Green Flame Rising (Exalted vs Dresden Files)

[DragonParadox]

Architect of the Spirit ​

8th of March 2007 A.D.

You look over at Olivia's fervent expression pensively for a moment, before jerking your head towards a nearby outcropping, well away from the ongoing arcane workings. "Sit with me a minute, would you?"

"Is this an intervention?" She peers up at you half-jokingly, which is to say half not as well. "'Cause it sure sounds like it?"

"No it's just..." a sigh comes out, not pushing, no essence carried with the breath, just normal Molly Carpenter, as normal as you can be here at least. "I'm not going to tell you no on this: I know how it feels to need to do something like this, and I'm not that sort of hypocrite." You give a short, wry laugh before your expression grows serious again as you gently, reach out to take her hands in your own. "But, Olivia I want you to consider how you do this really carefully, okay? Throwing yourself into things like this, especially if you're throwing other things away? It can..." you trail off a moment, your mind flashing to Harry in some of his darker moments; and to your dad, and the worry you've seen Mom try to hide, alone at night in a dark and quiet kitchen. And then... to ice and fear and a little bit of mind magic done with the best of intentions, honest.

"Hey, I'm a year and a half older than you remember, you do not get to pull this Zordon shtick on me," she speaks into the silence that lingers just a little too long. "We're not going to let the Red Court just keep going, right? 'Sure there's blood drinking monsters in South America along with the deforestation and the banana-driven corporate colonialism' and everyone just kind of knew that and factored it in." The face she makes is one of very genuine disgust. "That can't go on, right?"

"No, of course not," you answer reflexively. I might not have a plan, but one thing is for sure, the Red Court has to go, for the sake of the people they are abusing and all the ones they are putting in danger by calling out to the Old Ones and their puppets.

"Then that's OK then. College can go on hold. I can be in the ballet later. Stage isn't going anywhere."

Feeling a bit better about the whole thing now that you know this is less her wrenching her whole life around to be a freedom fighter against vampires and more putting it on snooze you still feel compelled to add: "It can really fuck you up, you know? Sometimes in ways you don't realize until you're a lot further down the line." Looking her dead in the eye you do your best to get across how much this means to you, how much her wellbeing means to you. "I don't want that for you, okay? I won't say no, but I want to make sure you're doing this in the right way, yeah?"

Instead of quipping again she just nods, determined.

There's one more task to do before you can put that determination to the test, call fourth the final defender of the gate, last line of defense... Well no, as Regina points out there is a whole world made up of more lines of defense behind the fortress, that is kind of the point, but the last thing you want is some enemy running loose in your soul. Perhaps ironically for a spirit of fire and stone The primary purpose of the keeper of this place is not to bar the way nor to burn foes with the deep fire that runs though its veins, a task for mazes and traps, for guards and turrets. No they are to...

Watch, a thousand fractal eyes looking out from between the angles between the worlds and to.

Warn, a myriad wave-forms of sound through the air and, through wire and arcane lineage electromagnetic elocution, a thousand thousand times more complex.​

There's more that could be done, you think as the spirit of the fortress pulls itself together, creation akin to a dreamer waking from deep slumber.

What splendors are you planning to include in the fortress?

[] Write in
(You have the time to create one Splendor of up to ●●●)

OOC: You rolled very well for making the god so you have some extra time on your hands within the confines of the action you already choose.

 

[DragonParadox]

Old Earth, New Sprouts ​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

The land was rich in life but it had not been rich for the works of the people, not at first. Then they had burned wood and spilled blood upon it, then with their hands they had tended it as with their minds they had imagined it, the rich earth from which would grow the crops to feed their children.

It's not you realize with some surprise the story of the Inca in their stepped mountain slopes, it is the story of the land now called the Amazon Basin, ones who had built in wood, their works lost to the shadows of the jungle and yet in the whispers if the spirits enuring. As the earth had been fed the blood of Jaguar and caiman so too would it now be fed the blood of worse things beset by darker hungers, its story writ in ancient syllables of soft, black loam. Should it come into contact with a vampire, be they demon's companion, nightmare beast or corpse infected with a hunger that would devour the world it would sprout.

