2.24 Malcolm's Aside -G- Year Twelve

Trigger Warning; mild gore, violence.

One of the brightest minds in law enforcement has recently gone through a grueling divorce.

Elliot Nest can handle many types of emergencies, but it hits harder when the emergency could've been prevented.

Everet's been through the ringer with him over the last few years. Chasing leads that go nowhere, running paperwork, typing reports, and interviewing the clueless locals. It's never a good look when one's unofficial partner in law doesn't have his head on straight at home. It sets things back, and not just for a working lunch.

If Investigator Nest was any good at food prep, he would've been a chef. If he was any good at fire prevention, he would've been fireman. He's neither of those things. Instead, he is the finest criminal investigator Roaring Heights will ever know.

...and that's gotta be good for something.

Elliot's partner in the case of the underground mad science scandal is one Everet Sparrow, an inside man doing and outside man's job. He informs Elliot that he can assist at least with some coleslaw. He had been reeled in like a fish on a hook. At least this means that lunch is sorted out.

They eat and discuss the case. There's been recent suspicious activity, and now the custody of a young boy bearing two different names is in dispute. The name the boy claims is his, is not on his birth certificate, and the boy has new information about the Piper and her network of illegal medical labs. One thing is certain; he's a survivor of her underground testing operation, the first one ever to be recovered.

Elliot is trying to work out why the flatfeet on the ground didn't get a warrant to search the new lab more quickly, and assures Everet (who has a family member suspected to be missing to the Piper) that no expense of law enforcement power will be spared in freeing the victims. There is also an older facility in the town she'd fled from, that they are allowed to make a visit to, so they will. Why anyone at the corrupted Starlight Shores City Government Complex (SSCGC) is willing to let them over there is anyone's guess. They head out to investigate, because it's what they're both the best at.

Everet has yet to meet the boy in question, but he has high hopes. Although the way he was found, merely wandering alone outside, is terribly suspect. He claimed to be following someone else from the lab who fled the scene before police could enter with an adequate amount of force.

Either way, something stinks, and it ain't just Mister Pickles going potty.

Every day that goes by makes everything smell even worse.

Robbie Platt chooses an unusual place to offer the investigators some information, but Everet's used to unusual.

An old acquaintance of his cousin's late husband, he really just wanted to know things that he's not allowed to know.

He may be hilarious, but jokes in the men's room don't get kids found. Everet excuses himself after he finishes his Bad Cheerleader and makes for the exit.

It may be that his partner is having better luck today.

He isn't.

Making diminutive progress at home base, they head abroad to see the place the Piper abandoned, that was being featured in all the local press as a house of horrors.

It's hard to identify the exact work that was being done in a place like this.

 This place is a labyrinth. Maybe that's where the word lab came from? No, that's stupid.

“Hang back.”

Elliot tries stopping him off the elevator.

Everet just grins. There's nothing left here, whether they are dramatic about it or not.

“You do know that nobody's been down here for years, don't you?” He can tell by the dust that hangs heavily in the air alone.

Although... it's a pretty sobering sight, even if empty.

Elliot is taking it pretty hard. He's not used to so much widespread corruption. People don't just get kidnapped and shoved into indentured servitude in labs in Roaring Heights, not that he knew of before all of this, so it's practically a nonexistent crime. He's spent the better part of his career chasing moonshiners and shutting down illegal distilleries and those who rose to power when juice was illegal. Which led to crimes of tax evasion, or financial embezzlement or banking fraud. White collar crimes, with some blue to cover it all up. Running an underground lab and treating people like animals, or worse than animals in pretense of saving lives and helping society, also to make money? He'd have to let the judge sort that one out. Or drag the perpetrators before the judges, so he can figure out just what color of collar they are wearing.

The investigation continues to the second lab, back at home.

Predictably, nothing's left for them to find.

The investigation stalls out, after this. The lab and other subjects, more importantly, the perpetrators, have all just vanished.

It's excruciating at this point of things, to think that they need to wait for another lead to come forward to find the rest of these kids. Could they have fled from town, this time?

