trans_9 | They Fondle My Trigger Then They Blame My Gun [Closed]

Eva's little escapade into the brig didn't cure her of violent tendencies. Possibly it rubbed a little shame into them, but she has no intentions of letting her sharpshooting skills go rusty. She's called up a shooting range in the Sensoriums, and is carefully picking cans off a table target she has set up. The revolver's new, another free weapon from the ship since Dr. Jackson never bothered to return hers, but it's the same make as her old one and feels just as natural in her hand.

Lately her moods seemed to have shifted more wildly, like tides in a storm instead of during a streak of fair days. Her happiness at the Halloween festivities was genuine, but so was her misery when she drank herself into a stupor in her room the other day. Perhaps it's the strain of not having quite enough to do with herself, now that she's effectively unemployed. She should remind herself to follow up with Councilmember Bight on her potential position as an organizer.

She shoots three times and destroys two cans; a third refuses to tumble off the table and onto the ground. She grimaces in displeasure and fires the remaining three bullets at the can, which still stubbornly remains on the table. She loads up the chambers again and fires six more times.

The can taunts her.

And people wonder why she has a temper.

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"There's a difference between things not being secrets and things being public knowledge. You know that. I'm not saying you're ashamed, just..." She sighs and runs a hand through her hair. "If this were a story, you've lost your framing for it. It's not shame, just discomfort."

Kang snorted, managing to get the tankard with one more shot, "A story that's becoming much too complicated. He saved Kali from a group of Ohm, during the battle at Lirath. He even let her fight alongside him, on his back."

The last tankard fell, and he turned to look at Eva, clearly frustrated by the entire situation. "When I spoke with him the other day, in the City, he never made any indication of even wanting to kill me, and he asked about her wellbeing. Like he actually cared." There was an unspoken why.

Eva slowly loads her gun again. "Is it hard to believe they aren't all the same?"

Of course it is. She knows it is. She couldn't believe there was an honestly good Yeerk out there if she tried. She can know it, but she can't believe it.

"...yes," Kang said after a moment, wings rustling. He knew it was wrong to judge an entire race, or group of people, by the actions of some, but every single metallic dragon he'd ever encountered in his life before Crucible had wanted to kill him because of what he was. Not even one story or personal tale about a metallic had included any positive, or even neutral, reactions. There was the added factor of familial betrayal, too.

She doesn't speak for a few moments; rather, she fills her chamber again and closes her eyes, bringing forward another set of cans atop the table.

"You know, I pretend Schmuz isn't a Yeerk sometimes." She shoots a can. "It makes more sense to me that he's an entirely different species than that my speciesism is flawed."

She shoots again. "Maybe knowing we're wrong is half the battle."

"I can't do that." More tankards appeared as well, this time a few feet further away. Kang barely clipped the side of one, just enough to knock it to the ground. "I said before, when I first told you about his being here, that I didn't want to know if I'm one of his. I can't make that question go away now, though. There are so few reasons that make sense to me for why he's been acting this way."

Two more shots, and two more tankards shattered. "I'm afraid of the answer."

Edited 2011-11-18 00:14 (UTC)

Eva grimaces and lowers her weapon, considering what it is she can say to Kang.

"The way I see it..." She pauses, grunts a bit, and shakes her head. "The way I see it is that it doesn't make a difference if he is. You will still be Kang, and she was still be Kali, and whether or not it's his genes or another bronze dragon's in your veins. It doesn't mean you have to associate with him and it doesn't make the slightest difference as to either of your senses of character. The answer to your question only holds the importance you assign it."

She shoots another can. "The only question left would be if you have to defend yourself more closely."

Kang smiled wryly, "That's not why. I know it doesn't change a thing about who we are. I know I don't have to associate with him. It's just easier for me to deal with it all with the relationship unconfirmed, if that makes any goddamn sense." He hoped it was making sense. He wasn't sure if it even really made sense to him.

"If I did find out that yes, I'm one of his, then it becomes more... personal."

"It only becomes personal in two ways: if you make it personal and if you let it become personal. It doesn't have to be that way." Of course, easier said than done. "And of course it makes sense, on an emotional level."

The last three tankards shattered, using up the last six bullets, and Kang was silent as he reloaded his gun, looking down. It was difficult to explain how that one piece of knowledge made things different.

Slowly, Eva moves over to by his side and lays a hand on his shoulder. "I'm only trying to help. I know just because it isn't logical doesn't mean it isn't something."

Kang tensed up at the touch, but relaxed after a moment, "I know."

"I don't have to touch you if you don't like. There just..." She breathes deeply through her nose. "You know as well as I do that it's difficult to see turmoil in your friends. You know, once it's serious enough turmoil that it would be rude and callous to make fun of it."

"No, it's not that," Kang didn't make any move to remove Eva's hand, wings rustling slightly. "You'd think I'd be used to it by now, but it still surprises me at times that a human would willingly touch a draconian for reasons outside of combat."

He glanced down at her with a bit of a real smile, "Thank you, Eva."

"Oh, Kang, I'm hardly human. My son's practically a gorilla." And she may as well be part Yeerk anyway, with as much of Edriss' mind as has leaked into hers.

She squeezes gently. "That's it? That's only five minutes of free therapy. I usually allot my friends at least a half an hour."

They Fondle My Trigger Then They Blame My Gun [Closed]

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