[html] This is thread #3 of my current plot grab bag. Please see the link so you know what's going on!
!@#$%Initially, Anselm had found the backpack to be grating and annoying. It rubbed against his fur oddly and irritated the skin beneath, but this minor setback paled in comparison to the potential he saw within. Weighted down with a good seven or eight manuals and reference books, numerous hand tools, and some other hardware, he was ready. The extra weight was invigorating in and of itself--he wondered if he ought to incorporate some weight training into his daily routines. At the bare minimum, if he built up his endurance this way, he would feel all the lighter and more powerful with the extra weight removed.
!@#$%But for now, he was focused on something more subtle and unique. Plopping the bag down rather unceremoniously at his side, he opened it and gave it a rough shake so that all of the inner contents spewed out and landed in a pile around him. Where he chose to do this was no coincidence, however--he now propped his back up against a brick wall and began flipping through one of the books. Its subject was carpentry and woodworking, and he had found a partially collapsed residential home with plenty of plywood and two by fours to play with.
!@#$%As it helped him to absorb the information better, he read several lines aloud: "American and European saws cut with the push and Japanese saws cut with the pull. The Western-style ripsaw is best suited for solid wood and making long cuts with the grain. Hm." He squinted at the picture of the handsaw in the book, and selected the real life version he had found at the gold mine known as an abandoned Home Depot store. Rising to his feet again, he placed the book in the midst of his pile of junk and selected a two by four from the pile of rubble that once was a house. Time to experiment.
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THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOVED
______THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOST
THE THINGS I'VE HELD SACRED
______________THAT I'VE DROPPED
_____ So began the trial of days. Ahren walked in a daze down the street, crossbow on his back, knife at his side, and his accompanying materials likewise. His feet seemed possessed, following ley lines and the cracks in the earth he could not see. Still, there was something about the city that kept him there. Perhaps it was a calling back to his childhood, or something earlier—perhaps it was a jungle that so many others had yet to understand, and perhaps that gave him a sense of security.
_____ Whatever the reason, the blonde was heading down the road when he caught a voice on the wind. He trailed it to the source, a very wolfish hybrid (he smelled like Inferni, which signaled he was not entirely wolf) with a saw and a two-by-four. Quirking a brow, he stopped, but said nothing.
I won't lie no more you can bet
I don't want to learn what I'll need to forget
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[html] Oh man!! I was hoping for a thread between these two sooner or later! :]
!@#$%His eyes traced out the grain of the wood, and he ran a finger over it. The grain obviously followed the length of the two by four--it would be somewhat awkward to cut it like this, but he figured if he started out with the less convenient nonsense, all subsequent cuts would seem that much easier. He found a platform and clambered up on top. Crouching down, he placed one knee firmly on the edge of the two by four--the rest hung off over the ledge. He lined the saw up with the centre of the wood and began to go at it. The lovely scent of fresh wood found its way to his nose as the sawdust sprinkled on the ground below, but he was surprised to find that it was accompanied by another scent. Unless the soul of some poor wolf was stuck in this chunk of wood, there was somebody else nearby. The answer was obvious.
!@#$%Pausing momentarily in his sawing, he nonchalantly turned his head around and was greeted by the sight of... he lifted the saw and put it on the ground, then turned and jumped down from the platform. He landed easily, almost catlike on his feet, then straightened to his full height. His stare was not one of intimidation, but rather one of recognition and some amount of excitement. Anselm had always assumed he would know when he met his second cousin, and he was certainly right. The two males were strikingly similar in appearance, especially when it came to their eyes. At the very least, he could see much more resemblance between himself and Ahren than him and Gabriel, despite the fact that Ahren was a pure wolf and he and Gabriel were not.
!@#$%"Cousin?" he finally inquired, to confirm his suspicions. "Anselm de le Poer." He offered his full name, so confident he was that he was related to this male, along with an extended hand to shake. Hell, he'd been having good luck when it came to family ever since he'd gotten here..
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THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOVED
______THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOST
THE THINGS I'VE HELD SACRED
______________THAT I'VE DROPPED
_____ Unfortunately for Anselm, the blonde knew very little of his extended family. The only cousin he had, by memory, was Mab. His father had been very tight-lipped on the matter of family, and Ahren had never asked him about it further. So despite the stranger’s appearance, and his all too telling eyes, Ahren would not have been able to place him as part of the family. Still, Anselm seemed to know him on sight, called him cousin, and did share the name.
_____ “Ahren de le Poer,” he replied, giving the extended hand a firm shake. “Gabriel’s father,” he added, almost as an afterthought. “Who brought you into the fold?”
