revivalproject | One Last Thing To Wrap Up Before We Go

WHO: The Stabby Boys, The Investigation Team
WHERE: Outside of Temba Hangar
WHAT: Attempt to capture and deal with Billy and Stu
WHEN: Night of May 1st
WARNINGS: Violence, attempts on lives

A Plan Set In Motion | Any of the Investigation team who desires to be present, maximum 2 non-tae people per thread.

They've been working on their plans for a few weeks now. Laying out breadcrumbs, coming up with the proper ambush location, working on the proper chemistry for the truth serum (and man had Tae not had fun drinking it and then answering questions honestly to the people around her), and of course, coming up with contingency plans. Only when they all thought something reasonable was arranged did Tae call for the final plan review in the room she had set up in the hospital for their private conversations.

Not that she expected everyone to show up. They'd gone over things so many times before. It would likely be only those most tense, or most willing to rehash the rehashed that would show up. That doesn't stop her from setting up a tray of snacks, as well as a few cups of blue lemonade, just in case.

In fact, as someone knocks at the door and slips in she picks up her cup and takes a sip. Planning would be best with complete honesty.

"Come in," she finally says before sitting down.

Hopefully everything would go well tonight. That was the best she could hope for.

Who Hunts The Hunter | Keith, Billy and/or Stu, Sephiroth

The plan had been laid out. The observation points prepared. The bait set. The ambush team armed with sedative syringes and even Tae's sleeping pills that she'd given to other people when the nights got bad. There were ropes and handcuffs and quiet bodies hidden in dark places near the site of the waiting bait. Somewhere just barely in sight was York, walking on his merry way as bait, one they had been careful to set up as a good target over several nights that week. One that had maybe called the boys out on a personal level.

Hell, there was even a teleporting wolf ghosting along rooftops, watching the android and ready to swoop in as the hero.

And in one dark spot... A certain paladin waited, no doubt ready to spring the trap. A paladin with no idea that theirs wasn't the only set of watching eyes in the night.

The Interrogation | Tae, Billy and/or Stu, open to anyone on investigation team (no more than two others)

Two chairs in the back corner of the hangar, far from the shuttles that waited to carry He Rows back up to the ships in orbit. Bright lights set up to look upon them, to light them from several angles to make sure the nearby set up communication device could record everything. Two young men, tied to said chairs, looking worse for the wear and only just coming around from sedation. Outside of the ring of light, a few others to either join in or call out questions.

And front and center, one very tired and resolved doctor with a glass of some blue drink with a straw put in it.

"Good morning," she greeted as she saw the first signs of motion. "You must be thirsty."

She knew they would be. Her sedative did leave one with a damn wicked case of dry mouth.

"Here, have this."

And she would lean in to offer the straw. Time to drink up boys. To drink up and be honest for a change.

Network Post from Tae Takemi

Please find attached a video of the confessions of Billy Loomis and Stu Macher for their role in the attacks under the guise of a shadowy, cloaked individual with a mask akin to a melted ghost face. Throughout the video you will find that my own voice and their own are unaltered, and you are welcome to verify this through any datapoint knowledge or questioning of Venidelosia, who I specifically invited to observe the interrogation.

These confessions were, in all honesty, given under a degree of duress. They were gained by administration of something I have heard referred to as 'blue lemonade'. It was confirmed through prior records and the knowledge of datapoints that the plant in question induces uncontrollable honesty. I tested it myself to that end, and invite anyone who wishes to sample it to be certain of its efficacy.

Questioning was performed after the capture of the two young men by myself and a team I worked with. In the process they attempted to attack another person, though I understand this circumstance could be viewed as self defense.

No, I will not state who was involved in the whole process. They are welcome to come forth on their own should they desire. All actions made in planning were spearheaded by myself. All initiative was my own. All recruitment was done by me. I will accept full culpability in any punishment that might be levied upon those of us who came together to stop this madness. While this may make me a vigilante, the truth of the matter is that the attempts these boys made upon our lives must end. Our trust in each other must be preserved, even if it can no longer be extended to me.

So please, watch the confessions. Then discuss punishment. My personal opinion is that we ask Venidelosia to restrain them upon the Agrii ship to ensure our safety. It is not as though we can force a change of heart upon them. But I will not vote. My actions mean I should not have one.

I have asked Venidelosia to go in and open this text to inter-person communication. She says this will make it more like a message board so that people can jump between conversation threads should they desire. Please make use of it.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

"We're ALL he-rows here. Isn't that the point?" Billy reminded her.

"Sure as fuck wasn't after yours," he muttered, and that seemed to be truth enough that nothing further came spilling out. "Oh I was hoping they would kick the bucket, don't get me wrong, Doc. But they didn't. And that makes us no worse than half the people here. Weird no one called out the troops when that other doctor knocked out the lady who was harassing Stu. That one was broadcast out to everyone and not a peep."

"You truly are a tiring child," Tae says to Stu. They have all this evidence and he's just going to keep defending himself. "Have you considered that contrition might earn you some leniency?"

