicles to let faster ones by. This driver isn't nearly so polite. He rolls on at his deliberate, infuriating pace.

[Danicka Musil] She's fine with going slow.

She is also from New York City.

When they pass the turnout, Danicka -- who seconds before had been chuckling to her current roommate and been about to comment on some movie she'd watched with her last roommate -- narrows her eyes and presses her hand to her horn for a nice five-second blast.

"Jackass," she mutters.

[bad bad people.] There's at least ... three out there. He can sense them. Hear them breathing, smell their stink. They smell human, more or less, but they're very quiet, hyperalert, and when he growls, he hears the distinct click-clack of metal.

It sounds like weaponry. Guns.

Okay, so. Stuck for the moment. Let's take inventory again. Where is he? In a crate. Or a coffin. Something like that. Is he restrained? Yes -- at wrists and ankles, biceps and thighs, at the neck, and the waist. Chains? No -- more like manacles: single-cast pieces of metal, no seams that he can feel. What the fuck, did they weld him on? Possibly; can't tell. Okay. Back to the metal. Silver? Or silver-coated? Can't tell there either; but it wouldn't make sense to forge restraints out of pure silver, would it? Too soft. Even a Garou in homid might be able to strain through them. Can he assume they're not pure silver? Or not all silver?

... definitely three of them out there. And he's at the head of the trailer, and from his sense of momentum, his head is facing forward, his feet the back end of the truck. He thinks his crate is against the right wall of the trailer. His left, in this position, on his back and supine. He thinks one of the guys is just off his right side; another one is by his feet. The last is farther away -- at the doors, maybe.

A muffled blast of a horn interrupts his thoughts. It sounds like a passenger car. It sounds pissed.
to Ryan Shepherd

[bad bad people.] The truck, if it's possible, actually goes slower. No, it definitely goes slower. The brake lights flash. Now it's going 25mph.

[Liadan] “Jesus.” The word is spoken low, but not so low her roommate can't hear it. Then, when the brake lights flash, “What the fuck, man?” Liadan thumbs off the camera, deftly contorts herself to reach her camera bag, gently sets the camera inside. She shifts in her seat to rest her elbow on the window ledge, digging her fingers into her hair. “What the hell's a semi doing out here, anyway?”

She's starting to get a bad feeling, a fluttering in the pit of her stomach as her heart begins to race.

[bad bad people.] The truck slows down a little, and Ryan can feel the deceleration pushing his blood toward his head.

He can hear his guards talking to one another quietly now:

"Shit! Who the fuck was that? Is it them?"
(a metallic click-CLICK: definitely a gun. a clip being snapped into place.)
"Don't know. Shut up."
"If it's them we need to get the fucking silver, man."
"You are such a chickenshit, Ollie."
"Shh. Dan, go take a look."
(something metal sliding open)
"Just some bitches in a beemer. I'll radio it up front."
to Ryan Shepherd

[Danicka Musil] [Perception + Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 7, 8, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Ryan Shepherd] One of the hardest things for a warrior to do is bide his time, chill the hell out and wait. They are not the planners and the teachers of the Nation... at least, this one isn't. He can barely read, can barely write, can barely make himself understood to people this far north of the Mason-Dixon line. He doesn't even think it necessary to let someone know where the hell he's going when he leaves The Brotherhood.

Ryan didn't make it to high school chemistry but he's been hit with silver enough times to know what it feels like, and yet he can't figure out what exactly this is restraining him. All he knows is that it hadn't been all that late when he had gone to the diner, and it had to have taken a damn long time for them to get him situated.

After hearing that click earlier he is all but straining to keep quiet now. It wouldn't do to lose control of himself and get himself hurt or killed or worse. He can't imagine who would want anything from him--he ain't got no pure blood in him, he doesn't work anymore, and he's been recognized by the Nation for over eight years and hasn't made Fostern yet because most of the time nobody knows where the hell he is.

So what do they want from him.

The universally recognizable sound of clips changing and bullets preparing themselves filters through his containment, and Ryan's breathing stutters to a halt.
to bad bad people.

[Danicka Musil]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 6, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 9)

[Liadan] [Percept + Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 4, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] Both women see it: a slot slides open in the truck's back door like an old-fashioned peephole in a town gate.

A pair of eyes look out at them. There's something strange about them --

-- and then the peephole slams shut again. The truck rolls on, holding steady at 25mph. The road is straightening out up ahead. No one in the opposite lane. If she wanted to, Danicka could try to pass here.

[Danicka Musil] "This is like a bad movie," Danicka remarks. She still seems relaxed behind the wheel, but as the two women have likely started to realize about one another, what they appear to be and what they are isn't always the same.

She glances over at Liadan after those eyes peer out at them. That made her frown. "You buckled in?"

When Lee says yes, or when Lee buckles herself in, Danicka flicks on her blinkers.

[bad bad people.] Ryan is beginning to recognize their voices.

