Week 4: April 22nd - April 26th

[cartesio]

Fourth Week

A second murder shook the town of Cartesio. Clarisse's ambush plan ended with Katsuki Bakugou's death. Now what?

Nothing to be done other than continuing their life and watch what happens. After two weeks, after the deaths they have seen, it's hard to think there's a way out. The only option is to wait for the right chance to turn the tables and see a weak point in the Sergeant's plans -- and hopefully not see any murders.

The townspeople's attitude towards the tourists soured even more. The destruction of the church was much worse than anything they had seen so far, and they ran out of patience. People who in the past were nice and wanted nothing more than to make the tourists happy now aren't afraid of saying to their faces what's what. Random pedestrians shout at the visitors, telling them to stop being criminals. Although there are a few who have more patience than the rest, general opinion is clear:

The tourists are nuisances, to say the least.

In the lobby of the motel there's a few more brochures, and the maps have been updated once again.

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[Welcome to the fourth week! If you want to contact the Sergeant, please post here!. Also please remember to submit your activity check!]

Comments

[marmoron]

He also said he would send Rean's group home.

[Sarge's word means less than dirt to Keith right now. He goes quiet for a moment.]

It's possible that he's interested in our quintessence -- life force, essentially. It's a form of energy that's present in all living beings, though its qualities can differ from person to person.

[A beat.]

There was a guy we fought back home. He was harvesting the quintessence of Alteans in order to create powerful weapons and ships. The Alteans are a bit of a unique case though -- they're highly magical as a race. I wouldn't know exactly how much you could do with human quintessence. ...Or mine. But that might be it... and if so, that's not good at all.

[robitussin]

Whenever I ask him something that he doesn't want to answer, he tells me he can't say, even if that makes him look more suspicious. I don't think he's lying on this one. Trust me on this, okay?

[She sighs, though, listening to that. She can't claim she understands all of it, but...]

If that were the case, wouldn't he have already killed us? And... I'm, like, the least magical person here. I'm not sure that's it.

[marmoron]

[Keith continues to just look dubious, but:] Alright, let's assume that's true.

Not necessarily. He might be working on something to refine the extraction process. If the last group was a test run, they might not have gotten the technology right just yet. Besides.. the guy I'm talking about? He kept thousands of Alteans alive in a facility, continuously depleting whatever quintessence they could generate instead of outright killing them.

[Fun shit, really. Keith looks grim for a moment.]

And not all the Alteans are inherently capable of alchemy and magic. With quintessence, quality is one thing, but quantity is another. You might have more of it than the average person. There's no correlation between quintessence and how cool or not you thin you are.

I would prefer to be wrong about this though.

[robitussin]

And how did he do that? Was it by just letting them wander around and do whatever they wanted, including killing each other? Because it seems pretty counterproductive to me, unless I'm misunderstanding.

[She sighs.]

Yeah, I would also prefer that.

[marmoron]

He... [There's a bit of a grimace here.] ... he gave them an entire planet to live on. To do whatever they wanted. Whatever the Alteans needed he provided.

[Keith's hands curl into fists. Just like the Sergeant really -- providing them with practically unlimited money,shelter, the freedom to wander around within a certain perimeter. Shit -- why didn't he think about this before?]

Lotor never told them to murder each other. [A beat.] But he did lie to all of them. When he wanted to harvest their quintessence, he simply told them he'd be taking a few of them.. to a new home. [We're going home in two months. It's all so laughable now in the worst possible way.] He took them to a secret facility instead to begin the extraction process.

I don't know. I don't know if that's what's happening here, I don't know how the killing each other factors into it, unless he thinks there's a correlation between those who survive and those who'll be most promising for harvesting. But this is all stuff that's happened before in my world. It could be happening here too.

[robitussin]

...I don’t think it matches up, and that’s not because I’m just hoping it’s not true. I mean... That can’t be the correlation, because that implies that he doesn’t know who has the potential for it or whatever, but he already singled us out. And - if he already knows who has it, he wouldn’t need to do the whole elaborate murder town with frequent property damage thing.

