come_sailaway | Are you on the square? Are you on the level?

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Are you on the square? Are you on the level?

Who: Deputy Pratt & You
What: A reckoning is upon you (He's storming the halls looking for Sharky)
Where: Everywhere!
When: Mid-October
Warnings: Violence. Cult stuff. Cannibalism. Skinning. Gore. The standard Pratt warning buffet.
Notes: Bracket or prose, live your truth.

1. The World Is Weak - Laundry Room
It's already been well established that the best place to have a breakdown on the ship is in the Laundry Room, so that's where Pratt is. Though he's not crying, he's not yelling or throwing things or freaking out over a jacket like last time. No, he's pacing. Back and forth and back and forth, again and again while staring at the ground. He has his arms folded, clutching across his chest, which is an awkward position while walking but he doesn't move them.

He doesn't know what to do. Well, he knows what he wants to do, but he also knows that he is the master of terrible decisions so maybe he should think about it?

Back and forth. Back and forth.

Enjoying yourself?

"Shut the fuck up."

2. Eviction Notice - Decks

When Deputy Pratt leaves his room in the morning, he's wearing his full uniform, his belt jangling with every step, along with the dog tags around his neck. Idly he trails his fingers along the wall as he goes, dragging through some of those bloody notes left on doors without even seeming to react to it.

"Sharky! Shaaaaarkkkkyyyy..."

For all that people have seen him sobbing into mashed potatoes, enjoying himself in the arcade, or just generally being a morose but kind of endearing dork, there's another side to him that even Clarke hasn't seen. The last time he was walking like this he was losing himself to the conditioning and barely knew what he was doing. This is different. Pratt is in absolute control of himself and that is so much worse.

"It's been a day and we had a deal. A pact even." Pratt normally sounds like a raven with laryngitis, but right now his voice is so low and controlled when he talks that it could probably be used to grind glass. If it's not obvious Pratt is pissed. He's fucking furious. And that cold fury is being bottled up, saving it for later, for when he needs to act.

"It's okay, you can come out. We just need to talk. We're going to have a little chat. That's all."

He gets to the end of the hall of cabins, blood trailing from his fingers across all the doors from the loving notes left to Ebalon. He reaches up to his forehead, using the blood to draw a cross down his nose and across his forehead.

"Did you think you were finally free?"

This is probably fine.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( thanks for the compliment pratt. )

His name is Castor. He can be difficult, but he's truly a dedicated and helpful person. If we can manage to stalk him without being noticed, then we can try to watch your friend... unless that's a waste of time.

( which she hopes not, but... how else will they get this down pat? )

Castor...

[ His memory is trash but he's not recalling anyone by that name. Tho...]

I don't even know who you are... I'm Deputy Pratt.

And nah, it wouldn't be a waste of time, might be helpful to see what the hell he's up to.

Forgive me, I was too caught up in wanting to assist.

( she likes helping humans, can he blame her? with a hand placed over her heart, she gives a small, sheepish smile at the other. )

I am Pollux. It's a pleasure to meet you, Deputy Pratt. I'm sorry we had to meet under difficult circumstances...

( with her other hand, she extends it towards the other to take. )

Then shall we hunt down my brother together, and then your friend?

That sounds.. weirdly familiar.

[Searching the gelatinous peach pie filling that is his brain for why he remembers that...]

Oh! I have met your brother then! I was there when he showed up and he freaked out on me because he thought I did a sacrifice wrong? He never told me his name. But uh.. pretty sure he doesn't like me for something I didn't even do.

( ah, that sounds just like him. )

Please forgive him.

( that's when they didn't know what was happening when it came to their wellbeing of who summoned them, and then... they were separated. )

His personality is a bit rough, but he meant no harm.

( she pauses for a moment as she takes the towels from pratt's hands, and instead sets them on the floor next to one room. they'll come back for this. )

So I can assure you that it isn't that he doesn't like you, he was only frustrated by the circumstances.

Yeah I mean, no one is at their best waking up here, it's .. fucking freaky. Being in a weird place, a bunch of strangers, on a boat of all places. But like.. I almost punched him so that whole conversation didn't go real well.

[He looks a bit sheepish, though he wouldn't have held back if Castor had kept pushing him. Pratt's tipping point into violence is always nearly falling over.]

If you say so, and he's good at stealthy stuff? Because hey, could be helpful in the future. Who knows what the hell is happening around here, feels like we might be invaded at a moments notice or something.

( she's worried about her brother always, but he knows better than to harm humans, and she doubts the punch would have actually hurt him... she laughs softly herself, embarrassed by the thought of everything. )

Your reaction is better than some others, really...

