Setting
In the Human part of town, its a stately affair, a "slice of american pie" If you want. A middle class, blue collar town, with a small population of very high tech clean industry, mainly taken care of in underground bunkers completely off limits to anyone, dim or otherwise.
On the other side of the wall is a shantytown, hodgepodged together from collective scrap, with a few older buildings jutting out over the sprawl. These are mainly apartments, but there is one leviathan factory, once used for gold smelting. Nowadays, its an iron ore refinery and half textile loom. It mainly creates iron bars for construction and clothing for human prisons and dim customers. There is also a print factory in the upstairs, mainly making mundane warnings and advertisements for the surrounding dim community.
Peppered throughout the community, an ever present force of Swat style police forces, keeping a lazy, docile eye on the inhabitants.
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"They're called glasses. They won't help much at night, unless they actually light the street lamps, these days, but they're something we've had for... Oh gods, centuries. Be careful with the lenses, though. They're made of glass, and they don't work well if they break."
After he heard the question, he couldn't hold back the snort, anymore. "Take care of you? That wall has been nothing but a menace since the day they built it!" He shook his head. "Besides. Maybe here I can actually do some good. I would never have thought a pair of glasses would be considered 'magic,' after all. You guys have it even worse than I thought."
Zonia walked over to the sink to wash her hands, turning on the cold water. After her hands were washed she cupped her hands and gathered some water in them. Splashing her face, to give her more energy and a more refreshed feeling. She pats her face dry with her shirt lifting slightly around her snout, causing her stomach to slightly be visible only for a short time. Once dry, she peers back over towards the sink, she turned the water off. Zonia thought about what Randa said, about showing they've had enough.
Zonia turned and leaned against the sink. "You know, i've been thinking about what you said..I think it's time we start something. Show those SWATS we aren't taking their crap anymore." She paused, and sighed. "We just need to find some more people, ask around but we have to be careful. Some of the others might rat us out for a favor or some kind of reward. She said to Randa, she knows he is sick of taking their crap and she is too. They shouldn't have to be afraid all the time, enough is enough.
"If you want I can meet you at my shop, i'm just going to clean up a bit and than head over. It won't take me long.." Zonia states, as she shuffles over to their bathroom. She stops at the door way and looks back at Randa.
He listened as Marshall snorted and spoke. Akma's mouth started to open to protest as Marshall continued. "But.. Akma has always heard they built that for our safety. Because we can't be trusted to do the right thing." he pointed to Marshall. "I mean you people made us from your bodies, and gave us the gift of speech, and let us live in these nice cities, how could we not see you as nice and friendly!" He said, slowly trailing off. "Well.. Except.. The blue ones. They are kinda mean." He said, referencing the SWATS.
Unconsiously his hands travel along a tear in his wing, one that hadn't fully healed right and was still open at the beginning.
"But I'm alive, and I eat sometimes, and now..." he grinned, pointing to his glasses. "I can seee!!!" he said, adjusting them again as he happily patted his stomach. "And I am full. So you, sir, are my proof that humans cannot be as bad as people say." He said with a smile. "But you never answered..." He repeated. "Why are you here?" His exaggerated pupils dilated as the question was posited.
"You know, i've been thinking about what you said..I think it's time we start something. Show those SWATS we aren't taking their crap anymore." Randa grinned as he looked over to her, letting her finish. It faded as she got down to the seriousness of the issue. He was glad she shared his passion.
Randa gave a solemn nod as she told him of her plans, taking the bandages and wrapping up his hand. He ached, but it was time. He headed over to the factory, with a visible limp still, hand bandaged, and right eye swolen. Even through the pain though, he held himself back straight, with dignity. Blending in with the crowd of unemployeds and derelicts, he went his own pace, but made sureto be as nonchalant as possible.
He passed a SWAT that didn't give him a second glance. Phew. But as he continued to limp along, he noticed the alley they had been in, completely quarantined, and heavily guarded. The coroners and CSID was there. His heart skipped a beat as he picked up the pace, still not picked up. They must not have a physical description, which was good. But it was only a matter of time before something got figured out.
He did his best not to think about it, and hobbled towards his work. At the front office, it was uneventful as Randa signed himself out, for the mandatory two strikes. He had never been late, never taken a day off, never sneezed on the job, and he still got two strikes. That was just policy however, as Dims were always *always* underemployed. Hobbling away, he made his way to Zonia's shop, beating her there. Leaning against the wall, he lit up a cigarette, and waited for her to arrive.
The boy turned and stared up at the wall. It seemed so much bigger from this side. As he listened to Akma, his eyes dimmed more and more. Was that really how Dims were being told things were? Where basic medical care was akin to magic, but they were protected? Dims weren't even allowed to work in hospitals, he remembered. Humans didn't trust them not to steal medicine, or supplies. In some cases, mothers even feared the loss of children.
