abraxaslogs | Open Log for June

Entry tags:

Open Log for June

WHO: Coraline and folks!
WHAT: Meeting her roommates and everyone else and hating all of this.
WHERE: Cell 4, the outside area and the canteen!
WHEN: June 12 - 19
NOTES: Probably more toplevels incoming as June goes on!

Jail Cell 4 - June 12-13

Given that there are three grown men - not only strangers, but ones with obvious airs of power and menace to them - you would expect the mid-teen girl locked in there with them to be at least somewhat threatened, or at least remotely cowed by their presence. Certainly she spends most of her day curled up on the top left bunk, her chubby but slight form utterly drowning in the tunic and pants (she'd forgo the sandals completely if the floor wasn't so cold).

Instead, Coraline is about five seconds away from harassing them all at any given point in time.

The two white-haired lackeys interest her the most. The scraggly muscular one reminded her too much of Hunter to even remotely register as a threat; he was even all scarred up. This was clearly a man who was used to fighting for his life, and something about him said to Coraline that he was used to people being scared of him as well. The way he held himself, always so stiff-backed and glare-y. He was tall enough that the top of his head is within easy reach of her bunk when he was standing, and she could almost reach it to harass him while he was meditating or something too. So sometimes she does, letting her arm trail over the side of her bunk and try to flick strands of his hair; or reach both arms down to try and inexpertly braid it.

The Sephiroth knock-off was handsome - well, more pretty, really, but she could see herself crushing on that, if she let herself actually engage with that childish part of herself. Instead she stares at him, watching him be all sullen and sulky and mopey on his bunk, with no sense of decorum or propriety. She's just staring at him, mostly, but when he lets out some dramatic sigh she mimics it perfectly, trying to get a reaction.

The third guy she kind of likes. The weird Japanese-looking guy with the missing eye. He seemed nice, which was weird considering the, you know. Entire missing eye thing. He looked like the mafia or something. More interesting, however, was the fact he felt completely and totally normal - not like Geralt with his blatant high fantasy bullshit (again he looks so much like Hunter that the thought he might not be magic doesn't cross Coraline's mind) and Alucard-- like, come on. But Majima's just some dude, and she can't help but be a little bit concerned when she sees him come into the cell with the shit just absolutely beaten out of him.

At least with those three she doesn't make a point to put on her (in her personal opinion, expertly manipulative) 'o woe is me, a poor childe stuck in jail with three grown men, hwhatever shall I do' act. Not least because none of them read as active threats; it's more she just doesn't want to waste the energy on trying to screw with three people at once. She stays terse and quiet instead, only bothering to put on the act when someone new comes along outside; that's when the waterworks start, her big hazel eyes swelling with tears and gentle, snivelling shivers start wracking her slight form, perched on her raised bunk with her arms wrapped tight around her knees.

Free Time - June 12-13

Well, now that she knows for a fact that her magic doesn't work here, she sees a fair bit less reason to engage with the courtyard and all the shitty gym supplies it has. But a full hour of sunlight is nothing to sneeze at, and she always makes a point of choosing a spot in the yard that she can drag one of the benches over to, so she can sit with her back to the sun and feel at least a little bit better. It was hard balancing being a Darkling with being a Dryad, when one was repulsed by the sunlight the other needed, but at least sitting in her sunlit corner watching the other prisoners do their own thing, she feels a little bit more hearty and secure in herself; at the very least, she can continue staring down other inmates and try to get a better read on the people she's only ever seen from a distance through multiple sets of bars.

Cell 4 (-3) - June 14-18 evenings only

Well, this was unpleasant.

She knew everyone in jail was getting shipped out to some mining thing - she'd heard talk between the guards before, about getting a break, and she'd made sure to get someone to get her out of it as soon as possible - but she hadn't anticipated them not being there when she got back that first evening. And when she looked around, after getting locked back in her cell... so was everyone else.

