ataraxion | [voice]

[Edgeworth sounds characteristically brisk and serious.]

I would like to ask everyone to take a moment to speak here - or to leave a text message - about what it is that they most wish to get home to, or what it is they most appreciate here.

There's a jump approaching, and not too long from now. As we all know, jumps rarely bring good things - they herald lost friends, new disasters. This is a difficult life we have here aboard this ship - one fraught with pain, with misery, with fear. It's far too easy to become lost in the morass of despair. It's too easy, with each jump, to think: what if I don't? What if I do not go to the jump bay? What if I simply sit back and let it all end?

I ask that you, in this post, remind everyone why it's worth it to keep on. Why it's worth it to suffer through these jumps, month after month, and why it's worth it to keep cautious and not just go seeking our death in those hallways, and why it's worth it to keep trying to make life better here. As we approach this new jump, as we prepare ourselves to welcome and console these new arrivals, let us remember why we should continue to fight.

Thank you all for your attention and cooperation.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[That's a question he wasn't expecting - especially not from this source. There's a slight pause, and then he clears his throat and says, awkwardly:]

I...Yes. Naturally. Yourself?

In this place, I'd say not being okay is the more natural thing.

[He gets it - they don't always get along, but Edgeworth is still good people, or he tries to be, and this is kind of an unusual post for him to be making.]

I'm getting better. Still stuck in my room for the time being. [Or rather, Ariadne's room, because she's brow-beaten him into staying put for the moment.]

So what are your reasons? For still being okay?

[Right. It's a good question, and the pause before he speaks says volumes - even if he manages to be firm when he does speak.]

Work, naturally. And good to hear you'll be coming back to it soon.

Right, work. [He doesn't believe that for a second.]

I've got a lot of reasons for wanting to stick around. [Some of them not things he wants to talk about with Edgeworth.]

[He relaxes now that they're moving along - ]

Such as what?

All the good people here, who deserve to go home.

And back home, all the good people of Gotham, who deserve to live their lives free from fear.

Ah - stick around in the sense of continuing to live. Not stick around here, the ship.

It's all the same, as far as I'm concerned. There are good people worth protecting everywhere. And bad people to protect them from.

But we do not especially have "bad people" on the ship.

That's... incorrect. [Not to burst your naive little bubble, Edgeworth...]

Well - Lilith and Mordecai, I suppose, and Moran, but they're all kept under tabs already. And whoever was responsible for Sherlock Holmes, as well. Such a criminal will and must be caught. But most people are decent.

Most people, yeah. Unfortunately, all it takes is one twisted, messed-up person to cause a lot of damage and pain. And there's pretty clear evidence that there are - or have been - at least a couple here. Aside from keeping the majority of the decent people safe, we always have to be vigilant. Wouldn't be difficult for someone clever to hide in plain sight here. That's all I'm saying.

I disagree on one point. Those who are malicious will not be able to hide. They will be found out.

Sure, eventually. But at what cost? Don't you have terrorists in your world?

...Naturally. But I don't think that's really the parallel here.

Yeah, it is.

Not at all. Terrorists act out of political goals. Who here cares about the politics of this place?

I'm not sure how it is we end up on these stupid semantic arguments every time, but if you honestly think no one on this ship cares about the structures of power here, or that no one ever will, you're blind.

I do not think anyone really does, with the exception of myself and perhaps Kirk - and I only inasmuch as I care about the chain of command, and whom we receive orders from.

Yeah, they do. People who are disgruntled with the chain of command tend not to voice those opinions to the ones they think are the problem.

Hardly true. Look at Wheatley. He can't stop complaining.

Uh, I don't think Wheatley is a very good example of... anything.

He reminds me of old ladies who would call the precinct sometimes to complain about kids on their lawns.

[Ever contrary:]

He goes about it in the wrong way, but his concerns are legitimate.

Not... really. Everyone comes here with individual prejudices from their own worlds, but since so many of us are from different worlds, no one prejudice goes beyond that - a personal prejudice.

You don't think that there's a comparatively systemic distrust of robots? Particularly those who would not be restrained from killing humans? I know that in the science-fiction literature of my homeland, at least, murderous robots were something of a theme.

voice; private; encrypted 85%

learnedtosmile - 2013-03-17 21:39 (UTC) - Expand