Futuristic Reptiles (In the city under a radiation storm)

[Jodyguru]

((Closed thread for T.E.))

A pair of jailers walked down a dingy hallway carrying their newest member of the iron bar hotel. Inside, rows of prisoners yelled and banged on the bars with cups, spitting out slurs and threats at the guards. This was a Talon Corporation jail house, where thieves and muggers caught in Talon territory were thrown into. One either left in a few weeks or in a body bag, depending on the severity of the crimes or the threat to safety posed by the criminal.

The guards threw the newcomer into a cell that already contained a prisoner, a sad looking man with one leg tucked into his chest and looking out from the darkness. A sliver of light showed he had spiky hair and some burns on the right side of his face.

“I’m surprised they gave me some company. They must really not care if you live or die. Tough break.” The man spoke with seething sarcastic tone.

 

[Joyeful]

It was difficult to tell whether the person they'd thrown in was a guy or gal, but their eyes were watchful, wary. Moving a long, dirty strand of hair out of their face, they looked over their cellmate.

Quietly, she spoke, voice low in octave, but it sounded as if she'd been screaming for some time. Maybe a few minutes before she'd been unceremoniously deposited on the dingy floor.
"I don't think I care too much. I'll probably be dead by the end of the week, so coming to an end by your hands wouldn't be so bad- at least I'll have a warning."

Her eyes and skin looked a bit like that of a snake, and light glinted off of her, like she had been dunked in either slime or water, a yellow-ish tint to her natural skin tone. If one hadn't heard her speak, they might have thought that she was mute except for hisses- which occasionally did emerge out into the open, usually when she was pissed off.
In this prison, though, she felt an odd sense of comfort. The last of her days, spent among her fellow damned. It might have been poetic, in another time.

 

[Jodyguru]

Her response pulled a meek chuckle out of her cell mate. He shifted his body forward and looked at her more intently.

“You might reconsider. Talon will just put you against the wall and shoot you dead, but a scratch from me will fill your veins with blood-blistering agony. Your organs will fail in minutes, your brain turn to mush, and everything else feels like you’re covered in napalm. I’d take the bullet... but I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ve been in here a month and they haven’t killed me yet. I think they’re hoping I starve to death. M’Names Snakebite. What do the clean-bodies call you?”

 

[Joyeful]

A narrow smirk pulled at the corners of her lips, and she observed Snakebite with newfound interest. The scarring on his face was a definite point of interest, but she shoved her curiosity aside, for the moment. She had a week to look into it, and it wasn't on her agenda to get herself murdered in her sleep- if she managed to sleep at all.

"I'd prefer dying at the hands of a fellow than an empire. With an empire, it's standardized- boring. I can't say I'm seasoned in the art of murder, but I can say I've seen enough that a bullet... it's just not creative enough for my tastes," she remarked, "But I digress. They've been oh-so-creative and deemed me Octo- though octopuses aren't scaly. I'd ridicule them for it, but again. Creative death."

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake’s joy in taunting this prisoner faded, and his smirk turned into a scowl. He leaned back against the wall, just as a chain of gunshots echoed through the windows. Death in one way or another was all the same. The means one takes to get there means very little.

“Idiot. Take whatever gets you dead the fastest. Some of us out there have to suffer every day, and a bullet is out of reach. My hands, they feel like they’re going to explode. My fingers always hurt because I have no nails, and I can’t drain the venom because I need it to make my escape from this pit. So Octo, do you feel like dying this week, or do you wanna help me outta this?”

Someone listening in the next cell cleared his throat.

“Don’t listen to him. The last prisoner he talked into jailbreaking had his limbs quartered, left in a hog trough and got eaten.”

Snakebite hissed at the intruder. “Those are just stories! The guards won’t tell us he got away!”

“Sure Snake, whatever you say...”

 

[Joyeful]

Octo gave a little laugh, sounding almost like a scratched record. "No pain, no gain, is that what this is? Or is it a congregation of the damned? One lost their sanity, another lost hope, most lost their lives- though I have a suspicion that happened long before they were locked up- shall I go on?"
This was honestly hilarious to her. "What are you anyways, Snakebite, a psychotic murderer?"

