A Rally in Support of the Hungry Few

[baedalites.livejournal.com]

Who: The City
What: A Rally in Support of Cruorvores.
Where: Mercer's Square, Aspic
When: AT A CLEVER TIME
Notes: Everyone is welcome, including curious neutrals. NPCs available on request. OOC post.
Warnings: A general spirit of solidarity may be present.

Word has been spreading over the network and on the street. Leaflets have been available at open minded public houses and restaurants. A few of the city's more prominent inhabitants have organized a rally to show support for cruorvore citizens. It is going to be a public event; sanctioned, the leaflet assures, by the state. Speeches will be made, the true colours of the city will be shown. There is a lot of talk about standing up to the sowers of discord.

As the evening of the rally approaches, more and more people gather in the square. All sorts have come out for the event, xenians, humans and people who defy categorization mingle peacefully. A cat watches the proceedings from on top the stage has been erected to one end. The stage has been draped in banners promoting tolerance and acceptance, and small sign near the bottom proclaims it was built with the kind donations from Bloody Sunday, The Zygoda, Howl's Market and certain private citizens, of which there is a list. Some attendees have brought instruments and casually strike up a tune every now and then. Others have brought food, signs or torches as the rally promises to continue well into the night.

Comments

[Early Evening]

[baedalites.livejournal.com]

The crowd is still gathering and the sound system is being tested before the first speaker steps up on the stage. Opportunistic vendors sell (fully vegetarian) snacks and little buttons proclaiming things like We All Got to Eat and Friend to Fiends. It's a good time for people watching, and for being watched by other people.

[rhinemaid]

One of the early arrivals, Ilde has a marked lack of interest in wearing a button and slips past instead to join the other musicians with her cello, the case for which is nearly as big as she is. Setting up with them there gives her a good vantage point for people-watching, which is - after all - most of the reason she's present. The other reason is to see who, if anyone, will turn up representing Baedal's mass media.

[xenophilius]

This place is guided by pamphlets, clearly.

And Xeno is holding one as he drifts into Mercer's Square, a lanky figure in the shifting crowd. The toes of leather boots poke out from beneath the hems of a light woolen robe, long swaths of yellow to gold to brown fabric that are tattered and frayed not from misuse, but simply age and being well worn. A tweed jacket is tugged over the ensemble, Hallows pendant a-glint in silver hanging from his neck, and if he has anything else, besides the promotional piece of paper he holds in his hands, its hidden in deep pockets -- save for his wand, the twisted handle of which slightly too visible for safekeeping.

Xenophilius is the kind of person one would expect to have no idea what's going on but he's read enough to understand the context of things. People are still gathering, too, which lends him some time to get his bearings, having basically followed the pamphlet he'd been handed, and then the trickling crowd.

The pamphlets is shoved into a pocket, and a notepad is extracted. He isn't the mass media. Not here, anyway. But that doesn't mean much.

Which means he probably isn't what she is looking for, but it is what Ilde gets when he appears nearby -- not literally, or anything, but his vaguely butterfly-esque wander kind of just takes him there at the shapes of instruments and things. "Is there to be music?" he asks, diction telling of rural England and inconsequentially benign.

[rhinemaid]

Her accent, in turn, is more precisely trained received pronunciation with a hint of Florentine Italian (the latter being closer to where she's comfortable, truly, but the former comes of being habitually English in the words of her father): "In a bit. Still warming up."

The nearer he gets, the clearer it might be that Ilde isn't exactly what she appears to be - her illusion is good, but it's almost too good. She's like an oil painting of a woman, a little too richly realized to be reality, and in that way it's clear to some observers that whatever the purpose of it, it isn't about hiding, per se.

[xenophilius]

For all that Xeno has a propensity towards letting most observations fly off the tip of his tongue, he doesn't actually know what to make the strange things that the woman's visage is doing in front of his eyeballs. It has him pausing, head canted off to the left in consideration. Without feeling the need to provide particular context or continue on down the trail of conversation he'd begun, he notes;

"You're like the photographs from home."

[im_apimp]

Alec is more there out of curiosity than showing actual support. Humans always did rally for every little thing that went wrong -- anything they perceive as an injustice. He'd done quite a few missions for Manticore at rallies -- they were great for cover, because no one keeps track of just who is there and who wasn't, and if the rally happened to turn violent later, the target just happened to be a victim of the outcome. Regardless, this is the first time that he's been to a rally to actually listen, and he's just trying to make himself part of the experience.

