ExtraPenguin

“He was lying in a pool of his own blood. Didn't you feel any concern?”

“Oh, neurotypical people do weird shit all the time for opaque reasons they find perfectly obvious. I assumed Jones was doing something like that.”

“I didn't know you were a flower person, Tom”, Denis LePic said as he barged into Thomas Theisman's office as part of his daily routine of making sure Theisman actually left the premises.

Theisman rolled his eyes. “They were left by some advocacy group or other. Eloise had some minion bring them over to my office to ‘brighten the mood’ or something to that effect.”

“She's hoping you get hay fever and go home to sleep.” Denis smirked and leaned over to sniff one of the flowers on Theisman's desk. “These smell nice”, he said. “Try it.”

The flower was large and purple, reminding Theisman of an Old Earth sunflower, except smaller. Its leaves were smooth and shiny. It smelled sweet and earthy, like the tea that some Legislaturalist officers had drunk often. Denis was nibbling on his ear.

Filippa Cherenkova looked at him with an expression that was easily interpreted as “you do realize that what you said right there was FUCKING INSANE”.

ImpSec Lieutenant Aleksei Kostolitz, Imperial Liaison Officer (or whatever his superiors had decided to call his position today), decided that the best course of action was to repeat what he had said.

“The Emperor would like for us to assist Imperial Auditor Vorparadijs in his investigation of the incidents in Vorcault District. Countess Vorcault and the Count's aunt, Lady Irina, have been stabbed to death. After the tragic murder of the Count's favorite horse, he called on the Emperor to help solve this politically motivated crime.”

“So, nobody cares about the women, but the moment a horse kicks it, it's boohoo Sire please help?” Filippa was somewhere between disbelief and “oh really”.

Aleksei nodded.