Mr. King Would Like a Word

Participants:

helena_icon.gif satoru_icon.gif shard_icon.gif

Scene Title Mr. King Would Like a Word
Synopsis Shard discusses philosophy and dispenses advice.
Date March 5, 2009

Moab Federal Penitentiary


Play time! The prison releases its prisoners - the ones who aren't down deep, dark holes, anyway - out into the yard, the chain link fence eternally seperating them by virtue of gender. Groups settle into their usual jailtime cliques, individuals go off by themselves, and one such is prisoner number many-zero two, Dean, Helena. As usual, she takes her place at the bench by the basketball court, nearest the fence, the better that she might search for her companions amongst the other side's population. Today's Madison hair makeover seems to involve a french braid, and Helena looks healthier than she's been in weeks, albeit still too skinny.

The popular group is making it's way across the basketball toward the fence. At the core of this group is Vincent King, Shard. Most of the darker shades of the Prison's population tag along around and with the man once famed as rap's biggest superstar. But now, he's nothing. He's a prisoner with a number. Surrounded by impotent superheroes who fawn over him because of his former life.

It's hard out here. Shard doesn't do much to maintain his posse, they mostly do it themselves. Some are cast out, some are brought in. If he had the energy or desire, they would listen to him. But he doesn't have much interest in directing the activities of the facility. But they provided entertainment at lest.

Making his way to the fence, Shard goes to lean against the fence near Helena as his posse fans out. Some talking to each other, some being ignored by the man himself and some just sitting and staring. Shard's face turns slightly over his shoulder.

"What's good lightnin' girl?"

Satoru generally keeps to himself except on days when he feels like picking a fight, and while this isn't one of those days, he apparently isn't feeling terribly antisocial today either. He's wandering around, for the most part, hanging around near the fence so as to afford himself a better view of the ladies. Occasionally just strolling, hands in pockets, occasionally stopping to lean against the fence and watch how the other half lives, and occasionally leaning the other way to watch his own side of the compound.

Prison … isn't terribly exciting, really, when one is just wandering around like this. It's when he notices the group surrounding Shard that he pauses, far enough from the posse not to look like he's trying to edge in, but sort of watching out of the corner of his eye. He's familiar with the rapper; kind of hard not to be, especially when a wannabe badass, though he's never actually bought any of the man's CDs. Still, it's sort of cool being near a celebrity, albeit in prison. Oh, and he's talking to some girl. Satoru hangs off to the side to watch for a moment, see if anything interesting's going on.

"Certainly not the meatloaf surprise." Helena replies with some humor, even as she curls her fingers into the fence. "How's life with the entourage?" Her tone suggests that she is not in the least star-struck by Shard, though the fact that talks to her does earn her some venemous looks from some of the ladies on her side of the fence. Odd that for the most part, Helena is left alone by them. One would think by now she'd have been in a scrap.

Shard gives a little look over his shoulder to the woman, giving a shake of his head. Folding his arms over his chest, he tilts his head back against the chainlink fence. Giving a soft little sigh. "Better than my last prison." The man informs, pertaining to the meatloaf surprise and its 'what good withness'. He arches a brow at her question. "How's life with your ladies?" He asks in return.

His eyes trace by his orange clad companions, past his group to the loneliest asian watching him and his group. He hasn't seen the other man around yet. Though he has been very busy trying to memorize everyone's names and faces, it's easy for some to go unnoticed with all the focus elsewhere. He watches him just for a second before returning his attention to Helena.

Satoru blinks over at Shard. Notices he's being looked at, and gets a little twitchy for a moment. Looking around, fidgeting, all that, until the eyes go off him. It isn't even so much that Shard's a celebrity as it is that's just how he reacts to being looked at in an 'actually being noticed' way. He's used to blending in, especially here. Though he is kind of hanging out by himself, so that's probably part of it.

Nonetheless, he takes the look as a means of noticing that he himself is probably being kind of blatant with the staring. Woops. Shoves himself away from the fence and sets to meandering his way down past Shard and his crew in the least obvious way possible (right), he stretches his arms up over his head idly before returning hands to his pocket. Once he's past them, though, he sort of takes up the same position he was in before, just reversed - and not really staring so much.

New guy is observed carefully - close to her age and all that, but her attention is mainly on Shard. "I don't talk much with them." she says. "There's Madison - that's the older lady, right there? She tries to mother me. I suppose it could be worse. Kindness is rare in this type of place, and naivete is easily taken advantage of." So that would suggest Helena's not naive, right? Tooting her own horn, maybe? "Have they given you book priveleges yet?" Her mouth quirks, "Are you enjoying your morning dose of suppressant? Always fun."

