It's a blah sort of day in Saint Claire. Clouds come and go, bringing with them the occasional cold shower on an equally chilly day. The old warehouse off Bridge Street is mostly watertight. Mostly. But there are still puddles and the light breeze creeps through the broken windows. Deep inside next to the long-locked office is a makeshift little camp. A refridgerator cardboard box, a steel drum for a banked firepit, and a rigged spit with a few pieces of rebar and wire. There's someone in the box, curled under a threadbare blanket and using an old canvas knapsack as a pillow.

Felix has shared Briari's information about the new warehouse denizen with Justin, and after some discussion, they've decided on a general course of action. It involves them showing up at the warehouse in question, a fact which would probably surprise no one. It also involves making use of a Sept fetish or two, since this morning those prove easier to find than... well, nearly anyone. The Galliard is fairly cheerful despite the weather, though he gets quieter as they approach their destination; after all, better to figure out what they need to know before they approach the newcomer, if they can. He peeks briefly through one of the broken windows, nodding to the Ahroun when the interior supports their expectations.

Following after Felix in his lupus form, Mouse-Trap has the tooth dangling around his neck attached to a spiked collar. He gives a few snuffs, then butts himself against the legs of Felix, then leaps upwards to snag the window and wiggles his way through it to land on the warehouse floor, then starts lazily trotting along, giving a loud chuff here and there. He is just a dumb dog. As he focuses on the fetish to activate it, it gives a soft glow around his neck for a moment, waiting to see if it turns color as he stares at the cardboard palace.

In the depths of the city, the tooth has a dull green cast as it reacts to the ever-present low level taint. However, it doesn't brighten any within the warehouse. His present and noise though does bring the occupant of the box to stir. A woman with silver-grey hair shading down to black at the ends looks out of the box, eyes narrowing as she looks about and then focuses her gaze on Mouse-Trap. One corner of her lip pulls up faintly as she stares back

You paged Risa with 'How would the other fetish work, btw?'.
Risa pages: Basically the same principle. A pure silver bell about four inches tall and engraved with glyphs warding against magic. Effect: When activated, the ice-spirit seeks out and embraces the victims of lingering enchantment, causing them to shiver violently. This is very useful for seeking out victims of magical mind control or otherwise attempting to explain unusual behavior. It works on Garou rites or Gifts, Vampiric powers of blood magic, and the magical spells and incantations of sorcerers and mages. If for some reason the victim wants to resist being discovered of their own free will, they they may try not to shiver by succeeding in a Static Willpower Challenge (difficulty 6). Additional Information: It will not detect the presence of evil spirits in people (such as fomori or a ghost possessing a human) nor will it detect the condition of being a blood-bound to vampires. Such conditions are not magical, despite being supernatural.

Outside, while the dog trots across the building, there's the faintest of little tinkles -- one ring of a small silver bell, as Felix activates the other fetish they brought. He wraps it back up in the fabric that's been keeping it otherwise quiet and returns it to the pocket of his jacket before stepping back out of basically-concealment and following Justin inside. "Hey!" he scolds the 'dog', "Where d'you think you're goin'?" He looks Risa over as he approaches and reaches to hook a finger into that collar, "He wake you up? Sorry 'bout that, ma'am."

As he rounds a corner to spy the woman, Mouse-Trap gives a few sniff-sniffs in her direction, then flops back upon his haunches and begins to lick his balls without a care in the world. At the sound of his master, he lets out a 'rrrowr?' noise and perks his ears up, then bark bark barks at the young teen, tail wagging furiously behind him.

Risa looks between the two with a deal of suspicion. She's be good looking, but the fine angles of her face and build are too angular and a bit too lean to make her look bony. She's dressed far better than one would expect of a homeless vagrant, visible as she steps out of the box. It's thrift store degree versus handoffs and is more road-worn than just ancient and shabby. "Right. Well, keep your mutt from peeing on my stuff if you would."

Felix grins at the wagging and barking, crouching down to fuzzle the canine's head, scritching behind the ears before he straightens again, hand staying lightly on the collar. "Don't worry, he's housebroken," he assures the woman, friendly, "...an' if it's got a roof, it counts as a house. Ain't seen you 'round before, you been here long? Like whatcha did with the hair, by the way." Sounds entirely sincere, as well.

Mouse Trap continues to wag his tail furiously, winding himself around the other teen's legs. With a glance upwards to catch his attention, he perks his ears and chuffs. She has no scent. She hides it from us.