But no, that doesn't seem to occur to him at all. So she returns her attention to Billy. Because that really was an important point, the trust.

"The way I see it, the only person you seem to trust and be trusted by is Stu. Which makes me wonder. Billy, why is it so important Stu trusts you? I think that's more important right now than Dr. Wesker's unfortunately poorly chosen attempt to protect you."

Stu rolled his eyes so hard that his head rolled along the back of the chair, and ended with a listless drop to stare toward Billy again with pleading exhaustion. "She's not going to listen to anything you say," he said, "Don't bother. She doesn't even hear herself."

Billy didn't really do sympathetic well, but he made a face at Stu that seemed to share his frustration.

But he still felt compelled to answer Taw. "Because he's the only one that sees shit like I do. And I need him to make Sid pay."

He frowned and flicked his eyes to Stu with as reassuring a look as he could manage. That sounded wrong. "You know what I mean."

Sid? Now that was a name that didn't go here.

"So you're just manipulating him to get revenge. How sad. But I suppose that explains a lot. You're the predator. He's the one that clings on because he just wants to belong and wants something like your power."

How sad. She looks to Stu and shakes her head.

"What is it that you see like he does? I'll give you the chance to answer, Stu. Because you're the one being misguided by this young sociopath of ours."

Stu's giddiness at being reassured that Billy's primary motivation was their trust rapidly faded, leaving him pale and still after Billy mentioned Sid, even as Billy tried to address him. He did know what Billy meant, more than he wanted to, and grit his teeth against that attempt at reassurance. He still rounded on Tae with a glare for all she had to suddenly say about them, even if he couldn't maintain it and let his focus drop down his chest, where he strained restlessly against his ties. "You don't know anything about me, lady," he whined. "Don't act like you're going to start listening to me now. He's not the sociopath here, he's the only one that's been nice to me this whole time. As soon as I got here--I've never seen so many self-absorbed people. And I tried out for high school football. You ever been around those meatheads? They didn't want me, either, but you people, you're on another level."

"No," Billy snapped. Not entirely at least. "We're partners. And we prefer the term psychotic," he added, jerking abruptly an violently and then laughing if he manages to get her to startle. His eyes turned to Stu, feeling going back into them where there had been nothing a second before. "Don't listen to her, Man. She's trying to get in your head."

"Whether you prefer the term or not, there is a clinical use for them, and neither of you display symptoms or signs of psychosis," she counters to Billy. "And I would rather not be in either of your heads. People who can callously justify multiple attempted murders, who can justify attempts to be serial killers, are unworthy of such deep dives. It only builds a false sense of interest in their habits."

With that said she looks to Stu. Because really he seems like the follower here.

"You do admit it though. You're only with him because you find fulfillment in your bond with him. You're an outcast. In a way I might almost call him an attempted cult leader. One who would make use of a weaker will to achieve his ends. I would pity you had you not known that such behavior was wrong. I have to wonder... Was this the first place he talked you into such behavior?"

Stu had to roll his eyes again, this time with a groan of frustration and letting his head drop back noisily against the chair where it remained, and he at least didn't have to be looking into those lights anymore. Voice strained through his stretched throat, he performed a helpful recap of the expectations in a grating high pitch, "'Tell me why you did it, no your answer is wrong, I'm going to tie you here and make you talk, no don't start thinking I care about what's in your heads.'" With another grunt of frustration and restless wrenching against the bonds, Stu dropped his voice back to ask, "Can we go now? You've figured it all out. Whatever you say, lady. Go write your book about it."

"Seriously. What are we doing here? What are we supposed to say? We obviously did it. Either take us out and play hero or let us go so we can stop pretending anyone's suddenly going to do anything."

"Answers. Reasoning. Proof from your own lips," Tae says with a shrug. Because it was important to prove their point to the other He Rows.

And perhaps to the Agrii themselves.

"Two last questions then. How many people did you kill before you came here? And do you regret what you have done?"

When Stu lifted his head again, it was to eye Tae with incredulous frustration, and a breathless tilt to insist wordlessly, come on. Neither of them believed that. She couldn't even deliver the line without that little shrug. That look lasted a beat after her last question, then disappeared in a complete transformation for Stu's brow to knit together, eyes welling up with tears, mouth drawn in pain as he insisted, "Please, I'm so sorry, I'll never do it again, you're right, everything you say is so right and I don't want you to be mad at me."

There was a pause only so long as it took Billy's mind to decide whether that answer had to mean him personally or their total combined, and though his eyes narrowed he didn't fight it. There wasn't much point. "Four," he answered with a pointed look, almost bored sounding. His lips gave a small twitch of amusement at Stu's theatric. "No," he finished plainly.

Bored. Killers. Four deaths. As many more attempted.

"I didn't think so," she says, a touch of sorrow in her voice.

With that she walks out of the ring of light.

"I'm sure the gentlemen who escorted you here won't mind escorting you to somewhere you can be confined until the others decide what is to be done with people like you. I don't expect it will be nice, given the truth from your own mouths and all of the evidence."

One Last Thing To Wrap Up Before We Go

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