1-1-2015: Into the Woods
| Title | Into the Woods |
| Cast | Maya |
| Summary | After crossing back into the Realm, Maya encounters... a wolf. |
| Date and Time | January 1, 2015 |
| Location | West of Detroit |
Well outside the limits of that strange white Weaver plague... crossing through one of the larger areas of relatively unspoiled land, the wolf runs across a scent. A trail of human presence, strong, female... where there are no paths for their kind to walk. No reason for a human person to be.
The moon is bright, slanting through the sparse greenery to pool on the woodland floor. Even here, the occasional trace of car-smell comes sometimes, carried on a breeze from highways that are all too near. It's a pathetic, endangered scrap of what once was.
The wolf is running, taller, a muddy red-brown as she's running back along the railroad track running NE towards Detroit. South of I-94, west of I-275, she catches the scent and turns. Woman. Out here. Perhaps a slimmer moon would choose to seek origins before finding the woman herself, but Thandi is more interested in what /is/ rather than what /was/, and so she turns, loping, tracking in the direction of the fresher scent.
She follows the scent... it's a decidedly interesting smell. Complex, with an odd intensity that lingers, almost like the way smells are stronger in the spirit world. Vivid, even in the already vivid world of lupine senses. There are traces of burning, some kind of scented smoke. Green growing things, as if she carries herbs on her person. None of those chemical smells that linger around modern humans--this is someone in a far more primal state, someone who's bathed only in clear stream water and something green-scented. Verbena, maybe, with its fresh edges of citrus.
It is a very easy trail to follow. As wild as she might be, the woman who left this trace has no woodcraft to speak of.
The smell of smoke comes first. Near the trickle of a stream, there's a relatively open place, open ground within a curve in the streambed. The woman kneels there, shivering, trying to light a small fire. She's cleared out space for it, a little spot of bared frozen earth; beyond that is a larger circle, scuffed through the leaf-mould and pine duff, the litter of the woods-floor.
Maya
Wholesome, every line singing with life and warmth and openness: the kind of beauty this young woman possesses defies the perfect-model ideal. Instead, she's the girl next door, the one whose attractiveness comes from inner self and personality as well as outward beauty. Ivory complexion, strong bones, and a certain set to her features proclaim ancestry that's some mix of European with a different genetic strain. A lively warmth usually shines in her eyes--eyes of a peculiar, changeable clay-blue, sometimes touched with more green or aqua, sometimes appearing almost the grey of looming thunderclouds. Usually they're the rich turquoise of the Caribbean. Her mouth is generous, a little too wide perhaps, with a bee-stung fullness to her lips that isn't extreme enough to be artificial.
Chestnut hair with subtle warm highlights frames her face, an angled cut that's butch-short at the nape of her neck and the sides, left just long enough on top for that mussed bedhead look. A single narrow, tiny braid hangs down longer from her right temple, decorated with beads, charms, and a brown flight feather with paler stripes.
The young woman's somewhere in her early twenties, with the defined muscles of someone very active and athletic. Her body, though, is a little too curvaceous to suit the current media tastes--an hourglass shape that's worthy of a war-era pinup girl. Her height is roughly average, 5'5" or so, and she almost never wears any heels higher than an inch or two. She has a mellow voice, a gentle alto that always seems a bit worn, a little hoarse around the edges. Her pale skin has a dusting of freckles, and tends to flush at the slightest provocation.
She wears snug jeans and a thermal shirt, with tall snow boots that look very well-traveled. A heavy frame pack, the sort for long-term backcountry hiking, rests on her shoulders or is set down close at hand. She may or may not be wearing a deerskin jacket, an anachronistic piece that looks like maybe she stole it from Davy Crockett, or some 'Injun' in a Wild West movie; it's an almost knee-length affair, heavily decorated with tribal beading, the front edges framed with swirling images inked and beaded in the style of Haida art.
On the back of the jacket, spreading wings across the leather, is a bead-and-quillwork image of some sort of bird totem. That is what faces the wolf's eyes, almost dead-on, at first.
The wolf comes close, and sniffs, trying to be quiet, watching. Dressed warm, a woman that seems harmless enough for the moment. She'll watch a little time--maybe five minutes--before turning and starting to backtrack along the path.
<<DICE>> Thandi rolls primal urge + perception, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 3 successes (4 4 6 7 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
The scent trail ends in...
