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? ]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ That sounds pretty mild, actually-- at least to Anderson. She wishes she was capable of mentally forcing compliancy without turning someone into a vegetable. It'd be a lot better than shooting everyone.

Of course, she doesn't type that. She's on the job, so to speak. ] So they hand out their sentencing without any true mediation occurring. It's summary judgment, not a conversation.

[ Which would be much more what she would expect from a justice system, sad as that is. ]

It's a conversion.

[An effort to torque one's ideologies to suit theirs. No matter how cruel, no matter how telegraphed, no matter how deliberate - it will succeed. It will condition one into obedience.]

Mental manipulation?

Most assuredly.

It can't have been too effective if you're able to speak to me about it now.

I was not the one removed to endure extended conditioning.

[They would blame luck, but luck has no bearing on it whatsoever. It falls down to Shepard - Shepard and her ability to be patently, moronically, inadvisably self-sacrificing on their behalf. For their sake.]

What crime was committed that resulted in that?

[ Anderson is trying to get a gauge of their proportional response. ]

I hijacked the Ingress to spread chaos and torment on an unsuspecting community of slavers.

[...#worthit?

Not really. No.]

[ Seeing as she deals in violent criminals all the live-long day, Anderson doesn't even react to this confession. She's heard a lot worse, seen much worse. ]

You said you weren't selected for extended conditioning, but you were the one who committed the crime?

A truly effective and commendable system of law, is it not?

[Too effective, truth be told. They'd been banking on some manner of consequence for their actions, hideous as they were. They hadn't considered that someone else would suffer for their transgressions.

That isn't how it's meant to work.]

[ It's not-- she'd agree with that. But she still wants to be clear. ]

They knew it was you and punished someone else? Why?

Why indeed?

[They have - guesses, of course. Perhaps they'd presumed it would be far more effective, and they'd been ~~right~~. Shepard's involvement, doubtless, had been the bottom line.

Inevitably.]

Perhaps they prefer to be unpredictable.

Maybe they have a looser definition of legally allowable punishment.

[ If it worked in punishing them, she can see the reasoning behind it, even if Anderson thinks it's despicable. ]

Gangs operate that way. [ Not governments. ]