Nick "Nicodemus" Dalton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nick_garou) wrote2014-04-08 07:36 pm
nick_garou) wrote2014-04-08 07:36 pm
Dreams, dream invasions, corruputive thoughts, and an unpleasant trip to Indianville.
Got back to St. Clair Monday evening. Grabbed some goods for the Walkers, dropped them off, and had a brief chat with Rhys. It's weird, actually. He mentioned getting a place of his own. I advised him not to become a lone wolf and to look at joining a pack. He said he was looking at the pack that Kevin, Maddie, and Topsy were in. I told him that sounded like a good pack to be in. We talked about getting together sometime when the moon is slimmer to go shooting. I recommended the woods instead of the gun range in town. And I also drew him a map to where he could get to the sizeable chunk of property the Walkers own out in the forest. All of this does, however, beg the question: "When the hell did Nick Dalton start giving advice about being a garou to garou?" That's messed up. What's next? Teaching wet-behind-the-ears Walker cubs?
I then went home. Got a call while unloading the Suburban. Silvertip. (Apparently she does use phones.) She turned up a good hour and change later. Asked me if I'd dreamwalked her. Told her I didn't on purpose, and I was pretty sure I hadn't on accident. (Fortunately the latter hasn't happened in a while. That I'm aware of.) She believed me. (Hey, look! She trusted me a bit!) She's certain someone dreamwalked her and made off with something best left unshared. They left her with a good dream, which was what tipped Silvertip off. So it was likely someone who knows Silvertip and might have been trying to help her. I asked who that might have been, specifically looking into the shifter aspect of things. Slug is the topic candidate (he'd talked to Silvertip about seeing her in a dream/vision). Val and Charlene the next most likely (both nosy). Samantha and Esther are very remote possibilities (potentially nosy, but not likely to be experienced enough to know something like Dreamwalking, which seems to be fairly uncommon among the novice garou).
I offered to poke around in her head/dreams to find out who the culprit was (a relatively uncomplicated Mind/Time rote), but was told no. Why? Earlier when Silvertip had asked if there were ideas out there that simply thinking about could corrupt a person? Yeah. One of those. Nephandi-spawned, apparently. I'd have asked how that got in her head, but she told me not to ask. So I didn't. But the bottom line is this: someone out there? They dreamwalked Silvertip, looked at a corruptive dream-thought that Silvertip had to be cleansed in order to be rid of it, and now they're running around with it in their head. Great. What was it I said earlier about there recently being a lot of people around me doing things with the best of intentions and fucking things up inadvertently in the process?
I thought about external tracing methods. I remembered reading a book on out of body experiences a handful of years ago, before I'd become more advanced in Mind magick. There was a great section on relaxation techniques to do in bed in preparation for having an out of body experiences, and MAN does that just let me drift off to sleep in two shakes of a lamb's tail. But, relevant to the situation at hand, I remember there being the concept of a silver cord trailing between the sleeper and the sleeper's consciousness. It's a trail back, and the garou might not even be aware of its existence. Or unable to see it. New plan of action, we packed up and headed off in the Suburban to the place where Silvertip had had the dream. The Yakima Indian Reservation.
On the way over, Silvertip said she'd watched the Star Wars trilogy (and returned the discs). She thought the Empire Strikes Back was the film most relevant to me, particularly the swamp scenes, and I concurred. She seemed to dislike that the only person of color in the movie was Lando, who betrayed the heroes, and then acted out of guilt after that. I pointed out that another way of looking at that scene was that Lando was a conflicted leader. If he did what Vader asked, the heroes would suffer. If he did not do what Vader asked, everyone he was leading would suffer. I explained that Lando chose what he believed to be the lesser of two evils, then pointed out that that is a situation we are all sometimes faced with. Sometimes we make choices that are gambles, like how Silvertip accidentally learned of a corruptive idea while seeking knowledge. She didn't seem to particularly agree or disagree.
She did share a portion of what the corruptive idea was: a nephandic ritual using something unpleasant (Lord knows what when it comes to Nephandi) as a focus for annihilating a caern. I pointed out that annihilating an undefended sacred place was not an extremely difficult thing to accomplish, but doing so is generally an act of madness, desperation, vengeance, or a combination of those things. She pointed out that while there were garou who would kill me merely because I was a warper, that there were also garou who would kill her for simply possessing knowledge of a Nephandic caern-destroying ritual. I think sharing that information was an act of trust on her part. In hindsight, I'm not so sure how I feel about being compared to a Nephandic caern-destroying ritual. Maybe I'm reading too much into that.
We alternated between idle talk and silence the rest of the drive to the reservation. Once there, Silvertip advised me where to park, I set up shop for an extended Mind/Time/Correspondence ritual in the back of the car, and she took the Out of Body Experience paperback I let her borrow and settled in a ways away to read and keep watch. The ritual was progressing well up until some drunk kids showed up, spotted me meditating/trancing/concentrating in the back of the Suburban, and then started yelling that I was some kind of peeping tom white boy. Yelling turned into beating on the car--but the thing is a freaking tank and already battered and scuffed. As things escalated more, Silvertip ran them off. She used some sort of a Mind-Life gift on the last guy, who was stubborn. He pissed himself as he ran off. I bet I could mimic that effect with a little Mind magic. Silvertip got back in the car and advised that we leave before someone called the reservation police, so we did. Damn, that ritual would have worked, too. I know it, and it was coming along so well. Idiot kids.
