The Off-Season [OTA]

[freedomsuitsme]

Who: Maxwell
What: Passing the days
When: Throughout December
Warnings: TBD


Like Butter Over Too Much Bread [The Brig] [Post-Excursion]

If anyone happens to be near the lower levels of the ship, they might catch a whiff of something odd. To some, it might smell like something burning. To others, it might smell like spilled gasoline, or odd chemicals. To everyone, it's a smell that catches their attention and puts them on alert.

Should they follow it, they'll find it leads to the brig, where Maxwell is hunched over a magic circle on all fours, shaking and drenched with sweat. He looks positively exhausted, and doesn't give much of a reaction when approached. His eyes are glazed over, focus deadlocked on something distant and unseeable.

Nothing Up My Sl- Whoops! [Various] [Anytime]

He's been busy at work in the library, leaving the tables by the Alchemy Engine littered with random objects. Every time he's there, he's surrounded by spreadsheets. It seems like he writes something down whenever he manages to make something, even if it's a duplicate of the objects he's already made.

Stay, Keep Us Company a While [Bobby B's] [During Excursion]

With the ship so empty, he's taken to sitting in Bobby B's with the phonograph playing, always sitting in the same chair. He doesn't smoke while he's doing this, he just sits and stares at the opposite wall. It's his way of being the edgy rogue in the shadowy corner. There's no mistaking it, he's brooding. One could say he's being quite silly about it, but perhaps there really is something weighing heavy on his mind. It's certainly not out of the question around here.

The Smell of Danger on the Air [Various] [Post-Excursion, Post Interaction With Tiamat]

There's the faintest hint of blood clinging to him, a stray few specks on his shirt tails. It's probably nothing.


[Wildcard]

Comments

[redlightgreenlight]

Tiamat knows where each person is, having tracked their souls around the ship long enough, so they reach the morgue without running into a single one. That's not to say no one saw them, but they weren't stopped.

She closes the door behind them, flicking on the light before pulling a piece of paper out of her pocket and holding it out to him.

"Here are the symbols, and when you are ready to activate them, just say 'Vær min ødeleggelse i mørket.' No one will know until you give further commands, but control will be yours."

She jumps up on one of the slabs.

"Just make it fast, I dislike suffering when it's my own."

cw: implied surgery

[freedomsuitsme]

He nods, holding back his misgivings. He has a steady hand, and he's been preparing himself for this.

He's done so much worse. Scalpels are much less unwieldy than razors honed from flint. He trades nitrile gloves for silken ones, and works in silence, save for his incantations.

Hearts are strange when they aren't black and withered or made of straw.

[redlightgreenlight]

Funny thing about those hearts made of living flesh and blood, they don't like being cut into. Tiamat remains alive for as much of it as she can, but eventually Valdis opens her eyes in her own bed to the sound of knocking, then the door clicks open and Ash's scent fills the room.

[freedomsuitsme]

Elsewhere in the ship, he does his best to clean himself up in the aftermath of the procedure. He's fairly confident that he's wiped away every trace of blood, before he leaves for his cabin.

Whether or not he really has adequately covered his tracks remains to be seen.

[redlightgreenlight]

Sometime in the night three days later, Maxwell will receive a text.

Contact will be difficult moving forward, but I will message you when I am able. Be wary otherwise.

And Good Luck.