[video]

[glassinine]

[The thing about employing text is that when you start using it when all your broadcasts are in video, people tend to question why you've suddenly switched. So he makes the decision to instead compose himself as best as he can and use video instead.

Unfortunately, he always sort of overestimates his ability to compose himself. He certainly doesn't seem distraught, or panicked, or anything of the sort, but he's definitely shaky. This is definitely a far cry from his normal, slow, quiet, lengthy broadcasts.]

I'm leaving on a business trip abroad for...some length of time. I'm - not certain how long. Please don't try to contact me; I'll be far too busy to answer any messages.

Good day.

Comments

video; private

[glassinine]

[Edgeworth doesn't look her in the face. His eyes are fixed somewhere off-camera.]

That's right.

[dragony]

Hmm.

Sounds more like you're trying to burn your bridges.

[glassinine]

By doing work?

[dragony]

Even the busiest man can make time for those he cares about — if he cares to.

[glassinine]

...Then I suppose I'm simply uncaring.

[dragony]

It's far too late for bluffs like that, Miles Edgeworth.

Look at me.

[glassinine]

[Slowly, reluctantly, he turns his eyes towards her. But he looks at her only for a split second; then, as though repelled by some magnetic force, his gaze travels off-screen again.]

Look. You oughtn't even be speaking to me.

[dragony]

For whose sake? Yours, or mine?

[glassinine]

Yours.

[dragony]

Wrong answer.

If that's how you think things are, you're giving yourself too much credit.

[glassinine]

Look. The power has only gotten stronger. I don't know how long it will be before I hurt people just by...talking to them.

[dragony]

I can't speak for anyone else, but I'm an empath, sir. I easily get worse, shopping second-hand.

[ She braces her chin on her left hand, elbow on the desk, and gives the camera a thoughtful look. ]

That's the real reason you're going, isn't it?

[glassinine]

[He's quiet a moment. Finally:]

One cannot hurt the people around oneself if there are no people around oneself.

[dragony]

Do you value yourself so little?

[glassinine]

That has nothing to do with anything.

[dragony]

Doesn't it?

Rather than hurt people with your power, you wish to sever yourself from them completely. Do you believe that nobody will be hurt by that loss?

I know that trick well. "Going away on business," and never coming back.

[glassinine]

It's - People will be fine without me.

[dragony]

So what? People learn to live with missing limbs, but amputation is hardly the right treatment for a sprained wrist.

I do understand. It feels like the most responsible thing, to remove yourself from the people you've hurt. It feels like what good you do accomplish, it can't possibly make up for what bad you might do, or have done. ... But if everyone followed that same rationale, every one of us would live in isolation.

[glassinine]

Don't make false equivalencies. You know perfectly well that it's different for me.

[dragony]

Do you think you're the first person to hurt someone with his powers?

[glassinine]

I -

[He scowls.]

That's irrelevant.

[dragony]

How so?

[glassinine]

Other isolated incidents have no bearing upon my current situation.

[dragony]

Please don't think me rude for saying so, but your circumstances aren't half as unique as you seem to think.

[ Still rude to say, though. ]

How long have your powers been active? I mean, I know they are new to you, since arriving here, but when was the first time you recall using them?

[glassinine]

I...

In April. Though it might have been before that.