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.

[induality]

...can you say you wouldn't do it to save the people you considered your family?

[Just... she can't.]

[induality]

Instead, he was taken advantage of by some network. And he never even found the person that bit-- killed-- [Y i k e s.] one of his crew members.

[andneversaydie]

...I think he used to be a better person than he is now, honestly. Noctis and I saw a bunch of videos with him, and he used to be nicer.

...

Something like this happened with a few people I know of from back home, actually...

[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]

I don't know. I really don't. I can say one thing now, when it's just hypothetical, but if they were really in danger? I can't imagine what I might do if pushed to that point.

[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?

[induality]

Exactly. To lose your home and so many people... and then to have everything you're still clinging to at risk... he truly was desperate. I can relate a little.

[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.]

[nightcure]

No, he recognized them. He told Scraggly when he took over our ship that they'd always have Flavortown or something.

[nightcure]

Huh. Didn't know that.

Anything else you found back then that might be important?

[power_of_dominance]

Then he's truly mad to kill those he used to consider family, when he originally wanted to save them.

[nightcure]

[ He shakes his head. ]

The tapes were all of him when he was completely human.

[induality]

[You know. I kinda think maybe we shouldn't have killed Rideaux.]

I guess that makes sense... if all this is true, no one would want to chronicle this part of their.

[power_of_dominance]

Loss can break even the strongest, kindest person. It doesn't excuse what he did, but I think I can understand why it happened.

The network orchestrated him becoming a monster.

[rickdiculous]

The picture of him and Blaze also had some - some kid in it with them. Akande asked him about it, but he didn't get the impression that Blaze h-had a daughter or anything. He kept a lotta fuckin notes.

Fourt and Scraggs both had like...pirate or Flavortown shit in their wallets. Fourt had a couple keychains. Scraggs had a - a pirate coin.

[power_of_dominance]

I think we all can, especially now. But we have to get out of here, even if that ruins his plans.

[nightcure]

Maybe he's just that far gone into his paranoia. At this point, he's sure anyone could be the shapeshifter.

[nightcure]

The kid was probably the little girl we saw in the videos. "Sunvoid."

[ ... yeah. ]

[nightcure]

The people who cared about him wouldn't've wanted to, either. If someone I loved started going that wrong, I wouldn't want to have reminders of that.

MODS?

[rickdiculous]

[Just gonna reach into his labcoat and hand a picture to Noctis.]

Yo-you tell me.

[airlockedmods]

[Yeah, that's the same little girl.]