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

[yondu]

Point. But I would bet any one of those men would have liked to see you throw a giant sized monkey shine so long as they didn't get squished.

[He can already imagine Tullk taking bets on what he could do, and Oblo turning it into a drinking game.]

[renegadeprince]

No promises. [Vegeta would normally snap that Oozaru form was not a child's toy for play, it was used for a purpose... but this was Yondu, and he's talking about his crew that had been brutally killed off... so Vegeta will bite back his pride's need to point that out.]

Is there any preparations I can assist with?

[yondu]

[Sometimes some men just want to see all hell break loose and root it on, no matter what the cause behind it. You come from a horrifically strict and domineering culture to start? Kinda nice to see a giant ape maybe punch a building.]

Apparently there'll be food? [People offered.] Maybe your buddy Goku would like ya to eat some in his honor.

[Judging from the stories he's heard.]

I know he ain't dead or nothin' but. Y'know.

[Sometimes you just miss people.]

[renegadeprince]

[Food was good. However Vegeta scoffed at the mention of a certain someone.] I don't need to do anything for Kakarot's honor. Nor would he want me to. [They were both very independent, didn't want to rely on the other, and pushed through via their own paths by themselves even if they were allies. Plus no doubt wherever he is the idiot was fine. He always was. They would meet back up another time one day, simple as that.

Of course Vegeta's answer may change if asked about this again after the train questions to come... but for now, Goku's just something he waves off.]

[yondu]

Well, you're still invited to celebrate what my crew got. They'd absolutely want it. They were real boisterous guys, loved a good fight and a good drink. Took joy in every win.

[They'd certainly torn the hell out of the Dark Aster in that video.]

You actually got to see some of 'em fightin' in that news vid I showed ya. They were all survivors of that.

[renegadeprince]

Thank you. [Vegeta's not really the 'boisterous' type when it came to celebrations, but he would be there for Yondu. And no doubt Bulma would like an excuse to enjoy a party.]

I recall. It's a shame the loss was through an act of treachery rather than a battle. [That may be the Saiyan side of him talking, but he's also guessing by how Yondu was describing his crew that going out in a blaze of glory and fire was preferable to how they had met their end. Better to go out fighting.]

[yondu]

Oh yeah they woulda, especially if they still coulda gone out with a win.

[They Saiyan side of him as right as far as he was concerned. Every one of those men would have rather died fighting than how they went.]

We'd been together for so long that sometimes I didn't even need to give the order. They just knew what I wanted and could do it without the callout. One of 'em went down an' there'd be another swoopin' in to pick 'em up.

[renegadeprince]

I see. [Then back to the topic at hand, though still related. He's... hesitant to ask this, because what it could lead to, but since it was important to Yondu...] Have you organized a way to perform this required light show?

[yondu]

Some people are offerin' tech, some people are offerin' magic. Other'n that I think we just gotta find the right place to stop.

[To do more planning, that is, because otherwise everything is too up in the air.]

[renegadeprince]

[Good, good. That was sorted then. That way Vegeta didn't have to offer... ugh, he's not sure he even could. He liked Yondu, enough to at least consider the option, but the idea of using ki for a light show... it seemed far too childish for something designed for battle. Even for a memorial services, which he can understand is important to others, even if not for himself.] Good. It sounds like you've got it all sorted then. Barring a suitable location.