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Guest Psyber     For this particular meeting, Psyber has cleared out one of the conference rooms along the mid-level of the tower. He's also made sure Nathan is suitably occupied with side business that will minimize the likelihood of an intrusion by the librarian. People who have either been involved with the events roughly a month ago, or at the very least are individuals Psyber trusts, have been requested to arrive at the tower at a pre-arranged time.

    The conference room itself is sparse, with just the table, some chairs, and a pitcher of ice-water with plastic cups in the middle. The half-angel is sitting at the head of the table, his feet up and resting on the surface of it as he leans backwards in a highback chair and casually reads a book.
Setsuko Kaminagi     It's not often Psyber flat-out calls Setsuko in for a meeting, though when he puts out a more general call she's always willing to lend her blade. But having him contact her directly also gives her a fairly good idea of just what's to be discussed. So she agrees without hesitation, and takes care to show up at exactly the specified time, neither early nor late - if the person they're having a meeting about in any way senses her arriving and leaving, it might make things difficult, and she trusts Psyber to have Nathan elsewhere Doing Stuff at the right time.

    Without a word, the demigod steps in the door of the conference room, slides into a chair nearish to Psyber, and folds her hands on the table to wait. Not much else to do for now.
Eleanor Lamb     Let it never be said that Eleanor does not provide for her friends. The Big Sister shuffles her way into the conference room, waddling slighty. She's got a heavy soft-sided cooler with her, which she places on a chair at the other end of the table. "Good evening, everyone." A bit of a smile, before she starts pulling a couple of trays out. Deviled eggs, a cheese and cold cut platter, and a big basket of crackers. She must have hit up Wegmans on the way in.
Sakura Haruno     Flowers is semi-frequently involved in discussions, of course, but going to the effort of making the long commute from the floor above in order to attend means that the mednin must really want to be involved. She's brought the compass - which she's checked now and then over the last month - but it's presently tucked away in a pack strapped to her leg, along with other supplies. She'll stay standing, leaning on the wall near the door, folding her arms and waiting wordlessly for Psyber to speak up with explanations.
Ariel Ariel, unlike many, would be an odd choice. Yet really, she does pay attention, she does listen, and it's not like she hasn't seen some problems with her Uncle of late. She slides into a chair and flops, tail swishing, and picks up some ice water for now.
Riva Banari Riva's also at the table, scribbling away in a small red leather-bound book. Psyber is usually pretty lassiez-faire about the day to day running of his place, which is why it's all the more worrying that he called everyone in. She closes the book presently, stashing it... somewhere... As she straightens up and pays attention to what's going on. She looks like she's actually taking this mostly seriously!
Priscilla     Priscilla has special reason to be here, of which Psyber already knows; at least some of. It feels like it's been a very long time since she last came to this building, to the point where she still associates the older, humbler office with the Heaven or Hell name, but she finds it easily enough regardless. Having the same half of a thought as Setsuko, she enters the building invisibly, but it proves to be a needless precaution with Nathan suitably, and deliberately, occupied. A fact that may still need to be repeated a few times before it is fully disbursed is that her malignantly lingering scars have finally disappeared, coinciding with the lost eye having been replaced with a completely different one. Belonging to more or less the same species, the difference is only broadly noticable in the mismatch of colour and luminance from her original, less 'emerald' and more 'molten steel' in comparison. Uncharacteristically, she decides to actually bother herself with the deli cuts right away, still eating too sedately to fake actual hunger.
Pegasus     Naturally, Pegasus has reason to be here. She's not in her armor, making it a more casual visit. The silver-plated construct doesn't sit down, just pacing back and forth with a little clip-clop on the floor. No, she has feet right now, but they still make clip-clop noises because they're pretty firm. She only stops to ruffle Ariel's mane a little, or to give small nods of greeting.

    She also brought a plate of cookies. Just, you know. So everyone knows.
Guest Psyber     Psyber shuts the book, "I'll skip the speech about how being here involves you in a Black Operation compartmentalized away from Union Headquarters. Yada yada. I've forward what's necessary up to command, they trust my general nature to be on point here." He makes a generic talking motion with his hand. If nothing else, he seems slightly more relaxed after the death of Elliana, which is the opposite of what one might expect.

    "This meeting has a few purposes. The first is that... that mask we found? It predicted Nathan's NEXT betrayal, not one of his past ones. That means that whatever is doing this is... really far-reaching. And I want to take steps to get ahead of it, so I'm here to let ideas be tabled." He notes, looking around the room.

