Tokyo Ghoul: Detroit Dogs

[Jemnite]

Are you sure it's a good idea? How long have these two been paired together? Days? What if he decides to take the two of them out and just run with her?

What other choices do we have? You know as well as I that he's picked her.

...shouldn't we consider assigning her to a more experienced pair? We're offering up a pair of antelopes into the jaws of a lion?

If he decides to kill them, there's nothing anything less than our top investigators can do to stop them. If we're going to lose anyone, we should at least make them replaceable.

...I must voice my opposition to this callous treatment of personnel on moral grounds-

But will you sign off on it?

...God help me, yes, I will.

Good. We're in business then.

Tokyo Ghoul : Detroit Dogs
Act 1: Babysitters

Alice Taverner
Pomeroy Penitentiary
Early Evening

The room leaks. There is water dripping. Constantly.

It is regular and continuous and comes like the ticking of a clock. Tick. Tock. Tick. Tock. You can count the time off with the water drops. For lack of a clock, you actually use it to count time.

Which is why you know that the footsteps coming are not the person bringing your evening meal to you- the meal that they lace with RC suppressors to keep you weak and unable to resist. It is not the scheduled time, and his gait is not that of the guard who brings it.

"Is this her?" A voice asks, and you turn to face it. It is a man, thirty to forty years of age in appearance, wearing a professional looking suit and with the markings of a man who's seen some action. By his posture and body language you can identify him as a man from the top, a executive, someone who makes real decisions.

He is standing in front of your cell, studying you.

You can hear the whispers of other ghouls in the other cells as they see him. A man with power. Freedom or death, freedom or death. These are the whole choices that men with power bring with them.

"Take her out." He says. Two guards rush from his side and unlock the door to your cell. The murmur of your cell neighbors grow louder and louder. Freedom or death, freedom or death. They chant the words like a prayer. A hymn. The guards ignore them as they move cautiously into your room. Hopped up on RC suppressors, they know that you are still a dangerous predator.

First they snap a muzzle onto your face. Over your mouth. They wrestle you to the ground, and lock it firm. It is an injustice- but one you cannot avenge at the moment. Then they drag you before the man.

He stares down at you. You can say nothing- mostly due to the giant metal contraption strapped over your mouth. He begins to speak. "I come to offer you a choice."

It is not really a choice.

Inas Abidi
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Morning

This morning is unusual. It's definitely unusual. For one, you've been called to the office of the head of your department. This is bad news. It either means that either you're in big trouble... or... well, you can't done anything noteworthy lately so basically you're in big trouble.

The waiting room seems deliberately designed to make you as nervous as possible. It is stark and plain, no decorations to distract your mind from the imposing nature of your upcoming talk. The lights are too bright and harsh, it's not at all comforting to the eyes. The chairs are uncomfortable, you're unable to sit back or relax in them.

It must be a deliberate choice to prey on the minds of young employees like you.

And you are young. You're the greenest of the rookies. You've only been assigned your partner for a couple of days now, and it's clear that she's not anything you expected. She's cool and indifferent, unfazed by anything. Compared to you, she seems to swim through every social situation with the ease of the shark that her mask portrays, cutting through tension with the air of 'I simply do not care'.

On the other hand you're awkward and withdrawn and you spend a bit too much time critically self analyzing yourself. You're probably as different as day and night.

"Miss Abidi?" The reception says and your head immediately snaps to face her. "Sub-Director Roberts is ready to see you now."

She leads you, heels snapping, straight to the director. She's all business; you get the feeling that she doesn't want to talk so you don't try. Instead, you just follow her as she leads you to the director's office.

Compared to the stark waiting room you were sitting in, it's comforting. Luxurious and plus. These are the words that instantly come to mind to describe the Sub-Director's office, with its soft rug, its soft chairs with good armrests and backsupport, it's cheery paintings and photos of friends and family ahnging up on the walls. The Sub-Director smiles at you. "Take a seat Miss Abidi."

You take a seat.

"First of all," he starts. "I must apologize for settling this responsibility on your shoulders. I understand that you're extremely young and inexperienced and yet we place this pressure upon you. You must understand that this is because we have no other choices. All our other investigators are... occupied. Youare the only one who we can trust with this."