He remembered, though, before the wall was built. It had only been for a few days, but he remembered the young cat he'd befriended. Who only wanted food. Who thought it was amazing that a little Human boy had been willing to share a tunafish sandwich.
"I crossed the wall because I want to change things. I want to make things better for Dims. The humans all seem to forget about our own history. Segregation doesn't protect anyone. It stirs up trouble. Eventually, someone over here is going to decide enough is enough. To be honest, I'd rather be on your side."
Zonia made her way out of their apartment and across the not so heavily guarded areas outside. Making her way to the shop she noticed certain areas did have a few more SWATS than usual luckily no one stopped her, which was a relief. As she was close to her shop, she passed the Alley way where everything went wrong. It was highly accompanied by the SWATS which only made her heart beat a little faster. She picked up the pace and proceeded to her shop. She noticed Randa beat her to it. Zonia smirked, she knew he'd get here before her. "Hey, sorry for the wait i just wanted to grab something before heading out. She told him reaching into her pocket for Randa's papers. She offers them to him "Thought i'd grab these just in case" Zonia said, she reached again into her pocket fishing for her shop keys. You could hear the jingling inside the pocket. Pulling them out, she proceeded to the back of the store where the door was. She unlocked it and pulled the door open.
She stepped inside and pulled out the extra chair she had stored under the counter where the transaction of guests would be. She unfolded it and placed it across from her usual spot which was by the register and door. Glancing at all the supplies, she was running low but she could get through the day with what she has. Reaching for a box of cereal they usual have at their apartment and also a few waters she placed them on the table that sat in the back of the shop. Zonia also grabbed two bowls and plastic spoons. "Please, help yourself to some of the cereal, i know we didn't have any at home. If you need any extra bandages or anything help yourself to those as well." She said to Randa softly, she plopped down in her chair, her tail swings underneath her chair.
Akma smiled happily at Marshall as he talked of changing things, letting the other half of his sentence sink in as well, but not particularly focusing on it. "But you have! Already you have." He said with a smile. "With these things I might be able to find work now! Then maybe... just maybe I could buy a home.." he said dreamily, thinking about not having to hunker down in abandoned buildings or forgotten backstreets. "And no one will decide that..." Akma chuckled, completely believing himself. "But... If you were looking for someone who likes to cause trouble... I might be able to show you someone who fits that bill..."
He was silent for a few moments, considering. On the one hand, he did want to make a difference. On the other, why would anyone looking to rebel against his fellow human beings want to trust him? He was still quite young, after all. Not to mention that all he had to prove his good intentions was the money he had brought with him, a meager food supply, a bat with glasses...
Infomation, his mind supplied, and he thought about it quite seiously. He nodded slightly, coming to a decision. "If you think you can convince them to give me a chance, that is."
Lifting the spoon to his mouth he began to chew, with some crunches here and there as he swallowed, watching Zonia as she sat down across from him. "So." He said with a mouthful of cereal before swallowing. "Is business still slow..?" He said, looking around, noticing the slightly barren shelves. It wasn't her fault it was... but it was. It gave Randa an Idea.. But he would save it for later. This might just be a great front for something he could plan.. But he waited for a response, briefly catching her eyes as he took another bite of the cereal.
Before speaking she surveyed around her shop, it looked clear. "So do you have a plan or will we take each day as it comes?" She asks him in a soft tone, in case any SWAT or other dim was walking past the shop. Zonia isn't much of a planner, meaning she isn't the best at making plans up in a situation like this. Randa is more of a strategists and can think quickly on his feet. Zonia is a quick thinking in situations of speed and agility for getting out of things not so much on waiting things out and such. She looked around yet again and back towards Randa awaiting an answer.
"Zonia, I'm having a crazy idea... But it might help with our plight here.. We could use the basement in the shop to set up meetings. Try to find people who are tired like us.. Tired of all this." He stood up and hobbled over to her, collecting her bowl when she was finished and placing both hers and his on the counter. Looking around the shop, he felt a soft grin begin to build across his face. "Yeah... I'll quit the factory. But not before moonlighting out some equipment we need. We can start making posters, maybe get a symbol, and start showing people what we want." He cupped his chin, deep in thought over this.
"Maybe we could start talking to someone about demonstrating, showing the SWATS we're united. Then they'll have to start thinking of us very differently." he said, looking back to Zonia. "But first.. I think we need to talk to someone." He sat back down with a grimace, looking around the shop. "If its okay with you, i think we should close for lunch. I want you to come with me to meet someone who can help us. I know him from the factory.. But he was fired. I dunno why." as he spoke, he wrung his hands, tracing his pads over the bandage as he stared into space, a fire in his eyes beginning to burn bright.
