Tales of the Parodyverse >> View Post
Post By
Anime Jason 
Owner

Location: Here
Member Since: Sun Sep 12, 2004
Posts: 2,834
In Reply To
HH

Subj: There's no silver lining to a silver lining.
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 07:56:19 pm EDT (Viewed 543 times)
Reply Subj: There's always a silver lining.
Posted: Sun Sep 21, 2008 at 04:36:20 pm EDT



> > Technically an APB isn't the same as an arrest warrant. It's just "bring in this person for questioning if you see him/her". The former is issued by police departments and doesn't guarantee jail, while the latter is issued by a judge and usually requires a short stay in jail until you appear before that judge. So the legal side of it depends entirely on if the Lair Legion answer to the police or only to the justice system. I sound like Lisa now.
>
> It's an interesting point. But at the least Hatman would want to ask her, "Did you set loose prisoners from the Safe?" I recall from Jay's comments at the time of that happening that he felt that Hatman would have to bring Chiaki in if the answer was "yes."

Well technically all Chiaki did was pull the fire alarm. Even if they had video, which they don't, that's the only thing there could possibly be physical evidence of. The argument in court would be whether she knew it would cause a prisoner release. They know it was premeditated because she made an appointment to visit them.

Theoretically a good defense lawyer could say she pulled the alarm because she noticed some undetermined danger. That would be reasonable doubt. Also the defense lawyer could go on the attack against the Safe, because they didn't have a decent security staff procedure in case the fire alarm was triggered (it releases the prisoners to avoid the liability of having them burn alive).

Legal arguments aside, though, this is why Chiaki has always been very careful about what she says about this incident, and also what she says about Akiko, in Hatman's presence. He probably knows that too - that saying too much to him is like pushing him into a corner, where he's forced to take action. She's sparing his feelings as much as her own.


> > Other than that, though she doesn't make a big deal of it, in some ways Chiaki knows Hatman probably better than he knows himself. She knows that if she speaks to him in person right now, there will be a conflict within him between Jay, a friend of hers, and Hatman, the Lair Legion's poster boy for order and justice.
>
> Indeed. But duty would win out. This is a man who chose to erase a happy relationship with the woman he loved and their unborn child to instead do the right thing for the world.

That's why she hasn't told him anything. She literally doesn't have the confidence that Hatman will spare her.

Now here's where her thoughts on the subject get kind of cruel, in a way:

Hatman is what Chiaki would call a "bridge burner". That he believes in second chances, all right, but only after someone has paid for a crime. That he's a believer that if you aren't willing to pay, you should never have done it, even if the price for it is very high. Chiaki disagrees on both counts; some prices are far too high (see more below) and some people deserve another chance outside the justice system.

Chiaki also believes that the only Hatman hasn't turned in Liu Xi for the people she's killed is because of a horrible paradox in his own philosophy. He does want Liu Xi to pay for her crimes before she's given another chance; but that payment is her death at the hands of the justice system, and he couldn't bear to send a friend to die. She believes that to this day, Hatman is still torn by it, and she keeps an eye on Liu Xi in case Hatman changes his mind and tries to convince Liu Xi to trust the justice system and turn herself in.


> > She thinks he'll probably bring her in if only because he'll weigh his options and believe that no immediate harm will come to her because of it, because he can then balance that by representing her and speaking on her behalf.
>
> Hatty would require the criminal justice system to be properly and fairly applied.

The problem comes when he expects the justice system to behave a certain way, and it doesn't. Like what happens if he thinks that speaking on Chiaki's behalf will earn her a few years' probation under his watch? But then because of public opinion, the judge throws the book at her and she gets 15 years in the Safe without probation?

And that's why Chiaki doesn't trust Hatman in that regard. She knows he has misplaced faith in the justice system; and if it fails his trust, he'll still stand by it. Meaning she could be in the Safe for 15 years, and Hatman would simply shrug it off as the price she has to pay.

As an aside, that particular scenario also instills fear in Chiaki for two reasons: Most of the population in the Safe doesn't particularly like her, and it would be dozens of powerful meta against one disarmed Samurai; and because she knows herself, and fears she'll be seething hatred toward Hatman for doing that to her.


> I'm not sure it's a "witch hunt" in the "unfair accusations" sense if there's actually a witch and she's been doing bad magics. Since Chiaki DID actually break into the Safe and DID actually release prisoners she is actually GUILTY of what she's suspected of.

The witch hunt part is where it goes from minor charges to the maximum penalty simply because public opinion and political turmoil wants someone to nail to the cross for allowing a dangerous prisoner escape. The judge who sentences the Psychic Samurai to jail for 15 years is going to be front page for sure.


> The get-out that I built into Saving the Future was that alongside what she did, Doorman intervened to make things far more deadly and to release the really hardcore prisoners too. That confusion of who-did-what might be enough to get Chiaki off the hook by story-arc's end.

Generally when something like that happens, the public wants everyone's heads. They'd want to see Doorman locked up, and the Psychic Samurai, and also see the warden of the prison fired, along with anyone else involved. At least until the subject fades from the news, and everything seems safe now.


> > Chiaki doesn't want to be on the run forever. She has a plan not to be, though - as public memory of the jailbreak begins to fade because of other events, the witch hunt will end, and it will be safer for her to resolve the issue. She just needs to buy some time.
>
> There's no statute of limitations on organising a jailbreak.

No, but there is one on top stories in the newspapers. Chiaki doesn't want her day in court to be a top news story, because that would encourage the maximum penalty to set an example. If she does eventually turn herself in, it'll be when her case is just a footnote of history - then she'd likely just get probation.


> > > > It's plenty believable that Lara has a chat with Lisa because she's can zap herself across the universe from wherever Shen Rae took her. I wonder what the Chronicler's opinion of her would be now.
> > > I suspect he was plainly speaking his mind when they last met.
> > Even after she sort of helped things this time?
>
> I guess it would be up to Greg (DK) to really define the relationship, but since the Chronicler is usually depicted as a remote slightly-mysogenistic and paranoid introvert I don't see him viewing Lara with much but suspicion.

What's funny about that is, Lara doesn't like him much either, but she wishes he would at least try listening to her long enough to see that she's different from the usual people he hates.


> > I originally picked Paradopolis U because it has its own neighborhood, probably its own character, and definitely is a large place for exploration. As weird as it is, Liu Xi can only explore the Lair Mansion so much before it starts to feel a bit like a prison.
>
> It remains one of the places in Paradopolis most in need of fleshing out.

I'd have to work on that slowly. I see Paradopolis U as a combination of ultra-modern and old and broken down.