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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 11, 2012 18:06:09 GMT -5
M6W3D1, semi-private, Ms. Zaman's office.
Ms. Zaman looks at the case file on her desk. Most of her clients are of the sort that are far richer than they are wise. She just finished up a trial wherein a starlet's bikini fell off in front of a breast-feeding mother, presumably mentally scarring the nine month old child for life, despite the fact that humans really do not remember much of anything prior to the age of two. Sometimes, however, she takes, well... 'charity cases'. This case is... unusual for her, but she had several people nudge her to take a look at it. At the very least, Ms. Zaman supposes that she can refer this client to one of her colleagues who might be better suited to handling the situation. It appears to be a hate crime. Eye witnesses back that up. Imp went in the wrong bathroom, the other guy took issue with it, the argument got more heated, and he swung first. However, Imp has no records of his1 existence. The police have noted down some... odd things about Imp, as well, like the lack of blood from that arm wound. Ms. Zaman examines the mug shot and touches her index finger to her lower lip. It is so very unlikely, she thinks, but hate crime or not, this case might be exactly my business, after all.
1 Ms. Zaman is inclined to think of Imp as whatever gender he is inclined to claim, and the police report seems to indicate male.
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 11, 2012 19:55:30 GMT -5
Imp pushes the door open without ceremony, without even knocking. While her build is visibly female, it's the sort of female that usually gets described as "boyish," although given the definition of her muscles, "boyish" might not be quite the right word. She wears a simple sleeveless military vest, one with plenty of pockets, over a nondescript faded purple t-shirt accompanied with olive drab military pants, the sort with plenty of pockets, tucked into combat boots. Her right hand has been replaced with a split hook, one with two "prongs" and just enough of a cybernetic interface to allow for basic grasping. Medium-thickness chains are wrapped around her left wrist and forearm. Wrapped around her right arm are bandages, covering the wound that needed to be stitched closed and hasn't done much healing since. Her skin is extremely pale and has a faintly purplish cast to it, while her almost white hair has a slight yellow shade to it.
She throws herself into the middle chair across from Sharon's desk and looks up at the other woman with yellow eyes.
"Right. So how do we get this taken care of as quickly as possible?"
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 11, 2012 20:27:29 GMT -5
Ms. Zaman looks from the hook to the chain and inhales. Then she asks bluntly, "Would 'Imp' happen to be short for Impactor? Just out of curiosity. As for as quickly as possible... admitting all guilt would be very quick, but I don't think that would fall under an acceptable definition of 'taken care of'. Would you like a drink?"
Ms. Zaman has a very nice selection of alcoholic beverages.
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 11, 2012 21:24:42 GMT -5
Imp opens her eyes wide at Ms Zaman's question, likely answering it without words. "How'd you know?" she demands.
Then she considers. "Yeah, I'll take a drink." She's more hungry than anything, which is really frustrating. She's been getting increasingly hungry over the last few days, no matter how much she's eaten.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 11, 2012 21:40:24 GMT -5
"Because, my darling dear, you are amazingly obvious, and I'm Emirate slagging Xaaron," Ms. Zaman deadpans, "I did not get where I am by being obtuse."
She stands and reaches for the bourbon before asking, "Do you have any preference?" If Imp doesn't have a preference, he is getting the bourbon. If Imp does have a preference, Imp will get what he asks for.
If Ms. Zaman knew that Imp was getting increasingly hungry, she would be worried that Imp might be pregnant. This is wrong for many reasons.
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 11, 2012 21:52:49 GMT -5
Imp's eyes open wide and she stares at the other woman for a few quiet moments. She blinks once. Then again.
Finally, she slumps into her seat and lifts up her good hand. "Don't care what it is, but it better be strong," is her answer.
