Shattered Masques IC

[Llyarden]

The two soldiers do look at Emily's badge, but it isn't really until Perez (who they apparently recognise) waves them off that they relax, salute, and turn away again, one of them talking into a radio. He watches them go for a moment before he looks back to Eric. "And if she'd been hiding a grenade in her pocket? This is a woman who's clearly willing to kill, willing to start a firefight in the middle of a military base. We have no idea what made her do this, and no idea how far she might have been willing to go. Or, at least, I don't."

"I gave her a chance to stand down and she chose to shoot you. Hell, she could've surrendered once she lost her gun, but she didn't. Maybe you have the luxury of being able to play nice and trust your powers to protect you and everyone around you. But I wasn't trained to trust the powers of Supernals to fix everything. I was trained to stop threats - to do what has to be done. So you don't need to...protect me, or whatever it is you think you're doing."

"Judging me isn't your job."

[Quellian-dyrae]

Eric's brows rose a bit in surprise. He was arguing that the shooting was justified because of what Trifonov had proven herself capable of doing, and what she might do? That...was a very dangerous line to walk, and perhaps doubly so in this Unmasqued world.

(He did find it mildly amusing that Perez was talking about not being trained to rely on Supernal powers to fix things, when his original rationale for shooting her was "one of you can heal her").

"I don't know what the CID deems reasonable protocol for discharging a firearm. If you're confident that your superiors will rule this shooting sufficiently justified that you don't think you need to inform Coemans immediately, fine.
But I'd be surprised to learn that you guys are expected to fire on an unarmed suspect because of what they might have or do."

He left it at that. He could have driven the point home with some analogies - a pretty decent one about kicking a fallen suspect's gun away rather than shooting it twice in the head to be sure came to mind. And he did kinda have an urge to answer his question about what if she had a grenade in her pocket (which would be, keep your gun trained on her and only shoot if she actually pulls one out and tries to use it). But he expected that would only make him sound preachy. Either Perez would get it or he wouldn't. It would be in his report either way.

The siblings did search Trifonov for any further tech or weapons, before bringing her...well, wherever they were directed to to be secured for interrogation. Presumably the CID had a room for that.

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Not sure if anything'll happen before we get her up for interrogating, but if not what I'd like to do is basically get her secured and placed in an interrogation room, which I assume would be set up so people outside the room can view what's going on. Erin will morph into Emily to heal her and then leave her alone in the room, so we can discuss the approach with Perez and Coemans before we begin interrogating her.

I'm planning to have Erin and Elizabeth do the interrogating, so Emily and Eric can do the phone stuff I still have to do (getting what I can from the burner, having Eric call McWilliams to see if she matches Harbinger's voice) once they've gotten started, so you don't need to include that in any timeskip.

[Llyarden]

The CID does indeed have an interrogation room, which they are happy to let you use (you do get a few startled looks from less-in-the-loop agents when they see that your prisoner is one of their own, but a glare from Coemans is more than enough to convince them to go about their business.)

While you're getting that set up, Agent Cerny gets back to you - Nico Kerper is alive and unharmed, and now in protective custody (and apparently somewhat despairing at the fact that he might still be being targeted after the local police told him he was safe). At more or less the same time, Coemans manages to finish her rather fragmented phone call and tells you that permission has now been granted for them to search Trifonov's home.

Back in the interrogation room, when Erin heals her, Trifonov jerks up, takes in the scene, pauses a moment to glare at 'Emily' and then just...kinda tunes her out, shifting position in her chair slightly so she's looking at the one-way glass.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Emily" didn't say a word to her, just walked out and closed the door. The next moment, she was Erin again. "So, good cop bad cop?" Yeah as a CID agent she'd know the routine, but it was a classic for a reason.

"She didn't even flinch at the prospect of taking us on. I don't think intimidation tactics are going to get us too far."

"I know what approach I want to try," Elizabeth said, already morphing into a different form. That of an imposing, middle-aged woman who, though certainly not anywhere near identical, possessed a subtle resemblance to Coemans. Not enough that anyone would confuse them for each other, but enough to maybe spark some subconscious associations.

Erin, meanwhile, took the form of an athletic, attractive guy who looked to be in roughly the same age bracket as Trifonov herself. "Anything you guys can think of that will help us get her off-balance?" she asked Perez and Coemans (assuming they were in the observation room as well).

Both of them still had their badges on, but they were now wearing the sort of staid, professional suits you'd expect from FBI agents.

While they started prepping, Eric stepped aside and - after Emily spoofed his number - made a call to the phone number on McWilliam's business card. Emily started poking around on the burner phone.

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Emily'll Routine Technology for 25 to see what she can get from the burner. She'll Quickness it up for now but if she can't complete it before they start interrogating she'll swap to Fey Form so she can multitask with her Rapid Analytical Hearing.

[Llyarden]

"Not really," Perez admits. "She transferred in pretty recently."

"I can phone some of the other agents who've worked with her," Coemans suggests, " but it'll probably take a few minutes to convince them that she's dirty. Before this she had a spotless record."

McWilliam's phone rings, and rings, and rings...and eventually goes to voicemail. Fortunately, Dr McWilliam has a personalised message, so Eric gets a nice, polite, prerecorded message spoken to him. "Hi, you've reached Dr Tahnee McWilliam. I'm afraid I'm on holiday at the moment. I'll be back on the 17th-" (it's currently the 5th) "- but if you want to book an appointment, you can visit our offices at..."

She goes on to read off the number for the building you already visited, suggests booking an appointment with one of her co-workers if it's urgent, and generally acts for all the world like a cheerful, if perhaps overly detail-oriented, medical practitioner.

But the voice is unmistakeably that of Harbinger.

Emily, meanwhile, finds a few numbers in the phone's memory - not as contacts, but just as recently dialled numbers, missed calls (a surprising number) and received calls. There are two numbers that come up pretty regularly - one, given the time it last phoned, must be Harbinger's - and one more that comes up a couple of times, and one number that comes up only once, as a number dialled by Trifonov, right back when she first got the SIM card.

Other than a couple of spam messages from the service provider, though, there are no text messages at all.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Go ahead and do that, yeah. We'll get started, but we can work it in as we go if there is anything," Elizabeth said. "Guys?"

Emily nodded, shifting over so that she would be just barely in view when the door opened. Eric stood pointedly near the door, and was giving Trifonov a cold glare when his sisters opened it. Just to assuage any possible suspicion that the two fey she had encountered might have been able to alter their forms.

Elizabeth and Erin walked in, closed the door, and sat down opposite Trifonov, both of them exuding airs of all-business professionalism, although Elizabeth broke it slightly when she greeted her as, "Miss Trifonov," placing a subtle, disdainful emphasis on the title which was not Agent.

"Agent Weis, Agent Miins," Erin said briskly, gesturing to indicate the two of them, though not actually verbally claiming the identities.

~...Really, Erin?~

~You know you love it!~

"So, let's get the formalities out of the way. You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to an attorney. If you cannot afford an attorney, one can be provided for you before you speak."

"But here's the thing. We're not here to get a confession from you. Truth is, we don't need one. You're in quite a lot of trouble, Agent Trifonov. Even if we were to pretend we didn't have enough evidence to put you away for the Supernal murders - and, let's be honest with ourselves, we absolutely do - we have you cold on the attempted murder of a federal agent."

"Granted, an extremely ineffective attempted murder, but still," "Agent Miins" commented offhand, just a little hint of contempt in her voice.

Good Cop Bad Cop was a classic. Any experienced law enforcement officer - and most experienced criminals, for that matter - would immediately recognize when one interrogator was frothing at the mouth spouting threats and bile, and the other was trying to keep them calm and play nice. And they would trust the nice one less as a result.

But here's the thing. The strategy itself was psychological. People are more likely to trust those who are nicer to them, especially in the face of someone else being meaner to them. They played it subtly. Professionals who might be juuuust failing to conceal hints of sympathy or disdain. The sort of things that might not even be consciously noticed, but would absolutely be subconsciously noticed.

So when "Agent Miins" made a snide comment, "Agent Weis" didn't give a reprimand or even a glare. That was too much. It was part of the pattern. "He" just moved on, "You did that in front of witnesses, so you're done. Whatever you were planning to do, hoping to accomplish, when you woke up this morning...that's not happening. Your reality has simply changed since then. And we need to accept that. Come to terms with it. Make our peace with it. That future is gone now."

