sevenvices | week 2 - investigation

[He's surprisingly pretty strong for being a beanpole too SO THERE'S THAT AT LEAST... EVEN IF HE DOES NEARLY TIP OVER AT FIRST because wow, he was not expecting Rhys to be so heavy. Stop stress eating at 3am maybe???

Also, he's sighing very heavily...]

He's had problems with his sight for a while. [He's elderly.]

[ Break looks towards Gilbert with brief surprise that actually looks a bit touched. He breathes out a laugh, but it turns more playful as he speaks to Rhys. ]

It's true~. One eye missing, and the other doesn't even work anymore. It's hard being old, you know.

[ Because of Break's anime opaque hair, Rhys would be forgiven for missing it, but if he were to look closer, he would see that Break isn't lying about that either. The half of his face that's covered by his hair obscures the fact that the eye socket is completely empty. ]

[ thank you, gilbert. you are kind and did not leave rhys to turtle on the floor with his arm. he uses his flesh hand to jerk the robot arm a little back into place and looks between break and gilbert before narrowing his eyes slightly. ]

You know, being old isn't a crutch. I've met scary old people.

[ vallory. he's talking about vallory. and now he sort of leans in towards break so he can see the empty eye socket. what's personal space?? please hit him. ]

[ Rhys will probably regret that. Break's expression twists up into displeasure as he draws away, since he doesn't like having his personal space invaded, but Rhys already got caned once, so he doesn't get it again.

After all, actually seeing the eye socket is punishment enough. ]

Are you trying to say I should be a scary old person?

[ because he can, punk!! ]

[He tries... Gotta make sure his fellow anxious turtles don't get bullied too hard, okay.

But he's not going to help if Break does decide to go after his kneecaps again.]

That's definitely the last thing anyone here needs.

[ WOW thanks gilbert!! betrayed in his time of need! there's going to be a hurf from rhys as he spots the actual socket and he covers his mouth with a hand, cringing. ]

Oh my goddd, there's a hole. There's a hole in his face.

[ BUT HE CAN RECOVER. he clears his throat, swallows his vomit, and gives a shake of his head as he glances between the two again. gilbert, shouldn't you be more helpful here? to your fellow noodle? ]

It'd probably help you survive. Everyone would be too scared to kill you! Right now, you just keep complaining about being old. That helps no one, you know. Intimidation, grr. That's the ticket.

[ Please don't barf on him. Break takes a sharp step back as soon as he hears Rhys struggling, because no thank you. But he gets it together just in time for Break to frown, but then hums thoughtfully. ]

...Would it...? I don't know if I'm very good at intimidating, though. I don't quite have that sort of appearance.

[ He hunches over slightly, which is definitely not intimidating at all, especially when combined with his dumb oversized sleeves and the doll on his shoulder. He even takes on a stupid voice. ]

I could be... The Red-Eyed Ghost!

[ He breaks off there with a laugh and straightens up. ]

Ha ha~! I can't even continue! The worst I could do is make someone's kneecap a bit sore, as you've found. I'm sorry about that too, by the way~. I over-estimated where I was, I suppose.

Edited (let's rephrase that) 2016-02-27 03:15 (UTC)

[Do you see what he has to put up with, Rhys? Do you see this? He's had to deal with it for ten years. Ten whole years. This is why he isn't helping out more. HE'S SORRY NOODLE COMRADE but this is practically a rite of passage, okay.

Also, he's aged another 200 years upon hearing Emily's dulcet tones.]

Cut that out, Break.

[Who even let these guys investigate??]

—And being hit in the knees still hurts!

[ morrigan's been idly hanging around for a while. she figures the body's been discovered by now, so may as well let them do the work. so might as well completely slack off in here, right?? ]

Hold just a moment. Let us consider you a ghost, for entertainment's sake — a ghost must have some goal in mind, yes? Do you suppose then, Break, that your goal could involve a level of tying up weak-willed souls prone to vomiting as they sleep with, say, a metallic sort of restraint? 'Twould make for a very insidious ghost.

