08: [Action]

[truthsnomiracle]

[All over Prospero for the next couple of days, though primarily near the courthouse, Prosecutor's Office, and Bay View Hotel, you may encounter Miles Edgeworth looking amiss in a couple of ways.

First off, he's not wearing his usual suit. Instead, he's wearing a stiff (and lightly armored) burgundy trenchcoat over a dark grey bulletproof vest that fully covers his torso, shoulders, and neck (though the latter is less obvious since his cravat's tied around it), which in turn is over a plain white shirt. Plain burgundy pants and heavy-duty dark grey knee pads (and matching elbow pads, to judge by the way the coat is hanging) complete the ensemble.

Second, he's clearly extraordinarily fatigued, yawning with bags under his eyes and sluggish in his movements... if he hasn't already fainted, or isn't collapsing before your very eyes. There's likely a paper or styrofoam cup full of tea involved, whether he's awake and holding it in his hand or asleep and its contents have spilled nearby.

Miles Edgeworth may not be under the Devil Arcana's direct influence yet, but being one of the few sane people left on the island is taking its toll nonetheless.]

[[OOC: This post is the fun-for-all-ages stage of things! The scary parts come later.]]

Comments

[truthsnomiracle]

Mmph... ungh?

[Edgeworth rolls, fortunately away from Allen instead of towards him, and yawns. He opens his eyes, blinks at Allen blearily, then takes a second to check his watch before returning his attention to the engineer.]

...Mr. Ridgeley.

And then typing this made the mun yawn, too.

[want_a_vacation]

*People aren't kidding when they say yawns are contageous, especially when both parties are sleep deprived. Allen tries very hard not to copy Edgeworth's yawn, but doesn't quite manage.*

You fell asleep out here. Are you alright?

Heheh. ;)

[truthsnomiracle]

I've been forced to neglect some aspects of self-maintenance in the process of attempting to... [He yawns again.] ...keep up with the overwhelming caseload as of late.

[want_a_vacation]

*He pulls a face and sits down next to Edgeworth. Okay, maybe sits isn't the right word. He himself is too tired to do more than plop down, a sharp contrast to his usual dexterity.*

I know how that is. Even with the extra hour at midnight, there just aren't enough of them in a day sometimes. Have you tried something like this?

*He digs in a pocket and offers Edgeworth a small energy shot drink.*

They're a bit sweet, even for me, but they work pretty well.

[truthsnomiracle]

[The prosecutor accepts the bottle with a dubious look. Even in his state, his ability to draw logical conclusions is functioning well enough: "sweet even for me" suggests that Allen has a sweet tooth and yet finds them unpleasant, and given that Edgeworth himself isn't much for sweet things...]

I would most likely find such a thing so cloying that it would be difficult to force down, but times are desperate.

[It's a slight struggle given his fatigue, but Edgeworth twists the cap off.]

[want_a_vacation]

*Considering the fact that it's one of those artificially fruit flavored things that might as well be flavored with sugar ooze, probably. Luckily, it's only one gulp, two at most.*

That's what I keep them for. They're not exactly the kind of thing you want to drink all the time, but- *He's cut off by another yawn.* They do work when you need them.

[truthsnomiracle]

[A deep breath, then down the hatch...]

Ugh. (That was as disgusting as I anticipated.)

I suppose that I'll see for myself shortly. [He rubs his eyes.] What brings you here?

[want_a_vacation]

I usually come out here to try to relax. But after seeing what Albedo did here...it's not really working too well.

[truthsnomiracle]

I would imagine not. [Yawn.] Given his willingness to mock me and the attitude he's displayed on the network in the past, I must ask: is he usually so dangerous?

[want_a_vacation]

That's...kind of hard to answer. I've never met him in person, but from what I know...he used to be even worse than that, but he came back different after he died. I can tell you this: you saw what he did to Gaignun, right? That seems odd to me. The last I knew, they were getting along pretty well. Not to mention, I can't imagine him seriously attacking his last brother here. They're too important to him for that.

[truthsnomiracle]

(Huh. So they are related...)

Much is amiss at the moment, hence why I have so much work that I have no time to sleep. [He stands, though the effort is just shaky enough to notice.] There's little more than I can learn here, so I should make my way back to the Prosecutor's Office.

[want_a_vacation]

*If he just sits here, he's probably going to fall asleep himself...he hides a slight cringe at that thought by heaving himself to his feet.*

I'd be careful how you approach dealing with him, if I were you. With the way he was raised, I can't imagine him not resenting someone trying to tell him what to do and we've seen that he can fight even without his powers.

