No matter that patriotism is too often the refuge of scoundrels. Dissent, rebellion, and all-around hell-raising remain the true duty of patriots.
-Barbara Ehrenreich

Well, you've taken me a little by surprise in asking for my story, considering that I hardly know you, but I suppose I can spin you a tale or two. I've got a few years under my belt and I'd have to admit that it's been quite an interesting life. Don't let some of the other Garou fool you, we Bone Gnawers are much more into the action than just trying to scrape up a meal here and there and break the Litany every chance we get. Sure, some of the parts of the Litany don't set well with us, but I don't see us really failing all that much at serving Gaia's will. In fact, I think a good many of us serve her better than those self-righteous others who live out in the wilderness and head off on big Umbral quests to take out the Wyrm. I guess you could say that a lot of us do our part by helping take care of each other and some of Gaia's unfortunates. They're all too often neglected by others since doing simple things like seeing someone fed and sheltered doesn't seem to grant a lot of glory. Although frankly, it should. After all, it isn't just the Garou who are part of Gaia, it's everyone.

Like most other Bone Gnawers, I started out poor, living right on the streets. I may not look that old, but that was forty-eight years ago. What can I say? I age gracefully. My father was a Bone Gnawer, my mother was kinfolk. They weren't married, but had two children together. That would be myself and my younger sister. My father had other children as well, he enjoyed sharing his charms among both kinfolk and Garou alike. That's not to say that he didn't care about my mother, he did very much. My mother, she did her best to see that my sister and I were educated. A good lot of Bone Gnawers never even learn how to read, you know. She wanted to make sure that we did. While I found that part of my education boring, I wasn't about to go against her and neglect any of those studies. I had what fun I could when I wasn't expected to be doing all of that. That actually added up to quite a lot of fun as well as quite a lot of trouble.

While my mother was teaching us things like reading and the like, my father engaged in his own form of education with us. We knew from right off that we had the chance to be Garou, so we listened to all that he told us and made sure that we were ready for anything that might happen in the future. Along with that, he made sure that we knew the streets of Philadelphia and that we realized how important that it is to make sure that the people who live on those streets get as much of a square deal as possible. That's not easy, it never has been. But neglecting to do what we can for them is failing not only them, but ourselves and Gaia. One thing that Bone Gnawers stress is that when you have, share. Don't neglect to feed or shelter your neighbor, because everyone on the streets has to have someone to rely on and we don't do our part if we ignore that. While most of the general population, be they human or Garou, don't seem to think that the bag lady on the corner or the wino in the alley are worth much, they're wrong. That bag lady is worth just as much as you or I, she's just looked on as a burden on society when she's not simply invisible to people.

All right, that's it for my rant. For the moment, anyway. I might burst out again with one during the conversation, it's hard to say. As time went on, I found out that I had indeed inherited the Garou gene while my sister had not. I think she was somewhat disappointed, but there wasn't much that could be done about it. I'd go on and embellish about my First Change and make it sound exciting and all that, but there really wasn't much to it. It happened, and not long after I went through the Rite of Passage, becoming a member of my father's pack. That pack was somewhat prominent in Philadelphia, so at least I had some clout behind me. Of course, being a Cliath can be tedious work sometimes. You're on the bottom rung, and climbing up steps isn't the easiest in the world. And there are some of those ranked above you that enjoy showing you just how far above you that they are. In answer to any unasked questions on that you might have, yes, I had some trouble with one or two of those above me. Some people just don't appreciate my unique way of doing things. Or my attitude. Ah well, I doubt that there is any group that has absolutely no dissention in the ranks.

I was almost twenty-one when my father met with an unfortunate "accident" that involved a vampire that he'd happened to annoy somehow. I don't know how he managed it, perhaps his very existence was enough to offend the creature. Ventrue is a clan that does not tend to look favorably upon the lower classes, and I suppose you don't get much lower than us. Regardless of the reason, the disgusting leech drained my father completely and left his body in a dumpster to be found by one of the hookers that works that street. We knew who did it immediately, the leech was arrogant enough to leave his mark. I decided that it was up to me to make sure that the creature regretted his actions, and so I went about planning to do that. Of course, I'm a very patient man and I had no intention of doing anything too soon. I wanted the "man" to get secure in his arrogance and drop his defenses. That gave me time to work out a plan with which to pay him back. During the course of that time, I went through some other changes as well that needed my attention, so that helped to put things off as well.

