do you bare your fangs at us, sir? MOONLIT RIVALS LOG 2, SCENE 2

[libraryassistants]

Who: Readers and Actors
What: The werewolves who are not sneaking into the party cause a bit of mischief... and did anybody actually agree to keep the peace tonight?
When: The night of the ball itself. [ooc timeline: Feb 6th - 19th]
Where: The city of Montica.
Content warnings: Please include any warnings in headers.


Waxing Gibbous Moon

In Town

Above the city, the Umbra Mansion stands tall. Its grand doors and windows have been opened, spilling light like a beacon. Music lilts in the air, drifting so far as to be faintly heard even in the neutral centre of the city.

The streets have emptied, particularly in the vampiric half of town. Most of the vampire loyalists have joined the masquerade, leaving their homes and shops unattended. Tonight is a special night - a once in a century event, and they wouldn’t miss it for the world.

Even some werewolves and neutral citizens have been enticed to attend. Jadis the Mystic has created a lotion that will disguise the scent of a werewolf; an effect that is broken by shifting, breaking the skin, or the gradual passage of time. It is not widely distributed, but rumours travel fast. The lotion is only given to any Guildulf-aligned werewolves, but… well, there’s nothing wrong with a little trade here or there. Right?

For all of the wolves in town - with the moon so close to being full, it’s natural for them to feel a bit more excitable. Energetic. Ready to take on the world. And seeing as Montica is so empty, it’s like a playground has just been opened up. The young wolves in particular are eager to take advantage of the empty streets, the sound of not-quite-mature howls breaking through the air in their excitement. There are hardly any people around to be scared if they play too rough or run too fast, and they are taking advantage of this with great enthusiasm.

In the highly-debated 'neutral' zone, some small packs of adolescent werewolves are gathering. There's banter and roughhousing, the not-quite-adults playfully shoving each-other over the invisible line where the vampire territory begins.

Some of the bravest amongst them take the challenge to dart over and brush their fingers over silver doorhandles - their yelps spurring courage and adrenaline in the others. What starts harmlessly enough quickly escalates as they urge each-other on, teenage excitement and the thrill of the moon encouraging all sorts of bad choices. The longer they go without reprimand, the more bold they become; and somewhere along the way, bulbs of garlic start winding up in places they wouldn't normally be found. (There is at least one group who is excitedly challenging each-other to leave the garlic in more and more absurd places. If they happen to sting themselves on some silver ornamentation on the way, all the better.)

Not all homes are unoccupied, though - sooner or later someone’s going to disturb someone else’s peace, and tensions are already so high. Hopefully there are some Responsible Adults around to curtail the worst of the mischief before someone’s temper is sparked.

Comments

i

[obeir]

It's very late in the night when Kade finally slips away from his guard duties at the Umbra manor to investigate the goings-on in town. All those howling adolescents have him worried about his younger brother and what he might be getting caught up in. Kade travels as a wolf through the largely empty streets, pausing occasionally to scent the air, or to peer in the windows of a building.

This time he does notice the very small device hovering in the air and pulls up short, staring up at it. It could almost be mistaken for a large insect, but it smells all wrong; he's never encountered anything quite like it before.

[ugh_emotions]

Th drone was following Kade.

At first, it was in case this was another one of the fauna people making trouble and harassing the local humans. But then SecUnit ran an analysis, and...this was not-KD6-3.7. Kade. It doesn't have a lot of footage of him as a fauna, but it has enough to make a match.

Shit. Was Kade still injured? He shouldn't be out here. He could get hurt.

SecUnit starts making its way to Kade's location. But in the meantime, the drone keeps watching him - and looking for any potential hostiles.

[obeir]

For better or worse, Kade's wolf instincts make him want to play with investigate the strange object and learn more about it. Could it be related to the restless adolescent wolves causing a ruckus? That could as easily just be boredom and a lack of guidance, and who really knows in this town. He sits and contemplates the device with a tilted head for a time. He's much taller in this form than he would be as a man, so... he rises onto his hind legs, bracing his front legs against the side of a building and stretches, trying to bump the device with his nose.

[ugh_emotions]

For fuck's sake.

Kade is not the first fauna to go chasing after a drone. And he's not as fast as Shadow (that asshole), so the drone is able to fly up higher, safely out of Kade's reach.

You had better not go and eat one of its drone, not-KD6-3.7. SecUnit is going to be real pissed if you do.

(Of in the distance, SecUnit starts moving faster.)

[obeir]

Eating the thing would mean no longer being able to 'hunt' it, so he probably won't do that. But he would like to catch it. He makes a grumbling sound when it flies well out of reach and drops back down to all fours, circling it from below. He attempts to make a jump for it, but still can't reach.

