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Kenji putting himself through a Con boot camp now that he can lie without dying would be a much more productive use of his Karma. He's definitely aware of the gap in his skillset.
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Oct 15, 2018 23:53
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Ice Phisherman posted:“Have I given some sort of offense?” he asked, innocently. Man. It’s safe to say you captured the presumption, entitlement, and generally haughty attitude well, Ice. It never occurred to this lot that this food ain’t for them, or, that they’d be refused a taste. Ice Phisherman posted:Again she sucked at a finger, looked up at Kenji and then smiled deviously at Ryan. Kenji desperately wanted to leave, but Sarah had her arm around him. So he decided to lean into the farce to get this over with. Ya know, I’ve never been a scratching post; I would assume it might be fun for a spell. Then again, nothing of this nature is as glamorous as it seems, I suppose. Ice Phisherman posted:“You both dated him?” asked Kenji, “He didn’t look like much.” Teenage peer-group STD transmission is no joke, yo. Ice Phisherman posted:“I prefer to call it insolent,” she teased, “It’s a good look on you- Within reason of course. Tell you what, you make me look good at the party and keep me entertained. If you're a good boy I’ll make some introductions. Have fun at breakfast with your little friends. Tata!” Tell me again why we want to be in Oli’s camp over the Tir fascists again? At least the fascists gets things done. Ice Phisherman posted:"Different than my old school, but okay," said Jayvon, thoughtfully. Why is Jayvon at the literal ‘breakfast club’? As far as I can tell, he’s more employer than friend? Even with the bombing incident? Ice Phisherman posted:“Can…Can I come?” asked Oli, shyly. Oh, Oli. She’d play a Bard too, wouldn’t she? Ice Phisherman posted:For Kenji’s part, he was nearing the end of his long wakefulness. The instructions on the box said he was supposed to be guaranteed four days of wakefulness, but he was becoming increasingly drowsy as the day wore on. He wondered if he could find some soykaf at lunch to keep him alert until after school. Fizzychug alone wouldn’t cut it.  Ice Phisherman posted:“No, I guess I just got sucked into the story,” he lied. On this very special episode of Blake Island . . . Ice Phisherman posted:CYOA Time: Not being a full Shadowrun Gronard, I can go along with shape-changing. Ice Phisherman posted:How does Julie spend her karma? Solely on herself? Solely on Chip? On Chip and herself? I want to do a split between Chip and Julie. Yes, let’s give Chip the ability to Heal. Let’s also work in Julie, because she’s rather one dimensional right now. And yes, let’s have Chip ‘mature’, we’ll call it his next ‘evolution’ now that he can heal. Ice Phisherman posted:Finally, Kenji has 49 karma to spend because no one really had any direction for Kenji to go in year one. I played this off as him being something of a slacker, but now he’s actually applying himself to his schoolwork. I like Cantonese fluency and artificing, if we’re locked into that ‘tattoo’ing’ path. Beyond that, can those who know more about Shadowrun make some suggestions on how to make Kenny even ‘More Kenny’? Ice Phisherman posted:I also imagine that there would be some prestige there too. Teenagers create an exclusive magical society. They're bonding while others on the island are hyper-competitive and are occasionally prone to backstabbing. So, we’re crossing the streams with ‘Stranger Things’?  On a serious note, what’s the downside of ‘breaking’ this pack, once we initiate this circle-thingy? Because this is high-school, and things change, because, this is high-school. RickVoid posted:Yes, let's learn etiquette from Auntie Liu. A man after my own heart.  Looks like I missed another vote; ah well. At least I'll document my 'dissent' opinion.
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Oct 16, 2018 00:24
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CourValant posted:Man. It’s safe to say you captured the presumption, entitlement, and generally haughty attitude well, Ice. Thanks. Yeah, I really want Ryan to feel like he deserves everything good in life and none of the bad. He's also a poo poo stirrer. So many backhanded compliments. quote:Ya know, I’ve never been a scratching post; I would assume it might be fun for a spell. Then again, nothing of this nature is as glamorous as it seems, I suppose. I think that it depends on what your priorities are. It's going to feel emotionally empty but some people are okay with that. Good boy Kenji wants to be close to people so he's not down with that emptiness anymore. quote:Tell me again why we want to be in Oli’s camp over the Tir fascists again? At least the fascists gets things done. We haven't talked to Olisha yet or asked her about the fascists. The thread has been chugging along and leaning into the Joyce/Krupa route so far so we haven't gotten Olisha's point of view. Many fascist governments get things done. It's just what's done and who it gets done to is the problem. Simply put, I haven't shown Olisha's point of view yet beyond her hating Joyce and Krupa. quote:Why is Jayvon at the literal ‘breakfast club’? As far as I can tell, he’s more employer than friend? Even with the bombing incident? Who else does our anti-fascist cyber dwarf sit with? The haughty, entitled kids? I think of it less as why and more why not? So far he hasn't said anything incompatible with the group. Though point taken, I think I'll have Jayvon do a little bonding with Fuzzy on Sunday. quote:Oh, Oli. She’d play a Bard too, wouldn’t she? Probably something that allows her to pretend to be a social butterfly. Bard is a solid choice. quote:So, we’re crossing the streams with ‘Stranger Things’? Never actually watched Stranger Things. The downside for breaking the pact would be the loss of the invested 5 karma and paying 1 karma to leave. Pretty small all things considered.
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Oct 16, 2018 01:24
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jagadaishio posted:I don't think +1 Etiquette is anywhere near worth 10 karma for a character who's already good at Etiquette anyway. It's grotesquely overpriced. I don't really know the rules of the game well enough to say if it's good or bad, but I know it's satisfying to see Kenji succeed in social situations. Same with Fuzzy, but for different reasons. Didn't realise Julie was so far behind though. In my head she was the ultimate wizard of the group. Ice Phisherman posted:Who else does our anti-fascist cyber dwarf sit with? The haughty, entitled kids? I think of it less as why and more why not? So far he hasn't said anything incompatible with the group. Though point taken, I think I'll have Jayvon do a little bonding with Fuzzy on Sunday. I've thought about that for a while too. Jayvon's fine, but it doesn't seem like anyone has any reason to make friends with him so far. If he's going to be part of the team, then I think something needs to change. He's just this weird new kid at the moment.
