wunderkind | (no subject)

wunderkind

STUFF GOES IN HERE

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From:

jurisimpudent

Well -

[He deflates a little bit, because, yes, he shouldn't get worked up. That much is true. Still - ]

It's - I just want to establish that I am not a person who cheats. In any case. I was thinking of courgettes.

From:

doggedly

Courgettes?

[He could go on, harp on Edgeworth's extreme irritability and quick temper, really take the piss out of him for it, but that word distracts him.]

What the hell is a courgette? Isn't that a type of car?

From:

jurisimpudent

[And Edgeworth, in turn, is distracted by that confusion.]

No, it's...a zucchini - but that's the American...word, I think - But you've heard of zucchini.

From:

doggedly

[Has... he? Feeling a little foolish now, Sirius shrugs, a slight scowl on his face--but more directed inward than anything else.]

I don't hang around markets and kitchens very much.

From:

jurisimpudent

That's -

[But Edgeworth looks over to see Sirius' mulish expression and realizes - perhaps he ought not belabour the strangeness of it. It's clear enough Sirius is feeling self-conscious about it; Edgeworth oughtn't add to that.]

Understandable. Well, they're...rather tasty. Even I can cook them.

[He adds, keener on making this a referendum on his own shortcomings than on Sirius':]

And I'm quite a bad cook.

From:

doggedly

[Despite himself, he's mollified by that admission--at least slightly. Maybe it's thanks to how bloody tired he is, too worn out to really argue very much. Maybe it's something else, but he's not going to waste time trying to put names to things that don't actually matter.

Instead, he rubs his wrist at his forehead, with something of a wry little smile.]

Yeah, totally understandable.

[Not really. Not from what he knows of Edgeworth's life. Still...]

How bad is 'quite bad'?

From:

jurisimpudent

[He gives a little half-shrug, a self-deprecating smile.]

The only thing that keeps my diet from being predominantly charcoal are institutionally cooked meals.

Quite bad.

From:

doggedly

[He snorts, quietly, despite himself, despite any previous irritation. If there's one way to get into Sirius' good graces, it's the ability to make fun of yourself.]

Pathetic.

[Which is rich, coming from someone as rich as him, someone that's never so much as made a sandwich for himself.]

Ought to get a house elf. It's an investment.

From:

jurisimpudent

[A response of I find house-elves and their conditions horrifying, and would never underwrite a system that seems to me quasi-slavery is the wrong one in this situation. Edgeworth knows that, and so he swallows it, because that would tear to shreds that strange, sad, tenuous sort of harmony between them. So, instead:]

Well. I don't precisely have a great deal to invest.

From:

doggedly

What, and you don't think you'll see some reward for-- this?

[He waves his cigarette towards the door, indicating everything that's gone on.]

Once they work it out, they won't know how to thank you, and all you had to do was cave in the ceiling on some ancient ugly building.

From:

jurisimpudent

[Edgeworth looks over, frowning slightly. This doesn't have the self-flagellating misery of before; he says it like it's self-evident.]

Reward? I wouldn't accept a reward.

From:

doggedly

No, I suppose you wouldn't.

[He says it dryly, but there's a level of respect there that he would never admit to--not to anyone; certainly not to Edgeworth himself. Everyone does what they do for a reason, for the hope of some reward--even if it's just a job well done, or a good mark, or something. Good deeds are hard to come by. It wouldn't be exactly surprising if the great and noble Miles Edgeworth was one of the exceptions to that jaded rule.]

Not even an Order of Merlin?

From:

jurisimpudent

An Order of...Merlin?

[He repeats that, entirely uncomprehending. Edgeworth's dearest hope is that he can stay out of Azkaban for this; the fact that Sirius is (ironically, surely?) speaking of the highest honor possible - it's inconceivable.

And yet...He does know that there are some who would re-frame him as a hero for this. Who would interpret his astonishing boneheaded stupidity, his act of evil, as something grand. But surely no one in the Ministry would think that way. So even though there's something that does leap in him with some small longing, he quashes it at once.]

Absolutely not. Even if they tried, I should hope that the past recipients would rise up in armed rebellion for so denigrating the award.

From:

doggedly

'Armed rebellion'. Bit dramatic, isn't it.

[He takes a drag on his cigarette, with a shrug.]

Suit yourself, then. But you're going to look pretty foolish, turning them down for something like that. Isn't that what you wanted? Being a hero?

[He's not even asking it with any particular sarcasm. Yeah, he knows it because he's been in Edgeworth's head--but he's not saying it in any way other than simple statement of fact.]

From:

jurisimpudent

[He looks down again, embarrassed. There's no denying that; there's no point in even trying, after the thoughts they'd shared. But now, particularly, it seems like such a foolish thing.]

I...was expecting to die, I suppose. Heroism is useful if one is dead and can...serve as a model of resistance.

[God, that sounds imbecilic. Petty.]

And I didn't comport myself heroically.

From:

doggedly

[He snorts, but--not exactly unkindly. It's too dry to be cruel.]

Sorry, I should've let you get killed. Next time.

[He's not about to even try to define the reasoning of why he didn't let him be killed. It's too much, and he's too bloody tired to even think about it himself.]

And just how would a hero comport himself?

From:

jurisimpudent

I don't know.

[He confesses that, giving a little bit of a shrug.]

I think a hero wouldn't have been there at all.

From:

doggedly

[That gets a moment of silence, from Sirius, and a good long stare. Eventually, he snorts, incredulously.]

Sorry--wouldn't have been there? Then who's the sort of person that would be there, facing down that bastard?

From:

jurisimpudent

Someone who had the authority. Who wasn't acting out some...half-baked revenge plot.

[He stares down at his hands.]

Those who are heroic are those who do their jobs. Not who take law into their own hands.

From:

doggedly

[He stares at Edgeworth a moment, actually lost for words. When he's finally recovered enough to speak, he has to buy himself a little time still, and he snorts, incredulously.]

Sorry, what house are you again?

From:

jurisimpudent

[Edgeworth doesn't take offense at that, doesn't get defensive; instead, he lets out a little sound that comes close to being a laugh.]

I've wondered more than once what the Sorting Hat was thinking.

From:

doggedly

S'ppose it was thinking that it knows better than you.

[He takes another drag on his cigarette, tips his head back so he can blow the stream of smoke up towards the ceiling.]

Godric Gryffindor. You'd call him a hero. But I can't say that from what I've read of him, he was the planning type. The thing about heroes is it takes all kinds. There's not one.

From:

jurisimpudent

[He acknowledges this with a small shrug of acknowledgment.]

I suppose I simply...don't ever want to see anyone emulating me. What I did. If they were for some reason, in some madness, to want to reward me, I would have to turn it down; otherwise, we might see others taking the same risks.

[A pause.]

I suppose that makes me a monstrous hypocrite.

From:

doggedly

[He shrugs, at that first speech--yeah, maybe, though he's not convinced. The bit after the pause catches his attention, though, and he looks around at Edgeworth again.]

Why?