starry night cafe.

[Danicka Musil] The coffee shop has stoneware with textured exteriors and silky-glazed interiors. The decor is in muted earth tones, which is not terribly exciting or original, and the chess set is missing four pieces. Most people get their coffee in to go cups of bleached paper regardless of how nice the atmosphere is. Danicka is one of the few who gets her refills in one of the stoneware mugs. Tonight she's not with a study group. She is sitting at a table with a Macbook open, reading a paperback with a bright USED sticker on the spine. She looks a great deal older than a college student, though given the presence of a European History textbook with yet another USED sticker that is likely what she is. She is wearing high-heeled boots over ribbed tights with a mid-thigh length skirt and a large sweater with the sleeves pushed up. Her hair is pulled back in a ponytail.

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] Erin McKinnon (the Jones was optional, alright) was sitting in Grant Park frowning at her best friend. The reason she was frowning at him had a lot to do with the words flowing out of the gangly hacker's mouth at present, a steady stream of recriminations and how-could-she's that Erin was certain came not from Zepher himself, but from one Full Moon in a Boston Sept who had somehow learned she'd gotten herself into strife already.

"Oh, Zeph, quit it," the girl pushed herself up from her perch against the fountain and lightly shoved the boy, dislodging the glasses on his nose. A hand raked through dark hair, shorn into a pixie cut and Erin tried as hard as possible not to think about the night in question.

Halloween.
Waiting for a no show client.
Ghosts.

God, why were the guys that tried to chat her up always jerks, tainted or wound up trying to kill her?

"Hey don't shoot the messenger I'm just passing the word from your Dad, who by the way? Scares the crap outta me and told me if anything happens to you in Chicago he's going to do things to me I couldn't even read about on the internet. Erin -- there's nothing you can't read about on the internet!"

Abruptly, hands found the tall boy's bony shoulders, his computer bag clutched together in his arms as he babbled, and a laughing Erin, her dimples flashing in either cheek interrupted. "Zepher! Chill, he says that to everyone. Come on, I'll buy you dinner, oh messenger of mine."

--

A little while later, the cafe is visited by a girl wearing a black leather coat with zips in every which location that seem to serve no purpose, and a pair of every day jeans. The shirt beneath the open jacket is a faded blue Scooby Doo design, with the Mystery Machine drawn on it, and the girl's ears twinkle with various piercings as she leans into the counter and orders herself something 'large and full of energy'.

[Ash Wickham] Ash rummages through his wallet so he can pay the barrista with exact change. He likes to let the coins collect, for weeks or months or longer, likes it when the old cracked leather bulges and sags with the weight of metal. And then he likes to empty it out. One transaction at a time.

His coffee is in a to-go cup, but he doesn't go anywhere except over to one of the empty tables near the window. The wooden chair creaks but accepts his weight easily. He's a tall man, but not overly muscled. When he walks, there's a grace to his steps that seems at odds with the rest of him. There's something wild about the angles of his face, in the intensity of his clear blue eyes. His hair is short and medium brown, and that tousled bedhead happens without the aid of product. The lower half of his face is dark with stubble.

Ash is no longer wearing scrubs. People think he's a 'real' doctor when they see him in scrubs. They think he deals with people. Right now he's wearing dark washed bootcut denim over a pair of loafers. His shirt is a grey polo beneath a navy blue athletic jacket. He looks casual, relaxed.

There's a young woman sitting near him, laptop open while she reads a book. She looks older than the average college student, but that doesn't mean anything to Ash. There were plenty of people who went to college who were not fresh from high school. Someone left behind a newspaper. Ash flips through it, trying to find the comics.

Idly, in the way strangers often do, he attempts conversation with the pretty blonde. "Man, gotta love that Marmaduke."

[Danicka Musil] It's biology. Evolution. Those who don't try fail by default, those who fail do not procreate, which is supposedly the most driving goal in every living thing. Survive and propogate. Survive and perpetuate. It is completely normal for men of any age to strike up conversations with any woman they find reasonably attractive, and when Ash strikes one up with Danicka, she looks neither startled nor surprised. The smoothness with which she looks up from her book and over at the brown-eyed man nearby almost suggests she was simply waiting for it.

She smiles. Her mouth is closed but it's definitely a smile, and she goes ahead and meets his eyes. Her own are a murky green, flecked with amber and brown and even hints of blue, just monochromatic enough to be called green rather than hazel. She quirks an eyebrow, looking vaguely amused. "I'm really more of a cat person," she says. A beat. "I hate 'Garfield', though."

[Danicka Musil] [FINE. ASH HAS BLUE EYES. GOD. PICKY PICKY.]