Lost one Vampire Corpse

Malko gains Splendor: Rich Earth's Hunger

Spoiler: Rich Earth's Hunger

Description: This curious blessing takes the form of a coating of rich soil dusted across its master and their immediate possessions, as if they'd been working in some fertile field for hours. This sacred soil provides some basic ability to shape that which resonates with it, allowing its master to change the details of their immediate surroundings.

When a creature that feeds on mortals comes in contact with them or the dirt falling off their body it burrows in like the roots of an alien plant, spreading inside their body and rotting away what it touches into more soil.

If this kills the target then they fully decompose into rich fertilizer and their soul is drawn away to the earth that took them.

System: Each time a creature who feeds mortals that comes into contact with the owner of this splendor or the dirt coating their form while in their immediate presence they are subject to the Hunger of the Earth, a murderous magical poison.

Each turn they must make a stamina roll against difficulty 9 or suffer a level of unsoakable lethal damage. This will continue until they die or manage to succeed three turns in a row. If they die while subject to this effect their souls will be drawn into the splendor.

To avoid this fate they must either flee the presence of the splendor's master, surrender to them, or endure the damage.

There writ upon alien wall in a place that was not Earth and never had been in a script ancient when the sun was stardust is writ: [That Life-Living in its wisdom/change eternal might devour that which plagues it.] or if one must translate it into English: Life Finds a Way.

I'm glad no one here has watched Jurassic Park. A mental twinge alerts you to Usum's presence in the back of your mind. No one outside my head. There's a burst of static from your headphones.

"OK, OK, no one whose going to call me a geek aloud," you admit.

***​

Having finished your work in Sanctuary there is still plenty of it to he had on the other side. The Fellowship had managed with some help from sympathetic priests who may or may not belong to the Holy Office to ensure that about two thirds of your subversion targets would be present for the opening of the new Saint Basil Hospital in Bogota, a hospital which of course includes a chapel, holy ground.

"Duke Emiliano's not an idiot, we have a secretary and one of the generals aids marked a half-bloods." Martin explains even as he hands over a heavy manila folder. "Then there's the timing. It's an hour after sunset local time which means vampires could show up if the alarm goes up and not just elders. Getting that many of their people in one place at one time during the day, basically impossible I'm afraid, like I said the only reason why they don't have several vampire minders is that no one wants to risk something awkward happening like bursting into flames on camera because someone sanctified more of the ground that they said they did..."

"Did you...?" If Vampires do show up you'd like to know if they are a fire hazard.

"No, but we spread the word that rogue elements within the Church had, ones that weren't that interested in keeping the secret. Looks like they took the bait."

"You said two thirds, who are we missing?"

"A two star general and an adjunct for the Administrative Department of Security, they are both at home probably with a vampire sitting on them like a snake coiled around a tasty mouse. I'd have said we should wait for a better window since you can't be in two places at once but..." he motions at Regina.

"She can't break the addiction," you grimace then remember there's at least one other person you know who can make that kind of deal on side.

"Hi Tiffany, fancy cutting some deals...?"

How do you do the infiltration?

[] You will handle the hospital, that is where the more senior people are, Tiffany can deal with the rest

[] You will handle the back-ups, they are the ones likely to have vampiric guards, Tiffany can run rings around the half-bloods present there

[] Write in

OOC: So the Fellowship didn't roll all that well as you can see, though the details are hidden since the Red Court rolled as well and you have no way of knowing how well they did in character. All you know is Martin isn't looking like a happy camper right now.

 

[DragonParadox]

Lights, Camera, Almost Action ​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

"Good luck," you wish your friends as Tiffany and Olivia stride confidently towards the hospital, the irony not lost upon the former that she is taking advantage of holy ground to work her wiles. In the meantime you have tougher nuts to crack, breaking into secured government facilities with vampires on the prowl in order to convince people if they are in the market for another bargain.

An hour later you materialize on a high perch above what had once been known as the Valley of Saint Bartholomew, now most commonly called Medellín strewn with the lights of industry and commerce kindled by the very waters that brought you here. Home for everything from gold to coffee to steel, textiles and confections and more recently pharmaceuticals and refined oils, the city seems to be in the midst of reinventing itself from the economic doldrums of the 80s into the beating heart of the Colombian economy, though here as elsewhere not everyone is raised up by the rushing tide of progress. And so as in most places where people are shown prosperity behind a high wall beyond their reach, they try to jump the wall.