The remaining subjects are directed off of the transporter and into another post-apocalyptic nightmare. The hum of an overabundance of energy overloading overly-engineered devices is ambient: everywhere. It smacks of fantasy and frivolity, but manages to be a bit terrifying at the same time.

For some reason, Ceres is making everyone worry as soon as they arrive. Emir has safely gone ahead, but Ceres looks like she's going to be sick. Atom shows an uncharacteristic brotherly concern for her for once in the last decade. “It's him, isn't it, did his loopy ass do something to you when you were locking it down? Next time, I'll be the one to go-”

Everyone other than Ceres turns to make fun of Malcolm for some also unknown reason,

After which the Director opens a set of impossibly large doors at the end of the hallway from a panel in the wall...

...and Malcolm forgets he was in the middle of being made fun of.

As the doors close behind the girl, Circe calls to 502, who had gone missing from the lab months ago. Apparently, she had aged up, which marked a massive milestone in Circe's research. She was now the longest living clone the lab had ever produced.

Olivia, or to be more precise, subjects 202, 302, 402, etcetera, were all the clones produced from tissue samples taken from an impossibly old, dying or dead woman named Olive Specter. The DNA used to make them itself was so near the end of it's life, most clones were not going to be more viable than middle childhood. 502 had surpassed that expectation as Circe had managed to preserve parts of her DNA from being unzipped completely in the process of mitosis.

...but she knows who her real friends are.

“Olivia!” He calls out to her in relief. He'd thought she was gone for good.

Behind him, Malcolm hears Ceres get sick.

And well after everyone else, security finally shows up. He immediately tears into Ceres for not helping him more when they evacuated. She can't tell him it's because she's scared of him right now, and the things she had seen...

This moment marks a turning point for Ceres.

...and while her brother frequently adds people to his list that he would like to see the ghosts of, she agrees with him that she can't take much more of following 'The Director'. They should be planning their exit more earnestly.

Planchette has lost a lost of blood today, and spilled a lot more than that. He hangs back to try to collect himself while everyone else files in. He has never been so exhausted before.

Ceres leaves him, knowing he is in need of medical attention. Let him ask nicely, first.

901 however, may be useful to her soon.

Emir doesn't like that look. Leave my dad out of your weirdness, he thinks at her, not being brave enough to tell her directly.

“How was your rest?” Now that this Olivia has survived so long, she is suddenly the favorite.

“Ready to settle in?” Ceres asks on the way by. Malcolm gets a shiver from her oddly friendly tone of voice. He doesn't say anything.

The sentinel drones are so obnoxious here.

Emir tries to run past it quickly, and it catches up. He freezes, and forgets about it, when he sees where they are going to be expected to live next.

I am not going to cry, he thinks. Jiraya will go and get help for us... I'll bet he made it. He wouldn't cry, so I will not cry...

Atom escorts Malcolm to his new prison cell and laughs uncontrollably at him the moment he sees it on the wall.

A framed picture of him from the StarLit Magazine, explaining how dangerous house fires can be, how even heroes don't always survive. It was published a month after his known death, and Atom had saved it all this time.

Atom laughs until his sides hurt, until he can't breathe. Malcolm will be in a new cell where his death is immortalized, knowing that he couldn't get out then, and he can't get out now.

Emir has made it into his new cell without complaint.

He doesn't even cry when the doors creek eerily shut and slam loudly, making him blink. He's just... numb, right now. Jiraya's not back with them, either. What happened to him?

The Director is distracted, sure her staff has everything under control.

They don't. Malcolm turns and puts the entire weight of his body and his anger into a sucker punch.

...and Atom kisses the floor.

Loki's at the park a week later. The best place to approach a delicate conversation is in neutral territory.

The topic he needs to discuss is of a delicate nature... given his ex wife's recent activities in this town. Her 'free clinics' and 'vaccine sessions' are all a ruse, a way to find worthy new potential victims. It hasn't escaped Loki's notice that she has stepped up her activities rather aggressively since Jiraya had been recovered. It may be her age making her desperate for a breakthrough, it may be her unwillingness to lose at anything.

