(Untitled)

[stedelweiss_pt]

Day: 001
Characters: Anyone brave enough to venture to Cell 126
Summary: Someone would like to have a word with you.
When: Night, after lock-up
Where: Cell 126 and surroundings, Level 2 ward.
Status: Open/Incomplete

Comments

[posterboywraith]

The smart thing to do, of course, would have been to stay in his cell and ignore the crazy intercom person. But Face had a thing for crazy as well as for doing things not considered to be smart so in the end he had not been able to pass the invitation up. He did not know what he expected to learn from this encounter; hopefully some information about the place, or even just about the mysterious new voice on the speakers. Whatever the reason, here he was, at room 126, ready to do something stupid.

And on that encouraging note, he decided to knock on the door.

[stedelweiss_pt]

"Guests!"

Face wouldn't have time to rap twice before the word bellowed out from around the door's hinges and top and bottom. It was a short howl, violent in force but - like every noise the man made - drunkenly, stupidly happy, a mongrel imitating a wolf.

But the door didn't open. It would stay closed, unrattled, with no hint of approaching footsteps within.

"Get inside, get inside! It's unlocked! Lazy hounds, they never lock up proper, lazy lazy...get inside!"

[posterboywraith]

Oh this was just going to be thrilling, wasn't it? Face took a single deep breath, composing his expression and body language into projecting an almost invisible calm, the sort of thing that caused instinctual trust - for sane people anyways - and opened the door.

Fff, sorry this took forever. Guess it's just you and him, Face.

[stedelweiss_pt]

Cell 126, like every other, was unlit at night, and so the first - and, for an instant, only - sensation Face would be hit with was smell. Rank, raw, rotting smell, the odor of unwashed skin and human filth left to stew in the dark, billowing up from the floor to drift outwards

Face is just that awesome

[posterboywraith]

Face managed- barely - to keep from flinching at the smell, focusing instead on looking friendly and unthreatening. That the occupant of this cell was insane he had no doubt, and that made him unpredictable, dangerous. Hopefully this night would end with information, not an attack.

A look of sympathy crossed his face as he caught sight of the other man. Between his own facial scar and the only recently healed burns he'd picked up after his team had been dumped in an incinerator - not fun, and they'd all been set on fire. Then they had blown the bad guys up - he could empathize with the prisoner. The insanity also made a bit more sense now.

He just grinned at the welcome, not seeming upset by the insult. "Actually that's one of the more polite things people have called me. Maybe I'm just more friendly than the rest." He did as ordered, shutting the door but leaving the thinnest crack between it and the frame in case a quick escape was needed before taking a seat on the floor.

Quick, Face, teach him to pilot an X-Wing!

[stedelweiss_pt]

"I said an imbecile."

But the words are good-natured and happy as everything the man says, and, if there is an air of clawing, clawing hunger behind it all, it is no more present here than it is everywhere else in him. He sounded, if anything, as if he were agreeing with something. Watching Face, teeth bared, he sat himself up against the wall at his back. The way he propped himself there, using only his upper body to move, one might have thought the lower half no longer answered him.

"But that's fine, that's fine. You'll do better than most of the guests like that. It hasn't given us imbeciles for a long time."

And he leaned slowly forward, his eyes fixed on Face with gnawing intensity.

"Which stories should I tell you? Which?"

Worst idea EVER

[posterboywraith]

Face shrugged cheerfully, still grinning. He had never much worried about insults, and really it was probably the least of his concerns at the moment. At least the man still seemed to be in a good mood, and he was hoping it would stay that way.

"You pick. Whichever story you think I should hear." He replied, since that seemed the safest way to go. He would not have known what to request to begin with and, hard as it was to read information from a crippled lunatic, he got the feeling there was something to be learned here. Better to do what he could to guide the conversation without being pushy and see what happened.

It's the BEST idea. They'll break out together using proton torpedos.

[stedelweiss_pt]

"Mmmmn."