"If you have one saving grace, it's that you do still have information that we want. It's an advantage I hope you're smart enough to take advantage of." She definitely said hope, but she said it in such a way that one's hindbrain might have heard "doubt".

"But I understand that this whole enterprise is important to you. Of course, if you would be willing to give us information in exchange for a deal, that would be the fastest and best resolution for everybody. But I wouldn't expect you to. No, what I want to know is, what are your goals. Not your previous ones. Like I said, that future is gone now.
But here, in this room, in this new reality we find ourselves in that didn't exist this morning. What would you hope to accomplish?"

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Elizabeth will attempt to Incite Trust towards "Agent Weis". Obviously this wouldn't be complete trust or anything, but basically the sense that "he" is on her side. (1d20+15)[22].

Erin will use Persuasion to try to improve her reaction towards Agent Weis, and hopefully get her to open up some: (1d20+20)[23], -5 if Attractive doesn't apply.

Emily will stop playing with the phone for now and start Cold Reading her: (1d20+15)[32]. Just to determine number of questions for now. She'll also Evaluate her at (1d20+15)[18].

Eric will be calling bluffs at (1d20+15)[34].

[Llyarden]

Trifonov is quiet for a few moments. And then she actually chuckles. "Really?" She looks to the one-way window (not that she can see out of it, but, y'know, she's almost certainly been standing where Emily and Eric are now, she knows it's there.)

"Let me put things from my perspective," she says, looking back to 'Agent Weis' and 'Agent Miins.' "I go to meet a CI. I'm tailed, I can only assume from my house where I presumably have been spied upon, by a garishly costumed faerie who...I have no idea what the hell he was trying to do. Plant something on me, probably. I draw my weapon and order him to identify himself. He calls up a snowstorm in an attempt to intimidate me and claims to be FBI - doesn't provide any proof, like a badge or something. I fire a warning shot at the ground. Which, okay, maybe that was reckless, but I've not had the greatest experience with Supernals. Then he throws his magic snowstorm in my face."

"I try to disengage and retreat. He follows me, and another faerie suddenly appears and attacks me as well, smashing my gun to bits. Brings a CID agent with her too. Now, I know Agent Perez, and he's a good guy, so I'm gonna assume that either they lied to him - and you - 'cos the alternative is that three of you are under some kind of magical compulsion."

"Then again," she reflects, "maybe you oughta show me some identification first. 'Cos I've had one of my fellow agents, a guy I trust, tricked into trying to kill me today, so I'm not much inclined to trust someone I've never met, and 'Agent Weis' doesn't tell me a whole lot."

[Quellian-dyrae]

"...Are you trying to set up some sort of weird insanity defense by claiming selective blindness, or something?" Agent Miins asked after the request for identification, considering that, as always, their badges were prominently visible. Granted, she wouldn't actually have been able to look up their badge numbers from here, but regardless, they were clearly FBI badges.

And given that Eric's badge had, also as always, been prominently visible on the front of his costume...yeah, that whole spiel would have fallen pretty flat even if they didn't have all the rest of their evidence.

"And are you really going to lie to Federal agents, especially lies that they already know the truth of? We already learned the details of your encounter from Agent Autumn, Agent Winter, and Agent Perez. So we already know that the actual order of events was that Agent Autumn and Agent Perez arrived, Agent Perez demanded - for a second time now - that you surrender, you continued firing at Agent Winter - in the face of two FBI agents with badges displayed, and a surrender demand from one of your own fellow CID agents - and only then did Agent Autumn destroy your weapon. And for what it's worth, their story is also corroborated by the remains of the commlink that you destroyed with your 'warning shot'. Because yeah, we also have you on the hook for destroying evidence."

Agent Weis remained silent as his partner systematically tore apart her story, regarding Trifonov with a vaguely disappointed look. "Like I said, we have you. Your crimes are no longer the matter at hand. It will be so much better for you if you just come to terms with that, and then we can begin moving forward."

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Deception to...well, basically try to convince her of the reality that she's caught and she's not going to be able to spin a good enough story to get out of it: (1d20+15)[23], -5 if Attractive doesn't apply.

[Llyarden]

"So if I was holding that badge," Trifonov responds, "I'd be an FBI agent without needing any more ID?" She scoffs. "I was trying to figure out if you're part of the 'Task Force.'" And it is truly remarkable how much scorn she manages to fit into those two words. "But it looks like I got my answer. See, you keep saying 'we have you' and 'that's the new reality' and all that. But let me ask you something."

"What evidence do you have against me? Not hearsay, or witness statements from your faerie friends. Actual, physical evidence. You know, the sort of thing that stands up in court. This...commlink, or whatever. Have they given it to CID techs to examine? Or have they just squirreled it away somewhere and told everyone else what you've 'learned' from it without letting anyone qualified confirm their 'deductions.'"

"I mean, sure, I'll admit to defending myself against those faeries when they attacked me unprovoked. 'Cos they aren't federal agents. Oh, they might have magicked the Director and whatever to convince him to set up their little task force for them and filled it with patsies they can hide behind when they get found out, and maybe they even do something right once in a while, but when it comes down to it? They don't serve the law. They serve the Supernal. What they did back there - what they're doing here - that's their true nature."

[Quellian-dyrae]

~Wow,~ Erin sent to her siblings. That level of self-delusion was almost impressive.

"We work with the Task Force, yes. But I'm not sure who you're trying to convince here. Agent Trifonov...you shot at an FBI agent. In front of a second FBI agent, and a CID agent. After being told to lower your weapon. Twice. That's three eyewitnesses who are in law enforcement. I told you, all the other crimes are functionally irrelevant as far as your future is concerned. I mean...you can say Agents Autumn and Winter aren't actual Federal agents all you want, but that isn't going to change the fact that they are."

"Save your breath, Weis. You can't argue with someone who denies objective reality. Let's just cut to the chase, and see if she would care to join us here in the real world."

Miins looked flat in Trifonov's eye. "Dr. Tahnee McWilliam. AKA Harbinger."

"Do we have your attention now?"

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Incite Despair: (1d20+15)[34].

[Llyarden]

"Who?" Trifonov asks, feigning polite disinterest...but there's a definite twitch as you say McWilliam's code name out loud.

She quickly tries to change the topic of conversation away from Harbinger, but there's a hint of nervousness in her tone now. "Okay, let's assume for a moment that they actually are FBI agents. That doesn't give them the authority to come onto a military base, spy on innocent people and attack them without provocation. Or did they tell you I shot first too or something?"

"I've answered all your questions as best I can, and yet you just keep repeating the same old thing like a broken record." She chuckles. "You don't have any evidence at all against me, do you? Just the word of a couple of faeries who show off how they can control people on a daily basis. And because they're the big heroes in the news now, everyone listens to them."

"I wonder if you're even FBI agents at all. I mean, you're on video wearing FBI badges and introducing yourselves as, uh...Agent Miins and Weis, right? I have the right to a phone call. I wonder what the reply would be if I used it to check with the FBI - the real FBI - if you two actually work for them."

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I'm pretty sure that the right to a phone call isn't actually a constant thing across the States, but for the sake of consistency/drama/not spending ages pouring through state laws I'mma say that it's basically a thing that exists.

[Quellian-dyrae]

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Yeah I'm pretty sure the "one phone call" thing is a Hollywood invention, but hey it's not like we aren't running on Hollywood law in the first place!

"Agent, you seem to be willfully misunderstanding the situation here. We do not have to explain ourselves to you.
Whether or not you believe that they are FBI agents, that they had authority to act, that we are who we say we are, or anything else is irrelevant. You are sitting in a CID interrogation room, under arrest for the attempted murder of an FBI agent, the murders of two innocent people, and numerous other charges. You are pretending that if you act like our evidence isn't real it won't be admissible. If you deny our authority loudly enough, it won't be accepted by the courts. If you repeat that we've been lied to enough time, people will believe you. I am sorry, but that is simply not the case. But no, we will not take you step by step through all the evidence we've uncovered so that you can try to come up with more false claims to undermine its legitimacy. I think you know that we have all the evidence we need, and unless you truly are so deluded as to think this entire matter is some fey conspiracy against you personally, I think you know that your only hope of achieving even a slightly less negative outcome for yourself is to work with us. Now, if you would like to spend your one phone call checking the identities of the two FBI agents who are sitting before you in a CID interrogation room, we can certainly make that happen."

