thecapitol | Cellblock Tango Redux

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Cellblock Tango Redux

The holding facilities have been modified since the last time the prisoners were held there. There are roughly twenty or so holding cells, ten on either side of a long hallway, facing across from one another. The cells themselves are rather spacious, but they've been divided into smaller sub-cells with a forcefield acting as a barrier. Up to four prisoners can be housed in one of these smaller cells.

Those who never made it out of the prison have been branded and are housed in these cells beginning on Friday night. They can verbally communicate with each other, but physical contact is restricted. And remember, your words and actions are under constant surveillance by Peacekeepers.

Those who escaped and were recaptured will be put into cells in this same cellblock. They will not be branded, but instead will be cuffed.

All characters will be occasionally removed from their individual cells and taken elsewhere for interrogation. Some will be injured. Others will not. There does not seem to be much rhyme or reason to who is physically punished and who is not.

The guards are even less friendly than they were before. Now they are armed to the teeth and there are even more of them. There are K9 units posted at either end of the hallway at all times. Privacy is a thing of the past, but at least it's not forever. Right? Right?

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If Harley wasn't so irritated with him she might shoot him a scathing look. Instead she opted just not to glance in his direction at all.

"It brings out the worst in everyone chuckles. Of course it brings out the worst in me. The only difference is I enjoy it. And I know it's bad for me and everyone around me but that doesn't matter. An addict can logic their way out of an addiction. I got out of all that mess and even if no one cares It's given me alot of time to put my energy to helping people. Especially people I care about."

As much as she appreciated the acknowledgment from earlier it wasn't enough to sooth her hurt feelings entirely it seemed.

Sadly, Susannah still has her eyes shut, so she doesn't see Roland's frown.

"Some of us have better will power, Harley," she says, "and some of us don't--" She pauses for a moment and amends what she was going to say for better accuracy, "Don't want to enjoy it. It's like if I were tryin' to quit drinkin' and you were my drunk of a friend shovin' a beer in my hand."

Roland knows a part of Susannah - a large, conscious part - is ashamed of who he and she are, what they both do. Embracing that part of them that revels in that rush and using it. Letting theirselves sink inside that chaos and imposing their will upon it. While it's not something he speaks on much, something that makes him sick once it ends and the rest of himself comes back again, it's not something he'd try to quit even if he could. Product of being Susannah being trained so late in life, he thinks.

It's not as if he doesn't understand it. And if Harley is speaking the truth he understands that too, if more distantly. There are those who revel in chaos for its own sake, and he's met a fair few of them. Spent part of his life chasing one. He's never heard of one trying to quit, and of course the comparison reminds him of a certain dear lost friend to whom addiction could be compared to anything.

The important thing, anyway, is that 'people I care about' at the end of Harley's response, and his continuing - modified, but not gone - suspicion that the woman is trying to charm her way back into Susannah's graces so she can indulge that addiction again. To an addict of chaos, after all, Detta Walker might be one of the most alluring highs there ever could be. "You can't escape that, Harley. There will always be someone trying to 'shove a beer into your hand', as she says. There's always something. If you truly want to escape that addiction you're going to have to learn to control it."

Because when you get down to it most anything is a matter of will-power, right? Right. That's exactly it, Roland. Good job.

"Feh." She declared "And feh again even!" She added for emphasis.

"Being crazy may not be healthy and it causes problems, but I've used my crazy to have more fun and do a lot of good too! I've fought gods and came out on top because of being too crazy to tell myself I couldn't do something. Sure I need to dial it back done days but I'll never be cured because I don't want to be." Then she huffed. "What I meant was crazy got me out of the games and THAT meant I could be a better person."

"If I'd been a little crazier I woulda tried to rescue Susie alone and maybe I wouldn't be in this mess because SOME people have trust issues."

Edited 2014-08-16 13:23 (UTC)

"Either that, or it would be just the two of us in the cell," Susannah says. Harley'd probably prefer either of those scenarios, she thinks, and is very glad Roland got involved. "Or Roland might have got me away on his own, since I can't see him not try to come for me either."

She shrugs and then hisses in pain, regretting the gesture instantly.

(It's not so much she's afraid of that part of her, though she is uneasy about it at times, it's more that she's afraid that instead of her using it, it'll use her.)