    "You're all here because you have... unique perspectives. No two people here are all that alike, and I think we can close some gaps and catch anything we miss with the right grouping," He notes as he sets his book down on the table.

    He looks sideways a bit, "First order a business. Any new information or ideas to share? I think Priscilla mentioned having information, but wanting to wait until we were gathered."
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko gives brief nods to Eleanor, Sakura, Riva, Pegasus and Priscilla in turn, and a brief smile to Ariel. But Psyber has most of her attention, at least until he mentions Priscilla having information. At that point, she turns to look at the half-dragon curiously. She knows a major operation recently concluded in Priscilla's world, and that Nathan was involved; given the change in that eye, the demigod is now fairly curious as to what was learned.
Riva Banari Riva squints at Psyber as he gets the party started, but says nothing. She nods back to Setsuko, and waves with a smile to her. Everything is cool, smiles forever.

Regardless, the Templaress tilts her head. "So Nathan's picked up doing some new stuff, huh? And he's... predicted the future? He's gained some kind of treacheryvoyance? That's messed up." She huffs a little. "I knew Nathan was having problems but this is just..." She spreads her hands and shakes her head. "It takes everything I've seen about him to the next level, really." She looks over to Priscilla, however, watching her intently. That new eye seems to get most of her attention, though it's clear she's not watching out of mockery.

She thinks it's kind of cool, actually. Somewhere in all this Riva scoots over and gives Eleanor a snug of thanks.

This is before she hits the deviled eggs like the fist of an angry god, of course.
Guest Psyber     Psyber shakes his head at Riva, "No. Sorry, I didn't explain clearly."

    He takes a moment, "We've been investigating a conspiracy into a group or entity directly devoting to worshipping, and even invoking, suffering upon Nathan. He is not aware this group exists and, for the moment, it should stay that way," He clarifies to the Templar, "This is nothing Nathan himself has done, but rather something being done to or around him."
Sakura Haruno     Flowers will lift a hand in greeting to Ariel and Setsuko as they make their ways in, though she largely stays still. "This is still tremendously weird." The medic will note; a cult dedicated to one man's misery is a little bit odd. "I've been looking around with the compass we'd found, but I haven't discovered anything that exciting as of yet. I've been trying to just do it whenever I know he won't be around, though." She'll admit.
Eleanor Lamb     The Big Sister applies snugs back to Riva, before settling in with some summer sausage and stuff. "Ah, the troubling thing is we, I mean... those of us who have hurt Nathan in rather fundamental ways... are being revered by this group. So It's not just him they have on their radar."
    She does not seem comforatble being on this list.
Pegasus     "I'll point out that I'm basically seen like a demon by this group," Pegasus says. She sighs heavily. "Which means if there are any against them, they'd be my ally, maybe. But this is way more complicated than I'm built to comprehend. I'm used to battles I can fight by stabbing things. This time prediction and things like that is... it's not what I'm good at. I'd like to draw them out and just stab them a lot. That works, right?"
Riva Banari The update from Psyber causes Riva to just kind of gives her best 'wat' face. The deviled egg just kind of completes the look. She chews and swallows real fast before saying, "So wait, there's a group and/or eldritch horror who are literally trying to cause Nathan suffering for whatever reason?"

Riva plops back into a chair and kicks her own feet up. "You know, this kind of makes sense. I thought Nathan was kind of demonstrating a victimization complex with his behavior, but if he is being induced into putting himself in harm's way and causing more problems for himself..."

Riva rubs her chin. "That would make sense."
Guest Psyber     "While it may be more complicated than you're used to, you're an important anchor in all this, Pegasus. You've gone this long without hurting Nathan, and you're one of the only people close to him that can claim that," Psyber says with a serious tone, sighing a bit, "I'm a bit out of my depth with all this too, but I'm sure no one will object to you stabbing the parties behind all this."
Priscilla     Priscilla seems to have realized that keeping her mouth busy with eating won't actually absolve her of speaking when Psyber calls upon her specifically by name. It was a silly idea anyways. After all, she had inadvertedly called this meeting by deferring explanation of what she had seen. She swallows quickly before placing a familiar mask down on the smooth surface of the table with a quiet click, still no less a confusingly abstract shape of swept obsidian spires with a central, cruciform hole, but now more familiar to some than others.

