14614/Blackgate and the Crazy Random Happenstance

Blackgate and the Crazy Random Happenstance
Date of Scene:	05 April 2023
Location:	Blackgate Penitentiary Ward
Synopsis:	Jinx is visited in prison by Donna and Terry where she tells them she expects to be assassinated by Saturday before she's transferred to the Raft. Donna and Terry assure her they won't let her die - and then Donna gives Jinx a mysterious little owl necklace.
Cast of Characters:	Jinx, Donna Troy, Terry O'Neil

---

Jinx has posed:
A prison within a prison. This isn't Jinx's final destination if the legal system had their way. She'll be on her way to the Raft - but for the moment, she's here in the metahuman / superpowered wing of Blackgate. Jinx knows her final destination will be 6 feet under though so she's not looking to pleased when she comes out to the meeting space.

This is where visitors can talk to inmates. Lawyers get a private room, but this is more like a cafeteria in space. Not as big as the main one for the rest of the prison. They are quite sure of their magical and meta human wardings and technology that Jinx isn't even cuffed.

She has about her neck a collar. Not so stylish, but one designed to stop her gifting her bad luck to others. She's also wearing shoes - not that there's any soil in this cement floored place. And of course, she's wearing a prison jumpsuit. She sits down at the assigned table and the guard leaves her there to meet with her visitors.

Donna Troy has posed:
    Although she has put more than her fair share of people into them, Donna fundamentally disapproves of prisons. Yes, of course you need to put people who wreak mayhem somewhere they can't wander off and wreak more mayhem, but that's only half the job. The other half is reforming them, and the American prison system seems to do a particularly bad job at that.

    Places like this, or the raft, just highlight the issue. The sheer amount of effort that goes into keeping powered criminals under control is a lot greater than with normal prisoners. It's an expensive business, with guards paid a significantly higher salary, either because they need the danger money to take the job or they're one of the few working in the prison system who have powers themselves and can demand that much more. There are suppression technologies, but there's a wide range of different types and origins of powers to take into consideration and there's no one-size-fits-all solution. Jinx's collar has no doubt had a whole bunch of magic expensively cast on it by some jobbing sorcerer to go along with whatever technological solutions the prison guards thought would help. The thing is, these expensive-to-keep prisoners are no more expensive to rehabilitate than an unpowered prisoner, and yet there's no indication that anyone's really trying. Donna finds the whole thing rather frustrating and mainly tries to ignore it.

    Hard to do when you're visiting someone there though.

    "Hi Jinx," Donna says as the door opens and a small group of Titans shuffle into the visiting room. She's not shouting at least. "Well. This is inconvenient. Hopefully it's not going to go on being inconvenient too much longer though."

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"It could be worse," Vorpal says, "After all, I remember that you once said you would bet on me being the first one to end up in prison."

The Cheshire may be trying to lighten the mood, but it's clear that he is about as much of a fan of the particular prison system as he is of Barbra Streisand. It is one of the unspoken rules of the Tower is that nobody mentions Streisand- and he will go on at length about how her performance in Hello Dolly (which should have *rightfully* gone to Carol Channing) is absolutely soporific. Which he labels the Streisand Effect.

Yes, it is a banned topic at the tower.

"Hey Jinx!" There are many questions in his mind. There are also many quips he could make. However, Caitlin is waiting just outside, and he is barefoot as usual, which means it is better to save questions for later, where his foot isn't so much within reach of someone going Full Fairchild. "How's it goin'?" he asks, in an understatement.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx looks up. She has a few obvious bruises. New ones. Possibly from the bank heist itself but may be not all of them from that event that landed her here. "Hey Donna. Vorp," she says and raises an eyebrow. She figured the visitors would be the Titans - she doesn't really have "friends" per-se.

"Not for too much longer no. They'll be moving me to the raft on Saturday which means they will likely try and kill me on Friday." A shrug of her shoulders. She is quite sure of the reality of her situation. Just as she predicted would happen if she were thrown in prison.

