Pied Piper: "Hell is freezing over"

[m-danson.livejournal.com]

The end of January brought record cold temperatures. So cold that even the stalwart stayed indoors, the buses looked like a snow suit convention and those in the know starting wondering if there might be something interfereing with the weather. The Department was in a state of constant activity. The Officers didn't know exactly when the Unveiling would occur but they knew it would be soon.

In the months since returning from London Rob and Sean had begun working with their new pack in the Investigative Branch. To the newly seasoned Lone Wolves the fit was a bit uncomfortable. The team's Alpha, Captain Hank "The Rock" Woods (human), was a by-the-book hard-ass who was meticulious in ensuring that he and his subordinates did their job properly. Captain Woods' Beta, Lieutenant Tony Kendall (werecoyote), was a playful and relaxed man opposite in temperment to his Alpha although the two men shared a mutual respect for each other. The mentor of the team was former Beta Lieutenant Paul O'Neil (human) a quiet grandfather who had post-poned his retirement due to the Unveiling. The team's Detectives were a trio of women; Nancy Leesten (human-thaumatologist), Mixie Rissa (Fey-Outcaste), and Sorsha VonWolfe (werewolf). Detective Rissa, an old school fey was traditional in her opinions of to do magic, and Detective Leeson, the recently promoted thaumaturgist and left-wing activist, were in constant conflit. Detective VonWolfe played the roll of peacemaker between the two Warlocks. Both mages liked the second generation immigrant and enjoyed spending their free time helping Sorsha with her quest to find a husband who would please her parents. Det. Rissa took Rob under her wing since his role as a Ratcatcher Duelist won her respect. In Sean Det. Leeson found a kindred spirit and the two were often teamed up for patrol duty. The final member of the team was another recent trainee. Officer Michael Gallant (human) thought he had applied to the RCMP but instead was recruited to the Ratcatchers straight out of school. The misplaced maritimer from Halifax has settled in nicely and has engendered good will from everyone on the team. Meanwhile, while Max was sometimes assigned to work with the team he was more often to be found in the medical wing with Dr. Jacque White (human) or in forensics working under Dr. Kenneth King (human).

The evening of Friday, Febuary 1st (2029) was murderously cold except in Sean's appartment where his girlfriend, Marylou, was screaming at him. He'd mananged to talk her out of throwing dishes but he had expected trouble when he backed out of their long-planned ski trip. While he had planned this as a way to keep her safe and out of the city during the Unveiling he obviously couldn't tell her this. To Marylou it seemed like just another time Sean disappeared for work and left her holding the bag. She was angry. Sean managed to talk her down and convice her to go on the ski holiday without him. He promised that soon it would be different and with her accusations that he was changing and turning corporate ringing in his ears he took Marylou out for an impromptu appology dinner.

Max was working late as usual. He slept no more than was absoultely necessary these days and had managed to organize his schedule with a level of efficiency that probably should have killed him. A knock on his door announced an unexpected visitor. Natasha Lawrence, who had been released from her coma a few months before and who had only been released from hospitalization a few days ago had come to thank him. Max was startled but pleased. He invited her in and after some small talk the conversation naturally turned to her treatment and the ethics of using it to treat dangerous magical criminals such as Jack. The two debated for a bit before Natasha had to leave to meet with her daughter Ashley.

It was becoming clear to Rob that the healing of Katie Yamamoto's (aka Cheyanne Jose aka Blood Red aka Amy Santos) mind was going to take much time and patience. The girl was obviously very broken from her time involved with Silver. She was often passive and nervous, and had developed a mild phobia of Fey. Physically she was strong and agile now that Rob had weaned her off binge drinking and training at the dojo was helping. Rob's discussions with his Uncle gave him reason to hope and worry. According to the old goat whatever path Katie had been on before that path was gone now and a new one must be carefully forged. Plus the girl did not know how to clean toilets properly and Rob must teach her.


With the reconvening of Parliament on Monday, Febuary 4th a Bill to create a new law enforcement agency was introduced. The agency would be called the Department of Thaumatalogical Affairs and would police the use of thaumaturgy in the country. The next day would bring news of the Opposition's solid opposition of the Bill. Most of the low ranking Ratcatchers found out about this Bill thanks to the CBC... except for Sean who got woken up and told the news by an excited phone call from Ringer. Ringer has now been stationed in and around Toronto and had even managed to find himself a steady girlfriend, a Fey nurse who he had met while Fey doctors had tried to pull appart his head and see what happened to him in Avalon. The doctor's failed but Ringer somehow managed to charm the girl. Sean was glad Marylou was safely elsewhere.

Rob found out when Katie woke him from his sleep (Rob and Sean were doing night watch these days) to watch the news. It was clear to Rob that the Unveiling was imminent. Katie took the news less happily but showed a spark of survivalist instinct in dealing with the issue. Max and Dr. Wright were informed by an orderlie that something was up and upon watching the news the two quickly made plans of their own for reveiling the existance of the Dalton-Wright node. It slowly started to dawn on Max that maybe he should be paying more attention to the wider world.

