Using this place as a sounding board

[Jack_Fisher]

Hello, I'm new here. I'm part of a group that investigates the paranormal, one with connections to the agency (at least the Prof says we're connected) but we normally don't have much to do with it. I'm pretty sure the Prof files reports, but I'm going to use this area as a sounding board since most of the others in my area don't come here. Just in case they do, I'm only going to use my name. I'll figure out nicknames or something for everyone else. You see I've got a situation...

Okay, I'll work up to that to by introducing myself. Hi, my name is Jack and I'm in my early 20s. Which means that High School was pretty recent for me, recent enough that I know I lot of people who miss those days (the kids whose lives peaked in high school. Me, I'm not one of them. For me, high school was hell.

See, I'm smart. Off the top of the IQ test level smart, but I was never able to use that in school. I'd get tested for attitudes in this or that, which was pretty stressful, and when I get really stressed I get visions. I learned later (when I met up with the Prof) that I've got Clairvoyance and Precognition, which explains the visions. I can also read objects, so sometimes I'd get flooded with the impressions of the last kid to take a test at that desk, but mostly it was visions that really, really distracted me. Like this one time they were testing me for super advanced math classes and I was stressing and suddenly I was seeing this girl I was really crushing on. She was a senior who didn't know I existed and I had no chance with her, but there I was, seeing her as she changed in the gym locker room.

Seeing her and a bunch of other older girls changing for gym.

What teenaged boy could focus on sin, tangents, and all the rest after seeing that? I'll tell you what kind - the kind that wouldn't be able to focus on a math test after seeing a bunch of half naked boys. Needless to say I spent the entire test hoping I wouldn't leave a wet spot on jeans and flunked that test.

And that was me and testing. I'd choke on every test, seeing things that threw me off. It was a good thing that I was talkative and social or they would have labelled me on the autism spectrum. As it was they decided I had lots of raw intelligence but either I had no aptitudes or wouldn't apply myself. That I was untalented, had a problem attitude, or was bone lazy - and from then on the teachers treated me according that label.

Did I mention that high school was hell?

I started doing gymnasts heavy then, trying to exhaust myself so I wouldn't have visions. And it worked, mostly. The more exhausted I was the fewer visions I had, but competitions were stressful. I'd be in the middle of a routine and suddenly get a vision of... well, any vision was enough to throw me. You ever go from focusing on a triple back flip to having a vision between flip 2 and 3? Trust me, that's a painful thing to do.

So I became known as a guy who could do the routines but choked at competition. Not as "the guy" but "a guy" because there were a handful of us who choked at competition. I was only on the team in case someone got hurt and once, in grade 12, one guy got a pulled hamstring and another fumbled a landing bad enough to dislocate his ankle, so I went in. It was that or get zero points for one of the positions on our team. And yeah, I got a vision and fell off the balance beam, but that was the only one, so I posted a good score in the other activities. That meant our school ranked fourth, with was a lot better than the 12th place finish we would have had without my points. Not that I got any credit for that, not after my fall cost us a podium finish. I earned all those points and all anyone wanted to talk about were the points I didn't earn because I had choked again.

Did I mention that high school was hell?

The other thing I got into in high school was Art. After working myself to near exhaust at gymnastics I could zone out painting or drawing. The only advanced placement classes I got into were the Art ones. Sure, sometimes I had visions while painting, but I could work them in. Some of those visions, well the world isn't a good place, not with all the ghosts, spirits, and other stuff running around, and working them into my paintings got me sent to the school counsellor more than once, but I skated by as trying to work weird stuff into my art. I even started to paint in Black Sabbath and Dio lyrics, just to excuse the general weirdness of the art.

And being an artist, even a weird one (maybe especially a weird one) attracted a certain type of girl, even one that got into very serious relationship with me. By my senior year I was buying condoms, but then the visions frigged that up too. One evening I had a vision of her with another guy and the next day I confronted her about it and she didn't know what I was talking but I knew what I Saw and we had a major fight. Long story short - it was one of the future visions. She went out and balled the guy to get back at me and then his girlfriend blamed me for setting things in motion things got dicey socially.

Did I mention that high school was hell?

Okay, more background to put off mentioning why I'm here.

By grade 12 I'd learned to work through the visions, most times, and when I got to college (studying Fine Arts, and taking Creative Writing courses so I'd have something to fall back on) I ran into the Prof who diagnosed and help train me. No, he's not psychic, he's a parapsychologist. He's the assistant dean of the parapsychology department, and he's put together a team to, well you all know what we do. Apparently I'm a "Psychic Sensitive", if that label makes sense to you. With his help I learned how to Astral Project, commune with spirits, talk mind to mind, with a few other things, but I can barely do any of that stuff if we aren't involved with Weirdness. I'm not sure how dealing with Weirdness boosts my abilities, but the Prof is studying that stuff.

I'm still part time at the college, taking some Art, Writing, and even a few parapsychology classes, but I don't have a full course load and I'm not sure if I'll finish my degree. Taking those courses is mostly a reason for being on campus so I can hang around the Prof's group without freaking out campus security. I don't need a degree because I'm earning a good living on my art. I know I have room to improve, but I've been part of more than a score of shows and I sell art through a booth. Some original, but mostly prints.

Now when it comes to prints there's two ways to look at them. The accounting way and the cash accounting way. See unless you have a killer printer you have to pay to have the prints made by the batch. That's money out of your pocket that you won't get back until you sell the prints. Now the accounting way is to work out the margin on each unit, but the cash accounting way is to treat the early sales as paying off the printer's bill and treat everything after that as profit, and that's how I do it. I also write some. I'm officially credited with a quarter of the work for three graphic novels punished by university's history department. The other three blowhards did maybe 8 panels between and I only ended up with 30% of the profits, but if anyone ever turns those graphic novels into movies (unlikely, but who knows?) I'll get a cut of that money. And I'm working on an illustrated children's book, but I had to restart several times. You see my visions keep leaking through to the illustrations, which means ghouls, ghosts, and other monsters show up in the book, and since the pictures and text are so closely linked it's easier to restart than to fix things. It's hard work, but someday my book will be up there with "Where the Wild Things Are".

Now I have a social life outside of the group, but nothing steady. You see there's a certain type of girl attracted to guys who do weird art and most of them are half-crazy while the rest are really into drama. I'm currently between girls at the moment, by choice. If I wanted to I could have my choice between three cutters, two goths, a self proclaimed vampire (who isn't a real one and hates the goths), a girl who loves old fashioned stuff like LSD, and... yeah, like I need any of those train wrecks in my life. But those are the types attracted to my art and I'd prefer dating a girl who's attracted to me.

Okay, enough stalling. See...

