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Post by Ylanne on Oct 24, 2019 10:36:20 GMT -6
Frazier nodded, sipping more of the hot tea Aerilyn had prepared. "Of course," he said. "I'd do anything I can for my friends." Even friends where his connection to them also dredged up years of unspeakable horrors. Even friends whose knowledge would perhaps threaten what little he'd built up for himself since that time. Even friends like Arianne. "And I'm glad to know any friend of Arianne's, and so sorry we never had the chance to meet before. If there is anything at all I can do to help either of you, please, just say the word, and I'll do what I can." He set the cup down and fumbled inside his jacket for a small notepad - it looked so much like what the old woman would often do mid-conversation. He scribbled his name and a number and tore the sheet, careful to make the tear as neat and straight as he could, and handed it to Aerilyn, who was closer to him than Ahmad. Ahmad saw that Frazier's handwriting was beautiful, a kind of elegantly curving script that also hinted of that same genteel mannerism he carried with him. The old woman's handwriting must have looked similar, he thought, before suffering whatever tortures had taken use of her writing hand away.
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Post by demikara on Oct 27, 2019 16:37:41 GMT -6
Aerilyn accepted the number and read it over, then placed it carefully on the end table closest to her. "Thank you. Please, we feel the same. If there's anything you need, please let us know." They coudl help how they could, as friends of Arianne at least. It was a lonely world right now, staying her friend through all this. It was hard too, given the circumstances. Being friends with Arianne was never easy but right now it was especially hard.
Only a few more months and the trial would be over with. Ahmad would finally be able to see her again. she'd go to a more permanent place and Aerilyn could do her best to make that more comfortable too.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 27, 2019 16:51:28 GMT -6
Frazier nodded. "I appreciate it," he said, and returned his notepad and pen to his pocket. He sipped politely at the rest of the tea. Most younger people didn't seem to offer him the same courtesies as Aerilyn and Ahmad had, even if they were operating under circumstances more sober than otherwise they might have expected. "I'm sorry I hadn't paid a visit sooner." He was, realizing that perhaps they could have benefited from it. He might have been able to offer some small solace. But then again, his time was nearly entirely tied up with the endless stream of cases on his desk, and the knowledge that his own tenure was limited too.
"It's fine," said Ahmad, leaning backward against the couch, so far he felt it could nearly swallow him. And maybe that would be for the best now. He fixed a look on Frazier, seeming now that he noticed the lines of age on the man's face, and it occurred to him that if he were with Drulović in law school, then they were likely about the same age. "Can't you... Sorry. I was just thinking... Aren't you able to retire by now? I can't think of a reason you'd have to keep working at the Justice Ministry."
Frazier smiled sadly. "My heart grieves too much. I don't think I could ever give up the work."
Ahmad looked to his side at Aerilyn. "...I know I want to be able to retire eventually. Maybe that means we are different from the generations ahead of us. I can admire that. I just... You seem like you could use a break."
Frazier set down the tea. He'd finished now. "Perhaps," he said, shrugging, "but I guess that's something Arianne and I have always had in common. We both tend to work ourselves into the ground. I'll probably die still going to work, wake up in an afterlife - if there is one - wondering how I'm late." He laughed heartily at his own joke. "I hope you can rest some now, for what remains of your Saturday and the weekend. Again, I'm so sorry to have interrupted you."
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Post by demikara on Oct 27, 2019 17:49:49 GMT -6
"That's alright. You brought welcome news." She said and smiled. He had been a good guest. "Please, get some rest yourself. If you're much like Arianne at all, you probably work yourself without any." Weekends had seemed to be a bit of a myth with her friend. Sometimes they seemed a bit of a myth for Ahmad as well, if things were going poorly. She hated that for all of them and was glad she had never chosen to work in any sort of field with bureaucracy.
She wasn't made for anything like that at all.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 27, 2019 18:01:46 GMT -6
"I do my best to try," said Frazier, folding his hands with fingers interlocked. "It can be hard when a case is getting close to trial, and during a trial, but I have begun slowing down some. I'm getting too old for seven day weeks." He was probably too old to be working this much, had probably long passed the point where he should have begun pacing himself much more leisurely if he were going to keep working at all. "I'll let you know if I learn anything new. Will you be seeing Arianne soon?" He looked expectantly at the two, an old man's face with at least some glimmer of hope.
