Over the week

[Amanda]

After the caern seems fairly defensible other problems become quickly apparent.


Food/Water
There is little food that is interesting at the caern. In the Kitchen several barrels of rice and dried beans were found, along with dried grain of various types, perhaps a months worth at current consumption. Anyone that doesn't eat the above may have either brought their own food, or have been scrounging local areas that already seem fairly depleted.

Also, there are barrels of water stored as well, though only about a week's supply remains.



Squatters
Beyond that, it seems as if several squatters have taken up residence in the abandoned apartment building that the tunnel out of the caern leads to. And most of the surrounding buildings that are still in-tact or only slightly broken down.




Spirits
In the umbra spirits continue to pass through the area, but the only one's who seem to stay for long at anywhere besides the caern are wyrm spirits. In the caern several wyld spirits have come to stay, including several varieties of plant life, spirits of tunneling, a few animal spirits, and several others. Besides the wyld spirits a few others are around as well, a spirit of knowledge, cockroach, and rat.

Many seem to spend the majority of their time in the area set up by (Trevor's character), enjoying the serenity and spiritual calm of the area.



Presence of others
Many Police, Military, and Gang groups have been seen passing through, but the most interesting and problematic have been what seem to be surveyors that have been reviewing the area. They have been surveying the buildings and land a couple blocks over and seem to be moving in this direction. Anyone who's gone out that way has had trouble getting through the area without at least one person noticing their activities, though the surveyors don't make trouble, they don't make it easy to get around the area without one's activities being noticed.

[Tells the Truth]

OOC: Upon discovery of the squatters next door, and the increasing human interest in the area, Eddie approaches Shatters the Mold, seeking a moment of her free time.

Ah, Shatters-the-Mold-Ryah, I just got clued in to our erstwhile neighbors, and, as dealin with monkeys is what I seem to be best suited for at the moment, I was wondering whacher feelins might be about me makin contact? I figure I can say hi, introduce myself as a fellow survivor, sound out the locals and see what we can get, I mean, maybe some of em are actually nasty, in which case best we know now, and maybe most of em are useless, in which case I make a fast buck, and just maybe some of em could be useful to us, in the way of gatherin information, maybe I could get em to do something that benefits the Caern without em noticing, like. I just wanted to make sure you didn't have any kinda no-go policy in place on em before I shot off my big mouth. Ya got any feelins on this one way or the othah?

[Shatters-the-Mold]

Shatters-the-Mold looks up from her work, a broad smile on her face, "I'll tell you what I told Nile's Rage, As long as what you do doesn't endanger the security of this caern, go kick some ass. Do what you will - you seem to have a good head on your shoulders."

[Tells the Truth]

OOC Eddie says hi. He says it alot. A used car salesman gets used to people not liking him, people not trusting him, people throwing their food at him... And in New York, where the middle finger is what they use in place of "hello, I see you" sometimes, a used car salesman gets a lot of abuse.

OOC So, when someone responds to eddie (with sinuses and eardrums mixmorphed for better smell and hearing) tracking them down in the ruins of the neighboring apartment by running, he lets them, when they respond with hostility, he tries to diffuse the situation and open a dialog, but when they are ready to talk, Eddie has a sales pitch. It goes like this.

Hi. Eddie Schultz. HONEST Eddie Schultz to my business partners and customers. Can't help but notice that we both seem to be living in the same post apocalyptic hole. Now me, I am here visiting some distant relatives, I heard they were in a jam, came as fast as I was able. You, on the other hand, appear to have lived through the event itself. Now, being a good natured and civic minded individual, I find the idea of you, and in fact potentially dozens if not hundreds of your fellow Los Angelinos living in wreckage and amid squalor to be somewhat bothersome. I mean, you live where ya want, don't get me wrong, but do you really wanna live like this? What if I could, say, assist you in rebuilding some of your life? Give you back a bit more say in how you live, if you live, what you eat, how you eat it. That kinda thing. See, I got some out of town resources at my disposal, and I happen to have some very industrious friends, not to mention I can do some pretty hard work myself. So I figure, I'm gonna spread the word, about my intentions to be a good neighbor, and see who wants to return the favor. Since I am a businessman, I might be able to cook up a scheme that makes people money. If that happens to be the case, I will definitely be hiring. Since I consider myself to be a pillar of the community, if what we have is a serious need for charity, I will definitely be looking into ways that I can make my charity count.