Okay, last weekend I was working a Con. I had a booth in Artist's Alley, selling originals, prints, and doing caricatures for cash. I work Cons most weekends during the summer, or at least I try to. You see most of the rest of the group have 9 to 5 Monday to Friday schedules (mostly from summer jobs), so supernatural stuff seems to happen on the weekends, and when that happens I need to get my cousin to work the booth for me. That costs extra. You see not only do I have to pay him, but he's in high school and he'll do anything to talk to a pretty girl, and "anything" includes offering unauthorised discounts to any cute girl he can talk to. But this time, everything went sweet. After paying the vendor fees I cleared next month's rent and most of next month's food budget early, which is pretty good for me to be so far ahead.

I figure the main reason I didn't get called away to deal supernatural stuff is the Prof was busy too. See the Fall term is starting soon so he's got to get all the paperwork submitted and he was working on a grant to get a new piece of equipment to replace the one that wasn't supposed to leave the lab but ended up getting trashed in a haunted house. The broken piece of equipment (one that has a six figure price tag) was officially destroyed when some Frat Boys took it (and dozens of other things from the parapsychology lab) to a kegger to try to find ghosts as they got drunk... actually someone suggested they do it, and after most of them were trash we moved every piece of equipment that's "too delicate to leave the lab but there aren't spirits in the lab so we took it on site and broke it" there so it looked as if they had trashed. Those Frat Boys were sorry, and some of them wrote cheques to cover some of the damages, and the insurance kicked in, but we still need grants to replace that stuff. And he has to do a lot of the Dean's paperwork because the Dean is heavily into psychonautics, which means he gets stoned on psychotropic drugs all the time. The other high up in the parapsychology department is a snake of a guy who plays office politics all of the time, which means that the Prof is the only one doing real, hands on work. At least the only one with the rank to put things together, but being part of the department means doing all of that paperwork that the other two high ups shirk. So him working on his paperwork meant that I didn't get a single "drop everything and help us" phone call during the Con.

So while I was packing up after the Con this guy I know (I'll call him "Guy") comes by with a box of leather. Now I play around with leatherworking, but Guy is a genuine artisan craftsman. His belts sell for big bucks and he does fancy leatherwork that I can barely dream of doing. In short, he's better with leather than I am with art and writing. Guy explains that he picked up a box of badly worked leather at an SCA event, planning to salvage leather from the larger pieces. He knows I do a bit of leatherworking, mostly tassels for some wooden pieces I whittle. Now I'm no real woodworker, but there's nothing to do on stakeouts. I mean I can't paint or write, so why not whittle? And you put a couple of leather tassels on the carvings and you can sell them at a booth an earn a bit of cash for the time you're wasting on a stakeout. Now Guy has already picked through the box, and made his money back, but he'd rather sell the stuff for a token amount then toss it out. We dicker a bit, he starts at $50, I talk him down to $10, mostly because he'd made back his money, and I ended up with various bits of used leather.

The box was full of old bits of leather, most showing the signs of amateur (I mean worse than what I can do) work, but I knew I could tease some tassels out of it and maybe a few other things There were belts, collars, weird looking straps that you could fasten together, leather pouches, and so on. Of course I wait until I get home to go through it, I mean I'm packing up my booth and fending off a few last minutes "I'll pay you a $1 for that, so you won't have to pack it up" offers, so I don't go through the box until I'm back at my apartment.

So I'm digging through the leather, seeing what pieces I could repurpose, when I touched something and got a vision. Not object reading, that wasn't it, this was either Clairvoyance and Precognition, and it had to do with the rest of the strip of leather this had been cut from. It had been fashioned into something very different. Anyway, I See...

It's not a ghoul, ghost, demon, or anything supernatural, but I See a monster. I See a monster doing monstrous things. Now I'm okay with consenting adults getting a bit kinky (you don't date goth girls or cutters without exploring those waters) but this wasn't that.

Which means I can't take it to my group. You see, we have a strict "only supernatural foes" policy. The guy who makes weird gadgets isn't Batman and the rest of us aren't the X-Men. We're just talented people who fight to keep the world safe from supernatural threats. As for mundane ones, there are so many of them that we have to admit that we can't stop all crime or do much against normal criminals.

That policy has caused a lot of debate. The first time it came up involved a pimp who used his charm, drugs, and his fists to keep his girls in line. The second time it came up involved a creep that slipped drugs in girls' drinks, raped them, then (to make sure there was no doubt about what had happened) made sure to put their underwear on backwards. The third time it came up was with the chemical student who was mass producing date rape drugs and selling them on campus.

You see when we go after a monster, we kill it, and the monster's body melts away. Ghosts? When we deal with them there's nothing left of them. But real people? What can we do about them? We aren't cops so we can't arrest them. We can't tell the cops "see this spirit told me they were doing blah" without sounding crazy. Maybe some cops will cut us slack on stuff involving the supernatural, but even those friendly police officers need evidence that can stand up in court. Sure, we can make phone calls, and even use crime stoppers and otherwise report crimes, but in those three cases that did no good. Cops talked to the pimp, rapist, and drug dealer, but it went nowhere. No evidence meant they couldn't really investigate. The closest thing to a real investigation was a few attempts to buy from the drug dealer (who clued into the new buyers being cops) and search warrant for his place (where no drugs were found). We tried the media, but they wouldn't report on the rapist or the drug dealer without proof that we didn't have and as for the pimp, all of our media contacts said that anything they wrote would just be advertising his services. Anonymous internet postings went nowhere, and we aren't murdering vigilantes who could handle normal people ourselves. Even just roughing them up would make us criminals in the eyes of the law.

Was what I Saw worse than a pimp, rapist, or drug dealer who enables rapists? In the big picture, maybe not, but I Saw it. Now I could lie and say that I think some supernatural force is driving the monster, but I know it isn't. The trick of saying "I Saw something and we should act on it" and having people believe you is only telling the truth about what you See. If I lie about this, even if I'm only hedging and saying I think maybe there's something supernatural about, and they find out, then the group would never believe me again

I tried one method of handling it - a bottle of vodka, lots of mix, and a bag of ice - but it didn't work. I woke up remembering everything, just hung over enough to miss a day of working. So I'm off to do a solo investigation, trying to track the monster down, even though I don't know if I saw the present (which is now the past) or the future (which will become the present). If it is the future, will my actions set things in motion? I don't know, but I can't just sit back and do nothing.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

So today I tried to focus my Clairvoyance and Precognition, which is iffy even when I have some stuff to go on. Stuff more than just a vision. And since I'm not working against the supernatural I can barely use my powers, and I have to wait to regain my focus between attempts.

No luck. I can't get a focus.

It doesn't help that after opening myself I get a call from a prospective client. Things were looking good, his buddies had gotten "Boudoir" photos taken of their wives and he wanted a tasteful oil painting to one up them. Things were going good, we were almost to the price, when he said something like "I'd only trust a queer fag artist like you to do it, not a photographer". He's a potential pay day, so I stay polite as I point that while I have nothing against guys who like guys I happen to like women. He reacts like I shattered his worldview, and asks if I know any fag artists he could trust with his wife. Now I don't know any fag artists, but I know some painters who have serious relationships with other men, so I pass along names while continuing to be polite because I can't turn my back on any chance to earn a commission. No, I don't know so many people think that all painters are gay, but this isn't the first time someone has thought that and I can't change the world.

