I mean, Marcone's missing a few key facts, but he's got a point. Our guys were definitely guilty of being cannibals.
A partnership with Marcone might be a bit too much for the current Molly but a non-aggression pact like the one with Lara would be okay for me.
Some level of business dealings are likely a requirement. We can't just pretend he doesn't exist, and we aren't ready for a gang war.
Even if we were actually starting one isn't necessarily in our interests. Energy spent fighting Marcone is energy we can't put towards any of the dramatically worse things going on in the city.
A nonaggression pact is a start, but it's worth noting that to a certain extent interaction allows for influence.
If we're a big account with his mob then our displeasure is more likely to see him change what he's doing.
We stopped. We initiated engagement. We voted to initiate engagement.
Going from more or less meaningless social flammery to intimidation without so much as a stop in between or any sort of inciting behavior is not conducive to our goal of appearing to be not just powerful but also rational and predictable.
To swing back to this again, nothing about my plan is particularly irrational or unpredictable.
He burst our intimidation bubble, he's testing if we're puffed up or not in addition to whatever else he's playing at here.
We haven't decided on a mode of interaction yet either other than rejecting the most hostile one of literally running him over. The entire point of this vote is deciding this issue, which is why I find your argument about it already being set annoying.
The benefit of the intimidation play is twofold.
The first is that it confirms rather than refutes the reaction Molly has been deliberately cultivating in the observers. My plan doesn't call for us to attack him or initiate an anima flare, it calls for us to press him without even raising Molly's voice. So it proceeds along the lines we've already been following.
The second is that it disrupts his game plan. Vittorio did do this deliberately, he's fishing for information and trying to set up a con of some kind here. Etiquette fencing with him is probably exactly what he (thinks he) wants, and even if it's something we can win it's still playing to his strengths and preparations.
Intimidation by contrast chokes him up, we stand here to all appearances taking no hostile action and he has to roll not to crap his pants. It's not like he's going to vanish into a puff of smoke at that point, we can proceed to needle him for information while he's still screwing his head back on as we please.
Remember that we're at a vampire party and he's trying to be a political power here. Whimpering and running off like a whipped dog isn't an option for him after he stuck his neck out. Forcing him to split his attention between social combat with us and managing his reactions so that they don't sink his political career is too our advantage.
Fencing with him can also work, but it's giving him advantages for little to no benefit in return.
