Caern, visions, questioning a Spiral, and planning a road trip.

[nick_garou]

I spent a trio of days and nights camping out at the caern, my one-man tent and hiking pack a couple hundred yards to the north so I didn't bother anyone. Three days of just meditating and feeling the energies of the caern washing over me. Untapped. As per Jacinta's request. It's a shame, honestly, letting all that tass just sit there. But it's their place and their rules. I'd like to think the same respect would be accorded by them to me if I had such a place and permitted them access. Slug dropped by one day. We talked briefly about various things and he concluded by making a comment referencing me being Gandalf and hanging out with short people and talking about a ring. I pointed out that I hung out with werewolves, not Hobbits; that I didn't need a ring to turn invisible but did have a ring that allowed me to turn into a cougar; that I already put on a huge fireworks show that rivaled the city's finale last New Year's Eve; and that I have a lightsaber instead of a sword. I dwelt on that a while after Slug departed: I might be more talented than Gandalf. And yet I feel inadequate so often.

The last night I was at the caern I had a weird dream. A vision, I suspect. And not a pleasant one. My dreams grew greyer, got colder, and I could feel it--as if it were crawling around in my skull. That sensation persisted when I was awake, too. I was able to push it back with some Mind magick, but it kept creeping back in over time as my focus flagged. It's definitely coming from some outside influence, but scrying didn't yield any source or direction of source. Morning finally came. My vision seemed more acute. My magical senses more attuned. I packed up and left the caern's vicinity--just in case.

• I met up with Emma. Slug had said that something had happened with the Dancer--named Glagnk--they'd taken hostage a few weeks ago after rescuing him from some ooze-wolves, and Emma was helping to stand guard. I decided to talk with him, using some gentle Mind magick to play Good Cop to the collective Bad Cop he's likely been subjected to. He's a kid. Maybe old enough to drive. I had to remind myself that that's potentially old enough to be a Fostern leading a pack of killer werewolves who've forsaken all aspects of humanity and relish in torturing people. I kept my distance and let Emma be the wall between me and him. I did find out some useful information, though. And I confirmed some of  my own suspicions:
  • Magpie-things came in an attempt to get at Glagnk, who was afraid of them. Slug was going to let them have the kid, but Emma put her foot down and said no and defended him. (Point for Emma.)
  • The Spirals (at least the rank-and-file ones) currently have no idea what the Ooze or the wolf-ooze creatures are.
  • Some of their theurges were working on the ooze problem. Most of them became tainted by the ooze, were killed, locked up, or "disappeared".
  • The Dancers that have fallen back to St. Claire are dealing with the ooze-infected by killing them or locking them up (possibly in the tower, which might be effectively feeding them to the ooze).
  • The ooze came from Hanford, according to the Spirals.
  • Glagnk has no idea how he was contaminated.
  • Glagnk and most (if not all) of the other local Spirals have been having visions--cold, dripping water, dark, and sometimes people whispering. (Fuuuuuuck, that's the vision I had the night before.)
  • The Dancers--at least the rank-and-file ones--don't seem to know what is going on with the glyphs and riots or why they're here in Saint Claire.

Glagnk felt he was doomed. He, frankly, very may well be, and I told him he was probably being either turned into an ooze-rat-wolf thing, ooze itself, or slowly being digested by the ooze contamination within him. I suggested that a Rite of Cleansing might help save him from that fate. He reluctantly agreed to it. And I figured we could release him to serve as an informant from within the local Spirals. Emma didn't seem thrilled with this idea, but.... it seemed the most merciful.

I arranged a meeting with Mouse to further discuss the matter, as she'd be he best to do the Cleansing and really the only theurge I'd have a chance of convincing to do this sort of thing. I started by pointing out that if she did the rite that sent the kid to Erebus while he had the ooze in him, it might be the equivalence of giving a deadly virus a first class trans-Atlantic plane ticket to another realm to infest. She concurred, and that set the stage for me asking about her Cleansing him. Took a little effort, and she warned me it might kill him and would DEFINITELY be unpleasant, but I can only imagine it won't be nearly as unpleasant as swimming in molten silver for an indeterminate--or eternal--amount of time. Mouse did put her foot down with releasing the Spiral afterwards, if cured. Pointed out that he knew people's names and faces and while he might in all earnestness promise and give his word to not reveal them, that the Wyrm corruption within him would pervert that somehow, given time, because it's his nature. I offered to take him--assuming he survives the Cleansing--to my mentor to see if he could be "unSpiraled." Mouse seemed a little hesitant, as I've mentioned that this same mage might deconstruct a garou just because he was interested in examining one (and Pavel very well might). Still? What other options are there, and better to find out if it is possible with a Spiral as opposed to, say, someone from the sept who gets captured, made to walk the Spiral, rescued, and.... then what?

I've contacted Mouse, Salem, Emma, Slug, and Riley about serving as muscle on a road trip. Take the Winnebago. Abandon them an hour or two away from Pavel's place so it's just me and a bound and drugged up Spiral in a rental car for that last leg of the trip. Emma and Slug have both volunteered already, so that ought to do it. Assuming.... Assuming the kid doesn't die from the Cleansing. He's looking bad.

Maybe we all need a Cleansing. Regularly. So that doesn't happen to us?