cradleproject | WEEK 9 - INVESTIGATION

[Oddly enough, there's a long blue scarf tied to the machine by the console, the end floating up thanks to the zero-G. If Jessie aims carefully, she can grab it and pull herself to the console.

There's bits of shrapnel embedded in the ceiling, reminiscent of what you'd get with an explosive. There's also a few pieces of shrapnel floating around with the body parts. Finally, towards the center of the crater, there appears to be a shred of something small stuck to the ceiling that doesn't resemble shrapnel at all.

While Clover's waiting, she'll notice that the blood trail continues into the zero-G room along the floor, ending at the machine by the console.]

[And catch! Jessie grabs onto the scarf and then immediately grabs onto the console. If it's big enough, she'll be wrapping her legs around it or her arms or whatever works best, holding onto that instead of the scarf.]

What do we have here? Does anyone recognize this scarf?

[She'll probably say that before she finds out who the victim is because that's upsetting. While she's here, it's time to investigate! Let's take a look at the scarf and the control panel. Any clues over here?]

[He doesn't look down to see what scarf Jessie is talking about, so he can't provide an answer for that. Oops. He can, however, answer Clover's question. If the head floating around the room isn't obvious enough...]

It's Machias. Seems like someone cashed in on that proximity mine.

[It's the first explosive that comes to mind, unless someone created something on their own while here.

Regardless, he's moving closer to the center of the crater, squinting at whatever is stuck to the ceiling. He'll try to remove it if it's possible, but if not, then he'll at least attempt to identify it while he's up here.]

[she's all the way down here and jason is in the way of the head okay!!!! but she does recognize that scarf; she'd been the one to hand it over to him.]

That's—that's Machias's. [She's gone pale even before Jason confirms it, covering her mouth with her hand.] That's Machias's, Arumat gave it to him... Why...

[STOP KILLING HER FRIENDS SHE'S GONNA CRY???????

nope sorry you guys can keep floating around with her friend's body parts she's just gonna stand here being sad and useless, even if she's totally seen grodier corpses (never forget ventgate), Machias was her friend, she needs a minute for this to process. please keep the head OVER THERE FOR NOW]

[There's a little blood smeared on the console. It looks like the gravity's been set to the lowest setting.

Jason will peel off what appears to be a shredded scrap of tape. He's also going to get hit in the back of the head with a shotgun while he's up there.]

No! It can't be him! Why would someone target him?!

[Jessie works on untying the scarf next since it's evidence and they'll need to bring it to the robots at some point.]

Hold on, I'm going to bring you down!

[And she looks at the gravity dial, scarf under her arm, and...

...looks straight up.

She looks at the dial.

She looks straight up.

She looks over to Clover and kicks off the console and back to the door, Clover you better extend that stick or she's grabbing onto her.]

I changed my mind! I'm not doing it! Someone else can take a Machias shower!

Edited 2016-08-06 00:31 (UTC)

[He's peeling off the tape to take a closer look just as the shotgun proceeds to hit him in the back of the head. Then he's grabbing the shotgun on one hand, and holding the tape in the other. First of all, he's checking to see if there's anything off with the shotgun. Maybe if there are scorchmarks on it, or anything else that's noticeable beside it being, well. A shotgun. Presumably the one that belongs to Machias.

After that, he's examining the tape and the spot it was stuck to. Any sign or hint of what it was being used for? Not that he's hoping for much, since there was an explosion here and all.

That said—]

Are you kidding me?! [WHIRLING AROUND SO FAST TO LOOK DOWN AT JESSIE, THAT HE JUST KIND OF... SPINS AROUND IN ZERO G. MAYBE CAREENS TOWARDS THE OTHER SIDE OF THE ROOM. THANKS.] Jessie, you goddamn coward! Get back to that console and let me down right now!

[IT'S JUST A LITTLE CORPSE JUICE, GODDAMN IT.]

[so Clover's instinct when she sees Jessie careening towards her is definitely to BACK THE FUCK UP but she does remember as she's doing so that Jessie is a kind soul with an adorable snake friend and she does stick the handle of the scythe out for Jessie to take, and once she has, Clover just uses the momentum to fling Jessie onto the goddamn ground.