What am I asking from you? Next to nothing. Seriously, I don't want your money, or your stuff, or your spot. I want you to show interest. I want you to prove to me that you are interested by showing up in that large upper floor, I forget, was it the 8th? You know, the floor of this building that's still intact, but kinda open to the sky, the last one before the building goes all swiss cheese? Yeah, there ya go, that one. I want to get everyone in this building who seriously wants to work together and improve their situation up there in, oh, say about a week. I figure you guys prolly have a informal network goin, you know the guy in the next uncollapsed room, and so on and so forth, yeah? Yeah. So go ahead and talk amongst yourselves. My offer is genuine. I seriously want to galvanize this buildings tenants, get you guys workin and producing, and turn that productivity back into improved living conditions. Hey, we got an entire CITY out there that needs helpin, right? You wanna see it all go to ruin and anarchy, gangs and cops and worse roaming at will? Or you wanna pitch in and start rebuilding this city to what it should be, what it always should have been, a community of people who look out for one another?

Well, there it is, take it or leave it, I won't be offended if you don't trust me right off, I don't have a rep out here. But I will say this. Back in New York, where I operate my business interests, I am known as an exceedingly honest man. And I have NEVER gone back on a contract or failed to deliver EXACTLY what I promised.

OOC Naturally many of the residents in the building will be skeptical, even with liberal use of the persuasion gift and Eddie's considerable charm. Hopefully none of them will be so agressive that Eddie needs to defend himself, but in such a case, Eddie retreats as slowly as is reasonable, taking cover from gunfire, simply backing away from knives and such, trying to corner himself in some deep, twisty dead end in the rubble, thus luring his attacker into a more isolated place, where a sudden shift to Crinos and a quick lunge for the throat to silence any screams can deal with anything he expects from humans. A single claw slash makes a wound not completely unlike a knife, and they DID attack him, so if he needs to explain the bodies afterward, "Hey, I grew up in the Bronx, I learned what to do when some big scary people come at me with intent." Course, if it turns out to be MORE than human, a quick jaunt into the umbra might now be possible, even if he does have to burn a gnosis to do it, and well, like he said, better we know now. As a last resort, there ARE quick, easy howls for things like "Help, I am getting my ass kicked" and "Ooh look, I found Wyrm beasts next door to the Caern, come see"

Hopefully it won't come to that though.

Hopefully.

[Amanda]

Tells-the-Truth's exciting adventures are being continued through PM. If anyone is with him, please PM me for the details.

[Tells the Truth]

OOC: So suddenly anyone who pokes their head out of the Caern proper will find, almost springing up through magic, that "Honest Eddie's Used Car's Los Angeles Branch" is crawling over the place. Almost entirely humans, not even kinfolk, helped by Eddie and the occasional other Garou, they are swarming about, hauling equipment, or rubble, from place to place. In a day or so, it's clear they are establishing a kitchen, near the Caern, a garage/workshop, in an abandoned building down the street, and modifying and working on the two trucks Eddie "appropriated" from the survey team.

Those trucks are barely recognizable after two days. The black, white, and green paint job splashes the "HONEST EDDIE" logo over every side, with prominently displayed cockroaches and wrenches. The military silhouettes are gone, becoming flatbeds with painted over plywood sides, removable, of course, and the cabs are festooned with bolted on handles, hooks, lights, and various fixtures, as well as having the basic lift winches taken off the backs and remounted on the fronts. The first of these trucks is then set out on daily runs to clear a usable roadway, hauling rubble off the roads, and clearing a route directly to the coast.

Eddie makes it generally known that anyone who wants to pitch in will be accepted, with temporary, semi-permanent, and permanent positions available in the rapidly expanding operation.

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