BATTLE ROYALE EVENT: SHIP

[sailmods]

[fortunately, not signing up for the shore excursion doesn't mean the passengers still on board don't get to have a little fun. on the contrary: they'll get to have some of the most fun of all!

about an hour after the tender leaves, at about 9AM, every screen on the ship, from the cabin TVs to the one above the pool, begins playing a live feed of the events on the island, starting with Friday's introduction video and transitioning to the passengers leaving the bunker. from then on, the camera (?) seems to always know where the action is, bringing close-up views of each fight, each death. when little action occurs, highlight reels play. there is no audio, however, outside of the droning, inane muzak of the stream and the kitschy sound effects of the reels; time to brush up on your lip-reading if you want the hot goss on scene!

in the atrium, near Friday's desk, is a large piece of construction paper, titled "PLACE YOUR BETS," showing a table with the names (some true, some not) of each competitor, with a space to write down your name next to who you think will win. the captain has already made his choice! what are you betting? don't worry about it.

the screens will play the game 24 hours a day. destroying the screens wholly will buy you only momentary respite. so, sit back, and enjoy.]

Comments

3

[prodigalmess]

Ever since he learned that Ava 'died' in the game, Malcolm's been looking for her on the ship. She's not in her room, or if she is, she doesn't answer when he knocks. For a dreadful moment, Malcolm is worried that Ava might have actually died. When he hears that someone is storming the ship in some kind of robot suit, moving through walls and people alike, Malcolm realizes that it's her. She's still here.

This ship is huge, but Malcolm has nothing but time. He goes floor by floor and room by room. The laundry room is dark when Malcolm finally reaches it. He's about to flick on the light when he sees the glowing red dots in the back of the room. He hears the humming, the song that stupid fish that was her 'weapon' used to play.

"Ava?" he calls, moving into the room. "It's Malcolm."

[decohere]

She sucks in a terrified breath, mid-song. Malcolm. And flickers invisible as she has so many times when she has no idea how to face him, though she makes no effort to actually get up and move.

Maybe he'll fall for it the way Watson had. Give up and leave her to suffer alone.

But even invisible it's difficult to hide the sounds of crying.

[prodigalmess]

"Ava..."

He doesn't turn the lights on, but he moves closer to the sound of the crying. She's made herself invisible, but she hasn't left the room. Maybe that's a good sign?

"I-I've been looking for you. I was so worried about you."

[decohere]

She wants to see him. But she doesn't want to be seen. She doesn't know how much he's seen. What he thinks of her or any of it.

She fades back into view, just barely, the red eyes of her mask locked on Malcolm as he approaches.

"You did it..." Ava pauses, the electronic scramble of her voice so impersonal, lacking the tone she's trying to express. Maybe that's for the better. "You found the killer." Because that's what he does, isn't it? And that's what she is. The truth that she can no longer keep from him.

[prodigalmess]

Her words take him completely aback, and he stops a few feet from where she's sitting.

"What?" he asks. "No. Ava, it's not your fault. You didn't have any choice. Nobody did."

That's part of what made Malcolm so mad about the whole thing. It was clear that very few people wanted to play this 'game' and had to make horrific choices under those conditions. He doesn't blame anybody who was on the island.

[decohere]

"Ghost," she corrects. She doesn't want to be Ava. Ava is stupid and weak and cares far too much. An unfortunate liability. But her care for Malcolm bleeds through, and she wants to warn him away. Keep him safe.

"This isn't the first time. This has always been my purpose."

[prodigalmess]

It goes without saying that Malcolm has never seen her in this outfit before. It's a little bit terrifying, and he's not sure if he understands the purpose of it.

She's called herself a ghost before and said it was her codename. While Malcolm is an advocate of calling people what they want to be called, he's not going to let her depersonalize. Ava's retreating away from herself after the trauma of what happened on the island.

"Ava," he repeats. "Do you mean back home? As a spy?"

[decohere]

"Ghost," she repeats right back, stubborn and resigned. "Spy. Thief. ... Assassin," she might appear to be looking at him, the red glow never wavering. But Ava's eyes are closed tightly. This wasn't how she wanted him to find out.

"Kill, to save myself. That was the deal." No different from the island.

[prodigalmess]

He swallows hard. Given his own complication with murders and people who commit them, the two of them probably need to talk about her past. They probably need to talk about his. But now isn't really the time. Right now, he just wants to know that she's okay.

Well, she clearly isn't.

"Is that who you want to be?" Malcolm asks.

[decohere]

She has a decent idea of his stance, given what he's said of his occupation. But not enough to know it hits that close to home. Still, it's been enough for her to avoid him, out of a wariness that he'd see right through her. And that anything positive Malcolm felt toward her would quickly transform into... hate? Disappointment? Disgust? Whatever decent people thought of killers.

But she stays still. Considers. "No," she responds softly, "but that's never mattered." She did it anyway.

[prodigalmess]

Maybe Malcolm has overlooked something in her because he didn't really catch on that she was an assassin. He thought that she used her skills for spying, but now it all seems to be fitting into place. Did he purposely not see it? Was he blinded by how charming he found her?

He doesn't think he's wrong. Ava doesn't fit the profile of a sadistic killer.

His thoughts are confirmed by her response. "It does matter," he replies. "It means everything. Whatever you've done... it's because you've had to, not because you wanted to."

[decohere]

"You don't know," she draws her knees up to her chest, protectively. "What I've done. Why. Me. You don't know me."

