Starpath: Scoundrels of the Interstellar Highway - Thread 2 - Games

Maddox grunted and shook his head in response to Amy's comment. "Even I know that some people are not to be flirted with."

[QUOTE]"I'm sorry I did that, Captain..."[/QUOTE] "...Eh. I forgive you. I figured Yuga had spoken to you first. As for János, I've got a feeling Yanim's got some choice words for him." said Taylor, nodding. She wondered if she should ask him about how much he remembered from earlier. If anything at all.

[quote]"...Eh. I forgive you."[/quote] Frosty smiled in response to that, lifting his spirits a little, but his face went back to being a depressed frown. "Thanks, Captain. Though that whole incident is not the only thing that has been bothering me. It's the fact that Moloch is here too. It's too late to make him go away now, but there's something I need to tell you about him, Captain." He looked both ways to make sure nobody was around before leaning in a bit closer. "Something [I]very [/I]important."

She motioned for him to follow her into a room nearby so they could speak in private. Once they were inside, she motioned with a hand for him to continue. "What is it?" she asked.

"You probably could have gathered this by merely [I]LOOKING [/I]at him, but let me put it to you like this now that you got me thinking about my outburst: Do you remember when you said he could've killed everyone in the room and walk out unscathed? Thinking about it now, he very well could have. That man is dangerous, Captain, very dangerous. When I woke, he had taken me to this horrible place where I met the rest of my species. They were all horrible people, Captain. They abducted people, took them to these giant buildings, and slaughtered them like cattle in public for all to see. Moloch was the one performing it all..." Frosty hesitated a moment since he really hated remembering anything from Karbala. "Sorry, I just... don't want to remember any of it all anymore, but he did horrible things, Captain. He took this one person, strung him upside down, sliced his neck open and bled him completely dry as part of this ceremony they often did. Moloch was overseeing it all... He even took some limbs and tossed them into the crowd where some people picked them up and started eating them... It was awful, Captain. Everything about it was horrible... The ceremonies, the chants, the screams..." Frosty's eyes started to get glossy as he went on. "And he... he wants my people to become even more horrible, Captain. I read a letter he typed and he wants them to be even [I]more[/I] savage, [I]more brutal[/I], [I]more cruel[/I]..." He grabbed Taylor's shoulders and looked at her in the face. "Captain, he's a horrible man! He's dangerous! If he can't force my memories back, I just know he's going to kill me!"

Abducting and slaughtering people? Cannibalism? Its a fucking death cult! And Moloch was the LEADER of all of this shit? AND WANTED TO MAKE IT WORSE? Taylor was disgusted. They sounded much worse than Divinity Creed, and almost as bad as if not AS bad as the Transsentience Cult. "...I'll talk to him as well as Yanim." she said. She still wondered if she should bring up the 'other' Frosty from earlier. Thought it might make Frosty panic even more. "Just stay calm, alright? We'll figure something out."

"I'll try, Captain, I'll try." Frosty backed off and let Taylor go. "I don't know what plans you have for him, and at this point I don't care if he's allowed to stay or not, just don't let him get near me [I]please![/I]"

After Valk exchanges her dark message to Jason and left the Storage room, Jason muttered to himself with a sarcastic tone [I]"Talk about Anger Management."[/I] after muttering. Jason notices the 2 lone people in the room and turned his head towards them and replied. "What are you two staring at me for?"

"Public entertainment." Replied Maddox while chuckling. "Hey Jason, want to make yourself useful? Help me unpack all this stuff." Said the gunsmith while pointing towards the stacks of crates.

Amy was giggling uncontrolably over the whole thing. "Oh my god...you're so innocent...it's almost adorable" She stood up from where she was sitting. "Mad, I'm sorry, I need to step out to calm down. I'll just distract you...he's so fucking...he's like a puppy." Amy walked down the ramp Markus had used, laughs and giggles could still be heard.

After Amy's unexpected giggle overload. Jason helps out Maddox with unpacking the crates. during this. Jason tries to start a conversation "So Maddox, What did you do before you joined the crew?"

Mercy turns on her heel after the display is well and truly over. "Well, zhat was interesting." She says to herself as she walks back off to her quarters.

János took a moment to take in the question. His pupils looked dilated once he realized what Yanim meant by it. He looked straight at her. "My loyalties lie with my company," he told her. "I realize that my actions during the mission may not have illustrated that clearly. In fact, they may have illustrated the exact opposite. But I believe that, given the circumstances we were in, it was the best decision that could be done without injuring any more members of the crew, especially considering what had happened on the mission that day... "However..." he sighed, "I will admit that I did go against what could be considered an executive order, that is to bring back Frosty to the ship, in disregards to whatever personal intentions Yuga had. And, as we can see now, my decision did not lead to Frosty getting his memories back," he commented, as he leaned in closer towards the Boss, "and his experience with his people was much worse than I could've anticipated, as demonstrated from his general demeanor. And only I am to blame for this," his expression going from troubled to desolated as he told her this. He leaned out away from her. "I will accept any punishment you deem fit."

