The year is 1999. A group of agents with the FBI quickly discover a routine case is anything but. Thrust into a world that's as incomprehensible as it is deadly, can this team hope to hold back the darkness?
"Yes, let's introduce ourselves to the sheriff first," says Vanessa. "Then we'll find ourselves a place to stay." She has chosen the most nondescript car in the motor pool, hoping to blend in with a vehicle that at least doesn't scream "government." She realizes that they probably fit the bill of the "Men in Black," yet another typical element of the alien narrative.
OOC: So, seems like you're leaning towards having two vehicles, both as nondescript as possible?
The team continues into the town itself. The Groversville "main street" is fairly impressive, in so far as small towns go. The shops look well kept and there are few shuttered buildings. This may be due to the town being the county seat and thus the regional headquarters for all the surroundings towns. Doubtless some of the other towns in this part of the country were not as seemingly prosperous. The downtown itself takes up only a few blocks. It's business range include a barber shop( with a functional barber pole outfront) The Groversville grocer, and a bank. There's even a Chinese restaurant, though neither its name(Chairman WOW'S! Kung Pow) or the picture (a smiling Asian gentleman with buck teeth and slanted eyes that would have not been out of a place in a WW2 pamphlet) inspire much confidence. The few people walking around seem perfectly normal, though they do look very interested in the newcomers as they pass by.
OOC: Everyone can make an Alertness roll.
Success,Among the businesses, three of them seemed owned by the same person. They are: Merle's Country Bunker, a liquor store of some sort; Merle's Auto & Body, a car mechanics shop; and Merle's Shut in, what seems to be the town's hotel.
The police station itself is situated in the center of town, right next to what appears to be city hall. It like most of the town's buildings is humbly built but clearly well kept up suggesting some degree of civic pride among the town folks. The American flag flies proudly alongside the Tennessee state one.
The insides of the station are made up of a few desks and a few doors leading further back into the building. One of them seems to be the sheriff's office. The other one off to the right seems to lead back to the cells.
There's only one person here visible at the front desk. He's a younger deputy, seemingly asleep. He has apparently not noticed the group's arrival.
Nik also notices the ubiquity of Merle – he could be someone useful to talk to.
At the police station, he positions himself in front of the sleeping deputy, ready to engage with him if he wakes while the others are snooping around. He holds his badge and ID in his hand.
Vanessa also takes out her FBI badge and ID and stands at the front desk to block the deputy's view of the others, waiting to see if the deputy notices them.
OOC,Alertness roll (52% skill) in town:
[dice]0[/dice]
Griff sees nothing out of the ordinary for small town life; there's an ad for a bake sale and one for bingo night, but no signs of any missing person posters.
It's around this time that the deputy opens his eyes and lets out a yelp at the four strangers in the station, two of them in front of him.
"Uh... help you folks?"
"You fall asleep again, Joshie?" Came an amused voice as the door to the office opened. Out came a man. He's short and heavy, his uniform seeming to have trouble containing his girth. He looks to be in his late 40's or early 50's.
"You boys the federals from Knoxville? We were expectin' you, but I thought it'd be tomorrow. You folks like to burn the midnight oil don'tcha?" He offers a hand to shake along with a broad grin. ""I'm Dan Oakley, Sheriff 'round these parts, or at least that's what it says on my uniform here. Right pleased to meet you. We got the call 'round here a few hours ago. You folks sure work fast up there in the big city." He chuckles.
"So, apparently Billy Ray put our town on the map, as if we needed more press. A tragedy. Billy Ray was always a bit of a rascal, but I never thought he'd turn to crime. But you folks are all wrong in thinking drugs had anything to do with all this. I've been Sheriff of Groversville for goin on thirty years, and short of a Mary Jane patch or two, we've never had hide 'nor hair of any drug production 'round these parts. Those kind of problems don't happen here. We're a nice, friendly community. Says so on the sign, don't it?"
He holds up a hand as if to silence any protest. "That 'bein said, I know you folks are gonna have to do your jobs, what with Billy Ray bein' a national fugitive and all now. So feel free to poke around here to your heart's content. Just don't go harrasin folk, that's all I ask. And If me or my deputies can help in any way you just go and give a holler. I make myself clear?"
“Understood, Sheriff”Nik says. “We think that Billy Ray was recruited for his local knowledge. Too many strangers would stick out, wouldn’t they? Speaking of which, are there any facilities in or around the town which might have appeared recently? Or any businesses sold to outside parties? Production facilities, labs, farms, dairies, storage units; anything like that?”
"Crystal clear, Sheriff," says Vanessa, shaking his hand. "I'm Special Agent Vanessa Marchand. Anything suspicious you've noticed about any of the outsiders who are coming to Groversville of late? The whole media circus that's sprung up would be perfect cover for criminals trying to slip in."
Oakley thinks. "Not that I've seen," and his tone makes it clear the idea of any new places sprouting up without his knowledge was simply impossible in his eyes. "Most of the new folk comin here are just looky loos, not criminals."
