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The Emissariate of the Children has been gathered in more or less full, the assembly room now full of chairs and pretty well full to bursting with bodies. Various higher ups of the Children are present, of course. Peacekeeper and Weaver, Baldur too. And members of the consilium besides; Epiphanius, Esther, Arminius; and the brothers Ethos and Charleville, of course. Walsingham is here, even. Alone, seated off by himself.
Cambyses stands to address the gathering, doing so from her seat, not really needing a lectern to acquire gravitas.
"My friends," she begins with her crackling Persian accent, "I have been handed the proof that we have been waiting for regarding the location of the Mark II bases here in Philadelphia. It's been turned over to Peacekeeper, and plans are being drawn up to take these five locations by force."
"Moreover, it seems clear to us now that the pilots of these machines are the people populating Marsbase Hermes. Under typical circumstances, I would trust the bureaucracy of the Consilium to resolve the matter. But quite frankly this is too much."
"I no longer entertain Penance's passivity as a productive trait in leadership. The Hierarch's position is apoloticial, and the Mysterium at its best is a preserver of Mysteries. A chronicler and keeper of wisdom. And yet I find myself wanting to side with the Children in their battle, here."
"I am placing the full resources of my caucus at the disposal of the children of the tree until we have all succeeded in shutting down these facilities and bringing these fucking robots to heel. And we will do that by liberating the souls of their pilots."
"We'll need to send research teams into Hermes to try to explore the feasibility of extraction from that end of the problem. And we'll need intel on their warehouses to see if we can't just rescue the hardware that houses them."
"Mostly, we need volunteers to get that intelligence for us." Her silence searches for hands.
Klaire was someone that showed up early. She offered to help set up chairs, and had Rook with her, sans vest, should anyone need a break to just pet a puppy. She was dressed formally, a button up shirt, hair styled, makeup done. She watched quietly, and would only offer words should she be asked.
At the ask for volunteers, she pauses, looking to Rook, and then raises her hand.
Bones of Magic had arrived in their purple suit. Their hair was in a tight braid and they looked a lot more 'business' than most had seen.
The Obrimos studied the leadership of the Mysterium and the Children of the Tree for their reactions.
As they rocked on their feet, flowing back and forth, they raised their hand, "Just to note, those who arrive at Marsbase Hermes, may have a profile uploaded into the constructs as well. I apparently have a user profile, and I theorize others might. I don't know how much they can identify based on those profiles, on their end."
Jane was there; she stayed around the Lodge all the time, so she was already helping set up chairs when Klaire arrived to join in. She settled in as the meeting started and when Cambyses asked for volunteers, she raised her hand with little delay. Seemed an obvious choice.
Mei, sitting in the audience, takes the words in and when the call goes out for volunteers she simply puts her hand in the air. Of course she's volunteering. Was there ever much of a chance she wouldn't be? Nothing to say about it, really.
Kaminari would be there, the Arrow fairly nearby the others. Today she was sporting pretty much your average street attire. She turns to look at bones and seems content to listen for the moment
"We could see if we can't pull your user file and see what's in it," Ethos suggests from the wings, glancing over at Charleville. The younger kid nods his agreement and gives Bones a thumbs up. "This town is full of wild ass hackers, so. Yeah. That can get done." Their hands go up.
Oleksandra Vasylovna, seated in the back of the room, likewise raises a hand to indicate she's in, but she stays quiet.
Cambyses cedes the floor to Weaver, who is presently being a bat that is hanging off a lamp arm. Most people aren't terrified of bats the way many are of spiders. This is what's called a polite concession to there being a crowd. A voice, heavily Colombian accented, fills the air, oriented from the creature.
"We're going to do this in phases. One team to learn all we can about the locations. A second phase for the actual raids. Preferably all at once if we can manage it. And another team to process what we get out of the deal. Hopefully we'll have additional MTAIs, new sleepwalkers to orient. A whole potential cybernetic membership that we need to deal with. The Seers were planning on our humanity slowing us down, and this becoming a distraction for us. They're right. We're going to let it happen, and there's not a lot we can do about that but be as efficient in our humanity as we can be. That's going to mean being proactively inclusive in how we think about what humanity even is from this point forward."
"So if anyone has anything to share, anything to say, any information they're sitting on? Let's get it out in the open and start planning the operations. Naming leaders. Points of contact. That sort of thing."
There might be people who are surprised to discover a Guardian has access to the Lodge, but there Zoya is, listening to Cambyses with a thoughtful expression. At one mention a laugh comes out of her and she says, "wild-ass hacker here. I can probably help with that." She hasn't volunteered for anything else yet. The front lines aren't really her skill set, and there's a lot on her plate as it is.
