Participants:
| Scene Title | Why Edward Got Headaches |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Endgame gathers for another strategic meeting, and Cardinal discovers why the future incarnation of Edward Ray always looked a little… strained. |
| Date | March 17, 2011 |
This was probably someone's apartment once. Only scraps of wallpaper remain upon the walls, and in places one can see broken drywall or plaster beneath the base coat of paint. The floor's to match, remnants of carpeting here and there but otherwise bare wood. Not all of the old carpet nails have been dealt with, so one should watch their feet.One wall has been recently and hastily covered in a fresh coat of white paint, and it's been decorated with visual references for the evening's meeting.
Under a note reading 'HUMANIS FIRST', a photograph of Georgia Mayes and one of Gregory Armond are pinned together, with post-it notes indicating their names and 'HOMELAND SECURITY' stuck next to them. Nearby, pictures of Samuel Irons ('POLICE COMMISSIONER') and Sylvia Lockheart ('MAYOR') are lined up with the first two. Lower and to one side, a post-it note reading 'DANIEL 'THE IRISHMAN' WALSH' and 'KEIRA FIONN (patsy)' have no accompanied pictures.
Another note is hung up, reading 'ROBOT APOCALYPSE'. Beneath this are three notes, reading 'COLIN VERSE', 'HECTOR STEEL', and 'PROJECT ALIA'.
The third section of the wall has been labeled 'HARD EVIDENCE'. The notes slapped under this heading aren't people this time, but seem to be events. 'MESSIAH ATTACKS', 'PROJECT ICARUS - COYOTE SANDS', 'COMPANY COMPLICITY', 'CONCENTRATION CAMPS', and a line and arrow pointing at the 'ROBOT APOCALYPSE' section.
The fourth portion of the wall has been left empty, and across from it is a small table with a projector sitting on it, plugged into the same small generator that's powering the lights standing around the room.
Richard Cardinal is standing next to that table, dressed in simple clothes - jeans, a black t-shirt, a flight jacket. His sunglasses are in place as he tries to focus the projector, then just gives up and flicks it off. "Fucking gadgets," he murmurs, glancing up as the first people walk in. Straightening, a smile crooks a bit up at one corner of his mouth. "Hey, folks. C'mon in. Have a seat, or pull up a wall or something."
There are chairs. Folding chairs! Hey, this isn't exactly Redbird here, but it's private.
Elisabeth catches the swearing even before she enters the room. She chuckling softly to herself, accompanied as she enters the room by brunette Claire and a man who will be unfamiliar to almost everyone here. She introduces Cardinal to Evan Langford and murmurs for the professor to go ahead and set himself up at the projector. While he's getting himself settled to listen to the meeting, Claire settles herself into the back corner of the room, watching carefully.
To Richard, Elisabeth comments quietly, "The noise is going to carry in the stairwells a bit, so I'm going to basically lace the interior of the room with a field. It won't keep someone on the bottom floor from hearing the floors creak, but it'll keep every other sound confined."
Monica's one of the first there because, hey, she lives here! So she strolls in and picks one of the chairs to spin around on a leg so she can straddle it backwards, her arms draping on the chair back. "Don't joke about that, you probably really could pull out some of these walls," she says, smiling crookedly. There is a glance at the wall before she looks back to him, "I see we're in for an uplifting meeting."
Chair please. Harmony will take a chair. I mean look at her. It's been a week or so since her last visit to the doctor, and an explanation that there was a slight misreading of her last visit. They were off my one, which still puts her at one more than just one, and she still looks pretty big because of it. So yes. Chair for the pregnant lady, because no a days, they even have parking above handicapped that are for expecting mothers. Yep, that's right. They have they're own parking places. Which she didn't have to use because A) there aren't any here, and B) she didn't drive.
But she does scoot in and find herself a spot to sit in a chair, trying to be a little bit more invisible than she normally is, and believing her appearance is a bit of a mistake. She still has telepathy, and hormonal changes have made her a little shakey in the handling of it again. She'll be in a room full of people with brains that think. It can't be good.
Long black coat, dark hat, black scarf, dark attire beneath. When she arrived, Ygraine looked very much as if she's either feeling the cold or is anxious to retain some anonymity - though she is now perched on a chair by the window, slightly hunched around the sturdy sling immobilising one arm. She's warily eyeing the array of messages and labels stuck up on the wall, pale features drawn with tension.
"You're getting fat." Warren states quite bluntly when he walks in and spots Harmony taking a seat, and soon he's sitting down as well, wearing his black suit and sliding a remove on some sort of robotic track from under his sleeve. "I had a dream that a midget was bossing us around, and there was a nuclear strike, and I had this cool gadgets. I built one because it's way better than just keeping my remote in a pocket." He seems to be working on it as we speak, poking at it with tiny tools in front of him on the table. "Elisabeth was vaporized and then I woke up. But polyurethane spider web? That's a great idea."
He raises an eyebrow, staring at Cardinal's technology trouble. "It's just a projector."
Stalking up the stairs two at a time after Ygraine, comes Jaiden, dressed in dark clothes with a black hat pulled over his ears - about the best thing that a 6 foot australian can do to remain inconspicuous. The directions were fairly good, and he was able to find the place without too much trouble. Looking around the pins and pictures, he rolls his eyes and pulls his hat off, his hair a wild tangle from being hidden beneath the cap. "Meetings are never good when there are pictures like this. The last time I saw something like this, I went back to 1999." This is said to whoever's in earshot - Ygraine mainly.