He would have come for her no matter what. It's simple truth, but for some reason it's gratifying to hear Susannah say so. "Trust," he says to Harley, expression bland as he looks at her. "You speak so much of it. But what have you done to earn it? What single reason should I have to trust enough to let you - an addict of chaos, who's just told me you have no intention of trying to break from it - alone with my Susannah?"

That last is a bit of a surprise, 'my Susannah'. It just slipped out, and he isn't sure why. But he's worried, frustrated at seeing his friend's pain and being unable to even touch, to comfort, and he will admit to himself that he is afraid. The phrase is accurate enough, anyway, so there's no point dwelling on it. "Explain that to me, and I may begin to give you a chance."

A smirk tugged at her lips till it curled into a coy smile.

"Because Dum Dum, you needed another body between you and the onslaught of peacekeepers. I don't care if you use me...in fact I encourage it. But if you're gonna use someone and throw them asjde a little trust is needed. You shoulda trusted that you weren't gonna just throw me at them and run. The least you could have done was trust me to have your back. But you kept so clammed up I couldn't even tell you that you were about to open the door to the mess hall!"

She winked at Susannah even if Susannah still couldn't see it.

"Besides, if I wanted Detta back I coulda just let the Capitol people drag her out. I'm not the type to steal someone's true love though. You can have "Your Susannah" all to yourself."

Susannah's eyes open wide and she stares at the two of them. "Harley," she says, "it's not like that. I love Roland dearly, but we're not lovers and we never have been. Why on earth would you think that we were?" I'm not that suicidal, she manages not to say, partly because she clearly is that suicidal if she's friends with Roland at all.

Roland, on the other hand, can see why she thinks it. He's even played on that once, hasn't he? That tendency people have to assume. He thinks he has, but it was long ago in another place, and not particularly relevant here. "I trusted you just as much as I needed to," he says, instead of commenting on the rest. Susannah's got that pretty well covered. "But I had no plans to throw you aside, if that's what you're thinking. Much the opposite."

"Well ya coulda fooled me." She shot back at Roland ignoring Susannah's protests. "I was giving up alot to try and rescue Susannah and I thought if I threw my trust into you that together we'd stand a better chance of getting her out. Even if only two out of three of us made it."

Sitting up she folded her arms looking at them appraising them.

"And I was willing to do it to. I'd throw away all that comfort and fun so long as someone I cared about could be free with her true love."

"I told you, Roland's not my true love," Susannah protests, still stuck on that point. And yes, she remembers when they'd played on those assumptions, but it had been for people they'd just met. It bothers her that Harley, who she's known for nearly a year, would make that mistake. "That man is dead in one world and who even knows where he is here? Not the Capitol."

Roland watches Susannah, expression deliberately blank. If she chooses to believe the man she thinks of as her Eddie is alive, well. Where's the harm? It certainly isn't something he'd discuss with her here and now, in any case. "Even if I were," he says instead, "you only knew it a moment ago." His tone is one of mild rebuke; if she's going to spin noble lies to a couple gunslingers, she ought at least to do a better job.

Her dry expression barely changed.

"Oh I've always had my suspicions about you two. You just confirmed it! Stop trying to make it sound like I'm OBVIOUSLY the one who screwed this all up. I may have screwed up my friendship but this rescue mission is all on you."

"What do you mean you've always had your suspicions?" Susannah says, still distracted by Harley's romantic opinions and not really caring that much why her rescue had gone to hell--especially since it was quite obvious that Roland and Harley probably hadn't got ten feet inside the facility before they'd started to argue.

Roland raises his eyebrows - surprising to hear Harley take responsibility for something without making any excuses. But he's not a child, will not argue like one, and so he does not say so aloud. This is not the first time he has told himself this. It will not be the last.

There are some people, he knows, that no matter how experienced or well trained they might be can never really work together. If he'd known he and Harley were two of those, Roland realizes he probably would have put in more effort to keep peace with her. The idea that he should have trusted her is and will always be a ludicrous one, but he may even so have played a part in their ridiculous capture.

Damned if he's going to admit it. Maybe to Susannah, later.

Did you say something about their capture, Harley? Roland must not have heard it. He certainly isn't ignoring it. What he is doing is watching her expectantly, curious about how she'll answer Susannah's question. Since this is the Harley's first meeting with him, if she honestly has had suspicions they'll be based on things Susannah's said. He doesn't consider for a second that anything Susannah's said about him is in any way romantic, but that doesn't mean he's not curious.

