poly_chromatic | (no subject)

Do you know what a miracle is? It's one world's intrusion into another one. Most of the time we exist peacefully, but when we do touch, there's cataclysm.

Like any faithful priest, faithful revolutionaries also believe in another world. Where revolutions break out spontaneous and leaderless, and the soul's talent for consensus allows the masses to work together without effort, automatic as the body itself.

And yet, if any of it should really happen that perfectly, I would also have to cry miracle. A revolutionary miracle.

The saint whose water can light lamps, the clairvoyant whose lapse in recall is the breath of God, the true paranoid for whom all is organized in spheres joyful or threatening about the pulse of himself--these are witnesses to miracles.

And yet I feel that I have witnessed a miracle too. That by the united will and wishes of the people of the City, of its own Cityzens, the oppressors have fled--have been made to flee in the face of the united will and wishes of the people of the City.

Now peace can settle into all the corners and windowsills of the City.

Now the first of the work is done and the real work can begin.

[ooc: Onward and upward! ...right? Or is it more parabolic? Time will tell...]

Threaded | Top-Level Comments Only

And what real work is that?

This part's all us.

If someone wants to go home, we're gonna work on that. If someone wants to stay, we're gonna work on that. We're gonna get the barriers working better--so if you want to come and go, you can do that too.

The curses are done for, that's for sure.

And there's rebuilding. But we can do that too.

You make it sound so easy.

I know. And it isn't. But we got this far, after all.

I guess that's something. More change than I expected to see, to be honest.

I think a lot of Cityzens felt like you--I hope we've proven ourselves to you now.

Call it a step in the right direction.

Thanks. We'll keep on in that direction.

For all our sakes, I hope so.

[She's just a bit skeptical.]

I know there's no such thing as a miracle.

I guess you just believe in freak occurrences. That's cool too, man. What I witnessed was a miracle.

Whatever it was, I question whether 'peace' is really coming to the City.

It is. Much as we can manage it.

And how're you gonna manage it?

It's going to be a multi-part process and it'll require collaboration between you and us.

Straight off, we're going to stop the curses. I mean, that's a given. We know those are a major problem and cause a lot of stress. Am I right or am I wrong? Okay. So with those eliminated, we're hoping that a measure of emotional distress will be removed.

Fuck me, I sound like Jamf right now. Whatever.

So, okay, without the curses, everyone'll feel better.

Next off, we're going to rework the barriers. We'd like to get everyone home who wants to go home, let everyone stay who wants to stay, and maybe even get the barriers done up so that everyone can come and go as they please. We've got a working theory on this and we're probably going to test it in the next few days--so watch for that.

Okay, so that's all the initial stuff and it's all pretty City-specific, I know. So now I'm going to move on to the general stuff.

In a situation like this, you have to provide a lot of economic and social stability. We've just had a revolution--literally, we've just had a revolution. Everything is in chaos. So we're going to keep a lot of things the same for the sake of stability. We didn't want those "deities" kicking around anymore, but the, say, economic system of the City is still viable. We're going to support that and encourage it. With a little more growth, the City as a whole should enter a time of genuine and sustained prosperity. Economic good times are key to a basically peaceful society. Anyone can tell you that. We want to support what's already going on here.

One problem despite all this is, inevitably, going to be lawlessness. The "deities" were tyrants with cruel laws and cruel punishments. Justice may sometimes outweigh Mercy, but we'd like them both to be tempered with a little of King Solomon's wisdom. We're going to work on what the root problems for, say, violent crime are and resolve those issues. Thereby resolving the problem itself.

This isn't going to happen tomorrow. This is, you know, a major project. And it won't be without difficulties and there may even be failures along the way. But--hey, you're an American. You know how it goes there. Good times, bad times, you know you've had your share. But it works out in the end.

That's an impressive speech. Sounds like you rehearsed it beforehand.

[A pause.]

Sure, I'm an American. I haven't always been, though, and I hear a lot of promises here without a lot of plan, impressive as your rhetoric is.

Rebuilding, then? Glad I get to do that in at least one world.

[Because a year ago she was in a war and the City pulled her back the second in finished. This has some level of closure, at least.]

That empty page we get to fill, the blank canvas, the wild blue yonder. Take your pick.

What would you call it, dude?

I'm not sure yet. It depends on what comes out of it.

Call it practice, huh? Then you'll be a two fold veteran for revolution and restoration.

A stickler through and through.

Yeah, I guess. I just think it's a little early to start calling this anything one way or the other.

There's plenty of wood to knock on. If you want to celebrate because that's what you feel right now have at it. Ain't no time like right now. Pass judgment later. Do what you gotta do. Don't be uptight.

I think it's better to be uptight than the alternative.

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