5th Turn [Video/Action] Forward Dated to the 26th

[redjacketthief]

[It's late at night that the video feed opens. The thief is there, not remembering proper camera etiquette again, with a finger held up to his smiling lips. "Be quiet," he seems to be asking. Not that it would save him.

While he's requesting quiet, he himself is haphazardly humming a soft, haunting melody, the title of which he will swear to the day that he dies that he doesn't know. For a man who hasn't spoken to God in years, his humming is strangely reverent.

The viewers soon realize why.

The thief removes himself from the video feed, presenting a scale replica of a cathedral that some may recognize as the forever incomplete Sagrada Familia, the magnum opus of the deceased architect, Gaudi. Done up entirely in matchsticks and glue, and delicately standing on the coffee table in front of Lupin's zebra print sofa, it is but a faint echo of the original's majesty.

Astute observers will notice something different about it--it doesn't look as incomplete as it is in real life. The thief comes back into view, smiling.

There are secrets lingering just beneath the surface of his gaze. He will say nothing that will indicate what, though.]

Beautiful, isn't it. Been feeling a little nostalgic, for some reason. I thought the Old Man would appreciate it.

Comments

[justicereigns]

Makes sense I suppose.

Faith in your friends, huh. [Does he give off the sense of checking off something on a mental checklist? Because he totally just did that.]

[redjacketthief]

Isn't part of that nakama thing we talked about before?

[justicereigns]

So it would seem.

[redjacketthief]

You can have faith in other things too. Yourself. Your beliefs. Your cause.

That's only a few.

[justicereigns]

Justice. I'm well aware.

[But he appreciates the gesture.]

[redjacketthief]

[Ah, that common refrain again.] Justice is justice. It always pulls through somehow, though not always in the ways expected.

[justicereigns]

That's what I like about it.

[redjacketthief]

It's sometimes good that it's not always perfect. I know my world would be a bit less brighter if it were.

Oh, and I'd have no job. ♥

[justicereigns]

Justice is perfect, it's people's follow through that isn't.

[Stares at.]

No hearts.

[redjacketthief]

Nothing is perfect, Cap'. It's why life is interesting~

And why not hearts? ♥

[justicereigns]

Because hearts are annoying. Just ask Okita.

[redjacketthief]

Okay~

But, you have to admit, if justice were perfect then you wouldn't have your rival either. And this [He makes an encompassing gesture at the miniature cathedral.] would remain little more than a forgotten shadow of a dream.

At least now it's remembered. For a little while.

[justicereigns]

That doesn't make any sense whatsoever. What is it you think justice being perfect means?

[redjacketthief]

That people like me aren't allowed to keep running around like we do, regardless of how much or how little damage we cause. I'm sentenced to the electric chair, you know. And I'm just a thief.

[justicereigns]

Since when are justice and law the same thing? And everything you're talking about is still people's execution of justice; which is flawed, as people are.

[redjacketthief]

All right then: enlighten me.

[justicereigns]

As to what justice is?

[redjacketthief]

To you? Yeah.

1/2

[justicereigns]

True Justice is following what you know has to be done for the greater good, no matter how much it hurts you personally.

Following it gives me my place in the world, in any world.

It's not absolute, what is correct for one set of circumstances is wrong for another. Just as life has exceptions, justice has to keep up with them.

[justicereigns]

Look, you're asking me to try to summarize my entire life's philosophy into something easy to explain.

Everyone has a sense of justice inside them. Like you. Let's say you have to choose between a diamond you set your sights on or saving a little girl, otherwise they both fall into a chasm to be lost forever. Choosing the girl does nothing for you, she's an orphan, she might live a miserable life, and a diamond could pay for... whatever the hell you wanted. But in your gut, or heart, wherever you feel it, somewhere inside you, people start off with knowing the little girl should be rescued. Chalk it up to herd mentality, but there's more to it than that. That feeling that tells you saving the girl is right, that's justice.

People's follow-through of it is imperfect. They get clouded, they might argue that the girl would be miserable and die soon anyway because her village was in trouble, and that saving the whole village was too hard for them to do; but whatever reasons they put to it, there's still a general sense of knowing those excuses are wrong. They can bury it, and plenty do, but the justice is still there, whether it's followed or not.

[ooc: Following some of Plato's theories there since it seems to jive with what we've seen of Smoker most so far.]

[redjacketthief]

Sweet. Simple. To the point. No wonder you get along with Pops so well.

[He admired such a viewpoint, honestly. It was straightforward, no strings attached, and showed a man willing to be creative with the rules so long as the right thing was accomplished.

In another life, he wouldn't have minded being alongside such a man. Reality was as it was, however, and they were on opposite ends of the law and from completely different worlds.]

You know? I knew I had a pretty good feeling about you. Thanks. For humoring me. Still gotta get to the library one of these days and dig through books.

[justicereigns]

[Shrugs.] Plato's Republic was a fascinating read.

I'm not sure which world that is from.

[redjacketthief]

Mine. Or one like mine. Plato is a philospher from two millenia ago. There's lots of other philosophers to read too, even from Plato's own culture.

[justicereigns]

Oh? Got any good names?

[redjacketthief]

Out of the Greeks? There's always Socrates and Aristotle, though I was always more for the epic myth cycles. The Iliad and the Odyssey are good ones.