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

[teethoftherisk]

If you are the only key, and you do not enjoy your time with us, why have you not opened the door already? The sooner we free everyone, the sooner you will be away from us.

[stormpirate]

[stiffly] Because it has to be an order, asshole.

[because that's what you do, when you're a slave. you follow orders.]

[teethoftherisk]

[His ears instantly flatten, and he hops off the monitors, landing on the ground. That explains it. And it explains many things. Malin deserves every ounce of suffering they give her. He only regrets that they cannot leave her to rot the way human's do in their air-tight coffins, slowly putrefying alone instead of being given back to nature.]

I'm sorry - for this, and for asking you to share your feelings. They are yours alone.

Open the door.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ In the background, Bastion emits the sort of harsh monotone beep usually deployed to censor curse words, but before they can overcome their hesitation and say anything more decisive than 'fuck', Siffleur steps in. ]

[freedomsuitsme]

"I don't think the lack of pockets are the only problem, pal. Seems this world doesn't let people carry much of anything."

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Somewhere in the distance there's uplifting elevator music playing, and everything goes to soft focus as they twirl around like they're in an advertisement for an overpriced mental health medication.]

Flan! I'm glad you didn't get squished but we've had sooooo much time to sit around doing nothing that I fucking wrote it! Taco bell sonnet is complete. It's pretty decent if -- what happened to your hair?

[skaikru]

( arguably the only benefit of being shrunk and spun like wool on a high heat cycle all of thirty seconds ago is that it really distracts from preemptive grief and gets the blood going once again. snapped and shaken like a glow stick, clarke has a long moment after the bars fall away with a lacking clatter of just staring at the new opening. picks herself up slowly and steps out out into the fray. two different emotions rule her: the fear turned preparation for a third beatdown (this is rightfully called shame) and relief as hollow as those prison bars.

aforementioned thoughts are stubbornly banished after a second, unimportant and too optimistic respectively — especially when there's still so much to do.

she looks to her right where jade would probably be emerging from his cell. then turns left and makes a beeline for rita mordio. )

[fonomena]

[Well, after all. Beggars certainly can't be choosers, as they say.

It had been a distinctly concerning last ten minutes or so, when the cells had very abruptly started shifting and turning erratically, as if being manipulated by some unseen distant force. Between the bouts of being literally knocked about during the rotations, Jade had been apt to guess that perhaps the torture was finally beginning. (Quite unprofessionally graceless and belated, though, if so. Not even a slow crushing between closing walls, really?) Or maybe the transit was running into difficulty, tossing them all collectively around like so many packages in the middle of a tumultuous carriage-ride during shipment. ...The worst-case scenarios are rather easier to manage in thought, than the best-case ones--which would be so very reliant on that brittle thing called hope--a notion that perhaps one of the escaped groups has started to inconvenience their captor in a substantial way. (That perhaps Natsuno truly will return alive after all...)

Pessimism now means less disappointment later. --Which means that it ends up being a distinctly pleasant surprise, in the end, when the cell bars all collectively fall off.

(Alright. Just a bit less brittle now, maybe, that bit of hope--)]

Hm, I suppose having these stay as heavy bands of steel would have been just too much to ask for... [Dryly remarked to nobody in particular, as Jade slips himself out of his cell and picks up the first loose bar he can reach, only to find it woefully light and hollow as the plastic one might have found in sundries. Really, what he wouldn't give for his spear...if it's even still in his arm anymore, at this point...but, in the end, any tool is better than nothing. Jade keeps it in hand angled at his side somewhat like a spear anyhow, as he starts down the hall.

In the direction of Clarke and Rita's cells, if the impression from the relaying ants earlier is to be believed. So far as he knows, they're still here and had apparently been unharmed...but there's still an urge to be sure, after all. For that matter, other familiar faces that have been obscured from view in these cells up to now would be welcome sights...]

[makesomedeals]

[He is looking a little worse for wear, slightly scuffed from the tumble he took when the cells rotated around and shrank. But he's still trying to smooth his horrible striped jail clothing out as if it's an actual suit.]