The remark was tinged with sarcasm, and she waved her hand through the air, as if to clear the words away. "It sounds like all you need to do is drain the venom in the next guard, steal the keys, then climb up one of those awful sewage pipes they left open- honestly, there are far too many ways to make a quick getaway in this place."
Of course, she was speaking from the perspective of a mutated thief, and knew it was probably rather unreasonable for the average criminal to see escape routes the way she did- unless, "of course", they were a child. That had always been the one good thing that came from constantly getting dirty thanks to the slime that coated her skin- always picking up dust and other unsanitary particulates.

 

[Jodyguru]

Snakebite was calm for a moment. If she was looking carefully, he was remembering something terrible from his past.

“No, not psychotic... unless wanting to overthrow this corrupted system makes me crazy. You’re forgetting one piece of this puzzle, the thing that cut off my last escape attempt. The las-grid. The guards have a special code they use to get through the entrance. It’s what gave me this nice burn on my face. Before I inject them with my venom, we need the code. I don’t imagine miss ooze-bag can hack terminals?”

 

[Joyeful]

She gave another signature smirk of hers. "I'm a thief. If I don't know how to figure out a code, I shouldn't be here."
This was an interesting one- he had an odd look about him before he had spoken, but she didn't feel like watching people for signs that they were sad; they were planning an escape. If they somehow kept in contact, maybe she'd ask. Sure, that could make her sound heartless, but Octo was far too good at cutting people off when she needed an out to care.

The las-grid was indeed going to be a slight problem, but she'd watched the guard- who was infuriatingly good at covering what he typed, from the angle she had been at. "We'll probably need to steal a few uniforms- and it should be easy enough to get through the halls- as long as neither one of us breaks character."

 

[Jodyguru]

Snakebite laughed at her. “Oh, such a great thief you ended up in a cage? I’ve got a better joke, the idea of a couple muties thinking for a second they could pass for Talon guards. They don’t hire worms like us. It’s why crime and warfare are so common in the city. They won’t let us live normal lives! I like the idea of gunning our way out a lot better. Get a hostage, make them punch the code in, run out guns blazing. I know a guy who can hide us until the heat goes down.

 

[Joyeful]

Octo rolled her eyes. "A second, needing no one else to see them- through this hall, actually. It wouldn't be too difficult until we got to the more populated halls; most of the prisoners here have lost their minds, so calls about mutants as guards would be dismissed. But I see your logic, crazed as it may be- I just wish I had a cell closer to the keypad. I could probably figure out what they're typing from there."
It was wishful thinking in its finest hour, but with Snakebite here, she didn't see much point in hiding the fact that they were most likely doomed.
"How d'you manage to get a contact like that, anyways? Not many people are willing to shove wrecks like us down in even their deepest cellar."

 

[Jodyguru]

The convict nodded, resting his head in his palm. More than anything, he wanted revenge against all of the bastards that worked here. His new partner made some good points, but he was thinking of a clever way to solve the problem.

“I’ve got a couple favors to call in. It’s better for people to owe you help than money. I’ve got a question, why are you so eager to help, when this could get you dead the way you don’t want it?”

 

[Joyeful]

"Because I'm bored, good sir. I mean, if I go out, attempting escape from one of the most high-security prisons in all of the damned region is a wonderful way to scare the crap out of Talon- two mutants, making it even out of their cells, can you imagine? I'd make a joke, but the humor is already there."

Octo didn't know if he found the hilarity in the fact that two little mutants, barely enough to make a tiny dent in history, could terrify far more. It was always funny to her- serial killers and the like were simply one person, and yet thousands were jumping out of their skin if they heard an unplanned knock.
If that made her insane, so be it. She would laugh her way to execution- hopefully creative.

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake chuckled darkly and shook his head. “And here I was thinking I’m the only nutso bastard with a death wish in this cage. This place ain’t as air tight as you think, either. I’m thinking two or three levels until we make it out. We’ll know when the time comes, we just need to be patient.”

 

[Joyeful]

She raised a brow and nodded, rethinking her way around the place.
It made sense- if this was a high-security facility, it'd either be far cleaner and well-lit or far dirtier, with almost no light at all. The las-grid had been the only technological marvel, as little as she'd seen. It was impressive, yes, but two to three levels was rather... disappointing.
"I'm sure there are those completely off the walls around here," she replied airily, masking her embarrassment at thinking that the prison was more than it was. "Moreso than you are, at any rate. Whatever got you in here, anyways?"
She was trying to be somewhat polite- though her skills in that weren't exactly the greatest. For her part, she'd been caught stealing- duh- but from an undercover guard. Far from her worst of crimes, and yet that's what got her in the end. Ouch.

