Room of York

Alexander sat and watched the meeting unfold. He reached for his glass, but it was empty. He did not realize he finished it so quickly. He poured another glass, and then looked back at Zosimos. "This timing, it has happened at the strangest time. The war around Terra is comming to a close, but tempers are still hot. And annoyed. Someone strikes at us, when we are divided. They leave these jabs and riddles, to cast this shadow with a mystery..."

And that's when he realized something. "They want us to attack them. They want us to violently charge after them. Terra is just recovering from another war. If we go rushing after them, the people might view it as another war. Another war they don't want. And now, we do not know how much we may have been infiltrated. Forcing us to question ourselves and the people around us. And the one person who might have all the answers, Casren, is missing".

He looked towards Daemala now, then back at Zos. "If we are going to investigate, we must learn as much as possible. The attackers could not have come from nowhere. Perhaps if we find out who they are and where they have been, we will learn something. And if they are this strategic, we will need Athena, and Casren".

Alexander sighed, looking at everyone in the room. "Our enemy is prepared, cunning, and waiting for us. They will know how we will act, and most likely expected us to say everything we have said here. They will expect us to make our moves. They may have even expected me to say this. So, we have to do something that will make us unpredictable..."

"We have to ask a sworn enemy we know to help us..."

He expected there to be some outrage from that.

Alexander sat and watched the meeting unfold. He reached for his glass, but it was empty. He did not realize he finished it so quickly. He poured another glass, and then looked back at Zosimos. "This timing, it has happened at the strangest time. The war around Terra is comming to a close, but tempers are still hot. And annoyed. Someone strikes at us, when we are divided. They leave these jabs and riddles, to cast this shadow with a mystery..."

And that's when he realized something. "They want us to attack them. They want us to violently charge after them. Terra is just recovering from another war. If we go rushing after them, the people might view it as another war. Another war they don't want. And now, we do not know how much we may have been infiltrated. Forcing us to question ourselves and the people around us. And the one person who might have all the answers, Casren, is missing".

He looked towards Daemala now, then back at Zos. "If we are going to investigate, we must learn as much as possible. The attackers could not have come from nowhere. Perhaps if we find out who they are and where they have been, we will learn something. And if they are this strategic, we will need Athena, and Casren".

Alexander sighed, looking at everyone in the room. "Our enemy is prepared, cunning, and waiting for us. They will know how we will act, and most likely expected us to say everything we have said here. They will expect us to make our moves. They may have even expected me to say this. So, we have to do something that will make us unpredictable..."

"We have to ask a sworn enemy we know to help us..."

He expected there to be some outrage from that.

"And which of you fools sired this cretin?" Kaine asked, pointing a finger at Alexander. "This paranoid child who speaks of strategy and cunning but has none of his own? They have expected nothing said here, nor do they know us, unless any of you have been stupid enough to reveal to others how you react when it comes to scenarios where actual strategy is required. They do not know how we will act, just as they could not know that I would be here, or that I would use my foresight to point out something none present have yet spoken of: we know them. We might not know who they are, but we DO know them. Or at least, one of us here does. Let me be the first to point the finger of suspicion."

"You." He pointed to Alexander once again. "Seem overly confident. You speak as though you know exactly what they will do. Are you more aware of them than you let on? Are you working with them? Or are you simply delusional? In any case, your voice should no longer be trusted at this council."

"Until such a time comes where the enemy can be located, we must assume that he is already present. If we do not, we will miss him, and disaster will fall upon us."

The time had come for the present, if somewhat lax, Frederic to speak. He had not meant to hold his tongue for this long, but once they had all started talking, well, who was he to intervene? After all, it would've been rude for him to simply butt in. But now was the time for this recently reclusive man to have a few words.

"This is all simply...well...I do not see how you all take this as a threat, especially those of you who are...longer lived than others on this council. Your paranoia and anxiety only makes you seem...feeble, especially to those who look towards us for leadership."

Kicking his feet onto the table, a wry grin slowly crossed his face. It was not a very kind one either. "All of you seen so scared that a group, and organization, finally had the gall to finally come at us. Not in secret. Not behind closed doors, or soured relations, or anything like that. As far as I am concerned, this is our first true enemy...and the first place you look, oh Elder of Elders...is amongst your own? Oh, the trust in your kin. Its so deeply moving." The sarcasm dripped from the blonde vampire's voice like poisoned honey.

