#6 Main St.

[Leo Wilds]

Leo nobs as Liberty tells him no B word. He smiled slightly and thought of a code name for her during their hunt. She'd be known as Fox while they hunted her so why not nickname her Sly to bring in a little side amusement.

Leo made his way in throwing his arm around Madrigus to lead him in. glancing at Sally he winced a little. He had hit a rough subject for them both and caused a trigger in Sally. Seeing Sally become pale and distant his mind flashed back to that awe full night. Removing his arm from Madrigus as fast as he placed it he hurried ahead and b-lined for the bathroom. The whole way he ignored everyone and looked down barely missing people as he walked. No hi or hello left his lips only a sad somber look of dread. His eyes showed nothing but sorrow.

Reaching the bathroom he entered and locked the door behind him. Approaching the mirror he only stared into it. He never wanted to remember that night again. The horror and fear of losing a friend we nothing in comparison to his shame and anger that he couldn't do anything to save someone he considered one of his own. That was the second time he had failed to protect what was important to him.

Losing his whole section of the order to demons was his biggest shame. This tomfoolery just made made him look that much worse. All his power and yet he was so powerless that night to do anything but beg an plead like a coward. Why must such bad things always follow him.

Splashing water on his face and pinching his own leg he snapped back to reality and nodded at his own reflection. He vowed to fight and do what he could to protect the people and lead any that need him if the events made it so. Right now he needed to pull himself together and work as a team with them and try his best to lead them on a training exercise. If he let the past haunt him he'd never become good enough to lead an ant.

Unlocking the door and exiting the bathroom he sat down next to Sally and remain as quiet as dirt in a jar on a mid summers night. Watching the clock tick down to the last minute he started stretching a little.

"Sally, Alice, Madrigus lets do our best to catch 'Sly'. If you were a fox where would you move to first to throw of your trail? The Condos? No to easy. The Beach..... Naw to open. I think I'd try to get a vantage on the hunting squad and keep an eye on their every move while staying two steps ahead of them. Sally, Alice if you were to pick somewhere to hunt based on what animal you choose where would you look first?" He asked finally done dancing around in his own train of out loud thinking.

[PoeticJustice]

Alice watched Sally retreat inside himself, watched the dim and distant expression cross his face. Her eyes went soft, and she reached out to take his wrist in her hand, leading him to a table. There was no one else in the world, and they could see it on her face. Any waves were ignored, any hellos brushed off. She perched on the edge of the table, leaving him standing beside her.

Her eyes flickered to the clock. Three minutes. Enough? Did it matter? She shook her head.

She released his arm and reached into her pocket, pulling out a battered and worn paperback. She opened it to the cover and paused, swallowing and visibly centering herself. The pages were flipped until she reached one and paused.

"Sally," she murmured softly, the same tone of voice he'd used with her not moments before. And then her eyes moved down to the page.

“People do not give it credence that a fourteen-year-old girl could leave home and go off in the wintertime to avenge her father's blood but it did not seem so strange then, although I will say it did not happen every day. I was just fourteen years of age when a coward going by the name Tom Chaney shot my father down in Fort Smith, Arkansas, and robbed him of his life and his horse and $150 in cash money plus two California gold pieces that he carried in his trouser band.” Her voice was soft and soothing, strangely human from the girl with all the twitches and ticks. The shift from Hound to Girl was sudden and abrupt, drawn forth from necessity.

She continued reading until Leo approached, returned from the bathroom and his thoughts. And then she looked up at him, closing the book but keeping a finger in the place.

"Acting based on the information we gave her is the wrong call," she murmured quietly. "It's what she will anticipate and plan for. She works on insight, right? We've all seen it. Forcing ourselves to think different, to explore different aspects of ourselves to figure out how she would think and act is... Well, probably the game she has set out to play from the beginning. Mutable. Blue. Neutral color, but deep. Color of the ocean on a clear day, and the color of the sky," she looks out into space and shakes her head.

"This isn't about foxes and hounds, never was, and if we don't catch up to that fact, we won't ever be able to win." She closes her eyes and quirks her head, as if listening to something far away.

[Owle Isohos]

Kelsey was, in fact, in the diner, her purple coat tied around her waist, her medical bag at her feet. She looked up from her empty tea cup when Leo hurried by, frowning as she noted the body language. The way he walked said, louder than any shout, Something horrible has happened here.

