Haruko 'Ru' Mei Pang (ru_the_day) wrote in rrinitiative, @ 2013-05-16 17:44:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | day sixteen, haruko, haruko and hayden, hayden |
pressing questions
Characters: Ru and Hayden
Setting: the bar
Ru headed to the bar as soon as she could, imagining she would be needing to buy the drinks. The newbie couldn’t have much in the way of credits yet. Either way, she got there promptly, and chose a neutral seat, a booth that would give them some privacy, but not so far from everything else that it would feel weird. She ordered a pitcher of beer, and waited for him to arrive, waving when she saw someone she’d never seen before.
While Hayden had scanned the message that was blinking on his computer, he was still a long way from understanding what the place was all about. It seemed like a step up from prison, so he didn’t feel like he could complain, but it did make him wonder what everyone else was in for. He’d taken Haruko’s invitation as an opportunity to get some answers from a live person, then headed towards the bar. “Hi,” he said, stepping into the bar and addressing the only other person there at the moment. “I’m Hayden. You must be Haruko?”
"Or ‘Ru’, whichever. Pleased to meet you." she said, nodding to the seat across the booth table from her. "Have a seat, I got us a pitcher." she pointed out. "And we can talk about the mysteries of the universe. Or just the mysteries of here. Your choice."
“Which do you prefer?” Hayden asked, since she was giving the option. He took the seat and poured himself a drink, relishing the first sip. He hadn’t had beer since he’d been a free man. “Let’s start with the mysteries of here first. Seems like a smaller scale to work with.”
"Doesn't matter what I prefer. I'm here to meet you, and get to know you. So, it's your choice." she told him with a wink. "As for the mysteries of here, what do you want to know? The basic rundown is we're all here, and we're meant to be forming a 'community', though that seems to be quite the challenge for some people. We've just had jobs introduced, so that's an interesting little experiment, we'll see how well that flies. I haven't been here all that long myself, but so far it's full of fascinating people."
“Okay, Ru,” Hayden said with a small smile. It felt weird to smile, to have a normal conversation with anyone. He’d isolated himself while in prison and that had been for the best, but this was a different experience so far and he hadn’t even been there a full day yet. “So what’s the catch then? What do they do to the ones who don’t conform? Or, more importantly, how does forming a community amongst ourselves prove that we’re ready to be released into society?” He’d functioned quite well until he, Hunter, and Cassandra had attempted to pull a heist that failed. He was fairly sure he could reintegrate if given the chance.
"I heard at one point there were stocks? Like, medieval stocks. But I don't see them there anymore, really. And there's a detention center, but I don't think it gets too overly used." Ru said. "As for what forming a community here proves, I have a theory on that." she said, giving him a smile. "I think they want us to prove we can play nice, honestly. That we can be in here, and not act like savages. If we can do that for long enough--because anyone can play nice for a little while, it's the long haul that's the area of curiosity--it might mean we're ready to be released into the wild as it were. I imagine there are people here who will be well suited, and some who will fail miserably."
“Stocks?” Hayden said, eyes widening at the thought of such a punishment. That would have been equal to suicide in prison, or murder, depending on how he looked at it. Either way, he didn’t think anyone would survive them. “Okay, so what does it mean to not conform around here? If I play nice, am I good? Or is there some kind of points system or... I guess I’m not used to this, this much freedom.” If he’d been free, it would have made sense, but being allowed to have a beer in prison confused the hell out of him.
"I think so." Ru said. "So far it seems like people are mainly left to their own devices, with occasional required quizzes from the administration. There isn't a whole ton that they ask of us, at least not so far. I've got more than enough time to swim every day, get some reading in, make friends and influence people..." She considered. "I think I read something about you getting docked credits if you misbehave? But that's all."
“Yeah, I saw something about a quiz. Seemed kind of random. I still need to do mine,” Hayden said. It doing a quiz gave him credits, and credits were money, and money bought beer, then he’d do it. He’d seen there were jobs too, but he wasn’t as sure about that. He wanted to settle in before he bought in to additional responsibility. “Sounds kind of like a vacation,” he said lightly. “What kind of things are people in for? Or is that not talked about?”
