Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)
- Thread starter DragonParadox
- Start date
- Crossover Fantasy
- Location
- washington
I'm unsure how much mab really cares about the masquerade dragonparadox fae could do decently well with or without it.
Edit: They exited just fine before it and the masquerade is a relatively recent thing they abuse it and use it of course and would abuse a new status quo just the same.
Edit: They exited just fine before it and the masquerade is a relatively recent thing they abuse it and use it of course and would abuse a new status quo just the same.
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- Location
- washington
Also unsure mab could legally attack them shes literally a being of her word and without doing something like violating the accords not sure they can actually attack white council directly.
- Location
- Who knows?
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They already know he's innocent and are arresting him anyways. More proof of innocence isn't gonna help much methinks.
And if a war did break out Molly honestly gets zero or even anticredit since I'd think the White Council would 100% want to retaliate against one of theirs getting yoinked regardless of what the weird not-human tells them to do or not do. And on the other side she obviously was telling the FBI to not take Dresden. Also a lot of votes are based around "so how do we defuse this BEFORE the Council freaks the fuck out." Saying she's to blame if shit goes hot feels like saying WWI is directly the fault of the person who wasn't convincing enough in telling Gavrilo Princip to not shoot the Archduke.
They already know he's innocent and are arresting him anyways. More proof of innocence isn't gonna help much methinks.
The Crown does not provide future action plans! It gives information, and then you decide on what to do with it! Else there's no point in any vote ever as you can stare at things and start asking questions like you have discount Path to Victory! Even if we asked about their motivation, it'd still likely come to this vote of "so, what you wanna do about it?"
Dude, your salt levels are honestly ridiculous. And no, don't try to play coy I've seen you do this specifically here (and other quests) when people don't follow your specific moral or "competency" standards. I really don't think it's fair to say its pure "protagonist centered mentality" to look askance at people who can very easily look up Dresden openly advertising as a goddamn wizard for the past few years, can pull up like a dozen different records that show he's cool working for mundane government authories and still go "yeah, lets force his hand with bs murder charges!" Seriously, the second point is what aggravates me the most. Yeah sure, the FBI doesn't know him personally and maybe he's a frothing magic supremacist on the level of Death Eaters who needs a firm hand. But like its a very much an inarguable fact that Dresden has been hired by Chicago PD in the past which kinda inherently implies the potential for willing cooperation.
And if a war did break out Molly honestly gets zero or even anticredit since I'd think the White Council would 100% want to retaliate against one of theirs getting yoinked regardless of what the weird not-human tells them to do or not do. And on the other side she obviously was telling the FBI to not take Dresden. Also a lot of votes are based around "so how do we defuse this BEFORE the Council freaks the fuck out." Saying she's to blame if shit goes hot feels like saying WWI is directly the fault of the person who wasn't convincing enough in telling Gavrilo Princip to not shoot the Archduke.
- Location
- Earth
CPD doesn't know it. And if they want to go through, introducing doubt into their strong-arming attempts foundations can undermine the agents.
Natural disasters start to look a whole lot less natural if you stack enough for them to destroy the US while trying to minimize damage to the rest of the world. One's best case for doing that would be to take a long terms approach and damage faith in the state while sowing discontent and secessionist movements. That would actually be subtle.
OK so we are going to Father Forthil, but not asking for the big guns yet.
COMMENTARY
-Dresden's arrest on Friday means he probably isnt getting bail before Monday. Someone wanted him in jail over the weekend.
Molly is going to have to remember to look in on Mouse. He doesnt need the care, but could probably appreciate the company.
Plus, thumbs would help feed Mister the cat and empty out the litterbox.
-Dresden is a White Council wizard, so he's hardly ever unarmed.
Regardless, spending time in Chicago's jail system without his magic paraphernalia means he's vulnerable. No force rings, no blasting rod, no trenchcoat of protection, no staff. If there's a hit, this is a good spot.
Need to talk to Murphy.
