14473/The Boy Who Cried Demon

The Boy Who Cried Demon
Date of Scene:	22 March 2023
Location:	Interview Room: Triskelion
Synopsis:	Agents Tan and Watson take time to question a young suspect on his level, while Agent Pezzini and Witchblade seek to glean what magical information they can. The good cop, understanding cop routine gets Tan and Watson answers.
Cast of Characters:	Sara Pezzini, Mary Jane Watson, Sybil Tan

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Sara Pezzini has posed:
Walter Thompson was a good kid, albeit he suffered from a horrible stutter, was something of a geek at school, and well most recently he and his friends summoned from demons from one of depth of hell. He had been detained by Agents of SHIELD last night, taken to the Triskelion, and yelled at by his mother... twice. Once last night, and again in the morning when she returned to the Triskelion to bring him his Kosher breakfast, morning tea, and about ten layers of Jewish mother guilt.

The agents in charge of keeping an eye on the kid, and trying to get information out of him spent the entire day doing just that, but Walter seemed either unwilling or unable to talk about what had happened. Off an on throughout the day WAND teams had come and gone using various machines to scan the kid, his belongings, the broken lap top, but whatever it was that had caused the demonic incursion in Central Park remained a mystery.

By seven the next evening, Agent Pezzini got called in to the Triskelion, hole in the building and all. A last ditch effort was underway, a hail Mary that the Witchblade might be able to sense something, as they were pretty certain no amount of warnings and mother guilt was going to get the Walter talking. As Pezzini headed across New York City toward her secondary place of work, she contacted the two other agents who had been at the park last night, Agent Sybil Tan, and Agent Mary Jane Watson. Perhaps a team of female agents could get the teenager to talk.

Once she had parked, she headed straight to the interview room, passing security checks with just a nod. Sure, she could show her ID, but most already knew who she was. Once the three agents were in place, Walter would be escorted from his temporary quarters where his mother was still yelling at him, to the room, and they could begin... with whatever it was the three of them were going to do.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson is heading in to the Interview Room as well as one of the agents that had been present over at the melee in the first place. For now, Sonja was in her quiet place, still sulking that she had not had her proper melee against hordes and monsters and that she could not fully sate her eternal bloodlust. But, it made for a quiet mental space.

Her right arm is over in a sling and there are some bandages over her face, and what are clearly stitches on a few parts of it. She's not carrying her usual sword with her, but there is a standard issue extendable baton on her back as Mary Jane would walk on in. "All right. So I'm guessing that we play up the fact that we're female?" This would get a deadpan over to whomever was present making the 'suggestion'.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil was actually in the Triskelion already, working on setting up a new office after her previous one was unexpectedly blown up. One has to take these things in stride when working for SHIELD. As there was really nothing to salvage after the missile strike, the new office is still a touch bare. She's got a standard government desk, office chair and file cabinet. At least she's got a decent phone and computer, as these have to be heavily encrypted.

    She heads downstairs about five minutes before the requested time and leans against the wall outside of the room Walter is in and waits for the other two to show up. Being an office day, her armor is nowhere in sight, just a businesslike suit and skirt combo with the everpresent security badge clipped on the front.

    Looking over as Mary Jane asks her question, she shrugs and says, "Or we could go with the sympathy route, play up your injuries and do the 'help us make sure nobody else gets hurt' gig. Personally I'm getting a little old to do the sexy agent thing, so I'll leave that up to your decision."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
For Sara, this was just one more interview in a long line of them that have taken place. Between the New York Police Department and being part of SHIELD, as well as an Avenger, she had some experience when it came to profiling a suspect. Walter wasn't exactly a suspect in the same sense as one she'd have in an interview room at the precinct, but the kid had been part of something too big for him to handle and answers were needed.

"According to the babysitting detail, the kid is getting antsy at this point, but still not willing to talk," Sara offered once the other two were there, then slide each a tablet with the reports from throughout the day. "The reason I got called was to give Witchblade a chance to look the kid over now that everything was settled, see if he could find something... I think they're getting desperate."