    ". . . indeed I didst. Just less than a month ago, this particular item was recovered from a . . . sort of space in which these beings were engaged in activities relating to their object of worship. No more than a week prior to this day, the shape didst resurface within the bones of the Black Dragon of Calamity, or rather such was clearly its origin, immediately making implication that the mask maker didst both knoweth of Kalameet, and predicteth the nature of its demise. The dragon is relevant for the fact that its . . . inhuman temperment didst resulteth in Sir Hall being called to negotiate, only to be painfully slain, and then again attacked with the intent to kill whence he made attempt to allow the creature its demands regardless. The recurrent theme of a single eye causing Sir Hall distress and pain is exceedingly obvious, in this instance."

    She hesitates momentarily at the realization that now Nathan has to look at it every time he sees her. "I believeth not this a case of mere prediction, as couldst implausibly but still quite possibly be construed from known factors. Further worth noting is that the Everlasting Dragons of Lordran art not such typical, living and breathing reptilian beasts, but entities from outside of the confines of life and death, the soul, and even time. Whence I seized the dragon's eye for mine own as by oath of vengeance, for the moments it took for Kalameet's being to drain from it, I was possessed of some of its sight, and commeasurate awareness of . . . causality, I supposeth." She then proceeds to drop a sketchbook on the table to accompany the mask, depicting Nathan on one page, covered in a sprawling mass of symbolic injuries and with a single lens of his glasses cracked through, and on the other, a bizzare, Escher-esque amalgamation of thematic masks and fractal, nonsensical limbs, surrounding a prominent arrangement of cyclopean eyes.

    "Kalameet made tirade of Lord Gwyn during our final encounter, but such was taken to heart by Sir Hall to specifically pertain to himself. Now I am not certain that the dragon didst not meaneth both. I do not believeth there is a group dedicated to following Sir Hall's suffering, so much as that one hast arisen around a singular entity that may be responsible for it, and may, in fact, comprise it. A being that is privy to his torments not by virtue of prediction, but because, from its point of view, they hath already transpired."
Setsuko Kaminagi     That the mask is of Kalameet, is interesting and unexpected, but not a shock; it confirms what the hunters had said about this being existing outside of ordinary cause-and-effect. However, the sketch on the pad immediately has Setsuko's full, undivided attention. It's too detailed, too regular, to be a simple 'artist's impression', and the swordswoman gives voice to her thought without hesitating. "You /saw/ this... entity?"
Guest Psyber     Psyber lets out an incredibly tense noise as he listens to Priscilla, stiffening up a bit and taking in everything she says. He lets out a slight scowl and then sighs. He shifts his positioning and drops back into his chair, "A being of causality and time. Perfect. Just exactly what I needed to be facing." He lets out a stressed sigh. This was supposed to be his unwinding time after everything was down exploding.

    "Alright. So we're going to need to start blowing its anchors out from under it. Pegasus." Psyber looks over at the robot, "You should interview that Hunter we found. Take a few of the less-revered people in the room with you and see what he can give you, information wise."

    He puts his hands on the table, "I wanna start finding out this things places of power and destroying them, sealing them, or destabilizing it. We wanna weaken its hold and influence before we go to Nathan, since I'm pretty sure when we make Nathan aware of its existence, it is gonna react violently."
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor lets outa breath at that. "I'd ask if you need me to talk to Nathan any moreabout... things, but I don't think I feel comfortable doing that until we resolve this matter. The guilt is eating at me."

    She taps her fingers on the desk. "How much research into Nathan's past have we actually done? I mean, besides his time here at HoH?"
Riva Banari Riva listens to the findings of Priscilla and pays rapt attention. When the sketch is produced, Riva pops on over to take a look.

She winces. "Looking at this thing makes my skin crawl. It's... wrong. I mean, you didn't so it wrong, I'm sure, but this..." She shakes her head. "Maybe there could be some hints in there but right now I can't get past the whole non-Euclidean thing." She sighsa and sits back over at her place, popping another deviled egg into her mouth. After chewing and swallowing, she nods at Psyber's marching orders. "If anyone thinks they can use my help, just ask. I'm pretty neutral on this, I think, and I'm good at meddling with things." This is sadly not unique for the people in the room, however. womp womp.