Among the last to filter in would be Francois, in the wake of Ygraine and Jaiden. Considering he apparently lives between Manhattan and the more distant location of the Ferrymen's last stronghold, maybe he can be forgiven some tardiness — the commute is hell. And there are more people here that he doesn't recognise, although he has some recognition to skim over the faces of, say, Richard Cardinal and Elisabeth Harrison. Monica, too, from just before he was disappeared. He is relatively unremarkable himself, in brown leather jacket, grey wool, blue denim, and a scar that lines along his throat like a knife slit, and a piece missing from his ear.
Green eyes dart guilty for Elisabeth and linger on her profile, and should she catch him looking, he offers a smile as easy as if he'd never had a nightmare regarding her potential murder at his hands. But he doesn't swoop on over to greet anyone, his eyes going towards the information displayed, and finding himself somewhere off-centre to sit.
As people arrive, Cardinal greets them each in turn— even stepping over to provide the chair for Harmony, because he's not going to make her get it herself. "There you go," he murmurs, hand briefly squeezing her shoulder as he moves to the next person in line. The projector's quite willingly surrendered to the professor for him to do whatever it is he's going to do with it, of which the less he knows the technical details the better.
Richard Cardinal is many things. Technically proficient is not one of them.
"I spared you the entire time web, Jaiden, so thank me for that at least…" Then he pauses as Warren begins talking, revealing details of a shared dream that not even he had shared with Elisabeth. A brief grimace crosses his expression, and he steps over to the wall, "…it wasn't a dream, Warren, it was a vision. Claire is not a midget, Harmony is pregnant, not fat, and sit your robot-building ass down. As you can see, I've worked out a general lineup of the major problems we need to deal with to terminate the current timeline we're on. And trust me, you don't want this timeline to progress too much further."
Using a cane to walk, Elle makes her way in. She's blonde again, wearing her hair in a straight style. She's in loose, comfortable clothing today, having only had to go down some stairs to get here. "God dammit, Richard, you need to get one of those stupid motorized seat lifts for the stairs. This shit hurts." Blue eyes travel around the room, before she settles into her seat, making it a point to sit next to Warren.
Then, she notices that Harmony is fat. And then Richard says that she's not fat, but pregnant. And…a small look forms on her face. In her mind, she's singing some random song by My Morning Jacket.
Elisabeth's glance takes in each person as they enter as well…. and she smiles at Francois. But Warren's announcement that she was vaporized brings… a tight expression to her face. She says quietly to Warren, "That's not the only dream. I know of two others. Neither … terribly good news. But that'll be included in this information."
"I'm pregnant you mechanical sex toy reject." Harmony cuts her tongue rather sharply at Warren as he quips about her being fat. It is a rather vicious attack from Harmony, and unlike her. Be careful, she'll kill you and blame the hormones. Which, for those who do know here, is probably just what riled up on her just now. Verbal lashings like that are unlike her. It also doesn't help that she has recently been self conscious about getting large recently. So what if she has food right now? That she does her best to hide under the table. Warren called her fat, and the effects of what he said can be seen on her face as it deconstructs to emotional hurt. That quickly, in fact. Why does he always say stuff that makes her feel bad? This is what she is going to have to put up with, isn't it? The whispers, the looks and glances.. Oh god. She might cry.
But Cardinal steps in to save the day. One by pulling the chair out, and two by speaking up for her condition. Crisis averted, no cry for now. She sticks to her seat and goes back to eating her cookie… dough ice cream. Don't judge her!
She'll hold her questions for a little later.
Listening and watching with intently focus, Ygraine remains perched on her chair and hunched around her wounded arm. Elle - far-from-fondly remembered from a past injury - is watched with particular attention, though she does manage to muster a wan smile for Jaiden. Then it's back to apprehensively studying the other people present, and the cryptic notes on the wall.
"Midget, dwarf, this isn't the time for being politically correct." Warren continues to stare down at his remote, a plastic button dropping from it as he seems to start soldering something. "Why would we dream about the future? That makes absolutely no sense. Neither of us have that kind of ability." Though Harmony saying that she's pregnant draws a bit of a wide-eyed stare, an unsaid thought running through his mind before he starts to solder even harder. Spark spark
Rather than offer words just yet, Francois simply attempts to work his cellphone. Out of someone's kindness, it's not a touchscreen, resting in a dialpad territory that he can manage whether through learning, familiarity or the fact any modern day memory planted in his head have dealt with these machines before. Which doesn't make texting any less ponderous for him. Press. Push. Press. He glances up, ears pricking at the word dream if only because it's where his mind is.
But he's currently grappling with predictive texting, so offers of insight or real attention will wait until after the device is slipped back into a pocket.
Right on cue.. whose cue?
Shuffling can be heard coming from outside the place everyone is gathered. Heavy boots scrapping along the floor, a soft voice can be heard echoing down the halls. The words muffled into a figure enters the apartment.
"I'm a little tea cup, short and snout."
The darkly dressed and hooded figure sings. Whoever it is, seems to be looking down at a smart phone in her hands. Tapping away at things, she doesn't notice she enters the room until finally she hears people talking. "Oh." Comes the voice of Eve Mas and she lifts her head, the hood of the coat falling back. Dressed in a long black dress that falls to her calves along with her favorite boots for stomping and making noises with, worn over all of that is something that Claire and Monica would know very well. An old trench coat, a few blood stains on the sleeves, she must not have been able to get the stain out yet.
Her light grey eyes survey the room before her gaze lands on Elisabeth and she gives the blonde a giant smile, showing all teeth as her raven dark hair tumbles out of it's hood and down to mid back. She doesn't say a word though, coming to stand against the wall. Not to far from Claire, Eve blinks. "Everyone is so mean to each other." She whispers down into the messenger bag that she's carrying on her shoulder. A furry little head peeks out from the bag and if anyone is looking there happens to be her latest kitten. Herb. Though the cat doesn't meow or anything, just glaring at people before ducking back into the bag.
"Dreams." She says softly on the subject she just walked in on.
