If you're getting too sleepy, spend a cycle in your room, catching up on sleep. should understand it's both in the best interests of the crew, and necessary to be able to do your job.

Curt 2025/01/09(Thu)03:40 No. 1102113 ID: 85b1f2
File 173639404776.gif - (24.12KB , 650x450 , 295.gif )

: Hey ! I'm on the corpse case, can I get some help?
: Sure. What's the need?
: Okay, so, you know how you said you'll back me up on that?
: Did I... Well, yeah, of course.



: He didn't say that this loop.
: "We keep a lot of who we are in other people."



: I'm gonna need protection and a guide in cargo maintenance to get to a key witness.
: Yeah... Mm. Can't leave my post for that though.
: Right! But if you can get me a gun...

"...I can jut pick someone who knows how to use it and go there well defended."

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:36 No. 1124354 ID: a4a832
File 177527381914.gif - (17.67KB , 650x450 , 296.gif )

Archivist's Note: After a long hiatus and a longer period of not properly archiving the strip, we're back, baby. Brace for a long cutscene.

: knows the way to , but he won't guide me to her unless I have a gun.
: And you have guns, but you can't give me a gun unless I have a use case and authorization.
: But I do have a case. I'm investigating . And was her left hand, right?
: Right. So the authorization is...
: authorized you to back me up on this case, mhm.
: Well, doesn't that just work out nice and clean.
: Here you go, I suppose.



: Don't wanna go in there and talk to her about that authorization, huh?
: Huge relief, yep. Thanks!



Getting good at answering multiple people at once while they all feel like you're talking to just them, kid. Keep that up, you could take 's job. Just like you're nudging him out of being the maintenance guide.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:38 No. 1124355 ID: a4a832
File 177527388534.gif - (99.79KB , 650x450 , 297.gif )

: !


: I was hoping you could be my guide in the maintenance halls (I only have one other option (and he really sucks) so it would help)...

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:39 No. 1124357 ID: a4a832
File 177527396865.gif - (62.22KB , 650x450 , 298.gif )

Friz? Hey, you there? What's with that look?

Huh. Zoning out 'cause it's a repeat of an old one, I guess.


: ...anything I can do to get your help?
: Get me a gun.
: Sure! Got one right here.
: A real gun--
: Hold on, that is a real gun.
: Yep (it's not mine).
: Double-mode energy, disabler module for crew and laser module for any leftover cult stuff.
: You get temporary clearance for it. Security's informed.
: (Thanks, you're a lifesaver.)

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:41 No. 1124358 ID: a4a832
File 177527405657.gif - (25.39KB , 650x450 , 299.gif )

: Well, hell.
: Guess I can help you. Stick close and keep a light up.
: Do you actually plan on getting in fights?
: (I feel like we're overselling the risk of maintenance...)
: Nope.
: But I don't stick my neck out for security without safety measures.
: Forgive him, he loves to take his brand of grimness so seriously.
: Yeah, sorry, let me just go and just forget all the coffin-stuffers I pull out of maintenance so I can be more immediately useful and immediately dead.
: Couldn't be me. I never forget a corpse.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:41 No. 1124359 ID: a4a832
File 177527410941.gif - (22.26KB , 650x450 , 300.gif )

The halls are almost like a real station, not a debt prison. You walk around there, the worst of the rain you'll hear is a light bit of patter. Here in maintenance, the sound carries. It pounds, not like a drum but a voice. Liquid on glass and cheap metal, the sound of fake gravitons meeting nebula clouds and turning into a downpour. It's a sick emulation of the kind of business that ought to be happening at least a couple kilometers up from Earth, and nowhere around here. But our leaky gravity generator means it happens right here, and all day and night. And the real people, with the names and the lives and the footfalls where rain ought to end up, they won't care. For them, the rain is still just a quiet patter.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:42 No. 1124360 ID: a4a832
File 177527415978.gif - (39.82KB , 650x450 , 301.gif )

Rain forms somewhere else, falls down to all the real people, where they can see it. Like packaging in a warehouse, or food in a restaurant kitchen. The business is all out of sight, it's all in the Back. Comes together in some cloudy place, don't think about where. By the time it reaches the Front, it's fresh and fingerprint-free. Not a trace of someone's sweat, it's crystal clear. But here, we're where the packages are wrapped and the meals are cooked. We're in the Back, not the Front. Of course we'd be right where the clouds turns to rain. Where it doesn't sound like a patter, it sounds like a howling scream.



: (What are you talking about? That metaphor is getting really dense and I'm having trouble keeping up.)
: Nothing, kid. Just thinking about things.
: (I kinda wanna know what that stuff is sometime. Reminds me of some stuff said a long time ago.)

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:44 No. 1124361 ID: a4a832
File 177527426948.gif - (26.80KB , 650x450 , 302.gif )

: I haven't actually been in here before. What's she like?
: You mean ? God.
: God.
: I guess I forgot you're even newer than me. So you've really never tried her gambling thing?
: (Nobody ever tells me what it's like (even though everyone goes there)...)
: You're supposed to be good at reading people. Or the other guy was?
: What was your job again?
: Forensics. Technically my real job is forensic insurance stuff, so I try to do real forensics for the DVSD.
: did the interviews these days, usually.
: Which one of you did surveillance?
: Surveillance...?



: Guess that's my answer. What's the read on that gambling lady?
: Well, would probably tell you the same thing I'll tell you.
: It's hard to tell the difference between someone who feels like killing and someone who feels like dying.



Close enough.



: They're both really close to death, and your grit doesn't know the difference.
: You're saying plenty on your channel, lady, but I'm twisting the dial around and only catching pieces.
: Just-- can you keep the gun on, please? Stun setting.
: But holstered, once we get there.
: Sure. I basically know what dangerous people are like.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:45 No. 1124362 ID: a4a832
File 177527435279.gif - (19.66KB , 650x450 , 303.gif )

: Hey, um. Hi.
: Not here to cause any problems! Just want to see, uhhh...
: Huh.
: Oh god.



Hell. I knew this was gonna be bad.



: --know you still have it! You can't have already spent it on something in just a few hours! You were--!
: Say it! Say it out loud! What you think I'm doing apparently! Get your shit together and say it with your words!
: I don't know what you're talking about, just let me have-- aghk! Hey!
: Every single one of you is the same. Go ahead! Walk in here! I'm some kind of bank or a funny little lost and found!!
: And you can just bring me things and I'll hold them and give them back any time you want!!
: I'm always here to get yelled at and hurt any time you feel like you've had an unlucky day!!
: Stop!! Come on, you-- I only spent fifty Hopes here just this morning! And everyone knows you-- AUGH! OW! OW, STOP!!



She's got a full head of steam this early in the day. Gonna be a problem, kid.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:47 No. 1124363 ID: a4a832
File 177527444020.gif - (24.53KB , 650x450 , 304.gif )

Author's note: Character design: AsciiSquid.



:
: Okay.
: Maybe I don't actually know what someone who's dangerous like this, is like.
: Why is the lady who's kicking all the ass and yelling also, uh, crying so much?
: That's (she builds up this kind of, I don't know, agony-momentum (this cascading emotional self-intensifying reaction), and she just gets so adrenaline-overloaded (like it's some kind of engine or reactor) or something).
: What?
: She starts crying and gets really strong.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:49 No. 1124364 ID: a4a832
File 177527458704.gif - (31.81KB , 650x450 , 305.gif )

: I just need my money-- ow! I need it back! Come on, it was just fifty Hopes this morning-- Ow!!
: Ow-- ow ow, augh, stop!! You know I'm gonna just come back and spend again anyway! Come on!!
: You horrible piece of shit!
: I don't have your money! You think I just jump in a giant pool of Hopes in the back room after you spend them!? Dive in like a little pool?!
: You do! You have it back there! It was here just a couple hours ago! Just-- OOF!!
: I'm in the same type of debt you are! You people all know exactly what you're doing to hurt me all the time!
: You came in here with an axe! I can't stand it anymore! Leave me alone leave me alone fucking leave me alone!!



