Occams Razor

Leo grabbed a chair and slowly made his way out the door of main street #6. He looked around an saw that it was a beautiful day out. Setting the chair on the middle of the porch he sat on it. He had decided to that sitting outside enjoying the day was better than doing nothing at all.

Main #6 would make a great safe haven for those who needed help from Leo and the White Rose order. He knew that by helping people he could slowly make the town a safer place for them all. He would do anything he could to keep everyone alive no matter what the risk was for him. Thinking on this a song started to play in his head and he suddenly started to sing along.

"I've seen cities burn, I've seen tides turn right here in your eyes. I can't imagine how, but we stand together now. We'll make it through tonight. We won't regret anything that's done or said. We'll be here till there's no one left. We're gonna be the last ones standing!" He sang softly into the warm breeze. Ignoring his surroundings completely he just continued singing the song. You wouldn't know by looking at him but music actually helped him get through even the hardest of times.

(Song->Barricade by-> Courage My Love link -> )

vasily walk up looking grungy as per normal.

"yo your singing is gonna scare away the rest of the people on this street."

vasily heads inside and a lot of cussing and thumping and braking of things type noises issue from the house.

Leo went quiet when Vasily asked him to stop. He didnt want to cause discord with his house mate. It was a beautiful day out so enjoying it was a better way to spend it.

Looking up and down the street he wondered how everyone else was doing. They had already been through a lot since they arrived here. He hoped that it would slowly bring them together.

With his usual tilted grace, Sally ambles up Main Street. Normally, he'd be likely come from the AAA, but today he is more filthy than usual. Dirt and grit and sap all mar him, but for once, the only blood visible seems to be long since dried. He starts to cut towards #5, towards home, but sees Leo on the porch and banks towards old #6.

"Hey there, Leo Wilds, my brother in blood- both spilt and mod-if-ied," Sally says, hunkering down on the porch, "That you singin' I hear?"

Sally looks off into the distance for a moment, wistfully almost, "Where I come from, people sittin' on porch singin' the day away is jus' 'bout the most normal thang in the whole wide world."

With a shake of his head, Sally says, "You ever talk to Dallas- the other fire marshal? She an' Eden Jones 's been talkin' bout some right regular activities fer us outta-towners. Stuff ta keeps us all tied together some. A project like that might need a man 'a yer ferocity, my man."

Sally shakes his head again and leans back into the porch. In the last few weeks, it seems like Lautner is either sprawled on a porch or slogging off into the woods. He's rarely been inside, save for ducking into the AAA every now and then, and even then, spends most times on the stoop. Between the ever lengthening days and the lack of staying in doors, he's looking more and more the literal picture of a 'red neck' with each passing week.

"Shit, even just a game er two a some capture the flag-football wouldn't be too bad. Somethin' ta get the blood flowin'..." he frowns for a long moment, and tries not to look at the long slashes of scar tissues on his limbs, "pumpin'. Blood pumpin."

:: Liberty comes along the road from down by the Shadegrove condos. She is lightly throwing up a ball with one hand and a throwing star with the other, catching each with the tips of her fingers before tossing them once more. Her gaze is elsewhere as she navigates the Y separating the the road from Main St, but then takes on an intensity as she spots Sally sitting out on the porch, Leo near him. She stops. Her gaze tracks to the house with the conspicuous animal skull on the front, then back to where Sally sits. She tosses the ball and star a few more times, then palms them and approaches the porch. ::

:: Without any attempt to ease in with a polite greeting, she says ::
I am bored.

:: She stops. Looks down and to the side, then back up at them::
Hello, Sally.
:: There is a slow pause, then she blinks at the other man ::
Leo...? Right?

:: That out of the way, she repeats ::
I am bored. Are you bored?

:: There is another hiccup of a pause, then she focuses on Sally and adds ::
Or lost? This is not your house.

