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J A C K S O N
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C A D E
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C A D E
This David character had a wild, manic quality, something unhinged and hectic and a little perilous radiated from his person. The only thing Jackson was sure of was that he wouldn't want to be left alone in a room with him, wolf consanguinity or not. His attention snapped back to the obvious one in charge. Would they believe this had all happened by mere happenstance?
"Well, that's actually a funny story...I'm not from one of the ghettos. I was trying to sneak IN that one when I ran into him and those patrol guys." He explained, throwing a nod in Mateo's direction. "I wasn't having much luck though. Those walls are a bitch to get over, am I right?"
He combed the room for an empathetic expression, but none were shared. How did they get in and out if not over the walls? Jackson wondered. Adrift in an air of charged significance, doubt struck him: Perhaps these guys were not the ones to lend a hand in his efforts to find his long lost brother. He wanted to ask just who they were exactly, but seeing as they were on the defense about their identity from the start, that knowledge probably would not help matters.
Cade blinked, once, twice at him. They were becoming more confused by the minute with Jackson. He wasn’t from a ghetto and didn’t even seem to be from the same planet as them.
"The trouble isn’t usually getting in, it’s getting out..." Cade told him, raising an eyebrow. "If you’re not from a ghetto... That must mean you’re rogue."
Mateo audibly gasped at this, his jaw dropping open at what to Jackson must have been a meaningless statement.
"Whoa." He awed, "Now we have to have him in our pack!"
David elbowed his brother in the ribs, giving him an annoyed look and Mateo shut up, rubbing his side with a sullen expression.
Cade still seemed neither here nor there with Jackson, only curious. He didn’t have all night to play 50 questions with him -staying in the inner city too long was risky business- but he was fast learning that Jackson had NO idea what he was doing. Now whether it was the kind of recklessness that was useful or dangerous to have around was the real question; and the fastest way to get at that was to figure out his motivations.
"Are there anymore of you?" Cade questioned further. "why were you trying to get into the ghetto?"
Jackson puzzled over how him saving their friend had turned into an interrogation, vaguely wondering if this differed all that much from the grilling the police would have given him had he been caught. He exhaled audibly again, this time more naturally that premeditated. Mateo seemed impressed by his sheer existence though, which was a positive. He did know the definition of the word 'rogue' but not insofar as it pertained to werewolf vocabulary. However, it did sound like an incredibly cool title to have...
"Just my mom, and well my brother, but that's why I was trying to get in the ghetto." He confessed, choosing to trust in them. They were, after all, what he wanted to be a part of for his whole life long. A little honestly always went further when building bridges, and he desperately did not want to become Karen Kastner, burner of said bridges.
"I think my brother is living in one of those ghettos, though my mom wouldn't say which one. He's older, and mom took me away after my dad—after he was lost in the uh,"
Was it a battle? War was too big a term for what lasted only a month but seemed weighty enough for the impact that one month had on everything.
"conflict. From eighteen years ago." He swallowed, for this was still a fresh wound reopened. He knew what the news called that incident, The Seattle Siege, but he also knew he wouldn't like the taste of that in his mouth. It painted the 'offending' party in a very malicious light. The victor's writes history, as they say.
The slightest bit of empathy slipped through Cade's otherwise impervious facade, not expressed so much in his face, but in the quiet way he spoke, "Right..."
David on the other hand, was obviously less moved. He crossed his arms.
"We all lost family in the revolution. I don't see how that makes him anymore trustworthy." David commented bitterly, though it seemed he was going largely unheard. Already he didn't seem to like Jackson but it was more or less a part of David's nature to not like anyone right away. Jackson's overall happy-go-lucky demeanor was definitely not doing him any favors with the grizzled young man.
Cade considered Jackson a moment more silently. He hated making decisions without all the information, but he decided this time he would take his chances. His mother may have deserted the cause, from the information Jackson gave it was hard to tell, but perhaps there was some loyalty to be found in him from his father.
