riverviewlogs | Log: I'll show you my dark secret.

The day had been slow so far, something Jason had gotten used to, he had the luck somehow to end up on peaceful days which just irked him. He needed an outlet and he didn't have much of one with his luck these days. He knew better than to wish for excitement though, the worst things came when he complained about being bored. Which he had done about an hour before heading out into the wild with a few other guys, namely Keith and Captain Barnes and a few other's, he always enjoyed getting to go out with Captain Barnes group, something fun usually happened.

So, the day had been slow so far but Jason was still amused as he walked along the beaten path with the others. It was by chance, at least he assumed as much, that when they stopped for a few minutes and Jason took a deep breath of the cold air seeming rather content with the weather. Something about the snow though had the smell of decay not far off mostly covered, and the cold Jason had caught was hindering that much, but the cold wasn't holding him back much. Just another annoyance.

Bucky is normally with search and rescue, and his assignments have been mostly solo for the last month or so. He had to come back eventually, though, and get back to working with his squads, the other guards. He's minus the shield today, wearing standard tac gear with a rifle slung across his back and a couple of handguns on his hip. The cold air is bracing, but he doesn't mind it much. Frost fogs over his metal fingers and his breath mists as he takes point through the wilderness.

"Seems all clear this way, maybe we should head east-"

Keith was... definitely not into cold. Having spent most of his life in the desert, this was annoying. Could also be a "fire Paladin" thing, too, but he wasn't looking too deeply into that. His Paladin armor did well, though, for keeping him insulated. After all, it had to work in outerspace, and if it could withstand that cold, then this was nothing.

His face was cold, though. He was seriously considering walking around with the facemask activated.

With them, a lion-sized red robotic cat was keeping to the edge of the group. Red was great for protection against and early detection of anything that might come their way. Her sensors could read further than they could see. She stayed out several yards, keeping watch on the team, most especially her Paladin, from beyond the tree line.

Keith heard Bucky talking, but his attention was suddenly pulled by Red in the back of his mind. He stopped in his tracks, his eyes losing focus for a moment as he listened to what the Lion was telling him in his head. Without waiting for Bucky to finish, he spoke up.

"Guys... Red's picked up on something pretty urgent. She says we should check it out."

Jason was dressed in his Red Hood gear, minus the helmet, instead of his Guard's uniform, with a hoodie over the chest plates and his leather jacket zipped up over it. The hood was pulled over his head to protect his ears but otherwise he was dressed as he usually was. Guns at his hips and a new blade pushed in between his belt and pants.

"East sounds good." He commented to Bucky, shoving his gloved hands into his jacket. Hearing Keith he looked back over his shoulder. "Yeah?" Huh, the lion was a girl, the more you learn. "Any idea what?"

Right. The robot cat is a female. Bucky takes the news in stride, not swayed into panic by the word 'urgent', though his hand does slide to one of the guns at his hip. Just in case it's one of the creatures that roam out here, driven out in search of a meal in the cold. "Got any specifics?" Urgent could mean just about anything, and his mind always strays to the worst. He's been out in these woods for the last month straight, almost.

"What direction?"

So, his informant was dead, he knew he probably should have told Puzzle's drinking buddies but that would just be to nice of him to do. Or even try to find out the dead man's real name... contact some kind of next of kin. Instead he sat at the counter nursing a drink listening to the ruckus as he usually did when he made his way down to the bar. Things were quieter tonight than they usually were this time of night, but the dead man had been one of the better pool players. He tended to get the guys going, Jason was going to have to find a new haunt at this rate. The place was losing its appeal with the crowd being either out celebrating the holiday or just playing cards and drinking. The bar tender at least looked relieved for an easy night.

Keith frowned, listening again for a moment to the silent mental poking only he was aware of. As he did, Red came out from the trees to stand near him. He looked back at Jay and Bucky again.

"She's not sure. She thinks its a person, but there's something wrong." If he was able to actually get in the cockpit and see the sensor readout, he could probably get something more defined, but he was relying on her ability to communicate it to him through their bond instead of actually seeing the screens himself. It was something he was still getting used to since her arrival in Quarantine. They didn't usually 'talk' this much to each other.

