Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 15, 2016 2:23:50 GMT -7
It was rare for Aurora to let herself have any time to relax or any time to herself at all. There was so much she wanted to get done, and not nearly enough time do to it, so spending time not doing something felt like a waste and made her anxious. It was to the point that relaxing was genuinely difficult for her because of that anxiety. More than anything, she feared leaving what she started unfinished, and after what happened at the dragon attacks she experienced, it wasn't something she could discount as a distant fantasy anymore. She had to do as much as she could as quickly as she could if she didn't want to regret it later.
There was one exception to this. That wasn't to say it wasn't difficult for her to do sometimes, or that she didn't skip doing it sometimes, but even she acknowledged that occasionally she had to do things for herself in order to keep her sane. Every morning, she made a point of watching the sun rise from the rooftop of a tall building. The sunrise itself was pretty, but her favorite part of doing this was looking over the city itself. She'd done this for years, watching the city change and grow every day. Some days weren't that noticeable, today was one of those. Others showed drastic differences, like after the first dragon attack when most of the docks was burnt and had to be completely reconstructed. Watching the city recover from that, day by day, was very satisfying. Even on the days like today where there wasn't that big a difference, she still got a great deal of satisfaction just by looking over the city itself. Even watching the city improve in small ways, or watching its continued development, was satisfying in its own way.
Before taking over this building, Aurora didn't have any set place for this, but after she always used the base's roof. Her aurora hung around the lower part of her body and her legs, making the area around her and her face glow. As always, she was easily spotted because of that power, and anyone awake at this hour and paying enough attention could have easily noticed that she was up there at this time almost every day. She worried about being a little too predictable, but in the end determined it worth the risk.
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Dec 15, 2016 21:57:40 GMT -7
There was a simple kind of joy to be had in traveling by foot. Walking the back parts of streets, climbing buildings and reaching places people were never intended to be. There had been a period in his life when it was much more common practice - back when it was worthwhile to turn as many aspects of a battle to his favor as possible, including the field - and he’d actually been pretty good at it. Since his style had shifted with his gains in power to something slower paced, the skill of getting to a top of a building quickly or walk across a banister had fallen out of use and him somewhat out of practice. It was nice to stretch some of those muscles again as Bolide.
He had been applying these skills to the side of the Pandaemonium base was soon coming upon the rooftop when he conveniently also came upon the sparkling glow of one Aurora. It seemed the rumors that this was her morning haunt were true, and that was indeed her flame that he’d spotted up on the roof from the base proper. Oddly serene for a woman who seemed to subsist off air and the sweat of constantly working.
Speaking of which, Bolide had brought sandwiches and milk. He pulled himself the rest of the way onto the roof, making sure to land loud enough that she’d likely hear, slipped the paper bag off his shoulder, and paced towards her.
“I can see why you come up here.” He mused, sending a gaze over the city. He came to a stop a couple feet to her side. Reaching into his bag, he offered her a wrapped sandwich and carton of milk. “How much of it have you built?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 16, 2016 1:22:13 GMT -7
It was bound to happen eventually. To Aurora, this was meant to be a little bit of time to herself, time where she didn't have to worry about everything else. However, doing it in the same place at roughly the same time every day meant that it was inevitable that someone would approach her eventually. A lot of people walked around the base in the wee hours of the morning, so she didn't think of it at first. There was only so much anyone could be doing by scaling the side of the building this high though. She sighed, and prepared herself for having to do more during the relaxation time. Her expression flattened as she looked at the bag Bolide was carrying.
Over the course of the past few months she'd gotten considerably less picky. Before then, she wouldn't even touch overly sweet and sugary things like soda and cheesecake, processed foods, or fast food. Now some of those quick to make foods were an absolute godsend because it meant she didn't have to spend as much time worrying about food. Because of her tendency to skip meals lately, her body was far more accepting of any food it could get just to fill her stomach. Once he revealed it was food, she didn't even care what it was anymore as long as it wasn't poisoned. Aurora intended to get food after this, but during worked just as well and now she didn't have to get it herself. She accepted the sandwich and drink and started fumbling with the packaging.