“Really?” He'd muttered under his breath. He hadn't had a more than surface look into her mind in a very long time, so happening upon her activities late one evening as the festival was closing out for the night found him being treated to some rather disgusting imagery.

What he sees makes him uncharacteristically angry. Because he'd left her alone for so long, she thought she could get away with it. To expand it, even. After running away with her tail between her legs at every confrontation, she still has the gall to attempt to expand.

He'd looked away, knowing he'd have to wait at least one more night. Yet there was finally evidence, with Jiraya's recent recovery, that would provide more significant help to local law enforcement. They had better take an active role. Even someone like him can become extremely impatient.

He approaches a well-dressed man playing horseshoes quietly. 

“Excuse me, do you have a moment?” 

The man drops his horseshoe on the ground and deftly turns to shake Loki's hand in one motion. “Elliot Nest. To whom do I owe the pleasure?”

Loki smiles in that congenial way of his. “I'm not important. But I do have some information for you, and at the moment, I'd like to be kept... anonymous.”

“Oh?”

Everyone in town knows Detective Nest, even if they have only lived in Roaring Heights for a few years. His work during the Juice Edict (which criminalized drinking highly sugared substances for every age group) was well known. Now that syrups were allowed back in bars and children could have lollipops again without restraint, he had come to focus on minor infractions against legal code. Torts, jaywalking, prank calls by local children, that kind of thing. He was a hero to most people, until it was personally their teenager who was no longer allowed to jog indiscriminately into oncoming traffic. Then he was 'overstepping his bounds'. These days he keeps to himself and operates a local PI firm as well as trains Investigators for the local police station at the head of a public safety task force.

An ink pen appears quickly. “I'd be happy to take a statement. However I will need a working phone number and a name, if you please. I will not share it, but in the case that I need to verify things.”

“Of course.” Loki says with a tight smile. The things that were going through that evil woman's head were fainter, now that he had spend some time away from her. But it was still much more than even he had thought she was capable of. He hides his anger at her arrogance. There were several bloodsucking monsters that he knew personally who had a higher regard for human life. She was back today, with another 'free' event. “There's a person at this park that needs to be investigated, and I will provide full cooperation, as long as you don't tip her off and scare her into moving again.”

Elliot raises an eyebrow superficially at the assumption that he was capable at all of faulty work.

Elliot may recognize him as Jiraya's temporary foster placement, or he may not. That part is not important. He summarizes some of the things he had caught a glimpse of in Circe's mind, describing interiors and potential ages of victims. He can't give a count, but he can discuss their condition.

The Detective discusses possibly opening an additional investigation, but in the most awkward place possible.

Loki does his best to muffle the noise from the conversation in Jyo's mind as they talk. It's a small manipulation, but he doesn't want her worrying unnecessarily. There's no guarantee that he can do anything about what he's seen hidden in the depths of Circe's consciousness. Detective Nest should have as much as he can to go on as possible.

Leila is clearly listening to everything he's saying. Loki is glad dogs can't talk, because he's sure she would turn and blab to her mistress immediately. Then again, he doesn't have to use magic on the dog because of it, assuming of course, that he even can. It's not like he's tried. The prickling on his skin is telling him he's got less than thirty minutes to wrap this up and get out of the sun if he wants to avoid the kind of lapse in judgment that could result in him having more children with Jyoti. Not that he'd mind, if he hadn't clearly just seen a very alive-looking, if not slightly older version of her husband stuck in a very bad situation in the mind of his ex wife. So it was not the time to think about things like that.

Jyoti... was too busy being upset with herself for not being able to ring the horseshoe every single time to notice him there at all. She was so... well, now wasn't the time.

“How do you know all of this?”

“Just... rumors from more than once source.” Loki waves. Nest waits for more, so Loki adds to his statement. “I'm a bit of a psychic, I have seen, that's she got kids, far underground, being held hostage. She's not a nurse that the local hospital works with, here, she's holding this event to collect DNA samples. She is looking for new victims because she needs new labrats, people, to experiment on... She's had to move them, they're under a house, possibly an old cellar, there are stone walls as the entrance... but still in town.”