-I get the impression that Wright thinks Molls has clairvoyance. Given their apparent attitude towards recruitment, that sounds very much like a warning not to come to the attention of law enforcement with that talent. Especially since he didnt actually mention meeting Molly on his later phone call to a superior, despite their complaining about a lack of espers.
That said, Wright is a field agent, and so a mushroom. Kept in the dark and covered in shit. We need to keep that in mind.
-That said?
The fact that their preferred method of attempted recruitment is with a false murder charge means the entire corporate organization is sus, regardless of whether it might have some good people in it or not.
The idea of a magical employee being resentful towards his employers should horrify anyone who even reads fairytales.
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Big red flag right there.
-The Library of Congress is old, dating back to its founding in 1800. The kind of organization the WC would have contacts with.
The FBI was founded in its initial form in 1908. We are very much looking at a situation where the LoC is not sharing everything it knows or suspects with the Daedalus people.
And the fact that the Library are repeatedly removing the few talents out of control of the NSB people to rear area jobs is also suggestive.
-Class 4 Wright? A ghost? I dont buy it.
I mean, a ghost would fit with the perp being Nazi necromancers. But the only ghosts we have ever seen strong enough to commit a physical murder and dismemberment and then move the body were from the sorcerer Kravos literally committing suicide in a ritual to empower his own ghost as an instrument of revenge.
It was only created under a particular set of very conspicuous circumstances.
And it wasnt a shapeshifter; had to consume Dresden's magic power to assume his form.
Even the Capriocorpus couldnt pull that bullshit.
-Someone else has said it here, but I will reiterate: By their fruits shall ye know them.
An organization whose preferred corporate recruiting strategy is blackmail via false murder charges is bad juju, regardless of how high-minded their alleged mission is.
And it makes you ask questions about just why they have so few espers working with them.
Especially when a lot of people will take work for a steady check.
-Jackpot. We have Agent Wright's entire phone contact list and email list.
Which gives us a wide snapshot of the Daedalus working group, and a lot of agent identities, phones and emails to target.
This on its own justifies prioritizing Hollow Mind Possession, and makes a strong argument for buying Allies 2(Cyberdevils) as a immediate priority.
Time to find out if Crown of Eyes works over the phone.
Go to a public library or a coffeeshop without surveillance cameras, connect to the open wifi, then make calls through a caller ID spoofing service like swatters and spammers use. Dont talk yourself; just have Clippy make the phone call as a spam caller asking them about their cars extended warranty, and meantime Molly can focus on the voice.
Even if Crown of Eyes doesnt work on a person's voice, getting a voice sample from every one of them will help with identification if any of them speak around Molly in the future.
Start with Agent Cole. Dude is very sus.
-We finally have a good reason to put cyberdevils on satellites, if there are shady natsec people around.
Chicago's Adler Planetarium has an optical telescope available to the public for viewing the night sky on Wednesday nights; 24 inch now, but it was 20 inch in 2006.
Download a map of comm sat orbits, picking a couple, go look through the telescope and put devils on them will give us a hub for making untraceable calls and communications. And the communications/internet access means the devils are never bored.
-Also, Molly needs to upgrade her phone.
Either squeeze new parts into her old phone, or buy a new one and move Clippy over.
Or she could just wait for Jobs to launch the Iphone in 2007.
In the meantime, Clippy could use Mediafire or Megaupload to store downloaded files.
Just make multiple free accounts.
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Yzarc
The Spark of Madness
We will be telling him what we have found so far?
Yes, though you will not mention the precise nature of Clippy and Co.
- Location
- Earth
Those demons are perfectly loyal and safe, trust me!
- Location
- Norway
I feel like you're jumping to conclusions here.
It's certainly possible that they're doing that.
I think it's also possible that there is no "they" organized enough to do that, there's one guy ordering Dresden's arrest for murder, a second guy giving orders to recruit Dresden out from under the first guy, and several different minions stepping on each other's toes - because the combination of Masquerade nonsense with government classified materials means the minions are going to have a lot of problems from being unable to talk to each other. IMO, we don't know enough to say yet.
