The last thing Sonia wants anyone to know right now is how terrified she is.
She isn't very good at hiding it, not when it's this powerful. She's never had to be, always had her sister or her brother-in-law or her bodyguard shielding her. Not now. Not this time. This time she's alone, a hostage, a prisoner, however nicely the Cetagandans try to frame it. People had died in that fight in the village. Died trying to protect her. It was a waste -- it was all a waste. She hates this.
a. holding cell (4/10 - 4/14) The cell is surprisingly generous. It isn't that large, but it's a little less sterile and cold than their usual cells, and with a vividly decorated folding privacy screen. That’s something other prisoners don't get. Another thing other prisoners don't get is a two-man guard just outside her cell around the clock, denying her any chance at real privacy. The privacy to allow herself to be scared and cry.
So instead she tries to do what her sister does, compose herself of stone and iron, make herself impenetrable. But she doesn't know how, has never known how Olivia does it. It's something she learned in the war, and something she made very certain Sonia never did. She tries not to cry, tries to make herself as closed-off as possible and tells every Cetagandan who comes by her cell to piss off, regardless of whether they're bringing her food or come merely to talk. The dirty and blood-spattered clothes she'd been taken in have been since disposed of, and since Sonia refused every civil offer of Cetagandan-style robes -- fitting for her station, they said -- she sits instead in a set of insignia-less Cetagandan fatigues. They fit her just fine, but they still don't look quite right on her. She doesn't want them. She thinks she'd have sat there naked instead, given the choice.
They've offered her relative freedom around the base if she'll give her parole, but she won't give it to them. It drives her mad that they haven't fast-penta'd her yet -- surely they will -- but she refuses to budge at all, as if that will somehow preserve her dignity. But she's miserable alone in this cell, pacing restlessly when she can't maintain the statue treatment, trying not to think about what the Cetagandans might do if Piotr doesn't give them what they obviously want.
b. on parole (4/14 - 4/18) After four days, she can't take it anymore. The miserable solitude is too much for her to bear, and they still haven't fast-penta'd her, so on her birthday she caves. She gives her parole.
Sonia is still confined to a cell even after she's given her parole, at least at night. She isn't as free to move about as their promise had suggested. She has to ask to be let out, and they'll only let her go as far as the common areas on the base -- the gardens, the mess, the common areas of the barracks, and if she's anywhere outside, she's being escorted by guards. They mostly leave her be inside the common areas, though there are always guards at the entrance.
So the Princess meanders around sometimes, mostly the gardens and the mess, with a dour silence about her that's as ill-fitting as the fatigues. She has a face made for smiling, but here, on this base, she's lonely and quiet and scared. She's always been curious about the outsiders on the Cetagandan side -- the exotics, as the ghem call them -- but after her experience with Tarn in the village, she's a little hesitant. She has no idea what the rest of them are like.
Sonia Vorbarra (4/10 - 4/18)
She isn't very good at hiding it, not when it's this powerful. She's never had to be, always had her sister or her brother-in-law or her bodyguard shielding her. Not now. Not this time. This time she's alone, a hostage, a prisoner, however nicely the Cetagandans try to frame it. People had died in that fight in the village. Died trying to protect her. It was a waste -- it was all a waste. She hates this.
a. holding cell (4/10 - 4/14)
The cell is surprisingly generous. It isn't that large, but it's a little less sterile and cold than their usual cells, and with a vividly decorated folding privacy screen. That’s something other prisoners don't get. Another thing other prisoners don't get is a two-man guard just outside her cell around the clock, denying her any chance at real privacy. The privacy to allow herself to be scared and cry.
So instead she tries to do what her sister does, compose herself of stone and iron, make herself impenetrable. But she doesn't know how, has never known how Olivia does it. It's something she learned in the war, and something she made very certain Sonia never did. She tries not to cry, tries to make herself as closed-off as possible and tells every Cetagandan who comes by her cell to piss off, regardless of whether they're bringing her food or come merely to talk. The dirty and blood-spattered clothes she'd been taken in have been since disposed of, and since Sonia refused every civil offer of Cetagandan-style robes -- fitting for her station, they said -- she sits instead in a set of insignia-less Cetagandan fatigues. They fit her just fine, but they still don't look quite right on her. She doesn't want them. She thinks she'd have sat there naked instead, given the choice.
They've offered her relative freedom around the base if she'll give her parole, but she won't give it to them. It drives her mad that they haven't fast-penta'd her yet -- surely they will -- but she refuses to budge at all, as if that will somehow preserve her dignity. But she's miserable alone in this cell, pacing restlessly when she can't maintain the statue treatment, trying not to think about what the Cetagandans might do if Piotr doesn't give them what they obviously want.
b. on parole (4/14 - 4/18)
After four days, she can't take it anymore. The miserable solitude is too much for her to bear, and they still haven't fast-penta'd her, so on her birthday she caves. She gives her parole.
Sonia is still confined to a cell even after she's given her parole, at least at night. She isn't as free to move about as their promise had suggested. She has to ask to be let out, and they'll only let her go as far as the common areas on the base -- the gardens, the mess, the common areas of the barracks, and if she's anywhere outside, she's being escorted by guards. They mostly leave her be inside the common areas, though there are always guards at the entrance.
So the Princess meanders around sometimes, mostly the gardens and the mess, with a dour silence about her that's as ill-fitting as the fatigues. She has a face made for smiling, but here, on this base, she's lonely and quiet and scared. She's always been curious about the outsiders on the Cetagandan side -- the exotics, as the ghem call them -- but after her experience with Tarn in the village, she's a little hesitant. She has no idea what the rest of them are like.