Conversation · Klaasje (Miss Oranje Disco Dancer)

"May I suggest the stereo system in your partner's room? It produces a raw, wall-piercing sound."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your partner's room? I'm sure it plays more than OO and the Sad Small Church Band..."

She nods, exhaling a dense cloud of cigarette smoke.

"I'm... in the process of listening to it, miss."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? It produces a raw, wall-piercing sound."

"Mine unfortunately only comes with a mimsy little radio."

"No can do."

"Ah, something happened to it? Another broken thing in a line of broken things. Quite a shame." She takes a drag. "Well, perhaps you'll find another one."

"Unfortunately, it is completely busted."

"Ah, another broken thing in a line of broken things." She takes a drag. "Well, perhaps you'll find one somewhere."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? It's... uncharacteristically unapologetic when it comes to volume."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? I'm sure it plays more than OO and the Sad Small Church Band..."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? It produces a stratospheric, bedazzling sound."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? I'm sure it plays more than OO and the Sad Small Church Band..."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? I'm sure it plays more than OO and the Sad Small Church Band..."

"May I suggest the stereo system in your room? It goes up to Apocalypse."

"Just looking for a player."

"Titus says he's got a tape where the deceased discusses committing rape. Tell me about it."

"You haven't listened to it?" She blows a column of smoke in the air. "You sure you don't want to hear it before questioning me?"

"I have no time for tapes. There's a murderer on the loose!"

"Of course, officer. No time to lose." She taps her cigarette as she nods. "I'm guessing he tried to give you the Doorgunner Megamix, yeah?"

"They've got him saying he'd like to rape and kill. Do Revachol Soldier of the Apocalypse-style. It really upset the boys." Ash falls from her cigarette as she shrugs. "I never said he was a good man -- only that he wasn't bad to me."

"You like this kind of stuff?"

"We're all scraping up any happiness we can find, officer. Going around with our little scouring sticks -- you, your first love, Mr. Soldier of the Apocalypse here..."

"Did he tell you he had actually done any of those things -- here in Martinaise, I mean?"

"No. We were too busy laying waste to our own nervous systems to direct any of the fury outward. He seemed..." She pauses. "He seemed happy, I guess. At ease. As much as a man like him could be."

There is a small measure of pride in her about this. That she could comfort and quell the rage in such a being.

"That's about it, I think. It's not a very long tape." She takes another drag of her cigarette.

"I'll ask one last time: Do you still deny that he assaulted you in any way?"

"I'm quite sure he didn't, officer." The young woman looks at you, bored, but smiles politely.

"Can you say any more about what's on the tape?"

"The tape? Hm..." She searches her memory. Slowly, she starts smiling a strange smile.

A memory surfaces in her damaged neocortex -- it's not entirely unpleasant.

"I think he said whore a lot... He said this wasn't Revachol. He said it was a fucking village with village elephants and that he was gonna do us all Co Hoi-style."

Co Hoi, a village that was the site of infamous war crimes in the South Safre conflict, the ongoing proxy war between Graad and Safre. It has been hot for 12 years, with atrocities piling up daily. Mostly committed by Graad.

"Why did he say whore so much?"

"He liked the way it sounded when he said it. As for Co Hoi..." The young woman lights a new cigarette with the butt of her old one.

"He wasn't actually there -- not from what he told me, at least. But he might as well have been. I could see he'd lived his own little Co Hoi. It was in his... everything."

"Why'd he say things like that? Was he bragging?"

"Was he bragging?"

"Oh no, I'm pretty sure he did terrible things -- then integrated them into his idea of normalcy. To keep on living. Until they just... sort of turned into his... What's the word I'm looking for?"

She's quite observant about the human character -- trained almost...

"Persona?"

"Running joke. I was gonna say running joke -- and that tape didn't even get the good bits. Lely's punchlines got way, way funkier."

"He was like the Semenese conflict, the Co Hoi massacre, and the '36 famine in Yeesut all rolled into one person, then encased in Oranjese ceramic armour. Which he wore in bed and in the shower..."

"Coping mechanism?"

"Did you learn this from studying Oranjese lit? Sounds psychological."

"People who go to the University know how to use words like internalize and integrate, officer... now what was that expression?" She's still looking for it.

There's more to this. She has an index in her head of pathologies and how to exploit them. You can almost see her turning the pages.

You can trust Pillar-Bookhead, by the way. As far as I can tell, he's not singing to her tune... the only one besides me.

"Catch phrase?"

"Do you think he was trying to scare people?"

"No, I'm pretty sure he did terrible things -- and then had to internalize them to keep on living. Until they just... sort of turned into his... What's the word I'm looking for?"

"Does it matter that he said whore? I said it too."

"I don't see how your problems are relevant right now, officer," the lieutenant says in a quick, clipped, annoyed tone.

"It's not a problem." She touches his shoulder. "As for Co Hoi..."

She clearly enjoys siding with you.

"It suits you, officer. You should say it more. As for Co Hoi..."

She clearly enjoyed saying that to you.

"Co Hoi, huh?"