: I think I'm figuring out that stuff about "someone who feels like dying".
: This is gonna go really bad. She's gonna break my arm again.
: Please help me break them up... And please don't take anything personally.
: She's... The problem is that she is the one being hurt...

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:51 No. 1124365 ID: a4a832
File 177527471737.gif - (37.19KB , 650x450 , 307.gif )

: Hey! Hey, please-- stop! Stop fighting!!
: Aaaaaaaaa!!
: Break it up! Hey! I heard a bone crack, break it up!! He's had enough!
: And give-- give me--!
: What do I have to do to make you leave me alone?!
: And you, yoiu, you stop antagonizing her! Stop!!
: Hell-- holy crap, she's so strong!
: Stop defending him!! GET OUT!!

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:52 No. 1124366 ID: a4a832
File 177527477516.gif - (52.15KB , 650x450 , 308.gif )

: Hurh-- GAH!
: AAAAAUUUUGH!
: Wai-- OOF!
: YOU F-FUCKING PSYCHO!
: GET THE FUCK OUT OF MY ESTABLISHMENT!!

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:54 No. 1124367 ID: a4a832
File 177527483989.gif - (24.83KB , 650x450 , 309.gif )

: ! !!
: There's too--
: There's too much sound!
: Arms up! Protect the fa--
: I can't keep track! Can't--
: ! Get me a picture--
: Head! Head pain!
: Sensory organs down, boss--
: PROTECT THE HEAD--!!
: might--
: Wait, but what's--
: What's happening?!



: Hello...?

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:54 No. 1124368 ID: a4a832
File 177527486920.gif - (18.26KB , 650x450 , 310.gif )

: Sensory organs partially back online, boss.
: Limiting movement... Shouldn't stand. Shouldn't.
: There you all are.
: Terrain instability. Fundamental balance isn't there.
: We must be dizzy.
: She beat the serif out of us.
: What does-- Never mind.
: What's the situation, ? Any memories?
: Trying to get hearing and vision back.
: Memories... Not much.
: I think got us. That's what I'd do.
: Sounds true, bud.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:55 No. 1124369 ID: a4a832
File 177527494855.gif - (35.20KB , 650x450 , 311.gif )

: Minimal pain, dulled. Painkillers imply treatment, treatment implies safety.
: The sensation feels like--
: Not important, focus on getting me audio. I need to talk to now. And , too, bet he's here.
: Alright. I'm getting sound online.
: Hard to understand Galcom right now though? I think? No good words.
: "Mi petas; pardonu al tiu iam dolĉega knabino, kara mia."
: What? Clean the feed up, clean it!
: "What are you..."



: What are you saying? Pardon-- forgive...? What?

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:57 No. 1124370 ID: a4a832
File 177527503022.gif - (35.79KB , 650x450 , 312.gif )

: "Mi forlasis ŝin, mi fuŝegis ŝin, mi forgesis ŝin... Sed mi finfine finos la faron por ŝi, mia plej kara Ĉiam-fidelulo."
: Wait, who is that? Who is that?
: Hard to keep up, boss.
: Something about, something about messing things up, finishing a task, and--
: Tune in. I need clear hearing, tune in, focus! "I don't understand..."



: I don't understand (feels like I got hit by a shuttle), what are you saying? My head is...



: "Yet, detective, if mia kara Ĉiam-fideluo forgave me in the end for destroying her world, shouldn't I earn that by making a new one?"





: Estus nur juste, ĉu ne?

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:57 No. 1124371 ID: a4a832
File 177527506903.gif - (21.70KB , 650x450 , 314.gif )

: I said make room for .
: Sit, just not there.
: 's back soon.
: Was there someone else here?
: Nope.
: We need to talk.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)03:58 No. 1124372 ID: a4a832
File 177527511956.gif - (22.38KB , 650x450 , 316.gif )

: You treat, you know, difficult cases, right?
: Yeah. Right now.
: What do you when someone just doesn't want your help?
: I don't help. Personal autonomy. Maybe they show up incapacitated later, and I help then.
: I can't do that... I need to figure out some way to help .
: I won't be able to find without her.
: What kind of help did she ask for?
: She just yells a lot, she...
: Everyone wants something.
: What did she ask for?
: I--

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:01 No. 1124373 ID: a4a832
File 177527527164.gif - (22.33KB , 650x450 , 317.gif )

Man's wrist-deep in someone else's problem, courtesy of your new pal . You take all the time you want to settle on something inside, kid. A long pause is just a chance for a man like that to focus. Sort it out inside before you get it outside.



: You know what she wants.
She asked for it clearly.
: What? It wasn't clear at all.
: Maybe asking to leave?
: Asking to be left alone in general?
: Humans learned to scream and cry for a reason.
: Before they ever learned to speak.
: It's a way to ask for something very specific.
: The healer understands her.



:
: She did. She did ask for something.
: Want to know what I figured out?
: Thinking about stresses me out and I don't want to learn more things about her.
: Oh, I thought we were--
: I guess I thought you were doing a... I dunno.
: Wise moment?
: Wise moment.



"Wise moment."



: Please don't say it like that.
: Unwise moment.
: Please.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:01 No. 1124374 ID: a4a832
File 177527529599.gif - (23.99KB , 650x450 , 318.gif )

: Good talk.
: Did I help?
: ...Yeah.
: See you on the next one.
: Next--

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:06 No. 1124378 ID: a4a832
File 177527559663.gif - (24.34KB , 650x450 , 321.gif )

Up on your feet. Didn't take you long to stop looking so worse for wear. One day has you take a beating, give the next day one to match. But careful, kid, careful you don't start taking these loops for granted.

: I'm going to take advantage of the loop (in another way).
: Hm.
: It's not just dying that it rolls back.
: It's injuries too.
: Yeah? How's that help you inside a loop?
: is hurting so badly we can't even talk to each other. Just screaming and screaming.
: So I just have to get really miserable too (while helping her).
: Just, charge right in, defend her even if she doesn't need defending.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:08 No. 1124379 ID: a4a832
File 177527568304.gif - (236.95KB , 650x450 , 322.gif )

: That's what the screaming's after, huh?
: People way back learned to scream when wolves came prowling around the fire. Get the tribe together, spread out the pain, and live through it.
: Exactly. Exactly. That's the approach.
: Even if helping her doesn't work, maybe I'll be miserable enough to speak on her, I don't know.
: Her misery-wavelength.
: Hmm. Little better. Baby steps, I guess.
: Huh?
: I gotta get you away from those books. Gets you talking like . She's not a xeno or something, speaks Common like everyone else.
: But close enough.

You want to be a detective? Hover above. See the bird's-eye. Be the better person, the rational one. Be that special kind of person who divides the Front from the Back and looks through a window to make sure they're working hard in there. The priest, the alchemist, the shaman of Specta that feeds the worst of the worst of its junkies.

But, you wanna be a mystery-solver? Bring the truth out of the Back? Well, nobody ever solved a mystery through a window.

Still, though. Be careful.

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:08 No. 1124380 ID: a4a832
File 177527572576.gif - (236.37KB , 650x450 , 323.gif )

...

: Yeah... Mm. Can't leave my post for that though.
: Right! But if you can get me a gun...

...

: Get me a gun.
: Sure! Got one right here.
: A real gun--
: Hold on, that is a real gun.
: Yep (it's not mine).

