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Friday, April 25--Val returns from her trip and is half her age.
I was out by the pond behind the farmhouse when Val swung by. Post summoning her Sands of Time spirit, she'd gotten some answers as to who took Beth's spirit egg (Spirals) and what happened to it (bound to some 5yo boy she suspects might be BSD kinfolk), but at the cost of... Well, she looks about 14 right now. And after asking her if she'd let me look her over to see if I could countermagick some or all of the effects... It's a jumbled-ass mess. I'm afraid if I try to counter something that looks the easiest to move (her disabling of electronic devices in this instance), it might cause a cascading collapse that.... Well, I have no idea what that might do. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of this is permanent--or still "settling."
She knew I could look back in time, but said she wanted to do it her way instead because of signs and portents and whatnot. The paradox I might have accrued from such a simple feat would have been next to nothing compared to how that spirit smacked her upside the head.
She hasn't told Brad yet. Now there's an awkward conversation waiting to happen.
Friday, April 25--Making plans to rescue Naomi
I ended up talking with Thomas, Salem, Jacinta, and Quoz about the plan to rescue Naomi from The Suits. After Quoz left, I was able to speak more freely about what I could contribute as a mage, not as a kinfolk. I think the basic plan is as follows:
Jacinta seemed pissed at the idea of Val being involved. That woman really dislikes Val. (Of course, I believe Val did drop silver on a garou. That's kind of a massive no-no.) I did mention having Val do a flyby scouting run. Jacinta seemed not so thrilled about that, too. And when I mentioned my idea of stabilizing Naomi's mind--and Jacinta asked what all I was going to do and I explained it as basically dreamwalking someone while they were awake and altering their perceptions.... I think that disturbed her quite a bit, but she concurred.
I asked Salem if he'd help me better get a feel for what mental processes go through a garou's mind when they reach so that I'd better be able to replicate it on the night of. We went out to the Walker's woodland territory and I rode shotgun in his mind about a dozen times as he reached across the gauntlet. I'm feeling more confident now that I've spent some more time studying this.
When we finished, Salem mentioned wanting to learn techniques to blocks his mind from mental invasion. I'd have shown him some pointers--or told him about the chimera spirit or the cougar thing--but I was absolutely dead on my feet. I barely got the sleeping bag out before I was asleep.
Belatedly, the next morning, I realized I'd been responding to Jacinta, who'd been in lupus the whole time. I hope Quoz failed to notice that and just assumed I was picking up on things from other people and context. I need to watch that in the future.
Saturday, April 26--Evacuating the Walker tenement
One of the concerns I shared with Salem the other night was that with all The Suits in the area looking for supernatural things (and they'd already bagged Worm from his business office), it was only a matter of time until they spotted/detected a garou, followed it to where it lived , and then leveled the building in a raid. About half the city garou have a place at the Walker's tenement. Why not evacuate in advance of a raid happening? Put the place up for sale rather than watch it get destroyed, and rent a place or two instead. (A lost deposit is nothing compared to a lost building.) Salem seemed to agree, claiming he'd had his thumb on the button (explosives? yikes!) for that place for some time now. So I swung by to clean out my apartment there. It wasn't much. (Yay, minimalism and a life of constantly moving about!) Spritzed the whole room down with a strong bleach solution. Bye bye DNA, and--frankly--who knows what happened in here before I moved in. This is a garou domicile, after all.
I ran into Salem, but he looked exhausted. I told him to go catch some rack time while I took over his shift at the monitors. I'll tell him about the chimera spirit and cougar stuff later. He's just got too much shit on his plate right now.
Bumped into Rhys as I was finishing loading up the Suburban. He's investigating the riots that happened in NYC and Boston. I haven't been keeping tabs on that. I'm too damn busy with the things going on locally. Worry about the truck that's about to run you over now, not the one you can see off in the distance. But I'm glad he's looking at things elsewhere. I know I've somewhat intentionally blinded myself to external events due to my focus on the local issues, and we do need someone keeping their head up and alert. Don't dodge Truck A by leaping into the path of Truck B. Or is it trains? I'm too tired to care right now.
It occurred to me to swing by Walmart on the way home. I sold off all the stuff from my apartment right in the parking lot. Gone. Then I used the money to go buy a bunch of food staples, packed them into a large plastic tote, and went home. I'll take the tote of food out to the Walker's cave later. And perhaps a few other things. That place might end up becoming a shelter/haven at some point--if not for the tribe, then perhaps me.
I hope not. I don't want to live in some cave in the middle of nowhere.
Like Pavel.
Oh, dear god. How the hell did this happen?
I was out by the pond behind the farmhouse when Val swung by. Post summoning her Sands of Time spirit, she'd gotten some answers as to who took Beth's spirit egg (Spirals) and what happened to it (bound to some 5yo boy she suspects might be BSD kinfolk), but at the cost of... Well, she looks about 14 right now. And after asking her if she'd let me look her over to see if I could countermagick some or all of the effects... It's a jumbled-ass mess. I'm afraid if I try to counter something that looks the easiest to move (her disabling of electronic devices in this instance), it might cause a cascading collapse that.... Well, I have no idea what that might do. And I wouldn't be surprised if some of this is permanent--or still "settling."
