Ghost Ship

Unlikely Alliance

The captain wakes up after being knocked out but this time, he was in an even worse situation than before as now it wasn't just his arms that were pinned down, this time, his legs and arms were both tied to a chair along with the bag still being on his head and worst of all ARG-05 wasn't even there. There are the muffled sounds of birds which sound to be almost like they're talking before they remove the bag revealing several Osserva goons, glaring at him and standing in the centre of all of them is an Osserva whose glasses had a shimmer that the captain immediately recognises.

It was Squinty.

Squinty approaches him and says in a mocking tone "well look who's finally awake, had a nice sleep, William?". The captain is caught off guard at the fact that Squinty called him 'William', he didn't remember anyone saying his name after Squinty interrupted the dinner. Whilst thinking of how Squinty knows the captain's name, Squinty continues to taunt him "you think that you could save Avvoltoio by hitting me in the head with a plate". Some of their goons begin to chuckle but immediately stop when Squinty raises their wings and yells "SILENCE" before they continue "albeit it was smart in the short term, I'll give you that, unfortunately it's going to cost ya, boys you know what to do".

As they're slowly pushing the captain towards a makeshift guillotine, Squinty begins walking away and the captain finally realises something, those glasses they were in Passera's room. "SQUINTY" yelled out the captain as Squinty continued to walk out, "SQUINTY WAIT I'VE SEEN THOSES GLASSES BEFORE". Almost immediately, Squinty spins around to face him and motions to their goons to pause as the captain continues "th-they were in Passera's room, weren't they?". Squinty looks at him and then their goons before they motion to their goons to put him down and leave, which they do before they close the door behind them. Squinty walks closer to him and asks, "how do you know about Passera?" to which the captain immediately responds "Pavona told me about Passera and it kind of puts two and two together along with bring it down to only two suspects of who it could be."

Squinty scoffs and says, "well who are your 'two suspects'?"

"Well, you're either Merlo or Passera".

"And which one of your suspects do you think I am exactly?" said Squinty as they walk to the captain's left and pour a glass of something which looks similar to grape juice before slowly drinking it as the captain deadpan stares at them. There's a brief pause between the two before the Captain breaks the pause by saying "well considering how you, first, called me by my actual name despite no one saying it at the party after you broke in and the fact that Avvoltoio said that you go into Passera's room often and the glasses you are wearing were in there then I'd have to say you're Merlo". Squinty immediately stops drinking their drink and places the glass down as they give the captain a caught off guard look.

The captain had them and Squinty knew it.

"I- excuse me for a second" said Squinty as they left the room and shut the door. The entire room was quiet for a few seconds before it's broken by the loud cursing of Squinty for a few minutes. Squinty slightly creaks open the door so they could fit their head through before they quickly ask the captain "you won't tell my d-Avvoltoio right?". The captain shakes his helmet as he says, "no I wasn't planning on telling anyone anyways". Squinty smiles and walks behind the captain and cuts through the rope with one swoop of their claws. Squinty motions to the captain and says, "follow me, I'll show you a secret entrance to the house". The captain stands up and begins walking next to Squinty, they open a door which leads to a hallway, going left and right, they both begin walking to the right leading to a large circular room with several layers as it opens, everyone in the room stares at the Captain before Squinty says "he's with me", causing all of them to continue what they were doing.

As they're walking up a flight of stairs, the captain notices something, a portrait of an Osserva in a red outfit. He stops and stares at it for long enough that Squinty notice and walk over to him as they ask, "what are you looking at Willi-", they pause noticing what the captain is looking at before continuing "oh... that's Passera portrait, to be honest it was pretty hard to get that one out before they scratched out her face on the rest of them". The captain looks at Squinty as Squinty asks "shall we continue going to the secret entrance?"