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Emma Henderson - Pattern Recognition

Anthr4xus

By Anthr4xus
in Tapestry of New York

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Anthr4xus

Anthr4xus

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The most recent posts in the old thread:

 

"No, no," said Douglass, "Glad you are ok, but that is a hell of a coincidence. A van full of native artifacts runs into you while you are investigating a case about them. How weird. Anyway, since you are fine, I'll need a report on the accident on my desk by tomorrow so we can get your car fixed. What's your next steps?"
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"I'll head back in and check with the rest of the team,"  "I might have another lead from one of the family members of the victims, so we can track that one down as well. See you in some time."

 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
"Agent Em! Are you ok?" Re answered, concern clear in her voice.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Yeah, just some idiot who couldn't drive who clipped me,"  "I'm fine and the car still drives. Just needs some dents taken out and a repaint job. How are you today?"
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
Re chuckled and said, "I will never understand how you can be so relaxed after something like that. Although if you had said what was going on, we could have gotten better footage of the end of car chase. I was just lucky we already had the chopper in the air for that fire." She blew out a breath. "Anyways, I'm fine. You're fine. Everything is fine. Heard about the todo at the museum. Wanted to see if you can give any kind of statement, official or otherwise, on the state of the case? Are you the lead agent on it?"
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Yes, I am the lead agent on this case,"  "but at the moment we have very few leads. Off the record, it seems like a theft of some Native American artefacts that was disturbed by the victims and then turned bloody, but at the moment we are keeping all options open. We're still processing all the technical evidence as it takes time for instance to do DNA sequencing, despite what you see on TV."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
"Oh girl, I know," Re said, "Any time line on an official statement?"

Emma knew the Douglass was always hesitant to move forward with official statements until they had firm facts to report on, leaving the PR filler statements to the PR office to buy time for the investigation to develop. Douglass is likely to hold off an official statement until something concrete is determined.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Sorry, but no,"  "you know that these cases break when they do and not earlier. I can't really say when that will be. At the moment we're following leads, but not all of those will go somewhere. In fact, most will not. I wish I could tell you, as that would mean we are close, but at the moment it's simply not possible."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
"Sure, I get it," she replied, "Doesn't hurt to ask, right? Well, keep me in the loop. If I hear anything about Native artifacts or similar, I'll let you know. Wanna do lunch sometime next week?"
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Good idea,"  "I'll text you a date. You can pick the venue. You're better at that than I am. And don't be disappointed if the case makes me cancel at the last moment."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
 
"Breaking news always supersedes reservations as usual. There is a new place on Trinity Place that looks good. Keep safe and let me know what day is good for you." Re signed off, leaving Emma to her own thoughts again.

An NYPD officer came up to her to get her sign-off that she was done with the scene. During her conversation with Re the last of the ebikes have gotten loaded up on the flatbed and any sizable junk from the crash had been gathered up and out of the street.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent


"Someone apparently tried to buy some of those artefacts,"  "Dr. Yargee's daughter said he was bugged by someone about those. Anybody ran his phone records? Anything special in those?"
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
Last edited by farothel; Jun 10 '23 at 8:36am.
Spencer said, "Do you have a window on when that call was made?" He pulled up a data set on his laptop, and once Emma provided it, filtered the results down to roughly two dozen calls. Several are between various other museums and universities, both in the city and even a few abroad. Spencer begins disregarding other numbers in the date range because they are called or call in other times. After just a few minutes, he narrows down to a single number that called a couple of weeks earlier.

It looks like the number that most likely was the call Yargee's daughter mentioned came from a company called Kingdom Acquisitions. This looks like a private auction company, owned by a private equity firm called the Adare Group. They had offices in a dozen cities around the world, including one near the financial district in Manhattan. It looked like the IRS response system was miraculously working at the moment, so Spence was expecting more information at any moment.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Let me know when it, or something else, arrives,"  "I'm going to write my accident report. yeah."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
Emma settled down at her desk and sinks into paperwork. The accident report was voluminous, particularly given there was a death involved. As she recounted the process of the event for the third time on a new sub-form, her mind wandered and 
 
ruminated on the various aspects of the case and artifacts in general.

