ɑgɛɳt ɱѳɓiuร (jetskiing) wrote in noexits, @ 2022-06-11 12:55:00 |
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Entry tags: | !log/thread/narrative, marvel (tv/movies): sharon carter, ₴ inactive: mobius m. mobius 2, → week 038 (toon town '45) |
toon town '45 - day 4
Valiant & Valiant, upstanding fellows they were, had given some office space for the case Mobius and Sharon took on - it seemed to be an interesting case to both Eddie and Teddy too, both of them willing to go to bat for the toons that were so often treated as second-class citizens in this town. The whole vibe was just ‘men down on their luck, struggling to barely keep their heads above water, lured by treacherous femme fatales and oh yeah, murder.’ It was interesting and, thankfully, distracting - otherwise Mobius would just be constantly sitting by Loki’s bed and worrying, and even Loki wouldn’t want him to do that for the whole week. The lighting was dim, one bulb on this desk lamp which allowed for the shadows to come out and play, and the furniture was beaten up and had clearly seen better days - but it gave Mobius space to spread out his work, and Sharon’s work, and piece the puzzle together. He had a permanent furrowed brow and a lot of handwritten notes (there were various papers taped here and there, in an age prior to digitizing everything) and drawings, along with a cup or two of shitty coffee to keep him fueled. Seriously though. It was awful - burnt, black, bitter. Tasted like something that would be found at a funeral home, just that kind of depressing. And it turned gray when you added milk to it - yet he didn’t care. He was drinking it anyway. Maybe he enjoyed the pain of it all. They’d had a couple witnesses in to talk to them for a quick interview, and now Mobius was trying to organize the notes from that too. “I’m still thinking it couldn’t have been the jilted ex,” he was saying. “The actress was questionable - you know, the fake crier.” Lola Dark was her name and she just screamed ‘dramatic.’ (And trust him, he knew dramatics). Sharon had gotten up earlier today to go grab some wide-legged pants, and had swapped the skirt for something more Katherine Hepburn in look. It was more comfortable too - particularly because she was currently cross-legged on a wooden floor that had probably seen at least four decades of use. She'd kicked off the heels - lower than might have been typical for the period, she didn't really want them on her feet for the duration of the evening - and she reached for the coffee, regretting it almost as soon as she took a sip. "I spoke to the director and to the costume designer, and they both said they saw him during that time. It's not impossible that someone else could be involved, but it feels unlikely that he was the one who made the switch. His alibi is like 99% tight?" They both knew there was that one percent of possibility of course. But over the years, Sharon had been given the opportunity to interview dozens of suspects, and sometimes you knew there were things they were hiding. This guy, she hadn't got that feeling. Even though everyone was likely hiding something, he'd felt upfront about his frustrations with Dorothy Darling, while also genuinely seeming upset about her death. "There's the prop manager too. She would have had access to the space and was the person who was supposed to check it. Her official report says that water was put into the bucket, and that was prior to when Bert checked. She could easily have returned later, but if there's any motive there - I'm not seeing it." Sharon tapped her finger on the newspaper beside her. "Lola Dark is likely to inherit Dorothy's role - she certainly had a motive - but so far as we know she wasn't on set that day." “As far as we know,” Mobius repeated, frowning, and - well, he just had a feeling. After a millennia or two of learning to question someone, to properly interrogate them and polishing his skills of using his charm and affable nature to get someone to open up? Let’s just say that when he smelled something rotten he learned to trust that - and follow the scent someplace, because it almost always led him to the dark heart of the matter. He took another sip of coffee and shuddered and just, no, nope - he couldn’t do it anymore. The caffeine jolt would have to last him through this, and he’d find a rush of adrenaline elsewhere. Setting down the stack of papers he’d been sifting through, he moved to settle near Sharon on the floor - no qualms about the location, he just wanted to be closer. “If she knew exactly where the bucket was, and the ins and outs of the movie set like hidden entrances and exits, she wouldn’t have needed much time.” Sharon discarded her coffee, and turned to Mobius to brush a quick kiss on his lips instead of the caffeine - equally effective and definitely sweeter. And then she reached up to push hair back behind her ear. "Just because she wasn't scheduled to be on set doesn't mean that she couldn't have been either. I wonder if they have a check-in and out on the lot? Did we check into that? If she had to sign-in that might answer our question even though she wasn't scheduled, and even though no one - to our knowledge - saw her." She shifted and pulled out a manila file folder of notes and frowned as she looked through it. "I've got the call sheet for the day, but I don't have any information from security, unless you grabbed it? Of course, even if she did have to sign-in or out - if she knew someone in Security she might have gotten in without having to go through the gates." Mobius just was not familiar with the way movie sets worked - he felt as if he needed to ask Hugh to give him a rundown or something - but he managed to put together as much as possible, thanks to Bert’s help and also some