Eric was already on the phone telling the local FBI office to confirm Agents Weis and Miins, and Emily backstopping some basic cover identities into the system. Because if she wanted to go there, sure.

"I would, however, also like to point out that you have not, in fact, answered any of our questions. All you have done is spin a false story of events that we did not ask about, and have repeatedly told you we already know the truth of. If we sound like broken records, it is only because we cannot have a productive discussion while you continue to flatly lie to us, and we are trying to help you understand that your lies are not working and are not productive. But I have asked you a grand total of one question during this interview, and you did not answer it. It was, now that you are in this position, what are your goals?" He did specify "I". Technically, Miins had asked two additional questions, but to be fair they hadn't really been substantive to the discussion (although, also to be fair, she hadn't given a useful answer to them either, so you know, whatever).

"However, since we seem to be an an impasse, I'm going to do you a favor. Your arguments do seem to be hinging on one particular inaccurate impression that can't be credited as either deception or delusion, so I'm going to correct that for you. Agent Perez," she looked over her shoulder. There was no sense pretending there weren't people watching. "Would you mind coming in here and explaining to Agent Trifonov how exactly she became the subject of this investigation, please?" Maybe if she learned that it was the CID who had put her on their radar, and not vice-versa, she would realize how fragile her excuses really were.

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She does seem to want information about our authorization and evidence, so I'm hoping offering her this much might be a sufficient favor to possibly improve her reaction some/take another shot at doing so. If so, Routine Persuasion for 30, or 25 if Attractive doesn't apply.

Emily will Routine Technology with Quickness to get Agent Weis and Agent Miins some cover IDs.

[Llyarden]

"You lied to us." Perez's voice is perhaps even colder, and when he closes the door behind him he stands very formally to attention, looking kinda over Trifonov's head. "Never mind lying to law enforcement officers being a crime. We're supposed to be your teammates. Your partners. And you told us you were out working a case when you were relaxing at home."

"---ing...seriously? All this because of that?" Trifonov shakes her head, somewhat overdramatically. "Okay. I'm sorry I lied. I was trying, as I said, to meet a CI who said he had some information for me that couldn't wait. At the time you called, yes, I guess I was at home, because I was waiting for him to get back to me to tell me where to meet. I lied because I didn't have the time to clear it with Agent Coemans. I've worked with the guy for years, and if he says he has something important, then I'm gonna listen. Are you seriously going to tell me you've never bent the rules to make sure you get your perp?" Judging from Perez's glare, he probably wants to tell her exactly that, but he remains quiet.

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I'm probably diverging a little from Hollywood-esque criminal procedure here, but it seems fairly logical to assume that there would be some checks and balances on CIs rather than just kinda letting them and their handlers do whatever the heck they feel like and call it undercover work or whatever.

She looks away from Perez and back to 'Weis' and 'Miins.' "I know that you have no evidence against me to tie me to these murders you keep mentioning. By all means, charge me with the attack on your 'agents.' Maybe I'd even be convicted at trial. But trying to hold that over my head to get me to confess to something I have nothing to do with? You keep trying that, and you'll be the ones sitting in this chair quickly enough."

"And my goals? Well, if you want me to spell it out for you - I want to figure out what the ---- you think you have to tie me to some murder that I've never even heard about before. And then," she adds, "if there is a murderer out there, then I'd like to help catch them."

And then it becomes a bit more obvious what Trifonov's goals really are. Because outside the observation room, on the other side of the one-way window, Agent Coemans looks to Eric and Emily. "So..." she says, in a kinda...cautious tone. "What evidence do you actually have against her?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"The lie to Perez. The codenames on the phone call to "Harbinger" who asked if "they suspect her" and said she was "needed for tonight" and to sneak off the base in case it was locked down. The exact quote, from her lips, 'The thefts have been discovered. At least, the ones we used, and a couple of others.' Her proceeding to try to sneak off the base before it was locked down. The connection to the community center where she's receiving grief counselling. Harbinger turning out to be the very therapist who gave her grief counselling. Both of them having clear motives for anti-Supernal hate crimes. Her somehow being able to text back a list of suspect items that might have been removed, correctly, rather than the 'No idea but gosh that sounds serious I'll get there as soon as I can' that someone who actually didn't know that there was a sabotage until you told her would have sent. I honestly have no idea what she was thinking with that one. Her destroying evidence, right in front of me, and doing so by discharging a firearm that a law enforcement official had told her to surrender. The fact that in that situation destroying her commlink was her highest priority. Her words to me after I told her she was under arrest not being 'Who are you?' or 'How do I know you're FBI?' or 'You have it all wrong I didn't do any of that!' but 'I must be losing my touch'. Her constantly, desperately, and verifiably - but, credit where due, not poorly, from a technical standpoint - lying to the FBI under interrogation." He said it all like he was reading from a list.

~My ability to see lightning and hear thunder,~ he added for the amusement of his siblings, but did not say aloud. If you wanted to get technical, he also had some inkling that she had undergone specific training to better defend herself against magical attack, but that didn't quite rise to the level of evidence and bringing it up would sound petty, so he left that one out.

"If we took her to court right now, and didn't even charge her for the open-and-shut bit where she shot at me, I'd call it a very winnable circumstantial case, even if they deemed my recounting of the phone call inadmissible as hearsay. Especially if her best counter-argument is 'They're not actually FBI! They didn't have authority to do that stuff!' both of which are flatly and provably untrue. But this is just what we've gathered so far. We still have to see what we find from searching her home, see what other leads the burner phone gets us, bring in Harbinger and her other accomplices, search Harbinger's home and office because the phone conversation is absolutely enough to get warrants for that, and probably to get warrants to start looking into the other people she counsels although I hope we won't have to do much of that because in all probability most of them are just innocent people who are hurting and I'd prefer not to have to put them through any more stress than arresting their therapist and probably at least three members of their group is going to do. ...This is what we have after, like, what, an hour of investigating her personally, with only authorizations we were able to get off of the lie she told Perez? We're just getting warmed up."

"Make no mistake, Erin's not in there trying to manipulate her into confessing. She's been telling her the literal truth the whole time. We don't need her confession. She's just giving her the opportunity to do the right thing and maybe save herself some prison time, and to do it before Elizabeth tears her apart."

Eric coolly turned his attention back to the interrogation, although he added in a low, expectant tone, "Because if I know my sister, she's just been getting warmed up too."

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I...do I actually need a Deception check to convince her here?

"You really refuse to see the writing on the wall, don't you? We don't need your confession.
We don't care about your confession. Ask us for a lawyer, for all we care, and then anything you say after that can't be used against you in court until your lawyer gets here or you elect to waive Miranda again. Go ahead. Do it. Then at least maybe we can put an end to this pointless charade." Agent Miins took a nice lengthy pause to give her a chance to do so if she wished. It wasn't a challenge. It wasn't a dare. They wanted information from her, not evidence against her. If knowing that what she said couldn't be used against her got them to that point faster, that was a win.

"You want to know about the murders? A trio of anti-Supernal bigots killed a gargoyle and a vampire last night, and maybe more that we don't know of, with specialized anti-Supernal weapons stolen from this base. That much you'll be able to read in the paper tomorrow. You know who else is going to read about it in the paper tomorrow? A whole bunch of Supernals. Most of them will be saddened, and shocked, and disgusted. But not all of them. See, some of them? The ones with predatory natures and no desire to fight them? The ones who feel a compulsion to avenge wrongs done? The ones who just have as much evil and hatred in their hearts as any human can, and were just looking for an excuse to let it out? They're not going to be sad. They're going to be angry. And if the people responsible aren't stopped, and especially if more innocent Supernals turn up dead the next, and the night after that? They're going to do something about that anger."

"And guess what? Hatred looks pretty much the same whether you're mortal or Supernal. They'll respond the exact same way, taking out their anger on defenseless innocents. And they won't need to leave as big and glaring a clue as missing specialized weapons caches. Can you even comprehend what it looks like when dangerous, predatory Supernals go on the hunt for mortals?"

