Bravado

[Ohm]

Diana did not know how long their moment together lasted, maybe half an hour to an hour? Maybe twenty minutes? On broadcast it would probably be shorter than that to focus on what they did afterwards together, or if they completely lost interest in them, on the more exciting elements of the season.

She wished it could last longer, but they had to move. They had to be brave.

Close to them were a big ship- smaller than the cruise that also stood nearby, with a wheel and multiple decks it looked like.

They walked in line towards it, keeping small talk between themselves that stopped the closet they got to it. It did not take long; they stood before it and took in how big it actually was. It wasn’t a behemoth beckoning people towards it like the cruise, it was more lowkey than that.

Taking it all in, the two made their way over the railing and entered the lower deck.

Their journey took several minutes less than when they tried to reload her gun. Both of them mulled over the instructions to it and how to reload, taking their sweet time to do so before setting out. Diana figured it’d be better if Britnee knew alongside her in case anything were to happen to her…

In any case, their gun was now locked and loaded and if anybody tried anything against them, murder or some other attention grabby evil shit, they’d get one between the eyes.

Diana stepped ahead of her partner, sidling along walls and peeking inside to see if there was anyone around, only to see the faces of death. A turn here and a look-see here, but all she could find was more and more death.

Her movements became increasingly tense as she made her way indoors, walking past Virginia in a pool of her blood from the wound in her torso, past Nura’s whose head contained a hole that shouldn’t have been there. Past Maxine who had seen better days, eyes bugging out- bloody shoe prints leading away.

All of them, names she had heard in the mornings past. Now entombed on this boat between rows of benches and old cars. Scent of the metallic lingered, and Diana abandoned stealth in favor of getting out of these cursed rooms for air. Breathable, fresh, sea air.

Her left hand over her mouth as she made her way back to a door, to the outside, having to stop covering as she made to open it. Her right clenched around her gun as she looked outside with a peek before opening it and making her way to the railing.

She had seen bodies these past few days, there was one in the shop boat with them for god’s sake- but it was somehow different when it was rooms filled with them and the smell they left lingered.

Whilst taking in the air, almost as greedily as earlier, she wondered what they would do with the boats once the season was done. A lot of cleanup would be needed for each of them, and then what? Tourist attraction? Make a boat town that people could walk through and say “This is where Diana McIntyre sat for three days before she wandered off, got shot and then almost lost her lunch?”

They wouldn't mention them if they did that. It would be someone like Seo-yun, or Fisk, or god forbid, Junji. They would have to change that. No, scratch that, they needed to change that.

As she surveyed the area on the outside, she could see a couple of them were even laid in positions resembling what seemed to be attempts at posthumous respect, only to look more like a mockery of life in death. Blood splatters covered the grounds. Each told a story that could have easily been hers or Britnee’s a night before. It only fueled her desire to keep them safe.

She slowly made her way back towards Britnee, past all the corpses that had been left behind to rot in this rust bucket along with all these cars of the past.

This boat had seen its share of action and she could only hope that whoever did this- any of it, was long gone.

It was only when she saw her again that Diana could relax and be filled with a sense of relief. She had both hands on her gun now.

“I-I think it’s clear, but there's a lot of dead here. It smells pretty bad.”

[Maraoone]

(("Dee, I don't like it here."))

Britnee knew before she told her. It was in the very air. Which, to be real with y'all, it kinda sucked because she'd just gotten a new shirt from the shop boat to replace her old ruined shirt and now the smell had probably seeped into, permeated the fabric of her new, newly-ruined shirt.

It didn't matter much, it was Season 10 merch anyways. No one liked that season.

But yeah, it was another thing the cameras couldn't and wouldn't ever properly convey: how she felt her throat tighten before even stepping past the threshold of the ferry, thinking it was her body freaking the fuck out. And then realizing that, it was partly that, and partly her lungs physically revolting against the odor of all the decomposing going on here. And, like, bodies had always grossed her out and shit, she only ever cared for the metaphorical ships in this show, she fast-forwarded past the stabbing and shooting when she could, but she thought she could handle it? She'd been able to handle the dead guy in the shop boat just fine? But, it was just so much worse here. The sick-sweet-metal-rot smell was attacking her.

Just, the vibes here were fucking shit. There was bad energy in this place. Dee knew it, Britnee knew it, and besides, there were a thousand other boats to explore. She wanted out.

"We can find somewhere else, yeah? Please?"

[Ohm]

That's fair. Very fair, really. Place had vibes, some bad, rancid ones similar to a serial killers hideout. Even walking through it with a gun- tho, a shitty, almost one-use gun given the reload- didn't make her feel safe or close to it.

Maybe it was a lair, maybe if they hung out here they'd be the next one littered around like furniture.

"Yeah, you know what? Let's do that."

And so the two went.

((Diana and Britnee continued elsewhere...))