voice;

[notdaredevil]

I've been an attorney for fifteen years. And I'll admit there were times when I thought about running for DA, or for mayor, but I've never really been a policy-maker. Maybe it's because so many policy-makers seem to make decisions with their heads firmly entrenched somewhere— you can fill in where on your own— because sadly, it seems like nobody has bothered to learn anything from history. Not their own, and not ours. Which, when you've had the catastrophic champion of a previous registration attempt hanging around drooling to toss in his two cents, the opportunity is quite clearly there. I'm sure he'll have something to say any minute.

[ Matt hopes he does. Matt sure as hell has a lot to say to him, right now. But he carries on in the calm, courtroom voice in the meantime. ]

So let's talk about all the things they didn't mention in that press release, because I for one would like to know:

- How are they going to enforce this effectively without tracking everyone's status extensively?
- How extensively have they been tracking this in the first place?
- How is a registered imPort going to know that the possible costumed Import is or isn't a vigilante? "Let's you and him fight"? I can see the lawsuits piling up already.
- How will they know who to target?
- Where is the oversight for this program? Who is giving the orders and passing out the information? How do we know that they're getting it right and not just adding names on a list?
- Alternatively, haven't they just handed registered imPorts license to go after who they want?
- What reasonable basis is there to consider that "registration" is an effective criteria for trusting that an individual has the training or effective judgment necessary to be trusted with what is essentially a law enforcement task? Is that really a trustworthy reason to believe someone can carry out their job?

And, most importantly:


- When mistakes are made, who the hell's going to be held accountable?

You see, I was there when the Superhuman Registration Act passed in my universe, and I was there when they tried to pass registration acts for mutants again and again before that. And when the costumed community turned on itself, it wasn't always heroes bringing in their former friends. They allowed criminals to become part of the program to hunt down the noncompliant based on a flimsy pretext— people who had spent lengthy periods in jail, mass murderers and a cannibal alien and a mad man who put on a goblin costume and went on to blow up Asgard. So you'll forgive me if I don't look at this and think it's an effective solution to the problem. Because I want to know the details. I want to know that this isn't going to become the same unconstitutional, poorly-organized clusterfuck I've already witnessed once.

Comments

voice;

[selfequipped]

But Matt! If we all just registered, there wouldn't be any problems like this!

[Kate is in full on frustration mode with this, which means she's taking her own pot shots. (Sorry, Jesse, especially since that's not entirely what you were getting at.)]

Anyway—thanks for this, boss. I figured someone else would have some really useful commentary to add to this!

[She isn't biased at all. At all.]

voice;

[notdaredevil]

Maybe someday somebody will take the hint that issues of dealing with powered individuals probably shouldn't rely solely on strong-armed military solutions.

[ What a world that would be. ]

Particularly ones that end up disregarding basic civil rights or legal framework. Because you know I have plenty to say about that.

[text]

[makethman]

So history repeats itself over dimensional barriers, apparently. A bit disappointing.

[text]

[notdaredevil]

[ Ah, text. See how long he can keep this up. ]

Evidently. I was hoping they'd go down a different route, but apparently I was too hopeful. Which isn't usually like me.

It isn't as though a lot of us haven't been trying to caution about this for awhile, either. They had plenty of evidence on hand.

[glassbox]

this is the bastard harry
the one that left me feelin such a mess
i went and bought that pantsuit from you

[ And by "bastard" she means "boyfriend." ]

voice.

[askedtobe]

It's like giving crowd control over to a crowd. You can't actually manage any kind of jurisdiction over that, can you?

voice.

[notdaredevil]

If that's how this will really play out? Then no. Unless somehow the person who put forth the idea and made it happen could be held responsible.

It would be neat, too. If nobody's in charge, then nobody officially has to take the fall when something goes wrong, except us. The people stuck here dealing with problems and policies we didn't ask for in the first place.

Voice

[liverletdie]

[ He's not touching it. He's not touching it. He's not -- ]

You know, I offered my services, to make sure things were handled properly. It's a shame they didn't listen, isn't it? I might've even been able to rectify some mistakes that were made the first go around.

[ You know. Things like Skrulls. And Norman Osborn, but who likes that guy? ]

Voice

[notdaredevil]

[ The consensus maturity level in these parts is around 5 years old, just give into it. ]

Yes, you could have given them advice on how to escape public scandal and nasty lawsuits. I'm sure that would come in very handy for them. You've managed to dodge them for so long.

permavoice

[glassbox]

What the hell are y'talkin' about, Matt Murdock?

[notdaredevil]

I'm talking about— it was on the network, Lil. Weren't you paying attention?

AUDIO.

[selfimage]

Well said, Mister Murdock, ever the heart throb and all.

It's only a matter of time before it goes in the opposite direction. You know, to the registered imPorts.

[ pfft. ]

Matter.

AUDIO.

[notdaredevil]

I don't know if I'm more troubled that you seem to agree with me or that you called me a "heart throb."

text; ID is Gittarackur

[pinpricks]

I heard that the government was able to take away someone's abilities. Are there any imPorts that can do that? Otherwise, it could be difficult.