[She shakes her head.]

I get that it’s easier to connect it with stuff you’ve already experienced, but...

[marmoron]

Maybe. Romelle did say that the Galra at least were using some kind of scanner to figure out how much quintessence each Altean on the colony had. There was selection process there. It's just not something we can see or tell about a person on sight.

[But again, he's quiet for a moment. Thinking.]

Like I said, I don't know. It's probably not exactly the same, but there may be a few parallels here and there.

[Or at least, he's going to keep that in mind as he rethinks this place. It'd been easier to assume it'd all been rather similar to what Bob had put the paladins through in the end -- albeit in a sicker, darker way.]

But let's say that there aren't any similarities at all between what I'm talking about and this. What do you think he's gotten so interested in us for? Do we have anything at all in common? I know we've talked about this before, but ... I don't think we do. Unless you are actually willing to kill under the right circumstances.

[robitussin]

[She listens to everything that he says, but it’s only the last part that she responds to.]

Why is murder the first thing you jump to? No, I’m not willing to kill under the right circumstances. [A sigh.] That’s why I wanted to talk to you. I was hoping we could, like... Try to figure it out. The similarity.

[marmoron]

Because that's what the Sergeant keeps demanding, isn't it? Kill someone or this will happen. Kill someone or that will happen. What else am I supposed to think?

[But he does pause and eventually sighs.]

How much do you want to live?

[robitussin]

...What, you want a scale of one to ten or something?

[She tries to play it off as a joke, but it falls flat. After a moment, she sighs.]

Of course I don't want to die, but that's not... I mean, I don't know exactly how you want me to quantify that.

[marmoron]

[He's stressed, she's stressed -- they're both stressed. Keith realizes he has to take a step back and explain himself properly, but it takes him another moment to get the patience together to do so.]

Badly phrased question. Sorry.

You're right, maybe I am focusing too much on the murder part of it. What the Sergeant really wants is for us to get away with murder. After sitting through trials, we know what that actually entails now. It means lying to everyone who trusts you. Getting an innocent person killed in your place. For someone to be able to do that they'd have to value their own life above everyone else's. That or they fear death above all else.

I don't know how you'd quantify that either, but that... could be it.

[robitussin]

[For a long moment, she pauses, shaking her head.]

There's nothing that's so important to me it would make me do something like that.

[marmoron]

So that's not it then.

[He frowns, considering further.]

Similarities at home, maybe? You probably don't want to talk about it, but what was so bad about home that you said any place would be better than this one?

[Not exactly a glowing review of home and all.]

[robitussin]

[She pauses for another moment. 'Dislikes: vulnerability' aside, she's realistic enough to see the value in talking about it here. So, while she definitely looks uncomfortable...]

Okay, but anything I say here stays between us, got it? I mean, not that I think you'd go around telling people, but - you know.

[It's not a no, at least.]

[marmoron]

[He nods.]

It all stays here. You got it.

[robitussin]

Okay. I also don't want any, like... Just don't say you're sorry or anything, no matter what I tell you.

[She takes another moment, though; she's far from used to discussing this openly, and she's not sure where to start, or how much detail to go into immediately.]

I guess, like... My family life isn't the greatest, and it's kind of made everything else go downhill lately. That's probably the easiest way to explain it.

[marmoron]

[That's vauge as hell. Keith furrows his brow.]

No platitudes, got it. What's been going on exactly?

[robitussin]

...The long version is an eighteen year old story, but the short story isn’t going to make sense without it. You ready?

[She’s certain he is; honestly, it’s not hard to tell from the hesitation in her voice that she’s stalling.]

[marmoron]

I'm ready, yeah.

[But he does see that Natalie is not. He's really not all that interested in getting people to talk about subjects they're uncomfortable with unless it's immediately pertinent, but ... they don't really have much else to go on other than some vague understanding that both of their family lives have been non-ideal, to put it mildly.

