- Pronouns
- They/Them
Vote closes on Friday. I know there are a lot more voters out there!
The Lost Files (C:TL/Dresden Files) (CK2-ish)
- Thread starter The Laurent
- Start date
The Stormbringer
Worm Fanfic & Crack Connoisseur
- Location
- Spaaaaace~!
[X] Plan Networking Intensifies
[networking intensifies]
[networking intensifies]
- Location
- Daybreak
Personally, I have no opinion on these options. So, I'm sticking with voting on the non-planny ones.
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- Pronouns
- They/Them
Vote closes tonight!
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also, I just realized that Cora is the Sheriff's Secret Police or something. 
chocolote12
A Penguin Flailing Against The Keyboard Of Life.
What sheriff?Also, I just realized that Cora is the Sheriff's Secret Police or something.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Also, vote's pretty much closed, I'll start rolling and depending on how much rolls inspire me, that will determine just how fast this gets done, but I can already tell you that even with the most mediocre/boring rolls, that Turn 1 Interrupts and etc will be happening.
So I need, well, tally. Just to make it official.
So I need, well, tally. Just to make it official.
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- Location
- Dreiländereck
Vote tally:
##### 3.21
[X] Plan DragonParadox
-[X] Send it only to those Freeholds that are allied or are nearby
-[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
-[X] Internal
-[X] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources
-[X] Dream of the new nature of ghosts
-[X] Monitor the Marble Arch for signs of trouble
-[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
-[X] Go talk to Layla, make sure she doesn't do anything...foolish.
-[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
-[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural
-[X] Talk to the Lord Sages
No. of votes: 1
DragonParadox
[X] Plan Networking Intensifies
-[X] Send the message far and wide, to all Freeholds that can be reached about the best method to cope with the sudden loss of allies and local power.
-[X][Cora] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
-[X][Cora] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
-[X] Internal.
-[X][Stoneguts] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources.
-[X] More information about this 'Lillie the Sin-Eater.'
-[X] Help look into discovering the laws of magic in this new world.
-[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
-[X] Go talk to Layla, make sure she doesn't do anything...foolish.
-[X] Investigate into any potential dangers the Marble Arch holds on either side of the Hedge.(Boost with BP)
-[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
-[X] Talk to the Lord Sages.
No. of votes: 1
veekie
[X] Plan Networking Intensifies
No. of votes: 8
Bommelom
Tasoli
Sweece
kellanved
lkmcclenahan
wingstrike96
AllRoadsLeadTo
The Stormbringer
[X] Plan Hello World
[X] Send the message far and wide, to all Freeholds that can be reached about the best method to cope with the sudden loss of allies and localpower.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Internal.
[X] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources.
[X] Dream of any future dangers to Jonathan.
[X] Research the differences in current events and history of this new world.
[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
[X] Investigate into any potential dangers the Marble Arch holds on either side of the Hedge.
[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural.
[X] Explore the Dreamscapes to see if anything has changed in that respect.
No. of votes: 1
Wellhello
[X] Plan Past, Present and Future
[X] Send it only to those Freeholds that are allied or are nearby.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Internal.
[X] Help protect and expand earth-bound assets.
[X] Is Layla genuine in her intimations that she wishes to be put of me?
[X] Research the differences in current events and history of this new world.
[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
[X] Ride the Prophet Circle to get increased knowledge on upcoming events as well as the past and future. (Results somewhat random).
[X] Check up on Jonathan. She'd said she wouldn't do so to herself, unless it was an emergency, but this counts. Just...look into a few dreams and maybe a bit of Omen-reading and monitoring here and there, just to make sure he's alright and see why he's torn up. And how to help him.
[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural.
No. of votes: 1
Sivantic
##### 3.21
[X] Plan DragonParadox
-[X] Send it only to those Freeholds that are allied or are nearby
-[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
-[X] Internal
-[X] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources
-[X] Dream of the new nature of ghosts
-[X] Monitor the Marble Arch for signs of trouble
-[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
-[X] Go talk to Layla, make sure she doesn't do anything...foolish.
-[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
-[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural
-[X] Talk to the Lord Sages
No. of votes: 1
DragonParadox
[X] Plan Networking Intensifies
-[X] Send the message far and wide, to all Freeholds that can be reached about the best method to cope with the sudden loss of allies and local power.
-[X][Cora] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
-[X][Cora] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
-[X] Internal.
-[X][Stoneguts] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources.
-[X] More information about this 'Lillie the Sin-Eater.'
-[X] Help look into discovering the laws of magic in this new world.
-[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
-[X] Go talk to Layla, make sure she doesn't do anything...foolish.
-[X] Investigate into any potential dangers the Marble Arch holds on either side of the Hedge.(Boost with BP)
-[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
-[X] Talk to the Lord Sages.
No. of votes: 1
veekie
[X] Plan Networking Intensifies
No. of votes: 8
Bommelom
Tasoli
Sweece
kellanved
lkmcclenahan
wingstrike96
AllRoadsLeadTo
The Stormbringer
[X] Plan Hello World
[X] Send the message far and wide, to all Freeholds that can be reached about the best method to cope with the sudden loss of allies and localpower.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Internal.
[X] Guard against the possibility of a surprise attack from non-River sources.
[X] Dream of any future dangers to Jonathan.
[X] Research the differences in current events and history of this new world.
[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
[X] Investigate into any potential dangers the Marble Arch holds on either side of the Hedge.
[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural.
[X] Explore the Dreamscapes to see if anything has changed in that respect.
No. of votes: 1
Wellhello
[X] Plan Past, Present and Future
[X] Send it only to those Freeholds that are allied or are nearby.
[X] Put in resources to protect the economic, social, and political power of the Freehold within St. Louis, or to reclaim it if need be.
[X] Whether through deception, spying, or force, monitor and control the situation on the River to the Freehold's advantage. Or likely a combination of all of these.
[X] Internal.
[X] Help protect and expand earth-bound assets.
[X] Is Layla genuine in her intimations that she wishes to be put of me?
[X] Research the differences in current events and history of this new world.
[X] Try to help Roy Taylor with his problems.
[X] Ride the Prophet Circle to get increased knowledge on upcoming events as well as the past and future. (Results somewhat random).
[X] Check up on Jonathan. She'd said she wouldn't do so to herself, unless it was an emergency, but this counts. Just...look into a few dreams and maybe a bit of Omen-reading and monitoring here and there, just to make sure he's alright and see why he's torn up. And how to help him.
[X] Track down Lillian herself, rather than leaving it to others.
[X] Begin researching the changes to the magical and the supernatural.
No. of votes: 1
Sivantic
Plan Networking Intensifies wins with nine votes.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
What would you say if I told you that the Freehold has rolled both a Natural 1 and a Natural 100.
- Pronouns
- They/Them
I'm almost done, and geeze. Cora's pretty awesome. Uh, hrm, I almost want to push through to finish it tonight...I might.
Turn 1--Dreams, Defending the Hedge, Marble Arches, and Investigations
- Pronouns
- They/Them
Turn 1 Events (Part 1)
Perchance to Dream:
Cora leans down, and rakes her nails against the grave, digging, digging, but the worms are sifting through, faster and faster, and the graveyard was closing inn. It was strange, how helpless and yet mighty one could feel in dreams, and she frowned and pulled up and it was a wand she drew.
Ash, go figure, and she kept on digging, pulling at it, and out came an umbilicial cord which snaked and then further in, half buried and held tight within the corpse's grip, there was a bottle of Myrrh.
That...that would have to be enough. But there was more, yet before she could dig further she felt a sort of burning, a pressure. The dream was breaking down, and she had to get out before it crumbled all around her.
She woke up unsteady, but after a few breaths she thought she knew what the dream was saying. Or rather, what she'd been able to dig up.
It had been the strangest dream she'd had in awhile. Strange most of all in how straightforward it was. Literally digging through a grave for clues, a dark stone grave that read 'Lillian' and she had a feeling if she could only have read the words written in strange glyphs a lot more would make sense.