"Oh I'm a romantic Susie Q, I can tell these things. There's a connection there like a red string of fate." She held up her pinkie wiggling it uselessly.

"Not that any of that matters anymore. If the two of you won't admit it I'll just have to keep cheering grumpycat over there on till he finally confesses to you Susie. I mean seriously what else can I do to make you happy? I'm kinda running outta options here."

And there it was. It all came back to Harley trying to make Susannah happy. Trying to make up for the betrayal that had ruined their friendship. The girl was obsessed.

Susannah's just relieved that Harley hasn't made the connection between the friend who'd been one of the fathers of Mia's chap and Roland yet.

"Of course there's a connection," Susannah says, rolling her eyes, "he was my--" dinh she wants to say, but thanks to the translator chips it comes out as, "leader. He was the leader of our--" ka-tet "--fated party and... oh Lord, is that really how the damn thing's translating it?"

"Pain in the ass isn't it?" 'Grumpy cat' is probably meant to mean him, so he gets back to the main topic to finally try and clear things up a little. "And I do love Susannah, as it happens. With all my heart. But I don't love her as a woman; I love her as a gunslinger, as a... a sister-by-law, perhaps. Pleased as Susannah may be to hear it I doubt any of us could be truly happy, in this place."

Harley rolled her eyes clearly not buying his excuse.

"That's where you're wrong. We can be happy so long as we have people to be happy with. And so long as you're not a horrible backstabbing psychopath like me you'll always find at least one person to tolerate you're incredibly stiff and kind of dull personality."

At this she rolled onto her stomach and winced once more but closed her eyes tucking her arms under her head.

"If you actually TRY to have some fun you may just surprise yourself. It'll do wonders for your attitude and it'll make everything seem alot less impossible."

"Harley, honey, we're in a jail cell. I've been beaten, we've all been branded, I think we've got a damn good excuse not to be as chipper as you think we ought to be." Susannah sounds more than a little exasperated. "And Roland's not dull, he's-- he's terse, that's all."

Terse. Roland snorts, and lets that particular topic pass him by. "Can you be happy here, Harley? Where anyone you care about - and you do care, at least, about Susannah -" or thinks she does, "might die brutally in front of you at any moment? Where you never know if they're going to come back? Where they beat your friends while you watch simply because you loved them enough to try to help? Do the fawning and shiny baubles truly make up for that?"

She couldn't help but cast a lazy eye in Susannah's direction before answering.

"You can't control everything, much as I'm sure you'd like to tight pants. Fact of the matter is most of that stuff could happen and does happen where I come from. So if your world was more sunshine and rainbows I'm sorry. But given what Susie's told me I'm guess in it ain't."

She closed her eyes again kicking her legs childishly.

"It's not about the baubles, much as I love them. It's about the experiences! Meeting new people you never would have met otherwise. Experiencing things that would be impossible back home." She turned her head to shoot him a wide unsettling smile.

"If you wanna die trying to change a world that doesn't want to change be my guest. Break your beloved heart like a selfish mook. But if you wanna know what's most important to me? Look where I am! I gave up the world to sit in a box with a girl I love who hates me, and a guy who couldn't crack a smile if he was being tickled by the Gotham U cheerleaders."

"I don't hate you," Susannah protests, "I just... I just don't like you much anymore, for perfectly reasonable reasons. But I can't exactly hate you after what you risked to spring me, can I?" She rubs her forhead, wincing at the pain that moving any part of her body entails. "Anyway, I've seen Roland smile. I've even seen him laugh, although it almost killed him." Literally, actually, but let Harley think it's a metaphor.

"I'm not trying to change anything," he says, and wonders at how tired his voice sounds. The only thing he's tried to change so far is how long Susannah had to stay in this jail cell. He tried, and he didn't succeed, and that is that.

Harley however ignored his protest and opened her eyes once more to cast a forelorne smile at Susannah.

"Well it was with give up everything to try to save you or die a painful and miserable death, but I couldn't figure out how the second one would have gotten you out of lock up."

Of course with Harley one could argue that was either a bad joke or absolute honesty. Maybe even she didn't know.

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