[ and snickering THEY AGREED TO NEVER BRING IT UP BUT SHE SURE BROUGHT IT UP ]

[ see, rhys was all well and good about to talk about how stupid that was. and how creepy that doll was. and basically -- how much everything sucks. look, rhys complains. it's kind of his thing.

and then morrigan has to go there. rhys just lets out a distraught sound, looking at morrigan in utter betrayal. ]

What... what kind of ghost... That's an awful ghost, Morrigan! Ghosts are supposed to scare people!

[ he's trying so hard not to acknowledge that innuendo, okay. so hard. ]

[ See, honestly, Break was going to stop. But then Morrigan joined in, and you can't really expect him to let that go. So he snickers, and he shakes his head. ]

Well, if I were a ghost, then I wouldn't do that! If only for the danger of becoming the, ah, victim of that weak will, shall we say...? That's a great danger!

[Gilbert isn't even the target of this round of bullying, and yet he's still aging 100 years?? POOR RHYS... Even if he brought this onto his own ass.]

There isn't any ghost in the world who would do that, anyway... [GOD.]

[ look ghosts are weird in morrigan's world they can basically do whatever they want (sorta). anyway, she's straight up chuckling at this point, largely ignoring rhys to make him even more uncomfortable. ]

Naturally, naturally. 'Tis those with the weakest wills that would indulge in such depraved dalliances, in my experience. The both of you best watch carefully, lest you become this particular weak-willed soul's next haunt, so to speak.

[ guess who is just slapping his hands to his face and looking at the group between horrified fingers. oh my god oh my god oh my god?? you guys are the worst people he has ever known. seriously. all his friends are terrible and break and morrigan just take the cake.

and gilbert too he's not helping. fuck you, gilbert. this betrayal. ]

I, I, I... what? No. What's happening? [ how can you talk your way out of this one, rhys! ] I don't want to haunt anyone! Especially not in a depraved way. I just, how? How do you haunt someone in a depraved way? That, uhm. Seems weird with the whole... incorporeal thing and -- I don't know. Can we stop talking about ghost sex now? I'm pretty sure there's a corpse somewhere around here that would be offended by this.

[ ... ah. yeah, he said that all through his hands too. just, ftr. ]

[ And Break, on cue, gives quite the scandalized look! ]

...Why, how crass! I certainly wasn't talking about intimate relationships?

[ He's a Victorian, cut him some slack on not saying "sex"... He looks to Morrigan. ]

Were you? I was just concerned about other bodily fluids.

[ But regardless, he waves a hand dismissively at Rhys. ]

Well, it's fine, Rhys. Even if you end up being an inappropriate ghost, we can still accept you. [ Believe it or not, this is Break's way of saying he likes you, Rhys. Literally only Gilbert would know, however, and would probably be surprised that Break likes anyone other than his Mean Girls compadre Morrigan. ]

Edited 2016-02-27 04:12 (UTC)

[Gilbert also looks scandalized, though his is probably a little more genuine... HIS DELICATE VICTORIAN SENSIBILITIES?? There's also some room for surprise there though, yes. Wow... When did Break decide he actually liked someone else here...

Rhys really needs to run now, honestly, because being liked by Break means you're on Break's radar and that's awful. An entire lifetime of ghost sex jokes awaits.

Anyway, he'll be the mildest betrayer and actually step in to try helping now--]

Maybe we should not talk about someone still living like they're going to be a ghost, inappropriate or not. [PARTY POOPER. ALSO THAT'S NOT HELPING RHYS'S REP, GILBERT??] He's right, anyway. Shouldn't we be looking around a little more?

Why, of course not! I had my mind on more sanguine fluids, personally. You truly are a wretched little man, Rhys. Do you exist to scandalize the masses, like a serial miscreant? I should remind you that there are children present, and degenerate behavior simply cannot be tolerated.

[ giving a mental hi five to break, they make an excellent tag team

she'll shoot a glare to gilbert, however. way to be a debby downer, calm down monica ]

I believe we've searched the store down to the smallest particle of dust, and there is no shortage of that here. I believe the others will have already found whatever has been placed for us to find.

[ you would think that rhys would know better by now than to associate with these type of people. like, really! he should see the warning signs! he doesn't though. he doesn't. so, rhys drops his hands, a little outraged and opens his mouth to say something before --

... no. nevermind. he just shakes his head and looks at the floor, crossing his arms over his chest. ]

I'm sorry. I don't want to be a serial miscreant.

