(no subject)

[nick_garou]

I got back to Saint Clair about a week and change ago. Dropped in at the farmhouse before going anywhere, and I ran into Mouse and Slug engaged in a discussion about the forces aligning against the sept. Slug was going on a lot about mages. Nephandi (although he was pronouncing in Nephrandi) in particular. And that the Techno-mages had holed up somewhere and were waiting for the shitstorm to blow over. Naturally I asked where he got his information from. Val. So Val seems to be giving him an education. He also claimed the Tradition mages were too factitious to gather together and be of much use to the sept. I'm not so sure about that, but I can't imagine--from the garous' perspective--that it'd be considered a good idea to get a bunch of mages together and ask them to defend a caern. Because that rather involves telling them where said caern is at and trusting them to not take it over afterwards. And for the mages, it takes trusting the garou to not try and kill them afterwards so as to keep the caern's location secret.

After Slug left, Mouse apologized (a lot) for using me to help save her ass. Normally something like that would have pissed me off. Hell. 5-10 years ago I'd have been livid. But it's Mouse. And the tribe and sept desperately needs her right now. Probably Salem most of all, as I don't think he likes being tribal elder. But you know that saying about how the person who least wants the job is often the best for it? That.

I tended to a lot of things, harvested tass from all the nodes in the city and the woods (the Red Talons would probably shit themselves if they knew I was doing this from afar), drove to the Corax glade Val shared with me earlier and harvested tass from there, too. And holy crap! 13 units of tass. That's a massive increase up from the 5 I'd been used to before when I only had access to the two city nodes. I think I'm going to trade all this and the stuff from the DNA haul for information, trinkets, books, and/or favors. We'll see what Pavel is in the mood. I should get there tonight.


I did some thinking on the drive down. I remember long ago when Doug was in the Jedi Knights cabal, we drove in his car out to Merriweather, WA. He used some kind of Time/Correspondence effect to get us there much quicker. It was /way/ beyond what I was capable of back then, but I wonder if I might be able to manage a similar effect now? That's what I thought about on the drive down to Colorado to meet with Pavel. Well, that and having gotten to spend a couple days with Emma. Damn, I wish I could be with her more.

Prior to departing Saint Clair, I payed a couple visits to the caern, overnighting each time. (I do like the firepit area. I can't explain why. I guess it just feels more dynamic and energetic.) I believe I have a good feel for the place now, which should make Correspondence-based magics to and from that location easier.

One night at the caern, I talked with Slug. More yammering on his part about mages. (He seems to think magic is the solution to everything. And technically it can be, but the level of skill and power he's talking about is pretty damn rare.) He thinks there's an evil one (or more than one) in Hanford having theoretically let something loose accidentally or having summoned it. Of course, I'd bumped into Val earlier and she'd told me that Ila had revealed herself as a mage to Slug. So I intentionally poked to see if he'd yield that information or hint that he knew of a local mage. He didn't budge at all. His stock just went up again. Mouse turned up. Slug and she got into an argument. Slug was advocating bombing GENOM tower to kill the BSDs and minions within. Mouse said that was out of the question because of the collateral damage and the attention that'd draw. Slug seemed to think it was worth it, and he was willing to make the sacrifice (or, rather, sacrifice innocent bystanders) to do it. (And Slug's stock just went down.) Unfortunately, looking at this from the garous' perspective, bombing GENOM tower makes a lot of good sense. Unless that's what they want them to do. For reasons I don't understand but haven't really explored.

After Slug left, Mouse apologized again for her actions. I told her she was forgiven, I was glad to have her back, and as the Spirals had been killed there was no remaining threat to me from her actions. I asked how she'd pulled it off: appearing as if she were a Spiral in order to escape from NYC. She and some other garou had captured a spiral, killed him, harvested and bound his soul, and used it to power an illusion against his soul's will. (That is some Dark Side shit right there.) I made the observation that what she did didn't sound like something the rest of the garou would look upon favorably and I suspected I needed to never mention it. She concurred. Mouth zipped; brain contemplative.

Right. Just finished stocking up on provisions and gift offerings for Pavel. Let's drive the last 30 miles offroad and hope that he's in. Otherwise, I'll be camping in the Suburban again.