[X] Tell Yvonne a suitably abridged version of the truth. Give similarly abridged answers to any follow-up questions and ask a few of your own.
I don't expect the truth about Changelings or their abilities to remain hidden for much longer. An entire new supernatural faction does not just appear out of nowhere without drawing close attention. There are some Changelings that will be alot less discrete than Cora and captured Changelings that will be made to talk when (not if) various supernatural baddies get their claws into them.
Really, I'm surprised that Cora hasn't tried something like that herself yet. She is badly lacking in basic native supernatural knowledge.
At the very least Cora would be interested in having a discussion with a magically knowledgeable DF native about the 'crossover' event that wrote the Changelings into the immediate history of this world, what was observed on their end and what might have caused such a phenomenon.
That ones existence could undergo a cosmic transcription (or worse) at any instant is a major security concern and source of paranoia, amongst other things.
I wonder if Dresden has discussed these issues with any of the Chicago Changelings.
[X] Admit to not being a Black Court Vampire, but nothing else. State the obvious: that the game is far more effectively played when others don't know what piece you are.
Vote Tally : The Lost Files (C:TL/Dresden Files) (CK2-ish) | Page 51 | Sufficient Velocity ##### NetTally 1.7.3
[X] Admit to not being a Black Court Vampire, but nothing else. State the obvious: that the game is far more effectively played when others don't know what piece you are. No. of Votes: 6
[X] Tell Yvonne a suitably abridged version of the truth. Give similarly abridged answers to any follow-up questions and ask a few of your own. No. of Votes: 1
"You have caught me. I am not a black court vampire," Cora said quietly, her smile deathly, her features drawn. She knew how she looked, and at the moment it was the only weapon she had in her arsenal that she could employ without danger. Peace could smother a person just like a pillow, and the very thought came so incongrulously that she knew she was missing her research and her dream-time explorations.
Too mired in this world and its games. It was a lament, of course, without a purpose, since she had the ambition for ten men to share and each aspire to glory. It was something she was comfortable with, and in a less irritated mood she might have not even bothered with the pretense.
Her time was too valuable, and yet here she was, sparring with a woman who despite being a vampire might possibly be at least moderately less guilty than her, yet surely an enemy as well.
Yvonne watched her, took her words in, weighed them as any smart political calculator would, and then nodded. "That's what I was afraid of. Blackies are predictable slime. They're monsters, and even the most powerful of them is drawn by their appetites even more than I am. They have no sense of proportion, and I…"
"You are an appreciator of proportion," Cora said quietly, knowing that this was the way to say nothing. She had risen to the top fast enough that sometimes a few things got left behind, but whatever Mayor Booster thought of her and her deals, she had watched him.
Write this down as a truth everyone should know, she thought: the best way to say nothing is to say something.
"Ha. Well perhaps I am. But the follow-up question…" Yvonne said, leadingly, and her expression was strange.
Mrs. Graves wondered at it, but by this point she realized that the more she tangled herself in the words, the more likely Yvonne was to trip her up, and so she merely said, almost absently, "The game is more effectively played when others don't know what piece you are."
"Oh," Yvonne said with a chuckle, "And here I thought you were human. Chess metaphors?" She sighed, somewhat dramatically, though in truth she seemed more amused than annoyed, "Everyone uses Chess metaphors."
"Then you shall be glad to know I was referring to Stratego," Cora said. Perhaps a lie, but Jonathan had liked the game so much they'd played it again and again.
Yvonne started and laughed, a rich, carefree sound. "Then are you the spy...or the bomb?"
Cora knew not to play these games, or at least not to play them here and now. For a moment she had the absurd image in her head of playing Stratego with Yvonne--certainly there were Changelings who played that game and plenty of others using the Contract of the Board to control the destinies of plenty of men and women.
It was an odd feeling, to find herself...if not truly liking, at least tolerating a vampire. She wasn't Manny, after all.
But that didn't mean they were friends, and Cora merely allowed herself to look at Yvonne without seeing. She felt a faint push of unnatural (unnatural for it came from nowhere and left just as soon as it arrived) arousal, and knew it for a sign of what it was: that despite everything, this Gardiner was a predator.