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] Erin, overly enormous mug of coffee in hand, surveys the mostly-full cafe full of students and studies her options. She could either opt to sit with the pretty blond with her laptop and book or she could try and steal the chair opposite the guy over by the window trying to engage the blond in conversation about comic strips.

Or -- she could just stand by the counter and look obviously out of place.

Well, screw that.

"Hey," she cheerfully calls as she walks promptly toward option two, her face set into its best version of I'm-adorable-and-you-like-me she could muster and sets her mug down across from the guy with the newspaper. "This place is packed, can I share with you?"

The girl's accent was clearly Boston born, and she had, while not the most striking features in the world a sort of born confidence that made up for anything lacking in her physical appeal. Neither bony or slim, she was most definitely to be described as curvaceous and as she helped herself to a seat she looked across at the blond and agreed, adding with a pluck at her shirt.

"Me too, though Scooby Doo was the shit, you know?"

[Ash Wickham] Ash could be interested in the pretty blonde with the school books. She's definitely very pretty, with her soft blonde hair pulled up in a ponytail, and even though she's sitting he can tell she's willowy. Slender. But he could just as easily be interested in the cute petite brunette with the pixy haircut coming over to his table. They're both obviously younger than he is, and aren't crusty old farts like him supposed to go for hot young things?

That's what his cousin keeps telling him, anyway.

Ash flicks that piercing blue gaze on the bold young thing taking the seat across from him without waiting for him to give her the go ahead. Not that he minds, really. He shifts in his seat, and as he does the collar of his polo shifts, splits open just enough to show a kind of necklace. It's a bit of thick black cord, the kind normally worn by surfers, hippies, or other free spirits. But rather than beads or a shark tooth or something else shallowly symbolic, the only decoration on the cord around Ash's neck is a simple gold band.

"Me, three," he agrees with a rougish grin to the brunette, his head tilting a little as some thought comes to mind. The smile is turned toward the blonde. "Did you know? Garfield should be a 'she,' not a 'he.' Yeah," he says, whether or not the girls have expressed any interest in the topic whatsoever. Apparently, Ash is 'that guy,' the one who talks to hear his own voice, who shares tidbits of information whether it's interesting to his audience or not. "His color scheme is really only on the X chromosome."

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] "Calvin and Hobbes for me. Hands down." While Danicka looks a few years too old to be in college, Lukas could pass as a recent graduate or a fifth-year senior. If he shaves clean. If he wears a sweatshirt and sneakers. If he carries a bookbag.

None of which he's actually doing right now. His jaw is stubbly; he's in a black button-down striped in blue and shades of grey, a leather jacket over his arm. And the bag over his shoulder is a messenger-style urban bag, charcoal grey and white. So; no, he doesn't look like a college kid. When he drops his jacket over an empty chair and sits down, he looks like

a monster. It's something about his glittering clear eyes, the directness and force of his stare.

and he looks rather unmistakeably like he knows the green-eyed blonde he's just invited himself to sit with. He looks at Erin and Ash with some interest. "Classmates? TA?" Ash wouldn't be the world's first 30-something grad student. Or the ten thousandth.

[Danicka Musil] Her reading is apparently done for the night, but Danicka doesn't look displeased by the interruption. Maybe her brain needs a break from schoolwork. If she's taking literature and history in the same quarter it's primarily reading, but her eyes don't look strained. She glances up as Erin heads over and smiles again, nodding her assent to Erin joining them. She's been taking up an entire four-person table most of the evening, and now there's only the one empty seat.

"Not really a fan of Great Danes in general," she answers. "Crime-solving ones or otherwise."

As she's saying this, and as Ash is starting to talk about chromosomes and cat coloration, the door opens and someone comes in whose presence is intense enough that it garners attention from more than a few patrons of this particular cafe. Danicka, who has Ash beside her and Erin across from her, watches Lukas as he walks over, states which comic he likes, and sits diagonally from her, next to the petite brunette.

There's something different about her smile, for a moment.

"No," she says, and there's a different warmth in her voice now, not the friendliness for strangers that bespeaks her confidence with unknowns but a very clear echo of Lukas's familiarity. "Strangers." There's a faint wryness to the edge of her smile there; Lukas may remember her saying she has no difficulty making friends out of complete strangers. She reaches over and closes her Macbook, sets the paperback on top of it, and leans forward on the table. "Now a vicious tiger, that is an animal companion I can support."

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] "You seem to know a lot about the feline species," the bold brunette so-called replies with, smiling behind her oversized coffee cup. The expression suits her face absolutely, and warms it even more. The hint of dimples appear in the girl's cheeks, which will only deepen the larger she expresses her mirth.

