got caught up again

[wronganswer]

who: Anderson and you, hopefully! Open!
what: Anderson tries to adjust after arrival. Prompts for floor 10 in the communal housing, the shooting range, and shopping. Also feel free to respond with anything! She's on the police force so any potential coworkers have an easy way to run into her, or be doing something suspicious and she'll investigate. Additionally, I have no attachment to prose, so please feel free to switch to brackets.
when: Various
where: Various
warnings: She is telepathic and empathic, although not very aggressive with it. But please fill out her permissions before threading!

    > FLOOR 10

Anderson is an astonishingly easy roommate to adjust to. It might even take a while to realize she's there. She's used to Spartan living, and it shows: she never leaves traces of her presence around in the communal areas, and she cleans up after herself promptly, immediately. That doesn't mean she's a hermit. She's morbidly interested in meeting all of her roommates, just not quite forward enough to seek them out in a concerted fashion.

But feel free to describe something they would be doing on an average day, and perhaps they could run into each other.

    > SHOOTING RANGE

About the only place she still wears her Judge's armor now is the shooting range, where she goes to clear her mind and practice with the local firearms. She intends to get up to snuff on every single weapons comp there is, as one of the only remaining things that she considers inside her comfort zone. Some part of her relaxes just to be back in the uniform with a gun in her hands.

Anderson has never considered herself one of those Judges that can't turn off when they're off the job, but she's starting to realize that only works in comparison to other Judges. Not in comparison to average citizens, or at least not the ones here. She feels completely unmoored, at a loss, pretending she knows what she's doing as she's had to pretend so often before. When she's really having a hard time adjusting, she uses her Lawgiver, keeps up on pure target practice. She's frighteningly efficient, and she doesn't practice only kill shots; she fires to disable as often as to kill.

The new weaponry takes more concentration, but is enjoyable in its own way. She can be found several days a week practicing, if not shooting then stances, smooth reloading, safe carrying positions. She's thorough.

    > SHOPPING

Easily the strangest part of her week is shopping. Anderson's prior shopping experiences have been starkly divided: the dim memories of her childhood in the poorest slums of the city, where her parents could barely afford anything and shopping was fast, sparse; and the luxuries she used her tiny disposable income on as an academy student, the Hall of Justice providing everything she needed to live and nothing more, same as a military cadet. Those were a chance to breathe, an excuse to get out and be among the people she wanted to protect as much as it was to fulfill the purpose of shopping.

Here, in the Quarantine, she is here to shop. She needs clothes. Toiletries. Cooking supplies. Books to read-- for pleasure. It's a bit overwhelming, truth told, not in the scope but just in the mundanity of it. Anderson had gone from poor mutie to terrifying Judge with nothing in-between, and suddenly being thrust into average daily life is a bit baffling. She doesn't dislike it, though. She enjoys the chance to see life from a new angle, appreciates the amount of decisions she can make with no consideration for regulations or for anyone else. She can take her time, since she's still in training at police headquarters and hasn't shifted to a full time schedule yet.

She had to rent a car for the day in order to have somewhere to stash all her purchases. Circumspect and restrained, she doesn't have a ton of them, but here and there she can be found poking through more feminine shopping areas, makeup or jewelry or sundresses, pondering. It's not a part of herself she's ever really considered before, usually on the defensive or the offensive, never just herself, and she's curious.

For about a week, you can run into her shopping for just about anything, poking around in interest even if she has no intent to buy.

Comments

[maskerading]

[ Official already. It's not surprising, from what he had gleaned out of her previously. ]

No exceptions, huh? That's a little harsh.

[wronganswer]

[ This provokes a more serious, thoughtful look than he'd probably meant to. This very question has been on her mind. She goes silent for a long moment as she rinses her mug out, thinking before replying. ]

I don't know yet. As a Judge, I can't make exceptions. Sometimes I do anyway-- I'm not going to sentence someone who's a victim... [ Recalling that tech at Peach Trees, a memory seared into her. ] But I'm not a Judge here. I don't know the rules yet.

[ Rules have defined her life for a very long time. ]

[maskerading]

[ He hadn't intended on bringing her mood down, no, but he manages to roll with it. ]

Well, breaking into someone's home usually does get a person arrested, but don't worry—I'm living here now, too.

[wronganswer]

[ She catches the attempted shift in tone and flicks a tiny, somewhat sheepish smile back. Despite herself, she's automatically running the sentence through her head. Breaking and entering: Code 6, Section 2a: 8 to 20 years iso-cubes at discretion of the Judge. ]

Makes my life easier. I've never had to arrest anyone I knew before. It's such a small place.

[ It's only small by her standards, but she doesn't quite realize that. ]

[maskerading]

[ In her defense, it doesn't compare to the sprawling city of Tokyo he's grown used to, as well; he could eventually find himself running into the same faces in Riverview, soon enough, just as they have right now. So he could only make a single nod in agreement. ]

I'd say as long as you don't befriend any potential criminals, that'd be easy to avoid.

[wronganswer]

[ Tokyo would be significantly more familiar to her than this place. The Quarantine isn't exactly small, but it feels stifling, almost suffocating to her in comparison to what she's used to. ]

Pretty sure everyone's a potential criminal with the right motivation, [ she shoots back easily, sounding bizarrely at ease with the concept for someone who considers it her life's work to fight crime. With an emphasis on the fight. ]

[maskerading]

You think so?

