maskormenacelogs | February Investigation catch-all

WHO: DAMIAN WAYNE, closed to Investigation plot CR
WHERE: Various locations
WHEN: Early February until Mid-February
WHAT: Robin is investigating a missing childrens' case, which brings him into contact with an array of characters.
WARNINGS: The kind of content you'd see usually see in a Detective Comics comic: violence, language, discussion of sensitive topics (murder, human trafficking, etc.)

NOTE TO PLAYERS: I've set the details of this plot up so you can feel free to tag at your own pace, or opt to handwave if you like!

START... MAURTIA FALLS.

Robin first picks up the trail of a few missing kids from the street; four children from the St. Nicholas Orphanage of Maurtia Falls Catholic Union. Assumed runaways, lost numbers in the system, they were originally a case file tossed aside by MFPD. But a key witness gives him a promising lead: Mortimer Stroud, a conman with a minor criminal history working at the orphanage as a part-time janitor under a different alias. Robin suspects he took advantage of his station, and sold some info upstream to interested parties about which children wouldn't be missed.

A catch-and-release interrogation gives him the location of a recently abandoned "workshop" in Maurtia Falls, and another name -- this time of a murdered criminal whose body was found by local police in de Chima: Warren Pierce.

LOCATION... DE CHIMA.

ASIDE: CRANE

Although in de Chima on business, there's some personal motive for Damian to make a visit out to the city. Ever since he discovered this world's Bruce Wayne, he's kept an eye on the older version of his father from afar. However, curiosity wins out, and draws him closer -- close enough to find out Dr. Jonathan Crane has, somehow, insidiously inserted himself into Wayne Enterprises. He has time for a little visit.

SABRIEL

Warren's effects are being held in the police evidence locker, and his body down in the department morgue. Sabriel, on RISE business, catches Robin in the middle of his investigation, and -- after some back and forth -- uses her skill to chat with Warren's ghost long enough for an interrogation, and another name: "CONSTANTINE."

LOCATION... MAURTIA FALLS.

JOHN

Constantine is suspicious, and an asshole, but Damian knows enough to know he (probably) wouldn't be involved on the wrong side of this kind of business. However, a lead is a lead, and the "supernatural advisor" is getting a visit from Robin: whether or not John's sober enough to deal with him. Turns out Constantine knows Warren -- enough to inspire a spiteful grudge that lasted beyond the grave, evidently. Constantine also knows a few other characters who ran in the same circles.

ASIDE: MOTOKO

Other children have gone missing, and these kinds of cases are bound to cross-over the deeper into the criminal underbelly an investigation gets: Robin runs into the Major, who's following up on her own threads. She's got some opinions on a boy getting involved in this kind of business, and Robin has some opinions about her opinions.

ALFIE

Those leads have born fruit: an informant has named Alfie Solomons as a lead player in what is looking, increasingly, like a child-trafficking scheme. Alfie isn't too happy to hear that he's been thrown under the bus, used as a scapegoat and a distraction, and conned by his own clients into unknowingly taking part in the kind of unsavory business even he wouldn't touch. He has the real identities of the perpetrators to give Robin -- one of them the very informant who pointed him Alfie's way.

DARYL

He's close. But his investigation has ground to a halt, as the ringleaders went underground at the tip-off of an investigation, and he's no closer to finding out where the children are being held. He's learned from the best that sometimes a change of track, a step back, is needed. A person -- an "angel" -- keeps coming up in several related cases, and that person might have some answers... if he can find and flush him out. (Daryl, turns out, has a special kind of insight.)

AURICAN, BRIANNA, and SHELKE

With Daryl's help, Robin is able to finally track down where the missing children are being held captive, only to discover a major operation in progress: nearly thirty youth have been taken and stored at a riverside warehouse to be handed off down the line, and among them are several imPorts. However, Robin isn't the only one to be making his move; neither Aurican nor the Breeze have been sitting quietly or waiting on rescue...and Shelke is in the same boat as them.

ALFIE, REVISITED

The main players behind the operation -- this hub, at least -- escaped in the chaos, going deep underground again in hopes of evading Robin's chase. But where they lose the vigilante, they find the man they double-crossed. Their bodies are found a week later, dumped among the trash and grime of Maurtia Falls' personal "crime alley" -- and it doesn't take a genius detective to guess who was behind it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[There are a lot of reasons for Alfie not to be particularly happy about all of this. The one that's forefront in his mind right now is that fact that he's being called by a ten-year-old crime-solver.

It's fucking ridiculous, really.]

Right. Let me just lay this out, here. You want me to give you the names of some very bad men, so that you can stop them yourself. Have I got that?

Dealing with 'very bad men' is my profession.

