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o p e n

CHARACTERS: Anne Cunningham
LOCATION: the kitchens
WARNINGS: Anne cursing like a sailor
SUMMARY: Anne attempts to make a sandwich, which is obviously not going to end well.
NOTES: In case you wondered, this is basically Anne cooking.

In the kitchens, there is the sound of loud, superfluous cursing. It's been going on for quite a while at this point, and the sound of it reverberates on the walls of the large kitchen. There are sandwich fixins set up around Anne, and she is attempting to put them onto bread, but keeps spilling everything everywhere. Each time she makes a mistake, she curses loudly and knocks something else over, which just leads to more cursing. It's an endless, painful cycle which doesn't seem to have any sort of happy conclusion in sight.

"God dammit," she hisses at the mayonnaise as she accidentally splatters some on the counter, and she grabs an eggs from the bowl beside her and smashes it over the pathetic attempt at a sandwich. Taking one long, defeated look at the sandwich, she scowls and smashes another egg on it.

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He wants to tell her that it was reassuring to hear all that, but to do so would mean voicing his prejudices about people in her and her father's job. Normally he's not too shy about being blunt about such things, but she seems to have dealt with enough and doesn't need to hear it. "Hey, don't worry about it. It was interestin' to hear."

He glances at the sandwich uncertainly. "...It looks better than it did."

When she doesn't lash out--physically or verbally--he relaxes. "You think so? The people aren't always the best to be around and you kinda get used to it after a while so it's not always that interesting." He started out catching cheaters in the same place when he was a kid; the novelty's worn off by now. "I still like it, though. You can learn a lot in a place like that."

"I've got a million stories if you ever get bored," a rough little half-laugh. It's a hoarse one. She doesn't laugh much. "You see things in that job that would make most people throw up."

She follows his gaze to the sandwich. "Thanks...? Looks relatively edible, at least."

"Makes sense. I guess anything gets to feel routine after a while. Always good to have a job you like, though. I know there are people who stick with jobs they hate for years. It never made any damn sense to me."

He perks up at the prospect of stories, but bites his lip to try and keep from getting too enthusiastic. Her reaction just a few moments ago made it seem like she wasn't so fond of spilling personal stories, despite the offer. "Yeah? Well, I'll try not to ask too many questions." Yeah, that promise will last about five minutes. He's always been too nosy for his own good. "I'd imagine, bein' around a rough bunch a' people like that." Referring to both the inmates and some of the guards. Holding fast to his promise for the moment, he doesn't ask for details, even though he's curious what she's seen on her end.

He chuckles. "You'll never know until you try it."

There's a part of Firo that agrees with her, but he remembers being desperate enough that, had he been old enough, he would have taken whatever came his way. "Sometimes you gotta take what you can get, I guess. There're tons of people outta work back home who'd do anything right now."

"Ask all the questions you want. It doesn't matter," with a shrug and a nod, she considers that statement. "Yeah, there're some pretty rough people. Good people too, but not a lot of them. Looking for decent people in that prison is like trying to find a needle in a haystack, I guess you could say."

Setting the hot sandwich aside to cool, she leans her back heavily against the counter and gives it an uneasy look before turning her stare back to him. "I guess I never thought of it that way. I was thinking more of those people who have those miserable corporate level positions because they pay a lot, but they hate them. I guess we don't have a lot of that... desperation, in that world. You guys have a lot of unemployment, then?"

"Careful, I might take you up on that." He nods along to her observation. Aside from the one chatty warden and his friend Isaac, Firo can't say the people he met in prison were decent. Ladd turned out to be crazy and, though friendly, Dragon was a cannibal. And those two are the people Firo could stand to hang out with. "Yeah. Hate to say it, but maybe you're the one decent person were you work."

He tilts his head to the side. "People do that? That's stupid--who cares about all that money if you're miserable?" It's a strange thing for a camorrista to say, but Firo got into the business for his Family, not the money. So long as he's with them, he's happy. "Yeah, there's a lot. The stock market crashed a few years ago and things still haven't picked back up."

Something that looks remarkably like a smile flickers over her face and she just nods slightly. "I wouldn't mind too much. Work is something that I don't mind talking about." Even if occasionally it sometimes leads to topics she'd rather keep in the dark.

When he says that second thing, however, the smile fades somewhat. "Thanks for the vote of confidence. But I wouldn't say I'm a decent person. Let's just say there's a lot I'm not proud of." A shake of the head, and she dismisses it.

"Yeah, people do that. Back in the world I'm from people care about money a lot. Pretty materialistic and all that," she says, and then gives him a brief look of concern. "Stock market tends to do that. You're doing alright though, back home?"

Making a mental note to grill her for some good stories later, he nods and returns the smile.

