thisavrou | voice!

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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. ]

There are judges but not in the standard sense. When it comes to the activities on their own planet the Savrii tend to be resourceful and observant. But their means I'm still uncertain on.

Their primary focus seems to be the protection of the Ingress.

[Which isn't a lot of information. But it's delivered with the earnestness of someone used to collecting and dispensing it. He's still a little perplexed on Savrii's legal system himself.]

[ She's truthfully almost disturbed by it. Who protects the interests of the citizens here? It seems to be no one's explicit duty to protect people from each other and from the abuses of the government. Anderson has very little faith in the goodness of humanity. And if it's not necessary, was never necessary, just what is the point of Judges? Are they only making things worse in the Mega-Cities?

She can't believe that, and yet... It raises a lot of uncomfortable questions.

She's grateful for the information, especially from someone who seems confident of what they're saying. Anderson supposes it makes sense to be so concerned with protecting a primary resource like the Ingress, but past that... ]

You're implying that they mostly resolve things themselves. Peacefully. [ A beat. ] Seems hard to believe.

It does seem so.

One of their more certain law enforcement agencies is the Ingress security force, something that might be worth contacting. The most recent case of their justice system at work involved security apprehending two people who used the Ingress to achieve a personal vendetta.

The perpetrators were taken to speak to "intermediaries", something that seems to be an individual judge. Guilt has already been ascertained before sending someone to an intermediary. Sentences that were cited were along the lines of community service, however one of the perpetrators went incommunicado during their sentence.

Any special interest?

[ Her brow burrows, unseen with her vid pickup off. There's a short silence before she responds and admits, ] I'm a Judge at home. In the Mega-Cities that's a direct enforcement role.

Who is it that ascertains the guilt?

[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...

[ the voice that filters through the feed is small, almost mouse-like. this young man has never broken a law in his life.

(he has, a lot, but not on purpose. without knowing, even.)

still, he sounds... well, calm enough. ]

There are no police? [ a beat, and he wonders-- ] Aurors either?

[ it took him a second to remember the term yet again. but he does. he's learning!! he kind of sounds relieved that there are no aurors. ] —no, there's one of those. But he was brought here too. So I don't think that counts.

[ rambling done with, he ends with this: ] If no one's hurting anyone, we shouldn't need to worry about it.

[ he sounds like he knows that's a pipe dream - he knows from experience that's never going to happen. it's just a nice thought. ]

I'm not sure yet.

[This part exasperates him, anyway.] The Savrii seem remarkably elitist in their approach to criminal justice. Their attitude thus far seems to be, "Of course we're right. I don't understand why you would even question it."

So gaining information is somewhere between them being secretive and being treated as though you're obtuse for even asking.

[When Shepard had been taken in for her... whatever it was. Education? He doesn't fully know because of their lackluster explanation. He doesn't trust it.] I chose to avoid involvement with their criminal justice system when I chose my job. [And he doesn't exactly trust discussing why over networks. So he's less direct over these parts.] It seemed difficult to engage in.

[You can thank Rinzler for Chara bothering to answer to this at all; it's due to his influence that they learned to apply filters to anything.]

I would recommend you do not attempt to experience said intermediaries yourself.

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

... What is it you usually do?

[ She's polite enough to respond to text with text. Especially since this is information she deeply wants. She needs to answer something inside herself that still questions systems of justice. ]

What happened? You met with one?

[ She instinctively wants to protect someone with a voice like that, although she knows they can be as guilty as anyone else. It's a hard instinct to tamp down on.

Since she's still in an information-gathering mindset: ] What's an Auror?

[ Anderson takes a breath before going on. As gently as she can, ] I don't think we can count on that. [ So she's pretty worried about there being no police. ]

[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.

[ Anderson is so used to being the rookie that she takes all this in with the seriousness of someone being given a briefing. Even now as a fully instated Psi-Judge, she often feels like her position rests precariously, that she still has so much to prove. She tries to be as professional as possible, to live up to every standard. Being in a new place hasn't changed that, at least not yet.

And she shares his exasperation at that mentality, although she's used to hiding it when she's frustrated with the higher ups in the justice system. ] That seems like a common problem with people who decide the law, [ she says, trying to be level but some trace of bitterness underlying her words nonetheless. ]

What job did you choose?

[ he's truly innocent; anything that happens is a direct result of what's been done to him. that said, he's absolutely trying to not murder anyone while he's here. ]

A different kind of police. I don't know how to describe it.

[ a breath. ] I know. People aren't like that. People hurt people. [ there's an air to it like he's used to that. ]

I made a nuisance of myself. They interfered.

It was not a system of law, and I would not trust its capacity in the slightest.

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voice!

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"unhinged" rude, anderson!

she calls it like she sees it ok!!

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private text forever!

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