"I like your thinking, i know it might be a bit risking doing something like that but i'm willing to take that risk. we also might need to clean it up down there" she paused and grabbed the key's to her shop and proceeded towards the door. "Now about this person, we can trust him right?" She asked him, holding the door open for Randa. She hasn't been this excited since first opening the shop. Sure, some might think opening a shop of your own isn't exciting but she lives for her shop. The smile painted on Zonias face couldn't be washed away, or well it won't be for some time.
As he limped along, he grumbled and struggled a bit to keep up with Zonia, but she was nice enough to make pace with him. He led her down towards the more condensed living areas in the center of the Dim settlement, finally coming down a narrow alleyway with small shacks lining each side of the street, all the curtains drawn, if there were at all. Some if not most sheds just had cardboard or plywood blocking the abscesses. Randa slowed as he thought back to the directions he had been given before his friend had been escorted from the factory.
He stopped for a second, tapping his chin in thought before walking down a few more doors, and looking back to Zonia. "He said we couldn't miss it.." He said softly to himself, before hesitantly deciding which door it was. It was a re purposed antique door, not fitting the rest of the hodgepodge of shacks around them. He looked back to Zonia. "This is the place. You ready, Zon?"
Marshall did pay attention when Akma said not to stop even if the people they passed gave him strange looks, but it was hard not to. It wasn't as if he could blame them, really. How often did even SWATS come in this far without it being solely to harrass the inhabitants? When Akma stopped to check on him, he finally spoke.
"So, Akma, tell me about this guy you're taking me to see?"
"We take you to see my friend! He used to share with me on his breaks from the factory. He would let me have some of his food. In return, I would listen. To everything. And tell him what I heard. He was so nice, only wanting that in return!" Akma said happily as he tapped down the alley further. "We take you to him. I sure don't know what to do with you, but he will!" he said with a smile, which faded as he sniffed the air. "No..." He said grumpily as he took his glasses and put them back on. "Maybe eyeballs will help after all." He squinted, heading off down the direction. "He described the door to me, but forgot I couldn't see. Red! A red old door that is sturdy and strong." He said with a nod, slowly continuing down the alley. "Did you think it was like this human?" He said, chuckling as he waved his hands all around at the "grandiose" around them. "Its so nice!" he said, despite the smell of rotting garbage and stagnant puddles on the ground, no building codes or engineers ever setting foot in this shanytown.
Peering at each of the makeshift shacks, taking in on how hard some of the other dims had it made her unhappy. Why is it that some have to live in these conditions? It didn't seem fair to Zonia, why not give them a better built shelter for dims without a job. It's not their fault they can't get hired. Handicaps that they may have aren't like they intended to be burdened with having them. Zonia shrugged and looked to Randa who asked if she was ready. She liked her nickname he gave her. She smiled "I'm ready, lets do this." She told him, gazing into his eye's. it just came to mind that the two of them had grown so close over the years, its weird to think about but she's happy to have such a good relationship with him.
Before they entered the place Zonia took in their environment and memorized which shack this was in case she ever needed to come her alone, or something were to happen. Zonia tail flicked behind her, she was a bit nervous meeting someone new. On top of meeting someone new, they had to make sure this person could be trusted which she was also nervous about. What would happen if said person didn't trust them?
He kept his eyes peeled for the red door, searching for it while he surveyed the surrounding... Mess. "You make it sound like this place is a palace," he mumbled, knowing full well that the hightened hearing of his new friend meant that he'd be easily heard. "These buildings aren't all that safe. Why, that one over there looks like a gust of wind could tip it over!"
He supposed that it was a good thing that he didn't have the heightened sense of smell that the Dims had, either. The garbage was bad without it. Finally, his eyes fell upon a door that looked as if it could have been red, once upon a time. "Akma, might that be it?"
He looked back to Zonia, who seemed to be a little nervous at the stipulations of their current voyage. As they began to hear rustling inside, he grabbed her hand with his own bandaged one and gave it a squeeze as he smiled to her. "Don't worry. We'll be fine." he said, slowly releasing her hand and breaking the gaze, looking towards the door as it opened, being caught on a chain that held the door. There stood a desheveled looking, scraggly Raccoon, with a grumpy expression on his face. "What?! I told you I can't get those no more. Stop askin!!" He went to slam the door, but Randa stopped him from doing so with his foot, letting out a yelp of pain as he gritted his teeth. " T!!! Its me! Noctus from the factory..." he said as the Raccoons face shifted from annoyance to amazement. "R. I haven't heard from you in months. I figured your dumb ass was dead by now." He said with a chuckle, one that Randa emulated. "Let us in, dick." Came Randa's response.
The door slammed shut and more shuffling was heard as the chain dropped, and they were allowed entry into the shack. It was clear why the "security" was so high. There was a lot of electricity running through the place, mainly to servers and computers dangling from every which way, cell phones, dozens of them strewn about. An old victrola style record player crooned softly in the backround, the hisses and pops almost louder than the music it produced. He waited for Zonia to walk in, and he closed the door replacing the chain as he did so.