He doesn't pursue the matter further, since it seems she wants to drop it. He does tend to rush into judging people, so he can't know for sure if she is that good of a person. But he can compare her to the law enforcement personnel he does know and judging from the motives she expressed, she comes out ahead.

"I'd say it's the same where I'm from. Some people are sayin' that's why the economy got so bad so quick--people just got caught up in all of it." He doesn't really know how to strictly define "all of it", but that's why he's not an economist. "Yeah, I'm fine. There're still some people who haven't been hit too hard and others... well, they want a distraction." Whether or not they have room in their budgets it; that's not Firo's problem.

"People are naturally greedy, I guess is what it is," she says, shaking her head. "It's our own damn fault when things go bad for us; we're always trying to get ahead and it ruins things for us in the process."

Pausing, Anne raises an eyebrow slightly, still smiling.

"And I'm guessing your job is part of that distraction?"

"Greedy? Definitely." He's seen enough selfishness and greed to fill a lifetime. "Nothin' wrong with gettin' ahead, if you do it the right way. I'm just not sure why gettin' to the very top is such a big deal." Did he want badly to become a capo? Of course he did. It's the people who work their way up and then decide to shoot the boss to take his spot that Firo doesn't understand.

He laughs. "Yeah. Just a little less popular than alcohol, I think." Now that the stuff's legal again, his family doesn't make money off of it, but its popularity is visible everywhere. Alcohol and gambling have always seemed to be the two big coping mechanisms where he's from.

"But so many people don't do it the right way. Sometimes people make me sick." With a sigh, she tries not to think back on all the examples of this she's seen in her years working at the prison.

"I guess alcohol is more popular because because can use it to completely check out of their lives for a while," she says, shaking her head. "It's sort of sad, really. I've known people who used it like that. Never pretty."

It's difficult not to remember that Murphy used to be one of them.

He nods. "True. Most of 'em are jerks, so what can you expect?"

"Yeah, you see that a lot where I'm from." He can't deny its bad effects, even if he personally enjoys a drink. He does have to wonder, though, if she's some sort of temperance advocate. "...You're not gonna go off about Prohibition, are you? 'Cause we tried that and it didn't work." Well, it worked for his Family. They'll never get another source of income as good as illegal alcohol.

"Most people are jerks in general. People are shitty."

At that Prohibition comment, Anne actually laughs. Just a bit, and it's more of a bark than a real laugh. But it's a rare occurrence and she's have to remember to thank him for it later. "No. I like my whiskey as much as the next person. Maybe more than I should." There are more instances than she'd like to remember that she went out with her prison guard buddies and ended up sloshed on one of their couches. "I guess it's just fucking depressing how many people use it to escape their problems. Don't get me wrong; I've been there. I'm not judging."

"The sooner you realize that the better, huh?" He laughs. There are some people he'd vehemently deny are 'shitty,' but in general people are.

He smiles, happy that he got her to laugh even if they're not on too nice a topic. "Glad to hear it. I can only take so much from those temperance types." Firo's fine with people who don't drink. But people who will talk his ear off about other people's drinking? No way. "I guess it is kinda sad. Either they can't do anything about it, or they won't."

He shrugs. "I guess the last one more makes me angry than depressed..."

"It's true. It sounds bitter and it sounds shitty in its own way but..." a shake of her head. "People are just that way. The sooner we deal with the reality, the better."

It's nice that he's smiling. People don't smile enough on the Tranquility, she thinks... not that she's not a terrible culprit in the 'not smiling' problem, but still...

"You're telling me. I don't run into a lot of them but..." she shakes her head again. "I'm guessing you have a lot in your world, from the way you talked about it?" and then a short pause. "Angry huh? Well, that sounds like you've got something to say. What is it?"

"Exactly. You can't ignore somethin' just because it's not all happiness and rainbows." What a sunshiney attitude these two share.

"Yeah, it does. Or maybe I just run into a lotta of 'em." He frequents some sketchy areas back home, and the Depression hasn't helped things.

He laughs sheepishly. "Something to say?" Starting a rant hadn't been his intention, but he's too opinionated to gracefully deny it and spare her his griping. "I guess I do. It's just hard to have sympathy for guys like that, you know? The ones who decide to wallow in their problems when they're perfectly able to fix 'em--especially if they've got people who depend on 'em. I see guys like that all the time." Ruining oneself is forgivable or at least dismissable, in Firo's book. Ruining one's family is another thing entirely.

"Exactly. It's not often I run into people I can agree with on this sort of shit." She offers him a small smile. It's nice not to have to listen to an overflow of why that kind of thinking is wrong. Not that she's all that much of a pessimist; to her, realism and pessimism are very different things. But she's never been the sort of person to believe that everything is as cheerful and sunny as some people like to believe.

