2019-11-20 - Freaky Wednesday

There's something a little strange about all dreams. Everything monochromatic, everyone wearing a suit, everything neon, existential dread... but it's rare that one appears in a dream feeling so very strange. Aches and pains that are usually present... gone. Of course, new ones have settled in. Everyone wakes up in a single big room, over-decorated with red and gold. A Chinese restaurant, if one is to look closely. But it's difficult to look closely when you wake up as one point of a six-pointed star, heels pointed in, heads pointed out... and somewhere around the circle is your face. On someone else. Even more freaky is the fact that there's a dead body in the middle of the six-pointed star, a dagger sticking out of his chest. People mill around the outside of vision, dressed up neatly -- as everyone present is -- and music pumps from a nearby DJ station.

Elias sits up from where he was laying and blinks for a moment, staring across a six pointed star at .. himself. That's trippy. Then he winces. "Fuck.." He reaches up to rub at his shoulder, and then pauses, frowning, and glances down at himself. "Wait.." His voice isn't his either, and that's even more trippy. He peers down his shirt and blinks. "Damn.. I've been working out." He glances across. "Or I'm dead. Maybe both."

Marius groans a little as he sits up, blinking and frowning as brown hair falls across his gaze. "Uhhhh..." Brilliant, Marius. He reaches up to rub at his face with his hands and then starts to scrub his hair out of his face. But the face under his hands doesn't feel right. For one thing, there's no beard or mustache, for another... wait, no beard or mustache? "JENS!" Uh... that voice doesn't sound right either. He moves his hands, staring at... himself? Confusion widens his eyes and causes his mouth to drop open, "What the hell?" His hands pat down over his face and body, then grab for his throat, "What the hell?"

Gabriel as Sparrow sits bolt upright, looking down at his rainbow shirt to -- "Holy shit." He blinks once, twice, three times, realizing that he has boobs. But he then seems to realize that there is a body in front of him and his instincts kick in.

"All right, everyone! We've got a murder to solve here. Clearly, we can make that happen. We've got suspects right here. And out there. We just need to find out what happened and hold the one responsible responsible." All business this one.

Lyric groans. It's a manly sound. The DJ, band member, singer, guitar player groans again. "My back." She reaches back to rub it and finds a light patch of hair. Ew! "What the...?" She screams just a little. Every sound is male sounding. "Ew. Ew. Ew. What happened to me?" Lifting her hands she looks at them, squinting. Opening her eyes. Squinting. "My hands!" She moves them and notices her legs. She's not wearing her own jeans! Her legs aren't so skinny. Not fat but not hers, "I'M A GUY! NOOOO!" says the manly voice in such a girly way. For a moment she looks beyond her immediate self, still sitting up. Another attempt at a scream.. which is nothing girly at all. "My Body!!!"

Sparrow as Gabriel stretches overhead, groaning when an old, uncommon ache flares up from lying on the floor so long. The brain inside his body might be able to brush that pain off if it weren't for the sound that came with it. That is not the right sound. Blinking, he pulls himself up, knees bent and parted comfortably casually, but the inspection he planned to do with his own form is cut off when he scoots back with a sharply clipped, "Shit!" for the body. This is not the behavior of a homicide detective. Blinking, he cuts looks around at the others at--no. What the fuck. "Uh." Yeah, real articulate, man. "Sparrow..?" That sounds weird. "Gabe." Yeah, that sounds weird too. Everything sounds weird. Especially, "I would like to opt out of the ritual murder please and thank you."

Charlie doesn't sit up. He stays laying down for a moment as people groan and shift around him, but something doesn't feel right, not even counting the yelling and screaming. He lifts up a hand in front of him, frowning at it, and then sits bolt upright, his hands going to his chest, and then up to his hair -- the long loops and whorls of white-blonde instead of the short brown locks that he expects. He looks like Lyric, and then he's looking at his own body, and he screams. It's a good voice for screaming.

The various screams send the people at the sides of the room scurrying out and into hallways and side rooms, despite the in-command statements coming from the redheaded woman's body. A few people here and there linger, but not for long, and the room quickly empties, leaving just the six of them. And the dead body, of course. Besides the coppery tang of blood, the room smells absolutely delicious, full of spicy and savory scents.

