World Tree MUSH

An hour after sunset, at a clearing near a small fourteenth century medieval city. Lucianne has stacked up enough firewood to make a decently-sized campfire, but hasn't lit it yet. She's waiting for others to show up, having invited them to join her. There's a nearby tent, and some cheap modern outdoor folding chairs for seating. She's in one herself, looking up at the full moon with both eyes upon, no eyepatch tonight, so the light of her left eye makes it easier to find her.

    Lex wanders over, with Lightshard 18 on her back. The two are having an idle conversation about nothing in particular; Lex's prosthetic limbs are once again flesh-tone.

    Shard is saying, "... but if you left your heart in San Francisco, you probably wouldn't survive."

    Lex laughs, and shakes her head. "Still not literal song-lyrics," she says. "Hey, Lucianne. How's it going?"

"Good, good." Lucianne answers, glancing over. "It's about time. Glad you could make it, wouldn't be the same if I did this without witnesses." She smiles, and reaches into the tent to grab a bag of marshmallows. "I hear these taste good if roasted over a fire; figured I'd give it a try." She then turns back towards the fire, "Shard's right you know, you would die if you left your heart in San Francisco."

Speaking of leaving your heart in San Francisco, Holly's still looking for that version of the city. For now she's brought crackers and chocolate since Lucianne already brought marshmellows. It wouldn't be a bonfire without smores after all. She's accompanied with Servis and Lavaux floating next to her of course. "Hi Lex and oh no your friend's eye is fire!" Seeing Lucianne, she drops the bag and begins look for a source of water in a panic.

    "I'll have to take your word for it with regards to the taste," says Shard.

    Lex tilts her head curiously. "It's okay to roast food over this fire-ritual, kind of thing?" she says. She smirks faintly. "Guys, the song is a metaphor!" she says. "For, I mean, loving the city and missing it, kind of thing!" Beat. "... I think. I haven't really, uh, listened to it before."

    She shrugs. "Thanks for the help other day, by the way," she says. "As ... little as it was, I guess? But, uh." She clears her throat. She's somewhat reluctant to reveal her secret identity, but in her mind, Lucianne is well above that threshold. "Actually, I have to confess that we ..."

    And then here comes Holly, interrupting Lex's train of thought. "Uh," she says. "Holly, no! She's ... it's ... this idiosyncratic magic 'thing' she's got going!" She gives Lucianne an apologetic look.

"My eye is probably supposed to be fire. It's been fire for as long as I know." Lucianne answers Holly immediately, and she shrugs to Lex. "It's not about how you do it, it's about doing it. You have to spend money on fuel and then burn it. It's important, but it's not like... supposed to be all solemn and boring. And, I did what any good person would, so don't mention it" She turns to Holly. "Lucianne Helia, a pleasure to meet you, Holly." She offers.

"Oh, so you're a fire mage then? Or some kind of light mage?" That's what the witch figures from Lucianne's eye and her name. Holly shakes the offered hand and picks up the bag with her other one. "So do you see in heat out of that eye and does it hurt at all? What happens if you roll over in bed?"

 "Holly, maybe you shouldn't ask her so many questions about her eye. It might be a sensitive subject for her." Servis is quick to point out to her.

 "Oh, sorry..."

    Lex opens her mouth to comment on the subject of 'as long as she can remember', then closes it. Instead, she says, "I think you're overestimating 'what anyone would do.' I've just, like, there's been so many situations where I would've just gone, 'there's no way I'd be able to do anything, I don't wanna risk it', before Lightshard 18 came into my life."

    "Whereas you, Miss Lucianne," says Shard, "throw yourself into situations without any such thoughts. I find I approve."

    Lex turns shrugs uncertainly to Holly's speculation. "Yumi thinks she might be some kind of paladin, or something," she says. "Giant question mark!"

"I'm officially certified as, uhh..." Lucianne pulls out some paperwork, "An Enigma." She puts the paperwork back and shrugs, "I see normal out of it, it doesn't hurt, and I sleep with my eyes closed." She closes the eye for emphasis, the eyelid closes just fine; though the heat and light glows through. She sighs at the praise she's been given, and recites. "Principle of the Eye: Keep on the lookout for dangers, living or natural to society." She begins, and then, "Principle of the Shield: Defend those in need of protection from crime, villainy and disaster."

The girl shrugs, "Basic common sense principles, I just did the natural thing." She maintains that attitude towards it, "Anyway. Time to start a fire." She picks up a stick, pokes her eye to set it on fire, and uses it to light a fire. "So today, I figured we'd talk about justice." She offers, "Don't really know why, but it seems important." She gets out the pokers for the marshmallows, and hands them out, "So let's start with a question. What's the difference between justice and judgment?"

