sincerity may be too much to ask for

[expectaspectre]

Passengers: Grace Gibson and Volk
Location: Mess Hall
Date: 1/29
Summary: Unpaired Warden-Inmate Bonding Time over Coffee, possibly some sort of shenaniganry?
Warnings: probably a lot of cursing



Volk, apparently, has a lot of feelings. He seems like a smart guy, from what Grace could glean through text, or at least likes other people to think he’s a smart guy, and he’s not afraid to let people know about it. Possibly this is one of the things that led to his being here as an inmate in the first place, not that she knows anything about what those actually are.

Maybe that’s something she can get him to talk about in person? Or at least just let him open up and blow off some steam. Seems like he could use a friendly ear, and isn’t that exactly what Grace came here to be? It’s not like she has any expertise in anything else that might be of use, here. She couldn’t even provide him with cigarettes. Great warden.

Ah, well. She gets herself a couple of cups of steaming-hot coffee, and takes a seat in the cafeteria— Mess Hall, she corrects herself, god, she has GOT to stop calling it that, stupid habit, terms are important— where she can be easily seen, and waits.

It's uncomfortably exposing for Grace, trying to be seen. She tries not to let it get to her.

Comments

[expectaspectre]

"Which are?"

At least she's listening. Entertaining this notion that inmates and wardens need not be adversarial, as some of the others seemed to think, but work together. William had emphasized that to her, and given his experience as an inmate, she had listened.

He was, if nothing else, proof that the system as presented to them worked. Or rather, that it could work. Volk didn't seem to believe that any of this was as it seemed at all, which in Grace's eyes, was directly counter to William's experience. So who was wrong?

Well. She only had herself to rely on, there. And she'd been wrong before. So what's wrong with a little intelligence-gathering? It couldn't hurt. Probably.

[saklas]

"Many. Just try to break out of this box and you can think of a bunch. Off the top of my head, though - find a solution to the things trying to kill you. Shit, just take Travis home and throw him at them, he'll probably take it in exchange for a ride back to the real world."

Oh no. The coffee cup is getting lighter. Volk slows down. Have to make this last.

[expectaspectre]

Grace snorts a brief laugh-- unattractively, she's been told.

"If it were that easy, I wouldn't be here. Though, I don't doubt Travis's enthusiasm in the slightest."

Her hand moves up to her bad shoulder, giving it a few subconscious squeezes, a gesture of habit.

"How does somebody kill the unkillable? You don't. You find a way to convince them to make a different choice. Sound familiar?"

[saklas]

What a rude thing to tell a woman, honestly.

Volk snorts and looks away.

"Unkillable is a myth. Even as a punishment."

He finishes off his coffee. Fuck it.

"What exactly did they promise you?"

[expectaspectre]

"A resolution. Nonspecific. I wasn't in a position to negotiate."

Grace passes her coffee over. Volk needs it more, and let's be honest: she's not exactly sad to let it go.

"Take it. No cooties, I promise."

[saklas]

"What, why?"

Is there something wrong with it?

[expectaspectre]

"It's coffee," she returns, with a sheepish shrug. "I never had much of a taste for it, unless it was full of so much sugar and cream and flavor syrup you can barely call it coffee anymore."

In case Volk needed more reason to find her Basic, there you have it.

[saklas]

She just comes off as ...younger. A lot younger, even though she can't be that far off from his own age. One of them's had a weird life. Maybe its both?

"...It's not really about the taste."

Thank you, he means. He's going to take it.

"So, they could have just promised they could help and either not be able to deliver or do something that's not what you're counting on."

[expectaspectre]

Grace nods.

"Sure. Either's possible. Believe me when I say it was worth a try. And so far... I don't know. It hasn't given me anything to say they can't deliver. Guess I'm just a hopeful person."

Another little shrug-- this time, her shoulder cracks, and it's loud. Loud in a way that says 'This Joint Has Been A Problem Before'. She doesn't seem to pay it any mind.

[saklas]

"There's a difference between hope and having no plan. You could be doing both."

[expectaspectre]

"Oh, definitely. I was never the one who came up with the plans. Right now, it's just... do my job, get paid, go home. Unless something else happens."

After barely a pause, she sits up straighter, like something just occurred to her:

"But, I have to mention, there's some wardens here who say they used to be inmates. I don't know how much I trust them, or, you know, anybody here. But that's a thing, right?"

[saklas]

"According to them, yes. They finished what they were told to do and still couldn't go home. Their lives were still ruined, they had nowhere to go but back here. I have no idea why the hell they would advertise that."

But they sure did, huh.

"I've also been told that once these things pick up steam, the culture is more or less one of abuse. We're not at capacity, you can tell. This ship is going to get bigger."

Volk cups his hands around his (new) coffee.

"You know what part of the job of a therapist is?"

[expectaspectre]

Hoo boy that sure is a lot of assumptions. About former wardens, about their results, about the future aboard the Peregrine. None of that will come to pass, if Grace has a finger on the scale. Or at least, she'd do whatever she could.

Whether that'd be enough is, after all, out of her hands.

She just tilts her head to the side, a go on, I'm listening implied in the gesture.

[saklas]

This is him paraphrasing what Loki and William told him as well as he could - no embellishments.

"Trying to get you to actually listen to things you don't want to hear. Trying to get you to consider things that you have to think about, even when it's hard and unpleasant."

Volk smiles humorlessly. He's so tired.

[expectaspectre]

"You think you've been doing that?"

It's a genuine question.

[saklas]

"Fuck no, nobody listens to me. I could be screaming about a fire and people would roll their fucking eyes."

Big drink of coffee.

"It's great. I love it."