History Literature / BriefCases

!This book contains the following tropes:

** Back in ''Literature/BloodRites'', when Harry gave the puppies back to the monk, the monk noted that not all the pups were present. At first it appeared that Mouse was the exception, having got out of the box without Harry realising, but ''Zoo Day'' reveals that two other puppies were taken from the litter before Harry got there.

A collection of short fiction in the Literature/DresdenFiles universe. It includes 12 stories:

# "AAAA Wizardry" (originally published in the manual ''Our World'' from the Dresden Files Role-Playing Game)

** Still reeling from the events of Literature/{{Changes}}, Molly Carpenter is forced into action when she learns that Thomas Raith has been captured by enemies.

This collection features more stories in which characters besides Dresden act as the narrator. Luccio is the narrator of "A Fistful of Warlocks," Marcone is the narrator of "Even Hand," Molly is the narrator of "Bombshells" and "Cold Case," Butters is the narrator of "Day One," and Maggie and Mouse both narrate parts of "Zoo Day" along with Harry.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Wyatt Earp turns out to have been a member of the Venatori. So was Doc Holiday.
* {{Bigfoot}}: Plays a very big role in the story. It turns out they exist in the world, are extremely powerful magic users (easily more powerful than White Council wizards), and very reclusive.

** In "Even Hand" the location Marcone first executes the infiltrating dealers is the same location the White Council used to execute the Korean warlock in ''Proven Guilty''.
** In "Day One", when Butters feels like he is getting in over his head against the threat his Mission has brought him against, he calls Harry for help. Harry not only reminds him, "Polka will never die" but also things Michael told him about being a Knight. The primary thing is God/Aliens/Whatever wouldn't give the Knight a quest too much for a Knight.
** In "Zoo Day" Mouse and Maggie recall when a monster moved under Maggie's bed to torment her but Mouse stopped it. This was first talked about in ''Skin Game'' when Harry first bonded with Maggie.
** Back in ''Blood Rites'', when Harry gave the puppies back to the monk, the monk noted that not all the pups were present. At first it appeared that Mouse was the exception, having got out of the box without Harry realising, but ''Zoo Day'' reveals that two other puppies were taken from the litter before Harry got there.
* CantHaveSexEver: This turns out to be an aspect of being the [[spoiler: youngest Winter Lady: each Queen of the Fae has a specific role to fill -- Maiden, Mother and Crone -- and Molly's job is to be and remain the Maiden. Having sex with a man would destroy her mantle, so if Molly ever tries, the Winter mantle will defend itself by maiming whoever she tries to sleep with. She learns this only after it happens to Carlos.]]
* {{Conscription}}: [[spoiler:In ''Cold Case'', Molly thinks her task of recovering an unspecified "tribute" is basically acting as a tax collector. At the end, she realizes that she's actually a draft officer, come to conscript all of their children to serve at the Outer Gates.]]
* CruelTwistEnding: In ''Cold Case'', Molly is sent to recover an unspecified 'tribute' from a Fae tribe, only to be told that their children have been kidnapped, so she has to go help rescue the children or they won't give her the tribute. At the end of the story, [[spoiler:having rescued the children, she finds out that the children ''are'' the tribute. Specifically, they're going to be trained as soldiers and sent to the Outer Gates to fight the Outsiders, never to return home.]]
* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou: River Shoulders [[spoiler: kept his distance from Irwin because acknowledging him would have had social repercussions that would severely limit his son's options--and he wanted Irwin to be able to have a modern education and make his own choices.]]
* DatingWhatDaddyHates: This is played with in "Bigfoot on Campus." At first Connie Barrowill's father encouraged her and Irwin Pounder to have sex [[spoiler: so she can kill him in their first night together when she awakens as a succubus, but Irwin's deep reserves of life energy allowed him to survive Connie's first feeding. Now her continued relationship with a guy her father believes she should have killed to make her a "proper" vampire is bad for her reputation. So, he wants her to have sex again so this time he can push her to killing Irwin]].
* DetectEvil: In Mouse's portion of "Zoo Day" he describes his ability to notice evil magic and intents. However, the one stirring up both Harry's and Maggie's problems is very adept at concealing himself to the point even Mouse's holy powers have a hard time tracking him.
* DisappearedDad: River Shoulders is this to his son Irwin. Harry finally gets them to meet at the end of ''Bigfoot On Campus''.
* DisappointedByTheMotive: In ''I Was A Teenaged Bigfoot'', Dresden finds the source of the spell causing Irwin's illness - a wizard draining his life force [[spoiler:to power a hair growth spell]].
* DisproportionateRetribution: The legendary Billy Goat curse - [[spoiler:the goat]] cursed the Cubs to never win the World Series again because the stadium authorities kicked him out of the stadium during a World Series game he was watching over the smell of wet goat.
* EvenEvilHasStandards: In "Even Hand" Marcone discusses how he has Rules which he forbids any of his people to cross and will personally punish any who intervene into his territory that breaks these rules.
* EvilCounterpart: Mouse meets his in ''Zoo Day'': [[spoiler:When Harry rescued Mouse and his siblings in ''Blood Rites'', three of the puppies weren't sent back to the Temple. Mouse was adopted by Harry, but the other two were taken and raised by unknown, dark entities. The one Mouse meets is his brother, who apparently works with some very bad people.]]
* ExactWords: In ''Fistful of Warlocks'', Luccio has made a deal with a kelpie-like Sidhe: he serves her for a year if she can ride him for an hour. He's rather upset about the fact that she was able to accomplish this even though he spent the hour ''underwater''....