"She doesn't know what she is? Did she lose her memory?" Holly has a bit of a confused look on her face and then appears a bit uneasy as Lucianne mentions crime. The witch is a bit of a thief after all. Her mood changes quickly though as Lucianne lights the stick on fire with her eye, "That's neat, can you launch fireballs from your eye?! Oh, I know this. Judgment is coming to a decision, but justice is coming to the right one!" It sounds a bit odd coming from her of all people.

    Lex shrugs; she's not about to argue with someone that dedicated to being a hero. Especially since it's roughly similar to her own philosophy. She manages not to wince at the sight of Lucianne sticking something into her eye, fire or no. "Uhh ... I dunno, it seems like 'justice' and 'judgment' are ... apples and oranges, kind of thing ..."

    "'Judgment' is value-neutral," says Lightshard 18. "One can be judged good or evil, for better or for worse, and this judgment can be unjust. Justice is a restoration of the imbalance caused by evil or wrongdoing."

    Lex peers over her shoulder at the handle of her sword. "Yeah, that," she says. "... Wouldn't've thought you were the philosophical type, Shard."

    "When you disagree with the fundamental reasons for which you were created," says Shard, "it has all kinds of interesting results."

"You're in the right direction." Lucianne answers Holly, and she nods to Shard. "Pretty good. I would say, Judgment is about reward, punishment and assigning people into categories. Justice is about making things right." She offers, "And judgments can be a tool to pursue justice, but you should never call someone whose job it is to judge after justice." She offers, "Personally, I think of everyone having a set of scales. On one end, are the debts you owe to others, and on the other, are the debts others owe to you."
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"In general, people should try to balance out those scales, and the easiest way to do is to try to keep them clean. Owe no debts, leave no debts unpaid. Of course, that's easier said than done; and some debts cannot be repaid." Lucianne offers, "And of course, people can also owe a debt to society, or have society owe a debt to them. The rich and the destitute in particular are likely to be in such situations, but they're not alone." She starts to roast her own marshmallow. "Does this make any sense to you guys?"

Holly takes a marshmellow along with some chocolate and a couple of graham crackers making a s'more. "I'm guessing something like murder is a debt that can't be repaid then. I mean I rather not kill anyone, it tends to create vengeful ghosts after all. Do you mean the rich owe society for their good fortune or something like that?" She thinks she understand the basics of what Lucianne is getting at but it sounds like their morality differs somewhat.

    Lex sets to work making s'mores of her own. "Makes perfect sense to me," she says, nodding to Lucianne. She pauses, and looks over to Holly. "Basically, yeah, I think," she says. She, on the other hand, seems to have a relatively similar ethos to Lucianne. "And, like, society owes poor people, kind of thing." She makes a face. "I'd really not kill anyone anyway. That's basically, like, something you can't un-do, and stuff."

    "Agreed," says Shard, "though I'll reserve judgment on the matter of killing people on general principles."

"Realistically speaking, sometimes you need to make a choice. Kill someone or let other people die because you let that person live. Hopefully none of us will have to make that choice, but it's something to think about; some other time though. Anything where nothing can make the injured party whole is a debt that cannot be repaid." Lucianne answers on the topic of killing people, clearly aware that this makes other people uncomfortable. "But yeah, I will acknowledge that in theory there might be people who got super rich entirely on their own merits; but that's not going to be a common thing. Mostly, the rich did so by exploiting society in some way, either personally or their ancestors. Now, I'm not saying they need to give up their wealth, that would be one way to solve it; but more realistically, they just need to balance it out."

Lucianne looks up at the moon, "Principle of the Scale: Those who live in comfort and affluence must care for those who struggle. For the affluent to gather wealth when suffering grows is a crime against the poor." She enumerates another principle, "Or in other words. The rich have an obligation to look after the poor and if they all do that, this balances out the debts owed by society to the poor, and by the rich to society."

"Are these the beliefs of a group you belong to, Lucianne? How are you going to get the rich to do that though? I don't think forcing them is going to work to well." Holly's not really concerned about the disturbation of wealth, she has bigger problems after all. "Plus it takes a lot more to make some people happier than others."

    Lex nods along with Lucianne's description; she really doesn't have anything to add to this discussion. Though when Holly raises that question, she chuckles and shrugs. "Man, that is one hell of a pickle, I tell you what," she says. "That's one of those things where even now I don't wanna try touching it. Unless some kind of revolution was already in the works, kind of thing," she adds.

    "I'm forced to agree," says Shard. "What's your answer, Lucianne?"

"I dunno where these came from, but they're real important." Lucianne answers Holly with a shrug and a smile, "As for how, well ... the rich are supposed to do it voluntarily. If they won't, well..." There's a faint smile, "Principle of the Ledger: Leave no debt to which you are party unpaid, neither as a creditor nor as a debtor. Those who do wrong whether by intent or accident owe a debt to their victims." She offers up, "And we just established that for the rich, leaving the poor to suffer is a crime against the poor." She smirks faintly, "So guess what that means?" She's glancing at Shard in particular here.