...

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:09 No. 1124381 ID: a4a832
File 177527575274.gif - (20.57KB , 650x450 , 324.gif )

: Hey, um. Hi.
: Not here to cause any problems! Just want to see and--

Suggestion 2026/04/04(Sat)04:10 No. 1124382 ID: a4a832
File 177527581413.gif - (33.12KB , 650x450 , 325.gif )

:Cook:: --said it was only collateral! You said! And then you, you st--... Give it--!
: Say it! Say it out loud! What you think I'm doing apparently! Get your shit together and say it with your words!
:Cook:: I just needed a few more weeks! Just-- Gah!!
: Every single one of you is the same. Go ahead! Walk in here! I'm some kind of bank or a funny little lost and found!!
: And you can just bring me things and I'll hold them and give them back any time you want!!
: I'm always here to get yelled at and hurt any time you feel like you've had an unlucky day!!
:Cook:: I wasn't even a month behind!! You, you thief, you little cheat, give it back!!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:17 No. 1124383 ID: a4a832
File 177527624239.gif - (23.43KB , 650x450 , 326.gif )

: Wait, why did this change too? It should be the same!
: Almost nothing changes in any of the other loops...
: We should run, we should pull back and study it further.
: We need to move and deal with it. Increasing heart rate.
: Wait! What if something's changed!? We need to take it into account!
: We need to consider the possible futures!
: And we don't even know if this will--
: Move now. Supplying adrenaline.
: Endure it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:18 No. 1124384 ID: a4a832
File 177527629676.gif - (29.01KB , 650x450 , 327.gif )

: I'm trying to get the legs moving, but 's gumming them up with memories!
: Bud, there's a lot of important context about rushing in to help!
: And what happens when we--
: I'll process the memories.
: Well I'm not cutting loose and "venting" here.
: You know that venting only makes people unhappy. Don't get into my language processes with--
: The plan is to become unhappy.
: Do what I say.
: Endure it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:18 No. 1124385 ID: a4a832
File 177527633474.gif - (20.00KB , 650x450 , 328.gif )

: Hey.
: Y-yeah?



He can tell you're frozen like ice. But I can tell a man like that knows how to flash-boil.



: In and out. Inhale, think. Exhale, act.
: You have time to think on the inhale.
: And you have to act when the exhale hits.
: ...
: You have to act.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:19 No. 1124386 ID: a4a832
File 177527638608.gif - (185.45KB , 650x450 , 329.gif )

: Forcing breathing patterns.
: That--
: , move to intercept and put us between her and the knife.
: , take us back to the cargo smuggler case.
: , I'm hardwiring the feelings from that day.



You move. Decisive, too, never seen you get in like that. Not fast, but not hesitating. Voice breaks like glass the minute you start shouting, like you've been shouting for hours already. Doesn't take a detective to know you're shouting past him, not at him.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:21 No. 1124387 ID: a4a832
File 177527646351.gif - (12.05KB , 650x450 , 330.gif )

: ...Understand that what you're asking can't be done under the regulations.
: Why?! Why are you doing this?!
: You are eight years old, this situation is not something you can understand.
: I am doing what has to be done, per regulation.
: If I do not execute these regulations, I will be removed and replaced by another who will.
: Stop, stop making excuses!! This is, it's mean! It's, it's all cruel!!
: I don't care what you think the rules are supposed to be, they're just, you're just, j-just, just causing pain!!
: Why don't you understand?!



: I understand. I have read your well-made reports in full.
: I understand that the sector VP of Supply did great harm with his animal-relocation "smuggling" arrangement.
: The injured and abused animals suffered, and were themselves used as a proxy to harm heads of staff throughout the sector.
: You have described which heads of staff, and which major lower-department leadership, were coerced and abused through the forced reallocation of their department pets.
: Moral rules say that it proves him evil in absolute terms.
: Maybe I am the one person who would most appreciate and understand a spreadsheet documenting his cruelty in fine detail, like this.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:22 No. 1124388 ID: a4a832
File 177527655418.gif - (10.19KB , 650x450 , 331.gif )

: But you--!!
: And he will not experience consequences.
: You know this isn't right!!
: Central Command ordered his release from custody.
: Junior Pet Security, an organization founded and led by children, staffed by volunteers, and concerned with the location of missing pets, has no recognized form of jurisdiction.
: You and Lt. Julian are both required to let him go, sign the associated NDA, and his name will be altered in the publication of your casefile.



: Stop this! Why won't you just stop this?!
: Why won't you just make choices that don't hurt people?!
: Because the rules prohibit direct harm, and don't prohibit the use of proxied harm.
: You discovered what they did and documented it in great detail. None of the people involved want to use that truth to do good.
: The rules say that discovering the truth was not the solution to the problem.
: Detective. You need to focus on keeping yourself and Lt. Julian safe. You will not be a child forever.
: Please! Please just stop this...!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:23 No. 1124389 ID: a4a832
File 177527658015.gif - (47.20KB , 650x450 , 332.gif )

: Please... s-stop...
: Jules... why won't you... say something...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:24 No. 1124390 ID: a4a832
File 177527667069.gif - (21.91KB , 650x450 , 333.gif )

Looks like you're getting up. Groggy. Nearly as bad as the morning you keep repeating, but maybe that's because you got almost as close to dying.



: Nnnh, no, it's just because I have Space Sleep Disorder.
: ...?
: Sorry. Was confused for a second. What happened? Did he hurt you?
:
: You didn't--
: No. He didn't.
: You started crying a lot too, and telling him he was being cruel, and got between us, and he stabbed you.
: Then I got him to leave.



"Got him to leave." This lady loves to breach your hull and call it a window.



: I've got a few memories.
: Very loud wet crack and several crunches and a lot of screaming.
: She broke his nose and several of his joints.
: Looking at some of these...
: I think she might have even winged there at the end?
: Why.
: Well, he didn't do what you did. Every target's valid in the state she gets in.
: Besides us, that one time.
: Stupid plan, but we made contact.
: The loop will reset the mistakes, I guess.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:25 No. 1124391 ID: a4a832
File 177527674079.gif - (21.14KB , 650x450 , 334.gif )

: Guessing stabilized me, and brought me here.
: I brought you here. Actually.
: I wanted to thank you.
: So.
:
: Thanks. Even if it didn't work.
: Nothing ever... works...
: Well, it's what you asked me to do (I just want to help).
: I didn't tell you to do that.
: But it was--
: Whatever. Why were you there? You people especially never help--
: I know. We don't. I wish we did.



She's calmer now than you've seen on these loops. Or most times you've seen her before them. But focus, kid, you did what you did for a reason. Now try on that new half-honesty of yours and see what you can do for a decent questioning.



: I came to you to ask about your time with the cult (the Bloodletters). With .
: I need to know more about how she died. Or if she lived strangely (more than most Bloodletters).
: We think someone might be doing something horrible based on it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:26 No. 1124392 ID: a4a832
File 177527679679.gif - (21.48KB , 650x450 , 335.gif )

She swaps her hands out for fists and laces them on tight, but the lady only has so much gas in the tank.



: You too? Blaming me?
: No! God, no, I'm not trying to say you're doing anything--
: Don't think I got my fill of messing everything up, so I wanted to try again?
: I just want to hear what happened from you. I just want your side.
: Yeah? What'd they already tell you?
: You were 's "left hand", up until stopped the cult and killed her.
: I'm trying to get a full picture. Someone wants something to do with 's body.
: Her corpse, in the morgue, someone's doing something. Do you know why someone would mess with that?
: And why do you think I know?
: I've been gathering information about how she lived, but... I guess I needed to know how she died.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:30 No. 1124393 ID: a4a832
File 177527699827.gif - (27.06KB , 650x450 , 336.gif )

Her gloves creak. It's not enough to get the engine started, just enough to sputter.



