Final Investigation

[airlockedmods]

[It's been about 24 hours since CT was killed. Blaze has made no other moves, and his robots are mysteriously absent.

In fact, it's almost too quiet.

But then there's a note in Pyrrha's PIP that...she didn't write.]

Comments

[andneversaydie]

[...hm. Okay. Well... let's take a look at the counters, then, maybe. She's not sure if she'll find anything, but... it's worth a shot.]

[airlockedmods]

[There's nothing else of interest in the kitchen.]

[andneversaydie]

[alright. Let's go over to the living room. What's going on in here?]

[nightcure]

[ what up mozu anything cool happening ]

[airlockedmods]

[Shit I'm sorry I never saw Mozu's tag

Over here, there's a futuristic space television. It's basically just a screen set into the wall. Below it, there's a little table with some drawers.]

[nightcure]

[ Can we turn on the space television? ]

[airlockedmods]

[Sure! It says No Input.

Maybe the little machine on the table has something to do with that?]

[nightcure]

[ Is there a button he can press on the little machine?

If there is he'll give it a lil poke. ]

[airlockedmods]

[A light flashes, and then words appear on a little screen.]

Tape not detected.

[nightcure]

Huh.

... Hey, Mozu, we should look around for a tape. It's probably a little square thing.

[andneversaydie]

Oh, okay. Let's see...

[let's check out those drawers, then!]

[airlockedmods]

[You found some space VHS tapes! You know, for that retro aesthetic?

There's quite a few down here, but most of them are dusty. Only two appear to have recently been touched.]

[andneversaydie]

[....um]

Hey, Noctis, are these those tape thingies you're talking about?

[nightcure]

Yeah, they are. Good find, Mozu.

[ He looks over all of them, then takes out the two tapes. Let's plunk one into the machine. ]

[airlockedmods]

[The video opens on a busy street somewhere. It’s bright and full of color, even if there’s some digital artifacts clearly showing its age. The camera swings around for a few seconds, before turning to show a very young human girl with blonde pigtails running up to the cameraperson.]

There’s my girl!

[You can’t see him, even when he swings the girl up onto his hip, but the voice is clearly that of a much younger Blaze Dudely.]

Were ya good for Scraggly? [There’s a yup from off-camera, and for just a second it turns enough to see a tilted view of Scraggly the Janitor. He looks exactly the same as he did when the Champions knew him.] That’s my girl. I gotta get ‘er home to her parents, Scrags, but I’ll catch up with ya later. You're comin' to the party after the swearin'-in, right? Renegade's gonna bring one o'her lava cakes.

[Yup. They start to move off, the camera focused on the child as they go.]

That sound good, girlie? One o'Mommy's chocolate cakes?

Yeah!

[Blaze chuckles and ruffles her hair.] I'll make sure you get th' biggest piece. Orders of the mayor!

[The picture fuzzes over, and fades abruptly to black.]

[andneversaydie]

[...oh god it's always really weird to think of Dudely as an actual person instead of, like, a hate magnet, even if she's done that more than once]

...Oh. Um. That's what those do.

[nightcure]

[ For a while, Noctis is quiet. There's a lot here. ]

Yeah. They're recordings...

[ ... he pops that one out, then puts in the next. ]

[airlockedmods]

[The video shows Blaze Dudely and a young blonde teenager in a ponytail facing off against each other on some training mats. Behind them a vast expanse of starry space can be seen through a window. They’re holding plastic swords. Blaze’s resembles the blade he used to kill Scraggly; hers is shorter and curved like a cutlass.

The sparring session doesn’t last long. Dudely dodges the girl’s charge with ease, and disarms her with an easy flick of his weapon.]

Not too bad, girlie, but your grip’s off. Here - Sunshine, make yerself useful and grab that saber.

[Apparently this was directed at the cameraperson, because the view shifts as they go to retrieve the weapon. They’re just shy of picking up the saber when they pause and the camera swings as they jog to the other side of the room and grab the hand of someone with nails painted in the colors of the Flavortown flag.]

Got one, Cap’n!

[In the background Blaze Dudely and his protege roar with laughter. The other person makes a confused noise before sighing heavily.]

It was funny the first four times, Sun. [The cameraperson, Sunshine, laughs and off-camera Blaze Dudely calls out “Still funny the fifth, doc!”]

[nightcure]

[ Geez... it's a little hard to reconcile the younger Blaze Dudely with the one they've come to know and hate. Regardless, he pops out the second tape.

Is there anything else around? ]

[andneversaydie]

...You think we should look through the older ones, too? 'Cause I'm wondering what's going on with those...

[...this is actually kind of reminding her of something she was on the periphery of and is Unsure about...]

[nightcure]

Yeah, I'm pretty curious about those. You want to grab a couple?

[airlockedmods]

[Go for it.]

[andneversaydie]

Yeah, let's give 'em a look. I kinda doubt it can hurt.

[She picks a dusty one out at random and hands it on over!]

[andneversaydie]

[IDK SHE'S CONFUSED BY WHAT THE HECK THIS TV THING IS

WHAT... THE HECK...]

[nightcure]

[ it's fine he's got this probably ]