And she looks at Jessie, looks at Jason floating around like a champ, looks at Machias's corpse bits, looks at the scarf, wipes her eyes—]

I'll be right back!

[And FUCKING RUNS AWAY

BYE??? BYE

happy 2am judar enjoy the frantic knocking at your door]

[The tape's shredded and scorched, but there's nothing else about it that stands out.

He'll recognize the shotgun as belonging to Machias. It's bloody, but that's probably not a surprise given that it's been floating around a room full of blood and body parts. Since it looks like he'll be up here for a while, if he checks the gun up close he'll find that it's unloaded but smells a little like smoke.]

[Clover is sure taking a while, isn't she? Well, the door slides open after two or three minutes, and...in floats a few bottles from the recreation room. Two beers and a plastic bottle of water! And then the door shuts and Jessie presses her face against the window, trying to see if she can spot Jason.

She can't, he's too high up, so she opens the door again but doesn't dare step inside the gravity zone.]

I thought you might get thirsty while you're up there and my hair is down here keeping as clean as possible~! You're welcome, Jason~!

Golly, how thoughtful of you!

[THERE IS SO MUCH VITRIOL IN HIS TONE. SO MUCH. At this point he's resigned himself to crossing his arms and legs, letting his body pinwheel around the center of the room along with Machias's blown apart corpse. The bottles do make it up to where he's floating, though, and he stares at them.

Stares some more.

Reaches for one of the beers.

Opens it.

Watches all the liquid float away. It gently hits Machias's disembodied head, some of it probably making its way up his nostrils and whatnot. It's a very lovely sight.]

... Shit.

[NOBODY SAW THAT, RIGHT?????]

Edited 2016-08-06 01:35 (UTC)

[Clover's going to have to hammer on his door for at least five minutes straight, so Jason has plenty of time to...enjoy...that beer. Despite the bedrooms being soundproof, she can definitely just somehow tell there's a great deal of cursing and yelling coming from in there.

Eventually Judar manages to slam the door open snarling angrily, hair down and dressed in a simple Chinese robe, and also holding a literal ball of lightning in his hand just in case this is some kind of stupid murder plan.]

What?!

[it's even worse than a murder plan it's one teary-eyed deeply distressed Clover, laser scythe and all, who is also now SCREAMING

and then she decides that the lightning isn't an actual threat apparently because after she's done yelling she waves her hands around for a moment trying to decide what she's gonna do here since his hair is down and she can't just drag him around by his shitty braid so instead she just grabs his sleeve and hauls him out of the fucking room, we're going on a field trip judar let's go

in the process she manages to blurt:] Sorry! [and then, after a moment,] Gravity!

[IT'S 2AM SHE'S EMOTIONALLY COMPROMISED FULL SENTENCES AREN'T REAL]

[ASSUMING CLOVER DRAGGED JUDAR DOWN HERE SUCCESSFULLY, Jason is still floating around when Clover returns to the Zero Gravity room. It seems three bottles have joined the fray since she left, one of them being an empty bottle of beer. If she looks close enough, she might even spot something that seems suspiciously like a cloud of beer floating around Machias's head.

Weird, huh.

His arms are crossed when he looks down at them, looking appropriately pissed.]

Hi. Hey, there. How's the view from down there? 'Cause, I've gotta say, the human body is way less cool from this close up.

[... And then some of the entrails are getting tangled up around his leg. Goodbye, socks. It was nice knowing you.]

[Judar will bitch and moan the whole way down, but he actually likes Clover enough to grudgingly let himself get dragged to the zero-G room. Then he looks up and witnesses this...incredible artistry of blood and guts and booze.]

Holy shit. [BECAUSE WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY...oh wait he knows] So was that a flight beer?

[LISTEN IT HAD TO BE DONE SOMEONE HAD TO SAY IT. He looks about two seconds away from following Luke's example and just laughing hysterically - and then it finally hits him just exactly what he's been dragged down here for and he immediately starts backpedaling.]

Oh fuck no, no no no no, you are not making me go in there, that's so fucking gross! Get down by yourself, it can't be that hard!

