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Debriefing & War Room
- "In preparing for battle I have always found that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable."
- - -Dwight D. Eisenhower
The Magic Box has been set up with beers, cold waters and Eris might've asked Raquel to provide refreshments since this might take a while. There are notepads and pencils on the table and a massive 6 foot by 5-foot map that has been tacked to a wall of the greater Prospect area, including a large chunk of the desert. A few spots are marked with tacks and red yarn runs between them. Eris is already in the room, adding the last few pushpins and sucking down a beer. The Elder Garou frowning at the oversized map.
Emi is rather ceremonially dressed, she doesn't say much but investigates the surroundings with her eyes. It was a bit obvious for those who knew her, the assassin just got back from Japan or dealing with Hengeyokai. Still carrying her blade on her, she stepped in wooden geta sandals as her kimono was wonderful and dark at the same time.
Shade heard of something going down, and well the First Teamer was getting bored walking around the building all the time. So he decides to show up and see how he can help in some way. He was dressed as he could usually be found. Black boots, pants, t-shirt. His fang dagger was strapped to his thigh and seems to be the only weapon he carries.
Pax is here, tucked into a high-backed chair in the living room in a simple white t-shirt and some wrinkled jeans that look like they'd been pulled on in something of a rush. In one hand is a glass of some milky white liquid, while the other has a single black claw extended, which he's currently using to pick at some leftover food between his teeth while everything gets themselves settled in and whatnot. Thus far, he's not really even glanced at the map and seems to be more concerned with whatever is in that glass than his surroundings.
Stefan is sitting in his starched and pressed clothing with a thin laptop in front of him. On the screen, he has brought up a map of Prospect, and watches Eris mark different areas and echoes it on his screen. He has a beer in front of him, sitting on a makeshift coaster made from a scrap of cardboard from the back of one of the pads. His eyes go to the ones entering for a quick glance while he works.
Andone is dressed fairly casually, pacing in and standing off to the side as people make their ways in. He's dressed.. plainly. Like a guy who's going for a casual business lunch. He scratches a bit at his right temple but otherwise remains silent now, letting those with more rank and experience lead the conversation.
One of the few who are not like the rest, Kadar arrives and makes his way into the Magic Box with a wary expression. His dark gaze darts around the room, considering how large it is and if it IS big enough. No. It really isn't, not with this many people anyway. None the less, the Mokole sidles inside and finds a nice wall near the door to press his back against. Wearing his normal attire of hide and bones, he appears more like a native straight out of African than some guy who has been in the city for years now. Crossing his arms, the Dragon observes.
Poppet smiles as she makes her way inside as she offers a wave to everyone and moves to find a seat as she looks around.
Raquel appears unusually refreshed. She shouldn't! Vegas was extremely draining as it was satisfying. Senor Wombat helped her get the restful sleep she surely doesn't deserve. She's rocking her own pink fuzzy bathrobe, flannel pajama pants, and those damnable pink fuzzy hoof coverings. Coolers are full of a variety of bottled beverages, and meat pies designed to satisfy the more carnivorous beasties lie side by side with hors d'oeuvres and finger desserts.
Sammy swaggers in behind Alena, letting his younger packmate lead the way tonight. This is her gig, he's just along for the ride and to see what the pretty has been up to. He takes a minute to wander around the magic shop when he gets there and opens up a few packages with no clear indication of whether he intends to pay for them. By the time he catches back up to Alena, he is sporting a very poor pair of vampire teeth and he has fake blood running down his misshapen chin and onto his t-shirt which reads in bold letters, BITE ME. "Loosh pwetty, Imma vamphire, mufferfucker."
Pembroke sitting back, relaxing and listening. Dressed casual and nomming snacks and coffee. He's a little ragged, apparently not getting the best of sleep, but none the worse for wear.
Alena arrived alongside Sammy, the youngest member of the group looking to the older man for cues, and almost instantly regrets it.
