2010-05-28 - Rape on the Train

C.C. is probably one of the worst friends ever.

Not that Laura Rolla, ace pilot of the civilization-destroying WD-M01 Called 'Turn A' Gundam, would care about that sort of thing. Normally she wouldn't be in China, and if she was, she'd have her mobile suit so she could get her business done quickly. Her days are very busy! Even now, she has to recalibrate the land-ship Gallop's map system and press Miss Sochie's laundry. It'll be a late night.

These weird sight-seeing trips end bizarrely, however, and this time Laura is left to find her way back to the pickup area (terrorists are sneaky) while C.C. almost literally disappeared. Luckily, she had enough money to take the train back to Hong Kong where Karaba contacts would be able to ship her out to the Tuatha.

Laura sits in her own car, leaned up against the window, eyes half-lidded. C.C. is way better at staying up for 72 hours straight than her. The only reason she's up is because she is paranoid and vigilant. The school uniform she's wearing (they got free ice cream because of that, C.C. is crafty as well as a jerk) and her young age make her stand out for a solo traveler, though the curtain is drawn on windowed door leading into the cabin.

Johnny Domino is tired.

Ever since he had dinner with Rei and Cinco, the Agent's mind had been working overtime. So many truths have been revealed that night -- so many revelations -- the young man is still processing everything. However, just because Domino now knows more than he did before does not mean his quest for the truth is over. Far from it.

Desiring further knowledge about some of NERV's dirtiest secrets, the Agent already learned that he can't get anything out of the organization itself. NERV was wholly uncooperative when it came to sharing details with outsiders, and the goddamned organization was set up in such a manner that Johnny fast realized it would be a nightmare to try and dig for the truth directly from the main source. There were simply too many sub-committees, front companies and advisory groups - a hellish web of bureaucracy and red herrings that made Domino's stomach churn.

And so the young man tapped a different source: Ryoji Kaji.

Kaji, of course, was still a tough nut to crack, providing Domino with only tiny morsels of information at a time. It frustrated Johnny to no end, but it was the best and most cooperative source he had at hand, and so the Agent bit back his annoyance and accepted it. Except when Kaji refrained from giving Domino direct information and actually sent him on some wild goose chase, seeking a second-hand source. Johnny HATED that.

That's what he's been doing in China, following up on one of Kaji's leads. It has been a... questionably fruitful trip. Domino will have to go over his notes when he gets back to his quarters to figure out whether it was all worth it. Until then, however, he is tired, oh so tired.

Having boarded the train at the last stop, Johnny Domino shuffles towards the cabin currently occupied by Laura Rolla. Decked in his A-LAWS uniform (train fare is 10% off for soldiers!), the Agent stops at the door. He takes a deep breath, allowing himself to slowly unwind. Hopefully the cabin won't have any obnoxious passenger(s) inside. That would be the last thing Domino needs right now.

He reaches for the handle. The door swings open. Johnny Domino steps inside.

Domino finally gets a break! There's no one annoying in the room, just some sleepy sixteen year old school girl with her face pressed against the window!

Except, wait. She's clearly not Chinese. And she's... wait, wait, wait. Black girl with platinum blonde, pretty-much-white hair. That's fairly memorable.

SOME TIME AGO

Turn A fights Turn X and the Photonic Power Labs are destroyed and the invincible giant robot man Mazinger Z is eaten alive. Some people mumble on the radio about the Turns destroying all known human civilization. One of the pilots is pretty cute.

NOW

Oh goddammit it's her, isn't it.

Johnny Domino's tired brain falls asleep at the wheel, fails to keep proper mental checks in place, and proceeds to crash right into the wall of Holy Shit.

The Agent has halted in his tracks, staring at the clearly Non-Chinese, clearly natural blonde, /clearly/ cute, /CLEARLY/ female resident of the cabin. Wide blue eyes process the sight, and in that instant, Rei Ayanami is completely forgotten. Instead, Johnny's head becomes occupied by a different female: C.C.!

Which would figure, Rei and C.C. are never allowed to be in the same space together.

After about five seconds, Johnny Domino finally closes the cabin door behind him. He does it very slowly, very quietly, and once the door is closed, he remains standing in front of it, blocking it with his body. Domino is all too familiar with C.C.'s dynamic exits, and who knows how far this habit extends. The last thing he needs is for the infuriating woman to have passed on her craft to this young, nubile schoolgirl.

And so, having trapped the girl, Domino speaks up: "Laura Rolla."

Laura spasms awake.

