Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

In Bonds of Silk ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Not for the first time you consider drawing your sword then and there, surprise would serve you against the elder surely and, as your dark counsel is quick to remind you, it will likely serve him well against you. Yet as you weigh that risk against the prospect of dealing with a very human-like body and a likely distraught younger vampire you realize you do not even know what the prize of this whole game is, all you have is the name of the vampire who had set the elder on his task and the rough shape of the crime. A lot can go into the words 'human trafficking', you need to know how bad it is...

So it is that with a glance at the woman who had been by turn employed by vampires, almost killed by them and then at last healed you ask: What did your investigations reveal?

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 6/12

Names, dates, pictures, false IDs and lines on maps flash through your mind and you begin to see the shape of it.

The White Court has always known the desires of the powerful and it has always known them, but long before the first far venturing fur trader had glimpsed the flash of the sun in the waters of Lake Michigan, before the first galleon made it across the Atlantic even they had learned not to put themselves too far forward. Powerful men often turn against lovers be they so carefully cultivated to suit them, resentful, suspicious. And so the incubus, the succubus had taken a step back for the most part, becoming purveyors of vice at one remove, a web of brothels and escort services, health spas and massage parlors, designed not to appear to the public at large but to the elite, particularly the political elite, though some of those files also include the military, high finance and, most distastefully, religious reasons. Most of the people being used this way are in some way beholden to their 'benefactors', whether they are in the country illegally or had some other reason to leave their old lives behind. Hooks behind hooks....

There is not a shred of doubt in your mind that the dirt in those files and now in your head is enough to start a dozen sex scandals and it would be more if you had some of the pictures and documents rather than just knowing they exist.

Among all the flurry of secrets the name of one of the folder hints at what Agent Greene was planning to do with it. 'October Surprise'. Maybe if you had not just been bombarded with the names of influential politicians you would have missed the context, but not now. She was planning to set it all off just before the elections this November.

I could almost admire... no, you do admire Agent Greene's guts. If only she weren't the sort of person who had been content to work with the Raiths before she came to believe they had killed her husband.

Regained 2 Essence -> 8/12

What do you do?

[] Introduce yourself properly, this charade has run its course

[] Offer to wipe the files, you already have a good portion of the material just by knowing what's in them

[] Kill the elder vampire, he's too dangerous to let live

[] Write in

OOC: So you know how Lara was able to call in a rescue helicopter on short notice, this is part of it, this is how the White Court have been infiltrating centers of power since the days of the Roman Republic.

 

[DragonParadox]

Shadow Game ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Things would be so much easier if the monsters weren't so fond of talking, the glib thought passes through your mind on gilded wings only to be swallowed by a sea of amorphous guilt. It's not just that they are talking, it's not just that you didn't find them ankle deep in blood like Katrina, the girl honestly doesn't think she is doing anything wrong. Is this how Thomas killed his first victim? He must have been a brainwashed once... For his part the elder had protected the girl, by all that you can see, and you can see a lot, sincerely. Somehow the notion that it's OK for monsters to walk around doing the whims of other monsters so long as they have families does not sit well with you not in the least, but if you are going to change things... you need to look before you cut.

"Very well then, we shall help each other. I will dispose of the evidence you seek destroyed, and you will leave the mortal to me. I still have business with her before I have to depart" you say, as you make way into the bedroom, white other than the orange splash of the double bed, there are stuffed penguins on it. Somehow making it past those judging glassy eyes leaves you more uneasy than flying through the bedroom had.

For his part the elder vampire does not seem concerned with violating privacy and the younger is eyeing the plushy collection like she is contemplating absconding with one.

Though you consider asking them to wait in the living room in the end you cannot think of any way to do so without looking even more suspicious than what they are about to see. Looking into the black glass of the darkened screen you reach into the ever-present static of the Wicked City and bridge by will and Essence the gap between ethereal and material.

"You have techno-magic! Hella cool!" Sitha gushes.

"Our errand is not so urgent as to require a summoning in haste bodhisattva," the elder hisses urgently.

"It was not in haste, but in truth delayed," you give the answer prepared on the tip of your tongue. "I have found that when one has the need of such beings it is best to draw them from the sanctuary of one's soul than through long chants and ritual invoke them on the spot."

Every single word of that is true and all of them in service to a lie. Thankfully one that seems to have been believed to judge from the elder's reaction. He seems impressed, as well he should, keeping even minor demons suspended pact wrought chains to one's soul would be the mark of practice long as it is skilled among those who escaped Yomi Wan, according to Usum. I would think they would be more cautious, but what do I know, I'm not an undead demonologist , just very good at impersonating one

The girl just looks confused, though not quite bold enough to speak up.

"Be weary for small demons might the greater draw, there have been worrying rumors of late...." the elder peers at you expectantly, as though anticipating that you know something of these rumors.

Darn it, was that why he wasn't surprised to see a 'bodhisattva' in Chicago?

