FOURTH INVESTIGATION

[grimgrinningghosts]

[After over a month of all this, all the death is starting to take a toll on this mansion. Maybe with the death that happened just yesterday, you hope that no one else will die this week, but even the most optimistic guests here will realize that's wishful thinking at this point.

Either way, as you leave your bedroom, you will hear strange music echoing through the hallways.

Investigate?]

Comments

[terribibble]

[Well... w-well. Dents wouldn't be enough to kill him, and if he's more or less in one piece that rules out shutdown simply because of important components no longer being connected.

Time to get under the hood, so to speak. It's fine, he's a robot doctor. First order of business is seeing if he can get WALL-E's front panel open. Is there anything... in there? Either an object, or an obvious internal breakage?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[Through rooting, the thing that is most clear is that the motherboard has a huge dent in it, along with various other parts inside WALL-E's body. It's... gonna be difficult to repair without all the necessary bits.]

[terribibble]

[Oh no. Ohhhh no. He could repair something like a torn wire or a burnt fuse or a break but...

Well. He could repair the motherboard, with tools and materials. But you can't jury rig those out of scrap you cannibalize from other machines. It'd be like trying to fix someone's brain with play-doh.

He sits back and drags his hands down his face.]

Dammit. God dammit.

[Is there anything else of note about the body he might have seen while he was moving it to investigate the inside? Or can he go feel useless in peace.]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[There seems to be some kinda string on WALL-E? I mean it's no motherboard but it's something!]

[terribibble]

[... String? Well that's... odd. What color? Thickness?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[It looks like it belongs to a string instrument of some sort.]

[terribibble]

[Oh god dammit, this again. At least this is the other thing he's kind of good at. Is it possible to tell what kind of string instrument? Is the string distinctive?

And even if he can't tell... where exactly on WALL-E is it?]

[grimgrinningghosts]

[If Fiddles knows enough about instruments, he should be able to recognize it as catgut string.

And it's kinda draped over WALL-E, like it accidentally fell on him.]

[terribibble]

[He is kind of wearing his banjo at his back at this very moment. If he doesn't recognize it nobody's going to, probably.

Well. At least that means nobody tried to garrote the robot.

He's just going to take that string. And... the motherboard. It's WALL-E's brain, more or less. He can't fix him yet, but he's in there somewhere and he'll still be there later once he figures out a way to get the parts he needs. Because he will. He will.]