Meanwhile across the ocean in London Rupert turned off the international news and picked up the phone to call his literary agent. It was time to publish a book that might make him rich and influential or that might make him dead. As he listened to the ring tone he pondered whether or not he should use a nome du plume or not.

Rob and Sean met in Max's office that evening before the two men went on shift to talk about the events of the last few days. The conversation ranged from amazement at Ringer having a girlfriend, to talk of Jack and the further implications of the Unveilling. They all agreed that the Unveiling would be soon. While idly flipping through the news on his computer Max ran across a small article about the Pope's world tour and how the Pope would be visiting Canada in the spring. This started off speculations about whether the Pope knew or not and which world leaders knew about the Fey.[PCs - if you want to fill in gaps here please do.]

That evening Rob and Sean were deligted to find that Tony was the officer in charge. Lt. Kendall sent the two men out on patrol together instead of waiting for Det. Rissa to arrive. Lt. Kendall was particularily interested in the changes that had occured that day to the Fey Veil. He pulled open the curtian so that the two officers could see the city lit up like a magical christmas tree. Prince Serra had obviously dropped all attempts at obsfucation to magical sight for some reason. Rob and Max's patrol of the city revealed that obsfucation had been replaced with multilevel defensive magic. They hoped that it was properly calibrated so that pigeons and small children didn't accidentally get zapped. Crusing by the Chateau Laurier Sean took a deep look at the defenses there. While not overpowering like Avalon the Chateau now was a work of art to those with the sight. Multicoloured strands of magic and wards that faded in and out of sight covered the walls like water. Sean went for a deeper look only to find a warning ward reach out at him. Sean speculated that the Fey were worried maybe even frightened.


Tuesday, Febuary 5th, brought a surprise but not entirely unexpected meeting with Director Watts. Max, Sean, Rob, Aedan and Michael were scheduled to attend a mandatory meeting with others of their rank at 9 pm that night. It was expected that Director Watts would let the Officers in on what was going on. That expectation was correct in most respects. When the men arrived they found Deputy Director Danson silently overseeing the proceedings. The Director swept in and the room went expectantly silent.

To the horror of those assembled the Director announced that the Department of Interspecies Affairs no longer existed and no longer had any mandate. Effective immediately there would be no more patrols and officers would not be interfereing in anyway with the affairs of the country. Rotating duty schedules would be set up for officers to be stationed at Headquarters, incarceration facillities and a few key locations however the officers were not permitted to leave thier station for any reason while on duty. There would be no Lone Wolf activity. Medical staff would operate as normal. Officers were to turn in their RCMP badges and uniforms for new badges and uniforms (DTA). Protecting the families of Ratcatchers was the one exception to the non-interferance order. Questions from the assembled Officers revealed the disgust and anger the Ratcatchers felt towards this turn of events. Director Watts finished the meeting with a moral raising speach about how 'they' WILL see the necessity for the Department and the responsibility of each officer to duty, law and order. This seemed to sway most into acceptance. The Lone Wolves in the audience weren't as easily impressed but at least superficially agreed to go along with the situation.

After the meeting Sean, Rob, Max, Aedan and Michael gathered after the meeting to discuss what they had heard. None of them liked it. Michael was the closest to agreeing with the logic. He argued that the Boss knew what he was doing and that they should trust him. They debated for quite a while and after they saw their new uniforms they got snarky too. [PCs - You can fill in the gaps here if you wish. ArrantDemon - I didn't have Aedan contribute anything to the conversation even though he was there because I didn't want to put words into his mouth.]

[Ironphoenix - Do you have the notes on uniform design that we worked on? I can't find them.]

Comments

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

yes, it IS a long update :)

I think the uniforms were ok, if a bit "loud", but the cape was considered a bit much by many.

"Protecting the families of Ratcatchers was the one exception to the non-interferance order"

Aaah, that I did not know. Robert would have been pleased to hear about this, and would put himself volunteer for a rapid intervention unit if one is created.

When Hell Freezes over.. Snowboard down the volcanoes

[arrantdemon.livejournal.com]

Well you know that the first thing Aedan will do is hack into, I mean test the security, on Director Watts files. That's what he was pulled off the streets for right.

There has to be something electronic about this. The Ratcatchers aren't the Fey. They don't use paper.

Telling a Lone Wolf to not do something is almost guaranteed to get them to do it.

Re: When Hell Freezes over.. Snowboard down the volcanoes

[ancalagon-tb.livejournal.com]

Robbert is thinking this as well, but he isn't the kind to disobey orders. However, should his relatives be threatened thought, it's a different story. I'm pretty happy to see that this has been mentioned.

mental note: must advise rest of family within ontario...

[dracodraconis.livejournal.com]

Max had speculated that it was unlikely that the Pope was not "in the know" about something like the unveiling. I expect this info has been passed along to trusted world leaders to avoid unpleasant surprises. The timing appears to coincide with long enough after the unveiling for things to settle down, but close enough for the Pope to officially "welcome" them to regular society.

I agree that asking lone wolves to just be nivce, play by the rules, and let things happen is just asking for them to get involved. This may have been the idea... those who follow rules are out of the picture, leaving the "specialists" to shake things up. Max is pondering where MrCoon could wander, given he is better suited to lone wolf-type activity.