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

[light_mischief]

We'll teach her a lesson for underestimating us. Unless, of course, she was planning for us to escape... but I don't think she's exhibited that sort of forethought.

[he's working off a sample size of one, but still, he thinks he's dead on.]

Well, let's see. [he leans against the bars and crosses one leg over the other as if tying a shoe. after a moment of deliberation, he pops off the distal phalanx of his pinky toe, letting out a short, loud yelp of pain in the process.

he doesn't address the yelp at all as he tries, and fails, to push the bone back into place.]

That clears it right up, then. [holds the tiny little triangle of bone up between his fingers,] I suppose now you have more reason to get our powers back. I might stub a few more toes before long.

[broshaw]

Average dudes of the Serena Eterna unite!!

"Ugh. I got mixed feelings on the military industrial complex, what with my cousin's liveliehood relyin' on it, and its direct hand in the end of the fuckin' world..." He makes a face. "Less mixed with the Village. Still pretty pissed I didn't get to pop that guy for Giles' sake." Still, he got what he deserved for being a mind-washing little freakoid.

[decohere]

Yeah, I was wondering if it were some sort of trap. But. It'd be a pointless one, when she already has us caught. [she's not allowing herself to get as wound up in her paranoia, no second guessing right now. just taking advantage of the opportunity presented with the belief that they're capable of somehow winning. nothing else.]

... [she watches, frowning with concern that he's unable to put it back.] Well. It would have been funny.

[decohere]

"Too bad we don't have William Wallace." He was pretty clear on the whole freedom thing.

[teethoftherisk]

He's a Father through and through - no actual apology, no real acknowledgement of the pain they caused Friday, just more excuses. It doesn't matter that they hurt Friday first, only that Siffleur finished the fight in away that Crichton finds disgusting. There is no reasoning with a man like Crichton, for he will always shift the goal posts.

He tips his head up, looking Crichton in the eye, and makes him a promise.

"If we escape, I will find a way to visit another universe where your mother is alive, and I will woo her, and I will give her a son she can be proud of."

Then he gets the fuck out of Crichton's face like he wants.

[teethoftherisk]

[There's a much better solution. Siffleur hops off of Bastion, making space for Okie to go first.]

I didn't see a cannon, but there's an astronaut outside the hatch, and they will talk in your mind.

[ss_buttcrack]

"You sick son of a bitch! Who even thinks of doing that?!"

He searches around in a blind rage, but the only thing he has on hand (literally) is that sock. So he balls it up and launches it at Siffleur's back.

"FRELL YOU!"

[teethoftherisk]

While Okie gets ready to climb out, Siffleur briefly heads to the front where the other group is gathering.

"Both doors lead to the same place." He calls out to Darcy. "There's a big metal deck up there, and an astronaut who gave me a message from my mother."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Front?" The sock puppet is back so it can fully express Crichton's confusion with exaggerated movements. "Is that some kind of new slang I don't know?"

[hadnoright]

Jon?

(immediately) Still here.

Good, I— (swallows) I-I-I-I want to talk.

"I-It— it feels like—" she swallows, "like I'm back th-there. Un-Under— in-in the— tr-trapped."

She breathes, to remind herself she can expand her lungs. She drags her hands over her face, to remind herself she can move. That it smears blood over her skin and into her hair doesn't matter. If anything, the sensation is another reminder that this is different.

"I-I— I can talk." Words meant as much to convince herself, as to be a promise. "I-I can talk."

[maximumcake]

"I wish I knew more about magic..." Max laments, drooping a little but not losing the fire of hope she's put in him. "But I'm... I can fight if we have to. I can be annoying." He can't do much more than that, really, but he'll try.

[abhorrently]

"Do you have any idea how valuable that is in a fight? Getting the enemy to split their attention is vital, that way you can have someone else sneak up and deal with things when they're unguarded."

Sometimes you had to be downright stupid about it, but redirecting focus was critical in the worst fights - to get others to safety, to allow time to heal.

