voice|

[firstofficer]

[ the audio feed clicks on abruptly. while this isn't uncommon as a whole for messages that reach the network, it is the first time spock has initiated a communication that doesn't begin with his measured introduction. instead, several alerts criss cross their way through communicators as he speaks. those familiar with him will recognize a curious tightening in his tone. an urgency, but also- ]

ping» [SECURITY]
ping» [MEDICAL]

Request that available personnel respond to coordinates 2.013/581.91 to secure the area.
No visible danger, hostiles likely remain present.

[ beyond his voice, devoid it's typical even cadence, the hall is eerily quiet. the stillness is pervasive. but then he pauses, and for something so brief, it seems to stretch on endlessly. when he speaks at last, it is not only the hallway that is filled with ghosts. fabric rustles, and his feet find purchase on the floor. ]


Chase Kilgannon has perished.




Medical. Please stand by to receive.
Eta four minutes.

Comments

OOC NOTES:: tw| gore, general yuck

[firstofficer]

those coordinates are just bullshitted numbers. it leads to some random alcove relatively off the beaten track on the ship.

security, medical, investigative shenanigans|
those making their way to the coordinates will pass a mural largely unlike any of the others we've seen so far. it's unfinished, and given both it's shape and attention to detail- it looks sort of like a floor plan. and yet, not one that will be found to match any known rooms within the tranquility so far.

gee that's weird.

further in, things are going to get way less friendly. expect blood everywhere. chase's body is no longer there, as spock is taking it to medical, but the carnage is unmistakable.

examining|
evidence collected from both the body and the scene will indicate that she was mauled by manticores, and her death occurred almost immediately afterwards. it was not a peaceful bleeding out, as instead, she was torn apart and being slowly eaten. it was probably horrible. medical might decide not to tell you that, but hey some of them are whackos so who knows. for reasons unknown, the manticores appear to have suddenly departed before finishing their meal- though after what we've seen of shale, you might have a few guesses.

animal tracks will run back into the bowels of the ship, probably further in than you really want to go.....

dna from the scene will match chase, and also the curious amalgamation of human/animal that passengers have noted in their previous experience with the animals (but didn't we kill them all? gee this sure is a mystery.)

the mural itself|
composed of random art supplies and created from a child's height, lends to the possibility that chase herself had provided it, but all other searches of the area will yield no explanation for why she suddenly diverted into an unsecured area.

feel free to toss any further questions here!



as far as posting goes, do whatever you guys like? log/action your little hearts out? spock you can find running to medical with um. chase's. remains. and after standing awkwardly outside medbay once she's been handed over, he'll wander off to walk equally awkwardly around the ship. mostly avoiding his room. since he is now -1 roommate. so that's a thing. otherwise feel free to idk reply and i reserve the right to tag the shit out of you.

[text]

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

I'm not sec or medical, but I'm coming regardless.

ETA 10 minutes from Engineering deck.

voice|

[firstofficer]

Understood.

voice »

[became]

...Jesus Christ.

[ not prodding at chase's beliefs, for once.

...or ever again.

jesus. ]

[action | ota]

[goldshirt]

[Kirk arrives on the scene in time to see it, and her body. he'd been out with Spock to find her, it's the only reason he gets there before medical or security. he doesn't speak to Spock, because there's no words for it. he meets his gaze, and steps out of the way when Spock leaves to take her to medical.

to the morgue.

he feels oddly hollow, like he's disconnected from what's just happened. when the first people arrive, Jim is standing in the middle of the hall, looking at the mural, with blood on his boots.

he moves to the back when the investigators arrive, and leaves soon after.]

[action | ota]

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

[He's there only a couple minutes after medical takes her body away, but he gets there slightly ahead of the other investigators. The familiar clanking, and his voice distored and muffled by a helmet. Taking no chances. Seeing Kirk like this isn't a shock - it's not the first time this has happened, but that doesn't make it any easier to see. He slides up, as silently as a man in a fifty-pound tin can is able to.]

How bad?

open actionnnnnn

[learnedtosmile]

[Blake sees the message - he's seen all the messages, of course. He doesn't respond on the network - mostly because he spends a couple of minutes just yelling profanities and cursing this god-awful ship.

But damn if he's not quick on the scene, gun in hand, checking his corners. It's gruesome, that's for sure.

No one deserves this, least of all Chase. Blake isn't violent by nature, but he's kind of wishing he had something to shoot right now.]

[herosfather]

Blake.

