User:Eirik/Homogeneous - Revision history

Eirik at 02:59, 17 September 2008

2008-09-17T02:59:49Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 21:59, 16 September 2008
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	Neither Kirby or Linda had time to process what that meant before a wave of nausea passed through them and they both fell asleep.		Neither Kirby or Linda had time to process what that meant before a wave of nausea passed through them and they both fell asleep.

	~~='''Part Six, Rumor Mill'''=~~		{{Separator\|stars}}

	For all their caution, they still opened the door.		For all their caution, they still opened the door.

Eirik: Finally adding a part here.

2008-09-17T02:58:23Z

Finally adding a part here.

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Eirik: Finally getting back to this. Some minor edits and extension. Will try to finish this without rushing.

2008-06-02T20:03:54Z

Finally getting back to this. Some minor edits and extension. Will try to finish this without rushing.

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Eirik: Small addition

2008-03-03T18:54:37Z

Small addition

← Older revision		Revision as of 13:54, 3 March 2008
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	Ryth still looked a bit wild eyed, but he was calming down fast. "Do you people always name your killers?"		Ryth still looked a bit wild eyed, but he was calming down fast. "Do you people always name your killers?"

			{{Separator\|stars}}

			Ryth calmed down considerably after a few minutes. There had been a change in Kirby's friend, he could see it plainly, but he wasn't as suspicious or paranoid. It had been a little sobering for him. Ryth had been on this planet for over 20 years, but even a possible hint that there might be a way off had broken though his years of denial and acceptance. Kirby had heard much of his friends lost home, the beauty of the city she grew up in, the family that she left behind there. Even though they would have all moved on, she wanted desperately to return.

			Kirby had no one waiting in Seattle, so he'd been far less devastated by his loss coming here. Linda Pratt, though, was a different story.

			Like Kirby, she'd been almost instantly drafted after her orientation to this world once they found out what she'd done back home. "I told them I was a detective, and they practically dragged me down the street," she said.

			They knew they didn't have much time today, Linda was likely to get very tired soon from her arrival, but they decided to fill her in on the details of the case. It took a while since she couldn't simply pick up a file and read it, and for the most part neither could Kirby. "Anything similar about the victims?" had been her first question.

			Ryth approximated a shrug, "Impossible to say at this point, perhaps ever. Most of these we didn't even know existed until we dragged them out of the river over the last few days."

			She kept looking over the pictures, arraying them out back and forth. "Were any of these people newcomers?"

			Ryth looked taken aback, then started looking again at the pictures. "No, I've been all of these forms. They'd all gone though at least one mixing."

			She sat back and mused, "Why isn't he killing newcomers?" She looked at us, "Wouldn't they be easier targets? People confused, alone, even lost? Some of these bodies look pretty formidable." She reached over and picked up a picture of the bear-like form Ryth had been just a few weeks ago, "Even if I was the same size as this guy, it could turn into an ugly fight. So, if you've got a size advantage, why not go after some newcomer that's half your size?"

			"A lot of them have guides or travel in small groups at first," pointed out Ryth. "But you're right, he's only going after established folks."

			"Exactly." She looked at the pictures some more, "You have any luck tracing the wire or the wrappings?"

			Kirby whistle-sighed, "It's too early. We only just realized what was going on. Seems to use the same general type of wire, though the material changes from time to time."

			"What I've seen looks industrial," commented Ryth, "We'll try and run it down, but the changing materials might be out of necessity." He pointed at three of the victims, "These are the earliest. He used steel wire, high quality. It's also hard to get in the city. These bodies are years old, though."

			"Recordkeeping here sucks," commented Kirby. "Don't expect credit card statements or receipts."

			Ryth continued, "He switched to an easier to find brass wire for a while, then back to steel."

			She looked at the pictures. "You don't know if these are all the victims, do you?"

			"Not even close," admitted Ryth. "So far we've only found one per mixed form, but that could just be a coincidence. There are several forms we havn't found bodies for." He flipped his wings upward, "At least one form missing was small and light, river could have carried it down. There are scavengers out there, too. I suspect we've got several bodies we'll never find."

			She looked at Kirby, "Any missing persons?"

			He actually burst out laughing, "Are you kidding? They don't even have a missing persons department here. They barely keep files. This," is said waving his wings over the table, "is the most organized I've seen this place get since I got here!"

			She got quiet, then sat back down heavily. "Sorry, I'm just feeling tired."

			"It's getting late and we all missed mid-day meal," he said. "Let's check in with recruitment for you to get official, then we'll get something to eat."

			{{Separator\|stars}}

			They went to a small restaurant near the station. Kirby had been there before, and had marveled at the owners ability to make food on the fly. Before he'd changed, once they'd established a large enough number of items that were safe for his human body, they'd gone in and given the waitress that list. What came out of the kitchen had tasted a bit alien, and perhaps a bit salty, but actually had been the best food he'd eaten between his arrival and his first mixing.

