Jailbirds

[Script]

"I--" Script stopped talking. A million very bad ideas ran through her head. It made her insides twist up uncomfortable. She blinked up at the two girls around her, nodding dumbly as she followed them to the bunk.

Meanwhile, Gypsy made her way to Riddle. "So what's the plan?"

[Goblin]

Footsteps indicated the bottom bunk. "This one's yours. And that's Bitter." She indicated the girl in the top bunk.

"A good friend of ours," the tiny redhead, Yankee, added, "but she won't talk to you till she's good and ready...unless you happen to speak Spanish?"

~*~

Riddle crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at Gypsy. "I'm supposed to start making plans again? You remember how my last fucking plan ended?" But the wheels in her head were already turning, rusty though they were. She eyed the new girl thoughtfully. "Goblin's got his old friends watching out for her, so there's not much we can do right now. But if they're here to stir up trouble, fuck things up for the rest of us, we've gotta stop 'em. And you know that's what they'll do. That's how Goblin rolls." She narrowed her eyes at Gypsy. "Someone's gotta go over there and talk to him, find out what he's up to. And it sure as hell can't be me."

((P.S. This is me being super self-indulgent and playing with characters who've been sitting around in my head for ages. ^_^ And now I must sleep! <3))

[Script]

Script sat, knees buckling a little. "I...I do...my mother..." She started crying again. "Oh, Jesus, what am I doing here." She put her head in her hands. "I am not cut out for this."

~*~

Gypsy smirked. Goblin wasn't too familiar with her, but she knew enough about him from Riddle. And she lived for making people uncomfortable. "I'll do it. The ceiling vent's still clear to the boys' room. I can crawl through." She eyed Riddle. "By any means necessary?"

((Sooo excited! Night!))

[Goblin]

Footsteps immediately sat beside Script on the bunk and wrapped her arms around her. "Don't worry, sweetie, we're here for you," she assured her, rubbing her back and looking incredibly motherly. "You're gonna be fine. The food ain't that bad, and some'a the girls are nice, and we even go to classes here...you get to sew and fix shoes and stuff...you'll be fine."

Yankee perched on the edge of the bed too, looking rather uncomfortable with all this touchy-feely stuff. "Hey, Bitter!" she shouted at the top bunk. "The new girl speaks Spanish!"

Immediately, a sardonic but interested face popped up above the railing of the bunk. "¿Verdad? Encantada. Bienvenida al infierno."

~*~

Riddle snorted. "Trust me, any claim I had on that kid is very much expired. Do whatever you have to." She gave Gypsy a sidelong glance. "I mean...don't kill him, though." You never knew with Gypsy.

[Script]

Script blinked at the girl who spoke. 'Welcome to Hell'? Lovely.... Her only response was: "Aye, Dios mio..." She looked around at all the faces. "Is it true what those girls said? About Goblin using people?"

Here eyes were fixed on the taller brunette, who was currently making her way through a vent in the ceiling.

~*~

Gypsy snickered. "I'll try real hard no to." She jerked her head for a girl nearby to check the wall vent. When she got the all-clear, Gypsy climbed onto a bunk, reaching up to slide open a panel on the ceiling. Near-noislessly, she shimmied into he vent and crawled the distance to the matching loose panel in the boys room, sliding it off and poking her head in with her best come hither smile. "Evenin', boys."

[Goblin]

((Haha, Bitter is so not comforting.))

"You say that like it's a bad thing," Yankee said in surprise. Footsteps hit her lightly on the arm. "No, I'm serious." She looked Script in the eye. "Think of it this way. He was fifteen when they first threw him in here, and he was, like...this scrawny rich kid who ran away from home and got in over his head. If he didn't know how to use people, he'd be dead by now."

"It don't mean that he don't care about you," Footsteps said quickly. "He cared about Riddle." She eyed the girl from a safe distance. "Which, uh...was prob'ly a mistake."

"Punta," Bitter muttered darkly.

Yankee rolled her eyes. "She does speak English, y'know. Really. We've heard her."

~*~

The warden had left by now, and Goblin was alone in a corner, watching all his roommates from a distance and, as always, deep in thought. But he did look up when Gypsy's head popped through the ceiling, and the other boys started whistling and catcalling. He knew her name, and had a vague idea that she was kind of dangerous, but he mostly didn't know the girls as well as the guys. "Hey there," was all he said.

[Script]

Script bit her lip. She had been in the Refuge for a grand total of two hours and she was already in way over her head. "Did he tell you? About why we're here?" She pulled her knees up to hug them against her chest. "I just want to find what we need and then get the hell out of here."