Cora analyzed it, spending a few minutes running over it. A wand was a typical, even stereotypical symbol of magic, and the umbilical cord was also quite unambiguous to unpack. She had had magic since birth, something inherited, and the bottle of Myrrh could have many interpretations. But what 'felt' right was that it represented a gift. The woman had been granted something, and myrrh had deep resonance with any number of cultures. The Egyptians had embalmed their mummies using myrrh, after all.
Yet the most obvious solution was that somehow there was something holy or assumed holy about the gift. And she'd been waving around a cross to try to direct the ghosts.
Did she believe that she'd gained powers from god? Yet, she had also inherited magic, that too was true.
All in all, it presented a rather interesting picture.
Effect: Information gained, bonuses on rolls to 'figure out' Lillie.
Get Out Word
Off the speedy messengers went, hither and yon, with enthusiasm and Mayor Booster's blessing. The Hedge was vast, but the River went many places, and for where that didn't work, Thousand Trod sat on the world's largest Trod network, and since they were going to go that direction anyways, it was no trouble.
What the messengers couldn't get at were some of the Freeholds most off the beaten path, and some they found didn't believe them, like this one strange Freehold called 'Mended Quilt' whose phone-books were apparently exactly the same.
Other than that, however, the advice came in, and Loyalists tried to take advantage of it.
Even made progress, no doubt, Maggie thought, staring at the reports, but any progress was subtle progress. Unseen and hidden. The fact was that one of their damn Loyalist motleys had been caught in the act of trying to firebomb the houses of the remaining stretches of contacts for a Freehold in south Egypt, and been wiped out.
The Freehold sent its thanks and its gratitude, though it was small, only twenty-something members. Small enough that five madmen with a death wish and a supply of weapons could have threatened the whole Freehold if it wasn't for them being ready. Not phone books, of course, but merely being told that the changes worked by proximity had been enough.
Man's going to get an ego, Maggie thought, absently, biting the edge of her pen as she wrote. If he didn't already have one.
In addition, she'd received thank-you notes from Cairo, New Orleans, and Tampa Bay, all of which didn't come out and state it, but--
No doubt Mayor Booster could handle it.
There were disturbing signs of lost messages, but nobody had died. She'd read through one right then, though she didn't have time to read the details.
The Count of Crime's men had gotten their hand on the message, though they released poor Rafel unharmed.
Maggie wondered just what they'd do with knowing to check in Chicago's phone book and yellow pages.
Nothing good, she assumed.
Effect: Owed a lot of favors, ???.
Like a Stone Wall
How had he known?
Alley slipped slightly in a puddle of blood, grabbing hard onto her King's arm to keep from overbalancing. Her gun was empty, and she'd lost her last knife four corpses ago. God, how did she get into stuff like this? She was just an innocent girl who happened to be very good at killing things. And people. Messily.
Oh, right. The crush.
Alley's ears flicked slightly, listening for more.
They couldn't possibly all be gone, it had seemed like there were armies of them. Of course, she admitted, clinging tighter to King Stoneguts' arm, he'd set them fighting among each other first.
Alley looked him over, took the chance for proximity, but this close, at a time like this, her whiskers twitched and all she could imagine was Stoneguts the killer. She couldn't picture her dreams of him, not when he was like that.
Yet, he turned and asked, courteously, "Are you alright, Alicia?"
There were people she'd hurt, badly, for calling her Alicia.
Then there were people like King Stoneguts.
"Yes sir. Is that all of them?"
Her voice was soft, but there was a promise there, of course, the same promise she'd given him three years ago: I'll follow you and do as you asked. If it wasn't all of them, she'd end them, and if it was?
It wasn't like it was even WRONG to kill a bunch of loyalists and allied goblins, really. She looked around the large Hollow, the open space where the survivors had retreated, hoping to let numbers make the difference.
Of course, they'd run right into the runic traps.
...Cora Graves, the Chancellor.
It was a name that made her want to hiss, and she said, before he could answer, "If you hadn't made them think one of them was a double-traitor we'd have had a hard time--"
"It was nothing we could not have handled," King Stoneguts said, "I have full faith in your abilities, Alicia."
That bitch, Cora, she'd given him the equivilent of a magical land mine. Which was all well and good, but Alley could have done it--
Okay, she couldn't have, but she could run up walls and throw a knife from fifty feet through a goblin.
Still, Alley had been complimented, and she smiled, a broad, big grin. "So, who's gonna get this place?"
"Spoils of war. It can be a hideout, and we'll see if it draws any Gentry or fellow Loyalists like a moth to a flame," King Stoneguts said, almost absently, looking around the scene dispassionately. "I'll need to tidy the place up first a little."
"Corpse chic isn't in anymore, except in Autumn," Alley said, grinning at her joke.
"Perhaps so," Stoneguts said, and it sounded like he wasn't even listening.
Men, always so focused on plotting to destroy the Freehold's enemies to realize simple things like that.
Alley huffed, but follow him she did.
Effect: Rather major Loyalist back-stabbing attempt completely thwarted, gained a nice new Hollow. Just needs some renovations to be liveable after an entire Goblin Mercenary force got the idea that the Loyalists planned on sacrificing them all to the Gentry at the same time that the Loyalists got the idea that one of their number was a secret traitor...meanwhile another group of Goblin allies who worshipped a True Fae were made to believe that some of the Mercenaries were secretly allied with their Lord's sworn enemy.
I *wonder* who could have given any of them those ideas. Ah well.
On the River, Everything Is Possible:
Even, it seemed, a good week. There were a few minor attacks, and rather more pressingly, some of the river captains reported seeing strange glowing portals that opened up at random for at most a second and then closed just as quickly. That was not nearly so great a problem as a splinter group of raiders attempting to take down one of the River Captains.
Of course, one didn't become a Captain of the River for nothing, and Captain Baha, a great whale of a man and Summer through and through, thoroughly enjoyed the splintering and breaking of the enemy ships against his own and the great, white horn that protrudes from it for just such a purpose.
At least for the next week or two, with Cora's efforts and good luck, it seems the River is going to be under control.
Effect: Nothing has gotten out of hand. Minor threats quashed, the river seems tame for now, -10 next turn to rolls to determine (high is bad for you) whether anything comes up and attacks. Though the river and its threats are omnipresent.
Cyclops:
Every month, hundreds of reports were written by Cora's network. Half of them were almost entirely redacted upon use, and there were men and women whose entire job it was to file them away, after Cora had written down the important information and where to retrieve it. Her own sources were condensed, the cliffs notes version, designed for easy use and access.
When large portions of that network disappear, on the other hand, it became a problem. She'd walked the archives, pulling out files to check. Not only was there the disappeared network, but there was the fact that many of the levers and hooks no longer mattered, or were no longer effective. Manny's ties to vampires were no longer relevant as blackmail material, and the fact that one of the summer courtiers was cheating on her husband with another normal human didn't matter when it turned out said human was gone.
Of course, Harriet Yellowcake would probably cheat again, it was something to note down, since the radioactive Summer courtier was a powerful woman and one to keep an eye on.
It was all easy to work through, and while there was a sense of urgency, it felt almost nice to renew all of her contacts, and crack the whip and make sure everyone was on the ball. There was a certain intimacy to it that she'd perhaps missed, slightly.
There was still a lot of work to do, and so she shook her head and began writing down names.
Her network had been very helpful in identifying potential targets for subversion, and while she wasn't going to follow up all of them, double-checking their work discreetly from behind invisibility was a time-honored practice of hers.
She'd like to be sure that if they knew she was watching them the whole time they'd feel comforted and reassured at her dedication to watching out for them, but probably not. So was life.
Effect: Panopticon Restoration at 74/???. Progress definitely made!
I'A Cora, I'a Book!
He knew they wouldn't understand. He'd lost everything, everything after decades of study, but in one moment, he could fix it all. Barry B. White could discover something nobody else in the entire world had before. The arch held its secrets, its promises, but it still felt like such a petty thing now to be worried about, to spend half his life obsessing over.
He could have been at home kissing his wife and sons, the people that he'd left behind when he'd been dragged off to be some researcher for a Fae. And then when he got back, he left them again. His hands shook a little as he paced his study.
