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

tw: eye gore, honestly from now until forever

[sailmods]

[Steve is gently lifted from the pocket. the scene before him is as such: two men, the giant that took him originally and also some other guy, are sitting on the floor of what looks like a nondescript hallway, a bit similar in style to the cells they'd been put in. if he didn't know the substance he was covered in was blood, he sure knows now, since it's sluggishly pouring from the now-buttonless eye sockets of both men.

and yet, they both seem to be staring at him.

Some Other Guy waves.]

[inhairently]

( it's weird. like, this should be horrifying beyond comprehension? and yet steve doesn't really feel much at all about being faced with the nauseating sight of not one but two giant dudes missing their eyeballs. maybe it's a defense mechanism. who knows. not steve, that's for sure.

(it's just another thing to unpack later. or, rather, to pack away into the darkest recesses of his mind to never think about again, ever.)

so he kind of dangles there, drenched in blood, staring from one eyeless giant guy to the other, and he... well, he waves back. it's just a pathetic, unenthusiastic little wiggle of his fingers, but that's about all he can muster right now. )

So is this the part where I become a tasty little snack for one of you creeps?

[sailmods]

[SOG shakes his head.] No, no, we don't do that anymore.

For a few thousand years.

No, a few hundred. [pauses, like he suddenly forgot there was anyone else here.] I am Juracán. You already met Coatrischie.

[like this is just normal times.]

[inhairently]

( maybe in another life, under more pleasant conditions, steve would've made the connection to names and the old places on the ship. not today, though. today they get the slightly vacant, mostly dubious stare of someone who's not in the mood to think that hard about it. )

Okay. Yeah. So what happened? Because ten minutes ago I'm pretty sure you — ( he looks pointedly at coatrischie ) — were ready to squash us like a bunch of bugs. Was it — was it the buttons? Is that what that lady wants to do to the rest of us?

( slightly vacant and mostly dubious he may be, but he's also full of questions. )

[sailmods]

The witch has powerful magic that can destroy a man's will. The buttons were sewn into our eyes, and we followed her will alone.

That wasn't for any of you. You were all to be sold, or killed.

She was leaning towards "killed," but I cannot hear her anymore.

[long pause]

Why are you so small?

[inhairently]

( there's a kneejerk impulse towards defensiveness that steve manages to snuff out just in time — he's NOT small. he's average-sized, thank you very much. it's these two dudes who are freakishly huge.

doesn't seem in his best interest to argue with the two giants, though, even if they seem friendly now. )

I wasn't until I ran into you guys, ( he says flatly, biting back any arguments as his mind wanders to the other point they'd brought up. everyone was to be sold or killed. leaning towards killed. )

Wait, so what do we do now? You're both free so does that mean we can free the Captain, too? I mean don't get me wrong — I hate to say it, but he might be the only guy who can get us out of this shit.

[sailmods]

[in unison] We kill the bitch.

[that is the full extent of their idea they are literally the bottom rungs of intelligence in this family.]

... Also, find a way to make you not so small. You can't kill anyone if you're tiny.

[inhairently]

( he's still not convinced he's not the normal-sized one here but an idea strikes him — )

Wait — what if I just go back the way I came? I wasn't tiny in the prison cells. Maybe it works like, ah... ( he snaps his gross, bloody fingers as he tries to recall the name of a specific, well-known piece of media. ) Alice in Wonderland. I crawl back through the vent and boom, I'm regular-sized again.

( does something like that actually happen in alice in wonderland? he thinks so, but he's not sure. little does he know the solution really is wonderland-adjacent and currently in fever's (or natsuno's or valdis's) pocket. )

[sailmods]

[long pause.]

... Vent?

[inhairently]

...Yeah?

( not-quite-as-long pause )

We couldn't see it. A cat had to show us.

[sailmods]

Ah. [just sort of. a tone like he's decided this mortal is insane.]

-- Oh, you've seen our brother! Where is he? I didn't see him with you...

[inhairently]

( steve is quiet for what feels like approximately a month and three weeks as he contemplates whether or not he should break it to a couple of giants that their cat-brother is probably dead. )

Uh. We got separated. ( a beat, in which he decides to swiftly move the subject along: ) Look, I think we should just try to find the others. If we do that, maybe we can all take on this creep and actually get out of here.