One Prison for Another (Open)

[Conner]

"Can't you just put me back in jail? This feckin' blows." Conner scowled, looking outside the car at all the happy boys and girls making their way to class. "At least there, being told where to go all day degraded us in a good way, here they all just look like a bunch of fags." He reinforced his point, turning to face his social worker who got the lucky job of dropping Conner off to his new home and school.

"Hey, if this place makes you more miserable then I'm all for it." The social worker replied with a short laugh. "If it was up to me I'd let you stay in prison for as long as you want. But you know its not up to me, so get your ass out of the car." With a sigh, Conner reluctantly did as he was told, mainly because he actually liked his social worker and decided not to make a simple task too difficult.

---Ten Minutes Later---

Conner walked out of the office, holding his schedule and the keys to his new home. He looked at his class schedule and frowned, actually having classes listed meant he was actually supposed to learn something here.

He walked down the hallway, attempting to figure out where in this maze he was supposed to go first. He sharply turned the corner, keeping his eyes glued to the schedule as if a map would suddenly appear, then magically making Conner able to effectively read a map. He plowed into a freshman, knocking the student to the ground and sprawling his books across the floor. The student cursed and looked up at Conner to protest. Where most students would apologize and assist in picking up the books, Conner looked down, verbalizing his slight amusement with a partial laugh and grunt before looking back down and continuing down the hallway.

Conner felt some relief on his own tensions after pissing on someone else's parade.Just when he was finally beginning to warm up to the idea of simply being free, at least somewhat, a student who looked all too proud to be wearing the preppy uniform approached him.

"You know, you shouldn't do that." The student spoke in a condescending tone. He was of decent stature, looking as if he worked out though it was likely just to stay in shape, not to actually amount to anything.

"Piss off." Conner spat dismissively, waving the back of his hand.

"You think you're so big and bad huh? Oh, a student wit ha criminal record, no one has seen that before. Do you know how many just like you I've seen the pillars house break by-"

The prep was cut off by the taped hands of Conner grasping his finely-applied-product hair, pulling downward in a hard motion as his left knee and shattering the student's nose. He fell to the ground, screaming as blood poured from his face. The student brought his hands up to his face, most likely looking for some way to stop the bleeding however ineffective it would be.

"I said piss off."

[Shuya Katsumoto]

‘It’s taking too long…’

Shuya’s mind had once more been wandering off somewhere else as the teacher kept on his boring talk about the Vietnamese war. As expected from such a school, the teacher was far from telling the truth according to Shuya’s knowledge. Shuya wasn’t exactly a person who knew everything about every subject, but in history he at least had a decent base knowledge. Especially wars and war tactics in the past had appealed to him leaving him several hours aside from his trainings to read books about them. This teacher however was praising the American tactics during the war and had even stated that ‘in the end, America had been victorious.’ No they hadn’t…

It mattered little to Shuya though, he didn’t really care about what the teacher was muttering anyway. He would probably state his own mind during exams anyway. It was simply a matter of who would judge his exam… would they favor his honesty or crush it? This however, was not on Shuya’s mind right now. On his mind was Leon and his foolish crusade that took him forever. The students hadn’t responded the way Leon had hoped they would when he gave an all-out war statement against Kvist and his Hand of Fate. Leon hadn’t really shown any progress since then and it seemed that Taiku was too occupied with fighting during the tournament to worry too much about Kvist. Fact remained however, that Kvist was indeed a threat that needed to be eliminated before taking down the pillars themselves.

Shuya’s eyes slowly wandered off towards the right until they were locked on the back of a girl’s head. She was pretending to listen to whatever the teacher had to say, but Shuya knew it was simply an excuse to not look at him. Normally, she’d sit next to him and talk to him almost during the entire class. Shuya wasn’t too fond about that either, but the current situation didn’t feel good either. A few days ago he had been quite rough on her by telling her to love someone else. He knew he had hurt her feelings forever, but that was exactly what he was trying to shut down… feelings… She hadn’t spoken to him ever since that moment… Shuya knew it was for the best of both of them, but once more he was completely alone.

‘Isn’t that how I like it?’

