A Holding Cell, a Baltimore Police Station, Laaaaaaaate Thursday Night
Yeah. Nothing could possibly have gone wrong there, clearly. Having handcuffs bite into her wrists while she sat in a crappy, half-broken plastic chair at a Baltimore PD station? Nothing wrong there. Nothing at all. Not even when she sat around for hours on end watching greasy shirtless guys scream incoherently while they got hustled through to other cells.
Nothing wrong at all. Riiiiiiight. Getting arrested had totally been in her plans.
The cop who'd booked her for drunk and disorderly had been friendly, even asking if anyone had gotten her any food; that had only pissed Katchoo off further, and she'd been stubborn and silent through all his earnest chattering attempts to make small talk. She hadn't answered when he asked about her "unusual" name, hadn't said anything when he'd noted she was from Chicago, which was where his sister happened to live.
He'd gotten a barely-audible grunted "Yes" out of her when asking if she'd ever been charged with a felony before, but in response to his request for further details she'd just snarled, "Look it up!"
Which led straight to the fact that god, the bunk in this cell frikkin' reeked, and whenever the hell Arthur got back, Katchoo wasn't looking forward to the look she expected to see on his face. Like possibly now; there were footsteps approaching her cell, and Katchoo shot a sullen glare toward the bars.
Wayne Digman
"Well now. Good morning, sunshine." It wasn't morning, and the tone from the shadow that fell across the cell bars wasn't good, unless you were heavy into smarm. Keys clanked as the shadow turned into a man. "Heard there was a tiny little thing tore up a bar like a moose on steroids; had to come back and see that one for myself."
Katchoo
Ew. Just that tone of voice would have made Katchoo cringe if she were the cringing type; what it did was set her cynically impassive expression about three degrees firmer. Because things weren't fun enough, she got one of these types? So much for leaving that crap behind in Houston.
She kept her eyes down on the floor of the cell, because wondering what the hell had made that blotchy stain on the cement was more appealing, and said nothing.
Wayne Digman
Wayne Digman might have let his body go to pot in the years he'd been stuck on desk duty, but he'd been an athlete once. It showed in the swagger as he slid the cell open and crossed to her bunk, and the height as he loomed over her.
"Might as well make friends with me, sweetheart. I seen the list they got on you, and with your priors, good luck making bail anytime soon. You and me, we're gonna be spending a lot of time together."
Katchoo
Yep. Another one who fell completely into the category of 'everything I hate about men wrapped up in one big bloated wart.'
Like hell, Katchoo thought, but didn't say it, biting down hard on the inside of her own cheek instead. Tempting as it was to sock him one in the balls, she crossed her arms a little more firmly across her chest and twitched her hands harder into fists. Still not looking up.
Ignoring something until it went away had to work sometime.
Wayne Digman
"Oh, now, don't go all shy on me. Not like there's much you could be hidin' under there, little girl like you." He reached for her arm.
Katchoo
Katchoo did move now, twitching her arm just out of his reach with a sullen glare.
God, the scum just didn't get scummier than this. Fan-frikkin'-tastic.
Wayne Digman
Oh sure, it did. The scum could snag a finger under the strap of your tank top and pull, shaking his head as he looked down it. "Barely seems worth you bein' such a little bitch about it, but hey, gets boring back here. You take what you can find."
Katchoo
This was instantly five hundred times more revolting when it wasn't someone's kinky bedroom roleplay.
"You," Katchoo spoke up through her teeth, slowly and deliberately, "really don't wanna do that, asshole."
Wayne Digman
"You really don't want to give me any shit, girlie!" he growled, smarmy smile gone as he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up.
Katchoo
Oh, he really shouldn't have done that.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Katchoo bellowed, and shot one hand toward his face, hooking two fingers into his nostrils and yanking back, hard.
He might be five times her size, but smaller women -- Parker Girls, specifically -- had taken down bigger guys using that move without being as pissed off as Katchoo was right now.
Wayne Digman
Down, down, so very down, and writhing on the floor like he'd been tacked by a 300 pound linebacker. "Arghhh!"
Katchoo
Down, and with a foot on the back of his neck while Katchoo tried to peel his face like a banana. "I'm gonna get an apology out of you, you goddamn bastard," she snarled. "Better make it good."
Wayne Digman
"The hel--AWUUUUUUUUUGH!" Oh look, teeth. Those didn't belong on the floor. "Auuughgl...STOP! You're killin' me!"
Arthur
Diplomacy had managed to work, even if it had involved the process of throwing money at a few people to make these 'charges' go away - a meager sum to pay to keep Katina out of whatever went for the dungeons down here (and clearly, if they were that willing to drop for money, chances were they weren't nearly as aggrieved as they had claimed to be). Arthur had his lecture firmly in mind - that had been so bloody stupid he... would say he had no words for it, but thankfully, he had a lot of training in the matter. And experience.
