(Untitled)

[lizardoverdose]

Characters: Novak/Scales [lizardoverdose] & Vimes/Stoneface [stonyfaced]
Date/Time: BACKDATED to February 2nd, late evening.
Location: The Marketplace, and probably moving from there.
Rating: PG..13? Probably.
Summary: Scales & Stoneface have a talk about the current state of Edensphere security.

Comments

[lizardoverdose]

"And if you're the person that's excluded from those boundaries?" He asked, feeling like it was the appropriate answer. "What happens if those laws are made by unjust people - leave people out, favor some over others? Not far, I think. Most certainly not fair, mm. Who can we trust to make such laws? And can we be sure the sphere'll care?"

Now here was a thought.

"I don't think I've ever seen a prison, but it could be out there. i'd be more than willing to investigate some of the unknown islands with you if you're up to it, but it'll probably be ugly at best and violent at worse. The other problem, and this is more now than anything else, is that I don't know how Trust will work with all of this, and any of the other new guards. They might think we're being ridiculous, like you saw in my journal a couple of days ago. So that's also a problem. I mean, i like the captain of the guard now, Trust. But he's all about fighting and not really about laws or right or anything like that. So, i don't know. Just kind of feeding you stuff and see what you can make of it."

[stonyfaced]

He frowned as Scales brought up the concern of the wrong people making the wrong laws. It made sense, Stoneface knew, but something simply felt wrong without the boundaries. "I'm not talking about overly complicated laws," he said carefully--Scales seemed firm enough on this point for him to use tact. "I've no authority to make them, but a general action-punishment rule would be helpful. If somebody kills somebody else, they spend time in cells. That sort of thing." The constant furrow of his brow furrowed further as he thought. Corrupt higher-ups. Yeah. He could see it happening. But rules would have to be what separated the... good from bad, so to speak.

It was complicated. He nodded his head as Scales spoke of the other guards and fiddled with a bit of string coming loose in his pocket. "That's a problem," he admitted. "But it'd be best to act now, while the deaths and disappearances I've been hearing about are firmly in mind." Would anybody really oppose the rule of no-stealing, no-killing, no-hitting-each-other-too-hard?

He bit his lower lip, front teeth grazing at dry skin. "The ideas are welcome. You know more about what you're talking about than I do," he said absently. "On the grounds of finding a prison, though... I'm not exactly a fighter. If it comes down to physical strength, I won't be much help, as much as I'd like to search for one."

Something in the back of his mind reminded him of his dream: Anything can be used as a weapon. So maybe he could fight. Against people. A giant monster had little to fear from being kicked in the privates.

[lizardoverdose]

"And if friends don't like this and break them out? The guard may be powerful, but I'm willing to guess that there are people who don't like being in prison, and will lie, cheat, and use the journals to get people to break them out. A traditional jail won't hold me, for example."

That he knew. "I mean, if have a jail, we'll need to reinforce it somehow, and probably a lot. I don't even know how to go about doing that, but I don't think tree bark and screws will keep anyone in it if they don't want to be in it. And like I said - what happens if guards start doing that shit?"

It seemed like more questions than Scales felt like dealing with. He would have been much more content to let Stoneface figure out all the stuff involved in it and then just be the enforcer. But he found himself reluctantly stepping out, and he also found that maybe if he had been that person he was when he was born, he wouldn't.

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface frowned. Scales was right. "Are there many people here who are that powerful?" He asked, feeling rather ill at ease at the concept. People with great power roaming the streets made him uneasy, and the idea of angry people with great power who had just broken out of prison even moreso.

He passed a hand over his eyes, pinching the bridge of his nose in thought. "We should take things one by one," he said slowly. "Have Guard meetings. Make sure everybody knows each other, trusts each other, and bash into their heads what their job is--if we manage to convince the leader of the Guard to do more than protect a building."

"And they should have a badge." The thought spilled out before it was fully realized, but as he did with many things, he took the idea and ran with it. "Then they'll feel like they belong to something, and they'll have obligations."

He thought about corruption and humanity in general for a moment. "Hopefully."

[lizardoverdose]

"I think it's possible. I've seen some pretty strange things happen, there's a guy who offers 'magic lessons' and a number of people who can fly. I mean, I wish I could fly. That'd be cool. But I'm not sure what else people can do, just that... well, I don't think we're all nice and average. Kind of dumb, I know, but true."

He thought about Trust. "Trust is the leader of the guard, he's.. sort of a block head. I mean, I am too, but he's very focused on just the fighting. Maybe if we can convince him that it's protecting more by guarding the whole place, we can pull it off, or suggest to him that more fights'll happen that way.. or less. I'm not sure. but I like the idea of guard meetings and sort of...plotting out where all the different guards should go? Like, everyone has their own routes. Maybe we should have some kind of .. private communication? Like, everyone can see everything in the journals. If we could have our own line, that'd be cool."

He arched an eyebrow at the badge idea. Truthfully, the thought didn't go with him as well as it clearly went with Stoneface. He didn't like the idea of making himself stand out more, of marking targets for people who hated the guard so clearly. But he also liked the reasons Stoneface presented. "That could work," he said. "Maybe."

augh sorry I FORGOT TO PUSH ENTER

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface nodded. "And I don't suppose these magic lessons are about taking rabbits out of--" He stopped and shook his head. "Never mind."

Nobody had gotten any of his jokes since he came here. Not even the really obvious ones. This was worrisome. Either everybody here was stupid, or he just had really bad jokes. Unfortunately, the latter was suspected. Even he knew that his last joke was a bad one.

He coughed, looking at Scales as if daring him to bring up the joke again. "At any rate," he said hurriedly, "spreading around the Guard will definitely develop into more fights for him. Perhaps no more fights in general, but certainly more for the Guard."

