Nick "Nicodemus" Dalton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nick_garou) wrote2013-04-07 07:42 am
nick_garou) wrote2013-04-07 07:42 am
Screw work: let's do applied and theoretical research.
Friday afternoon I went to The Library, a fairly popular bar and grill near SCCU, to test whether or not I could block cellular signals over an area. I waited until I'd finished my meal and paid, lingering with the remains of my beer (so I had an excuse to be there and to leave immediately in case something went wrong). I reached out, deadened the relevant electromagnetic spectrum, and watched as the people who were using their cell phones started acting as if something'd happen. Then they started tapping the phones, getting irritated, signal hunting and redialing, but it definitely looked like it was some kind of coverage outage that'd happened inside the restaurant. I held it for about five minutes before a girl came by and started trying to strike up a conversation with my. I took that as reality's subtle attempt at saying "quit now, please" and let the magic slip away. People started making calls and there was a sudden chiming of about half a dozen phones as text messages were suddenly and simultaneously delivered. I don't think anyone but me noticed. As I suspected, it seemed the effect was coincidental. Good to know and a subtle and useful means of helping to preserve the Veil or delay the arrival of police. Still, let's hope I never really need it.
That night I dropped by Edgewood with some groceries. Just four 2-liters of Coke: Bulky but desirable and cheap. The best groceries go to the Walkers. I ran into Mr. Lee, who I'd recently noticed hadn't been around a great deal. I confirmed my suspicion: he's a dad. To four fox pups (I think they're called "kits"), which all turned out to be kin. (I wonder if kin Kitsune can pass the shifter gene on to their offspring like can happen with the garou? I'll have to ask about that to see how that affects the whole "one of the parents (the non-Kitsune one typically) must die if a true-born Kitsune occurs" thing that plagues them. I wonder what kind of folklore they've attributed to that event/tradition?
Also? Kind of a little grossed out that Mr. Lee and a lady fox did the nasty. I did not need that mental image.
Val swung by and she and Mr. Lee.... Man, they don't like each other. Not hatred, but clearly there's some dislike there. Probably stemming from that stormcrow spirit Val hangs out with and Mr. Lee's intense dislike of the Shadow Lords. That and Mr. Lee calling he "Feathers" all the time, which Val hates. Val left to go eyeball the Honda Prelude company car I'd driven over in (and which I need to hand off to Riley at some point), and I tried talking to Mr. Lee about not antagonizing Val, but I don't think I got anywhere--even when I threatened to start calling him "Injun Joe" or "Mr. Fluffykins." (Yeah, I wasn't in peak form that night.)
I didn't offer up any elaboration about myself. Of course, I hadn't been asked for any, either. And, as Charley's Silver Fang relatives had shipped him overseas to America after they'd learned he was a mage, and Charley seems to be hiding his "magelyness" from his own tribe, I can only imagine that not telling other garou that a kinfolk is Something Different might be a standard practice. Or just a continuation of the whole "oral communincation is unreliable and inefficient" theme so prevalent in Garou society.
Mr. Lee did seem appreciative that I spoke up for him to the sept alpha: he'd helped the city garou get rid of some vampires recently. He seemed a little surprised that I even stood up for him. Someone must have really fucked him over in the past for him to be that surprised at someone (and maybe a non-indigenous, non-rural someone) standing up for him.
I spent Saturday at the SCCU library reading a couple new quasi-occult books they'd gotten in recently. Unfortunately, they were just sort of rehashes of stuff that's available in other books, though one did explore a bit more in depth about the potential origins of blood magic. (Might be of more interest to a Verbena than it was to me.) I did put in an interlibrary loan for a couple other books I wanted to read--one of the perks of being an alumni.
On the way back into town, I stopped off at Snakes and Lattes to help support Val's new business. I ran into Brad. We chatted a bit--he seems like a responsible, nice, no-nonsense kind of guy--and he offered to play some kind of game from the store's "library." I countered with the suggestion that we just play 5-card poker. He took to that idea like a fish to water and suggested playing for quarters to make things interesting. I was nice: I didn't cheat at all. I didn't "let" him win either, but I intentionally didn't try too hard either. I ended up out by just shy of twenty bucks by the time we quit.
Afterwards, I headed to the tenement's roof and ran into Mouse. We had a good talk that ranged from each of us occasionally feeling like an idiot to thoughts on the Apocalypse. How I could help preserve the Veil if she let me know in advance of a raid or somesuch--and that I could probably temporarily disable cell phones or security cameras. (Mouse mentioned that some of the garou had a similar ability, but it affected /everything/ without much in the way of discretion. That seems useful, but might be as subtle as a brick upside the head in some instances.) Mouse seemed impressed, said she could think of numerous applications, and said she'd definitely get in touch with me if a need arose in the future.
Val swung by briefly on one of her patrols. She and Mouse chatted a bit about the caern awakening ritual and how it'd gone fairly well. They also mentioned how Owen seemed to be a pig-headed glory hound who, at best, died saving other garou--but was still dead as a result. Mouse mentioned how the Get of Fenris, to her, seemed like "a goddamn death cult, and I wonder if most of us aren't right there with them most of the time." It made me worry about Emma. (I should probably touch base with her now that the moon isn't so full anymore.)