The other four members of the team couldn't know yet, not until he'd figured out the book and its strange writing. Its powers. It was a key, a key to summon something great and wonderful. It whispered to him, oh how it whispered and the words were so soft and sweet. He could do it, he knew. Figure out the entities it would summon and find a way back home.
Leave all of the Freehold behind if he had to, but he wouldn't have to. Surely once he showed the Chancellor just what wonders rested in the book, what sweet words, what magnificent and strange secrest they held, she couldn't deny it. She was Autumn, just like he was. She'd understand, if he could just find the right way to mention it to her.
He pushed up his glasses and looked around the study, and then at the drawer where the book was. He needed to hide it until dark, but even though he'd hidden it away there just ten minutes ago, it was already gnawing at the back of his head. Just a peek at the book, to make sure it was okay.
That's all, yes. He swept his hands across the table, clearing it clumsily, and then reached down. When the drawer opened, he could hear the singing, the whispers so much better now. He closed his eyes, shuddering in unseen and unknowable ecstasy, and reached out to grab the leather bound book.
Or perhaps it wasn't leather. It was dark and shabby and even after two days he knew it was his greatest discovery. He'd found it out checking under the Marble Arch, laying by the wayside, as if it had been discarded.
But who would discard such a marvelous book.
He flipped through the words, the strange symbols, to where he was last.
To Summon Them.
He'd bring them here, just a few, and then they'd take him home. And they'd be able to help the Freehold as well.
Which was when his door opened, and Cora Graves stepped in in full armor. "Barry, you should have known better."
"Known what?" he asked, "Did one of them rat me out? W-well, good. I wanted to show this to you, Chancellor, it's a marvelous book, the most amazing book any being has ever written." His voice was harsh, worn down with age, but then, Chancellor Graves herself croaked like a corpse, like--
"See, there's these facts you didn't know, and halfway through it has a ritual, a ritual that can grant people endless life. Eternity for the taking," he said, eyes feverish.
The Chancellor's expression was a mask which registered not a single emotion as she said, "You poor man. You foolish book, to think that a full on psychic assault would work on me."
'Kill her' a voice screamed in his head 'She wants to hurt me, stop me, hurt us...destroy everything!'
It was deep and beautiful and harsh and powerful and it was a voice that had to be obeyed, and he reached for the knife he kept just in case--
"Don't," Cora said, quietly, "Whatever lies it tells, you would die. I would not be cruel, dear Mr. White, because you are a good man and I feel for your pain. I promise I would be swift and painless and instant, if this is what you truly desire."
'Do it! Do it!' the book whispered, and he felt pain and pleasure rip through him, the book almost gaining control of his body.
But, when choosing between an ancient book promising endless happiness and the possibility of crossing Cora Graves…
Barry B. White took a step shakily back, throwing the book down, "P-please don't destroy it, it's a good book, it told me--"
"Never trust a talking book," Cora said blandly, and then picked up the book slowly, "Now, what to do with you?"
What does Cora do?
[] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
[] Burn it. Destroy it. The sooner the better.
[] Lock it away in a way it can't effect the world or be heard. Try a distant Hollow under lock and key.
[] Try somewhere in the house, also under lock and key and magic to prevent it from whispering in people's minds...the best guard for whatever the hell that is might just be the Chancellor after all.
[] Write-in.
Effect: Narrowly averted a complete disaster in which two rolls (for manifestation and for power) were over 90, while the 'notice anything' roll for the rest of the Freehold other than Cora was literally -19 (1d100-20). It would have been a fight for the future of the entire Freehold coming if he'd had time to, say, summon whatever it was that wanted to be summoned. Also, Cora's definitely going to beef up mental and physical security after *that*.
Whiskey and Figures
"You know what I love?" Mayor Booster asked, slumped over his desk, staring at the whiskey in his hands and at his secretary. She was a good woman, an intelligent, leggy, beautiful Talebound whose features were somewhat marked by the inhumanity of the Changeling. She had a sort of glow about her, and she had pointed ears, but otherwise she could be any personal assistant.
And he could be any bored executive sitting near the top of a skyscraper running through home and business loans.
Of course, a regular executive wouldn't be grinning. Sometimes he even impressed himself. Things were going swimmingly, and he'd only been at it three days.
"Well," Nancy Adams said, "My first guess would be whiskey."
Mayor Booster gave a bark of laughter, his bright eyes staring at her, "No. Well yes." He drained most of the glass and then set it down, feeling the burn running down his throat, almost shuddering, "A subtle crook. That's the only thing I respect about vampires, or the ones I knew: they knew how to play the game."
"Is it about the investigations you ordered?" Nancy asked.
"Yes. I'd love to think I got one up on Stoneguts and Cora, but I'm sure they both knew about it and gave their approval to me stealing a third of their network out from under them to follow up on some leads. That tends to happen when you find something like that. Though I'm not so sure about Darkglow. When I just thought it was investigating the crime side of this new world, that was fine, but now that we know monsters are involved--"
He shrugged. No way to be subtle about it: man was a fanatic, had been a Hunter before he became a Changeling and didn't really see any reason that going through hell because of a bunch of monsters was supposed to *stop* his efforts to protect humans from monsters.
Thus far, at least, Darkglow hadn't done anything too problematic, and he was a damn fine investigator.
"Either way, tell me if this isn't suspicious. There's a gangland killing, that's pretty normal, pretty expected. But it's an important businessman, and when the detective on the case had traced it back, he'd gone above and beyond the call of duty. Dogged in his pursuit, incorruptible, all of that.
And, as per the police files that I shouldn't have access to and yet, somehow, do--"
"It is the great mystery of our times," Nancy said wryly.
"He'd traced it," he continued doggedly, "back to a group that ran a number of legitimate businesses that were clearly fronts for prostitution, drug distribution, and money-laundering. He'd gone to the house of the person he'd expected was part of it...and come out sure he knew the culprit."
"Who was the culprit?"
"Come on, guess," Mayor Booster said, teasingly, standing up and walking over to her.
"Not the people who he was investigating?" Nancy replied, stepping forward for a moment to rest her arm on his shoulder. She was a little taller then him, but he knew he could pull her down slightly and then into a kiss--
But he had more pressing matters, for the moment. Maybe another night, soon. He missed her, and it'd only been three or four weeks since they'd been in bed together. He loved her sense of humor, how dry she could be.
"Nope. Apparently a Mr. Miles Johnson was the culprit. Can you guess who that was?" Mayor Booster said, shaking his head, annoyed.
"Someone with a rap sheet?" she asked.
"A nineteen year old black youth who was suspected of one non-violent, a few charges of drug use, once found guilty of pickpocketing someone, from a broken home, with no money or anyone to advocate for him. And, most damningly, slam-dunk evidence, he lived within twenty miles of the murder, which all but guarantees that he was the murderer."
Sometimes he felt as if he was a bit of a hypocrite. A rich executive who didn't like the cops. And then sometimes you have cases like that.
"Ah, yes, I see. And he claimed he wasn't guilty?"
"Yes, he did. Did for a full two days of interrogation, and then one night the footage for his cell disappears like magic and he's swearing up and down that he's guilty," Mayor Booster sneered, "And then we start putting together times and dates and the woman who owns the house that the detective went into has never been seen during the day, and a half-dozen other sloppy uses of power--"
Mayor Booster snorted, "God, it's pathetic. I don't know why Hunters haven't murdered the lot of them, if they're so obvious that we can trace their influence on the gangs like that. Half of the two-bit gangs in this town have someone who seems to be...unusually influenced by them."
St. Louis didn't have the big gangs that controlled an entire town, and the Mob was a joke. What it had was hundreds of small, violent, confused, fractious gangs fighting and competing block by block for jack-shit, most of the times, with names that sounded mostly the same. The 49th Ace Mob Crips versus the 52nd Street Protector Crips, fighting over a single small neighborhood. It wasn't the sort of crime that could be organized.
And the vampires hadn't bothered, had just dumped their mojo on the right people and let everyone sort it out. Lazy and practical and more than a little sloppy.
And it was biting them in the neck, wasn't it? There was war on the streets, and blood on the water. The Northside Kings were disciplined, smart, and apparently had a strong structure that wasn't fracturing at the first little disagreement. They were gobbling up territory and drug routes, and offering prostitutes a rather more compelling deal: even more safety than any other gang could offer, but also the threat of violence even stronger in the air.
