The Warden Threw a Party in the County Jail

[KitKat]

Spira - Cook County Jail

"You talkin' to me?" The large human cop said through the bars of the cell where Kit was sitting with a group of people they had just brought in.

"I don't see anybody else here, so yea I must be talking to you! You can't just throw us in here copper!" She was standing with her hands around the bars, wearing her shorts and a swim top. The girl had just been enjoying some rest and relaxation and then suddenly the police had raided the beach. Everybody was locked up and told they would be sorted latter. It was outrageous.

"Shut it kid or you'll wish I wasn't talkin to you!" He hit her hands with his stick, pinching her fingers.

She winched and withdrew her hand, rubbing them. "Can I have my jacket?" Being born with a lower than normal body temperature, Kit was already starting to shiver in the air conditioned building. The cop however just walked away from the cell.

"Stupid pig!" She yelled after him and turned towards the group of prisoners in her cell and whistled. "So whose innocent?"

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

The horrifying confusion that had deeply pervaded Rosario's being was slowly lifting. With much effort, she could penetrate the fog and put the things that were floating around in her mind together into meaningful thoughts that related to the world. She felt exhausted to the very core of her being, and while the negative emotions she was feeling all around her did no longer coalesce into the hell that he had just been in for she did not know how long, they were still there, constricting her, making her anxious. What was also noticeable was the distinct absence of sun. Where on earth was she?

The whole thing had started so pleasantly. But maybe what she had done had been a little bit stupid after all.

A concerned voice reached her ears. "Hey... Rose... Are you there? Are you alright?" She noticed that she was sitting on the floor and leaned against the wall. They were cold against her exposed skin, as she was wearing only a yellow swimsuit.

She looked at her friend just as he put an arm around her shoulder. "What the hell happened? Where are we?" she whispered anxiously.

"Uhm... In jail, I'm afraid." - "What?! You damn fool! You said it would be fine and everyone did it", protested Rosario with sudden indignation. "It'll be fine, they're not after people like us. They want the source." - "Dammit, you are the source." - "Well..." She stared at him, terrified. Finally she pulled her knees closer and buried her face between them, pressing her eyes shut. She needed to find a place of calm and gather strength to resist all the negativity that pervaded the situation. There was so much fear and anger in the room. It didn't help that her thoughts were still sluggish and her perception distorted. She focused her attention on her body, surveying every part of it. It still felt odd.

The breath. It was a better anchor. It was curiously isolated, so distinct from the rest of her physical being. That was good, it made things easy. Her attention was absorbed all too quickly. Waves of calming energy began to wash over and through her, growing ever stronger. She still felt drained and weak, but the world was losing its urgent intensity and starting to seem more manageable. None of this could really be that big of a deal, could it? It never was, really, was it?

Rosario raised her head and briefly smiled at her friend. A voice asked into the room, the voice of a girl no older than herself, who was very upset. Rosario looked at her with a smile. "Always!" She rose from the ground , still a bit unsteady on her feet. "Of what exactly?" she added mischievously.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

A girl caught Kit's attention when she rose and stated innocence. Kit smiled, still shivering slightly as she did so. "I think they busted the whole beach for drugs. Which is totally against our civil rights I might add!" She shouted the last bit over her shoulder, hoping the guards would hear it.

"This is going to be a long and boring day." She sat with her back against the bars and tried not to think what her parents would say if they found out she was in jail.

"So whats your name?" She asked the pair across from her.

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Rosario. And this is Valen", she said with a look to the young man behind her. He was not tall, but well-groomed, and overall handsome enough, with a full head of curly hair.

She put a hand on the girl's upper arm, noticing with surprise how cold her skin felt. "It'll be alright, I'm sure." She leaned forward, closer to Kit, so she could peek outside through the bars of the cell. How strange that they had physical bars rather than energy shields - probably the jail saw little use and had not been renovated in a long time, and in any even the people who found themselves in it surely tended to be of weaker species and not of the most violent temperament.

The guard at the end of the corridor seemed to be talking to his colleague, but they were too far away to make out any words. Rosario pulled back a little and looked Kit straight in the face, still from oddly close up. Her concept of personal space, if it existed, seemed to be rather distorted. It was as if she had to orient herself for a moment before she asked: "What's your name, then?"

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

Kit blinked as the girl was so close up. It was awkward. She leaned back instinctively, to put space between them. "My name is Kit." Her teeth chattered slightly but she managed to close her teeth tightly to stop it in a moment.

"UGH they can't just keep us in here." She got up again and pounded on the bars. "I want my phone call!"

"This isn't a movie kid. No calls."

She glared at the cop and turned her back to the bars and leaned on them. "Anybody got any bright ides? It could take hours for them to process us all." Her parents were going to kill her!

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario took a step back and ran her hand through her hair, looking at the floor and seeming a bit confused. The girl's agitation was a bit difficult, but she managed not to be infected by it, and the lightness of being that she was feeling persisted.

Her hand in her neck, she looked at Kit again, head tilted, and smiled enigmatically. It was almost as if she were finding the situation funny. "Well. So what if it takes a few hours?"

