Forsaken of Federal Hill

Echo and Cho seek out Nevermore for help hunting down the Cat spirit and ask it what it knows.

Echo finished hanging a pennant on the wall. The room was adorned in Oriels and Ravens paraphernalia. She stood back and admired her handywork for a moment. She nodded to herself, likening the layout.
Now Cho. Before I call Be-Defeated-Nevermore there are some things you should know. For every favor we ask we can expect to owe a favor in return. Its not a one for one trade, but it is best not to go off on tangents. Asking a rhetorical question may very well be taken as a question that needs to be answered and have payment expected for it. Of course we may have some credit what with the recent defeat of the Beshilu. She waved her hand around the room pointing out the various paraphernalia. Of course a little appeal to pride doesn’t hurt either. I expect this will go rather smoothly, though I can expect a Cat spirit to want to trade a bit more fiercely for the information we want.
Barefoot, she went over to her sports bag and pulled out some team clothes and then walked over to Cho. Echo handed Cho the jersey and hat.

No they aren’t necessary, but, again, it butters him up real good she smiled.
While Cho pulled the clothes on Echo walked back over to her gym bag and pulled her dress up over her head. Showing off the tribal tattoos that curved around her hips and back, accentuating her curves. Picking out an oversized Jersey from the bag she slipped it on over her head. She walked back with a compact in her hands and dabbed some team color facepaint on Cho’s face and then her own.

I’ll call for ‘Nevermore as soon as you are ready. She said.

Cho was already nervous as hell when Echo decided it was appropriate to strip naked right in front of him. He was stuck somewhere between turning away embarrassed and staring as she threw the jersey on and daubed his face with eye-black.
"Oh uh... g-got ya." he managed. He was so excited the pack was trusting him with important tasks now. The way Rashid looked at him in the meeting had his heart pounding.
These people had saved his life, gave it meaning. They got him off drugs, gave him a home and a family. They actively supported his DJ aspirations. He loved being part of their pack, and he wanted to show it. To earn it.
He was a little iffy on talking to the totem, he'd met it and accepted it's Ban but actually asking it for help? Sure that's what it's job was supposed to be, but he felt wrong doing it.
"R-Ready, E." he said with a nod.
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Be-Defeated-Nevermore watched the two half-bloods decorate a room with the symbol's of Baltimore's greatness and was pleased. Especially the female one, she pleased it greatly. Unlike the pack's Crecent Moon, the female half-blood treated Nevermore with proper respect and adoration.
Perhaps she enjoyed going to such fan-fare from a place of Pride, perhaps she simply didn't understand the bond between it and her pack, but she always sought Nevermore's attention with this small ritual. While it did little to affect the Hisil's flow, small amounts of essence was usually created from her as she worked.
Nevermore was floating between them, watching from a state of twilight as she applied her ritual ointments to her mate's face. It had dealt little with the the male half-blood, but knew it spoke the first tongue more fluently than even his Uratha superiors. He spoke in the tongue of man, but his body language said he was prepared for his mate's ritual to be done.
Nevermore respected the ritual enough that it would wait for the little female to finish before revealing itself to them.

Between Cho and Echo the air blurred like the heat of the desert sand, then the reality tore and through it pushed the tip of a long black beak. Pressing out from behind it were large yellow eyes surrounded by glossy black feathers. Be-Defeated-Nevermore pressed through the gauntlet terrible to behold towering over the mortals. Its head twitched erratically as it looked around the room its entire head swiveling on its neck as it continued to press forward. It stepped through on tawny black horse’s legs, Its torso appeared to be encased in some sort of banded armor until upon one realizes that the bands are moving and are in fact chitineous crab legs folded in close to the body. Iridescent orange feathers decorated the human like arms that ended in scaly four talonned birds feet. It then raised to its full height, rising several feet over the two onlookers and arched back its shoulders puffing out its wings giving it the appearance of being enclosed in a malignant shadow.

