Garou, Part II

Greg whirled around, his fingernails beginning to lengthen into wolf’s claws until he saw who had startled him. With a reproachful look he let his nails return to normal. Then, Greg smiled at his friend. “Do you have to do that every time you see me?” Greg walked over to the bench where she sat.

The girl seated on the log bench grinned up at him. “Only as long as you keep falling for it!” She laughed, and leaned back to look up into the night sky. Greg scowled a little. “Oh, I’m just teasing you. Chill, Greg.”

Kathy Friedman was a tall girl, although she still fell several inches short of Greg. Greg had always thought her quite attractive, but they had met as friends and it had, though it sometimes disappointed him, stayed that way for the five years since. Greg liked spending time with Kathy; he especially enjoyed the banter that highlighted their time together, though he did have to watch his mouth at times, as Kathy had a deserved reputation for being a bit caustic. It seemed, though, that she was in an easy mood tonight; Greg reasoned that it must be because so little of Luna’s face was showing in the sky. He too usually felt more at ease the farther the moon was from full.

“You’re more jumpy than normal tonight, Greg. What’s up?” Kathy turned towards him and scooted backwards, making room for him on the bench.

Greg sat down heavily beside her. It was then that he noticed her clothing, and why she had been a bit hard to see, aside from her impressive skill at stealth. She wore dark blue jeans, and her ponytail of blonde hair, resplendent with streaks of red, green, blue and other dyes, touched the top of her tight, black shirt. Other than her hair and fair-skinned face, she blended very neatly into the night. “The Svensons found a Black Spiral Dancer northwest of here,” Greg said grimly. Kathy raised her eyebrows. “It was a little while ago, have you been out here long?”

“A few minutes, but I haven’t heard anything.” replied Kathy.

“You’re probably too busy sneaking up on poor, unsuspecting people like me to hear the warning calls. You’re getting pretty damn good, though, I have to say. I didn’t even smell you, this time,” Greg jibed.

Kathy grinned, and in response chucked a bundle at Greg. “You forgot your coat in the woods.”

“Oh, thanks. You cold?”

“No. Hey,” said Kathy, “I think I see Hans and Frans.” She pointed to the far side of the clearing, where a pair of wolves had just trotted out of the trees. Both were large and dark, with black patches overlaid on their lighter gray hides. As they entered the clearing they slowed to a walk, and their fur began to thin as their limbs changed into human arms and legs. Fur was replaced by jeans and dusty jackets, and the Svensons rose up onto their hind legs.

“Oh, joy. The Svensons. Well, let’s see what happened,” said Greg, rising from the bench. Kathy followed as Greg approached the werewolf brothers. “Was that you with the hunting call earlier?” He regarded the pair coldly. It was no secret that Greg had no fondness for this pair. He considered the pair overly violent and careless, even for the Get of Fenris, the brothers’ tribe. Still, they were strong, even for Garou, and easily angered, so nobody who knew better was openly hostile towards them.

“Yeah, that was me.” The smaller of the two grinned, showing several teeth broken by his frequent brawling. “I knew we could handle the Spiral, so there was no need to call for help,” he said, quite biting off the last word contemptuously.

Kathy groaned quietly and rolled her eyes, and Greg sighed noisily. “You two took on a Black Spiral Dancer alone? Why did you risk that? What if its pack had been around too? You’re pretty damn lucky to have escaped with just that,” he finished, pointing to the long gash in Olie’s side. It shone with blood, and Olie was doing his best to conceal the pain that obviously ran through his abdomen.

“Hey, fuck you, man!” shouted Olie, who cringed only slightly as he did.

“Yeah,” retorted Lars, “you’re just jealous you didn’t get in on this fight! It was a good one, too! Man, Olie, you remember that chick shredding the Spiral? That was some good-”

“Chick?” Kathy cut in, her eyes narrowing at the brothers. “There was someone besides you and the Spiral in the fight?”

“Yeah, some crazy girl. I guess she was a cub or something.” Lars shrugged. “But I pissed her off pretty good, and she frenzied. Tore that Spiral’s throat out! Fuck yeah!” said Lars, high-fiving Olie, who clutched his side afterwards. Greg’s anger was now bubbling almost to the surface, held back only by practice and force of will. Kathy was whispering to Cathryn, who had just emerged from the caern stone.

