WEEK 2

[bathymetric]

So far, good news! You've managed to avoid killing! A week has passed in the facility, but how many more are there to go until one of you tries out Rule Seven? I mean.... we know, but.

No new areas just yet, it remains you guys and yours here for now. Well, and Angel, but again - you don't exactly see her unless you want to. It's more than a little lonely... maybe someone ought to shake things up.



SUNDAY | MONDAY | TUESDAY | WEDNESDAY | THURSDAY

[ ooc: Welcome to Week 2, your first case week! Remember to turn in regains here, your AC for last week here, and if you like, come visit Angel's office hours here!

Comments

fitness room

[snackooed]

[ Oh good, gumdrops, maybe she'll borrow one... ]

Pretty creative use of fabric, there!

[ Despite the somber mood from yesterday, Ema seems like she's in particularly high spirits today. She might just be frustratingly plucky-- ]

Not looking to mess with your rhythm or anything, but when you've got a minute to spare, I wanna show you something cool. Won't take long!

[bolderfell]

[He glances at her, looks down at his rope in progress, and then looks back.]

Is it something you can show me here? Probably have to redo some of this if I tie it off now.

[He's willing to stand here keeping the cord taut if she is.]

[snackooed]

Sure is. You touched this machine, right? At some point, before you went to town with that rope?

[ Picking up what she's putting down? ]

[bolderfell]

[Oho. Yes, he does.]

Hmm. Why don't you tell me?

[snackooed]

I think I can do that.

[ It's a mere second before her prized possession is out and about; a sizable brown jar of powder, accompanied by a little white brush. The grin on her face is ear-to-ear. ]

This is a dark surface, so a white powder like this should work perfectly. The trick is that you want contrasting colors, so we can make the print nice and clear. Don't need too much, just enough to make sure it sticks...

[ With the brush, she tries to get a relatively even coat of dust onto the handles of the exercise machine bar, just below and above where he's started his cord. ]

Do you wanna do the honors and blow it away?

[bolderfell]

Heh. All right.

[Therion leans over to carefully blow off the excess powder, watching with interest as, indeed, fresh prints show up. Of course they do. He'd had to tug on the machine before he started his arts and crafts, to make sure it wouldn't move and make life difficult. He straightens again, intrigued.]

Now what?

[snackooed]

So we know that someone touched these, of course, but I can't say with any certainty whose they are...just yet, anyway.

[ She takes out the scotch tape she received from the supply drop this morning and carefully lays it over the clearest print of the bunch. After letting it rest, just as carefully, she lifts the print, and voila! Portability! ]

Now normally, we would run this print through a database using a machine of our own. That machine would basically have access to the fingerprints of over...mm, let's call it 100 million people? Anyone who gets caught by police or has a background check run on them at any point has their fingerprint taken, and the machine has access to a copy of that fingerprint. You give the machine this fresh print, and it compares the print to those 100 million in about thirty minutes. If it tells me there's a match, I have my suspect.

Here, obviously, I don't have a machine to do it for me, but if I know what your fingerprint looks like, I can make a comparison the old-fashioned way.

[bolderfell]

[Hang on, he's trying to process. A hundred million people...]

How does anyone get away with anything in your world?

[a hUNDreD MilLioN pEOPlE??!]

[snackooed]

If you're a repeat offender, we do our best to make it very difficult. And even if you're not, about 30 million or so of those fingerprints are just ordinary civilians who happen to have applied for a job that required us to run a check, or purchased a weapon.

So if you ever leave any prints anywhere, you better make sure we haven't already caught you once! We'll know it was you in half an hour or less!

[bolderfell]

Hah. Well, even without your machine, looks like you've already got mine...

[Not that she can be sure. He looks down at his hands again, all full of cord, and shakes his head.]

Though you'll understand if I don't let you check your work. Not right now, anyway.

[snackooed]

Well, it'd be easy enough for me to do that, if you'd let me at some point. You know, just to show you how its done. All I'd need is some ink or graphite from a pencil on your fingertip. You'd put it on a piece of paper, and I'd put it side-by-side with the dust I just pulled. And once they're next to each other, if we did it right, they should be two identical prints.

I've done it plenty of times without the machine, just because it can be faster to do it out in the field when I have my hunch. But when I do it on my own, it's common practice to get a second opinion, just to review findings.

[bolderfell]

...If it comes to it, maybe. Rather not hand a woman of your profession anything you could use against me, given mine.

[Just because he probably couldn't hack it as a thief in 2020 Japanifornia doesn't mean he's going to stop being one.]

But if something does happen, now that the Professor's putting the pressure on... If it'd help you prove I wasn't the culprit, I guess I'd let you. And if it's just about seconding your findings...

[As he muses out what he's going to say, he adds a couple more loops of braid to his rope.]

Well, I've got a pretty good eye for detail. Comes in handy in my line of work, too. So I might be able to help then.

[snackooed]

A second pair of eyes is extremely valuable out in the field. Especially if they're good ones. And while I hope things don't take a sharp turn for the worst, the more allies we have, the better we'll fare. So I'd appreciate that a lot, if it comes down to it.

