maskormenacelogs | AGE PLOT SHENANIGANS

[ A slight hesitation. But he deserves it. And she likes this kid, really a lot. He's smart, and level-headed. So: ]

My world's run by magicians. A friend of mine and I - we made a magician wreck his car by accident. So he hurt us. Jakob - my friend - got hurt really badly. And so I tried to sue the man who did it.

[ She can't even summon up a grim smile. ]

It didn't go well. People like me don't get a voice where I'm from.

[He furrows his brow at the mention of magicians. What, like the guys who pull rabbits out of their hats? No, no, that can't be right...

That train of thought doesn't last long, though. As Kitty continues her story, Miles' eyes widen, his jaw practically dropping]

And he got away with it?!

[Oh wow that is an awfully loud voice for such a small child. Volume has never been a problem for him when justice was on the line, though]

[ Oh - that is...some voice. She's startled, and blinks at him, her misery rather interrupted by his fierce little temper. But that doesn't last too terribly long; after all, she doesn't think his anger is disproportionate. She's just not used to people being as outraged as she is. ]

He more than got away with it. I had to pay him a hundred pounds in apology, and cover all his legal fees. More than I could pay. If I hadn't had help, I'd have gone to debtors' prison. And if I'd been older, I'd have gone to prison for wrecking his car, too.

[ ...She manages to work herself up to a good amount of anger, too. Before the end of it. ]

That's... that's not fair!

[What he just said is immature, and Miles knows it. He harrumphs to himself and crosses his arms, closing his eyes as he tilts his chin up]

And what kind of stupid place still has debtors' prison, anyway? That's illegal here. It's unconstitutional.

[You can't sound immature when you're using legal terminology. This is objective fact]

I know.

[ Her lips tighten. Though...she doesn't know about that unconstitutional part - but hey, his outrage fuels hers, she's not about to slow him down. ]

It's not in my world, though. In my world, it's just part of the machine that goes to feed the system. The desperately poor get swept up off the streets and recycled into the most menial labor. They do the most horrid and dangerous jobs to work off their debt. And they never have a chance to speak for themselves. And no one speaks for them. We haven't got anyone to protect us.

[ She lifts her chin, her posture mimicking the boy's. Stubbornly, fiercely, she says: ]

But I'm going to protect them. I'm going to defend my people, like no one has ever done. I'm going to crush all the injustice, all the evil of that system, and remake it into something kinder.

[He's looking at her, listening to her, hanging onto every word. And then, a question]

How are you going to do it?

[He does not ask her to mock her, or to shove his doubts in her face. The idea that she could fail hasn't occurred to him yet. His curiosity is completely genuine]

[ This boy is the first person she's told the truth to. Everyone else has gotten half-truths; she's always stuck to her story of recruiting heroes, because that's something that any new magicians coming to her world wouldn't be able to stop - that's something Mandrake wouldn't be able to stop, either, though she's gotten less worried about him. This kid has been honest, though, and he's so sweet and so genuine and so idealistic: for the first time, she confides in someone her more delicate plan, the one that could more easily be crushed and defeated. ]

I'm going to cut off the magicians' access to the Other Place. The world of spirits.

[ She takes a breath. ]

It'll stop their magic and rob them of their ability to hurt us, and once they're not strong we can topple them. And it'll save the spirits from being abused by them, too. They're so awful to the spirits, which are such...strange and proud creatures - I'm going to stop them doing that any longer.

[Aaaand he's lost now. Miles furrows his brow, trying to follow Kitty's plan, but there's just too much he doesn't know. Oh, he gets the gist, he thinks, but he's missing too much context. She might as well be saying that she'll block the hurgen from the blurgen so she can flormpenschtap, for all that he knows about magic]

And how does that work? The... the spirit thing, I mean.

Edited 2015-04-14 22:07 (UTC)

[ She glances at the kid - and he looks confused. Which is sort of disappointing. This was supposed to be a really cool, dramatic declaration, and he was supposed to look impressed...Ugh.

Well... ]

The magicians that rule my world - they got to ruling it by calling over spirits, creatures of magic who can cast spells, and enslaving them. And I don't mean that dramatically, either - they're really slaves. Magicians can inflict pain on them from hundreds of miles away if they don't obey, or even tear them in two and kill them. It's horrid. Spirits alone can do magic; magicians can't. And so they torture the spirits until those spirits use magic on us, the commoners, and keep us afraid. They use the spirits to kill us, too, if we try to rise up against them.

But they only get access to spirits by reaching into the Other Place. If I can cut off the Other Place, then I can cut off their ability to bring the spirits into our world. And if they haven't got that, then they haven't got any access to magic at all. And we can fight them. And the spirits will have peace.

And the secret to severing our connection to the Other Place is here, in this world. People who used to be able to travel through dimensions can't any longer once they're Ported in. So I've just got to get access to the Porter and figure out how it seals off interdimensional travel.

[ She hopes that sounds...clearer. She's afraid it doesn't, and so she bites her lip self-consciously. ]

[He flinches when Kitty describes the spirits' plight, his face twisted by squeamishness and nerves. Miles doesn't let himself become paralyzed by horror, though, and he nods solemnly, trying his best to look both serious and brave. There's only one thing he doesn't understand now]

That could work... but why don't you just get the spirits to fight back? I mean, they're the ones with the real power, right?

[ A very good question, young man. An Kitty's face twists with frustration due to the answer to that: ]

I tried.

[ A short, unhappy shrug. ]

They don't trust any human at all. Even a commoner like me. They assume that we'll just use them like other humans have. It's frustrating that they think that, but...not surprising, I guess.

[ And then a sigh. ]

Which is why I wish that we had better people. People who'd do things the right way, to show the spirits that we won't hurt them.