I'm vaguely confident that I won't explode and take everyone with me. With any luck I fall on Sharky and crush him into powder.

[He definitely knows he's going to die and doesn't see any other alternative.]

[makesomedeals]

"How many people think that 'home' is now on the Serena Eterna? Which potentially doesn't even exist anymore. With a wish like that they'd potentially vanish into ether." Even with Maxwell's investigation into this power source he still knows very little about how this works.

"Conversely coming to an agreement will be nothing short of a miracle."

[myagic]

[You know, it's not like Rita's never considered the possibility of being crushed to death--that's a risk that comes with entering ancient ruins which, even when they're sturdy, come loaded with all sorts of unpleasant traps for the dimwitted and unprepared. But she's never been afraid of that possibility.

Until now. The cells shrink once, and she's stopped from the agitated intermittent pacing and foot-tapping she's been doing ever since Natsuno left and they heard that cat yowl with no further information. Then they get tumbled, and rest assured Rita is doing all kinds of angry cursing at the jostling and bruising against hard concrete even if nobody beyond Skulduggery can hear it. Then the cells shrink again, and that's when the terrible, cold fear rears its head: that this is how she dies, alone in a bare cell, not knowing what's happening to anyone she loves as she gets crushed to death for reasons she can't even understand.

...The bars falling out feels like a terrible joke, or maybe even another trap (step out and get killed by some other stupid trap!). But she uncurls from the ball she'd folded herself into, decides anything's better than staying in here, and crawls out on her hands and knees, only scrambling to her feet once she's outside the cell. Huh. They're out. How long has it been? What happened? She toes the now-flimsy bars and then proceeds to otherwise ignore them, looking up instead to-]

Clarke!

[Screw it being embarrassing or not, she's going to grab the other girl's hands to make sure she's real and okay (no her hands are definitely not shaking or anything she totally wasn't terrified, okay!!).]

We're--what the hell's going on? Did you--did you hear that cat earlier?

[Obviously Clarke's going to be as much in the dark as she is, but she can't not worry about Natsuno...]

[not_the_last]

"We've got you," she says, and she will weep about this later, when they're all safe. "We're getting out. Stay with me?"

She would make it an order, in hopes that it would help support him, but she's too afraid it will weigh him down instead.

[myagic]

[Rita doesn't know which was more painful: that Clarke was only one cell too far away to talk to, or that Jade was so far down the hall that they wouldn't have been able to talk to him even if it wasn't for whatever weird acoustics were keeping their conversational areas limited. Both sucked in their own way--especially after Natsuno set off. Of course, she believes in him and Fever, but it can't stop the worry gnawing at her insides, especially after that alarming cat screech she heard... They're capable, and they're intelligent, but none of them are invincible. If anything happens...

But--she isn't stuck in a cell alone with only Skulduggery to talk to now. A likely-quick, relieved reunion with Clarke first, being in much closer proximity, and then it's Jade's turn. On the heels of a sort-of-terrifying (but definitely not leaving her afraid or anything, haha of course not don't be stupid) cell flipping and narrowing, she'd been a bit more frantic greeting Clarke, but for Jade now, she's likely calmed down a bit, so-]

Jade-- [Yeah, there's still an immediate sort of relief to seeing him but let's not think too deeply on that!] Hey, you didn't fracture your old bones or anything, did you?

[Okay, so maybe it's hard to think of what to say at a time like this! And her tone isn't as teasing as it'd be in actual light circumstances. But if she pretends it's not a big deal, maybe they can all believe it. Besides, he doesn't want a gross hug or something awful like that, does he?]

[yourexoduslaughing]

Taco bell sonnet!!! Oh my god!! Prison is good for like, only one thing!

[She gives him another twirl and sets him down, giving him a grin.] Oh my god I like, broke it off so I could make ropes and have Victor pass them up and down to everyone in case it was useful! I haven't had hair this short for this long since like... I was a baby probably??

[light_mischief]

Let's hope you put him out of his misery before I have to.

