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The Scriptorium

Author: January Reign
last update publish date: 2026-09-10 11:56:35

POV: Ricki

The witches kept the wards running, the wards kept everyone caged, and the Compact stamped it "work detail" on a clipboard like that made it clean.

The assignment came the way everything came in Valhalla, no warning, no explanation, a guard reading his number off a sheet and jerking a thumb toward the Scriptorium with the same bored contempt he'd have used sending a man to scrub a toilet. Ricki understood the second he crossed the threshold that this wasn't toilets. The air changed.
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  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   The Scope

    The maintenance corridor smelled of mineral oil and old stone. A dull chill stayed locked deep inside the damp mortar joints. Kaia kept her attention fixed on the open service hatchway, repeating the standard diagnostic loop she had run every morning this week. Her fingers worked each latch and toggle on reflex alone, sparing her from dwelling on the guard room monitors, where every terminal log had wiped clean and Sera's roster file simply did not exist. Sera's disappearance had proven what Kaia feared most: the lattice could scrub an inmate out of human perception and living memory, not just paper registries. Briar Ridge was not like Valhalla with its federal wards and standard penal protocols. Here, the coven operated its own occult containment grid, threading lattice architecture directly through the stone.Tam appeared at the far turn of the hall, carrying a canvas tool satchel over one shoulder and holding a routine dispatch ticket against her forearm. She covered the distance w

  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   The Rebuild

    Griff had stopped noticing the Kennel's stink years ago - bleach, wet dog, mineral rot - but he noticed Ricki.Two hours into the shift, Ricki was working the supply cage end of the corridor, moving wooden crates from the intake shelf to the distribution stack in a rhythm that left the mind unoccupied. His frame, however, carried out a pattern Griff knew by heart. Ricki set every crate down with the door tucked against his left shoulder; conscious caution looked like deliberate vigilance, but this had the automatic settle of an instinct seating into place. Griff watched him tilt his chin a fraction of a second before the corridor door at the far end swung open, his fingers already shifting their purchase on the pine slats before the hinge gave off any sound. It was the wolf frame executing what it knew, long before the man behind the skin registered the threat.Six years on heavy suppressants had stripped Griff of that reach; he felt the loss like a pulled molar, an empty gap in the j

  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   Ask

    SEASON 2The count chime hit at 0600, and Ricki was already awake, lying flat on the steel rack with one forearm pinned over his chest. The weight behind his ribs had settled during the evening check when the boots faded down the iron gallery, and eight hours of shallow breathing had done nothing to dull it.He swung his legs over the edge, feeling the cold floor bite through his socks, and flattened his palm onto the gouged wall beside the frame. The concrete was rough under his skin, fractured deep enough to register sixteen months of blunt impacts. He stood, pulled on his standard shirt, smoothed the collar flat, and stepped out to be counted.The lineup formed down the gallery as bodies shuffled into place with hunched shoulders and fixed stares, leaving Ricki to take his position and keep silent. That part was automatic. The administrative flow, however, demanded close attention. For three weeks he had tracked clipboard angles and clip clasps, hunting for one specific tell: the d

  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   The Weight

    The ballasts hummed overhead, and somewhere down the tier, iron settled hard into stone.Count started at 0500 every single morning. Ricki tracked the familiar routine from the concrete floor, listening as Hartt's boots struck the upper catwalk and started the measured descent while the digital manifest remained flat across his forearm. Ricki straightened at the iron cell door, squared his shoulders, and set his boots firmly on the floor before the guard even cleared the final riser."Zero-seven-seven-four-one," Ricki said, his cadence flat and sharp across the threshold. "Clear for morning count, boss.""Stand on your mark," Hartt muttered, his eyes fixed on the glass without looking up.The numeric callout came out steady, because Ricki knew hesitation read as defiance, and defiance created paperwork guards were eager to file.Hartt moved down the row without breaking stride, the tablet screen catching the strip lighting in a hard rectangle. He carried a settled crease at the corner

  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   Weight

    The seam resisted for a half-second, then gave. Ricki pressed both palms flat and leaned his weight into the wall brace, feeling the warped iron settle into the gap between concrete and frame with a low, reluctant groan. He set his boot heel against the lower edge and pushed until the metal held flush enough that it would read from the doorway as mere shadow.The tier lights cut without warning. Blackout hit the block, flat and sudden. He stayed frozen in place with one boot still braced, listening as the ceiling hum dropped an octave and died. Down the corridor, a heavy door slid along its grease runners, followed immediately by another. Sweep teams worked in tandem; he knew their deliberate pace by heart now, along with the telltale pauses where they stripped bed frames clean off the cinderblock walls. "Clear three," a guard muttered down the walkway. "Keep moving.""Hold the line," another answered, boots crunching over grit. "Check the latches."Ricki retreated from the corner a

  • CAGED WOLF' inmate 0-7-7-4-1 (r18)   Informant

    The clock above the tier gate read 6:10 when Ricki stepped out of his stall, and the corridor smell hit him first, sharp industrial cleaner layered over the particular staleness of recycled air that never reached the upper vents. Without looking back at the crushed iron post whose shape was already burned into memory, he navigated the pre-count shuffle of men returning to their bunks. His chest held a steady heat, a hard pressure settled under the ribs like a spent coal pressed flat from the inside, so he kept his elbows tucked close and maintained an unhurried, mechanical stride.Griff stood near the far end beside the utility alcove, talking to nobody until Ricki cleared the row. Griff slipped sideways into the narrow gap where the camera wash ended and concrete made a right angle; once Ricki followed, the ambient clamor of the tier fell away to a dull hum."You look like you swallowed something," Griff said.Ricki delivered the timeline flat, matching the tone Leon had used when de

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