Chapter 2.1: Team Forming

Morning at Bright Books. Alric and Inara have both arrived to collect the research Sawyer put together for them.

Sawyer's lingering in one of the comfortable chairs near the front of the store, nursing a coffee while keeping an eye out for his expected guests. He'll brighten when Alric arrives, waving him over.

He'll hand Alric the leatherbound copy of the Artificing book along with a bookplate with his name on it in neatly sweeping caligraphy. "If it clicks, I thought you might want something extra to mark it as yours."

The teacup shoggoth research is finished, the hand-written pages saddle-stitched into a handy booklet, with a sub-header on the title that denotes it as having additional information geared towards Seers.

"I had Susan take a look and help add notes for you last night, so the comments in blue are hers," he grins.

"Oh wow, thank you so much!" He starts going through the Artificing book, jumping between pages and paragraphs, closing it just to open it again immediately after. This book feels really special - he's as excited as a kid at Christmas, and it shows.

After a few minutes he finally gets himself to put the tome down (safely stored in his backpack) and to start going through the shoggoth research. "This is great. This is a lot of info. Thank you, again. I have to meet Susan one day."

"It's translated from a book written by descendants of M̷̧̃ȟ̵̟'̷͔̌i̴̤̍t̴̥̎h̴̰͝r̵͌ha, who are frequent hunters of shoggoth and other associated entities, so the information is solid, too. It's one of my favorite reference books because of that," he chuckles, clearly happy to see Alric's excitement. "Definitely. She's been keeping busy, but we'll try to make time for an introduction sometime soon."

My fingers twitch with the urge to rip the book from Alric's grubby clutches. I still them with an effort. Delightful though it would be to see the look on his face, I have more pressing concerns — secret emails, disparate puzzle pieces, a hangman's noose waiting to close around my neck. I need Alric to trust me. To let his guard down.

So, instead of confident superiority, I paint a smile of friendly camaraderie on my face. My posture eases into genuine interest — a soft smile, eyebrows slightly arched, head tilted. It's a performance perfected through a nostalgic hour before the mirror this morning.

"Find anything interesting?" I ask him. "Even if it's not obviously tactical, it might still be useful."

"Mhm?" He turns his head. "Oh, you." His voice is indifferent, objective. "I'll have to spend some actual time to properly wrap my head around these, you know, eldritch horrors from another dimension."

He's by now paged through the whole book. With the sense that he needs to spend some serious time on this, Alric joins Sawyer at the chairs and starts reading.

Sawyer's expression shutters to concealed dislike, suspiciously eyeing Inara's friendly expression like she's a bomb set to go off, even as he withdraws two more saddle-stitched booklets from a pocket in his long cardigan. "This copy is yours. I've noted down a few common rotes you should be cautious about using if you enter the hive, along with some other notes that should be tuned to your... classical education," he deadpans.

"I've also made a third reference copy with some notes for firearms specialists, since I hope the Commission will have at least a few people who know their way around a gun."

"Thank you," I say, beaming at him as I take the booklets. "I'll be sure to pass the third one along. I believe there's a firearms workshop sometime later this week, so that should come in handy."

The lies come easier as the role settles around me. I join Alric on the chair and start reading.

Learn about shoggoths: [1, 3] Result: Failure ❌

Learn about shoggoths: [4, 6 💥 3 = 9]+4 Result: Success with 2 raises! 🎯🎯🎯

The translation booklet contains the following information:

• Some shoggoth cities are bigger on the inside than the outside. On the outside, they look like bloated shoggoths. This is likely the subtype you are dealing with, seen as there isn't a giant flesh cathedral overflowing the lot.
• Shoggoth nests are spilt into two main categories of room
• "Master quarters" are grand and decorative, and compose the majority of the city. The rooms are built at giant scales, with extra space brought in by "chandeliers"
• Destroying the chandelier will destroy the expanded space. Diagrams for what it looks like are included
• "Servant quarters" are the access tunnels and chambers the shoggoths themselves use
• There are some vital organs in the servant quarters. Destroying the hearts and lungs is one way to kill the room. Diagrams for what they look like are included.
• Shoggoths communicate through chemical signals
• Shoggoths can contort themselves and squeeze through any size gap
• Teacup shoggoths aren't intelligent but can use tools and will try new approaches eventually if a problem is sticky

There's also a bunch of stuff about angles and how to form and fortify corners? It looks like the source material contained a lot of angle idioms that were difficult to translate out.

