Star Trek: Starbase 777

The events hall was dark, so much so it was difficult to see at all. You could hear the echo of confused voices around you.. (edited)

Entering the events hall, P’Ruur wasn’t sure what to expect. Button led her into the dim space, sniffing to find his way as she rolled into the room. “Hello?” She called out to greet anyone else in the area. “What the hell is going on?”

The sudden absence of any members of the crew was definitely… weird. However, Nenn was sure there had to be a good reason for it, as they knew that people couldn’t spontaneously vanish into thin air, all at one. Right? “Oh, shit, there’s people still here.” They sighed, “What’s happening?”

1

Now, Charlotte may be an android. But Charlotte was old, and not built insane like androids actually intended for heavy work. As such.. Charlotte did not have insane night vision. It was just as dim to her as it was to everyone else. She’d been in her shop, setting up to open when she noticed the spotlights and the disappearances. This was.. certainly strange. “What is going on here?” She called out, her voice very even and gentle as it always was. She stepped forward, what light there was making it clear she was well-dressed, in a red and white dress with plenty of petticoats for volume, and a matching bonnet on her head.

Walking into the events hall, T'Sareth was dressed in his fluffy house coat with some crocs and socks. "I'm looking for my husband who.. would presumably be looking for me but he can't look," T'Sareth could hear the voices and footsteps of others telling him there were people indeed still around.

Why were there, like, two other androids here? Ugh. He didn't sign up for this... Some guy called Onyon did. Fuck that guy. "Look at this dude over here, bragging about having a husband." Literally not what he said, man.

7

The beautiful Orion shook her head as she was teleported over here, she wore a lovely white and gold suit with various chains around the arms leading to gloves. She had nice glasses on as well and nice boots with white fur as well, with a cane in her hand. “Now what is the meaning of this. I was working!” She said, clearly agitated at being away from her business.

This would be fun company. Hopefully. “Anyone got any ideas? Or seen any crew members, like, at all?” They leaned against the wall, adjusting their flamingo-and-cactus-print button up to not wrinkle as much.

Wow. So far it seemed to be only civilians in the event hall. Weird. And what a… diverse cast of characters. “I haven’t seen anyone in uniform since leaving my quarters,” P’Ruur responded.

“I have not seen anyone either.. it is quite strange.” She replied, heading further into the dim room to see if she could spot anything, what little good that would do consider her eyesight was only a little better than flesh-eyes.

“Usually, there’s a million, right? Could there be some red alert shit going on, or something?” They shrugged, “Transporter malfunction, broken holodeck, uh… warp core issues?”

P’ruur giggled at the Breen’s seeming lack of knowledge about Starfleet operations, covering up her rising anxiety. “Last I checked, none of those things could make a giant Starbase’s entire compliment disappear,”

He shrugged also. Whoever Nenn was could not out-chill him. "Nobody's around to whack the button that makes all the alarms scream and wail. Not that it would help us any. This is some Enterprise shit."

She rubbed her eyes under her glasses. “Which Enterprise? Because there were some useless ones. Nobody talks about the B unless it’s how they got Kirk killed but not killed.”

3

"Aw, fuck, not again," Maggie grumbled under their breath, leaning forward on their cane with a little huff of annoyance. The last time this happened... Well. They reached up, wiping sweat from their forehead. This setup felt so familiar. Why? "I gotta stop deciding to investigate this stuff," they said out loud.

3

“What, what?” They turned to them, sounding utterly baffled and completely out of their depth, “You do this stuff often?”

"Well, once the station got taken over and we had to fight some resistance group," they offered flatly. Not out of any distaste for Nenn, they just talked like that all the time.

“Mmm. glad I missed that one.” She said, pulling out a pocket watch. When would this nonsense be over? She had people to ~~scam~~ gamble with!

“Shit. That’s not fun.” They grimaced beneath their refrigeration suit, “Well, um… okay then. Investigate away, my friend.”

The Romulan walked in, still in his apron, spots and stains of flour and colorful unidentified, but surely delicious, ingredients. He had been finishing a batch of cookies when suddenly he heard a bit of commotion out of his shop. The where a few civilians out there, looking in a hurry, confused, he looked around to discover no officer could be seen. It was… peculiar. Well, he was not about to lose his head yet, deciding to join the odd concentration of people that followed those strange lights, people saying that apparently all of the Starfleet officials disappeared. Great, another odd day. (edited)

"I don't know all the enterpriseses, I'm not some kinda fleet fan. Hi, Maggie." They were the only person here he knew and liked and also confirmed not an android. Unless? (edited)

6

Delevhas, after wandering around the now-much-emptier starbase gor a while, eventually found his way into the events hall, thanks to the murmur of people's voices which guided his way. He mentally raced to deduce why the starbase was suddenly so dark and empty, and yet the only answer his mind could produce was sabotage. Whatever the reason for the malfunction was, Delevhas decided that the best course of action was to seek safety. Was it safer to be where the people were, or to be alone? Delevhas decided that safety in numbers made the most sense, as he walked into the event hall. However, he was exceedingly aware of the fact that the darkness made it so that he couldn't see exactly which people ae there. Delevhas decided to keep a bit of distance from the crowd, and keep his back up against a wall, juat in case.

Korozysh groggily walked into the events hall, still wearing her pajama pants and slippers. She looked around at the frightened assembly of civilians. "Crikey, that's a load o' people," She remarked. "What's the scene?"

"There's a dude over there trying to hide in the shadows like he's some mysterious hooded quest-giver in the back of a tavern." He took a deep breath for entirely aesthetic reasons, and yelled: "Come here, dipshit! Don't you know what happens to people who separate from the group in horror movies?"

5

She looked at Noid. “Darling, I think comparing this to a horror movie is a bit rash isn’t it?” She said with a hum. “Nobody’s dropped dead yet.”

4

"Yet," Maggie mused, twirling their cane. They went to a murder mystery party once. It was fun.

“What he said! Huddle, folks. Don’t get chainsaw murdered, movie-style!” Nenn opted to just go with it, the other guy seemed pretty chill anyhow.

He exhaled a short, amused breath. "Oh, yeah, they just got fucking raptured. No big deal."

Delevhas suddenly whipped his head around to face Noid; he was clearly startled by the shouting. "Are you referring to me-?" He asked gingerly yet politely.

Korozysh blinked, looking around rapidly. "Er... sorry, did someone get chainsawed?" She asked with a deep rasp in her voice.

Putting on their best horror story narrator voice, they held out their hands, visor brightening slightly. “Not yet….. ooooOoooooo… but seriously, no, nobody got chainsawed.” (edited)

“Hey, woah, everyone, stay calm. I’m sure there’s a perfectly reasonable explanation for what’s happening,” P’Ruur raised her paws to placate the crowd. “Nobody’s going to get murdered,” (edited)

”Could be a drill.” Vellek made himself heard in the middle of their little chaos. He whipped the flour off his hands on his apron and crossed his arms. “Just another exercise.” He had been through many during his long service time.

"No, I was yelling at the guy who looks exactly like you, standing exactly where you are." Don't joke lad, there might be some doppelganger shit going on!

2

Delevhas smiled amusedly and laughed a little, acting as a good sport in the face of the sarcasm. "Ah, of course..." He moved closer to the group, understanding now, between Noid's sarcasm, that he really was referring to him. As Delevhas moved closer, his painfully outdated style of Romulan fashion became very obvious; hopefully his enormous shoulder pads wouldn't get in anybody's way. (edited)

Tal-terrh was following the sound of noise, the absence of people unnerving not just because of its silence but because the minds that pressed against his mind on every side suddenly disappeared. The lights were unhelpful in guiding him, but the feeling of people around him encouraged him to seek out someone who might be able to tell him what was going on.

