Twenty Questions
Characters: Aaron and Brady Setting: Gym, morning
Brady was in a decidedly sour mood after getting those damned messages and having to write up that stupid entry for the Administration. He didn’t even know why he was trying so damn hard to cooperate when he didn’t actually care what happened to him. He supposed that when it came down to it, his purpose was to make sure nothing happened to a specific few people here because the goddamn idiots who ran this place had thought it was a good idea to mix sheep with wolves. Trouble was bound to break out, and he wanted to do what he could from getting too far out of hand.
He was full of an agitated kind of energy now, and he wanted nothing more than to go to the cafeteria and get a bottle of liquor to lose himself in. Because he was able to recognize that that would be a very bad idea, and he’d done so well in avoiding drinking again since the altercation at the pool, he decided he would avoid the cafeteria altogether until he felt more in control of himself. Needing to burn off that energy, though, he decided to head to the gym. He started out on one of the treadmills to warm up, watching the way the rain slid over the glass walls.
Aaron had been able to see that there was someone in the gym through the glass walls as he walked up, but he wasn’t going to let that stop him. He had his routine, and if there were others around, so be it. He was still establishing himself here, and a chance to show someone else what he could do was actually something not to be missed. He threw his towel down on a bench as he walked in, and headed to warm himself up, easily taking himself through his paces, not pushing yet. He glanced over at the other man, sizing him up as he grunted a greeting. Not aggressive, not yet, but not friendly either.
When the other man came into the gym, Brady noticed right away though he didn’t slow his pace on the treadmill. He’d worked up a slight sweat, though he still planned to go at it a bit longer. He wished that there was somewhere to actually run here, as a treadmill left something to be desired. It served the purpose though, so he wasn’t complaining. When the other man grunted a greeting, he nodded once in reply, allowing his eyes to linger as he took in his own assessment of the man. He didn’t recognize him, which made him think he was newer around here, and he had the look of the type you didn’t turn your back to if you knew what was good for you. Since the man hadn’t actually spoken to him, he decided to keep on running and play it by ear.
Once he was properly warmed up, Aaron headed over to the weights, setting them up at a challenging level. He could cope with it, and it seemed he was on show. He would ask the guy to spot him in a while, once he’d stopped running. With that end in mind, he actually made moves to strike up a conversation with the other man. “So, you been here long? Know this place has been up and running for a short while, but people I’ve met only seem to have been here for a few days,” he commented.
Although Brady turned his attention back on his own workout, he stayed aware of the other man out of the corner of his eye. When the guy spoke up, though, he focused on him again. “Uhh, a bit, I guess. Got here almost a week ago,” he answered. “Wasn’t the first day, but long enough to see some of the ups and downs. You just get here?”
“Yeah, just yesterday. Seems like quite the set up here,” Aaron observed. A neutral statement. He was still getting the measure of this one. Physically fit, with the look of someone who could handle himself. Aaron would be far more cautious around this one than some of the other people he had met. “You gotta name?” he asked, keeping his tone bordering on sullen.
Brady snorted at that, shaking his head as he slowed down his run. “One way to put it.” And it was getting crazier by the day. “Brady,” he answered. “You?” Once he’d slowed down enough, he put his feet on either side of the belt and turned the machine off, grabbing his towel and slinging it behind his neck.
“Aaron,” the other man confirmed, finishing off his latest set of reps and eyeing the free weights. “Spot me?” he suggested. He knew that there was a certain amount of trust in that, but he wasn’t intending to actually lift anything he couldn’t comfortably handle, and experience had shown it was a good way to test personality whilst at the same time not losing face in a place like this. It was important to Aaron to know the types he was dealing with. He was always on the look out for the danger signs. If his secret got out, he would want to know ahead of time who he needed to look out for and who he could count on, if anyone.
Brady filed the name away, then gave a nod at the request. “Yeah, sure thing.” He headed over to the weight, letting Aaron set up and get into position before moving to the head to spot him. “So you’ve been here a day, what do you think of the place so far?” he asked. Everyone seemed to have a lot of opinions, after all.
