nick_garou | (no subject) (Reply)

I landed the Winnebago for $4,250. I probably could have haggled the guy down further by a couple hundred, but I wanted to drive off with it--and I'm still getting a good deal and what's a couple hundred bucks? Plus, my Magic 8-Ball told me this would be a good investment that I would make money off of, and it rarely steers me wrong. Done and done.

Picked up a juicer, solar lights, a pair of pink flamingos, solar panels, batteries, power inverter, electrical wiring, and other supplies for the RV at Wal-Mart and Harbor Freight. Holy cow, this thing is HUGE in comparison to all my former cars--and I thought that 1971 Plymouth Satellite Sebring I had ages ago was a land yacht! I had to use some Correspondence to navigate through a couple cramped areas without hitting things.

I also picked up a disposable phone, activated it, fired up the old voice masking software (I haven't used that thing in probably 3-4 years now!) and gave Charley a call. He sounded a bit unnerved. Hell, I'd be unnerved in his situation, too. I advised him to stop using magic to look and poke at things and, instead, to lie low for a bit before he gets himself exposed. I asked him if he intended to reveal himself to the garou here, and he seemed to think that would be a bad idea--and seemed to have caused problems earlier. (Good. Sometimes the best way to learn something is to fuck up--and survive.) I also advised him to never share information about mages with the garou. Information is power. And when one mage tells one garou a strength or a weakness, that information can be spread--and hurt or be used against ALL mages. Judging by his response, he hadn't thought about that before. Best to nip that in the bud early on. Phone call over, I pulled the battery out. Paranoid? Maybe for dealing with Joe Blow, but not when dealing with a mage.

We're slated to meet soon at the Oriental Regency. I can get us a private dining room, like we're brokering a business deal, so we can talk undisturbed unless we buzz for a waitress to come in. But I'll be using some ritual magic and checking with the magic 8-ball beforehand to see if meeting Charley in person is going to result in me getting exposed to the garou. If not, great. Maybe I can help him out, and maybe he can help me out. If yes.... I think we're done, or he'll have to get rare and sporadic advice over the phone from a voice scrambler.

Got a text from Val. She sampled the fruit and is apparently tasting things with her fingertips now. I texted back reminding her what curiosity did to the cat, then asked if she felt like going on a fruit-gathering expedition if the juicer works out.