Verelan, meanwhile, had been following after Maggie, although she'd lingered by the door to just... keep track of who all she saw. She'd been around the last time the officers had all been made prisoners of their own quarters, but this time there weren't even any haphazard revolutionaries around. That she could see, anyway.

From the darkness came the gentle pounding of a dramatic drumroll, and two spotlights turned on the stage, illuminating velvet red curtains. "Laaaadiieees and gentlefolks, mortals from all corners of the universe, the show you are about to witness will be unlike anything you've ever seen— gore and betrayal! Drama, action, BLOODSHED!! Please put your hands together for......!!"

The drumroll came down with a cymbal crash, and the curtains parted, revealing a woman in an old-timey ringmaster outfit, complete with a fluffy skirt and a top hat. She swept low in a bow. "Your game master, at your service," she said, the dazzling smile never once leaving her face.

7

“Oh, what the fuck.” Nenn whispered under their breath, eyes widened at the sudden appearance of the ringmaster, “Are we playing D&D with a Q or something?”

4

5

Korozysh ducked to the floor, hands over her head, shivering and shriveled into a ball. She slowly raised an eye, looking at the ringleader, slightly less intimidated. She scoffed, getting up and coolly brushing herself off. "Ahem.. uh, yeah. Who's this?"

Brow raised he fully stared at the stranger that just… appeared. “Not a drill. Maybe some Q bullshit instead.” He had heard stories about those guys and been glad to have never encountered the annoying all powerful pricks. Unless today was finally his first time.

"What the hell is a Q?" Verelan isn't very educated, ok.

6

"Annoying space god," Maggie whispered, holding onto her arm. Fuck this shit, for real.

“intergalactic weirdos, they like fucking with shit.” Nenn replied, pointing to Maggie, “What they said, yeah.”

Maggie flashed Nenn a thumbs up. Very cool!

Delevhas faced the game stage immediately. Normally Delevhas liked to watch a good show, but the circumstances surrounding it was still too concerning for his mind. Delevhas, taking it upon himself to speak for the group, approached the stage to speak with the game master. "Excuse me, kind lady; would you mind explaining to us what exactly is going on here, if you please?"

P’Ruur frowned, a sigh leaving her lips. She’d honestly thought leaving Starfleet would exempt her from this kind of bullshit, but she supposed she was never truly free from it as long as she was on their property.

She rolled her eyes. “Ugh, I do not have time for Q bullshit.” She said with a sigh. “Can’t you just play with the Starfleets? I’m sure you can find someone to annoy among them.”

”I did not sign up for this.” He buffed. He had un-signed himself in fact, coming to 777 to start a calm life as a baker. But it seemed Federation had the ability to bring chaos to his life at whatever stage it was.

He rolled his eyes, as though mildly inconvenienced. "Oh, great. Some God's gonna put me in the torment nexus. Way to ruin my Tuesday."

4

Fuck, neither did they. But the dipshit who wrote them did. “Okay. Okay, this is… wow.” They mumbled, “Q time. Fun.”

"It's Friday," Maggie retorted. Ah, that's why this felt familiar. The whole circus setup..

"Starfleet officers are annoying," Q answered, floating up just enough to cross one leg over the other and cross her arms. "Always whining about how they have more important things to do." She poofed into a Starfleet uniform, making a mocking wave of her hands— "'Let us go, Q! The clusterfuck sector is under attack!'—" then was back to normal. "Why do you think I'm taking care of the station? So they wouldn't meddle! Come on, come on, it'll be fun!" She swooshed forward as the lights flicked on, propping her chin up in her hands. "It'll be a nice game, and then your officers will be back, safe and sound. I promise!"

6

She mumbled under her breath. “Your mother is from the clusterfuck sector.”

5

“What game?” They blinked, a bit stunned to be here, now, with the present company of their fellow civs and a Q.

A snort escaped her at the profanity that flowed so freely from the Q’s lips.

"You think I have a calendar in my head?" He muttered, low enough Maggie wouldn't hear if they were a human, which he'd forgotten they weren't. It was called an internal clock and he did, in fact, have one, but he wasn't going to tell anyone that. He was going to hide being an android until he died. "I mean, to be fair, I don't have anything more important to do."

Delevhas turned to face everyone else in bewilderment. "Wh... What is that. Can somebody explain why she is floating. How is she doing that." Clearly this poor man has never encountered or heard of a Q.

"Oh, yours too! She was a lovely woman," Q sang, turning over upside down. "It won't take long. It's been so long since someone wanted to play with me..!"

5

”On that front we can agree lady.” And maybe it is why Qs and Starfleet found themselves so often. Both could be insufferable. “But what is in it for us in this game? You’ve kidnapped, or vanished, a huge percentage of our population and interrupted our daily activities with no warning… not exactly a huge incentive.” His cookies for one, had been completely ruined. Rest in ashes.

4

"Is this gonna be, like, hard? Or take long?" He asked, sitting on the floor with his elbows on his knees. "I'm already tired."

“Is this the kinda game where we’re playing characters? Are you gonna make us get through a storyline or something?” They doubted it, but threw it out there anyways. Maybe it was D&D with a Q. God, their comic this week would be wild.

3

"Oh, it's quite simple." Q, who evidently couldn't stay still for more than a second, flipped back over, leaning in veeery close to Vellek. "You'll play, or you'll go right with them. Or I'll just send you into space. Whatever I want, really... Okay?" She booped him on the nose with a giggle, then swam back. "Your only limit is your own intellect! You'll be playing yourselves, and the story I have to tell is a dark one — twists and turns, a murder in the dark! Doesn't that sound fun!?"

Fuck yes, that sounded fun. “Not fun, are you actually gonna kill us?” They lied, mildly horrified as well as unbelievably intrigued.

He sprawled out on the floor, starfish formation. "Well, that's unfair. My intellect is very limited. I should get, like, a headstart."

Ever since the attack on the senate so long ago, it had become clear to Veldan that he had weak noodle arms and needed to work on it. That's what he was doing in a holodeck when everyone disappeared... Unfortunately since he was on his own (and in an enclosed space), Veldan fully didn't notice until he finished his session. Following the lights much later than everyone else, he entered the events hall only to hear Q say 'murder in the dark.' The fuck???

What the hell? “No, absolutely not! What have you done with the officers? Where are they?” P’Ruur demanded, suddenly realizing the very real threat.

“I’m a small business owner, my intellect is tied to the whims of capital.” She said, ignoring the crack about her mother.

Threatened to the void by a Q… what a retirement life he was living! He did bite down hard on the need to slap her hand away or say something a bit more ungentlemanly, drowning his protests. He was not stupid as to not recognize when someone had just threatened his life.

"If we win your game, you would let us go and return our officers, yes?" Delevhas asked. His tone seemed calm, although inside he was very much nervous.

"Of course, of course," ignoring the question about where they were, Q waved a hand dismissively. "And if you don't.. we'll play again! And again, and again, until you do! We'll be here for the rest of time, if we must!" She laughed, bright and cheerful, clasping mismatched gloved hands together.

Less fun, now. Shit. “Are you gonna… actually kill us in the murder mystery bit?” They questioned, uncharacteristically tentative.