"Hey! Hey!" Gabriel as Sparrow shouts at those fleeing the room, but really has no power to keep them here. All of his witnesses! They are gone! "Where are the fucking uniforms holding a perimeter?" He doesn't seem to have quite processed this isn't a normal murder scene he gets to control. "God dammit." He looks around.

"Are all of you done freaking out yet and want to solve a homicide, or do you want to grab your own tits for the first time or something?"

Elias as Marius is still trying to figure out who /HE/ is, and hasn't yet really processed the fact that there's a body in the middle of the room, just that his /own/ body just sat up and started talking. When "Sparrow" starts shouting and talking about perimeters and solving homicides. He smirks at her and says, "I don't know. I'm pretty hot. Maybe I wouldn't mind grabbing my own tits for a while." He runs his hands over his/Marius' chest suggestively with a little flicker of a smile that is way more Elias than it is Marius. "Whose body am I in, anyway?" He gets up then and turns around to look for a reflection. "And who is the dead guy?" Oh, yeah, he did notice that after all.

Marius as Elias shakes his head, pushing himself to his feet hastily -- and then noticing the dead body in the middle of their little group, "Oh shit!" Carefully scooting around the body, he moves over to his body, staring at it wide-eyed, "Nope, I'm not done freaking out yet." At least he's speaking in complete sentences. And there wasn't any cursing in that one. He reaches out and up with a fine-fingered hand to poke the shoulder of Elias-as-Marius, "Stop grabbing my chest." He pauses, "I didn't feel that. I feel like I should have felt that." And then he looks behind him, "Woah! There's a dead body." Brilliant, Marius, brilliant.

"You're an asshole." Lyric (who looks all manly like Charlie) tells Gabriel (Who looks like Sparrow). "Don't be that guy. No one likes that guy." She groans when she gets to her feet and rubs her back before glaring at her body. "You give me back now! I don't want to be an old man!" Hands at her waist in fists, she stares down at herself. Then she glares at Marius as Elias. "Don't be weird."

Or maybe that was Elias as Marius!

"You got the good ones," Sparrow as Gabriel quips dryly as he pushes to his feet and twists a bit to convince his back to stop being such a little bitch about lying on the floor for a while. There's a look over to Marius' Elias-inhabited body, and the detective--inhabited by a notorious flirt--can't help but grin. "Yours aren't bad either," he confirms. "You're a viking--" says the not-a-redhead who then looks to Charlie (inhabited by Lyric) to add, "--and I'm an asshole," with a grin. Like all is right with the world. To the guy inhabiting her body, Sparrow-sounding-like-Gabriel says, "You be that guy. But, uh. Why do we gotta solve the homicide? It's a dream murder. How about we find the ritual that got us stuck this way, have ourselves an orgy and then do the magic we need to get back?" Hard to tell how committed Sparrow-Gabe is about this, airily as it's all delivered.

Charlie as Lyric looks wide-eyed between these bodies that are becoming horribly familiar to him, but who are acting very unfamiliar in a very differently-horrible way. "I'm not grabbing anything!" To be fair, it was really just out of surprise. He scoots back from his body's aggressive approach, pushing himself back along the parquet floor until his head bonks into a table. "I didn't take your body!" There's a moment's pause, and then he adds, "And I'm not old, I'm 34. And I don't want to have an orgy." That to Sparrow-wearing-the-detective's-body.

"You're definitely Sparrow because that sounds just like you, babe, even though it sounds exactly like me," says Gabriel-as-Sparrow as he looks down at his top again and shakes his head at how it stretches across his breasts. Anyway. Back on track.

Gabriel-Sparrow strides towards the body in the middle, kneeling down next to it and taking an assessment with what is an incongruous sort of sight, the very-redheaded woman with the thousand-yard-stare of the homicide detective, trying to learn all he can about the ghastly crime. "And we learn who did the murder because why put this puzzle in front of us if it's not meant to be solved?"

Sparrow-as-Gabriel nods to Charlie-as-Lyric entirely agreeably. "Orgies are always opt-in sorta things." Doesn't keep him (her, whatever) from looking Charlie's new body over on the way to regarding the redhead again. And... yeah, alright, Sparrow looks herself over, too, cuz how often do you get this perspective on yourself? How often do you see your body moving in ways you wouldn't? With a quiet, "Mm," the not-a-detective agrees with the actual-detective's logic. "Fair. Chances are, the murderer knows how to fix this. Though." A look is cast between Elias and Marius, brief and considering, nothing more said.

