#which kind of makes me upset because let cody have his name in his native tongue!!

[aenaxes]

hi i’d just like to ask what kote means if you don’t mind. i’ve seen fics that refer to cody as kote and the mandoa dictionary doesn’t offer up any translation other than glory?

hey! i’m not sure about canon but the fandom seems to have collectively agreed on cody naming himself or being named after the word and then anglicizing (or the basic equivalent) it to cody

[journeysintowebcomics]

Worm Liveblog #120

UPDATE 120: Hope

Last time the Travelers plus Cody managed to escape from the quarantine. Everyone has powers – well, Oliver kind of doesn’t – and it’s all fine and dandy while they drive to the next city. This peace lasts until the first signs something’s very wrong with Noelle show themselves. Let’s continue.

Looks like there was a time skip, because Trickster is now standing at a front desk. A receptionist for someone. Trickster feels the need to smoke, and although the receptionist says that’s a bad idea, he does so anyway. He’s at Boston right now, one year and three months have passed since their arrival to this world. That means by now they’re officially a team, hm...

You know, I wish I could have read any discussion they had to decide their names. That could have been interesting to read! But yeah, by now, they all have their names, I bet. Trickster does, after all.

How had Jess put it?  This world was sublime.  A world that was awesome in the truer sense of the word, greater in so many respects.  In a metaphorical sense, the peaks were higher, the valleys lower, works of art more artful, extremes more… extreme.  It wasn’t a good thing.  Make the mountains twice as tall and the chasms twice as deep, and things start crumbling.

Iiii don’t know if it’s really that worthy of admiration. I don’t think the entire world has as big of a mess as Brockton Bay does, but given entire islands have been obliterated, there are superpowered villains everywhere, and you don’t know when your life is going to be turned upside-down and most likely ruined, I sure would prefer a world like the Earth without parahumans. Besides, it’s not like the general population gets to enjoy the high technology and all that. Most of those are limited to the heroes and villains’ use. It doesn’t seem to me like any random person lives much different of a life than they would if there were no powers around. No, thanks, you keep your awesome world, I’m satisfied with mine.

The person Trickster came to meet is called Accord, and looks more like the kind of supervillain that tries to make things civilized and orderly for his own again. Like Coil, but less sinister. And less successful, since he’s not even the most influential villain in Boston. Accord shakes Trickster’s hand and asks for the reason for his visit. Well it turns out Trickster is here to reach some agreements and introduce himself, as it’s customary for him when he arrives at a new city. Gotta make sure you’re not stepping on anyone’s toes, you see.

Hah! He asks for permission before committing crimes. I doubt many villains are like Skitter in that they want to keep their communities orderly and with the least amount of trouble possible, but it’s good he’s being prudent. You don’t want to mess with villains.

“If I granted that permission, Trickster,” Accord raised a warning finger. “I would not be doing so for free.”

Trickster nodded.  “I understand, and I wouldn’t expect you to.  We’ve recently passed through Richmond, Paine, Baltimore and Philadelphia.  Each time, we paid a modest up front fee to anyone that hosted us in their territory.  We also offered up a twelve, thirteen, twelve and ten percent share, respectively, of our take.  For you, if you’ll allow me to make an opening offer, I’d suggest ten thousand dollars up front and a fourteen percent share of anything we gain.  We’ll be saying for ten days.”

And it turns out ten days is longer than they usually stay. Golly, that means they have been a very, very, veeery long time in Brockton Bay by now, that’s the most stable place of residence they have had. It’s because Coil can help them, I’m sure. But yeah, they’re on the move more often than I thought. Destructive Noelle or not, I thought it was like...a monthly thing. At this rate they’ll run out of places to be at in this country!

Trickster seems to be trying to be particularly flattering, offering Accord more money and being generally polite. Since he gets information before making a move, I suppose he was told he had to be as flattering as possible. Regardless, it’s working. Accord sees right through Trickster, but he’s accepting the offer, although with a warning not to scam him.

I’m not sure what Accord’s power is. There’s a lot of emphasis on things being rather orderly, but I’m uncertain if that’s an indication of what his superpower is, or if he’s just a very neat person.

Accord looked down and corrected the position of the pen on his desk before turning back to Trickster. “Fifteen thousand dollars, and fifteen percent of any take.  The heroes don’t have a strong presence here because they don’t need a strong presence here. I maintain the peace.  It will cost me if I have people here, active and causing trouble.”

Okay! Maybe he does keep the community safe to some extent. In that case, he should keep under wraps that he’s getting a share of the bounty from any stealing the Travelers do. Just in case. I’m sure there’d be people who would be very upset about that, even if they can do nothing about it.

Since the Travelers are here, Accord offers to forgo the fifteen thousand dollars from his fee and reduce his share, as long as they complete a job for him. Hey, Luke, there’s a job offer! The job is to steal tools from a tinker. Seems like Accord isn’t a tinker at all.

“Blasto.  A tinker.  Not quite the destructive personality his name implies.”

“I read up on him.  Blasto from the latin prefix, meaning bud, germination or seed.  Tinker botanist, grows walking, sentient plants in giant glass tubes.”

Not what I’d have imagined from that name, I admit. My knowledge of latin prefixes is quite lacking, turns out – and given I speak Spanish as my native language, that’s kind of sad. But, you know, if the intent is to steal tools and destroy this Blasto tinker’s stuff, Trickster and Sundancer is perfect for this. They should be done in no time! Which is why I suppose it won’t be that simple.

That said...I doubt it’ll get written. It’d be quite the side story! But it’d extend this origin interlude for maybe a tad too long. I’m not sure how well this all was received back when it was written, but I know I’d be kind of annoyed at a meandering interlude. Still...hey, Mr. Wildbow, how much do I have to donate for you to write how this went?

Not only he’ll forgo the entrance fee and reduce his share, he also will make costumes for the Travelers! Oh boy! Does that mean the costumes they’re all wearing in the present were designed by Accord? Didn’t expect that, honestly.

And you bring the world a little more in order, Trickster thought.  Accord was a thinker, and the running theory on his power was that he got naturally smarter as the problems he was addressing got more complex.  It gave him an intuitive understanding of groupthink, politics, and convoluted designs.  It also made him a local warlord capable of devastating counterattacks.  The power failed to grant him the same advantages in a one-on-one fight, and he wasn’t quite the same battlefield strategist when it came to direct assaults.

Which was, Trickster understood, why Accord wanted him and the other Travelers to handle the attack on their own.

Huh. That’s...a power. I’m not entirely sure how useful it is, I admit. It’s...a bit underwhelming, to some extent? But he has achieved some success, so I suppose he knows how to get use out of it. Maybe he’s like Tattletale. More like a mastermind type of person. Just that instead of finding out secrets like Tattletale does, he finds...solutions to problems.

Say, I just realized that when they attack Blasto there really are veeeery high chances it won’t go according to plan, thanks to a certain leader whose name I won’t reveal. He hasn’t been a particularly impressive force when it’s about attacking someone else’s lair. Personally I can’t let go of the Slaughterhouse Nine rescue, really.

Only four people will need costumes. Trickster himself, Sundancer, Ballistic...hm. Genesis wouldn’t need a costume because she does everything with her creations, Oliver wouldn’t want to be anywhere near a battle, so...Noelle or Cody.