She extracted herself from her conversation and made sure her coat was tied on extra tight. Double-checked that she had enough supplies in her bag to patch up anyone who needed it, then slung the strap onto her shoulder. Picked up her hat from the table and placed it firmly on her head. Returned the empty tea cup to the bin the diner had out to collect dinnerware.

By the time she was done, Leo was sitting by Sally's side, and Alice had a book in hand. Kelsey noted the presence of Madrigus as she approached the group, though she'd never really spoken to the homeless man with the large book. Her attention was focused on the other three.

"Hey, is everything alright?" Kelsey asked. Catching the last bit of Alice's statement, she looked between her and Leo. "What's going on?"

[Sally]

Good lawd, I need a drink somethin' fierce.

Sally sits, hearing but not listening for the moments that keep ticking toward the starter-pistol firing.

As Alice reads of Matty Ross's adventure to hunt down her father's murder, he stares off into the nothing, hunched forward some and placated.

Got some o' Mr. Gondorff's brew in the holdout, he thinks. Of course, the holdout flask is stashed with his gun belt and assorted bangles- back at his bunk. Might make tha headache go 'way. Might make the metal taste in mah mouth go 'way.

Might make me a bit slower, though He thinks Bob Gray laying on one of Dr. Ellie's tables, getting a shot of adrenaline through his chest or a blast from those fancy electro-paddles. Might make me a bit dumber, an' this is thinkin' man's work.

"...What's going on?" Kelsey asks.

Sally's eyes snap back to focus and he glances around. Alice, with the book. Leo, talking some- taking lead. Madrigus, taking it all in. Miss Graham.

"Nothin' but a lil' bitta the vapors. Mah corset must be cinched a spot too tight," Sally says with a strained smile, forcing his hands away from his knife holster and where his flask would be until they rest on his knees, "Nothin' to worry 'bout none." He says this to all of them, "Not that I don't 'ppreciate it."

He quickly goes right into explaining the name of the game.

"We got us a bit of a trainin' exercise startin' up. Liberty called it a bit a Team Buildin'. Got a Fox in the field- the town that is- doin' her best ta ninja into a hidey-hole that we won't sniff out," he gestures to Leo, Alice, and Madrigus, making a hoop with his finger. "Got us an hour, startin' right now, to get eyes on this Sly Fox and tag 'er with a bean bag. Leo's runnin' this here crew, ain't that right, Boss?"

He grins some, and looks to Kelsey, "Sounds like," he squints some. Alice and Leo had both just put forth good tactics, hadn't they? "It sounds like this might some kinda psycho-logical trick, though. I've hunted cougers n' coons n' snappers n'... shit, if we's bein' honest, shit that can shoot back, one way 'er another... an' Leo's got the long 'n' short of it. Get high, keep eyes on them, pick 'em off," he nods to their leader, "Tha's how I'd do it, bein' all alli-gatory..."

"But she ain't got no means of pickin' us off, so she's got mis-direct us..." he levels a finger at Alice, then taps at the end of his nose. "An' I think she's dun done jus' that."

"Luckily, we got us a di-verse little kay-ball a brains here, don't we?" He grins up at Kelsey, "So what's say you toss in an' help us how to out-brain our Sly Fox?"

[Leo Wilds]

Leo nodded at Alice and Sally's answers. It was just as he expected from the group. By combining their reasoning and individual insight they could out fox the fox.

Looking at Kelsey he smiled slightly. "Everythings fine just trying to catch a sly fox as teamwork building. I think it be grwat to get your help miss Kelsey. More insight means better formed plans." He said grinning.

"So we out fox a fox with a few misleading tricks mixed in with some honest tactics. Lets do what she wants us to do an let her think she is 'Hunting the hunters' as they call it and set up some tricks to get her caught an tagged. We gotta stay predictable while counting on her to got to be over confidant about out smarting us. Then she'll slip up an fall right for our trap. So how do we ambush what expects a trap. By using the newer players that she hasn't seen to suprise her. That's the best way to draw her closer." He said using his hands to half ass illustrate his speech.

If anything this might be a grade C- plan at worse. It had potential to work but also potential to fail easily. It hinged to much on Liberty not noticing theg were being predictable. Hoping she wouldn't think that it was way to easy.

[Madrigus]

Madrigus stayed silent as he followed the others into the diner. He was thinking about how they were going to go about this, and what Liberty's plans were. One hand idly fingered the binding on his tome, the warm flesh quivering imperceptibly at his touch. He didn't sit, but stood behind and slightly to the right of Leo, a traditional place for a bodyguard.

