7951/Great Hunt: Pathways and Byways

Great Hunt: Pathways and Byways
Date of Scene:	23 September 2021
Location:	W.A.N.D: Triskelion
Synopsis:	A mysterious Vedic gemstone, an evil Russian relic, and way too much paperwork!
Cast of Characters:	Jane Foster, Hellboy, Daisy Johnson
Tinyplot:	The Great Hunt

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Jane Foster has posed:
Morning in W.A.N.D. means discovering who prefers tea over coffee and happens to be a morning person. Jane? Not a morning person at all by default, but who expects a world-class astrophysicist with a specialty in studying the sky to like daytime? Ooh, Sol. How dull when one can be searching for Wolf-Rayet stars or impossibilities that turn ever so blobby?

The morning nonetheless has her nursing a strong cup of Earl Grey tea in hopes of staving off a need for actual caffeine turned tarry black. Coffee may smell nice enough but she has to get through a sea of ancient file folders, manila turned cream and half the typed commentary on yellowing paper that probably predates her parents. The rustling noises from two desks jammed together suggest some kind of reasonable order, but that order is really only in the mind's eye instead of stacks sorted into a system of continent / country; no idea; deathly hallow-level bad.

The brunette has secured herself a rolling chair because she needs that sort of flexibility to shift back and forth. One of the WAND functionaries squints but doesn't say too much other than to mutter about all the cakes in the kitchen being stale. Such is the hardship of a SHIELD agent; pastries past their prime.

"Seriously, a Nazi /death/ ray? We let that get out?" Jane murmurs. "Great."

Hellboy has posed:
    The elevator dings. The doors open and three people rush quickly into the room, getting out of the way of the hulking demon sharing the ride with them. Hellboy steps off the elevator and walks with purpose through the cubicles. Finding one in particular, he looks around, furrowing his brow. He moves to where Jane is working, potentially drawn by the fact that she was talking to herself. "You seen Croft?" he asks.

Jane Foster has posed:
The pretty assortment of slightly stale tea cakes brought in by someone the day before might be appealing. The smell of coffee is fresh in the air and people are working the phones or computers like they usually do at such an ungodly hour. Truly, a bustling hive of activity awaits those who come into work.

Jane Foster, creature of the night -- okay, not really, more like the stars -- is not entirely taken aback by Hellboy, since the statuesque demon has a way of putting her own height into perspective. She holds up a folder chockful of useful information, stapled photographs causing one corner to droop forward precipitously. "Alas not. She tends to be a later riser, far as I know. Unfortunately because I had a number of questions for her, like whether a man-eating jewel has ever cropped up on her radar. Looks like the last verified report we had of the thing before vaulting it dates from the Raj. Some of this seems nonsensical but clearly isn't."

Hellboy has posed:
    "Clearly," Hellboy says. He raises a curious brow at Jane's topic and says, "She's been helping me hunt some relics for a project of mine, but it sounds like you've got a bead on one or two yourself. Anything I can do to help?"

Daisy Johnson has posed:
Every time Daisy gets down here at WAND headquarters something crazy happens. Blame it on tooth fairies or something ... Live ones. Don't ask. So the young Agent steps out of the elevator looking mighty suspicious. And holding a small bag with a few cookies within. To appease whatever critters that may come out? Maybe. Though today it does seem the way is clear. Good enough.

"Mornin'" Not an early riser so speaking such a word has her yawning, "This is way early. Hello Jane. And Hellboy." an upnod towards the demonic-one. Cookies are put on the table.

"Hope you have slept, Jane. And what's this about Croft I am hearing?" she looks between them briefly.

Jane Foster has posed:
"Short of manifesting Agent Croft on the spot, likely not. You require any assistance, do let me know as I seem to be in a fine position to really take advantage of my research for anyone else's." SHIELD, hotbed of sharing, believe it or not! The brunette has her hair pulled back into a partial braid, a pair of star earrings hanging like comets from her earlobes and they sway when she rises a little from the chair. Vertebrae shift to crack a little and ease the strain. Jane smiles. "Relics? Had me at hello. Honestly, any help in sorting these out by priority will do. I got that pile of boxes and thus far I have managed to get these piles figured."

The collection of boxes could well have been ransacked during the Second World War or HYDRA's latest visit, probably both. "Then we need to talk about imaging half the material here before it falls apart and security."