: Because she's scared? Ashamed? How does she think I feel...!
: Having to live with the people who weren't half as devoted as I was,
: still blaming me,
: Hold--
: and hating me,
: and hurting me,
: --just--
: and you don't even hear the story of why before you jump in and--!
: Please, slow down! I'm sorry. Just... slow down a second. What happened?
: wasn't the one who killed .



: She was beautiful. Did you know that? Back then she was gorgeous even after every stupid little fight with your "volunteer security". And she would always, she, she would always take you aside and tell you personal things, ask for specific favors only you, ghhh, only you were the one who could do it for her.
: She used to ask me to help her with the memory problems, keep her up to date. Track her plans. Keep everyone together. She'd, she would, she'd always say to me, "Mia kara Ĉiam-fideluo, you've got so much on your plate but could I trouble you for something only you can do?"
: And she'd smile, and the warmth would come out of her like a fireplace, and you'd feel like everything was going to be okay. And she always knew the thing you could do, only you, and you were so [i]amazing for doing it. She was always, always, she was awestruck when you did it, even.
: She made everyone feel so amazing. Do you understand what that's like? For someone to make you feel like you're so, so special and unique and you're the only one who can do something important? Like you're some treasure that she, like you're some important delicate thing she was so, so wonderfully big enough to protect?
: ...
: Because she protected us. I could swear she would bleed and fight and take anything, and a day later she was fine! She did everything to keep us safe! We gave her our names and she never hurt us!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:31 No. 1124394 ID: a4a832
File 177527709837.gif - (45.30KB , 650x450 , 337.gif )

: And one day, your boss, she, I don't know. I don't know!
: beats her in a fight so bad. She still looked, she looked untouched but, that fight--
: It went so bad that she asked...



: Mia kara Ĉiam-fideluo, I've asked so much from you, and I promise this will be the last favor for a long time.
: This... This whole game, it won't budge. Ne povas moviĝi, not like this, karulo.
: Just won't budge, if we approach it all like this.
: There's a way, though. To make them truly know we aren't a threat, to make them calm, peti pacon de la polico.
: I can guarantee my dear friends are spared, and they'll never think devotion to me will spur anyone to act.
: And I just have to give up a modest sacrifice to do it for everyone. Like any winning strategy for a game like this!
: Estus nur juste, ĉu ne?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:32 No. 1124395 ID: a4a832
File 177527715477.gif - (23.87KB , 650x450 , 338.gif )

: If the problem that I am, for them, is solved enough, their hearts will calm.
: I need only step into that "beyond" in a very clear way. A very specific way.
: One that none of you can follow me to, and which I need your help to approach.
: I'll give you the exact instructions to win this. A simple protocol, loaded on the operating computer.
: The procedure will even be painless.
: It won't make sense. But I promise this is how we will win the game.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:33 No. 1124397 ID: a4a832
File 177527720853.gif - (1.72KB , 650x450 , 339.gif )

: Mi petas ke vi senkapigi min, Ĉiam-fideluo.



: "Sen", without...
: "Kapo", head...
: "Igi", to make...
: "I ask that you behead me"...?
: That can't... She's the one who took 's head?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:33 No. 1124398 ID: a4a832
File 177527723194.gif - (10.08KB , 650x450 , 340.gif )

: No... No, no, no, god no, this can't be...!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:34 No. 1124399 ID: a4a832
File 177527729140.gif - (17.52KB , 650x450 , 341.gif )

: This can't be how we take the edge off.
: Well, you're the one who didn't want a smoke.
: What? Augh, left the mic on--
: "I meant--"



: I meant-- I never did anything like this to gather my thoughts.
: I just got enough of the clues and the case all came together naturally.
: Yeah, and that's not working now. So you do something to take the edge off.
: Food's a decent way. One of these is like painkillers for the brain.
: I shouldn't have one of these. It's unhealthy.
: No, kid, you shouldn't have lots of these. Times get bad, you have one.
: One smoke, one gut-smasher, one shot of morphine, you get through the worst of things.
: Real good cook might as well be a psychiatrist, same as a real good bartender's a therapist.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:36 No. 1124400 ID: a4a832
File 177527740484.gif - (19.08KB , 650x450 , 342.gif )

: 's Querying thing might help me focus some.
: Do you mind if I just... talk to myself for a minute here? To get my thoughts straight?
: Anyone looking at you probably thinks you are. Yammering at ghosts.
: (Still think "ghost" is jumping to conclusions (but, point taken).)
: That's whatever, I mean these last couple of loops were basically all washes anyway.
: If you want me to do weird stuff to gather my thoughts, I'm gonna do some of my weird stuff too.
: Whatever it takes to break the case.
: Alright, good, so just... give me a moment to straighten things out.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:37 No. 1124401 ID: a4a832
File 177527742905.gif - (20.76KB , 650x450 , 343.gif )

: So. What's our main goal here?
: Find the current location, at a given time within the loop, of 's body.
: In however many pieces it might be in. However alive it might be.
: Best way to do that is build a timeline. Derive the current fact from the past pattern.
: I have the pieces of a timeline. A very complete one, actually.
: I can get that lined up. Let's try to order what I know.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:38 No. 1124402 ID: a4a832
File 177527749902.gif - (22.63KB , 650x450 , 344.gif )

: First, we know makes contact with the Syndicate and becomes affiliated.
: Remember, we can't make assumptions. This could happen at any point and with any faction.
: Could have been the Bloodletters. But, could have been the Hiveists instead.
: We know she had backing but not necessarily the same backing as her activities.
: Sometime after that, she founds the local Bloodletter sect.
: Historically-speaking, most cults use a mix of charismatic fundamentalism, but she uses "Endism".
: It's a distinct type of cult appeal, rooted in--
: Good to know your history kid, but you're not back in that "encyclopedia-mystery" business yet.
: Right, I need to stay on track. Endism isn't in our timeline relevance.



Don't know how her Endism got groundswell, Average hostile cult popping up, they just say the big strongman boss heard the voice of Space Jesus telling him that you've gotta let him spend time with your wife for God's plan, and don't ask too many questions about the miraculous baby. But Syndicate cults, Bloodletters, those types are always a different breed, no matter the sect. Never understood that Endism stuff myself, lot of angry yelling about a "broken promise" and a "Great End to the Work and the Weak".

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:39 No. 1124403 ID: a4a832
File 177527756924.gif - (25.48KB , 650x450 , 345.gif )

: Her membership gets recruited.
: At some point, , , and are all members. They each have responsibilities for her.
: creates ritual sites, we have a map and timeline for those activities.
: isn't a main player, but at a certain point he gets tapped to make "liquid stasis". Is that relevant?
: Your gut says it's a key part, keep it involved.
: Right.



: handles organization. She accounts for 's brief but apparently intense memory issues, she does personal organization, she's the second lieutenant.
: At that point she's not making it all run, but it would fall apart without her.
: Broke my arm and my nose once, when we were trying to shut down a ritual.
: Yes. She is an essential, ruthless part of the later combat.
: She also handles surgeries performed on herself.
: With the data disk she let us see, only a few procedures were exclusive to .
: That was a "channel weave" on her skull. Based on that, I think it was something to do with her metacommunication?



: And obviously, that...
: The decapitation, near the end.
: Not near enough, looks like.
: Mm.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:40 No. 1124404 ID: a4a832
File 177527762902.gif - (25.28KB , 650x450 , 346.gif )

: Right. At some point in the conflict, it heats up enough that she decides to... "enter the beyond".
: Mmph-- this burger is terrible, but I do feel a lot better.
: Anyway, it didn't sound like the despair of hopelessness.
: She was delusional--
: --I say, talking to myself and someone who says he's a ghost--
: --Or, she had a plan to leverage Hiveist bioengineering or something like that.