"Maybe that's what they wanted. An escalating conflict. A wholesale war. If it is, they're idiots for believing that's how it would go. The papers the next day won't read 'mortals slaughtered in Supernal revenge killings'. There won't be any headlines. There will just be a barely-noticeable uptick in missing persons and obituaries buried a dozen pages in. The concealed their existence, the very fact of their being, from us for millennia, despite the fact that to some of them - and most of the ones who would react like this - we are their favorite prey. They are predators, and they are extremely good at it."

"And they should hope that I'm right about that. Because if I'm not, they haven't just killed hundreds of innocent people in their blind hatred. They've possibly killed us all. Because here's the scary part. If it came down to it, all out war between mortals and Supernals? There is no guarantee whatsoever that we would win."

"And by the way? That's just the dumb ones."

"It took us less than an hour to connect you and McWilliam to this. Now, we're good at our jobs and had help from the CID. So it might take them a bit longer. But the smart ones? They're going to find out who was responsible. That's just a fact. You didn't cover your tracks nearly as well as you hoped. There are Supernals out there who can smell the faintest trace of your presence days after you've left. There are Supernals who can peer into the past. There are Supernals who can track down souls. This isn't a threat. Honestly, if I had my way? Everyone related to any of you, and everyone who was receiving therapy from McWilliam, would be taken into protective custody. But that's not going to happen, because there's no hard evidence that they're in danger. So congratulations, you killed all of them too. I hope you told your sister and niece you love them recently. Still want to use that phone call to check our identities?"

"But you're just going to keep sitting here acting innocent. Fine. We're going to go try to save all the innocent human beings you've condemned to death. I just hope we can do it without your help. Weis, Perez, let's go," and Miins stood up, and headed for the door. Weis gave Trifonov one last sad/disappointed look, and followed.

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Alright, nuclear option.

First, at its most basic, this is an attempt to Incite Guilt. Technically, that doesn't really matter since conditions don't stack and she's already suppressing, but I don't care. I want her to feel it. (1d20+15)[30].

But if possible (I'm not sure if Fearless wins out here) I'm also spending Elizabeth's bonus point for the Intimidation specialty for this adventure to try to get this information out of her.

I'm hoping this whole spiel ties well enough into her hatred of Supernals, memories of her husband's death, loyalty to the other people in her therapy group, and so on to land.

Elizabeth will also try her Cold Reading, with the initial question being whether or not they were in fact trying to foment a war: (1d20+10)[19].

[Llyarden]

Coemans is quiet for a few moments. "You're lucky," she says after a few moments. "You just have to go out there and solve crimes. Not deal with this political ----."

"We have her for the assault on you two and she is going down for it. That's fine - she's a racist -----, and I am more than happy to let her rot in a jail cell. She is exactly the sort of law enforcement officer we don't need. But we went after her for other crimes. And so far there is no actual, physical evidence of those. Just your statement, and the circumstantial stuff with the PDF and the lie to Perez, and the only things you've confronted her with she's given a pretty damn good explanation for."

"Look, I have a responsibility to the division. There's an expectation - if you get charged with a crime, your agency, and especially your direct superior, is in your corner. I bet the FBI's just the same. And the fact that we have her on entirely separate charges doesn't change the fact that I've arrested one of my own agents because another agency asked me to, and if the Major General phoned me up right now to ask me what progress I can report on the sabotage, theft and treason, the best I can do is wheel out an FBI agent and a CID agent to give statements."

"I didn't make the call to go hard after Trifonov. I got it made, but it wasn't me that made it. And if the people that did don't like our rate of progress, you can bet that you will be right off this case." 'And so will I' goes unsaid but obvious regardless.

Spoiler: OOC

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Your Intimidation spend does indeed override Fearless in this instance.

"Then maybe you should have done your jobs."

Trifonov's voice is cold and venomous. "The FBI, the oh-so-beloved Task Force, all of them. If you had, we wouldn't have to." She scoffs. "You really have no idea what we're doing, do you?"

She sits up a little, in as stiff and 'to attention' a posture as she can manage with her hands all but shackled to the table. "Milena Borisov. Inka Lovell. Detective Maisie McNeil. How many more names do you need before you get it?"

Spoiler: OOC

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You don't need Well-Informed to roll to have heard of McNeil; Law Enforcement or Current Events (or anything similar) can also be used. Well-Informed still works normally of course.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Eric listened to Coeman's concerns patiently, but his eyes were still on the scene in the interrogation room, a subtle smirk gradually growing on his face as Elizabeth cut loose.

"And go for the door..." he murmured under his breath, about a second before Elizabeth stood up to walk out. "Heh. Classic Elizabeth."

Soon as his sister placed her hand on the doorknob, Trifonov snapped.

He cast Coemans a sidelong glance, and asked with a conspiratorial grin and a twinkle in his eye, "That work for you?"

"Sometimes I wish we could upload these interrogation videos to YouTube," Emily said to Aina.

"Then maybe you should have done your jobs."

Trifonov's voice is cold and venomous. "The FBI, the oh-so-beloved Task Force, all of them. If you had, we wouldn't have to." She scoffs.

Into the little pause afford by her scoff, Miins pointed out, "It's not our job to murder people."

She sits up a little, in as stiff and 'to attention' a posture as she can manage with her hands all but shackled to the table. "Milena Borisov. Inka Lovell. Detective Maisie McNeil. How many more names do you need before you get it?"

"Sure, I've heard of them," Miins said. "What do they have to do with anything?" It was the voice that did it. Utter, casual dismissal. It wasn't ignorance. She had heard of them. She just didn't see the relevance. Just didn't care.

Elizabeth, whatever shape she wore, had a presence about her, a commanding charisma. She could use it to terrify. She could use it to inspire. She could use it to reassure. She could use it to seduce.

And she could use it to troll like the most bile-spewing bigots on the depths of their fan site could only dream of.

Spoiler

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If necessary (although again, not that it technically matters) Incite Anger, hoping to provoke an epic rant. Routine for 25.

[Llyarden]

"Not until you can give me something actionable out of it."

Aina...doesn't quite seem to notice Emily talking to her at first. "Huh? Oh, um...yeah, I guess?"

"No," Trifonov agrees. "It's your job to keep the peace. To protect people. And if you were doing it, those three people - and God knows how many more that we just haven't found - wouldn't have been ---ing eaten. That's what they have to do with anything."

She gives up any pretence that she's actually been talking to you for most of this and looks over to the one-way window. "There are threats out there that the Task Force doesn't care about. Why would they? They don't work for us. They work for them."

"So yeah, fine. I'll admit it. If you aren't going to do your jobs, then we'll do it for you. Even if you arrest me, charge me. Even if you find and arrest the others. We all knew that was the eventual outcome going into this. But you can't arrest a thought. And it's out there now. It's out there and there's nothing you can do to stop it. And the Supernals that hurt humans and think they can get away with it because they're hiding behind laws that aren't even close to making sense for them?"

"They'll burn."

Her little speech doesn't quite seem to have the effect she was hoping for. "I feel like we should revisit our psych evals," Coemans mutters.

[Quellian-dyrae]

Eric gave a little "fair enough" nod to Coemans.

Emily gave a little smile to Aina at her distracted reply. "Deep thoughts?" she asked.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, Agent Weis stepped back in.

"How can you sit there and say that?" Weis asked.

"You're CID. And before this you were a good agent. Did your presence, the CID's presence, mean that no service members ever committed crimes or had them committed against them? Can you make the claim that every crime that has ever been committed that falls under CID jurisdiction has been solved?"

"There's near a million law enforcement officers in this country. Has crime gone away?"

"I would love for us to be able to get justice for every supernatural crime. I'd love to take it further. I'd love for supernatural crimes to never happen at all. For no crimes to happen at all. For people to just stop hurting each other. We're not there.
Not yet. We do what we can."

"But that thought of yours? You didn't put it out there. You didn't introduce the world to some big new idea. Hatred?
Calling people monsters because they're different from you and you want to blame them for your troubles? Violence as the sole solution to a perceived problem? These thoughts aren't new. We've had them since we lived in caves."

"You're deluding yourself if you think you're protecting anyone. As my partner said, all you've done is perpetuate the cycle, put more people at risk."

"A lot of people are going to call you crazy after this. Or evil. Or stupid. My partner thinks you're an idiot. But I don't believe that."