Cody. The text pretty much says Noelle won’t get a costume. So this Cody person is still going with the group, one year later. He hasn’t gotten in the way of their return home. Say, how far in the past is this, I wonder? Could it be Cody’s...not-being-in-the-team is a more recent change than I thought?

The relatively pleasant discussion is interrupted when Sundancer bursts into the office, alarming Trickster, who had told her to stay back and not meddle. That she was disobeying and ruining Trickster’s carefully calculated meeting plan meant something was very, very wrong, and he should be worried. Hah! He’s got more immediate things to be worried about, right there! Accord isn’t happy at all with Sundancer.

Accord stepped over to the window behind his desk and stared outside.  Trickster waited patiently as the man composed himself.  Long seconds passed, and Trickster couldn’t help but imagine the worst case scenarios that would have Sundancer forgetting common sense and crashing a private meeting between supervillains.

I can only imagine it’s related to Noelle. Maybe she’s out there, causing immense amounts of havoc, in a sample of what will happen to Brockton Bay in the present. It’d be quite the way to establish how big of a Noelle threat is.

And there’s the immediate threat! Accord isn’t happy at all, and is already laying a series of demands. One: he’ll get the full amount of money he demanded. Okay then. Two: they’ll complete the mercenary job and receive nothing in exchange. It’s going to suck, but I guess it was to be expected. Three: Sundancer has to die. Beg your pardon?

Trickster tensed.  Really, really didn’t want to have to fight this guy. “Let’s… not be so hasty.”

Okay then! Accord just made the stakes go way higher. So, Sundancer is very obviously alive in the present, so as I see it, there’s only one possibility: Trickster killed Accord. I really doubt by now fleeing Boston is an option, and given how upset Accord is with the...imbalance Sundancer brought to his turf, I don’t think he’d accept something else in exchange of her life. Unless she proves to be absolutely stellar in the mercenary job. Who knows, maybe she burned Blasto’s lair to the ground and that saved her.

How to convince the lunatic to leave Sundancer alone?  If he couldn’t, would it be better to fight and kill Accord now or wait until he could recruit the others?  Accord wouldn’t have invited him to a meeting if he didn’t have some kind of safeguards. Traps?  For all Trickster knew, there was a pitfall in the floor or dart traps in the walls.  Accord’s power, his knack for complexity, would make it trivial to weave such things into the architecture of his home and office.  If he knew, he could use his power, time it to put Accord in the way of his own trap… but it could be something else entirely.

I meeeean...if he has the ability to make traps and safeguards, I’m certain making it so Trickster can’t use his power effectively to attack him would be easy as pie. Also, given how it was remarked Accord isn’t very good in one-on-one confrontations and is a warlord, I think it’s plausible he has a few people ready to act if things go pear-shaped. He wouldn’t rely on himself to ensure his own safety if he knows he wouldn’t be enough.

Accord was still talking.  “Others aren’t so accommodating.  They are freefalling, careening elements, bouncing off any and every surface, damaging everything they touch.  Pyrokinetics so often fall into this category, I’ve found. Rest assured, it’s better to eliminate this disordered element before it does too much damage.”

...suddenly I have a nagging feeling Sundancer burning Blasto’s plants and lair to the ground would make things worse in Accord’s eyes. Scrap that plan. New plan: lose your powers, and then get them back before you get to Brockton Bay. There, problem solved. I’m a problem solver now, Accord-lite, praise me.

Turns out Trickster does think of a possible alternative on how to handle this. He appeals to Accord’s sense of order, saying Sundancer is an agent of harmony despite her powers, and that she’ll prove it to him. Trickster has effectively placed the burden of proof right on Sundancer’s hands. Masterful leader move, pal, throwing the weight onto your subordinate and friend. But hey, she’s alive in Brockton Bay, meaning it worked, meaning I have no grounds to complain. Besides, he’s going to discuss it with Sundancer right now. I for one am looking forward to finding out what he intends to suggest she does.

Trickster gets ten minutes to male Sundancer go into Accord’s office – alone. As expected, Sundancer is taken aback by the fact her life is in danger just like that. I share Trickster’s opinion in that Sundancer wouldn’t ruin Trickster’s meeting if there wasn’t a very good reason, though...she even tried to bring it up immediately, and Trickster didn’t let her speak. At least he’ll get briefed by someone else.

When the timer hits zero, you’ll walk into his office, then you’ll perform a ballet routine.

Well! That’s not going to bring up any good memories, is it. Given how one of Sundancer’s memories was freezing and not being able to do a thing, in front of a public, I hope it won’t happen again. At least she won’t have the Simurgh showing her those awful memories over and over, but still...ouch, the things she has to do to survive.

 If he gives any sign he’s not satisfied, or the second you fuck up, set the place on fire and scram.”

“Krouse-”

“Call me Trickster when I’m in costume,” he corrected, his voice hard.  “Don’t worry about burning him alive.  He’ll have escape routes.

Oh, yeah, he’ll have escape routes. You know what else he’ll have? A desire to have both your heads on a plate, just saying. If he gets his office incinerated, there won’t be anything that’ll stop him from getting everyone he has to pursue the Travelers, I’m sure of it.

Since she has to go get ready and hopefully save her own life, Sundancer hurries inside, leaving Trickster to find out what problem is going on that made Sundancer risk ruining everything like that.

“It’s Cody.  He touched Noelle.”

Trickster froze.  “How bad is it?”

“Three times, Krouse.”

“Three,” Trickster said.  “Fuck me.  I’m on my way.”

Okay then! It was Cody’s fault. Not surprised he’s being a pain, really. He touched Noelle a total of three times, and that is...bad. For reasons I imagine I’ll find out very soon.

There’s no way Cody’s stupid enough to make contact with Noelle.

There’s no way anyone would do it three times.  How?

Hm. I don’t know what exactly are the consequences of touching Noelle, but given the fact it was three times, I doubt it was an accident. It happening once would give him the benefit of the doubt, it happening three times pretty much guarantees it was on purpose, unless it turns out there was a really contrived reason like...some parahuman slamming Cody onto Noelle three times or something. But seriously, what happens when you touch Noelle?

Apparently whatever’s happening is among a crowd, and Trickster searches while thinking how everything they have been doing recently is minimize damage. Well, given how they keep moving because of Noelle, I imagine she’s the source of the damage. Does this mean lately she’s been getting worse? More powerful, dangerous?

What Trickster encounters reminds me a lot of those very mutated monstrous humans that arrived with the Simurgh. It’s a very deformed person, attacking bystanders and being rather violent. This mutant’s nature is revealed right afterwards:

Three seconds later, the man snapped back into the same position, in front of the creature.  Perdition… Cody.  Except not quite.  The man carried through the shoving motion, but Perdition wasn’t there any more.

That’s Cody? Goodness gracious, what did he do?! Holy crap. What I note is that nowhere in the description Trickster gave of that thing attacking, he mentioned it looked like Cody at all. The extent of those tumor things on him and the twisted crooked factions must be such there isn’t much left of Cody. Noelle must have some sort of mutagenic quality, then. Perhaps she mutates those that make contact with her skin? Since that was what was fizzing and all that. And the more you touch her, the worse it gets. Cody touched her three times. Here’s the result, I suppose.