Risa raises up her arms and crosses them across her chest as Mouse Trap 'speaks'. While she speaks it's with no small amount of suspicion. "Cute. Yeah, I'm new. You two the welcoming committee from the locals? Normally it's far less roundabout and they like to get right to the point of 'why are you here' and 'when are you leaving'. Hell, sometimes they're extra friendly and encourage me out before dinnertime."

"We =are= cute, ain't we?" Felix says, still cheerful enough, "It's a gift. So, how come you're hidin', an' since you mention it, why're you here? Not that this ain't a pretty okay place to be, all in all. There some reason we =should= be encouragin' you out?"

Justin thumps his tail upon the ground a few times, rumbling out to the bag lady. Jig is up! You are here on coyote turf. We are Tactical Frivolity. He is Alpha. Gnawer. Warrior. This one was told of your presence and to come by and see you. You eat rats? Gross.

"What do you think's in fast food burgers, balllicker?" Risa says down to Mouse Trap before looking back to Felix. "Think it's more disturbing you're friends with the masked wonderfreak. As to your question, I'm here because there's nowhere else to go that isn't getting overrun. But I'm sure you all know that. Those that are in good shape or recovering aren't friendly to strangers, at least not the tribeless sort."

"'Friends' is a strong word," Felix says dryly, "And deliciousness. That's what's in fast food burgers. So, no tribe, huh? First one I've met." He tilts his head, looking her over again, as if it might show now that knows about it. "So, what're your intentions, then? Just bein' where the shit doin' the overrunnin' isn't currently doin' it?"

Justin looks amused. Fastfood uses cat. More meat on bones. At the nick name, he sprawls backwards on his haunches and gives her a full frontal view of his floppy nutsack. Oh? He noticed you noticed these. You may look, but not touch.

"Stash 'em or lose 'em." Risa snorts at the Ahroun. "I'd rather not die painfully or worse. I may be Ronin but I'm not a lunatic. Figuratively speaking. Normally I'll do odd jobs a sept can't be bothered with, earn myself a few days bein' unbothered, some change, or something better if they're feeling generous. Right now most ain't want nothing to do with a tribeless nobody. Few have tried to kill me on sight. So you'll have to forgive my suspicions and keeping to myself." She adds with a sneer.

Felix looks amused at his friend, and the newcomer's snort gets a bit of a grin as well. "Well, seein' as it's pretty much too late for keepin' to yourself, prolly be a good idea to let the Sept know you're around," he says, "Y'know. Introduce yourself, all that shit. But hey, on the bright side, there's been multiple sights an' none of us've tried to kill you on 'em yet. Also, if that's figuratively speakin', are you literally a lunatic? 'cause I reckon that might be a good thing to know also."

Shifting upwards to his homid form, Justin folds his arms in front of his chest as he gives her an amused smirk. "Yeah, well, right now we are too busy dealing with actual problems and we have a ronin hanging out already as it is. We have not killed her yet, though we came close a few times because she can be a bitch."

"Yeah, I'm an actual lunatic or whatever shrink term you wanna apply." Says the woman before what Justin says is given a sharp, bristling stare. "That best not be a passive comment about me." A pause. "Interesting there's another Ronin around. I suppose I'll have to find her, see if I've run across her before. So this place doesn't care about them hanging around or just too many of 'em?"

"Fuck shrink terms," Felix says, rolling his eyes, "'s just rephrasin' the shit people know an' adding pills an' shit, whatever. Are you a =dangerous= kinda lunatic, and yeah I realise there's a kinda baseline here to start with, but you know what I mean. Is it somethin' we oughta be worried about, or just your problem?" He doesn't look too worried about it himself, as yet.

Smirking at her, Justin says, "Even if it was, you won't do shit about it." He gives his muscles a bit of a tensing, setting his jaw as the rage creeps up into his gut for a moment. "I am a don't fuck around with me kinda dude. We really came by to do a sniff test on you, to make sure you weren't one of the enemy. Now that we know you are just a bitchy tribeless, you don't really matter much to me now. We can move on to something else. Only reason we would come back is if you did something stupid."

"Don't piss me off and it wouln't be a problem." Risa says to Felix, but that's tested with Justin's comment. Her head jerks to face him at speed, eyes blazing with anger as she stands straighter and curls her hands at her side. "Big words coming from a Gnawer. Feel like a big man now because one of the other tribes isn't here to shit on your doorstep? Go on and enjoy being the Nation's pisspot. They may hate me but at least I'm not crawling on my belly for the sake of laying by someone's fire. I can make my own."

