The Foundation (IC)

[KabeRinnaul]

Jay 2K
"The organization I work for tends to have certain privileges when it comes to access and clearance." She pulls a manila envelope out and hands it to him. Inside are a set of crime scene reports from a number of different cities, all with the same MO: knife attack against someone alone in a home after dark, and evidence of either cannibalism or the victim being fed to an animal. While the attacks and subsequent dismemberment indicate human intellect, the bite marks on the victims and their remains are distinctly non-human. Fortunately for him, what few photos there are focus on the bite and knife wounds, which the blood mainly cleaned away.

Dragon Wings
She shakes her head. "No, we're asking you to join us in being the protectors."

[dragon_wings]

'You're asking me for help?' asks Siobhan slightly startled. Her opinion of the two is raised slightly. She's still weary of them but now is more willing to listen.
'I'd like to hear more, if possible, before making a decision.' she states.

[Jay 2K Winger]

Arlington, VA

Joey regards the woman again as she states the nature of her organization's clearance and access, and decides not to ask further. He can always find out more later. He takes the folder from her, leaving his gun in his lap where it couldn't be seen, and opens the file, reading over the information within. His eyes track over the information and photos-- noting with relief the lack of blood-- and frowns.

"Interesting." He leans his head to one side. "The victims are all stabbed," he consults the file, "and then savaged by some kind of animal? It's no surprise this hasn't tripped our attention prior to now, given how spread out the attacks are, in all these different cities." Joey frowns. "The unsub in this case would have some kind of trained attack animal-- dog or something canine," he looks at the bite marks. "I think," he amends.

"But it's strange. Something about this case..." Joey's brow furrows as he looks at the pictures and information. "...it just seems wrong." He reaches out with a hand and presses his fingers to the picture, hoping that one of his "flashes" would give him some help.

[KabeRinnaul]

Dragon Wings
The woman nods. "Have you ever seen flashes of people on the street... changing? Taking on an appearance that isn't entirely human? That's because they aren't, and certain people, maybe one in a million, have the ability to see through the illusion to what they really are. Some can do ever more than than." She gestures to her partner. "Agent Savant here has the innate ability to understand any spoken language."

"It proved useful when I was in Iraq. We were always short on translators. The Foundation picked me up after the end of my second tour."

The woman takes over again. "While a great deal of our work is in the field and can get a bit, well, down and dirty, there is also a research division that aims to better understand these beings and how to defend against them."

Jay 2K
He gets a brief flash of the crime scene, as if he were standing in the photographer's place. This unfortunately means he gets to see rather a lot of blood, but he also gets a good look around, considering how brief the flash was. There are no indications of an animal being present - no fur, no paw prints, no claw marks - aside from the bites. Furthermore, everything seems very... methodical.

When he comes back, it seems he missed something the woman was saying. "Are you alright, Mister Monfries?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

Arlington, VA

The flash that Joey got was a lot stronger than he expected. He blinks several times, and he is a bit pale when the 'flash' subsided. He takes a deep breath and looks at the pictures again.

"Methodical," he murmurs to himself. Then he's aware that his guest had said something. He looks up. "Sorry, what? I was just... this seems very methodical, even with the animal bites." A glance at the pictures. "I can't imagine a trained animal would be this... organized in its attacks." A frown. "...very unusual."

[dragon_wings]

'I get more flashes of emotion and insight into what a person's thinking or feeling. Never concrete, more generalized. But I believe it when you say there are those that aren't who or what they appear to be.' replies Siobhan.
'As to languages, I'm just good with them and love learning new ones.'

[KabeRinnaul]

Jay 2K
"I could take you to the scene. One of the most recent attacks happened just an hour from here." She's watching him carefully.

Dragon Wings
Savant shrugs. "It was never a real interest for me. I just one day on patrol I noticed I could make out what a couple Iraqis were saying. A call went out for more translators, and I joined up saying I'd been learning."

