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[...there's a second of white noise, because-- well, this is weird. It's like online chatrooms, which Mitchell has never been keen on, to say the least. One on one communication hasn't been so bad--better, actually, considering he's been mostly holed up in his room, avoiding human/werewolf contact. But, right--necessity--]

If people are going t' go through those tubes and get onto that other ship, do their phones keep on working? These devices, I mean. Do they go that far? If they do, and if this can be heard over there, I'm making a request. Space pirates had to have cigarettes on them, yeah, and I'm in need of cigarettes. Sanctioned looting can include a bit of personal stuff, yeah-- and it's sort of a, a desperate need. Please and thanks in advance.

[Like very desperate. Like the more he talks about it, the more strained his voice goes. Vampires with nicotine addictions, it's a hard life. A pause, then, he might finish there--but instead he sucks in a breath. Right. Normal.]

Actually, there's a lot of questions on how things work around here, and not all of it is out of our control. Like--so there's a cast of, what, a hundred plus of us, and we have t' trade for things that we need, if someone else has got them. But if you don't have anything t' trade, is it just-- begging for it? Hoping for a bit of Christian charity? Every man for himself? Not that I'd be much surprised by that one, given the... [Maybe it's better not to finish that one, in light of recent events, but given his low faith in humanity, and given his own recent exploints, none this is really all that surprising. So, wry once more:] ...given the situation.

[An awkward pause.]

Anyways. Thanks again.

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And you really think your job is better served that way? I'm not sayin' you have t' be a bleeding heart, yeah, but-- it's robotic. Idiotic, actually.

[That hits a nerve.]

And what exactly gives you the right to stand in judgment over what I must do in service to my duties?

Nothing? It's an opinion. I'm not sayin' you even have t' listen to it, I'm just saying it. I don't see what's wrong with having... human feeling, whatever you want t' call it. Especially if you're going t' judge people.

[A scoff.]

Human feeling is precisely what you should not have if you are going to judge people. Emotion clouds logic, and decisions should be made purely along the principles of law. Allowing human feeling means allowing judgment to be undermined by hatred, or by weakness.

[He doesn't answer that one right away. Because that's what he deserves, right? Judgement without feeling, without appeals, without blaming something outside of him--anger, vengeance, what he is, what he has to do to survive and what he's driven to do--no one and nothing to blame but him.]

In court.

[It's a short question after that silence, and it's not even really a question.]

[And Edgeworth isn't sure whether or not to answer it as a question; in the end, he nods - ]

That's right.

So outside of that-- when you're done for the day, when you've clocked out, then you just pick up your human feeling and put it back on again? Can you do that?

When I'm done for the day, I just go to sleep so that I can do the same thing the next day.

[But that's a glib answer; after a moment, he shakes his head - ]

But - that is how it works, to an extent, yes. Is that so very hard to believe, sir?

Mitchell.

[He corrects him, with a little more force than is perhaps necessary. A beat; he runs his fingers through his hair, trying to collect himself, to move out of this--]

So what you'd believe outside of your courtroom, and what you'd believe inside--they're that different?

[He pauses, then shakes his head.]

Not precisely, no. What I would believe is...consistent. The difference is that inside the classroom, it's my duty to set aside my beliefs in favor of arguing what I am impelled to argue.

Right. Yeah.

[He presses his fingers to his mouth, smiles bleakly against them.]

It must be easy, thinkin' like that.

[A pause, and a frown - ]

I think you are the first person who has told me that. But it's certainly simpler than taking one's emotions with oneself into the courtroom. Cleaner, as well. And more fair.

[He huffs a laugh.]

Thinking in black and white is always easier than thinking in gray. Anyone who believes otherwise--they're lying t' themselves. But more fair, ah, I don't know about that. Who's it fair to--the person you're judging?

That's right. Fair to them, and fair to the person for whom I am advocating. Look - [Since he said he didn't know about that - ] You have, in your life, no doubt, hated someone. Correct?

[His laugh this time is more bitter.]

There've been a few. Yeah.

[He doesn't ask.]

And say you were asked to stand in front of a judge and argue for them to be punished. Do you think it's particularly fair to them to stand up there and allow yourself to speak from that place of hatred? Or would you sooner rely on evidence? Logic? Reason?

And d'you think it's always that easy? Logic, and reason--that's grey thinking. Evidence, that speaks for itself.

What there is, is what's been done. What's been done t' people, and their families--their lives--and what they've done t' you. There's not always a judge in a courtroom. There's a judgement, but it doesn't go like you're saying. And it shouldn't. Not for some things.