The sudden chorus of howling adolescents in the distance causes him to pause with both ears trained in their direction, but thankfully his brother isn't among them. He considers responding to the howling but isn't sure he wants to draw that kind of attention to himself, not with how agitated the other werewolves seem to be.

[ugh_emotions]

The drone flies up even higher when Kade jumps. Yeah, it's definitely not letting that happen.

(A different drone is tracking that set of howling adolescents. This group isn't making trouble. Yet. But SecUnit is watching, just in case that changes, and it needs to intervene.)

A few moments later, it appears on the street Kade is on.

"You should get home," it says, as it stares at the wall next to Kade. "It's not safe out here."

[obeir]

Rin's sudden appearance is met with a friendly tail wag in greeting as Kade moves closer with his snout raised, scenting the air, though he stops short of initiating physical contact. During their prior interaction he'd picked up on Rin's aversion to it. A very foreign concept to a wolf, but humans are weird. It's fine.

He isn't sure of Rin's ability to interpret wolf body language, particularly when Rin isn't actually even looking at him, so he takes a form more conducive to spoken conversation.

"Had to make sure my brother's safe," he says while straightening his clothes. "I've been stuck at the Umbra place all night, but I could hear-" As if on cue, another chorus of howling in the distance, the sort that usually precedes a hunt. Inexperienced adolescents trying to coordinate. "Restless children," he finishes. "Do you know what's going on?"

[ugh_emotions]

Despite the fact that it's not looking at him (that Kade knows about), SecUnit still makes a face when he shifts. Watching humans turn into fauna - and vice versa - wasn't pleasant. It was maybe even more disgusting than watching humans eat.

"They're doing stupid reckless shit," it says. "Some of them have gotten hostile."

[obeir]

Shifting doesn't feel great either, though Kade's experienced enough that he doesn't make a show of it the way younger werewolves tend to; just a bit of stretching afterward to make sure his bones have all realigned properly.

Seems Rin knows about as much as he does.

"I think they may be planning something. The howling," he explains. "They're trying to coordinate. Then there's that," he says with a nod upward at the drone. "I've not seen it's like before." And he's still wondering if or how it might be connected to the growing agitation amongst the werewolves.

[ugh_emotions]

"Don't worry about the drone," it says. Though it doesn't know why Kade would think it's connected to the fauna humans. No one here has any decent tech.

(Although the drone does technically have a connection to the growing agitation. Sort of. In that SecUnit has sent its drones out to try and figure out what the fuck is going on.)

"...Do you know what they're saying?" it asks. Because it doesn't have a module for fauna human yowling, ugh.

[obeir]

"How do you know what it is?" Kade asks, plainly surprised. Can't just casually drop that information and expect it to go unquestioned. Drone definitely sounds insect-like, which seems apt.

"That kind of howling is what I'd expect before a hunt. Like they're trying to get organised." It's unusual for it to be happening in the city, though, so he can't be sure he's interpreting things correctly. "Maybe they're also just being loud as a means of intimidation." Since Rin mentioned some being hostile.

[ugh_emotions]

"...Because it's mine," it says, forced to give a truthful answer after completely failing to come up with any kind of plausible lie.

And then it makes a face, because it doesn't like the sound of hostile fauna people being organised.

"Can you tell where they're going?" It asks.

[obeir]

... Oh. Huh. That raises even more questions, but for the moment Kade focuses on the wolf problem and shakes his head.

"Hopefully away from the city, if they're really going to be hunting..." Because what would they hunt within the city? Yeah. This could potentially become a very big problem for the human populace, unless they were possibly gearing up to harass the local blood suckers instead. "But I don't know for sure, I'm not familiar with these wolves. The only pack I have is my brother."

A beat. "Sorry about-" Another nod toward the drone that he'd been trying to bite. Whoops. "What does it do?"

[ugh_emotions]

"They're not doing shit away from the city." Harassing people within the city - whether directly or via defacing their residences - was clearly the point. "You should get somewhere safe."

Because even if vampires were the main targets, that didn't mean they wouldn't decide to hurt other werewolves as well.

And now Kade's asking more about the drone. Fuck.

"It just scouts. It's not important." Please stop asking questions about the drone. Please.

[obeir]

"If this escalates like I'm expecting it to, nowhere in the city is going to be safe. Well, nowhere that I'm allowed to go."

Kade isn't sure he wants to get any more involved than he already is, so long as the unruly adolescents stay away from the neutral zone and Common Ground oh the foreshadowing - but it seems inevitable that he'll be drawn into the fray. The fraught werewolf-vampire politics infesting Montica are so mind numbing to him that he's long thought about leaving the city entirely, but it isn't that simple, not when his brother seems to need that sense of community, and Kade isn't willing to leave the only family he has.

The drone may not be important (press X to doubt...), but it is fascinating. He's been observing it throughout their conversation, curious about its construction (and not yet catching onto Rin's reluctance to elaborate).