“And if so are we going to be actually dead or just in a constant state of revival to suit your whims.” She asked, playing with a few coins she kept on her to keep her calm.

Delevhas figured that restarting the game when they lose wasn't the worst thing in the world; playing again and again meant that they'd win eventually, right? Unless the murders in the murder mystery are real, of course... "We would like to request that none of us are to be harmed, if you wouldn't mind!" Delevhas told the Q, politely but firmly.

"Okay, okay, everybody shut up!!" She waved two hands like a someone conducting a band, taking a deep breath in. "One among you will be chosen to be a murderer. Your task will be to explore the station for clues, and identifying who it is— when you do, you bring them back here, and you must tell me the cause of death. Any questions?"

So many. More than even plausible for this character. “…okay.” They spoke through gritted teeth, asking none of those questions.

Again and again. If there was something Vellek certainly did not appreciate was being held prisoner. Being held a prisoner and then turned into a puppet was even worse. His hands shook a bit, hidden between his crossed arms, a mix of the imperious sense of doom and anger. ”I am not killing anyone for your amusement! What kind of sick game is this!?”

"Hi, question?" Korozysh raised her hand. "Is getting murdered gunna hurt?"

3

"It depends on the murder method. Not all ways of killing people hurts the victim." Delevhas answered... Helpfully? Unhelpfully?

"I feel as if the whole "throw you out into space" bit went over your head," she mused thoughtfully. "You are going to play the game, or I'll send you and your beloved Starbase into the sun, and all your beloved officers along with it. And we're going to have fun. Maybe we'll even do this again sometime! Who knows?" Ah, right. "None of you are going to die. In fact— I know the perfect corpse." The Q snapped her fingers, plunging the room back into darkness. "Your victim..." With a roll of thunder, she illuminated her face with a timeline-appropriate flashlight equivalent. "Is me!" A wicked cackle, and she was gone, leaving the entire district in blackness.

“…what the fuck?” They stared at the spot she had stood in just moments before, flabbergasted, puzzled, and many other synonyms meaning the same exact thing. “Did everyone else just see that? Am I high?”

Jilla paused. “You know, you normally feel a little bad for murder victims.”

"Not always."

4

Flinching hard at the roll of thunder, Maggie shook their head like a dog ridding itself of water. "Fuck this," they said in a hiss, reaching up to rub their eyes. "Q bullshit.. I have a show to get ready for.."

”And after all of that… who here doesn’t have motive to murder her?” Still, he was a bit relieved no actual murdering took place. “And those… beings can’t die.”

“Okay, so, what— we look for murder clues? Candlestick in the kitchen-type deal?” They asked the others, hoping that someone else would know what to do so they could zone out and not be thinking about the ramifications of all of this.

He took a big audible sigh. So this was it, they had truly no choice. All they could do is try to solve this as quickly as possible. Then the Q would hopefully leave them alone. “She mentioned a corpse. Maybe we should start from there, and find if she actually left something akin to one for us... there’s always clues on left on the body.”

"Alright, alright." Korozysh breathed. "Someone's a murderer, right?" She brushed her hair out of her face. Usually it was supposed to be done up, but now it was just flopping around.. "Then, if you did it.. er, raise your hand?"

"I did it," he said, having not done it. Or had he?

3

“Why would the murderer admit to it?” They furrowed their brow, turning to look at Korozysh, before hearing Noid. “I stand corrected.”

He stood up, stretched, and yawned. "Yep. I did it. Better put me in jail right now. With a bed and some pillows, please."

"I don't think she'll be happy if we try to do that. I feel like her eyes are on me even now.." Maggie shook their head, a slight headache pulsing behind their own eyes from all the lights ons and offs and...

Charlotte’s eyes widened as Q appeared. Well, they would, if they weren’t painted on and immobile. The idea of it, of this, of her, the newcomer of all people, having to take part in this twisted game, was awful, and it was not what she wanted to do on her first day here. A game.. some horrific type of game this was. Well, the only thing to do was to play along, and entertain their tormentor. Luckily, Charlotte was built to entertain such a childish type of person. “We.. we should find whatever she’s decided is to be the murder scene.”

“Should we split up into groups? Get this over with faster?” They suggested, crossing their arms over their chest, “They can’t have gotten too far, yeah?”

"UGH, fine, I didn't do it." He smirked. "Unless that's what I want you to think?" He laughed, as though this was a funny holodeck simulation and not a stressful and dangerous situation.

”Didn’t you hear? She wants drama, she wants mystery..” There was sarcasm in those words. “…and if I end up stuck on some void for the rest of eternity because the chosen murderer spoiled her fun, I’ll murder whoever they are myself!” The sarcasm was gone.

3

"She'd just wipe our memories and try again. She could do that forever, actually..." He looked at the ground, no longer smiling, wondering if that could have happened a thousand times before.

“Please, we all must keep our heads level. I think spitting into groups is wise, and then we should all meet again to discuss our findings.” Charlotte, as it was, was actually a level-headed kind of prescence. Mainly because she could not add panic to her voice, nor could her face move to express it. If being a little doll for the Q to play with would save someone’s life, Charlotte could abide by that. She would not spoil the fun.

“Okay, team holoarcade, right here. I think if she likes games so much, she might pop up there.” They reasoned, “Anyone wanna come with?”

1

Delevhas moved towards Nenn. "Perhaps I will join you." He spoke up. "I hope my knowledge could be of use to you."

"Maybe I'll check the casino?.. or the bar, maybe, I need a drink after this." Maggie sighed, pinching their nose bridge. "Yeah. I'll check the bar. It'll be the less noisy of the bunch, I bet."

It was unusual for Tal to find himself on this side of the murder case. He had never reviewed bodies, never had enough questions about a crime he had witnessed to find himself seeking answers. And when he had raised his blade against another, he had done so decisively and without shame or hesitation, hiding the act not necessary when convinced entirely of your righteous cause. But he had seen many bodies. He had witnessed many deaths. He knew the means and motives of that most definitive of deeds, taking another life. And so he would aid where he could. "I can join in searching this arcade." He had never been to an arcade before. What a situation to find oneself in, to be experiencing entirely novel environments.

2

Well if the little Q wanted drama, the casino could be a great possibility, he nodded towards Maggie. “I’d check the casino as well, seems promising. We should all report here in a while to share any clues and get the bigger picture, since we are obviously splitting up.” (edited)

"I'm going to the bar. If I'm gonna look for a corpse, I need a drink." His battery was a bit low.

5

“I think I will go to the casino too.” After all, even if it was loud in there, that didn’t matter to Charlotte. There might be clues in there… at least, hopefully, there would be. At least, opportunities to entertain the Q enough to spare the starbase.

Jilla hummed. “My casino has a lovely selection of drinks if that strikes your fancy.” She said as she stood towards the front of my casino. “Everyone coming to the casino come with me, I own the place after all.” She said with a bow.

“Sick! Team arcade, let’s get moving.” They clapped their hands together, a little bit excited to be on a detective team, even if it was Q bullshit.

"I'll come with you to the bar then, hon," Verelan told Maggie, patting their hand where it was resting on her arm. Verelan was... annoyingly calm. It was hard to stress her out on the best of days, but maybe "murder mystery or die" did warrant some outward concern. She was her natural, affable self, though. This wasn't a personal and deeply emotional conversation, she could handle this.

"Sick. Off we go!" Come along, bar crawlers. Is that what it's called? Eh..

"Err.. bar, too!" Korozysh called, following the others. Better to go follow a Vulcan. Those guys were tough, right?

