Trooper Station, Friday

[firstofitskind]

Liam had woken up that morning with a headache. Specifically, the kind of headache that came when something bad was on the horizon.

Which wasn't fair, really, he thought, because while he did sort of appreciate the early warning, couldn't the universe have waited until Sunday to start cluing him in? Let him enjoy the weekend, at least a little?

"Anyone needs me, I'll be in my office." With the lights off.

[ooc: meanwhile the universe gave ME a massive headache on my first day back at work after three off, so. method RP. but post is still open 'cause I could use some entertainment.]

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[following_my_fishie]

Delirium marched into the Trooper Station, followed by Barnabas. She was on a mission. Though she was probably not the bad thing giving Liam the headache. Maybe.

"Are lies crimes?" she asked loudly, of anyone within earshot.

[firstofitskind]

“They can be,” Liam, who had stepped out of his office to grab a glass of water, said. “It depends on the circumstances.”

[ooc: was expecting a quiet day today and then i walk into work to find out it is Planogram Reset Day, apparently. ugh.]

[following_my_fishie]

"What does it depend on?" Del asked, brow furrowing a little.

[firstofitskind]

"Well," Liam said slowly. "If you ask someone 'How are you today?' and they say 'Fine', even though the answer is something like 'Terrible, I just got mugged by a raccoon and they stole all my money'," an absurd example, but also entirely possible in Fandom, "that's a lie, but it's not a crime. If someone came into the station and said 'I was mugged by a raccoon who stole all my money' and that wasn't what happened, then that's a lie that's a crime.

"Of course," he added, "that's further complicated by the fact that sometimes a crime might be the wrong thing to do legally, but the right thing to do morally."

Liam was perhaps not the most conventional choice for a law enforcement official.

[following_my_fishie]

Delirium mulled it over. "It's not a crime to say something nice that didn't happen but it's a crime to say something bad that didn't happen? Which way is that? Legal or moral? Both? Neither?" Thought about it. "What if it really did happen somewhere but maybe not this here but somewhere? Or is it not a crime because it didn't happen in this here? Is there a where that lying isn't a crime?"

[firstofitskind]

Those were a lot of questions, and Liam wasn't entirely sure he could give all of them a thorough enough answer.

"It's also not necessarily a crime to lie about something bad," he admitted. "Morally wrong, perhaps, but not always legally."

"Different countries, realities, worlds, or even times have different ideas of what counts as a crime, and lying could certainly be part of that," he continued. "So yes, I suppose there might be a where that lying- of any sort- isn't a crime."

[following_my_fishie]

"But why?" Delirium asked, confused, "If it's morally wrong but not legally wrong and sometimes not a crime how come it's a crime to tell the police something bad happened when it didn't?"

Good luck and godspeed, Liam.

[firstofitskind]

"If it's not legally wrong, then it's not a crime," Liam pointed out. "As for the 'how comes'... if you tell the police something bad happened when it didn't, and the wrong person gets in trouble for it, that can cause all sorts of problems for that person."

[following_my_fishie]

"Morally wrong isn't a crime?" Delirium asked. These rules were confusing as heck. "It's only a crime if the right person gets in trouble for it?"

[firstofitskind]

"Morally wrong isn't always a crime," Liam clarified. Tried to clarify.

This was not helping his headache at all, Delirium. For the record. "It's a crime if the wrong person gets in trouble for it. Or if the right person gets in trouble but for the wrong reasons." She wasn't exactly wrong about the rules being confusing as heck, though.

[following_my_fishie]

For the record, you probably didn't want her to try and fix your headache. "But what if there's just lies and no person to be right or wrong for them? What if it's just.." she gestured with both hands, ".. Just that everything is lies? Is that a crime? Because it's wrong, I think. When everything is lies."

[firstofitskind]

"By definition, a crime is something that is punishable by law," Liam explained. "So there needs to be- if not a person, then an entity, maybe even an organization- responsible that can be punished. Otherwise, yes, it's just wrong. But not a crime."