As she was nearing the end of the paperwork, her 
 
phone rang, showing an unidentified number.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent


"FBI, special agent Henderson, how can I help you?"
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
Last edited by farothel; Jun 21 '23 at 4:42am.
Her ruminations as she finished her paperwork kept circling around company names. Suddenly it came to her. The Adare Group. She had come across that somewhere else in the investigation. But where? The memory came back after a second. The Adare Group had been an element in the corporate structure that she had uncovered in the ownership of Sebastian's apartment. It may not be anything significant, but like any good investigator she knew that coincidental collisions like that were often the key to something, even if not the current case.

Before she had a chance to act on this sudden revelation, however, her phone range. After she answered, Veo's voice said, "Agent Henderson. Detective Peterson, NYPD. We spoke earlier at the accident site? I was wanting to reach out as a courtesy to let you know that a release claim request has come in on the assets that were impounded earlier today. The van isn't going anywhere as that is direct evidence, but the claim is specific to the boxes and contained items. I've thrown up a procedural slowdown on it, but lawyers are already involved, so I don't know how long that is going to last. There is a lot of pressure from higher-ups on releasing them due to value. I'm doing what I can, but wanted to let you know what was going on."
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"I can have them picked up,"  "and being put with us as possible evidence of a Federal Case. That will add another layer of red tape and that way those lawyers will at least have to come with proof of ownership and all that and we can see who really owns those things. Who do those lawyers say they represent?"

 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
"They are representing Kingdom Acquisitions, and their paperwork looked pretty legit to me. They are here now, so you want me to transfer you over to the Evidence Sergeant so you can tell him to hold until your request comes in through official channels?"
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Sure,"  "if you have some time, try to find out via the Arrows what this is and who really owns those things. I'm sure they keep tabs on certain items."



 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
 
By the time she had finished the evidence paperwork, Spencer came back with a short brief on the Adare Group. It is a private equity group with holdings in the $250 million range based in Delaware. Their largest owned holding is the Greater New York Development corporation, it's a shell corporation that runs multiple property management companies. Two of these are Fourreau Holding and Scepter Mutual Management, which had turned up as the owner and renter, respectively, of the apartment Sebastian Goldstein lives at. The primary shareholder for Adare Group is Celestine Industries International, a multinational shell corp based in London, but with holdings in twelve countries.

Adare Group also owns several other private acquisitions and auction businesses, including Kingdom Acquisitions, as well as a several payday lending operations throughout New England, but primarily focused on the Delaware, New York, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.
 
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Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
By the time Emma returned to her desk from speaking with the Art agents, Douglass was there waiting for her. "I've got an entire law firm yelling at me about a warrantless seizure of various priceless artifacts. Please tell me why."
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"They were part of a crime scene where a vehicle tried to run an FBI agent off the road, endangered several members of the public while fleeing said scene and then tried to shoot their way out. It's not warrantless seizure, it's holding onto evidence from a crime scene until the investigation is concluded. Have they by the way given any proof of ownership of said artifacts? I haven't seen any paperwork that proves that they in fact own these artifacts. And I also need to talk to them about their drivers. I thought there were two men in there and we have only one, so the other one is still at large. I will need his/her/its name, address, and such."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
"They have proven ownership of the vehicle and provided information for the BOLO for the driver. They also have manifests showing ownership of the items, and they are pushing on a district judge that the contents of the van have nothing to do with the hit and run and that retaining them is causing irrevocable loss to the company. I'm pushing back with governmental interest, but I can tell they have more pull with this judge than we do. This is one of the biggest full court presses I've seen for an asset release."

She sighed heavily, the wear of the day evident not only in her posture of in the cascade of auric colors around her. "I've got your report and we are pushing back, but if you really think those items are tied into the main case you need to give me a better connection on that. I know you were talking to Art just now, were they able to show if any of the items were known stolen or anything like that based off the descriptions?"

As she spoke, Emma received a notification email from the team that was picking up the evidence in question.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"Just let me see them for a few hours,"  "there is something about those, and the company behind them, that tickles my funny bone. Stall for a few hours and then they can have them back."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
When Emma glances down at her phone to check her email she sees that she actually has two that arrived within seconds of each other. The first was from a sergeant at a police station in Manhattan acknowledging receipt of the evidence transfer request and providing you with signed pdf copies of the release documents. The second email is from a "pii-removed@safe.ty" with the subject line that read "Return of Seized Assets".