He crawled to the bar.

“Come along gamblers.” She said with a hum.

Absolutely wrong Vulcan to be following if you wanted somebody tough, but alas. Off they went!

5

Not entirely sure where his very particular lack of skills developed over a very short period of time would work best, he opted to head to the casino. He'd never had an excuse to go in there yet, and who knows? Maybe Veldan really was that good at gambling.

Wrong Romulan also.

Frankly, Rojin was not someone so easily perturbed by the Big Happenings of the 777th Starfleet starbase. Too jaded for such excitement. However, the instance he spotted the patrons of his bar - all of them officers - suddenly disappear, he got the creeping sense of déjà vu coming on like a rogue wave, alongside the deep, angry annoyance a disturbed guard dog would feel when some uninvited guest made it's way into it's territory. (The latter had nothing to do with the fact that Vovvi and Ev'kor were amongst those who disappeared, right in front of him, right off the two bar stools they began to favorite lately.) A group not too far away from him spoke something about checking out the bar, first. Now that he looked at them, a certain few of them were definitely familiar to him - and so he followed, a large shadow after the smaller pink and black-green.

3

The event hall was now emptied, and as such, began to shift in their absence...

Where the event hall once was, a great wall stood in front of the entrance. An old-timey door with a frosted window stood in its center, letters spelling out across the glass; PRIVATE INVESTIGATOR

“My.. well, at least Q is good at set design.” She commented, before politely knocking on the door.

"Come in," came the voice from the other side, but clearly Q nonetheless.

“Well.. let’s visit the investigator, then.” She said, and although she couldn’t sigh.. it was implied nonetheless. She opened the door, holding it for the person behind her before going inside.

”Humpf, I thought we were the ones that supposedly had to do the investigating.” Could this all powerful bipolar game-master make up her mind?

A room thick with the haze of smoke (or, it seemed to be, at least— it didn't seem to be affecting the air at all in any way besides visual) opened before Charlotte, dimly lit— in fact, not much light at all penetrated the surface besides through the window blinds on the wall. The hall had been turned into an office, complete with a desk with a plate full of pastries and a case file, some file cabinets on the walls, and a corkboard covered in newspaper clippings and red string.

The investigator stubbed out the cigar hanging between her fingers, dropping down from where she had her shoes propped up on the desk. She peered up at the pair from under the brim of her hat. "Detectives. What can I do for you?"

“We’ve returned from the casino.. we found this.” She said, holding out the ceramic shard. She noticed the pastries.. they weren’t anything she’d made today, she hadn’t gotten around to baking before she’d come here. Did Q like pastries or something, or were they part of the case too?

”Detectives….?” He stopped behind Charlotte. His eyes immediately went to the pastries, observing. Indeed they seemed also out of place. (edited)

"Can I see?" The detective held out a hand for the shard.

A lovely plate of almond puff pastries, with a bite taken out of one of them. Still warm..

1

”I did not know Qs enjoyed food, less alone almond pastries.” He looked back at this version of Q. Three and counting, he suspected there would be more.

The detective gave him an odd look. "A fella can't enjoy a pastry every once 'n a while?.."

”Never said that. If I were against the enjoyment of pastries I would have a failed business.” Was it possible to bribe the Q with pastries? Nah, too much of a desperate measure.

“Almond, though.. interesting.” Almond extract was an actual ingredient, yes.. but there was something else that could smell like almonds too. Could that teacup have been a red herring?

Q gingerly plucked the shard from between Charlotte's fragile fingers, examining it carefully. She hummed. "Have you ran any tests on it yet?"

“What kind of test.. none of us are scientists. We couldn’t find any more pieces, either.” You’d poofed away all our scientists already, Q.

1

"Well, you can do plenty of things with your own five senses." Taking a long look at Charlotte's lack of mouth, she amended, "Four. Or.. Three?" She handed the shard back.

1

”Good idea, lick into unknown clues during a murder investigation!” His hand went to the pocket in his apron and he presented the smudged cloth. “And this?”

"I never said to lick it. There's other things you can do," she sighed, re-lighting her cigar. She gave Vellek a long look. "What do you think it is?"

She turned her head slightly to the side, looking at the cloth.. why had he hidden it? “I don’t think you should smell the evidence either.. but what is that cloth? It looks like there’s flour on it.”

”I think you could do a little less work with trying to mess with our heads. What enjoyment could it possibly bring to see people cluelessly going around?” If there is one thing that Vellek couldn’t stand was a lack of effectiveness. This whole situation was completely unrelatable to him. “Fake clues, really?”

"I'm not sure what you're on about," she said quietly, tone dripping with a threat like blood from the maw of an animal. "But you've got a case to solve. I suggest you stick to it, yeah?"

”Yes, find the murderer and correctly accuse them. Only there is not really a murderer around, or a victim, it’s all fiction…. Yes.” He folded the cloth carefully, placing it on the table. His tone was strangely even, it wasn’t like Vellek to cause a scene, no, his anger usually festered quietly… “I heard your kind likes technicalities, don’t ask who told me… By a technical note I could simply accuse… Q. Q is the orchestrator of the crime, the story, you chose to kill yourself in a parody of a mystery novel and place all of us in the middle. Does it truly matter which character did it if in the end the words are all typed by the same narrator?” He did not expect Q to listen to reason, he simply felt like the words needed to be said. He was half expecting to vanish to whatever place the others were and hoping whoever else was left would solve this. “What guarantees there even is a solution? You could simply choose to keep us around chasing our own tail in fabricated scenarios for eternity if you’d like and that…” He pointed towards the cloth. “Is the biggest evidence of it. The beauty is: I have no choice but to compel. You win, because I will, but not quietly… it’s not in my nature.”

Q listened quietly for a long moment, fingers steepled and gaze steely. She did not say anything for a handful of minutes— it was her staring at Vellek, expression truly unreadable. "Would you like there to be a body?" she asked. "I can arrange that. In just the snap of my fingers, I can drop one of your colleagues for you. Would that be preferable?"

Admittedly, the threat would have been harder if Q offered to drop him. He calmly took his cloth back. ”No, not for you at least, because that would truly make you guilty.” And then it would not be a technicality anymore, it would be concrete fact that Vellek would have been right in accusing her of plain and simple murder. “You want to play, not kill us. I admit I couldn’t understand less why you enjoy this particular game but since I have no choice, I’m headed elsewhere to look for more clues, if thats alright by you, detective.”

The detective waved him off, spinning her chair around to look out the window. "Dismissed."

... What. Maggie blinked. "This isn't the events hall," they muttered out loud.

Oh. Hi. People. The detective snapped their fingers, and the size of the office was expanded to accommodate everyone. Yay!

Having been grabbed by the bouncer and told about a meetup here, Nenn almost tripped over themself trying to leave. Enough James Breen’d for now. “Uh… detective office? Looks cool, but… how?” They mumbled, before shaking their head. Q.

Tal didn't see the difference. He also didn't want to start sharing clues first, he was kind of hoping someone else would take the lead and he could cut in with relevant details as necessary.

Korozysh entered the hall, sticking to the wall to avoid any people passing through. She looked around, squinting at the Q. Detective's outfit? She was probably big enough to take her in a fight. But then again. She had godly powers. Right now she was just fatigued. And she missed her piercings. She'd always fidget with them. (edited)

"Don't mind me-e-ee.." Q flipped through the case file on her desk, fading into the background to allow everyone to chatter.

“Hi, other Q. What’s happening?” They questioned, trying to keep themself from sounding too exhausted at this point.