Cho had met Nevermore once before, but that time he'd been surrounded by the pack. Being alone with it, besides Echo, was an entirely different experience. He was afraid, he wasn't even going to lie.
But the pack was relying on him here, and he wasn't going to screw things up.
"The pack needs your aid, Be-Defeated-Nevermore. We seek a spirit with information that may be important to our Sacred-Hunt. The spirit is a cat who seems to watch everything taking place in the city. Do you know of it? Can you take Echo and me to it?" it took a moment of concentration, but the words spewed from his mouth easily after the first two words. He felt bad for Echo, who had to hear them unfiltered.
The spirit contemplated Cho's words for a long time, and he wondered if he'd done something wrong.
Finally it replied.
"I know this spirit; Cat-Who-Stalks-Secrets it is called. It's brood is ever vigilant, always watching and reporting what they've learned to their master. I have not spoken to it in a long, long time. It will take time to find Cat-Who-Stalks-Secrets if it becomes aware of out search. It will become aware. You will need secrets, and many of them to draw it out." the Totem replied. Cho turned to Echo.
"Oh uh... h-he or um it rather, says that it knows the spirit. C-Cat who stalks secrets he said. He doesn't know wh-where cat is and uh... shit... he says if we uh... we try to find him he'll know about it. W-We need to draw it out with uh... shit... uhm with s-secrets." he said, frustrated at how difficult speaking a human tongue was for him after the comfort of the First Tongue set in. The language Luna had shaped his mouth to speak.

Echo smiled warmly at Cho, letting him know he was doing just fine. You’re doing great Cho. I’m not surprised that a cat spirit would want secrets as currency. That shouldn’t be a problem. Since Be-Defeated-Nevermore doesn’t know the location at the moment, that should actually work in our favor. Please thank Be-Defeated-Nevermore and let him know we shall prepare many secrets for Cat-Who-Stalks-Secrets so Be-Defeated-Nevermore’s efforts are not wasted, and that through Be-Defeated Nevermore’s efforts the pack will bring fire and destruction in their wake to those that would damage our beloved city. We shall await Be-Defeated-Nevermore’s pleasure to contact us when he is ready.

Be-Defeated-Nevermore was pleased with the tokens of appreciation and with their accord departed until she could locate Cat-Who-Stalks-Secrets. Slipping back into the spirit world with an easy gate.

You did wonderfully Cho, thank you so much for being here with me for this.
Echo beamed at Cho and then threw her arms around him in a great big hug and gave him a peck on the cheek. She then pushed him pack to arms length tilting her head to the side and gave him a kindly appraising look.

I need your help with something else. You know how I prepared this room for ‘Nevermore, well we need to go around the territory and prepare it for Cat-Who-Stalks-Secrets. So I’m going to need your help making the ritual items and getting them placed around.
Also, she giggled, letting her arms drop we need some secrets.
You know how in Chinese culture you burn paper money to your ancestors because spirits can’t tell the difference between fake money and real money? Well there is truth to that. Spirits crave concepts as much as anything else. If the Cat wants secrets we need secrets, but its not like we have to know what happened to Jimmy Hoffa, what is important is that it is a secret, and the more someone, anyone doesn’t want it to be known the more powerful it is. So you and I are going to do just that. I want you to think of anything, heck, make something new up, and don’t let anyone know it. Drop juicy hints to me, to the other pack members to your neighbor, anyone. And that will be our currency with the Cat. I’ll get the other pack members in on it to do the same, we’ll all be dropping juicy gossip hints for a few days. She dropped her tone in mock severity, but couldn’t keep the smile off her face it’ll be simply scandalous!

Cho had no idea what Echo's plan entailed but her excitement was infectious. Cho felt himself carried away with it and grinned conspiratorially.
"Oh... uhh... mhmm, sc-scandalous. I'm sure uh... that is, I bet Riley and Randy h-have some uh.. some good ones. I uh... I'll hit them up if uh... that's cool." he was stoked. They were helping with the hunt. Helen had told him that just because he didn't have the Rage, and couldn't change forms didn't mean he couldn't hunt and Echo was proving her right!
And if the other wolf-bloods helped too...
"Hey uh... do you think we should uh... I mean they're all busy with the uh... the drug angle and such, maybe just us wolf-bloods could do this. Show the g-guys we're uh... we can handle things. Or maybe that's dumb." he wasn't sure. Nevermore would protect them, it was obligated to... but what if this cat spirit was stronger? Maybe he should have shut his dumb mouth.

I don't think that is dumb at all Cho. We can do this ourselves. They'll probably be busy, but you never know - they may just like the opportunity to hang out with you!

She started taking down the decorations in the room, but didn't put them away.

