"Well, either that my worries are solved or that my new home is really, really gay," Erin says, flashing a grin. "I'll take either and be happy with it. Hey - is that the buffet I'm smelling here or am I hallucinating?"
Wouldn't be the first time. Never let your Lost get hungry folks.
God he's so helpful. Erin doesn't quite turn the bright red as the previous topics (see: Crabb, feelings thereupon) but any amount of red stands out on that pale face. "Plate, please. Emotionally I ain't ready for breakfast but physically fighting on an empty stomach is uhhh...stupid. And...thanks."
She takes a chair and tries to rally, emotionally. Whatever Johnny ends up bringing up is not likely to be as light as having long legs. Surely not.
(You sure? Maybe he doesn't know how to work.)
"You stay out of this too," Erin mutters at herself. "This is working."
Johnny separates from Erin to grab two plates, filling them with a hearty brunch. Sliced ham, scrambled eggs, waffles and some fruit. Coffee for both of them, little creamers and sugar. He gets a good meal; they deserve it with all that's going on.
"That's on you, buddy," Erin says as she goes for the coffee Immediately. "...You know this community better than I do. Physically you probably know the ship better than I do. I was never exactly a huntress, more an ambush predator, so like. This is your show, Johnny. If you've got an idea for flushing someone out, I'm here to back you up. If you just want to be safe in your cabin, I can stand guard."
Sugar is just gonna keep getting added to that coffee isn't it? She's. She's really going for it.
"I'll admit that part of me was hoping you were already chewing away at the problem but...well. Given everything..."
There's a pause, long quiet where he's sort of wrestling with himself. When he speaks, it's quiet, maybe just a little bitter, unlike her coffee-syrup.
"I'm not the strategist, never have been. I'm not a detective, either. I'm alright with figuring out where information needs to go, but my role in the Lavender League was to fund the whole deal, rather than be active out and about in situations like this. I...I think I'm a decent read on people, but I'm not sure how to approach this one."
Erin takes a deep breath, a sip of her coffee, and sets it down.
The food is still untouched.
"The hostile that replaced Giles...was not good at being Giles," she begins. "And when he finally got caught I saw something I used to see a lot; the relief of dropping the mask made him fucking snap. When he was worried about not being found out he tried to fake compassion and love, and the moment he knew the jig was up it was 'I'm gonna start killing people for old times' sake', which, good luck with that the dude's made of paper. If money was any good here I'd have mine on him trying to lunge at Ruby or Undine and getting owned. My point is, while you may not be a tactician or strategist...you're their predator. You pay attention to people. You show real care for them even when they're something like me that's made of little emotional spikes. This has been a hell of a month and we're only halfway through it and that's a lot of emotional chaff to sort through, but you've seen emotional chaff, haven't you?"
A longer sip of the coffee.
Still no food.
"If I was leading this as a coordinated assault, getting you off the board would be a high priority. I'm not saying that's why your family was targeted, mostly because if they were gonna kill someone for tactical reasons they should have killed you. But if you can really think, I'd bet the organ of your choice that you've seen people not rhyming with themselves. Who's out of tune?"
Johnny sits with that question for a moment. Sips his coffee. Frowns.
"Do we think this assault is, in fact, coordinated? Or have they simply avoided busting one another in an attempt not to expose themselves? Self-preservation..."
He remembers a moment during the earlier investigation, a hesitation he hadn't focused on too much right then. It sticks to the inside of his mind like peanut butter to the roof of a dog's mouth.
"I don't have evidence of a coordinated attack," Erin admits. "And...well, this behavior doesn't make sense as one unless we assume the Captain is doing the coordinating, since everyone's miserable, stressed, and delicious. But if it's the Captain like, we can just go fuck ourselves, so - taking him off as a consideration, either it's uncoordinated or morale among the troops is real goddamn low."
Where would Ferrier start? At the beginning. Clear your head of the facts and start from there.
He remembers back to October 11th, when he first got involved with the possessions via Rich. He closes his eyes, trying to recall the scene. Not the blood, not the clues, but the people.
"Whilst." He murmurs that word to himself, quietly, then lets out a slow, heavy breath.
Erin tilts her head, takes a sip of her coffee, and finally picks at her food. The motions are mechanical, but by God the girl is actually eating. Fuel for the fire.
"...Someone else in your family," she murmurs, "or is this news I'm about to not like personally?"
She braces her fragile heart for the hit. She can take it.
"Two for the price of one, I think. But I might be jumping to conclusions, and I really don't want you to leap, if I am."