good old-fashioned questioning about the operations, the ins and the outs. “Yeah, I think I’ve got some security info - Bert included it,” he said, stretching for a folder that had a bunch of papers stuffed inside. He was about to pass it off to Sharon but then leaned in and kissed her first, because payment. It wasn’t really payment, and she could have any of the research tools and information she wanted, but he was just being sassy - so sue him. He reached over and cupped the back of her head, stroking her hair as he kissed her again and then finally delivered the folder. “It’s all in here. But I’m gonna go with your suggestion that she knew someone and didn’t use the gates.” Because sneaky - and if he was going to commit a murder, and knew damn well that was what he had planned, Mobius would be leaving as little a paper trail as possible. A lot of murders were committed on accident, maybe spur of the moment, sure, but this one? It seemed very calculated. Enough time for a motive, enough time for anger to build up and surge ahead, acting as inspiration to off someone like Dorothy. Sharon smirked against his lips. She could easily get distracted, although she was reminded that it would probably be better to focus on this - rather than let themselves get to the end of the week without having any answer for Bert and leaving the Valiant brothers to clean up after them, or possibly redo some of the work, since no matter how good their notes, she knew from her own experience that nothing could entirely make-up for having done interviews of a potential suspect in person. She flipped open the security information. Currently it appeared to be sign-in sheets for the set the day of Dorothy's murder, which she supposed made sense. It wasn't as if they were going to have ID card scans in the 40s, a sign-in, even with ID required, was the best you were going to get. Time of coming in, the person's name, and when they left - and there wasn't anything that had Miss Dark's name on it. "Or she used the gates, and whomever was on at that particular time, just failed to enter it - perhaps even on purpose." She peered at the top of the sheet. "Herbert Jones and Willie Wonder were both working this morning. I don't know if they're both there at the same time - if so, then it's unlikely they were both paid off, but maybe we should interview them next. See if either of them have a connection to Lola Dark, or some reason perhaps that she might have some sway over either of them?" She flipped into the folder, two black & white photographs had been added by Bert, she supposed. Herbert was a young man of maybe 20, not a toon, while Willie Wonder was a serious looking toon, that seemed like he could have been Steamboat Willie's more serious younger brother. "We should see if there's any reason, besides the obvious - she will take over for Miss Darling, that Lola might have disliked Dorothy." “Call me paranoid, but nothing is an accident in this case,” Mobius replied - he was sticking with that. If Lola committed the crime, she definitely wasn’t working alone - she needed assistance with getting onto the set undetected, and getting access to the bucket. Even if a lot of people on set did have access, it was easier for say a prop master to fiddle with the thing rather than one of the lead actresses - that would draw more than a few suspicious glances. Either way, he was certain that she plotted this whole thing out - now it was just a matter of proving it. And staying as late as they had to here, in order to build a solid retelling of the chain of events. But right, that whole ‘staying late’ thing. Mobius didn’t know what time it was and he wearily rubbed bleary blue eyes - shit coffee wasn’t doing the trick so he’d just have to run on fumes. “Interviewing those two should definitely be our next step. But we’ll keep it as quiet as possible - I also think the last thing we want is to tip off our new enemy Lola.” Or would-be enemy. She likely would not be pleased if she found out these two wannabe detectives were still snooping around even after she’d been questioned. Sharon closed the file and looked over at Mobius. "What if I go in tomorrow and see what Willie and Herbert are like? I could play quite the starstruck fan, see what the procedure is like, and maybe see if either of them would give me an off the books tour…? It might give us an idea of if they'd be willing to do something on the sly, and I could get a feel of whether or not they know Lola at all. And then from there you could go in and do the Bad Cop Interview." She smirked. "Granted you'll have to up your Bad Cop routine a little." It was a shame Loki was asleep, actually because she suspected Loki and Mobius both going in would be a much better combination. A yawn snuck in despite her best attempts and she sighed. "I don't want to sleep on the floor here." There were loads of letters dancing in front of Mobius’s eyes - if he tried to go through the notes and files one more time he might break something, most likely his brain. But he scraped together the last few brain cells to turn that idea over in his head. “Yeah, that sounds good to me,” he nodded. “I was the Bad Cop for awhile with the TVA - I’ll dust those skills off again. It’ll be like riding a bike. Probably.” He could be the Good Cop, he could be the Bad Cop - whatever he needed to be, basically, and his skills as an interrogator were one of the reasons he had been so highly valued by Ravonna. Not that it mattered much these days - because she tried to kill him and then acted like it was his fault, so he was done with that whole shebang. “And I have no doubt you can play the role of starstruck fan very well,” he added with a tired grin, leaning in and planting another kiss on Sharon - he was feeling