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

Maximilien

[makesomedeals]

Anyone who can actually see Maximilien will be treated to him standing at the front of the cell with his forehead against the bars, staring down at the ground. The buttons of his shirt are partially undone and there's just the barest glimmer of something red and glowing beneath his jaunty striped outfit. Once you know it's there, it's a little more visible beneath his shirt as a kite shaped glowing red gem.

He'll pass along that the Captain is being held where the bridge used to be.

And then he'll say that the collective will of the people have a wish to make. Hopefully Ava and Skulduggery realize what he means.

[decohere]

Skulduggery and those near can hear the sharp inhale of wordless protest at the suggestion as it makes its way down. She does realize what he means. And she's still afraid it's going to end up with him hurt.

She looks between 6 and Skulduggery helplessly.

[be_seeing_you]

Number 6 reaches for her hand. The grim set of his lips seems to imply he also understands the whole message.

"We'd better make it a good one," Number 6 answers softly.

[decohere]

"We don't know how it works, what if it hurts him? That crystal is what's powering him..." she worries quietly.

But if Maximilien is putting forth the suggestion, he must know. Know what he's potentially sacrificing. On behalf of everyone else, no less. Ava wipes a bit at her eyes.

[be_seeing_you]

"Ava," he answers solemnly. "I'm sure he has already considered that."

It says so much that one of the most selfish beings aboard this ship would be willing to make such a sacrifice. It says so much about how the people on this voyage have changed and grown. Maximilien has, apparently, grown far beyond Number 6's estimations, and he would be doing the omnic an injustice for not acknowledging that.

"We'll search for other ways. I don't want to see him hurt any more than you. But we must trust him that he knows what he is doing. It is an honorable thing. I dare say James Bond might not even have such courage."

[decohere]

She laughs softly at the end of his comment, still wiping at her eyes. Each swipe of her sleeve leaves them damp all over again. Everything is sinking in, how close she is to losing everyone she loves.

"I told you he's better than anyone else estimates." Because Maximilien has always been there for her, without question, without asking anything in return.

"If it were anyone else. Maybe I wouldn't even... second guess. The offer," and so she recognizes that she's entirely selfish. But she likes Maximilien far more than most on the ship, that the possibility of losing him to save the rest feels a rather unfair bargain.

So she hopes there's other ways. Hopes people don't just rush into wishing his life away to save theirs.

[be_seeing_you]

"You did," he says, smiling tragically for her. "You were right from the start." Though, it's been true for a while now that Number 6 has had a grudging respect for Maximilien.

"Ava, he is your friend." His tone of voice seems to say that it's obvious she'd feel this way. It's the way anyone in her place would feel. "We won't give him up without a fight."

[decohere]

She's always been particularly protective and defensive over Maximilien, the way she's grown over the Captain as well. Their first real conflict. Because she knows what it's like to spend your existence treated as a resource for others to use at the expense of your own wellbeing and freedom, and the nasty resentment towards humanity that grows because of it.

She knows it doesn't make it any better for anyone that ends up a victim of the resulting backlash.

But she's glad that Peter has trusted her faith, that there is a better way to deal with them than further punishment and isolation. Because she only escaped her own destructive patterns due to somebody reaching out to save her.

Maybe others might think that Maximilien is obligated to sacrifice himself for the wish of everyone else in order to prove he's become a better person than when he stepped on the ship, or at least overlook the risk because of the calculated greater good... But it's not what Ava wants for him, wants him to have the opportunity to live free like the rest.

"Wouldn't be any good of a friend if I didn't fight for him too."

[light_mischief]

"It's only a last resort," Skulduggery says. "Hopefully it won't come to that. But if it does, Peter's right. It needs to be something simple but powerful. Something we all want."

There aren't many options, in that case. The most obvious one feels too big to not receive the monkey paw treatment.

"And we don't know what might happen. Anything can happen." Something he's learned from his time with the Captain.

[decohere]

Ava bites sharply into her bottom lip to prevent herself from outright protesting. "Last resort," Ava agrees reluctantly, so she doesn't want to go rushing into using Maximilien's crystal to break them free when it seems a few others have been managing to get themselves out of the cells...