Back to the woman. "And then we heard about him from a contact in the army when he came home, and were waiting to speak with him the trip back after that. But what kind of contact have you have with the ENs... excuse me, non-humans, around here?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

Arlington, VA

Joey hesitates when the woman says that. He has a bad feeling about this case, but he's too intrigued now to back out. He needs to know the resolution of all this. He considers for several moments. "That might be best," he says after a while. "I tend to 'read' scenes better when I'm there. I get more insight on the scene than I do from," he gestures at the file, "words and pictures."

He stands, strapping on his gun and picking up his jacket. "So. Lead on, Miss...?" he leaves the question dangling. He already had picked up something from the file when he touched it, but he didn't want to tip his hand to that yet.

[dragon_wings]

'Not much. I'm just aware that they exist.' say Siobhan.

[KabeRinnaul]

Jay 2K
"Agent Romanza. My car is just out front." They head downstairs and out to her car.

She lets him spend the drive reviewing the files, going from the highway, to a state route, to a county road, until finally reaching a roped-off house in a town called Calverton, according to the signs.

(if he'd have any questions on the drive just go ahead and ask them and we can have a couple posts en-route)

"This latest one is from just two days ago. It's not in that file yet. Everything's still being processed."

Dragon Wings
"Some just go about their business without troubling anyone. Others can be more predatory. But what do you think so far, given what we've told you?"

[dragon_wings]

'It sounds like it'd be interesting. More interesting then this,' she says holding up the assignment she had been working on.
'As long as I stay interested I'm in.'

[Jay 2K Winger]

Arlington to Calverton

"Well, you already know my name, Agent Romanza," Joey said as he tucked everything back into the file, reflecting as he did that she was lying about her name, but then, he understood about pseudo vs true-name. "Lead on."

During the drive, Joey studied the file again. In his mind's eye, he was plotting out the attacks on a mental map. But he couldn't see a pattern there, yet. Maybe it had something to do with the order of the attacks. The dates and victim identities in the file had been redacted, even if the locations weren't. Whoever Romanza and her organization were, they wanted him to know where these were happening, but not when. He knew the order of the attacks, but not dates. No pattern there, either. Maybe the unsub attacked on a particular schedule, allowing for travel time from location to location. But there were too many unknowns.

He was silent for most of it, turning his profiler's mind to the task. "Did the victims have anything in common? I'm assuming they're not otherwise connected to one another, like relatives or acquaintances or similar. If they had been, you would have said so, and this wouldn't be something you'd approach us for."

He needed to find the connection. If it were just wild animals attacking, it would be one thing. Strange, certainly, but nothing that would be poking at his brain with this inherent Wrongness like this. But the stabbing, and the methodical nature of the attacks? No, there was something to this, and he needed to find out what it was.

[KabeRinnaul]

Jay 2K
"Nothing aside from age range, and even that's shaky. Out of the nine so far, six have been in the 18-24 range, one in her 30s, and two in high school. The teens were the most badly torn apart. And there's a preference towards women - six versus three men. But in their lives and work? No. Some travel, some never left their home towns, one worked for the government, two for major corporations, four in retail and fast food, and two unemployed - one of the 20-somethings had been laid off, and one of the teens had never held a job."

Dragon Wings (sorry, overlooked yours)
"I'm certain it will be. We just need to take you to the regional office to get you acquainted with things. Could you leave tonight or do you need a few days?"

[Jay 2K Winger]

En route to Calverton

Joey grimaced as Romanza detailed more information about the victims. "So, your basic random assortment of victims." He sighed. "There's not much else I can glean from these reports." And that much was true. While he had some glimmers of his "insight," there was nothing he could spin into explaining it. Something about Romanza made him uneasy, and it wasn't just her nebulous "organization." He didn't want to tip his hand about his "gift."

He closed the file and leaned his head back. "Let's hope I can figure out more when we get to the scene." He looked up as they approached the roped-off house, and took a few deep breaths to try to center himself. This was going to be messy, and it wouldn't do to vomit all over the crime scene when they walked in.

[dragon_wings]

'Screw this place. I'm ready.' Siobhan says.