Season Six
Summary of Events. Also Todo List
2022-01-17
Things opened with Ariane climbing to the roof of the pack house to deliver a howl about our Umbral trip, disovering new realms and places, rescuing the Stargazers and an ally of the garou (Liz), it is, a mediocre howl and maybe she should have slept first.
Holly preps for an interview at The Guild that night. they tell her its house/barstaff, she meets Mr. Benson (Maître d'/manager), a tall lady smoking a cigarette (probably The Lady of Kowloon), also 3 gym bros, a librarian lady (big jumper, glasses, books), and a raven haired lady working the bar. Told the place has duelling room (for swords, and mages, and judo mats and its strong enough for garou) and is taken into Benson's Office (a huge desk, with knick-knacks, pictures, kid's drawings. It's a basic interview until she's asked how she feels about mages, gives a broad answer being as she's worked with Liz, but also aprehended David Vasiry and helped kill Ben Valis) then goes for an interview with Sir Robert Laffrey who's desk is even bigger and office even swankier, the lady with the cigarete is there too. Laffrey tries to claim the Belles jumped to the rescue of Liz and if he'd know he'd have cared and gives "personal thanks to your pack leader" which Holly will pass on. He says the cost of rescuing her shows that we have dedication to garou/mythic relations and peace and order in London. The job is mostly bar work with occasional "other" work (i.e. contracts for the guild) and is "tier 1" with opportunity for advancement, also 36hrs/week, £25k/pa. They return to Benson's office, do the paperwork, and Holly asks how they timed everything so well, Benson says they realised the Belles may not anticipate the time dilation so lent on a Tescos manager known to a Guild mythic to get the amicable firing. He also says not to worry, Lydia's attack was unusual and they normally do potentially violent meets offsite.
Back at the Pack House: Holly is happy with the cash but openly nervy about The Guild and trusting them, there is then a long argument about puns on geas, geece, doom, and if Lord of the Rings is satanic or not.
Jules gets on with her paintings, which start badly but then she gets into the swing of it, gets an email from Dr. Becky Clout her fine art lecturer who wants some pics for a show. Carlie reads The Werewolf Bible until she works out its a regular bible with a few tweaks, also swaps romance/werewolf books with Ariane, Sunny checks in with Lottie who deflects a lot before arranging a visit, Lydia is a bit miserable and spends time visiting churches but can't find one she likes, tries to visit the Barrel Vaulted Rave Church and The Angel Islington but the doors are always locked, eventually puts a note under and gets an address and time for a werehouse party in the East End docks tomorrow night sent to her, arranges to take Sunny and Ariane.
Lydia and Sunny have a whole discussion about how Sunny feels Lydia doesn't listen to her and wants to know if its because shes a dog, but Lydia says its because she doesn't listen to anyone, except god, part of something bigger, Sunny attempts to suggests the TV says god helps those who help themselves but Lydia deflects that not in her faith. Lydia again quotes her higher duty of care than everyone else and how she has to look after everyone, Sunny recommends podcasts about selfcare, they talk about afterlifes (Sunny's visited hers) and the conversation turns in the pack to discussions of what everyone's wishes are after they die, eventually people post contact details for next of kin in the kitchen along with funeral wishes. The party then bickers about Saints.
- Ariane says get the family sword, then her head, and any other relics a bonus
- Carlie tells everyone to never ever talk to her family even if she dies, also says no to prayer or therapy with regards this
- Jules is unsure
So at the Warehouse for the rave: There's a bunch of 40 year old ladies in a corner, Lydia chats to them and they say they're here because the D.J. cures covid/protects from covid (Lydia produces her nursing times article about Islington rates), they say its the power of Jesus being funnelled by an Angel and a nearby church is funding the raves, and they're being subtly advertised via facebook, so they're here for godly care. Meanwhile Ariane wraps Sunny in glowsticks (collar and paws), gives some to Lydia, warns everyone to be careful of the fairies and wishes she had some ecstasy.
2022-01-24
Continuing the warehouse rave: there are drugs, booze, and a bar running out the back of a van. The earlier DJ is DJ Eastboy. Ariane buys (hopefully) ecstasy from outside, and has her own water, to get into the vibe of dancing, and also accidentally gets the crowd chanting for music changes at one point. Sunny has fun dancing even when people try and grab her paws to dance like a biped, her licking of their faces doesn't stop them. Lydia is hanging with the church ladies who are breaking into two groups (A) is drinking and thinking about dancing and (B) is tutting, thinking about praying, and being judgy. Lydia is with group B, and manages to get a lemonade that probably doesn't have vodka in it, before being bothered by Ariane who she clocks is high. DJ Eastboy swaps out for The Angel Islington who of course opens with God is a DJ, Lydia checks Ariane's eyes before she goes off to dance with the church ladies of Group A.
