- Location
- Taken by the hand to a land that they understand
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Plausible deniability argument is moot because we have a dead body in the trunk of our car, and, even if we drop it off before meeting her, we have reported a murder already to her.
This is exactly why I want them to talk. Order of Cauldron is Murphy's and SI's target demographic. And yet, from all indications, SI is painfully unaware of them. And I think that's bad for SI on a number of levels. Right now, the only purpose SI serves is to paper over strange events for the reports, and to cover things up. The times when they can be helpful are very few and far in-between, and almost always limited to Murphy herself. By linknig them to the community (and using Exalted-grade socials to foster trust between the community and the police), we can give SI purpose. That would do wonders for morale and their productivity, I think.
This is a really big problem that I think we should look into and put our excellencies to use for. Get SI to know the actual magical community they have a chance of policing, and get the community to know the actual cops that might believe then and protect them. Ideally get some minor talents into the force.
Indeed. Also, buy Law dots, and make those services Accord neutral territories.
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The ghouls would appreciate having a dentist on call, so would any other kind of being that can regenerate teeth because as it happens growing new teeth at a accelerated pace hurts like hell if you just let the body brute force it.
Sinking her corpse would be an effective way to hide her body from the local wizard, running water basically wipes away and disrupts magic traces and the like.
Dresden has been foiled in tracking someone by a rain shower, dunk a body in a river or lake and it's as lost to him as it is the cops.
Dresden has been foiled in tracking someone by a rain shower, dunk a body in a river or lake and it's as lost to him as it is the cops.
Plausible deniability for Jackson. We have a body in our car and are unofficially reporting the incident, that doesn't mean she's linked yet.
It being helpful for SI doesn't make it desirable for minor talents/supernaturals, and we kind of picked a side already. We joined the Ordo, not SI.
At minimum any introduction like that should be done by people who're interested in giving what's actually a somewhat personally risky prospect a shot instead of sitting a sorcerer who rolled really poorly on the random encounter table* in front of a cop after they killed someone in self defense in a manner and for a reason that the law can't prove or accept.
* Yeah it was targeted, but she probably came to their attention in the first place by being in the wrong place at the wrong time.
We should be a touch more subtle than that.
This is a touchy issue, treat it like you're trying to adopt a twitchy outdoor cat instead of a friendly golden retriever puppy.
For what it's worth as far as Molly understands the good doctor uses Forces magic though the medium of Shadow*, she blasts things, which is very useful if you want to be some kind of battle mage and not useful at all in everyday life, bar truly niche circumstances. The thing she would be most likely to be useful to SI at is combat and she seems quite unwilling to do that at the moment.
*best guess her paradigm is that shadows borrow the weight of the objects they are cast by, but as shadows they can be reshaped to the magician's will.
*best guess her paradigm is that shadows borrow the weight of the objects they are cast by, but as shadows they can be reshaped to the magician's will.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
It's being helpful to both. Ordo members get access to police that can adequately respond in case they have trouble. Yes, this will need management from us, at least initially, but overall, that's better than relying solely on self-defense. This is probably an AP-worthy action (setting up safe and trusted relationship between SI and local minor talent community), but something I very much advocate for. It would be helpful to a lot of people.
So, so far it seems like full on getting in with some hospital or a series of medical practitioners, such as psychologists, psychiatrists, dentists, plastic surgeons, etc and setting it/them up as accorded neutral territories for a cut of profits would be a great idea. Also, Maria owns a car wash. We just gifted Mab a car. We could sell cars to other fae nobles for a lot of money / favors / magical materials. And buy / start car services which would also be accorded neutral territories. Start the maquerade breakdown by bringing mundane services to the supernatural world.
Good ideas, I'll add an "if" though, and modify them a bit.
[X] Stick together for now, she no doubt has decent wards, but you are better protection than any ward could ever be.
-[X] Empathy excellency to reassure and calm her down to get her past the stress of nearly losing her life and killing a person
-[X] Write in how you present your findings so far to Detective Murphy: As an ongoing event that has a strong chance of developing into a political incident on multiple fronts, involving supernatural superpowers.