: It's mental exercises, not gonna call you a nut over keeping your head on straight in a way that looks funny.
: But you're right. That was planned.
: Shouldn't say she's a nut either. Maybe she's being unconventional, like you.
: I looked over the procedure, though. Nothing there helps keep the brain or body alive...
: It definitely kills her on separation. Unquestionably.
: We must know that as fact. She died there, on that operating table.
: Why would she do that? What does that achieve?
: Maybe she had Hiveist mutation before she got here.
: So, her head, once it was brought back to her body, would mean she was alive again?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:41 No. 1124405 ID: a4a832
File 177527769019.gif - (25.04KB , 650x450 , 347.gif )

: Her head was placed by into a tank, full of liquid stasis made by .
: The tank was derived from braincases used for station intelligences.
: This could slow every possible process imaginable, utterly prevent decay.
: Because it prevents doing anything. Including, I don't know, growing little legs and leaving, going back to her body. Hiveists do that, right?
: At least in some reports and stories. Her mind probably wasn't moved into her body either, because would have found anomalies in the recovered part of the body.
: Anomalies besides the apparent regular regeneration with no chemical sustainance.
: But... how does that explain the situation with the decapitation?
: Right. The head chamber that had was still hidden, and still sealed.
: And 's head was missing from it. How did someone get it out without breaking the seal...?



: And even if taking her head out and bringing it back to her body would bring her back to life, she'd be right back where she started anyway.
: Still in the horrible position she maneuvered to avoid.
: If she wanted to come back now, this is a really bad time to do it.
: Maybe there's a way forward for her that we don't see?
: No. A Bloodletter ritual is part of what ends the loop, killing the station and its inhabitants.
: Right. So whatever her plan was... it hasn't reached the next step. Or it's disrupted.
: Her plans would give us an idea of where she goes in the loop. But I can't estimate her plans without knowing what she had!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:42 No. 1124406 ID: a4a832
File 177527774866.gif - (23.00KB , 650x450 , 348.gif )

: ...I just don't see how it adds up. How could a Hiveist or a Bloodletter do this?
: Bioengineering would explain the healing, but it can't get around the stasis... "blood magic" couldn't make her whole and living again, even if it bypassed the stasis.
: And neither case is one where she would act now.
: Were any of my testimonies just... lies, maybe?
: Mmm. No. Gave them a hard look, all testimonies honest. My gut's never been wrong once in all my life.
: They might sincerely believe something's true that isn't. Confabulate things, or have been lied to.
: Good thinking. Keep it in mind.
: Anything that's not solid verifiables might throw you off.
: Never know when my gut's gonna be wrong for the first time. It's phantom stuff now anyway.



: ...Well my gut says I have all the clues I need. The three testimonies, and all the evidence I gathered before.
: And if I have these, I have enough to get the solution.
: So why doesn't it add up? What am I missing?
: There's an assumption here that's locking me out, or a clue I've overlooked somewhere.
: Something to close the circuit...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:43 No. 1124408 ID: a4a832
File 177527782770.gif - (29.54KB , 650x450 , 349.gif )

: I almost have it. It's right here. It's right here.
: How does it happen? How does it happen?
: She dies. She dies on the operating table, she's rendered unrecoverable, preserved for a plan.
: Might not--
: Shh. Just a second. Don't... answer until I ask my question.



I quiet down. I know that look. When you're compressing it all in your head. Trying to make the weak link break.



: She dies. We know that. Is it possible for her to come back to life?
: No. Can't have come back to life. Doesn't make sense.
: Right. A separated head, a body that couldn't have Hiveist mods like that.
: Is it possible that she couldn't have kicked her way out and started another ritual?
: No. Someone in that morgue tray kicked their way out, and they had all the same crud on her that she had the whole time.
: So she woke up on the morgue tray, broke out, and started doing what she does. That's a fact, even though it was impossible.
: Have we ever seen something like that?
: Nope. Never seen any Syndie pull something like that.
: It's impossible for it to have happened after she--

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:44 No. 1124409 ID: a4a832
File 177527786844.gif - (17.60KB , 650x450 , 350.gif )

:
:
: No. No.



That's the ticket. Bought, paid, and punched.



: Kid?
: I know where 's body is.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:45 No. 1124410 ID: a4a832
File 177527791021.gif - (13.09KB , 650x450 , 351.gif )

You book it. Fast. Silent. I holler to slow down for me, like I won't just wind up where you are anyway. Sprinting, like the truth you just found's gonna duck aside somewhere, lose the tail it just picked up. But you're following it. Hot on the heels.

To medbay. Case isn't closed until you give it to the client, huh?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:46 No. 1124412 ID: a4a832
File 177527800499.gif - (18.75KB , 650x450 , 353.gif )

: IT WAS TWO SHIFTS!!
: Augh!! What?!
: They sent her back after two shifts!!
: I figured it out! I know where she is!!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:49 No. 1124414 ID: a4a832
File 177527814468.gif - (22.87KB , 650x450 , 354.gif )

: For the longest time, I just, we all just overlooked it.
: Why wait two shifts, take her away, return her after two shifts? Probably doesn't matter!
: Why assign it to whoever got stuck replacing her, back at her station? They're just weird!
: Isn't that just the Company being the Company? Who knows why they do anything!
: Big corporation, decisions by committee, nobody knows why!
: Right, they're... not always rational.
: You're saying they did it for a reason? Why?



: Got that one...
: They did send the corpse (the one that was acting suspiciously) to central command, for study?
: (Like they should if it has Hiveist augmentation?)
: Sure did. Shipped right to Centcom, about two shifts after the cult got put down.
: Sent it right back here from Centcom two shifts later, records say.



: Because something got found out about her!
: Something that only happens in the gap between shifts.
: They put her body in the morgue. Something happens in the off-shift. Then they use the next shift to send her to Central.
: Right. They found the anomaly, the regeneration.
: They study her at Central. Something different happens again in the off-shift, they use the next shift to send her back.
: ...?
: We know her anomaly was working here. It's what they wanted to study.
: So her anomaly must have stopped working at Central!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:51 No. 1124415 ID: a4a832
File 177527829499.gif - (21.72KB , 650x450 , 355.gif )

: Her body doesn't self-preserve off-station?
: But, but, then, back on the station, it goes right back to self-preserving.
: That's why she's here, that's why you have to be the one to study her, because--
: Because it's the only place she can be studied! And she knew that!
: She knew she'd be studied and she knew her body would be kept here!
: And that she could take advantage of an anomaly that exists here, only here, on this one station!
: And it's been right in front of me the entire time!



: So she died like that and got studied like this on purpose.
: She had a plan! Maybe in a hundred more shifts, maybe in a dozen years, she'd pop back up at a perfect time.
: I don't know! A rigged seal, a specific formulation of stasis! Could be anything.
: It doesn't even matter now, because her plan got messed up! She set something in motion that she couldn't have predicted.
: I'm going to tell you exactly what happened. Exactly who and what moved that corpse out of that morgue.
: Exactly as experienced by the one Bloodletter witness whose testimony I haven't gotten.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:54 No. 1124416 ID: a4a832
File 177527846539.gif - (25.73KB , 650x450 , 356.gif )

The station thought her anomaly had to be Bloodletter magic, her cult thought it was personal virtue and blessings, the Company thought they were clever enough to figure out it was Hiveist biology. What was the anomaly? We don't have the evidence yet to say. It's a key-shaped gap (and we all know how much those obstruct forward motion). But I've figured out at least one core part of it, (we'll get to that in a minute). I know now, without a doubt, that it means the world to me.