They were the largest gang now in the entire city, though it was still first among equals, and they'd been expanding. Growing, morphing, becoming something so big that even the cops were starting to get worried. And the vampires and the other gangs clearly hadn't been doing enough to do actually shut them down, since both of the latest deaths in the gangland war had been from one of the many other gangs.
Blood on the streets, blood in the water, and the vampires apparently couldn't or hadn't done anything about it.
"Maybe there aren't that many hunters here," Nancy said, tartly, "Either way, so they aren't subtle crooks, so much the better for us."
"But subtle crooks do exist. There's a certain set of corporations run by a certain woman who has been trying to cut across me and failing these last two days, and since she has access to the Mayor, I of course did a full investigation of her as well. You wouldn't believe what I found: an actual subtle crook. Every insinuation that could possibly link her corporation to even a pornography company, let alone the seventh-hand, vague and unsubstantiated rumors tying said company to some high class prostitutes--"
He laughed, "So in the end, all we have to link Amelia Gardiner and her family to anything shady are fifteenth hand rumors that would fly to even warrant the beginning of an investigation, even if the fucking police chief was an authoritarian kluxer with a grudge."
"So, what makes you think she's a crook at all?" his secretary asked, as they walked back towards the desk and he pulled out the Gardiner files.
"Well, she's rich as hell, she runs a corporate empire as large as the one I was setting up before I got axed--not international, more just 'rich enough to own the Mayor' and he's mine, damnit. New guy, but that doesn't stop him from needing to belong to me--"
"I quite understand, though I'm sure you mean the Freehold, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah," Mayor Booster said with a playful grin, "L'etat c'est moi. When I declare myself Emperor and overthrow the other monarchs, you may be my Empress."
Nancy smirked and read through the files, "Wow, pretty impressive. Savvy woman. Look at those figures--"
"And those," Booster said, pushing past the words he'd read a dozen times, the numbers he'd easily memorized, and there it was.
The woman was stunning, and looked in her forties at the oldest, dark, creamy skin and darker eyes that seemed to stare into the camera. She wore a gold dress, a little formal, and heels that emphasized her height and long legs. There was power, poise, and control in her form. It didn't hurt that the curve of her breasts and, even more than that, her hips seemed to make promises that a body could deliver.
She was, in other words, gorgeous. And if she wasn't a pawn of some other power, and he had reason to believe she wasn't, absolutely dangerous. "So why do we think she's supernatural?" Nancy asked.
"This…" Booster said, pushing the picture aside to show another, this time older. Fashions had changed certainly, but she was still wearing formal wear, and still quite beautiful. She looked younger, but if so perhaps a decade and a half younger at most, which was not a big deal, except that on the edge of the photo was written 'July 31st, 1961.'
Now, there were ways a woman could seem to age only a decade and change in almost forty years, and she was certainly rich enough to afford them, but the more digging he did, the less he believed that. "My agents also tell me the difference is fake--"
"Of course it's fake. Look at her face, look closely," Nancy said, pointing to the first one.
He looked and saw...nothing much other than beauty. She didn't even relaly look like she'd aged so much as matured. Her clothing forty years ago had been a bit younger, perhaps, and that was a trick he well knew. Dress in the latest fashion and if you didn't look like an old guy trying to fit in you'd look decades younger.
"She's using makeup, subtle makeup, to emphasize the older parts of her. Combine it with that hairstyle--"
In the newer picture, her hair was up in a prim, imposing bun. In the older one, it ran free. "Ah, it's all an illusion, you think? Some sort of trick?"
"Are you sure she isn't a Daeva, then?"
"She's been spotted in the sunlight for hours at a time, so it's not likely. Dummy companies and shell games abound, but the corporate history of the some of the companies she 'bought' runs back to the early 20th century, maybe older. You know the drill. Hell, if I live long enough, I'll be doing the same stuff to pretend not to be liable to outlive everyone."
"So, what do we do about this...whatever?" Nancy asked, wrinkling her nose thoughtfully, trying to predict his next move, no doubt.
"Do? Why, simple. We're going to get invited to their party, and we're going to go and see what turns up," Mayor Booster said, "I am, at least. And then I have to see who to take from there. It's being held tomorrow night, short notice, but--"
He stretched and said, "I'm sure I can find somebody." Mayor Booster glanced down again at the report, and at the figure.
Amelia Gardiner, huh. And she was feuding with the vampires, that much was obvious. Names associated with them were on the mayor's schedule, people who were clearly their stooges had been seen talking to the city council. Trying to influence things.
And then there was the gang war, and wasn't that a mess to figure out.
Mayor Booster poured himself another drink.
Who Will Go Along?
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
[] I'm here to do business: So act like it! Come with three or four 'business partners.' Most of them will be, or rather intelligent men who can make connections and hopefully build bridges, and perhaps one bodyguard can be slipped in among them, as long as the person is unassuming. But this too defines the encounters.
[] Yes, He is a Bodyguard, Not My Date: Bring a bodyguard. Let them read into that what they want, and what they will read doesn't matter as much as safety. He'll bring the best one he can, and hope that that serves as a tip-off, helps shape interactions.
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
*****
A/N: So, without the choice of the option and the BP, Cora either would have been entirely blindsided (no option) or have gotten there just in time to have to try to interrupt the secret ritual and even if she succeeded, would have had to kill Barry and burn the book for sure. And if she failed, she'd be at ground zero of...whatever the hell that is. It would have wrecked everything everywhere forever, just so you know.
There is, as you might note, a lot still left to do, like the Lord Sages action and so on and so forth, but I decided that I'd instead do it in semi-chronological parts because I didn't want too many votes. So, yeah, I sorta-kinda, uh 'didn't do' 1-2k words I might have otherwise, which is how I'm releasing it so early. It'll get done, just in the next few updates after the party thing.
There's a lot to get through, after all.
Also, vote is not by plan.
Perchance to Dream:
Cora leans down, and rakes her nails against the grave, digging, digging, but the worms are sifting through, faster and faster, and the graveyard was closing inn. It was strange, how helpless and yet mighty one could feel in dreams, and she frowned and pulled up and it was a wand she drew.
Ash, go figure, and she kept on digging, pulling at it, and out came an umbilicial cord which snaked and then further in, half buried and held tight within the corpse's grip, there was a bottle of Myrrh.
That...that would have to be enough. But there was more, yet before she could dig further she felt a sort of burning, a pressure. The dream was breaking down, and she had to get out before it crumbled all around her.
She woke up unsteady, but after a few breaths she thought she knew what the dream was saying. Or rather, what she'd been able to dig up.
It had been the strangest dream she'd had in awhile. Strange most of all in how straightforward it was. Literally digging through a grave for clues, a dark stone grave that read 'Lillian' and she had a feeling if she could only have read the words written in strange glyphs a lot more would make sense.
Cora analyzed it, spending a few minutes running over it. A wand was a typical, even stereotypical symbol of magic, and the umbilical cord was also quite unambiguous to unpack. She had had magic since birth, something inherited, and the bottle of Myrrh could have many interpretations. But what 'felt' right was that it represented a gift. The woman had been granted something, and myrrh had deep resonance with any number of cultures. The Egyptians had embalmed their mummies using myrrh, after all.
Yet the most obvious solution was that somehow there was something holy or assumed holy about the gift. And she'd been waving around a cross to try to direct the ghosts.
Did she believe that she'd gained powers from god? Yet, she had also inherited magic, that too was true.
All in all, it presented a rather interesting picture.
Effect: Information gained, bonuses on rolls to 'figure out' Lillie.
Get Out Word
Off the speedy messengers went, hither and yon, with enthusiasm and Mayor Booster's blessing. The Hedge was vast, but the River went many places, and for where that didn't work, Thousand Trod sat on the world's largest Trod network, and since they were going to go that direction anyways, it was no trouble.
What the messengers couldn't get at were some of the Freeholds most off the beaten path, and some they found didn't believe them, like this one strange Freehold called 'Mended Quilt' whose phone-books were apparently exactly the same.
