One.
Day.
That’s all it took.
One day in this damned place.
It’s not like she was being tortured or anything.
It was just boring.
Boooring.
She was soooo bored.
Having cellmates means there’s someone to talk to, right?
Wrong!
Those bastards simply ignored her, silent as they either slept or looked out the tiny window in their cell.
Trying to start conversations didn’t work as they fizzled out in about two sentences.
This was not going to be her life for the next few days, let alone years.
“So…have you guys thought about escaping?
Because I’m thinking of getting out of here.” She prods casually, stretching her arms above her head and rubbing the sleep out of her eyes.
Her feet swung down from the top bunk, and something swatted at them.
Swinging her feet more, she grinned to herself as Rubio did a double-take from where he was standing at the sink.
The mirror had been blocked by a pillow cover, so he had to turn around, water still dripping down his face, to stare at her in confusion.
“You have a way out of here?” He questions.
“Hm?” She blinks, taking a second to dissect his question.
“No, but I figured I could come up with something on the way out.” She shrugs.
“Hah!
Good luck with that!” A piercing voice snorts.
Frowning, she violently throws her legs back, clicking her tongue in disappointment when she doesn’t hit anything.
Jumping down from the top bunk, barely avoiding a strike from sharp talons ripping toward her stomach, she leans against the wall, hand behind her head.
“Well, I thought it’d go a lot easier if I had some help.
Y’know, maybe from the cellmates who probably don’t want to be rotting in jail forever, but that was just a thought I had.
I mean, if you wanna kiss freedom goodbye, then do whatever, I guess.” She says, giving another shrug.
“I definitely wouldn’t mind getting out of here, but we’d need a plan.
This place is pretty secure.” Rubio points out.
“Pretty secure?
Yeah, right, the biggest prison in the Ten Seas is only ‘pretty’ secure.
They prattle on about having the strongest pirates of all time.
I’m sure you can attest to that.
Just face it, we’re doomed to live here and then die pathetically.” Astra groans, flopping down on the bed and covering his face with a pillow.
“Why do you have to be such a downer?
You won’t know until you try.
There are three of us here; I’m sure we can make it out.” She wheedles, crossing the room and leaning over him.
“If I say yes, will you leave me alone?” He questions.
“Mhm.” She nods rapidly in excitement.
“Ugh, fine.” He agrees.
“Yes!
Alright, let’s start making plans.” She jumps in the air, pumping her fist in victory.
“Can’t this wait till tomorrow?
Tonight’s when they give us mac’n’cheese for dinner, and I don’t really want to miss it for a prison escape.” Astra pleads, curling up in the bed as he stares at Thalia.
“Nope, I’m not staying here another second.
So,” She claps her hands loudly, causing the other two to wince, “I would say I’m pretty decent at a little bit of everything.
I’ve been a thief for years and only got caught recently, so, y’know, I’d say I’m pretty skilled.” She smirks.
“You sure you didn’t rob only one person per year?” Astra jabs.
“Alright, Polly, if you keep going, I will beat the crap out of you.
I am extremely strong, I’ll have you know.” She clenches her webbed hand into a fist, glaring at the Harpy lying prone on the bed.
“Oh yeah, Fish Face?
All it’d take is one scratch from me, and your guts will be splattered on the floor.
Do you really wanna try it?” He sits up, raising one of his legs, the lamplight catching on his talons.
Gritting her teeth, she takes a half-step forward, watching as he flexes his talons, when suddenly, there’s a body between them.
“Alright, alright, calm down.
We don’t need to fight; we should be focusing on getting out of here.
Astra, do you have any skills you’d like to add to the table?” Rubio waves his hands in a placating manner, Astra rolls his eyes but lowers his leg, and Thalia unclenches her fist.
“I’m…a decent fighter; I can use my talons as weapons.
I can also fly, but I don’t see how that does much in here.” Astra sighs, looking a tad awkward, but at least communicating now.
Her eyes drift to the last person in the room, and she watches as he fidgets in place for a second.
“I know this might sound…bad, but uhm, I’m actually not really good at, like, anything.
I can’t fight, I’m pretty awful at stealth, and I’m not the most athletic person, so…”
“What!” She and Astra squawk at the same time.
Rubio flinches, refusing to meet their eyes.
“But you’re literally a famous Pirate Captain, known for your skills in fights, stealing a crap ton of treasure, and always managing to escape the Navy by the skin of your teeth.
What happened to the suave, charismatic Pirate leader!?” Thalia cries out, waving her hands over his body for emphasis.