"Clue chatter," Maggie chimed in, taking a seat on the floor by the mysterious corkboard with a little grunt. "Just sharing everything we've found so far."

Charlotte also sat down, but far more gracefully, like a doll that had been put back on its display shelf. Detective Q still had the teacup shard, so she couldn’t really show it to everyone. Besides, she wanted to hear what everyone else had found. “What did you all find?” She asked.

She wandered in, finding a place to sit, staring off into space with that awkward grin she always had.

With that, the discussion commenced...

".. right," with all the clues now out in the open, the detective spoke up again, "you all still have a long way to go before you're finished. So what now?"

“Maybe we take a look at Club Epsilon again? We didn’t get much of a chance to search it before.” Nenn suggested, arms crossed over their chest again.

Korozysh blinked, unsure of the subject matter going on. She turned to Detective Q, at the desk. "So, like... how does this all work? Like, does the murderer have the murder beamed into their brain, orrr..."

"I assume no one took a good look around this hall as well," he uttered, giving a side-glance to Tal. "I am also unsure if we're properly finished with the body inspection or not. Unsure if trying to make sense of the incomplete array of clues will help us out in any way, but we sure can try if anyone here has any bright ideas."

The detective sighed, flipping shut the case file to leave on the desk. "I assume the killer knows of their crime. Most of them do." Looks like she wouldn't be breaking character now... Not in front of anyone, at least.

Jilla sighed softly. “I don’t exactly look at this crew as capable of murder. So I imagine it’s a matter of it having happened without the murderers active participation or memory. Don’t listen to this one, she seems to think she works for me in the casino.”

She blinked. "... What?"

“Okay, is there a possibility that Q is the murderer? Q-icide, or whatever?” They questioned, mainly as an excuse to make the joke.

“Maybe we should not antagonize the one that can kill us all.. please, I would like to live at least one day on this starbase.” She said quietly, standing up. “I would not mind going to look around the club, if someone would go with me.”

“I can head over with you.” Nenn suggested, turning around to look at Charlotte, “I wanna go back anyways. I think the bouncer will let me back in.”

"There's always interesting people in those sorts of places, if Q is copying holonovels like I think they might be," Maggie chimed in, agreeing with Charlotte. They didn't want to go to the club, though. Too loud.. "It's worth asking around, and visiting places other people have already been just in case they missed anything."

"We've already ruled out Q-icide as a possibility," the detective confirmed, gaze lingering a little too long on Vellek.

2

"I wanna go to the cluuub." There's alcohol in there. Then, afterwards, he might use his noggin to piece together a vague theory of whodunnit. It would probably be wrong, though. It's not like he was anything close to a detective.

It would be no fun if the game was over so quickly, after all. “I will tell you what they say in the club, then, if you’re not going.” She said with a little curtsy to Maggie before making her way off towards the club, stopping to wait for whoever was coming with her.

Well, part of Charlotte’s comment was probably because of him and with Q’s eyes meeting his, the Romulan chose to be quiet on any remarks. He had rulled out suicide, or Q-icide for that matter. “Even if it was her, which we ruled out, we need to find out how the murder happened and justify it to win. Otherwise we would be able to just randomly point fingers until we got it.”

"Do you want to check the hall first, Maggie?" it only seemed proper to ask the magician, given that they've so far been stuck together. "No one's been here much." (edited)

"Oh, sure. Once people have cleared out, I don't mind looking around. We can come back together and start brewing theories later, maybe..." Hint hint. Get moving, losers/aff.

”There was a phaser mentioned. Or better, missing, but that was used on the body even if it was not the definite cause of death.” He looked around at the ones still present in the room. “We must find it. That certainly would give us more clues about the whole picture. And it is a more directed search than what we have done so far.”

"Shoot, uh," She moved away from Q." *I can help with the halls. I mean, in case anyone needs some lifting done or something." *She did her best to put on a confident face. Given the predicament, she was feeling her nerves get the better of her.

”Also…” Now that his head was actually in the game instead of focused on complaining about their situation. “We never searched each other. If the killer is among us, memories or no memories, Q could have planted evidence on us as well.” His eyes wandered to the entity briefly before returning to whoever was close. “Honestly, that is the first thing we should have done. There is a chance that hypothetical evidence is already gone...”

"I'll strip right now if you want." Nobody's asking you to do that, bro.

3

Rojin clicked his tongue, seemingly mulling the Rehu's words over. Unless the Q has meddled with their personal belongings, explaining why he may or may not have multiple very sharp tools hidden on his person would be... rather awkward.

3

Says the guy covered in flour, they thought, squinting a little. "Sorry, I know it's for the good of the investigation and all, but I'd literally rather die than have somebody touch me." Well, besides certain somebodies. But still.

Korozysh made a very concerned, unenthused face at Noid.

He stuck his tongue out at Korozysh like a little scamp.

”Have it your way then… not you though.” He gave Noid a very pointed look. “Besides there is not need to completely strip for a search, I doubt Q would have been that… inventive. But well, democracy and all of that. Don’t ask to look at my pockets in return though, trust is a two way road I’ve heard.”

Maggie shrugged, raising their flourless hands in defeat. "You guys can search each other elsewhere, maybe. I wanna check out this room, so.. smaller groups would be nice." Too noisy..

"Er, right." Korozysh followed Maggie to move out into the hall.

Vellek shrugged. He saw no point in searching a few volunteers and letting others go unsearched, that would only complicate things and lead to more doubt. His idea lost, time to move to the next one, though he did take note of how unwilling Maggie seemed to be at the idea of a search. “I shall take a look around at the hall as well.”

"Bitch, I'm going clubbing. Bye beefcakes, bye Maggie." He moonwalked out of the hall.

Maggie waved cheerfully to Noid. Hopefully he had fun?

Jilla waved him off. What an odd cat. “I’ll stay and check here as well.”

..ok, well, "If so many people want to stay here I can go somewhere else??.." Holoarcade, maybe? They might find the phaser, or more clues. Yeah, sounds good. Bye!

"Fucking hell," he wasn't liking the idea of standing around and doing nothing and waiting for the crowd to find it's herd leader, Rojin just turned around and went to the least inhabited part of the hall, paying utmost attention to his surroundings.

Well, as much as Vellek wanted to keep an eye at them, going after Maggie right now would seem too out of place. Better to focus on the ambient and clues present here. Since the hall was now supposed to be a huge office, he would start by looking at the desk drawers, or any drawers he could find. If Q was still around, or even seated at her desk, he would simply ignore her if possible.

She moved out of the way without protest, don't worry.

Korozysh impatiently tapped her foot. She was quite cold, just in her pajamas. Looking down at the dish of pastries, she flicked her eyes back and forth before picking one up and popping it in her mouth. Woulda been better with meat, but, oh well. "Uh.. no clues there." She added helpfully. She moved over to the nearby shelves just picking stuff up and putting them down.

The desk yielded no further results, but the case file wasn't exactly.. helpful. It had a picture of Q Prime, some information — name Q, age redacted, gender redacted, cause of death unknown — and some cheesy excuse for an obituary.

"Poor thing," she mused. "Always the cute ones who get struck down so terribly."

”The rest of you ought to be careful then…” He replied, not really focused on her but rather on the pastries. Those were, in a broad sense, a specialty of his. If Q had moved out of her chair, Vellek would take the place, if not he would simply keep standing. His hand reached for one of the pastries. Was it still warm? He took it between his fingers and broke it in half. What was the consistency like? Did it have any filling?