"It's more expensive to have someone knocked off in the raft. They are a thrifty bunch." She twirls her finger up in the air in false celebration.

"... How's it going? pretty shit. Preeeetty shit." She huffs, "They refuse to listen when I tell them that all this bad luck brewing up inside of me is going to rain hell down on me and this place. It has no where to go, so I'm royally fucked."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "We're working on it Jinx," Donna says, a little grimly. "If we could provide any actual evidence you were in danger it would help a lot in expediting things, but we're trying to get you handed over to Titans custody as quickly as possible. If this was Metropolis we'd have you out already, but the cops in Gotham aren't quite as eager to cooperate with the super teams. There are a whole bunch of lawyers pushing for this as we speak, but apparently busting you out of here would..." she does air quotes "...look bad." Was that a joke? Donna gives a quick grin as if to indicate it was, but there's something in her eyes when she says it that might make someone wonder...

    "Friday, you think?" Donna raises an eyebrow and gives a small nod, but says no more about it. She pulls out a chair and takes a seat.

    "I hear you didn't do anything, just got caught up in a bank heist. That seems like pretty bad luck right there. Maybe it already had its outlet and that's what got you here in the first place. "

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"That's likely. Or, you know, she /existed/ in Gotham. Just breathing in Gotham is enough for most people to get caught up in something." He frowns, "Donna, we can't let her get killed. For starters, she's invited to my bachelor party. I've go the invites all written out and everything."

He glances at Jinx, "If they're going to make their move on Friday, we're going to be ready." He glances at Donna, pursing his lips, "With all the suppression around here, maybe I can be of help on the outside or remotely- they are bound to approach through some visible means, unless they come underground-- I should be able to at least head off a few before they arrive..." and then his eyes narrow and he grins, "Or, you know, send a few to the moon."

Jinx has posed:
"To be fair, no one here has any reason to believe I'm changing my ways. Or that this isn't some how some big elaborate scheme or trap to get what I want." Jinx rolls her eyes. It's not an unreasonable expectation for the GCPD after all. They are used to psychopaths from all walks of life in this city.

"You know ..." she watches that look in Donna's eyes and then frowns a touch. "No, it's nothing. Nothing I can prove anyway. Oh, speaking of not actually doing the crime for a change --"

"Harls and I went to the bank so I could withdraw documents." She leans in and whispers to Terry and Donna, "They're financial transactions that might lead us to HIVE operations. I stashed them in the bank when I fled. I gave them to Harley before Nightwing turned me over to the police. You need to protect her too - they'll be coming after her if they think she has anything that could harm them."

She leans back and takes in a deep breath. "So yeah. There we were in the bank when we hear gun shots. Some guy called Johnny Karaoke and a bunch of geisha were robbing the place."

She lifts up her hands in exasperation which makes several of the guards in the room twitch a moment. "So naturally Harls is pro stop-them. So we go and stop them. GCPD must have been watching the cameras and thought I was robbing the place. Karaoke guy wasn't happy about that. Big fight, yadda yadda yadda. No way out of the bank so Nightwing did the arrest - which, I guess, was the best he could do in that situation. I was hoping for a bat chopper or smoke bombs or hidden tunnels or -something- but noooope."

Donna Troy has posed:
    Donna frowns slightly at Terry. "We're not going to let her get killed," she says to him. "We'll be on hand if the prison authorities need any additional assistance," she says. "And I'll make it clear to the prison governor that you're anticipating an attempt on your life, probably on Friday, Jinx. We'll formally request to be kept in the loop as you're a person of interest in an ongoing Titans investigation. Given that the new vice president just namechecked the Titans as being an example of how Super Teams and the police authorities can work together successfully, I'd imagine we've got a bit of extra pull right now."

    Donna glances in the way of the guards."Guys, it's fine. Relax, she's not going to try anything. Even if she was, she certainly wouldn't try doing it when we're here."

