Jailbirds

[Goblin]

"I'm guessing they were right about that part," Yankee said with a smirk, and clapped Script on the shoulder. "Cheer up. Stay calm. Not much else to do in the evenings, 'cept when the warden comes in for inspections. Ever played rummy?" She held up a deck of cards hopefully.

~*~

"She won't be alone...and Riddle doesn't work that way," Goblin said, though he was bluffing at this point; he had no idea how she worked anymore. "Anyway, this isn't about her, all right? It's about getting this place shut down, which I'd hope would be the one damn thing we could all agree on."

[Script]

Script shook her head, starting to calm down. "Cards weren't allowed at school, so I never learned. I guess I know how to play solitaire."

~*~

Gypsy smirked. "You seriously think you and the Princess are gonna be able to take this place down? Honey, there are too many people making too much money off of this place." Including her and Riddle. "It's never gonna happen."

[Goblin]

"That's a start," Yankee said, and immediately launched into an explanation of the rules of rummy, with Footsteps jumping in here and there to clarify her fast-paced Boston jargon. Both of them tried not to look at Riddle, whose eyes were practically boring holes into them from her bunk across the room.

~*~

"Then we'll fail miserably, and you can laugh at us," Goblin said calmly, wondering what she would say if she knew they'd traced that money all the way to Monk Eastman and had people infiltrating his gang. He finally felt like he was ahead of the game again, and it was a good feeling. "Honestly, if this is all you had to say, the whole closet thing was a little melodramatic."

[Script]

Script actually started to feel comfortable, following along, playing with them. To Yankee, she said, "I grew up in Boston. I went to St. Bernadette's since I was five. Daddy worked maintenance at Harvard."

~*~

Gypsy smirked at that. "Well, honey, one thing you gotta know about me, is I love drama." Like a panther, she moved forward standing close in front of him, his back against the wall. "You know...I bet the folks here wouldn't take to kindly to a couple punk kids trying to mess with their shit." She brought a hand up to trace along the buttons of his shirt.

[Goblin]

Yankee looked delighted. "Seriously? You ain't got the accent as bad as me. I moved when I was twelve. Still miss the place, though. It's cleaner'n New York, y'know? Friendlier, too. Ever just sit out on the Common at night?" She sighed wistfully.

~*~

He jerked like she'd hit him and then grabbed her hand, shoving her away from him with more force than was actually necessary. And that was just a warning. "I'm not here to play games, Gypsy."

[Script]

Script actually allowed herself to laugh lightly. "The nuns beat the accent out of us. Every once in a while, I still use a hard 'A' in some words." She bit her lip, a little nostalgic. "Everything was simpler back home. I never got into anything bad or dangerous or stupid..."

~*~

Gypsy's eyes darkened and she stepped even closer. "You gonna hit me, honey? Go ahead. See what happens to you." She grabbed the front of his shirt. "What would the Princess think if she found out we were locked up into a closet together, hm?"

[Goblin]

"Oh yeah? I did," Yankee admitted. "But then, I had kind of a colorful family..." She was suddenly very intent on her cards.

"I've been everywhere," Footsteps announced cheerfully. "Born in Ireland, but my dad moved us here looking for work, and we made our way from coast to coast. Left our footsteps echoing all over the country," she explained.

"Don't get her started with the stories," said a heavily accented voice from the top bunk. "She'll go on all night."

~*~

"I don't think I have to hit you to fend off your advances," Goblin said dryly, pulling her hand off his shirt. But this time he held onto it, bending her fingers back just enough to hurt. "And you can say whatever you want to Maggie, but if you touch her, or me again, for that matter, I'm gonna drop all the careful plans and get reckless, the way me and Riddle used to get. Only it won't be the staff I'll be going after."

He let go of her hand, shoved her away again, and grabbed onto the vent, pulling himself back up into the ceiling passage. Reckless was the last thing he needed to be right now, but five more seconds with that girl and he was going to snap--which was probably exactly what she wanted.

