- Location
- Florida
[X] Nannies exist. Do you remember being three months old? I don't, the baby will be fine, won't even know you were gone
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
On one hand, yes. On another, stress is bad for the baby. Maybe instead make use of her Oneiromancy in some way? Not sure which one, though.
Exposure therapy exists, and by March we should be able to make a horror con environment as safe as superhumanly possible, with only a start of WW3 possibly interrupting our happy fun time.
- Location
- Who knows?
Yeah I think I kinda agree here? I'd be up for a write-in that offers to introduce her to the Cauldron members, a social network that isn't just Molly would be useful.
You're asking me to prove a negative, which is difficult to do conclusively.
I do think it can be reasonably stated that this approach has a number of very clear points where it adds unnecessary complications that wouldn't be present in approaches that didn't tell such a juicy story.
A lie that is supposed to deflect attention is supposed to be be boring. A deflection that like this is actively counterproductive because it draws attention to the places we want it to avoid for no gain, or at least gains that didn't require these costs to acquire.
You've already pointed out one in the form of Jared's potential greed levels enticing him to insert himself in the situation further, which we want to avoid.
Another will probably pop up in short order if he goes to google search levels of investigation.
Thomas's name is on the website, and it wouldn't take much to pick up that he's the bastard son of an old money family or the reputation he deliberately cultivated for himself as a deflection of his own.
So he will have these facts:
1) Chicago Synthetics is wholly owned and operated by Thomas Raith
2) The Raiths are an old money family with their fingers in just about everything
3) Thomas is an embarrassing bastard child with a reputation for being a hedonist that previously worked as a hair stylist before becoming CEO of a diamond company
4) Thomas recently stopped acting like a sleazy asshole around the time he acquired his new company*
5) He has no reason to know Molly Carpenter, but she's claimed a nebulous personal relationship to someone at Chicago Synthetics, backed by the fact that she's wearing 'his' gems and spending 'his' money
6) Molly, much like his stepdaughter, had drug problems and ran with a sketchy crowd until very recently. Then all of a sudden her whole life seemed to turn around after some unknown factor changed.
If you have all those pieces it'd be tempting, especially for someone like Jared, to conclude that Thomas made a deal to clean up his act in exchange for a lucrative business from his family, and that Molly is a sugar baby he's keeping on the side since he can't go wild anymore.
Sure hope Jared is in the integrity sweet spot where he won't report our minion to the cops because he thinks he's screwing a teenager but isn't so unscrupulous that he tries to blackmail Thomas over it instead.
Given his vibe and history with Rosie's assault I'd personally bet on blackmail over anything else, but still worth nothing the bars on both sides of this.
This is the problem with juicy lies and large sums of money. They engage people's attention like nothing else, encourage digging, and make people willing to try stuff they otherwise wouldn't when the temptation gets a little too strong.
Sure Rosie's parents no longer have to worry about where the money is coming from. But one is spineless, the other a skeevy asshole, and neither is really trustworthy. So now we have to deal with the negative consequences of them knowing this stuff as much as the positive ones.
A mundane lie doesn't have these problems. Hard work is boring and there isn't a lot of reward -or call- for digging deeply into the finances of teenagers who seem to be successfully getting by without any particular wild success. What, are they going to ask to see the bill if we claim we've got a neighbor watching the kid, are using a program from the Church, or any of a dozen other lies?
People manage childcare with those exact mechanisms because they can't afford nannies, and pay for the hospital bills without being able to do so in a lump sum, it's just harder.
With the lack of justification and noteworthy external targets the greatest inflection points with them would come about at an interpersonal level as long as we didn't do the equivalent of leaving our stuff out where they could find it, and Molly is supernaturally convincing as long as she's around in person.
It's not foolproof - they could be concerned about the above issues for Rosie instead of Molly for example -but it is sturdier in many ways. To continue the example case, Jared is the kind of asshole would would actually describe other human beings as "used goods". It wouldn't be a particularly amazing feat of social ability to convince him there wasn't an issue if it came up.
This is a pointless digression though; there's little value in relitigating the vote. What I do think is worth arguing here is that it's unlikely we just simplified this situation, and that we're going to need to be prepared to manage it for a while instead of putting it to bed and moving on.
*This one might be too much information for him to acquire. It depends on how determined he is and how the details of Thomas's issues with getting attacked because his hunger leaked too much are. Even if he doesn't have this the rest still paints the same picture.
Presumably your tech, science, and computer skills have a total value higher than 2.
Molly has a really good craft score, and her specialization in mechanics lets her cheat her way into automotive design, but that doesn't mean she can do everything below some abstract measure of complexity.
She can try better than anyone could expect because exalts are bullshit, but she doesn't have much to work with here.
Awkwardly positioned, but basically the rest of this post.
There are basically three routes for Jared to take:
1) He ignores the whole thing completely, because it's convenient. Most likely choice from my reading of the situation. We don't need to do anything here.