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Oct 16, 2018 01:42
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Chatrapati posted:I don't really know the rules of the game well enough to say if it's good or bad, but I know it's satisfying to see Kenji succeed in social situations. Same with Fuzzy, but for different reasons. Sasha is more practiced than Julie, but Julie has more raw power. Sasha is probably as powerful magically as she's ever going to be. She's a jack of all trades character. Not great at much, but good at a lot and quick to pick up new skills for cheap since that's one of her qualities. Julie is going to outpace her the moment she starts spending karma on her magical skills.
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Oct 16, 2018 02:08
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Kenji, Min Yun, Bananaconda, Young Prodigy and Critter – The Delve – In Dreams Kenji lifted his Colt Cobra TZ-120 submachine gun above his head in a sign of submission as the body of Bananaconda, former shadowrunner and Delve newbie dropped to the floor. The sudden chatter of automatic gunfire, the spray of blood and the lifeless corpse with several holes in its head was a surprise to the rest of the team. They set their sights high at first as they scanned for more incoming fire, but all they found was a twelve year old boy in a gas mask and bulky armor. Two of the three remaining members of the team, Young Prodigy, a pale skinned human male adept with a pistol and Critter, a tall troll with an Ingram Valiant, a fully automatic light machine gun, aimed their weapons at him. “He was going to kill us,” said Kenji, quickly. This gave the two pause. Even hardened shadowrunners and delvers hesitated to shoot when it came to children, or at least most of them did. Kenji counted on that hesitation to make his case. That was why he’d ripped off his gas mask to show his face despite the danger of breathing the air without protection. Min Yun stood to the side, not in their line of sight but not stopping them either. She stared at Kenji and he could only imagine what she was feeling right now. “He was muttering to himself and fondling those drat grenades for an hour,” said Kenji, with as much confidence as he could muster, “He was complaining about not being able to switch them on wirelessly. That’s begging for death down here. I kept telling him over and over not to do it and he kept telling me to gently caress off. If he blew up in a confined space with that many explosives then we all die.” Kenji figured it would have been a far more compelling argument if he hadn’t slipped behind them and executed one of their own. People losing it on a delve wasn’t uncommon, but it was Min Yun that dealt with that, not Kenji. However, today she’d been distracted for some reason, so Kenji had taken the responsibility on himself. He knew that was supposed to be his responsibility, not hers. Everyone was told that guides were the one part of the team that couldn't die. The chances of making it out without a guide dropped dramatically even with a line to follow, because it was easy to get turned around. The Delve played tricks on the unprepared. The protection that afforded him came with responsibilities and she'd been shouldering that weight for too long. Critter lowered his light machine gun with a grunt and ripped Kenji’s weapon away from him as easy if he’d been a naughty child with a toy. “poo poo,” swore Critter, voice muffled from the gas mask, “I’m no good with people or kids.” Young Prodigy stared at Kenji, his heavy pistol aimed directly at his center mass, face unreadable behind his gas mask. “I’m good with kids,” said Young Prodigy, his voice cold and detached, “Real good.” Kenji felt the bottom drop out of his stomach. He’d saved all of them from being blown up and now he was going to die in the Delve like so many others. Eyes screwed up in fear, he waited for the inevitable. In some ways, he even welcomed it. It would be an end to this miserable life of his. “No,” said Min Yun, “We’re not going to kill him.” It was then that Clever’s black fighting dog stepped out from behind her. No one seemed to acknowledge its presence or just how strange it was that a dog was in the middle of a seemingly endless basement filled with nightmares. The dog nuzzled Kenji and he took some small comfort from that. This was where the doubt set in. Had Kenji really done the right thing? Had he killed someone who wasn’t a threat? Should he have acted sooner or not at all? He couldn’t lie, but if he thought he was telling the truth but later found out that he’d lie come with some sort of punishment? He didn’t know. He'd been careful. Now when Min Yun's life had been in danger he'd been clumsy with his words and he had the feeling that a lie might end his life as surely as any bullet. The dog nuzzled into his heavy armored duster. The dog was unusual and strangely, the dream continued. There was a gap in his memory. This was a recurring dream. He'd been here hundreds of times, but it was going longer than normal. Normally he would wake up and speak to Clever, who would console him, give him a hot meal, a beer and reassure Kenji that he’d done the right thing. It would be the first time that Min Yun called him pack and now he realized its significance. Something was wrong. Min Yun was speaking, but her voice sounded like she was underwater. Kenji strained to hear her, but as she, Critter and Young Prodigy spoke, Kenji could make out nothing. The dog began to bark, but Kenji could not hear it. Their muffled voices lost even that quality and all became silent. Kenji tried to yell, but no one listened. In the dream he became aware. Dog was trying to tell him something, but he wasn’t listening. Something was deafening to the voice of Dog. Then there was a muzzle flash, the feeling of impact, the world spun and Kenji hit the ground. --- Small spoilers ahead. Kenji has a dream about the delve after he killed someone. He opened fire into the back of someone’s head at the tender age of twelve because his instincts told him that the man was about to kill everyone. We focus in on the moments directly afterwards. Since Kenji hit him with a three round burst, he’s dead on the ground with three holes in his head. After some quick thinking, Kenji is able to talk his way out of it. Min Yun steps in to back him up. This would be the first time she calls him pack. The dream fast forwards to Clever. He’s given Kenji a beer and a meal. He tells Kenji that if his instincts were bad, he would have died down there a long time ago. People with bad instincts die out in the ACHE pretty fast. People with bad instincts in the Delve don’t come back. He trusts Kenji’s judgement. It was a bad experience all around. At least he brought back some artifacts. Dog tries to contact Kenji, but Kenji has been disrupting his dreams with Long Haul. I roll logic 2 + intuition 5 – Long Haul 2 for messing with his dreams. He gets 0 hits. I'm not spending edge as Kenji needs 3 hits on a memory test and that's highly unlikely at this point. Dog has something to show him, but Kenji lost his ability to hear and speak. Whatever message it was is lost. Perhaps it will come again, perhaps not. Kenji is aware that Dog tried to communicate with him but failed. Dog primarily contacts Kenji through dreams. Each arc starts with a dream where Dog was in it and trying to tell him something. Long Haul gave Kenji a lot of time to get stuff done, but messing with his ability to sleep has temporarily messed up his ability to talk to Dog. Everything past the moment where Kenji was shot in the chest, which is news to him, is lost. Welcome to arc three. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 15:53 on Mar 29, 2020 |
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Oct 16, 2018 19:03
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Am I sundowning or is there supposed to be a chunk with Cleaver after the gunshot
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Oct 16, 2018 19:13
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The way I read the end as it stands is this is a recurring dream, which usually ends with Clever consoling him and Min Yun calling him pack, but this time the argument continues and he gets shot instead. The latter scenario actually seems way more like how this memory would normally play out in recurring dream land. But the bit about "There was a gap in his memory" doesn't really make sense with this reading. Dr Subterfuge fucked around with this message at 19:51 on Oct 16, 2018 |
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Oct 16, 2018 19:36
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I wanted to make this unclear, Kenji wonders why and then asks the local Dog shaman about what happened in the dream and maybe what happened back then. It's a small mystery that I plan on resolving soon. So I stuck the information in spoiler text. Maybe a little too late though.
