Nick "Nicodemus" Dalton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nick_garou) wrote2013-01-01 06:34 pm
nick_garou) wrote2013-01-01 06:34 pm
Up to no good.
Saturday night, I checked in on the facial recognition program I'd left running to sort through screencaptures of old security camera footage from the Walker safehouse. Noticed a couple people staking out the tenement, and one is a vampire. That prompted an e-mail to Mouse and Salem. I'd have told them in person, but the moon was too full at the time. Best to avoid being a dead messenger.
Sunday morning I ran into Val in the park. She'd ditched her silver jewelry and said Riley had noticed immediately, so I think she might be recognizing how it might have been hindering her interactions with the garou. Val also mentioned how another Corax had been in town recently and that she'd gotten a lead on the Mokole that was a descendant of the one who'd made the fetish, which'd been given to the Uktena and then lost long ago, that Sewall'd been after with his prior (and now deceased) pack. Oregon. I have to admit, if I were to go looking for a Mokole, I'd have never bothered looking in Oregon.
Val asked if I could jam gnosis into a battery, like I harvest tass from the fountain by putting it into pennies. I explained that gnosis was like 'tass lite'--having only a spirit-based aspect--but I didn't have the skill to pull something like that off. Interestingly, Val wanted to make some kind of gnosis-battery that Mouse could use in the re-awakening of the caern.
Ila turned up. We got to talking and she clarified that she wanted to basically do what I was doing--acting as if kinfolk to to the Glass Walkers while only one or two of their numbers know that I'm a mage--except Ila wants to do that with the Bone Gnawers because she tends to work with the poor and homeless and downtrodden. We talked more and decided Val would get Lefty to come to the Wal-Mart parking lot, Ila'd be there in her van, and I'd keep tabs on the event from afar in the event Lefty didn't handle it well and needed to be incapacitated.
Charley showed up, and he and Ila finally got to meet one another. I'd say it was a fortunate, coincidental meeting; but no mage should ever believe in such coincidences. They seemed to hit it off despite their differences. I think maybe Charley's earlier training/affiliation with the Cult of Ecstacy might have smoothed things a bit. I think we all three can work together.
After Ila left, Val showed Charley a video on her phone. I didn't see it, but it seemed to upset Charley. He told Val to delete it and to leave them (his family) alone. I'm suspecting that one of Val's feathered friends might have played a trick on Charley's dad or other members of the family. You just don't fuck with a person's family.
Charley left right as Amy Hopkins, a police officer who largely dispenses parking tickets, arrived and started chatting up Val, who she recognized as being a former member of the SCPD. I butted in at one point to intervene from Amy getting all kinds of gossip for back at the station. After Amy left, I told Val the people at the SCPD would largely forget her in the next five or so years. Val said that was depressing, but I countered that it's better to move on than to stagnate in one spot. Maybe Val did leave the SCPD under a cloud of intrigue, but which is better? Leaving with a bit of mystery and moving on to something new, or handing out parking tickets like Amy's been doing for over a decade? That seemed to help Val put things into perspective.
Val and I grabbed some pizzas (damn she can put it away) and went to her place to watch movies and play video games. I stayed too late and ended up crashing in her front room. The next morning we got to talking and she said she'd talked with Thomas and learned a lot about vampires in general from him. The nutshell version:
There's two major vampire groups: Sabbat and Camarilla. Sabbat are evil fuckers, kind of like Nephandi or BSDs. Camarilla are "nicer" than the Sabbat, but supposedly like herpes is nicer than AIDS.
The Sabbat have two sub-groups: The Tzimisce and the Lasombra. Tzimisce can mold their and other people's faces and bodies (similar to potent Life magic). Lasombra seek power for the sake of power and Thomas didn't know much about them.
There's a lot of sub-groups within the Camarilla. Caitiff, which are orphans. Tremere, which are vampire mages. (News to me! I bet they specialize in blood magic, like a lot of Verbena do.) Brujah, which have a reputation for brawling and frenzying. Malkavians, who are insane and can make others go insane (likely some kind of Mind magic at work there). Gangrel, who're feral and animalistic and might be the source of the legend of vampires turning into wolves and bats. Nosferatu are really ugly, tend to hide in sewers, and are really good at hiding. Toreador are the artistic vampires. (The fuck? I guess it makes as much sense as gallairds being "artistic werewolves.") Ventrue are the nasty political vampires, which Thomas compared to Shadow Lords.
