[Killroy's] The Mystery of Curiousity (Solo)

[Bob Barton]

68th day of Fall 511 AV

At long last, the horrible drought was over. No longer Bob needed to rely on the cheaper substances like draught thanks to the oversupply from Oktuberia. It was tiresome needing to pace himself of the amount of water he needed to drink as well as the unsatisfied feeling he had when he knew he did not have enough to drink. Bob was working a little bit handling the animals because they were not the only ones who needed a drink too. "Just hold on for a little while longer" he would be telling them for days while he pushed in the bowl into their cages because it was all they had going for the day and during the initial days of the drought it was even worse. Some of the animals did not even know what they were in for, finishing off the water as usual and Bob was forced to take note that the dogs like "Riftle, Mesge and Lanke" and the horses like "Magdon, Shephard and Commander" were not able to realize that there was a shortage. In the end Bob was forced to tell them "no water for you" until the evening as the day was about to end. That will give them something to think about and once Bob saw that they knew what was going on after a few days, "do you want your water in the morning now like all the others?" he will give it to them but put them under further observation in case they needed another lesson.

So once the light rain started, Bob told the animals "all yours" quickly dumping the water into bowls and shoving them into the cages. But he saw that they were still taking caution of the amount of water they were drinking so he told them "come on, drink up" and realized that he needed to make a change so that they will know they are no longer in the routine. Bob filled up more bowls and stuffed in as many as he could into the cages. Some had two, some had three and only one had none because it was Jinsen's which because of the rain "you are following me while I hit the tavern." The longer he could stay the better it would be so Bob decided that he will finish off whatever he needed to give the animals today. He rushed around the kennels filling up bowls with food this time and replaced them with the already empty bowls from the thirsty animals but "only one!" he told them showing his finger. The drought never affected food so why should there me any difference in that unless the animals could have a celebration too. Unfortunately there are only so many Bob could take with him to the tavern and besides Jinsen he was not really attached to the rest.

"Just feel the nice cool rain Jinsen" Bob told it as they passed through the door because "it just feels so invigorating." So, the tavern. Bob continued on down the path when Jinsen caught the scent of something. It forced the dog to start barking excitedly as it stared into the bushes and it made Bob feel a little bit curious because "that is not like you Jinsen. What is it that you found?" Whatever it was should not be able to get a reaction out of the dog this way which Bob failed to get to "stop!" pulling on the leash to hold it back. Really, "we pass this way almost everyday Jinsen and there is nothing that you would want there that we cannot get at the tavern!" The rainwater got in between Bob's hands and the leash allowing the leash to slip out of his hands with an "OUCH!" while he tried to get rid of the burning sensation giving Jinsen enough time to dart into the bushes as it wanted. "Get back here Jinsen!" Bob growled angrily at the dog as he stormed up to the bush and pushed the leaves away to get a clear view of the dog but his eyes was not on the dog but rather what the dog found...

It was the corpse of a little girl which was already mostly eaten. Bob in disgust tried to pull away Jinsen before it started nibbling on her too. "How...why...is there this near Killroys?" Better still was the question of "what did it?" Bob brought Jinsen behind him and wound the leash around his hand so his dog will not have much room to move and told it to "stay!" like it was given a choice before going closer to the corpse and stooping down to check it out. Because the leash was so tight Bob could tell that Jinsen was not giving up and moved his body from side to side to block the dog off because "no is no! Stay or else you are going back." Whatever happened it happened quite some time ago because the wounds were fresh. Bob figured that Jinsen might have caught the scent of the corpse today thanks to the rain. He tried to make sense of the bite wounds which looked like a "canine...wolf or dog?" remained to be seen given how close they are to the kennels. Bob took Jinsen's head and looked closely at its teeth. "Fortunately it is not you." but it confirmed that whatever ate her was as he guessed.

