Peace and Unity March

[undergroundmods]

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It's a glorious hot and sunny evening in London when a ragtag group of supernatural misfits turn up at Leicester Square to wave their placards and begin their march for peace and unity among the city's supernatural communities.

Organised by students at the Redbright Institute, the march begins at 6.30pm and ends at 8.30pm outside the Night Council Headquarters in Whitehall. While the march is open to all, the timing is not vampire-friendly which is not a coincidence; there's a noticeable anti-vampire sentiment amongst the crowd.

The human media pay no attention: they've had the far larger Pride march earlier in the day to report on and this event has been billed as a marine environmental awareness campaign to the outside world. No one cares. But the Night Council do, of course, and accordingly the march is policed by Guardians who are dressed as police community officers. They will intervene if the protest appears to get out of hand and stop anyone who attempts to enter the Night Council HQ.

What's the march about?
The official objective of the Peace and Unity March as posted by the Redbright student organiser is to demonstrate support for a unified supernatural community. Despite the name, it attracts a variety of protesters who all want different things. Those attending or observing the march will see and hear support for the following, in rough order of prominence:

• PEACE AND LOVE. We just want everyone to get along.
• STOP THE FIGHTING. Not just pacifism, there's also a general sense of being sick of losing loved ones and driven out of parts of the city due to fights between factions. Some of the more extreme stances also blame the "monstrous" species for inciting violence i.e. vampires, werewolves, fae.
• WE STAND TOGETHER. A stronger message of solidarity and defiance against the Night Council and its perceived biases.
• REPRESENTATION FOR ALL. Also anti-Night Council. This bleeds into discontent against both vampires and witches.
• VAMPIRES SUCK. The vampires are taking over! This is a disaster for everyone and should be stopped.
• WITCHES SUCK. The witches have been controlling London for years! Down with the witches.

There are likely to be some rather heated debates between the protesters themselves as these varying sentiments contradict each other. Some protesters feel that Sylvia Redbright was unfairly ousted from the Night Council and are vocal in supporting her. Others are just cynical about the Night Council in general.

Route
6.30-6.45pm: Leicester Square
The crowd gathers at Leicester Square where the first fifteen minutes are spent gathering everyone together, waving some placards and generally getting everyone ready to begin the march. At this point the Guardian presence is hardly noticeable, though they are watching as soon as the march begins.

6.45-7.15pm: Victoria Embankment via Trafalgar Square
The crowd walks from Leicester Square to Trafalgar Square, then takes a diversion along the Strand before crossing over to Victoria Embankment. They pause at the Hungerford Bridge and Golden Jubilee Bridges to look out across the Thames to Waterloo, which is in Lambeth, a territory controlled by the Islington Nest. A few protesters spit in the river.

7.15-7.30pm: March from Victoria Embankment to Whitehall
From Victoria Embankment it's only a short walk to Whitehall, where the protesters march along the street before eventually coming to a halt outside the Night Council Headquarters.

7.30-8.30pm: Outside Night Council HQ
The remaining hour is spent as a sit-in protest outside the Night Council HQ. There are chants about standing together as one community, about the perceived lack of representation in the Night Council, and about peace not war. A few use loudspeakers to make speeches which are received with varying levels of enthusiasm. A small group even attempt to enter the Night Council HQ but are quickly rebuffed by Guardians who look increasingly menacing as the evening draws on.

At 8.30pm the protesters are ordered to disperse. Anyone who refuses to leave will be swiftly marched off, or even arrested, though for the most part the Guardians are trying to keep the peace.

Late evening: Off to the pub
There's no official gathering after the protest is over, but various groups do disperse to pubs around the central London area to continue the debate and generally have a good time and/or cause trouble. Some of these – the ones that are identified as potential political troublemakers – are quietly followed by undercover Guardians.

Comments

[ghoulaid]

"Depends." Big projects really get the adrenaline going, but smaller ones are also important. Ghoul has a lot of preferences and opinions on the subject, though he's careful to keep them to himself. If something does end up wrecked or burned or flipped over this week, he doesn't want to stupidly put himself in the position of Suspect #1.

So he sticks to his non-answers, propping an elbow on one knee as he places his chin in his hand. This seems like a good time to pick Wednesday's brain. "You one of those fae-sympathizers?"

[ghoulaid]

"Yep." So far, anyway. "Nice of you to notice." Although Ghoul's death can't even save Desmond. He's relentless enough as a living being. Just imagine him dead, possessing the ability to float wherever he wants, whenever he wants, without requirements for leaving to sleep or eat or anything else lame like that.

He doesn't seem to be looking for a fight, but he is looking for something. He twists around and does some glancing around, clearly scoping out the area around the both of them. "Where's all your friends?" Surely Desmond has established some kind of buddy-system by now. Witches are almost as bad as wolves when it comes to sticking around their own kind.

[cabins]

Laura laughs, shaking her hair out of her eyes. "I was a long younger, and I was at a protest much like this one. Things got out of hand, and I found myself in handcuffs. I think I was sixteen." So nothing on her permanent record, thank goodness.