"I think saying I built it is wrong. I have no construction experience and did little more than move materials around, it was very much a group effort. But, a few months ago, a dragon burned this place to the ground. The only thing you could see were charred buildings and ash, and I put a lot of effort into getting it put back together. Even tried to improve some places," she motioned to an area to the left. "The roads over there were a maze of one-way streets. With the buildings already burnt down I restructured that place so there were no more one-way streets. There were a few other changes like that too." She paused to take a bite of the sandwich. "What are you doing here?"
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Dec 16, 2016 2:17:22 GMT -7
It was a good question. ‘Because I wanted to chat with you because I’m here right now and you’re not doing anything else’ had a chance of being shot down with a request to leave considering he was bothering her from her sunrise, if it was going to fly at all. A topic-related excuse was in order.
“I wanted to talk to you about where you’re planning on taking the faction, because,” Bolide paused to dislocate the bottom of his helmet, and sighed. “Frankly, it’s not what I was expecting.”
He replaced the piece of his helmet with another sandwich from the bag, and took a moment to unwrap it, pull down his second mask, and collect his thoughts. His eyes settled absently on where Aurora had pointed. He had known about that dragon attack, but he hadn’t actually come to Emerald City until a good couple of months after. This was first he was hearing of that whole area being nothing but ashes. Considering dragons he wasn’t surprised, but looking at it now, it was hard to imagine. Power or not, undertaking such a project was no small task, and she’d accomplished it in a fair short amount of time. He couldn’t say it wasn’t impressive.
Bolide began slowly. “The members of Pandaemonium, they’re lazy, selfish, and unfocused. I bet if you asked them what they were fighting for, half of them wouldn’t be able to give you a good answer. They seem more concerned with robbing jewelry stores and holding up banks than figuring out what they’re going to do with that money, or why they did the heist in the first place.” He annoyedly took a bite of the sandwich. “It’s dumb and there’s no point and it wastes everyone’s time. I didn’t become a super so I could be some minor annoyance to the police, I did it to make change. The problem is, none of the other factions want the change I want.” He gumbled. Glancing up at Aurora, he concluded, “Where are you taking the faction? Just because I don’t like it now doesn’t mean it can’t be changed.”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 16, 2016 2:49:54 GMT -7
The explanation was odd enough that Aurora's head snapped in his direction with an eyebrow raised. Her chewing slowed as he continued talking, the conversation getting more surreal the more he went on. Did he not know what Pandaemonium was? She knew he was naive and clueless, but this was a whole new level of clueless. It was one thing to not know that most supers were clueless when it came to what they were actually fighting for, it was another thing entirely to not know that Pandaemonium was a violent gang. The faction hadn't changed that much since she took over, at most some of the people that just didn't have anywhere else to go now had a comfortable place to live. For a moment she thought he might have been exaggerating or somehow mocking the lack of progress she's made there, but he really seemed dead serious. It was a little embarrassing.
"How long have you been in Emerald City?" Her attention turned to the milk long enough to get it open. "Pandaemonium is a street gang with everything that entails. I'm attempting to organize them, but it's been an uphill battle from the beginning. As you might imagine, it's difficult to get criminals to follow the rules or to get them to care about anyone other than themselves.
"My goal has always been the same: I want to create a safe haven for supers. If I have my way, this city will be ours, but...I can't run everything myself, and I can't expect to live past the age of 25 because of dragons. I need the manpower for the hostile takeover, and I need people to run the city and get our society afloat. I started with the people I thought would be the hardest to convince, hoping that a degree of respect, or at least fear, with them would make them more willing to go along with everything. I also hoped that giving them a purpose might help with some of their anti-social behavior. But..." Aurora sighed and stared into her milk. "At this point I think it's more likely that Pandaemonium is going to fracture. You might not have to worry about your distaste for a lot of the members forever."
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Dec 16, 2016 3:18:58 GMT -7
“About three months.” He replied, trying and failing to hide his embarrassment. “I avoided any information on supers, and I was somewhat bad at talking to people. Or, anyone.” He admitted.