Dan's the guy at the end of the truck. He sounds surly. He radios it up front: "We got two bitches in a beemer on our tail. What do you want us to do about it?"

Ollie's the guy at Ryan's feet. He sounds scared. He doesn't say anything, but Ryan can hear him shifting from foot to foot.

And then there's the last guy, yet unnamed -- clearly the leader in this trio. He sounds confident, cool. Cold. And when Ryan's breathing stutters to a halt -- and understand, this sort of change should be completely unnoticeable in the back of a noisy truck trailer -- the third man abruptly tenses.

"It's awake. Radio it up. See if they want us to put it down again."

Dan, listening to the indistinct squawking of the two-way, relays the information.
to Ryan Shepherd

[Danicka Musil] [Dex + Drive]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 9 (Failure at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Wits + Drive]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 7) [WP]

[Danicka Musil] [Wits + Drive, again]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 10 (Failure at target 7)

[Ryan Shepherd] It.

He's practically shaking from rage, the regular sort, the sort that flares up when you're being tested and you're being tied down and you're starting to wonder if you're ever going to see your kids again, if you're ever going to see your lover again. The only thing that's stopping him from outright trembling with primordial anger is the fact that he is strapped down so securely that he couldn't break free if he were dropped from the back of the truck.

The third man shoots an order, and Ryan clenches his teeth. He tries to struggle against his bindings for the first time; finding it impossible to move without causing himself pain he growls low in his throat.

It's either a warning, or a dare.
to bad bad people.

[bad bad people.] Several things happen at once.

From Danicka and Liadan's perspective, the blonde woman -- impatient, a New York girl after all -- puts on her blinker, swipes a glance over her shoulder, and skates out into the opposite lane.

At the same time, the truck, as though determined to keep her back, swerves sharply left, then right. Danicka can't quite get past the wide swing of the fishtailing trailer to pass, but she does manage to brake -- hard -- and avoid getting clipped.

And then?

And then, without any warning beyond that rather assholeish cut-off, the truck slams on its brakes. Danicka and Liadan can hear them screeching, can see the trailer start to skid sideways, can see --

(oh fuck...)

-- shadows, black shadows, no, just a single enormous shadow leap out of the woods. This is no deer. This is a fucking monster, a predator out of prehistory. The women only get the briefest flash of a glance, but they can hear shredding metal, snarls, screaming men.

It's like a bad movie.

It can't be real. In slow motion, the trailer tips... tips... crashes over sideways. Sparks everywhere. Screeching metal. It blocks the road completely, wheels spinning in midair, driveshaft exposed. Danicka slams the brakes, spins the wheel in a sharp left turn -- fast, but not fast enough -- centrifugal force presses Liadan against her door -- the BMW manages to turn side-on before its right fender clips the underside of the trailer, crumples, spins the car sharply, whips it around to simply

broadside the bottom of the truck trailer.

The noise is terrific. Metal crumples; inside the car, it sounds to the women like the car has simply disintegrated. The trailer skids sideways another foot. The BMW rocks to a stop. The engine's dead. One light is still on. The night is full of inhuman noises, snarls and growls, gunshots coming in quick succession like a fucking warzone.

[bad bad people.] Several things happen at once.

Ryan starts to growl. Dan's listening to the guy(s?) up front squawk back on the two way, and Ryan's too far away to pick up the details, but he's not too far away that he can't hear it when they suddenly start screaming.

The trailer lurches left, then right, as though someone were trying to avoid hitting something, or trying to hit something, or --

(outside: screeching tires)

-- WHAM! All of a sudden there's a whole lot more windnoise back here, and there's chaos, the noise of metal being peeled back like a skin, people are screaming at each other.

GET THE FUCKING SILVER. GET THE FUCKING SILVER.
SHIT! I DROPPED--
FUCKING PICK IT UP.
OH SHIT OH SHIT OH--
FUCKING PICK IT THE FUCK UP!

Gunshots. The acrid smell of gunpowder. And then the ground is heaving under Ryan, he's rising up in the air -- no -- they're tipping over. Friction lets go suddenly. His crate slides sideways, smashes into the left side of the trailer, which is his right side; it smashes to bits and he's dumped on his face, and he can't bring his hands up to stop the fall -- he smashes face-first into what used to be the driver's side wall of the trailer, but is now the ground.

People are still screaming. There's some light filtering in now. He can see if he twists his head all the way to the right; three humans(?) shooting at a monster that's not actually trying to fight back; it's trying to get to Ryan; two of the men are shooting at it and a third is scrabbling down the length of the trailer to grab a gun whose grip is painted blood-red, and it must be Ollie because he's crying like a little bitch, and --
to Ryan Shepherd

[bad bad people.] (crash damage for danicka)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 4, 8, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (crash damage for liadan)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 5, 7, 7 (Failure at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (crash damage for ryan)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 4, 4 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (crash damage for the beemer!)
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 2, 2, 3, 5, 7, 7, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Willpower -1]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 6, 6, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] A sharp breath shoots into Danicka. Not when the truck slams on its breaks. When she sees the shadow. That's all. Because that's not what she has to deal with right now. That's not what's going to kill her.