Lydia goes to poke around the temporarily bordered off "backstage area" in one corner of the warehouse, sneaks around to use the back door and meets Eddie a scruffy, slightly pudgy programmer type who is being audio engineer and smells heavily of weed/tobacco. She introduces herself with a jammi dodger and they chat about the Angel, he claims not to know much about her, claims her angelic presentation is part of an image she sells, then tries to claim that covid is a ruse, talks of the weird church people who keep showing up, for another jammi dodger she gets let in "because it may rain" and notices his hand is very cold when she touches him, he tries to brush it off but when she checks his pulse/circulation she finds he has none. When she queries this he essentially teleports to the door to shut it then asks her why a werewolf is sniffing around because "they have a problem with him", and "something about the wyrm", he asks her a few times how many werewolves there are but she dodges it by saying her pack are on the dance floor. He explains he's working with The Angel to keep the herd clean, when Vampires feed on sick people they can feed sick, so they want to keep their feeding population safer. He also clarifies he does actually think she's an Angel. They talk about if the effect could be made more useful and used on others, he says it depends on the essence as its a rite/ritual where someone needs belief and reverence and a connection to her for it to work, needs energy for cleansing, Lydia curses about how this probably won't work in an ICU. He tells us he needs a pint of blood every few weeks (more if active) and Lydia starts talking about arranging raves near hospitals. She asks him if he attends church (which could tell us about the cross thing) and he says "only this one", she talks a little about how she's searching for an accepting church.
Meanwhile the Angel grows literal wings on the dancefloor, the music is mana from heaven, Ariane at least experiences her as light, glory, and music of the gods and a being who should be worshipped. Lydia notices the glow and Eddie asks her if she wants to meet the Angel, which just makes Lydia deny her angelicness, she can feel the divine/perfectness and music/dance energy radiating off her but keeps her resolve, telling Eddie to beware the wide and easy path, he disputes this and she says he needs sound biblical teaching, but he just tells her as a Vampire his soul won't go to heaven, although Lydia assures him he can repent like all the others.
The set winds up with the crowd picking up a chant of "God is love, love for all. God is music, and music is the Lord" and then there's a blinding white light from the stage with a last wage of love and adoration, Lydia feels this in the backstage area and writes "this is a trap" on her hand to remind herself. There's an end of "Praise Jesus, let the Lord into your soul" and The Angel vanishes off stage into the backstage area. Eddie gets her coat and stuff, Lydia and her chat and she introduces herself as "Sera". Lydia asks her what shes doing and when she says she's spreading gods love she tells her she needs to be giving proper teaching. Sara says they'll remember the feeling of god and the music, maybe go to church, maybe pick up bibles, or just pass on a smile or a handshake and be kind to others and spread gods love and joy, she balances up the alcohol/coffee/drugs as not a huge detriment to people and judges by the end result. Confirms she can cure covid, tried to get into hospitals to try it out but was thrown out and kept away, says her powers need a connection to people who hear her song, shes not tried zoom but is happy to. Lydia is told to use the Islington Tube station as a contact point for her. When asked if she's an angel she unfurls her light wings and confirms, says she's doing missionary work with Vampires and that Eddie will come around in time. Tells Lydia that God gave everyone free will, loves you, and is sorry for the things you've been through and the hard disappointments yet to come. Says she can sort of talk directly as she's a member of the Seraphim, but is stuck on earth because she failed a divine mission by falling in love with someone and being stuck in the material is her penance, hopes to return by doing good works like this. Lydia says she just needs salvation and acceptance but Sara says that's for humans and Angels have to work and agrees that Lydia's zoom call may help.
Eddie returns with her coat and they leave to drink her favourite wine because she's exhausted from doing the angelic-magic. Lydia asks what she's taking from people, Sara says its like Lydia's "godly works" (although Lydia disputes this) that people have a divine spark or gift and can temporarily gift parts of it to people, she takes a small fragment from everyone, pools the power, then adds her "knowledge and love of god" and sends it back through the love of god to cleanse them, the energy she says is freely given painlessly on the dance floor, says this isn't vampiric but just what a priest does on a Sunday. They part on good terms with Lydia going to look for her friends as she's worried about them.
Meanwhile Ariane gets Sunny to look for Lydia, and she follows her outside, they chat in first tongue (which Sara can apparently speak), she smells on sunlight, honey, etc, everything good. Ariane catches up and asks if she can stroke the Angels wings (throwing a point of gnosis to her to make it work) and Sara actually feels them which makes her shudder a little. Ariane goes to tell Lydia all about touching an Angels wings and Sunny watches her and Eddie walk away with Sara literally vanishing.
Back at the Pack House: Everyone fills in Carlie, the raves definitely help, its some kind of magic, there's a vampire doing sound tech, there's a plan to do zoom raves via headphones to see if that helps the ICU. Carlie asks the obvious question of: How much can we trust Sara? Lydia suggests even if shes not an angel if it helps a patient live longer they'll have longer to accept Jesus - a general debate about the point and length of life ensues, Holly arrives to hear about the unsound theology! Also we hear the vampire smelt of weed and Carlie wonders if this helps mask wyrm scent. There's talk of afterlives, vampires (do crosses and garlic work?), wyrm. Carlie wonders if involving Sara will summon Eddie. Ariane suggests Lydia may need to dance in the ICU to power things and she wants to test with just headphones first before that happens.
