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I've been kind of busy doing research and "forensic" magick recently. My efforts to scry back into the past to locate the author of the two texts I have, which seem to be talking about The Nothing or concepts similar to it, are progressing. But it's a slow and tedious effort. I have a feeling this was written in the 1960s--around or about that era. I asked Val to score me three hits of LSD. She asked why. I told her. I can only imagine she probably wigged a little at the explanation. "I'm trying to use magick to find out who wrote a couple documents, when and where they did it, and then reach back through time so as to touch their mind and better understand the thoughts that they were having so much difficulty expressing through written language. And I'm thinking they may have been in an altered state of mind, so I think loosening mine up a little with some acid might help me to better understand some of these advanced concepts." Val's understandably concerned and wants to see about summoning a memory spirit or something, but said she'd put some feelers out to score some acid. (Wow. The street-level contacts I used to have all seem to have dissolved away over time. Granted, I haven't been a police officer in about 7 years now.)
"Oh, no! A problem! Let's call up a spirit for help!" It's so predictable with shapeshifters that it's almost laughable. But I suppose if you've only got a hammer in your toolbox, every problem starts to be thought of in the terms of how it's like a nail.
Sunday morning the moon was slim enough to risk a trip out to Edgewood. I dumped off a case of frozen waffles and half a dozen bottles of syrup. (It's not great food, but it's quick, easy, filling, and was on sale.) Climbed a tree out back by the pond to just sit and think for a while, looking at the moon reflecting off the water's surface. Hours passed. A nearby deer coming out of the woods jolted me out of my meditations. It fled, and then I spotted Slug having coffee and a smoke on the back porch. I joined him and we shot the shit for a bit about hunting, tracking, garou mentality about those things, and eventually ratkin. He's trying to use Val to coordinate a meeting with some Ratkin. Ask them if he can hunt things in the city's sewers.
Garou Mythology Alert!
According to Slug, the Ratkins' duty to Gaia is to cull back humanity. (No wonder that ratkin I bumped into ages ago wigged me the hell out.) During the War of Rage, the garou killed off shitloads of Ratkin. So much so that they were not able to keep humanity's numbers in check, and so humanity spread beyond the Ratkins' ability to control. The Ratkins' thrive off of chaos, hate the Weaver, embrace the Wyld (to the point of insanity perhaps?), and despise humans.
In short? Stay away from Ratkin in the future, Nick. The further, the better.
Slug is offering the Ratkin two gifts he made. One is basically an extra-large bang stick with a bawn fruit component, which might cause mutations in the recipient of the business end of that weapon. The other is a jackhammer with giant metal gloves on it, allowing it to be wielded by a ratkin in its war form. Both are kind of crazy, although they might prove useful and thus good gifts for ratkin. I'm just glad he's not giving them explosives, said so, and he said he'd thought about it and then reconsidered--the ratkin would very likely use that sort of thing, and Slug didn't want to be or feel responsible for what they might have done. Good call on his part.
Afterwards, I grabbed lunch, came back, grabbed my hiking pack, and tromped off to the caern. Talked with Jacinta about her thoughts regarding (1) me revealing myself to the sept (in the context of supercharging the garou-based cleansing ritual that might help destroy the black ooze) and (2) skimming tass from the caern. #2 was a solid "No," and she seemed concerned that I might see this as a kind of punishment, to which I assured her it was not. For #1, she said she didn't like keeping secrets and that it would be up to me, but revealing myself to the sept might have consequences that went beyond myself. Some of the garou might attempt to kill me. Some of the garou might attempt to challenge or kill both Mouse and Jacinta for striking up an alliance and allowing me into the caern. These were already concerns of mine, along with what Mouse pointed out: She and Jacinta might not be around forever, and then the situation could change abruptly.
This does not seem like a prudent time to add more, unnecessary turmoil to the already turbulent situation the sept is in.
Morgan, the Fianna metis and Jacinta's packmate swung by briefly. Idle chatter. She lives on the island at Lake Arthur, which is a sacred place to them and they feel might have once been a glade. Interesting.
After Morgan left, I rejoined Jacinta and we talked more about The Nothing's presence and nature. I let her know I was trying to reach back in time to touch the mind of a warper who'd written about what might be The Nothing, hoping to gain some insight there. If it fails, I'll likely gather up all the tass I can and go petition other mages for their knowledge and input. I'd tried that earlier and hadn't gotten much information. Maybe something else will turn up with a second inquiry.
Jacinta expressed her frustration with the black ooze. She feels when things trespass in the caern, but the ooze simply appeared. I told her I did not think that the ooze or the minions of The Nothing were capable of ignoring space itself. If they wanted in the caern, they could just appear in the caern with no warning. I mentioned that I'd had some success earlier with wardings that seemed to slow down some of The Nothing's minions--ones who seemed to ignore space and the gauntlet--and that it might be possible for me to put a similar ward up around the perimeter of the caern if given a few days to do so. That, of course, would likely draw attention from the other garou and potentially expose me as a mage. Something to think about. We'll see what she says later.
Alicia showed up after Jacinta went off to patrol and think. She's focusing on tackling those Spirals who kidnapped a human baby in retaliation for the garou killing a number of Spirals and kin and a Buzzard, but then swiping a Spiral infant. She managed to track them to the Whispering Pines apartment, but she's not sure where. She said her pack, which is bound by honor, would not be making a deal with the Spirals (they offered to make a swap), because she is certain the Spirals are going to double-cross them, but she can't double-cross them back because their unicorn totem spirit does not allow that sort of thing. So she's called in another pack led by Thane, a Shadow Lord, to do the dirty work. She said it felt a little hypocritical in that she's trying to kill the Spirals for swiping a baby after she'd essentially done the same thing first to them (minus the whole slew of horrors the Spirals had been committing when the Gaian garou took them out). I said it seemed hypocritical to me that she was coordinating to have another pack do the dirty work so that her honor pack could remain unsullied--but that who among us has ever been free of hypocrisy? (I have to wonder about my own hypocrisy every time I aid the garou in defeating a foe or providing them with information, as I'm just skirting around he whole issue of me not wanting to be the one responsible for killing another--even if they deserve it.) Things for everyone to think about.
