Log:Meeting with Hardwick

Ruined Memories 2014/12/10 Mr. Hardwick Shoro

7

[Mr. Hardwick, I will cut to the chase, I am Shoro, and I am concerned about the self imposed incarceration of our Mutual friend, Paragon]

Shoro looked into Hardwick. He's a lawyer that works with the Guardians, he's also one of their benefactors. Philanthropist, defends the defenseless in court, he is one of the good lawyers, but can be ruthless. In fact, when you look a bit deeper, the house Paragon lives in (the original) had Brent Hardwick's name on the mortgage. It was considered a rental property that he donated to the Guardians to use.

Mr. Hardwick checks his phone, raising a brow. He texts back [I saw your name on the police report associated with Paragon's surrender. What is your relationship with my client?]

Shoro texts: [I am a friend, in this world of friendless friends, and foes that would seek destruction of a beacon of light, I am here to stand beside and fight for the dying light, in hopes that such a beacon never is extinguished.]

Hardwick texts: [And how can you help me help her? I have no intention of letting these allegations go uncontested. I can assure you, she is well represented.]

Shoro texts: [I know that Mr. Hardwick. I do my homework. I do not even think any charges should be raised against her, let alone go to trial. I am here to make certain you have my full cooperation in this investigation, and also, to find out what I can help you with. I am a man of certain skills. We should meet.]

Hardwick texts: [Are you, now? I'm afraid I cannot accept such aid without compromising my client, so I cannot meet with you. Besides, I have a dinner meeting at Serafino's tonight at 8pm.] So quickly disavowed? Most messaging systems can be tapped, traced, and presented as evidence. And Mr. Hardwick is a smart man by the reports. Maybe it's an actual invitation. He was specific with a time and place for his meeting tonight. Unnecessarily so. But vague enough to not hold up in court.

Tad arrives at Serafinos at 5 to 8, he is dressed in am ill fitting suit, with a pair of brown penny loafers, obviously a man who is trying to dress up but doesn't know how. He has a balding pate and walks with a slight limp. About 5'8"..due to a slight hunch in his back, this man in his mid forties walks in, ambling to the host, "Hello, uh..I have a reservation...I'm with a Mr. Hardwick?

"Ah, of course, he was expecting someone. Please, this way." The hostess picks up a menu and walks briskly to lead to one of the private dining rooms. There are a few of them for special guests, behind closed doors. After seating the man and handing him a menu, the hostest exits and closes the doors.

Mr. Hardwick is enjoying a fine wine and dressed in a custom tailored, fine italian suit, red dress shirt, black silk tie, and a red silk handkerchief in his breast pocket. His black hair is impeccably styled and combed back. The man seems to be in his late thirties. "Not what I was expecting. Good. Please, have a seat," he motions to the chair across from him.

Tad ambles over to Mr. Hardwick, he takes a moment before sitting down slowly, he wheezes out, "I am glad you could make some time for me Mr. Hardwick.." he coughs a couple of times, "I have heard you are a good man."

There's bread on the table, and a bruschetta dip with toasted bread set between the two of them, as well as wine glasses filled with ice water. "Perhaps you should have a drink to help with your cough," Mr. Hardwick offers. He speaks like a man with limited time or patience.

Tad shakes his head, "The wife would never approve..now..about our case. Is there something I can do to help move it along?"

"Mm. Yes," Mr. Hardwick says with some inattentiveness as he takes his napkin from the table and unfurls it with a snap of his wrist and sets it across his lap. He has no wedding ring. The man's married to the job. "I still don't know your personal interest in this matter. You're not the type Paragon would've associated with back when she was with the Guardians. Although she's become...-very- willful since moving here," he says as if he disapproves. A vein slightly bulges along his temple. "Yes. Willful. I'm very concerned with who she has been associating with."

Tad does not stop with the acting, "There is one thing I know.." he pauses as if for breath, "All things change. From what I have researched, You and your friends are not the types that she would have associated with a while back either. All things change, whatever you think you know, open your eyes and see the change. I have a personal stake. I care deeply for our friend, and quite honestly, she is needed here. She is a beacon of light that leads others towards a better world."

Mr. Hardwick hardly looks amused. "Personal stake? Care deeply? Does she have as many boyfriends as her Mr. Porter apparently has girlfriends?" A short time in Colonial Bay, and it's already left a bad taste in his mouth. "Because I'm really starting to wonder what sort of influence this city has had on her. She should know better. We raised her better than that."

