it is a funeral.

[ltcommandroid]

[Well. That was certainly something.

Emotions are clearly high, so for once, Data steps out of his helper role and takes on the brunt of organizing the after-trial gathering. He's seen enough of them by now to know what's what. He's also seen more than enough in this particular trial to decide that the bar, while possibly being the most logical location, may be distressing to some! So instead, we're gonna do something different. Data will deliver invitations, that sort of look like a computer printed them, to each of the rooms:]


Please come to the ice cream parlor if you would like company at this time.

- Data

[Everybody likes ice cream!

There are no decorations, but there are some snack selections from the buffet and the cafe, depending on what you want, and a tray or two of mixed drinks courtesy of Jimmy Buffett. Data and Parker are both here. If you're sad, you may pet Parker (probably). If you're too depressed to make your own fancy sundae, Data will do it for you (definitely).]

Comments

[jibunwo]

Neither do I--we need time to regroup and regain our focus.

[onlyyoucan]

We know they need the Kraken to kill the culprits. That the Captain, Jack, can't kill them himself under his own rules. I just don't know why.

[jibunwo]

Part of me wonders if he just hates getting his hands dirty, but that seems too easy an explanation.

[onlyyoucan]

If it were just that, he'd have killed Alice then; he wouldn't have been stopped.

[jibunwo]

There has to be something to it, unless...

[Zero trailed off, then paused.]

...The Kraken may or may not be under Jones' direct control, but he clearly has the means to summon it. Do you think sacrifices made to it--for lack of a more delicate phrasing--ensure Jones is given their souls after their deaths?

[onlyyoucan]

That could be. It'd start to explain why he needs him around.

[jibunwo]

It would indeed. Now that we know Jack's blackmail over Jones seems nearly absolute, we can largely discard the idea of the latter's participation being conditional; I would, however, wonder if such a condition was set regardless. Jones claims our souls as those who died at sea, and Jack gets the cooperation without whatever resistance Jones is even capable of putting forth. Do you think that seems sound?

[onlyyoucan]

It makes sense. Though The Captain, Jack, he doesn't seem the type to let people have anything he can't then take away if things go wrong. What does that say?

[jibunwo]

To me, it suggests that he may hold power over Jones that he hasn't exercised and that Jones himself may not have considered. His profile claims he likes control, and I'm willing to assume he likes having his pieces exactly where he wants them on the board at all times.

[onlyyoucan]

Probably. Letting him know he's helpless, but still believe there might be hope? That doesn't say anything good for our situation, but we still can do things. We can still look for a way to get out of this. Find one, with a miracle.

[jibunwo]

We haven't lost all hope yet. Even if only a handful of us survive to the end, a handful will be enough if we can gain Jack's advantage over Davy Jones and overthrow him.

[onlyyoucan]

Just keep that in mind, right? I can do that. ...I should thank you, too. It's always been easy to talk to you about these things. Even if I have trouble talking to anyone.

[jibunwo]

You don't have anything to thank me for, Sara. I have to admit, it's been the same for me.

[onlyyoucan]

...

[She almost smiles at that before looking back down at the table.]

You told me about yourself. You're the one who deserves to know why I was hiding. So... you can ask, if you want.

[jibunwo]

I don't need to know, unless of course you wish to tell me. That secret is yours to keep or share as you choose, not for anyone to ask about.

[onlyyoucan]

You're right. But... I'd rather someone know the whole thing than be exposed at any time because Jack thought it would be funny.

[Even if it's hard to say anything.]

[jibunwo]

...I'm listening.

[onlyyoucan]

...

[Okay, deep breath. There's no way to explain this, really -- being interrogated is one thing, this is another. But.]

My family's been in this war for generations. When our parents died, my older brother, Ralph, raised me while he was still in military school, and even after he graduated. I don't know what I would have done without him. He shipped off ten years ago -- youngest Reasoner to pilot a Gloire, 18 and already a squad leader, for a rescue mission. I promised I'd follow him one day, and I dedicated everything to that. Everyone compared me to him. I was proud. He'd gone over 100 light years away. I knew I had to be as good as him for the hope of seeing him again.

[She pulls out her device. Leaves it on last week's motive image, stares at it.]

Deague had no reason to attack the Glabella Institute. All there was there was a school and an old army lab, and we were... not quite in the Neutral Zone, but still safely behind the front lines. But they came anyway. Tumor swarms somehow got past the shields and started attacking anything they saw. They hit the student dorms -- I only lived because I'd snuck out with a friend that night. We made it to our Strains to fight them off -- me, him, and our other friends who were already in the hangar. But when we were doing well against the Tumors, a Strain showed up. Deague doesn't have Strains. But it was a modified one I'd never seen before, and it --

[She shudders and balls her fists on the table.]