Well...

[He hesitates, biting his lip. This sounds like a stupid question. It may very well be a stupid question. But it's one that needs to be asked]

What about a magician? Are they all bad?

[ Kitty hesitates. First, the answer she feels: ]

They're all wicked.

[ And then the one she knows logically. The one that her experiences have shown her. ]

Maybe. I always thought. But there might be one who might be willing to help.

[The hope that there's one decent magician, however faint it may be, perks Miles up]

That's a start. You just have to win him over.

Yeah.

[ She felt like she was maybe getting somewhere. Before. Back before they all lost their memories...But who knows now? Who knows how far they've been set back? Or even if all of that was real -

She struggles against the choking weight of despair. The kid doesn't deserve to have to deal with her existential crisis. And they're getting close to her cafe anyway; she points it out - ]

That's where we're going.

[ And then a huffed breath. ]

Anyway, I told you all that and I don't even know your name.

Oh!

[How rude! Miles' cheeks turn pink, but he clears his throat, puffing himself up as if he's never even heard the word embarrassment before]

Miles Edgeworth.

[Fancy name for a fancy kid. He sounds pretty proud of it, too.]

[ And Kitty stops dead in her tracks. Her reaction to that is immediate - and severe. She draws back, her eyes going wide, and her face even pales. And she stares at the child like he's a wild beast about to bite her. Irritable, angry, sullen, sad, friendly - she's looked all of these things in their conversation to this point. The one thing she didn't look, and what she looks now, is frightened. ]

That - can't be.

[ But why not? She's younger, isn't she? And so are dozens of others. And their memories are displaced - and she can see it now, in his face, in his eyes, even in the stupid color of his stupid hair. Add twelve years and subtract that kindness there's the man who's so nasty to her, who sneers at her ideals -

How the hell did he get to that point? she wonders. More pertinently: God, God, please don't let him remember anything we've talked about if he returns to normal -

Nearly in a panic, she says: ]

I've - I've got to go.

[Miles blinks, jerking back. What the heck?! Why is she scared? And why is she so surprised? Gears begin to churn, but before he can put the pieces together, he becomes sidetracked by Kitty's escape]

Hey!

[He steps forward, unwilling to let her go]

What's going on?

[ She wants so desperately to storm off without another word. The older Miles Edgeworth - She'd have done that to him. The older Miles Edgeworth, who is just a nasty, officious puppet of the people in charge, a baying lapdog, devoid of empathy or decency - he wouldn't deserve any explanation. But this kid - he's Miles Edgeworth as well, yeah, but decent, idealistic, kind. Open-hearted and honest. Smart. The sort of kid who ought to have grown up into a really great person - He deserves better than that.

So she stops. She won't run. She'll explain to the kid as best she can. And as...gently as she can. No you grow up into a right bastard. ]

You're not a new imPort, Miles. You've been here before. But it was an older version of you.

[So she knew him. Miles goes very still, frowning to himself, tugging on the side of his pants again]

I know that.

[He's speaking quietly now, his voice softer than it's been during their entire question]

I know what's going on around here. And I know there was an older version of me running around, too. I found some of his things, but...

[He looks down, focusing on a crack in the sidewalk]

I haven't been able to figure it all out. Not yet.

[ Okay. He knows. Then that makes things easier. She doesn't have to convince him. Just this: ]

Your future self - and me. We're - not friends.

[After a moment, he finds the nerve to look back up on her, his expression dark and serious]

What happened?

[He knew it wasn't as simple as not getting along or getting on each others' nerves. She looked scared. Something must have happened, but what?]

We...

[ Kitty takes a breath and struggles with how to phrase it. Because the thing is - she doesn't want to shit on Edgeworth to his younger self. She doesn't want to make it seem to Miles like he grows up into someone rotten - even though that's absolutely, completely true. Or - not rotten, but definitely a jerk. Because he isn't...corrupt, exactly, but...But he is someone who would side with the magicians. Someone who would be a magician if they were at home. And that's something to hate.

But she's got to make it sound to Miles like he doesn't turn into a complete jerk. And that's sort of hard. She's got to position herself so that she can see from his position. So she thinks, and then finally manages: ]

You...think my plan is really dangerous. So your older self would try to stop it if he could. [ A breath. ] So I can't give you any more information about my home, or what I'm going to do to free my people, because when you're older you might use it to try to prevent me from doing it.

[Miles watches the way she hesitates. He watches the way she pauses, the way she struggles with her words, the way she selects her words. He furrows his brow, thinking about her and her reactions. Is she really telling the truth? He doesn't want to say that she's lying, but she's acting the same way people do in court, when they have something to hide.

Before he jumps to conclusions, though, he looks at the facts. Nothing she's said now conflicts with anything she said before. It also explains why she was so frightened; if they weren't friends because of anything less important than her plans, then she wouldn't have been so scared. But if it was anything worse, then she wouldn't be talking to him right now. While Miles still doesn't know if this is the truth, he decides that this is the most likely truth.

He still frowns, scowls even, when she says she can't tell him anything more. However, there is one thing he wants to know more about, that doesn't have to do with magicians or revolutions]

Well...how do you know that we're going to get older?

[Not back to normal, older. He can handle the idea of an older version of himself, so long as it's another version of himself. The idea that the other Edgeworth isn't a different person, but simply a different state of mind, is beyond his comprehension.]

I...don't. I guess.

[ She reaches up and tucks hair behind her ear. She does not enjoy this idea at all. She wants to be back to who she was, but she doesn't even know for sure that all of this isn't a lie. She doesn't know - God, why did this have to be Miles Edgeworth?

She bites her lip. ]

I...It's possible we'll stay like this. Definitely possible.

AGE PLOT SHENANIGANS

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