cool motive, still murder

[niffin]

Who: Alice Quinn (niffin), Alan Bradley (alan_1), and you
When: 17th - 22nd-ish.
Where: The Hold, where you hold stuff. 
What: Post-trial. Alice is hanging out in the hold, because apparently convincing minors to arm disastrous deadly traps is frowned upon outside of Jumanji. 
Warnings: Probable discussion of character death and violence

[ If you'd like a specific starter, just let me know OOC. ]

Comments

OTA, will match brackets/prose

[niffin]

a. woke up afraid of my own shadow

She spends the first day waiting for any word about Peter, about J, about whether anyone’s coming back this time. Guilt is a powerful paralytic, but if anyone gets close enough to speak, she forces herself off the bed to press her face to the glass and whisper:

“Any updates?”


b. like, genuinely afraid

The second day’s silent. Alice lies flat on the little bed, unmoving, zoned the fuck out. Occasionally she lifts a hand, ticks off a finger, and slumps back down. It’s not clear what she’s counting. Anyone who wants to talk is going to have to come inside.


c. headed for the pawnshop, to buy myself a switchblade

By the third day, she’s pissed off, and her face is full of undisguised nerves.

“So, I’m really thinking we should start a ship zoo.” It’s a joke, but the tone’s all wrong. Her teeth chatter, despite the heat.


c. and the girl behind the counter asks me how i feel today

Day four is spent…invisible. Uh. Where did she go? There was supposed to be someone in here, right?


d. i feel like lovecraft in brooklyn

WILDCARD, whatever you feel like doing. want a literally captive audience for your stand-up? what's the deal with airline food?

c.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

"We definitely should never start a ship zoo," Nihlus counters in his mildest tones as he sets up a folding chair outside her cell. Hi, Alice. It's visiting hour for the local space raptor.

[niffin]

"Are you sure about that?" She leans up against the warm glass, voice arching weirdly tinny. "We've already got the rooms."

Her arms cross, as she tries to resist the urge to pace. Fear's been grappling with fury all morning, and she doesn't quite know what to do now with the interruption. When she speaks, it's too quickly.

"There's a story," Because of course there is. There's always a story, that's how she always handles this. "A famous one on my world. Biologists go to capture alien lifeforms to bring back to Earth. Only, they start looking at the animals, and they all look like they should be from different places? And their ship won't start back up."

Alice lapses into silence, watching as he unfolds the chair. She doesn't finish the story, she's pretty sure he can work it out. She's pretty sure the story isn't what he came by for.

[beautifulspaceraptor]

"Rooms, yes. Personnel and resources? Less so."

Placing his hands atop the back of the chair, he watches the young woman as she talks, quiet for a long moment afterwards.

"Alice," he says, pushing warmth and something like apology into his tones. "How are you holding up?"

Because it doesn't look good from this end of things.

[niffin]

Did they give you that chair? Was it a job perk?

She wants to ask, itches to divert the point. Alice likes Nihlus, she respects his judgment... but she doesn't trust him, and she doesn't trust this. Not when he's speaking like Van der Weghe, like Mayakovsky, half a lifetime ago.

"I'm — I'm."

What? She doesn't know how to lie right now, not after two straight months of it. There's no point to it, anyway — neither of them's that dim. Shifting uncomfortably, she finally looks away.

"I've been worse." It's not an answer, but it's not a lie. "What about you?"

Whichever day you'd prefer

[neveroutwrenched]

The hold is getting tiresome. Wasted time and space, if you asked him, and now just serving as a waiting room for impatience and anger. Whatever problems it was supposed to be solving were just festering in here.

He crosses his arms, a forced smile even if he's not quite feeling it.

"If you'd asked me a week ago to describe this scenario, this is exactly the opposite of what I would have described."

waves hands nebulously

[niffin]

"Maybe that should've been a warning sign." It's meant to sound cocky, even if it just comes out like a croak. Alice dips off the edge of the bed to make her way over to talk. "Thanks for handling Cam. I didn't want to ask Ryan."

He never feeds his cat. It's a joke for a different day, and a different person to make. She shifts, awkward, hands shoved deep into her pockets. Her eyes are the wide, shot red of someone who hasn't slept in a day or three.

"I guess I should apologize for breaking your sculpture." The net. She means the net. She's just not sure who else in the Hold might be listening. Alice shakes her head. "This beats the old system though, huh?"

Re: waves hands nebulously

[neveroutwrenched]

He nods about the cat. He knows what she means about the sculpture. They're so well-versed in ducking below the radar at this point that it's practically second nature. It IS second nature.

"You mean the system in which everyone involved would've been murdered on the spot?" He's grinning but immediately drops the facade. "Yeah. Beats that."

But what didn't beat the old system? It wasn't sobering, it just pissed him off. Was everything that had happened going to be dragging behind them for the rest of their lives, coloring everything moving forward with a grey sheen that made it comparatively not-that-bad? Because if so...it sucked.