Ru laughed. "I got not so great a result. So beware." she warned with a warm tone. "You know, I'd love to know what people are in for. Some people seem not to be too keen on discussing it, while others are open. What about yourself? What brings you here?"
Was it better to keep his crimes to himself? Or tell the first friendly face that asked him out for a drink? It’d been way too long since he had either and Hayden found himself talking, despite the fact that the other two members of his crime might not appreciate it. “Robbery,” he said, rolling his eyes. “It was stupid. In retrospect, it’s impressive how easy it is to ruin your own life. Yourself?”
"Interesting. They give away a lot of time for that?" she asked. "You don't look like you're a 'I've been in most of my natural life' type." she noted. "You don't have that haggard thing that happens once someone's been in going on twelve years." she explained. "As for what I did, I had a press nickname. Ever heard of The Chinatown Cherry Bomb?" she asked. It had made international news.
“I got six years, which seems like a long time to me, but I know isn’t much by comparison. Been in just over two.” With no previous record and the lack of arms involved, his sentence had been relatively light. But six years was a long time for a guy like him, and even longer for his brother. Thinking of Hunter made his stomach knot up and he took another sip of beer. For some reason he wasn’t as worried about Cassandra. She seemed to have fared well enough. “Seriously?” he asked, connecting her to the crime that he’d have to have been living in a hole to miss. “Yeah, I’ve heard of you,” he said, smiling because this was insane.
"Well, that's me." she said. "A 'mad bomber', in the flesh. I got a lot more than six years." she said with a little smirk and a wink. She took a drink of her beer, propping her chin on her hand. "I hope you won't hold it against me." she added, exaggeratedly batting her eyelashes in a teasing mockery of trying to get her way through wiles. She laughed when she was done though, unable to even pretend on that.
“I’m sure there’s a story behind it all. Unless you really are mad,” Hayden said, her wink earning another smile from him. It seemed bizarre to be in there with her, an international terrorist, while all he’d done was rob a club. No one even died. Then again, she looked about as guilty as Cassandra did, so eyes could be deceiving. “I’m not here to judge anyone,” he sighed. Except himself. That he could do in spades. “But yeah, I imagine you’ve got more than six years on you. I was already in when your bombings hit the news. Things like that give people something to talk about.”
"Oh, everyone's got a story." Ru said with a laugh. "Even total nutbars have a story or a 'reason'. Doesn't mean it's a good one. Mine, I feel was extenuating circumstances, but I imagine everyone does, right?" she said. "And I imagine it would be something to discuss. Someone potentially worse than most people, if you look at it from a certain angle. And by 'certain' I mean 'the public and law abiding citizens'."
“True enough,” Hayden nodded. “I guess I find the range of crimes interesting, for a place like this. All I know are yours and mine, but that alone seems like a pretty broad scale. Do you think we’re safe in here? Or are there psychopaths running around, ready to gut us?” He didn’t know her reasons for the bombing and he hoped there were reasons. Good reasons. Because even if it was a poor decision, it meant she might not be completely crazy. Hayden realized there was something probably wrong with his logic, but it was the end of the scale that concerned him, the criminals who were likely to hurt him and those he cared about.
"There was a rapist, I know that." Ru said, getting slightly more serious on that note. "No idea if he's still here or not, honestly. He wasn't caught. The girl who got raped graduated, so at least she isn't in danger anymore, but that doesn't help the rest of us." She said with a sigh. "As for psychos, I would imagine that depends on your idea of what that entails. A lot of people would consider me a psycho, though I have no intentions on hurting anyone who doesn't hurt me first. But I don’t think there are many incidents. There haven’t been since I got here.”