2022-01-31
Jules art show is coming up in 2 days (on Friday), meanwhile... Lydia sends a sorry note and flowers to Derek Watford, Lottie texts Sunny that she wants to hang out on Saturday and Sunny arranges for her to come over for dinner with the pack. The Stargazsers send Sunny a long at the back baggy black hoodie, it swamps her dog form but is considered an almost uniform to spending long nights outside watching the stars, they also send a thank you note apologising for vanishing but they checked on us and needed to get home to their Bell (???) and rest, and they invite Sunny to meet them at Greenwich Observatory to talk about joining their tribe in a weeks time (next Wednesday).
So at the Fine Art Building - The Art Show. The deadline is noon, andd Jules like others is there ready and early looking smart with the other 8 students. Present is the Man Cursed By God A Little who Dr. Becky Clout says is "A Patreon", there is also the building sparky arguing with Sally an artist/engineer almost (overalls, oiled fingers, etc) who is trying to hook up a metallic moving face made of weird plates to the power, eventually its hooked to a UPS, smells a little of burning electronics but also works. Another student has a film on a projector of a creepy doll staring at the camera backed by screams (the external face we must present to the world and the screams to let our primal essence out that we must keep within!), they eventually move up to dissecting dolls on camera.
Jules has 5 paintings but notable are:
- London Through The Shadow (emotional reflection of history/shade/darkness of the London skyline). Dr. Becky Clout queries about hope in the image, Jules says its lit at the front, we bring hope, Clout wants more abstract sculpture/line work version. The Man Cursed By God A Little likes it and asks if its taken from Southwark because he recognises landmarks, wants the piece in some sort of show and Jules invited.
- The Web (connection in strange ways, interactions of people link things)
- A portrait (liked by Dr. Clout) and 2 others.
After Jules does a little happy dance Sally gets her to ask the face a question, she asks if it'll rain on the way back and it tells her "I only speaks the truth, the answer is yes". Sally asserts its never wrong. On the way home Jules gets hit with a bucket of water from a 3rd floor window (your humble scribe missed the deets, please fill me in).
Back at the Pack House, there is talk of sandwiches and wine, others tell Jules about the Angel rave in the warehouse, get her to sit down, she mentions she had Liz visit during her working on her art and makes reference to "The Good Nose" (i.e. Lupus form). After all this Carlie ges out to punch punching bags in the training warehouse, Ariane meanwhile bores Jules into a nap with contract law and Sunny naps on her.
At the werehouse Diamond Annie appears looking happy, asks for a favour "from an old friend" and points out Carlie is so bad at keeping friends that 6 months makes her an old friend. She hires her to rob the back of an Ethiopian Church that is functioning as a refugee centre because she'll blend in better, was stashed by someone pre-covid, is a 6x6x4 inch box and she'll owe a favour to the Belles for it. Carlie agrees but is pissed off. She heads back to the Pack House, tells people she's stealing something to help us out and needs disguise clothes, Lydia threatens to call the cops, Jules gets woken up by all this and takes stew up to Carlie. Upstairs Carlie complains that no one else stops Lydia constantly working against them, Jules tells her shes tried but spends time trying to herd the pack, Carlie is super pissed off about the racist shit in the job description and Jules is pissed off once she's heard, Carlie is also pissed off that Jules is doing okay with her degree whereas she flamed hers and decides to call Ariane for a lawyer if things go wrong.
At the Ethiopian Catholic Church, Carlie heads in, keeps her head dwon, passes staff and the brew station and slips into the back storage room, 2 boxes are there (one with the scroll work, one plain) so she bags both. Back in the van Annie takes both boxes, fishes out "goods for the cause", 2 carved wooden fetish sticks from Ethiopia with spider spirits in, imported for someone else and diverted to her, the second box has another one in that she gives Carlie in part payment. She then takes her to the Dog and Duck to drink (she sends Jules an OK text on way). She catches Annie up with gossip: TL;DR she had to hang out with rich people all summer, and the deep umbra sucks, shes still learning the ropes she feels. Annie asserts she's a woman first, garou second because misogyny is a big problem, Carlie wonders if society is fucked. Annie reveals this was a test job and she had Brianna watching her and Carlie assumes this is blackmail and Annie assures her not because she is now an inside agent. She gets in at 4am and naps on the sofa.
Meanwhile Holly is working at The Guild, everyone is friendly except the core members (Sir Robert Laffrey, The Lady of Kowloon, etc) who get exclusively served by Mr. Benson and a few others. There seems blurred lines between staff and member, (possibly because its really a mercenary outfit?). She meets James and Stewart who are the Mythics with muscle, and also practical jokers. She notes the Librarian Lady wears a necklace like Ben Valis did. Also apparently a rogue mythic (a Geomancer who can throw rocks) is coming into Heathrow tomorrow and they'er going to arrest them and drag them straight to the US embassy for $150k in bounty (for stolen artifacts). They start to speculate what kind of mythic Holly is and with a smile Mr. Benson sets up a betting pot, if no one guesses it she gets the pot and its £100 a bet...
After her shift she comes back giggling, tells Carlie about this, gets a high 5, and worries it'll piss people off. She gets to touch the stick and can feel the spirit shifting about inside, Carlie asks her what it is? (cliffhanger!)