			They found a quiet table in the back. Linda sat down heavily and looked at her dinner companions. "You know, this isn't exactly what I expected to be doing this evening."

			Kirby chuckled, "You weren't? Well, that's just poor planning."

			"Lay off her," Ryth said in a low voice, "she's had a rough day."

			The food came quickly, but it was clear that Linda was distracted as she ate. "I'm not good company tonight, guys," she said finally. "I'm…" She looked at Ryth, "You've been here twenty years?"

			Ryth nodded, "Something like that."

			She ate a few more bites, "I miss my husband already," she said finally. "But I can't seem to care."

			Kirby sighed, "It's the process," he explained. "For the first few hours, even days, it won't let you care that much." He looked at Ryth, "It'll get worse before it gets better. I'm sorry."

			{{Separator\|stars}}

			It had taken him a while to figure out who his pursuers were, but once he had it was almost comically easy to keep tabs on them. They still roomed together, worked the same shifts.

			If they ever actually got close, it would be childs play to take them out.

			He perched across the street and watched them eat, noting more than idly that the newcomer was human. It had been many years since he'd seen a human woman. Even still, when he realized who he was looking at, he cursed himself for being sloppy.

			She'd been the only one that had ever gotten close, closer than she even knew. It seemed proof of his theories, the theories that he'd spilled so much blood over. There was no chance that this was coincidence.

			Of the trillions of people in the universe to choose from, they had managed to find the one detective that could catch him.

			He would have to be patient, he had his next target already chosen, but her time would come soon enough.

			{{Separator\|stars}}


	{{Separator\|stars}}		{{Separator\|stars}}

Eirik at 22:45, 18 February 2008

2008-02-18T22:45:25Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:45, 18 February 2008
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	He bobbed his head up and down again, "I am at that. Can I get a hug now? Or do you want to hit me again?"		He bobbed his head up and down again, "I am at that. Can I get a hug now? Or do you want to hit me again?"

			{{Separator\|stars}}

			They went straight back to the conference room they had just left. Ryth pulled a more human-friendly chair out of a small storage closet and they sat down. She was clearly still in shock, "This isn't a nightmare, is it?" she asked.

			Kirby shook his head, "Sorry, it's all as real as it looks." He held up his wings, "It's not exactly Seattle around here." He paused, "I've got a lot of questions for you."

			She smiled for the first time, "You have questions?"

			"How long have I been gone?" When her eyebrows went up, he clarified, "I've been curious, it's one of a billion mysteries about this place."

			"Having two people from the same planet, the same city, is unprecedented as far as I know. There will be some questions about it, things a lot of people will want to know."

			She thought a second, "You vanished about four months ago, I think."

			Kirby did some mental calculations, "That's a couple months more than I thought," he said. "I wonder if it takes time to get here in the first place."

			The questions went back and forth for a few minutes, mostly about nothing important back in Seattle, or at least nothing that was likely to be important anymore. It wasn't long before Linda got curious about the files around the room and opened one. She barely reacted when she saw it. "You're looking for a pet killer?"

			Ryth craned his neck over her shoulder. The picture showed a badly decomposed body that had been pulled from the river three days before, the wire still looped around the neck. It had been a smaller, rounder, furry form, but in the picture it was hard to make out. "That's not an animal, that was a person."

			Linda looked shocked, "Oh, I'm sorry. I kinda forgot..." Her voice trailed off as she looked at the two birds. "You'd think it would be all I could think about."

			Ryth didn't say much as the two talked, but during a lull he finally let out a breath, "Why are you here?" he asked quietly.

			She looked at him, "Why? You'd know better than me."

			He clicked his beak, a habit he was getting into when he was getting lost in thought, "This doesn't make any sense." He looked at Kirby, "You said you used to work with her, right?"

			Kirby nodded, "In a way, I did scut work on a couple serial killer task forces."

			"I don't remember you the first time, but I do from the second. I had a feeling you'd make detective eventually." She looked back at Ryth, "Why is that important?"

			He waved a wing over the table, "These are the known victims of a serial killer who has been working in the city for at least the last ten standard years." He jabbed his beak in her direction, "And just as we discover this, someone with experience in these matters drops into our laps, someone who knows a new member of our own police force." As he spoke, his feathers puffed up in a menacing way.

			"What are you saying?" asked Kirby. He hadn't seen his partner like this before. It reminded him, uncomfortably, of what he'd seen as mobs started to form.

			Ryth looked between the two of them with suspicion, "Either you two know a lot more than what you're telling me, or someone out there is pulling strings."

			"Ryth!" yelled Kirby. "You know me better than that!"

			Ryth glared at him, "I do not. You dropped into our laps a couple months ago. All I know is what you tell me!"

