Tomorrow I'll be stronger, running colorful, no longer just in black and white [Week 6, Open]

[dead_black_eyes]

Who| Linden Lockhearst and Open!
What| After this altercation, Linden had to spend the night in jail. Encounter him at any point during the 24 period during and after this less-than-glamorous ordeal.
Where| Jail, later on the District 6 suite.
When| Week 6
Warnings/Notes| The normal ones for Linden! References to drugs and death are likely.



I. Jail

Linden stares past the rigid plastic handcuffs at his black shoes on white tile. It was only a matter of time, perhaps... withdrawal and the ensuing hell that was sobriety has been rough on him. For the first time in over a decade, he's been forced to look at some of the experiences that have shaped the person he is without the haze of Morphling or alcohol influencing it, resulting in the emergence of a deeply sad and very angry man. Having numbed these emotions for so long means that his ability to deal with them isn't great; an already tense situation with an admittedly horrible District 7 Mentor had escalated and though he'd blacked out past a certain point, he's pretty sure that he hurt the guy. Possibly even enough to need stitches. At that point, it didn't matter who you were or what you'd been through; you at least had to spend a night in jail as a token punishment, and past that, even if you were lucky and the media didn't catch wind, it was inevitable that you'd have to deal with some kind of therapy or conflict-resolution seminar at some point.

There's a forcefield keeping Linden from walking out of his cell, but it's possible to hear through it, even smell through it. There's coffee brewing somewhere nearby, and he approaches the forcefield and tries to get the attention of the nearest Peacekeeper.

"Hey... hey, is that coffee? Can I have some, please?"

The Peacekeeper sighs. "Try to sleep. You can't leave until morning at the earliest, and it gets boring as hell in those cells. It's supposed to, this is a punishment."

"Then let me bum a cigarette."

He's left behind with a brisk, dismissive shake of the Peacekeeper's head.

II. The Next Morning- Bail Posted

"Rise and shine." the Peacekeeper in charge disables Linden's forcefield, and he sits up quickly, having not actually realized that he'd fallen asleep.

"What's going on?" he asks blearily, already reaching for the wastebasket he'd requested they leave in his cell with him. Since quitting Morphling, he's queasy in the mornings sometimes.

"Morning, and someone's posted your bail. Congratulations; 6 must really want their only Mentor back."

"Who was it?"

"Beats me. I'd suck up to them big time, though, they did you a hell of a favor."

III. The Next Morning- District 6 Suites

Linden probably shouldn't have been allowed to return to work so quickly after snapping so obviously and so badly, but he is 6's only Mentor right now, and he's therefore needed. A sweet-voiced woman in a nurse's uniform had stopped by his cell before his bail had been posted and given him a stack of pamphlets, commending him on his efforts to get clean but assuring him that there were more ways to quit than recklessly going cold turkey. She urged him to consider tapering off to avoid a situation like the one he'd ended up in, and explained that mood swings and aggression were common side effects of coming off of a persistent Morphling addiction, and he is broodingly considering it.

He's also considering how the fuck he is going to apologize to Jason Compson. A written apology was one of the conditions for his release, after all, and he takes a deep breath, trying not to clench his fist around his pen and staring at his attempt to write something acceptable.

Dear Mr. Compson,

I'm sorry you're a sadistic brat

Stupid

have the self-control of a rabid warthog in front of an all-you-can-eat truffle buffet


I'm sorry that I lashed out at you. It was entirely my fault to expect you to be as refined as your bloodline would suggest when you are clearly an Avox-hitting sow of a-------------

Fuck you, you spoiled


It's not going particularly well.

Comments

[dead_black_eyes]

The situation is absurd and pathetic, and Linden can actually understand how it would be funny to an outside onlooker. He isn't quite so self-absorbed that he can't imagine how it would feel to witness his hapless plight, and he can even admit to himself that were anyone else in his place, he'd find it just as funny as Terezi seems to find this scenario.

He sighs resignedly as she takes a seat beside him, but his tired features spread in a slow smile as she speaks. Her implication is mischievous, but... certainly for someone as clever as he is, there's a way to be careful, to be cheeky, and most importantly, to be free.

"Yes..." he murmurs, tearing his current sheet away and starting fresh once more. "I really do think you're right about that. Contrary to popular opinion... I actually am capable of exercising caution and restraint. I wouldn't have won my Games if that wasn't true."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi grins at his reaction. It was exactly the sort of response that she was hoping for. She doesn't offer anything more than that. Linden seems to have found his writing spirit. She simply settling down to sniff at whatever he begins to write.

"All in a day's work for a Junior Peacekeeper. That's what I'm here for. Keeping the peace." And enabling slightly-unstable Mentors into writing tongue-in-cheek apology letters to the Capitolites that they've attacked. What a peaceful resolution.

[dead_black_eyes]

She has one of the most distinctive grins Linden thinks he's ever seen, wide with rows of sharp, pointed teeth. Some Career Victors have filed their teeth that way; he returns it with a slight half-smile of his own (he rarely shows his own teeth), putting pen to paper and rapidly jotting down his masterstroke.

It's so immature, and petty, and blunt. It's hidden. It's actually kind of perfect.

"Well. Isn't peace just what we all want?" he asks, and now he's grinning, too.

[pythianjudgment]

"Of course it is." He's going to be seeing a lot more of that grin.

Terezi is silent as he writes, but she hovers close to be able to smell the words. At first she's a little confused at the politeness of the letter. She goes over every sentence, trying to find the hidden jab or snide comment, and she doesn't find anything too scathing. She's almost disappointed that he might be using some inside joke to shame the other man, until she suddenly catches scent of the pattern. Her eyes widen, and a surprised "Oh!" escapes her lips before following up with laughter.

Oh, that's bold.