She practically falls out of her seat. Her legs go kicking into the air, she waves her arms around furiously to ward off imaginary foes, and she almost slides off the bench onto the floor before clutching onto the windowsill to hold herself up. It doesn't take long for her to notice the imposing man blocking the door.

Oh shit it's that guy from the movie theater! Laura isn't sure what C.C. does in her spare time (except for 'lounge around in her underwear on the couch watching Neo Days of Our Lives and eating pizza') but she's fairly sure that her friend pissed off this character in some way. Their dealings at the theater were not amicable and Laura almost decided to start punching things until Johnny stopped calling the space police.

Laura looks appropriately shell-shocked.

Johnny Domino looks appropriately like he is here to rape Laura.

Actually, no, he simply stands at the door, arms dangling non-provocatively at the sides of his body. He observes the girl as she flails about and makes an utter fool of herself, and he almost -- ALMOST -- feels like laughing. But no, the Agent doesn't even smile.

Remaining neutral, Domino blinks a few times, waiting for Laura to settle down. When she does, the Agent... remains, uh, neutral. And... blinks some more, eyes locked with the shocked shell of the girl. There is a somewhat awkward silence as Johnny Domino finds himself suddenly lacking in words.

He didn't quite plan this far ahead. What is he going to say now that he got her attention?

Okay, wait, here's something.

"Can you please tell me, in however many words you wish, just what the hell does C.C. want from me?"

"I don't know," Laura says unconvincingly and honestly.

The teen scoots back up into her chair, smoothing her skirt out, eyes wide and locked on Domino. Considering that he was going to bring holy hell down on her head last time, she might be understandably concerned. That seems to be just the right amount of words that she wants to use, because her next action is to stare at Johnny.

Laura does not seem very good at hiding her emotions and is pretty clearly looking for a way out considering how she's furtively glancing around. Luckily jumping out of the window of a high-speed bullet train does not appear to be in her shortlist of options.

Johnny narrows his eyes. Perhaps giving Laura the leeway to use however many words she wished was not the wisest of things.

"Can you please elaborate on that?"

"N-not really," Laura says.

The uncomfortable silence is quickly undone by the teen bum-rushing the door. She scampers around Domino, throwing her shoulder into her charge. The wooden frame splinters, the door flying open into the hall, its upper hinge bending outward so it can't swing back closed.

Laura crashes into the wall. When she gets back up to continue running, she is so unbalanced that she slams into the opposite wall, and then the next, pingponging down the hall.

"Ah."

Johnny Domino purses his lips. Yeah, he... he really didn't plan this far ahead at all. Maybe he should ask Laura about her relations to Katharon. In fact, maybe he should ask her if she really IS the pilot of the White Doll. Hell, maybe he should just arrest her on the spot and bring her before--

"What the f--!!"

Laura Rolla enacts a brave escape, slipping from between the Agent's unprepared fingers. "Wait!", he calls, the door succumbing to the girl's mighty charge. Holy crap. "Wait! Stop!!"

Johnny Domino gives chase. Having decidedly NOT slammed into a door only moments ago, the young man's advance down the hall is free of any pingponging, as he does not suffer from the same disorientation the young Rolla is afflicted with. And then he leaps..!

Whether he successfully bodyslams Laura, manages to hit her leg and trip her to the floor, or simply grabs a handful of schoolgirl skirt is all the same to Domino, as long as she /stops running/.

Despite her few seconds of head start, Laura is not proficient in looking cool. This means that Domino can heroically charge down the hall at her while she's fumbling with the lock on the door leading to the next car. It's just opened when her pursuer makes his daring leap, and not even Laura's ridiculous super-vigor is enough to carry her further than a few steps away while dragging someone with a fistful of her clothes.

Laura collapses onto the ground, the rush of air and the clatter of wheels on tracks from the open door drowning most everything else out. The freakishly strong Katharon pilot forcefully rolls over, maybe flipping Domino over too if he holds on too tightly, and proceeds to try to wriggle out from his grasp. She's good at wriggling.

"Sonuva--"

Johnny Domino is dragged across the floor.

"You little--"

Laura Rolla collapses.

"Stop resisting--"

The Agent finds himself being manhandled by a goddamn /schoolgirl/.

Still clinging to her and, in fact, attempting to reaffirm his grip over Laura to make sure he maintains a tight handle over the situation, Domino slams against the floor when the girl rolls over.

"OOF!"

Right, this isn't going very well at all. Feeling Miss Rolla begin wriggling around like a bucket of fish, the Agent doesn't have much time to think. If he provides her with even the slightest opening, she'll squirm free and keep running. This means there's no room for subtleties.

