sirenspull | 22 [Voice]

The citizens of this city, registered and unregistered, are somewhat pathetic.

[Hello, Siren's Port. Have your neighborhood friendly demon, sounding oddly serious and composed.]

We are brought here, against our will, by a mystical force that none of us can control or see. While we are trapped here, we are treated as second-class citizens, the proverbial Rosa Parks on the bus line that is the multiverse, and not weeks after a neighborhood friendly hunt on the newcomer population, individuals seem to have... shrugged it off. Moved along with their lives and their husbands and wives and paper routes and white picket fences.

[There is a slight creak as Crowley shifts in the chair he is sitting in. He pauses slightly, to collect his thoughts, before he continues. A good orator always knows when to draw the line and when to keep talking. He seems to be deciding where it is now.]

Whether or not this is just another display of humanity ignoring when terrible things occur in favor of the new bright and shiny politician on their doorstep is irrelevant. What is relevant is your amazing ability to ignore what is directly in front of you -- we are held in the hands of a group of individuals no more or less powerful than we are and yet we are the second-class. Even those registered as citizens, those with powers in government -- you can't tell me you are truly invited to the weekly bridge game of our Canadian cousins.

[And suddenly, his voice grows slightly harder.]

What will it take for all of you to realize that we are nothing more than cattle in a small pen being poked at with sticks? Would it be the brutal murder of someone you love or the relinquishment of supposed unalienable rights that you hold onto so tightly? What will it take for you to finally open your eyes and understand that you aren't free. Your tiny little slice of life is nothing more than an illusion fed to you by a series of corporations and egotistical human overlords who think themselves better than everyone else because they have a pretty picture stamped on an ID card. So come on -- be honest. What would you rather have -- eternal peace at the price of freedom or the knowledge that you did something potentially great regardless of the consequences?

[There is the clink of a glass -- and Crowley ceases talking. But the feed stays open.

It's a serious question. And a testing of the waters.

He wants to know how many dangerous people are truly in the Port.]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

A woman took my memories and made me believe that magic is dead in my world. I've been accosted to a crime I did not commit. I was kidnapped and taken to the hunting grounds, where I bled from the inside and been toyed with. The only satisfaction I ever gotten was the massive property damage I've created with my fire and claws.

[Hm.]

I sympathize.

[Somewhat genuinely, for speaking to a massive talking lizard.]

Not many have the self-restraint to pick and choose their battles.

[ Excuse you he isn't a lizard. :| ]

No. They don't, and yet they are the ones with the fewer resources.

Other than the AGI court I heard about last summer, it is rather disheartening to see there are no more progresto have been made.

A court funded by AGI is hardly one that should be trusted.

My apologies, I misspoke. I meant the trial against AGI for the treatment and the terms of slavery. As far as I can understand AGI lost that trial, but were given the authority to regulate alcohol to spare the government of financial expense some time later. The companies are, if nothing less, fluid and adaptable even at their own expense.

I will admit that something of drastic as undermining authority is not something I have personally encountered. While I've seen civilizations fall, I was only involved to the rise of one particular people, and even then I was largely involved with the arts and history . . . and being a guardian against invading forces.

[Interesting.]

Surely five thousand years of experience has granted one insight into what works and what doesn't.

And it does, but building up a stable government isn't quite the same as tearing down a corrupt one. I was allied with the elves when they rose from a group of tribes to a powerful nation; even they have factions within. Some groups were not happy with one direction, so peaceful compromises were made. When groups of elves wished to be back to the days when they were tribal hunters and gatherers, no one stopped them from separating and returning to their wild origins.

[ Of course, it helped that Silvanos and Kagonos were good friends and respected each other well. ]

From what I understand from history, overthrowing the government might be the best course of action, it is also terribly easily to fall into the tricks and traps of the previous one, becoming the enemy they once abhor.

In the end I suppose my experience is with helping a group of people creating their own government, not fighting another from the inside.

Edited 2012-07-09 21:27 (UTC)

[He's silent, for a remarkably long moment, before he suddenly looks a lot older than he normally appears.]

Rebuilding something from scratch is the only way you can avoid those same mistakes. Tear down the foundation and rebuild it back up to the vision you promised. Revolution is a series of promises and showmanship, but you have to accomplish what you set out to do.

Anything less is an insult to what you had to sacrifice.

[ Aurican feels to incline to agree what the man (he doesn't know Crowley's true nature) has said. ]

I agree.

But what of the people? Will they fulfill their promise?

No. They won't.

[It's said without much inflection or emotion, as Crowley watches the dragon.]

But that hardly affects what a leader has to do.

22 [Voice]

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