Orchestra Day 14

[yondu]

[Video]

[Yondu's opting for a video post though he did consider audio. But he really wants to put out there how important this is to him. He needs help and he can finally damn well practice what he preaches and ask for it.]

[Okay, deep, uneasy exhale before explaining.]

I uh.... before I showed up here, the same day even, there was a mutiny aboard my ship. Had a buncha folks decide they didn't like I was takin' cheaper jobs to keep from doin' stuff I weren't comfortable with. I was usually able to make excuses- we still made plenty but a few outspoken bastards were real upset I didn't always pick the options with more in our pockets, and then my first mate got jealous. Called me out in front of everyone. 'Caused a shitstorm. [He's a little distant in describing that.]

He didn't know how bad it'd get. The traitors... they uh... Hell... Alright if you're a kid or you don't gotta deal with a lotta death, just turn this off. Get the hell outa here. It ain't for you. [He takes a moment for them to do that if they care to. Alright? Good. Carrying on.] I was detained proper at the time. Couldn't use my arrow, couldn't fight, too hurt to get loose. They shoved 'em one by one out an airlock an' I couldn't save 'em. We're talkin' a hundred plus men dead, one by one. It was not just a few. Just left to float like garbage thrown out a window and they laughed about it and mocked 'em as they watched 'em go.

[There's a moment of shaky-breathed anger, but, you know, what's done is done. Assholes what done it are dead now, they cain't do it to anyone else or use his ship to go make the universe an even worse place or harass his family. He's good.] Dyin' in space is like freezin' and drownin' at the same time. Every moment of it hurts 'cause you feel your outside freezin' in, an' at some point you know even if you was saved the life left in ya wouldn't be worth it. [He can say that from experience. There's a little bit where you know how bad the damage is.] Almost three decades some of those men had been with me. Good and bad. I didn't make a lotta friends but they did mean somethin' to me. And someone gave me the idea maybe I could put 'em to rest if I could do somethin' memorialwise. I don't want the last thoughts directed at 'em to be their own crewmates bein' happy about 'em dyin'.

Ravagers... when we die, usually we're remembered. If our bodies cain't be picked up, we're toasted by our crew. If our bodies are there, we're put in the ship's engine. Turned to stardust, get to travel forever. And the one that's usually for captains is a ship flying its Colors- you do this big light show. Well, no crew here besides myself to drink to 'em, and their bodies ain't anywhere to be found [not to mention a hundred-some people is a lot] so I figured I'd ask anyone that can do lights an' illusions if they'd help me out to fly them the Colors whenever we're at a stop where our lives don't depend on it and there's a sky overhead. They weren't captains but they was loyal enough. I don't know if I could pay ya, but I been sittin' on knowin' what happened to 'em and I ain't been able to think of a way to really make it right.

Comments

[Video]

[yondu]

S'alright, you shoulda seen my face when I saw magic folks doin' a bunch of water moves all at once in a place with no water nearby. Didn't quite get that either.

I'd appreciate it. Colors are supposed to be real showy. It's... [He can't think of a good comparison, though it's a lot like flying a flag at half staff.] ...Like how some places set off fireworks to remember big battles? Along them lines.

[katzenpfote]

Fireworks? I can do that. I'm familiar with it... but any particular colors that you want, or just... colors, generally?

[yondu]

Ours were mostly shades of red. Other than that I ain't picky. They would have just been glad for the honor. Like I said, usually it was just for captains.

[katzenpfote]

No, I... understand. In some ways, at least. I've... lost people, as well.

You just tell me where and when, and I'll be more than happy to provide. It's the least we can do here, right? To... do what we can for one another.

[yondu]

Yeah, and I'm plum sick of illusions just meant to screw with my head anyway. I kinda wanna see 'em used for somethin' like this.

[katzenpfote]

I prefer using them for better ends, too. I've seen both ends of the spectrum with illusions, even before here.

[yondu]

All kinds of holograms on my world. Funny though, holograms don't work so good with me when they're meant for trickin'. Magic-made images can slip right by me and if my fin ain't on I'll take 'em as real.

[katzenpfote]

... You can take your fin off?

[yondu]

Oh... not off like takin' it off. I can but it requires tools an' such and no one likes just seein' the base sittin' there. [Because even if it doesn't show anything morbid it's even more obvious it's rooted into his skull.]

Since it's to help guide my arrow I turn it on and off just thinkin' about it. Longest I've run it straight is three days. It gets disorientin'.