Log:He Makes All Those Wonderful Toys

2020/11/23 	 Carpenter Grimm Toymaker

1

As always, the conference rooms at the CBPD somehow manage to smell of stale coffee and stress with an undercoating of sugary sweets. The call is all set up and ready to go. When the connection is made, the recording will start automatically due to the prep by the technical boffins. The same boffins will attempting to trace the call. They have side bets as to how long it takes a meta gadgeteer to catch on. Long odds that he won't.

Someone has taken the effort to clean up the room at least. And put out fresh, bad coffee on a side table.

Grimm has had precinct coffee before. She can do better! She arrives with a carrying case with two coffees in it, fresh from Coffeebucks.

Carpenter smiles as Grimm produces coffee. "Thanks. The coffee here...isn't THAT bad. But I still prefer stuff from elsewhere if possible."

Grimm chuckles. "I think you're just used to it in a pinch," she grins, then shrugs. "And I thought I'd treat you. I'm allowed."

A boffin who's putting the last touches on, smiles upon hearing that, and grabs the precinct coffee on his way out to monitor the call.

Carpenter grins. "Well, coffee from there can be a bit pricy. I'd understand. But thank you."

"I can at least afford coffee," Gabrielle says, about to say more, then she looks to the recording equipment. She cuts herself off, but grins impishly. "And you're welcome."

A disembodied voice comes over the trideo connection, "This is Listener One, we're going silent. Call when you want. We'll flash your PDA if something comes up, Detective Carpenter."

Carpenter goes ahead and places the call and gets situated to wait to see if there's a response.

Grimm sits down and sips her coffee quietly.

There is series of old style clicks as if physical connections are being made for the call. It's a bit old style. And then the seated image of a man appears in trideo. He seems to have a trim, athletic build. He's dressed in black, grey and red jester's motley partially covered by a coveral with many pockets on it. His hat lacks bells on the ends of the five drapes on it but does keep down his dark red hair. His face is covered by a metal smiling mask as he tilts his head to one side.

"So," the man says in a strong Scots brogue, "what cannae do fur the CBPD, Detective Carpenter?"

Grimm thinks. o O (Man, that...is a look. And a creepy one that's going to give me nightmares.)

Carpenter smiles, "I'm hoping you can help us out with a case. Give us a lead. We have smoeone locally using nanites of some kind to bilk local people. The targets are...in theory allegedly criminal elements. But...not all. Whoever this person is...doesn't necessarily do their homework. But..they're using technology which reminded me of Merry Andrew's. And your own."

"And can ye show me a copy of tha nanite in question? They have such unique profiles, aye?" asks the Toymaker. "And like Merry Andrew's? Huh, nae tha is odd. Ne'er met the man in person, don't run in the same circles. Pluse, he's crackers."

Carpenter shows the information that he has. The partial image. And the broken connector.

The Toymaker leans forward slightly. Then you see him gesture with his left hand. From your side, nothing changes, but you can hear him whistle softly before leaning back. "Interestin'. Seems like someone's putting me idears to work. I'd near forgot about tha musing. Clever. Hae to remember tha."

Grimm raises a brow at that and looks to Carpenter questioningly.

Carpenter nods. "That's why I thought to contact you. I figured your reputation was also on the line here."

"Weel, only if this Robbing Hood," he chuckles, "gets caught. Then something based on me inverting gets into the public domain. If naught caught, no foul, aye? How's he using them then? Grifting, aye, got tha. But what exectly is he using 'em for?"

Carpenter says, "This one was used to mess up a security system at the location which...wasn't necessarily a criminal one. So, at the moment, I think he might believe he's a Robin Hood sort, but one who doesn't do enough legwork about his targets."

Grimm sips her coffee and listens, still letting Carpenter take the lead on his case.

"Ah, amateur then. At least in the hoodin' department, aye," muses the Toymaker as he reaches up to stroke his chin, then stops as his fingets hit the mask. He looks down at his hand for a moment. "Hmm...Makes sense. Interface is programmable and can send the nanites to help compromise tha system. Aye, well, tha's how /I'd/ do eet. If I was to do such a criminal act," he adds.

"But, here's the ood thang: tisn't entirely me design. Oh, based on it, aye. Or so similar I'd think me twin did it iffen I had one. But, got sum, hmm, advanced elements to it. Don know enuff about 'em alien tech, but, well, it's a bit too...smooth fur me nanites. Mine are rough, don have the...ploish of decades, nu centuries of design. It's like someone took me ideers and fused them with something tha already had. It's brilliant!" his voice rises a bit at the end.

