2013.09.05 - Political Talk

Amongst the thousands of sprawling, low income houses in Hammer Bay, a small team of X-Men have established themselves in one such tenement. It's a small place of only three rooms; a kitchen, a washroom, and a main 'living space' with four cots. No bedrooms, and very little privacy, but when the stakes are high, sometimes the hand has to be held low.

One thing the fourth-floor apartment does have is a large window in the kitchen, which leads to a fire escape. The window is open, letting a cool breeze flow into the obscenely hot room. Perched upon the fire escape outside is Kwabena, clad in traditional, brightly colored African garb, brown shorts, sandals, and a damask hat of bright orange and purple. It may not be his usual choice of fashion, but it helps him to blend in. A cigarette rests perched between his dark fingers, and he stares into the trash-filled alleyway below with a thoughtful look on his face.

Blending in was nearly impossible for Jocelyn. A young, red haired six and a half foot white woman wasn't going to blend in anywhere in Africa, period. Not even on Genosha. Jocelyn had been busy gathering various bits of information by establishing herself as a healer. She didn't charge, and primarily only asked for information. Information was valuable, but people who were badly hurt were often willing to give up information in order to get their bones reattached without waiting them to heal naturally.

Jocelyn walks into the kitchen, dressed in a light green tank top and a pair of shorts. She'd change clothes before she went out for the day, but here, it was a little slice of normal. Her power allowed her to absorb the thermal energy that was beating down on her, which meant that she wasn't bothered in the slightest by the heat.

"Hey Kwabena," Jocelyn offers. She gets herself a glass of water and looks over at him. "Two pennies for your thoughts. Special bargain, today only".

"A whole two pennies?" Kwabena peeks in through the window, smirking just slightly. "It's my lucky day." He flicks the cigarette into the alleyway below, then climbs back into the kitchen, reaching for the pitcher of water to fill himself a glass as well. "So, my thoughts. Honestly? I am simply trying not to get psyched out here. We have to staht making some moves, and I don't want to move too fast, but I don't want us to be dragging our feet eidah." Beat. "I hope you undahstand what I mean."

Settling up against the countertop, he eyes Jocelyn speculatively for a moment. "So. You've been busy. How are things looking out dere?"

"Mostly gaining trust of the locals," Jocelyn says. "I'm hearing scraps and bits, and slowly getting enough information to put things together of what group is going to support who, but I don't think I have enough information yet to draw many firm conclusions," Jocelyn says.

"Give me a couple days and I think I can draw you a pretty good map of what groups might fall in line with Magneto if he was to try to take things by force though, and who might resist something like that. I still haven't had the chance to help out anyone in any seats of power," the woman tells him. "Though I've been limiting myself to certain hours, and I go in disguise pretty well. We got any leads that have come in that need following up on?" Jocelyn questions.

"As to us dragging our feet or not, it's hard to tell, what with not having a firm date for the election, far as I'm aware," Jocelyn adds.

"Well, if eithah of the potential candidates start being real vocal about their stance, you might end up treating dem." Kwabena takes a sip of his water, then shrugs his shoulder. An absolutely mischievous expression crosses his face. "Or, you know, I could put de hurt on one of 'em, and you could conveniently be dere to help."

Beat.

"Just kidding." He sets the glass down and lets loose a quiet sigh. "Nate is taking a look at dese supposed labor camps in Bastion. Hopefully he can bring back some few pictures, videos, something we can look into distributing."

"Well, it wouldn't cause them any permanent damage, right?" Jocelyn comments with a slight grin, knowing that Kwabena was just joking about that. "If we could find some sort of video of Magneto and that mountain, couldn't that be used to show people that he's going for the tyrannical dictatorship angle rather than the kind, gentle leader approach who loves all mutants. Get the labor stuff in there, especially if it's humans, and that'll do a number on his political capital here," Jocelyn offers as she thinks things through.

With a casual snap-point, Kwabena fires a fake bullet Jocelyn's way. "Now you're on it, boss," he answers. "Ultimately? We don't even really need all of dese tricks. Dey're good, sure, but he's already said enough on de news. People know where he stands. We can do more damage with our boots on de ground dan we could with propaganda. Dat being said? Propaganda nevah hurts."

Turning, the African takes a seat upon the open windowsill, while reaching for his pack of smokes. "Somehow, though? I think we're going to have to make contact with one of dese candidates. Prelude ought to be easier to nail down den a political figure, but also? We did bring telepaths for a reason."

"This is true. In fact, everyone except for us is a telepath or able to fake being a telepath," Jocelyn points out. "We're the poor, in the dark ones, though at least I have some defenses against telepaths," Jocelyn offers. "Who do we think has a better chance of beating Magneto? What do we know of their political stances?" the woman questions Kwabena. She figured they should focus on one of the candidates and leave the other one as a back-up option, rather than try and split between them.

"Tell me about it," quips Kwa, while lighting his smoke. "Dere isn't much on de news feeds. Barklen is minority leader, a human, who wants equal rights and a more democratic form of government. Prelude is a mutant. Also in favor of equal rights, but favors a more anarchic form of government." He blows a drag of smoke out the window. "If you ask me? Dis one gets won on social popularity, rathah dan policy. Seems to work in America, after all. But, I'm not a political strategist. Granted, if Magneto wins de election, dat is a major loss for our cause, but it wouldn't mean de end."

"Well, most elections are won on social popularity to a large degree. Though I'm not sure how much some of the social media stuff will play here," Jocelyn offers with a frown. "Which makes me wonder what this Prelude character is going to do to get word out," the woman offers. "It might be worth it to get some idea what the population make-up is and how long it is before someone can vote. If there is a two year wait before you can vote, or even six months, then the human population will have a larger say, and that won't work in Magneto or Prelude's favor," Jocelyn adds. Even if she didn't like it, it was likely true.

"Might mean we have to resort to some good old fashioned, pen-and-paper tactics, you know?" he asks. "Keep Calm And Carry On?" The reference is obviously one to pop culture, but in fact, the popular phrase dates back to banners placed by the Queen of England during the World War--a propaganda effort meant to keep the Brits at relative peace when their country was being bombed. "De infrastructure simply isn't place to support something like de Arab Spring," he agrees.

And then, Jocelyn makes a very good point in regard to voting rights and laws. "Yeah, and dose don't change ovahnight, eidah," he says. There is a long and thoughtful moment where Kwabena goes silent, seemingly lost in thought as he tries to piece together an action plan. "And we can't drag our feet on setting up some kind of organized resistance, or at least planting dose seeds. Because no mattah how hard we try, we can't directly influence an election. We need de structure in place for dis resistance in case de elections go poorly."