Her eyes are a bright green, flecked in places with brown and she laughs a little at what the blond says about great danes, the sound of her laughter is infectious, and clearly borne from a person who lives to find joy in most things. But then the instant the Ahroun enters, the girl's attention darts toward him with an unusual degree of focus and she's silent, sipping her coffee.

She lets Danicka answer field that one, since she clearly knows the guy from the way she's looking at him. Or maybe Erin is jumping to conclusions again -- she's been known to that from time to time.

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] Strangers. Lukas's eyebrows go up as if to say, Ah. He's seen her familiar with people he's assumed were close friends before, only to discover she met them that night. The wait staff of Zealous. The drunks at Mr. C's. And now, these two at her table.

"Lukas," he says to the 'new' folks, holding out his hand to shake. It's only after he's taken both their hands that he adds, so offhandedly that it might almost be missed, "called Wyrmbreaker." And like that it becomes rather clear that Danicka's strangers are, in fact, not unlike herself.

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] "Erin," the dark-haired girl says instantly, switching hands with her mug and firmly shaking Lukas' hand without missing a beat. Her hand tingles after he lets go, and she knows even before he adds it what he is.

"Called Erin," she adds cheekily, and then clarifies. "From Boston, I know a few people with similar interests."

[Ash Wickham] He wouldn't be the world's first 30-something undergrad, either. Which he could be. Maybe they're a study group, except Ash and Erin have no books open in front of them. There is no laptop bag or messenger back or bookbag anywhere near the older man's chair. He's sitting where he invited himself, with a paper to-go cup of coffee near his hand while he peruses yesterday's funny pages.

If Ash were like Lukas, he would instantly know where he is, and where he is is not just at a table in a cafe with a couple of pretty young women. If he were like Lukas, he would know the other blue-eyed dark-haired man for the monster he truly is, and not the one he thinks he is. His nostrils would be full of the breeding that surrounds him. But Ash is not like Lukas. And so when the younger man sits himself down, he gets the distinct impression that the blonde woman is with him, and he wonders if he beats her. That can't be right, they're too familiar with each other. When Lukas joins them, Danicka changes, and it's not the tense wariness of a battered woman.

If Ash is disappointed that the pretty blonde woman is obviously spoken for, it doesn't show. He doesn't redouble any efforts on the brunette who likes Scooby Doo. He's watching Lukas with open interest. And then he's introducing himself, and his brows rise in an echo of Lukas' ah.

He leans forward to accept the offered hand, shakes it firmly. "Ashley Wickham. Wow. We all just sorta gravitate toward each other, don't we?" He grins openly.

[Danicka Musil] Her jaw tenses for a moment, but it's covered by the corners of her mouth turning up for a moment, pulling outward in a tight smile of acknowledgement of Lukas's name. His other one. The one she did not know until recently. She reaches for her mug and takes a sip of coffee, as the tense wariness that Ash might have expected from a woman 'with' a man like Lukas washes over her demeanor.

"Danicka," she says, with all the flawed and Americanized pronunciation of her name that Lukas gave to his own. "Would you like something?" she asks him, glancing across the table at the other blue-eyed man.

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] (ahahah. i forgot to add accents. Lukas actually always insists on pronouncing his name right.)

[Danicka Musil] [*eyes damon stonily, deletes that line from my post* yeah well Danicka said her name wrong SO THERE]

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] Ash sees Lukas, sees the way people instinctively shy away, sees how he sits and how he breathes and how he looks like he could - and might be the type to - pick up the table they're sitting at and break it over his knee, and he wonders if he beats Danicka. Ash sees the way Danicka smiles, and dismisses the possibility.

But then Lukas as good as informs her that she's amongst members of the Nation. And she tenses. And she asks him if he wants something, as though she might jump up and fetch it for him. And if Ash knew what tribe they were -- what a consummate liar Danicka can be, and perhaps is -- then he might wonder all over again.

He might be wondering already, as is.

"Boston, huh?" Lukas unslings the bag, ducking out of the strap that he'd pulled over his head. He sets it down. Its weight suggests a laptop, and perhaps books or papers. "I bummed in Boston for a few years. Just before I came out to Chicago, actually."

His attitude doesn't shout Boston, though. It doesn't shout New England, that patchwork land of the puritans, the working class, the old money and the intellectuals, and there's something about him that suggests an upbringing in a much bigger city than one whose downtown is twenty minutes lengthwise on foot. What comes out of his mouth next explains it.

"Grew up in New York, though." And then, his things dropped off at the table, he gets up again. Glances at Danicka to say, "Yeah, I'm going to go get something to munch on. And drink." He smiles at Danicka's strangers. "I'll be right back."