And then Keith visibly got an idea. He had a map of the area in his armor's data storage. He brought his hands up and tapped the red wrist gauntlet over his left wrist with his right hand. A holographic display came up.

"Show me what you're seeing," he told the Lion. He tapped it a few more times, and Red was able to project her sensor screen to Keith's wrist display.

"It's a body..." Red made a soft rumbling noise, suddenly understanding why her reading of a "person" seemed so wrong. There were no lifesigns. "Someone was dumped out here," Keith said. He brought up the map then, and Red was able to create a small dot on it for them to see. "Northeast... about 70 yards."

Edited 2017-12-05 17:03 (UTC)

Jason reached down just after Bucky pulling one of his gun's free. Thinking along the same lines, maybe it was a monster, or just something weird. "...That never sounds good." he muttered as he moved from near Bucky to move over to peer at the wrist screen.

"Jinkies, what a lucky day for us." Jason muttered dryly, looking back to Bucky, then to Keith. "well, I guess we have stuff to do now." He wasn't sure if they needed to call it in or not, but he was just pleased to have something to do.

Bucky watches the display impassively, eyes roaming the holographic display, though his brow creases slightly at the news. A body. Well, it could be worse, he figures. But he is with search and rescue, and body retrieval is sadly in his job description, so he shields his eyes from the glare off the snow as he searches out their direction, and nods once.

"Right, let's go. We'll take evidence and photos for HQ and the cops, and retrieve the body for identification." It'll be difficult to get a full forensics team out here like this. Plenty of creatures are on the move, and some of them are going to be scavengers. They have to document the crime scene as much as they can now and take the body away before it can be consumed by an opportunistic something or other. A quick glance at Jason, and he remarks with the briefest of wry smiles, "You were complaining about being bored."

With a slight jerk of his head, he takes point, pushing on northeast, off the trail.

Edited 2017-12-05 17:20 (UTC)

Yeah... way to jinx it, Jay. Keith gave Jay a somewhat sidelong glance as they started walking, and then sighed, though he was a little amused. Complaining about being bored, and then the robot lion picks up a dead body on its sensors. Sure. Bored.

Keith kept the map handy just in case, but Red moved up to Bucky's side, guiding in the direction she'd picked up the reading. Seventy yards in normal weather wasn't bad, but cold, dry air and a layer of undisturbed snow made it a bit harder and delayed their progress just a little. Once they got close, Red took a few faster steps ahead. Keith mentally held her back from doing anything to disturb the scene. That was grisly enough on its own, especially as they got closer and the distance and snow no longer held back any hint that the body was there.

The smell of decay was strong, and the body had been mutilated, cut and dismembered. The victim's face was locked in an expression of shock and horror. It was a man, mid-thirties with a goatee and one cloudy brown eye from the days of death, with the other missing. Around the pieces of the body were little bits of paper pinned on each, clearly done on purpose.

Keith brought his hand up to his nose to block the smell as much as he could.

"Sounds like a plan." Jason replied looking to Bucky a moment before back to the display. Straightening himself back up, he turned from them a second coughing again. The cold was more of a hindrance than not, pulling a handkercheif from his jacket pocket he blew his nose before moving to shove it back in his pocket and move after them north east.

"I regret nothing. Least we have something to do besides freeze out balls off." He replied in the same playful tone. His spirits were higher even with something as depressing as finding a body. He followed along after Keith, Bucky and Red. Not sure what they would be finding but it certainly wasn't what he was expecting.

No matter how long he worked around death he would never get used to the smell of old death, of decay like that, even with his cold he could smell it, and had a feeling he'd be smelling it for days if he didn't kick the cold soon. "Oh shit...." Jason muttered as he stepped forward past Keith just a bit but didn't touch anything yet. "Fuck, I know him." He spoke looking back at Bucky. "The guys at the bar call him Puzzle..." He makes a bit of an off put face looking down at the gore. "This explains where he's been the last week..."