-[X] Crown questions:
--[X] Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: "what are the identities of everyone involved in the attack / kidnapping attempt of this coat's owner?"
---[X] Give the identities to Clippy to run down
---[X] If the identity of one of the people involved matches the identity of the old highschool photo, use it to ask "what has the person in this photo done in the last year and a day, starting from the latest action and going backwards?"
---[X] If it doesn't match, use the whampire's wallet to find their identity
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[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
I don't think we are showing her the body.
One is Murphy getting told an uncorroborated tale by a teenager. The second is direct physical evidence of a human form body with a US ID and being asked to turn a blind eye as a police officer. Always leave your law enforcement contact room to claim plausible deniability.
Dont behave like, or assume, that criming/extrajudicial activity is something everyone is comfortable with.
Bad idea.
You are compromising both Dr Jackson and Murphy.
Dr Jackson has no need to know about any private arrangement we have with Murphy, and certainly doesn't need to know about whether Murphy will cover up a homicide. Just like Dresden has never told Molly that Murphy helped in wiping out a Blampire scourge in Chicago. And Murphy has no need to interview her in this case; it's not coming to court one way or the other.
I'd keep them apart.
So closer to Hellfire than Shadowcasting, I think.
But I think her attempted use of shadow to hide herself would be a Mind effect.
Hmm.
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You're getting caught on end states and ignoring the bits in between, in this case meaning the opinions of the people involved in one half of the equation.
Getting something better going between the two groups is something worthwhile but we should pay attention to the time, place, and people involved in a particular situation.
An introduction between Murphy and Ordo leadership arranged by mutual consent would be an excellent first step. Especially if we actually sit down with Murphy first and pound some facts of life into her head. Like that most of the supernatural really doesn't give a shit about her authority, and that pressing it where she shouldn't will get people killed*. Which we know she has a problem grasping per QM comments from our last conversation with her.
Putting a shook up dentist in the hot seat because she had the misfortune to be forced to defend herself really isn't. We're talking about a person we have at least some obligation to, not a tool for advancing our agenda regardless of what the potential implications for her life are.
I also think you're dramatically overestimating SI. Murphy is pretty badass, but the average member isn't going to be taking a vampire of any kind in a fight. In the DF they basically die in droves whenever they run into something spookier than the weakest of minor talents and pick any response but run away.
If it had been Jackson and four cops in that alley with one minor white court vamp she'd be the one saving them, not the other way around.
They're also running on the response times of an underfunded and disliked office of a major city's police department.
So they largely aren't going to be able to show up to defend anyone, and would probably just die if they did.
They aren't completely useless, but acting like their involvement in an area they barely understand and aren't equipped to manage is going to be a watershed moment is a mistake.
*Case in point: this situation. Lara is usually more cautious than this, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that just standing in the room and playing the mortal law enforcement card could turn a manageable conflict with a splinter faction of the white court into a brushfire war with their local power structure.
SI is a joke and treated as such by everyone. We would be better of just founding/privatization of our own police force.
Get the craft charm, and just build robots. Security is a lot more effective when every street corner has a 24/7 guard.
Get the craft charm, and just build robots. Security is a lot more effective when every street corner has a 24/7 guard.
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1) I somewhat trust Murphy to be able to handle this situation in a way that leaves good impression on Dr. Jackson. we might need to do some fast talking, but I trust that to be possible. If I am right, Murphy buys some goodwill for SI for setting up a follow-up meeting. If I am wrong, I trust us to be able to smooth things out that the overall impression is neutral.
2) Order of Cauldron's current MO for handling threats like vampires and fey is to call the cops with a false report:
Just having a police department number where you can call and instead of making stuff up say "a pack of pixies is harassing me" so they know to a) show up at all, and b) show up with iron would be a big step up from the current situation.
Ok, I'll remove this line. Though I think that needs to give testimony. And, importantly, I think she needs to give testimony to Lara too. Same as I would expect Lara would bring a whampire to a meeting if one of our ghouls tried to eat them.
The question is - what do we expect Murphy to do about this? With no body being present, and no scene of crime, and likely no missing people reports, this is not going to court or adds to cold cases pile, you are right. The incident has the potential to escalate, and there is a number of american citizens that might be in danger from this.