Let's eavesdrop on them some more and read through the stolen phone files for useful information, I don't think we had time to read everything Clippy&Co found for us already.
Back in the 1300s? Yes it was.
A lot of people considered it the work of the supernatural, or alternatively God's judgement for *insert X here*
The whole mindset of viewing nature as a predictable machine is pretty new, and not universally accepted among the general public even now.
The Fallen dont wield the power of angels any longer. Not since they rebelled.
I dont know where they currently sit on the tier list, but I would be very amused if Anduriel tried to match strength with Mab on Earth and got pasted for his trouble.
Besides, its Mab.
Coming at an enemy indirectly is something she excels at, as we see in Skin Game.
So, asteroid drop then? Or disease pandemic?
Meteor shower over the US with big rocks breaks everything
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There is also the fact that the Black Death in no way inconvenienced Mab, or the vampires, or anyone else important on the spooky side, a breach of the masquerade in the modern world would, there is a reason calling the cops is seen as the nuclear option in Dresden's words.
A pandemic would work, though I am not sure Ebenezer has the skills to make one, he is not a biomancer. Also it would have a lot of colateral damage and so would the asteroid, enough so that other wizards would likely try to stop him for humanitarian reasons unless the US government had put out a hit on all their heads or something.
- Location
- Earth
Indeed. Finding out who did that, if we can prove it, would make a lot of problems for whoever did that on the supernatural side.
Did it inconvenience Mab? Unlikely.
Vzmpires? It must have IMO. They all feed on people; a global population drop was always a bad thing. Especially as certain vampire strains seem geographically limited; no Jade Court outside Asia, and the Reds and Blacks seem to have been unable to establish a foothold in Africa or Asia.
No idea bout the rest. They might even approve.
I assume he'd contract out.
Just like the Reds contracted out for the chemical weapons they used in the Congo. Hell, talk to the diabolists, explain why you want it and they'd probably do it for free just for the chaos.
But yeah, other wizards would try to stop him.
Whether they'd succeed in stopping him before he finished disassrmbling America? Different matter.
They could not have done anything else without putting themselves into a position of weakness and exposing the fact that they know of magic from the get go. I don't know what government institutions you have dealt with in your life, but I honestly can't think of how they could have plausibly done this in a softer way.
- Location
- washington
black death arguably strengthened mab while it was around in the short term as violence and survival and a lot of nasty stuff empower winter while summer is culture in a lot of ways and beauty. Black plague probably temp made winter stronger.
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- Location
- washington
now to say no inconvenience is probably wrong since other factions than white council can and do involve in politics or at least dealing with certain groups so black death probably inconvenienced them. Also what uju said.
- Location
- Germany
Literally hired him at his normal rates, at any point before the alleged murder.
Dude was a freelancer for hire for at least five years as of 2006.
Chicago SI hired him repeatedly, as did multiple private individuals. The idea they did not have options is empirically false.
The whole "they were forced to do it because they could not afford to look weak" is always a lie that corrupt institutions tell themselves to justify savagery. They were always in that position of weakness, and every supernatural faction knew it; the idea that the other party is unaware of attemps to hire occult experts is the sort of hubris that has doomed many an operation in the field.
A coerced wizard as your employee in the Dresdenverse is only marginally less dangerous than a coerced Tinker as your employee in Worm. This isnt like hiring Nazi scientists after WW2, where you have physics grads as their understudies; you dont have anyone to check his work.
You could walk into work one morning only to find out he's sold your entire agency as blood sacrifices to demons.
Or cut a deal with someone else for much less onerous terms.
Or just spite.
And it does you longlasting reputational damage in the greater magical community, which they KNOW exists at this point.
Winning Vote
Arc 2 Post 16: Pro Bono
Pro Bono
21st of July 2006 A.D.
