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

[stormpirate]

[the body seamlessly reforms into a whole, and, for a while, that's all that happens. there is no more movement, and no more sound.


until there is a distinct blech, and the former corpse sits up.]

Why does my mouth taste like cat ass...?

[teethoftherisk]

[Head tipped to the side.] How do you know what a cat's ass tastes like?

[stormpirate]

[flatly] An idiot brother who not only refuses to take any form but a cat but also constantly acts like a cat because he's a little shit.

[she takes a moment to do an inventory on all the important parts of her body. arms? set. legs? set. tits? amazing. okay, everything important seems to still be there.]

[teethoftherisk]

He's right. It's good to be a cat.

[But most importantly, it looks like Jenny is back together, which is very useful. Who knows if she'll be less angry, but at least she'll be able to walk on her own instead of having to be carried.

Siffleur turns his attention to the others. They have a few injuries and some new arrivals.

To those who came by other means-] We found the bridge and it lead to another room with buttons, which we pressed. When it did nothing, Jenny took us to this room with the robot, with her body inside.

Jenny, take us to the place where Maulin is. If you can't, take us to a place near her. [He tries to say this casually, even if it's a command. If he were in her place, he would want as few people as possible to know he had no choice in taking orders.]

[configuration_birdwatcher]

// Ody was in the mech.

[ Bastion turns their head toward the shattered dome with the trident stuck in it. Definitely a past-tense type of situation for that crab. ]

[stormpirate]

What the fuck is an Ody.

[a pause. there is a brief flash of uncertainty in her expression.]

... You sure about that? Once you find her... That's it. It's you guys, or her. And she's got the odds stacked against you.

[teethoftherisk]

Homicidal crab the Captain made.

[Siffleur flicks his ears a few times, thinking about it. She's right. The odds are against them.]

I'm not sure what else to do. The longer we avoid it, the more likely she is to find us first. Unless you know where to take us to get our powers back, or some kind of weapon she's vulnerable to, then the only choice left is to attack her now while we have surprise as an advantage. I do not expect she will wait here forever. And I want Friday to live, no matter the cost.

[decohere]

I rather die failing than sit around as some zoo exhibit or get traded away to some creep. And if even a few of us manage to survive, then it's worth it.

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ Bastion nods to Ava. ]

// Unless you know a way to rescue all of her prisoners and leave without confronting her, we'll have to eventually.

[ Bastion, at least, isn't going to recover by waiting. The humans probably won't either without food and water. And back in the cells, their friends and neighbours are trapped and suffering. Some of them were missing, unconscious, or incoherent when Bastion left the cellblock. How much longer can they last? ]

// Can you open a portal to a safe destination outside of the ship?

[ They may as well ask. Although even if the answer is yes, the odds that Malin would try to stop them from shoving the Captain, Sparkles, and Friday into a portal are still high. ]

[stormpirate]

No. [pause] I don't even know if there is anything outside of here.

[a moment of visible concentration, and a plain doors materializes just to the side of the broken robot.]

[teethoftherisk]

Thank you.

[He gives the side of her leg a soft bunt of his head, a half-hearted cat thank you. Then, softly, just to Jenny-] Do anything you can to keep Friday safe. Please.

[Then he pads to the plain doors, rears up to put both paws on them, and pushes them open.]

[sailmods]

[the door opens

and they can see inside the room it leads to, for once. a dimly lit room, with exactly half of a wooden bookshelf leaning against the closest wall. there is a light clacking and scratching noise from within.]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[ Dropping back down to earth after floating along after Flan in a truly disgusting lovesick haze, Pratt is now brandishing one of the plastic bars from the cell doors as if that will do anything other than make a comical BONK sound when swung.

He pauses without getting closer to the bookshelf, plastic tube held at the ready.]

We're all hearing that right?

[sabigoe]

[ Fio finishes up her conversations with the new arrivals, going back into business once Siffleur pushes open the doors. She follows the others to the next room, shuffling closer towards the front, but remaining behind those much bigger than her. She doesn't really have anything to defend herself with after all... ]

Yeah... I hear it. [ She stares in the direction of the noise. ] ...Hello? Is someone there?