2) He feels adventurous and tries blackmail route. Whampiric disciplines, Raith family influence, our own budding power all make this, at best, a funny story to laugh with Rosie about.
3) He is a better person than we think, and goes to the police. The whole thing breaks apart, because our parents know all about it, and can testify, police officers (Murphy) know about it, and, hell, spooky illuminati government types also very likely know about it. And there's genuinely nothing nefarious or illegal going on.
But yeah, let's drop this for now. It's done, and we'll see how it shakes out.
Could we just accept that the money/company just does not matter, WOD is not a setup to handle complex legal stuff.
Five dot Merit. 15xp to buy, with a 50% discount if we train for it.
Lydia will probably get it before Molly now that she's bought Righteous Lion Defense + Thoughts of Oak because she can be assumed to do her own training off-screen.
If we can find 8xp we can buy it for her.
===
OR.
You call someone offsite(because mobile phones exist) and they sneak you an uncut stone from a batch of uncut stones that meets your request. I've seen people fall victim to variants of this scam before, just not with diamonds.
NO.
Your network will do you favors, and help you skip normal procedure in the event of actually important stuff.
Your frat buddies are not going to risk a federal felony charge by breaking financial laws to assuage your curiosity.
Thats not how leveraging your network works.
No Im not.
Based on the information given before the latest pair of updates? They invested effort; they got her graduated, they got her a private room in hospital, they are apparently paying her bills. Someone went to significant trouble they didnt have to.
Even the pressure to give the kid up for adoption is largekl apparently for her sake.
And I will repeat: Rosie is/was a heroin addict. In a home with minor children.
The risk of exposing them to illicit narcotics was non-zero. Not to mention that heroin isnt free, and Rosie had to be paying for hers somehow. She wasnt working a job or turning tricks, so she was either spending an allowance or stealing money.
The Wilsons could have legally and ethically barred her from their house at 18 and noone, not the law or other people, would have said shit about it. She gave them a legal and ethical pretext; they didnt take it.
One or both of them actually cares about her.
There are plenty of American teenagers who have been kicked out of their family home for less defensible reasons.
They are known to be synthetic.
They're of high enough quality we could pass them as natural if we wanted.
-No it isnt. I have pointed this out before: 50 year US stock market yield average is 10%/year.
If Molly inherited $500,000 when she was born, and her trust's executors parked it in US stock market index funds, that money would have doubled to $1 million by the time she was 8 years old, assuming average performance.
By the time she turned 18 that 500k would be $2.7 million.
Which would be an average return of $270,000 in 2006.
Reinvest a third of that, and you still have $180k to spend in a year. Which means you can drop 100k on Rosie, and still have 80k to spend personally. Strictly 3 million or less invested.
-A 30-year fixed mortgage for a $1 million dollar mansion in the United States at 3% fixed APR is a monthly mortgage payment of $4200 dollars. $54,000 a year. Well within the budget of a person with 180k yearly income off a trust.
Besides, frankly, we're not moving out of the Carpenter household in any kind of timeframe that has relevance to this issue.
-When ultraconservatives talk about the value of work, they mean that for the poors.
Rich people who inherited money? The children of rich people? Dont count. To risk a little politics here, Trump's male children havent done a day of honest work before. The Walton family of billionaires inherited their money. So did the Koch brothers.
They dont get condemnation for it.
==================================
All this is moot now.
But I think your effort in replying demanded that I try to respond and explain the issues I see.
COMMENTARY
-Hmm. I didnt realize the 12 year old was from a previous marriage. Which means Jared is either divorced or a widower.
Might wanna figure out which.
-Eh. Boys often fear their dads over their moms(or stepmoms).
Nothing unusual here.
-Noting that we know Rosie has step-siblings, plural, but the only one we have seen is the boy both times.
Wonder what gives.
Mrs Wilson was certainly young enough to have given birth after remarrying, so Rosie should have a sibling by blood.
-Jared's characterization here is very different than it was previously.
He was previously portrayed as opinionated, possibly misguided but apparently harmless; now he seems to be written as sleazy and vaguely sinister.
What changed? Are we just pinging all his "Senior Suit" instincts and he's unconsciously reacting as he would to more-senior management at work? Or is he just looking forward to off-loading bills to someone else?
-I dont hold it against him being attracted,; we deliberately dressed up to present as being a woman a decade older than we really are, and while he knows intellectually how old we are, he cant control unconscious reactions to a dressed up Exalt.
Its the rest I have issue sith.
-Mrs Wilson seems more or less unchanged.
Molly being uncharitable there; every family needs a Martha to keep things handled, and to keep the peace.
-I would prefer Rosie living at home for the protection of a strong threshold.
But if tensions are like this, we might consider getting her out quicker. If we can find a Cauldron member who will take the job of nanny, we rent (or buy, if its a house neighborhood instead of an apartment neighborhood) a place next to the Cauldron member's home, or in the same neighborhood, and park her there.
If Rosie complains about the size or living alone, offer Olivia half the house for nominal rent($1/month).
Install a home security system with cyberdevils in the electronics to peer out of the external cameras.
