07-18-2018, 02:39 PM
Buttercity, 12th July
"It seems we underestimated the amount of damage previously. Your internal organs are still struggling to function at full capacity, and I have to recommend you cancel your appearance at the parade," the doctor said, his face halfway between apologetic and terrified.
If Suleman Chaher had been able to stand, he would have punched someone. As it was, he only growled.
"Leave!"
The doctor scurried away as Charissa Clarke glided out of the chair at the side of the room and walked closer.
"If you wish, I will attend the parade in your place. We can claim you are too busy dealing with the war to attend, or something?"
"People are starting to think I'm dead. No, I don't care how..." he paused to groan in pain, "much medical advice I'm given, I am attending."
"Sir, I can't recommend..."
"Thank you for your opinion, Secretary Clarke. Now, fetch my security team and a wheelchair."
Clarke nodded her head in a small bow then exited the room, a grim expression on her face.
--------------
Usera, 12th July
"... and here comes our fantastic Prime Minister Suleman Chaher, undeterred by the attempt on his life, showing his support for the people of Lauchenoiria on the anniversary of their revolution. We expect him to give a speech after the parade, although no comment will be given on the location of the traitor Leanna Walker. Look how the crowds cheer! Also, on the parade we have..."
Leonie switched off the state-run broadcaster and stuck her tongue out at the blank screen. So, Chaher had attended the parade. Damn, and just when they'd got their hopes up that Walker had succeeded.
She stood up and left their media centre, the old CCTV monitoring room in the police station. On her way out of the building she could hear the assorted shouts of the prisoners from a few nights ago. She turned away. There wasn't really enough space, between the racist anti-Sonja crowd and the government supporting POWs, they really needed more cells.
Leonie walked through the sunny streets, keeping her eye upwards in case of the drone attacks Sonja had worried about. So far, nothing had happened, but that didn't mean it wouldn't. She stopped at the nearest subway station to hand one of the commanders the newest document from Sonja.
The subway wasn't running, instead most of the stations had been converted into command centres or bomb shelters in case the worst happened. It was somewhat disconcerting and Leonie didn't much like being around them.
She headed down alongside the over-ground train tracks to the south of the city, where a group was meant to be setting up a barricade. She was somewhat annoyed that Sonja had assigned her to delivering the messages they were concerned about being intercepted electronically, however at least it meant she knew everything that was going on.
Of course, the downside was she knew everything that was going on. She knew that the Resistance had no clue what had happened to Leanna Walker. She knew that the Coalition still weren't any further north than Costeno province. And she knew that Suleman Chaher's hold on government was still very strong.
She reached the partially built barricade and handed the document to one of their commanders. Before leaving, she briefly joined the guys peering over the edge with binoculars. One of them offered her a pair and she gazed over at the lines of Lauchenoirian soldiers who were yet to attack.
"They're waiting for backup," commented one of the guys she didn't know.
"The Gonhogians that redirected to Summersea are probably going to head back here, intel says," Leonie responded.
"Then I hope the intel is wrong, cause if that happens, we're all dead."
"How optimistic of you," she said sarcastically.
"Optimism just leads to disappointment. At least with pessimism you can end up pleasantly surprised," he suggested.
"I'd still rather not think I'm about to die, if you don't mind."
"Hey, think what you like, long as you stay alert."
Leonie nodded and handed back the binoculars, then continued on her rounds.
------------
Aeluria, 13th July
"...supplies of food will last until mid-September if we start rationing now, or else we'll only last until the end of August. The nicotine situation is direr, unless something happens by the end of July we'll have a bunch of people in withdrawal. I suggest you start forcing people to quit slowly now or suffer more later," Alyssa Robinson stated.
"I'm not "˜forcing' people to do anything. We believe in civil rights and..."
"This isn't about civil rights, First Minister, this is about preventing half of this island from going through nicotine withdrawal symptoms while also running out of food and being trapped..."
"I said no, Ms Robinson," Keitha Noguera insisted, staring out the window at the dots on the horizon that were Chaher's ships. She looked down and sighed, "but start working on a rationing system to be implemented on Monday."
Alyssa nodded and exited, passing Anael on her way out.
"Keitha..." he started.
"Anael, I am in no mood for this."
"Please, my dear, you have to surrender. People here are suffering..."
"I said, NO!" she yelled, slamming her hand down on the window ledge hard enough that it shook. The civil servants who had been working on stuff at the far side of the room started and hurried out the door, papers flying as they tried to gather them quickly.
The couple looked at each other for a moment. Keitha shivered as they made eye contact. There was none of the love they'd had for each other when they married. Instead there was a coldness, a determinedness that scared her.
