VOICE ✍ 005

[chose_death]

[It is mid-morning, approaching the afternoon, when Javert makes this mysterious announcement. There is no context, no emotional inflection in his cold and indifferent voice, and no further explanation offered

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[phantomfenton]

Is there some reason why it's closing?

[chose_death]

[Javert knows that voice.

There is a stretch of silence from Javert's end of the line. He knows that the Fenton boy dissolved from Somarium for a time. What were the chances that he remembered his previous day?

Apparently, very little, judging by the Inspector's intuition and Danny's absolutely clueless tone. But there is still that chance... And his intuition has been wrong on occasion, hasn't it?]

She won't be using it again, [he says grimly and bluntly.] And I have no practical use for a laboratory. I am a police officer, not a physician.

[phantomfenton]

*Danny's brow furrows.* What do you mean she won't be using it again?

Has something happened to her?

[chose_death]

Apparently, [murmurs Javert carefully,] or I would not close it in her place.

Why does it matter to you? [he asks abruptly. The man has a purpose, each syllable spoken with a special emphasis. Danny may get the impression that this deep-voiced fellow is testing him.] Did you know her well?

[phantomfenton]

*Danny senses the pressure right off, and his gaze slips away for a moment, as though he were wishing he could avoid the scrutiny as easily as Javert's gaze.* Well--not well, exactly.

I mean--I know I used to, and I talked with her when I got here. My memories are still just kind of a little hazy, that's all.

What happened to her? Can I talk with her? Is-- *Danny falters.* Is she still on the list?

[chose_death]

Damn the list! [It is a mournful, enraged cry.] Never mind it! Don't pussyfoot around what you really wish to know. What the devil does it matter when she is dead!

[phantomfenton]

*Danny starts at the abrupt change in tone. It's not until a moment later, though, that the words' meaning truly sinks in.*

... Dead?

*His face twists slightly, confused and unhappy. Someone's dead--and even though he barely remembers her, the news is leaving him with a dull ache he doesn't quite understand.*

Did you just say... but how?

[chose_death]

Succumbed, [said Javert bluntly and stonily.] To illness.

You didn't know of it.

[Sure, Javert may have been wrong on that point -- but the key is, would Danny recall those conversations he had with Naomi? If not now, then it is doubtful he ever will.]

[phantomfenton]

I--I didn't know.

*Danny does remember the woman; he used to do chores in her lab that he'd used to do all the time back home. He can imagine her being ill quite easily, and how it might have worried him--but that's not a memory, is it? If it is, it must have been of something different, like the flu, because normal illnesses don't last that long. She must've come down with something strong and terrible since the last time he'd seen her here--otherwise he would have noticed if she were that sick.*

*It takes him a moment to work up the nerve to ask another question, after the last answer he's gotten. Pity, uncertainty, loss, and all sorts of things war with him until he finally says quietly,* Will there be a funeral?