The general gist was that this Troy Blankenship was a lawyer, likely a partner given that the law firm was titled Blankenship, Bower & Clawson Law Partners, representing Kingdom Acquisitions. This letter was to notify you that they were aware that possession of the following items as evidence in an alleged crime has been transferred to the FBI with you as the lead agent. He stresses that the items are extremely valuable and fragile, and need to be returned to Kingdom Acquisitions at the earliest possible time. A list of the items, along with an assigned value, is included, as is a direct threat should anything happen to any of them while in FBI holding.

Emma had seen similar letters before in other cases, although this was one of the more adroit she had read in leveraging threatening language without specifics or actionable claims. Whomever Troy Blankenship may be, the evidence of this letter spoke well of his skill.
 
 
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Last edited by Anthr4xus; Jul 19 '23 at 2:49pm.
images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent


"Those lawyers have good resources,"  "they already know I'm lead agent on the case, which only started a few days ago. And I'm sure I haven't been in contact with them for this case.
Well, as soon as artefacts get in, I'll go over them with the art team and then they can come to collect them."
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
Last edited by farothel; Jul 23 '23 at 4:49am.
Douglass's eyebrows raised slightly, but she seemed overall non-plussed. "Yeah, I'd be interested to know how they did that."

Another hour or so later, Emma's desk phone rang. The pickup agents had arrived and were down in the forensics lab in the basement.
 
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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_wEmma Henderson, FBI agent

"I'll be down," Emma said. She moved to the lab and while the artefacts were unpacked, Emma opened her mage sight to try and see what they all were. Normally these things shouldn't do anything when handled by sleepers, but she wanted to be there just in case there was an exception. And she could later get the pictures the lab people took from everything to have a look through some books (or hopefully, databases) to see what they all did.
 || 
 
Clacks-Overhead: GNU Terry Pratchett
"I will not yield to evil, unless she's cute."
 

 

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Emma entered the Art Analysis Lab. It was brightly lit and predominately white. Several paintings, ancient carpets, and small statuettes stand or hang near well defined work spaces. Emma immediately recognizes the stack of black boxes on one of the nearest. Four techs are scattered about the room, working with small art objects.

When Emma enters the room the nearest tech, a whip-thin ferret of a man with a mop of tightly curled red hair above his angular face. A set of magnifying googles make his pale green eyes enormous and goofy as he looks up from the small statuette of a white lion he was examining. He blinks, the action somehow mesmerizing through the googles. "Can I help you?"

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images?q=tbn:ANd9GcRTTVXiYKKui7-Okf1gE_w

Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"I'm here to check up on those artifacts," Emma said as she opened her mage sight to have a closer look at them, "the guys they belong to are lawyering up so I thought it best to come here to see for myself. And to be 'not available' should they come in person."

 

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The guy blinked enormously once and then pushed up the goggles as he set down the statuette. He checked her ID and consulted a clipboard of papers next to the stack of boxes. "Yup, ok. That checks out," he says with a small nod and a quick glance around the room. "Well, it looks like nobody is ready to start working on this quite yet, but you're free to take a look at 'em if you like."

With the boxes sealed, Emma's mage sight did not reveal anything out of the ordinary in relation to the items. The lab tech's aura is unremarkable, a pastiche of contentment and mild curiosity.

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Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"Sure, thanks," Emma said, taking some gloves and opening the boxes one at a time, looking at the objects with her mage sight before handling them in any way. She did take her notebook and started making notes on each object.

 

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The items in raw appearance matched the list that Troy Blankenship had provided. Emma quickly noted the empty boxes were the same as the empties she saw in the van. #AR01, #AW01 and #AW02 were gone.

Circlet of gold with silver chains and jewels, Lot A233, #AH01 - $75000
Jeweled Silver Diadem with matching earrings and necklace , LOT A233, #AH02 - $250000
Crown of sintered roman coins, Lot A233, #AH03 - $375000
Wide-brimmed velvet hat decorated with silver stars and copper moons, Lot A233, #AH04 - 1250000
Reflective Helm of polished lead, Lot A233, #AH05 - $2500000
Ring (Size 10) of unique gold alloy, Lot A233, #AR01 - $1000000
Finger Cuff (Size 8) of unique tin alloy with inset gems, Lot A233, #AR02 - $1500000
Matched ring set (Size 11.5, 6.5) of gold with inset rubies around a large diamond, Lot A233, #AR03 - 1750000
Single-edged knife of steel alloy, Lot A233, #AW01 - $750000
Large ornate double edged knife (steel alloy) with golden skull handle and smaller inset knife (tin alloy), Lot A233, #AW02 - $900000
Ornate jewel encrusted obsidian chakram, Lot A233, #AW03 - $1500000
Diamond headed arrow with unknown metallic alloy shaft and red fletchings, Lot A233, #AW04 - $2000000

 

OOC

Just to give me a scope for how much you can see, give me a Gnosis+Prime+Wits+1 (Bonus from Prime) as you analyze these items. Reposted the full list from the old thread as that did not come over in the copy.