“Hey, I don’t want to have to wait a week for this shit Black Spiral wound to heal!” Olie barked.

Macho, like only a Get of Fenris can be. Greg was, however, impressed that Olie could withstand the Black Spiral’s claw wound with so little outward signs of pain. Black Spiral Dancers were creatures of the Wyrm, and their claws and teeth often carried venoms and plagues that could cause excruciating pain and slow even a werewolf’s healing process.

Olie continued. “I know Gaia gave you the healing Gift, that’s what your tribe’s good for. So make with the healing, Mama’s Boy.”

At this, Greg knew that he had to distance himself from the brothers before he was driven to give them a scar of his own. Greg could have shrugged off any normal insult, but Get has just used the particularly hateful nickname of Greg’s tribe. The Children of Gaia, of which both he and Cathryn were members, were sometimes mocked for their intimate connection to the Earth Mother.

“Hey, he was talking to you, Greg!” Greg heard Lars’ shout and steadfastly ignored it, walking past the two Get of Fenris and heading for the woods to pick up the trail back to the scene of the fight. He almost hoped one would try to stop him, but they made no move; Greg knew they wouldn’t try anything while Cathryn was around. She might be a Child of Gaia, he thought, grinning, but those guys sure are intimidated by her! And it takes some doing to get through their skulls with anything short of a klaive. Greg brushed these thoughts out of his head as he moved into the forest; most of his attention was filled with the trampled brush and drops of blood the pair had left as they plowed back to the caern.

“Do you know where the fight was?”

Greg paused and glanced over his shoulder. A wolf trailed him closely, its mouth open and tongue out as it panted. Kathy had run after him into the woods. The Brightcoat certainly deserved her Garou name; the various and sundry dyes which chased through her hair ran just as brightly through her otherwise light fur and, in this form, made her easier to spot in the dark and very distinctive in the light. The green patches appeared to glow in the dark, and Greg smiled. In lupus form, Kathy looked like a huge, feral golden retriever making a fashion statement.

The same was true for most Glass Walkers, and Kathy was not one to be left out. Her tribe was heavily influenced by human trends, and they were far more active in human politics and business than any other tribe; the tribe was also filled with technophiles, though a proclivity for gadgets was often looked upon with suspicion and disdain in Garou society. Technology was a tool of the Weaver, an enemy of Gaia and of the werewolves.

“What’s funny?” asked Kathy, cocking her head at the look Greg had given her. Even when wearing the form of the wolf, Garou could easily speak to each other – Kathy’s barks and yips, combined with her instinctual lupine body language, let her clearly “say” anything a wolf could need to communicate, and a crude form of the Garou tongue aided with more complex subjects like feelings or humor.

“Just that your green patch glows. It looks pretty cool.” Greg let his eyes glow a similar green, but he had lost the trail of broken branches and blood-smeared leaves that had led him. “They came from this way. Can you help me track them back? The girl they mentioned must be in trouble, otherwise she would have come back with them.”

“Unless she realized how ass-annoying those two are.” Greg laughed, and Kathy lowered her nose to the ground and started sniffing. “Good point, though, we should hurry.” She quickly picked up the trail and trotted off through the trees, Greg close behind.

This week, on ADVENTURES IN DEMOCRACY...

But first, huzzah for being 21! I bought my first alcomoholic beverages last night, and they were tasty. Good, local microbrews, a couple of good friends, and a good time. I'm not sure how I feel about this whole "aging" thing, but that is neither here nor there.

I started work at Encyclopaedia Britannica this Monday - I worked there last summer as a "fact checker", as Jimmy so frequently enjoyed commenting upon, and this summer they invited me back. I'm not sure what my technical position is, so I think that for now I'm just going to have to go with Defender of Democracy.

Why this odd burst of ideological patriotism, you ask? Mostly I'm just proud of what Britannica is doing, and I think it's spiffy that I have a part in it. In the process of getting an edition of Britannica ready for distribution in China, the Chinese powers that be have given us a number of "issues" with some articles that they want "corrected" - i.e. removed or altered, and we want to avoid as much change as possible because hey, we actually like having a reputation of intellectual objectivity and integrity. So, not surprisingly, most of these issues revolve around Taiwan, Tibet, and differing conceptions of Chinese communism, ideology, etc.