Which doesn't help me track down the monster, but I get some painting done. I also get a bit of writing done, not that I'm earning cash from that (not yet) and I get a rejection letter from someone I sent a spec chapter and outline of a series. I'm playing around with a rift on Harry Potter, only Psychics rather than magic, and the rejection note said I hadn't included enough serious dating. Serious dating? The First Form starts at age 11. What kind of 11 and 12 years old have serious dating? Maybe puppy love, or crushes, but "serious dating" with tweens? Anyway, it's hard to get published. There are so many, many sites giving away fiction that publishing houses have shrank. I could churn out a self published ebook, and compete with the millions of other shitty ebooks on Amazon, I really want to get published in hard copy without having to pay a vanity press.

Which doesn't help me finding that monster. Maybe I should try to research what I Saw and hope it leads me somewhere? But that takes time and Labour Day is a big opportunity to sell art. That's if I don't get called out to help with a Supernatural Event, but with the Prof swimming in paperwork I doubt I'll called on this weekend.

[Jack_Fisher]

I had a weird dream last night. That could be nothing, it could be linked to what I'm investigating, or something supernatural is poking its head up. I'm hoping it's nothing because I'm heading out for a series of long weekend events. Mostly open air markets where I pay lots of cash as a vendor fee and hope I earn out. There's a small, one day Con on Saturday, and I'll hit that, but otherwise I'm praying for sunny weather because those vendor fees are non-refundable.

And that Weird doesn't raise its ugly head. Which isn't likely because the Prof is drowning in paperwork that the Dean thought he had done, but he had hallucinated that he had done, and the Snaky Assistant Dead left a memo (that the Prof never got) meaning more paperwork and the Prof takes all the blame if it isn't done. With the Prof piled down with paperwork it would take ghosts and monsters going public for him to put the call out.

Earlier today I tried to focus Clairvoyance on the monster, but I still don't have enough to go. Or the vision was about the future, not the present or the past, and sine it hasn't happened yet my Clairvoyance is useless. Either way I got nothing and the attempt wiped out much of my ability to use powers until I rest, mediate, sleep, or bump into something Weird. Which could happen today; open air markets attract all types. Sometimes ghosts, spirits, or monsters show up at one, which sucks when I'm manning a booth and need to deal with the supernatural.

Anyway, I've got a several selections of prints that are in the profit zone and some that still need to be paid for. If I have a good weekend I'll have money for all of September's bills, maybe make a good start on October. If I have a great weekend then I'm golden for a couple of months, giving me the time to focus on the hunt. If I do bad... well I've still got next money for month's rent and most of next month's food and that's before the start of the month. All of this month's bills are paid (including the vendor's fee for the entire long weekend, with is mostly next month but I budgeted the cash for this month because I had to pay in advance), and when you're an artist that's a good thing. But this should be a good weekend; I've even got my cousin on standby in the hopes I'll be busy enough to need (and be able to afford) his help.

But all the time I'm working this weekend, I'll be thinking about that monster. Once you See something like that you can't just forget it.

[Nemesis]

There was a time that my answer to nearly any monster would have been to shoot, stab or burn it until it wasn't a problem anymore.

But that attitude got my adopted mother put into jail, which was inconvenient to say the least. So these days I try to take a more nuanced approach.

I don't have any recommendations for your case, only that we have to live with the consequences of any decisions we make. And the consequences for not making a decision.

When we're lucky enough to keep on living.

[Jack_Fisher]

Thanks for replying. No, I don't know what I'm going to do when I track down this monster. Gymnastics aside I'm not the most physical guy out there, I mean I know how to handle myself in a fight, but I've fought more things than people. Plus I'm not all that great with a gun. I know which end to point and how to pull the trigger, and I can reload a revolver and change the clip on a pistol, but I've never reloaded a clip. Another thing, it's a person, not a thing. A person who does something monstrous, but a person none the less. That's something I'll have to think about as I search.

Speaking of the search, I think I've had a positive sign. Last night I dreamt again, and it seemed like I Seeing what was going to happen as opposed to what had happened. Maybe I can prevent some of it? Maybe the worse of it?

Yesterday, at the open air market, my art sold well. Today, at the small Con, I needed to call my cousin in to help with the sales. Mostly because I was busy doing so many caricatures of cosplayers. He goofed off a bit and gave discounts to some cute girls, but having him there really increased my sales. Between the two days I've got money for all my normal September bills and made a good start on my October bills. Hopefully tomorrow and Monday will bring enough in to free me up to investigate most of this month.

Speaking of investigating, since I know the event is in the future I'm looking for places where it might happen. It's hard, focusing on a where rather than a who, but I think I can make it work.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

The weekend went super. My wrist aches from all the caricatures I drew, but I drew them all for $$$$. My cousin is complaining over how I "made him" work almost all weekend, but he's happy at the cash he's earned.

I'm going to have to re-order a bunch of prints, and I even sold out of those little carvings I do. Some guy bought them for background art for his pathfinder game, and wanted to know if I could do up some drow elves, but I had to tell him that I don't do miniatures. If he wants to use those things in his game, hey, he owns then so he can, but I don't do carvings for gamers to game with.

With all of those sales I've got all of October's bills covered, and made a start on November, which means I can investigate all I want. Or all I can, which isn't the same thing.

So Frost Week is raging on campus. I stop by because I'm taking an art course, a writing course, and a parapsychology course. Why three courses? That keeps me at part time status, which saves on the bills. It'll take me forever to get enough course hours to graduate going part time, but I'm not worried about that.

The art class is divided by my sore wrist from working my booth. Some of them envy me, some look down on how I'm "prostituting" my talent, and some think I should stop doing art booths and do an internet comic. I think the ones who think I'm "prostituting" my talents are jealous over how I earn a living with my art, but that's just my opinion.

The web comic? I've thought about that, but it's a money losing thing unless you go viral. Otherwise it's all those hours put into the thing and no real return. That's fine for people who have a 9 to 5 gig and expressing their talents after earning their living, but when art pays the rent you can't afford to devote hours to something that doesn't bring in cash. Especially when you take time off to investigate the supernatural.

The writing class didn't care about my sore wrist. A few guys made jokes about how I was typing one handed, but that was all.

The parapsychology course is less a course and more of "this is why we get together" excuse for the group. It's got a weird course number and isn't listed in the calendar, but it counts as credit hours. One member of the team reacts to my sore wrist with jokes about dating a new girlfriend named Lefty, about jerking enough to do myself an injury, etc, but he ... Okay, I'll call him Flamer. Flamer was joking just to be joking. Flamer seems permanently stuck in middle school, at least as far as his sense of humour goes, but he's a great guy to have around if there's something flammable to fight - and he thinks everything is flammable.

