[Maes collects all the people to the main section of the building]graficmemoryJuly 8 2008, 02:25:34 UTC
He grabbed an old soap box and stood on it, clinking a throwing knife to a glass mug to get people's attention.
"Folks? Hey, guys, settle down now. Time for some business. You better save four of those beers for me, got it? Okay."
Once the dull roar of conversation settled, he cleared his throat.
"I've tried to gather as many of you here as possible to discuss these physicals the City has decided to inflict upon us. And I'm here to warn you all that it is a serious issue and a potentially dangerous issue. Now, I know there has been talk everywhere about us Gatewalkers banning together to help protect each other, but those are several different voices collecting only a few heads here and there. We need one voice carrying all the other people here. Why is this important?
This is important because right now, I suspect that they are gathering profiles of all of us to fuel some sort of program to raise armies to fight off the zombies. I know quite a few of you have yet to see these creatures, but I was here for the last wall breech..." His words grow somber. "It is not pretty.
Right now, they are only taking profiles of us. If we resist, they drug us and take what they want and dump us back into the courtyard, no worse for the wear. They give us bottle of pills under the assumption we'll just...take them. At this time, it looks like a first round of exams, and even though it is disturbing, no one has been seriously harmed until they try to resist even the drugging."
Maes paused again, rubbing the back of his head. "We have one of our own who is seriously injured because he fought back more so than usual. And not only did he fight back, but refuse to show them showed his 'talents.' Ladies and gentlemen, I for one to not want to see any of our secrets fall to the hands of the natives of Veles. We were the ones who finally defeated the zombies with significant losses. We are the ones who never asked to come here, yet receive the looks of hate and prejudgice as if we wanted to ruin their unhappy little lives. We need to show these people solidarity. We need to be a unified front so that we can search for a way home in peace and not fear for our lives like dogs thinking our masters will hit us after giving a meal."
He hopped off of the box, still talking, letting his voice project to all the people inside the building and quietly to those standing watch just outside the door. "We need to choose a leader who will take us to freedom. I have been in this position before, and I say it's possible, but we NEED to be organized, secretive, and most of all, careful. If the soldiers take you for these physicals, no matter how badly you don't want to go, go. Some of us have already been through it, and maybe we can help you with some of the things they need. We can help you answer their questions properly so you're not under suspicion. If they make you do things and give you the option of jail or drugs, take jail. We'll see what we can do to get you out. And for the love of whatever you hold dear, do not show your otherworldly powers to them and give them ideas." The man could not stress this enough and for a moment, looks stricken and finally smears a hand over his face.
"For the ladies...And I know we have many very capable ladies out here." He gave Anko and Kuu and a few others a winning smile. "We need to watch out for them. Try to figure out a way to convince these people that these experiments will fail. And then we need a leader.
"I can't tell you to follow whom I stand behind, you don't know him, and he's not been here long enough. We should form a sort of elections, and choose fairly the best man for the job. I know who the best man for the job is, but I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to see it for yourselves." He paused again, going over his mental notes.
"Is there anything anyone else would like to say?"
"I don't want this to turn too hard towards Us vs. Them," Zack spoke up. "We don't wanna get confused about who we're pretecting ourselves from. Some of the natives are getting the same kind of shit, from their own government. Of course they're still picking on us the hardest, and no way we can just shrug it off until it happens to us personally. Just one or two guys standing up to this kinda thing can only really save one or two, so we've gotta be together on this."
"Big, faceless regimes typically do best when their populace is scared, an' this one's done a damn good job keepin' it's people runnin' scared for a while." Logan's voice cut in after Zack's, the diminutive canadian stepping into view with a beer as per usual, in hand. "Hell, they've got th' walkin' dead outside the walls, and us inside with them." The scruffy mutant took a swig of his beer before continuing, his voice prohjecting a little louder than usual so that everyone could hear him, but still possessed of it's usual baritone growl. "A lot of us seem ta' be from whole different worlds an' times, and just that concept can be damn frightenin' ta' the average person..."
