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WELCOME TO YOUR PRIVATE CHANNEL, TAAKO. FOR SECURE COMMUNICATION, USE 420.87.169.02 *** coolertwin has joined 420.87.169.02 <coolertwin> wait <coolertwin> waaaaait <coolertwin> waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaait <coolertwin> made ya look lol | ||||
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anon usernames: < arcanistic >
morning of aug. 6th.
And yet.
Veritas Morgue & Mortuary receives a call. Some harried public official. Requesting a corpse removal. Normal. It is specified to be a monster corpse, which is stranger, especially when there is no current emergency situation. Still, within routine. Larger transport recommended due to species, specified as "snake," and there's the fur spiking up along the back of her neck.
Ill omen.
She cuts him off, asks for scale colors. Red, orange, sorta yellow-green, he thinks. There it is. The drop.
Inhale, speak, clipped and factual. Yes, it will be handled. Yes, today. More sharply: do not touch, move, or otherwise disturb the body or scene. Yes, she is aware it is inconvenient. No, not even to the sidewalk. Rope it off and leave it. She is on the way. His continued argument draws a lower tone from her, a snarl at the edges of her voice, as she informs him that if he or anyone else tampers with anything, she will be coming for his family first, so he had better treat guarding this body as his new life's purpose for the next twenty minutes - before she slams the phone back into its cradle.
This is not the manner in which Veritas morgue staff are meant to be speaking to humans. Ianthe knows better than to be this reactive. There may be a complaint. All of this remains idly in mind, useless like so much of her knowledge is now. Other facts: she needs a camera, a gurney, a transport van. Her notebook. Her laptop.
When she arrives, coiled stiffly in the passenger seat while their most discrete intern drives, it's to a very strange scene. There is blood everywhere. Signs of a struggle. But the body itself - the body is beautiful. As she always was. Clean, peaceful. When she leans to inspect more closely, she can smell it, whiskers twitching - the familiar work-scent of embalming fluid, the chemical fixatives they use to halt decay without the aid of necromancy. It was like that when I got here, insists the deeply-terrified man. Ianthe dismisses him. This is not the work of an average citizen. Whose work remains to be seen. Her mind is already racing along on that track, even as she stands stiff and still, moving only to allow the intern to take better pictures. She'll have to learn this one's name. They're being remarkably polite.
God, she has so much to do now.
While they finish, she sits in the back of the transport van and settles the laptop down. Taps out a message to the first person who ought to know, who must already feel it, surely--]
taako. this is ianthe.
lup was found dead this morning. my workplace was called to collect the body.
[She includes the address, and a photo of the shopfronts without the corpse itself in frame. There is, unfortunately, some blood spatter. There's only so much she can do.]
she will be in the care of veritas morgue & mortuary.
i can offer storage until we are closer to the fog, if you do not prefer immediate delivery to your home.
no subject
shut the fuck up
[Cool okay. She'll get another text in about 30 seconds to a minute.]
where are you
did you move her
where did you find her
no subject
we are currently at the address i sent along.
i have not yet moved her.
we have the equipment to do so and i will bring her wherever you would prefer.
i've had photos and notes of the scene and body taken down so evidence will be preserved.
[a pause.]
i will warn you that the body was treated after death. she is clean and embalmed. wounds stitched.
not by me. presumably by the culprit.
[it grates, that she was not able to even do this kindness for her.]
no subject
im coming
stay where you are
both of you
[It feels... pedantic, somehow, stupid to include Lup in that. But she's there. She's there and it's important.]
if people start harassing you just tell em to fuck off or something ill be there soon
[And sure enough, he does turn up at the promised address about as fast as he possibly can. Thankfully, nagas are pretty fast, and he was already planning on heading over this way anyway- she shouldn't have to wait long. He still wears all his ornamentation, his hat and sparkle, but some of it seems lost without the smile on his face.]
Where is she.
no subject
understood.