A bit more than a hour later you're standing in front of a cell. Justica- your ghoul partner- is there too. Inside the cell is a certain Alice Taverner, a ghoul that Sub-Director Roberts noted is violent, murderous, dangerous, exactly the sort of ghoul that the DoGS is meant to combat, and also to be your and Justica's newest charge. To train- to control- to break her reins and ultimately hope to turn her into a worthwhile asset for the DoGS.

An impossible task.

The cell door opens remotely, operated by a guard watching the whole scene behind a bulletproof glass screen behind you. And Miss Alice, lethal ghoul killer who has been off RC suppressants long enough to be dangerous, awakens.

Justica Vayle
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Morning

The Ghoul Domintories of the DoGS Detroit Headquarters are small and the people living there are packed in like sailors on a ship, sleeping in bunk beds arrayed one above the other. It would have a bit of a homely feel to them if the inhabitants didn't have to worry about being attacked by the other lodgers and if the door wasn't made out of high quality steel and bolted from the ouside.

Still, it was fairly cozy with the personal effects strewn about the beds and room. The ghoul sleeping in the bunk above yours has slapped up posters of boybands everywhere. The ghoul in bunk opposite yours surroundings her bed with a veritable fortress made out of books.

The door rattles and you look up automatically as someone undoes the bolt. The guards here are cautious but are more comfortable than dangerous, undrugged ghouls than they perhaps should be. Too confident in the knowledge that you wouldn't actually attempt to attack one of them, because there is more to lose than there is to gain by doing such.

It may turn out to be a false sense of security one day.

"Vayle." The guard spots you can calls out. "Your partner's here."

It's about time. She's an hour late. Your partner is this little- well, you can't quite call her mousy considering her appearance, but her personality is gloomy, awkward and completely withdrawn.

Too much like prey.

But she's usually on time like clockwork to pick you up to take your duties. For her to be late is extremely unusual. You follow the guard down hallways tight and cramped, made for a defender to be able to pour bullets down an enclosed space. Defenders both against what is contained within and what comes from outside.

You don't arrive at your usualy destination. Instead, the guard leads you to the basements, where the holding cells for the more.. dangerous and un-'tamed' ghouls are. Inas is there, standing in front of a cell within which is a ghoul. Your instincts scream danger immediately, the ghoul inside that cell is dangerous and scary and she will kill.

The door opens, and the ghoul awakens.

[Frantic Author]

Alice Taverner
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Evening

The door opens.

And behind the door is a monster in human form.

It doesn't speak, simply stares with wide, unblinking eyes, as it waves an arm - a human arm - around, before biting deep into the flesh. A chunk is gone, and it smiles with teeth covered in red. "You know," it drawls around the blood and meat in it's mouth, "I would have agreed much sooner if I'd know I'd get to eat."

The monster has a way of speaking that makes one shudder as it does, with lilting highs and a methodical pace to its voice. It is too normal, too casual, too human for the inhumanity that it is.

Tick.

Tock.

"15."

It stands up, holding the hand of the arm like a drumstick as it takes another bite. "How many meals I was given before the clock started." It explains this as if it is a standard thing. As if the Count is a constant, unmovable, unbreakable idea in reality that can't be stopped. "Two million, five hundred and sixty six thousand, one hundred and eighty six."

The time since it last stepped outside. A time that is not wholly deserved, and yet it is. It - that is, I, am a quintessential monstrosity.

I eat.

I sleep.

I kill.

It's a cycle, a cycle. If I do not eat, I cannot sleep for the pain in my stomach. If I do not sleep, I cannot kill to satiate my own hunger. If I cannot kill, I do not eat. And inside that cage, where I was offered a choice amidst a count that still murmurs in my head, There was no cycle. There was nothing but walls that close in on the viewer and meals of slop filled with suppressants. My back sings with glee as I stand up, clothing sloppily placed on myself as I flip around the arm I hold, using the bone to extend it out with a gruesome smile.

"You," I say, pointing it at the one who smells like flowers and sunshine, "You're not the ghoul. What's it like?"

It's a question, a question. 2,566,190. I'm interested. Being around a monster, and told that you have to work with it, when it killed your family and friends and loved ones and everyone you ever cared about not for food, or to satiate its hunger, but because it lusts for blood and desires more.

I tilt my head to the side and stare at the ghoul, instead. "What's it like working with a monster?"