I won't lie no more you can bet
I don't want to learn what I'll need to forget
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!@#$%Anselm had gleaned most of his knowledge of the de le Poer's from listening to his parents talk. They'd rarely spoken to him directly on the matter, but he'd always had a knack for absorbing whatever information was tossed even roughly his way. Once he'd left them, he'd heard plenty of rumours of Kaena Lykoi and her son, Gabriel. So this was Gabe's father, huh? That meant he had knocked up the infamous queen of Inferni, and Anselm had to admit he didn't know what to do with that thought. From his understanding, Kaena was much older than Ahren looked--it was weird, and it brought an amused smile to his lips. Hey, whatever worked.
!@#$%After they shook hands, he turned about and lifted himself back up onto the platform, and again picked up his saw. "Nosferatu is my great grandfather," he offered in explanation. "Carcharoth is my father, and then Azrael is in between." He hadn't met anyone from his grandfather's generation, either, much less Nosferatu, but he knew the names. "So where do you reside?" he asked, as he began to work on the piece of wood again. "If you haven't smelled it already, I'm living with your son. I was here before the mass exodus from the fire."
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THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOVED
______THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOST
THE THINGS I'VE HELD SACRED
______________THAT I'VE DROPPED
_____ The names spilled by, and Ahren only recognized one of them. Still, from that, he gathered the things his father had never told him—he had siblings, and those had spawned another generation. He had a full blooded cousin out there somewhere, and then this kid was second cousin. Interesting. The family tree was a great deal larger then he had expected, given that so many of their blood fell to ruin long before their time.
_____ “In the Dampwoods,” he offered, watching the wolfish hybrid curiously. “Where’s the rest of your family?”
I won't lie no more you can bet
I don't want to learn what I'll need to forget
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!@#$%For a moment his strokes with the saw paused, and he stared blankly off into the space in front of him. Family. Nobody had ever particularly asked before, and even if they had, they probably hadn't any reason to know it--so needing to think about it was of little concern. Gabriel had only inquired of their relationship, not the current status of those relatives that allowed them to draw some sort of connecting line.
!@#$%Mechanically his arm began to move again, and by now he had reached the edge of the platform. He frowned for a moment in thought, then turned it around 180 degrees and began to line up the cut once more. It was a little off, but not enough to make much of a difference. He completed the task, and now he had two thin sticks rather than a single broad plank. He tossed them to the side, then took a seat on the lip of the platform, his attention back on Ahren.
!@#$%"I honestly have no idea. I can only presume they're still chugging along somewhere." That probably wasn't very satisfying. "It wasn't exactly a great place. I'm sure they had their reasons for staying as long as they did, but I also had my own reasons to get going, so I left." And that was it, on the most basic level. He offered a shrug, jumped down again, and began to riffle through the pages in his book. What to try next?
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THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOVED
______THE THINGS THAT I'VE LOST
THE THINGS I'VE HELD SACRED
______________THAT I'VE DROPPED
_____ The pause was not overlooked; Ahren would have done the same had the same question been pressed to him. This was not because it was uncommon, not at all, but because something terrible had taken his family away. That thing was him, of course, but he would never admit that wholly. He had whispered it to his son, to Laruku, and yet he still carried that guilt like a ball and chain. There was nothing that would bring that back. What he had was gone, and it was gone forever.
_____ Movement made him snap back to reality, and Ahren registered that he had heard words, even though they were avoidant, obscure. Advancing, he tilted his head to eye the book that his…second cousin-nephew (whatever he was) was holding. “What are you building?”
I won't lie no more you can bet
I don't want to learn what I'll need to forget
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!@#$%Anselm considered himself fortunate to not yet know the burden of a family. Obviously, Gabriel (and Ahren) were his family, but not in the sense that he was expected to provide for them. Random one night flings ensured that he probably had children, somewhere, but so long as he didn't know about them they were not his problem--and neither were the mothers left stuck with them. So far as he was concerned, they had to have known the risk when they chose to tangle with him. He never made false promises about sticking around. They'd be better off without me, anyway...
!@#$%Distractions were excellent. Closing the book with a snap, he tossed it gently to Ahren to catch and page through. Even if Ahren couldn't read, there would be plenty of pictures. "Nothing, yet. I'm just trying to develop the necessary skills. Apparently there are hundreds of human tools, and not all of them are so different. Go figure." It seemed like a rather monumental task, but he liked to keep his mind busy. It wasn't like he'd need the nitty gritty details, anyway--just the basics would suffice. "Know anything about working wood? Saws, carving... I'm open to pointers." He figured he'd start with wood before moving to stone, and then eventually metal.
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