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] Erin's looks do not so much shout her tribe as some other Kinfolk's might. She is without the trademark red hair that so many of her cousin's possess, her own descendants instead passing on a darker, almost European coloring to the nineteen year old. Her eyes however, were her grandmother's for likeness and it was in them perhaps, along with her merry demeanor at present, that her Fianna roots could be felt.

She grins openly at the Full Moon when he notes that he 'bummed' around her home city, and nods when he says he's going to get something to eat. "A few years is probably about all the time you want to spend there, honestly." Erin comments, and draws one knee up to rest her mug on.

"It's what usually happens." She says to Ash abruptly, as if she were partaking of every conversation at once. "Like we all have Spidey senses about each other or something. I think it's cool, mostly."

She laughs.

"Well, unless you're like me and find that you always wind up in trouble."

[Ash Wickham] Ash flicks his gaze from person to person at the small table they've all found themselves out. In town long enough to get his state license and begin practicing, and already he's tripped headlong into a mess of people from the Nation. It's actually, on some level, comforting.

It's just as irritating, though. Because being found means being claimed, probably. And the last person who had Ash Wickham claimed was...

Anyway. His thoughts grind to a halt, and he redirects them to the table. To the girls. And a little to Lukas who is getting up to get something to munch on, and to drink. His mind comes back to here, and now. To Chicago.

He flashes that charming smile at the youngest at the table. "Well, this is my first time out of Oregon except for conferences. So I've never really had this, uh, problem before. If you'd even call it a problem." The smile is turned to Danicka, to include her in the conversation, not that she needs any help there. "But, kiddo, let me tell you. Getting into trouble's what our kind's best at." He winks, picks up his cup and leans back before taking a drink.

[Danicka Musil] The blonde woman at the table with the wavy hair and rather gentle demeanor does not have an accent from Boston, or New England. She does sound like she's from a city, with a certain speed and clip to her speech despite its relaxation. The signs that she's not from around here are more subtle, and fading every day. She's a born liar, it's true, and she's good at making herself welcome even when she can't be said to 'fit in'. Danicka is beautiful. Danicka carries the blood of heroes and mystics in her veins, is marked to bear heroes and mystics one day. She stands out. They all do.

Lukas gets up to go get something to eat, rather than instructing his kinswoman what he wants and how quickly she is to bring it to him, and she turns to the other two with a faint, wry laugh. "What family are the two of you from?"

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] "I will toast to that." Erin says, and clinks her mug against Ash's. She sips from her own, and wipes away the froth from her upper lip with the side of her palm as Danicka asks after their families. Erin leans back now, dropping her knee and her leather jacket rustles softly as she stretches her arms.

"My dad is Irish, his grandfather settled in Boston, came over from Dublin and my Mom was born here." The girl shrugs, her eyes dropping away for a moment, a faint trace of uncertainty lining her brow.

"I don't remember her though, so." The gaiety quickly replaces the uncertainty, and the girl's seemingly endless confidence returns with zest. "I just tell people my family is Irish."

[Danicka Musil] [Danicka, Ash, and Erin are at a table together. Ash is next to Danicka, Erin is across from her. The last of the 4 chairs has a jacket on it and there's a bag on the table in front of it. Lukas is currently in line at the cafe counter.]

[Ben] Edge of Grant Park and not entirely in it. Bob bob weave wiggle squirm. Bounce jangle bop. Like an apple Ipod dancer moving down the street. White wires sprouting from his ears and trailing down to the inside of his brown leather jacket. Clean cut lines and smooth well cared for leather. Black slim fit stone washed stylish jeans. Converse sneakers. He's silly. Or crazy. Or both. The crowds part for him. Maybe because of his penchant for doing a little spin now and then. Wiggling in time to the music. Generally closing on the cafe the blood of the Nation blinks like a beacon.

[Ash Wickham] They're all from out of town. They're all, in a way, out of their natural element. Well, that's just making assumptions. Ash is out of his element. Chicago is vastly different from Portland. Portland is near enough to the ocean for a quick day at the beach. It's a city for liberals, for activists or people who just like activity.

Chicago, so far, has been very different.

Ash reaches out to clunk his paper cup against Erin's oversized mug before settling back. He looks over the girls with renewed interest. There's a decided lack of lust or otherwise sexual tension in the older man. Danicka asks what families Ash and Erin are from. Erin takes her question more literally than the blonde woman probably meant.

Ash flicks his gaze around the room, checking to make sure they can't be overheard. The place is somewhat crowded; Lukas has been is going to be in line for some time. The tables around them are mostly full of college students, or tech geeks, or people with laptops and no internet access at home. They're focused on their computers, on their companions and their studies. They are not terribly focused on the trio at the table near the window.

