As high power defensive mewt shields. And yes, we absolutely need additional firepower, and additional defenses, and a lot of them.
Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
Winning Vote
Arc 10 Post 44: To Enrich the Spirit
To Enrich the Spirit
26th of December 2006 A.D.
On the one hand you would rather be having any other conversation than this one, on the other its better than what you feared. It's not like she's telling you to give up, just be careful. It makes sense, with all the responsibilities and the risks it makes sense. Gratitude does not come easily, but it does come in the end. "Thanks er... Tiffany?" The end of the sentence is left hanging just a tad, in case she's decided on a last name to go with it.
"Soon to be Tiffany MacNeil." comes the answer, a sly smile lurking in her eyes.
Wait, that name rings a bell. "The Exorcist, seriously?"
"It is a common enough name, anyone who gets the joke already knows far more than that, for better or for worse," she defends herself, a moment later adding: "Harry didn't get it, I don't think he ever saw the movie."
"Aren't you supposed to be old and wise?" you jokingly accuse.
"It depends. Am I older than this age of Creation, am I two thousand years and more? Or am I three years, three days even?" Her smile grows with an edge of satisfaction. "Alone I am among my kind so the judgement is mine to make and I am minded to change it as the mood strikes me?"
"I knew silver was a good metal for you." you muse. "Listen do you need...?"
"No," she cuts you off. "I am not looking for vassalage or charity right now. Once I am on my feet and can make a proper offer we will speak, but not yet. After the new year." She glances down at Mister now sound asleep, still purring softly in the midst of dreams of chasing mice... or maybe in his case capybaras. "This however requires immediate aid."
Lost 1 Essence (MHM) -> Now at 12/15
So the mark between your eyes sputters as you reach out with unseen hands to cradle the cat in question and carefully place him onto the couch so Lash might join Harry and you in the lab. No sooner had she come down the ladder than you hear a familiar spirit's voice: "So have you been thinking about that check up?"
Followed by the equally familiar warning of: "Bob."
As you maneuver the computer and the books down Tiffany soon-to-be-MacNeil places one finger on her chin in thought. "Molly you are the one who made this body, what do you think, does it require a thorough second opinion?"
"When you say thorough ...?" you ask playing along, Harry's expression is too funny not to.
"Clothes of course would get in the way, so said he," Tiffany replies in like tone.
"How long did it take him to propose this scholarly inquiry?" you ask curiously.
"Twenty minutes. Mind it took him ten of those minutes to calm down once he realized who I was," she answers, pauses to think for a moment, leaning against her wall, weighting the box of books with her gaze. "Can I have one?"
"Is this a trick question?" The fires of Bob's eyes leap and curl suspiciously. "Am I going to get cursed if I say no? Nah you're too nice for that Molly, right? That is how nice works?" Before you can answer he offers generously. "Sure you can take one."
"Definitely not fey anymore, noted," Lash murmurs as she picks up a book with a gurvel in an open top six-wheeled rover on the front cover. The words Taming the Fiery Heart are spelled out on the front in Seeker-Speech.
"Merry Christmas Bob, it's a romance collection and also— " you glance around looking for an outlet and finding none. "As soon as I get some cables down here a computer so Harry can ah... research cases."
That earns a roll of the eyes from the wizard in question, not that his assistant seems to notice: "Woah, this can't be my prayers being answered, I'm pretty sure I can't pray for stuff," Bob says giddily.
"Want to put that to the test?" Tiffany, Tiff maybe, asks idly, looking up from leafing through the book.
"No!" Harry and Bob exclaim at the same time and about at the same volume.
That is how you come to spend the next hour setting up the computer and the three hours after that teaching a wizard, a spirit of intellect and a rebellious shadow of a rebel angel how to operate a computer, a process which becomes admittedly more complicated when Harry allows Bob to jump into the computer, leading to him frolicking under the desktop like a dolphin in the sea.
What do you do next?
[] Deliver the remainder of your gifts
[] Speak to Charity
[] Write in
OOC: We have had two short-ish updates today instead of one long one since we are in the wrap up for this month. You guys might want to start thinking about plans for XP spending soon.
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OctarineShrike
Avatar of Mandos
[X] Speak to Charity
I'm sort of surprised he calmed down that quickly. We're talking a whole new type of cheating bullshit demon with a significant amount of secret fallen angel knowledge.
Seems like the sort of thing that'd take longer to get over.
Goldfish
Friendly Spider-Fish Abomination
- Location
- Formerly of the Far Realm
Mister: "I am an equal opportunity feline murder machine. A rodent is a rodent, after all."