"Oh, no! A problem! Let's call up a spirit for help!" It's so predictable with shapeshifters that it's almost laughable. But I suppose if you've only got a hammer in your toolbox, every problem starts to be thought of in the terms of how it's like a nail.
Sunday morning the moon was slim enough to risk a trip out to Edgewood. I dumped off a case of frozen waffles and half a dozen bottles of syrup. (It's not great food, but it's quick, easy, filling, and was on sale.) Climbed a tree out back by the pond to just sit and think for a while, looking at the moon reflecting off the water's surface. Hours passed. A nearby deer coming out of the woods jolted me out of my meditations. It fled, and then I spotted Slug having coffee and a smoke on the back porch. I joined him and we shot the shit for a bit about hunting, tracking, garou mentality about those things, and eventually ratkin. He's trying to use Val to coordinate a meeting with some Ratkin. Ask them if he can hunt things in the city's sewers.
Garou Mythology Alert!
According to Slug, the Ratkins' duty to Gaia is to cull back humanity. (No wonder that ratkin I bumped into ages ago wigged me the hell out.) During the War of Rage, the garou killed off shitloads of Ratkin. So much so that they were not able to keep humanity's numbers in check, and so humanity spread beyond the Ratkins' ability to control. The Ratkins' thrive off of chaos, hate the Weaver, embrace the Wyld (to the point of insanity perhaps?), and despise humans.
In short? Stay away from Ratkin in the future, Nick. The further, the better.
Slug is offering the Ratkin two gifts he made. One is basically an extra-large bang stick with a bawn fruit component, which might cause mutations in the recipient of the business end of that weapon. The other is a jackhammer with giant metal gloves on it, allowing it to be wielded by a ratkin in its war form. Both are kind of crazy, although they might prove useful and thus good gifts for ratkin. I'm just glad he's not giving them explosives, said so, and he said he'd thought about it and then reconsidered--the ratkin would very likely use that sort of thing, and Slug didn't want to be or feel responsible for what they might have done. Good call on his part.
Afterwards, I grabbed lunch, came back, grabbed my hiking pack, and tromped off to the caern. Talked with Jacinta about her thoughts regarding (1) me revealing myself to the sept (in the context of supercharging the garou-based cleansing ritual that might help destroy the black ooze) and (2) skimming tass from the caern. #2 was a solid "No," and she seemed concerned that I might see this as a kind of punishment, to which I assured her it was not. For #1, she said she didn't like keeping secrets and that it would be up to me, but revealing myself to the sept might have consequences that went beyond myself. Some of the garou might attempt to kill me. Some of the garou might attempt to challenge or kill both Mouse and Jacinta for striking up an alliance and allowing me into the caern. These were already concerns of mine, along with what Mouse pointed out: She and Jacinta might not be around forever, and then the situation could change abruptly.
This does not seem like a prudent time to add more, unnecessary turmoil to the already turbulent situation the sept is in.
Morgan, the Fianna metis and Jacinta's packmate swung by briefly. Idle chatter. She lives on the island at Lake Arthur, which is a sacred place to them and they feel might have once been a glade. Interesting.
After Morgan left, I rejoined Jacinta and we talked more about The Nothing's presence and nature. I let her know I was trying to reach back in time to touch the mind of a warper who'd written about what might be The Nothing, hoping to gain some insight there. If it fails, I'll likely gather up all the tass I can and go petition other mages for their knowledge and input. I'd tried that earlier and hadn't gotten much information. Maybe something else will turn up with a second inquiry.
Jacinta expressed her frustration with the black ooze. She feels when things trespass in the caern, but the ooze simply appeared. I told her I did not think that the ooze or the minions of The Nothing were capable of ignoring space itself. If they wanted in the caern, they could just appear in the caern with no warning. I mentioned that I'd had some success earlier with wardings that seemed to slow down some of The Nothing's minions--ones who seemed to ignore space and the gauntlet--and that it might be possible for me to put a similar ward up around the perimeter of the caern if given a few days to do so. That, of course, would likely draw attention from the other garou and potentially expose me as a mage. Something to think about. We'll see what she says later.
Alicia showed up after Jacinta went off to patrol and think. She's focusing on tackling those Spirals who kidnapped a human baby in retaliation for the garou killing a number of Spirals and kin and a Buzzard, but then swiping a Spiral infant. She managed to track them to the Whispering Pines apartment, but she's not sure where. She said her pack, which is bound by honor, would not be making a deal with the Spirals (they offered to make a swap), because she is certain the Spirals are going to double-cross them, but she can't double-cross them back because their unicorn totem spirit does not allow that sort of thing. So she's called in another pack led by Thane, a Shadow Lord, to do the dirty work. She said it felt a little hypocritical in that she's trying to kill the Spirals for swiping a baby after she'd essentially done the same thing first to them (minus the whole slew of horrors the Spirals had been committing when the Gaian garou took them out). I said it seemed hypocritical to me that she was coordinating to have another pack do the dirty work so that her honor pack could remain unsullied--but that who among us has ever been free of hypocrisy? (I have to wonder about my own hypocrisy every time I aid the garou in defeating a foe or providing them with information, as I'm just skirting around he whole issue of me not wanting to be the one responsible for killing another--even if they deserve it.) Things for everyone to think about.