After Val left, I got back to talking shop with Mouse and apologized for going mum about magic, but that I didn't like sharing too much with Val because I suspected--likely knew--that what I shared with her was likely being shared with other Corax. And that could be bad for other mages. I equated it with a garou sharing with a mage that silver burns the fuck out of them, and then hoping that once that mage shares that information that it is never, ever, ever put to malicious use to kill a garou. Knowledge is power, after all. Mouse initially seemed a little surprised that I wasn't more open with Val, but then she seemed to understand. She asked what we talked about, and--frankly--we talk about nearly everything. Mundane to supernatural. I just keep magic out of it as much as possible.
I eventually mentioned the reason that I was up on the rooftop at an ungodly hour of the night: experimenting on seeing if I could predict where large fires might occur in the near future so that I could help prevent them from happening or--if entropy essentially demanded that it had to happen--finding a way to minimize any loss of human life. (It's an idea I came up with while thinking about how I can put advanced level of Forces to coincidental, creative, and beneficial humanitarian use--as opposed to the violent uses it's so widely renowned for.
Here's the basic premise for how it works. By interweaving low-level aspects of Time and Correspondence (to enhance my ability to scry over a large area and to peer slightly into potential futures), and then mixing in Entropy and Forces at the rudimentary sensory levels (to better detect destruction caused by lots of energy expenditure), I should theoretically be able to sense building fires before they happen. Once I can detect when one is going to happen, I can potentially defuse it by snuffing out the cause, using coincidental, large-scale Forces (if extinguishment isn't an option) to coincidentally redirect and/or slow flames or have fires "burn out" or avoid trapped people if at all possible, and maybe to partially shield people as well. With subtlety, most of this fire fighting could easily be coincidental. And I could tip off Val, Salem, or Mouse if there might be a need/opportunity for the garou to be heroes or if something really bad looks to be about to happen.
After Mouse and I finished talking, I explored mingling Correspondence with Time and Forces to wrap my head around not just looking into the future, but looking into radical changes in Forces in the future. I guess it's kind of like shifting from your regular vision to working with thermal goggles. Different. Awkward. But I suspect with a little more practice I can get better at it.
Mouse mentioned how Salem--when he'd disappeared for a month and came back aged 30 years--had seen a reality where the tenement had been destroyed and the caern burned. That prompted me to promise her that, if I could get my "future fire detector" magic working, I'd eyeball the tenement first. Then we both went back to what we were doing, but on opposite sides of the roof. A warper on one side examining ways that theoretical magic might become applied magic, and a werewolf on the other side debugging code in her head. What a weird lot we are.
That and, when the sun rose, Mouse and I headed down to the break room and had cold cereal together. Nothing weird about that, right?
That night I dropped by Edgewood with some groceries. Just four 2-liters of Coke: Bulky but desirable and cheap. The best groceries go to the Walkers. I ran into Mr. Lee, who I'd recently noticed hadn't been around a great deal. I confirmed my suspicion: he's a dad. To four fox pups (I think they're called "kits"), which all turned out to be kin. (I wonder if kin Kitsune can pass the shifter gene on to their offspring like can happen with the garou? I'll have to ask about that to see how that affects the whole "one of the parents (the non-Kitsune one typically) must die if a true-born Kitsune occurs" thing that plagues them. I wonder what kind of folklore they've attributed to that event/tradition?
Also? Kind of a little grossed out that Mr. Lee and a lady fox did the nasty. I did not need that mental image.
Val swung by and she and Mr. Lee.... Man, they don't like each other. Not hatred, but clearly there's some dislike there. Probably stemming from that stormcrow spirit Val hangs out with and Mr. Lee's intense dislike of the Shadow Lords. That and Mr. Lee calling he "Feathers" all the time, which Val hates. Val left to go eyeball the Honda Prelude company car I'd driven over in (and which I need to hand off to Riley at some point), and I tried talking to Mr. Lee about not antagonizing Val, but I don't think I got anywhere--even when I threatened to start calling him "Injun Joe" or "Mr. Fluffykins." (Yeah, I wasn't in peak form that night.)
Elliot--the new sept alpha--showed up, had a quick talk with Val (which I hope was about her trying to see about getting access to the caern) before she left. Then came over to say hi to me and Mr. Lee. Mr. Lee and Elliot hadn't met, and Lee gave his full intro--including that he was Uktena kinfolk and a Fox shifter and that Silver Tip had known about him, so he was extending the same courtesy. Elliot seemed a little surprised, but accepting nonetheless.
I didn't offer up any elaboration about myself. Of course, I hadn't been asked for any, either. And, as Charley's Silver Fang relatives had shipped him overseas to America after they'd learned he was a mage, and Charley seems to be hiding his "magelyness" from his own tribe, I can only imagine that not telling other garou that a kinfolk is Something Different might be a standard practice. Or just a continuation of the whole "oral communincation is unreliable and inefficient" theme so prevalent in Garou society.