Ahmad looked away from Aerilyn and Frazier both. "I... I can't. Yet. Some ridiculous business about 'witness intimidation' on the Director's end." He caught what he'd said right as the title came out of his mouth, and it occurred to him he might never be able to shake the habit of referring to the old woman that way. It was who she was.
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Post by demikara on Oct 27, 2019 18:06:18 GMT -6
"I see her every Sunday." Aerilyn admitted. "I think it's good for both of us." It kept their friendship alive at least, and she could use that. They both could use that. Aerilyn wasn't sure what else she could do to make things better. "Once the trial is over with, I think we both may go together. Or I may let Ahmad have a few visits to himself." She had no doubt that he was going to be a mess at least the first visit.
"She's not as bad off as she used to be." Still not great, but not was bad off and that was something at least.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 27, 2019 18:25:36 GMT -6
"I'm glad to hear it," said Frazier, his look soft. When he'd seen Arianne the other day, she'd been exhausted and distracted, but more steady on her feet than he'd seen the old woman in a long while. "Once she's been transferred elsewhere, she should be able to get a cane again more easily. That will help a lot, I think."
"She should be able to have her cane now," said Ahmad, shaking his head. She had trouble walking before Andrade had kidnapped her. Of course she'd have trouble now. "What kind of world do we even live on?"
"A deeply flawed and troubled one," said Frazier. "But I believe it's worth it to keep fighting for at least some small amount of what justice we can get. There is still hope for us." And Aerilyn and Ahmad were young. They were the future. They were supposed to represent possibility.
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Post by demikara on Oct 27, 2019 18:37:43 GMT -6
"I hope that will help some." It had to help a little at least. Some sort of mobility was better than none and right now she had so little mobility she may as well have none. "I'm giving her a warm blanket and some of her books as well, once she's in a longer term facility." It was like a nursing home, she supposed, but one with bars and that was a lot more strict than any nursing home she could imagine.
It wasn't like a nursing home at all. Who was she kidding. It was a long term prison for people who He been determined to have deserved it, no matter their age.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 27, 2019 18:45:08 GMT -6
"Well, you know she'll appreciate the blankets," Frazier said with a smile. The old woman was constantly complaining of cold. Ever since Lipljan. She hadn't been that way when they had been in school together. Things had changed. "I've been asking Eva - the superintendent over at Wrentham - about medical attention. Seems like sometimes Arianne isn't eating all that much." It was probably the dentures that she'd said her kidnapper had forcibly removed from her jaw. "We can bring her some things to eat once she's been moved, too. Policies are different over there."
"Seems ironic to punish prisoners more before they're convicted than after," said Ahmad, pressing his fist to his chin. He leaned slightly over, resting his head on Aerilyn's shoulder. "It doesn't make much sense. Nothing about this really does."
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Post by demikara on Oct 28, 2019 16:44:34 GMT -6
Aerilyn turned and plced a kiss on his head, then faced Frazier again. "I know there's not a lot I can do, but I'm hoping to make her stay as comfortable as possible." She smiled weakly. "Including home cooked food. Though perhaps, not me cooking." That would be a disaster in the making. Aerilyn tried, but she couldn't cook. "Ahmad's cooking is the best anyway." She was firm on that one, and liked his food more than she liked his mother's food.
The aeromancer wondered too, about Arianne being punished more before hand. "I tried to talk to the superintendent about improving the conditions, but well. There wasn't a lot she could do."
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 28, 2019 17:20:30 GMT -6
"I think it's just how the policies go," Frazier said. He'd had defendants held in Wrentham many times. "I at least don't have any reason to believe it's personal. At Wrentham, everyone is held in maximum security. It's a way of handling the difficulty in assessing and classifying large numbers of people who are all coming in as recent arrests, and many of whom won't be staying for very long. They wouldn't have enough time." With those rounded up last fall though, they ought to have had more time, but from everything he had seen and heard, everyone directly involved was adamant about not deviating from procedure at all, in an attempt to enforce a kind of crude equality and holding to account. He was surprised Aerilyn had contacted Eva though. More surprised Eva answered.
