asgardeventide | 003; video/text

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003; video/text

[Hanging in the Odin Welcome Hall. Itsuki offers a smile and a typically composed look to the bracelet.]

Greetings, everyone. Perhaps not all of us have had a chance to go through the publicly available, ah, discussions with our resident trickster god. I thought that I'd perhaps offer a little executive summary of information which was new, at least, to me, to those who haven't been able to. It is attached as a text file to this message.

Of course, I would love to hear other thoughts on these matters. My own opinion is that Loki's argument was reasonably compelling. No matter what our true affiliation is, there is certainly no purpose to be served by not even appearing to be cooperative. For my part, I'm inclined to say that cooperation is in fact the best route for all our interests. [Though of course he'd say that either way.]

[text]
Pertaining to the gods: - Odin's powers or resources are taxed by maintaining our presence. - Freyr is said to be a hostage from Vanaheim and to have incurred displeasure due to his advocacy on our behalf. The same to some extent can be assumed for Freya. - The ruler of Utgard is the "brother" of Loki, and likely hostile, certainly chaotic. - Sigyn is the wife of Loki. Despite this, the mythological incident with the horses, which I presume refers to the story that Loki was once the mother of a horse, is not denied. - The prospect of our rebellion is not a harmless one for them. They have repeated that we are the "chance to avoid the apocalypse." This reinforces two points, which, of course, we knew already: 1) The gods are not a uniform entity, but represent a spectrum of views. 2) Both they and we have stakes in our presence here, despite their power over us. Pertaining to the war: - The expected conflict should arrive within one year. - The war is predicted by a certain prophecy. - Allies of these gods include elves, as well as the gods of Vanaheim. - Enemies include the giants of both types, whose attacks on the city we have seen previously. Finally, Sena Kashiwazaki-sama provided some excellent advice on the comportment and conduct befitting a god. I would advise anyone, and indeed, everyone, to study it carefully.

[added after this thread]

Miss Hel, would you mind if I asked you a few questions?

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[Conan nods.] I work at the hospital. They've got records there, you know. The injuries they treat, records of death. And you're right, it'd be silly to think there wasn't a link between the colourless society and the lack of crime, but in half of the murders that took place since our arrival, a Traveller is clearly responsible, and the others took place before enough colour had returned that native citizens could be determined to have will and emotions of their own.

I have to disagree -- Tokyo's crime rate is high, but it's one of the biggest cities in the world. For the small time frame and small size of Asgard, the crime rate is alarming.

I see.

So, what is the annual crime rate per capita so far, then? Fifteen, you said, over the course of what we should consider, I take it, four months -- let's say forty deaths per year.... in a population whose size is probably on the order of ten to the fourth. It is not a good statistic, I'll admit, but it doesn't read like the breakdown of all order, either.

Besides-- are these deaths linked in any way?

There's a lot of links! They fall roughly into three groups --

But it's kind of not something I want to go into detail about on a public feed. If you want to know more, come and visit us in the hospital! But if you're asking if the deaths could be considered the work of a small number of people -- then the answer is yes.

That is what I was asking, yes. But in any case, may I come presently? It might be better to have more details.

Of course! Third floor of the hospital. Go to the laboratory and ask for the Forensics Department.

I'll be there soon, then.

Until then!

[To the place he goes! He's directed in without fanfare. The boy is just as small as he seemed, but this isn't a factor of judgment here. Lkie everyone else, Koizumi's seen him around on the network, after all; he knows there's something special about him.]

Good afternoon.

[The Forensics Staff are clearly busy -- although the room is mostly empty, the desks it contains are clearly occupied by busy people, if the empty coffee cups, notebooks and reference books are any indication. Conan's at his desk at the head of the room, having come back to make sure that there was somewhere there to meet Koizumi when he arrived.]

Afternoon, Koizumi-san! I'm glad you could come by.

Good evening--That's Edogawa-san, isn't that right?

[He glances around. This is certainly what it seems to be.]

You don't have to be so formal! Most people just call me Conan.

Welcome to the Forensics Unit! You'll probably think we're really unorganized, but there's only one police officer on the staff, and we're starting from scratch ... Still, any advice you can give us is welcome!

[As he speaks, Conan is gathering up a pile of files from his desk, and he nods towards an open door.] Let's take the meeting room. We'll be undisturbed there.

((ooc: have you been following the various murder plots, and you'd prefer me to skip over repetitive info or is this all new?))

If you'll call me Koizumi-san, I think I'll call you Edogawa-san.