"What mechanism enables it to fly like that?" he wonders. "Or is it some manner of enchantment?" Because bullshit magic is very much a reality in this place.

[ugh_emotions]

"I don't know, I didn't make it," it says, blatantly avoiding the question. (And it's only half a lie. SecUnit didn't make the drone, so that was true. But it did in fact have a basic understanding of how the drone works. It just doesn't want to explain that.)

But then it pauses, as it runs a half-dozen calculations and analyses on what place might be safe for Kade. There was Illumination's place, but...that was meant to be for Readers. It didn't think Illumination would like it bringing in a local.

(And at some point, this Story was going to end. And Kade would still be here. So that was only a short-term solution, at best.)

"Do the theatre werewolves not like you?" It asks, thinking of the Blood Moon Troupe. It's been dropping injured humans off at their place all night. But those were humans. Maybe fauna people didn't like other fauna people?

(Ugh. Why did this place have to be full of stupid fauna and human eater politics? It shouldn't have to think about politics.)

[obeir]

Kade falls quiet for a long moment, now the one who's reluctant to elaborate. He'd really rather discuss the drone and its function more, but it's becoming obvious to him that Rin doesn't care to, for reasons he doesn't understand.

"I serve vampires," he finally admits, clearly not happy about this fact. "Most my kind take exception to this." To put it lightly. "Those vampires from before - they have ties to the clan I serve, and knew I couldn't retaliate. That's why they attacked me. It's a game to them."

The latter he adds to try and put the adolescent werewolves' actions into perspective: there's just as many miscreants amongst the vampire ranks. Something that K might later attribute to humans, even supernatural ones, just kinda sucking in every universe.

[ugh_emotions]

Wait. The vampires don't like him either? But Kade works for them?

"...Do you want to serve vampires?" it says, eyes narrowing. There's a distinct sense that if the answer is 'no', SecUnit might be doing something about it.

(I.e. does SecUnit need to go beat up the whole clan and rescue Kade from the equivalent of corporate wage slavery?)

[obeir]

"It's an... arrangement, made to keep my brother safe. As safe as he can be in this place," Kade explains in a resigned manner. "Vampires leave him and the neutral sanctuary he established alone, in exchange for my service."

Would he rather not be involved with vampires at all? Of course. It had seemed like the best bet out of multiple bad options at the time. But now, after having lived in the city for some time and with the power of hindsight...

Still, his brother's safety would always be his priority.

[ugh_emotions]

So it's a protection racket. Well, that SecUnit understands. That was essentially what the company did, really.

"With the vampires. But not the werewolves, because they don't like you," it says. In normal circumstances, it probably would make more sense for Kade to get protection from other werewolves. But apparently not, in this place.

[obeir]

"He's a werewolf. Other wolves don't normally target him the way vampires do simply for being what he is. Then there's the humans like you, who are aware of what we are."

A less common occurrence in Montica than one might expect, but not unheard of. Likely the rumours of supernatural entities prowling the city streets at night have even lured foolhardy humans to visit or move there.

"Humans are too often collateral damage in the fighting between vampires and wolves. It's part of why my brother established his sanctuary, to help them. I like to think putting myself between them and the vampires has made a difference... but I'm beginning to think it may have been better staying in the sanctuary and handling any threats directly."

[ugh_emotions]

SecUnit scowls. Yeah, the humans were too often collateral fucking damage. It's why it was out here, trying to keep as many of them alive as possible.

But it also wanted to keep Kade alive too. Even if he wasn't actually KD​6-3.7.

"I mean, probably," it says, in regards to the suggestion of Kade staying in the sanctuary. "How good is the Security there?"

[obeir]

"Aside from my arrangement, limited. Usually just what residents can provide."

Not the best, in other words. Certainly nothing compared to the privileged safety that the upper class enjoys at the expense of servants like him. But at least there are a few people other than himself willing to help keep it safe.

[ugh_emotions]

Limited.

SecUnit already thought the Security in this whole Settlement was shit. No SecSys. No cameras. No monitoring or alert systems of any kind. All that had were physical barriers, and like, people physically standing around guarding shit.

In short: it was fucking terrible.

But that was SecUnit's opinion. Which it realised was going to be different from the people who actually lived here, and had never seen good security in their entire lives. So If even Kade thought it was limited...

...Yeah. It had to be bad.

"So what security are the vampires providing? Specifically."

[obeir]

"The benefit is their absence. The vampires affiliated with the clan won't hunt or otherwise cause trouble there."

So an indirect security? It does keep a good percentage of the city's vampire population at bay, so the arrangement probably isn't quite as terrible as it no doubt sounds to a stranger. But Kade's aware he got the short end of the stick. Still... it has kept a whole lot of blood suckers away from his brother and the vulnerable residents of the sanctuary, thus far.