[end of the first day of the jaunt] Tell me baby, how do I turn my back on you, tell me how to leave

[finalizes]

Can we leave the immediate area of where any of us showed up safely?

And does anyone know or knows how to find out which direction would be best to head into if one wants to find the closest free wolf packs?

[When they arrived he figured that he would just stick with his pack and sometimes return to Liminal and it would be good, but he's already fed up with all the noise and all the humans. Plus he could really use some off-time from all this human-mind business. Just running with a wolf pack for a few days or more sounds perfect.

He just needs to find one and hope that it all works out.]

Comments

[truerevelation]

The concert itself's on the edge of the forest, it's a state park... Dunno what the wildlife situation's like out there - the local rangers would be the folks who know if there's any packs in the area. But if ya wanna go stretch your legs or, I dunno, go ask the locals if they've smelt anything funny, seems like a good place to start?

[finalizes]

Humans can't smell that well.

[He knows how human bodies work. He has one. They are positively deaf when it comes to anything but sight.]

Where can I find those rangers?

[truerevelation]

I was thinkin' the fuzzy kind of locals, if you're going looking for packs in the area... as for the rangers? Probably gonna find all that kinda stuff around the park entrance. Information stations and exhibits and everything like that.

[finalizes]

Most animals with a good sense of smell don't have territories large enough to make their information something I couldn't find out for myself. [As for other senses, though... his voice reflects him thinking what animals he could look out for to acquire information from that spans larger areas. Some species of larger or wide-roaming bird, probably. Maybe certain species of prey mammals, if the humans here let them roam freely enough. Assuming any of those want to talk to him.] I'll look into it.

How do I find the park entrance?

[truerevelation]

Fair enough, yeah. [It was worth a thought anyway. As it is, Kanji doesn't really have the time to make his overlay deal with the after effects of his own animal forms...] Hope somethin' works out.

Follow the road between the camp 'n the local town? There oughta be signs along there somewhere...

[finalizes]

[...] What would such a sign look like?

[He's going to have to drag someone along to help him identify the right signs. Maybe Gale. Gale could need some getting out right now. Even if the tracking in question is just a question of finding the right sign and the right human.]

[truerevelation]

[To be honest, Kanji'd probably agree with that sentiment.]

Man. Uh. Good question... Signposts, arrows... [Casey might have been looking on his way to the concert venue, but as for park specific information signs, Kanji's wondering what would be relevant.]

[professorwolf]

If I recall, er, there aren't actually many wolves in California... I think they were just reintroducing them, in my time, twenty years later. I didn't live here, though, so take that with a grain of salt.

You may find the wolves here a bit disappointing, though. They probably won't understand you, and they won't have... mmm, the same sensibilities you do.

[finalizes]

If there are none in California, where would be the next closest area that they might live in? [Someone is from Europe and expects to be able to blow or run everywhere in the wider area within the six weeks that he assumes the jaunt to last.]

They'll be wolves, not werewolves. They aren't supposed to be able to think with a human-mind. That is why I want to find them.

[professorwolf]

Laughs-at-the-Storm, California is... very big. A couple of countries that you're used to will fit inside it. You'll be gone for weeks.

[And he may be a bit dismayed at the idea of his pack splitting up-- so many of them are still themselves this Jaunt. He'll let him go if Laughs really wants to, but he'll be sad.]

[finalizes]

I have the storm form.

[Which is faster than a wolf runs, though it depends more heavily on what currents there are in the air already.

He'd rather not be separated from his pack for all of the jaunt, especially with how badly Gale is doing right now. But he also needs to be among proper wolves, or at least Lupi. People who won't think with their human-mind before anything else.]

[professorwolf]

[Lyall is silent for a moment. Then he asks,]

If there are wolves about, I'd say go east and north, into the mountains. They'd be there. But can you manage to wait just another day? Maybe we can do something, the four of us still ourselves, tomorrow and then run together tomorrow evening, and then you can go.

[He doesn't want to waste the Jaunt time together.]

[finalizes]

We could all go together.

[He would like that, and he can stay around another day for the sake of the pack. He feels like all of them could need some running with wolves, so it's not like it would be bad for them, either.]

[theflyingone]

[ Sometimes, not often, he feels the longing to slip into wolf form and dash across the land, forgetting about where the Jaunt itself is most likely to take place. He'd escaped a little on the last Jaunt, though by horse. However, he is not a true werewolf; he could choose not to use the form he'd retained after a Jaunt ever again, if he wanted. Unlike his Infiltrator, he did not live and breathe a werewolf's existence, and the moon did not rule him. ]

There is a bookstore in the city. Likely there is a library as well. You should be able to find maps of the area and books on wolf territories. Be careful, however. On the road, I saw a sign warning about mountain lions.

[finalizes]

[That was like the least useful advice of them all to Laughs, who cannot read to save his life. He'll consider the information about mountain lions, though.]

How big are mountain lions?

[theflyingone]

I do not know, but the library should have pictures. I mean, photographs—paintings made by a device that sees the world as it is.

[finalizes]

Pictures don't show you how big something is, though.

[Aside from how would he find a picture of something that he doesn't know the looks of?]

[theflyingone]

If the lion is next to a fence, you might get a sense of how large it is. Anyway, you could ask one of the librarians to help you search. There are books that are entirely made of photographs.

[finalizes]

[He's still not sure if he wants to head to a library and interact with the people there (however he would identify one, but that's probably an asking around thing). To be fair librarians probably deal with weirder people than werewolves who don't know how to human very well daily. Because while he still doubts that it would help for scale - fences, like almost everything are differently sized in different countries and areas in his experience - , it might at least help with knowing what they look like.]

I might try it.

Maybe someone can [...] google it for me, too. [Because obviously google has always been there.]

[neverfeltthatway]

The immediate area, almost certainly. However, it's unclear whether there are any restrictions on how far we might be able to go. I've always been interested if I'd find it difficult to, say, board a plane while I'm here. I'd test it, if it weren't certain to get my overlay in trouble after we left.

If you're just moving out to the wilderness, however, I would think you should be fine.

[finalizes]

Can't you get someone else to test it for you?

[And that's very useful. Yay for running far and wide.]

[neverfeltthatway]

It's possible the Arcana would punish someone for trying to leave the relevant confines of the jaunt. Perhaps not likely, but it's not without precedent. So I'd prefer to test it myself, when I get a chance - I don't plan to ask someone else to take that risk.

[If they take it on themselves, he won't try to stop them either. That's their decision. But if someone is punished by the Trumps, it won't be on his behalf.]

[finalizes]

...What would such a punishment look like?

[He's going to go anyway, but it's always good to know what you're gambling with.]

[private]// psychic protection ii

[neverfeltthatway]

Once when we rebelled - although I can't tell you exactly what that phrase means, as none of us remember - we were sent to Moebius, where we were tortured and killed by our fellow infiltrators again and again in a time loop, until we managed to kill all of them first, before we had to start again.

Once, the majority of Travelers went on strike, and refused to make any attempt to solve the jaunt, instead only trying to escape. After a couple months of ineffectiveness and frustration, about two thirds of us gave up. The jaunt ended, and we never saw anyone who gave up again.

Those are the main examples. I can't say what the Arcana might do to an individual who looks like he's trying to escape. If enough people are still playing that it doesn't disrupt their game, maybe nothing. Maybe you just won't be able to get very far. But I wouldn't bet anyone else on the chance their response is that benign.

[private]

[finalizes]

So they rewarded those who kept trying to escape until the end?