There's a fox wandering the proceedings. Two guesses who that is. She brushes up against Lesja, pads over to bonk her head against Ethos and rub her muzzle against Charleville's knee. Mei, Baldur, Esther, Peacekeeper... she even stops and looks at Walsingham, giving the man one slow golden-eyed blink before circling around the lamp where Weaver is hanging.
"We should go back to where the rats were," comes Fox's voice, as she pushes up to her little black hind legs to nose at the bat before she wanders away towards Zoya. "Centralia. The soul jars there were undoubtedly The Creator's. I just didn't connect it at the time." Now it is Zoya's turn for Fox attention, but she gets a living stole, being draped upon.
"Niccolo Machiavelli said "To know how to recognize an opportunity in war, and take it, benefits you more than anything else." I have fought most of my life and will continue to fight for my friends and my home. If now is deemed the best opportunity to take action, then I will gladly lend what aid I can in the raids as I believe I would assist best there."
Peacekeeper speaks up in the wake of Zoya's statements. "Pheme-- Zoya --will be in charge of coordination in getting Bones's user file off the Hermes servers. If you want to help with that, please see her. She has our trust." That puts any possible dissent to rest among the rank and file of the Children, at least.
Weaver then looks to Fox with an upside down battish head tilt. "Centralia? If you believe that's worth looking into, Fox. Pick a team and go. We'll have time yet before the intel team completes their work."
Izumi receives a nod from Weaver likewise, "If you can think of a way you can lend a hand, let us know. We need all the help we can get."
Zoya pets her new living stole when Fox settles over her shoulders, only to stop and look taken aback at the unequivocal statement of support from Peacekeeper. It probably shouldn't surprise her given recent events, but it does. Maybe she'll get used to it some day. Quietly to Fox she says, "I'd be a little surprised if there isn't a file on me. Considering." Considering daddy dearest.
"They had a lot of soul jars there. I think we destroyed them all, but we were getting out at that point, and I don't know if we did, or if there's more there to find. But I think it's worth looking." Fox stretches around Zoya's neck lazily, adding, "It's a dangerous place. Last time we were there, we encountered Beshilu in their numbers. I'd want martially-competent people, to put it mildly, and people who are adept with Spirit." She licks Zoya's ear - the things you can get away with in public if you're cute and fuzzy - and answers, "Considering? Yeah. I'm sure there's one on me. I've been there and all. Stole one of their ships."
"Do you want me to come to Centralia with you?" Mei asks of Fox. "I'm an Adept of Spirit, you and I know some about how we work together and what our capabilities are, and I'm not the fighter that some of the people in Philly are, but I know how to fight." She Obrimos shrugs her shoulders. "If there are better candidates by all means. But I'll help if you need me, of course."
Lesja speaks up here, "There is a wound beneath Cenralia. And a great spirit of decay there. If we go back it is not a question of 'will we meet resistance'. I will do what I can, and join that mission. Just be aware that is absolutely going to involve combat and ephemerals. So no need to be the hero, here, if you're not up to it."
Weaver simply leaves that to Fox. "If you're interested in the Centralia mission, speak with Fox after this meeting. A vast collection of soul jars does seem a bit on the nose."
Klaire stays back, petting Rook and watching faces for the vibes of such a meeting. Bones had all the info she did after all, she was here to offer help and answer any questions others had of her. She gives a supportive nod to Bones if they ever made eye contact, silently wishing them luck in front of such a large group.
Kay manifests in the lodge, much like a ghost, taking a hard seat on the ground and exchanging silent greetings with a few people. Peacekeeper, Fox, Baldur, Cambyses first and then anyone she's met, even once.
"I will see if the ghosts of the Tree in the Underworld will lend their aid as they did when the Tree was attacked last." She announces. "I'll see in what capacity they can help best."
Weaver seems content with matters as the rest. "Right. We'll hold off on picking people to head up the strike teams until we know what we're going to need to pull this off. I'm going to ask all of you, especially you in the Emissariate, to get out there and see if we can't find help from the other groups out there. If we do need to strike all five locations at once, I don't think we'll have enough personnel on our own to pull it off safely. Find us more support, and bring them to the next meeting. Hopefully, that will be the meeting to plan the actual strike missions."
"So," they offer with a flapping of wings, "Unless anyone has anything more? I think we're good. Fox, you hit Centralia. Zoya, you lead up the reseach and hacking work. Bones, Kay? If you two wouldn't mind, I'd like one of you to handle being the point of contact for the research we'll be doing beforehand. Get with Alexis, use her research, use the research we pulled off the Hermes databases from our first mission when we recovered Mark One. Use the Archives. Use it all. If you want to know something it will be the job of the Free Council and the Emissariate and people like Zoya to answer it for you. Don't hesitate to delegate, and don't hesitate to toss the authority of your mandate around. It comes from Miss Camby."