[he's a weakass nerd though so just fucking shove him in there Clover]

[ Jack is probably still wheezing with laughter, but oh, man. When Judar shows up and promptly bitches about this situation, Jack sees his chance to strike. Jack may also kind of like Judar at this point, but unlike Clover, that makes him more inclined to casually be a dick. He snickers like he's just gotten an idea, and his grin matches it. ]

Oh, come on, princess! Little blood and guts ain't gonna hurt ya!

[ At which point, Jack will absolutely just. Shove him in the room. Bye Judar... ]

Edited 2016-08-06 02:21 (UTC)

You can't just—I-I don't know, float him down from here?! [that's not how it works?? that's not even kind of how it works. how can she be expected to know anything, it's 2am and she's emotionally compromised and sniffling throughout this entire interaction and just staring up at the beer and what the fuck Jason she looks so, so tired

but she likes Judar too much to just shove him in there?? so when Jack shows up to ruin everything she just sort of yelps and jumps but like what is...she gonna do about it...... see ya space magi]

That's not how my magic--hey! [AND THEN HE'S YELPING AS JACK SHOVES HIM IN NOOOOOO

To his credit, it only takes a few seconds of him tumbling around cursing heavily before he adjusts to the lack of gravity and flies down to the console. What a relief that he managed to avoid all the blood and gore! This situation will in no way be reversed thirty seconds from now because he forgot to consider what would happen once gravity goes back to normal!

And then he just. Stares at the console blankly for a few seconds before smacking it randomly with his hand until the zero-g turns off. It's too fucking early to comprehend bullshit technology okay.]

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[And from somewhere SAFELY OUTSIDE OF THE ROOM Luke's going to be staring. And watching. And there goes a bunch of beer somehow? And there's a floating broken up corpse and Jason Todd in the middle of it all.

...and he starts laughing. Sorry for your misery Jason Todd.]

You know, if you wanted to hide your alcohol there're better places to do it. [...oh but that is a lot of guts floating around too. Gross.]

[AND FROM ALL THE WAY UP HERE, FORTY FEET ABOVE THE FLOOR, Jason is going to take the time to stick up both of his middle fingers at Luke.

This would be more effective if he weren't, uh. Pinwheeling around. Getting smacked by a couple of unidentifiable, fleshy chunks. Being followed around by the empty beer can.]

[It's a beer bottle, Jason, those hurt more. xoxo, jessie.]

Oh, those? I sent those up to him. If he tells you that I'm a coward for not setting the gravity back to normal, just remember that my hair looks less fabulous with pieces of Machias in it. I can't believe that we found him like that.

[And, to her credit, she does sound upset! ...about a lot of things.]

Edited 2016-08-06 02:03 (UTC)

[tim gunn shaking head.gif]

...It's late. Let's go back to bed.

[ Jack is here bringing up the rear from their own crime scene investigation squad, and he just. Takes one look at this scene, then to Luke and Totty as if he can't believe what he's seeing.

At which point, he promptly loses his shit.

Jack is absolutely laughing his ass off, to the point of doubling over in laughter pretty quickly. ]

This-- Oh my god! Thi- This is the funniest goddamn thing I've—

[ But the rest of his sentence there is just lost to laughter... ]

[Great. Everyone is now standing around debating leaving Jason floating with Machias and mildly hysterical. Or at least hysterical with laughter because Luke's still snickering even when he's trying to sober up. Okay. So. Dead people. Dead Machias.

...wait dead Machias?]

Well...that explains some things. We just found Minako. Looks like somebody gave it their best shot to make sure she wound up dead in the airlock. [He's eyeing the gently floating gun as well.] Who else found Machias? Takes a third person for the announcement to go off. [And another glance up to Jason.] What if we just left him up there? [Worry not, Luke is...considering maybe figuring out how to turn the gravity back on.]

I agree, Todomatsu. I've had about enough of this.

[She picks up her neatly folded Pikachu onesie and tucks it under her arm.]

You all can finish what Clover and I started.

[Not even going to give Jason credit, just nope-ing out of there with Totty.]