the fatigue, yes, but there was still a look of fondness in his gaze, like he was trying to commit it all to memory even without the aid of coffee. And no doubt he was - because he didn’t have many memories before Derleth; he liked making new ones now. “The floor doesn’t seem too cozy, sweetheart. You want to sleep in the Armitage room tonight?” He definitely didn’t want to be alone, and he hoped Sharon didn’t want to be either. "Mmm, yes," Sharon responded to his question. "And I can think of more interesting things to ride than a bike," she added, with a wicked smirk. Maybe he was too tired, maybe she was almost too tired, but getting back to campus would likely wake her up, and she didn't want to be alone tonight, or head back to the room and risk bothering Bucky - or even finding it empty and being alone. "Assuming you're not too tired," she added, shifting so that she could fully face him. "Of course." Too tired for that? No way in hell. “I’m pretty sure I’ll get a second wind once we get there,” Mobius replied and, actually, he was already picturing it and already all set to give Sharon the equestrian practice she wanted. A lot of men were simple that way - and while he wouldn’t say that he always was, well, she was gorgeous and dynamite in bed and he turned pretty simple pretty quick in those sorts of situations. He stood up to gather the papers they’d been going through, and he’d leave them in an organized pile on the desk for when they locked up the small, beaten-up office space. “It’s not too far a walk back to campus but who knows - you might have to defend my honor from people up to no good,” he grinned. They both knew that out of the two of them, she had the fighting skills - though Mobius was learning, okay. Lara was still teaching him - and they had continued their lessons this week even when she was a toon, which made things interesting. Had she really doubted that he would get a second wind? Not particularly, but the smile came anyway, and she popped to her feet easily, leaning down to help with the papers. “They’ll never see it coming,” she quipped, and indeed they probably wouldn’t. There was very likely a belief about women’s abilities in this decade same as there would have been in her Aunt Peggy’s, but Sharon was alright with that. In some ways it’d make it easier, because they’d focus on Mobius as the potential danger, and she could come in and knock them flat. “But who knows, maybe the locals will behave.” She slipped the bag over her shoulder and reached for her hat, before she stepped up to the door and turned around to wait for him, leaning up against the wall. At times she was well aware of the way attraction slipped in, and this was one of those moments where she was just enjoying the way that he looked. He wore 40s detective pretty damn good, if she did say so. Although truthfully, she had yet to meet a version of Mobius she wasn’t attracted to. “Tomorrow, around all of our investigating, we ought to put together a bar cart for ourselves, and of course for Loki when he wakes up.” “I’m sure he’d appreciate that,” Mobius concurred - because he’d definitely appreciate putting together a bar cart; it was well-earned and deserved at this point, especially on a campus that was mostly dry unless they brought back their own booze (and medieval times had helped with that - plenty of wine and ale and, you know, kegs for things like toga parties). “May as well take advantage of the good parts of this week while we can.” He moved closer to Sharon, sort of pinning her against the wall there with his hands on her hips - maybe it was possible that they’d really get distracted before they even left, but he wasn’t complaining. She looked amazing in the clothing of this era too, having gone leaps and bounds past ‘sex kitten’ and arriving at ‘femme fatale,’ something that gave Mobius a warm and depraved sort of spark. The same spark that seemed to glow within her too and he wasn’t complaining at all. “Is it just the locals you want to behave? I’m not included in that, right?” Because he really didn’t plan to behave, to be quite honest. Sharon reached out, a hand on each of his hip bones to settle him in against her as she lifted her chin up to look at him. “Oh if you behave I’m going to be most put out,” she retorted, slight lift of her thigh against his groin. She really should wait for this until they got back to campus, but maybe she was feeling just devious enough ti like the idea of him wanting to rush back there. “We’ll have to buy a cart, something delightfully old Hollywood, maybe a little Art Deco,” she returned to the idea of the bar cart with seriousness belied by the way her thumbs were seeking out that dip in his hips. “We should get plenty of the good stuff. Who knows when we’ll have another opportunity for it. And Loki did do all that magic for us.” Us, her and Mobius, us, Loki and Mobius, it was an us all around really. Deep down, in Mobius’s heart of hearts, what he most wanted was for that ‘us’ to really and truly exist - he didn’t know much about polyamory before entangling himself in everything (and with Loki specifically) but he was rapidly learning those concepts, applying them to his own situation, and also learning what he personally desired. Sure, he didn’t mind if Loki wanted to seek out other partners, physically, as long as Mobius knew what was going on - but he’d be lying if he said he didn’t want one of those partners to be Sharon. And for them all to be together. It was complicated though, he understood that - also he couldn’t force feelings to appear where there weren’t any, and he’d never try. But he just cared about them both so much - sometimes his heart didn’t make sense with the head. And right now he was definitely thinking with his other head. |