What he's mulling now is the fact that Erin is here with him. She's the one who keeps using the chess metaphor, talking about taking players off the board, but he's not sure that's the right metaphor. Chess pieces need to be destroyed, to be rendered ineffective.
"...I won't go off without your say-so. On the name my other gave me."
Alarm bells are ringing in Erin's head. There's only so many people she's close to on this ship for a value of close. Sadly for their friendship she has no idea who all is in Johnny's family so that list doesn't narrow anything down for her...
...But her very small circle of friends sure does.
"When we were investigating the cabin, after Cesar was killed, Crabb and I were working together. She was the one who found Rich's clothes. She hesitated to tell me. That night, she wasn't talking like herself, quite. The words she chose, more than the accent. The phrases. 'Whilst', you'd never hear that word in Honoria Crabb's mouth, not in a million years. And she has you sitting here, guarding me. While she's off on her own, investigating. Alone, without any oversight."
He puts his hands down on the table. He still hasn't taken a bite of his meal.
"And you verified her with a kiss--the first one you'd given her, how do you know for sure how the real deal would react to that? Or that anyone else in the world wouldn't react the same way?"
Erin gapes. "Because - she - we talked, about Cragen, about...how her trust had been abused. How she tried to let someone in..."
(The facts are fitting. Tactically...)
"During that conversation I showed her that I can disguise myself too," Erin plows on, her voice strained. "How would she not have been... shocked? Revolted, for me to touch her like that? I know I tanked anything there could be between us when I put that on the table. How not?"
An anguished expression wracks Erin. The haze around her gutters, fizzles, piles on the floor like sludge.
She clutches her hair and screams, a helpless and pathetic sound that goes on far longer than human lungs be should sustain it.
In the aftermath her voice is leaden as a dirge.
"Distracting me makes sense," she mourns. "But. She has her best chance to kill me. Asleep in my destroyed cabin. No cabin mate. No one else who can access my room. It would have been the perfect chance, with you distracted and...few people who would care. She let me live. Why? Why..."
"This is pure speculation, but you trust my reads, so I'm going to give it anyway."
After he pauses to grab a whole waffle in his hand and take a bite, and the rest of this is delivered gesturing with said waffle.
"Because this is wholly uncoordinated. This isn't an attack. This is ghosts ending up in bodies, somehow, and whoever's in Crabb's is more subtle, trying to keep their head low and not get caught. They let you live because you weren't a piece to take off the board, but a whole person they didn't need to murder for the hell of it."
There's a long silence from Erin. Eventually she starts eating again, until the check-in text makes her phone give off an alert.
She freezes.
"...I need to hear that out her mouth," Erin manages. "Or I'll lose what's left of my sanity. Back me up. Keep me from...she must have thought I'd gone berserk..."
"Don't make it a confrontation--don't make them, whoever they are, feel like a cornered animal. I think that's likely to not end well for anyone. This one's canny and trying to fly under the radar. Self-preservation instinct strong. Perhaps...invite her to join us for brunch?"
"...Yeah. I understand the idea even if I'd prefer a cabin. This... doesn't call for force. She gave me comfort, and that's not nothing. One moment."
Erin takes out her phone and dictates a text to Crabb.
Strategy meeting with Johnny. Buffet. Coffee available. Sugar unlikely to survive my presence. Keep it cool. No need to draw more attention to the investigation. Would have appreciated knowing who Rich was before I proposed violence like a fool.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 05:53 pm (UTC)Wouldn't be the first time. Never let your Lost get hungry folks.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:00 pm (UTC)He would only judge her a little for making that choice, really.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:07 pm (UTC)She takes a chair and tries to rally, emotionally. Whatever Johnny ends up bringing up is not likely to be as light as having long legs. Surely not.
(You sure? Maybe he doesn't know how to work.)
"You stay out of this too," Erin mutters at herself. "This is working."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:16 pm (UTC)"After we eat, is it back to the cabin or...?"
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:20 pm (UTC)Sugar is just gonna keep getting added to that coffee isn't it? She's. She's really going for it.
"I'll admit that part of me was hoping you were already chewing away at the problem but...well. Given everything..."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:24 pm (UTC)"I'm not the strategist, never have been. I'm not a detective, either. I'm alright with figuring out where information needs to go, but my role in the Lavender League was to fund the whole deal, rather than be active out and about in situations like this. I...I think I'm a decent read on people, but I'm not sure how to approach this one."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:45 pm (UTC)The food is still untouched.