"We can help you find your brother..." Cade finally said, "That is, if you are willing to fight with us... The revolution is not done, the one your father and mine sacrificed their lives for. We are still fighting it, my pack. We are not many yet, but we are growing stronger, and one day we will take back our freedom and our city."
Jackson was felled. He hadn't anticipated any sort of invitation, Hell, he had barely hoped for even reluctant assistance. The encounter had been laden with varying degrees of obfuscation, as they skirted the topic of themselves while insisting he knew too much. If he had to of wagered a guess one way or the other before that moment, based on Mateo's relative, he HALF expected an ass kicking of some kind...but to go with them?
Knowing who they were, specifically, was of little consequence as long as he knew what they were about. This 'Alpha' and his pack were revolutionaries, who had also apparently lost fathers to the war, which made them more kin to him than even being werewolves did. Unlike Jackson's mother, however, they weren't going to give up on those who were left without a fight. This was the first thing to make sense during this entire exchange, or rather, the first thing to make sense throughout this entire day. It was steadying in the midst of confusing events—and, like a stray dog hungry for affection, Jackson felt some profound shift in allegiance, blood-deep, a sudden, humiliating, eye watering conviction of these people are good. He shook his head fervently, wearing a smile that was wide and assured of itself.
"Willing? Hell yeah, I'm willing! I'm sure my brother, where ever he may be, will be too when we find him!"
He didn't know anything about his brother, not even a name, but much like the invention of his father in his mind, he had already constructed a brother not unlike himself. Does this make me a member of a pack? Was it all that easy? Jackson was so very naïve...
"Then considered yourself initiated... Welcome to Praetor Lupus." Cade said with half a smirk.
Jackson's heart stuttered. Praetor Lupus He'd heard the name on the television, or in the contemptuous whispers of those who preferred the status quo the way it was now. It was a group people usually spoke about with disdain...but he was in awe for he had always considered them heroes.
"Hey, what about me?!" Mateo asked.
"You too, hermanito." David patted him on the shoulder.
"Yes!" he cheered pumping his fist in the air. He then ran over to Jackson's side who had now been cleared of suspicion. "Hey, you and I are practically family now! And you're gonna find your brother. Good thing you showed up when you did, eh primo?"
Jackson was pretty sure his heart may actually explode. Family. Acceptance. Mateo handed over the brushed-nickel coffee mug he had stolen from the cop car to him, "For saving my life man, or at the very least saving my ass from solitary confinement. You should keep it." Jackson accepted it with pride, handling it with care, mumbling out only a giddy thanks least he reveal to everyone just how choked up he was all of a sudden.
Just then footsteps could be heard coming up the stairwell and in came two more of the recruits, out of breath.
"Hey chickens, what took you so long?" Mateo taunted them.
"Well some of us didn't get a ride!"
"Yeah, well you deserved it! You left me behind."
"Dude we had cops on our tails too! We woulda gone back for ya but.."
"Suuuure, I saw the shit trails you left behind running away."
This instantly started a fight, not a real one, a play one triggered by the adrenaline still pumping in their veins and the sheer excitement of having made it through initiation. The two older werewolves didn't seem to think much of it, allowing them to push and shove one another, nearly pulling an apprehensive but enthusiastic Jackson into it when one of them collided with him. However, Cade had interrupted the recruits' bantering and play fighting with a more serious question before he could decide whether or not it was appropriate to join in the fun.
"What happened to the fourth one of you?"
They immediately halted, pushing off one another and rolling their shoulders and necks, shaking off the rest of their adrenaline.
"Oh..." the two who had entered last looked to each other seeing which one would try to explain their missing friend.
One of them finally spoke, "Um.. He... He left, said he couldn't do it, sir."
"He's going back to his folks in the ghetto in the morning." the other added.
Though disappointing, Cade was not angry at this news. He had after all not technically lost a recruit with Jackson nor did he want anyone who might have doubts of joining.