He turns, leaning a shoulder against the glass, arms still crossed as he looks down.

"I was thinking, maybe we should just, try staying out of trouble? Just for a change."

Was that a joke?

[niffin]

"Maybe it's crazy, but I'm starting to agree."

She rakes a hand through her hair, and looks away. There's been something burning in her chest since she watched the footage, hard and bright and hollow. It threatens to spill every time she opens her mouth to speak.

So she doesn't. Alice places her palm to the glass. It doesn't give her any better idea of what to say. She never should've agreed to this, never should've convinced Peter it was the right thing to do. If it needed handling, she should've handled it herself —

— But that isn't right either, is it? This is action, not apathy, but it’s the poisonous kind.

"I think," She hesitates. She doesn't want to tell Ratchet any of this, Ratchet who's always ducking and diving to throw himself in front of other people's problems, to carry their weight. Ratchet who's been racing to put this all behind him. "I think something's wrong."

b.

[songoftime]

Link... Link is still stunned. There are so many trials happening at once, and all of them connected, and... Even though now he can understand why Alice wanted to do something about someone dangerous, he...

... he just... he doesn't know. But... He's decided he at least wants to come talk to her about what's happened.

He stands there silently for a moment, watching her, waiting for some kind of acknowledgment. When it doesn't come, he steps closer, and thinks maybe he should say something. Maybe she just... hasn't noticed him.

"Hello?"

[niffin]

It's a long moment before she places the voice.

Oh.

In a rush, Alice sits up, swinging her knees out over the bed to stand. At the last second, she hesitates, lingering in place. Her fingers dig and pick at the side of the frame.

"Hey," She offers, biting her lip. "Sorry, I was just. Do you want to talk? I'm gonna,"

She gestures loosely to the floor, but doesn't move. Not quite yet. Link didn't flinch away earlier, but given the rest of the kids at the trial, she wants to give him space. It doesn't hurt that her whole body feels leaden, numb.

[songoftime]

Link nods, still just as steady as he was during the trial. He still seems lost in thought, but... That's the reason why he's here. He wants to talk.

Talking to Ratchet has made him more understanding of why she did what she did, but... He still wants to hear it from her, again. And, maybe, he'll... talk to her about some of the things he's been thinking about, ever since his talk with Chara in the kitchens. It feels so long ago now, even though he's already spent almost as much time here as he spent in Termina. Maybe that's what makes it feel so far away.

[niffin]

"Okay."

Alice pushes off, makes her way slowly to the glass. She pauses just a step or two away, leaves a buffer of space between. It's a much more concentrated effort to force her shoulders down, and in an instant, they're hunched again.

"Link, what happened. It —" A huff of breath, a rush of the exasperation she thought had finally fled. Alice pushes it aside. "— Everything got pretty fucked up, huh?"

Understatement of the century. It's a beat before she catches herself, remembers that she probably shouldn't swear. The look she pulls is something near to a grimace: Out of everything she's done around a student lately, that's unquestionably the least of it.

[alan_1]

[Alan shows up outside her cell on the second day. He doesn’t look angry -- just weary and resigned. There’s no hostility in his voice when he speaks.]

Hello, Alice.

[niffin]

[ Alice twists her head, watching him from the bed.

She’s been expecting him, sooner or later. It’s a relief, though, when he finally shows. Alice doesn’t trust her own judgment just now — can’t imagine when she will again — and if talking with Alan isn't a conversation that she wants to have, he’s at least one hell of a distraction.

She just didn't expect him to look so tired. Alice stares in silence, bright blue eyes unblinking. She can’t seem to look at his face for long.

Finally, she shifts up, leaning out over her knees to fidget. ]

Hey, Alan.

[ It’s not much, but it’s a start. ]

[alan_1]

[Alan watches her shift to sitting, trying to reconcile the person he’s seeing now with the woman in the footage who had set a trap with every intention of taking someone else’s life. It’s difficult, to say the least. Then again, Alan’s already learned from Rinzler that the violence one is capable of doesn’t always show on the surface.]

I’d like to talk to you about what happened, if that’s alright. And about what’s going to happen after this. [There’s a sadness in the second half of his request, but it’s tempered by a sober determination; whatever he’s planning, it’s clear it was already decided before he came here.]

I understand if you’d rather not speak with me, but… [A pause as he searches for words. Why should she want to talk to him? As far as she knows, he's the one solely responsible for creating the being she wants dead. And she knows that he was the first to demand that she be put on trial. But as much as Alan disapproves of her methods, he believes their end goal is the same.]

I think we’re both trying to protect people. And we can do that a lot better if we have an understanding.

[niffin]

No, I think you're right. We need to talk. Yeats, right? The center cannot hold.

[ Maybe that's hyperbole. Still, it's the peculiar intent in his words that really gets her attention, makes her engage. It's almost enough to stir her nerves back into uneasy life. What are you planning, Alan?

