Chapter 23
Eric van Genus' Audio Journal #23: Justice
What exactly is justice? By its definition: a judge or magistrate, in particular a judge of the supreme court of a country or state. Yet its other definition is, just behavior or treatment. Yet it another definition is the maintenance or administration of what is just especially by the impartial adjustment of conflicting claims or the assignment of merited rewards or punishments. Then what is just? The acting or being in conformity with what is morally upright or good. If so, why do people keep getting revenge and justice mixed up? Revenge is a more emotional while justice is more rational. When you get right down to it, humans are always going to be emotional beings that wanted revenge for all the wrong doings that have been done. Justice is more focus on a set of laws written by a ruling court. But people always mix the two up. Take Enya the Hag from JoJo's Bizarre Adventure for example. When her son was killed by the main characters, she wanted "justice" for the death of her son as she used her stand, Justice. But in actuality, it is more for revenge. Let's focus on a different aspect.
Let's take Death Note. In the second episode, at the end of the episode, both L and Light Yagami declared that they are justice. Both of them have their own definition of justice. In Light Yagami's case, or rather his Kira persona, justice means the eradication of those who have committed crimes against society and refuse to plea guilty when they did commit the crime. Yet despite all this, he exploits everyone and everything in order to hide the Death Note and ensures his own version of order. L, on the other hand, represents the original form of justice in a more rational sense than having a god complex. But he also use misinformation to trick his opponents rather than just use people. At least the best I can remember. I believe that justice is more of a sense of one's all morality based on their own codes, ethics and their own version on the laws. Yet like with Light Yagami, having power can twist one's moral compass and their sense of justice.
In Platos' Ring of Gyges, the main character of the story claimed to be a virtuous man and has a reputation of being so. However, once we found a golden ring that makes him invisible, he committed acts of injustices without any fear of obtaining a bad reputation. Glaucon and Socrates had many philosophical arguments about Plato's story with Glaucon saying that if there were two magical rings, both virtuous men would commit acts of injustice and do whatever they want because they had power that allows them to hide from the public view. While Socrates argues that justice does not come from a social structure and the man was a slave to his appetites, while the man who chose not to use it remains rationally in control of himself and is therefore happy.
In my conclusion, justice is what a person makes of it depending on their own moral code and not just a set of laws. Despite that, power can corrupt ones own morality if they manage to do so behind the scenes. But I think I'll write a book about it to further explain justice in greater detail after seeing what other people think about what justice is.
End of recording.
AN: Before we begin, there is one question by JUICEHEAD that needs answering. Yes, we are all caught up with Eric's reincarnations. And yeah, you should really stop. That is all.
Atlas Kingdom, Hours Before Chapter 1 of RWBY: Grim Eclipse...
In the kingdom of Atlas, the elections are fast approaching. Many voting booths are set up in the major cities of Atlas and Mantle as everyone vote for the candidates of the next council member. In Mantle, many of the city has gone through a dramatic face lift as many of the buildings have been refurbished, painted and polished to look more advance looking than Atlas itself. The streets and alleyways are clean with no sign of any form of the urban decays like litter, graffiti, or anything that is unsightly. The only thing on the newly painted brick walls are posters about the top three voting candidates. The first is that of Jacque Schnee, who stands proud with the city of Atlas floating behind him.
Yet if you look up, the city of Atlas is suffering from its own sort of decay. Much of the white has turned yellow like a set of perfect teeth that are later ruined and turned yellow. There is now a large military presence in the city that patrol the streets and arresting anyone that would cause trouble. The same trouble that Mantle went through such as graffiti, looting, and other civil disobedience. With the capital of the kingdom suffering from a Dust shortage, many people are about ready to riot. Even the upper crust are starting to get itchy trigger fingers and their hatred and resentment to the rebuilding of Mantle grows ever dire. Even worse when they try to buy votes for Jacque in order to get Atlas back to normal.
In other poster, we have Robyn Hill that says she is the 'Voice of Mantle'. However, there are some fake videos about her and her Happy Huntresses having attacked civilians. Many who are still loyal to Robyn know the truth and still voted for her. She swears to support Mantle and help its people. However, many voters are starting to vote for Daisy Taggart because she was the one who reformed the city and continues to do so with new technologies. One of them is the emotional generator. A generator that replaces the old Dust-powered generator that uses the emotions of the people to power the city. Since Mantle is a super large city, the generator feeds on the populace's willpower, hope, anger, avarice, fear, compassion, love, buried primal emotions. It even feeds on the life and death spectrum as well.
Mantle Library...
Over at the library of Mantle, a rally is gathered to support Daisy Taggart as a podium at the height of the stairs has a microphone with everyone waiting for her speech. Behind it is an extremely large holographic screen that shows Daisy having fifty-one percent of the votes, Jacque having twenty-four percent and Robyn has twenty-five percent. Above is a giant blue banner that says in yellow letters, 'Vote Taggart For Mantle!'. Then the time has arrived as Daisy steps over at the podium with the crowd cheering for her. Once she arrives at the podium with three microphones, the crowd stops. She taps three times on the mics to see their still working.