Other than that, however, the advice came in, and Loyalists tried to take advantage of it.
Even made progress, no doubt, Maggie thought, staring at the reports, but any progress was subtle progress. Unseen and hidden. The fact was that one of their damn Loyalist motleys had been caught in the act of trying to firebomb the houses of the remaining stretches of contacts for a Freehold in south Egypt, and been wiped out.
The Freehold sent its thanks and its gratitude, though it was small, only twenty-something members. Small enough that five madmen with a death wish and a supply of weapons could have threatened the whole Freehold if it wasn't for them being ready. Not phone books, of course, but merely being told that the changes worked by proximity had been enough.
Man's going to get an ego, Maggie thought, absently, biting the edge of her pen as she wrote. If he didn't already have one.
In addition, she'd received thank-you notes from Cairo, New Orleans, and Tampa Bay, all of which didn't come out and state it, but--
No doubt Mayor Booster could handle it.
There were disturbing signs of lost messages, but nobody had died. She'd read through one right then, though she didn't have time to read the details.
The Count of Crime's men had gotten their hand on the message, though they released poor Rafel unharmed.
Maggie wondered just what they'd do with knowing to check in Chicago's phone book and yellow pages.
Nothing good, she assumed.
Effect: Owed a lot of favors, ???.
Like a Stone Wall
How had he known?
Alley slipped slightly in a puddle of blood, grabbing hard onto her King's arm to keep from overbalancing. Her gun was empty, and she'd lost her last knife four corpses ago. God, how did she get into stuff like this? She was just an innocent girl who happened to be very good at killing things. And people. Messily.
Oh, right. The crush.
Alley's ears flicked slightly, listening for more.
They couldn't possibly all be gone, it had seemed like there were armies of them. Of course, she admitted, clinging tighter to King Stoneguts' arm, he'd set them fighting among each other first.
Alley looked him over, took the chance for proximity, but this close, at a time like this, her whiskers twitched and all she could imagine was Stoneguts the killer. She couldn't picture her dreams of him, not when he was like that.
Yet, he turned and asked, courteously, "Are you alright, Alicia?"
There were people she'd hurt, badly, for calling her Alicia.
Then there were people like King Stoneguts.
"Yes sir. Is that all of them?"
Her voice was soft, but there was a promise there, of course, the same promise she'd given him three years ago: I'll follow you and do as you asked. If it wasn't all of them, she'd end them, and if it was?
It wasn't like it was even WRONG to kill a bunch of loyalists and allied goblins, really. She looked around the large Hollow, the open space where the survivors had retreated, hoping to let numbers make the difference.
Of course, they'd run right into the runic traps.
...Cora Graves, the Chancellor.
It was a name that made her want to hiss, and she said, before he could answer, "If you hadn't made them think one of them was a double-traitor we'd have had a hard time--"
"It was nothing we could not have handled," King Stoneguts said, "I have full faith in your abilities, Alicia."
That bitch, Cora, she'd given him the equivilent of a magical land mine. Which was all well and good, but Alley could have done it--
Okay, she couldn't have, but she could run up walls and throw a knife from fifty feet through a goblin.
Still, Alley had been complimented, and she smiled, a broad, big grin. "So, who's gonna get this place?"
"Spoils of war. It can be a hideout, and we'll see if it draws any Gentry or fellow Loyalists like a moth to a flame," King Stoneguts said, almost absently, looking around the scene dispassionately. "I'll need to tidy the place up first a little."
"Corpse chic isn't in anymore, except in Autumn," Alley said, grinning at her joke.
"Perhaps so," Stoneguts said, and it sounded like he wasn't even listening.
Men, always so focused on plotting to destroy the Freehold's enemies to realize simple things like that.
Alley huffed, but follow him she did.
Effect: Rather major Loyalist back-stabbing attempt completely thwarted, gained a nice new Hollow. Just needs some renovations to be liveable after an entire Goblin Mercenary force got the idea that the Loyalists planned on sacrificing them all to the Gentry at the same time that the Loyalists got the idea that one of their number was a secret traitor...meanwhile another group of Goblin allies who worshipped a True Fae were made to believe that some of the Mercenaries were secretly allied with their Lord's sworn enemy.
I *wonder* who could have given any of them those ideas. Ah well.
On the River, Everything Is Possible:
Even, it seemed, a good week. There were a few minor attacks, and rather more pressingly, some of the river captains reported seeing strange glowing portals that opened up at random for at most a second and then closed just as quickly. That was not nearly so great a problem as a splinter group of raiders attempting to take down one of the River Captains.
Of course, one didn't become a Captain of the River for nothing, and Captain Baha, a great whale of a man and Summer through and through, thoroughly enjoyed the splintering and breaking of the enemy ships against his own and the great, white horn that protrudes from it for just such a purpose.
At least for the next week or two, with Cora's efforts and good luck, it seems the River is going to be under control.
Effect: Nothing has gotten out of hand. Minor threats quashed, the river seems tame for now, -10 next turn to rolls to determine (high is bad for you) whether anything comes up and attacks. Though the river and its threats are omnipresent.
Cyclops:
Every month, hundreds of reports were written by Cora's network. Half of them were almost entirely redacted upon use, and there were men and women whose entire job it was to file them away, after Cora had written down the important information and where to retrieve it. Her own sources were condensed, the cliffs notes version, designed for easy use and access.
When large portions of that network disappear, on the other hand, it became a problem. She'd walked the archives, pulling out files to check. Not only was there the disappeared network, but there was the fact that many of the levers and hooks no longer mattered, or were no longer effective. Manny's ties to vampires were no longer relevant as blackmail material, and the fact that one of the summer courtiers was cheating on her husband with another normal human didn't matter when it turned out said human was gone.
Of course, Harriet Yellowcake would probably cheat again, it was something to note down, since the radioactive Summer courtier was a powerful woman and one to keep an eye on.
It was all easy to work through, and while there was a sense of urgency, it felt almost nice to renew all of her contacts, and crack the whip and make sure everyone was on the ball. There was a certain intimacy to it that she'd perhaps missed, slightly.
There was still a lot of work to do, and so she shook her head and began writing down names.
Her network had been very helpful in identifying potential targets for subversion, and while she wasn't going to follow up all of them, double-checking their work discreetly from behind invisibility was a time-honored practice of hers.
She'd like to be sure that if they knew she was watching them the whole time they'd feel comforted and reassured at her dedication to watching out for them, but probably not. So was life.
Effect: Panopticon Restoration at 74/???. Progress definitely made!
I'A Cora, I'a Book!
He knew they wouldn't understand. He'd lost everything, everything after decades of study, but in one moment, he could fix it all. Barry B. White could discover something nobody else in the entire world had before. The arch held its secrets, its promises, but it still felt like such a petty thing now to be worried about, to spend half his life obsessing over.
He could have been at home kissing his wife and sons, the people that he'd left behind when he'd been dragged off to be some researcher for a Fae. And then when he got back, he left them again. His hands shook a little as he paced his study.
The other four members of the team couldn't know yet, not until he'd figured out the book and its strange writing. Its powers. It was a key, a key to summon something great and wonderful. It whispered to him, oh how it whispered and the words were so soft and sweet. He could do it, he knew. Figure out the entities it would summon and find a way back home.
Leave all of the Freehold behind if he had to, but he wouldn't have to. Surely once he showed the Chancellor just what wonders rested in the book, what sweet words, what magnificent and strange secrest they held, she couldn't deny it. She was Autumn, just like he was. She'd understand, if he could just find the right way to mention it to her.
He pushed up his glasses and looked around the study, and then at the drawer where the book was. He needed to hide it until dark, but even though he'd hidden it away there just ten minutes ago, it was already gnawing at the back of his head. Just a peek at the book, to make sure it was okay.
That's all, yes. He swept his hands across the table, clearing it clumsily, and then reached down. When the drawer opened, he could hear the singing, the whispers so much better now. He closed his eyes, shuddering in unseen and unknowable ecstasy, and reached out to grab the leather bound book.
Or perhaps it wasn't leather. It was dark and shabby and even after two days he knew it was his greatest discovery. He'd found it out checking under the Marble Arch, laying by the wayside, as if it had been discarded.