"Oh", she said suddenly, a concerned looked in her eyes. She turned around and walked over to Valen. "Gimme that", she demanded, tugging on his t-shirt. "What? Why?!" - "Kit is freezing, can't you see?"

The young man was visibly perplexed, but eventually shrugged and obliged her request. Rosario ran her hand over his smooth bare chest with a grin, then turned around and presented the shirt to Kit. "There. Now we can have a pleasant few hours", she announced with an encouraging smile. "Just calm down. Being upset isn't pleasant, after all, now is it?"

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

Kit shook her head when the shirt was offered. "Oh no I couldn't. I don't want you to be cold either." After all it wouldn't be pleasant if Valen was cold either.

"It's going to be a boring few hours though." She almost groaned the sentence. Kit hated to sit still, as her Jedi mentors told her over and over. She rocked back on the balls of her feet and whistled. "So what brought you guys to Spira?"

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Eh, he'll be fine. Come on." She help up the t-shirt so that Kit would only have to stick out her arms and head to slip into it.

"Beaches, of course. I'd never been to any in my life before - they're marvellous! So many new sensations!"

"You probably find beaches boring, too? That's because you're not paying attention properly", she chided Kit jokingly, with a beaming grin. "Once you pay attention properly, almost everything is interesting. You can spend a very nice afternoon just paying attention to your own body. Even when you're not alone", she added with a mischievous grin.

"I'll show you. You don't want to sit still, huh? So here's what you do. Forget about all this nonsense that's going on outside and just pay attention to how exactly you feel like moving. You watch that urge for a bit, and maybe if it goes away. And if it doesn't, then you very deliberately do what it wants you to do and pay attention to what it is and observe the relief and enjoyment you get out of that movement." Rosario spoke with such endearing earnestness about this seemingly absurd topic that many would have found it difficult not to be drawn in and convinced even by a proposition that sounded as outlandish as this.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

"Okay but if he gets cold he can have it back." She put the t-shirt on and wrapped her arms around herself.


What [member="Rosario Perlyn"] was suggesting sounded an awful lot like meditation, and Kit had never been disciplined enough to meditate properly. She would give it a try though! Kit would try anything once! The girl closed her eyes, trying to concentrate on her own body. Unfortunately she could hear a fly. It was buzzing around the jail cell. She frowned and tried to ignore it, breathing deeply in and out. The air in here smelled funny. Maybe it was because they were all wet with ocean water. She had seen a squid in the ocean today, but no she must not think about that right now. She was supposed to be meditating. She concentrated again but a guard coughed and Kit found herself wondering how much cold medicine cost on this world. People actually used cold medicine to make drugs too. She just couldn't believe that. It seemed so insane. Drugs was why they were in this situation. Maybe the person was using cough medicine to make those drugs?

She frowned, wondering again what she was supposed to be doing. She opened her eyes and let out a moan of displeasure, before rising up again and pounding on the bars. "Hey! What is taking so long? Gah!" She turned away from the bars and looked back at the people in the cell. "I saw a squid today in the ocean."

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario seemed completely unfazed by the abrupt change of topic. "Really?" she asked interestedly. "How far out did you swim? How big was it and what did it do?"

Suddenly Rosario had noticed that Valen had grown oddly quiet now that his attention and concern were not so much fixed on her anymore, and she could feel that he was worrying about something.

Her hand briefly brushed over Kit's arm as if by way of apology, and she took a step over to her friend's side. "Hey, what's the matter?" - "Well..." - "Oh." A concerned look suddenly appeared on Rosario's face. "Don't tell me you've still got something on you..." she asked anxiously. He gave her a sheepish look. Her eyes widened in horror, but then suddenly her expression became determined. "Well, that's stupid. Give it to me."

It wasn't exactly like she actually had a plan, but somehow it felt obvious that she had to do something about this, and that she was better equipped to deal with it than him. It took a persuading look and a kiss to finally make him produce a tiny sealed plastic bad from the pocket of his swimming trunks. Rosario took it without hesitation and let it disappear in the cleavage of her swimsuit.

Then she turned around with a smile and put her attention on Kit again - though she did not succeed entirely in concealing a certain amount of preoccupation.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

"It was like this big" she held out her hands about a foot apart. When Rosario turned away and started talking to the guy Kit raised her eyebrow. Something felt off. She watched curiously and when Rosario turned around Kit's jaw dropped. They were acting shady, in a jail cell, after an arrest for drugs.... there was only one conclusion to jump to.

"It's you! You guys have..." She lowered her voice and whispered "drugs?" She felt her heart start pumping fast. "What if they come in here and see it?"

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

"Well, we're probably not the only ones", retorted Rosario with a shrug. "I don't think they'll be looking here immediately." She pointed between her breasts. "They're humans, right?" She had come to the conclusion that in the world at large, you could mostly rely on the prudery of the species.

She idly walked over to the bars and leaned against them to peer outside. The cell tract was separated from a room for the officers by a door with a transparisteel window. She could see the two policemen sitting at a table with mugs in front of them. They were probably slacking off, or in the best case waiting for instructions of some sort.