“T-Those were just rumors!
T-They made me out to be some sort of storybook hero; it got blown way out of proportion.
I became the Captain because of a group vote; nobody could decide.
And all I’m really good for is my knowledge,” He shuffles awkwardly in place, still refusing to meet her eyes, “A-And anyway, I know a bit about this prison, s-so I can help.” He stutters out.
Yikes, not really the face of confidence here.
But still, she could work with this.
It wasn’t the worst situation she had ever been in.
It’s just prison; how hard could it be?
Apparently, very hard; it could be very hard.
Thalia’s head spun as they sat in a circle around Rubio as he blabbed on and on about the prison’s infrastructure and complex guard system and blah, blah, blah!
Ugh, it was boring, and she felt like passing out.
Astra definitely felt the same; he was nodding off!
“Okay, okay, look, I get that all this must be extremely interesting to you because for some reason you are explaining it here, right now, to us.
But we don’t need to know literally everything about this prison.
You said you knew a bit, a bit!” She exclaims, throwing her arms up in frustration.
“W-Well, compared to some others…I mean, I couldn’t tell you the exact Rune structure…” He trails off with a flinch when he catches the murderous glare she’s giving him.
“Nope, if I listen to any more of this, I’m going to hang myself.
Basics, we need the basics, things that will be relevant to our escape.” She talks slowly, as if explaining it to a child.
Rubio looks slightly offended, but that’s not her problem right now.
“Alright, fine.
Riverium Prison has twelve levels to it, with the least dangerous criminals on Level One at the top, and the most dangerous criminals on Level Twelve, the bottom.” He mimes a tower with his hands.
“We’re on Level Seven, just below ground level, but to be completely honest, I doubt we’re as strong as most of the criminals on this level.
I was a famous Pirate, and you pissed off the Navy, so we got placed here to make it harder to escape.
I don’t really know about Astra, though…” They both glance over at the Harpy, who simply smirks and refuses to say anything.
“Anyway, to save on costs, the materials at Level One are a lot cheaper than those on Level Twelve, so if we can make it to the top of the prison, we could probably just punch the wall and be on our way.” He makes a punching motion with his hand and then uses two fingers to mime walking.
“Great, that doesn’t sound too bad.
We grab the key, punch a few guards, then bust through the wall, and we’re out of here!” Thalia rejoices.
“If it were that easy, I don’t think this place would still be standing, let alone be a famous prison.” Astra scoffs.
“He’s…kind of right,” Rubio hesitates for a second, as if afraid of her potential wrath, but he quickly carries on the discussion when she gives him a curious look instead.
Her glares were for Astra only this go around.
“Between each level is a Rune barrier, and only the Head Guard has the master key for each one.
We could wait for the guards to be let through and sneak past, but either way, it’ll take a bit of effort.
Especially with the Rune monitoring system they have installed.”
“Oh my Seas, we’re never getting out of here.” She wails, collapsing backward.
“Now do you understand me?” Astra leans over her with a smirk, and she slaps at him.
He dodges and backs away before she can slap him again.
“I’m still not giving up!
Just reevaluating the difficulty a bit.” She huffs, sitting back up and crossing her arms over her chest.
“I mean, I wouldn’t worry too much?
It’s a bit of an open secret that this prison is more for show than anything else.
Unless they pooled their best officers here, it would be almost impossible to keep anybody truly strong on the lower levels.
This place has experienced multiple prison breaks in the past; there’s not much they can do about it but try to keep it quiet from the public.” Rubio admits, rubbing the back of his head awkwardly.
“Oh, well, that’s a relief.
So the guards don’t have much experience?” She questions.
“Nope,” Rubio replies, shaking his head and then pausing to think, “There might actually be one or two, but they don’t have the funds to keep any high-ranked Navy officers here.
So if there is one, it means they probably like it here, which is kind of scary…uh, but I’m sure we’ll be fine.” He backtracks.
“Right then, let’s get started on the actual plan.
I’ll run distraction duty for a guard, then you,” She points at Astra, “Will use some awesome stealth skills to steal the keys to the cell.
When they leave, we’ll sneak out and cause a disturbance so the Head Guard comes down.
We’ll snatch the Rune key from him, make our way to the top and then bust out!” She cheers.
“That plan is full of holes,” Astra snorts, and Thalia shoots him a glare.
“But it’s the only one we have, so let’s give it a try.” He smirks, and despite their previous animosity, Thalia finds herself smirking back.