13212/Shield Briefing

Shield Briefing
Date of Scene:	06 May 2021
Location:	Ready Room, The Triskelion
Synopsis:	Reynard briefs the Alphas about current the state of matters.
Cast of Characters:	Phobos, Winter Soldier, Black Widow (Romanoff), Quake

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Phobos has posed:
    Once again the ready room is alive with muted activity. Another gathering of Alpha team with their various moving parts that come together to create the whole that is the operational group. This time, however, there are 'official' munchies set out on the front table before the podium, cups of coffee, donuts, bagels, and some veggie dip. Nothing outlandish, and suitable for the near lunch time hour that the meeting occurs.
    Around the room are the tactical teams, a handful of operatives sitting together talking shop while they wait. Some of them have their chairs pulled around into a semi-circle so it makes it easier for them to converse. Across the other side one of the reserach teams is listening to Dr. Sokoy explain his latest oprational theory on AIM and its bubble memory agorithm. Then in the back, where all the cool kids hang, are the higher ranked agents. Some of which are in the Alpha group, some of which are not.
    It's a steady thrum of activity in the room until the display screen on the podium comes on displaying the SHIELD eagle logo. In front of the screen wanders the grizzled Agent Reynard who has made a habit of doing these briefings. Today he's in civilian clothes, blue jeans, a black t-shirt, though a weapon harness hangs over the top of it where his sidearm is tucked under one shoulder. A plain manila folder is carried in one hand and then he sets it down on the podium. He clears his throat.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Bucky's found a wall that needs holding up somewhere between the 'cool kid' zone and the ... nerd section? He's leaning against that poor wall to keep it from falling down, arms crossed, legs crossed at the ankles. He's sporting sunglasses today, yes inside. In fact, one might wonder if he's sleeping on his feet with as still as he's being. Can't see his eyes, so who knows? He's been working on it, he really has, but social butterfly he still is not.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
They don't really think of themselves as the cool kids. They just aren't exactly science and they aren't really operations exactly. Sometimes a little of both? But they are higher ranked members of Alpha team.

Really, they are just 'Other'. They are given more specific assignments. They are also those sometimes sent in solo, leaving the clean-up and evidence gathering after to the rest of the group.

Natasha is sitting there, her plain white coffee cup sitting on the table in front of her. She's next to Skye, which seems to be where they always end up. Of course Skye has her laptop out. Likely to 'take notes' on the briefing. At least officially.

Phobos has posed:
    "Hey," Agent Reynard begins, frowning to himself as he flips open the manila folder. He takes a moment to reach down and then gestures toward one of the Tactical Team members and murmurs, "Hand me one of those coffees?" Which after he is aided he lifts the cup, takes a sip, then sets it down on the podium.
    "First thing's first, congratulations on the recovery of some of our lost birds. Agent Barnes, Agent Romanoff. TRT #1, nice work. Above my paygrade what went down, but results are results." He lightly taps his papers on the podium to get them in line, proceeds to the next. "Also research group with Agent Johnson working the AIM angle on what we recovered from the Euro-raids, we're seeing some good progress. I've been told from the brass that we'd like some actionable objectives presented because of that in the next month. AIM's been quiet, seems to have hunkered down and we're getting no alarms on our intelligence lattice. They haven't even made a try at freeing Taskmaster. Maybe they're hurt, maybe they're just biding their time. We're accepting ideas on this thing people, right now the trail is cold."
    He clears his throat and grimaces, "Alright, what everyone hates. Yearly physicals are up. I'd recommend people get with Agent Liansong or Agent Kell to get them out of the way. You know the drill, just grin and bear it and get it over with." A pause as he looks over the room. "Any questions on any of this so far?"
    A hand goes up and one of the agents from the TRT lifts her voice, "Yeah hey, are they still doing the marksmanship grading?"
    Which has Reynard give a nod, "Yeah, there's scuttlebutt of a decent pool out there on who is going to come in second after Agent Barton, but I wouldn't know anything about that."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Bucky uncrosses his legs and stands up straighter. Not sleeping it seems. He bites back the comment he really wants to make about that whole lost bird thing and 'what went down' being above his paygrade too. Fucking Hermes. He can't say what he's thinking so he just scowls. Of course the scowl isn't so 'scowly' when it's hidden behind sunglasses. He cannot, however, manage to bite back the little grunt of annoyance at the mention of physicals.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
To be honest, Natasha would prefer not to think about what went down with the recovery of the lost Quinjets. She doesn't even really acknowledge that recognition from Reynard.

Mention of AIM has her glancing over at Skye, giving a small smile and nudging the woman. "Get us something to go shoot at," she translates, keeping her voice low.