"So, let's start with the elephant in the room, then…" Cardinal brings up a hand to rather firmly rap his knuckles against the portion of the wall that reads 'HUMANIS FIRST', entirely bypassing the subject of precognitive dreams and Warren's lack of political correctness in preference for starting the meeting up, "…these are the leaders of Humanis First in New York City. You may've noticed that they also pretty much double as the heads of the entire fucking government in town. Obviously, this isn't exactly a favorable situation. We know that just before Christmas, they all had a little Christmas Party at the mayor's house, but otherwise they probably don't normally meet like that. We need ideas on how to prove who and what they are. Ways to get hard evidence against them. So I'm opening this to the floor, if anyone has any thoughts…."
There's a pause as someone unexpected enters. "Eve. Have a seat."
It's a bit of a blast from the past, that coat and the woman wearing it. "Eve?" It may have been a few years, but PARIAH wasn't so very forgettable. And she may go to help hold up the wall, but she's soon got the resident mimic over at her side and giving her a hug. That's how Monica rolls.
But reunions will have to wait, as Cardinal starts to talk. And Moni does turn to pay attention. "I don't suppose we could have someone do a sting operation?" Because the last infiltration mission went so well.
As he sits in the corner, his eyes shimmer with electricity at the mention of their name, much less the ID's of their leaders. He has not been seen by many people since being taken by Tyler. This is the first time he has returned to be in the same room with Harmony and Elle since that day. He scans the room for face he knows and a few he doesn't as he looks at Cardinal and says, "From what I understand. You have a contact inside the group. Perhaps you can have her help there if your influence is somewhat with her?" Aric doesn't know Graeme's sister's name but knows that she is in that bloody group.
"Or I say when I get 'my' power back we take the leader and I get all the information that way." Not the Aric some remember yet by his tone he is quite serious.
Obediently, Francois casts his attention towards the Humanis First images, and vague recognition has his stare narrowing. The legs of his chair creak a little as he rocks back, balanced on his heels and two legs of the furniture. He clears his throat, a polite sound interjected through the discussion. "That one," he says, of Mayes, a hand moving to point, "is Department of Evolved Affairs, I believe, on the assumption I am recalling correctly. It would not be a stretch for me to understand she is also a terrorist, considering. I hope you wouldn't mind if I pass on that information?"
A glance from Cardinal to Elisabeth, the question certainly a genuine one. Information is delicate. You don't just walk out with it and make copies for friends.
Warren raises the hand and waves his soldering iron when suggestions are asked for. "I suggest very tiny camera robots, spiders, or maybe house fly robots. I can use the Institute's insider intel since the government is a mutual enemy." There's a pause, then he stands up straight as an idea hits him. "We have a time traveler, right? We could plant a tiny chip in them that records conversations too."
Harmony is perceptive enough to catch Warren's thought, and given the short history, she can decipher what it means. Harmony's eyes widen a moment and she blinks, "What?! No! Ew, no no. Not even! What? Are you kidding me? I'm sorry, but.. No." she shakes her head, not really saying what she really wants to say. However, that doesn't stop her from thinking it. 'Me with Warren's kid? Hand me the Draino now.' She probably doesn't really mean it. But then again, she could. No telling with Harmony.
When Cardinal mentions starting with the elephant in the room, given what Warren just said, Harmony's jaw drops immediately as she looks up at him, shocked that he would say something so wrong about her out loud like— Oh.. not her. Okay.
"Actually, I've gotten a little used to this telepathy thing. If it weren't close to time for our abilities to reset, I could totally rip things from someone's head. Painfully, or carefully, either or." she mentions to Aric.
Eve's already looking through her messenger bag and then coming out with a Milky Way, she waves a hand at Richard with her mouth full. " 'M fine, Herb gets restless when we sit." She had to bring Herb out for the day of course. Then it's, "Monica." A warm smile across her lips as the oracle pulls the younger woman in for a tight hug. It's always nice to see old faces, especially Monica. She was always so nice.
She leans against the wall and watches and listens to everyone in the room. Closing her eyes every now and then, slipping her smart phone into the messenger bag. She's silent for now, she might be the whole meeting.
Dax looks at the images on the walls, memorizing the faces he's seen on newspapers and in the news for several different events, before and after. If he could have voted, one of the mayors would have gotten one more, but since he couldn't, he didn't. "Could we have a wikileaks type of leak? Expose them with evidence that we collect, verified by outside experts?"
"Setting up the structure for a secure leak of that sort, that can't be shut down, is tough. Possible, ubt expensive", Ygraine explains, her voice both tense and distinctly British. "You're looking at wanting a range of locations for servers, and some rather funky routers. Or a pet technopath doing a lot of work for you. If you could get wikileaks itself to take it, then all that's in place. Right up to their main data hubs being in an old nuclear survival bunker that was donated to the cause…."
Glancing at Francois, Elisabeth says quietly, "One of the things that has caused this problem is everyone keeping what they know to themselves and attempting to deal with their stuff separate from everyone else's stuff. Well, folks…. we're all in this together. And if we don't start working together, then the future that looks like a cross between the Terminator and 1984 — where robots roam the street scanning your retina at will and you have to have permission to breed? That will happen. The sharing of information here is paramount — if you have contacts who need to know this, then yes… they need to be brought in. But it also means that we need to work together to come up with a tactical plan that will lessen the number of casualties." With a faint grimace, Elisabeth adds as she looks around, "What's coming is ugly. And proving that Humanis First — a terrorist organization — is in positions of power is a good way to start drawing the kind of attention we want on this fight. Warren's got a good idea, actually — with his tech, bugging the places that need bugging could be doable. But they have to be undetectable. And we'd also need outside experts who are not going to be intimidated by the fact that we're talking some really high level people."
