deernet | video | un: degurechaff

[ A young girl sits at a table in an otherwise nondescript room, her hands folded in front of her in a picture of perfect professionalism. Her white button-down shirt is similarly perfect, not a wrinkle in sight, and tailored to her thin frame. Her gaze into her omni is expressionless — some might call it cold — and her high, childish voice is tempered with the assured enunciation of an adult. ]

Good evening. My name is Tanya von Degurechaff. I'm new here, so I have a couple questions for anyone willing to answer.

First, what kind of job do you currently have? If you don't have one, then I'm also interested in hearing what you did before you arrived here.

Second, are there any jobs or businesses you'd like to see here? I recognize that this is a broad question, but since we come from a broad range of backgrounds, any feedback is welcome.

[ A pause, a stray thought seeming to flicker through her head before she continues. ]

As for myself, I have experience with personnel management, various air-based operations, tactical field research, and administrative work. More broadly, I'm an aerial mage. The business I'd like to see is a coffee shop.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Ahh, it's nice being able to talk about peaceful, intellectual concepts again. She's too often surrounded by war nuts with no understanding of politics. ]

It would be an interesting experiment at the very least. It's a bit backward, trying to use the law to promote its own existence, but out-of-the-box thinking will be necessary to clear any kind of space for a court system.

After all, the first rules were made by rulers. So until some overbearing, charismatic individual decides to take charge of Trench and impose rules on the land, there's no point in hoping that the population will suddenly develop a taste for laws. Their appetites will need to be whetted in one way or another.

People and their responses are not always logical in their progress, and they aren't easy to predict either. Perhaps you're right, in the need to whet their appetite.

To be honest, I would much rather have the people here be open to the idea of the rule of law due to their own interest--no matter how petty. You cannot always trust the rules that come from someone in power instating them, mostly because those rules are likely to be made for their benefit and not the benefit of the populace as a whole.

[ That's a curious bit of cynicism, but understandable. It's not surprising that a lawyer would be more skeptical about the inherent virtue of the law-making process. ]

The scoundrel you describe sounds like a politician. Politicans at their worst are self-serving and shamelessly hide behind procedure to get away with it. The difference between a politician and a ruler is that killing a corrupt politician is always murder, while killing a corrupt ruler can be called justice.

Politicians can ruin lives while serving their own needs. All to climb to the top of the ladder of power. If they have killed others in that pursuit, is killing them not some form of justice? Some might argue it is.

Then allow me to adjust my wording. It's legal to execute a criminal. If the politician's involvement in murder can be proven in court and they're ruled a criminal, then punishment is justice. But if the politican is found innocent in the eyes of the law, then who can lay a hand on them and in turn be found innocent? Laws are justice. Procedures are justice. The politican who survives the court system has submitted to both and earned its protection.

You make fair points. Normally I would concede to them, but I have to wonder: What is the answer when the laws and procedures become corrupt? What is the answer if the system of law and the courts become susceptible to the corruption that bleeds from those in power?

I want to believe that the law can be free from this, but I know that is not always the case. Those that are guilty are not always found as such, and those that are innocent are sometimes sent to the pyre.

Every system has its failures. A healthy system will continuously acknowledge its faults and work to shore them up, but as long as human beings are involved, errors and aberrations should be expected.

[ In truth, that terrifies her. She makes it a point of adhering to the law in a manner so unassailable that no one in a court of law could convict her, but some people just do whatever they want. ]

The answer to such troubles would have to be conscientious lawyers like yourself, no? It must be a lot of effort, but it's practically in your job description to raise objections.

'Errors and aberrations should be expected,' huh? To err is human, that much is true. Then a system where such errors can be addressed should be a goal worth taking on.

[Though Kazuma has to wonder how easy that would be in a lawless place like this. What recourse could they really offer?]

Oh--[He laughs.] I suppose it is part of the job, to raise objections and pursue them to the highest truth. And I will do what I can in that regard.

I'll be interested in seeing what you can make of everything.

[ And she means that sincerely. A life with no hope of laws, not even in the far-flung future, is hardly worth thinking about. ]

Oh, and please let me know if there's anything I can do to contribute. Even if you end up with a glorified debate club, there's a lot of merit in exercising the persuasive power of reason as an intellectual workout.

I'll be sure to let you know of any progress I make.

[Whatever progress that may be. It's rare he finds someone this invested in such conversation, and he's more than willing to hold onto what small thread of companionship that's begun.]

By all means, you're welcome to observe and participate in...whatever this may become. Even if that is only a glorified debate club. I would appreciate having interested parties involved.

[ Getting in with a potential circle of lawyers and logicians? Yes, please. ]

Pleased to hear it. Until then, Herr Asogi.

video | un: degurechaff

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