![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
val_coraxSo, I tried calling up a Bird I know, to see if she would mind something of a visit and was rather disappointed to learn that she was going to be out of town for the next little while. She did suggest that I go and visit the Villon Brothers up in Vancouver, British Columbia. Which was an interesting suggestion. I’ve never met them, but they do have a bit of a reputation. Still trying to decide if she had an alternative motive for trying to send me up that way, judging by the way she was trying to hold back a giggle while I was talking with her.
The Villon brothers are an interesting pair, if a slightly odd one. There is Guillaume Villon, and that’s his Alias, not his real name. And there is his brother, Francois, or Frankie Villon. He’s also known as Five-Feathers or Five-Feathered-Discount, if you want to fall back on his deed name. Their legit names are Connor and Frankie Smith, respectively. Connor is in his early thirties and runs an Auction House that specializes in antiques and rare items. He has a pretty big customer base, with a lot of really rich folks with lots of really expensive hobbies and collections. Some of them are not all that picky when it comes to /where/ the items they are buying have come from. He’s really handy if you catch wind of something that might be an old lost Fetish, or some sort of artifact that gives away a bit more about Gaia’s children then we really want normal folks knowing.
This is where Five-Feathers comes in. He’s a six year old Raven-Born Corax and he calls Conner Smith his Spirit-Brother, as Connor’s dad is the one that made Five-Feathers' Spirit egg. Five-Feathers spent time learning the ropes from Connor’s dad and got to know Connor fairly well, but their friendship really took off when Five-Feathers managed to pick up that Tongues Gift. Like most Raven-Born Corax, he has absolutely no respect for other people’s property and after learning how his Spirit-Brother would trade certain objects for the human version of shinies, he took it upon himself to pick up a few things. Connor, being a rather opportunistic fellow, started teaching his brothers what human’s considered valuable and gave him lists of things to pick up, if the opportunity arose. As such, small valuable items have been disappearing from private collections and museums world over, in the last several years. Five-Feathers has this Fetish bag that he can put things in, than drag them across the Gauntlet as if they are dedicated. It’s a pretty good racket and Five-Feather’s is something of wolrd traveller by nature. What Five-Feathers gets out of this setup, I have no idea. Maybe he just likes making his Spirit-Brother happy?
Anyway. Waaaay off topic. I ended up just flying south of Yakima and hooking up with a Raven-Born Corax by the name of Stolen-Sweets, don’t ask, and just spending a few days on the wing and yattering my head off. Was a good way to distress and feel a bit more like myself again.
When I got back to the city, I caught sight of Ky and he wasn’t looking all that good. His hands were showing signs of the shakes. Can gratefully say that I’ve never had the pleasure, cue sarcasm, but I’ve heard that it’s a bitch. I checked on Ky later, in the slightly more private setting of The Vault. Had a bit of a chat with him and suggested a slight of hand trick to avoid drinking any more of the Vampire’s blood. I also told him that if it came to a choice of drinking the stuff and going fuzzy, he should go fuzzy. Damn it. I wish people would listen to me more.
After visiting with Ky, I dropped by Charley’s apartment. Nice building, even if Charley’s place kinda screams bachelor pad. We had a couple of drinks and man, that guy mixes his drinks rather strong. We talked over recent events and asked for that Vampire blood I’d given him awhile back. Just encase Ky needed to keep the cravings at bay, while trying to find the Leech controlling the Green Angels. Also talked about Ex, and the Once-BSD. That all got rather depressing fairly quickly, so I switched subjects.
Asked Charley about which Mage Spheres he specialized in. Also asked if he was good enough at Mind Magic to read surface thoughts. Had already decided to show him Sun’s Bright Ray and teach him the steps of the Rite, if only because it is lots of fun. Just figured that if he could follow my surface thoughts, it’s be easier to teach him the steps. As he couldn’t do that, which is good to know regardless, I asked if he’d like me to show him a dance. He’s clearly had training, as he picked up the steps really quickly and he managed to keep up with me. Man. That was fun and he was properly impressed when the Rite concluded and we filled his living room with noon-time summer sunshine.
After that, we both flopped in to our respective seats and admittedly, my head was spinning a little bit from the alcohol. Topic of conversation switched to a more personal note. I chided Charley about how much he drank and working too hard, but not all that seriously. He poked back at me, simply because I always seem to be running off and dealing with some side project or another.
And it’s about then that my phone rang. One of my contacts had spotted a run-away that I’d been hired to find. It was just some kid that was pissy over some Family thing related to Thanksgiving coming up and a bunch of relatives he didn’t like coming to town. Typical teenager emo crap. Had figured out roughly where he was with Questing Stone, than paid off a few folks in that area to give me a ring if they caught sight of him. Had to make a quick exit if I was gonna meet up with the contact in time to catch up with him, get him home, and get paid.
After getting that whiny kid home, I took some time to do some Umbral Housekeeping around my apartment. Encouraged some friendly Spirits to move in, encouraged some less then friendly Spirits to go elsewhere. Did what I could to reduce the Weaver’s presence around my apartment. I have managed, over the years, to open up the place quite a bit. It’s nice. Less stuffy. Performed a Cleansing for good measure, than crashed for the night. Next day was nice and quiet, so I took it easy for a bit, stayed home and watched movies.
After a nice relaxing day of movie watching and crawling in to bed early for once, I was awoken in the middle of the night by several loud booms. Kinda felt like that guy in that Christmas things. ‘And there arose such a clatter, that I sprang from my bed, to see what was the matter.’ But anyway, I went racing off to see what the hell was exploding in my city and found the wolves busily blowing up and destroying the building that the Green Angels were operating out of.
In all the chaos, I spotted a bag of loot, quite literally. Eight grand in cash, Ka-ching, and made off with it. Stashed the money on a roof a short ways away from the chaos, then followed the wolves to the Old Library that the Gnawers use. Finally got to meet the new Alpha, healed up Ky some. Idiot boy took another drink, instead of going for the Fuzzy option and fighting, or running like /hell/, depending on the situation. Things are going to be fucking hell for him for the next little while. Really wasn’t much I could do for him, so I left, collected the cash, bought a small mountain of pizza at Garcia’s and left it at the Library so the wolves wouldn’t go hungry.
Went home and couldn’t sleep, so ended up popping in to the Umbra and hanging out with Storm’s-Shadow some.
Around dawn, I spotted Nieve talking with Flint and dropped in to say hello. You have to laugh or you’ll cry and really, that’s how Raven’s kids deal with things when the situation is completely FUBARed. Garou just don’t think that way, really. Mouth gets away from me sometimes. Bleagh. Wasn’t trying to be a complete asshole or anything, but I clearly pissed off Flint, and Nieve talked at me like I was a hatchling, which was kinda embarrassing. But, anyway. I asked Storm’s-Shadow to keep an eye on Ky for me and offered to teach Nieve Courtly Speech, after she picked up on the fact that I could understand Mother’s Tongue.
Went home after all that and crashed. Tired.
