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I got back into town Tuesday night. (More on the trip later.) First stop was the highway near the cabin. The current residents are convinced the mice are back in the walls. I left it at that. Their dismay at the ineffectualness of the extermination tent seems plenty--for now. Next stop was the tenement to check on any ongoings with the Glass Walkers.
Mouse was up in the breakroom, so we chatted for a bit. Apparently things were pretty quiet while I was gone--other than Mouse having acquired knowledge of an insect-type ritual in her sleep. (I'd say that was odd, but I garnered a greater understanding of magical theory and Mind magic after touching a Chimera spirit's mind and passing out for a full day.) Carmen popped in and we talked a bit about Mouse and the trials she went through at the hands of some anti-metis, anti-urbanite Fianna so that she could learn the ritual for re-awakening the caern. They didn't make it easy for her. I'm not entirely sure why garou are such raging dicks towards one another. Xenophobia and fear of things that are different, I suppose.
After Carmen left, Mouse and I discussed the caern's re-awakening, the dangers therein, and how the tribe had not fared very well in her absence. Mouse seems to think the probability for her surviving the ritual are relatively slim. In fact, she seemed to think that death was a probable outcome for her. I strongly encouraged her to make this point clear to the rest of the Walkers, because I don't know if the tribe will be cohesive without her leadership: they need to be prepared.
Probability, however, is something I have a little influence over. I offered to lend a hand in creating a more favorable outcome--assuming she felt that it would not interfere with the ritual or otherwise be deemed offensive to do so. She seemed interested, and we'll work on hammering down the details later. Probably need to go through a dry run of the ritual so that I know what to expect. If possible, setting up a video conference during the actual ritual would be ideal. That way I could make the correspondence aspect coincidental--and get a video-audio recording of the ritual's performance.
Mouse asked about how Mages come to be, and said she believed there might have been one in the area earlier on. He apparently had some kind of artifact that allowed him to turn into a wolf. There'd been a belief that he was a garou initially, then.... And Mouse said there was a talk of gathering together a group of philodoxes to determine what to do about him. He scooted off. She didn't know where to. And the artifact apparently went with him. Damn. But, you know, it occurs to me that I could use Mind magic to "piggyback" the sensations of a garou in lupus. All the benefits of the sensations, none of the fleas.
I told Mouse that--as far as I knew--Mages came to be because of an innate ability combined with either training and/or an Incident. It's like a light gets switched on, and then reality is seen in a whole new way. She said the wolf-kid seemed to be gradually learning, which makes me suspect he wasn't a mage at all. Man, I wish I knew where he was: I'd whisk that artifact away from him lickity-split if he was a human.
I mentioned to Mouse that I'd known at least one mage who was capable of turning into a wolf--or theoretically any other animal he chose. She observed how I'd been in the area for a long time and talked about other mages in the past tense. (I'm obviously not talking about Charley, so.... that makes every mage past tense.) I told her that there used to be about 5 mages in town at the peak of activity. That we'd known of multiple places of power--including the park and the caern--for nearly two decades. That we knew of other places of power in WWNP other than the caern itself. And that I was not the first mage to set foot in the caern. Leaving out names, I mentioned how Dana had assisted the garou in helping a thaumavore--which had been damaging places of power of both the mages and the garou alike--return to Pangea. (Mouse seemed impressed about this.) And that Dana, after traveling with a pack of garou to Pangea, returned with them and emerged out of the umbra in the caern--when it was active. She got a few seconds to look around before being knocked unconscious. So, no, I'm not the first warper to ever set foot in the local caern and live to tell the tale.
Mouse asked what happened to all the mages, and I went through a laundry list of how they'd been murdered by garou, killed in battle, gone insane, disappeared, moved on (for various reasons), gone on quests and never returned, or been driven off. (The latter, I think, was my own fault for placing that Euthanatos glyph on the Harbor Park node. I also didn't tell her how one mage left after having a bad encounter with her garou lover, Salem, when she stuffed him in a time stasis field for half a day and rewrote his memories so he wouldn't recall nearly killing her. Gwyneth was seriously bad-ass.)
Mouse asked about prior mage involvement in garou affairs, and I told her we often had similar goals--so long as killing a bunch of humans wasn't involved. I mentioned that most of the time we'd aided and influenced from the shadows and through individual, trusted members of the garou. I mentioned a few instances, ending on how I'd ensured that during the battle with the Black Spiral Dancers (who'd come to town while Mouse was at the Fianna's sept) that none of their silver bullets would work.
We ended with a discussion about.... Well, basically that I had to walk away from the SCPD when I did because I was starting to lose faith in humanity, because I was only seeing the worst of it on that job. Mouse pointed out that the garou, when they deal with humanity, are often only seeing the worst of them as well. That killing gets to be easier. That humanity is often seen as expendable and, potentially, irredeemable. At least to some garou. I really, really, really don't envy the garou: I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to hack it if I had the utter misfortune of being born one of them.
All of this new-to-Mouse lore emphasized something I'd long-suspected. The garou's tradition of keeping oral histories is significantly flawed. Their mental capabilities are merely on par with humans, and they often lack higher education. History--even local lore only a decade old that directly affected the sept--seems to slip through their fingers like sand and water. It's amazing their society hasn't collapsed, come unraveled (which might explain the xenophobic hostility the other sept displayed to Mouse).... or become based solely on fabrications, inaccuracies, or periodic fads.
Anyway, time to go look at a used van for sale. Talked with Flint last night and he seems ready to go with his woodworking, and that'll require a lumber pickup. He's speaking WAY better than before. Still having some trouble, but not so much that it makes my eyes cross. I wonder if he's just having a "good body chemicals" day or if something changed? Seems like it'd be rude to point it out, though. And perhaps dumb to do so as the moon is getting to be pretty full.