[ Though she does understand his apprehension. Given his occupation, he has every reason to be wary...as a matter of fact, it's probably not a stretch to say it's likely part of the job. But part of being wary is being observant, and that's likely invaluable. ]

I'd like to keep our professional relationship strong, Therion. If you ever need an investigation partner of your own, I'd be happy to help. Especially now that I have one of the most important tools for the job.

[bolderfell]

[He stops braiding again to just look at her.]

...Are you supposed to have professional relationships with thieves?

[snackooed]

I don't see why not. Especially in these circumstances.

[ She can't help but flash him a smile. ]

Besides, I haven't seen you steal anything just yet. And even if I did, it isn't as though I have jurisdiction down here.

[bolderfell]

Heh. If you see me steal something, I'm doing it wrong.

[He's not wearing his scarf, so he can only turn his face away to hide the small smile she's fished out of him.]

I prefer to work alone, but... I'll think about making exceptions. Especially in these circumstances.

[It's not like he hasn't before. The whole, odd, noisy band of them, traveling Orsterra together for reasons Therion can barely articulate... This is a bit like that, isn't it.]

Who knows. Maybe I'll even teach you a couple tricks of my trade.

[snackooed]

Oh, that's a dangerous proposal. If you taught me how you ran your operations, the crime lab director might wake up one morning to find that I've snuck some pretty expensive tools home with me, just to try them...

[ It sounds like she's only half-joking... ]

Anyway, as long as I have you, can I ask a favor? If you see any more of this powder come out of that coin machine, or if you happen to catch sight of a bottle that sprays out liquid labeled "Luminol" somewhere in your travels? Pass those along to me, if you can. Especially the luminol.

[bolderfell]

Sure. [Well, that was easy.] What's that do?

[snackooed]

It's a chemical solution that I hope I won't have to use, to put it simply. You know how fingerprinting powder lets you see those "latent prints" I mentioned earlier? Prints that you can't see with the naked eye?

[ She definitely seems more serious, here. ]

Luminol is a spray that has a strong reaction when it makes contact with an oxidizing agent, and produces light, thus the name. In other words, to cut to the chase, if the spray makes contact with something like bleach, or trace amounts of blood...well, even if someone tried extremely hard to clean up the mess, to the point where you couldn't see anything normally? The chemical will react in bright blue, which you'd be able to see if you shut off all of the lights, or wore special glasses like mine. It's extremely critical to find any hidden blood trails, or drag marks, or even the way the culprit exited the crime scene, if they got any blood on the bottom of their shoes.

[bolderfell]

[The first part of the explanation definitely flies right over his head, but the more she talks, the more he finds he actually does understand. By the end, Therion's nodding along.]

It's powerful, then. Yeah. I'll keep an eye out for it, and for the powder.

[snackooed]

In an investigation, it's make or break. But especially when you combine it with something like fingerprint powder, what at first seems like a perfect crime can suddenly become a lot clearer. There's a lot that goes on in a crime scene that the naked eye alone won't be able to pick up on. And there's a lot of evidence that a culprit might think they've left no trace of, only to find out down the line that they've given us a core piece of the puzzle without even realizing it.

Of course, it's not a be-all end-all. All the tools let me do is find things I wouldn't normally see. I still have to put it all together with the facts of the case, and run it through with the rest of my team.

[bolderfell]

[Yeah. Therion hangs on each word and takes it to heart, not only because it's interesting, but because he knows firsthand how badly a criminal can misinterpret their situation. It's humbling, a little galling, but also oddly encouraging to hear her perspective. It means he's not the only short-sighted idiot in the world. Or, well, at least in the universe.

The cord keeps his hands busy, but he's barely looking at it, really.]

Your team. They're all... forensic investigators, like you?

[snackooed]

Not all of them. Since I work for the police, not everyone at the scene with me is an investigator. As a matter of fact, before I got this job, I was just a regular detective on the force, which I didn't like at all because I barely got to do any forensics...but, even when I was on that job, I was working closely with the other forensics staff to get to the bottom of whatever cases we were assigned.

[ Which was kind of like pouring salt in a wound... ]

But even within the forensics department, there are experts who specialize in certain areas of analysis. We have a "latent print technician," for example, who tends to be the go-to when it comes to examining latent prints and pulling them from trickier surfaces. We also have a "photo technician," who takes photographs of the crime scene from all angles before we disturb it by investigating.

[ ...Hm, wait. ]

I probably have to explain to you what a "photograph" is, don't I?

[bolderfell]

[Ah! No, he knows that one!]

Shelley has a camera. I get it. That way, you know exactly how everything was when you found it. Or, if you miss something, there's a chance you'll see it later.

[He shakes his head wryly.]

Criminals in your world have it rough.

[snackooed]

We need to make sure that we're extra thorough. A little over a decade ago, they changed the law regarding trials...

[ Hoo boy. ]

When a suspect is detained in connection with a crime, as you may know, there's a trial before a judge who determines whether they're guilty or not guilty. [ Not necessarily "innocent"... ] Under the older system, trials could take months on end...but that system created an enormous amount of cases, with judges having to dedicate a significant amount of time to each. So now we have what's called the "initial trial" system, where all trials have a maximum time limit of three days. It's a lot more work for the attorneys, and the police who provide the evidence, but the government is able to process detainees much more quickly that way.

It just means I can't afford to be sloppy, really.