It's not that you lack for ideas as you stare at Clippy and your near empty coffee cup, you have all sorts of ideas, from threatening phone calls, to actually trying to reason with Wright and his lot to getting Father Forthil to call in the White Council and let them handle it since it can't be the first time something like this happened to them and if they were in the habit of hanging their members out to dry pretty soon they would not have members.
But you do not really want to fight the NSB or Daedauls or whatever they are called, you want to get Harry out and his name cleared and for that you need to know what they are holding him on beyond 'someone who looked like him was filmed dumping Greene's body in the lake'. There is really only one legal mind you can call on safely with all this stuff...
***
Father Forthil sets Clippy aside gingerly as though he is afraid she will explode, or maybe that he will hurt her. Thankfully he seems to have bought the 'helper kami' redefinition. Not that I was lying to him, you remind yourself, that's just branding. Clippy and her kin fit the broad definition of animistic spirits and they are inherently helpful to me.
"Well that is certainly not admissible in court," he says with a shake of his head and a weary smile that quickly fades into a more serious expression. "The last time a three letter US agency tried to intervene in the world of magic it ended poorly for everyone..."
"The CIA, back in the sixties right? Dad told me about that, they ended up summoning demons."
"Right," he nods. "At a guess it probably took them a generation before someone else even thought of trying again, maybe they found some old files, maybe someone high up enough obtained enough proof to start digging. The when does not really matter for us right now, what does matter is the talk of wipes and containment."
"Wright said they were only going to do a wipe if Harry cooperates and well... the Fallen start making snowmen in Hell before that happens."
He snorts a little in his tea at the unexpected mental image . "Indeed, but you have to remember how the legal system works as well. As satisfying as it is to play Hercule Poirot when one is seeking evidence to exonerate someone all you need is reasonable doubt, a strong alibi. If for instance you could find camera footage of Harry out where you in Menominee with a timestamp close enough to the one the police have that Harry could not have been where the latter places him then you will have undermined their case. If you have solid enough witnesses to his presence there it's similarly troublesome for any prosecution."
"But the recording and the fingerprints will still be there," you point out, letting your worry show fully for the same time. For all your power you don't think you can take on the whole of the government yet, or for that matter than you even want to.
"That would be an uncanny contradiction, the kind that gets buried with SI, or in this case with the NSB. The standard here is not just a reasonable doubt but a reasonable capacity to reveal too much in a public trial, and what happen to Greene would ensure a high profile trial. That would force them to bury the whole thing before trial and given their disinclination to get into a conflict with the White Council the path they are almost certain to choose is to vanish the falsified evidence anyway without trying to compel Harry."
"Are you saying we should blackmail them?" you blurt out startled.
"I would prefer not to get that far," he sighs. "But this is very much an instance of he who lives by the sword perishes by the sword. Far better to force the hand of those who have already proven they have no concern for the law they pledge to uphold then to let an innocent man be condemned."
"That will make them an enemy," you point out.
"I have no secrets for them to use against me. If this organization should choose to use its time against me rather than against those who are actually victimizing people then I mourn for their folly."
"You're willing to represent Harry?" You ask. True you had hoped he would but it is a relief to hear confirmation.
"He is an innocent man being framed with a heinous crime, for that alone I would do it, to say nothing of all the good he did," the priest replies simply.
What do you do next?
[] Accompany Father Forthil to the police station when he meets with Harry, if he is willing to have his phone improved you could talk to Harry through it without fear of the tech-bane
[] Go back to Menominee, start looking for that alibi
[] Ask Father Forthil to contact the White Council with the information if he can
[] Go back to Harry's place, make sure Mouse's OK and no on e tried to break in
[] Write in
OOC: Welp you got Harry a lawyer at least, now to give him something to work with.
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[X] Go back to Menominee, start looking for that alibi
Holy lawyer acquired. Can I get an Amen 🙏
Holy lawyer acquired. Can I get an Amen 🙏