2020-06-21 TPC: A Plan Comes Together

A Plan Comes Together

Participants: Artaud, Ikal, Addison, Liam, Clint, Paola, Mariana, Ashlynn, Sandy, Alexa, Flynn

Storyteller: Nate

Location: The Bawn - Fremont Hotel Lobby

Date and Time: June 21 2020

Summary: Information is discussed and a plan comes together

Deep within the earth is a lost piece of Los Angeles history - the Fremont Hotel. Thought demolished in 1955, it was instead sunk into the earth by the Garou of Los Angeles to serve as a place of respite. The formerly six-storied Mission style building is partially embedded in the earth as the land claimed its due of the agreement. The stone shifts in a transition to the yellow brick facade, with most of the front portions of the formerly L-shaped building still accessible, though a part of the retaining wall remains above as well. The original front balconies are still present, as are the red-tiled entry tower and scalloped parapets. The neon sign bearing the hotel name still hovers down the side of the tower, flickering in the cavern.

Inside the lobby, the mission style persists with cream stucco walls darkened over the decades, and pillars and ceiling beams of redwood with a grand iron chandelier. The floors aren't nearly as shiny as they once were and many of the tiles are cracked, but the deep tawny marble tiles still add a fleeting touch of elegance. A reception desk remains with the old wall of keys and mail slots next to a grand staircase. The windows glow with daylight or moonlight to reflect the world above the cavern, with electric and water supplied through the sept's means.

The moon is fat, and rage simmers on a low boil around the Sept. Garou stalking here and there, Kin keeping heads down. Despite this volatility there is still work to be done, and with the uncovering of more information about what might be the cause of the smog on the umbral 405, folks have gathered here and now to plan out what to do next.

Having arrived first to the party, Sandy is waiting, settled in a chair with it spun around backwards to straddle it. With her arms crossed over the top of it, she lets out a low rumble in her throat as she feels the moon breathe through her lungs. She had drug a white board down and has a few magic markers at the ready.

Paola is often prompt, late when duty gets in the way from time to time. so while she was not here first, she was here early. She has plopped herself onto the ground near Sandy's feet snd is seated cross-legged, thoughtfully picking at a loose thread at her thigh.

Work doesn't stop even with pending missions, but that doesn't mean Flynn didn't get a quick round in. The Ritemaster slips into the hotel through a shimmer of air as he exits the Umbra suspiciously close to Sandy. It can't be coincidence, as his eyes are already on her as he hits physical ground. << Time to go, right? >> He asks of her and then looks to Paola with a light wag of his tail in greeting.

Mariana had already given over a neatly organized file of all the information she had gathered but she arrives with another folder and more copies of the same in case they're needed. She heads towards Sandy and the white board. "Need a copy of the map?" Because she's got one! And some tape too.

Ikal arrives amidst the few kinfolk present keeping their heads down. His eyes shine with clear caution as he gazes across the room full of garou simering at the height of the full moon's influence. He gravitates towards Mariana and comes to stand at her side. He offers Sandy a soft smile before peeking over at Mariana. "Let me know if I can help.

A group of voices can be heard in the tunnel approaching the hotel. Alexa is first to round the corner, and she's engaged in conversation with the rest of the still-forming pack - Liam, Ashlynn, Clint, and Addison. She's laughing at something Ashlynn has said, and socks her cousin on the shoulder. "You absolute butt," she says, her step slowing a bit as she catches sight of the others, falling back in line behind Liam. Her eyes turn to the whiteboard with curious interest.

"Yes. I need a copy of everything. Especially the pictures," Paola says promptly upon the question being asked, though she did not bring with her a dossier, a folder, a briefcase, or anything really useful to drag around a bunch of notes and photos. Her overalls have some pockets, at least. She looks up and blinks twice at Flynn when he arrives, offering a well-practiced, but somewhat off smile to him--practicing the human gestures of greeting is a task probably more relatable to him than most others here. She also shifts her hips from side to side, wagging a non-present tail in response to the greeting. But she is quickly distracted when Ikal enters, and shifts her gaze to him, focused on his gait and legs more than his face, watchful. Her teeth are still showing in that well-practiced smile, but she seems to have forgotten she is holding it, because who smiles while staring at someone's ankles?