"I'll probably try to do some snoopin on my own anyway, so...." She shrugs. "More eyes on this, the better, right?"
Ariel Ariel raises her hand. "I'm not sure where I fit into all of this, but I don't think I've ever hurt Nathan much. I'd like to go with Aunt Pegasus, if I can." She glances at Priscilla, thinking of what was said. "And... I don't like anything that is trying to hurt my family. Without Nathan, I might not have been born. If there's anything I can do, please let me know. I'm not sure what's going on with all these worshippers and things right now, though, so I'll follow your lead for now until I get a better idea of what's happened."
Sakura Haruno     "They didn't seem particularly reverative of me, really." Flowers offers. "Which is strange, but I'm not completely certain what the basis of it is. Maybe because we've never been friends, so it's not really possible for me to betray him." She states, shrugging. And moving forward to take one of the cookies off the plate. That seems to have at least drawn her out of her shell.
Priscilla     "Thou wouldst be right." Priscilla grimly replies to Setsuko. "And thou as well, Lord Psyber. To be specific, it was drawn out to place this new mask upon its . . . self, and whence it believed mineself to hath noticed it, it made no subtle show of readying to murder him, though I believeth this a contingency on its part rather than a deliberate threat. I currently consider that it was unable to recognize that I kneweth of its existence, but I knoweth not for how long such shalt last. For our purposes, I believeth wise to assumeth that it is quite literally with Sir Hall at all times. It is a parasite, of some sorts, and yet one that wouldst rather slay its host before being discovered."
Pegasus     The order from Psyber has Pegasus nodding quickly, "All right, sir. I'll do that. I'd like someone who is better at talking to people with me... I'm friendly but I'm not a wizard with words. I'll see who I can find, I think I know who Nathan is on good terms with and probably wouldn't be a target of... you know." She gestures lightly.

    Ariel's offer gets a smile. "I'm pretty sure you haven't done anything to have ever upset him, so that's fine, Ariel." Probably better at talking than her, too... though she would like someone with more experience, too.

    Priscilla and the others bring up some good points, and Pegasus considers. "Riva might be a good choice," she points out.
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko's frown only deepens at Priscilla's explanations. It's willing to kill Nathan if it's found out, and yet it's an entity that seems to worship and/or feed on his hardships and betrayals. It's going to take some work just figuring out if there's any sort of logic to its existence that can be followed. And in the meantime...

    "We have to be careful. As stealthy as we can. If it feels threatened enough, it might act. If we're going to cut off its food supply, its power base, whatever this constitutes, we need to do so in a way such that it doesn't realize until it's too late. I'd also like to be along for the meeting with Pegasus and Ariel, but I worry that just seeing my face will scare them off. They think Psyber's working /for/ this entity, and refuse to talk with anyone owrking with him."
Guest Psyber     Psyber nods to Pegasus, "You, Ariel, Haruno, and Riva should make a good team for that. Plus whomever else you want to bring in. But I cannot stress one thing enough," Psyber says with an urgent tone, "Anyone we bring in is another risk of Nathan finding out prematurely. I trust the judgment of everyone in this room, but I do stress discretion."

    He looks to Eleanor, "I want you to try to talk with him regularly. If this being is fostering or exacerbating his traumas, that puts you in a unique position to dampen its damage without alerting it to the fact you know it exists," He gives her a pretty firm look, "You can, in essence, hamstring whatever it's parasiting off of him by diminishing the emotional damage he has, which will prove vital." He then answers her question, "I never dug into his past. My rule at the office is generally that people stay out of my past, I stay out of theirs if they don't make it my job. We could try to look there, coming up."

    "I'm going to be trying to find its pockets, its groups within the multiverse, and I'm going to be trying to wipe them out. It might be a futile effort, but I will be taking regular strike teams any time I even catch wind it has set foot in my territory," He rubs the back of his head, "I'm going to be trying to seal it where I can too, so I'm hoping to bring along a couple Sealing specialists I know about." He rubs his face a bit stressedly, "I lost the best sealing expert I know, recently, but we're gonna make due."

    He looks around the room, "All other suggestions and points of attack are welcome at this point. Rank aside, you're all my friends in this room, and I can't do much without you on this particular issue."