Nothing. In the middle of another tiny clearing, it simply disappears. As if the woman came out of nothing, or parachuted out of the sky.
A snort. Strange. No masking scent, like earth or pine....she turns back and retraces her steps back to the clearing she left the woman, definitely quieter and trying to watch unobserved.
And when the wolf returns some fifteen minutes later, the woman is still there, trying to coax flame into being. She finally manages a tiny, thin thread of smoke... and then it fizzles.
The stranger takes a slow breath, her head dropping forward in defeat. "No, I get it," she murmurs softly. "Just need some freaking help, here, okay? I'll keep it small and quiet." A brief silence, as if she is carrying on a conversation, and she gives an exasperated sigh. "I know." When she rises and turns to pace over to the backpack--leaning against a nearby tree--Thandi gets a better look. Pretty. Her hair looks like it's been hacked off with a knife, though, and she seems gaunt and tired. Both hands, gloved in sheepskin or something thick for winter, rub at her face; then she breathes into them, breathes through them, for some relief from the cold air.
Rummaging through a side pocket on the pack, she finds a box of plain old fireplace matches; she returns with them to the fire-lighting spot. "I'm gonna run out of /matches/ if I don't, dude," she says. And then she drops to kneel again, and takes something small from a pocket of her coat. She opens a packet, lays out a tiny pottery bowl and sets a bundle of some dried sticks in it; then she lights the sticks and blows them out, as one would with incense.
That's the scent-component: the sharp-smoke-burning-herb component of her signature.
Not a fire, but this....incense? Definitely a puzzled wolf now that crouches down in the snow to watch. except that she isn't truly a huntress to wait patiently, and so slowly starts pushing snow around, and making a bit of noise as she watches, and listens.
The woman begins to speak softly, almost a chant: coaxing, persuasive. "Solshi, xw'umi, ch'nes olshi... I could really use a hand here..." More of the odd, way-too-many consonants language follows. She says "solshi" a few more times in the midst of it.
At some point, Thandi's hackles stand up. Something... *something* is happening. But the only thing that seems to happen is that the woman keeps saying, "Solshi, solshi, solshi, ts' ots' qe' sh..." as she leans forward to light yet another match and set it to the kindling--and this time the flame seizes, and holds.
It looks like, well, a Theurge performing a ritual. Her hackles go up and a soft growl escapes her lips before she thinks to quiet herself. But...of what sort of ritual is this? If Wyld, should she help?
"Lemlm--" The woman freezes, straightening slightly with her hands still cupped to guard the tender flame from any wind. Her eyes are wide, and her body speaks of fear and wariness as she scans what she can see. But she clearly isn't going to sacrifice her fire to go look. "If you can understand me," she says quietly, "I mean you no harm. I am just really, *really* freakin' cold right now and I want to build my fire. I promise I won't let him get out of control, or anything, okay? And if this is your territory, or anything, I'll be gone by morning. I just need some food and sleep."
She manages to keep her voice almost steady... but she is definitely very afraid. She feeds the little fire almost without looking at it--all her concentration and alertness focused outward, now, on the woods around her.
Taking that as some sort of invitation, the wolf, reddish, tall, like a Rhodesian Ridgeback, but enough wolf blood to show it is no dog, steps forward, starting to circle around the clearing. curious, but not aggressive. not at the moment at least. no snarling, no bared teeth, no ears back, she's not too close, but plenty that she could give chase.
The woman sees her almost as soon as any human *could*; she must have sharp eyes. That and a ton of adrenaline coursing through her veins, at the moment. She doesn't take her eyes from the wolf, not entirely... but she doesn't hold the creature's gaze. Not challenging, but not offering absolute submission, either. A swallow tightens Maya's throat, visible above the colorful scarf wound around her neck. "Ah, um," she says, nervous little vowels escaping her. "Hi. I'm not-- trespassing, or anything, am I?" Another swallow. "Dumb question. I wouldn't be talking, right now. Or breathing. Or much of anything. I'm sorry, I-- kind of, um, talk toomuchwhenI'mnervous."
<<DICE>> Thandi rolls charisma + primal urge, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 1 successes (1 2 7 8, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
The...wolf? Dog?...circles the clearing, staying away, ears perked forward, no teeth showing, but watching the human very closely, sniffing the strange herbs and everything. No motion to attack, and trying not to show that she understands the English at least.
Cautiously, with wary-eyed glances to the wolf, Maya feeds a few mor twigs to the little fire. "We're okay?" she asks, uncertain.
