Scene #4890:

Owner	Pose
Ainsley	Ainsley is in a hospital bed. She's wearing a hospital gown. There is a heater in the room keeping it a nice temperature for her. There's a variety of books stacked up on a table nearby. She seems like she's going to be here a day or two... it seems they want to observe her. At least, that's what someone may glean from how healthy she seems to be at a glance. All of her personal effects have been piled on a chair in the corner of the room, and there's another chair nearby that seems to have been moved to a comfortable spot for a conversation. Seems like a typical hospital room. Not all that remarkable, though it meets all the expected healthcare standards. Ainsley is currently toying with the feathers on her head, a soft magical glow around her hands and her eyes as she grooms herself in the time she waits for Mel to show up. She seems distracted enough to emphasize that she makes plenty of readable facial expressions. Less a lizard and more like some kind of fantasy race one might expect from a book. The kind of book where the writer isn't too concerned with realism. The TV in the upper corner of the room emits a steady stream of news about the Multiverse. It's quite busy following the Event. It's still laced with vapid modern celebrities and politicians, though.
Mel Brock	True to her word, it doesn't take Mel long to arrive. And just as usual, she's got her jumpsuit and longcoat... but, for once, she's not wearing the latter. She's got it slung over her shoulder with one hand, and her jumpsuit has been peeled down to the waist so as to uncover a grey tanktop, a much more comfortable state of affairs that also happens to make it easier for her to stay cool once she slips in the door. The tall Marshal leans in first, knocking her free hand on the door frame, and gives a playful, "Knock knock," before stepping in. "Well, far as hospitals go, I've seen worse. How you holding up?"
Ainsley	Ainsley looks up when Mel enters the room, attention refocusing away from what she was doing and to the other Paladin. Then she waves at the television, a soft shine of blue light emitting from her hand... and the TV turns off, as if she had pressed the Off button on a remote. She doesn't appear to have one handy. "Just fine, for someone who took an entire tree to the soul." She has good humor about that, saying it as she straightens up in her seat and settles her hands in her lap. Like this, in the hospital gown, it is much easier to tell that Ainsley is a lithe creature. She would definitely not take a hit from, say, the Hulk without needing a long time to recover. "As the only Prosecutor currently in the Cursebreakers, I wanted to learn a few things about you starting from the top. What made you decide to be a Paladin?" She shines a cordial smile over at Mel.
Mel Brock	"Is that... no, that's right, not a psi. That's that... magic of yours, isn't it?" Mel asks, curiously. She hangs the longcoat on the nearest convenient object, and then moves herself over to sit down in the chair. Out of sheer habit, she moves it with her mind to accomodate herself, rather than using her hands. "Tree to the soul. That's... that's one I wouldn't have ever heard before the STA Unified." One leg crossed over the other, the psychic settles back in her chair and laces her fingers. "Answer's not gonna be as complicated as you might expect. I decided to join because it was what I'm already doing. If anything, it's kind of a return to form for me."
Ainsley	"Magic. I spoofed an infrared signal," Ainsley tells Mel Brock. She smiles in tense agreement with Mel, eyes going aside as she recalls a world where seeing one's soul was not actually something even remotely possible, even with magic in the works. She looks back to Mel and nods at the simple answer, seeming to accept it just fine. "I didn't have any expectations," she clarifies. "For me, it's... limiting, in a few ways. I used to be a lot less aware of laws and regulations. I know that's an odd thing to hear from a division head, let alone a Paladin, but I think that the limitations are a good thing." "What can you tell me about what you do? Your abilities, your view of the law and the Multiverse... I'm curious about all of it."