"Of course...and while I do not believe it...if it is an internal threat, we have the means to stomp it out. A weed in the midst of a garden simply needs to be plucked. An outside threat? Thats more fun. More exciting. More room for plots, secrets, battles, the very things that have kept our kind alive for so long."

A very brief pause. "I cannot speak for the rest of you, but I for one intend to have a little bit of fun with all of this. Agents, spies, assassinations, things that will get the Detente moving again. Stagnation is an enemy of our kind...I say...it is time strike. Not just at this mystery group...but at all of them. What say you? What better call to arms than a call to defend one's way of life." Frederic would wait. After all...he had his own schemes...The devious man would not be denied, one way or another...

"We must begin a hunt for the truth," Zosimos spoke, looking from Frederic to Kaine, from Alexander to Yves.

"Whether it be outside force that threatens us or something from the inside, it has a face. We will find this face, and expose it. We cannot accuse blindly!" He leveled his gaze specifically back to Kaine and Alexander, "We cannot strike until struck. We can, however, rise further. Surely," Zosimos waved a hand to the Gae Geann, then to the new Captain, "Our assets are more than worthy."

He of course was making mention of the money they had, the small military they amassed, and of course the Crawling Chaos.

"We are what we are, and so we shall be. Now, let's find this offender and..." Zosimos's fangs sprung out. "At all costs, eh?"

Kaine was lucky he was across the table, and Alexander was currently containing all his anger, that gave him the ability to contain his anger. However, if Kaine was going to pose the question, he would pose the answer. "Casren, that's who sired me" he told Kaine, staring at him with his contained anger. "And now, you are falling into what they want you to. You are randomly accusing people of treason. We are looking at a possibility of mass infiltration, so of course that's what anyone would expect at least someone to do...you should not let your anger"

Now, he turned to Zosimos "We need someone who they could not have predicted we would get then. If they have taken this much preparations, it is safe to assume they are anticipating our movements, and have failsafes in place. They are trying to set up something I saw two hundred and thirty four years ago, A "Nerve Loop" they called it. You set up a scenario where you have to be paranoid, because you don't know who you can trust, but at the same time, you cant be paranoid, because you don't know who you can trust, and you cant let it control you. Do either of these, and you lose the game. You get stuck in their loop. The key is control, you have to be just paranoid enough, but not fall right into it. That's what I remember, anyways. This is on a much larger scale then before...and better thought out".

"If this is a game of chess, then we must add new pieces. Different colored pieces, that work for us". Alexander was thinking big now, very big. However, he looked at Frederic next. "Which was something I was about to get to. We are facing an enemy who may have infiltrated us, but how do we know? Maybe there is no one, maybe they just want us to think that to destroy ourselves. Like I said, we can't be too paranoid. This enemy has been waiting and planning for a long time now. They poke and prod at us, but have yet to fully destroy us. We know nothing about our enemy other then the fact they attacked the Castle Casren helped build up, the home of the Detente, and they stabbed me many more years ago. All we have are rings, and newspapers, and cameras and equipment. We know their symbol, we know they fight against us, and we know they have been secretive an patient. But that is about it".

Alex then looked towards Daemala, and asked "So, what is your opinion on all this?"

"Your words are full of falsities and sarcasm," Kaine immediately replied to Frederic. "But your patronizing tone suits you well, snake; it is only too bad that behind your forked tongue you lack the wisdom to speak among generals. You would truly have us war against everyone not part of us? It would be a brave move, but incredibly foolish, and for it we would suffer more than a smarter man would have us suffer."

"I am not accusing any of treason, what I am doing is making a point. As I said before," he spoke, turning to the others as he did so, "until we find the face of the enemy, assume that they are among us. You would be wise to question those you do not trust and to keep your allies close at hand. But do we descend into absolute paranoia? Absolutely not. As Alexander said, this tactic, assuming it is true - and I do - relies on each one of us being paranoid and distrusting of everyone else. So how do we defeat it? It's simple: you must find someone you can all trust. Whether he is present or elsewhere, man or woman, vampire, werewolf, or even human, it does not matter. What matters is that each of you here trust him completely, and that he is intelligent. Very intelligent. And we name him the lead investigator into this incident, and we let him be paranoid for us, let him decide who each of us trusts and is suspicious of. And then, friends, the enemy that tries to sew the seeds of anarchy against us will fall, because he must not simply contend in a free-for-all battle of wits, but hide in a united force where inevitably, he will reveal himself. And if he is not one of us, we will have nothing to fear or to lose."

