A fresh perspective on Proven Guity (Spoilers for everything)

[Serack]

Some fleshing out of what I said earlier

#3
Someone directed Harry's wammy reversal to detect Molly from within his web on the Theater.
In the last Fetch attack on the Theater, Harry had his web up to detect the entrance of the phages, and to detect their summoner. 

...Streamers from the lure whipped out along the lines of power that constituted my detection web, brushing lightly at the entities, attracting their attention, giving them a whiff of rich sustenance. 
And somewhere in the middle of all that, I felt a single, quiet, quivering pulse- A living presence that could only be the phages' summoner and beacon. 

I'm projecting here, but maybe someone with a thomatalogical (msp) link to Molly had their own little spell going, and dangled that link out in Harry's web for him to latch his lure onto.  I say this, because Molly wasn't inside his web, she was at her parent's home.  Maybe Mab couldn't send the Fetches to "fetch" Molly, but if another mortal sent them after her that would get the trick done. 

Harry was using the web to find the phages "beacon" under the assumption that the "beacon" was within the hotel. 

"Their summoner is going to draw them in," I finished, following the line of reasoning.  "It's like... I could blanket the surrounding area in fog, but if they have someone on this end, the phages will have a beacon they can use to home in on the hotel."

Up to this point, the phages showed up either in close proximity to Nelson (same bathroom as him), or next to Rosanna from her GF's makeup mirror.  This time Rosanna, was in the hospital, Nelson was on his way to St. Marry's with a paranoiagasim, and Molly was at her Mom's. 

So if someone is on this end of the NN veil throwing up wards and hexing lights and stuff, and this person anticipates Harry setting up a classic White Council doctrine response to a summoner of bad juju, and yet the bad juju is actually being sent, not summoned, maybe they put up a "single, quiet, quivering pulse" thaumatalogically (did I spell it right that time?) linked to Molly within the bounds of the Hotel for Harry to latch onto knowing he would be looking for it. 

As to the idea of the Scarecrow not working for Mab, the following WoJ is enough to resolutely convince me that he was.

But to correct some minor stuff:  the fetches aren't even /close/ to her strongest servitors.  They're her couriers, harassers, spies and occasional assassins.  Captain Kudzu was a being that was deemed more-or-less sufficient on the badassometer, but nothing to write home about.  The fetches main use, to Mab, isn't as battlefield thugs.  She's got /plenty/ of other things for that.

[Sm0kEyNy]

ok so i reread this section again it seems to ME that the "web" is a warding spell to detect when the phages cross over from the never never and is linked to the ward candles and is simply used for Timeing a SEPERATE spell the one he is activly holding ready to cast at the beacon of fear he senses.

idk if that clear an makes sense or not but basically your dealing with two seperate spells NOT one
1 is the warding spell he already cast with playdoh an candles and requires no aditional effort
2 is the spell he is holding ready in the circle useing his own fear to create a thalmaturgic link to the summoner/beacon who is also useing fear

[AcornArmy]

#2
If Glau was another cutout for who set Madrigal Raith up to take the fall for the Fetch attacks, and the Scarecrow took him out to silence him, then that implies that Mab was involved in that setup.  

Not necessarily. Assuming the Scarecrow was working for Mab(which I think is likely, now), all this point shows is that Mab didn't want Harry to know whatever it was that Glau might have been able to tell him. And since the fetches had just snatched Molly and taken her to Mab's Winter wonderland on the parapet, it would seem to indicate that that's where Mab wanted Harry to be. If Glau had started talking about some third party's involvement, Harry might have gotten sidetracked and not even noticed that Molly was gone until after he'd become entangled in some Black Council mess.

[Serack]

ok so i reread this section again it seems to ME that the "web" is a warding spell to detect when the phages cross over from the never never and is linked to the ward candles and is simply used for Timeing a SEPERATE spell the one he is activly holding ready to cast at the beacon of fear he senses.

idk if that clear an makes sense or not but basically your dealing with two seperate spells NOT one
1 is the warding spell he already cast with playdoh an candles and requires no aditional effort
2 is the spell he is holding ready in the circle useing his own fear to create a thalmaturgic link to the summoner/beacon who is also useing fear

your #2 uses your #1 to send the lure out to the phages for them to sense it.

Not necessarily. Assuming the Scarecrow was working for Mab(which I think is likely, now), all this point shows is that Mab didn't want Harry to know whatever it was that Glau might have been able to tell him. And since the fetches had just snatched Molly and taken her to Mab's Winter wonderland on the parapet, it would seem to indicate that that's where Mab wanted Harry to be. If Glau had started talking about some third party's involvement, Harry might have gotten sidetracked and not even noticed that Molly was gone until after he'd become entangled in some Black Council mess.

Quite likely.  When I read the scene, I was thinking it was possible that the Scarecrow might have been sent to make sure Harry didn't end up getting transferred to the Duchess.

[Serack]

I was just going to say that maybe Glau was the practitioner who was behind a lot of the stuff I am theorizing about, but I just remembered that he was the one on the computer in the Fool Moon garage.

[Sm0kEyNy]

I stood on the sidewalk outside the house with my mouth hanging
open. The streetlights were all out. Only the lights of the van showed the
damage, and Thomas turned them off after only a moment. There was
no disturbance on the street, no outcry, no police presence. Whatever
had happened, something had taken steps to keep it from disturbing the
neighbors.

further reading makes me think maybe ur onto something but i stand by the fact that he cast 2 spells not one

[Serack]

further reading makes me think maybe ur onto something but i stand by the fact that he cast 2 spells not one

Although I don't disagree, I don't think of them as entirely discrete spells either.  One was a long standing "web" and the other was a reactive spell that built on the lattice the first layed out. 