It was almost a year after my father's death that I finally broke off from the pack in which I'd started. One of those members that wasn't fond of me had become the leader, and finally the tension between us became strong enough that it was best that I go. Besides, the pack wasn't the same without my father; there was an emptiness there. The terms under which I left weren't all that horrible, and there turned out to be no bad feeling there. At least not with the new pack leader. I went independent for awhile, mainly so I could concentrate on that payback that was so richly deserved. I still hung out around the others, still did my part to help out, but I didn't pledge my allegiance to any one pack. We were all family anyway, so I didn't feel the need to become part of a more organized group at that time. I took a little time off from my plotting to spend time with my sister, who'd met the man of her dreams and had decided to go off with him. He wasn't poor, so she got to take a step up in the world. I knew I'd miss her, but she was happy and so I was happy for her. After a few months of wedded bliss, she even convinced her husband to allow our mother to move in with them. I don't think it was that hard in the end, the man was a good one and so did want to help as best he could. I took to visiting them as often as I could, although that wasn't often enough sometimes. It can be hard when members of your family go their own way. I guess I haven't done as much visiting as I should have since my mother died a few years ago, maybe I should remedy that. Hopefully my sister won't hold my absence against me too much. I wonder how many nieces and nephews I have now. At last count there were three.

It was just over a year after my mother moved away from the neighborhood that I finally was able to put my plan into works with that leech that killed my father. I'd taken to watching the Ventrue's every move closely, learned to sneak and hide very well in that time. I got his movements down, his schedule down, everything. I'm smarter than your average wolf, you know. I worked hard to make sure that there would be no surprises and to find the perfect time to strike. I'm sure that you know that the best time to strike one of those kind is during the day. They have this painful aversion to sunlight. When you're fighting powerful creatures, you have to take whatever advantage you can, and that's a big one. The tough part was figuring out how to get past all of his ghouls and the like. He had quite a retinue to watch over him. While I suppose that it would've been easier to use the Umbra and go in there, somehow I just didn't want to use that particular advantage of mine. I wanted to prove that I could do it without that. I've always been a bit on the daring side. So when I finally figured I had my plan down as well as I could get it, I struck.

I chose noon as the time for my great plan to start. It was as good a time as any, and not close at all to sundown so I had hours in which to work if I needed it. I did, in fact. You see, I figured that I had to take out his ghouls one at a time, and I didn't want any of them getting an alert off to the others. So I took my time and waited to isolate them one by one. I knew how many there were and so I was able to use that knowledge to my advantage. It was more than a little tedious, but I stuck to my plan even when I would have rather just rushed in and dealt with them all. I wanted to avoid changing forms at all, so getting them in a group would've been so much more difficult. It took me almost four hours, but I took them out one by one. That left just the leech. I easily found his closed off room and just went inside. I watched him for a short while, ever so tempted to wait until he started to stir, but I knew I wasn't all that ready to take on a fully powered vampire on my own. So I simply lifted him up to carry him out. He woke up not long after I started to carry him and started to struggle, but I had a tight hold of him and he was weaker considering the time of day. I did get the satisfaction of letting him know who was killing him, though. That felt good. He was still an arrogant son of a bitch though, sure that he was going to come out of it. Well, he thought that until he started smoking in the evening sun. Fried vampire doesn't smell very good, in case you're wondering. It looks even more disgusting than it smells. I left my mark there just as he did his, letting the rest of his disgusting clan know just who got the better of them. They haven't liked me since, I'm afraid. It's enough to drive a Garou to Harano.