[ His posh, gruff little voice hold much in the way of patience. He's declared his terms and set out his expectations, as simple and direct as a battering ram knocking, relentless, at Alfie's door. It's a tall order from a short boy, but he's serious, all steel. He tracked Alfie down, after all. ]

Not like you have any reason to protect them, do you? Black market client confidentiality agreements don't exactly survive one of the parties being thrown under the bus. It could've been the police instead of me.

[ And he's willing to trade key information for looking the other way. The cops are corrupt, but chances are they would have been more keen on taking the scapegoat and seeing Alfie behind bars. ]

I'm not interested in protecting them.

[And that's true. Human trafficking isn't his thing, and being thrown under the bus definitely isn't.]

You're a fucking infant; you don't have a profession. Send someone ten years your senior and we can talk.

[ His jaw rolls, clenching; Damian keeps a tight mask of controlled disdain when he's speaking as Robin, long since used to being spoken down to. ]

This 'fucking infant'-- [ Curse rolling off his tongue with enunciated scorn. ] --was whetting my blade in combat when other children my age were still wetting their beds.

I don't need supervision to negotiate, and I want those names, Solomons. Square up and talk business.

[ Like a dog with a bone: this kid's not shaken off so easily. ]

[Alfie looks straight at him, unblinking.]

Or what?

I'll find them, either way.

But for every minute of suffering the children they stole would have been spared otherwise -- you'll pay for the delay tenfold.

[ Swift, brutal vengeance. ]

[That actually gets to him. Damian might see it flicker in his eyes. It's not the threat that bothers him - that's par for the course, and nothing that he hasn't heard before (or threatened himself, or carried out upon others). But he doesn't actually want a bunch of terrified kids to be sitting locked up in some warehouse somewhere. And he knows that if he killed the men who framed him immediately, the location of their victims would die with them, and they'd be that much harder to find.]

This is fucking ridiculous. Vigilante children. Fucking hell.

[He whips out a pad of paper and starts writing down names.]

[ Success. They've reached an understanding. He lets the tension drop from his shoulders, tilts his chin up in satisfaction; he'll have his names, and will bring justice to bear upon the kidnappers all the quicker for it.

He thinks, snorting, that adults are just fooling themselves if they think someone his age isn't capable of the same feats -- or atrocities -- as anyone a decade older. ]

As if a child soldier is the most absurd thing the world has to offer? But if you still have complaints, feel free to direct them to my mother.

[ Dead, and may she stay that way. ]

I'd like to, yeah. Is she here?

No. And the world's all the better for it.

[ Drawled, and laden with bitter vitriol. There's no love lost between them, or so he tells himself.

He studies the man, eyes narrowed and considering. Someone like Solomons would hear about the al Ghuls, if they arrived, well before Damian, or even his father, would. They were adept at staying in the shadows until they saw fit to strike, and with all the elseworlds out there, the chances aren't as slim as he'd like. ]

However, I wouldn't be surprised if she did make an appearance. If you catch wind of someone going by Talia al Ghul, I'd like to know.

Yeah.

[That he doesn't mind passing on to the kid.]

I would ask if your age is why you don't work with the police, but they don't mind bringing kids in as imPorts, do they.

[Even though he just gave Damian the names, he's still going to be dismissive because of the age thing.]

Age has less to do with it than incompetence.

[ Corruption, cowardice, or convenience -- it doesn't take much for men in the force to look the other way. Especially in cities like this. Men like Gordon were rare, few and far between.

Even Damian has a healthy, grudging respect for him. The Commissioner kept the signal on through the darkest of nights. ]

Why do you think I'm doing this in the first place? Orphans and guttertrash -- the MFPD didn't give a damn about children who weren't going to be missed anyway.

Age has plenty to do with it when you're seven.

[He says this despite the fact that he actually pegs Damian as closer to ten or eleven.]

Don't go through the police, then. If they don't care, others will. Tell them about it. Give them this list.

[ Damian is, possibly, the only kid in the entire world who doesn't rise to the bait to argue over exactly how old he is -- truly, unnatural. His stare only narrows, deceptively stoic. ]

Not a chance.

[ His pride would full-on revolt. His nose wrinkles in disdain at just the thought of it. ]

Better to save your concern for someone who needs it. I'd say our business is done here.

[ The gruffest brat -- charmless and abrupt -- but he gives a grudging nod of thanks. ]

[When Damien doesn't rise to the bait, Alfie can't help but be impressed. It's not going to make him treat him like an adult, but still. The kid has moxie.]

Whatever information you find, pass it on to me.

[Because once this is all cleared up, he's going to kill the fuckers in charge.]

-Tt.- I'll think about it.

[ Smirk tugging at his lips -- someone made a grave error in letting this particular gremlin loose on the world to inflict himself upon folk like Alfie.

Though there's no doubt in his mind that, should they cross paths again, the only info Damian will be handing him is their visiting hours at prison. He's got this handled, and closing in. ]

Later, Solomons.

February Investigation catch-all

ALFIE

private network conversation ; let me know if this works!

in media res is always perfect yesss

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