2020-02-03 - Murray House Strategy Meeting

As has become his custom, the thug goes to the back of the room, where he can lean against a wall and support the structure. He'll pull his smartphone from the inside of his leather jacket, and otherwise busy himself until the meeting gets underway. Then, at least the modicum of attention.

Joining the meeting, notebook in hand, Devlin quietly greets people and gets himself a cup of coffee. Once dark brew in hand, Devlin takes a seat to wait for things to begin.

August and Finch arrive together in a work truck, since they've just finished an emergency removal of a tree that came down in the middle of a road. How thoughtful of it to get so laden with snow and ice that its shallow root system couldn't hold it up anymore. Well, that's how it goes around here.

As a result August is still in work clothes: heavy work boots, denim jeans that're marked and scarred, an old OSU sweatshirt that's got holes in it, revealing some sort of t-shirt underneath it, a snow jacket over that, and there's a scratch on his cheek. He nods a hello to Minerva, sits heavily, wincing. His back is being really annoying today.

Finch trails in behind August, bundled up in a replacement parka after something destroyed hers on the other side of the Veil. It's black, with a faux-fur lining around the hood. Looks like she's still in her coveralls under that, and work boots. She tugs the hood down and shakes out her dark hair, wiping her feet on the doormat before moving in further. She's finally recovered from a few close calls with agents of Them, so she looks unmarred for once. Her other half, the Spanish Peacock himself, is nowhere to be seen. He is still recovering from some things, so she and August volunteered to come to the meeting and get the info.

Dark eyes sweep the place and land on the coffee. "Want some, boss?" she asks Roen, heading over to get herself something hot to drink.

Minerva gives a dip of her raven haired head to everyone as they come in and sit down. Her overly long hair is down and left to it's own devices today. She sits down at the end of the table and moves a few things around on the laptops screen as she pulls up things. Why yes, she was listening to Queen's 'A Kind of Magic' album. Don't judge her!

"So we've got some good news about the Murray House. This is the only time I've been able to say this really." the woman states with a red lipped smile. "I found a way that we can manage to burn it down." she states as she brings a picture of the interior of the house up. "We just have to be really careful doing this. I'm sure everyone that's been in the place and had experiences with...you know who...realizes this." she states as she looks to them.

A shake of his head on Devlin's part showing he doesn't know as he is rather late to this situation. But he is attentive to what is going on. After all, one has to start some where.

Without opening his eyes, August says to Finch, "I would love some. A raise might be involved." He shifts, makes a face. "If I actually believed a marmot predicted the end of winter I'd be making a point to hit my bag limit every goddamned day from here to the end of small game season."

He sits up, though, raising his eyebrows when Minerva mentions good news--and hey, it is good. "That's great to hear, because the bastard made himself fireproof." Does August sound bitter about that? Oh, a tad.

Slipping into the room in time to hear the good news, Easton quietly grabs a cup of black coffee and takes up a seat on the other side of August. He's dressed in a light down jacket over a sweatshirt, a pair of dark jeans and some motorcycle boots. His face is neutral but there's a spark in his eyes, obviously eager to hear more about how they can burninate that place to the ground. He glances at August and quirks an eyebrow, he hasn't been involved in every step with the house. "Well that's fuckin' inconvenient."

Aidan leans in the door, looking the place over. "Hey, is this-- this is the meeting thing, right?" he asks, while deciding it probably is, rather than people randomly deciding to hang out with cocoa and pastries, and if it isn't, well, cocoa and pastries! He looks entirely healthy, on his way over to check out the pastry bounty, and greets those present with a grin and wave, whether he knows them or not. Mostly not, though wasn't that chick in the cooking class, and that dude -- August gets a closer look -- was fighting flu, wasn't he? Minerva's wounds get a briefly concerned glance, but... well, he doesn't really know her.

He's wearing jeans, a white t-shirt that asks 'WWJD' in big letters and 'For a Klondike Bar?' in smaller ones beneath it, a loud red hawaiian shirt, white fleece hoodie with a bear head for a hood, and an old biker jacket, and drops into a chair, drink and snack procured, lighting right up (figuratively) when Minerva mentions the general intention for the place. She has his attention!