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Oct 16, 2018 19:49
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Awesome. Not only does Long Haul keep us awake, it also makes it harder for the spirit to mindjack us. Even better outcome! I'm not super keen on mentor spirits, and I'm definitely not keen on Dog deciding to run Kenji's life by telling him how bad he needs to feel for people, so the more ways to shut it up the better.
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Oct 16, 2018 19:50
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I wonder if Dog can be trained to know that he should wait for Kenji's weekends to the get the sleep he needs for dream-visions.
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Oct 16, 2018 20:29
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jagadaishio posted:I wonder if Dog can be trained to know that he should wait for Kenji's weekends to the get the sleep he needs for dream-visions. We need some kind of magical spirit treats to feed him when he gets it right
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Oct 16, 2018 21:03
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RabidWeasel posted:We need some kind of magical spirit treats to feed him when he gets it right Reagents? I think that could actually literally work.
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Oct 16, 2018 21:14
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Ice Phisherman posted:. . . but Kenji has been disrupting his dreams with Long Haul.  Ice Phisherman posted:Welcome to arc three.  By the by, Ice, would you like us to keep bumping Joy? Or, would you prefer to let it get archived for now?
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Oct 16, 2018 21:24
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jagadaishio posted:Reagents? I think that could actually literally work. Hahahaha wait, really?
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Oct 16, 2018 22:06
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RabidWeasel posted:We need some kind of magical spirit treats to feed him when he gets it right or whatevever the equivalent of spirit-raid is to keep dog as far away from us as possible? I'm not convinced Dog provides benefits to Kenji.
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Oct 16, 2018 22:12
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I disagree. Dog will be very useful - as soon as Kenji learns to control him instead of being controlled by him. That's what everyone keeps telling him, and what the spirit mentor class is all about.
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Oct 16, 2018 22:22
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Butt Discussin posted:I disagree. Dog will be very useful - as soon as Kenji learns to control him instead of being controlled by him. That's what everyone keeps telling him, and what the spirit mentor class is all about. I agree strongly with this.
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Oct 16, 2018 22:24
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Butt Discussin posted:I disagree. Dog will be very useful - as soon as Kenji learns to control him instead of being controlled by him. That's what everyone keeps telling him, and what the spirit mentor class is all about. Benefits like what? and then at what cost to keep them? Kenji *just* got over having one set of metaphysical rules determining his life. I'd rather not go running into the arms of literally the next being to offer the same thing. Dog is definitely not evil or whatever, he's Dog, but I don't really value the feels I get when Kenji talks about people being pack nearly as much as other people, and I dislike the idea of him being beholden to another being outside his control quite a bit. He spent a lot of time trying to get away from Edward's rules, what is the incredible benefit of trading away some freedom here? So far dog is not making a good pitch to me on actual cost/benefit. Am I the only one on this? Edit - This is me about dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nazm3_OXac Zodiac5000 fucked around with this message at 00:12 on Oct 17, 2018 |
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Oct 17, 2018 00:07
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Zodiac5000 posted:Edit - This is me about dog: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nazm3_OXac Good to see I'm not the only one who likes to Tilt at Windmills around here; this is how I still feel about getting involved with tattoos and long haul. Zodiac5000 posted:Am I the only one on this? Jury's still out. I want to hear from Min about the specific, personal impact of being a Dog Shaman before rendering final judgement. Here's how I feel about these animal totems and spirits in general though. They get attached to you because of who you are (your acts and deeds). Therefore, as long as you keep on behaving as the person that you are (exhibiting the traits and characteristics of said spirit), then why not enjoy the benefits of being 'attuned' with that spirit? Kenny didn't make a 'deal' with Dog, Dog found him because of his loyalty to his friends. Assuming that Kenny will continue to be loyal to his friends, because that's his new personality and development, then why not enjoy the benefits of having Dog's Blessing? Let's say Kenny rejects these gifts from Dog; he'll still continue being a loyal and fierce defender of the Blake Island crew, no? So why spit on that paw when we're going down that path anyways? Seems like running with Dog just lets Kenny be 'Moar Kenny'?
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Oct 17, 2018 00:30
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Zodiac5000 posted:Am I the only one on this? Kenji spent an entire summer free from rules, and it actually depressed him. He didn't have a purpose, and while his deal with Dog might have been a little rash, it makes sense to me from a character standpoint. In the grand scheme of things, going all in on high school friends might be a bit short sighted, especially for someone who will live as long as an elf, but that's not how it would feel at the time, not for someone who already chose friends over survival. In exchange for extreme loyalty to his friends, he gets enhanced smell and superhuman body language reading, both of which compliment his abilities as a social operator. It seems like a pretty good deal to me, as long as he has the right friends. (And right now he does.) I don't think the intrusive empathetic links are a long term consequence of a deal with Dog, more the growing pains of a fledgling Shaman, but we'll see what Min Yun's take on it is.
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Oct 17, 2018 01:01
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Zodiac5000 posted:So far dog is not making a good pitch to me on actual cost/benefit. Am I the only one on this? I'm definitely not on the same page. I think you're judging both way too early and too harshly, when we're still in the 'learning to cope and adapt to really recent changes' stage. I get where you're coming from, mind you, but I'm seeing startling-but-minor things in the early phase of a relationship too new to have been fully puzzled through. That said, I think it's appropriate for Kenji to be at least as internally conflicted as the thread's opinions are.