Id prefer to leave her the option of a lower profile, but just chucking her under Cauldron's umbrella is an option as well.
Hmm.
Of course he's eager.
We're offering to relieve him of yearly financial commitments in the five to six figures range. Just Rosie's delivery bill is probaboy north of 20k, even without complications. Nothing necessarily sinister about it.
His next oldest kid is 12, and doesnt go to Uni for another 6 years.
Thats an extra six years to save for retirement, or investments, or whatnot.
Does Molly strike you as someone who wants to be not pretty IC?
Even before the benefits of a higher Appearance score in supernatural diplomacy became manifesr, just pure teenage vanity made it clear that Molly likes being attractove.
Last edited:
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
Any nanny we get will almost certainly need to be in-the-know. Which... doesn't really hurt the job pool that much, honestly, considering the people we keep collecting.
taovkool
Forever Gone
- Location
- The Library, Department of General Works
[X] Nannies exist. Do you remember being three months old? I don't, the baby will be fine, won't even know you were gone
-[X] Later, use one of your photos with Rosie to see what she knows about Sandra Marling
-[X] Ask Rosie if she wants to meet some of the younger Order of Cauldron members
-[X] Later, use one of your photos with Rosie to see what she knows about Sandra Marling
-[X] Ask Rosie if she wants to meet some of the younger Order of Cauldron members
God not this. The con part is like ... the least important part of what she's saying by far.
- The dissolution of her friend group
- Molly being openly magical and exalted to her.
- Molly being rich
- Leaving home
- Pregnancy
- As a single mother
- general "I am an independent young adult"-ness
- Location
- Germany
[X] Yeah they have. Listen did Sandra ever say anything odd to you... or just anything that sticks out in your mind? It could be important.
OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Yeah they have. Listen did Sandra ever say anything odd to you... or just anything that sticks out in your mind? It could be important.
As I said you are incredibly generous in your interpretation of their motivations. Seen from another perspective, all these are aimed at minimizing the disruptions to Wilsons' lives. Minimize social embarrassment from anyone learning of Rosie's misdeeds, minimize internal strife and feelings of failure / guilt by not kicking her out, minimize long-term consequences by pressuring her to give the baby up (but, importantly, not to abort, because that, too, would be dosruptiveand potentially more scandalous).
You did just roll an inhuman 10 successes for social perception. It seems to Molly that this is who he is... and given that this is the case she is less charitable to Mrs Wilson for not standing up to him. She does recognize that it's uncharitable, but that does not stop the power imbalance here from rubbing her the wrong way in all the ways, especially as she is playing Jared. See it is easy...
Spoiler, it is not this easy if you do not cheat.
I feel at this point we're just rehashing points.
She's a drug addict, which means she brings illicit substances home. There are minor children in the house. Accidental overdoses are a thing.Any financial support will go to buying drugs. We're doing this for the sake of the children, to keep them safe.
Open and shut case.
Jared might even be able to claim it would threaten his job, depending on whether it required a security clearance.
Drug addicts are known to steal to pay for their habit, and anyone trying to target Jared would look at the drug addict stepdaughter.
Rosie gave them all the cover in the world to abandon her and come out smelling like roses for having done so.
Hell, even without going that far, if they wanted to minimize disruption to their lives they could have simply escalated to the point of ultimatums: get an abortion or dont return to my house.
Instead, she has been receiving prenatal care for the last four or five months, and its being discussed about whether she'll put the baby/babies up for adoption.
Instead of a hard ultimatum.
Someone cares enough about her to not push things along that far, and to make enough of a fuss that its more trouble than its worth to pressure Rosie beyond some limits. And Word of QM above suggests its not Jared.
By elimination, it appears to be her mother.
Fair enough.
So, if it requires 10 sux to see him this clearly, you have to factor in that potentially Jared is a better social chameleon than most people, including his spouse, would be able to see through. Hmm.
And of course Molly is unfair. Teenagers often lack insight.
I have more and more sympathies for Mrs Wilson and the situation she is in.
The appropriate response to that sort of ennui is reassurance, not ignoring the point altogether
Which is what the Con option is saying by insisting we can go to the Con anyway: Some things have changed, some things wont.
Last edited:
That assumes that anyone but them knows that she's a drug addict. Has she ever been in rehab? I don't actually remember, but it's possible that they are concealing the fact that she was addicted (was, because magic cheating to kick the habit).
I mentioned this before - start buying our the apartment complex where we put Bane in and start a whole little god court.
We should probably talk to Helen before doing that. Technically she has no basis to tell us not to, but it might come off as sort of invasive if we don't at least mention it to her first before buying out the building she lives in and doing weird magical stuff to it.
In terms of timing we should also be mindful of the Madrigal situation. Starting major projects touching the Ordo while he's still around causing trouble might end with something getting triggered early or him deciding to switch to a different target before we can catch him.
We should probably do an Ordo/vampire heavy turn after the skinwalker is dealt with if something urgent doesn't come up in the aftermath.