"I don't like it," Ahmad said. "And I don't believe it. Whatever she deserves." He was pretty damn sure that that at least was not it. "Well. If you can do anything." He was not sure he believed Frazier could - or would.
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Post by demikara on Oct 28, 2019 17:23:57 GMT -6
"I don't like it either." She admitted. "I know it's policy, but it doesn't leave room for compassion or humanity in there does it? And we all know how Terra is. How many of those people are there because they have no choice in the matter, in what they did. How long did they have to stay?" It had been entirely too long as far as Aerilyn was concerned. They should have been able to do the entire thing much faster so everyone involved was dealt with faster. Even Arianne. Especially Arianne.
She hadn't given Eva much of a choice in ignoring her. Aerilyn could be stubborn with the best of them.
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 28, 2019 17:52:58 GMT -6
Frazier adjusted his weight before speaking, lowering his head a bit. "It depends, really," he said. "Generally, people wait in pretrial detention if they're denied bail, which is mostly something we would ask for in the most serious cases with the most egregious charges. That's why they asked for no bail in these cases. Usually it is at least a few months. Almost never longer than a year." And many had been shocked, at least privately, that the prosecutorial request to hold these defendants without bail had actually been granted. "As for their responsibility ... " Frazier shook his head. "I don't really know that it's my place to judge. There are a lot of factors in why anyone does anything so terrible. I don't know that it's right to attempt to use such factors to justify it, but also, to paint them as so evil as many might say..." And well he knew it from his own life too. It would only be a matter of time. "It's hard to see a friend there."
Ahmad looked up at Frazier for a few seconds, then back down at his feet. At least Frazier had a chance to see the old woman. And probably could bypass some of the restrictions they'd put in place too, with his position at the Justice Ministry. He did not want a future marked only by the old woman passively receiving his meals instead of the two sharing their cooking and their love for the kitchen with one another. And he immediately felt foolish and trivial for these thoughts.
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Post by demikara on Oct 29, 2019 11:24:06 GMT -6
"Its not like Arianne was going anywhere." Aerilyn said quietly. "She was so injured that she was facing months of rehab and she got none of that and didn't get to heal. There's no way she's not in constant pain now." She could understand it, a little bit. There was no doubt a faction of people who had been waiting to sweep Arianne to safety. She had been one of them. If they hadn't of come to her hotel room, she likely would have gladly participated in smuggling her friend to freedom.
She didn't talk about that though. She hadn't even told Ahmad of the temptation.
Aerilyn smiled, though it wasn't happy. "Maybe we'll be lucky. Maybe her trial will go swiftly."
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Post by Ylanne on Oct 29, 2019 11:53:56 GMT -6
"Trial begins the first Monday of June," said Frazier. "My best guess is that the whole trial will take one week at the fastest, but maybe three weeks at the longest. Had the special prosecutors kept the charges of genocide and war crimes, it would have been months. Sometimes those kinds of cases have lasted for years at the trial stage." Untold wounds of nations and peoples, whole histories laid bare with every sordid deed dragged to dessicate in an overabundance of sunlight. "I've been worried that Arianne wouldn't have survived that kind of a trial. As you said, she's in poor health and not fully recovered by any means from what happened at Government Center in the fall. And in prison, too many medical staff seem to be convinced that any inmate claiming illness or injury is malingering and manipulative, which can make it harder to receive care."
"Bastards..." Ahmad closed his eyes. Head bowed. Not wanting to imagine old age lived that way. "Maybe she really does deserve some kind of harsh and severe punishment for what she's done, but ... From what you've all been saying, it just sounds inhumane. Punishment on top of punishment. And it feels almost like we're being punished too. I know it's not the same. But." He opened his eyes. They were empty. What could he offer? Homecooked meals seemed wholly insufficient.
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