Mel Brock	Mel smiles. "Now /that/, is an interesting question. That last one there. But I'll get to it in a moment." She settles back a bit. "My abilities, that's a little more simple. I am on record as the strongest telekinetic in human history, at least within my galaxy of origin. Might be the strogest telekinetic period, but the Eliva aren't talking one way or the other. With this thing on," she reaches up and taps her limiter - something Ainsley is well familiar with by now, "I am rated at a hundred metric tons. That's my general safe limit by the way. I go above that by any significant amount, that's when I start seeing adverse side effects. With this /off/, the last time we tested my upper limits, it was somewhere in the neighborhood of three thousand. You, uh. You saw all of that last week. I don't swing that hard very often." Setting her hands in her lap again, she adds, "I've also had special forces training with the STA's high-end groups. Mandatory for all Marshals, given the kind of high-profile, high-risk operations we tend to get involved in. Plus the usual, investigative techniques, ways to talk someone down, that kinda thing."
Ainsley	Ainsley nods in understanding. She doesn't seem too surprised by what Mel says about her telekinetic powers, having seen it for herself when that horrific nanocolony weapon decided to brain blast her. She seems interested, openly, at the talk of her special training, in combat and high-risk operation skills... and investigation techniques draws a pleased glow to her face, followed by the grin of learning that Mel can talk people down. "Good. I'll look for people that fill in gaps to be Prosecutors alongside you, who can help lead operations when I'm otherwise indisposed. People I can trust. You seem like a good first example of that just from what I already know of you." Her praise comes with a sweet quality to her voice. She's quite happy with Mel. "I've grilled you. Do you have any questions for me? Anything important? Anything not so important but you want to ask anyways?"
Mel Brock	Mel still looks a tad amused. "Well, I didn't actually answer the other half of your question, but thanks. Before I do, though, I'm curious to hear your take on it. What do /you/ think about all this? About the law, about enforcing it. It's a pretty different ball game from the Union, and from what you were doing before." The woman holds her hand out, and her jacket shifts a little; a futuristic, sporty water bottle dislodges itself from somewhere in there, floating across the room to her hand, where she calmly unscrews it and takes a quick drink.
Ainsley	What she thinks about it. Ainsley does give that some thought. It gives her enough pause that she seems to get a somber air about her. Then she answers the question. "You're right. It's different. When they came to me with a job offer, I was surprised. I didn't feel like I would fit an organization like this one." She breathes a sigh through her nose. "I've balked at authority and laws before. I've done things that someone in this kind of profession would never feel right about, and I know I don't. I'm not perfect. But..." "I think the law is a tool to protect the livelihood and happiness of everyone. I hadn't focused on it until now. I hadn't thought, 'Would this action have legal impacts? Would it harm the local government's interests? Would it upset someone?' Because the Union didn't limit me enough. Because I didn't have those boundries and expectations." "I'll miss my time in the Union. I will. I'd done a lot, seen a lot, met a lot of interesting people. But this is my next best step." Then she awkwardly fidgets in her seat, and looks down to adjust her blanket and sheet. Then she looks back up to Mel and says, "So... there's that."
Mel Brock	When Mel listens, she does so quietly, but intently. She's careful to remain focused on Ainsley; careful to not just listen, but make it clear that she's listening. She even sits forward in her chair slightly, letting her superior officer speak as long as she cares to. Only when the quetzal stops does she sit back again, and incline her head. "That's an interesting answer. It's not the angle I come at it from, but it's a good angle to look at it. And it's good to be /thinking/ about it, too. The cop that just stops thinking about why they're doing what they're doing? Well... I don't know about you, but I don't want a mindless drone protecting and serving." The psychic shakes her head slightly, then takes a drink of her water. "Me, the way I see it is... making one person judge, jury and executioner is a recipe for disaster. No one should just put themselves above everyone else like that. Even kings and queens, they're still just fulfilling a responsibility. The law... it is, or should be, the will of the people. It's the stuff we all agree on, boils out the bias of any one person to be a little more impartial. Little more fair. And then you've got your judges and your lawyers to smooth things out. It's not perfect, not nearly, but it's a damn sight better than a dictator or a kill-happy vigilante." Smiling a little, Mel adds, "What's really gonna be fun is when you have to pick between the spirit and the letter of the law. Sometimes those don't exactly line up. Then you gotta pick which to enforce, and how hard."
