final investigation

[arsholes]

[It's been almost a week since Orthrus' lucky escape. Almost a week, of all calls to Heisenberg going (metaphorically) to voicemail. Almost a week, to rest and recover from the harrowing losses of the previous Friday.

It's been almost a week. And the storms are getting worse.

You know the locked door on the first floor? The one that goes into the center of the tower, right across from the great entry hall doors?

Today, there's a heavy iron key sticking out of the lock. With a familiar crest on the head.

The key is sticky with wet yellow paint, and wetter blood.]

Comments

[reresurrected]

[And catch her he does (albeit with visible effort on his part), quickly lowering her down to the ground to check for a pulse or any other sign of life...]

[ninehundredlives]

[At least she's not terribly heavy? She's short, roughly Bruno's height, and fairly wiry herself. She's also definitely dead. The amount of blood staining her clothes is more than she could afford to lose, and when Baldr checks her neck, she's cold to the touch. No pulse.




Nonetheless, a moment or two after he moves his hand away, she breathes in sharply and opens her eyes.

Susan Ashworth is alive.

Seeing someone leaning over her, she moves sharply as if to scramble away - and then stops.]

Baldr?

[twibeast]

Huh?

[ He's relieved to see this woman is alive after all but ]

Baldr do you know her...?

[reresurrected]

No, I... I don't think I do...

[He seems genuinely confused, almost distressed by this.]

I... would remember her, surely...

[If there is one thing Baldr has always prided himself on, it's never forgetting a woman's face.]

[ninehundredlives]

Jesus -

[YOU CAN'T JUST BE A GIANT CLIFFORD LOOMING OUT OF THE DARKNESS, ORTHRUS

Susan vaguely remembers, though, seeing this before. At the investigation. Anyway, she's got a decent memory for voices.]

Could you always get that big?

1/2

[twibeast]

Hm? Oh, well this is my true size actually, I just shrink myself down for the benefit of--

[ --wait hang on. ]

[twibeast]

Wait. You know me as well...?

[ninehundredlives]

[.....]

Was it really that unremarkable? I died in front of you! Three different times!

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

Eh?

[Mei gathers the frame of mind to lean forward between Orthrus's heads and bow awkwardly from her place seated up there and lighting the room up.]

You know Orthrus-san and Baldr-san? But we weren't in that group, right? None of us remembered anything like that, even when we talked about the theory that there were people before us!

[ninehundredlives]

...no. All of you were there. Except - who the hell is this?

[She's standing up now, and clearly indicating Heisenberg.]

[ghostsguysgyuudon]

That's Heisenberg-san! It's a long story, but he used to be our enemy, and then he started to help us. The real one behind all this is someone called the Patron, who... might be a vampire maybe? Or know vampires? And he's trying to make some great work, and -- anyway! Nice to meet you! We need to stop him, so please try and get along.

[ninehundredlives]

...really.

[Well. This is Mei. She'll address the rest of this to the others, then.]

And it doesn't concern anyone that he's already done this more than once? For all we know, he said the same exact thing to the last versions of you.

[thealchemist]

[Heisenberg lifts a hand in a half-assed wave.]

...They don't remember because they're not the same versions of the people you knew before.

[twibeast]

You're lucky you're injured or I'd throw you to the ground right now!!

[ ANGY ]

What the blazes do you mean "not the same versions"?!

[ninehundredlives]

[Well, thanks to Mei, Susan's already got a decent handle on what your deal is. She looks at him narrow-eyed for a moment, but...well, she's not stupid, she knows she can't do anything to him right here. She hasn't even got a weapon.]

Once wasn't enough for you? You really had to bring other versions here to kill off, too?

1/2

[twibeast]

[ He closes his eyes and lowers his head ]

I'm sorry... your scent is oddly familiar and I don't think I'd forget anything like that but...

[ And then some thing click into place. INT may be his dump stat but-- ]

2/2

[twibeast]

[ His other head snaps towards Heisenberg on his back with a snarl ]

Heisenberg. We were in that "trial run" of yours as well, weren't we?

[ he can still put two and two together ]

[thealchemist]

[mmhm!]

[reresurrected]

[That brings him up short-- he freezes, staring at her, his mouth half-open in a question that stops halfway through, almost as if his train of thought - or rather, all logical thought - has come to a screeching halt.]

How...?

[How does she know his name? Somehow that is almost even more disconcerting than her liminal state of alive-yet-also-dead...]

[ninehundredlives]

Didn't you see me down in that pit?

[Susan looks around, squinting like her eyes aren't used to the darkness. What is this place...? But she can see the pool of blood, and the spikes.]

What's one more time?

[reresurrected]

... I'm sorry, but I've never seen you before.

[He hasn't, has he? But then why can't he shake this strange feeling...]

[ninehundredlives]

...Susan? Susan Ashworth? We were locked in a murder castle together?

[Please know she says this with only the deepest sarcasm. Like, what, sorry, do you get locked in a lot of murder castles? Was that just Tuesday for you?]

[reresurrected]

I don't remember anything of the sort. I'm truly sorry...

[And he sounds like he means it, at least, even though it's layered with evident confusion. Was he exoflected in another world somehow?]

... wait. A "murder castle"? Like this tower, you mean?

[ninehundredlives]

...yeah, like the tower. What do you mean, you don't remember?

[reresurrected]

I mean that I don't remember. It... may have been an exoflection of me, or...

[He presses the heel of his hand to his head as if that can somehow stop the headache that's threatening to take hold.]