Except for a few glances, of course. They're all very pretty, after all. There's something about each of them that draws the eye. But there's equally something about them that makes the eye turn away again.

He looks at Erin, and the look on his face is a comically exaggerated expression of pity for the girl divulging so much of herself on her first meeting with these strangers. Ash turns those intense blue eyes back to Danicka. "Child of Gaia," he says in a voice pitched so that only they can hear. His gaze flicks back to Erin. "I just moved out here from Oregon." It's all he gives up immediately. Clearly he thinks he's throwing the young woman a bone.

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] Erin's voice is full of unrepressed laughter as she leans in a little to whisper theatrically at Ash. "Why are you whispering like this?" She waves a hand toward the cafe at large. "I don't think they're trying to take notes about your roots."

She turns playful green eyes on Danicka.

"In case you didn't pick it from my long winded intro, I'm Fianna born."

[Ash Wickham] Ash cants his head to the side. He sets his cup on the table, and leans in real close to the cute little brunette girl with the playful green eyes.

"The reason," he says in a low whisper, "why I'm making sure no one can hear me? Is I don't want to bring hunters down on anyone. I don't want any of these lovely people," his eyes go to the people at the tables around them before coming back to rest on the girl, "to start asking questions we can't answer. Because," and here he gives a little laugh, "we actually have a duty to them, to guard and protect them and their secrets, just like they protect us."

He leans back out of Erin's personal space, retrives his cup and pushes out his chair to rise.

"Well, ladies, this has been most engaging, but I really should be getting home."

[Danicka Musil] She does not join in the impromptu toast but laughs lightly at its existence, more subdued than the other two kinfolk, or seemingly so. She sips her coffee quietly, laptop and textbooks pushed to one side, both hands wrapped around the cup. Her fingernails are rounded, not too long, and bear nothing but a simple clear gloss with french tips. "Well that answers that," she says of Erin's reply, guessing her tribe without explicit question or answer. She turns to Ash as he carefully and quietly utters the name of his tribe. Danicka gives just the smallest nod of acknowledgement

There isn't much to say, though when Erin dismisses Ash's concern for secrecy, she turns her eyes on the pixie-haired girl with an inscrutable expression best described as 'thoughtful' if it reads as anything at all. She sips her coffee as Ash explains himself to the Fianna girl, nodding to him as he rises. "Before you go," she says, setting her mug down and reaching into her bag for a 3x5 card and a pen.

She scrawls something onto the paper and hands it over. It's an address and a name. "In case you haven't heard from your relations, this place is friendly to them and us. Some even live there. That's the name of one of the owners; she runs the kitchen. Let her know you've met he and I," she says, nodding in the direction of the line where Lukas stands, "and you'll be welcome there."

[Ben] He dances and wiggles and weaves his way on down the sidewalk. Bopping his head in time to the beat in his ears. He does an awkward little spin and nearly takes someone out with a messenger bag hanging under one arm. His arm closes over the bag again protectively to hold it against his side as he wiggles and careens down the street. As he passes the little Cafe his nostrils flood with the smell of caffeine. He's always found that's what he thinks when he smells coffee, even though he rarely drinks the stuff. But it spins him around he dances a little to one side to avoid someone else exiting.

Catching the door on his fingertips, he pulls the door open and slips inside. Bouncing his head and wiggling a bit to the beat. His eyes scan over each person there. Quietly. He's new. New town, new city really, bigger than anything he's used to. So many people. He's used to walking into coffee houses and knowing everyone. He's almost shocked to discover these hip trendy places with computers and people sitting around chatting and studying. He searches for something familiar. Any reminder of home in this new place.

And his eyes fall on the little table of people who's blood stands out like a billboard. His lips quirk into a quick smile at first, and it falters as nervousness starts to flood his body. Meeting new people. Exciting and nerve wracking at the same time. His head still bobbing a little, he weaves towards the table with the blond, brunette, and someone about to leave.

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] She didn't seem in the slightest perturbed when Ash leaned over as she did, in fact she seemed to enjoy the tantalizing closeness of the moment. She could smell his aftershave, or whatever faint trace of his shampoo there was, and the brunette didn't appear inclined to take his quietly worded reminder of why he was whispering (why they all should whisper such things) much to heart.

If anything, Erin merely wrinkled up her nose at him and watched him stand up, fare-welling him with, "Seeya later, Marmaduke," as she sat back and resumed sipping from her coffee mug. She does however watch with interest as the woman called Danicka takes a card from her bag and scribbles something on it.

[Ash Wickham] Ash accepts the card, reads the address and the name. The corners of his mouth turns down and his brows raise, and he nods his head. "Thanks, I'll keep that in mind." The card crumples as he puts it into his pocket, but that doesn't really mean anything. If he wanted to throw it out, he'd keep it pressed between his hand and the paper cup, and toss the lot of it on his way out the door. He doesn't. It crumples as it goes into his pocket, and he finishes his coffee.