He stopped and stared at his sandwich, and then a moment longer at the sky. Finally, he nodded. “Even if Pandaemonium fractures and you only get some of the members, that’s still more people than you had before, right?” With the intent to get comfortable, Bolide crouched down and settled the various belongings in his arms around him. “I don’t think you can expect to get everyone on your side, especially if the history of this faction is what you say it is, and just, some of these damn idiots.”
The subject of his status with the faction was lost as he made his decision. Aurora had confirmed what he wanted to hear, and so he affirmed this was indeed the place for him. He found the carton of milk he’d grabbed for himself and took a long drink.
“What are you going to do if the faction fractures? How much of the faction do you think will come with you?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 16, 2016 3:44:45 GMT -7
His response made her stop staring at her milk and look at him questioning if he was serious or not. Given his past words and actions, she really had a hard time believing that this was anything but genuine. There were limits to how naive someone could be and survive in this world, and this was just getting embarrassing and a bit frustrating. She tapped her fingers on her forehead while she thought of the best way to explain this to him. The fact that she had to explain it, and now of all times, was even more irritating.
"It's not that simple. For starters, before anyone tries to break off I find it more likely that they'd try to kill me and take over Pandaemonium instead. I'm sure the people that don't support me will target the people that do, both before and after the faction splits. It'd be a huge mess, and dangerous to everyone here. I can't let that happen." Aurora looked out at the sunrise again, the sun was starting to look round. "Plus, after thinking about it for a long time, I realized the people here probably need me the most. There might be individuals elsewhere that need more support, but as a group? Nothing even comes close. I don't want to fail them."
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Post by Solomon on Dec 16, 2016 4:57:28 GMT -7
Another civil conflict in the faction, only a few months after the last. Considering the faction’s history and general ethos, it wasn't that surprising. It was bound to happen eventually, and with a leader as divisive as Aurora, sooner rather than later. Apparently the last guy had been pretty detached from the faction and he’d still only lasted a few months. He’d been aware of it to some degree before, but Solomon was suddenly hit with the time limit he was working under. Or, within, rather. What mattered most was that Aurora didn’t cause too much trouble; neutralizing her was an end goal and the close to the mission, and death would satisfy that as much as calming down her objectives. Who would be replacing her would need to be taken into consideration, and there would be one less powerful super on the battlefield come a dragon, but the first had a possibility of happening anyway and the second could be dealt with. It wasn’t the optimal outcome, but it was an acceptable one, and had the potential to be near on the horizon.
This whole situation was temporary. Aurora’s words and actions suggested she knew this and was feeling it too, to an exponentially larger degree. He feared it was going to make her rash, perhaps not in decision making, but how soon plans were pushed into action. Something he would have to watch for.
Bolide raised his eyebrow at Aurora. Wasn’t that what it meant to fracture, to break off? But that was somewhat beside the point. He looked downwards at the milk he was distractedly squeezing the corners of.
“It bothers me that supers seem to want to punch each other’s teeth out over any of the multitude of actual problems we could be trying to solve. We have enough power - if we all got together, the unpowereds wouldn’t be able to stop us - but the community as a whole seems so divided.” Bolide muttered angrily.
“How have you been doing, trying to help them? It’s wearing, trying to get across to people when they won’t listen. Progress tends to be slow. Half the time it feels like people hate you for just trying to help.”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 17, 2016 7:42:00 GMT -7
"It's incredibly frustrating," Aurora said more loudly than she intended to. "Complete waste of talent and energy."
Her grip tightened on the carton of milk. After a moment's pause, she bit into the sandwich like it was the source of all her problems. Her shoulders remained upright, her spine straight, but her neck lowered along with her eyelids. This conversation was getting more irritating by the second.
"I've given them a place to live, food, water, all the basic necessities like showers, heat, entertainment, and a community, and a purpose. At first I thought I might have been making some progress, but I can't even fucking tell anymore. People are insufferable."
