Downtime #3

[crowmod]

downtime, sept oct 14-28

around the office

The morning after the mission, the mood is high in the office. Friday has brought pumpkin-jelly-filled doughnuts in for breakfast, and even Arden can be caught enjoying one in a private moment. With the thief apprehended, it's easy to feel like the taskforce's hard work is almost done... but any good auror knows to never get complacent.

There's lots to be done between debriefs, interrogations, and investigations, and anyone caught idle or goofing off in the next few days catches an earful from one Oddtree or another. The home stretch is no time to slack off, and neither is Halloween.

the interrogation

The bee animagus thief, whose legal name is Hiro Hunter, has been captured and is appropriately contained in an interrogation room at the Crowbar office (for now). The department has forty-eight hours before they're obligated to hand the thief over to the local authorities, and Eleanor takes this opportunity for interrogation seriously. Five Volunteers have opportunities to interrogate the thief themselves, and may ask one question apiece to be answered (mostly) truthfully.

Eleanor personally interrogates the thief for approximately twelve hours, but isn't forthcoming with the rest of the department about what additional information she may have learned.

the egg

This egg is apparently identical to the one stolen from the National Archive. Its previous owner came by it legitimately in 1998, but decided to offload it after he heard that its twin had been stolen. The Archive has no record of duplicates of the egg, and although Miranda Rutherford vouches that it is not the stolen artifact, the Archive would still like it surrendered to them to examine themselves.

The department has one week before they have to capitulate with the Archive's request, a necessary move to maintain a diplomatic relationship. Before that time, X Quintana is leading a team of Five Volunteers to examine the egg. They may each perform one action on it.

allhalloween

The Department's next mission (on October 29) will be providing extra security for Las Vegas's yearly Allhalloween festival, a week of spooky revelry that takes over the Wizard Strip every October. They'll be working this detail as a personal favor from Eleanor to the mayor of wizarding Vegas, Ramses Bohn, and she asks everyone to take it as seriously as any other mission. To prepare for the festival, Everett takes a cautious approach and puts together a team of volunteers to handle security measures, while Arden hopes to glean some information from Vegas's drunken elite and puts together a team to handle covert measures.

investigation teams

• Eleanor's Team
• Vigilance Pryor
• Amadeus McCracken
• Llewyn Llewellyn
• [Volunteer]
• [Volunteer]

• X's Team
• Verity Fortuin
• Ichabod Godfrey
• Vanya Mordaunt
• Sage Wisecarver
• Camilla Harkaway

• Everett's Team
• Wiley Hellberg
• Francis Darling
• Teagan Oddtree
• Kit Mulholland
• Rory Howlan
• Astrid Weird
• Camilla Harkaway
• Keeley Little

• Arden's Team
• Remora Statler
• Sidney Rucker
• Paloma Oakley
• Byron Thorne
• Indigo Blue
• Sloan Silversmith
• Wendelin Sparks

locations!

⬦ DEBRIEFING: Everyone recap what you learned during the mission and collaborate on what you're up to next.

⬦ INTERROGATION: Volunteers on Eleanor's team can ask questions of the thief here.

⬦ THE EGG: Volunteers on X's team can examine and experiment on the egg here.

⬦ AROUND THE OFFICE: For misc. scenes.

⬦ OOC - VOLUNTEER SLOTS: Eleanor and X's teams are limited to five characters each, Everett and Arden's are open to all (and will have special opportunities later in the downtime contingent on what the first two teams discover!).

⬦ OOC - QUESTIONS, COMMENTS, CONCERNS!

Comments

DEBRIEFING

[crowmod]

DEBRIEFING

[constantsomethingorother]

Vigilance has changed his ringtone to Slow Yakkety Sax.

DEBRIEFING

[snapmccracklepop]

Amadeus passes along that based on an interview with a portrait at the gallery, it's likely the thief spent all day waiting in the gallery in the form of a bee. He also notes that the gallery is apparently on its third owner already. (He's somewhat relieved to discover that the furby was not actually the big seller of the evening.)

He also wonders at the possibility that the Archive thief (whose physical description differs from the bee thief) used a similar tactic to circumvent the anti-apparition field and enter the premises undetected.

DEBRIEFING

[codeblooded]

Sage plays the relevant parts of the basement CCTV footage: at 22:35, a thief appears, argues(?) with Wymerus the Weird, and absconds with the egg. Everyone left early, and there are no security patrols down there.

"Anyone know lip-reading?" Sage asks.

DEBRIEFING

[levain]

"I networked," Jasper shares triumphantly over the top of a to-go cappuccino.

