another warmoot-y thing! [attn: ALL]

[mnemosyne]

"Thank you," Éva to Erich, "Mr. Reinhardt." with a brief flicker of dark brown eyes and the barest twinge of a smile. The expression seems genuine enough, though it is wrapped in a quiet, implicit reserve, a careful formality with strangers, and they are all strangers to her. Acquaintances at best and perhaps not even that. Faces she has seem in the halls of 1999 Broadway for a few months or a few years: all young.

All far too young.

It is evening and a weekday and outside dusk is giving way to an autumnal sunset and there is a chill in the air. Inside everything is bathed in carefully plotted curtains of light. Well appointed, well designed, mild and anonymous and inoffensive, with two layers of curtains open over the windows overlooking downtown, and the final layer of sheers still closed, diffusing the view of the city into a pin-pricked, pointillist scheme. The television was on, tuned to the late local news, but as the Garou begin to arrive it is turned off and there is nothing in the background to compete with their discussions, just the hushed and ruminant breath of the heating and cooling system as it cycles on and off again.

--

"When we last met, there was a spirited debate about why the enemy seemed to obsessed with Cold Crescent. What they sought; whether they merely thought to attack the base of the Nation's power in the city proper; whether, perhaps, these attacks were an elaborate series of maneuvers intended to draw strength away from the Caern proper for a final assault on what seemed a more tempting target.

"I can confidently state that all of these theories were wrong. The truth is much simpler and much more elemental.

--

"1999 Broadway was acquired by the Nation in the mid-2000s, some twenty years after its original construction, in the mid 1980s. I will spare you the duller aspects of the transaction, but as you know it was designed to spare the church at its base, constructed around the Holy Ghost Church instead of over the land the church occupied, as was originally intended.

"The architect Curtis Fentress was responsible for the design and development of the property. Which has forty-three stories aboveground and three more hidden levels below ground.

"If you are like me, you have only been to one of the basement levels. Where the graves are found.

"There are two more levels beneath the graves."

Here her eyes flick over the assembled young Garou. Éva does not know whether any of them had been deeper in the bowels of the building, but is perhaps looking for a flicker of recognition, awareness, familiarity, from any who have.

"Mr. Fentress is also responsible for the design and construction of the Denver International Airport. Another location with strange warrens of tunnels beneath it.

"There have long been rumors about the airport." A brief twist of her mouth. It is not a smile. " - which would be easy to dismiss if they were rumors bandied about by humans along. But Sept members have had a number of encounters with reptialian creatures in the tunnels beneath the airport. No source has ever been found - no particular nest - and yet,

"still they come. Crawl up from the bowls of tunnels beneath the concourses and the runways. Even when there are no reports from Sept members, there are small trails that can be found in police reports, the patterns of particularly gruesome crimes. I have heard speculation that the whole of the airport's design may serves the creatures somehow. Attracts them or shelters them or opens a door to wherever it is they come from to whatever it is that they want. Is a ritual, an invocation, a focus of power. Was built not incidentally over a nest or a dark sinkhole, but instead, was built deliberately to pull them into our world, from wherever they may have come."

A deep, quiet inhalation.

"And Mr. Fentress is also responsible for the design and construction of 1999 Broadway. With its own warren of hidden levels tucked away below ground.

"When you look rather more closely at the Sept's location, similar patterns emerge - in crime, in kidnappings, in disappearances. In encounters with things-below in the neighboring carparks and basements and sewers - the truth becomes really quite clear. The Nation acquired 1999 Broadway in the mid-2000s. No one has ever attempted to raise a Caern on the site for the simple reason that whatever would come to such a call is not something that any of us wish to see awoken.

"The Sept is here not out of convenience, not as a celebration of some minor miracle of new-creation in the end of days, but instead: as a chain and a lock meant to keep closed a very dark box."

--

"The Beloved Horror attack 1999 Broadway with absolute, single-minded devotion for a remarkably simple reason: it belonged to them, once.

"Their murderous kind. Their kin, their cubs, their fell spirits and their dark masters. It belonged to all of them, once."

"And they have come to take it back."

