Characters: Rahim and two npc military agents Setting Rahim’s house, January fourth, late afternoon Summary: Rahim’s interrogation Rating low, language, references to previous violence and injury
They chose a time that he was home. They chose to knock. Rahim considered ignoring the knocking. If it was Echo, she would just walk in. If it was anyone else, he didn’t really care. But he chose to open the door.
Standing before him were two uniformed military agents. There was a gun holstered on one of their hips and they carried official looking badges. Rahim didn’t have to look at the badges. The very way these men carried themselves spoke of military training. “What?” He greeted.
“Mr. Ka’aukai - am I pronouncing that right?” The one on the right asked. The name on his badge was Fuller. Rahim gave an indifferent shrug of one shoulder, even though correcting him would’ve been just as easy. “Great,” the man - Agent Fuller - carried on. “We’re here to discuss the morning of January first. May we come in?”
Rahim took a half pivot step to the right, and gave them entry, mostly because he was pretty sure shutting the door in their faces wasn’t going to make them go away. So the men walked in, to his kitchen and his kitchen table, that had no accompanying chairs. They didn’t seem to mind it. “What about it?” Rahim prompted.
“It is our understanding that you injured multiple guards stationed to protect the civilians from injuring themselves while in quarantine. It appears that one suffered a mildly severe concussions, another suffered a broken nose and you fractured the wrist of a third. Does that appear to be correct?” Agent asked. He sounded completely understanding, open but formal.
Rahim wasn’t buying it and shrugged indifferently a second time. “I’m not a doctor,” he said. His face and tone was the opposite of what Fuller was projecting. His face was closed off to the point of intimidating to most people. His tone signified that he wanted to end this conversation every time he spoke.
“But it is true that you took part in an altercation with three specific guards,” Fuller said. It didn’t sound like a question. Clearly he had already received their statements.
Rahim watched him for a moment. “They broke into my house,” he started.
“It is within their rights to conduct standard procedure resident housing searches for harmful contraband,” Fuller interrupted. It felt too quickly, as if he suspected Rahim would say exactly what he did.
Rahim narrowed his eyes. The bruise across his cheek twinged slightly at the expression. “How am I going to obtain harmful contraband? Has any guard reported their weapons missing? Do I look like I need a gun?”
Fuller exchanged a telling look with his partner. “Are you insinuating you are dangerous, Mr. Ka’aukai?”
Rahim tapped the badge pinned to his chest. The badge that had his name and danger level on it. “You already insinuated I’m dangerous,” he snapped.
“That’s enough,” the second Agent - a Mr. Lebowski - cut in. “The inclination of your danger levels are there to implicate your potential to be a harm to yourself, security and the civilians on this base. It is not an implication of how dangerous you choose to be. You still have the choice to give into more basic tendencies. Such as violence.”
“Mr. Ka’aukai,” Fuller continued, calm as ever. “Is it true that you were involved in an altercation on the morning of January first?” He repeated, slower this time, as if he were speaking to a particularly difficult child.
Rahim didn’t much appreciate that. “Yes,” he said stiffly.
“Is it true that you used your abilities on the security staff on the morning of January first,” Fuller didn’t miss a beat.
There was little point to lie. They wouldn’t have asked if they didn’t already know the answer to that. “He tried to stab me,” Rahim started again.
“And so you just wanted to injure him back, that is a completely reasonable desire to have in that given situation,” Fuller said, switching back to understanding and open.
Rahim wanted to punch that understanding and open face of his. “No,” he said stiffly. “I wanted to not get stabbed,” he said slowly. “I didn’t have a weapon. So I made one. I only used it against him to -“
“Break his nose in two separate places,” Lebowski ended for him.
“End the fight,” Rahim corrected pointedly.
“You believe you should decide how the confrontation you started ends,” Fuller said understandingly.
“That’s not what the fuck I just said,” Rahim snapped, turning on Fuller.
Lebowski put his hand over his holstered pistol and raised his other hand, as if to calm an angry animal. “Please remain calm, Mr. Ka’aukai,” he said in his formal, military tone.
“Now,” Fuller continued as if Rahim hadn’t spoken. “Is it true that you forcibly removed Agent Renauld from your place of residence with the use of your abilities? Do you understand that it is not within your discretion to forcibly remove agents while they’re performing contraband checks?”
That seemed obnoxiously minor, considering he’d apparently broken that guy’s nose in two separate. “Fine,” he snapped. “What’s the punishment?”
“We’re just doing an investigation, Mr. Ka’aukai,” Lebowski assured him. “We do not assign punishments.”
“You already got your side of the story. From the guards I didn’t kill. You got your narrative,” Rahim said. “What do I have to do with it? I used my abilities to defend myself. I chose to end the fight by shoving him into a portal. You implied I’m dangerous but I’m not here to be dangerous. I don’t need a weapon or abilities. And those three guards walked out of here after they tried to stab me that morning. That is my implication. I am not a danger because if I was, they would be dead. That’s my statement.”