Bucky tries to be the first on the scene. He follows the robot cat's guidance, leaving heavy bootprints in the snow behind. It's vaguely reminiscent of Siberia in the winter, long missions in cold locales, but he has to shove that aside. They aren't good memories, and there is work to be done. It's easier to focus on their body, like this.

When he reaches the scene, he breathes through his mouth, sharp eyes cataloging the area. With the coppery stench of blood and entrails heavy in the air, it's a wonder predators haven't set upon the site yet looking for an easy meal. "At least he'll be easier to carry back," Bucky remarks blackly, under his breath, not really trying to be heard. Dismemberment, mutilation, a missing eye. Scraps of paper.

Bucky reaches into his belt pouch for a pair of latex gloves. "One of you is going to be on photo duty. We need pictures of everything before we have to disturb the scene. Big picture and the smaller details. Anything that even hints at being relevant." He pulls on the gloves mechanically, and takes a careful step toward the body.

"He's been missing for a week? Looks like he's been dead for most of it. Do you think he was killed here, or was the body dragged out to set a scene?"

A week? Keith glanced at Jay when he said that. For that long and no one said anything? On top of that, Jay knew the guy. That had to be pretty disturbing. He frowned a bit, grimacing to himself as he started moving around the scene. He kept his distance for now as to not add any footprints, but the snow was already covering any tracks that might have been there from what he could see. He sighed.

Another nice thing about the Paladin armor was a built in scanner. The same feature that was good at recording terrain was good at recording scenes. As he moved, Keith held his arm out to scan the area and record what they were seeing. Depending on how he was doing it, the light he normally used as a flashlight was either going off like a camera flash, or staying on steady while he swept the scene.

"Hard to tell. It looks like the snow's covered up a lot of what might have been tracks or signs of a struggle," he offered.

Red positioned herself off from the group a bit, keeping watch in case some of the local wildlife got too curious and too close.

Jason sighed a bit shaking his head. "Probably... a few guys stopped coming in when the holiday started, I figured they were just all hanging out with family. I don't know any of them well enough to be concerned if they don't show up a few days. Hell, I don't even know his real name." He feels like maybe it says something about himself that he spends that much time in a bar that he knows when people were missing from it... but that would also mean admitting Puzzle was his informant. He wonders if he's the reason this man was dead, but the man hadn't had any info for him in weeks, just talking about a new job he had while playing pool with Jason.

He looked to Keith first to see if he had a camera, He figured whatever Keith was doing must be filming in some way.

"Nah, he was moved here. The way he's cut up there would be more blood splatter on the trees, even with the snow we'd see something, Not enough blood for this...though, he had two eyes last I saw him." He hated the voice in his head adding 'pieces of the puzzle are missing.' The bat training in him was already setting in mentally mapping it all out, trying to figure it out.

He pushed himself up and moved a few steps back as another found of sneezes hit him. Last thing he needed was to sneeze on the body.

Jason comes to the same conclusion Bucky is coming to as he surveys the scene. He doesn't worry too much about footprints, though he steps lightly; the snow makes things difficult. Any trail that might have been left, they'll have to find through other signs - broken twigs, crunched leaves beneath the dusting of snow, blood spatter or smear on the ground.

"That'd be my guess too," he mutters, stooping down near the body, reaching out with gloved fingers to touch the blood and test how tacky or dried it is. With all the snow keeping it from drying completely, it'll be a little harder to tell how long it's been here. "The body itself can't have been here long either. Predators would have chewed it up. This was... purposeful. Some kind of personal vendetta. Against Puzzle, or someone else, though?"

He motions Keith over. "Come record these bits of paper in closer detail before I disturb them. Step carefully."

Having him moved there meant there was a whole second scene to this. The police force was going to have a task on their hands. Keith was kind of glad he wasn't going to be doing that level of detective work. His 'crime board' technique for problem solving was more just a way of thinking, but that didn't mean he was going to be solving any crimes any time soon.

"Bless you," he said automatically as Jay sneezed... several times... and a few more.