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Rein Initiative
Posts 134
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Post by Solomon on Dec 17, 2016 10:56:32 GMT -7
“Maybe not progress with certain things, or the things you would like, but the benefit of providing basic necessities can not be understated. If you give food, shelter, and such to someone who wouldn’t otherwise have it, it means they can spend their time and energy somewhere other than trying to get the things they need in order to continue living. Namely, being productive. Suddenly there’s time to apply for jobs, means of cleaning oneself up for job interviews so that one might get a job and begin to be able to support themselves. People who are homeless and poor don’t generally want to remain that way, but it’s a very difficult cycle to break out of. By providing basic necessities for free to people who need it, you’re giving them the leg up they need. Every person you provide for is potentially another productive member of society. You’re also providing a place to stay for supers who need it. That alone, offering an escape from, for instance, a dangerous home environment - giving people options - helps an extraordinary amount for the people who need it.”
Bolide spoke like he had a mild grudge against every word, but he believed all of it with conviction. He picked up his sandwich like he was going to eat it - and normally he would - but he decided to finish his thoughts out first.
“Not only that, but by establishing a base like this, if there are individuals who need help, they can come to you, can’t they? You won’t get every individual, or even a good portion of every individual who needs it, but every one that comes is one more you’ve helped.”
Bolide took a long swing of his milk and looked sideways up at Aurora, holding the carton out in front of him as though in toast. “The people you’re helping, even small improvements result in vastly increased quality of life. You’re doing a lot of good, Aurora.”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 17, 2016 21:51:34 GMT -7
"Oh, so now you're suddenly an expert on something? I know all that already, obviously, I wouldn't have bothered to do any of it otherwise. It's just for a lot of people not having to worry about that gives them more time to rape and pillage, and the rest don't do much of anything useful at all. I hate the idea that you should just be happy with what you have, as though the establishment that's pushing that idea actually believes that. Just look at what they do and it's obvious they don't."
Aurora took another angry bite out of her sandwich, and started chewing it so thoroughly that it might as well have been dust by the time she swallowed. As frustrating as it was, she didn't blame most of those people. The ones that still felt the need to lord their power over people she would deal with, but the rest really weren't acting that unreasonably in her opinion. For people that had nothing, or even had to worry about people hurting them for such a long time, finally having a place like that might not have felt entirely real. They needed some time to get used to it and to discover themselves. A lot of them were still young too, as supers tended to be, hiding from their parents because they were either kicked out or feared what their parents might do to them. She didn't hold anything against them, even if she wished they'd clean the floors occasionally. It was another one of the reasons she couldn't fail here. With as vulnerable as a lot of the people there were, there'd be a lot of easy targets for anyone looking for them.
"One step at a time," she reminded herself under her breath though loudly enough to hear. "It's why I keep coming up here. It can be easy to miss the big picture if you stay in the thick of it all the time."
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Post by Solomon on Dec 17, 2016 23:49:36 GMT -7
“What?” Bolide said defensively. “That’s what I do in my off-time. I’m a political activist; have been since Junior year of high school. Helps to have lived through poverty too.” He took another swing of the milk.
Though Bolide showed no signs of it - indeed, he was to be inclined to agree - one of Aurora’s ideas had ruffled Solomon’s feathers. The thought that one couldn’t be satisfied with what was currently in their possession, that they had to keep accumulating more, and to call it dangerous was an understatement. It was an easy trap to fall into once someone had a taste of power, or a bit taken away, but it was nothing but greed. If one was never satisfied with what they had, they’d only keep climbing upwards to find nothing but emptiness. People had to be satisfied with what they had. One could strive for more than what they currently had, but people had to define their own tops. The world wasn’t going to provide one for them.
Besides death, that was. He hoped Aurora realized this before it was too late.
Bolide took a bite of his sandwich and spoke through it. “So what’s the next step? How’re we going to motivate them?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 18, 2016 0:21:16 GMT -7
"Is that so? What have you been fighting for?"
Aurora's ears perked up at that. It was unusual to find people actually willing to fight in general, but people willing to fight the establishment without even using powers? Typically that was only reserved for internet slacktivism in her experience where feeling like they were doing something important was more important than actually doing something important. She was a little suspicious, but given the way he talked so far, she wasn't so suspicious that she outright didn't believe him for the moment. If it was true then maybe she could actually count on him to help.
