Botching it in Bromley (Territory Claim)

[bellbound]

They've done their research. They know where the fae in Bromley are hiding out, their movements, their numbers. As far as intelligence gathering goes, it's not a bad effort. They have a plan too. This at least is an improvement over some past witches that Mogget could mention, though in his opinion the plan is rather crude. Samantha could get a lot more resistance than she bargained for.

Which, it turns out, is exactly the case. Of course, Mogget is the one on the ground with the other witches, trying to control a situation that swiftly spirals out of control. Samantha is nowhere to be seen; she gets others to do her dirty work.

He's not looking forward to telling her what went wrong.

[ooc: Planning post here, individual threads for each day below! Feel free to make your own subthreads and let me know if you have any questions!]

Comments

[brightwitch]

"Cages?" That's the first concrete confirmation she's heard about that. "I should hope they weren't preparing to hold any fae. Not a strategy I'd recommend."

Put a fae in a cage without the proper preparation and it will only get out and seek revenge. If fae are to be captured, they should be captured one at a time using a pentacle and as many protections as the summoning witch can muster... But that would be dark magic, which is of course forbidden. No Daybreak witch should even consider it.

What's worrying is that she isn't surprised. Samantha has already shown herself far more willing to use the fae at Circle Daybreak's disposal than Sylvia ever was. Is this a sign of things to come?

[outstandingbalance]

"Then you see why it was a mess when they started losing control." That's not a question. Natasha expects she will. Fae, spiteful and lashing out or in a wild hurry to escape? It created a situation where once they started losing control, it would be harder to regain it—a spiral.

"I'm honestly unclear on the details of what they thought they'd do with them once they were caught." Which is different from not having any ideas... "I've heard some rumors, but I didn't credit them so much until now."

[brightwitch]

She takes a long sip of her coffee. Caffeine and worry are pretty much the only things she's functioning on right now. Sylvia sits back and sighs.

"What rumours?"

Natasha might only be able to confirm things she's already heard, but out on the ground she might have heard more than Sylvia can. Samantha hasn't been forthcoming about any of this.

[outstandingbalance]

"That she's been offering bonds to high ranked fae." At least if Eames is to be believed. She doesn't name him, and doesn't intend to. She'll let it be a rumor, something she's heard second hand. It's not the meat of her report, anyway. More of a supporting detail. "That she's trying to get the fae riled up so she can take a more aggressive stance on them. Nothing I can confirm on that, so it might be just speculation."

But it would explain why she was willing to launch an attack that she wasn't more sure she would win, and why she would use methods sure to antagonize the courts.

[brightwitch]

"And that doesn't explain the cages." She sighs. Trapping fae is sure to get them riled up, yes, but there are other ways to do that. Offering bonds to high ranked fae is more worrying. There's no way that won't go terribly wrong. "Anything else?"

[outstandingbalance]

"Those are the only things I'd credit enough to mention." There's a pause as Natasha considers how to frame her conclusion, the thing that nags at her. Her lips tighten and her chin rises slightly. "The one thing I will say, having seen how they went after this fight? I don't think they were ever invested in winning. Whatever's going on here, whatever the actual plan or goal, there was only ever a chance they'd achieve it now. My impression of Samantha is that she's smarter than making a play this sloppy, which means she had a plan to turn the situation to her favor regardless of the outcome tonight."

[brightwitch]

She leans back, propping up her jaw with raised hand. "Well, I wish she'd told me that before we committed to offering our support. If you're right, of course. Only time will tell."

It's too early to make a judgement about the fallout of this particular event. People speculate and say things in the heat of the moment, but things will become clear with time. At least, she hopes they will. Samantha is rather hard to pin down.

"Thank you," she adds. "I'm sure you did all you could to help."

[outstandingbalance]

"I did all I could," Natasha agrees, or seems to. Whether or not that's true is a matter of perspective and interpretation, but the fact is, there was very little one vampire was going to do tonight one way or the other. Her goal, in the end, had largely been to keep the chaos contained.

If nothing else, Natasha was an excellent clean up crew.

"And I'll let you know if I hear anything meatier." She says then.