Roleplay

Rowan took a seat on the cot Black had indicated, pulling his legs up to sit crosslegged as the other started explaining their samples. The vial was interesting, but nothing exceptional, at least in his opinion. He skimmed over the charts—he wasn’t a doctor, most of it meant little to him, but his knowledge was adjacent enough to keep up with Black’s tangent. He took out the notebook he kept on him, and scribbled down a few thoughts as Black talked.

“It is a shame, really,” He nodded, “What a way to go.”

He looked at Black’s visor, as though he was expecting to see something more there. “You know,” he said after a moment, “I’m not a medical student, never was, never wanted to be. But I am a scientist. Scientific method and all that, it’s sort of what I do. And every good scientist knows that you can’t just assume something based on one test, gotta test it over and over, preferably done by different people, to eliminate any experimenter bias. So, in light of recent events, you’ll have to forgive me if I don’t assume your saliva samples are fact.”

Noir's manic laughter stopped abruptly as he felt his face contort itself into a pout. "You don't believe that I did multiple trials? How sad. You really do have no faith in me as a medic." He hopped onto one of the medical beds next to Lime's, crossing his legs and leaning forward.

"The thing is, Lime, is that I did do multiple trials, thank you very much. I have multiple vials of Pink's blood. And multiple samples of Orange's saliva. And every time the results were the same-accounting for inevitable variation of course. I did a box chart with error bars and everything, Lime."

He huffed, expression changing to an annoyed scowl. "I have those charts if you want to see, too. I just figured that I'd let you see my process. Prove that I didn't tamper with anything. And if you would like to run a few tests with the samples, be my guest. Are you done with questioning my medical degree, Lime?"

Of course, Noir had already tampered with all the vials-he'd removed any trace of his DNA (though did leave the impostor proteins in there) and replaced it with Orange's. Not that he'd leave a sample of his own DNA lying around-now, that was just sloppy. He was the only person on the ship who could read genetic code, too. He'd made sure of that when he went for Cyan first.

She was the riskiest, after all. Another medic who was the most likely to notice his tampering.

But she was dead, so it was fine.

"Its not that I don't believe you did multiple, I'm positive you did--its more that you were the only one to do trials. How do I know I can trust you? Experimenter bias, like I said. If you've got stake in the results, its completely possible you would change them to suit your needs." Rowan tilted his head to one side, smiling under his visor.

"You're the only one aboard who would know, after all. And its funny, DNA or not, I never picked up on Orange doing anything suspicious. Not that that necessarily means it wasn't Orange, just that it means it might not have been. Personally, I would sacrifice my own degree to say it wasn't."

"What kind of researcher would I be if I didn't question and observe everything, really, Black?" He laughed.

"You're a fun one, aren't you?" Noir grinned, relaxing his muscles. "I like that, Lime. I like that a lot." He tapped his fingers against his helmet, humming. "Run whatever samples you like. What'll it take for you to accept my truth?"

He paused, then caught onto something else Lime had said. "You'd give up your degree, hm?" Oh, does he suspect me? Noir thought, delighted. It's going to be so much more fun that way! "Who do you suspect then?" Leaning forward, the impostor did his best to look interested. "You think the DNA was...planted, then?"

"And as for your question?" Smirking, Noir flashed some fang under his visor. "I think it'd just make you wonderfully convenient."

“What would make me believe you?” Rowan hummed. “The truth would, I suppose, Black. Facts don’t tend to lie.” He leaned forward as well. This conversation had done nothing but nearly confirm what he already thought. People don’t refer to their coworkers doing their jobs as inconvenient, but here they were.

“The others are sure it was Orange, but it’s not their jobs to be observant. If I had to guess, and I do get paid to make educated guesses, I would put my money on you, Black.”

"Ah, so you think I'm sus," Noir grinned. "Lovely. It's more interesting that way, anyway. What makes you think it's me?" He placed a hand over his heart, tilting his head innocently. "I've always had perfect alibis, Lime. And I'm your medic. Wouldn't murdering my poor crewmates go against my Hippocratic Oath?"

Running his tongue over his lips, he leaned closer. "Why would you choose me over Orange, little detective?"

“Lots of little things start to add up, when you really pay attention. Fleck of blood here, an odd response there, maybe standing just a little too close to the vents, or turning up somewhere just a fraction of a second too quickly.” He gestured vaguely as he talked. “Lots of things that could be written off as circumstantial evidence, until you look at the whole picture.” He tapped on the cover of his closed notebook with one finger. “I don’t love to jump to conclusions, but the way the odds stack up can be telling. Poor Orange was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”

He hummed. "My, my, wasn't circumstantial evidence what was enough to get Orange voted off, hmm?" Noir paused to laugh quietly. "What're you going to do now? Throw me out of the airlock? Good luck on surviving without a medic. If you're wrong it'll be the end of you."

"Mm, no, I don't think so. I couldn't throw you out of the airlock even if I wanted to." Rowan moved to get up, stretching a moment--as best he could in a space suit, anyway--before grabbing his notebook. "And I don't want to. If I'm wrong, then we're down a medic, and if I'm not, then what am I supposed to do? Go back to spending all my time analyzing dirt samples? It's not as fun as it might seem."

"So-let me get this straight." He stopped to laugh. "What you're saying is that if you found the impostor, you wouldn't rat them out? I don't know, Lime, that's kind of sus of you, isn't it?" Noir bared his fangs, a little disappointed that the gesture was lost on the crewmate. "Why would you not expose them to the rest of the crew? Are you an impostor?" No, he's not. Other impostors don't smell as delicious as humans do.