Then mention of physicals. Her expression mirrors Reynard's as she grimaces. She always was resistant to the physicals. A lot of times she even got a pass from the Director. But this year, he hadn't been so forthcoming and she had been avoiding every attempt to get her in. It was always the same anyway, why bother?

"Decent pool?" Natasha echoes. She glances over toward Bucky and gives him a wink, knowing they are likely part of that pool and sharing the humor of being 'decent'.

Phobos has posed:
    Reynard endures the groans that come along with the announcement of the physicals, it seems nobody likes them really and there's no small number of glares shot toward the research team over it considering they're the big brains that oversee it. Until eventually Reynard raises a hand, "Alright, alright." He flips the page in his folder and then smirks across the distance toward Natasha, "Decent 'sized' pool. Dunno about the moral character of the people participatin'." But his smirk is good-natured as he straightens up.
    "Since we're running with wide open bandwidth, some of the other teams have requested some help from us. Mainly manpower, but also from our operatives as fresh sight of eyes can always help with a problem that defies solving."
    "First up," The display shifts finally to an amalgamation image of several news clippings, crime scene photos, a map of an area in Pennsylvania with several Xs written in places. "The James Kellog murders, some of you may be familiar. Suspected serial killer, responsible for the deaths of three adults in Pennsylvania. Why are we talking about ancient history, Reynard? Well WAND wants our help on this one."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Bucky doesn't lower his sunglasses to wink back, but he does turn his scowl into a grin for just a second or two. Lord but he HATES these meetings. They require him to be in a room with ALL THE PEOPLE... ALL OF THEM. It's almost as bad as going to space in a Viking ship and without the pretty view. He does, finally, lower his sunglasses just a little to look over top of them at the display.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
That isn't one that Natasha remembers personally so she will be leaning over to look at Skye's computer, positive the woman has already pulled up every bit of information that might be in the folder Reynard holds.

That or she's playing Galaga. Just putting that out there.

She eyes the date on the displays, frowning a little. Ancient history indeed. And why was WAND involved in a serial killer case unless there was something weird about it? "What do they think we'll find that they haven't?" she asked curiously.

Quake has posed:
Drats! Found out!

Well, Nat is partially right. It's not Galaga, its Puzzle and Empires (it is easier to flip windows) /and/ a series of windows with everything that Reynard had touched upon, including this WAND thing.

Skye made it bigger so that Nat (and whoever) could see.

Phobos has posed:
    "Well, four weeks ago, in Potter County..." Reynard triggers the display and the image changes to more modern sharper defined photographs of two crime scenes with two more corpses in rather poor shape. They are ragged and torn and clearly have been through a similar amount of mayhem as the earlier photos. "Two more bodies have been found. Initial findings of unique traits lead toward a copy cat killer most likely, shared details that were not common knowledge nor told to the press. So big deal, right? Copy cat. Well there's a reason why WAND contacted us."
    The image changes again and displays a very old looking and somewhat torn scan of what was likely a Kodak instamatic photograph taken many years ago. One corner of the image is damaged and discolored from what looks like a chemical burn. Within the image itself it shows a dark forest canopy as background, the holder of the camera must be looking upwards somewhat and the flash either was muted or didn't fire fully. But in the foreground is a black silhouette of a man in a suit, grey in color. He's reaching toward the camera holder and his hand is larger than most of his body from that perspective. A sliver to the top right side shows his face and it's... hard to see it very clearly. It's a pale face, reddish lips, eyes covered in shadow, but the smile is clear. It's a bright manic happy smile that seems almost festive.
    "This is the only known image of James Kellogg. It's documented well, replicated many times in record, case files, and even in those True Crime novels people like to read. Thing is, in all of the documented articles and filework, every reference to the image of Mr. Kellogg state that in this photo he is frowning. That he looks unhappy, even sad. It was only recently that the photo seems to have changed from frowning to smiling. This was first noticed by an FBI researcher when? Approximately four weeks ago. This change has been made in /all/ recorded images of the photo. Every single file and book and whatever, the image is now smiling."
    Reynard straightens up, "I won't pretend to know what's going on, but the magic hats over in WAND are asking for help. We're taking volunteers on this one. If you have the bandwidth, get with me after."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    He really does have a way with communicating his thoughts well with just... grumbles and grunts. Sometimes it's almost like Bucky was part chimp or something. The little grunt of a sound he makes speaks so many words, all the words such as: Is this for real? What the hell? That's fucked up! No way! (...and the most important) Sick fucker's happy more people are dead). All with a grunt! Really! "I'll volunteer to hunt the sonof--- uh, subject down if he's somehow not actually dead."