Watching Satoru pass by, Shard gives a slight and easy inclination of his chin directed at the man who passes by he and his. Two men set up and after Satoru. Watching them go, his dark eyes follow his two compatriots for a moment before his attention is snagged back by the little white girl on the other side of the fence. He gives a little tsk to the girl. "You and your ideals, girl. You ever figure we deserve to be here? Some of these people, supposed to be here?" King asks, glancing over his shoulder at her. "And you've been in a place like this before? Is that how you know so much what you're talking about? Or are you just naturally a philosopher?" King hasn't been much impressed by Helena's theories thus far, but at least they were somewhat entertaining.

"Mister King wants to have a word." Comes a deep voice as two beefy hands set on Satoru's shoulders from behind him. The two men glancing over to where Shard was lounging at the fence. The hands are taken down as the two wait for Satoru's rejection or acceptance of the invitation.

Somehow, Satoru apparently figured he'd be okay wandering around obviously staring at people. Either he hasn't gotten used to the fact that things work differently in prison, or he's just really that stupid (and accounts could be given to support either position). In any case, when he finds himself with an invitation to speak to the guy he's been watching, Satoru… panics, naturally. He turns his head a bit to look at the two guys behind him, and stammers, "H—Hey, I ain't lookin' to start shit, I just.. I figured I knew him from somewhere, right? I was just tryin' to… I just was curious to see if it really was him, y'know?"

He doesn't really try to get away from the guys, but he's obviously plenty freaked out. "I didn't mean nothin', man, it's all good." pleasedon'tkillme

"Are you saying it's not true? That kindness and flowers and happy joy joy is what happens inside here?" Helena's tone is less sarcastic than amused. "You have this habit of taking everything I say and deciding it sounds obnoxious. It makes it a bit difficult to have a conversation with you." But she does also answer his question. "I think criminals belong in jail. Regardless of whether they're Evolved or not. But not everyone here are criminals. Some are, some aren't. The major defining factor is still that we're all Evolved."

The two men, slowly usher the freaked out Satoru towards the, in this case, aptly named King. Even if it was self-naming. Watching Satoru's slow and reluctant approach, Shard can't help but grin a little to himself. The two men at the young man's side remain quiet though an occasional dirty look is thrown at him.

"You are pretty obnoxious." Shard says with a warm grin sliding over his face as he rests his head against the fence. He gives a slight jerk of his head, nodding that criminals do in fact belong in jail. "So what am I, Joan?" Shard asks. "Criminal, or not?"

But then Satoru is delivered him by the courtesy of two beefy hands. "No beef little brother." The man says lazily, eyeing the smaller man. "No beef. I just like to know who I'm enjoying my retirement with." He jerks his chin as if to point to Satoru's nametag. "Vincent. Shard. King. Whatever you want." A hand is offered languidly.

Thoroughly freaked out, Satoru nearly falls over himself once he's deposited in front of Shard. He looks almost (appropriately) like an animal trapped in a cage, for a moment, but the larger man's assurance that all is good in the hood does make him calm down at least a little bit. It's a wary sort of calm, but given that blows haven't been thrown, the boy is willing to accept it for the moment. "Oh," is his initial reply. A bit curt.

He pauses a moment, strolling through his brain-computer for a civil sort of reply, and finally settles on returning the handshake. "I, er. Hi. Satoru. It's pronounced Satoru," he adds, pronouncing it the same way each time he says it. "They always spell it wrong. Toru works." A glance is given over to Helena, though he doesn't acknowledge her beyond that, for the moment.
"If I'm so obnoxious, why do you keep talking to me?" Helena can't help but ask, and fights a smile. Her eyes flick to Satoru, take him in. She gives him a little nod, but otherwise does much the same as he, for the moment. She looks back to Shard. "I don't know you well enough to pass judgement on you, even being asked to do so."

"And what is your malfunction, -" Hell no he's not calling him toru, "Little brother? That you got sent back to manufacturing. The hand is taken briefly before being released. The grip is neither firm nor loose, but a delightful place in the middle. Medium. "I've always felt that before anything else changes in this world, grammar and spelling skills should go first." He says dryly to Satoru, though it is not clear whether or not he's joking. Obviously his posse is a little confused to the jokey or notness of this statement.

His hands splay out in front of him, "Well, until they open up the pool, I don't have much else to do." Shard explains, that grin tugging at his lips again. Then he glances over his shoulder at her, "Sure you do. Make an assessment. Am I a criminal or not?" He repeats, a bit more sternly this time.

Toru scratches the back of his head, looking up at Shard with a thoroughly confused expression. "Er. … I think I'm in for assault and battery, if that's what you mean." He tilts his head a bit, looks over to Helena with a 'what is this guy on?' expression, then continues, "It just bugs me when people can't get my name right, mang. I mean yeah I get that ain't nobody gonna, but it's still irritatin'." He shakes his head, shrugs, and steps back a pace to regain some personal space. And, folding his arms up behind his head, Satoru looks between Shard and Helena idly, a little curious as to how this little exchange is going to be played out.