"Speaking of, we've had a fair bit of tourism lately." His face darkens. "You've all seen that UFO stuff then? Probably joked about it. Folks, let me tell ya, I've lived here my entire life; ain't ever seen one little green man. I don't know who started this nonsense about Groversville but it's categorically false, and that's the truth. Most of the folks who come here have been reporters and the like, a few UFO so-called researchers as well. They've been makin' a burden of themselves all round' town, harrasin' the locals to try and get a story. A few of them have gotten overzealous, and I've had to warn a couple of them to back off. There was that Saucerwatch reporter, What was his name... Adams, Adams something. Got a few complaints about him being a bit aggressive. Went down and talked to him though, and he was fairly 'polgetic. Think he left town; probably dissapointed in not 'findin any alien space men. Anyway, sorry for goin' off on ya. Just wish all this nonsense would end. If you get to talkin to folks in this town don't bring up aliens; it's a bit of a sore spot and we're all rightly tired of it."
"As for places to stay, for accommodation I'd go with The Shut-Eye. It's the only hotel in town limits. The nearest hotel outside is twenty miles or so north, up in Mt. Juntou, and I gather you folks don't want to travel that far. Now, the Shut-Eye only has twelve rooms, but even with the recent news bringin in some lookie loos, I think they'll probably have a vacancy or two. And if you get hungry, it's right next to Ruth's, the town diner. Ruthie makes a delicious meatloaf, let me tell you. And for breakfast, her hotcakes are a real gem. She's open till Ten at night, give or take. I ain't never heard Ruth rushing folks out of her restaurant, but then you folks ain't locals, and that might make her a bit sore givin' recent events." He guffaws.
OOC: Please only read the spoiler below if you think your character would be interested in Ufology enough to be familiar with Saucerwatch
Saucerwatch,Saucerwatch is one of the most famous UFO investigation groups. Where most of them can be described as either kooks or incompetents if eager amateurs, Saucerwatch uses scientific inquiry and approaches every case with a skeptical eye. They are known for demanding a high degree of proof before declaring a UFO sighting a truely unsolved mystery. There was some hints of scandal in their background, but the details are not readily familiar to your agent, and would require further investigation.
Griff has little interest in dumb-ass conspiracy theory TV shows, so mention of Saucerwatch washes over him.
"Ruthie's huh? I'm sure if we tell her you recommended the place, she'll stay open for us." He grins. "The Shut-Eye: that Merle's Shut-Eye? I guess he's the go-to guy around here if we need anything?"
After the case in Arizona, Nik is now interested in talk of alien sightings, knowing that in fact they can be real. Saucerwatch is a name he is vaguely familiar with.
“I’m sorry to bring it up again, Sheriff” he says. “But we have to pay attention to any deviation in the daily life of the town. I don’t plan on asking the townfolk because it's probably nothing, but I’d like to hear from you about these sightings, just to put my mind at ease. How did talk of them begin?”
"Heh, well so long as you don't call her Ruthie. She hates that name. Be right sore with ya." He grins.
"Yep, that would be Merle Barn. Richest man in the town. He's on the board of Aldermen that run the town. Ya'see, we don't have a mayor here; instead the aldermen handle the town business. There's six of em, and I wanna say Merle's been on the board the second longest. He's a good guy, but he'll always size ya up to make sure he gets the best deal he can. Heh, guess that's why he's doin so well, he's got a mind for business. He works in the town hall next door, but he's probably gone home for the evenin by now.
He still looks reluctant to answer Nik's question, but something like professional courtesy leads him to answer. "Oh, I dunno. Couple months back? There were a few flashin lights in the sky at night. Some were pulsing brightly, and they moved faster than any plane I'd ever seen. Couple of the townsfolk more prone to exaggeration got it in their heads it was aliens,and the story must've spread like wildfire. Talk's settled down since then, though. I've gotten no reports of lights in quite a bit of time, and most folk are more concerned with the Billy Ray situation. Probably just the weather, that's all.. "
José leans to the door frame listening, watching and learning the impressive agent work unfolding in front of his eyes.
Jose thinks to himself that this UFO stuff seems more of a PR stunt from the local business council, then a invasion from Mars, after all aliens cannot be real, there are though, other forces in this universe that might explain what happened to himself and these light in the sky.
"Lights in the sky? You're right, must've been one of those weather phenomena the kooks keep getting mixed up with little green men."
Griff is wary of bombarding the Sheriff with too many questions; such a long-serving cop is bound to resent having the 'FBI' poking around his patch; but he risks one more query.
"In a lot of these cases, the drugs are brought in via the local farms." He holds up his hands, anticipating a protest. "I know there's no drugs problem around here, like you say, but we gotta cover all bases (not to mention our asses, am I right?). D'you think your deputy could rustle up a list of local farms for us?
"That's good. Like I said, folks are still a bit sore. News portrays us as bumpkins,and we ain't. 'Cept Josie here, ain't that right?" He grins at his deputy, who seems to take the insult in good nature.
When Nik asks him about Billy Ray Sheriff Oakley gets a bit more serious. "Well, that's the thing. We were never able to pin down the area where he went missing. We checked the whole town out, specifically focused on the area in and around his girlfriend's house, Jane Allen." He points rough locations out on the map. Allen's house is on the edge of town, while Billy Ray's seems a bit further out of the town's borders. "It's about a 17 Minute trip from Spivey's home to Allen's, and we went over that area with a fine toothed comb. Their wasn't anything there. A right mystery, I tell ya." He shrugs.
"Well, a lot of folk, like the Spivey's, live on farmland out of the town proper. Understand though, I know most of these folks pretty well. They go to my church, have weekly dinner at Ruthie's, that sort of thing. I can't imagine any of 'em suddenly turning to serious drug production.
OOC: Griff can try to persuade the sheriff if he likes.