Probably Charlie in Lyric's body looks interested as soon as the orgy is mentioned, because HE REACTS in his own trousers. "You're SO gross!" This to Charlie in her body. Lyric frowns wickedly. But she looks at Sparrow with a grin. Maybe she wasn't as adverse to it. Maybe it was Charlie. WHO KNOWS? Ohh it wasn't Charlie? Charlie's body blushes. Maybe it was Lyric after all. Oops! "Well now you're only 23. I think."

When Lyric as Charlie tells them not to be weird, Elias as Marius laughs and says, "Way, way too late for that." But he seems to have been teasing, staring over at himself, "Stop inhabiting my body and I'll stop grabbing your chest, skirt-bro." Apparently, with the clue that he's the viking, he's figured out whose body he's in. "And.. as tempting as another kiss might be," he grins over at Sparrow-as-Gabriel, "I think perhaps figuring out what we're supposed to /do/ with this isn't a half bad idea." Then he looks over to Gabriel-as-Sparrow and says, "Alright, well you're the detective. What do we look for first? I'm not a cop."

Marius as Elias looks to Sparrow-in-Gabriel's-body at the briefly considering look, "Hey, my eyes are up here!" He points to Elias-in-Marius's-body's eyes. His own eyes, a brown color that would be quite alien to him if he were to look in the half-mirrored wall behind the DJ stand, are wide, and there's a little high note to Elias's voice behind the words Marius speaks, so he's definitely not as calm as his joke might suggest. Elias's words in his own voice -- how weird is it to hear your own voice not from the inside? -- cause him to blink, "Isn't that like kiss-turbation?" He considers for a moment, then shivers a little, looking carefully back over to the body, "That guy's really dead, right?" The knife in the chest might be a good indication that yes, yes he is.

"Looks like this might be one of the waiters here for the event," says Gabriel-as-Sparrow as he kneels next to the body, his brow furrowed. "Some defensive wounds, maybe, or maybe he tried to pull out the blade. Not that it would have mattered either way. Would have bled out fast. At least he didn't suffer much."

Sparrow-Gabriel waves to the others. "Spread out. Take a look around. See what's in the rest of the room. Other than what seems like some delicious snacks." Focus Sparrow. "I'll need to see if I can pick up any resonance off the knife."

Charlie as Lyric goes wide-eyed at Lyric as Charlie's accusation, "How am I gross?" He finally scrambles up to his feet, his fingers twitching together in a nervous habit Lyric never had. "Um... oh god. No, god no. Freaky Friday? Really? Why did it have to be Freaky Friday?"

The door to the room opens, and a uniformed police officer comes in, heading straight toward Sparrow-as-Gabriel, "We just got the call, Detective. Didn't know you were on the scene. What do we have?"

Lyric-as-Charlie takes a look around and she points it out. "That's my DJ booth! Are we at the club?" Excited, she bounces over, all manly and certainly not fidgety like Charlie is being in her body. She looks back, "Keep your hands to yourself over there." But she heads over for the booth she works at, ignoring the dead body and the detective.

"You haven't kissed this me." Sure, the body is Gabriel's, but that crooked smile is all Sparrow's. Unlike her usual self, however, there's not a lot of oomph behind it. All lazy flirtation without any indication that there'll be follow through. Except perhaps for how the not-a-detective looks down along Elias' body and tells the Marius inside, "Your legs are down there." Cuz that man's got some legs, k? Nevermind that they aren't Marius' legs for more than the moment. Sparrow-as-Gabe licks a look between blue and brown eyes of the bodyswapped boys, a nod given for the term provided, before, yes, focusing on the task at hand, watching herself work. He lifts a hand, making a vague gesture that might pass as agreement.

With the officer running in, the ... detective-looking person turns to greet him and parrots, "One body. Looks to have possibly been a waiter for the event. Some defensive wounds." That comes with a wobble of his hand to suggest that it's inconclusive. "No sign of the murder weapon yet. These five--" He gestures to those standing by. "--were unconscious, and any remaining witnesses have scattered." He points to the various doors and halls. And then looks to the redhead for some clue about what to tell the guy to do next.

