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Event - Dogged

Dogged

The message goes out to everyone on ADI's network. It seems to be something captured live. It's Pam Ruan, head of HR who holds a prosthetic finger up to her lips before whispering, "Everyone's pushing for transparency right now, right? Figuring out where threats are coming from and sharing. I think that should come at all levels. Let's see what Nia's talking about with Mr. Zyrian Steel, hmm?"

The camera flips around as Pam clearly creeps closer to an office door. There are muffled voices, and Pam sets the phone face up before using one hand to shove the thing under the door. The video shows a sliding picture of the office's bland ceiling for a moment before coming to a stop. The voices become much clearer.

"-down in Wolf Trap," a masculine voice is saying. Presumably, Zyrian Steel. "There's just no need for that."

"Zyrian, this ain't a negotiation." Nia Lehrer's voice is familiar to most people working at ADI at this point. They've likely heard her speak in some pre-recorded training videos at the bare minimum. Nia's tone is no nonsense and clearly on the edge of snapping in frustration. "You're not hiring us. I'm sending my people down to Wolf Trap next month. We've got evidence of those signalhead things being on the march, one down that way, your kick off for New Horizons in the park, and evidence out of there about the Lullaby Girl from some of my people."

There is silence.

"You remember her? Ava? Or Amber, it seems like. She's the one you gave us those Lucidio masks to help train our people against. Frankly, I'd be surprised if you don't remember her, Mr. S." Another drawn out pause. "You ain't been straight with me for a long time. You ain't been straight with ADI since Tawnya was Warden. You tell me you need us in Buffalo, payback for helping in Wolf Pen and Cortana and the mobile med units, and not only do half the staff come back with crab claws and whiskers, but I find out you're using us for business politics." There's venom in her tone. "Or were you just going to stay quiet about Etcher's enterprises competing with your own software companies? ADI is not your personal attack dog. You are our client. And I thought my friend. But I'm about 30 seconds away from firing you from both."

Further silence, then a heavy sigh. "And I was going to offer to send you and your staff on such a nice retreat." There's the sound of a chair being pushed back. "Warden, I think you misunderstand the nature of our relationship. You are the dogs. I am the master. I hold your leash. Or have you forgotten just how much technology I've donated to ADI over the years, how many of your systems run on things I built? We've had a mutually beneficial relationship up until now- Well… you and I have. Tawnya got to be a problem before the end, too. But I made sure that was taken care of."

"You self-aggrandizing son of a-"

"You're a much more practical woman than she ever was, even with those shiny ideals you hold so dear. You'll compromise for the greater good, to protect what's yours. Such a good Warden, looking out for her charges."

"What are you talking about? And get your hands the hell off my desk."

"Haven't you ever wondered about the title? Warden. Odd name for a leader of any organization, even one like yours. But maybe not so odd when you consider your more eldritch masters." A scoff. "The Hunt always does pick out the most oblivious avatars, doesn't it? What does a Warden do?" A beat. "She controls the monsters, Nia. Sniffs them out and contains them. And she goes after the poachers coming after her prey. Tell me, have you ever noticed how you're always picking up on threats far afield with uncanny precision. It's been getting stronger, hasn't it? Tawnya was the same way. As was her predecessor, I imagine."

"That's not- I wouldn't ever…"

"Wouldn't you, though? Every time you sent your own dogs after a threat, reveled in it, you were being such a good Warden, instilling terror in the hearts of your enemies, ADI's enemies. So many cults know who and what you are and they fear it. Fear the Warden of ADI, famed avatar of the Hunt. Even now, I know you've compromised yourself. Have you considered what that's done to you? You let that Visionary kid stay alive. I rather think that might have been the start of your slide, hmm? Making exceptions, just this once.

"Now," he continues, voice growing louder and footsteps starting toward the phone, "I realize this is a lot to take in, to think about. Why don't you do that self-reflection while I attend to other matters? You are doing good work, puppy. I need a dependable pet to take care of all those nasty pests who keep trying rituals. But no need to worry about the New Horizons launch, really. I'll just-" Zyrian pauses and everyone will have a view of a middle-aged caucasian man with dark, slightly graying hair and a beard. He's wearing khakis and a Hawaiian shirt, and he's looking down at Pam's phone.

"Well… fuck." He stomps a heeled shoe on it and the transmission ends abruptly.

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"...You think it's been an Avatar bringing you folks here all along," she says, understanding dawning. "You don't think Nia dragged you all here? We know what she is now, but she never...she was always trying to work out how to make it stop."