And I know it meant the world to the Company, because that's how he bargained his way off the station, later. How else would he just vanish, just leave, besides a high-value, unique thing to wipe his debt out in an instant? He's got to be the one that found it, the "anomaly" you were having to study. A staff assistant leaving the station meant an ultra-high-value item was in play, and in his hands, or at least his knowledge.

We don't need to know what it was. We only need to know all of the details of its effect.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:56 No. 1124417 ID: a4a832
File 177527856228.gif - (24.64KB , 650x450 , 357.gif )

Because when he found it, he was 's right hand. The first one he would have given it to, at the time, was her. He shared it with her. And the minute he did, her "memory problems" started. Her need for an organizer, her need for someone to plan everything out. to keep her names and intentions in mind, to keep her planned and built ritual sites.

: gave us that list.

As if memory was the issue! When she "forgot" the planned rituals, the current state of the Bloodletter sect, she might as well have been right! It was factual! It was true, for her, true and real for just for the matter in her body alone. Her body, it was reverting! Reverting at the end of every shift, the start of the new one, to that beautiful, healthy, happy moment when he shared it with her. "Always so beautiful", when there's barely a minute to take care of yourself? "Well-fed" after a year of decay? It was like pulling up an old version of a file!

: Here, and here.

And that state-change, that re-instancing, it included her memory! It wasn't able to just reset her blood and her bones, it was resetting the connections and configurations of her neurons!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:57 No. 1124418 ID: a4a832
File 177527867627.gif - (15.72KB , 650x450 , 385.gif )

And that was where the universal stasis comes in. "Channel weave" on her skull, I thought that meant something for prohibited metacommunication! But it also means the bed of something fluid moves through! She softened the anomaly up in her head, tested it by embedding the liquid in her body, in her skull. With one person to know her secret, she could research it across loops, orchestrate something to keep her memories. It only took a chemical miracle that I mistook for the anomaly itself. None of us realized, it was what was limiting the anomaly!

: The channel weave, and the universal stasis...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)04:59 No. 1124419 ID: a4a832
File 177527878114.gif - (12.42KB , 650x450 , 386.gif )

It makes her practically immune to harm. Not obviously. Not clearly. The cult is enough of a problem that she can fly under the radar if she stays in the back row when fists are swinging. She could be a little hurt, she can get treated like normal, but she'll never die, she's a perpetual pillar.

And that doesn't stop .

: Some of her cultists eventually thought blasted her head off. But either she didn't, or she only beat her hard in a fight.

A powerhouse like her can still stall out. Her people are running themselves ragged to keep a Bloodletter sect alive, with a dozen tries at rituals that don't go anywhere when fights break out with security. And, if the Company finds out what she's doing, they'll tear every one of them apart to get at her secret. Her people, the ones she cares about. Because she sincerely cares for them. So she has to throw them off, the Company, the DVSD, everyone. She has to stop what she set in motion. But she can't. She can't make her sect abandon the truth. She's just iterating over and over.

Just because she remembers her iteration doesn't mean she can change it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:00 No. 1124420 ID: a4a832
File 177527885062.gif - (17.85KB , 650x450 , 360.gif )

She has her most loyal, most bloodied left hand undo what the right hand did. Store the outcome in a sealed container, the kind you'd use for a station intelligence, fill it up with universal stasis, hide it somewhere. The neck down? As far as the Company's concerned, it's trash from the cult. Process like any corpse.

Next shift, the anomaly works the sequence. Rewind the injection of toxic embalming fluids, then flash-back to state.

: The regular toxin purge we noted, indicating regeneration.

Fresh blood, fresh body, ready to live. Just one problem: the head is missing, the universal stasis stops the "re-load". Instantly, the body dies again. Cleanup crew realizes something's happening, the next shift, and they send it to Central. Then the study crew at Central realizes it isn't happening on the offshift anymore, it's not working anymore, and Central Command sends her back. Two shifts each!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:02 No. 1124421 ID: a4a832
File 177527892816.gif - (111.52KB , 650x450 , 361.gif )

And my fourth witness? The one who could have broken the case wide open? The one who had all the key knowledge, the missing piece I have to reconstruct the silhouette of from pieces and traces? He exits the frame of reference! The minute the Company checks enough video records, he trades his secret and clears his debt.

: The Company can review all camera records on-station, but we can't, so they know who to target for the source of the revival anomaly, once it's known.

Can I even blame him? Would literally any of us not do that? Did he have any reason not to? Maybe he lost faith, maybe he never had it. Maybe told him to do it! But now he's gone. And the case, the case would be unsolvable.

Which is why what happened next was so stupid!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:03 No. 1124422 ID: a4a832
File 177527900231.gif - (77.10KB , 650x450 , 362.gif )

One day, after you've settled in, they give you a job: Study the body. Figure out the mystery. Bring them a useful truth, something they can-- I don't know. Farm, for spare organs? But they don't tell you nearly enough. Do they? Otherwise you'd catch on. Some tiny chance you'd fulfill her plan, bring her back all the way in some advantage state. And you can't even tell ! No, they'd rather just make you work in circles forever, alone, with incomplete data. Figure out the truth for them, but never hold it in your own hands, right?

: They kept the body's properties discovered off-station a trade secret. And her body was still fresh after a year.

I know what would say about this. Truth is, yeah, truth is just something they think you can manufacture in the Back on an assembly line, and hand up to the Front pristine, untouched! Canned and boiled and preserved and sanctified, not a trace of blood left!

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:05 No. 1124423 ID: a4a832
File 177527911510.gif - (35.32KB , 650x450 , 363.gif )

Now you're the one in the loop. Autopsy the same corpse, the same way, every day, over and over and over and over and over! Again, again, again, cut her open and find nothing worth the effort. But you have to because it's your job, even though the medbay's understaffed and anyone sane in your position would rather focus on helping the crew!

This next part, it's conjecture. Close to guessing. No detective that's good at their job would do this. But someone who cares about you would. Someone who cares about you would know what someone does when they're stuck in that!

Because now we have to answer the unspoken question: Why is there someone solving the mystery at all?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:06 No. 1124424 ID: a4a832
File 177527919164.gif - (22.71KB , 650x450 , 364.gif )

At some point, you do the only thing that explains why you'd call in someone to investigate. Because if you believed the anomaly came from Hiveist bioengineering, you'd have just believed she grew a new head and walked out on her own. But you couldn't tell me why you didn't. You said to me: A Hiveist explanation will "match up with most of the data Central Command's got."

That stuck with me. It's still stuck with me.

This morgue is next door to the chapel. There's funerary facilities in a chapel.

: There's a simple one-door passage for privacy of the relevant rites.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:07 No. 1124426 ID: a4a832
File 177527926477.gif - (15.51KB , 650x450 , 365.gif )

You stop me where I go wrong, if I do. We're deep in guessing and estimates.

Someone so focused but so frustrated, you'd rather take on more debt than spend another day on this horrible little problem going nowhere fast. At least you'd have the time to focus on living people who need medical aid. Even if it meant you never leave this station, you'd rather just do something, anything that helps people instead of this, every single day.

There's options to easily get rid of a body there in the chapel. But if my theory is right, if the patterns I saw in the way this all works are correct... The method you tried and failed to break the repetition with, the method that made a strong argument it wasn't "unholy cult blood magic", the method that accidentally proved beyond a doubt that it wasn't bioengineering in a way that the Company wouldn't have risked...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:08 No. 1124427 ID: a4a832
File 177527929801.gif - (11.29KB , 650x450 , 366.gif )

You already tried cremating her. Ages and ages ago.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:09 No. 1124428 ID: a4a832
File 177527934409.gif - (15.67KB , 650x450 , 367.gif )

And the next day, there she was. Like you hadn't done anything at all. You tried to smash the cycle apart, and all you saw was how little it seemed like that mattered.

