triangularity | Open RP post!

Ebenezar snorted and shifted his weight to face his grandson's apprentice, his craggy face wrinkling even further as he considered what she was saying. The girl seemed frightened though, and rightfully so he reckoned, but that wasn't unexpected. The Doom of Damocles was no laughing matter, even for him, but at the same time, that wasn't right and it wasn't why he'd come.

"Calm down girl," he grumbled, stepping forward to stand directly under a streetlight. It fizzled and flickered, but didn't immediately break down. Heh. Sign he may be losing his touch. "I ain't here on not Council business, don't you fret. And I reckon if they did ask me ta come lookin' for ya, I'd tell 'em ta stick it right up their ass."

Ebenezar McCoy wasn't in the habit of wrangling missing apprentices, even suspected Warlocks. And he wasn't in the habit of doing anything the White Council demanded that didn't seem reasonable. Or right. Or sounded too much like an order. Especially not now, and especially not about someone related to Harry.

"Did come lookin' for you though. Fer my own reasons. Nothin' official, just checkin' up on ya."

That, at least, did make sense. "They wouldn't send Ebenezar McCoy to find me, I'm not important enough," she muttered. "I just..." Molly's gaze flicked from side to side, as if she'd been constantly alert for too long. "It's been bad, the last few months. I can't fight them like-" she broke off, unable to bring herself to say Harry's name.

As any of the people who had checked up on Molly in the past several months had seen, she was not doing particularly well. She wasn't going out of her way to seem crazier and more off-putting, not in front of a Council's representative even if he wasn't on Council business. That made other things no less glaringly obvious. Her hair was greasy and tangled. It had been too long since Molly's last shower, and the smell gave that away as much as the look of her hair. She was a little thinner but didn't seem to have lost worrying amounts of weight, so she'd been getting fed somehow. That was only mildly reassuring. Though Molly's clothing seemed warm enough, it was layers of dirty tatters rather than anything whole and clean. This was very obviously not a woman trying to look good and taking pride in her appearance. Very much the opposite, which was out of character for Harry's apprentice.

Molly knew why he was checking up on her. "For Harry?" She managed to say it that time, and her voice didn't even break.

None of that was lost on Ebenezar, none at all. She didn't look like the same Molly Carpenter he'd met before, and that was a bit worrying. He knew better than to think she'd gone bad, she didn't have any of the obvious signs. Not yet, anyway. Something to keep an eye on, but nothing to immediately fixate on. Not why he'd come, and he did trust his grandson's judgment. If Molly was on the level, then until presented with evidence to the contrary, he'd accept that. Even if she did look a might touched.

Ebenezar managed a small smile, which probably didn't make him look any less wrinkly. It wasn't a grandfatherly look, it was just a look.

"For Harry," he confirmed, adding a moment later, "And cuz I keep hearing about all the bad things goin' on in Chicago. Figgured it was time to come check on ya. And yeah, I heard about Carlos. Good kid...but he ain't quite up to rootin' you out."

"Bad things everywhere. Everyone's spread so thin Carlos didn't have time to look long. I'd've assumed you'd be even busier." Molly was fairly certain Carlos hasn't looked hard, either. Murphy had implied as much, but far be it from Molly to report his lack of initiative when it came to arranging her death. She paused, then added dully, "I didn't think, and I know he didn't either, what would happen after." After they got Maggie out. Maggie was safe. Maybe another daughter to care for would help distract her parents from worrying about Molly, at least a little bit. Two Margarets, but they could only help one now. The Reds were gone and it had just opened the way for a flood.

Molly sometimes felt like she was trying to part the seas armed only with a bucket.

"The Fomor want Chicago, and they're not the only ones here. Things stayed quiet or gone before because they were scared of him. Now he's not here and they have no one to fear." She shook her head. She was giving them something new to fear, but it was all veils and illusions. Her trickery had been successful so far, true. It just had no substantial power to back it up should it fail.

...It was almost scary, how much a tiny trick could do, though. Molly could hold out awhile longer.

Ebenezar snorted and stumped closer, his staff clicking on the pavement. An old oak thing, not the other one. He knew the boy didn't think, he rarely did. But he really couldn't blame him. Not with the kid on the line. And not with the lives of his friends at stake either. That was a situation you took time to consider carefully. You fixed what you could, sorted the rest out later.

"And that's why you've been out and about at all hours of the night playin' boogieman, huh?"

It was a guess, an educated one, but a guess all the same. She was doing what she could. That was clear. That was what mattered, and he couldn't fault her. He'd have done the same damn thing in her shoes.

"'s that what's on th' agenda fer tonight? Spooking up some of the bad guys ta keep 'em in line?"

Thinking ahead could be overrated when important people were on the line, she agreed. Molly would do most of it again if she had to. There was just that one thing that she regretted and no, no, no, can't think about it now. Don't open that door.