What's going to kill her is a collision. It's going to kill her, and it's going to kill her roommate, who doesn't deserve that. Danicka yanks on the steering wheel but it doesn't really do much for her in the end. It does absolutely fuck all for her car.

Her very first car. She's had it less than a year.

She doesn't have time to react while it's happening. Afterwards, though, she's sitting there clinging with both hands to the wheel in a white-knuckled grip, shaking. "Promi&+328;te. Promi&+328;te. I'm sorry. I'm really sorry."

[Ryan Shepherd] [Alertness+Perception.]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 1, 1, 7 (Failure at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 6, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength 2: Electric Boogaloo.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 8, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength 3: Look Who's Stalking.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Liadan] To Liadan it's like a scene from the late night B-horror movies she used to watch when she was a kid, when no one was around to stop her. Except these aren't cheesey special effects, there aren't trained stunt people in the car. It's real, and she's the one inside the shattered remains of Danicka's beautiful beamer. She should hurt all over, should be bruised from the collision with the side of the car, should have whiplash at the VERY least. Somehow, (oh God it's a fucking MIRACLE) she's unhurt, just dazed.

She hears Danicka's voice, manages to look at the woman sitting beside her. She wants to reach out to her, to pry the woman's fingers from the steering wheel. She remembers, vaguely, the screaming. And the shadow.

“We have to get out of here.” Her voice is low, weak, barely more than a whisper.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength 4: OMG LET ME OUT.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength 5: Watch Him Botch This.]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 5 (Failure at target 6)
to bad bad people.

[Danicka Musil] [Wits + Alertness]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 7, 10, 10 (Success x 4 at target 5)

[Ryan Shepherd] It sounds like a war zone out there.

From what he can figure someone tried to pass the truck, couldn't quite make it around and both of them went ass over elbows onto the pavement. Ryan had been doubting if he was ever going to get out of this goddamn box and feel the night wind on his skin again, and his doubt is shown to have been unsubstantiated a moment later when he's hitting the ground and the container he'd been stuffed into earlier is smashing around him.

Ryan gasps for air although it had not been terribly stifling back there, and as he lets his eyes adjust to the lesser darkness around him, starts to struggle with his restraints. He can't tell where the weakest link is, so he tries all over, focusing primarily on his bound wrists.
to bad bad people.

[Liadan] [Wits + Alert]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 1, 3, 5, 10 (Success x 1 at target 5)

[bad bad people.] No shit they should get out of there. They should get out of there because people are shooting in the back of a truck -- bullets are punching dents in the steel, and one or two escape the trailer altogether to zing off into the darkness.

The truck's cab is still upright, but it's twisted almost all the way around to face backwards. The hitch point has torn itself loose from the trailer; a shred of metal clings to the back of the cab, which is idling, a low diesel rumble in the night. All at once the driver's side door bangs open and a fucking huge man, a man the size of a walking mountain gets out. He has a shotgun in his hands. He pumps it and aims it at Danicka's car, as if it weren't totaled enough yet.

The blonde woman ducks. She doesn't even think about it. Liadan is a little slower on the draw, but she tucks face to lap too, and --

BLAM!

The window is a web. Their ears are ringing. "Bitch!" he screams at them, as if all this were their fault -- BLAM! There is no windshield anymore, only glass. A lull -- the big guy is reloading, and he doesn't stop walking, and his eyes are baleful. They nearly glow with hatred.

No; they do glow. Sickly yellow, when he steps out of the headlights.

[bad bad people.] (flying glass!)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 3, 6, 6 (Success x 2 at target 6)

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

[Liadan] [Soak!]
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] There's a monster in the back with Ryan, and it lays about itself with tooth and claw. The men are circling him, staggering around the wreck of the trailer, trying to stay behind him and out of his reach. Bullets fly at him; by and large they ping off his fur like gnats, though there's blood in the air now. Then a blind swipe of his claw catches one of the men in the gut -- lifts him like a rag doll.

He hits the back door of the trailer with a fleshy thud. His underbelly is laid open. His guts hit the ground before him. It's the one called Dan, and the one called Ollie -- on his stomach, quaking -- shoots his dead compatriot one terrified glance. Their leader, the nameless one, bawls for him to pick the fucking gun up, pick it up.

The monster is atop Ryan now, flipping him on his back. He's strapped to a board. The manacles are metal but the board, although stout, is not, and with two or three terrific blows the Garou splits it in half, peels the splinters off the manacles. The Bone Gnawers' limbs are numb from being restrained in the same position for so long. The monster's claw taps the ring of metal around Ryan's throat, very gingerly --

"This is silver! Don't shift your neck until you get it off or you'll cut your own head off!"