The strangest part was that it was not an animal attack because it could even if it could have been by a wild animal or one of Killroy's. No the strange part is "she is naked?" Animals cannot strip or loot their victims, only humans can. Yes humans have the worst souls if they are willing to kill a girl just to get her things. More looking through of whatever was left of her with Bob using his cane to poke and push the limbs away, he noticed also that it was none of the bite marks were on spots which would make a killing blow according to what Uncle Marny taught him and only just for the animals to have their meal. After Bob pushed the body over he found evidence that it was indeed a person who killed her and it was done by a blade impaling the girl right through her chest. Bob stood up angrily telling Jinsen that "we are finding this scumbag because we will never know who is next!" It was a selfish reason because if the murderer was preying on children, Bob with his size can easily be mistaken as the next victim if not one of Killroy's other customers first.

[Bob Barton]

"Do you know anything about what is going on Jinsen? You are smart" or so Bob liked to think that the one thing he gotten from this cesspool from someone else was not just another piece of shyke. "Do you know her Jinsen?" Bob asked prodding the cane on to her face and moving it around as he tapped on it and "maybe she bullied you before?" he said scooping a foot from underneath with his cane because everyone who has bullied Jinsen lately like to use their legs especially cruel people like Zandelia. On that one rare occasion, maybe...just maybe..."she has given you something before?" Bob asked using his cane to manipulate her at the arms which triggered something in Jinsen that only he knew right now and that was this kelvic girl gave him favorite toy in that snowglobe. Jinsen quickly darted back to the kennels with Bob yelling in dismay that "I know it might be raining Jinsen but that does not mean that you go there where I have to work. We should be going to the tavern for me to have a good time..." he pleaded and in that split moment Jinsen was torn between doing two different things that his master wanted. Bob called out to it gesturing to it with his hands to "come back" but it thought better and ran straight into the kennels.

Bob followed close behind it and as soon as he entered he heard a yell about making a mess over the floor with mud and needing to clean it up. "But...girl...bushes..." are no excuse especially since a murder so near is a blatant lie. Bob was given a mop and then a pitchfork which he asked "what for?" only to find out that one is for clearing up the mud and the other one was for clearing up the stables. Bob groaned in disappointment mopping up the mud left by himself and...Jinsen which got him into this mess. "When I am done with the dog I am going to show him why I am the master" and after that Bob heard a yell that if he does not work properly he is going to be shown who is the boss. Uttering some curses he put away the mop when he was done and took the pitchfork to the stables. "You know with the drought from before I am still surprised that this place is in a mess!" just as he was also surprised that people like Darik did not even have to do this job when he was not even that good.

One nice giant bucket of water which now can be wasted because the drought is over as it mucked up the stables which the horses were at. It was surprising how easy people can change something which was valuable before into something that they can waste without a second thought. Bob used the pitchfork to scoop up the waste and pile it to the side and whatever he could not he just brushed to the side with the fork and while he was still preparing the other stables for the job to commence, Jinsen suddenly popped up behind him with the snowglobe in its mouth. "I don't have time to play with you Jinsen and it is your fault anyway for leading me back here" he said dismissing the dog to continue on with the next stable so "no, no matter how much you want you are not playing!" Bob had the final word as he continued clearing up a new flooded-horse-wasteland and it was "you can stay but nothing else. STAY!" and Jinsen just took a seat at the corner still with the globe in it's mouth as Bob continued on with another stable until he broke and said "fine...you win..." dumping the fork where it belonged and taking the snowglobe from Jinsen's mouth to head outside.

"Only a few rounds" Bob tried to establish from the start and rolled the toy over to Jinsen which took it and ran straight back..."to...the...corpse?" Just what are you up to Jinsen "you are being very strange today!" Did the lack of water get to its head or did Bob feed it something wrong? That was really impossible in his mind since he always looked after Jinsen well even if it did not deserve it. Part of what Hannah told him that the dogs should not be punished. When Bob finally caught up to Jinsen it was sitting by the corpse of the girl and on her hand was the snowglobe. Sometimes "there is something really wrong with you Jinsen..." because he already had Bob as it's master and it thinks that it can "play with an already dead girl?" Bob took back the snowglobe into his hands and told Jinsen that "it is really nice to play some pranks but sometimes you can really go to far. I only want to find out who murdered her Jinsen" which brought the dog barreling straight towards him and Bob accepted it because he knew that "it is a noble goal but you don't have to love me this much for it."