[errin]

[FFFFFFFFUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU.....more coherent response to come later]

[Samael]

Javed listens when Eva begins speaking, and listens closely. He is still a newcomer to this city, though he is rather integrated at this point. He has a packmate, and he acts as a protector of the city as many of them are in the wake of the loss of Cold Crescent's Guardians. Even without those investments in the location, he would be paying attention because he knows very well as a traveller to many Septs, many locations where the Garou fight the Wyrm in a neverending battle of lost and gained and re-lost territory, who crucially important every piece of information and every inch of ground can be.

He crosses his arms as he sits next to Avery. He focuses on Eva's words, her expression that he won't remember, with his one good eye. There is a little frown when Eva says all the theories are wrong, but not an unexpected one. That was the clearest thing to come out of that discussion last time; that they didn't know why and that any guessing was pure speculation. Javed doesn't buy into speculation. Intelligence is the weapon that helps the Garou strike and intelligence should be based on guesswork as rarely as possible.

He listens to the history, the names, the presence of concerning tunnels underneath the airport and levels below Cold Crescent. A couple of times his attention flicks to Avery, seeing her reaction, and then looks back.

The bombshell has to be dropped, but by then it's already been guessed at. Eva has delivered the clues on her way to getting to the point, but the saying of the words makes the red passion of his blood werm several degrees.

And then he speaks in that gravelly, Iranian-accented but clearly-enunciated tone.

"If I could express such personally to themI would advise them to prepare for disappointment." It's not bravado or mocking, it's no joke. Javed has little use for such things. It's simply a certainty, a statement of finality from the Strider.

"We must get into those lower levels. Clearly they must be secure, as nothing has come up from them, but it must be made certain. And as the leaders of Cold Crescent are becoming rarer..." He probably doesn't need to mention the missing Rite Master; people have probably noticed or heard, even as Forgotten Question's representatives remain. "Things may slip through the cracks, and answers may not be available. Those answers need to be discovered."

-----

It all makes sense. Keisha doesn't know why she didn't think of it before...she had noted the strange spiritual convergence and she had . Maybe if she hadn't been so busy in the month following the 43rd Floor incident, or maybe if she hadn't...or if she hadn't...it doesn't matter. The point is that someone came to the conclusion. She doesn't care that it wasn't her; it was someone and that's the important part.

The connection, she vocalizes over their pack link. What Fern told us. Goddess, the green fire...it makes sense.

"The Spiral pack is getting their power from Green Dragon," she says then, rising to speak. "We've spoken with Fern, the cub who we took from them, and that much was made clear. And it all makes sense...the green fire that scoured Cold Crescent that night. We should look closer at the Umbral aspects, the ley line convergence...if there's a connection between the building and the pack that is more than just them reclaiming their own home, there may be something in there that could help us break that link, disrupt the ritual."

Yes, she's terrified at the idea that the Sept is a former haven to the Wyrm. She's a little in shock and there are so many terrible things that are surely coming out of this. But where her mind overwhemls her with the bad and the darkness, it just makes the illumination of a direction for opportunity that much brighter and easier to see.

[Damon]

[HOLY SHIT. LOL. IT MAKES SO MUCH SENSE THAT I WISH I COULD SAY I SAW IT COMING BUT I REALLY, REALLY DIDN'T.]

[jamie]

As Éva speaks Hector unhooks his arm from behind his kinswoman's chair and leans forward with his elbows on his knees like that is going to help him pay attention. It appears to. He doesn't murmur to those around him or interrupt or stare off into space the entire time she's talking.

To the contrary: he frowns when she speaks of tunnels and frowns deeper when she speaks of this Mr. Fentress designing both the airport and the building where the urban sept sits. Knits his hands together so both index fingers sit before his lips and nose and sits like this just before Éva spells it out for them.

"Son of a bitch..."

Tamsin can already hear his internal monologue running about as fast as his mouth ever does when he gets excited about something potentially dangerous coming down the pike but those without the luxury of hearing him across a totem spirit's connection only have the same dark stolid cast of his eyes and that frown disappearing as he lets go of his dread.

Once Javed and the other Fosterns have had their turns to speak the Uktena clears his throat.

"I don't wanna fight anyone for the honor," he says, unhooking his hands and sitting back in his chair, "but Celduin's gotten pretty good at sneaking around lower levels. If Desert Oracle wants to see what's going on in the Umbra we can check out what the situation is realmside."

[OOC: Response subject to change pending one of the Fosterns saying NO JAVED THAT'S A TERRIBLE IDEA.]