Remember how he reacted to various Molly-related doings? Bob is not sensible.
- Location
- Germany
To be fair, he knew more about Lash than anyone except Harry for years now.
Sure, we broke a paradigm, by giving her a body with active demon-abilities, but the person behind that hasn't changed much.
So he basically saved most of the freakout over Lash existing at all.
Dmol8
The Undead Unhinged Lunatic of the Web
- Location
- Belgrade,Serbia
- Pronouns
- He/Him/His
Underlined errors in order of reading are:
On not One
setting not seating, the computer is not sentient in the moment of the sentence.
On not One
setting not seating, the computer is not sentient in the moment of the sentence.
Fixed, thanks.
Human-God-Demon or not, it's clear that Mister has already taught her the proper pecking order between cats and their hoomins.
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I cant see how.
The Winter mantle might stoke libido, but not affection.
And in Cold Case, which was a Molly PoV story, she's not intrinsically against snogging Carlos either.
Itsover9000.gifHow much exp do you think making an experienced whamp blush is worth?
.......
Nah. I dont agree.
Most of the foundational experiences already exist, up to and including Harry going to bat for her against the cops, coming to Arctis Tor and attempting to accept the Doom of Damocles for her sake.
And in this AU, the Crown and her Occult scores give her a clearer view and much better appreciation of the risks he's run for her sake and that of her family, and a largely unsuspecting Chicago.
If anything, I suspect her feelings are stronger here than in canon.
Do remember that in canon, she had no idea that Dresden grabbed Lasciel's Coin in order to save her brother from the same fate.
Indeed, she never knew he'd ever carried a Coin, never mind having held one for three years without being turned by the Fallen; the only mortals who knew were Michael, Billy and Georgia.
And here, he still jumps when she calls.
Definitely.
I dont especially buy that.
Take a look at what already exists in the station, from the fixed defenses to the dragonfly drones.
The type of threat that overmatches whats there isnt going to be particularly bothered by throwing more mooks into the fray.
Im up for getting Porter his train because we promised, and because it improves coverage against mid-tier threats.
But Im under no illusions about its ability to stop or even meaningfully delay a serious assault by any major heavy hitters.
The point is to prevent them being able to pull a mook rush with disposable forces.
COMMENTARY
Ah, His Nibs already has her house trained.
Tiffany McNeill huh.
Well, someone certainly has a sense of humor. I still have to say, she still doesnt feel like a Tiffany.
I'd buy a Theophania, yes, but not Tiffany.
Remains to be seen what the other names she chooses are, and if there'll be a longform of Lash in there somewhere.
Both Dresden and Molly have four names(Harry Blackstone Copperfield Dresden and Margaret Katherine Amanda Carpenter respectively), and given how a lot of magic works in the Dresedenverse, people with longer names have certain advantages with regards to self-protection.
Im expecting she goes with six of them. Especially since she's probably Linguistics Yes.
It does make me wonder what Lydia's other names are. No way her father only gave her one name in this setting.
That would be a disability for a supernatural.
Lol Bob.
Threat assessment.
He was there when Harry buried Lasciel's Coin, and would have been one of the first people to see Dresden after Molly exorcised him, as well as the first person to see him digging up the Coin to take it to Forthill.
After the initial freakout, he's going to have figured that it was Molly's work, and that Molly was not going to send an active danger with Harry. Plus, Mouse as a gut check.
Objection.Remember how he reacted to various Molly-related doings? Bob is not sensible.
Bob is quite sensible. Impeccably tuned threat radar on that one. He didnt survive the Winter Court and multiple wizards, including at least two dark wizards, without it.
I mean, you've never seen him commenting on Mab's assets, have you?
Unlike Harry, actually, who had the mental bandwith to mentally comment on the ass of the Queen of Air and Darkness at their first encounter in Summer Knight. After she'd made him stab himself through the hand.
Note that Molly used to use Dresden's underground lab in canon, and she never knew the skull on the shelf was more than some bizarre artifact until the events of Changes.
Luccio didnt either while she was dating him. Only Karrin does, and Bob doesnt make comments about her.
The doom wasn't actually taken up though, and it's not like Harry was hanging out with her that much prior to this.
They don't have years of reinforcing experience; cases, lessons, close calls, and all the rest. Right now in a lot of ways she barely knows Harry even if her social skills let her read him like a book.
The offer was on the table though, as confirmed by Lash. And its the thought that counts with this.
