Strange Creatures

Deliberation on Liberation

This boi was drawn by @starleting on Twitter. I figured that I should probably show you him before I switch to better-fitting, angstier pics for the plot.

Not that it's easy to find angsty pics that aren't going, like, way too far.

xXx

If the box felt uncomfortably small when Lance was first locked in it, it was absolute agony now. He could barely see the sun shining through the glass in the holes leading into the captain's personal quarters, but from what he could figure, it had been days since he'd been in the open ocean. Three? Four? Something like that. More than he would have liked. In any case, it was probably the worst time of his life.

Even with the necklace, he felt the loneliest he'd ever been. While it offered him some consolation to know that Keith was nearby, it was awful to be so close, yet unable to see each other. They couldn't even talk to each other because of the stupid air carrying sound wrong.

And the pirate in charge? The captain? He'd grabbed Lance's face to look at him better. He squeezed really hard. Sure, it hurt, but it was also completely uncomfortable. The man was just... looming over him. "I bet you want to know what you have in store for you," he'd said. And then he dug his nails into the tender flesh of Lance's cheeks. At that point, Lance had given up on trying to be nice 'for his own sake,' as the captain had put it. He used his own nails. And then the captain punished him for it by pouring hot water into the box.

Stupid box. Stupid air. Stupid pirates.

And now the ship was supposedly close to more pirates. He could hear the guards by the door talking about how near they were to the 'island' where they were going. He was pretty sure 'hours' weren't that big of a unit of time. So what was he going to do in the little time that remained? Was he going to try and escape? Or would he hunker down and hope for the best when they reached the island?

At this point, it could get better or worse. Lance had no idea what to do, and frankly, he hated how indecisive he felt. If he tried to escape (if he could even make a viable attempt), he could end up with a punishment even worse than before. But if he didn't do anything, if the pirates had their way, he could end up just... dead. Yet on the other hand, he might be treated a hundred times better where they were going. If he tried to escape and got caught, he could just be depriving himself of what would have been decent treatment.

"Land ho!" a deep voice bellowed, shaking him out of his thoughts. Wait, were they already there? What had happened to his 'hours'? He'd probably guessed their length wrong. It wasn't like he was very good with the units of time he was accustomed to.

So was he going to try and escape? Now he had none of the time he'd thought he'd have, and--

He heard the door open, and he could see new light spilling into the room through the bars on the top of his containment box. What he guessed to be two pirates came in, laughing uproariously. He wasn't sure until he saw them because he still had no idea how bovengrond sounds worked yet, but he was right about them being there to watch him. They didn't seem particularly bothered to do anything other than talk obnoxiously loud, and though going under the water in the box helped, they still gave him a rather irritating headache.