Innocent children are about to get attacked, and Trickster shouts to get Perdition’s attention. May as well exploit Perdition’s hatred of him! And it works, Perdition swivels around, looking for Trickster to do him some harm. Trickster keeps moving around to stay out of his sight while Perdition shouts slurred threats, accusing Trickster of having taken everything from him. Technically he did – except the part about ‘my girl’, because Noelle was never his – but it’s not like Trickster one day woke up and thought ‘oh you know what’d be a riot? Let’s ruin that Cody guy’s life’. Perdition is lashing out as usual, really.

Some of the time, the powers would be different.  Most of the time, going by precedent, they were stronger.  Trickster was left to wonder how Perdition’s powers had changed.  Duration?  Range?  The amount of time reversed?

Huh, that so? It could be the mutations are an attempt to enhance the powers of those who touch her, then? And it doesn’t work properly because she didn’t take the vial correctly. That doesn’t take into account the eye thing from last chapter’s ending, though...right now my thought about that is that maybe she’s not immune to her own mutations. It could even be that Perdition touching her made her even worse.

Perdition uses his powers to keep track of Trickster, getting him closer and closer to him to perform some murderin’. Trickster tries to stay away, although that soon leads to...well...casualties. There have been at least two so far. Damn. Trickster makes some calculations and tries to think of a plan on how to handle this.

What he does is hurry, swap himself with one of the casualties’ bodies, and shoot Perdition to death. Well! That was anticlimactic. I’m pretty sure if Perdition knew how simple that was, he’d be very upset. So this is why he’s not part of the team nowadays...not really how I expected him to die, although I did expect Trickster to be the one to kill him.

The next scene starts with Francis arriving to a place, where I suppose the rest of the Travelers are hiding. Oliver is already waiting for him, and the effects of his half of the power potion are shown: Oliver is handsome. Like, real handsome and smarter and also learns skills? He got lucky, then. If this is the extent of what his botched power has, then he’s incredibly lucky. But it’s still Oliver, so he’s as milquetoast and socially stunted as usual. Maybe forever, given how he’s...pretty much in a stranger’s body.

...

Maybe he wasn’t as lucky as I thought at first, when I think about it like that.

Fuck you, Simurgh, Krouse thought.  They’d all been forced to deal with their individual tragedies.  Noelle’s went without saying.  Jess hadn’t gotten to walk, Luke hadn’t gotten to fly, Oliver got a physical and mental overhaul without any fixes for the real problems, and Marissa had been thrust into the situation she’d fought so hard to escape, where she was forced to pursue a life she didn’t want.

Krouse’s tragedy was waiting for him inside.

Wow. Things are pretty bad for everyone here, but the way it’s worded Luke’s plight is so out of place. He didn’t get the power to fly. That sucks, but it certainly isn’t on anyone else’s level. Surely there must be something else about this situation that’s more fitting to bring up as Luke’s tragedy. Maybe that he’s very dissatisfied with being part of this group and feels they’re getting nowhere? That’s the impression I have of him in the present, after all.

Between Francis and Oliver they manage to drag Cody’s corpse to the living room, where there are...another two. Two more of Cody. Okay then! Looks like something’s going on. Does someone care to explain? One Cody is bad enough, the universe doesn’t need two more, hah!

Noelle is upset right now and it’s Francis’ duty to go calm her down. Before he goes he glances at the bodies.

They all stared at the bodies. This would be the third incident. Or incidents three through five, if he wanted to count it that way.

This can mean either this is the third incident where mutated people go and cause destruction, or this is the third time Cody has touched Noelle. Both are equally plausible, honestly – but I lean towards the former, because...then it would mean Noelle is causing some awful terror and destruction. Just like a Simurgh thrall would. Everyone else in the Travelers, taking her around the country, are doing their part as well.

There’s a lot of injured people and a few casualties because of the many Perditions. The...real Perdition? He’s somewhere inside the house. Nobody has found out what exactly happened, why Cody would touch Noelle three times despite presumably knowing really well what would happen. Francis will have to deal with this problem, since he’s the leader. First he goes to smoke for a while.

Sundancer has arrived! And she’s unharmed, thank goodness. Looks like her dancing routine in front of Accord went well, then! Or not, as she says two lines later. It satisfied Accord anyway, so may as well take that as a victory.

“No,” she said.  “He said I wasn’t perfect, but that he saw what you meant. He said I was trying, despite myself. I… I don’t know if that was a compliment or not.”

That’s definitely a compliment. If it wasn’t, then she wouldn’t be here alive, or at the very least there’d be mercenaries pursuing her. She must have done well ��� not being the agent of chaos and disorder Accord thought she’d be, despite her incendiary powers.

Since Mars has been declared not responsible for the incredible chaos from today, Accord wants Francis to bring the real cause. He decides he won’t be bringing Noelle – obviously not, because that’d be incredibly dangerous and, more importantly, there’s no way Francis would backstab Noelle. Instead, he decides he’ll take Cody. Hah! Well it’s pretty clear Cody isn’t harmonious at all, so...maybe that’ll work. It helps that those berserk things were literally him.

Mars isn’t into the ‘let’s blame Cody for everything’ plan because it’s very likely Cody will die, and Francis although isn’t happy about it either, sees no other option. Is he going to inform everyone else of his decision? Because I figure everybody would like to be aware one of their teammates is going to be murdered by a local villain, even if it’s Cody.

As Francis sees it, there’s only one scenario where Cody would be in contact with Noelle three times, and it is that Cody went to wherever she is, was a major dick like he usually is, and made her so upset she attacked him so badly Cody has broken limbs. An arm and a leg. Well those sure are two of the three contact spots!

“He had a goal in mind, only he didn’t anticipate how fast she moves, how strong she is.  He was trying to do one of two things.  Either he did something general, said something, with the aim of making her go berserk… or he tried to kill her.  One way or another, Cody wanted to end this.  End our mission.  Free himself.  He doesn’t give a fuck about the promise, so I don’t see why the promise should protect him.”

Cody was trying to kill her? I’m not sure about that. He has to know Noelle has some form of fast regeneration, meaning hurting her physically is a chore and almost unlikely to work. Also, he has to know touching her is a very bad idea. No, I’m leaning more towards thinking he was once again disparaging people around and trying to not be an outsider, and for some reason he was...talking with Noelle...and said something he shouldn’t have...and...okay this reasoning is kind of falling apart by the seams. Fucking Cody. What the hell was he planning?

Well at least Francis is going to talk to everyone else before taking a decision, he even is going to have a word with Cody to see if his suspicions have a reasonable base or not. That’s more than Cody usually gets, really – although I doubt he’ll appreciate it at all, what with Francis being the one to talk to him and what not. Oh well. Now that that’s...somewhat settled, Mars has the task of going to get a lot of food for Noelle. A lot of meat, in fact. Right, I kind of remember that was necessary. Geez.

Before she leaves, there’s something else to bring up!

“I almost forgot.  Accord.  He wanted me to pass this on.”

She handed him a piece of paper. There was a number printed on it. Different area code.