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Oct 17, 2018 01:37
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Dog should be relatively simple to come to an arrangement with, because by his very nature Dog is the Platonic essence of Good Boy.
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Oct 17, 2018 05:57
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Oh no, Dog's trying to warn Kenji about something.
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Oct 17, 2018 05:58
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Xarbala posted:Oh no, Dog's trying to warn Kenji about something. Somebody fell down a well!
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Oct 17, 2018 07:22
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Xarbala posted:Oh no, Dog's trying to warn Kenji about something. Baseless speculation time: what if it's a warning about his pack being possibly betrayed and Kenji needs to take decisive action like he did then, but because the dream is all muddled he only got the metaphor part of the dream and not the "this is who I'm warning you about" part?
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Oct 17, 2018 18:51
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sheep-dodger posted:Somebody fell down a well! 
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Oct 18, 2018 02:36
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Kenji, Fuzzy and Jayvon - Saturday, August 3rd, 2075 – Morning – The School Boat The school boat gently rocked back and forth on the way to Vashon Island. The sky was grey and there was a light drizzle, as if the grey clouds were surly and unsure if they wanted to part with their rain or not. The pitter pats of scattered raindrops fell on top of the roof. Visibility was low as the thick fog hadn’t yet been burned away by the sun, though some of that fog was actually ambient pollution from Tacoma’s heavy industry that hadn’t yet been blown to the east. The boat was packed with chattering students. It was easy to tell the students that were raised locally from the students from elsewhere. The locals didn’t wear rain coats and the students from elsewhere did. A drizzle like today didn’t rate a raincoat for a Seattle local. Many students immediately leapt at matrix access the moment it had become available, though some chatted together in small groups and some did both. Most of them were paying attention to augmented reality, so they looked as if they were staring off into space while others fooled around on their commlinks by hand. Kenji, Fuzzy and Jayvon all sat down together. “So what’re you two up to today?” asked Kenji. Jayvon was concentrating on screwing and unscrewing the cap to a soft drink when he looked up. “Physical therapy and activism stuff,” said Jayvon, “It keeps me busy.” “Oh yeah?” asked Kenji. “Yep,” he said, “Before I got my new body I was basically an overdone baked potato. I spent a lot of time in the matrix as a result. In fact I basically existed in full virtual reality for about a year.” “You were a potato?” asked Fuzzy, her tone confused. The question had been so sudden that Kenji couldn’t stop Fuzzy from asking, subtly or otherwise. Jayvon suddenly stopped messing with the cap on his drink, grunted and shrugged without looking up. “No arms, no legs and a burned body,” he said, his tone detached. “Uh,” began Fuzzy, nervously, “Oh wow. I’m so sorry.” While Kenji and Fuzzy suddenly felt awkward, Jayvon used two fingers to pinch the dark skin of his arm. It looked and felt exactly like skin. “It’s fine,” said Jayvon, “Not your fault. I learned a lot, I appreciate what I have, I reevaluated my life and I stopped being such a poo poo heel. I appreciate y’all letting me sit with you by the way. I got a lot of grief from other people about dropping utensils and making a mess with my food. I don’t really fit around here like I used to.” Kenji scanned to see if Jayvon’s words had provoked a response, but no one was paying attention. “So activism?” asked Kenji, as he quickly changed the subject. Jayvon looked up and smiled which ratcheted down the tension. “Yeah, I work with MOM,” said Jayvon. “Your mom?” asked Fuzzy. “Oh no. My mom doesn’t approve of me working with them,” said Jayvon with a laugh,” Wow. No. She’s way too conservative. Dwarves have a word for her. She’s called a mountain mom. She has lots of expectations, was really demanding and had zero tolerance for anything less than perfect. Thankfully I’m away from that. No, MOM is short for Mothers of Metahumans. They used to just do charity, but they moved to political activism and it turns out that they’re pretty good at it. A lot of the ground work for the protests are going through MOM. Since they’ve been getting bigger in the past few years they spun up an organization that’s easier for men to jump on called SON, or Stop Oppression Now. I’ve been doing matrix activism for them for about six months, but that’s hard now. Now I’m on Blake Island with that darn jamming spell and so my matrix life has come to a stop. In which might have been the point.” His smile briefly turned sour, but then broadened and became positively wolfish. “But there is a sort of side project I’m involved with. I might or might not be affiliated with a group that I may help keep out of jail when they allegedly throw rocks and glass bottles at cops during protests,” said Jayvon, oh so casually, “And stir up trouble in general. They’ve been messing with Human Nation recently.” “Why throw stuff at cops?” asked Fuzzy, quietly. “Because those cops work for awful corporations,” said Jayvon, his tone flat, smile suddenly gone, “Ares Knight-Errant created a drug epidemic that spread untold misery and death to win the policing contract and Lone Star experimented on children like they were lab rats. The cops that don’t quit are bastards.” This ground a nearby conversation to a halt and drew a few stares. Jayvon had been too loud, but Kenji realized that maybe he’d been loud on purpose, because Jayvon stared them all down. “What?” he asked, “Problem?” Reluctantly, the corporate teens went back to their conversations. Some silently, some muttered under their breath. Jayvon sniffed. This meant that he missed the look that Fuzzy gave him when Jayvon talked about Lone Star. Kenji had been one of those lab rats, though it was Edward that had the memories. He shot Fuzzy a look and she suddenly didn’t stare at him in a way that somehow made it worse as she attempted to look innocent. He sighed. “You know a lot of them are wage slaves, right?” asked Kenji, “Corporate serfdom. Can’t stop working? Almost literally legally trapped in their jobs? In some cases actually trapped there?” This was wage slavery. Part of some corporations becoming so large that they became their own nations meant they could pass their own laws. Wage slavery in its many forms was one of their favorite ways of keeping staffed. Employees would be paid just enough to survive or maybe even less to push them into debt, forced to work seventy to eighty hours a week for low pay and they were often forced to purchase only from corporate stores. This was because the company money