Spoiler: Medellín

Urban militias that are half cartel impose their own rules upon the city streets, taking protection money with one hand and selling bliss in tinny plastic bags in the other. Little wonder the Red Court likes it here, a garden for cultivating ambition and despair in equal measure. How many of the armed men that walk the street answer to vampiric overlords even IRIS' analyses could no tell, but looking now upon their faces in the harsh glare of streetlights you begin to suspect many of them wouldn't care if they knew. The Red court doesn't merely thrive on blood, but on the subtle seductive lie that the best way for men to live is to prey on one another.

You smile as you pass them, showing neither fear nor hostility and just for a moment it startles genuine smiles out of one or two, humanity shinning though the facade quickly making your way to the first of the locations, a senator's office perched on the eight floor of a high rise windows still open onto the night below. One wonders if that was a demand from his minders or if in some unconscious way he's looking to let a breath of fresh air in. Either way it presents an entrance free from the wards the Red Court must have set on the door and elevator to see off agents of the White Council after several of their mortal proxies had been kidnapped early in the war. By now the Wardens had more than proven that while the Laws of Magic forbid them from taking a human life they do not say anything about taking the whole human.

There's little doubt in your mind that you could make it up there warding off the sight of anyone who might turn your way, but the problem is not all observers have attention to be distracted. This is the middle of a city. One camera pointed in the wrong direction could catch your Superman act in full. Normally that wouldn't be that large a problem, but the local enforcers of the secret world are also the very monsters you had come here to undermine.

How do you gain access to your targets?

[] Use flight to bypass the wards (Small risk of later exposure)

[] Walk in under ATP (Medium risk of a fight with vampires which might endanger the people you are trying to reach)

[] Write in

OOC: I was going to roll though more of this, but then I realized ATP would come with the risk of someone catching flying Molly on camera and and that's not something she would miss in character so this should be a vote. To be clear this isn't just about this one senator, it's what kind of risks do you want to take in the whole operation. A fight wouldn't be a danger to you, but it would be one to the squishy humans if the vampires have some kind of 'kill to prevent capture of assets' contingency.

 

[DragonParadox]

Pact Maker​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

If there are any people pointing cameras up this way by chance boy are they going to be surprised when they see a face that belongs in a Western, being as that is the first way it occurred to you to tie back a cloth mask after flowing upwards through the pipe into a bathroom two stories up. Who knew tying bed-sheets together to make rope would come in handy as well, but it's cheaper than flying and you might need the essence right about now. You kick your way in through the open window to the sight of four people scattered around the room.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 17/18 (ATP)

Two of them are obvious bodyguards by the distinctly gun-shaped protrusions in their jackets and earphones so they can talk hands off. The woman nearer to the window seems to be an assistant, at least that is what you hope she is, not being dressed very professionally between the plunging neckline and the nails that are either a safety hazard or a secondary weapon while the final occupant sits almost slumped over a desk the blue glare of the monitor seeming to deepen the circles under his eyes and make his complexion seem sallow. He could be any age from forty to sixty, from the files you happen to know he's thirty seven. There's more than years that can age a man and service to the Red Court has more than its share of such.

A closer look confirms your suspicions, both the bodyguards and the woman are vampires, full ones here to guard their investor and if the senator's beyond guarding remove him before he can make trouble.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 16/18 (Hellscry)

Sauntering past the vampires 'too polite' to notice you tap the man on the shoulder. Sure it gives him a bit of a jump scare, but it's not like you want him comfortable. Being complacent to the horrors his patrons are causing is part of the problem. Unsure if he speaks English you stay silent and as Clippy projects a synthesized version of your voice speaking Spanish.

"A good night to make a deal." His eyes jump to his minders, but you place a finger to your lips as the prerecorded message keeps playing. "They are not aware of me as you were not before I accessed you directly Mr. Herrera. I can remove them if you prefer, though that is perhaps best left to the conclusion of the meeting."

"The meeting..." He sounds out faintly.

"To discuss how you are going to be parting ways with the Red Court." Truth be told you're not sure you have the heart to just kill him the same way you would the vampires if this goes poorly, but he happens to jump to conclusions you're not planning to correct them for a while.

