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]

[At first, he thinks it's his mind looking for something that isn't really there. He's sure the others have been shouting at her, trying to get a response. It hurts to see her, but they talked about this - they both knew what would happen the moment someone else got their hand on her leash.

But as it happens again and again, he becomes sure of it. She speeds up when she passes by him. Siffleur stops his own pacing the next time she comes back, sitting close to the bars.

He's not good at this thing. But he's going to try. He has to try. If he could do it for Nepeta and Nimona, he can do it for her too.]

There's a waterfall at the river I'm named for. I want you to go there and live free. Not matter how much time it takes, no matter what happens to us, I want you to live wild and under no obligation to another.

[palfriday]

[her step

falters.]

... Please, stop...

[teethoftherisk]

I'm sorry. [Not for this - it's unfair, but it's important. He knows she understands that, even if it hurts.] I'm a slow learner. I saw a Mother and I looked no deeper for a very long time. But you never chose that. It was forced on you, like with most things.

I should have realized sooner that you needed someone to care for you. I'm not good at being a Mother, but I hope one day someone else sees you too. I hope they do what I couldn't. I hope you escape and you find the kind of happiness you want.

[palfriday]

[her walk slows to a stagger.]

I can't, please...

[teethoftherisk]

I know. I'm sorry. But you're a person and you deserve more than this. If it exists, get your medallion back. Keep it safe. Wait for weakness of any kind, no matter how long it takes. I wish I could have saved you, but I didn't. Now you need to save yourself.

I love you Friday. You deserve a choice.

[palfriday]

[a choked noise, and she rushes off.

after that, she makes no further rounds. but, siffleur may notice that the bars on his cell now have very slightly more give compared to the others. like a certain amount of force could sufficiently bend them...]

[teethoftherisk]

[When she leaves, he lays down on the concrete floor and waits to see if she comes back.

But she doesn't. There are no more patrols after that one. He starts pacing again, and then after a while of that, he tries the bars of his cell, not expecting much.

There's give, just a little, just enough for him to notice. Siffleur feels his heart leap, and he quickly gets to testing all the bars, seeing if there's any difference. They all seem to have that slight give, and after some more pacing, he starts with a bar a body-length away from the wall. He carefully gets himself position, sliding his back paw between the bars and putting his front paws against the wall. It's an awkward position with only one leg to keep himself from falling over, but that's fine.

He tenses the leg against the bar up, coiling his muscles like he does when he's preparing for a jump. Then he slams all of his weight and energy into that bar, using the feet on the wall to help direct the energy back. The foot on the floor swivels. The metal bites into his skin - but he also feels it start to bend, just a little.

Siffleur takes a breath and repeats it. And repeats it. And repeats it. Again and again, he puts his full force into the bar, bending it until it pushes into it's neighbour.

Only then does he stop, moving to the next bar and repeating. Slowly but surely and with great effort, he makes himself a hole.

After a while, he has to swap legs before he tears anything, working on the bars in the other direction to increase the size of the hole. It's harder the other way - the wall's just out of range, he can't brace himself on it. But he pushes all the same and though it's slower, he manages to get a few of those bars bent, until...

He has a hole a little bigger than his head. Siffleur tests it with his whiskers. If he had actually gained weight on the ship, he might not be able to fit through here. But before the ship, he had been going through a rough patch, and had been especially skinny. Still, he can't risk anything going poorly here. So he struggles out of the prison uniform he's been put in, and he grooms himself down as flat at he can.

Across the way, Maximilien gets a show as Siffleur starts carefully getting out of the hole in the bars. Even without the ability to transform, the experience is one part body horror as his shoulders slide and twist to follow his head and right arm through, and one half cat meme Instagram compilation as he scrambles for purchase inside and outside of the cell.

It's not his most graceful exit as his pelvis makes it through and he's dumped upside down on the ground on his back. He quickly scrambles to his feet and gives his coat a few licks before looking around.

Yes.

YES.

The cougar is out. ]