Logan took a breath before looking through the crowd, as if looking for a few individuals before he continued. "An' then come the problems with our abilties. Some of us can do things that some people consider...unnatural, an' so the populace doesn't know whether ta' consider us monsters, or somethin' else entirely."
Another swig. "This probably rings a bit more true fer' some people than others, but in th' place I'm from, there's a similar situation...or used to be" The scruffy speaker frowned at his own words, as if troubled by the memories. "People started bein' born with special abilties, an eventually, it got ta' the point where we actually got classfied by the world's governments. They called us Mutants, an' even though a lot of us did good things with our abilities, there were always enough people ta' reinforce the prejudice some people had against us."
Logan turned his attention back to Maes before finishing. "Yeh may a bit of a politician, but yer right, if we're gonna do anythin' ta make ourselves a bit better off, it's gonna take all of us. An' it'll definately work best if we git some of th' civillians on our side too."
Frowns at his winning smile, "I ain't had anyone watch out for me since I was a baby. Don't need it. Send the chivalry to someone who fuckin' needs it, Maes.." she grumbled at him while searching for her tobacco in her cleavage, "I ain't about to risk my life for people who want me dead, as far as the locals are concerned. 'Innocent' is a damn abstract concept in this world."
Kuukaku brought out her pipe, gesturing with it as she talked, "It's easier said than done, this 'banding together' shite.. especially when it takes just a fuckin' word for us Outsiders to turn on each other. We're no better than the locals in that regard. My kitten was just stabbed by another Gater several days ago, so I'd say we got other issues to work on before we think we can have some sort of.. leader."
May was silent, listening as the others spoke. She knew that she hated the way people-- and that meant everybody, not just the Gatewalkers-- in Veles were treated. It was terrible, and inhumane. But she was also aware of the fact that unless it was planned very well, a rebellion would only lead to more death and destruction, segregating the populations further and only serving to enforce stereotypes that she, for one, had been hard at work trying to dispel. Why couldn't everybody just... get along?
She patted Kuu's hand in sympathy at the mention of the woman's kitten, and then raised her hand. "Maes, honey, I still don't know who this mysterious leader of yours is. Perhaps it's time for him to step up and take the crate. We can all decide whether or not to throw our votes in after we've heard what he has to say."
"They're all valid points and I do concur." Maes addressed them all. "We ourselves need to find a reason to be united, and if we don't have that common ground, then there's no reason why we should fight for our freedoms. We do have some civilians on our side. Or... more importantly, natives here who feel the basic commonality of humanity outweighs origin or power. Understandably so, they wish to remain anonymous for their safety."
Maes turned to look at Maytag and nodded. "By all means, May...I wouldn't want you to follow anyone without them gaining your trust." He looked over to the side in Roy's direction, quirking a brow in question.
He stared at Maes for a few minutes with a look of uncertainty on his face, before sighing softly. This was for Maes. If he could do something like this here, then it would all be practice for back home? That didn't compute well with his head - this wasn't something he could afford to mess up as if it were a practice run... This was Maes' life. He'd heard the arguements, and he'd also heard the comment about 'taking up the crate'
Slowly, he made his way through the throng of people gathered around Maes, sighing as he sent his best friend a very person glare, face breaking even the moment he came to stand next to the taller man, looking up and reaching up a hand so he could be helped up.
"Folks? Hey, guys, settle down now. Time for some business. You better save four of those beers for me, got it? Okay."
Once the dull roar of conversation settled, he cleared his throat.
"I've tried to gather as many of you here as possible to discuss these physicals the City has decided to inflict upon us. And I'm here to warn you all that it is a serious issue and a potentially dangerous issue. Now, I know there has been talk everywhere about us Gatewalkers banning together to help protect each other, but those are several different voices collecting only a few heads here and there. We need one voice carrying all the other people here. Why is this important?
This is important because right now, I suspect that they are gathering profiles of all of us to fuel some sort of program to raise armies to fight off the zombies. I know quite a few of you have yet to see these creatures, but I was here for the last wall breech..." His words grow somber. "It is not pretty.