Fear wars with hope behind his eyes, only to be drowned out by the familiar shadow of obsession as he whispers: "I can't. I need them. I need it!"

"No, you do not," you answer lightly meandering away from the desk and into the path of one of the vampires who is forced to, squeeze past you, even as he cannot register your presence. "Serve me and you shall not feel the bite of the addiction."

Sometimes the best ways to impress is speaking, sometimes it is silence and letting that which is unsaid sway the other to your side and you can see if working now, the wheels spinning faster and faster. Most people are good and wouldn't want to expose their fellow man to the horror that is the Red Court, that you firmly believe, but even those who care nothing of others wouldn't want to be at the mercy of something that explicitly drinks human blood while a human being.

"W...who are you?" The desperation, the desperate hope in those words is almost palpable.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 15/18 (Intimidation Excellency)

[] A magical head of state, after all one of the things you want from the local officials is a land deed to the territory the gate is on

[] An enemy of the Red Court, that is all he and others in his position really need to know

[] Write in

OOC: Yes, Molly does look like some kind of surreal horror movie monster, but that is just what rolling 13 Successes on intimidation while under the (to him) visibile effects of ATP looks like. Also since she was already under ATP I reasoned that she might as well actually climb down the side of the building and save some essence that she can use to confirm who's a vampire.

 

[DragonParadox]

Sending a Message ​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

"I am their enemy and I'm giving you a chance to be that too señor and not just you!" The words ring out with all the weight of utter sincerity and thankfully without any stumbles in your Spanish. "I will not stand here and tell you this if your last chance, while there is life there is hope of salvation, but this is the last chance you will get to help set right what now stands skew!"

As calls to action go one might argue that 'you get to do the right thing and keep your power' lacks something of moral rectitude, but the Bible is full of once sinful kings who eventually walked a more righteous path. Why not a Senator.

"What do I have to..."

"You are no longer addicted," you inform him simply as you feel mechanisms transcendent move beyond and behind the veil of the everyday, Essence burns in votive offering, fumes to befuddle the substance of reality.

The curse of the vampire's kiss is not broken, it is simply made not for a full turn of the moon.

Lost 1 Essence -> Now at 15/18 (FSB)

"They are going to come after us," the elderly man says pushing himself away from the desk with such force it scrapes across the floor. One of the vampires turns.

"What are you...? What do you hear?"

"Careful now Mr Herrera, they cannot notice me, you they can see," you step into the potential line of fire, just in case this particular vampire has an itchy trigger finger. "Let it be the last thing they see."

So it is in that drab office, overlooking the city of Medellín another dancer is added in the ring that before had only one.

Lost 3 Essence -> Now at 12/18

Three shots ring out, one after another, a whistle of steel flechettes on the night wind, each dipped in poisons which had been proved to affect the vampires of the Red Court, only about as lethal as balefire and more expensive to boot, but also less likely to make a scene. Olivia does good work as ever.

Before the wounded vampires can do more than snarl in confusion, her flesh masks starting to tear with a wet screech you finish off two and allow the newly empowered Carlos Herrera to finish off the last with a letter opener driven into his brain with superhuman strength. That is going to take a bit more clean up than you'd expected. You'd figured he'd use the gun.

***​

As you continue your work removing the Red Court's back up operatives from their grip another considers her words as she enters the hospital Bogotá, the scent of harsh chemicals causing her nostrils to flare in displeasure and, so it seemed to her, her steps echoing strangely upon holy ground, as if the earth itself could not quite believe her gall.

Tiffany McNeil considered the meaning of salvation and the methods of temptation, how best to make theme have faith again, in something beyond the next drip of sweep poison in their cups?

[] Sell them a better deal, wealth, power, good health, all of those are up for grabs and she is a good salesman, she was made to be one after all
-[] Write in plan (Optional, Tiffany cannot stunt, but a good plan can lower her DCs)

[] The Grace of Fallen Angels... even the memory of angels, the echo broken across time could move the hearts of men once more to do great and terribile thigns, but did she want that, did she dare? (Use her Apocalyptic Form)

[] Write in

OOC: OK so I am not going to make you guys go though half a dozen politicians. I just needed a general plan so I can do more rolls for all of them and then only bring it up to a vote is something remarkable happens. Speaking of remarkable things, how do you feel about Angelic Visitations of the Not-Precisely-In-Good-Standing Angels?

