Like everyone else, Erich Storm's Teeth was watching Broken Tree interestedly, even intently, as she took the spotlight before the Bone has even been cracked. As she began to speak, he got a quizzical look on his face. His brow knit. Then it furrowed. Then it became downright thunderous, scowling, fuming.
By the time she finishes, Erich is practically champing at the bit to get out there. By the time she invites them all to speak of hope, to prove her wrong -- well, by then Erich is so worked up he just plays right into the Talesinger's hands. He shoves his way out of the crowd, trips on someone's leg, catches himself with an oath and stalks out into the middle of the ring. When he gets there he glares at Broken Tree, looking around for the Bone until he remembers, again, that there is no Bone in this part. Right.
"We have NOT reached the end!"
So it is that the first tale of the night comes from a Cliath Ahroun Shadow Lord. He is downright indignant.
"We're not even close to the end. We're just getting started. There is NO room for despair here. I hate that defeatist bullshit."
He's in her face. In another form he would be bristling, his fur standing up from withers to tail. He would be blasting breath from flaring nostrils --
well. He's already doing that.
"You want to hear about hope? Fine. Here's hope for you." He wheels away, he searches the crowd, he jabs two fingers out into the gathering. "That is Reverence of Dawn-rhya. She's a Silver Fang Philodox. And the things she does, dude.
"Have you seen her fight? She puts down Wyrmlings faster than I do. We ran into these fomori once at a bridal shop -- it's a long story -- but she just TORE THEM APART. The biggest, baddest one? She shredded it. In like. A bite. The second toughest? She shredded that one too. It took like 2 seconds. All that was left for me were the little peons. She was like the fucking avatar of glory.
"And she's just as good off the field. Maybe even better. Couple weeks ago I got into one hell of a snarl with Siren of Persephone. I mean I was ready to tear her to bits. But Reverence of Dawn-rhya stepped up. She got everyone else, especially the kin, out of the room. And then she told us to make a choice. Be selfish and fight it out, or be big about it and just... act like fuckin' adults, you know? She made us see how dumb we were being, and she talked us down. Because of Reverence of Dawn's leadership, judgment and mediation, me and Siren of Persephone walked away allies. Maybe we'll even be friends.
"Reverence doesn't brag about any of this. She doesn't hold it over your head. She doesn't let it make her arrogant or smug or anything like that. She ... inspires you. She shows you what doing good really means. And you want to keep up. You want to do your best. For her, but also... for yourself. You feel proud to be Garou when you're with Reverence-rhya. You feel proud to call yourself her friend and ally.
"She's a hero. Period. So there's hope for you.
"Over there, now." Erich points the other way now, at the Theurges near his own packmate. "That's Siren of Persephone-rhya. She's the Black Fury Theurge I butted heads with. I said some pretty not-okay things to her. She outranks me. She's a damn good Theurge, by all accounts. If she wanted to make my life hell, she probably could.
"But she didn't. She decided to sit and talk things out with me. She decided to give apologies where they were due and accept them where they were due to her. Reverence of Dawn did a bang-up job playing judge, jury and referee for us, but that would've never worked out if Siren of Persephone-rhya wasn't the reasonable grown-up she is." The word choice is, perhaps, wholly deliberate. "But she knew we're stronger united than divided. She knew all that the war against the Wyrm trumps everything else. And she was willing to lay down her own personal issues, and maybe even a little bit of her pride, so that this Sept stayed strong.
"So there's hope for you."
"Sitting next to her? That's Still Waters. I'm sorry to say I don't know her very well, but I saw all I needed to the other day at Cold Crescent. Our Elders were getting hauled off. It was like a fuckin' police state. No interrogation, no trial, not even an explanation. People were just disappearing. Most people just put their heads down and hoped they didn't go with them. But not Still Waters. She stood up. She asked why. She wasn't rude about it. She wasn't snotty or uppity or anything. She knew her place: she was a Cliath. And she knew her place: she was a champion of justice, and one of the most important pillars of justice is transparency in the whole... y'know... system.
"Now, I don't know if it did any good in the end. Hunter of Peace-rhya still got taken away. We haven't seen him since, and we don't know what went on behind the scenes. But maybe that doesn't even matter. What matters is a Cliath Child of Gaia stood up for what was right, even if it meant she'd get punished for it. She did it peacefully. She did it respectfully. And if I'm ever stuck in a deep shithole and people are trying to bury me without a trial, I hope to Gaia someone like Still Waters stands up for me.