“She got raped while she was here?” he asked, then rubbed his hands over his face. This was really fucked up. It felt like a better environment than where he came from, but it was so hard to tell. It could potentially be worse. “Well, I’d normally throw out there that I have no intention of hurting anyone, but if anyone lays a hand on me or mine, yeah, I’ll probably act out. And by that I mean punch, not kill, which is probably the difference.” Though, if it came down to it, he might kill for them. “I think so much depends on the circumstances. We don’t know each other’s and they don’t know ours. For all I know, you might have had a good reason for those bombings.”
"Yes. Though as far as I know, it's the only incident, which is what surprised me." Ru said. "I know I'd probably be verbally cut down and made into some villain if other people heard this, but...rape is incredibly commonplace in prison. So the fact that it's just happened the once here that anyone knows about? Is kind of amazing. Impressive, even." she said, taking another drink. "And I think that would be par for the course with most people. No one wants to be a victim, and if they don't have to be, they won't be. I wouldn't worry about that, I don't think anyone would expect anyone else to just not defend themselves."
When he said the last part, she smiled. "Okay, I'm dying to know what you would consider a good reason."
“No, I know, and that’s usually part of the reason that prisons aren’t co-ed. It’s still a problem even when they’re not.” It was a thought that made him shudder. Hayden hadn’t fallen victim to it, but he knew people that had. “No one wants to label themselves an easy target. Where I was before, there was this weird line between lashing out and keeping to yourself.” He’d gotten into fights early on, which had resulted in him getting his ass kicked, but it also proved that he’d fight back. Later, when he’d closed in on himself, people were used to leaving him alone. “I can’t think of one off the top of my head, but anything’s possible. I’ve seen enough movies to know that sometimes the good guys blow things up.”
Ru didn't know of any prisons that were co-ed, though her knowledge of the prison system here wasn't exactly expansive. She knew mostly just what she'd personally been through, and that when you visited people, it was strict. "Sounds intense." she told him with a note of sympathy in her voice. "I suppose some people might look at what happened, and consider it movie plot material." she mused. "Do you want to know?"
The two years Hayden had spent in prison were, by far, the worst of his life. It wasn’t just the beatings or the isolation; it was the anger, the guilt, and the despair that came with it. Even when he got out, his life would never be the same. And his relationship with his brother? That was likely forever ruined. “Sure,” he said, sipping at his beer. “It’s not like the news provided me your side of the story. What happened?”
"A long time ago, a man saved my life." Ru started. "And from that day forward, he had my loyalty. I was able to follow him in his path, see the world from his side, and not grow up an empty, used shell like I extremely likely would have without his intervention." she continued. "And some people got it into their heads that he should be taken out of the picture. They succeeded in this. I took offense. There were three betrayers. My intention had been to take all three simultaneously for their intense wrong. I wound up only taking out two and a half, with assorted others. But when you owe someone your entire life and everything good that ever happened in it...you can't let something like that go."
“By taken out of the picture, do you mean killed?” Hayden asked. It seemed like the obvious answer, but there was a vagueness that made him question it. “I’ve never owed someone my life, but if I did, I can’t say I wouldn’t feel the same way.” Would he bomb them? Probably not, but that was because Hayden thought he might want a more hands-on approach to revenge. “Why bombs then? Doesn’t that cause unnecessary casualties?” He wasn’t going to get into whether it was right to murder the people that murdered her father-figure, but the innocent bystanders would have bothered him.
"Worse, for someone like him. He was sent to prison for over two hundred years, total, for his crimes." Ru said. "Of course he only served a couple, but still. He was being put away for forever." she took another drink. "Bombs because it's what I'm good at. I put thing together, take them apart, invent new things. I understand bombs. I'm not really a gun person, or a poison person, or anything like that. Physically I'm not intimidating in the slightest. I'd never be able to hold my own." she answered. "And it caused casualties of those who helped facilitate the downfall. People don't throw someone under the bus by themselves." she said. "But that betrayal..." she sighed. "Isn't something like that horrific? People you trust, then...just someone takes a turn, and nothing is ever the same. And suddenly the world doesn't look the same anymore."