 

[DragonParadox]

Take Their Breath Away ​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

She was tempted, which was ironic on its own because Tiffany McNeil used to be temptation. What would they do? Would they kneel, would they weep, would they fall to their knees in reverential awe? What would they view be like from on high? If she were here alone, having naught but her own whims to considered, Tiffany might have tried to don her threadbare costume of heavenly grace, but this was not the time, not the place. She strode in though a side door with all the poise and grace that she had from her maker stolen and some she learned along the way. There were mortal guards of course, but they were careless for they knew not of things that walked the night or feared to walk on holy ground. Why would tonight be any different from yesterday or that from yesterday. Disgust tickled the back of her throat, an old companion, but she swallowed it. This was for the better and that alone should be enough of a novelty to try. Who knew after all these millennia maybe the Adam's Bone and Eve's Flesh would surprise her again.

So distracted was she the guard outside the door flinched at her determined approach, soft words on deaf ears landing. Seriously already reaching for his gun?

"I have to inform the director, please it's urgent..." Tiffany shifted her manner like a snake shedding its skin and just like that—the soft click of a door, the rattle of the glass in the frame— she was in.

At first she tried to pin the most impressive of the lot with her gaze as she had done the guard, the general who had send those helicopters, alas the man was too distracted with his pager to engage.

"Excuse me Dr. Sanchez, there is something," she gently but firmly pushed aside the doctor who was leading the group through the facility. "There's something I tell everyone, now, there that we are alone, a rare thing on nights such as these."

The words were innocent enough but in this of all gathering they held the weight of years of guilt, of service and of want. She caught their eyes jump to the door as though about to flee, she caught a few fists tightening, shame transmuted into anger by that alchemy so commonplace in human brains.

That was when she started to glow, softly at first, then more and more strongly with each word: "...your daughter suffered a horrible accident a couple years ago it's a shame it ended her career but what if it didn't have to..." She knew things about them, the daughter of the fallen, some that had been pilfered from messages and calls: "...your grandmother's memories have faded one by one but what if they didn't have to..."
Some she was just reading off their faces like a charlatan sublime: "that lung cancer that you have is inoperable due to its spreading your bronchial tubes but what if it was no longer a problem." And some she just knew as she had ever known mankind: "I offer more than wealth gentlemen, I offer safety in which and when the weary silver years come upon you, a long long time from now, a legacy that you would be remembered as the ones who had the courage to break the chain that They forged for you and for your people. Perhaps the people will not know the monster's name, but in their own lives made better, they will know you were a part of that change."

Of course some had been promised more than she could offer or they had simply grown so steeped in cynicism as to disbelieve that they could rise in any other way than by stepping on the throats of those beneath them. Tiffany was called plenty of names: 'insane', 'liar', 'whore', that was always a favorite no matter how little it fit the context. But she had more than soft words to offer. Leaning over an elderly man whose asthma attack she had intentionally provoked a few moments before she whispered: "Be hale."

In the blink of an eye damaged alveolar tissue knit back together... which was just when the one of the assistants she was reasonably sure were half bloods dropped his entirely useless phone and pulled out a gun.

What does Tiffany do?

[] Allow herself to be shot and then heal herself, all but the most jaded would be swayed by such an act... but bullets do hurt and she isn't that much tougher than a human

[] Knock him out, safer but would likely lead to at least some of the mortals she had come to sway choosing to make a stand with the Court's servants out of fear or a misguided belief they are stronger

[] Write in

OOC: Tiffany tries to do the right thing most times, but still 'cause an asthma attack as a prop' is well within the range of acceptable behavior whens she is on her own.

 

[DragonParadox]

Having Faith​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

A muzzle flashed and a bullet burrowed, by chance or unexpected skill all too close to her heart. Hmm... maybe I should keep in mind I'm not her anymore, Tiffany thought intimately aware for all she could feel no pain, of all the delicate blood vessels being torn by shards of bone. Silence rang louder than bells as she looked back at the halfblood, one eyebrow raised, as if to ask: 'Shot your last shot have you?' Slowly the spray of blood across her chest narrowed, stopped leaving a crimson streak across the cream silk. White would have been a bit too on the nose.