Taking a sip from her coffee, something she got on her way to the room, she sits back a touch in the chair and glances to second door. "What that means is the two of you will have to decide how you want to go about it with the kid," she then adds as she looks back to them. "I'll be busy listening to him prattle on in my head through all this, just like he is right now. Agent Watson, I have tp tell you he wants to heal you, and I have to tell you that so he will shut the F up about it."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would shrug over, "Whatever works best with his profile. And you're calling in Pez?" She would deadpan, "That's either brilliant or desperate." Another snark over and let ou ta sigh over. "And it's not -from- that, so he doesn't have to bother with it. It was just a cuople days ago." It was only a couple of broken bones.

So that means this latest set of things is from something entirely else, which may or may not be appealing. "So, what's his profile say is the best way to go about getting something from him useful and to help keep him calm?" She had to play this particular role for now. When she was inside with the kid..

THEN she could be reassuring and help calm him down. But in front of the senior agent it would mean she would be monitored and micro-managed on appropriateness.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil shrugs, "I suppose I could explain dimensional calculations to him until he goes insane and hopefully drops us some hints, but I think that's more of a last ditch effort. If we're going for the female thing, we might as well send Pez in there in metal bikini mode and stop dancing around the subject." She smirks at Pezzini, then continues, "Although that may just make him have a heart attack then and there, which would also be no help."

    Shaking her head, she laments "If they'd just get us a couple good telepaths, we wouldn't have these problems. I think I'll take another run at Coulson on that front once we finish this particular mess up. As long as we don't use it to get info for prosecution, I really don't see the harm in making interrogations a little easier."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
The profile had pegged the kid as your typical teenaged male nerd and/or geek. Computer and console gamer, most likely... role playing games, a few friends who were also outside of the standard 'popular crowd'. Highly intelligent, but lacked trust of peers or the motivation to strive for much beyond surviving high school without getting an atomic wedgey (those were not the specific words used, more like a summary of the meaning).

The interview of his mother was available, but the summary of that conversation came down to a Jewish mother, over protective of her bubala. She didn't like any of his friends, wanted him to do better in school, and had tried taking his gaming books away once but he'd run away from home for a week, so she gave them back.

Sara's expression goes flat, one brow then raising slightly. "Yeah let's not do that," is stated first, followed by, "I don't get a choice about the attire, that's all him, and I don't need this suit ruined... I just got it." as she gestures to the intricate bracelet on her right wrist.

Folding her arms up across her chest, she looks between the two of them for a moment. "If you want my two cents, try the sympathetic approach, and if it fails, switch gears," she offers with a slight shrug, then over the comms they hear, 'Thompson enroute to interview room, ETA five minutes.' "Oh and Agent Watson, doesn't matter when the wounds occurred or who did it, he wants to heal them... now I hope he shuts up about it." No, he won't shut up about it... he wants an excuse to get in closer and examine Mary Jane more intently, for his own reasons, so he will keep nagging about it until either Sara finds a way to convince Mary Jane to let him do it, or another way presents itself.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would glance over at Sybil and then glance at Sara, "She has a point. You go in there that way, I go in and we play the naughty cop routine?" She would deadpan over to the 'department of weird' experienced investigator. "But, we want him to talk and feel comfortable with us and to give us information."

She would skim over the profile. Relatively normal emotional chords. Teenager, somewhat introverted, into normal sorts of things for that bracket. Nothing really noticable that stood out to her on the profile.

"I'm game." Sympathy card it is. And that means letting him get up close and personal to reassure himself he hadn't done anything. She could handle that. Looking over to the otehrs and gesturing over at Sybil. "But let's save your plan for a 'just in case' routine."

Sybil Tan has posed:
    "I suppose I could go with the sympathy route, sounds like not a ton of people ever really listened to him." She chuckles and continues "Which is something I actually can identify with. I wasn't exactly a part of the 'cool kids' group either, too busy with my schoolwork. Granted I only spent two years in highschool before jumping to college, but the general idea is there, at least."

    She shrugs again then says, "Why don't we do sympathy, then if that doesn't work we can play off Mary Jane's injuries since he won't know they were from a previous fight, then if still nothing, we can be feminine at him. Not to excess of course, but enough to throw him off balance. Anyone else have any other ideas?"

