"Fighting our way out would be dumb, not unless we bring in a lot more allies, and that risks leaks. Seriously."

"Okay, then what's your plan? You know I'm more of a Doer than a Thinker. I think I'm lucky that I got this far in the first place."

"Well, ideally I talk a guard into eloping, but worst comes to worst I steal their keys."

"Ah, yes, of course. Seducing. Why didn't I think of that." Her sarcasm is obvious.

...Oh yeah that's where Villanelle knows her from. Guard. That Villanelle seduced.

She bats her eyelashes, still. In her spacer accent: "Aw, I woulda made an honest woman outta ya if I coulda, sweetheart."

Pause.

In her lawyer accent (just crisp and posh enough to imply nobility without committing to one aesthetic): "Sadly I'm an unrepentant scoundrel and have never been an honest woman in my life."

Lara's face turns crimson at the "sweetheart" remark, and is clearly trying not to show it as she continues. "I noticed. But, scoundrel that you are, you're the closest thing to someone I can trust in this place. You're not evil. ...I think. So, I'll go along with whatever plans you come up with."

"Pretty sure last time someone ran me through a detect evil and good pair I came out neutral. Tend to queer the law-chaos binary, though."

"Pft, those things aren't reliable if you aren't some kinda demon. Sometimes even if you are."

"Heh. Well, I'm not a murderous sort of evil, at least, or if I am I'm not the kind that thinks a Paradox Crystal is any kind of good idea."

"For stealing the keys - if your fingers are as deft as I remember, I think our best bet is me distracting a guard, and if I can't seduce them you liberate their key ring. Though we should figure out signals for that..."

"Ugh. I can't believe I have to watch you work. But alright."

Lara goes over some basic signals from her guard training.

"I'll try to keep it short and sweet," she says, adapting to the signal system easily.

Soon, an opportunity presents itself in the form of a target: one of the female guards- a half-elf with dark skin, a bright pink undercut, and various tattoos- is to check on the cell to make sure everything's in order.

Oh hello lovely.

Villanelle, fortunately, has met with - and flustered - this guard before, so she has an opening.

Everything's certainly in order here (she says, blouse artfully a bit disarrayed, hair mused). Are they working you hard, darling~?

She seems surprised by the friendliness. Oh, pretty hard,  she says. There was a mass arrest recently and she's had to deal with a couple of real weirdos. Dealing with you is almost like taking a break.

Aww, thanks. She mostly tries to only get the judge's knickers in a knot, after all. Still, surely none of the weirdos weren't something a strong girl like you couldn't handle...?

Normally yeah but they were like, the kind of weirdos you don't want to handle. Along with a bunch of confused brawlers who didn't recall getting into a fight, there was some guy that looked to be some kind of walking talking mushroom who seemed more than happy to be here. It creeped her out.

The other weirdo was some feisty beast-girl who actually tried biting people who got too close. She really didn't wanna be here for some reason.

Huh! She hasn't met any mushroom people. She might swing by his cell later.

And awww, are you okay? The beast girl didn't bite you, right?

No no, it's fine, it's totally fine, she just wants to put it behind her at this point, really. Find something else to do and forget about it.

Well, Villanelle's been told she's rather good at being quite... Distracting...

Oh, she doesn't doubt it, you're very pretty and all, and uh, is it hot in here or is it just her?

Oh, it's quite hot in here.

(She's also quite edging into the guard's personal space.)

Oh, good, for a moment she thought it was her nerves or something, but maybe she should have a talk with engineering later about ventilation. Not good to have prisoners be uncomfortable after all, and uh- wow, your eyes are very pretty.

Oh so are yours, darling~

Villanelle's breath is by now ghosting over the guard's cheek.

What do you say we get quite distracted?

Ah, screw it. What are they gonna do, fire her?

Well, Villanelle makes it quite worth the ride in the meantime.