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

[littlefairytale]

Ruby's mouth presses into a line and she nods. Yeah. Lucky isn't a thing they get to be today. Whatever success they might have is going to have to be earned in spite of the odds.

And the fact is Ruby knows what tactical call she'd be making, right now, with an unknown time limit. Get out as many valuable people as possible in as few moves as possible. Alone in her cell, unarmed and down half her vision, she won't make that cut.

"Then— give 'em hell for me too." One more thing picked up from the Earthers she's surrounded by. "And if you end up facing Malin— she might have that fog in her eye but she still wears a patch. Maybe she can still see through it somehow but— but maybe not. You've seen how my blind side works. Use that."

Maybe she's stating something obvious, but she has to try and offer something.

[saltwaterlungs]

It's a valuable reminder. Something to watch for, in the fight.

Darcy adds-

"I'm going to need you to do your leader thing down here if we can't get you all out before we switch our powers back on. The last thing we want is a stampede, or worse, people picking fights with each other and not her. You can do that, yeah?"

[littlefairytale]

Ruby nods once, firm and certain. "Yeah, yeah I can do that. I'll do what I can."

They all know some of the people down here are wildcards, people that may not listen to reason, but that doesn't mean Ruby won't do her damndest anyway. It wouldn't be the first time she had to step up to try and tame a rabble in the middle of a crisis.

(This is familiar, in a way. More distantly than she used to, she remembers bunching up with Jaune to lay out the plan, to make sure they knew their parts to play. The echo comes with a sense of reassurance.)

"Try not to die for real."

[saltwaterlungs]

"Eh. I trust my track record of being basically unkillable. 'm like a cockroach."

Words far braver than Darcy feels right now.

[littlefairytale]

Ruby doesn't try all that hard to keep the etchings of fearful concern off her face. If she could reach through the bars she'd already be squeezing Darcy's hand, but as it is she can only slide her fingertips through as far as she can.

"It only takes once. Just— don't take unnecessary risks. I-I know how that sounds coming from me, but—"

—if one more loved one dies while she's stuck on the sidelines, unable to do anything to help them but hope... if one more loved one dies while Ruby has to keep on living, has to sacrifice more of the cavity around her heart to grief, has to add one more marker to the walking memorial she's made herself... if one more loved one dies—

She thinks something inside of her is going to break beyond repair.

But to say a word of that feels selfish, and so swallows it all, and just looks at Darcy. There's still a light behind her remaining eye, even with its power locked away.

"—takes one to know one, I-I guess."

[saltwaterlungs]

... Right.

A pair of walking graveyards, the both of them. Every dead loved one buried in them, flesh and dirt, bone and bone. Ruby doesn't need to say a word of any of it for the meaning to be conveyed, because if their positions were reversed Darcy would be feeling the same.

She touches her fingertips to Ruby's.

"I'll be careful. 'm no good to anyone dead. See you soon, yeah?"

[littlefairytale]

The touch and the sense of understanding that comes with it doesn't let Ruby relax, but it does let her breathe.

"Y-Yeah. Soon. Soon."

Gods, it better be soon.