2022-05-07
(Holly pokes magical sticks and swords, Carlie makes a deal with a snake-spirit, Lottie comes to visit and is angry/sad, people try and talk her around, eventually Maneki-neko taunts her from the microwave until she shifts and is chased by Holly and Ariane to Southwark Cathedral, and Carlie also runs there, then diffuses her rage with laughter. She is being stalked by the Unknown Ahroun which mentions a deal with Sunny. Everyone heads back for dinner, more bible talk, and discussions of ancestor worship. Meanwhile: Jules, a chicken, Liz, and a dryad)
Holly identifies the stick as holding a snake spirit, one that will offer a gift to those who befriend it, she and Carlie talk about how this is basically how a lot of garou magic works (bribe, befriend, force spirits to do things for you)
Carlie sleeps, and as she does so has a dream of a grey-brown dusty realm with a dusty red its a little like purgatory but different and she can tell she's dreaming a feeling of here-not-here. There is however a large humanish size snake, with a red diamond and 2 horns on its head. It asks her if she is its new possessor and says its name is something like "Gog-var-oh-cogh the serpent" (???), and it will willingly bond to garou to aid the tribes and has for many years, been held by many tribes such as the Hei--- (???) hero of the Coliquai (???), and Ts--- (???) the Coliquai (???) god. It asks for a bite of blood to seal the deal and explains its not a geas its a spot of spirit to seal a pact (pact not geas so... deal not compulsion?)
Carlie agrees and is bitten, she wakes in a cold sweat feeling the bite on her shoulder and gains a gift (ooc: spend 1 gnosis, roll int + occult and get invisibility while moving from people, animals, devices, spirits. Difficulty 4 if unobserved, 6 if not deliberately observed, and 8 if directly watched), also has a small mark on her shoulder, its hard to spot but she can see its changed.
On Saturday: Lydia and Sunny are up early, Ariane asks Sunny if she needs help and then when the answer is no she curls up on the sofa with a book, Jules makes plans to dodge Lottie and go hang with Liz, Holly tries to ID some magic swords, but can't get to grips with them today, maybe later.
Around 16:00 Lottie arrives in a screech of tyres, Carlie gets the door and she is not looking instaready, instead she's in a hoodie, tatty jeans, trainers, and slouching, looking kinda depressed. She says she not doing okay and heads to the kitchen to see Sunny, who is making delicious chicken, she brought wine. She tells Lydia she's not feeling herself had a shouting mach with The Major, then her dad, then her aunt, then her dad again. She's angry, and arguing with people. The Pack in general suggest this could be a result of her (noble) werewolf heritage. Lydia tries to nudge the bible on her and gets told she thinks its crap, Ariane finally comes in to say hi, Sunny offers to teach people how to cooking things. Lottie then complains she wants news from people because she wants the vicarious werewolf life (full of meaning! And adventure! And destiny!) and Ariane tries to reassure her that her life is exciting and can be full of meaning and suggests she join XR (she was thrown out of a meeting for arguing with the anarcho-primitives). She continues to bemoan the emptiness of her life and people keep trying to reassure her.
Then she spots Maneki-neko in the microwave door waving to her and taunting her, we indicate this is a spirit cat not really there, it keeps on taunting her, there is a discussion of how long until dinner just in case and then Lottie flips into wolf form (she's very Alsatian like), struggles out of her clothing and races out of the door, Carlie feels a strong compulsion to chase the cat but fails to shift so does in human, and uses her city running gift and knowledge of the layout to take a shortcut to the cathedral, Ariane and Holly get in pursuit. Once we arrive Carlie deflects her anger with the infectious laughter gift, then goes to fetch the car. Holly and Ariane watch a big wolf stalking through the grounds towards us (the Unknown Ahroun probably) and Lottie says it's been stalking her since midsummer. It tells Holly "Tell Sunny our deal is done" and then dissipates.
Everyone gets back, Lottie tries to borrow clothes from Lydia and gets talked to about the bible again, Lottie leans into "but the gays" and Lydia talks about those "struggling with same sex attraction" who need to realise that sex is a gift from God for those in a het marriage. They talk about words vs. belief (salvation is by belief and words of acceptance, not random deeds), and Lottie says the words are easy the doing is hard, Lydia suggests accepting Jesus will make you want to transform your life to perform acts of gods love, Lottie suggests theres a lot of christian bankrobbers and drug dealers, and Lydia says they're doing it wrong by not transforming their lives. After this she gets Ariane talking about ancestor connections (relics are good, but stories, pictures, memories, and names are helpful) and also romance novels.
Eventually! The pack gets to the meal, and its pretty excellent actually, however the chocolate dessert is absolutely heavenly [P:5]. Holly spots that Lottie accidentally drops in a word in spirit speech she'd heard from Maneki-neko ("flea-bitten") and checks and finds she can talk in the language of spirits. Before she goes she makes Ariane promise not to tell anyone until she's ready.
After the meal Lydia then talks about if she should do ancestor work to connect to her birth parents since she knows so little about them and Ariane tries to suggest its a good idea to at least set up a focus around the picture of them and remind herself of the story she knows of them and pray there. She voices the idea she'd just get spirits and she and Carlie talk about how scatty spirits are (Carlie reminds her the deep-umbra ones are very present but she asserts they're also VERY catholic).