"That's my intention, Jaiden, but we actually need to get the evidence first," Cardinal says with a slight shake of his head, turning slightly to crook a smile to Ygraine, "We have at least two technopaths either with us or sympathetic to the cause… and as Elisabeth said, we've been in touch with some outside experts. Media personalities and even a few politicians that might be willing to insist that our evidence be followed up on once it's in the open."
He pauses for a moment, taking in the other suggestions, "We don't have a time traveller, no, Warren. Hiro only does what he wants to do, unfortunately, and he doesn't seem willing to meddle much these days… what do you think that you can whip up as far as spy gear? I can… see what we can get from Keira, I don't know how willing she'll be to cooperate. And that depends on who you want to tell about it, Francois…?" The man gets a curious look. Not disapproving, just curious.
And whud go the legs of the chair Francois had been balancing on, some surprise causing him to straighten at the notion they have a time traveler. They'd better not. Okay. They don't. Good.
But he doesn't voice this notion, listening to Elisabeth instead without particular, visual cynicism. But it's one of those things that come with an excessive amount of age for someone who is physically in his prime — the inability to take advice. It's a quality he at least knows, and curbs, looking from her to Cardinal, then back to her. "France was not a united resistence. Not entirely. There will always be different groups, different goals, different things people are capable of doing. But the sharing of information was important — but trust, also, that they would do with it what they had to for a common cause.
"I would tell the network," he answers directly, "for their own defensive purposes, about who in the government they must be wary of— besides everyone," he adds, with a crooked smile, "and give them the option to come here to you in unity." It's his concession when it comes to bringing them in.
Ygraine's eyes narrow as Francois sets off on… hmmm. An interesting tangent. But she nods, slowly and rather cautiously. "You two", she directs to Liz and Cardinal, "have already heard my opinion on the need to share information. If we don't, we risk being sucked into a situation we can't get out of. Spread it around, and so long as it doesn't lead our enemies to us or our friends, and it's only likely to help. The more people know what's going on, the better for all of us."
As his eyes turn to look towards Francois and his lips press to a fine line. He is French. I wonder if he knows what I might have heard that night from his machine. I had to have opened a hole to France because all I heard was French music and a woman singing it. As he turns his eyes on Harmony, Aric runs a hand through his hair as he says, "You have had but a taste Harmony. YOu would not be able to go into the deeper part of anyones mind. I can go into the darkest places with enough time. You have no idea what your sitting on. And…don't you want to get rid of that power as much as I want to get rid of mine." He looks at Elle and says, "Not that it has not had its uses. I am ready to be done with it. I say we take the more direct approach since that is clearly what they are doing with us." He shrugs slightly in frustration.
Elisabeth grins just a little and admits, "I don't expect us to be an entirely united front. Just… that each of us trusts the other. Considering what we're facing, it's …. hard for them, I know." For anyone who can't separate this Cardinal from the asshole heading up the Institute. But the blonde adds, "But we're still trying to send all the information that they might need."
"Alright, but please discourage them from trying to assassinate them or anything like that?" Cardinal's fingers rub against the nape of his neck as he says that, "I'm not entirely comfortable with their leadership these days, given that they seem to be run by the Vanguard remnant… and I still haven't gotten an answer for Gabriel's recent— actions."
Harmony picks up Aric's thoughts, not really able to make sense of it at the present time. But it could be important. She has developed a nasty little addiction for snooping in other people's business. "You'd be surprised how much people want to spill their grey matter after they've been mentally beaten. For some reason, I have this natural affinity to telepathically scream, resulting in some hemorrhaging pain to the old brain of people that hear it. Pretty rough stuff if you're like.. this close to me. I can tenderize people and prime them for extraction." she winks to Aric, "But yeah.. I mean, I kinda do, but at the same time? Well.. it is probably just my squealy girly feelings talking, but after being able to perceive the brain waves of my unborn children? I kinda looked at this telepathy thing in a new light. Don't get me wrong, I need my ability back for protection reasons, but telepathy is kinda cool." the blond shrugs.
"They are too busy trying to obtain vaccinatons otherwise withheld from the Unregistered, and avoiding being hunted, to do such high profile things," Francois assures. "I do not think I will have to recommend very heavily, but— "
He falters a little, hesitating, before a hand goes out in a gesture of offer, even if he isn't really offering anything physical. "A trade, then. We can get such answers in thanks for information delivered in confidence. Perhaps I can help your trust in their leadership, or at least smooth these communications — for I am assisting, where I can."
A hesitant smile, as if unsure if admitting such a thing would— demote him, or something. "You can trust that I am not a fan of the Vanguard," he adds, "at least. But perhaps we can discuss the details later, oui? Pardon," is added, for derailing.
Goodness knows there are some who'd be a worse diplomat, is echoed through his thoughts — English, if only because he's speaking it.
Ygraine's expression twitches in response to some of this talk, and she finds herself determinedly focusing upon Cardinal and Liz. Talk of not assassinating people is so much better than… mental bludgeoning, 'direct approaches', or telepathically-induced trauma…. Francois's words, however, prompt her to look to him once more, offering a tentative nod of approval.
"There no reason to hold a contest on who's the better telepath," Monica says, holding up a hand, "We couldn't use telepathic information to discredit them publicly anyways. Plus, I'm not sure torturin' people for info's such a good idea. We don't want to just be the evolved version of Humanis First, right?" She looks over at Cardinal there, like… Right?
The oracle looks at Monica in a little bit of surprise, it seems like only yesterday that they were blowing things up in the name of equal rights. But the most passive way is new to Eve. At least hearing it come from old PARIAH members. She doesn't outwardly say so though, this isn't why she's here. She only has insight on one of the issues that hasn't really been touched upon yet. Not to heavily as least.
