#switchblade.threads

So Jay caught David pulling this guy around by the ear. And he got curious, asking around about them. When he learned that his name was Soren, he just started working there, and that The Dogs were very fond of them, Jay knew he had to confront him personally.

Of course, when it went down to it, and when Jay was confronting him, he was dodgy about it. Granted Jay was being vague too, but that definitely didn't help. Still, they seemed to know what he was talking about.

It was an odd routine, but Marina started stopping by to check on him at some point. At least once a week, she'd fly out to him in Florida. Stay with him, they'd get intimate, and she'd take care of him. Make him do his PT, doing it with him. It was nice, but he just didn't understand it.

The question comes out of nowhere, one day, over some coffee in the morning.

For whatever reason, there was a werewolf pursuing him.

Well, not whatever reason. A man named Gedo had clearly marked him in some way. He had captured Jay, in some elaborate set up with drugging someone Jay drank from. It took a lot of planning from Gedo to pull that off, clearly, but his restraint set up was lack luster. He didn't take even one step out before there was a howl. Distinctly a werewolf's, and hell Jay didn't even know Gedo enough to know that Gedo had one in his employ.

So Jay sprinted, as fast as he could. Being a dhamphir gave him something of a leg up, but it certainly wouldn't be enough to out run a werewolf. Maybe he could out maneuver him? Weaving through the trees of these thick woods (he barely knew where he was), he simply couldn't lose sight of his damn pursuer.

For whatever reason, Mox putting his hand up to stop Jay from running works. He crosses his arms, leaning his weight onto one leg as he raises an eyebrow at the other man. There were a lot of things Mox could say to him, do to him... And there was a lot Jay was willing to dish back. But this wasn't some typical brutal ambush or attack, or else Mox would've had the goon squad around... Jay looks around, not finding an of them nearby.

Jay wasn't a speculative type. But he trusted his instincts, and admittedly, sheltering in a run down motel was not his idea of cozy. But the rain was coming in worse, and they needed a moment's respite. The car was low on fuel, and neither of them had wanted to risk running out of gas as the temperatures dropped over the course of the night.

"Look, I'm just saying..." How did he not sound crazy? "It's just...a bad vibe?" He knows he doesn't have much choice. They're in the car, and the rain is still pouring. The motel didn't look rundown...just that it was out of the 80s and somehow preserved in that design aesthetic.

Lately it seemed like Jay was being tugged by people left and right. Still, Willow was a nice person, and Jay didn't want to not repay her kindness towards him. He might've been one of the only people not in his faction who was nice to him. Treated him like a person worth respecting.

{ sms ; bex } You know you don't need an excuse to come see me.

{ sms ; bex } I hope you don't mind me having to move it but I do appreciate some fine, genuine leather. I can't get behind all this vegan leather stuff.

It was a weird situation. It wasn't intentional. Jay wasn't following Ibushi, not this time, but still they happened to show up at the same bar. A rare sports bar in Tokyo, and one that aired New Zealand and Australian sports at that. He'd hoped to catch the new NZHL team from his hometown, the Makos, in one of the few matches they'd play due to their developmental status. He was enough of a regular he could probably ask for it to be put on one of the TVs around the bar.

He wasn't sure what compelled him to sit up next to Kota. Jay was on a tear, having won the NEVER Openweight Championship, becoming the 5th ever Triple Crown Champ at New Japan. Ibushi had lost to Osprey just a month before. Jay knew it wasn't pity, but it wasn't going to seem like anything else.

So there Jay is, sitting next to Ibushi, a bout of silence after Jay had placed his drink down and had been uncharacteristically quiet. Neither of them looks quite right dressed down as "civilians". He leans on the table eventually, looking up at Kota from that lower angle.