When Kelsey appeared he looked her over, considering the options. Having a new player added after the start of game added complexity. His eyes narrowed, then swept across the scant windows, wishing they were easier to see out of.

"I'll bet she's watching us," he grated quietly, but loud enough for only them to hear. He reached into his bag and touched his cards, uncomfortable in his blindness, then withdrew a leftover burger and began to eat. "She's calling the shots right now, and will continue to do so until we start catching on. If she wants to stay hidden she's got to keep tabs on us. Since we came into the diner she'll want to know if anyone else is joining before we set out. More than likely she's standing outside right now watching us, and then at the four minute mark take off like the Dickens."

He chewed thoughtfully before continuing. "The best place to hide are sometimes in innocuous places near where we might not look. For example, when I passed the bungalows I saw that there was sufficient space for someone to fit underneath, and cataloged it in the event I needed to hide there. I know she stays in the bungalows, and I feel that that is a solid place to start. It's also fairly central so we can go almost everywhere from there. What d'you guys think?"

[Sally]

Sally claps Leo on the back and hops to his feet, "I love it when a fuckin' plan comes together!" he says, beaming, "And that sounds like a fuckin' plan! A lil' Rope-a-Dope, a lil' mis-di-rection, an' a whole lotta playin' possum. We play it cool-" his grin is almost cruel for the moment, even if the twinkle in his eyes is anything but, as he remembers his days back home, doing things that weren't so much 'frowned upon' as they were 'federal narcotics crimes.' Running shipments of things better left unsaid across state lines, county lines, town lines, and a whole lotta lines in-between.

Back in those days, you always kept your license plates up to date, your tail lights lit up, and your turn-signal engaged. Full stop at the stop signs, and wave people in on yield signs. The number of men and women caught with a twenty-year sentence in their trunks because of traffic violations was a downright embarrassment that the seedy parts of Harlan County's underbelly wanted to avoid.

Play. It. Fuckin'. Cool.

And Madrigus was playing it ice-goddamn-cold. If he hadn't caught scent of the game- The Game is on!!!, Sally might have had the sense to take note of this particular Bound fellow's particularly sharp mind.

But, no one had ever accused Sally Lautner of being a great multitasker.

Pointing sharply at Madrigus, Sally says, "Whaddya say, Cap'n Wilds? We head down and check out Mad-ri-gus's hidey-hole, an' keep up the cha-rade that we's just a bunch of ign'ant lil goobers? See if we can watch the watchman watchin' us?"

With a wide smile for Kelsey, Sally says, "Ain'tchu glad you done walked over?"

[Owle Isohos]

She listened carefully as Sally explained the exercise, and before too long the worried expression had been wiped off her face, replaced by a grin. Maybe she'd been overreacting when she thought there was some kind of emergency - everyone was smiling and laughing now. And Sally in a good mood was downright contagious.

She met Madrigus' eyes when he looked her over, then quickly looked away. She didn't know why, but the homeless man gave her the willies. Still, she nodded along as she spoke - what he said made good sense. She'd considered crawling underneath those bungalows a time or two when firefights broke out nearby.

Kelsey laughed as Sally pointed at her. "I am! And sure, I'm game. Sure beats dealing with a medical emergency, that's for sure!"

She chuckled and turned to Leo. "So am I the bait in this plan? You tell me where you want me to be to try to draw out your Fox, and I'll be there."

[PoeticJustice]

Alice settled comfortably on one of the tables, planting one leg on one of the stools. The book was closed and slid back into her pocket. She didn't seem to have much more to add than she already had, and instead just listened, eyes flicking between anyone speaking at any given point.

Kelsey didn't quite get a smile, but it was a near thing and the softening of her face conveyed similar affection. She got a faint nod before Alice rolled her shoulders back and closed her eyes as she listened, leaning gently against Sally. Her hands balled into fists and then opened them and then closed them. An uncomfortable energy surrounded them like a corona before it faded.

[kimp]

(Hi - voice of the omnipresent narrator here - considering the amount of conversation that has happened its probably been five minutes.
If someone wants to pull the trigger
For mechanics you could just write out what you are doing - like when we walked to the diner from Main Street. Feel free to converse along the way

Can you tell the narrator is chomping at the bit? Please - throw me a bone!)