A/N: Here it is, ladies and gentlemen, or whatever you identify as. It took a while but it's finally out so...
New story. Sword in the Stone. Check that out, I think it's pretty cool.
Anyways time for review replies.
zack32: I'm glad you liked the fight scene, Howl's a hero but he was also raised as a member of the Forsworn and had to survive Skyrim as a teenager so he can be pretty ruthless. As for his semblance, I'll give you a hint and say that it has to do with the abilities of a specific character in the series.
Guest: Not sure what a Robert is lol. I'm glad you like the pacing, that was something I was worried about when planning the story because we haven't gotten to Beacon quite yet but it seems to be doing alright. And yeah, Jaune does have a role, I didn't like throwing him away just so Howl could go to Beacon.
coduss: I don't play God of War but I looked up Mimir and it sounds like he has a Irish/Scottish accent. The Reachmen are supposed to be influenced by Irish culture so I decided to give Howl an Irish accent.
Chapter 7: Much Ado About a Lot of Things
Blake's ears twitched uncomfortably under her bow as she gazed at the gathering of humans and faunus outside of the old Brothers' church in Central Vale. She expected there to only be ex-White Fang members such as herself and Tukson present but there were also some Vale faunus that she didn't recognize as well as some humans. Most of them stuck with their respective groups but a lot of them were intermingling, smoking and laughing together. Overall, it wasn't a scene that was too suspicious; they wouldn't be visited by the police anytime soon.
She sent some quiet nods towards her former comrades, not caring if any of them saw her greeting them as she pushed open the large red doors of the church, stopping only to examine the two statues flanking the entrance. A formless, androgynous person with antlers on their head, representing the elder brother-god of light, and a smaller form with ram horns (the younger brother) stood on pedestals in the wall, their arms outstretched in a welcoming gesture. That didn't make her feel any less skittish, however.
The door opened with a loud groan that resounded throughout the church thanks to its excellent acoustics and she stood there awkwardly as every head in the room turned towards her with curiosity. Most turned back to their conversations while some of their gazes lingered, she recognized some of them from operations in Vale area so sent them a small wave their way causing them to nod back in response before going back to their hushed discussions, their whispers being carried throughout the great structure. The atmosphere was a lot tenser than the one outside: several groups had formed, each occupying sections of the long wooden pews that took up most of the space in the center of the room. She could make out a short, familiar figure in dark green robes skittering around between the groups, exchanging greetings and welcomes before moving onto the next delegation. Before she could investigate, Blake was accosted by a pair of large, hairy arms that had wrapped themselves around her in a suffocating hug.
"I'm so glad you could make it, kitten." rumbled Tukson in relief.
"Please don't call me that, Tukson." muttered Blake as she hesitantly turned around and wrapped her arms around his large form.
"You know I'm just messing with ya." he said with a low chuckle before letting go of her and taking a small moment to examine her "You've grown a couple of inches."
"No I haven't. And what am I? A relative at a family reunion?" she asked as she crossed her arms.
"We might as well be relatives: we've got the same black hair, the same love of books, the same yellow eyes... Need I go on?"
"I'm pretty sure a shared hobby isn't a sign that we're related." Blake said dryly before she continued with a small smile "It's good to see you, Tukson."
"Damn right it is. It's good to see you too Blake." he said with a small sigh "Come, come, you look so thin, have some food, have some coffee!"
He gently herded her to a set of tables that were pressed against the grey stone wall. Several containers of hot coffee and plates of donuts and bagels were set on the portable plastic tables that one could usually find in rec centers. Blake's mouth watered involuntarily at the sight and she wasted no time in grabbing a plate and filling it with a tack of powdered and sprinkled donuts, and, though she preferred tea, she also grabbed a cup and filled it with the pitch black liquid, not bothering to put sugar or cream in it.
She blushed and turned slowly towards Tukson who had an amused grin on his face.
"It's hard living on your own, you know..." Blake explained quietly, taking a composed sip from her cup before wincing in pain at the heat.
"Don't I know it. And don't worry about it, it's all coming out of my gracious business partner's wallet so go wild." said the puma faunus.
She chewed thoughtfully before swallowing and inquiring "Business partner?"
Tukson blinked before gesturing towards the familiar figure making the rounds "Howl. You might've seen him on the news before..."
Blake's eyes widened as it finally hit her: he was the person who stopped the White Fang at Brothers' Refuge, he was the person who had helped the Bulwark Protests succeed. Her former comrade saw her expression and smiled slightly.