What do you do?

[] Admit you do not know what he's talking about

[] Try to draw out more clues without admitting ignorance (DC 8 Charisma+Subterfuge roll)

[] Write in

OOC: And so the plot thickens.

 

[DragonParadox]

Bending Steel ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Usum is always willing to offer a word of advice about vampires and other darkling beings, usually about how well they would do in your service, but you just don't feel comfortable winging it under that knowing gaze. Thus you let the silence linger, half-hoping that he would try again, but over the next twenty minutes as the newly embodied cyber-spirit wipes away the incriminating data he does not say another word. Instead he picks up one of those office toys from the desk and pulls off one of the steel balls only to let it slide along the floor until it hits the bookscase opposite the door

"Ah..." he pulls it aside with unearthly strength that belies his withered form before tapping on the wall, once, twice until it returns a hollow sound. There behind the opening in the drywall is a safe. Should you conjure tools to help? you wonder, worried that it might reveal too much, but it takes the merest touch of the dial before he is spinning it confidently into a combination and snaps open the door. "I think these should be wiped off as well. Really one should not keep a secondary cashes next to the primary source, but for all their potential cleverness mortals are never cautious enough."

Inside there are indeed memory sticks as well as a plastic bag containing fifteen hundred dollars cash, a gun and some fake IDs all of which Sitha takes out gingerly with gloved hands. She has obviously never done something like this, and is just as obviously excited about it.

"Thank you Isabela."

That is how you find out two important things, firstly that the name of the girl with a nice taste in jeans is not Sitha, which means something like 'virgin' referring to her Hunger and secondly that you are in the presence of a vampire named Bela. The whole Twilight craze must be rough on her. Forcing down a giggle that would disqualify you from vampire elderhood... elderness you deal with the memory sticks and then return them to the safe, only to notice the girl starting to take the money.

"Return that." You can hear the sigh in the elder's voice.

"But..." the girl starts. "She's an enemy of the Court right? Why not take it?"

Personally you're just relieved she says enemy not 'food', but the elder takes this for a teaching moment. "The disappearance of the blackmail material will have far greater psychological impact if nothing else is absent."

She just nods, not entirely convinced, not willing to argue either, instead she turns to you. "So when's my hunger going to come back?"

There is is. How to explain that it will never come back as it had been as long as she serves you without raising the old one's hackles?

[] Explain that it is a gift of sublime charity, one you have given to her that she may show virtue in turn, to keep the boon she must merely partake of charity under your direction

[] Be honest as far as it goes, as long as she obeys you
-[] Explain who you are
-[] Lie to fit their preconceptions

[] Write in

OOC: This is really short but I need an answer on this question from you guys before the vampires leave since they are obviously not going to go on their merry way without asking about taming the Hunger.

 

[DragonParadox]

Lucky Number Six ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Isabela Syliga distantly wondered if she had gripped some kind of monkey's paw without meaning to today. She had wanted her Reaping to be special, who didn't after all, to rise within the ranks of the court with some greater meaning than finding a junkie in the gutter somewhere. It's not like she believed the horror stories the some of the younger Awakened told about the Reaping, needing to feast on the flesh of the mortal or break their bones and feast on living narrow but still it calmed her nerves to be with an Elder like Uncle Leinth. If the kids of the White Court were like sand, unshaped and prone to get into everything and most of the Awakened were like glass after a thunderstorm, beautiful to look at and likely to cut the hand that carelessly touched them then Uncle Leinth was like that fancy tinted bullet proof glass, he'd seen it all, done it all and didn't give a rat's ass how he came off even to the highborn, the Skavis themselves.

She remembered like it was yesterday asking her father who the 'ugly man' was at great-grandfather's funeral. Even at not-quite-seven Bela had known that all the important people, the powerful people were pretty and dangerous, like rattlesnakes. So it was not strange that everyone there was looking down their noses at the strange man, just that they had let him in at all. It turned out it was great-grand-father's great-great uncle...

Her father had meant that as a warning, not as she had taken it an invitation to go over and ask 'are you older than Duke Skavis?' Uncle Lenith had asked her why the question and she's just replied ''Cause you're a six on my scale."

"Scale?" He sounded bored.

"My very own patented risk taking scale," she had answered boldly. "One's a boring life, ten's a remarkable death. "

Looking back on the moment now the girl realized he was using his Presence on her just not in the usual way, not to draw in but just cut through the bullshit. It had by his own account been centuries since someone younger than fifty had approached them of their own free will at Court events. Occasionally she would wonder if the reason why he would let her stick around is because the fact that a kid was braver than them would make most of the others extra-uncomfortable, but like most old people he did like to ramble and tell stories of his youth if you knew how to poke them.

Certainly when the time had come for Bela to seek a patron she had not seriously thought he'd take her on, but she had done it for the flash, the street cred. And then she had gotten the parchment-and-calligraphy acceptance letter.