This could backfire horrendously later, but -- for now, he's just enjoying the experience.

Personally, he didn't see what the big deal was. Vampires are people, and like people they need to eat. Yes, killing people is wrong, but those that feed responsibly shouldn't be judged for it. Then again, he could be projecting a bit, given his own home situation, but he's never really been one to put much stock in psychology.

As he rounds the corner, he smirks, amused, at some of the vendors, and pauses to look over their wares for a moment.

[sailorofthefloe.livejournal.com]

Mid-evening, Asbjørn can be found circling the growing crowd and picking at some of the more interesting pamphlets. People are giving him a wide-berth as usual (an unintentional side-effect of being his brand of something signficantly large and sharp toothed beneath the surface) with the exception of one oblivious and really enthusiastic vendor who's trying to press a variety of veggie snack samplers on him. He is trying his very best to side-eye her but that's apparently too subtle. Won't someone save him from the lentils?

[fish]

Fish will save him.

"Barf," he interjects, a little louder than is strictly necessary, while abruptly positioning himself between Asbjørn and this intrepid peddler of legumes. He's smeared on a bunch of eyeliner tonight because it makes him look even more like a wanna-be leech than usual. Well, that and he hasn't gotten dolled up in a while...but mostly he wants to be disregarded by people in general.

"Sup, buddy?"

[sailorofthefloe.livejournal.com]

The lentil-lady looks a little put out. In her mind, she surely dreams of carrot stick pelting vengeance. Asbjørn, however, presses his lips together in a sort of 'welp' expression, and tries not to smile too obviously at Fish.

"Heyyy." The word is deliberately stretched out, his eyes swerving to the side in a sign that he would really like to make a bid for freedom. "Not much. I thought I'd check out what's happening." Any sort of opposition to anti-xenian sentiment is something he's interested in.

[fish]

Well, too bad for lentil lady, because her would-be client—rather, never-would-be client—is being stolen and the thief is ignoring her face off.

"Same. I wasn't really sure what to expect... there's like way more vegetables than I thought. Uh, let's get outta the way here, we're blockin traffic."

[andyoullmissit]

Clarice is out and about, wearing her cloak hood down mainly to gauge the reactions she'll gather. She has no strong feelings about cruorvores per se, but she has very strong feelings about gathering up any one group of people and persecuting them.

She's trying to get the lay of the land, keeping her ears and eyes open. She doesn't look hostile or sympathetic per se, but she's observing.

[cerebric.livejournal.com]

Charles is reminded a little too uncomfortably of the mutant situation at home when he sees the gathering. He doesn't want to harm the reception of his kind here by saying anything too loudly before he understands everything fully.

He sees an opening where he can observe the rally as well and when he shuffles next to the covered figure he speaks to his temporary companion. "I hope I'm not taking anyone's place."

[andyoullmissit]

She glances at him and smiles, just a little. "No one I should actually be expecting. Help yourself." To the... spot, yes. She's not the greatest at small talk. (Not much practice.)

[cerebric.livejournal.com]

He returns her smile easily and it widens when he catches a good look at Clarice's face. "Well, I suppose if we're going to be friends for the rally I may as well introduce myself. Charles Xavier." He offers her a hand.

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

Njoki had planned to be out of Aspic well before the rally started, but house call she had been working on ending up going on for far longer than expected. Worse still, it had been messier than she was used to and had to use her client's shower before heading back to Mafaton. Should anyone else be skirting the edges of Mercer's Square, they're welcome to run into Njoki, who has slowed her pace to get through the crowds, occasionally stopping to chat with vendors and hand out a few business cards. Might as well make the best of it?

[magnetic]

Erik happens to be standing nearby during just such an exchange, and while he does not interrupt, he doesn't exactly make much effort to conceal his interest. Not that he's staring, mind you—but before Njoki turns to leave, he hopes to stop her by reaching as though to accept another of her cards. "Would you mind?"

[aldabeyoun.livejournal.com]

"Not at all." Njoki hands him one of her cards while trying to size up just what he might be -- definitely alive and, as far as she can tell, human. "You interested for yourself or a friend?"