Sorry, she's fixated more on the idea he's given her than on his offer of advice.

"It's not the building itself; we know it's not the building," she mutters. Eyes back on him, she asks, almost rhetorically, "But what good's it do an Entity to bring a bunch of people here that are going to fight them?"

[OOC Mod Note: When Rae indicated she plans to go to Wolf Pen, above, she should have said Wolf Trap. Apologies for the mixup!]

"It is a possibility, whether subconsciously or no. Yet I still do not know what the cause truly is. Having all called to one building in one small corner of this entire star suggests at the very least, the cause should be here."

Elidibus tilts his head a moment as he further considers Rae's question regarding Nia's involvement.

"Whether it is the current Warden, her predecessor, or a machination of some other I cannot say, nor would I hazard to guess without more information." He shakes his head.

Yet Rae speaks about what motivations the Entities have for bringing people from other worlds when they'll just put tasked to fight against them, the man's expression shifts to one of knowing.

"I do not think to say I know what these Entities believe. It may even be that their reasons were the machinations of someone on this star who convinced them to set upon this course."

One hand gestures at the door, to the headquarters and its current disarray beyond.

"Look you, what has happened after one revelation that has little to do with our appearance on this star. Chaos and fear in abundance. Those of us who possess what you know as supernatural gifts or senses beyond normal are ever aware of the fear and mistrust our mere presence invokes." They can't help but know.

"How many would chafe at being robbed of magicks and talents we would think of as second nature. Themselves fear what this new world would do to them? What might at first seem to be a contradiction could hide darker purpose. Particularly to an entity who thinks nothing of the passing of millennia to see their plans to fruition."

Rae reaches for her chair and sits, apparently having forgotten that she was wary of this stranger she knows only from counseling advertisements (she has never gone to counseling). Her gaze is distant, the gears in her head turning.

"Easy targets for their influence," she comments with half a shrug. That's an argument that was had within ADI long ago, when the first off-worlders started to arrive. "That part makes enough sense. I'm just not sure we did the right thing by keeping you all here and tying you in with our own bullshit. If it's linked to us--if our predecessors hadn't banded together and made this place, you might never have come here to begin with."

"It is admirable that your organization sought to aid, rather than destroy us. As for an option to keep us in the dark or to imprison us as an alternative, it would have made many turn to their patron Entity. If nothing more, asking for aid from us likely came with the least risk."

Well, besides killing them outright. He remains standing for now, calm and logical and polite, as if there isn't utter chaos in the halls beyond a two inch thick door and some drywall.

"Are you claiming you could send us back so easily?" Elidibus questions. He himself has had to make a great many adjustments. But the intervening months have been enough. Of course he will give her an opportunity to answer that question, for all it seems it's unlikely after two years that sending them back to their worlds was any sort of option.

He shakes his head then.

"Perhaps what you say is so. Yet we may have come by some other means. And then who would have been waiting?" Some other organization. Something worse or nothing at all, leaving them to flounder alone.

"It is a past that cannot be changed. And we are here now."

"Oh, yeah, locking any of you up was a terrible idea," says Rae with a wave of a hand. "But no, no--if we could send you back, even if we had to feed an Entity...Nia would have. I think maybe even I would have voted yes on that, once upon a time. No, I mean the other alternative, that we could have given you all a bus ticket and a handful of cash. You might have been better off for it."

She looks up at him, gives a sad little shrug. "You might still be better off for it. Or it may just make for more Avatars to hunt down later. That's the way some of the earliest arrivals went."

Was a terrible idea? Perhaps it was a slip of the tongue but it does suggest they might have tried or at least considered it in the past. Elidibus makes note of it but moves on smoothly.

He does shake his head. "Perhaps. But I believe it would have been an irresponsible choice. If you could not contain or destroy us, then the best choice was to keep us close and, in a sense use us."

Perhaps not all of them thought of it that way. But the truth of the matter is that it's a good path to have taken. He offers Rae a faint smile though his words are somber.

"For all our gifts and alien differences, I doubt any one of us could claim to be incapable of mistakes. Even I acknowledge to have felt the urges that mark the touch of the Entity which holds me in its grasp."

Elidibus lets out a sigh and looks around him before focusing once more on Rae.

"Though I fear we have gone a bit off-topic in speaking of the past." It was a good choice to; Rae seems to have relaxed considerably around him. "While it may seem the best course of action to abandon the ADI at this time, I would like to present an alternative."

