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

[myagic]

[How much things have changed over the past two years--seeing Clarke in front of her would've once garnered a very different reaction, but here and now, she's nothing but relieved to feel the solid warmth of the other girl's hands in hers, clamminess that she's going to ignore and all. Not being able to talk for the past--whoever knows how long sucked. All she'd been able to do was think about how she should've known the letter was bad news, should've insisted Clarke not go through with it, that they just burn the letter and the string with it-

And finally there's something to do besides stew in doubts and regrets, even if that something is mostly fretting about Natsuno.]

I guess so--I didn't know her brother was a kitty-cat. [At Clarke's suggestion, though, she does look up at the ceiling where it joins the wall. No vents to be seen, but that is the way they went, isn't it?] It's--it's worth a shot. That sounded like bad news earlier...

[skaikru]

...yeah.

( that terrible, strangled cat scream that'd reverberated against metal... that'd been hard to hear, even while not being a cat enthusiast. )

Yeah. He never told me where they led, either. ( and thus she's been thinking of the absolute worst case scenarios since the vent team had set off, but can't get caught in that downward spiral right now. seconds spent lingering and seconds wasted, and clarke takes a deep breath through her teeth as her nose throbs painfully. )

Come on, let's look. Then, let's find Jade.

( or they can look while they find jade, that's multitasking at its finest. clarke doesn't let go of rita's hand, though. even as she peels away from their initial meet point and begins to run her hands all over the walls and slide her feet across the floor and stare at the ceiling — like maybe the vent entrances are just hidden and they needed to touch the mirage so it'd dissipate. )

[myagic]

That idiot kitty...

[She'd been worried ever since the group set off on this vent journey, but downright agitated ever since the scream. Not knowing, and not being able to do anything--

Well, now the latter is different, right?]

Yeah. That idiot better be fine, too. [Still just a little too rattled to make any quips (yet) about Jade fracturing some bones, she doesn't think twice about their still-joined hands as Clarke inspects the seams and Rita glances around, quietly eyeing Skulduggery doing the same. But nobody seems to be coming up with anything-]

What the hell kind of vents was he even talking about? [Natsuno and Fever are surely too smart to follow an obvious trap, so there must be something, but--if anything happens to them, she'll put aside her preference for cats and strangle that creature!]

[skaikru]

( between the lack of her fingers catching on any significant opening in the walls and the smooth expanse of ceiling above them, it honestly doesn't take clarke long to give up on the vent idea. it'd been the ideal, following after natsuno and the others; to check and make sure he's okay, if not reunite and just move to secure their own freedom. her mood had already reached rock bottom, and while the constant warm reminder of rita nearby helped a little, there'd not much further clarke can dig herself emotionally in regards to coming up short on that particular escape route. )

Probably magic vents or something.

( and isn't that just a perfectly frustrating bookend to her time spent on this cruise surrounded by magic but never being able to fully comprehend or practice it. even with everyone else brought down to her level, it brings — no joy, only the jaw aching clench of teeth.

we should move on, clarke thinks objectively. but stubborn sentiment means all she does is yank rita gently down the halls towards the far cabins/cages while still resolutely keeping a hand on the wall and eye on the sky. )

[myagic]

So fake vents.

[Rita grumbles, a scowl on her face, because this sort of nonsensical, illogical magic has always driven her up the wall. How dare they even call it magic in the first place. Before she can say anything further on that note, though, Clarke's tugging her further along and Rita obliges for once.

They can't give up without making sure, after all. Not when people they care about are in there.]

They better be okay... Dammit...if they're not...

[On the other hand: continuing to not find these mysterious vents and therefore having no way of directly following--that's really not helping the fretting front...]

[skaikru]

They will be, ( clarke says with a false projection of at least mild confidence. but seriously, if they're not, what's left? this may prove to be her second time being forced to confront the idea of losing her best friend for good, and we all know what happened last time.

no, it doesn't matter if they can't find the vents. they'll find some sort of hatch, or door, or window, or make their own exit. there's no other choice, that is what needs to happen, and then they can spend the rest of the miserably short or horrifically long lives tracking down their vampire. they can't leave him behind, he's so sick of being left behind. )

[myagic]

I know, I'm just-

[Just what? Just not as confident as she'd like to be, though she is trying--trying to pit will against realistic odds, trying not to think about the latter--but as no vent presents itself, it's getting harder. She's not usually bemoaned a lack of her powers when it's happened, but-]

Dammit! If only I had my magic--I could just bust this stupid wall right open and there's no way those sneaky vents could hide from us!

[It's fine we're just personifying vents now...]

[skaikru]

( tbh personifying the vents seems oddly satisfying, they have personally offended both of these girls by swallowing up their most important person and a cat, subsequently offering them no recourse with which to follow him. fuck these vents.

fuck malin. fuck that string. fuck the lack of magic, fuck those plastic bar facades. fuck this whole entire place (in cruise liner form and it's prison ship evolution) and the absence of easy answers about it. )

Jade might have some ideas. ( he is older, he is wiser. she trusts him to have similar thoughts in mind, even if she couldn't have trusted him with the intentions that'd lead them here not that long ago. just because clarke can't think of an out in their current situation doesn't mean colonel curtiss couldn't; they are at war with their cages and the trader behind them, and both she and he had cut their war teeth at similar ages. jade had just had the opportunity to grow up more, learn more, temper himself into a sharp sword instead of a blunt object. he'd know. )

Let's find him.