[Stilinski arrives not long after Blake, his own gun in hand (and after Shale, he's really thinking he needs to get a gun from this ship). he doesn't touch the younger cop, but he does look around the opposite corner.]

not here;

[tumbleweeds]

[ She had tried to defy God. It's the only thing Jaye can think. She had known that she was alone here, that Coyote couldn't reach her with only her belief to grasp onto -- but Chase's God was different, should have had a presence here anyway with all the others.

And yet Chase was dead, and maybe it was because Chase had tried to be defiant. Had tried to help them, and suddenly she snarls. If Chase had become a lost cause to her god, Jaye would pray to hers for her. She would take what she needed and find a spot in the gardens, away from the chapel, and she would do what little she could to make sure Chase was taken care of in the next life.

It's the least she can do. ]

[voice]

[doc_pompous]

...Medical is en route.

[Is there really anything else to say?]

voice|

[firstofficer]

My gratitude.

voice;

[mansuetus]

No.

No she is -

[ she has tried to defy God, her soul might be damned. But no, Lucrezia would not. She cannot. ]

Her body. Please - someone must pray over it, please, someone must.

[ perhaps she is hysterical. She would do it herself, with the lack of a priest on the ship. ]

voice;

[tumbleweeds]

Her God sure as fuck isn't listening.

[ Her voice is tight, half a snarl. ]

But I'm praying for her.

[voice and possible action if anyone's interested]

[yardbird]

["I mean there's going to be more people buried under there than just a bird and the ghost of your son, sir."

[No, that's not--

[This isn't real. It can't be. The words are there and flowing through but he almost can't make sense of them. Why can't they make sense?]

I... [Stop.] I... [Stop it.] I'll be there.

[Not that he can do much, and all things considered it's probably the worst idea. But he's been down this road before; he has to see for himself. If nothing else, to pay his respects to what's left at the morgue.

[Besides, it's not like he wasn't already out there anyway... "looking" for her.]

voice|

[firstofficer]

I advise that you exercise caution.

[action, spock]

[goldshirt]

[Kirk looks for him and isn't surprised not to find him in his room. he wouldn't want to be in there, either, and Jim lays his palm on the door briefly before heading up to the holodecks.

when he does find Spock, he walks up to his left shoulder and folds his hands behind his back.]

I want to hold a service for her.

[action]

[firstofficer]

[ there is something to be said for the sense of disorientation that comes in the aftermath of loss. death cannot be outrun any more than grief might. one is unavoidable, and the other- systemic of one's bonds with one another. the holodecks stretch out around him, and each screen is empty- because spock can think of nothing he could desire to see. he had learned once already the folly of attempting to mask such an experience, and yet, faced with it's seemingly endless reaches, he can think of no other solution.

spock's hands rest at the small of his back, but he does not turn when he is joined. there are few who would know to seek him here.

i want to hold a service for her, he says, and spock thinks of chase's face, sitting opposite him less than a day ago. when he had so easily accepted their goodbye. ]

I have no objections.

Action | OTA

[cutsofftheirlimbs]

[He's there with surprising quickness for a guy in is mid-fourties, and he doesn't look - well, he doesn't seem happy. The lid of his suit is bucketed down, visor glowing in the dimness of the cooridor, one hand raised, gripping an all-too-familiar power tool of his. It'd been a while since he'd felt the need to hold it out in front of him, flashlight illuminating the darker spots of the scene.]

Dammit all...

[She was a child. A smart child, but a child. The carnage was a lot like what he had seen in the ruins of the science lab, a lot like what he'd seen on the Ishimura.

These manticores were shaping up to be more and more like Necromorphs by the day.

It feels weirdly tense for the scene, an armored engineer with a plasma tool scoping around. But damned if he's not going to do his part.]

[willpunchfaces]

[Francis doesn't expect to run into Isaac. he doesn't really expect much of anything. he just bolted as soon as he heard Spock's communication, heard who it was

Chase was dead. his teammate. he'd let her down and now she was gone, just like everyone else

he has his bow drawn and almost slams into Isaac, skidding to a halt and pulling his weapon up before he actually thinks about what he's doing]

[text]

[jurisimpudent]

[That...child?]

Putting together a security team.

voice|

[firstofficer]

That would be most appreciated.

[VOICE]

[throwsdown]

... Wh... Is it the monsters??

Why's everyone talking like she's dead? Is she really dead?

[His voice is wound up and hurt, and he's clenching his fists in some rush of anger he's long since forgot he could do--like how angry and desperate he'd been in the hands of a vicious monster himself.]

