Participants:
| Scene Title | Proud Enough |
|---|---|
| Synopsis | Some prisons are a little different. |
| Date | July 22, 2011 |
It's a bad sign when enclosed gardens feel like a privilege, but at least here, Tania can get a full night's sleep. But it's hard to tell, with how tired she looks, standing near a particularly pleasant looking plant, a finger is just barely touching the petals of a blossom there. The color only makes the young girl seem all the more pale. And she hardly needs help there.
She's a delicate thing, her expression mostly blank even sitting here enjoying what freedoms she has now. But there is a distinct hopelessness about her, and she is carrying herself with care, since she's still recovering from a surgery she's not even sure why she had.
It's been days since the incursion to the arcology- days since Huruma got cornered- days since she has heard about hide-or-hair of the ones she was with. She can only assume that they had gotten away intact. To what degree her suppressive fire made that happen, she is not terribly sure. It was strange enough that when she woke, a plain little man in a plain little labcoat explained simply that she would be staying here, in this weird place of viewing windows and cavernous floors. Nothing more, nothing less.
They have, at least, been feeding her- and while the bed is barely more than a hospital ripoff, it is still a place to sleep. For the first few days, Huruma refused whatever they would take to her. She would not lash out, no, she learned that lesson last time she was caught. The empath closed herself off, instead. Waiting to see what would happen, perhaps. Nothing has, so far.
Food and sleep are the basics, and Huruma has taken little more than from her captors. They have treated her, oddly enough, with a wary respect of personal space. Wherever she does go, whether it be to stare up the long, serpentine ribcage of the central shaft, or passing through corridors of glassy walls, there is always a pair of guards in the distance. Far enough away to be a non-issue, close enough to supervise. Huruma has not tested the limits that they can adhere to.
Only having been out of her room, and the hallway of, for about a day, Huruma's prompt and eager scouting of each and every place she is able to reach is something that is allowed, if monitored. She dare not try anything in the open. This scouting is one reason she has found herself in one of the courtyards, with plants under the artificial sunlight of clear bulbs, and glass windows surrounding the rim like a terrarium. Her ability here is constant, though she dare not use it for more than observing things. Such a thing would be the sudden, fragile creature that she soon encounters while stalking seemingly blindly about in the garden; Huruma almost misses her, actually. If it were not for the blip she provides, if one turned Tania sideways she ought to disappear out of the side of one's vision.
Huruma is dressed in simple garb, but the cloth pants and shirt are so pale that for a moment, the tall woman that hovers onto the path nearby seems more like a torso-less, brown-limbed wraith.
Tania has no such system for detecting when people are about, so it isn't until Huruma crosses her field of vision that the girl actually notices there's someone else around. It prompts her to look around, wary she missed other people lingering near by, but her gaze returns to newcomer. She watches for a moment. A long moment.
"You are not here long, yes?" Her voice sounds about as weak as she looks, soft and easy to miss if it wasn't for it being the only voice in here. Her accent is clearly Russian, but her English is pretty clear all the same. It may not be her native language, but it isn't a new one, either.
Just Huruma. The guards that have been tailing her around can be heard, though not seen. Apparently they have been told to respect distance as well, barring that it doesn't let them do a job. The dark woman stares back for an equally long time, reminded vaguely of a bushbuck.
"This week." Huruma answers tentatively, more for the property of her voice than Tania; she has not spoken more than a few words at a time, and even then, rarely enough. "I won'be here much longer." She affirms to herself, now, lips pursing and eyes shading in mild irritation, as if she had stepped heel-first into something offensive.
The affirmation gets a smile from Tania. Not a face-splitting expression, but a little tilt at the corners and too bland to be considered a happy one. "Your confidence is admirable," she comments, leaving darker thoughts unspoken, but hanging somewhere in the air around her. She takes a moment to cross a few steps over, pressing a hand against her middle as she lowers herself onto a bench. Her eyes close for the moment of discomfort, but just a moment.
"I, conversely, do not even know where… here is. Or exactly how long I've been here." Or how long I'll remain is just another thing she doesn't say, but she looks down at her lap, hands resting there primly, like a girl at church. Although she's far from her Sunday best at the moment.
The vibe that comes from Huruma is indeed one of terrible, frightening confidence. Even if she is wrong, in the long run, she can hope that she will eventually get out through personal cunning, or through someone else's. She looks less than thrilled about Tania being so mild, and so uninformed. Huruma stays where she is, one set of fingers thumbing against one another. "Th'Commonwealth Institute."
"I am a prisoner. Not a patient." Perhaps Tania is as well, or perhaps she is as sickly as she appears to be.
That name doesn't even seem to ring any bells, The Commonwealth Institute. Or, at least, it doesn't get any surprise out of the girl. "I suppose I am both. Or I was one and now I am the other. I have not tried to leave yet." Which would be the test as to whether or not she's currently in a cage. But she doesn't seem to think the test necessary at the moment.
Probably because she wouldn't get far, even if she could escape. She's never been a good runner, but now all the more so. "I am not sure they see a difference, either. Between the two."
"I broke in here, and yet, for some reason, they treat me like a ward." Maybe Tania is right. Huruma's voice carries a mote of conceding sound, at least to that. "Why have you not tried t'leave? Unless they are keeping you alive?" One eyebrow lifts, quizzically, and Huruma shifts, feet padding silently as she moves closer. "I have been inclined t'not trust them.
"Being as they fight people such as me consistently. Experiment on them, sometimes." Huruma feels as if she has been lucky there.
"There are many reasons," Tania's hand moves back to her abdomen at the mention of experiments, her jaw tightening for a moment. It's become something of a habit, not to explain too much. It takes only the span of a breath for her to relax again, turning to look at Huruma again. "People such as you?"