Aaron kept his smile to himself, his face dour as it generally was. It was an interesting turnaround though - so far, he had been the one asking the questions. “Sweet deal. No guards, no one watching over you shoulder. Decent rooms - and the food’s a damn sight better than I had before,” he said, settling himself in place. It was the con’s answer, and nowhere near as in depth as his actual opinion.
“Wouldn’t get complacent thinking no one’s watching over your shoulder. They’re watching a hell of a lot closer than guards in prison do,” Brady pointed out, thinking that if it hadn’t occurred to the guy, then he must be an idiot. Either that or he was giving an extremely watered down opinion. “The food is good, and yeah, having my own room’s an upgrade. How long have you been in?” He wanted to know what Aaron was in for, whether there might be gang affiliation there or not, even though he didn’t see any skinhead tattoos among the prison tattoos that were visible, it couldn’t be ruled out.
“What - the cameras?” Aaron questioned, laughing a little. “Sure, they see what’s going on - but there’s nobody actually there to stop it right? It’s all after the fact. Guess that means it all depends on the types in here, how useful that actually is, right?” he suggested. “I knew a whole lot of types that, if it wasn’t there, holding them back, with force if necessary, wouldn’t give two shits for cameras. Not exactly forward thinking. See a whole lot in five years though. You?” he asked.
Brady let out a short laugh at Aaron’s response, mentally giving him credit for it. “Only been in sixteen months,” he answered. It wasn’t five years, not by a long shot, but it was long enough to understand how things worked on the inside. “And you’ve got some good points there. So far it hasn’t been much of an issue. There was one thing a few days ago? This crazy bitch was attacking another girl, but a bunch of us broke it up, took care of things,” he said with a shrug. And there had been no repercussions for Kasper, which annoyed Brady even if he did understand her a little better now.
“So, did the crazy bitch get put in the stocks like the others I’ve heard about?” Aaron asked, though he’d seen the ‘stocks’ on his way in and they looked pretty dismantled to him.
“Nope. Far as I know, nothing happened to her. Seems pretty fucked up. Sets a bad precedent, if you ask me: Sure, you can attack people, but as long as it gets broke up, nothing’ll happen to you.” Brady scoffed, shaking his head. Thinking about it just reinforced his earlier thought that the people running this place were a bunch of idiots.
“Makes me think all the more that the cameras aren’t worth shit,” Aaron grunted, extending his arms to hold the weights above his head, then bringing them back down again. It was worrisome, that was for sure. It sounded very much to him like whoever the hell was running this place didn’t have a real handle on the way things worked. And he, no matter what he would prefer, had a vested interest in ensuring that this place did not descend into anarchy any time soon. He hated that - he would prefer not to get involved. Live the quiet life. Ha! Since when had that actually been an option he was really content with?
Brady kept his attention on spotting Aaron even as his mind wandered over the situation here. It was a whole lot of bullshit, really. “Maybe they’re not. Who knows? Guess we’ll see if something major does go down,” he said, shrugging slightly. “So five years, huh. What did you get put away for?”
“Or they’ll see,” Aaron said, tone more sarcastic than proper joking. Plus, he didn’t crack a smile. He prepared to lift again. “Why am I here? Lawyer fucked me,” he deadpanned. He’d found that people didn’t really care what had actually happened. You could claim you were innocent all you liked and it was just another story. Hell, half the people he’d met claimed that they were innocent, or that they’d been screwed over. And maybe some of the were telling the truth. Others were full of shit. Everyone got treated the same. At the end of the day, he’d found that it was just another line, and as long as you didn’t whine about it, people tended to just roll with it. Anyhow, it was often a better opener than ‘rape’. In the wrong circles, that conviction really, really didn’t go down too well. But Aaron could take care of himself. He’d seen to that.
The non-answer made Brady think whatever Aaron had gone down for was pretty fucking bad. People didn’t usually evade when it was for something stupid and nonviolent. “Didn’t ask why you were here. I asked what you went down for,” he pointed out.
“Right, you did,” Aaron agreed, not missing a beat, but not offering to answer either. He wanted to see how the other guy would react to evasion. That and he didn’t particularly want to share. He wasn’t in a hurry to label himself.
