➶ ][ voice

[worn_wings]

So anyone find out where those hearts came from?

[ Yeah, this is what it takes to get him to address everyone: not weird transformations of the spaceship, not people turning into alien creatures, not getting stuck on that dead planet. Nope, it's trespassing. Trespassing, and melodramatic littering.

He's put this off, too, but hitting dead ends means it's worth the hassle. Maybe someone knows. ]

I'm not real big on people leavin' dead stuff on my doorstep.

Comments

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[survivra]

No, and it's driving me mad. I'd prefer to send it back. Or at least a message that I'd rather not have disembodied organs left on my doorstep, and that I'll thump the next person who tries.

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[worn_wings]

Yeah, sounds about right.

[ He likes your attitude, girl. ]

You asked around about it, right? Seemed like a lot of folks got 'em.

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[survivra]

I asked, for all the good it did. Though I imagine asking may not be the best way to find answers—surely there's no easy way of hiding so many corpses.

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[worn_wings]

Coulda been space-pigs or somethin. Maybe they ate the rest.

[warandpeace]

No, I don't think anyone did. Or if they did, they were particularly quiet about it.

[He doesn't even know if they belonged to something sentient.]

[worn_wings]

Bout what I figured.

[ Just not what he hoped. ]

Tried to track 'em but I didn't find much.

[warandpeace]

I should have tried sooner. One of my dogs is a tracker.

Though I suppose she could help if you found any useful locations.

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[nishizono]

i'm new, what hearts stuff is it? are they real hearts?

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[worn_wings]

Someone left 'em on doorsteps. I wanna know who.

[ And why, but having one answer would help find the other. ]

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[nishizono]

so they're actual fucking hearts?! bloody and all that crap?

they must've really liked you, huh.

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[witchweird]

You mean from a couple of weeks ago? One of my neighbors identified it as an animal heart, so I invited her (...and her family and a few friends she wanted to invite...) to come over and cooked mine up in the manner of stone soup. I learned what the best vegetables and spices are for local cuisine.

Even under all the spices, heart's got a lot of taste. So did some of the vegetables. But there wasn't anything wrong with it.

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[worn_wings]

We didn't wanna eat it without knowin' where it's from.

[ If they were desperate, sure; things here are stable enough to get a little picky, he thinks. ]

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[witchweird]

That's sensible.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

Honestly, it's probably your local housing association or something. Probably predominantly carnivorous leaning species on it if they thought fresh hearts were a nice gesture. Might be worth calling them up and filing a complaint.

[worn_wings]

Could be.

I don't like havin to guess.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

I don't blame you. I don't like playing phone tag either.

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[sketchycharacter]

That was gross, right? Whoever was on garbage duty must have had a fun day.

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[worn_wings]

Seems most people don't care.

I figured it was some kinda threat.

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[sketchycharacter]

If it was, it's not a very good one. I'm scared of a gun to my head, not offal on the stoop.

[fight4theusers]

I assumed it was some sort of strange local custom. The murders were more concerning.

[worn_wings]

Murders?

[fight4theusers]

Yes, did you not hear about that? The couple with the arrow through their chest, pinning them together.

[a while later, at home]

[dum_spiro]

It never ceases to amaze that Daryl's the one reaching out and she's the one who would rather lose a finger than speak to another soul. For the best that he is, because sharing information will probably get them farther than not, it's just that she took the losses in Teleios far too hard and isn't much inclined to get over it. The rest is that somehow she thinks she'll run into Cinna or Beverly somewhere, only they won't know her at all, and she's not sure she could take that.

In any case, she listens in where she can, and then wanders off to weed the blueberry patch when no one seems to have any great epiphany. So fine, they'll have to deal with random shit happening here too, not like that's anything new. Doesn't mean she has to like it.

She runs into Daryl later on, once he's done with whatever he was doing today (he may have told her, sometimes they don't get that specific though, no need to really). He'll find her in the kitchen, as usual, canning pickles. Their stock isn't near big enough for her peace of mind yet... pickles aren't exactly nutritious, but uses for cucumbers in canning are fairly limited. The cans are labeled "cold/flu", because salt is good for sore throats... but of course, he'll know that she's going to be tired when she's done, since she's using her "god"-given healing magic.

"Anyone have anything useful to say about it?" she asks, curious despite telling herself she didn't care. It'd be nice if they knew something.

[worn_wings]

It'd be nice to know something, but he's not sure what he's gleaned is of much use. Leaning against the counter he lifts a shoulder in a slight shrug. Since they found the damn thing he's been wondering, been keeping an eye out-- it's just stretched on long enough without real answers that he's tired of just listening, so he asked.

Figures they're about due for bad news.

"Not much," he starts, letting it hang a moment before the less pleasant admission.

"'cept-- they found some folks dead. Dunno if it's related."

But it feels like it must be.

[dum_spiro]

Whether related or not, it's certainly not great news. Carol goes still for a moment, just a beat, before calmly moving her ladle to a funneled jar. No good comes of panicking -- or of getting angry, which she's trying not to do.

"Just normal dead, at least." Because no way he'd have said it like that if it weren't the case. "People from the ship, or...?"