Anyone welcome. One of you little sickly people could be cool too.[html]
SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
Where had her little friend gone? She knew he had to be here – this is the area he had taken her to when he had discovered Ryan huddled in the rain. She left her bag just outside the borders, wearing her plaid, tea-length dress as she trailed into the area that was home to the members of Esper Hollow. She wasn’t exactly sure where to find him, but knew he had to be here, right? "Endymion!" She cupped a hand to her mouth as she called for him – not exactly shouting, but she figured it was loud enough.
She continued inside feeling surprisingly lighthearted in this area. She kept one arm out, grasping tree trunks to keep her balance as she advanced towards the wooden shack. She only tumbled once – preoccupied with a shadow she thought had been someone’s figure – and quickly regained herself. As she broke through this last stand of trees, she hesitated. In front of her stood a wooden shack nestled in the soft dirt of the clearing. Instantly, the smell reminded her of that cave. Of her mother. The putrid odor of the sick.
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I snag! And just an fyi, there's only one shack / shed thing in EH. XD;
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_____He had been about three tenths of the way towards the borders to poke around (since some folks, they didn't know how to get anyone's attention or anything, just stood there) when he had heard someone behind him call out for Endymion. Had it been a voice belonging to anyone else, say maybe of the male gender, he might have thought about it differently. But as it were, Esper Hollow wasn't exactly crawling with women, which made it all the more reason for him to turn around and double back to the camp site.
_____Long before he had caught sight of just what species the visitor was, he noticed that she was dressed, in plaid of all things. It stood out just as easily as he did as he came out of the forest and into the half-copse clearing that made up their camp site, eyeing both her and the shack for a moment as he came in closer. “You'll probably want to stay away from that,” he mentioned without much care that she was more or less in the centre of their territory. Pushing his hat up on his head a little bit, he continued speaking. “Endymion's been taking care of some of the sick along with a couple of others, though.”
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Thanks for letting me know. I fix![html]
SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
She took a few steps toward the shack, precariously holding out a hand in front of her. Before she had a chance to grasp the handle to let herself in, a voice disrupted her. She turned, finding the unfamiliar face of a shifted coyote. Much like herself, he was wearing clothing. A bit disappointed it wasn’t Endymion, she frowned for a moment. "Do you know where he is now?" She asked, still standing beside the wooden shack. She thought she heard a moan from inside, and turned to stare at the door that remained closed. She wondered what she might see if she had actually had the chance to pry the door ajar.
She took a step away, however, heeding this stranger’s words. She didn’t want to get herself into any trouble, especially with Laurel. Ryan wasn’t very good at judging a person by their looks – she assumed he would have the strength to be able to force her to do what he wanted, though, if she did something against his word. "What’s inside?" She asked, casting her gaze on it again.
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_____“Nah, I don't know where he's gone off to. He came here looking for his uncle, Laurent, who built that. It's where we've put a couple of folks that are really sick,” he explained with a bit of a forming frown, definitely still concerned about them. But it seemed like for the most part they hadn't been getting any worse, but they weren't really getting any better. “And then in the shed we had one guy tied up because he was wandering around and seeing things. Tried to beat things with a stick and everything. Whatever's been going around seems to play some real hell with ‘em.”
_____But that aside, at least folks were getting an eye on them. Zephyr had been gone for a while and he hadn't seen hide nor hair of the tattooist that they had taken in; Laurel was beginning to think they had left because of what was going on. Turning his olive-tinted gaze back to the woman, he pressed forward with introductions. “I'm Laurel, by the way,” and then he offered his hand for a handshake. “I'm guessing you're a friend of Endymion's?”
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SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
She stared at the wooden door as he spoke, as if maybe she would be able to steal a glance inside. "Ohhh, I see," realizing now why the scent was so familiar. Though her mother hadn’t suffered through the distemper these canines were facing, she had had a comparable ordeal. And similarly, the disease that finally stole Lené’s life was probably just as contagious. "Ahh, hallucinations too?" She asked, familiar with the sight. Though her mother hadn’t suffered through them while she was sick, Ryan had watched her mother halucinate as a result from addiction. But that was something she didn’t want to think about.