Alric gets a bunch of notes about the translation. In the original, the diagrams were just listed as a series of coordinates, Sawyer has translated these to drawings. Some of the smaller diagrams still are accompanied by a boatload of complex math. ("I can teach you how to see the math later, but don't worry about it right now")

Inara's book has none of this math context.

Ending note from Sawyer: take clothes and cleaning supplies in a water proof bag for after. Don't take anything with you that you don't want soaked with gore. Don't eat before you go if you have a weak stomach.

Half an hour in, Alric pipes up. "This is fascinating. So, there's two things that stand out: We don't know how many there are or how big the hive is. But we can disassemble the whole hive by 'just' destroying a few components for every room. However, there might be a boundless amount of shoggoths in there, so I'd rather avoid going in there all-together."

"I'd like to capture a few live specimens and study them. Either to learn a way to poison them and root them out like any infestation, or to hack their communication and have that disabled, so the hive dies on its own." And to learn their time lord technology, while we're at it.

He looks at Sawyer.

"This is the part where you tell me that capturing live specimen is a horrible idea."

"Capturing a live specimen is how people find you being used as the new fuel for a fresh hive," Sawyer says, glancing up from his own book, trying not to smile at the accuracy of Alric's comment. "Unless you have a lot of practice handling things like shoggoths, like I do, it's better to be careful and avoid taking live specimens. The best way to check a live specimen under safe conditions would be to summon one yourself, and with your experience level I would really caution against that. It's not good practice to torture things you summon, it leaves marks."

"There are good poisons for them, but the more common ones are at least as deadly to handle for you as they would be to the shoggoths and I'd rather you not melt your lungs from the inside out - or kill anyone you can still save that they might have managed to get their tentacles on. Second, the ones I know about that have been proven reliable aren't native to our dimension and are a pain in the ass to source. Third.... I can't use poisoned shoggoth, so I'm biased."

"Oh yeah, no, the idea would've been to get you your shoggoths first, then poison the hive."

"So, if they can get through any gaps, how do we get into the hive? For all we know, the gate or portal or whatever into there is the size of a coin. Would certainly be more energy efficient than a portal that's conveniently the size of humans." He thinks for a second. "Mhm, they have to get their prey in there, so it might have some size to it. But how do we find it? Burn the vegetation to the ground? That'd draw attention."

"Their prey can't squeeze through, there's going to be a door you can get through somewhere, but it might not be big enough to go in safely without finding a way to enlarge it." Sawyer considers, then grins slowly at Alric. "Talk to your boss. Phoenix knows how to summon in a specialist who can help with your door problems."

I expected a dense mathematical treatise, but the booklet is easier to read than most wizardry tomes, each idea flowing from the previous one naturally. Even his handwriting is neat and easy to read. It's a shame Sawyer doesn't have the Gift. He would have made a fantastic tutor at Arcanum.

Alric and Sawyer talk. I listen while pretending to be engrossed by the book, waiting for a lull in the conversation before speaking up. "Going room by room will ensure we don't miss any." I offer him a confident smile, careful to avoid any hint of condescension. Friendly confidence. That's a thing, right? "Between the six of us, we've got a lot of firepower. We should be able to handle the shoggoths room by room, especially if they're as stupid as the ones we met on the surface."

If she can simulate a likeable human being that well, why didn't she before? Is she stupid?

"Let's see if we can find a solution that doesn't involve going in there. You know, for efficiency's sake." He goes back a few pages. "Are the words 'heart' and 'lung' metaphorical in some way? Or do shoggoths work by combustion, as does any normal life form? Maybe we could just fill their hive with carbon monoxide."

I don't want 'efficient', I want the pleasure of burning each and every shoggoth alive. Of smelling their skin as it fries, of hearing their screams as they die, of watching them blacken and curl up like dead spiders.