”Mister Katsumoto, could you please stop daydreaming and perhaps pay some more attention? I’m at an important part of history now… As I was saying, Nixon had the brilliant idea to…”

All else was fading…

* 20 minutes later *

The sound of chairs rubbing the floor as they were roughly put back underneath the desks by the students woke Shuya up from his little nap. The teacher was looking at him furiously but Shuya paid no heed to it. Instead, he simply got up from his chair and started walking out the class. He had no bag with him and the book he needed for this class was still lying on his desk.

”Katsumoto! You’re forgetting your book!” the teacher called out to him. Shuya slowly turned around and looked back at the man with a bored look in his face.

“You can always use it as toilet paper if you want, I’m not reading that crap any longer…”

He finally made his way out of the room and into the hallway where groups were already forming to go outside and enjoy a little on the courtyard or whatnot. Ignoring the no-smoke policy in the school, Shuya slowly threw his back against a wall and lightened a cigarette. Inhaling the smoke seemed to somewhat calm down his nerves, but thoughts were still bursting out everywhere. On his right a young student was knocked off his feet by some older punk but Shuya didn’t really pay attention to it… he had seen enough of that stuff around here and the other would probably apologize or something… that was the school policy here… Shuya turned his attention towards the other side where Kayoko was talking with some of her friends, her back towards Shuya. Shuya slowly shook his head until his curiosity was sparked by something else.

Apparently, the student who had bumped into a younger kid before was now being corrected for his wrongs by an older student. The aggressive behavior of the ‘troublemaker’ kind of remembered Shuya of himself a few years back. Not that he had changed too much ever since, but he had learned that starting fights in these hallways isn’t always a perfect idea. This apparent new one however seemed to not care about that one bit as he pulled the other student’s head down towards his knee and smashed his knee upwards. The speed and power of the attack were impressive and the way how he simply attacked without giving a message was even more in favor to Shuya. Finally another student who knew what the importance of fighting was…

However, the attack had sparked the curiosity of many others and on the other side of the hallway, Shuya could see some of the closer ‘helpers’ of the pillars move into their direction. Shuya calmly walked over towards the bleeding student and lowered his body. The student was now holding his nose with one hand, the other keeping his body up.

“You’d better lie down completely… come on… here, hold this.”

The student now fully lied on his back, his free hand taking a hold of Shuya’s burning cigarette. It seemed he thought Shuya would be helping him and couldn’t even clearly see what he was holding anyway. Shuya got back up and turned towards the one who had attacked the student.

“C’mon…”

Shuya turned around and started walking into the opposite direction of the pillar helpers, but he couldn’t resist a smile as he heard them scream: ”Hej, no smoking in the hallways!”

Shuya didn’t know whether the student would follow him, but if he would, Shuya would give him a simple comment:

“Nice move… where did you learn that?”

[Conner]

No smoking...

Without any signal of emotion, Conner bent down in front of the prep, causing him to flinch and yelp in fear. Conner grunted, picking up the cigarrette he just dropped. He stood up, turning towards the group of students beginning to make their way in his direction. He took a long drag, flicking the cigarrette down onto the sudent as he flipped his middle finger towards the students.

He then finally decided to follow the one student that seemed quirky enough to gain his attention. Conner wasn't one to go with the flow, but simply put, he had nowhere better to go. He caught up in step with the bleached color haired student, refusing to stand behind him in a subconcious way of refusing to be a follower.

"Here and there. Gyms, the streets...prison. You pick up things."

Conner stated it plainly, tugging slightly at his orange inmate shirt to emphasize the last place. Not bothering to go into detail he thought would be boring, Conner yawned, turning his gaze back to the conversationalist.

"So, what's your deal?"

[Shuya Katsumoto]

OOC: Excuses for not posting sooner Connor, rl bullcrap…

IC:
‘Ah… hence the criminal record remark…’

Shuya didn’t immediately respond at the question that was somewhat thrown at him, but instead turned around to face the student and take him in slightly. He had a very strong build and the look in his face said enough to Shuya as well. This guy had indeed been to prison and was a typical example for what people would call a ‘badass attitude’. A small grin appeared on Shuya’s face as he nodded once. The guy could take it any way he wanted, but Shuya had meant it as an approval nod. Not that the guy would want an approval from anyone anyway probably, but Shuya was quite strict in these things. If someone’s at first sight didn’t act a certain way, show a certain behavior or use a certain method, Shuya would not even bother… This Kit Lee guy had been a perfect example of someone with the wrong attributes on this, but this guy… this guy was something else…

“My deal…? I guess doing whatever those guys don’t want me to do… Of course, that would’ve included not stepping in and see you fight against those pillar lovers, but I doubted that would’ve been the first day a guy like yourself would dream about… At least, I am assuming this is supposed to be your first day?”