1

"Oh, cherry one'sh pretty good." Korozysh mumbled to Vellek, still not done chewing. She moved lower, crouching to get to the lower shelves. (edited)

A standard almond puff pastry; flaky and buttery and lovely, with an almond paste filling. Some chopped almonds sprinkled on top. Really pretty!

He turned it around. Was there any residual flour on it? Some pastries did not.

Some sugar sprinkled on top, but no flour.

He took one of the halfs and brought it to his mouth. He chewed a bit, in a most analytical way, taking in flavor and consistency. After he was done he took a little napkin from his pocket and spit it there, politely, before folding it to discard later.

Korozysh squinted, looking at the lower levels of the office's shelves, pulling everything out to see if anything useful would be present.

Having wanted to go to club Epsilon anyway Elohae, who'd waited a moment as he watched what people did in here, turned and headed off. He hoped he'd catch up with Nenn and co, if they'd decided to go there.

"Are you seriously eating things during an active murder case?" his voice carried a lilt that sounded sweet yet didn't carry any warmth with it. Gods help him, he might as well just go rogue on everyone. He decided to go to the corkboard first, to see what the web of photographs and red string waws all about.

1

After having very much obviously spit it out, Vellek looked at the other with a bored expression. “No. I am tasting them. We all got talents, don’t we boy? I suggest you don’t criticize mine.”

Normal pastry, nothing seemingly amiss. Q seemed disgruntled about her snacks being seized, though. As for the corkboard.. it was flyers, advertisements for things on board the station. Baking classes, cafés, sewing groups that met weekly...

"You owe me another batch," the detective responded, kicking her feet back up on her desk.

”That could easily be arranged.” Vellek looked back at her. He could indeed bake her some, if she stopped being such an interdimentional prick. “Mine surely would not be overcooked, let me know if you wanna hit a deal.” He moved closer to Rojin to take a look at the board as well, seeing the reports connected. The annoying comment the other made had already faded.

There was only one person in his life who ever persistently called him "boy", and maybe it were the recent wounds being all too fresh on his mind... but the tone of Vellek's voice made him bristle. He turned his head towards him - just enough to show off it's scarred-up side, and the curled up lip - to respond in a very customer-service-polite tone, "I was talking about the Chalnoth, actually. Continue your search, Rehu." Before his mood could turn from sour to outright battery acidic, the bartender turned back towards the board, noting down the places - hobbies? - before moving his attention towards the cabinets. Anything there?

3

There were files on everyone trapped in this situation, though they'd been conveniently blurred so as not to reveal anything. Can't give the game away so easily, after all. There was also the bouncer from the club— suspected dealings in poisons, weapons, and other illicit substances...

Oh, blackmail! His favourite.

1

”My apologies then.” The same bored tone, but not the same intent. It had not escaped him that this man used his house name. That was not hard to figure out, he did not hid his identity however… they had not met before and Vellek had yet to make introductions of any kind. Which meant the man had looked into him in some way, even if superficially. How touching. That small display of paranoia and surveillance actually brought him a sense of home he hadn’t felt since coming aboard. A very subtle half-smile formed and quickly vanished. “If she took part in a baking club, that could explain the flour.”

Korozysh lowered her brows at Rojin. She snorted, choosing to ignore his comment. She turned around upon seeing the files, though. The strange blurring despite them being paper made Korozysh uncomfortable, but she flipped through the profiles of the various Qs.

Really not much more information on the Qs. No known relatives, no next-of-kin listed, or anything notable besides the bit about the bouncer..

Was there any information in any of these files that matched up to the places displayed on the corkboard? Rojin decided to quickly snoop through all of them, even if they were heavily edited, just to make sure. (He also wanted to take a look at his own file for a good chuckle.) "They have files on all of us, but also..." upon discovering the bouncer's file he kept it in his hands, angling it for Vellek to see. The one guy he was currently mostly fine with, somehow. Ironic, given Rojin's short yet notable track record with the older Romulans. Be vigilant, Vellek. "The club's bouncer has some dirt on her. I think I should go and have a chat." Actually... Rojin shifted a bit to look at the Detective: "Is there anything interesting you could tell me about this one person? The bouncer who works at the Epsilon. Her hobby list is impressive."

That… character sounded promising. Vellek was still interested in discovering where the previously mentioned phaser went, and where the killer might have hidden it. He needed to go back into holoarcade for those answers though, because he doubted the bouncer would have anything to do with a toy phaser… “I will take a quick look around the holoarcade, there is something I wish to check. After I’m done, I’ll head to the club and meet you if you’re still there.” And with that he was on his way. (edited)

At even the mention of her, the detective sighed, twirling the unlit cigar around her fingers. "We've been on her tail for a long time now, but haven't been able to book her yet. I'm willing to bet she's got some supply of weapons, or... Anything else that's deadly." She shrugged. "At least, she knows a lot about 'em."

He gave Vellek a nod, before turning his attention back to the Detective. "Interesting. Mind if I go pester her? Might learn something useful for all of us. Talking with people is something I do for a living anyways." Blackmailing, also. And kidnapping. And breaking and entering. And sabotaging... (edited)

"Don't let me stop you," she said, waving a hand. "Dismissed. Good luck."

He gave a half-hearted two-finger salute to that, and left for the club.

Tal followed after Rojin, getting the distinct feeling he was missing some clues. Everyone's emotional states were very interesting currently, though. It almost seemed like everyone was trying to hide something.

Weapons, huh? "Doesn't sound good. If things don't look good, maybe I could go down after them..." Korozysh told Q. "I could probably handle a Bouncer."

"You've half the force in that damn club right now," the Detective replied, re-lighting her cigar, *Can't you go look somewhere else?"

After her trip to the bar, Charlotte was back at the investigator’s office. Pulling out the petal, safe in its handkerchief, she gave a polite head bow to the Q before presenting it to her. “I’ve found another clue, or at least I think it is. A flower petal, from the bar.” She tried to recall if she’d seen any white flowers in the casino, the club, or the bar, and if she recognized what type of flower the petal was from.

Q looked up from where she'd been fixing a vase on her desk. "Do you have a sense of smell?" she asked suddenly, reaching out to accept the handkerchief. "Sorry if that's a rude question. I'm just not sure, given.." she gestured vaguely to her face.

“I don’t even have a nose..” She said quietly, as if she was almost disappointed in the lack of holes in her face for this sort of thing.

"You should find someone who does," she answered, trading the flower petal for the shard of ceramic. "I daresay you'll find something very interesting on here. And as for this... I'm not good with flowers, really, uh."

Verelan wandered in, having sort of lost track of Maggie in the shuffle. She was a little confused on whether this was supposed to be fun or serious, since most of the group did not seem able to figure it out either. Or, well, there were just a lot of people present who seemed very dedicated to taking it seriously, and she was just not that about it. "Hello, pretty ladies," she greeted, dropping onto the first empty flat surface she could find to sit down.

Judging by the shape, the petal could be identified some sort of oleander.

Q raised an eyebrow at the woman helping herself to a seat on her desk. "Hello," she greeted, albeit a little reluctantly. These investigators..

“It is Nerium oleander. Oleander.” A toxic plant.. either this was the red herring.. or this was the murder weapon.

"Oh, another clue?" Verelan's body turned towards Charlotte, paying a little more attention now. "Is that one deadly?"

“Very.” She said simply . Every single part of the plant was toxic.. as many beautiful flowers were.