Erin calls him Marmaduke, and he answers with a patronizing smile as he reaches out and musses her short dark hair as if she were...well not twelve. Maybe younger.

As he walks away, his gaze snaps to the bopping, bouncing bundle of Rage that just walked in and is headed for the table with the girls. His presence sets Ash's teeth on edge, makes his shoulders bunch and tense, but Wyrmbreaker is right over there. So Ash doesn't concern himself with the safety of the other kin.

A bell chimes over the door, and he disappears out into the cool evening air.

[Danicka Musil] The door opens. Fury enters. Ash takes a slim white card from Danicka's perfectly manicured fingertips, and the crush of the thin cardstock is noticable as he shoves it in his pocket. Danicka is turning back to Erin as he leaves, glancing at the guy who just came in but otherwise paying him no mind. The moon is full. Even the kindest mortals seem a little off on nights like this.

"Have you been to the Brotherhood?" she asks, getting near the bottom of her mug.

[Ben] As he passes Ash on his way to the seat the man just vacated, he gives the guy a look. A sort of 'what'd I do' look. Not sure about the sudden tension. But it slips his mind as soon as it arrived and he keeps on going over to the little table with the blond and brunette and the jacket of someone else. He glances around again, wondering who it might belong to, before he pulls up a seat without any real request and plunks his butt down in it. A boyish grin flicks on his face and he looks between the two.

"Hi." Voice cheerful, innocent, despite the level of brooding monster Rage he gives off.

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] "Augh," she says as he tousles a hand in her shorn locks, messing them into a dark tangle of peaks and toughs above her head, she bats at his hand and gives him what might have passed as a menacing stare -- if she weren't 5'5 and young enough to be his little sister.

Tucking back hair behind her ears, the Fianna glances upward as another stranger seats himself between them without warning and says hi. Erin's eyebrows rise a little and she shoots a look at Danicka, her voice carrying a hint of question as she says, "Hi" in return.

"The Brotherhood?" Erin shakes her head in the negative and slides a little closer to the other woman. "What is that, it sounds familiar to me."

[Danicka Musil] As Ben sits down next to Danicka, she bristles instantly. She does not know who or what he is, but she knows he makes the hairs on the back of her neck stand on end. She does not answer Erin immediately but turns to the man in the chair next to her and quite tersely says,

"Excuse me, what do you think you're doing?"

There is no nervous, uncertain or even cautious, curious Hi in return. There is no wary friendliness given to the man sitting himself down as there was to the one who brought up Marmaduke or the girl who asked before sharing the table. She is not looking for Lukas in worry. She is leveling a green gaze at Ben with a sense of impatient expectation normally associated with burning-out teachers or particularly harsh nannies.

[Ben] He blinks over at Danicka. Then looks between Danicka and Erin. Smiling uncertainly. It starts to wither under the gaze of Danicka's glare. He reaches up with work-calloused fingers and pulls one earbud out of his ear. "Ermm..." Glancing between them again.

"I'm a brother from another mother?" Looking caught.

[Danicka Musil] "Hmm," she hums dismissively, smiling with a thin lack of amusement. "Did I miss you asking if this seat was taken, or if you could sit with us? I certainly don't recall you doing so."

[Ben] He blinks. Surprised at the... brusque attitude. Not what he was used to from home for sure. His face reddens and he seems sort of... shocked. Why wouldn't he sit with them? They're family right?

He smiles a boyish, faintly charming sort of smile. Confused and deflating as it is. Looking at Erin as though desperately pleading for help from the cold blond. But he finally looks back at her. "Well, I figured open seat. Family as you both are... I didn't see a problem with..." He shrugs.

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] By the time Lukas comes back to the table, Ashley is gone, Ben has taken his place, and Danicka is proving that New York City's influence hasn't entirely faded from her.

The Ahroun is carrying more than something to 'munch' on. He has a turkey panini sandwich. And a slice of lemon bread. And a paper cup -- the largest size, whatever cute name this cafe might have for it -- with a sipping cap on it, filled with something that smells faintly of chocolate and raspberry. He looks at the blonde first; then at the newcomer.

Then he sits down in his original seat, which is the one beside Ben. Under the table, his foot extends far enough across the center of the table that the outside edge touches Danicka's shoe.

"He's like me," he explains quietly; for the kinwomen's benefit, one expects. Then, to Ben, "Want to introduce yourself?"

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] Erin has been observing this exchange from behind her coffee mug, alternating between sipping from it and watching the interplay between Danicka and this new guy with a set of decidedly green eyes. She sets her mug down as the other true blood returns and her attention pivots between the two.

