Horrible Island Video Evidence

[telepathicignorance]

Type: Text + Video
Sender ID: telepathicignorance (Chris)
To: Public
Subject: Recordings from raid on the evil crystal and bone Island
Warnings: Uh, violence, gore, death, a literal island built out of the bodies of poached whales and the victims of crystalization, human and animal cruelty, rich people being extremely evil?

(Chris isn't even bothering to go anon with this.)

Given that higher ups in both Armadas seem to be scrambling to hide this knowledge and prevent us from working together to stop it, I figured it might be best to set the record straight and show this to the public.

If you don't already realize, there's gonna be a lot of dead people and bits of dead stuff in these, because these guys literally made an island out of everything they killed. And I'm not using literally in that way people do when they actually mean figuratively. I mean actually literally.



(The sea has drawn back, and the island sits on the bottom, a mass of rock and crystal and whale bone and beautiful buildings now struggling not to crack apart without the water supporting them. They make sure to get a good wide shot of the island sitting there among all the shit that it's dumped to the bottom of the sea, a mass grave of the bones and personal possessions of victims now revealed to the open air. The luxury yachts that sat at the docks are now resting broken among this display, and another wide pan shot shows the Corsair and Paladin ships leading the charge together.

They make sure to get a lot of shots of the previously underwater graveyard as they head through it, with particular emphasis on a short recording showing a literal mound of skulls, though there will be quick shots of several objects that probably used to belong to victims too. There are people other than them working on gathering remains and taking them back for identification and proper burial, but there's too much to be able to get all of it in the time they have.

Hiding among the bones and cloaking the shit out of themself allows Chris to get good shots of the shark mercenaries that come out to attack everyone, and they make sure to get lots of shots of lots of different ones. They aren't sure if this is like, a specific family of shark mercenaries, or the people of the island specifically hired shark mercenaries for the aesthetic, or if like, shark-people as a species are just prone to ending up in roles like this because of societal pressures or their own natural tendencies, but there sure are a lot of them!

And then they get inside and, well. The first videos and pictures will be of the culprits. High ranking Paladins and Corsairs frantically trying to flee, their fancy outfits drenched with the Ambergris wine they were drinking before being so rudely interrupted. Many will be killed and Chris shows zero respect for the dying or the corpses, making sure to get real good shots of their faces for identification as they lie there on blood soaked tile and carpet, even standing there for a good half a minute filming one particularly wealthy looking cat man as he chokes on his own blood. They remain silent, and don't make any tasteless Aristocat puns. They also don't help him, don't even move his head so the blood will spill out of his mouth instead of collecting in it and killing him.

But worse than that are the art displays of the crystalized corpses of victims. Chris will make sure to pause extra long on the very worst ones as they tour this house of horrors. People of all ages and sizes somehow crystalized in the middle of agonized screams. Children huddled in the fetal position or bent over crying. An entire wall of mounted crystalized heads, their eyes staring down accusingly. Sconces made of gilded whale bone... and some made with crystalized hands holding the light source. Every part of this island and the structures built on it a glorification of death and suffering.

Eventually, they get to the entrance of the dungeons, and the recording ends.)

I don't think the living victims necessarily want to be on public display and I was more focused on rescuing people, so I'm not gonna post anything from the dungeons. I've got some pictures of rescued animals from immediately after everything, though.

(A squirrel, still alive despite most of its head being encased in crystal.

A dog with crystalized legs fused to a display plate, its still very much alive and uncrystalized head baring its teeth in a snarl at the people trying to help it.

Some kind of weasel thing with crystals growing in spikes along its back. It's also got some on its paws and it's trying to gnaw them off but only succeeding in injuring itself.

...And a lot more of the same.)

Comments

text | un: BlossomingTide

[withermarked]

Was there a point to all this?

[He should possibly clarify exactly what he means by that question, or that he's changed usernames. But he's... distressed by this.]

[telepathicignorance]

I was worried if I turned this stuff in to either armada they'd either mysteriously lose it or find a way to fudge things so their own people look better.

Don't tell me you haven't noticed the stupid fucked up blame game going on.

(No calling him Dick, because they don't recognize him.)

Unless you mean why the poaching and crystallization. Pretty sure that's just assholes willing to do anything to make a profit.

And some people enjoy suffering.

[withermarked]

I meant the latter.

I'm new to this world. Where I'm from things tend to have a... cost. People will do a lot to make use of power.

