( NPC POST, VIDEO ) magic and law

[asgardmods]

( Njord is standing beside Heimdall in what may be familiar to some as the Council Headquarters. Heimdall is reading some notes, lost in thought, while Njord begins the address in steady, soft tones. )

▒█ Wanderers. I’ve been watching with great curiosity as you all learn the magic we have gifted you, and grow accustomed to its uses. We all have, and it seems after some… analysis, that we may still have been holding some piece of that magic back. So, today we are loosening the reins. You should begin to find your magic comes easier now. It may yet not be as strong for some of you as it was before you joined us here, but… stronger than it was. █▒

( You can almost hear the gently teasing smile in Njord’s voice. Heimdall looks up, brow still furrowed in thought. )

▒█ You have all shown great willingness to help us, and an admirable desire to improve things. Today, we are also here to talk about law. It has been noted Asgard has no system in place. █▒

( Njord glances aside, smoothly takes back over. Now, a more serious topic then. He can do the talking. He matches the frown, all business, and makes a sweeping gesture as he takes the lead once more. )

▒█ Perhaps not just law, but the concept of law. There are many different systems you are all familiar with. Each has merits, has flaws. We have had no reason to enforce such a thing but… perhaps it is best not to wait for a reason. You are all passionate individuals, from vastly differing societies. We need a common ground.

So, if you might indulge us… Tell us of the ones you know. If we are to use a system of law here, it should be one chosen by you. Perhaps you can share the best and worst of your own, so we might all learn together.

Just as important, you must decide how they are enforced. Upheld. Who should enforce them. We have… soldiers among you, if you'd prefer to enforce your own laws - but know this. We will not see you harmed. I know some of your homes are more… violent than Asgard, but lethal measures are not an option that we are willing to humor.

Other than that… the floor is yours. █▒

( His smile is back. With that, it’s over to you. )

Comments

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[trafficreport]

only law's that there is no law

[Don't ask the outlaw to help you make your justice system. Or do, and see how far that gets you.]

Text: UN - GallowsCallibrator

[mindseer]

[This one was in text, so they got text... which meant it was this garrish, horrible teal colored text, peppered with numbers instead of letters. Man, good luck figuring that out.]

Spoken like a true criminal!
I knew we had at least one of your types around here somewhere!
Or we would eventually

[She wasn't even upset by that. It was just a confirmation of the inevitable to her. Besides, magistrates lived for criminals. What was batman if he didn't have a Joker to chase? A guy in a halloween costume brooding on rooftops with all of his money. That's what he was.

...

Ok, he was still that, but you get the idea.]

[trafficreport]

[Eh. He's had weirder. Gotta love the colors, though. He kinda wants to see if he can put colors in his text too.]

sound excited.
fan of outlaws?

video;

[prodigalmess]

[ Well, looks like it's time for Geeking Out About Civics with Malcolm Bright. Not that he's even a huge geek about civics, but it's something he's really familiar with, so he's ready to tl;dr all over this. Sorry in advance, everyone.

He gives a little wave. ]

Hi. My name is Malcolm Bright and I'm from the United States in 2019. I'm happy to talk a bit about our government and law enforcement system.

Basically, the US is a representational democracy. Our country is broken down into different regions within states that have representatives to Congress, or a bicameral lawmaking body. To sum it up, we have Senators and we have Representatives, whose jobs are slightly different, but overall, they make laws and represent the interests of their constituents at a federal level. Ideally, at least. [ Actually representing the people seems to be falling to the wayside in his time period. ]

So, Congress makes the laws, but that's only one branch of the government. We have three branches, which can exercise checks and balances on each other so one branch doesn't get too powerful. The Executive branch enforces the laws, with a Chief Executive or President at its head. [ And he's definitely not going to talk about the Chief Executive in the year 2019. ] We also have a Judicial branch which evaluates laws and presides over court cases. They are the ones who make sure that laws are constitutional, which means that they don't violate our Constitution, which is the the main law of the land, laid out in the late 1700s. As I said, they also oversee court cases where someone is accused of breaking the law.

[ Malcolm talks with his hands, which have been moving around this entire time. ] I am, technically, a police officer, albeit an unusual one, but I worked for the FBI, which is the United States's federal law enforcement agency. I can go into a bit more detail about how these branches of government work together to create and enforce laws and what crime and punishment looks like in my time, if you'd like.

While it seems you guys have gotten along for a while without any sort of official laws, I do think it's a good idea to have them. It sets a standard for what type of behavior is not going to be tolerated in a society. That's really important for the health and safety of its citizens. The system we have in the US isn't perfect, but I feel like for the most part it's fair and effective.

[ Thank you for coming to his TED talk. ]

audio;

[sassery]

.........did Asgard just bring in the nerdy version of a walking, talking Wikipedia?

[This was a dare, I make no apologies.]

audio;

[prodigalmess]

I'm actually the cool version. The nerdy version wears glasses.

[ aka he's fully aware what he sounds like and he's not sorry. ]

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[trafficreport]

you still got world in 2019?

[Man, the world's all ended by then where he's from. What the hell?]

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[prodigalmess]

Basically. There's not a total societal breakdown, if that's what you're asking. What's happening in your time?

video;

[sanityinruins]

[ You've met the one, now say hello to the evil twin. The main difference being he wears much more traditional clothing. ]

I do hope you aren't going to force laws around your kind.

video;

[prodigalmess]

[ Malcolm squints at the man on the screen. He knows they've spoken before, but something doesn't seem quite right. ]

My kind?

