While it is true that the whites could get a plenty of people to serve as life-force batteries with just money or for that matter just with mundane charm sometimes a vampire does not just want a human to keep from starving, they want that human over there. In such cases more esoteric and forceful measures are often taken
Oh sure; I have no problem believing that.
There's even in-text support for that; Baroness Bianca canonically hated Thomas because she wanted Justine and Thomas stole her right out from under her, which is why her gift to him at the vampire ball in Grave Peril was an implicit threat.
I was speaking specifically to situations like this and events like this though.
You're going to see interchangeable party favors and not a given vampire's favored partner/coveted possession.
Except she's talking to Dresden, and he isn't without his biases.
Being up front about saving her sister isn't the same as doing so on her party favors. Considering the average whamp attitude towards humans, namely that they aren't people they're food, I doubt they go to much trouble on moral grounds to respect their will or dignity. They simply don't care that much - or really at all - about this.
I mean do you seriously expect me to buy that if one of those people had stood up and said "actually, I'd like to go home now" that they'd get to walk away?
I can believe they go with low effort enticement to catch people, but then treat them like property and use force or mind powers as appropriate to keep them compliant. Like what we just saw happening.
Don't buy into their fig leaf just because it's convenient for us to believe it while working with them.
Edit:
On the thing about her word; that means when she explicitly makes a promise she doesn't break it. That's all that it means, not that she doesn't lie or mislead. That's why people in the supernatural routinely ask for explicit promises even from people with good reputations. If you accept something without an oath to it then that's your problem.
1) His having his biases doesnt actually change the fact that he's a wizard. With a wizard's skillset. Lara Raith lived in the same household with his mother for years, if not decades; she has a better idea than most of just how wide a net a wizard can cast for information. I dont see her telling him a direct lie like that.
2) Its not about their respect for human free will, its about their willingness to bother themselves over any particular mortal.
Or indeed to risk drawing attention. For example, when someone beat a Malvora to death with his bare hands in the short story Jury Duty, they didnt have the guy assassinated, they just had the DA going after him for murder.
3) Depends. In the quote I pulled from White Night? Quite likely yes; the people outside in white kimonos dont know anything, and to non-clued in external observers its just going to look like a kinky sex party with escorts and on-site security, with any discrepancies largely blamed on drug use. Decadent rich people shit.
People who are already inside the family, like the ones allowed inside the Raith Deeps? Or Eleanor Barrowill over here?
Are likely to find it harder to separate.
So do we want to put this guy on a list for later?
We formed a nonaggression pact but that doesn't mean we can't do things in the social, political, and financial spheres. Probably by design because that's where the court is strongest.
This guy isn't any different from many of his peers, but we do need to start somewhere in terms of building influence and once the complications of this event are out of the way it might as well be him. Financial investments with rivals of more tolerable mindsets, support for the political enemies of his cutouts, information brokering about his operations and those of people like him, that sort of thing.
We could probably dig up some spicy Roman era lore that would be very valuable to the various elders if we wanted to. That's always a popular trade good. Done right we'd never technically be working against the court, and an insider would always be benefiting enough to give us cover anyway, but things we don't like would still become unprofitable and the people doing them unhealthy to associate with.
Why? He doesnt live or operate in Chicago.
Charles Barrowill is canonically a pretty big oil guy out of Oklahoma, and he's in the city for this party. His economic interests are way out of our normal stomping grounds and we'd need to go well out of our way to get them to intersect.
None of this has any immediate bearing on our short to medium-term operations, and after tonight, he'll probably want to avoid drawing Molly or Lydia's hostile attention anyway. Like I said before, he's probably had too much to drink, or maybe smoke; he is unlikely to be doing this here, in this manner, otherwise.
I'd straight up ignore him unless he tries to pull a Madrigal Raith and play fuckfuck games.
COMMENTARY
Ah, there's the rub.
Lara taking the opportunity to demonstrate to Lydia that its never quite as simple as punching people in the face to fix all the problems. And simultaneously face-slapping Charles in public for decorum, or lack of it.
And when he's sobered up, he's probably going to have to thank her for saving his life.
Lara stays winning
Lydia having taken formal responsibility for this woman, she needs to see it through. Its a reputation thing now.
Okay. She's going to need a place to stay, a good divorce lawyer, maybe rehab assuming she's actually an addict(she may not be), and probably psych counselling of some sort to figure out her life. As well as a financial planner.
Probably send her home to Charity for tonight(Chez Carpenter has a guest room), and sort out other things in the daytime.
Ah, drug use. One of Molly's buttons.
Charles Barrowill may be a White Court vampire and a controlling bastard, but fair's fair, I wouldnt want the stepmother of my high-school age daughter to be a drug-user. Then again, I wouldnt pass that person around like a set of trading cards either.
Its probably not a good idea to assume Eleanor is necessarily a good person just because she's a White Court victim.
I dont think the QM will throw that sort of wrinkle at us here, but its something to keep in mind.
Victims arent necessarily saints, just human.
Lydia just turned 16 on Halloween, btw.
[X] Let Eleanor stay, she is probably safer under your eye and Lydia's than elsewhere and it's not like you are about to kill Charles, much as that might appeal
So, yeah, this was social judo, and the guy seems to have come out ahead of it. Anyone wants to bet that there are legal documents meaning she gets nothing in the divorce? And there's also a daughter who she clearly cares about. I wonder if the daughter is a whampire-blooded, or a full mortal. Both situations can be bad in their own way. We'll need to ask Isabela.
Letting her stay lets her see us unleash power unmatched and slaughter a lot of people who she probably thinks are untouchable right now. That's probably good for perspective.
1) He just got ordered to back down to a 16-year old, and is being compelled to divorce the lady in front of his peers.
Not to mention if she's in her 30s/40s, she's been married to him for years now, was probably the one raising his daughter, and probably knows where more than a few bodies are buried. Possibly literally.
I dont know how you can look at that and say he came out ahead.
2) Connie Barrowill is canonically important because she is in-universe demonstration that a White Court vampire can fledge without killing her first partner if her partner has sufficient life force. Its not a Must Kill, just a "sufficient power" situation.
She hooked up with a Bigfoot scion, and the dude had life force(and Power) to spare.
3) Raiths are apparently raised without knowing they are part-vampires.
Inari Raith wasnt an exception, she was the rule. Connie canonically didnt know she was a vampire AFTER awakening.
4)The less Eleanor Barrowill sees, the less risk she is at from the wider White Court.
And frankly I prefer fewer mortal witnesses to Molly shanking a couple bitches.
People treat you differently when they realize you have killed people.
5)Yes, there's probably a prenup that limits what, if anything she gets from a divorce. Especially if he's the sort to keep blackmail files, according to Eleanor. Then again, he might have been so arrogant that he didnt think it was necessary for the dude with Presence. You wont know until you check.
Regardless? Browbeating a seven-figure divorce settlement out of him shouldnt be too hard. A five million dollar divorce settlement invested at 5% returns will give her 250k a year, which should serve as a comfortably upper middle-class backstop while she figures out what she does with her life. Sic Thomas on that; he can navigate White Court shit, and point at a clued-in lawyer.