[magnetic]

As far as she can tell, yes, he does seem to be your average sort of bipedal meatsack.

"Neither," he answers and, having been admiring the artwork on the card for a moment, looks up again. "But I figure it can't hurt for a newcomer to keep a variety of resources on hand."

[bangyoudead.livejournal.com]

Of two minds - optimistic, this is a good thing; skeptic, this will end poorly - Remy is nevertheless out, because when did thinking something might end badly stop him? Even without the angle he and Ilde are pulling concerning the connection between the anti-blood drinker pressure and the Candlelighters, he'd have showed up. They've come for his people first before, after all.

"Not a bad night," he says to the young man walking alongside him. "You old enough to remember stuff like this for us at home?"

[hareapparent.livejournal.com]

Billy, for his part, is not sure most normal kids wouldn't be creeped out enough by vampires - cruorvores - to be on the other side of things, but then again, the popularity of things like Twilight might have swung it back in their favour. So it was good for something. He might have been more creeped out himself, blood drinking had that kind of... yeah, creepy vibe, but hey, they were doing it in downright civilised ways - because they were still civilised, still people, and that was the point. Start picking on people for big differences, and soon you get down to picking on them for smaller differences, and smaller - moving on to victimise other outsider groups. And he's had quite enough experience of that himself, thanks.

"Yeah, I've seen things like this once or twice." Before he'd known he was a mutant (demon soul baby), even. "Actually, there were even support protests for the Skrulls when they invaded, since they framed it as a benign take over, but that didn't end so well. Maybe not such a good propganda move to kill your supporters."

[bangyoudead.livejournal.com]

There are plenty of asshole vampires - but there are way more asshole humans. Sure, someone could argue a percentage, but the fact remains that the only reason people are protesting cruorvores and not humans over serial killers and genocide is that they're different. It's an argument they're all tired of hearing.

"I remember that," he says, sounding wryly amused. The X-Men had fought during the invasion, but most of them hadn't been involved beyond defending Utopia, the community at large still shaky after M Day. (Remy, personally, had other things on his mind at the time.) "I guess I can't fault people for gettin' a little weird, considerin' how crazy stuff is sometimes."

[hareapparent.livejournal.com]

"True. And I think there's always been a lot of people who think, you know, alien civilisations, surely they're more advanced and peaceful and they can't do a worse job of things than humanity. Just a shame they didn't realise the Skrulls definitely fall into the warmongering conquerors category instead." Too much Star Trek and not enough Starship Troopers or, in fact, news reels.

"I spent most of it running after Teddy and making sure he didn't get himself killed. Sometimes, dating an alien prince can be kind of tough." And... oops, that distant look means he's missing Teddy.

... damnit one day I will properly edit a sentence and TAKE OUT THE PARTS THAT SHOULD BE TAKEN OUT

[fuckrobertfrost.livejournal.com]

Here and there among the crowd, there is a loud dude trying to corner people for their opinions. John is following him with a recorder, coffee, a lit cigarette, and a peevish expression. It's probably to do with how much often the reporter asks him if he's getting that. If he happens to catch Remy's eye, he'll gesture vaguely or something appropriately stoic. But John isn't saying much, since he's just the intern. He too would be here even if it wasn't his job, though he doesn't yet understand city politics.

IT'S NOT LIKE I'M GETTING NOTIFS

[bangyoudead.livejournal.com]

Remy raises his chin in more acknowledgement than greeting when John catches him, observing what he's up to. Huh. But he lets it go, because he's busy with this kid here, you see.

It's not until later that he spots him again, and pops up near John's shoulder, smoking a cigarette. "Nice to see somebody coverin' the angles, or whatever," he remarks, and with the tone of the crowd and the way everyone's moving around, he might be somebody who knows John, he might just be some guy.

well good then no one knows about that mistake, except... everyone I told about it

[fuckrobertfrost.livejournal.com]

By now, John is burdened with some random purchases made by the reporter, who seems keen on adding to the load without taking much notice of Remy. Still, John turns the recorder off.

"If you're angry, we want to hear about it," he says sourly. "Mad about vampire existing? Mad the parade had to happen at all? Mad the parade's blocking up the street? Mad vampires ain't what they used to be? Quality reporting, this."