Date: February 29, 2012

[In the evening, Rook, Knight, Dame, Bishop, Crossy, Gemini, Emerald and Cepheus in the horse carriage]

Everyone got forcibly shoved into a carriage by guards of the Dur Kingdom. Everyone's shuffling and shoving each other around in the carriage, panicking. They try to escape but a guard locks the gate on them. A few seconds later the guard leaves.

Dame: NO! STOP IT!

Bishop: HEY! G- GET US OUT OF HERE!!

Rook: LET US GO!! *shaking the gate*

Some of them heavily shake the gate to try to break it off but no use. After a few tries and lots of screaming, they stop completely out of breath. Emerald puts her hand on her hair in disbelief and feels her hairpin. She realizes that her hairpin could come in use.

Emerald: Wait. Guys! I got a hairpin!

Cepheus: WELL THEN, GO! GET US OUTTA HERE!

Rook: Yes! Come on, Emerald!

Bishop: WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? LET'S GO!

Dame: Come on, let's go! Let's go! Let's go!!

Gemini: YOU CAN DO IT, EMMI!

Emerald moves herself to the gate as everyone is shouting at her to open the gate.

Emerald: Alright, alright, I got it! *grunts*

She pushes her arm through one of the gate holes and holds her breath while she pushes the hairpin into the keyhole and yanks it back and forth to try to unlock the gate.

Emerald: *sudden shallow breath* Oh my god..

However, her non-existent experience with lockpicking and the fact that the lock is facing away from her and the fact that everyone is basically screaming at her made this whole moment a lot more nerve-wracking for her.

Emerald: Please...

She mutters under her breath and hyperventilates while she wiggles the pin faster.

Emerald: God-... G- GRRR!! FFFF...

Her face takes on overwhelming fear which is being combatted by her intense determination. In a last desperate attempt to unlock the gate, she heaves as she pushes the pin as hard as she can. Suddenly another guard snatches her pin from her hand and gives her a silent threatening glare before fixing the gate in location.

Emerald: Hey- Wait- NO! GIVE IT BACK!

Everyone screams at the guard leaving, yelling that they should give it back, but they ultimately leave no reaction.

Emerald: (hyperventilating) No...

Horses neigh and walk as they start to move the carriage. Emerald looks back at the street and grasps the gate in hopelessness.

-|||-

[At night]

The forced voyage to god knows where seemed to be pretty long, so everyone decided to rest their exhausted selves in this uncomfortable carriage. Everyone except Emerald. Her head hasn't turned away from the cold, deep blue night sky and the cobblestone path ever since the carriage left their kingdom. The scenery though wasn't enough to completely distract her from constantly thinking about that moment. Gemini wakes up in the middle of the night, as he tends to do.

Gemini: Mmmm.... Hm? Emmi? (yawning) Ya still up?

Emerald: ...

Gemini: Emmi? Babe?

Gemini moves his hand to her cheek. Emerald gets scared a little by that sudden touch before looking at him realizing it was her boyfriend.

Emerald: Ah! Oh... hey.

Gemini: What's up? You've been staying up the whole night. You should go sleep soon.

Emerald: *looks down in silence*

Gemini: Emmi, what's wrong?

Emerald: *sigh* I was so close. So. Close. I almost had it. I could've gotten us out of here... But now we're stuck here... And it's all on me...

Gemini: Hey no, you did your best, Emmi. That was, like, the greatest lockpicking I've ever seen!-

Emerald: I've never even picked a lock in my entire life! *puts her hands on her face*

Gemini: ... Well- Surely you did a great job for your first try! Besides, not like the other dense brains would've done it any better than you..!

Emerald wants to say something in response but hesitates and ultimately stays silent.

Gemini: Look, *puts his hand over her shoulder* what's the worst that can happen? Like, who'd capture us and only us? *looks at the night sky* Seems like they really swooned over us highest elites in this kingdom so much that they captured us to take us to a surprise fan meeting!

Emerald: ...or throw us into jail.

Gemini: Jail?! Don't be such a drama queen! No way we're gonna go to jail! We haven't done anything wrong-

Emerald: Jay!

Gemini: What?

Emerald: Please, everyone's sleeping.

Gemini: Oh right, sorry. But hey, tomorrow, when the sun shines, it'll all be over. So, you don't need to over-worry or overthink.

Emerald: ...

Gemini: Don't worry, it's gonna be okay. Everything will be fine.

Emerald: ...Okay.

Gemini: There we go! *cups her cheeks* Now, get some sleep, will ya?

Emerald: ...Yeah.

Gemini: Alright. *kisses her forehead* Love you! *gets into previous sleeping position*

Emerald: You too.

Emerald looks back at the night sky. While not completely calmed down, Gemini's reassuring did comfort her a little. She did appreciate that there's someone who is trying to comfort her in this unusually rough time. Although his judgemental and sort of annoying behaviour towards everyone else made her question herself why she's even dating that man.

lol this chapter was inspired by a scene from a docudrama about the rms lusitania i watched today poggers😍