"No point in sticking around then... You're all in." Cade announced to them, he paused once more though before they took off. "Next time all of you are on a mission, you stick together. One of you was nearly caught and left behind, and it was only because of him-" he pointed at Jackson, "-that all of you are here. He's a rogue and still has more pack instinct than the rest of you. Now let's go."
"Well, that's actually a funny story...I'm not from one of the ghettos. I was trying to sneak IN that one when I ran into him and those patrol guys." He explained, throwing a nod in Mateo's direction. "I wasn't having much luck though. Those walls are a bitch to get over, am I right?"
He combed the room for an empathetic expression, but none were shared. How did they get in and out if not over the walls? Jackson wondered. Adrift in an air of charged significance, doubt struck him: Perhaps these guys were not the ones to lend a hand in his efforts to find his long lost brother. He wanted to ask just who they were exactly, but seeing as they were on the defense about their identity from the start, that knowledge probably would not help matters.
Cade blinked, once, twice at him. They were becoming more confused by the minute with Jackson. He wasn’t from a ghetto and didn’t even seem to be from the same planet as them.
"The trouble isn’t usually getting in, it’s getting out..." Cade told him, raising an eyebrow. "If you’re not from a ghetto... That must mean you’re rogue."
Mateo audibly gasped at this, his jaw dropping open at what to Jackson must have been a meaningless statement.
"Whoa." He awed, "Now we have to have him in our pack!"
David elbowed his brother in the ribs, giving him an annoyed look and Mateo shut up, rubbing his side with a sullen expression.
Cade still seemed neither here nor there with Jackson, only curious. He didn’t have all night to play 50 questions with him -staying in the inner city too long was risky business- but he was fast learning that Jackson had NO idea what he was doing. Now whether it was the kind of recklessness that was useful or dangerous to have around was the real question; and the fastest way to get at that was to figure out his motivations.
"Are there anymore of you?" Cade questioned further. "why were you trying to get into the ghetto?"
Jackson puzzled over how him saving their friend had turned into an interrogation, vaguely wondering if this differed all that much from the grilling the police would have given him had he been caught. He exhaled audibly again, this time more naturally that premeditated. Mateo seemed impressed by his sheer existence though, which was a positive. He did know the definition of the word 'rogue' but not insofar as it pertained to werewolf vocabulary. However, it did sound like an incredibly cool title to have...
"Just my mom, and well my brother, but that's why I was trying to get in the ghetto." He confessed, choosing to trust in them. They were, after all, what he wanted to be a part of for his whole life long. A little honestly always went further when building bridges, and he desperately did not want to become Karen Kastner, burner of said bridges.
"I think my brother is living in one of those ghettos, though my mom wouldn't say which one. He's older, and mom took me away after my dad—after he was lost in the uh,"
Was it a battle? War was too big a term for what lasted only a month but seemed weighty enough for the impact that one month had on everything.
"conflict. From eighteen years ago." He swallowed, for this was still a fresh wound reopened. He knew what the news called that incident, The Seattle Siege, but he also knew he wouldn't like the taste of that in his mouth. It painted the 'offending' party in a very malicious light. The victor's writes history, as they say.
The slightest bit of empathy slipped through Cade's otherwise impervious facade, not expressed so much in his face, but in the quiet way he spoke, "Right..."
David on the other hand, was obviously less moved. He crossed his arms.
"We all lost family in the revolution. I don't see how that makes him anymore trustworthy." David commented bitterly, though it seemed he was going largely unheard. Already he didn't seem to like Jackson but it was more or less a part of David's nature to not like anyone right away. Jackson's overall happy-go-lucky demeanor was definitely not doing him any favors with the grizzled young man.
Cade considered Jackson a moment more silently. He hated making decisions without all the information, but he decided this time he would take his chances. His mother may have deserted the cause, from the information Jackson gave it was hard to tell, but perhaps there was some loyalty to be found in him from his father.
"We can help you find your brother..." Cade finally said, "That is, if you are willing to fight with us... The revolution is not done, the one your father and mine sacrificed their lives for. We are still fighting it, my pack. We are not many yet, but we are growing stronger, and one day we will take back our freedom and our city."