-- and that's all the time for talk they have. The leader has run down the length of the trailer. He wrests the gun out of Ollie's hand, turns around, takes aim. The monster leaps at him, fast as lightning, not fast enough -- the handgun reports three times in rapid succession, and the back of the Crinos's head blows out. Splatters Ryan in hot blood, bone chips, brains.
to Ryan Shepherd

[Danicka Musil] Danicka gasps. She's bent over, and her foot nudges her purse.

Ty hajzle, she thinks, reaching down as a particularly sharp and large shard of glass hits the back of her neck, glancing off but drawing blood. Miluji t&+283;.

She is not talking to the man with the shotgun. She digs into her purse, grasping the carefully wrapped cylinders therein with relief. Staying down, she passes one to Liadan. "Wait til I tell you, and then drink this. Then run."

Danicka keeps one of the vials for herself, as well as the dart that she pulled out with it.

[Liadan] [Wits + Survival]
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 2, 3, 8, 9 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[Liadan] Liadan's fingers numbly wrap around the cylinder, but she holds onto it tightly as she can in her left hand. With her right she gathers as much of the strap of her camera bag into her fist as she can.

[Ryan Shepherd] [Primal-Urge+Stamina: Partial Shift - Ankles.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 4, 4, 10 (Success x 1 at target 8)
to bad bad people.

[Administrator] the devil, welcome to Tekakwitha Woods (Night)

[bad bad people.] The giant with the shotgun is getting closer. They can hear his footsteps; his breathing. The women stay down. Liadan grabs her camera.

BLAM!

It's not aimed at them this time. It's aimed at the back door of the trailer -- the lock, which blows to pieces. The lower half of the back door, which used to be the left half, flops open bonelessly. The giant points his gun into the back and takes aim again...

[bad bad people.] ...and inside: pure carnage.

Two are dead. One man flops out of the back door. He looks fine, but his eyes are staring, and when the giant grabs him by the shirt and hauls him out of the way, the women can see, they can all see how below the diaphragm he's just a red mess. He's torn almost in half.

There's another dead guy inside. On his back, nearly naked, the top of his head almost blown off.

Also, a guy huddling in a corner, in tears.
Also, a guy with a red-gripped handgun, feet planted.

Also, Ryan -- awkward but on his feet and reasonably motile, bound hand and foot and throat with metal manacles that are affixed to a wooden backboard, shattered now.

[Ryan Shepherd] Struggling to get himself out of the manacles in homid is taking too damn long. All around him bullets are flying and metal is creaking and people are shouting and he isn't going to get out of this unless he fights harder, unless--

Someone's helping him. Ryan hadn't been able to see the monster come out of the woods between the falling and the momentary night blindness and the immobilization of the neck clamp but there it is now, breaking him free so that he can move his arms better.

Before he can speak the thing is tapping the cuff and warning him. Ryan doesn't register fear or even alarm, but grunts and nods once, sharp, acknowledging what has been said.

The gun goes off, hitting the monster and taking its brains with it. Ryan snarls, and forces his lower legs into a form stronger than before, more likely to snap his bindings.

[Strength. +2 (Glabro). Spending WP.]
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 1, 3, 5, 7 (Failure at target 8) [WP]
to bad bad people.

[Ryan Shepherd] Struggling to get himself out of the manacles in homid is taking too damn long. All around him bullets are flying and metal is creaking and people are shouting and he isn't going to get out of this unless he fights harder, unless--

Someone's helping him. Ryan hadn't been able to see the monster come out of the woods between the falling and the momentary night blindness and the immobilization of the neck clamp but there it is now, breaking him free so that he can move his arms better.

Before he can speak the thing is tapping the cuff and warning him. Ryan doesn't register fear or even alarm, but grunts and nods once, sharp, acknowledging what has been said.

The gun goes off, hitting the monster and taking its brains with it. Ryan snarls, and forces his lower legs into a form stronger than before, more likely to snap his bindings.

[Strength. +2 (Glabro). Spending WP.]
FUCKER FUCKING FAILED IT.

[bad bad people.] (big guy +5)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (leader +7)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (ollie +4)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [+6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2

[Danicka Musil] [Init + 6]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 7

[Liadan] [+5]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6

[bad bad people.] (OK, order of actions:
big guy
danicka
liadan
leader
ryan
ollie

we won't be doing classic declares/rolls. i'll declare first for the bad guys in posts, and then you guys can react accordingly regardless of init. but actions will go off in order of inits. also, in the interest of keeping a good clip, i'm only gonna roll important stuff.)

[Danicka Musil] Two deep breaths, quickly taken, Danicka's eyes falling closed for a moment. She grabs her bag, slings it over her bent neck, but doesn't wince as it crosses the cut there. "Wait til I tell you to get out. Then just drink and go," she says. This may be redundant, repetitive, but she mutters it to Liadan anyway and then grabs the handle of her door to open it.

