Detention, Depths of the Castle, Tuesday

[cracking-wonder.livejournal.com]

Another bright, shining, and pink day had begun for the prisoners guests being held in detention, and while the morning started off the same as the day before, there was a strange sort of feeling in the air once people began waking up. A kind of... musical feeling, in fact.

Umbridge might have taken over the island, but the island still had a mind of her own, thank you very much.

[No, the barriers of detention cannot save you from Once More With Fandom Day! The OCD is up, so have at it!]

Comments

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

Jono wasn't singing.

Jono couldn't sing.

Jono was sitting there with his arms crossed and his eyes narrowed, hating everything about today.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[cursednotbroken.livejournal.com]

Everybody knows that the dice are loaded, Jack sang at Jono sympathetically. Everybody rolls with their fingers crossed. Everybody knows that the war is over. Everybody knows the good guys lost. Everybody knows the fight was fixed. The poor stay poor, the rich get rich. That's how it goes. Everybody knows.

He blanched at his own callousness. "Sorry," he apologized. "I know you know that already."

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

Jono had shut his eyes, sometime during that song. Tried to ignore it. But it was impossible to ignore when the person who had done the singing was acknowledging it, really.

He cracked them open again, glowing orange-white, and looked at Jack tiredly.

//Not your fault,// he pointed out. //No more than it's anybody else's down here. Anyhow, you'll all be done singing by the end of th'day, at least.//

And he liked music. See? He'd just keep telling himself that.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[cursednotbroken.livejournal.com]

"But we'll still be here," Jack said quietly. "You've been in longer than me. Do they ever let anyone out?"

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//Only the ones too broken to be true to themselves anymore,// Jono replied, shaking his head. //The ones that crack and fall to their control spells. The ones willing to swear loyalty, unconditionally. It isn't worth their price, mate. Freedom at the cost of who you are?//

He'd stay down here for the rest of his life, which stood to be a very long time, before he ever gave in to that.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[cursednotbroken.livejournal.com]

"I could do what I did back in school," Jack protested. "Double agent. And now I'd know how the prison works, so I could..."

He sighed. "They aren't letting a werewolf out any more than they're letting a boy on fire out, and I'd feel too guilty knowing what I knwo to leave you lot anyhow. Like a bird on a wire, like a drunk in a midnight choir, I have tried in my way to be free.."

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

Jonothon tolerated the singing with a slightly bowed head, listening to the words and, this time, holding on to them. They were true enough for the lot of them, he supposed.

//So... we wait. I've killed three years down here. Might as well kill a few more. And sooner or later, maybe we'll luck out. Maybe the resistance will take her out. It's only a matter of time before someone more powerful than she is gets to walk free long enough to strike a killing blow.//

He wished he could be there to see it happen.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[cursednotbroken.livejournal.com]

"I hope I'm there so I can help tear her limb from limb," Jack said, without even the slightest shadow on his face to suggest he was joking, or exaggerating, or in any way speaking less than the truth. "I'll leave Raven for you."

So maybe he wasn't quite mentally well.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

There was only so much a man could go through without giving way at least a little. Jonothon gave a small nod in thanks all the same.

If all he ever got to do if ever they found freedom was wrap his hands around her neck and scream into her brain so loudly that her eyes bled, he'd savour that.

//And then... lord knows what we'll do, I suppose. I have no interest in lingering around here.//

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[hatesallthis.livejournal.com]

April eyed Jono. Noticed the face he was making.

She paused in her drumming -- plastic cutlery on the table wasn't exactly great music, but the acoustics in here weren't bad and it was better than actually having to sing her feelings, so she wasn't complaining -- and slid her "drumsticks" over to him, one eyebrow raised.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

Jono's gaze followed the impromptu drumsticks, and then flicked up toward April, an eyebrow of his own twitching upward on his face.

And then he nodded a little in thanks and made a reach for the cutlery.

He had been a guitarist, once upon a time. But he was no slouch when it came to keeping a beat, and he spared no time tapping out a rhythm on the tabletop.

//Don't suppose you've got any requests?//

For the quality percussion that he'd be providing, here.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[hatesallthis.livejournal.com]

April gave a wry grin at that. "Surprise me."

And so she leaned across the table to watch.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

Jono considered that one for a moment, and then shrugged, and then started tapping the cutlery on the table, one-two, before stomping once on the floor.

Because if the only drum set you could really throw together consisted of the place where people ate their gruel, you were going to throw some We Will Rock You out there for the world to hear.

//Not many options without a proper kit,// he mused, with a tap-tap-stomp.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[hatesallthis.livejournal.com]

"Been wondering if it'd be worth going dark side to get my drums back," April commented mildly, nodding along to the beat. She even joined in with a foot-stomp at the appropriate point, figuring she might as well cooperate if she wanted to be entertained. "Was a pretty expensive set."

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//Not worth it,// Jonothon decided, with another tap-tap-stomp as he thought the lyrics through in the back of his mind. //I figure if she hasn't already, it's only a matter of time before Umbridge bans music, too. You'd be right back down here in an instant, so long as she didn't just go ahead and make a clean slate out of your brain with that wand of hers.//

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[hatesallthis.livejournal.com]

April shrugged. "She tried, before," she offered conversationally, tap-tap-stomping right along with him. "Seems like I'm immune."

Still, an endless loop of detentioning processing-and-discharge didn't sound all that fun.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//Lucky you,// Jono replied, looking at least somewhat sympathetic. //You'd think banishment would be an option for we unruly types. I suppose she'd want some sort of insurance that we're not going to gather up the cavalry and come storming th'gates.//

It would be tempting, too, if only he knew anyone that could play cavalry in the first place.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[flaps-wings.livejournal.com]

Liara had intended to say hello.

Instead several words in asari escaped her mouth, set to a mourning tune, and her hands shot up over her mouth.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

For what it was worth, Jono didn't seem terribly upset by the somewhat different sort of greeting. Hell, he would have smiled, if only he could.

//Afraid I don't know that one, luv.//

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[flaps-wings.livejournal.com]

Liara's hands dropped away after a moment. "It is... an asari lullaby," she mumbled.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//It's lovely, Sunshine,// Jonothon offered, gently. //Too may of our lullabies involve ridiculous things like babies falling from treetops. You probably don't have anything to be ashamed of.//

He glanced around the room, and then looked back at her, attempting to put some sort of pleasant expression into his eyes, at least.

//Perhaps the lot of us down here need something like that. The island seldom picks songs at random, on days like this.//

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[flaps-wings.livejournal.com]

"Maybe," Liara said, but she sounded dubious.

She had been calmed down from her embarrassment enough, though, to make her way to Jono's side and sit down. "This is common?"

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//It happens once a year or so,// Jonothon explained, shrugging his shoulders a little. //It's one of the island's less traumatizing events, to be perfectly honest. Imagine a day when half th'people in here are small children, and you have to explain to them why they can't go outside. Or when they turn into different people altogether.//

And don't even get Jono started on the sex pollen, Liara. Those weeks got messy, fast.

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[flaps-wings.livejournal.com]

Please don't get started on the sex pollen, Jono. She was only forty-five! She was much too young for that!

"That... does sound problematic," Liara understated wildly. She fidgeted a little before asking, "Are you still... sure... about what we spoke of yesterday?"

Re: Chat With Your Fellow Prisoners [07/24]

[bloodyspitfire.livejournal.com]

//Of course I am, luv. If we're careful about it, it should be fine, hm?//

Should was a funny word. But really, Jono figured he had nothing left to lose, and so long as whatever happened didn't cause him to lose control and incinerate everyone here...

... Though, perhaps that would be a mercy.