Slaving Away (Group A) [Closed] [Finished]

Looked back at Sanura and smiled as she started questioning the slaver...Pleasantly. She walked next to her and took out the picture of the buck. "What can you tell us about this buck?" Apart from his good looks. She thought to himself, then after a few moments she said. "So who´s this boss you speak of? How many slaves are in your camp? How well armed are you?" She hoped this slaver suddenly wouldn´t get cocky and start demanding more before answering further questions.

Hopscotch looked up at Sanura, still lying on the ground where he’d been bound. “A chance to be good, eh? Here in the wasteland, I’d have said that was more of a matter of opinion. With all due respect, if I laid all my cards out, then Sunshine Smiles over there –” He nodded toward Ginger – “is going to kill me. You’ll excuse me if I don’t exactly like the idea of that. Speaking of which, where’s Marigold?” he said, his face taking on an expression of great concern. “She’s okay, right?”

Hopscotch glanced at the picture that Xeshir showed him. “Custard Apple? Yeah, I know that snot-nosed hayseed. He works for Grace. Is that what this is all about? You want Custard?”

Sanura shook her head slightly, "She went down under the fire." she said simply, "Also Sunshine and Smiles said he'd be willing to let you go if you accepted punishment for what you did. That doesn't really change your options though, hun, we have you tied up and there's all kinds of want to hurt in that pony. If you don't tell us what you know then you know that there's no chance he's going to let you live, or even die quickly." she said and put a hoof over one of his bruises, softly rubbing it without enough pressure to actually press on it.

"On the other hoof, most of us again want to give you a chance to save yourself. Get some of these bullets out of you and heal up these awful bruises, find you some place where you can be safe. Make sure you're not followed and nopony knows what happened. It's a chance, otherwise you know exactly how this is going to end. I'd like to say quickly but I really don't know any of these ponies aside from today."

Hopscotch looked at Sanura in mild disbelief as tears formed in the corners of his eyes. “She’s dead?” he said softly, a quaver in his voice. His head dropped. “No. No, no, this... wasn’t supposed to –” He sniffled and took a breath, but when he spoke again, his voice was still thick. “We were gonna get away from this shit! All we had to do was pay off my debt to Grace.”

He looked at Sanura’s hoof as she touched it to one of his bruises. “Why’d you do it? Why is she dead?”

Sanura's eyes narrowed ever so slightly, like she might start crying right along side him as he started up. They'd wanted to get out of it. Slavers were ponies just like most of the wasteland, they had their reasons for doing things just like she'd said they might have and now here they were, gunning down ponies who were just trying to make it long enough to have a better life and then get out. Surely they'd all done things they regretted. "Cause helping slavers hurts lots of ponies, makes them feel like y'all don't deserve bein' treated like regular ponies. Not even if others want to." she said and looked back toward the dead body of Marigold, sighing softly as she went back to Hopscotch.

She opened her mouth to say something and then stopped, swallowing the lump in her throat before she shook her head. She couldn't play this game, everything she said was going to be a lie or make them look worse or put her in a position to make herself look awful, "I-I'm so sorry." She felt almost physically ill that she'd not been more forceful in her intent to speak with them. She was done with this situation though. There was no way she could possibly speak on it any longer. Didn't help that this was the first time she'd been actively involved in something like this. Instead she turned away, trotting back over toward where the body of the colt's friend was... just in case there was still something left of her. Sanura would check for signs of life, hoping that maybe there was still something in her. If not? Probably not. She would just settle down on her belly next to her and stare at the much more quiet mare. She felt so sick she wished she'd eaten something before coming on this job.

Sanctity looked over towards the where he'd last seen the other unicorn as another name was mentioned. Marigold must've been what she was called. He grimaced slightly and was about to break the slight pause with the news before Sanura started speaking again. Probably for the best, she had a much better grasp of what made people do what she wanted than he did.

He looked around, before deciding to listen in. Xeshir was broaching the subject of the buck they'd been asked to save, so he really needed to pay attention to this. Whilst he might not be the most reliable of sources -being a fellow loyal slaver didn't lend itself to you being privy to any doubts he might've been having- it was still more than they knew at present, which was his face and name.

Then, the slaver broke down. He winced as he talked about being indebted to their leader and wanting to get away from it. He knew how that felt, though he'd never really felt the pain of losing a close friend, he'd seen it on many ponies before. It was not something you ever got over, apparently. He wanted to say something, to try and comfort him a little, but, something stuck in his throat.

