Black Brook Park

Ms. Morgana was feeling claustrophobic in the city. So she ventured off into a park on the outskirts of town. Ms. Mason told of a good one nearby called Black Brook Park. She hoped she was in the right place, but as she looked up at the starry night and smelled the trees and looked at the openness around her, she realized she didn't care. "Its hard melding back into the world," she muttered to herself as she pick a cozy place to lay down.

As time past she just laid there still as rock.

"Funny finding you here." William's voice was eerily hollow as he emerged from a line of evergreen tree but a few feet away from where Morgana now lay. When he had chosen the tall tree further in from the tree line to meld with, he had hoped that as he slept away the day when night fell his senses would return. Much to his surprise it barely worked as he could faintly make out the distant voices of the earily evening park goers and the various sounds their dogs made after the sun had set. Meditating to while away the time, he felt in his guts the rumbling of The Animal Within. It sensed another nearby which meant that night must have settled firmly upon the city. Shaking his worn and tattered leather coat out, William moved to the front of the tree line and took a seat against a tree. He left the air clear to see if she would rather be left alone this evening.

Morgana could sense another approaching before he arrived but she was little bothered by this. She often found this to be the case in this town. With out moving anything but her lips she replied. "Ahh Mr. Powers, How are you? Care to join me?"

"Thanks." William stood again and moved to within arms length of her still form before laying down as well. He folded his arms behind his head to form a small cushion as she stared up into the night sky. William did not know why she had come out this far from the buzz of the city but he did not need to. To each their own here. He knew why he came out this far from his home, far enough that he was forced to Meld with the earth of the park to avoid the first rays of the sun. A long moment passed as he settled against the ground.
"I will not lie... I have been lost in thought of late."

"I noticed such last I saw you. Is everything okay?" Morgana enjoyed the normalcy of this moment. It almost made her laugh. She listened to the shallow breathing that both she and Mr. Powers forced in and out of their bodies, and was stricken by the constant reminder that things were not normal.

"I don't know," William thought for a long moment as he chose his words carefully. "If I can say anything it is that I...I miss the yesterdays long since passed. I used to believe that as long as I can see my target and am on my feet, I can make any situation work. Now? Now I am wandering around this city in such deep thought I barely realize that the sun has begun to rise and must take shelter in dirt." William could see the belt of Orion above him and he felt the corners of his mouth rise slightly. Been a while since he had taken time to look at the stars, which is strange considering how much of his time was spent in darkness these days. "So what brings one such as yourself out here to the middle of nowhere?" He asked as he began to hunt for more familiar heavenly bodies.

"Well I'm not used to cities and I need room to think as it were. I've always found the night sky to be a relaxing contemplative sort of thing. It sounds silly when I say it out loud, but I feel as the ancients did about the night, like the stars are our ancestors looking down on us."

"And do you always wonder about the woods?"

William shrugged his shoulders against the ground. He then realized aside from the soft creak of his leather jacket, it was silent gesture. He smiled slightly more at his absent mindedness and answered.
"I'm finding myself more often heading out these ways. Helps clear the head when you don't have the drone of everyone else's crap ringing in your ears." He spotted Ursa Major and decided to find Ursa Minor for double points in his head. After he found it he continued.

"And lately, even with the dangers in the shadows, at least I know what waiting out there in the dark. I rather deal with the monsters that hide in the darkness than the one's that can stand to be in the light." The last part came out quieter and somewhat more darker than his other spoken thoughts. His face turned skyward also seemed to veil itself with a more serious expression.

"I know what you mean." Morgana settled into a momentary silence, lost in thought.

The moment of silence stretched out between them while William hunted down Scopio and he left Morgana to her thoughts. After a few more moments of star gazing he found his star sign Leo and his expression softened from grim to contemptative.
"I sometimes find what I have become to be something of cosmic joke. Forever and a day I have told my friends I would be there for them beyond death. Now that it's a proven fact I am beyond time's reach, and with amazing powers to sweeten the deal," William voice grew quiet as he traced an outline around Leo with his imagination "and I can do little more than throw money at their problem's and hope it's enough."

"Must be nice to have friends. Even if there is little you can do to help them. In this word money is enough sometimes."

"Money is never enough. It is merely the start." William growled as his mind turned to darker thoughts. Of alleyways long since abandoned where even screams can go unnoticed.

"It seems most of my clan would disagree. 'All problems can be solved if you have enough money to throw at it.' I don't know if I prescribe to such principles myself. In fact I don't know myself that well at all. In terms of the social world I mean." Morgana contemplated her words, knowing that sometimes one can mince words, which in this case proves her point.

William turned his head to Morgana and fixed her with a serious look. He held it on her a long moment before turning back to the sky. "Money is a means' to an end but by no mean's the end. Money can get you a lot of things but does nothing more than what people expect it to. If one is narrow enough to believe it solves their problems, then their problems were never that great to begin with."
William forced himself to take a breath as he felt he may have applyed too much heat to that last statement. It was not her nor her clan he felt anger to. He forced his mind back to the problem at hand. "I am sorry I am not keeping such good company tonight," He said with a grim smile upon his lips. "Times like this my Master would ask me to step into the ring and spar him until I finally came clean with what was bothering me. The longer I kept it in the harder he would go until I was on my ass and did not have the sense to lie to him. Sort of miss that some days."

"well i probably can't beat you senseless, but i'll give it try if you want." Morgana smiled and hoped to make William laugh a bit. True laughter was one of the many things she missed about being human. Human's laugh so easily, her kindred are normal so serious that its nauseating.

"Tell me what's on your mind love."

William snickered at the "beating senseless offer" and searched for the constallation Cancer even though it was probalbly out on the other side of the world. He heaved a sigh of resignation as this was more likely than not how his mind would be set to rest.
"A friend from my past found me here. That friend is in trouble. And I have been wandering these streets hunting for an answer. Or maybe I am just hunting? These people hurt my friend," As he spoke, glimmer of good cheer faded and soon a hard edge returned his voice, "They hurt some one I care for. And by God, they will suffer."

"I can see why such a think can weigh so heavily on your mind. Did your friend find you for help or was this a brought on by poor decisions sort of thing and he/she doesn't know what they've gotten themselves into?"

"They found me because I fix problems. Even one's made on their own behalf. As for how they arrived at this crossroads, it was on their own path to recovering. They just wound up getting lost along the way. And now Its my turn to try and remind them that while compasses can break, the Stars still remain...and now so will I."