I've been in Monterey observing the nomads and keeping an eye out for supernatural phenomenon for three days now. It seems that there are twenty-four members of the caravan, most of whom belong to some smaller social cluster. There are eight who mostly stick to musical performances, five magicians, five more who sold handmade jewelry and other such items, three artists (yes, I know they're all technically "artists", but you know what I mean), one who plays games ranging from chess to Magic: the Gathering, one who tells fortunes, and one who seems only to wander the city. He looks perfectly nonchalant, but every time I observe this last member I get the feeling that he is carefully watching everyone and everything. Demographically speaking there's relatively even mix of genders and races, but when it comes to age there's a definite slant toward youth. I'd say there's only six or seven members that look over thirty, and a few of the younger ones look like they might even be preteens. The lore on nomads does include some beings that are immortal or which regain lost youth by feeding on others. On the other hand, life as a street performer probably gets harder with old age.
Looking at the nomads from a less clinical and on a more individual perspective (which is the kind of perspective that you can't do without in this work), there are a few other details to note. For starters, the appearance of each one is somehow edgy. It's hard to explain because they don't really have a consistent style, but all of them stand out. Some are gothic, some look like hipsters, some dress like they're from different decades, and others seem to follow some fashion which is either entirely their own or which I simply haven't heard of. I don't really know that much about fashion, so I have no idea how likely either possibility is. I also noticed that they seem to have complementary roles. A few members struck me as mildly autistic, and these ones usually were with two specific people: one who helped them if something or someone gave them trouble and one highly sociable member who handled the public. Not only that, but I've noticed that many of them complement each other on an artistic level. When it comes to the musicians that's to be expected, but it also applies to the vendors, the painters, and even the player. Certain motifs (so far I've noticed the nightingale, the fool, the frog, the coyote, and the cherry blossom, but I'm sure there are others) tend to appear in their drawings, and sometimes those images even seem to fit together like pieces in a puzzle as if a coyote in one painting were chasing a nightingale in another. Not to mention that whenever I observe them I get the feeling that they're...in on some big joke or something.
Since the werewolf incident, I decided to upgrade my equipment. Based on some notes from the agency's archive I was able to cobble together a camera that measures arcane energy. Sort of. When it comes to the normal physical process it just takes and immediately prints out a black and white image, but the arcane mechanisms will add color based on the presence of supernatural energy so that the more mojo something has the more vivid the color. Also, the frame of the picture is lined with runes that only become visible if they get a jolt from the camera. Of course, I still suck at reading runes so most of what I've gotten with the nomads has been that they're magical. There aren't any glaringly obvious signs that they're evil, but that could just mean my equipment sucks. Or that I can't read it properly.
Mining information from local news reports, social media, and the police scanner will take some more time and I'm still waiting on my contact at the agency, but...well there is something else worth mentioning. The musical performers includes a girl in her late teens or early twenties. She has blue hair, a green scarf, and a hippogriff tattoo on her left inner wrist. She's a singer and a dancer. And I can't get her out of my head. It's actually kind of scary, not to mention embarrassing. I mean, I've had crushes before, but they were never like this. This is...manic. I keep catching myself staring at surveillance pictures of her, and I can't get any of her songs out of my head. Even the ones that aren't in English. I've been considering the possibility that she's a succubus, but this is the only thing that points in that direction. I didn't want to mention it, but I figure it would unprofessional not to include a potentially important detail just because I'm embarrassed by it.
Anyway, I need to go for a walk. I've been finding it difficult to sit still.
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