"You're going to rob the rich? Hmmm, I'm sure they have a lot of powerful magic artifacts..." Holly could get behind this. "They should share those with those are less magically talented!" It would be one way for her to become a great witch after all.

    Lex looks like this question is actually giving her a certain amount of trouble. This isn't helped by Holly, who seems to have roughly the exact opposite philosophy from Lex regarding theft. "... I ... don't quite think that's what she's goin' for, Holly," she says weakly.

    "I would imagine it means that you do what you are able to enforce these debts, by hook or by crook," says Shard. "Well ... mostly 'hook', I suppose, in your case, Miss Lucianne."

    "What?" says Lex.

    "Oh," says Shard. "'By any means necessary', but not to the extent that you would incur further debts in doing so. I'd still be interested to hear how she intends to go about doing so."

"Well, I don't do anything unless the poor ask me for help. They're not my debts to pay or collect." Lucianne answers Holly first, "But magical artifacts are not typically the kind of thing the poor would be owed. The general idea is more enough to arrange all the necessities for a dignified life." She smiles and nods to Shard, "If someone were to ask me for help, that's more or less accurate. If not, well, I have a duty to protect people. I don't have a duty to settle other people's debt. I'd never be done if I did." One notable failing in this worldview is that it's poorly suited to dealing with structural problems, even if it acknowledges they exist.

"Oh...what about living up to your family name? Like someone belongs to a powerful family but they're not powerful?" Holly wonders how they feel about that. "So you won't help someone who might need your help if they don't admit it?" This is starting to make her a bit confused again.

    Lex nods slowly; she isn't entirely sure how well this works in practice, even if she can't articulate why even to herself. And Holly raises an interesting question, even if Lex isn't sure where the 'powerful family' bit is coming from.

    Shard, however, has another question. "And if enforcing a debt proves to be outright beyond your ability?" she says. "For example, a debtor refuses to pay their debt to you, who is more powerful than you. What then?"

"People are not entitled to power." Lucianne answers Holly with a shrug, "I get that it must feel awful to feel like a failure, but I'm sure there's a path you're meant to walk and that lack power will help you get there." She offers genuinely, clearly believing every word; and clearly believing that Holly isn't speaking hypotheticals. "And there's a duty to help those who are in danger, but debts aren't a danger." She then glances to Shard, "You can ask others for help, pay them out of what they collect. Debt collection is a messy business sometimes, but an important one."

"I don't know, people who owe money could be in danger." Holly doesn't quite agree with Lucianne on that.

"Yeah, bookies aren't exactly someone you want to get on the wrong side of," Lavaux adds to that. "Or when the mob demands you take a dive."

"How does the mob make you take a dive in an already staged event?" Servis can't help but wonder now.

"There are people dumb enough to bet on wrestling believe or not." Lavaux informs the rest of them.

    "Mm." Lightshard 18 tilts slightly on Lex's back. "Well, I suppose I'm satisfied with hearing that answer," she says. "... Less-so hearing about staged fights ... but ... actually, y'know what, I'd rather not go down that rabbit hole."

    Lex peers at Servis and Lavaux, but doesn't comment. "I guess this ... is ... a lot to think about, and stuff," she says. She takes a thoughtful bite out of a s'more.

"Well yeah, but that's different. Then I'm protecting the debtor from the abusive creditor, not helping a creditor collect on a debt." Lucianne answers, taking a bite out of a s'more herself. "This is pretty good. Anyway, I think we covered about all the ground I'd prepared." She glances to Shard, "So long as everyone knows the fights are staged, I don't really see the problem. No different from watching one of those moving paintings where they have these people compete in a fisticuffs tournament involving what look like cushions strapped to their hands."

"Boxing and MMA generally aren't staged though and it sounds like you're about as familar with technology as Holly." Lavaux explains the difference.

 "I can't help my parents are old fashioned and I go to college on a world that doesn't even have radios yet." The witch hasn't been around it much. "That's why I brought them! Can't have a bonfire without s'mores!"

    "I wasn't born yesterday," Shard answers Lucianne without missing a beat. "It was about a month ago. I'm just trying to wrap my head around that kind of recursion. -- As for technology, I'm slightly more familiar with Atlantean technology for some reason, but I do have built-in wifi."

    Lex nods. "I mean, roasted marshmallows and s'mores are pretty fabulous," she says. "And so's philosophizing, and all that. I do feel like I understand about your whole deal now, Lucianne," she adds, nodding to her.

    "Likewise," says Shard, leaving out the fact that she doesn't agree with all of it.