Ashlynn rubs her shoulder as if truly, deeply wounded, "Just wait." The two words a promise of more to come. Sobering as they approach, she hipchecks Alexa for revenge, then settles - being still is fucking *hard* when the moon is high, though, and she winds up shifting her weight, arms folded under her chest. Wearing simple boots, jeans, and a tee with the sleeves and collar cut away, she's certainly not the most feminine of sorts. At least she's fresh showered after her morning work out.

As the others arrive, Sandy reaches out instinctively as the air shimmers, wrapping an arm lazily around Flynn to lean in and give him a hug. Almost as if he was to materialize into her arms. Smooching the side of his head, she rises up and plucks the magic markers up and heads to the white board. "Hey everyone. Good evening. Happy full moon. I hope you all have been working off your frustrations in pleasant and healthy manners." She calls over to them, blowing her hair away from her face. "So, I'm going to give you all a quick run down of what we're up against. I'm sure we're all familiar, but I'm a big fan of visuals."

Flipping the white board over to reveal a crudely drawn map of the 405 in between the pair of gas stations, she has little clouds with frowny faces drawn along it to signify a good chunk of the bane presence. She's no Bob Ross, but it's adorable.

"Thanks to Ikal and Mariana of the Uktena kin, they were able to social engineer some information for us that I believe is rather helpful now." As she starts to write on the board, she hums to herself. 1) Owen Sutton owner of Gas Station 1. Computer stupid. Dating owner of Gas Station 2: Josie Simmons. 2) Gas Stations get 4 regularly scheduled visits to refill the pumps. Sutton has a /deal/ in place with a company called Green Motion to make unscheduled deliveries for two of the pumps. 3) Social Media shows both Sutton and Simmons are friends with a 'Lab Technician' from Green Motion named Dominik Barber. Possibly driver of this delivery. 4) Green Motions is a small privately ran lab in Westlake North focusing on research and development on low emission fuels.

With a clear of her throat, she taps bullet 4 a few times with her marker. "This is probably the lead we're looking for. We assumed that 'something' was being added to the gas. Snake mentioned he smelled something strange in the

Ikal stills at Mariana's as he feels Paola's gaze upon him. Or rather - on his ankles. Despite his caution, he can't quite help stare back. Fascinated. It's not until Sandy's clarion voice lifts to address the gathering that he manages to avert his gaze. Upon hearing his name mentioned with Mariana's, he peeks over at her and across the room over the gathered Garou. Watchful.

Clint leads up the back of the group. NOt so much by choice but because he's still tired. Not enough time to have recovered from everything else he's pushing himself to do. His usual canvas clothes with fanny pack and boots as he just follows the others. Rubbing at his eyes with yawns on occassion and trying to stay behind them when he sees Flynn. It's impossible but he's trying to not be noticed. He looks at the whiteboard, staring at it for answers. After Sanday points out one, he leans in closer to his pack in the making and asks. "What is that?"

Addison rubs under his glasses with his thumb and forefinger, pressing against the sleepless bruises as he inhales sharply. He steps about a foot back from Ashlynn and Alexa as the cousins continue a socking match from the hallway. He looks up at the scrawl upon the whiteboard. "Just when I thought I might get some sleep someone had to make all that racket," the Uktena explains to Liam, with his eyes dead-set forward. "Low emission fuels," Addison mutters, "well I think they failed at that."

Alexa gives Sandy a respectful uptilt of her chin as she begins the seminar and falls quiet. At the mention of Ikal and Mariana's contributions, Alexa's eyes turn briefly to Ikal, a faint smile on her lips and an approving nod. She pauses at Clint's question, leaning back a bit. "What is what?" she asks quietly. You paged Sandy with 'Sure thing.'.

With the last of his greetings conveyed in a sweeping gaze across the gathered, Circuit Tracer takes a seat. The Ritemaster remains in Lupus for the present as he lifts his head towards the whiteboard to look over the markings. He says nothing as he studies the bullet points and possibly the little smog clouds, though his ears twist this way and that as he listens to various voices as people speak up.

"If it's only a couple of pumps, that explains why the fuel samples Jason got for us came back clean. I think he brought one from each octane, but if he pulled from one pump, and not the right one at that..." Ashlynn muses, looking the board over in thought.