they got, called corp scrip, couldn’t be spent outside of their corporation. The subtleties of how wage slavery worked differed from corporation to corporation, but it almost always meant grueling hours, low pay and almost no way to break free of that life. Most could quit, but the kind of jobs they could find were almost always more of the same. Jayvon only shrugged in response. This wasn’t news to him. “Most of the cops in Knight-Errant are on yearlong contracts,” he countered, “The ones that quit might be all right, but Lone Star was full of human supremacists and jackbooted thugs and has been for a long time. gently caress every single one of them. Everyone knows that Lone Star has been rotten for decades: Planting evidence, false testimony, abusing the helpless, straight up murder, all that stuff, and they get away with it because they hide behind a badge. They attract people who like cruelty and power. Their lifer cops could have done anything else. It’s a certain kind of person that joins up with them and that kind of person deserves some heat, because almost no one is quitting Lone Star.” Kenji had no love for the police as his few brushes with them had always been negative. After all, he’d lived in the ACHE, a slum hive with zero police presence. It was just too dangerous there for them. When they were forced to come, which was rarely, they only came by the hundreds and only in their most militarized gear. So he let the subject drop. He didn’t want to slip into negativity before seeing Saanvi. So again he changed the subject, but his curiosity got the better of him. Saanvi’s letters hadn’t mentioned even the briefest hint of the shadowrun he’d set up on Tacoma’s clubhouse. “Any news with Human Nation?” asked Kenji. Jayvon’s smart contacts lit up. There was silence for half a minute before his eyebrows climbed up his head. “Nice,” said Jayvon, quietly, “It looks like their clubhouse in Tacoma burned down. That just made my day.” Kenji’s entire body went cold and his casual expression froze on his face. “Good,” grunted Fuzzy, “They almost murdered my friend.” "Really?" asked Jayvon, eyebrows climbing. Fuzzy only nodded, face grim. When Kenji didn’t immediately say something, both of them looked to him. He cleared his throat. “I didn’t expect that. Who did it?” asked Kenji. Jayvon’s eyes went out of focus as he checked his smart contacts. His lips pursed and he nodded slowly. “It looks like some sort of rival gang,” said Jayvon, “I’m just reading social media posts. Some people are saying another gang hit them while they were weak. It might have been the Ragers, maybe the Spikes or maybe even shadowrunners. Heh, imagine that. Lots of injuries, two dead from gunshot wounds. It looks like it happened just yesterday. That may just be the end of Human Nation in Tacoma. It doesn't surprise me. They've been on their last legs for a while.” Fuzzy stayed quiet, though her mouth made a firm line. Kenji suppressed a cold feeling in his gut. Saanvi’s letters back had kept arriving and he wasn’t in jail, so there was something he was missing. He really hoped his team hadn’t gunned down gang members and burned the few left inside alive. The plan was for them to steal everything not nailed down and for another gang to sense weakness and wipe them out. If his team had killed people that may cause problems in the future, though he doubted anything would come of it. Any shadowrunner knows that modern day police work was primarily about prevention, not resolution. Prevention is cost effective. Resolution, meaning actual detective work, is expensive. It meant that police tended to lean more heavily on stopping crime before it starts as through fear and intimidation, or community outreach like Knight-Errant used to do before the community started hating them. Few criminals were caught after the fact anymore. It was one of the problems with corporate police. The bottom line was protected first and the public came second. Besides all of that, Kenji realized that Saanvi’s letter on Sunday didn’t seem much different from the one on Saturday. He'd wait and talk to her. Something must have shown on Kenji’s face, because both Fuzzy and Jayvon were staring at him. “You okay?” asked Fuzzy. Kenji smoothed his features and shrugged as he tried to adopt a mask of restrained interest. “I was just thinking that it couldn’t have happened to nicer people. Anyway, back on topic about what we're doing, I’m busy today,” said Kenji, as he began to change the subject, “I’m having breakfast with a pretty girl, going to talk to a lady who runs a restaurant, running a pretty big errand for Sasha and I got invited to a party.” “Pretty girl, huh?” asked Jayvon, with a grin, “Is that the one you’ve been practicing your cooking for?” “Are those the parts for Sasha’s computer?” asked Fuzzy, anxiously, “The really expensive ones?” The change of subject was a welcome one as the mood lightened. “Yes and yes,” said Kenji with a smile, “And Fuzzy, Sasha says she needs those parts. I can get a good deal. It’s what I do. I’ve got time so I’ll shop around for something good.” “I can get a good deal,” muttered Fuzzy, her tone somewhat sullen, “What she wants is really expensive though.” “I don’t doubt it, but you’re busy,” said Kenji, “I’m not. You’re still boxing?” Fuzzy nodded and Jayvon smiled. “Yep, still boxing,” she said, “My trainer, Steve, is pretty good. I’m learning fast.” Fuzzy shifted nervously in her seat and looked to Javon, who raised an eyebrow in response. “Hey Jayvon?” asked Fuzzy, “Can I ask you a question?” “Shoot,” he said immediately. Fuzzy blinked, furrowed her brow and took that as a yes. “Are there…” she began, “Are there…” She licked her lips nervously “Are there moms at MOM?” she blurted out. Jayvon looked to Kenji, but he shrugged. Something tickled at the back of Kenji’s mind about why this might be significant, but he didn’t realize the implication. He almost used his kinesics to read Fuzzy’s body language, but decided against it. Besides, he didn’t need to. He could tell when she wanted something. “Sure,” said Jayvon, slowly, “They’re a bunch of ladies behaving badly. They run things.” “Do...Do they have problems with humans?” asked Fuzzy, almost shyly. “No,” said Jayvon, simply, “Not unless you have problems with them. Do you want to come sometime?” Fuzzy’s face contorted with anxiety and the breath she took in was a soft shudder. “I’d like that,” she whispered, and then she cleared her throat, anxiety dripping from each word as she raised her voice, “I’m so busy though. I’ve got that boxing practice for you and I’m not allowed to leave Vashon Island. Besides, Julian and Mother Bear say it’s too dangerous.” Kenji and Jayvon shared a look as Fuzzy ran a hand roughly through her hair, mussing it slightly. The main danger had been the gang which had been recently wiped out if Jayvon was to be believed. “Maybe I could take you,” said Jayvon, slowly, “If that’s okay with Julian. I could talk to him. You could come by tonight. I’d make sure that you’re safe. No pressure though. Maybe think about it.” CYOA Time Does Fuzzy go see the moms at MOM? Y/N. Kenji is supposed to see Saanvi for