I don't say that, of course. "Sure. Efficiency is good."

"They're very literal. Each room in the Hive is a living shoggoth, no longer able to consume, but still a living, breathing creature," Sawyer offers. "Uh. Without a xenobiology lesson? If there are any living people inside, they will die before the shoggoth do. The most efficient way, in my experience, is unfortunately the messy one."

Thank you, Sawyer. Perfect excuse. "There are people still alive down there? Then we have to rescue them, of course."

"The expanded spaces within are the product of living, dreaming minds. Whether the bodies those minds are connected to will be in any shape for rescue is a different question."

He'll lean over to tap Inara's book, waiting a moment to make sure she won't snap before turning to the page detailing the chandeliers. "If their minds are fully integrated into the chandeliers, I don't know if modern magic or medicine would do much to help them, but it might be possible if you can.. I've got a lot of experience trying to fix or work around magically sourced injuries that can't be reversed by curse-breaking or any of the other standardly practiced methods, but minds are... very difficult to fix once something in there breaks. It's like how you have to watch your Spark to make sure you don't burn yourself out - if a mind dreams too distantly from the self, reconnecting them may not be possible."

He sits back, twisting one of the rings on his hands. "...the people or animals taken inside aren't going to be in good shape if they've been there long, but if you want to try and save as many people as possible, if anyone can be saved... going in is the best choice."

"We have to try." It's nice to be on more familiar ground. I'm not the kind of person who would write people off for dead, even if their minds are shattered wrecks — it wouldn't be heroic — and the words come with the ease of a lifetime of practice. "Should we bring the victims back here? Or just take them to the hospital?"

"So, uhm... I can't see anything in here that tells me that anyone in there isn't immediately eaten. Why would you assume that any of their victims are still alive?"

"Speaking of going in - how many co-workers have you two contacted so far?"

He hesitates. "...where you take them should depend on how badly they're hurt. Ask your boss where they should go - I guarantee she'll have strong opinions - and let her know that I'm willing to see what I can do if the Commission doesn't have contacts and you can't dig up a solution."

He spreads his hands, then gestures to his temple. "I can help stabilize minds, but I'm way more efficient if I'm there at the onset of the damage or it's in the early stages - prevention is way easier than dealing with a progressive case. You might be able to contact someone or something that's better suited to actually fixing the problem." He huffs a short laugh. "...and if you do, I'd love their number."

Sawyer's smile goes just a little brittle as he looks at Alric. "Prior experience."

"We haven't contacted anyone yet." He keeps flipping through pages, thinking.

"Phoenix approved the mission and said she would provide additional firepower, though," I say. "So we should be able to count on having the rest of the team plus her." The snide comment about Alric not counting practically writes itself, but I resist the urge to voice it. "That's six people. Plenty to deal with the shoggoths — they aren't really that dangerous."

"They're eldritch horrors of which I've been informed make people mad just by being looked at."

I take a moment to shift my posture to portray mild skepticism rather than condescension. Being nice is so tedious. "It's not looking that makes people mad, it's being subsumed into the flesh hive and having your brain used as a ritual ingredient. Remember, we already fought some of the shoggoths, and nobody experienced any ill effects from that."

"That's six people, with you telling me that you only have three confirmed, since you only talked to Phoenix?" Sawyer arches a brow. "You should make sure your team's available so you don't have to rearrage your plans at the last minute."

He looks at Alric. "You in particular have a higher risk as a Seer, because if you study things too long you might start Seeing things you shouldn't. Wizards aren't at as high a risk because they don't have the equivalent of Detect Magic running twenty-four-sev."

He looks at Inara. "If you ignore my note on avoiding using that spell while inside the Hive, by the way, whatever it does to your head is on you, not me."

As if my mind isn't strong enough to withstand merely looking at something. "Thanks for the warning. Am I understanding it correctly that as long as Alric doesn't actually study the shoggoths he'll be fine? Or will he get hurt just from looking at them in the course of fighting them?"

Probably the latter. Can't expect too much from an untrained Giftless.

Alric's eyes flit between Sawyer and Inara. They don't actually expect me to go in there, do they?