    "Jinx, I honestly don't know if Impulse was messing with you. The 'Lucky' thing. Sometimes he lets things slip. Sometimes he makes things up to compensate, so that we have no idea if something he's just said about the future is real or not. What I do know is that you genuinely want your life to change, and there's a real opportunity for you to change it for the better. Having an opportunity like that means nothing if you don't do the right things to take full advantage of it. But I'm going to make damn sure that you do get that chance. Yes this situation sucks and there's a whole /procedure/ that's gotta be worked through, but you're not going to die here, and you're not going to get left here to rot. Okay?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"I hate that he did that!" Terry confides, "Now I feel forced to be /respectable/. Suddenly I feel like I've been cast as the preppy teen girl in an 80s movie- you know, the girl who dressed like she was forty and constantly checked everybody was wearing clean underwear?" He crosses his arms. "And of course we're not going to let her get killed. I need someone to hold my hair back at the Bachelor Party. That's, like, a whole thing."

He leans forward, "And may The Five have mercy on whatever group of souls is stupid enough to try to go after Harley. She and my mom went around New York in April's old jalopy shooting down angels." Idea. "But don't worry. I'll tell mom to camp out at April's. She and Harley can have some Girl Time together. Drink mimosas, watch a movie, fulfill a bounty." Is he joking? It's hard to tell. Jinx hasn't met Terry's mother, yet.

"But in all seriousness, Donna is right- we're going to do everything we can, and we can do a /lot./ Ain't nobody rotting here- except maybe the cafeteria food."

Jinx has posed:
"'Pretty bad luck' describes my entire life Donna." Jinx says it flatly. She then looks to Terry and considers. "Nah. They won't break in to kill me - they'll get the inmates to do it. H.I.V.E. have agents in most prisons and were pretty good at breaking us out."

"So they'll just offer that to anyone who can shiv me to death. Probably a cash prize too. The whole bloody place will be gunning for me. That's how I'd do it." She glowers and glances around the room. It's mostly empty but this is the environment where her paranoia is going to pay off.

"So, ya know, breaking me out would be pretty bloody sweet," she whispers back to Donna. "Lawyers or no lawyers. Appreciate the effort but pen twiddlin' and facetime chats aren't going to save my bacon."

Jinx looks briefly horrified, "Don't tell them that.. you don't know who is in on it Donna. The prison governor could be one of them for all you know. They'll bump up the kill to Thursday and you'll be left wondering just who it is you told that acted on that information."

She frowns at the mention of 'Lucky' again. "Ugh, not that bollocks again. Donna. I'm running on pure vengeance right now. Otherwise I might as well just curl up and cark it yeah? I don't have much future outlook possibilities on the horizon. Sure as shit don't have much beyond some new friends who'll forget me in a few years if I do die."

Donna Troy has posed:
    "I... what? I haven't seen that 80s teen movie. Checked everyone wa... no never mind." Donna gives a shake of her head. Terry things. Do not engage.

    "No, she's right Terry. They'll have someone on the inside. Someone who got arrested, but keeps in communication because that's useful. Prisons are prime recruiting grounds for things like this. They'll pass on word via that person that there's a reward waiting and leave it at that. Now maybe the fact that anyone who hurts Jinx is going to have to answer to some very angry Titans and isn't going to have a chance in hell of ever claiming that reward..." she definitely raised her voice a little there to make absolutely sure the guards heard. "... will discourage them, but we can't count on people not being stupid."

    Donna leans back in her seat, giving Jinx a long, hard look. "I said there's an opportunity, but it needs to be taken. One of the things you're going to have to get over is this assumption that everything's going to turn turn to crap for you, Jinx. As long as you go on telling yourself that you're a helpless victim of your own powers, you're not going to prove yourself wrong. What you've got apart from a few new friends is a whole lot of possibilities. Not certainties, no -- there are very few things that are certain in this world. I'm not saying that. But the possibilities are real, and if you don't write them and yourself off, you just don't know what the future holds."