"I have tons of spy gear already created. Spiders, remote controlled insects, pens, wax fruit, the tampon-to-spider camera, but I've yet to find a way to actually apply that one." Warren seems to finish with his remote and it pulls back up his sleeve while his tools pull up into his other sleeve. He finally sits up straight, draping an arm over Elle's shoulders as he finally gives people some eye contact. Blue eyes, not silver. "Instead of using our people, we'll use Institute agents. They won't be intimidated, and other Cardinal will be more than willing to help me in this endeavour. Like it or not, we both have the same immediate goal, we use them right now and stop them later."
"God knows we could use someone to liasion that isn't me," Cardinal admits in rather wry tones, "I'm a tactician and a covert operative, but I'm just about the worst diplomat that's possibly ever existed in this timeline or any other, and I've never tried to say otherwise…" Sure, he can be a manipulative bastard, but diplomatic? Never. He leans against the wall listening to the others speak, "Monica's right, there. We can't use telepathic information as evidence… we can use it to find out where the information is, but torturing them sort of loses the entire idea of subtlety."
A nod to Warren, "Alright. We'll talk about deployment of that… possibly our uncertainly-reliable woman on the inside can help there. Anyone have any other thoughts regarding this, or shall we move on?"
Aric 's lips press into a dark line as his eyes narrow as he says with an acid tone, "I don't know who you are dude. Yet…if your here. Two of the people I trust must trust you a GREAT deal. However…" His eyes turn to Liz, "Did he just say the "other Cardinal" as in working with Tyler?" Aric does not look pleased suddenly as he waits to hear what is going on as he is clearly out of the loop then holds up his hands and shakes his head, "Ya know what…nevermind. You can tell me later." He looks at Cardinal and says, "Put me where you want me but I am not hiding any more. So use me."
Elisabeth considers something and then suggests slowly, "What if we sent a dreamwalker in to find out where it's being hidden?" She looks at Richard. "We do know one…. and she might help if we asked." Not to mention we *might* be able to get an ex-Nightmare Man to rip apart their heads. Huh…. that would be satisfying on many levels.
She takes her turn to speak finally about what she's really here for. "Richard," Eve says as she pushes off the wall and throws her long black hair over her shoulder. "I had a thought or observation about these dreams that some of you are having." She says softly, which is almost always her tone.
"These are shared prophetic dreams, right?" A look at Richard and then Elisabeth, a soothing word to Herb in her bag but then her attention is back on those two.
"Targetting changing groups of people, though related to a… string of events with some possibly-core characters", Ygraine puts in, sounding worried. "Or so I understand it."
"Not a bad idea, Liz. If you'd like to talk to her," Cardinal says, "Then…"
One day, Richard will be able to hold one of these meetings and keep on-topic throughout the entire agenda. He looks momentarily pained as Eve speaks because of that, one hand raising up to rub against the bridge of his nose and his forehead, "…yes, they are, Eve. Honestly, I don't care what they're from— I prefer to act first and worry about them later. Did you have some thoughts?"
"So what you're looking for, is someone that can see the future in dreams like me.. but can project these dreams to other people?" A tilt of her head as it swivels to catch Ygraine in her gaze. Looking at Richard, she shrugs, leaning against the wall again. "Um, yeah. I know that." In regards to how he deals with things. She looks up towards the ceiling, "If you're asking a dreamwalker to help you, it might do good to have her hang around whoever is getting hit with the dreams the most is all. Follow the person that's doing it, though it just sounds.. not right." Eve says with a sigh and then she's eating more Milky Way.
Obviously done, she gives Richard a look before closing her eyes. Eating that Milky Way.
Elisabeth tilts her head and considers, "Uhm….. so far as I'm aware, there's no common thread in them. Not the ones I know of, anyway. One was a funeral, one was a day on the street, and one was…. an explosion. And I haven't heard of any one person having more than one. Though granted I haven't polled people."
"But you appear in all of the ones I've heard about, don't you?", Ygraine asks tentatively. "Perhaps others do, too. But you, at least, seem to be a common thread…."
"I have experience with dreamwalking, when I sleep I dream lucidly, Hokuto taught me to control my mind. So if we had a dreamwalker I could at least help." Warren stands and holds a hand up, a magic market popping out of his sleeve as he reaches into his jacket and pulls a large piece of rolled up empty blueprint paper out. It's rolled across the table, and soon he begins to write. "Everyone who's had a prophetic dream within the context of this discussion, tell me the basic premise, times of day, and the names of everyone involved, including a listing of unknowns."
Francois was trying not to speak up on this, looking a little uncomfortable with this topic of conversation, sitting silent with his chair rocking back once more and arms wound around his torso. A small wince at Ygraine's point, before, with heavy reluctance, he adds, "I experienced a dream as well." This is all he says on it, with a glance to Elisabeth that communicates that this is in support of a common thread, before he wanders his attention back to the agenda on the walls. There is distaste for Warren's assertiveness in a twitch of a frown, a glance to Cardinal, and he doesn't encourage with giving details. Right now, anyway.
"Hokuto is a bloody serial killer, you do realize this, right?" Cardinal leans against the wall, arms folding over his chest as he exhales a sigh, "If you want to deal with dreams, Eve, Warren… you can get people together later. We have a lot more to discuss today, and frankly I care more about destroying the timeline those dreams are about rather than quibbling over the details of where exactly they're from."
And finally it's Evan's turn to pipe up with an idea or two, waving to those he hasn't met before. Which is most of the group. "I haven't had any dreams myself that seem relevant to anything, which probably figures, but— it might not be a dreamwalker who can project, but a dreamwalker and someone who can project for them. And… either way, if you can find them, you might be able to backtrack to whoever else they're working with." It's all vague guesswork, but so what?