He broke eye contact with the slaver and looked away, wishing he'd not started the firefight. He'd know they could've taken them hostage, but he'd just shot the mare instead. His eyes dropped to the floor and he kicked the dirt slightly, wishing he had an answer for his questions, as he blinked slightly, trying to rid his eyes from the tears that were threatening to form.

Bitter bile began to rise in his throat. Maybe he was still just a drunk raider, like Sanura had said. He sure as hell felt about as moral as one right about now.

He mumbled a quiet "Sorry" in the stallions general direction, his voice almost inaudible.

Xeshir looked down, unable to say anything. She tried telling herself that there was no way of knowing this, that it would have happened no matter what they had tried, but something on the back of her head kept whispering that there always was another way.

She shook herself out of her dark thoughts and looked at Sanctity. He had been the one to fire the first shot, but did he have any idea of what he had done? She trotted closer to him and whispered. "Did you know?" Her tone wasn´t accusing or angry, but neutral.

Mad Mek watched from his seated position as the slaver broke and started crying. He raised a finger to his eye and and traced the path of a tear down his face, not remembering how long it had been since he had shed tears of his own. All he could remember was digging himself out of the Ponyville rubble, witnessing his new form in a puddle of filthy water, and attempting to cry. He glanced casually towards the bullet riddled form of Marigold, then towards the unicorn who shot her. He fidgeted with the package of crackers in his fingers, and got hit by another wave of memories.

He couldn't recall the last time he ate something, but he counted this as one of his blessings, since it meant he could save his caps for more important things, like scrap metal and wonderglue. "I don't need none 'a these gubbins, given me current...cundishun. Any of you lot feelin' hungry?" He openly announced, ignoring the tense mood that had fallen over the group and speaking over the blubbering slaver. He was somewhat thankful that he hadn't broken out of his chains, seeing as how having Marigold's blood all over his snout would have put him in quite the awkward position right about now.

Marcus walked away from the group, sitting down and making a point of looking away from the Slaver. He didn't feel sorry for the Slaver, if anything he felt this was fate's way of evening things out. The Slaver lived on the misery of others and now was suffering over the loss of one that it cared about. If it actually did have any feelings, that is. He looked back at the Slaver and saw that the group was beginning to disperse from the Slaver. Perhaps this was its plan all along, make the group feel sorry for it and let them take their guard down. It would be waiting for the perfect moment to strike while their backs were turned. Marcus trotted over to the Slaver and fixed him with a slight glare, making sure it knew he was keeping an eye on it.

Keeping his eye contact, he cleared his throat in an attempt to draw the attention of the group.

"The Slaver made its choice in life and is now reaping the rewards of its actions. Do not forget why we are here. There are lives of many suffering roho (souls) who wait for rescue. We waste time in trying to appease this... kiumbe (creature)."

Perhaps he was letting his resentment towards the creature guide his words, losing himself as he slowly felt his anger rise at looking at the Slaver. Whatever the case, he would not let it try to better him.

He spared a quick glance at Mek before glaring back at the Slaver. "I do not need food, wafu mbwa (dead dog). Save it for another time."

----

HP: 231/264

Ale had returned to cleaning his rifle on the rock While the rest of the group went about interrogation the slaver, or breaking down into tears at the "sad" news. Ale was unaffected by it however. He saw it fitting that the earth pony was now made to suffer like the ones he'd no doubt hurt in the past. Thankfully he was not the only one to think this as marcus voiced his opinion. "Hey slaver boy." Ale yelled to hopscotch, "If your that broken up about the loss of your mare friend," He motioned to his revolver, "I could always reunite you." He smiled and then returned to his rifle.

Mad Mek gave the Zebra that had replied to him a cold look. He didn't know what the Zebra had said at the end, but whether it was a mutter under his breath or something in a different language was unkown to him. However, it didn't mean that he was just going to let it slide. Standing to his full height of 6 feet 7 inches, he maintained the stare in the Zebra's direction. "I'z sorry, wot was dat last bit at the end? Ah don't think I herd it right, smoothhide. " He growled out with a slightly annoyed tone. He wasn't going to take crap from anybody, especially one of these striped bastards. He might have woken up not remembering anything, but it didn't take much wandering around the wastes to figure out it was the Zebras who made him into what he is. Besides, it had been a good three months since he had an excuse to crack a skull, and the tense air didn't help with his short temper.

Marcus stared back at Mek, raising an eyebrow in confusion. He was offended by Marcus' reply? Perhaps Diesel's attempts at restraining this ghoul weren't so short-sighted after all. Regardless, Marcus answered the question, feeling silly at repeating himself.