His tone softens a bit.]

Take your time, Natalie.

cw for child death, mental illness

[robitussin]

I’m fine.

[It’s said a little too quickly, a little too forcefully - if there’s anything worse han feeling vulnerable, it’s the feeling of knowing that other people can tell she is. She takes a breath, and:]

Let’s zip through this real quick. My parents had a kid before I was born, then he died, so they immediately had me thinking it would solve everything. They, of course, were completely wrong, and now my mom has frequent hallucinations that my very deceased older brother is still alive, hallucinations which she vastly prefers to acknowledging that I exist. My dad is too busy taking care of her and pretending we’re a normal family to deal with me.

[It’s said in a rush, and her shrug at the end is not nearly as careless as she’d like it to be.]

Your turn.

[marmoron]

[That's... not exactly what he was expecting to hear and Keith doesn't really know how to respond. He said he wouldn't reply with meaningless words like "I'm sorry" or whatever, so instead he just glances down at the table. Several seconds pass in silence before he speaks up.]

My turn.

[A beat. He continues in a fairly matter-of-fact tone once the initial hesitation passes. It's all stuff that hurt in the past, but a lot of it is healing over.]

You know my mom's Galran. I didn't know anything about her until two years ago. She left me when I was a baby so it was just me and my pop for a while -- which was alright, we got along okay. He never really said anything about her, never told me who she was so I just.. grew up thinking I was a normal human being.

He died when I was just a kid. He was a firefighter and he went back into a burning building to try and save a few more folks. Never made it out. After that I was on my own. Didn't have any other family to take care of me, so I just took care of myself.

Felt pretty unwanted and abandoned so I lashed out at a lot of other people. Got into dumb fights, never tried to apply myself in anything. Most people just kinda gave up on me. Would've ended up in juvenile detention if it weren't for Shiro.

[There's a weak smile that looks more like a grimace if anything.]

I'd say there are a few similarities in how we felt, yeah.

[robitussin]

[She pauses for a few long moments, just as unsure of how to react to that. There's definitely sympathy on her face, and perhaps unsurprisingly, given what he's said, there's some measure of understanding as well.]

...Yeah, I guess so.

[She doesn't want to get sidetracked, but she has to wonder:]

Who's Shiro?

[marmoron]

[Keith stares at Natalie for a moment, still not sure what to really think of everything they're talking about. They're understanding each other better, that's for sure, but is all of this really what sparked the Sergeant's interest in them? Growing up feeling unwanted and alone because of their parents? It's all just feels even more invasive than simply thinking the Sergeant thought of him as being murderous.

That aside, the question about Shiro is easy to answer in comparison. Keith smiles, this time more genuinely.]

Shiro was an officer from the Garrison. He came to my school one day to recruit kids to join their space exploration program. He's the one who encouraged me to join the Garrison, stuck his neck out for me when others just wanted me removed from the program. Without him I'd have never turned my life around.

[There's quite a bit more to this story, but despite all the compications and twists that surround Shiro and their exploits it all comes down to a fairly simple summary.]

My brother.

[robitussin]

...I wonder if that's part of it, too.

[She pauses again, glancing down.]

He sounds pretty important to you. Someone who got you out of a really tough spot. Maybe part of why the Sergeant is interested in us, is... We're people who have messed up before, but someone came along who helped us, and - now that we're here, they're gone. People like that, they'd be more...

[She pauses, trying to think of the best word.]

I don't know. Susceptible?

[marmoron]

....

[There's something about that that doesn't quite ring true for Keith, but he's considering it pretty seriously. There's no question in his mind that Shiro means the world to him, so the idea that his love for Shiro makes him "susceptible" in his brother's absence seems... not counterintuitive exactly, but wrong nonetheless.]

In terms of having easy leverage you mean? [A beat.] Or what are you thinking?