trans_9 | An Unexploded Shell Inside a Cell [Open]

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An Unexploded Shell Inside a Cell [Open]

She thought her life would be different by now, but she's a prisoner again. Voluntary, she guesses, which makes it a little bit different than the first time. At least she can blink on her own this time. Not that she's using her body to do much good.

Ironically, she almost always looked better when she was a more total prisoner. Without her makeup and hair clips and changes of clothes to arrange herself into some approximation of health, without even a mirror to confirm her suspicions, she looks a wreck. Dark circles line her reddened eyes; her hair is unbrushed and falls in tangled clumps over her face; chapped, bloodied lips and fingernails bitten down to the flesh speak to her uneasy transition back into captivity.

Eva's given up all attempts to look 'okay'. She ripped a man's face open with her bare fingers. She's been a long road away from 'okay' for a while now, but she spent too long mistaking her anger and stubbornness for strength and resilience to recognize it. She's wised up now.

She really wants a drink right now. Instead she has some books - selected poems by Pablo Neruda and an anthology of poetry by women poets in the Andes - and a pillow and blanket. She's curled up on the cot with the former book in her hand, but drifting in and out of sleep. Her breath comes lazy and heavy as she alternately reads, dreams, and watches the door to the brig with heavy-lidded eyes, looking for nothing.

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She shrugs. "Technically, I was trying to interrogate, but...he made me mad. It never should have escalated that far. Which is why, if I can't keep emotions off the battlefield, I need to not be behind the big guns."

He sighed. "I guess I can't argue with your reasoning, but... it's not like you're the only one who's ever lost it on the field."

"No. Hardly. But I'm pretty sure I was looking for excuses to lose it on the field, and that's the dangerous part."

Oh, well, that changed things.

"Anything in particular that made you go looking for that excuse?"

"I imagine the years of torture and slavery had something to do with it," she says, totally flat.

"Sure. But you must have had an opportunity to go off on someone before. And as far as I know, you haven't, at least since you've been on this ship. So I was wondering if something in particular set you off."

"I haven't, actually. This was that rare, once in a lifetime opportunity."

And God, what did people expect from her? Her whole life was stolen; all she was left with was this damaged tableau of a family, a body that doesn't work right and a mind that feels a far cry warped and distorted from what she used to be while the Yeerks mostly got off scot free; then she got whipped up onto a spaceship, into another war, one where she doesn't have to be a puppeted body and a bystander but a warrior, and people expected her to keep her head?

She realizes her fists are clenched.

"But, you know, rip off one nose and everyone's a saint."

"It is a rather dramatic departure from normal interrogation procedures." Usually waterboarding, for instance, came a little before 'rip someone's nose off'.

"So... what? Now you're a monster who needs to be locked up before she lashes out at someone else?"

"I turned myself in, Zouichi. This isn't a precautionary measure so much as ensuring the Captain treats all cases of torture the same." She rubs her face. "It's a departure for interrogation, but I had it used on me during my own torture. So it's not like I invented the low-budget rhinoplasty."

Not what he'd meant, but in any case, he gave her a disbelieving look. "Really? The only reason you're here is because you want to follow proper procedure? You should know better than anyone else that the punishment a crew member receives here can vary wildly depending on their personal connections."

"And you just got done telling me you didn't trust yourself as a tactical officer. Sounds a lot like a precautionary measure to me."

She snorts. "Oh, believe me, if I had my way Iniss would be in here instead. But yes, procedure. And I want to make a good example of taking responsibility for your actions to my son. Since I've sort of made a bad example for anger management."

She shakes her head. "The resignation's precautionary. The brig time isn't."

"Good luck with that, I guess. Has he ever seen the inside of a brig cell? Because he seems much more likely to have run afoul of the law than Allenby."

He frowned a little. "Speaking of your son, apparently the rumor mill has already been set into motion about your incarceration here, and I believe quite a few people have misconceptions about it. As per usual."

"Probably not as part of a sentence, no. But as you know, I could spend a great many hours ranting about how they treat Yeerks on this ship."

"Oh, joy. The rumors aren't scandalous, are they? I'm not responsible for Councilman Superman's death, am I?" 'Councilman Superman'. That's a clunky moniker.

He raised an eyebrow. "Do people spend time in the brig when it's not part of a sentence?"

"Oh, you are. And you're having an illicit affair with Kang. Also, you stole forty cakes. And that's terrible."

"Sure they do. Prior to sentencing, if they might be a danger or commit more crimes."

Eva stares for a minute, then bursts out laughing. "You're being serious right now?"

He waved a hand. "You know what I mean. Although the Council appears to be fairly invested in not holding any past actions against someone." In his opinion, a little too invested. Especially if that individual had gone on to create a crime on the ship.

"I honestly don't think I could make something like that up. My imagination isn't quite that awe-inspiring."

"People think I'm sleeping with Kang. Has Marco's head exploded into confetti yet?" She hopes he's not too worried, although perhaps 'I'm not really sleeping with Kang' could be a nice way to soften the blow of 'also I'm a violent lunatic'.

"It could be worse. They could think you're sleeping with..."

Nope. Coming up empty.

"Anyway, Marco seemed a little on edge." Which was a bit of an understatement. The last he'd checked, Eva's son had been upgraded a few notches up from 'slightly screamy'.

"Given the friends I keep on this ship, I'm surprised the rumors didn't start sooner. I thought women weren't allowed to have friends with men. For all they know, I'm robbing the cradle with you. Or flying high with Wash. Or hitting the books with Goliath."

She twists her lower lip up under her teeth. "I was hoping against that. He hasn't threatened to hurt anyone, has he?"

Somehow, Zouichi suddenly found himself choking on nothing at all. After he recovered from a brief bout of coughing, he gave her a mildly reproachful look. Because he couldn't give it to the rumor-mongers. "I would hope that wasn't the case. I try not to get myself into sordid entanglements with married women. You know."

He looked slightly askance. "...well. I'm sure he didn't mean it."

She chuckles at his flabbergasted coughing spell - she didn't think that Zouichi needed air enough to facilitate a coughing spell, but lo and behold, here she is pushing the limits of science. Or something.

"Besides, that would make for your second botched date with Alastirra, if that gossip were flying around."

She heaves a grumpy sigh. "As long as he doesn't get put in here, I guess. You'd think he'd know better by now."

Man, why was everyone on his back about Alastirra? Whom he hadn't actually seen much of lately; he was beginning to think she was avoiding him. Which... actually, would be rather understandable.

"Put in here for threatening people? The way some crew members throw promises of bodily harm around, the brig should be brimming with them by now."

Because it amuses them, Zouichi.

"Well, if anyone thinks he might actually follow through on it, then he might end up here. For the safety of whomever he's threatening. Although they might just end up here, if they're smart. I'm a prisoner but at the very least I'm incredibly safe."

"I suppose. But as far as I know, no one's thrown him in a cell yet. So let's hope that continues." Mostly because he'd rather not deal with having to keep guard over Eva's son.

"Oh, well. Next time the ship is under attack, I'll remember to run to your location if I need cover."

"Just spread the word that anyone who touches my friends gets a home-cooked round of cosmetic surgery, courtesy of me. That should scare them all off. I'm a scary lady."

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