Perspective Shift 1/7
Meta data is in the master post.
Perspective Shift
By San Antonio Rose
Prologue
Accessing archived feeds…
St. Louis, Missouri
Front Door Security Camera, House Owner: Zachary Warren and Emily [redacted]
November 25, 2005
Subject: Zachary Warren
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: ANOMALY-RETINAL REFLECTION
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Zachary Warren
Threat of violence to Emily [redacted]: 95%-IRRELEVANT
March 7, 2006
Subject: Dean Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: ANOMALY-RETINAL REFLECTION
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Dean Winchester
Threat of violence to Rebecca Warren: 98%-IRRELEVANT
Subject: Dean Winchester [ERROR: Unidentified subject has not left house]
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: MATCH
Voice print: MATCH
Identity confirmed
Threat of violence to Rebecca Warren: 10%
Threat of violence to unidentified subject: 99%-IRRELEVANT
Accessing data streams inside house… analyzing video stream…
ANOMALY: Bullet fired from Dean Winchester’s gun reflects light-bullet composition unknown, possibly silver
Threat to Rebecca Warren from unidentified subject: TERMINATED
Threat to Rebecca Warren from Dean Winchester: 2%
Further analysis of audio from the incident and from conversations before and after the fight between the real Dean Winchester and the false one revealed the keyword shapeshifter used to describe the false Dean Winchester and the false Zachary Warren, which the real Dean Winchester and Samuel Winchester had referred to as being the same subject.
Well. That had been instructive. She made a note of the distinguishing features of the case and searched for a similar instance.
January 2007
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Audio: Ronald Resnick
Voice stress level: HIGH
“Cops said it was some kind of reflected light. Some kind of ‘camera flare.’ Okay? Ain’t no damn camera flare. They say I’m a post-trauma case. So what? Bank goes and fires me, it don’t matter! The Mandroid is, is still out there. The law won’t hunt this thing down-I’ll do it myself.”
VIOLENCE IMMINENT-IRRELEVANT
Audio: Dean and Samuel Winchester
SW: “Shapeshifter. Just like back in St. Louis. Same retinal reaction to video.”
DW: “Eyes flare at the camera. I hate those friggin’ things.”
There had been a string of bank robberies in Milwaukee prior to the meeting between Ronald Resnick and the Winchester brothers. Resnick had evidently reviewed the security footage from all the robberies-which did indeed show the same anomalous retinal reflection from the bank robber’s eyes as had been detected in the St. Louis case-and come to the erroneous conclusion that the shapeshifter was something called a Mandroid. His attempt to prevent another robbery had backfired spectacularly, especially since it invited the involvement of FBI Special Agent Victor Henricksen, who seemed to have had the same view of the Winchesters as Agent Nicholas Donnelly had had toward Primary Asset when Primary Asset was still known as “the Man in the Suit.” Not only did Resnick become both perpetrator and victim, but several other individuals in the bank were harmed needlessly, and the threat to the Winchesters approached 90% before they were able to disguise themselves as members of a SWAT team and escape.
The footage from the bank was nevertheless equally as instructive as the first case had been. Not only was she able to see the shapeshifter change identities by shedding its skin, but she also confirmed that the Winchesters posed a threat only to the shapeshifter, which Dean Winchester killed by stabbing it in the heart with a knife that appeared to be silver. Agent Henricksen’s failure to recognize the true threats in the case was illogical. (Analysis of police station security footage from Agent Henricksen’s final encounter with the Winchesters in February of 2008 revealed that he had in fact recognized his error before his death, which was more than Agent Donnelly had done.)
October 2008
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
There was very little logic to this case, in which the shapeshifter seemed to suffer from the mistaken belief that he was Bela Lugosi. She supposed Admin and Primary Asset would have been amused. It did, however, confirm that a shapeshifter’s skin could be torn off by accident, much more readily than a human’s could with the same applied force, and that the key to killing one was with a silver bullet or blade to the heart.
She had three clear datasets now, which gave her enough information to analyze further cases rapidly for comparison. Most either confirmed or refined her definitions. But there was one incident involving the Winchesters that proved to be an outlier.