"Stability. Horizons left, a lot of people are moving out of the city, it's only a matter of time before more people start to leave and we're on our own. I'm hoping that we can build something before that starts happening, but once it does I'm sure that'll be quite the motivator if I protect the food more heavily than I am now. But that would still be...messy. In the mean time, I'm hoping that peoples' natural desire to build and improve will kick in, but I know better than to rely on that completely. I'm offering people more money than they'd be able to get from a normal job, and I'm intending to find ways to directly credit them as well. All of the people that helped with the capture and remodeling of the base are on a plaque in the main lobby, and I'd like to put a small monument in the park in the middle of the docks with all the names of the people that helped with the reconstruction, unless they'd like to keep their name withheld. I'm hoping that if money won't motivate them bragging rights will."
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Rein Initiative
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Post by Solomon on Dec 18, 2016 19:18:26 GMT -7
“Several things - everything’s interconnected, so saying ‘I’ll demonstrate for equal wages but I’ll sit out your guy’s fight to get legislation passed against racial profiling’ is stupid and counterproductive - but I focus mostly on women’s rights. Or, focused.” He corrected. “I’ve shifted to a lot more super-related issues recently. Since joining Pandaemonium.”
Of the three motivations Aurora gave, money was by far the most effective. Where was she getting that people had a natural desire to build and improve? That - let alone bragging rights - wasn’t going to get the vast majority of people to spend the hours of manual labor every day required to get a, was she suggesting, self sustaining society off the ground. Money still might, but she was going to have to hire a lot of people for quite a stretch of time to get all the necessary facilities built, and that was assuming there were enough people willing to work for her that she could hire. Not to mention the difficulties of simply making a self sustaining society. Maybe with powers it could be pulled off, but that was fairly uncharted territory. Large societal structures like that rarely worked well the first time.
And that was before putting limits on food. If Aurora was the singular source of food and though restrictions some people weren’t getting enough, those people would get desperate. When people got desperate, revolts got bloody.
Solomon was tempted to point this out, but being aversive wasn't likely to gain much for Bolide right now and it ran somewhat counter to his job to attempt to offer help in her plans to take over the city without any gains towards his own goals. He’d stop dangerous plans once there was a higher risk of them actually happening.
“That makes sense.” Bolide lied. “Several different approaches to recruiting people will net a larger work force." Which wasn't technically a lie. "You’re trying to make a safe-haven for supers, right? Once we have one place like that, maybe we can work towards expanding it elsewhere. At the very least, it’s proof that it can be done. Others might try to follow. Who’re you bringing on for designers, planners, and managers?”
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Pandaemonium
Posts 381
Power Level 31
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Post by Aurora Disicio on Dec 18, 2016 20:02:29 GMT -7
"Obviously, but there's only so much time and money that can be devoted to something and far too many worthy causes for it." She frowned at the vagueness of his answer. "What did you accomplish?"
Talking about this again was starting to sour her mood. As much as she wanted to focus on getting things up and running, she had to deal with a huge lack of manpower, she didn't trust the unpowereds to stay in the city so she was trying to get super labor only, and with her own faction acting like morons and trying to kill each other. It didn't exactly leave her with a time to work on the expansion she wanted, or a lot of resources to work towards it. It was frustrating.
"I'm trying to recruit supers only, even if I ultimately won't turn down unpowered help. Sadly, the vast majority of us are under the age of 20. It's made it difficult to find anyone qualified. The operation is small enough that I can handle managing it for now, but I'm always looking for people that know what they're doing. For now, I listen to suggestions and try to use what little expertise we have. I'm hoping to work with some of the more prominent supers in the city later as well.
"I have no plans for expansion right now. This is already a massive undertaking, and trying to make it bigger than it already is would just be stupid. I'm focusing on this for now, and I will see what needs to be done once we're ready for it. I already know that I can't compete with several hundred years of civilization, especially not with a group of people this small. Our freedom is going to cost a lot, but at the very least, we'll be able to say its ours and live without having society itself fighting against us."
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