But who would discard such a marvelous book.
He flipped through the words, the strange symbols, to where he was last.
To Summon Them.
He'd bring them here, just a few, and then they'd take him home. And they'd be able to help the Freehold as well.
Which was when his door opened, and Cora Graves stepped in in full armor. "Barry, you should have known better."
"Known what?" he asked, "Did one of them rat me out? W-well, good. I wanted to show this to you, Chancellor, it's a marvelous book, the most amazing book any being has ever written." His voice was harsh, worn down with age, but then, Chancellor Graves herself croaked like a corpse, like--
"See, there's these facts you didn't know, and halfway through it has a ritual, a ritual that can grant people endless life. Eternity for the taking," he said, eyes feverish.
The Chancellor's expression was a mask which registered not a single emotion as she said, "You poor man. You foolish book, to think that a full on psychic assault would work on me."
'Kill her' a voice screamed in his head 'She wants to hurt me, stop me, hurt us...destroy everything!'
It was deep and beautiful and harsh and powerful and it was a voice that had to be obeyed, and he reached for the knife he kept just in case--
"Don't," Cora said, quietly, "Whatever lies it tells, you would die. I would not be cruel, dear Mr. White, because you are a good man and I feel for your pain. I promise I would be swift and painless and instant, if this is what you truly desire."
'Do it! Do it!' the book whispered, and he felt pain and pleasure rip through him, the book almost gaining control of his body.
But, when choosing between an ancient book promising endless happiness and the possibility of crossing Cora Graves…
Barry B. White took a step shakily back, throwing the book down, "P-please don't destroy it, it's a good book, it told me--"
"Never trust a talking book," Cora said blandly, and then picked up the book slowly, "Now, what to do with you?"
What does Cora do?
[] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
[] Burn it. Destroy it. The sooner the better.
[] Lock it away in a way it can't effect the world or be heard. Try a distant Hollow under lock and key.
[] Try somewhere in the house, also under lock and key and magic to prevent it from whispering in people's minds...the best guard for whatever the hell that is might just be the Chancellor after all.
[] Write-in.
Effect: Narrowly averted a complete disaster in which two rolls (for manifestation and for power) were over 90, while the 'notice anything' roll for the rest of the Freehold other than Cora was literally -19 (1d100-20). It would have been a fight for the future of the entire Freehold coming if he'd had time to, say, summon whatever it was that wanted to be summoned. Also, Cora's definitely going to beef up mental and physical security after *that*.
Intimidation vs Evil Book: Cora dice pool (Presence+Intimidation (Veiled)+2 (Autumnal)+1 (Situational)+2 (He's scared of you)+8-again=13 dice, 8 again versus…4 successes
Presence 4, Persuasion 4, 8 again seducer of wills!--2 successes
Turns out Cora's more convincing.
Presence 4, Persuasion 4, 8 again seducer of wills!--2 successes
Turns out Cora's more convincing.
Whiskey and Figures
1d100+25=125
"You know what I love?" Mayor Booster asked, slumped over his desk, staring at the whiskey in his hands and at his secretary. She was a good woman, an intelligent, leggy, beautiful Talebound whose features were somewhat marked by the inhumanity of the Changeling. She had a sort of glow about her, and she had pointed ears, but otherwise she could be any personal assistant.
And he could be any bored executive sitting near the top of a skyscraper running through home and business loans.
Of course, a regular executive wouldn't be grinning. Sometimes he even impressed himself. Things were going swimmingly, and he'd only been at it three days.
"Well," Nancy Adams said, "My first guess would be whiskey."
Mayor Booster gave a bark of laughter, his bright eyes staring at her, "No. Well yes." He drained most of the glass and then set it down, feeling the burn running down his throat, almost shuddering, "A subtle crook. That's the only thing I respect about vampires, or the ones I knew: they knew how to play the game."
"Is it about the investigations you ordered?" Nancy asked.
"Yes. I'd love to think I got one up on Stoneguts and Cora, but I'm sure they both knew about it and gave their approval to me stealing a third of their network out from under them to follow up on some leads. That tends to happen when you find something like that. Though I'm not so sure about Darkglow. When I just thought it was investigating the crime side of this new world, that was fine, but now that we know monsters are involved--"
He shrugged. No way to be subtle about it: man was a fanatic, had been a Hunter before he became a Changeling and didn't really see any reason that going through hell because of a bunch of monsters was supposed to *stop* his efforts to protect humans from monsters.
Thus far, at least, Darkglow hadn't done anything too problematic, and he was a damn fine investigator.
"Either way, tell me if this isn't suspicious. There's a gangland killing, that's pretty normal, pretty expected. But it's an important businessman, and when the detective on the case had traced it back, he'd gone above and beyond the call of duty. Dogged in his pursuit, incorruptible, all of that.
And, as per the police files that I shouldn't have access to and yet, somehow, do--"
"It is the great mystery of our times," Nancy said wryly.
"He'd traced it," he continued doggedly, "back to a group that ran a number of legitimate businesses that were clearly fronts for prostitution, drug distribution, and money-laundering. He'd gone to the house of the person he'd expected was part of it...and come out sure he knew the culprit."
"Who was the culprit?"
"Come on, guess," Mayor Booster said, teasingly, standing up and walking over to her.
"Not the people who he was investigating?" Nancy replied, stepping forward for a moment to rest her arm on his shoulder. She was a little taller then him, but he knew he could pull her down slightly and then into a kiss--
But he had more pressing matters, for the moment. Maybe another night, soon. He missed her, and it'd only been three or four weeks since they'd been in bed together. He loved her sense of humor, how dry she could be.
"Nope. Apparently a Mr. Miles Johnson was the culprit. Can you guess who that was?" Mayor Booster said, shaking his head, annoyed.
"Someone with a rap sheet?" she asked.
"A nineteen year old black youth who was suspected of one non-violent, a few charges of drug use, once found guilty of pickpocketing someone, from a broken home, with no money or anyone to advocate for him. And, most damningly, slam-dunk evidence, he lived within twenty miles of the murder, which all but guarantees that he was the murderer."
Sometimes he felt as if he was a bit of a hypocrite. A rich executive who didn't like the cops. And then sometimes you have cases like that.
"Ah, yes, I see. And he claimed he wasn't guilty?"
"Yes, he did. Did for a full two days of interrogation, and then one night the footage for his cell disappears like magic and he's swearing up and down that he's guilty," Mayor Booster sneered, "And then we start putting together times and dates and the woman who owns the house that the detective went into has never been seen during the day, and a half-dozen other sloppy uses of power--"
Mayor Booster snorted, "God, it's pathetic. I don't know why Hunters haven't murdered the lot of them, if they're so obvious that we can trace their influence on the gangs like that. Half of the two-bit gangs in this town have someone who seems to be...unusually influenced by them."
St. Louis didn't have the big gangs that controlled an entire town, and the Mob was a joke. What it had was hundreds of small, violent, confused, fractious gangs fighting and competing block by block for jack-shit, most of the times, with names that sounded mostly the same. The 49th Ace Mob Crips versus the 52nd Street Protector Crips, fighting over a single small neighborhood. It wasn't the sort of crime that could be organized.
And the vampires hadn't bothered, had just dumped their mojo on the right people and let everyone sort it out. Lazy and practical and more than a little sloppy.
And it was biting them in the neck, wasn't it? There was war on the streets, and blood on the water. The Northside Kings were disciplined, smart, and apparently had a strong structure that wasn't fracturing at the first little disagreement. They were gobbling up territory and drug routes, and offering prostitutes a rather more compelling deal: even more safety than any other gang could offer, but also the threat of violence even stronger in the air.
They were the largest gang now in the entire city, though it was still first among equals, and they'd been expanding. Growing, morphing, becoming something so big that even the cops were starting to get worried. And the vampires and the other gangs clearly hadn't been doing enough to do actually shut them down, since both of the latest deaths in the gangland war had been from one of the many other gangs.
Blood on the streets, blood in the water, and the vampires apparently couldn't or hadn't done anything about it.
"Maybe there aren't that many hunters here," Nancy said, tartly, "Either way, so they aren't subtle crooks, so much the better for us."