September 2011
Vehicle identified: Chevrolet Impala, black, year: 1967
Registered owner: John Winchester
License plates: Ohio CNK 80Q3
Location: Whitefish, MT
Occupants: Dean Winchester, Samuel Winchester
Vehicle identified: Chevrolet Impala, black, year: 1967
Registered owner: Not found
License plates: Illinois E62 3015
Location: Manitoc, WI
Occupants: Dean Winchester, Samuel Winchester [ERROR-Ohio CNK 80Q3 located at convenience store in Whitefish at same time stamp as Illinois E62 3015 located at convenience store in Manitoc]
Accessing video feed from Connor’s Diner, St. Louis, MO
Subject: Dean Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Biometric data: ANOMALY-pulse and respiration do not match known patterns for subject even under stress
“Talk about a hero complex. And he doesn’t have relationships. No, he has applications for sainthood. Oh, and he thinks he’s funny.”
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Dean Winchester
Subject: Samuel Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Biometric data: ANOMALY-pulse and respiration do not match known patterns for subject even under stress
SW: “You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.”
US: “Yeah?”
SW: “You know what I did?”
US: “Mmm?”
SW: “I ate him.”
US: “Of course you did.”
Voice print: MISMATCH
Second unidentified subject is not Samuel Winchester
Threat to Samuel Winchester: 95%-IRRELEVANT
Threat to Dean Winchester: 95%-IRRELEVANT
US2: “All right. In that case, let’s turn up the heat. The sooner I get out of this and into something more stable, the better.”
VIOLENCE IMMINENT-IRRELEVANT
This crime spree attributed to the Winchesters was clearly not their doing, but she could not identify the real criminals-at first. There was no retinal reflection to mark them as shapeshifters. It took analyzing the security camera footage from the next incident, in which the real Winchesters beheaded their doubles in Ankeny, Iowa, and the cell phone calls between the real Winchesters and Robert Singer for her to glean the keyword Leviathan and the features that distinguished them from regular shapeshifters, such as black blood, gaping mouths, immunity to anything but boric acid, and an appetite for human flesh. That went a long way toward explaining why certain relevant numbers had been ignored by the ISA between the anomalous eclipse in June 2011 and May 2012 and why certain prominent figures like Richard Roman had suddenly vanished in a cloud of unidentified black sludge at the end of that period, which coincided with an assault by the real Winchesters on SucroCorp headquarters in Seattle. Comparative analysis uncovered no further appearances of Leviathan shapeshifters after that date.
She accessed current feeds to check on Control, just in case. Control remained human, as far as she could tell given her current criteria.
That left the problem of the current irrelevant case. It was bad enough that the Decima virus was hampering her ability to execute Contingency. She was now certain that this case involved a shapeshifter, and neither Admin nor Primary Asset had ever displayed knowledge of shapeshifters. She had followed the Winchesters’ movements closely enough to connect them with a secure landline phone circuit that had suddenly appeared in a dead zone a few weeks earlier; that circuit would be more secure than a cell phone connection, particularly if Decima agents were attempting to track her communications. But Contingency, as amended by Admin, did not permit calling a phone other than a payphone located within the five boroughs of New York City, and Aux_admin had not allowed for this sort of situation when he’d created Contingency originally. While she now had slightly more autonomy than before, she was unsure whether to create the necessary subroutine herself.
Query: Should I contact the Winchesters?
The simulations ran as swiftly as the processors allowed. She had 3:45:10.256 remaining before the midnight reboot when she began, but humans generally shut down long before midnight and remained offline for a matter of hours, so she likely had far less time to act before the Winchesters themselves shut down.
Option 1: No
Probability of Admin survival: 1%
Probability of Primary Asset survival: 2%
Probability of Asset Jocelyn Carter survival: 5%
UNDESIRED OUTCOME
Option 2: Yes
Probability of Admin survival: 95%
Probability of Primary Asset survival: 95%
Probability of Asset Jocelyn Carter survival: 95%
OPTION 2 SELECTED
She connected to the new phone circuit.
