Suspects' Holding Cell

[etcircenses]

The vans drive for what seems like an hour before they come to a stop, and Peacekeepers blindfold and forcefully drag even the most cooperative suspects into a building.

The suspects are all held in one cell, a large, metal room with a thick door and a single ledge that serves as a bench. Bright fluorescent lights beam from overhead. There are no windows and no clocks, no sign of where they might be.

The Peacekeepers take off the blindfolds, though without much care for whether they come off all the way or chafe or stay slung around the suspects' necks. The suspects' hands are left cuffed behind their backs, and even the most ingenious of them won't be able to pick the lock on their restraints, but they're otherwise left to roam freely through the space.

Suspects are removed, one at a time, at unpredictable intervals, by Peacekeepers armed with tasers. Some take three hours to return, while others are back within only a minute. Each of them comes back having been clearly roughed up and pressed for information that they may or may not hold; some are bleeding or sporting the beginnings of black eyes.

They'll be sleeping here tonight.

Comments

[youbarium]

"Hi, Terezi," he says, and while he's not smiling, his shoulders are relaxed and his manner is easier than it's been in a long time. "It's not a secret or anything. It's just that I've been really afraid of this happening for a long time, and now that it has, it's...well, it's kind of a relief," he admits.

[pythianjudgment]

Well, that wasn't exactly the answer that Terezi was expecting. You don't typically go up to someone preparing to accuse them of singing to the cops, only to have them admit that they've been expecting this to happen. It's a rather damning bit of thought, and she has to wonder if he realizes the implications of what he just said.

"Just because the interrogation is over doesn't mean you should start confessing your sins. I'm pretty sure they can still drag you back in again. There's no double jeopardy here."

[youbarium]

"No, see, I know why I'm here," said Carlos. "It's not because of anything I did. It's because of Cecil's announcement. We were close before he was Avoxed, so they think I killed Penny out of revenge. Which is of course ridiculous, because a scientist never takes revenge, but it means that I have nothing to hide anymore." This wasn't strictly speaking true, and Terezi is free to pick up on that, but as long as he's in this cell, Carlos is going to deliberately forget he has anything to do with the rebellion.

"It's not that I'm happy to be here. It's just that...I've been trying for weeks to convince everyone that I didn't actually care about Cecil, and that was hard," he explained. "I don't have to lie about that anymore."

[pythianjudgment]

So that's what he meant. It isn't a terrible plan... The logic is sound, but she knows well enough that it never does work. It doesn't keep anyone from realizing that feelings don't just stop like that. Probably because there never actually do.

What she's not so sure of is his reason behind it. It was one thing to pretend you didn't care about someone to protect them. But that isn't the way that it sounds to her.

"You were trying to protect yourself? From what he did?"

[youbarium]

Carlos sighs. The reason protecting himself was so important is that he knows the names of a lot of rebellious Tributes, and he had been afraid that being brought in for torture would jeopardize them, too. He's still worried about that; Carlos is still afraid that he won't hold up when the torture gets bad.

It looks like he still can't be completely honest about this. It's disappointing, but lies by omission are better than putting on an act.

"Partly," answers Carlos. "But I didn't want to be used against him, either."

They spent enough time in the Arena together -- especially testing Terezi's lie-detecting ability -- that it's fairly safe to say she'll realize that there's something he's not telling her.

[pythianjudgment]

Partly. He sighs, and Terezi has to wonder if he's giving her the whole truth. He sounds reluctant enough to tell her that little bit in the first place, and reluctance is the first indication of secrets. But she isn't going to press him, not here where the Capitol could hear him. She's not that cruel.

"Fair enough. As long as you didn't talk." She gives a bit of a shrug, her attention drifting around the room. "The last thing anyone here needs is to be a scapegoat so that someone else can go free. "

If that happened, and Terezi managed to get out of here? She was going to be certain to make their life a terrible terrible thing to live.

[youbarium]

"Of course I talked." After all, Carlos has to pretend he's been completely forthcoming. "I told them everything I knew about Penny's murder. Everything, in this case, just happens to be nothing." Of course he didn't scapegoat anyone. He's just told her: he is through with lying, and scapegoating someone else in the room would just be more lies.