At the sight of them, an idea struck Rosario. The predicament of her situation was that this was not simply a matter of waiting. If they did eventually search her or decided to screen her blood, she would have a problem. This required a more proactive approach.

That, in turn, required preparation. Her master had begun to teach her not to regard herself as limited to her own body, that her mind could reach out and include other objects in its domain of influence. In the same way that she could move her hand, she could also move an object further away - sort of. Her success had been rather limited, but she had found that the longer she familiarised herself with a particular object, the better the chances were that she could manipulate it from a distance.

Ignoring suddenly everyone around her, she sat down on the floor cross-legged and pulled out the little plastic bag. She took out its contents, little scraps of paper to all appearances, and put them down on top of the plastic in her palm. Sitting there, Rosario seemed to be oddly absorbed in just looking at them.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

"But aren't you worried they will search you?" Though Rosario didn't seem worried, Kit was. If her parents caught her in a jail with drugs they would kill her!

Rosario sat down and started watching the little pieces of paper calmly. Kit was not calm. She kept bouncing on her feet and feeling extra nervous. When the door to the other room opened she almost jumped out of her skin.

"We will be taking you in for questioning soon." The guard barely even stuck his head in to say this and left again. Kit let out a low moan.

"We are going to be locked up forever!"

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

Rosario sighed as her concentration was broken, but momentarily turned her head and looked up at Kit. "Why would we be? Also, stop thinking of your parents all the time", she said with an amused smile. The girl's thoughts had become quite intrusive at this point.

And with that, Rosario returned her attention to the incriminating object that was lying in her left hand. She regarded it and examined it in her mind, but simply couldn't get a grasp on it. It was to be expected, her master had said - but there was an approach, workable for small objects, that was more accessible to the untrained mind. She raised her right hand and imagined what it would be like to grasp the pieces of paper, her hand performing the same motion in the air. The idea here was to distort your own perception of space so that you felt like you were performing the gesture in a different place from where your body was physically located. This had initially been difficult for Rosario, for as a trained dancer, she had a very accurate perception of her own limbs. But interestingly enough, the drugs with which Valen had acquainted her had been mind-opening in this respect: they could distort proprioception and had given her a better conception of the feeling she had to aim for, and in a sober state, better able to concentrate, she had found some success with this approach.

And indeed, in time, Rosario had the little pieces of paper floating in the air above her lap, following, if not rapidly, the movements of her hand. She grinned at herself and plucked them out of the air, concealing them in a lose fist, before she stood up again. She threw a smile, mischievous and reassuring at the same time, at Valen, who had been sitting in pensive silence. He responded only with a look of exasperated incomprehension.

The pink girl turned to her new acquaintance again. "Those people aren't monsters, if you do it right they'll interview you first. Get their attention and mention your parents if you must", she said teasingly. "When they do, encourage them to have a cup of stimcaf maybe."

Now if only that door stayed open long enough. Rosario did feel a certain nervousness creep up inside her after all, quite clearly, in her stomach and chest.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​

 

[KitKat]

Sure enough before Kit could even answer the door swung open and a portly looking human came through. His large waist seemed to expand, straining the buttons of his uniform as he examined the prisoners silently. The door behind him remained opened, though there might not even be room to close it considering the massive size of the man. Kit got up and stood, facing the officer, with her hands on the bars.

“We have rights you know!”


The officer chuckled and rubbed his belly. “Look I know some of you were taken by mistake. I’m here to sort all that out. I’m office Morgan. We just need to interview the lot of you and then those that should go free will go free.”

“In the meantime you’ve treated us all like criminals and ignored our civil rights!”

The office grinned at Kit. “Why don’t I interview you first them? You can tell me all about it. Unless anybody else has something to say?”

[member="Rosario Perlyn"]

 

[Rosario Perlyn]

When the door to the cell tract opened, Rosario jumped up and threw the little scraps of paper in its direction. But instead of forgetting about them, she followed them with her attention and her hand - and on some level, it was to her as if she hadn't thrown them at all, but was rather still carrying them through the air on her palm.

Her eyes were fixed on the almost invisible floating scraps of paper even as she stepped forward towards the bars to get a better view into the officers' room. When her gaze briefly darted for the mugs, she almost lost control of the objects of her telekinesis. It was a brief moment of panic before she caught them again. Ignoring everything that was happening around her, she guided them on and eventually managed to direct them towards the cups. When they floated above, she let go, and the little scraps of paper fell into the coffee mugs.

A satisfied grin appeared on Rosario's face as the deed was done, and she folded her hands behind her back, turning to Kit. She didn't find the girl where she had stood before, instead she was already outside and the cell door was being closed.

"Hey, wait! Won't you take me with her? She's my friend!" Rosario exclaimed suddenly. She was was, for a moment, astonished at her own confidence in dealing with the situation. Then she realised that it was probably better to forget about her own astonishment, and did so.

[member="Kitrine Corsair"]​