"Nice to meet you, Laurel," she replied, shaking the hand he had outstretched to her. She noticed just how much bigger his was, making her feel as if she were merely a child searching for comfort through her mother’s touch. "My name is Ryan. And I’m more of an acquaintance than anything. I meet him just a few nights ago." A friend was something Ryan had never had.
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_____“Yeah, pretty much the whole nine yards,” he said with a shake of his head. It was probably by luck that he hadn't gotten it and aside from Nikita being a little on the twitchy and coughing side, he didn't think she was getting any worse. For whatever reason, he was surprised that they and the rest of the band hadn't gotten ill with something. “Anyway, you're welcome to make yourself comfortable if you want to wait for him. We've even got a spare tent or two if you want to stick around for any length of time. Our borders are what you could call pretty open, I guess.” Hell, he didn't have much care about those who just came wandering through as long as they didn't screw around with anything. They weren't really a pack, that's what he kept insisting; they probably shouldn't have even had borders.
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SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
"Oh? Thanks." She offered a sincere smile, pushing her bangs back away from her eyes (something she did subconsciously now). "Endymion actually let me stay in one the other night. When it was raining," she informed Laurel, figuring he wouldn’t particularly care. She had been a little bit nervous at first, accepting Endymion’s hospitality, but in the end she had agreed. The rain wasn’t particularly comfortable to spend the night under. "I appreciate the generosity."
She moved away from the shack now, no longer finding much interest in it. If it truly contained what Laurel said it did, then Ryan wanted no part in that. She wouldn’t let herself end up like her mother. Instead, she took a seat on a fallen log, spreading the wrinkles in the skirt of her dress with her slender fingers. "So does that make this a pack?" She asked, referring to his statement about the borders. Ryan had never really seen one up close and personal like this; she wondered how it worked.
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_____Even though he didn't know that much about Endymion aside from the fact that he had been a little awkward in Laurel's company, he liked Laurent's nephew very much in the same way he had taken a liking to Jasper. They were both intelligent, both had a helpful trait to them and a skill to boot. But even at that, they had their hearts in the right place and it inwardly pleased him to know that he had offered her a place to settle at least for a night.
_____“I guess you could say it's something like that. It's what everyone else calls it even though we're more of a gypsy band. Just a big group of travellers who've come and settled down in the middle of nowhere for now.” He shrugged, gradually getting used to having to explain things. He had been far too used to being the observer rather than the one doing all of the talking, so it seemed right to explain how things generally went along.
_____“Everyone takes care of everyone around here and we're pretty much equal, even though I guess most of them look to me or Nikita—the other coyote you might see around here—as the ‘leaders’. But if it makes them happy, I won't complain.”
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SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
She studied the tweed hat, smiling a bit of the thought of him wearing clothing too. Her mother hadn’t worn too much, but Ryan had started making her apparel once she excelled at sewing. Lene mostly obliged by wearing mittens or hats that Ryan had made, but never anything as intricate as a dress. She used to tease Ryan for her skill, but in the loving way of a mother.
"Oh, that’s really interesting," she responded, curious to discover they didn’t have some complicated hierarchy. She wouldn’t have known how a system of ranks would have been set up, but she was surprised to hear that Esper Hollow really just had members, and then a duo for their leaders. He seemed rather nice – Ryan could see him as a leader type. Her personality, on the other hand, was no match for a position in leadership.
"Do you all," she threw a hand out gesturing at his garments, "wear clothes?" Obviously she wasn’t mocking him, since she herself was adorned in that same plaid dress. It was just her first time really seeing anyone else with that much clothing. She felt sort of at ease with him because of it.