It takes a lot to force Paola to stop zeroing in on Ikal's ankles, but the cacaphony of the approaching seems to do it, and she looks over her shoulders, losing the smile as she just looks over each individual one by one, her gaze lingering an extra moment on Addison and an extra five on Clint, who she stares at with a neutral expression, but tilted head, for a little overly long. Then, she looks back to the presentation and leans a little closer to Flynn after Sandy stood to make it and whispers a vital question, "Can you read? I can read it for you--" and then without waiting for an answer she begins whispering the bullet points to him (and will stop if he stops her).

Liam brings up the tail of the rag-tag group of five moons and four Tribes, his flipflops conspicuously absent as he's opted for a pair of Van's to go with the blue jeans hanging from his hips. A Greenday tee-shirt tops it all off and a super lightweight hoodie with the sleeves pushed up. That surfer mop of hair is pushed back from his face as Sandy begins speaking, and he gives the Talesinger his attention while he hangs back with Clint for now, leaning in to give the big guy a grounding shoulder-bump, Alexa already asking the important questions.

Mariana hands over a packet to Paola of the info that pretty much lines up exactly with Sandy's whiteboard bullet points and sits down right next to her. She pats the ground next to her in invitation for Ikal to take a seat as well. "They are definitely still getting shipments of regular gas, supplementing their GreenMotion stuff so unless he got one from each pump, I'm not surprised one seemed normal..."

Ikal cant help but smile with a quiet glow of pride as he catches Alexa's approving nod before dropping his gaze once more. He shifts and settles down on the ground right next to Mariana, keeping close and following the other Kinfolk's lead.

"From the info gathered, it appears that Simmons and Suttons are also going on expensive vacations on Green Motion's dime. You know the type. Come hang out at Hawaii for a week, listen to our great time share pitch, blah blah blah? So, they may just be innocent gas station managers who are taking a deal from this company to add this newly improved fuel for research and development. They also may be the most smartest people in the world for all we know. We won't rule anything out. We do know that money sure as hell talks the loudest in the room. Though I am curious if there is legal ramifications from this. If anyone has EPA leads, I say bring them forward."

Sliding over a few small boxes, she gives a motion to them. "Tigerlily, a kin of my tribe and an accomplished computer hacker has gave me these cameras to have installed at the gas station. They are small enough to not be noticed and they will feed back to her computer safely. If someone wants to volunteer to plug a few of these at the gas stations, this would allow us to hopefully capture data on this Green Motion delivery. License plate numbers. Faces. Time stamps. Obviously it's nor regular schedules so we are hoping to get lucky, but it keeps her busy. In the meantime, she is doing some deep dives on this company for us. Snagging financials, board member names, anything she can find on the surface or the deeper dark web. Hopefully we can find a bread crumb. Until then. I am open for suggestions on how to go at this. We can continue to poke the banes in the Umbra and slim down the herd, but really we're working uphill with the velocity of traffic that the 405 gets. We can send a search party to Green Motion and do an Umbral peek, see if something stands out immediately. We have .." She points to the board. "A floor plan of the exterior." That she printed out and taped to the board.

Artaud is here! He is here! he scurries in perhaps well after the others arrive! But the Lupus is here, nosing about, trying to sniff and look around the room then, his tail wagging slowly, and held low as he tries to keep his eyes on the people around, head tilting ot the side as he tries to process what is going on. He will then offer aloud, quickly. "Me! Volunteer! Me! Good and sneaky! SNeaky sneaky." But then he blinks in confusion, what exactly was he volunteering for so quickly?

"The symbols Sandy point at." Is said back to Alexa while watching the white board. He smiles slightly at the shoulder bump and returns an nudge with his elbow. One with more force and weight behind it then he intends or realizes. Talking! This gets his attention away from the board to Sandy as she gets his full attention to take in every word said. "E P A?" His brows furrow at all the tech talk. "Um...can help bane."

Ashlynn arches an eyebrow at Paola, uncertain if she means insult or not, then relaxing when the follow though suggests not. Unable to stay still, the tall blonde slips behind Alexa to start finger-combing the long hair and separating it to braid. A way to move without being distracting. "Why not do all of it? Chip at the 405, have some folks go get a peek, put the cams in... A wider net catches more fish and all that."