“He only served a couple?” Hayden asked. That didn’t bode well. He’d guess that a guy who’d been put away for over two hundred years had to have done some pretty serious crimes, but whatever he’d done for Ru had earned her loyalty. The way the conversation turned to betrayal, though, that had Hayden looking down at the table, slowly spinning his drink. “Do you think someone can make up for a betrayal like that? Is there any way to right the wrong?” He couldn’t decide what made it worse-- that he’d stolen his brother’s girl, or that he wanted to right things while he was still with her.
Ru considered the question, watching him play with his glass. "I imagine it depends on the betrayal." she said. "I don't know that I would think there would be anything that would make up for it? For me, it would be a matter of proving their worth again, if I were the victim. Though that's the thing, I suppose. The real danger. If you fuck someone over, it might not be them who comes after you. Those who did that to my savior? Never saw me coming." She was silent for just a second. “What did you do?”
Hayden didn’t think he had to worry about anyone coming after him for what he’d done to Hunter, except maybe Hunter himself, and then he would take it. He’d take whatever needed to be done to get his brother back, if there was a chance it would work. “Accidentally stole my brother’s girl,” he said, then took a sip of his beer. “I wanted to tell him, but... we could only pull off the heist if we were both involved and she thought he’d drop out if he knew. I guess he found out during the trial cause he knows now.”
Ru listened, milling that over. "Give me more detail." she requested. "What happened fully? I could possibly help you think out angles, if I knew all the circumstances." she offered. And she smiled. "I promise, no judgments."
“Okay,” Hayden nodded. He could do this. He’d never told the story to anyone, but it wouldn’t be so hard. “Basically, I met this girl and we really hit it off. Things got serious fast. And then I found out she was seeing my twin brother,” he said, shaking his head. “I guess I should have either cut it off there, or told him the second I knew, but she swore there was nothing serious between them and that she just wanted to let him down easy. So I went with it. And then we find out that her family’s basically taking away what’s hers, the future she’s been entitled to. Which is where the heist came into play. She’d get her money, plus we’d each get a share. And afterwards, we were going to tell him, but at least he’d have the money then. But then we all got arrested...” And things fell apart in the most awesome way possible.
"Question." Ru said. "If she's a woman who would cheat on your brother with you, why are you so certain she wasn't playing you as well?" she asked. If she were the girl, she sure as hell would be. She just wanted to know where his trust came in there, beyond feeling like they were in love. "And didn't it bother you that she was still with your brother? How did that work? Did she...what, go spend the night with him then slip out for seconds with you?" she asked. "I'm not trying to be rude--I'm honestly curious, it's a fascinating story."
Her first question was not what he wanted to hear, stirring up that little cloud of doubt that Hayden preferred not be there at all. He had enough to deal with when it came to the guilt he felt towards his brother. If it had all been for nothing, that would be even worse. “That’s... a really good question,” he said, since he didn’t have a good enough answer. “I guess I’d be an idiot to say ‘because she loves me’, but that’s what it was at the time.” It was possible he’d been a complete fool because of it, but why would she do that? That wasn’t the girl Hayden knew. “No! No, she wasn’t still sleeping with him,” he said, shaking his head, but there was that doubt again. He honestly didn’t know how she’d pulled that off, since he couldn’t exactly ask Hunter about it. “I would not have been okay with that.”
Ru frowned slightly. "...I'm sorry, Hayden. This sounds like a really touchy subject, but I have to ask...if you haven't broken up with someone yet, waiting until later to 'let them down easy', how exactly do you imagine she behaved? If she'd been sleeping with him before, and suddenly stopped, don't you think that would have raised red flags? Though I suppose I don't know what happened, did he start acting strangely? Do you think he knew?"
“No, I don’t think he knew,” Hayden said as he rubbed his jaw where his brother had taken a swing at him. It was a good punch, harder than he’d known Hunter could hit. “I’d say he’s acting like he had two years of jail time to sit and stew about it, and I don’t blame him. But I... I don’t know how she behaved with him. I just know how she was with me.” And the sick feeling in his stomach told him he should have paid more attention. He didn’t want to doubt Cassandra, but Ru was right-- what kind of woman cheated on one brother with the other and kept both going at the same time? If she really loved him, why would she do that? “You think she intended to stay with both of us?” That would never work. They talked... or they used to.