Mouse was up in the breakroom, so we chatted for a bit. Apparently things were pretty quiet while I was gone--other than Mouse having acquired knowledge of an insect-type ritual in her sleep. (I'd say that was odd, but I garnered a greater understanding of magical theory and Mind magic after touching a Chimera spirit's mind and passing out for a full day.) Carmen popped in and we talked a bit about Mouse and the trials she went through at the hands of some anti-metis, anti-urbanite Fianna so that she could learn the ritual for re-awakening the caern. They didn't make it easy for her. I'm not entirely sure why garou are such raging dicks towards one another. Xenophobia and fear of things that are different, I suppose.
After Carmen left, Mouse and I discussed the caern's re-awakening, the dangers therein, and how the tribe had not fared very well in her absence. Mouse seems to think the probability for her surviving the ritual are relatively slim. In fact, she seemed to think that death was a probable outcome for her. I strongly encouraged her to make this point clear to the rest of the Walkers, because I don't know if the tribe will be cohesive without her leadership: they need to be prepared.
Probability, however, is something I have a little influence over. I offered to lend a hand in creating a more favorable outcome--assuming she felt that it would not interfere with the ritual or otherwise be deemed offensive to do so. She seemed interested, and we'll work on hammering down the details later. Probably need to go through a dry run of the ritual so that I know what to expect. If possible, setting up a video conference during the actual ritual would be ideal. That way I could make the correspondence aspect coincidental--and get a video-audio recording of the ritual's performance.
Mouse asked about how Mages come to be, and said she believed there might have been one in the area earlier on. He apparently had some kind of artifact that allowed him to turn into a wolf. There'd been a belief that he was a garou initially, then.... And Mouse said there was a talk of gathering together a group of philodoxes to determine what to do about him. He scooted off. She didn't know where to. And the artifact apparently went with him. Damn. But, you know, it occurs to me that I could use Mind magic to "piggyback" the sensations of a garou in lupus. All the benefits of the sensations, none of the fleas.
I told Mouse that--as far as I knew--Mages came to be because of an innate ability combined with either training and/or an Incident. It's like a light gets switched on, and then reality is seen in a whole new way. She said the wolf-kid seemed to be gradually learning, which makes me suspect he wasn't a mage at all. Man, I wish I knew where he was: I'd whisk that artifact away from him lickity-split if he was a human.
I mentioned to Mouse that I'd known at least one mage who was capable of turning into a wolf--or theoretically any other animal he chose. She observed how I'd been in the area for a long time and talked about other mages in the past tense. (I'm obviously not talking about Charley, so.... that makes every mage past tense.) I told her that there used to be about 5 mages in town at the peak of activity. That we'd known of multiple places of power--including the park and the caern--for nearly two decades. That we knew of other places of power in WWNP other than the caern itself. And that I was not the first mage to set foot in the caern. Leaving out names, I mentioned how Dana had assisted the garou in helping a thaumavore--which had been damaging places of power of both the mages and the garou alike--return to Pangea. (Mouse seemed impressed about this.) And that Dana, after traveling with a pack of garou to Pangea, returned with them and emerged out of the umbra in the caern--when it was active. She got a few seconds to look around before being knocked unconscious. So, no, I'm not the first warper to ever set foot in the local caern and live to tell the tale.
Mouse asked what happened to all the mages, and I went through a laundry list of how they'd been murdered by garou, killed in battle, gone insane, disappeared, moved on (for various reasons), gone on quests and never returned, or been driven off. (The latter, I think, was my own fault for placing that Euthanatos glyph on the Harbor Park node. I also didn't tell her how one mage left after having a bad encounter with her garou lover, Salem, when she stuffed him in a time stasis field for half a day and rewrote his memories so he wouldn't recall nearly killing her. Gwyneth was seriously bad-ass.)
Mouse asked about prior mage involvement in garou affairs, and I told her we often had similar goals--so long as killing a bunch of humans wasn't involved. I mentioned that most of the time we'd aided and influenced from the shadows and through individual, trusted members of the garou. I mentioned a few instances, ending on how I'd ensured that during the battle with the Black Spiral Dancers (who'd come to town while Mouse was at the Fianna's sept) that none of their silver bullets would work.
We ended with a discussion about.... Well, basically that I had to walk away from the SCPD when I did because I was starting to lose faith in humanity, because I was only seeing the worst of it on that job. Mouse pointed out that the garou, when they deal with humanity, are often only seeing the worst of them as well. That killing gets to be easier. That humanity is often seen as expendable and, potentially, irredeemable. At least to some garou. I really, really, really don't envy the garou: I'm pretty sure I'd never be able to hack it if I had the utter misfortune of being born one of them.
All of this new-to-Mouse lore emphasized something I'd long-suspected. The garou's tradition of keeping oral histories is significantly flawed. Their mental capabilities are merely on par with humans, and they often lack higher education. History--even local lore only a decade old that directly affected the sept--seems to slip through their fingers like sand and water. It's amazing their society hasn't collapsed, come unraveled (which might explain the xenophobic hostility the other sept displayed to Mouse).... or become based solely on fabrications, inaccuracies, or periodic fads.
Anyway, time to go look at a used van for sale. Talked with Flint last night and he seems ready to go with his woodworking, and that'll require a lumber pickup. He's speaking WAY better than before. Still having some trouble, but not so much that it makes my eyes cross. I wonder if he's just having a "good body chemicals" day or if something changed? Seems like it'd be rude to point it out, though. And perhaps dumb to do so as the moon is getting to be pretty full.
