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

[redlightgreenlight]

Even if she lacks her empathy now, she can tell Ruby is trying to be cheerful.

"I guess we do." She falls silent, trying not to panic over the fact that she's probably useless without any of her powers. "Do...we actually have anything yet?"

[littlefairytale]

"I'm... honestly not sure. The people I can see and talk to haven't exactly been big on making plans so far. Mostly... yelling a lot."

She'd rather have Darcy or Dimitri or the like nearby, but, well, they didn't exactly get a choice in neighbours.

"People are passing messages as best they can either through other people or through the uh... ants?"

[redlightgreenlight]

The ants? She must be talking about Victor. Malin must be feeling really confident to not put him in an ant farm as a container.

"Well, at least we can kind of communicate with each other."

She hopes Max, Ash and Erin are ok, Siffleur too, and everyone else. That notably includes Clarke, she's not going to let Skulduggery kill others even if he thinks they deserve it.

Though that only works if she can get out.

"Are there any patterns you've noticed?"

[littlefairytale]

"Friday walks by every... um, I'm bad with time but she comes by on what feels like a regular pattern? And going by who I can see from here I think we're in the cabin arrangements."

[redlightgreenlight]

Cabin arrangements would leave her from from her loved ones.

"That's good information to have."

Though it's minimal and she doesn't know how it would help.

"How are you holding up?"

[littlefairytale]

"I-I mean I've been better, but I've also been a lot worse? This... isn't the worst situation we've been stuck in. I don't think. It doesn't seem like anyone's really paying attention to us, for one."

Which is definitely a good thing, if they're going to make any kind of plan to get out of here.

[redlightgreenlight]

"I suppose that is a fair reply."

She's not sure what to do. The bars are too strong for her to break, there's no door or lock.

"I suppose we'll just need to hope that we get more than Ants on the outside of our cages."

[littlefairytale]

"If they didn't think to make a cell that could stop the sentient ants from getting out, I'm sure there's been other oversights. People will figure them out."

Not that she isn't getting tired of having to wait. She shifts her seating position.

[redlightgreenlight]

"Well, I'm baseline human at the moment, so I won't be any help getting us out."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby shrugs lightly, gesturing broadly at herself. "So am I." Beat. "Actually I'm worse than baseline, heh, without my eyepatch. B-But my point is, almost everyone is right now. Special abilities aren't going to be what gets us out of here. If having no abilities makes you no help, then no one is any help. But we all have our brains, right? We just... have to find the best way to put them together."

[redlightgreenlight]

Valdis smiles and shakes her head.

"Yeah, no time to mope. We can figure it out if we work together. After all, not everyone on the ship is baseline human. Victor is evidence of that."

Maximillian too. There's also Bastion. None of them even have a human form.

"Someone is going to have an idea."

[littlefairytale]

Hey that actually worked better than she thought it would. "Exactly! And once things start falling, it'll be like, uh— dominoes." She mimes helpfully. "Falling. Like dominoes."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Hell hath no fury like an angry mob of prisoners with a singular goal."

[littlefairytale]

"That's what I've always said. Or— okay, not exactly that, especially not the angry mob of prisoners part, but—" Ruby breathes in, then exhales and starts over. "At home. What I really wanted to do was unite everyone against the enemy they didn't even know they had. We'd all been so... divided. All the efforts to save our world from the witch that wants to destroy it had been made in the shadows, so when she started sending out her agents to act more overtly it was so easy to turn us against each other. Make people think the other kingdoms were to blame.

"Secrecy doesn't work. Working alone or only in small groups doesn't work. We have to be united in this. Someway, somehow. Or we're just treading in the same footsteps of everyone before us that failed."

[redlightgreenlight]

"Well, we've gotten further than anyone else has in the past. This could end badly, or it could end with us free, but...we might have a way out now. If we work together."

[littlefairytale]

"I wish that 'if' felt smaller than it does. Even I kind of want to punch Clarke, right now... a-and I can work with someone I kind of want to punch, but other people..."

She's trying to hold onto hope it'll work out. But it certainly doesn't feel like a sure thing.

[redlightgreenlight]

"I would hope people recognize that they can't punch Clarke if they are in separate cells."

If not then they are stupid.

"They have to escape first."

[littlefairytale]

Ruby shrugs. "Some people aren't that smart."

Things Ruby has learned on the boat: anger, and a touch of judgement.

[redlightgreenlight]

"No, they aren't."