poly_chromatic | (no subject)

Okay. This, this right here? This is not what I signed up to do and it's not what I want to do. I don't like doing it because it goes against my principles and my philosophies. I don't want to be sitting here, like those fucking Deities, throwing down laws on you. I don't like enforcing law, I don't like supporting order. I like agreement by consensus. I like collaboration. I don't like this. But shit's happened, and this is the result of it. This is cause and effect. This is the resulting effect. So this is what I have to do.

All right, so, unless you've been, I don't know, comatose or completely blacked-out drunk or something like that, you probably noticed what went on yesterday--between the lights and heat and the cold and the earthquakes and the wind. Yeah, no, not cool.

Yesterday, due to the actions of two Cityzens, the structural integrity of the barriers surrounding the City and the structural stability of the City itself were put in jeopardy. Shit, I mean, even the Clock felt this one. All because a couple of people launched an attack on the barriers.

We've got things under control again now. And the City's not going to go all to hell that easily.

I'm not into public humiliation. But we know who did this. We know their names and their faces. And I've got a name here with me right now. And I'm going to say it. This is the name of one of the two Cityzens responsible for this ordeal:

Wallace West.

I don't know why you got yourself involved in this--that's your business, man. But, seriously, I wish you'd thought about it more before you did it. What you did could've killed everyone. You, your collaborator, me, everyone else. No victory, no return home, no nothing.

Look, I get it. I understand it. This is for everyone in the City, all right? Lemme level with you. You're stuck here and maybe you're unhappy about it. I know you want to get out of here. I understand that. We all understand that. All of us in this movement, our movement, the one that ousted the Deities and put you in charge, we know what it's like to be trapped in a situation with no escape, no recourse, and no hope. We fucking get it. We got in here to break free from that and we want to break you out of it too. Me, personally? I've got Anarchist and Discordian streaks at least a couple hundred hectares wide in me. If you see a limit, you have to push it. That's how it goes. If you see a rule, break it. Why not? So I think, I hope, I can understand at least some of the urge that brought this on. It's something basic, whether it was just pure experimentation, wondering what it'd do if you did whatever, or if it was an attempt at escaping. I get it. You know? But now we're all in this together, no matter where you want to be, you and me and everyone else. We're all here--the people who want to stay here, the people who want to leave, the people who want to come and go, all of us.

So if you're one of the people who wants to get out, this isn't the way to do it. We don't have the same kinds of retributional or, I guess, punishment-based safeguards around the barrier that the Deities had. You've seen those: you hit the barriers, you get shocked or you get killed or you get thrown in the ocean. Whatever. Those things blocked you from doing a lot of real damage. We took those down so we could work out how to get you out of the City, beyond what lies outside the barriers, and home. I promise you, we're really trying to work out ways to get through the barriers and back to your own worlds. I could show you just reams of paper working out how to do it. It keeps coming up null, but we're trying, I fucking swear. But it means the barriers are more fragile now than they ever were before. And when you do shit like this, you're attacking the City itself. It delays us, sure, but it does damage--physically and emotionally--to the City and other Cityzens. I mean, do I really need to explain to you that this is a bad idea?

So, to the two guys who launched this whole thing, seriously, bad call. You put a lot of people in danger for something that you and only you cared about. It was a stupid, selfish, unconsidered thing to do. If you'd actually punched a hole in the barrier, you would have likely killed yourselves and probably a significant number of people in the City itself. There are people here right now who remember a time when the barriers started to come down. I mean, the guy who actually designed the real supports for the things kind of lost his mind and started wrecking it all. Shit went fucking crazy! The Deities themselves were out there, using fucking duct tape to try and patch things back up. It was that bad. I'm one of those people who remembers that. I don't want it to happen again. For the sake of everyone here, I don't want it to happen again.

For anyone out there who's wondering, yeah, the two Cityzens responsible for all of this will be punished. Not for the sake of punishment, not because I'm angry at them--yeah, I am angry at them, but that's not a reason to punish them--but because they put a lot of lives in danger for the sake of an essentially selfish idea. They thought it'd be a good idea to attack the barriers and gave no regard to any repercussions or consequences that could come of that. This is a consequence and it's a small one compared to what could have happened. And I hope they realize that. And I hope that they can give some thought to what's happened and to their place as members of an interconnected society.

What I do, what you do, what anyone does, ripples out to everyone else, to people and organisms and living things and beings that you don't know and may never know. Whatever you do has an effect.

