come_sailaway | 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.

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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. )

How could you ask? He hasn't seen you, has he?

( that means he should pat himself on the back, which pollux will do for him instead as she lifts her hand to do so. she doesn't know how much praise the other is normally given, but that doesn't stop her from doing so then patting the other on top of his head. )

That's right, as long as you believe in yourself, you'll be able to get through this without getting caught.

( still watching her brother, she pulls herself off of pratt so that he can get himself comfortable if he needs to move quickly. )

If you worry, why not distract him? ( this is when she holds out an empty can, as though she thought about this. ) Only use it when you think it's right.

[It's a good thing that Pratt can't actually see the face on that pumpkin because he would be found out immediately due to gasping because that is adorable and he's not too manly to admit it. This is the best pumpkin of all time.

Oh pats. He's a good dog and he's getting head pats. Yes, this is excellent. This day is turning out to be fantastic considering how bad it started.]

Okay. Okay I got this.

[Pollux believes in him, and that's more than most people so.. He's not gonna let her down. He takes the can absolutely not questioning why she is walking around with an empty can, that's just a normal thing people do right?

He crouches low, video game logic ~~including Far Cry 5~~ says you're quieter if you're crouched, and he gets about ten feet away sitting there and watching Castor. The man seems to be enamored with pumpkin carving... It's now or never. Pratt is behind Castor, and throwing the can past him would be pretty obvious, so instead he throws it up onto the roof to the side where it'll roll off the edge and hit the deck hopefully ahead of him so Pratt can sneak in and swipe that spoon. ]

( The dice have decided that Castor is so enamored with carving his pumpkin that, in fact, he barely even notices the can until it's clanging against the ground. He glances up at that, but...

...

Where did it come from?

Rather than being able to zero in on the source of the noise and focus on it, Castor can't even manage to locate it. Instead, he ends up looking around himself, turning left and then right as he tries to find who might have caused it before furrowing his brows. If Pratt has any cover at all, he won't be seen, but Castor will be looking somewhere in the vicinity the direction he'd come from. )

Pollux?

( as pratt makes his move, pollux is separating herself from pratt so he has stealth room to do what he needs. once she's a good ways away, she's ready to keep herself hidden until she hears her name called, and she immediately stands up to stare at the other from the other side of the room. )

Ah! How did you know!?

( she feigns shock, hand to her chest as she looks at the other with wide eyes as if she's been caught doing something wrong. )

You weren't supposed to see me, Brother! Prah... ( a mix between a sigh, and a... yes, it's a sigh and pratt's name. ) It isn't time yet...

( which is a warning for pratt to be careful, considering her brother seems to be looking around, but she's got his attention so maybe if she distracts him...? )

[He freezes when Castor starts looking around, he's only partially hidden and if Pollux didn't pop up he'd have been spotted immediately. As soon as his attention is on his sister Pratt moves as quiet as he can to be more directly behind him, so at least if he looks to the sides Pratt won't be as readily visible.

Hopefully no one else is around because this probably looks absolutely ridiculous as he crouches on the ground a few feet behind a guy carving a pumpkin while he intends to steal a spoon. He nods in silent agreement that this isn't the right time to try and snatch it, Castor is too aware of his surroundings right now, Pratt would be spotted.

He needs to bide his time, have patience.

And keep being quiet so Castor doesn't turn around.]

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