She tucks her hair back, a few times more than is strictly necessary. It's something to do with her hands, something that isn't a caution or a threat. There's glass between them.

She's fine. They're both fine. ]

So. I'm listening.

[ Alice doesn't move an inch from the bed, though. She wants that distance. ]

a.

[a_shadow]

Tex left the education department to Alice last month, spending most of her time helping to slaughter whales until the scraplets became an issue. So it's only been in the last few days they've been working together to discuss what to do about truancy and planning lessons. This is easy enough, since they're roommates.

And then this happens. Rinzler isn't Tex's favorite person but she knows he's a computer component himself, something akin to an AI, and being an AI herself, Tex views any assault on him as a sign of danger. She isn't really forthcoming with the fact that she's an AI, but there are people who know, and it seems to her that just because the program has gone rampant or whatever is wrong with him, it doesn't mean people should be taking these matters into their own hands.

So after the trials are through, Tex comes down to see her, coming to her cell and standing outside it, arms crossed. When she sees Alice's reaction to her arrival she raises an eyebrow. "What kind of updates are you expecting?"

[niffin]

It's not that they've rubbed along entirely happily.

Alice has been adamantly against any truancy measures — thinks it’s unfair to ask, counter-productive. Like Tex’s other plans (the currency system, the whale slaughter, whatever is going on with that Church guy) it just feels short-sighted. On those points she's kept quiet. She’s been diplomatic. These aren’t her decisions to make, and Tex is, after all, still mildly terrifying.

But she has a feeling that they’re about to suffer a communication breakdown.

“News. Out of medbay.”

Or the Morgue. She can’t bring herself to voice that last bit aloud. It wouldn’t be right; the other guy’s a mystery, and she hardly knows J. Knew.

“You don’t have any.” Her voice is quiet, dull. She’d turn and leave, but that would take more effort than she cares to expend. And it's not like there's far to go. “Why are you here, Tex?"

[a_shadow]

"No, I don't have any. I figured someone would deliver that to you when there was something you should know."

It's obvious, then, that she's here for other reasons. Which Alice picked up on right away, of course. They might be in each other's spaces a lot but that hasn't meant they're always on the same page. Tex tilts her head, just slightly.

"Honestly? I was wanting to see what the trial didn't show me. Motive, objective. Why this particular victim. You obviously knew you were guilty." Otherwise there wouldn't have been a reason to volunteer for the trial—these trials weren't to find guilt, they were merely to deliver a sentence. Guilt was presumed.

b. arrives late to the party and doesn't even bring any cake.

[ryuuzaki]

L doesn't know Alice, and as such, he allows a day for her to cool her heels in jail before he attempts to go talk to her. Maybe she'll be bored and willing; maybe she'll have had enough visits from friends that she won't be interested in talking to anyone else. Maybe boredom will make her mulish. The only way to find out is to try, so he tries.

"Hello. Alice, yes? I'm Ryuuzaki."

What she sees approaching her cell is a spindly man in his late twenties with wild dark hair, big grey eyes in a thin pale face, elegant hands and rather poor posture. He's regarding her with interest.

He doesn't really look Japanese.

what about ice cream

[niffin]

"Cheers."

She replies from the bed, voice dull. Her eyes track his movements more keenly, though, filing away the finer details of name and face and voive. L moves like a spider, and watches like one too. It's almost enough to remind her of Quentin.

Almost, and not enough.

"Democratic republic. US, 2008, Obama. No world conflict in the 90s, but a couple of small skirmishes involving us." Finally, she shifts up, leaning out over her knees on the bed. "On the network, you were asking."

b. (so late, so sorry)

[notpatsy]

((totally get if you don't want to backtag this much but I have been meaning to tag this for so long so I went ahead and did it))

Trish wouldn't claim to know Alice, not at all, but the girl got her out of a rough spot and that's not the sort of thing she tends to forget. Besides, she kind of wants to understand what happened here. Vigilante justice isn't something she's entirely unfamiliar with after all.

So she makes her way to the hold, and after a while of just observing the zoned out girl she steps into the cell. She doesn't think she has anything to fear here.

"Alice?"

it's all good! sorry for my own delay

[niffin]

"Hey Trish."

She doesn't move, but as Trish gets closer, it's easier to discern the aimless look on her face is anything but. Alice stares, intently, attentively at the ceiling above.

There's nothing there.

After a moment, she breaks away, swings her legs over the side of the bed to sit. Her fingers fidget, aimless. Alice may not know Trish, not well, but it's hard not to care about the people you survive with. It's harder to forget her decision on that crowded street. She didn't run, she didn't leave — no.

No, she owes Trish that same presence now.

"We always meet in the nicest places."

We can snail crawl along together

[notpatsy]

"We definitely have a star-crossed kind of thing going."

Trish slowly goes to sit down next to Alice on the bed, not sure what to say or do, only knowing that she wants to do something.

"What was so interesting about the ceiling?"

Honestly what else is there to do in here but stare at nothing, really?