Dresden has put his life and potentially soul on the line for her at least twice in the last six months with major powers; Arctis Tor, and the Will of Kakuri's daytrip to Chicago. Has run interference with the White Council, unasked.
And unlike in canon, she has the knowledge to appreciate what that means.
Thats why I suspect that said crush/Intimacy is rather more solid than you are giving it credit for.
Old Byzantine in origin, but a Greek name today.
Theophania is not among the 200 commonest names in US girls born in the 1980s according to Social Security,(Tiffany is, mind) but not likely to be entirely unknown in a country with 1.2-3 million Greek-Americans and at least a quarter million Greek speakers.
Not that Americans care; standout names have been a thing in the land of immigrants since forever.
Its just me quibbling though.
Names are important to supernaturals, but she can call herself whatever she's comfortable with IC.
Modus_Tollens
SCREAMING AT THE APOCALYPSE
- Location
- ALSO SCREAMING.
There is also a reasonable chance she is saving her good name ideas for later. This might well be a burner identity depending on how things go with the Denarian clownshow when it arrives and she might expect to have to drop it and run. Which would be sensible and wouldn't need to be a betrayal of Harry or ourselves, just a result of shit going south enough that we can't keep our part of the bargain.
I don't mind her being pragmatic. I specifically don't want her to put herself in a bad position for our sake. Better to put together the game board so that helping us is a legitimate winning move instead.
Its a solid intimacy on his part. Its just that that doesn't directly translate to 'something I want to put my penis into' without a fair bit of mental dissonance.
We were the kid of the best man he ever knew, a surprisingly powerful fuckup who fucked up reminiscent to how he fucked up, a whole pile of issues that are resolving themselves in weird ways, a damsel in distress turned battle brother turned peer to the head of the Council, someone who owes him and who he owes in a hard to define and extremely convoluted power dynamic. Little girl, young woman, icy-fleshed angel of inhuman perfection, friendly neighborhood eldritch horror?
He sure as fuck feels something. He doesn't know what, exactly, and any hole he could slot us into in his head is unlikely to fit quite right. It might actually have been easier to form a relationship if we had less history together. If we tried to go romancing the fellow right now we might pull it off but it would be uncomfortable for him, for more reasons than ice crystals in his foreskin, and thus it would be uncomfortable for us.
[X] Deliver the remainder of your gifts
We are speaking to Mom... but it deserves our undivided attention and a longer block of time than we could allot her if we just threw it in the middle of everything. It needs to be the last thing so she gets the whole of it.
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Forgot to vote:
VOTE
[X] Modus_Tellens
@Modus_Tollens has a point.
When we talk to Charity, we want to be uninterrupted. And narratively, it makes for a good bookend to both this arc, and the year IC to have the last action be a quiet heart to heart with her mother.
Then again, she did introduce herself as Tiffany the first time we met her, so odds are its more than just a throwaway.
Furthermore, Harry Named her Lash.
Thats not something she can change fast or easily, if I understand how the Starborn thing works and Uriel's response to Harry trying the same thing with him. And odds are she wont want to.
But I wasnt arguing how Harry saw it, just how Molly sees it. Based on characterization, she's not the type of person to get pushy about this sort of thing. But neither is she the sort of person that changes their mind much, if at all; those clashes with Charity wouldnt have happened otherwise.
VOTE
[X] Modus_Tellens
@Modus_Tollens has a point.
When we talk to Charity, we want to be uninterrupted. And narratively, it makes for a good bookend to both this arc, and the year IC to have the last action be a quiet heart to heart with her mother.
Possible.
Then again, she did introduce herself as Tiffany the first time we met her, so odds are its more than just a throwaway.
Furthermore, Harry Named her Lash.
Thats not something she can change fast or easily, if I understand how the Starborn thing works and Uriel's response to Harry trying the same thing with him. And odds are she wont want to.
Oh sure.
But I wasnt arguing how Harry saw it, just how Molly sees it. Based on characterization, she's not the type of person to get pushy about this sort of thing. But neither is she the sort of person that changes their mind much, if at all; those clashes with Charity wouldnt have happened otherwise.
I'm not saying there's nothing there, but there's a reason it's a crush and not love. Risk taking on someone's behalf isn't a romantic relationship. It isn't really a relationship at all. Without years to establish an actual dynamic and translate the initial impression into something of substance it's a lot shallower than you're presenting it to be.
Late game Molly and early Molly aren't the same, and her relationship with Dresden wasn't some cast iron block which survived all that time and trouble; it was something grown and shaped by them.
- Location
- Germany
[X] Deliver the remainder of your gifts
OK gift delivery it is. Vote closed