Once a person is turned into a vampire, they're the same group as the vampire that turned them--there's no choice in the matter. (Similar to how a cub is X tribe by birth unless they're lost.) The Caitiff might be like Ronin--vampires who turned their back on their group or who got expelled and no one wanted to take in.
Blood is a big deal with the vampires. They need it to heal and to power their magic. They can also feed people blood to make them loyal servants. Note to self: never eat or drink anything that a vampire may have come in contact with.
We headed out and ran into Alexandra and Ky--ugh, Shadow Lords--on the sidewalk near an ice cream parlour near Val's place. Someone had painted a white map on the wall. Val said it was a nearly perfect map of the local umbra in that area. Naturally, I took a picture for personal use. No wolves claimed that area, so it's a mystery as to who put it there and why. Also? Val says it looks more like an aerial map--someone who made it from up above. I went off to explore around the area, driving the Porsche around for about 30 minutes while looking with a mix of Correspondence and Matter to better spy and isolate the same kind of paint that was used, but I came up with no new findings.
That afternoon, I ran into Thomas in the Pool Hall. We had a couple drinks, shot the shit, then he offered to tell me how to defend myself against vampires. We went back to his houseboat, which he's got parked on the far side of the river and you have to hike a good 15 minutes through the woods to get to it. All in all, he really didn't have too much info to share about vampires that he hadn't already told Val. Although I kind of doubt a shotgun would be as effective as I'd hoped it might've been.
Shortly after midnight, Ila and I met up and took a second stab at that ritual to forecast how things would go if she revealed herself to Lefty. We got very positive signs before the paths diverged too broadly. We called up Val in the morning, arranged a meet-and-greet with Ila and Lefty with Val as a go-between. The meet took place in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I kept overwatch on the whole thing from my car parked across the street and behind a McDonald's. Fortunately there was no need for me to protect Ila, as Lefty seemed to take to the idea of having a secret mage ally posing as Bone Gnawer kinfolk like a starving dog takes to a pack of uncooked hot dogs.
Sunday morning I ran into Val in the park. She'd ditched her silver jewelry and said Riley had noticed immediately, so I think she might be recognizing how it might have been hindering her interactions with the garou. Val also mentioned how another Corax had been in town recently and that she'd gotten a lead on the Mokole that was a descendant of the one who'd made the fetish, which'd been given to the Uktena and then lost long ago, that Sewall'd been after with his prior (and now deceased) pack. Oregon. I have to admit, if I were to go looking for a Mokole, I'd have never bothered looking in Oregon.
Val asked if I could jam gnosis into a battery, like I harvest tass from the fountain by putting it into pennies. I explained that gnosis was like 'tass lite'--having only a spirit-based aspect--but I didn't have the skill to pull something like that off. Interestingly, Val wanted to make some kind of gnosis-battery that Mouse could use in the re-awakening of the caern.
Ila turned up. We got to talking and she clarified that she wanted to basically do what I was doing--acting as if kinfolk to to the Glass Walkers while only one or two of their numbers know that I'm a mage--except Ila wants to do that with the Bone Gnawers because she tends to work with the poor and homeless and downtrodden. We talked more and decided Val would get Lefty to come to the Wal-Mart parking lot, Ila'd be there in her van, and I'd keep tabs on the event from afar in the event Lefty didn't handle it well and needed to be incapacitated.
Charley showed up, and he and Ila finally got to meet one another. I'd say it was a fortunate, coincidental meeting; but no mage should ever believe in such coincidences. They seemed to hit it off despite their differences. I think maybe Charley's earlier training/affiliation with the Cult of Ecstacy might have smoothed things a bit. I think we all three can work together.
After Ila left, Val showed Charley a video on her phone. I didn't see it, but it seemed to upset Charley. He told Val to delete it and to leave them (his family) alone. I'm suspecting that one of Val's feathered friends might have played a trick on Charley's dad or other members of the family. You just don't fuck with a person's family.
