🚨G💥A💥L💥O 🚒 T💥H💥Y💥M💥O💥S🚨 (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
burningrescue) wrote2020-03-08 09:09 pm
burningrescue) wrote2020-03-08 09:09 pmEntry tags:
burningrescue) wrote2020-03-08 09:09 pm
week 3; wednesday afternoon
[Galo is running around, trying to find Akira, wherever he is.]
I got another one!
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Galo—?
[perking up a bit, confused and curious]
Another what?
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[He'll shove it in Akira's face. It's a white piece of paper that's folded in half and on the front, in really badly scrawled letters, he'll see:
Inside the paper, there is a drawing with a note taped to the top of it:
So. Yeah.]
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[. . .]
Whaaaaaat the fuck.
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Lio definitely didn't send this bullshit. But it means Luna's not a monster, yeah? And it sounds like Hunter isn't gonna become one again, either.
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[Lio seems so much more straightforward than this. . . than. all of this]
I think that's what it means. Whoever can predict future transformations must have checked her for this week, and she came up clear. So that's one person we don't have to worry about.
Two, if Hunter is really immune.
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[He shrugs.]
I think I'll ask Pumpkin about it? Did you ever talk to any of the girls about yours?
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No, I-- [SHEEPISH] I kinda forgot.
[but]
Asking Pumpkin's a good idea. These are the sort of things I bet she's into.
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[Oh, but you asked for a fuck the police memory, so that's what you're getting.
Galo is at the base of a massive skyscraper, the tallest building in a city of skyscrapers. The building is the seat of power for Governor Foresight. Security is tight, but Galo is allowed in - the security recognizes him as Promepolis’ young hero, points to the medal he’s wearing pinned to his chest, congratulates him on the capture of those Mad Burnish terrorists.
Galo sits in the lobby of the building and waits, his mood dark. A man enters, flanked by his assistant, and Galo tells him they need to talk.
The Governor’s office is at the top of the building, looking out over the city far below. Galo lays his medal down on the Governor’s desk.
“You want to return it?” he asks.
“Lio has escaped,” Galo says. “I met him in a mountain cave. He says he escaped from prison.”
The Governor assures Galo that there’s still no need to return the medal he was awarded for Lio Fotia’s capture, but Galo doesn't move to take it back or look reassured.
“Medals are made to be awarded to and by people who deserve them,” Galo pronounces. “Neither of us are worthy.”
The Governor’s expression hardly changes, but some surprise seems to register as he asks Galo what he means.
“Gov! Is it true that you’re doing human experiments on the Burnish?” Galo is shouting, angry. There's a long moment while he waits for the Governor to deny it, to confirm what he wants to believe - that Lio lied, that Lio was lying about all of it. But when Kray responds with only silence, he flinches, openly pained and heartbroken. “You’re my hero. You saved me, started the Foresight Foundation, and founded this amazing city. But you’re doing such a horrible thing?”
“Horrible?” Kray asks, still not reacting.
“The Burnish are humans,” Galo says, thinking now of Burnish he’s met, and of Lio, too. He immediately thinks of Lio's pained and furious expression, in that cave, after watching one of the injured Burnish he'd just rescued die and turn to ash. “They get hungry, they get sad if they lose a friend. Of course it’s bad if they start fires, but you can just arrest them for that! You can’t kill them for no reason!”
There’s a long silence, before the Governor moves to stand. “I see. Follow me.”
He leads Galo down the elevator, below the building, into a massive underground facility, and there he explains everything to Galo. The magma in the earth’s core has been burning out of control. Within a matter of months, it will overheat, and the planet will be destroyed. The Governor is planning to take an expedition of 10,000 people on a ship to another habitable planet, abandoning the earth. But the only hope for this plan is developing warp technology.
The Governor takes Galo to an underground lab, an experiment is in progress. A young Burnish man, who Galo seems to recognize and calls 'pizza guy,' is placed in a machine called a Prometech pod, and spun until he screams and begins to burn. The machine allows some scientists to warp across the room. Kray is pleased - the test was finally a success. The Prometech pods will work. But Galo watches horrified, seeing the pizza guy’s fingers turn to ash. The machine is burning away his life force.
“That’s horrible,” Galo says to himself, but Kray corrects him.
“It’s a valued sacrifice for the survival of mankind. We can’t build the warp engine without the Burnish.”
“There must be some other way,” insists Galo. “If we stop the magma, we won’t need to go to another planet.”
“I’ve considered that, but we can’t stop it with our current technology. Migration’s our best bet.”
“So, you sacrifice the Burnish for that?” Galo is staring at the ground.
“Exactly. Do you understand now?”
“Yeah, I do,” he concedes, still not looking up at him. “But I can’t accept it.”
“Then what will you do?” the Governor asks, for once curious.
Galo clenches his fists, and looks up again with determination in his eyes. “I’ll extinguish the earth’s magma!”
Kray smiles, suddenly. It’s the first genuine smile on his face this entire time, but it's nasty and condescending. “I knew you’d say that,” he laughs, disdainfully, and his guard presses his gun against Galo’s back. “We’re short of time. Can’t have an idiot making a fuss.”
Galo is staring at him now, in shock ever since he felt the gun. “Why, Gov?” he asks, his voice breaking.
Anger flashes across Kray’s face, and he slams his prosthetic fist into Galo’s stomach, knocking him off his feet with the force of the blow. “Don’t call me Gov.” He stares down at Galo with open hatred. “I’ve always hated it. You’ve always been an eyesore to me!”
The security guards lift Galo off the ground and drag him away. He’s brought to a remote prison cell, and the door is slammed behind him, while he shouts for Kray, or for anyone, to come and let him out. He pounds on the door until he runs out of energy, and then sinks to the ground, crying.]
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[Akira jerks back as his consciousness is yet again filled with images and emotions that belong to someone else. one would think that after a few days of this, he'd be used to it, but. . .]
[he isn't. and he probably never will be. especially not when someone's memory pings so close to home for him. the abuse of power committed by those trusted by the people to lead and protect]
That's. . . that's what was happening to the Burnish?
[he got some of the backstory from Lio, but. not all of it. and this? this is horrible]
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Yeah. He's supposed to just be capturing terrorists and criminals, and putting them somewhere they can't cause fires. But instead, he was doing this - to everybody. Not that it would be okay to do this to anybody, but the guy in that memory - he's just a guy who worked at the pizza place me and my unit used to visit! He never did anything, but when they found out he was a Burnish they arrested him and did this.
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That's-- [Akira feels a flash of anger broiling in his gut, eyes widening then narrowing, fire burning in his irises. this may not be his world, and these may not be the people he knows, but. . .]
[he's far too empathetic to not feel anything]
That's shitty. There has to be something you can do about it. . .!
[because if he knows Galo, based on everything he's seen Galo do since arriving, he isn't the type to just stand around and let things like this happen]
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[Nope, he's not. But on the other hand, he's apparently the type of guy who'd go and yell at the person doing it and get thrown instantly into prison where he can't do shit.]
I have some ideas to stop him, but we have to get home first. Get home, stop him, free the Burnish, and then stop the magma in earth's core. If I can just do all of that, it'll be fine!
[That wasn't sarcastic, somehow. It's going! To be fine!]
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That's. . . a pretty big to-do list.
[but you know what? Akira's anger fades into a smile, the corners of his lips twitching]
But I feel like if anyone could accomplish that, it's you.