[Kenna]

The Uktena Kinswoman was stern-faced and silent while listening to what the Shadow Lord Kinswoman had to say.

Most of them were, when it came down to it. Lola's face was really just another in the crowd.

But her voice was clear and confident, did not quake for the Rage that swirled in the cramped room, and was not meek out of a sense of her station among those that surrounded her.

"If the Caern's lower levels haven't spat any monsters out in a while, then we shouldn't have to worry about checking and making sure that things are locked up down there." Her eyes flicked to Hector, and from him to Javed, but only briefly before continuing about the room as she addressed them as a whole. "Unless, of course, the shit-show that happened reached those lower levels. If that's the case, then by all means.

"Shouldn't we be worried about the airport, though? Who's to say that they wouldn't shift their attention there after we kick their asses off the Spire?

"And what about this Fentress guy? If he's not dead yet, should we dispatch him ourselves?"

[Damon]

It takes Erich a while to pick his jaw off the ground. Almost figuratively. Like seriously: his mouth is hanging open for a while after Eva's done, proving once and for all that he was no more in the know about what she had to say than anyone else here.

When Javed starts speaking -- with a plan! -- Erich looks at the Strider with gratitude and open enthusiasm. He's nodding vigorously, though: when Celduin's Alpha speaks up about sneaking, the young Ahroun's brow clouds somewhat.

"Not saying you guys aren't good at sneaking, because I believe you are, but I'm not sure if I feel comfortable sending nothing but scouts down into the Diablo-dungeon under the Cold Crescent. I'd feel a lot better if you had some backup. Maybe not right there with you, but at least close enough to come charging in if you trip over a thunderwyrm or something."

And, after Lola puts in her two cents: "We should check out the airport too, eventually. But I think we should deal with one thing at a time. Let's deal with Beloved Horror and the Cold Crescent first."

[Samael]

Javed listens to Hector speak, then Lola, then Erich. The Galliard is gracious enough to identify his pack and that allows him to place who is speaking, and he nods a little bit when the man volunteers. Lola's words are heard too and even though there is no recognition in that one single good eye (even if they did fight together), he takes her words seriously.

There is a nod at all of Erich's words. "I do not believe that Celduin should go alone. If it is secure then the extra forces cannot hurt. If it is not...they can only help. And I would not suggest something I would not be willing to do myself." A brief glance at Avery at his side, and then he looks back to Hector. "The Falcons would go with you, Echoes of the Lost."

"And while we should investigate the airport and Curtis Fentress, with due respect," his gravelly voice directs to Lola, neither dismissive nor rude. "When it comes to the security of our own territory, should is not secure enough. It is possible that something lurks down there, waiting for the moment to strike. Or perhaps that there is a way into the building that needs to be secured in order to prevent the Wyrm's forces from getting past our defenses; even if nothing is actively there, we must seal up all possible defenses."

"Perhaps another team should look into the architect, see what can be learned."

[Kenna]

"I'll give ya that," Lola relented when Javed said that 'should' wasn't good enough when it came to Sept security.

As for Fentress...

"I can go after this Fentress guy. He could be a Fomor, or a Spiral Kinfolk, but I doubt -- and hopefully I won't eat my words here -- that he's gonna be worth sending a whole pack after."

[CourtCat]

"I could go with her," Reese offers - the dirty joiner! - in response to what Lola's said; he doesn't know her, has never met her before, isn't particularly prone to trusting her (or almost anyone else - there are about three people here he knows through every fault of his own, and one he'd taken an immediate liking to, but that's about it), but it doesn't make sense to go something like that alone. Regardless of gender or perceived ability - it's like Erich not wanting a bunch of scouts going it alone to explore the pit under Cold Crescent, except this would be the Glass Walker kin's answer regardless of who was suggesting they go face a possible fomor. "I'm Reese Evans, by the way, Sam's brother. The guy may not be worth sending a whole pack after, but very rarely is some sort of backup a bad idea."

++++++++++++++++++++

Winona, meanwhile, is more interested in talk of the doings beneath Cold Crescent. "Having an Ahroun on each side mightn't be the worst of ideas," she says - not in a way that implies fear or uncertainty, but in a pragmatic way that implies she knows each auspice has its skill set, and she knows where hers and her packsisters' lies.