Gabriel-as-Sparrow turns and gives Sparrow a baffled look when she, er, he, er, whatever states that there is no sign of the murder weapon yet. He gestures at the knife sticking out of the dead guy in the room, as if to say, 'this is the murder weapon, Sherlock.' You don't even need to be a homicide detective in a chemistry student's body to know that!

But he makes a gesture for Sparrow to continue to stall as he reaches out for the blade, to try to get some sort of emotional impression off of it.

"What are we looking /for/ exactly?" Elias-as-Marius asks, finally breaking away from the flirting and getting over the initial shock of not really knowing what's going on bodywise and begins to move around to take a look. "There's a body, there's a knife /in/ the body.. there's probably fingerprints on the knife.. and someone probably should have stopped all those people from leaving who were having some freaky ritual in here with a party. Because if they offed this guy, what was going to stop them from finishing the rest of us off after desert?" I mean, he's not a detective but he has written horror.

Marius as Elias shakes his head at Lyric-as-Charlie's excitement, "This looks kind of like Mandarin Garden in Hoquiam." Close, but not quite. There are some things that are still just a little off. He nods a little at Sparrow, opening his mouth to respond, but there's a uniformed officer, and Marius sinks a little into the background, looking around the group of mostly-familiar faces doing unfamiliar things. He shakes his head at Elias's questions, "And maybe the person who stabbed him..." he trails off, looking over to the uniformed officer again and instead just sort of gesturing between himself and Elias. "So do we wake up? I mean, waking up hasn't really worked the last two times, right?"

Lyric checks out the DJ booth because that's what interests her. Maybe she can play a song! Songs she doesn't usually get to play because no one dances to them anymore. "It's kinda creepy though! But it's kinda cool too!" Messing around at the booth, she goes for getting Michael Jackson's Thriller to play. It seemed fitting.

<< Tell them that we need to round up all the waiters that were here serving this event tonight. Keeps them busy and helps. Looks like it might have a waiter as the murderer. >> Gabriel-as-Sparrow's voice pops into Sparrow-as-Gabriel's head, and he rises to Sparrow's feet to no longer be near the body. His eyes dart around, considering, looking for more information but hemmed in by the officers.

Charlie as Lyric carefully spreads his (her) hands out to his (her) sides, away from anything he (she) shouldn't be touching. "Oh god." He looks more and more nervous, even though there's a uniformed officer present, "Wasn't it an old Chinese person who handed out the fortune cookies in that one? No, wait, it was an old Chinese woman. Thank god." He's sweating, looking at the dead body and looking more than a little green. He jumps as Thriller starts to play, looking wide-eyed over to Lyric in his body.

The uniformed officer starts to nod to Sparrow in Gabe's body, until (s)he gets to the mention of the murder weapon. The officer slow-turns toward the body gripping the knife in its chest, then back to Sparrow as Gabriel, "Have you been drinking, sir? I mean, I know it's a wedding, but if you're drunk, sir, maybe I should take primary?"

<< Tell him knives don't kill people, people kill people. A person is a murder weapon. Make it some zen homicide detective nonsense. >> With Sparrow's brain chemistry, Gabriel-is-Sparrow is sure that Sparrow-as-Gabriel can talk her way out of anything.

Sparrow-as-Gabriel rubs at the back of his neck, fingers curling to scratch as he stands a little straighter, stretches slightly. Maybe he's puzzled over that whole knife-right-there thing, though the scowl he wears doesn't quite fit the situation. "Right, so." He points. "Murder weapon found." Good one, Detective Obvious. "I, uh. Woke up with the rest of 'em." Nothing like honesty, right? "Still a little out of sorts. Head'll clear in a few." Straightening a little, he tells the officer, "Look, we need someone to round up the staff and any of the guests that haven't fled the premises. A copy of the guest list, any other third party services that might've been on site for the event... We need our witnesses back." Nevermind the dismissive flutter of his hand to shoo the extra incoming advice. Sparrow's got this.

"Yeah, a fortune cookie from an old Chinese woman." Lyric as Charlie calls over. "And on the movie The Hot Chick, it was earrings. Cause that movie is good too." She starts dancing, she never takes much too seriously, doing the zombie thriller dance as she dances over to the others trying to find things about the body.