( some find that it's the end of the world when they deal with him, but pratt seems to have taken it in stride enough to hold his ground. pollux can respect it. )

You have nothing to worry about, my brother is capable enough to pull off a fantastic stealth mission. We may not be the class Assassin, but there were times in our youth that we had to stay out of wary eyes.

( there's a hint of confidence in her voice, but she's always happy to talk about her brother in a good light when she can. besides, she needs to reassure the other so this doesn't seem hopeless at all. )

It's cool you showed up together, be hella lonely being in this place with no one you know from your world. Or that's how it seems from people I've talked to.

Uh.. wait back up. Assassins? Like there's actual assassins in your world? [Well now he's intrigued and excited and totally forgetting about how he was just pacing around yelling at the walls. ] That either sounds super cool or super awful I guess depending on if you're the one being assassinated.

What do you guys do back home then? [She seems so... fancy.]

( she wants to say that's why she understands his worries, but rather than stretch things out while he has his focus on something else; she comments on his patience. )

I praise your composure. ( can we call what pratt did at the beginning as composed? no, but the fact he's able to calm himself down as time goes on is something to compliment, but for pollux? she doesn't think she'd be able to remain like this. )

Ah! Yes, we have many. There's all sorts of Assassins, each with their own different style of fighting as well. Me and Brother were summoned as Sabers, so our style is different from theirs. Assassins excel by concealing themselves so they're unable to be detected at all. ( pratt's like a kid on christmas morning, so she indulges. ) Hiding in the shadows completely, even in your shadow if one was here.

( with a laugh, she'll nod with him, though she knows a few servants that believe that their master should be thrilled to be assassinated by them, but that's another story for another day. )

Our mission was to return Proper Human History back to normal. ( she's silent as they walk side by side, even making sure that she isn't making too much noise with her heels as they walk. besides, she needs to figure out how much noise they're making before her brother might notice them if he's around. ) There's only a handful of people who exist as humanity was wiped out all at once.

[He is simple and easily distracted.]

Okay that's fucking awesome, and terrifying but that's what makes it so rad. Like ninjas about to leap out of the darkness and you didn't even know they were there. [Wait. Hold up.] Sabers? You mean swords? [Oh no, he is a fucking dork about swords. Swords are cool. He is practically chin-handsing this whole explanation.]

Oh, you have an apocalypse too. Man, almost everyone I talk to has some kind of horrible humanity destroying event. Is that what links us all? That what the common thing is between all of us and why the Captain brings us here?

[Maybe there's something to that. They all have experienced the end of the world, so maybe that makes them better prepared for... it to happen again here? Something like that.]

Yes, I'm quite adept with a blade. If you wish, I could teach you sometime when you're free.

( which she doesn't mind considering she's helping fio with boxing for her ballerina classes. her eyes glance over to pratt now with a warm smile. ) I've cut down gods and ghosts, so there's no enemy I cannot face.

( she's ready to comment on the apocalypse which is quite the connection to choose, and as much as it makes sense there are a few people who seem to still be doing well with humanity. hiyori is one, so she wonders if there's something more that's happening on his end. her lips part to speak, but rather than praising pratt, her eyes widen as they come upon the deck—

ah, there he is. )

We must hide! There he is!

( pratt, where are they HIDING!! )

Yes. Yes absolutely. [Holy shit please teach him swords. Between her, Darcy and Nobunaga he's gonna be a sword master eventually. He's so excited.]

You defeated a ghost with a sword? And Gods? Well that's fucking cool, you should totally tell me about that because --

[Oh fuck. Hiding? They're hiding now? Oh shit. He glances around the deck looking for a decent hiding place... ah. That'll work.]

Over here!

[He gestures at her and darts behind a bulkhead sticking out from the main part of the ship. They're hidden, but they're also exposed should he come walking by. Pratt is the kind of fighter that just runs right up to people and attacks them, stealth is so not his thing, even finding a hiding place is out of the norm for him.]

( From their hiding place, Pratt will probably be able to see that Pollux was correct—some distance away, Castor is up ahead, a pile of pumpkins piled up on the deck beside him, as well as some silver bowls he managed to find in All and Sundries.

He doesn't so much as glance in their direction as he continues what he's working on. Sitting cross-legged and facing out to the water, he's leaning forward from his place against the wall as he scoops out the seeds from inside of one of the pumpkins, dropping them in the bowl beside him. )

( to help pratt, she's placing her hands on his hips to keep him uniform with the bulkhead that they're hiding behind. neither of them will be peeking out if she has a say in it. peeking from behind him... well there he is being normal, scooping out pumpkins which is a sight to see because he just looks so adorable! of course, any younger sister would think that.

her voice barely above a whisper, she speaks to pratt. )

Quiet your voice so that only I can hear, can you tell me what he's doing?