This is a continued education of lt. Murphy, I feel. In this case - what happened is, basically, homicide that was self-defense. Open and shut case. So, what should she do when she can't procedurally bring it forwards? I think it's important she asks herself these questions.
Realistically we should work on getting the magical community connected with itself first. A 100 isolated magical communities with 10 members each, is much easier to defeat then 1 organization 10,000 strong.
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[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this
-[X] Call Helen and ask her to let Jackson stay there for at least the weekend while we work on the problem. Stop by Jackson's place to pick anything -or anyone - that she needs with her for that period.
-[X] Have the other cyber devil car meet us there so we don't have a body in the trunk of the car we meet Murphy in. Have Black Rider follow at a discrete distance.
-[X] While there ask her to collect the letters and any other evidence she might have.
-[X] Explanation for Murphy:
—[X] Give the basic details of the encounter, but avoid mentioning the name of the victim or the final condition of the body.
—[X] Explain Molly's involvement with the Ordo, and the understanding she recently reached with the white court.
—[X] Cover the plan to cull the minor talents of the city, and the potential for more violence.
—[X] Lay out the plan to reach out to Lara and get the people responsible muzzled before this gets out of hand.
—[X] Attempt to outline the perspective of the supernatural on mundane authorities, and the potential for this escalating from a splinter faction to something more dangerous if we misstep.
-[X] Crown Questions:
--[X] Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: "what are the identities of everyone involved in the attack / kidnapping attempt of this coat's owner?"
---[X] Give the identities to Clippy to run down
---[X] If the identity of one of the people involved matches the identity of the old highschool photo, use it to ask "what has the person in this photo done in the last year and a day, starting from the latest action and going backwards?"
---[X] If it doesn't match, use the whampire's wallet to find their identity
-[X] [Stunt]: Outlining the plot into the silence of the car, Molly meets Murphy's eyes as a deeper sort of seriousness begins to sink into her voice.
—[X] " I need you to listen to me for a moment. This is important and we don't have a lot of time. The people we're dealing with here don't give a damn about mortal law. Some of them are older than this country and barely care to acknowledge that it's here at all." Gesturing to the city around them Molly continues.
--[X] " They do know how to count though, and they don't like how some of them add up. Mortal authorities are in the unenviable situation of being simultaneously threatening but almost impossible for the supernatural powers to really respect."
--[X] Turning back to Murphy, her voice doesn't seem to carry so much as carve it's way through the air with unshakable certainty "We have to be very careful. Push in the right place and we roll this up before anyone else gets hurt. Push in the wrong one or the wrong way and this gets bigger. Bloodier"
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
Trying for a write in. Stunt could use some work though.
-[X] Call Helen and ask her to let Jackson stay there for at least the weekend while we work on the problem. Stop by Jackson's place to pick anything -or anyone - that she needs with her for that period.
-[X] Have the other cyber devil car meet us there so we don't have a body in the trunk of the car we meet Murphy in. Have Black Rider follow at a discrete distance.
-[X] While there ask her to collect the letters and any other evidence she might have.
-[X] Explanation for Murphy:
—[X] Give the basic details of the encounter, but avoid mentioning the name of the victim or the final condition of the body.
—[X] Explain Molly's involvement with the Ordo, and the understanding she recently reached with the white court.
—[X] Cover the plan to cull the minor talents of the city, and the potential for more violence.
—[X] Lay out the plan to reach out to Lara and get the people responsible muzzled before this gets out of hand.
—[X] Attempt to outline the perspective of the supernatural on mundane authorities, and the potential for this escalating from a splinter faction to something more dangerous if we misstep.
-[X] Crown Questions:
--[X] Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: "what are the identities of everyone involved in the attack / kidnapping attempt of this coat's owner?"
---[X] Give the identities to Clippy to run down
---[X] If the identity of one of the people involved matches the identity of the old highschool photo, use it to ask "what has the person in this photo done in the last year and a day, starting from the latest action and going backwards?"
---[X] If it doesn't match, use the whampire's wallet to find their identity
-[X] [Stunt]: Outlining the plot into the silence of the car, Molly meets Murphy's eyes as a deeper sort of seriousness begins to sink into her voice.