Well, the wolf isn't lunging or otherwise attacking, and so at least there's that going for everyone. She pads back out from the clearing, at about right angles to the direction that Maya is heading, only to curl back out of sight and listen for more...
"Okay," Maya breathes. "I'll take that as a yes, then." Over the ensuing minutes, she builds the fire to a cheery little blaze, and pulls the bedroll from its place, strapped at the bottom of the frame pack. By the time Luna rides high, Maya is curled up perilously close to her smoldering fire, bundled up in a blanket. "Don't let anything eat me," she murmurs absently, before closing her eyes.
The night passes for a long while, though with the wolf having moved away and shifted to a different from before climbing a tree to listen and watch. Just in case.
Sleep is hard to achieve, apparently, and when Maya finally does rest it's only for a couple hours. At some point she starts flinching in her sleep, and curls into a tighter ball, occasional twitches of movement betrayed beneath the blankets. The nightmare lasts some time, building until the woman finally wakes with a hoarse, desperate scream.
She scrambles back until her back hits a tree--fortunately not Thandi's tree--and huddles there with arms around her upraised knees, her breathing harsh in the quiet.
A rough voice with an accent that, well, isn't from around here (though that may not be obvious to Maya) comes from the branches of a different tree. "T'hell's wrong? You ok down there?"
Branches crack a bit, then a figure in several layers of old clothes topped with a long brown trenchcoat drops down from a different tree, landing heavily, as there's a large duffle on her back.
Thandi
This chick looks like trouble. A bit over 6', the woman's coffee-colored skin and straight dark-red hair speak of mixed ancestry. Her lack of body fat and very developed and defined muscles show a lot of working out. Her nose is small, lips thin, chin pointed, and eyes a disconcerting golden yellow. Her hips flare out from her narrow waist, and her breasts are large and full. Her hands ar rough, nails ragged...no life of luxury for her.
She wears battered black leather boots. Faded blue jeans are tight on her, and she wears a rather snug dark blue and teal shirt that basefall fans would recognize as a Seattle Mariners shirt. Over this, though, and even in the summer, she has a dark brown suede leather jacket that goes down almost to her knees, slits up the sides for movements, cuffs folded up, and two brass buckles on the left side for clasps.
The woman lets another hoarse little scream, one hand scrambling behind her back and coming up with a (not very impressive-looking) hunting knife. At the same time, she struggles to her feet, the tree at her back. There's still a sheen of tears on her cheeks, a shimmer in her eyes, from the dream. And now, in addition, there's a haze of fear. The knife lowers, slowly. "W--" She closes her eyes hard for a moment, giving a little shake of her head as if to clear away the fog of the nightmare; then she focuses on Thandi, something clear and sharp in her eyes, the fear hidden carefully away.
Thandi is very tall in Glabro. Easily basketball player height. Her clothes mask any build, but the full duffel is carried lightly. "I ain't askin' who you are," she says. "But iff'n yer screamin', then something the fuck's wrong. Anythin' you wanna talk 'bout?"
Maya swallows, hard, as she looks... up. All the way up, and she isn;t all that short to begin with. "Just dreams," she says, pulling together a few shreds of calm. "I have-- bad dreams. It won't hurt anybody. They don't-- I don't do anything, I--"will be in the
"Not good t'yell out like that inna woods...bad stuff can happen," Thandi says, a bit grumpily. "Like wakin' someone else up what'd rather be asleep." She shakes her head. 'ya look like you ain't got much fer travellin'," she notes."
Maya looks away. "I made a-- a long trip, to get here," she says quietly. Another swallow, and she moves, sheathing the knife behind her back--with the easy grace of long habit-- and stepping toward her sleeping place. She crouches and starts rolling up the mat. "I'm sorry I woke you. What were you, hiding up in a flet or something?"
"You ain't gotta leave," Thandi says. "Ya got a fire there. An it's brass monkey cold. I was up inna tree, sure, tryin' t'stay warm. Branches keepin' t'wind off. What t'hell's a flet?"
Maya pauses a moment, taking a breath. "Something a little like a treehouse," she says quietly, her voice oddly choked. "A platform to sleep on. In a tree."
Thandi ahs. "No. jus' t'branches," Thandi says, shaking her head, and giving a sigh. "But, fuck...think we're both 'wake now...can you get back to sleep? I can't..." Annoyance, certainly. And those eyes golden.