"It depends on how he's looking. My wife, for example, shouldn't go in at all, because she relies on her skills as a Seer to compensate for being blind," Sawyer says, voice casual. "She's added notes to his copy of the documentation on things to look out for, and methods for recentering."

Alric has seen the notes in neat blue script telling him that if he starts seeing veins overlaying his vision, for example, he needs to redirect to something like his own hands, or an object that's solidly nonmagical.

There are other things mentioned that the writer says work better, but also notes that if you're not guaranteed to be anywhere safe you really don't want to shut your eyes for several minutes.

"Don't worry, Alric," I say without a trace of irony. "If you need to close your eyes for a few minutes, I'll protect you."

How sweet, Vesper says. I think we both know you'd rather leave him for the shoggoths though.

Don't tempt me. I still have to deal with his dead man's switch. You made quite a mess of things, you know.

"I'm starting to get the impression that we've already decided that going in is the best way of handling this, even though we've only had like half an hour to review the information on shoggoths. Could we at least consider alternatives? Maybe sending a drone in, or a cable camera? You know, like a shoggoth colonoscopy? Or use sonar? See if there's actually any survivors? Maybe lure or flush the shoggoths out and have them run into a flamethrower? Mines? Give me a few hours in a hardware store and I can cook something up but going in? As your first and only idea?" It's obvious on Alric's face that he's, once again, doubting the sanity of everyone else present.

Lure them out? Send in drones? Ugh. So boring. "Going in is the best way to help the innocents stuck in the hive," I say. "We'll gear up appropriately beforehand, of course — I'm sure the Dawn Commission will fund whatever tools and weapons you need."

"Ah, yeah. Weapons. My thing. I'm so good with weapons. Especially against enemies I can't look at."

"You've made some pretty impressive improvised weapons before. Imagine what you could make if you had some time to prepare. And you can attend Astraeus Knox's class," I say. "He'll teach you how to use a gun."

"How about I stay outside and Astraeus goes in, if he's so confident in his guns?"

"Astraeus isn't part of the monster hunting team," I say. "You are. It'll be fine, trust me. I'll have your back, and so will the rest of the team."

He grumbles to himself, unintelligible to the others, then becomes intelligible again. "Okay. Fine. But I need some prep time and a strong fucking budget." What did I get myself into?

"Of course. Once we're done here, we can go talk to Phoenix and get her approval."

Ask him what he's going to build, Vesper says.

Why?

I'm curious.

Ugh. "Just out of curiosity, what weapons are you planning to make?"

More grumbling, then he turns to Sawyer. "How hard are portals to make? I have an idea or two that would only work with a mobile portal."

"You can try to use drones or something similar to get a visual," Sawyer says after a moment. "It might work, it might not. These kinds of spatial disruptions and displacements can make normally reliable connections to electronics less than reliable... and it's possible that some of what a living eye would see inside may not he visible to a non-living piece of tech. Observer effect is... actually a thing. It might work. You won't know unless you try."

He blinks. "You can look at them, just be careful that you're not trying to Seer at them - trying to see how they tick can carry memetic mental hazards."

Sawyer breathes a hiss of air in through his teeth. "...portal in what way? Like a door from one place to another? Incredibly difficult. Adding mobility into the equation means you'd need to engineer a way to keep both ends continuously updated with where the other was to hold the connection. Skipping through space is difficult to master - teleporting oneself with a spell usually has a limit between about 25 and 50 yards - and making a permanent skip takes a lot of work, even if the range tends to be a lot better."

He turns back to Inara. "Alright, I won't be building a microwave cannon then."

He pages through the book again.

"Do we know how exactly their chemical communication works?"

“Do we know exactly how our own bodies’ chemical communication works? It’s likely just as complicated. The source book talks a lot about smells that I couldn’t translate."

"I think there's something we can do with that, but I'm not seeing it right now. Alright, following suggestion: We'll start simple. Set an ambush, lure out a bunch of shoggoths, kill them, container them. Then remote drone to get a sense of what's in there. And then we might go in depending on the intel we get. And all of this after I had some prep time."