    She looks from one agent to the other, waiting to see if any other choices are brought up.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara wasn't going to go into her high school years, they were spent doing whatever it took to ensure she got into college to get her BS in Criminal Justice, then on to the Police Academy for everything else. It meant she didn't have time for friends nor really cared that she didn't have them, and now... well it was too dangerous to be her friend, so she just kept to herself.

Before anything else could be said, the door opened and an agent in a black suit escorted Walter into the room. He was presently wearing a tshirt and sweat pants, both with the SHIELD logo on them, and a pair of plain white sneakers... the standard 'guest' attire really.

The kid looked tired but clean, clearly he'd gotten a shower in there, but listening to agents trying to get information out of him all day and of course his mother screaming in the other ear... it wore on him, and it was obvious on his face.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would smile, "Went to try for a theatre degree here, but didn't get far before life kind of swallowed me up." And she changed schools quite a bit so never quite had that lasting touchstone. Until that boy next door she caught sneaking out of his bedroom window late at night full of trauma and pain..

"We can work with him and hopefully get him relaxed and make him feel safe." She would nod over at Sybil. A slight deferring to the woman that was a bit older and hopefully would -not- remind him of his mother.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil nods, "Sounds like a plan. Let's go be pleasant to him and see if it's enough to lower his guard. I can imagine some of the people who have been working on him around here, he's probably in need of a little break from threats of criminal charges." With that, she pushes off the wall and opens the door. Stepping inside with a pleasant smile, she says "Hi Walter, been a heck of a day for you, I bet." She walks over to the table and pulls out a chair to sit down. "A few of my colleagues are too used to dealing with spies and hardened criminals, so I imagine they probably went all hard-ass on you, with every sentence conveying the message 'you are in big trouble'."

    "Now, since I'm fairly certain you didn't mean for any of this mess to happen, we should be able to get things cleared up without you getting in trouble. Agent Watson" she indicates Mary Jane "and I were on scene to deal with what was happening, and it didn't look to me like you had any control over what was going on. Would you say I've got the right idea there?" If she could get him to start talking to them, there was a good chance he'd continue.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
For Sara's part, she remains silent and permits the other two to do what they have chosen to do. Even if she wanted to be a part of that aspect, she couldn't at the moment. It was difficult to explain to others what happened when Witchblade opened his 'eye', that being the red stone on the intricate bracelet on her right wrist. Those watching might think she looked spaced out, disinterested, like she was day dreaming, but the reality was she was listening to a voice only she could hear, relating information about the subject of interest. In this case, Walter Thompson.

With her arms folded across her chest, the right one on the outside, she remained silent as she watched the teenager take a seat. Her eyes seemed to glaze over a little as the red stone became a swirling of red smoke and for one very brief moment it looked like a red eye.

The agent who brought Walter in stepped back out, leaving the kid in the hands of three agents whose identities were technically above his paygrade to even know about.

Walter settled himself into the offered chair at the table, chewed at his bottom lip while staring at the grain of the wood, but was clearly listening to what Sybil said because he nodded a little. "I r..re...member you all," he finally said quietly, before looking over at Mary Jane, wincing, then his eyes go back to the wood grain. "You h..have the r..r...right idea," he then whispered.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
THere's some quiet wtching over here as she would go in, and then Mary Jane would go to stretch out, "Hey, you been okay? I know it can be kind of rough when you go through it. It's crazy and chaotic and you're scared. Of what you did to someone else, afraid that you're going to lose control again.. Afraid that you're going to blank out, wkae up and find you did more than just hurt someone, that there's blood on you and it's someone else's. And how you'll hate yourself forever and you never, ever wanted to hurt anyone. And the worst possible thing you could ever do with your life is put other people at risk with what you do."

She goes with the gentle nudge here to backup Sybil.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil nods at what Mary Jane says, "Exactly, thank goodness nobody was injured too badly. Could have been far worse than it was. And if it happens again, who knows what the result might be. You see, that's why everyone has been pushing at you, because we don't know how it happened and we need to know so that more people aren't hurt by it happening again."