Finch snorts at Roen. "A raise? Ok you're up another notch on the 'best dad' scoreboard." She gets herself and August coffees and brings them back to the man, settling into a chair beside him, grinning at Easton. "Hey Easy.". She hands one cup over to her boss and sips at the other, listening to Minerva curiously. "Wasn't that thing...adapting to the methods we used against him before?" she asks, brows raised. She and Itzhak did a number on the bad guy with fire and telekinesis, but the fire seemed ineffective the next time he was confronted.

August murmurs a thanks to Finch into his coffee cup. "Rude as fuck," he asides to Easton between sips. "But I bet it doesn't extend to the house. So..." He waits for Minerva to go on, tilts his head at Aidan, like he's trying to remember him, nods a greeting regardless.

Listening, Devlin finally speaks up to make a few inquiries, "So from the sound of things.. fire good for the end game but not for dealing with this person you are speaking of. And this person is not normal in the slightest.." He hmms, "Can you screw up his senses.. you know, like a smoke screen? Hard to hit what you can't detect. If the house is the objective here.. rendering him unable to function is just as good as putting a serious hurt on him, yes?"

"Oh he did?" Minerva looks to August and there's a bit of a frown, "I don't know why I'm surprised by this." she shakes her head. Then she stands up to show the slide of the interior. "Hey Aidan and Easton." she smiles to them as they join the meeting. "Skeletor, as he has so lovingly been monikered is actually named Abraham Mills. Apparently this man was something of a serial killer in his real life and he got stuck on the other side." she frowns at this. "The Murray House is like an anchor to him. So I'm guessing if we destroy the place that he will most likely go with it, or go back into the Veil." she tells them. "And no, Devlin, he is not normal and I wouldn't really call him 'human' anymore either given things." she admits. "With the house being gone he won't have the leverage that he needs to cross over or to get victims." she explains.

"Finchy." Easton raises his cup slightly and greets her quietly, not wanting to interrupt the news of how they get to burn this place to the ground. He also looks over his shoulder and upnods at Aidan with a smile. He looks a little better than last time. Not quite as worn down and thread-bare as he was starting to look.

"Doctor" Easton returns Minerva's greeting with a small smile and nod. The realization that he owes her a follow up discussion on ghosts pulls at him, but it's not the time for that now.

Easton looks over to Devlin and nods at him, "Skeletor's a thing. Not a person. Just so we're clear, we ain't talking about murder." He adds after a second thought, "Per say." Look does it count as murder when you end the existence of a monster? Of course Minerva has more actual details than the vagueness that he provides, some of which is even news to him.

"I'm all for burning the place to the ground if that'll do the job," Finch agrees. "He's gotta be stopped before any more kids get hurt." She looks to August with a concerned expression. "I'm guessing because of him being clever for an old dead guy, we're gonna have to go a different route than just fireballing the place from a distance?"

"So what do we need to do to make it burn, if you found a special way?" Aidan asks, "I mean, aside from being careful about it?" Easton gets a particularly bright grin and an upnod in return, and most of a danish lifted in something like a quick toast to him before it gets bitten again.

Whose the stranger walking down the stairs and in from the back to the shop. Mildly curly hair, prominent nose, exceptional adam's apple with a somewhat out of towner look to him. The gray graphic t-shirt and matching black jeans certainly lends to an air of mystery or at the very least an austere look. Easy footfalls announce his arrival before anything else really but he does speak "Irvriya who are your guests? Doesn't look like the normal seance crowd."

"Yes, the main concern is him not getting more children once the weather starts getting warmer. He's less powerful in the Winter from what I can tell. I might have been doing some recon of my own, but it's helped." Minerva smiles, that one eye of hers bright. "And honestly we don't need any children spooning their eye out after getting stuck in that place." she admits as she turns to the screen again.

"As for fire. I think a mix of special fire, or the fire produced via aspect is going to be the starter. I think having an eccelerant that will help light the rest of the rooms would be the best route." she tells them. "Now, there are two rooms that will need to be...nulled, I can do that. But I'm guessing as soon as he figures out we're going to destroy the house and can do it that he'll go full out murderous rage, so, we need to be ready for that..." she trails off as Elazar comes in. "Hi...this isn't a seance." she tells the tall man. "You can introduce yourself if you like." she smiles to him. Yes, she was just talking about arson. Ignore that!