The man -- the giant -- with the shotgun turns, firing at the back of the car, as she does. Danicka steps out, and sees what's inside the trailer. She doesn't gasp this time but bites the inside of her lower lip almost hard enough to pierce it. The man shackled, she's never seen before. For all she knows he's supposed to be there. For all she knows he's worse than the man with the shotgun.

Just because he Changes doesn't mean he's safe. Quite the opposite.

Danicka has nightshade in her left hand, a dart in her right. One of those bithces is getting thrown. And Danicka? Danicka's right-handed.

[Liadan] Liadan remains where she is, her tucked as low as she can go. Her head is still foggy. All she knows is what's been told.

Wait for the signal.

Drink.

RUN.

Slowly she eases her right arm through the strap of her camera bag, slides it over her head so it crosses her chest. Luckily, with only two cameras to her name, she's never felt the need for a big bulky bag. The bigger lenses are usually on site for photo shoots. What's in the bag is mainly for Liadan's personal use, and there's not much.

She has to get ready to be able to run. She eases her fingers onto the door handle, pulls it slowly, gently. A light thunk as the latch releases is hidden by the shotgun fire. Slowly, trying to keep her head below the level of the dashboard, she slides her right foot out of the car. The cylinder is still clutched in her left hand.

[Ryan Shepherd] He's not going out like this.

He's got three beautiful little girls down in Galveston, a strapping little boy who's going to grow up to be a fighter not because he's Trueborn but because he's got Shepherd in him. Delia would be madder than a swarm of hornets if she found out he was gunned down because he couldn't defend himself, if he died like a starving dog chained to a fence. And Oscar.

Oscar...

Ryan's nostrils flare as furious anger rips through him, and he tries, with his lower legs still in Glabro, to rip free of his shackles.

[Ryan Shepherd] (SUCKERS! Declare Take 2: Break ankle manacles. Rage 1: Partial shift wrists. Rage 2: Break wrist manacles. Rage 3: Eat Leader's face.)

[bad bad people.] Something -- the door unlatching, or the voices, some movement glimpsed out of the corner of his eyes, or just instinct -- tips the giant off.

Before Danicka can cock her wrist back and throw the dart, he turns. He doesn't even bother raising the shotgun to his shoulder: he just levels it and fires.

Meanwhile, inside the trailer, while Ryan's still trying to get free of his shackles. The leader of ... whoever this group is, that they were kidnapping Garou and shipping them around the countryside like so much cargo -- the leader has other plans in mind.

He fires, too. The gun barks twice. The muzzle flash lights up the inside of the trailer -- the blood splashed on the walls glistens brilliant and red.

(giant:
1. shooting danicka

leader:
1a/1b: two shots, split action.)

[bad bad people.] (big dude w/ a shotgun)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 9)

[bad bad people.] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9 (Success x 5 at target 6)

[Danicka Musil] [Holy Fuckballs]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 2, 3 (Failure at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (Liadan gulps a nightshade, turns to shadow, climbs out the driver's side and is now running.

Leader's first split action, -2 dice)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 1, 2, 5 (Botch x 1 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (gun jams!)

[bad bad people.] (action 1b, unjamming gun. -3 dice.)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 1, 7 (Botch x 1 at target 8)

[bad bad people.] (gun is totally unusable.)

[bad bad people.] (gun explodes for 5 damage...)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 1, 2, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (leader soaks)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 7, 8, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] (Jesus H. Christ, women! Correction!

Declare: Partial Shift - Crinos, Ankles. Rage 1: Break ankle manacles. Rage 2: Partial Shift - Crinos, Wrists. Rage 3: Break wrist manacles.)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 3, 3, 4, 7, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8)

[Ryan Shepherd] (Ignore that roll!)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Primal-Urge+Stamina: Partial-Shift - Crinos, Ankles.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 3, 6, 8, 8, 10 (Success x 3 at target 8)

[bad bad people.] (bashing damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 4, 5, 9 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Soak: Stamina+3 (Crinos).]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 3, 6, 7, 7, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (reminder of order of actions -- the other one's about to scroll off)

[bad bad people.] (big guy
danicka
liadan
leader
ryan
ollie)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Primal-Urge+Stamina Part 2: Electric Boogaloo: Partial-Shift - Crinos, Wrists.]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 2, 4, 4, 10, 10 (Success x 2 at target 8)

[bad bad people.] (bashing)
Dice Rolled:[ 3 d10 ] 2, 7, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Soak: Stamina+3 (Krispy Kreme).]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 3, 6, 9, 10 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Brawl+Dexterity [+1 Crinos]: SNAP!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 2, 2, 5, 6, 9 (Failure at target 7)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Brawl+Dexterity [+1]: CLAW!]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 3, 3, 6, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 2 at target 7)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Damage: Strength+4+1. Eat it Kahseeno!]
Dice Rolled:[ 8 d10 ] 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (ollie: cries in the corner.

sum-up coming up!)