"I don't kill them," Molly said slowly. "I've never had much raw power to work with. An illusion here or there. Sometimes they kill each other." She shuddered at the memory of guns going off, people murdering one another because of what she'd made them see. "It's almost too easy, if there weren't so many. They never stop."

She looked directly at Ebenezar for a moment, looking away after a second regardless of whether he did. No soulgazes. There was enough etched into her already, she didn't want anything more to remember. "Chicago needed a boogeyman. They'd eat us alive."

"Never said you did, girl. Never said you did."

She wasn't the sort. That he knew. She was too much like her father, and she was a good kid, Council-be-damned. It was really kind of a shame, seeing her like this, but it wasn't exactly like there was much choice. This was the way things were now, with that power vacuum needing to be filled.

"Actually, since Ah'm here, I figured we could talk. Figgur we probably should, yeah? Come ta some kinda accord, where you don't jump every time I come ta town. And maybe I could help ya out, if ya had anything specific in mind that needed doin'"

"It hardly takes anything for them to turn on each other. The smallest detail... they're like animals. It's sickening. They just pull out their guns or their knives, or they kill with their bare hands." Molly realized she'd said too much, and she quite literally bit her tongue, stopping just shy of drawing blood. He could tell. It was obvious, even when she wasn't exaggerating. Molly didn't come back from Chichen Itza quite whole. The psychic strain had been... a lot, even without the other thing she'd done. Everything she'd done since was only making things worse for her, but it was what she had to do to hold the city together. Molly didn't seem like she expected an answer when she asked, "Why is it so easy?"

She nodded a little reluctantly at the request for a talk. The last thing she wanted was talk. It was safer on her own, and she also didn't have to worry about saying anything dangerous if no one was around to listen. As was just established, talking wasn't safe. She was babbling, and she could babble things that would get her killed. "Alright," Molly agreed. "Let's talk."

She needed any help she could get. The whole city was balanced on a knifeblade.

The old man's brow furrowed when he noticed that. He'd known she was sensitive, that was one of the few things Harry had actually said about her, and that she had a gift for the subtle things...but he'd never known just how sensitive.

"It's easy cuz they ain't right, girl," he answered, whether she wanted it or not. "Monsters like killin' and they're just addled enough to not care who or what they hurt. Remember that. And...as fer talkin', there's a decent diner 'round the way. Good pie. C'mon."

He paused, and gave her a bit of an odd look. "And I promise, on my power, that I won't be tellin' the council anything 'bout you. Or judgin' you myself. Ah'm here ta help, not scare ya."

Molly followed, especially at the prospect of pie, but Ebenezar's promise drew her up short. Her sharp intake of breath was audible in the still night air, and she exhaled slowly. That... was a big promise, especially given how Molly was currently behaving. Especially given the rumors circulating the city. The bodies with bits of cloth stuffed in their mouths. Newspaper articles about the Rag Lady. There was no distinguishing servitors from regular humans once they were dead. They'd been human once, before they were modified by the Fomor.

"Humans are just as bad," Molly insisted very quietly as she started again toward the diner, shaking her head. "The first time I did it... A cop was taking a bribe to look the other way while a Fomor servitor kidnapped a little girl. I made the bag of gold look like a gun, and he shot the servitor. The servitor died, but he reached out to snap the cop's neck first. It's too easy. One little illusion, and two people were dead." And a little girl was free. She wouldn't be killed or turned into a servitor herself. Hadn't this all started to get another little girl free? Molly wasn't sorry about what she'd done. She just hated living with it.

It was a big promise, but Ebenezar was willing to gamble on Harry's judgment. He had before and would again. Though he just nodded along as he walked, listening to the story. It was a good way to deal with problem monsters, that was for sure.

"It never gets easier, knowing you were the impetus fer that, y'know? It shouldn't. But you saved that little girl. Gave her a chance and a bit a' hope. And that was the right thing. No little girl should go without someone around to protect her. Ya did the right thing, Molly."

She laughed, a single harsh bark that seemed rusty from disuse, and then admitted, "Sometimes I'm not sure there's any such thing. Except maybe in my dad's case. He always does what's right." Even if he was retired from being a holy knight, Molly's faith in her father's moral integrity would never waver. Unlike her faith in her own, or that of almost anyone else she knew

"We were doing the right thing, saving a little girl, at Chichen Itza too. She's in good hands now," Molly said that part firmly and clearly, not giving away Maggie's location if he didn't already know, but wanting Ebenezar to be sure that Harry's daughter was indeed safe, "but innocent people are dying because of what we did."

"Yer pa is a wise man," Ebenezar replied back firmly as he stumped along. "And speaking honestly? What happened in Chinchen Itza and as a result ain't nothin' compared to the misery the Reds heaped on the world for the last coupla millenia."