He moved over to where Bucky indicated, taking a few close up shots of the papers in that spot, and then did the same for the papers elsewhere. They could get closer now that he'd done pretty much all the wide angles. He started working on more close up shots of the body and anything else as they continued to look the area over as well. Once he finished with the body, Keith would start taking a few shots of the terrain around them, too, looking for anything that might look useful... damaged foliage, blood, more papers, any bits of fabric or other marks that might have been left by whoever dumped the body.

"Thanks. Sorry." He grumbled coming back to them again as he shoved the handkerchief back in his pocket.

The papers themselves were ripped in ways that showed they had to fit together, bits of type on each one. A message to be put together eventually. ou om fo dy rm un the letters were out of order but easily fixed once they could be turned enough to really look at them. It was a personal message, both personal and business, but the person the message was for didn't even have a clue yet that it was for him, that he was being watched or followed even.

"Your right, the monsters would have devoured anything, and the snow would have ruined the paper. It snowed heavy last night, so, he cant have been here more than twenty four hours. This makes no damn sense." He could almost hear Bruce in his head chiding him for having a closed mind. "Make sure you get a wide shot of the snow Keith, the fact theirs not a trail of blood leading here is probably important." He offered before looking to Bucky. "Any chance one of you has a tarp? That might make moving him easier?" He hated the feeling it rose in his stomach but, it needed done, and last thing he wanted was an old blood slushie on him.

After coming home after spending his work day finding and relocating the body of one of his drinking buddies, Jason had finally had to come to terms with the fact he was sick. There was no hiding it by the time he clocked out, requesting the next couple of days off but leaving a message that he'd like to know anything they found out about the murder. He had gone to the bar before he had gone home, taken a long hot shower and made himself some tea with honey, lemon and a shot of whiskey before crawling into bed. A note left at the end of the bed.

'Do not attempt to wake.'

He thought it was both funny and practical. He knew most were out celebrating so he could probably get away with not being out and about in the festivities without people noticing right off. So, he easily slipped into a deep slumber hoping to sleep off the cold before it got worse, but with his luck he didn't expect much.

Edited 2017-12-05 19:35 (UTC)

Normally when Jason went out drinking with Ed it was to Trixie, which in itself was rare. So, when he asked Ed to join him he made a point of taking them to his favorite shitty little dive bar. Where it was getting colder, Jason had his hoodie on under his jacket with the red hood pulled up, shoving his keys in his pockets as he stopped at the bar to order them their first round. The waitress was to bring everything to their table. Which was in the back by some pool tables.

Jay lead Ed back towards the table nodding in greeting to a few people a fist bump given to a dark haired man with brown eyes. 'S'up Red.' 'S'up Puz' Was exchanged before Jason dropped in the chair and motioned Ed to sit across from him. "Welcome to the watering hole, this is my favorite place."

It's clearly a message. After they've been thoroughly photographed and recorded for forensic experts to look at later, Bucky looks them over, lips pressing tight. Those will need to go into an evidence bag and they can look them over more later.

Right now, though, there are other things on his mind. "Whoever did this knew we would be out this way to find it. If not us specifically, someone else with the Perimeter Guard would have gone this way. They must have access to patrol routes." Which is worrying, the thought that it might be Perimeter Guard, or it could just be someone watching them. "Fucker. They also probably knew we couldn't go after them just yet until we dealt with the body."

His expression is grim. "I've got a space blanket. We can use it like a stretcher. Two of us on the body, the third will take point back to headquarters."

Golden eyes roamed the place curiously as they walked in, because Ed was used to Trixie, and although he knew in theory it wasn't Jay's regular he had no frame of reference for what was. He'd always figured that was by design, Jason brought him to the place that he wanted Ed to see, and this wasn't it for whatever reason. There were many Edward could think of, but mostly having a place to go where no one knew to find him seemed like the most logical with his room mate.