It was before I even knew it. He cut the others down -- he would have gotten me if Cedie hadn't pushed me out of the way, and even then, it totalled the Strain. I got my Mimic out and followed the Reasoner to the old lab. It wasn't hard to find. Not with the trail he was leaving. But...

[jibunwo]

[Zero listened in silence; there were parts that eluded him, and parts he understood a little too well. Regardless of that, it was important to her that she speak it to someone--so he said nothing and simply gave a slight nod to acknowledge she still had his attention.]

[onlyyoucan]

[Sara continues, voice breaking, fighting down shivers.]

It had to have been important, because I saw him take something -- someone out of a stasis pod after the Tumors broke down the doors. A little girl with long green hair and markings on her face and body. I don't know who she was or what she was there for. I tried to catch him as he was going to his Strain.

["Stop! Don't move, you traitor!"

He stops; without turning, he aims his gun behind. The sight's on her face, but she doesn't flinch.

"You're supposed to be one of us. How could you betray us like this? You killed everyone! The school, my friends... Colin, Mary, Cedie... you bastard, you'll pay for this!"]

I couldn't. There was an explosion, I saw his face -- it was Brother. He got away. I chased him in a dead guard's Gloire, but he stabbed me in the cockpit and broke my original Mimic. There... There wasn't anything else left.

[jibunwo]

[Zero went pale at the mention of a girl with green hair, but silently bit his tongue before saying anything.]

...I'm...sorry. Do you have any idea how things could have come to that?

[onlyyoucan]

I don't know.

[She shakes visibly, eyes fixed on the table.]

I cut my hair and enrolled in another school as a Gambee pilot under a false name. I had to get to the front lines somehow. I had to know, but everything just raises more questions. Where Emily came from before I found her, why I can link with her when she wasn't my original Mimic -- I don't know, but it's got something to do with that girl, and why he's been attacking the Libertad.

They found me out at Gall. A civilian spaceport colony where Brother showed up looking for something. I tried to talk to him, but he can't be reasoned with now. The last thing I heard was that they were going to hand me over to the military, assuming I'm either a spy or someone he wants dead. They called me out for a sync test with Emily anyway, but... Now I'm here.

[jibunwo]

[Zero watched her carefully with his open eye; he definitely knew what it was like to have nothing but questions, surrounded by a thousand and one people that wanted you dead or worse because of who you were.]

[He looked over his shoulder to make sure none of the others were at the door, then spoke himself.]

My mother was assassinated and my sister severely injured when I was seven. By who, I don't know--when I demanded answers, the Empire itself brushed off the whole incident as meaningless. I left my homeland and was sent to Japan with my sister as a political hostage. We were eventually sheltered by the Ashford family, and took the name 'Lamperouge' so we could stay safely in hiding rather than be made pawns or meet the same fate as our mother.

Then one day, I was in the wrong place and got swept up in the actions of people who would eventually become the Black Knights. They'd stolen what they thought was a massive capsule of poison gas, and the viceroy in charge of Japan eventually demanded the entire city be wiped out to conceal it. Ultimately, I was cornered by a small batallion of armed Britannian guards holding me at gunpoint.

[onlyyoucan]

[Sara looks at him, eyes wider. Listens, even when everything he says brings up more questions.]

So that's how... What happened?

[jibunwo]

...The poison gas capsule held a woman with long green hair and a mark on her forehead. She was shot and...I thought, killed. But she grabbed my arm and asked me if I wanted to die here, then offered an exchange: she would grant me power, so long as I fulfilled her deepest wish.

[Deliberating with himself for a moment longer, he continued to look at Sara--and for the first time, opened his left eye. It was glowing faintly in a bright magenta, with a sigil in his iris shaped like outstretched wings.]

I made a contract with a witch in exchange for the power to survive. The power to outmaneuver my enemies, and to seek the answers I was denied ten years ago.

[He didn't hold Sara's gaze for long, both eyes turning back to his work with the embroidery thread.]

I shot the Britannian viceroy after determining he had no answers about who killed my mother, and revealed myself as Zero not long after the fact when someone was falsely accused of his death. With this power and my own skill at military tactics, I brought together rebels under the banner of the Black Knights. That was about a month before I got here, and we've been a credible threat to the Empire ever since.