Ainsley	Ainsley nods at Mel's opinion of it. The lizard woman's feathers puff up a little when she breathes in and sighs, a neutral expression on her face as the law as a way to reach a more unbiased ideal is spoken of. "It's already frustrating." She pulls her mouth into a thin line before she continues. "Just recently, someone had a task he wanted us to do. A former Rear Admiral wanted a crack team to destroy a weapon in the possession of the Elven Imperial Navy. The way it was described before I left was not encouraging. I disagree with these kinds of measures heavily." "So now I will have to speak to that Navy's officers and offer them Paladin services, pretend they don't have that weapon to prevent a diplomatic incident, and hope they accept. And then I will have to form a team and try to convince a bunch of people not to trespass or break any Elven property... and I doubt they're going to listen." "It's frustrating," she repeats, for emphasis. "But I know I'm not doing it to impede them. I'm doing it because I don't want them to go about it the wrong way. I want to point them to other ideas and prevent them from making enemies of people."
Mel Brock	"And that's the trick," Mel replies with a nod. "We do things, but we do 'em right. It's not always the best way, and people can turn it around on us. But I'll tell you something one of my instructors back at the academy told me," she adds, pointing a finger indicatively. "'The wheels turn slowly. But they do turn.' We might not always be able to act as fast as we want to. But sooner or later, we'll get there, and we'll know we did it right. Some of the stuff the Union did..." She wobbles her hand slightly. "Won't lie, I was a little shaky on it. But that was then. You ever need advice on any of this, don't hesitate to ask. Being a grumpy old cop's gotta be worth something, right?"
Ainsley	"Right." Ainsley seems happy about what Mel has said, and any of the frustration she indicated -- if her brief neutral affect said that, that is -- washes away under the reassurance that they'll do this the lawful way, and that it's worth it. "It feels strange to be put at the front of anything like they did," she admits to Mel, "To have real, codified responsibilities. It's still not as strict as a military would be but now I know I have to set the best example that I can. It's..." She fights the emotional moment she wants to have. Her face shows a strained smile. "Failing still hurts even after doing it a hundred times. It's hard to be okay when I can't stop someone from just stomping all over us. This is going to be the hardest test of who I am I have ever had. I feel like I let you all down when I end up face down in the dirt like that. It happens more than you might think. I'm not equipped for these titanic battles I keep getting caught in. But..." "There's always tomorrow. There's always drawing something positive out of it..." She wins out over the very real factors that still exist, despite finding the way to be stronger, more confident, more hopeful. "... so... what do you do for fun?" she wonders, trying to get away from the serious emotion for a bit. She let that loose pretty easily, a symptom of how her magic, no, her very soul functions.
Mel Brock	Mel's smile gets a little more subdued... but warmer, in its own way. "You're not a frontline fighter. No one expects you to be. We're not gonna be let down when you get knocked over. We're gonna be let down when you don't get back up, or when you stop giving orders. You're the one that gives us direction, Ainsley. You've got people like me to be the muscle. And yeah, there's always tomorrow." She takes a drink of her water again, but raises an eyebrow mid-drink when she's asked a more casual question. "Hm?" Lowering the bottle, she shrugs a little. "Uh... well, to be honest with you, I spend a lot of time cooped up in my ship. Before I came to the Multiverse, a week or two at a time, usually. So mostly stuff you can do in an apartment you can't leave. Lot of reading. Watching stuff, playing games here and there. I've got workout equipment to stay in shape."
Ainsley	"When I get out of here, we should play a co-op video game," Ainsley says, leaning toward Mel a little excitedly, her tail raising up to wiggle in the air the way a cat's might when being playful. Her smile is pleasant enough. But it's those feathers puffing up that really shows her excitement at the idea. "Oh! And have you read this?" Ainsley reaches over to the nearby end table, picking up a book from it and handing it over to Mel.
Mel Brock	Ainsley will feel a little tug - the book floats out of her hand and into Mel's, crossing perhaps a foot of distance to where the Marshal reaches out to grab it. "Huh... don't think I have, no. Mind if I borrow it? Be good for the next time I'm making the trip out to STA Earth."