[truthsnomiracle]

[Edgeworth looks to Allen questioningly as he begins to walk.]

"The way he was raised"?

[want_a_vacation]

*He looks a bit downcast, as if he can sympathize with Albedo in some way.*

Ah...he was born as a bioweapon. Creating super soldiers was actually fairly common around the time he was born, so he was raised as a soldier since infancy. He wasn't even allowed to leave the Institute where he was born except when he was sent out to war, so I doubt he'd be as polite about containment as Ryuunosuke.

[truthsnomiracle]

...Once more, your world manages to deeply disturb me. (I'm beginning to wonder if some people there regard the concept of human rights to be an antiquated notion.)

Given how vastly different Albedo and Gaignun are in personality, was only the former forced into the program?

[want_a_vacation]

It is pretty disturbing, yeah. And... *He hesitates for a moment. He prefers being truthful, but he doesn't want to spread his friend's secret around...but in the end, he decides Edgeworth seems trustworthy enough.*

...No, they were both born the same way. Their powers were pretty different, though. I'm not entirely sure what Gaignun could do, but Albedo's always been immortal. He was actually pretty harmless as a kid, actually pretty timid, even, as long as you didn't make him angry, but...finding out his brothers were mortal traumatized him. And then he was contaminated by U-DO, and contact with that can make even a normally stable person's mind break down.

[truthsnomiracle]

(So the situation involved not merely child abuse and enhancement, but human experimentation... after all, I see no reason why only one soldier would be made immortal deliberately.)

So it's highly likely that... [...yawn...] ...that Albedo is among the more dangerous kidnappees here, even under normal circumstances. However, if he and Gaignun were both raised under such conditions, explaining Albedo's instability would seem to tell only half the story.

[want_a_vacation]

Albedo's actually the exception. Both of his brothers are good people, but their situation wasn't entirely the same. For one, they didn't have reason to think they would live to see everyone the loved died. For another, they weren't exposed to U-DO like that. I'm not saying they don't have problems of their own, but they weren't pushed over the edge like Albedo was.

[truthsnomiracle]

I merely find it hard to believe that breeding and raising people for such purposes is an act that those with a sense of respect for sapient beings would partake in -- which, in turn, suggests a childhood that would appear unlikely to yield someone of Gaignun's nature. Furthermore, in war, intellect is valued primarily for strategic and tactical skill -- what need would a soldier have for the sort of education and mental skills he displays? Ergo, something is clearly missing from Gaignun's story.

[want_a_vacation]

Considering their father...I can't argue with that first part. I don't think he has a sense of respect for anything but himself. As for Gaignun...he was actually pretty different as a kid. He was quiet and mostly serious when I saw him. But they weren't soldiers their whole lives, they were rescued when they were about twelve. Well...sort of, anyway. After that, Gaignun was probably raised at least a bit more normally, so he could manage outside of war.

[truthsnomiracle]

HOLD IT!

If you're acquainted with Gaignun and not with Albedo, then how is it that you're far more confident in your ability to recount the latter's background?

[want_a_vacation]

*He jumps at the sudden exclamation, but calms down pretty quickly. Honestly, Edgeworth, give a half asleep guy a little warning before you make loud noises.*

...I got my information from watching an Encephalon Dive. That's basically translating someone's subconscious to a sort of inner world that other people can visit mentally, but if someone involved in the Dive spent a lot of time with the subject, it'll cause relevant memories to play back. Gaignun and Albedo's older brother was part of the Dive, and the person whose subconscious they were visiting had a strong connection to all three of them. Albedo broke into the Dive from outside, so his memories got caught up in it too, but they only synchronized up to a certain point.

*He sounds annoyed and maybe a bit offended when admitting that Albedo broke into the Dive.*

I know a lot about what happened to them at the Institute, but I don't really know much between then and when I actually met them.

[truthsnomiracle]

[Shouting like that is completely normal in his original life, OK?]

Speaking as a professional when it comes to the verification of information, that alone doesn't strike me as a particularly reliable source. That being said, what he believes to have happened may be at least as pertinent to the question being examined as what actually did happen.

[want_a_vacation]

*That doesn't change the fact that he's too sleepy to deal with sudden loud noises right now.*

I've already talked to Gaignun about what I saw, so unless all three of them remember it wrong in the same way, even on a subconscious level, I can't think of any reason why the Dive would have shown anything that didn't really happen.

[truthsnomiracle]

That does lend additional credence to whatever parts he could verify, yes.