(no subject)

[nick_garou]

Saturday morning I was camped out with a Kindle in the safehouse's lobby. I figured I could subtly scan people as they entered the builing and I'd be able to alert people if that changeling got into the building. Instead, Sera popped over to do laundry--and brought a drop dead gorgeous Silent Strider kinfolk with her: Nadia. She's a "cleaner"--one of the people who goes in and cleans up after a gruesome crime and tags any missed bits of evidence. She seems young for it--and maybe too enthusiastic. I remember those days well. After she found out that I used to be a detective for the SCPD, she asked if I knew Val. I said I did. It was a little weird--like she either knew there was something weird about Val but wasn't sure about it, or she knew what Val was and was just trying to get me to say it to her. I dodged the question. Repeatedly. And this led to Nadia lecturing me about how I could never trust anyone who wasn't garou or kin, because they'd stab you in the back eventually. (Damaged goods much?) Ironically, that's when I pointed out that any relationship at any level involved the possibility of betrayal, and that I highly doubted that there were no tales of betrayal among the kin and/or garou. Ultimately, any relationship that has trust in it must also have faith. She accused me of being a Shadow Lord  (because I'm pragmatic?). It was... a weird conversation, considering that I'm a mage masquerading as Glass Walker kinfolk while helping to guard their safehouse from external, shape-shifting enemies.

When I went to get coffee, I sent a quick text message to Val to alert her about Nadia asking questions about her. Betrayal? You tell me.

Sera, meanwhile, did laundry. At one point she shifted to the wolf (or in her case wolf-parrot) form and sprawled by Nadia's feet. Heebie jeebies, man. Heebie jeebies.



Later that evening, I got wind that the fight was going on at Plasticorp. I rushed out in my car, parked half a mile away in a fast food restaurant's parking lot, and fired up some Correspondence to do some overwatch shielding against the mind-fucking. I managed to thwart it once and lessen the effect a second time. They killed everything in the physical realm and then began slipping into the spirit world--everyone used their reflection except this one guy who used a fetish that seemed to teleport him over. DAMN! I /want/ that thing. I got a little distracted and just noticed, as Salem was headed into the spirit world, that the factory was blowing up. I scrambled to erect a bit of a shield to protect him from the blast and flames, but... He got burned a bit, but made it through. Then there was a big fight in the spirit world. I did a little bit here and there, but nothing vulgar or obvious. They probably never knew I was even there. (This one werewolf had some kind of thing that made her go all cybernetic. Crazy shit.) They emerged victorious, and I barely needed to exert myself other than countermagicking as a defense.



Sunday morning I met Val in the park, chastized her a little bit about flying at the face of some woman (last night in the battle) who had a gun and shot and nearly killed her. Nieve then showed up. She's doing geocaching so as to get people interested in certain parts of the city. We three talked a bit, then Val split. I gave Nieve a tour of the city--the parts near the park, at least, on foot. She let me know a few interesting tidbits. I had no idea the Walkers originated in Rome and had, in the earlier days, been mostly Italian. Nor did I know that she had some Bone Gnawer in her (parents from two tribes) and that sometimes garou get to pick what tribe they want to be in instead of being born into it. I asked her straight up if she had liberal views and she said she did. I also learned that she'd known Karuvar for about 10 years. There was a raid going on at the sept Nieve was at, she'd put everything she'd had into making talens and had exhausted herself. She was left behind and, for protection, stayed in Karuvar's cave--where he watched over her. She seems open to non-garou allies. Good to know if I ever get discovered. At one point, she said how glad she was that I was in her tribe. I felt guilty inside.