Holy crap, Mars, you can’t just forget something Accord asked you to do. You almost died today because you metaphorically stepped on the guy’s toes, and you were about to do it again. Goodness gracious...and the reason why she’s hesitant to even remember stuff Accord asks is because she doesn’t want to interact with guys like him. Hah! Boy will her time under Coil’s employment be a treat, then. Coil and Accord seem to be a rather similar kind of person, just that Coil is far more sinister in so many different ways – although I’m sure Accord has his own shady plans, of course.

Once Mars has left, Francis dials the number and gets in contact with whoever it is. Francis doesn’t seem to appreciate much having to call acquaintances of Accord. It’s only when this person says it’s a long-term job I have a hunch of who it is. That you, Coil? Will it turn out Accord and Coil do know each other? Hah! Well! I was saying they were kind of similar in terms of the way they work, but I never thought they knew each other.

“I know Accord through a mutual acquaintance.  Through this acquaintance and my own resources, I’ve gathered a fairly robust set of data on you Travelers.“

Intereeeesting. I think there’s a pretty good chance this acquaintance is the entirety of Cauldron. In that case, could it be Accord got his powers from Cauldron? Also, if they got information about them through Cauldron, then it means that big shady organization that gives powers is aware of the Travelers and how they got the powers. Oh boy! No indication Cauldron has sent superpowered thugs to take due revenge for the Travelers pretty much stealing powers, hmmmmm...could it be Cauldron is letting them do whatever they want, knowing they can use them later? It’d explain that, at least.

The person, who I’m absolutely certain is Coil, says he’s offering a solution to three things in exchange for them working for him. That’s enough to get Francis’ attention, he’s willing to listen. Make your offer, Coil!

I thought he was Luke Brito, not Luke Casseus. Either way, there are records of one Luke Casseus and one Noelle Meinhardt who were once in the hospital at the quarantine, and seem to have appeared out of nowhere. Most people would simply think those teenagers used fake names for some reason, but Coil has more information that indicates there’s something going on.

Also, Meinhardt is a cool last name. I like it a lot.

“Rest assured, Trickster, there is no need for any alarm.  The fact that I know these things is an asset to you.  A contact of mine in the PRT has taken over your case file and requisitioned all details on your encounter with Myrddin.  That case will not be pursued further.“

I suppose Myrddin gave all the information and control of that particular investigation and just…focused on the myriad of other things he has to deal with. I guess that makes sense, but I’d have thought the PRT would be far more attentive with investigations involving roaming Simurgh thralls. Coil and Cauldron’s influence is quite notable.

So, Coil has three solutions that will solve all of the Travelers’ problems. One is that Coil will offer all the money they need. Right, about that...since you’re offering, can you send them $15000 in cash, they need it kind of urgently.

The second solution is that he’ll send them home. Naturally, they wouldn’t work for him unless he made such an offer. The contacts he’s talking about are undoubtedly in Cauldron, more concretely the one who can make portals to reach Cauldron’s buildings. Given Coil’s...demeanor, I think he really would have fulfilled his end of the deal once he had taken over Brockton Bay, at least when it’s about sending them home. Unlike Dinah, there’s really no reason to keep the Travelers around, it’s not like they’re especially noteworthy as a team and other than Noelle their powers are nothing too remarkable. Who knows, though...maybe he’d have tried to keep Noelle, for one reason or another. Make clones of his soldiers or something to have a permanent source of non-powered mercenaries.

The last thing Coil offers is not said in the text, but I imagine it’s related to Noelle, since that was the other thing the Travelers were so worried about. They wouldn’t work for Coil unless he promised to fix her. Which is very...unlikely, really...but not impossible. If there’s someone who maybe could, it’s Cauldron. At a very, very, incredibly exorbitant price, I suppose, but they could. Don’t ask me how, though, because I don’t have the slightest idea. I’m not part of the group who sells bottled powers around.

Francis goes into the house, where Luke tries to get him to join them into a meeting about what they’ll do about Cody. The chance to explain they’re throwing him at Accord and hoping for the best! But nope, first he wants to talk to Noelle.

“After, Luke,” Krouse said.  He spun around, faced his friend. “I think we’ve got what we’re looking for.”

“What?”

“A way home.  Maybe even a fix for Noelle.”

Maybe a fix for Noelle, he says, meaning that even though that may be what Coil offered, he didn’t phrase it as a certainty at all. Merely a possibility. But...a possibility is the best they can get, really.

Promising to tell everyone else – sans Cody, I imagine – what the solution to all their problems is like, Noelle knocks to the door of Noelle’s room, where she immediately tells him to go away. Boy, even if she returns to normal, she won’t be anywhere close to Francis, I’m sure of that. It’s over between them, isn’t it?

Doesn’t take much to convince her to let him enter, so he does. The inside of the room is all broken, no word on if it was like that before Cody pissed her off.

“Come to talk?” she asked.  “Keep me company?”

“I was planning on doing it a little later. Things are kind of a mess out there, you know.  The Cody situation.”

“Nobody keeps me company any more. Only you.”

Ouch. Not even Mars? That must hurt. I had the impression Noelle was in good terms with pretty much everyone, that only Francis visits her...well, that really sucks. Is it perhaps because they’re afraid of touching her and making more of those deformed copies happen?

Noelle sure doesn’t try to deny Francis’ theory about Cody’s murder attempt, she instead says she can’t die. She has tried to end it. So yeah, she does have fast healing.

“I’m one of them.  Or I’m becoming that way.”

“Maybe.”

“An Endbringer.”

So that was the Simurgh’s plan? To create a...pseudoendbringer? Since they were never human in the first place, from what I was told ages ago, it’s unlikely Noelle will turn into one, but she’ll...be pretty close to one if things get worse, she fears. And apparently, given what she can do, it’s not an outlandish possibility.

“I’ll be just as bad as the Simurgh. In a different way.  I touch someone, and then I spit out copies. Uglier, stronger… meaner.  I can’t control them.  If I got my hands on one of the major heroes?  Someone like that Myrddin guy?”

It’ll be even worse if she gets her hands on many of the major heroes. Many evil copies of the major heroes roaming around and destroying everything would make things go downhill fast, that’s for sure.

You know, in general I’m against clones as a plot point, but I think this is fine. This is interesting!

Francis brings up that he talked with someone who maybe will be able to help them, and that they should give it a try because this person knows a person who has a way, who goes between worlds.

Aha, so this is how Coil got Francis aboard. He promised hope, not by promising to heal Noelle and send them all back to their worlds – but by promising to get them out of the Simurgh’s plans.

“No, listen.  The Simurgh?  This guy said she has a weakness.  Two ways where she can’t see the future.  Two ways to break free of her cause and effect.”

Noelle didn’t say anything.

“The first way, you’ve got to be basically immune to powers.  Scion is.  He’s immune to precognition, throws everything out the window when he shows up.  I saw it when he fought the Simurgh.  She couldn’t automatically dodge his stuff, because she either couldn’t read his mind or she couldn’t see the attacks before they happened.  So he hit her, a bunch of times.  I saw it.”