"I'm sorry," Maya whispers, her head bowed over the embers. "I wasn't sure if you'd--" She shakes her head. "Sorry." Still, she keeps her back to the woman, the task of rolling the mat forgotten.
"Don't be sorry," Thandi says, a bit snappish, but then she cools down. "Sorry. Bad temper. Really a bitch. If ya can sleep, try. Otherwise...where ya goin'?"
The sharp tone produces a flinch, almost like a physical blow. "Detroit," Maya says quietly, adding fuel to the fire slowly.
"Fuckin' horrible place," Thandi says, shaking her head. "Helluva lot nicer out here, but...." but even out here, it's close to various farms or places. "Look...I..' She shakes her head. "I'll jus' go." And she starts to trudge away.
"You don't have to," the woman says quietly. "I mean, if you wish to stay close to the fire. It's-- if you need to watch me until I'm gone, I understand." That faint evidence of tears is still in her voice, a cloudiness.
Maya relaxes slightly onto her heels, kneeling by the smoldering embers. The shining of tears catches the moonlight, now.
"Why you think I need t'watch you?" Thandi tilts her head. This ought to be interesting. "What're you thinkin' right now?" The voice is gettign louder, but...no audible footsteps on the snow.
Maya takes a slow breath. "I don't know," she says quietly. "This isn't... your land, then?" Something about her seems faded, as if the nightmare has sucked away some part of her vivacity, the life and energy that surrounded her last night.
"Here?" Thandi, shakes her head. "I'm back inna city. jus...had t'get out fer one night, y'know?" A slight shiver and chatter to her teeth.
The woman presses her lips together, hard. "Yeah," she whispers. "I know." Head bowed, she rises, and begins scouting the nearby wood for more fuel.
After a moment, Thandi sets her duffle bag down and starts diggin inside, coming up with a can of Sterno. "Here. This'll help. Ya got any food what needs cookin'? Coffee or tea? Warm up inside, better'n warmin' up outside."
Maya's movements pause, for just a moment, as she considers and accepts. "I have some tea," she says quietly. "If you-- if you would like some?"
"I...sure," Thandi says before closing the duffle again. "S'pose we oughta try again. How 'bout startin' over with meetin'? What's yer name, miss dropped outta t'night?"
Maya turns with her armful of wood, the sheen of tears still in her eyes. She keeps them averted, avoiding the woman's gaze, a sort of commonplace politeness; if she pretends she isn't crying, maybe Thandi won't comment on it. "You-- came across my tracks, or something, then," she says, subdued. Her voice has been touched with hoarseness, all this time--as if her throat is unused to speech, maybe.
"Tons easier t'track inna snow an' wilderness'n inna city," is the reply. "Look...it's a neat trick, an i sorta wanna know how ya pulled it of," she says. "But I ain't gonna press--now..'cause you look like yer 'bout t'have a fit o' th' tears. You runnin' from somethin'? Or am I jus' that scary?"
Crouching down to lay out the wood around the fire, Maya takes a few other things from her pockets; she lights the odd incense again, and blows it out to let the smoke scent the night. An odd, tremulous smile comes to her face, and she shakes her head--still without looking over. "You just remind me of someone," she whispers.
"Do I remind you of a man? What man? The man with the power. What power? Voodoo. Voodoo? Do what? Remind me of a man..." Thandi gives a bit of a wry smile. "You sorta remind me like some of the girls who liked Home Ec at school."
Maya's smile turns bemused. She goes to the pack to get a cloth bag from within it, and this time actually glances over. "What, because I know how to make tea? Maybe I don't though. You don't know yet..." After she returns to kneel by the fire, she takes off her gloves, probably for better manual dexterity. Even so, the woman seems to have trouble with the little knot on the pouch that must have the tea inside; she has to resort to the knife to cut the little frozen strings, and in the process nicks a fingertip. She takes a deep, steadying breath, and reaches into her pocket, maybe touching something for reassurance.
<<DICE>> Maya rolls arete, difficulty 4 <<DICE>> 1 successes (1 7 7, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
Turning to look at Thandi, she twists at a bracelet on one wrist. There's that focus in her gaze again, as if she sees more than most people... and just at the moment, she is searching. Trying to see deep.
