Log - Goin' places that I've never been

[musicdied]

Who: Yelena Belova (musicdied), Winter (worthallthis), Steve Rogers (punched_hitler)
When: Early January
Where: Gloucester, Wolf Trap, and the road between
Summary: Our intrepid investigators set out to dig into the past of the Lullaby Girl
Warnings: possible mention of character death, child death, terminal illness, car crashes, cancer, altered consciousness, supernaturally-induced hypersomnia; further warnings will be added in thread subject lines if needed


Even in the best conditions, it's a solid day's drive from Gloucester to Wolf Trap, and with winter solidly set in, it's easier to break it across two days, stopping for the first night before the last of the light leaves the sky, and picking up again in the light of day. That puts the trio's arrival around mid-morning, leaving plenty of time to get the lay of the land before they can check into their hotel for the duration of the stay.

It takes a few days of careful probing with the handful of foster and adoption agencies in the town and surrounding area to yield any results, and with three likely names, it only makes sense to separate. They can cover the needed ground more quickly that way, and avoid overwhelming the people they want to interview.

It's too late to start back after that, and so they have one more night to spend in Wolf Trap, time to take one last look at anything that stands out, or to simply get some rest before heading back to the hub of chaos that is Gloucester.

Comments

[musicdied]

She's not going to win, two against one, even if she doubts Steve knows even half of what he's arguing against, so she lets it lie. That's not the important part, anyway.

"Maybe," she says. "They made those masks that we used for the lucid dreaming seminars, maybe they make other sleep devices too. It shouldn't take too much searching to turn that up."

[worthallthis]

Winter just doesn't like hearing Yelena put herself down. He's touchy about it. "If so. Then whoever's behind that might have been what turned her to the entities somehow." Which is not making him feel great about those masks. He never used his, it made him feel too much like he was about to go on a mission, but other people did.

[punched_hitler]

Steve nods, frowning. He doesn't know exactly how turning to the entities works, precisely, but it sounds like it'd be a hell of a lead, if Yelena does turn something up.

He hadn't liked those masks, but he had used one, once or twice. Now he feels kind of gross about it, but also glad he hadn't done it more than just the few times. "I know Tony likes to give me a hard time for hating technology, but this does not make me more amenable to trying new things," he points out.

[musicdied]

"Maybe. But they might also be a target. Either way, it would be a potential lead."

She's still tapping away on her phone. After a few moments, she looks up with a grim little smile. "The Quicksilver stereo predates Copernicus the company. But Zyrian Steel did work on its development."

[worthallthis]

"Mister S," Winter suggests with a frown. It's the closest thing to a lead on that name they have so far, anyway. And Steel has come up more than once in the past, related to other things that have happened.

[punched_hitler]

"Well, that sounds disturbingly like something worth following up on," Steve agrees. Because there's coincidences, and there's things like this. (Honestly, he wonders if anything in this world is a coincidence, ever. Probably not. Especially not when it comes to the types of people and situations they're dealing with.)

"I don't know anything about him, though," Steve admits.

[musicdied]

"He is stupidly rich, and owns a tech company that makes a lot of medical devices. And swooped into Wolf Pen as soon as FYRE was driven out," Yelena supplies.

She sets her phone down on the desk and tips her chair back. "He has enough ties to ADI that we'll have to be careful with our digging, if we don't want to risk him being tipped off."

[worthallthis]

"Could just be economic rivals with FYRE and took advantage of the moment of weakness," Winter suggests, which is oddly capitalistic of him to know about. He mostly doesn't understand much about economics. But he did do some work to destabilize companies, as well, in the past, so knowing who was a big competitor to someone else was important. "But it has actual ties to ADI? Like the people there know about entities?"

[punched_hitler]

"If ADI weren't so damn squirrelly with their information..." Steve mutters, because he's starting to feel like this is definitely a case of information getting buried within departments and "need to know" labels. It's everything he didn't like about SHIELD (even before he knew they were HYDRA), and it's everything that's always bothered him about ADI.

He doesn't know what those ties are, himself, so he glances at Yelena, letting her answer that particular question. Though he also adds, "If anyone can dig without someone finding out, it'll be you."

He more than knows his own limitations, when it comes to that. "Best I could do is get their attention elsewhere."

Which is always something he's willing to do.

[musicdied]

"I don't think all of them know about the Entities. Not like ADI does," Yelena says. "But they were in Wolf Pen as soon as we left, and they supplied the masks for dreamwalking, and they've come up enough other times that I think some of them do. And maybe they're just economic rivals - but I don't think FYRE had a strong tech presence, and the way they folded..."

She spreads her hands in a little shrug. "It's like the company only existed to serve the cult, which gave them power, but would have limited their ability to be major players."

She pauses, then grins slightly. "I will try digging for information the quiet way, but it's definitely possible we'll need a distraction."