"Good, good. I'm glad you're not a vampire. It gives you strengths and weaknesses that are far more interesting, though I wonder what you are. Some strange Fae? No, but…" Yvonne frowned and said, "Mother, you know, is going to go over every detail of this conversation."
Cora just sipped her coffee.
"Thank you for giving June an art feature and a heads up."
The Anthropological-Art thing, Cora said, and she knew why Yvonne didn't mention the other again. That, that was paid for.
She finished her coffee and left, wondering just what sort of enemy she was facing.
Certainly, it had been good coffee and a good meal, but Yvonne Gardiner wasn't to be trusted, and her mother Amelia seemed sharp too.
She wasn't Mayor Booster, to enjoy having enemies and almost treasure them.
Ultimately, she thought to herself, if she felt the need she'd have Yvonne killed and be done with it, but now after the meeting…
Perhaps she'd regret it. Slightly.
*****
Subterfuge: 2 successes...versus 1 success.
Politics: 3 successes
Subterfuge 2: 4 vs 3 successes
Socialize: 2 successes
A/N: Sorry it's so short, regularly scheduled programming will return later this week.
Part of it is the pre-impression, too. Cora Graves did do her homework, and Yvonne Gardiner, at least so far, hasn't revealed a mass of corpses under her floorboard. No doubt they are there, or somewhere else, but...
certainly there were Changelings who played that game and plenty of others using the Contract of the Board to control the destinies of plenty of men and women.
Oh wow, Cora playing board games. I am way more amused than I should be by that image.
I bet she'd have a total poker face the entire time, though. Takes some of the fun out of it if people aren't bluffing an reacting, although I guess she could fake that too?
Oh wow, Cora playing board games. I am way more amused than I should be by that image.
I bet she'd have a total poker face the entire time, though. Takes some of the fun out of it if people aren't bluffing an reacting, although I guess she could fake that too?
It could theoretically be done with candy-land, though that'd be more for some sort of journey, maybe? A random journey filled with perils would be what Candy Land would represent.
It could theoretically be done with candy-land, though that'd be more for some sort of journey, maybe? A random journey filled with perils would be what Candy Land would represent.
Okay, wow, I thought I had a Turn 2--C waiting. But no, Sao Luis Showdown, and then News/Results/Etc, and then that's it for Turn 2! So, I'll start doing the rolls for Sao Luis to see what's happened in the meantime, and depending on what I roll it'll be either the last full update before the News, or rolled in (if the results are unspectacular enough not to need elaboration.)
[X] Leave some forces to work against the vampires, but withdraw most.
[X] Spy Games: Try to get agents in place, or systems, that can allow one to monitor some of their assets, at least until they realize they are bugged.
In the context of all that has happened south of the equator in the last week, Marble Arch's initiative was reasonably modest. In fact, it was a little bit of a letdown, March thought. She was a loyal agent of Winter, and she didn't allow these thoughts to linger but a moment, but she thought of all of the history she had studied. Before she had been taken away, before she had become but a beast, a creature under the thumb of others, she had been in the CIA.
The CIA had once attempted to intervene in Brazil, yet in the end it hadn't been needed. Their worst intentions, to overthrow a democratically elected leader, weren't even needed...even if the gestures of covert support might have been heartening.
She was aware with her every move of two basic facts. First, having just arrived to fill the gap that King Stoneguts had left...she was under the gun.
Second, she didn't know the territory, and her attempts to carefully cultivate paid informants had led to a death and a narrow escape.
She remembered climbing up the side of the building, reaching the door and then stepping through it into the Hedge, only two seconds ahead of her pursuers.
The vampires had power here. They controlled the government, they made the rules, and she scratched at the wound from where a bullet had entered her. As covert as they were being, they were meeting success and failure in equal measures.
March took all of the blame into her paws, but she wished she'd had more success to report.
Because even now there were bombings all across Brazil and South America, there was an alliance the likes of which had never been seen forming in South American Freeholds, and upon the River Mayor Booster was attempting to fundamentally alter the security considerations.
