END GAME: THE COUNTDOWN STARTS

[sailmods]

[the prisoners wake up on cold, hard floors.

the lights are bright, glaring, a sterile cell with sterile bars facing a sterile hall. the prisoners with you, across from you, and no one else. no rocking of a ship in waves, nothing. just the prisoner and their prison.

time passes, one assumes. the rhythmic click of Friday’s heels down the hall. it’s almost like the ticking of a clock.]

Comments

[angrycrabnoises]

“OKAY SO YOU COULD GET YOURSELF OUT BUT CAN’T ACTUALLY BREAK ANYONE ELSE OUT RIGHT NOW,” he comments.

He sighs, “AND NO, WE NEVER DID. LITERALLY A DATE IN EVERY QUADRANT AND WE STILL COULDN’T FUCKING FIGURE IT OUT.”

[littlefairytale]

"That's what I've always said. Or— okay, not exactly that, especially not the angry mob of prisoners part, but—" Ruby breathes in, then exhales and starts over. "At home. What I really wanted to do was unite everyone against the enemy they didn't even know they had. We'd all been so... divided. All the efforts to save our world from the witch that wants to destroy it had been made in the shadows, so when she started sending out her agents to act more overtly it was so easy to turn us against each other. Make people think the other kingdoms were to blame.

"Secrecy doesn't work. Working alone or only in small groups doesn't work. We have to be united in this. Someway, somehow. Or we're just treading in the same footsteps of everyone before us that failed."

[lovethyneighb_or]

"Aha--you know... according to the Victorians, these are the appropriate enclosures for zoo animals. Have you ever seen those old concrete cages they had their lions in? Perhaps Malin imagines she's being as generous as she could possibly be."

Everything about his tone implies that he thinks, obviously, that this is total bullcrap and whatever happens to her she had coming from as far away as the length of the Pacific.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Whoa! Everything okay over there?" Crichton is not able to see what's going on, but that sure did sound like a tank hitting a ton of bricks.

[yournewsidekick]

"Yeah -- " Her voice wobbles and breaks. Nimona reaches up, managing to get a couple fingers through the bars so she can scritch the side of Siffleur's muzzle. "Yeah," she tries again, "same. Is there anything I can do from in here?"

Maybe, since Siffleur's able to see more out there, he can notice any weak spots Nimona missed. Or... something. Anything.

[theweakhavepurpose]

"You do not wanna know. But trust me, if Sharky starts stripping just tackle him. We're not in a pants-optional environment anymore."

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Oh punch is good. There's gotta be a way to work in a little bit of violence. That's how you work up an appetite.

He'll pass down the line that it's a delicious taco, with a second taco around it. And it's better than a double decker supreme because gordita tortillas are way better for "reasons".

Which clearly explains it all!]

[theweakhavepurpose]

"Didn't they also eat Egyptian mummies? It's a whole time period of everyone with massive lead poisoning or something. Not firing on all cylinders or whatever." Not that they're doing much better here now, considering all he's seen.

"Shouldn't we get ... uh..." What he's searching for is Opium but he's blanking real quick. "The one that sounds like laundry detergent."

Apparently he can remember Taco Bell poetry well enough, but it takes him a solid few minutes of thought to come up with.. "Laudanum! That one. I wanna be doing the good drugs out of eyedroppers if I'm gonna be in a concrete cube."

[redlightgreenlight]

They don't have time for her to lose her head, stress and anxiety do nothing to help in their current situation.

"I appreciate it."

Valdis takes a breath, Ruby's right that they can't lose hope. The Captain is still on their side, they just have to free him. And to free him, they need to free themselves, or at least free enough people to help him.

"Having someone on the outside who can deliver messages faster than ants will help us coordinate at the very least."

[configuration_birdwatcher]

// We're okay, Bastion answers from the floor with a wobbly whistle. They're not sure if Okie is actually okay but at least they didn't land on him and make it worse, and while they're scraped up and might have a dent in their shoulder armour they didn't damage any important parts.

// The bars are sturdier than expected.

[teethoftherisk]

Siffleur passes this information up and down to all the cells, using Maximilien's exact words.