"Thank you all for coming." she addresses the public, "I'm not used to public speeches but I'm afraid I have to in order to be the next council member of Atlas. Long ago, Mantle was the capital of a kingdom and this kingdom was once known as the Kingdom of Mantle. But because of we started a war that involves the removal of all emotional expressions, it collapsed and Alsius, now known as Atlas, took over. Over the years that Atlas took over, Mantle has suffered from decay and social disorder while the aristocrats of Atlas gotten fat from our misery. Now, Mantle has been reformed thanks to my leadership and the assistance of my partners that are here to reform this kingdom."
The crowd cheers for her speech. While she continues, another battle is taking place.
Somewhere in Mantle...
Dr. Arthur Watts is hiding somewhere in the hideout as he has a multitude of scrolls laid out as he tries to manipulate the votes.
He cracks his knuckles and fingers, "Now time for the best part."
Yet in her digital space, Coco Mint is watching Dr. Watts through his own scrolls and starts to take action.
Watts takes away three percent of Daisy's votes and adds them to Jacque's.
"I don't think so." Coco manifested an arcade-style controller with a joystick and four buttons. She grabs the controls and mash buttons while smiling like a crazy person.
Watts then notices that the votes he stole are added back into Daisy's yet an extra one percent is added.
"Hmm?" he notices, "Looks like we have a hacker." He starts to smirk, "Looks like I have a challenge." He types faster and manipulates the data.
Coco Mint furiously does a few fighting game combos before switching to a different format. Under her are blue squares with arrows pointing in four different directions along with red squares that point in diagonal directions. Music from Dance Dance Revolution starts which she dances and steps on the squares.
She bust moves as she says, "Try to beat this, you bastard!"
Arthur Watts notices that he is losing control and has the rings on his fingers turn yellow as he tries to regain control with ads and pop-ups starting to interfere with his work. He moves his hands faster while starting to sweat.
"I don't think so!" he says as he furiously manipulates the data and trying to block all distractions. "Try this!"
In Coco's digital space, red arrows started falling down on her DDR platform, which she dodges out of the way.
"Oh, you're gonna pay for that!"
Furious, she spawns in large, pixelated mallets before three whack-a-mole cabinets appear.
"How's this!" she slams on all the moles that pop-up with blinding speed.
The upper middle-left scroll Arthur uses short circuited as he shield himself from the sparks.
He gives a stern and serious look, "Now this means war." He furiously hacks with his rings now glowing orange and moving as fast as he can.
Coco switches over to a shooting gallery with a MG36 machine gun in her hands. The incoming targets are in the form of sparrows that are flying very fast as she shoots them.
Back in the hideout, some of the holographic screens start to glitch with Arthur Watts having sweat stains on his collar and panting from all the effort he is doing.
The battle between the two hackers have become noticeable as the holographic screens showing the poles started glitching and flickering in and out at the library, the warehouse where Robyn is having her rally, and at a party at the Schnee Manor where many Atlesian upper crust have gathered for Jacque's rally. Tyrian is also there at Robyn's rally and is just as confused on what is happening. Across the kingdom, everyone is confused on what is going on and wonder what's happening to the election.
Ironwood's Flagship...
In the heart of his flagship, Ironwood notices the polls are being wonky. He tries to call the Atlas Command Center with a holographic screen of one of the officers.
"What is going on?" Ironwood asks while giving a demanding presence.
"Sir!" the officer salutes, "We're trying to isolate the source of the influx of data! Technicians are in the server rooms to see what is the problem! We should have a report in less than two minutes!"
"You have one."
Coco switches over to two blue pixelated pistols and shoots red pixelated zombies while screaming. Arthur is moving faster and faster while also screaming. Both of them scream with the veins in their eyes starting to show as they try to out do the other.
Both of them say, "TAKE THIS!"
Coco pulls the trigger as Arthur presses a button at the same time, then boom! A zombie Coco shot exploded into binary codes and pixelated explosions that blew her back. The scrolls Arthur uses explodes with his left middle finger turned red before it explodes and is knocked down to the floor.
In her cyber space, Coco gives Arthur the left middle finger, "How's that for fuck off?" and passes out before fading from her domain.
The holoscreens are back to normal all across the kingdom as the pole shows sixty-four percent of the votes go to...Daisy Taggart! Daisy Taggart has won the election as the screen shows Daisy's picture with the word 'VICTORY!' under it.
The newscaster says, "And the winner of the Atlas Council election is...Daisy Taggart! A surprise victory for the charitable angel of Mantle. Don't know what happened to the polls, but it seems Daisy Taggart is the winner."
Back on Ironwood's ship, the hologram of the officer pops up, "Sir, we have located one of the hackers here in Mantle. And...you're not gonna believe it, sir."