No. As I stare at the ghoul, I realize soon after the words leave my lips. My mouth curls in distaste, and I gouge another bite with my teeth. This ghoul before me is barely a monster; she's more like a mediocre human. 2,566,200. She'd use one of her own as a weapon if asked. Disgusting. A waste, a waste. To use a ghoul as a weapon - they're better off dead, yes?

"Ah. I'm sorry. She's not a monster." My lips let out a sigh, and I eat. I eat for lack of a better thing to do, and I eat to satiate this gnawing pit that pretends to be a stomach. I hunger, I hunger, I hunger for meat. I have hungered for two million, five hundred and sixty six thousand, one hundred seconds. There is a chance, a chance that they will not let me finish my meal before we leave, so I look at them as I toss aside the bones of the arm. "One moment."

Disgusting.

It's disgusting, to eat as a monster.

There's no sensuality, no flair, nothing that makes it enticing or interesting or even remotely palatable. I eat because I am hungry. I am hungry because I eat. It's a cycle, a cycle. What I am doing could not be called 'eating', any longer. No - I devour the corpse before me because I am insatiably hungry at this moment, and it would not be polite to go out with a stomach that rumbles.

Blood runs down pale white skin as I look up, shrugging my shoulders and wiping a single, delicate hand across my lips. "Ah. I apologize. Would you like any?"

I offer a chunk of ribs, the most delectable part of the body. The silence before me tells me they would not like any, so I eat. It's delicious.

The silence remains until I finish, standing up and stretching like a cat, my back arching and my kagune comfortably full in my stomach. A grand meal, a grand desire filled. Blood coats my clothing, but there is no reason to change. The people of this Department and of this city. They deserve to know who I am.

"Shall we?" I ask, bowing slightly.

2,566,420.

[Snax]

Justicia Vayle
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Evening

".....What a clown."
Justicia's response is anything but affected, as she cooly ignores the antics of the other ghoul. She wasn't the type of ghoul to care whether a member of her same race was batshit or not, but she had always viewed everything from a distance, somewhat detached from reality. The only times she actually was 'in-it' was during combat, no doubt.

Well, to be honest, there was no point being philosophical or anything. Ghouls, humans, investigators - they were all just the same, just bites of meat that she would consume if she felt like it. Not being much of an eater, Justicia's appetite was easily sated with a few mouthfuls, meaning her kills were always left over in some form or way. Some may have even survived an attack by her if she felt peckish, no doubt.

Justicia smiled as she viewed the specimen in front of her.

It was a weird one, no doubt. However, it didn't stimulate her appetite. At least, up to this point, at any rate. Weirdos were bunch a dozen, and Justicia herself was probably one as well - not to mention there were many of such eccentrics in her meal ticket up to this point.

"So, officer - "

Addressing her charge, Justicia yawned, her bikaku kagune rolling out of her skirt, moving to and fro like a shark's fin -

"If you want me to fight, I'll do it - but I ain't quite feeling the urge. Yeah, you. You don't look tasty. I won't bite."

Laughing crudely, her sharp, filed-to-a-point teeth glinting, Justicia yawned and awaited her orders.

[Vritra]

Inas Abidi
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Morning

Having to team up with a ghoul instead of turning them into spare parts and making a proper weapon, having to team up with two ghouls, including one who remains an unrepentant danger, no mr ‘I’m sorry’ you’re not sorry. I know you’re not sorry you know you’re not sorry you know that I know that you’re not sorry. If you truly felt remorse you simply wouldn’t have done it in the first place anything less is simply a shallow fake that.

All our inspectors are occupied, we can only rely on you. HA, such a transparent lie is so easy to see through I think you mean we didn’t think this would succeed so we’re not using anyone we think has value. Lies, lies and more lies a fitting thing for this country his lies are matched only by my own, I sit here say how I understand and I thank him for efforts and belief in me, in this suit that we all wear to try to fool others into thinking were better than we are, and I don’t care what Vayle says I can wear this suit consecutively just fine, I didn’t get any anything on it so it’s fine any complaints are just her looking for a fight. I bet she didn’t have any major money problems AND MY SMILE ISN’T STRAINED AND GLOOMY, it’s perfectly fine and I know that because I practiced it, thank you veeeeeery much. Damn nitpicking ghoul.

