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Wed, May 14--Reading and campfire chats with Val and then Mouse
I spent most of the day--finally--getting around to reading that book I traded Pavel for. The one that was written by a Chorister. It does read, initially, like a religious text. And there are prayers/rituals/hymns in it. Maybe those are foci for a lot of Celestial Choristers? But there's an interesting underlying concept below the surface of this sort of thing: that the One is all-present and all-seeing, and that we are made in the One's image, and so therefore those of us who choose to be more like the One can this become more aware--approaching omniscience.
That evening Val came by while I was cooking dinner: tofu hotdogs. (I need to find a better brand because those were not very good.) She asked what was up (as I'd sent out text messages to a few people letting them know I'd moved to WWNP and to not go to my cabin). I tild her I'd run into Karuvar in the umbra and tried to pass myself off as a Rank 1 Pumonca. Val then informed me that most bastet--only the most experienced ones or one with a pocket spirit dimension/territory (the Den Realm Karuvar mentioned earlier?)--can cross into the umbra. (Well shit.) She also told me that the bastet tend to be curious like Uktena and the older ones have often learned patience. (I suspect now that Karuvar was not fooled and was merely curious about me.)
After Val left, Mouse arrived. I told her pretty much what I'd told Val. She told me again about the run-in she'd had with Karuvar some years ago when he'd stolen the fetish in Harbor Park's umbra from her. He has an obnoxious spirit that looks like Puss In Boots (seriously?) who caused a distraction while Karuvar'd been sneaking up, invisible, and grabbed the fetish. As he was fleeing, he created a wall of fire to prevent pursuit. Mouse intentionally ran through it and was burned pretty bad. So the tiger does know something about invisibility (which I can see through) and fire (which I can probably walk through or redirect). Knowledge is power, indeed.
In other news, Mouse replaced Salem as beta (which I'm sure made Salem ecstatic--even though people do naturally look to him for leadership). There's some grumbling in the sept about this as Mouse is a metis. (They can sit and spin.) Maxwell, the Walker kin business tycoon Mouse knows, is giving the tribe the top couple floors of a skyscraper--with a couple buffer floors. Roof access. (Yes! And we might need a few base jumping style parachutes in the event there's a fire or it needs evacuation. Mouse says she has something she can do umbra-wise that she picked up in Canada, whatever that is.) This place will be a Walkers only abode, not a place for everyone in the city to crash. I mentioned to Mouse that renting a climate controlled warehouse and putting in some partitions to create rooms for people from other tribes might go a long way for fostering goodwill for the Walker tribe among the other city-dwelling garou/kin. Mouse said that the apartment complex they had, where the tribe had given rent-free rooms on the 1st-4th floors for garou/kin from other tribes, didn't seem to accomplish that. (So garou aren't just typically ungrateful to non-garou: They're just typically ungrateful to everyone. Good to know.) Mouse offered to crap and piss all around my property to mark it as garou territory. I thought about it, but decided that might draw attention. Besides, I already "marked" the place up over the course of 5 days as a cougar.
We talked a little about garou and frenzy and the value of shutting up and nodding agreement. I nearly had two garou blow up on me this past month, during smaller moon phases. Both ahrouns. One over a miscommunication (while I was cracking a joke) and the other over god knows what. I think I need to hang out around them less. Or just keep my mouth shut except to agree with them--even if they're idiots. Mouse said that, at times, she did the same thing. Pride comes before the fall, though. Swallow your pride, Nick. Just smile and nod. Smile and nod. Mouse assured me that I could be open around her and that if she felt like she was going to lose it, she would let me know and leave. That's reassuring.
As a thanks for the new digs, I brought Mouse inside and assembled a stock portfolio--modified based on the one I put together earlier for Terminus and myself and my contacts out among the other mages--and gave it to Mouse to give to Maxwell so he can turn a tidy profit in these times of chaos. I spent a little extra time on this one to make it customized to dovetail in with Maxwell's ongoing investments and super-easy to plug and play. I hope Maxwell is pleased by that. Thanks for lending the tribe a hand--even if I don't ever see you in person.
Thur, May 15--Spy on Karuvar's cathouse.
Thursday I was up, out in the Suburban, and parked two blocks away from Copper Sands--a middle-eastern themed manor--an hour before dawn. I found a home that was for sale--no furniture in it--with parking in back, so I set up camp there. (A little Entropy and time to find such an ideal spot didn't hurt.) I set about prepping for an extended bit of ritual magic so I could spy on the tiger. To make a long story short, I spent the entire day and most of the night keeping an eye on the manor. Karuvar is either very promiscuous or maybe suffering from some kind of "male cat heat"--a khan version of pon farr? I did not linger on those scenes, instead looking elsewhere. There was another cat-shifter present. Not a khan, but... I couldn't place what kind it was. But it was living out of a single suitcase, so just visiting. (Later in the day I had to add "lover" to the possible reasons she was there with Karuvar. Karuvar bats for both teams, it would seem. He'd been with a male human groundskeeper that morning.) Nothing untowardly inside the manor. No hint of spiritual corruption (despite what the Catholic churches might say otherwise). But there is a... something... in the umbra. Like a warding? But not. I can't see into it. Not from the realm, at least. That might be the Den Realm Val spoke about. Sounded a bit like a Horizon Realm that some powerful spirit mages create. Eavesdropping, there was generic talk about the city and the wolves. Snippets of out-of-context conversations that would have made sense if I'd been in the know. All in all? It does not appear as if there are dangerous/nefarious things going on at Copper Sands. Supernatural and possibly illegal, sure. But who am I to throw stones?