			They were starting to attract attention from the bull pen. Kirby tried to get Ryth to simmer down, but he was getting more paranoid by the moment, "It would explain so much if this place was some kind of experiment, and they're dropping in people to poke the lab animals every so often. But something either went wrong, or we're not cleaning up your mess fast enough!"

			"Damn it, that's not true! I came here just as confused as you did!"

			"How do I know that?" he yelled. "Kirby, if you're one of them, I just want to go home! I'll do anything!"

			"That's enough!" shouted Linda, drawing both their gazes toward her. While they yelled, Linda had been flipping open the files to look at the victims photos. "Were they all killed with wire?"

			Ryth simply glared at her, "Don't you already know?"

			She sighed and looked at Kirby, "Were they?"

			He nodded, "A very narrow wire, steel or copper."

			"Dumped in or near water? Wrapped in rugs or blankets?" Kirby nodded.

			She looked at Ryth, "I'm not anyone special. I was a homicide detective where I came from. But if there is someone in control, someone bringing specific people over, then I think I know why they grabbed both me and Kirby." She pointed to the pictures, "The M.O. is too similar, the timing too perfect. It's got to be the Piano Wire Killer. I think he is, or was, human!"

			Ryth still looked a bit wild eyed, but he was calming down fast. "Do you people always name your killers?"

			{{Separator\|stars}}

Eirik: Started next part, new character enters

2008-02-18T19:29:02Z

Started next part, new character enters

← Older revision		Revision as of 14:29, 18 February 2008
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	"I have, Commander," said Kirby. "On my home world. Called a serial killer."		"I have, Commander," said Kirby. "On my home world. Called a serial killer."

			='''Part Five, Connections'''=

			Once the heavy equipment arrived at the river, a much fuller extent of the horror started to emerge. Not just the garroted bodies, but the bodies dumped over decades, even centuries.

			Kirby looked at the pictures and tried to work out the words associeated with the files. He was taking a crash course in reading and writing here, but it was slow going. So far, they'd pulled fourty bodies out of the river, most too badly decomposed to figure out what had happened. Once the Police Commander put a stop to the dredging operation, they'd identified fifteen total victims for their case.

			Ryth had started to lay out the files on a table in a large meeting room based in form. "That's about the only advantage we have in this, we can narrow down the deaths by form, which at least closes the timeline a little," he said with little cheer.

			Kirby clicked his beak together, "It would help if we could identify any of them, I guess," he said flatly. The truth was that even having names wouldn't likely help. "We only know the name of his last victim, Suma."

			Ryth chuckled, which in these bird forms sounded like a bit of a sing-song, "That assumes that she kept the name."

			They had found a little out about Suma. She'd worked most recently at a small office run by a real rarity in this city, a native born. Like everyone else, he changed with each mixing. He worked in importing goods from the more stable cities around the planet, mostly food and raw materials. Suma had been little more than a clerk, managing the paperwork and keeping track of shipments. "She was a good worker," he'd said. "She'd worked for me for years." Once she left the office, though, he knew nothing about her.

			One thing had struck him, though. Over the years, she always seemed to be female. "I was a little jealous," he'd said. "I've got a mate and we've wanted to have children for years, but I seem to flip genders every shift. She's stayed female twice in a row, but lost the baby in this last mix."

			Kirby and Ryth had noted it, but weren't sure what to do with information like that. Unless they could identify any of the previous victims, they were going to have a hard time making sense of this guy.

			Ryth finally ruffled his feathers and whistled out a sigh, "My eyes are beginning to cross. Why don't we get some food get back to this after a break?"

			Kirby looked again at the pictures of all the bodies. He really didn't want to leave, he wanted to figure this puzzle out, but the truth was he was getting hungry. Besides, he'd taken to the whole flying thing and it took a lot of energy. "Sure, lets go."

			They started walking though the bull pen toward the steps that would lead up to the windows when he stopped short, "Ryth!"

			The bird stopped and turned, "What is it?"

			"Am I seeing things?" Kirby said in a near whisper and poked his beak toward one of the desks.

			"That looks almost like you did, a human?" he said in a befuddled tone. She was giving her information to the officer, but looked tense and tired at the same time. She was wearing casual clothes. "He's a newcomer, you had the same look."

			"He's a she," corrected Ryth. "Once more, I think I might know her." Ryth didn't have a chance to register that before Kirby bobbed over to the desk. She didn't notice him in the bustle of the bull pen as he approached, and only looked his way when the officer taking her information did. "What's your name?" he asked.

			She still had a dazed look on her face, "Linda. Linda..."

			"Pratt!" he shouted in excitement. "It is you!" He flung his wings and jumped forward to hug her. Despite her fatigue, her response was to jump out of her chair and punch him straight in the beak. He fell back, surprised, and landed at Ryths feet.

