![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Yesterday I took full advantage of the fog that'd shrouded most of the city--and especially riverfront locations like Harbor Park and the Historic District. I went to both the cities nodes, took down the old Prime-only sigil I'd used to mark Harbor Park some time ago, and replaced it with a new one. One that used Prime to craft a sigil--a notice to any other mages that the node was claimed--link the sigil to the node (by using tass from the node--easy-peasy!), and then interweave a simple Correspondence alarm effect in the event either the sigil or the node was attacked. After I finished doing the node at the heart of the Historic District, I swung by Harbor Park and did the same. Now, if something happens to either place, I'll be immediately alerted, can immediately scry either node's location, and take action to defend them from attackers--provided the nodes aren't immediately leveled or destroyed.
Of course, it leaves me a little vulnerable to a hostile mage noticing things, tracking the Correspondence effect back to me, and then attacking me from afar. And, yes, this makes me pretty nervous. But /generally/ mages are not such assholes, and decorum (not to mention common courtesy) tends to dictate discussing, negotiating, or challenging for use and/or control of nodes--not HA HA YOU DIE NOW antics.
Knock on wood.
Right as I'd finished up, Clarice--in wolf form--came by. She's more wolf-dog than wolf, though. (I wonder if that's part of the reason she's so pissy about Gnawers and calls them dog-fuckers? We often tend to hate most in others the aspects we see in ourselves.) And she seemed genuinely happy to run into me. Happy wolf-dog happiness is a bit contagious. I got to scratch her for a moment, at that was pretty darn cool. Am I a closet dog-person? She darted off, Naomi turned up talking and texting someone. I used my phone as a prop for ganking her signal and mirroring it on my screen.It was hasty, sloppy coincidental magic (hacked phone), and I only got garbled bits. I did pull out the words "MOUSE" "OWL" "RAVEN" and "FIX"--and it was sent to a K:T_DRAKE. If I had to make a guess? She's talking to someone about Mouse, Val, and Thomas as offering to help fix her condition. The question is "Who is K:T_DRAKE?" and should we be concerned about him. Is he a threat or an old packmate she still keeps in touch with? I'll have to pass this info on to Mouse to see if she can do something with it and ensure we're not inadvertently inviting a cancer into our tribe. I bet Mouse could pass off her knowing about this information as "A little spirit told me." Makes Mouse look scary, too. SEATAC ASTRONOMY, bitches.
Clarice returned and I had just enough time to introduce them before I had to meet with someone about a potential new case for the PI company. On the way there, I texted Clarice that Naomi hadn't yet been cleared by Mouse and that she wasn't to be told about nor taken to the tenement yet. By the time the job was done and I swung back past the park, they were both gone and it was nearly time to meet up with Val for dinner. I ought to look into seeing about hiring Clarice on to the PI firm if she can pick up that Tracking Stone rite the garou have. I think she'd be useful in helping to locate people and keep an eye on them, though not so much ANY interaction with them. But I noticed she looked like she was scrounging food at the park, and that's.... That's just not acceptable, even for a lupus Walker. I want to give myself a reason to put money in her paws.
I'd called Val up the other day, asked if she could bring the knife (that KL had been stabbed with and which rendered her temporarily unable to shift), and that I'd treat her to dinner. She picked the Rat and Raven. We met. I actually got her to agree to not just letting me have the knife to examine privately, but she agreed to let me keep it--so long as no one asked her to give it back to the garou, in which case she can say she's stashed it elsewhere for safe keeping but will bring it in a day or two. So, yes, I now have a new toy to examine. One that can disable a shifter AND still has at least one charge left in it.
Val must really, really, really trust me. That or she's playing some kind of long-term angle here.
She was also pretty excited about a new Gift she had picked up from her mom (another Corax), and she was eager to show it off for me at some later date. Here's hoping it doesn't involve eating dead people's eyeballs. (So. Damn. Disgusting.)
I think I got her to ease off of Naomi, too. Told her what Mouse and I were up to and that she couldn't tell anyone. She then explained how she could tell people, but via some clever wordsmithing and word omissions, not actually tell them that there was anyone working with Mouse. I'm cool with that. It just makes Mouse sound more bad-ass to whoever Val tells her half-truths to.
I wonder how many half-truths I've been fed over the years?
Okay. Agenda for today.
This morning, track down and tell Ila and Charley about what I've done with the nodes. Tell them they have free access to the nodes so long as they don't harm them. Make them an offer of 1 tass per month from the nodes if they agree to help defend them. Nag at them both about forming a cabal (micro-chantry?) for the purpose of defending local nodes, which they in turn will directly benefit from. Sheesh. I think these actions make me "Alpha Mage" for the city. If someone told me I'd be lead mage in the city 17 years ago, I'd have fallen over laughing at them. Time has a funny way of changing things.