Tad raises an eyebrow, "You raised her well. She has one boyfriend, his name is Porter. You may have taught her well..but if you're such an ass that you do not believe she can have friends that care for her, and believe in her, then perhaps you know her much less well than you care to believe. She is not your play thing, she is a person, and she has her own mind, she must make her own decisions, learn her own lessons, and you..if you somehow think you are a parental figure, then understand this, you may raise a child, but she is the arrow you are the bow, you may have aimed her, but she is the one who will strike the target, you can only hope your direction was good, but you cannot strike the target for her. Your lack of confidence in her, shows a lack of confidence in your upbringing."

"Yes, I became well acquainted with the sort of man James Porter truly is today." That vein at his temple starts to bulge slightly at the thought of it. "Him and his love child. I completely misjudged that young man. Yet Paragon still believes in him. That...was a fault in her upbringing. I told Captain Amazing he needed to focus on making her think more critically. But all he did was instill heroic ideologies in her. Ideologies that can get heroes killed." Mr. Hardwick takes a sip of his wine. There's a rivalry there, between Captain Amazing and Blackhawk's methods. The shining knight versus the dark knight. By knowing the Guardians, it's easy to see who Paragon looked up to more. "And how do you propose to help her in this current situation? You spoke of skills. Oration is clearly one of them. Infiltration and espionage another. You're not quite the shining knight she gravitates to."

Tad scoff at that comment, "You obviously do not know what she gravitates to. At the end of the day Mr. Hardwick, this is not about me, this is about her. Are there records, information, physical locations that you cannot get to that you need information from? That..given your friend's reputations, reputations that cannot be sacrificed for the greater good of the world, that perhaps I can assist with. I will find what happened in her past, of that you can be certain, but is there anything I can do to help, you only need to let me know. As a pretentious jerk, your reputation proceeds you, so you do not need to worry about your reputation, but your friends, your resources..let me be the one who is used to working in dark places."

"I don't need to use dark places. This can be fought by the book. -She- would want this by the book. But I'll keep your 'services' in mind," Mr. Hardwick says with cold regard. "I'm not so sure I want Paragon to know about her past. If what the allegations claim are true, well. She has as overblown a sense of duty and honor as Captain Amazing does. She may do something...drastic."

Tad nods, "I agree with you to a certain degree. I also believe that her past life is just that, her past. I believe that if what I have found out is true, her death should exonerate her from any wrong doing done in the past. The law seems pretty clear here, you cannot prosecute a corpse. Let alone a corpse that shares no memories of her past life. She is not an amnesiac, she is reborn. her past life is just that, past and separate from her current existence. I understand that is pretty touchy feely, but this, for Paragon, is more than a legal fight. It is a fight for her identity. What she must be convinced of is that whoever she may have been in her previous existence is not who she is now." he coughs and wheezes a bit, "...Because if she believes that she is responsible for the wrong doings of this "Madison", then we will both have lost her to her overdeveloped sense of right versus wrong. This is a world of grays Mr. Hardwick." he pauses, "I agree with you, she was taught well the ways of righteous goodness, but she misses what is right in front of her eyes at times. Still, it is that innocence that makes her that beacon which I cannot allow to be extinguished. I do not think that you and I are all that far apart Mr. Hardwick, but don't let your affection for Paragon blind you as well."

"In Boston, there is precedent to prosecute a corpse, in the cases of the undead. Many undead are still the same person, if not twisted in some way. It's treated as a condition in those cases; not death. The problem is in proving that she truly has no memories of her prior life and is not simply faking. That she is a different person than the person she was in life. A court appointed telepath may exonerate Paragon. But they may also be able to pick up memories that Paragon doesn't know she has. She's part machine, after all. Sadly, also considered just a condition," Mr. Hardwick informs as he sets his glass down and leans back in his chair with fingers steepled as he regards 'Tad'.

Hardwick continues. "You don't need to lecture me on her condition. I understand full well she is her own person. Proving it in court to a jury who does not know her or understand these things is another manner. 'Jury of your peers' does not mean meta-acquainted jurists." He pauses and considers Tad's words. "Do you know -why- Paragon came to this city in the first place? Left the only family she knew, the only home she had ever known?"

