[Ocularum] Know that if you hide, it doesn't go away.

[itsjustabaddream]

Who: Dr. Neil West (itsjustabaddream) & YOU!
What: Ocularum meeting, post-gala
When: Late September, shortly after Dahlia's birthday
Where: West Dream Analytics
Warning(s): None, unless marked in specific tags!

Find me standing all alone.

[ Before the meeting, closed to Felix Gaeta. ]

The morning before the meeting, Neil has his office hours closed for the day, his "waiting room" set up for entertaining instead. He's made a lovely brunch that includes mimosas and has all sorts of literature set out about demons and magic, including a great deal of his own notes. Nothing quite like an academic brunch with a new friend to get one's spirits up! And Neil has, admittedly, been a bit lonely.

Open-Eyed.

[ Meeting. ]

Once everyone has gathered and the appointed time chimes, Neil will lead everyone past the threshold of his catty-cornered desks and open door frame, past his treatment office and living space, down into his basement.

Red wallpaper lines the walls and dark hardwood paves the way. The walls of the room are full of arcane artifacts and scientific or magical equipment, as well as shelves and shelves of books on the occult. In the center of the room, there is a table with an array of chairs all around. Neil takes a seat at the head, expecting everyone to gather 'round. "Alright, so let's lay out what we know."

[ Any information under this prompt becomes publicly available to all Ocularum members. You can make an OTA/mingle type thing but please limit these because I get all those notifications to Neil's inbox which can quickly evolve into a clusterfuck because I start getting confused on which ones are actually for Neil. Basically Neil is just giving everyone a chance to talk, is how this works. ]

Burn the page.

[ End of meeting, closed to Jon Sims. ]

As the meeting adjourns, and people are filing out, Neil pulls Jon aside. "Oh, Jon, before you leave--- I needed to ask you something."

My little dark age.

[ Post-Meeting Wildcard ]

Neil is always available privately during office hours, phone call, or sending stone. Feel free to follow up with him.

Comments

[not_the_last]

Cassandra frowns down at the writing, glances at Crichton, then at CT as she speaks.

"That could be," she says slowly. "Though ... would Aster lay such a plan to protect the secret, and not take steps to ensure his assassin was close enough to strike before anything was revealed? It feels ... clumsy, if that was its purpose."

A pause. "As to Mendel's reasons, I have some thoughts about that, though at this point they're purely speculation."

[redlightgreenlight]

More thoughts on the factions within Marrow Isle begin to form, but she's not sure she wishes to share them here, not without more evidence. Besides, Cerrit's secret had put them at a disadvantage, and much like CT, she's struggling with who to trust. Hence, she'll keep what she learned close until she can decide to share.

For now though, Cassandra isn't inspiring much confidence from her either, yet the woman has come clean now so perhaps she can be forgiven for not wishing to spread rumors. Crichton brought up some good points though.

"It's possible that Nyarlathotep is assisting the demons as a distraction. I don't know about this world, but on mine, Demons are not on the level of gods. I am uncertain if the demons have enough power on their own to hold the Goddesses at bay. If the Chaos god has allied with the demons he has a reason for it."

Perhaps to make Marrow Isle his own, personal playground.

"It does make me wonder about the impact of the Barrier on Paradesium. That city is far older than the barrier itself, but the sole remaining occupant did say the inhabitants left because the pathway home was going to be closed off forever."

Though the timing doesn't seem to be right.

"I think another question to consider is how long Nyarlathotep has been planning this, and where he currently is."

[restingslasherface]

There is a clearing of Jean's throat; they have been quiet, mainly taking notes, drained still from battle and the emotional impact of realizing that Aster had used them.

Still.

"The matter is not one of power, Comrade." Jean's voice is low; they lack their characteristic energy. "It's...polarity. Managers Kora and Celestine have been kind enough to demonstrate and explain - the Mothers and the demons slide off one another, like magnets with the same pole, or water and oil. This...other hostile managerial entity may well be less restrained."

[ss_buttcrack]

It would be more fascinating if people weren't getting hurt over it, he grumbles internally to himself as he continues to study the paper.

He knows this text. Come on. He's seen this. Where has he seen this? It's right on the tip of his tongue. Think. THINK.

The rest of the conversation sort of passes over his head. He's listening, but not actively. He catches that moment where CT doesn't quite say Cerrit's name and understand the play, so he'll keep that little bit to himself, too. This was the first he's hearing of a weapon given by Aster. It was hard to make heads or tails of what went on that night since his head was spinning so much. He barely saw it.

"Speculation is most of what we have right now. May as well throw it out there to see if anyone else has a piece of the puzzle you're missing," he says to encourage Cassandra, before turning back to the writing.

