Brice
Pernilla's office, when Taffy is first left there, is empty, but it doesn't take long for the door handle to turn and Pernilla to enter.

She closes the door behind her, and locks it with her card key. Then, she walks to the window, and locks that as well, before finally turning her attention to Taffy. She mutters something to herself before engaging a final lock, though nothing visibly changes. Her patient smile is not as visible as it had once been.

She sits down. "Vance told me what happened, Taffy. But you know he did."
Vincent
Taffy pushes herself up against the furthest wall, pulling one of her legs up to her chest and sitting her arm on it, before burying her face into the crevice of her elbow. With her other hand, she scratches the lower half of that leg, before fiddling with her shoelaces. He remains silent, yet makes no active efforts to move or attempt to escape from the current situation. He seems physically drained, as if just having completed a marathon. His messy hair hangs down around him; quite unflattering.
Brice
Pernilla sighs. "I understand you used your power."

She looks at Taffy with tired eyes, wondering, almost pleading with xem to help her understand. How did something like this even happen? How did it get to a point where Taffy was attacking people he barely knew?

Pernilla knew, of course, or at least had an inkling. Taffy was a troubled kid. Very much so. Taffy was the kind of kid who perhaps *Should* Be at a rehabilitation center - somewhere they could grow in a safe, nurturing environment, as opposed to what they had previously been dealing with.

"Would you like to talk about it?"
Vincent
"I think you should mind your own fucking business," They say, not moving a muscle from their position. Their voice sounds oddly calm, albeit very tired. "The kid was a dick to me so I fucked him up. Fair's fair."

As ae finishes speaking, ae looks up at Pernilla. The concealer over aer eyebags has been badly smudged, and the expression on aer face is one of exhaustion, anger, and something that seems to simply say 'send me home'.
Brice
"As it happens, Taffy," Pernilla said sternly, "I'm responsible for you, and I'm responsible for Vance. This is very much my business." Her voice has a calm, tired tone to it as well, though a different one - like a parent trying to keep her children from fighting and failing, time after time after time.

She stands up and squats on the floor next to Taffy, ending up approximately at eye level. "You sent him to the hospital. He could've died, Taffy." A brief silence. "I know he provoked you. He told me about that too. But you can't just attack people like that, dear."
Vincent
"Call me dear again. Please. It's funny," They say, the corner of their mouth flicking upwards for a moment before sinking back down. "You have no fucking clue what goes on in my mind. You're not my mother, for fuck's sake. I really don't give a shit about you or any of the other quote 'teachers' in this shithole."

He stares into Pernilla's eyes, a look of pure anger shooting over his eyeline. As weak as his body is in this state, he seems unafraid, and ready to defend himself at any given moment.
Brice
"That's right," Pernilla acquiesced, "I don't." Taffy was, in many respects, a black box. But xe was a trauma-shaped black box, Pernilla could tell that much, and it wasn't the first time Pernilla had dealt with trauma. "But I know more than you think."

Taffy wasn't particularly fond of her, that much was evident. But she really couldn't change that, and she still had a responsibility to Taffy.

"I know you're hurt. Even if you don't think you are." She drew a short step back from Taffy to give faer some space. "People don't act the way you do if they're *Okay,* Taffy. I can't tell what's going on in your head, but I can tell something's wrong, and I can't just leave that, Taffy. Especially not when you're attacking people."

She looked down, somewhere between ashamed and sad. "Newton's Cradle is your legal guardian right now, Taffy. It's our responsibility to make sure you're okay."
Vincent
Taffy groans, clearly tired of all ze's hearing. Hir hand rises up and rubs hir eyes, before ze looks up at the ceiling.

"You realise that none of this would have happened if your precious little Newton's Cradle just left me the fuck alone, right?"

A small smirk makes its way onto their face as they speak.

"Taking children from their families for the sake of 'rehab' is fucked up. What you're doing here is fucked up. Your morals are all over the place. I don't give a shit how 'sweet' or 'pure' you act. You're a bad person if you think this kind of thing is okay."
Brice
She can't respond to that in a completely truthful way. Not because she agrees, but because refuting the point would require her to reveal information she isn't at liberty to reveal in the first place.

