[dated to May 21-27]

[jianhuo]

For a moment, Saffron entertains the possibility of just shutting herself into the condo and not leaving until the words go away. She knows Church would support her if that's what she wanted to do. She knows they would probably be able to figure out a convincing enough story for the kids, although it would take a bit of doing. But she doesn't want to stay hidden away.

Saffron's done a lot of things many folks might have eventually come to regret. She doesn't, though. She's never regretted a single thing she did before Darrow, before the island, and she never will. She didn't retire from her career as a con artist by choice. And while she most like will never go back to it, not unless she finds herself back home out in the 'verse one day, it's not because she doesn't miss it. It seems like a contradiction to look back on that time fondly, given her life now and over the past several years, but Saffron's always been a complicated woman.

Her past, though, has never been something she's been willing to talk freely about, in large part because she knows how most folks would react to the things she used to be, the things that still live inside her in a way. An abandoned child, a whore, a con artist, a widow many times over - all pieces of the part of her life she keeps to herself. She can't stand the thought of anyone looking at her in that way. Now, though, if she's going to go out in public for however long this lasts, she's going to get some questions about the words emblazoned across her back in an elegant black script:

BLACK WIDOW

The answers will depend on who's doing the asking.



[Feel free to set your thread to anytime during the plot. This can be the first time your pup has seen the words or it can be later on in the plot, up to you. If you want the latter and would like to know what explanation she would have given your pup, let me know. Open for as long as it needs to be, no limit.]

Comments

[triskehale]

Derek can smell Saffron's anxiety before she's even fully inside of the commissary, and he can guess why. He's seen the secrets on people's backs, and he recognizes the drawn expression on her face.

He doesn't say anything for awhile, finishing prepping his veggies while she deals with a box of cupcakes. They're on opposite sides of the big silver prep table, facing each other, and Derek presses the lid onto a tub of sliced tomatoes before looking up at her.

"You don't have to tell me what it says," Derek offers. "I won't look if you don't want me to."

[jianhuo]

She's been trying to figure out the right words the whole way over. Saffron's normally a master at this sort of thing, saying exactly what a person wants to hear to get the response she needs from them. But she doesn't want to do that with Derek. Her best friend deserves honesty from her, and she may not be ashamed of her life, but she's afraid of losing someone she loves because they can't accept who she used to be - who she still is, in many ways.

She's so focused on getting the cupcakes ready that she starts a little when Derek speaks, looking up at him with widened eyes. For a moment she wonders how he knows when she's been careful to stay facing him, but in the next moment she realizes that of course he could sense it. She's been worried since she woke up this morning, knowing she'd see him today.

"No, I don't want to keep it from you," she replies. "I've just been trying to figure out how to explain." Worrying her lower lip, she turns around so he can read the words, big and black and visible through clothes and even her hair.

[triskehale]

Derek watches her and rests his hands on the table, giving her his full attention as she turns around. Her quirks a brow at the words and swallows hard, trying to match them to the kind person he knows. Derek is aware that Saffron has a darker past that he knows little about, but he's never pushed her.

"If you want to try to explain, I'll listen," Derek tells her. "But those words don't change how I feel about you."

[jianhuo]

Saffron wants to believe what he says, she really does, and she knows she should - Derek's never given her any reason not to trust her. But she's spent the majority of her life not trusting anyone after too many times being left and screwed over, and even now after years of having folks she can rely on no matter what, that's hard to shake.

"Not much to explain," she says. "It is just what it sounds like. I've been married a whole lot of times, and every time but one I left making sure I'd end up a widow. The one time I didn't, he managed to outsmart me."

[triskehale]

It's a lot to take in and he frowns as he mulls it over, looking down and focusing on forming meat into perfect burger patties and stacking them in a bin. She's obviously left this part of her behind, he's sure, and it can't be easy to have it drudged up again.

"Can I ask why?" He says after a moment, pausing in his food prep to look at her. "I assume they weren't good men."

[boo_fuckin_yah]

He hasn't got the slightest clue what the point of all this shit might be, but it pisses him off that it's happening to his friends. Everyone's got a right to their secrets, especially in a place like this, where it seems like so many of them have been through the wringer, and Russell knows he'd hate to have his secret plastered across his back. He knows what it'd be, too, that it would be about David, about the fact that he'd almost killed him.

That he had wanted to.

So Russell is glad he's escaped, but he's pissed on behalf of others. Right now, when he catches sight Helen and the words on her back, he's pissed for her. But he's glad to see her out. It doesn't surprise him. Of course she'd have the balls to just say fuck it and carry on.

"Hey," he says when he sees her. "You want some company?"

[jianhuo]

She needs to do the grocery shopping, but instead, Saffron's just been walking around the park. She keeps getting strange looks, everything from intrigued to disgusted, but the stares of strangers have never bothered her. She's used to that.

Eventually she knows she's going to run into a friend, and when she sees Russell headed her way, his angle of approach meaning he's seen what's on her back, she braces herself for whatever questions he might have. The question he asks, though, is one she doesn't expect.

"Oh. Sure," she says, surprised and a little relieved, although he may still have more to say. "That'd be great, sugar."

[boo_fuckin_yah]

"Where you headed? And do I need to flash my gun at anyone who acts like a dick?"

He'll do it. Probably get in a ton of trouble over it, but he'll do it all the same. The thing he's mostly discovered about these secrets is that they're harmless, things that are in the past, stuff that's being brought up with the sole purpose of hurting them and that's what he likes least about this whole thing. Maybe if current crimes were being revealed to him through this he'd feel a little different, but it just seems like a way to throw salt into an old wound.

"You know I'll do it," he says and gives her a grin. "For you."

[jianhuo]

"I wouldn't say no to that," is Saffron's automatic response, but it means more to her than she can say that Russell's willing to just support her unquestioningly, with no demands for an explanation or any details. Her throat tightens a little, and a moment later she's surging forward, wrapping her arms around him in a hug.

"Thank you," she says, hoping he'll understand just what all that entails.

[boo_fuckin_yah]

"Yeah, of course," he answers, wrapping his arms around her and giving her a tight hug. He's known Helen too long now to let this shit the city throws at them change what he thinks of her. She's saved his life, they've been through a lot together, and he puts that far above any words the city can write on her back.

"You wanna talk, you know I'll listen," he tells when the hug ends. "But if you don't, that's cool, too. I'll just do the gun thing to anyone who pisses you off."