The officer shows a picture of Arthur Watts and shows his data information about manipulating the votes for Jacque Schnee.
Ironwood stands from his chair and ordered, "Arrest them immediately!"
A bunch of Atlesian soldiers showed up at the hideout as the bash the door down. However, there is no sign of Arthur Watts anywhere in sight. All there is left is a few destroyed scrolls, his bloodstained finger lying on the table, and a smashed-up window where the blood trail leads. The soldiers look out the window and notices a figure in white with a hood on carrying Dr. Watts across the rooftops.
Over at the Schnee Mansion, Jacque is arrested and taken out of the mansion with all of his guests watching from outside the mansion as he is dragged away by Atlesian soldiers towards the army VTOL. Including Willow and Whitley as Whitley just sits on the stairs with a disappointed look he has at his father.
"Let me go!" Jacque tries to struggle and get free of his handcuffs, "I am innocent!"
One soldier bash Jacque's face with his rifle, "Shut your mouth! You are under arrest for treason and the manipulation of votes! If it weren't for the other hacker stopping your hacker, you would've won! And your wife showed us the meeting between you and the hacker!"
Many of the guests gasp when Jacque even went as far as manipulating the votes. That, and his own wife turned him in. Jacque is thrown into the VTOL and is taken away...with the VTOL having a small Cybertronian symbol on the door. The VTOL takes off and takes Jacque to prison.
Enlightened Valley, Enlighten Hospital, Minuit District...
Coco is taken to the hospital where both of her brothers watching over her as she lies on the bed. She slowly opens her eyes and sees her brothers.
"Hey guys..." she says with a low, soft voice.
"COCO!" both of them jump from their seats and give their sister a hug.
Basil snuggles her right cheek, "I'm so glad that you're okay, little sis!"
Crispin snuggles Coco's left shoulder, "I thought we lost you there."
"Guys..." Coco struggles to say while there are sounds of bones being popped, "You're...crushing...me..."
Both of them let go, "Sorry!"
Coco coughs a little. "Ow. Besides the fact you guys nearly broke every bone in my body, I'm good."
"I'm so glad that you're alright." Basil sheds a few tears and makes a loud sniff, "If we lost you...I..."
Coco grabs Basil's right hand, "Hey there. I'm not gonna die at anytime soon." Then she grabs Crispin's hand, "We're a family. Nothing in this world is gonna change that."
Eric van Genius' Audio Journal #24: Mint Siblings
I would like to take this opportunity to talk about my fellow compatriots in this world. This one goes out to the Mint siblings. Basil, Crispin and Coco. These three where abandoned by their mothers when they had sex with the same man and the asshole refused responsibility. Basil is the protective type that will defend his siblings with his life. I saw him go as far as beating the cruel caretakers in the orphanage once when Crispin and Coco were being threaten. *chuckles* The old hag deserved every bloody nose, black eyes and bruises he lashed out. Kinda reminds me of Josuke when you make fun of his hair. He is altruistic when it comes to his siblings because they are the only family he's got left in this world. He maybe the big brother, but he tends to get emotional from time to time. Now he's a stock broker and even teaches the students on how to be successful.
Crispin originally was a scaredy-cat when I first met him back at the orphanage. Always living in fear of the caretakers and their abuse. Even more so than Coco, and she's the youngest. Yet later on after following me, he grew stronger, braver and more intelligent. One night, both of us looked up at the stars in the sky and I told them that each star is a sun and many of them may have planets that might be similar to Remnant. He later told me that he wants to see what's up there and see as much as he can to see what the stars have to offer. I told him one day, when we get things on Remnant settled, he can see them when we get a hyperdrive working on an actual spaceship. From scared little boy to astronaut. I really hope to see his face when he sees a new world in orbit. Bet he's gonna get teary eye when he sees it. That always happen when people see a new form of beauty outside the realm their used to. As for now, he's currently training in a few artificial zero-g environments.
Coco used to be a whiny little girl that cries when there is trouble. After escaping from that hell, she started to get cheery and more brighter. Although, she has gotten a bit more quirky. Cheerful, friendly and very outgoing. Yet she is also a technical genius when it comes to computers and electronic devices. Actually, she reminds me of Pascal from Tales of Graces f with her present personality. Just hope she isn't into smelly things...yikes. But she is the most popular teacher here in the valley because of her personality. Despite that, she can be fearsome with her semblance as she makes the digital realm her domain. So I best to keep my files on another computer that has no net connection. Just hope that everyone else doesn't find out.
Despite their differences and career paths, those three will always got each other's backs and help each other out. Like a family should.
End of recording.
AN: Hey everyone! Hope you guys enjoy the new chapter. However, my work schedule is a bit hecktic so expect chapters to be uploaded at random when they're done. Sorry for the inconvenience. Despite that, hope you guys stay healthy and stay safe. Later taters!