    He points right at Priscilla, though, "Pris. I am going to want YOU specifically, if NOTHING else, for the final confrontation. I want this thing to die, to stay dead, and to never come back."
Riva Banari Pegasus' vote of confidence brings a big smile to Riva's face. "Thank you, Pegasus. That means a lot to me, especially coming from you." She nods to the robo-pegasus, clapping her hands together. "I'll do my best!" She exclaims, pumping a fist with enthusiasm. She sits up and nods to Psyber as she lays things out. "Well, the more we help Nathan feel at ease, the more these people will want to do something to try to keep us from influencing him more, right? Maybe we can force some of them to make a move and expose themselves that way."
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor's face softens a bit as she gets the order from Psyber. "I'll do what I can sir, though... He's more of a closed book than he was before." A wan smile. "Anything you guys can offer to help, I'd like to know how best to get him to open up."
Priscilla     Priscilla considers for quite a length of time. Long ago, being confirmed a friend rather than just an ally might have had much more of a distracting effect on her, but we're well past that point by now. "I must echo sentiment that making attempt to simply pick away bits and pieces of this creature as they presenteth themselves dost seemeth ill-advised. Aside any potential of it being possible to simply fabricate or arrange fresh wounds to replace them, it may yet detecteth a pattern of attack within such movements, and maketh decision to cut and abscond. It wouldst be best were we able to move just as much as we art able to ascertain what harms it, manage and control what we knoweth of until we hath uncovered a sufficient number of vital points, and then striketh all at once to render it crippled and confused. Aside from that, all I may offer is an effort of research, beginning with the latest of these betrayals, which yet remains the only one we art blessed with the ability of easy examination."
Sakura Haruno     "He'll recognize me from making certain he didn't die, anyway." Flowers suggests, acknowledging the order with a lifted cookie before stuffing it into her mouth in what she thinks of as a stealthy manner.

    There are crumbs on the carpet, afterwords, at least until one of the various animals gets around to licking them up.
Guest Psyber     "The last operation, where we went between several locations and wound up destroying an eye. I think that severely harmed it," Psyber theorizes, looking towards Priscilla as he leans back in the chair a bit, "But you're right. I'll take Setsuko and a few combat experts. We'll see if we can find any way to apply combat capability to any of its points and damage it. But I won't go into full scale assault mode."
Ariel Ariel is actually thinking. "I think... Aunt Priscilla is right. If we're going to handle this we should find out more, and then just um... take care of it all at once. If we start picking off bits and pieces it may just get angry, since it doesn't sound like, well... like a reasonable sort of being, you know? It probably knows we're poking around already, so maybe if we're careful we can, I don't know... make it think we aren't as close as we are."

She thinks for a moment longer. "That'd mean we actually need to find stuff out though."
Setsuko Kaminagi     Setsuko fingersteeples for a moment. "...One thing I want to test is whether I can bring down one of their buildings from the outside, without a fight, and if that will actually destroy what's inside, or simply cut its connection to that point in space. I know I'm capable of it with ordinary buildings. But they might harden their buildings, for all we know. And..." She takes a breath, then adds, "...I've been working on a trump card. For killing or destroying the exceptionally powerful. So that might be of use if they do. There are a lot of uncertainties here."
Pegasus     Pegasus rises and flashes a smile to Riva. "Why wouldn't I? You seem friendly enough and um... can talk. It shouldn't be a surprise that I'd trust you to come along!" She nods her head. "All right, so we'll start with the questioning later. I'll let you know what we find. In the meantime I'll make sure Nathan stays out of trouble."
Guest Psyber     "Good. You two should grab a day and go apartment hunting in the city this week. I bet that would be a nice distraction for him," Psyber notes off-handedly to Pegasus. Setsuko, on the other hand, gets a nod of his head, "I'm willing to come along with you to try that out," He adds to her. And then he looks around the room, "Alright. We've got a gameplan on the board. Now let's get crackin' at it."
Sakura Haruno     "Oh, are we kicking Nathan out of the office or something?" Sakura asks, slightly confused as she steals another cookie. "Or is he just wanting another place to store his books since people keep breaking into the library here? It'll be a good time to investigate while he's busy, though." She'll admit, happy enough with the game plan.
Guest Psyber     Psyber waves a hand, "Nathan's been planning to move out for a while. I suggested it to him a while back," He shrugs a bit, "I think it'd be a good emotional step for him to move in with his significant other. Last I checked, he plans to just stay in-city and commute."
Setsuko Kaminagi     "It's more like I'd be coming along with you," Setsuko replies. "I won't use my trump card until we really need it, but I at least want to test Zanjintou on one of their actual establishments if we can find an opportunity. Find out whether or not it works, before that becomes critical information. If it just severs their connection to that place, rather than destroying it outright, it's better we learn that when it can just be written off as us stumbling onto them again." Because if they make a big, sweeping move, but some of the entity's bases /survive/, that could be... problematic.
Eleanor Lamb     Eleanor rubs her face a bit, and smiles. "If you guys can talk with him while you're out... househunting, please let me know what you find out. The man is a blank slate to me sometimes, and it seems like it is very difficult for him to even understand what is making him uncomfortable."