I spent most of the day--finally--getting around to reading that book I traded Pavel for. The one that was written by a Chorister. It does read, initially, like a religious text. And there are prayers/rituals/hymns in it. Maybe those are foci for a lot of Celestial Choristers? But there's an interesting underlying concept below the surface of this sort of thing: that the One is all-present and all-seeing, and that we are made in the One's image, and so therefore those of us who choose to be more like the One can this become more aware--approaching omniscience.
That evening Val came by while I was cooking dinner: tofu hotdogs. (I need to find a better brand because those were not very good.) She asked what was up (as I'd sent out text messages to a few people letting them know I'd moved to WWNP and to not go to my cabin). I tild her I'd run into Karuvar in the umbra and tried to pass myself off as a Rank 1 Pumonca. Val then informed me that most bastet--only the most experienced ones or one with a pocket spirit dimension/territory (the Den Realm Karuvar mentioned earlier?)--can cross into the umbra. (Well shit.) She also told me that the bastet tend to be curious like Uktena and the older ones have often learned patience. (I suspect now that Karuvar was not fooled and was merely curious about me.)
After Val left, Mouse arrived. I told her pretty much what I'd told Val. She told me again about the run-in she'd had with Karuvar some years ago when he'd stolen the fetish in Harbor Park's umbra from her. He has an obnoxious spirit that looks like Puss In Boots (seriously?) who caused a distraction while Karuvar'd been sneaking up, invisible, and grabbed the fetish. As he was fleeing, he created a wall of fire to prevent pursuit. Mouse intentionally ran through it and was burned pretty bad. So the tiger does know something about invisibility (which I can see through) and fire (which I can probably walk through or redirect). Knowledge is power, indeed.
In other news, Mouse replaced Salem as beta (which I'm sure made Salem ecstatic--even though people do naturally look to him for leadership). There's some grumbling in the sept about this as Mouse is a metis. (They can sit and spin.) Maxwell, the Walker kin business tycoon Mouse knows, is giving the tribe the top couple floors of a skyscraper--with a couple buffer floors. Roof access. (Yes! And we might need a few base jumping style parachutes in the event there's a fire or it needs evacuation. Mouse says she has something she can do umbra-wise that she picked up in Canada, whatever that is.) This place will be a Walkers only abode, not a place for everyone in the city to crash. I mentioned to Mouse that renting a climate controlled warehouse and putting in some partitions to create rooms for people from other tribes might go a long way for fostering goodwill for the Walker tribe among the other city-dwelling garou/kin. Mouse said that the apartment complex they had, where the tribe had given rent-free rooms on the 1st-4th floors for garou/kin from other tribes, didn't seem to accomplish that. (So garou aren't just typically ungrateful to non-garou: They're just typically ungrateful to everyone. Good to know.) Mouse offered to crap and piss all around my property to mark it as garou territory. I thought about it, but decided that might draw attention. Besides, I already "marked" the place up over the course of 5 days as a cougar.
We talked a little about garou and frenzy and the value of shutting up and nodding agreement. I nearly had two garou blow up on me this past month, during smaller moon phases. Both ahrouns. One over a miscommunication (while I was cracking a joke) and the other over god knows what. I think I need to hang out around them less. Or just keep my mouth shut except to agree with them--even if they're idiots. Mouse said that, at times, she did the same thing. Pride comes before the fall, though. Swallow your pride, Nick. Just smile and nod. Smile and nod. Mouse assured me that I could be open around her and that if she felt like she was going to lose it, she would let me know and leave. That's reassuring.
As a thanks for the new digs, I brought Mouse inside and assembled a stock portfolio--modified based on the one I put together earlier for Terminus and myself and my contacts out among the other mages--and gave it to Mouse to give to Maxwell so he can turn a tidy profit in these times of chaos. I spent a little extra time on this one to make it customized to dovetail in with Maxwell's ongoing investments and super-easy to plug and play. I hope Maxwell is pleased by that. Thanks for lending the tribe a hand--even if I don't ever see you in person.
Thur, May 15--Spy on Karuvar's cathouse.
Thursday I was up, out in the Suburban, and parked two blocks away from Copper Sands--a middle-eastern themed manor--an hour before dawn. I found a home that was for sale--no furniture in it--with parking in back, so I set up camp there. (A little Entropy and time to find such an ideal spot didn't hurt.) I set about prepping for an extended bit of ritual magic so I could spy on the tiger. To make a long story short, I spent the entire day and most of the night keeping an eye on the manor. Karuvar is either very promiscuous or maybe suffering from some kind of "male cat heat"--a khan version of pon farr? I did not linger on those scenes, instead looking elsewhere. There was another cat-shifter present. Not a khan, but... I couldn't place what kind it was. But it was living out of a single suitcase, so just visiting. (Later in the day I had to add "lover" to the possible reasons she was there with Karuvar. Karuvar bats for both teams, it would seem. He'd been with a male human groundskeeper that morning.) Nothing untowardly inside the manor. No hint of spiritual corruption (despite what the Catholic churches might say otherwise). But there is a... something... in the umbra. Like a warding? But not. I can't see into it. Not from the realm, at least. That might be the Den Realm Val spoke about. Sounded a bit like a Horizon Realm that some powerful spirit mages create. Eavesdropping, there was generic talk about the city and the wolves. Snippets of out-of-context conversations that would have made sense if I'd been in the know. All in all? It does not appear as if there are dangerous/nefarious things going on at Copper Sands. Supernatural and possibly illegal, sure. But who am I to throw stones?