"What is this, orientation night at the local cafe?" She's smiling as she says it though, and offers Ben the same firmly gripped handshake she'd given Lukas earlier, a set of dimples flashing in the brunette's cheeks as she shakes his hand.

"I'm Erin, McKinnon is the surname. I'm a transplant from the Sept of the Raised Fist in Boston."

[Ben] He's eager for the normalcy of shaking someone's hand on meeting them. His hand comes up, calloused and used to work as it is. Shaking hers firmly with a little smile at her. Intensity and allure in his eyes. But they flash on to the next True there. Nodding to the man and leaning back in his chair a bit. Like a show of respect to the other's station.

Then, tilting forward a bit to speak, softly so no one overhears. "Benjamin Purifier Abramson. Claith Child of Gaia Ahroun of the Nation."

[Danicka Musil] All that Ben's mention of family gets from Danicka is a furrow to her brow. It's part confusion, or looks like it for a moment. She exhales as Lukas returns, sits down. Under the table, where Ben and Erin can't see or feel, her foot does not so much as nudge closer in response to Lukas's idle touch. If anything, she draws inward even further than she did when she found out that the man and young woman talking about comics featuring cartoon dogs were actually Kinfolk. There's color, bright pink and high in her cheeks, as she looks away and down, staring at the remaining liquid in her cup. It could be mistaken for anger, until:

"I'm sorry. I didn't realize."

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] EMPATHEE!
Dice Rolled:[ 4 d10 ] 6, 8, 9, 10 (Success x 4 at target 6)
to Danicka Musil

[Danicka Musil] [Pissed off, nervous, and wondering why this guy thinks they're supposed to be able to tell on sight that he's "family". *L*]
to Lukas Wyrmbreaker

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] "Don't be sorry." There's an edge to Erin's voice that hadn't been there before, a certain firmness that suggested perhaps all that she projected wasn't exactly the truth. Her face, when its without its trademark mirth is that of a serious young women on the cusp of adulthood or very nearly about to pass by it.

"You didn't know him, either did I. He could have been some kind of psycho." Erin's eyes turn to Ben's. "Not saying that you are or anything but that kind of caution is good to have. It's smart."

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] As time passes, Lukas is learning to read Danicka better and better. Danicka is, in turn, letting him. A little less than a year ago, he could barely see beneath the surface at all. Tonight, he looks at her -- looking down, color in her cheeks, and at once he sees her --

well. As well as she could see him from the start.

A moment; then he looks at Ben across the table and beside Danicka. "Lukáš Wyrmbreaker," he says, and though otherwise his voice bears no trace of accent, that word alone marks him a native Czech speaker. "Fostern Shadow Lord, and an Ahroun as well."

Needless to say, he keeps his voice low, but his eyes are direct; open. There's no threat there. Plenty of confidence.

"Did you just get here?"

[Ben] He glances between the three of them. His head can't help bobbing now and then to the tunes that are still spilling into his head through one ear. He straightens his brown leather jacket, patting one side to make sure the ipod is secure in there. Reaching down and straightening his slim fit jeans.

"Yes sir. Just got into town from Wisconsin. Been here a few days checking things out." Smiling some.

[Danicka Musil] Ben was able to tell instantly, as soon as he walked in, what Erin can likely surmise soon after Lukas intones the name of his tribe. That she belongs to him is obvious: in some charge of the air, in the way she responded when he entered initially, in the way she does not make eye contact as soon as he sits back down. He is a Shadow Lord. Her breeding is rich with the tribe's legacy, and Erin probably knows the rumors about what Shadow Lords do to make their kin so compliant, so agreeable, so... useful.

Danicka flicks her eyes up and over at Erin and smiles softly, tightly. It's a politeness; what Erin says may or may not be true, but ultimately that's not what matters -- at least, not to Danicka.

"The man that just left," she says quietly, "is of your tribe." She glances at Ben, just for a moment, to indicate that her words are directed at him, but then she's reaching for her mug to finish her coffee. "I gave him the address to the Brotherhood of Thieves." And that is more for Lukas's benefit.

She drinks.

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] Lukas has a sizeable amount of food in front of him. He has a large sandwich, a slice of sweet bread, and he has his coffee. He takes a sip of the last, then breaks out off a piece of his lemonbread. Then he pushes that out into the center of the table to share.

"You should check out the Brotherhood," he says to Ben, though soon enough he's speaking to both him and Erin. "It's where a lot of us hang out. If you need a place to stay -- temporarily or otherwise -- they'll be glad to put you up. Most of us pay what we can.