She knew I could look back in time, but said she wanted to do it her way instead because of signs and portents and whatnot. The paradox I might have accrued from such a simple feat would have been next to nothing compared to how that spirit smacked her upside the head.
She hasn't told Brad yet. Now there's an awkward conversation waiting to happen.
Friday, April 25--Making plans to rescue Naomi
I ended up talking with Thomas, Salem, Jacinta, and Quoz about the plan to rescue Naomi from The Suits. After Quoz left, I was able to speak more freely about what I could contribute as a mage, not as a kinfolk. I think the basic plan is as follows:
- Val will go do some umbral flyovers to assess if there are any spirits guarding the place, then report the information back.
- I'll dreamwalk Naomi to get an idea of what the inside looks like, see what condition she's in, etc.
- Thomas will be escorted in, via the umbra, with a warpack of garou there for defense.
- Thomas will reach through, invisible, disable any cameras, and provide Naomi with a mirror so she can reach through.
- I will help to either stabilize Naomi's mind, countering any sedatives or other drug cocktails they've inflicted upon her, so she can reach through and escape through the umbra. Or, if she's fine, I'll thin the gauntlet to help her reach through faster.
- Thomas will disable the lock with a tool to make it look like Naomi escaped through mundane means.
- Walkers will disrupt the place's electronics/power.
- Everyone flees.
Jacinta seemed pissed at the idea of Val being involved. That woman really dislikes Val. (Of course, I believe Val did drop silver on a garou. That's kind of a massive no-no.) I did mention having Val do a flyby scouting run. Jacinta seemed not so thrilled about that, too. And when I mentioned my idea of stabilizing Naomi's mind--and Jacinta asked what all I was going to do and I explained it as basically dreamwalking someone while they were awake and altering their perceptions.... I think that disturbed her quite a bit, but she concurred.
I asked Salem if he'd help me better get a feel for what mental processes go through a garou's mind when they reach so that I'd better be able to replicate it on the night of. We went out to the Walker's woodland territory and I rode shotgun in his mind about a dozen times as he reached across the gauntlet. I'm feeling more confident now that I've spent some more time studying this.
When we finished, Salem mentioned wanting to learn techniques to blocks his mind from mental invasion. I'd have shown him some pointers--or told him about the chimera spirit or the cougar thing--but I was absolutely dead on my feet. I barely got the sleeping bag out before I was asleep.
Belatedly, the next morning, I realized I'd been responding to Jacinta, who'd been in lupus the whole time. I hope Quoz failed to notice that and just assumed I was picking up on things from other people and context. I need to watch that in the future.
Saturday, April 26--Evacuating the Walker tenement
One of the concerns I shared with Salem the other night was that with all The Suits in the area looking for supernatural things (and they'd already bagged Worm from his business office), it was only a matter of time until they spotted/detected a garou, followed it to where it lived , and then leveled the building in a raid. About half the city garou have a place at the Walker's tenement. Why not evacuate in advance of a raid happening? Put the place up for sale rather than watch it get destroyed, and rent a place or two instead. (A lost deposit is nothing compared to a lost building.) Salem seemed to agree, claiming he'd had his thumb on the button (explosives? yikes!) for that place for some time now. So I swung by to clean out my apartment there. It wasn't much. (Yay, minimalism and a life of constantly moving about!) Spritzed the whole room down with a strong bleach solution. Bye bye DNA, and--frankly--who knows what happened in here before I moved in. This is a garou domicile, after all.
I ran into Salem, but he looked exhausted. I told him to go catch some rack time while I took over his shift at the monitors. I'll tell him about the chimera spirit and cougar stuff later. He's just got too much shit on his plate right now.
Bumped into Rhys as I was finishing loading up the Suburban. He's investigating the riots that happened in NYC and Boston. I haven't been keeping tabs on that. I'm too damn busy with the things going on locally. Worry about the truck that's about to run you over now, not the one you can see off in the distance. But I'm glad he's looking at things elsewhere. I know I've somewhat intentionally blinded myself to external events due to my focus on the local issues, and we do need someone keeping their head up and alert. Don't dodge Truck A by leaping into the path of Truck B. Or is it trains? I'm too tired to care right now.
It occurred to me to swing by Walmart on the way home. I sold off all the stuff from my apartment right in the parking lot. Gone. Then I used the money to go buy a bunch of food staples, packed them into a large plastic tote, and went home. I'll take the tote of food out to the Walker's cave later. And perhaps a few other things. That place might end up becoming a shelter/haven at some point--if not for the tribe, then perhaps me.
I hope not. I don't want to live in some cave in the middle of nowhere.
Like Pavel.
Oh, dear god. How the hell did this happen?