"It's an interesting question, though, if someone with the," August taps his forehead, "mind Art could do that. Confuse him, distract him, while we do what needs doing." He has another sip of coffee. "I guess another option is just drop some trees on it. And him." He glances at Finch, then Aidan. "Hard to be in a murderous rage when a few tons of spruce is pinning you down."

He stills when Elazar comes in, but Minerva's calm settles August in turn. Well, she wouldn't let someone be in here if they didn't know what was what.

Finch glances over at the new arrival, definitely a stranger. She sips her coffee and nods in agreement with August. "Someone with that mind thing could maybe make some kind of illusions to hide what we're really doing. Like Iggy did with the kittens and the raptors."

Devlin makes a few notes.. "Window's pretty big for this place? May be.. we can toss in some dry tinder to the place. Also.. if this guy is weak in winter.. assuming it is the cold that is effecting him...may be some Cee Oh two would slow him down more."

"Null the rooms?" Easton repeats the phrase out loud, though not aimed at anyone in particular. "Honestly I was just planning to shoot the fuck out of him. I mean I guess if that doesn't work, I could drop a tree on him. Or something. But uhm sign me up for team let's fuck-up Skeletor so that some other people can take care of the burning?" He glances over his shoulder at Aidan, not wanting to volunteer him for the burning but well, it does sound like it's up his alley.

"I like that." He says to Devlin, "If he's weak in the winter, it might be the cold. Maybe blow all the windows and doors too? Or pull him outside the house somehow?"

"I dunno, I think I'd be pretty pissed if someone dropped a few tons of spruce on me and I was still, y'know, not-dead enough to manage it. But it'd definitely slow me down a bunch," Aidan says toward August, "Seems kinda hard on the trees, though? But it does seem like it'd be distracting and hard to, y'know, wriggle out of. And Wouldn't get in the way of burning sh--tuff. Also if we're gonna use accelerants maybe we should think about how to get 'em in there and spread around fast so he has less time to get mad. Like. Gas water balloons? Or something that'd explode and spray it around better, that we could just like... throw in. Or someone could," he makes a sort of woo-woo telekinesis floating things along gesture that might work better without danish in his hand, but would work worse if he tried to do it with the cocoa, "...them into the right spots?" A flicker of a glance to Easton there, in turn. And yeah, he's maybe a tiny bit more enthused about the burning part than one might consider ideal in other circumstances. But it's good for this one, right?

"Elazar Malkin, Irvriya's fiance." Elazar introduces himself in a pretty there you go kind of way the talk of arson not seeming to alarm him in the slightest. Instead he goes over to get himself a cup of coffee. "Seances generally have less arson discussion," he remarks to Minerva and then the room at large, "So children, haunted house, and a murderous raging guy. Sounds like something to get done before Spring."

"We can fix the trees after," Finch says with a faint grin. She is wee, but a mighty druid. She has tree friends. When the man introduces himself, she gives him a nod. "Oh, hey congrats, Doc. Didn't know you were getting hitched."

"I like the idea of dropping a bunch of trees on him." Minerva states to August with a smile. "And definitely, Finch. If people can use whatever they have to distract him once he's appeared it will help tremendously." she nods to that. Then there's a look to Easton, "I've found that I can ward rooms again veil or glimmer intrusions. Guess power levels help in things." she tells him. "But, I have to be inside and be in line of sight for this to happen, unless something changes with powers again, then I'll need to see how that goes." she chuckles. "Shooting him is still an option, I'm not sure he's gained an immunity to lead since I last saw him." she admits. Then she looks to Devlin, "That's a good idea." she writes that down, then there's a look to Devlin, "The balloons might be good. As long as there's no child eating clowns attached to them." she muses.

When Elazar speaks up there's a bit of a smile, "Generally, yes." she murmurs to him. "And we're going to try to get it down before Spring settles in, yes. Probably around the Equinox." she tells him and the room. There's a smile to Finch, "Yeah, it is a recent development, thank you though." she tells her.

August raises an eyebrow at Elazar, nods when Finch gives congratulations. "Mazel tov," he says, and has some coffee. "So, in that case, we need you, and a couple more people like you, or almost that strong." He nods at Aidan, hooks a thumb at Finch. "The three of us can make people stronger. More...skilled, let's call it. So if you know how to do this, you can maybe show someone who's not quite strong enough, and we can get them there the rest of the way. Then it's not just you having to do it." He means, of course, 'in case the shit hits the fan', but he's not going to say it.

