126. [Video]
[This evening, Priscilla is someplace... well, someplace different. No rooftop, this time, and not her plushy bedroom. Not the ruins that she's made her second home. No, it is the spartan living room of an apartment. Some may recognize it as the former home of the now missing Senji Kiyomasa. Others... well, they'll simply see the simplicity, the
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You can't simply appear in someone else's home and do whatever you like. And if you try to, they're likely to toss you out regardless of how you got there. If that happens then what? There's nowhere else to go. So what then? Do we live in the mist and slowly go mad or do we fight to stay here? That's where the war begins. There's no way around that.
And don't tell me you refuse to simplify things and then say "either there's a justice system or there isn't." Going on and on about fairness and social... contracts is all very nice. But if we let people run rampant without acting that will get us thrown out, too and that puts us in exactly the same place!
[She huffs a bit and pauses. When she speaks again, she sounds... hesitant. Almost pained.]
You're too idealistic.
And you're also free to do that, yes. I guess it would create competing organizations, and we would see what happens from there.
To be honest with you, my suspicion is that, if you did the things with it that you suggest the entire Scorched community do... you would end up angering the population if not the Twins, and we would be shipwrecked in the deep mist until we went mad like the red elves... or oppressed the native population in our determination to stay.
And then you could tell me about how important fair social contracts are again.
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That is my point. I don't know what would happen for sure, but I do know that the Anatolians barely tolerate us and that the Twins seem to think of this as a game, and that game operates under their rules. I know all of that... and I know they don't issue warnings. They simply let it go until they don't.
[...}
If you want to know the truth about my belief when it comes to the police division and why it hasn't offended people... I believe it's because the division is essentially unofficial. We've had cases of murders and violence and kidnappings that were solved through... well. Vigilante means. A single person killed Malfatto, or acted against Bellatrix. These things didn't offend them... probably because it's more or less what they do, themselves. Look at their laws: do not unnecessarily kill to excess. Do not harm very much.
They seem to be largely open to interpretation. They seem to be intentionally vague, as though everyone is supposed to draw their own lines. Of course that would create vigilantism. I think in their eyes, something like a small - and it is small - group of people taking justice into their own hands as well as they can is entirely within the spirit of what the rest of the city is doing.
If I'm right about that, then erecting an new system would not be. And that's where the problems begin, for me. With the ideals... and with the fact that you seem so much more committed to those ideals than keeping peace. And reducing bloodshed.
[She takes a deep breath.]
All that said. I never did say that doing anything differently was impossible. That's why I said I'd like to think there's a middle ground somewhere. I'm just. Not sure what it is.
Which is why I asked. You're the one who said there wasn't any.
And yes, that does seem likely.
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I think that might be feasible. It might be difficult to get in contact with them... but they do have servants inside their manor that might be able to carry a message to them.
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[Should she say it? It's not really relevant. She rubs her face.]
...if you're interested in civil discussion with people who disagree with you... perhaps you shouldn't make a habit of publicly insulting them and their decisions. Or insulting the community's systems. Or publicly commenting about how unwisely chosen the community's leaders have been. Or... saying that they came to their roles simply through... seniority and physical power! Especially not if you intend to then go ahead and talk to those leaders as though nothing happened. As though you haven't been insulting their life's work, publicly, openly, without even bothering to come to them with your concerns first.
It's insulting. It doesn't make them especially interested in reaching out to you or hearing your ideas and two years ago, I wouldn't have bothered having this conversation to begin with.
Fortunately, I've grown a lot since then. So I know that personal things don't matter, here. And that there are more important things than... my injured pride.
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