Also on the agenda today? Examine the knife.
Also on the agenda today? Scout for a reasonably safe place to conduct Mouse's upcoming umbral ritual (countering any magical effects on Naomi) west of the city.
Also on the agenda today? Think about what to orchestrate for a "normal date night" with Emma. I'm thinking lunch, go-kart racing, movie, then dinner, then who knows?
Of course, it leaves me a little vulnerable to a hostile mage noticing things, tracking the Correspondence effect back to me, and then attacking me from afar. And, yes, this makes me pretty nervous. But /generally/ mages are not such assholes, and decorum (not to mention common courtesy) tends to dictate discussing, negotiating, or challenging for use and/or control of nodes--not HA HA YOU DIE NOW antics.
Knock on wood.
Right as I'd finished up, Clarice--in wolf form--came by. She's more wolf-dog than wolf, though. (I wonder if that's part of the reason she's so pissy about Gnawers and calls them dog-fuckers? We often tend to hate most in others the aspects we see in ourselves.) And she seemed genuinely happy to run into me. Happy wolf-dog happiness is a bit contagious. I got to scratch her for a moment, at that was pretty darn cool. Am I a closet dog-person? She darted off, Naomi turned up talking and texting someone. I used my phone as a prop for ganking her signal and mirroring it on my screen.It was hasty, sloppy coincidental magic (hacked phone), and I only got garbled bits. I did pull out the words "MOUSE" "OWL" "RAVEN" and "FIX"--and it was sent to a K:T_DRAKE. If I had to make a guess? She's talking to someone about Mouse, Val, and Thomas as offering to help fix her condition. The question is "Who is K:T_DRAKE?" and should we be concerned about him. Is he a threat or an old packmate she still keeps in touch with? I'll have to pass this info on to Mouse to see if she can do something with it and ensure we're not inadvertently inviting a cancer into our tribe. I bet Mouse could pass off her knowing about this information as "A little spirit told me." Makes Mouse look scary, too. SEATAC ASTRONOMY, bitches.
Clarice returned and I had just enough time to introduce them before I had to meet with someone about a potential new case for the PI company. On the way there, I texted Clarice that Naomi hadn't yet been cleared by Mouse and that she wasn't to be told about nor taken to the tenement yet. By the time the job was done and I swung back past the park, they were both gone and it was nearly time to meet up with Val for dinner. I ought to look into seeing about hiring Clarice on to the PI firm if she can pick up that Tracking Stone rite the garou have. I think she'd be useful in helping to locate people and keep an eye on them, though not so much ANY interaction with them. But I noticed she looked like she was scrounging food at the park, and that's.... That's just not acceptable, even for a lupus Walker. I want to give myself a reason to put money in her paws.
I'd called Val up the other day, asked if she could bring the knife (that KL had been stabbed with and which rendered her temporarily unable to shift), and that I'd treat her to dinner. She picked the Rat and Raven. We met. I actually got her to agree to not just letting me have the knife to examine privately, but she agreed to let me keep it--so long as no one asked her to give it back to the garou, in which case she can say she's stashed it elsewhere for safe keeping but will bring it in a day or two. So, yes, I now have a new toy to examine. One that can disable a shifter AND still has at least one charge left in it.
Val must really, really, really trust me. That or she's playing some kind of long-term angle here.
She was also pretty excited about a new Gift she had picked up from her mom (another Corax), and she was eager to show it off for me at some later date. Here's hoping it doesn't involve eating dead people's eyeballs. (So. Damn. Disgusting.)
I think I got her to ease off of Naomi, too. Told her what Mouse and I were up to and that she couldn't tell anyone. She then explained how she could tell people, but via some clever wordsmithing and word omissions, not actually tell them that there was anyone working with Mouse. I'm cool with that. It just makes Mouse sound more bad-ass to whoever Val tells her half-truths to.
I wonder how many half-truths I've been fed over the years?
Okay. Agenda for today.
This morning, track down and tell Ila and Charley about what I've done with the nodes. Tell them they have free access to the nodes so long as they don't harm them. Make them an offer of 1 tass per month from the nodes if they agree to help defend them. Nag at them both about forming a cabal (micro-chantry?) for the purpose of defending local nodes, which they in turn will directly benefit from. Sheesh. I think these actions make me "Alpha Mage" for the city. If someone told me I'd be lead mage in the city 17 years ago, I'd have fallen over laughing at them. Time has a funny way of changing things.
Also on the agenda today? Examine the knife.
Also on the agenda today? Scout for a reasonably safe place to conduct Mouse's upcoming umbral ritual (countering any magical effects on Naomi) west of the city.
Also on the agenda today? Think about what to orchestrate for a "normal date night" with Emma. I'm thinking lunch, go-kart racing, movie, then dinner, then who knows?