"He's sketchy and definitely at least a little crazy but he's a good kid underneath that funky exterior. Plus... when I look into his eyes, I feel like- I feel like he understands us. Us ex Ex-White Fang, I mean. He's just got that look about him. Like he's tired, like he's burdened by a past that he can't escape. But he still fights anyways..."
"I'll take your word for it.." said Blake in response to Tukson's slightly nonsensical explanation causing them to enter a contemplative silence as they surveyed the room and observed the young man quietly.
"You'd have to interact with Howl to understand." said Tukson with a sigh before looking at her curiously "Say, you're still planning on going to Beacon, right?"
"That is the plan." said the cat faunus simply, taking one last sip of coffee before looking around for a trash can.
"Well he's going too. He'd be a good friend to have over there. Who knows? You might even end up on the same team!"
Blake remained silent. She found the prospect of having even one of her future classmates knowing about her past uncomfortable.
"Just think it over, kitten." said Tukson, reading her expression perceptively before clapping her on the shoulder "I've got to round up the stragglers, we can talk later, okay? After the meeting is over."
"Don't call me that."
Blake turned and watched him exit the church with a contemplative expression on her face before her attention was captured by a pair of signs positioned nonchalantly by the door. They both had symbols made up of a circle with the letters 'N' and 'A' positioned stylistically side-by-side within them, below the symbols was the name: "Narcotics Anonymous." She rolled her eyes with a quirk of her lips at that; Tukson was a good fighter but his true skills lay elsewhere. He was always good at coming up with ways to disguise their meetings back when they were in the White Fang. Usually, organizers went with the cliché abandoned warehouse setting but he always found some clever and unique way to throw the authorities off of their scent.
'It's a good trick...' Blake decided, gazing at the room full of sunken-eyed people seeking to improve themselves after a dreadful past.
The groaning of the doors resounded throughout the church once more as Tukson and his flock entered the structure, he shot her a quick grin as he walked hurriedly to the ornate podium positioned in the apse. Stained glass windows displaying scenes such as the Gods' departure from Remnant and the shattering of the Moon illuminated the puma faunus with brilliant colors thanks to the sunlight. While Tukson got ready to speak, she noticed Howl sitting down in one of the front pews, crossing one leg over the other as he casually waited his turn.
She took as seat in one of the pews closest to the entrance, wanting to avoid any attention from the other occupants of the church. Blake watched as Tukson tapped the microphone set up on the podium, causing the sharp sound of feedback to resound throughout the room.
He ignored the shouts of protests as he leaned into the mic "Is this thing on?"
The shouts of protest turned into a shouts of agreement and a raised thumbs-up from Howl.
"Alright, good. Well, thanks for coming out, everyone! I know this was all kind of sudden: me calling all of you but I assure you that it's all for a good reason. Now, we're all coming from different backgrounds and, in a normal world, we wouldn't even be interacting with each other much less meeting in a damn church. We got ex-White Fang, we got ex-gang members, we got just some regular Valean citizens just looking to make a difference and we got whatever the hell you are." Tukson finished, pointing at Howl and earning some chuckles from the crowd from those who weren't busy looking into the crowd with wary expressions.
That was another one of Tukson's talents, his most impressive one, in fact. Despite his gruff exterior, he was the type of guy that could make friends with anyone, anywhere and he always had a large group of people who 'owed him one.' Many a White Fang operation had been salvaged due to his ability to call on someone to do him a solid.
"Ok, Tukson! So why the hell are we all here! You know it isn't safe for us to meet out in the open like this!" cried one of her former comrades in the audience.
"Let me finish, Raoul... What do we all have in common? One guy: Roman Torchwick. To my Valean friends in the audience: that gentleman thief or whatever has moved into our neighborhoods with the grace of a gorilla, wrecking our mom-and-pop shops and stepping all over us. To the former gang-members: guess who's moving onto your blocks? Torchwick. Guess who's been killing your beloved bosses? That's right, Torchwick. And to my fellow comrades, you might be feeling a little bit left out right now, huh? But that dandy's been the one targeting our neighborhoods, driving us to the wall." he paused for dramatic effect "He's the one that's been working with the White Fang, supplying them with dust and smoking out any deserters such as ourselves. So don't you think for one minute that this isn't our fight!"
