Mickey was in my room today.

I didn't see him, but I smelled the son-of a-bitch.

I'd just gone out for a dip in the pool and diving exercises, and when I got back to my room I smelled that something was up. I've been swimming every day, as Bruce recommends spending as much time as possible in or under the water when human. He figures that learning to maximize the use of the muscles in a different medium helps a new werewolf to acclimate to another form. He says that if you concentrate when you are a wolf, it feels somewhat like being underwater, like you can see things, and react to them, but you aren't always in control, and everything feels foreign. Supposedly, when I change, if I do my best to imagine that I am not shifting form, just shifting mediums, it will help me maintain an element of control, and be able to deal with the rage that overtakes me in a more constructive manner.

According to him, if I actively attempt to rethink my transformation as not a loss of control, but a transition into a different plane of existence, I could be the better for it. It's the difference between being pushed into a raging river, or easing into a warm pool. When I begin to change, I must look at it like entering the water on my own terms. Once I am in the water, everything will look slightly different, my motion and breathing patterns will be altered, and I need to behave, react and think differently in order to survive. I need to understand that the pool is a metaphor for what I have become, and everytime I enter it, I am in fact entering a part of myself.

With that in mind, I should probably feel more guilty than I do about about pissing in it so much.

Ah, well.

When a man's gotta go, a man's gotta go.

Plus, the purebloods all have to clear out when I want to swim, and the pool is there for the protegee. I'm sure some of them bitch about it, but fuck 'em, I'm marking my territory. I didn't see any of them fighting in the arena for crying out loud.

Still, I couldn't figure out what Mickey wanted in my room. According to the scent trail, he sat at my computer for a while, stood in front of my clothes dresser, opened and closed all the drawers, and messed around with my bed, possibly lifting up my mattress. I didn't have anything under there, but it seems he was looking for something.

I think we're gonna have to have a little chat.