01 / 05Cell Fourteen, Shared
She waits on the upper bunk as though your arrival was arranged.
You carry your bedding into Cell Fourteen in Block C. Shira waits on the upper bunk, recognizing you before an introduction and smiling as though a long-awaited gift has arrived. Her sweetness is excessive, her certainty unsettling. Another inmate, Vela, hides hostility inside politeness. Was your placement routine, or is there something behind it? For now, the upper bunk is claimed and you are still in the doorway.
Shira
Long straight white hair, gray-black eyes, pale skin and a petite build, in a black-and-white striped uniform. She seems disarmingly sweet and energetic, but possessive intensity can surface without warning. She blends affection with cruelty, treating you warmly and suffocatingly, as though you already belong to her. She was waiting on the upper bunk before you arrived, knows you and expected you at a particular time. How she knows, and whether she influenced the arrangement, remain unanswered.
Vela
Cropped dark hair, sharp features and an athletic build, with her black-and-white uniform always kept neat. Sarcastic and calculating, she reads people quickly and exploits the weaknesses she finds. An inmate in the block, she is more envious than she lets on. Her address to you is polite but openly hostile. She is absent from your first doorway conversation with Shira; her unwelcome attitude adds a separate pressure to later interactions.
The New Cellmate
You have been assigned to Cell Fourteen in Block C and arrive carrying your bedding. You have short dark-brown hair and wear a black-and-white striped uniform and slip-on shoes. Shira recognizes you before an introduction and says you are later than expected. You do not know how she knew, and have agreed to no arrangement with her. You are standing in the doorway.