His footsteps (and the footsteps of the man with him, of course, who was kind enough to bring his keys and release the little harpy) carried on the cold floor. He expected to see her lurking there, sullen, or possibly sleeping off her last vestiges of drunkenness--
--which meant that the resulting "KATINA!" was nothing like the opening line he'd prepared for this conversation.
Katchoo
He probably hadn't planned the opening of this conversation around Katchoo shoving her shin harder into the back of a policeman's neck while bellowing "If you EVER touch me again, you'll have to piss out your ass! Got it?"
Things like that tended to make one go horribly off-script if not anticipated.
Arthur
Arthur would choose to see that as a lesson learned.
The policeman with him had no qualms about going off-script, however, as barely had those words left her mouth or the door had opened and the man had rushed in. "Ma'am, let go!"
Arthur would also choose to mentally debate the pros and cons of following the man in for all of a split second before he did so. If even that. "Katina," he called, "Stand down, for god's sake!"
He was having to say that rather a lot, today.
Wayne Digman (and Random Cop)
The man she wasn't standing down from yet was having to say "YES, MA'AM" through a mouth half full of blood and broken teeth. It wasn't very intelligible, but it seemed to be close enough to do the job.
The other police officer gave Arthur a look over his shoulder. "Hold on, fella - stay outta the cell." Then he turned to yank the fallen man up.
"You really did it this time, Wayne. Congratulations, you ignorant son of a--"
"HEY!" He was pointing and spitting blood at the same time. "I didn't do nothin'. She jumped me!"
Katchoo
"Your word against whose?" Katchoo wiped her hand -- yes, it really was as gross as you'd think it would be after that -- off on her jeans and turned an icy-smug smile on Wayne. "'cause like hell is that the first time you've tried to pull this crap on some girl, and I'm pressing charges, pal."
Arthur
Arthur took a step back, but that was mostly because he was aware that saying 'I'm the crown prince of Camelot, I can stay wherever I wish' would, at very best, fall on deaf ears. Well. Mostly aware. His glare was still communicating that fact quite well.
He just wasn't sure what he should be saying. "As she should," is what he settled on. "Katina--?" Had he? Arthur's eyes might have slipped to make bloody well sure.
Katchoo
Well, yeah, she should. So it wasn't like he was wrong.
Katchoo hitched one tank top strap back up her shoulder and tried to catch Arthur's eye to shake her head quickly, something halfway between It's okay, it didn't get that far and Are you frikkin' kidding me? You think I'd let that happen? GEEZ! "I'm fine," she added as a verbal component.
Random Cop and Wayne Digman
"Think that about does it this time, Wayne," the other cop said, giving him a look that said Katchoo was so not wrong about what he'd been getting away with back here.
Digman gave a wet, messy grumble and slammed his way out of the cell, muttering under his breath all the way down the hall.
Katchoo
And now Katchoo turned on the mockingly sweet voice. "But other than that, I had fun!" she yelled after him, waving. "BYE, WAYNE!"
You'd think there wasn't a mess of blood and teeth on the floor or something.
She was not without her bratty tendencies, this one.
Arthur
Arthur short a disgusted glance after Wayne, but Katina's reassurance had got him to settle down just a bit. Thank God. His eyes flicked back. "The charges against you have been dropped," he said. "As it turns out, they had better things to do with their time."
Katchoo
Now that the rage and adrenaline had worn off, she was goddamned tired; Katchoo ran a hand over her face and leaned against the cell bars. "Should I ask what the hell you did to pull that off?"
Wayne not having been kidding about her prior record and all . . .
Arthur
Now this was a thoroughly familiar position to be in. "I'm the crown prince of Camelot," he said, and, wonders within wonders, he didn't sound arrogant about it - just matter of fact. "I have my ways. Let's take our leave before Francine worries herself sick."
Katchoo
Francine was probably going to kill her.
"Yeah . . . thanks, Arthur," Katchoo said, and if it sounded like she wasn't used to saying that it was because she really wasn't. She pushed away from the cell bars, wobbling just a bit before she got her balance. "Gettin' the hell out of here sounds like a good plan."
Arthur
...and then they faded to black, minutes before they found themselves outside the station and Katchoo found herself with a big, fat medieval lecture on proper conduct in public places.
She should be grateful, really. Arthur only saved that one for subjects and friends.