<<DICE>> Thandi rolls perception + primal urge, difficulty 7 <<DICE>> 0 successes (1 5 6 6 8, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
Maybe it's the cold, or just the oddness, but Thandi doesn't feel anything odd. But secrets are revealed, certainly about how dangerous she might be. "Naw...they jus' seemed, idunno....anyhow...." The staring, though, makes her a bit more wary and she stares back meeting the other's eyes directly.
Something shifts in Maya's gaze, the slightest widening of her eyes at that direct contact. "Maya," she says quietly. "My name's Maya." She shies away from the direct gaze after that, and returns to the fire, building it up.
Tension relaxes when the eyes drop, and the garou nods. "Hey, Maya. Call me BB, ok?" She gets a little bit of the fire and ligths the wick of the sterno before getting it going. "You gon' be all right?"
The woman looks over to her, brow furrowing a little in confusion. "As much as anyone is," she answers, rising again. "I'll get some water-- will you keep the fire?"
"Sure, I can do that. An' if ya don't mind someting bland t'eat, could prob'ly work that, too," BB says. 'ya got a bowl or somethin'?" She pokes a bit at the fire, helping it start to burn. Might not last as long, but it's warmer this way.
"I'm okay," Maya answers. "There's one in the bag there, with the pot, if you need it though..." She goes to the pack to pull out another "kit"--collapsible water container and filtering kit, together in a mesh bag with a sturdy strap and handle. Something else, smaller, she takes from the pack and slips into a pocket. Then she heads for the noise of water.
She's back before too long, and she sets up the filter swiftly, water moving from a temporary bag into the clean container, the plastic expanding as it fills.
There's what looks like...well, it might be oatmeal, or cornmeal, or something else in the bowl. some sort of grainy substance at least. "Pour it in," she says and starts stirring with a short stick.
Maya brings over a cup of the newly-filtered water, trading that for the cooking pot. She watches Thandi, though, while she waits for the rest of the water to run through the filter; a sidelong, diffident observation of the woman's movements, her actions.
Thandi moves easily, despite the cold, and the mass isnie the bowl thickens, bubbling and swelling up...and looks like very bland, unappealing mush. hot, filling, but....blah.
Maya quirks an eyebrow. "I got some syrup left," she says doubtfully, "if you want it?"
"Iff'n ya want, but trust me, I've eaten worse," she says with a grin. "have it yerself first." She schoops some out into a smaller cup and starts to eat at it, leaving the other portion for her.
Maya gives a small shake of her head as she hangs the pot of water. "I'm fine," she answers, though she does head for the pack to rummage a bit, pulling out a different kit and getting a small plastic container out of it. There is, in fact, just a tablespoon or so of syrup in the bottom. "It's real," Maya says as she returns and offers it out. "And I won't be camping after tonight, I hope."
"Thanks forra offer, but 'sallright," Thandi says. "But...Detroit fuckin' sucks. I'm out onna streets m'self most nights. Fort'nately, I don't get troubled. Much."
Something flickers across Maya's face, there and then gone, too quick to identify. She pockets the little container and asks, eyes on the ground, "Have you seen a girl with rainbow dreads, ever?" Her body is tense, her voice soft an contained. It's a Very Important Question.
<<DICE>> Maya rolls perception+empathy+1, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 1 successes (1 1 3 7 8 8, Specialty: No, Willpower: No) <<DICE>> Maya rolls wits+occult, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 2 successes (2 4 8 9, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
Thandi thinks, then shakes her head. "Hellifiknow," is the answer. "Why ya wanna know? Have you ever danced with the devil in the pale moonlight?"
The woman's smile is thin, compromised by emotion. "Depends on how you define the devil," she says quietly. She seems to come to some decision, taking a breath, straightening just a fraction. "You live in Detroit?" she asks, watching the water begin to stir. Reaching out over the pot, she makes a little stirring movement with one finger, clockwise.
"Fer now, yeah," the other woman replies, before taking a bite of mush. "You sound like yer lookin' fer someone there." a meditative pause, 'could prob;y help find 'em, but I'd wanna know why..."
Maya gives a tiny shake of her head, swallowing. "No. I can-- I'll find her." She wets her lips, and glances away from the water to study the woman once more. "I--" She has to halt, to take a breath; her gaze is steady, though. "I am not an enemy to you or yours."
Thandi widens her eyes then at this bald statement, "Ok. So who are you t'be sayin' this? An' who're me'n'mine?" A bit warier as she looks at the other.
