IC Inbox III

[ukan]

This is Lark, leave a message.

Comments

[ukan]

Why did she believe your threats about her dad?

[citizendetective]

[Her brows knit together, just for a moment, before they smooth out again. He's underestimating me, she thinks. Nothing new there.]

Well... unlike you, I think she could probably tell that I meant it.

[ukan]

That's not what I asked.

What were you prepared to do to her dad, and what had you already done that made her believe you?

[citizendetective]

Do you really need all these details that aren't even going to be relevant here? Like I said, I'd totally use a different approach in Zero; you wouldn't need to worry about this.

[ukan]

I didn't say I wanted you to use a different method. You haven't told me what your method actually is yet. Threats don't mean anything without teeth behind them.

So if you really want me to help you get a job, answer the question.

[citizendetective]

[She huffs, crossing her arms and pouting a little.]

I injected fentanyl into a box of chocolates in front of her, told her all this information I'd found out about her dad online - like the address of his retirement home and the name of one of his nurses - and told her that if she didn't tell me what I wanted to know, I'd send it to him. With her name on the return address label.

But hey, if you want me to use those methods on suspects in Zero...

[ukan]

Have you tried any other methods? How do I know you'd be able to do anything softer than that?

[citizendetective]

I could softball it. I could, um, take the good cop approach. Or-- ooh! I could pretend to be a sympathetic fellow inmate who's infiltrating Zero to screw over the Admiral. None of the Zero wardens could do that.

[ukan]

Here's what I want from you.

When something happens, I interrogate both sides. Because I'm a warden and because I have a reputation, sometimes I get enough information and sometimes I don't. I want you to do follow-ups, see what you can learn that I don't.

[citizendetective]

What's your reputation?

[ukan]

That I'm an asshole. [He is. He doesn't particularly care.]

[citizendetective]

You don't seem like that big of an asshole...

[ukan]

I try not to be. But some things have to get done, and some people don't want them done or don't like how I do them, so... [A shrug.]

I think you and I could make a good team.

[citizendetective]

Do you want me to use the softball method?

... I'm not saying I can't! I'm just checking.

[ukan]

As opposed to you threatening to kill their friends? Misty.

[citizendetective]

I just wanted to make sure.

... You asked what I thought about death here.

[ukan]

I did. And you haven't told me yet.

[citizendetective]

Well, I think it's really silly to act like it's the same as, you know, real death, but...

[Automatically, one hand starts to drift over to her stomach. She forces it back down to her side, then turns to keep walking through the trees.]

That doesn't mean it's not horrifying. You talk about it like it's nothing, but you're wrong.

[ukan]

No, I hate how people treat death like it doesn't matter here. It matters in completely different ways than at home, sure; but nothing fucked me up worse than having to relearn why I shouldn't kill people at home once I graduated.

[citizendetective]

Well, that's silly, too.

[She says bluntly, shrugging.]

No offense! But home is so different from here. I'm assuming yours is, too.

[ukan]

[Dry] People die permanently from fentanyl overdoses in my world, too.

[citizendetective]

Right! Right. So if things are so different at home, you shouldn't have had to learn that killing people there wouldn't be exactly the same as killing people here.

[ukan]

I wasn't a person who needed to stop thinking of death as important, permanent or not. But I did after a few years here; it was downhill from there.

[citizendetective]

But you graduated anyway, right?

For the record, I don't think death isn't important.

[ukan]

Is that because death is a handy tool? [Honest question. He just admitted he's killed people, so there's no hint of judgment either.]