Night 65: X-Ray Room

[damned_intercom]

Once again, a couple of bursts of static greeted Link as he entered the room, but there was no audio message waiting for him. Strangely, the drawing from last night remained largely intact, as if it had been impossible for their captors to remove. The only thing different was that the vibrant glow from before had diminished, and the image was mostly reduced to a faint, green outline.

But more than that, a companion clue had apparently been set up for whoever entered here. This one required a flashlight to fully examine, but a well-aimed beam would illuminate a framed oil painting hanging from the wall. Beneath that were words written in the same green, glowing paint from last night:

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist

If that wasn't odd enough, though, whoever had arranged the clues also left a small pile of dried leaves beneath the painting. The leaves themselves were unremarkable, and were likely pulled from a common tree. Was it another message, perhaps?

Despite the cryptic clue, though, the person who had come before did not want the patients' troubles to go unrewarded. A first aid kit with these items was perched on the table in the center of the room.

Comments

[ninelivesonce]

"Howdy," Taura answered. She stared back at him, her golden eyes almost glowing in the dark. A quiet Son Goku was unexpected. She glanced back at the picture, unease ruffling her stomach in a way that was rather inspired.

Wait, what was that? There were leaves on the ground. She grabbed one, and held it out. "Don't recognize the picture either, do you? What about this?"

[monkeyboy]

"Oh, leaves!" Now that was something Goku understood. He took the leaf out of her large hand gently and squatted down beside the rest of them. The lone green soldier was dropped back onto its pile of friends before he, too, squatted low on all fours so he could be level with the debris. Then, in proper Goku fashion, he stuck his face in the leaves and gave them a good sniff like a curious blood hound.

They held a familiar scent underneath the monstrous hands (Goku really couldn't call them human) that had touched them in the first place. The dry, wrinkled foliage had lost a lot of its essence, but the monkey boy knew where they had come from. If only he remembered what the place was called. "They're from uhm that uhh thing. That thing outside with the plants and flowers and stuff."

[ninelivesonce]

"Then, uh, what are we waiting for?" She stepped out from between Goku and the door, and gave a bow and flourish that was blatantly copied from Miles. He was good at making it earnest -- Taura wondered about that, sometimes, but everything Miles did was earnest. He didn't lie, much, and generally when he did, the first person he'd convinced was himself. So who had taught him how to bow? The last thing he'd ever want to do was be shorter. Though when he straightened up he did look a little bit...less tiny.

"Lead the way," she added. That thing was possibly as specific as she could get -- there were too many planets, all with different plants, for her to identify one. Unless he meant the entire outdoors, but she'd take his word that he recognized them.

[monkeyboy]

"'Kay!" Eager to do something he was actually good at, Goku took a fist full of leaves (just in case he needed a little extra sniffing reference) on his way past Taura. The girl was more than twice his size, but he waddled along without preamble as if she was simply part of the architecture, like a tree in a forest. Except that this tree talked and could kick him in the crotch.

It took some effort, but eventually the little boy reached up to grab the doorhandle and pull it back open so they could get to the good part of this mystery!

[To here]