Tad shakes his head, "I do not. I have not known her very long. Just long enough." he says softly.

"To find out who she was," Mr. Hardwick states simply. "To discover her past. To find her identity. She became self-aware enough that she decided that it was important enough for her to set out on her own. So yes, I understand all too well this is a fight for her identity. It always has been. She's always felt she never quite belonged in the world. That a past would tie her to it."

Tad nods slowly, "Mr. Hardwick, she must know about her prior life if she is to find closure there. She can only deal with her past if she knows about it. Whether or not she is found guilty or innocent, whether or not she is brought up on criminal charges or not, it is but a symptom. If she does not go to jail, and we cannot convince her that her past does not dictate her present, or her future. That her actions now are what matters, then we will both have lost her, not to the legal system, but to herself. She will withdraw, she will feel guilt and shame, and she will lock herself away, perhaps even self desctructfully, if we cannot make her see her value." he pauses, "Perhaps Mr. Hardwick, it is the lack of value she sees in herself, that keeps her in that relationship."

There's that vein popping again at the mention of Paragon's relationship. "Yes," Mr. Hardwick comments in a clipped tone. "She doesn't understand enough to know what a real relationship is. She can only compare it to heroic analogies. She thinks a relationship is about sacrificing what one wants for another. In a way, she sees him as a teammate. She even calls him partner in both meanings of the word. But I can't forbid her from seeing him anymore. Trust me; I tried." That last comment causes Mr. Hardwick to clench the muscles in his jaw slightly.

"So how do you propose allowing her to know about her prior life, and not be lost to her own sense of duty?" Mr. Hardwick finally asks for something useful from Tad.

Tad pauses for a very long time. "The question is truly to make her understand the intrinsic value that she is. That she is Third, not some misguided villain from a prior life. That what she does affects lives, and that this life after death is her penance for her other life. I believe that if she understands that by sacrificing her present for her past, she will damage the lives of people now. That she cannot do what is right to fix what her previous life has done by rotting in a cell for the rest of her natural, or unnatural life. That she can make it right by facing her past, fixing what she can, and living to honor the memories and actions of those people she hurt in the past. She has to understand that the only way she can bring value to this life she leads right now, is to accept her past, and live everyday in a mentality that she is doing penance for that past. But also that her that just because she is in a state of penance, that she deserves happiness. To acknowledge that unhappiness is not sacrifice, it is simply unhappiness." he pauses, "She must understand that to pay for her past, she must continue to give in her present."

Mr. Hardwick frowns and taps his steepled fingers against his chin. "Make her believe it's a penance may keep her from rotting in a jail cell, but it may also reduce her self worth for the sake of others. I don't believe she would equate being in a state of penance to mean she would deserve happiness."

Tad nods, "I understand what you are saying, but I think perhaps one thing at a time Mr. Hardwick. Perhaps penance may be the wrong word, perhaps it is a matter of that Jimmy Stewart Classic, 'its a wonderful life' where she comes to understand somehow, what a world without Paragon is like."

"That wording, I like better," Mr. Hardwick says. "I still have to meet with the other lawyers to see what they think they have on Paragon's past. They need to present their evidence to me. If I have need of your skills after that meeting, I will contact you." Tad nods, "You have my pledge that if you or your friends need me, I will be there. I promised Paragon that I would help her through this. I do not like to be called a liar. I have lived that life for too long."

Mr. Hardwick nods. "Then help her as a friend. I will be very crossed if you have selfish intentions in this matter, though. Do not disappoint me."

Mr. Hardwick leans forward and extends his hand to shake Tad's. "Good luck out there." The meeting seems about to adjourn.

Tad looks Hardwick in the eyes, as he extends a weak and feeble hand, but his voice is anything but, "Mr. Hardwick, thank you for hearing my case..I appreciate your time, and regardless of my personal feelings, know this, Paragon is not the only one who understands self sacrifice." after shaking the hand, he stands up slowly and smiles at Hardwick, the act back up and in full effect, Wheezing, he says loud enough for people to hear, "Thank you for seeing me..." he wheezes, "Mr. Hardwick..." he finishes after a breath, "I'll tell my wife we'll be hearing from you." he begins to slowly walk out of the restaurant, gets downstairs, and hails a cab for lowtown..