Elisabeth goes very still at Ygraine's comment, frowning. "I'm sure there's more than one person in common in them," she says mildly. "But Cardinal's right — we'll delegate that information gathering to Eve and Warren, perhaps after the meeting anyone who's had one and wants to add information can do so." She notices Francois's look…. and it makes her uneasy. Clearing her throat, "I'll approach the dreamwalker about maybe trying to sort through the minds of some of these higher-ups and get information on where the recordings might have been kept. Warren, we need absolutely undetectable bugs, and we'll see what we can do about putting some in place, hrm? I have a contact in the DoEA who might be able to even get into Mayes's office or something. In the meantime…. next agenda item?" She glances at Cardinal.
The dark haired woman waves her hand, eyes still closed. "Out of ideas now. More chocolate eating." She says with another bite of her Milky Way, then she's tapping Monica and breaking a piece off for her, urging her to eat the piece before she eats it and becomes 'fat' like the.. one that's preggo in the room. She needs to keep her girlish figure.
At Ygraine's words, Eve's eyes snap open. "Then someone needs to be in your head Lizzy." Said lazily, she must not of gotten that much sleep. Too much dreaming. "All I'm saying is, something smells fishy and I didn't cook the salmon today so it's not that. Follow the thread to the source, you might learn something important." Eve shrugs her shoulders again, grey eyes on Elisabeth.
Hands thrown up, "That's up to you Richard. Just throwing you a line." The oracle laspes into silence again and nibbles on her candy bar. Humming to herself. Dolts, all of them.
Ygraine nods to Evan, once she manages to refocus from Eve. "It's more information. If we can spare the people and have the resources, it could be worth investigating. Though uncovering them might not be welcomed. If they wanted us to know their identity, we'd probably have it by now…." Then she falls silent, nodding to Cardinal.
"I gotta say," Monica says as she takes that chocolate from Eve with a warm smile, "I'm with Francois. I haven't gotten a dream, but it seems to me like someone's trying to give a warning about somethin', yeah? So, instead of trying to figure out who the messenger is, we should maybe look at the message and see if we can stop if from coming about."
"I'd argue that my body counts probably a bit higher than Hokuto's, and you've found some value in me." Warren sits the marker on to the paper, shaking his head. "The dreams could have clues, like unknown individuals who could be more important than we realize. But you're right, we can wait until after the meeting." He looks up at Francois, an eyebrow raised. "Who stuck the escargot up Frenchie's butt?"
Aric cocks an eyebrow looking over at Warren and his eyes shimmer with electricity. He mutters softly, "Who is this guy." He places a hands together as the electrical tendrils spread from his finger tips to finger tips before interlacing them and looking over at Liz with an annoyed look on his face.
"So." Cardinal turns to rap his knuckles sharply against the wall behind him to try and call the meeting back to order, "Focus, people. And Warren, please stop insulting people, or I'll let Aric give you electroshock therapy. The next item on the agenda… is stopping the Department of Evolved Affairs from designing a fucking army of robots. They've already got prototypes in the field, equipped with evolved detection systems and negation gas emitters. According to the precognitive flashes people have been getting - and information directly from Hiro Nakamura, more importantly - they're one of the major threats in the future. We know they're being designed and built by Hector Steel, with some input from Warren here, and programmed by Colin Verse, who's designing an artificial technopath based on Alia. In that? They've got a weakness. We remove Steel and Verse, we remove the problem."
He gestures with one hand, "I'm fairly certain that Steel would happily come with us if we could extract him. Verse is more of a toss-up, we don't know his motivations. Ideas."
I thought you were the fucking bomber is fortunately not said out loud as Ygraine narrows her eyes at Warren. Then Cardinal resumes talking, and she determinedly looks back to him. This, however, sounds rather over her head.
Warren's warrening gets a raised eyebrow, a hand splaying as if to ask what did I do?, but otherwise, and quite predictably for those that know him, Francois doesn't offer verbal response or explanation for— frowning. Silence is both being unwilling to dignify with response but also to encourage agenda-moving-on-with, as he gets back out cellphone to check messages.
A whisper of thoughts, a little muttery, but they are French in their murmur, this time. He does mutter, "I do not know," when he hears Aric's own complaint. Attention up, now, as robot death is talked about — but this is far out of his expertise, even if he by now knows secondhand of the threat. He listens, this time, rather than offer his input.
Harmony's hands slam down on the table and she jerks back her head, blinking at the thoughts being sling around. "Whoa.." the blond mom to be shifts her eyes from between Ygraine and Warren. It is times like this she kinda wishes she were a conduit for people's thoughts to each other. Maybe Ygraine would start a fight she could watch, involving Warren.
"Hector Steel is insane, he made one of his robots go on a rampage the last time I saw him, then he had to be restrained. But if he's as easy to get as you think, then you should all handle him. I already have an offer to get close to Verse, Broome opened the door for me working with him." Warren suddenly starts unbuttoning his shirt, then opens it to reveal what looks like black leather with little silvery nods strategically placed. "But now that I've completed the Arkham Armor, we can use a mixture of electromagnetic and sonic weaponry to stand a chance at physically destroying these robots, but you have to keep in mind that the Institute itself also has an army, I've seen the manufacturing line."
"Now's about when I want a teleporter, so we can just bust into the fucking Miller Airfield and take Verse out of the equation altogether. I doubt there are many programmers in the world who could do what he's doing over there," Elisabeth points out. "But hitting Miller is a suicide run right now with Heller and his fucking goon squad based out there." She looks up at Warren, though, narrowing her eyes. "That said…. if you have an in on that front, we don't even know whether the man is working for them by choice. Or whether he'd continue to do so if he knew Georgia Mayes and Heller are Humanis First assholes."