<< I can read. >> Circuit Tracer indicates to Paola, though not seeming bothered by her offer. << Next to the human requirements of pants, reading and speaking were my first lessons. >> He turns his attention back to Sandy as she continues to speak and the Theurge chimes up. << As much as my teeth would love to shred banes, they will just keep coming back. It may be a waste of our blood and time. A wiser hunt would be to find their den, while others like our kin work the cameras. >>

Paola practically beams at Mariana when she hands the files over, showing entirely too much teeth--she's better at it now than a couple years ago, but it's still a very discomfiting 'smile'. "Yes, pants were an important lesson. Are these bicycles?" Paola asks herself more than anyone in the room, not exactly expecting an answer, "I've never ridden a bicycle." But then she is looking up again. She pulls a pair of readers from her front breast pocket. Who knows where she got them, one of the legs is barely hanging on and one lens is entirely missing while the other is cracked. But she puts them on anyway and lifts a very important, slightly too-long finger. "Point of order. What's an EPA?" Without waiting for an answer she says, "Second point of order--has anyone managed to collect hair or toenails or, uh, liquids," she makes an unsubtle face of disgust, "for, you know," she shrugs, "important black magic."

"Department of Transportation probably wouldn't be pleased the stations are selling gas types different than they advertised... permit issues, consumer protection issues. An anonymous tip with the right information might get them shut down for a while. But wouldn't want to do it too soon so we don't tip off GreenMotion and they move their operations somewhere else?" Mariana adds, peering at the map. "I could try to get an interview with them wanting more information on the low emissions fuel they're supposedly producing? Maybe have someone else come along as a photographer? Don't think they'd show us everything but, could get a better idea of the inside?"

Addison nods along to the revelations of intel. Listening to Sandy he hums. "Hmm. No I wouldn't discount anything. This rabbit hole could go deeper. I suppose we'll only find out once we get to Green Motion. Flynn has a point, too, shreading Banes is good for the nerves but they just keep coming back." He cringes at what Paola says, but it's an understanding cringe. "We could 'liberate' Green Motion's files from their office. Maybe find something incriminating?"

With a yawn Addison would turn to his packmates. "I'm not going to be good for this sort of thing until the Full Moon wanes unless I'm on the Umbral side."

Alexa glances back to Ashlynn, then undoes the hair tie in her hair, giving her cousin room to get her energy out. She hasn't said much during the seminar, but her eyes are fixed on the board, following along with Sandy and the others. "EPA is part of the human government," she quietly tells Clint. "More of a kinfolk thing, don't worry about it." A pause. She turns to look at Addison, then nods her agreeement. "I was actually about to suggest we go Umbral side too," she admits, eyes fixing briefly on Addison's. A slight smile. "Packthink," she says. Then tilting her head back - slowly, so as not to interfere with Ashlynn's braids - she adds, "Clint, you okay there big guy?"

Liam ends up hop-hopping when Clint returns the wolfish affection, the guy's frickin huge okay? A chuckle escapes him from the action and he settles back down with a chuff, listening, observing, being mindful of each speaker the Dox remains quiet for the long term. "EPA is the Environmental Protection Agency, sometimes our friends, sometimes our enemies, it depends on which human's in charge this year," he explains to Clint and Paola with an easy smile and warm tone, always happy to sate curiosity. "There's a method to the madness of thinning the herds as well. Is it a slog, yes, but welcome to LA - this is the hand we got dealt, man," he shrugs a bit, almost seeming impervious to the futility of the task ever in front of him. "Honestly a few of you could use a bit of bane shredding to calm the nerves, I wouldn't be opposed to it so long as people have each others' backs out there. Getting the cameras up is useful and should be a priority for those that can manage. As far as showing up at Green Motion's doorstep...trickier, but if we can manage faces that haven't been at the gas stations it'd probably be safer. None of this is safe, right? We're just tryin to make sure we mitigate the risks as much as we can."

Artaud is listening, his ears flitting back and forth, clearly uncertain of what to make from all the talking at this point. Words are being thrown around, and he doesn't even understand the difference between leaded and unleaded! Super premium Eco-fuel? Artaud just gives a great long stretch then as he sighs softly and continues to listen as best as he can now, just staying off to the back at this point, head cocking to the side then. "Would at least serve as distraction.. make sure cameras.. not found? Maybe.. don't know."

Ikal glances over as Mariana suggests getting an interview at GreenMotion for gathering more intel. "I could take photographs. But." He hesitates before lifting his voice a bit further. "Might be good for someone to go with that has... keener senses. In case there's anything more to pick up on or notice."