Kaine looked around him, then took a step away from the table. "I would name Casren to be such a man we can trust, but apparently he is missing. Still, it is not up to me to decide, I am here only to offer advice. I have said everything I need to say here, so I will take my leave. Daemala, are you coming?"

He looked at her, but his eyes spoke different words than his mouth. They said "don't", or, if you were to look into it a little deeper, "be my eyes and ears here."

Daemala and Zosimos listened, her with wide eyes and his lids lax. At the end of the deliveries, Zosimos turned his eyes to Daemala. The woman cowered under the sudden attention, her shoulders stiffening downward and her expression that of a doe. Her gaze was locked with Kaine's. Should she go, or should she stay? Zosimos's mouth twitched at the dilemma. He opened his mouth to speak, but she interjected.

"It's best I stay," Daemala shot a look towards Zosimos, then to Frederic, lastly Alexander, "For Casren's sake." She folded her hands into her lap and looked at them. Daemala would not say more on the matter.

"Well then," Zosimos pursed his lips and smiled around the room. "What does anyone propose we do next, exactly? We're already negotiating with the Invictus, for those of you who don't know," Daemala's eyes had gone wide; Zosimos's grin grew, "About the future of Terra! A fine planet is she, but a conflicted one. We're to take an active hand in it's solution no doubt. Could this be the cause for this...Group, that may or may not be a facade for someone who may or may not be closely associated with us, to come after us? What is the reasoning behind the sigil? We must know."

Zosimos rapped the table hard.

"We must deal with these rings, first and foremost! They are the only," He nodded to Alexander, "Physical evidence we have as it stands. So they want to trap us in a nerve loop? So they want to shake us? So be it. We must not submit to acts of terror!" Zosimos looked to Frederic now.

"Agents and spies, let's avoid assassinations if we can," Manik Chakor faded in from the shadows placing a hand on the table. He had been watching and listening, and finally had something to say. "I agree our force must be stronger. You say we are to rule Terra, Greek?" Manik shot a bloodshot squint in Zosimos's direction. "I say you can put whatever crown you'd like on that head, I work for no King who can't cross a sea, lest defend his own." It was here Manik glared at Daemala, who huffed. She was not a King, she was a Queen, and the spot wasn't hers yet. She gestured to Kat-Lyn Ember Rose.

"We have a navy now child," Daemala remarked, "If you're interested in crossing seas." With a roll of her eyes and a shake of her shoulders, she received the nastiest of glares from Manik. A hiss faded on the tip of his tongue, Zosimos raising a brow at the would-be confrontation.

"Well, if we can't even handle our shit..." Zosimos let a hand fall out to the side, and looked to Frederic, then Alexander. He gave one of Casren's signature sighs and let his eyes come to rest on Ana Maria.

"These rings... What do you know?"

The room filled with vampires and none yet the wiser of what was to come as a dark presence filled the room with what soon followed to be a rather handsome Drow in finery of red and white. The noble elf simply gripped the head of his rather strange cane only to tap the butt of it twice upon the ground and cleared his throat as he approached the vampires and their comrades only to offer a fiendish grin and a mock bow. "I am Lord Baenval and though I wish not to interrupt such fine business as this I feel as if it is my sworn duty to do as such."

Alexander listened. They were avoiding his suggestion of bringing in a Wild Card, from what he could tell. He didn't blame them, people tend to prefer to stick with what they know, even Vampires. At least the fact there was not much outrage if any towards the suggestion itself, as far as he could tell, meant it had a chance. The real question was who. What enemy could they get to help them, and not betray them. Who could they trust for this?

Alexander had an idea. But he was not sure about suggesting this one. Mostly because he had not heard anything about him in a long time, and was unsure about suggesting it because of how badly it might go. But he knew that this move would not have been predicted. Because the idea, in itself, would be impossible and insane. He was not sure even how to get him on their side, unless...