Here, you can help me with this. Lets see... she started talking to herself ticking off her fingers were going to need these she gestured to the decorations, some incense or ooh, fireworks! , We're going to be mixing these decorations something to represent the cat- or secrets... OH stickers that would be even better!

she turned to Cho

We're going to need about two dozen Ravens bumper stickers, and a Morse code book.

Echo pulled out her phone and dialed Rose.

"Hi Rose-honey, this is Echo. I was wondering if you had some time to help me out with a project, I was thinking we could kill two birds with one stone. We could make a girls night out of it. Call me back and let me know"

Echo figured if she was going to go around their territory, she might as well see if Rose wanted to come along and mark the territory at the same time she was dropping tribute to the Cat spirit. Football season was about to kick off so a little late night shenanigans would be par for the course in town.


about an hour and $20 later...

Cho and Echo were sitting around inscribing a single Morse code letter onto each bumper sticker.

Perfect, now make sure you put a number on the back of each so we have them in the right order. It was important that they got the order right or the ritual would only be half complete as the Morse message spelled out the secret of who was going to be sticking the bumper stickers up around town- a secret hidden in plain sight for the entire town to see!

Rose had called Echo back as soon as she had a chance, curious what birds they were about to kill. When she had found out the woman's intention, she felt grateful to Echo for giving her the opportunity to use her gift. It was something she couldn't ignore for the good of the pack and this was the perfect time to do the ritual. They planned to spend the night completing it. Rose decided to pay homage to their totem by incorporating an aspect of Be-Defeated-Nevermore into the plan. Echo listened carefully as Rose laid out the itinerary in broad strokes. It was pretty simple, as rituals go. They would be wearing t shirts from the center. Rose had obtained several raven feathers and a stack of posters advertising their outreach programs. It had taken some extra time but Rose had added her tribe symbol to every poster she intended to use that night. She had worried for a second that it might upset the other pack members but shrugged it off. They'd understand that she was doing it for the good of the whole. They would walk the edges of the territory, occasionally burn a feather and slap up a poster. She might've detected a hint of incredulity from Echo's response to the plan at the lack of ceremony she was planning on using. Then again she could've been imagining it. Laying out her ritual plan to someone else left her feeling vulnerable and she hated it. Maybe I should've done this privately after all, she thought. Well, little late now. "Come on, girl. Let's get this show on the road!" Rose scooped up their supplies and headed for the door, eager to complete her task.

Completing the ritual left Rose feeling revived. She had burned the feathers and had instructed Echo to stick a poster in each spot a feather was burned. The whole event was completed without incident, although she was pretty sure they didn't manage to finish it without being observed once or twice. When they returned to the center, Rose grinned at Echo. "Thanks for your help tonight. Couldn't have done it without you."

Dice stuff

Cat Who Stalks Secrets' curiosity was piqued. Earlier it had been visited by an old friend Be Defeated Nevermore about making a bargain with the Uratha sworn to it.
Then a curious thing happened, members of Cat's brood began to report to her that the pack was shaping the flow of essence. But while they worked one rite, hidden with in it's workings was another, one meant to tempt Cat. And Cat was tempted very much.
That was, until a hated foe showed it's claws after such a long time seemingly dormant and sent much of the spirits back to their boltholes. This was an interesting turn of events. And there would be blood. Cat would seek out these Uratha, once it knew more about it's enemy's return.

Echo crashed on the couch flushed and tired. What a great night. With how busy everyone was with running down leads she was glad Rose had made some time. Echo’s mind wandered back over thei nights activities. Rose had come by her place about 9ish and seemed a little nervous when presenting her plan. Echo loved it and had shown her her mocked up bumper stickers and told her how nervous she had been that Rose wouldn’t like the idea of them grafting up the city and setting off a few not necessarily illegal-but-definatley-distrubing-the-peace firecrackers and smoke bombs. In fact she had toyed around with the idea of outreach flyers as well.
So they made a night of it as a group walking the boarder of the territory. They hit a bar before they started “totally for the cover of being drunk sports fans” Echo had insisted (she tried so hard to keep a straight face too!) They alternated points putting up flyers and slapping up bumper stickers to shouts of “Go Ravens” which usually met with an echo back from some stranger cheering the team on as well. This is what she loved about being connected to the spirit world. The rituals that gave order and direction also allowed you to channel yourself to the spirit world. To touch the divine. It wasn’t dead boring and dull, it was alive and involved, and connecting. She hoped Rose had a good night, and that she had made Rose proud.