"We are not creatures of instinct alone sitha, the Hunger is the least of what defines us," he had told her as they turned onto the cul-de-sac. "It is by the reasons we feed that we live or we perish. Some claim that we are as lions picking out the weakest of the herd. Fools have not seem a lion that was not behind iron and glass. Mortals are the herd indeed for they are many and they hold kinship with each other, but it is not of beasts so fragile as the gazelle, more akin to the aurochs fit to stampede over all of us should we give them cause to look up from the ground."

And then a dragon had flown into the house through the window she had left carelessly open. Oh not a real dragon, she was shaped like a girl, a few inches taller than Bela herself, her hair shot though with green, pink and black, her eyes as pale blue as Bela's namesake syliga, the Evil Eye. Her Presence was neither dark allure nor flame of honesty. It was a threat, a malediction.

I wanted an interesting Reaping, not this interesting. Even now she could feel the new strength in her limbs, the giddy swiftness of Awakening, but ever since she had agreed to serve the strange elder she could not feel the chill bloom of need. Blunt honesty had served her well so far: "So when's my hunger going to come back?"

"Whenever you leave my service." demon girl said. "And therein lies a misunderstanding I cannot allow to stand. I am not of the Ten Thousand, young or old, my power comes from elsewhere. My name is Molly Carpenter."

"Verily?" Uncle Leinth. "Carpenter?"

Bela was not sure what was so important about woodworking, but she did not like the way his hand was inching closer to the front of his jaket again.

"If you doubt my honesty you may speak to 'the wizard who was framed in the death of Detective Greene'."

The answer was clipped as it was cryptic: "Two names." I hate it when he does that.

Demon girl, Molly seemed to understand him though: "One of them is a nickname name the other was necessary to make the point. I've got four." Her words were falling out of formality as she spoke. She might have been the girl behind the counter at Hot Topic now it it weren't for being wrapped in terror.

"Why?"

"Preventing the loss of life..." There was a pause, a tilt of Uncle Leinth's head Bela could not read than the girl continued "Same reason."

That was when Bela got it, she would almost rather not have gotten it. Whatever a 'Carpenter' was they did not have great relations with the White Court, enough so that the girl might have been inclined to skip the pleasantries right to a fight. "I don't think I want to serve you," Bela said, en eerie twinge at the back of her head, like someone had woven her nerves into a guitar string.

"Are you sure?" the girl asked carefully. "You'll be right back where you started."

Minus the meaningful kill, the tone seemed to say, just another stupid kid on the sidelines, all the worse if demon girl turned out to be as young as Bela now suspected. What's more special than a reaping that isn't?

"Zio? On a scale from one to ten how risky would be to continue to serve her?"

The shadow of a smile settled on his pale face in memory. "Six."

Now resolved Bela nodded. "Uhm... so can we talk someplace where we aren't breaking and entering?"

"Sure what's your number?"

Now it was Bela's turn to be on familiar ground while her uncle looked on more than a bit bemused. Explaining all this to her parents would be wild, she thought as she waved goodbye to her new dread overlord, or whatever the proper term was.

Once the vampires are gone what do you do?

[] Question Agent Greene to get her side of the story

[] Leave
-[] Write in what action you want to do next

[] Write in

OOC: Given that you guys are currently rolling Perception+Empathy Auto-Successes against what should be DC 8 I figured giving you an interlude from your new minion would not actually give you more information than Molly should have IC while also being more engaging narratively than other forms of exposition.

 

[DragonParadox]

Out the Window, Through the Door ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Did I do the right thing, or just the easy thing? you wonder as the mismatched pair both vault out the window. On the one hand you had prevented the chaos of exposure and all the conflict and bloodshed that would go with it. More than just the White Court would want those secrets to never see the light of day and you had gained a new.. contact? Someone you could talk to among the retainers of House Skavis, you had prevented at lest one death. But not because the girl, Isabela actually cared about killing, if anything the gleam in her eye when she had spoken of taking Agent Green's life had been the same one when she had been contemplating theft. It was OK, more than OK because it was an enemy of the Court? One might at least hope she would not drive some poor soul down on his luck to death of despair, but something tells you she would find it not so much immoral, but distasteful, below her hopes and ambitions.

To her you are a new object of fascination, like the elder... and to the elder you were a riddle. Perhaps that is why he had a soft spot for the girl to begin with, because he saw something of himself in her. It is so easy to put yourself in their heads, though that is a far less comfortable place to be than Thomas's whose greatest desire is to be with the woman he loves without hurting her.

Thomas had killed at least once though and now, thanks to your patronage Isabela had not so how fair is it to count her worse than him, because she did not have his experiences. How easy would be be to see and to deny the evil of family, known and loved since childhood, for all you know they had been loving in turn, Lenith had certainly been protective of her. It had never occurred to you before that 'no one is entirely evil' has a dark side, but you seem to be very good at finding dark sides of late. That's me Molly Carpenter Sith-whisperer.