That got the audience riled up, some people were shouting at the fact that the Fang was moving into the city, some were shouting at the possibility of the Fang working with a lowly human like Torchwick while some, she imagined, were shouting for the sake of shouting. Up at the podium, Tukson was tapping his fingers impatiently, waiting for the ruckus to die down. Howl had turned around and was watching the chaos with an amused smile on his face.
As for Blake, she simply sat there in disbelief, taking in the atmosphere of the room with a detached expression on her face.
The sound of mic feedback resounded throughout the room once more causing the pandemonium to cease "You done?" Tukson called out like an elementary school teacher waiting for their rowdy class to calm down.
"How- How do we know that's true?" asked Raoul, disbelief clear in his tone of voice.
To be honest, Blake found the information that Tukson sprung on herself and her former comrades to be unbelievable as well. She, probably more than anyone in that room, knew what went on in the head of the leader of the White Fang's Vale cells. He already found humans to be scum so, if they were in fact scum, then Torchwick was lower than scum. Not to mention the fact that they had already heard of the man before and actually mocked him. Several times. It was too easy with his sense of "style".
"I was getting to that, friend." said Tukson gruffly (he only called people 'friend' if they annoyed him), motioning towards someone in the front row of the crowd to come to the podium, "Allow me to introduce my... colleague. You may have heard of him from the Brothers' Refuge incident where he rescued local villagers from a rogue White Fang cell. You may have also heard of him from the Bulwark protests where he aided the local faunus labor movement and helped the prevent the S.D.C-" he paused and waited for the jeers and boos to end, "-from purchasing the town's mines and forcing their discriminatory and harmful practices on our brothers and sisters in Bulwark. I personally know him as the young man who has been preventing and investigating the dust robberies in Central Vale. Please give it up for Howl!"
A polite smattering of applause followed Tukson's hype-up speech as the figure in strange green robes walked up to the podium and adjusted the microphone so that it would be better suited for someone of his height. Blake always imagined that the person that she once saw on the news would be taller but he might have been shorter than her. Nonetheless, to his credit, he did carry himself with some sort of pride despite his diminutive stature and didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that he was the target of so many stares, some more skeptical than others. He cleared his throat.
"Well, I wish that I was half as impressive as Tukson made me out to be." Howl began, his surprisingly deep voice and strange brogue filling the room, inducing some polite chuckles from the audience, "Right, I'm not here to make jokes, I'm here to present the information I've discovered in my investigations and convince you all that that information is, in fact, correct. Allow me to begin by addressing some of your concerns with the validity of our claims."
He paused and took am moment to sweep his silver gaze across the room, only noticeably pausing to target the left side of the church specifically. It was where the White Fang members sat so they were likely the most skeptical group.
"Some of you who may have some lingering sense of loyalty or affection for the White Fang and its ideals might find our claims to not only be preposterous, but insulting as well. I realize that the possibility of your former comrades working with the dredges of humanity could induce such feelings so I only ask that you bear with me as I go over my investigations." said the young man, his tone conveying a sense of understanding and professionalism that belied his outlandish appearance.
"i also recognize that I'm an unknown for most of you here which could call into question how authentic I am or how committed I am to everyone's best interests. Usually, I'd let my actions speak for themselves but I'll make an exception for this time. To the faunus in the room, while it would be ignorant of me to say that I completely understand your struggle and what you're going through, I am able to empathize with you all. These ugly tattoos on my face aren't just for show: they are a symbol of my tribal and ethnic identity, something which I have been discriminated against for in the past. To the Vale residents in the room, I understand what it's like for groups to move in and oppress your communities. My people have long endured a struggle to free our homeland from outside influence." said Howl, clearing his throat and pausing at the the murmuring that filled the room.
Blake concluded that he did seem sincere; tribes that fought back against the influence of the Four Kingdoms were still reasonably common even after attempts (either forceful or diplomatic) had been made to assimilate them within the various federal Frontier systems of the kingdoms. They (the tribals), even if they belonged to assimilated communities were looked down upon and were seen as savages by many people, even faunus. While his argument was a bit of a stretch, it seemed to win over much of the crowd, herself included.
"But enough about me, eh? That's not hwy we're here, that's not why I'm her. Tukson made some claims and I'm here to back them up. A couple of days ago I began my investigations by visiting Junior, the owner of the club, 'Rumor', Vale's most premier information broker and Torchwick's lieutenant within the Will-O'-Wisps. There I found out some very important information."
"How'd you get anything out of Junior? You know, since he's one of Torchwick's goons..." one of the humans in the church, a bald heavyset man, wondered aloud.