"Well," Tanta said, taking a seat in a well worn office chair infront of several moniters. "You look like shit. Well, worse than usual I mean."
"Yeah, you got fat." Randa responded, to which Tanta countered: "Yeah, not a bad problem to have though." He began to type at a screen, human websites and social media scrolling past as one of the other monitors displayed source codes and encryption keys.
Randa continued, looking over to Zonia. "T, we.. we're done." He said. Tanta swivelled in his chair to face them. "About time." he said quietly. " So what now?"
Tanta put a paw to his face as he he thought, letting out a hesitant groan. "Well, I mean, what else? We try it peaceful, once, then thats it. If it doesn't go our way, I still know a guy with a printer, and connects to the other side of the wall. You still work at the factory?" he said, to which Randa nodded. A toothy grin came over Tanta's face. "Excellent. We'll have all we need then." He said, to which Randa corrected him. "We still gotta 'get' it." He said with a snort.
"Well good thing you still work there then! Try to keep up, ya stupid dog." Tanta said, turning back around and typing away.
"By the way, who's the chick?" He said nonchalantly.
"You know that Roomate you kept on thinking I was making up? Zonia?"
"Yeah."
"This is her, she's real. And she's also right here, so you can introduce yourself you antisocial git." Randa said with a snort, looking over to Zonia. "This is Tanta. He's a shutin nutbar with too much time on his hands. He's exactly what we need." He said with a grin before turning back to Tanta's screens.
"Mm. Fascinating." He said with a hint of sarcasm. "I'll need some time to think about how to get the fliers out without anyone seeing.. And we'll need someone to go across the wall... Do you still know anyone that-" He was abruptly interrupted by three loud bangs on the door. Randa moved instinctively over to Zonia, without hesitation as Tanta's ears fell back, looking to Randa, then Zonia. The room was dead quiet except the ceiling fan and the whirring of the hard drives. Then came another loud bang on the door, followed by muffled talking. Even Randa just about jumped out of his skin as Tanta slowly walked towards the door, picking up a baseball bat. "Just a minute..." He yelled towards the door, walking over slowly.
"Nice to meet you Tanta" Zonia tells him politely giving off a warm smile. However her smile didn't last long, upon speaking they were interrupted by banging on the door. Her ears flew back, her tail curled around her. Everyone grew silent, murmurs could be heard from outside. As if on cue of the banging Randa was already in front of her as if it was of instinct to protect. Tanta broke the silence by telling them 'Just a minute' he walked towards the door. Zonia's heart was going a mile a minute, a lump in her throat caused her being unable to speak or move. It's bad enough she was already nervous about being in a strangers home, now someone wants in. Zonia starred at the door, and back at Randa, she didn't know what was going on or who was even at the door. It could be the SWATS going around questioning dims. Maybe even some bad people who aren't on good terms with Randas friend.
Zonia looked down at her paws which were visibly shaky, taking a deep breath she tried to calm herself down. She closed her eye's and reassured herself it was nothing to worry about. Upon opening them she gazed up at Randa and then back at the door where Tanta stood ready to see who the source of banging was.
He watched as the door began to open, his blue eyes bright and curious. This was farther than he'd really expected to get without being caught by the guards. "I just hope your friend is... friendly," he mumbled quietly.
"It's getting close now. This place is a powder keg waiting to go off. We were designed for battle and this ...uprising, this revolt, it's not going to end well. I hear the whispers, I see their faces and the docile obedient pets they put in here are not going to be the beasts that bust out." Vale spoke keeping his eyes forward and his voice at a level whisper so that any casual observer wouldn't hear or realize they were talking to each other.
"Yeah, I know. I'll be right by your side when it happens too. At this point the only thing that will wake them up to their own ignorance is going to be a revolution. I'm counting on you to get the stuff I'm smuggling in to the people who can use it the most."He said, not breaking his stern emotionless expression under his helmet and visor.
"I run a pawn shop, I see some of the most desperate and mentally broken people around. Those are the ones with nothing left to lose and the perfect ones for the revolt."
The two soon arrived at Vale's apartment. After ensuring that Vale made it inside, Haze left to continue his rounds. Vale was unable to just go right to sleep being as worked up as he was, so he made himself a sandwich and turned on his tiny little tv. Normally Dims weren't allowed such luxuries as a TV, but as a pawn shop owner, he had access to things that other Dims didn't. He fiddled with the antenna until he got a signal through the static. It was the local news of the city on the other side of the wall. He watched intently until they began to repeat the stories and he was thrilled that there was no mention of rising tension in the slums.
"Good, they still have no idea what's coming."
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