Elias -as-Marius watches all of them, and then he starts looking around, "I never saw that movie, so I have no idea what I'm looking for. Was there a ritual murder in it?" Because that's what this whole thing looks like to him. He starts looking around at whatever it was that they woke up on, and around the place where the body is, careful not to touch it or get too close, which takes a little doing. He moves a bit awkwardly with the larger mass that he's not used to having.

Marius as Elias smiles just a little as Sparrow-as-Gabriel deals with the cop, running one hand back across the center of his scalp. While the gesture works quite nicely with his haircut, on Elias's hair it looks kind of ridiculous, smoothing back a strip of hair and leaving the rest wild around his head. "Me neither. I'm trying to decide if I should. Like, watching Tron again was kind of awesome." A smile flashes momentarily, "And MIB is great for such an old movie... but I don't know. I don't think I need body-swapping murder. With or without Rob Schneider." Apparently he saw The Hot Chick.

Charlie as Lyric nods at Lyric-as-Charlie (that's still confusing), but then shakes his (her) head at Elias-as-Marius. "No. There wasn't. It's a classic though. Lindsay Lohan before she got trashy," judgy much? "And Jaime Lee Curtis as her mom. No murders. Just a mischievous old Chinese woman looking to teach people a lesson." He (she) pauses a moment, "You really think we were next on the murder list? Ugh, is this mixing up Freaky Friday and like, And Then There Were None? How does this stuff work, anyhow?"

The police officer (Krupke, his nametag reads) nods at Sparrow-as-Gabriel, "Yeah, Macintosh is working on rounding people up. But we got here late, there might have been a few who slipped through. You want some water or something, Detective? Take a seat while we bring people in? You want staff first, or guests?" He looks around the room, "Or maybe we should start with some of these people? That'd be a good cover, wouldn't it? Lay down with a bunch of other unconscious people and pretend to be drugged?"

"Lohan wanted to be in a band, she had a band like I do." Says Lyric-as-Charlie. "Why would anyone want any of us dead? Maybe they are up there," she waves higher up. "Looking through blacked out windows and watching us. Maybe we're the entertainment. We are the game. So dance with me." She dances again, to Thriller, she's having fun at least.

Detective Sparrow-as-Gabriel chimes in, off-handedly, that, "Mean Girls is a classic," on the subject of Lindsay Lohan before she got trashy. Detective Quintanilla might not look like the type to wear pink on Wednesdays, but the guy clearly has taste. Of some unspecified quality. "Staff," comes right on the tail-end of that commentary. "We should begin interviewing staff, Krupke." It's easier not to add the 'gee' if he leaves the 'officer' off. "I already spoke with these five. We'll get their official statements on record before we let them go, but let's keep this thing moving for now, yeah?" He makes a little 'hurry it up' sorta gesture that's not meant in any derogatory way toward the man in blue before looking to the others. With that, he looks back to the others, eyes widening once the NPC won't be able to see. The bullshitting is definitely not coming as naturally while in this body. This is work. "How'd the movie resolve?" Beat. "I mean, if we're looking at some sorta copycat."

"You're doing great!" says Gabriel-as-Sparrow, cheerily, patting his own shoulder in a moment that is really weird to him before he moves on. He is circling around the edges of the room, checking the snacks, trying to get some vibe here. "Do you guys know the bride and the groom? I'm just a plus one." Of who? It's a mystery!

Elias-as-Marius doesn't seem to be actually /finding/ anything as he looks around the room, but he's at least making some attempt at looking. Finally, though he gives up, still not sure /what/ they are looking for in a chinese restaurant with a DJ booth. Not having seen the movie either, he wanders over to the table of snacks and peruses them as well, then remembers.. don't eat anything in Dreams. Just don't. Turning away from the snacks he begins to look outside of the room, to see what he can see beyond it.

Dancing never gets old but she gets thirsty and Lyric as Charlie wanders over. She takes a fortune cookie or three, and she shoves them in a pocket. Then takes them back out. She gets a handful and approaches Charlie-as-Lyric and shoves them in her own hoodie pockets. For later. Once she's done that she opens one of them and breaks it in half, going to read the fortune....

