[Open] Dr. Medic's Sleepaway Funtimes Camp

[mementomoritz]

I. So girl keep telling me [network post]

[About three hours after the whole post-Esmeeting kerfuffle, every phone included in the Executor group chat suddenly blares loudly with an incoming post that appears to have every possible alert and priority notice the person writing it could find attached to it.]

ANYONE WHO ATE ANYTHING AT ESME'S HOUSE REPORT TO MEDIC IMMEDIATELY YOU ARE POISONED


[Well, you can't accuse her of burying the lede.]

i'm in my lab in invidia [The exact address and coordinates of the lab are attached along with the message, including a helpful photo of a scribbled map just in case anyone is really bad with directions.] if you ate ANY of the food esme served or if you're feeling sick, come here so i can treat you
if you find someone unconscious or unable to move on their own, BRING THEM HERE
if you don't have anyone around and think you need help getting here, reply to this message immediately

i threw up, so i tested some of the leftovers i took home
and that food is very, very poisoned
(also, if you brought leftovers home, don't eat them)


II. pick me up whenever i'm feeling down [in-person log]

[True to her word, Medic is ready and waiting in her lab the second anyone arrives.]

[The living room of the apartment she commandeered has been turned into a makeshift hospital. She's dragged cushions and mattresses in, laying them out on the floor and covering them with clean sheets and blankets to make sickbeds. Next to every bed is a glass of water and a bowl for, uh. Any stomach issues you might have to deal with.]

[Anyone healthy who walks in the door will be cheerfully pressganged into nursing duty.]

[The beds are set up facing the living room's lone TV, but well... this is Invidia. Guess who's probably on every channel.]

[You might have better luck with putting on a movie, but no one actually saw this coming, which means your available selection consists exclusively of stuff Medic brought with her from the Limbo library when she came down to Invidia. By which we mean exactly one film.]

[Whether having to see Esme's face is better or worse than watching Brutal Instinct again is a choice you're going to have to make amongst yourselves.]

Comments

[cancrymods]

It doesn't look like it originated here, given how clean the rest of the floor is. Now that he's on the lookout for it, there's some stray glittery drops on the floor and a dried streak of the stuff on the side of the bin, but it doesn't look like the blood was from this room. Maybe the trash can was moved to somewhere and then back? Who knows!

The drops are closer to the door, though, for what it's worth.

[discutio]

At this point, the concept might not shock me.

[...does dried pneuma smell like anything, is this a question i have to ask]

[cancrymods]

Oh, yeah. It smells like blood but with a weird kick to it? Some weird mix of pepper and hot metal under the smell of blood.

[discutio]

[i hate that i have to ask about a notable scent trail to the source of ghost blood, but i just woke up so i'm gonna]

[cancrymods]

You know what? Fuck it, let's do this.

The sniff trail of blood leads out of the command room and towards the studio.

[discutio]

...See if you can find anything of use in here, perhaps take a few pictures of the controls so the others see what we have to work with. I'll be back in a moment.

[he's just gonna ditch chiron for a sec and take a walk, apparently]

[cancrymods]

Damn, cold.

The smell does actually lead into the studio and going by the way it hangs in the air when he follows it in, it definitely originated here. But it's smothered under that musty, neglected smell, so it seems like it's been a good while since whatever happened here happened.

[discutio]

[Well, that's probably fine. Nothing else smelling or sounding out of place?]

[...Or, perhaps, any double-dead bodies to be found if one were to, say, carefully poke around with a cane that may also sometimes be a sword?]

[cancrymods]

Nope! No corpses.

He might feel a sort of odd texture difference on the floor at some point, though – things change from smooth, if a bit dusty to suddenly brittle and dry.

... I don't need to tell you what it is, but it's pneuma.

[discutio]

[cool he hates this]

[anything else he could feasibly literally poke around to find out of place in this probable murder scene before he calls in his badly-dressed set of eyes]

[cancrymods]

Nah, go find yourself a pair of eyeballs. The crime scene will wait!

[schardynfreude]

[WOW OKAY JUST LEAVE HIM THAT'S COOL PHOENIX not like he can use his EYEBALLS to SEE BLOOD or anything

He'll whip out the phone and take some pics, and also, dick around with the controls, see that shit still seems to work/be powered. Also, I imagine the answer is no at this point, but anything else stand out in the meantime...?]

[cancrymods]

The controls still work! It does seem like there's a way to tap into the main broadcast from here and potentially interrupt it, but that's a project that'd take a bit more than a few minute's futzing around. Mad Scientist Helldad can figure it out, though.

Since he's looking, though, Chiron will notice that with the controls being fiddled with, a computer monitor has popped onto the desktop, as if it was just on sleep this whole time.

There's a few things on the desktop. Want to peek?

[schardynfreude]

[Oh helldad yeah, that's exactly what they're gonna need when they're ready for it.

Plz however show him what's on the desktop. Saucy images? Seekrit journals? Boring schedules?]