 

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farothel

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Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

Emma made some notes on each object, also taking a picture or a few pictures, to have a good idea on what things looked like when she was going into books later.

 

Name
Gnosis+Prime+Wits+1
4
success(6d10,8,above,no,yes) 8,5,1,8,6,10
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Giving each object a good looking over, both through mundane and magical means, Emma puts together a list of notes about the items in general as well as a few specifics that she notes.

 

General Notes

  • Materials seem authentic
  • All items are conspicuously clean and free of fingerprints, smudges or other incidental marks
  • Degree of craftsmanship varies wildly, from pieces that look roughly soldered and barely held together to some that only magic would be able to make
  • The coding sequence appears to be related to usage of item, AH for things worn on the head, AR for rings, AW for weapons.
  • Each item includes a hyperbolic and unbelievable listing of providence, including a mishmash of meaningful magical terms and pseudo-new age mysticism pablum.

Specific Notes

#AH05, #AR02, #AW01, #AW02, #AW04 all have a peculiar resonance with Matter arcana. They are all obviously unusual in composure and disposition. All five of these and the crown of coins have a mild magical enchantment worked into them.

OOC

Any other specific information you are looking for?

 

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farothel

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Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

The ones that are real magic items she will investigate more thoroughly to make sure they are safe to handle by the sleeper forensic techs and also to see if she can figure out what they're supposed to do.

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Emma was able to assure herself that the items were "stable" and should be safe to be handled by sleepers. She was able to determine that each of the enchanted objects was suffused with an underlying resonance with Matter, but each also had connections to other Arcana. #AH05, the mirror-like helm she had actually tried on before, still had a connection with Prime and Mind as well. #AR02 had a strong connection to Time & Space. #AW01 and #AW02 were both connected with Death and Fate. #AW04 had connections to both Forces, Life, Mind, and Spirit. By itself the arrow was one of the most intriguing items Emma had ever personally held. It is not only the most valuable item Emma has actually laid hands on, if the appraisal on the sheet is believable, but also manifestly the most powerful imbued item she has ever seen.

Just feeling her own magical being being close to it she felt stronger and more sure of herself. She suddenly found herself fantasizing about how easy it would be to focus her magical potential just a little and quickly climb the ladder in the company. It would be nothing to have Douglass's position by the end of the year, maybe even faster. Then it would be little extra effort to replace her boss. How high could she climb? As high as she wanted to go. Literally the only thing standing in her way was herself. It would be so easy to step out of her own way. She had the tools at hand, why did she not use them?

A soft cough and a hesitant hand on her shoulder shook her out of her reverie. The same tech that had spoken to her when she first came down was now standing in front of her, blocking the last few steps to the elevator. "I'm sorry Agent. I can't let you take that," he says, nodding his head toward the diamond tipped arrow in her hand. She suddenly realized that while the magical items shouldn't have a significant impact on sleepers, apparently the arrow at least was able to casually and very subtly influence the Awakened.

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Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"What," she asks, before she realises that she's still holding the arrow. She put it back down with the other items.

"Sorry about that, this case is distracting me. They're not linked to my case, but they might be to some others. I'll upload the pictures I've taken and you can run those through the database of missing items. If that doesn't yield anything, you can release them. Send me message and I'll inform the owners."

She knows that she wouldn't be able to hold on to these forever, but with all the information she has at the moment, she can start digging. Somewhere in the vast archives of the Mysterium these items have to be described.

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Emma Henderson, FBI agent

 

"Good afternoon, Ingersol," Emma said, "I have a list of potential imbued items that I would like to know more about. One of them in particular. I've taken pictures and I've checked their resonances, but I would like to know more."

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"How would you like to advance your research?" the bronze eagle asked, "There are several books available about both the process of imbuing items and particularly famous imbued items. You could also discuss the particulars with Curator Mandlebrot, if you prefer speaking with someone."

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