And...now he has those design ideas, Grimm thinks.

Carpenter puts the evidence away. "So, who would have had access to your work?"

"Du ye think afore ye throw this poor Robin in the jails, I can speak to him or her? They show real talent," asks the Toymaker in a tone that suggests he knows the answer is No.

The meta maker of 'those wonderful toys' then answers your question, "Fur tha ideer? Anyone who could get ahold of me, hmm, pre-business days. Not many copies of the theses aboot. Glad to see someone read it other than...well, tha's near here nor there."

Carpenter tilts his head, "Other than...whom?"

"I was, um, rather forcibly head hunted by those who like to keep such foine ideers to themselves, Detective Carpenter. It's why I went into bizness fur meself instead. If anyone's to profic from me work, it'll be me making such fur others as I choose, not under anyone's orders," states the Toymaker. "To be specific, I 'spect twas either ACRo or VIPER. Or someone seeking to sell me to the highest bidder. In any case, they dinnae expect resistance."

The Toymaker waves a hand. "And this were near 15 year ago in any case."

Which lines up with when Evander McMillan dropped out of CBSU without fininshed his Master's progran at 19.

Grimm thinks and looks to Jack. "Is it possible they're an ACRO customer? If they have notes on his tech...maybe they sold it."

Carpenter's PDA flashes a message on silent: Listener One here. Signal keeps getting boucned every second of so. No luck tracing yet.

Carpenter nods as he glances at his PDA. About what he expected. He looks to the Toymaster. "Mr. McMasters, is there anything else you can provide us to help?" Yes, he did drop the name on purpose.

Grimm stays quiet and tries to gauge the Toymaster's reaction.

The Toymaker goes still for a long moment then does a sitting bow from his seat. "Well, now tha nae a name I've heerd in while," says the Toymaker in a curious tone. "Relly, I left old Evander behind when I took up me new name," he states as he reaches up and takes off the smilig metal mask on his face. "But, no matter, I suppose."

It appears his hair really is a dark red and, at one time, he was probably quite an attractive man, as the right side of face, the human side, reveals along with a dark green eye. The left side of his face is deeply scarred, the scars leading from his forehead to chin and through where his left eye once was. Now, a very advanced looking, but glowing green, cybernetic eye rests in the flattened metal around his eye socket with circuitry radiation out from it. The Toymaker seems to be around 30 years old.

In a flat tone, he offhanedly murmurs, "Well, ye said Merry Andrew's nanites were similar to tha one? Ye might want to look into any prints he's left behind. And compare them to the partial ye have o' mine in your deebee. I shall say, Merry Andrew's not from around here but I am, born an bred. The world's an interestin' place, innit it?"

He leans forward then waves, a jaunty smile on his face, if not in his eye, "Ta fur now! Call iffen ye need any toys!" And with that the link snaps off.

Grimm tries not to winces at the freakshow that is the remnants of the Toymaker's face. She looks to Jack after the call ends. "He was better with the mask..."

Carpenter takes a deep breath and looks to Grimm, and he nods. "Taht was...I suspect done forcefully. Could still be either VIPER or ACRO. But I don't think ACRO does that to the scientists for the most part. Just field agents. But our intel could be wrong.

Another message flashes on your PDA. "Sorry, lost conn. Putting out a fire down here. Back up in a moment."

Carpenter raises a brow and he relates the message for Grimm. "I suspect he didn't like getting traced.

Grimm looks shocked at that. "Shick. Well if they did that to him, no wonder he's turned so...eccentric and gone freelance." She nods slowly. "I don't think he appreciated that--wait, what sort of fire issue are they dealing with?"

A fire alarm goes off for a coile of seconds then ends. A voice comes over the intercom, "Everything under control. Ignore that." It's the voice of Dr. (FORGOT HER NAME SHE CSI LEAD YOU TALKED TO).

Carpenter looks up. "Literal, it sounds like? I suspect we need to follow up on that."

Grimm nods and starts to get up from her seat. "If he's sent evil killer dolls to set fire to this place, I'm going to run screaming," she gives Carpenter a cheeky but fair warning. And a wink.

Carpenter chuckles and gets up, "We should head to the lab and see what happened."

A quick trip down to the CSI labs reveals that one of the computers has gone up in flames. It was contained rather quickly but one male tech is moaning about 'lost all the tracking software I got from her. And we're not dating anymore!?! HOw'll I replace it?!" while being consoled by another one.

