Birdboy — Roleplayer Guild

March 12th, 2006 - 7:29 am

Johnny yawned as he reclined in the only chair in his small room. It was a cell: just enough room for bunk beds and a desk, but he preferred to think about his situation a bit more optimistically. It wasn't a cell, it was his room.

"You have less than a minute before they take you Johnny" Came a droll voice from the top bunk and Johnny continued taking all his trinkets from the desk hurriedly. The man talking to him didn't even bother to stare at him, even though they had spent every day together for two years now. Called himself a ‘calendar man’. Pretty evident with the dozens of calendars surrounding the upper bunk. Johnny didn't care, living together in such confines with a criminal 'mastermind' made it a surprise they were even this close in such tight confines.

"Could you say it a little more ominously, Julian?" Johnny teased as he grabbed the last hand-painted craft he had made and stuffed it into a trash bag he'd be using as his luggage. Truthfully he wasn't planning on lugging them around much longer, but Johnny didn't want Lukas to see him toss them out. The shrimp had to really push to get Johnny to try art therapy but he couldn’t help but admire some of the witlings he created. It felt unjust to dispose of them so unceremoniously, at least not where his therapist might see.

The roommate wasn't too far off. The door to their room unlocked before the heavy metal could swing forward. He had hardly only begun to take his things. A group of armed policemen were accompanying a small but regal man. Johnny was surprised, usually Lukas was with them. He recognized the warden, someone oddly personable with such a dangerous crowd.
"Where is-" Johnny began to protest, but the small man in a gouache suit seemed to have all the answers.
"Lukas? Called into work today, for the first time in years. I’m just as surprised as you are" his nasally words made Johnny angry enough to clench his fist. Seeing the tense officers around him, though, he relented with a sigh of exasperation.
"Are you serious? I leave today, he wouldn't miss that for the world!" He proclaimed boldly, doing his best to keep from shouting. The Warden seemed to empathize and couldn’t help but give a sad frown in response.
“Mister Ramerez, I know you wanted Lukas to be here” He carefully explained.
“But we have a schedule here, you need to be out of here before the next patient comes in”

The words struck Johnny like daggers. The rules here had always been rigid, but even with rationality on his side, Johnny’s emotions sometimes get the better of him. Were there not armed guards waiting for him to make a move, he’d have tossed the man out the window. Slowly, his anger subsided in the silence, shifting into an excruciating sadness he hid behind glassy eyes. The man who had changed his life, made the days in the madhouse easier. Lukas hadn’t missed a day in years: surely he had a reason.

Johnny nodded silently as the Warden guided him out of the room. Johnny was glad the rooms had no windows into the corridors, if the other prisoners saw him so flushed and worked up, they’d never let him hear the end of it. The Warden was guiding Johnny down the flights of stairs and his belongings were listed out to him by a man who hated his job more than Johnny hated being in an Asylum. 

3 cigarettes, now stale. It was a mockery even to return them.

A refillable lighter, the shell of a scarab embroidered on it.

A plastic comb

Eight 1$ bills, a quarter and a dime. No wallet

A hiking backpack

Six bottles of water. He wondered if they were still good

And finally, he was given back his old clothes. It still smelled as unwashed and musky as ever. He basked in the smell as he put every item back into its place. Once done he turned to the Warden.
“Where is the bathroom? I ain’t leaving till I change out of these scrubs” He proclaimed. 

He returned for a quick change. His jeans felt a lot tighter than they had a year ago. Back then he was a scrawny drifter living off power bars and junk food. Still,  as he put on his worn jacket he was surprised to feel how snuggly it covered his shoulders. Arkham Asylum had been receiving a lot of private donations for some strange reason. The gym they included gave him time to build up his arms. He already had legs like a horse, he had walked the I-70, and the Appalachian trail, just to get to gotham. In just a year he had changed so much, and for the better? That was a first. As he stuck his hand into his jacket pocket, he was surprised to find a letter. He was alone in the bathroom, might as well open it...

March 12th, 2006 - 7:53 am
The day was a bright day: clear skies, a crisp breeze left the air nippy but the sun radiance kept it warm enough. A pleasant spring day all around. Johnny left the prison doors and stood there for a moment. He felt odd standing in the breeze, a free man. Slowly he started walking the docks he had just come from, merging into the crowd hesitantly. No one among this group of people were aware he had just left a high security correctional facility for the criminally insane. They laughed and mused, chirped and bickered, all like a biologically modified super being wasn’t standing inches beside him. He strolled through the crowd but in a trance, people were starting to stare at his blank face and slouched, groggy lurch. He was too lost in thought, reflecting on all he had experienced and desperately clinging to the wise words Lukas had shared with him. It was enough to get him to the bus station. He fumbled with his wadded up cash, fidgeting while the teller begrudgingly helped him count out the money he laid out.

“This isn’t enough sir?” The clerk called out.

“It was more than enough a year ago!” Johnny sharply responded.

“Well it isn’t today”

Johnny grumbled as he grabbed up his cash and furiously turned his attention to the map next to them showing the city routes. It appeared he would be walking.

March 12th, 2006 - 9: 22 am

Johnny looked at the letter he had been given and then went back to the street sign a couple times. Then to the address number engraved in stone on a large building. What did the Grieves corporation need him for? The whole thing felt like a trap, he had dealt with aliens on earth before and it certainly explained why they knew him so way.

“No no no no no, push that out of your mind Johnny!” He said to himself from outside the gates, smacking his cheeks as if the pain might shock the negative thoughts from his mind.
“Don’t look a gift horse in the mouth, right?” He mumbled to himself as he pressed the buzzer a few times. He was a few minutes early, but he wanted to make a good impression. At Least as good as it can be. The gates unlocked and Johnny stepped forward to the door. It opened before he could knock. A slender old man in a well-ironed zoot suit answered the door with an apathetic stare. Johnny shifted his eyes away, he didn’t like seeing people with such dead stares.

“Master Asher will be with you in a moment. Please, make yourself at home, Master Johnathan” The butler decreed, the door sliding open further to reveal a room with polished granite floors and a beautiful lounging room. Johnny was off put, but he had gone this far. He entered hesitantly, but when he noticed the fresh sangria on the table all pretense went aside and he was lapping down drinks and lounging in style. Whoever this ‘Asher’ guy was, he was alright with Johnny so far. If only he knew.
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