thisavrou | voice!

[ It's not immediately after arriving that Anderson finally accesses the network. Out of sorts and deeply discomfited, she falls back on professionalism, as she's been trained to do, and scopes out the area first. This reconnaissance includes a brief mental skim of assorted passersby, mostly to gauge honesty and make sure this isn't an elaborate psychic-induced hallucinatory trap.

She's strong, but she's not invulnerable. She knows that's a possibility.

Except... it seems like it isn't, and she really is here, wherever 'here' is in the universe. After the two days she's spent poking around and reassuring herself of the reality of everything, though, that's not even the most incredulous part to her. ]

Looking for some information. [ Her voice is smooth, pleasant, a young woman's voice largely stripped of tone and easy to listen to. ] Someone told me there's no police here.

No judges.

How does that... work? Has anyone had experience with the intermediary system?

[ How can a place like this exist? It seems impossible to her. And just who is she, here? Who is she if not a Judge? ]

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[The camera feed is flipped out, giving Anderson a pleasant downward view of people streaming along a corridor. It's not hard to guess the person holding the TAB is sitting on a ledge, and his feet idly kick in and out of frame.]

There are plenty of judges here. Can you see them? Each one sure that what he has decided is true.

[ It's not a bad vid feed to watch, honestly. Sort of calming to someone from an urban megalopolis. If anything, this whole place feels barren and empty to her, and seeing a steady stream of other people is comforting. ]

Legal judges. Everyone's judgemental, but that doesn't mean they can mete out a sentence.

Oh!

[The camera jerks as he realizes her meaning (or thinks he does) and then settles into a new angle as he folds his feet beneath him. Better sit up for this!]

I think they do mete out their own sentences, all the time. I've had to stop them before... had to hide all the daggers...

[He trails off into a pause, gathering up more thoughts on the matter.]

Are you saying that is not true where you are from?

[ Hers is still on audio only, but on her side of the screen, an eyebrow goes up. She already gets the sense that he might be a little unhinged, but if he's non-violent, she has no problem with that.

Anderson is, for a Judge, pretty nonjudgmental. ]

It's not, [ she answers simply. ] Sentencing criminals is something only Judges can do. If someone else tries to take the law into their hands, they're also a criminal and will be sentenced.

[ It feels very free-for-all here, to her. ]

[It sounded very, very different wherever There was than where he was. He sounds a little agitated, but not out of annoyance, it's his struggle to understand.]

But everyone is taking the law into their own hands all the time! One day not a criminal, the next day hanged, all because it changed over night and nobody knew.

How can you know if what you are doing is right?

[ That's a much more poignant question than she was expecting, and not one she feels prepared to answer herself. She struggles with that question every day. It's certainly not something she's ready to open up about to a stranger, so she hedges. ]

What's right and what is lawful are different. It sounds like where you're from is not very lawful. Laws don't change overnight.

[ Doesn't she know it. Mutant policy is long, slow, arduous, and painful-- literally. It often results in mass deaths when it changes, but at least she always sees it coming. ]

It isn't, or, it's now how it should be!

[He paces across the ledge, camera pointing straight down to his feet as they carefully place one in front of another. A slip would certainly mean a horrible fall, but that's the farthest thing from his mind.

He's all abuzz now with their conversation. It makes him feel jittery in his skin.]

Law kills innocent people where I am from all the time which makes it not right. But if law and right were the same, who would decide what they really were? They aren't real things... not like you and me.

[ She's silent for a moment. She hadn't meant to get him worked up, but Anderson also doesn't count herself responsible for her effect on other people. She would get exhausted that way. ]

Idealism is different. Ethics. They're real things, just not tangible.

[Words like 'idealism' and 'ethics' squirm around in his thoughts, their meaning difficult to pin down. There is right, and there is wrong, and there's that area between he struggles with.]

If you were a judge, no [he takes on her intonation] a Judge, what did that mean for you?

Did you help people who needed it?

[ Things have never been that easy or simple for Anderson.

The switch in inflection sounds no natural to her it takes a moment for her to realize he'd picked it up from her, and nowhere else. ] I try, [ she lets out on a breath, unwilling to make it past tense yet. ] Sometimes justice is better determined by people than by the law. But you have to be careful with that.

[ She trusts her own judgment-- she has to-- but Anderson definitely does not trust many others'. Not even Dredd's, half the time. ]

[He laughs a little, so pleased to have found common ground, and sits down. The view returns to what originally greeted her, albeit in a different place.]

It is good of you to try. Do you help people here too? I want to, but their hurts are different from the ones I know. Have to figure out what will work...

I don't know, I just got here. But I'd like to.

... What is it you usually do?

[He seems to be talking to someone else (real or not), and his voice is soft with kindness.] It isn't your fault, you couldn't have saved them. Nothing you did would have stopped her. You only did the best you could.

[A pause.]

I hear their pain and tell them what they need to know to let it go.

voice!

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"unhinged" rude, anderson!

she calls it like she sees it ok!!

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