"Sawyer, are their victims on a timer that forbids us a few hours or days of prep time? I'd assume not, considering that all of you were vibing for the several days we knew about this."

"I haven't heard news of anyone new going missing in the the radius of where the lot seems to be in the last few weeks. I've got my daughter keeping an ear out and we're paying attention to the newsfeeds in the area. If I think someone's been taken, I'll let you know as soon as I hear about it, whether it's 3 in the afternoon or 3 at night," he laces his fingers together, staring st the tattoos on his own skin. "...if someone does vanish into that lot, you want to get in there sooner rather than later. If someone has already been in there for days or weeks... a few days shouldn't change much unless you cause serious damage to the hive and then leave it."

He looks up. "...from the knowledge I have of these things, any damage done by the initial encounter you all had would have already been done and the hive will have been back to baseline by the time you dealt with the Weird. They tend to consume any animals they've taken into their hive to replace themselves first. They're less useful as real estate."

A few days... "That sounds like a good plan," I say, lying through my teeth. "You can work on prep while I contact Phoenix and get the rest of the team up to speed."

"I think we can execute parts of this pretty much immediately. Let's rent a truck, buy some meat and trash bags, get some of the team. And then lure a bunch of them out, kill them, bag them, deliver them. If you explain it to Phoenix, she'll foot the bill."

"You mentioned they replenish off of animals in the lot. But there's only so much of that, only so many animals in an abandoned lot in a city, that taking any bio mass off the table up front translates into fewer shoggoths being replenished when we're in there. The more we get rid of now, the better, and" - he looks at Sawyer - "you get paid before we have to risk going in there. And then I'll do my preparations."

Sawyer considers, then shrugs one shoulder. "If that's the approach you want to take, go for it. I've given you the information and advice that I've got, you and your team are the ones who decide what to do with it. "

He stands, rolling his shoulders and pocketing his book, confirming that the store is still pretty empty as he looks around - just some of the Bright Eyes, on and off shift. "Unless you two need anything else, I've got my own plans for the day. You've got my number."

Alric is so over-cautious that it makes my teeth hurt. Hopefully he'll let me kill the shoggoths we bait out — this will be a very long day if all I get to do is reset traps or mines. "Sounds good. Do you want to come talk to Phoenix with me, or start getting supplies?"

"I need Phoenix's go-ahead to get the supplies. I do plan to rent a truck or two that might get their warranties voided. Let's meet at HQ, talk to her, then you assemble the team and I the supplies."

He gets up, and stores the shoggoth book in his backpack.

"Sawyer! Thank you for your help, again. I look forward to making it up to you soon."

Backpack on, and out he goes.

I follow Alric out of the shop. "That was interesting," I say. "So, how are we planning to kill the shoggoths we bait out? Are you going to make mines?"

"I haven't explained that particularly well."

"The idea is: The more shoggoths there are, the more are running around in the lot, looking for prey. We can get rid of a lot of bio mass just by setting up a post there and have someone shoot down, and more importantly, collect shoggoths on sight. That's reasonably safe and high value, because we're continuously making progress with little effort and danger. And it gets us massive store credit at the book store. That part of the plan is the shoggoth equivalent of fishing, but more action packed, I'd wager."

"In the mean time, once that's running, I can do some prep work and more research, e.g. in the form of a video drone, or just plain old thinking and tinkering. If deemed viable, we can set up shop directly outside their hive, flush them out with something, and have them run into prepped mines and flamethrowers and whatever. If there's somehow a way for them to convert their hive bio mass into more shoggoths, then let them do so, and flush them out as well. At some point they run out of mass. That step alone would get us very far, but it requires prep work and intel."

"And once nothing comes out of the hive anymore, then we go in, because by then, there's little to give us resistance."

It's more fun when there's resistance, but I can't say that. "You're thinking that we take shifts shooting them down as they emerge, using meat as bait, for the next few days while you try and find a way to flush them out with the alien equivalent of smoke?"

"We can re-evaluate the plan after a few hours, we'll know more by then. Or even after talking to Phoenix, maybe she has a better idea."

"Fine, fine. I'll see you at headquarters."

