"No," Nolan agrees, his grin fading. "Not much in books is going to help with facing her. Not even much in the Silver Record, at least in the parts most read." He shifts his focus to Linnaea. "Nolan," he says, brows rising expectantly.

Linnaea puts the book down and shrugs. "Yeah, well." There's a quiet and subdued manner to her tone, but a force behind it too, reflected in her bearing and even her subconscious posture. "Linnaea Imogen Griffin-Macey," comes the response. "I don't think we've met." Nor does the Gaian relax yet.

Slug waits until the introductions are over before he pipes up. "Not trying to make you feel bad, not trying to discourage you. Just saying that the type of knowledge we need ain't really in the kinda books you'd find here. I've picked through some books, talked to some friends, and found out very little. Most I could tell you is that the Queens are an ancient thing, probably from Europe, maybe from the isles around Britain, or England itself, and..." he throws up his hands. "Everything else is what I've picked up by seeing them."

Nolan gives a nod of recognition or acceptance to Linnaea and turns his focus back to Slug. "You've seen one of the queens? Or just the wraiths?"

Linnaea sighs and nods. "No, I know that, but this is just... context. Between the lines and anything where an idea might come from. Even fairy tales have value to them," the young woman offers. "And well, I didn't grow up here, so." There's another shrug and Lin perches on the edge of the couch, and flips the throwing star in her hand idly. "Stories... I should get in touch with my grandmother, and my brother, and see about the stories actually. If they're that ancient, then /someone/ knows." There's another distant stare.

The back door opens, and Felix enters the kitchen, in Glabro and something of a hurry, though he stops short on finding the place occupied. And by multiple people, at that! "Evenin'," he greets, with a grin not quite so charming as the usual one. Pointy teeth make everything slightly threatening. "Am I interruptin' somethin'?"

"I didn't mean literally see them, more the things they've done." Slug says. "You can learn a lot from that, like-" he drops his pizza and goes for the crossbow on his shoulder, but stops before he has it in hand, staring at Felix. Then he adjusts the heft of the weapon's strap on his shoulder, picks up his pizza, and takes another bite. "Hey."

Nolan's shoulders relax a touch, the intensity of his focus on slug easing. "Ah," he says. "Yeah, no. I know. Though the thought of a more direct look is certainly appealing." He gives a nod over to Felix as the other Gnawer enters, greeting the other even as his grin begins to return.

There's a nod towards what Nolan says, and a little bit of quiet muttering that doesn't last. "Felix, hey!" Lin's almost, almost relaxed from the slight tension that built up on the door opening again, and she gets up to wave at the newly arrived Gnawer. And then she frowns at him, eyebrows raising first a little, and then a lot. "How's it?" The rather petite theurge has to crane her head a bit to look up, and although there was a smile with the greeting, it's turned into a slight frown. "You're hurt."

Felix tenses slightly at the sudden moves his entrance causes, but relaxes when everyone else does. Linnaea gets a smile for her very own. "Fft. You oughta see the other guys," he replies, "an' I'm barely scratched anymore. Swear. Prolly be back to normal by mornin', now. How's it with you?" A glance to Slug's meal, "You playin' pizza girl again? ...is there more?"

"Maybe not. Something that old and powerful might hurt if you see it," Slug warns. He tears off a chunk of crust, then another, swallowing up his slightly dirty meal. "There's always more pizza. Scrap with other Garou?" He guesses, giving him a brisk once over.

"Even that tells you something," Nolan says in response to Slug, and then follows his focus to Felix, taking a look at the still visible injuries. "From the other night, still?"

Linnaea shoves her hands into her pockets and leans on the nearest piece of furniture, and raises her eyebrows one last time. The frown eases at the response, though she still doesn't quite look happy about it. "Hey, pizza's an essential part of life, here or wherever else, so of course I am," she says. "It's in the fridge." She tap one foot, and then shrugs. "Alright then."

"Leftovers from moot," Felix answers Slug, with a small shrug that turns into a nod to Nolan. The only injury immediately visible is the nick in his ear from the silver bullet; it hasn't quite healed up, although it looks like it's getting there. Anything else must be under the clothes -- those who were there might recall the worst of his wounds as having been to the torso and one thigh. "Promise," he assures the Gaian at the 'all right', and moves over to check the fridge for the fabled pizza. And a beer, while he's at it and they're not quite all gone. "What're we discussin'?"

"Something," Slug echoes. He gnaws on his bottom lip and reaches for his cigarettes, drawing a thin paper cylinder from its pack with his lips. "My back and knees are still fucked up from that fight." He steps aside as Felix goes for the fridge, paying him a passing glance. "At least we learned something new about the Queens and those Fomori... things. Whatever they are."

"The wraiths," Nolan offers. "They're not fomori. They're not the blending of bane and human a fomori is. She... makes them." He draws in a breath and gives a slight shake of his head with a quirk of a half-formed grin. "But for better or worse, we know that she can see through their eyes, know what they know, now. Still a lot of questions about how and why and what they're trying to accomplish."

Linnaea gives Slug somewhat of the same frown that Felix received, almost pointedly. "Uh-huh," she offers, towards Slug. Other than that, though, Linnaea's quiet.

Felix claims three slices of the pizza and one can of beer, and leans against the counter to start consuming them. "I remember Thane mentioning they weren't really fomori at the moot, just before shit went down. Like workers an' soldiers in a hive. So anythin' they see or know, she sees an' knows...? An' they can be just about anywhere, invisible. So no way to even guess how much that is."

"I just call them that for lack of a better thing. Wraiths is too... I dunno. Formal. They need a nickname, like, 'Grab Hands', or 'Pawns', or something." Slug puffs on his cigarette and exchanges a look with Linn, his eyes meeting her's. "Yeah. I figured out they were mentally linked together during the last fight. When I killed one, they all reacted like they were feelin' it, angry, in pain."