* HalfHumanHybrid: Irwin Pounder in the three Bigfoot stories. He is half-human and half-Bigfoot, also called a Forest Person. He gains much of his father's size, protection from common illnesses, and a powerful natural energy inside, which as a college student Harry compares to being on par with himself. [[spoiler:The later is also how he survives sex with his girlfriend, who was becoming a White Court vampire. He had enough to allow her inner demon to gorge and he is fine afterwards]].
* HeroicSacrifice: This is discussed by [[spoiler:Mouse to his evil older brother. Mouse is wounded, the younger of the two, and weaker. But if his brother continues attacking Maggie and Harry, Mouse will come at him with everything he has to take down his brother. Mouse will probably die but if it means taking down his evil brother, it is fine by Mouse. He loves Harry and Maggie that much]].

* LittleMissBadass: Maggie has become this- she routinely fights off things that prey on children.
* LogicalWeakness: Mab notes that Molly has one. [[spoiler:Her title is the Maiden of the Winter Court. If Molly has sex and becomes pregnant, she will certainly no longer be a "Maiden." This will destroy the mantle. So, the Mantle will protect itself by severely injuring Molly's would-be sexual partner by overriding Molly's control]].

** A White Court vampire will kill its first sexual partner unless they are in love with them. This apparently turns out to not be the case if they have too much life energy to absorb, like the child of a Bigfoot with a human.
** In "Cold Case" Molly teams up with Carlos but cannot talk about her mission at first. She says sexual innuendos and provocative statements instead. It isn't until a deal is made where they help each other can she speak more freely.
* TheManBehindTheMan: In "Zoo Day" [[spoiler:Mouse's Shadow, a corrupted holy dog]] is the cause of both Harry's problem and Molly's problem, using his dark powers to increase the threat level of both dangers. He is also using his power to increase the anxiety of Harry and Maggie's relationship.

* NoticeThis: Butter's loves playing online games. God knows this and chose to speak to his newest Knight in a manner his Knight would understand. The person Butters has to help on his first mission has a big exclamation point over him like he was some important [=NPC=] in a game who Butters must talk to to begin his gaming quest.

** In "Even Hand" Justine forces this card with Marcone by coming to him for protection when guarding a child from her monsters who enslaved the girl.