A touch of apprehension shows on the young woman's face; beneath the calm, strong surface, she knows exactly how badly this could go, if it heads sideways. "You're one of Mother Earth's children, aren't you?" One hand comes up to her sternum, as if to touch something beneath her shirt; she takes a deep, slow, steadying breath, letting the sharp-scented cedar open her awareness further.
<<DICE>> Thandi rolls primal urge + perception, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 3 successes (3 4 6 6 7, Specialty: No, Willpower: No) <<DICE>> Maya rolls arete = 4, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 0 successes (, Specialty: No, Willpower: No) <<DICE>> Maya rolls arete, difficulty 4 <<DICE>> 3 successes (6 6 7, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
"That doesn't tell me who /you/ are," is the reply. "I got the creepy feelin' that ya know more 'bout me'n I know 'bout you, an it's makin' me a bit worried." Her nostrils flare. "Ok. What t'HELL are ya tryin' to do?" The cedar scent, something is makingher neck itch. something not right, not...natural...
Instantly, the woman adopts a less-threatening posture, lowering that too-perceptive, too-direct gaze of hers, spreading both hands palm-out, low at her sides, to show she is weaponless. "Only looking at you," she says, her voice a low near-whisper. "Only seeing you, to be sure you aren't--on the other side of things. Or a spirit's trick. It's been a long journey."
"That's what yer doin'. I'll ask one more time: What. Are. You." Anger is starting to rise now as Thandi backs up and gets to her feet, getting some room, just in case.
The woman's face is pale with fear, now--but she's also outwardly calm, as if meeting death wouldn't faze her so much. "Someone who speaks to the spirits. Someone with medicine. I follow Hawk." Taking another steadying breath, she looks across to the woman. "What else do you wish to know?" she asks quietly.
"I seen people with medicine what can't see past their own nose,' Thandi says. "You know what I am, you know I'm dangerous. I know yer dangerous, cause ya can fuckin' /tell/, an' that means I gotta know 'bout you t'know iff'n yer an ally what's dangerous t'stuff I don't mind gettin dangered...or...somethin' else."
"If you're one of Gaia's own," Maya says quietly, "I'm no danger to you." She wrinkles her nose, a moment's wryness flickering across her face. "Actually I'm pretty sure I'm no danger to you, period." She looks to Thandi, then, with a trace of old griefs in her smile. "I've seen."
<<DICE>> Thandi rolls wits + 8, difficulty 6 <<DICE>> 7 successes (1 2 5 6 6 7 7 7 9 9 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No) <<DICE>> Thandi rolls wits, difficulty 8 <<DICE>> 2 successes (4 10 10, Specialty: No, Willpower: No)
"I'm one of Gaia's own. I know Rat, not Hawk, not Falcon, an' I don't know you." Thandi narrows her eyes a bit. "An' iff'n ya ain't kin...I got t'heebie-jeebie's 'bout others knowin'. So I wanna know more, like...you a shaman? Somethin' else?"
There's a barely perceptible wince at the mention of Rat; Rat's Brood and Falcon's, obviously, aren't bosom buddies. "Shaman's what most white people would say, yeah," Maya says quietly. "I'm a dreamspeaker. A spirit-speaker. It's... we're the balance. Between the world here, and the worlds of Spirit."
Thandi watches, closely, listening, before finally deciding. "I'll give ya this: yer convinced yer my friend. So I'll not do anythin' rash. But I'll be keepin' eyes on ya, an' if ya end up goin' 'gainst Gaia....'
Maya gives a small nod. "I'd seek death first. But I understand."
Thandi is on edge, semi-growly, but...she starts going back towards irritable. "Anythin' else yer wantin' t'tell me 'bout you? 'Bout stuff?"
"I'm here because Detroit... is what it is," Maya says quietly. "Because this is the battleground. And someone I care about is fighting, here." She swallows, and glances to the now-boiling water. With carefully inoffensive, predictable movements, she gets out the tea and drops two little cotton bags in, as she takes the pot off the fire.
"And who's it ya care 'bout?" Thandi is pacing a bit, not getting too close, and eyeing Maya. "Shit. Doin' this all wrong, but it's cold an'...an' t'moon..." and she's not trained in diplomatic niceties.
Maya nods quickly, crouched by the side of the fire, her head bowed. "I know." There's something in her voice, a resignation, a fatigue. "You've been kind. You're not doing anything wrong. I should have been more careful, but I wanted to get out before the moon was at the half, and before going any further into--" She swallows, hard. "Whatever it is."