Nolan's eyebrows rise at that, but it doesn't diminish the smirk. "Oh? Is that what it was they were reacting to?"

"There has to be some way to detect them even while they're just... there," Linnaea says, tapping her foot again. "Though I'm not sure even so much as whether that'd be useful if they'd all know it faster than we'd be able to use it again."

"Alicia mentioned somethin' about them bein' telepathic," Felix says thoughtfully, "didn't hear anything about feelin' each other's pain. But that sounds maybe useful, if they do." He looks to Linnaea, offering, "Smoke or things like that can work, Ghost said. Make the place there's something that oughtn't be show up, if you get what I mean. Gifts an' maybe special vision like infrared, night vision shit, I think that can show 'em?" He takes a bite of pizza, brow furrowing. "Alicia said there's three queens. This one, one in New York, one in LA. Reckon they're all telepathic with each other an' all each other's wraiths, pawns, bitey-whiteys, whatever we wanna call 'em? Hey, are there any Gifts or talens or shit that jam telepathy, like people jam radio signals an' shit?"

Slug draws in a deep breath and closes his eyes, holding up both his hands. "Not their death, but," he licks his lips. "If the Queen's the brain and all the things are her arms, her fingers'n toes, her eyes and ears; when you kill one, it's like you're slicing off an ear, or gouging out an eye. She feels it and reacts, then all the things linked to her do, too. Like when you grit your teeth when you take a good hit." Slug ashes his cigarette on the lip of the sink. "Or we could be wrong. But it seems like a pretty safe assumption."

"Three?" Nolan asks Felix. "Where's she get that? Lot more than three caerns attacked. Lot more than three cities sieged." He almost laughs when he looks over to Slug. "No assumption is a safe assumption. You know what they say about assuming, right?"

Linnaea sits down, cross-legged on the floor in the doorway to the kitchen, and tilts her head back to look up. "There may in fact be," Lin offers to Felix, "but talens would be the most doable, perhaps. Or at least, I think they would, not that I... well," Linnaea shakes her head briefly and furrows her brows. "But if we're going to talk theoreticals, then it's a theoretically very good idea. Except that cut off one head, and two grow back, I'd think."

Felix takes a breath, then washes down the latest bite of pizza with some of the beer, and sets the slices he hasn't finished on the counter beside him. "Okay. I dunno a lot of her sources, so you prolly wanna check in with her about it, but here's what she told me, slightly shortened version. Still pretty fuckin' long, though. So: the whole Spiral Revolution riots thing, 's controlled by three sisters who consider themselves Queens, an' they're these Queen things. They each got a tower, this one, one in New York, one in LA, all owned by the same company -- that part, them all havin' towers, that's from the Corax, not Alicia. Anyway. The one in New York took out The Green, the one in LA took out Steel Angel, an' all the other caerns the Spirals attacked in this scheme, apparently they form some kinda ritual, tryin' to raise somethin' bigger an' scarier'n we've ever seen. But enough Septs managed to resist that the ritual got interrupted. But not ruined." He takes another sip. "So, if we can take out this queen, that oughta actually ruin things for them, plus if we can tell the others how we do it maybe they can too. Which'd be a benefit of fuckin' up their telepathic whatevers, if they can think that far to each other, so they couldn't, y'know, call ahead. ...that last thought ain't her, that's me. She suggested maybe we could get on their frequency, which'd be great for eavesdroppin'... Anyway. So, the wraith-things are the ones that painted all the Spiral glyphs that made 'rou frenzy if they got near 'em and got mobs riled up. There's a lot of Dancers workin' for the queens, obviously. Lessee... no one's said either of the other queens got pet mages, but since this one did, might be they do. That's a guess."

"Yeah yeah," Slug says with a grin in Nolan's direction, then he lapses into thought. "Might be worth trying to take with us some kinda, like, Bane Arrow we can shoot the Queen with if the opportunity presents. Something that would throw down a brain-whammy that might spread to the other Queens, or... I dunno." Slug slides back up onto the counter and leans back, folding one leg over the other. "Maybe it doesn't have to be like that, like, an attack. But something like an ear-worm, something that makes them think one thought, over and over and over again, as fast as they can, faster and faster, until it's all that's left." He listens to what Felix has to say, nodding at a few points, grunting here and there. "At least the Queens aren't united with the Spirals, in a whole way. A lot of them fuckin' hate'm."

"The metis at the moot, the one--" Nolan squints for a second as he searches for the name. "Mouse? Anyway. She wanted the theurges to make talens from the wraith leg bones. Couldn't hurt to have them grab some other bones for projectiles, or other types of talens. Maybe make use of some skulls or jaws for tapping into that network." He lifts his arm and glances at the watch on his wrist.

"That would be fuckin' awesome," Felix says to Slug's general brain/network-whammying idea, "Like a virus. Infectin' an' spreadin' through the workers an' soldiers an' up to her. I dunno how the fuck you'd DO somethin' like that, but it would be awesome." He picks up another of his pizza slices, and nods to Nolan. "Couldn't much hurt," he agrees, "Prolly worth messin' with, anyhow. Also I remember at the first new moon moot, I think it was, Alicia said she saw the Queen in one of those Spiral's dreams, I think the one who runs security over there. Thin, willowy, long hair, real pale... she didn't say how human-lookin' or not. I think she mighta drawn a picture, but I ain't seen it."

Nolan gets a look as Felix describes the queen, but he dispels it with a shake of his head and the grin settles into place. "Time for all good Fianna to head home," he says with a gesture to the watch. "Don't let the bed bugs bite," he adds as he heads out the door.