*** River Shoulders finally directly intervenes in protecting his son when [[spoiler:Irwin's girlfriend's father, Charles Barrowill, is trying to force them to have killer sex and has a horde of ghouls with him to kill any interlopers]].
*** In a dark twist [[spoiler:Charles Barrowill loves his daughter and when she fails to become a "proper" White Court vampire by killing the first person she sleeps with, he intervenes to make sure the next time the kid ends up dead]].
* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: WordOfGod has declared ''A Fistful of Warlocks'' to be one for a fantasy/western series about Anastasia Luccio in the Old West that he's not sure he'll ever get around to writing.
* ThePromise: In "Cold Case" when Molly swears to some distraught parents whose children were kidnapped she will get them back, she feels the force of her words.
--> '''Lady Molly''': There was a low ''thrum'' in the air as I spoke ["I can. I will."], and I felt something go ''click'' somewhere in my head. I had just made a promise.\\

* RogueJuror: Dresden at the end of ''Jury Duty''. [[spoiler:The man ''had'' done it, but since Dresden had (illegally) done some digging, he found that the victim was a White Court vampire who the accused had killed after catching him red-handed in an act of child trafficking]].
* SealedWithAKiss: When Molly [[spoiler: apologizes]] to Carlos, she instinctively feels that words are insufficient, and kisses him three times.
* SophisticatedAsHell: In ''Bombshells'', Lea peppers her usual Shakespearean dialect with a few choice modern phrases, such as pointing out that Molly should be able to get in with the Svartalves because she is "smoking hot," and pointing out the {{Bowdleriz|e}}ation of a Norse myth that said Freya had to ''kiss'' all of them to get the necklace of the Brisings back, scoffing that the Svartalves would not have given up such a treasure for "a society-wide trip to first base."
* SwitchingPOV: ''Zoo Day'' goes from Harry's viewpoint to Maggie's, then to Mouse's as each of them tackle a separate problem at the zoo.

* {{Xenofiction}}: Mouse is one of the narrators during ''Zoo Day''

* YourMindMakesItReal: The ''baka baku'' from ''Day One''. It's not a real creature, just a story made up with a toy sold to children, but the solid belief the children had in the story made the ''baka baku'' real.

* NoticeThis: Butter's loves playing online games. God knows this and chose to speak to his newest Knight in a a manner his Knight would understand. The person Butters has to help on his first mission has a big exclamation point over him like he was some important [=NPC=] in a game who Butters must talk to to begin his gaming quest.

* PoorlyDisguisedPilot: WordOfGod has declared ''A Fistful of Warlocks'' to be one for a fantasy/western series about Anastasia Luccio in the Old West that he's not sure he'll every get around to writing.

* RogueJuror: Dresden at the end of ''Jury Duty'. [[spoiler:The man ''had'' done it, but since Dresden had (illegally) done some digging, he found that the victim was a White Court vampire who the accused had killed after catching him red-handed in an act of child trafficking]].

** Dresden is hired to deal with the most famous curse in Chicago history: the Billy Goat curse which prevented the Chicago Cubs from winning a World Series for over a century.

* CruelTwistEnding: In ''Cold Case'', Molly is sent to recover an unspecified 'tribute' from a Fae tribe, only to be told that their children have been kidnapped, so she has to go help rescue the children, or they won't give her the tribute. At the end of the story, [[spoiler:having rescued the children, she finds out that the children ''are'' the tribute. Specifically, they're going to be trained as soldiers and sent to the Outer Gates to fight the Outsiders, never to return home.]]

* CruelTwistEnding: In ''Cold Case'', Molly is sent to recover an unspecified 'tribute' from a Fae tribe, only to be told that their children have been kidnapped, so she has to go help rescue the children. At the end of the story, [[spoiler:having rescued the children, she finds out that the children ''are'' the tribute. Specifically, they're going to be trained as soldiers and sent to the Outer Gates to fight the Outsiders, never to return home.]]

* {{Bigfoot}}: Plays a very big role in the story. It turns out they exist in the world, are extremely powerful wizards (easily more powerful than White Council wizards), and very reclusive.

* CallBack: When Butters feels like he is getting in over his head against the threat his Mission has brought him against, he calls Harry for help. Harry not only reminds him, "Polka will never die" but also things Michael told him about being a Knight. The primary thing is God/Aliens/Whatever wouldn't give the Knight a quest too much for a Knight.

* LoopholeAbuse: A White Court vampire will kill its first sexual partner unless they are in love with them. This apparently turns out to not be the case if they have too much life energy to absorb, like the child of a Bigfoot with a human.