"I'm in room 2," he adds, and picks up half of his diagonally sliced panini. He bites into it, chews, swallows, takes another drink of his coffee and adds, "They serve great rack of lamb downstairs. And the Friday stew special is amazing too."

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] What she knows of Shadow Lords had been taught to her by her father, who had an inbuilt distrust of the tribe that came from his own experiences with them in Boston. Erin, while possessing enough of his blood to be recognized as both his daughter and a pure bred Fianna was careful not to make up her mind based solely on her Dad's words, though.

She knew a few Kinfolk in the Green Clovers who were Shadow Lords, and they were dedicated enough to the cause not to make her wonder where their loyalties lay. "Thanks," she says to Lukas about the offer to check out the Brotherhood. "I might just do that now, actually. I was gonna look for a place to crash tonight."

Erin scoots her chair back from the table, and takes up her used mug.

"It was nice to meet so many new faces, I'm sure I'll see you all around the Brotherhood at some point." Danicka gets the friendliest smile, perhaps because she's a woman, or perhaps because she's the one Erin had spoken to the longest tonight. Either way, the brunette with the pixy-cut waves, and makes her way to the counter to pay before she exits into the chilly night.

[Ben] He nods a bit to Lukas. Then flicks glances between Erin and Danicka. "Too right. I might be a total psycho. But I have pretty fashion sense for a psycho."

He leans forward with a glance and a nod of thanks to Lukas. Breaking off a small piece of lemonbread and popping it into his mouth with a short toss, free flying lemonbread intercepted with his mouth. He sits back again and chews thoughtfully. Still listening to Lukas and nodding a bit now and then.

"Yeah, I've been by the erm, well. Yeah. They mentioned the Brotherhood to me. Said I could find a lot of our sort there. I haven't been. I'm thinking maybe I aughta make like..." He has to think a moment. "Erin, yeah, Erin. And head on over there too. Check the place out."

[Erin McKinnon-Jones] (thanks for the scenage, guys!)

[Danicka Musil] "Reuben's special brew is also incredibly good," Danicka interjects, glancing up as Erin decides to vacate the premises. "He's of your blood, as is his wife."

Her coffee cup sits in the middle of the table, no longer needed since it's empty, no longer worth her attention. She begins gathering her books and putting them in her bag, unplugging her laptop and wrapping the cord to tuck it away as well. "Jdu domů," she adds, this presumably to Lukas though she doesn't look at him. As she slides her laptop into the cushioned pocket inside her bag, she turns to Ben.

"I'm sorry, again, for my earlier rudeness. It was uncalled for."

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] "Wait," Lukas calls to Erin as she starts to leave. "I can give you guys a ride." Paper rustles between his hands as he starts to wrap up his panini. "I was about to head back myself."

Danicka begins to pack things up. He looks at her briefly, his eyes flicking up as she stands. "Pojď se mnou," he replies.

And then he takes another piece of lemon bread, pops it in his mouth, and leaves the rest for Erin or Ben or whoever might want it. The Shadow Lord stands himself, suddenly towers over the table and its occupants and the slighter, mortal inhabitants of this cafe. The way he dresses, with an attention to detail and a conscious attempt to downplay his size, his power, his supernaturality, it's sometimes easy to forget how tall Wyrmbreaker is; how broad his shoulders are; how strong his limbs. It's almost -- but not quite, never quite -- possible to forget that he's a monster under the skin.

"I'm parked just around the corner," he adds, and finishes folding his sandwich up.

[Danicka Musil] She closes her bag, rising to her feet smoothly before she picks it up and puts it over her shoulder. She looks at Lukas, offering a ride to Ben and Erin, telling them where his car is, and gives him a small smile. "Jdu domů," she repeats, a bit softer. Then, watching him: "Já možná přijde později."

It almost sounds like she's asking a question, or offering excuse. Begging off. She doesn't reach across the table and touch him, or stand on her toes and kiss his cheek as she moves around the edge of the table and heads for the door, giving a nod of farewell to the two Ahrouns.

[Ben] He rises to his feet. Smiling a bit to the two of them. And his eyes give a last farewell to Erin's ass as she leaves. He has to snap his attention away when he hears a whistle from a frappacino or some other stupid drink being made. Blinking over at Lukas.

"Oh, my bike's parked a block or two away. I've been out cruising the city."

[Lukas Wyrmbreaker] "Okay," Lukas says to Danicka, in English. Then he nods to Ben. "No problem. I'll just give you the address, then."

One way or another -- whether Erin rides with Lukas or not, whether Ben decides to put his bike in the M3's rather miniscule trunk or not, the party disperses and everyone, with the exception of Danicka, ends up at the Brotherhood sooner or later. Some, later rather than sooner.