nick_garou | (no subject)

Val decided to sneak up on me and scare the piss out of me a few days ago. I was reading outside my RV. She snuck up behind me in raven form (must have come from under the RV --I need to close that off with mosquito netting), swiped the donut I was eating off the table when I wasn't looking, waited until I reached for it and looked that way to see what happened to it, then did a "boo!" from behind me--point blank. I think my heart skipped a couple beats. I'd have been able to have detected her if I'd had a ward up, but with that Sera Uktena chick camped out in a VW not too far away and garou all prowling around in the woods, I'm afraid putting wards up will result in me being detected. How many kinfolk have a field of magic surrounding their home? Although Dana seemed to pull off the whole mage-kin thing okay--with certain garou. The Children of Gaia seemed to be fairly accepting of her, at least. But... ugh... I need to be extra careful that Val isn't spying on me if I ever go to do something or go somewhere--there's no telling when she might be sneaking around, watching. I think I might have some trust issues developing....

Anyway, Val and I chatted via that telepathy trick of hers. She shared her recollections/visions of picking up Ky and two kids in a police car, depositing them out at Edgewood, the two Native American kids suddenly going to the war wolf form, and then another war wolf dropping out of the sky to break them up. (They can fly? Fuck me.) Apparently Val, having disabled her dash camera, got suspended without pay for two weeks. She's lucky she didn't get fired over that. The wolves fucking /owe/ her for that, but they've probably already forgotten the huge favor she did for them.

Next, Val showed me the fight that broke out in Harbor Park between Sue and Moros. Morors wiped the floor with Sue, and had every human in the whole park screaming and running from the two metis war wolves--in broad daylight. Val managed to cover that one up, too. They owe her for that one too, but I suspect Val got shafted. Again.

Amid all this stuff that's recently happened to her, something seems to be bugging Val. She didn't mention what it was, but... something is definitely on her mind. I suspect, soon, a change is coming for her. Such are the ways of entropy. Let's hope it's a change for the better, not a change for the worse.

Last night I hiked out the the Glass Walker's valley, pitched a tent, scried around for spirits (nothing hostile-looking) and used my talisman--say it again, "MY TALISMAN!!!"--to cross over into the astral plane. Spirit world. Umbra. Whatever. Salem'd set up a couple brush piles for burning (made my life much easier, need to get him something), so I ended up burning three in a row. Mostly I just threw big gouts of flame up into the air, getting a better feel for channeling large amounts of fire. File this under "things I can't do in my sanctum." It was really liberating, and I picked up on a few subtleties of controlling Forces that I'd henceforth overlooked due to being afraid to stretch my proverbial legs for fear of paradox backlash. Getting to play with fire like that.... It felt right. It felt like a huge release that'd been pent up inside me for a long time. I want more. I will definitely be coming back for more.

Huh. I'd overlooked that last night was the 4th of July. I guess I kind of made my own fireworks!

After I finished, I made sure the smoldering piles were fully out, then I crossed back over. Spent the night alternating between the tent and a small campfire I made myself. I couldn't sleep much: my mind kept racing. In the morning, I walked in a big circle around the valley--helping to patrol the Glass Walker's land--and ended up back at my campsite. Packed up. Headed back for civilization.

Goddamn bugs.