so you wanna visit a youth correctional facility | Post-Curtains R2 CMO

[isawallflower]

The moment Riley walks through one of those magic doors at the liminal Denny's, she knows there's no going back. ...Well, there was no going back the moment she slide a knife into another girl's stomach - two other girls, how lovely - but she was far in denial, to acknowledge any of that.

It's a strange whirlwind of a few weeks. With a few...helpful ways of framing her request, Riley was able to convince the Leading Player to help her. To give Chess, Farrah, and Clark back their lives. For a favor, she'd said, and Riley just knows she's going to pay for that, one day— but it's' not now, and it's something she would have to give, not them. The whole town's a flurry of activity, as dead people don't typically show up out of nowhere and missing criminals don't emerge from the back of a police station. Still, it's hard to charge someone with any degree of murder when the victims are alive and well (and confused; Riley doesn't know what if anything the Leading Player told them, but she doubts she'll be able to compare notes)— so things go a little...strangely.

First of all, Riley's folks hadn't expected her to appear out of nowhere, so the proceedings are a bit...delayed. (It hurts to learn that they'd already packed up or...donated most all her things, but she doesn't find herself too surprised.) For a few weeks, she's shunted around from center to center around the state, until her sentencing (and charges—assault? but they have not a single scratch—) can be finalized. It's normal procedure, apparently. Not many kids there are permanent staples, and...none of the places are very nice, honestly. Those days are the loneliest. A few times, she has a roommate for a night or two, but—

Well. Riley knew she talked in her sleep, but apparently now she screams, too. The other girls...are less than enthused, so. She's always moved to her own room, eventually. She doesn't stay in the facilities for long, and she's not allowed visitors, beyond the lawyer she's eventually provided.

Second of all, the instant she can talk to said lawyer, Riley confesses very clearly. She pleads guilty, agrees to a bargain. Yes, she stabbed two girls. Three, if you count Kate, which is...probably the most concrete charge against her. No, she doesn't understand how the people she'd seen dead (killed) are alive again. (Which isn't a lie; she doesn't pretend to understand Narrator powers.) No, she doesn't know exactly who kidnapped her, or how to get back to where she was. She tries her best to avoid outright lying and simply settles on being unable to identify the location, that she never spoke to the man who abducted her, that there were times she was drugged. If you count the nanites as "drugs" it's not technically a lie.

The whole thing takes some time to sort out. It's three weeks before everything can be cleanly settled and Riley can receive her placement— a juvenile detention center (Youth Correctional Facility, she'll insist on using) just outside of New York City. It's...not a bad place. Her lawyer (who Riley highly suspects her parents, who haven't visited her once, had nothing to do with) got her to a better facility than she could picture.

Her own little room, almost the same size as the dressing rooms they'd been trapped in. A desk, built into the wall. A bed that could honestly be a lot worse, considering the places she'd been in just weeks before. The facility emphasizes learning, so...in some way, she's still going to get to finish school. Daily recreation, including outdoors, unless it's raining. ...Riley still stares out the window when it does; she misses just standing under the rain. And she finds herself placed with an actual therapist, some actual medical professionals.

By the time the whirlwind settles? It's just a few days before her eighteenth birthday.

Three and a half years, with probation. Required psychological evaluation and monitoring. Current sentence and progress to be re-evaluated every three months, unless drastic intervention is needed.

Riley reminds herself this could be much worse. For Mattie, it probably was. So, she sucks it up. And she waits, for visits from her real family.

[ SO!

Assume after the Opera House, you haven't seen Riley for a few weeks, unless you've found a way around that, cough cough MEPHISTO. She's allowed two visits per week, up to three people per visit. They will be non-contact visits at first (the basic conjugal visits, a little room with plexiglass between you), but she's very quickly allowed contact visits! You'll need to preregister visits, but you can do that up to day of, as long as it's before visiting hours. Everyone has to be pre-approved to visit, though, under the pretense that it would be beneficial for her to see them. Please assume you've gone through this song and dance, we've (I've) researched enough about New York law. A guardian can help speed this process. Again, cough cough MEPHISTO.