After being dragged over like an emotional support animal by Noid, Nenn stumbled into the room. “Ooh, new thing. What’s up with that?”

She held the ceramic shard out to Verelan. “I will assume your nose is functional.. Q said to smell this.. and as you can see, I lack any holes in my face for that.”

Suddenly Vellek comes marching in, stoic as ever, Maggie trailing behind. Ah. And he has a phaser in hand.

"Hostage situation," Maggie chirped unhelpfully, clearly not being held hostage.

“I feel like I missed a lot. Uh… hostage situation?” They whipped around to see Vellek and Maggie, “Oh shit!! Is that the phaser?”

1

”Yes.” He said, very helpfully. Vellek had directed himself to the hall as soon as the phaser had been in his hand, so he had yet to properly examine it. Now , under the lights of the office, he held it on his two hands for close inspection.

"Hostage situation is what we got going on. Well, actually, it's more like you're my purse dog." That said, he'd let go of Nenn by now.

“Yeah, I don’t… we should probably discuss that later.” They blinked at Noid, still utterly baffled by the guy, “So, we’ve got the gun, all the clues, and… now we need a perp and a motive?”

"Well— the motive is a little obvious, no?" Q gestured vaguely to all the Everything. "I also believe some people are still investigating."

“Right, yes, okay. So… just the perp.” They muttered, fiddling with one of the tubes on their helmet, “Ceramics, fabric, baking stuff… poison too.”

He tilted his head, sipping on something that smelled like a petrol station. "The motive is obvious? Not to me. As far as I'm concerned, this was just because some pissbaby lost at phaser tag and got so mad they poisoned someone's pastries at a baking contest. Which they also probably lost. World's most competitive guy."

“Are there bakers here?” They questioned, “I admittedly don’t know you all that well, who here is the kinda person to do a baking contest?”

"That guy Varsek or whatever his name was. He bakes shit." Unlike Noid, who only ever gets other people baked.

“Varsek?” They snorted, unable to help themself, “I think you’re mixing up, like… five people.”

He shrugged. "Most of you might as well be Varsek to me. I don't know you."

“I was in the middle of setting up my shop when I found my way here.. but I hadn’t gotten to bake anything yet.” It didn’t seem right to hide such a thing and draw undue blame solely on Vellek, after all.

“You too? Okay.” They hummed, furrowing their brow, “So there’s two people who could’ve done it. But all the clues and shit point to ceramics, fabric, the kind of stuff you seem like you’d be into.”

The phaser had clearly been modified — assuming to allow the more powerful blast, but who knew, none of you were proper engineers. Lol.

1

He nodded. "Alright, so it was the mouthless droid. Case solved."

“Well— we can’t just jump to the conclusion, can we? There’s gotta be something we’re missing.” They hummed, “Did they actually confirm the cause of death yet?”

“What- this clearly is not the time to throw the blame on anyone yet. We’ll surely be forced to start all of this over if we don’t have everything in order first!” She said, startled a little by the blame suddenly being thrown on her.

Verelan looked at the shard, before lifting it to her nose. Her roleplayer had definitely read the message correctly the first time and didn't need to be prompted by the storyteller to do so. "Happy to be of service."

There was a faint remnant of floral tea still lingering on the white side of the ceramic.

"Don't cut your fingers," Maggie fussed, hovering behind her.

"I'll be careful, dear," Verelan promised, no stranger to cleaning up glass and ceramic. "Seems like it's from a teacup," she analysed. She'd seen many of those over the years, partial to a cup of tea herself, and tea sets were a popular gift item for many different species... Could she tell more about the tea, or just that it was floral?

Uncomfortably, unnaturally bitter.

The baker very much explicitly wearing a baking apron finally caught on to what was being suggested. ”Excus- I did not make any baking contest nor did I take part in one! I have just settled aboard this starbase.” He frowned and walked to place the phaser next to any other clues on the detectives desk. The Q’s comment about the motivation being obvious did catch his attention though. So that meant they had all the pieces to at least figure that one out… He just had to think harder.

He just pointed to the android who looked like she drank tea in a little dollhouse daily. "Um, hello? It's definitely Teacup Ted over here." (edited)

"Whoever brewed this tea wasn't very good at it," Verelan offered, definitely accidentally dissing Charlotte here, except she hadn't put the pieces together yet. "This would be difficult to drink and even more difficult to not vomit right back up."

“I brew better tea than that, and if I was going to put something in it, I certainly wouldn’t have used something that would taste like anything at all.” She argued- it was one thing to question her character, but to question her craft was another entirely.

“Okay! Okay, so who’s shit at brewing tea?” They scratched their neck, “And also… has the same aesthetic as her?”

Maggie poked their head over her shoulder to take a sniff for themself, though immediately wrinkled their nose. "I don't think a shit brew could have made it that bad."

He approached whoever had the tea. "Hey, let me have a sip of that tea. It's for detective purposes, I promise."

"There is no tea, doll, only a small piece of a teacup. But you're free to lick it, if you want." She handed the shard over to Noid.

"Oh yeah, sure," he said, licking it just for fun. He'd lick anything, really. "You ever seen those salt blocks they give to cows? Tasty."

1

"You're comparing yourself to a cow right now," Verelan said helpfully. As far as she was aware, that was an insult in many human languages.

1

"They have beautiful eyelashes," he protested. And he was right. Google cows right now.

1

Verelan was refraining from commenting further, not particularly fond of any of the cows she'd come across in her life. "You get anything from that?"

“Okay, so… what, it was bad tea, and Q died?” They huffed, “Poison, yeah?”

Elohae, who'd sauntered his way this way once he'd reconsidered a trip to the bar to drink, slipped in then. He'd missed a fair chunk of what was going on so, settled in to just watch for now. He needed more before he chipped in.

Guess who's back. While entering, he gave the group a glance, as if to count the heads of the people present.

For now, Vellek ignores the tea questions and implications. He didn’t think incompetence at brewing tea was at play here. Rojin walks in just in time to hear his, probably flawed but as close as he had come to the real, timeline. “I think… this all started at the Casino. I believe there is where Q was offered the poisoned drink, hence why the most likely murder weapon was found there, a piece of it at least.” The Romulan has a concentrated look, as if still piecing things together in real time or questioning his own connections. “Then, because this poison does not act quickly, and the murderer would have to know this if they had half a brain to properly research the properties of their chosen poison, the murderer goes to the Supernova Bar and awaits there.” He looks around to check on any reactions, including from Q during his tale. “Once they realize the poison must have acted, they search for the body and find it at the Holoarcade. The place is empty as Q simply dropped dead and people left panicked, without seeing any attacker or suspicious figure. The murderer then looks for a way to distract investigators from an obvious poisoning. They find the phaser, modify it and fire. It is not enough to kill but maybe it is enough to generate confusion on least seasoned investigators.” Them, technically. “Motive… still unknown to me, just like the identity of the murderer.” (edited)

1

Maggie offered the pair a wave, though quickly turned to listen to Vellek. The magician paused, expression scrunching as they thought... "I mean— we all have the same motive, no? We don't have a choice in this game." Oh, yes— "The ceramic shard smells like floral tea, but real bitter and bad," they reported to the newcomers, "and doll lady found some kind of petals." (edited)

"She identified them as oleander, a deadly flower," the detective interjected. "So she says, anyway."

”If it could be used as a non-instantaneous poison and produce irritation on the skin...” He recorded the sight of the corpse’s mouth. “It could be our poison. Where did you find those petals?”