Flamer's favourite movie is Fire Starter and he has poster of it with Drew Barrymore in his dorm, because he wants to be her. Not a little girl, or any type of girl, but able to burn concrete with his mind. He's also a bit of a pyro, but he's never been caught because he never carries matches, lighters, or any other way to start a fire. He's a great guy to have with you when you're fighting demons or having a bonfire, but not so good when it comes to interpersonal relationship side of things.

Anyway, the Prof apologises for not being there more, but the political minded assistant dean has been playing hell in the department, so much so that the Dean had to come down from his head trips to sort things out. The Prof asks if anyone has been sensing supernatural stuff, and I stay silent because I know the monster isn't supernatural, while Flamer speaks up about some omens he saw in a fire. That gets the team going, and we're clicking like always.

The private thing? I've had a couple more dreams. Saturday, Sunday, and Monday nights I had dreams so I know it isn't going away. I tried some Clairvoyance on subjects related to the monster, and I'm getting a few leads on leather and stuff, but nothing to take action on. This means I'm basically following the Prof's lead, as always, and hoping I can think of what to do when it comes to it.

[Jack_Fisher]

Getting ready to head off to another Con (one of the last of season). I'm half thinking that I'll get a phone call saying that I'm needed on a case, so I'm bringing my cousin with me. I've got the cash to pay him if I don't need him.

I spent most of last night staking out a graveyard. It's one where we've had issues before. Back in the 1800s the place had an acre set aside for indigent patients from the local asylums - one that stay in operation to the 1990s. Yeah, looks of crazies buried there, and parts of it are still getting new arrives. The place is a sprawling 65 acres,

I was mostly standing there with Flamer (we use the buddy system on stakeout) without sensing anything. I whittled a bit. It was boring. So when the stakeout was called off I gathered up the wood shavings (and a carving I didn't like) and asked Flamer if he wanted to gaze in a fire for omens. Flamer's always up for fire, so I carved a piece of the sod away to make a small fire pit. I lent Flamer my lighter (so he could save his power for the reading) and he did his thing.

The fire split off in two, one half formed a line while the other went out. Flamer said that this meant the threat was primarily a mortal one and that danger or death lay ahead, and that someone or something was trying to pull the group apart. He was excited, because he'd done one earlier today and gotten nothing. I have a theory - that me being there meant that he was picking on my case - but I didn't mention it. Anyway, Flamer told the Prof about his reading and the Prof just nodded and reminded us not to take undue risks. That our powers really only get "powered up" when we're dealing with the supernatural and bullets kill.

I've been having a bit of luck scouting potential places Clairvoyance, but I won't have time to really handle that stuff until next week. So here's hoping I make lots of sales at the Con and figure out a way to deal with the monster.

[Jack_Fisher]

Okay, so shit happened. Last Saturday I got the dreaded "we have a case" call, but the good news was the call was to go to the Con where I was at. So I leave my cousin working the booth and head to the front desk where I share my spare vendor passes with the Prof and Flamer as the rest of the crew buy weekend passes. There's a brief debate over VIP passes versus regular admission, but that only matters for cutting lines and getting in the VIP room.

After that things got weird. Basically, one of the cosplayers wasn't a person dressed up as a thing. It was a thing dress up as a person dressed up as a thing. Yeah, it didn't make sense to me either, not until I clued in that the thing feeds on fear. Apparently its plan was to reveal its unnatural nature during the Grand Masquerade (aka costume contest) and feeding off the fear from the audience. Bad news for the thing: it didn't make it pass the qualifying round. It placed maybe 8th in its category, or maybe lower.

Which was the big flaw in its plan. If it had done that another Con then it might have worked, but this Con in infamous for its bad cosplay. Most reputable cosplayers don't even bother entering the contests. They just stroll around, doing their thing, and complaining about how they couldn't get to a better Con.

I'm not saying that the cosplay contests are fixed, but that's only because I don't like making enemies. Before I arrived I could have told you two names for each category. I'm not saying that they would have been first and second, sometimes an amazing costume gets first or second place, but most times if you're not in the clique then your best hope is third place. The overall winner is usually up for grabs, but the cosplayer dominating the Con... I don't really want to bad mouth her, so maybe I'll tell you a little story about her.

Okay, so a couple of years there was the "cosplay does not mean consent" meme going around this Con had a "cosplay does not mean consent" seminar, hosted by... Okay, I'll call her Queen Bee. She's the main personality behind the cosplay at this Con and she demands respect that she's never earned. Queen Bee started things off with a three minute group hate bit. It seems that three years another cosplayer in a different city (call it one about 3 hours away) made a catty comment about Queen Bee's costume and we all had to agree to hate that other girl. Yeah, a hate on for a girl I've met (and might never meet) because of a three year old comment.

So anyway, Queen Bee starts talking about cosplay does not equal consent. She starts describing a female anime character (one I've never heard of, which doesn't mean anything because I'm not an anime fan). How if a girl was dressed as her and a guy dressed as <male anime character I've never heard of, who's the first character's husband> enters the room he could pick her up, throw her over his shoulder, and land a good smack on her butt because that's how the husband always treat his wife in that anima BUT he shouldn't walk out of the room with her unless he knew her.

No, I'm serious. I even checked my program to make sure this wasn't "cosplay equals consent". She was actually saying that if a girl dressed up as a certain character a stranger could pick that girl up, sling her over his shoulder, and smack her butt BUT he shouldn't drag her from the room unless he knew her. I couldn't begin to count the number of laws broken there, but the cosplay co-ordinator - a woman in her mid 20s - was saying that this would all right. Then she added that maybe you shouldn't smack the girl's butt too hard if you didn't know her.

The only useful things she covered was when not to take photos of cosplayers. How you shouldn't stalk them, things like that. Seriously, I really hope that no one was listening to her sounding off.

Anyway, the thing was surprised that it didn't make the cut for the main competition. We cornered as it was messing with a Harry Potter cosplayer. The poor kid peed his robe as we went to town. Problem though - we're out of sight of most of the Con goers but this is still a public place. If Flamer tosses fire around he's going to set off the sprinklers. If anyone fires a gun then the cops will surround the place. I hit it with a mind bolt, but I barely hurt it. Others pound on it, but it gets away, leaving us with hysterical Harry Potter cosplayer who needs dry pants. We calm him down and I head back to my booth on Artist's Alley.

Sunday we confront it again, then the hunt is on. It takes until tonight for us to track it down to an old theatre (one that used to show horror movies before it set down) and we limp away after it dissolves.

We didn't learn much (okay, the Prof got a bunch of interesting readings) but we protected the city, and isn't that what's it all about?

Now to get back to my private hunt.

