some fool tries to challenge the throne (semi-open)

[parenthetically]

Who| Buddy Glass and anyone presently incarcerated.
What| Touring the prisoners to make sure everything's on the up and up and none of that nasty torture business is going down anymore. Even if it actually is.
Where| Central holding where ever that might be.
When| Idk guys. Anytime post-attempted jailbreaks through to the day before the Arena.
Warnings/Notes| Mentions of past torture/mutilation, gore, possible swearing, general unpleasantness.



It was roughly half past some utterly desolate, irredeemable hour in the afternoon when Buddy Glass felt that he was plucked, quite unceremoniously and with as little pomp and circumstances as was possible for a society built on such things, from the criminally disinteresting stark white of his cubical. He was dragged, metaphorically and not literally it should be noted, up several floors to have his security clearance verified once, twice, and a third time, before being hauled (again, metaphorically) back downward to the dank areas in which he usually was loath to tread. To clarify the point, edify for both his own benefit and that of the reader, Buddy was not afraid of the jail cells or their inhabitants. Even if he had a healthy regard for the emotional compartmentalization necessary to make a habit out of killing people on national TV every few weeks, they were harmless enough now. And besides, the same grunts who had so taciturnly scaled the building with him were still around and more impressively armed. There was no danger the jail could present to any of them, particularly not with the others ordered to stick around come hell or high water.

No, his avoidance of the jail was more practical than that. It was, after all, much easier to invent living conditions than it was to actively lie about them. There was something nasty about lying. Inventing presumably but not verifiably false information didn't carry the same weight. He sniffed, the air itself seemed to cling to them and it was noticeably darker here. It made him miss the sterile, white, windowlessness of his cubical. Not that there was sunlight down here either, but all the same. The only decent light came from a forcefield glowing eerily at the entrance to each individual cell.

Buddy was pulled from his distraction by the gruff voice of a member of his escort. The man was reading off information, he realize after slightly too lingering a moment of confusion. Names, dates of arrest, why each individual had been arrested (suspicion of murder, and aiding and abetting seemed to be the common theme, which he had known and so he felt a little annoyed to hear it repeated again), District association, and any personal notes the Peacekeeper in question felt like adding. He wondered vaguely how it felt to have the misfortunes of your life rattled off in front of you to someone else completely in earshot. It had to be difficult to hear, but at least Buddy would wager, not as difficult as it would be to tactfully respond to any questions from here on out. Ignorance had its benefits. To know anything effectively one had to learn as little as possible about it. He was almost entirely sure he'd read a proverb to that end somewhere.

Comments

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy visibly stiffened on the floor at Pruna's voice. Clearly she was awake but trying to pretend she was sleeping.

That probably wouldn't last long though. She'd been kicked hard for such tactics.

Of the two of them she was worse for wear with bandages wrapped around each finger, and on her face covering one if her eyes.the other eye was clamped shut.

Hard to imagine such a tiny thing could be suspected of murder.

[parenthetically]

He'd found it hard to believe when they told him there were children wrapped up in all this. Well, not hard to believe, exactly, but hard to accept. It would have been easier to think that they'd been manipulated, dragged in by some seditious-minded adult who knew full-well the appeal of innocence. But, knowing their records and knowing as well as anyone in Panem did what children were actually capable of, Buddy couldn't put aside the nagging feeling that these two might be just as culpable as anyone else. It made him sick if he really bothered to think about it. God, they were younger than Franny.

Tilting his head, he dropped down to his knees, ignoring the way the cool concrete of the floor worked a chill all the way through his grey flannel pants. "Come on, sweetheart," he intoned, taking trouble to keep his typically boisterous voice from echoing in the poor acoustics. The words were directed at Sandy, but he'd have considered a reaction from either girl a small victory. "Try not to cry now. Have you gotten your meals today? There's some sandwiches upstairs in the cafeteria. They're roast beef today. Dry as hell, but not bad with some mustard. If you're hungry I'll have somebody send one down."

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna glared at him harder. It seemed Sandy was awake and she hated him for waking her when she needed all the rest she could get, and scaring her when she didn't deserve to be any more frightened than she already was.

"We do no be crying." She hissed at him, she was missing some teeth and it made her voice lispy. There was a note on her file, saying she was likely to bite.

She glared at his offer, did he think they were going to fall to such obvious tricks? "And we do no be fucking stupid either."

[justoutrunyou]

Seeing as her foolproof disguise of pretending to be asleep had failed Sandy rolled onto her hands and knees quickly, scurrying as far away from buddy as the force field would allow and curling up into a ball to hide behind her knees.

Sandy had been one of the original suspects brought in on this murder, and from her reputation in the arena it seemed unlikely. In six arenas she'd never successfully killed a single human. The closest she'd ever come was distracting others while Pruna killed them.