Hariim steps up to a wall and taps its surface, the portal image changes to a plain grey background. "Once we step through here you will begin your first lesson. You'll learn the scale on which the Culture, and you, live on." With that said, Hariim steps through the wall. He is gone from sight, the only clear way ahead is forward. When Valkyrie steps through she finds herself without form, without a body. The world around her is felt entirely through impressions and thoughts and impulses of odd data. She senses, Hariim is with her. Words formed in a mind which is not her own filter through to her consciousness. <Welcome to the starting point. We now reside in the raw mesh network of the Culture. You now reside in a galaxy-spanning mesh network maintained on the processing power and bandwidth of hundreds of thousands of augmented and artificial minds. Take a moment to settle, feel the subtle fluctuations; like a room expanding and contracting as a lung does.> Valkyrie can indeed feel what Hariim thinks to her. As she gets acclimated she can pick out the myriad connections and thoughtstreams which pervade this lynchpin of the Culture's network. Though she cannot fully comprehend the sheer scale, what she can figure is suitably impressive.

Taylor nodded. Finally, she just went ahead and asked it. "Frosty...do you remember anything from earlier? After talking to Moloch?" - - - - - - - - If she could feel Hariim's thoughts, then he could definitely feel the reverse. She didn't like this. She liked having a visible body. She liked having her thoughts to herself, instead of everyone hearing them or being flooded with someone else's thoughts. She liked working with visible, tangible things. Real things. And all of this was [I][B]not[/B][/I] that. This bothered the fucking hell out of her. She tried her best to just contain herself, focusing on what Hariim was telling her to do.

Frosty rubbed his forehead. "I do not actually. The last thing I can recall was trying to get Moloch to back away before he knocked me out. Did something happen when I was unconscious?"

[QUOTE]"I do not actually. The last thing I can recall was trying to get Moloch to back away before he knocked me out. Did something happen when I was unconscious?"[/QUOTE] Taylor rubbed the back of her neck, looking up at the ceiling, before answering. "You...uhm...woke up, and were a lot different. You unlocked your lockbox and apparently had put on the clothes that were inside of it. Your voice was different. I think getting knocked out forced the old you to come back...lets just try to not get knocked out again, alright?"

Frosty leaned in a bit closer just to make sure he was hearing this properly. "[I]What?[/I]" This seriously worried him. Sweat started to form on his brow at the realization that Taylor could see [I]him [/I]too. "Well... what did I do, and what did I say?"

Yanim's expression didn't change during János's defense. When he was finished, she crossed her arms. "Loyalty to the company is something," she replied, "but if you're going to fly as part of a [I]crew[/I], your primary concern is to be loyal to [I]them.[/I] Your actions turned one of your allies over to an unknown, and worse yet, it was because you didn't want anyone else to get hurt. János, if you won't risk injury in the name of a comrade, what good are you to us?" János said nothing as it was obvious that the question was rhetorical. "I'm giving you a special task, to be completed before our next major contract," Yanim said. "The Cataract is painted the wrong colors. Now that it's owned by TBC, I want it painted in our scheme- black or deep gray, and add the company logo in violet. You will receive no help, and you will not ask for it. Now go."

János nodded. "May I only ask where the paints are?"

[QUOTE]"Well... what did I do, and what did I say?"[/QUOTE] "Well...to put it simply, he's not exactly a good person and fully intends on bringing you back to your people. Apparently you...well, [I][B]he[/B][/I] is really important to them. And Moloch was his right hand." she explained. She paused for a moment. "...Again, try to not get knocked out."

"There's a mixing station in the engineering room of this carrier," Yanim answered, annoyed.

"Thank you," János responded, as he left for the engineering room.

And Frosty thought he was the only one who saw the Sermon Giver. At first, he thought the Sermon Giver was just some mental representation of what he had seen on Karbala. Now this troubled him even more. His eyes widened. "You... you saw him too..?" With Taylor telling him that the Sermon Giver was more than that sent him straight into panic mode. "Captain, [I]no![/I] That man isn't me! He's not real! He's just... something stuck inside my head! He's just a figment of my imagination!"

Taylor grabbed Frosty by the shoulders. "Frosty, that man is the old you. You have to accept that. But he is not the you that is here right now. Focus on being this you. Be Frosty. Don't be whatever the hell that one was. Do that, and avoid getting knocked out. [I]You can resist it.[/I]" She released him. "Understand?"

Frosty couldn't do else but just give a sad look to Taylor, like if he knows there isn't anything he can do to stop it. Deep down, the realization that these next few days may be his last moments as himself as he is began to hit him. His eyes were getting glossy again...

Maddox stacked up several weapons Jason unpacked against a nearby rack. "Well before I signed up with TBC I was just travelling the galaxy, hopping from ship to ship. It was a good experience, saw alot of amazing things. Learned a whole lot too." He helped Jason pack up a large anti-material rifle which Maddox then placed on a table. "Before that I was with the SDF Novithus Auxiliaries, working as a combat engineer, gunsmith and armorsmith."

Taylor noticed his eyes. She sighed. "Fuck it." she muttered. She then gave Frosty a tight hug. "Look, we're here for you, alright? Were not going to let you just turn back into whatever the hell you used to be. Talk to your fellow crew. We'll help you as best we can."

"I'll try, Captain... I'll try."

[QUOTE]"I'll try, Captain... I'll try."[/QUOTE] "Alright." said Taylor, releasing him and giving him a pat on the shoulder. "Lets head out and check on the other crew." she said with a smile, before stepping out of the room they were in and motioning for him to follow.