Events of Oct. 25-28
Well, Mr. Diary,
I was at the mall, I think, when I left off. We were all out in the parking lot waiting for Nathaniel, who'd apparently gotten sidetracked somewhere. When he came out, he was with Ogre and Betsy, and their group. John took a good look at them and told me that one of the guys had no aura. We dithered around for a while trying to figure out just what we should say or ask about them and their plans, if any for the weather machine. the mall cops started looking at this big group standing in the parking lot rather suspiciously, so we agreed to adjourn and continue our conversation at Shelly Lake.
The conversation was rather odd, as we all tried to get information without giving much away. So I won't try to repeat it to you; I'll just summarize. They knew about the weather machine, but wouldn't admit that they had made any plans to appropriate it, but if we were going to, maybe we would be interested in letting them help. Betsy had an invitation to the Halloween party. She pretty much shared my opinion of STaN (that's short for Stephanie, Tiffany, and Nicole). If we want their help, we're to come find them at the mall on the day before Halloween to make plans. (Personally, I'm not sure I want them anywhere near the Weather Machine.)
After we separated from Ogre and his gang, we all agreed to meet Saturday at the Place for a planning session. (Some people are calling it the Chantry, but I like the Place better.) that planning session never took place, because we all came up with errands to run. John told me he needed to 'go West.' I swallowed curiosity and didn't ask why; I just agreed to give him a ride.
Even if I never had found out what he needed to do out there, the drive would have been worth it. I finally learned a little of John's personal history. He brought up the subject of debts, and what he owes me for my hospitality from the last month and a half. Of course, I had no idea, I haven't done that much, and it's been nice having some company. So he told me who he is, other than 'John,' and why he is considered an outcast among the Garou. I don't think that really had anything to do with paying a debt, just that with debts between us I had a right to know who he was. I just wish I could find a good way to get him to forget about the subject. I don't particularly want him to owe me anything. It's just not necessary.
I did find out what John needed to do four hours west of Raleigh, after all. He went to meet with someone in hopes of gaining some information. The person he met with was an Uktena. John explained to me that they are one of the clans of Garou, who are something equivalent to shamans. The Uktena knew something about the Weather Machine. He described it as a bid lodestone with symbols on it. He explained that the spirits of three Garou had been bound to the thing in it's creation, and that destroying it would have the effect of releasing them to create havoc in revenge for their imprisonment. (I can't help but notice that we've gotten several different stories now on how the machine was made and by who, but they all seem to agree that destroying it would be a bad thing, so I'll go along.) the Uktena a wanted to know what we were going to do with the Weather Machine, and I told him. He gave me this indescribable look and handed me a stone. Does everybody owe Mr. Forteau a favor. Somehow I doubt that Mr. Forteau is very pleased that I've been going around using up his favors for him.
While John and I were off on our little trip, KC and Daedalus went to KC's house to check on her Aunt's cats. They ended up bringing one of back with them to the Place. I examined it that night after I got back, and I figured out why the litterbox stayed clean. The cat's digestive process had been modified in some way to make it 100% efficient. There were no waste products to be excreted as liquid or solid; everything not used was broken down into carbon dioxide. John wanted to kill the cat and see if it turned into goo, but we wouldn't let him.
We finally got around to having our planning session on Sunday. We'd barely started when this white stag came walking out of Rueben's room across the room and out the front door. I'm not really clear on what was happening;even after everything else that's happened to us in the last few weeks, this was bizarre. John stepped into the spirit world to watch the stag. When he came back he told me it had collapsed and died, dissolving into nothing. the only one's in Ruebens's room when this happened were Crystal and that big dog of Rueben's who likes watching TV. Rueben thinks that Crystal brought the stag out of the spirit world. He also informed us that her name is really Mary. Don't ask me how he knows; as far as I can tell she still hasn't spoken a word to anyone.
the only thing we really got out of the planning session after that was that we needed to know when and where the Weather Machine was coming. So I went to Nicole's place. John came along for the ride. Nicole told me that he Weather Machine was going to be arriving the day before Samhain and that it would be kept overnight at the Gazebo out behind the house STaN lived in. I expressed my relief that it would be well guarded, and left. I pulled up the car just out of sight of the house and asked John to scout out the area around the gazebo. Several minutes later he coming rushing to the road from ahead of me, motioning for me to come, fast. So I did. We left in a hurry, and he told me that there was a big wall around the gazebo in the Umbra, but he'd been able to pass through it. He also found out that STaN aren't quite as clueless as they seem; all three of them entered the spirit world to chase after him when they felt their wall breached. We were pretty sure they recognized the intruder as Garou; I could only hope they didn't make a connection to my visit a few minutes before.
John and I decided that this was enough for one day. We went back home and had quite a few drinks. (Did you know, Mr. Diary, that it's almost impossible to get a werewolf drunk?)
We slept in late the next morning. I was really glad I'd thought t take the week off work. By the time we got to the place around 11AM, we'd missed the excitement. Apparently KC's house had burnt down the previous night, killing her aunt and alerting the police to the fact that KC was missing. I said 'apparently. Daedalus scanned the house from his computer screen, and said that it wasn't fire that had destroyed the house, it had just been made to look that way. He said something along the lines of pure chaos had come along and turned the house to slag. KC had responded to this be shutting herself in her bedroom for the day. She couldn't really go to school with the police looking for her.
I realized I needed to go to Mr. Forteau's house to tell him about the favor I'd used. Daedalus, Rueben, and John all decided to accompany me. We didn't get very far, though. We were met at the front door by the little stone golem, who wouldn't let us in. He seemed willing to carry a message, though, so I gave him the token and told him about the debt I'd used up. We told him we were still working on the Weather Machine problem, and left.
Meanwhile Cab had gone down to NC State campus to check out the sight where the party was to occur. The only thing I heard out of her about it was that she felt the echo of something happening there in the future, even though that's not supposed to happen. Apparently, time-sensing is only supposed to work for events in the past; one can't see the future. This was all just getting too weird.
Eventually we got back to planning. We were trying to decide the best time to steal the thing. While it was being transferred from one place to another seemed the best bet, but we didn't know how it was coming or who was transporting it. Then John had a bright idea and called Raoul. (John knows the most useful people). Raoul, who apparently knows everything, knew where we were, so he came over and traded information for a few beers. (Raoul really liked Daedalus's trick of reaching into his coat and pulling a beer out of the fridge.) He told us that the Weather Machine was being Fed Ex'd here by ground from Champagne , Illinois. We all stared at each other in shock. I had assumed some mages were personally transporting the thing. I certainly wouldn't have just mailed it off.
It made things a lot simpler, though. After Raoul had left (taking the rest of the beer with him), Daedalus hacked his way into the Federal Express computer system. He found a 300 lb crate that was shipped on Oct. 24 with Nicole's house as the intended destination. It got misrouted, though, and was in D.C. on the 26th. Then it disappeared. But, another package the same weight appeared at the same time, and the destination listed was a P.O> box here in the Triangle. I don't believe in coincidences. The package was scheduled for delivery that day. Of course, all this information negated the value of our old plans. The thing wasn't going where we thought.
After that, things got complicated.