It's not a particularly intimidating prison. The enforcers of the Celestial Sea, the Shining Shields, may be aggressive in their pursuit of their enemies, but the prisons themselves are run by all sorts of 'volunteers' from the Constellation, a mega-group that binds different religious groups to common goals. Most of them are here to attempt rehabilitating prisoners and giving them a new chance at life, or to guide them if the only thing that brought you here was simple debt.

Others are here to shoot your head off if you refuse to cooperate, but that's okay.

The cafeteria is as rowdy as ever, with different groups forming based around factors like culture, their former (or current) affiliations to pirate crews, and physical size.

However, even with all the idle chatter and the occasional tossed food item, you notice something quickly: a shorter human woman with unusually white hair for her age pacing back and forth as she mutters to herself, examining different parts of the cafeteria walls and upper platforms where the guards keep to themselves.

It's a big galaxy, but you're fairly sure you know this woman.

- Weird. Villanelle can't quite place her, but -

Decent chance she remembers Villanelle.

...Possibly from a fling.

Probably from a fling.

Well, Villanelle's curious, now.

She swaggers up to the woman (Lor something?).

"Something bothering you, my lady?" she asks.

She responds without actually looking up. "Ugh, of course something's wrong! I'm in here! They're out there! And I have no idea how I'm gonna change that!"

She then looks up at Villainelle and recognition crosses her face. As does a myriad of other emotions, confusion and shame being prominent.

"V-Vilanelle?! What are you doing here?! Wait, no- that makes sense. But of all the times!"

Yep, knows her.

"People usually change that by hiring a decent lawyer. I happen to actually have a law degree, if you're having trouble finding someone to represent you...?"

Pause.

"Though given what I'm in for the judge might not be impressed. Maybe I can hook you up with an old friend, though."

Lara shakes her head vigorously. "No no, that won't do. I need to be out of here, fast. The longer I'm here the more likely everything will go Boom and I don't want that."

She goes back to muttering as she examines what appears to be an air vent that is definitely too small for her to crawl into.

"You're being way too obvious if breaking out is your plan - and, look, I've done this whole circus before. The Cellies aren't too philosophically hot on fair and speedy trials, but they don't like feeding us longer than they have to. They'll toss you before a judge within a month - but you fail at escaping? You get caught after getting out? You're looking at life somewhere a lot worse than here."

This gives her pause for a moment. "...Maybe. But if I don't get out of here soon, 'the rest of my life' is going to be pretty dang short! So that's a risk I'll have to take, thank you very much."

"Why not? You got one of the crews gunning for your head?" It doesn't look like that - no one's glaring at the girl in a 'wants her dead' way.

"N-no, it's not... that. Though they might if they knew." She looks around to see if anyone's listening in as she keeps talking. "Look. You know my job? Go around, play bodyguard for some people as they rifle through old ships and ruins?" She looks angry for a moment. "They found something. They were talking about using it or selling it. But... if it does what they say it does, it needs to be destroyed. Tossed into a black whirl, if possible. So I took it and ran." She sighs as she motions to the cafeteria. "But I got caught. The Shields took me for a petty thief and tossed it into their evidence pile, because my bosses didn't want people to know what I took. So now, it's here, we're here, and we're probably super-mega dead if we stay."

"You think your old bosses are coming after you?"

"Oh, I don't even think it'd be personal. If they find it, they might decide to test it on the prison, and then there won't be a prison. So you can see why I'm freaking out!"

"Do you know the artifact's name?"

She looks frustrated as she moves in closer to whisper it to you, covering her mouth so her mouth can't be read from the side either. "It's... It's a Pandora Crystal. A real one."

In a harsh whisper back: "What the fuck? Are you sure?"

"The junked ship we found it on was made of solid cheese, including the crew. SO I'M PRETTY SURE."

"Shit."

She's met the King, gotten pardoned by him so he clearly likes her -

A rumor of a Pandora Crystal will escalate that far, and the King is funny with good taste in women but he's also a brutal warlord who would conquer the galaxy and grind it under his golden shoes and, with a fucking Pandora Crystal, probably accidentally tile it in tarrasques instead.

"It's in evidence, still?"

She did not come prepared to plan a breakout but never let it be said that Villanelle can't improvise.

"If I know these people half as well as you do, it should be, yeah."

"Right. So - talking about this here's not really safe. Wanna come back to my room? There's no one listening in there, and the audio on the cameras is off."

"Because of course it is. Alright, and if anyone asks, there definitely was *never* any funny business."

"Well, certainly not the break and run kind. But if I take a pretty girl back to my cell - well, that's a funny business all its own."

"That! That's exactly what I meant and you know it!"

She laughs.

"No funny business in jail, got it."

Lara sighs as the stress of all this being solely on herself starts to leave. "Alright. Lead the way, I guess."

She nods, heading back to her well appointed room. She sits herself on the desk chair, leaving the bed open for Lara.

"So - what resources do you got for this?"

"I mean, there's always me-myself-and-my-sick-moves. I can do a lot without my gear, but I'm not sure about taking on the whole prison. You?"