[bad bad people.] Danicka ducks. This probably saves her life.

The giant's gun goes off, peppering the hood of the wrecked Beemer with shot, riddling the metal with holes. Shot punches into the upholstery, the frame of the shattered windshield. Even ducked down, curled under the dashboard, Danicka can't escape the sort of damage that razes her back, ricochets off her ribs, punctures lungs, ruptures the liver.

Liadan has very likely never seen such a thing before. They don't even show this sort of shit in movies. She gulps the nightshade -- knowing absolutely nothing about what it'll do -- and she clambers over her (dead?) roommate and spills out the driver's side door, and her heart is hammering in her ears, and hammering, and ...

... going silent.

She feels oddly light. She can't feel the ground anymore. She's running and she can't feel the wind on her face, can't feel the pavement, can't feel her own breath. When she looks down, she'll see that she, and everything she's wearing or carrying, has turned to pitch. Has turned to solid shadow.

--

Meanwhile, in the trailer, the leader takes aim and squeezes the trigger ... but instead of the expected bang!, there's nothing but a sharp clack! The leader scrambles with his gun -- the bullet caught in the chamber goes off -- and then he's dropping the useless gun to the ground and looking up just in time to see

Ryan tear his fucking head off.

Or that's how it's supposed to work. Only it doesn't. The first blow misses entirely. Ryan's claws sink into the metal skin of the truck, peel it back like so much leather. The second tears the leader open, bringing him to his knees, but he's not down yet. He scrabbles for Ollie's gun, trying to rip it out of the other man's panicked grasp.

Outside, surreally unperturbed, the giant is calmly reloading his shotgun.

[bad bad people.] (oh, declares for this round:

giant:
1. reload

leader:
1a. grab ollie's gun
b. shoot ryan)

[Liadan] Liadan does look down. Once she's in the relative safety of the bushes and trees and foliage of the woods, she stops in her tracks. She lifts her hands up to examine them, or at least she lifts what should be her hands. She can barely make anything out about herself, except as something slightly darker than the world around her.

She glances back over her shoulder. In her headlong dash into the wilderness, she made it so far that the carnage of the wreck is barely visible. Scared as she is of going anywhere near that direction, she's more afraid of wandering too far from the road.

So she sits, back against a nearby tree, draws her knees up to her chin, wraps her arms around her legs, and she waits. At least, she tells herself this is what she does. For all she knows, her soul has been ripped from her body (damnit should've checked that!) and she's going to spend the rest of eternity roaming these woods as a ghost. That would really fucking suck.

[Ryan Shepherd] Ryan doesn't manage to pull the bastards head off on the first around, but once he wrenches his claws back out of the truck's aching side he manages to land a blow to the leader's squishy midsection, opening it up like so many knives lanced across the surface.

Seeing him scrambling for the gun, Ryan takes a breath to keep himself from losing sight of what he's trying to do. He can see the giant reloading, he knows someone's been shot out there, and this sumbitch is looking to cause some more trouble before he goes out.

Well, alright...

[Declare: Kick Leader's skull in. Rage 1: Claw Giant.]

[Administrator] Liadan has left Tekakwitha Woods

[bad bad people.] (big guy
leader
ryan

-- is our order of actions right now, due to everyone else being gone or dead or unconscious. big guy is reloading; going to leader's action.

1a. grab gun.
b. shoot, -3 dice, point blank range.)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 5 (Success x 1 at target 4)

[bad bad people.] (damage)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 5, 5, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Administrator] Breeze has left Tekakwitha Woods

[Administrator] Evan McCollach, welcome to Tekakwitha Woods (Night)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Soak: Stamina+3.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 3, 4, 7, 7, 7 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Brawl+Dexterity: Kick!]
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 3, 4, 4, 6, 7, 8 (Success x 2 at target 7)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength+4+1+1.]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 8, 8, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 9 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (there is no point in soaking -- he can't soak enough to live. his head pretty much explodes.)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Jesus Christ, Ryan...

Rage Action: Brawl+Dexterity [+1]: Claw Giant.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 4, 6, 8, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 3 at target 7)

[bad bad people.] (that's diff 6. 4 succ.)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength+4+2.]
Dice Rolled:[ 9 d10 ] 2, 3, 5, 6, 6, 6, 6, 8, 9 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] (sum up comin!)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Oops. Strength+4+3.]
Dice Rolled:[ 10 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 3, 5, 6, 9, 9, 9, 10 (Success x 3 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Oops x 2.]
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 2 (Failure at target 6)

[bad bad people.] The leader dives for the gun. Ollie's clinging to it like it might save his life, though he's not even holding it right. He's holding it the way babies hold security blankets, and drowning men hold ropes, and when the leader tears it out of his hands he screams, an unhinged, pathetic noise.