"I am unhurt." Says Clint back to Alexa in a bit of a sidestep of her question. But he is clearly tired and far from one hundred percent. He nods at her and Liam. "Nature cops?" Good enough for him. "Not know how cameras work." He points at the box with a shrug. "If lab doing wrong, do not think will let people tell other people. Will hide secrets. Yes?" He glances around. "Even if we fix what bring bane, still need to remove bane."

"Artaud," Alexa's voice finally calls out. "Are you volunteering to plant the cameras at the gas station?" "As for you folks, Sandy, Flynn," Alexa asks, raising her eyes. "Where do you lot see yourselves going? We have a few folks in this group who'd prefer to be Umbra-side. Do you mind if we scout the Umbra at GreenMotion? Where would you two like to approach this problem from?"

Her-Wounds-Are-Fresh catches Addison's look, and she widens her eyes, and shrugs and then spreads her hands around slowly, indicating the rest of the room, and mouths to him 'They are all white eye' as if that explains why she chose the words she chose. She stops the silent communication when Liam speaks, and is essentially rapt and focused throughout. She does not comment on his ideas of bane-thrashing, though. For a long time she just sits with her lips tight, working something out by the expression on her face. But then her ear perks up and she glances back at Artaud before looking to Sandy once more, "We should combine all of these plans, no?"

"With permission, Protects-the-Fallen-rhya," she pauses just in case said permission is denied, "Den-Digger's and Peacemaker-rhya's ideas aren't my favourite, because I think you should always expect the Enemy to be smarter than you are. They're going to expect us. They'll expect us to come in with claws and teeth and Luna's anger at our back, and murder the shit out of everything that moves. Okay. So use that--let these ones," she tilts her head to the side, "run in and work that Rage out, earn some Glory, take some stories home to impress the Storykeepers. Okay--distraction run. Den-Digger is the smartest one here. Then, honestly, I bet one of our little primos can handle those cameras--but the rest of us--we sneak in and gather up, I don't know--you want files, and I want pubic hairs--but we get what we need to work our own kinds of magic and get out while everyone that might be watching is distracted by the big messmakers. That's, uh," she pauses, looking suddenly uncomfortable. "Feel free to, uh, dismiss, no?"

Nodding her head, Sandy listens to them all and gives a long stretch of her body, then swivels her hips to give off a loud round of 'cracks'. Old lady bones. "So, let's do this in chunks. Let's have a team Umbral surf the Green Motion. I'd say let's bring some of the sneakier types." She gives a motion towards Flynn, Addison and Artaud. "You three." She pauses and glances to Alexa. "And you. Healer back up. Four of you should be able to do a walk through of the Umbra safely in my opinion."

With a glance to Mariana, she nods her head. "I think having an interview with someone over there would be interesting. If you can come up with a reason to. I'd be curious to see who they may be linked to. Someone is surely financing them. They're too small in my opinion. Just come up with a plan and run it past Liam or myself later before you do it. I'd say Snake also since he leads your family." Her eyes squint some towards Ashlynn, then Liam. "If you want to lead a 405 party to shred some banes, it won't hurt. It's the full moon afterall. As far as planting the cameras go, I may send Tigerlily for that, or Snake later, since he can at least be .. you know .. a lot sneaker than a girl in tattoos, but she also has the technical know how. Maybe she can teach Snake to do it. Or they can ride together and she can talk him through it over the phone. Ikal can tag along with and distract them on the inside with conversation so they won't notice. "

As she listens to Paola, she gives a nod of her head, then looks towards Liam. "You're the Alpha. What are your thoughts? I'm just throwing things out. I do think recon on Green Motion is important."

Artaud perks up then as he moves to give a quick nod in response to Alexa then as he murrmurs, "If done during night? Is very good! Very sneaky! Very good! Can get in, plant! Yes very good!" Artaud muses aloud in response to alexa then as he gives a great long stretch in response before he hums softly then. "Onuris can do! Probably! At least can do good try! Especially if has good truck to ride on!"

There's a subtle backwards tip to Circuit Tracer's ears at Liam's okay to strike the highway banes. << If we break open their nest and destroy their food, the Banes will fade. But we need to learn where that is. I want to see this lab from the Umbra. If we see that is where they are coming from, then we know where to strike. Those who cannot travel the Umbra, or who wish to protect and help those who cannot, can put up cameras and provide distraction if needed. >> As others take their turns speaking he listens in quiet respect to let each have their peace and finally returns his eyes to Liam as the sept's Alpha is given the decision.