Most of what Eris is marking off on the map seems centered South by Southeast of the Location, most, know is important to the Spirals and their Kin. There are other markers, of course, but they seem to have less detail than what Eris is setting up. The pale Elder Ragabash looks back over her shoulder and opens her mouth then stops. "Oh..hey." She greets, glancing over each new face before looking back to her Map and she gestures to the map. "While we speak I'm going to be marking off locations. I'm also going to suggest folks take pencils since as I understand it a lot of people have been out there looking into things." Eris sets the last of the push pins aside and turns to the room at Large. "I suspect the new faces won't have a lot to add, and that's fine but that doesn't mean we don't need you. This situation just keeps getting bigger and more fucked up the more I learn about it. I'll kick us off.." She says and turns moving over to the Map and gestures with an arm towards the large spot that she's pinned out. "This is what My Alpha, Azoth and myself went to investigate. This area seems to be a hotbed of but we'll get into that. Sometimes at the end of November, we went to investigate an old abandoned Copper Mine to start our investigation. What we found there is.. Troubling."
Eris takes a red wax pen from next to the pins and she draws a line of X's. "About twenty miles long and varying heights, on the Umbral side of this location we found a thickening of the Gauntlet that was almost impenetrable. The massive wall here was not just a thickening of the Gauntlet but an actual wall. The whole area seems to have been .. for lack of a better term, sucked dry. The umbral area is sort of washed-out faded grey, it matches the wall and a lot of the landscape. We could observe no spiritual activity. We ent to look closer and found both on the ground and at random in the sky, there are invisible traps. Unfortunately, we managed to trigger one and as the Theurges informed me they felt their gnostic essences flow out of them forcibly. That does seem to hold with what we were able to observe. We noticed that they were set out around the Copper Mine and we detected that there were several hundred in and around the area and leading up to the wall as well."
"I also investigated by myself the area to the NorthEast and I encountered an unusual number of Chaos Monitors around a rather large facility out that direction. I chose not to enter on my own."
Emi wasn't too familiar with the proffered beers, but she picked up a sealed can and sniffed it as if trying to identify the spirit deep inside. It was probably one of the Pentex breweries, Kingfisher or some other. She was judging it, weighing the can in her hand and feeling the heaviness. It could be used as a weapon, Emi would just need to throw it like a baseball with the right curvature. Smacking someone unaware in the face, she wondered if she had enough force to severe vertebrae in the neck. She cracked the beer open and sat down, listening to Eris.
Words could be said about investigating the living chi in the area or examining its past. But the beer was too good as Emi took another sip. She played shut up and listen. Always an outsider looking in.
Shade shifts his weight and finds someplace to settle in as takes mental notes, for now, not butting in with anything just yet.
Pax takes a sip of his drink, and as the explanation begins from Eris, he listens for a moment before commenting on his own findings. "Well, I tracked some recovered fetish from those fucks to a warehouse. It's apparently some group based in some fucked shard realm out in the Deep Umbra attempting to take control of the consensus and reality to sell the results to whoever the fuck wants to pay the most for them. Focused on removing 'aberrant' shit from reality. I killed some Mage over their warehouse shit, middleman type guy, and picked up a bunch of info from him to try to figure out more shit, but all the important shit was whitewashed, so nothing there. Got a book that might help find this fucking shard realm they're based in, though." Surely, that's a summarized version, and clearly full of various holes, but it's what Pax gives in this moment!
Sammy crosses his arms and tilts his head, doing his best to listen to what is going on. He seems to follow pretty well up until the point that Pax starts talking about shit like 'consensus' and 'shard realms'. He IS able to figure that taking out 'aberrants' is a bad thing, because being about as aberrant as you can get, this might actually affect him. Despite barely being able to understand things, the Galliard has a few tricks up his sleeve, so he pick up one of the pre-sharpened number 2 pencils (thanks teacher's pet) and breaks it in half, using the sharp end to shove one half of it painfully through his earlobe. He'll keep that for later to help him remember everything that was said.
"Eris, Alena, and I visited the Hispanic settlement run by a Manny. After creating a couple of diversions," Yes, Raquel would call poisoning small children with cookies a 'diversion'. "I was able to sneak into the basement and found a hidden wall. There's tunnels all the way to the airport, and I was able to pull records from a vampire's underground haven before burrowing a new skylight for him."