Edited 2013-05-07 17:26 (UTC)

[And he hesitates. This conversation is suddenly straying rather too close to...certain topics...for his comfort.]

If there is no judge, then it is not proper judgment. Judgment must always be rendered by a disinterested third party with wisdom and a thorough knowledge of law, after being presented with two well-argued sides. It must be clean and civilized.

Crime isn't civil. Why should its judgement be civil? Why should its punishments?

[And likewise, this is suddenly a conversation he does not want to be having, not now, and not here. How the hell did they even get here? Mitchell rubs a hand over his eyes, with a sharp sigh.]

That's-- discussing philosophy, that's a first clear sign of boredom. Or madness. Space gets t' you faster than you'd think.

[As if that's going to explain all of that away! It's a weak attempt, but he's got to say something.]

[But Edgeworth isn't one to let something like this out of his teeth. It might make him uncomfortable, but he doesn't back off.]

So what do you suggest as an alternative, then? Mob justice? Tearing wrongdoers to pieces? Or inflicting back on them precisely what they did to others? Would that be a solution? Whom would we ask to dirty their hands with that?

[The ironic specificity of that phrasing--tear them to pieces-that's not lost on Mitchell, and his mouth tightens a little. A train car, smeared with the blood of twenty people. Torn to pieces.]

I don't know.

[Clipped, short. He's done talking about this. Inflict it back on him, maybe that's the answer. Take him to the train car and show him what he's done, and force him to admit it, and then send him back. Give him a destiny he can't avoid.]

It's a nice thought.

[Edgeworth's voice gentles, at least. He thinks that Mitchell is on the other side of the equation. A wronged party. Someone who's lost someone.]

But justice is retribution. It's not revenge. We don't enjoy it; we do not like to kill, to hurt, any one of us. So it has to be a strictly calibrated thing - a punishment to fit the crime, to cause all to fear being caught without straying into cruelty.

Even if we might want to cause those who have done harm to truly suffer, we cannot, because that will leave us worse for it. It will rob us of that which we discussed before: humanity. Mercy. Decency. So instead, it must be civilized, and cool-headed, because when we go to excess because we want to that is when we do it because we enjoy it. And that is when we are no longer just; that is when we are murderers ourselves.

[But Mitchell is both the victim and the murderer. He killed because they killed, but he would have killed anyways, because there is a part of him--a part that is not so deep, an ugly dark seething part that likes exactly that: to kill, to hurt, to taste fear mingled with blood. That's what power tastes like.

And he can wear a mask, he can construct stability, he can pretend to be human and give up blood and live on the straight and narrow, but he will always fall, because that dark part is not his condition, but something completely and utterly him. I could see it in you, Herrick said, and he was not wrong. He's gone beyond excess, so that even his justice was a murder, and he fucking loved it. Because he isn't the only monster, is he. There are monsters wearing human faces who are really human, with souls nearly as black as his.

There is a long silence, then, in answer to Edgeworth.]

And what if your criminal is a monster?

I'm of the opinion that most criminals are.

[That's said harshly, savagely; he's not exaggerating. But a moment passes, and the surge of anger fades; then he shakes his head, and he changes his answer to something more civilized.]

Then so be it. That doesn't change anything about what I said. Indeed, it merely underlines it: if we allow ourselves to be swayed by horror or fury at the work of a true monster, then again, we allow ourselves to be moved by cruelty. And when cruelty and personal will enter into it, then that is killing because we want to.

So you're saying-- be more human than the monster. But it doesn't work that way. What you're sayin', that's the nice thought. It's all nice words, but when it comes down to it, people want their vengeance. The monsters do too. And you can't blame them.

[It's all getting muddled. Humans judging monsters, monsters judging humans-- it's like the warehouse again, with Kemp against the wall, and George in his ear: They're monsters! Not us! Where does it end, he's asked that so many times, and there's never an answer.]

If someone killed the person you loved most--just wiped them out--you're tellin' me you'd be civil. What does that mean? What punishment fits that crime?

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[voice] did you mean to write classroom are you soulbonding right now

[voice] I am and have always been Miles Edgeworth

[voice] but are you married on the astral plane

[voice] Ummmmmmm we are married on the REAL plane. I found a person with his name and married him.

[voice] wait you got married on a plane?!

[voice] HAHAHAHA like I would set foot on a plane

[voice] but how will i see you if you don't set foot on planes

[voice] you'll have to come to me I suppose /flutters lashes

[voice] S I G H

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