"I believe that you're a good agent, and a good person, who has had to endure a terrible pain. I believe that you've fallen into the trap of confusing vengeance for justice, that so many people, mortal and supernal alike, have fallen into since the dawn of time. But I also believe it's not in you to consciously act purely out of hatred and vengeance, that you had to convince yourself that what you were doing would help people. That it was necessary. That it was right."

"It wasn't. The thought's been out there forever. You and your cohorts are just the latest to be infected by it. You'll be stopped, and so will others like you. And maybe some others still never come to our attention, or never be assigned to our team, or will just good too good at covering our tracks for us to bring them down. And we'll never be okay with it, but we'll make our peace with it, because we know we're protecting whoever we can."

"But Leo Gardner and Joann Nicholson weren't threats to anybody. Killing them saved no lives, made nobody any safer."

"If that is truly your goal, if you honestly want to protect people, you can do so now. Tell us who else your team is planning to target. Tell us where we can find them. Help us bring them in safely, before someone else gets hurt or we have to hurt them."

"This may be your last chance to protect anyone for a long, long time. Don't waste it on hate."

Spoiler

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This might be too much for social skills to accomplish. I think I have a decent read on her underlying motivation, so let me know if I can actually potentially sway her with some sort of check here. But she seems pretty locked into her hatred, so I'm expecting this can't actually amount to much more than a pretty speech.

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: OOC

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Yeah she's too set in her ways to be easily redeemed or whatever. You could theoretically do it as a downtime action if you wanted to, but that won't help you figure out their next target.

"We haven't wiped out crime, no," Trifonov admits. "But we try. You don't. You just say 'oh, they're Supernals, the laws don't cover them yet, what a shame' and let them keep doing it."

"Joann Nicholson took control of someone's mind. She could've clicked her fingers and had him shoot himself in the head. And it got called 'reasonable force.' If she'd forced him at gunpoint to obey her every whim, turned him into a slave, would it still have been called that?"

"And Leo Gardner...have you not seen his little 'ooh, I'm a big tough Supernal, look how useless your human weapons are against me' video? If I'd gone around showing off a homemade explosive or something, the police would've come down like a ton of bricks on me. But no, because he's a Supernal, he gets a pass on intimidating everyone who might feel threatened by an invulnerable gargoyle living next door who could smash down the door and rip them to pieces whenever he felt like it."

"Maybe it didn't make anyone safer," she shrugs. "But that wasn't the point. If someone commits a crime, even if you know they aren't gonna do it again, you arrest them, not because it might make anyone safer, but because that's how justice works. And since people like you refuse to understand us, we don't have the luxury of making arrests, so our justice is through the barrel of a gun.

"But that's all we're doing - bringing justice down on creatures that escaped it. The law failed to. You failed to - hell, you're failing to right now. We didn't, and we won't. And if you try to stop us, you're every bit as guilty as them."

"Kind of," Aina admits to Emily, but perhaps due to the proximity of Coemans (who isn't particularly listening to her, but, y'know, Circle paranoia and all) she doesn't seem to feel like elaborating.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Maybe it didn't make anyone safer," she shrugs. "But that wasn't the point"

That. That right there. That was the moment when Erin and Elizabeth became convinced that there was no redeeming quality in Trifonov's actions, no deeply-buried good to coax out.

They could come up with dozens of arguments to answer her claims, but their priorities made an immediate shift. Maybe she could be brought back eventually, maybe not. But for the time being, another attack was happening tonight, and every second they wasted talking to her was a second they weren't doing something that could fix the problem.

"...Goodbye, Miss Trifonov," Weis told her, and the two of them walked out, this time not as a ploy. Maybe she thought she had won that, that she had gotten the upper-hand, had given them an argument they couldn't refute.

Let her. She was no longer a meaningful actor in their reality.

Once they were back in the interrogation room and the door was closed, they resumed their normal forms. Eric gave Elizabeth a high-five. Sure, they would have preferred to get more out of her, but having her confession on video certainly didn't hurt, and now they had a better understanding of the group's mindset and motivations. That wasn't nothing.

"Well I tried to spare her the Wrath of Elizabeth. You all saw me," Erin said with a hint of a smirk.

"Alright, moving on. I'm going to go assist the search of her house. Emily, I want you looking into recent local news, blogs, social media posts, whatever. Compile a list of Supernals who have made some waves for using or showing off their powers. They're our likely targets. Once we know how many we have we can see the best way to protect them. Prioritize those who could be said to have 'escaped justice' with a sufficiently paranoid twisting of the term. Aina, help Emily with that. Eric, Erin, you guys get with a judge. I want warrants for McWilliam's home and office, her and Trifonov's bank accounts, phone and other records, her patient list," that one would be a harder one, but there were some limits even to privilege, and when the therapist was committing crimes and evidence indicated she was drafting her patients into them, it changed the equation. "And I want authorization to use emotion-manipulating magic on her for information-gathering purposes. We'll keep that as a last resort, but if we don't have these guys before the sun starts setting, I want to have the option to learn what she knows whether she wants to tell us or not." She didn't give any orders for the CID; that was Coeman's job.

"Let's move."

Spoiler

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Elizabeth will go search Trifonov's house. Routine Investigation for 25, possibly boosted by a Team Check with the CID investigators? And...yeah, Crime Scene Investigation specifies other searches as well, so supplemented by that.

Emily will look into other possible targets based on what we now know. I'm thinking that would be Expertise (Current Events)? Routine for 25 + any Team Check from Aina, and supplemented by Research.

Erin will use Connected to try to get them a rush hearing with a friendly judge: (1d20+15)[24].

Unless you think talking to the judge should be played out, Eric will present all the evidence and information they've gathered, and try to get all the warrants and authorizations they want, emphasizing the very significant probability that they are planning to make more attacks tonight. Routine Deception with a Team Check from Erin for 30.

[Llyarden]

One thing might have become apparent by this point. Trifonov has made mistakes, sure, but only really when she was panicked or stressed - when she hasn't had time to think things through, in short. Outside of that, though, she's been very careful to cover her tracks. It is, therefore, perhaps unsurprising that there isn't really anything in her house that might suggest she has a double life as, for example, a Supernal-hating serial killer. There's something slightly unusual - she appears to have been sleeping in the guest room, with her own bedroom (which, presumably, she shared with her husband) left in a state of disarray and gathering dust

Nor is there anything in her car. But her car is a modern one with inbuilt GPS, and it has very helpfully recorded her past destinations. Now Trifonov obviously knew that, because there's a noticeable decrease in the number of journeys she made by car starting a few months ago, but there are a few destinations that seem a little out of place - petrol stations and motels. And, while it's technically possible she was stopping for fuel, they're very out-of-the-way and there are much closer stations if she just wanted fuel - and as best as you can tell, her next journey was back home, so she just went out there and then came home again. So unless these are, like, the cheapest petrol stations ever, something suspicious happened there.

***

Emily and Aina, meanwhile, get to work on figuring out where the Hunters might next target. This is...not exactly an easy task - you have only two points of data to try to guess at an area they're operating in, so you end up with a pretty big area, and the Hunters don't exactly seem very discriminating, so you end up with about two dozen potential targets. Trying to use the community centre or McWilliam's office to narrow the search definitely works, but on the other hand considering just how careful these people have been, basing themselves in such a public place doesn't quite seem to fit the pattern.

It's actually when Emily is catching Aina up as to what Trifonov was talking about as far as Detective McNeil is concerned that you notice something - the Veiled Platter itself is in your potential area.

And...there's a reason people prepare speeches, especially if they're trying to lie. If you're trying to pick an example out of thin air, your brain tends to gravitate towards things you're already thinking about. And whether or not Simeonov is actually guilty of the murders (or even a wendigo at all) he would definitely fit the Hunters' target criteria.

***

On Eric and Erin's end, it doesn't take you to get a meeting with a judge and get the various warrants authorised. (A high probability of attempted murders that evening make the wheels of bureaucracy spin into high gear, as you might expect.) You pretty much get back to the CID offices at the same time as Elizabeth does.

Spoiler: OOC

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I actually looked up how doctor-patient privilege works back when you visited McWilliam's office the first time. Turns out, Texas doesn't have it for criminal cases. Harbinger chose the wrong state to recruit from!

[Quellian-dyrae]

The siblings regrouped and compared notes. Emily went over the odd locations in the GPS, comparing them with the burner phone's call logs, to see if there was any sort of pattern wither between them, or individually that might indicate the group met on a certain day of the week or at a certain time.