“You gonna give an answer or let my imagination fill in the blanks? Cause I gotta tell ya, the whole evasion thing could make a guy think you’re in for some seriously fucked up shit. What did you do? Fuck a kid or something?” Brady asked almost mockingly. Sure, he knew he could be playing with fire there, but he also knew that he could hold his own just fine.
“Didn’t do anything. Told ya - lawyer fucked me. If you wanna fill in the blanks, not gonna stop you,” Aaron said, though his voice tightened when kids were brought into this. If that was the line that this guy was going down, then it needed to stop - no fucking way was he getting his name even vaguely associated with that.
“All right, lawyer fucked you. So, you’re innocent.” Not that Brady was really buying that without any more information, but he could go with it for the moment. “But you were still convicted, so what were you accused of? What went down?” Brady had no intention of letting up until Aaron told him to fuck off, and if he didn’t answer? It was definitely going to make him think he’d done something like that.
Aaron finished his rep and settled the weights back down, before sitting and turning to face Brady, grabbing his towel and wiping the sweat off himself. “Cos I don’t want it fucking spread around here that I mess with kids,” he said, making it clear that was the only reason he was sharing something that was otherwise none of the guys fucking business. “Rape. But I never touched her.”
Brady gave one short nod of acknowledgement at that, having figured that throwing in the messing with kids thing might get him some answers more than just straight questioning. It was a dangerous thing to be in for, and he hoped that the Admins weren’t stupid enough to put one of them in. His expression tightened at the answer, eyes narrowing. “How’d they nail you for it, then? Rape’s a hard sell without strong physical evidence,” he pointed out, not really sounding outright antagonistic or accusatory, more just wanting to get more facts before deciding whether or not he wanted to believe the guy.
“Yeah, don’t I just know that. Hard sell, not impossible,” Aaron grunted. He’d never thought, not for a minute, that they’d convict. But they had, and here he was.
“No, not impossible,” Brady agreed simply. “So you’re saying there wasn’t strong physical evidence? What happened?” he pressed, wondering if he could get more out of the guy about it. The guy certainly was strong enough to overpower a girl, and so far he hadn’t really heard or seen anything to make him more inclined to believe him.
Aaron looked at the other guy, long and hard. Then he stood. “End of question time,” he said. He wasn’t getting into this with a stranger. Not when he had no idea how what he said would be used. He wasn’t here to make friends - he just needed to survive it and come out the other side with his skin intact.
“All right,” Brady agreed easily. It didn’t pass his notice that Aaron didn’t seem at all interested in what he’d gone down for, which suited Brady just fine as it wasn’t anything he really wanted to get into with anyone. And it wasn’t like he wasn’t hiding parts of it from everyone. “You should probably know that my questioning would look like child’s play compared to some of the others here, though. And if you don’t want it getting around that you’re in for rape, you probably should have come up with a different story.” Not that he planned to tell anyone outright. This wasn’t quite the same as Antoine, and he knew that there were women out there crazy enough to set a guy up for a long fall.
Aaron fixed him with a long look. “Okay, hotshot - how long you been in for?” he asked, since this guy seemed to know it all. Wouldn’t hurt to know what he was dealing with in that regard.
“Sixteen months, give or take,” Brady answered simply, fighting back the smirk that wanted to show on his face when it seemed Aaron was going to start questioning him now.
Aaron’s look didn’t change. “Well then, Sixteen Months. How about we figure that I - Five Years - know how the fuck the system works. And you - Not Even A Year And A Half - stop trying to fucking give me advice. Get it?” Fucking wet behind the ears know it alls.
Brady rocked slightly on the balls of his feet. “Sure thing,” he said easily, appearing unphased by it. He still thought it was pretty fucking stupid to tell anyone you were in for rape if you didn’t want people to know, but he wasn’t going to push the point. Besides, he didn’t doubt that Aaron could take care of himself.
“Fine, then we know where we stand, “ Aaron said, figuring that he’d had enough of this for today. “Thanks for the spot,” he added, standing.
“No problem,” Brady replied at the thanks, nodding slightly and turning to head over to a different machine. He wanted to finish his workout, and he figured that Aaron wasn’t much for more conversation anyway.
At least he had that much going for him, Aaron decided - the guy knew when to quit. Slinging his towel around his shoulders, Aaron headed out.