Episode 07: Blue Twenty2’s Story

Character and Citizenry content brought to you by Azurbala Broadcasting System. None of these words are our own. We post what we want, when we want, from who we want. Mostly from people with interesting stories. That doesn’t include you Jenkins the Mutant, so stop asking.

First, let me start by saying, yeah, I know. No one but Jet, the spider monkey from The Sprawls, has ever escaped out of Edokan Prison. It’s lore. So it’s history. But sometimes, even the stories that are printed, or that we tell ourselves, don’t include all the facts.

Since books are banned in The Sprawls, most of our info comes from Azurian Times “news vids” or rehashing of headlines by Azurbala Broadcasting Company. But sometimes, more often than Falon would like you to think, information is passed along. Sometimes on fancy looking letters strewn around town on intricate cards. A is for Azurbala. B is for Baker. T is for Tally Labs. That sort of thing.

Sometimes data is passed along in code, or in puzzles, or in word tricks. Sometimes it’s in a dance move, or a song lyric. Sometimes it’s in a cut on the bias or a pattern in a textile. So don’t fool yourself, information gets through. Like it always does when it runs through a community. Some fact, some faction, some rumor.

One rumor I’m particularly fond of is the backstory behind Blue Twenty2 and involves a group of families living off the grid. Living not just off the jungle, but in it. And word has it that their defacto leader is BlueTwenty2.

You see, deep within the bowels of Azurbala rumor has it that there lives an inner circle, a group of artists, performers, and constructors who partake in the circle's rituals. Apparently, they have a special way of preparing diopcide so it produces visions amongst those who partake. The story goes that those who attend find their true potential is unlocked. It is said the aim of these rituals is to provide those who attend the tools to unlock that potential. Collectively they taste enlightenment and the glory of the gods. It is from that beauty they attempt to spread the very same spirit throughout The Sprawls and beyond.

They say Blue chose to focus on The Sprawls first because those who live there, either by choice or by birth, have been so very subjugated by Falon. Blue just wants to be a bright point in Azurbala and add color to the whole of it. And after his upbringing, that’s kind of a miracle. What’s more remarkable is that he’s had a profound effect while remaining mostly invisible.

Blue just wants to be a bright point in Azurbala and add color to the whole of it.

Blue’s parents were drug runners for Falon and they got double crossed by him. It’s a story we’ve all heard before. And like so many others, nobody has seen them since. Blue was only a child at the time but with no way of making his way, he was sent to the Edokan camps to work in the Glades.

And that’s where he spent the formative years of his life, where he started singing, where he realized he had a talent for it. Unfortunately, the Glades have their own hierarchy, and he was punished for being too good, basically, and forced to sleep in the pits more often than not.

These days, Blue lives in the Jungle.

Of course, this also gave him the opportunity to escape. Jet may claim to be the only Spider Monkey ever to have breached the walls of the prison, but the day that Bice Monk showed up, barely a shadow in the prison yard, and ushered him away while guards were asleep, was really the beginning of Blue’s story.

Blue is often found meditating.

After that, you’d think the world would be his oyster, but those nights on the playa of the Glades had taken their toll. And as the diagnosis of terminal myrossis sat on the paper in his hands, he made a vow to do whatever it would take, pray to whatever God he needed to, to live. When he heard about an experimental treatment for those most severely affected, he was the first to sign up.

No one knows for sure what he went through, but Legend has it that Blue was given such intense diopcide therapy to cure his poisoning, that his DNA was altered irreparably. Some say he’s just a walking Diopcide Avatar now, lighting the path before him wherever he goes.

So he just hides in the jungle, plotting out the master plans for his inner circle of devotees, species in all sectors operating on his behalf, while he stays deep in the jungle, his happy place, his home.

Blue stays deep in the jungle, his happy place, his home.

His living space, carved in amongst the moss covered stones and vines and leaves, is supposed to be quite cozy and I hear tell the temple ruins nearby are magical at magic hour. But Blue’s always on the move and rarely stays anywhere long.

He plans little meditations and get-togethers and, through word of mouth, he and those who follow him sometimes meet up in this nice area just past the monasteries. We hear whatever it is they are doing, it’s always fun. It’s when he treks deeper into our wilderness that few follow.

It’s when Blue treks deeper into our wilderness that few follow.

Lastly, the thing I hear over and over from those close to Blue and from him himself, is that mediation is the key to happiness. He talks about it a lot, but says it can’t be overstated.

My favorite quote of his? “If I know anything at all in my life, it’s because I’ve learned to master my breath.”