With that last bit of self-pitying you return to Black Rider and do some laps around the neighborhood, get an ice cream, not wanting to show up at the door of an FBI Agent after she has just had an episode of magically induced despair followed by unconsciousness, while also waiting for the frantic energy of your power to quiet down. The last thing you need to do is start blazing with green flame.

As you drive back to the house there's a part of you that wonders if you are still going to find Agent Greene alive after dropping the Wan Kuei guise. The elder had seemed sincere, but what if he got a call from the Raith he was doing a favor for or..?.

You ring the doorbell and a few moments later there is the rattle of a chain being undone and Sarah Greene opens the door, looking harried and tried, still smelling slightly of wine from the broken bottle, but very much alive. Biting back a sigh of relief you would have a hard time explaining

Between one heartbeat and the next your senses expand, the smell of wine is no longer 'slight', you can read the creases in her blouse well enough to guess how it had been laid and in the lines upon her face you read her character. This is not a woman who gives up, not on her wardrobe, not on her job, not on herself... yet as far as she knows she almost just did.

It feels uncomfortable to leverage the moment like this but the first words out of your mouth are: "Hi, is this a bad time, I can go...?" You trail into a question, peppy but unsure.

"No, what's this about?" She answers as you knew she would.

That's the run isn't it? The answers you had previously thought of giving her, enlisting her help to find what had killed her husband are complicated by the fact that you had trespassed in her home, invested her computer with a demon and wiped what must have been months of work if not more off of it. In the act of saving her life, you remind yourself firmly.

How much do you reveal of yourself?

[] Claim you are working for a school paper (Least problematic identity, will also get the least collaboration)

[] Claim that you are a friend of Harry Dresden who had been framed for her husband's death (Reveal some occult connections)

[] Explain that you are one of the people who cleared Harry Dresden and that you know how her husband died (Most likely to get her on board, reveals the most about your powers)

[] Write in

OOC: I went back and looked at the stunt you guys used to talk to Agent Greene initially and given how much you learned about her it did not seem entirely fair to lock you into that way to engage with her. I mean you know she is a rogue agent of the White Court not just a purely mundane human who knows nothing, I figured you might want a chance to work this out differently.

 

[DragonParadox]

Deeper Darkness ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

Pushing down the instinct to just lay everything on the table and then read the social tea leaves you decide to go with a more moderate approach, after all what you do know about Agent Greene is not entirely flattering. "My name is Molly Carpenter, I am a friend of Harry Dresden's..."

"How old are you?" she cuts you off, the word 'kid' unspoken but heard just the same.

You sigh. "Seventeen, I'm also a Cancer, Type B Negative and naturally blonde. All of that has about as much to do with the reason I am here as my age. Look, I don't know you or how much you know, but I was going to finish that sentence with 'the wizard' and it's not because I make a habit of watching silly daytime television. I want because Harry was framed, but not by any ordinary means. I need help, if you know enough to give it..." You shake your head, the self-conscious gesture as complete as it is calculating. "Now I sound like Dollar Store Morpheus, but there are things I can't tell you unless you know, secrets that would be dangerous to both of us."

Look too in control and she'll think I'm a threat, look too out of my depth and she'll think I'm a liability. So I need to land right in the middle... an asset.

"Yeah..." Slowly, almost reluctantly, as though she has just had an argument with herself and barely come out ahead Agent Greene nods. "I do know what you mean Ms Carpenter." That last part is not said in the tone of a teacher doing roll-call, impressing formality upon the moment to get a hand up, it's more the neutral politeness you would imagine she uses in her job to talk to witnesses.

The glass of sparkling water she hands you enforces the impression, although perhaps she feels that she does better with a glass in hand herself, some place neutral to put your hands.

For your part you mostly go over parts of your story that are official record, like being at Harry's when Wright made the arrest and thinking something was fishy and the security footage from Menominee being the thing that got him off, though eventually you 'reluctantly' admit to having seen the video of her husband's dismemberment at the warehouse and explain that this is what had moved you to action.

"That thing is still out there whatever it is and no one can really catch it. What are they going to do put a shapeshifter on trial? I... know more than a bit about things that can pretend to be human but aren't and that looked like one of the worst, it was playing for the camera, in addition to its broader purpose it wanted reveled in the terror of its actions would breed through the eye of the camera. Not that there aren't... vampires. Do you know about vampires?"

Agent Greene nods tightly, as though she cannot quite trust herself to speak.

"Vampires that feed on fear need to be present to do so, same with dark spirits and fey. For something to gleefully cause terror more broadly it would have to be a wrecker not just a parasite." With utmost care you choose the words to appeal to someone with an axe to grind against the White Court

She takes a sip of water then... "If you do something long enough the mind finds a a way to accept it, embrace it Ms Carpenter. Happens to victims, happens to perps. Just how the human animal is put together and most of that goes bump in the might is really damn human where it counts. I don't know how much you know about Mr Dresden's past associates."