[Jack_Fisher]

I meant to get back to that hunt right after that monster was dealt with. I really did. But life is life and I had the chance to earn money with a booth at a farmer's market. I've been mostly using Clairvoyance to search for leather and pain, which isn't much to go on. I've got some hints, but mostly I've got more cash from selling art this weekend.

Time. There just isn't enough of it. And I need to do more painting, so I can sell more originals. And I need to get more prints done up. And I need to do the class work for the three courses I'm taking. And I'm almost out of clean clothes, meaning washday is coming up.

But I have to be honest with myself. Honest enough to ask a question. Am I really swamped with things to do or am I just procrastinating, finding reasons to put off the hunt? I think I'm swamped, but am I answering that question honestly?

[Nemesis]

Sometimes life can seem to demand all the time we have and more. It can be difficult to prioritize and sometimes we have to make time for things. I guess the question is, how much of a priority is this for you?

I think it's okay to have other priorities. I haven't been too involved with the supernatural lately, which is weird for me. Though it's never far from my mind.

Good luck, either way.

[Gotham Witch]

I'm overdue to say 'Hello'. Thank you for sharing your story with us. It's not an easy thing to do.

I just wanted to say there's nothing wrong with having other priorities. The problem with this kind of thing is that nobody (well, very few) gets paid for it. It's an unpaid gig that cuts into your time for your job, your family - your entire life really. Depending on your particular tricks, it may even be an nonpaying gig that costs you (full disclosure - being a mage can be expensive). And then the cherry on the cake is that you can never tell anyone about it. And as the old saying goes, getting paid in 'experience' doesn't keep the lights on.

Before I got into all of this, I'd spend hours every week painting or doing photos (shock, I'm an art nerd). More recently, I only just recently made time to pick up a brush after what feels like months. It's a minor sacrifice in the grand scheme, but it was a hard one. I don't need to make money off of commissions like I used to, but it's still something I enjoyed doing. Combine that with trying to shoehorn time to spend with friends and family and catching sleep occasionally, and it's a pretty full schedule.

Short answer? Both (Being swamped and looking for reasons to put off the hunt) are probably true. And both your life and the supernatural are going to be there while you deal with one or the other. Finding that balance is tricky, and there aren't right answers that work for everyone.

If you do figure one out though, do let us know.

[Jack_Fisher]

As you might have noticed, my time got sucked up this week. I'm taking time from working a booth to post this.

Sometimes life can seem to demand all the time we have and more. It can be difficult to prioritize and sometimes we have to make time for things. I guess the question is, how much of a priority is this for you?

I think it's okay to have other priorities. I haven't been too involved with the supernatural lately, which is weird for me. Though it's never far from my mind.

Good luck, either way.

Thanks for the luck. Is this a priority? Of course! If you had seen what I had seen.... If I can stop it or just keep it from happen twice I've got to try.

I'm overdue to say 'Hello'. Thank you for sharing your story with us. It's not an easy thing to do.

I just wanted to say there's nothing wrong with having other priorities. The problem with this kind of thing is that nobody (well, very few) gets paid for it. It's an unpaid gig that cuts into your time for your job, your family - your entire life really. Depending on your particular tricks, it may even be an nonpaying gig that costs you (full disclosure - being a mage can be expensive). And then the cherry on the cake is that you can never tell anyone about it. And as the old saying goes, getting paid in 'experience' doesn't keep the lights on.

Before I got into all of this, I'd spend hours every week painting or doing photos (shock, I'm an art nerd). More recently, I only just recently made time to pick up a brush after what feels like months. It's a minor sacrifice in the grand scheme, but it was a hard one. I don't need to make money off of commissions like I used to, but it's still something I enjoyed doing. Combine that with trying to shoehorn time to spend with friends and family and catching sleep occasionally, and it's a pretty full schedule.

Short answer? Both (Being swamped and looking for reasons to put off the hunt) are probably true. And both your life and the supernatural are going to be there while you deal with one or the other. Finding that balance is tricky, and there aren't right answers that work for everyone.

If you do figure one out though, do let us know.

I haven't found a balance between the chase and work - but I wish I could solve that problem. Maybe I could win the lottery? But my Precognition doesn't seem to work for lotto numbers. And I'm glad you enjoy painting and doing photography, but there is a huge difference between hobbies and a main source of income. I need to spend hours making art that is worth selling, just to keep the cash rolling in. But I've got friends who are holding down 3 to 5 "gig" jobs, working whatever hours they can get, so I can't really complain. I mean I'm doing what I like and I'm earning a living at it. I can even take off time off when I have enough of a cushion built up.

While I'm making good cash now, I probably won't until just before Halloween (when my creepy art sells) and around Christmas when people are buying gifts. Which is why I have build up my bankroll now. Maybe if I did more fantasy art, but if I get one more D&Der asking me to paint him (or her) as a drow in hot leather... But that's a choice on my part. Of course I'll need to work, to generate Halloween and Christmas art, so I'll have to sell, but I'll be dealing with fewer customers.

So, the hunt.

The supernatural didn't bother us this week - unless you count a garbled report about people being able to see through clothes. We checked it out and discovered it was a drunk reporting a wet T-shirt contest. Yeah, one of those in this day and age. Anyway we couldn't sense anything supernatural, the Prof's equipment didn't pick up anything, and the Prof didn't want to seen ogling drunk undergrads wearing wet T-shirts (or even be around drunk undergrads) , so we left.

My own private hunt has basically been me trying to use Clairvoyance to solve the problem. Only thing is I can only use it twice a day and I've only been using it once a day on this, keeping a slot free for other stuff (the Prof or just those lucky visions the universe sometimes sends). Not having enough to get a good fix I've been focusing on what I've seen. I've mostly been stumbling over... well, call it "parental conversations" involving the "spare the rod" type of parents "talking things out" with their kids using belts. Nothing fatal or even all that brutal. I anonymously passed on what I saw to Child Protective Services, but CPS said that what I saw wasn't enough to open any case files. I feel I should do more on that, but what? CPS isn't interested and I can't save the world.

I wish I knew more about this human monster I'm hunting, but I don't. So I just keep trying to luck on to something that get this hunt started. I've even asked Flamer to do another reading or two, using his "look into the fire and see omens" trick, but nothing new there. Just the bit about splitting the group, fatal danger, and the source being a mortal one. Here's hoping we stumble onto more details soon.

Anyway, I've got to deal with people offering me next to nothing for my prints "to save me from having to pack them up". Maybe I'll take a few offers, give maybe ten or twenty-five percent off, then pack up and hope I get another dream tonight.

[Jack_Fisher]

After talking about how committed I was to this hunt, on Monday I spent a full day painting. No, there's a method to the madness - I was hoping that was while I was zoning out on painting I'd open myself up to something. Basically, stop trying to force a vision and let it happen.

