>>35088910
>[X]They can’t have gone that far. Check hiding spots nearby - in bushes and alleyways, behind large rubbish bins, places where someone might cower in fear.

>>35088910
>[]They can’t have gone that far. Check hiding spots nearby - in bushes and alleyways, behind large rubbish bins, places where someone might cower in fear.

OP, do you have a Twitter thing?

>>35089201
>OP, do you have a Twitter thing?
Has since ages. Check the directory.

>>35089201
((My twitter is just MonsterheartsQM.))

>>35089243
Thank you, followed.

>>35088910
>[x]Custom
We may not be able to easily find a connection to Cassandra or the murder, but we should be able to find a connection through the witness' belongings here, that we can use our magic to use to track them. Look through the house, more intensively with our magic, to identify Ownership, and find an object that is Owned by the witness and is connected to them by that Ownership. Then track them down.

>>35088910
>Look for well lit areas

Victims will search for safe places

>>35089066
>>35089119
>>35089368
>>35089457
((Okay, writing.))

>>35089571
You cast about for nearby hiding places, the sort of place someone might scurry into if they thought a vicious monster was chasing after them. There's not much foliage nearby, but there's a garden a few houses down with a large hedge - nothing there. You check down the nearby alleyways which lead into a back street, but if your quarry was here she's long gone. Over the other side of the street is more promising - here, by the kerb, a lost shoe. It's not very strongly connected to its former wearer, but it's enough to give you a direction.

Two streets down, following the invisible trail of sympathetic ownership, you find the public library. The trail is fading away as you walk through the doors, but you can see a young woman in one corner struggling with one of the library's public phones. She's probably in her mid twenties, she looks very frantic, and she's missing one shoe.

Apart from her and yourself, the library is deserted - the librarians are upstairs tidying things away in preparation for closing soon. As you watch, she fumbles the coin she was trying to insert into the phone and it goes bouncing across the carpet away from her. She sighs and slumps against the phone.

[]Time to grab her and drag her back to the house. The library and streets seem pretty deserted, no point in expending magical power when you don't need to.
[]This would probably go smoother if you applied a little magical persuasion to her, just enough to get her to come along quietly.
[]There's no need to do everything Cassandra's way. Sit her down and explain the virtues of silence.
[]Custom

So, when we find the witness, getting them to agree to be under our protection should allow us to magically claim ownership over them.
That should make ordering them to get hazy memories of being attacked by a crazy madman easier.
Outright blanking out the memories would probably take more power and be more difficult.

>>35090543
>[x]There's no need to do everything Cassandra's way. Sit her down and explain the virtues of silence.

And MHQ, is this generally correct >>35090566

>>35090566
>>35090592
Oh, and remember guys, we've got that Silver Tongue power that we can use. We can probably strengthen it with the power we got from The Man, to convince her that being under our protection is for the best, making claiming her as ours easier.

>>35090543
>virtues of silence

Can't copy/paste atm!

>>35090592
>And MHQ, is this generally correct >>35090566
(( Eh... the first part certainly works. Ordering someone, at least a normal human, to form new memories is going to take magical effort - most people just don't have the ability to rewrite their own memories on command.))

Rolled 9, 5 = 14 (2d12)

>>35090732
I suppose I should reword that to "How much magical effort would this fall under, after taking into account that we Own her?"

>>35090832
((It would start off at the most expensive level - rewriting memories is not something you can just casually throw around - and the discount you'd get would drop it to somewhere about halfway between that level and the next one down. On the other hand, there's something of a threshold effect - you can rewrite no memories at all, or you can rewrite as many as you please at once.))

>>35090566
>>35090592
>>35090630
((Also, voting closed, writing next post.))

>>35091264
You step forward, applying a small bending of fate so that the dropped pound coin bounces, rolls and comes to a stop under your shoe. You pick it up and walk towards the woman, who you can hear quietly sobbing against the phone as you get closer.

You clear your throat, and she jumps, turning to see you holding the coin in your outstretched palm. She blinks for a second, then sags and smiles.

"Oh, yeah. Thank you. Um. I, I need to..."

"You look pretty shaken," you interrupt. "Are you sure you don't want to sit down? Whoever you need to call, I'm sure it can wait long enough for you to catch your breath."