INTERROGATION

[crowmod]

INTERROGATION

[snapmccracklepop]

Let's start this interrogation off with an obvious question. "What is your interest in the egg?" Amadeus asks. "Sure, it's a pretty trinket, but why go to the trouble of stealing it?"

INTERROGATION

[constantsomethingorother]

Vig doesn't ask anything until after he's drank an entire cup of coffee and eaten six mints, then offers the thief a stolen mint.

"So why don't you get to use them fancy vanishing tricks? Animorphing into a bee's cool 'n shit but it didn't get your ass outta there."

INTERROGATION

[llewellyngood]

Llewyn hasn't interrogated anyone since his Archangel days; it's been a deliberate choice, as that... isn't exactly in his wheelhouse, presently. Or his list of desires, ever.

Did he stay up all night giving pep talks to a squonkling? Yes. Did he play "Blackbird" on his guitar twelve times because it seemed to soothe said squonkling? Of course. And did he, bleary-eyed, then arrive to work and sign up for the wrong task? Sure did.

How are you feeling today?
Has the weather been treating you well?
Are you from Las Vegas?
What's it like being a bee?
Do you have an escape plan for if you're eaten by a skunk?
Have you learned the bee dances?
What's your favourite flower?

"How many eggs have you been tasked with stealing?"

INTERROGATION

[sloanranger]

Sloan is already grinning when he sits down across the table from their thief. It's not a smug grin, or a good cop grin. It's more like your dad's grin in the split second between when he comes up with a terrible joke and when he can deliver it.

"Honey, you've been buzzing through my head all day." He's too pleased with himself, even if he just blew his shot with this perp. "So, who's your boss, Hiro? Give us the deets and we might be able to help you out."

THE EGG

[crowmod]

Re: THE EGG

[dogtorate]

Ichabod would like to run some tests on the egg to see if any parts of it have been transfigured from a different shape.

Re: THE EGG

[codeblooded]

Sage wants to scan the egg to create a 3-D digital magitech model that is as detailed as possible. If they must give up the goods, they should at least document it thoroughly in case they need to refer to this duplicate egg later. (Working under the assumption that this would only scan the physical appearance of the egg, not any magical properties.)

Sage would like to cross-reference this scan with what they know of the real egg, to see if there are any physical differences that people didn't catch at first glance. Unless that counts as two actions in which case IGNORE THIS

Re: THE EGG

[harkawhat]

Camilla is going to do some alchemical tests to see if there is anything interesting about the material the egg is made of, or the paints and baubles it's decorated with.

Re: THE EGG

[poisonhoney]

Vanya is going to inspect the egg for any magical properties, specifically of a cursed and/or dark magic variety, and what its function might be (if it has one).

Re: THE EGG

[apocryphist]

On the last day the department has the egg in their possession, with no real progress having been made in several days, Verity’s getting frustrated. The thing is no fake, she can tell that much, which makes her ultimate decision all the more rash.

With everyone else standing around the table listening to Quintana rattle off tepid idea after tepid idea, Verity reaches out, picks the egg up, and cracks it against the side of the table like she intends to make an omelet out of it.

AROUND THE OFFICE

[crowmod]

Friday & OPEN++

[crowmurder]

For the rest of the month of October, Friday's desk has a very enticing dish of Bertie Bott's Every Flavour Hallobeens, the seasonal version of this beloved candy product. Various shades of orange, green, purple, and black, they have some extra-silly flavors. Friday characterizes herself as "too much of a scaredy cat!" to try them herself, but loves it when the aurors sample them on her behalf.

Everett & Teagan

[crowmurder]

As everyone is shuffling out of the board room post-debriefing, Everett catches Teagan by the shoulder.

"Hey," he says. "You got a second?"

OOC - VOLUNTEERS

[crowmod]

Re: OOC - VOLUNTEERS

[constantsomethingorother]

Can Vig join Team Interrogation pls. He's definitely not turning down his ringer.

Re: OOC - VOLUNTEERS

[dogtorate]

Ichabod would like to look at egg thank you

Re: OOC - VOLUNTEERS

[poisonhoney]

Can Vanya join Team Egg pls?

Re: OOC - VOLUNTEERS

[snapmccracklepop]

Let's toss Amadeus on the Interrogation Team please. ♥

OOC 🎃 QUESTIONS, COMMENTS & CONCERNS

[crowmod]

Happy Halloween y'all

Re: OOC 🎃 QUESTIONS, COMMENTS & CONCERNS

[youbetcha]

HALLOWEEEEEEEEN!!!!!!!!!!!!! YEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!!!!!!!!!!!

thank youuuu for thiiiiiis