[You know, because he's so worried about people's safety.]

text;

[notdaredevil]

If there are, I don't know it. I wouldn't go around asking people to reveal to me what their powers were anyway, and I wouldn't expect them to confess something like that. The only people who might know are the officials responsible for dealing with Imports.

video

[whitequeens]

Wouldn't it... be easier, then, for everyone to register? It's only understandable that those who live here would be nervous about people with powers that they can never have, and... and it would eliminate any need for the fighting you fear might come to pass.

video

[notdaredevil]

Easier for who? For them, certainly. But I think it's also understandable that people— many of whom didn't ask to have powers, and probably didn't have them before— might be hesitant to fall in with what is, essentially, a military operation from an unknown government. People should be allowed to make fully informed decisions, shouldn't they?

voice;

[youbastard]

People never learn from the past. Not here and not five hundred years from now. [ It is really depressing how much they don't learn. ] Those are all really good questions, though. I wonder if you could actually find answers to them or if this isn't just all something of a set up. Just a way to urge people more towards choosing registration. [ That's her point of view currently. It all feels like it might just be a series of scare tactics and incentives to further push people towards choosing registration. ]

voice;

[notdaredevil]

If there are answers to be found, I can try to go tracking them down. It's not as though I don't know people who did agree to register. Maybe they'll be getting more information that won't be released to the public.

Unfortunately, I'm not registered myself, so I'm not sure how willing the people at the top would be to talk to me about it.

voice;

[aviate]

So your argument is that it ended badly in your world so the same thing will happen here?

[Hal isn't championing the registration cause, but the news seems like an appropriate step forward to him.]

voice;

[notdaredevil]

My argument is that there's the potential for this to end badly, and there are too many unanswered questions. And that simply agreeing to register shouldn't be automatically considered a guarantee of trustworthiness or capacity for responsibility.

video;

[friendshiprocks]

It's the lack of organization that's really confusing me! I mean, who's the boss? Are we gonna have to talk to Ms. Chases if we stop a vigilante?

...but, it is kinda nice that they're letting us travel.

video;

[notdaredevil]

I really don't know. I hope there's at least someone in charge of this, if not her, because otherwise it's a free-for-all.

And it seems at odds with letting us leave the country freely.

voice

[enustari]

Sounds to me like it's going to be a clusterfuck.

voice

[notdaredevil]

They could do something and prevent it from being a clusterfuck, I'm sure. If they wanted to.

Alternatively, maybe there just aren't enough details yet. But the devil's in the details, and the ones we're missing at the moment are...significant.

[audio]

[walkingballpit]

The answer to all of these questions and more is "Imagine the worst case scenario. It's actually worse than that."

[ A pause for a deep, through-the-nose breath. Funny how it's never as relaxing as it's supposed to be. ]

Like that last one, you know they'll blame us.

[audio]

[notdaredevil]

[ You don't have to have hypersenses to know this has to be a sensitive topic. ]

It will be better for everyone if they can manage to turn it around before it reaches that point. They've been much slower to move than they were at home. There might still be time.

[ It feels odd, having to be the optimistic one. ]

voice;

[abadidea]

Honestly, I don't know what to say about any of this, not yet. I'm still...taking it in, I guess.

All I can say is they've probably been tracking us completely. The tattoos updated almost immediately when you do something they didn't authorize you to do.

voice;

[notdaredevil]

I...can't say that I've noticed that they act that quickly. But then, they could change mine to read anything they want, and I'd never be able to tell, so I don't doubt that what you say is true.

It doesn't surprise me, though. I wouldn't expect them to give us free rein. But I'd hoped they wouldn't fully embrace Big Brother.

[ They'd been quiet for so long... ]

[Audio]

[tactile_telekinesis]

I gotta wonder what makes them think this is such a great idea. Why pit us against each other? Besides having a reason to pin everything that goes wrong on us.

[Audio]

[notdaredevil]

That doesn't seem like a good enough reason to you?

I'd say there's a resource conservation argument to be made, except I'm sure that this will only end up costing them more in the end. In legal fees, in construction costs due to urban destruction related to arrests, et cetera...I could go on, but those will be big, I'm sure.

[voice]

[flamingshortshorts]

[Toro hadn't been so easy about registering when he did it, even though it seemed like the easiest position to take at the time, while he was trying to figure everything out. But everything is starting to get real foggy and he's not sure he likes it.]

Everything about this is just too confusing for me. There's nothing out there about expecting heroes to keep an eye on each other, but usually it's turning them into the police if they go too far, not just for doing what we always do. No one's ever really demanded we sign up with the government to do it. It feels a lot like a draft for super powers.

[voice]

[notdaredevil]

It is pretty much a draft for super powers. I'm not sure there's any other way to look at it. Even framed as some kind of "civic duty" or employment opportunity, it's still more or less signing up with them, on their terms, with limited options.

[ "Have a job and healthcare right there for you" vs. "try to do a lot of it all by yourself in a strange universe." ]

They've also said nothing about what will really happen if registered imPorts abuse or in some way mess up this new mandate of theirs. Do they just expect the entire community to internally police itself? I don't know.

[tucky]

[Tiffany sees the initial announcement, and she sees one lady's response, and then she sees this. And honestly, her initial inclination is just to ignore it all - keep partying it up, keep enjoying her time here, and let the bigger, more important people take care of the worrying and the question-asking.

But then this guy says he's an attorney, and she trusts attorneys. Her own, she thinks, has always done right by her - so she decides to respond.]

You actually want us to answer all those questions, or are you asking the people who set this all up?

[notdaredevil]

[ As it happens, that sassy lady is his youthful assistant, and it's not that he's less angry about it. He's just so much more professional than her. ]

Both, eventually, although I don't imagine anybody will receive any answers sometime soon. But sooner or later someone is going to act, either of their own initiative or because they'll have to provide details to make it happen.