It's a derivative of OTP, One True Pairing. It means One True Threesome.

And I really wouldn't be surprised at the amount of Marcone stuff out there, because their relationship dynamic works damn well and it's a relatively short step to hatefucking, assuming a Dresden and Marcone that swing that way. I've had a story idea floating around since forever where Dresden got shut out from his canonical alliance with the police force early on and sided reluctantly with Marcone out of necessity, and gradually started seeing more shades of grey and lesser of two evils as a result.

 

Is this really a discussion about potentially slashy pairing/threesome on DLP or did I make a wrong turn somewhere on the Internet?

And by the way, I'm all for Harry/Harem story, if only to see how someone would make it work.

 

There's a difference between the typical slash dreck - and in this case it'd probably be Dresden turning Marcone good through the magic of hot dickings, and Marcone joining the police force or some ridiculous shit like that - and actual thought-out relationships that happen to have more than one bloke in the bed.

 

Harry working for Marcone would probably be interesting. Harry boning Marcone, not so much.

Never been a fan of harem stories. Has it ever really been pulled off?
There really needs to be more fics of Harry hanging out with the Sidhe, though.
In a more - ehem- biblical sense.

---------- Post automerged at 05:47 PM ---------- Previous post was at 04:20 AM ----------

How about Margaret introducing her girlfriend Lea to her dad?
Those who have read Changes knows who that is. Those who haven't... Go read Changes, ffs.

Figured it could be quite a lot of fun. There's a scene in Grave Peril where Thomas returns with a burn mark from getting a kiss from Lea. Platonic or parental love won't work on the white court and seeing as Butcher thought it worthwhile mentioning, I'm assuming it'll be relevant at some point.

I feel lulz could be had.

 

Wait, there is something like that in this book?

/Goes to check it.

Sure, it is. Interesting. I just assumed it was Lea being Lea, but now that I think about it why would she want to burn him with a kiss.

 

Another interesting note. We know who Dresden's grandfather is... But who is his grandma, eh?

 

I think I read somewhere a quote with Butcher stating that Dresden's grandmother wasn't anybody important.

But if she was Margaret's mother then it means that Maggie was a changeling and suddenly the theory that she is Titania starts to look a little more possible, if still very unlikely. She could escape her death by embracing her Sidhe side and we know that unlike Mab the current Summer Queen isn't the first person to hold this title, though we don't know when the change happened.

It would also mean that Harry killed his sister.

 

Considering that she had just bartered for a year of memories of a woman who was very much in love, I'd say you don't really have to look beyond the obvious in this case. Besides, we don't even know if Faeries can feel love as humans do. Maeve considered it something along the lines of a contagious disease, for one, though she's not exactly the hugs and kisses type.

 

Ah yes. That could definitely be why. Got any prompts of your own? -Nudge nudge-

 

It could potentially be fun to have a Cold days themed short story challenge of some sort.
Maybe about what we'd like to see happen in the book?

 

We know that the Alphas eventually couldn't keep pace with Dresden because of power levels. What if they could? Dresden with backup much earlier in Canon could be interesting, especially if done well.

 

How?

It wasn't a case of them not training hard enough, but simply that what they did wasn't good enough. They'd had no reason to train up either - Harry took care of the bigger griblies that came to town, whilst he let them have free rein over the smaller beasts on campus.

On top of that, they're shapeshifters. A person with minor talent in magic, who instead of being a crap wizard decides to grind a single spell.
Giving them other skills could mean that their fursonas aren't useful any more, which makes them not the Alphas. If Billy learnt all sorts of magic missile effects, he'd either be more useful casting from afar, or he'd have wasted all the time he put into learning them.

Being a wolf means you're really limited in what you can do. And lots of human skills wouldn't carry over.

 

Well, just having a single talent doesn't mean you can't keep up. In the right circumstances the Alphas are just plain brilliant (the battle on Demonreach during Turn Coat comes to mind, as does fighting their way through a Faerie War in Summer Knight), and even when they aren't in their element they can do a lot of damage. They helped force Shagnasty away during his first strike, though it cost them Kirby.