:: With no segue at all, she shifts the focus ::
I am feeling rusty so, if you are bored, I could use someone to train with. I was thinking of training exercise #27. That is what they :: emphasis on the word, making it a term and a subtle curse at once :: called it. I call it Fox and Hounds when I train apprentices. It's a tracking/hunting exercise. I can't do it alone. Well, I could do it with squirrels, but they aren't very interesting prey. I would ask Bob Grey, but I do not think he plays much. You seem the type. To play. Well, Sally, you do. Leo...?
:: She gives the other man an assessing look, then her shoulders lift in an infinitesimal shrug ::
Hmm...

:: That out of the way she goes silent and trains a steady look at them::

Leo looks up at Sally when he hears him start to talk. It was good to see a friendly face up and about not letting the grim wvents stop him. This is what he knew to be the direction they should face. A grass greener on the other side kinda mentality for them.

He listened to Sally's questions and answered them as they came.
"Why yes that was me singing Sally.
No I haven't talkes to Dallas only Gus, but sounds interesting. I think your right brother. Something like" that sounds great."

Hearing someone else approach je looked in the direction of the crunching gravel. It was Liberty another friendly face. He smiled at he as she approached.

"Why yes miss I am Leo. I have to say your right on the money. I'm bored too." He said answering her. Hearing her ask if they could help her train he couldn't see the harm in helping, plus who knows maybe he'd learn something from it too. "Why training sounds good to me. Training together will bring us closer as a community I hope." He said with a slight smile.

in truth training with groups helps people to learn to depend on one another and trust to build slowly. At least that's how Leo viewed it.

"Hey there, Liberty. Well, some might say bein' bored 'round these parts is a blessin'," Sally says, sitting up from the stoop. "But yeah, this ain't my house." He nods over to #5, where the front porch has a number of beer cans crushed along its planks, and a pair of camp chairs. The Ram Skull offers its blank stare in the daylight hours.

"Jus' kickin' back with Leo, but I'm always game fer somethin'. Though, must admit, I'm usually the hound in that sorta sitchy-ashun," Sally digs into his shirt and out comes a black medallion with a pink dog's head in profile. It's not unlike the one worn by Alice White, whose hound is, as one would expect, white, rather than pink. Sally considers that Hartighan needs a red medallion with a black hound, but shakes his head to consider speaking.

Sally kips up to his feet, head-and-shoulders looming over Liberty. "I already dun run through the woods a coupla times today, so, whas a couple more? I'm yer huckleberry."

Somewhere, Alice has to be blurting out 'That's just my game!', Sally thinks, with a grin. It then occurs to him that this game might not be so even-

"Hey, ken you go readin' my mind to figger out where I am? Cuz I think we got some tin-foil I could tuck in my head band..."

:: A Mona-Lisa smile lifts the corners of Liberty's mouth ::
Excellent

So, as the name implies, in this exercise one individual is the fox, the others are the hounds. The fox is given a negotiated head start. They can choose to go to ground or keep running. At the end of that time the hounds are set loose to find the fox.

Along with the time for the head-start, you negotiate restrictions like not going into buildings, staying at ground-level, sticking to a specific area, or the limit of time in which the hounds have to find the fox. If the fox does choose to hide they don't have to remain in the same place. They have the option of breaking cover if they hear the hounds coming. Or they can choose to stay hidden. It's all a matter of preference and personal style.

The hounds have to work as a unit, so that's the lesson for them in the exercise. And the fox has to be wily and fast.

:: Her gaze goes far away for a moment before she adds ::
We'll have to adjust a little because usually what happens when the fox is caught they have a bone broken. That is the end-game, since otherwise they have the option of running when found, but I understand that is a little extreme.
:: As if this is the most natural thing in the world to say, she doesn't pause before moving on ::
I suppose we could do something like counting coup. A tap to call the fox out. Or hit them with a beanbag, maybe.

So, does that work for you?
:: A subtle hint of glee lights her eyes ::
This should be fun.

