Final Trial...?

[airlockedmods]

[With their investigation of Blaze Dudely's ship complete and still none of the Flavortown robots in sight, the surviving Champions amd their counselor have a little time to come together and share their findings. The communal living area of the pirate ship seems like the best place for that.

They may want to be wary though. There's still no sight nor sound of Blaze Dudely or his robots anywhere.]

Comments

[induality]

...it's way too quiet, what the hell happened...

[She... sounds appropriately worried now.]

Ugh. I can't stand doing nothing. M-might as well share what we found while we try and figure out what to do next.

[LOGIC...]

I guess the most important thing for starters is Blaze Dudely. I was in the bridge... on the Captain's chair there was a weird little device. I guess it records messages, since that's what I found.

[All of them are on the fancy ipad for people to listen to themselves.]

This... explains a lot, like it or not. At least on some level, Blaze was practically blackmailed to do this. It doesn't make it better but... I can get that. [At least. Now she can.] Protecting people you really care about... On top of that his home was in danger. Or... is in danger. Irkens-- whatever that is-- were responsible. What he was doing to try and help save his home wasn't exactly great but he wasn't trying to hurt anyone either.

[power_of_dominance]

[Soma arrives with the datapad he found in hand. He sits down in the first seat he comes to, scrolling through the gathered information in silent focus. It's a lot to absorb and he's not sure what his feelings on all of it are yet. He doesn't want to empathize with the maniac who killed so many of his fellow captives, but this history he's discovered injects a line of suffering into the past of Blaze Dudely that's difficult to ignore or accept.]

... I don't know what to think. He's a monster, but... Toko's right, he's apparently been tricked and used to do all this to us.

[nightcure]

[ He'll go ahead and take the fancy ipad and give them a lil listen. ]

... He wanted to save his home. His crew. He thought he could do that by doing this.

[nightcure]

[ He'll share what he's found, too. ]

Mozu and I found a couple of things. A kitchen, with some food. Bacon mac and cheese. [ It was good, y'all. ] Some fryers, too. Other than that, not a lot. A dining room, too, which was decently big.

... Mostly, though, we found a television with a tape player and a bunch of tapes. He knew Scraggly and Fort before all this, and they were pretty close from what I could tell. He had friends. People he cared about. They were pretty much his family.

[power_of_dominance]

And yet he killed them without hesitation when he boarded us. Why? Was he that far gone that he didn't even recognize them?

[rickdiculous]

Yeah, no fuckin shit. Me and Akande knew that from - from the beginning. A picture of him was in Scraggs' wallet.

[induality]

Did you see anything about that weird sickness of his?

[You know. The sludge cough.]

[empathiser]

[Sharing is caring.]

I ended up in the medical bay. There was... this machine there, I can't say exactly what it was but all the wires on it had been completely severed. Even the one to plug it into a power source.

I came across a lot of medical files on a computer in there... [There's a copy on the handy iPIP for browsing at everyone's leisure.] Four files in particular, three patients. Two of the entries were on Blaze Dudely. It had pretty detailed information on why he ended up looking the way he does now. [And that Network had come up again. That's... more than enough times rule out coincidence now.]

He was dropped into what they called a grease crater - there was... extensive physical damage noted, and some kind of machine had been clamped into his arm. But over the next year there were mental issues noted as well - addiction to painkillers, paranoia, and anger.

[And then he pauses, because while all of this is far more than he'd expected they'd find when they boarded that ship, this next part is personal to them:]

There was a pool of blood on the floor of the med bay too. Recently spilled, with a lot of scrapes in the floor with flecks of brown paint in. I think that might've been where that broadcast was filmed - the one with CT.

[thecounselor]

...[Ah.]

It must have been Agent Connecticut who destroyed that machine.

[nightcure]

[ ... sonsun fuckerfucker. ]

So did he do something the network didn't like, and they just--

[ Noctis Is Fucking Pissed. ]

[tokencanadian]

...Some kind of machine.

[Pyrrha frowns, then, presents her PIP device.]

Do you think it was anything like this?

[tokencanadian]

Is everyone alright?

[It's the first thing on her mind as they reconvene. As they are, she can get down to the evidence she found.]

In that case, I found some things in my investigation, Varric did too.

[First... might as well present the lazer cutlass.]

I found this in... I think the room belonged to Blaze's daughter. There were photos in there of her and her mother, and a card from Scraggly. [She pulls up her PIP, which has notes on it.] There was a terminal in the room with journal entries from her. There was... something wrong with their world. And her journal entries say they were going to attempt a call for help and that no one was going to get hurt.