That supposed weakness isn’t going to lead anywhere, really. What is Coil going to do? Get Cauldron to fill the Travelers up with powers until they’re like Scion? Hardly. I don’t think it’d even be feasible because...I mean...having more than one power into you has to make some of them interact with each other in nasty ways, no? Taking half a vial is bad, taking two or more has to be bad too if you don’t know what you’re doing. No, the whatever this second way is like has to be what they’re looking for.

Also, that’d be hella expensive and not even Coil would be able to buy it, I’m sure.

Krouse was getting more excited, had to press his hand flat against the floor to stop it from shaking.  “And the other way?  There’s thinker powers that mess with her ability to influence events. If another precog gets a hand in events, the Simurgh automatically shuts them down and vice-versa.  The way this guy said it, the precogs get overloaded with the second-guessing the other precog, on top of having to figure out all the quantum possibilities and split paths.  And this guy?  He has a power that messes with precogs some, and the precog working for him has a power that will help circumvent the Simurgh’s power.  Get it?  So long as we work for him, we’re free of it.  No more cause and effect.  No more feeling like we’re doomed no matter what choice we make.  We go from that kind of safety to home.  To our world.“

I suppose this precog is supposed to be Dinah, because I can’t recall anyone else who has that kind of power and is under Coil’s employment – also, employment is definitely not the right word to use when it’s about Dinah, Coil, that’s imprisonment. Either way, if not Dinah, then...Tattletale is the closest one I can think, but she can’t foresee the future and I’m sure Coil knows that rather well. No, it has to be Dinah.

Which would give the Travelers a lot of encouragement to get in Skitter’s way, really. If Dinah is giving them the safety they need to not be destroying everything in their path, then of course they would disapprove of Skitter trying to free her. Still...do things really work like that? I don’t know, something’s off here.

I just find a bit hard to believe Dinah can singlehandedly stop the Simurgh’s cause and effect. Is there a ratio of effect or what? Does Dinah have to think of the Travelers? The details are a tad vague. I’m sure Mr. Wildbow thought the details well, so I’m not going to insult him by insinuating he didn’t think things through with that paragraph, but the amount of details given to me the reader right now is kind of lacking. I’m kind of leaning towards the possibility Coil is wrong about how this all works. Or he’s hiding something. This just...needs more building upon.

What follows to this is the reveal of what’s going on with Noelle. I had months to imagine what could be so bad it needed a vault and widespread panic, and this doesn’t disappoint. It’s worse than I expected. What can I say, I’m somewhat optimistic by nature, the worst case scenarios aren’t something I indulge into if I can avoid it, haha...ha...but yeah, this is nasty.

Around where her pelvis should have been, she’d changed.  The mass of tissue left her tall enough that she had to hunch over to avoid hitting her head on the ceiling, and she was lying down.  Half of it was angry, red, wrinkled or blistered.  The other half was smooth tissue, dark greens, dark brown and pale grays.  The head of an animal, half-bovine and half-canine, extended from the front, large as a horse from the back of its skull to the tip of its flaring nostrils.  Another head was in progress, emerging just to the left.  Two forelegs extended to either side of the heads, rippling with powerful muscle, ending in something that fell between claw and hoof, massive and easily capable of tearing through steel.

There were the fingers and thumb of a hand, extending from her right hindquarters, each digit thicker around than Krouse was, with another, smaller limb extending from the palm.  Her rear left hindquarters featured only a mess of tentacles, some bearing partial exoskeleton, some long enough that they had to encircle the massive head and numerous limbs, or wind in a wreath around her as she lay down, lest their coiled mass fill the master bedroom of the house and leave Krouse nowhere to sit.  Despite the apparent lack of bones, the tentacles were capable of supporting her weight.

It’s like she’s piling more and more tissue and forming...limbs. And a couple heads, for some reason? I’m morbidly curious if she can see through that head that’s already formed. Oh god. Here I am, trying to distract myself with banal thoughts like...how do the Travelers manage to move Noelle from city to city, do they steal a freight truck every time? Sorry, I’m thinking of all kinds of things to distract myself about how horrible it must be to be Noelle right now, augh

I can see why nobody else but Francis visits her, though. It must be hard to...to see Noelle and try to not focus on what’s going on with her. Not many would have the...bravery to face her and try to make small talk or anything. What would you even say if you went to see her? How uncomfortable, for both Noelle and someone else, would it be to sit around and try not to talk about the elephant in the room? This is a situation nobody is prepared to deal with. I can definitely understand why it’s easier to just...not go see her at all.

But damn that must feel very lonely for Noelle.

She’d tried to starve herself, to die of thirst.  It had turned out badly.  She’d gone berserk and killed forty people in one autumn night.  Their tissues had played a large part in building the massive fingers and thumb that extended behind her.

Welp! The Simurgh really knew what she was doing. That’s all I have to say. Well played.

And so that’s how the Travelers started working under Coil. Because they were given hope. And nooooow that hope is gone. Here is the present time now, where Coil is dead. No wonder Noelle went berserk and escaped the vault. Where could she have gone...? Where could she be hiding? Because...if she was destroying anything, they would have heard about it even before they saw the broken vault.

But it still can happen. In the very near future. The rage of Noelle.

He had no doubt as to who had died here.  Could remember the scene as it had been just before he’d been knocked unconscious, could remember where people had been standing.

Another wave crashed against the beach.  He heard the seagulls cawing angrily, wanting the morsels that littered the ground in front of him.

Krouse spent a very long time staring at the stain.

This must be the end for this interlude arc. It’s quite the ending, pretty poignant. A quick check on the next chapter link shows that yeah, a new arc is starting next time.

So yeah, that’s it. The Travelers’ arc is over. Must say, this may be one of my favorite arcs so far. It sure makes a few things seem different than before. I appreciated the extensive peek into the circumstances of the Travelers and everything they went through. They’re quite a tragic group, really. In one single day they went from just a normal gaming team to a superpowered bunch without a home and having to lug around someone who is...slowly and horrifically mutating into a mess of flesh that creates mutant copies of people. Pretty amazing they all have held onto their sanity, really.

I’m sure the next arc – which I suppose will be about possibly finding and fighting Noelle – will be quite a thing! I’m looking forward to that.

Next time.

Next time: in three updates

[kyberled]

✒ - boba wants to know the whole story behind braig's cheek / face scar.

Send “✒” and my muse will tell yours the story behind one of their scars. || Accepting

Brow furrows as he raises his hand to touch fingertips against the injury in question. He doesn’t look at Boba, nor does he speak; instead, all but glowers at the floor for a few seconds. He eventually sighs, pressing his palm against his scar as shoulders slump, head bows, eyes close. Boba had opened up about his own past before, and Braig knew full well that it hadn’t been easy for him, so he had no right to withhold information from him. So, he sits on the cot, keeping his eyes down even as he reaches for Boba’s hand. He cradles it between his own palms, tracing fingers around callouses that have become more familiar than his own skin - then, lifts Boba’s hand to his face and nestles damaged flesh against the other’s warm palm.

