Tears of Madeira

A short piece of fiction to provide some closure for the Ratcatcher game that we just completed.

( Of raccoons and men )

The following is a summary of Max's internal examination of what is happening within the ratcatchers.

I was brought up with a strong sense of Right and Wrong and a desire to help people. This lead me first into Medicine, then into law. The purpose of Law, as I was brought up to understand, was to protect people, all people. As times changed, Law evolved to deal with things previously unheard of. Consider now the most recent developments.

Jack, a known serial killer who was being magically held slipped his bonds without those holding him knowing. This brings forth the question of how one holds a person so magically gifted that they cannot truely be held if they decide to escape. If this same person is a danger to society, how can the public be protected. I have long been against capital punishment, and was particularly disgusted to learn this was practiced by Ottawa's Fey court. The case of Jack highlights a limitation of Canada's current legal system; it assumes any person can be incarcerated indefinitely if need be. However, we now have the situation of a person that cannot be incarcerated. Perhaps, as we learn more about the shear power of some mages, we need to rethink our stand against capital punishment and agree to apply it in situations where it is impossible to protect the public from this individual without killing them. Perhaps, in this case, we have something to learn from the Fey? Much as I would advocate removing a gangrenous limb, I would advocate a policy of "shoot on sight" for Jack. In this, I agree with Ms. Danson's assessment and disagree with how it appears the RCMP will be handling it. He cannot be held, and nothing in his profile indicates that he will stop killing.

This leads to the situation under which Ms Danson has left or was removed from her position. The facts of the case are that she had been involved in originally bringing him in at great personal risk and was physically, and no doubt psychologically, scarred for life. The days immediately after his excape she appeared to have had little or no sleep, focusing on finding him. When we did encounter him, she was willing to order her team to kill an innocent victim to ensure he no longer posed a danger. (As a side note, the fact that her team, myself excluded, willing fired on an innocent victim is particularly troubling). In this action she demonstrated herself to be a danger to society so I expect she was released from duty. Legally speaking this was a logical response to her actions; knowing her profile, she knew that would be the outcome and would accept it as a consequence of her higher calling to protect the public. In my professional opinion she should have been released from duty at that point and remitted for physchological councilling.

Here, however, we are presented with a problem. Although she was willing to sacrifice an innocent victim to rid society of a greater risk, she had accurately assessed the risk he posed. Indeed, she is currently the only person connected to the DTA who is likely to find him. From the perspective of society, the risk she poses is small with respect to the risk Jack poses. She should, under supervision, be permitted to continue in the investigation, perferably in an "unofficial" capacity. One can hope that some in the DTA have opted for public censure while placing her into a position to quietly continue her investigation. Time will tell if reason has won out over blind adherence to Law.

This then leads to the last point; should one continue to blindly follow the Rule of Law when following it will only result in more deaths? The Rule of Law states that Ms Danson should be arrested and tried for public endangement as should all of her team. The Rule of Law also states that Jack must be captured and incarcerated. The latter is not possible given our current resources, and the former removes from the case a significant resource. When the Law fails in its stated goal of protecting the public, should it be followed?

Max, together with Dr. Wright, have prepared a paper that they hope to present at a mini-conference paper to Ratcatchers and invited Fey physicians (teleconferenced to other Department of Interspecies Relations medical centres) about what has locally become known as the Dalton-Wright (DW) node. They believe that this node is used to regulate a person's ability to modulate T-waves, generating new or modifying existing T-fields. They hope to the have the paper released publicly in "Annals of Thaumatological Research".

Meanwhile, after having observed a physician "scanning" a patient in Avalon, Max has tracked down references to using auras in medical analyis. With the assistance of Det. Bekka, has learned to examine and interpret these auras and regularly uses this on his rotations in the DIR medical centre. He hopes to soon begin training others in its use. He has also been on call at the DIR morgue but that has been quiet so he has been able to focus on his aura and neurological work.

Finally, Max has joined a crime-scene investigation team as their medical advisor in a range of investigations where he has been honing those skills. The result of all this has been that he has had no social life, being focused on his work and fascination with both the aura interpretation and the DW node. His only outlet has been twice-weekly gymnastics training in the DIR gym and his weightlifting at home.

During this time, Mr.Coon has joined with Det.Bekka to work on his ability to generate illusions. He has also been studying stealth, bugging, and infiltration so that he can do undercover work in racoon form.

Max/Mr.Coon have started seeing a were psychologist to help better integrate the two personalities. There is still some conflict between them, but Max has become less rules-bound and Mr.Coon has become less of a lose-cannon. Time will tell how this arrangement will work.