She shoots a terrified glance at the door, as though expecting Cassandra to burst through at any moment, then looks back at you. You nod to one of the bean bags nearby, and she carefully hangs up the receiver, staggers over to the bean bag and all but collapses into it.

After a few moments she seems to recover some of her composure, hurriedly pushing her hair back behind her ears and pulling herself up into a nervous-looking crouch, throwing occasional glances towards the front doors.

You grab one of the other bean bags and pull it over to sit next to her. "So, what's your name?"

"I, uh, I'm Sarah. Uh, could you - no, never mind. Sorry."

"Hi, Sarah. I'm Chris. What was it you wanted to ask? It's okay. You can trust me." Her eyelids flicker slightly as you reinforce your words with a magical push.

"I just... there might be someone following me, someone really dangerous. Could you keep an eye out for anyone coming in through the front door? A woman, I think, in a red dress. I was going to call the police, but I’m not sure if...” She stops, staring down at her hands.

“You’re not sure if the police could protect you? If they could stop her?”

Sarah looks up in shock. “How did you know that?”

((Cont.))

>>35092640
You smile calmly. “Lucky guess, or something like that. I think you have a point, though. You don’t want to be sitting here waiting for half an hour for someone to come take your statement. You need protection that’s right here. Protection with real power behind it.”

Sarah is openly staring at you now. “You can protect me? Even from... she was so fast. And she just threw Gary straight across the room. But - I do feel - safer. Why is that? What are you? What was she? I think... did she bite Gary?”

You reach out and take one of her hands gently, keeping the same gentle smile.

“All in good time. First, listen. You trust me, don’t you?”

“Uh... yes. I do. Why do -“

You keep going, speaking over her questions. “And you feel safer now. You feel protected, don’t you?”

“Yeah, I guess I do...”

“Good. Do you want me to protect you? To keep you safe from the things that stalk the night, to guard you against the dark?”

“I... I do. Please. But what’s -“

You hold up your index finger, shushing her instantly, and then use it to tap her lightly on the forehead. A shimmer of light radiates out from the point of contact, washing over Sarah and vanishing as quickly as it appeared. She rocks back a little, staring at her hands and turning them over. Finally she looks up at you, confusion evident on her face.

“What just happened? I don’t understand...”

[]No need to explain yourself now. She’s under control, you might as well take her back to her house and let Cassandra know what’s happened.
[]No harm in explaining yourself now. She’s not going to tell anyone in any case. After that, you can stash her somewhere quiet and comfortable and go explain to Cassandra that everything’s under control.
[]No reason to hold back now. Delve into her mind and rearrange her memories as you please.
[]Custom

>>35092657
>[]No harm in explaining yourself now. She’s not going to tell anyone in any case. After that, you can stash her somewhere quiet and comfortable and go explain to Cassandra that everything’s under control.
By "under control," we of course mean "under our control," right? So that we can get Cassandra to stop randomly murdering people?

>>35092657
Give us a bit to discuss, please.

I normally try to save as much power as we can, but I think manipulating her memories without a plan is rash but if we have a plan should be done now.

Plan A: make her think the killer was some coked up man on steroids. Explains being able to overpower Gary, the broken window, and why they disappeared (since we can't leave bodies behind). It also gives Cassandra a witness who will say "No, it wasn't her, I remember a man", if she needs one.

Plan B: make her remember not being at the house when the attack happened. She was taking a walk, came back, found the house broken in and people missing.

Now, we COULD bench this for later and go deal with Cassandra while we're at full power. That would be good in case it comes to a fight.
But, we're more likely to get her to agree to work with us if we say we took care of it with memory magic. Because saying "I wiped her memories" is more final than "I took care of it".
Now, considering Cassandra, it IS possible that sparing the girl will make Cass less willing to work for us; she thinks we're too weak-willed to get our hands dirty.

>>35093037
>Give us a bit to discuss, please.
((Sure - what more information do you need?))

>>35093037
>Now, considering Cassandra, it IS possible that sparing the girl will make Cass less willing to work for us; she thinks we're too weak-willed to get our hands dirty.
We need something over Cassandra to get her back under control. Sarah can be that thing.

>>35093090
Sorry, am I remembering properly? That was how Isabella kept Cassandra under control, right? She had some blackmail material?

>>35093070
Memory manipulation: all or nothing? Is there a gradient for whether making memories out of whole cloth or gently changing them?