[And nothing more. What else can be said? She does not need his permission to snap and bite at others, to hold her ground - but the fact he's saying so is almost certainly meant as a comfort and not an insult to her capabilities. He has no way of knowing what her life was like. And none of it fucking matters. Not right now.
So. She waits. She takes his request extremely literally, and directs the intern away to watch for the other naga, and sits in the street. When Taako arrives, he's led to them immediately - to the long, brilliant snake corpse, her head resting on Ianthe's lap. Nearly looking only peacefully asleep - save for the dried bloodspatter everywhere around them, the hint of an autopsy incision peeking out from her shirt, and how very still she is.
Ianthe glances up, expression unreadable; a flat and empty mask placed firmly, though the rat tells are still there. The pinned-back ears, the tense still whiskers, and so on. There's a moment, a brief pause, as she searches for the proper words to say. Her references are all wrong for this. She has no experience with giving sincere condolences rather than simpering meaningless words over some unimportant corpse at a ceremony she doesn't give a shit about.
The only thing, really, would be to speak to him as she would like to be spoken to, if it were Coronabeth's corpse here. So the words do eventually come, in a low, measured drawl, unnaturally calm but with a hint of very sharp edges.]
...I am going to find who did this, and I am going to vivisect them.
no subject
So they're quiet a minute, until Ianthe speaks, and Taako wastes no time in replying.]
Well don't be good to them on my account or anything.
[Aka, you can go further than that, because it's what he's going to do. He brings his hands down to the incisions, to the marks, trying to puzzle out what he can. His ears match hers, back and low, as the slits in his eyes flick between details.]
This is close range. She'd never get sniped. Has to be someone we know.
no subject
She takes a slow, controlled breath. Nods, once.]
I thought the same.
But - do you keep company with anyone who would - do this, to her.
[She reaches, hooks one claw over the hem of Lup's neckline, tugs it very slightly aside to better show the stitching. Speaks in a low, clinical tone.]
...This is not a frenzy. There was intent and focused follow-through.
This would have taken at least two hours, uninterrupted.
More, to transport the body to and from a secondary location.
[Which would have been absolutely necessary, because there is no way someone did all this on the street. Maybe if it were just the incisions and stitching, but - the body has been washed. She does this, at work, every day. If she were more self-centered she would suggest this is some kind of taunt to her specifically, but really, Lup's been established here much longer than Ianthe - and as abrasive as she can be, she doesn't think she's upset anyone who has the capacity to do this to a bystander just to hurt her.]
...Most of the monster population seem very squeamish, for a bunch of obligate cannibals.
I don't know many with the capacity for this.
[Save her coworkers. One of whom has a very steady hand for stitching. But that's a thread to follow later.]
no subject
Still, he huffs at the assumption, pushing down rolling his eyes slightly.]
Look, like, six fuckbillion people have beef with us at some point or another, it's nbd. They just haven't been stupid enough to try shit.
[And the question remains still, burning in his chest, why her? Why not him? Why not both of them, that's only right.]
Probs used magic or something. Had her get close and then sprung some kinda trap. Knows she's too fuckin' nice sometimes. And then put it somewhere I'd fuckin' check to be a turbo-dick.
[It was too close to Hyacinth for his liking, for this not to be a direct at them both-- but maybe that's just him, assuming it's always a them and not an I.]
no subject
The hypothetical strategy, at least, she can agree on. Carefully, she adjust Lup's clothing back to its proper place, giving another little nod.]
Several monsters have some sort of shapeshifting or powers of deception.
[Pookas, certainly. Slimes, to a lesser degree. And any number of individuals who had decided on it as part of a Mana- or god-purchased toolkit. It is infuriating having so little information to go off of, but that is a problem she can solve eventually. She sighs, blowing strands of hair from her face.]
...Regardless. I will drive the both of you home, whenever you are ready.
[She's fairly sure that Taako wants Lup at the farm, not held in the morgue.]
no subject
With a small sigh, he nods.]
Fine. Where's your rat car or whatevs. Gonna take time to get her in so she doesn't bruise worse.
[Nevermind that she might not have blood anymore or anything. He's not super concerned there.]