It's starting to click, only because he's letting himself travel down a memory lane he can barely bring himself to touch anymore.

"This is Eldritch writing!" he suddenly bursts out (sorry Jean). "That's why I feel like I've seen it. Frell, what's it called? I can't remember, but I know I saw something like this in one of Arthur's memories. Not enough to read it."

[itsjustabaddream]

"Yes, exactly so!" Neil praises. "At least, that's what I had assumed from it being in the Necronomicon. If you've seen it before, that's still more than most of us have. I don't suppose you have any clues on how to translate it?"

[ss_buttcrack]

"I don't know. I...oh, crap." His face suddenly falls into an expression of chagrined misery. Frell. He does know exactly who could probably help. All it's gonna cost is his pride.

"Actually, yeah. I think I do know a guy. Let me try contacting him and we'll see what he says. Not sure how willing he'll be."

[not_the_last]

Cassandra doesn't do anything so blatant as clearing her throat, but she does just slightly lean into Crichton's peripheral vision.

With a faintly questioning look on her face that says both do I know who you're talking about? and do I want to know?

[itsjustabaddream]

"That's perfectly alright. Thank you for trying, regardless of how it works out," Neil assures him. "If that doesn't work, I might look into magic that allows text to be translated. I've used it before, but never for this type of language, so it will require some extra work."

Neil takes a slow breath. "I think the first steps for dealing with Nyarlathotep, given that we don't really know what we're up against in a meaningful way, are going to be translating this text if we can and attempting to ascertain his whereabouts, motives, and potential weaknesses," he says. "If we do figure out where he is, we absolutely should not approach without a plan. If he is truly a god as we think of them, then he is undoubtedly quite dangerous. Likely there will be some ritual aspect to his expulsion."

"As for Dahlia and the demons... it seems as though, for the moment, Dahlia has removed herself from the situation. She's gotten as much comeuppance for her deception as we can hope for at the moment. As much as I distrust her and dislike her being at large, there's no way for her to stay dead here nor any meaningful way to detain her, and there are far too many layers to go through to get to her. It's not worth the risk. The true value that comes from the gala is the fact that demons can die, even here. The demons are capable of and willing to kill each other. I think that our best bet, as of now, is to try and figure a way to find ways of keeping Eligos in power and preventing Aster from taking over as king. We need to make sure we kill him before the succession can happen. Aside from Mendel himself, who is no longer an option, Eligos is our best shot at destabilizing the truce between the demons and Nyarlathotep." Neil gives his chin and jaw a firm rub, thoughtful and focused, tapping his fingers of his free hand on the table. "Does anyone have thoughts on how best to achieve this? I, of course, will be providing everyone here with anti-infernal wards that should help in resisting demonic magic, but more concrete plans are certainly preferred."

[redlightgreenlight]

Though she's been listening in aggravated silence for most of the current conversation, she's taken aback by Neil's commentary on the demons. Though she's glad he's willing to put aside his anger at the Leeds for the time being, the very idea of keeping the status quo seems intolerable.

She tries to bite her tongue, her fury simmering beneath the surface. No matter how terrible and worried she feels about being weaker than the demons, she never even considered turning tail and trying to simply maintain what they had. She can't imagine that is what Neil actually means, but it certainly sounds like that's what he is saying.

"Jean has proven that we can kill the demons with the right weapons, perhaps we should try to find a way to fight more offensively instead of just relying on defense."

Though she doubts River would be willing to forge more of those daggers considering the difficulty they faced the first time, plus the recent events might make her more hesitant to help members of the Occularum.

"It's something to look into at the very least."

[restingslasherface]

Still drained, and yet with great conviction, Jean quietly adds, "I concur. I see no reason to permit any member of the hostile Management to survive. A return to the status quo as of the previous succession crisis is merely pushing this problem to a later generation, at best. A stronger message to infernal society is needed."

[takethatnature]

"Who said anything about letting him survive? We're just picking what order to kill them in," Wilson pipes up, finally feeling like he has something to contribute. "It's the same reason we always saved the rook for last when we fought the three shadow chesspiece monsters in the Constant, because they'd all give each other a power boost when they died and nobody likes getting swarmed by the level-three bishop's shadow bats or the shadow knight sinking its teeth into anyone who gets within fifty feet of it. The rook was the easiest to deal with."

"I'm not sure if the demons work that way," Wilson admits, after a pause. "Still. Who would be the harder fight to leave for last, Aster or Eligos?"

[not_the_last]

"Or is there another reason that keeping Eligos in power gives us some advantage?" Cassandra addresses this to Neil, her tone primarily one of curiosity. "I admit I don't see how Aster taking over would make things worse, but I assume you know a great deal more than I do on the subject."

