Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

When Private Eyes are Blind ​

28th of February 2006 A.D.

As you continue to ponder what to do about Marcone and just how far practicality can take one you look over a more personal matter that had led certain Molly Carpenters back to Boston. As it turns out she wasn't the only Carpenter involved. She chose to enlist Daniel somewhat to your surprise. After all as far as you know you're the only one of the kids Mom had talked to about that, but thinking about it for a little longer it makes a lot of sense. They are his grandparents too after all, and he's certainly old enough to deal with the history there. Not to mention it was probably a good idea to have a sounding board on how to approach them. Half your social instincts are still 'fake it 'till you make it' and the other half is the imperial grandiloquence Usum bequeathed you and while you may be learning to trust the latter a bit more in matters of state family's different even if part of that family thinks it's later day aristocrats.

As it turns out Regina Hamilton nee Winthrop reacted to the loss of her only daughter by adopting a new one, in a gesture your other self couldn't decide if she should call callous or charitable, though Daniel had pointed out that if they just wanted a replacement kid for 'dynastic' reasons they would have gotten a boy. Things slid slowly down the slope into the uncanny when they realized that the new daughter Prudence Hamilton was also sixteen and might have looked something like Mom did, at least within the abilities of the adoption agency.

"At that point we didn't know if we were looking at something spooky, or just regular creepy," Daniel picks up the story when you ask him about it "But the more we looked into it the more normal it seemed. Prudence married an oil executive in 1990, she had two kids, they are our age now, Mrs Hamilton is in retirement as much as you can retire from hosting parties and charities, Mr Hamilton retired to an honorary position in the private equity fund he ran for most of his life. But then we did start finding some loose ends... They never stopped looking for her. When we looked up Charity Hamilton in Boston we got a line to a detective agency and there's even a bounty still posted for information on her whereabouts, which is very weird since Mom didn't change her name..."

"Well she did when she married," Dancer in Glass Shadows points out.

"Thank you Captain Technicality, now there's more of you too, what am I gonna do?" Daniel rolls his eyes, though there's no more heat in the gesture than normal. "What I meant to say is Mom didn't go out of her way to hide who she was, she still has the same social security number and stuff. A detective agency should have been able to find her by the time she married dad or got into college, basically as soon as she was on the grid again. At first we thought that maybe it's just her not wanting to be found and he waves his hand vaguely heavenward, but I don't think God's into preventing family awkwardness. I can think of some Bible stories that would've turned out different if He was."

You snort in laughter, half-unwilling. "Daniel!"

"What, I'm sure God appreciates that we didn't mistake all too human doings for his hand," Dancer in Glass Shadows backs him up. "See I phoned the agency and told them who I was... fifteen minutes to sunrise. Just long enough for them to send out an email before the memory faded, not so long that it would risk them sharing with anyone else and since we'd already hacked their email we now knew who the message was for. Turns out James Hamilton did know where Mom is and what he's about, but he paid the agency to not tell his wife and pretend they can't find anything and he also asked them to message him if anyone from her side of the family showed up. I deleted the message just so it wouldn't set anything off. But the question now is... should we set something off. If grandma Hamilton, that still feels weird to say, is looking us she deserves to know we exist at least."

"Being charitable he could've done it to protect her," Daniel adds after the silence had started to grow uneasy. "Mom did say that Regina was the most worried about her Seeing things. He could have just figured it would be better if his daughter had a life somwehre else."

"And what gave him the right to...?"

You do not even finish the question before he raises his hands. "Hey, hey, it's still wrong that he did it, just saying he might not be a complete asshole."

What do you do?

[] Tell Mom everything they found

[] Go talk to your grandparents
-[] Regina
-[] James
-[] Both

[] Write in

OOC: The questions about Marcone will be handled afterwards. I started writing this when the vote was still going on because otherwise I would not have been able to finish an update in time today. Hopefully the juxtaposition isn't too distracting, it does feel thematically interesting, considering working with criminals as you are also embroiled in family matters.

 

[DragonParadox]

Ponderings and Potentates ​

28th of Febriary 2006 A.D.

Mom takes the news very... quietly, which is never a good sign, from your experience. "All this time... all this time I thought they had just decided to let sleeping dogs lie and it turns out I was agreeing with father of all people."