[ rhys, ruiner of jokes. he just stands there awkwardly and runs a hand over his hair after a moment. leave him alone. ]

... If there was a body here, couldn't Xerxes just sniff it out?

[ someone correct rhys SOMEONE CORRECT RHYS BEFORE HE'S KILLED ]

[ This is why Break and Morrigan bully you, Rhys. You just apologized for being bullied. Break can't help but snicker, but at least Gilbert is one of the few people that can get him to Chill, so he does. While Rhys awkwardly ponders the next point of the conversation, Break heads to once of the shelves. He starts to feel along them until he finds a box of snack cakes, which he starts to take. As if this wasn't ridiculous enough already. But at least when Rhys asks his question, Break will at least answer it seriously. ]

Hmm, probably~. I can't say I've ever gone sniffing out bodies before, but if there was blood or something else with an unusual odor, I'd probably notice.

[ If you want a snack cake you better ask now, since Break is just stuffing them in his pockets for later. ]

That, or if it started decomposing, but I'd imagine most people would notice that smell.

[HE'S SORRY MORRIGAN he exists to be the Gloomy Straight Man no one ever asked for...

But he doesn't bat a lash when Break goes over to raid some snacks for later in the middle of this INVESTIGATION because really, it wouldn't be Break if he wasn't doing ridiculous shit that makes him question why he stuck around for ten years.]

I don't think there's a body in here. [Unless it's cut into pieces and stuffed into various baskets like an easter egg hunt...] But it's strange for these chains to be here and nothing else, right? Why go out of their way to do that?

[ it looks like everybody's doing that thing where they go back to pretending that rhys isn't there, so she'll do the same, idly shuffling through the shelves and peeking in paper bags for anything that could be misplaced, despite assuming she would find nothing. might as well just pass time until the announcement was made. ]

I see no point in fretting about it now. For all we know, it could be mere chance, or another rose to distract us from the scent of rubbish.

[ rubbish, of course, being the truth; another possible red herring. ]

[ see, the real surprise here is that rhys actually believed people would pay attention to him. for one sweet, glorious second, he really did think things had changed. they hadn't, of course, but he definitely thought they might!

everyone starts moving around and rhys is just going to keep standing there, lone straw man it up with his arms crossed. he is a LONE ISLAND who has been BETRAYED by gilbert so whatever gilbert's doing right now doesn't count. rhys is a little bit petty like that. gilbert's not invited to his inner melodramatic dialogue.

he lifts a hand to run it over his hair again before pausing, realizing he just did that, and shoving it back into its place around his chest again. he clears his throat and goes to speak -- ]

MAYBE THEY TIED THEM UP.

[ and apparently accidentally shouts! he looks a little mortified but he just wanted to be part of the conversation again. ]

I-If you're just going to take two of the chains, not all three, you'd be using them for something. Right? They'll probably know when they find the body.

[ "they" because obviously team shady over here isn't going anywhere, apparently. ]

[ Break looks over Rhys's way, since he's actually startled that he shouts, but his expression also flattens fairly quickly. ]

...That's a possibility. But why not take all of them? If you're tying someone up to kill them, it seems like being through wouldn't be a bad thing.

[Gilbert actually makes a little startled sound and jumps when Rhys shouts, so Break is still doing better than him. AS USUAL. Look, he's tired and he hasn't had coffee yet because people are dead, probably.

But anyway, more sensibly:]

...Maybe they didn't have time to take the third? Unless it is somewhere else, in which case Morrigan might be right. I don't see why they would go out of their way to drop them off here, otherwise.

[ morrigan, instead, abruptly stops fiddling with the little paper bags to glower towards rhys. calm down? the three of them could probably kill him at the drop of a needle if they were sufficiently frightened, so she has to wonder how deep rhys's intrepid nature goes. ]

'Tis impossible to solve a puzzle with but one piece, no matter how strong the conjecture for where the piece goes. [ in other words slow your roll guys ] Regardless, one of us should prepare to submit the chain as a sort of evidence in the ensuing trial.

week 2 - investigation

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