"But subtle crooks do exist. There's a certain set of corporations run by a certain woman who has been trying to cut across me and failing these last two days, and since she has access to the Mayor, I of course did a full investigation of her as well. You wouldn't believe what I found: an actual subtle crook. Every insinuation that could possibly link her corporation to even a pornography company, let alone the seventh-hand, vague and unsubstantiated rumors tying said company to some high class prostitutes--"
He laughed, "So in the end, all we have to link Amelia Gardiner and her family to anything shady are fifteenth hand rumors that would fly to even warrant the beginning of an investigation, even if the fucking police chief was an authoritarian kluxer with a grudge."
"So, what makes you think she's a crook at all?" his secretary asked, as they walked back towards the desk and he pulled out the Gardiner files.
"Well, she's rich as hell, she runs a corporate empire as large as the one I was setting up before I got axed--not international, more just 'rich enough to own the Mayor' and he's mine, damnit. New guy, but that doesn't stop him from needing to belong to me--"
"I quite understand, though I'm sure you mean the Freehold, don't you?"
"Yeah, yeah," Mayor Booster said with a playful grin, "L'etat c'est moi. When I declare myself Emperor and overthrow the other monarchs, you may be my Empress."
Nancy smirked and read through the files, "Wow, pretty impressive. Savvy woman. Look at those figures--"
"And those," Booster said, pushing past the words he'd read a dozen times, the numbers he'd easily memorized, and there it was.
The woman was stunning, and looked in her forties at the oldest, dark, creamy skin and darker eyes that seemed to stare into the camera. She wore a gold dress, a little formal, and heels that emphasized her height and long legs. There was power, poise, and control in her form. It didn't hurt that the curve of her breasts and, even more than that, her hips seemed to make promises that a body could deliver.
She was, in other words, gorgeous. And if she wasn't a pawn of some other power, and he had reason to believe she wasn't, absolutely dangerous. "So why do we think she's supernatural?" Nancy asked.
"This…" Booster said, pushing the picture aside to show another, this time older. Fashions had changed certainly, but she was still wearing formal wear, and still quite beautiful. She looked younger, but if so perhaps a decade and a half younger at most, which was not a big deal, except that on the edge of the photo was written 'July 31st, 1961.'
Now, there were ways a woman could seem to age only a decade and change in almost forty years, and she was certainly rich enough to afford them, but the more digging he did, the less he believed that. "My agents also tell me the difference is fake--"
"Of course it's fake. Look at her face, look closely," Nancy said, pointing to the first one.
He looked and saw...nothing much other than beauty. She didn't even relaly look like she'd aged so much as matured. Her clothing forty years ago had been a bit younger, perhaps, and that was a trick he well knew. Dress in the latest fashion and if you didn't look like an old guy trying to fit in you'd look decades younger.
"She's using makeup, subtle makeup, to emphasize the older parts of her. Combine it with that hairstyle--"
In the newer picture, her hair was up in a prim, imposing bun. In the older one, it ran free. "Ah, it's all an illusion, you think? Some sort of trick?"
"Are you sure she isn't a Daeva, then?"
"She's been spotted in the sunlight for hours at a time, so it's not likely. Dummy companies and shell games abound, but the corporate history of the some of the companies she 'bought' runs back to the early 20th century, maybe older. You know the drill. Hell, if I live long enough, I'll be doing the same stuff to pretend not to be liable to outlive everyone."
"So, what do we do about this...whatever?" Nancy asked, wrinkling her nose thoughtfully, trying to predict his next move, no doubt.
"Do? Why, simple. We're going to get invited to their party, and we're going to go and see what turns up," Mayor Booster said, "I am, at least. And then I have to see who to take from there. It's being held tomorrow night, short notice, but--"
He stretched and said, "I'm sure I can find somebody." Mayor Booster glanced down again at the report, and at the figure.
Amelia Gardiner, huh. And she was feuding with the vampires, that much was obvious. Names associated with them were on the mayor's schedule, people who were clearly their stooges had been seen talking to the city council. Trying to influence things.
And then there was the gang war, and wasn't that a mess to figure out.
Mayor Booster poured himself another drink.
Who Will Go Along?
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
[] I'm here to do business: So act like it! Come with three or four 'business partners.' Most of them will be, or rather intelligent men who can make connections and hopefully build bridges, and perhaps one bodyguard can be slipped in among them, as long as the person is unassuming. But this too defines the encounters.
[] Yes, He is a Bodyguard, Not My Date: Bring a bodyguard. Let them read into that what they want, and what they will read doesn't matter as much as safety. He'll bring the best one he can, and hope that that serves as a tip-off, helps shape interactions.
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
*****
A/N: So, without the choice of the option and the BP, Cora either would have been entirely blindsided (no option) or have gotten there just in time to have to try to interrupt the secret ritual and even if she succeeded, would have had to kill Barry and burn the book for sure. And if she failed, she'd be at ground zero of...whatever the hell that is. It would have wrecked everything everywhere forever, just so you know.
There is, as you might note, a lot still left to do, like the Lord Sages action and so on and so forth, but I decided that I'd instead do it in semi-chronological parts because I didn't want too many votes. So, yeah, I sorta-kinda, uh 'didn't do' 1-2k words I might have otherwise, which is how I'm releasing it so early. It'll get done, just in the next few updates after the party thing.
There's a lot to get through, after all.
Also, vote is not by plan.
- Location
- Daybreak
[] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
... Risk! ... What happens if it succeeds? I guess we lose Cora as a character... But, yeah, RISK!
...
What if no one votes on some of the choices, like what to do withBooker Booster?
...
Can I be a tie-breaker for one of these or something? Or do I have to pick one?
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
...
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
The other two are just too safe to seem FUN!
... Risk! ... What happens if it succeeds? I guess we lose Cora as a character... But, yeah, RISK!
...
What if no one votes on some of the choices, like what to do with
...
Can I be a tie-breaker for one of these or something? Or do I have to pick one?
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
...
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
The other two are just too safe to seem FUN!
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- Location
- The Surface Of A Hostile Planet
[x] Burn it. Destroy it. The sooner the better.
Yeeeah, no.
[x] My Date The Zookeeper
Perceptive, smart, great if things get rough, and brings another court into the mix.
Yeeeah, no.
[x] My Date The Zookeeper
Perceptive, smart, great if things get rough, and brings another court into the mix.
[X] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
-[X] BP if applicable
While there is an element of risk...this is also Cora's area of strength. Her mental defenses are almost as high as they can get, so it's worth trying. If her underling resisted the temptation for fear of her, she could resist it most likely.
Knowledge is power for her.
The second vote is...more complicated. This being White Court, they're pretty nasty in a fight, but prefer social events, yet at the same time, any vanilla humans we bring are going to be just considered food for their version of glamour drain.
So looking at the message we're sending:
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
Risky. A lone human partner with an unknown supernatural...it MIGHT help if the Wampire is male-only in their tastes, but this hinges purely on his diplomatic skill.
[] I'm here to do business: So act like it! Come with three or four 'business partners.' Most of them will be, or rather intelligent men who can make connections and hopefully build bridges, and perhaps one bodyguard can be slipped in among them, as long as the person is unassuming. But this too defines the encounters.
Neutral-ish option, the White Court does like this sort of thing, and forging connections with unknown supernaturals should be quite tempting to them.
This is well...business is business.
[] Yes, He is a Bodyguard, Not My Date: Bring a bodyguard. Let them read into that what they want, and what they will read doesn't matter as much as safety. He'll bring the best one he can, and hope that that serves as a tip-off, helps shape interactions.
While it's not quite showing up with Harry Dresden, this is going to annoy them a bit, depends on how many wampires are present.
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
Bring a ton of 'food' to the party, which means exposing a lot of our contacts to the White Court. Pass. We don't want to smell likea food source.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
This...informationally, inviting Cora means figuring out the Wampires very fast, and the grouping is...fitting. This would be however, a threat of sorts. One unknown powerful supernatural is an opportunity. Two, is a rival.