But thank you for the welcome in any case. Personally, I think organization comes after activity. That's the way it should be. Too much organization without enough activity is the definition of a bureaucracy.

[And he smiles and follows him placidly.]

[ooc: only vaguely, to be honest! but you don't need to spend time recapping it if you don't want to.]

I hope we're not a bureaucracy. We do make a lot of records ... but I guess that happens!

[The Table get spread on the desk first, and then Conan climbs up onto a chair after them -- the perils of being shorter than the table itself.]

Are you interested in all the deaths currently under investigation, or only the one's in which we suspect a Traveller is involved?

((ooc: from tomorrow I will be travelling and possibly unable to go back and doublecheck old logs, so let's see how far my dodgy memory can get us ^^; ))

[He casts a bemused look at the boy on the table. But he's far from writing anything off about that.]

All of them, I suppose, if you have the time.

[That was an unfortunate sentence! Books on table, Conan on chair. He probably still looks like a kiddy booster seat would not go astray, not helped by the fact that he has to lean forward to spread the files in front of Koizumi.]

The first case we've traced to one traveller. A grey citizen was assaulted and then his throat ripped out. He was found in the Folkvang district. This is our only closed case -- we were able to match DNA traces on the body to a traveller.

Indeed? That's something, at least. What was the outcome?

We don't have the authority to charge someone, and after what happened the last time someone publicly denounced a Traveller for a crime ... well, mob justice isn't justice either. Yuri-sensei volunteered to talk to her.

Not ideal, but ... these are weird circumstances!

There's nowhere to get such authority, other than perhaps from the gods who are considered by the populace even more illegitimate than nothing at all. I feel it would be best to charge this someone despite it. If it's a case of murder, as you yourself just indicated -- "talking to her" is not perhaps the most commensurate solution, even under these circumstances.

Not if charging her leads to someone deciding to take it upon themselves to be judge, jury and executioner. Not only would that make as culpable of manslaughter but in the previous case, the original criminal used her death at the hands of the Traveller who believed he was dealing out 'justice' to twist the facts of the case in her favour and garner sympathy for her cause.

It's a very volatile situation.

The person who spreads information is not responsible for what people do with such information. I don't see that the problem is any different if, say, the original culprit kills again because no restrictions have been placed upon her, not even information.

Of course, it's all simply just the more reason that an enforceable justice system, and system of government, is necessary. And all that's necessary for that is some group with sufficient power and legitimacy.

I definitely agree with you on the team part -- especially since, culprit in case one is the prime suspect in the second series of killings. The targets in these instances were all citizens and their bodies hidden in the sewer indicating that the threat of Traveller censure was unwelcome enough to her that she started taking steps to cover up her actions ... but without authority, we couldn't follow up on our advantage.

I was planning to raise these cases at Keine-san's meeting, but Koizumi-san sounds like he has ideas of his own! I'd -- really like to hear what you think we should do. This current situation is -- not acceptable.

[He sizes up Conan privately before nodding to himself.]

There's an obvious method of differentiating people by their strength here, wouldn't you say, Edogawa-san?

If only some of those people -- just a plurality -- can be convinced to band together in support of a common goal, even if provisional, or certain common principles, it will be enough. There's no other group in Asgard which is unified; therefore even the smallest viable group should be able to assert itself. In other words -- an interest group, so to speak; both covert and public.

There's definitely people who've established themselves as reliable and trustworthy.

The Forensics Unit is sort of like that -- to an extent. We're used to working together now and we're under the radar, but we've definitely got a common interest. But we should be separate from the group that judges things, that makes decisions -- to ensure that their decisions and our investigations remain unbiased.

Of course. That wouldn't be appropriate. That said, if there were a group, of limited purpose and limited scope, which agreed to perform oversight and to quietly enforce actions, I think it could be useful.

Who do you have in mind?

Yuri-sensei and Edgeworth-sensei have been long advocates of a system of justice here, and before Edgeworth-sensei left, he had done a lot of research into the laws of our various worlds. I think whoever was part of the team, we'd want to have representatives from worlds with democracies, worlds ruled by monarch's and worlds where the gods played a major role in decision making.

Merlin-san or Arthur-san would be good fits for monarchic representatives. They've been active in the city sometime, but I suspect that they're really busy with their own initiatives. For worlds where the gods are major influences, Euri-neesan, Castiel-san and Sam-san might all be good fits. The democracy is a bit harder since we've got a much wider pool to choose from, but I'd look at Nina-neechan and Yuri-sensei. Although, I think that opening nominations up for the wider Asgard public to submit would not be a bad idea!

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