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

[nepetaleijon]

And with both sweet little Fio and Siffleur charging in, Nepeta doesn't think twice before leaping as well.

She doesn't have her claws, but Siffleur has his -- and since he's going high, Nepeta goes low, hurtling in a ball and attempting to knock over Malin's chair (half-chair?) with her in it.

[sailmods]

[Malin doesn't move an inch.

she does, however, pull off her eyepatch, setting it gently onto the desk beside her.

those closest to the desk are unable to see this, however, as the thick purple fog envelops them immediately - even Fio, who feels a hand clasp over her upper arm for but a moment before losing contact. those still farther back only see the fog swallow them whole.

roll d100.]

[teethoftherisk]

[Siffleur lands and goes still inside the purple mist. He doesn't sit or relax, but he's no longer snarling or with his ears flattened. Instead, he just stands there, pupils narrowed into tiny slits, waiting.

Waiting.

Waiting.]

[yourexoduslaughing]

[There's a small strangled sound from Flan. She goes still as well, her eyes distant. The lights are on, but nobody's home.]

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ 93.

That airborne contaminant hits Bastion's chemical sensor array and crashes the analysis function, which crashes the sensory management utility, and trying to resolve that crashes their diagnostics. The cascade of outages spreads to every service it reports to. Is there malware in the cloud, or is one more hazard simply too much for their battered, besieged, overburdened systems to handle? Bastion's unable to answer that question, because they've gone into an emergency shutdown and they're falling over backwards. Let's hope nobody was standing too close behind them. ]

[nepetaleijon]

[55.]

Nepeta, already in free trajectory hurtling toward the base of Malin's chair when the fog hits, strikes it unimpeded.

And, promptly forgetting any sort of strategy, attacks the nearest creature to her -- which, as it turns out, is Malin -- after the fashion of cats, making a serious attempt to both bite through and kick-smash that creature's ankles.

[sailmods]

Filth.

[being the kind of person that would be completely fine assaulting both a child and a cat, Malin has no qualms with taking an ancient-looking pistol out of her coat and firing a shot downwards.

as she has turned around, those nearby can see that the fog remains connected to her socket.]

[sabigoe]

[ 32.

She feels the hand on her arm, but doesn't turn around, remaining focused on her goal. Ready to ram right into their captor with all her might and then maybe, she can break Sparkles free from the control. Siffleur and Nepeta are far ahead of her and Fio finds herself coming to a halt before reaching her target as the fog engulfs them. Moments ago, she was prepared to risk it all... only to suddenly feel overwhelmed, trembling with fear at the sight of Malin.

At the sound of the gunshot ringing out, she lets out a shriek and twists around, fleeing back towards the wall... ]

[nepetaleijon]

Fio's shriek is echoed by a yowling cry of pain, at the center of the fog cloud.

No one can see what's happening there, or where the bullet struck, or how extensive the splatter of green blood really is. By some philosophical traditions, this means that until the fog clears and the catgirl can be observed --

"Siffleur -- nngh -- help!"

-- never mind, she isn't dead quite yet.

[teethoftherisk]

[Waiting-

And through the fog of madness holding him still, Nepeta's voice cuts through. Part of him dulled by spell screams and thrashes deep in his mind, the smell of his daughter's blood making him wild with rage and sorrow. The rest of him seizes onto the command: help, help, help.

He lunges forward, his mind locked on one single track, following the order. Nepeta needs help.

Which means that Siffleur opens his mouth and sinks his powerful jaws into Malin's pistol-holding limb, aiming to disarm her in the most literal sense of the word.]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[20]

[ Pratt goes to grab for Fio again but his arms seem to be dragging through water, everything goes numb and there's the aftershock of silence like he just watched the trailer for Inception far too loud.

He retreats into his own mind. A mind that's broken.

A mind that's full of music.

His eyes glaze over, the numbness of his body is still there, but Pratt isn't around to feel it.

He attacks whatever is closest, which would have been Fio, but now that she's run away he can't even see her anymore. Likewise with Siffleur and Nepeta, they both fall away in a red haze leaving only Malin. He charges her, trying to shoulder check her down into the ground, unaware that there's others doing the same thing.]

[abhorrently]

(70.)

[the world changes. not without aggressive pushback - there's a section of Fever that will never stop fighting, never stop challenging, that can never be quelled. it wages war against outer madness with her own, the same howling and surging hatred that keeps her moving even in critical condition. it says to yield.

but she has embraced her madness, and let it change her. lives it, breathes it. took the blood of the Prince into her veins and cracked open her mind in new ways. and so, it must scrabble for new purchase against the ever shifting landscape.

Fever blinks, and looks down, and sees herself incinerated by the god. her fate, perhaps, if she didn't take the eyes. she sees burnt flesh, feels a pulsing at a distance, black and charred and falling away. damage that isn't damaged, fingers that move slower because shouldn't they? and she grins, terrible and bright, the scent of her own burnt hair in her nostrils.]

Get her eyes!

[it's an iron whip cutting into flesh, that tone, severe and cruel and full of too much confidence to be reasoned with. she laughs, once, so genuinely amused, while her hands scream in agony.

direct it. she doesn't have her powers - the spell shaped hole aches in her chest, sickens her - but she can still command, like she's done for years.]

[sailmods]

Have to do everything myself, bloody incompetents... [she stands, quickly scanning the chaos around her, remaining eye focusing... on Fio, as she flees, and cowers. cocks the gun once more, takes a step in her direction



and trips, over Sparkles' suddenly extended leg, falling to the floor hard, teeth clacking as she takes the hit on her chin.]