Cambyses will allow it from the bat, but her smile makes it clear no one else had better dare.
She once more stands to speak, "That is why, with a quorom of votes from Walsingham, Baldur, and Ecgbehrt we have been able to secure the ... we'll call it brevet appointment of Bones of Magic as Sentinel of the Consilium. Penance and Constantine won't be able to do anything about this without a quorom of their own. Should they care to. And by the time they can force an official vote, I hope for your work to be completed."
"...Wut!" was their graceful reply.
"Heavy use of basilisks should help extend our capabilities," Fox starts to offer, but then the conversation moves on and there's an announcement, so she just goes back to nosing at Zoya.
"Don't fuck with Bones or else," Cambyses summarizes with a smile. "Let me know if you need that in print."
THeir jaw was somewhere on the floor, as they motioned for Fox to continue. Less spotlight on them the better.
They were currently trying to figure out what they had to do now.
Klaire gives a silent clap at the announcement, and a supportive nod to Bones. A silent smile of "you got this!"
"Klaire. You're a PI, aren't you? And it was your idea to read the robots with your powers. Wasn't it." Cambyses is squinting at Klaire now. And with a tick of the head, she indicates Bones. "Sidecar. Deputy. Provost. Call it what you like, you're helping Bones in this. You have already, of course. So I expect you'll simply continue to be diligent and useful." With that, Cambyses lifts up her robes and states, "Oh, look. A distraction." And begins walking out of the room without further explanation. (edited)
"I do have a question actually. Forgive me for not being as in the loop as I'd like. I'd like to know how . . . well I can't think of a way to put this delicately so I'm simply going to say it: How all out is acceptable during the strike? As an Arrow I'd like to know if I have permission to utilized my entire arsenal or not."
-She asks curiously-
"That's one reason we're not even naming leaders for strike teams yet. We don't have the parameters to be able to answer questions like that. Our goal, of course, is to liberate as many of these minds and souls as we can. Alive. In tact. A secondary objective would be to confiscate any of the magitech they have on site. Our skunkworks is barely keeping Mark One operational as it stands, and we're about to have an entire contingent of people just like him, only newer. More scared. Less certain. So I would encourage you, Izumi, to go make your services available to Yoshitsune and Esther. Esther in particular sees things our way here in this room. And if she has an assignment for you in relation to this matter, I trust it. I'm in her Cadre, after all." Weaver finishes licking and cleaning their forelimbs and chest, and then begin sniffing around for that banana they saw a bit ago.
"Our general rule is to use just enough violence to win. It's an excellent way to teach your enemies to stop using it on you, I found. Well. The ones that survive the lesson, anyway." Is the bat ... smiling? Creepy.
Bones of Magic, Bones, meandered through the crowd now, moving towards the front. They were shocked, but they were loyal. If they were a sentinel now, they would stand guard.
Even as they walked, they muttered, "Madre de Dios..."
Klaire goes from proud of Bones to shocked in about .2 seconds. Shes just frozen for a moment, and Rook barks once, tail wagging. It's uncertain if he just heard and understood or it was coincidence, but its enough to shock her out of the surprise.
She nods and simply replies. "Thank you. I'll help as I can."
"So, who needs a stealthy shapeshifter?" Jane shrugs, "Or a medic. I'm available either way."
"Right, then. As a reminder. Lesja has joined the Emissariate, so she has full voting rights with us now, as well as with the Free Council. So congratulations, there, Emissary." Polite bat-flapping applause ensues.
"Klaire's staying with the Soul Wardens, but she's still welcome at the Lodge and the Assembly Hall both. That's per me and Charlie, so fuck around and find out on that one." Charleville puts a fist up to that.
"Stealthy shape shifter sounds like you should talk to Bones about helping with the recon work. Possibly Zoya, too. Possibly both. Preferably both. Have you met Zoya and Bones? Raise your hands, you two."
"Medics, though, you and I should talk. I'm the Warmaker here, which means I'm professionally invested in de-holing my holed people. Getting the lead out. Demortifying. You get the idea. Me, I just slough off injured limbs and grow new ones, but most people around here don't do that. And say 'gross' when I do? So. I am always short on medics. As a consequence." Very chatty bat, this one.
Klaire nods, petting Rook quietly and trying to not attract too much attention. A respectful 'thank you' nod to both the mages at the front.
A bob of their head, and a glance to the Bat. Then over to Zoya to note that name, and then back across the leadership remaining. At the Warmaker's request, they raised a hand.
Not so subtly, they mouthed "Help Me" to Epiphanius as their gaze passed him.
OTherwise, they kept trying to think about how this happened, and what to do next.
Jane nods to Weaver, "Always glad to do medic work if I can; I'm an expert in dealing with combat injuries, just tell me where to go."
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