Devlin smiles, "Congrats to you both.. " He then ohs.. "Dry Wood chips.. bags of them.. heave them into the house to use for tinder.. may be doing something to make them burst open.. fire will love that." He rubs his chin.. "Wait.. not Cee oh two... use propane.. it's cold and burns.."

"Wait is this related to the reason everyone was saying your apartment exploded?" Elazar asks aftter finishing making his black coffee with croissant snack and joining the table on the far side. It seems like someone isn't fully read in afterall. He does echo some thank you's to the congratulations as an after thought.

"If we need people inside then we need to be a bit more careful about the method and timing of how we light that shit up. I'd recommend a forward team that sets the accelerants, provides cover for who-ever is nullifying the room and then incapacitates Skeletor. I'm not saying it can't be the same as the fire team." The term here used not at all for what it means in the Marines, but still apt and easily understood. "They should probably remain outside, in case things go south. Do we know if Skeletor can flee the house? Or is he more likely to go back through the veil if we flush him or he tries to book it?"

"We might not be able to get a lot of people there, but we'll work with what we've got and people can help even if they don't have powers." Minerva states. "I'm suspecting that he'll go for anyone that is in the house, so I'd like to keep that to a minimum of me and maybe one or two others. I don't want to give him a lot of targets, but, I'm not scared of him given childhood." she admits.

Minerva then looks to Elazar and she huffs, "No...this is a different incident." she tells him. "I can fill you in entirely later if you like?" she asks him. Then there's a look to Easton and a nod, "Yes, I'd like to not be blown to hell if at all possible. I'm guessing he will flee to the veil and if he does, well, we can't do much about that." she admits. "His anchor for the world is the House, so once that's taken care of his foothold will be gone." she states.

Devlin nods, "I'll make sure to be ready for burns also. Just incase." Again with notes, good guess the medic thinking about what he'll need and can.. err.. obtain supply wise. "So how are we for coms.. just incase Skellator can hack.." and he taps his head.

"That's awful risky," August says, eyeing Minerva, "it just being you and a couple of others. If he brings in backup or yanks you Over you could easily get swamped." He doesn't, however, specify a better number, just lets that sit. He looks askance at Devlin, winces. "Not sure it'll matter either way--he can probably jam or break anything else we bring."

Finch settles into a state of quiet, pondering all the strategies laid out. She listens to August and grunts something like agreement at the risk. But she's never been shy about risk.

"Risk is a thing we're going to have to deal with. I feel like we can do this with no casualties, if I thought it was going to kill one of us I'd try to do it myself out of sheer stubborness." Minerva admits to that. "But, with all of us, I'm hoping the risk drops." she adds. "I don't have a communication system for this, what would you suggest, Devlin?" she asks him with a smile.

Devlin hmms, "Not like any of us are or know Bruce Wayne.. so looking at the idea of KISS, say commercial small radios, you even can have encryption with them. And use some sort of ear piece with throat mike.. "

Elazar kind of watches Minerva over the rim of his coffee cup when she mentions the do it herself thing and then begins snacking on the croissant. There seems to be a lot of listening going on and trying to catch names without outright asking.

Minerva gives a look to Devlin, "I mean, money's not really an issue if that's the part of that." she tells him. "So I'll look into getting some of those for us." she nods to that. "If at the end of things, people feel like it's too dangerous, I absolutely understand taking a pass on this." she tells the room. There's a look to Elazar, but she doesn't look to him for long given his look. "I'll make a formalized plan and we'll go from there." she smiles to that.

Minerva probably doesn't catch the movement that's on the screen behind her, but everyone that's seeing the photo that's up on the screen behind her catches the obvious sight of a skeletal figure waving from behind the door of the interior of the Murray House, and then the front door slams shut causing a gust of wind to rip through the room, sending papers scattering.

Minerva's shoulders slump for a moment and she sighs, "Well, that will bring us to a close." she mutters as she rips the projector cord out of her laptop. She doesn't look behind her. Nope.

But there's no more photos. Everything just goes back to normal.

"Uhhhhhhhh....." Finch says for a long moment. "I think we may need a different plan, because Skeletor totally just eavesdropped on that one. He totally just waved at us like fucking Pennywise from your slideshow."