Charley left right as Amy Hopkins, a police officer who largely dispenses parking tickets, arrived and started chatting up Val, who she recognized as being a former member of the SCPD. I butted in at one point to intervene from Amy getting all kinds of gossip for back at the station. After Amy left, I told Val the people at the SCPD would largely forget her in the next five or so years. Val said that was depressing, but I countered that it's better to move on than to stagnate in one spot. Maybe Val did leave the SCPD under a cloud of intrigue, but which is better? Leaving with a bit of mystery and moving on to something new, or handing out parking tickets like Amy's been doing for over a decade? That seemed to help Val put things into perspective.
Val and I grabbed some pizzas (damn she can put it away) and went to her place to watch movies and play video games. I stayed too late and ended up crashing in her front room. The next morning we got to talking and she said she'd talked with Thomas and learned a lot about vampires in general from him. The nutshell version:
There's two major vampire groups: Sabbat and Camarilla. Sabbat are evil fuckers, kind of like Nephandi or BSDs. Camarilla are "nicer" than the Sabbat, but supposedly like herpes is nicer than AIDS.
The Sabbat have two sub-groups: The Tzimisce and the Lasombra. Tzimisce can mold their and other people's faces and bodies (similar to potent Life magic). Lasombra seek power for the sake of power and Thomas didn't know much about them.
There's a lot of sub-groups within the Camarilla. Caitiff, which are orphans. Tremere, which are vampire mages. (News to me! I bet they specialize in blood magic, like a lot of Verbena do.) Brujah, which have a reputation for brawling and frenzying. Malkavians, who are insane and can make others go insane (likely some kind of Mind magic at work there). Gangrel, who're feral and animalistic and might be the source of the legend of vampires turning into wolves and bats. Nosferatu are really ugly, tend to hide in sewers, and are really good at hiding. Toreador are the artistic vampires. (The fuck? I guess it makes as much sense as gallairds being "artistic werewolves.") Ventrue are the nasty political vampires, which Thomas compared to Shadow Lords.
Once a person is turned into a vampire, they're the same group as the vampire that turned them--there's no choice in the matter. (Similar to how a cub is X tribe by birth unless they're lost.) The Caitiff might be like Ronin--vampires who turned their back on their group or who got expelled and no one wanted to take in.
Blood is a big deal with the vampires. They need it to heal and to power their magic. They can also feed people blood to make them loyal servants. Note to self: never eat or drink anything that a vampire may have come in contact with.
We headed out and ran into Alexandra and Ky--ugh, Shadow Lords--on the sidewalk near an ice cream parlour near Val's place. Someone had painted a white map on the wall. Val said it was a nearly perfect map of the local umbra in that area. Naturally, I took a picture for personal use. No wolves claimed that area, so it's a mystery as to who put it there and why. Also? Val says it looks more like an aerial map--someone who made it from up above. I went off to explore around the area, driving the Porsche around for about 30 minutes while looking with a mix of Correspondence and Matter to better spy and isolate the same kind of paint that was used, but I came up with no new findings.
That afternoon, I ran into Thomas in the Pool Hall. We had a couple drinks, shot the shit, then he offered to tell me how to defend myself against vampires. We went back to his houseboat, which he's got parked on the far side of the river and you have to hike a good 15 minutes through the woods to get to it. All in all, he really didn't have too much info to share about vampires that he hadn't already told Val. Although I kind of doubt a shotgun would be as effective as I'd hoped it might've been.
Shortly after midnight, Ila and I met up and took a second stab at that ritual to forecast how things would go if she revealed herself to Lefty. We got very positive signs before the paths diverged too broadly. We called up Val in the morning, arranged a meet-and-greet with Ila and Lefty with Val as a go-between. The meet took place in a Wal-Mart parking lot. I kept overwatch on the whole thing from my car parked across the street and behind a McDonald's. Fortunately there was no need for me to protect Ila, as Lefty seemed to take to the idea of having a secret mage ally posing as Bone Gnawer kinfolk like a starving dog takes to a pack of uncooked hot dogs.