Simeonov seemed like a solid lead for a new target. They referred the list of possibles to Cerny; putting all of them under protection might have been too resource-intensive, but if they could at least get some local uniforms keeping an eye on them that would be good. It was a safety net; if they went after one of those people and the cops spotted them, they could be called in and arrive in seconds. Hopefully fast enough to save the target, or if not, at least to engage and arrest the culprits, and for Erin to have a shot at bringing the victim back.

However, they requested a detail not be put on Simeonov. As the most probable target, if they couldn't catch these guys first, they'd handle his protection personally. (If they could get some evidence confirming or refuting him as a suspect in the murders while they were at it, hey bonus.)

That, of course, would require coordination with the local police, who up to this point had not only refrained from calling them in, but outright refused to allow them on the case. So that would probably take some persuading. Erin headed down there to talk with their Captain, get them up to speed on their investigation, lay out why they considered Simeonov a likely target, and hopefully get their cooperation on the matter. She was forthcoming about what they knew and polite about making the request - no sense playing the Federal trump card unless she had to.

Meanwhile, her siblings executed some warrants. Elizabeth led the searches of McWilliam's home and office, although before she left, there was one other thing that was bothering her that she checked with Coemans on. These guys had moved fast, and probably through the air. Now, that wasn't the only explanation. Maybe they had multiple teams. But Elizabeth asked Coemans if there were any like...fast, airborne, stealthy vehicles on the base. And if they were all present and accounted for. (And, if not, if they could be tracked.)

Emily handled the computer side of the searches, going through whatever electronic devices they got access to.

Eric went through their documents, records, accounts, and so on, looking for any anomalous payments or the like. Somewhat less likely in a case like this, but following the money was never a bad idea.

Spoiler

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Elizabeth will search McWilliam's home and office at (1d20+15)[24], supplemented by Crime Scene Investigation, because I realized I probably can roll more than Routine for stuff I have the specialty in since it gives me a chance for the high rolls and the specialty guarantees I won't miss the critical stuff if I roll low. Once they get her patient list, she'll also Well Informed them as a group at (1d20+15)[33].

Erin will head to the local police to try to get their okay to interact with Simeonov. This might be something to play out, but if not, Routine Persuasion for 25, 30 if Attractive applies.

Eric will go through the documents. Expertise (Law Enforcement) supplemented by Forensic Accounting at (1d20+15)[30].

Emily will go through the computers. Technology supplemented by Hacking and Data Retrieval at (1d20+15)[18].

Aina can choose who she wants to go with/help, although whoever it is will take the opportunity to ask her what she was thinking about earlier (also something that might be worth playing out).

Also, what time of day is it at this point?

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: OOC

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I'm figuring it's like...noon-ish? Maybe closer to 1pm once you've finished this latest batch of warrants.

Coemans informs you that the army does not, in fact, have any stealthy air vehicles (though she wouldn't put it past Reese Winters to invent one at some point.)

As you start working your way through McWilliam's home and files, you get the distinct impression that maybe, somewhat in line with what Trifonov had said about 'we knew it would come to this,' she was entirely prepared to be investigated. Because there is almost nothing of use at her home or office - her mobile phone is neatly filed away in a drawer in her office, but at this point you already know she has a burner so it's not exactly surprising that it doesn't have any useful information on it. In fact, it's more the absence of evidence that provides clues than any actual evidence - a few missed calls on her personal mobile, long periods of time on her home computer where she deliberately disabled its sleep mode and left it on a long YouTube video or something, as if perhaps to try to mislead people into believing she was still at it. Interestingly, a number of these periods of time correspond to the same times at which Trifonov was making her mysterious petrol station visits. (McWilliam's car, unfortunately, does not have GPS.)

A second visit to her office, this time armed with a warrant, brings a very-eager-to-please manager back from his lunch break, clearly hoping to get in your good graces so as to avoid as much negative publicity with his company as possible. McWilliam, he tells you, booked this 'holiday' she's supposedly on slightly more than three months ago. Unfortunately her files aren't particularly illuminating - she has quite a lot of patients, but as far as anyone knows they actually are all her patients. You do find a file on Phillipa Trifonov, who apparently is making 'great progress!' (and yes, McWilliam actually wrote the exclamation mark) but if you didn't already know that she was one of McWilliam's Hunters, you wouldn't have been able to pick her out as suspicious from the rest of the list. Clearly McWilliam was careful to keep any sensitive information about her patients out of her files.

You do notice something of a pattern with her patients as a whole, though. There are one or two exceptions, but almost all of them have in one way or another been hurt by Supernals and the Unmasking. And almost all of them have minor criminal records; mostly for the same sort of thing as Trifonov - venting their anger mostly. Notably, there aren't any recorded crimes from any of them after they started seeing McWilliam. You would guess she picked her patients carefully, probably selecting them from the free counselling service she ran, and used the private therapy sessions as a way to get a read on them and decide whether or not they could be turned to her cause. And for all the ones she didn't want, she just went back to being a therapist and furthered her cover.

At least, you hope that that's the case and that she didn't recruit literally all of her patients. It seems very unlikely - but if she did, then you'd be dealing with almost two dozen hunters.

Aside from Trifonov, there's one name in McWilliam's files that you recognise - Abene Appelo, who was on your list of 'trusted' military folks recruited to do the inventory...and was also the person who Elizabeth spoke to in the armoury.

Following the money allows you to learn something else. As of about three months ago - in fact, the same date to the day that she put in her request to book leave from her employer - she started taking a little more money out of her bank account. It was subtle, subtle enough to avoid any suspicion. But it adds up pretty quickly.

And then about a week ago, she came into the bank and warned them that she would be making a large transaction in the coming days. And, I mean, that raised eyebrows, sure, but she clearly wasn't being coerced into it, and the bank's checks on her didn't throw up any red flags, so they let it go through.

All in all, as best as you can tell, Harbinger is (or was) walking about with almost a hundred thousand dollars.

***

Aina opts to travel to Houston with Erin rather than stay doing the investigation-y part of the investigation - as she demonstrated back at Leo's flat, she's much better with people than she is inanimate objects.

A quick call to Agent Cerny tells you (and Aina) the name of the lead agent from the Task Force on the McNeil case: Thomas Pape. You know him, of course; he was recruited on SAC Blair's recommendation, but he's proved himself competent enough and quickly became the informal leader of most of the investigative teams he was put onto.

He's currently in the police department's headquarters, and when you tell him over the phone that your investigation seems poised to get tangled up in his, he suggests that you meet - somewhere that isn't the police department. Unless you have a suggestion of your own, he picks a small, cheap-and-cheerful cafe - chosen, you suspect, because it's busy enough that there's something of a babble of conversation to hide anything sensitive you might say but not so busy that you can't find a secluded table - and arrives there about twenty minutes later (he doesn't have the luxury of flying/teleporting). On the plus side, the delay gives you a chance to talk to Aina.

When Pape gets there, and you reveal that you suspect Simeonov might be targeted by the hunters, he frowns slightly. "That'll complicate things," he remarks, rather unecessarily. "Detective McNeil's partner, Detective Dalca...she's not the greatest fan of yours. Thinks you're just 'clowns in onesies', to use her phrasing. And since it's her partner who died, HPD are giving her more leeway than they might otherwise. To make matters worse, we know Simeonov is guilty - McNeil broke into his home the day after the murder and found Inka Lovell's driving license in his living room, still stained with her blood. She didn't have a warrant, though, and before she could convince a friendly judge to sign off on a warrant to 'find' it legally, it turned up over at the university. No prints or blood."

"If your Hunters are after Simeonov..." He pauses for a moment or two. "I don't wish to speak ill of our fellow law enforcement officers, but I wouldn't be certain they wouldn't just let him die even before you take into account that...well, it's you that's bringing this to their attention."

Spoiler: OOC

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I figure we can basically do Erin and Aina's chat and the talk with Pape (and eventually HPD) simultaneously, even if they technically happened one after the other.

