in the prison of the gifted [OPEN/JULY CATCHALL]

[girl_at_the_window]

Who: Susan Delgado and YOU
When: Before the July event
Where: The library; the dining hall; dungeons; gardens. Will probably add a roommates prompt once I figure out where she is.
What: Susan gets used to being out of prison, visits the dungeons, and generally enjoys having a little more freedom.
Notes: There will probably be discussion of pregnancy/pregnancy loss, and possibly of abuse. Will try to CW where these things occur.

Toplevels will be in the comments. If you want a closed toplevel, shoot me a PM or plurk me at jormandugr

Comments

[solmate]

It takes a moment for Alina to catch up to what Susan's talking about. Medicine? She hasn't seen herself in a minute (not many mirrors to look in), so she doesn't realize quite how rough she looks. A second later it clicks. How quickly she'd forgotten that she was the perpetually sickly child.

She turns her head, rubbing idly at her eye and shaking her head.

"No, you don't need to do that," It won't help, but she doesn't feel like explaining why. "But... if you could get some parchment and ink..." Not for any real reason other than she wants to stay occupied.

[girl_at_the_window]

It's exactly the right thing to ask for, apparently: Susan brightens noticeably, eager to share her own excitement. "I can," she says, in a tone of some wonder. "I sure can. Gods, they've got such stacks of paper they could wipe their asses with it, upstairs. They'd never miss a sheet or two, nor care it's gone." She leans in, as if sharing a secret. "Yesterday, I saw one of their 'prentices write half a sheet and then throw it away. Can ye imagine it? Not even turn it over, just ball it up and toss it out like it was junk."

Her father had a notebook of real paper, once. She remembers watching him write his figures in it, working them out on a slate first, writing close and small to save the precious paper, turning the page and writing crosswise so as not to waste even the smallest portion of that book, which had cost him the best part of a year's rent. The profligacy they show in Thorne - with paper, with sugar, with everything - delights and horrifies her in equal measure.

"I'll get 'ee a pen and papers," she confirms, just in case it wasn't clear enough, and nods firmly. "What is it ye want 'em for?"

[solmate]

Alina balks at that. So wasteful! Ana Kuya would have taken a hand to her bottom if she saw Alina waste paper like that. Each sheet was was filled to the brim, every pencil sharpened down to its ends until it was unusable.

She wears a huge grin at this good fortune. Of course, maybe unconsciously she reinforces her comparison between Thorne and her stint in the Little Palace, where they had the audacity to pretend like wanting was an exercise in discipline rather than a suffering of circumstances. It's easy to pretend like scarcity builds character when it's temporary and by choice. Alina has had enough of scarcity by now, thanks.

"Saints, I don't know, I'm just so bored down here," it feels weird to admit that out of all of the things that are not fun about being in prison, boredom is her first complaint. But she is a teenager after all. And speaking of teenager things... "Plus, I don't get much time in the yard with Mal so I thought it might be better to have something to write notes if I need to."

Just casual friendship things. Don't worry about it Susan.

[girl_at_the_window]

Worry isn't what passes over Susan's face, although the rather sly look of understanding might not be an improvement. She remembers the way Mal had looked at Alina from the start, and she sure as hell remembers their disarray when they'd come back from wherever they'd been off together.

"Sure," she agrees, with a smile that's trying very hard not to be a smirk. "Sure, I ken that." Then, remembering with a sudden fondness how Sheemie had helped her and Roland, in those too-brief weeks of their courting: "I can pass him things, too, if ye'd like. In between yard time, I mean. I'd like to help." It's not at all the same thing as her and Roland, really - there's no such secrecy, no such danger in being caught talking, for Mal and Alina - but there's a part of her that feels like it's just to help another couple along in their own time of hardship. If she can.