The leader doesn't bother getting up. He turns on his back, takes aim, and -- give him this much -- looks the monster in the eye and shoots him.

The bullet bounces off Ryan's preternaturally tough skin. It might as well have been rubber. Then the Ahroun's Crinos footpaw comes down on the leader's head. Bone buckles, cartilage crumples. There's a wet spurt beneath Ryan's paw, rather like crushing an overripe, overwarm melon.

He doesn't stop. He pivots and, in the same motion, cleaves the giant open from shoulder to groin. There's a horrible sucking wheeze, not the giant's throat but his chest cavity decompressing --

-- but he's not dead. Not yet.

And he grins at Ryan, ghastly, red blood bubbling between his teeth. He cocks his shotgun, jams it right up against the Ahroun's chest, and pulls the fucking trigger.

(declare: 1. shoot)

[Evan McCollach] (Init +6)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 6

[Evan McCollach] He had been moving through the woods. Hunting. He had promised Randi that he would find something for Lil Evan, something to start him off, to get him used to the wolf feeling. Hunting for one's own cub.

But after he heard the gun shot he didn't stay in his wolf form for long. Hunters had it out for wolves when they were midnight hunting. And he figured if he was seen, he would want to be in a more acceptable form. But it seemed the gunfire did not come from hunters. Something he had seen, a giant of a man shooting down the road.

He screamed out. A word unknown to the rest of the world. A word foreign to everyone ears. Something to hinder his actions as he continues to fire on what seemed to be innocent people.

(Jam weaponry gift used)

[Ryan Shepherd] The only pair of boots he has anymore, dedicated and thus still fitting his monstrous legs, is now covered in another man's bone gristle and brain matter, blood and cerebrospinal fluid coating the leather. Ryan isn't even paying the gore any mind as he hurtles towards the giant.

It doesn't fucking drop him.

When the Ahroun realizes that he is being faced with something much stronger than himself, he doesn't choose to back down or duck for cover. He stands and fights.

[Declare: Claw. Spending WP.]

[bad bad people.] (okay, giant shooting. -5 dice from injuries, +WP)
Dice Rolled:[ 1 d10 ] 1 (Failure at target 4) [WP]

[Evan McCollach] (Jam weaponry, diff Giant WP)
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 3, 3, 6, 8 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Evan McCollach] Ack it suppose to be 6 dice

[Evan McCollach]
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 6, 9 (Success x 2 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Brawl+Dexterity [+1]: Claw Giant.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10, 10 (Success x 5 at target 6) [WP]

[Ryan Shepherd] [Who's getting laid tonight? Ryan is!

Strength+4+4.]
Dice Rolled:[ 11 d10 ] 1, 1, 2, 2, 2, 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 8 (Success x 1 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] It's like a farce.

The gun misfires.
And then it jams.
And then Ryan's claw glances off the giant's shoulder, taking off another chunk of flesh.

He's still grinning. He's laughing now, bubbling blood up, spitting it up in gouts and sputters.

And he doesn't fucking know when to quit. He throws the goddamn gun aside, pulls a knife, goes at the Ahroun again.

(1. stabbity!)

[Evan McCollach] He watched as the gun was discarded to the side, the guy now seemed to pull out a knife on the garou standing there. He started running towards the pair as it seemed that this guy didn't go down. Pulling a knife on the garou standing there.

He threw himself at the giant of a man, leading with his fist. His body entangled with Eagles might as he went to knock down his down. Even if he was in his homid form.

(Punch)

[Ryan Shepherd] Ryan outright snarls again, growing angrier the more he swipes at the mountain of a man without taking him down, before hauling off to claw at his throat one more time.

[Declare: Claw Giant. Spending WP.]

[bad bad people.] (stabbity!)
Dice Rolled:[ 2 d10 ] 3, 5 (Success x 2 at target 4) [WP]

[bad bad people.] (damage! -- lethal)
Dice Rolled:[ 6 d10 ] 2, 4, 6, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Ryan Shepherd] [Stamina+3.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 2, 4, 4, 7, 7, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)

[Evan McCollach] (*Changes action when seeing Danicka bleeding to death. Moves to use mothers touch on Danicka and keep her from dying +1 diff. WP used)
Dice Rolled:[ 5 d10 ] 4, 6, 6, 6, 7 (Success x 2 at target 7) [WP]

[Ryan Shepherd] [Brawl+Dexterity [+1]: Claw Giant.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 6, 7, 7, 7, 9, 9 (Success x 6 at target 6) [WP]

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength+4+5. Fucking make it or I'll kick your ass into next Wednesday.]
Dice Rolled:[ 12 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6, 8, 9, 9, 10, 10 (Success x 6 at target 6)

[bad bad people.] Ryan doesn't merely claw the giant. He takes his fucking head off. It bounces off the hood of the Beemer. Leaves a wet smear of red.

The headless body drops a second later, blood draining from the arteries in fast-fading spurts.