Ikal tilts his head with a feral hint of interest as Paola speaks up and offers her suggestions. But his gaze flits to Sandy as she mentions his name, and he nods. "I'd be happy to help." He hesitates and runs a hand back through his loose curls. "I... I've also met recently a deputy sherrif. Was helping his mother with her garden and... well... he might be good for a favor if we need one."

Alexa grimaces a bit. "Protects-the-Fallen-Rhya," she says, "Pardon the correction, but I don't have any healing gifts. I'm better suited for fighting and rallying. That said, we don't know what's in the Umbra out there." She takes a breath. "Okay," she says, bouncing off of Sandy's idea, "So kinfolk cover the cameras at the gas station, possibly aided by Snake. We have a proposed Umbra team. What does everyone else do?"

Liam gives Circuit Tracer a look and then nods, "I understand the desire to get to the root of the problem, I really do, but we don't have enough to go on to do that right now. However, the longer we wait, the more banes there are, and if we wait so long as to find the the source and destroy that, we may well be facing an army of banes instead of a few stragglers because we've kept the population down, understand?" he asks Clint in particular, because he does understand the concerns. "Umbral team to GreenMotion, Sneak team to Gas Station, those are the priorities, after we get those teams sorted, if anyone's left that doesn't feel comfortable doing either, we may have enough to thin some of the ranks on the 405. I'd prefer two teams right now, but we'll work with what we've got, yeah?"

Ashlynn finishes braiding Alexa's hair and gives a light tug before holding her hand out for the rubber band. "Perhaps it might be good to outline what everyone can do, before worrying too much about divvying up into teams?"

Artaud keeps down to the ground now as he moves tolay down on his belly, moving to slide his way sslowly over to his favorite spot at this point. The reception counter. He is over there sniffing at this point, not certain what to make of things at this point, but his head pops up then from behind the counter as he hops up and leans against it, offering with that same excited tone. "Both? Onuris Can do both! Is good hunter! But is sneaky hunter! So is best for sneak! Very sneak sneak. Subtle. Suave. Infil.. in.. trait.. Mrm. Getting in places!" Artaud muses then with his eyes shifting then to Ashlynn, looking for some sort of confirmation on if he is good.

Addison breaks his gaze from Her-Wounds-Are-Fresh to look over at Ikal. "We want them to have plausible deniability. Ikal and Mariana have already scouted out the station once. I'm sure they have their own security system at the gas station. People start to get suspicious when they see the same faces over and over again. Let Artaud plant the cameras so that Mariana and Ikal can maintain their cover in the mortal world." The Uktena frowns. "As kin of my tribe their safety is important to me. I do not want them in proximity of any raid that happens. Especially with the moon this big. I would suggest the kinfolk make moves into researching the legality of the situation. So we can hit the problem from both sides. With claws and with subpoenas."

There is a bit of a quick one-two from Sandy as she jerks her back towards Alexa when she announces she doesn't have the tribal healing gift. "Whaaat? Okay. You and I are going to have some one on one time to learn that then." She says with a clear of her throat. "But yes, I am thinking two teams for right now. I think the most important thing is getting eyes on Green Motion from the Umbra. I just don't forsee a huge team to go in and do it. That way we don't draw too much attention. If I need to go to provide the healing side, I am willing. I think a bigger team attacking the banes on the freeway would be better, in my opinion."

She glances to Addison, then over to Artaud as her brows tick up even higher. ".. If he is confident .. enough to plant the cameras, sure. I don't know the technical part of it. I am sure we can read the instructions Tigerlily gave us and go from there." She gives another look to Liam and bobs her head.

"Spirit stuff. Getting in places. Sniff taint. Clean taint. Heal...when not so tired." CLint smiles sheepishly with a shrug. "Um...mostly spirit stuff. Some rites." He pauses to think about what he can do. "Can fight some I guess."

Ikal gazes off across at Addison and bows his head ina small, acquiescent nod. And then looking from Addison, to Mariana, he says, "If it's legality we're looking into, then that deputy sheriff could help us even more. And. I expect with everything you know about permits... we'd be good for this."