Throwing caution and social norms to the wind -- as if Domino really followed much social norms to begin with -- the young man clamps down on Laura Rolla. He clamps down on her hard, arms moving to close around the girl's body and keep her locked in a way-too-tight embrace.

"WILL YOU PLEASE STOP," he cries out, raising his voice against the din of wheels and rushing air. And she's still wriggling. "FINE, OKAY, FINE," Johnny shouts. "I GET IT, FINE! CAN WE PLEASE JUST TALK?"

Johnny yelling a lot seems to calm things down.

This results in the two of them half inside, half outside of the car of an extreme fast moving train, sprawled on the ground, with a man five years older than the girl he's assaulting trying to choke the life out of her hips. It's a good thing the train is mostly empty because rape charges are kind of hard to shake.

Laura, for her part, freezes to stare uncertainly at Johnny. She has a glass ashtray in her hand, raised above her head, stolen from the nearby server cart. That probably would have hurt to get beaten with.

"Are you going to call the authorities?!" Laura squeaks as adorably as a girl who was about to commit murder with a blunt object can.

Johnny's cheeks are peppered in a bright red color, the result of all the sudden excitement. With adrenaline pumping through his ears, the young man stares at Laura with an expression that perhaps can be best summed up as 'oh holy jesus fucking christ what the hell in hell of hell is this hell I just wanted to go home and take a break'.

Instead of going home and taking a break, Johnny Domino finds himself half-outside of a moving train car, clinging to a girl who was THIS close to bashing his head in with an ashtray. God, would you look at the size of that ashtray, it could kill a /horse/.

And if you wait about twenty seconds, that's when Johnny will also realize that the position he is in looks very very bad, and that rape charges are kind of hard to shake.

And then Laura has to ask if he's going to call the authorities. Gnnnrnrrnnrngngngn!! The Agent gnashes his teeth, not daring to remove his eyes from the ashtray that may or may not go for his head any moment now. "......no, I won't call the.... goddamnit, we're on a freaking /moving train/ and your stupid friend stole my phone! No, I won't call the authorities, can we PLEASE get back inside now?!"

Laura's hand tightens around the ashtray.

"I will if you get off of me and let me put my skirt back down! I don't know where the phone went!"

SOME TIME AGO

"Miss C.C., I still don't understand why girls from cultures like yours wear such short skirts! Isn't it scandalous?"

C.C. is busy pretending to feed Cheese-kun some bread sticks.

Laura slavishly gives Zero's credit card information to the cashier.

NOW

This never would have happened if she was wearing a proper dress. Also she probably could have used her heel as an improvised weapon instead of an ashtray.

Johnny Domino hesitates. On the one hand, this seems like an acceptable ultimatum - Johnny gets off of Laura and lets her crawl back inside so they could talk. On the other hand, what guarantee does Domino have that Laura won't scamper off the moment Johnny releases her?

On the third hand, the ashtray.

The Agent swallows. His eyes dart from Laura's face to her improvised weapon and back again. "How will I know you won't run away the moment I let you go?"

"We could talk like this," Laura says helpfully, with a straight face.

The ashtray is one of those fancy ornate ones with molded corners for better base stability.

Domino considers Laura's offer. Maybe he should take it.

And that's when the previously mentioned twenty seconds finally pass and the Agent realizes that the position he is in looks very very bad, and that rape charges etc' etc'.

That pretty much seals the deal.

The first thing Laura will feel is Johnny's grip loosening. He remains on top of her for a tick longer, as if anticipating she will flee like a rabbit the moment he lets go... but then he completely removes himself from the girl, retreated back into the car. Sitting on the floor, the Agent leans against the wall, heart pounding.

The moment of truth!

Laura scoots backward toward the far wall. She brings her knees up to her chest. The ashtray thumps onto the carpet, dropped as a sign of goodwill. The teen's fists remained clenched even as her arms are wrapped around her knees. Maybe people from the alternate reality Moon are crazy mutants or something. Laura and Gym have referenced the 'Moonrace' enough on unsecured radio channels for it to be an official line of inquiry.

"I'm not with Katharon," Laura blurts out. "I want to be friends and everyone should stop fighting and I'd help you if you were in trouble against people who just want to hurt other people like I hear the Divine Crusaders are but I also heard that your group is just as mean and I want to keep an open mind but when you threatened to take the White Doll from me I had to protect it because I can't trust anyone else with the White Doll!"

Oh thank god, she crawled back inside instead of bolting for freedom.

Oh thank GOD, she dropped the ashtray instead of bashing Johnny with it.

Oh /thank GOD/, she's-- yammering her head off what.

