driftfleet

Who: Prince Lotor
Broadcast: Yes
Action: Absolutely
When: Saturday, 18 August

[Broadcast - Video ]

[ He's aware of something wrong even before his eyes open.

Lotor's long form barely fits on the bed provided, so much so that when he wakes up with a snap, he bends the arched metal at the end of the frame with his boots. The room smells different, the air tinted with a strange sour quality that spoke neither of the familiar filters on Galra ships nor the more exquisite processes that the Castle of Lions boasted; and as his eyes adjust to the bright lights the architecture speaks of nothing he's seen before.

Strange.

He stands slowly, looking around the entirely empty wing. Good fortune or not, he seems to be the only person here - where ever here is. The last thing he remembers is returning to the Castle, Allura's hand in his, and then nothing.

Ah, there is a camera. He's being observed.

There is no point in secrecy now is there? Either someone was monitoring him or not, and he straightens his back as he addresses the camera.]

I give you credit, I have not been taking off guard like this in quite some time. Identify yourself.

[Action - S.S. Starstruck]

[ He had hardly been on the hospitality deck for a few hours before he finds himself appearing on the bridge of the S.S. Starstruck, face crinkled up in an unpleasant expression as a flurry of badly made confetti tangles in his hair and falls to his shoulders. In his hands rests a plate, and he looks down at it with a frown punctuated with a fang pressed into his bottom lip.

Ah, but he is not alone.

Across from him is one of his supposed 'new crewmates', and those eyebrows arch now, and he offers the plate out, the tone of his voice sardonic. ]

I do not imagine that you ordered this, did you?

[Private communication - Video: Allura]

[The shuttle seemed the most promising place to pick through the databanks the vessel held.

It was small; all exits and entrances visible, and it gave him the privacy of not having any of his new crew mates hovering over his shoulder. Lotor rests his chin in one hand, tapping his lips with a claw as his eyes scan through the crew logs of the fleet.

Ah, most of the paladins were here as well, crowded on one ship. And then Allura's name comes up, and he allows himself a small smile as he opens his communicator. Regaining contact with his allies was paramount... but this was personal. ]

I hate to sound pleased to find you here as well, but I will not deny that it's a relief to see a familiar face, princess.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

It is the truth. You are now alone.

[ The fervor he had felt darkens to something a little more painful, and he scowls to himself at her reaction. ]

There will be no more Komar, there will be no more genocide, and there will be no more witch to corrupt my empire. When I leave this place, I will be certain you stay. Your defeat is unavoidable.

Edited 2018-08-24 00:47 (UTC)

[She's silent again, of course. Really, it was that first cutting phrase of his that got to her more than the rest--just empty threats, those.

This, she did not like. While he had a certain air about him most times, there was nothing veiled about his manner here.

Something had changed. She had suspected that he was planning something against the empire after all, even if she was loathe to believe it without evidence; his actions had been entirely too suspicious, right up to the moment he left the throne room... so how much time, since then? Enough for a Kral Zera, enough for a shift in power? He had been sent on the run, so how could he manage this?]

What was the manner of your father's death?

[Facts, at least, would be easier to deal with. None of this posturing.]

What does it matter? It will not change the fact that he is defeated and his body disposed of.

[ Like he would allow it to stay around with Haggar still scratching at the edges of his empire. ]

He is still my - ... he is still my lord. If what you say is true, then you would be able to tell me what had happened.

[Because it does not make sense otherwise.]

You were banished from Central Command after your failed handling of the Empire. How would you be able to get so close to your father again as to be able to kill him?

[ He doesn't reply right away. For all his failings Zarkon was still his father; and thinking too deeply about the potentials he lost in that man, in his mother, in his family that should have been there to hold him up instead of destroying everything about him that could have been.... It hurts in a place he tries to deny exists.

So when he speaks he's lost that bravado, cold indifference directly conflicting with the look in his eyes.]

I speared him clean through the heart in combat. There was not much there to give any resistance I am afraid.

[ There is a conflict there, the tone not quite matching the expression and somehow that makes it worse.

He had not given her the details she wanted, perhaps on purpose, not enough for her to make sense of how that could have happened under her watch let alone anyone else's. Surely, Zarkon had gotten into his head that Lotor was no longer a concern of the Empire's, and, perhaps it was her own failure that had led to him being so close by in the first place.

Because after his initial defeat by the paladins, she had wanted Lotor closer. Why? Zarkon had called it... ill-advised. A choice she had made in his absence, while he had lingered on in that coma, until she could devise the right way to bring him back. And... all that came from that.

There had to be more to it than this. But for him to be defeated at Lotor's hands, for that situation to come to be... through the heart, where he was vulnerable. What did that boy know? And yet... she cannot even respond. She stares, as he speaks, some part of her still not wanting to accept those words, lips pressed thin in a frown, but she... can't find the words to respond.

But why would he lie? He had no cause to. He could not know that this would... cause her pain. Even if he had been deliberate, perhaps. ]

[ There's a strange silence here. He's not used to speaking to her through comms, let alone when she's so...off kilter. He should be more pleased.

Instead he just twists his mouth up in a half scowl, looking away before turning the video off. ]

[ Did he just -

Well. No matter. It made sense that he would, and frankly she wasn't up to speaking to him further, not while she had to process all of this. ]

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