Alena nods to Raquel and smiles, leaning in to speak up just a bit. "I have made a contact on Mr. O'Connor's team," she begins, and then clears her throat. "Mr. O'COnnor, the Councilman. He's trying for a seat at the House and thinks that working with the group that is purchasing these areas will get him there. It's some sort of military operation, science experiment... I was able to convince my contact to take me on and allow me to assist with digging up some more information on the contract..."
Poppet listens and watches as well umbra things are NOT in her wheelhouse and she really does not have to much to add to the conversation that is important.
Stefan glances around the room and gives the bare-bone facts of their encounter. "Sebastian and I were investigating one of the companies for Eris and attended an open house there. We were knocked out somehow and woke up in a lab-like facility where we were questioned and tortured. We were unable to use any of our powers." He pauses for a moment, and takes a deep breath before continues, "The unidentified female who was questioning us said we were at the D.M.I, the Dimensional Migratory Institute. She was the only staff we actually saw. Contact was kept to verbal instructions with robots serving our meals. Over the days we were there we went through constant attempts at behavior modification. We didn't realize until the day we escaped that we had been at the Copper Mine. The alarm was screaming something about a Dimensional Barrier Breeched, and that subjects were being terminated. The only name we heard was Director Omori." He glances over to Pembroke and lets him fill in the details.
Andone steps forward when it's his turn with the talking stick, nodding his head. "I have an advantage here over some of you." His eyes then wander over everyone present, amending his statement. "Most of you. The places where the gauntlet is thick is easier for me to pass through, not harder. I might be well suited to investigating some of these umbral barriers or areas of higher Weaver activity. Great Grandma Weaver's webs are fairly familiar to me. Myself and a lovely group of went to investigate Hidden Treasures LTD. They were holding an auction. There's a large company, Hart Wolfram, that's been purchasing up smaller companies and using them invite high profile VIPs in. There's definite weaver influence here but also something different. The Umbra there had a strange quality to it, bland. Not necessarily from the Weaver. I know the Weaver. There was also warding there, something similar to what a warlock could do but I couldn't find my way through it. I wasn't actually in the auction though, I spent most of my time snooping in the back gathering up files on lists of clients."
Staying in the back near the exit, Kadar frowns while the presentation goes on. He doesn't take a pencil or pen, and no paper. It may be a terrible stereotype, but the Dragon is not a planner. His mind doesn't work that way, too rooted in the present to extend long strategies. At least the Dragon nods while they explain what is going on, paying attention and listening to what all of the others are saying. Dark eyes scan over each as they speak in turn, but he remains completely silent.
Pembroke rubs his eyes, sips his energy drink, and eats some of Raquel's sweets. "The doctor that was examing us was Dr. Fredrickson. I don't think we were on Earth anymore. But the doorway did enter and exit apparently from the copper mine. Time was dilated. Our .. well, hard to say, but probably a month or so, to us, was three days for everyone else. Fortunately, they gave me someone to play with to demonstrate my abilities. I addicted her to me, and that gave her the incentive to do things they didn't expect. Their lab was assaulted by the living dark, and we escaped in the chaos."
Eris blinks at Pax, her brow raises. "All right, Mr. McVague." The Elder glances at the others and frowns a little bit. She looks back at the map, poi9nting to an area that is due west: A small area marked as 'El Paradiso' and a street marked 'Oak', above it is an area with a big ass plane tacked to it in the Northwest.
She frowns more as everyone talks. Giving out their information. When Stefan starts to speak she again marks the Copper Mine and an area just outside the copper mine and writes 'D.M.I'. Outside of the 'trap' marked area and marks it 'Pickup'. She adds locations when she's given them and her pretty face and drawn into a vicious scowl.
"All right." She turns back to the room. "Anything else anyone can think of. Connections that you can make now that we've gotten everyone's information." She points to the unconscious girl next to Pembroke. "Have you been able to get anything else out of her?"
Pembroke looks down at the girl. "Her brain has been near whitewashed. I can get.. glimmers. But it's a bit of a bitch stressing so much blank."
Eris nods to Pembroke.
