ataraxion | (no subject)

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I haven't spent a lot of time here, but I have noticed this trend people have. They get stressed out, and I don't blame them, and then they decide that it's okay to be nasty to each other?

Is it possible we all just stay calm and remember that there's such a thing as manners? For instance, I for one, am sorry I brought up pirates at all. Ever. Never again. I'll keep my big mouth shut.

I'm just saying that this is worse than living in a college dorm, it would really be helpful if we didn't antagonize each other just to prove how smart we are.

Also, who around here keeps pets? Is there a list? A ship manifest of animals? For the curious, really.

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We were wrong also in that situation, Mr. Petrelli, and those who defended him were in the right. It's not right, morally or logically, to lose our tempers at someone who wants to do nothing more than help.

I told you, did I not, that my respect for you is based upon the fact that you want to help? And you accepted this explanation. But what is the difference between what Remus Lupin was doing and what you do?

Maybe they'd have been right if we were attacking him, rather than educating him. Maybe you were losing your temper. Maybe Ianto was.

[ The Nile is not just a river in Egypt. ]

We settled it, like adults - both of us - and I won't be told how to approach my business by Tony Stark or anyone else for that matter. A bunch of goddamn mother hens, and I already have a mother.

Sir, again, with respect - are you listening to yourself right now? You're ranting about everything except the topic at hand.

If the topic isn't that passive aggression doesn't automatically grant you the higher ground, then I'm not having it.

That's a fine topic. What isn't a fine topic is your dislike of Tony Stark or your annoyance with people being "mother hens." That has nothing to do with either Ms. Morales-Kocchar or Mr. Lupin.

She's the mother hen. Tony Stark told me I was wasting my time arguing with children. That's relevant to Lupin. It's only off topic by perspective.

But fine, you want to get back on topic, be my guest.

Fine. The topic is this, plain and simple: she's correct; politeness costs us nothing, and somewhere along the line we seem to have lost sight of our civility.

I think we're more in touch with our civility now than we were six months ago. Or twelve.

Do you disagree that there was a flaw in her tone, in the way she presented herself? A contradiction, given what she intended to accomplish?

Do I think she was perfectly polite? No; I do not. But tell me truly: do you think the hint of irreverence in her voice comes remotely close to approaching the disrespect we showed?

Last week, I was unconscionably rude. I had someone who pointed that out to me, and to him I am grateful. Losing our tempers is fine, but there's no sense in standing by what was said in the heat of anger.

Mr. Lupin and I discussed the situation at length; I helped him to understand the position we're in, we both apologized--but without that initial response, Miles, not only in that situation but a wealth of others, we would be in a myre of trouble instigated by our own conscientiousness. There are times when you must respond with a firm hand, no matter how rude it may seem.

In court. In the Senate. In a debate. Certainly. But not when a boy barely out of junior high comes forward with an overearnest, ill-planned idea to make life better. That's the time, more than any other, that a gentle hand is warranted. Kindness should be answered with kindness, not with scorn.

He's eighteen. He wants to be seen as an adult, and it's a hell of a lot different to being eight and wanting to be seen as an adult, but Stark boys are adults at only eleven. I may have been het up - may have been - but I apologised where I needed, and I will not concede under any circumstances, because it undermines me as well as Mr. Lupin, that being eighteen makes him barely a boy.

Fifteen.

What?

He's fifteen.

Well blow me. I've been convinced he was eighteen for a week.

[ The wind is well and truly blown out of his sails. ]

I - Please kindly mind your language, sir.

Uh--

[ What did he even say? Oh right. ]

Right. I didn't think.

Right.

Frankly, though, the age isn't really all that relevant. At age ten I would have handled myself differently than he does now, but that's because different people have different life experiences. There's no point in deciding he's an adult, and can handle rudeness, because it's not about adulthood.

It's about resolve and preparation. At age ten, after all, I'd already had training in debate and rhetoric. I could handle that kind of argumentation. I doubt he can.

We are the both of us in the business of arguing. If humans were designed to be pleasant to each other on a daily basis then we simply wouldn't need law at all. It is more adult and more wise to face confrontation without fear, so that misunderstandings can be settled swiftly and put aside.

The only thing that matters, in any case where one person raises their voice with another, is that the resolution is satisfactory for both, and that both have the ability to find it in them to forgive. Nothing at all is achieved by pussyfooting around the issues with niceties; it only makes tensions rise and breeds ignorance and resentment.

We're in the business of arguing, yes. He isn't.

To be involved in law enforcement is a miserable business. I detest this line of work; I detest the fear, the isolation, and the unhappiness that comes with it. But I take as a comfort the fact that if I do it, someone else doesn't have to; they can stay apart from it, not needing to get involved in the arguments or the danger or any of it.

What right have either of us to dictate that, well, he ought to be able to take on the business of arguing like we have?

Did I say he ought to be up to his neck in it the way we are? Besides, it's not even the same thing. All people argue. I'm only trying to point out that we should be able to see why they argue. That it's inherently necessary.

It still doesn't give us a right to be cruel. And I for one intend to be cruel no longer.

[ Nathan hesitates for a moment and it's lucky he doesn't actually say anything because it would come out like

Insane burst of laughter

followed by

What? You?

and that's inappropriate. He coughs instead. ]

Okay then.

[Edgeworth frowns to himself; there's a Tone in Nathan's voice.]

Is something wrong with that?

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