"Of course," the Baron says. "You're one of us now. How is your training going?"

"Good" Dean replies earnestly, punctuated by a nod, then a glance to his Sire. "Asali's demanding, but I'm learning every night. After I found out about the ah..." He searchs inwardly for the right term. "Attrition, with Clan Schimba, I was mostly concerned with just surviving the year" he continues a little morosely. "I guess I still am if I'm honest, but I couldn't ask for a better coach. We've mostly been working on feeding safely, hand to hand combat, and keeping under the radar. Trying to make a clean break from, well, my old life." The knowledge that he still needed to take care of that weighed on him. It needed to happen, sooner than later.

"Trying to make a clean break ends up in a mess," De La Vega says. "It is something that has to be done. Trying to breathe. Trying to Feed. Trying to Create. It's all like trying to remove your pants before taking a dump. If you don't do it, all you have is a mess."

"Our Traditions are there for a reason. To avoid the mess. Find a way and do it soon!"

"Yes sir" Dean nods. "I've got a plan...just, need to pull the trigger."

He had the bike now, and Jack, well Jack was hip deep in his own issues. He could be waiting another month for them to get together.

The TJ Plan, as he had taken to calling it, would probably not take more than a few nights. It was just daunting, but it needed to happen. There and back, hell, tens of thousands of normal illegal migrants did it every year.

But then again, they didn't burst into flames come the dawn.

The Baron nods and Asali leads him out of the office as if some unspoken signal has been given. They took the elevator down to the underground garage.

Dean waits till he's in the elevator before he opens up with the questions. "I'll admit, I didn't catch a lot of that. Sheriff? Banshee? Justicar and Alastor? Don't think I've heard those before."

"There's a lot to learn Big Guy," Asali says. "Some of it more important than others. The Sheriff is the law enforcer, exactly as you would expect, but she is more than that. She is also Secret Service and protects the Baron. And she carries out his rulings. In a way, you could say that the Sheriff is the Baron's Hand. He decides and she executes."

"The Banshee is a group of werewolves. The worst kind. Think of them as a gang. They take what they want. They kill anyone in their way."

"Most of our government is local. The Baron or Earl and the Batran govern locally, they set the rules to uphold the Traditions. And one city can do that quite differently than another. You can think of the Justicar as the President. His reach and responsibility is the entire country. There's not much to do, but he outranks everyone else. And the Alastor is his Vice President."

Dean felt the pieces click into place. Nobody had ever called him brilliant, and it was likely that someone sharper would have put this all together immediately, but he felt like he had "caught up" so to speak.

"So...because we've all got a common enemy with this Hunter, we don't have to watch our backs because the cease fire." He begins  "And because you're the Sheriff, it frees you up (us up, he thought in the back of his mind) to tackle these Banshees. And the werewolves are cool with that because..." He trailed off as he thought. "The Banshees aren't playing ball. Kind like we would go after our own, or be cool with someone else doing it, if they were a risk to our laws." Dean states with just a hint of a question, as if he wonders if he is correct so far.
This message was last edited by the player at 22:50, Sat 21 Dec 2019.

"Right," Asali says. "But considering how long that meeting took, getting them there wasn't easy. And most don't know that these meetings take place. Not because they are secret per se, but because we still live in the old world where these things aren't trumpeted from towers by a ceaseless torrent of radio waves."

"And having said that, it's always a good idea to watch our backs as everyone doesn't play ball. And some may take this opportunity to liven things up, if you will."

Dean takes the point with a nod of admission. It was obviously not a good idea to let their guard down regardless.

"So what's the plan? Am I going to be on my own for awhile? Or did you want me involved in all...this?" he asks, referring to her most recent assignment.

"We have nothing to go on right now," Asali says. "And you need some time on your own and with your cohort too."

"Alright, I think I'll spend a little time with the bike and then unless something comes up, I may head South for a bit." He begins "I'll use up what's left of my card on the way, close out that account, kill my cellphone,  and plan on meeting you back home...if that works for you?"

"That sounds perfect," Asali says. "Remember to find a safe place if you stay overday." She also gave you instructions on how to contact Luis, a Schimba south of the border, so that you could introduce yourself to the Baron down there, as Tradition demands.

"Anything else you need?"

Dean think about that for a few seconds before he nodded. "Actually, do you know how to read a map and compass?" He asked. "When I ditch my phone I'm not gonna have a GPS or anything and I figure a map's a lot better than nothing"

"I do," Asali says. She brought out a local map and a compass and showed Dean how to use them. And gave him plenty of opportunity to try under supervision.

It takes Dean a little effort to orient his mind to the map, topography and cardinal directions, but after a little while he feels much more confident in at least being able to head in the direction of his choosing.

Being down south of the border was going to be hard enough without getting lost.

As dawn grows closer he thanks Asali once again, then wishes her luck and takes his leave to go let his Cohort know about his plans and to prepare for the journey that would effectively kill a large part of the mortal remnants he was still agonizing over.

You drove back to the city and to the Marina District in particular. Harbor Tower West, at 100 Harbor Drive, was her address. One of two 52 story residential towers. You entered the lobby and you saw signs for a spa and a fitness center. And you had passed a pool outside. There was also a sign for the elevators.

This looked more like a luxury hotel than any apartment building you'd ever visited before.

Dean worked with Asali to unload the truck, and ran through a quick shakedown on the old bike around the parking garage.

It was not the fastest, and it was a lower end bike to begin with, but the scrapes around the drop bars spoke of good hard use and he felt that it would probably hold up well to the abuse he was probably going to put it through.

When he was done, he slipped into his new riding gear, thankful that his Polynesian clan brothers and sisters understood a thing or two about shopping large. With the slightly scratched up goggles in place, he fired it up, gave Asali one last wave and took it out into traffic towards Sparrows.

When he pulled up to the place, he felt much like he had returning to the Prince's domain. Dirty and out of place. He parked the bike and went looking for the Fae, his black helmet cradled under one meaty arm of his riding jacket as he looked up and around the lobby.

"I'm uh...looking for Abe? Don't suppose you know him? New guy last few weeks or so." he asked the concierge uncertainly.

"Not really no," they responded. "No condos have been sold recently."

"Former Marine, handsome... probably in the company of a, well..." He smirks. "A particularly beautiful woman that loves here." he looks up and around as if he could somehow see through the walls and ceilings.

"Of course," they say. "And you are?"

"If you could tell them Dean's here, I'd appreciate it." Dean replies, and paces a bit around the lobby.

She makes a call. "This is the front desk. A Dean is here. He is a friend of Abe's." Pause. "Of course. Thank you." And she hung up.

"Abe isn't here, but you're welcome to come up." She points at the door to the elevators. Please, take elevator A and ride up to the penthouse."

"Thanks" Dean nods and walks over to the elevator where he presses the button  for the Penthouse Suite.

As Dean approached the door, she buzzed him in. Elevator A took a little while to get to Dean when called for. And going that far, it took the elevator some time to get to the penthouse too.

When you arrived, Sparrow let you into her luxury apartment.

"How can I help you," she asks.