Meanwhile... at Liz's place: Jules is holding a chicken by one lg, and Liz is threatening twiggy with a spatula that she will fireball her roots... tune in next week for more Garou Misadventuuuuuureeeess
2022-02-14
(We watch Alien, Sunny has a dream meeting with The Wolf of the Hunting Grounds in a liminal space between the Summerlands and Earth, everyone else apart from Jules (who's a bit far away) get pulled in. Wolf asks us to hunt a sick/corrupted deer from a herd, its a bit of chaos but we manage it, essentially running it into/over Lydia. Holly and Ariane get a vision of tractors at the docks. The pack start to eat, she tells us its Wyrm tainted, we take it back to Wolf who says its fine apart from that bit and that it represents a problem that needs solving back on Earth, some of us have more. In the morning we get a lot of meat, bicker about pack rules again, suggests involving the police and prisons is bad, and Derek Watford texts Lydia to arrange a meeting)
Lottie's gone, everyone chills out, Ariane and a few of the others finish watching the interrupted version of Alien, but its just not the same without the build up. Sunny falls asleep and dreams of a green place, a brook, some trees and woods, she explores with her nose! Trailing the scent of wolves into a clearing in the woods, there she meets Wolf, its bigger than it should be, has one eye open and is very relaxed, it smells a little bit like Ariane.
They chat, Sunny is interested by his smell, (he smells "like the one who cares about lineage and status"), it replies that it is a wolf and Sunny sighs and assumes this is a dig that she is "just a dog". It tell's her she's welcome to stay but she says she can't she's asleep and dreaming so can't stay forever, it tells her if she believes then dreams connect to liminal spaces - this is between the Summerlands and Earth and it is dreaming as well, it introduces itself just as "Wolf" and Sunny asks if why its not female since Mother Luna is the canonical wolf, it just assures "I am Wolf that's male".
Meanwhile: Ariane and Holly head to bed, Ariane giving a nod to her bedroom ancestor altar, Carlie sits up for a little bit, then heads to bed, peering at whatever weird Ancestor altar Ariane has left in the main room. Lydia meanwhile is up writing letters to Derek Watford and her family, and various people she is praying for. Ariane falls asleep.
Ariane then wakes up in the dream as a wolf, hears sounds from the woods and can smell Sunny so follow's her nose, Sunny howls to attract her attention, she is then told that this is Sunny's dream. She smells the Wolf, it smells very wolfy, kind of musky and doglike, feels like some kind of ancestor scented wolf, old family memories. She politely sniffs it and does the doggy dance of etiquette [P] to say hello. At this point Carlie falls asleep and dreams into the shared dream watching Ariane engage in the butt-sniff-dance and mutters "Please let me be in someone elses dream or I came up with that."
Sunny asks Ariane about ideas of big male wolf spirits, she suggests there could well be Mother Luna and she guesses some sort of "Father Wolf" spirit, he snarks that she's theorising about someone in front of her, Sunny snarks about that she shouldn't have missed his balls when doing the sniffing. Ariane asks what's up and he just says he wanted to chat to Sunny and as others were thought of or mentioned they were pulled in and asks if it should "make it a whole family meeting?" - at which point Holly and Lydia pass out and wake up in the dream.
Once most of the pack is gathered (it tells us it knows Sunny, and Holly clocks that this is the thing she saw in the Cathedral grounds, she passes on the message to Holly) he tells us there's a deer limping in the herd of the forest, something is weird with it and he asks us to cull it, there's a quick plan formed: Holly and Sunny to chase it, Ariane to distract it right into Carlie's teeth. It tells Lydia when she questions that this is our wolfly duty, she says she's going to do her duty to heal the others if they get hurt, the Wolf suggests that part of our job as garou is to hunt the corrupt and evil, cull off the sick, and protect the herd.
The pack tracks it, Carlie hiding upwind, Ariane off to one side. Sunny and Holly stalk through the forest tailed by Lydia who starts to pick up some kind of faint Wyrm scent from the herd of deer. Sunny gets the sense one isn't healthy, she starts to get wound up and keen for the hunt. Sunny, Ariane, and Lydia sense the tension in the herd and also in the chasers (Sunny and Holly) - who then sprint! Splitting the herd, Lydia sees one limping towards the river, goes to chase it but slams into a rock, Ariane watches the herd evade people and starts to flank to push them back towards Holly and Sunny who both miss it, it dodges by and Carlie comes out hiding to chase it back into the others, the whole thing turns into it being run straight into/over Lydia and everyone else dog piles it bashing Lydia into the floor.
During this Holly and Ariane get a weird vision of being stood atop an illuminated maze of containers, somewhere they can smell salt water on the air, there are lights along a badly made road below and 5 tractors marked "John Deere" being unloaded.
While people are chowing down on the deer Lydia recovers enough to yell "Wyrm! Stop!" and that gets people's attentions enough to smell there is some kind of strange infection, possibly an infected (demon!) insect bite, Sunny sniffs and thinks the rest is okay, Lydia is adamant its a bad idea, Ariane is squeemish, and Holly says the last time she bit a wyrm creature it tasted of burning. We take it back to Wolf who says its all good except the leg which can be eating around then buried and its not "bloomed" yet so the ground can reabsorb it, and it can be part of the proper Wyrm/Weaver/Wyld structure, he bends down and eats out the heart and kidneys and leaves the rest for us. Sunny eats, Holly is a little conflicted but eats, Lydia and Ariane do not. He also tells us this is a reflection of events on Earth, but that things will need solving from both ends, and Holly and Ariane talk about the tractors.
