006 ♍ voice

[glowsferatu]

[ kanaya knows she has to make this confession, not that she's particularly looking forward to it. but now that they've put her in solitary, nothing about this punishment has been satisfying. she needs something better.

everyone needs to know, but she doesn't want their pity, and doesn't deserve their sympathy. so. she kind of goes a little too far in the other direction, there. ]

I've been quiet the past few days. I say this not as an apology, because I don't particularly give a shit, but as an explanation. For those who don't know me, my name is Kanaya Maryam, an for the past few months I've been moonlighting as a costumed thug. One might even go so far as to say I was a supervillain.

Shocking, isn't it? I was a bit surprised, myself. [ not that she's going to explain that one. ]

As Hobgoblin, I committed numerous crimes, whether disrupting traffic, harassing the costumed set, playing ghost in a haunted house, other, more serious infractions. Kidnapping. Stalking. And...worse than that. [ her flippant tone cracks, her voice falling low and shaky. ] I've-- I've hurt people. People who didn't deserve it. Innocents.

[ there's a fury brimming in that last word, a self-loathing and shame. she can feel her hands shaking, her knuckles going white as she balls her fists. but they won't see that, it's important that they don't. if they recognize any remorse, it will defeat the whole purpose.

she takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as she collects herself again. ]

For all of these things, the most the local authorities have seen fit to do is stick me in a room alone without my powers. Which is really great, I must say. Wonderful to know that we feed and house our criminals when law-abiding residents have no such amenities, especially when they aren't registered! I must say this world's punitive measures are deeply impressive, it truly overwhelms me with compunction, how much softer-handed it is than I expected when I turned myself in. I suppose I shouldn't be really surprised, when the approach to everything is such a joke, such a limp attitude toward justice is at least consistent.

But it isn't real justice. It's a mockery. [ she thinks of terezi, and wonders if she'd be more embarrassed by the meagerness of it, or that kanaya submitted herself willingly. terezi would know what to do here. ]

I'm sure many of you could do better, someone who really believes in the subject, unless you're too stuck in all the nonsense moralizing humans too often preoccupy themselves with. You're heroes. I'm a villain. That seems simple enough to me.

If you want to see real justice done, I'm not going anywhere.

Comments

permavoice.

[glowsferatu]

The past doesn't change. If it should then everything about the present would need to follow suit, and possibly only doom the future with it.

So, if it's going to resurface either way, where's the harm?

permavideo

[attainment]

What you're asking for is illegal, for one thing. Registered imPorts who are expected to uphold the peace won't be able to turn a blind eye if someone does indeed accept your invitation. Regardless of how you personally feel about this world's justice system, that's the way things are.

Even if it weren't illegal, though, I personally wouldn't want to waste my time, energy, or resources over something as useless as violent retribution, especially if it's for the purpose of easing the victim's pain or the perpetrator's guilty conscience. If you want to try atoning for your sins, find better ways to start repaying your debt.

[glowsferatu]

As if registered imPorts don't turn a bland eye to things regularly.

If you know so much about "better ways", why not make a suggestion?

[attainment]

About some things, perhaps, but are you suggesting that no one will care if something happens to you? A lot of people's responses to your original message suggest otherwise.

And we both know that anything I suggested at this point would be little more than empty platitudes. For one thing, I'm not convinced I know the whole story. You sound sincerely regretful about what happened. Yet, from what I understand, you're telling people you conducted scientific experiments on locals -- a crime that would normally be considered quite calculated and pre-mediated.

One way or another, though, you're going to have to consider what to do with your future here, especially since it doesn't look like anyone's going to take you up on your offer. You have a girlfriend, if I remember right. Is she willing to help you?

[glowsferatu]

[ there a sound of movement, cloth scraping against canvas as she pulls inward. ]

I don't deserve any help from her. Much less than from anyone else. None of them should care what happens to me, much less think there's any point in punishing whoever might conduct it.

This is something I've invited, you can't pretend there's any justice in rejecting someone who accepts that invitation.

[attainment]

Justice isn't always about what we think we deserve. Guilt or innocence should be determined without bias or prejudice. When it comes to evaluating our own actions, we're usually unable to maintain that kind of objectivity.