Owning a person, does that mean we can order them to do something and expect them to do it, like keep quiet about a thing and stay here, without using extra magic?

>>35093130
Blackmail, plus magic compulsion (why she became free when Isabella died), and the promise of a hedonistic lifestyle funded by being the daughter of a hedge fund manager.

>>27920085
>Isabella shrugs. "Not right away. I can blackmail her again, I guess, and you might be able to trick her into joining up with me again. She's not vital, though. You've got all her abilities of control and more.
Found something.

>>35093070
Is the Considerable Effort for Claiming a supernatural being from the act of Claiming a supernatural, or because they can resist it?
Would Claiming Cassandra be much cheaper if she agrees to it willingly, or do we need her admission to do it at all (without it being a Miracle)?

>>35093162
((You can change as many details as you like or fabricate memories entirely, it has no effect on the cost. You can do as many as you like at once, but if you want to make more changes a while later, you'll need to pay again.

Owning a person doesn't make them a robot or a puppet, but consider it similar to D&D's Charm Person: you're their best friend and they'll listen to you, and they'll follow any not obviously ridiculous or suicidal instruction.))

>>35093266
((That's just from being able to Claim a supernatural being at all. You could *maybe* try to Claim Cassandra without her agreement but it'd be hit and miss whether it worked and whether you suffered any sort of harm or backlash from it.))

>>35093346
Ok, then I'm leaning towards stashing Sara somewhere safe for now, and changing her memories later if we think we need to or she asks for it.
Her current memories can be used as leverage, if necessary.

Now, the question is, where is safe, an should she be seen publicly or not.
Send her to our house? Or Anna's apartment?
And I think we should work to Claim Anna as well later. First, to have a ghost operative. Second, she might have better luck interacting with people we've claimed.

>>35092657
>[x]No harm in explaining yourself now. She’s not going to tell anyone in any case. After that, you can stash her somewhere quiet and comfortable and go explain to Cassandra that everything’s under control.

>>35093500
>>35093483
>>35092776
((Okay, while I do love discussion and it is very useful for it to keep going, it helps shape the course of this and further posts, I do need to call voting to a close and start writing something, at least.))

>>35093483
>Send her to our house? Or Anna's apartment?
We need a place to keep her that's safe. Cassandra is a crazy bitch, our house probably isn't safe. Anna's apartment might be, though I'd prefer somewhere more anonymous (maybe one of Isabella's people could put her up for the moment).

>>35093684
((Small delay, sorry. Back ASAP.))

>>35094589
You make sure the room is empty apart from the two of you, and start to lay things out for Sarah. She doesn’t need the intricate play-by-play of everything that’s happened to you over the last month and a half, but you explain what you know of the basics of the supernatural world - magic, vampires, werewolves, all real. All fairly dangerous, in the wrong circumstances. And you explain that you’re much more powerful than anything else she’s going to run into, that you really can protect her. You might need one or two things from her, though. Nothing major right now. Just stuff like not making that phone call, which is pretty clearly unnecessary anyway, right? Of course it is.

Sarah is a little shaken by her newfound knowledge of the world, but having it explained by someone she trusts helps, and she stays fairly calm, starting to ask her own questions once she grasps the overall picture (‘Ghosts, too?’ ‘Yeah, ghosts too.’ ‘What about aliens?’ ‘I’ve never met any aliens, but I guess I wouldn’t rule them out.’)

Eventually you have to cut the discussion short, though - it’s been perhaps twenty minutes and the librarians are now coming downstairs, hoping to quietly shoo you out so that they can lock up. Sarah suddenly realises that she has nowhere to sleep tonight - even with your protection, the thought of sleeping in the same house where her friends were so recently murdered isn’t exactly a pleasant one. Anna’s apartment is the nearest, and you don’t think Cassandra actually knows where it is, having met Anna at a party downstairs. It’ll do for now, although you should probably work out exactly where you want to stash Sarah and what you’re going to do with her in more detail once you have some time.

Once things are sorted out with Anna (requiring only a brief explanation of what happened to Sarah), you head back to Sarah’s old house, where Cassandra is most likely still waiting. It’s almost over.

>>35095957
((Rather longer delay than previously anticipated. My life is rather complicated at the moment. My apologies.

As you may notice by the lack of choices or Cont. at the bottom, this is the last story post for tonight. Please feel free to make plans and ask questions below so that I can give you as much information as possible in advance this time, which will speed up voting and discussion during the next thread.))

