THIRD INVESTIGATION

[bathymetric]

This week's promises were a little weird. From a threat, to an opportunity, to... This has been the closest to a full-on bribe Fontaine's gotten. You can't say he doesn't give you taste of what's to come, but is anyone going to take it? Maybe with the group vandalism you all did, feelings are high for sticking it to the man instead of biting at the obvious bait.

Of course, if you try to use the plasmids you'd previously injected, you'll find none of them will work. That's probably not a good sign. Honestly, giving a bunch of people dangerous injectables... What was the Mayor thinking?

Wait. That's the point, isn't it? Better get looking...though you may not have to go far at all.

Comments

[bootyhunter]

[Dandy takes this time to affectionately scoop the fortune teller's body up in his arms, doing his best not to damage anything further. Everything about this is very horrible, right down to the look on Dandy's face. He stands upright, blood dripping everywhere, much of the brightly colored liquid staining his own clothes.

He appears as though he doesn't really know where he is. Lost, once more.

Dandy blinks once or twice.]

I dunno where to put him.

[The next words are whispered, in a hushed tone, mostly because he's never stuck around long enough to know the answer to this question:]

Do we just leave him here?

Where do the bodies even go?

[visiblepattern]

...I don't know where the bodies go.

[He doesn't like that answer, but it's honest.]

We do have to leave them behind, though. They're gone by the time we return, like everything else.

[bootyhunter]

[He nods.

That's a fair answer, which is what he wanted.]

Give me a minute.

There's a few things I've gotta do before we figure this shit out.

[A little more aggressively-]

Get the hell outta here, baby, you've seen enough.

[Dandy knows that despites Forrest's competence, watching this kind of thing unfold in real time just breaks him.]

I'll be alright.

I'm still here, right?

[visiblepattern]

[He's quiet for a moment, but he nods eventually.]

Very well. If you aren't at the machines that take us down by the time we need to leave, I'll come find you.

[bootyhunter]

Good thinkin'.

[He waves Forrest off, waiting specifically for him to go out of sight. When the good-natured young man leaves, Dandy's eyes idly dart about the room, but he sees no better place to lie his beloved's body down to rest.

So he kneels, setting Hagakure down with utmost patience and care, bending the fortune teller's now stiff hands so that his arms are relaxed peacefully over his chest. When Hagakure died, his eyes had been half open, so Dandy takes the time to slowly shut them for him with his own thumbs. It occurs to Space Dandy here and now, swiftly and sharply, that this is not the first time he's had to bury a lover, and most certainly will not be the last. Such is the curse of living the kind of life as eternal his own.

Before leaving, Dandy removes the necklace containing his treasured blessing from the Andromeda Galaxy branch of the Naritasan temple from his own person and gingerly loops it over Hagakure's neck. Dandy is intimately familiar with streams of time and their various continuities, knowing full well that... Likely, this is not the only fortune-telling idiot version of Hatsuhiro Hagakure to ever exist. The token is not meant to keep him safe in some morbid, otherworldly prison for souls, but more of a wish.

A hope that somehow in the next life, things will be better.

Dandy closes his eyes in silent prayer, kneeling over the corpse. He leans in to press a tender kiss to the temple of the Hope's Peak survivor, as making contact with such cold lips would render Dandy completely unable to move.]

Hey, Dumbass.

[Dandy snorts.]

I'm gonna miss you.

[Dandy will join Forrest in a bit, but for now, he stares bleakly into nothingness while stream down his face. When he rejoins the group, he will be wearing Hagakure's prayer beads on his own wrist.]