Tenzin’s Monday morning odd encounter(Constance)

Date: 2025-08-18 09:46

(Tenzin’s Monday morning odd encounter(Constance):Constance)

[Mon Aug 18 2025]

At Serenity Garden/span
A winding stone path curves through carefully tended flower beds where
marigolds, lotus blossoms, and jasmine grow alongside hardy New England
perennials. The centerpiece of the garden is a rectangular koi pond bordered
by smooth granite stones, its clear water reflecting the sky while fat
orange, white, and gold koi glide beneath the surface. Small clusters of
ornamental grasses frame the pond’s edges, and a few wooden benches sit at
intervals along the path, their surfaces weathered to a soft gray. Paper
lanterns hang from shepherd’s hooks placed throughout the garden, and small
stone statues of Buddhist figures rest among the plantings. The garden opens
directly to the Scripture Library through a wide doorway on the eastern side,
allowing the scent of incense to mingle with the fragrance of flowers when
the weather permits./span
It is morning/span, about 67F(19C) degrees, and the sky is covered by dark grey stormclouds. The mist is heaviest At Plymouth and Lake/span

Breakfast has finished. Chants and prayers said. Tenzin stands outside for a moment of isolated quiet.

The morning rays of the sun are lost in the fuzz that had grown overnight on his scalp. Come later in the day, he is to shave it again. He does this every day.

Creases upon his brow weigh the subject of today’s reflection. One that he does not speak to another. He remains silent.

(A shifted werewolf attacks your target during the full moon. They need to escape or fight them off for long enough for their allies to come and help save them.
)

A howl cuts through Tenzin’s contemplations, interrupted by distant gunfire. Snarling and yelling breaks the air of Wat Pang Sai, getting louder and closer.

Tenzin leaves his worries for the koi to nibble on. Clutching his staff, the man makes haste. Maroon robes sway as he strides across the temple to check on the monks within the sacred shelter. “What has come?” he asks any he might bump into, in a voice deep and bearing the crisp inflection of one from the Altai highlands.

A passing contemporary pensively frowns, staring off in the distance – across the street, some more gunshots ring out, interspersed with rage-filled snarls and pained whimpers. “It seems that a werewolf is being hunted,” he responds to Tenzin. “And it is coming over in this direction.”

“Stay inside. Bolt the doors,” Tenzin sternly instructs the man, not daring to raise his voice lest he attract attention too early. He takes position before the Thai temple, his left arm still injured but that six-foot staff hooked in his elbow.

Pulling out a cheap silver cellphone, he fumbles with the device. He pushes buttons with disdain to try and connect to another temple. The Temple.

While Tenzin is futzing with the phone, the werewolf flies into the garden, scrabbling on the grass to keep its balance. On the other side is Constance, who has evidently sent it thus with a front kick – a shotgun in one hand and a carbine in the other. She squints at Tenzin. “Hey, sorry, fucker runs fast,” she comments, levelling the gun at the injured and bloodied were. She doesn’t seem in much better shape, judging by the various bleeding rents in her habit.

Tenzin spies debris incoming out of the corner of his eye. Tossing his phone into the flower bushes, he vaults away from the spot with with staff. He’s got just the one hand to help himself. Now that many-ringed weapon points its finial at Constance.

His eyes are quick to appraise the towering nun. Habit. Halberd. Guns. Pendant.

A nun and a monk walk into a werewolf, is it?

“It is no fault of yours, Sister,” he respectfully utters. A rapid spin of his khakkhara ends with the butt end jamming into the bloody werewolf’s back. “An unfortunate friend of yours?” he asks about the beast.

Constance snorts. “Yeah, it was running from Highgate after mauling someone.”, she replies. “Don’t really care for people getting mauled in a borough I”m supposed to be protecting.” It struggles and whines under Tenzin’s staff, but doesn’t seem to be able to escape, wounded as it is. “My name is Constance, but most people call me connie,” she introduces.

Tenzin can only give Constance a slight smile for her outlook. The man does not express judgment whatsoever. Rather, he offers an exchange of pleasantries with a reverent bow, while stepping his full weight atop the struggling werewolf. “I am known in the monastery as Tenzin, but am called Ten by some.”

He pulls a brand new, Temple-issued silver collar out of a faded pouch hanging from his rope belt. “Especially by those who have not yet had their breakfast.” Not waiting for Constance to claim the beast, he grabs a handful of cranial fur and smacks the wolf jaw-first against the ground to disorient it. He attempts to hook that collar around its neck.

blinks, recognizing the design. “Oh, hey, that’s from the armory in Security. I’m a Demolisher,” she freely shares. “You must be that new recruit.” The werewolf weakens even moreso as it’s trapped in its current form by the collar. “I’ll tell them you helped in the capture – mind if I take it now that the fight’s out of it?”

After clicking the collar in place, Tenzin springs to his sandals and steps lightfootedly off their quarry. “Constance Lucida?” he assumes now that Constance has revealed her affiliation. Brows unshaven quirk at this new info. “I am new to New Haven and its charter, this is so.”

He throws the werewolf a glance, little sympathy for it despite his calm, polite manner with the nun. The monk hesitates but acquiesces with grace, “You are free to do with it what you must.”

Constance nods. “Thanks for the assist,” she comments, picking it up by the scruff and simply…walking off with it back into the night.