Emi just shakes her head no, for additional information. Black hair waving as she gulped down her drink. She then snagged a meat-pie, she might of been unhelpful but she wasn't impolite. Winking at the creator of the pies.
Eris looks back at the map. "Well, one thing we obviously need to be concentrated on is wiping out these things that are influencing the Umbra. We also need someone to go after the "Shard Realm'." The pale Ragabash reaches up to be at the edge of the wax pencil still with a scowl. "And we need to figure out where the hell these people are seated in the real world." She takes a long minute to stare at the Airport and then hmms. "Also we need to consider what to do if we're dealing with Mages and Vampires and," She glances at Andone. "Not Mages?"
Pax scoffs at Andone's explanation, then proceeds to flip the man off with his free hand. "Oh yea, don't worry everyone, the Weaver spawn says this isn't connected to the Weaver. We're all fucking saved." Throwing his hands up, though slow enough to not spill his drink, Pax pushes up out of his seat so he can stalk a bit about the room. "So, I'll explain all this ship simply. There's some fucking company operating from an umbral base, in fucking space, that's trying to strengthen the Gauntlet and cleanse the world of anything considered 'out of the ordinary', according to human morals. It's /surely/ not the fucking Weaver, right? I mean fuck, even if it isn't directly, it's benefiting the fucking Weaver, and humans, so we may as well treat it like it's the Weaver trying to undo all the damn work we've been doing to push the world into the Father's hands."
Pausing to take a sip of his drink, Pax proceeds to point up, at the ceiling, before stating, "They have their best minds in some bullshit place in the Deep Umbra, /space/, and if we wanna stop all the bullshit we gotta go up there and cut the fucking head off." With that being said, the Kin promptly plops his ass down in another, different chair, once again being careful not to spill his apparently precious drink.
Shade rolls his broad shoulders in a shrug and makes his way over to claim one of the pies as well, because who doesn't love meat? Weirdo's that's who. "I've been kept around the halls too long and not out in the field. All of this is brand new to me."
Andone looks over to pax, his head tilting to the side as he keeps a somewhat placid expression on his face. "I didn't say the Weaver had nothing to do with it. I said that the place I infiltrated had a sense of blandness that goes beyond usual Weaver bland. I don't have any more love for great grandmama than you do."
"Capture and torture by strangers? Count me in, sounds like a good Friday night," Sammy says in his gravelly voice, "And then, in the immortal words of Sir Elton John, 'Saturday night's all right for fighting. Just point me in the direction of you want fucked up."
Poppet says "Well Poppets abilities are mostly combat magic in nature, but We can help to equip and hopefully protect you guys. Downside is this can take weeks and from the sound of it we do not have weeks it seems." She then pauses to think "Vampires and mages Poppet can help do something about though.
Alena actually raises her hand a bit. Then, she has the good sense to lower it again, but she speaks up a bit, "I think I have a chance to find out some stuff about these people and where they're seated in the physical realm," she suggests, casually glancing at Raquel as if the mighty Raquel might have the answers to the quiz written somewhere on her forehead.
Eris looks back at the map. "Well, one thing we obviously need to be concentrated on is wiping out these things that are influencing the Umbra. We also need someone to go after the "Shard Realm'." The pale Ragabash reaches up to bite at the edge of the wax pencil still with a scowl. "And we need to figure out where the hell these people are seated in the real world." She takes a long minute to stare at the Airport and then hmms. "Also we need to consider what to do if we're dealing with Mages and Vampires and," She glances at Andone. "Not Mages?" Pax gets a little eye-roll but bad-guys will bad-guy. "Let's focus before we start mudslinging, huh?" The Elder says flatly.
Eris looks to Shade, "I'll make sure you get the basic information we have. At this point, I'm semi-confident saying this is a threat that needs to be dealt with. You're welcome to help if you want."
"Anyone good and probing brains?" She wonders eyeing the unconscious mousey waif by Pembroke. "I'd like to have a couple more people go out and check the other directions in the desert to see if we can find anything else, as it is there are four points of major concern out here."
And finally a glance to Alena. "And you can work the angle to see what's up with their mortal ties it sounds like. Excellent."