"Taffy, I... I'm not sure what to say to that. We didn't take you away. Your father sent you here, Taffy. It was his choice."

...

She'd tell as much of the truth as she was able to tell, she decided. Taffy might clock it as a lie, but... She'd get as close to the truth as possible. She shook her head. "There's a reason. Young people with powers - people like you, Taffy - need a very specific kind of help and care to manage your powers. If you can't get that help, you can end up hurting a lot of people. A lot more than just Vance. Everyone here is here because of that. Because their parents couldn't give them the help they needed."

She paused.

"Your father sent you here because he couldn't give you that help. He wants the best for you, Taffy. So do I."
Vincent
"My father..."

He pauses. The smile previously on his face gains an edge of anger to it, before fading completely.

"So just because I'm a minor that means my father has full control over my life? Over everything that I do? I can't make friends here because everyone hates me. I'm not going to just sit around for the next two years gaining resentment for everyone around me, including my father. If I stay here, at this rate, it's only going to get worse. I won't stop until people give me the freedom that I deserve. I'm a kid, not a monster."

A small glint of light reflects in her eyes. She looks over at Pernilla, dead in the eyes.

"You're hiding things from me. You know how fucked up this place is, and you're refusing to tell me because you don't think I can handle it. I'm not going to trust a word that leaves your mouth until you're honest with me, you bitch."
Brice
She nods. "Yes, I am, but what I told you is true. Your file says you can tell if I'm lying, so I'm quite sure that, when I say that what I've told you is as close to the truth as I'm at liberty to disclose, you'll believe me."

Pernilla stands up. As her expression goes from gentle concern to a far stricter tone, it's as though the light fades from her eyes for that brief moment. She walks over to the window. "You've committed assault with a deadly weapon, Taffy. You've sent someone to the hospital. If I know Vance right, he wouldn't bat an eye at reporting you to the police. In other words - you won't be going home any time soon. It's here, or it's the police station. I'll do what I can to help you feel more at home here, but you can't attack people, Taffy. No matter what."

Not a word of it was a lie - and that fact alone hurts more than anything else.
Vincent
"At least at the police station, they would be open with me. At least at the police station, I won't be fucked over every time I leave my room. At least people wouldn't glare at me with hatred or assume everything I say is a lie. All of the kids here are assholes and there's really no point to me even attempting conversations because I already know the moment I start talking that it's going to end in me being fucking roasted over a spitfire. Uriel is the one person who doesn't insult me the moment I speak in the group chat, and even then, I doubt their intentions."

Taffy's words are sharp are honest, directly to the point. There is nothing in buds voice to indicate bud might be lying. That being said, though, bud also doesn't seem mad at what they're saying; moreso, bud just sounds tired.

"Send me to the police station if you want. At least there I know they won't be trying to fucking brainwash me or any stupid and cruel shit like that."
Brice
"Uriel is lovely. I'm quite sure they've no ill intentions." Pernilla turned back and smiled, leaning a little of her weight on the windowsill. "I'm not sending you to the police station. Nor am I trying to brainwash you, nor anything of that nature. Maybe you should go get some sleep, and I'll see you in the morning?"
Vincent
"Sure, yeah, okay," They grunt, standing up. They seem slightly wobbly on their feet. "I'll just go back to my room and stay there for the next two years because the moment I leave *Somebody* Is going to go, 'hey look, it's that little shit that attacked our lord and saviour, Vance'."

His face is overcome by pure hatred at this point. The sarcasm in his voice is strong and it's clear that he means nothing that he's actually saying.

"I'll just go back to being the shitty new kid who everyone hates. That will be fun. I can just go join a random online chat and make new friends. Oh, wait, I can't. Scratch that. I'll just go make friends with my pillow instead. That will do. Make everything okay. Tell Vance I said hi when he gets back from the hospital, will you?"
Brice
"I'll see you in the morning and we'll try to work something out."