[For the sake of Max's well-being, Skulduggery avoids pointing out the loose thread hanging from one sleeve. Let's not try to put lipstick on a pig here.]

If we were to find a suitable replacement for your power core -- [NOT calling it a magic wish stone, again for Max's comfort] -- and installed it after the fact, would you... be you, still?

[He's thinking of Friday when he asks it.]

[broshaw]

The fact that Giles is initiating some quality PDA tells Sharky everything he needs to know about Giles' mental health. He lifts his hands to cup either side of his jaw before the kiss can finish, making sure to be as physical as he can in this very public space. No way is he going to let Giles think he's hallucinating this freedom fighter romance they have going on.

When Giles pulls away, Sharky responds with a rough voice, "All good now that we're out of the cells. You -- were you with Ossie? Or is he somewhere else? Have you seen him yet???"

Immediately turns to look for Ossie -- because he may be in love with Giles, but he loves Ossie, okay!! And frankly he doesn't think he'll be able to help Giles if Ossie turns out to have mysteriously disappeared or something! That is waaaaaay over his paygrade!

[sailmods]

[eating the pieces of cake returns them to their normal sizes. you've seen movies.

so, here we are now: four people, one ensorcelled, in a rather small storage closet full of empty boxes.

for a moment, the man just stares at them, halfway between lifting a cardboard box up above his head.]

[ring_for_giles]

It helps, it really does. The feel Sharky's hands on his jaw more grounding than any of Autumn's lessons in anxiety management. He can almost feel the rough edges of his Clarity being smoothed back into place.

"No, we were separated and I can't- I need to find him."

He won't allow himself to fall back into the anxious spiral, it hasn't been that long in the scheme of things since he and Ossie bound their fates together permanently with an Oath. He can live without the constant certain knowledge of where his other half is for a while. He can.
(He can't)

No way to fix it besides continuing on the search.

[ossie_oswald]

Ossie is lying on the floor of his cell with his arms folded. He's certainly alive and breathing, but he doesn't look pleased.

[ring_for_giles]

Giles doesn't rush, but the keen eyed may notice the slight increase in his pace and evening out of his breathing when he spots Ossie.

"Oswald, my love" he says softly as he kneels beside him

[ossie_oswald]

His gaze glances to the side, to where he sees Giles' sweet face again after too long. It almost makes him second guess what he's doing, but no, he is a creature of particular tastes and even here he will have them fulfilled.

"I've just been tossed about like a bloody load of laundry. I expect to be picked up far more delicately, love of mine."

[makesomedeals]

[ He tilts his head, apertures of his eyes rotating clockwise and then counterclockwise as he genuinely thinks about it. Eventually he makes a non-committal sound.]

Potentially. It depends on if this triggers a system shut down, which it might if its some sort of power surge. In that case I'd be shut down, not dead. But if it kills me... then no. Everything is wiped. I'm not even sure you could reprogram this body to be an automaton, everything would stop functioning.

[ring_for_giles]

There's a whisper of a smile, that here and now may as well be a grin, perhaps even laughter.

"Of course," he burries a kiss somewhere in Ossie's hair as he gently, ever so gently, gathers Ossie up in his arms and lifts.

[neverleave]

[So they are now in a suddenly small space, with a brainwashed man who can drown them or blow them away through the wall, and has their tiny friend in his pocket.]

...Hello. Would you like some help with these boxes?

[light_mischief]

Alright.

[There's room to move inside these theories, and Skulduggery begins the painstaking process of analyzing which choices may lead to the best outcome. He can't make any promises that Max will see the other side of this, but he can at least make it clear that he's trying.]

I promise, I'll do everything in my power to prevent you from having to die a hero. Ideally, you won't be doing any heroics whatsoever. [There's a joke that could be made here, about Max leaving it to the heroes, but there's no point in trying to lighten the mood.]

But I think it's time we find our way out of here. I'm going to follow Ava to the bridge. I assume you're going to do the same, unless you'd rather sit around here some more...