http://aunomdedieu.livejournal.com/ ([identity profile] aunomdedieu.livejournal.com) wrote in [community profile] queenofheartsrp2011-03-19 12:33 am

four. [action]

[ After spending a couple of days indoors, Caprica decides to go out — partly just to get out of the house that is and isn't hers, partly because she has some supplies that need refreshing. It's a pristine morning, the sun full and high overhead — only one of many pristine mornings in a place that can, at times, seem unnaturally perfect. When the Gardens' residents aren't being attacked by monsters or bloodthirsty flowers, at any rate.

She nearly trips on something in the path as she walks, which is incredibly rare; it isn't a characteristic normally ascribed to Sixes, or Cylons in general, this startling lack of grace. Caprica catches herself before she can fall, nearly before she can even stumble, and pauses, glancing down to see what was underfoot.

It's a dead cat. Caprica would nearly think it had been killed by one of the other wild animals here, or by another resident by accident, except for the incredibly methodical way the corpse has been mutilated. It looks like it's been dead for some days now; it's starting to decompose, rotten flesh and rotten organs.

She has seen dead things before — dead animals, dead people. She's killed with her bare hands before. But Caprica is not a sadist, and that's what she'd have to be to ever perpetrate something this gruesome. Her stomach twists and she presses a hand to her mouth, takes a step back. ]



[ OOC: lol I did not realize there had already been one of these today, oh well. I meant to post this earlier and got sidelined. Come be horrified with Caprica. Or don't. :/ ]

[identity profile] autumn-crocus.livejournal.com 2011-03-19 03:03 pm (UTC)(link)
[Yuka is good at two relevant things: Being quiet, and showing up at ominous places.]

Oh, my. What have we here?

[identity profile] autumn-crocus.livejournal.com 2011-03-23 01:39 am (UTC)(link)
Not that I can remember.

[identity profile] lovelikelight.livejournal.com 2011-03-19 05:38 pm (UTC)(link)
[It's a coincidence that she happens to be nearby. She sees the woman step back and put her hand to her mouth, and she knows something must be wrong.]

Hello, Caprica? [She remembers the woman from before. She starts to approach her, and in another moment, she realizes what's wrong. One of the cats. She quickens her pace, hurrying to Caprica's side. She regards the cat, sorrow in her eyes.] Oh no. Not another. [She turns to Caprica.] I'm sorry you had to find her like this.

[identity profile] lovelikelight.livejournal.com 2011-03-24 06:56 pm (UTC)(link)
[It is easy to analyze the wounds, but not so easy to analyze the behavior that caused them, although Epsilon knows there are humans who do such things. She kneels beside the cat. She cannot make its body whole again, as the woman on the Vine did. She could only destroy it, reduce it to ash, but she does not do that. It should decompose, remain part of life.]

Someone very sick, and possibly very sad.

[She pauses, tense. She does not like the thought of someone like that living here, unknown to the others around her and possibly a danger to them and to herself.] We should try to discover who it is.

[identity profile] mellifluently.livejournal.com 2011-03-19 10:32 pm (UTC)(link)
[Mahalia hadn't encountered any of the dead cats before Dot's display on the vine, but she's seen several since. Had gone searching the Gardens for them, determined to properly bury as many as possible before Dot decided to continue playing with their corpses. They had already been meaninglessly murdered, they didn't deserve any more disrespect.

She's tired and drained, eyes sore from repeated crying by the time she sees the woman on the path. Only from the back, so she doesn't see the look of shock on her face, only curious at the way she's standing. It doesn't take her long to see what she's staring at, and she hesitates. It's been too much pain on her, seeing so many of them, to be shocked and hurt again, a strange numbness gripping her, emotional exhaustion. Still, she takes a deep breath, trying to keep herself steady, before she approaches.]


Are you alright?

[identity profile] mellifluently.livejournal.com 2011-03-22 03:32 am (UTC)(link)
[Mahalia nods, looking down at the cat.]

Yes, it is.

[She looks up at Caprica again, and, seeing her hand, reaches up to place her own over it. Her family have always comforted each other through touch, it's a familiar and welcome thing to her. Even if Caprica is a stranger, she had reached out, and that is enough in Mahalia's eyes.]

I'm just... [Tired. She gives a sad little smile.] I keep finding more. I keep hoping each one is the last one, but then, there's another.

[identity profile] mellifluently.livejournal.com 2011-03-23 02:02 am (UTC)(link)
[Mahalia stays beside Caprica for a moment longer, gathering herself. She'd been really quite glad for that moment of comfort, but it hadn't lingered, and there was another grave to dig. She nods. She already has a garden trough in her other hand, had gone into the wilds quickly to fetch the dirt to make it, after burying two of the cats with her hands alone.]

Yes.

[She moves forward, kneeling down beside the cat's body. This one is one of the worst she's seen, the longest dead, already ripped apart and now well into the decomposition process. But she holds her stomach well enough, only wonders how she's going to move it, can't bury it right beside the path like this. She only really has one option, and reaches up to untie her headscarf to wrap the body in.]

I've been burying them, all the ones I could find. They deserve better than this.

[Deserve better than being murdered and butchered meaninglessly in the first place, but the abandoned corpses and the further mutilation Mahalia had seen on the vine was only more heartless disrespect.]

[identity profile] mellifluently.livejournal.com 2011-03-24 12:17 am (UTC)(link)
[She's a little surprised when the woman kneels down beside her, but she relinquishes the scarf quietly, watching as she wraps the cat's body.]

Thank you.

[She follows where the woman looks.]

Yes, that looks nice.

[She stands and moves over to the indicated spot, kneeling down again, starts digging with the little trough. When the hole is big enough, she stands again, begins quickly gathering flowers from the area nearby; roses, daffodils, daisies and crocuses. She knows the meanings, but disregards them, for this. It's the gift and the respect that matters.]