~*~

Gypsy let one of the boys help her down, only raising an eyebrow when he let his hand linger near her ass for too long. "I'm looking for Goblin. We gotta talk." She scanned the room for a new face, stopping when she came upon him. She shot him a smirk. "Hi, honey. Heard a lot about you."

[Goblin]

"Of course," Footsteps said soothingly. "You need to get something solid on the staff of this place. Solid enough that the bulls can't ignore it."

Yankee cleared her throat. "Um, if they've been ignoring the room with bloodstains all over the walls--"

Footsteps shot her a glare and smiled brightly at Script. "Don't worry! We'll help however we can."

~*~

Goblin looked at her silently for a couple moments, then raised an eyebrow. "Really." This girl was more than kind of dangerous, and he pitied all the poor fools who were checking her out right now.

[Script]

Script blanched at what Yankee said, eyes wide. "Room...with blood..? What the hell is going on in here?! How...how could it possibly be that bad?!"

~*~

Gypsy eyed him, sizing him up. "Come on, honey. We need some privacy. The vent leads to a storage closet." She turned on her heel climbing onto a bunk to crawl back up the vent, knowing full well he'd follow her.

[Goblin]

Footsteps and Yankee exchanged a glance. Bitter snorted and retreated back into her bunk. Spanish or not, the new girl was too naive for her to deal with.

"That's, uh...only if you cause trouble," Footsteps said, trying to sound reassuring. "You don't seem like the troublemaker type, so I'm sure you'll be fine."

"If you come outta here and tell the bulls about beatings," Yankee added with a shrug, "no matter how bad, they'll say you had it coming, that they've got the right to punish you for bad behavior. Believe it or not, we're gonna need something a little more shocking."

~*~

Goblin stared after her as she disappeared into the vent. "Yeah, I know it does," he muttered. He and Riddle had made abundant use of that storage closet. It seemed absurd to follow her, but of course, he was curious as hell. With a sigh, he whispered something to Bandit, accepted a makeshift knife wrapped in a handkerchief, stuck it in his pocket, stood on a bunk, and climbed up after her, following her through the hollow ceiling and down into a very musty closet. "What?" he said simply when they were both on their feet again.

[Script]

Script felt dizzy. She had led a sheltered life, never feeling unloved or abused or abandoned. And here she was, willingly in a situation where she was suddenly all of those things. Why had she never realized how prissy and high-maintenance she was?!

"I--" She sighed. "I'm going to fail miserably at this. Sebastian'll regret ever letting me do this."

~*~

Gypsy smirked, leaning back against the wall, facing him. "Not one for small talk, are we." She flipped hair off her forehead, then her voice took on a hard edge. "What are you doing here, Pearson? We were getting on real nice without you for the last few months, I gotta say."

[Goblin]

"Then why'd you agree to do it?" Yankee asked bluntly.

Footsteps gave her yet another weary, pleading look. "He must've thought you were up to it, or he wouldn't've asked you to help," she said. "He usually plans these things out pretty good."

~*~

"Then feel free to keep on doing whatever you've been doing," he said, leaning an elbow on the wall and keeping a hand on the knife. "I don't remember asking you for anything."

[Script]

Script's brain was working overtime, putting pieces together, reading into situations past. "He...I'm unassuming. Adults trust me. I...I'd get privileges because I'm a 'good kid'..." It had been her idea to help. She'd pushed. But she'd never had to push very hard. Goblin had caved pretty easily, in retrospect. What did that mean??

~*~

Gypsy frowned at him, but kept her casual pose against the wall. "Riddle wants to know what you're planning."

[Goblin]

"Then be good," Footsteps told her firmly. "Be trustworthy. Show them you're a model prisoner. And hopefully, sooner rather than later, they'll let their guard down around you, and you'll see or hear something you ain't s'posta."

~*~

Well, at least she was straightforward, Goblin thought. "I'm sure she does." He kept his face blank. "Maybe I'm planning revenge." He had no time to waste a single thought on Riddle--but the temptation of scaring her, making her think he might go after her, was too great to pass up.

[Script]

Script nodded, chewing on her lip, then wincing when she'd made it bleed. She dabbed her finger against her lip. "I'm good at that -- being good, I mean. And...and I'm not an orphan or runaway. They gave me three weeks because they blamed Goblin for being a bad influence on me."

~*~

Gypsy only quirked a brow, the rest of her face remaining calm. "Your pretty little girlfriend's already on her bad side, Pearson. You really want to push Riddle like that? You know damn well the Princess won't last 5 minutes if Riddle gets her alone."