You could have just believed the Hiveist hypothesis. Why else would you want a detective involved at all? Why would you be looking this deep for answers? Why, if you hadn't seen it first-hand, that awful "beautiful" thing restored from nothing but ash by the start of the next shift?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124430 ID: a4a832
File 177527946020.gif - (22.02KB , 650x450 , 368.gif )

: ...I...
: Hhh... I just-- I didn't mean to--
: I'm conjecturing. I'm guessing. Okay? That's all I did.
: Don't under any circumstances even start confessing anything that could even remotely be prosecuted as 'destruction of Company property' if the Company suddenly starts caring about things for some reason.
: I don't want anything to happen to you. To anyone. Nobody deserves to be punished for all this.



: That-- but--
: But even if that happened-- Even-- Even assuming that could have happened.
: There's still-- you-- there's a huge--
: Calm. Deep breaths. You're not at risk and there's plenty of time left to speak.
:
:
: ...There's still a huge problem with this explanation.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:11 No. 1124431 ID: a4a832
File 177527950217.gif - (20.78KB , 650x450 , 369.gif )

: They wrote mystery books about you, didn't they?
: You're talking about the 'silhouette' of something.
: Something-shaped-gap in the story that you're solving for, backwards.
: This is the equivalent of, I don't know, introducing a magical cursed orb that does precisely everything you need to call the mystery solved.
: Not exactly.
: You said yourself, this is conjecture.
: I said my theories about what you did were guesses. I didn't say that this anomaly isn't something more than conjecture.
: What? We've never seen anything like that theory before. 'Restoring from state'.



: You have.
: What?
: You have.
: You've seen it nine times.
: You just don't remember.



: Are you sure?
: Beyond a doubt.
...Here.



: Any second now, you're going to get the call.
: The one about .

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124432 ID: a4a832
File 177527952814.gif - (31.86KB , 650x450 , 370.gif )

: ...
: Her remote medical monitor says it's really bad.
: Not as bad as it gets in a second.
: It's signs of combat, probably against someone with exotic contraband.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:12 No. 1124433 ID: a4a832
File 177527955994.gif - (20.98KB , 650x450 , 371.gif )

: This sucks, boss.
: It's the only way we make a convincing case.
: Fine.



: By the time you're done relaying it to , she's getting into critical condition.
: He asks for the wound types. Then, whatever he's doing, he drops and runs.
: He'll get there fast and gets back fast. She'll be here soon.
: is the only other staffer on-hand. You have her prep the OR and the medical cryonics.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124434 ID: a4a832
File 177527958619.gif - (22.46KB , 650x450 , 372.gif )

: , alert on the monitor. .
: ...
: Heavy bruises or cuts, some burn, some toxic.
: Some uncategorized, likely exotics. Combat situation.
: Rising O2-loss, now. Probably critical condition.
: ...
: Understood.
: , prep OR and the cryo intensives.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:13 No. 1124435 ID: a4a832
File 177527963961.gif - (21.24KB , 650x450 , 373.gif )

: I don't like doing this.



: He'll get her here, but she won't be stable.
: You'll have to treat her immediately. Straight to the OR, top priority.
: This can't be real. You're--
: But something happens after she gets to your table.
: You're guessing, or trying to--
: Every loop you do your best to save her, but--
: Stop. Stop.



: Heart racing. Breathing Heavy.
: He's driven enough that he won't accept that part.
: We shouldn't hurt him.
: ...He needs to know the next part, or he won't believe this.
: He knows what you're implying and why you're here.



: Okay. I'm sorry.
: I'll let you focus for this next part.
:
: Do you want me to wait out here, or outside the OR?
: ...Come into medbay. And wait outside the OR.
: We'll finish your explanation there.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:16 No. 1124438 ID: a4a832
File 177527976665.gif - (20.08KB , 650x450 , 376.gif )

: So, she's alive again.
: Yeah. Reloaded from the saved state
: You know how House Mortil are, so I guess she was "actually never dead", otherwise they'd...
: I get it. Couple details I didn't exactly follow.
: Where is she now?
: You know the map we got, of the sites, from ?
: Mm.
: For her, the subjectively latest site made. For us, the one made right before her "memory problems" start, the one she used after.
: Since that's the one she planned to use at the time.
: That one's over near R&D maintenance.
: Right. She'll be finishing it up there soon.



: What re-started her looping?
: I think whatever is looping everything now just... overloaded the universal stasis. Restored her loop.
: More weight to hit her looping with, zipped her head out the case. Alright.
: What about how she got out of the morgue tray?
: Right. I was wondering about that too (it didn't look like she kicked it open).
: That's why I asked if had cremated her, as opposed to burial-at-sea out the chapel mass driver.
: I think the way it works is, it moves obstructions to the matter, then averages the position.
: So, just, it flashed all the embalming fluid out of her way harder than normal.
: Then it, uh, I guess her body's averaged position intersected the door, so it...
: Got smashed open to make room for her. Makes sense.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:19 No. 1124439 ID: a4a832
File 177527994077.gif - (19.94KB , 650x450 , 377.gif )

🔊: Ansibite crystal delamination imminent !
🔊: Begins in thirty seconds !
🔊: Twenty-nine !
🔊: Twenty-eight !

: It's the usual.
: We'll brace like we always do.
: I really hate this part.
: It will do nothing good for the treatment. Or for its patient.

🔊: Twen--

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:20 No. 1124441 ID: a4a832
File 177528004447.gif - (279.74KB , 650x450 , 379.gif )

: Attention crew. There's been a major breach in engineering. Don't enter the area under any circumstances. Administration has elevated the station to blue alert.
: All the SMES-type relay power cells...



: He's done with the operation.
: And now she's...
: Close the case, kid.
: I know.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:22 No. 1124442 ID: a4a832
File 177528012519.gif - (58.89KB , 650x450 , 381.gif )

That sound again. That horrible ripping noise. Fabric tearing.



: Additional compounded crisis event... An illegal imaginary space incursion is in progress...
: You remember the rest.



: 's gone again.
: ...
: She's gone. Like you were saying.
: What happened?
: She's so strong, she should have lived through that easily.
: But she just... gave up.
: Like she succumbed to her wounds deliberately.

: I know where she is. . She's at the subjectively-most-recent site. R&D Maintenance.
: But that doesn't matter now.
: I've lived through work shift B-4381 ten times now.
: And I've failed to solve it every single time.
: You're better, though. You don't lose patients. Except right at the end of this...
: Time loop.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:23 No. 1124443 ID: a4a832
File 177528019250.gif - (23.21KB , 650x450 , 382.gif )

His teeth grit behind the surgeon's mask, and another kind of grit forms behind another kind of surgeon's mask. There's a treatment plan taking the wheel. No time in an emergency room for a doctor's despair. Station hits red alert, and so does this man.

: I've lost a patient before.
: What? I thought your record--
: No. A perfect record is an amateur's record.
: When I was a beginner, better doctors saved my patients at followups.
: And I'm here, on this station, in your "loop", because a patient of mine died.
: A fresh amateur who's solved one hundred percent of ten problems is nothing.
: Depend on an expert who's solved most of a thousand problems.
: Where are you going with this?



: We're looping. The whole station.
: Yeah. I'm trying to stop it, but...
: I'll help you. And you'll make sure lives.
: But you're not going to remember this. Nobody ever remembers it (besides and he can't help much).
: You're right. I won't.
: There's a way around that.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124444 ID: a4a832
File 177528025323.gif - (22.89KB , 650x450 , 383.gif )

: There's something you'd only know, if you were looping time like this.
: And if I trust you. Because you solved my case.
: So it's something I can use something as a sort of password?
: Yeah. Find me next loop.



