[Pregame Mid-Evening - The Tryanim] Speak Friend, And Enter (Open)

[Naila Drooten]

"And that is why, given the evidence presented today, we must conclude that any lawbreaking is an example of advanced and depraved derangement, and should of course be punished by death." The skinny tiefling with the smell of magic about him pauses before the Guvners, Mercykillers and Harmonium in the audience break into wild applause. On the other side of the stage an opposing sensate aasimar can be heard loudly yelling "Hold me back! Hold me back!...A little tighter please."

Towards the rear of the crowd Naila has arched an eyebrow so high it has disappeared beneath her bangs entirely. If the tiefling wanted to pull habits out of a rat he should have been a psychologist, not a wizard.

It raised the question of why she'd imagined such a silly argument in the first place and while debating that would probably be more interesting than what was happening on stage it would also distract Naila from her target.

Perched up against a pillar the half-elf squints her eyes slightly, focusing on the nervous looking free league gnoll up on the stage with his team "law is just a social construct." It was only fitting that such an unstimulating target was on such an unstimulating team. He'd barely even added his voice to the debate except to offer something non-committal about the Savannah. As if that berk had ever seen one. Still, if what his wife said was true he should be meeting one of his lady friends in an hour or two. Confirm that and the case was solved.

With a sigh she settles back and glances around the crowd to see if everyone else was finding this as tedious as she was.

[Akh Uur Hoon]

The topic for today was not exactly how the Dustwoman would phrase it but debates often went wild places so she made a habit of witnessing them for the sake of intellectual curiosity, on top of some other private reasons. She was one to take some notes for her own personal use as in those arguments pearls of thought were usually buried in rhetorical trash heaps one could unearth later in more contemplative circumstances than the self-righteous raucous rancorous ruckus.

[Hanya]

With a sigh she settles back and glances around the crowd to see if everyone else was finding this as tedious as she was.

A cat... or rather, a cat-like person of small stature, yawned nearby and rubbed the side of their paw-like hand against their black-furred brow, also clearly bored.

"Mrrr... sounds a bit extreme," Hanya spoke in a purr-like tone as she looked around, and spotted Naila, "death, I mean. What-hm-do you think?"

[Naila Drooten]

A cat... or rather, a cat-like person of small stature, yawned nearby and rubbed the side of their paw-like hand against their black-furred brow, also clearly bored.

"Mrrr... sounds a bit extreme," Hanya spoke in a purr-like tone as she looked around, and spotted Naila, "death, I mean. What-hm-do you think?"

Naila's gaze snaps back to the cat, cat-person, catwoman her mind rapidly jumping to try and find the right description.

"It certainly plays well with the usual suspects. But it's rather narrow. If any lawbreaking is unjust then any law must be just, yet one could go to the Hall of Speakers and hear a thousand unjust laws proposed a day. What if we passed a law banning the death penalty? I think some heads might explode."

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The sensate's team responds with the equally dramatic but no less effective argument of "That's the dumbest thing I've ever heard!" After continuing on into a list of increasingly strange insults the moderator raises a hand to indicate they should actually move on to making a point of their own. The Aasimar is able to recover to being a mostly coherent argument about the duality of the soul and that following an unjust (and boring) law is itself unjust (and boring).

The gnoll seems to be nodding along though, going over everything she knew of him that made sense.
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"Naila Drooten", she extends a gloved hand to Hanya. "The second finest detective in Sigil, a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss."

In her peripheral vision Naila spots the Dustwoman who sometimes came by to observe and nods at her politely before focusing on Hanya.

[Desten Callor]

The tall metal frame of Desten loomed in the crowd, he was not one much inclined to debating but upon hearing the topic he could not stop himself from taking a few minutes to listen in.

He was still clad in full plate armor, shield on his back and Mace at his hip. Though his helmet was retracted showing that he was not actively on patrol. His dark eyes stayed primarily trained on the debaters but did sweep the crowd now and again.

[Hanya]

Naila's gaze snaps back to the cat, cat-person, catwoman her mind rapidly jumping to try and find the right description.

"It certainly plays well with the usual suspects. But it's rather narrow. If any lawbreaking is unjust then any law must be just, yet one could go to the Hall of Speakers and hear a thousand unjust laws proposed a day. What if we passed a law banning the death penalty? I think some heads might explode."

"Naila Drooten", she extends a gloved hand to Hanya. "The second finest detective in Sigil, a pleasure to make your acquaintance Miss."

"Verily," Hanya agrees with a wry smile of her feline features. The r's seems to be particularly purr-like in sound. The spectacle before them earns a few swishes of her tail, annoyed by the droll arguments.

"Hanya of the Fated," she offers her hand in turn, paw-like yet also with notable joints more like a human's. In another world, Hanya might've been an odd sight, but in Sigil one could see a hundred odder sights in just an afternoon - one just became accustomed to oddity. "Would ms. Drooten's head explode if they banned the death penalty? Mine certainly wouldn't, for sure, mrrr, even sages say some crimes are too foul, but who decides what is so heinous it must be punished so... permantly."

She exhales a laugh-like purr. "That is, those who don't have the money for magical contingencies - for them, death is merely a minor roadblock."

[Naila Drooten]

Snip

"A pleasure. I've always found the fated are either the hardest suspects to catch or the best investigators to have on your side. The really interesting ones are both."

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On stage the gnoll seems to have stood and is demanding to be recognised as the current speaker which is drawing loud boos from the audience. Someone throws a tomato
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"I personally see little point in executing someone after they've been caught. The chase has finished, the race has been run. It's just poor sportsmanship at that point. Not to mention it would speak ill of myself as the font of all creation, maybe."
She makes a thinking sound at Hanya's last point, nodding slowly.

"And that's quite right. Death is really only a punishment for the poor. Fundamentally it's merely a very excessive fine on one's life. I think we are mostly in agreement. You seem to have grasped the issues far more readily than those on the stage. You're a thinker of some kind I take it?"

[Akh Uur Hoon]

The Dustwoman nodded back with a small smile. She stopped making notes, hid the utensils, and approached to show respects from a shorter distance. "Death is only a punishment for those who consider it a punishment. As you have mentioned, some may see it as mere inconvenience. Some others, however, consider it a blessing and so end up rewarded for their crimes rather than punished." She could develop the argument, but chose to stop her intervention at this for the moment. Three symbols in her cryptic halo flashed brighter. "Akh Uur Hoon."

[Flession]

As you all speak, a red-headed elfish woman eagerly awaits her turn at the podium as the next speaker went. She doesn't seem to pay the three of you any mind, and the current speaker seems to slightly irritate her as the gnoll continues to prattle on with his rather dimwitted approach to understanding things.

[Naila Drooten]

"A good point as well Miss Akh." Naila pauses for a few moments to study the halo before storing it away as a puzzle for another time. "I'm Naila Drooten, you might have heard of me and it would be a point in your favour if you had." Jumping back to the topic at hand.

"Perhaps the punishment should fit the perpetrator rather than the crime? Although ethically if life is as bad for some criminals as death then surely inflicting it on them as merely an inverse equivalent."

Sounding very pleased with herself. "As you can see I have maybe made the very nature of life an ethical conundrum. It ensures nothing is dull for long.

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Speaking of dull the gnoll finally finishes with a "And furthermore Raw-Sludge must be destroyed" before sitting back down as the moderator sighs and waves for the next speaker to step forward.