Sometimes it was hard to think who was the more stupider one among the master and the dog because Bob could not get all the hints that Jinsen was trying to give him. "Let's go back to playing" Bob told Jinsen as he squatted on the ground a little bit further away and started rolling the snowglobe on the ground for "Jinsen, give it back. Give it back!" he said with an open palm. Jinsen looked at Bob's hand and then at the corpses hand with Bob just as puzzled as the dog with "what are you thinking" when it put the globe on the girl's hand again. Bob picked up the globe again with a sigh saying "I told you to give it back to who it belongs to Jinsen, which is me. So why do you keep giving her the...globe...unless..." Was that what Jinsen was trying to say? That Bob actually killed this girl for no reason? That just had to be a mistake especially when he did not like to kill. After all when could he possibly kill a girl without knowing it except...

[Bob Barton]

It was that day that Bob could not account for. The day that everything was a blur except that game of cards that he had at the tavern. To make matters worse he realized that it was the day after where he found the mysterious snowglobe on the top of his drawer. Things are only looking worse and worse with Bob not wanting to believe it but there was the evidence stacked up against him. "You still believe in me don't you boy?" he asked his dog as he held his loyal companion's face. "It was the animals who ate her up" Bob said pointing frantically at the wounds on the corpse. "It was not me!" he yelled at Jinsen before getting up and drawing his sword straight up for him to look at because "anyone else can have a sword like this as well. It is not uncommon at all!" It was even clean, shiny and polished without a bloodstain over there that could betray him "so you see Jinsen? I am innocent...so don't look at me with those judgmental eyes!"

The state of paranoia got Bob a low more sensitive and when he went to put back his sword into the cane he caught a faint sniff of..."is that rust?" But as Bob's sword teacher taught him, to neglect his sword is like telling everyone to that he was useless. A bad image to be had in their profession then. Bob peered in a little closer and to his horror right at the bottom was all red with the tattletale stain of blood. "It all fits properly now Jinsen" Bob cried in dismay falling to the ground because "it is my fault. Then grabbing his dog and giving it a good shake, Bob asked it "why did you not stop me Jinsen? Why?" Shaking a dog all panicked was not one of Bob's best ideas and Jinsen pounced on him furiously for the first time, landing on his chest and baring its teeth with Bob telling it that "you can stop now alright? You win Jinsen!" But Jinsen as all dogs were could tell that Bob was a still seething inside so it waited on top of him. Bob was not as patient as the dog and to try and get it to obey him he tried to tell it in a calm voice "alright, you win now get off of me" before jerking his body upwards and dropping the dog off.

Bob decided to make amends...kind of. He killed the girl and left her exposed for any animal which passed by to feast on and that was not very nice. He ran back into the kennels to get a flint and steel and started striking it at the bush but "this rain is not even that heavy yet and it is still giving me problems...I know!" and he quickly went back into the kennels, specifically at the stables and took out some dried hay and carried it back to the bush to use for starting the fire. Of course it could not get wet by the rain which is also why Bob used his body to protect the hay from the elements putting it on the ground still bent over it as he put the flint and steel close. Bob struck them a few times again and again until the fire lighted up and he waited still in the same position until it got bigger before he decided that he can leave. Only problem was he waited too long and the smoke got into his eyes and "arrgh! It stings!" he yelled out running all over the field to get whatever tiny droplets of water he could to try and soothe him.

It was a very horrible experience to run and...jump like that? "Petch my shoe is on fire too!" he yelled hopping on one foot and trying to scoop the rainwater into his eyes first and foremost. Jinsen however just sat there amused watching his master do the dance of fire? No the firefly dance. How about the fiery passion of dance? Whatever it was Bob finally slapped enough water into his eyes to stop flapping his arms around wildly and it was the finale when he raised his arms into the air to give him more energy when he started kicking his shoe into the dirt. "Great...just great...Now I have to buy a new pair for myself..." but on the bright side everything else he had was safe and secure.