"So there, right there, is hope for you."
He turns away from the circle. He faces the Talesinger again.
"I've got one more story. It's about a kinswoman named Eva Illeshazy. She's not here tonight so I can't point her out to you guys. I'm still gonna tell you what she did, though, because it deserves to be heard.
"Everything we know about Cold Crescent? Everything the elders neglected to tell us, and everything we couldn't figure out? She figured it out. I don't know how. I don't know what strings she had to pull or what she had to do, what she had to invest, what she had to give. But she figured it out, and she brought it to us, and the very fact that we have even an inkling of a plan, or a shadow of a hope, is because of her.
"A kinswoman. She did that. She put her ass on the line for us, not because we made her do it, not because we told her to, but because she saw need and she did her best, and her best was better than what any of us could have done.
"THERE'S hope for you.
"I can keep going. I can talk about this shit all day. I've got stories like this out my ears. But the thing is, I can't convince anyone that there's still hope. I can't manufacture it for you. You make your own hope -- or despair. You make your own victory -- or demise.
"So that's my challenge back to you, Talesinger-rhya. And to anyone out there wallowing in despair. Stop it. Just don't. Don't cry. Don't whine. Don't give up. Don't wait for someone else to light the way. Don't wait for a hero. Don't be afraid. I know it's hard. I know a lot of shit happened. I know sometimes it feels like we couldn't possibly win against something so huge and strong and ruthless as the Wyrm. I know sometimes it feels like you have nothing to give.
"But none of that is true. Because if any of that was true, then Gaia would not have made us. It doesn't fucking matter if you can't fight, or if you're blind as a bat, or if you have no clout, or if you have zero education and zero eloquence like me. There's something you can do, if you look hard enough. There is always something you can give that no one else can.
"So stand up. Stand up like Reverence of Dawn did. Like Siren of Persephone did. Like Still Waters did. Like Eva Illeshazy did. Be a goddamn hero. Be a beacon of hope.
"Every single one of us was born to win this war. Get out there and prove it."
If he'd had a microphone he'd drop it on the floor now. As is, it's something of the same effect when Erich turns and stomps back to sit next to Charlotte.
By the time she finishes, Erich is practically champing at the bit to get out there. By the time she invites them all to speak of hope, to prove her wrong -- well, by then Erich is so worked up he just plays right into the Talesinger's hands. He shoves his way out of the crowd, trips on someone's leg, catches himself with an oath and stalks out into the middle of the ring. When he gets there he glares at Broken Tree, looking around for the Bone until he remembers, again, that there is no Bone in this part. Right.
"We have NOT reached the end!"
So it is that the first tale of the night comes from a Cliath Ahroun Shadow Lord. He is downright indignant.
"We're not even close to the end. We're just getting started. There is NO room for despair here. I hate that defeatist bullshit."
He's in her face. In another form he would be bristling, his fur standing up from withers to tail. He would be blasting breath from flaring nostrils --
well. He's already doing that.
"You want to hear about hope? Fine. Here's hope for you." He wheels away, he searches the crowd, he jabs two fingers out into the gathering. "That is Reverence of Dawn-rhya. She's a Silver Fang Philodox. And the things she does, dude.
"Have you seen her fight? She puts down Wyrmlings faster than I do. We ran into these fomori once at a bridal shop -- it's a long story -- but she just TORE THEM APART. The biggest, baddest one? She shredded it. In like. A bite. The second toughest? She shredded that one too. It took like 2 seconds. All that was left for me were the little peons. She was like the fucking avatar of glory.
"And she's just as good off the field. Maybe even better. Couple weeks ago I got into one hell of a snarl with Siren of Persephone. I mean I was ready to tear her to bits. But Reverence of Dawn-rhya stepped up. She got everyone else, especially the kin, out of the room. And then she told us to make a choice. Be selfish and fight it out, or be big about it and just... act like fuckin' adults, you know? She made us see how dumb we were being, and she talked us down. Because of Reverence of Dawn's leadership, judgment and mediation, me and Siren of Persephone walked away allies. Maybe we'll even be friends.