Smile, say words of thanks, and get this god forsaken chore over with.

Standing in front of reinforced door at the end of a hallway designed to act as a kill lane I meet the person who was so unrepentantly dumped on me and …well she’s a loon, how wonderful another nutcase I think I’ll curse sub-director extra hard for this. Now just get this useless chit chat over and get on with it so without further ado I’ll, I’ll …I’ll say what. Nrgh this is exactly why I hate talking with people dancing around useless pleasantries and a lack of knowing what so say, this is why books are infinitely superior, no search for what t to say, no having to put up with the overbearing of others who can’t take a hint, they simply impart everything they intend and if you really want you can find understanding of the author in the text. Stupid conversations, stupid stumbling for words, stupid invisible bodily cues, go rot in hell with this sham of a country.

“There are no problems with it… hurry up and …don’t bother with offering any.” Fidgeting while trying to find words to speak without lowering my guard I finally just spout off something as I try to rush through this.”

To even think of lowering ones guard even in this place is completely and utterly stupid even without people like nutcase who would probably gladly attack regardless of the consequences there are still ghoul who are only one lapse in judgement from trying to kill you not to mention the rest of the city. Feh the whole plan is stupid, better to just boil them down for spare parts and get it all over with. Taking a step back I motion for our new nutcase to proceed forward.

The sooner this is over the better, maybe if I’m lucky she’ll get herself killed quickly.

[Jemnite]

Inas Abidi
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Morning

"Wow you're even a shittier excuse for an investigator that you looked like." A voice calls down from on high, filled with condescension. There's a girl, short, no higher than your chest standing in the doorway above the small flight of stairs that leads out of the basement. She is prim, pretty nad proper, just like a doll. Her yellow hair comes down in twintails, held up by little pink ribbons, and her blue eyes are wide like they belong to some bigwig's well tutored daughter but instead of a gothic lolita style dress to complete her look, she's wearing one of those bland jumpsuits that they assign all the prisoners. A ghoul then. A freed ghoul. Probably partnered with another investigator, just like Justica. She stands there smirking for a fair bit before someone comes up behind her and gives her a good kick down the stairs.

She hits every step on the way down.

"Don't talk shit about any of the humans here, you little brat." A man growls. He takes a drag on his cigarette. He's wearing a standard issue DoGS suit, rumpled. His hair is black and unkempt, spiking out at various angles and his dark eyes are bloodshot and you can see the veins. "The newbie might be out of her depth, but she's still leagues than you."

"Yeah?" The little girl ghoul growls out, as she pushes herself back up. Her cuts and scrapes are already mending. "How so?"

"Well, for one, she's an actual person." The man sneers. The implication of 'unlike you' hangs at the end of the sentence unsaid. He ignores it to greet you. "Hey newbie. I see you've met the wild beast."

He saunters over, keeping a wary eye out for Alice. As he labeled her 'the wild beast', it seems like he is justifiably a bit cautious of her.

"Let me give you some advice." He leans in to impart some sage words of wisdom or whatever. "You gotta make sure they understand you're the one holding the leash. If you give them too much leeway, they start to think that they're the ones in charge."

"Now, c'mon." He jerks his head towards the exit. "Let's get out of here. I'll brief you on what your new roles are."

He starts back to the doorway and up the stairs, but pauses halfway up to bellow at his partner. "Lacey! Show the wild one where she goes. The tame one comes with me."

"Fuck you!" She spits out, but goes to follow his instructions regardless.

Alice Taverner
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Evening

"That guy... he really is a giant asshole." The short lolita girl mutters as her partner leads the other human and ghoul away. "Fuck... and he even gave me that shitty order too. Seriously fuck that guy."

The small, bratty ghoul leads you away as she grumbles. She skips, rather than walks. The beat of her footsteps alternates, short and long, short and long. It's regular, predictable.

"So... Dice. I'm Lacey. No last name." You didn't ask, but she introduces herself anyways. Probably trying to start conversation to ward off the silence, or maybe she just like the sound of her own voice. "I'm like you; I took the offer that the DoGS gave me to save my own skin. Otherwise they would have gone chop, right to my head, and I sort of need that, you know?" She laughs. "Anyway, we're sort of in the same boat. You and me. Kind of the same."