[sailmods]

[the room is large, bigger than the one they had been in before. half a lamp barely illuminates the half table it sits on, the plain carpet and wall with a half clock ticking along.

deeper into the room sits Victoria Malin, sitting at half a desk with her back to them. she writes on something with a quill pen - scratch scratch - and, every once in a while, moves the beads of an abacus - clack clack.]

[teethoftherisk]

[The moment Siffleur spots the figure, his ears go flat and his tail puffs up. He quickly stops, tail swishing furiously as a signal to the others behind him to be quiet.

He starts to move into a crouch - the distance would be easy for him to cover and he's quiet, so fucking quiet, that he could hit her from behind easily-

But there are harder hitters than Siffleur here and if they couldn't take her on, then he has to show restraint. He carefully backs up, giving the others a chance to see what's ahead of them, and to hopefully come up with a plan better than simply coming at her with teeth and claws.]

[redlightgreenlight]

[Valdis slowly creeps in behind Siffleur. She wishes they had time to check in on each other more, but Malin must be defeated before she can properly mourn what she’s lost.]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[He lowers his tube a little. Malin has to know they're there - there's no way she's actually that engrossed with her work to not notice that a bunch of people have piled into this room. He assumes that she's waiting for them to make a move or to speak. He glances over at Siffleur, spreading his arms in a should we say something? kind of gesture. Because he's all for the cougar ripping her head off, though he's pretty sure that won't work.

He opts to move closer to see what she's doing, keeping to the shadow along the wall. ]

[not_the_last]

Cassandra, on the other hand, steps back and aside -- trying for a broader angle to see what else, if anything, is in the room. Furniture, objects lying about, boxes or chests of any kind. Any other prisoners, or anything that might hold them; any of their missing belongings, or anything that might be affecting their missing powers.

(She's heard the story of what turned that particular table back at the Village. A big red button may be too much to hope for here; still, she's hoping.)

[decohere]

"Why's everything in half?" Ava whispers to Cassandra, warily. Malin must know they're there, anticipating the first shot, so she's not so inclined to make one.

jk. going into aggro range instead. will edit again if anyone has an issue!

[sabigoe]

[ Fio falls entirely silent upon seeing Malin. In the few moments of silence as everyone contemplates their next move, she grows antsy. She thinks about the time she stayed behind when cracks in reality appeared all around the ship, how she had to stay behind instead of seeking out her shadowy friend... and during the labyrinth...

A deep breath and then...

She slips out from the darkness, doing nothing to conceal the patter of footsteps as she briskly brushes past her companions and towards the half desk. As close as she possibly can. It's very dangerous, but if anything happens to her, she knows she can rely on her friends. ]

Hey, eyepatch lady! [ Calling out and looking about ready to throw her entire tiny form at the woman. ] Where's my friend? Let us all free and give me my friend back!

[teethoftherisk]

[Shit. It's good that children have such strong moral cores but sometimes it's inconvenient. But still - they had to do this eventually.

He's not letting her go alone so soon as Fio makes it clear that she's confronting Malin, Siffleur pads silently behind her and takes up a spot beside her once she stops. His ears stay flat on his head and his tail swishes from side to side, agitated but holding himself in check for Fio's sake.]

[sailmods]

[the office is messy: lots of piles of curios and artifacts, none of which seem very familiar, and a legitimately concerning amount of partially unwrapped chocolate bars. there are (halved) cabinets and (halved) boxes containing similar objects. the aesthetic choice doesn't make them very useful for storage. stuff is just pouring out.

Malin doesn't respond, or even pause in her work. but, from the other side of the desk, a shadowy head pops up to stare at them impassively.]

[configuration_birdwatcher]

// Sparkles?

[ Is it why everything's been cut in half? They're not sure what's going on here. ]

[sabigoe]

[ Fio pays very little mind to the mess. Her full attention is on the shadow the moment it makes its appearance. Suddenly nothing else matters. No thought whether or not this may be a trap. ] Sparkles? ...Hi. Is it really you?

[ Her expression softens and she makes a beeline towards the other side of the desk. ]