—[X] " I need you to listen to me for a moment. This is important and we don't have a lot of time. The people we're dealing with here don't give a damn about mortal law. Some of them are older than this country and barely care to acknowledge that it's here at all." Gesturing to the city around them Molly continues.
--[X] " They do know how to count though, and they don't like how some of them add up. Mortal authorities are in the unenviable situation of being simultaneously threatening but almost impossible for the supernatural powers to really respect."
--[X] Turning back to Murphy, her voice doesn't seem to carry so much as carve it's way through the air with unshakable certainty "We have to be very careful. Push in the right place and we roll this up before anyone else gets hurt. Push in the wrong one or the wrong way and this gets bigger. Bloodier"
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
Trying for a write in. Stunt could use some work though.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
This bit seems patronizing at this point. I'm sure Murphy is well aware of this by now.
fictionfan
Please sir, may I have some Meows?
- Location
- Tempe, AZ
Don't really agree with this. It seems like we are about to get into an essanse squeeze and Molly is already really good at this sort of thing. We don't need to go for an entire therapy session and given that the good doctor has no reason to spend willpower to resist us a single success is all we need.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Yeah, I agree. The tone of that statement needs some adjustment, IMO.
Just cutting out this part would make a big difference.
—[] "
- Location
- Singapore
- Pronouns
- He/Him
[X] BronzeTongue
The intent wasn't to be patronizing, but looking at it again I definitely at minimum leaned too hard in that direction. My concern was that she'd do that thing from early in the series where she dives in on principle alone and damn the consequences.
Sometimes that means she does stuff like show up to save idiot children like Molly. Sometimes it means she arrests Dresden while he's trying to stop someone from chewing on the people of Chicago.
I respect the moral courage of it, but I'd rather not have to deal with the white court closing ranks because we brought a cop with us to discuss their eating habits.
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this
-[X] Call Helen and ask her to let Jackson stay there for at least the weekend while we work on the problem. Stop by Jackson's place to pick anything -or anyone - that she needs with her for that period.
-[X] Have the other cyber devil car meet us there so we don't have a body in the trunk of the car we meet Murphy in. Have Black Rider follow at a discrete distance.
-[X] While there ask her to collect the letters and any other evidence she might have.
-[X] Explanation for Murphy:
—[X] Give the basic details of the encounter, but avoid mentioning the name of the victim or the final condition of the body.
—[X] Explain Molly's involvement with the Ordo, and the understanding she recently reached with the white court.
—[X] Cover the plan to cull the minor talents of the city, and the potential for more violence.
—[X] Lay out the plan to reach out to Lara and get the people responsible muzzled before this gets out of hand.
—[X] Attempt to outline the perspective of the supernatural on mundane authorities, and the potential for this escalating from a splinter faction to something more dangerous if we misstep.
-[X] Crown Questions:
--[X] Dr Jackson's torn labcoat: "what are the identities of everyone involved in the attack / kidnapping attempt of this coat's owner?"
---[X] Give the identities to Clippy to run down
---[X] If the identity of one of the people involved matches the identity of the old highschool photo, use it to ask "what has the person in this photo done in the last year and a day, starting from the latest action and going backwards?"
---[X] If it doesn't match, use the whampire's wallet to find their identity
-[X] [Stunt]: Outlining the plot into the silence of the car, Molly meets Murphy's eyes as a deeper sort of seriousness begins to sink into her voice.
—[X] "The people we're dealing with here don't give a damn about mortal law. Some of them are older than this country and barely care to acknowledge that it's here at all." Gesturing to the city around them Molly continues.
--[X] " They do know how to count though, and they don't like how some of them add up. Mortal authorities are in the unenviable situation of being simultaneously threatening but almost impossible for the supernatural powers to really respect."
--[X] Turning back to Murphy, her voice doesn't seem to carry so much as carve it's way through the air with unshakable certainty "We have to be very careful. Push in the right place and we roll this up before anyone else gets hurt. Push in the wrong one or the wrong way and this gets bigger. Bloodier"
Edit:
Adding my approval vote for the bad option back in.
[X] Reassure her that you will deal with this, drive her home before calling Murphy
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