Are you really?

"You don't believe me do you? You think we're not at all alike, and you're wondering why I think that, right?" She speaks up again suddenly after you've been walking for a short while in silence. Her voice adds a bit of syncopation to the strange rhythmic pattern of her skipping. "Well, I know because I read your file. The DoGS file on you."

"We're both doing this because we wanted to live, not because of some sick desire to eat the flesh of our kin or because we're like fucking dogs who will bark at whatever the DoGS orders. We're the same in that aspect." She stops abruptly in the middle of the room. It looks like a bedroom, with four beds, double bunk beds, and a variety personal effects scattered around the room. She searches around in a drawer for a package as you watch. Finally locating it, she holds it out to you, and you mouth starts watering.

You know what it is, just from the smell. It's something raw and real, probably filled with the taste of terror and fear, instead of that dumb processed crap. Something that you can really sink your teeth into.

"We'll get along great, right? Roomie?" She asks you, offering you the package of freshly killed meat.

Justicia Vayle
DoGS Headquarters, Detroit Branch
Early Evening

"So, newbie." You're following your charge away from the basement. Apparently the investigator leading your little trained has deemed you tame enough to actually know what the fuck is going on, and you don't feel motivated enough yet to prove him wrong. "You know who I am?"

Yeah... there's no way that Abadi knows that. She barely knows how to hold her DoGS issued sidearm, let along some rando investigator's name. But it's a rhetorical question, anyway, because he just keeps talking. "I'm your new boss. Well, the direct boss anyway. Head of joint ghoul-human squad 6. Senior Special Investigator Laney. The brat you saw earlier is my 'non-human asset'."

He actually makes the air quotes as he says it. "Anyway, so you got assigned Dice. She's a bit of a nasty one. She's grown up mostly alone behind bars for most of her life. but from we've seen, she's got violent tendencies. A little bit cracked in the braincase, you know? Not like your shark."

He talks about you like you're not there. It's a bit... irksome to be perfectly honest.

"Honestly, it's a bit of a bad matchup they gave you. Bikaku to Ukaku? Honestly, if she was to get out of control I don't believe that your shark could hold her back. I got sympathize with you, they're throwing you right into the pit."

Sympathy? Pity more like.

"But that doesn't meant we can slack off right?" He gives Abidi a pat on the back, or at least tries to. She shrinks away from it, as usual. "Yeah. So we still got a case. Lemme fill you up on it."

They let you sit in the back as he explains the case that squad 6 is taking on. It's a classic case, bodies found behind in alleyways with the meat torn out of them. Only, it seems this particular perpetrator likes targeting women. Young ones too, around their early to late twenties. It always seems to go straight for the torso, ripping out large chunks of the area around the pelvis and stomach area. Especially targeting the Uterus.

"Bit of a freak this one is." The human component of the second member of your four pair squad speaks up. Special Investigator Hwu. She's a short oriental women, with her dark hair styled up into a prime bun and sporting a set of glasses in addition to her stand issue DoGS black suit. "Honestly, based on personality profiling, he's likely to be some terribly dressed twenty or thirty year old man with bad hygiene and a tendency to avoid the sun too much."

Her ghoul partner adjusts his seat a bit uncomfortably in the chair behind her. You think they're male... or perhaps female. They're too pretty for you to be sure. They're heavily tanned and possess black hair, whichever sex they are. You forget their name. It probably doesn't matter.

"I think maybe it's a bit too hasty to use such a narrow suspect filter." The last human member of your little get together says. Special Investigator Rikard. He's a tall blond handsome and suave looking man, with fair skin. His ghoul partner, going by the name of Johnny, is very much similar, just with orange hair and freckles. If one of them wasn't a ghoul, you could swear they were brothers. "Maybe it's a female ghoul with fertility issues?"

Investigator Hwu gives him a blank stare. Rikard shrugs. "I'm just throwing out suggestions, here."

"It's just speculation." Hwu says. "Without any leads that's essentially all we're limited to. We don't even know where to start."

"Maybe one of our very own predators would like to give us whatever insight they have." Laney notes wryly. He looks around the room at the ghouls.

Hwu's partner shrinks away. Johnny gives him a smile and shrugs. His gaze falls on you."

"Or maybe the rookie could share her thoughts with the room?"