"Reverence doesn't brag about any of this. She doesn't hold it over your head. She doesn't let it make her arrogant or smug or anything like that. She ... inspires you. She shows you what doing good really means. And you want to keep up. You want to do your best. For her, but also... for yourself. You feel proud to be Garou when you're with Reverence-rhya. You feel proud to call yourself her friend and ally.
"She's a hero. Period. So there's hope for you.
"Over there, now." Erich points the other way now, at the Theurges near his own packmate. "That's Siren of Persephone-rhya. She's the Black Fury Theurge I butted heads with. I said some pretty not-okay things to her. She outranks me. She's a damn good Theurge, by all accounts. If she wanted to make my life hell, she probably could.
"But she didn't. She decided to sit and talk things out with me. She decided to give apologies where they were due and accept them where they were due to her. Reverence of Dawn did a bang-up job playing judge, jury and referee for us, but that would've never worked out if Siren of Persephone-rhya wasn't the reasonable grown-up she is." The word choice is, perhaps, wholly deliberate. "But she knew we're stronger united than divided. She knew all that the war against the Wyrm trumps everything else. And she was willing to lay down her own personal issues, and maybe even a little bit of her pride, so that this Sept stayed strong.
"So there's hope for you."
"Sitting next to her? That's Still Waters. I'm sorry to say I don't know her very well, but I saw all I needed to the other day at Cold Crescent. Our Elders were getting hauled off. It was like a fuckin' police state. No interrogation, no trial, not even an explanation. People were just disappearing. Most people just put their heads down and hoped they didn't go with them. But not Still Waters. She stood up. She asked why. She wasn't rude about it. She wasn't snotty or uppity or anything. She knew her place: she was a Cliath. And she knew her place: she was a champion of justice, and one of the most important pillars of justice is transparency in the whole... y'know... system.
"Now, I don't know if it did any good in the end. Hunter of Peace-rhya still got taken away. We haven't seen him since, and we don't know what went on behind the scenes. But maybe that doesn't even matter. What matters is a Cliath Child of Gaia stood up for what was right, even if it meant she'd get punished for it. She did it peacefully. She did it respectfully. And if I'm ever stuck in a deep shithole and people are trying to bury me without a trial, I hope to Gaia someone like Still Waters stands up for me.
"So there, right there, is hope for you."
He turns away from the circle. He faces the Talesinger again.
"I've got one more story. It's about a kinswoman named Eva Illeshazy. She's not here tonight so I can't point her out to you guys. I'm still gonna tell you what she did, though, because it deserves to be heard.
"Everything we know about Cold Crescent? Everything the elders neglected to tell us, and everything we couldn't figure out? She figured it out. I don't know how. I don't know what strings she had to pull or what she had to do, what she had to invest, what she had to give. But she figured it out, and she brought it to us, and the very fact that we have even an inkling of a plan, or a shadow of a hope, is because of her.
"A kinswoman. She did that. She put her ass on the line for us, not because we made her do it, not because we told her to, but because she saw need and she did her best, and her best was better than what any of us could have done.
"THERE'S hope for you.
"I can keep going. I can talk about this shit all day. I've got stories like this out my ears. But the thing is, I can't convince anyone that there's still hope. I can't manufacture it for you. You make your own hope -- or despair. You make your own victory -- or demise.
"So that's my challenge back to you, Talesinger-rhya. And to anyone out there wallowing in despair. Stop it. Just don't. Don't cry. Don't whine. Don't give up. Don't wait for someone else to light the way. Don't wait for a hero. Don't be afraid. I know it's hard. I know a lot of shit happened. I know sometimes it feels like we couldn't possibly win against something so huge and strong and ruthless as the Wyrm. I know sometimes it feels like you have nothing to give.
"But none of that is true. Because if any of that was true, then Gaia would not have made us. It doesn't fucking matter if you can't fight, or if you're blind as a bat, or if you have no clout, or if you have zero education and zero eloquence like me. There's something you can do, if you look hard enough. There is always something you can give that no one else can.
"So stand up. Stand up like Reverence of Dawn did. Like Siren of Persephone did. Like Still Waters did. Like Eva Illeshazy did. Be a goddamn hero. Be a beacon of hope.
"Every single one of us was born to win this war. Get out there and prove it."
If he'd had a microphone he'd drop it on the floor now. As is, it's something of the same effect when Erich turns and stomps back to sit next to Charlotte.
BECAUSE OF LIGHT AND DUTY AND REASONS.