"Let's just say that Junior's two biggest weapons will be out of commission for a while..." said Howl coyly, pausing to let the implication set in.
"Respect." said the human with a satisfied nod.
"Back to what I was saying... right, here's what I found out: Torchwick has an assassin loyal to him whom he has used to dissolve and absorb local gangs as well as their territories in Central Vale, this began after he was freed from prison by an unknown party. He has since then used his newfound strength and influence to target dust shops in order to, one, provide the White Fang with Dust and, two, provide a smokescreen for the Fang's larger operations centered around dust shipments sent by the Schnee Dust Company and other corporations." the room then was filled with protests from the left side of the church before Howl crushed any dissent, "Oi, shut up! Let me finish, by the Nine... As I was saying... in addition to dust shop robberies, many of which have taken place in primarily faunus neighborhoods, he has used his gang to target faunus communities to smoke out any White Fang traitors and radicalize faunus by driving them into the arms of the White Fang."
Howl took a deep breath, relishing in the shocked silence following his proclamations. Blake felt sick to her stomach, working with humans was one thing, but using them to target faunus- the people they were supposed to be fighting for? She didn't want to believe, she couldn't...
"I wouldn't have come up here if I didn't have sources besides someone I've fought with to back up my arguments. First of all, by using crime and police response statistics collected by Tukson, one can see that Torchwick targets faunus neighborhoods and how vulnerable they are because of a lack of adequate police protection or abuse from the police themselves. In addition to some research, Tukson and I have also consorted with multiple other information brokers to confirm Junior's information."
A heavy silence settled over the gathered group for a few minutes before someone spoke up, "So what the hell are we supposed to do now that you've dumped all that shit on our lap?"
"That's where Tukson comes back into play." answered Howl, stepping away from the podium but not sitting back down as the bookstore owner took his place in front of the microphone.
"Hello again everyone." said Tukson, his voice quieter than last time as he decided not to adjust the height of the mic, "So when a bunch of people decided to part ways with the Fang, after much debate we decided that the best way to reintegrate ourselves into society in a way that would keep us safe would be for us to go our separate ways and maintain minimal amounts of contact. However, I underestimated how aggressively the Fang would pursue us so, given our current circumstances, we obviously need to take a completely different approach to keeping ourselves safe. That is to say that, since being hidden is no longer an option, we need to fight back as a group!"
Muttering broke out once more, the sound of heated whispers and frustrated curses filled the church as the people occupying it realized what Tukson was proposing. Blake sighed, it was one thing to leave the White Fang... but to actively fight against it?
"That's why I invited everyone else to this meeting, comrades. We are all being hurt in one way or another by the Fang it's obvious that we're stronger together than we are apart... so why not turn that loose connection into something constructive? Why don't we come together to defend ourselves and our communities?" he asked-no-demanded, slamming a furry hand on the podium for good measure.
The sound of a throat being cleared was barely picked up by the mic but Blake heard it anyways. Tukson stepped to the side and allowed Howl to take the podium once more.
The tribesman sighed, "Forgive me if I'm speaking out of turn here but I'm assuming that most of us here are here because we've made horrible mistakes in the past- mistakes that have hurt other people. I know I have. We also wouldn't be here if we didn't think that we committed those mistakes in the first place. Up until now, most of you haven't confronted those mistakes-" his eyes swept over his audience and paused when they reached her, "-you've just run away, having others bear the burden of the effects of your past actions."
Blake's amber eyes widened in shock, 'Does he know? No... it's not possible...'
"So now we're offering you all an opportunity to use your skills for something good. We're offering you all a chance to take responsibility for your actions."
He stepped way from the mic, leaving a mostly silent and contemplative audience for Tukson to deal with, though Blake could hear some angry whispers from the left side of the room. She could understand how they felt: they were being asked to work with humans, the people that took part in their oppression, and they were also being scolded by a human. It was a bold tactic that resonated with most of the room but it was also polarizing and alienating to certain people.
"Alright, we know that this is a lot to take in so we'll be taking a short break." Tukson began before pausing with a frown, "Though we do have to ask those who aren't interested in our proposition to leave. This is for both of our sake and you can always join later if you change your mind. You all have my scroll number, after all."
Blake watched sadly as Tukson left the podium and walked towards the entrance to the church, she wasn't going to enjoy what was about to come. She watched as some people all across the room, human and faunus, debated amongst themselves before standing up and marching to the door, looking anywhere else besides the people staring at them, betrayal and accusation clear in their gazes.