:: Then she turns her gaze fully on Sally ::
That isn't my type of weird. Although I am tempted to say it is to see you swathe your head in tinfoil.
:: There is a pause, then she adds ::
Also, that's cheating. I don't need to cheat. I'm just that good.
:: She cocks her brows in a subtle "duh" commentary ::
Maybe you should be a hound though, to be safe from my wily ways. Unless you have your heart set on being the fox?

:: She slants a look at Leo ::
Or do you want to be the fox, Leo? Work with someone else as a team or try to outwit them? What's your poison?

An all too familiar brogue comes from behind the house as a helmeted figure emerges.
"Aye, I dunna think me boy Robert is gonna be up to no reindeer games for a while now lass... seems the fellers from internal affairs were a bit rougher on him than usual and the doctors are in a wee bit of a tiff about his condition."

Blacklight 4 nods to the assembled, pausing to regard Sally for a long moment.
"Do ya figure ye ken stay on the wagon lad? If so then I see no harm in ye having a bit o sport.. but iffin he does stray from his promises lass, I think a busted knee might remind himself to keep on the straight an narrah."

He pauses and touches the covering over his ear for a moment before muttering something quietly. "Bloody hell.. duty calls. Do me a favor lass, make sure me boy Robert takes it easy for a month or so. He's supposed to be recoverin from surgery, not gettin shot up and undoin all o medicals hard work. Oh and have JD get that boy to a meeting." He nods his head in Sally's direction before tugging the large flechette cannon to a ready carry position and hustling off down the street in the direction of the edge of town.

Sally narrows his eyes for a moment, brow furrowing as he hears Liberty's game. If there's something about the 'rules' that bugs him, he doesn't say, and is frankly silent for a moment before shaking his head and asking Leo,

"You game to do a lil' husslin' there, Leo Wilds? Mebbe see if we can yap up a big 'nuff posse to snag this here lil' lady? Run at this like we done run at-?" Sally's mouth gets ahead of his brain and his smile jerks away as he realizes that the end of that sentence is The Big Bad Butcherman.

He jerks his head back into the game, gives it a shake, and says, "Fer the sake of the Sheriff's Peace, and the gen-er-al wellbein' of summuv 'r older folks, is prolly best if I don't go runnin' round strapped..." Sally says, his brow furrowed again as he flips open the catch on his holster and slips his fancifully lacquered revolver out of its sheath. He starts to ask Leo about a safe spot to stash her in his cabin, then remembers Leo bunks with Vasily, and thinks better of it. It's all of 30 feet to his own bunk, and he can cache the big gun there.

All the same, he doesn't even so much as look to the KA-BAR knife strapped to his other leg. Save for his stay in the Quarantine Zone and his shorter internment in a certain rundown shack, that item hasn't left his side in years.

"All right, Ms. Blue, I'll run hound on ya, jus' so long as they ain't no in-bred princes I gotta look afta in the meanwhile," Sally says, laughing to himself. Ever since the Chickadee started readin' them Ice n' Fire Song books of his, he can't help but make a jape 'er two. "Round's done when somebody can peg ya with a Hack-ee-Sack. Tween Dj Slapchop and Red Raver, there's gotta be a kiddie 'er two round here with a beanbag they kick 'round on a lawn.

He makes to go deposit his gun and nearly bumps into Blacklight #4, fully decked out in his tactical kit.

"Christ there, Quat-tro, didn't nobody tell ya it's damn near summer out here?" Sally asks, before listening to what the Blackstone Op has to say.

As #4 departs, Sally calls after him, "My knee's been busted as many times as I fallen off the damn wagon!"

He ducks into #5, and comes back empty holstered a moment later, one hand almost overflowing with some tie-dyed beanbags.

"Lookie lookie what JD had under his bunk? Ya can take the smoke outta the hippie, but ya can't take the hippie outta the smoke"

Sally says, hopping off his porch. Along with his revolver, the heavy combat gear is also gone, and he's down to just a mossy-oak patterned T-shirt and black shorts. Without the usual sleeves to cover him, his arms are network of pinkish scars- one speared right through the rough tattoo of a Ram's Head on his forearm.

"You read to run there, Kentucky Blue Dog?"