In the morning Holly and Sunny wake up feeling recharged (ooc: gnosis recharge from consuming deer meet from the hunt) and everyone has a craving for meat, there is bickering about nursing training vs. food safety training, Ariane goes out shopping while hungry and comes back with goat, bacon, beef, and venison. Carlie says she has a great recipie for goat curry and offers to it to Sunny, and a mighty breakfast feast is prepared. During this Carlie reads about an accident at South End container port, 5 tractors got crushed by falling containers and sends it around the rest of the pack. Sunny tells us she used her boon from Midsummer to help Lottie realise she is a werewolf, or become a werewolf (we wonder if there's a difference).
Things end with Lydia and Carlie debating what we do as a pack or not, what purpose we serve together, what requirements we can put on each others things, Lydia says if someone sets limits she won't cross them as long as everyone has agreed to them, Ariane and Holly suggest that not shopping people to the police is a good start, Lydia suggests not doing crimes, and Ariane suggests that we're essentially werewolf ecological terrorists and hence we do crimes, Holly speculates about links between the Government/Police and the Wyrm. We talk about demon slaying but seem to tentatively agree that we shouldn't send each other to prison.
Lydia gets a text from Derek Watford saying "We need to talk. Meet me at the docks at Midnight, come alone, we can have a good talk about it".
2022-02-21
It's around Sunday lunchtime, Liz has to go to work so politely kicks Jules out, Twiggy looks bashful, she comes home to the big fry up, where Lydia tells everyone about her meeting with Watford and that she has no secrets. We talk about the meeting and speculate on ambushes! Sword fights! Murder! Also talk about the Wolf shared dream, the Wolf in the Cathedral grounds, Lottie being a werewolf, a vague sidetrack into the difference between demons and spirits (which Holly shuts down rapidly) and catch Jules up.
There's a bit of an argument about law breaking (inc. Jesus breaking the law, but apparently that's a result of prophecy and there's no biblical prophecy about Lydia breaking the law), Lydia wants to apologise to Carlie who keeps leaving, talk of provision pack rule and we sort of agree that all crimes involving/effecting the pack should be brought up with the Pack. Lydia reminds Jules this includes drugs in the house may nuke her nursing license, which Jules didn't realise.
Watford sends a text to Lydia about the meeting at midnight being not movable, he's on a murder case, and its out of earshot of other supernaturals. We're again suss. Jules references "suck my dick", Sunny and Lydia are confused, Ariane offers in vague shy terms to lend people werewolf strap-on romance. Lydia tries to convince Watford to get breakfast, or come to the Umbral church, he sulks about how he doesn't want to go to the Umbra at all.
Meanwhile: Carlie is scrolling tiktok in her room and sees that Lottie has resumed the #LottieLife with a little dance/growl at the end, she sends support. The pack downstairs make a plan to eat goat curry, check the docks, then get Lydia to her meet and be at a safe distance, Jules tells Carlie and gets snark back about crime but she does come down to join us, gets an apology from Lydia and asks if this means she'll actually change now. There is talk of the evening trip to the docks, how this may involve trespassing, but we want to avoid violence, discussion of when Lydia told Watford where we were going and we had to abandon London (Lydia didn't realise it was secret) and how Lydia burnt a book they were reading once, Carlie reminds her that its different if she gets arrested, and Lydia says this is obvious to Carlie but not to her, brings up the Jules/Drugs situation as comparison.
Eventuallky the pack makes it out to Gravesend (?) docks, there's a bunch of hoists and containers, and a boat flying the Nigerian flag.
We check the spirit: its a Weaver nest, lines, webbing, and a giant web/line going out to sea, the modern containers and ships are mirrored in the Umbra. We sneak in a bit, lots of spiders inside, so we loop around to the front, Holly talks to the spider-guard, it tells her a Lightning Weaver did it, tore the web (they're weird, not here often, exist in the spirit, burn webs wherever they go, are disturbing and annoying to the spiders, they're like small balls of lightening, not sentient/aware of the Umbral damage they do) and destroyed goods so badly they can't be repaired, we assure it we're investigating and don't know anything useful about this lightning weaver.
Back in the physical we send Lydia and Sunny up front as health inspectors/distraction while Carlie uses the invisibility stick to sneak in th side. Lydia gets some PPE from Ben at the gates and waits until Phil comes to take her inside with Sunny as sniffer-dog, they hear the boat is the Shepard of the Ocean or possibly the Maersk Silverrunner. Sunny then catches some Wyrm-scent heads over to look seeing Watford and 3 cops and more wyrm scent, Phil says they can't go that way due to cops, its tape off for an accident involving a vagrant and falling containers which crushed the tractors and someone who died. Lydia suggests prayer, Phil suggests beer. She does get to look in a container to keep her cover, its full of tank tracks and BV (Boiling Vessel i.e. tank kettles) made in 61 and being shipped.
