video.

[ex_question191]

Oh, my god.

[ stiles' voice has the kind of self-contained excitement in it that someone might get upon being given a quad bike for their fourteenth birthday. or, you know, a pony. there's that same kind of delighted anticipation of fun times ahead. ]

You guys will not believe what I found.

[ his voice is pitchy and he's in close up in the dim light, eyes wide and too-dark in his pale face, before he turns to film... well. ]

An actual freaking body!

[ which is all the warning given for the squeamish before it's on camera. the body is very clearly human, even if all its distinguishing features have been removed. its pieces join unnaturally together, arm sewn to shoulder to torso to leg, and the whole thing hangs suspended from several strings, like a puppet. ]

[ stiles fumbles the camera back to himself. he swallows. it's cool, but also, you know, he's kind of creeped himself out already just wondering if the killer might still be around. but that's not exactly a thought he's about to put voice to. ]

I'm about fifteen minutes heading left from the Shuttle Bay, I think, if someone wants to come cut it down.


(( as per dex and bri's excellent adventure. eta action for investigators. ))

Comments

[theshabbiestofmen]

Merlin, what the bloody hell-- get away from it! What the hell if the killer is still there?

[ex_question191]

Nah, I can't just leave it, what if no-one's able to find it again?

[ and then, suddenly spooked, but kind of enjoying it. ]

Hhhhhomygod what if it moves.

[jurisimpudent]

[What the actual - ]

Turn the damn camera off!

voice.

[ex_question191]

Okay.

[ kanyeshrug. ]

Why?

video »

[stacked]

...that is wicked fucked up.

[ but she sounds kind of jazzed, too. it's a thing. ]

video »

[ex_question191]

Right?

[ yesss faith gets it. ]

I seriously think someone cut it up and then,

[ high-pitched with joy. ]

Sewed it back together again.

[chuffle]

Okay, Wil Wheaton. You might want to get out of there now.

[ex_question191]

Yeah, just as sooooon as someone else gets here.

voice;

[dearlydeceived]

[ fumbling with communicator ] ...therfucking suckbag cock. FUCK.

Stiles, I'm on my way. Keep the video on, keep talking and for fuck's sake don't touch anything.

voice;

[ex_question191]

I wasn't gonna!

video ]

[blasphemous]

[She's waiting to hear that he's getting a stick and is prepared to poke the shit out of it. When that doesn't come, instead she just lifts an eyebrow.]

This might not be a good thing to stick around staring at, Stiles. [Of course, she's trying to think of all the different fun rituals that required this sort of thing. It's not a pleasant thing to think about, but it's an obvious choice.]

video ]

[ex_question191]

Maybe not, but here I am. I dunno if I could find my way back here, it's off my usual route.

text;

[puppydogeyes]

Stay back from it.
Don't fucking touch it.

[And then there's just a SECURITY PING on this post.]

video »

[stacked]

[ bouncy bouncy bouncy she's running okay. ]

Already beating feet, boss.

Voice

[invis]

Are you going to stay there with it?

video!

[ex_question191]

That's the plan.

text, auggielocked;

[altercate]

[ a corpse might be the one thing that got derek to break radio silence. this is the most resentful text ever. ]

What is wrong with you.

video, auggielocked;

[ex_question191]

[ RUDE! ]

With me?

[ shaking his head, tone deeply pitying. ]

Buddy.

[action for investigators]

[secretlabtech]

[ The corridor is just on the edge of safe turf. It's eerily quiet at first, but for Stiles' conversations, which echo, as does the drip, drip, drip of condensation falling from the suspended body into a pool of water below it.

The puppet, dangling on its strings, is strung up with its arms wide, clinging mostly to the shadow of the corridor by pieces of scrap wire that could have been ripped from almost any console on the ship. The body is stitched together with medical grade nylon thread, each of the stitches neat. Again, the thread is available in every medkit on board, and abundant in the medbay.

The pieces themselves radiate cool. They're dried out to an inhuman grey, no drop of blood remaining, no teeth, no eyes, no face with which to make an identification. The pads of fingers and toes have been worn flat. There's almost no smell--in a day or two that might change.

The injuries the pirate had were carefully sewn shut, or trimmed around where possible. He has no neck, and were someone to piece the flesh together of the left leg, they'd realize there was an inch more on one than the other. The burn on the right thigh is still there, albeit dried out, and old bruises have faded out when the blood was removed. The cuts that have been made have been done with surgical precision; neat, perfect slices through flesh and bone both, although it's more difficult to tell in the low light, with the body sewn back together the way it is.

There's nothing painted on the walls, no sign, no lesson inscribed here in blood from Smiley. It's just a dead body. Have a cold one on the Moser brothers, guys. ]

[dearlydeceived]

[ Thanks, bro. The last third of the weird semi-incestuous Moser-Morgan trio comes running in at top speed, long legs and way too many hours on the treadmill carrying her to the edge of the crime scene, where she stops with perfect precision. Imagine the screech of cartoon brakes, if you will. But she knows not to disturb any possible evidence, that's second nature to her.

Debra looks around her, catching her breath and taking the scene in. She doesn't react much to the sight of the corpse, at least not visibly: it's a blast from the past for her, but she's seen messier murders by far. She's mostly concerned with looking for other personnel, trying to set a perimeter and get whatever evidence they possibly can. She knows damn well (or thinks she does) who the person responsible is; now it's just a matter of getting something they can use against him.