Video;

[madcuriosity]

.... [That... all went over Alice's head. So, so very much over her head.]

Goodness! How does anything get done there? It sounds terribly complicated. And shouldn't we have something that the natives of this world will want, not us? Shouldn't they decide?

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[prodigalmess]

[ Malcolm smiles at the girl. ]

Their opinion should definitely be heard. There's nothing saying that they can't have some sort of representation as well.

It can be a complicated system, but the point of it is to be fair and not just have one person or a group of people making all the decisions for everyone else.

Audio - UN: GallowsCallibrator

[mindseer]

Hahaha

[So, good news. Terezi was in the mood to be on her 'best behavior,' which meant that she was going with Audio instead of the awful text she preferred to use on a regular basis.]

Wow, man, and I thought our laws were complicated, but judges? Are judges and police and magistrates and the like a whole branch of government? On a level with your whatever you called it? That's kinda badass actually!

[madcuriosity]

Well, where I'm from, there is a queen! Queen Victoria to be precise. She makes all sorts of decisions and has help from Prince Albert. But... I'm afraid I don't really know much else. [She's seven, after all.] But Asgard already has something of a king with Mr. Odin.

Audio - UN: GallowsCallibrator

[mindseer]

Yeah, I... was sort of thinking something in that line when I started talking with them about this. Technically? If they want? They could do it that way couldn't they? With Odin and Frigg in charge on the top and the rest of them deciding things?

I mean, it's obvious they're asking us, but they could do that.

[theprezident]

[ He's not sure how much a child would know about it, but ... ]

Do you think the Queen makes good decisions?

Audio - UN: GallowsCallibrator

[mindseer]

[The two had already talked, but she wanted to get this out there right now, and it might get a little talk from others.]

I know you and I've already talked, but I will still say that for the really serious thing you're going to need some sort of punishment that makes sure that they don't want to do it.

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[sanityinruins]

[ Ye Zun is and is not a fan of laws. While he technically one of the forces behind laws in his time and place, he also was a victim of the laws as well. Hence the nasty curl to his lips as he turns this on, even as it disappears when he starts talking. ]

I've found laws often reflect society's means of controlling those they do not like. As form of oppression of victor over the defeated or the others. How are you going to make them impartial for all those under your tree's branches? How are you going to make sure that it doesn't make those from other races not feel as if their very existence is an attack?

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[sassery]

i mean laws are kinda necessary
even if theyre stuffy af
you dont wanna do shit blindy ig?
bc itll lead to the pope of your island merging himself with a statue to try and take over the world
using demon souls to power the thing
btw it takes sacrifices too
so yeah
bad idea to not have law/let things go unchecked

[mindseer]

Y34H M3BB3 ST4RT TH3 RUL3S W1TH 0N3 4B0UT N0 GL0B4L D0M1N4T10N
TH0UGH M1GHT B3 G00D T0 H4V3 S0M3TH1NG BR04D3R TH4T 1NCLUD3S TH4T

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[trafficreport]

specific example.
don't think there's a pope here.

[Video]

[theprezident]

[ Are you all okay?

Or, more exactly, are Jet and Ye Zun okay? ]

I, uh ... won't pretend that this is really my area, but I just want to say that the bigger this city grows, the more important laws are going to be. If you don't have them, you get people like Handsome Jack, who has too much power and money for anyone to actually do anything against him. Err-- I guess money's not a problem here yet but ... Still think that's important to think about.

Pretty sure we have laws where I'm from, and pretty sure Jack broke a ton of them, but nobody cares about our corner of the galaxy, so it's not like it matters.

[ He pauses for a moment, and shrugs haplessly. ]

I guess there's no such thing as a perfect system, but I really don't think the answer is to not have laws at all. Just ... Figure out the really important things, like, I don't know, don't kill people, don't cut off people's limbs or any body parts, don't force people to work until they keel over from exhaustion, stuff like that. And, uhm, maybe super powerful gods aren't the ones who should be the ones to write or enforce them. And us Wanderers shouldn't either. Should be the Asgardians. They're the ones that will have to live with each other.

Also, what Malcolm said sounds reasonable. Make sure there's not just one person or one group of people making all the decisions. 'cause, again, that's how you get people like Handsome Jack. I'd go into what makes him so bad, but then I'd never shut up, so ... I'll leave it at that.

[Video]

[prodigalmess]

[ You rang?

Also no, some of them are not ok, but Malcolm's not that surprised. Everyone comes from different places and this was an open invitation for people to expound on what they hate about the government in their home.

But more importantly, he just has to ask: ]

Ok, who's Handsome Jack?

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[skittering]

❰ lalli wouldn't really be saying anything, except a few of the other replies seem really.... complicated.... and he doesn't want to have to remember something stupid and complicated when something simple and less complicated works fine. ❱

only rules left in finland kept people alive. don't know about bigger places. ask emil about sweden. couple of cities left

break a rule and someone catches you. doesn't matter who. can't afford to matter who, if it means people might die. maybe everyone, if you don't catch it soon enough.

shouldn't waste resources on people who break the rules. kick them out. doesn't matter where they go. if they live. not our problem

Video

[ragnarsson]

Where I am from, kings and queens rule. The strongest take control and hold onto their power only so long as there isn't someone else stronger and smarter then you who can take it away. Their word is law and none may challenge it unless they wish to be executed. It is not a bad system. After all, I ruled as king for some time.

[.......And it looks like anyone who reads this will now have a solid argument for why a monarchy isn't going to work here.]