Shuya kept his words reasonable, but slightly vague. Enough for the student in front of him to pick out whatever parts he found interesting, whether it was Shuya doing whatever he wanted, pillar followers attacking him or telling Shuya this was indeed his first day. Enough things for the boy to question or talk about… enough things for him to leave out if he didn’t care… enough things for Shuya to at least somewhat get a better view of this guy… seeing if this was one of the few around that actually could be of some purpose here…

[Conner]

Conner raised his brow in regards to Shuya's studying glance of him. He couldn't tell whether this guy was trying to place him as something, or giving him a once over with his eyes. Conner decided that Shuya had indeed not been checking him out as he nodded, Conner replying with a small shrug of dismissal of whatever it had been.

"I'm not after anyone, at least not yet. But don't get me wrong, someone gets in my face, there's a very small time frame before I make them move myself...and yeah, this is my first day. Been here a total of like fifteen minutes, and so far, I'm not impressed."

Conner narrowed his eyes on Shuya, this one seemed like he kept hinting at something. Conner wasn't good with word games, and therefore gave no extra effort to figure it out. He didn't dislike the man, as so far he's acted the most capable of not pissing Conner off. However, if this one had something other than small talk in mind, Conner wished he would get to it.

"I'll save us both the time, I'm Conner. I expect your name, but honestly don't care if you refuse to give it to me. I also noticed you keep looking at me that way people look when they are thinking something. You care to share?"

[Shuya Katsumoto]

“Not impressed you say? Might I ask what you expected to find in any other High school then? I can assure you however, they try to keep you as much in line here as they do in prison… through harsh methods…”

Shuya openly laughed as he spoke about the harsh methods, an indication for the student to realize that Shuya was also, far from impressed by this school. But still, the guy in front of him hadn’t really experienced the system over here first hand but perhaps an actual pillar might be more impressive to him. Shuya noted the narrowing of the boy’s eyes before he spoke to Shuya again but Shuya paid little heed to it, his words that followed said enough to Shuya. Just like him he didn’t want to waste words if it wasn’t necessary.

“Katsumoto… and as for you wondering about me thinking, you’ll find that there are hardly moments when I don’t… However, it amazes me that you think too much about me thinking… you are new here… you just smacked someone down with a single knee strike without giving him an honest fight… I would be a fool not to at least take in who I’m talking to… in case he might pull the same tricks on me… That is all probably.”

Shuya had crossed his arms during the time he spoke to Conner, not intending any hostility at all. He was in fact positive that Conner indeed had something that many people at this school lacked. For one, Shuya was certain this guy could make it totally on his own, an aspect Shuya respected a lot if a man was capable of it. Short and straight to the point, not afraid to ask anything, simply being blunt. Something Shuya didn’t find too smart himself, but still something that happened little here. At least Conner spoke his mind… Shuya however chose to choose his words more carefully, simply to not gain an unintended result. Shuya suddenly made a step forwards as his face stayed focused on Conner.

“Well Conner, welcome to Hircine High. I will not waste any more of your time unless you need some directions and background information about this place… You can come from another school, the streets, prison, for all I care you can even come from hell… but background information about the place you currently stay, or are forced to stay, is never a bad thing…”

[Conner]

"I don't expect much from anything, really. They just told me this place would 'rehabilitate me' now that my sentence is up, yet if thats the best they got well...then this place is boring."

Conner kept his glare upon Shuya, relaxing his eyes as he finished speaking, content with his answer. He swung his arms down, placing each thumb into his jean's pocket. Conner shrugged his shoulders forward, relaxing his back in a slouch. He nodded his head ever so slightly, signalling to Shuya he accepted his answer.