"I said, 'Save it for another time.' I am sorry if I was not clear in speaking the first time."

With that, he returned to fixing a glare at the bound Slaver.

Sanctity looked up at Xeshir as she sidled up next to him and asked him if he knew. Her voice was very calm, almost deliberately so. He was reminded immediately of how he was like when he got angry, cold and detached from everything emotionally. If she was feeling like that, he was in deep trouble.

But none of that mattered. She really did deserve to be angry if she was. He'd killed somepony on the flimsiest of excuses and even if they had been slavers, that wasn't the best thing in the world, it wasn't like he'd ever be in a position to judge. These ponies had been forced into it, most likely.

"No Xeshir... I just... Shit, I don't even remember what made me sure they were slavers" He said with a quiet, uneven voice that betrayed his emotions more than his blank face did. He slumped slightly. "I don't think I wanna scout anymore"

Then he heard Marcus and Ginger speak and he straightened up slightly. What the hell was he thinking, they were slavers, of course they would have hopes and reasons. They were ponies after all. Didn't make what they did any less reprehensible, right? Right. He couldn't be having any... emotional entanglement with them. It might make him hesitate and that could be a death sentence out in the wastes. Besides, the stallion had tried to kill him before even checking his partner. That made him as willing to kill as he was, which put him on the same level as him.

He looked up, his face now much more composed and serious as he looked at Xeshir again, before looking over towards Sanura again and grinding his teeth together for a moment. He really needed a drink to stop himself from feeling like this so often. Had to be the lack of alcohol that was making him emotional.

Mek squinted his eyes and frowned. He was about to open his mouth to tell the Zebra to stop dodging the matter, but he instead made a dismissive grunt and turned away to look for things to hit, muttering "Zebras..." under his breath as he walked away. He had realized that he misspoke, and he wasn't all that eager to hit something anyways.

Instead, he went to wondering why Hopscotch hadn't told them where the camp was yet. "Oy, Slaver. there any reesun why you haven't told us anyfing yet? Cuz if we stay much longer, ah might jus' eat Marigold to help ya make up yer mind." He spat out in an almost TOO nonchalant tone, turning his head just enough to get Hopscotch in his peripheral vision. He couldn't care less about how the other members of the group responded to his threat, as long as nobody pointed a gun at him.

Diesel had been listening as Sanu questioned Hopscotch, letting his mind travel the possibilities. It was at the point when he had broke down that Diesel started to pay attention. In the back of his mind he knew just who had caused all of this, and he was going to make sure the whole group knew it too. As Sanu ran off to the dead mare Diesel stood up and walked over to the stallion. "I'm sorry about your friend, and I know who it was that caused all of this. There is nothing I can do to stop the fight but I can do this..." pausing just long enough he heard Gingers comment about reuniting him to her.

Fireworks went off in his mind, now Ginger had him pissed. Turning around he glared swords of death at the pony. "Ginger..." was all he said as he slowly and calmly walked towards him. As he stood looming over him, Diesel almost smiled at the thought of what he was going to do to him. Lifting the pony up Diesel growled just low enough for him to hear it, "I am going to make your life a living hell, you know that?" Next thing to happen went in the blink of an eye, Diesel had Ginger on the ground and his other first raised to hit him. After punching him for a good while, he stood up to see what he did. Looking down he saw a stallion with blood coming out his nose, bruises and cuts running along his face, and even a swollen eye. "You cause this fight to happen, YOU stopped Sanura from talking to them! You cause pointless bloodshed, and for what!? For some stupid fucking vendetta you have on slavers?" Punching him a few more times he stood up and took Gingers rifle with him. As he walked away he wagged the gun at Ginger, "Next time you fuck up I'm breaking this thing." As he walked he glared at Marcus, pointing the gun he just got he glared at Marcus, "That is a stallion, not an 'it' as you so put things. Call him as such and see what happens to you. I had enough of anyone being called it back when I was growing up. I killed the last pony who called me it, so don't push your luck."

Sitting down he glanced at Sanc, "You care to throw your lot in with that pony?" pointing over at the now beat and bruised Ginger. Diesel had a look that dared anypony to try and tell him what he did was wrong. Setting the gun down next to him he look back over to the Stallion. "I found this gem on her, does it mean anything to you?" he said as he held the gem out for the stallion to look at.