* TooCleverByHalf: The moral of the story "[=AAAA=] Wizardry". Harry tells the young wardens he had all the facts before him but grossly misinterpreted them and nearly cost a woman her life and the sanity of the children. They survived because of luck. They almost suffered because of his arrogance, which he calls the fifth A of wizardry.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: More like ''Did you just punch out Dagon?'' as the Fomor are Lovecraft themed. Marcone manages to take out one of their upper tier members to defend the life of a child.
** Molly and Ramirez take on a Great Old One cult, kill them all and burn their church to the ground.

* HalfHumanHybrid: One plays a very important role in the three Bigfoot stories.
* LittleMissBadass: Maggie has become this- she and Mouse routinely fight off things that prey on children.

* TooCleverByHalf: The moral of the story "[=AAAA=] Wizardry". Harry tells the young wardens he had all the facts before him but grossly misinterpreted them and nearly cost a woman her life and the sanity of the children. They survived because of luck, because of his arrogance, which he calls the fifth A of wizardry.

* WeirdnessMagnet: Poor Irwin, the scion of River Shoulders and a human woman. He's bullied by two kids [[spoiler:under the guardianship of a Svartalf]] as a child, as a teenager, [[spoiler:a professor steals his energy to regrow his hair, putting Irwin in what's almost a coma]], and as a college student, [[spoiler:his girlfriend is a White Court vampire, though she's actually a nice one, though her father isn't.]]

* CantHaveSexEver: This turns out to be a flaw of being the [[spoiler: youngest Winter Lady: each Queen of the Fae has a specific role to fill, and Molly's job is to be the Maiden. Having sex is the pastime of the Mother, so if Molly ever tries to have sex, the Winter mantle will horribly harm and maim whoever she tries to sleep with to protect itself.]]

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: The Svartalheim [[spoiler: insist on sexual repayment for their mercy, which horrifies Molly and her crew. However, it's not gender biased and Thomas happily services their women.]]

* DoubleStandardRapeFemaleOnMale: The Svartalheim [[spoiler: insist on sexual repayment for their assistance, which horrifies Molly and her crew. However, it's not gender biased and Thomas happily services their women.]]

* WeirdnessMagnet: Poor Irwin, the scion of River Shoulders and a human woman. He's bullied by two kids [[spoiler:under the guardianship of a Svartalf]] as a child, as a teenager, [[spoiler:a professor steals his energy to regrow his hair, putting Irwin in what's almost a coma]], and as a college student, [[spoiler:his girlfriend is a White Court vampire, though she's actually a nice one.]]

This book contains the following tropes:

* AmazonBrigade: Molly assembles one of these teams to deal with the Fomor

* CantHaveSexEver: This tunrs out to be a flaw of being the [[spoiler: youngest Winter Lady.]]
* CruelTwistEnding: [[spoiler: Molly Carpenter discovers her job includes taking hordes of children from their parents in order to be CannonFodder for the Winter Court]]

* AmazonBrigade: Molly assembles one of these teams to deal with the Formori.

* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: More like ''Did you just punch out Dagon?'' as the Formori are Lovecraft themed. Marconi manages to take out one of their upper tier members to defend the life of a child.

* BeethovenWasAnAlienSpy: Wyatt Earp turns out to have been a member of the Umberto Venatori. So was Doc Holiday.
* {{Bigfoot}}: Plays a very big role in the story.

* DoubleStandardFemaleOnMaleRape: The Svartalheim [[spoiler: insist on sexual repayment for their assistance, which horrifies Molly and her crew. However, it's not gender biased and Thomas happily services their women.]]

* MundateUtility: A college professor attempts to use magic in order to regrow his hair, despite the dangers thereof.

This collection features more stories in which characters besides Dresden act as the narrator. Luccio is the narrator of "A Fistful of Warlocks," Marcone is the narrator of "Even Hand," Molly is the narrator of "Bombshells" and "Cold Case," Butters is the narrator of "Day One," and Maggie and Mouse both narrate parts of "Zoo Day" along with Harry.