We packed it in as there wasn't enough time to do a 2nd attempt. Plus I need to touch base with Emma before my ass is in a sling. She and Val both left me notes while I was out.
I spent today trying to put my house back in order from Val--with the best of intentions (I remind myself)--upending it. And I just had an idea. I could theoretically make Silvertip a charm to help protect her from a future/follow-up dreamwalk. Temporarily. I need quintessence, though. Bad. Time to hit up the nodes and meditate. The latter at Osprey Circle, which is uptown, which is not where the Suits are canvasing.
I then went home. Got a call while unloading the Suburban. Silvertip. (Apparently she does use phones.) She turned up a good hour and change later. Asked me if I'd dreamwalked her. Told her I didn't on purpose, and I was pretty sure I hadn't on accident. (Fortunately the latter hasn't happened in a while. That I'm aware of.) She believed me. (Hey, look! She trusted me a bit!) She's certain someone dreamwalked her and made off with something best left unshared. They left her with a good dream, which was what tipped Silvertip off. So it was likely someone who knows Silvertip and might have been trying to help her. I asked who that might have been, specifically looking into the shifter aspect of things. Slug is the topic candidate (he'd talked to Silvertip about seeing her in a dream/vision). Val and Charlene the next most likely (both nosy). Samantha and Esther are very remote possibilities (potentially nosy, but not likely to be experienced enough to know something like Dreamwalking, which seems to be fairly uncommon among the novice garou).
I offered to poke around in her head/dreams to find out who the culprit was (a relatively uncomplicated Mind/Time rote), but was told no. Why? Earlier when Silvertip had asked if there were ideas out there that simply thinking about could corrupt a person? Yeah. One of those. Nephandi-spawned, apparently. I'd have asked how that got in her head, but she told me not to ask. So I didn't. But the bottom line is this: someone out there? They dreamwalked Silvertip, looked at a corruptive dream-thought that Silvertip had to be cleansed in order to be rid of it, and now they're running around with it in their head. Great. What was it I said earlier about there recently being a lot of people around me doing things with the best of intentions and fucking things up inadvertently in the process?
I thought about external tracing methods. I remembered reading a book on out of body experiences a handful of years ago, before I'd become more advanced in Mind magick. There was a great section on relaxation techniques to do in bed in preparation for having an out of body experiences, and MAN does that just let me drift off to sleep in two shakes of a lamb's tail. But, relevant to the situation at hand, I remember there being the concept of a silver cord trailing between the sleeper and the sleeper's consciousness. It's a trail back, and the garou might not even be aware of its existence. Or unable to see it. New plan of action, we packed up and headed off in the Suburban to the place where Silvertip had had the dream. The Yakima Indian Reservation.
On the way over, Silvertip said she'd watched the Star Wars trilogy (and returned the discs). She thought the Empire Strikes Back was the film most relevant to me, particularly the swamp scenes, and I concurred. She seemed to dislike that the only person of color in the movie was Lando, who betrayed the heroes, and then acted out of guilt after that. I pointed out that another way of looking at that scene was that Lando was a conflicted leader. If he did what Vader asked, the heroes would suffer. If he did not do what Vader asked, everyone he was leading would suffer. I explained that Lando chose what he believed to be the lesser of two evils, then pointed out that that is a situation we are all sometimes faced with. Sometimes we make choices that are gambles, like how Silvertip accidentally learned of a corruptive idea while seeking knowledge. She didn't seem to particularly agree or disagree.
She did share a portion of what the corruptive idea was: a nephandic ritual using something unpleasant (Lord knows what when it comes to Nephandi) as a focus for annihilating a caern. I pointed out that annihilating an undefended sacred place was not an extremely difficult thing to accomplish, but doing so is generally an act of madness, desperation, vengeance, or a combination of those things. She pointed out that while there were garou who would kill me merely because I was a warper, that there were also garou who would kill her for simply possessing knowledge of a Nephandic caern-destroying ritual. I think sharing that information was an act of trust on her part. In hindsight, I'm not so sure how I feel about being compared to a Nephandic caern-destroying ritual. Maybe I'm reading too much into that.
We alternated between idle talk and silence the rest of the drive to the reservation. Once there, Silvertip advised me where to park, I set up shop for an extended Mind/Time/Correspondence ritual in the back of the car, and she took the Out of Body Experience paperback I let her borrow and settled in a ways away to read and keep watch. The ritual was progressing well up until some drunk kids showed up, spotted me meditating/trancing/concentrating in the back of the Suburban, and then started yelling that I was some kind of peeping tom white boy. Yelling turned into beating on the car--but the thing is a freaking tank and already battered and scuffed. As things escalated more, Silvertip ran them off. She used some sort of a Mind-Life gift on the last guy, who was stubborn. He pissed himself as he ran off. I bet I could mimic that effect with a little Mind magic. Silvertip got back in the car and advised that we leave before someone called the reservation police, so we did. Damn, that ritual would have worked, too. I know it, and it was coming along so well. Idiot kids.
We packed it in as there wasn't enough time to do a 2nd attempt. Plus I need to touch base with Emma before my ass is in a sling. She and Val both left me notes while I was out.
I spent today trying to put my house back in order from Val--with the best of intentions (I remind myself)--upending it. And I just had an idea. I could theoretically make Silvertip a charm to help protect her from a future/follow-up dreamwalk. Temporarily. I need quintessence, though. Bad. Time to hit up the nodes and meditate. The latter at Osprey Circle, which is uptown, which is not where the Suits are canvasing.