He kept the idea in his head, deciding it might be best not to mention it at this moment, though the fact he had some idea he was not sharing was not that hard to see. It wasn't obvious, but it was possible to tell. He listened to everyone, and then asked Zosimos "People we have trusted and who kept order are missing. We must take up these responsibilities, and together we must maintain what we have built, while hunting down those who wish to see us dead and what we have built destroyed. For our survival, for our progress..." he then turned to Daemala now. "For Casren".

Kaine's announcement of departure momentairily surprised him, but it passed. He was more focused on what was being said, and what was not. "So, we have leads to follow, people to find, and affairs to manage. I agree, we do need to get our shit straight. So, I ask, who will do what? You have decleared some of this already, and I will not deny the chance to find these people, but we can not do what we would be expected to do. I have suggested one way to add a wildcard, but we should all have some sort of wildcard. We can no longer stay confident our methods may work, or what we know is correct".

He looked at Zosimos now, his mind drifting back to that idea from before. I do not expect this idea will be popular, if I suggest it at all, it's risky and I don't even know if it will even be possible, but it is something they would not have expected, even with all of their planning and preparation.

Before he could ask Zosimos what he plans to do, this intruder appeared. "Who are you? Why do you interrupt this meeting!?" he asked, slightly ticked off.

(Sorry if I missed a tag, the last post made it impossible to tag all, but I think I got everyone here? Except Frederic, who never appeared on the tag list. O.o)

"Who am I? A silly question after I have already introduced myself as Lord Baenval, no matter though, it only makes this meeting with some of the more powerful members of this mock court a bit more interesting." The drow spoke only to keep his fiendish smile out in the open as he took a step forward allowing his cane to tap on the ground lightly as he began to look over the audience he held. "To those who know me I am simply called The Pretender, a speaker of many interests, and also The Shade. I however assure you that such names are nothing more than the fancy of simple men and women who have little to no education on the finer arts of acquisition and lordly affairs like those of you who sit here before me." Lord Baenval spoke with an air of confidence about him that few could muster in a situation such as this for his scent was not that of the dead and to those who could hear him the sound of what could be described as a working heart was vigorously pumping.

"More to the point however I speak for the demon lord Belphegore and a lone galactic being who goes under the name of Shabot-Urn. It appears to me that a certain sapphire ring was placed in the care of a lone boy in sight of one of your vampiric guards and I wish to retrieve it in order to move onto other business that I have urgent business with. Aiding me will grant you both of my lords blessings and the boon of gifts that will flood your way will not go unnoticed."

Noxize Deschain The black being flowed forth from it's place in the wall, the echoes of a psychic scream still rattling about in it's head- the awakening of the symbiote Legion in Wing City reached even this far. Nox had bad news for the vampires.

"Descorp is leaving this rock. We apologize for this disconnect of services. After the dark days pass we will return. Have a nice day."

A sound like that of a large pair of hands clapping sounds once...and Nox is gone. In moments the sound was echoed as each and every Descorp personnel member vacated the planet. Compact Rip-Gates allowing for instant transport back to the ship. Something bad was coming...if it scared off Nox and the rest of the Descorp. But what?

Horrible news followed by horrible news. Zosimos could practically see the dominoes as they fell, ivory relics of a time long dead. The old greek grinned silently where he sat. The curtain on this act seemed to be falling. Falling, falling, and he didn't wish to fall with it.

As if on cue, the bottles lining the walls began to quiver. Tauvyr Tavern rumbled, what was going on outside? Daemala jumped up, pardoning herself and rushing through the door. Patrons were seemingly alarmed at the strange activities.

There was a techno-jingle. It was a phone, Zosimos's phone. He was mildly alarmed that it was ringing, but still he received the message. Zosimos looked around, bowed out, and hurried after Daemala. The message was surely troubling.

It was now Manik Chakur stepped forward, looking at the rings.

"Rings...It is rings that lie at the heart of all our strife..." His bloodshot eyes bulged as he spat the words, "The rings must be taken care of I agree, we must aide this man in his search for his sapphire ring," Manik bowed deeply to everyone, "For Casren."