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

[mistertwister]

[ Okie, still dangling upside down from one of the robot's hands, catches Jenny's head before it hits the floor, but not before it hits him in the chin. ]

I got her, I- fuckin' ow- Got her!

[goodweather]

(A hand goes to Phil’s face in something like frustration. Yeah, of course. Of course it’s fucking invisible vents—what is even the point anymore, Christ he’s not sure whether one is better than the other, he can’t remember or guess which way Fever or Darcy’s gone, he just knows there was noise.

“A trick?” he mutters, trying to pull his head together. “Okay… okay, do you wanna try it?”)

[not_the_last]

"We would need ..."

Helena's cane, which isn't a cane but the black shapeshifting creature that Phil calls Symby. Maybe she can't use that, but --

Cassandra stoops, and picks up a fallen bar, light and hollow as a reed but possibly long enough. "Let's try this." And she starts tapping at the walls, as high as she can reach with the bar.

To no avail, as it turns out. She sighs, lowers the bar. "Then it's the doors."

[skaikru]

( tbh personifying the vents seems oddly satisfying, they have personally offended both of these girls by swallowing up their most important person and a cat, subsequently offering them no recourse with which to follow him. fuck these vents.

fuck malin. fuck that string. fuck the lack of magic, fuck those plastic bar facades. fuck this whole entire place (in cruise liner form and it's prison ship evolution) and the absence of easy answers about it. )

Jade might have some ideas. ( he is older, he is wiser. she trusts him to have similar thoughts in mind, even if she couldn't have trusted him with the intentions that'd lead them here not that long ago. just because clarke can't think of an out in their current situation doesn't mean colonel curtiss couldn't; they are at war with their cages and the trader behind them, and both she and he had cut their war teeth at similar ages. jade had just had the opportunity to grow up more, learn more, temper himself into a sharp sword instead of a blunt object. he'd know. )

Let's find him.

[redlightgreenlight]

[Valdis takes a breath, feeling like this might be the end, but if it is, at least they tried.]

Well, once more into the breach dear friends.

[She slips past Fever and jumps off the platform.]

[prince_of_beasts]

[ Alright, that's enough lying down. Dimitri coughs -- his sense of taste has gone along with everything else, but he can smell the blood that hits the back of his hard palate. His head still rings from the collision with the wall, the staticky blur of a concussion joining everything else he's deferring for later, but he's not too dizzy to lever himself off the floor. Even if he does have to brace himself on the wall. ]

Go -- [ His voice rasps, then cracks. He breaks into coughing again before he manages to raise his voice. ] G-go for the joints!

[goodweather]

(There’s relief there, that he won’t have to choose. That the way forward is clear.

“Alright,” he says, and follows Cassandra’s lead in grabbing a bar himself just in case. He steps behind them; guard the rear, keep Helena between them.

Phil jerks his head in the direction of the nearest door, which he immediately regrets, and the pole finds use as a cane as he staggers. Nevertheless: “Go. I’ll be behind you.”)

[teethoftherisk]

[Siffleur darts for Jenny's head, grabbing it as carefully as he can and taking her away from the machinery before she gets squished - either by the robot, or accidentally by Bastion while trying to fight the robot.

He quickly deposits here on the other side of the room, only a minor nick from one tooth on her forehead. Siffleur presses his wet nose against her cheek, and though it's unlikely, he tries a command anyway.]

Jenny wake up and open a door.

[stormpirate]

[agonal breathing. or maybe snoring. hard to tell.]

[sailmods]

[the robot continues its wild flailing, striking out almost blind at whatever seems closest, taking one massive step towards the newcomers -

until Valdis appears, and collides, feet-first, with the machine. then, it seems to stop moving entirely.]

[teethoftherisk]

[His tail thrashes a few times, glancing back briefly as he sees Valdis come in and take out the robot, then turning back to Jenny's heavy breathing. It's a bad sound. It might just be snoring. But if it's not...

Siffleur huffs, paws her face to the side, and attempts CPR.

It's hard to do it without hands but he's going to do his best to get her enough air - or to have his cat breath wake her up.]

[prince_of_beasts]

Or that.

That works too.

[sailmods]

[the darkness swallows her up.]

[decohere]

[laying splayed on the ground in a daze from being shaken and flung about, staring upside down...] Oh... an angel...

[abhorrently]

[without a sound, without a sign of Valdis, she's less sure of things. looking over at Natsuno, Fever bites her lip, and then carefully maneuvers on the platform. feeling as far out into the dark as she can around, trying to see if there's any hidden path or any other way forward that's not flinging themselves into the abyss to see where they end up.

if not, she's inching back towards the doorway.]

[sailmods]

[there is nothing to be seen.]

[abhorrently]

[backing up, back into the door, and closing it so they're safely in the room.

and then reopening the door. look, it changed when it closed and reopened before, it's worth one try.]

[sabigoe]

[ Just staying out of the way of the robot! Until it finally stops flailing. Fio does pause for a moment to acknowledge some of the new arrivals. ]

...Clarke? And Miss Valdis too?

[ Before she can start asking how the others managed to get free, she scampers over to Ava, shifting the toy spaceship underneath one arm while she offers a free hand to help her back up... ]

Ava, c'mon... I don't think we're done here yet.

[decohere]

[tries pushing herself into a sitting position, but the room is spinning a bit and there's at least three Fio's staring at her. Ava grins.]

Did we win?

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ Bastion falls back against the mech's leg with another loud clattering metal-on-metal noise, doing what they can (which isn't a lot in their current position) to keep their limbs clear of the falling head's trajectory as Siffleur intercepts it. They unhook their gun arm from the spot they latched onto so they can get the hell away from it before it falls over. ]

// Hello.

[ Not sure what else to say to Valdis. And Clarke, whose presence they peripherally registered while they were being shaken around. They attempt a wave, although their fourth and fifth fingers droop unresponsively through the gesture. ]

[sabigoe]

[ She crouches next to Ava, but she remains alert to their surroundings, in case they need to move out of the way from danger. ]

...I don't know. We haven't won yet, I think. [ She tells Ava. ] But we're gonna win. [ Even if she's kind of at a loss what to do right now besides cheering at everyone. ]

[redlightgreenlight]

[The landing could have been softer, but luckily she's still sturdy enough to not break anything when she strikes the robot. The collision isn't soft, and she's going to have bruises as she hits the ground rolling, but at least she didn't splat.

And she's surrounded by people.]

Oof. What's happening here?

[She winces and pops her should back into it's socket.]

[sailmods]

[after a while, the movement stops, and there is nothing but silence.

until there is, suddenly, two massive fingers poking blindly around in the pocket, as if attempting to feel for something.]

[inhairently]

( steve uses all his weight to try to shift the bloodied lifesaver into the path of those fingers, just in case that's what they're looking for. )

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Pointedly ignoring Sharky as if he no longer exists. Go neck with Giles or something. Instead he gives a sad little frown as her hair seems to just be ... hair. Poor hair.]

We're gonna get it back. Somehow. Probably need the Captain for that... But if you curl up on your back like a ladybug trapped in a windowsill I'll carry you out of here. I probably can't hurl you very far but I'll give it a go?

[He's such a helper.]

Okay but first we gotta get powers back yeah? I don't even know how they turned that shit off... so we gotta find the Captain right? Or that twat who put us in here. Either of them. Soooooo [Looking up and down the hall.] left or right?