Poppet is given a smile. "This has been unfolding over months. I think we're okay to say do what you want to. Anything can help at this point."
To those who know him, Stefan is less talkative since their encounter. He glances to Pax, his forehead wrinkling a bit, listening as he keeps typing up notes on the computer. He pauses occasionally to take a careful drink of his beer but otherwise seems to want to concentrate on keeping his hands busy.
Listening, Kadar gives a slow shake of his head. He doesn't like any of what he is hearing; mostly because it is beyond him. So he stays out of it. The Mokole just grumbles to himself with attention moving between the others. Finally, he adds just a bit, "We cannot cross over, but if something must become ash, let us know."
Eris smiles at Kadar. "Hey... We might have a couple of physical places for you to nuke for us, Old Man once we've figured out where and why."
Shade gives a nod of his head to Eris "Any more you have I can use. I can get into and out of just about anywhere, I was designed for that."
Pembroke taps the scrawny girl beside him. "She might have more information. They had done a pretty complete wipe of her brain, but... there are glimmers. And she was able to access her abilities." oh, he hates saying this next part... "to protect me. That or reaching me to feed her addiction seems to have had the best results so far."
Stefan nods at what Pembroke says, his eyes still on his screen, "She did seem to know her way around that facility."
Pax sniffs, flopping his hand about in response. "Specifics. The point is valid." is said to Andone, before he continues. "Anyway. Yes, there are Mages, some fucking Fae, Sorcerers, and Vampires at least. Hart Whats-his-dick is dead, and his mentor is no longer working with the fucks. He was over the warehouse all the merchandise that was being forwarded to the airport was being funneled through. They have a particular interest in Shifters for who the hell knows what." Shrugging, Pax downs the rest of his drink so he can sit the emptied glass on an end table. "I'd already been planning on going to that shard realm."
Pembroke thinks, a moment. "They did seem to know we were both Kinfolk and Psycicwith little effort..."
Eris puts her hands on her hips and glances between the group. She seems thoughtful, "Ya'll know what you can do and how you can best help one another in this aspect. "Anyway do I have volunteers?" She circles the North, Far Northwest and Southeast areas of the desert. "These need to be looked at." She looks back, "Alena and Poppet seem confident about where they'll be able to help." Eris writes a P with a frowny-face and then a big old star with 'shiny' lines next to the Copper Mine. "Anyone else wants to go with? I suggest a second packing a second of pants if you do."
She notes as an aside to Pembroke, "Sebastian, if your playthings useless we're going to have to get rid of her. They called you Kinfolk?"
"I'm willing to go check out the copper mines. I might be able to sneak in and out without drawing too much attention." Andone offers with a bit of a shrug. "Or to the far northwest. I'm flexible."
You know that look a dog gives you when it tilts its head to the side - trying to figure out what the heck you're talking about. Emi gives one of those to Pax when he mentions the Weaver not Weaver mages, vampire, Fae and sorcerers with a potential interest in shifters. The Wyrm kitsune rolling her shoulders back and listening to Pembroke. A soft glance to Eris, "Can I kill everything? Send me where I can kill everything.", laughing to herself.
Sammy pops the vampire teeth from his mouth and licks his gums where the crappy things have made them actually bloody. "I'll stick my head in wherever you need. I'd offer to back up the pretties, but I think having an ugly around would get in their way unless they need a monster in the shadows to back them up. Also, if it would help, I could do a little oracle talking and see what the ancestors have to say on the subject. They like to talk in riddles, but we might get something useful out of them."
Stefan shows that Eidetic Memory off a bit as he deadpans, "What she said exactly was 'Your taxonomy qualifies you as Animalia Chordata Mammalia Haplorhini Simiiformes Hominidae Lycaninini Homo Sapien Lycanthropus, or Homo Sapiens Lycanthropus with the recessive genome. And each of you also falls under the sub-species mentalis indicating you have latent supernatural abilities, or they may have manifested. We're not sure yet. That's part of the fun of the experiment.'"
Pembroke taps her on the head. "She was born there, in a way. I was hoping someone could use her to get back without using the front door. If not... well, she's too Skinny for Raquel here."