[laura118b]

I was just going to say that maybe Glau was the practitioner who was behind a lot of the stuff I am theorizing about, but I just remembered that he was the one on the computer in the Fool Moon garage.

Except it does still work, Glau wasn't human and non humans don't have the tech problems. 

[Arjan]

Except it does still work, Glau wasn't human and non humans don't have the tech problems. 

Glau is half human like Kincaid. We don't know how it works out in these cases.

[Sm0kEyNy]

kincaid has no magical talent tho so that not really a good comparison

[Piotr1600]

#1
Sandra Marling is usually pointed to as the main orchestrator for all things nasty that happened at Splattercon since she motivated Molly to use fear, and people point out that she didn't touch Harry.  However, if she were powerful enough to knock out the lights and set up the cold wards around the Fetch attacks, she might have trouble using a cell phone:

This doesn't definitively show that she wasn't the one throwing around magic but.  It's a strike against her, and indicates there was another player in the background, that might have been using her as a cutout.  

If Sandra Marling is non-human (or potentially half human) that would answer the cell phone use issue.
I'm not saying that's how it was, just that it is a possibility...


Love the WAG about Rawlins (though I don't actually buy it.  ) but the premise that there's an infiltrator from the Bad Guys^TM planted/working in SI is probably worth examining, particularly if we assume that Rawlins is a Renfield/thrall, rather than an actual power.
It could/would just mean that he reported Harry's preparations to... someone else... like say a handler for the 'event', named, just perhaps, Sandra...

[Arjan]

kincaid has no magical talent tho so that not really a good comparison

We actually don't know scions with magical talents.
Maybe it is even more difficult. If the magic comes from the human parent.........

[knnn]

#1
Sandra Marling is usually pointed to as the main orchestrator for all things nasty that happened at Splattercon since she motivated Molly to use fear, and people point out that she didn't touch Harry.  However, if she were powerful enough to knock out the lights and set up the cold wards around the Fetch attacks, she might have trouble using a cell phone:

This doesn't definitively show that she wasn't the one throwing around magic but.  It's a strike against her, and indicates there was another player in the background, that might have been using her as a cutout.  

Ooh, I didn't even think of her as anything more than a catspaw with no talent (i.e. maybe nothing more than an enthralled mortal).  I mean, she was friends with Molly for quite a while, so if there was any talent there, you'd think Molly might have picked up on it.

I like this idea, but as you point out, she does use a cell phone....  Unless maybe we want to say this was really Marva in disguise?  Marva didn't seem to have any problem with the photos she took while under a veil...

 

#2
If Glau was another cutout for who set Madrigal Raith up to take the fall for the Fetch attacks, and the Scarecrow took him out to silence him, then that implies that Mab was involved in that setup.  

Glau could have been the cutout to set Madrigal up with Molly, and Mab could simply be trying to take out the opposition.  I also like AA's suggestion that Mab sent Scarecrow to help Harry escape (as a distraction?).

#3
Someone directed Harry's wammy reversal to detect Molly from within his web on the Theater.

I had a bit of trouble with this one myself, here's what I came up with.  It's not great, but I think it kinda fits:

- According to the MITT ("Molly is the Target Theory"), the BC members are just trying to keep a low profile while they convert Molly.  

- All of a sudden, the convention they are hiding in is attacked by unknown Phobophages, shining a spotlight on their activeties.  Cops arrive and so does Harry (Sandra would have reported it, and certainly Glau).

- Just like Harry, the BC members are probably going to be assuming that there is some other agency summoning the Phobopages (because sending them is much harder).  This means that they believe there is another group of BMW ("Black Magic Wizards") working at cross purposes to them.  They need to find them and take them out, all while avoiding Harry.  

- Maybe this even means casting a spell to block Harry so they can reach (and take out) the BMW before they cause even more damage.

- Then Harry sets up his spell to turn the Fetches on "however is summoning them", and maybe hits one of the BC members, who manages to deflect it.  Unfortunalty fetches then seemingly go and abduct Molly instead of the hypothetical BMW they believe are messing with their plans.

- In desperation, they send a force to save Molly from the Fetches.  

In reality of course, Mab sent the Fetches specifically to pick up Molly,  so that it was never the fault of Harry's spell.  It just hit one of the BC wizards, who managed to deflect it.

----------------
Final thought:

No matter who is behind the events in Splattercon, it seems likely that Namshiel and a bunch of other
"not-heavy-enough-weights" were lurking around town during that time.  It would be interesting to look again and see if someone of Namshiel's humanfrom description (from SmF?) is described in the book.

[the neurovore of Zur-En-Aargh]

In reality of course, Mab sent the Fetches specifically to pick up Molly,  so that it was never the fault of Harry's spell.  It just hit one of the BC wizards, who managed to deflect it.

Whatever the larger strategic situation, that has a superfluous moving part.

Harry's defence against the phages is standard Council doctrine, we've established that.  Mab knows how it's supposed to work. Mab sending fetches in a way that she knows will interact with Harry doing the standard Council defence for the apparent situation to give her Molly still seems to need no deflection, from my perspective, even if getting Molly is the whole point.

[knnn]

Whatever the larger strategic situation, that has a superfluous moving part.

Harry's defence against the phages is standard Council doctrine, we've established that.  Mab knows how it's supposed to work. Mab sending fetches in a way that she knows will interact with Harry doing the standard Council defence for the apparent situation to give her Molly still seems to need no deflection, from my perspective, even if getting Molly is the whole point.

Good point!

I was trying to Occam Razor it with my theory, but if you take "I know Harry will use a deflection spell" as a given, your solution certainly has one fewer variables.