Her gaze lifts when the elevator opens and fellow Furiae Daisy makes her appearance. "Sleep? Hardly. I've had this on my desk and the mountain will not get smaller without me. Besides, if I don't do it now, I will have to sleep /on/ it like Smaug."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy looks over the files. "HYDRA, really?" he says. "They're not really my field of expertise. I more deal with vampires and angry ghosts and things that bleed when you touch them with holy water." He does, however, 'sneakily' pick up a cookie with the Right Hand of Doom. It surprisingly DOESN'T squish the cookie into powder before Hellboy plops the sweet treat between his jaws.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"You'd be surprised with the kind of crazy Hydra can bring up. Including, and not limited to, an actual ghost.." a frown appearing on Daisy's expression and she slowly shaking her head to herself. "Good riddance to *that* one, I'd say."

Daisy isn't as sneaky in stealing out a cookie for herself, snatching it from the bag and tossing it up to her mouth, "Turns out our dear ol' Reich was quite interested in old relics, namely religious ones." she then smiling faintly at Jane, "Like Smaug? Are you going to start breathing fire on us?" a brow quirking.

Jane Foster has posed:
"HYDRA has dealt with vampires and ghosts as a start. Demons and things that go boo are not universal to W.A.N.D., or the occasional rogue sorcerer crossing our paths." Jane smiles a bit wanly at that admission, nodding from Hellboy to Daisy as the hacker makes another point. "Good riddance to bad news with them. Unfortunately, we have to assume some of our information is compromised here based on when HYDRA took over the office, and developing a stronger culture of diminishing the risk, bolstering recovery strategies, and having critical data at our fingertips when we need it."

She glances up with a laugh at the cookie munching, though the sound is soft and hardly invasive. As long as people are enjoying themselves, all is well as far as she is concerned. "Breathing fire? Never. I'd breathe compliance and regulatory requirements to keep you at bay." The folder is deliberately laid down on a mound of papers, neatly balanced so it can't slew away. Next up, time to go into the musty old box. "The Reich was just a starting point. I haven't scraped much about the appropriations caused by the Soviets or more recent matters, and expect increased scrutiny of Latin America and central Africa, since we're seeing some shifting interests there."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy shrugs again, "I just get orders to punch stuff that usually belongs in Japanese horror films," he says, taking a step back to stay out from between the two women as he begins flipping through some of the files, quietly reading titles while the ladies talk.

Jane Foster has posed:
The pages run the gamut. Documentation covers items like weapons, a weird relic from Novosibersk, and technology that clearly doesn't have a precedent for the culture it's in or there at all. One looks to be an energy pack attached to Incan-level technology, empowering something that could well be a spear-thrower of sorts. Careful criteria is laid out in typed forms; where they were found, when, by whom. Any known phenomena, observations by scientists or agents from SHIELD on what they can glean of purpose or functions, are sometimes in a few lines or pages upon pages of detail.

Jane laughs softly. "I will remember to bring you along for that. I have the feeling I'm going to be in Myanmar soon enough trying to recover this Rakshasa stone, whatever they claim it to be. What's your interest, currently?"

Hellboy has posed:
    Incongruous tech levels and powerful weapons are completely disregarded by the demon. He hesitates longer on relics, especially spiritually connected ones. He reads over, for example, the relic from Novosibersk. This is the look of a man obsessed.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Breathing bureaucracy at me?" That makes Daisy turn her nose at it, "That's worse than fire.." really. It is! Once the cookie is well taken care of by way of munching Daisy rests her shoulder to the nearest wall, arms folding together, "But like Hellboy said, if you need any help to go through some of these you know you can count on me, and on a few others too." is she talking about the Secret Warriors? Most likely!

Those last words have her arching a brow. "Myanmar? So you got a lead on an item.." that makes her mmmm, "Myanmar isn't the most stable of countries right now, just saying.."

Jane Foster has posed:
"I could." Jane grins in Daisy's direction, though she carefully thumbs across another array of yellowing folders. These papers are sheathed in half a dozen stamps of 'classified' and 'clearance required' on the covers. "Isn't it? I wonder if we can look into creating a database of these items and secure it well enough. What do you think, as the relevant expert on computers, Daisy? I need somewhere to start prioritizing some of this in a functional way. Beyond clustering geographically or chronologically." The pages are set to the side, an assortment still in need of organization and serious lack of clarity. When their own records are incomplete, how much fun is that? "Myanmar. Like I said, there's a man-eating gem that we lost from India. I'm not sure exactly what it says when we have 'man-eating' in the description and the details but it apparently walked away during the occupation of this building. We've got a lead that it was smuggled into Myanmar, which is one of the more closed societies in the world for us. Not like we can easily walk in without drawing attention of the military, though tourism is possible. It so happens it's a major area for smuggling gems and arms dealing."