I practice my smiles in the rearview mirror as I drive back to Dawn HQ, cycling between a basic genuine smile, a slightly cocky grin, and a superior smirk. Getting the shading between them right is excruciatingly difficult but weirdly nostalgic. How many childhood hours did I spend in front of a mirror, trying on different expressions until I got them just right? Hundreds? Thousands?

I arrive at Dawn HQ and make a beeline for Phoenix's office, rapping gently on the wooden door.

Alric arrives shortly after, seeing Inara waiting in front of Phoenix's office.

Phoenix opens the door not long after. “Yes? Inara, Alric! Excellent. Do you have a plan for the Shoggoth nest?”

"It's simple, really. We're going to lure out as many of the shoggoths as we can and kill them. After a few days, once the hive is relatively depopulated, we'll go in and scour the place room by room, killing any shoggoths we find and rescuing anyone still alive." I gesture to Alric. "We need your authorization for equipment purchases — we'll need some trucks, raw meat, and other items. Alric can explain that part better than I can."

Alric recites the plan he explained to Inara earlier, emphasizing that the trucks will be rented, but may lose their warranty.

"What do you think? Should we just go ahead, or would you like us to adjust the plan? Ah, by the way, if you want to page through the research yourself." He digs out his shoggoth book and hands it over to Phoenix.

“I don’t have much time right now — I have a family I need to find housing for before sundown. If you think that will work, that sounds good. Get me an estimated budget, roster, and timeline for the mission.”

"Okay, got it. We can execute the first step of the plan for just a few hundreds bucks, maybe a thousand. Just our usual group plus any volunteers. We'll reorient tomorrow or the day after, and go to step two and three. We'll keep you updated."

"Alright. Keep your receipts, I'll reimburse you for what is reasonable. I think Lucian is still out of town, but you should still sync up with Hope. Saint should be available to help when you get to the point of getting into the nest proper. I can send him your way once he's available."

"Sounds good." He turns to Inara. "I'm off shopping. Get the team assembled and up to speed, whoever is available right now. I should be back here in an hour, then we can get started." He hands her his copy of the research, and leaves.

He'll buy the following items and return to the HQ about an hours later:

Two axes
A few packs of swimming goggles
A few masks (the pandemic kind, not halloween)
A pack of those one-piece whole body rain coats
A few packs of wet wipes
Black, non-see-through plastic containers. The rectangle kind that you can stack
A pack of garbage bags
Bunch of towels
A case of water
Two cans of gasoline

I give Phoenix a shallow bow and take my leave, sorting through the papers as I make my way to Astraeus's desk. "Hi," I say. "We haven't met before. I'm Inara Sellain, one of the field agents here, and I've heard that you're hosting a marksmanship training session later this week, correct?"

Editing in a description of Astraeus's office

Astraeus has a standing desk by the back of a a bigger open floor plan room with the rest of the communications department. Which is like, 3 other people.

He loves it. He has a sight line through the open door to the hallway right in front of the turnstiles, and can easily watch over his team. (This might be why Saije likes to roam around with her laptop rather than sit at her provided desk.) He has one wall as a dedicated social media metrics dashboard with multiple mounted monitors showing sentiment analysis on various sites and Google alerts for keywords. The other walls are covered in whiteboards full of Very Important Notes (and fun doodles) and trophies in the form of newspaper clippings and thank you letters from his team’s successes. The windows are of course tinted with the same filter the rest of the windows on this floor are.

The room is a shrine to preppy corporate culture, and Astraeus is the high priest.

“We have. Though first days are always chaotic, and we weren’t properly introduced.” He beams a perfect smile and chuckles to show that he doesn’t take Inara’s forgetfulness as a slight. He offers a hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Inara Sellain. I’m Astraeus Knox, director of communications here. And yes! Lucian’s report on your team’s last encounter made it clear that there was a good growth opportunity for some of you. Though from what I read you were rather exemplary. Sunlight lasers was it? I would be hard pressed to think of a firearm I wouldn’t trade in for such an ability.”