And meanwhile, in the Freehold itself, everyone was desperately trying to cope with a new world and new rules.
Against all of that, the few agents she had carefully seeded in the corporations that the Vampires were most interested in--which honestly seemed to be any corporation which could exercise power, especially exploitative and extractive power, as Cora Graves curt analysis back had told her (as if she didn't know, but Mrs. Graves was nothing if not an arrogant bitch that March disliked on principle)--seemed like nothing.
Rabbit early and often, be as careful as you could, keep a good supply of carrots...and find that a new environment meant new challenges.
She sighed, turning another page, washing she had more support from the Freehold of Sao Luis, yet they were surprisingly distant, setting up their own operations and well aware that however much they owed Marble Arch, and however much they promised that they would provide aid, that they could chose when to repay their debt.
It sure as hell wasn't now, March thought, and got up, hopping slightly out of instinct as she paced.
"The ritual is in place at least," a snake said to her, sliding around the edges of tables and chairs. She glanced down at one of Maggie's companions. Here, no doubt, to blame her.
She shook her head, wishing she were in a better mood. She always got like this when she was in a bad mood.
March Hare slumped back into the chair and said, "I suppose so."
"And the gangs and police have been infiltrated."
"Yes, yes," March Hare said, "You are the most encouraging snake ever, I get it, I get it."
"Changelings mostly bore me, the ones who are not my friend Maggie. But you…" the snake said, coiling around her legs, "You annoy me."
"You could always leave."
"Maggie needs me to watch here, where she cannot."
The snake was, as far as she knew, a very intelligent figure, but why and how he had come to be Maggie's was another mystery, and she didn't have time for this. "Yes, yes, we understand. The Queen of Summer has her pets…"
She had lost circulation in her legs, but she glanced down at him, her fear, her snake-meets-rabbit fear, buried beneath cold defiance. "You can tell her I'm doing my job."
"You're doing a better job than you know, as contemptible as I find you," it responded. "The stage is set...eventually."
March sighed, all but collapsing against the desk, feeling the cold metal against her pounding headache, ears flopping all about.
She reached she fumbled for a cigarette, and felt its length in her fingers, running them up and down before she grabbed a lighter and quickly lit it, not even putting it in her mouth yet as she turned around, staring up at the ceiling.
Around and around it went, cooling a room that was too hot and stank of someone cooped up for days, hiding from a number of reprisals.
Around and around, and she watched it, dark eyes tracking one way and another. South America would burn, that's what she thought. Madness and ambition.
Yet March was stuck there.
She put the cigarette in her mouth, and took a breath of pure Smoke.
She breathed out and into the air it went, hanging there for a long moment before the fan finally pushed it aside.
"That'll kill you, you know? I don't care, but I'm too bored laying here."
"So will espionage," March said, and turned back to the work, the cigarette holding off the headache that had been building all week.
Effect: Progress is being made...but slowly, and very...incompletely. Also, March Hare isn't exactly picking up good habits. She's just a mid-level Winter Court Agent sort of thing, in case you're wondering. Called March Hare because she arrived right at the end of Winter and joined it immediately, lickity split.
What happens in Sao Luis is still up in the air.
*****
Initial Work: 1d100+5 (Token Forces)+5 (Let it Burn)+10 (Unexpected support)=40
Unexpected Support...Again?!: 1d100, pure luck roll. 50...nope.
Empires Rise, Oceans Fall…: 1d100, 11, nope, no help there.
The Hunt Never Ends: 1d100, 43, nope he's not ready.
A/N: So, some mediocre rolls happened, and while the Gangs roll was good, its specific use in context of the other failures is somewhat limited. By now I'm sure you're very sick of me foreshadowing the News, so you'll be seeing that soon.
In theory, sure. You could have also done better than that by far, especially with resources. It depends on a lot of factors, though, and luck wasn't with you in the first place.
In theory, sure. You could have also done better than that by far, especially with resources. It depends on a lot of factors, though, and luck wasn't with you in the first place.
More that in generally, speaking IC wise, taking on an entity with control over entire governments with inadequate information is well...going to largely wind up as the rolls said
