ataraxion | video + conscription

[Passengers who've met Heather before might notice she's a bit paler and a bit darker around the eyes than usual. Passengers who haven't are about to get a charming introduction, if it's delivered in a slightly flatter, wearier tone than her usual.]

Been a while since I've done one of these, so I should probably introduce myself. Heather Mason. I'm a double-oh-two and I work in the gardens, which is why I'm speaking to you today.

The oxygen gardens are what keep us all breathing and eating stuff that doesn't come in a vacuum pack. They're not a petting zoo. There are four of us trying to keep that place running and it's hard enough without worrying about the crops getting eaten or kicked over or people's pets trying to kill each other. So here's the deal: You're keeping something in the gardens? Drugs, pets, livestock. Dinosaurs. Congratulations. Now you work there. I don't want to hear any bitching, either. We all depend on the oxygen gardens to keep us alive, so if you're taking more out of them than anybody else, you need to put more in.

Oh, and if what you've got in there might cause damage to what someone else has there? It's your job to make sure that doesn't happen, not anybody else's. Come on.

[She'd add that the people she's just conscripted should contact her for details but... well, they might take that as an invitation not to.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Where do you stand on one dead and self-defense? I'm pretty well armed.

...wait, you're a lawyer. That was a joke. Mostly. Listen, I know her type. Hell, I used to be her type. I'm like... 97% certain she's only flipping a bitch over it because someone told her to do something instead of stroking her ego about it. And if the other 3% gets scared, I'll be sure and let you know.

[Filthy lies, she'll be gather her friends in security and that one guy she knows who turns into a fanged and tenatcled monstrosity. But at least she's trying to put him at his ease, right?]

Ms. Mason, she's short-tempered and easily-riled. Indeed, she attempted to murder me; it was only through the intervention of the chief of security that the attempt was aborted. She may be throwing a tantrum only because she is a childish fool, but unfortunately she is a childish, violent fool.

[Okay now she's taking it more seriously, though her concern still isn't for herself.]

If she's already tried to kill you, what the hell is she doing outside of the brig to threaten everyone else who rubs her the wrong way? This place, I swear to god.

[Oh. He'd spoken unthinkingly, and the way that had ended up sounding...This place is something he thinks to himself quite often, and these people, but he's not going to utter any criticism against the security force. Instead, he circles the wagons, as it were:]

I chose not to press charges, as I had provoked her; the fault is mine. We shall have to reevaluate her level of risk. In the meantime - shall I organize a security detail?

That lawyer mouth of yours must get pretty dirty to come up with something worth killing a man over, Edgeworth. I'm impressed.

I'll be fine. Like I said, I can defend myself, and I was planning on talking to some friends of mine in security tonight anyway. I trust them to make better decisions than I do. Most of the time, anyway.

[and then, almost as if it costs her something to say it:]

I do appreciate it, though.

[He hastens to say:]

No thanks are necessary, truly. Just stay safe. Let me know if she comes for you; I can probably distract her.

[If this was video, he'd see her canting her head to the side, furrowing her brow. As it is, he can probably hear her drumming her fingers on the side of the communicator.]

Why is it better that she goes after you than me?

[He speaks quite matter-of-factly:]

I'm on the security team.

[Oho, two can play at your matter-of-fact game, Mister Edgeworth. You she's pretty deadpan when she replies:]

That's bullshit. That means you have to help people. It doesn't make you a meat shield.

As I understand it, shields do help people.

[So that's how it is, huh? You get a little laugh for that, but it's not an unkind one.]

Yeah, they help by getting in the way.

Listen, if I've pissed her off enough that she's gonna come after me, it should be me who deals with that. Not some guy with low self esteem and a misguided sense of duty. I appreciate it, really, but no way am I letting you play red rag for her bullshit.

Low -

[That makes him scowl, offended.]

I do not have low self-esteem. I do this because it is my duty. And that is more important than anything else.

Hey, I get duty, alright? I know sometimes there are things you have to put above everything, your own safety included. But you can't tell me a person with a decent sense of self-worth is gonna throw themselves on a big blonde grenade like that for someone they don't even know. I mean, it's been pointed out to me I'm not exactly showing myself at my best here. I could be literally the worst person on this ship. You could be making things worse by helping me, for all you know.

Maybe you are the worst person on the ship; you're correct that I don't know that, though for the record when one person is swearing to kill another I tend to think that the one doing the threatening is the worse one. It doesn't matter. Until such a time as you commit a crime against someone here, it is my duty and my oath to protect you to the fullest extent.

[She's heard a speech like that before, from someone else. It wasn't one she was meant to hear but it doesn't really make a difference. The effect it has on her is just the same, and there's a pause and a quiet inhale before she speaks again.]

I can respect that. I'll just make sure I don't give you a reason to, okay? And if I need to, I'll get in touch.

You know, you're not all that bad.

[He clears his throat, self-conscious.]

I...appreciate that. Ultimately, I do not care whether I make friends, but it...I still appreciate that. And you - Well. You do not seem a bad sort either.

video + conscription

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