My smile widens. It's so nice to be properly appreciated, especially after dealing with Alric so much. "The Sunfire Lace, yes. Invented in 1481 by Vivian Nerissa as an anti-vampire spell, modified by Inza Orshan in 1572 to improve the range, and adjusted in 1823 by Ilenor Aster to amplify its cutting properties. Magic is the best weapon one can ever have — elegant, refined, and infinitely expressive with the proper knowledge. Alas, not everyone can be a wizard."

I stop myself from smirking just in time. Fuck. Being nice is so hard. "But I didn't come here to discuss the lineage of my spells. We're preparing for an excursion into a shoggoth nest a few days from now, and with that in mind, I was hoping you could tailor your class to the monsters we're likely to face."

“Fascinating!” And he does genuinely seem fascinated by the history.

“You make a good point. I was already considering that shotguns would be a more worthwhile weapon for the boys to learn. Were the creatures armored or did they have particular weak points?”

"They weren't armored and the mobile shoggoths don't have weak points, but the rooms of the nest do." I offer Astraeus the booklet containing Sawyer's compiled notes. "This report was written by an expert in xenobiology and should contain everything you need."

He takes it, raising an eyebrow as he flips through it. “Curious. These shoggoths seem downright ghastly. Would you mind documenting your extermination of them? I’m sure we can get some good press on this community service project.” He smirks. “And in Miskatonic’s backyard too! Yes. This is going to be good. Thank you, Mz. Sellain.” He says with a gracious nod. “When would you like me to get this back to you?” He gestures with the booklet.

"Keep it," I say. "I have my own copy. But if you can, move up the training class to sometime in the next few days? We're planning to lure out as many shoggoths as we can and then go in later this week."

“I’ll see when I have time on my calendar. Are you interested in attending as well?” He asks hopefully.

"Not particularly. Like you said, I don't have much use for a gun." A pause. "Have you seen Hope around lately? I need to talk to her about the mission."

"Indeed." He smiles. "I saw her not too long ago. She's been researching incorporeal threats, I believe. The library would be a good place to start. It was lovely chatting with you, Mz. Sellain. Don't be a stranger."

I say something noncommittal and head for the library.

Hope has several books out and is taking notes while muttering about salt, sunlight, and what utter bullshit it is that there are things that can't be killed with bullets even in principle.

"Hope!" I wave her down as I approach. "We've got our next mission in an hour. Remember the shoggoths we fought in that abandoned lot? Well, we're going to go back and exterminate them. Alric's got this whole plan, we'll start by luring out as many as we can and then go inside and go room by room clearing them out.

"Alric's out gathering supplies and told me to gather the team. Have you seen Lucian or Tsem around?"

"Hell yes! But an hour? That's kinda short notice. And no, I haven't. Am I going to need more mags for this?"

"No time like the present," I say. "Besides, the first part of the plan is pretty simple; we'll just be staking out the nest and getting stuff set up to bait them out. You should definitely bring as much ammunition as you can carry — we're not sure how many shoggoths are in the hive, but it could be a lot."

"More like as much as I can afford mags for. Ok, I should be able to get more mags and meet you there in an hour. Anything else?"

"We're meeting back here first," I say. "Alric will be back in about an hour with a truck and some gear. In the meantime, you should read this. It's a report on the shoggoths' behavior and weaknesses."

I offer her my copy of Sawyer's booklet.

"Great, thanks." Hope pockets it and starts jogging for her bike. She soon returns and begins inserting .45 ACP rounds into a new pair of mags while reading the pamphlet.

While we wait for Alric, I practice spellform exercises. My gestures are flawless, of course, but there's something meditative about running through them all the same.

After his shopping trip Alric finds them both in the library.

"Okay, I got everything ready. Where's the rest of the team?"

"This is it," I say. "Lucian disappeared, and Tsem was never actually part of the team. I've briefed Hope — shall we get started?"

"We don't have anyone else whose job it is to slay beasts except you two, and me of all the people?" These fucking people and this fucking company and this fucking world I swear to god.

He's already moving around the corner, and towards the exit. There's some mumbling to be heard, and then you can hear him yell from down the corridor: "Come on guys, let's go!"

I flash Hope a grin and follow Alric down the hall. "We'll have another person joining us once we go into the hive, but for this? The three of us is plenty."