Dad places a hand over hers on the couch between them, though he doesn't say anything, letting her deal with this at her own pace while you-and-you and Daniel wait a little awkwardly, unsure of how to take things or what to say. The only one with any suggestions is Usum, but they are all curses that start with cursing your grandfather with the inability to recall his work and legacy and work up from there in cruel irony. He has opinions about doing taking people's agency away for their own good, My opinions, you realize with a flash, half of guilt half of gratitude. As his counsel had been changing the way you see the world so too had you changed him to judge morality... even if it does come in the form of a litany of curses.

"I really shouldn't have gotten you children involved in this," Mom says finally.

You and Dancer in Glass Shadows share a look, the same thought coming to mind, you're sure of it even absent telepathy: Not exactly the worst thing that happened this month.

Finally you settle on. "We went looking of our own will and for our own reasons."

"Well..." She looks at Dad, for strength, for confirmation, you're not sure. "It's time for me to do more than look. I'm making that Call." You can practically hear the capital C in that word. It's something she'd thought about before, maybe agonized over.

"I can do it," he offers at once, but she just sighs and shakes her head.

"It's my mess Michael, not yours and not the children's. I'm getting to the bottom of this and then we can just..." Whatever words she had been about to use, maybe 'move on' she can't quite bring herself to say them.

"Maybe so, but burdens as much as joys are meant to be shared. We should do this in person, together."

Uneasy silence falls until finally she gives a firm nod. "Can't hurt and it might help, God willing." With that Mom mimes wiping her hands off an apron she isn't wearing from reflex, setting the whole matter aside like dishes sorted into a cabinet. "Come on, dinner's ready."

Pot roast and mashed potatoes thus become the accompaniment to considering Marcone. At the end of the day why is the man a criminal, you wonder? Criminals as much as honest people have reasons for doing things and while you don't believe there are good reasons to do the sorts of things the 'Baron of Chicago' has done, that doesn't mean you can't use the knowledge, can't change his mind. So once the meal's done you, as the game-show rules go 'phone a friend'.

"Yes?" Lash asks, sounding indecently sleepy for six in the afternoon "What do you need?"

"Marcone, what makes him tick?"

"Planning to make a project out of him?" she asks archly.

You hesitate a moment. "Maybe..." Reading his fire and then pointing your Crown at it had revealed a man on a personal quest to bring the waring crime families of Chicago to heel even as he holds other interlopers at bay, who takes advantage of the corruption of the city to grow his own little fief. Not idly had be spoken of wolves and coyotes, but a wolf, be it ever so wise in the ways of the pack, is still a predator. It's not that he has no conscience, more that he chose years ago when to harden his heart against cruelty done to those who harm his people.

"'Gentleman' Johnny distrusts the US Government and it's personal, maybe back to his time in the army. The way he made sure Amanda couldn't be traced when I healed her you'd think the CIA was after her in particular."

Thinking of Daedalus you had to ask: "And you're sure they aren't actually...?"

"After her, no, even Helen thinks he's being paranoid and she hates him almost as much as she admires him. Paranoid arrogant, callous and vicious when he feels it's called for..." Tiffany's tone is less one of causation and more like a guidance counselor describing a student with good prospects. "But he's loyal to his people and as firm on his own rules as those he imposes on the rest of the organization. According to Helen one of the first mob bosses to take Marcone under his wing as he advanced in the Chicago underworld claimed his people didn't hurt kids, but he turned out to be lying through his teeth so Marcone shot him in them. Or shot him in the face at least. I think on some level he's scared of what he would become if he ever let the rules slip."

How do you approach Marcone?

[] Appeal to his loyalty to his own people, no matter how good he is as long as he's just another criminal they are going to be exposed to danger, with your help he could become so much more and so coould they

[] Appeal to his pride, contrast his own efforts to make Chicago safer from supernatural threats to Daedalus' bungling, point out that he can do far more good for the city when he'd not organizing drug deals on the side

[] Get access to his army file to try and see just what the origin of his distrust in the government is
-[] Officially, one more thing to ask of the Library
-[] Unofficially, steal it

[] Write in

OOC: Given that Tiffany had done her own investigating and spent considerably more time on it there was no reason to do the Awakened Eye of the Dragon trick for now. What she already had is the maximum you coul get through a streetwise roll.