And then, at the end, he adds a thought of his own: they should wish for freedom for everyone. Everyone. No exceptions.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, leaning against the bars, draws a breath as Siffleur passes on the message.

It's what she thought they had a chance to do in the labyrinth, or just after it. Maybe this time, maybe --

"Agreed," she says aloud, and tries to meet Crichton's gaze across the corridor -- but he isn't who she addresses next. "Master Siffleur, can we tally who's in agreement? And if there are any dissenting opinions, or other suggestions?"

[tempingainteasy]

Indeed, this is a trust-heavy exercise. She trusts April to pass the message along, and April is trusting her to fold her into something slightly mobile.

Honestly, more bonus points for not wasting time on something that comes down to say-so.

"Sure, I'll do what I can." April says, promising nothing. "Now, however I'm folded here, make sure my hands are free..." and folding, one assumes, continues.

[tempingainteasy]

Theeeeere's their girl!

April squawks and wobbles like bristol board, but under the fluster they're relieved to hear Flan's enthusiasm and volume again. Talk about uncanny wrongness - things feel a little more like it'll be fine now, with this one thing back to normal.

Okay, they're maybe being a little dramatic here since they're all in jail indefinitely, but it's a start.

"Yeah of course we gotta, I wouldn't want to part you from your starcrossed soulmate." April says between the bristol wobbling sound - "Plus would you really put Tommy on a timeshare? Anyway we can just release him into a provincial park and he can go get high with bigfoot somewhere. Dream environment for him I'm sure."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Good," says Edgar, not happily but with grim satisfaction.

And after a pause: "Those other wives ... they were dead? And he kept them hung up like that? Why?"

[not_the_last]

"Thank you." And yes, she's still working on the folding as they speak; figuring out how to keep the hands free takes more time than the rest of it, but they manage.

"All right -- can you move on your own like this?"

[theweakhavepurpose]

Pratt can only hear one side of this conversation, and he's distracted by composing his magnum opus over here -- But he nods at Jade's guesses about what's going on.

"Well they used to have bells, they used to have like Spanish tile and these arches and a tower with a bell in them. Though I don't think the bell was real..." Huh, he's never heard of the bell actually ringing before, but that would have been cool. "Fast food is a little different than a diner, tho you're on the right track! Tacos and nachos and chalupas and cinnamon twists."

With Fio's help of adding in 'punch' he's trying to figure out how he can work punching the gas in a car towards the border. So his next rambly mumbling involves workshoping a few different cars, car colors, and if highway or freeway sounds better.

[ss_buttcrack]

"You gotta be kidding me. You're built like a tank and you can't bulldoze through them? Then, how the hell did the cougar get out?"

[ossie_oswald]

"Already murdered. And there's some dissent in opinion about that- it might be to serve as a warning, or there may have been some other purpose to it, something to do with the blood, perhaps. By my count, I would say it's simple punishment for disobeying him."

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton, from across the way, looks like he's sucking on a lemon right now. He'd very much like to shoot this messenger but... later. If they live through this.

Cassandra's look is enough to get him back on track. "Agreed here, too." And then he promptly shuts up again so they can hear Siffleur's answer.

[ss_buttcrack]

"Right." His voice barely sounds like his; it's more like the croaking of a frog.

She may want to have that conversation, but part of him dreads anyone asking what he was thinking at the time. He had a chance at freedom. It was in his grasp and... he let it go. He still doesn't know if that was the right call. Sitting here right now, he doesn't know.

"Cass I... really wish we could have gone home together."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Sick bastard," says Edgar, though without any particular heat; it is just a story, after all. "But they got him in the end."

[teethoftherisk]

"Yes. There are some people I cannot find. I'm not sure what it means..." But he does know - it means what it always has meant. "I know Erin and Ash are gone. Johnny is as well. I do not see Grace either."

[ss_buttcrack]

"I didn't see you doing better. Maybe I should have threatened to eat her face off, huh?"

[sabigoe]

"I want to fight alongside everyone too! But first we need to figure out how to get our powers back... maybe Judy and Callie are prisoners somewhere too!"

Maybe Judith and Calcite also have little striped prisoner uniforms that fit their teddy bear and dragon bodies.