[OOC: As before, NFB and NFI for distance, OOC totally okay. Adapted, with some dialogue taken, from Strangers in Paradise Volume 1, issue 3, "Busted!" Preplayed with the inimitable bitch_prince and the transcendent thatsamilkshake and someone needs to take thesaurus.com away from me.]
Nothing wrong at all. Riiiiiiight. Getting arrested had totally been in her plans.
The cop who'd booked her for drunk and disorderly had been friendly, even asking if anyone had gotten her any food; that had only pissed Katchoo off further, and she'd been stubborn and silent through all his earnest chattering attempts to make small talk. She hadn't answered when he asked about her "unusual" name, hadn't said anything when he'd noted she was from Chicago, which was where his sister happened to live.
He'd gotten a barely-audible grunted "Yes" out of her when asking if she'd ever been charged with a felony before, but in response to his request for further details she'd just snarled, "Look it up!"
Which led straight to the fact that god, the bunk in this cell frikkin' reeked, and whenever the hell Arthur got back, Katchoo wasn't looking forward to the look she expected to see on his face. Like possibly now; there were footsteps approaching her cell, and Katchoo shot a sullen glare toward the bars.
Wayne Digman
"Well now. Good morning, sunshine." It wasn't morning, and the tone from the shadow that fell across the cell bars wasn't good, unless you were heavy into smarm. Keys clanked as the shadow turned into a man. "Heard there was a tiny little thing tore up a bar like a moose on steroids; had to come back and see that one for myself."
Katchoo
Ew. Just that tone of voice would have made Katchoo cringe if she were the cringing type; what it did was set her cynically impassive expression about three degrees firmer. Because things weren't fun enough, she got one of these types? So much for leaving that crap behind in Houston.
She kept her eyes down on the floor of the cell, because wondering what the hell had made that blotchy stain on the cement was more appealing, and said nothing.
Wayne Digman
Wayne Digman might have let his body go to pot in the years he'd been stuck on desk duty, but he'd been an athlete once. It showed in the swagger as he slid the cell open and crossed to her bunk, and the height as he loomed over her.
"Might as well make friends with me, sweetheart. I seen the list they got on you, and with your priors, good luck making bail anytime soon. You and me, we're gonna be spending a lot of time together."
Katchoo
Yep. Another one who fell completely into the category of 'everything I hate about men wrapped up in one big bloated wart.'
Like hell, Katchoo thought, but didn't say it, biting down hard on the inside of her own cheek instead. Tempting as it was to sock him one in the balls, she crossed her arms a little more firmly across her chest and twitched her hands harder into fists. Still not looking up.
Ignoring something until it went away had to work sometime.
Wayne Digman
"Oh, now, don't go all shy on me. Not like there's much you could be hidin' under there, little girl like you." He reached for her arm.
Katchoo
Katchoo did move now, twitching her arm just out of his reach with a sullen glare.
God, the scum just didn't get scummier than this. Fan-frikkin'-tastic.
Wayne Digman
Oh sure, it did. The scum could snag a finger under the strap of your tank top and pull, shaking his head as he looked down it. "Barely seems worth you bein' such a little bitch about it, but hey, gets boring back here. You take what you can find."
Katchoo
This was instantly five hundred times more revolting when it wasn't someone's kinky bedroom roleplay.
"You," Katchoo spoke up through her teeth, slowly and deliberately, "really don't wanna do that, asshole."
Wayne Digman
"You really don't want to give me any shit, girlie!" he growled, smarmy smile gone as he grabbed her by the hair and yanked her up.
Katchoo
Oh, he really shouldn't have done that.
"GET YOUR HANDS OFF ME, YOU SON OF A BITCH!" Katchoo bellowed, and shot one hand toward his face, hooking two fingers into his nostrils and yanking back, hard.
He might be five times her size, but smaller women -- Parker Girls, specifically -- had taken down bigger guys using that move without being as pissed off as Katchoo was right now.
Wayne Digman
Down, down, so very down, and writhing on the floor like he'd been tacked by a 300 pound linebacker. "Arghhh!"
Katchoo
Down, and with a foot on the back of his neck while Katchoo tried to peel his face like a banana. "I'm gonna get an apology out of you, you goddamn bastard," she snarled. "Better make it good."
Wayne Digman
"The hel--AWUUUUUUUUUGH!" Oh look, teeth. Those didn't belong on the floor. "Auuughgl...STOP! You're killin' me!"
Arthur
Diplomacy had managed to work, even if it had involved the process of throwing money at a few people to make these 'charges' go away - a meager sum to pay to keep Katina out of whatever went for the dungeons down here (and clearly, if they were that willing to drop for money, chances were they weren't nearly as aggrieved as they had claimed to be). Arthur had his lecture firmly in mind - that had been so bloody stupid he... would say he had no words for it, but thankfully, he had a lot of training in the matter. And experience.