( as if she can't see it. )

[His whispering sounds like a draft of wind being pushed through a doorjam, but he tries.]

I think he's carving a pumpkin?

[He situates himself more behind the bulkhead at her urging, trying to make sure he plants his feet softly to keep anything on his belt from jangling.]

He doesn't know we're here. And he has his back to us.

[Or if he does Pratt can't tell, giving a soft grin, hey they did it! They snuck up on someone. Well so far anyway. Castor probably has a knife if he's carving a pumpkin, and he definitely has a spoon, which would be an embarrassing thing to get stabbed by.]

( Nah. If he notices anything amiss, he's not reacting. His attention is 100% focused on pumpkin-gutting. Actually, if either of them manage to get a good enough look at him, he's wearing a candy-patterned apron too—don't forget his fit is all white, so he can't be having that spill onto his nice, clean clothes. )

Is there anything else?

( oh, that's so cute! why is her brother carving a pumpkin at this time? he didn't tell her anything about it, but she's not the type to be upset that he didn't. instead, she tries to peek from behind pratt a bit more so that her hair pokes out like a sore thumb. )

Why is he carving... he's never told me that pumpkin was his favorite fruit.

( true, he could be joining in the festivities, but if anything he's been talking about getting candy bags together for fio... )

A bowl. A spoon. He's really just sitting there. But if we spook him he's probably gonna chuck that spoon at us.

[Pratt really doesn't want to wind up in the infirmary with a spoon sticking out of his sternum.]

I think he's carving it for Halloween, so there's probably also a knife around. You carve faces into them and set them outside your door to be all you know... celebratory.

What do we do about him?

( Damn, maybe Pratt's right. Castor is looking pretty alert and ready to go on the offensive. It's somewhere right as he's asking his question that Castor pauses for a moment, glancing up and off to the side somewhere, before he turns his head right at them. Think fast. )

That sounds terrifying...

( would her brother REALLY throw a spoon at them? at HER? of all people... pratt really is making halloween come early. )

Thi— hide! ( it's in an instant that pollux disappears in thin air... leaving pratt to his own devices.

think fast, pratt!!! don't get caught!!! )

[Castor looks directly at them, Pollux disappears and Pratt looks like nothing more than a deer in the headlights.]

fuck

[He's been trained for combat, for never backing down from a fight, to keep going and attacking until the very end. The very idea of hiding is so foreign to him that for a moment the command doesn't even compute. But then it clicks and he immediately backs up glancing all around. Okay, so he doesn't have a lot of hiding options buuuuuuut....

He darts through a nearby door, trying to head down the hallway and then come out the other side opposite Castor. It may not exactly be stealthy, but it's at least strategic.]

( It looks like Pollux's warning was just in time. While Castor does look in their direction, he doesn't seem to catch anything straight away.

...

He does stare over there for a moment or so, but eventually seems to decide that whatever it was isn't worth his time. By the time Pratt comes out around the other side again, if he looks to Castor, he'll find that he's got his attention back on carving his pumpkin—holding it up now to make sure that enough of the seeds and other goop have been scooped out that he can start on the face. )

( oh! they passed the test, well, pratt passed while pollux actually cheated, but no one needs to know that! she is now appearing right before pratt, placing her hands on his shoulders to peek over them.

pulling herself up because he's probably taller than her— )

You did wonderful! He didn't notice you at all.

( she would know, they're practically the same person. ) Our next mission is to take that spoon from him.

[He stays in the doorway peeking around at the man innocently sitting there with his soon to be jack-o-lantern. He startles a bit when Pollux shows back up right behind him, letting her use him as a perch to see because he's too amped up on adrenaline to be all touch adverse right now. ]

Oh. Did I do it then? [Oh that is a dumb goofy grin on his face, because he did a thing? He's so stoked. ]

Without him noticing? Uhm, that's gonna be way harder unless he puts it down. I don't wanna... attack him. That's not the point right? This is stealth, he's not supposed to know until it's too late and we're long gone.

( It's fine. The spoon is down. In it's place, the knife is up, and he's going to start working on his pumpkin's expression.

It's important to make it frightening, but probably not too frightening for a child like Fio. )

Are you on the square? Are you on the level?

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perception: 15!

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perception: 4 😭

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Oh no Castor, you tried buddy