On the other hand her superhuman composure means she's nearly as ideal a negotiating partner as it gets against Raiths, and between Fear and Desire, they also have two major elements of White Court itself represented.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
Appeals to Booster's interests and brings an intellectual. Great at combat, if it breaks out, though I've no information on her social chops, probably fairly good.
More amiable mood as a diplomatic partner than Cora...which is an odd thing to say about a Summer Queen.
'Safe' option, though as with Cora, two powerful supernaturals would have the White Court negotiating differently.
Hmm....I'd tilt Cora for now. We need INFORMATION, and that means bringing in the Occult PhD.
[X] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
-[X] BP if applicable
While there is an element of risk...this is also Cora's area of strength. Her mental defenses are almost as high as they can get, so it's worth trying. If her underling resisted the temptation for fear of her, she could resist it most likely.
Knowledge is power for her.
The second vote is...more complicated. This being White Court, they're pretty nasty in a fight, but prefer social events, yet at the same time, any vanilla humans we bring are going to be just considered food for their version of glamour drain.
So looking at the message we're sending:
[] This is my secretary: Nancy is human, if they have a way of noting this, she's smart, and it would create a certain impression of both him and her that could be very useful for being underestimated. She'd keep her eye out, too, but if it actually came down to a fight or conflict, she wouldn't be much help.
Risky. A lone human partner with an unknown supernatural...it MIGHT help if the Wampire is male-only in their tastes, but this hinges purely on his diplomatic skill.
[] I'm here to do business: So act like it! Come with three or four 'business partners.' Most of them will be, or rather intelligent men who can make connections and hopefully build bridges, and perhaps one bodyguard can be slipped in among them, as long as the person is unassuming. But this too defines the encounters.
Neutral-ish option, the White Court does like this sort of thing, and forging connections with unknown supernaturals should be quite tempting to them.
This is well...business is business.
[] Yes, He is a Bodyguard, Not My Date: Bring a bodyguard. Let them read into that what they want, and what they will read doesn't matter as much as safety. He'll bring the best one he can, and hope that that serves as a tip-off, helps shape interactions.
While it's not quite showing up with Harry Dresden, this is going to annoy them a bit, depends on how many wampires are present.
[] Bring the Party to the Party: Mayor Booster is Spring Court. He knows actors and athletes and painters. Bring a crowd, to mingle and draw out secrets and learn names and figure out just who is who at this party. It's a large party, after all, and not everyone will be whatever brand of supernatural these people are, and more importantly, mingling is key.
Bring a ton of 'food' to the party, which means exposing a lot of our contacts to the White Court. Pass. We don't want to smell likea food source.
[] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
This...informationally, inviting Cora means figuring out the Wampires very fast, and the grouping is...fitting. This would be however, a threat of sorts. One unknown powerful supernatural is an opportunity. Two, is a rival.
On the other hand her superhuman composure means she's nearly as ideal a negotiating partner as it gets against Raiths, and between Fear and Desire, they also have two major elements of White Court itself represented.
[] My Date The Zookeeper: Maggie, too, is an option. An incredibly smart woman, she's perceptive and even stripped of her pets as she would be, anything short of a full-on war she could handle with ease. She's liable to be quite good at this, and she's less scary than Cora Graves. Also, Mayor Booster is really curious to see what Maggie looks like in a dress, because she never dresses up. For, uh, curiosity sake, of course.
Appeals to Booster's interests and brings an intellectual. Great at combat, if it breaks out, though I've no information on her social chops, probably fairly good.
More amiable mood as a diplomatic partner than Cora...which is an odd thing to say about a Summer Queen.
'Safe' option, though as with Cora, two powerful supernaturals would have the White Court negotiating differently.
Hmm....I'd tilt Cora for now. We need INFORMATION, and that means bringing in the Occult PhD.
[X] Dig Two Graves: God, this sounds like a bad idea to Mayor Booster. But Chancellor Graves is an expert in occult stuff and supernatural creatures, and knows a bunch of experts therein. He could invite her as a 'date' (entirely professional, of course, Booster thought with a shudder of fear) and she could go along. And if it actually did come down to trouble, she'd do quite well in helping them get away and taking it all in.
Not voting on the book. If we were anyone but Cora, who is absolutely specialized in this kind of thing, I'd go for Burn It, but as it is...
I'm still hesitant to vote for studying it, though.
[X]My Date the Zookeeper.
Keeping it IC, both the Monarch dates appeal to me more than any of the others, and Booster really doesn't want to go with Cora if he can avoid it.
I'm still hesitant to vote for studying it, though.
[X]My Date the Zookeeper.
Keeping it IC, both the Monarch dates appeal to me more than any of the others, and Booster really doesn't want to go with Cora if he can avoid it.
Vozen
Magic Adventure Cat
- Location
- Seattle
[X] Lock it away in a way it can't effect the world or be heard. Try a distant Hollow under lock and key.
There is much we can learn from this book...but we don't want to just jump in.
[X] Dig Two Graves
I know she's not technically the only main character, but she's the one I've gotten most attatched to. Plus, I think if anyone in that list could figure out something supernatural it would be her.
There is much we can learn from this book...but we don't want to just jump in.
[X] Dig Two Graves
I know she's not technically the only main character, but she's the one I've gotten most attatched to. Plus, I think if anyone in that list could figure out something supernatural it would be her.
pantherasapiens
you were always my best friend
- Location
- somewhere over your shoulder
[x] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
[x] Dig Two Graves
[x] Dig Two Graves
- Location
- Hell
[X] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
It needs to be studied, so they won't get blindsided again, and we have the opportunity.
[X] Dig Two Graves
I really want to see the uncomfortable dress moments but, Cora is the information specialist and possibly important the closest in appearance to a Black Vampire, something really powerful in the Dresden Universe so very likely to be taken seriously. Works even better because if it comes to violence, they will act on those believes and Cora will simply No-Sell them, potentially horrifying them with a Black Vampire that has somehow grown immune.
Speaking of Dresden,
Giving everyone the phonebook, Harry is in the phone book. The entire thing was a hook to get to Dresden.
How did I completely miss that!?
It needs to be studied, so they won't get blindsided again, and we have the opportunity.
[X] Dig Two Graves
I really want to see the uncomfortable dress moments but, Cora is the information specialist and possibly important the closest in appearance to a Black Vampire, something really powerful in the Dresden Universe so very likely to be taken seriously. Works even better because if it comes to violence, they will act on those believes and Cora will simply No-Sell them, potentially horrifying them with a Black Vampire that has somehow grown immune.
Speaking of Dresden,
Giving everyone the phonebook, Harry is in the phone book. The entire thing was a hook to get to Dresden.
How did I completely miss that!?
- Pronouns
- They/Them
What do you mean by that?
WanderingEye
smol skeleton
[x] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
[x] Dig Two Graves
[x] Dig Two Graves
dpara
slightly confused ascendant
[x] Burn it. Destroy it. The sooner the better.
Noooope. If that damn thing is a vector for Nemesis. Noooope.
That damn thing got to the fricking Leansidhe (who I think can be assumed to be on the epic end of mental defenses).
(We may be protected as long as we don't "accept" anything, though how would we know that!)
I can maybe reason for keeping it around as a trade good for Mab, but that still means sitting on an apocalypse.
Please Cora tell everyone to be super duper careful of possession-type artifacts conveniently dropping out of the Arch.
[x] Dig Two Graves
I can hardly think of someone better suited to interact with the White Court.
Noooope. If that damn thing is a vector for Nemesis. Noooope.
That damn thing got to the fricking Leansidhe (who I think can be assumed to be on the epic end of mental defenses).
(We may be protected as long as we don't "accept" anything, though how would we know that!)
I can maybe reason for keeping it around as a trade good for Mab, but that still means sitting on an apocalypse.
Please Cora tell everyone to be super duper careful of possession-type artifacts conveniently dropping out of the Arch.
[x] Dig Two Graves
I can hardly think of someone better suited to interact with the White Court.
? Harry is in the yellow pages, a Chicago Freehold will likely notice the advertised wizard ?
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[x] Try to study it...carefully. And then burn it. (Some risk that it'll try to get its tendrils into her and possibly succeed, who knows.)
[x] Dig Two Graves
[x] Dig Two Graves