Within his mind, he backtracked. Powers. Powers! Scales was talking about rubbish like magic lessons and flying, and pining over the fact that he couldn't. Now, Stoneface found himself liking Scales very much, but at the end of the day, he was talking to a bloody giant lizard. They lived in a giant dome! The only natural thing that he had found here was death, and apparently even that wasn't trust worthy, because Justice had just gotten back up. How did you keep these people in line? And how was he supposed to be able to do anything? Now, Stoneface knew, he could talk about organization all he wanted, but when it came down to the chase and somebody whipped around with, oh, he didn't know, with a giant flying blade, he'd be running in the opposite direction. Very quickly.

Finding this to be an uncomfortable train of thought, he dismissed it to the corner of his mind reserved for doubt, and turned it to the idea of private communication. Which was, incidentally, also in that corner of doubt. "That would be helpful, provided somebody knows how to do it, and that it won't be tapped into. Failing that, a place designated for the guards to meet would be a good idea, if we can get one."

He let the 'maybe' about the badges go. It wasn't really that important in comparison. For some reason, something inside of him revolted at that thought: yes it is important; what else would differ the guards from the murderers? He let it go anyways, regardless of any personal dissonance going on.

[lizardoverdose]

As if Scales could resist a look like that. "No, only cutting people in half," he said, and he meant it only half-sarcastically. It wouldn't have shocked him at all if Lezard was actually cutting people up. He wouldn't stop suspecting it was Lezard that had chopped Aurora up until someone else admitted it to his face.

Which probably wouldn't happen. So. Fuck Lezard. He'd disliked the guy the moment he'd been born, with the way he lased around and his tea and his non-answers. Though to be honest, the guy wasn't that bad then. The thing with the dinosaur....

He discarded the unpleasant mage for now. "Well, there are journal-makers, but I'm not really sure exactly who does it. I'm sure you can ask, though, and people would probably answer. As for meeting place, we could use someone's house, or even just pick a spot on park island or the dojo or whatever, maybe again - one of the unexplored islands. It seems like you have a bunch of cool ideas, though. I'm really cool about that. Why don't you talk to Trust about it? I mean, the problem with him is that he might sort of lose patience with you. If that's the case, maybe we can work something out, just the two of us or even more."

FINALLY TAGGED arrgh sorry for the wait

[stonyfaced]

Stoneface looked at Scales, attempting to read whether or not he was joking. Unfortunately, reading lizard-faces wasn't exactly his strong suit, and besides that, he wouldn't doubt something like that. Especially if it had to do with magic. For whatever reason, he had a feeling that magic was something to avoid at all costs; he'd stick to swords and his feet on the ground, thanks all the same.

The whole body cutting in half thing, he decided, would be very... messy. He was snapped back to attention by what were thankfully more pressing matters and ones that Stoneface felt he had at least a margin say in. He nodded, slowly. "I'll see if I can talk to Trust."

His gait skipped a beat when he considered this and what it could possibly mean for the rest of his new life here. Did he really want to grab onto this seemingly-unstable system when he was having enough troubles coming to grips with what was happening around him, the dangers, just making a life here?

Yes, something in him (something stupid and bullheaded, he suspected) replied, and his step regained its previously lost regularity. "We'll have to take things from there. At any rate, all orders given are to be taken with a grain of salt, and from what I've been seeing, there will be more people than you and I supporting a Guard that does something other than guarding buildings."

wanna endtag?

[lizardoverdose]

"Right. Well, go for that, dude." He nodded fiercely, running one claw over his face. "I really hope you can pull something off. You seem like the better man for the leadership job than I do, plus, half the people here don't think you're an irresponsible and easily-angered lizardman. Can't see who they'd feel like that about, myself." He laughed a little.

Well, here went nothing. Scales needed some time to think, though, to run things over in his head. There were plans that needed to be put in place now. There were people to organize and holes in his guard to seal up to make sure that shit didn't happen.

"He's pretty easy to find. He's blue, and has a tail, and looks kind of like a catman. Also, he will probably threaten to fight you."

KK hope this is fine. ♥

[stonyfaced]

"Not a lizardman, at any rate," Stoneface quipped. He rather suspected he didn't know enough people to have gained a reputation yet, and, quite frankly, preferred it that way--the reputation bit, not the knowing people bit. Despite this thought, there didn't seem to be many people here, especially for a place that was called a 'city'. In his... well, not in his experience, considering he didn't have any, but when he thought city, he thought of people milling about the streets and commerce and smoke filled skies, and...

Well, nothing like this. The point he was getting at was that he didn't think it was very hard to gain a reputation here. It would be a good idea to lay low for a while, at least until he had finished investigating Justice's death.

"A tail," he repeated after Scales, unable to keep disbelief out of his voice. He shouldn't have been surprised. He was talking to a lizard, after all, and at the thought that his tone may have offended, he waved it off as if it were the most normal thing in the world. "Then I shouldn't have too much trouble finding him."

So the leader of the Guard was an overly-violent blue cat-thing which probably had very sharp claws and teeth and probably had no idea what the hell he was doing with an organization if he went around punching people. It looked like he had his work cut out for him.

"Thanks for your help," he said with a nod that looked far more sure than he felt. "I'll tell you what's happened, if anything does."

With that, he turned around and walked away, mind abuzz with the new information that had been effectively crammed between his ears. He resisted the urge to look behind him; at this time, it seemed like it would pay off to be more suspicious than necessary, and besides, he would probably be gone.

Stoneface counted slowly to fifteen and looked behind him.

Sure enough, the lizardman was gone.