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 11, 2012 22:21:43 GMT -5
The bourbon is Angel's Envy, and Ms. Zaman pours one for herself, too, a rather smaller one, considering the difference in muscle mass. She slides Imp's down across the desk and explains, "Two things. One, there is a number up, 555-Bots. Ostensibly, it is supposed to be a tip line for humans to alert the Autobots to 'con activity, but given that it just popped up now... hmm, well, I have been wondering how legit or not it might be."
She waves a hand dismissively and sips her bourbon. "Secondly, your case actually looks quite good, because the witnesses are very clear on who started it and that your chain and hook were not involved in the fight, but I have to ask - do you actually consider yourself a man or was this just a case of you not understanding human culture? Or both? Or something else entirely?"
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 12, 2012 18:55:02 GMT -5
"555-BOTS is legit," Imp says as she accepts the drink. "Kup- er, Kate told me about it. Kate Mason, by the way, one of the cops with the MCU, is our Kup. Partner's Holi."
She throws back most of her drink in a single gulp. "No, I do not actually consider myself a man. I consider myself a genderless robot who continues to not give a damn about this cultural nonsense. Besides, every damn place has a different way to mark those rooms. Human picture and human-with-triangle picture? What the hell's that supposed to mean? Why is it men and ladies instead of men and women? I think I heard something about 'ladies' supposed to be more refined or whatever, but I ain't refined, and why're they refining females but not males? So I just go in the first waste disposal room I come to and am done with it."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 12, 2012 19:09:55 GMT -5
"Is it, now," Ms. Zaman says carefully of 555-Bots. When she hears that two of her Autobots are the two officers who took Impactor in, it becomes a great deal clearer to her why she was prodded to take this case.
She takes a small sip of her drink. "Your answer make things a great deal more complicated. I am not much of an advocate of lying in a courtroom. However, humans tend to have enough trouble accepting people who don't fit clearly into the gender binary that I am not sure if most of them could accept that there are humans entirely outside of the gender binary."
Ms. Zaman raises her hand to cover her mouth to hide her amusement, and explains, "The human with a triangle represents a woman, because women sometimes, but not always, wear skirts," such as she herself is doing at the moment, "whereas men exceedingly rarely wear skirts. So the 'human picture' represents a man, because men are very unlikely to wear skirts. Traditionally, men can get away with being less refined than women, hence men and ladies. As it is, men are often embarrassed by the thought of someone they perceive as a woman seeing them peeing, so you are going to run into more trouble if you keep refusing to distinguish between men's and women's washrooms."
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 12, 2012 21:04:58 GMT -5
Imp takes another gulp from her drink. It's hitting her a bit faster than normal, perhaps because of her hunger. As Sharon talks, she finds herself absently watching the other woman's head.
When she finishes explaining, she snorts. "So," she starts, putting down her drink and holding up her hands so she can count things off on her fingers, "because humans can't understand things outside of their binary, that's somehow my issue," second finger, "I'm somehow supposed to interpret a triangle on a funny symbol as a piece of clothing I never wear and know it means that's the waste disposal room I'm supposed to use, and that's somehow my problem," third finger, "humans hold their two genders to different standards of refinement, and somehow that's my problem, too," forth finger, "and their males get embarrassed because someone who doesn't give a damn what equipment they got might be in their presence when they're getting rid of waste water, and because they're the ones who get embarrassed, that's my problem, too." She lowers her hands, picks up her drink, and takes another gulp. "So have I got that down right, then?"
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 12, 2012 22:12:22 GMT -5
"That is reasonably accurate," Ms. Zaman replies, deadpan. She folds her hands and cuts her eyes over the desk at Impactor, and her voice becomes sharper, "It is your problem because if this goes to trial," which it might not even, "if the jury cannot understand your side of the story, they may find you guilty. Humans have trouble understanding that some people are born with genders that don't match their sex. Some consider it a scam or a lie or a perversion. Humans have even more trouble understanding that some humans don't identify as any gender at all. They may decide that you are a liar and a pervert who simply wanted to peep at naked men."