It's not the worst place he'd ever seen, in all the worlds he's been on, but it definitely didn't strike him as the sort of place someone like Jay would casually bring his friends to. Taking in his surroundings was the first order of business, new place, new dangers, new environment to learn. Mostly, he felt like he stuck out - not just as a fresh face, but as someone that probably didn't belong. He watched Jason greet the others before sitting, sliding in across from him as directed.

"I take it this is where the real fun happens." At least, in Jay's opinion. "So, this is where you go when you're not dragging me along, huh?" That sounded a bit accusatory, but it was in jest - Ed didn't mind being dragged out when it gave him something to keep his mind off of other things. His whole life here was turning into one giant mess, if anything the location was fitting, it matched his mood.

The bar was an older looking one, a lot of wood on the walls and photos stuck in along with ads. The floor was covered in what looked like saw dust, but no one seemed to mind it. The crowd all kind of had their rough and tumble look which fit with Jason's aesthetic very well. An energy buzzed in the room, and while a LOT of people looked at Ed when he walked in, seeing who he came in with all of those eyes looked away. Jason had a reputation here. This was the same bar that Frank Castle had put him through the window of a few weeks back. He really liked Frank. Frank was cool.

Jason had a habit in any place, even the floor six sitting area. He had to have his back to a wall and his eyes able to watch all exits. Of course, Ed would know he's armed. He's ALWAYS armed in some way. "Oh yeah, this is the best place for fun." He spoke with a coy grin crossing his features like he was the Cheshire cat himself. "This is where I go every night, I did tell you I don't go to Trixie often. It's to much of a club for me. This." he lifted his hands up just a bit. "This is my kind of place, Trixie screams of Timbers. The differences in us right there." He says but not like he's fully convinced in truth. The drinks sat down, he'd ordered rum and coke for Ed and a boiler maker for himself. The girl smiled at them both before hurrying off. "See that window over there, the nice looking one." He motioned over as the Bartender gave him a sharp look and Jason flipped the guy off without missing a note. "That's the window I went through. Me and the other guy had to pay for it. So, yeah, that's my fucking window."

Edited 2017-12-07 15:21 (UTC)

"Got it already," Keith said in reference to the wide angle shot. He'd gotten those before anyone had moved too close in on the body to get an undisturbed shot.

Keith frowned at the idea of one of them being a potential target for something. Even if it wasn't one of them specifically, the idea that someone was clearly trying to send a message to either one, some, or all of those in the Guard was a little daunting.

He looked at Bucky at the idea of the blanket, and then glanced over at Red. She looked back at him, grumbling in the back of his mind about where his thought process was going.

"Does anyone have rope?" he asked, ignoring the Lion's protests for now. She turned where she was, facing them fully. Nope, she wasn't going to like this, was she?

"Good point. This was clearly left for someone to find. So, they have to have someone on the inside to know the trails." He offered, agreeing with Bucky.

"I can help carry the blanket and body." He offered before he moved a bit and twisted his wrist sending the zip line flying into a tree. the end of it coming free of the trap in the wrist of his suit. He didn't offer an explanation for why he had a zip line but, instead he moved from standing near Bucky to yank a knife from his belt and cut the hook off the end to roll it up and made his way back to them with the line, tossing it to Keith without a word.

"Someone smack me next time I complain about being bored."

"Or they are someone on the inside. They probably didn't even get very far before we got out here," Bucky grumbles, clearly displeased that they can't set their focus on tracking the perpetrator down just yet. But procedures are procedures, and dead bodies are to be retrieved if at all possible - for a proper burial, if nothing else.

He pulls out a space blanket from his belt emergency kit, and unfolds the tiny silvery square to a slightly foil-y blanket. Spreading it on the grass, he starts to move the body onto the makeshift tarp with gloved hands, testing just how frozen it feels while he's at it. Not very. Their conclusions are probably not far off. "I might just do that," he says a little wryly to Jason. "We could be beating each other up in a training hall with central heating right now, you know."

Log: I'll show you my dark secret.

Perimeter Guard - CW dead body and death descriptions

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Dive bar - Open

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Floor Six

CLOSED - A night out with Ed - Backdated to the 1st

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