"You've already completed the first prototype?" There's a moment's startlement from Cardinal as he regards the armoured suit for a moment, as if experiencing a sudden terrible bout of deja vu. Then he shakes his head, "I'd rather we leave off physical destruction of the robots as a last resort option. I'd just as soon they couldn't use them. If we can leak some footage of the robots being destructive, it might help turn public support against the idea… but that's touching on the next topic."
He gestures to Warren, "Get close to Verse. Don't let on you're working for anyone but them, but… get a feel for the guy, find out the answers to the questions that Liz just asked. His feelings on the robots, on Humanis. Find out what you can about Project ALIA, for… well. You know why. Hector— I can deal with Hector, I know him, we've had dealings before. We just need to figure out a way to retrieve the crazy bastard from Miller."
Well, that saves Jaiden from joining up with FRONTLINE, and chances are if he did join up, they'd stick him with Heller and his boys in the dark, wanting him to do evil, devious things to bring down the very people he's working for. He'd wanted a suit of that armor, and anything that can help level the playing field will help. Even giving a step up - powers plus armor? That should be pretty awesome. "How do those deal with negation gas? Will they come with a helmet or something to keep us powered while in a cloud of the stuff?"
Is that snoring?
Yes, Eve has indeed fallen asleep leaning against the wall. Something Monica might remember from all that time ago, her chest rises and falls every now and then. She can't help it, look at the little angel. Sleeping like damn baby.
Herb peeks out from the bag every now and then, meowing sometimes. Probably wants some food.
"If it comes to it, failing the PR angle— I might be able to work out a way to disable the robots." Another dubious idea, and Evan is making that as clear from the outset as he can. "I'd have to get a look at one in person, though, so it's still pretty last-resort."
"I can do that, I'm interested in seeing how he works anyway." Warren nods down at his suit then, removing his shirt and jacket completely, along with his tie and white gloves, revealing black leather ones under. "Do you remember what I told you a few months ago? There's a chance that they haven't found out that those robots can be remote controlled physically, bypassing the A.I altogether. We could make one of those things go safely berserk in public, and they might not even know how we did it. Oh and if anyone wants to shoot me in the stomach, go right ahead."
"Let's hope they haven't. If it works, that's our get-out-of-jail-free card… alright. We'll have to figure out a way to get Steel, but since nobody else has any ideas for that at the moment…" Cardinal turns back to the wall, "…moving on. Evidence. Above and beyond everything else, we need to get evidence of what the government's been fucking up to. They were going in and clearing out buildings of companies just before Messiah hit them, since they were the ones directing the crazy bastards. That had to leave a paper trail. We need to find it. I have some people supposedly checking out Coyote Sands. We need to see if any surviving Company refugees have any hard evidence regarding the fact that the government knew about them the whole time, and… I'm told that somewhere, probably Staten if we can trust temporal inertia to have a say, they're already building ghettos and restricting Evolved from leaving them. So someone's going to have to find out about that."
"No shooting people at the meetings, that's a long-standing rule," Monica points out with a raise of her finger to Warren. Her other hand is helping prop Eve up. Just like old times. "I'm pretty good at sneaking around. How good is this security around there? If we can get in and get some pictures… Heck, I don't know, you know I'm better when it's time to punch things, not all this delicate stuff."
Ygraine is probably not the only person in the room to be not merely startled but also tempted by Warren's offer… but as ever, the Briton lacks a gun. Instead, she looks back to Cardinal. "I've got contacts in Staten. The… security there is… startling. I can't confirm that they're restricting movement out - but getting in is… impressive. You need to not merely be Registered, but demonstrate 'appropriate business' within the perimeter. And a great many of those inside lack much ability to get out - their homeless, without vehicles, without money…."
"I'm…." Jaiden coughs. "I was planning on making a trip to the midtown ruins at night with a camera or two. Set up some observation posts and the like to just record what's going on. Chances are they'll be discovered, but with luck one or two won't. I should be able to get in if there's water access anywhere, and official business? Do we know anyone in there that can call in a tow or need a car repaired or something? That'd be official enough, wouldn't it?"
Aric shrugs and says, "And what am I gonna do to help?" His question is short and to the point as he looks towards Cardinal and Liz. "I am not porcelian. I will not break."
"As for 'delicate', I do not think I can do the same trick twice, with infiltration to get inside and gather," Francois offers, looking up from his slow, ponderous texting — and Harmony and her telepathy can probably hear the words echo through his head, a stilted message about when he is due to be home, unnecessarily attentive, which is better than maybe SPYING on the meeting. "But I can try and lend assistance, if anyone would brave it. Being a liar can be difficult." But not always.
Cardinal leans against the wall, arms folding loosely over his chest. "You forget," he observes with the hint of a smile, "I provide security over there… technically." A pause. "It's complicated. I'll put in a request for a status update on where our people are required and their dispersal, and figure out from there where they're trying to hide things. After that…" He pauses, "There's a Brian in there, if we can make contact with him, he might be able to give us the skinny. And I'm asking for ideas as to what you can do, Aric, but if you don't have any…"
A nod, and he allows, "Alright. I'll work out some plans then, and see where people can fit in. Anyone else have anything they wanted addressed, questions, thoughts…?"
"Jaiden and I run a help group for Dome survivors", Ygraine puts in. "Unless they start seriously clamping down in an unsubtle way, we should be able to keep getting in and out of anywhere they're located. But that's going to have our interest very actively logged. Which might not be a bad thing, of course."
Aric sighs as he looks towards Liz and the back to Cardinal. He runs a hand through his hair as his mind wanders for a second, He either still doesn't trust me or I am just being an asshole. He sighs deeply before shooting his eyes at Harmony and thinks, If you don't mind. Please keep that to yourself. There is more to that then I am willing to tell. As he closes his eyes he begins to take a few deep breaths and begins to solidify his mind against Harmony. He is not as strong as he usually is without his power but she won't hear his surface thoughts unless she tries too.
