Open!

[souille]

Who: Abigail and YOU
What: A day in the life of a new prisoner
Where: Around Obsidian
When: July 23rd



i. Common room

[ Abigail hasn't taken to coming in here often, but this afternoon it was relatively quiet, so she ventures in, sitting in a corner with her back to the wall. She glances up at the television for a while, in relative disinterest, before something else catches her eye - a ragged page from an old magazine. Through the stains and scribbles on the paper, someone's left her a half-finished crossword. She lights up a little - this will the time for now, at least. ]

Five across: Hillary's challenge as first lady: to do nothing (7).

[ She frowns a little, then quirks an eyebrow up at whoever's nearby, in case they want to have a go at the answer. ]


ii. Bathrooms

[ It would be just her luck to be assigned janitorial duty. At least it's something to keep her occupied, even if it's pretty grim work. She tries to finish up quickly, though she's worried she'll be reprimanded for not being thorough.

She jumps out of her skin when someone bangs on the door, but before she can scurry out to let them use the facilities they're already off down the corridor, laughing at having startled her.

In another stall, she finds someone's drug stash hidden under the rim of the toilet bowl, and frowns as she turns it over in her hands, wondering whether to flush it, or whether that would end up getting her in trouble with whoever it belonged to. ]


iii. Meal room

[ She's managed to queue up early today, hoping for a shot at the better selection of food. When she's nearly at the head of the line, however, a rather burly inmate sees that she's about to get the last of the good stuff - and that she's rather small and unintimidating. Without further ado he storms up and grabs Abigail by the scruff of the neck, dumping her unceremoniously on the ground and taking her spot in the queue. ]


iv. Recreation area - Closed to Rook

[ She's slowly walking circuits of the running track when she sees Rook, and saunters over to him, offering a small smile. She doesn't spend too much time outside, but it makes a change, and that's as much as she can ask for here. ]

Hey, how's it going?

Comments

i

[callhousekeeping]

[ Halfway across the room, sitting sideways in a chair with her legs over the arm, is the Countess. She's got a copy of Vogue, albeit last month's, and she turns the page listlessly, looking at the clothes as if she intends to buy them. She can still see the designer tags in her mind's eye, fresh as day, hanging beautifully in a closet whose owner will never see it again.

There's a pause before she says anything, and when she speaks, it's with a black sort of humor in her voice. ]

Husband.

[souille]

Hmm... [ She looks closely at the page, counting out the letters. ] Nope. There's an 'E' in it somewhere, if that helps?

[callhousekeeping]

[ Well, at first it had been a joke, but now it's more of a challenge. With a sigh, Countess thinks for a moment, idling on a page showcasing the some of the most tragic shoes she's seen in ages. Ugh, who decided that gym shoes were a proper fashion statement? ]

What about... silence?

[souille]

That could work. [ She moves her finger over the spaces as she sees if it fits, then shakes her head. ] ...Nope. I just saw one of the other clues and the first letter's an 'E', too.

[callhousekeeping]

[ She thinks for a moment, but she's never exactly been the queen of crossword puzzles. They always seemed a bit... fuddy-duddy of a hobby. ]

Then I have no clue. We don't exactly get the Times in here, so god only knows where that brainteaser came from.

iii

[hardcase]

[ Flagg's sitting at a table with a few of his other followers, and he sees the whole thing. A boorish, shameful display from someone who had no doubt taken a lot of pleasure in picking on new arrivals.

Unfortunately for him, this new arrival already has someone looking out for her.

He stands up and slinks over to the front of the line, silent as a prowling lion, and is standing there ready to yank the full tray away when the offending inmate turns around. ] Thanks for the donation, pal! [ He smiles amicably, but glares daggers at the inmate, who looks him over, looks back at the table of cultists, and decides to walk away.

He was from B block, it would seem. Flagg would have to chat with AM about dealing with him later. ]

Are you alright? [ Holding the tray of food in one hand, he offers his other hand to Abigail to help her up. ]

[souille]

[ Abigail gladly takes his hand, pulling herself to her feet and sticking close to him as she watches the man stalk off. She dusts herself off, but nothing's wounded except her pride. ]

I am. Thank you.

[hardcase]

I'll deal with him later. [ He shoots a quick glance over his shoulder to the offending inmate. ]

Come. Sit with me.

[souille]

[ She follows his glance, allowing herself a small but satisfied smile at how this turned out. ]

Okay, if I won't be intruding.

[hardcase]

Of course you're not. You'll always have a spot with me.

[ Some of the others at the table shuffle to the side so she can sit down next to him. ]

I'll make sure you don't get bothered like that again.

iv

[violenti]

[ Rook spends a lot of his time outside running the circuit. Today, though, he's on the bars. When Abigail finds him, he's doing pushups. He doesn't recognize her approach until she speaks.

He glances up, and offers a smile in return. ] Oh, hey Abigail.

[ Rook pushes himself up, dusting his hands off. ] Alright enough, all things considered. You?