She's also allowed phone calls, though!! She can call up to 21 minutes, and then there's a cooldown period. All calls are monitored. She usually tries to set these up beforehand.

Last but not least! No letters or gifts (besides prepackaged, store bought snacks) allowed in visits. BUT you can mail her things!
The following are not allowed in the mail:
- Food, baking and/or cooking ingredients
- Any kind of drugs
- Can-type containers with metal parts
- Metal, ceramic, or glass containers
- Aerosol type containers
- Guns, just- any guns
- WEAPONS AT ALL HONESTLY


......AND THAT'S ALL, thanks for reading the tl;dr or at least this bottom part. ]

Comments

[isawallflower]

Mm.

[ The ghost of a smile flits to her face, but she's still small, brittle, glancing up but only fleetingly. ]

...I wish I could see your show. Do...you think it'll still be on, by um...?

[ ...Ugh, that's another bad line of thought. ]

[likemypicture]

We’ll work something out, one way or another. I’ve been trying to work with the Queens on bringing it to Loki. We should be able to bring it to you too.

[isawallflower]

She's still, um...house-bound?

[ thank fucking god riley was never into homestuck

Sigyn visits, but Loki's never come with. She heard something about the other woman needing to get her strength up, but- well, Riley worries about asking about it. She doesn't want to pry. ]

pretend this is from anna

[10amongst3s]

Ja—- I feel like the strobe lights may be a little much right now. We will see.

Worst case, I have to repeat the story of this visit to her.

its ok youre so valid

[isawallflower]

[ Riley just kind of mouths strobe lights with a lighter, bewildered smile that usually shows up around Anna von Kleve. Thinking about something else, someone else's problems (which she's trying to do more, reframe— stop...being so self-centered) helps pull her from the haze of her own mind. ]

...Do...you think she'll be okay?

[ She only met Loki briefly. But...she liked her. A kind woman, who Sigyn loves. ]

Re: its ok youre so valid

[10amongst3s]

Oh, ja. She’ll be okay. She’s in good hands. I think it’s the type of thing that takes time, but... [She waves her hand]

[isawallflower]

Right. Time.

[ ...Kind of amazing that they have that, after everything.

Riley lets her shoulders start to relax, or...she tries to, at least. ]

...I got your letters. Thank you for sending them.

[likemypicture]

[Anne’s smile softens in brightness, just so. She still has Riley’s hand, a novel thing, during talk of letters.]

You’re welcome! I’ll keep writing them, if you like them. The mail moves so fast now, I get excited! When I wanted to speak with my family before, I had to either send the message with someone traveling abroad, or allow it months to get there. [Oh, right. The watching. Try not to be too weird, Anne.] Because—- rural, ja? [She winks, but still looks a little wistful. Even with her new family, it’s easy to get homesick sometimes. German princesses were raised with strong senses of duty towards family— and as she had never successfully created her own (during her first lifetime), her ties to home through her siblings had always been powerful. Letters had been her salvation in a place far away. Writing them to and for Riley, it feels meaningful.]

[isawallflower]

[ Rural, she says, and Riley can't help but flicker a smile in response. Like they're pulling one over on the entire world, even now that she knows the world is more...strange. Honestly, if people learned the truth about Anne, they'd probably adjust. Just like the world's strange timeline is adjusting. Just like they're adjusting to people who were dead no longer being dead.

Adjusting... Hm. Riley supposes she's doing a lot of that too. ] So...you're really settling in well, aren't you? Getting used to... [ She gestures around, gently. ] Just all this.

I'm glad. I- um... I know a lot of this is new for you...and Da- um. Mephisto.

[ Soft, silly embarrassment... She's going to get used to it, eventually. But, not yet. ]

[likemypicture]

That's putting it lightly. [The wist is gone, replaced with a little bit of a lazy smirk. It's probably for the best Riley doesn't hear all of the trouble that Mephisto and she have gotten into, discovering what life has to hold for them.]