His footsteps (and the footsteps of the man with him, of course, who was kind enough to bring his keys and release the little harpy) carried on the cold floor. He expected to see her lurking there, sullen, or possibly sleeping off her last vestiges of drunkenness--
--which meant that the resulting "KATINA!" was nothing like the opening line he'd prepared for this conversation.
Katchoo
He probably hadn't planned the opening of this conversation around Katchoo shoving her shin harder into the back of a policeman's neck while bellowing "If you EVER touch me again, you'll have to piss out your ass! Got it?"
Things like that tended to make one go horribly off-script if not anticipated.
Arthur
Arthur would choose to see that as a lesson learned.
The policeman with him had no qualms about going off-script, however, as barely had those words left her mouth or the door had opened and the man had rushed in. "Ma'am, let go!"
Arthur would also choose to mentally debate the pros and cons of following the man in for all of a split second before he did so. If even that. "Katina," he called, "Stand down, for god's sake!"
He was having to say that rather a lot, today.
Wayne Digman (and Random Cop)
The man she wasn't standing down from yet was having to say "YES, MA'AM" through a mouth half full of blood and broken teeth. It wasn't very intelligible, but it seemed to be close enough to do the job.
The other police officer gave Arthur a look over his shoulder. "Hold on, fella - stay outta the cell." Then he turned to yank the fallen man up.
"You really did it this time, Wayne. Congratulations, you ignorant son of a--"
"HEY!" He was pointing and spitting blood at the same time. "I didn't do nothin'. She jumped me!"
Katchoo
"Your word against whose?" Katchoo wiped her hand -- yes, it really was as gross as you'd think it would be after that -- off on her jeans and turned an icy-smug smile on Wayne. "'cause like hell is that the first time you've tried to pull this crap on some girl, and I'm pressing charges, pal."
Arthur
Arthur took a step back, but that was mostly because he was aware that saying 'I'm the crown prince of Camelot, I can stay wherever I wish' would, at very best, fall on deaf ears. Well. Mostly aware. His glare was still communicating that fact quite well.
He just wasn't sure what he should be saying. "As she should," is what he settled on. "Katina--?" Had he? Arthur's eyes might have slipped to make bloody well sure.
Katchoo
Well, yeah, she should. So it wasn't like he was wrong.
Katchoo hitched one tank top strap back up her shoulder and tried to catch Arthur's eye to shake her head quickly, something halfway between It's okay, it didn't get that far and Are you frikkin' kidding me? You think I'd let that happen? GEEZ! "I'm fine," she added as a verbal component.
Random Cop and Wayne Digman
"Think that about does it this time, Wayne," the other cop said, giving him a look that said Katchoo was so not wrong about what he'd been getting away with back here.
Digman gave a wet, messy grumble and slammed his way out of the cell, muttering under his breath all the way down the hall.
Katchoo
And now Katchoo turned on the mockingly sweet voice. "But other than that, I had fun!" she yelled after him, waving. "BYE, WAYNE!"
You'd think there wasn't a mess of blood and teeth on the floor or something.
She was not without her bratty tendencies, this one.
Arthur
Arthur short a disgusted glance after Wayne, but Katina's reassurance had got him to settle down just a bit. Thank God. His eyes flicked back. "The charges against you have been dropped," he said. "As it turns out, they had better things to do with their time."
Katchoo
Now that the rage and adrenaline had worn off, she was goddamned tired; Katchoo ran a hand over her face and leaned against the cell bars. "Should I ask what the hell you did to pull that off?"
Wayne not having been kidding about her prior record and all . . .
Arthur
Now this was a thoroughly familiar position to be in. "I'm the crown prince of Camelot," he said, and, wonders within wonders, he didn't sound arrogant about it - just matter of fact. "I have my ways. Let's take our leave before Francine worries herself sick."
Katchoo
Francine was probably going to kill her.
"Yeah . . . thanks, Arthur," Katchoo said, and if it sounded like she wasn't used to saying that it was because she really wasn't. She pushed away from the cell bars, wobbling just a bit before she got her balance. "Gettin' the hell out of here sounds like a good plan."
Arthur
...and then they faded to black, minutes before they found themselves outside the station and Katchoo found herself with a big, fat medieval lecture on proper conduct in public places.
She should be grateful, really. Arthur only saved that one for subjects and friends.
[OOC: As before, NFB and NFI for distance, OOC totally okay. Adapted, with some dialogue taken, from Strangers in Paradise Volume 1, issue 3, "Busted!" Preplayed with the inimitable bitch_prince and the transcendent thatsamilkshake and someone needs to take thesaurus.com away from me.]