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

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Pratt, who's been on an extended leave of absence in his own mind, wakes up in time to see an ... explosion maybe?]

Where the fuck are...

[Aaaaand he's falling. What the hell is happening? Pratt is also screaming along with April before he really comes back to himself.]

Flan? Oh god please be Flan.

[yourexoduslaughing]

IT'S MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!! [Me, in this case, being mostly a huge trail of never-ending red hair but there is a woman in there somewhere, holding tightly to Pratt.

And though she could fall forever and ever (and ever and ever and ever) she does make herself actually land back with everyone, hitting the ground without a single impact - though the mass of hair above her seems to remember about gravity, because the moment her feet are on the ground, a waterfall of hair follows.]

WE MADE- oh fuck, it's everywhere. [She starts shoving it back over her shoulders but the clingy stuff seems to be holding fairly tight to Pratt now that it's back to semi-life. Flan gives it a few tugs, then shrugs and just gives in to giddy celebration now that she's got her void back and also they're totally not forever-dead.] Yeeeaahhhhh power of love and friendship and incredible violence!!!

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ Meanwhile on the newly extant ground, the immobile heap of battered mechanical parts at the bottom of the pile emits a short, buzzing whir as Bastion's systems reboot. The lights of their optics flicker in red, then blue. Their motor functions come back online, and with it the ever-present slight vibration that says they're alive. ]

[knotawolf]

[Sand starts pouring into Bastion from literally nowhere. More and more sand, filtering through their joints, cruising down wiring and then falling out the seams beneath them. The sand starts piling up and with a flash of hellfire it's suddenly in the form of a six foot long furless dog that bursts into existence beneath the Omnic, lifting them a few inches into the air as Bastion is now perched on top of it's back.

It shakes its head and the dog curls into itself becoming one very, extremely human man. Who seems very confused as to where he is and what he's under. But he's in good spirits about it?]

Hello!

[configuration_birdwatcher]

[ While their higher cognitive processes are still initialising, their autonomous functions are wiggling their joints back and forth so that the unexplained flood of sand can pass through and minimise the number of grains that get stuck. Something moves underneath them once the sand runs out.

Bastion's main optic switches on and they spin their head 180 degrees just in time to see the unidentified canid turn into Yufei. They didn't know he had an alternate form. ]

// Hello Yufei! Welcome back!

[ They do their best to shuffle sideways out of the pile elbows-first before having a Bastion unit on top of him can do Yufei any harm. The fact that the motion works, start to finish without anything failing or disconnecting, is what brings it to their attention that most of their injuries have been repaired. ]

[knotawolf]

[To be fair he didn't know he could do that either. He squirms out from beneath the metal body that definitely should have crushed him, his clothes have reformed along with the rest of him including those obnoxiously orange flip-flops. He gets to his feet and shakes himself, then does a little hop to pounce on some wayward sand to absorb it through his fingertips.]

What has happened while was gone? Did ship catch on fire? Where ... where is ship?

[OH SHIT GRASS. Sorry robo-buddy Yufei is gonna go faceplant into the scrubby, sparse grass and breathe deep.]

[inhairently]

( meanwhile meanwhile, a tiny, blood-soaked steve is just sort of chillin with jenny's brothers. a keen ear might hear his tiny, blood-soaked voice say, )

What the hell just happened?

[not_the_last]

"... Steve?" Cassandra raises her head, blinking, and turns in a circle trying to find where that tiny voice is coming from.

[theweakhavepurpose]

[Normally he is 100% all about never ending falling, his adrenaline junky nature would probably have him bungee jump out of an airplane with chainsaws that are on fire. But right now after being trapped in his own mind, and also having no idea what the fuck is going on - he's more than a little relieved when she drops back down to the ground.]

Oh fuck yeah, did we do it? Did she -- [Hair. Hair everywhere wrapping him all up. But he goes with it.] What's love and friendship without a little arson and explosions and uh.. where are we? Actually you know what, that's probably what friendship is all about too. Waking up after being blackout drunk and just chillin.

Or you know, after some hefty violence and near-death. That's probably... [A pause and the gears of his brain turning are almost visible as it actually catches up to him that they made it. They defeated Malin somehow. They're not on the ship. They're not dead.] Holy shit we did it. We really, really did it.

[He struggles out of the coccoon of hair so that he can throw his arms around Flan and kiss her. Enjoy the view April.]

[yourexoduslaughing]

Oh my god you're totally right, that is EXACTLY what friendship is all about! All of it! And- [She turns her head while Pratt's fighting his way out of her thick clingy hair, shouting to Dugg and MetalMax and whoever else is in charge of designing this new world of theirs.] AND CAN WE HAVE A BAR? OR A CLUB OR SOMETHING TO DRINK AT?

[Oooo, Pratt's free! She wraps her arms around his waist and kisses right back, ignoring the various gagging sounds April's making. It's fine, she's like, totally able to not be a photo anymore if she wants, this is a thing she's opting into by being near Flan and also friends with her. Sucker.

Her hair backs off some, mostly going back to it's usual barely sapient state, maybe just idly curling a few tendrils around Pratt's ankles.]