I want to talk to the Brave Police. Right now.

[Kagerou what have we said about locking your messages like this.]

[Apparently all those talks still fly out the window when you're upset. Oops. And boy, does he sound upset.]

[Oh hello birdbrain, what have you been doing lately?]

[Apparently hanging out in your room, since that's where you seem to be right now. You also look mildly upset.]

Someone please. I'm trying to tell Shadowmaru the changes in the glyphs are normal.

[He makes a face, and glances over his shoulder.]

He's having difficulty accepting this. And I am having less luck convincing him than usual.



((ooc: responses may come from both dumb ninjas!))

[It's probably around midnight or so when the post pops up. Or close enough to it that the effects of the red energon have finally worn off. He can touch things now. He's no longer a ghost.]

[And... still considerably unsettled and upset by recent events. Enough to make the following statement:]

I ... I want to learn how to be drunk.

[Because that seems like a great idea. It always worked for his role models around here, after all.]

Someone. Show me how. I'll be grateful.

[And that's all he says. He'll be at the bar, an unhappy pile of metal and wings. Waiting.]

I don't understand it.

[Wow someone sounds upset. Again. Just when things were kind-of-sort-of looking up, too.]

We have a police force. We have a place to lock criminals away.

So what good is it if they just go free, and nothing's done to put them back! It's useless, isn't it!

[He's really upset right now, wow. Possibly with good reason... since there's a private message incoming.]


[PRIVATE MESSAGE TO: BRAVE POLICE UNITS]
There's another Ratchet here. He's... he's wrong. And he's interested in us.

Please. Tell me you're all right.

[Because he screwed up and attracted the crazy bot's attention. Oops.]

[The video opens on a nice view of Trion's Lake, at night. There's stars and all that, with the ninjabot poised at the edge of the lake.]

[... Next to a box of what look to be fireworks. Leftovers. From someone else.]

Another year, then. I suppose... that's a good thing. To have lived so long.

[He looks down at the box.]

Someone gathered these, once before. I thought to use them again. In celebration. For surviving another year.

Maybe it isn't much to most of you, but... it means a great deal to me.

That's all, I think.

[And he clicks the feed off.]

[HOWEVER ... if you want to come set off fireworks with him, he'll stay at the lake for the rest of the night.]

[Additionally, close CR will be getting these as New Years Gifts. Come get them in person, or handwave it!]

Was everyone who went to check on the Pillar altered somehow...?

What happened down there?

[He hesitates. It hasn't really seemed like anything good came out of going down there. Except for, you know, the whole No More Pillar thing.]

...

If there's anything that I can do... I will. Police should help those in trouble. Shouldn't they?

[For a long moment, when the feed clicks on... there's nothing. Only static. Did the manic-seeming BP start fidgeting with his Link again?]

[Then, abruptly:]

I'm sorry.

[The words are soft, choked. They're rough around the edges, as if edged by jagged points. If he were human, he'd have sounded like he'd been crying.]

[Despite the tone, the plea, it's clear the old Kagerou is back in the driver's seat again.]

I'm --

I'm so sorry.

[ click ]

[The link appears to have been... dropped. It's just sitting on the floor of a hallway in Trion's temple. There's a partial view of a nearby room, the door half-open and sitting strangely on its hinges. The room itself appears... trashed. Like the storm blew through the room as well as the Haven.]

[Everything is absolutely still. Absolutely silent.]

[For several minutes.]

[And then something slams itself down off-screen, hard enough to rattle the Link itself. It actually vibrates a few inches forward at the impact.]

[Someone laughs. There's no amusement in the sound, only smug satisfaction.]

Look! Look, look, look!

[The voice is probably familiar, but the cadence is all wrong. The speaker grabs the Link, jerking it toward the room.]

I did it. I did it so well too, didn't I? You thought you had me -- what was it? What was it? Are you punishing me? Is that it?

No, no. That won't do. I got out!

[More laughter. Delighted, echoing laughter.]

[And all of the sudden, a face pops on-screen, upside down. The smile it wears is sharp, harsh. It's... Kagerou?]

Aren't. You. Proud? Brave Police.

[There is a fevered light in his optics -- both of which are visible now, the scanner no longer marking half his face. And then the feed goes dark.]

After what happened, that fight. It's made me wonder.