[Bob Barton]

Everything but the arm which was meant to "burn, burn, burn!" and fortunately no one would be out in the rain to watch Bob in his moment of madness while he watched the corpse burn. Evidence of his weakness in committing the crime to disappear from this world. "No Jinsen. Its not a barbecue for you!" he yelled to the dog when it got close to the fire and pulled it away to "sit...sit...sit..." away from it like the "good boy" that it should be but the fire could not stay for long and finally most of the body was burned away but a whole stretch of arm Bob did not position too well. "That is bad..." what was he going to do with it? "No you are not going to eat it. Stay!" he yelled at Jinsen when it started to move. "I mean it Jinsen, just stay where you are" but when the dog did not he quickly moved and made a grab for the arm and held it away from the dog.

Eww, disgusting, unbelievable, horrible, urk were only some of the words which could be said to be running through Bob's head when he did what he did. He was holding out a severed hand for reasons unknown even to him. Should anyone pass by now they would beat him and send him to the authorities..."wait a second!" This was Sunberth. There were no authorities. If anything a lot of the people would run away from him thinking that he would come after them next. Interesting now that he thought about it, "this can be something that I can use" as a deterrence for the scum and himself when it will remind him not to go randomly drawing his sword again. "Yes, I can do something like this. Why don't I...Jinsen you are coming with me!" and held the arm in front of the dog for a few moments while it sniffed then he started walking back to the kennels. Jinsen was following with him like he wanted of course since it would think that it would get the arm which was luring it forward since it would better than that burnt body in the bushes.

Bob quickly reached his room into the kennels luckily avoiding anyone who would be wondering why he had a severed arm with him. "No...no..." he had none of those special juices he has helped some of the nuits in Sahova use before to keep their bodies rotting. Looks like he needed to get some "No Jinsen!" That dog kept using every opportunity it had to get at the arm. Quickly grabbing the arm he slapped Jinsen in the face with it in a weak flail because it was a "bad dog!" Each time after that while Bob was looking through his belongings and saw Jinsen trying, he smacked the dog with the arm again because "you know I will keep stopping you right?" And by hurting it with the thing it wanted so much eventually Jinsen would learn that it was bad and do its best to avoid it. The same way Bob wanted the people to do when they saw him with it when he is through with it. "No it looks like I really have none. its time to get some" he told Jinsen as he pulled it out of the room. There was no way he was going to leave his dog with the arm alone.

Well Killroy might have some of those special juices. Even dead the animals are profitable if used handled properly. Bob rummaged through some cupboards saying "no" to the sauces, "no" to the soap and "close enough" to someone's 'secret' stash of alcoholic beverages. Finally after searching for so long he found one of those half used bottles of embalming fluid. "I don't like this stuff Jinsen. I mean it even smells..." bad. He did not need to tell the dog that because as soon as he waved the open vial right in front of its nose, Jinsen bolted somewhere into the kennels. "At least after its put on the arm it won't go near it anymore" and Bob went to do just that. Leaving Jinsen on its own for a while as he went back to his room to work on the arm. It cannot be too hard for him because some of those disgusting nuits forced him to do it too. Yeah...pulsers have it really bad in that island.

But this arm would be worse in comparison since it was left out of the elements. It even rotted a little bit but thankfully because of the strange weather lately it was still manageable. It still needed some touching up though. To start with Bob had to take a saw and start sawing of the end tip of the arm where it was burned and chewed off. Most of the flesh has been destroyed so Bob needed to make a choice of quality or quantity. "I guess it better look better..." if he wanted to have the scary, fearsome effects on people and he started saving a little away from the end. Flesh, squirting a little "ugh...what is that?" and then the bone which was "tough! She must have really been an animal" that little girl. Now that he had the part he wanted he had to clean it and while he was rubbing it over with water he cannot help but remember how he was forced to do the same with some of the corpses. "I can still feel those slimy...yuck..." Bob told himself while he was still cleaning it up. Why does he not just pay someone to do this? Oh yeah! Because he was cheap.