breakfast, but this news might give him pause. What does he do? -- Jayvon has invited Fuzzy to go see the moms at MOM. She's aware what a political organization is, but Fuzzy is more interested in meeting...Well...Moms. She's remembering the alcohol with the spirit in it, the vision of her mom, the quiet game, the food and water, her mother's love and her real name. Kenji doesn't realize it just yet. And welp, the Shadowrun worked! Human Nation in Tacoma is gone! The Human Supremacists have been weakened! Kenji doesn’t know the details though, just social media rumors where their clubhouse has been burned down, there are two dead and maybe a gang or maybe "It was some shadowrunners!" Kenji has no clue and his research skill is hot garbage. On Friday night, the Human Nation clubhouse in Tacoma burned down. I roll composure for Kenji and he makes it with 3. That's a success. No one knows who it's attributed to. However, he's distracted. Kenji rolls con 1 + charisma 8. I’m not going to include street cred yet because his reputation really doesn’t have anything to do with his face. He gets 3 hits and Fuzzy and Jayvon both get 4 since they’re using their perception, not con skills. Con test time! I roll again, but this time with Kenji’s street cred. Kenji gets 6 hits, Fuzzy gets 2 and Jayvon gets 3. Kenji was just curious is all. I roll another composure test, because two people died. He gets 4 hits. He’s going to keep it together until he visits Saanvi who can tell him the details. After all, the plan might have actually worked. Human Nation is a street gang, the street gangs are now in the middle of a citywide war and them becoming even weaker means they could get stomped. Kenji didn’t want to kill anyone, just to weaken Human Nation to the point where another gang could have picked them apart. That could have happened. It might not have been a giant fuckup where his runners and not girlfriend killed two people and burned down their clubhouse. Maybe.  Kenji has no skill in computers (the research skill) and that means he defaults at logic 2 - default 1. He gets a hit! Later he'll discover exactly what Jayvon said. Kenji is not particularly adept at navigating the news. He can't call anyone about what happened because Tir intelligence is scraping his data for some reason as he's a person of interest. He has to physically go talk to people as he does not have a fake identity, having never needed one because he did most of his work in the ACHE. Kenji gets 2 karma for clearing Human Nation out of Tacoma though. Fuzzy also regains her freedom of movement and the Human Supremacists have been dealt a blow. Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 16:04 on Mar 29, 2020 |
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Oct 19, 2018 01:21
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CourValant posted:By the by, Ice, would you like us to keep bumping Joy? Or, would you prefer to let it get archived for now? I'm not sure. I don't want to continually bump it until I can commit one way or the other. Plus I had some writer's block I was dealing with. Apparently I can have writer's block for one story and not another. I'll give it a read through and see what I think.
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Oct 19, 2018 01:41
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It would be a shame to let Joy fall into archives but it's your call Ice. Also I feel like Seattle's been having less rain and more sun these days irl, so the locals and raincoats aside was kind of nostalgic.
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Oct 19, 2018 02:08
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Of course Kanji makes breakfast for Saanvi, it's even more important today. I think Fuzzy goes to MOM, at least the once.
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Oct 19, 2018 03:57
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Ice Phisherman posted:“It’s fine,” said Jayvon, “Not your fault. I learned a lot, I appreciate what I have, I reevaluated my life and I stopped being such a poo poo heel. I appreciate y’all letting me sit with you by the way. I got a lot of grief from other people about dropping utensils and making a mess with my food. Not being a poo poo heel means I don’t really fit around here like I used to.” Sounds like he just went from being one kind of 'poo poo heel' to another kind of poo poo heel. Violent activism, no matter the side, isn't something to be condoned. Ice Phisherman posted:Saanvi’s letters hadn’t mentioned even the briefest hint of the shadowrun he’d set up on Tacoma’s clubhouse. At least she's alright. Ice Phisherman posted:CYOA Time Yes. Fuzzy goes to see the Moms at MOM. Maybe Paige will be there. Ice Phisherman posted:Kenji is supposed to see Saanvi for breakfast, but this news might give him pause. What does he do? Kenny keeps the breakfast plans with Saanvi. Too late to be squeamish about the consequences now, Kenny-boy. Them eggs are already broken. Besides, this was a run against a violent, armed gang; deaths was always a possibility, whether he wanted it or not. Ice Phisherman posted:Jayvon has invited Fuzzy to go see the moms at MOM. She's aware what a political organization is, but Fuzzy is more interested in meeting...Well...Moms. She's remembering the alcohol with the spirit in it, the vision of her mom, the quiet game, the food and water, her mother's love and her real name. Kenji doesn't realize it just yet. Stop trying to make me feel things, Ice!!Ice Phisherman posted:It might not have been a giant fuckup where his runners and not girlfriend killed two people and burned down their clubhouse. You sent in a Tir demolitions specialist to 'deal' with a bunch of elf killers. What did you think was going to happen? Polite conversation over mint tea and dandelion salad? Ice Phisherman posted:I'm not sure. I don't want to continually bump it until I can commit one way or the other. Plus I had some writer's block I was dealing with. Apparently I can have writer's block for one story and not another. I'll give it a read through and see what I think. Its cool, whatever you want to do, just let us know.
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Oct 19, 2018 03:57
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Pro MOMS moms and pro breakfast. Is anyone in our little gang good at research?
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Oct 19, 2018 04:29
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Kenji shouldn't be naive enough to wring his hands over whether his runners killed enemies directly or indirectly. He already has plenty of blood on his hands, remember?
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Oct 19, 2018 05:11
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Yes/Yes
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Oct 19, 2018 05:52
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If his runners killed some people it was probably returning fire. Them's the breaks sometimes. He still goes to see Saanvi, changing plans would look extra suspicious if anything hinky did happen. Fuzzy goes to go meet the moms to feed her mommy issues.