One of the perks of being enrolled in an art class at this college is I get access to resources, including a model pool along with props and wardrobe (and sometimes professional makeup work) from the theatre program. The models are a mix of students who want extra cash and students who need that money to buy food, books, etc. Yes, I have to pay for them, but the art department helps me find them and handles the legal stuff. Making sure payroll taxes are paid, releases are signed, that sort of thing. The deal with the theatre department is we prove custom art for their plays, movies, etc. For example, first year here I was asked to help out, painting the girl who was the stand in for the female lead wearing a Victorian costume. That painting hung over the fireplace, showing that the stand in looked eerily like someone who died in the 1800s. A third year student painted the lead (and did a better job) but my painting was there in case the stand in had to take the stage. Officially there's bonus marks involved with that, but the main thing is a chance to show off and make nice with your profs because art class isn't math class. In math your prof could hate you but has to mark 2+2=4 as the right answer, but in art everything is subjective.

Anyway, Monday cost $$$. I had to pay the standard rate for the model and a cleaning fee to get access to the wardrobe, but it was worth it. You see I was working on two paintings, with a third (smaller) canvas set up in case I have a vision. My plan was "Elvira crossed with Vampirella" (basically Elvria "Mistress of the Night" with vamperic touches inspired by the Vampirella comic book) which meant I needed well-endowed model and the model pool found a wonderful one. When it came to modelling she drew the line at "full frontal", saying that she was up for topless and full "back-tal" (as long as the "back-tal" pose didn't allow you to see between her legs and glimpse her "frontal"). She seem relieved when I told her I wasn't going to use her face (I had blown up pictures of Elvira and Vampirella beside each canvas) and was okay with the costume (a black waist trainer corset with a black robe and a wispy black dress). She was even okay with the "shelf bra" - which is what the wardrobe people call a bra that supports the lower part of the breasts without covering the nipples. And she had no problem with the long black wig, which I'd used as a base for hair that was almost prehensile. The plan was for one painting to be G-Rated while the other showed her nipples outlined against the wispy top. Both painting will hang in one of the art department's Halloween displays, but I'll have prints made up and sell those. And yes, both prints should sell.

So as I was painting I had to shift to the third canvas because something was happening right now involving leather and pain that wasn't in anyway parental. Nothing fatal, but brutally painful. I even got an idea of the location and included that on the spare canvas.

Leaving the paintings to dry I headed home did some very deep meditation, and it's good that I did. Monday night, while I was sleeping, I had another vision, only I had a sense of time and place on that dream and it was Tuesday night at a second location. The same mix of leather and pain was happening, but different people were involved. So I wake up tired enough that I had to do some deep mediation before leaving the house, but it's hard to do because I'm confused and worried about how the visions didn't match.

I spent Tuesday mostly finishing the paintings (adding layers over the now dry paint) and selecting which prints I'll get done for Halloween. There's a great one I did of some kids trick-or-treating where a ghostly entity we'd dealt with worked its way in to background that makes an easy Halloween sale, plus some others. Not all of them were done with Halloween in mind, but I do a lot of weird art that can fit in at Halloween. The day slowly ticked away and as the time of the Precognition vision got closer I started to get ready to Astral Project. The vision for tonight didn't include the monster and I can search the area that much faster in Astral form, but going Astral almost totally drains me. Not completely, I've been total dry before and this is a different feeling, but drains me enough that I need to mediate before I can do deep mediation.

I'm focusing going Astral when my phone rings, rings with 'oh shit' tone custom ring tone sounding. I answer it and the Prof needs me at a graveyard about an hour away. Something to with spirits. Most of the team is closer, some of them are with him, some were checking out something 20 minutes away, but it's spirits so if I could Astral Project there then it would be great. As he's talking I feel my powers expanding, getting ready to take on the weird.

I know where he is (or close enough) and refocus on getting Astral (because it's an hour away) and maybe 10 minutes later I'm leaving my body in zooming there. I get in the general area, find the specific area, nod hello to someone's spirit guide (who doesn't mess it up with other spirits) and attack a spirit. I'm no real expert in a fight, but I've got some basic training and the spirit didn't expect anyone to fight it from this side so I surprise it. I smack it, it smacks me, the people in the real world do their things, the spirit guide sits on its ass (as always) and we get the job done. I even hit it with a powerful mind bolt, one that leaves me totally wiped, but that thing knew how to land a hit. Returning to my body I've got a bloody nose, black eye, and I'm aching in places. Of course the night isn't over. I clean myself (got to love first aid) and head to the campus. I get there first, because I'm physically closer, but that only means I can set up things to record the reading and stuff. I know I won't have time to mediate.

The rest of the team gets there (with the Prof's equipment) and... Well I'll call this guy Preppy - Preppy makes a snide comment about how it's nice that I finally showed up.

Preppy is my least favourite member of the team - even worse than the "I'm just going to sit here and watch" spirit guide. Yeah, Flamer's an asshole with a middle school mindset and a love of fires, but at least he doesn't pretend to be anything else. He's open about being an asshole and isn't a mean asshole, more lacking social skills than anything else. Preppy, well he went to the right Prep School (hence the nickname) and his family has money. Not "live in the jet set off your trust fund money" but there's wealth there. He sometimes hints that he should be at a more prestigous (read: expensive) college, but get him drunk (which isn't hard to do) and ask the right questions and you'll find out why he's slumming it here.

Preppy has a seal juvvie record. Underage drinking, DUI, driving without a license, and a few other things. Enough that if he had had a public defender he would have gotten a couple of years (especially for that DUI when he'd already lost his license and was on probation). Instead he got rehab (twice!) and community service at a charity a friend of his mom runs. His job? Fundraising. See if you do community service there the woman in charge either works you like a slave or you raise thousands (notice that s at the end thousand - a single grand won't cut it) of dollars. His parents wrote a cheque, he goofed off for the right number of hours, and it took his lawyer sitting him down and explaining the concept of "minatory minimums for repeat offenders" to get Preppy to clean up his act. At least until his probation was over.

Preppy can be charming and social, but under all that he's an asshole who thinks his family's money makes better than the rest of us. Preppy knows that I was there in Astral, that I've done that before, and he can see that I took some heavy punches, but he still needles me because he can. So I make a comment, something along the lines of "Oh, were you at the fight? I didn't notice you doing anything there" and the Prof pours calming oil on troubled waters before it goes anywhere. We focus on the things that matter, like documenting this latest case and working out why we were scattered when the shit went down. That last bit was the most important bit: none of does well one on one against the supernatural We work well as a group, but alone we're just above people in a horror movie who wander off and get taken one at a time. There's a lot of talk about that, and some thinking about what went wrong.

Now it's Wednesday and I'm putting finishing touches on those painting while trying to get more visions like I got on Monday. Maybe I'll go Astral tonight but maybe not. Last night it mattered - I could have seen (maybe stopped) what I saw in that vision, but that's already happened. I can't stop it now, so there's no rush, and I still ache from the fight.

[Nemesis]

I'm not an artist myself though I have posed for some of the art students at my school. So I thought that was an interesting fact about your week.