"..."

By the time Laura finishes her run on sentence, Domino is watching her with a most befuddled expression. Mouth slightly agape, eyes half-narrowed, one eyebrow raised high, the Agent is clearly having trouble keeping up with the girl's blab.

His stare persists for a while longer after Laura grows silent, and then there's a profound blink. The young man shuts his eyes -- his eyelids wrinkle as pressure is placed upon them -- and then opens them again, blue gaze pinning the girl.

Domino closes his mouth.

"Hookay," he says. So, things he learned so far from this encounter: Laura Rolla is most likely her real name (it sure pulled her out of her nap fast enough), she is freakishly strong (Johnny's back is going to be bruised in a few hours), and she is apparently the owner of the White Doll for real (holy crap).

"Let's... let's forget about the White Doll for now." The less Domino knows about that at this point, the better. That way his superiors can't say he knew too much information without acting upon it. "If you're not with Katharon, does this mean C.C. is not with Katharon either?"

"I don't want to talk about Miss C.C.," Laura says decisively. "I don't want to say anything that she wouldn't want me to say."

Despite running her mouth off, she appears to have a good head on her shoulders. "I can tell her that you want to ask her, if you want."

The train begins to slow. It's pulling into the station in a town on the outskirts of Hong Kong, where Laura had planned to hire a taxi for travel into the city-state itself. The girl looks nervously over her shoulder. "What do you want?"

One person's level-headedness is another person's aggravation.

Johnny Domino sucks in a quick breath when Laura refuses to cooperate. Damn it, he was so close. He stopped her from running off, he bargained with her to talk to him, he evaded the lethal ashtray, and for what? To fail at this final stretch just because Laura doesn't want to talk? That's so... that's so...

/Stupid/!

"I don't want anything," the Agent blurts, sounding almost incredulous. "It's what SHE wants. She's been bugging me for," how long has it been? Domino tries to remember when his first encounter with C.C. happened. Shit, wasn't their first encounter on a train /just like this/?

"For months, she's been bugging me. I don't even know who the hell she is. Are you two really friends?"

Laura leans forward, clutching at her heart. "Miss C.C. has been through a lot! I don't know or understand everything that has happened to her, but I trust her completely!"

The teen clambers to her feet, hands balled into fists, her mouth set in an expression of defiance. "If this is about C.C., then the most I can do is tell her you want to talk. I can't, in good conscience, say anything else on her behalf!"

Johnny Domino's inner monologue produces two words: Aw, cripes.

C.C. has Laura under her thumb something fierce. There's some sort of intriguing psychological aspect here that tugs at Johnny's brain, though. Is Laura inherently so trusting? Her spiel from earlier about the White Doll seems to indicate her ideals are pretty fruity. On the other hand, perhaps C.C. used to bug Laura the same way she is bugging Johnny, until finally the younger girl broke down and is now /serving/ under C.C., rather than being an actual friend.

But there's no time to consider all that, nor does Johnny have enough details to form any appeasing theories. The Agent tenses up when Laura rises to her feet, looking up at her in worry. Was she going to make a run for it again? Apparently not. But she does say something that causes Domino to automatically mumble: "But I don't want to talk."

Except this automatic denial isn't the complete truth anymore. C.C. has bugged the Agent long enough to catch his interest. And the fact that she has managed to catch his interest gives rise to much irritation within the young man.

"But, okay," he hastily adds. "Wait, um."

Johnny stands up as well. He brushes his knees and his backside, a frown hovering across his eyes as he considers something. "Fine, okay, I get it. You can tell her that--"

Actually, hm. Domino cuts himself short. He tilts his head in thought, and... suddenly gives Laura a very crooked look.

"Please deliver her a message. It's very important that you get it right, so pay close attention." With that, Domino steps closer to Laura. Stopping just shy of invading the girl's personal space, the Agent lifts one arm, slowly brings up it up to Laura's face and... *tap* ...fingerflicks her on the forehead.

"Got that?"

Laura watches very closely. When Johnny reaches to flick her on the forehead, the girl's eyes begin to cross in a vain attempt to follow his movements. She staggers back when it happens.

"A-AUGH!" she shrieks.

The teen plows straight into Domino, pressing him toward the wall. She bounces off of him, her momentum carrying her through the nearby door and completely off of the slowing train. If Johnny tries to follow her, she lands on a sidewalk running near the train tracks, somehow maintaining her balance. A few people go flying as the teen goes pressing into the crowd.

'Yeah', thinks Johnny, crumpled and groaning inside the train. 'She got it'.

Ow.