[glowsferatu]

So, because you think I have no say in what I deserve, if someone were to fulfill my request, you'd bring your own ideals of justice against them despite my public consent for their actions.

Is that a truly unprejudiced objectivity? It sounds more like spite, to me.

[attainment]

It's not a matter of whether you have any say or not. Rather, no one here is obligated to take your story at face value. On top of that, I can't subscribe to the idea of a single person playing judge and jury, and then essentially getting the executioner to come finish the job for them.

[glowsferatu]

I never said they were obligated to do anything. But when that judge and jury is also accused, I think they have that right.

If anyone should be allowed to judge us, we ourselves should be thr first to be extended the privilege.

[attainment]

That's all well and good, but if we gave everyone that privilege under this government's system of laws, then what of people who feel their crimes were completely justified?

[glowsferatu]

That isn't at all the same, I didn't say criminals should have sole right to their own judgement, neither that allowances should be made only for the purpose of escaping guilt.

Is anyone capable of considering things without falling into the most extreme logical fallacies in a weak attempt at discrediting opinions they disagree with? You'd think it must be some inherent quality of humanity, at the frequency I encounter it!

[attainment]

"When the judge and jury is also accused" sounded pretty inclusive to me, so it was an honest question. That said, if I'm understanding right, what you're saying is that people should have the privilege to decide their own punishments if they've signed a confession, so long as the punishment is equivalent to whatever harm was done to the victims.

[glowsferatu]

I was expanding on your metaphor. But now I begin to suspect that you're actually speaking far too literally for this sort of discussion, and perhaps it wasn't a metaphor at all.

I'm not aiming to form policy, Mr. Brooks. I'm hardly in a position for that. What I'm arguing is principle. That only misplaced righteousness would lead one to put an end to violence between consenting parties.

[attainment]

[If it's an idea that can't be applied in a literal, practical sense, then Barnaby can't say it's something he's particularly interested in quibbling about. But he will say this:]

Things like principles are shaped by a person's background, the social mores of whatever culture they're from, and so on. I've already explained why I see no constructive purpose behind what you're trying to do, and speaking as someone who's been coerced into things I regret, I know guilt doesn't go away through self-flagellation.

If the laws of this world supported your way of thinking, then I can't say I'd interfere outside of voicing my concerns. But that isn't the case, and anyone who fulfills your request knows how law enforcement will respond. If these principles are important enough to them, though, they'll accept whatever happens afterward. But I suspect most people aren't willing to put themselves on the chopping block just to temporarily ease someone's guilty conscience, so in the end there isn't much else to say.

[glowsferatu]

I suppose there isn't.

But I do think i's worth noting that the legality is hardly your motivation. Otherwise you would just as strictly judge vigilantes who aren't registered.

[attainment]

The two crimes aren't the same, since one involves someone who's willing to bring severe bodily harm to another person. That said, imPorts marked as vigilantes have also made their choices, knowing full well that the government may try to turn registered imPorts against them in the future.

[glowsferatu]

I don't think many of them really recognize that possibility in a realistic manner. They may perhaps humor it intellectually, but I doubt they truly believe it will ever truly occur.

Even so, the difference isn't the level of willingness on either end, the two aren't mutually exclusive. The difference is one is a single incident, while the other is an ongoing practice. Yet you cast a blind eye on the one that lasts, even enable it, despite its legality.

Your decision has nothing to do with legality.

[attainment]

You're right, I should have made myself more clear. It's about priorities. Someone who helps apprehend criminals is actually making the streets safer, even if I personally wish they'd stick to more legal means. However, I have zero reason to trust someone who jumps on the chance to injure another person, whether it's consensual or not.

The person who is willing to harm others poses the more immediate threat to the community, in my view, so that's where I focus my time and resources. By that same token, people like Lunatic end up higher on my list precisely because they're repeat offenders. If I had nothing better to do with my time than organize a witch hunt for people who fight crime without registering first, then I'd reconsider whether my services are really needed here.

[glowsferatu]

[ well that just sinks it, she made a mistake turning herself in. if she'd gone the conceited route and made some public show of her villainy, to the network no less, far more would have been willing to make her pay for it.

it's an ongoing problem she encounters in human morality. ]

I suppose we'll just have to wait until I'm free again, see how long it takes before I pose that threat again.