[...People including him, but he still has nothing on the systems he was up against. Nor did he even have the stomach to make a dent in them, in the long run. But this is a bad train of thought, and not the point.]

But this? All these indulgences and excesses? All this waste? All this--wallowing in wanton cruelty?

This was just in the name of profit? Just because they enjoy it?

[It may not be getting any more clear who this is, since this isn't generally how he speaks in front of Chris. Though it is sometimes how he thinks.]

[telepathicignorance]

(.. Who is this sweet summer child?)

I bet your world has people like this too. They're just pretending it's because they have to to hide how much they enjoy it.

[withermarked]

I suppose I can’t argue with that. Some people are doing their best with the hand they were dealt, but others… perhaps it’s simply easier not to look it fully in the face.

[...And, because for once he doesn’t want them to think he’s entirely naive, at least in this respect.]

I have seen plenty of cruelty in my time. Systems built on the backs of those they’re meant to serve. Using people until they’re little more than meat for the grinder.

But it wasn’t usually so—ostentatiously blatant.

[The Carving Chapter felt similar he supposes, cruelty just for cruelty’s sake. But even they served gods, and even they weren’t doing anything on this scale as far as he knows. And one of the Godhunters certainly seemed to be enjoying herself. But those were kids, albeit terrible ones.]

[telepathicignorance]

Pretty sure the ostentatiously blatant part was only ever supposed to be seen by other fucked up rich people.

(The island was hidden, after all.)

And their fucked up employees.

(Resentment for the Farm guards and handlers coming through here for sure. The scientists and higher ups didn't come into their cell to torture them on lunch breaks.)

[withermarked]

I suppose that's true.

[There's... a lot he's not quite articulating here, about the lack of gods of it all.

About how it feels to do things because you feel it's necessary, or because you feel like you've been chosen by something bigger than you, like you have a duty to fulfil and a truth to spread. Even when those acts make you a monster to the rest of the world.

Or because feeding the gods is, supposedly at least, the only way to keep the wheels of industry turning. About children growing up without the parents who were crushed under those wheels because they worshipped the wrong gods, or because no one important would miss them.

About whether it's better or worse when it's just... people.

But even if he knew exactly where he was going with all this, he probably wouldn't say it to Chris.]

I'm glad they got what was coming to them, either way.

[telepathicignorance]

Turns out you really don't want to fuck with whales here. They're the ones who smashed and drowned the island.

They had something with them. Might have been some kind of leviathan.

[withermarked]

What was it like?

[He is, after all, both deeply fascinated and deeply terrified by water entities at this point.]

[telepathicignorance]

I don't know. All I could see was its eye staring out of the waves, but... you saw what it did with the ocean.

(Peeling it back like the skin of an orange, and holding it back so they could rescue their own before letting the waves crush the island.

They didn't get the last bit on camera, but one can assume that the ocean was not, in fact, indefinitely held back.)

[withermarked]

[There's a reason his first comment wasn't about that part specifically, and it was because his reaction to seeing it was somewhere between fascination and envy and nauseating dread in the pit of his stomach.

Fascination is winning out by a small margin.]

That's the thing that called the tides back?

[telepathicignorance]

Yeah.

(It was terrifying but so are a lot of things. At least this one's on their side.

They wish they had something like that to help them smash up the Farm.)

[withermarked]

Have you seen anything like that, before?

[He's not sure if he wants to say how familiar it looks to him, but he can't help wondering.]

[telepathicignorance]

I know about a lot of ocean monsters, but the only thing I've seen on that scale are the Leviathans.

[withermarked]

I know they're big. I meant something that could control the ocean that way.

[telepathicignorance]

To that extent? No.

[withermarked]

Alright, that's interesting. Seems like we probably ought to learn more about it.

[ ...Or at least he wants to. ]

[telepathicignorance]

Paladins have a big library, I've heard. Someone might be able to find something there.

[withermarked]

Perhaps that's a good place to start.

[ He could just... try to ignore all this. He probably should, in fact, stay as far away from anything uncomfortably familiar as he can. But he's not sure if he's going to. ]

[telepathicignorance]

Yeah. Can't go there myself, but there's probably someone who can.

(Kaveh might be able to help... but they're not gonna ask Kaveh. Someone else can do that.)

[withermarked]

I suppose I'll try asking the Paladins I know.

[telepathicignorance]

You do that.