So what is the plan with the girl? re we gonna just give her to Cassandra as "goodwill" token and get her trust and try to work it out with her? Or are we gonna hide the girl and keep her and somehow (although I have no idea how) use her as leverage or whatever against Cassandra or whatever.

Also don;t want to try and be too meta here but she is the sole survivor of her family to a tragic monster attack. There is a chance that she could eventually become a main character (aka another Chosen). But that is unlikely because I believe we already have one, (that guy whose name starts with an A...).

Still what do we plan to do, anyone got any ideas? I know we originally came to just talk to Cassandra but... is killing an innocent girl and covering for her just to have a conversation really the way to go about it? It automatically implicates us with her, but it also kinda forces her to become involved with us as well (the whole I covered for you now you own me).

Still.... What do!? Guys!? What is the plan!?

>>35096008
Thanks for the thread, MH.

So, what do we know about Cassandra's personality?
How much effort will using our Silver Tongue on Cass take?
If it comes to a fight, how much effort is it to change the coefficient of friction on the bottom of Cassandra's feet? To alter the relationship of control between her and the floor?

>>35097196
The idea is to use her as potential leverage against Cassandra IF NECESSARY, but to otherwise keep her as an agent of ours.
Giving Sarah over was not part of the plan.

Also, it wasn't her family that was killed. Those three were college students, not family.

It's like you haven't been paying any attention to the plans we've been coming up with.

>>35097196
The plan is thus:
1. Get Sarah to a safe place, probably with Anna
1a. Maybe Claim Anna as well, so that the two of them are closer, magically, and can maybe interact easier with each other. Also, so we get a ghost spy
2. Go talk to Cassandra, tell her we "took care of the problem"
3. Get Cassandra to agree to work with us, or at least get her to admit that she owes us (putting us in a position of control over her)
4. Claim Cassandra as ours
4a. Peacefully, because she realizes that she'd have to fight the entity that had the mojo to raise Isabella from the dead
4b. Forcefully, we need to beat her into semi-submission and then forcefully Claim her

>>35097541
Missed the last 2 threads, and just came in this one really late and skimmed through. Just re-reading them now, and catching up.

My bad, a real over sight by me. Just re-read it.

Also 3 college students. Fuck that's even worse. That's 3 whole different families, even more shit and people to deal with.

So how would we use her as leverage?

>>35098091
Sounds like good. I'm down. Might have to come up with a few specific just in case other "unexpected things happen" or whatever like, other people intervening or finding out.

>>35098162
>So how would we use her as leverage?
A combination of "See, this is why you need me to clean up your messes: YOU ALWAYS MAKE MESSES THAT NEED CLEANING UP!" and "we've got a witness that'll finger you to the police".

>>35098233
I kinda like the former. The whole making it like "See this is why you need me around, this is why you must listen to what I tell you to do." We did previously warn her about the police getting suspicious and the whole "Monster Hunter High School Squad". Manipulating her into a situation where she needs us, and she want to help us, because "Helping us , helps her." seems great. Even a person only interested in self preservation would follow, just to save themselves, if they realize "following us is the best option",

The ladder is force full approach and can work, but is extremely risky.

>>35098233
>YOU ALWAYS MAKE MESSES THAT NEED CLEANING UP!
That's something we could definitely use in our arguments.
That's how Isabella first bound Cassandra; Cass fucked up and left evidence behind.
And what's the first thing that happens as soon as she gets free of Isabella's leash?
She leaves behind a fucking ghost (who we should say we Claimed, even if we didn't because we're saving our power in case of a fight), and now she let a witness get away, and she wasn't even chasing her until we arrived.

Cassandra always leaves a mess behind, and eventually a Hunter is going to notice.

>>35096008
Will we get a chance to talk with the Man soon?

He's been around for a long time (and I should note that his hosts have always fucked up eventually, and we need to learn from their mistakes), and his Estate is Dominion, so he will probably know if the government has a secret supernatural agency, like The Laundry or MI13. We should ask him if such a thing exists.

Because if they do, then we need to come down on Cassandra leaving evidence around with both feet, because supernatural intelligence agencies do not fuck around.

>>35098432
Advice and consul is a good idea.

I just woke up and caught up on the thread, thanks for running it OP