This time he isn't going to ask after whether she desires to hear it though and simply continues on.

"There will be those who wish to rally under a new flag. Whether to purge the ADI of its Avatar or form a new organization similar to its precepts. If I am to presume, this may be a better solution than traveling independently to Wolf Trap to deal with the issues you might find there."

Elidibus finishes with a hint of a wry tone.

"Knowing the nature of my fellow invaders, there will be many well-meaning heroes. Yet few if none who would know the inner workings of this star's shadows as you. And fewer still would think to ask an agent of the ADI, even a potentially former one, before rushing off on their own."

Elidibus knows how heroes can be. Particularly those who like to work alone.

"That was the idea. And to be fair, I don't think you're all what caused our core problems here. Problems for yourselves, definitely yes, problems for us, also yes but less so. Nia's situation was brewing a long time before she became Warden. Probably a long time before any of us started working here."

Giving him a considering look, she replies, "You think they're going to go off half-cocked. Screw up the whole thing piling in on top of each other and me without a plan."

"While I cannot speak with certainty, our current circumstances are chaotic. There are many who would take advantage. And others, however altruistic, who move forward under the belief they are the only ones ready to act decisively."

Elidibus then shakes his head while fixing his gaze on Rae.

"I do not know you so well as to assume you would act before you had a plan. Yet the resources you're gathering and your expertise as an agent and native of this star are of importance. And thus I deemed worth such poor manners as to assume your current actions may be those of one who will move forward independently."

The man inclines his head briefly.

"I pray you will forgive me if I have erred in judgement."

She stares at him for a long, long moment...and then lets out a loud, un-ladylike snort of laughter.

"You came in here with a sword in your hand, and now you're fussing over whether you're going to hurt my feelings? I've had worse people than you tell me I'm planning something stupid. And you're right. I may be more ready than anyone, but I won't be the only one to try it. So alright--now's too soon to split. I'll give you that."

This actually earns a faint smile.

"I have rarely been in a position where I must bear arms against a threat while advising on important matters. And yet given the nature of what has been unleashed in the halls of this building, it seems to have been regrettably unavoidable."

And he had put up the blade in its sheath after determining there was no immediate need for it in the room.

"I hope you will forgive my poor manners in light of our current circumstances."

Elidibus is nothing if not polite. His head turns briefly toward the door of the office. There are sounds that are sounding a little intense if not closer than earlier.

"I know not what the next few days will bring. Yet I hope to be able to speak with you again before we meet in Wolf Trap. I have little doubt the destination is inevitable for a variety of reasons. For the time being, may I count on your interest in working as a team with others of like mind?"

He is probably talking about his bid to have Rae and her experience on whatever group forms to handle the Wolf Trap situation. But if they remain here much longer, that growing noise will probably make it have a more immediate meaning about teamwork.

Rae cocks her head, listening to the sounds outside her door, but leans back in her chair rather than getting up from her desk.

"Yeah. Yeah, Mr. Reasonable, you've got my interest. Team effort in Wolf Trap, which means keeping the team together here...for now. No promises after Wolf Trap."

She shifts, reaches under her desk, and stands now with a sledgehammer in hand.

"And it means keeping you people alive. I take it you know how to use that sword?"

The matter settled, it seems it's time to return to more immediate matters. He keeps his poise even as Rae brings out the sledgehammer. Well Elidibus did have a notion there would be something hidden there.

But rather than a threat, he takes it as an offer of companionship in the matter of the approaching threat. Thus he inclines his head even as he shifts to draw the blade.

"Yes, to some effect." Reasonable and modest. Rae will learn he's quite good for the length of time they remain together.

And possibly that the sword is more than it seems, with a curious efficacy against some of the more stubborn artifacts.

Or perhaps it's the man himself. But whatever ability he has in the wave of all this ambient fear and chaos, he at least has the manners to keep it discreet.

"Alright. Watch my back and I'll watch yours. Keep your ears open as well as your eyes, and assume anything that's out there is something we locked up because we couldn't kill it the first time around."

It's almost like a rehearsed spiel. When they've both had a moment to ready themselves, Rae will open the door to the hallway and to the fight. While there's no sign of her (or her sledgehammer) bearing any powers comparable to the sword, she's a ruthlessly efficient fighter, and she seems to take a certain joy in the hunt even if it's kept simmering under the surface.

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Event - Dogged

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Noted re: Wolf Trap!

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I think we're good to wrap up here, unless you had more you'd like to do?