 

[Jodyguru]

She would likely notice a toothy grin cross his face. He snickered and waved a hand. Whatever he had to say, it had to be said quietly. He waited until they were closer together.

“Not much, just pissed off a guard. When I get past the las-grid, I’m going to free everyone here. This will be my third prison break.”

 

[Joyeful]

"Third?" she remarked, almost laughing. "Damn. Well, pissing off guards... it's far too easy. A single coin..." Octo sighed, shaking her head. "They're so very easily butthurt. Seriously. I want a cell closer to the entrance."

It was infuriating, that she couldn't see the damn keypad. If only she could... and it would be so, so easy to leave. She'd been locked up before, though never in a prison. Angry aristocrats loved creative punishment.

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake chuckled and stood up. He swayed as he approached her, almost like a bumbling drunk.

“Do you wanna know what I did? I strode towards the fucker like this, then pretended like I was gonna sneeze, and then BLAM, sprayed venom right in his face! He had boils in an instant, and from what I heard, blinded him permanently. It was hilarious, totally worth the beating his friends gave me.”

 

[Joyeful]

His cell mate couldn't help but laugh. "And I'm just a pickpocket. Why'd they stick us in the same cell, assault and thief?"

She may have been underestimating her "pickpocketing", though- one could only call a hundred gold coins pickpocketing once they'd gather quite a sum over the course of their thieving career, as she had.

 

[Jodyguru]

He smirked and leaned a bit closer towards her.

“Maybe they thought I’d kill you, or you’d steal the heart out of my chest. Gotta be honest, the latter I can definitely see happening.”

 

[Joyeful]

"Steal your heart as in literally, or figuratively? Because I'd bet I'd be much better, and far more comfortable, with the former, than the latter," she grimaced.

Octo had never been too good at gauging flirting versus friendship, and in this case she'd much rather leave without touching on the messy lines that bordered between a friendship and a relationship beyond that. She'd even go so far as to say she may have preferred murder over some form of attraction, and that, for most people, was a definite curve ball.

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake chuckled at how she awkwardly stumbled over his very slight pass at her. He leaned his arm on the wall of the cell, smirking and wondering how she looked under hard light, and not in the dim shadows of the prison.

"Have you heard of porcupines? I used to read about old-world literature, and they were little rodents that were covered in spikes. They said that porcupines were distrustful of other porcupines, because the closer they became, the harder it was not to stab each other. Some would never fuck either, which I totally understand, i mean I wouldn't want a bunch of needles stabbing me in the cock. But yeah, I think a lot of mutants are like porcupines. The whole world is trying to stab them, so they get defensive, cagey, shriek at a thump on the ground. It isn't how it should be, but this is how we are.

 

[Joyeful]

Octo raised a brow, noting the laugh.
Great, at least you're slightly funny. Now bring it up a notch, stop looking like an idiot- you've stolen from so many, sometimes in broad daylight, this is not terrifying.

"Never heard of porcupines- did hear about how people were afraid of rats before. Wonder how they'd react to rodents now," she rolled, "But I agree. Talon is just... eh. I can't say I appreciate it. But are you honestly comparing me to a porcupine? I'm far from pointy. You're the one who's mutation is legitimately deadly."

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake shrugged and turned, leaning his back on the wall, leaning beside Octo.

"Maybe not in a knifey-stabby sense, but we're both a little prickly. Tell me, do you have a boyfriend on the other side?"

He really didn't want to talk about his mutation. Making her feel flustered with his questions was making him feel better, and was getting off the topic he really didn't want to speak or think about. Doing so brought back painful thoughts that would make him morose.

 

[Joyeful]

She snorted. "Yeah, a thief, and a mutant to top that, having romantic relations with someone. Don't make me laugh, Snake- and since you asked, do you?"

Snakebite seemed to be the type to have a relationship- she was honestly curious. Her being slimy and scaly and all that jazz, it was highly unlikely anyone would want to do anything with her, outside of staying twenty feet away. Octo had learned to deal with it. Sure, she was lonely sometimes, but it didn't honestly matter to her, since no one else around her was all that jovial, either.

 

[Jodyguru]

Snake's smile disappeared, and he turned his head away from her. He took a deep breath.

"I used to have a family, now I don't. Do the details really matter?"

His tone was completely different: guarded and annoyed. If he was a porcupine, then his quills would be sticking straight out right now.