: When you do, tell me you want "'s old version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, with the--"
: Are you getting this? Are you remembering it? We don't have much time.
: Huh? But how do I--
: Repeat back to me. "Psychoparadigm reader v1.21 with cerebral VV and remote C-Key link, kept in my kit."
: But--
: You have to remember it. Don't mess around.
: I'll remember! Psychoparadigm reader 1.21, VV-op, C-key link, but--
: How will you know to trust me?
: Because you'll know...

He doesn't know I'm listening. If he knew a man like me was even thinking about being near, guarantee he wouldn't break Mitadake Protocol like he does now. When they take the collateral, they take it everywhere, to stop a man like me from doing what a man like me does. He'd be right to prefer dying to trusting.

Sometimes you're better off dead. Guess I'm your best show of that being true.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:24 No. 1124445 ID: a4a832
File 177528028361.gif - (19.57KB , 650x450 , 384.gif )

: You'll know my debt collateral. Only thing nobody else knows now.
: ...!

He takes the last full breath he'll get before the Tressels kick in. And a man like that, he uses it to endure. He tells you something important, kid. So listen close.

: My name is...

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:32 No. 1124450 ID: a4a832
File 177528063176.gif - (1.52MB , 650x450 , 385 (1).gif )

He gives you his real name.

Case closed.

Now, let's go remember it the right way.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:33 No. 1124451 ID: a4a832
File 177528079133.gif - (255.40KB , 650x450 , 386 (1).gif )

: Good morning, Debtors.
: The current time is zero degrees LLO, marking the beginning of work shift B-4381.
: The station's status is currently at green alert, on-track to meet quotas.
: You're now allowed to begin payable labor, and you need to be at your workstations, if applicable.
: As always, remember: All wireless personal medical monitors must be worn and fully active.

You hit your feet again. Somehow, coming out of that dark, into this rain-drenched sunrise, you've got a fire in you this time. The kind a man like me doesn't expect on a day like this, no matter how many times we go around it.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:35 No. 1124452 ID: a4a832
File 177528091267.gif - (22.57KB , 650x450 , 387.gif )

: Finally!
: Huh? Kid, you got so heavy there, I--
: No. No! I didn't get heavy, I got traction!
: There was forward movement! I got a grip!
: A case made sense! With a denouement, and everything!

"Like the good old days!" I can hear your heart say. It's what we settle for, when we get this age. When we become adults. But I can't help agreeing a little. You were back in your element.

: One handhold is infinitely better than nothing.
: How's that?
: One person affected the loop phenomenon before.
: Another person made plans to, now (and they just might work).
: Mmm... You know, I can imagine it.
: Just gotta see it instead.
: Let's see the doc.

>>1124446
>>1124447
>>1124448
>>1124450
You okay okay okay okay there kidddd?

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:36 No. 1124454 ID: a4a832
File 177528098779.gif - (32.31KB , 650x450 , 388.gif )

>: Commune. Where do we go from here?

: While we're on the way there, let's figure out where we go after that.
: , bring up our motivators.
: You mean, which case next?
: I guess we should carry our momentum, yeah.
: One of four down.
: Right you are, chief. But, three more to get through.
: We'll head to the next one after we see .



: I am satisfied. 's case has given me what I want to know.
: I think we should look into 's thefts. Especially now that we know physical things might be in play for the loop.
: Remember, boss, we were partway through 's traitor case. We should get back to that before we let it get cold.
: I feel like 's quota situation might be better. It's a failure-to-achieve, which is easier, and we might get the anomaly studied.

You've got a lot on your mind. Problem's not going anywhere fast, kid, think it out while you head over to the doc.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:37 No. 1124455 ID: a4a832
File 177528105066.gif - (30.19KB , 650x450 , 389.gif )

>: Cola. Or water.

It's like a whole crowd of your impulses all kicked in again, all at once. Been a while since I saw you hydrate, even with some of the sugary crap. Only people with hope have the kind of sense to take good care of themselves on impulse. The rest need someone else to push them. You do too.

But just for a minute, you don't need that right now.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:38 No. 1124456 ID: a4a832
File 177528108411.gif - (236.89KB , 650x450 , 390.gif )

>: With a pep-to-your-step, go see and crack this baby wide open.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:39 No. 1124457 ID: a4a832
File 177528116666.gif - (21.63KB , 650x450 , 391.gif )

>: Get ready to info blast .

What's your approach now, detective? Whole monologue again?

: Ready?
: I've shortened up the memory-prompts as much as I can.
: Should make sure we're re-aligned quick.

: ! Hey.
: Detective. Are you here about the body?
: Yeah. She restores-from-state rather than using magic or bioengineering.
: She--
: Her body was doing it already, but the anomaly started accessing her head again.
: That--
: got up normally with a wiped memory and left the morgue, she's in R&D maintenance now.
: How--?! That explains-- Wait, that explains everything, how her body came back after--!!
: Hold on! Hold on, there's something else about that we need to talk about.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:40 No. 1124458 ID: a4a832
File 177528122437.gif - (21.46KB , 650x450 , 392.gif )

: Very complicated request to follow-up on the case--
: Hm.
: --But quick, won't block medbay work for more than a few minutes.
: Alright.
: I need 's version 1.21 Company psychoparadigm reader, I need the "C-key" functions? Or the "vee-vee" functions?
: That's, uh, no, that's not here. And it's restricted.
: Ah, really, it's fine, you said to ask for it, you said it's in your kit.
: You don't remember telling me to ask, and you knew you wouldn't remember it (for some complicated reasons).
: So you gave me proof.

Smart. Don't get into the weeds. "Time loop" is complicated. "You don't remember" is a good bare minimum.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:41 No. 1124459 ID: a4a832
File 177528128135.gif - (21.55KB , 650x450 , 393.gif )

>: Become more awake than coffee could ever achieve.

: Uh. Wild story, detective. The proof is...?
: You gave me a way to know to trust me.
: Uh-huh?

You lean in and whisper a name.

: ...
: Come through, back here.

Curt 2026/04/04(Sat)05:42 No. 1124460 ID: a4a832
File 177528134040.gif - (233.92KB , 650x450 , 394.gif )

: Wait, so what is this thing?
: Well, Company handles loyalty rating through, they call it "Psychoparadigms".
: Brain-readings.
: Seen your file. Acute Space Sleep Disorder, from the big Dreamseeker crash. You remember using that, way back?
: Psychoparadigms, just a cut down version of the original Dreamseeker's out-of-cranium wireless metacommunication systems.
: This reader, they shipped some firmware that lets you into the old functions if you use it through cerebral keying.
: If you've got someone's real name, you get the extra functions. Understand?



: What kind of functions?
: You said this had something to do with memory.
: You remember something that I don't.
: Well, if I was thinking straight when I told you to get this and told you my goddamn name, then it was because I think whatever's messing up memories might not be able to mess up metaknowledge.
: Which means--
: Sharing memories?
: No.



: Or, yes. You're skipping ahead.
: Every brain encrypts memories differently. But when you're metacommunicating with someone, brain to brain, you both store new memories in both brains.
: So, reconnect, get the memories back for as long as you're connected. That's "metaknowledge". Get it?
: Sort of.



: "Sort of" is the best you're gonna get. I don't know the science.
: I can demonstrate, if you think I'm going to forget something again.
: You will.
: Then hook this into me now, and then again, next time.
: Do we have anyone who knows this technology in-depth?
: .
: I was already thinking of heading to see him.