I'm gonna--I'm gonna kill the monsters--!

Then this game'll be over! I'll find them and I'll kill them for Chase...!

[voice]

[jurisimpudent]

[Urgently:]

Young man, we're taking care of it. Please stay where you are.

[not here but possible action]

[unsoldiered]

[Alex was out looking for her when he gets the message. He was out looking for her, and he didn't find her--and now there's a little girl who's dead because he couldn't do a damn thing.

"It starts with a child, doesn't it, Shepherd...?"

"Everyone's going to go... one... by one...."

He collapses against the wall rushing back toward their little sad society, realizing it didn't matter how fast he left, and wraps his hands around the back of his head. Breathe. Don't freak out--but how can he not, she's dead. She just had talked to him.

"God's will is God's will. Sometimes, he wants you to make that mistake. Wants you to learn from it. You have. And it's painful, but you have to learn to move on. If it makes you feel any better, I'm trying to learn, too."

He looks up, throat sore, eyes red, voice tired and for a split-second, hopeful.]

Chase?

[The sound of chalk against a wall--

"You don't need to feel obligated to do this with me. I'm not Joshua."

It's just his head again. Telling him things he doesn't want to hear.

"I want to make sure everyone's safe. Back home, I know things will work out. I just--this...place. There's something wrong with it. I don't know what's going to happen before it's too late."

Alex Shepherd curls up and waits for everything to stop, and it's fucking awful, but he'd rather fall backward into his insanity and listen to Chase talk than try to wrangle it back in--it drowns out his father's angry tone, his mother's monotone dismissals. He'd rather just slip, because this is gonna be the only way to 'hear' her again.

"Together... Together. That's right--because even if we're all alone. Soiled, tainted by our pasts.. Tranquility has brought us here. Together."



"Maybe to find some peacefulness among the storm."]

[spacedad action]

[yardbird]

[Now this is a familiar sight: Alex Shepherd on the floor with only the wall to support him. Hell, it's practically normalcy by this point.

[Considering the circumstances, Murphy doesn't even have to question what's wrong, or what the hell he was even out here for. He knows. Holding his own damn self together has been nothing short of a herculean effort, but he's doing the best he can. He can't fall apart with the rest when he's needed, or feels that he's needed.

[Which is why Murphy stops when he finds Alex, and the sad anchor of reality weighs in. Chase doesn't need him. Not now. It's having to pick up the scattered remains that's left behind... And guilt follows the anchor as Murphy remembers that, if he had realized that years ago, with Carol... with his wife... maybe things would have turned up differently for him. Maybe things wouldn't have been so messed up and maybe he wouldn't have splattered all that blood to his name, rendering him down to nothing more than a number.

[Hindsight is always 20/20 with him when you think about it.

[Chase's words are something of a ghost in an echo now: "Let's walk," she had said when they first met in the gardens where he'd buried his bird. Let's walk. It comes together when Murphy stops at a loss for words.

[Chase... Did she know that this was going to happen? She said there would be more bodies to be buried than just the bird. Did she--

[Speak:] Alex.

[What's there to say after that? "Are you alright?" It's just another thing that he knows the answer to. The most he can do is let it run its course. No more turning his back on all of the people who needed him when there's some of that purpose to be found here now.

["Loss cannot be undone."]

...I'm sorry.

[They're both broken for the same little girl. There's nothing else to say.]

not here

[coffeeking]

[Sometimes, Ianto thinks he's getting too used to this. Has gotten too used to this. Torchwood was always dangerous, but most days everyone came home alive. Intact, if a little worse for wear. Life expectancy was short, but their days were filled with more victories than losses. Not here. But Chase made her choice, and Ianto isn't surprised it ended like this. He's still grateful that she tried.]

text; and voice; and action;

[cargojet]

Tomorrow is "Sunday". Our seventh day. Anyone who was close to her wants to say anything, or work on a service for Chase and Shale both, come in early.

>>Comms ping
You are all required to show up at the chapel at ten hundred hours tomorrow, no matter your religious or personal feelings, to mourn the passing of our colleague.

--- Action: Comms + Chapel ---

[ Nathan feels sick to the stomach. No video, because he can't stand the idea of showing his face right now. One death is one thing, but two in so many days... It's a nightmare. It's also emotionally exhausting, and perhaps religiously exhausting, considering the arguing he's already seen going on.

Once he's done he tosses down his headphones and rises up from his station, casting one more look across Comms' base of operations before he slides out, heading for the only place that makes sense--the ship's chapel.