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Oct 19, 2018 05:53
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Dr Subterfuge posted:Pro MOMS moms and pro breakfast. Research on the matrix is based on a computer + logic roll. Sasha and Octo are good at research. Remember though that Kenji's life as a shadowrunner isn't something he shares. Marco and Julie know he has ties to a shadowrunner (Min Yun, she showed up to help cure Octo during the "A Very Shadowrun Christmas" story and at least Julian knows that Kenji was a delver. Fuzzy knows that Kenji has ties to a gang, but so did a lot of people in Puyallup so that doesn't bother her too much because gangs equaled protection and Clever seemed okay to her for a gang leader. Sasha knows none of this. So if we alert her to new information she's going to get curious. On the other hand, Octo has nowhere near the moral scruples that Sasha does, but she's also difficult to contact due to Kenji being under surveillance. quote:
 CourValant posted:Sounds like he just went from being one kind of 'poo poo heel' to another kind of poo poo heel. So normally I agree with this sentiment, but the story as written as well as the lore in Shadowrun has some things going for it. Political Science hat goes on. If you want to respond to this, please don't do so in a way that will get you probated or Lowtax a visit from G-men again. This is a tricky subject that I am threading a needle on. 1. In the story, the two corporations that provide policing have been actively killing the populace in a way that is now open, obvious and abusive. Not individual officers either, but a top down, willful campaign to kill civilians for profit (Ares Knight-Errant) and a previously secretive project which experimented on a killed children to rediscover LeBlanc's method (Lone Star). They are losing control because no one respects their legitimacy, nor should they respect them. They are for hire cops on a contract for companies that abuse and kill people to increase their bottom line. To put a fine line on this, all three of our protagonists have been touched by the police or by a lack of police in a personal way. A. Julie: The way Lone Star handles policing in prisons is why Julie has PTSD. She was cavity searched at gunpoint, given thin blankets with little protection against the cold and stuck with an abusive prisoner all to break her will to make her more pliable. What I described is pretty common for prisons today because few people give a drat about prisoners. In fact that's pretty vanilla. That's how it starts. I could give some real horror stories about prisons that are not only prisoners inflicting pain on other prisoners, but institutionalized abuse that ranges from the lowliest guard making ten dollars an hour to a politician who writes policy. B. Kenji: There is zero policing in the ACHE. It is too wild and dangerous. Could it be policed? Yes. However, there is little interest in establishing anything like law or order in the ACHE. In fact, as a research testing ground, any oversight at all would run contrary to those that run said projects. Also there's just no profit in policing the ACHE. The corporations make money first and provide a service second. Since everyone is poor no one cares so it doesn't get done. C: Like in Kenji's case, Lone Star just didn't patrol Fuzzy's part of Puyallup. The subtext of why she cut her hair short and wore bulky clothing is so she wouldn't get sexually assaulted and/or murdered by the gangs that controlled the area. If she saw the police she probably thought of them as another well armed gang. It was her affiliation with Diego that provided her with what little protection she got, not the police. Again the barrens are largely abandoned areas because the cops are corporate and there's no profit in policing them. People do live in Puyallup, but most of them get substandard policing that is less officer friendly and more occupying force, that is if they are even there. This is cyberpunk. Unless you're wealthy, the cops are probably going to ignore you, beat the poo poo out of you or arrest you to meet some quota. Knight-Errant got a lot of love for replacing Lone Star and toning down the violence, but it turns out that they're just as bad as Lone Star. Sure they weren't jackbooted thugs like Lone Star, but it turns out that the people in charge are just as awful and abusive as Lone Star, just in a different way. They didn't kick the poo poo out of people as much and had better PR. 2. The government is arch conservative and the governor/mayor of Seattle is a human supremacist who is part of Humanis, who were the people who formed lynch mobs in book one during the Night of Rage. They've since reformed. Imagine the KKK getting a PR makeover. I'm going to talk about this more in Julie's book because that's when I'm going to delve deeper into politics, but the racists are in charge right now. Human Nation (the murdering racist street gang), Alamos 20,000 (the racist terrorist group that brew up the restaurant) and Humanis Policlub (the "legitimate face" of human supremacy) all have a lot of crossover in membership, use one another for tasks they themselves can't accomplish and give one another cover to accomplish their aims. Their ultimate goal is to create a racially homogeneous nation and/or world. That doesn't happen in a bubble. People get displaced or killed in that urge to create a racially homogeneous society. In a democracy we are used to understated violence. If you get pulled over for a speeding ticket a man of violence (a police officer) pulls you over. He does so because you broke the law. You go to court and you pay your fine. Done. So why do you do this at all? You stop because of the threat of violence. If you don't stop, you will be chased and put in prison or perhaps you die in the pursuit. You may not even think of it as violence, but order is almost always enforced by men of violence at some point down the line. Fascism is defined primarily by its use of violence to enforce laws and sought after cultural norms as a first line of defense. So let's say you want to hold a gay pride parade. You're not hurting anyone. You just want to march and maybe you get on a float and dress outrageously to have a good time and show off for the normies. Maybe the democracy isn't so far gone. You get the parade. The dictator hates this, but permits it anyway to make a statement. Or maybe it's just the local mayor who feels like he or she is untouchable. The men of violence in a fascist regime aren't just the police. The power over violence and sometimes even life and death are handed to ordinary citizens who don't want this parade to happen. They have armbands or hats or funny clothes that identify them as part of this group that is empowered with permission to do violence. Or maybe they don't care about ideology, but just want that power over life and death because they're opportunistic psychopaths. So the parade happens and instead of barring it from happening, people wade in with clubs to beat and maybe even murder people who just want to be who they are. The police do nothing to intervene or even participate in the beatings and killings. The men of violence give permission for the violence to occur or even use their position to hurt the people they're sworn to protect. Next year there is no parade. It may be permitted to see who shows up, but it gets worse the next time. Fascism requires violence to survive. It requires control of the street. It requires fear. It empowers the worst people with the permission to use violence within a framework that empowers the movement. There is no happy smile on the face of your men of violence: The police, the military, people like that. Fascists will beat you, imprison you, take your things, kill you or even your family if you somehow offend them, even if your only crime is existing. In book six we're coming up on an election. It's a year late in the lore, but still interesting and relevant. That is really the last line of defense against the fascist in this scenario without violence. Are the fascists popular enough to keep power, gain power or steal power? And we're going to see that. I'll tell you right now that the sort of people that fascism empowers with violence, upon which their entire movement is propped up, give not a single drat about non-violence. They use it only so long as they can't get away with open violence. The second they feel like they can get away with violence with no reprisals is the second they switch. If they can get away with violence they will do so because dictators attract those sorts of people. They attract those with violent urges and harness those urges to propel them to power and then maintain that power. In this story, the main counterbalances on fascism are corporations and leftist movements. Corporations