"No offense, but more than I am willing to blurt out to someone I just met."

"On the Sixth of July my husband was staking out Dresden's apartment when he was asssulted by a man matching the description of one Thomas Raith, a vampire and known associate of Dresden. He was later brought to hospital by another of Dresden's assoaciates in what seemed like an obvious warning to back off the wizard, a show of brute strength and connections in the force. I later found out that the reason he was even there to begin with was that he had received a phone call from a friend that implicated Dresden in the Splattercon killings. Said friend just so happened to be going on a fishing trip to Alaska and would be out of communication for the next two weeks. When I got in contact with him upon his return he claimed to have never made the call. He was also suffering from lethargy, loss of focus and appatite, irritability, all signs of someone who has been preyed on by a vampire. At the same time, starting before Howard's funeral even aquientances, sources connected with..."

"They White Court?" you prompt, as one might draw poison from the wound.

"Started hinting at Dresden and Ratih as the true cuprits after all who had escaped justice by means of sorcery. Someone Ms Carpenter had made my husband into a tool, a bomb to use against Harry Dresden and now that are attempting to do the same thing to me. Do not get me wrong I want to uncover who killed my him and why for the sake of justice, but also for the sake of my own survival."

As she had been speaking your gaze wanders out the window, to the backyard, the place Detective Grey had been killed and you ask of the bloodstained earth the question you had come here to ask: Who has murdered a man in sight of his own home here, reveling in pain and agony?

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 5/12

Seeker broken, a breaking seeks. It twists and it coils like a serpent made of tar, poison that knows that it is poison, a violation of nature pressed upon its forms unwilling, so in spite seeking to prove is only a reflection of its own hateful self. Like a dying gasp on lips from which all agony had been drawn you hear its name: Naagloshii.

You gulp down some water to get the lingering foulness out of your mouth. Whatever that is, and the name is strange to Usum as it is to you, it it near as mighty as Iku-Turso and it is unbound under the sky.

Do you tell Agent Greene about what you just discovered?

[] Yes, she needs to know there's worse than vampires after her

[] No, you cannot afford for this thing, as clever and as wicked as it is, know someone is on its trail and has a name to put to it

[] Write in

OOC: You did not have to trigger IPP or anything from the Skinwalker insight because you got it from the Crown and that is already filtered so as not to harm the user since it is part of the Exaltation.

 

[DragonParadox]

Trails Faded and New ​

8th of September 2006 A.D.

You empty the glass of water, but your mouth still tastes like you swallowed something foul. Sarah Greene, noticing the look on your face, pauses, several expressions crossing her face before settling on concern. "Is everything alright?"

"No" is your blunt reply. "Ms Greene," you say, fumbling out your phone, no longer accustomed to needing to use the keypad. "I need to make a call." briefly you consider walking into the next room so that she will not hear the thing's name, but that is liable to activate every single suspicious bone in the agent's body. She did not get to where she is by being trusting of random strangers.

"Harry, does the word Naagloshii mean something to you?"

"What?" From the tone of sudden panic in his voice you guess it is.

"It's not in the room with me or anything. I just figured out what killed Detective Greene in June. The White Court... that is someone within the White Court seems to be tangled up in the whole thing."

Harry is not deterred: "Where are you?"

You give the address, though without going into anymore details. Sarah Greene deserves to hear how her husband died directly not in an overheard conversation. Turning back to her you square your shoulders and start. It's hard... there is not being glib, no magic combination of words that would make this easier. Maybe if you had a weeks or months of talking to her you could help, but you are neither a psychologist nor a priest, you are just the bearer of ill news to one already grieving.

"He died here... and he was killed by a monster that can just do that, kill with impunity under a magical glamor?"

"Shapechanger yes, old and dark and cruel, pure evil..." That is not entirely true, mistress, Usum interjects. If it were pure evil it would have no need to be performative about its cruelty, it would have no reason to try to break others into being more like itself.

Not helping, you shoot back.

"The Naagloshii will not die if you shoot it, wouldn't even notice I'm afraid and the kinds of wards that could keep something like that out..." You consider the guardian you had raised for Helen Bekit. "Even if we could make something like that they would be blazingly obvious. The good news such as it is and what there is of it, is that it could of killed you but did not, it might even have left, its task done." Though I doubt we're that lucky, you think recalling the dark rumors the Leinth had mentioned "I hate so say this but..."

"You think I should run?" Seeing your startled expression Agent Greene laughs, it is not a pleasant sound. "Dealing with situations like this is my job Ms Carpenter, even if it is dealing with people who will die when shot."

"Run or not break cover, if you could find some way to get out of the city without seeming suspicious that would be ideal. Out of sight out of mind works with beings which are naturally inclined to dismiss mortals and anything that could command a Naagloshii will have had a long time indeed to grow prideful."