[Quellian-dyrae]

When Eric found Appelo's name on the list, he gave a little sigh and sent to his sisters, ~What we've learned today is that Agent Perez is aces when he knows who the suspect is, but trusts rather too easily in the general sense.~

~To be fair, I noticed she seemed uncomfortable doing the inventory, even talked to her a bit, but she didn't raise any red flags. Although she was a victim of the vampire clan we brought down, so I suppose I should have realized she fit the profile.
It's just...I mean...~

~The vampires actually were monsters, and hating them would be entirely rational and expected?~

~Pretty much. Oh well. Let's see if she's still on the base.~

They'd go to inform Perez and Coemans. Elizabeth stated it plainly, "Abene Appelo is on McWinter's patient list.
She was acting a little uncomfortable during the inventory, and she fits the profile. We're going to talk to her to see if we can pin down whether or not she's involved. You know where she's supposed to be at at the moment?" She didn't try to emphasize that they didn't know for sure - honestly, they probably had more pointing at her than they did at Trifonov at first, although the evidence they had towards Trifonov had given them a lot more leeway, since it had been a provable lie to a military superior - or otherwise offer Perez some sort of support. Not out of blame, but because it was what it was and she wasn't going to condescend to him like that. (Emily was looking at him a bit sympathetically though.)

--

While they were waiting for Pape, Erin ordered something to eat (pretty much the most sugary thing she could find on the breakfast menu, and a large strawberry milkshake, because she could that was why!) and told Aina to get whatever she wanted. It was pretty much lunch time and on a case like this you grab a bite where you can get it. She also ordered a dozen of whatever-pastries-looked-good to bring back to her siblings, Perez, and Coemans. On serious and time-sensitive cases like this, Elizabeth wouldn't even think about eating unless you (sometimes literally) shoved a piece of food into her mouth, and she would not hesitate to keep the rest of them working just as unceasingly if they were within her area of influence. Erin suspected that Perez and Coemans would probably be suffering from a similar disregard for personal nutrition.

"So hey, Emily said you had some thoughts while we were doing the interrogation? What's been going on in that head of yours? Something about the case?"

--

"Heya Pape!" Erin greeted as he arrived. "Have you eaten?" She'd wait for him to get situated and place an order if he was going to (although, since cops were cops, she had made it a point to make sure a cup of coffee in whatever his usual style was was waiting for him when he got there) before diving into things.

"Well that's not very fair of her! Elizabeth vetoed the rubber noses hard!" Erin joked in response to Pape's description of Dalca's view of them. "Well, I guess that leaves me with only one option then..." she said a bit grimly, with a dramatic sigh.

But she perked back up immediately. "So, think you can get me a meeting with her?" she asked cheerily. Erin kinda had a default assumption about the world that, no matter what their initial impressions may be, the vast majority of people living it couldn't possibly sit down and talk with her for any reasonable period of time and not like her when they left. To be fair, the evidence was kinda on her side, from a historical and statistical standpoint.

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I...do I really...yeah, I think I actually don't have anything to roll here. I feel like I'm not doing my job correctly. Clearly I'm about to miss some critical clue that would otherwise solve the entire case!

[Llyarden]

Spoiler: OOC

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Just as a small note, Perez didn't populate the list of trusted agents himself. He probably recommended one or two people, but actually appointing people for something this important is way above his pay grade.

Also, totally forgot to mention - Appelo would've also been in your list of people who've accessed the armoury. She's a quartermaster, so, y'know, kinda to be expected, but still worth mentioning.

"She should be..." Perez pauses, frowning slightly as he looks around the rather busy area. "Around here somewhere."

He slips away to speak to another CID agent, who goes to speak to another CID agent, and so on. When he eventually comes back, he looks...actually more concerned than angry, this time. "No-one's seen her since we finished the inventory. She must've slipped out in all...this." He gestures to the general area.

***

"Yeah," Aina nods (she orders a small slice of cake and a glass of cola). "I just...don't get it. How they can be so stupid. I mean...there are real monsters out there. And if those Hunters ran into them, they'd get ripped to pieces whether or not they have their fancy guns. And they're...you know, they're smart. Qualified psychiatrists, CID agents, whoever else. They must know that."

***

Aina giggles at the joke, though Pape doesn't so much as crack a smile. (To be fair, he doesn't really seem to smile at much at all.) "I can get you a meeting, certainly," he nods. "But it will be up to you to convince her. I cannot risk jeopardising our already-tenuous relationship with the HPD by supporting you. Also," he adds, after a moment's consideration, "I would prefer that you didn't reveal what I told you about McNeil unless it is necessary."

And unless you had anything else to ask him, he proceeds to do just that. Detective Dalca turns out to be a tall, thin woman with what seems to be a perpetual frown on her face, who looks as though she hasn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. "Detective Dalca, this is Erin Equinox, who I assume you've heard of, and Aina Stendahl, a criminology student attached to the Task Force," Pape introduces you. Dalca doesn't offer to shake hands (Aina does, but puts her hand down again when it becomes obvious that Dalca's ignoring her). "Apparently, their case seems poised to intersect with ours."

"Yeah?" Dalca doesn't sound impressed. "Well, good for you. You can tell Agent Pape all about it, and then you can ---- off."

So, y'know, that wasn't a great start.

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Naturally. Okay, it's something of a long shot but what's her number?" Sometimes you went with low-probability solutions to problems because they were quick and easy enough that it didn't cost much in the way of resources, and every so often you get lucky.

Assuming they gave her the number, Elizabeth would try giving her a call.

--

"Yeah. I wish I could give you an explanation that makes it make sense, but there isn't one. Hatred can make anyone stupid, even if they would normally be smart. And that's what makes it so frustrating to fight. You can't out-logic hatred. You can't prove it wrong. It's not rational. You have to just...give them a chance to grow out of it. And protect people from them until they do."

--

"Got it," Erin said.

When they went to meet with Dalca, Erin wasn't in her costume. Hey, Pape had said the costumes were part of why she didn't like them, no sense rubbing it in her face. She wore the sort of professional jacket-blouse-blazers combo you might expect from an FBI agent, albeit probably more stylish than the norm would be (she was still Erin after all!) and with her badge still proudly displayed over her heart.

"Hey I can totally do that," Erin said, her hands spread out before her non-confrontationally. "Look, we're not trying to muscle in on your territory here. I'm sure you guys have totally got this. But, our case has tied in to Simeonov. We're gonna be making moves that may bring us into contact with him. I would way, way rather we all be on the same page and coordinating so we don't end up stepping on each other's toes, you know? And...I mean honestly, we're not locals. I know we Feds have a tendency to act like we have ultimate jurisdictional authority and all, but the truth is you guys are the ones who know the jurisdiction. We know better than to think we can just barge in here and run our cases without coordinating with Houston's finest and leave anything other than a mess behind. I'm just asking for ten minutes of your time so we can get on the same page, okay?"

Spoiler

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I'm holding off on an outright Persuasion attempt until I get a bit more interaction going, but I'm hoping my Flattery specialty will at least mollify her enough that she's willing to talk.

[Llyarden]

Appelo's phone rings a half-dozen times before going to voicemail. (Unlike McWilliam, her voicemail is unchanged from the default.)

***

"Do you really think she will?" Aina asks quietly. "Agent - um, I mean Mrs - Trifonov? She seemed pretty sure about her whole...thing. Do people like that really grow out of it?"

"And...Dr McWilliam. Harbinger. Whichever. Other than...locking her up and making sure no-one ever talks to her, how can we stop her from just recruiting more people? I mean, the Circle would do that -" between the relatively isolated table and the cloaking power of her ring, she apparently feels safe to mention them aloud (in contrast to some Supernals you've met since the Unmasking) "- but I don't think that's actually...legal."

***

When you mention Simeonov, Dalca's eyes narrow, and there are a long few moments after you've finished speaking before she speaks again. "Fine. What have you got?"

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Okay then," Elizabeth said as she hung up. There was a hint of disappointment in her voice, but only just. No failures would discourage her. She'd just keep advancing to the next move. In all probability, this was going to come down to a confrontation at Simeonov's restaurant. That was an acceptable endgame, but that didn't mean they just run out the clock. Use the time in between to try to for a superior resolution.

McWilliam had a hundred thousand dollars on hand. Two obvious options for it. One, a down payment on some sort of fast flying Winters Industries vehicle. Two, seed money to start a new life in another country. "Em, can you think of any fast, stealthy, and flying vehicles that someone might be able to get access to for a hundred k?" she asked, even as she dialed the number to one of her contacts in the TSA.

