The Fourth Investigation

[airlockedmods]

[Come early morning, the station is still and quiet. Nothing seems amiss in the area around your living quarters. It's a little while yet until C.E.C.E. makes her typical morning announcement, but of course you're still free to move about the station at your leisure.

Maybe you had better look around?]

Comments

[airlockedmods]

[There's some stuff lying scattered out on one of the tables!]

[in4apounding]

[Stuff and things? She likes stuff and things! Usually, anyway. What's this particular stuff and things.]

[airlockedmods]

[First off, there's a pair of fabric scissors sitting out.]

[in4apounding]

[...On a scale of one-to-gross, how bloody are these scissors. Or were their only likely victims the poor fabric Thomas found that she doesn't know about yet.]

[airlockedmods]

[The scissors are not bloody!]

[in4apounding]

[Neat. She'll pick those up, they can be friends with Shovel-kun.]

[Anything weird about them, or should she move on to the other stuff on the table?]

cw: finger gore

[airlockedmods]

[You can move on!

Second thing’s second, there are five human fingertips lying out on the table. Technically one is probably a thumb.]

Re: cw: finger gore

[in4apounding]

[Well. That's. Sure a thing.]

[She doesn't actually scream, but that sure is a noise she makes. And takes a couple instinctive steps backward, clapping a hand over her mouth.]

cw: finger gore

[andjerry]

[thomas has been leaning over her shoulder, two pairs of eyes better than one, and he catches penny as she steps back into him. it takes him a second longer than her to realize what she sees. this is one of the worst things he's ever seen, and he shrieks where she stays quiet.]

What...?

Re: cw: finger gore

[in4apounding]

On the table- fingers-

[She quiets down after a second.]

...on the wound diagram. They must be Max's. WHY-?

cw: finger gore

[andjerry]

[that looks like part of max's hand, right, and the only reason he doesn't let go of her and run is because she's never seen anything like this and she needs somebody else to keep her safe.]

I'll- I've got it. Don't-

Penny, go find something safe we can put them in.

[now besides being chopped off what's up with these? are there any other wounds on them, do they still have their nails?]

[in4apounding]

I- okay.

[She runs off- catching herself and pausing long enough to set down the non-bloody scissors. A minute or two later she returns with an empty jar from the diner's kitchen.]

[Sorry Max, it's a hastily-rinsed jar formerly housing pickle relish.]

This was the best I could find, sorry.

[Is there even anywhere on the station that would have baggies or something.]

[airlockedmods]

[There might be baggies in the infirmary. So. Yeah.]

[in4apounding]

[...so there are no other places on the station she could've gotten baggies.]

[andjerry]

[He laughs, high and a little hysterical, and the smell combination's about to set him off- but he gestures for her to get the scissors back and cut some more fabric. Whatever else might be left, he's going to give Max more respect than whoever killed him did.]

[in4apounding]

[Okay! Good. She can do that. THIS IS FINE.]

[She's probably cutting way more strips than are actually needed.]

cw: finger gore

[airlockedmods]

[The fingernails are present! And while there’s a fair amount of dried blood, it all seems to be from where they were cut - there’s no other wounds.]

Re: cw: finger gore

[in4apounding]

[So, uh, now that's she's brought that jar, are there any other lovely surprises on the table?]

[airlockedmods]

[You got the pile of twenty-six (26) human teeth!]

[in4apounding]

[w h y]

...Gloves. We should- get some gloves. I'll- I'll go do that. Um.

[There's first-aid kits in the storage closet, those must have SOMETHING. Or there'd probably be at least those shitty food-handling gloves in one of the kitchens. Regardless, she's back in another minute with a few sets of plastic gloves because THINGS KEEP HAPPENING.]

cw emeto

[andjerry]

[He has to have blocked that out, it's the only explanation, and when he sees those teeth he is done, dropping whatever he's looking at to heave an empty stomach at the floor. He's crying openly now, wiping his face and trying to deal with whatever Penny's done at the same time.]

...good thinking.

Re: cw emeto

[in4apounding]

Mister Thomas! It's- ...okay, it's really NOT okay, but- um- try to breath?!

[AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA]

[andjerry]

[he pulls himself together, red-faced, still breathing heavily, and for a moment shame outweighs everything else.]

I'm sorry. ...robots are kind of lucky, aren't they?

[in4apounding]

Um. I guess. In this case.

[She didn't have to smell the zombie-goo last week either.]

...Do you. Need to leave? I can. I can finish here. I think.

[andjerry]

[he shakes his head. he'd seen chloe all the way through. he'd seen becky all the way through and he'd almost been the one to kill her. he can't walk away from someone who's been more important to him in a month than almost anyone has in his entire life.]

I've done this before. We can both do it.