"No," she says instantly. "Running would be the first sign any predator will look for that I am no longer useful, not to mention it will just make it easier to arrange an 'accident'." Reasonable enough on the face of it, but the steely look in her eyes makes it clear that's not really why she's staying. Running would be admitting defeat, it wold be giving up on getting justice for her murdered husband .

You can respect that.

"Tea?" She asks after a long, uneasy silence. "I would offer coffee, but I've been trying to kick the habit."

So that is how Harry finds you, sipping green tea beside a window, making awkward small-talk with a woman whose life you just saved, not that you can admit it given what else you had done. He paces up and down the yard, eyes looking beyond the off white fence and wilting flowers. The ethereal trail is old, the marks of darkness faded, it had not been around here since, not that the fact stops Harry from trying to persuade Agent Greene to move, but he does not have any arguments you did not and she's not budging an inch.

Part of you wonders if you could draw the Naagloshii to you, the fire on your sword burned hot enough to cripple even deathless things and if that did not kill it well... you doubt it could do much more harm if it were buried in a hundred pieces under five feet of concrete. Wisely you do not bring up the fact to Harry on the way back, instead explaining your meeting with Leinth and Isabela and how you had resolved it.

"I still have the files if you want them, just deleting stuff off a computer possessed by one of Clippy's friends does not actually get rid of it beyond recall. Do you want it?"

He looks at you funny. "What for?"

To be honest you must be returning a look of equal incomprehension. "Leverage? A bargaining chip with enemies the White Cout or the Raiths in particular? The prestige of being the one who break the story on a scandal this size? Though I guess we could keep it to use against Madrigal Raith in the context of the White Court given that he is mixed up with this whole Thule Society Naagloshii thing."

Harry just shakes his head and mutters something about swimming with the sharks.

Well duh, that is why you make a shark-tooth knife to defend yourself.

***​

11th of September 2006 A.D.

Over the next three days you stick close to Harry in case he makes any breakthroughs on the case, making quick progress on understanding the foundations of alchemy from Bob in particular the way the subsets of the broader Law of Sympathy relate to the transformative power of water, as both creative and destructive force. There is a reason why potions and elixirs figure so prominently in alchemical works.

Essence and Temporary Willpower Restored to full -> 12/12 and 9/9

"Wait a second if we are talking about he creative/destructive cycle in the context of the Sign of the Lotus Flower as being foudnational doesn't that mean that all potions are in a sense alive, short lived constructs made for purpose, invested with magic as living things are invested with souls?"

"That is one way to look at it..." Bob sounds excited and worried at the same time, scarecited if you will.

Alchemy Progress: 15+24/25 -> -1 XP to cost of Alchemy Path; Can buy Alchemy path; 14/25 Progress to next level of discount

Meanwhile your first dive into authorship is also going great, arcane fundamentals flowing seamlessly into matters of Akuma culture, soul-lore and even the ancient corrupted tests that give rise to the Jade Court. It occurs to you that anyone who actually read this book wold have a far easier time navigating the hurdles and slipping through the grasp of the Yama Kings to rise again in fel unlife, perhaps easy enough that they would have some control of of their po soul from the first night.

Big Book of Yomi Wan Progress: 9+14/20 = 21/23 -> Complete

2 Essence Lost -> Now at 10/12 (Excellencies)

"Here you go Harry," you set the book in front of him on the coffee table with a satisfying thump. "This thing should be really useful to anyone who has dealings with the Yama Kings, you should be able to trade it for something nice. You are going to trade it aren't you?"

He starts, thumping his knee against the table.

"What? Did Lasciel say something?" you guess.

You can tell he'd like to brush it off and that he knows he won't manage it. "She said exactly the same thing you did, in sync."

You think about that for a moment, shrug. "If even the devil can quote scripture it follows that even he can give good advice when he's trying to get you to let your guard down. If evil people only ever told you things that would hurt you, they would be a lot easier to guard against."

What do you do next?

[] Ask more questions from the list
-[] Write in which

[] Move on to another action
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: I actually rolled the alchemy first on this one, then I realized there would be some social rolls needed to close things off with Greene and then I rolled the nightmare rolls for the nights between. Good thing you did not fail any of those or I would have had to do a major rewrite.

 

[DragonParadox]

A Tale of Brass ​

11th of September 2006 A.D.

Maybe it's the power deadening pain, maybe you are just weird, but there is something cathartic about ultimately managing to push even those limits to the edge and past them, joints contorted until they pop, muscles straining until phantom aches slowly creep though them like frost over glass on a chill winter's night. Thankfully Brother Devisimar is too polite to say so and simply runs you though the most recent batch of exercises, correcting your posture with a word here, a gesture there to prevent your chi from being impeded Alas after the strain testing comes sparring, or to be more precise being repeatedly punched and kicked in the throat and forehead, with blows landing all around the respective chakras as you struggle with the urge to just get out of the way.