So right now, I'm going through the complaints and figuring out what are acceptable changes (a lot of terminology, such as "Tibet Autonomous Region" replacing "Tibet"), and to do some work on the more problematic ones, such as the article on "censorship". China wanted its name removed from a list of regimes which commonly employed censorship; I just about had an aneurism trying to think about that one.

The poor "Pandaren" article never stood a chance....*sniff*

Anyway, my job is to go through the problematic changes and re-word things to make them both true and accurate, so that the Chinese will allow it to go through but more importantly so that the article's integrity isn't compromised by whatever changes we make. It's not only really interesting to see what they object to, but also to actually use my brain when I'm suggesting what to do with an article. It's pretty rewarding work.

Weddings -or- WTF, mate?

So, just got back from my friend's wedding reception. Pretty surreal experience, let me tell you. I'm still of the mindset that I don't expect to see people my age getting married (against most logic on my part, to be fair) and by the end of June, two of my best friends from high school will be so attached (not to each other). It just puts things in a little perspective is all - I still have relatively little idea what I want to do with my life (I mean, I have theories, but who knows what will work out?) and here are people, a year older than me, choosing their life partner (well, hopefully life, anyway). I'm still not sure just what I feel about this; I'll have to think about it some more.

On a lighter note, Half Life 2 Episode 1!

Simply put, this game rocks. There is really no other way to describe it. I suppose that it could somehow turn out to be horrible in the last hour or two of play I've yet to complete, but I really don't see that happening, given the level of refinement the creators have shown so far. Refinement really is the best way of describing it: Half Life 2 was swank, and very well done. Some parts were very slick. Episode 1, however, shows that game developers actually pay attention and care about improving their products.

THIS IS A CHARACTER-DRIVEN FPS. It's ridiculous, I didn't even think that could be accomplished, especially when the protagonist never says a word. But in this game, Alyx Vance (a supporting character from the original HL2) is with you pretty much every step of the way, and Valve is basically using every tool at their disposal to its fullest effect. The character models are not only incredibly detailed, but combine that with good voice acting and some damn realistic facial movements/expressions, and holy crap you have compelling, emotive characters in a shooting game. Whoda thunkit?

There are also just some amazingly creative parts of the game - even though there are no nifty vehicles like in HL2, there is a much fuller use of the physics engine, from gravity puzzles to requiring the player to use the enviroment in some damn nifty ways. For instance, right now I'm in a part where, after you pull a switch to start up an elevator, it shorts out and the whole basement goes black. Oh, and then the zombies come. And all you have is a shitty flashlight. It. Is. So spiffy. Oh, and did I mention awesome supporting characters? Yeah. I might have. Who would have thought that you get get a huge range of emotions out of a moderately-articulated robot named Dog? Not I, said the me.

And I started a fanfic for a contest that ended sooner than I thought due to time zone differences **shakes fist at the sun**, so my original plans have been scrapped and it's been moved into a (hopefully) serial form. We shall see in the coming days.

Anti-Gay Marriage Amendment Defeated in Senate

Sorry for the immature post, but

SUCK ON THAT, BIGOTS!

Ahem. What I mean to say is that I'd like to register my appreciation of the 51 senators who voted against the proposed amendment. It should have been more, but it got the job done.

What the SWAT Team Actually Means

Click for full-sized goodness. Not sure if people have seen this before, but I wanted to share with you all and note that at this moment, I have a shorter attention span than a spastic fruit fly on crack. Which is bad, since I'm supposed to be studying for a final.

I can do better than a Powerpoint

So, because its creators are extremely awesome, there is now a downloadable online version of the Zombie Presentation. I think it might have cut out for a few minutes when Cyrus changed the battery, but it does a pretty good job of capturing the genius. Watch and enjoy - it's about an hour long, true, but I feel it to be your civic duty to know as much as possible in preparation for a possible Necropalypse. Yes, I like that word. If you want the Powerpoint too for, uh, reference or something, let me know and I can e-mail it to you.

In other news, being collegiate is fun, and in unrelated news, yesterday I spelled "pimp" and "ire" at the same time in Scrabble. Good times were had by all.

Wow, I just accidentally posted this to the Passenger Saga. Plot development! Zombies take over the space station! Ohnoes!