Well, that chapter in my life completed, I had to decide what to do next. Even though I liked the feeling of independence I got from working alone, I missed the feeling of companionship I got from being in a pack. I thought about it awhile, then decided that I'd start a pack of my own. I wanted to try and avoid any personality clashes all the way around, so I took my time accumulating pack members. I thought about recruiting some outside the Bone Gnawers, but the only ones really comfortable with city life are the Glass Walkers, and we live in far different worlds. I know that sounds strange, but it's true. So I pulled in a few people, called my pack Philadelphia Freedom. That's after a song that I like, and I liked the idea of it. I can be a pretty patriotic person... although not necessarily as much for the government as for the citizens... so it fit. A lot of Bone Gnawers are fed up with the system, but I knew that there's more to this country than just that system. That system being both the past one and the one that is in place now with Claude Heinrich. Part of me wanted to show that, which is why I had that idea for the pack. And when it comes to freedom, I think we all pretty much agree... if we're at all moral... that freedom is a right that a person is born with and that can only be taken away if that person does something bad enough to deserve it. And I guess I wanted to uphold my own values as well. So in creating the pack, I made sure that each member knew that we were going to start doing what we could to uphold the freedom that each person deserves. I'm not talking simply about the right to be physically free, but mentally and emotionally free as well. And yes, socially. You'd be amazed at all of the inhibitors to freedom there are out there. It can be something as simple as a mugger who takes away your sense of personal safety, or a cop who goes after you because you're poor or a minority. I've gotten a lot of that, I can tell you. But I believe in giving as good as I get, and some of the ones who tried to hold me down got some serious holding down of their own. More importantly, those who tried to hold down my people got some serious holding down. I can be ruthless when I want to be.

As time went by, my pack began to make a real name for itself. To some it was a good name, to others not so good. Along the way, we butted heads with both Get and Wendigo, neither tribe of which is very fond of me now. But I didn't like some of the things that they were pulling on my turf, and nobody fucks around on my turf without answering to me. Those are my people, and I don't let them take shit without my giving some back. I guess I made an enemy or two as I went along, but what fun is life without a few enemies? Along the way, I met quite a few challenges, even some with my own tribe. Those turned out better than the others; I gained a lot of respect along the way. So much so that I went up in rank rather quickly. It wasn't all my doing and I won't take all of the credit. We worked together as a pack, and one person taking all of the glory isn't right. But the fact that I got the respect and rank for what the pack did shines, in my opinion, a very good light on the Bone Gnawers. Others might not see it that way, but I do. You see, I gained that respect not from going and hunting down Black Spiral Dancers or other Wyrm ridden creatures, although I did do my share of that, but from taking care of my own. My own meaning my pack, my kinfolk, my entire family. And when I say family, I mean the people on the street, those who I can look out for that share my turf. It's not an easy job, I'll tell you that. But I love it.

It was four years ago that the Alpha of the Bone Gnawer tribe on this continent died. He was old and had finally wasted away. That left the tribe needing a new Alpha, or a Grandfather or Grandmother as we call the one in that position. It's mostly a ceremonial position, we're not the kind of tribe to try and force everyone to follow the same rule. Well, somehow I ended up getting nominated for that role. As I said, I'd built up quite a reputation, and so that had gotten around. The Bone Gnawers held a rare tribal wide moot in order to find out whojust the right person for the job was. It took days of deliberation, but finally I somehow ended up getting voted in. I wasn't sure that I wanted the job at first, but then I realized that it might help me to push a little of those ideals I have on to some others. And it was more than a little appealing that I'd be equal in status to some Garou that didn't like me very well. I do like stirring things up. So yes, I accepted the position. And here I stand now.

I suppose that it was inevitable that the Alphas of the tribes got pulled into things in New Orleans. Some unpleasant things have taken place here that help needed attending to, especially since the Garou there ended up getting involved, the Bone Gnawers being the first among them. I felt it important to show up personally because face it, the Bone Gnawers are the least respected of tribes overall and so there's a decent chance that we'd end up getting the short end of the stick. Many Garou don't think that we're even suitable to serve Gaia. I can see some of the tribes trying to sacrifice us to try and turn the tide. Well, I'm not about to let that happen. I have a few tricks up my sleeve, and a few Garou to put in their places. I know of the feelings going around with some of the packs around here, and I plan to be there to help out those that look to me for leadership. If they want to take down the Bone Gnawers, they're going to have to go through me. And they're going to find that's not so easy. I take my responsibilities very seriously. I'm a dangerous foe, and the fact that most will underestimate me gives me an advantage that I'm damn well going to use. I have no problem with fighting dirty, I don't think that impinges on my honor whatsoever. In the end, we'll see what Gaia thinks, won't we? I think many will end up being very surprised at her take on things. It just goes to show what blind arrogance can do.

I've never been poor, only broke. Being poor is a frame of mind. Being broke is only a temporary situation.
-Mike Todd

Rough diamonds may sometimes be mistaken for worthless pebbles.
-Sir Thomas Browne