That was when Mek spoke up, sliding the gem back in his pocket he stood up and grabbed Mek. "Care to run what you just said by me again?" Diesel gave Mek the same look he had just given Ginger. Letting the dog go he sat back down and returned to holding the gem for the stallion to see.

(Punching Ginger; Unarmed 50, Str 11. Taking Gingers rifle. Holding gem for Hopscotch to see it.)

Xeshir looked at Sanctity, hearing his voice with barely contained emotions. She could tell he was sorry, even if he straight out didn´t say it. He didn´t need to. When she saw him compose himself she knew he was bottling it up, she knew because she had done it plenty of times herself.

So she pulled him into a hug.

"Look, you couldn´t have known." She said as she embraced the black unicorn, feeling the rough texture of his cloak. "I shot that mare too. Several times." She admitted, then said with a more confident tone. "But you at least regret killing somepony, even if she was a slaver." She smiled sightly at him. "And that makes you a pony that cares about others, even if things took a turn for the worse now. And if you don´t want to scout, very well. Do tell me if you want do it again though." She squeezed the stallion one last time before breaking the hug.

When Xeshir turned around, she found herself staring at Viktor giving Ginger a beating. "VIKTOR! WHAT IN THE NAME OF THE STARS!?" She yelled, then the diamond dog stopped and started calling the faults in everypony and zebra. And that wasn´t enough, because he aparently wanted to pick a fight with the ghoul DD. Xeshir walked towards him, her compony repeater unslung and held in her hooves. "Viktor." She said through gritted teeth. "I want you to give Ginger´s rifle to me and to not touch another member of this group to cause him or her harm, because if you do then your no longer part of this group." Her eyes stared at his with barely contained rage.

Mad Mek grunted roughly at Viktor's sudden outburst. "Not so one 'n da same now, eh? Can't blame a Dog fer bein' a carnivore, Viktor. Methinks you should stop Beatin' up on yer group, seein' as how they might not take to kindly to dat. Also, ah don't got da faintest why you'd defendin' this slaver so 'ard. Not like I was gunna kill 'im or anyfing." Mad Mek roughly replied as Viktor let him go. He had no idea what was wrong with that Dog, let alone why he was defending a slaver so viciously.

He felt the momentum behind his words, and he continued to speak. "Da Zebra's right, Viktor. Ah dunno wot's wrong wif ya, and ah don't care, but ya just slogged a memba of yer group because he wanted to off a slaver. Jus' repeat dat in yer still-livin' head to yerself, an' tell me wot sounds wrong wif dat."

Ale Stumbled to his hooves ans spat blood on the ground. "I'm going to fucking kill that dog." He muttered. Looking up he saw that xeshir had him at gunpoint. "You stupid flea bag, there would have been bloodshed either way. If I hadn't intervened then they would have severely hurt sanura before taking her captive, and her blood would have been on your paws." Ale got noticeably more angry. "I shouldn't even have to defend myself in this, THEY ARE SLAVERS! Their whole life is based on the suffering of others, they gave up their right to be treated like ponies the second they made that choice. And here you are attacking us for wanting justice, Why? Do you have some kind of history with slavers? Are you a spy for them?" At this point ale had joined xeshir in pointing a gun at the dog. "And if you even think about breaking my rifle I will personally gut you like a fish!"

He tensed up as Xeshir wrapped her arms around him, waiting for her to tighten and start strangling him. He closed his eyes and twitched slghtly. Then, Xeshir started talking to him, her voice soft and friendly. She-

She wasn't angry. She just seemed to understand. Something began to well up in him and he began to shake a little. He felt like he was going to collapse, but something kept him upright as he stood there. Most likely it was Xeshir, who was the center of his balance, as well as his attention at this point.

He sort of wanted to try and wrap his arms around her or something, but he just didn't know what to do. The whole thing felt almost unreal. But here they were, in the middle of the wastes, a kindly Zebra was hugging him of all people. It was the start of an off colour joke, not something that actually happened.

"I- I- Thanks.." He said shakily, as she broke the hug, feeling unsteady on his hooves for some reason. He had no idea what that was, but it was something. He shuffled his cloak back into place absent mindedly, her hug having drawn it up his body slightly, nearly exposing his flank.

Then, Xeshir was shouting. He snapped out of his daze and saw the scene laid out before him. Ginger had been hit by Viktor and was threatening everypony, including him. He drew his .22 out and leveled it at him, his reflexes kicking in before his mind had even processed what was going on.

At this point Diesel turned around and quickly dug a good distance away from the slaver. Waving the group to come over he waited patiently for them. As he waited he glanced around at the wastes see if anyone could be seen around them. Happy they were going to be alone he started to play around with the gem he had grabbed.