Tough it out Molly. Kicks to the chest are not, as it turns out, conductive to maintaining an even breathing pattern and gasping like a beached carp isn't not conductive to rolling with the blows either . Be as Steel, bend when you must, but always retain integrity of self.

Not for the first time you feel warmth spreading out under your skin, radiating out from the bruises, like smoke trapped in a silken back. Each time you had tried to mold it to your will, to wield it as you did your tools or wrap yourself in it as in idol-wrought armor it simply slipped between your fingers. Like trying to forge blood into chainmail.

Not blood...Even the following punch to the head does not manage to dislodge the thought. The point isn't the pain, isn't the blood. How did the old saying go: The more you sweat the less you bleed. It feels less like a key slotting into place and more like finally being able to just breathe. the heat grows and grows until it is just on the edge of being painful yet somehow not in the least distracting. In the depths of your soul a fire roars forth and through your skin bubbles not sweat, but molten brass until you are shrouded heat to toe, turning the next blow with a faint clang.

Steel Skin Learned

"Yes!" you shout and punch the air. "Got it." Tough a moment later the euphoria is replaced by worry. Quickly glancing down you are very happy to see that the brass coating your body is not actually molten hot and so didn't burn away your clothes. That would have been really awkward.

"You did indeed, though I was not expecting such a literal interpretation," the monk backs off a small but undeniably proud smile on his aged face.

"Steel isn't strong, flesh is stronger... especially when it's made of magic brass," you misquote Conan, giggling more from the adrenaline than the joke. "Now what?"

"Now," he bows to mark the start of another bout. "You may dodge."

***​

14th of September 2006 A.D.

As undeniably fun as it is to finally be able to get out of the way, not to mention try to hit back between school, the Great Church Bake-off (TM) and Hank being in a mood over mom and dad refusing to buy him a Razor Scooter, a thing which is precisely as safe as it sounds, it feels like you should have a headache if you could still get those.

As you lay in bed to sleep you find no peace, haunted by formless shadows running through corridors of ice that morph into the living room at home or Harry's apartment without warning, always empty and yet filled with a horrified certainty that something had taken your loved ones away forever. In the dream you know that you could just look through the eyes of your crown and yet you are filled with dread of what you might see and with self-loathing for not looking.

This time you wake up crying.

So you wash your face, take a bath in bleach tainted water for what comfort the power within may grant and, as you had before, carry on with your day.

Alas it seems you are not as good at appearing cheery, maybe you overdid it, because Brother Devisimar asks you if you are well. You open your mouth to say that you are, knowing that you are more than good enough a liar to pull it off, especially if you cheat, but then you consider: Do I want to lie?

The Qiao of the Meng, which he had offered to tech you is said to be of great aid to Shih in finding their mental and spiritual center and you are pretty sure, horrible nightmares count as being uncentered.

Dragon's Speed Progress: 9-1 (Nightmare) = 8/15

Do you talk about your nightmares with Brother Devisimar?

[] Yes
-[]... and ask to learn the Qiao of the Meng starting next month (Locks Action)

[] No, you are fine

[] Write in

OOC: Welp, it looks like those Nightmares really want Molly to notice them.

 

[DragonParadox]

Personal Puzzles ​

14th of September 2006 A.D.

"Nightmares," you feel your lips twist into a grimace and not just at the memory. He's gonna do the 'responsible adult thing', you are sure of it, tell you to take it easy or that you should take less risks and never mind that you met him while catching bullets the way flypaper catches flies. "Ever since I got this way... it wasn't a good time."

"So it is with the shih, as finest steel is forged in hottest flame my own teacher once said, though over the years I have found that to most likely be be what is called survivorship bias." Brother Devisimar smiles and shakes his head at your no doubt startled expression. "One does not become a warrior against wicked Shen, a keeper of Peace Under Heaven who has not known strife. Some fall, some endure, but that does not mean one road's beginning is less than another. Perhaps if the world were more in balance with itself would be less need of us, but it is what it is and we are what we are so with demons within and without we must contend yes?"

Even though you recognize the rhetorical flourish, it is comforting to hear him use it and to hear the sincerity in those words. "When you recounted the arts you were willing to teach, one among them was the Bridge of Dreams, that grants power over the mind. Would you be willing to teach me that next month."

Brother Devisimar considers you for a moment. "That should be enough time to obtain the herbs and tools which the task requires, but we will also have need of another person to stand in for future patients. Ordinarily that would be another young monk."

"Can't I just use myself?" you ask, unsure of who you could bring in for something like this.

"Would you try to learn how to trim hair by practicing first on yourself?"

"Maybe if I really didn't trust myself with the scissors," you laugh, though grant the point. Maybe Rosie would be willing to help you out. If she's not feeling up for it you know you can rope Daniel into it.

Anyway that is for future Molly to worry about, for now you go home with a reading list, an eclectic list of psychology textbooks, sacred texts and books on herbalism which will provide 'the fundamentals'. At least you have plenty of time to order everything online while your teacher makes his own preparations.