It's quiet on the road now, and they can hear the diesel truck engine still rumbling away -- a steady basso thunder underpinning the sounds of the night.

[bad bad people.] (thassit for the STing, folks! thanks for playing. i'ma just chill and watch the rest :P)

[Evan McCollach] He was moving in the direction of the Giant who was looking to stab the hell out of the true born. But as he ran through the bushes he could see a body close to the demolished car. He could smell it, the blood pooling around the road under the body. He had seen her before, she was one of those kin that had been around the shadow lords. He could sense it all over her.

He moved from the path of the giant, towards her. She needed help, she looked like she was going to bleed out. He couldn't let her do that.... as long as he didn't tell AM about helping her.

And after he slid to a stop, he leaned over, laying his hand on her. He could feel it come forth, the flow of Unicorn's own healing touch through him. And in Danicka's ears she could hear the approach of what seemed to be hooves on stone, closer and closer until it flowed through her, healing her, somewhat.

[Danicka Musil] All this time, Danicka has been facedown on the asphalt, bleeding. Her clothes are drenched with it, her pale hair soaked and clinging to her. Smears of it are across her face, and the vial of nightshade in her left hand was dropped and rolled away just as certainly as the dart in her right hand. She's half-lying on the messenger-style purse slung over one shoulder, covering it with her blood as well.

Most Shadow Lords Evan has seen don't look like her. Fairskinned, yes. Lighthaired, not usually. Not the well-bred ones. She smells like an old world to him though, in every drop of pooling blood. An old, warm, welcoming world that is quickly dying.

Disappearing.

It's not enough to make her whole. It's enough to wake her up. She does this quickly, eyes not fluttering but flashing open to reveal a color that matches most of the woods around them. "Vlá--" And she stops herself, closing her eyes again in pain, breathing out.

She looks up at Evan. And she doesn't try to get up. Not just...yet. "Do I need to run?"

[Ryan Shepherd] [Strength+4, Is It Can Be Neck Clamp Tiem Now Plz? Spending WP.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9 (Success x 1 at target 8) [WP]

[Ryan Shepherd] [Retry, +1 diff. Spending WP.]
Dice Rolled:[ 7 d10 ] 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 8, 10 (Success x 1 at target 9) [WP]

[Ryan Shepherd] There are bodies everywhere.

Littering the dark, winding road, there's a monster-turned-human-again; in the back of the truck, bounced off the BMW, in pieces and particles are remnants of what used to be humans. Ollie is still shivering and shaking when Ryan clomps over to him.

He doesn't want to know what was happening, where they were taking him, why this happened. It isn't his job to ask questions, and it isn't his job to feel sorry for the enemies. This man right here is an enemy, and so as he retrieves the pistol from the headless remains of their leader.

Ryan looks at Ollie with sky-blue eyes turned black in the darkness, and without a word, he puts a bullet between his eyes. The report is loud, and he stares down at the gun for several seconds before returning the safety to neutral territory and dropping it on the floor of the truck.

Two straining tries fail to remove the shackle from around his neck, and Ryan sighs before shifting down and jumping out of the bed of the truck, drained and covered in blood.

He doesn't address either Evan or the woman inside the car as he walks along the side of the highway, and when he reaches into the pocket of his work shirt, he finds his Copenhagen there waiting for him.

[Evan McCollach] It was probably not the face she expected to see when she awoken. He had seen her only in passing, a couple of times, along with the shadow lords. But he couldn't leave her there to bleed. Hell Unicorn would kick his ass.

"No, you are safe. Still wounded it seems, but alive."

He stands up from leaning over her to look back at the crinos seemingly struggling. The silver about his neck making him feel uneasy. It was definately silver, he could feel it. And he watches him as he walks down the road.

"As you okay to stand?"

[Danicka Musil] The face she expected to see is much older than Evan's. Darker-skinned, lighter-haired. She expected someone taller. Her eyes close briefly, then open again when he reassures her that she's 'safe'. She doesn't look comforted, but then...neither did she seem hysterical and in need of much comfort to begin with.

...okay to stand?

Danicka opens her eyes again and nods. She moves her hands until her palms are flat on the asphalt, which is hard enough. She takes a deep breath, which isn't any easier. She pushes herself up, and does not ask for help, doesn't look at him. It takes her time to move, but she moves until shes on her hands and knees, and then she gets her feet under her, and then she slowly stands up. Fresh blood leaves her with the movement, and her already stark face pales further, but she presses the tip of her tongue into an incisor and looks at her car.

She's expecting to see it totalled. She's expecting to see Liadan shot through the skull in the passenger seat. So really, seeing it totalled and seeing a splattered head on the hood isn't quite as bad as it could be.

"I had a friend here." Beat. "She's gone now."

[Administrator] Danicka Musil has switched to Caern & Surrounding Territories (Now)

[Administrator] Evan McCollach has switched to Caern & Surrounding Territories (Now)