Jackson was felled. He hadn't anticipated any sort of invitation, Hell, he had barely hoped for even reluctant assistance. The encounter had been laden with varying degrees of obfuscation, as they skirted the topic of themselves while insisting he knew too much. If he had to of wagered a guess one way or the other before that moment, based on Mateo's relative, he HALF expected an ass kicking of some kind...but to go with them?
Knowing who they were, specifically, was of little consequence as long as he knew what they were about. This 'Alpha' and his pack were revolutionaries, who had also apparently lost fathers to the war, which made them more kin to him than even being werewolves did. Unlike Jackson's mother, however, they weren't going to give up on those who were left without a fight. This was the first thing to make sense during this entire exchange, or rather, the first thing to make sense throughout this entire day. It was steadying in the midst of confusing events—and, like a stray dog hungry for affection, Jackson felt some profound shift in allegiance, blood-deep, a sudden, humiliating, eye watering conviction of these people are good. He shook his head fervently, wearing a smile that was wide and assured of itself.
"Willing? Hell yeah, I'm willing! I'm sure my brother, where ever he may be, will be too when we find him!"
He didn't know anything about his brother, not even a name, but much like the invention of his father in his mind, he had already constructed a brother not unlike himself. Does this make me a member of a pack? Was it all that easy? Jackson was so very naïve...
"Then considered yourself initiated... Welcome to Praetor Lupus." Cade said with half a smirk.
Jackson's heart stuttered. Praetor Lupus He'd heard the name on the television, or in the contemptuous whispers of those who preferred the status quo the way it was now. It was a group people usually spoke about with disdain...but he was in awe for he had always considered them heroes.
"Hey, what about me?!" Mateo asked.
"You too, hermanito." David patted him on the shoulder.
"Yes!" he cheered pumping his fist in the air. He then ran over to Jackson's side who had now been cleared of suspicion. "Hey, you and I are practically family now! And you're gonna find your brother. Good thing you showed up when you did, eh primo?"
Jackson was pretty sure his heart may actually explode. Family. Acceptance. Mateo handed over the brushed-nickel coffee mug he had stolen from the cop car to him, "For saving my life man, or at the very least saving my ass from solitary confinement. You should keep it." Jackson accepted it with pride, handling it with care, mumbling out only a giddy thanks least he reveal to everyone just how choked up he was all of a sudden.
Just then footsteps could be heard coming up the stairwell and in came two more of the recruits, out of breath.
"Hey chickens, what took you so long?" Mateo taunted them.
"Well some of us didn't get a ride!"
"Yeah, well you deserved it! You left me behind."
"Dude we had cops on our tails too! We woulda gone back for ya but.."
"Suuuure, I saw the shit trails you left behind running away."
This instantly started a fight, not a real one, a play one triggered by the adrenaline still pumping in their veins and the sheer excitement of having made it through initiation. The two older werewolves didn't seem to think much of it, allowing them to push and shove one another, nearly pulling an apprehensive but enthusiastic Jackson into it when one of them collided with him. However, Cade had interrupted the recruits' bantering and play fighting with a more serious question before he could decide whether or not it was appropriate to join in the fun.
"What happened to the fourth one of you?"
They immediately halted, pushing off one another and rolling their shoulders and necks, shaking off the rest of their adrenaline.
"Oh..." the two who had entered last looked to each other seeing which one would try to explain their missing friend.
One of them finally spoke, "Um.. He... He left, said he couldn't do it, sir."
"He's going back to his folks in the ghetto in the morning." the other added.
Though disappointing, Cade was not angry at this news. He had after all not technically lost a recruit with Jackson nor did he want anyone who might have doubts of joining.
"No point in sticking around then... You're all in." Cade announced to them, he paused once more though before they took off. "Next time all of you are on a mission, you stick together. One of you was nearly caught and left behind, and it was only because of him-" he pointed at Jackson, "-that all of you are here. He's a rogue and still has more pack instinct than the rest of you. Now let's go."