There's so much to see, and do! Stephen helps, sometimes. [She won't dwell on that sometimes too much-- his pain isn't hers to tell, and Anna forgave him easily, even with all of her talk of Seventeen years. It's good to have someone with a sense of modern society about them-- and even better to have someone with a sense of obeying the law about them.] And Christine, when she's in town-- Santana is sometimes helpful too, though it's hard to tell when she's playing a trick, and when it's truth. [Not that she's bothered by that. Anna loves to laugh. It's one of the greatest delights of her new life, and she does it now.]

We have fun. I love having people around me, all the time. Being alone was good for me, ja? It made me who I am. [There's a little, affectionate nudge underneath the table. She knows Riley's time away is doing something similar, teaching her to be resourceful and smart, in the right ways.] But now. Life.

[isawallflower]

[ Each little mention of the people outside these walls brings the smallest of smiles to Riley's face. Not all of them have been able to visit her; it was hard enough to get authorization for the people who have, and everyone's got their own lives, their own problems. But just hearing about them fills Riley with a kind of radiance she's never felt before.

A whole group of people. Hers. For real this time.

It's what, with Anna's small nudge, sparks a more embarrassed smile. Riley chuckles in response, though it's nervous. ] Self-reflection... Yeah, I get it.

[ With a small tilt of her head: ] It's...kind of the same thing every day here...so, tell me about it. Life. I know, you already do, but— Hearing someone talk is so different from reading letters.

[likemypicture]

Oh, well you know me. I stay busy. [She giggles, smiling broadly at Riley's small smile. She likes that-- bringing smiles to the face of girls that don't smile enough. She had done as much for another red-haired girl, once upon a time-- she hadn't been able to see that come to fruit, entirely, but she intends to be able to do so with Riley. She's already seeing her start to blossom.]

When everything got-- you know-- well, my show's here now. So are my other Queens-- so there's a lot of practicing to do, a lot of prep work for our show. It's... a lot like things were back there-- [Where? Oh, there, the opera house--] -- but we get along in the end, even if there's a lot of teasing and sometimes frustration at each other. The girls are all very curious about my new friends, but I've kept them at bay so far. [... Or, at least, none of the other queens followed her here? Yet?]
And then, the penthouse is full of life too! TV is so exciting! There is this show--- Riley, there is this show. [Anna taps Riley's hand excitedly.] The couples! They get 90 whole days! And none of them dress up like Robin Hood!

[isawallflower]

[ As Anne talks, Riley listens. The smile on her face is smaller, softer than the ones she’s parade around at school or her meticulously planned meetings, but they’re more real, too. All the energy she’s put into seeming happy... She can put it into actually being happy, now.

With a bewildered laugh: ] Are you— You are not watching trashy reality TV, are you? Ohhh, no...! [ But, she does sound amused. ] I thought at least Stephen would steer you a little better!

[ There’s a familiar fondness... She’d nag Cairo about her taste in television too. It feels normal. ]

[likemypicture]

Stephen? Ha! [Anna laughs loudly, letting her laughter ease the slight amount of tension that blossoms within her heart at the suggestion that Stephen has any control over her-- no matter how slight the suggestion may be.] Don't you know Riley? I'm the Queen of the Castle! No one can tell me what to do, not even that dirty rascal! [She grins at Riley, letting her regular smile and fun-loving attitude mask whatever hurt or anger she may still hold against Stephen. It's hard for her to let go, even now. She's always been the one who Survived, after all-- no matter what the rhyme might attribute to Cathy Parr. It's practically an insult to her being, that a mere man could have ended that legacy.]

I miss the drama of court, sometimes. This fills it.

[isawallflower]

[ Riley's not completely oblivious to everyone's very understandable beef with Stephen. He did, you know...kill the group of them, even if no one can remember it. But she's not really up on the intricacies of it all; they couldn't see anything that last week, after all. And Riley herself was frustrated with Stephen as well — but, when you yourself have fucked up that bad as well, it's...a little easier, to forgive.

She wonders, how the rest of them look at Stephen, but that would require too much conversation about the Opera House to ask. It's something she's just going to have to sit with. ]

If there's anything that would be a good stand-in, a bunch of childish, bickering men and women in an exploitative farce certainly would. [ At the moment, however, a little slice of normalcy is welcome, and normalcy, for Riley, is looking down on reality TV. ]