tend to have a lot of power and don't like losing money from consumers if they openly ally with fascists. They want to be apolitical. They want to make money. That's their goal. However, if they feel threatened at all by those leftist movements, those corporations along with the wealthy and much of the middle class will almost always side with the fascists. It happens over and over and over again in political history like some broken record. Many of the so called "centrists" do not actually fall on the left-right spectrum at all. In political graphics you see a very simple left right spectrum with centrists in the middle, but two dimensions and some bar graphs are horribly reductionist. These so called centrists often have the lowest engagement with democratic values. Many seek to maintain their wealth and authority at any and all costs. Some may balk, but if bad things are happening to other people they'll keep their heads down. In Gatsby, everyone who survived retreated into their wealth at the end. If the wealthy, even moderately so, feel like they can't retreat into their wealth, only then shall many of them actually do anything. And the options are to either flee, appease or be oppressed. And you better hope that you're not part the next group to get purged, because fascists don't state all of who gets purged at the beginning. They run a simple but highly effective divide and conquer strategy and it works when no one steps up for marginalized groups. More and more groups keep getting marginalized and purged until you end up with the dictator's ideal and usually homogeneous racial and ethnic identity. And ironically, the beginning is when fascism is at its weakest, because they don't do well when beginning to take power. They need time to acclimate people to violence and cultivate their own men of violence who are far less interest in justice and only in their perverse sense of order. When people rise up to defend others en masse is when they back down, because fascists are often opportunistic cowards. They don't seek fair fights. So I see what you say, but I don't agree. The cops are literally propping up a corporation who murdered tens of thousands and addicted hundreds of thousands for money. The other set of cops were awful and abusive to begin with and it turns out that they were running experiments on children. The government allows them to continue to exist. If this were a normal democracy where things are going okay? Non-violence all the way. It's effective and I'm interested in effectiveness. In this story? poo poo is bad, has been bad for a while and people are waking up to that. The men of violence are weakened and demoralized. Non-violence doesn't work that well because in their weakened state you better believe the cops are getting more violent as the ones with morals quit, the hours grow long and the civilians rightly don't respect them. Non-violence still works, but there is a growing transition between non-violent political action and violent political action. Please don't take this as me singing the praises of violence. I'm not. What I am saying is that there are practical limits to non-violence and pacifism. Any political ideology has limits. Especially if those limits can be capped by someone who feels like they can just beat you up, imprison you or kill you without any repercussions. So where I draw the line for Jayvon being a poo poo heel or not is if he were creating and encouraging violence when non-violence is a far more effective tactic. In fact I'd say that non-violence still has its place even when resisting fascism, because you can sure inconvenience the hell out of people and that does actual damage to the fascist. Where inconveniencing them skirts under the threshold of them using violence. I feel like the proper thing to do if this were a functioning democracy would be for the the government to terminate the policing contracts and immediately develop a municipal police force. By failing to act their damage their credibility and encourage violence by doing nothing. However, again, cyberpunk gilded age dystopia. The powers that be hope that they can just go back to the status quo. So if that municipal police force is being created and Jayvon is still engaging in violence? Yeah, that's a problem. Now? Not so much. So to you specifically, Cour, I give you an article on the limits of pacifism which I think you might find informative. https://www.ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/limits-pacifism Ice Phisherman fucked around with this message at 06:56 on Oct 19, 2018 |
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Oct 19, 2018 06:24
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Thanks for the writeup, Ice. It's always interesting to get the political science breakdown of the situation.
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Oct 19, 2018 06:31
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Xarbala posted:Thanks for the writeup, Ice. You're welcome. It's been a while since I've done a write-up. Non-violence has really been pushed as an ideology in the wake of the 1960's civil rights era. The powers that be found out the hard way that people have limits. The following riots were called "The Long, Hot Summer of 1967" or just "The Long Hot Summer". The event was actually over 159 different race riots that came about as a result of institutionalized unemployment, police brutality, terrible housing and discrimination in general. People were angry and in their wake of those violent event things actually changed. MLK pushed an ideology of radical pacifism and labor organization and it got him murdered in 1968. For other political movements you tend to find people still around. Even fifty years ago there should still be a number of black organizers tied to the civil rights movement sitting on rocking chairs. Not so with the civil rights movement. There are few if any black political activists left. Most of them were assassinated. King was not an exception. In fact when you learn about the civil rights era in school, most of that gets heavily watered down if it's talked about at all. There were a ton of violent activists at the time as well as less popular non-violent activists who used means that the powers that be liked even less than King when J. Edgar Hoover, the head of the FBI, literally called up King to tell him to kill himself. After he was assassinated there were even more, because King's doctrine of radical pacifism wasn't tranquil enough for the reactionary right. Talking about it only does so much. Here are some pictures and some context to go along with it. http://theweek.com/captured/712838/long-hot-summer-1967
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Oct 19, 2018 06:49
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Butt Discussin posted:Kenji shouldn't be naive enough to wring his hands over whether his runners killed enemies directly or indirectly. He already has plenty of blood on his hands, remember? On the school ferry to Vashon Island; Kenny is seen pacing the deck by the railings. Olisha: "What is it he does now? Look, how he rubs his hands." Sarah: "It is an accustomed action with him, to seem thus washing his hands: I have known him continue in this a quarter of an hour." Kenny: "Yet here's a spot." Olisha: "Hark! He speaks! I will set down what comes from him, to satisfy my remembrance the more strongly." Kenny: "Out, damned spot! out, I say!--One: two: why, then, 'tis time to do't.--Tacoma is murky!--Fie, Dog Spirit, fie! A Shadowrunner, and afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our power to account? Yet who would have thought that Human Nation have had so much blood in them." Ice Phisherman posted:If you want to respond to this, please don't do so in a way that will get you probated or Lowtax a visit from G-men again. This is a tricky subject that I am threading a needle on. When you put it like that; nope, not going to respond, except for the following: Ice Phisherman posted:The second they feel like they can get away with violence with no reprisals is the second they switch. If they can get away with violence they will do so because dictators attract those sorts of people. They attract those with violent urges and harness those urges to propel them to power and then maintain that power. This more than anything is causing me to despair and worry about the future. This 'thing of ours' is more fragile than anything one of us might think, and yeah, this is how a Fascist State can begin. At least some of them Charlottesville White Supremacists got prosecuted. This is why I'm going to stick my head in the ground and play Red Read Redemption 2 until after the midterms.
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Oct 19, 2018 07:00
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