    Donna pulls an envelope from her pocket, marked with the stamp of the penitentiary, and holds it up where the guards can see it. "Anyway, enough of that. I brought you a little gift. It's okay, I cleared it. Only made of pewter so not particularly valuable, they've x-rayed it and whatever." She tears the envelope open and a slender necklace with an owl-shaped pendant drops out onto the table. "It's the symbol of Athena, you know. So, a good luck charm. I noticed you admiring it the other day when I was wearing it, so I thought why not. Not like I can't pick another one up in any marketplace in Themyscira."

    This is the first time Jinx has seen it. What's Donna playing at? It's too small to hide a file in it. They'd surely have checked it for magic. Maybe she just thinks Jinx needs a good luck charm?

Terry O'Neil has posed:
"If I were you, I'd listen to her, Jinx," Vorpal nods towards Donna, one eyebrow up, "I used to be in your same spot- thinking I was perpetually destined to screw everything up. And she got me out of that style of thinking by virtue of nagging me into a positive frame of mind-- and now look at me."

"But really, jokes aside, her words have wisdom to them. As the great philosopher Dorothy Zbornak once said- you take a chance and something good may happen, or something bad may happen, but if you don't take a chance, honey, the nothing will happen."

Someone got a Hulu subscription. Terry doesn't say anything the moment the amulet is produced, outside of meekly observing that he forgot to buy one when they were in Themyscira, and that it was shameful of Donna's to have forgotten to remind him.

Jinx has posed:
Jinx looks at the owl and gathers it up. She hangs it about her neck and tucks it in to her jumpsuit. A talisman of war? wisdom? handicraft? But she's never heard Athena referred to as being lucky. She cocks an eyebrow but it seems like those within ear shot don't know their Greek mythology.

Whatever it is Donna is up to, Jinx is going to stay mum on that. Besides being a cute little token may be it is divine in nature. Those Amazonians are tricky like that. Certainly not some random trinket from a marketplace. It likely wouldn't trip any magical alarms too. The question then becomes -- what does Athena think of Jinx?

"You keep saying I shouldn't be the victim of my powers - and yet even you point out how much bad luck it was I was in a bank being robbed at the same time and then getting pinned for the crime. That's literally my life since I was a teenager Donna. One bad thing after another. Explain to me how that's meant to be a gift." They've had this argument before. Really she just wanted to take anyones thoughts away from the owl.

She doesn't want people to cotton on to the idea that the Titan's might try and protect her when shit hits the fan so she scoffs and stands up suddenly and fake-glares at Terry, "You people never change with your do-gooder positive outlook on everything. Life is shit and the sooner you learn that the better."

There's a small look of hope on her face for just a second though as she steps away from the table, "Guard I'm done. Take me back to my cell." One of the guards near the wall walks over and rolls his eyes. "Sure thing Princess," he says with a chuckle and grabs her by the arm. He looks at the visitors, "You know the way out." Yeah, Gotham prison guards are a real riot.

Donna Troy has posed:
    "You know," Donna says to Terry with a slight drawl. "That's kinda funny. I mean normally when someone gets called 'princess' around me it's either me or my sister, or sometimes Kori. Never figured I'd hear someone calling Jinx that." She nods her head in the direction of the door. "Come on, Princess Jinx has spoken. She's had enough of us do-gooders for now.

    She gets to her feet and gives Jinx a nod. "Life's what you make of it, Jinx. Even luck. Luck is just chance moderated by will. You could be born with all the advantages in the world and mess it up. Or you can be born with nothing and make it all the way to the top through sheer willpower and determination. The chance aspect is only one part of it. The sooner you learn that, the better. Athena be with you, Jinx." What /is/ she talking about?

    Donna holds the door open for Terry. "Zbornak?" she asks incredulously. "You're making that up, right?"

Terry O'Neil has posed:
Vorpal smirks, he hasn't bene called princess, yet. But the night is still young.

"I can prove to you I am not. We need to talk, anyways," he says as he walks through the door, "About how I'm going to make myself useful in ... the event. Let's pick up a pizza and let's get down to brass tacks while we watch a show." Someone is about to be introduced to the Golden Girls. He stops and looks over his shoulder at the way Jinx exited. "... " he glances back at Donna and continues walking. "--man, am I so glad I don't live in Gotham..."