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_____“Actually no, there's only a couple of us that I know of,” he laughed. “A lot of folks around here don't wear any clothes at all, so we get a number of weird looks.” Not that you know, the fact that they ran around playing musical instruments and were a bunch of closet drunks didn't earn them enough stares. He supposed that he may have gotten the most stares because his appearance was probably about as outlandish as they got, with the random colours of the beads that had been in his hair for years, to the hat and his choice in clothing. Not all of it was practical, but it worked. He liked it.
_____“But they don't seem to care too much one way or another, although I wouldn't be surprised if someone doesn't ask you what you're wearing and why.” It was a wonder why he didn't turn that question back around on them—well why aren't you wearing any clothes?—but they probably had better answers for that. Why wear them? They got in the way, they made noise sometimes, they were gaudy and ugly and it was hard to find something that matched them exactly. More over, if it was a fellow who didn't shift, they were probably pretty pointless altogether. Couldn't put them on and all.
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SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
She couldn’t help but laugh at his words. She couldn’t remember getting any weird glances or looks since she had entered the ‘Souls area, but there had been a few times in the past. Some of the men her mother had thrown her to had scornfully remarked about her garments, but that was entirely different then what Laurel was talking about. Maybe she would soon see first hand what he meant – she hadn't quite met enough canines around here yet to really get a sense of what their personal choices were (on clothing or anything else).
"Sewing is one of the few skills I have, so I suppose I’m more inclined to wear them," she told Laurel. Even though she had made several accessories before, she never found herself wearing too many. She liked seeing all of his clothing, and because of his peculiar fashion choices, she instantly felt a little more admiration towards him.
She gazed around, studying the surrounding trees in hopes of seeing some movement. All she saw was the rustle of leaves in the wind, and the lively actions of the birds and other creatures looming in the trees. Maybe she would have to come back later to find Endymion, but she just wanted to thank him again for leading her to shelter the previous night.
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_____“Well that sounds like a mighty useful skill to have in that case. Lots of things can be sewn up or put together,” and for the most part, he imagined she did just well regardless of what anyone would have to say about her taste in clothing. “I wished I would have picked on a skill like that, but I've spent most of my life travelling around playing a banjo. So aside from that I haven't really got any skills that I know of.” Alcohol tolerance wasn't really a skill, was it? Being able to entertain was a nice skill, but he generally failed at falling back on those feral roots that they had. He wasn't territorial, he wasn't that great of a hunter (or a cook), and so far he hadn't amounted to anything at all. Not that he thought about it save spare thoughts in empty spaces. “So how long have you been a traveller?”
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I apologize if this is crappy. My brain = fried.[html]
SOMEWHERE THERE'S A CRACK IN THE SIDEWALK
BIGGER THAN THE SHADOW OF DEATH IN THIS TOWN
"A banjo?" Ryan had never heard anyone play any music before, except for an odd little thing called a harmonica. She found that shrill noise rather irritating and to think back on it sent shivers down her spine. The man that she and her mother had met who played the harmonica had been a lying cheat. Her mother had really gotten the short end of the stick. Ryan was just a by stander. "I’ve never heard one before." She raised a hand, twirling one of the longer strands of her bangs around a finger. "I’ve been a traveler my whole life, actually. My mother and I have moved from place to place. I’ve never really been anywhere longer than… I don’t know, a couple weeks?"
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*fades to black like an uber awesome ninja*
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_____“Really?” His surprise was a little misplaced because it wasn't the first time that he had been told by someone that they didn't know what a banjo was. But amongst travellers, it seemed like everyone had known what a banjo was. But as the story unravelled a bit more, he was intrigued to know that she had travelled with her mother (the family connection must have been nice, he figured), but didn't delve any further than that. “I could show you mine if you'd like, at least kill some time until Endymion comes back around.” Turning back towards the grouping of tents, he chose then to lead Ryan off in that direction, keen on having someone to entertaining for a change.
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