"The hostile that replaced Giles...was not good at being Giles," she begins. "And when he finally got caught I saw something I used to see a lot; the relief of dropping the mask made him fucking snap. When he was worried about not being found out he tried to fake compassion and love, and the moment he knew the jig was up it was 'I'm gonna start killing people for old times' sake', which, good luck with that the dude's made of paper. If money was any good here I'd have mine on him trying to lunge at Ruby or Undine and getting owned. My point is, while you may not be a tactician or strategist...you're their predator. You pay attention to people. You show real care for them even when they're something like me that's made of little emotional spikes. This has been a hell of a month and we're only halfway through it and that's a lot of emotional chaff to sort through, but you've seen emotional chaff, haven't you?"
A longer sip of the coffee.
Still no food.
"If I was leading this as a coordinated assault, getting you off the board would be a high priority. I'm not saying that's why your family was targeted, mostly because if they were gonna kill someone for tactical reasons they should have killed you. But if you can really think, I'd bet the organ of your choice that you've seen people not rhyming with themselves. Who's out of tune?"
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:55 pm (UTC)The person who's keyed up, of course.Johnny sits with that question for a moment. Sips his coffee. Frowns.
"Do we think this assault is, in fact, coordinated? Or have they simply avoided busting one another in an attempt not to expose themselves? Self-preservation..."
He remembers a moment during the earlier investigation, a hesitation he hadn't focused on too much right then. It sticks to the inside of his mind like peanut butter to the roof of a dog's mouth.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 06:57 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:12 pm (UTC)He remembers back to October 11th, when he first got involved with the possessions via Rich. He closes his eyes, trying to recall the scene. Not the blood, not the clues, but the people.
"Whilst." He murmurs that word to himself, quietly, then lets out a slow, heavy breath.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:16 pm (UTC)"...Someone else in your family," she murmurs, "or is this news I'm about to not like personally?"
She braces her fragile heart for the hit. She can take it.
(Not any more)
|Fuck off and die.|
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:22 pm (UTC)What he's mulling now is the fact that Erin is here with him. She's the one who keeps using the chess metaphor, talking about taking players off the board, but he's not sure that's the right metaphor. Chess pieces need to be destroyed, to be rendered ineffective.
Not merely distracted.
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:26 pm (UTC)Alarm bells are ringing in Erin's head. There's only so many people she's close to on this ship for a value of close. Sadly for their friendship she has no idea who all is in Johnny's family so that list doesn't narrow anything down for her...
...But her very small circle of friends sure does.
"Just walk me through it, Johnny."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:32 pm (UTC)He puts his hands down on the table. He still hasn't taken a bite of his meal.
"And you verified her with a kiss--the first one you'd given her, how do you know for sure how the real deal would react to that? Or that anyone else in the world wouldn't react the same way?"
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:39 pm (UTC)(The facts are fitting. Tactically...)
"During that conversation I showed her that I can disguise myself too," Erin plows on, her voice strained. "How would she not have been... shocked? Revolted, for me to touch her like that? I know I tanked anything there could be between us when I put that on the table. How not?"
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 07:43 pm (UTC)"Is that an emotional denial, or actual certainty that I'm wrong, Erin?"
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 08:00 pm (UTC)She clutches her hair and screams, a helpless and pathetic sound that goes on far longer than human lungs be should sustain it.
In the aftermath her voice is leaden as a dirge.
"Distracting me makes sense," she mourns. "But. She has her best chance to kill me. Asleep in my destroyed cabin. No cabin mate. No one else who can access my room. It would have been the perfect chance, with you distracted and...few people who would care. She let me live. Why? Why..."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 08:05 pm (UTC)After he pauses to grab a whole waffle in his hand and take a bite, and the rest of this is delivered gesturing with said waffle.
"Because this is wholly uncoordinated. This isn't an attack. This is ghosts ending up in bodies, somehow, and whoever's in Crabb's is more subtle, trying to keep their head low and not get caught. They let you live because you weren't a piece to take off the board, but a whole person they didn't need to murder for the hell of it."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 09:42 pm (UTC)She freezes.
"...I need to hear that out her mouth," Erin manages. "Or I'll lose what's left of my sanity. Back me up. Keep me from...she must have thought I'd gone berserk..."
no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 09:46 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2022-10-14 11:33 pm (UTC)Erin takes out her phone and dictates a text to Crabb.
Strategy meeting with Johnny. Buffet. Coffee available. Sugar unlikely to survive my presence. Keep it cool. No need to draw more attention to the investigation. Would have appreciated knowing who Rich was before I proposed violence like a fool.
Keep safe. Please hurry.