You are the cause. What effect will you have?

[ooc: In reference to this ordeal, with more OOC information to be found here!]

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

[ Scott has his own thoughts on all of this. He doesn't know if he trusts Tristero or any of these guys. He's used to people holding back information, has held back information - usually for good reason - but he knows people like Boyd and Erica don't benefit from information being held back. He listens to everything, to every word. He knows Wally, knows that he's a superhero. Maybe someone shouldn't act out when nothing can be done or when they think nobody is doing something? Back home, Scott was trying to do something. Honestly, if his friends and family were in danger, he'd do more to get everyone home. But, if something is done and this happens? Where's the line? ]

Can you blame them? [ How they went about it and the earthquakes and temperature changes? Not okay. ] They were trying to help. You say you're trying but all we get is what you tell us. [ A pause. ] Are they being arrested?

No, I can't blame them. I get it. I really do. It's just frustrating me that they'd do something like this without thinking about the harm it could do instead of the help. They don't know everything about this place. Hell, we're still figuring this place out. I'm tired of seeing the man hurt and suffer because of the whims of the few.

I don't know. It looks like the consensus is coming down to arresting them, though. I just want to know what they were thinking and what they were trying to do.

Maybe they were trying to break the barrier. Wally is new. Maybe he thought he could help. He tried something and it backfired. He didn't mean for anything else to happen. [ Who would? ]

If messing with the clock and the curses could hurt us or cause earthquakes and crazy heatwaves, then why is Anonymous trying? [ He knows why they shouldn't try because of things like this. ] You keep saying that not even you know everything about this place, so, how can you really be helping? It's like science class, right? Trial and error. Well, this was an error. It was an accident. He shouldn't be punished for it.

Why is it that Anonymous gets to decide? Is the consensus coming down, your group's or the City's? He made a mistake.

Okay, man, okay. Okay. I get it.

I just--fuck it, never mind.

[ Wait, did he just - upset - but this guy - did he call it wrong? You realize, Tristero, that now Scott feels bad. Even if he had points, valid ones, and he made them your response deflates his righteous - well, you can't call it fury so we'll call it indignation. ]

No. What? Never mind what?

Forget it, okay?

We got ourselves in here, right? And we knew what we were doing. We had it set up and planned out and it worked. That much worked, at least. But, fuck, man. Sometimes these days it feels like we're not doing anything better or even any different from the deities. I mean, is this what they mean by "power corrupts?" We had this idea, we had these plans, and, what, now they're all falling apart. It's fucking pathetic. We're not supposed to be the ones in power, all of you are. We're not any fucking different from the deities and it makes me sick.

That's what I mean, okay?

It doesn't feel like we're in power. It feels like you tell us what you're working on and what you want. You're not cursing us, right? Then, that makes you different than the deities. But, you're still just saying things. Why should we trust what you're saying? I did the first time we talked. You had an answer for everything but so do politicians. What was it that worked? Getting here?

No, we're not cursing you. That's a hell of a lot weirder than I expected it to be.

Yeah, getting here was what worked--that and getting the deities out.

Why don't you get our help? Or, involve us more. Not just - [ what's the word ] placate us.

Yeah. That's pretty much exactly what we need to do. No sarcasm here either. If you're going to run this place--I mean everyone not just, you know, you--then you need that.

Yeah, I can't. [ He's seventeen! ] Start there. [ A pause. ] Promise me that nothing is going to happen with Wally.

I can't make that promise honestly. I can't promise you that nothing is going to happen to him.

But I'm going to talk to him and ask for his whole story.

And I can promise that he won't be killed and he won't be hurt.

Then what will happen to him. What could? Jail? Your jail? If he's going to jail then can't he go into the City's? If we're running ourselves?

He could go to the City's jail, yeah. Or he could be under house arrest.

To be completely honest? I'm going to ask him what happened and what he thinks ought to happen now. For all I know, the guy's getting eaten up with guilt. From what everyone's saying, he's a decent guy to begin with.

He is. He worked for me. With me. He's a good guy. [ He's a hero. But, he doesn't know how that will go along with what he did. ]

Yeah. And I'll keep it in mind, all right?

If anything happens to him...

I am gonna have to much hell to pay.

Believe me, I know.

He's a hero. Maybe that doesn't mean anything to you. But, he is.

No, it means a lot.

(no subject)

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