[itsjustabaddream]

"I think you all misunderstand," Neil says, feeling a little ganged up on all of a sudden and looking harried. "I apologize if I misspoke. Let me clarify."

"Currently, the barrier relies on a truce between Nyarlathotep and the Demons, that is entirely under the control of whatever demonic royals are in power. If his sons are dead and succession no longer a concern, I hold the belief that Eligos can be convinced to turn on Nyarlathotep," he explains, slow and careful. "He is the King of Betrayal, after all. If he's looking to empower himself after such a major blow, and has no more cause to keep court over the island, he could be our ticket do expelling the Elder God. Under no circumstances do I believe Aster would be willing to do such a thing, as taking that which is not his and exploiting it is the core of his nature."

"Killing all the demon royals does little good. The demons can replace them. Unless you all are suggesting we simply exterminate all demons, which sounds both... impossible and somehow unethical." He can't help but look uncomfortable at the idea. Demon or no, that definitely counts as genocide. "Our main goals are removing the extraplanar intrusion and freeing the island. I believe making use of Eligos' nature lends itself to this."

[redlightgreenlight]

Perhaps she had, but at the mention of genocide she shakes her head.

"No, even in my hatred of the demons, they are necessary for this world to maintain balance. The issue is that the balance here has been thrown off by their alliance with a dark god, who is clearly not bound by the same rules as our Goddesses. I agree that Aster is a poor option, but I disagree that we should focus first on the demons. I don't think either Nylarthotep or the remaining princes will make it easy and I still don't think we can only act defensively."

[itsjustabaddream]

"That is fair! I will admit I don't have a head for combat, so if there are options for acting offensively, I am happy to hear them. I was thinking in terms of political strategy, but that's what I have all of you for," Neil says, perhaps a bit too chipper to compensate for the spike of stress from before.

[liesdontfindyou]

Almost more thinking aloud, "It does keep feeling like Aster has the most to gain from this whole... arrangement, or at the very least he thinks he does. The fact a cultist of his founded this place and his daughter has been in a position to instil fear up until now..."

CT shakes her head. Yes, Aster definitely seems like a poor option for breaking whatever truce keeps this place the way it is.

"Maybe we can't afford to wait on Eligos turning on Nyarlathotep, but that doesn't make it less worth it to keep the option in mind while we try to find alternate, more offence-focused ideas and methods. Of which it seems we currently don't have many to go around."

[restingslasherface]

"There's one, but it is...reckless. The realms infernal can be reached; the Princes can be attacked there. At the heart of their power, with unlimited reinforcements, no certitude that they will stay to fight, and at risk of our own permanent deaths."

But it's an option.

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis nods at CT. They can only fight the demons if they appear, and if the demons are ready to appear, then they have already enacted their plans. That fact makes it very hard to go on the offensive. Her gaze flits to Jean, recalling parts of their conversation several days before.

"Minor demonic reinforcements will be of little issue with the right allies and weapons."

For her, perhaps for some others, though mass use of the Void came with its own risks, a devouring dark force unleashed on demons was one thing, having allies in the mix made it more dangerous. But it's not like she could go alone against the princes, that would be disastrous, she'd fail. Just like she did at the gala.

"But we don't need to go that far yet, for now we need weapons that are effective and we only have a few of those."

Jean's sword, Revelations and the two daggers, but of the four only Jean's sword has been proven.

[itsjustabaddream]

"I personally am not a fan of giving the demons the home court advantage, and certainly not surrounding ourselves with them in a place where death is permanent. I see storming the infernal palace as nothing short of a suicide mission, and I'll not endorse risking it if there are alternatives," Neil insists firmly. His brow is furrowed with worry.

"If that is indeed the only way, then we will sort it out, but you must understand that the infernal realm is a world in and of itself filled with literally billions of hostile combatants of varying levels of power, in their own place of power. And again, eliminating the entirety of the infernal royal family will prove inconsequential. They will replace the current dynasty with a new one. I personally feel that making a point of killing the entire current royal family serves more to avenge ourselves than it does any true strategic value. Certainly, if the opportunity arises to take out Eligos at the end of all this, do be my guest, but it will serve no purpose towards saving the world from demons altogether or ceasing the cycle of succession. And the strategic value of it will vary wildly on which minor demon inherits the throne if we do that prior to bringing the barrier down."

[ss_buttcrack]

While the conversation moves on, Crichton leans closer to Cassandra to answer her unspoken question with a soft, "Tell you who, later." She's not going to like the answer any better than he does; he's sure of that.

[not_the_last]

"Later is fine," she murmurs back.

(She doesn't know it yet, but no, she certainly will not.)