[neverheardofhim]

Blaze was running for Mayor. Something was wrong, Pyrrha's right, and that was his platform.

The whole crew was like family to him. Two girls, Sunshine and Void, had a kid. This had to have been after this... Flavortown went to shit, because they recalled wanting to see their kid in the parking lots of their home. Guess Blaze had some idea to save Flavortown, a mark. Must not have gone to plan, because the girls were saying something about forgiving him.

You ask me? Something changed him. The Blaze we knew is t the one those girls knew.

BLAZE DUDELY SEARCH PARTY GOOOOOO

[induality]

[Alright so now that Noctis has gathered an additional three people, he has a proper fighting party. Now they can go looking for Blaze. Fukawa will get them moving too because... well, it could be bad.

Assuming no one has any objections, like Price suggested they're going to look for the bridge of Starfield Penitentiary.]

[airlockedmods]

[What route are they taking from the docking bay, the way they came in via the kitchen or the usual way through the main doors?]

[airlockedmods]

[Once everyone is nestled snugly together in the elevator the doors close automatically in front of them and they start to go up. The elevator is silent except for the Champions' and Price's own breathing in the cramped, hot cell. The ride is short but feels like it takes hours until it finally comes to a shuddering stop as the rest of the ship jerks violently forward. When it settles again the doors slide open.

There's a very short hallway leading to a closed door. Next to the door is a keypad.]

[power_of_dominance]

We need the code.

[After a moment's thought, Soma begins scrolling through the info on the datapad. He has an idea, but he can't remember where it is in the huge mess of logs and notes.

People use birthdays for passwords all the time. The girl that was so important to Dudely... what year was she born?]

now leaving flavortown

[theoversight]

[The bridge of the Starfield Penitentiary is similar enough to Blaze Dudely's, if larger in diameter and complexity of work stations. Where there should be a wide view of the space in front of them through the front windows there are closed shutters, making the room slightly darker than it should be.

The captain's chair that sits in the middle of the room is flanked on either side by three robots, each with with its gun aimed at the door and leaning back in the captain's chair Blaze Dudely himself. He has his sunglasses on, dimming the glow of his robotic eye and his ever-present black leather jacket despite the noticeable spike heat when the door is opened. A keen observer might notice a nearly empty bottle of an orange-red whiskey sitting on the floor next to the chair.]

Was startin' to wonder if you'd ever think to ask about the bridge.

[There's none of the usual showmanship in his tone or actions this time. Now he just seems...tired.]

[nightcure]

Sorry to keep you waiting.

[ ... ]

Doing alright, Spikes?

[power_of_dominance]

[Soma raises both hands to show he's unarmed, barely stepping into the room so the others can move in behind him.]

We've learned a lot in the last several hours.

[helladoptera]

[ ... This is just. Sad. All of this is just really sad. ]

Hey, Blaze.

[airlockedmods]

[In the silence that falls after Blaze Dudely dies, there's a quiet shudder that goes through the ship. One that's stronger than just the quiet rumble of the engines.

The shutters over the windows rattle.]

[power_of_dominance]

[They need to see what's happening. Can those shutters be opened manually?

If so, Soma is throwing them open now.]

[airlockedmods]

[Will pushes the button. The ship shakes and shudders like an earthquake, and then suddenly it feels like that weightless feeling when an elevator stops.

And then with a massive heave, the entire ship lurches forward. The cloudy haze outside of the windows whooshes by as all or almost all of the survivors are thrown backward to the ground. The remains of Blaze Dudely slam against the wall with a dull thud.

And suddenly, the haze of the planet dissipates. The blood red rings of the planet arc gracefully in front of them, and then pass harmlessly by until there's nothing but stars. Stars and the black emptiness of space. It's beautiful. Probably even moreso because the survivors of Starfield Penitentiary are alive to see it.]

[andneversaydie]

...

Okay. Are. Are we done.

[SHE'S NOT GETTING UP FROM THIS CORNER UNTIL SHE KNOWS THEY'RE NOT GOING TO DIE ANYMORE.]

[thecounselor]

[Once he's mentally recovered a little bit, Price goes over to the communications terminal and starts trying to find an open frequency.

What he finds instead, however, makes him stop and stare at the terminal.]

[nightcure]

[ He peers over his shoulder. ]

What's up?

[thecounselor]

[Well after that horrifying revelation, Price checks out the systems evaluation and frowns.]

...I think that the nine of you should take the pirate ship and leave.

[nightcure]

[ That gets him to react, for the first time in a little while. ]

What, without you?