Elisabeth glances at the group and says mildly, "All right…. now that some of you've put forth some thoughts on where you think you're best suited, there's one other thing that we've got on our plate. Dr. Langford here," she gestures to Evan, "was asked to take a look at what we know about our timeline, what we've learned about the timeline that the Institute is attempting to keep on track…. and to try to help us pinpoint places in the timeline that might be critical to derailing things. Dr. Langford, would you please explain to the group what you explained to me in your office the other day?" she asks. And then she glances down, pulling her phone up. With a grimace, she murmurs something to Cardinal and then slips to the back of the room, outside the silence field she's put up.
"I'm fine, Eve here and I will compile information on the dreams." Warren starts to pull his gloves back on, gradually beginning to dress himself again. "I don't know much about timelines, but I guarantee polyurethane can derail nearly anything."
Oh, sure, hand a microphone to the guy who makes his living running his mouth (among other things). That always works well.
"What this is showing," explains Evan, after a bit of fiddling with his laptop and a projector screen, "is a comparison of the alternate timeline to the one we're in. Currently." Man, it sounds weird when he says it like that. Are they all just butterflies who can see the pins? "Background noise aside, there are a number of events that happen earlier or later in one compared to the other, but otherwise match closely enough that coincidence seems unlikely. Someone mentioned temporal inertia earlier— this looks more like someone, presumably the Institute, is steering as close to the alternate path as they can get."
"I've spotted a few likely turning points where we can expect more or less the same. What I need to figure out is what exactly they're steering toward, or away from - is it Humanis First or someone with actual sane goals calling the shots - and if it's the latter, then whether they can actually aim as well as they think they can."
"You'll get along well with Edward, if we ever rescue him," Cardinal murmurs in dry tones as the presentation begins, though he's regarding the pictures on the screen thoughtfully, "I should let you see my time map, you might be able to help with that. I'm not sure what's at the focal point of the current web myself, unfortunately. I can see the point, but it doesn't make sense yet. You'd need a precognitive - or Edward - to give you a better idea of what that point is."
A pause, and he clears his throat, leaning in a little towards Eve's chair and saying more loudly, "I said, we'd need a precognitive…"
Aric hmms as he leans back in his chair and says, "Then you might want to add to your list of events. In another time line, I suspect from my interaction with Tyler. I am the one who kills Cardinal which is why he is forced into Tyler's body. Tyler called me a monster and a traitor to my kind. When he says this I suspect he means Evolved. I am a semi intelligent man or I like to think so which means I could do that through a number of different sources including the Insititude or Humanis First."
He looks over at Liz on the phone who cant hear him and then towards Cardinal and sighs deeply, "Richard knows that I would not do that and well…yeah." As he shifts his weight in his chair he looks rather comfortable but says again to Chris, "So add all that to your data on the timeline."
"No," Cardinal interjects with a shake of his head, "Ezekiel didn't die in the other timeline. Samson killed him, in this one."
"Don't you go talking about that bastard Edward!" Eve jerks awake and looks around with wide eyes, patting Monica on the shoulder like a grandmother would their grandchild. She sits up, "Asshole killed me." She straightens her back and eyes Richard. Then she's leaning against the wall again, closing her eyes. "Yeah, I'll look at your map, better be nice colors.." she trails off before she's asleep again. "Bastard glasses.." she murmurs..
"It's not like Edward's son is sitting here or anything." Warren says as he throats his hands up in a bit of a sarcastic shrug in response to Eve's comment. "And you look pretty healthy to me."
"In the other timeline, I assume, otherwise you look pretty lively for a— " Or she's a pre-cognitive, Evan thinks to himself, a few seconds too late. Nice job pissing her off for eternity if she turns out to be Dead Woman Walking. Outwardly, he merely shakes his head and glances around, tapping out some notes. Stream of consciousness; he can go back and add context later, once he has some. "Remember, everyone, I still know fuck-all about a lot of this— if you've been dying to bust out some old war stories, now would be a good time."
"Warren! Your mouth!" Harmony pipes up all of a sudden, shaking her hands with her fingers tensed in the air. "That's what makes me want to rip your mechanical arm off and sodomize you with it when I see you. You say things that you really, really shouldn't." the blond girl shakes her head, "Not even blunt things, they're just— wrong. You walk in, don't say hello and the first thing out of your mouth to me is 'you're getting fat'? Come on dude, don't be a monstrous cock. You need Jesus or something."
Aric looks over at Cardinal as a stream of electricity just dangles from his hand like a dancing snake of power, "Can I zap him now Cardinal? He is kind of reminds me of someone…I can't place my hand on it." His eyes narrow as the name slips through his defenses, Amadeus. A snort of annoyance escapes Aric like canvas ripping.
There's something that can be heard like.. someone's mother looks healthy. Though it couldn't have been from Eve since she's sleeping on Monica again. Herb yowls from the bag, moving around in there.
"Okay…" Cardinal's fingers pinch against the bridge of his nose, "…and I think that ends the productive portion of our tour for the evening. Professor, I'll take you to look at my time map soon, and I'll give you all the information regarding current and past timelines… I may have to introduce you to the concept of temporal inertia as well, if you aren't familiar with it. I'll go over the meeting's notes, and figure out what we're doing next. Warren, just— we'll talk later, regarding Verse and the armour. Francois, if you'd like to maybe approach the Ferry with the information and offer liasioning services, that'd be absolutely wonderful."
Ah, the joys of trying to keep a large group of violent individuals from simply killing each other. Or everyone else. Suddenly he knows why Future Edward always looked so stressed.