    "Do you think you could share with us how it happened? If anyone else was involved, you don't have to give names, we just need a really general idea of how it all got to that point. That way we know the kinds of things to watch out for in the future."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Walter shifted uneasy in the chair, moving to fold his hands together in his lap, and closing his eyes. None of this was what was supposed to happen, but then they hadn't really known what to expect. They'd charged head first into the new game, beta, the premiere or so they thought... first to play what was meant to be the next best big hit game.

"I...it was j..just a game," he offered softly, voice shaking as he looks up at Mary Jane again. Had the game caused those injuries? Where they playing him like cops did? Did agents of SHIELD do that sort of thing? Up until this point they'd all been about how much trouble it had caused, the damage to the park, the man power sent out as great risk. They'd demanded names, locations, answers that he didn't have and realized that even if he did have them, the accusatory manner in which they bombarded him endlessly with questions, and that even his own mother had been doing, he wouldn't have told them.

"I... d.ddon't have real n..names," he then says, looking to Sybil, only then realizing there was a third person there. The quiet one looked familiar, but he couldn't place her, and since she wasn't asking anything, he stayed focused on the other two... the hurt one, who should never have been hurt, and the nice one, who seemed to get it.

"Midnight, w...with the b..bbook, online," he ended with. "Th... that's wh..what started it."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Okay.. "How did you arrange the meetup? Was this all online? What group was it through?" She would query. "I've never had the chance to LARP before. You active in the community? I bet there's lots of groups out there beyond the SCA." Society for Creative Anachronism.

Give out things to show interest and let him talk over on something that he enjoyed to hopefully help him get a bit more comfortable. "You must be really into it to go and do a beta test for something like this. That must have been really cool." She would offer as a bit of positive reinforcement there.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    "I've never done the live action stuff, but I've been in a couple epic tabletop campaigns. Bet if we had been onto something like this we would have dived into it too." MJ's line of thinking seems like the best to go with. Knowing about gaming makes them more approachable, less authority figures.

    For the moment, she seems content to let the younger agent drive the conversation, merely showing interest as they talk. Let him go at his own pace, and if he's more comfortable talking to Mary Jane, then she's content to take the back seat and see what info they can get.

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Sara sits up a touch straighter, her eyes focusing for just a moment as she looks toward the door, then they glass over again and she is lost in Witchblade's commentary. It was a report she would have to write later, to explain what she could from the information he shared. Most of it she didn't understand, but one thing was clear... even with Mike Hannigan's protection against the demon still lingering on the boy, there was another power pulsating there, and it had just flared up.

Walter looked between the two adult females and it was obvious that he was seriously attempting to work out if they were being serious or pulling his chain. It was likely he'd been burned many times by other's that seemed to pretend to know things, and like them like he did. He was just about to decide against believing them when Mary Jane straight up mentioned the SCA, which only a real fan would know about, and Sybil started talking about tabletop campaigns, which was old school but still very much right up his alley.

"The in...info was on m...my laptop, and i...it fried," he sighed, shaking his head. "Don't kn...know why, j..just... poofed, so did the b..bbook. I th..think it was a s..setup, cause n..no one else w.was in the p...park, they w...were j..just online."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod, "Huh, that's really cool. I mean, normally whenever you see folks testing rules for a LARP it's at a Con or it's someone's homebrewed stuff. I think I was at a summer camp once where one of the counselors was doing it to help keep the kids entertained and so he could publish it later on." Likely bit of an exaggeration. But she knew SCA from Theatre, so it was a good enough hook.

"Got it. Do you remember the group it was done by? I mean.. W hat was the game and the ruleset? Do you know what company was organizing the meetup?"

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil blinks for a moment at about the same time Sara reacts, but beyond that she just continues to listen to the questions and answers. After he explains, she nods and adds quietly, "It does sound like you were set up, someone else using you to do their dirty work. We need to make sure that doesn't happen to anyone else, since this sounds a little too polished to be a one-off kind of thing. Some other kid could be getting that same message you got an hour from now."

