DAY 64: ARTS AND CRAFTS (THIRD SHIFT)

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar had spent the morning napping in the Sun Room. Brunch had been skipped, as the nausea was still persisting. He would have been happy to lounge around all day and catch up on sleep, but his nurse had continuously been suggesting that he would be happier if he did something with himself. Fine.

So, Scar had meandered into the Arts and Crafts room. Sitting at one of the tables, he absentmindedly fiddled with the supplies at the center. The scissors were disappointingly dull. He had been hoping for something useful, but apparently they really did think of everything.

He may as well take his time to sort his thoughts. But he wasn't really sure where to begin. He looked down at his injured hand. The bandage didn't cover the rash entirely, but at least he had received medical attention.

He still wasn't at ease with this whole "illness" thing.

[For Murphy!]

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[stop_the_rain]

What was it that Alice had said, when she stumbled deeper and deeper into Wonderland? Murphy couldn't remember. But he felt like that, by the time he was hustled away to the third shift. It was...disorienting. Not even counting the weirdness level, just the fact that the schedule was different than Ryall's. At least he'd been able to pee at the right time, which was a relief.

He wondered how long he'd be stuck on prison-time. This place was basically a prison, but it wasn't the same. And for the moment he could deal with a gilded cage, as long as it wasn't throwing monsters and manifestations of his own guilt at him.

The nurse that was apparently assigned to him decided to steer him to Arts and Crafts when he just shrugged as an answer to where he wanted to go. He didn't feel like catching the movie - it was one of his favorites, he just wasn't in the mood - and anyway....

He had noticed during brunch that there were kids around. Teenagers, sure, but...what the hell? Were they here at night? They couldn't be. What sort of sick fuck would do that to kids?

But Murphy knew all too well the sort of sick fucks who did things to kids. It just pissed him off, and he was edgy and frustrated when he was deposited in a room that reminded him of the ones back in the Monastery.

And there was only one other guy there, who Murphy decided had done some hard time himself. He had that look. Rubbing the back of his neck, the ex-con took a seat at the table, figuring it safe to approach someone on their own.

"Funny way to have a bunch of supposed psychos spend the time," he grumbled, rolling his eyes at the kiddie crafts on the table between them. He hadn't touched any of this kind of stuff since....

Ugh. He didn't want anymore reminders.

[envy_the_sinners]

"It's just another game," Scar growled, looking up at the newcomer. He hadn't seen him around before. Scar would have assumed that this man was new, but he had a weathered, hardened look about him. The faint scar on his cheek added to it.

"Just another subtle way of putting us down lower. It's not like he even thinks we're psychos in the first place." He looked back down at the table, still riffling through the supplies for something potentially useful even though it was highly unlikely that he would have no such luck.

[stop_the_rain]

"'He'? Oh, you mean the big doc on the intercom."

Murphy hadn't entirely figured that whole thing out yet, either. He was the bull goose, though, Murphy knew that. And probably the kind that got off on messing with the prisoners. This place was remarkably fucked up and painfully familiar all at once.

"You never know. Who knows what they think about us?" He didn't even really know who 'they' were. Neither did anyone else, really. It was just guesses and pieces of information and a whole bunch of possible-lies, as far as he could tell. And there could be some actual psychos running around. Took all kinds, that went here from what he'd seen.

That didn't even count the way being locked up could make some guys lose it. Murphy had been lucky there, at least. He'd already been broken enough that prison hadn't hardened him much.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar nodded. "The way he speaks, I'm sure he's well aware of what is actually going on." He looked up at the other man again.

"Are you new?" Scar didn't mind conversing with this man. He didn't seem to be stupid, and he wasn't so excitable that he got on Scar's nerves. Two traits that were definitely positives to the Ishbalan. Plus, he wasn't gawking at his scar. Another good thing.

[stop_the_rain]

"What's going on, yeah, but...he still might think some of us are nuts." Murphy found himself looking up, as though the discussed doctor were some force or entity watching them from on high. That feeling was the same as prison, too. Just knowing the COs were up there in their towers, keeping an eye on the sub-society below them.

"And yeah, I guess I'm new. Woke up here last night, but waking up in fucked up hellholes without knowing how is pretty much my life right now."

And as far as he could tell, this place wasn't in Silent Hill. Why he'd been sent here...or taken here...

Fuck if he could figure it out. Maybe he just wasn't done being punished. He could believe that. The things he'd done...the things he was responsible for... one quick trip through hell didn't make up for all of that.

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar put down the supplies, giving up on finding anything useful. The nurses were too careful to not give them something that could actually be a weapon of any kind. He leaned back in his chair.

"There are some here whose sanity I have called into question."

Pretty much his... life? Scar wouldn't ask. He didn't really want to know.

"That is a fairly accurate summation of this place, though," he grumbled. It was. This was hell.