“Could they have been a red herring? Or, like… what the tea was made of?” They asked, once again way out of their depth.

“In the bar, on the floor.”

”Then more evidence points towards the murderer indeed being there, despite the corpse being somewhere else. And if the properties of the poison line up, it was probably a poisonous tea offered to Q.” He observed.

"Motive: some gal told you to. Method: drank poison tea. Murderer: Mouthless Margaret over there." He pointed at Charlotte.

5

Hm. He decided to just walk over to the clues, and take a better look at that ceramic shard. Cups tended to be daintier, more elegant, than the slightly thicker and bigger teapots to hold the hot liquid in...

It looked to be part of a teacup. Thin, a little frailer.

“I hate to say it, I agree with Noid. It might be her.” They really didn’t mean anything against the other Android, she seemed lovely, but a murder mystery was a murder mystery, “All signs point to Charlotte.”

Another wasted action on puppeteer's part, yippee. With a sigh, he put that down. "The glass at the bar didn't smell like anything. The body also lacked any distinct smell. I would imagine that there would be a similar bitterness clinging to her, but perhaps it dissipates quickly, though I'd expect the shard to lose it as well by this point, then. I'm unsure what to make of this clue."

Fingers finally being pointed, Vellek waited to see what the overall reaction in the room would be. He asked himself… had Q informed the murderer of their role? If indeed it was Charlotte, would she even be aware? “Well we don’t know if Q drank that drink truly, I suspect she drank the tea directly from the teacup. Q might also have drunken or eaten something else during the time from poisoned to dead, so… lack of the tea smell on the body doesn’t discard it. A mouth is a more volatile ambient than a ceramic surface…”

Well, if she knew anything, she certainly wasn’t speaking up about it, her face and mannerisms as unchanging as ever.

4

"Think it got washed down, then?" He shrugged. "The bartender also reported that the mystery figure did not order anything to drink while they stayed there. There can be many reasons for it, but I imagine a lack of a mouth might certainly be a major one."

“True!” They whipped their head over to Rojin, then to Charlotte, watching her stare blankly, giving them a bit of a shiver down their spine. Gods, is that how they came off to others?

The old Romulan turned towards the one being acused. “You had words to defend yourself before, but none now. Why?” Maybe it was because the group had needed the justification before truly accusing her… now they had something of a case, maybe enough for Q to accept in the place of a “lucky guess”. He suspected Charlotte wanted this to end as much as anyone else… maybe that was it. Maybe they did have enough to end it. He turned towards the others. “I agree with your suspicion.” Let it be true and let it be over, he chanted internally.

"I'll take an official accusation," the detective chimed in, leaning forward. "Present me the suspect, as well as the cause of death."

Honestly lost as to if it could be someone else, Elohae just turned and looked first to Vellek and then to Charlotte. He also reckoned he was relatively sure it was Charlotte. Or at least, sure that they seemed the most likely candidate. But well. Some questions still remained to him. That and well, as he watched everything proceed, Elohae had most certainly started to second-guess everything. Given the stakes here, time loop everything, his discomfort had only continued to grow as this progressed.

He might as well bite the bullet. The man sighed, before stepping out towards the detective. "Well, then. Our suspect is Charlotte," his mismatched eyes briefly flickered towards the owner of said name, an apologetic crease settling between his eyebrows as he spoke. "And the cause of death was poisoning."

The detective processed for a long second, before rising to her feet. "Miss Charlotte, you're under arrest for the murder of..." the words muffled themselves as the area around them began to .. blur, distort, then the event hall was back to normal. Not even a stage remained now.

"Fantastic! Incredible! Positively marvelous!!" Q gushed, doing a flip midair, flying excited circles around the group. "Oh, how absolutely splendid, you wonderful little sleuths! You WIN!!" Confetti showered down from the ceiling onto the investigators. She clasped her hands together, smiling brightly. "Wasn't that fun!?"

“Holy fuck, I’m so glad that’s done.” Nenn breathed, “No offense, Q, but… augh.” They bent down, hands on their knees, never having been so happy to be back in reality rather than in fiction. “No D&D this week.” They mumbled, mostly to themself.

"I need to take a nap for several days," Maggie complained, laying dramatically on the floor. Thank fuck it was over.

Listen, if if it WAS fun, which it WASN'T, NUH-UH, he would never tell Q that. "Yeah, it was, like, whatever."

Charlotte did a little bow, and if she could smile, she would have. “A wonderful performance from everyone.. though that was one of my actual teacups I think.. now my set is incomplete.”

Elohae blinked a bit, not at all impressed with the Q or with all this. Though, as he once again remembered this was a Q, he mustered a decidedly fake 'smile' He then turned to face the Q, signed. "This means we won, yes?" Having assumed as much from the way the Q had zipped around far to fast for him to have ever hoped to keep up. He guessed they'd won as no time loop, but also this was Q related, he was tired and stressed out

Immediately he lowered his head, brushing the confetti pieces out of his hair with his hand. Some of the tension from his shoulders was finally gone, though. "Where did you even sponge up such a specific genre..." (edited)

A small sigh of relief left his lips. It was over. Good. Great. He could go back to his bakery and make a thousand cookies and maybe later have an entire bottle of Romulan Ale… Don’t get him wrong. He was still pissed, but there was no reason to cry out his indignation further now that they had won and were in the edge of being free. So he simply ignored the entity’s question, letting the other’s voice whatever lies they wished to serve on a plate. He wished he could serve actual poisoned tea with an actual poison that would actually work on Q. A beautiful dream.

"Hey, Q, you should replace her teacup. That's fucked up." You can't just steal a woman's teacup!

"Obviously I replaced it," Q said, visibly deflating as everyone reacted with... something less than her unending excitement. She lowered to the ground. "You should be happier. We had fun, didn't we? It was a nice game. She played her part perfectly."

Elohae looked about then, looked back to Q, then promptly walked over to Nenn. Once close enough, he dropped to his haunches next to them. "You okay?" He signed then as he quite deliberately turned his back on the Q to ensure whatever they said was missed by him.

"I mean, do you take constructive criticism?" Without waiting for an answer, he said, "I think what you can do next time is do some background research. Get people who love LARPing and mysteries and stuff, and ask if they'd like to join. When people get dragged into shit they weren't expecting, you end up sorta poisoning the whole experience 'cause they start the game off in a bad mood."

“All good.” They signed up at Elohae, with a grin that he had checked up on them, “A little fed up with roleplay games for a while, is all.”

”I didn’t have fun at all….” she scowled at Q, sitting on the floor. “I thought someone died for real!!”

Elohae smiled sympathetically at that. "I can certainly understand that." The deaf Romulan signed then before he added. "Played a bit of DND myself, not too long ago-" A grimace followed that as he then emphatically signed the observation. "-honestly can see how this'd have that effect." He then sighed, properly sighed, back still pointedly to the Q as he continued to sign. They'd used up enough of his attention already, so he ignored them. If they intended to do something, they'd do it. He wanted to check up on and chat with the Breen, so he signed. "Hopefully this'll all be over soon though." He then paused. "I'm sorry, it's just escaped my mind if I introduced myself." Elohae sheepishly signed then, with all the stress his brain had honestly now turned blank. "If I haven't well, I'm Elohae, it's good to meet you."

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"I just need a better game," she said quietly, all the life returning to her at once. "That's it. I'll find a better game! Then you'll all have fun with me!" With a poof, she was gone; leaving the civilians alone in the event hall, no evidence she had ever been there remaining.

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