"Actually, I don't think too much on anything. Not that I'm as incapable of thought as much as these middle class pricks probably think, but I find it overcomplicating things. I either approve, or disapprove of something and then I react accordingly. See, simple." Conner nodded again, giving Katsumoto some insight into his own personality to help put the smaller man at ease.

"I guess I'm one of the few to be from all three then hm? Directions would be nice...if I planned on going to class. So that leaves information, and one thing has got me curious here. Who are the pillars, and how long would it take for me to pound them down if I had some ambition?"

[Shuya Katsumoto]

“And I bet that either approving or disapproving immediately and act accordingly is exactly what got you into prison, is it not?” Shuya commented jokingly, meaning no harm with his words whatsoever. However, he thought that thinking things over carefully to avoid mistakes was a better method then simply deciding immediately and sticking with it. If Shuya had stick to all his first decisions he would’ve probably ended up six feet under… Though Conner’s his method was indeed far quicker and probably effective at first sight, it wouldn’t help him during a change of events… So perhaps this lack of thinking had indeed leaded to him being locked up, but it truly mattered little to Shuya at the moment. After a short silence, Shuya finally answered Conner.

“Well, I am not one to attend many classes either, but knowing your way around here might prove useful in case of avoiding too many problems at once… though I’m sure you are perfectly capable of handling any of them…”

Shuya rose his right eyebrow slightly as Conner mentioned the pillars and slowly took in his surroundings. The two of them were not really in a crowded area yet it seemed a discussion like this could be best continued on a far noisier place… a place where there was so much noise that no one would be able to eavesdrop them anyway. Nodding slightly, Shuya signaled Conner to follow him. Talking about who the pillars were was no real problem, but talking about taking them down openly would only attract unwanted attention if the wrong people would catch any of the conversation. Along their walk, Shuya started to explain.

“At the moment there are three pillars and one captain around here, supposedly owning this school and keeping things peaceful… by using their own harsh methods. If you ask me the principle himself has a far greater hand in all of this then he shows, but it doesn’t really matter anyway… the pillars make and enforce their own laws. There’s lapdog and big mouth Tiao Lei Shen, the closest follower of our dear captain. As much as I dislike him, the problem is that his bites are worse then is barks… Then there’s Kurtz O’Neil, the gambler of the lot. Few people know about his fighting skills, he usually just plays dirty and gains whatever he wants to achieve through other forms of warfare… Then there’s Ein Gilsin, an ex-Varron student… a large portion of the students around here are in fact Varron transfers… I don’t know much about Gilsin apart from him being a gang leader as well… And of course, there’s our captain Darren Blayne… probably one of the most skilled fighters Hircine High has to offer…”

Shuya felt no need to hide any of this information, it was simply informing another soul on what he was facing here. Besides, the fact that he had experienced fighting both Tiao and Darren first hand couldn’t really be made out of his story. In the meantime, the two students had arrived near the cafeteria area. Both the cafeteria as the hallways just outside it were always packed with students and today was no difference. Shuya simply walked over towards the nearest wall and leaned his back against it, crossing his arms as he did so. He stared at the floor for a few seconds, waiting before talking about the actual fighting of a pillar. Perhaps Conner had another pack of questions and would show his blunt methods by throwing them at him before he had heard the answer he wished to know first. If that was the case, Shuya would answer those questions first. However, if he kept his tongue, Shuya would finally speak up again. His words were chosen carefully, not giving away too much, nor sending Conner into the deep without tools.

“The question is not how long it would take you to take them down… in that case it would be wiser to ask how long it would take them to break you after you’ve taken down one… It’s hard enough to take down a pillar… the fact that they usually operate together means that even if you defeat one… the others would come and break your tired out body… trying to take down a pillar on your own is not something I would recommend you…”

[Conner]

Conner frowned an apathetic frown, shrugging before exposing a hint of a smirk.

"You wouldn't be wrong. But if I gave myself time to think about it, I probably would of been locked up far longer than I had been." He reflected. If Conner gave himself time to think over what the students had said to him and bottled his rage, he believed he would of beat them far worse than he did. The more pressure in a valve the larger the burst.