[ He asks, as if he doesn't already know the answer. The irony of his words aren't lost on him, being a wanted criminal himself back home because he had the right motivations and a method to pull it off. But normal people don't usually think like that; Yuuto's learned the hard way that most others have pretty black and white views on what criminals are like, and a "normal person" is the impression he's trying to give. So. ]

I'd think most people are better than to actually act on anything.

[wronganswer]

[ Anderson shakes her head, turning to pour another cup of coffee for herself as she replies. She sounds sober, prosaic, her standard tone. ]

It's not about better. Sometimes people lose their jobs, can't find work... Stealing to eat isn't the same as stealing for greed. Even the law looks on that differently. Motive should be part of the consideration for sentencing.

[maskerading]

[ Yuuto falls silent for a brief moment, watching as she pours herself a cup. He'll follow suit, but first, a question: ]

How differently? Are they let off easy?

[wronganswer]

Easy by Mega-City terms, yeah. Community service or labor instead of a term in the iso-cubes.

[ She rattles this off with the unthinking nonchalance of someone who lives and breathes determining sentences, not even pausing as she fixes her coffee, retrieving milk for it. ]

[maskerading]

Iso-cubes?

[ He echoes questioningly, finally pouring his own cup. ]

... That's a new one. Never heard of 'em before.

[wronganswer]

Solitary confinement in an efficiency block. Like an apartment.

[ She sounds neutral still. Solitary confinement is horrific, of course, but the accommodations themselves are humane. Anderson has no idea how to wrestle with that one. It's just the way it is. ]

[maskerading]

[ Yuuto nods, understanding. ]

Right... so it's just locking them away. The usual stuff with a different name.

[wronganswer]

[ Solitary confinement is nothing to scoff at, but Anderson doesn't want to get into it. She's fighting enough as it is to adjust to being here; she's not ready to start discrediting the very laws she'd worked so hard to uphold. ]

Something like that. Anyway, I have to relearn all of it. [ She sounds just slightly disgruntled, the first sign of real emoting. ] At least I don't have to learn the sentencing here. That took forever the first time.

[maskerading]

Maybe you won't have as much trouble as you think.

[ Are both systems so dissimilar? He's gathered that her line of work is somewhat unconventional from what he knows, but...

Yuuto takes a moment to mull on this, taking a sip of his coffee—and with a slightly wrinkled nose, decides quickly that he really needs to buy something better later. Ugh, perhaps living with Sojiro for so long has turned him into such a coffee snob. ]

But I'll admit I only have the gist of what you do. ... And I don't know a lot about the police force here, either.

[wronganswer]

[ She doesn't think she'll have trouble learning it, exactly, but it's incredibly difficult for her to adjust to this setting. And she's annoyed that she'd just finished all those years of the academy, finally, only to be put right back in a rookie's position. Maybe she's just doomed to stay here forever. She knows that's petty of her, but she's only human.

Anderson tries to figure out how to say it, and ends up saying instead, ] I don't know how to explain it. [ She leans back aginst the counters, cradling her mug between two hands, staring idly out the window. ] In a place like this... Have you ever been somewhere that you couldn't trust anyone? I mean anyone. You walk down the street and you think anyone, even the kids, could be in a gang. [ She sounds sober. Not too serious, not dramatic-- just plainly aware. ]

[maskerading]

[ After a beat, he shakes his head. ]

No, I haven't. [ Not to such a degree. He can guess she has, though. ] People generally don't have to worry about that where I come from.

[wronganswer]

Yeah. [ She lets out a breath. ]

Not having to worry about it... That's gonna take a while.

[maskerading]

[ Again, he nods. He gets that. The more she talks about where she's from—just tidbits, here and there—the rougher it sounds. ]

It might, but you'll get there. And you'll be happier for it.

[wronganswer]

[ She smiles wryly, appreciating the implicit support. She's worried about shooting the wrong person, but that's an old worry, really, and she's said enough. ]

Somehow I always end up talking about myself when I see you. How are you doing?

[maskerading]

[ Not that he minds at all; if anything, to him it's better than the other way around. Taking another sip of his coffee, Yuuto gives a lazy shrug with a shoulder. ]

Settling in, getting the lay of the land. I think I'll take it easy for a couple of weeks– [ Since he isn't usually the restless type. ] –but after that... I guess there's always jobs to take on.

[wronganswer]

Were you thinking of going to school instead? You're the right age for that... right?

[ Plus you never know what his society's standards for education would be at home. Maybe he's supposed to be finished already. ]

[maskerading]

That's right, but I thought it'd be fun to find out what being a school skipping delinquent is like instead.

[ He's probably joking. ]

[wronganswer]

[ She snorts. ]

What, are you the poster child for attendance back home?

[maskerading]

Nah, not me. [ He waves his free hand dismissively. ] I'm sure they'd rather give that crown to someone in the student council or something.

[ Since everyone sees him as an actual delinquent and more. Those particular rumors never went away for good. ]

I was just fulfilling my duties as a good student with good grades.