			She was standing now as other officers moved in to swarm her, but Ryth shouted, "Back off, it's a misunderstanding!" Ryth, it was said, had a commanding voice in every form he took. The other officers stopped and stood their ground but didn't back off. He looked down at his partner, "I assume that it is?"

			Kirby rolled his body over and popped back up on his feet. "Linda doesn't realize that she knows me."

			She stared hard at him, as if she'd be able to make out who he was, "You've got to be kidding. Who the hell are you?"

			"We didn't know each other well, but we worked the Capitol Hill Rapist case when I was new to the force. I just answered phones for the tip line. You were my sergeant then. Then I ran down leads for you when you were detective on the Waterfront Strangler."

			She looked even more confused, but she started putting something in her head together, "Wait a minute. They said at the orientation that everyone here changes. You're... You're Hutton? Kirby Hutton?"

			He bobbed his head up and down again, "I am at that. Can I get a hug now? Or do you want to hit me again?"

Eirik at 03:35, 17 February 2008

2008-02-17T03:35:43Z

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:35, 16 February 2008
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	She was already stalking her next target.		She was already stalking her next target.

	In the last mix, they'd been a she, but now she was a ~~hue~~. Right after a mix was always the worst time for hunting. They tended to move around a great deal to cover their tracks. This one, he felt sure, was still the same target. She flew past the fifth floor window, eyes forward but watching out of the corner.		In the last mix, they'd been a she, but now she was a he. Right after a mix was always the worst time for hunting. They tended to move around a great deal to cover their tracks. This one, he felt sure, was still the same target. She flew past the fifth floor window, eyes forward but watching out of the corner.
	He had a roommate moving in.		He had a roommate moving in.

Eirik: /* '''Part Four, The Outer Marsh River''' */

2008-02-17T03:21:16Z

'''Part Four, The Outer Marsh River'''

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:21, 16 February 2008
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	Of course, he was also below the roof line of a lot of buildings, too.		Of course, he was also below the roof line of a lot of buildings, too.
	He flapped a couple times and felt his body adjust to every flap. His first couple attempts actually cost him some height before he just did what came naturally. After that, he shot up in a hurry. It wasn't until he was up fairly high before he realized that he'd pulled his legs up ~~light~~ landing gear. He looked down, and for the first time he saw the entire city.		He flapped a couple times and felt his body adjust to every flap. His first couple attempts actually cost him some height before he just did what came naturally. After that, he shot up in a hurry. It wasn't until he was up fairly high before he realized that he'd pulled his legs up like landing gear. He looked down, and for the first time he saw the entire city.
	From this high, it looked almost pretty.		From this high, it looked almost pretty.

Eirik: Adding chapter box

2008-02-17T03:04:18Z

Adding chapter box

← Older revision		Revision as of 22:04, 16 February 2008
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	'''Part One		='''Part One, The Dumping Grounds'''=
	The Dumping Grounds'''

	She waited at the end of the alley, hidden partly by the darkness and partly by the large trash can. She waited patiently, as she'd done so many times before. The cold made uncomfortable, but since it did the same to everyone else, it made the usually busy street a quiet hunting ground.		She waited at the end of the alley, hidden partly by the darkness and partly by the large trash can. She waited patiently, as she'd done so many times before. The cold made uncomfortable, but since it did the same to everyone else, it made the usually busy street a quiet hunting ground.
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	'''Part Two		='''Part Two, The Concrete Mixer'''=
	The Concrete Mixer'''

	He tracked this one all the way to their apartment, then waited until dawn for them to leave.		He tracked this one all the way to their apartment, then waited until dawn for them to leave.
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	{{Separator\|stars}}		{{Separator\|stars}}

	'''Chapter Three		='''Chapter Three, On the Job Mixing'''=
	On the Job Mixing'''

	"Get inside, get inside, get inside!" he shouted as he grabbed the larger bear creature and dragged her off the street. The mob that was beginning to form around her was getting angry, and there was no telling what was going to happen. The last time Kirby saw this happen, the focus of the mob had ended up ripped apart.		"Get inside, get inside, get inside!" he shouted as he grabbed the larger bear creature and dragged her off the street. The mob that was beginning to form around her was getting angry, and there was no telling what was going to happen. The last time Kirby saw this happen, the focus of the mob had ended up ripped apart.
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	{{Separator\|stars}}		{{Separator\|stars}}

	'''Part Four		='''Part Four, The Outer Marsh River'''=
	The Outer Marsh River'''

	The watch commander wasn't as impressed with their detective work, "What are you saying, that she was targeted?"		The watch commander wasn't as impressed with their detective work, "What are you saying, that she was targeted?"

Eirik: Unfinished long story, will be working on this as much as possible

2008-02-17T01:17:15Z

Unfinished long story, will be working on this as much as possible

Show changes