Elliot wonders blandly if this is another attention-seeker who wants their account to be in the press, or it's a legitimate lead. He will go back to the office and work on the case either way.

The week before, where nobody could peek in...

Planchette hears Ceres scream, and collects himself from where he had been hiding, trying not to pass out.

He arrives too fast.

“Are you going to shoot me, now?” Malcolm challenges him.

“Shoot him.” Atom growls, after coughing for a very long time.

The security guard hesitates, not because he wants to, but to combat the dizziness. “Why do you protect these people, Planchette? They can't even do anything without you.”

“Shoot me, if you think you're on the right side, here.” The man's hands are shaky, there is no way he can make the shot, even from this distance. Malcolm is going to rush him in that moment, take the gun, and-

Except that a panicked and heartbreaking cry comes out of his son's mouth at that moment. “Dad! No! You can't- you can't get hurt please don't- they're going to kill you!”

He hears Atom behind him, getting back up. If there's only one weapon he can still win, but Emir is already locked in- and now he himself is distracted. All he can hear is Emir, sobbing uncontrollably and crying out to him.

He can't leave him here, he should have just rushed Planchette. “A-alright, I'll go in.” He gives in. He's so tired of this. One day, nothing is going to stop him anymore, but he has Emir and he's got to think there is something better on the other side than the hell he is currently barely alive in. He takes in the last deep breath he will be able to, for awhile-

Before Atom begins to simply beat him to within a few inches of his life.

Emir turns away so he doesn't see it, but the sound of his father's body being hit repeatedly will haunt him in echoes for a very long time.

Planchette didn't last long after their move to the third lab. Exhaustion and blood loss during a psychological break took their toll on his body, which simply... stopped, soon after the altercation.

And not long after, they once again retrieve their unyieldingly loyal security guard from the recycling bin of the timelines. Rinse, repeat.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

etc; (Insert references to Planchette's other uniforms in other universes; Star Trek TOS red security uniform, Southpark's Orange Hoodie belonging to Kenny)

More importantly, Leila Number 1 doggo confirmed.

Meanwhile, Loki... who is not nearly this cool in real game life.

Olive Specter is gorgeous with white eyeliner etc. Turns out that when you age her down from an elder, her hair remains ash gray at the roots and white on top. She's so cool looking.

I feel like I've been waiting a very time for one of these generic artworks from the game to coincide with how one of my sims looks. Malcolm barely made the cut for this magazine cover. His eyes are too light, but I'll take it.

I had prepared to give out bulletproof vests and badges/weapons to the police etc who were entering the labs, but they didn't fit the look of the town. That's when I realized I could actually just slap a tommy gun into someone's hands. Had to be Elliot of course, he fits the historical narrative.

My idiot detective dream-team, right here. I had to make fun of Everet and Elliot a little bit here. I had much higher hopes for them than what they provided to the story as a whole. I've been trying to get a shot of a sim looking down the barrel of the fire extinguisher for ever, so thanks Elliot for that. He's a premade for Roaring Heights who is based on a real human being that lived and is buried in my hometown, Eliot Ness. 

For another great yet brief detective story, I recommend the following;

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gRVRNcSEg5c

Dustin and several Sparrows were present at the event. This is Maria, Leon's wife, at the Spring Fair.

I had to reshoot a bunch of this because Circe was an elder by this time in the story. facepalm

Elliot and Dustin were also in live for shots, Jyo cried like a baby when she got hers (more than everyone else). Dustin looked kind of embarrassed.

Nooot stalking Jyo here, totally not.

Just to make matters more impossible for Loki, Dustin comes up to talk to him. I seriously only sent Loki and Circe to this park because I wanted to use her work opportunity as a means for him to 'overhear' her thoughts and discover the lab. But Elliot happened to be there, as well as most of the Sparrow family. Hilarious. I just need like, three photos people!