Tiffany takes 5 Damage -> Now at 2/7 -> -2 To all Rolls (Canceled by Body Control)
Tiffany Loses 1 Faith -> Now at 2/3 -> Heals 2 HL -> Now at 4/7 (Restore Flesh)

"The offer stands, even for you." Tiffany's smile then was gentle, a lie as it had always been, as far back as she could remember, though less perhaps now than it had been in times gone by. And with that smile she extended a hand "A chance to be more than the body bag men for monsters."

"Duke Emiliano, he has my family," the guard who had just shot her stumbled over his words, but far from causing the politicians and generals all around to bend their back again under the threat of expected retribution, instead it seemed to remind them of their own families, free of the yoke of the court, even of the knowledge of its existence and how that might change if the 'duke' saw fit to tighten the leash.

"Yes." It wasn't the youngest but the oldest of the company who said it first, his soul like a dimming lanterns in the gloom. She reached out and granted his most fervent wish. No rite nor ritual was needed, only faith.

"The thirst, it is gone..." The elderly man looked around him in wonder as though the sterile room had suddenly gained new life and color. He called to the other by name, by kinship and by friendship.

Behind a dozen eyes the same tipping point reached: 'Now we have to kill him and even that may not be enough to shield us from suspicion.'. Another and another and another as Faith continued to flow, flesh knit with every heartbeat. But no more bullets came as the guards, half mortal and without word from their masters were paralyzed before a choice worse by the moment.

Tiffany Regains 1 Faith from Pact -> Now at 3/3
Tiffany Loses 1 Faith -> Now at 2/3 -> Heals 2 HL -> Now at 7/7 (Restore Flesh)
Tiffany Regains 1 Faith from Pact -> Now at 3/3

Unhurried by the commotion she could already hear outside the door that she had locked behind her the woman draped in silk and blood walked up to the accursed guard who had shot her and took the gun from his unresisting fingers. "Shh, it will be alright." And for a wonder it was even true.

Tiffany did not dare to name the feeling that realization brought her, not yet.

There were still practical matters to see to here, like the small matter of her looking precisely like someone who had been shot in the chest in a room with some of the most powerful people in the country and a trio of Infected, just barely holding back their Hunger.

"Doctor Sanchez the police are going to break down that door very soon and this is what I need you to say..."

***​

9th of March 2007 A.D.

"We come to you with the evening news. Last night at the inauguration of the Saint Basil Hospital there was an accidental firearms discharge which struck several bags of blood stored in the room..." The news anchor announced with the sort of bombastic good cheer that that was sure to draw dirty looks from people who hadn't yet had their coffee. "One young lady was said to have fainted on the spot. Now onto you Maria, what can you tell us about the lady is she alright?"

Tiffany glanced at the TV set in the corner, content that the whole thing had turned into benign filler news that wouldn't alarm the public while the Fellowship and their new allies got to the dirty work of actually removing the Red Court from the country. Of course there was still the question of what to do with all the power.

She had to admit the Red Court had been clever in how they went about this, infiltrating the government enough that they had influence and could hide their 'blood tithes' in the more remote rural part of the country, but not so much that mortal pawns posed a significant risk of exposure by their sheer numbers.

It was all told a mechanism unsuited to any wide-ranging political control of the country, but having a recognized sovereign state willing to cover up any indiscretions could be useful if that was what Molly wanted to do with it.

The girl in question stepped onto the hotel balcony a few flecks of vampire blood still in her hair.

What does Molly do about the influence network she inherited from the Red Court?

[] Keep it, it might prove useful later

[] Take it apart, you will have to keep an eye to make sure the Red Court don't just set up a new one, but that's better than keeping a bunch of corrupt oligarchs in power

[] Hand it over to the Fellowship, they could certainly use the help, but according to Martin they inexperienced in such a position

[] Write in

OOC: That was risky, but it got you the best outcome. You might want to get Tiffany some kind of discrete armor if she's going to let herself get shot in human form in the future though.

 

[DragonParadox]

That Subtle War ​

11th of March 2007 A.D.

Integrating the people who have just sworn fealty to you, it's strange how commonplace that feels now, proves a bit more complex than you had anticipated. The digital spirits you set to watching them had discovered some crimes well beyond the pale of what you can tolerate in their past. The kinds of predilections even Marcone would balk at, perhaps Duke Emiliano had seen something of himself in them. Regardless they can't be of any use to him behind bars and their protection against addiction will run out in a month.