Pax grunts, and points over at the girl next to Pembroke. "Leave her here, I'll extract what's left to extract and ensure the rest of her is put to good use." Never waste a thing! Not when it comes to semi-difficult to obtain ingredients, anyway.
"Sounds fine to me," Eris tells Sammy. "I'm not trying to limit you here, just trying to figure out what's essential. At this point the more we know, the bet...what?" She stares at Stefan. "That fuck did you just say?" Eris looks horrified.
Stefan looks to Eris and blinks his eyes once, "That is the way she spoke. Shortened version; Psychic Kinfolk to Werewolves." Spencer Reed eat your heart out.
Kadar is really a bit lost at this point. He just peers around as others speak. The Dragon just wants to lay in the sun or eat things. Finally, he interjects, "Let us know if we are needed, Eris-mammal."
Quietly, Alena peers over at Poppet and offers a smile and nod. It appears the two will be working towards a common goal, after all, and the young woman quietly slides nearby to exchange information.
Eris says, "These motherfuckers need to die." The Elder grumbles before drawing a little black dot in the Copper Mine and one next to the Northwest. "Kadar... I /may/ need you on the copper mine. Outside. I may need you for a few other demolition jobs" She tells him seriously, "I'll send a messenger." She looks back at the map and draws a flame. She's really into not writing names. Another quick few glances back at Sammy and draws a broken pencil to the North. It looks like he's been volunteered for more than just communing with the Ancestors. "I think we've got the beginnings of a plan here. I am not really free right now to aid in /much/ but if it's dire then you may feel free to send a spirit or message to me indicating you need my assistance. I expect it will be genuine." She smiles brightly and walks over to finally grab herself a pie. "Feel free to put yourselves on the board for anything you need, provided Pax doesn't mind me leaving it here for a week or two?" She glances his and Raquel's way.?
Poppet smiles and waves to Alena as she says "Poppet by the way."
Shaking his head, Pax waves a hand to Eris' question and stands from his chair to streeeeeetch his back with a few pops and a sigh. Then, reaching down, he tugs a small walkie talkie out of his pocket and activates it with a CRCHHH. "Shelly, get the van ready, we have a package to deliver." The walkie talkie is promptly stuffed back into his pocket, and Pax approaches the bound woman to peer down at her curiously.
Pembroke taps her head slightly. "I shut her down so she wouldn't be an issue. If you need any rewrites before taking her, just say so."
The woman next to Pembroke is mousey, small, no-sunlight pale and her dull eyes are glassy.
Nodding to Eris as she mentions things needing 'nuked' the Mokole replies, "Yes, we will await your messenger at Dragon Rock." Now he observes things going on around him with a kind of distant interest.
"No, it's fine, I'll get everything out as she is. Easier to transport this way anyway." Pax responds to Pembroke with a little wave of his hand. The man then reaches down and, gripping the girl's hair at the scalp, simply tugs her as he begins to drag the 'shut down' woman towards the doorway. To the stairwell.
Stefan glances over as Pax takes the woman and shrugs, "So much for your girlfriend, Dr. Who." He returns to finishing up his notes of the meeting.
Eris snags another meat pie and eyes the map before jutting her chin towards the door and looking to Stefan and Pembroke, "I'll take you back to the safehouse. Grab some food." She tells them both before nodding to everyone else. "Thank you for coming. I trust you'll all keep me informed." And with that, the Elder's off as well. Just like that.
Shade glances over the map and gives a nod of his head "I can turn invisible and I don't leave a scent trail or footprints. I can do any recon and killing you made need done." He speaks in between chowing down on the meat pie
Eris glances at Shade. Catch up with Roxie and Pax, see if they need your help in the Mine. If now there are still all those spots out in the desert that need some love. Including that facility to the Northeast. I'll check back in the morning."
Stefan nods and then closes his laptop. He moves to the food and gets a bag, box or whatever is handy to systematically pack it up with food and some drinks. He gives a nod to anyone left when he is finishes and trails out after Eris.
Emi rolls Intelligence + Primal Urge vs 6 for 0 successes.
1 1 4 5 6 9
Fin
(TBC...)
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