Helena gives Toru a faint shrug - she has no idea. "I don't know." she says patiently. "It's not my place to catch judgement on you. It depends on what you did, other than be Evolved, to wind up here. Did you download too many illegal mp3's?" she purses her lips. "Did you shiv someone? Did you refuse to register? A lot of reasons why people wind up here."

Questions of what he's on do not go unnoticed by the lazy gaze of Shard. He smirks a little, giving a little shrug. "No kid. What is your ability?" He says the words a tad slowly. Not enough to be insulting, but just enough to imply the other man should have got it the first time. He shrugs off Satoru's complaint that no one can get his name right. Maybe he should just change it.

"Yes, Joan. I downloaded too many mp3's." He mutters, flicking a gaze at the basketball court. Keeping an eye out for a certain someone. "I registered." He pointed out, it was all over the news. Nation wide and everything. "You don't watch much television, do you Joan?"

Helena rolls her eyes, not even bothering to hide it. "No. I was a bit busy, this past year. Do you think I'm a criminal then? Last I checked, being obnoxious isn't illegal." To Satoru, "Don't let him con you into thinking he's the king of this outfit. You actually want something, Boxer's usually the fellow to go to on your side of the fence. Except he's kind of crazy." We're all mad here.

Oh, right. Ability. … It's been a long time since he's been able to use it. He lowers his arms, staring at his hands for a minute, but finally returns them to his pockets. Question. Right. He shakes his head. "Don't remember. What's yours?" Tilt of the head, eyebrow raised, he looks up at Shard curiously. "You tell me, maybe I remember, yeah? Quid pro quo." To Helena, he inclines head with further curiosity. "Who's Boxer?" They weren't properly introduced.

"When did I say that? You assume too much." He points out. Though he arches a brow when she starts talking about kings and outfits. He goes to slowly look at her over his shoulder. "What are you even talking about?" The man asks, shoving himself up off the cage. He takes a step forward, men stir out of their perches as he does. His arm climbs up to gently steer Satoru around and amicably slide around his shoulders. "I don't remember either." He grins. "I guess I don't really have one." Vincent admits.

To his question, "Russian cat." One hand gestures casually to a man lounging on a bench alone talking about shoes or something like that. "Listen little brother, first time I went to.." He waves his hand around to gesture the place they are in. Prison. "I was about your age. I'm assumin' this is your first time on the inside."

"I didn't assume anything, I asked you a question. Though the irony isn't lost on me." Helena says with faintly amused patience. "But you've got that whole 'take everything said and assume the worst' thing down pat." She regards Satoru evenly as she watches Shard's effort to 'mentor' the young man, and keeps her mouth firmly shut now. There's potentially some words of wisdom coming!

Satoru debates, for a moment, actually answering the question. Of course, suddenly having Shard's arm around his shoulder would probably be enough to convince him to be a bit more agreeable, but then Boxer is pointed out. Talking to his shoes. Or something like that. And comes the outburst: "THAT guy?! He's a fucking— that guy's retarded or something, I don't get how he manages to get out of bed. Jesus!"

He calms down enough to answer the implied question, though. "Oh, er. Yeah. I'm twenty," he adds, as if to make sure Shard gauged his age properly. "I shouldn't even be here. I guess— I got into a fight with a cop for breaking curfew. It's.. I guess that'd actually be assaulting an officer or something. They didn't really tell me much when they arrested me on account of my ability and all, and I don't really care enough to ask since me knowin' what they decided to hit me with ain't gonna change anything." A pause. "I turn skin to bone."

"I don't know what she's talking about." Shard admits, with a thinning of his lips. "She says he's crazy. He says she's crazy." The former superstar gives a little shrug as he withdraws his arm from around his shoulders. "Twenty. Yeah, I was around there." He gives a nod, "This place, is different. You want to play by the rules in all prisons, just enough to get by. Here, you want to be careful. These boys up top don't have much fear of any pressure from above if you know what I'm sayin." Vincent explains.

"You also want to make as many friends as you can." Vincent suggests, casting a glance over to Boxer who is retarded or something. As to how Shard got into prison? He'll remain quiet on that for now. Though Shard's interest is directed sharply at the boy when he reveals his ability. Interesting.

"Tell me about it."

And with that the trail of men following Shard and Satoru make their way across the yard and away from the fence to speak quietly about powers and details. A little hand is flung over his shoulder in a parting wave to Helena.


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March 5th: Adam Black

Previously in this storyline…
There's No Place Like Home


Next in this storyline…
Dislocated

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March 5th: Coliseum Diplomacy, Part II
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