After Pruna had broken Sandy out they'd been on the lamb for three whole days before Peacekeepers found them and dragged them back. It seemed the interrogations with Sandy had been doubled in frequency since then and she was not handling it well at all. Often she would scream at her interrogators about angels and spiders and horrible furry beast men. Nothing even close to what they were looking for.

She wasn't screaming now though. Just watching him with one wide eye that was bloodshot and ringed with dark bags. Who could expect a good nights sleep after all that?

[parenthetically]

"I never said you were stupid. I'm not thinking it either, sweetheart, just so we're clear." He looked from Sandy to Pruna and back again with the patient irritation of an elder sibling. Circumstances aside, this wasn't so different from dealing with Zooey when he got into one of his fits. Franny had always been softer around the edges, but then again, she was like that. Being the baby had only reinforced her that tendency within her.

"You can't tell me sandwiches don't sound good right about now. I'm not about to let you two outta here again, but that doesn't mean we can't work something out to make it easier for you. I'm not the fire and brimstone type myself. Never had the stomach for it."

throws up very foul language warning

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna glanced over at Sandy, but Sandy looked the same way she had since Pruna had rescued her, terrified and broken. This was not good because Pruna often relied on Sandy for social cues. Pruna had to go with what she knew instead, this man was obviously powerful, he was from the Capitol. He was an enemy.

And enemies didn't bring prisoners sandwiches. Jailers didn't bring prisoners sandwiches. No one brought prisoners sandwiches it didn't make sense. Unless he wanted them to be in his debt for some reason. Buy their loyalty with food. Like they were stray cats to be lured with sweet milk and then caged and used to practice torture on.

Except they'd already been tortured, that example made no sense. Something worse then... some over reason they wanted their defenses down.

"We do no be wanting your fucking sandwiches you cocksucking motherfucking cumdumpster, goddamn smacktarded son of a whore." She smushed together two of the curses Howard had taught her and hoped they made sense together. It's not like she understands what half those words mean.

Re: throws up very foul language warning

[justoutrunyou]

Sandy however, had grown up in New York City and therefore understood every word very clearly. She had heard Pruna swear before but never so creatively.

Her eyes were still wide with fear but for a moment, just a flicker there was a twitch of a smile on her lips for her best friend.

It also served to distract her from starring at the scary man who may or may not be here to torment them.

[parenthetically]

"My big brother told me a long time ago that it was only people who had nothing really worth saying that needed to highlight their lack of an argument with a bunch of language like that." He narrowed his eyes, stern but still shy of truly menacing. The implication was there enough from his escort and his affiliation with the Peacekeepers in the first place. It would only intensify if the girls had any ideas about his service record. Still, there was no reason to ruin what Buddy still considered to be an at least half-salvageable situation.

"Besides, pretty girls like you two don't need the extra attention. Now I'm gonna give you a shot at that again, just because I really, honestly, am here to help you." He turned his attention from Pruna (the less salvageable of the two, likely) to Sandy. "How 'bout it, sweetheart? You think we can manage a polite conversation for a few minutes?"

[knifewithnoname]

Pruna was shaking with anger at this point and his calm response just made it worse. She glared back at him and the peacekeeper and the escort. Hating them all.

She wanted to hit him, to tear his tongue out and destroy his eyes. How dare he come here where Sandy was so hurt and claim he wanted to help. He wouldn't help, if he were a helper he wouldn't have a peacekeeper with him.

She scowled at him but let Sandy speak, she trusted her friend not to be so stupid to fall for his very obvious trick.

[justoutrunyou]

"I'm not pretty."

Her voice rasped from where she had taken refuge in the corner.

"I've never been pretty, or smart, and I'm not very strong either. I'm just a girl who dies alot."

With a trembling arm she pointed at Pruna, the bandages on her finger had become darker as old cuts on her fingertips were bleeding anew from how tightly she had been clenching her fists.

"She may be cursing, but at least she's honest. If you don't think she has anything worth saying just because she talks the way she's been taught you're just as bad as the rest of the deaf, dumb and blind people who do whatever the Capitol says. Including arresting little girls, ripping out their finger nails, have grown men punch them in the face and burning their flesh while they scream and cry and beg for parents they'll never see again."

The tiny speech had boiled up from somewhere inside her scattered and anxious mind. Her eyes still vibrating in her head as each word sounded like tiny cry. She wasn't defiant out of anger or inner strength, it was still based in her fear. Her fear of this man and everything he stood for. Only focusing on Pruna allowed her to piece together the words to describe just how he made her feel.

"I don't want sandwiches. I want to go home. I want my mom and my daddy and my best friend to come with me...or to go with her to her home. Anywhere but a place where I can get tortured even though I didn't do anything."