One by one, people left the church but not before laying into Tukson or looking to the ground in shame.
"I can't believe you're asking us to work with humans!" one faunus hissed.
"Sorry Tukson, but this is fucking crazy and you know it." another said with a shake of their head.
"Sorry, dude." a human apologized simply, not offering any type of excuse.
The bookstore owner took it all in stride though, replying with messages of understanding and forgiveness but those messages stopped when he saw her. His eyes widened slightly before drooping sadly, a sad sort of understanding radiating from his hazel eyes. That made Blake feel even worse.
"Tukson, I..." Blake began but her friend held up a hand, interrupting her.
"Kitten, don't worry, I completely understand." he said, offering her a smile that didn't quite reach his sad eyes. The cat faunus wondered if he was angry with her.
"I'm sorry Tukson but there's no way he-the White Fang would work with someone like Roman Torchwick." she said tonelessly, ducking her head to avoid his gaze as she walked away.
But she didn't miss the way his eyes widened once more in surprise before narrowing in anger. And she didn't miss the words he uttered as she left.
"Damn it Adam, look what you did to her..."
"What the fuck?!" one of the thugs shouted, his silhouette looking back and forth, searching for both Jaune and whoever cut the lights of the store.
"Was that you, you little shit?!" another one of the robber screamed, her smoky, feminine voice bouncing throughout the aisles. Apparently there were more robbers arriving...
Jaune blinked his eyes rapidly, attempting to adjust his eyes to the sudden darkness that enveloped him. His slight sigh of relief when his vision began to clear turned into an unmanly squeak of fear as he saw two thugs making their way slowly to him, their arms extended in a vain attempt to prevent them from bumping into things. A trail of bags of chips and gift cards trailed them as they shambled ungracefully to the teenager. His blue eyes shifted right and he could just barely make out the form of the shopkeeper slowly stepping way from the counter, his back bumping into rows of cigarette packets.
The Arc was once again frozen in fear as he watched the criminals shamble their way towards him; the way they walked with their arms extended reminded him of a pair of zombies searching of a nice brain to feast on. Jaune balled up his hands into fists and steeled himself, mentally preparing himself to get into a real fight with real criminals that could really kill him.
'Oh Gods...'
The sound of something flicking could be heard within the aisle in front of him causing the pair to pause in their tracks, halting their intimidating approach so that they could look for the source of the strange and possibly threatening noise.
A small yet dangerous gout of flame suddenly enveloped their heads, illuminating their features in a way that wasn't quite healthy. The scene was like an old slapstick cartoon as the two goons looked at each other in disbelief and shock for a second before they both shrieked shrilly and ran away from the aisle, coming close to tripping over each other. The sound of insane cackling immediately followed the comedic scene as a hooded figure followed them out of the aisle.
"Whoa, I'm such a badass..." said the figure reverently, his face concealed by a green bandana, and a can of aerosol something and a zippo lighter carefully clutched in his gloved hands. A pair of sand colored ears poked out of strategically placed holes in the hood, denoting the man as a faunus. He either didn't notice Jaune or he just forgot about him as he literally shook himself free from his self-congratulatory revery to pursue his prey.
The two goons had taken the slight pause in hostilities to slap themselves free of the chemical flames, huddling fearfully behind their two other fellow thugs. The two remaining robbers who hadn't been attacked yet looked uncertain, forming a semicircle around their colleagues as they tried to discern where the next attack would come from. Their eyes swept from the windows to the aisles to the faunus with the sputtering, makeshift flamethrower before restarting their circuit once more. It was too bad they didn't bother to check the vents.
They- Jaune included- didn't notice the thumping sounds coming from above them until too late when a metal grate slammed noisily into the ground causing Jaune and the thugs to ump out of their respective skins. Though, thankfully, the thugs were the only ones who were jumped as a large figure landed in front of the criminals on top of the grate. The man was huge and looked like he had the muscular build of a rugby player, albeit one with small claws extending from their hands. He wore a teal windbreaker with a tall collar, a beanie that may or may not have been used to conceal his hypothetical ears and the same green bandana that the crazy flamethrower guy used to conceal most of his face.
The wasted no time in dispatching the thugs, taking advantage of their fear and shock to land a couple of quick, brutal blows to their heads, knocking them out and surely leaving marks thanks to his claws. His compatriot seemed amused by the casual display of skillful brutality, letting out a few indulgent chuckles at the sight of the four criminals crumpled on the ground like a basket of sleeping kittens.