Eric, meanwhile, asked Coemans, "The manifest for the weapons that were stolen indicated one of them had a "smart gun uplink". How does that work exactly? That's like some sort of satellite connection right?"

--

"They can, sure. The truth about that kind of hatred is, it's usually built on a foundation of fear. Fear of change. Fear of people who are different than them. Fear of what they don't understand. Fear of being powerless. There's plenty of bigots who, once they get to know a member of the group they hate, will stop hating them. Some are even self-aware enough to realize that the rest of the group doesn't deserve their hatred either. It's not something you can really force...but it can happen."

"And we can limit and monitor her communications once she's in prison. It's not perfect, and yeah, it's possible that she'll still recruit others. Or that she'll recruit from people in the prison and they'll be dangerous when they get out. And that sucks.
But there's also going to be other threats, other hateful people doing the same sort of stuff. When we were doing our initial investigations, Emily turned up plenty of anti-Supernal hate groups in the area, and it turns out none of them are involved.
This time. Maybe next time it will be one of them."

"And hatred leads to more hatred, violence leads to more violence. It's a cycle. It perpetuates. But you can't let it get you down, because the thing is? It gets better. Tolerance, acceptance, mutual respect...these are virtues now. Probably more important virtues for a larger number of people than any time in history. More and more people are working to make the world better than worse. It's slow going, and it might never fully go away. But as long as good people keep working to fix what they can, help who they can, things will get better, slowly but surely. Goodness perpetuates too."

--

"Alright, thank you. And, hey, listen, we can absolutely be running these things separately, but just so you know? If you are down for a teamup, I'm pretty sure we can catch Simeonov red-handed, probably on video making an attack, without actually risking anyone's life. See, if we have to interact with him...well, let's just say it will probably stress him out. And if he is a serial killer, that stress is likely going to provoke his urge to kill. So of course, the big question is," the next moment, Erin became a dark-haired caucasian woman, with some features vaguely reminiscent of the photos of Simeonov's prior victims. "You think I'm his type?" she asked with a grin.

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Persuasion to try to improve her reaction towards them. Routine for 25. 'Course that probably won't help much if she's, say, immune to interaction skills from known Supernals.

Deception with Bluff Caller to oppose any bluffs she might make in response, such as faking more enthusiasm than she actually feels, or concealing a visceral reaction to the shapeshifting: (1d20+10)[25].

[Llyarden]

Emily doesn't need to do much more than a cursory internet search to learn the answer to Elizabeth's question - getting an ordinary plane for $100k would be pushing it, to say nothing of one that could take off from urban centres without being noticed.

Meanwhile, Elizabeth learns that McWilliam hasn't purchased any travel tickets recently (well, okay, she did book a plane flight out of Houston to Hawaii for her 'holiday,' but she never showed up for the flight). You do have an image of her - she's a reasonably pretty woman in her late thirties / early fourties (to be exact you know her to be 42) with long red hair - and with all the evidence and warrants you have it isn't hard to get the process underway to start getting her image put into the system.

Coemans offers something of a shrug. "The technical details aren't really my forte, but I don't think so. I can get someone from W.E. on the phone and ask, but it'll take a while. Winters insisted on there being checks and procedures for anyone hoping to learn the technical details." She scoffs slightly. "And here we all thought he was being paranoid."

***

"I hope you're right," Aina says quietly. And there's...kind of an edge to her tone. Like somehow you aren't talking just about the Hunters any more.

***

Dalca does jump a little when you suddenly transform, but at first she doesn't seem particularly bothered by it...at least until she listens to what you're saying, and then her already-narrowed eyes narrow further. The phrase 'if looks could kill' comes to mind.

"Nice idea," she hisses. "You know who else thought of putting herself forward as bait? My ----ing partner. And if you dare tell me that you'll be fine because you're better than her, then I don't give a ---- what information you have, or whether you have ----ing jurisdiction here - I will break your ----ing nose." She actually has balled one hand into a fist, as if she'd almost considered just outright punching you there and then.

She takes a deep breath, though she doesn't unclench her fists. "If you have any information that will help my case, then tell me. I'm not gonna get in the way of your case, but if you just want to muscle in and get all the glory for yourselves for bringing down a cop killer then I'll tell you again - ---- off."

Spoiler: OOC

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Dalca is not immune to your interaction skills - at least not mechanically speaking. However, she clearly had little to no respect for you or desire to work with you at the best of times, and your unintentional misstep certainly didn't help.

Take a hero point for your What Kind Of FBI Agents Are You Complication.

(On the plus side, she doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by the shapeshifting itself, just how you planned to use it. So, y'know, every cloud and all that.)

[Quellian-dyrae]

"Ha ha...not so much," Emily answered, bemused.

"Um...yeah, go ahead and do that, I guess. Really, what we need to know is if it has any sort of GPS data and wireless connectivity. Basically, if it can be hacked and tracked."

"Alright, the TSA will be keeping an eye out for McWilliam. I'll get a BOLO out for her and Appelo as well. I'm going to run down those places in Trifonov's GPS, see if anyone there remembers seeing her and recognize McWilliam or any of her other patients. That might narrow down who's working for them at least. Eric, go ahead and call the numbers on the burner. In all probability they already know Trifonov was taken in and won't answer, but maybe we'll get lucky. Em, set a trace up in case we do."

Elizabeth headed off to conduct her investigation, while Eric and Emily went to get the burner and set up for running traces. Eric went through to get all the numbers, and then began calling them, starting with McWilliam's (which he knew since it was the most recent incoming call). Unless people picked up immediately, he'd call each number twice before moving to the next on the list. Then he'd send them all a text reading "URGENT. CALL ASAP." Then if nobody had called back he'd try each number twice again five minutes later. That procedure would hopefully make it look less like, well, the FBI going through the numbers, and more like Trifonov trying desperately to get in touch with someone.

He had already cast a fey glamour to make his voice sound like Trifonov's, in case anyone did pick up.

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Elizabeth is going to the motels, gas stations, etc, basically checking to see if anyone recognizes Trifonov from the dates and times listed on the GPS, and if they do asking them what they remembered about what she was doing, who she was with, etc. She'll show pictures of McWilliam and her patients and ask if they recognize any of them. If people do recognize her but don't remember much, she'll make a note of them for interviewing again later with Erin. Routine Investigation for 25.

Eric will try and get someone on the burner. He is essentially trying to impersonate Trifonov by using her phone and making calls in a way that it seems like her trying to get in touch. So I believe that should make the following applicable: Routine Deception for 25 with Second Chance to avoid blowing his cover at (1d20+15)[28] supplemented by Impersonation.

Emily will set things up to trace. Routine Technology for 25.

--

Erin tilted her head a little as she caught that tone. "Hey," she said gently, reaching out to lay a hand over Aina's. "What's up?"

--

Ah. Yeah Erin hadn't known that particular tidbit.

She resumed her normal form, an apologetic look on her face. "I'm sorry. I didn't know," she said. Could she have pressed? Absolutely. Thing was, it was still a good plan. Better or worse didn't factor into it. Erin was strictly harder to kill than a mortal police officer would be, and she and her siblings were more equipped to take down a wendigo. Erin didn't care about glory. She cared about keeping people safe. If she were honest, she rather felt Dalca was letting her pride interfere with the case.

All of which she might have to say to her at some point. But not now. Her goal here was to achieve coordination and cooperation with Houston PD. Bringing in Simeonov was a matter for later. And being correct was probably the least important factor in an argument, especially an emotionally-charged one.

She was, fortunately, fairly certain that Dalca wasn't part of the anti-Supernal group. Her antagonism was personal. Erin got back to the primary matter at hand. "We're trying to track down a group of anti-Supernal hunters that have acquired advanced military weaponry. While it's not by any means confirmed, we have reason to believe they are planning to attack Simeonov tonight. When they do, we're going to arrest them." Now, of course, they didn't intend to let them kill Simeonov. He would face justice for what he had done the right way and in due time. But she didn't make any explicit mention of that fact. One could be forgiven for thinking that Simeonov's safety miiiiight not be their highest priority for this operation.

"So really, all we need is for your guys to not be around his restaurant tonight. I don't know if you have people watching it or anything, but I strongly advise you get them out of the area if you do. These guys have high-powered weaponry, and I don't want any of your officers to be at risk." Or to be taking pot-shots at Simeonov in the confusion, although again, she left that unsaid. "Okay?"