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy turns away from reading and says, "Yeah, what is that about?" He lets the papers flop back into place and asks, "Is it sucking people's souls in, vacumming up human bodies, or does it have little piranha jaws and nibbles away?" As he asks about the third option, Hellboy raises the Right Hand of Doom and makes a little puppet-like hand out of it, tapping his fingers against his thumb as if to demonstrate the question.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"There might be something created already. Probably archaic in some good ol' database." A shudder, "Like in Access." Daisy shudders again, "Though it's a good idea to catalog those things into some sort of order. I can give it a go to get you started and finding you some robust db to set it up."

"Aren't Rakshasa like demons that resemble tigers? Or at least so the stories went..." An amused brow arching when she spots Hellboy doing the piranha-mimic'ing. "I would guess it's most likely some spirit inside the gem. Or a demon."

The assessment on Myanmar from Jane brings a nod from the hacker, "There are ways to go in there though. We are a spy org. How long do you think it will stay in Myanmar though? It may just be there waiting for a buyer."

Jane Foster has posed:
"An old Access database? I didn't even use that when I was in high school. Security flaws abound," Jane murmurs, shaking her head. "I want to get some kind of proposal in front of Chief Carter about overhauling some of these records; at least to get a cross-section of what we have on paper and digitally recorded. Something I should ask her about before I pull any of your division in, since I know how busy you all are." She breaks into a faint smile at that, giving Daisy freedom to run as fast as she can from the extra assignment. Because everyone loves being voluntold.

She carefully thumbs through an assortment of readings plotted painstakingly on a graph and then guides them right along into a pile aimed primarily as 'moderate risk, somewhere in the Americas.' That helps only a bit. "Rakshasa are traditionally man-eating tigers, yes, with a penchant for psychic or enchanting powers of some kind. They can take human form if they want, according to some stories though I'm more concerned about the prospect of people -- tourists, aid workers, mules -- getting in over their heads with people far worse than they think. They are most certainly deemed demonic or bad in Vedic folklore and religion, which suggests we could use an expert in the field. I know enough to parse through their older astronomical records but on the ground? Oof. That's a stretch." No; in fact, it's no issue at all but that isn't the point.

Daisy Johnson has posed:
"Well, let me know when they are ready to get turned to the digital era." Daisy replies to Jane with a brief nod, "It should be no problem to get them up in a nice little db for use. I will even ribbon them up for you." see? A gift!

At the explanation about the rakshasas she lets out a sigh, "So that's most likely what you'll be encountering, or someone using that legend to go through with their gruesome crimes. It wouldn't be the first time." Daisy clearly watches a lot of police procedurals.

"Considering it's WAND though ... I imagine it will be against the real deal. You should talk with Lara." she then suggests. "Which I am guessing it's what you are looking to do."

"Though I was mostly dropping the cookies off and see what help you need. Just let me know when you need me, I will be around!" a thumbs up given at the group.

Hellboy has posed:
    Hellboy plucks up another cookie, 'sneakily'. Yeah, about as sneaky as an elephant hiding behind a year old tree. "What's this Novosibersk thing? he asks, pointing at the stack the paper was in. Clearly, a gem capable of eating people isn't as high of a priority for him doing...whatever it is he's doing.

Jane Foster has posed:
Jane sweeps up some of the files, and slips them into a fireproof metal box. There are several stacked up against the two desks pushed together, and she uses the organizational model to make it clear where they go. Nodding to one of the lower-ranked agents, she asks, "Lawton, can you help me get these boxed up? I'm going to have them put back in the vault, as it's getting late. The horrors of living on the opposite time of everyone else." Another pair of hands makes the work go faster.

"I'll let you know about the Rakshasa Gem in detail, but it's supposedly cursed like the Hope Diamond," she tells Daisy. "Bad luck stretching back to the 1700s." More pages are slid inside another box, several heavy folders dumped atop it. The technology section is /thick/ with file folders and reports.

She nods to Hellboy. "Novosibersk? It turns the unfaithful into monsters, bringing their sins to the flesh. Nasty bit of work; I've got to ask one of our Russian experts about it. Might be time to prod Romanoff and Belova to see what kind of access they can flex." She laughs. "After I have a nap. And a cookie. It's probably unlikely I get offsite, Daisy, but if you want to catch up we can. I'm going to send word to Lara, too."