Marius as Elias freezes a little as the uniform asks about interviewing them, but Sparrow-Gabriel has them covered, and he relaxes again, giving her a thumbs-up behind the officer's back. "Mean Girls... that's the one with the protein bars, right?" He saw it... a long time ago. He watches Elias and Gabriel prowling around, "Should we be doing that too?"

Charlie as Lyric blinks, "Uh, the Chinese woman wouldn't take the curse back, not until they really understood each other. And once they did that, they just swapped back. I mean, if you mean Freaky Friday. If you mean And Then There Were None, it's an adaptation of Christie's Ten Little Indians. Almost everyone gets murdered by a guy everyone thought was already dead." He side-eyes the corpse, but there was another question there, and he shrugs at Gabriel-as-Sparrow, "I don't even know who the bride and groom were. I don't think I knew this was a wedding."

Officer Krupke puts up with the movie talk with a little sigh, but nods to Sparrow-as-Gabriel, "Okay, detective. I'll help Macintosh send in the staff first." He looks around, gesturing to the other five wandering about, "Hey... don't contaminate the crime scene. You want me to get these people out, detective?"

"I don't know," Elias-as-Marius says, "There's folks in there being rounded up, and the kitchen's over there.. and out that way.." he nods toward some more windows, "Looks like.. trees. I mean, we could be anywhere around Gray Harbor." He looks a little bit frustrated and reached up to run both hands through his hair, which would work if there was hair on either side of his head, but there isn't, and so he just stands there a moment, then lets his hands drop. "So.. what? We're supposed to like.. hug it out and get to know each other on a deep personal level and pop we're back in our own bodies.. while a murder investigation is going on around us?"

"That's the one with the protein bars," Sparrow-as-Gabriel confirms to might-be-Marius even as he watches Gabriel-as-Sparrow go. Don't tilt your head, weirdo. Do not check out your own ass. Yep. Yeah. There it is. Of course, she checked out her own ass. Ahem. He holds up his hand to wave Krupke off, promising, "I got this," even if his dream credibility is slightly undermined by his inspection of the redhead. A little louder, for the group, he tells the group, "Try to keep to the ritual hexagram," intending to draw the group closer again. With a nod toward might-be-Elias, he says, "We keep an eye out for a guy who looks like--" Pointing to the corpse. "--that." With a nod, he then adds, "Or, yeah, we hug it out. Really get to know each other? Group therapy hexagram anyone?" With a look toward the redhead, he asks honestly, "How's it feel in there?" the words a bit too weighty to be a jest.

"Just feels off over here," says Gabriel-as-Sparrow as she makes a cirlce of thr snacks dat ass swaying all the way. So curvy. So ogleable. So go ahead and warch, Sparrow-as-Gabe. But he doesn't notice. "Like something pressing down on me. And ice on my spine."

Lyric as Charlie reads her fortune. "Never trust a liar twice." She grins, because it was true, and like usual, she pops in part of the fortune cookie and munches away. She'd been in her own little world, not worried about the dream. She always managed to get through them somehow. "What are we talkin' about? Is there anything I can do to help?"

Marius as Elias watches Elias as Marius have the opposite problem he did trying to futz with his hair, then notes, "One hand, down the middle. Then rub the back of your neck." It's the mundane things in the midst of the weird. He himself tries both hands back through his hair like Elias just demonstrated, and finds it much more satisfactory for the current style. He catches the glance by Sparrow at Sparrow-body's ass, and he chuckles, shaking his head in amusement -- and promptly getting hair in his face again. Shaking it back, he scowls over to Elias-in-his-body again, "How the heck do you deal with this? And yes, that's how good it looks all the time." Okay, that's weird too, and he blushes a little, shrugging helplessly. "Group therapy. And we look for the dead guy somewhere else?" He comes back to the middle of the room, warily closing on the corpse and sitting down a little. Gabriel-as-Sparrow's words send ice down Marius's spine, and he looks around, "That's not creepy or anything."