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Now that is just plain weird. No wonder WAND was involved. Natasha looked at the image on the display and then to the one on the laptop, as though there would be some difference in them. There isn't. They both show the manic smile. So many questions that come from that as she stares at the face in the damaged photo image.

She glances up as Bucky volunteers. "I'm in. Question. Did the photos change in all the novels too?"

Quake has posed:
Skye frowns, pushes her laptop back to herself. Apparently she's looking for more photos.

Phobos has posed:
    Reynard lifts a hand and acknowledges not only the grunts of James Barnes but the words as well, then the ones offered by Natasha. "I'll send you both the filework," And something on his features seems to show he's glad that two of the more prominent agents are willing to pick it up and run with it.
    Though he does turn to answer Natasha, "Every replication of the image." He pulls the folder up and flips a page that is apparently connected to another by a staple. "Even artistic depictions and interpretations of the image." Which is when he holds up the manila folder to show another scan of another image. Thankfully, whomever is running the projector is on the ball enough to do a quick screen grab of the live feed of the briefing, cuts, pastes, embiggens and plasters the artistic interpretation of Kellogg's last known photo...
    And the leering illustrated figure is somehow more disturbing.
    "Kellogg's dead body was found shortly after his victims were discovered back in 87, fingerprints matched though his face and body were suffering from the same chemical burns. Suicide was the call, he apparently used some combination of naphtha and acetone on his victims."
    Then he sets the folder down, "It's all in the filework."
    "Now after that cheerful bit, next prospect. We have a field office in Hungary that is understaffed, they've been chasing down a human trafficking ring. They're asking for just some boots on the ground if anyone can be spared? Get with your section heads and coordinate. Hungary is beautiful this time of year."

Winter Soldier has posed:
    Bucky's next 'grunt' is a 'hell to the no' on Hungary. He does actually push away from the wall to wander closer to Sky's laptop for easier viewing. Look, the wall actually stays standing. "What kinda creep smiles from beyond the grave over someone copying their work..." he murmurs, more to himself than to anyone in the room. Although those close enough to overhear may just be amazed that the man spoke more than five words at one time in one of these meetings. Hell, he's done it twice tonight. "This is the ONLY known photo? No childhood photos, nothing?" He's more asking Sky than Reynard, figures she can find the answer quicker.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
Potentially thousands of books in existence. With that image. No way it could be done by normal means for it to change every picture everywhere. Natash frowned at the artistic drawing, which was also altered. This was not a normal case. Too much weird. She didn't mind being boots on the ground for WAND though. "Thanks," was all she said to the files they will be provided.

Mention of Hungary and the human trafficking has her attention again. She's just not sure of the timing to be able to do both. She'll have to consult and find out.

Quake has posed:
It takes Skye several minutes, but everything she finds is a dead end. Everything. "Weird. When they interviewed his neighbours all of them were adamant about the fact that other than their aural stories, Kellog might have not existed."

Skye had very few pictures of her life. Compared to him? She was a movie star living off of photographs in the tabloids.

Creepy.

As for Hungary, she nodded.

Phobos has posed:
    "Finally, we're going to need a security element for a VIP visit coming up next month." Reynard closes his folder fully, adjusting how some of the papers hang out of it. He frowns and looks up, clearly looking like he could be using a cigarette and is likely counting the minutes til he can get to it.
    "Will count as monitor duty and likely give some flex time if anybody is up for it. We'll need four operatives. Identity of the VIP is not known to me, but supposedly should not be a danger close mission."
    His head lifts as he looks around the room. "Any final questions?" The display behind him flickers off, leaving the man up there alone in front of the podium. And if there aren't any he'll start to make his way towards the door and down the small steps from the podium.

Winter Soldier has posed:
    That should be an easy one, right? Bucky will likely regret it, but he does raise his hand on the security detail. ...and grunts. Yeah, he'll do it. One day he'll learn to never volunteer for the things labeled 'should not be dangerous'. But after God dimensions and flying viking space ships, he's totally ready for a simple securty detail. "That is weird," he comments to Skye.

Black Widow (Romanoff) has posed:
There is no reaction to the security detail offer from Natasha. She'll leave that one to others. She does glance at Bucky in surprise when he opts for it.

Then back to Reynard as he finishes, giving a negative shake of her head about any questions. Before her eyes wander back to what Skye is digging up. Or not finding to be more precise.

Quake has posed:
Skye still will have to see if she can find.. something.. anything.. if she were to go deeper. Already she had forgotten the meeting, and was working.