nick_garou | (no subject)

Spent a lot of time this past week closing out some of my PI cases, cashing in or calling it quits in a flurry. Why? Well, aside from the money, I GOT THE JOB AT TERMINUS!!!! Highly flexible hours and the ability to work outside the office--so long as I keep the portfolio at least 2% above the market average from month to month. A little Dreaming and a little Entropy and a little researching makes that not too difficult. I start Monday. Probably all kinds of HR-related forms to fill out. Tedious. But the pay's good and I get a lot more freedom and free time.

Tuesday I was in the park and quietly managed to harvest some tass from the node there. As I was leaving the park, I spotted a stray momma dog that looked like it had wolf blood in it. I spoke English to it, figuring if it was garou it might respond with more a more complicated syntax than a normal dog would be capable of. I did a Prime sweep just to be sure and the dog came up negative--but I got a ping on another garou coming up from the side. Aaron. I'd met him just long enough before at the Rat and Raven (Val was there and said he was garou) to remember him. Then Kevin--one of the Glass Walkers from the tenement--showed up. Long story short, they decided to take the stray and her 3 newborn puppies back to the tenement.

On a side note, I tried using some Mind magic on the stray dog to make it more trusting with the garou. I couldn't work the magic right, and the effect came apart. So far, it seems like half the time I try to use more advanced Mind magic (or countermagic), it's either been half-assed (couldn't completely unwork the magic influencing Mouse or Devon's heads), failed (with the stray), or backfired (that one time I tried to spook off a crow that was harassing Val and it started attacking her instead). I may just be jinxed with using Mind magick. Or maybe I need more practice. Dare I risk practicing on LOLCAT again?

Lots of traffic on the Walker secured net that night. They've put out two drawings of a woman who's supposedly the vampire that's been playing head games with the Walkers, and there was another e-mail from Holland (I need to meet him) that indicated Flint had been interacting/hurt by the vampire--with the potential for a mind-fuck. The drawings are very useful information to know so that I can avoid her if I see her. I'd briefly considered what I'd do if I ran across her. Just call up the Walkers and let them kill her? Or give her a cryptic warning to leave town if she didn't want to die? It might be possible for me to use one or two effects that'd probably let me channel a beam of sunlight in the middle of the night. Or just set her on fire. But.... it still all feels like killing someone. Ugh. I'd probably just steer clear and give the Walkers a cell phone call.

I popped over on Wednesday to check on Flint and deliver a bag of dog food for the stray and her puppies. Flint and I /almost/ had a decent conversation (of sorts) before we noticed the dog destroying the lobby and rushed downstairs for Flint to get her to stop. I did learn that Flint had been messed with by the vampire, and that he was tempted to leave the Tenement to seek her out, and that he'd been told to stay put. He told me to shoot him if he attempted to leave the Tenement while we dealt with the dog. Fucking. Crazy. I pulled my taser out and told him I'd keep with a non-lethal option. Flint took the dog upstairs while I stayed down and scanned him. I could definitely feel a disturbance in his aura that was registering in Life, Spirit, Mind, and a whiff of Prime. It's not a permanent part of his aura. Yet. I think I might be able to unwork what the vampire did to him. Later. When I'm not in a lobby with a video camera blinking at me. In case something goes wrong. And not so close to my just having interacted with him, so as to disassociate myself from any changes in Flint's behavior. Subtle, Nick. Stay subtle and to the shadows.

I need to go visit Edgewood soon, as I told Flint I'd go poke at other people to see if they've had visions similar to Flint's recent one. He's grounded and wants to keep tabs on things. Understandable, especially for a galliard. Probably. Also, the moon is nearly half-full. I need to prep my camping gear for another hike out to the woods so I can cross over to the spirit realm and practice more vulgar magick.

Flint's vision was an image of a tree with a bazillion leaves, a swing, some hodgepodged collection of creatures in the swing, and the following words:

"There is no wrong, there is no right, there is only dark and bright. I did not come, I did not go, I cannot change but only show. You cannot win, you cannot lose, but where to stop? That you can choose."

Kind of like poetry. A bit. Of a sort.