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In the expansive marble and silver dining room, mimosas and canteloupe and various other breakfast nibbles are set out. Oontz-Oontz is slouched in a chair, the spirit-- and Vasha's familiar --presently in human form and playing a Nintendo Switch to pass the time. He knows what his master knows, of course, and tunes out of the oratory underway.
Vasha, not at the head of the table but at the moment commanding its attention, is mid-exposition while Oontz-Oontz's thumbs tap away at the controls.
"And so you see, the events are all connected. From the conjoined awakenings of Mei and Yisrael, the meddling in the young Mystagogue's awakening, Mark Two. All of these are all connected to what the Seers have been up to in the here and now.
The missing thread tying it all together-- at least for me --was the visitations from the future. When our future selves began to appear to us with warnings, the threads I was able to glean all began to point towards the Major Arcana. Warnings from our own Councilor, coincidences in who was showing up to awakenings and when. Even the attack on the tree itself, all of that is connected to the same central pylon, which is connected to the war underway in the future. And when the seer agent we captured turned up free and easy, evacuating its lair with all of its mummified ghost spies? Yes. It was the Guardians, the Major Arcana, that released her."
"The war is in a singular future, one we are just as likely to find as any other. So while I understand it may seem futile trying to steer events towards that singular series of events, I wish to at least point out that the Seers themselves found it valuable to attack this particular future not contemporary to its existence, but contemporary to our own. The prize they're fighting for may not be our present, but our present is the battlefield they've chosen for this next campaign to play out within."
"So. The future's agents, two councilors, my own divinations-- all of them indicate that the Guardians are compromised through the Major Arcana. And that the council is compromised, since the Major Arcana form the entirety of its security apparatus. If I go poking about, if they get a moment to plan or to see me coming? They will both get away and have time to cover their escape. I need their outing to come as much of as a surprise as we can make it, though at this point I am fairly certain they know it's coming."
"But we can't go through the sentinels. As they are the sentinels. Or the council. Since they are privy to all the council knows. We've only-- legally --got the duel arcane as a legal way to make an accusation and bypass the council. And once I do that, well. Everyone will know, the cat will be out of the bag, and bullets and spells will begin to fly. At us. At you. At me. So before I do all of this, I need to know that you're still comitted to the cause." (edited)
As per the usual, Fox can't sit properly in a chair. Currently, she's upside down, her butt against the chair's back, her head hanging upside-down from the chair's front so that her hair trails against the floor. She wiggles her bare toes and absently scratches her stomach where her t-shirt slid up, listening to everything that Vasha has to say (as per the usual). This is a Fox who wants to be a fox, by her body language, but is sticking with a humanoid form for whatever reason.
"Wherever you go, I go too," is her first answer, easy as breathing. "Even if I didn't think you're right, which I do... "
"Wherever you go, I go too."
Tanya listens with a serious grimace that doesn't quite match her about-the-house outfit of an oversized black hoodie down to mid-thigh and the remnants of black lipstick and eyeliner from earlier in the day. She stands next to Fox, looking around to see if anyone else speaks before offering her own opinion. "Is that your plan? Challenge them to a duel? Or just part of it?" It's asked bluntly but honestly as she mulls the situation over, not entirely hiding the fear that Vasha's implications bring.
Despite all of the mimosas and breakfast foods, Zoya is seated at the table in pajamas covered in cartoony video game controllers and sipping out of an energy drink can. Her hair is just pulled back in a ponytail and she doesn't have any makeup on, so chances are she's either fresh out of bed or pre-bed after an all nighter. More likely the latter.
"This sounds like what we would have just called 'Tuesday' back in St. Petersburg", she remarks in an almost bored tone. "You know I'll fight the seers however we must."
"Good question, Tanya." Vasha praises are never idle. "It's not the half of it. The people from the future claim they have contacted not just other mages, but other vampires and other changelings. Apparently each group has a piece of the puzzle, and we will be able to work the matter through once all the data is before us. As you all are painfully aware, I am absolutely terribly at working with a team. Earning and showing trust. And so on. I figure if I just put these bastards 'on blast' as Oontz would put it, other contactees might use my self-flagellation as an opportunity to come out of the woodwork and make themselves known. At the very least, the Children of the Tree will know to contact the Lost and the Dead through their emissaries while the Martyr's Tree Consilium falls. I'm counting on the Children to be doing that work from the drop, reaching out, finding these other contactees among the other groups, getting that information together. If we can get it all in one place and myself or one of the Questions or Sphinxes gets within a hundred feet of it, we'll have an answer. My plan is distract them long enough for that to happen, and then survive doing that if I can."
"Any of them who are loyal will come to face the duel. They will be surrounded by scrutinizing eyes, and I can apologize to them and end the matter. Lose face, but save lives. And if none of them show, well. We'll know, won't we. We'll know they've gone over to the other side, and we can treat them as the traitors that they are. In either case what happens to me is not as important as all of that data getting assembled and into the hands of the Mysterium or the Children. Preferably both."