"I stand by what I said before. You are going to get arrested again." She pauses, still beaming and sits back to let him keep writing. "But I like it. Good job."

[dead_black_eyes]

Distinctive though her smile may be, it's also one that Linden feels certain he can get used to seeing a little more frequently. Of most of the Tributes, for whatever reason Terezi is one he prefers, even if he's not supposed to pick favorites (and especially not outside of his own District.)

"You think I will?" he asks, squinting. "I don't think it's so obvious. You caught it, but it took you a second, and most will not be looking closely anyway. Or smelling," he adds, not meaning to exclude her unique way of perceiving the world around her.

"But thank you."

[pythianjudgment]

"Well, I guess you had better hope that your recipient is as dumb as bricks," Terezi remarks with a shrug of her shoulders. She won't be one to get in trouble from this cryptic apology, so she's not too concerned with it. She highly doubts that they would do more than lock Linden up in jail again for being such a snarky asshole.

"You have pretty good odds in this city, but you didn't hear that from me."

[dead_black_eyes]

"Hear what from you?" he asks smoothly, with a quick, clever smile.

I'm afraid I don't known what you mean. That's how good I am at playing that I'm innocent.

[pythianjudgment]

"Exactly." Terezi grins back at him. It's been a while since she's felt such an easy exchange of banter with someone from this world. It's sort of nice, in a strange way.

She leans back a bit, letting him wrap up his letter without hovering over him. "So what exactly did he do, anyway? I don't think I heard the whole story, just the aftermath. Something, something, Linden freaked out and tried to slice some guy's face open. Must be a Tuesday."

[dead_black_eyes]

Terezi and Linden are just similar enough to be able to share this kind of banter, it seems, and Linden finds it every bit as gratifying as the troll girl seems to. He relates closely to so few.

"That's pretty accurate, actually," he says with a shrug. "He was beating an Avox over a broken mug, I tried to pick up the pieces, he grabbed me by the arm and tried to pull me up, and that doesn't go over so well with some Victors."

[pythianjudgment]

"Wow, he's lucky that it was just his face that got cut. I know more than a few trolls that would have gone for the jugular." She grins like she's joking, but she's really not. She's not necessarily one of those trolls that would kill first and ask questions later, but she might make an exception for a shitbag who thinks it's okay to beat an Avox.

"Did you get to keep the pieces as a souvenier? Wait, no... I'm not supposed to be eencouraging your behavior, am I? Bad Linden. Very bad." You should have rubbed his face in the broken pieces instead, is what she wants to say, but she doesn't want to seem like she's enjoying this too much. "Have you learned your lesson?"

[dead_black_eyes]

Linden's face is pinched and not at all amused at the joke; he's the guy with a famous throat scar, after all, and it's not exactly a barrel of laughs to remember how it got there. He knows Terezi's not being malicious, so it's a lot easier to let things pass by.

"The pieces stayed," Linden says, the joke not really gaining any real traction. "They wouldn't even let me have chess pieces in jail, so it's not that surprising." He shrugs at the chastising words.

"I've learned a lesson. Maybe it'll suffice in the long run."

[pythianjudgment]

A lesson learned is probably good, indeed. But Terezi won't ask what it is. She knows better than that. She'll take the other topic mentioned, just to keep from toeing the line with this one anymore.

"Why would you want chess pieces in jail?"

[dead_black_eyes]

"Security thing," Linden says with a shrug of one thin shoulder. "After you win the Games, you're supposed to pick like... a hobby or an art of some kind to occupy your time. I chose chess. I got really good at it, and wherever I'm staying I like to have a board nearby. But they don't trust me not to try to use the King as a lock pick, I guess."

[pythianjudgment]

"Can you use the king as a lock pick?" She vaguely remembers the shape of a king piece--before it grotesquely transformed into something else entirely. She has to wonder if that sort of tool would be at all useful for picking locks.

"I've never really played chess. Technically." The whole SGRUB game seemed to be built around chess, but she has a feeling that the rules of that game were drastically different from the kind that Linden played.

[dead_black_eyes]

"I don't know. I've never tried. I really can't, now, or imagine what privileges they'll revoke or assumptions they'll make about my ability to get past their measures?"

He seems interested that she hasn't played chess, if a little surprised. "Really? Haven't you? Would you like to learn?"

[pythianjudgment]

"Hmm." He has a point. If he started going around trying to pick locks, they might be forced to increase his security when he does get himself into trouble. If the act of picking locks doesn't get him into trouble in general.

"...I would not be opposed to learning!" she answers, regarding his question about chess. It seems like a strange but popular game. "Would you have time to teach me? In between your bouts of being a jailbird."

[dead_black_eyes]

"You don't seem like the type to be opposed to learning," he says, laughing gently. "I've absolutely met people like that, so I think I'd know. Teaching you would be my pleasure, I certainly have time."

[pythianjudgment]

Terezi grins back at his laughter. He's got her pegged on that note. "Awesome," she chimes, pleased at the prospect of learning this silly game. She can't help but throw out a cheeky challenge:

"I am going to be kicking your ass before you know it."

[dead_black_eyes]

"You really think so?" he asks dryly. "This has been my primary hobby since my Arena, you realize. I've played almost every day since then and studied it and I haven't lost a game in years. That's years, multiple."

[pythianjudgment]

"I care not for your dumb human years," Terezi proclaims haughtily, turning her nose to the air and puffing her chest. "Teach me your chess ways, and I will mop the floor with you. Just wait and see."

[dead_black_eyes]

"You treat time like a joke, and just watch, it'll treat you like one," Linden says with a dark chuckle, as if his own sunken eyes and cheeks aren't testament to that very warning's validity. "But take a seat over there and I'll reset it for us, if you're really serious about wanting to learn. I'm not too drunk to teach yet."