He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it towards her, then turned and exited. She picked it up.
Petition for divorce.
----------------
Unknown location, 14th July
Leanna Walker wished she'd waited around in Laeral long enough for someone to diagnose what had happened to her last time. She sat curled in a ball and unable to move. She supposed it must be some kind of intense phobia or traumatic response. Her self-diagnostic procedure did nothing to help.
She was only minimally aware of the world around her, trapped inside her own head imagining all the worst-case scenarios. She imagined Chaher's troops marching into her hometown of Usera and burning the place to the ground. She imagined one of the foreign powers involved launching a nuclear missile at Buttercity. She imagined the pain of her people.
Then she snapped out of it and realised the pain wasn't in her mind. Someone had struck her across the face, and it stung. She lifted her hand to her cheek and felt the blood.
"I said, get up traitor!" an armed guard demanded, standing over her. Shaking, she complied. He handcuffed her and led her out of the room with another guard. They passed through a windowed corridor and the light hurt her. They entered what appeared to be an interrogation room and handcuffed her to the table. The guards left.
She didn't know how long she sat there. She shut her eyes to keep out the glare of fluorescent lights. By the time the door banged open, she'd almost fallen asleep. She jumped awake and then instinctively pulled back as she saw who had entered. In her head, she yelled all the swear words she knew. Outside, she remained silent.
"Good evening, Ms Walker," said Anthony Santos, the ageing chief interrogator of the later communist years of Lauchenoiria. One of her first acts as President was to set up an inquiry into allegations of torture carried out by this man.
Walker remained silent.
"Nothing to say to me, Ms Walker? No? Okay, I'll start," he leaned closer, "I'm looking forward to this one."
------------
Northern Fleura, 15th July
Jae Chung coughed as the rain continued to batter down on her head. She turned around but the armed guards were still standing to attention, seemingly immune to the blanket of water falling from the sky. She walked onwards, her feet sinking into the mud.
She supposed it could have been worse. They could have discovered she was Resistance. As it was, she "“ along with half the previously unemployed people of Fleura "“ had been "˜assigned' to various agriculture or construction projects "˜vital to the security and prosperity of the Lauchenoirian state'.
If this was what they did to random unemployed people, she shuddered to think about what they did to those actively fighting against them.
The rain hadn't let up all week, but apparently whatever they were building couldn't wait. She knew that her home province was experiencing a drought, and this was probably better, but at the moment she just wanted it to stop.
She reached the edge of the construction site and joined the queue of people at the end of their shift. On solid concrete, the rain worked to wash some of the mud off of her and the others, and she was almost so focused on watching it work that she didn't notice the change in the atmosphere.
The rain was still as heavy, the ground still as muddy. But some of the other people in the queue were standing a little more alert, positioned a little more apart than usual and she knew what was about to happen.
As the guard checked names off the list at the front of the queue, one man brought a brick out of his pocket and whacked him on the head. Immediately the queue split apart and began to run. Jae pulled herself back behind a half-formed brick wall just as the shooting started.
The others working had joined the revolt and the muddy site had become a battleground. An armed guard rushed past her and began firing at the people on top of the half-constructed building. The guard hadn't noticed her. She snuck behind him and pulled a pistol out of the guard's holster, shooting him in the head.
She then picked up his rifle, and checking behind her, headed for the forest and ran.
------------
Elfwood Forest, 16th July
Laura Moore squeezed her children in a hug until Kelli complained. She reluctantly let them go.
"I promise you, I will come and find you when all this is done," she assured them.
"But why can't you come with us?" asked Jamey.
"Mummy has some things to do here, but you'll be nice and safe in Laeral with Leanna's friend Daniel. You remember Daniel?"
"He has a big spot on his ear," Kelli said.
"Now, that's not very nice. Promise me you'll be nice," Laura said, trying to look stern.
"We promise," the two children chorused. Laura hugged them again, then lifted them into the boat with the Resistance members tasked with taking the children to Laeral.
She watched as the boat rowed away through the darkness until it was out of sight, then resisted the urge to run along the riverbank after it and sat down to cry.
------------
Aeluria, 17th July
Esmee Douglas was hot and impatient as she waited in a line for her food shopping. Rationing, she thought, if I wasn't an atheist I'd swear some deity or other was angry with me. She reached the front of the queue and handed her shopping list to the official at the front entrance.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you are only entitled to six eggs for the week," said the man.
"I have two kids as well," Esmee explained.
"I am aware, ma'am. Your family allowance for one adult and two children is six eggs per week."
"That's absurd, we eat eggs for breakfast every day, that will only do for two days."