"Whatever what is? T'spider webs what're all over every city? T'river what's killin' t'webs?" Thandi clenches her fits. "An' yer bein' kind, too. But one what should'a been a friend wasn't. So iff'n I gotta be careful with my kind, I gotta be more careful with you."
"I understand," Maya says quietly. She stays down, in that vulnerable position, letting Thandi tower over her; the difference is made more apparent, when she has to tip her head back to look up at the Glabro. "What can I do to help you? I can't-- I don't want to be taken anywhere, or delayed, but if there's any ...magic you have, to know that what I am is true, you're welcome to use it."
Thandi snorts. "That...that ain't me. I got stuff t'survive. So I jus' do what reg'lar people do. Trust. Or not." She crouches down, then lessening the height differential. "But what're you getting further inta?"
"The city, and whatever sickness... that is." She looks across the Thandi. "What you said... it isn't true. This thing the Weaver's kind have done, in Detroit... it isn't like other cities. It's something different. I just came from New York, and Boston before that. This... the white maze..." She glances away. "This is something else. And maybe if we figure out what, and why, we can heal it." She carefully pours steaming tea into two small metal cups, offering one out to the woman first.
Thandi takes the cup, and a small sip from it. "Maybe. Like t'try, sure. But there's...even more ba stuff inna city. I...you can't even get t'th spirits or things go fUBAR."
Maya nods, her eyes lowered as she breathes on her own tea. "I know what happens, if you trespass inside the white," she says quietly.
"You get t'watchers see an' run to their master," Thandi says darkly. "You can avoid 'em, if you're lucky, or sneaky."
Maya settles onto knees and heels, cupping her tea in both hands. "I need to know more," she says very quietly.
"Big fuckin' flock o' firds what's all noisy watching all over fer people goin' in or out o' spirit places," Thandi says. "They attack, chase, an' some of 'em run t'their master t'warn 'im."
Maya gives a tiny shake of her head. "I didn't mean about that. I know about the w--" She blinks, and gives the woman a sharp, curious look. "Him?"
"Then what white're you talkin' 'bout?" Thandi looks a bit surprised. "There's...a guy gone bad what can get spirits t'do what he wants. Tryin' t'get 'im dead."
"One of yours, or human?" Maya asks.
"What's the white?" Thandi asks in return.
"The... maze of white web-vines, the thing that covers all of downtown." Maya's brow furrows, and she tips her head, seeming to listen for a moment.
Thandi grunts. "I was never downtown when I did that...saw the huge canopy o' web though all over t'city, coverin' it, headin down t'th river. What happens if you go in it?"
"If they see you, or if you injure the webs at all, you'll get swarmed. Not just spiders, but the whippoorwills, too." Maya's expression is dark. "But if the interference of the whippoorwills is because of someone *human*... that can be dealt with."
Thandi shakes her head. 'whippoorwills swarm ya, not just downtown, but lots 'round it. But no, it's not someone jus' /human/."
Maya studies her. "What, then?"
Thandi grimaces. "One o' us. Gone bad. Jus' like you guys can."
The shaman pales just a little, and swallows. "Gone over to the Wyrm, or the Weaver?" she asks.
"Wyrm. Usin' Weaver-stuff an -spirits, but he's Wyrm now," Thandi says, and spits on the ground.
Lifting her chin a little, Maya looks to the tall woman. "How do you know this? That he's the one doing it?"
Thandi grunts. "That....ain't my secrets t'tell. Iff'n I tell you, others--other good guys--would figger ya knew too much an' kill ya." she sighs. "Can see 'bout gettin' ya cleared, but..."
Maya gives a tiny shake of her head. "No. No one needs to go out on that limb for me. At least not until I know what the loup-garou here are like, whether they're open to cooperation or not." She gives the woman a small ghost of a smile. "Anyway. You don't even know me, you know?" Another draught of tea, and she looks to the fire, her gaze going distant.
Thandi nods. "No, I don't. An' t'ones what're here are twitchy 'nuff 'bout other wolves. You, not-wolf...you don' wanna get in touch wi' th old guard here. Newbies here, like me...we're downright open an' friendly compared't them."
The ocean-blue eyes look over to Thandi, when she speaks. Maya's expression is sober as she listens, and that shadow of pain surfaces. "Thank you for the warning," she says quietly. "I understand. I'll be more careful."