Jaune let out a breath he didn't know he was holding, slightly glad that he didn't have to do any sort of fighting as he surely would've had to have been mopped off the floor by the time the thugs were finished with him. The shopkeeper was less pleased however, letting loose a gasp at the sight of his merchandise strewn all over the floor and the smell of burnt skin and hair filling the air.
"Who-who the hell are you people?" he asked, shocked. Any trace of the bravado he displayed when confronted by the robbers was completely gone by then.
The larger man looked at the shopkeeper before sighing heavily, his friend muttering a series of curse words that would've gotten Jaune kicked out of the house if he ever dared to utter them in his mom's presence.
A sense of dread emanated from his gut as he observed the strange reactions of the figures to the shopkeeper's questions.
"Sorry about this, but it's for your own good!" a chipper feminine voice called out from behind the counter.
"Huh?" uttered the shopkeeper intelligently before collapsing into a third figure with a green bandana also covering their lower face.
"What the hell!" Jaune blurted out at the sight causing them to turn his way, "You guys are robbers too?!"
The figures in green turned to each other, holding a silent conversation before nodding resolutely and advancing slowly on the teenager.
"Let's not do anything drastic, 'kay?" asked the woman adopting a fluid stance.
"I'll-I'll fight you!" declared Jaune, his eyes darting around wildly for any sort of advantage as he adopted an admittedly crappy fighting stance.
"Let's not do anything drastic, kid, this is for your own good." said the husky figure, his hazel eyes glowing menacingly beneath his beanie.
"You're kidding, right?" asked Jaune, his back bumping against the row of fridges, "How is sucker punching me 'for my own good'?"
"Just trust me, okay? It'll be easier for all of us."
"Yeah. Okay. Sure. I'll trust you."
"Really?" asked the faunus skeptically.
Jaune looked back into the three pairs of eyes staring at him before running down the refrigerator aisle, sweeping six-packs and bottles off the shelf and onto the floor.
"Gods damn it..." one of them muttered.
Jaune took a hard right at he fridge containing frozen meals, running along the store's far wall towards its front window before the woman slid into view three shelves down. Jaune's eyes widened and he quickly turned around only to see the flamethrower guy waiting by the fridges and the big man stalking down the aisle closest towards the teenager.
"Hold him down!" bellowed out the big guy, causing Jaune to look around wildly in a panic, unable to do anything as the two other people marched down towards him.
"No!" he shouted futilely as their hands gripped his arms and forced him to bend down to his knees.
"Please-" a stray slap interrupted her "-stop struggling!"
"Seriously-" another slap interrupted the flamethrower guy, causing him to growl in frustration, "Seriously, due, you're starting to piss me off..."
The big man sighed before crouching to Jaune's eye-level, "As amusing as this is, can't you hold him down any tighter? The quicker the better, don't want to permanently injure him, after all."
"He's surprisingly strong." remarked the girl with a grunt, "Can't you just get on with it? We've got places to be."
He sighed once more, "Yeah, alr-"
He didn't get to finish is reply, though. At that moment one of Jaune's arms broke free from flamethrower guy's grip. At that moment, Jaune's fist was sent flying towards the big man's unprepared face.
At that moment, the man's mask was torn down, displaying a square jaw and an impressive pair of sideburns.
The big guy's hazel eyes widened before narrowing angrily.
"Kid, you just fucked up royally." he said simply, standing back up.
Jaune gulped fearfully.
"Tie him up, we're taking him with us."
A/N: Thank you all for the continued support, it's crazy to me that this story has 68 reviews.
Not a very Howl-heavy chapter but we do get some more characters and their perspectives mixed in so there's that...
Let me know if I've made any grammatical errors.
Don't know what else to say so...
Please continue reviewing, I'm going to get better at replying to them, I promise. And stick around for the next scene.
The boxes of donuts and the huge containers of hot coffee were empty by then.
A silence settled over the group causing Tukson to briefly contemplate calling another break. It had been a long time since the last one and they accomplished more than he thought they would be able to.
"So what are we gonna call ourselves?" asked the big-boned human, Rusty.
Silence resumed one more as the planners tiredly contemplated the new question. Tukson's eyes slid over to the signs he procured posted by the entrance.
"How about the Neighborhood Association?" asked the organizer with a sly grin.
The sound of the chruch's occupants turning towards the sign filled the room before being replaced by a series of exasperated groans.