"Ma'am, you will have to find something else for breakfast. Your cereal allowance for example, will more than suffice."
"My kids don't eat cereal, we only have cooked breakfasts, it is the most important meal of the day after all," she said, sounding increasingly desperate.
"We will all have to make some lifestyle changes, ma'am. Six eggs only," he insisted, handing her back the list.
Yeah, there's definitely some vengeful god somewhere.
----------------
Carville, 18th July
"Listen up! The Coalition are heading this way, and we need to be prepared. Leewood, Young, take your squads east and head them off before they reach the city. We don't want a repeat of Summersea!"
"No, ma'am!" chorused the Kerlian women gathered. A couple of Lauchenoirian soldiers looked on in amusement. Chloe Conde glared at them and they wandered off.
"The rest of you, fortify your positions. Don't give up any ground! We all know what's coming. For the Matriarchy!"
"For the Matriarchy!" they chorused and then split off into their groups.
Chloe Conde walked back inside the museum, and back to her command centre.
"Can someone move that infernal thing? It's in the way," she said, pointing at a fake brontosaurus that took up half of the floor.
"We've tried, ma'am. It's nailed to the floor."
"Then get a hammer and pull the nails out."
A pair of women rushed away to deal with the dinosaur, as Conde walked over to her second-in-command.
"News?"
"The Resistance is stuck in Usera, the Coalition advancing here. Aeluria has started rationing and Leanna Walker still hasn't talked."
"Seriously? Did they not put Santos on it?"
"I don't know how she's held out. Oh, and that Alex Marwick kid made another broadcast."
"Let's see."
The woman played the broadcast.
"Hey Lauchenoiria, sorry I took so long. Well, it's been a busy week. Suleman Chaher has shown his face alive although not-quite-so-well. Ironic that someone who consistently voted against Lauchenoiria's accessibility policies now has to rely on them to spread his propaganda.
Leanna Walker is still nowhere to be seen, and now Laura Moore has vanished even further into the ether. For all we know, the pair are both dead. Is it time to start thinking about the future rather than restoring the past? I think so.
Forget the old government, people, it's time for a new revolution. Don't rely on the old systems; tear them down. Consign the 1952 regime to the history books at last. We can't change the system with one referendum. But one revolution? We most certainly can. Fight with me, Lauchenoiria."
"It seems we underestimated the amount of damage previously. Your internal organs are still struggling to function at full capacity, and I have to recommend you cancel your appearance at the parade," the doctor said, his face halfway between apologetic and terrified.
If Suleman Chaher had been able to stand, he would have punched someone. As it was, he only growled.
"Leave!"
The doctor scurried away as Charissa Clarke glided out of the chair at the side of the room and walked closer.
"If you wish, I will attend the parade in your place. We can claim you are too busy dealing with the war to attend, or something?"
"People are starting to think I'm dead. No, I don't care how..." he paused to groan in pain, "much medical advice I'm given, I am attending."
"Sir, I can't recommend..."
"Thank you for your opinion, Secretary Clarke. Now, fetch my security team and a wheelchair."
Clarke nodded her head in a small bow then exited the room, a grim expression on her face.
--------------
Usera, 12th July
"... and here comes our fantastic Prime Minister Suleman Chaher, undeterred by the attempt on his life, showing his support for the people of Lauchenoiria on the anniversary of their revolution. We expect him to give a speech after the parade, although no comment will be given on the location of the traitor Leanna Walker. Look how the crowds cheer! Also, on the parade we have..."
Leonie switched off the state-run broadcaster and stuck her tongue out at the blank screen. So, Chaher had attended the parade. Damn, and just when they'd got their hopes up that Walker had succeeded.
She stood up and left their media centre, the old CCTV monitoring room in the police station. On her way out of the building she could hear the assorted shouts of the prisoners from a few nights ago. She turned away. There wasn't really enough space, between the racist anti-Sonja crowd and the government supporting POWs, they really needed more cells.
Leonie walked through the sunny streets, keeping her eye upwards in case of the drone attacks Sonja had worried about. So far, nothing had happened, but that didn't mean it wouldn't. She stopped at the nearest subway station to hand one of the commanders the newest document from Sonja.
The subway wasn't running, instead most of the stations had been converted into command centres or bomb shelters in case the worst happened. It was somewhat disconcerting and Leonie didn't much like being around them.
She headed down alongside the over-ground train tracks to the south of the city, where a group was meant to be setting up a barricade. She was somewhat annoyed that Sonja had assigned her to delivering the messages they were concerned about being intercepted electronically, however at least it meant she knew everything that was going on.