Need I also mention Mortimer Lindquist? He's in the same talent pool as the Alphas but the power he holds is frankly terrifying, and it wouldn't take much of a leap for him to become one hell of a badass necromancer, given the right kind of stimulus.

Also, in the side story Aftermath it's revealed that the Alphas have been experimenting with healing themselves using transformation magic. Aside from showing that there's more to shapeshifting than just turning into a wolf, it also shows that magic is hard. Harry is very powerful for his age, with heaps of natural talent, but even he takes time to learn things. I can count on one hand the number of new spells he's come up with since Grave Peril. That's new spells, not variations of his usual fire/wind/force spells.

The Alphas are also at a huge disadvantage compared to Harry in that they're trying to work this stuff out through trial and error. They don't have a teacher, they don't have the Sight, they don't have Bob. They're basically running blind but they're still making progress.

So, in short, don't dismiss the Alphas just because they're minor talents. They may not be able to keep up with Harry (and to be honest, not many Wizards would be able to either), but they're growing in power nonetheless.

 

I'm pretty sure Harry mentions that Mort has hidden how talented he is. Somewhere in Ghost story. Not sure, though.

 

That doesn't matter. We're looking at this from an objective point of view, not Harry's subjective POV.

 

Mort is a wizard, specializing in necromancy.

The alphas are shapeshifters, specializing in wolves.

They did learn to heal, and could probably learn to do it incredibly quickly, given enough practice. They could probably partially turn - maybe claws, or ears, or nose. A boosted human.

Mort, on the other hand, could speak to the dead in the area. He learnt to search them out. To bind them to his will. To call up specific ones.

Making the alphas go up a level is doable, and is doable without breaking the world - just stat them up as they appear in the RPG and then add in a power or two that fits nicely but doesn't go over the cost (I'd do it myself, but the books are at home, not uni).
For example, it wouldn't be beyond belief that their constant body changes have left them more aware of their own body, and they have learnt to push power into themselves without changing, giving a large boost to strength/toughness.

But being tougher than a vanilla isn't hugely useful when fighting the Ick. It just means you don't die instantly.

However, altering the way the Alphas work from the start would be fine. We already know from Bob that all sorts of were-things exist: cats, tigers, wolves, bears, crocodiles, and so forth.
So don't limit the group to wolves. Have them learn how to turn from Tara, and then they decide, eithor on their own, or with Harry's help, that a group of animals would be more useful, especially in the early stages when there's a large bunch of them.
Hell, have their numbers be part of the reason they're so dangerous. Rather than calling on the four or so he can in canon, Harry sets up a network for them (like the paranet, but for shapeshifters), and can call on fourty different animalmen.

And, with enough time or practice, it wouldn't be too odd for Will or Georgia to develop full shapeshifitng (or whatever the RPG calls it), the ability to change into , be it a lamp, a bear, or Joe Smith from down the road.

 

So basically, turn from one trick ponies into Injun Joe?

 

Injun Joe is also a wizard.

And whilst they wouldn't be as awesome at it as him, basically, yes.

 

I was thinking magically augmented wolves, but those also work. Keep in mind a lot of the problems Harry has with the non-wizard foes is because they resist magic and are really strong. If the Alpha could do that, they could probably keep up. Faster, stronger, more powerful than a locomotive kind of keeping up. You know is more scary than a pack of huge wolves? A pack of huge wolves who can release force blasts at will (force rings on each leg), cut through magic (warden enchanted steel overlay on their claws, or just warden steel claws) and have a supernatural pack sense, to be point of almost shared senses.

Plus, wolves firing lasers out of their mouth seems cool.

 

Werepiranhas with frickin' laserbeams on their heads.
Personally, I think giving the alphas more power would ruin their purpose in the story.
It's all about power and choice.
The Alpha's were given a little bit of power and chose to use it to fight the good fight.
They can't go challenge the big boys, but they can still help people.