[More like, after a conversation with McCrane sempai. But that was private, and he won't bring it up now. At least he sounds more confident than he usually does. He looks it, too. Then again, with that bland expression on his face, who can tell?]

Police aren't meant to be as soldiers are. Are they? That isn't what I... [He almost grimaces.] What little the programming tells me, is that.

Would it be better for all of us here, if those in charge of our law enforcement were less like that. More... as police officers? Less of discontent warriors?

[Yeah, that's right, he's talkin' bout you, Prowl. He pauses, and then his tone turns much more fond, warming around the edges:]

And Kay. If you're hearing me... we have work to do. Don't we?

[Once everything has died down, no pun intended, Kagerou figures he may as well say something. The video feed clicks on to show the bird sitting against a wall in what is more than likely the medbay -- and though he is pretty beaten up, he doesn't appear to actually need to be in the medbay. Nothing is leaking and all his limbs are attached.]

[He stares into the video for a moment or two too long, debating what to actually say.]

... I've made the first arrest of my life. I was... part of a team, today. I felt... as if I had a place.

[He trails off -- this is huge, why don't you look happier, birdbrain?]

But it feels wrong. None of that was anything... [He shakes his head.] ... Maybe a stealth unit isn't made for combat like that.

[His visible optic flicks over to something off-screen.]

Maybe none of us BP units are.

[It ends there. Except...]


[PRIVATE TO: KAY FARADAY]
I'm all right. I kept my promise, this time.

[Well, look who crawled out of his hole. Finally. He's also turning over a weird, crystal thing he found recently, clearly trying to figure out what it is he's looking at.]

Has... anyone else seen anything like this before? I've been wondering what it's used for, if anything.

[He was using it as a lamp.]

[And then he goes quiet, his curious expression abruptly covered by that blank expression he tries to wear so often.]

...

It's passed July 4th. Isn't it?

[Sir, you are terrible with dates for all your memory obsession, you should be ashamed.]

The Firstforged claim they're some kind of gods. What an exaggeration that is.

[Thank you, Kagerou. And don't you sound bitter today. Granted, he's been bitter about all this since Perceptor vanished... but recently, everything has sort of come to a head. He can't keep it down anymore.]

They want us to build. They want us to run their world, and behave like peaceable little children.

And what do we get in return?

Murdered. Lied to. Misdirected. Our work ruined. Criminals running amok. Empty promises.

[As he says the last words, his fingers clench around his arm, around the Glyph.]

They want us to trust them -- but these Firstforged are nothing like they say they are. They tell us they can't control who leaves and who stays, but, then they turn around and tell us we're safe with their markings! They don't care one bit, what happens to us! If they did...

[If they did, I would be able to do what I was promised I could...]

[His hand lifts, revealing the very elaborate, intricate Glyph -- his status is showing, and boy does he look unhappy about it.]

If their reward for our service is loss and death, I would rather not have their mark at all!

[Here we have the police bird in his natural habitat. Standing by the lake in Alpha Trion's sector. He looks rather pensive and generally more upset than he usually does.]

I --

[And before he can explain himself, he catches sight of his reflection in the lake. Scrawled on the panes of his left wing are the words "SPACE FOR RENT". On the other wing, in equally bold, obnoxious writing is "APRIL FOOLS".]

[He stares. And then drops the Link in an effort to scrub the writing off with his bare hands, twisting around into a veritable knot of unhappy ninja robot.]

[Unfortunately, all this does is give the viewer a good view of the back side of each wing, on which is written ""POWER JOE WAS HERE :D". One word per wing pane.]

[And it's then, in a fit of avian frustration, Kagerou has the most mature response to life there ever was. He lifts the nearest heavy rock and throws it, as hard as he can, shouting:]

I hate this place!

[So, remember that awesome set of rooms and that creepy Acolyte with the blanket over its head? Yeah, that's the place Kagerou moved into.]

[And here it is again. Complete with Blanket-Headed-Acolyte.]

[... plus one small, equally-blanketed form curled up in one of Kay's beanbag chairs. After a few moments of fumbling around with the Link, a face pokes out of the blanket.]

Ah...

[Wellp. It would seem there's some kind of poetic irony in the Haven. After telling two of his friends they weren't who they said they were, look who's suddenly not himself either.]

[Yep. It's Kagerou. Or it sounds like him, anyway. If he were a lot more hopeful than usual.]

... I guess it's not so bad. Is it?

I'm alive now, and no one can say otherwise.