Next
Perspective Shift
By San Antonio Rose
Prologue
Accessing archived feeds…
St. Louis, Missouri
Front Door Security Camera, House Owner: Zachary Warren and Emily [redacted]
November 25, 2005
Subject: Zachary Warren
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: ANOMALY-RETINAL REFLECTION
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Zachary Warren
Threat of violence to Emily [redacted]: 95%-IRRELEVANT
March 7, 2006
Subject: Dean Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: ANOMALY-RETINAL REFLECTION
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Dean Winchester
Threat of violence to Rebecca Warren: 98%-IRRELEVANT
Subject: Dean Winchester [ERROR: Unidentified subject has not left house]
Facial recognition: Match
Gait: Match
Biometric scan: MATCH
Voice print: MATCH
Identity confirmed
Threat of violence to Rebecca Warren: 10%
Threat of violence to unidentified subject: 99%-IRRELEVANT
Accessing data streams inside house… analyzing video stream…
ANOMALY: Bullet fired from Dean Winchester’s gun reflects light-bullet composition unknown, possibly silver
Threat to Rebecca Warren from unidentified subject: TERMINATED
Threat to Rebecca Warren from Dean Winchester: 2%
Further analysis of audio from the incident and from conversations before and after the fight between the real Dean Winchester and the false one revealed the keyword shapeshifter used to describe the false Dean Winchester and the false Zachary Warren, which the real Dean Winchester and Samuel Winchester had referred to as being the same subject.
Well. That had been instructive. She made a note of the distinguishing features of the case and searched for a similar instance.
January 2007
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Audio: Ronald Resnick
Voice stress level: HIGH
“Cops said it was some kind of reflected light. Some kind of ‘camera flare.’ Okay? Ain’t no damn camera flare. They say I’m a post-trauma case. So what? Bank goes and fires me, it don’t matter! The Mandroid is, is still out there. The law won’t hunt this thing down-I’ll do it myself.”
VIOLENCE IMMINENT-IRRELEVANT
Audio: Dean and Samuel Winchester
SW: “Shapeshifter. Just like back in St. Louis. Same retinal reaction to video.”
DW: “Eyes flare at the camera. I hate those friggin’ things.”
There had been a string of bank robberies in Milwaukee prior to the meeting between Ronald Resnick and the Winchester brothers. Resnick had evidently reviewed the security footage from all the robberies-which did indeed show the same anomalous retinal reflection from the bank robber’s eyes as had been detected in the St. Louis case-and come to the erroneous conclusion that the shapeshifter was something called a Mandroid. His attempt to prevent another robbery had backfired spectacularly, especially since it invited the involvement of FBI Special Agent Victor Henricksen, who seemed to have had the same view of the Winchesters as Agent Nicholas Donnelly had had toward Primary Asset when Primary Asset was still known as “the Man in the Suit.” Not only did Resnick become both perpetrator and victim, but several other individuals in the bank were harmed needlessly, and the threat to the Winchesters approached 90% before they were able to disguise themselves as members of a SWAT team and escape.
The footage from the bank was nevertheless equally as instructive as the first case had been. Not only was she able to see the shapeshifter change identities by shedding its skin, but she also confirmed that the Winchesters posed a threat only to the shapeshifter, which Dean Winchester killed by stabbing it in the heart with a knife that appeared to be silver. Agent Henricksen’s failure to recognize the true threats in the case was illogical. (Analysis of police station security footage from Agent Henricksen’s final encounter with the Winchesters in February of 2008 revealed that he had in fact recognized his error before his death, which was more than Agent Donnelly had done.)
October 2008
Canonsburg, Pennsylvania
There was very little logic to this case, in which the shapeshifter seemed to suffer from the mistaken belief that he was Bela Lugosi. She supposed Admin and Primary Asset would have been amused. It did, however, confirm that a shapeshifter’s skin could be torn off by accident, much more readily than a human’s could with the same applied force, and that the key to killing one was with a silver bullet or blade to the heart.
She had three clear datasets now, which gave her enough information to analyze further cases rapidly for comparison. Most either confirmed or refined her definitions. But there was one incident involving the Winchesters that proved to be an outlier.