She gives a bit of a miserable, distorted whine. "It doesn't matter, because I couldn't protect anyone. Undine, Conan... John." She feels awful, for forcing him to leave. They should have stuck together. Yet she couldn't see a way that it would have played out any better.

[prodigalmess]

He moves a little closer and then crouches down so that his face is closer to Ava's. The mask is creepy. Honestly, if someone wearing that was coming at him, he'd probably be scared.

But since he knows that Ava is behind it, he doesn't really have any fear.

"The whole thing was rigged. Everybody lost. You didn't do anything wrong." Malcolm bites his lip, wondering if this is what she wants to hear or not. "I don't think any less of you."

[decohere]

She honestly might be a bit more afraid of him, all things considered. But Ava stays put, doesn't lash out nor retreat despite her wariness.

She doesn't know what she wants to hear, really. But it does help that he's saying it, because she does actually care. What he thinks.

Ava slowly lifts her hand out to him, fingers twitching, a wordless request.

[prodigalmess]

Malcolm puts his hand in hers, gripping her in the hope that she might not start to waver or disappear. He wants to anchor her to this plane of existence.

"Will you take the mask off?" he asks quietly. "I want to see you. The real you."

[decohere]

She tightens her hold, to stop the trembling, to make sure he's not going to suddenly up and leave. As if she isn't the one always running away every time he so much as glances her way. Because part of her knew this day would inevitably come.

She almost refuses, because she doesn't need a mirror to imagine what she looks like under it. Her cheeks still dampened with tears, eyes puffy and red. Stray bits of hair stuck to her face, and her bottom lip bitten raw with worry. But she reaches up anyway, unlatching the face plate to her mask and letting it clatter to the floor. There's a small hiss from her suit at the pressure release.

And as much as she tries to hold it back, her eyes well up again. Ava turns her face away. "How much of it did you see?"

[prodigalmess]

He exhales when the mask comes off. There she is. She's a mess, but she's still pretty.

"Not a lot of it. I, um... tried to avoid watching if I could." It was too hard, watching people being forced to kill others. Funny how it would have been different if he'd been watching a tape for a crime back home. He'd had to watch many horrible things in his training as an FBI agent, but it's different when it's people you know.

"Sometimes when I heard the voice of someone I care about I would stop and pay attention for a little while."

Malcolm's hand is trembling now too, though he's holding on so tightly to Ava's that it's hard to tell.

[decohere]

"For the best," she supposes there's no value to really be gained from something so utterly perverse and hopeless. But if the positions had been reversed, she doubts she'd be able to look away. And she doubts he'd have broken down so easily, played right into the game as she had. Even if he claims she had no choice, she's sure Malcolm would've made a different one.

"If this is how it begins... how much worse is it going to get?" What's the point of trying to recover from all this if it just opens her up to suffering all over again?

[prodigalmess]

Malcolm just shakes his head. It's a question that he's asked himself as well. "I think we've all at least learned that we can't trust anybody that works on this ship," he says. "We might not be able to trust the passengers either." Some of their fellow cruisers were a bit too gleeful about killing and it showed. In the bits and pieces that Malcolm saw, Ava wasn't one of them.

"But we need to all try to stick together."

[decohere]

As if she's trusted anyone a day in her life, outside of Bill Foster. "And how's that work, exactly?" Ava asks sincerely. "Stick together, don't trust anyone." It's a question she's never been able to quite figure out, in her constant need for help and it always being taken advantage of. She has no doubts that the majority of the passengers wouldn't sell each other out the moment they got an opportunity.

"I told you, I don't like people."

[prodigalmess]

He realizes that he just contradicted himself and acknowledges that with a tiny smile and a tilt of his head. "I think what I meant is that those of us that we know we can trust need to try to help each other. The only way that we're going to be able to get through this is together." Separately, they'll be too easy for the captain to manipulate and pick off.

"People fascinate me..." Malcolm muses. "But I'm not sure if I really like most of them either."

[decohere]

"Together," she sighs. Because she tried. Tried to stick together with her small group, and watched them picked off one by one instead. Being alone is a far less painful experience. "I lose everyone that I care about," Ava tells him. "Eventually we all do. But for me, it's never a matter of eventually. It's always right away. My parents when I was five. Bill as soon as he tried to adopt me. The one scientist that tried to treat me as a person, got reassigned. Finally I had people willing to help me, for a whole two weeks. Gone. I've never been meant for... together. Just losing and losing and losing until there's nothing left."

It feels unfair to complain about. They've all been separated from their lives and loved ones.

[prodigalmess]

He's kind of screwing this up, isn't he? Well, he's a profiler, not a therapist. He's trying. All of them are trying.

"Just because that's how it's always been doesn't mean that's how it has to continue to be. I can't give up and let them win."

Malcolm has to fight. If there's injustice, he can't just sit here and let it happen.

If Ava has no one, at least she has him.

[decohere]

She's just so tired of fighting, and she's certain that they've already won. Ava closes her eyes.

She doesn't like being a hostage, but she does know how to play one.

"I didn't think I'd see you again. And it made me realize how much of a coward I've been. Avoiding you."

[prodigalmess]

"Yeah..." he says, his brow furrowing. "Why? Have you been avoiding me, I mean."

Malcolm noticed because of course he did. And because it's her. Ava draws his attention every time she's near. The fact that she would keep disappearing in the middle of their conversations bothered him. He was wondering what he was doing wrong.