Mad Mek's crusty eyes widened as the situation went from tense to dangerous. Guns were being leveled at Viktor, and a small part of his mind told him that he should point his meager pistol at him as well, just to see the confusion on his face. Only, he didn't get the chance. Before anyone could say anything else, Viktor had dug away. "Did any wun of you lot see dat shiny fing in his 'ands?" He openly questioned as Viktor disappeared from sight.

He couldn't help but feel that his comment towards eating Marigold had set him off, but then again there seemed to always be something setting that Dog off. Sighing to himself, he said "Nice to see Stabletin's sent dere best 'n Brightezt" before drawing his knife and taking a few steps towards Marigold's corpse, his pneumatic foot hissing away. Pony might not be the most well looked upon source of food, but choice cuts were popular among the more depraved Griffons and Dogs, and usually sold for top dollar among their filthy ranks. After all, with flanks like that, how could he possibly pass up a chance like Marigold?

Xeshir frowned as Viktor dug away, at least he wasn´t in range to hurt anyone now. She slung her cowpony repeater and with the corner of her eye caught Mad Mek with a knife on his hands, near the corpse of Marigold. Was he going to...

"No." Said the zebra mare as she stood between Marigold´s corpse and Mad Mek. "I can´t let you do that...Mister Ghoul. Killing for her enslaving you? Acceptable. Carving up her corpse for SNACKS?" She focused her glare on the DD as she tried to intimidate him, which was a bit ridicolous considering how he was taller than her. "If you do want to join us then I ask you to not touch her corpse. Understood?" Her tone was once again ice-cold neutral.

Mek raised his hands up to his head, knife gleaming in the light. "Oy, ah don' tell you how ta make yer livin' do I? But i'll play by yer rules. Cross me 'eart" He replied, a surprisingly warm smile stretching across his face as he crossed a finger over where his non-beating heart was. His eyes drifted beyond the eyes of the Zebra in front of him, and worked their way down her body. "Say, you'z not a bad piece of meat yerself..." He casually commented with a toothy grin. "I don' fink ah got yer name, wot with all da action an' confusion"

Mad Mek had never been one for the opposite sex, but seeing this Zebra had reminded him of just how lonely he was. The pale unicorn with the green hair didn't help with that feeling. While the occasional brush with raiders was a good (albeit violent) way to reconnect with wasteland society, there was nothing like a conversation.

Diesel looked around him as no one came his direction. Seeing that the group was busy he quickly dug his way back under the group. An idea started to form into his head that he would implement soon enough. He would wait until the group went to sleep and took the stallion with him to get his own questions answered. He had originally wanted to get the stallion on his side so he would be more willing to talk but his group didn't want to listen to him. So now he had to steal the pony, which actually helped him out a lot more. Plus now he would travel a lot faster by digging, so things worked out for the best for him.

Marcus stepped away from Diesel as he had his outburst and took back any positive thoughts he was having at the DD. He was well and truly a "loose cannon" and presented a danger to the group. One who was willing to beat up one of the group so viciously to defend a Slaver was not welcome in Marcus' eyes. He didn't need to say anything, though. Xeshir and Ginger did a well enough job at that and Marcus had already voiced his opinion about being attacked by the DD earlier. He was sure the DD had lost any trust in the group with this latest outburst. Ginger had said it best, "Their whole life is based on the suffering of others, they gave up their right to be treated like ponies the second they made that choice." And later, "Why? Do you have some kind of history with slavers? Are you a spy for them?

If there was one thing that Marcus was quickly becoming sure of, it was that Diesel was presenting a danger to the group as a whole. If the DD was to continue with them, Marcus would not give credit to the mission's success.

Marcus stayed silent and merely watched the group's reactions as they continued to disperse and ignore the still living Hopscotch. He looked down at the Slaver, feeling a bit of unease. Should he be the one to question it? He had never tried his hoof at such a task and didn't know the first thing about interrogations. Marcus felt that he would be a terrible candidate for the task.

Shaking his head, he sat down next to the Slaver and gently put a hoof on its shoulder. Some would find this gesture comforting, but Marcus simply meant to remind the Slaver he was still there, watching. Perhaps he would even take up the task of questioning it, if the others continued to ignore it. Him questioning it was not ideal, but the task may provide them with answers as well as allow Marcus to vent some of his frustrations of Diesel and the majority of the group's easy attitude towards the Slaver.