Dr Vi Abby looks over at him, shakes her head, then motions to the two of you to come over to another lab as a safety officer shows up.

Carpenter raises a brow as it's made clear that the tech didn't make backups when he should have. He walks over, following the doctor.

Grimm coughs and waves at the air to disperse the burning electronics smell. "Got from who?" Gabrielle asks the grieving tech.

As Dr. Vi Abby closes the lab door, she says, "A CSI with the UEMS he dated for a while. I don't think he told her he'd 'borrowed' the programs." She goes over to a compiter and fires it up with a wave of her hand.

Carpenter nods. "So, what happened?"

Grimm looks over at the computer. "Yeah. How'd he manage to do that remotely?"

"Gary, Listener One, insisted with the programs he could track the Toymaker." She smiles widely. "Good job of getting him to admit to his ID by the way. I won the pool on that one. That you'd get him to crack. But back to the story, right?"

As she calls up what Detective Carpenter recognizes as the fingerprint ID database and enters some commands, she adds, "Seems he sent a signal, well, a red dragon icon, Welsh I think, that sent the hard drive's fans into overdrive. Spun itself up and wouldn't shut off. Then sent a pulse of electricity like a piece of primer. And poof! Set it off. Not a big fire, no danger to anyone. Or, could be he's a cyberkinetic. Hoping not. Hate when they get into the systems."

Carpenter nods. "If he is...he'll want to avoid ACRO, for sure. Based on what I know of the AI that runs that organization." He looks at what she's bringing up on the computer. "Was he suggesting we check to confirm it isn't him?"

Dr. Vi Abby is totes arid today rocking a perky Goth outfit from head to toe. Like everyday. She gets away with it because one, she's very very good at her job; two, it's rumored she has something on the head of the labs; and 3) she's told HR it's part of her religious beliefs as a dedicated sister of the Church of Night.

Grimm cringes at the mention of cyberkinetic. "Ugh, I always figured cyberkinetics were creepers," she utters. She looks to Carpenter. "Maybe he doesn't want amateur work prescribed to him?"

"Don't know, but, I got his partial pulled up. She taps a button and a brings up a holo of half a fingerpring with a looping scar on it. "OK, there's the Toymakers. See the old scar? Probably sliced up a bit, made a big loop of skin that then grew back together. So, where are Merry Andrew's..." She staps some more buttons.

Grimm looks queasy at the mention of the scar.

Carpenter nods and waits, relatively patiently.

Dr. Vi Abby pulls up another set of fingerprints then projects them up in a holo as well. She flips through some, discarding some, then points at the few that remain. "Huh, look at the scarring on his right hand. Looks like fire or acid burns on most of the fingers. And...." She selects one and enlarges it then brings it next to the Toymaker's fingerpring. "OK, see, this is why using computer somwtimes doesn't work. I mean, yes, obviusly with the melted scarring on Merry Andrew and the cleaner one on the Toymaker's they can't be the same finger. Not to mention the signs of aging in the wrinkles on Merry Andrews. But...."

She tochessome buttons, removing the scars on both, the wrinkles on one, and then overlaps them. The computer comes up with: 90% match. "And, with that, I'd normally declare them twins. But, well..." She shrugs and smiles as she looks over at the two of you.

Carpenter raises a brow at that. "Clones, maybe?"

Dr. Vi Abby shrugs. "Get me some DNA and I can tell you. Until then, well, it's an interesting puzzle, huh?" She grins widely.

Grimm shifts uncomfortably as they move on to Merry Andrews, scowling a bit. "You're telling me that whacky clown and this guy are...alters?" She looks to Carpenter. "If it's the Merry Andrews I had the misfortune of dealing with, he's from another universe.

Carpenter nods. "Taht's also possible. Could be alternate dimensions. But...we have a third party here, right? This 'Robin'. What if it's...just another clone?"

Grimm nods softly and thinks. "I mean...it could be. Clone, alter, something related?"

Carpenter nods. "Quite possible. Have any way of checking for like...dimensional whatever?"

The CSI lead looks over at Grimm as she speaks then back to Carpenter. "Yes, I, um, think I'm a lot more comfortable with clone. But, yes, alters could work as well. Just get's a bit beyond what I can, hmm, riff on as a CSI.

"But, if clones, then Merry Andrew is older than the Toymaker, bases on the signs of aging in the prints. How much older? Well, no way to tell."

Grimm nods. "There is, if I can either be near the person, or be somewhere they were known to be before the 'trail' goes cold."