"Meant in that pretty head of yours, red," Sparrow-as-Gabriel calls over to her otherwise-inhabited self, but it's not as off-handed as he'd like it to be. "But, uh. Remember what you were saying about keeping it normal and on an as-needed basis under the oak tree today?" Cryptic much? "This is not needed, alright?" Yeah, he knows what triggers that chilly sensation. Brown-eyed attention set steadily on Gabe-as-Sparrow, he holds out a hand in offering, invitation. "Right now, being in here?" He taps his temple indicatively, following through on that Group Therapy option. "Nothing's as clear as I'd like. Quiet, yeah, but--" He shakes his head and looks to Lyric-as-Charlie, then to Marius-as-Elias. "Tell me what's weird about being in these bodies. Tell me what you like about being in these bodies. Cuz me? I'm feeling buff as fuck. Just, uh. A little too even keel to keep all the thoughts from milling about." Whatever that means. Let's hope Krupke's not still over there listening as the conversation gets Really Weird.

Charlie as Lyric looks wide-eyed at the suggestions, "Hugging it out with my body sounds really weird." He watches Krupke go, and then shakes his head, inching closer to where they started, "So how long before the staff get sent back in here? You really think we have to really understand the other person to get out of here?" He shrinks in on himself a little at Gabriel-as-Sparrow's words, muttering to himself, "No no no no no..."

Krupke's out again, handling the crowd and gathering up the wait-staff.

Sparrow-playing-Detective clips quickly to Charlie-playing-DJ, "I don't fucking know, do I? But it's a whole lot better than sitting there bitching, so pitch in or chill it."

"Where is the dead man's second body? We all have one. He's dead in the wrong body too. Maybe we have to change them back or at leeast put them together." Lyric as Charlie says. She looks at her body and sniffs. "I don't blame you not wanting to hug thos body."

Lyric as-Charlie looks to Sparrow, confused. "Bitching?" Was she?

Elias-as-Marius says, "Yeah, I can feel the chill around the edges of the room." He glances in that direction, and then begins moving over toward one of the corners, one hand held out in front of him, trying to feel where the cold starts exactly. "Uh, as for this body.. I mean, I'm taller, more muscular, definitely got more power behind it. It's weird to not have my hair, and to feel like I'm driving an SUV instead of a motorcycle, you know? I mean, you also feel like you got beaten with socks full of quarters, dude. What the Hell did you /DO/?" This is shot over at Marius-in-his-Body. "I am sore as fuck all over."

"We just need to find a way out," says Gabriel-as-Sparrow, his anxiety growing. "I can find a murderer, I can hug it out, but I have no idea which way is out, dammit." He takes a deep breath and says to Lyric. "Maybe. The person who stabbed our friend was terrified. Could it be a swap? Someone killed his body this way?" He waits for the staff to return. "And. I feel like I understand you a whole lot better." His eyes lock with Sparrow-as-Gabriel.

Sparrow -as-Gabe points at one might-be-Lyric then, with the other hand, the other. Shit. Both hands wave it off at once as he mutters a, "Sorry." Deep breath. "That's a good point," comes with a nod to the body missing its other, the literal odd man out. Gabe-the-Redhead gets his attention with that proposed theory... and holds it with that admission. Briefly. There's no response beyond that before the Pretend-Detective looks away, over to Elias-the-Viking. And then off to the edges of the room. "I felt that chill, that pressure, standing right fucking here--" Said to no one in particular. "--when I, uh." He waves his hand, fingers given a little wiggle. The brain inside this body just does not have the right verbiage to explain Glimmer usage. "Ya know. Did a thing. Spooky-fu." Technical term.

Right, group therapy. Marius-as-Elias grimaces a little at the suggestion, then nods at Sparrow-as-Gabriel when she snaps at Charlie-as-Lyric, "Yeah. C'mon, man." Lyric-as-Charlie's words draw a chuckle, "Ouch. That's cold." He doesn't apologize for the chuckle though, and he's still grinning a little. Elias-as-Marius's description draws a chuckle, "I feel like I'm driving a SmartCar. But like, there's some moves with an axe that I couldn't pull off in my body that I probably could here." If he trained in it for a good long while. Which he's not going to do. "Oh, yeah, that's probably why I feel so good. I kind of ran into a wall in a light cycle a week and a half ago." In a Dream. "I was black and blue for the last week." He pauses a moment, and then supplies, "Glimmer." He wiggles his fingers to demonstrate. "I know a little. But I've got no idea which way is out. The usual ways out don't seem to work. We broke through a wall in Tron. Neuralized everybody in MIB..."