"Here it goes" with the vial. Bob did the same thing with the fluid as he did with the water using part of it and when he was done he suddenly remembered that "how the hell am I going to inject it in?" Another hunt for a syringe? Lucky the animals needed those too but he was going to have to clean it well after. Running through so many cupboards again and finding Jinsen messing around with one of the other dogs, Bob told it that "you better watch what you are up to" with a cheeky grin and pressed the point of the syringe a little bit so that the mere touch would prick the dog a little and then Jinsen was off again with the reminder to "behave!" That little distraction out of the way, Bob filled up the syringe with the remaining fluid and started pumping it into the inside of the arm. A little bit more things came out and Bob just patched it up haphazardly before wrapping the arm up because this time it was not like a nuit was going to use it.

[Bob Barton]

Finally, Bob came to the tricky part for what he wanted to do with all this...which was what again exactly? He knew nothing, nothing at all about how to use the arm to make his weapon more menacing even if it did seem very impressive when he started to think about it. The nuits of Sahova did not need any extra work on their bodies after this point except to jump into it but Bob was never allowed to see that unless of course he took their offer to join their ranks. That was never going to happen because preparing the bodies was chore enough on its own. This arm even if it was just one part was able to remind him that much. After spinning and turning the arm all over at different angles to have a look Bob figured that "it will have to become something like this Jinsen?" and stabbed the sword right into the palm until it got stuck on something hard which he knew was "the bone..." since it had that same feeling as when his uncle tried to force him to saw one off once.

After trying his best to slide the sword along the arm, Bob found that "this is not going to work out at all Jinsen" because when he tried to draw the sword like he always tried to with the cane, it got stuck. Maybe this is going to have to wait until he found someone who is suitable to help him. "No, you will not be getting it if I can't use it!' he told the dog when he got the sword out. Not like Jinsen would want to as stupid as it was since it was now full of embalming fluid. Sure people can drink it, Bob tried some himself more than once too but it was not too great. How was he going to get Jinsen to understand? "Just wait right here Jinsen" he told the dog while he put the arm on a high shelf before going down to the kitchen. Normally it would follow him but Jinsen must really want that arm but since it would never be able to reach it Bob had no second thoughts of shutting the door behind him to go to the kitchen. All in order to retrieve some spicy powder. "You're in for it now" because nothing, noone could ever agree with Bob's cooking.

Giving a fake sigh Bob told Jinsen that "weapons are not a good thing to eat. See how sharp my sword is?" when he poked his finger a little bit to show Jinsen some blood. "I hope you won't touch this, for your sake" because what Bob did was sprinkle and rub some of the powder on the arm and purposely putting it on the ground. "Well, I need to put this back now soooo..." Bob left to the kitchen and prepared some water to bring along for his return. He stood at the door and waited, waited until he heard a howl and something being knocked over. "Perfect" since it was time to go in and see Jinsen running around bewildered. Bob did not even have to look at the arm which has been moved slightly to know what was happening and showed his dog some water. "You want some? But oh, you wouldn't need it if you listened to me do you?" Well, Bob was not that evil a person and told Jinsen to "fetch the arm here if you want the water" while pointing towards the two objects of interest for Jinsen.

He was satisfied to see Jinsen being hesitant to go to the arm and each time it came to Bob for the water he put it up to the air where it could not get it. "No, you need to get the arm first. Fetch!" the nice spicy arm that Bob was pointing to. He continued the little game of trying to get Jinsen to fetch the arm and keeping the water out of reach until he saw Jinsen actually going for the arm when he said "stop! Bad!" Spicy food always gave Bob some gas so why should the dog be any different? At least the dog agreed this time and Bob kept asking it "what's bad? What's bad? to make sure that it got the lesson this time that Jinsen should not be going to anything Bob pointed out as bad for it. Or at least the arm in the future. Bob would not say that he accomplished what he wanted to today because there was no way he wanted to find a body, or imagine turning it into a sword but it was not a waste either since if Jinsen got the lesson properly it is going to be less of a problem for Bob in the future.

[Archelon]

Thread Award "..." And the Results!!!!: Bob Barton : SkillName 1-5 How/why? Animal Husbandry 3 investigation 3 Wilderness Survival 1 Making a fire counts Embalming 1 Using a severed arm to train an animal. Loot: 1 swiftly rotting arm from a kelvic corpse bones and all. Would you like some extra turtle sauce ? : Timestamp would be the second listed as there was not enough people who wanted to attempt the thawing of the falls .