Carpenter nods to both of them. "Okay. So...what next, then?"

Grimm looks rather reluctant. "I...might know of a potential hangout for Merry Andrews or some of his crew, if that's the route we're going."

Carpenter shakes hsi head, "I think it's a third party. So, no need to go that route.

Grimm lets out a sigh of relief.

"Well, if you give me any evidence, I can tell you what it tells me," states Dr. Vi Abby. "Shall I pencil in Evander McMasters as the suppoed ID for the Toymaker into the criminal deebees, Setective Carpenter?"

Carpenter nods to the doctor. "Sure. We'll see how long it remains there, too."

Goth CSI smiles brightly. "That's why /I/ keep an off site, non-networked system for critical meta crime data. It's a pain to update, but boy, does it pay off at times." She types the name into a file she brings up in the CBPD database and fills in the Toymaker's real name in it. "And now," she says as she opens up a physical note pad and writs it down. "For transfer later."

Grimm is impressed at the measure. She looks to Jack. "Alright, Detective Carpenter. What do we do next?"

Carpenter shrugs, "I'm not sure. Check out some of the other locations, and look for more clues, I guess. I think we've hit the end of this immediate thread."

With no leads at the moment and CSI looking into the other evidence for now, Grimm and Jack are are a dead end for the moment. Gabrielle lets out a soft sigh. "Man, I really hope it's not second Merry Andrew. One is bad enough," she grumbles.

Carpenter shrugs, "Whoever it is, they're not the same, personality-wise. We know that already. These aren't pranks.

"Thank heaven for small favors. I got a score to settle with CLOWN for the last time I ran into them," Gabrielle comments. She thinks back on the Toymaker and a brief shiver works its way up her spine. "Ugh, the toy theme just really creeps me out. So we got prankster on one end, pro on the other. So maybe our culprit is more...middle of the road?"

Carpenter nods. "So...if we figure the same base personality, something set Merry Andrew off, and put him into the 'wacky' end of the spectrum. I think...the odds are good that whoever it is has a sense of humor, but a drier one. They're pulling one over on their targets, and they're happy about it.

"And toys seem to still be a unifying theme. Merry's are embarassing, but harmless. Toymaker's 'toys' are much more dangerous and serious. Maybe we're lucky and this middle Toy guy has toys that're safe but serious?" Grimm shrugs.

Carpenter shakes his head, "We have no indication that this person is using a toy theme at all, as far as I can tell?"

Grimm shakes her head. "Just the nanites. I guess in that case, toys just means inventions? I wonder if Andrews' joybuzzer is just constructed by nanites. Hmmm..."

Carpenter nods. "We don't know Merry Andrew's real name, do we?"

Grimm frowns in puzzlement and rubs her chin. "Huh. You know...I always just thought Merry Andrew was his real name for some reason," she chuckles.

Carpenter chuckles. "It might be Andrew something or other."

Grimm grins. "Probably. Hmm...so we have Andrew, and McMasters's name. Maybe we do searches for those?"

Carpenter nods. "Worth trying. I think we might get more physical evidence at the other locations in question, but those might be our only options."

Grimm nods and chews her lip. "Sounds like it. I hate to say it, but it sounds like we may not have much luck until this guy strikes again."

Carpenter nods, "We haven't exhausted everything yet...but...you're probably right."

"Not yet, no. But the magical clue I have is just really hard to pin down. I just know I'd recognize it if I sensed a hint of it again," Grimm comments after some thought.

Carpenter nods again. "What was it that you sensed, again?"

Grimm takes a breath and holds it, her cheeks puffed out a bit as she thinks. Then she slowly lets it out. "Similar to Fae Glamor magic, but a bit more manufactured. So more like they an enchanted item that was doing the fae glamour, only not as strong, since the illusion doesn't last."

Carpenter nods. "I got the impression that Fae glamour has a lifespan, too. Sunrise? Sundown? Something like that.

"Traditionally sunrise. Sometimes contact with cold iron can dispel certain things, but not all," Gabrielle tries to recall.

Carpenter nods. "So...would cold iron have dispelled what you sensed?"

"Maybe...I'm afraid my senses won't tell me that for certain. But experience says...maybe?" Gabrielle looks over the rings on her fingers. She twists on of them to loosen in a little. "Some of these are cold iron. Some are silver. Aside from looking cool, they had uses when it comes to dealing with the supernatural," she comments. "If I touched it to a suspected item, it might break the enchantment. But that's still no guarantee."