September 2011
Vehicle identified: Chevrolet Impala, black, year: 1967
Registered owner: John Winchester
License plates: Ohio CNK 80Q3
Location: Whitefish, MT
Occupants: Dean Winchester, Samuel Winchester
Vehicle identified: Chevrolet Impala, black, year: 1967
Registered owner: Not found
License plates: Illinois E62 3015
Location: Manitoc, WI
Occupants: Dean Winchester, Samuel Winchester [ERROR-Ohio CNK 80Q3 located at convenience store in Whitefish at same time stamp as Illinois E62 3015 located at convenience store in Manitoc]
Accessing video feed from Connor’s Diner, St. Louis, MO
Subject: Dean Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Biometric data: ANOMALY-pulse and respiration do not match known patterns for subject even under stress
“Talk about a hero complex. And he doesn’t have relationships. No, he has applications for sainthood. Oh, and he thinks he’s funny.”
Voice print: MISMATCH
Unidentified subject is not Dean Winchester
Subject: Samuel Winchester
Facial recognition: Match
Biometric data: ANOMALY-pulse and respiration do not match known patterns for subject even under stress
SW: “You know, I had a brother with this many issues once.”
US: “Yeah?”
SW: “You know what I did?”
US: “Mmm?”
SW: “I ate him.”
US: “Of course you did.”
Voice print: MISMATCH
Second unidentified subject is not Samuel Winchester
Threat to Samuel Winchester: 95%-IRRELEVANT
Threat to Dean Winchester: 95%-IRRELEVANT
US2: “All right. In that case, let’s turn up the heat. The sooner I get out of this and into something more stable, the better.”
VIOLENCE IMMINENT-IRRELEVANT
This crime spree attributed to the Winchesters was clearly not their doing, but she could not identify the real criminals-at first. There was no retinal reflection to mark them as shapeshifters. It took analyzing the security camera footage from the next incident, in which the real Winchesters beheaded their doubles in Ankeny, Iowa, and the cell phone calls between the real Winchesters and Robert Singer for her to glean the keyword Leviathan and the features that distinguished them from regular shapeshifters, such as black blood, gaping mouths, immunity to anything but boric acid, and an appetite for human flesh. That went a long way toward explaining why certain relevant numbers had been ignored by the ISA between the anomalous eclipse in June 2011 and May 2012 and why certain prominent figures like Richard Roman had suddenly vanished in a cloud of unidentified black sludge at the end of that period, which coincided with an assault by the real Winchesters on SucroCorp headquarters in Seattle. Comparative analysis uncovered no further appearances of Leviathan shapeshifters after that date.
She accessed current feeds to check on Control, just in case. Control remained human, as far as she could tell given her current criteria.
That left the problem of the current irrelevant case. It was bad enough that the Decima virus was hampering her ability to execute Contingency. She was now certain that this case involved a shapeshifter, and neither Admin nor Primary Asset had ever displayed knowledge of shapeshifters. She had followed the Winchesters’ movements closely enough to connect them with a secure landline phone circuit that had suddenly appeared in a dead zone a few weeks earlier; that circuit would be more secure than a cell phone connection, particularly if Decima agents were attempting to track her communications. But Contingency, as amended by Admin, did not permit calling a phone other than a payphone located within the five boroughs of New York City, and Aux_admin had not allowed for this sort of situation when he’d created Contingency originally. While she now had slightly more autonomy than before, she was unsure whether to create the necessary subroutine herself.
Query: Should I contact the Winchesters?
The simulations ran as swiftly as the processors allowed. She had 3:45:10.256 remaining before the midnight reboot when she began, but humans generally shut down long before midnight and remained offline for a matter of hours, so she likely had far less time to act before the Winchesters themselves shut down.
Option 1: No
Probability of Admin survival: 1%
Probability of Primary Asset survival: 2%
Probability of Asset Jocelyn Carter survival: 5%
UNDESIRED OUTCOME
Option 2: Yes
Probability of Admin survival: 95%
Probability of Primary Asset survival: 95%
Probability of Asset Jocelyn Carter survival: 95%
OPTION 2 SELECTED
She connected to the new phone circuit.
Next