Audience: Grace Monroe

[probe]

Comments

[probe]

[maus is doing his best and letting grace do what she wants, licking her fingers.]

It's a big test, but perhaps it isn't the only one. High risks earn high rewards, generally.

[alteracion]

I was stabbed like seven times with a letter opener.

[ she does not approve of these high risks. ]

[probe]

[hm...]

While I haven't been stabbed, I have been held at gunpoint a few times, kidnapped a few times, and arrested a few times for choices I've made.

[it's not remotely the same, but.]

[alteracion]

[ i mean, those are all bad, but the one that stands out and probably shouldn't is: ]

You were arrested?

[ but greed you're a NERD ]

[probe]

[GRACE.

but there's a wry smile.]

Twice. Once for conducting an illegal investigation and once as a murder suspect.

[alteracion]

Obviously you didn't kill anyone [ she hopes ] but... how do you conduct an illegal investigation?

[probe]

I did not. I was found innocent of that murder, but I did believe I had committed another and confessed my guilt.

[...that aside.] I had given up my prosecutor's badge at the time and continued looking into a crime and assisted a...colleague in evading the police.

[please just call kay a friend you absolute lunatic.]

[alteracion]

[ well! that's a lot of trauma, but since greed is skipping past that she will to. to call them out. ]

Isn't that far to go to for a colleague? [ pets the maus tummy ] Also, it's illegal to look into a crime if you're not a cop or a lawyer?

[ sometimes you stop going to school at like 11 ]

[probe]

It's illegal to perform your own investigation, yes. [maus wiggles on his back like a good boy.]

...Kay is a friend. [FINE. GROSS.] She's about your age, actually. She appointed herself as my assistant during a few cases I was investigating prior to that incident.

[alteracion]

But you can represent yourself in court, can't you?

[ she does not entirely get the difference. i can't believe greedworth has... uno friend. pats the good boy ]

An assistant to a prosecutor. Bold choice. Why'd she become a fugitive of the law?

[probe]

It's complicated. The Prosecutorial Investigation Committee was already attempting to remove my badge so I imagine they would have done anything to get me to stay away.

[but he rolls his eyes.] Kay's a bold person. [and sometimes he misses her and wonders what she'd think of this nonsense.] She had lost her memory and was falsely accused for a murder committed. ...I knew she couldn't have been responsible, so rather than let the P.I.C revoke my badge as they intended, I gave it up myself. Kay felt responsible and fled the scene before she could be arrested.

[alteracion]

[ there's a pause as she takes all that in ]

So you were both falsely accused of murder at some point, and both of you weren't sure you weren't responsible?

[ since greed said he turned himself in and kay had amnesia ]

[probe]

Yes. Kay was accused of the murder of a defense attorney named Jill Crane who had confronted the P.I.C. about their illegal auctioning of evidence. With her memory missing, she had no way of knowing what was true until we began further investigations.

...before that, I had been accused of murdering a defense attorney named Robert Hammond. I had been framed. [there's another pause, and he only continues because he thinks it may be relevant to what she's saying.] But after we cleared my name of that trial, I asked for the court to try me for the murder of my father.

[alteracion]

[ greed won't give her his name but he will give her "i thought i killed my father", and that's a lot? that's so much? she is just staring ]

Oh. Um. Why did you...

[ she's not sure how to finish that. ask for that? think you did it? so instead she releases maus to greed because now he is the one in need of therapy dog ]

[probe]

[listen it's relevant, his name is not.]

...my memories of that time had been hazy for fifteen years. The statute of limitations had nearly run out. That's the time in which a crime can be tried. If we didn't solve it that day, the case would be closed forever.

It was necessary to solve my father's case, even if at the time I believed I would be found guilty.

[alteracion]

... But you found out you didn't, and got the real killer too?

[ what a. what a day ]

[probe]

Yes. I...the attorney who was defending me during that trial found contradictions in my memories and statements that led him to unraveling the truth. I suppose he never believed I could possibly be guilty in the first place.

Even if the consequence was convicting the prosecutor of that case.

[alteracion]

[ THIS IS ALL SO MUCH ]

... Wow.

So I guess it's a good thing your attorney believed in you so much?

[ it's a question because she did not think the law could be this dramatic ]

[probe]

...he's foolish. [it does not sound believable in the slightest though.] But in a way, yes, it was a good thing he did. And I repaid him by leaving the country for a year.

[there's a wry sort of grin, and his expression flickers to something a little unsettled then before it evens out. that aside...]

The right choice and the necessary choice will often be separate. But the necessary choice can turn into the right one even if the right one isn't what's necessary.

[alteracion]

[ grace benevolently does not point out that he clearly likes whoever that is even if he's trying to be professional and refuses to admit he has friends, nerd, but she does smile a little. the rest of it... ]

... I guess that makes sense. [ in a mildly convoluted sort of way, but she gets why he was sharing. even though she doesn't quite think it applies, but that would require talking about the full of it. ] Thanks, Greed.

[probe]

...of course.

[it's mildly convoluted but they are Trying, which is why they also go quite after that. they aren't entirely sure what to do with being thanked for something a little silly but they don't outright dismiss it either.]

[alteracion]

[ well. she knows how to get past the awkwardness

she leans over to maus and whispers to him to lick greed's face ]

[probe]

[maus is a dumb bitch but an obedient one which means they gets up to crawl over greed's chest and immediately start showering their face with kisses.]

Ghrk! Maus, no. [they barely do anything to stop this though and maus wags his tail instead.]

[alteracion]

[ grace laughs because she did this ]

Good boy, Maus! He loves you that much, see!

[probe]

[there's a quiet bark and the tail goes 90 mph while maus licks greed's face.]

Mmph! [they bring a hand up to try and make maus stop, but they only succeed in petting the dog instead.] How dare you teach my dog new tricks.

[this is probably not a new trick.]