"Simple, but it has to be specific, right? Jenny taught me that. When I wished for a doll in exchange for a happy memory, and she gave me a white one instead of a black one when I figured it was implied." Which then led to the awkward situation with trying to give the leftover doll to Claudia... but oh well.

[light_mischief]

"If it were a smaller collective, or a more unified one, we might be able to come up with something more wordy, but yes. Something everyone can agree on. Freedom seems to be the obvious choice, although we should wait until we've figured out how to escape from this prison before we ask. Don't want it to be mistaken."

[decohere]

"Too bad we don't have William Wallace." He was pretty clear on the whole freedom thing.

[teethoftherisk]

Siffleur passes this information up and down to all the cells, using Maximilien's exact words.

And then, at the end, he adds a thought of his own: they should wish for freedom for everyone. Everyone. No exceptions.

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, leaning against the bars, draws a breath as Siffleur passes on the message.

It's what she thought they had a chance to do in the labyrinth, or just after it. Maybe this time, maybe --

"Agreed," she says aloud, and tries to meet Crichton's gaze across the corridor -- but he isn't who she addresses next. "Master Siffleur, can we tally who's in agreement? And if there are any dissenting opinions, or other suggestions?"

[ss_buttcrack]

Crichton, from across the way, looks like he's sucking on a lemon right now. He'd very much like to shoot this messenger but... later. If they live through this.

Cassandra's look is enough to get him back on track. "Agreed here, too." And then he promptly shuts up again so they can hear Siffleur's answer.

[teethoftherisk]

"I will go up and down." He promises Cass (and to a lesser extent, Crichton).

He brings them Skulduggery's caution - that the wish should be a last resort. And he brings them Ava's worried that freedom may not be enough if they have nowhere to be free.

[prince_of_beasts]

Dimitri suggests they wish to fight, or to defend themselves, or for a fair fight -- the phrasing could be workshopped, but the point is that they get out of this situation under their own power, and be able to resist it happening again.

[decohere]

"But if we get out of here.. how long can we stay free? We have nowhere to go. There's likely others out there just like Malin, waiting to take us hostage again. We need somewhere to be free, or else we're always going to be in danger."

[teethoftherisk]

"Yes, there will always be people like Malin, and like the people who kept you caged, and the men who tried to shoot me, and all the danger that always existed in our lives before here." He speaks softly, knowing that Ava's fears are right and true and not wanting her to think for a second he doesn't know how serious they are. "But before we can find a place to be free, we must be free to leave this place, the Captain and Friday and every one of us."

[decohere]

"With Friday on our side, with Sparkles sneaking us a message that the bridge is open... I believe we can do it, we can free ourselves from Malin," Ava says confidently. Because maybe she can't ever do much on her own, but together she knows they have enough strengths between them to overthrow the bitch with the small opportunities that they've been given. She doesn't want to waste a wish, possibly Maximilien's life, on something they can accomplish on their own.

"But this realm is on the brink of collapse, we have to have a safe haven. That's the only reason the Captain hasn't let us all go, because we have nowhere that won't immediately lead to us being found and captured."

[blindwatchersees]

He pauses at Siffleur's assertion.

"It's too simple. Sheogorath's unbrother, Clavicus Vile, is the wishmaster in their world. I know him well. Anyone that would ask him for "freedom" would probably be met with freedom from their mortal coil. I can only assume the power behind this wish is similarly fickle. Such tends to be the nature of wishes."

[makesomedeals]

Freedom is simple and vague enough. But the Erda also mentioned there might not be anywhere to go once escaped from here. Maybe a new safe haven? Freedom in a new realm?

He's open to suggestions.

[light_mischief]

Skulduggery is quick to add to the information about the collective wish, namely that it's an absolute last resort. ...And that it should be simple, direct, and one thing they all want.

[makesomedeals]

"The thing about last resorts is if you leave them for last, they end up not being as effective."

Hopefully someone passes along Maximilien's despondent shrug.

[light_mischief]

The message is considered, and an amendment is issued: "Point taken. The penultimate resort, then."