Nick "Nicodemus" Dalton (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
nick_garou) wrote2014-09-06 09:12 pm
nick_garou) wrote2014-09-06 09:12 pm
Entry tags:
Letting the cougar come out to play for half a week, and then dinner and discussions with Pavel
I took a leisurely two days--two 10 hours shifts on the highway and then 3 hours of offroading the high desert--to make it safe and sound to Pavel's remote cave that he calls home. It doesn't feel very homey to me. I like civilization, restaurants, and supermarkets. Pavel? I suppose he's had to adapt. It's probably not a good idea to frequent civilization when you're so adept at magic that you alter the fabric of reality, inadvertently, while simply existing. Paradox would probably eat him. It makes sense that he spends almost all of his time either holed up in his cave sanctum or in the spirit world. That's why I always take care to bring him a bunch of groceries and supplies. He says he doesn't need to eat anymore, but he still enjoys getting to do so.
He wasn't in or about when I arrived, and I know better than to enter his cave uninvited. So I camped in the back of the Suburban.
He wasn't there the next morning, either. I puttered around, listening to an audiobook of Abbott's "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" (interesting to think about geometric perceptions from a Correspondence-based viewpoint) while I did some fixer-upping on the Suburban's frame and engine. I could sense a breakdown was coming (Entropy), so I fixed what needed fixing before it went (Matter). The lazy morning bled into a lazy evening with no sign of Pavel.
Nights are cold in the high desert, and I was bored, so I stripped naked and used my cougar claw ring talisman to shapeshift. Spent part of the night prowling the desert. A cougar's night vision is so acute, especially with the growing moon, that I didn't even need to bother cheating with Forces or Correspondence like I do all the time when I'm human and out in the woods at night. I remember when I used to be petrified of the woods at night. I knew the dangerous things that were in it. I think I'm more comfortable now, out in the dark and remote places, because I've slowly become one of the dangerous things lurking out there in the night.
Okay. Maybe that's a bit of the cougar talking. But still. I could be dangerous. If I had to.
Rarr.
Nope. That was not very convincing. Whatever.
ANYWAY. I spent five days as a cougar, energetically exploring how the form moves and flows. Now that I've got a better feel for this body, I'm rather in awe of its power, fluidity, and grace. I've even been experimenting with cougar-parkour. Once you figure out how to use the damn thing, the tail is pretty amazing in aiding in balance and counter-balance.
And then Pavel turned up. I detected his presence within the cave when I woke up the next morning. Shifted back. Put clothes back on. (Note to self: get a set of clothes in one place, folded up tight, and stashed away so if I ever need them, I can teleport them to my location.) Yelled a greeting into the cave, and Pavel invited me in. Grouchily. Seemed he was tired from his umbral travels. He slept while I cleaned up his cave for him, brought in the groceries and supplies, and cooked him a decent meal. He awoke to eat. (I was starving as I hadn't brought along anything that was vegetarian that my cougar-sensibilities thought smelled edible.) We exchanged pleasantries over dinner, and I showed him all the tass and items I'd brought to trade. He seemed particularly interested in the stuff swiped from that DNA lab, and said he knew a few Sons of Ether who'd be thrilled to get their hands of them. (He promptly dispatched a few spirit messengers to arrange for a meeting/trade.)
I'd kept the black ooze--an aspect of The Nothing, I think--out in the car as I wasn't sure what Pavel'd think of something that strange and potentially dangerous being brought into his sanctum/home/cave. Good call on my part, as he was both repelled and intrigued by it. What is this black ooze? No easy answers. We're studying it together to try and better understand it. This might take some time.
Interesting. I feel less like one of Pavel's neophyte students and more like his valued research assistant. Maybe this is a turning point for both of us?
He wasn't in or about when I arrived, and I know better than to enter his cave uninvited. So I camped in the back of the Suburban.
He wasn't there the next morning, either. I puttered around, listening to an audiobook of Abbott's "Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions" (interesting to think about geometric perceptions from a Correspondence-based viewpoint) while I did some fixer-upping on the Suburban's frame and engine. I could sense a breakdown was coming (Entropy), so I fixed what needed fixing before it went (Matter). The lazy morning bled into a lazy evening with no sign of Pavel.
Nights are cold in the high desert, and I was bored, so I stripped naked and used my cougar claw ring talisman to shapeshift. Spent part of the night prowling the desert. A cougar's night vision is so acute, especially with the growing moon, that I didn't even need to bother cheating with Forces or Correspondence like I do all the time when I'm human and out in the woods at night. I remember when I used to be petrified of the woods at night. I knew the dangerous things that were in it. I think I'm more comfortable now, out in the dark and remote places, because I've slowly become one of the dangerous things lurking out there in the night.
Okay. Maybe that's a bit of the cougar talking. But still. I could be dangerous. If I had to.
Rarr.
Nope. That was not very convincing. Whatever.
ANYWAY. I spent five days as a cougar, energetically exploring how the form moves and flows. Now that I've got a better feel for this body, I'm rather in awe of its power, fluidity, and grace. I've even been experimenting with cougar-parkour. Once you figure out how to use the damn thing, the tail is pretty amazing in aiding in balance and counter-balance.
And then Pavel turned up. I detected his presence within the cave when I woke up the next morning. Shifted back. Put clothes back on. (Note to self: get a set of clothes in one place, folded up tight, and stashed away so if I ever need them, I can teleport them to my location.) Yelled a greeting into the cave, and Pavel invited me in. Grouchily. Seemed he was tired from his umbral travels. He slept while I cleaned up his cave for him, brought in the groceries and supplies, and cooked him a decent meal. He awoke to eat. (I was starving as I hadn't brought along anything that was vegetarian that my cougar-sensibilities thought smelled edible.) We exchanged pleasantries over dinner, and I showed him all the tass and items I'd brought to trade. He seemed particularly interested in the stuff swiped from that DNA lab, and said he knew a few Sons of Ether who'd be thrilled to get their hands of them. (He promptly dispatched a few spirit messengers to arrange for a meeting/trade.)
I'd kept the black ooze--an aspect of The Nothing, I think--out in the car as I wasn't sure what Pavel'd think of something that strange and potentially dangerous being brought into his sanctum/home/cave. Good call on my part, as he was both repelled and intrigued by it. What is this black ooze? No easy answers. We're studying it together to try and better understand it. This might take some time.
Interesting. I feel less like one of Pavel's neophyte students and more like his valued research assistant. Maybe this is a turning point for both of us?