[maximumcake]

"I know..." he's working hard to keep his own voice from wavering. He's telling her to be strong, but right now he's the one that needs to be, for her. It's like Siffleur told him, he has to keep everyone ready to fight.

"You aren't back there. You aren't ever going to be buried again. It's different. This is different. We're going to get free. You have to save your energy for that. We are going to get out of here."

[hate_gettin_older]

"Where I come from," Edgar says, "the Front was where the people with all the power lived. The ones who keep all the best of everything for themselves, and think they fuckin own everybody else."

He gestures with his chin in the direction of the door, and by implication at Malin. "Don't know a damn thing about her, but just try telling me she's not Front."

not here

[ossie_oswald]

Ossie begins to sweat imperceptibly.

[be_seeing_you]

You must be joking. Men like me are not rare. But women like you? Ava, you have always tried to value yourself too little. If Malin can see what I see, then she knows exactly how priceless you really are.

okay with wrapping this one down here?

[be_seeing_you]

"You are a good friend," he affirms. "You always have been. You'll get your chance to prove it." If Number 6 has anything to say about it, she will.

[be_seeing_you]

"Then, the first thing we need to do is find out what is beyond those doors." He feels more grounded already just with that little bit of a plan worked out. Just a first step, but it's enough.

He turns to Ava with his head lifted confidently, "He will, Ava. He is still our Captain and we will get him back."

[maximumcake]

"I... kinda do..? Yes. Actually, yeah." Max doesn't tend to advertise this fact, but he is more martially trained than one would think at first glance. Distraction was one of the tactics his old teacher, Josiah, used to drill into him. Because even vampires can get distracted.

"I think I needed a reminder."

[ss_buttcrack]

"Ain't gonna argue with that definition," Crichton says, as the sock puppet pantomimes a shrug.

"She's literally treating us all like property to own or trade away. We're going to make her regret that."

[abhorrently]

"Happy to provide."

And the edge of a smile flickers on her lips.

"Listen, before we got all thrown in here, I got a good look at what she has under that eyepatch as well. My best guess is that it's something like the essence of insanity - I've been near enough to the Madgod to know exactly what that feels like, and also to know that it'll probably try and latch onto whoever's too close if she exposes it. So make sure you keep at a distance while you're bothering her."

[saltwaterlungs]

Blinks.

"Okay, wild sentence, but thanks. Anyone we know? Someone friendly?"

[decohere]

Astronaut... Ava wonders briefly if it's somebody from Tayrey's world, come to rescue them after all.

[hadnoright]

Sometimes she wonders if she'll ever truly be free. Most of the time she comes to the conclusion there's no such thing for a beast like her. Life has felt like one coffin shaped box after another for almost as long as she can remember. First, her father's expectations. Then Calvin, burying Alice under the weight of Daisy. Then the Section 31, London, the Met. The Institute, Elias. The coffin. The Hunt. The ship.

There's an exhaustion that's carved so deep into her it surpasses bone, and a collar wrapped so tight around her throat she's not sure she's ever been able to truly breathe. She'd give anything for the slightest bit of slack in the chain.

"I-I don't— don't see how. A f-few— a few edge cases isn't— isn't enough. We don't— we don't have a plan. E-Even Jon had a plan. E-Even if his plan— suck— sucked."

[decohere]

What men like you...? [she certainly hasn't met any as wonderful. but she supposes the value they see in each other, all their inner important qualities, aren't what somebody like Malin is looking for. just freaks to put on display for others to gawk at, if the reference to the World Fair and Ava's understanding of history is aligned... she frowns. humanity never really changes. they just find newer and worse ways to abuse power.]

The only way I'm valuable to people like that is the same way SHIELD valued me. Which isn't at all... [but that increases her fear of being traded off even more, not for display purposes, but invasive research on her condition or yet another shady organization needing soldiers to burn through. all of the possibilities seem more awful than the last, and her breath hitches and she hides her face against Peter's chest, trying to calm herself down.

none of it's happened yet, despite her cruel imagination. none of it will happen. between all of them, they'll somehow manage to stop her... because to Malin they're all just things, but to each other they're everything.]