August slowly sits up when he sees that movement behind Minerva, but when all that happens is papers go flying, he relaxes rather than set the TV on fire. "That fucking prick," he mutters under his breath. He glances at Finch, shrugs. "Not sure it matters if he knows. When we show up, he'll know we're there to kick his ass, and no doubt he'll pull out all the stops to beat us down." He finishes off his coffee, crumples the cup. "One way or another, we're getting him the hell out of there."

"Doc.. you go, I go." Devlin says plain and simple.. his expression takes on a bit of a WTF seeing the image change. "Ok.. that's rather fucked up and cool all at the same time." He pauses, "He knows we are coming. And we mostly spitballed with ideas.. no final plans yet. So.. fuck the asshole." Devlin is just totally calm, then again.. 4 tours with the Airborne.. go figure

\Having been positively statuesque for the whole meeting, mostly, Everett regards the moving still with wild concern, his green eyes opening large just before the picture if cut off. The same eyes that dart around to see the backs of heads to see whom else saw what he just ... maybe saw.

Aidan has just finished his pastry and is taking a drink of the cocoa when they get the extra cameo in that slide show and the door slams shut, and he does manage not to spit-take or anything, though he coughs a little as the swallow tries to go down the wrong way. "Uh, holy shitballs," he murmurs, taking a quick glance around as if to make sure he's not the only one who saw that. He relaxes faintly when other people seem to also have noticed that; apparently the potential of it just being him is worse than... the thing they want to kill eavesdropping on them through the A/V setup? "Okay, so... do we make a firmer plan now with no pictures around or what?"

Minerva's pale, but it might just be the lighting, "I think we'll all be fine. He might just be putting up a show to try to scare us." she states. And apparently he does a good job! "I should have warded the room before we started, hopefully he didn't catch most of it, but like August said, he's getting evicted before the end of March. So we'll get a solid plan set, then go at it from there. Once we get there it'll go far quicker, so we just need to be ready for anything." she admits.

Finch gets up and drains her coffee cup. "Right. We'll scope out the trees and such near the house, if we need to get some of them moving to help fight him." She tips her chin towards August to include him in that. "Anything else you need from us tonight?" Roen looks beat and she worried about him when he's like that.

Finishing his visual tour of the back of scalps, Everett raises the hand holding his smartphone, but posies his question before he's called on by teach, just waiting for a lull. "If you can ward the place against him, it... whatever. Can he, it... whatever ward it against us?" Question asked, the thug puts his paw down.

Devlin says, "I'll hit up some lumber yards for saw dust and wood chips. I have drill coming up, and will be up in Tacoma. The rubicon has plenty of room.. and if I have to, there is always U-haul for a trailer."

"No, nothing else at the moment. Just get some rest." Minerva tells Finch. "And thank you for coming tonight." she adds. Then there's a look to Everett, "No, he's not warded anyone out before. His methods are direct force and dropping in when you least expect it." she admits. "Thank you, Devlin. That's all appreciated." she states. "I think that's enough for tonight though. Thank you all for coming out and if he drops in and visits anyone, please let me know." she tells the group.

August gets up, wincing. It's going to be another long hot bath night. He nods at Devlin. "And we can hold onto some from any jobs we get--we'll need to get them drying out, but that shouldn't be too hard." He glances at Easton, grins. "Then Easton can lob it all into the building." He claps Easton on the shoulder in a farewell, moves to go with Finch. "Thanks Minerva. Let us know when you want to do it, and we'll be there."

"Damn straight. But I'm still planning on being in there armed to the teeth with Dr. K when she goes in." Easton agrees that he's game for the plan and accepts the slap on the shoulder. He stands and nods at Devlin who also expressed the desire to go in, and is obviously military from the speak and the talk of drill. He doesn't stick around though. He makes the rounds giving polite but terse goodbyes before heading outside for a cigarette and making his way to Alexander's to check in on Bennie.

"Thanks," Aidan agrees, "If there's anything you need me to do, lemme know? I mean, ahead of the thing, though, probably also someone should let me know about whe we're doing that or I probably won't be there." And that would be a shame. "Oh, and also congratulations!" he adds brightly, with a smile for Minerva and Elazar as he stands and prepares to join the exodus.