nick_garou | (no subject)

Wednesday night I dropped by the Glass Walker's safehouse again to deliver some household staples (paper plates, laundry soap, paper towels, and toilet paper) and to look for Devon. No Devon, but I had an opportunity to talk to Ex alone. I was hoping to learn a little bit about how cubs are taught, but Ex is such an atypical case that it's probably pointless. I was careful to give Ex a lot of space, as she still seemed very frustrated with her lot in life--with a hint of violence, though I don't feel like it was directed specifically at me. She also doesn't.... It's like they're intentionally not providing her with certain information. I tried to not share much information with her--lest that be an issue. But when she talked of running away, I tried to discourage that by telling her it was pretty pointless and that she could cause lots of problems for herself and everyone else if that was the case. I think I'll have better luck trying to sit in on lessons with some future cub--one that's not so volatile and high-strung.

Thursday evening, I popped back over to see if Devon was around. Nope. Flint was, though. His door had clearly been beaten down in the last 24 hours. For a minute, I was wondering if someone had raided the place, but the damage was too localized for that to be the case. Flint was in bed and mauled pretty bad. He also seemed to be a little loopy--possibly from pain medication. Talking with him was nigh useless as he kept spitting out broken, incongruent words. I decided to use some Mind magic on him to have the pain meds seemingly lubricate his willingness to talk and to facilitate his use of English while I read his intentions via an empathic bridge. Flint directed me towards the Terminus building and a garou named Holland as the person to talk to about where Devon is staying these days. I also learned that the door to Flint's room was battered down while he was inside, injured, and Ex had come in and locked the door and been unwilling to open it. They ended up beating the door down to get Ex out of the room with Flint. And there was /fear/ coming off of Flint when he mentioned the situation. I think he may have been fearing for his life while he was injured and in a locked room with Ex. My instinct the other night was spot-on: I'm staying away from Ex unless there's another garou present.

Saturday morning I got approval from Salem to take a look at Riley. Val told me before she left that she used to be a he--up until that spirit dragon thing that'd messed with Mouse's head messed with his gender. I'd offered to Salem to see if I could "fix" Riley--if she was unhappy with the new gender and was trying to change back. Salem confirmed a return to male seemed to be something Riley was interested in and gave me a green light. Salem also mentioned that he had noticed the things I was doing to help the tribe, appreciated it, and stressed that I shouldn't help to the point where I placed myself at risk. I think this means I'll be getting more brush piles to burn in the spirit world! :) :) :) As luck would have it, I ran into Riley in the park that evening. We talked briefly and Riley noted--in addition to her staying at Terminus--that I hadn't asked the usual questions people asked regarding his gender change. Belatedly, I realize that's because I already know what it's like to be female, because I read the emotions/feelings of a few former girlfriends so I could better understand WTF was going on with them sometimes. (And sex, from the female side, is damn good--albeit damn complex.) That night, I used magic to find Riley in the Terminus building. I examined her from afar, and.... the magical effect is not an effect like Mouse was affected by. Instead, it's rewritten what Riley's being. I can't countermagic that. Someone who was an Adept or Master of Life could likely change her back, but that is sooooo far beyond my capabilities. I can't help Riley out at all.

While in the park with Riley, I met another kinfolk (Shadow Lord), Peter. He's new to town and is teaching robotics classes (under the auspice of Engineering) at SCCU. If it'd been 12 years ago, I'd probably have taken a class from him while I was completing my undergrad degrees in Comp Sci and Math. I'm a little curious as to how the garou might use a skillset like Peter's--and Peter did mention interest in getting to work at Terminus.