She's not SEC, is the thing. She'd dithered for months without signing up, and though she's been called in to consult before she doesn't have official standing here, whatever "official" means on the murdership. All her instincts are telling her to take charge here (even the ones that are wondering exactly how reliable any forensics they might get could be), but she's not in charge.

...Fuck. ]

video;

[workout]

Stiles.

[ yeah that's pretty much all he's got. that is gross. ]

video;

[ex_question191]

If you wanna see it before they come clear the scene you're probably gonna have to leg it.

video;

[thebreakingwave]

Hullo again. I'm sure you've already had offers, but if you want I'll stay on the line with you until security comes or I can get down there if they're not coming quick enough.

video;

[ex_question191]

Man, my friend Remus offered kinda the same thing. How about the former, I'm pretty sure security don't want random people on scene. But you can tell me some more awful jokes.

video;

[cons]

Holy Jeffrey Dahmer, Batman, that is a new level of theatrics for this place. Je-sus.

[ apparently she starts quipping when she's grossed out, who knew? also, is it weird about five different names pop into her head in regards to who dunnit? hm. ]

video; just casually slaps down a stark encryption 100%

[ex_question191]

Nothing on the walls, no identifying features, no gory video of the killing— I'm no cop, but it's not the usual space murder M. O.

[not here]

[ryuuzaki]

[It would be hard to get out of Comms in the middle of a shift to begin with, but now that SEC is on the immediate alert, L suspects he would also have to beat them to the scene if he wanted to see anything. That's not possible when they have a running start. Apart from that, he has typically left the processing of scenes to technicians. He's not sure that there's much he would be able to glean in person that he can't glean from his perch on his chair; it's how he's almost always worked. A change in circumstances may necessitate a change in methods, but that would involve certain decisions that he's not yet ready to commit to.

When considering a scene like this, what's useful is how much people show and tell each other in the open, and what they don't say. L is grateful, in this sense, for Stilinski's excitement, because it means that the kid has shown a lot to the whole network -- he's provided raw data.

The body is clearly grey, looks in the video like it was exsanguinated. Every aspect of the scene as L understands it (the positioning of the body, the apparent absence of blood) suggests that the murder didn't happen there: the body was brought there, displayed, probably not long before, to be discovered sooner or later. Time of death may be difficult to determine under those circumstances, but all of these observations are a start. There's also a question of motive. In determining that, the victim's identity will be important, if they were even murdered. It's possible that they weren't.

Either way, this appears to be someone's game, although not necessarily the game that it appears to be -- someone with enough stomach for it could do this not because they need to turn a corpse into a puppet but because they want the people on the ship to believe that someone on board needs to turn corpses into puppets, or because it amuses them to turn corpses into puppets, or...? Two different types of monsters, and he's not sure which it is, but he suspects that if it's the former, they won't be very hard to catch. Their needs will overwhelm them. It's the latter, the one whose chief aim past killing is to toy with others, who can be extremely troublesome.

If this is a one-off, it's possible that others will be able to handle it. Three bodies, he thinks, is where he'll be likely to consider inserting himself into the investigation. And even then he'll have to be careful -- that kind of self-insertion is exactly what he would warn everyone else to look for. He'll have to be sure he's not a good suspect.

In the meantime, he continues to observe.]

[endeavors]

Oh, God--

[WHY DID HE LOOK. Don't throw up don't throw up]

[ex_question191]

Uh.

[ that didn't sound like a happy noise. ]

Is it... someone you know?

text;

[makedo]

Never seen one before?

video;

[ex_question191]

Actually, this is my...

[ and then he has to stop and count, drawing out the y sound. ]

I wanna say tenth? Wait, no, because there was that one on the network— This is the first time I've seen it set up like a puppet, though.

voice;

[sweetmotherofgod]

What the fuck is wrong with you? There are kids here.

voice;

[ex_question191]

Seriously? Dead body footage is maybe PG, there's worse stuff than this on Fox News.

video; locked

[chromosomes]

You see anyone on the way there?

video; locked

[ex_question191]

Nope, nobody. Well, a body

[ ha. ha. ]

No-one.

video; locked

[suddenlycaptain]

[ Carolyn actually looks queasy, turning her head into her bandaged shoulder for a moment before fixing her gaze on Stiles. ]

Are you armed?

video; locked

[ex_question191]

Nope.

[ a shrug. ]

Deb and Faith are gonna be here soon. I'm not too concerned for my safety.

[ just keeping it casual. he refuses to be scared of the things he's scared of. dying isn't an option. ]

video;

[lockwood]

Good to know this ship can always find news ways of being absolutely horrible

video;

[ex_question191]

I don't think the ship cut a person up and sewed them back together again.

[ but he's being pedantic. ]

But yeah. Yeah, it's not... looking good, huh.

video

[slipperysoul]

Someone needs to get a new hobby.

video

[ex_question191]

I'm hoping you mean, you know, whoever did that, and not me.

[video]

[soyed]

[Dave's eyes immediately go from calm to confused. What. the. fuck?]

That's. Weird.

[Don't tell him where it is. He doesn't want to know. But he does want to know if everyone else is seeing that dead marionette (make that marionurder) or if everyone else is seeing a different image from him.]

[video]

[ex_question191]

Weird is one word for it, yeah. Pretty sure bodies don't just go and string themselves up.