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

[fonomena]

[Catching sight of Skulduggery emerging into the hall as he's moving down it is a rather conflicted mixture at this precise moment, admittedly. There's of course a sense of reassurance, in majority, to spot a face he'd consider a friend's present and hale enough to promptly move to action in this new bout of freedom...but there is also the weight of recent events tempering it just slightly too, all the same. Considering...the crux of the cause behind those recent events, and the affiliations therein. Skulduggery would not necessarily be at fault for promptly questioning Jade's stance on that debacle at the nearest opportunity, after all. But--

--the fact that he does not, at this particular moment, is both unsurprising and appreciated. Not exactly as if either of them are strangers to working under pressure in a mutual enemy's territory, after all. There's a certain level of professionalism that goes into firmly ignoring Rita and Clarke's location further down the hall, and the baggage that follows them there; the least Jade can do is reciprocate it.

Especially, indeed, since the situation is more fraught than not. Jade knows exactly where Skulduggery is likely to beeline, from here, and the chances of return therein. They didn't have a proper goodbye at all last time, no...but perhaps at least now...]

These won't be much good for even hitting anyone upside the head, admittedly. Though any little article of leverage can go a long way in other matters, perhaps...or it can at least be a little souvenir for the road. [The good humor is even and easy, as if they aren't rendezvousing in a crowded prison hall in terrible prison clothes before setting out to a truly collectively nebulous fate. ...It's an easier tone to maintain, despite a certain dryness in Jade's inflection.] Oh, I figured if the fates decreed I must be unceremoniously yanked back into this ship-based reality, I may as well try to see it through if I can. ...Things have taken a sub-optimal route so far. But the others seem to be making some sort of progress, which may bode well for the rest of us.

I suppose you've already got a plan in mind, for your own steps to take from here?

[light_mischief]

[There are no opposing sides anymore; in some ways, Clarke did them all a favor by turning the tide so firmly against them that unification was the only possible outcome. It makes it easy enough to write off any opinions people had before Malin arrived.]

I specifically told Fever to push buttons, so I suppose our treatment could be blamed on me. Unless it was Ava's team who managed this... in that case, that's just par for the course with her. [Affectionately, because he knows Ava would definitely flip some switches "just to see what they do".]

I've tried to find the hidden vents the cat went through, to no avail. So, yes. I've already got a plan. [He ticks off his fingers as he says:] Find the bridge, find the Captain, save the day. [Shrug.] I like to keep things simple in the face of certain annihilation.