[stop_the_rain]

"Always are." Murphy shrugged and picked up a box of crayons, turning it over in his hands. He remembered 'art therapy' when he was going to counseling. What a joke that had been. Not the therapy itself, but Murphy attending. he hadn't wanted to, hadn't really cared. He'd been going through the motions in the office and going through bottle after bottle of scotch at home. And every day, Carol hated him a little more....

"So, uh, I don't mean to pry, but...you done some time? I'm fresh out of the can myself, that's the reason I'm asking. Stupid shit got me in there."

He didn't mind fessing up to being an ex-con - literally, he had figured - but he knew the conclusions people could jump to. Even other prisoners. He didn't want to give the impression, that he was violently dangerous or some kind of drug fiend. On the other hand, 'stupid stuff' was vague enough that if this guy was a violent con...Murphy could swing it so there wasn't any problem.

[envy_the_sinners]

A convict? That probably explained the weathered look the other man had.

"I was wanted," he responded, watching the table with a frown. Scar would give him more details if he asked for them, but he wasn't about to offer them up freely.

Scar didn't want to think about what would have happened if they had caught him alive. They would have had to chain him up to keep him from using his arm... Drop him in solitary... Treat him like trash because he was an Ishbalan...

[stop_the_rain]

"Sucks, huh?" Murphy tapped out a crayon, not looking at the color. "I was wanted for all of eight hours." And then he'd pulled over in South Ashfield and let the cops arrest him. Funny how he was still brought up on resisting arrest charges. Hadn't 'evading capture' been enough?

Not that it mattered.

"I just got out of jail two days ago. But now I guess I'm back in there." As he spoke, he pulled a piece of paper in front of him and began doodling, not paying much attention to what. "Only I can't figure out if this place is better or worse than where I was. Probably worse. At least there weren't any kids stuck in the can."

And the one in Silent Hill hadn't been real. Thank God.

[envy_the_sinners]

"It was what I deserved," Scar replied quietly, watching the other man doodle. Actually, he had deserved worse than to die at the hands of a firing squad.

And he supposed he had. But apparently that hadn't been slow and painful enough of a death for Ishbala. So here he was, alive all over again.

"I don't even know how long I was on the run." He had been on and off the streets, in and out of camps... His sense of time had been lost. All he knew was that he had aged a lot more in that time span than a normal man would have. He felt old and tired almost all the time.

[stop_the_rain]

Murphy could only shrug at that, a round clock face emerging on the paper in front of him. His drawing skills were nothing to write home about.

"I don't know your story, pal." And who was he to say what someone else deserved? He'd thought he had that right, once. Look where that had gotten him. Hell and deeper into hell, and no way out no matter where he turned. Was this about justice and karma? Or was it some sick joke?

"You got any family?"

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar was silent for a moment. No, he didn't know his story. A scant few people did, really. And he was unlucky enough that one of those people was here. Then the question.

"They're all dead."

There wasn't any point in avoiding the question. Everyone he loved was gone; taken.

[stop_the_rain]

"I'm sorry."

Murphy knew better than to offer anything that would come off as pity. He knew that kind of pain, you didn't want to hear anybody's pithy advice or commiseration on the subject. But these were just the kinds of things you asked each other in this kind of situation.

He finished his crude sketch of a clock tower and the crayon kept going, making a diamond in the corner of the paper.

"Been here long?"

He didn't dwell on the subject of family. He knew that tone, too. Plenty of guys had it, himself included. It was a big neon sign that said 'I don't want to talk about it'. You learned to respect that pretty damn quickly.

[envy_the_sinners]

And he knew not to dwell on the subject, either. Finally, someone who seemed to understand Scar's 'don't talk about anything personal' vibe. This man was probably in a similar boat.

"This is my..." It took him a second. Could it really be only his fourth time waking up in this hell hole? He frowned. It had felt like so much longer... So much had happened.

"This is my fourth day. So no, not even a week."

[stop_the_rain]

Only four days? That wasn't that long at all. Murphy would have guessed ' a few months' at the lowest and a 'few years' at the highest.

"It gets easier," he offered, a squiggly line now extending from the base of the triangle. "Being locked up, I mean. You start to get used to it. Get used to the schedule. That's the biggest thing, I think. You get so damn used to doing this thing at this time and then it's all you know."

He wondered if there were any work details or groups or anything like that here. He'd found that keeping his mind and hands busy in the clink were a life-saver. Workshop had at least made the time go faster, and even let him forget a little bit.

"And hey, it's three meals a day and a bed."

[envy_the_sinners]

Scar's eyes narrowed. He didn't want to get used to it. He wanted to be rid of this place, however that may be possible.

"Maybe so. But most prisons don't have beasts running around the halls." He could deal with the schedule. With the condescending nurses. What he was sick of doing was running for his life. But if he ever wanted to get out, running for his life every night was the price he had to pay.

"That's true," he conceded. It was much easier when he at least knew he could sleep and eat without being attacked.