US Law Enforcement Response, Time, Scale and Coordination (Galveston, TX)

[Icelander]

Because Lucien Lacoste's player believes that ASAC Ed Michel won't accept any cover story he can imagine for how the people after 'Gwen Delvano' knew in what room she was and how they were able to bypass layer after layer of high-tech security as well as most of the 200 correctional officers at UTMB-TDCJH, and because Lucien Lacoste is an Impulsive, On the Edge madman, Lacoste is going to speak to Michel, man-to-man, and tell him about the Keepers of the Last Hearth (apocalyptic cult of the Cold Ones, Outsiders representing the End of Everything).

Lacoste will be clear that he's confiding information that he can't prove to the satisfaction of lawyers and which therefore shouldn't be put into official reports, but which Lacoste, nevertheless, believes in light of his confidential sources and experience as a detective. To some extent, ASAC Michel asked for this, as he earnestly asked Lacoste to tell him everything he knew about these people and gave him his word of honor that he wouldn't put any inconvenient details about confidential informants or unlicensed Sheriff's Office operations into the reports against Lacoste's wishes. Because, well, Michel believed Lacoste knew more than he was saying, although Michel likely believed that the answers were more 'secrets about a criminal concpiracy we don't tell the feds because we don't trust them not to take away our informant if we do' and less 'secret world of occult horror'.

Backing up Lacoste's claims are suggestive facts such as the OpFor of cultists and their support personnel having had either incredible luck or phenomenal and terrifying access to confidential law enforcement information about the location of 'Gwen Delvano', not to mention the way literally dozens of security gates, manned and unmanned check-points, cameras, alarms and all sorts of other high-tech surveillance and security gear failed at the same time.

The risk here is that Ed Michel will fail his roll against the Facade and/or otherwide refuse to accept or believe in the possibility of supernatural forces. If he does, he'll search for any alternative explanation that doesn't require him to change his entire worldview.

Unfortunately, two plausible scenarios that suggest themselves as alternatives are that Lacoste is crazy, or, worse, that Lacoste is trying to deceive Michel for some purpose of his own. The better arguments and more evidence Lacoste can bring to bear, the less likely the first explanation is, but unless Michel can overcome the Facade completely and face a new and terrifying world head-on, the second explanation is going to be awfully tempting for him to take refuge in.

Lacoste is also going to show Michel the partially dissected body of a pishtaco as well as the autopsy notes and hope that the time elapsed since the shooting hasn't been enough for the unnatural body to have taken on a perfectly normal human appearance. If the body still looks like it did when Lacoste saw it opened, it should provide a hefty bonus to believe something is not normal, but not necessarily be enough to allow Michel to accept a new and terrifying reality in the long term. Memories are surprisingly mutable and for everyone except the most strong-willed and clear-eyed, the mind finds a way to re-adjust while continuing to deny the implications of anything supernatural they see.

It may amuse readers to note that Lacoste's player justified his chosen action with, as far as I can tell, an entirely unironic "Honesty is the best policy".