Carlie meanwhile sniffs for the Wyrm follows the trail a little, stops and accidentally becomes visible, and then spots 3 bored cops and Derek Watford near 5 smashed up tractors, she keeps moving and films some stuff of the actual crime scene on shakey phone camera (which comes out grainy due to magic) then bails outside.
2022-02-28
(Ariane, Sunny, and Holly meet Grandmother and Dimitri and are escorted out of the docks. Lydia meets Derek Watford who takes her to a Rusting Ship Hulk, talks of families and how knowing him puts her at risk, tries to get her to fight him, and eventually she talks him down to coming to chat over tea and bringing her some of her parents possessions as Carlie and Jules show up after the sound of her screaming. Everyone goes back to the Pack House to talk about the events of the evening)
The Pack spots a 1960s era mini (which is odd because not many personal vehicles around the docks this time of night especially a classic), inside is a 90 year old lady knitting. Sunny goes to look, gets a wave, the car smells wyrmy, we debate what to do, it starts up, and Sunny, Holly, and Ariane end up chasing it, with Ariane [F] stuck in human, it heads north and stops up near a night club, Sunny and Holly hang back and watch and eventually Ariane catches up., a large guy with a suitcase (later revealed to be Dimitri, a vampire) appears, respectfully taps on the window, then has a chat with the driver, then looks over and tells us "Grandmother" would like to talk to us, the old lady refuses to give another name except this one, tells us the dockland isn't save at night its her and her children's home and they don't approve of "late night shenanigans", introduces us to Dimitri and says he'll look after us and walk us safely out and recommends we drink bovril. So all three garou are escorted to Tower Bridge.
Meanwhile: Lydia is talking to Uncle Derek, he wants more privacy than the pack lurking nearby so takes her for a walk, Jules and Carlie stay put listening. He tells her he'll have a scar from the attack, asks why she lost her temper, and she says its because he endangered her parents by not warning anyone she could be a garou, he tries to claim she's not the only one who cares about family, she says she was the danger and he should have thought of it, he responds that he didn't want to take her away from an idyllic country family life and involve her in his dangerous life (late nights and danger), she suggests garou inheritance could be 1:10 and he says he thought it was lower, she tells him she'd rather be dead than endanger her family, he tries to claim that in a weird situation they'd remember the letter and call the lawyers which would have sorted everything out and that she saw them as kinfolk so wouldn't be dangerous, Lydia says that her pack were worried they'd get hurt in the change, and he makes her admit none of their families were hurt during their time.
During all this he's walking her towards a Rusting Ship Hulk floating in the Themes. Tells her it was once a home, but also a place of horror and darkness that he was connected to and had to deal with it, says it would maybe have been better for the world if she hadn't survived the plane crash, accuses her of cowardice because if she wants her family safe she needs to fight for it, she reminds him that her family includes him and he darts forward to grab her, which makes her scream (getting Jules and Carlie moving). He keeps trying to convince her to fight him but she tells him he's her Uncle now and she won't attack him.
He tells her the ship hulk was a home to Mother, something evil melded with a Vampire that ate people and he had to deal with it (covering it up?) to keep the peace in London. Blames the pack for telling people that she's his niece and hence putting a target on her. She reminds him she deals with unpleasant death every day and isn't scared of it, but starts to smell the Wyrm scent coming out of the dark hold and shuffles away. She asks him what he wants her to do and he claims he brought her her to "buck up her ideas" (threaten her into more violence?) he says that dying is fine to him but the idea of people he loves being held hostage by "creatures like this" and worries about threats of torture to Lydia as leverage against him. He asserts god won't save her and she reminds him only god will save her.
She tries to make a lunge for the river to escape him, he blocks her, they both shift to crinos and wrestle more wit hher trying to escape. He argues she should run before he "takes it out of her hide" to teach her a lesson and she just tells him he needs help and she can help him, which isn't what a coward would do. At this point Jules arrives, Watford flips to lupus and runs, Lydia shouts after him that she won't give him and he howls back that he doesn't care, she reminds him she does, he talks about not wanting to attend her funeral, and she is happy to die with a martyrs crown, which enrages him about her doing it in her parents name (they were apparently good people). He howls that families and packs are the most important thing and her parents would have taught her this and she keeps trying to sell out her pack (especially Jules) to him, should have more loyalty to them and beware of people taking advantage of her connection to him, tells her she needs to keep her name away from "the masters of this place" and not to trust the cops as he can barely keep the dirty ones in check.
Carlie suggests that Lydia come home for tea, and in a final exchange with Watford she invites him for tea, he says he'll send some momentos and possessions of her parents and some news when he's less jumpy and angry, finishes by telling her shes too nice and will get people killed. Jules tells everyone they've all said enough and Watford warns people about Grandmother's goons.
They hustle back to Carlie's car with her asserting to Lydia she didn't have to let him lecture her and she just says she was lecturing him but he didn't notice.
