Open to Investigators

[timelessinventor]

Well, things are certainly going to hell in a handbasket, aren't they?

[Helena's mental voice is more than a bit frustrated.]

Does anyone have any idea where we could be of help? Clearly this firebug needs to stop before they burn the entire place down. I am getting very worried about the gas contents of these airships with all of the fire around. It does not bode well. If anyone finds one of these objects before it explodes, please let me know. I might be able to help disarm it.

Also, what about that other gentleman? Where is he, and what is going on with him?

Comments

[thornsofmalkav]

Naw, his wanted poster was actually pretty cool if you know how to read between the mad science lines. Like all that stuff with dead bodies is usually code for Frankensteining.

[timelessinventor]

Ah. I am well aware of Mrs. Shelley's work. She was a great influence on my own. Always wished I could have met her, but alas, she died before I was born.

Also I will never understand why people insist on calling the monster Frankenstein. That was the doctor. Clearly people cannot read.

[thornsofmalkav]

Well, yeah. I still think Frankensteining is the right word for it, though, because it's emulating Frankenstein that we're talking about?

[timelessinventor]

Yes, you are correct. Apologies, darling. I tend to get a bit over-excited about things.

[thornsofmalkav]

Dude, it's fine. You're obviously a fellow geek. I'd be a little worried if you didn't have opinions on shit like this. When we have more time we'll have to talk speculative fiction.

[timelessinventor]

[There is a definite mental snicker at that.]

Absolutely, darling. When we are out of here, we will have to talk.

At any rate, I am much more worried about the explosions that the gentleman impersonating a priest. These balloons, if I do not miss my guess are either helium or methane. Both of which are extremely explosive and flammable. A spark in the wrong place could be devastating.

[thornsofmalkav]

No fucking kidding.

[timelessinventor]

If you find any explosives, please let me know where they are. I have some knowledge of disposal.

There has been enough chaos on this outing so far that I refuse to let any more of ours get hurt.

[thornsofmalkav]

Will do.

[fearinahandfulof]

"Frankensteining?"

[She regrets the question as soon as it leaves her... mind, but something about the term - and the mention of dead bodies - unsettles her.]

[thornsofmalkav]

Um, either resurrecting dead people some time after the fact of their death--classically done by electricity, at least in fiction--or, like, stitching together parts from a bunch of dead bodies and bringing them to life as a construct. It's, like, a classic trope of science fiction. Comes from a book called Frankenstein about a scientist with that name that did that shit.

[fearinahandfulof]

[And just like that, she finds herself back in that darkened room, unable to move or scream or even whisper, while men dressed in black drift in and out and the half-faced man leers and no no no she doesn't want to be back there and she doesn't want to remember—

She forces the memory away - what there is of it - with a great deal of effort, but for several long moments, she finds herself unable to speak, with her mind or otherwise. Instead, she concentrates on breathing (which nearly sends her mind back to the dark room, because the dead shouldn't need to breathe, should they?) until she can manage some semblance of calm again.]

Why?

[thornsofmalkav]

Sometimes because someone died too early and they want to give them another chance at life.

[She sounds oddly wistful about that.]

... sometimes it's just because they can. Mad scientists like to do things just because they can.

[fearinahandfulof]

Because they can...

[Cassandra wonders sometimes if that had been one of the reasons she'd been brought back with the others. They'd had to know something would happen when they'd brought her killer back with her... right?]

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. Trying to do something just to see if it's possible... it's a pretty big reason to attempt that shit.

[fearinahandfulof]

Do you think that's why this man does it?

[thornsofmalkav]

To see if it's possible? Almost certainly. I... worked for a man like that once. It's the sort of thing he would do.

[fearinahandfulof]

I wonder how those he brings back feel about it...

[Cassandra certainly hadn't enjoyed the experience.]

[thornsofmalkav]

It probably depends on the person. If it were me, I'd rather never to have died in the first place, but failing that I'd rather be alive again.

[fearinahandfulof]

[Whereas Cassandra hadn't wanted to live in a world that hadn't had her friend in it. It had been the only comfort she had as she'd been laying there dying after her failed attempt to avenge the girl: that at least they would be together again afterwards.

And then even that comfort had been taken away from her]

If they'd wanted it... would they have known to approach him?

[thornsofmalkav]

... I don't know.

[fearinahandfulof]

And if they had, he'd still need access to their corpses...

[And she doesn't know how easy that would be to gain. He might have been able to pass himself off as a relative a few times, but not every time. Unless he was very good at disguises, perhaps.

The Organization hadn't had that problem. Humans in her world would not have cared about the well-being of her kind unless it directly affected them.]

[thornsofmalkav]

There was a charge of graverobbing on the poster, I think? That's one of the ones that made me think Blitzkopf might be in the business of reanimation.

[fearinahandfulof]

That sort of thing is... risky, isn't it?

[She wouldn't know. She still isn't sure just what the Organization had done with her corpse in the first place. Given how she'd died, she'd thought they would have just discarded it - there hadn't exactly been anyone left who would have missed her, anyway - but it's possible that they may have just kept it, for... some reason. To figure out where they'd gone wrong with her?]

[thornsofmalkav]

Yeah. You can get in a lot of trouble and you might not even find a corpse that's fresh enough.