    "I think Agent Watson has asked the important questions there, once we know who did it we can make sure this doesn't happen to anyone else."

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Wringing his hands a little, Walter fidgets again in the chair then blurts out angrily, "Th... they always d...do that! P...people al...ways t..trying to h...hurt me!" Reaching up he yanks his hand across his eyes, making sure no tears have formed or can escape. He was not a cry baby.

"Game w.was c..c..called Caves and C.Critters, s.stupid name, g.great rules.set," he says only once he's got his emotions back in check, but his face still looked flushed, turning slightly reddish.

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod over at Walter, "Got it. So was it like the second edition? Or somethign new?" She asks the question not as the answers to it may be relevant, but more to keep things on 'topic'. Topics of his interests were safe ones. They would keep him engaged and hopefully relaxed. And the more he talked the more he might remember and they could track.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Knowing that the second Walter gave them the name the agents monitoring the security feed would be diving into the internet to find out everything they could about the game and it's creators, Sybil relaxes just a touch. MJ's approach had worked perfectly in getting him talking and giving them a lead to work from.

    She nods, murmuring "I know the feeling, RPG's were even less in the mainstream when I went to school. At least these days gamers are more accepted and understood, but there's still a bunch of idiots out there who think that 'different' is the same as 'bad'." She pauses then follows up with a question, "You mentioned a book as well as your laptop, did they send that to you after you signed up?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Once again Sara's eyes slid into focus and this time they remained that way. For now, Witchblade had gathered what he could off the boy so, since his eye was still opened, he looked at Mary Jane instead. Sara was only partly aware that he had done so, but he wasn't rambling in her head so she didn't care. She kept quiet as the others continued to work their magic, realizing fully it was a good thing they were doing the talking because she had never once played a game like they were talking about.

"Once y..you register, th.they mail the b.book, w.w.with time, d.date, and location," Walter said, blinking a few times before rubbing his hand across his face. A touch of sweat was starting to form on his forehead now. "F.f.first twenty New Y.York high sc.school students win..." he sort of snorted here, starting to sound extremely sleepy as he finished with, "thought I g.got lucky."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod thoughtfully over, "Thanks. That helps a lot." She would give a quick glance to the window over to look for any instructions from Sara on things so far, then over to Sybil. "Yeah. It's good to have your own community and friends, and things to express yourself with. REmember the community is still out there and don't take it away from yoruself. Don't isolate yourself from them just off this."

Try and keep him calm, keep his stress from spiking.

Sybil Tan has posed:
    Sybil adds "I don't think you'll be in any trouble from this, it's pretty obvious you got caught up in someone's plot. We're probably just going to keep you here a couple days while we track down these folks and deal with them, mainly for your safety. Once we have them, we can let you get on with your life. Are there any books or anything you'd like to have so you can pass the time? Pretty sure we've got some random gaming consoles floating around the building somewhere as well."

    She taps her earpiece, saying "Let's get Walter into one of the guest suites so he can be more comfortable and relax." Returning her attention to Walter she asks, "Was there anything else that might help us find them that you can think of?"

Sara Pezzini has posed:
Shifting in the chair, Sara adjusts her arms so that the bracelet does not have a direct line of sight at Mary Jane... he'd started to ramble again, and honestly Sara didn't want to spend another night hearing just how weak and worthless Mary Jane was and how dare her contain Red Sonja and a few other tyrannical comments he'd already spewed out once.

"I got my r...real friends," he breaths out. "Can I g.get a piece of p.paper and a p.pencil?"

It's Sara who slides him one of many note pads on the table and a pen, the closest thing to a pencil available. Walter accepts them and draws out, damn near perfectly, a coat of arms. "L.look for p.pins, l.left lapel," he says then taps the picture. "Half inch... th.that's all I g.got."

Mary Jane Watson has posed:
Mary Jane Watson would nod over and go to glance over at the ones outside, "Sure, that's good." She would smile, "Good for you Walter, you're brave. Things will be back to normal soon enough. You'll help us figure out what's going on and stop what they're up to. You'll have all the stories you'd ever want to tell.."
    Then she would playfully whisper, "But you can't tell them, as it's classified."