[teethoftherisk]

[In a heartbeat, he's on her, taking advantage of her moment of disorientation and her proximity to the floor to pounce on Malin. Nepeta's plea echoes in his mind but his instincts are as sharp as ever. He goes for her throat but there's too many layers to get a good grip on it, so he ends up burying his teeth into her shoulder.

Siffleur rips at her, head jerking back and forth as his teeth tear through the layers of wool and cloth until he tastes blood, then flesh, then- what's that?

Sweet. Dark. Oh. He knows that. She tastes like flesh and blood and chocolate. His jaw tightens, his appetite awake again now that he's got fresh blood trickling down his throat.]

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Pratt had tried to knock her backwards, but she falls forwards over Sparkle's leg. He pulls back himself to turn and attack her, nearly tripping over Siffleur who he can't see in his Bliss-fueled haze. He punches at her while she's on the ground but some of his hits flat out miss and he drives his fist into the floorboards busting the skin over his knuckles and adding his own slippery blood to the chaos.

Changing tactics he claws at her head trying to get a grip on her hair to pull her head back and smash it in the ground.]

[yourexoduslaughing]

[It's a real shame that Flan is currently trapped in her own mind in a nightmare because if she wasn't, she would be clapping, cheering and screaming out "bite her bite her bite her!!!" and having a truly wonderful time watching Pratt go feral.

Life's just not fair sometimes!]

[sabigoe]

[ Cowering against the wall is the farthest that Fio can manage to flee. Her gaze remains averted and her whole body seems to shake nonstop. She doesn't look back at her source of fear, completely unaware that for a moment, she had been the first target. Unaware that someone had stopped Malin in the nick of time from taking aim at her...

She leans heavily on her side against the wall, as if doing so would allow her to escape somewhere even farther away. It's a shame Fio can't help everyone like she wanted, but she's unable to push the fear back. She can hear the scuffle take place nearby and wonders who's winning... if everything will end any time soon. ]

what's that? IT'S CASSANDRA WITH --

[not_the_last]

That one step away from the desk, and the subsequent trip-and-fall, has shifted the cloud of purple haze. Just enough, from the perspective of someone who's been slinking with all the stealth at her command along the other wall.

She can't see most of what's happening inside the fog, but the rough shape of it and the noises coming out tell her what must be where. And with so many attacking at once there's no way the foe will see one more coming -- and it's in those moments of distraction, the chances to strike unseen, that rogues do what they do best.

Cassandra takes one moment to be sure of her course, shuts her eyes and holds her breath in case it will do any good, and takes four running steps forward to sweep up the desk chair and bring it down as hard as she can on the space she's sure holds Malin's head.

1/?

[sailmods]

[there is a wet crack, and Malin goes utterly still on the floor.

her voice a barely audible murmur.]

Slave.

3/?

[sailmods]

[a pained grin, all bloody teeth.]

Destroy this realm. And everyone and everything inside it.

5/5

[sailmods]

[and, in a blink, the world ends.


except for how it doesn't.

except for a voice that shouts No! I will live for her!

except for a voice that shouts No. I will live for me.

except for a voice that shouts No! We will live for her!

except for a voice that shouts No! They will live!

and that's barely enough to keep the fabric of reality from shredding, but the rips grow larger with each passing non-moment. more are needed. more must want. more must wish.]

[teethoftherisk]

[On the floor, Siffleur's focused on the flesh, the blood, biting and swallowing, devouring Malin. He has a desire burning bright and fierce: Do not let this woman win. Do not let her have what she wants.

And beneath it all, a wish, a deep wish he carries with him always - a wish to live, to live again and again, to live well, to live free.]

[redlightgreenlight]

[As useless as she's been when it feels like the world is screaming all of its pain into her skull, that tiny bit of hope breaks through and she also starts to wish for freedom. For a place she can call home, for safety for her friends and loved ones. To regain everything she has lost. To live.]

[sailmods]

[they feel the frayed tendrils of reality as they are drawn back into whole cloth.

and then, they feel the fall.

and they only feel it, mind; their bodies will insist that they haven't moved at all, even though they felt the lurch in their stomachs, and what other explanation is there for how they've ended up here?

"here" meaning "vaguely piled together like tossed away dolls on what one has to assume is the ground, because if they think about it too hard they might realize there doesn't actually seem to be a ground and you don't want to think too hard about that."

"they" meaning "everyone, from those that made it to the bridge to those that lingered in the cells, from the brothers with tiny Steve to Friday in her true form to the Captain and Skulduggery off to the side, bahamanuel is also there?"

it does not include Maximilien, who is standing. and it does not include the Erda, which stands in front of him, both of their hands plunged into his chest cavity, which glows with the same pale light as their eyes.]

[yourexoduslaughing]

[It's been an awful stressful terrible no-good very bad day but hey, things are finally looking up! Flan's sad when the falling feeling stops but it's such a relief to be in a void, even if it's not her void. That lack of ground! That nothingness! Smell that lack of air! She's felt homesick before but oh man, it hits so hard now that she's almost where she should be.

She's quick to roll out of the pile of people and over the not-ground, feeling it not touch her body. Flan giggles a little to herself (a smidge manic but hey, she's earned it) and then flops out, staring up at the darkness above.

Then she realizes there's a light. Then she realizes the light's coming from Maximilien and the wish lady and uh-oooohh. She doesn't bother trying to sit up b/c that would require trying to plant hands into the nothing underneath her and she already knows how that kind of thing goes. Instead, she turns her head until she spots the pile of bones among the people.]

Hey 'dug? You got a speech locked and loaded? I think we need one about now. ... though I mean, if anybody's got a speech, this seems to be a good time to give it.