"I'd like to say I feel bad about that, but I don't," you confess to Olivia that evening to which your friend just gives a sympathetic nod. She had seen the same files.

"You know all those movies with the tired message of 'the real monster was man all along'? I still don't believe that, the real monsters are monsters, but that doesn't mean man won't give it the old college try."

"Speaking of College..." you trail off, not wanting to push but curious.

"Turns out not really needing to sleep does wonders for the ability to cram in credits and my grades too. It might look a little weird on my resume but I can have them give me a few producer roles celebrated indie movies of the late 00s to make up for it."

"Between your work coordinating with the Fellowship to keep the government here from falling back into the hands of the Reds and actually working with Red Star Productions? Are you sure you can manage it?"

She thinks about it for a moment then surprisingly shakes her head. "No, but it it doesn't work out I'll drop something. Better to overshoot than undershoot my father says and that's one thing I can still agree with him on."

Somehow you do not think Mr Deol had quite the combination of tasks his daughter had set for herself in mind when he said those words, but you let the matter rest. Instead you ask her how Red Star Production is going. They had set off her phone more than once as you had been working on the logistics of meeting Fellowship leadership.

"They wanna make movies, the company's been in a holding pattern for months and that got me thinking... about Dracula."

It doesn't take you long to realize what she means. "You wanna steal the formula for someone else?"

"The Red Court, they're a good target for this kind of thing since a lot of their strength is in their numbers and their moral support netoworks. Give more people the tools needed to understand them, fight them and it's going to erode that power base hard. I pitched the general vibe of the movie to some peple at the studio and they were open to it, sort of like Invasion of the Body Snatchers meets From Dusk till Dawn. They are good at body horror and we can make it better with some movie magic using tech from the City of Fountains..."

"So actual magic," you laugh, but behind that you're weighting the pros and cons. On the one hand it works, you know it works because it's been done before and the Red Court have made a lot of enemies, if not quite so many as the Black. There aren't going to be many arguing hat the movie is a breach of the principles of the Accords, but then what really matters is what Mab would think of it. You do have two favors from Winter burning a hole in your pocket to mix metaphors a tad.

Should Red Star Prodctions try to make an anti-Red Court movie in the style of Dracula?

[] Yes, it's the best use of the studio
-[] Bring in the crew on the secret
-[] Keep them in the dark

[] No, the potential distraction isn't worth it, there are better ways to deal with the Red Court

[] Write in

OOC: No visibile rolls on this one.

 

[DragonParadox]

Not Quite Wonderland ​

11th of March 2007 A.D.

Alicia Carpenter was a very clever girl, her family said so and unlike some people's families, she was pretty sure hers were being honest, but even so compared to an honest-to-Asimov AI like Wraith she still felt like a Neanderthal sometimes which was to say kind of slow and with the sneaking suspicion that she was being used as an anthropology subject. Worth it though, how many regular l people had access to the back end of the magical internet? Well OK, magical internet may be overstating things a bit for what was effectively a series of internet forums and chat rooms moderated by a bunch of college kids over at the university of Chicago, but it was going to be big, she was sure of it. Before that when she thought about magic Alicia had figured it was all chanting and incense and all that jazz, maybe a little like Church only not as polite to the stuff you called on since it wasn't God, but it wasn't really the Devil either, it just annoyed Mom a lot. Then her sister fell head first into the whole magic thing during an incident she still had to piece together and now it seemed like every other month she was having Serious Talks with Mom and Dad.

It was one thing to have the odd mysterious disappearance, Alicia thought, but when Molly had started doing mysterious appearances to the point where she had a large but indeterminate array of Mollies... things were getting a wee bit weird which was when she and Wraith started digging. The thing about Wraith was he was a big boss spirit, kinda since he had been called up by Molly personally and Leech herself was the sister of 'the Queen', which wasn't like Queen Elizabeth over in England, more like Cleopatra Queen of Egypt so it wasn't that hard to go snooping and figure out what her sister had been doing over the past two months, at least the broad strokes.

