DATE:  Friday, October 11, 1996
Place:  Harbor Park Fountain

Becca follows a path along the fence, no Mac with her today, no packmates 
   accompanying her. She rubs her bare arms briskly as she walks, and though 
   her eyes are mostly on the ground in front of her, she seems to be moving 
   toward JJ.
JJ Malone is as usual settled on a bench near the fountain, smoking casually 
   and watching the pedestrians, much as she does any day.
Becca lifts her eyes up to watch JJ as she draws closer. "Hey," she says, 
   tries to think of something to follow up such a promising start, and ends 
   up simply shrugging a little.
JJ Malone looks over at the Bone Gnawer with a heavy Look, one not quite so 
   intimidating as she can achieve under a full moon, but still no slouch. 
   There is no motion of threat, nor invitation to join her; she is almost 
   perfectly ambivalent in her reaction.
Becca fingers at a seam on her cammo pants, looking decidedly uneasy just with 
   the look. "I thought about something you said before, when you were talking 
   to Tommie," she says, with a definite, hesitant pause before she mentions 
   that particular Gnawer's name.
JJ Malone's expression takes on a scowl, and her words, when she does speak, 
   are low-pitched but biting nonetheless, "And what might *that* have been?"
Becca's eyes find a spot somewhere near the base of the bench to stare at, and 
   she takes a steadying breath. "You told her that if someone had a problem 
   with someone, that they should challenge that person." More careful now, 
   she drops the mention of certain names. "So, I mean, since you know about 
   this stuff, a lot more than me, that must be the way it's supposed to work. 
   And since I guess you have a problem with me, I was thinking, well, maybe 
   you'd want to challenge me." As a mumbled afterthought, she adds, "Or 
   something like that."
JJ Malone's spasmodically clench into hard fists, for a moment, purely 
   instinctual. Almost as soon as she does it, she seems to realize it. 
   Although her hands don't unclench, they drop into her lap, and she at least 
   seems aware of the action. There are long moments of indecision, rare for 
   the ahroun, as she looks straight at the galliard, the look made either 
   easier to bear or hard by the fact that the sunglasses tend to blank her 
   features.
Becca raises her eyes at the end of her little speech, expression hopeful, to 
   catch the older Glass Walker's response. And then that expression falls 
   when she comes to realize that she's done something wrong, apparently, to 
   gain such a dose of tense silence. "Or maybe not," she mumbles 
   indistinctly, and looks at safer items in the park, like that spot of grass 
   around the bench's leg.
"There'd be nothing I wanted more," is finally said, very low-pitched so that 
   it is barely audible to the Bone Gnawer, "than for the opportunity knock 
   the every living *shit* out of you," she finishes vehemently, but still in 
   a lowe voice. "But Challenges don't work that way, and I'm not going to 
   dirty it like that."
Becca takes a small but noticeable step backwards at those words, sliding her 
   right foot back and then resting her weight on it. "I was sort of hoping it 
   wouldn't involve you beating the crap out of me, actually," she says, the 
   words just barely loud enough to be caught by JJ.
JJ Malone mutters, "You wouldn't have the choice." However, it's obviously not 
   about now, since the ahroun's making no move to get up. She finally 
   remembers to reach up to the cigarette still burning in her mouth and toss 
   it, the filter crushed passed usability.
Becca begins again, very carefully, "Well... I don't think it's fair for you 
   to be so pissed off at me, just because of something that T--" She catches 
   herself, about to stumble across that name again, and pauses. "Something 
   that someone else did. Especially since no one even asked me about it at 
   all. So maybe I should be the one that challenges you." By this point, the 
   course of action the Gnawer seems likeliest to take involves either 
   stammering through another attempt at figuring out what JJ wants, or just 
   flat running in the likely event that JJ takes offense at this.
JJ Malone is in the process of reaching into her pocket for another cigarette 
   and her lighter at this statement, which takes her attention away. A brief 
   flash of almost unholy glee crosses her face before she catches it, but 
   she's *definitely* interested. "On what grounds?" she asks, with the coiled 
   intensity of a cat stalking a mouse.
It's fairly obvious that the Gnawer is just grasping at straws here, trying to 
   guess what it is that JJ would want her to do at this point. Or, at the 
   least, what would appease the ahroun. "Uh... because it's not fair."
JJ Malone's voice turns harsh, a note of anger. "Fair? Six, or even five on 
   one is fair, but this isn't?"
Becca shakes her head slightly. "It wasn't like that," she says insistently, 
   still about as submissive as she can get by her posture, but the tone to 
   her words start to take on the faintest hints of frustration and anger 
   both. "I didn't do anything. Matt didn't do anything. And Mosh, all he did 
   was challenge, and I thought that was what you were supposed to do. You 
   said so."
"Cry me a river," the ahroun mutters contemptuously. She finally lights the 
   cigarette, looking over at the fountain finally.
Becca says, suddenly sharp, "I'm not crying, I'm explaining, what's wrong with 
   you people?" It's partially an echo of her packmate's words, from a 
   previous evening but a similar topic.
JJ Malone looks over sharply to pin the girl with a glare. "Ever stop to think 
   that maybe it's *you* that's wrong?" Without even pausing, she snorts, and 
   answers contemptuously, "Probably not." She looks back at the fountain 
   again.
Becca has dropped her head back down, staring at the ground once again, by the 
   time JJ turns. "I don't know what you want me to do," she says, sounding 
   tired. "If you're not supposed to challenge me, and I'm not supposed to 
   challenge you, and I'm not even supposed to say what happened, then I guess 
   I don't know. And I guess you're supposed to hate us, and I guess you and 
   Mac are supposed to stay pissed off at each other. I wonder if that Walker 
   guy, that one with the business cards, knew he was lying."
JJ Malone growls darkly. Without word or even a sign of excusing herself, she 
   picks herself off the bench and begins to walk out, away from Becca, back 
   turned. Actually, she doesn't walk so much as stalk.
Becca keeps her mouth shut for five seconds, ten seconds, the Walker drawing 
   further away. And then the Gnawer's silence is broken, as she shouts, 
   "Guess that means you don't accept my challenge!" She takes a step forward 
   afterwards, and flops down onto the bench that was just vacated.

---- Recall end ----