Joke or no joke, Maurice could hold everyone in the room ransom, if he wanted. With the AM disabled and space magic being unreliable, he and any dead man switch he might be using can't be countered with 100% certainty. All he needs is an active jammer to stop Steve from interfering Actually, he doesn't even need that, he already has his shock implant removed. Still, an active jammer might still help since it would prevent Steve from interfering or even using Green Storm on others present.
I still don't see what good that would do for him though, unless used in a "Shut up and let me talk!" moment, for RP emphasis. Even then, he'd probably be making things worse for himself, if that is even possible. He's being put on trial by two guys who just lost things that were very important to them (Milno the AM and Miyamoto his plans). Not the best position to be in.
That's would be Flint's opinion if he was on the Sword right now. Use the Spock argument. You can't a fair trial when the judges are emotionally compromised and are thus liable to not judge fairly but rather get influenced by their emotions.
Yeah. Well, one could argue Maurice is being nice and actually loyal to the ARM. The Socrates argument, so to speak. Too bad they probably might not be rational enough right now to understand that.
And I honestly wish that Maurice would get at some point through the temporarily-thickened skull of Milno in that the AM isn't lost yet. She might be soon, she might be as a result of the attempts to save her, but she isn't yet. Oh well.
For those considering making new characters: A new background option is available! Project Wunderkinder has officially come to fruition, by word of Piecewise.
A Hephaestus-born character, raised in conditions strictly aimed at maximizing your mental abilities, honing your mind, creativity and knowledge to utmost degree (physical fitness, practical and social skills might or might not have been
ignored less emphasized; but personal training often provided or at least possible). Both "successful" graduates and "rejected" troublemakers options are available, so no real restrictions on stats/skills combination (though graduates, of course, are likely to have buffed Mind stat in particular). Age of up to 22 (age discrepancies explained by earlier stasis'ing).