“I dunno if you remember, but about a year or so ago, maybe a little less, I was gone for around two months– Probably a little more, with the brief medbay stay… But, I’d been on a mission with a master you probably didn’t know much about. Quiet, a real shut-in, but he was nice– Ah, a Quarren, Dhisit Riloff, since Gramps had been called away for a mission in the middle of exams, so I couldn’t go with him, and I was kinda upset with that, but, he had Cody, and of course I have faith in his abilities, so I got over it. And Master Riloff had agreed to take a padawan along with him for a mission, so the Council said I could go, and I admit, I was kind of excited to go and stretch my legs. So I met him and his commander, a gruff man with tattoos on his hands called Dash, on board their ship, and I got briefed on the mission while we went off. It was the standard sort of, Separatists are stopping the flow of resources to one of our allied planets, trying to incite violence and unrest all while hurting or killing anyone who decided they didn’t want to go along with it, and probably some people who were compliant, as well - wouldn’t be the first time it’s happened. So we were being sent to clean it up.” He sighs, scrubs his knuckles against the scar on his face, and leans his head on Boba’s shoulder, giving Bo’s hand a squeeze.

“I didn’t think it would be easy - it never is, at least, not often, and not when the more skilled generals are in action, and Tessk is, or was, pretty good at his job, when he wants to be. And, he really wanted to be.

“People were in pretty rough shape by the time we got there, and entire towns had already been razed to the ground, in typical Tessk style.” His expression sours here, but the change is reversed within the lifespan of a blink. “For a moment, I thought we were too late, and that everyone was already dead or taken prisoner, and I didn’t really know what to do, but Master Riloff stopped me before I could panic. He said something to me, then– He said, ‘A river does not boil, padawan, just because a stone is thrown in its path. It simply flows on in another direction.’ And I was really confused, I just sort of stood there for a sec. That was the first and last time I ever heard Commander Dash laugh, and it was more of a chuckle, really, but he walked off with Master Riloff and they just kind of left me there. I remember thinking to myself that this was going to be way different than working with Obi-Wan and and Cody.” He sighs, nestling a bit closer and closing his eyes. “We found the survivors, eventually, hiding out in the wilderness, basically just trying to avoid getting caught and killed by the droids. Or worse, I mean, some of them had already been carted off to some other planet as slaves. That wasn’t my job to deal with. Someone else was getting them home– The Senate actually let us do something about it, for a change. I dunno who they sent out, but it’s not really important to the story, so…” He shrugs, then presses a bit closer against Boba’s side.

“The long and short of it is, Dash and Master Riloff died in battle, and I wasn’t even there. We’d been keeping to the outskirts of the smaller cities for attacks, working to hit certain targets without biting off more than we could chew, and without letting the Seppies know where we were or how to find us. I dunno if it’s because they thought I was incompetent, or maybe that they assumed I wasn’t ready to handle the level of combat that was going on, or maybe just that they figured someone should stay back with the others, but Dash and Master Riloff mostly just left me to guard the refugees while they went off with most of the men to the front lines. I was kind of offended, ‘cause I wanted to be out there with them, but the people did need someone with them, and we weren’t sure a handful of the men would be enough on their own. Not that we were doubting their skill-! Just that, we thought it would be best to have a Jedi with them, just in case. It was good that I wound up staying with them, too, ‘cause the doctor was kind of running out of supplies, and was getting kind of worn down by how awful things were, so I was able to give her a hand with that and make sure that everyone was okay… Master Riloff and I kept in contact with a set of comms, scrambled and stuff to make sure that the Separatists couldn’t get a read on where we were or what we were doing. I- I was actually in one of those calls when Master Riloff was killed, and… He just had time tell me to run, and to crush the comm before I guess he died? I couldn’t really tell, ‘cause the comm was broken, but the Force was enough of a tell for me to get an idea…”

“So, back with the refugees, there was me, Scratch, Trickshot, Digger, Mal, Hardwire, Kriss, Nada, Grazer, Boone, Prez, Tailwind, and Hype, all of whom were Riloff and Dash’s men, and then the locals, Ta’ulé, who was one of the younger men, and a friend of mine; Go’ann, one of the older refugees who was seen  as one of their leaders, especially when it came to surviving and foraging and stuff, Mikila, who was really young and an absolute sweetheart, and the doctor, Lélé’ri’ann, and then also Kula’é and Soh and and Lukua and Rikii, Makula, Kurita, and so many more of them that I’m not gonna waste time naming at the moment, especially since a lot of them didn’t–” He cut himself off, sighed, and burrowed deeper into Boba’s shoulder. He swallowed, shrugged, then motioned to the battered leather-bound book that sat on the floor, only a few staggered steps away.

“I wrote about them as best I could, so, if I need to talk about them or if you’re curious, just lemme know, and I’ll look it up.” He’s stalling, and he’s well aware of it, and so forces himself to continue, tracing idle shapes on Boba’s arm to keep himself grounded.

“We had to do what Master Riloff told us– Take all the refugees and run, I mean. There was no way we could’ve kept them safe from the Separatists with the few resources and bodies we had, and our ships hadn’t fared too well… A couple of the men who’d got back from the battlefield, Taser and Royce, tried getting up in the air to see if there was a safe way down, and their ship got shot down before it even left the atmosphere… I know I’m not the best pilot, So I didn’t really want to try escaping on any of the less-functioning ships, which would probably be overcrowded, anyway… So, we ran. We, ah, we found these tunnels to travel through– Go’ann and Soh knew about ‘em. Soh told us some of them were old mines, and his grandfather had worked in them when he was young, right before they shut down, but according to Go’ann a lot of them were dug out by native wildlife, that were kind of like… I don’t know how to describe them. Kind of like a cross between… Turtles, and moles, and some sort of primate? I don’t think I ever pronounced the name right… Tapamalu, or Tapémaulu, or– -mula, maybe? I don’t… But, anyway, these tunnels… They’d been abandoned for generations, especially the ones farther out, so they weren’t the safest place to be, but it made it almost impossible for the Seps to find us, or see us from overhead… And it was so deep under the surface, most signals couldn’t transmit, so tracker droids and stuff would be useless. So were comms, but we figured we’d just stay in a group, and it wouldn’t matter.”