Felix's stance shifts a bit, chin lifting and eyes narrowing; he wasn't slouching before, but it still gives the impression of straightening up a bit. Even so, his tone's still pretty conversational, for now. "Ain't your mama never taught you no manners? Watch your mouth when you're visitin' other folks' homes, or you're liable to wear out your welcome. We can make our own fuckin' fires too, an' they burn shit =real= good. You act like a decent guest, an' I'll act like a decent host. But I ain't promisin' nothin' for no one else."

"Hey, if you're itching to lose the rest of your teeth, you let me know and I will be more than happy to knock them out for you." Justin sneers back to her. "You've said nothing I haven't heard before and I still ain't tripping. The streets and this city is good to me and we aren't starving. You play nice, you get hooked up. So, what is /your/ excuse? Why are you tribeless? You fuck up so bad no one wants you around? With that charming personality I can't see why you'd get the boot."

"HAH!" Comes the loud bark of derisive laughter from Risa. "My mama's dead. She's the one who did the crime, I just get to live the dream she created. I'm quite happy living my own life. I don't need some bigger dog patting my ass when I done good. I do the shitty jobs the other Garou are too good to do, get paid, and go on my way. Works out good and no need to please anyone but me. They don't like me, fine. They can handle their own dirt then if they can be bothered."

"Oh shit, you mean people act like they got a right to treat you shit just 'cause you got born one way rather'n another? Fancy fuckin' that," Felix says, with an expression that would be convincingly innocent if the tone weren't so flatly sardonic. "Yeah, sure, you're lovin' every minute, whatever. Wasn't there somethin' about you bein' here 'cause you're runnin' outta other places to go?"

"You clearly missed the sarcasm in there." Risa says with a snort. "Metis get shit. Ronin get shit. I get a double-dose. Pretty well used to it. Life on the road though? Yeah. I /do/ like it. Reason I'm here is cuz the septs were getting their asses handed to them. It doesn't make for a great place to crash, especially with the survivors as twitchy as they were. Not keen on getting shanked while I sleep. Heard this area didn't get much of any of the action so it seemed like a good place to crash for awhile."

"Wah. Life is soooo hard for you. You could always just.. join a tribe. I mean, you are already living in a box. You could join the Gnawers and live in a library instead. We have running water, /and/ a heater. Because I helped build it. Gnawers that shower, it is pretty much futuristic." Justin says with a smirk on his face. "Though you being a rat eater may complicate things."

"Fuckin' =duh=," Felix says, regarding Metis and Ronin shit-getting, "People unload their shit wherever they reckon they can get away with it, mostly. The really pathetic thing's people gettin' shit on goin' around throwin' it at each other. Fuck that, throw it back at the other guys! Only thing =I'm= givin' you shit about's bein' a shithead. An' that's entirely your own fuckin' choice." He glances at his packmate once the Library's mentioned, and adds dryly, "We even got runnin' heated water, most days. Rumour has it Better Homes'n Gardens's gonna be by doin' a spread any time now."

"Like I told the Chromed Wonder," Risa says with a wrinkle of her nose and the edge of a growl. "I don't need charity, pity, or You're Better With Us speeches. I have the mandatory Gnawer and Coggie offers every sept I visit that has 'em. I'm not interested in joining up with the Nation. I like my freedom. I've lived my whole life without it just fine so you can keep the welcome package."

"Sweet, more stale donuts for us then. Well, I think our business is done here." Justin says as he shrugs his shoulders to Felix. "This was boring and we got those vampires to deal with."

Felix shrugs as well. "I don't really do pity. I'm kinda shit at it," he says, "An' past the whole cub thing I ain't really found my freedom gettin' impinged, but hey, you do you. Reckon our business ain't =quite= done here, though. Everyone else don't know you're around, you might be gettin' less congenial welcome wagons. So how about you give us the whole name, rank, an' serial number shit so we can pass it on?"

"I ain't here to entertain you." Risa says with a huff to Justin. Felix gets the answer of, "My name is Risa. Blood-Runs-Black. Ragabash. Metis. We Ronin don't get ranks. Nation's got a trademark on those. If your bosses got work they wanna pay someone to do, fine. They want me out, they can say so. Otherwise I'll just keep to myself and take care of my own business."