What she found out shook the girl enough that she slammed the laptop and started praying. Vampires and ghouls and faeries and things that made those look human, things as alien to this reality as the heart of a black hole reaching out into the dreams and twisting people into monsters, offering dark blessings to some of those other monsters. The reason there was even a magical internet was that some of the least-bad-vampires-turned-really-bad had been hunting those people in some kind of weird generational plan to breed out the magic.

It could perhaps be said that was about the point where Alicia put aside vague hopes of maybe learning magic herself, Mom had let Daniel to it and he was Daniel, but that didn't mean she wasn't still interested in that other world. In fact it looked like they were going to need a lot of tech support going forward. If I'm going to help change the world this is probably even bigger than Google.

Wait what was that? Molly wanted to make a TV series with bat monster vampires with the studio she inherited off the serial-killer-vampire? She probably shouldn't be on this channel, but she was only twelve and a little sister, this was too good a point to moment to pass up.

Leech1995: Need some VFX help? I'm not good enough to do it directly yet, but I can consult?

What do you answer?

[] Refuse, dear God no, she has school

[] Accept. Also how the hell is she on this channel?

[] Write in

OOC: So here's a riddle for you, what does one do when the Creator's little sister (or as the case may be her SUTRA assistent) starts asking for access to sensitive data? Do you A) refuse on the grounds that she is 12 or B) let her in beause the God-Queen works in mysterious ways, also you are used to precocious youngsters because that is how reincarnation looks like when the person goes to the City of Fountains to forget large parts of ther past lives.

 

[DragonParadox]

No Business Like Show Business ​

11th of March 2007 A.D.

AllSeeingEye: Yes, also how the hell did you find this channel?

You fire off the text before you even consider the swear word, but then if it's one thing you didn't expect to find in a secure sanctuary network is was your little sister.

Leech1995: Social Engineering

As your little sister of all people explains Hollywood has been lying to you for more than a decade. Hacking as it turns out has less to do with jabbing at a keyboard really fast while looking cool and spouting enough techno-babble to rival Mr Spook and more to do with getting people to just hand you the required permissions. She and Wraith have been trading on your name hard.

AllSeeingEye: We should tell Mom about this.

Leech1995: Now?

Anxiety almost seems to come off the screen in waves with just that one word in waves, you don't quite have the heard to confirm it.

AllSeeingEye: Later, but we are gonna have to. Wanna go see the studio?

***​

Thankfully school's out for the day which is how you end up in a trailer park in LA with your little sister ready to make a speech to variously bored, drunk and hung over film crew and actors all following along with weary eyes.

"We are assured when we are little," you begin pulling the blinds of the old 'dilapidated farmhouse set' that had been the setting of so many of your favorite movies. "That monsters don't exist. So even should someone see a monster, he still doesn't remember it that way. In his mind's eye," all around you sparks of spectral green start to glow brighter and brighter, orbiting your location like planets to the sun. "They see a 'big dog' or a 'large man' or a 'blur at the edge of vision' — anything except the thing that doesn't exist. That's the easy answer that papers over what happened, and the world continues on, blissfully ordinary. If you want to go back to living in that world I understand. I've prepared a generous severance package and I will be writing glowing recommendations to everyone who walks out that door."

"Oh shit... Darby really was a... something else?" A woman with strips of pink in her hair and decorative chains in a half a dozen metals hanging from her belt.

You nod curious how she'd know and more curious why she's alive to say so, but raise a hand. "Wait until everyone's made their choice please."

Not a single person moves from their seat. Huh, guess you don't work for Red Star production from too much caution or a lack of curiosity.

"He was a vampire of the White Court, I'll explain what that means in a moment..."

"And what's she then?" A tall lanky man you know as Peter Monroe asks, pointing at Leech.

"That is my meddling little sister who knows a lot more than she should," you announce, a dozen startled laughs breaking the solemn silence that had fallen on the place. Leech looks a little too smug when you add: "Also she knows her way around a computer."

"Huh, I'd have guessed 'gnome'," the man says. Judging by Leech's expression she would have stuck out her tongue if she was half as old as she is, but from the towering maturity of tweenhood she has to make due with a 'harrumph'

What action do you want to see next?
(Plan Vote Here)

[] Write in

OOC: I thought about trying to roll though this but nothing really flowed easily from here so a break seemed most appropriate.