hello hello hello hello VIDEO

[theparasite]

[forward-date to around 3 or 4am 6/13. poster ID for this tablet is MARTIN DARKOV, but this is not the Martin you are looking for. here is a pretty face for you.

actually, no. this was a pretty face, but there is a lot of ugly going on here. scabs and grooved flesh all along the right side...eye nearly swollen shut.

this gal's brow is furrowed, straining, contradicting the lazy smile it wears.

slow, methodical, yet wavering after each letter:]

D. A. R. [swallow. a wider smile and a shakier voice.] K. O. V.

[it blinks a few times; there's a couple tears trailing from behind the monocle.]

Oh. Sh. Shh.

We solved a mystery.

Comments

[text]

[scornful]

[ AND JUST FOR SHITS AND GIGGLES Catsovi switches his name back to BARIYAN E KODHI for this ]

What the hell happened to your face?

[theparasite]

[stares.

and uh.

reads i guess. reading. READING A THING...]

What the hell happened to your ff-ff...[snicker.] Ha, are you asking me?

[scornful]

Yes. What hurt you?

[ HE'S SO CONCERNED no he's not he's just morbidly curious and bored and sleep-deprived because ugh this fever ugh this sickness every cough now sends spasms of pain through his body. It keeps him awake. Awful. ]

anon text

[gevurah]

[ she does not like this. ]

Who are you?

[theparasite]

[a delay.

lazily:] D. A. R. K. O. V.

[gevurah]

Any relation to the owner of that tablet you're using?

[whatsupcroc]

Where's Martin?

( She's already talking much more sharply than she intends. Collette's voice hikes up, and the tablet shakes in her lap as she demands: )

Why are you using his name, where is he --

( But that damnable cough catches up with her again, and she ends up doubled over and pulling at the oxygen mask she'd moved off her face when it got too uncomfortable. )

[theparasite]

[it smiles broader and broader at the sight of her, its eyes narrowing to slits.]

Cough, cough. Poor little darling. [it fidgets, grazing its fingers across the matted fur of its coat.]

[whatsupcroc]

Where is he.

( She looks pale, which is more of a feat for her in general, if less while she's ill. Collette's feed trembles; she drops her hands away, leaving the tablet supported by her steady legs, and the pillow propping it up on her lap. )

text;

[obliterating]

[Wait...]

What happened to Martin?

[theparasite]

Words, words...[dragging a finger slowly down the tablet.] "What happened"? "Who is this"?

video;

[obliterating]

[He swaps over to video, frowning a little and misunderstanding her.]

Thassarian.

You're not Martin. Where is he?

[Video]

[hornedomen]

[Awake and very alarmed:] Where's Martin? Who is this?

[theparasite]

Little boy. [smirking. squinting.]

Oh. Hoh.

A fake.

[hornedomen]

You're not making any sense. I want to speak to Martin.

[There was something familiar about her. Was she a past Transport? Yet he was sure he would have remembered someone as strange as this.]

[video]

[legal_eagle]

[Brightly:]

Well, since no one else seems to be asking - what mystery?

[theparasite]

The mystery. [matching tone, peppy enough despite the crack in its voice. sniff.] Which – Darkov – was – it?

[legal_eagle]

[What the shiiiiiit]

Okay. So which one was it?

voice

[boundbyheart]

What mystery?

[theparasite]

The mystery.

[boundbyheart]

How elusive.

[Not here]

[imusntrunaway]

[The device says it's Martin's. But the woman using it to say such strange and disturbing things can't be anyone he knows, right? Shinji doesn't respond--he doesn't know this person well enough and he doesn't have the courage to ask her how she knows about Martin.

But he watches the post. He listens to the other responses. And bit by bit, he pieces together the meaning of her message.

He turns off his tablet and yanks his pillow over his head.]

[theparasite]

[come now little boy. you should be friends with your friends' relatives!]

voice;

[boughtabookstore]

What mystery would that be?

[theparasite]

The dead Darkov. We know who it is now!