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]

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!]

[nightcure]

[ He pops that one in, then looks up at the screen. ]

[airlockedmods]

[This one has a younger Blaze again, standing in a crowded room with folded arms. It's a loud scene, and he has to raise his voice as he turns to the cameraman.]

So who's your friend, Scrags? Givin' Umbra a run for her money out there!

[The camera swings around to show an unfamiliar woman and a very familiar - if significantly younger-looking - four-armed chef. They appear to be engaged in some kind of pancake-making competition? What are they even going to do with that many, honestly. But they've gathered a crowd, like this is a normal thing to happen at a party.]

'S Fort.

Huh. You oughta introduce me when they're done. Besalisks do some good shit. Oh, hey -

[But he turns away as some other people walk up to talk to him, and the camera turns back to watch the pancake frenzy for a little bit.]

[nightcure]

Pancakes, huh.

[ He would've liked to see Ignis work his magic at this competition.

Next tape in. ]

[andneversaydie]

[...this is still kinda uncomfortable.

IS THERE ANYTHING ELSE TO INVESTIGATE BEFORE WE MAKE LU COME UP WITH 10 MILLION HOME VIDEOS, Mozu is looking around kind of nervously right now so]

[airlockedmods]

[I wouldn't be doing this if there were more legit evidence in this area.

Next video?]

[andneversaydie]

[shit yeah let's do it.]

[airlockedmods]

[There's a baby in this one!

The camera zooms out to show that they're being held by a dark-haired woman, who's lying in a bed. There's a blonde woman sitting next to her. The window behind them shows stars again - this is on the ship.]

Here's the happy family - Sunshine and Void and little Sunvoid. [You can hear the grin in Blaze's voice.] That's a real traditional name outta you two, I'm surprised.

What can I say? [The dark-haired woman responds.] Sol put me on the good stuff.

We oughta have a cake. I'll see if we can find a ship carryin' foodstuff to raid, get some more flour and all that.

Don't sweat it, Blaze. We don't need a cake. You know Sol needs medical supplies, that's up next.

Right, right. But we're gettin' to it, y'hear?

[nightcure]

[ This just keeps getting worse, doesn't it.

Next tape. ]

[airlockedmods]

[No one is making you watch all of Blaze Dudely's home videos, Noctis.

Incidentally, Matilda is in this one. A jankier version of Matilda, not nearly the finished product you know and questionably love now. She's sitting on Blaze Dudely's shoulder, tugging insistently on his ear, while a young woman laughs in the background.]

I made her out of the spare parts we couldn't use from that last ship! Since we can't have animals here anyway, and Sonsun's been wantin' a pet so bad. Fun, right?

She's great, girlie. [Blaze's smile is genuine, though he's also obviously. Not thrilled with being poked and prodded by this robot monkey.] Hey, you think you could set 'er on Stumpy instead? He still owes me dishes duty after last week.

Yeah! Let me just - [Matilda turns and rockets towards the camera.] - oh shit -

[That's it for that one.]