Anne listens to what, all things considered, is a pretty small rant. And then she's nodding slowly, absentmindedly tapping the fingers on one hand against the flashlight tucked into her utility belt. "You're telling me. I ran into a lot of those kind of people in prison. People who just decide to give up and let everyone who needs them down because it's too hard. Life is hard. It's no excuse for just wallowing in their own misery."

He laughs. "That must be annoying." His friends don't complain to much about his views beyond the occasional gentle rebuke. "Glad we agree."

Firo thinks back to his experiences in prison. A good amount of the guys were different, determined in a way, but he chalks that up to them being crazy. Quite a few he observed were content to blame their troubles on the rest of the world and sit back doing nothing.

Of course, he's not going to bring that up lest he have to explain what he was doing there, so he merely nods. "I can imagine. It sure as hell is tough. But it's not like it's impossible either, so the sooner people deal with it, the better."

"Everything is tough. Call it the human condition," a pause, and she leans her back up against the counter for support and momentarily stares up at the ceiling. "Everyone goes through shit. I can't stand the people who just let that shit beat them. By choice. The people who don't even try to fight it. Life is hard. Being alive is hard. That doesn't give them an excuse to just... check out completely."

A sigh, and she shakes her head and looks back at him. "I might just be a hard-ass but I don't have any sympathy for people who let the things they have to deal with win."

There was a point, around the time she first met Firo, that she nearly became one of those people. But it's been nearly two months since then, and she's done a lot of trying since then.

Firo had quite a few opportunities in his life where he could have easily lain down and died. The thought of actually taking advantage of them is chilling to him. But he had something going for him back then; a half-starved street kid with some close friends is better off than a half-starved street kid with no friends. Without the Gandors, would he have wound up like the people he's insulting now? He brushes the thought off with a firm shake of his head and a forced laugh.

"Hey, there's nothin' wrong with bein' a hard-ass. You're doin' 'em a favor if you push 'em to do somethin'." He doesn't mean it to be as cold as it sounds; sometimes it's enough to make people realize that somebody actually cares what happens to them. ...And then other times it's enough to bully and intimidate them. Whatever works.

It's easy, to think of all the ways she could have given up. Watching Firo curiously as he talks, she wonders if he ever entertained the same dark ideas, almost fell to the oddly comforting thought of just letting it all end. It's not something she'll ask him about, though. Ever. Things like that you don't just ask a person. She's been through enough to know when something is a subject you never bring up.

"I guess that's one way to look at it," she responds with a faint smile and a shrug. "And you kind of have to be a hard ass in my line of work if you're gonna survive. I'm guessing it's the same for you sometimes?"

Even Firo--whose curiosity frequently overrides his tact--wouldn't ask a question like that. Probably. At least not to someone who seems decent; he'd hate to make anyone think back to times like that. He'd appreciate Anne's restraint if he knew about it.

He laughs, "I'll bet. You don't deal with the easiest people, huh?"

"Definitely. Everybody who walks into that place would rob me blind if they had half the chance." He makes sure to be polite, but never merciful.

"Not at all. Sometimes I think there isn't a worse group of people in the world than in there. Not that they're all bad. Some of the best people I've ever known used to be prisoners. But they're not exactly the most fun people to deal with, as a whole." a sigh, and a small shake of the head. And then, a knowing look. Because she understands. "You've gotta be tough." She tells him, with a tiny nod that says she knows where he's coming from. "Or they'll do whatever you'll let them."

Tilting his head to the side questioningly, "Sounds like two extremes."

He returns her nod with a tired smile. "No need to tell me. People think just 'cause we can't go to the cops they can walk all over us. They'll even try and come back a couple years after they're banned and think we won't notice!" He shakes his head in disgust. To be fair, if there's one thing Firo's abnormally good at remembering, it's the faces of people who've messed with his Family or their business.

"I guess that's exactly what it is," she confesses, letting her back lean against the counter heavily and staring up at the ceiling momentarily. "It's easy to say they're all bad, but you've gotta give them a chance. My dad was a prison guard too. He always used to tell me that prisoners aren't prisoners, they're people. Maybe that made it easier, to see it that way."

"People do whatever they can get away with. You're smart to put your foot down. That's the only way not to get screwed over, that's for damn sure." She's not exactly sure what the specifics of those situations are, but she can tell that it must be frustrating. "I guess when you can't go to the cops you have to be your own law."

"That's a new way of lookin' at it." He's not being sarcastic. It's clear to him that prison guards view their charges as being something less than human.

"Yeah. People really think we'll just roll over since we can't go to the police for help." He shrugs. "You hafta crack a few heads every so often to keep things runnin' smoothly." That's probably not the best thing to say to someone in law enforcement...

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