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

[abhorrently]

[thank the fucking gods. the relief is visible.]

Great. Do you know anything about this place? How one would get out of these cells?

[he's still washing, but she can wait.]

[neverleave]

[That's a cat. Roaming free. But surely it's not a shapeshifting passenger, because powers are still out. No one's shouting about another successful escape.]

Hey [Uhhhh] - Mr. Cat?

[sailmods]

[pauses]

You cannot fit through...?

[goes back to licking.]

Tough luck. Neither could my brothers.

[abhorrently]

So far, I've remained a bit too big to squeeze through.

[even as she says it, she's pressing on the bars again, as if that would change after however many times she's done it.]

Your brothers were prisoners here? What happened to them?

[sailmods]

They are ensorcelled. The English tried it on me, but I am a cat, and cannot be told what to do.

[sailmods]

Guatauva. If that is too hard, you can call me Taba.

[saltwaterlungs]

Processes that for like two seconds.

"Okay, sure," they don't have time to cover literally any of that right now.

"Could she have passed it onto someone on Ari's side, if that kid was the probe?"

[abhorrently]

Stupid of these English.

[who are they? doesn't matter, they tried bewitching a cat.]

Part of the reason we want to get out is to free anyone else they have captive. Breaking whatever spell controls them and making them pay for it. We can help return them to your side, if there's any way you can think of to get us past the bars.

[does she know who they are, what binds them? no, but they'd known they would have to sever the control of Malin's thralls to make sure she loses all protections. it's not as though she's offering anything that wasn't already on the table.]

[sailmods]

[a thoughtful pause]

And freeing my sister.

[neverleave]

Okay, Guatauva then. I'm Yuuki.

[Half-formed thoughts run through his mind Guatauva. Like Tauva? Something about a ghost cat, a doodle in the long gone black binder...]

You used to be on the Serena Eterna, right?

[abhorrently]

Naturally. We wouldn't leave her behind.

[anyone else means anyone else.]

[sailmods]

She will be harder. The English bitch keeps her.

[abhorrently]

[that just makes her smile. harder isn't a deterrent.]

If that's the woman with the eyepatch, I've already resolved to murder her most foul. To break her chains will be a delight.

[skaikru]

( most of her cell neighbors have gone and clarke is nearly entirely devoid of outer-cell interaction, except suddenly — is that a cat?

one double-take. two double-takes.

and she's on hands and knees in a second trying to get eye level with the thing. )

Hey, wait. Don't leave.

( first time she'd seen just a normal housecat wandering around the ship, clarke had wrapped it in a table cloth and heavily considered tossing it overboard. ended up throwing it in the brig and reaching through the bars to give the creature adequate head scratches, so let's all appreciate the parallel that she's once again reaching through bars in an attempt to pet. )

[neverleave]

[Another scoff. He can't imagine Darcy has anything but insults to that woman.]

Yeah, well. Let's hope everyone's past that. The last thing we need when we get out is another debate, we should kill her and be done with it.

[neverleave]

[They're in prison, on a race against time to defeat their captor before she turns them into exhibits or sells them like objects, but of course Fio would find time to feel bad about property damage from forever ago...]

Good thing that this time you can blow things up for a good cause. So don't hold back, Sprinter Sunshine Princess.

[goodweather]

[ blinks.

the cat is almost too far away when he manages to pull out from his lethargy to call, ] Hey—hi, nice to see you. What’s your name?

[neverleave]

I know.

[He forces himself to relax his arms as he leans against the door, pressing his forehead to the bars. No point in exhausting himself while they're still locked up. Calm down, stay focused.]

I just hate that all we can do now is wait for them to have a breakthrough.

[nepetaleijon]

Nepeta, leaning her forehead against the bars of her cell, straightens up at sight of it. Her tail swishes with interest and then stands straight up in approved friendly-cat-fashion, looking for a moment like an exclamation point above her head.

"Mrrr?" she chirps hopefully in the cat's direction.

[blindwatchersees]

He drops to all fours, standing as close to the bars as he can. He may not have the identity or Mantle of the Skooma Cat right now, he may not be able to transform, but it's a deeply-ingrained habit of his to adopt the form of a cat as much as possible when speaking to a cat.

"Greetings, stranger. What has brought you to this place?"

not here

[inhairently]

( steve is currently laying at the back of the cell, staring at the ceiling. he's made a makeshift ball by rolling his socks together and is currently tossing it up and catching it over and over and over and over because what the hell else is he supposed to do.

he spares a glance in natsuno's direction, makes note of the talking cat, but says nothing. he'll just listen in for now. )

[littlefairytale]

So what if he did? [ Ruby throws her arms out and spins on the spot for emphasis ] Look at what's happened! I-I don't understand how any of you thought how this plan was going to do anything but trade one set of problems for another!

[ Anger isn't something that comes naturally to Ruby, not really. There's always a part of her that resists it. But that's been changing. Bit by bit. ]

Did any of you really think that any person that would enslave the Captain would let us all go free? Would be easier to fight?

[neverleave]

We thought that this reality is dying and we had to do something. Or did you really think you can wait around until the power of love convinces the captain to let us go?

We took a gamble and lost. But don't pretend we weren't gonna be obliterated anyway.

[sabigoe]

That sounds really scary... [ At first his confession comes off as a surprise, but she recalls when the boat was plagued by strange flowers and Dimitri had come to her defense. He seemed to have familiarity with combating the dreadful illusions. Judging from his words, what he sees and hears, doesn't sound as temporary as the flower's magical effects. (And she's suffered through hallucinations at her lowest point before, though they haven't lasted very long.)

Fio squares up, in an attempt to show that she's ready to take on the task. ]

Yeah, I can do that. [ A pause. ] You've helped me before... when the ghosts from back home came to say mean things to me. It's kind of like those ghosts, right?

[sabigoe]

Ohhh...

[ It inspires more confidence when Ava puts it that way. She can still do something, even without any powers or just being a small child among a bunch of adults and teenagers. A grin, then a loud whisper: ]

I can be sneaky!