She was completely alone. And as much as she gave her roommates shit for simply existing in the same space as her, right now she really misses it. The entire place felt way too cold and empty, and she ends up stealing Geralt's bunk after the first night to cuddle up and feel a little bit less scared. She's not used to that; she's always spent her life with at least one other person always nearby - solitude was a scary thing that meant there was no-one to protect her (not that she needed it, it was just nice).

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Coraline doesn't flinch when she finally gets a proper response out of the reticent drama queen, but she's very noticeably on alert for a hot few seconds until he actually speaks; and then she moves easily back into her previous sedate pose. No visible movement on her end at all, but a definite passing-through of complex emotions.

And then she opens her mouth.]

I realize there are precious few sights in these four cramped walls, but the intensity is unwelcome.

[Yes she sure is parroting his own words back at him in a blatant (and rather poor) imitation of his voice. Hers can't quite get that deep, and the accent is obviously over-done, but she's really not trying to do more than get a reaction.]

[Right. He probably should have anticipated a response like that. Alucard takes a moment to consider what options are truly available to him as far a response goes, and after the moment passes, he realizes a simple thing: there's nothing viable. He's stuck in a cell with two other people, he is not the kind of person to throw hands with a teenager, and any words out of his mouth are going to get the same mocking tone in return.

The only option available is silence, and so he does just that. He goes quiet again, closing his eyes to make it clear that he's not engaging any further at this point.]

[The new and annoyed silence doesn't particularly bother Coraline. She's just gonna keep staring at him for a bit longer.

He's a sensible person, then, to some degree. Not picking fights with a caged teen in front of people. Clearly she'll have to try harder to get a reaction.

When she does eventually open her mouth again, at least she's using her normal voice. Her accent's Australian, so probably very foreign to Alucard.]

You know, you'd be really pretty if you smiled.

[Thank goodness he's a few centuries too early to know how to classify that.

Instinct says to scowl deeper. Alucard resists that much, favoring a slightly wordier response.]

I don't believe being pretty is of use at the current moment.

Well being a case study in being bitter and sad isn't helping either.

[She pushes herself up into a sitting position, now that he's actually engaging with her. She can see him wanting to scowl, and has to school a pleased smirk off her own face.]

You're not even like, usefully sad. You're just brooding.

[called out and then some.

He manages a more flat, unimpressed look in response. How this stranger knows the exact buttons to push at the moments is a mystery, but at least there can be more give and take than her previous track.]

How would you define usefully sad?

What, you haven't seen my waterworks?

[She sits up and preens a little, brushing her hair out of her eyes. Granted, she's making herself terribly thirsty, but putting on some tears and a sob story every time someone who wasn't another prisoner or Majima's regular benefactor was so far doing pretty well in garnering her open sympathy.]

With how many people come and visit us, you could totally use that to get someone to pity you enough to help get you out.

I'd classify those as acting, if I am being utterly blunt at the moment.

[Alucard's barely reacted to anyone approaching the cell, save for the earlier moment when Hector tried to use smith tools to break through the chains. The silent treatment was not winning him friends, but that was in his opinion for the better.

There's a quiet appraisal of the statement.]

That is not my preferred method of gaining allies.

Well yeah, but they don't need to know that.

[With a jerk of her head towards the hallway. But she's eyeing him up and down now, appraising rather than a teen's attempt at being smooth.]

You could probably sleep your way to the top pretty easily.

[Alucard doesn't physically recoil at the suggestion. There is, however, a real flinch, and it takes effort not to push further back against the wall.

Calmly, more than he feels, there is a very quick:]

I think not.

[Huh. Interesting reaction, but one she won't provoke again. She wants to annoy him, not trigger him.]

Well, what about that guy who came by who wanted to make you carry his books? Being a servant out there can't be worse than being trapped in here.

[Thank you for realizing the forbidden button.

Hector. That gets another sigh, although that one is more annoyed.]

That one is...complicated. [~~because we're not done threading the full of it out~~] And here is quiet, for the most part. No one's lying to our faces about how they feel, as I suspect is happening above.

