(no subject)

[el_desheredado]

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!]

Comments

[valentineluke]

Who?

[her_waterloo]

What exactly did they do?

[othersdie]

Can anything be done to strengthen the barrier?

[missrosetyler]

So that craziness wasn't a curse?

[hexuality]

I'm not dealing with the bloody harpies again.

[notscrapmetal]

FRITZING LUGNUTS!

[tangledintower]

No. You're wrong! This is NOT something that Wally would do, you've got the wrong man! What about your other suspect, why didn't you decide to broadcast his name all over the Network, huh? How do you even know his involvement in this was on purpose?

You say you're not like the Deities? Well, then why do you keep certain things from us? If you've got suspects and theories, just tell people! Hiding things is what they used to do!

[She's upset, and angry, and defending her boyfriend friend.] Don't be too mad.]

text / anonymous but easily hackable

[sleepingstar]

Do you know the other person responsible?

[If they don't already know Hei's involved, then she needs to deflect suspicion from him fast.]

video ll

[affectioning]

[ 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?

In a cell somewhere? /Can delete otherwise<3

[mortemscintilla]

[ Fun fact. Prison is boring. Not just M&M Quality Control Is More Fun boring. Not just I'd Rather Work As An Envelope Licker boring. ]

[ Really. Fucking. Boring. ]

[ To keep his spirits elevated, Hei has fallen back on the oldest method of mood-lightening available to a twenty-something male. ]

[ Fap, fap, fap. ]

[ ............ Get your minds out of the gutter. He's shuffling a card-deck for a game of solitaire. At length: ]

That "you and me and everyone else" was a nice touch. Really offers a component of 'no freedom without unity' for the frightened masses.

private text

[nooniensingh]

[He had been biding his time, watching and waiting and above all learning more about this place. The barriers, he'd walked them but had not attempted to bring them down yet. Yet being the operative word. This commentary, and all its replies, are giving him serious food for thought.

Finally, a few days after everything has settled down, he crawls out of the woodwork like the bug he is.]

I would like to offer my assistance to you in reinforcing - and studying - the barriers that keep this City intact. My name is Khan, and I can be of great service to you.