He had absolutely faith that what had happen was what needed to happen. Sometimes it made the world a darker place, but sometimes? That had to happen to make it a brighter one.

"Don't seem like it now, but in time...it'll sort itself out."

"More unpredictable now. There was a balance of power before, however corrupt and vicious. Do you know... whole small towns are going to vanish off the map. In larger cities, all the small fish are picked off by sharks while the big fish on the Council are spread too thin. I can't let them do it here. I don't know how to stop them. I don't have enough power."

Molly used to have faith, but a lot of that was tied up in Harry and her dad. With one dead and the other never quite physically recovered from previous injuries, her faith was shaken. Not her faith in God, but her faith that everything would be okay. How could it be, when the two heroes and protectors she'd always trusted and admired were no longer standing guard?

"How many will die before the dust settles? It's bad enough here." Here in Chicago, where Harry Dresden's name still faintly echoed, where Marcone and Murphy watched the city, where the Ragged Lady haunted its streets. "There's a lot of places with no one to play boogeyman."

"Yer right. And that's somethin' I'm gonna do my best to fix once I can get everything squared away with the council. There are still good people, willing to fight the good fight."

He very pointedly doesn't answer the question about how many will die. He has no idea and he wouldn't presume. But around the corner they go, and into a hole-in-the-wall sort of place with linoleum right out of Leave It To Beaver and hanging lights that seem old enough to work with the two of them around. He nods to a waitress and stumps over to a booth, waiting for Molly to sit before taking his own. It was only polite, after all.

"Which reminds me, there's somethin' I guess I should talk to you about. With...Harry not bein' around, at least, and there not bein' too many boogeymen around."

"Good people are the ones most likely to die without someone there to even the odds," Molly said quietly, having seen too much in the past several months to muster up much besides cynicism. She'd seen Harry's empty grave. She wondered if Ebenezar had, with its epitaph of He died doing the right thing.

Molly hooked her purple cane over the edge of the table as she sat, leaving it hanging there in precarious balance. Her stomach growled at the smell of food, complaining that she'd been doing far too much work on far too few calories. She burned up an awful lot just keeping warm. She would be ordering a lot of food if Ebenezar was treating. Molly didn't even feel sorry for his wallet.

She looked just below Ebenezar's eyes, careful not to quite meet them, as she asked, "Something you think Harry wouldn't have told me, or a new problem?"

He'd be more than happy to cover the bill. This is something he can do, after all. And it isn't like he doesn't have the money. So, plunking down he nods to the waitress who bustles over and takes drink orders. The old man orders coffee, black and dark...and when Molly's ordered and she's gone he nods.

"Somethin' I asked Harry to keep secret. Somethin' I don't want spread beyond this table. Jus you and me, Miss Carpenter."

Molly glances at Ebenezar, with his simple coffee order, before rattling off, "Three eggs, scrambled, two slices of toast, home fries, and a couple of pancakes, please. Oh, and tea for me." She looked unapologetically at Ebenezar. "It's cold, and I'm always moving," she offered by way of explanation. This is the best meal she'll have had all day. "Need calories," Molly said simply. She snorted, the sound more bitter than genuinely amused. Reminders of her teacher always hurt and carry with them a flash of guilt. "I used to tell Harry to eat healthier, but now I eat like him whenever I get the chance." Maybe junk food and massive amounts of calories at a time are just necessities when it comes to keeping Chicago safe. Even boogeymen have to keep their energy up somehow.

Once the waitress has left them, she carefully considers her words. She won't break promises. It's a bad idea for wizards in general, not to mention that the part of Molly that is her parents' child rebels against it instinctively. "I won't promise never to tell," she warns. "I might decide I have to. If keeping your secrets quiet endangers lives, I won't do it."

"That's fine. Cuz tellin' will probably get me killed anyway. It ain't nothing terrible, just somethin' necessary." Which is often one and the same, to be honest. He shrugged and leaned back in his seat, eyeing the departing waitress skeptically.

"Harry ever tell you about the Grey Council?"

"I choose who I talk to more carefully than that," Molly says scornfully. She may be prone to babbling now, a tendency she furthers to put off those who would try to offer her warmth and welcome, but she's kept one huge heavy secret. She can manage another, however high the cost. If Molly were to tell, she certainly wouldn't do so to anyone who might use the information to harm Ebenezar and the few other members of the Council she actually cares about. Molly has already done her best to protect Ramirez, making sure she stays out of sight so he has no reason to break Council law or bring her in.

"Here I thought the White Council was bad enough to deal with." She might not know any of the details he's about to share, but Molly doesn't need those to infer how ominous the topic sounds. And no offense to certain Council members, but some people sitting at this table may have issues with their no-longer-suspended death sentences, among the many other issues.

Open RP post!

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because I'm not sure Molly knows about the Grey

nor am I because I'm just on White Night in my canon review

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