[Well, he's not wrong. She's been in a gilded cage before, she knows exactly how stressful it is to be in the limelight of such poisonous affection. It's literally why she is who - and what - she is now; if she was up there being put on a pedestal, she'd crack immediately.

But the frankness puts a bit of a damper on her humour, and she pulls her knees up to curl into a ball.]

Right. Because the guards threatening to beat the shit out of us for existing and that fucking wizard sealing people's magic is a good thing.

Of course it isn't. But they're without pretense. It makes them easier to deal with.

[Alucard has hardly clocked that he is being a total buzzkill here, and to him, it doesn't matter. All that's important here and now is frankness and survival.]

There is something to be said for that sort of honesty.

[Not that she doesn't appreciate it; as much as she tends to live in the moment, she does understand pragmatism and necessity, and being stuck in jail with strangers and no magic definitely demands a certain amount of both.

Mostly this just isn't the self-entertaining annoyance she expected it to be.]

Not sure how many of the idiots upstairs are gonna think of it the same way. They get to use the library and stuff - even if half of it's lies, that's still useful.

Do you wish to debate the odds, or let your imagination run wild with the possibilities and nuance?

[The question is genuine enough, and Alucard hmmms softly himself.]

But you have a fair point with regards to the library. I've seen finer, but as a resource of what we've been pulled into, it isn't to be taken lightly.

[She just gives a soft snort.]

With how many of them are coming down here bringing us things? Probably not actually that many are seeing their time as a prison compared to the people down here. We're lulling them into a false sense of security just by existing.

So 10% who understand the whole set up is a trap. Or would you say lower, maybe 5%?

[He raises an eyebrow, seeming to expect a real answer.]

[Ugh, he's gonna make her do maths? She glares out the cell again, at the other ones around them.

...when she's up near the door, she can see maybe four cells on the other side have people in them. So there's at least two more on either side of theirs, since it's perfectly mirrored by the one opposite them, so that's already at least... twenty four people that she knows of.]

Depends on how many there are up there, doesn't it? Ten percent of everyone down here's only like. Three people, I think. If we're lucky the, um. The percentage will be higher upstairs.

Fine, by people. More or less than 15, if we presume a group similar in size?

[Math is good for you!]

[Math suuuuucks. She can sound smart without it.]

Presuming a similar data sample, with evidence to suggest the majority of us would also be suspicious of the goodwill upstairs, I'd like to say... optimistically, maybe twenty people are suss, with room for outliers? Realistically it's probably more like. Three to six, or something.

[Fine but don't come crying to him when you need to engineer something.]

Six seems like a very fair number. [If nothing else, he can number Hector in those ranks. That's...something? He guesses?

He tilts his head back against the wall a little bit more, eyes focused on the ceiling.]

Possibly enough to make whatever attempt to break for it chaotic. Whenever that happens.

But if they need us here for some reason, they can just cancel out any magic the ones upstairs have and throw them down here with us.

[The thought makes her frown, actually, and she lifts a hand to brush her hair back thoughtfully.] Why didn't they just do that in the first place, anyway? What's the difference that makes them so special?

[There's a special kind of bitterness in her tone, one she's not fully cognizant of.]

It could be arbitrary, it could be a secret metric. [Alucard's ears perk at the bitterness, but he doesn't comment. A teenager is entitled to be bitter, especially in the current circumstances.]

The need is where the question lies. And if they need anything prodigious, then chains are a poor choice. The moment they fall away is to court destruction, and I don't doubt that is a known fact.

Yeah, but they're not using the chains to stop people here from using their magic, the fucking wizard did that all by himself.

[She's taking 'court destruction' a touch literally, mayhaps, but just because the majority of her magic is destructive it doesn't mean there aren't people who have a better range therein. She can respect that, she supposes, if she has to.]

Getting out of the cells and chains is one thing but people getting magic again would be, like. Something else completely, right?

Open Log for June

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

no subject

(no subject)

(no subject)

(no subject)