"I can't answer that, Hayden. And I'm sorry I'm bringing up something so painful." she added, since that was super clear. "If I had to guess, I'd say no, but who knows. How long was it after the heist that you guys got caught?" she asked. "Was it immediate?"
“It’s okay. I’m just kind of wondering why I never asked those questions myself,” he said. It wasn’t like he had any way to find the answers while he’d been in prison, but at least he’d have been more prepared to deal with things now. Instead, he had a new dose of doubt that he didn’t know what to do with. “It was about six weeks of running,” Hayden sighed. “As soon as they caught us, they split us up. Separate trials and everything.”
"That one's easy." Ru said. "You didn't want to know." she said. "It's human nature. You wouldn't be the first person in the world to tell themselves a fantasy just to avoid difficult questions." she said, tone reassuring. Because it was true, in her experience. People lied to themselves in far more hardcore ways than they lied to other people, half the time.
When he said it was six weeks, she blinked. She'd been expecting that it was immediate, and that was why the lady in question hadn't broken up with the brother--she wouldn't have had time. She recovered, taking a drink. "...should I keep the last pressing question to myself, or do you want to hear it?"
“But when you’ve had two years to sit in prison and ponder how you got there, you’d think I’d have at least wondered,” Hayden said. Yes, he was going to be hard on himself, but that was because he felt like he deserved it. It bothered him that he’d gotten through each day thinking about a girl that might not have been completely honest with him. What had she told Hunter? If she was putting distance between them, why hadn’t he figured it out? There were a lot of questions now floating through his mind, but none of them were going to be answered on their own. “Fire away,” he said, taking another sip of beer.
"Don't beat yourself up, it's okay." Ru assured him, even reaching across the space to give his hand a tiny squeeze. "The heist was over, you guys were done with that--why exactly didn't she break up with him then? Six weeks is a long time. What was she waiting for? The whole plan was for her to dump him and for you two to ride off into the sunset, right? Why didn't that happen? Why did the third wheel get kept?"
Hayden gave her a small smile when she squeezed his hand. It was so small, yet he’d grown to appreciate human contact after going with any for so long. Her question, though, that didn’t conjure any warm fuzzies. “Because,” he answered. “We were running, and-- and--- I don’t know.” He hadn’t seen that part, hadn’t thought on the fact that Hunter could have split off from them, possibly gotten away, but he was still there. They’d all been caught together, but if she’d broken things off with Hunter, he would have had no reason to stay. “What was she waiting on?”
"That's the question, isn't it." Ru said, finishing her beer. "Sorry to bring up unsettling thoughts. That wasn't exactly my intention with this. I just wanted to welcome you, and all that. Get to know someone new."
Hayden licked his lips and took another sip of beer. It had taken talking to one person to pick through all the little holes in his relationship, things he didn’t even know. No wonder they’d kept them apart for the trials. It would have been so easy to make them doubt each other, to cause confusion and draw out the truth. But Hayden didn’t know the truth here. It was something he’d have to look into. “I know,” he said, giving her another small smile. “It’s been a long time since I really talked to someone, so I appreciate it. And I definitely needed a drink.”
"Well, I'm happy to have provided that." she said, relieved that he wasn't going to dislike her now. "Want a tour of the place?" she asked. "I promise, no more probing questions, just a nice, normal stroll through a super strange prison facility."
“Sure,” he said, topping off his glass. If he was going to tour a prison facility that allowed him to drink, he might has well have a beer to go while doing it. “I think we’ve got the most important place covered, but I’d love to see what else this place has to offer.” He had his own key to his room, which already made it ten times better than the prison cell he’d come from.
Ru got up and smiled, heading for the door. "It's not a bad place, here. So let's get this tour going. And I'll even show you where my room is, just in case you need anything." she added, wanting to be friendly and make the offer. He was interesting. She wouldn't mind picking his brain again at some point. But for now? A tour. He needed to settle in.