Friday Snippet 8.10.07
(This is being posted early because I will not be near a computer on Friday itself. I am dating it Friday, though, for the sake of argument.)
This snippet is going up not because it's in order, but because many people are curious about how Watcher magic works. Also because I don't have a ton of time right now, and so am grabbing a snippet that looks cool so that you are all happy to even have a snippet. (If I were to search too much to try to find my place and make that a workable snip, you might not get one at all this week.)
Enjoy, and have a great weekend!Reminder: This material is copyrighted by me, and is still in draft form. It may be altered or even cut before the final, hopefully published, version. Please do not reproduce it anywhere, in any form.
I had first been to Vegas to attend an annual Watcher convention with my Uncle and brother. Everyone who could make it out came to discuss issues that our regional boards couldn’t handle, meet the newly initiated, and just socialize. Being around only Watchers and Watcher-kin seemed a relief to some of our older members.
It was also a good way for us to monitor which of our number needed to retire before they got overwhelmed by the alarms in their heads calling them to duty. Most Watchers are normal, ordinary people who can do a few extraordinary things. On occasion some of us, like poor Sarah Winchester, go a bit...well, crazy. Usually those who can do more than a few extraordinary things. The more power we have, the more likely we are to go crazy.
Hence Vegas.
Someone, long before I was a Watcher and before Vegas had quite the reputation for craziness it had today, decided that the best place to hide our most eccentric members was in plain sight. Two obvious locations came to mind, both of which were also among the areas that needed the most Watching: Las Vegas and Hollywood.
While normal, Mundane kids were planning their careers at school, Rich and I spent the time trying to figure out what jobs we could do that would allow us enough free time to do our Watcher duties. No corporate careers for us. I ended up getting a basic liberal arts degree from San Jose State and playing around with various temp jobs before moving to Vegas—where I put my degree to immeasurable use as a cocktail waitress.
Rich moved to Hollywood, got a theater arts degree, and never looked back. He worked there now, on two counts: officially, he was a Fight Choreographer and Action Consultant. On a magical level, he Watched for trouble on location. He brought home some horror stories every holiday about near-accidents that he managed to prevent. Somehow he had a knack for getting himself assigned to the movies with large action scenes or dangerous stunts. A couple of important people on the various stunt teams called him their lucky charm, saying that they wouldn’t work on a movie if he didn’t. They claimed he was a kind of guardian angel keeping them from harm.
They didn’t know the half of it.
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