That evening is game night and it's Leech's turn to pick the game. She chooses Scrabble and proceeds to trounce the lot of you. To your credit you at least manage to stay in shouting distance for the first hour. Really what kind of word is cwm? Apparently a half-open hollow on a mountainside. Matthew, who ends up coming third, is a lot more vocal about the whole thing than you, but Leech had cunningly enlisted Hope to 'help her play', thus insulating herself from any attempt to call out her nonsense. All in all you think Amanda has the best of the deal, balanced on dad's knee and calling out advice to everyone while she hogs one of the popcorn bowls

That night at least no nightmares follow you into the shadows.

What do you do next?

[] Ask more questions from the list
-[] Write in which

[] Move on to another action
-[] Write in

[] Write in

OOC: I thought about just moving on with the Thule society questions since they had been the second ranked on a vote of this sort last time we did it, but it just did not fit the tone of the update.

 

[DragonParadox]

Threads Crimson and Green ​

15th of September 2006 A.D.

Spurred on by the knowledge that there's a cannibalistic shapeshifting horror loose in Chicago you decide on the next morning to do your own investigation. The first thing you ask is how Gorfel and his thugs knew to be at the drop off place to begin with, thinking perhaps they had been tracking the bones themselves with sorcery. Alas the answer proves to be much more mundane:

...a hurried call from a whispered into a burner phone
Before that
...an email from a 'friend' long dreaded replied with trembling fingers
Earlier still
...a ruddy faced man at Hawthorne Race Track losing himself in the excitement of the crowd that fills in him a need, and addiction
At the root
...money changes hands, cash untraceable, this time surely he will win
Rodney Miller will not win, you know, you know with the eerie insight of power steeped in sin since before the pyramids were raised, but his minders will

There is more, the full name of the man who has been feeding Rodney's gambling habit and the awareness that he himself had been bought, for the price of covering up some insurance scams. There is an entire network of them out there and they aren't all praising Thule or whatever the hell Nazi sorcerers do.

Setting putting the bullet back into the glove compartment you instruct Black Rider to drive you to Harry's wondering all the while if you should tell Marcone. The last thing you want is to be responsible for some guy with a gambling addiction to get cement shoes, but knowingly or not that same guy gave away secrets about holy relics to the Thule Society. That is a bit more serious than just betraying Marcone. Back and forth you go. How many more holy relics could be have?

Before you can come to a decision you come to your destination, the car breaking with mechanical precision right in front of dog that had slipped its owner's leash. "Rider, you are making me look like an asshole," you scold him.

"All mortal lifeforms involved are unharmed. I estimate that the fear response to this event will make both more cautious, thus increasing their average lifespan."

"Clippy update the list, Rule Number 83, no trying to scare pets and pet owners into being more careful."

"Query: Why?"

"Conflict with Rule Number 5, no careless destruction of life and property. You did not know one hundred percent that you could stop in time and a slip up would cause far more damage than fear alone could engender by way of behavior modification."

"Acknowledged." The answer does not sound sullen or confused in the least. You are getting better at this.

That out of the way you look at the roof: "Who attempted to shoot Gorfel from this roof?"

A name, a title floats to the surface of your mind spoken with scorn in Gorfel's own remembered voice: Lictor but with that comes a glimpse just as fleeting of a pale man, black suit, white shirt, the only spot of color on him his crimson tie like a slash across his chest. A glimpse is all Usum needs, he had seen that shade of red before, bound in the halls of Arctis Tor, a Redcap's bloody mark, though to wear it upon the neck and not the head meas this one had been warped in some way the demon explains. The deathless fey are not easy to warp.

One more question then: "What was the chain of command involved in the shooting of this bullet at us and Gorfel outside Harry's apartment"

Rather than a list of names you get just one, again familiar: Dr. Hans Ulrich Speer, the one your power had marked Bone Digger and Stone Breaker. The fact that he had given the order himself with no links in the chain between himself and the Recap assassin makes you suspect the snippet had always been meant to kill Gorfel, perhaps to claim the bones or out of some wider rivalry within the Thule Society.

Lost 3 Essence-> Now at 9/12

Generally you are in favor of the trash taking itself out, but the fact that the fellow with the modern-sounding Gernam name was giving order to another kind of treacherous immortal leaves you deeply uneasy.

What do you do with the information?

[] [Marcone] Tell him about the spy in his organization (Gain favor with Marcone; the spy is likely executed)

[] [Marcone] Don't say anything, this Rodney guy is just a patsy and does not deserve to die

[] [Marcone] Write in

[] [Winter] Ask Harry if he knows any way to get the information about Licor to Mab

[] [Winter] They can clean up their own mess, the last thing you want to do is hint at the power of the Crown to Mab

[] [Winter] Write in

OOC: The votes are independent of one another since informing Marcone he has a spy is a lot more in the realms of conventional divination than figuring out Lictor from staring at a bullet he once shot.