Of course, the downside was she knew everything that was going on. She knew that the Resistance had no clue what had happened to Leanna Walker. She knew that the Coalition still weren't any further north than Costeno province. And she knew that Suleman Chaher's hold on government was still very strong.
She reached the partially built barricade and handed the document to one of their commanders. Before leaving, she briefly joined the guys peering over the edge with binoculars. One of them offered her a pair and she gazed over at the lines of Lauchenoirian soldiers who were yet to attack.
"They're waiting for backup," commented one of the guys she didn't know.
"The Gonhogians that redirected to Summersea are probably going to head back here, intel says," Leonie responded.
"Then I hope the intel is wrong, cause if that happens, we're all dead."
"How optimistic of you," she said sarcastically.
"Optimism just leads to disappointment. At least with pessimism you can end up pleasantly surprised," he suggested.
"I'd still rather not think I'm about to die, if you don't mind."
"Hey, think what you like, long as you stay alert."
Leonie nodded and handed back the binoculars, then continued on her rounds.
------------
Aeluria, 13th July
"...supplies of food will last until mid-September if we start rationing now, or else we'll only last until the end of August. The nicotine situation is direr, unless something happens by the end of July we'll have a bunch of people in withdrawal. I suggest you start forcing people to quit slowly now or suffer more later," Alyssa Robinson stated.
"I'm not "˜forcing' people to do anything. We believe in civil rights and..."
"This isn't about civil rights, First Minister, this is about preventing half of this island from going through nicotine withdrawal symptoms while also running out of food and being trapped..."
"I said no, Ms Robinson," Keitha Noguera insisted, staring out the window at the dots on the horizon that were Chaher's ships. She looked down and sighed, "but start working on a rationing system to be implemented on Monday."
Alyssa nodded and exited, passing Anael on her way out.
"Keitha..." he started.
"Anael, I am in no mood for this."
"Please, my dear, you have to surrender. People here are suffering..."
"I said, NO!" she yelled, slamming her hand down on the window ledge hard enough that it shook. The civil servants who had been working on stuff at the far side of the room started and hurried out the door, papers flying as they tried to gather them quickly.
The couple looked at each other for a moment. Keitha shivered as they made eye contact. There was none of the love they'd had for each other when they married. Instead there was a coldness, a determinedness that scared her.
He took a piece of paper out of his pocket and slid it towards her, then turned and exited. She picked it up.
Petition for divorce.
----------------
Unknown location, 14th July
Leanna Walker wished she'd waited around in Laeral long enough for someone to diagnose what had happened to her last time. She sat curled in a ball and unable to move. She supposed it must be some kind of intense phobia or traumatic response. Her self-diagnostic procedure did nothing to help.
She was only minimally aware of the world around her, trapped inside her own head imagining all the worst-case scenarios. She imagined Chaher's troops marching into her hometown of Usera and burning the place to the ground. She imagined one of the foreign powers involved launching a nuclear missile at Buttercity. She imagined the pain of her people.
Then she snapped out of it and realised the pain wasn't in her mind. Someone had struck her across the face, and it stung. She lifted her hand to her cheek and felt the blood.
"I said, get up traitor!" an armed guard demanded, standing over her. Shaking, she complied. He handcuffed her and led her out of the room with another guard. They passed through a windowed corridor and the light hurt her. They entered what appeared to be an interrogation room and handcuffed her to the table. The guards left.
She didn't know how long she sat there. She shut her eyes to keep out the glare of fluorescent lights. By the time the door banged open, she'd almost fallen asleep. She jumped awake and then instinctively pulled back as she saw who had entered. In her head, she yelled all the swear words she knew. Outside, she remained silent.
"Good evening, Ms Walker," said Anthony Santos, the ageing chief interrogator of the later communist years of Lauchenoiria. One of her first acts as President was to set up an inquiry into allegations of torture carried out by this man.
Walker remained silent.
"Nothing to say to me, Ms Walker? No? Okay, I'll start," he leaned closer, "I'm looking forward to this one."
------------
Northern Fleura, 15th July
Jae Chung coughed as the rain continued to batter down on her head. She turned around but the armed guards were still standing to attention, seemingly immune to the blanket of water falling from the sky. She walked onwards, her feet sinking into the mud.
She supposed it could have been worse. They could have discovered she was Resistance. As it was, she "“ along with half the previously unemployed people of Fleura "“ had been "˜assigned' to various agriculture or construction projects "˜vital to the security and prosperity of the Lauchenoirian state'.
If this was what they did to random unemployed people, she shuddered to think about what they did to those actively fighting against them.
The rain hadn't let up all week, but apparently whatever they were building couldn't wait. She knew that her home province was experiencing a drought, and this was probably better, but at the moment she just wanted it to stop.