Astral travel can be very dangerous. I find that I always attract dark things when I try it. Haven't done it in a couple of years now.

Keep going, it's refreshing to know that someone is still fighting the good fight.

[Jack_Fisher]

Thanks for replying.

When I go Astral I rarely, almost never, do anything but go to places on this world, if that makes sense. And it's not like I can do it at the drop of a hat. If there's nothing weird involved I can barely do it.

Meanwhile, I'm still hurting. That spirit pounded me hard and I'm still recovering. I'm going for visions more than actively going places, but I'm still searching for that monster I saw.

Jack

[Jack_Fisher]

Yeah, having to explain a messed up face is fun. Me, I go with the classic method of lying: make the lie something self-derogatory. I tell people that I was walking home drunk, tripped over my own two feet, face planted on asphalt, walked the rest of the way home, and didn't even notice that I was hurt until I woke up the next morning. You see if I had said something about fighting off a mugger people might have called bullshit, but tripping while plastered? Who would ever say something like that if it wasn't true?

But being hurt sucks, so on Thursday I made a call to... let's call her Healer. Healer used to do what we do, with a group of friends, but 20 or 30 years ago something went wrong and the rest of her group ended up dead. She spent time in a hospital, then in a mental hospital, and now you could call her a mercenary healer. You pay her, she heals you, but only if she knows you and by appointment only. Her nightmare is having someone point a gun to head and demand she heal someone when she's totally wiped. She always hold something in reserve, and it takes major $$$$ to get her to use that reserve, but other than that she earns big bucks every day by patching people up.

So I call her, and she could fit me in this morning, and pay her a lot of cash in exchange for her patching me up. But it's worth it. She mentioned that Preppy had been by on Wednesday, getting something very minor fixed, but Preppy has more cash than I ever will.

And yes, was an event happening last weekend and I had a booth, selling my art; mostly prints. The season is really winding down but there's still time to make some cash before the Halloween sales bit hit. And I've been getting a few more visions, but it's hard, so Sunday night, after the event closed at 9:00 (local time - it's after midnight here now), I drove through the areas I've been Seeing. Not stopping, not really slowing down, I cruised through the areas. Now I've got had physical eyes on the buildings my visions might get better.

Or maybe not.

Visions are like that.

So the hunt is still on.

Jack

[Kermode]

I get that sometimes our gifts aren't really ours to control.

Sometimes it seems more like I'm an agent of my gifts rather than my gifts serving me.

[Jack_Fisher]

Don't I know it.

Except for visions my gifts are most under control, but they play havoc with my life all through high school and the first of college. Without them I'd have a much different life.

With them I'm that weird guy who paints weird pictures. Without them I'd be normal.

Jack

[Kermode]

Normal is certainly less interesting.

But there are days I could deal with less interesting.

Yesterday a politician seeking election approached me and shook my hand without asking. I was trying to find a way to deflect him by explaining I don't have a vote, but it was too late, I saw ... things.

Now I'm stuck trying to figure out if I just met a monster or its victim.

[Jack_Fisher]

And I'll bet he's a regular guy with no connection to the weird or supernatural...

Taking on the supernatural, that's easier than taking on regular people. Even if you don't know what it is or it's place in the world you know it's weird. And those things usually give a sign of being good or evil, but normal folks? They blend in, no matter how evil they are.

And supernatural things fade away when you take them down, but normal people? That's murder with the cops doing their job to catch the murderer.

But enough stalling on my part. I'm going to have to act soon. I'm thinking about visiting those two places in Astral, scouting them out.

Pros of doing this way: unless there's ghosts or other supernatural things hanging around I should be perfectly safe.

Cons: I'll only have a couple a minutes at each site, then I'll be more or less tapped for the day. Which is why I'm planning to do it at night, so I can mediate a bit then sleep afterwards.

Jack

[Kermode]

Totally.

Had he been a Denon or a devil or a dragon or even just a gifted human, I'd have known the moment our hands touched what he was.

But instead, I have a vision, a child in a cell, a bed with shackles and a camera.

While there is the obvious there, I have to try to figure out if he is the child I saw, or if he is looking at the child.

[Jack_Fisher]

I wish you luck with that. Was the camera a digital one? If so you might want to consult friends who are experts at computers. Sadly I am not an expert on them, but I hear terms such as metadata and that might help your search.

On my end of things, the universe is yanking my chain. Seriously yanking it to the point that I was to scream in frustration.

Tonight I did that Astral recognisance. I focused for minute after minute, getting my head in the right place to leave my body, and I was out. I zoomed to the first place, the one I had located via Clairvoyance, and yes, there was leather and pain there.

And a poster that read (in big letters, taking up three feet on the wall):
Sane.
Safe.
Consensual.

While reading that, I heard some people talking about the limits for a scene they were going do, making sure that none of the people involved were pushed beyond their comfort zone. No, there was nothing safe or consensual in what I Saw, let allow sane. These people were having a good time, doing what they wanted to, and I'm not going to judge them since they were all adults who know what they are doing.

This was clearly a false lead. Off to the place I had first spotted with Precognition. Zooming through the world, avoiding things I barely saw in time to avoid, going all out to get there before I had to return to my body, finding the outside of the building and zooming inside. Inside where...

Inside where I saw almost exactly what I had seen at the first place. I was standing there, thinking "WTF" when someone dropped a ball. Now I don't know if anyone on this board has ever been at an SCA event. I have, mostly working a booth (doing caricatures with archaic looking pens while selling "old" looking prints; some SCA people are like cosplayers when it comes to getting art of their costumes) or helping at a friend's booth (like Guy - the leather worker who accidentally got me started on this quest). If you haven't been there, there's something that really catches your attention at an SCA event - someone yelling "Hold!".

One shouted word - HOLD - and all the people on field stop what they're doing, but so do most of the people on merchant's row - and almost everyone else who hears it. The members selling things, most of the customers, they freeze in place. Some of them look around, trying to see if they could help without getting in the way. Well the same thing happened when that ball dropped. Everyone froze. The closest people stopped what they were doing to help the girl out of her leather (which was mostly all she was wearing).

I was wondering "WTF", but luckily someone whispered a question and his partner answered that the ball was a kind of safeword used when the sub didn't have use of her mouth. By dropping the ball she had said her safeword and everybody wanted to help make sure she was okay.

Again, what I saw had nothing to do safewords. Or safe anything.

So weeks of getting visions and all I've learnt is that some parents still take a belt to their kids and the town has two Leather Clubs that I never knew existed. Gee, thanks universe for pointing me in totally the wrong direction.

Twice.

So now I'm looking for a new way to trace the Monster down. I'm going to having to try visions again, but who knows what I'll get this time when I focus on leather and pain? I'm thinking that maybe the problem is that it hasn't happened yet, so there's nothing for my Clairvoyance to find. This means my Clairvoyance homes in on current examples of leather and pain and once I get that fix my Precognition follows that, because that fix is what I'm unconsciously focusing on.

