As much as they don't want to split up at the moment, the Rhapsody isn't fast enough to reach both Shepherd and Gideon, so Pyke hops on the Sparrow and races to Gideon's last known location. Neither could be found, Shepherd's coordinates seem to not even exist, as if some unknown force was scrambling his location. Rett painstakingly combed through every single mile of dead space surrounding that location but could find not a trace of Shepherd or the ship he was in. Pyke found Gideon's crew ship, torn to shreds and the Witchlight Carnival nowhere in sight. Despite no response from the ship Pyke still landed and tore through it desperately seeking any sign of life or at least a clue to where they were. Just like Rett, Pyke found nothing.
With their boys gone Rett and Pyke threw themselves into their work, taking job after job with little to no rest. Occasionally, they would investigate again, any little tidbit they could find about where their boys were going. Finding info on Remy Garou, about the mission given to Gideon and his crew by Madryck Roslof, if they could finish it they'd have enough money to clear their debt, and every single scrap of info on what the hell the Witchlight Carnival is. They find out about Clayton Azran, his research about the lost planet of Barovia, hidden between the vails of Cacophony, the only known people said to be able to travel between the veils was the Vistani. They have all this information and yet no way of using it to find their boys.
When Pyke ends up in jail Rett hires Quibly and Portia Bella Gones, a lovely yet quirky couple working as a bounty hunting duo. With all that's going on in his life Rett is initially cold and standoffish towards them, unfortunately for him Portia Bella has a way of bulldozing through any wall put in front of her even without her esper powers. Quibly is always right behind her, clumsy but charming in his endeavors to help insure smooth relations between everyone. When Pyke gets out the Gones treat him with the same overwhelming enthusiasm as they had Rett, and though in the moment it's a lot to take in he finds himself enamored with them. In finding out the identity of Hacksaur and that Ziggy was just a kid, Quibly and Portia tell the group about a deal they had been offered but didn't end up taking. Portia said their main reason for refusing was that they didn't want to get involved in politics, but seeing how young and naive Ziggy really was boiled an anger in her something fierce.
Things go about the same throughout the rest of the campaign, though they find out some things about Portia's forgotten passed with Khymera Bionetics. She doesn't remember much about her childhood or even being involved with the company but when they investigate Site Omicron they find a few files about her in their system. They're very bare bones and don't make much sense but it seems that they were trying to push the limits of esper powers while also simultaneously trying to control it. Anyways, thats a whole other storyline I'm still developing π
So a few weeks after the defeat of The Viceroy, Rett is reading his morning paper seeimg that there is commotion coming from the other end of the galaxy and potentially a new planet having been discovered. At that moment he receives a ping from an unknown source, all that was given was coordinates and a short message: "Coms incompatible. Meet us halfway. Shepherd." Rett nearly had a heart attack and Pyke was halfway into having a panic attack because there was noway in hell that was real. But even if it wasn't they weren't gunna risk the chance at potentially getting at least one of their sons back.
My #dusttodamnation obsession has now reached space π
Feast your eyes on my Space Cowboy Family AU π€ (3/4)
#legendsofavantris #stardustrhapsody #onceuponawitchlight #curseofstrahdanya #bunnytalks