Charlie-as-Lyric narrows his eyes at Lyric-as-Charlie, grimacing at Marius-as-Elias's follow-up, then looks back to Gabriel-as-Sparrow, "That's a terrifying idea, isn't it? Killing your own body?" He leans forward just a little, "You think that's what happened? What do you think that would feel like?" He doesn't seem inclined to comment on what it feels like to be in the young woman's body.

"Pissed Pleasantville off," Sparrow-as-Gabriel supplies to complete SmartCar-Marius' list. "Somebody who didn't want to go back into their own body then? Not a look-alike. But the consciousness of our dead friend here. Do we know his name? Do we--" He looks to the Actual-Detective and asks, "Can the--" With a glance toward Marius-as-Elias again. "--Glimmer? That you do track the consciousness that belongs to that body? Can you find that kinda resonance?" So much for Group Therapy. New theory now!

"You kinda need a shower, Lyric." Tells Lyric-as-Charlie to her own body, meaning Charlie's of course. "And deodorant. Why are you so nervous and sweaty? What were you doing before you took away my body?" She zeroes in on him, tapping her big as dude foot. "We gotta get you into the gym, okay? We want you to live. 'Specially with me in this body." Lyric totally doesn't mince her words any.

"Yeah well you still feel like you ran into a wall last week," Elias-as-Marius smirks when it's described to him what happened to the body he now inhabits. "Dude, wear a helmet, or like, padding, next time." He grins a little, though. "I mean.. if we were in the Veil.. I could take us out.. but this isn't.. that, not precisely." He glances over toward Lyric/Charlie and Charlie/Lyric. "What /is/ it about you that you keep turning up in these things?" I mean, the same could be asked about /him/ all things considered, but that's neither here nor there.

"I'm in touch with my glittery side." Lyric-as-Charlie tells Elias with a giggle. A MAN giggle. It's sexy as fuck. Bow down to his girly-sexiness. She (He) struts all sexy like towards her own body. "KISS me." Puckering up to poor Charlie-as-Lyric. "Open a fortune cookie, maybe we have to find matching ones like the movie did. Kinda."

Marius-as-Elias nods to Sparrow-as-Gabe as she finishes the list, "Right. Someone said something about that." He shrugs at Elias-in-his-body, "They only gave me this crazy-ass bodysuit with glowing bits." He steps forward slightly as Lyric starts insulting the body she's wearing, frowning, "Hey... easy... come on... leave the guy alone. We don't all have awesome genes like..." he gestures to his chest. It would probably have more impact if he gestured to the chest of his body, but Elias is still in excellent shape, so it still works. When Lyric goes from disdain to suggesting a kiss, he blinks in surprise, "Uh..."

Sparrow-as-Gabriel's curiosity is caught by something Blond-Elias says. The Veil. The Not-a-Detective stares at the Not-a-Viking for a long moment before following his curiosity over to Lyric-Charlie. "Difference, Mr. Warlock, is that we've all seen each other outside of this context, but Mr. No No No No No--" Was that enough Nos? "--over here is sufficiently invisible that he arouses our suspicion. Add to that his movie trivia?" Looking to Charlie-Lyric, he says, "I'm good playing match-the-fortunes if that's what we've gotta do, but I am just fine playing Weekend at Bernie's with this guy--" The corpse. Ew? "--if fucking with the narrative will crack something open. Pick a path, people." Cuz Sparrow's tried and playing musical theories is exhausting without the mania to help it along.

Gabriel-as-Sparrow offers to try, stepping up to the body, and this time everyone can feel a little more weight on their shoulders, a little more chill down their spine.

Charlie-as-Lyric scowls at his own body, currently being worn by Lyric, "Hey! I'm not afraid to hit myself." He lifts up one hand, but the gesture is an open palm close by his own cheek, as if he's going to hit the body he's currently in. He gets distracted by Elias-as-Marius's question, "I don't know! I'm trying to figure that out myself" But there's Lyric strutting over to him in his own body, and his eyes go wide, "What? No!" He starts to stagger back, "We've got a dead body and a murderer and I can't be the only one feeling all creepy and you want to kiss yourself? Stay away from me!" He raises his hands, backing away further.

The Dream collapses around them, each one waking up back in their own body, where they expect it to be.