To Shuya's direction, Conner followed along the hallways of the school. He looked around, taking mental pictures of the specific looks of the hallways and the floors. He decided to listen to Shuya's advice of getting to know his way around, though he would never admit that to the older student.

Conner nodded along with Shuya, motioning that he was listening. Off to Shuya's side a slender young girl walked by with her sack lunch, and Conner's eyes began to wander. He snapped back to attention as Shuya neared the end of his speech, not beating himself up over anything he could have, and likely, missed as his mind wandered.

"Tch. Anyone who needs help just shows they aren't worth what they're given. Say, do the pillars get paid or anything? Besides being 'powerful' do they really get anything out of it?"

[Shuya Katsumoto]

Shuya frowned slightly at Conner’s following questions though the frown was soon replaced by a slight smirk. Conner’s opinion about individuality was something Shuya could appreciate. Conner didn’t give away too much about himself, but his statement had made it clear that like Shuya, Conner preferred to do things on his own and gain whatever he wanted that way. Shuya used his own sly tactics and words to gain this goal, while Conner appeared to be more the type who would strike first and not ask questions later at all. Shuya looked around only to see two Hircine students trying to impress a girl by showing their muscles. He laughed again and shook his head before his attention turned back to Conner.

“Do pillars get paid… a very good question and one I cannot answer with great certainty. Officially, pillars do not get paid. They are given their privileges by the school principle, allowing them to do practically whatever they want without ever having to explain their actions to anyone. However, rumor has it they sometimes accept money to take care of business the principle can’t handle with just words… but I’ve never actually witnessed it. I wouldn’t be surprised if Darren and Kurtz ever took any money though…”

However, before Shuya could speak more, two people came dashing towards them with great speed, the look on their faces both furious and joyful at the same time. Shuya recognized the two dimwits, they were typical followers of the pillars and were probably present when Conner had taken out that student earlier. They stopped in front of them and the one with the joyful smile on his face immediately spoke up.

”A kid was beaten up a few minutes ago… he could hardly speak but he said something about a blonde new student… you don’t happen to have seen such a student, have you?” His sarcastic smile and remarks were aimed at Conner but his eyes moved from Conner to Shuya and back to Conner. The other student who was with him now spoke, although this time it was aimed at Shuya. ”We know who you are Katsumoto… but you better stay out of this if you know what’s good for you…” Shuya barked a laugh before responding, his eyes pinning through the student in front of him.

“Oh don’t you worry doggy, I know exactly what’s good for me… but talking to me like that in front of a new student… it seems you have forgotten what’s good for you, have you not?”

His eyes looked down upon the student with a hint of aggression in them, but he would not be the one to start a fight here… He wanted to both find out how Conner would respond to this and how these lapdogs would…

OOC: Conner, you have freedom to do with these NPCs whatever you want, so go and rp them as you like… I will adopt to things in my next post… oh and sorry for the wait, school’s been a real jerk and I’ve been working on my social skills as well

[Conner]

"Sounds like a sweet gig. If that was your thing at least." Conner retorted, shrugging his shoulder slightly, signalling he was more of the type to do his own thing than be the sheep dog.

Shuya never had a chance to speak, for two students approached the seated conversationalists. Unlike Shuya, this surprised Conner, as he hadn't been watching the room. He made no outward sign of noticing however, for Conner kept his eyes on Shuya as the older student spoke, the same apathetic look across his features. They spoke to Shuya as if he was an enemy of the state, something that interested Conner.

"You going to piss around some more or are you goin to do something about me?" Conner snickered, pushing himself up to a standing position to face the two.

The one that spoke to Shuya chuckled, probing his index finger out towards Conner's chest. He opened his mouth to speak, but was cut off by a left cross from Conner, catching him in the open jaw. it caught him off guard, sending him flying back into the table and students behind him.

Whether or not the second student planned on attacking or fleeing Conner didn't check to see. He took a large step forward with his left foot, gripping the side of the student's head with his left as he torqued his upper body, delivering a hard right elbow strike to the side of his face. Both students fell cold, Conner exhaling before applying a brief smirk to his face. He turned to face Shuya, ambition beginning to gleam in his eyes.

"So far, I'm surprised no one's taken over this place yet."