Her head tilts a bit there, one eyebrow ticking upward. The list of just what she could mean is possibly a long one. "What sort of people?"
"People with abilities. People that were made enemies through disagreeable discourse." Huruma takes a cursory look behind her now, squinting past shrubs and decorative trees to where she can feel the guards standing. "People that make unfortunate enemies. This building is better as tinder." The older woman wrinkles her nose and grinds her teeth.
"Though if they had wanted t'test me with something, I suspect they have missed th'window." She crosses her arms in front of her ribcage, lowering her forehead to glower at the path to her rear.
"Oh. I believe they have… branched out, perhaps." Tania looks down at her hands as she weaves her fingers together, a little fidgety. "Not with me inside," she says, giving Huruma a half-smile, "When I am outside of it, I will agree to making it tinder.
"I am Tania," she says, not extending a hand or even standing up to make a proper introduction, but then, she looks like she might be a little too lethargic to do so at the moment. "I have not met other… wards. So far."
"I would prefer only guilty be inside. Though I think we are underground, fire may not be wise, regardless." Huruma spares a toothy little smile for her. "You are th'only one I've met. Either they are hiding the others, or they are simply unallowed t'do anything." Or, like Carol, frozen in suspension- but she isn't about to scare the tits off of Tania with that. Not that she's got much to scare off, anyway.
"Huruma. I should rather b'considered a prisoner of war. I am used t'that, I've been there b'fore." Being a ward of someone, less so.
"I am not a fighter, so I will trust your judgment on that." Not that she was fooling anyone into thinking she was one. "Or maybe it is just you and I here," Tania offers up as an alternative suggestion. Although it doesn't seem to give her much comfort, thinking of being nearly alone in a place like this.
"It is nice to meet you, Miss Huruma," she offers, sincerely, even if it is out of habit. "Maybe they think it gives you too much pride, yes? To be able to claim to be a prisoner of war. So much less romance in merely being… there. Attacking morale, this way?"
"Doubtful." Huruma hadn't thought of that, honestly, and now the notion is beginning to bother her. Maybe the girl is onto something. She laughs, next, the sound a deep vibrato against the glassy walls. "Gives me too much pride? If they wanted someone that would be easily robbed of morale, then they have th'wrong woman. Even if they regard me as a ward, I am proud enough for several men, and I know that I am a prisoner."
"Here is hoping that I am right, and I am not here for long. If you wish t'help me, I would be more than accepting. Not t'mention willing t'take you out."
Tania's smile is a little more genuine there, although it's still a mild expression, delicate even. Like the girl herself. "I was a prisoner, but this is not… I am not sure how I got here, actually." Her brow furrows there, like she's actually trying to force the memory back to her mind, but it's fairly futile.
"I am afraid I would not be much help. But if I can, I would do something. I would like to get out, get back to my brother." She misses him. She misses Delia. She might even miss Logan.
Huruma can feel the longing there, when Tania mentions her brother, and thinks back on who she misses as well. Her face softens on the edges, only for the teenager. "I would like t'return t'those I care about, as well. I can hope that they feel th'same." Which implies that she is afraid that some of them may not be so keen on her returning. Ambivalent, maybe even willing to bet she can handle it on her own. Huruma hopes such has been left behind, in silence.
"If you notice anything more peculiar, or one of these doctors being more knowledgeable than th'others, let me know."
"Of course they feel the same. No one wants their loved ones in a place like this, I should think." Tania believes that with the spirit of youthful innocence, someone with little experience with how strange relationships can get. "I think they would be worried. Even if they cannot come to the rescue, they worry."
She tilts her head a bit at those last words, but a nod follows soon enough. "Eyes open, pay attention. These things I can do."
Tania is a strange little creature, Huruma can tell that much. It's obvious that she is a little more clever than her delicacy lets on, as well. "Good. Maybe b'fore long, You and I can be rid of this place, and you might find your brother again." The dark woman's words are few, but the sudden aura of pride she has dragged in with her is a hopeful thing, that exudes with what she does choose to say.
"If you ever meet anyone of importance, don'trust them. They deserve none of it." Prideful and hopeful, but also- well- stubborn, in this situation.
"Yes. I will see my brother again. He will find me." She's sure of that, at least. Although, Huruma's confidence and the fact that she can envision an escape from such a place brings the first spark of hope Tania's had since even before she woke up at the Institute. It's a subtle change in the girl, but definitely there.
"I already do not," she assures Huruma on that point, "I learned some time ago that the important people here do not always have the best intentions at heart." Here seems to mean something grander than the facility they find themselves in now.
"Good girl." Huruma practically coos, taking a glance around for the guards again. She is momentarily distracted as they reveal themselves casually just down the path. "I should be going. I think they find it strange, that I speak t'you, and not anyone else. I find them lacking." In what, she does not explain.
Tania doesn't preen under the praise, she just gives Huruma a nod, accepting. She gets her wary look back when the woman glances around for the guards, sitting up a little straighter, even though it fails to make her seem any less worn down. "I do not talk to them, either. But I will look forward to seeing you again, Miss Huruma." She makes no move to leave herself, not yet. It's likely whoever minds the young girl is probably going to have to come help, but she's not about to ask for assistance. She's got a bit of that stubbornness, too.
"Then, Farewell, Tania." Huruma gives her one last polite verbal gesture before pivoting on one heel, whisking past her personal guardsmen, and striding off as if she owned the place. Not a bad way to do things, in enemy territory, but also probably not the best idea to go flaunting your sinful pride about. Either it is rightful, or she will learn. Though Huruma does not bank on learning much, these days.