“We stayed down there as much as we could, trying not to run into anything that might want to eat us. Go’ann and Ta’ulé were in charge of helping to gather food. That mostly happened when we were above ground – we’d go up whenever we found an accessible route, ‘cause we– we didn’t have enough supplies to last us as long as we were out there. We didn’t think we’d need them… We were able to find enough to keep us going, but, it was the bare minimum, most of the time… We didn’t want to stay in one place long, just in case. I always checked the comm when we were on surface level, but I don’t think I ever got even a trace of an actual message. We just kept hiding, and waiting for the Republic to come, but–” He tries to smile here, and it doesn’t work. “We didn’t know that the Separatists had formed a blockade around the planet. And, I guess most people assumed I’d been killed alongside Master Riloff and Dash, since– Since I should have been fighting beside them, and everyone knew it–” He forces a breath to steady himself. “I guess, the Republic didn’t think it was worth it to expend all the resources and people you’d need to break a blockade, just to scrape some corpses off of the ground, but, like I said, none of us knew they weren’t coming. … I mean, after a while, some of us started to suspect that we were stranded… It was Mal, first, which would make sense if you knew him, and he was convinced that we were all gonna die, there, and that maybe it would be better if we just gave ourselves over to the Separatists and let them do whatever they had planned to us. That started a pretty big argument, and in turn sowed a lot of distrust, with people worried Mal would go and out our entire position to the Seppies when we were sleeping, or something like that… In the end, some of the other men– Nada and Kriss, and Trickshot I think, they were the main three behind it, sort of decided that it would be better if we left him behind, either out in the wilderness or down in the tunnels, and some of us were against it, because, well, that’s leaving someone to die, and that wasn’t something we– any of us wanted, but it ended up not being my decision. I mean, I wound up in charge of the men, ‘cause as a padawan Commander, without Dash or Master Riloff around, I was the highest-ranked individual in terms of the GAR there, so they were pretty much under my command, but the locals, the, uh, the refugees, they were being lead by Go’ann and most of the older members of their group, as a sort of council, kind of like what we have back here, but a lot less formal, and on a smaller scale. But neither myself or the local council had any say in Mal’s fate. He was ranting, and- and raving, and screaming by the end of it, we’d been stuck in the tunnels for a few weeks by then, and we were all in bad shape, but he was taking it really bad, and there wasn’t anything we could do for him. I tried, but I think it was just the stress and the pressure getting to him, the malnutrition, the grief of everyone we’d lost and the fact that we could hear explosions all the time, or, pretty frequently, at least, and when we did get up to the surface it was in unknown, hostile territory, and we were always hiding from the Seps– Got into a few fights with some patrols, and we made it out mostly okay, but got some nasty scrapes along the way, and– And we lost Grazer, at one point, and he and Mal had been pretty close… I tried talking to him, to Mal, after that, but he never really wanted to talk to anyone, even before all this went down, so I though that maybe it’d be best to just give him some space, but he got into an argument with Kriss… At one point, Rikii tried to break it up, and Mal started yelling at her, and that didn’t go over well with Kriss, cause he- Well, I think he had a thing for her, so he got really mad, and before I could get up from helping Makula, the doctor, splint Hype’s leg– He’d stumbled on a patch of loose dirt when we were climbing back down from getting food and twisted it pretty badly, and he said it wasn’t bothering him but Makula didn’t want to chance it, and I didn’t have time to– I wasn’t fast enough, and–” He pauses here again, closes his eyes and reminds himself to breathe. “He shot him. Kriss, I mean, shot Mal, but Mal had gone for his blaster, too. Neither of them were set to stun. And– I know that what Mal had been trying to get us to do was dangerous, and foolhardy, and he could have gotten us all killed, but he didn’t need to die for it-!” He sighs, pushing his hands through his hair as he sits back, trying to give himself space to exist until he could regain some of his composure.

“I told Kriss he shouldn’t have done that, but he said that he didn’t have a choice. He said that he had to, if we wanted to get out of this alive, and that I’d know that if I kept the group’s interests in mind. I’ve never felt so incapable in my life.” He shook his head, exhaling as he leaned back against Boba’s side again. “… I didn’t mention that in the official report. Mal’s death is listed as an accident. I don’t agree with what Kriss did, but, given the circumstances, I can understand it, and I don’t think he deserves to be terminated for it, so– You know, and Obi-Wan knows, and that’s it, as far as I know. Uhm… Yeah, that’s how things were for us, for a long time. Lots of people being high-strung and paranoid, ready to snap at the slightest thing, and a lot of people started thinking that the Republic really wasn’t coming for us, that we were going to be left to die in the middle of this desolate wasteland, and there was nothing we could do about it. We didn’t even bother trying the comm, since there wasn’t anyone we could contact on-planet, and we were worried that strengthening the signal would only attract the attention of the Seppies, especially if we tried to reach the Temple, so… We just hid, and waited, and I don’t know what we were waiting for. I think– I think some of us were waiting to die. There wasn’t much else to hope for. … I kept telling them that the Republic would come for us, and that I had faith in the Jedi. I don’t know if I believed it, myself, but I kept telling that to everyone like I did. I felt like I had to try to keep their hopes up, or we’d all end up like Mal did. I couldn’t take that again.”

“A few days before the Jedi did come for us, we ran into the Separatist General Grau Tessk himself. … I’ve mentioned him a few times, I dunno if you’ve ever seen or heard much about him, before, but this wasn’t the first time he and I have crossed paths, so… … He’s this big Trandoshan guy, green scales, bright green, with blue stripes tattooed or dyed all over him. Bright yellow eyes, teeth almost the same colour, lots of of scars, and a penchant for killing anything that moves for his own entertainment. So, basically, a typical Separatist. And we were out getting food for the group, and- And I know I’m going on a lot of tangents, but there were a lot more of us, now. We lost Hype, Hardwire, Scratch, and Trickshot, and Soh and Rikii and Kurita– Soh was getting old, and said it was just their time, but Makula and I both thought that the conditions did them in, and we did what we could to keep them comfortable, but they ended up passing, anyway… Hype’s leg kept getting injured, ‘cause he wouldn’t let it rest. I mean, he couldn’t, we were always on the move, but he was pretty determined to keep up with his brothers, so it kept getting worse. He died on our first rescue mission. … We found these groups of the native population who were being used as slaves, mostly for the purpose of clear-cutting forests and readying the land for some kind of base, and bleeding the quarries dry for the same reason. I couldn’t exactly claim to want to help these people, and then turn around and ignore those of them who were still suffering… At least, that’s what we decided, when myself and the men and some of the older locals got to talking. I– I wasn’t sure if we should go after them, the ones who were still trapped. We didn’t have a lot of manpower to work with, and, sure, I had my lightsabers, and the men had their blasters, but, aside from one or two other blasters scavenged off of the battlefield, nobody else had any real weapons. But, the men were adamant that we do something– I think that it was a mix of wanting to do the right thing and their duty, and of just being stressed out and having so little outlets? We had nothing but each other for weeks, and we were all on edge… Anyway, we lost a few people when we went to set the first group we could free, and then we had to go into hiding deep in the tunnels for as long as we could. We did a couple of raids like that, and some things got harder with the people we lost and the numbers we gained, and some things got easier, but there was one person who joined us named Amua, and she had been on her community’s war council. So, one of the things we’d do to pass time was have her teach us how to fight. I joined in because it was interesting, and I thought, they know how to fight on the terrain here better than I do, so I figured that I could learn a thing or two. Most of the remaining men joined in, too - in fact, I think all of them did.” He pauses here, clears his throat, and allows a sad, fond smile to pass over his face. “Kriss was showing off for Rikii, but he didn’t need to. We all knew she was returning those moon-eyes of his, before she– Well.” The smile falters, here, and he sits up, casting eyes down and rolling his shoulders as he burrowed his way under Boba’s arm.

“Anyway, where was I– Right. Amua had been teaching all of us how to fight, but, as you can imagine, it wasn’t really enough to help us against the droid armies. Enough to keep us alive, enough to help us when we went up to look for food and had the misfortune of running into a patrol, but not enough for more than that… I  did feel comfortable leaving the main group hidden in the tunnels, though, so I could go out with the smaller, ah, ‘shock groups’, for lack of a better term, and get more experience and enjoyment in the fresh air and the open space and not being stuck in those damned tunnels any more, and Ta’ulé usually came with me, and taught me how to find food and whatnot. We were on the ground, and I was a bit away from the group, stretching my legs and having some time to myself, which was something we never got in the tunnels, and… And I found this ship, one of the Republic’s that had been downed at some point, but it was still in decent enough shape, and–” He shook his head. “I know I should have gone back to find the others, to at least ask for a few others to come with me and send everyone else back to where it was safe, but I didn’t think about that, or anything, and I just went on my own, and– I know it was reckless, I know it was selfish and careless and I shouldn’t have done it, and I was just–” He just shook his head again, drawing his knees to his chest as through trying to protect himself from some unseen threat.