Still seated on the ground next to Flynn, Paola watches Addison while he speaks from over the Glass Walkers head, intent and thoughtful. She does not seem to have anything else to add for the time being, but she glances at each individual as they speak at least once, before eventually coming to focus on the Kinfolk that Addison is claiming protectorate over. She offers a hint of a not-quite-right smile to Mariana, but studies Ikal with more focus then. She upnods, almost as if she were greeting her primo, but then her nostrils flare and she parts her lips, tasting the air in his direction. "Buen olor," she says under her breath. There is no comment on which team the Half-Breed should be on, but she certainly has been paying attention to the other names that have been noted. However, she does add, "I think you are right, about the smaller team to investigate, Protects-the-Fallen-rhya."

<< I don't plan a fight at the lab unless we have no choice. >> Declares Circuit Tracer as he rises up onto his paws, the wolf's silver-furred tail curling up towards the air with a confident leaning. There's a low whuff of sound in agreement with Paola's confirmation of a small team. << So we do not need many, but those who come should be able to protect themselves and know well how to find the Wyrm. Alpha, >> He turns then to Liam. << Those who do not want to scout the lab with me or assist with the stations can gather to battle Banes? Let the Wyrm then think we're doing nothing different than hunting. >>

Alexa gives a weary smile. She hands Ashlynn the band and lets her complete the braid. "If you want another brawl on the 405 Umbra," she says, and reaches over a hand, clapping Ashlynn on the shoulder. "I'll be happy to pair up with my cousin again and give them a repeat of last time. Isn't that right, Cuz?" She flashes a grin towards her cousin. The Greek-style braids fit her pretty well.

There's a lot of voices going on at once from all over the Sept ladder. Alexa looks between them. She takes a step back, realizing that throwing in more is only going to add to the general din. She instead turns to tend to her own pack, in this case, looking up at Clint. "Too tired to fight Banes?" she asks quietly, a bit worriedly. "You out of mojo, or just out of sleep?"

Mariana nods in agreement with Addison. "Research I can definitely do. Finances and any possible regulations they might be breaking..."

Ashlynn binds the greek style braid and playfully flips the tail up over Alexa's shoulder before the Galliard slaps her. The reply is a rib poke before she turns her gaze to Clint, to see what the answer is - waiting for her own marching orders.

Artaud just gives a slight nod then as he moves to slink about behind the countertop, clearly not certain what to make of things at this point then. His tail still wagging then as he awaits instructions on what to do himself! Ready to go!

Nodding her head, Sandy looks to the group, then pats Flynn on the fuzzy shoulder, then Paola on hers. "You two with me then. Addison? I'd like for you to come with us, but if you rather stick to your pack, I'd understand. We could use a new moon of your talents though."

"Mojo. Was told sleep. Did sleep." Clint nods at Alexa. "Can fight. Eat for mojo."

Her-Wounds-Are-Fresh leans into the hand-patting and lets out a breath she did not realize she was holding. When Sandy also invites Addison along, the antlered girl also looks to her primo, tilting her head to the side thoughtfully, and then suddenly jerking her chin in a 'come with us' motion.

Addison squints over at Ikal. "This isn't so much a sheriff matter as it is something you want a lawyer to look into." He dips his head towards Mariana. "She'll show the ropes. Finances, Evironmental law... hell... even distribution code. California is a mess of public code. A venerable spaghetti wire of restrictions we could use to hang these guys with." He looks up to Sandy and blinks and then looks back to Alexa, Ashlynn, and Liam. "Er," he looks over to Sandy again. "Which side were you thinking of probing?"

Ikal stills a bit at Addison's squint and nods. "That... yeah that makes sense." And he quiets as the groups start to form. His attention lingers a moment on Paola. But then at last, he glances over at Mariana. "So. We'll see what we can dig up on legalities? I know you've probably got this but... I can be your research assistant if you need." He grins a bit, looking hopeful.

"We're going through the Umbral side." Sandy confirms to Addison. "I am letting Tigerlily do the hacking part to get us intelligence on the inside if necessary. From the Umbra, we should find some answers if there is any." She pushes herself upwards to her feet, dusting off her knees. "I would bring Snake, but he is currently busy with something at the moment, and I would like a ragabash that is familiar with this type of tactical sleuthing. But I'd understand if you would rather run with your pack."