No, not to see her body. Not to say goodbye. He doesn't need to know what happened, because he'd rather remember her alive.

More importantly, in times when faith might be tested, its important to be more dedicated to it than ever. That's what keeps the world from simply rolling off its axis. ]

text

[goldshirt]

I want to hold a service for her. I've got some things in mind.

[ not recorded ]

[tailcrook]

[He's listened once, twice now, and begs Asato be swift to protect her. One last time.

If he could follow he would, already left in a fitful pace in some hall he can't be bothered to care about because somewhere far away from him, a child's died. She isn't with them anymore.

She was so young.

Konoe never thought he'd know this pain - or maybe he did, and just never wanted to think about it. Why would he. But for the first time in a long time, most of the ache in his chest is his own.]

[Mural Action?]

[staytofight]

[Garrett tends to throw caution to the wind on a daily basis. The further he travels in, the harder it is to focus; blood. Blood, it's everywhere, and he smells the entire spray and splash of it further into the halls. But he's no newborn, and while he's not Carlisle, he'd be pretty damn pathetic if he couldn't at least partially control himself.

He's been on many battlefields. He knows the tang of blood, right down to the mist of it on a wind. He shoves his hands into his pockets and focuses as best he can to block it from his mind, though it makes his throat clench, his pupils dilate.

blood

No, not right now. He's not about to give up his investigating. When he walks and finds the new map, he uses the comm to take many pictures of it; he'll memorize it over time, if he can. It'll be better than nothing. He doesn't go further, though.

He doesn't trust his little addiction problem that much.

When he finally runs back to the main halls in the usual blur, he lets out a breath from lungs he doesn't even use. Thank god, the air is so much cleaner here. He still seems shaky-knee'd, if only because it lingers in his nose.

... So. A floor plan?]

[voice]

[ladytactful]

[ Hawke doesn't know who Chase Kilgannon is, but from the reactions... well, that anyone is dying is cause for concern, but this is particularly bad. ]

[ This is quieter and more solemn than most any time you'll ever hear her speak ] May Andraste see her soul to her Maker's side.

If I can assist in any way, I will gladly do so. Only let me know what needs to be done.

[voice]

[firstofficer]

That is most generous of you.

audio

[cobaltblue]

So, uh.

Does this kinda thing happen a lot here?

audio

[firstofficer]

Death occurs in all places.

voice

[ghostthatlingers]

[ Her voice is calm and steady. Death isn't a new phenomenon for her. ]

Does anyone know how many of those things are on board?

voice

[firstofficer]

[ the reply comes sometime later. after he has discharged his duty. because standing outside medical, he finds himself acutely at a loss. the situation is being attended to. what else is there for him to do? ]

We do not yet know what caused her death. Until conclusive information is provided, however, I am sure many would not believe it unreasonable to suspect manticores.

text action voice its all good here

[walksonrooftops]

understood.

[He tries to follow through with that and pocket his communicator, grab his sword, swallows back his voice and head out the door without a peep, promising Konoe he'll be back soon.

He tries.

He doesn't succeed.

She used to come by and tuck in with him for naps. She used to tell him stories and eat with him, she used to ride on his shoulders around the halls. She was a little sister to him, wise beyond her years, tempering the fear she instilled in him with her smile and little scratches behind his ear, right where he liked it best. He would've given his life to keep her safe, and now--

Chase Kilgannon has perished.

This cat is a creature born of grief, first and foremost.

A scream tears through 001.

When he arrives at the coordinates given, tears stain dark streaks down his face, and his teeth grit in a snarl, fangs bared, ears back, sword drawn.

Chase is gone. And now he's going to kill something.

Fair is fair.]

text; open to action if anyone wants it

[angerissues]

be there asap

[ Mason wasn't with the party that went to the other - god, he fucking hates this place - scene, but he's been doing everything else he can to help out. Not necessarily because he's a team player, though he definitely doesn't want anyone else to die now or later, but because it helps keep him busy. And it's better for him to run into something non-human than most everyone else, unless most of the ship's been doing an amazing job keeping their superhuman sides to themselves. ]

voice.

[ex_sorted385]

Oh god. I'm so sorry. I know she was a friend of yours. Is there anything- can I-

Are you all right?

voice.

[firstofficer]

[ it's a while before he replies. enough time to discharge his duty in medical, and find himself distantly aware of the blood that mats his clothes. he'll need to change. ]

I am unharmed.