Issue #70

[mistconduct]

Fuck me, we're four days into March and the port messed up my goddamn March Madness spread!

Fuck it, fine. Obviously since I can't watch college basketball on the Barge, we make our own entertainment here.

Bets are currently open to be placed on all inmates. It's $5 to play, 5 spots for $20. First inmate you picked to graduate gets paid out.

All unpaired inmates are wild cards - if you bet on them and they're first to graduate, you win a date with Loki in addition to the whole kit and caboodle.

Here's some sample odds I've got running;

Mickey - 2:1
The Emperor - 2:1
Abigail - 3:1
Cass - 3:1
Mira - 5:1
Tig - 10:1
Jax - 10:1
Touko - 20:1
Sylvanas - 25:1
Jerry - 25:1
Dean - 40:1
Arthas - 50:1

...Hey, does anyone else feel like utter crap?

Comments

[fridgetothefire]

I have no idea.

[Which totally isn't terrifying.]

[versusnurture]

Oh.

Well, if you keep it, it might look nice with pearls.

[fridgetothefire]

Huhn. It would, wouldn't it?

[versusnurture]

All icy and clean.

[She smiles, just a little.]

[fridgetothefire]

I have some around here.

[A gift from Ben, intimate and morbid and oblique. She wonders if it's a bad time, or an essential time.]

[Private]

You get anything?

private

[versusnurture]

Just dizziness. Nothing lasting. No modifications.

private

[fridgetothefire]

Glad to hear it.

private

[versusnurture]

Can you ask the Admiral to take it away?

private

[fridgetothefire]

I'd start with bed rest and Advil before letting him into your head, but I can ask if you want.

[lol no anya YOU. although her logic is the same, really.]

private

[versusnurture]

. . . I meant you. I'm fine, really. I just.

It looks like it might hurt?

private

[fridgetothefire]

[Oh, right. Um. She grimaces, glancing away.]

Kind of does. Deep ache, sort of thing. I will if it gets bad.

[She doesn't know why she's so reluctant. Or rather, she doesn't want to think about why.]

private

[versusnurture]

Ben will be sad if you're sad.

[This said owlishly, with big guilt-inducing eyes.]

private

[fridgetothefire]

[alkdgnadn ah mah gawd, abigail. She ducks her head, rueful and grinning. Yes, okay, well played.]

Well, I'm not sad. I'm - I don't know, a little proud of it.

private

[versusnurture]

[She brightens at this, all sulk blown away in the face of this new information.]

It's like a trophy?

private

[fridgetothefire]

Yeah. Like - yeah, it kind of is.

[Which isn't all of the appeal, but it's definitely a factor, and it's about as creepy as her trophies usually are, but - it's still an easier thing to say, to admit to herself about the attachment, and she's grateful.]

private

[versusnurture]

Well. Good, then.

Ben probably won't be sad at you.

private

[fridgetothefire]

We fought, while you were sleeping.

[A little somberly, pinched, gaze slightly down.]

He was angry and...disturbed, that I went to Manticore.

private

[versusnurture]

Oh.

[She's somber, at that. She can understand; what if someone else went after Hannibal? (And they had, enough times. She felt so possessive.)]

Is he still angry with you?

private

[fridgetothefire]

No. Or - if he is, he doesn't want to be or mean to be. But he is still angry, sometimes. And disturbed. At me.

I'm not asking you to warden your warden, or to fix my mistakes. But I thought you would want to know.

private

[versusnurture]

I don't think it was a mistake that you went.

private

[fridgetothefire]

[She breathes out, heavy and slow. She knows, she knows. But it is a wrenching, heady relief to hear someone else say it aloud, to hear Abigail say it, in particular. Abigail who wanted to go, who understands some things about Ben in a way Anya maybe never will. Abigail whom Anya would have taken along, if the Admiral had let her, and if there is any choice Ben might never have forgiven her for, that would probably be it.

It was not a mistake to go. And having gone, not a mistake to stay, to be thorough, to be sure, else what point going at all?]

Maybe I could have told him better. Maybe it wouldn't have mattered.

You don't have to fix us, anyway. We're working on it. Just - he's been. Agitated.

[She isn't his warden. But she is his friend.]

private

[versusnurture]

I know I don't have to fix you. It just means a lot that he has you, okay? It means that - he's not alone, and he doesn't have to deal with problems alone, and he has somebody to take care of. Besides me.

private

[fridgetothefire]

It means a lot to me, too.