[souille]

[ She watches him get up, not relishing the idea of doing push ups even if she knows she should probably be more active. ]

I can't really complain.

[violenti]

[ Rook chuckles at that. ] I think we all have reason to complain. —Not that it would do us good, but still.

[ He places his hands on his hips. ] You wanna join me? [He gives her a knowing little grin, almost playful. ] Or are you here for that self-defense lesson?

[souille]

[ She wrinkles her nose a little at the idea of joining him in push ups, though she's glad the offer of self-defense training is still there. ]

If I'm not interrupting - is now a good time?

[violenti]

Well, you know, I'm terribly busy, what with... everything.

[ He manages to keep a straight face for all of about four seconds, then smiles again. ] Of course, it's fine.

Now, first thing I guess- do you have any experience with self-defense or martial arts, anything like that?

iii

[adaptivemanipulation]

[AM would normally like to get the "good stuff", and might not think much of shoving an innocent little whelp out of the way, but he recognizes this girl. She seemed like a lost, helpless lamb, someone so ripe and perfect for corruption. The seeds had already been planted, after all, by her father.

So without much thought, AM marches up to the inmate and grabs him by the shoulders.]

Oh, what's this? She stole your precious fruit cup?

[He aims a nice, hard punch into the man's face. He stumbles backwards and other prisoners obviously notice. Some are itching to use this as an opportunity to start a brawl, but the guards come rushing in. They see Abigail on the ground and the burly inmate bleeding from the nose, and both are grabbed by the guards.]

Unhand me, you idiots! I was protecting her!

[souille]

[ Abigail watches all of this unfold from the ground, worried that if she tries to get up she'll be caught up in the fight that's threatening to break out. But when the guards grab AM, she quickly pushes herself up from the floor, panicking that he's going to be punished just for looking out for her. ]

It's true. [ She addresses the guard holding him, her eyes wide, playing up the vulnerable angle as she remembers how Michael said that the guards might take pity on her as a young girl in here alone. ] Please, if it hadn't been for him I could have been hurt really badly.

[adaptivemanipulation]

[This was a stupid idea. He should have just let the poor bastard throw Abigail to the ground and pick up the pieces later. He doesn't want to go back to SHU or anything like that just for some idiot!

But she does speak up for him. Perhaps this will be worth it after all. How can he resist a pathetic, vulnerable, young pretty thing like her, after all?

The guards do stop and look at Abigail, then look back at AM, then look at the other guy, also held back by them. They finally release AM, but one of them points at him, gruffly telling him, Watch yourself, Masterson.

They drag away the other guy, who yells out at AM that he's going to pay, but he just smiles. Oh yeah, that's a likely story.

Still, he turns back toward Abigail, more concern on his face than before.]

Are you all right?

[souille]

[ As the guards walk away, dragging the man who'd accosted Abigail, she lets out a deep breath that she didn't realise she'd been holding. She looks up at AM gratefully, her relief palpable. ]

I'm okay, he didn't hurt me. Thank you.

[adaptivemanipulation]

[AM isn't entirely sure they'll buy what happened, given that AM has pulled some rather horrible things on the guards before, and has certainly gotten in unprovoked brawls.

This had damn well better be worth it.

Still, he pretends to look relieved when Abigail says she wasn't hurt.]

Oh good. Yes, that man is a nuisance. I've run into him a few times.

[He has seen that guy push others around, and AM usually didn't pay much attention as long as it didn't affect him. But there were a couple times when he tried to push AM around and it didn't work.]

His name is Marshal. If he gives you any trouble again, let me know.

common room

[insincerus]

[ Felix is sitting nearby, his attention all over the room as he watches some of the coming and going, eyes following interactions between people who are still strangers to him, which is most everyone around — he's still new here, himself.

But he's near enough to catch the crossword clue, and looks over just in time to catch her raising an eyebrow at him. Even as he scoots closer so he's not shouting across the space, the only thing he has to offer is a shrug and a somewhat apologetic smile. ]

Oof. You are definitely asking the wrong guy. The last time I tried to do one of these I got about two words in before I started putting down random letters just to make the page look more full.

[souille]

I'm not great at them either, really. Just to pass the time, more than anything.

[ She glances down at the page again, shaking her head. ]

The clues are super tough, too.

[insincerus]

General knowledge has just never been my forte.

[ Mostly because he doesn't pay attention to just about anything that doesn't suit his specialties, considering it a waste and a bore to bother with trivia. ]

My advice? Remember to use vowels when you start making up words. Looks pretty fucked up and obvious otherwise.

[souille]

Good idea. It'll just look like a random keysmash otherwise.

[ She looks at the page again before setting it aside. ]

At least I have plenty of time to ponder the answers.

[insincerus]

Ain't that the truth.

[ Just after she pushes it aside, Felix yanks it up, reviewing the various clues beneath. It's not long before he sighs and puts them back. ] I can only hope I don't stick around here long enough to actually get bored enough to learn half this shit.