Zoya's response wins her a momentarily youthful smile from the now much older man. "I didn't mind the long nights as much back then. But... I know." There is more that goes unsaid with a most slavic sigh.
There's a familiar sound, something like a full-body sigh, and the prickling of brief, active magic on their senses. It's only Fox using her attainments again, as per the usual. The Orphan -- now a fox, no longer forcing herself to keep a humanoid form -- pours herself down out of the chair, slips underneath it to circle Vasha's ankles like a cat, and then slinks over to hop up into Zoya's lap and circle about until she can rest her chin on the table. She puffs up gently and proudly when Vasha mentions getting the Children involved with diplomacy. Her voice just sort of arrives in the air, while nothing moves but her gold eyes.
"The Duel is sacrosanct, for the Pentacle at least. It is a way to call out the truth in the public eye without just leveling an accusation and not backing it up. And like Vasha said, it will show us a lot of things." The voice pauses and the fox sighs. "I know some Lost and a couple of vampires. I think I am friends with Guy but it is hard to tell. And Rena is very young and mostly needs hugs. Guy likes to be bats and go flying. His girlfriend is a Lost, too. Petra Fichette."
Tanya nods, folding her arms, letting Fox list the allies they have access to. She looks back up and fixes her gaze on Vasha. "But like you said, they'll take action as soon as you start the duel. We should hit the Seers somewhere at the same time, or infiltrate one of our suspects. You...could use someone not as well known among Mages, who can get in and out of places easily, it seems," she concludes with a smile.
"We have a laundry list of front corporations behind the development of the Mark One and Mark Two program. We know those corporations are tied to the Seers, and that they help bankroll their operations in the Delaware Valley. As long as you don't liquidate any human capital, as far as I am personally concerned you can go scorched earth on them. My only concern is blowing up a series of businesses tied heavily to the state's defense industry is not how we like to conduct our shadow war. But something tells me someone of your knowledge of space knows how to scorch earth without damaging the crops, as it were, and trust your ingenuity. Can you have a plan before me in eighteen hours? Material needs, staffing, funding, contingencies?" There's a moment there where Vasha scratches at his temple, near where his hair line used to be. For a moment, certain foxes might be forgiven for imagining him leaning over the light table at CENTRAL, planning the fall of empires.
Tanya takes that in with gradually widening eyes, as if not expecting her suggestion to be received so wholeheartedly. She straightens her back and stands up taller as she's asked for a plan. "I can. But I'll need some help. You're absolutely right, breaking some things without breaking others is going to require care, and I'll need to know exactly what we're playing with. I'm also going to assume we can't just scry them without tipping them off."
Tugging down at the hem of her hoodie, she smirks. "And if we determine there's nobody at one of those sites that isn't helping to build torture machines for the demiurges..." She glances up at Vasha again with the sweetest smile, adding in a proud glance to Fox. "I've always wondered if I could get something all the way to the Sun."
"It would be difficult but possible. Once you've got something out of the atmosphere, inertia takes over. It's just a matter of how fast you want it there at that point." She slowly blinks her gold eyes, catlike, and her attention is drawn by that little scratch at Vasha's temple. A little winsome sigh follows. Fox has little else to say about corporate espionage. "I have a bunch of information on their companies -- at least by symbolism -- that we found when we broke Mark out. Also, I should talk to Mark again. We need to ... like... make sure he's free from their control. If we can."
"No. Human. Capital." For all that Vasha speaks of lives and souls and beating hearts like jots in the margins of a ledger book, his eyes have that sort of steely edge to them that makes it very clear Tanya is edging up to one of the lines in the sand Guardians are said to have in their very strange and abstract moralities.
"You say 'no human uninvolved in the creation of grigori', but that is an arbitrary distinction. Do you mean knowingly involved? To what extent must they be bigoted of the knowledge of what they do? What it means? The person who ordered the bandages from Amazon was involved." Vasha makes this point very clearly and distinctly known. Wherein lies the problem he has with this. "If they present a legitimate threat to your life or the safety of the Veil, you may use conventional violence in defense of both. But that's the end of it. And I cannot for the life of me imagine why someone as gifted in Space as you are should fear for either in something like this." Even his little rebuke comes with its praise, and his continued trust that the mission will go ahead.
"Talking to Mark is a good idea. If you actually destroy this ifrastructure you may very well be knocking him off his network. I'm given to understand he's likely to have opinions about that which ought to be thoughtfully considered." In either case, Vasha lets out a terse little sigh and adopts a renewed smile.
"I don't mean to be so cross all the time. But there are these hard lines because taking the easy way every time gets easier and easier the more that you do it. Take it from someone who's done it far, far too much in his life."
Tanya is about to respond to Fox's musings on solar trajectory when Vasha gets serious. She doesn't look upset, face falling serious right away, her little resting smirk dismissed fully. Her chin dips into a nod at his words. The smile only returns at the end, when he explains his intensity. "Utterly true. And that's why I have no problem following you, Vasha. No human cost, save for life and limb emergency. You have my word."
The young Mastigos is briefly distracted from the serious moment by looking over at Oontz-oontz, who is still just sitting there playing his Switch.
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