“I wanted to go home. I missed my bed, and you and Obi-Wan and the others, and I would have done terrible things for a shower. But, those people, they’d been living like this but worse for far longer than I had, so I had no right to put them in the danger that I did, but, I did, and I, uhm, I went to check out the ship,” he pauses again, sniffs, rubs the back of his hand across his eyes and lets out a pitiful attempt at a chuckle, failing to diffuse the tension coiling in his chest. (If he closed his eyes, he was certain he would be transported back there, surrounded by humidity and whining insects and filth and fear, and for a moment almost lets his eyes close– Catches himself, instead furrows his brow and stares at nothing in particular on the floor).

“I don’t know what I was expecting to find. I think I wanted to see if the comm centre was still working. I didn’t expect it to fly, since, even if it didn’t look too badly damaged, ‘cause it had been shot down. We didn’t have any supplies to repair it, and staying above ground for too long was dangerous, but I thought, maybe, just maybe, the scrambler might be working, and I could get a message out to the Order, even something as simple as ‘I’m still here’, or ‘there were survivors’, or ‘this is Braig’, and I know that sounds really strange and cryptic, but it would have to be short, get the point across, and ideally, be memorable. The Temple gets a lot of messages, all the time, from Jedi all over the galaxy, so it’s easy to forget things you’ve heard. But if it was strange, it might warrant someone getting called to listen, and maybe even go looking for us… My other plan was to just try to rig up the ship’s comm to transmit a constant signal to the Temple, and just annoy them into seeing what was going on. The ship was far enough away from the tunnels that it wouldn’t draw any attention to us when we went under, in bad enough shape that you could reasonably assume the comm was just malfunctioning, and we weren’t in the habit of staying in one place for too long, so we could just seal up the entrance and leave tings at that. I just thought there wouldn’t be any lasting consequences, or I wasn’t thinking about it, I- I don’t know. I was just thinking about wanting to go home. And I got the comm working, sort of. It could send out signals, at least. I’m no mechanic, so I was just happy that I’d managed to get anything working at all. And then I heard a door close, and the room got a bit colder. I hadn’t been paying attention, I’d been too busy fighting with the comm, but I turned around and heard this hiss, and there was Tessk. I probably wouldn’t have been able to see him, if he hadn’t had Master Riloff’s saber in his hand.” Here, the guilt and misery boiled down into a bitter disgust, and though he swallowed it as best he could it lingered in his voice.

“It wasn’t enough for him to terrorise and enslave innocents and kill whomever he pleased, but he had to be a vulture and a thief, too.” He folds his hands in his lap, letting fingers curl around themselves to ease some of his own tension and lets out a quiet exhale.

“It was a green blade, well-crafted, and it lit Tessk up like a spotlight. He was grinning and chuckling to himself like he just came out of some kind of game, and I guess, to him, he had. He said, ‘So this is where you’ve been hiding, Jedi.’ And I didn’t say anything back– I didn’t know what to say, or do. I just turned my own sabers on, and thanked the Force I’d been able to keep them maintained for so long with just what I’d brought in my belt. I don’t think he was very happy that I wasn’t giving him any banter to go off of, but I had nothing. We didn’t give each other much time to talk.”

“Grau didn’t have the same level of training I do with a saber, but it was pretty clear he was used to using something similar - some kind of vibroblade, probably. More importantly, he was well-fed and well-rested, and I wasn’t; none of us were. I was also probably getting sick, since, try as we might, the tunnels weren’t the most sanitary living conditions to be in… … I thought I was going to die, there. I was sure of it. I was stalling, at that point, trying to keep Grau from noticing the comm signal, and buying the others time to get away from here. I didn’t really entertain the thought that they were dead, both because i hadn’t sensed anything and because I didn’t want to. I just told myself someone would come to take care of them, and everything would have been worth it. I mean, I didn’t want to die, but it’s a Jedi’s duty to give their life in the name of the Republic, or of anyone who needs them, but if I could save them, then– I could help them, and that would be enough. We were fighting for- Well, it felt like a while, but I don’t know how long it actually was. Grau seemed to be enjoying himself, though. At one point, I don’t know how it happened, but I was backed into a corner, and I thought to myself that I’d bought all the time I could, and that was it. But he didn’t kill me, and I don’t know why I was surprised. Trandoshans are known for loving the whole ‘thrill of the hunt’ and all, and I guess I wasn’t very fun. So he picked me up like this–” He grabs the front of his own tunic and tugs up a bit before once again settling against Boba’s side. “And he said something to the effect of ‘why aren’t you trying harder’, or ‘come on, make this interesting’, or something like that - I wasn’t paying attention. I was tired, and everything hurt. I do remember spitting in his face, though. He wasn’t too happy about that. Threw me across the room and slashed up with Master Riloff’s saber, and- Well.” He stops there, shrugs, and taps his index finger against the dark, angry scar carved into his face. 

“He missed my eye, which I guess is good. Nearly got it, though, and I vaguely remember feeling the heat of it against my eyelid, and it all really hurt– It got my adrenaline kicking back in. I don’t know if he wanted to kill me, and just threw me more than he’d meant to, or if he was still just toying with me, or maybe I was able to Force him away from stabbing me, but… I, ah, wound up against a door, and had just enough time to press the panel and open it before he jumped at me. We got outside the ship, and I’d been in the middle of trying to draw him away and realising pretty fast that I needed a doctor. I was a proper mess… And I probably never would have walked away from there if the others hadn’t intervened. Most of them stuck to the trees - Guerrilla fighting was a common strategy for them, there, making use of the thick foliage, and it kept them out of the immediate danger… I don’t know what I’d have done if Grau got his claws on any of them, and, I admit, my own technique and control was pretty sub-par… I dunno who was the one who did it, but someone was able to get a shot at Grau’s foot, and he fell, and I killed him.” He inhales through his nose and runs his hands down his face.

“Even now, I don’t know if it was the right thing to do. I don’t think it was. The more I think about it, the more I come up with things I could have done differently– We’re not supposed to kill. I know you probably don’t believe me, but Jedi aren’t meant to take lives. If there’s any alternative, we’re supposed to take it. But I didn’t. …. That is in the official report, by the way. I don’t know what the Council plans on doing about that, but any punishment they give, I’ll accept.”

“I don’t really remember too many details after that. Boone and Kriss helped me back to the tunnels. Boone said Kriss just carried me back himself once I finally passed out. Makula got me as patched up as he could - we were already tearing up our clothes for bandages, so, obviously, we didn’t have any Bacta patches on hand, and I wasn’t in the right state of mind to Force heal… The Order showed up a few days later, I think, and I’m told I spent a day or two in Bacta before sleeping for a full day, but, it’d already scarred over by then, so– That’s how it happened.”