But I don't really have much to go on. I can't track down the source of leather; it was picked up at an SCA event and those people use leather (and "pleather") from every source you can imagine. For all I know the piece that triggered that first vision is years old, recycled from something by someone who wanted to try leather working, and how could I trace it to the section of leather it once belonged to? I'm wrapping my head around this and not getting many clues. Meanwhile, I have to mediate, then deep mediate, on the off chance that I'll have vision while I'm sleeping.

Jack

[Kermode]

Sometimes, if it wasn't for the false leads, you'd get no leads at all.

[Jack_Fisher]

Yeah, that happens, and now I'm in the "no leads maybe I'll get a vision" camp.

Jack

[Kermode]

Being an artist, do you depicted your visions much? I'd love to be able to draw a clear representation of what I saw the other day, help me understand it.

[Jack_Fisher]

No, and yes. No in that I rarely focus on drawing what I see. Yes in that they work themselves in to what I am drawing / painting.

It's weird like that.

[Athena]

If you could do a realistic drawing of what you saw, visual recognition technology might be able to assist in narrowing down who you were seeing.

[Jack_Fisher]

If you could do a realistic drawing of what you saw, visual recognition technology might be able to assist in narrowing down who you were seeing.

It might - but it's not like I can post a wanted poster. Most sketches are lousy when it comes to face recognition and I don't have access to police computers. Also the face I saw... well it was shaded by emotions...

But thanks - this is a great idea. I'll play around with it and see if I can make it work somehow.

And I'm open to new approaches because my visions aren't helping. Last one I got was of a future "parental conversation" involving a belt, bare backside, and $123.21 overage on cell phone bill. I can't even report that one to social services because it hasn't happened yet, but even if I did I'm sure I'll get the same old "this isn't proof of abuse or enough to open a file" reply I got the last few times.

Sigh. Between that vision of the human monster and the ones of "parental conversations with belts" that social services doesn't think are worth opening a file about I'm learning that the world is a darker place than I wish to believe. Even without the Weird stalking us there is plenty of darkness to go around.

Jack

[Athena]

While you're playing around with the idea, remember that in this day and age, you don't need access to a police database. Indeed, that would be a limited search that might not reveal anything if the perpetrator had no history with the police.

Consider instead sources such as facebook, twitter, reddit, pinterest, online class photos and year books. There is a wealth of publicly available data available and very few people have nil presence on the internet these days.

Good luck and happy hunting.

[Jack_Fisher]

So a near disaster sparked a new idea, one building on suggestions from this page and an off-handed comment from Preppy.

Earlier tonight the crew was together working on a case file. Someone had contacted us about something odd, involving a long deceased great aunt whose ring wasn't supposed to pass out the family but there was divorce and, well to cut a long story short, we were all out at an old (but still active) graveyard with the usual gear taking lots of readings while Spirit Guide asked around. We were tracking down what we thought was happening when we rounded a mausoleum (the late great aunt had $$$$ and is buried in the money section of that graveyard) and we practically bumped into some graveyard ghouls. We weren't expecting them, they weren't expecting up, a short time later we're a bit banged up and there are a few less graveyard ghouls around (most of them ran, carrying their wounded and the body they dug up). We had to get out fast ourselves - Flamer is great in a fight, but his pyro tactics really show up at night. That and maybe a couple of guns got emptied, which isn't the best way of dealing with graveyard ghouls, but when the blood's pounding some of the crew fallback on firearms. Not me; but everyone knows I barely know how to fire a gun.

Anyway, I carry my phone in my jacket pocket and either one of the times I was clocked by a ghoul or when I back flipped into a tombstone my phone because a write off. It's no big deal because I only use PoS phones (too many bad experiences with EMPs to waste cash on a good one). The last couple phones, well the campus has a place where you can drop your phone off for recycling and it's not too hard to get into that box, not when all you're looking for is a cheap Android clone. Wipe the phone, put my SIM card in, do a restore from a cloud backup, and I'm back in business.

When I mentioned my phone was cracked, Preppy checked his (a latest model iPhone that he barely knows how to use) and started doing a cloud back. He said something about getting a girl's number that afternoon and if he lost it he would have to ask around all his friends about her - which would send the wrong message. Preppy said something about having to come up with an excuse to look for her if he had lost her number. I pointed out that most of my contacts were business ones, and I'd be out money if I hadn't backed it regularly. Out money with pissed off clients wondering when they were going to get their commissions.

When I got back from getting patched up (informally in the Prof's lab, no hospital visit required) I got to thinking. What kind of excuse could I use to look for someone whose face I've only seen twisted by emotions? It took a bit, but I came up with something:
Halloween prints.

I spent time working, coming up with a series of sketches based on what I Saw. None of them should really look like him, what with his face all twisted up and heavy emotion running through the sketch, but maybe they looked close enough for someone who knows him.

Now I'm blasting social media, asking for people in the artistic community to help (and artists know people from lots of difference areas). I've scanned the sketches in and the basic pitch is that I broke my phone (again - people know I break phones) and something didn't get backed. Back a while ago, while working a booth at farmer's market, this guy asked me for some prints for Halloween - something to put up at a Halloween party. I did some caricatures and he signed off on getting prints - giving me a deposit - but now I've lost his contact info and all I have are the caricatures I did. The print order is already in, the deposit's spent, and now I need to get in touch with him before Halloween so he can get his prints and I can get the rest of the money.

That bit about needing the rest of the money, that's a minor thing in the post. Artists would know what I'm talking but most people would think I'm being greedy or something. I mostly described it as 'finishing the transaction' but the artists who know me know what I mean about that. Many of them have prints or other custom art that was never picked up and paid for. Art they can't sell. I mean, you might want a Christmas card with your kids drawn on it, but who else would pay for cards with your kids on them?

The only flaw in this plan is I had to post some art on the net. Even with my watermark and copyright notice I know those sketches are going to get forwarded around (which I'm hoping for) and used for things (which shouldn't happen). I don't know what it is with people, but most people think any picture on the internet is in the public domain and they can use it anyway they want without paying me for using it. Or alter it when they want. It's like they never heard of the Berne Convention or inherent artistic rights...

But that's a small thing if I can track him down. I'm actually getting some of the prints made, in case I need to show them around, which is costing money I'll never see again. And I might need to visit Healer again before I confront the guy, but it'll be money well spent. Those sketches have already been shared on several tumblers, a couple of instragrams, some twitter accounts, and after I posted them in every facebook I'm in I started getting notifications that they'll being shared there.

Here's hoping the "contact me if you know this" message is being shared as well. Of course I don't have all my contact info there, but someone wants to contact me electronically they can. I've even had some people who want "witch versions" or "devil me up" drawings, but most of them seem to think that art should be free (at least they balk when I sent them my rates).

Hopefully social media can find the guy for me. The visions sure aren't helping.

Jack