[Script]

Script laughed, liking these girls more and more. It made her feel more at home, to have girls she could talk to without feeling completely threatened. She angled up to look at Bitter. "Y de dónde eres? ¿Cómo has llegado aquí?"*


((And because I don't know the extent of your Spanish, lemme know if you need translation ))

~*~

Gypsy smirked. She hadn't gotten as much as she wanted from him, but she'd gotten enough. He might not have told her his real intentions, but she knew one thing: the way to get to Goblin Pearson was to go after the girl.

She shimmied up the vent, crawling back to the girls' room, climbing down the bunk and heading straight to Riddle.

[Goblin]

((My Spanish was learned in high school and is doubtless full of mistakes. But probably still better than Macbeth's Hindi.))

Bitter sighed and answered, well, bitterly, resting her chin in her hands and looking down on the other girls. "Madrid. Vine con mi marido hace un año. Ahora soy una viuda y una prisionera. ¡Qué emocionante!"

~*~

"Well?" Riddle sat up sharply as soon as Gypsy reappeared. "Learn anything interesting?"

[Script]

((Haha, I like that she knows Hindi!))

Scripts eyebrows rose to her forehead. "¿Su marido? ¿Cuántos años tienes?" She didn't look old enough to have had and lost a husband already. It made her wonder what other sad stories floated through the heads of the girls in the room.

~*~

Gypsy slid onto Riddle's bed, making herself comfortable. "They want information to shut the Refuge down. He knows something big, I can tell that much, but whatever it is, he wouldn't say. Got all worked up when I touched him, but he wouldn't cave." She shot a look across the room where Script was sitting. "If we wanna break him, we gotta go through the Princess over there. He was the picture of calm until I threatened the girl."

[Goblin]

((Yep, she's supposed to be fluent. ))

"Diez y siete," Bitter said like it was no big deal.

"Me too," Footsteps added, recognizing the number. "Yankee's only fifteen, though."

"But I can beat up both of 'em any day," Yankee said with a smirk.

"True," Footsteps admitted.

~*~

Riddle winced slightly, playing with the corner of the pillowcase. She knew why Goblin didn't like being touched. Gypsy probably knew it, too, and enjoyed it all the more. Pull it together, Riddle--you can't afford to feel guilty, especially after what you already did to him. "So we gotta get her alone," she said calmly. "Won't be easy. Those three are like a pack of fucking guard dogs." She mulled it over.

[Script]

"I'm seventeen, too..." She bit her lip. They were so young. And yet, somehow so old, all at the same time. Is this what growing up on the streets and in the Refuge did to people? She knew then that she had to steel her nerves -- she had to help.

~*~

Gypsy smirked. "We can do it after everyone's a sleep. Yankee sleeps like a damn log. So does Bitter. Footsteps doesn't sleep as deep, but if we're real quiet..."

[Goblin]

"Well, here's to seeing eighteen," Yankee said, grabbing the water pitcher from the nightstand and raising it in a mock-toast before taking a gulp.

"I'm good with never seeing it," Bitter said, in English for once. "Everything just gets worse."

"Not enough optimism in this crowd," Footsteps said, shaking her head mournfully. "I do my best."

~*~

Riddle's hand slid to something under the pillow...something razor-sharp. "Keeping her quiet shouldn't be a problem." Then a key scraped in the lock, and there was a flurry of activity as she and all the other girls stowed away cards and cigarettes and jumped to their feet, heads bowed, before Warden McArthur entered and strolled slowly among them.

[Script]

Script followed the flurry of movement, taking her place among the line of girls, chewing on her lip and looking more or less terrified. She kept her head bowed, but lifted her eyes up to look at the Warden through her lashes, wringing her hands.

[Goblin]

The warden lingered near Script, smiling at her. "Ah, the new girl. Magdalen Martin, right? How are you enjoying your stay so far, Miss Martin?"

The three girls clustered around her all tensed, but kept their eyes on the floor and said nothing.