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

[abhorrently]

Naturally. We wouldn't leave her behind.

[anyone else means anyone else.]

[sailmods]

She will be harder. The English bitch keeps her.

[abhorrently]

[that just makes her smile. harder isn't a deterrent.]

If that's the woman with the eyepatch, I've already resolved to murder her most foul. To break her chains will be a delight.

[sailmods]

[a pause. the cat looks at her with strangely human eyes.]

I have my lightning. The bars can melt... Three times, I can do it. Before my brothers notice. They are listening.

[abhorrently]

[three chances. more souls that can get out - but souls that will have to take the burden of freeing these unknowns in addition to helping wrest back control. she nods, meeting the cat's gaze. lightning. she has nothing but respect for such a being.]

Understood. Sorry to make you wait any longer than you have to, but I need five minutes to make a decision.

[and to probably shout around at other people in the cells. it's difficult to hold out hope to them a second time - she'd seen the group that had fortunately already managed to get out, and they're passing back information about the little magical boy - but it's necessary to consider the options.

plus, if someone else wants to talk to the cat, then they'll be free to while this is coordinated.]

[maximumcake]

Can you free Valdis?

[Max hasn't put any thought behind this, he just wants Valdis to be okay with his entire heart. He's absolutely biased.]

[abhorrently]

[she meets his eyes, making herself ask the question she doesn't want to.]

I owe her for the Village. But is she in a shape to fight?

[it has to be efficiency. people that can help without a single hesitation. not a pretty choice to have to make.]

[maximumcake]

[He takes a sharp breath in, closes his eyes, and shakes his head.]

I... don't know. She might have gotten hurt when they... pulled the snakes out of her.

[He feels like he's slicing off a piece of his own heart just for saying that.]

I don't know.

[abhorrently]

[she exhales slowly, the expression on her face clearly torn.]

Much as I want to get her out - get all of us out - going forth is going into uncertainty. If she's hurt, if she can't like this...I won't ask her to walk into her likely death.

[she can't ask that of anyone. whoever goes needs to put themselves on the line immediately and unquestionably, and the most that's reasonable to go for is death possible. if Valdis is well, she's inclined, but if not? the goddess can be mad at her later.]

[maximumcake]

I know. I know.

[Valdis would do that, for him, if she thought it would save him. She'd much rather die fighting than linger here in these cages waiting for worse. He knows that. He loves her too much to hold her back.]

But she's one of the oldest of us here. She's smart. She knows how to fight, but she knows how to negotiate, too. I still think you need her. You're going too, right?

[abhorrently]

Unless someone makes me an offer I can't refuse. I know, might be selfish of me when there's some of these cages that have two people in them, but I can hold my own at least three times over.

[it's a possibility. but not one she wants to really entertain. a last ditch scenario.]

[maximumcake]

I don't think it's selfish. I've seen you fight. You'd be one of the ones I'd choose. So... I guess that just leaves one more?

[He doesn't put himself forward because he's already well aware he isn't a fighter.]

I... don't know, maybe Edgar? He's good at survival.

[not here]

[yournewsidekick]

[Nimona's seated against one of the walls, knees to her chest, face buried in her arms. She hasn't been paying much attention to Max's side of the conversation.

But when she catches Edgar's name, her head rises, sharply.]

[abhorrently]

I know him a little. If it comes to it, could he kill?

[could he cross that line without hesitating? could he do what was needed, if there was no time to look for another way?]

[freedomsuitsme]

He raises an eyebrow and takes notice of the conversation, piping in.

"I can't give any real rationale for it, but in my experience, Higgsbury has proven his ability to best his captors while starting with no information about his circumstances and nothing on his person. That wretched scientist is an unstoppably petty force, and I've seen him budge immovable objects plenty of times before."

[abhorrently]

[and with a thinking it over that totally happened over less than five IC minutes:]

Okay. Please get me out first.

[get the team, then ask where his brothers are - his sister, with Malin, so it'd be better to aim for them to start with. especially since the others were headed off to find her anyway.]

[sailmods]

[for a moment, nothing seems to happen, except for a little determined glint in his eyes. then, the tang of ozone, and the hair of everyone in the general vicinity starts to frizz with static. Guatauva seems to get it worst of all, becoming little more than a puff of orange fur, its tail sticking straight up.

lightning strikes a bar.

he probably should've warned everyone about the blinding light. whoops.]

[abhorrently]

[YES YES YES YES YES YES

the lightning might be blinding but she's used to it from casting, which means that the very second she can squirm her way through the now melted bars, she is, and picking up her feet. freedom. it tastes as sweet as it did every other time.]

Next, Valdis.

[Valdis, Valdis...there she is. Fever knocks on the bars, as if her presence wasn't enough to gain notice.]

Hope you're ready to get out now.

[redlightgreenlight]

[Valdis looks up to see the cat and Fever. A smile creeps across her face.]

I'm ready for another team up with you.

[abhorrently]

Figured I owe you from that Village. Plus, Max wants you out.

[a smile exchanged for a smile. go kiss the man about it later, when they win.]

[redlightgreenlight]

[Of course Max would vouch for her. Valdis stands up.]

Even without powers, I'm pretty sure we can figure this out.

[She glances at the cat.]

Who is your friend?

[abhorrently]

...I actually don't know.

[this is said right before Guatauva lets off another lightning burst to melt Valdis's cell. name trading hadn't been as important as getting out, though the cat had her name.

okay. one more. one more person she can liberate and take with her. she knows who she wants to have at her side, and turning on her heel, she's striding down the hallway in search of him.

that is, of course, unless someone decides he's going to get her attention.]

[inhairently]

( steve doesn't know what's going on. he'd barely paid attention to the talking cat when it passed by — not like it could do much to help them, right? nothing it told natsuno really seemed to imply that, anyway. as far as he's concerned, they've been stuck, they're still stuck, and they shall remain stuck.

but when he sees the person he only knows as the very capable woman who'd taken care of his brainwashing issues in the village, he's at the front of the cell in a flash. she's free. what the hell. )

Hey! Hey wait! What are you doing? How'd you get out?

[abhorrently]

[that's enough to get her to stop in her tracks, and she looks over at him, hair fluffed by the twice-over static.]

The cat and I struck a bargain. We free his siblings, and he's doing what he can to get a few more of us out so we can do so.

[she knows this boy. has avoided him, mostly, because of what happened in the Village. people get weird after you murder them, and that's not something she's wanted to actually face.]

[inhairently]

The cat...

( he presses his face a little closer to the bars, as if he might catch another glimpse of the animal. maybe he can ask it for a favor, too — but that's not really how this works, is it? they have limited power, limited time. if the cat's helping her, this is his only chance.

it's not intentional but when he looks back at the woman, his eyes are wide and pleading (and maybe, just maybe, the tiniest bit pathetic). )

Can it— can you ask it to let us out?