Mr. Lee did seem appreciative that I spoke up for him to the sept alpha: he'd helped the city garou get rid of some vampires recently. He seemed a little surprised that I even stood up for him. Someone must have really fucked him over in the past for him to be that surprised at someone (and maybe a non-indigenous, non-rural someone) standing up for him.
I spent Saturday at the SCCU library reading a couple new quasi-occult books they'd gotten in recently. Unfortunately, they were just sort of rehashes of stuff that's available in other books, though one did explore a bit more in depth about the potential origins of blood magic. (Might be of more interest to a Verbena than it was to me.) I did put in an interlibrary loan for a couple other books I wanted to read--one of the perks of being an alumni.
On the way back into town, I stopped off at Snakes and Lattes to help support Val's new business. I ran into Brad. We chatted a bit--he seems like a responsible, nice, no-nonsense kind of guy--and he offered to play some kind of game from the store's "library." I countered with the suggestion that we just play 5-card poker. He took to that idea like a fish to water and suggested playing for quarters to make things interesting. I was nice: I didn't cheat at all. I didn't "let" him win either, but I intentionally didn't try too hard either. I ended up out by just shy of twenty bucks by the time we quit.
Afterwards, I headed to the tenement's roof and ran into Mouse. We had a good talk that ranged from each of us occasionally feeling like an idiot to thoughts on the Apocalypse. How I could help preserve the Veil if she let me know in advance of a raid or somesuch--and that I could probably temporarily disable cell phones or security cameras. (Mouse mentioned that some of the garou had a similar ability, but it affected /everything/ without much in the way of discretion. That seems useful, but might be as subtle as a brick upside the head in some instances.) Mouse seemed impressed, said she could think of numerous applications, and said she'd definitely get in touch with me if a need arose in the future.
Val swung by briefly on one of her patrols. She and Mouse chatted a bit about the caern awakening ritual and how it'd gone fairly well. They also mentioned how Owen seemed to be a pig-headed glory hound who, at best, died saving other garou--but was still dead as a result. Mouse mentioned how the Get of Fenris, to her, seemed like "a goddamn death cult, and I wonder if most of us aren't right there with them most of the time." It made me worry about Emma. (I should probably touch base with her now that the moon isn't so full anymore.)
After Val left, I got back to talking shop with Mouse and apologized for going mum about magic, but that I didn't like sharing too much with Val because I suspected--likely knew--that what I shared with her was likely being shared with other Corax. And that could be bad for other mages. I equated it with a garou sharing with a mage that silver burns the fuck out of them, and then hoping that once that mage shares that information that it is never, ever, ever put to malicious use to kill a garou. Knowledge is power, after all. Mouse initially seemed a little surprised that I wasn't more open with Val, but then she seemed to understand. She asked what we talked about, and--frankly--we talk about nearly everything. Mundane to supernatural. I just keep magic out of it as much as possible.
I eventually mentioned the reason that I was up on the rooftop at an ungodly hour of the night: experimenting on seeing if I could predict where large fires might occur in the near future so that I could help prevent them from happening or--if entropy essentially demanded that it had to happen--finding a way to minimize any loss of human life. (It's an idea I came up with while thinking about how I can put advanced level of Forces to coincidental, creative, and beneficial humanitarian use--as opposed to the violent uses it's so widely renowned for.
Here's the basic premise for how it works. By interweaving low-level aspects of Time and Correspondence (to enhance my ability to scry over a large area and to peer slightly into potential futures), and then mixing in Entropy and Forces at the rudimentary sensory levels (to better detect destruction caused by lots of energy expenditure), I should theoretically be able to sense building fires before they happen. Once I can detect when one is going to happen, I can potentially defuse it by snuffing out the cause, using coincidental, large-scale Forces (if extinguishment isn't an option) to coincidentally redirect and/or slow flames or have fires "burn out" or avoid trapped people if at all possible, and maybe to partially shield people as well. With subtlety, most of this fire fighting could easily be coincidental. And I could tip off Val, Salem, or Mouse if there might be a need/opportunity for the garou to be heroes or if something really bad looks to be about to happen.
After Mouse and I finished talking, I explored mingling Correspondence with Time and Forces to wrap my head around not just looking into the future, but looking into radical changes in Forces in the future. I guess it's kind of like shifting from your regular vision to working with thermal goggles. Different. Awkward. But I suspect with a little more practice I can get better at it.
Mouse mentioned how Salem--when he'd disappeared for a month and came back aged 30 years--had seen a reality where the tenement had been destroyed and the caern burned. That prompted me to promise her that, if I could get my "future fire detector" magic working, I'd eyeball the tenement first. Then we both went back to what we were doing, but on opposite sides of the roof. A warper on one side examining ways that theoretical magic might become applied magic, and a werewolf on the other side debugging code in her head. What a weird lot we are.
That and, when the sun rose, Mouse and I headed down to the break room and had cold cereal together. Nothing weird about that, right?