[cancrymods]

One of them is, indeed, a scheduling folder. If he's inclined to click into it, he'll find an exhaustive filming schedule dictating the work days of three individuals; Kotori, Alice and Esme.

From a cursory glance, Kotori's schedule is the most packed, Esme's is a bit behind and Alice is in dead last place.

[schardynfreude]

[Oof, jelly girl got jelly. Any pics of the other gals on the compybox? The other, I'm assuming, very very re-dead girls. Oh, oh, were they a group? Or just individuals who were uhhh varying in popularity...]

[cancrymods]

They were indeed a group! Poking around will net him some promo snaps of the girls together as a trio. Esme is obviously recognizable, but the girls with her are unfamiliar. One of them is a bright-eyed brunette with a cute bobcut, and the other is a strikingly pretty redhead with knee-length hair. A bit of eyeballing the filenames will identify bobcut girl as Kotori and redhead as Alice.

It mostly seems to be your typical Just Girls Being Pals promo shoots of groups like these, with the girls being pretty comfy and cuddly with each other in a totes heterosexual way, though there's a number of solo shots of each girl, too.

Some of the photos also come with blurbs, though, that clear things up a bit. The girls weren't quite a group, but were a trio competing in a TV show being aired all across Invidia. Some nonsense about becoming the "new face" of Invidia's screens for the winner, based on popular vote by viewers like you, at home!

[schardynfreude]

[gasp why was alice least popular

........ACTUALLY WAIT is there any information like that here? Personality blurbs, ratings, audience reactions?]

[cancrymods]

There's some notes on her schedule! It's not anything particularly in-depth, it just seems like Alice was a quiet girl who struggled to stand out against Kotori and Esme's much louder personalities. People liked her well enough as part of the group, but sort of forgot about her outside of that.

If he's poking around though, there are a few files that might be helpful. Some video footage on the desktop and–

Oh, hm. Looks like someone didn't clear out the recycle bin before they ditched the station.

[discutio]

Chiron?

[Phoenix made his way back as he'd said he would, approaching the literal only source of sound in the room.]

When you've a moment, I need your eyes over in the studio-...did you find something?

[schardynfreude]

Mm? Yes, I did. A computer that has plenty of information. Seems there were three girls, Esme among them, competing in some kind of contest to be the most popular? She was only second best, if their schedules are anything to go by. There's still some more to see--unless you've found something?

[discutio]

That certainly explains a lot about her.

[he's not leaning over chiron's shoulder because that wouldn't do any damn good, but he is looking curious about the whole thing.]

It can wait a moment. What do we have here?

[schardynfreude]

Seems there's a video. It may at least have sound. If so, you may even be able to pick up on something I might miss.

[Heyyyy let's click that video!]

[cancrymods]

It's a pretty short clip, it looks like it might have been a cut or a first take, since there's some things a little off. The lighting's not super great and when the girls do speak, Alice's energy is a little low and Esme seems distracted. Kotori, however, is firing on all cylinders and even in this short clip it's easy to see why she's the fan favourite.

A Specter in a snazzy suit is posing the the girls a question, apparently in the middle of an interview, as the girls sit there politely and wait their turn to answer. He starts off;

"Now– since we're coming up to the final count, are you girls feeling the pressure yet? Kotori looks set to pull ahead, but things could still turn around. How do you feel about your chances?"

The girls all share a bemused look for a moment and then start speaking – this was clearly an unexpected question because they all talk over each other for a moment, and then crack up and hastily try and organize themselves to see who'll speak first. Eventually, it's Alice who starts.

"Um, honestly, I wouldn't really say I'm worried – because it sort of feels like, I'll be really happy– no matter who ends up winning, it'll feel like a win for me too? Because I'll be so happy whoever wins."

Esme, who's been nodding along, cuts in. "No, no, she's totally right. Even though it's technically like, a competition? It really doesn't feel that way. It just doesn't feel like we're competing because we just have so much fun and I'm– seriously, however it shakes out, even if I'm in last place I won't be mad. Which is crazy because I am the world's sorest loser, usually."

There's a ripple of good-natured laughter and then finally, Kotori speaks up. Even on an informal take like this, there's an immediate vibe that makes her hard to dislike.

"Honestly, they said it best! We've been working our behinds off every day together and the girls are always so, so sweet. Alice'll drop everything to help you with your lines if you're slipping and Esme's always making sure we're looking after ourselves, she'll bring us food, get us water, whatever – she makes the cutest lunches and she won't take no for an answer. I seriously love both of them."

"Aww, honey...!"
"We love you too!"

There's some extremely wholesome giggling and handholding for a moment before Kotori wraps things up.

"So, yeah! There's no losers here, basically. Whoever wins, we all win. That's just how we feel about it."

The video ends.

[schardynfreude]

Oh... Hm, hard to tell if they're actually close or if it's just for the camera, but I can see why they might have all been competing.

Did she really hate the competition that much?

[Hm hm hm, okay clicking around, anything incriminating in the recyle??]