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 13, 2012 11:33:52 GMT -5
"They might find me guilty?" Imp repeats, disbelieving. "Every damn witness in that place will tell you that the other guy swung first, and they might find me guilty? You're telling me this species accepts 'not paying attention to inconsistently applied standards' as legal justification for violence?"
Then she throws back her head and laughs. "Well, whaddaya know? I wouldn't have thought they had it in them!" She throws back the rest of her drink. "And here I been holding myself back for no good reason."
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 13, 2012 12:10:58 GMT -5
Ms. Zaman groans and pinches the bridge of her nose. This is going to be a very long day, she sees. She explains, "It's not like that. Imagine before the war, when Cybertron had peace. Imagine that you were in your favourite bar back in Tarn. Imagine that a Helexian walked into the bar." She goes with Helexian specifically because Tarn and Helex never had as bad as an antagonism together as Tarn and Vos or even as bad as Tarn and Iacon, though there was still some antagonism between Tarn and Helex, too. She just doesn't want Impactor to say that a Vosian or an Iaconian would have 'been asking for it', never mind that no one is ever 'asking for it'. "On a bad day, might not someone take a swipe at him, just for being Helexian? Moreover, because Helexians weren't particularly well-liked in Tarn, might not the law enforcement blame the Helexian on starting the fight, even if the witnesses said otherwise? Might not the trial find the Helexian guilty simply because they would rather support the Tarnish homeboy than the Helexian visitor?"
"The situation is something like that, Impactor. Those who do not fit into the gender binary on Earth are a marginalised group in human society, the way that Helexians were marginalised in pre-war Tarn. Some humans will treat other humans who do not fit into the gender binary well, the way that some Tarnish would treat some Helexians well. Some humans, however, will go out of their way to persecute humans who do not fall into the gender binary, just like some Tarnish will go out of their way to persecute Helexians."
"What I am saying is that humans can be biased, petty, and vindictive, just like we can, and you, as a member of marginalised group, are going to be on the receiving end of a great deal of hatred simply for what you are. Now, the Impactor that I knew was a smart soldier who liked to pick and choose his battles to be winnable," and then she would go ahead and guilt Impactor into taking ridiculous missions anyway, because she is such a swell friend, "so ask yourself. Is this a battle you really want to fight? Or do you have better things to be doing with your time? If there were two valleys, one filled with Decepticons and one empty, between you and your target, would you fight your way through the guarded valley just because you got to it first or would you take the empty valley, even if it meant walking a little farther?"
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Post by Impactor/"Imp" on Feb 13, 2012 15:33:55 GMT -5
"I'd tunnel under the valley and see if I couldn't collapse it somehow," Imp smirks a response. She continues to watch Sharon's head, though she takes a moment wipe her good hand across her mouth. Is she salivating?
"Besides, a little pointless to ask which path I'd take when the battle's already joined, isn't it?
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Post by Emirate Xaaron on Feb 13, 2012 16:01:08 GMT -5
"When is the last time you ate?" Ms. Zaman inquires, noticing that Imp seems hungry. "I can have Clarissa run and get you something to eat, if you'd like."
"Not necessarily pointless. There are a few ways we can handle this case. One is that we present you as someone who rejects the gender binary and identifies as genderless. In doing so, we bring awareness to an oppressed group of people and can then look at pushing for the installation of genderless bathrooms in public places, which would have other benefits."
A father has a younger daughter who can't go to the washroom on her own? Should he take her into the men's room with him or go into the women's washroom with her? If the bathrooms are genderless, the problem is gone. If a man wants to peep on women, right now, all he needs to do is go right into the women's washroom, because it is neatly labelled. And so on.
"If you want to go that route, I'll support you, as it is a worthy cause, but it will be difficult, as many worthy things are."
"Or we can just say that you are a male, and as a male, you had every right to be in the men's washroom. This reminds me. You have no ID. We need to fix that, because we don't want you to be deported to the moon."
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