She reached the edge of the construction site and joined the queue of people at the end of their shift. On solid concrete, the rain worked to wash some of the mud off of her and the others, and she was almost so focused on watching it work that she didn't notice the change in the atmosphere.
The rain was still as heavy, the ground still as muddy. But some of the other people in the queue were standing a little more alert, positioned a little more apart than usual and she knew what was about to happen.
As the guard checked names off the list at the front of the queue, one man brought a brick out of his pocket and whacked him on the head. Immediately the queue split apart and began to run. Jae pulled herself back behind a half-formed brick wall just as the shooting started.
The others working had joined the revolt and the muddy site had become a battleground. An armed guard rushed past her and began firing at the people on top of the half-constructed building. The guard hadn't noticed her. She snuck behind him and pulled a pistol out of the guard's holster, shooting him in the head.
She then picked up his rifle, and checking behind her, headed for the forest and ran.
------------
Elfwood Forest, 16th July
Laura Moore squeezed her children in a hug until Kelli complained. She reluctantly let them go.
"I promise you, I will come and find you when all this is done," she assured them.
"But why can't you come with us?" asked Jamey.
"Mummy has some things to do here, but you'll be nice and safe in Laeral with Leanna's friend Daniel. You remember Daniel?"
"He has a big spot on his ear," Kelli said.
"Now, that's not very nice. Promise me you'll be nice," Laura said, trying to look stern.
"We promise," the two children chorused. Laura hugged them again, then lifted them into the boat with the Resistance members tasked with taking the children to Laeral.
She watched as the boat rowed away through the darkness until it was out of sight, then resisted the urge to run along the riverbank after it and sat down to cry.
------------
Aeluria, 17th July
Esmee Douglas was hot and impatient as she waited in a line for her food shopping. Rationing, she thought, if I wasn't an atheist I'd swear some deity or other was angry with me. She reached the front of the queue and handed her shopping list to the official at the front entrance.
"I'm sorry, ma'am, but you are only entitled to six eggs for the week," said the man.
"I have two kids as well," Esmee explained.
"I am aware, ma'am. Your family allowance for one adult and two children is six eggs per week."
"That's absurd, we eat eggs for breakfast every day, that will only do for two days."
"Ma'am, you will have to find something else for breakfast. Your cereal allowance for example, will more than suffice."
"My kids don't eat cereal, we only have cooked breakfasts, it is the most important meal of the day after all," she said, sounding increasingly desperate.
"We will all have to make some lifestyle changes, ma'am. Six eggs only," he insisted, handing her back the list.
Yeah, there's definitely some vengeful god somewhere.
----------------
Carville, 18th July
"Listen up! The Coalition are heading this way, and we need to be prepared. Leewood, Young, take your squads east and head them off before they reach the city. We don't want a repeat of Summersea!"
"No, ma'am!" chorused the Kerlian women gathered. A couple of Lauchenoirian soldiers looked on in amusement. Chloe Conde glared at them and they wandered off.
"The rest of you, fortify your positions. Don't give up any ground! We all know what's coming. For the Matriarchy!"
"For the Matriarchy!" they chorused and then split off into their groups.
Chloe Conde walked back inside the museum, and back to her command centre.
"Can someone move that infernal thing? It's in the way," she said, pointing at a fake brontosaurus that took up half of the floor.
"We've tried, ma'am. It's nailed to the floor."
"Then get a hammer and pull the nails out."
A pair of women rushed away to deal with the dinosaur, as Conde walked over to her second-in-command.
"News?"
"The Resistance is stuck in Usera, the Coalition advancing here. Aeluria has started rationing and Leanna Walker still hasn't talked."
"Seriously? Did they not put Santos on it?"
"I don't know how she's held out. Oh, and that Alex Marwick kid made another broadcast."
"Let's see."
The woman played the broadcast.
"Hey Lauchenoiria, sorry I took so long. Well, it's been a busy week. Suleman Chaher has shown his face alive although not-quite-so-well. Ironic that someone who consistently voted against Lauchenoiria's accessibility policies now has to rely on them to spread his propaganda.
Leanna Walker is still nowhere to be seen, and now Laura Moore has vanished even further into the ether. For all we know, the pair are both dead. Is it time to start thinking about the future rather than restoring the past? I think so.
Forget the old government, people, it's time for a new revolution. Don't rely on the old systems; tear them down. Consign the 1952 regime to the history books at last. We can't change the system with one referendum. But one revolution? We most certainly can. Fight with me, Lauchenoiria."
LIDUN President 2024 | she/her | Puppets: Kerlile, Glanainn, Yesteria, Zongongia, Zargothrax