With everyone back at The Pack House: we share out Lydia's fancy M&S biscuits she'd brought to offer Watford, she tells us he took her to the boat to scare her - he was scared of something there and was trying to provoke her into a fight but he already knows she can. Jules is a bit iffy about Watford's threats that he could "get her". We talk about Grandmother as maybe a new version of "The Mother", or the sire of the mother or something else. Lydia wonders if the Vampires have (or had) someone he cared about as a hostage. We decide we should probably talk to The Guild about things, Holly will try to work out who's best to arrange a conversation with and where/when, we also talk about the idea of talking to Our Bell or Their Bell for information.
2022-03-21
(The Pack makes a plan for Jules to talk to Sir Robert Laffrey, Holly goes to work her shift at The Guild, arranges the Jules/Laffrey meeting, gets The Pack invited to some sort of meal tomorrow to "show their best sides", Jules finds out her picture The Web is being shown at the Tate Modern accredited to an "Unknown Artist", The Guild's hunt for the Rogue Geomancer goes wrong, Benjamin is hurt, Holly goes out hunting with Sam and Dan and the Pack joins in, downing the geomancer who had been stealing historical artifacts (Season_Six#2022-01-31), also there was a sniper watching over the fight)
The Pack is at the house, its around 3am and everyone decides that its just time for bed.
The next day Holly has a shift at The Guild, everyone has lunch first, talks about Watford arranging a meeting in known Vampire territory and if this was a good idea, we talk about talking to The Guild about Grandmother, Ariane suggests the Pack Alphas should have a newsletter of private stuff they don't want to howl, we agree that the whole situation is maybe above our station, and suggest that Jules get together with Sir Robert Laffrey for an Alpha-Internship, she is not impressed. We do at least make a plan to arrange a talk, and Jules writes a very <pass amount=5> diplomatic and artful letter.
At the Guild for Holly's shift the "What type of Mage is Holly?" pot is standing around £2k, she tries to ignore it, the Librarian Lady is reading an ancient tome she took out of an anime bag, chats to Holly and tries to fish for information by asking Holly to read the guesses board, she guesses a Demonica Contractor (like she maybe is). Mr. Benson tells Holly the gym will need cleaning because its going to have intense sparring practice, she gets that sorted before the people show up although sees one of the more practical fighting squad limbering up, also the The Lady of Kowloon. After that she catches Sir Robert Laffrey, has a private chat in his office about how the Grandese know a lot of things not in general circulation to keep things calm, accepts the letter is impressed, wants to arrange dinner and a meeting tomorrow as the Guild will be celebrating, suggests Jules, Lydia and whoever else wants to show up because the two packs had an "accidentally poor start" and he wants everyone to "show their best sides".
Meanwhile at the Pack House, one of Jules coursemates pings her and tells her that the Southbank Show is talking about a picture in the Tate Modern by an "Unknown Artist" and its The Web, she goes to talk to Ariane to check this isn't breaking The Veil and Ariane assures her its not unless she talks about being garou (also tells her a story of Ariane_Primrose-Morton#The_Tale_of_Duke_Williamson).
Back at The Guild, Benson arranges for Holly to come in for a shift tomorrow from 18:00, a meal and open bar where they'll lose cash. There's a bunch of healers in the corner talking about drink mixers and Robin (another member of bar staff) is rolling her eyes at it, they call her over to get drinks and try to fish for if she can mind read. Eventually the evening starts tp wrap up, but Holly then finds the healers gathered around someone bleeding on a guerney (possibly Benjamin), she finds out the attempt to grab the Rogue Geomancer has gone wrong, Benson is in the bar dispatching teams of mythics with a big map of London, people are getting weapons and body armour before they go out. Holly arranges to go out and help along with Sam (a pyromancer) and Dan (an aeromancer), they go to Fenchurch Street and she notifies the Pack who decide this is a good idea.
At Fenchurch Street they assume Holly is a witch and Sunny is her spirit familiar, meanwhile the Pack lurk unseen and Carlie literally is invisible. Eventually the rogue geomancer appears, Holly turns hispo to pounce him, but its like hitting rock, also he turns all the surrounding ground soft. Ariane crinoses to dump a bin on his head as a distraction, Carlie goes in with her magic knives, Sunny tries to trip, the most effective is Lydia who crinoses and picks him up by his feet to shake him shouting about repentance as everyone keeps sinking into the ground. Holly growls at him to submit very effectively and notices he's not breathing, like a suit of armour, Sam and Dan use magic to get off the ground, Jules stalks the parimeter looking for other people, witnesses, etc. Ariane gets a street sign and plans on pounding him with the concrete end, Carlie hops up onto a table and stabs him with the other knife which seems to work better, Lydia slams him into the table and he finally takes a deep breath - which stops all his magical effects (seems to only work while he holds his breath).
Once he's down the Guild healers arrive and triage him, apply some Instant Knit to him (a magical healing goo) once Carlie's knife is out. Jule's patrol notices that all the cameras in the area are dead (which turns out to the Derek Watford's doing), sees some movement on a building - a rifle barrel being lift, city runs up to investigate, gives chase but is evaded by the mystery sniper. Lydia gets Ariane to put the street sign back, and The Guild mages reveal that the rogue geomancer was out stealing historical artificts, hid them in some charity church, which he then blew up looking for the stolen goods (probably the Ethiopian Catholic Church that Carlie and the Forty Elephants robbed).