The man rocked back against the wall at Face's reply, only to lose his balance mid-motion and slump backwards. His eyes stayed on his guest the whole time, the slightest hint of contemplation flickering underneath mad cheer. He looked as if he'd been given a tray of sweets and couldn't decide which to eat first. Couldn't decide at all, for so long that perhaps it would seems he'd forgotten he needed to answer at all.

Until, finally:

"I'll tell you a story about wine. Wine, wine, wine."

And, suddenly, he shifted forward, arms in front of him to hold himself up, leaning close to Face.

"One year, they brought in a whole crate - a crate - of it. They hadn't had any all year, and everyone complained because they only had water at meals. The water was always filthy, too. But it wasn't for the patients. Not for us, no. Not for us either. They were giving it all to the doctors."

The patient crawled forward, grinding his teeth in between his words, as if he could only contain the rest of his story by clamping them down.
"Do you

Someone got their nerd on!

[posterboywraith]

Face had two bits of information already. The first being that this man had been here for some time, at least a year undoubtedly more and the second that yes, he was, in fact, a patient. He had assumed that from the start but it was nice to have a bit of confirmation.

"What did you do?" He asked, polite and friendly and interested in the story as ever. Humoring crazy people was a good rule of thumb.

[stedelweiss_pt]

"I stole it!"

The man threw his arms wide, crowing as if he were announcing some grand victory, his life's work completed.

"Two whole bottles, before the doctors in their ugly little coats had a drink. Before they had a sip! And they never found out! They barked at the kitchen staff and the assistants. They didn't look at me once."

And, for the briefest moment, the patient stopped showing his teeth. His lips drew back into a long smirk, hiding the rotting ivories there, as he smiled at Face with sudden - though no less warped - intelligence.

"I know what you're going to say. Why not, why not? Why didn't they notice? Well..."

The teeth came back into view. Now he wasn't smirking; he was grinning again, too tickled by the punchline of his story.

"Because they don't check in bodybags for bottles of wine!"

[posterboywraith]

Face chuckled at the dramatic gesture, since that was clearly the punch-line of the story. It brought up more questions than it answered though; how this man had gotten access to the kitchens, or wherever it had been stored. Not to mention the bodybag comment.

"Do you still have it?" He asked, staying good natured while starting his interrogation. "Or did you drink it all?"

[stedelweiss_pt]

"...ehhhhhhhh."

Probably, the way the man's face contorted at Face's question was meant to be a frown. Or as much of one as he could manage -- but it was little more than a death's head grin, twisted up where it meant to go down and stretching wider, rather than pulling in the right directions. His nose and brow wrinkled in a mesh of scars and curled flesh.

"They threw it out. Bastards! I only left it for one night, but..."

He looks down towards the floor, and his eyes almost glaze. As if it were a strain to remember, now that there was a need for details.

"But - they'd already tossed the body, hadn't they? Tossed it out, tossed it with my wine. I went through the morgue looking for the bag, and...well! They never caught me, anyway. Or found the key I used! The bastards!"

[posterboywraith]

"Key?" Face asked, trying not to perk up too much, at least not in the sort of way that would startle the crazy person. No, he kept it as calm and friendly as ever even as he focused in sharply on that particular word. "What key?" It almost did not matter what it was to. At this point any little resource helped.

[stedelweiss_pt]

The look that settled onto the man's face at that question was an absolutely strange one, eyes dull, brows low, but smile still huge. It would probably take a moment to realize this was his attempt at a disdainful stare. He sighed and spoke loud and slow to Face:

"Eh, imbecile. I only just said - the key I got into the morgue with. The morgue key. Took it off some watchman from the other wing, some watchman. You should pretend like you've got enough brains to listen, imbecile."

And he slumped backwards once more, his apparent frustration fading back into a serene - as serene as he could muster - expression.

"I don't think they ever found it, after. Shoved it in a book in the library. Some novel. Carmilla. No one read in there, then, either. Not enough, not enough brains then, either."

[posterboywraith]

Well that was a piece of information Face was going to investigate as soon as this conversation was over. Hopefully no staff members had stumbled across the key in the time since this prisoner had hidden it.

"That was smart of you." He complimented, not in the least bit upset about the imbecile comment. What were a few insults if they got him exciting things like keys?