Right now, they are only taking profiles of us. If we resist, they drug us and take what they want and dump us back into the courtyard, no worse for the wear. They give us bottle of pills under the assumption we'll just...take them. At this time, it looks like a first round of exams, and even though it is disturbing, no one has been seriously harmed until they try to resist even the drugging."
Maes paused again, rubbing the back of his head. "We have one of our own who is seriously injured because he fought back more so than usual. And not only did he fight back, but refuse to show them showed his 'talents.' Ladies and gentlemen, I for one to not want to see any of our secrets fall to the hands of the natives of Veles. We were the ones who finally defeated the zombies with significant losses. We are the ones who never asked to come here, yet receive the looks of hate and prejudgice as if we wanted to ruin their unhappy little lives. We need to show these people solidarity. We need to be a unified front so that we can search for a way home in peace and not fear for our lives like dogs thinking our masters will hit us after giving a meal."
He hopped off of the box, still talking, letting his voice project to all the people inside the building and quietly to those standing watch just outside the door. "We need to choose a leader who will take us to freedom. I have been in this position before, and I say it's possible, but we NEED to be organized, secretive, and most of all, careful. If the soldiers take you for these physicals, no matter how badly you don't want to go, go. Some of us have already been through it, and maybe we can help you with some of the things they need. We can help you answer their questions properly so you're not under suspicion. If they make you do things and give you the option of jail or drugs, take jail. We'll see what we can do to get you out. And for the love of whatever you hold dear, do not show your otherworldly powers to them and give them ideas." The man could not stress this enough and for a moment, looks stricken and finally smears a hand over his face.
"For the ladies...And I know we have many very capable ladies out here." He gave Anko and Kuu and a few others a winning smile. "We need to watch out for them. Try to figure out a way to convince these people that these experiments will fail. And then we need a leader.
"I can't tell you to follow whom I stand behind, you don't know him, and he's not been here long enough. We should form a sort of elections, and choose fairly the best man for the job. I know who the best man for the job is, but I don't want you to take my word for it. I want you to see it for yourselves." He paused again, going over his mental notes.
"Is there anything anyone else would like to say?"
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Logan took a breath before looking through the crowd, as if looking for a few individuals before he continued. "An' then come the problems with our abilties. Some of us can do things that some people consider...unnatural, an' so the populace doesn't know whether ta' consider us monsters, or somethin' else entirely."
Another swig. "This probably rings a bit more true fer' some people than others, but in th' place I'm from, there's a similar situation...or used to be" The scruffy speaker frowned at his own words, as if troubled by the memories. "People started bein' born with special abilties, an eventually, it got ta' the point where we actually got classfied by the world's governments. They called us Mutants, an' even though a lot of us did good things with our abilities, there were always enough people ta' reinforce the prejudice some people had against us."
Logan turned his attention back to Maes before finishing. "Yeh may a bit of a politician, but yer right, if we're gonna do anythin' ta make ourselves a bit better off, it's gonna take all of us. An' it'll definately work best if we git some of th' civillians on our side too."
Reply
Kuukaku brought out her pipe, gesturing with it as she talked, "It's easier said than done, this 'banding together' shite.. especially when it takes just a fuckin' word for us Outsiders to turn on each other. We're no better than the locals in that regard. My kitten was just stabbed by another Gater several days ago, so I'd say we got other issues to work on before we think we can have some sort of.. leader."
Reply
She patted Kuu's hand in sympathy at the mention of the woman's kitten, and then raised her hand. "Maes, honey, I still don't know who this mysterious leader of yours is. Perhaps it's time for him to step up and take the crate. We can all decide whether or not to throw our votes in after we've heard what he has to say."
Reply
Maes turned to look at Maytag and nodded. "By all means, May...I wouldn't want you to follow anyone without them gaining your trust." He looked over to the side in Roy's direction, quirking a brow in question.
Reply
Slowly, he made his way through the throng of people gathered around Maes, sighing as he sent his best friend a very person glare, face breaking even the moment he came to stand next to the taller man, looking up and reaching up a hand so he could be helped up.
Reply
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