"That's what we need to change. We deserve representation, just as everyone else does. While it's not a perfect system, we can work to make it better. And that includes an even distribution of power."

[cabins]

He's bitter, and she can understand that. Laura keeps a small smile on her face, a nod in thanks for her being sweet. More or less.

"We've spoken." Katherine hit her hand and insulted her quite a bit, but they'd come to an arrangement.

[hurtcomfort]

"No," Cole can't help but respond. For a moment, a ghost of a smile plays on his face, but it fades quickly, replaced with a neutral expression. "I know that much."

He knew he looked young. He had only manifested himself to a handful of people, but the phrase 'you're just a kid' was repeated time and time again. That's silly, Cole thought. Everybody died.

"How old are you?"

[outofthemanor]

"On what?" She could understand the not wanting to draw too much attention to himself. Even if it was easier to act in the open, being able to keep people unsure about how you would react was always preferable. At least, to her. Others may think differently on the topic.

She tilts her head slightly as she consider his question. "I am curious about the Fae," she says, "but curiosity is not sympathy. However, I believe their imprisonment and forced nature as familiars is one of the basic crimes that we have long fought against." There's another pause and she looks over to the building. "Werewolves have no representation on this council."

Pugsley had picked up the were gene in the family. He would have no one to fight for him, were he here.

[ghoulaid]

Ghoul is suddenly paying a whole lot of attention. So they've talked, and Laura's still in one piece? He grins, blatantly fishing for details when he asks, "You been thrown yet?"

[thelastjoy]

She bites at the inside of her lip, glancing up at him. Would she do something? The would is a bit of a stretch; even if she hates bringing up her age, it's hard to imagine a teenager causing change. She shrugs, and for a moment she let's that be the end of that. Except-

"They kinda made their decision 'lready, didn't they? Not givin' anyone a real choice. They had to know how people would react so I don't know if they're gonna care that people are, ya know, reactin'." She grimaces. "Some people might think the peaceful route ain't the way to go, all that considered."

Not something she would do, maybe. But her old pack? She'd seen conflict play out before and it never went peacefully. "If this had happened back home, don't think anyone I knew would have bothered with a march."

[thelastjoy]

She gives him a side-long look. She wonders if his reluctance has something to do with being more ingrained with the culture here or if he didn't think she'd agree with him. "Didn't think your opinion was hard to get. You've lived here longer, kinda assumed you've dealt more with the Council. Figured you'd think somethin' 'bout all this."

And then she's struck with the realization that while she's well aware he's in the community, she doesn't know what part he's aligned with. Girl doesn't want to think it- she hates to be even a whiff suspicious of one of the few people outside the pack she can admit to liking- but maybe he doesn't really disagree with the Council. "Do you believe any of what they're all here for?"

[thelastjoy]

"What were you protestin'? How'd it get out of hand?" It was only a year older than her and for a moment it made Girl feel a little bad that she'd considered not coming at all. Mostly, though, it just awes her. It's exactly the kind of story a teenager raised by half feral types would find entertaining.

"I'm not disagreein' with you," she says carefully, "We ought to have someone on the Council, it's the only way to make anyone care 'bout us. But there's a vampire in charge now and they hate us. Even if they listen and do somethin' for the other groups, they might not for us."

She doesn't know the man well enough, or at all, to say where his politics lay. Maybe he doesn't care for a feud between species. But she's spent most her life being told vampires couldn't be trusted. Old prejudices were hard to break.

[bellbound]

"If I had one, I couldn't carry it, any more than I could speak it." He leans away. Ugh, dog. "Where's yours?"

He's guessing that Ghoul won't throw a bottle at him. Endless snark seems to be more his style. So maybe here is relatively safe.

[bellbound]

Mogget darts away like any cat unwilling to be picked up by a human, and he would have avoided her anyway but he avoids her even more when he smells werewolf. They're everywhere. He stops on the pavement a few feet clear of her, hackles raised.

"I've noticed," he says, tone acid.

[bellbound]

"It is," Mogget agrees. "And I suppose your boyfriend knows you're here?"

His tone implies that he thinks the opposite. He can't see her eyes behind the sunglasses, but he suspects she looks rather guilty.

[bellbound]

"No," he replies. "Thankfully, their aim is as poor as their hygiene." He squints at her. "You're the woman from the station."

He means the Underground station. Laura, he remembers. One of the East End Pack.

[bellbound]

He feels the magical presence following him as it looms closer and darts through a gap in a barbed wire fence where the larger fae can't follow. There's iron in the fence too which makes his eyes swim for a moment, the cat darting away out of reach. He turns only when the other fae clears his throat, rubbing a paw along his whiskers as if nothing is amiss.

"I wouldn't know." Because he isn't a cat. Obviously. "Do the Unseelie send their regards?"

He hopes this isn't some pre-planned attack. Or even an unplanned attack.

[ghoulaid]

"Lotsa stuff." Who's around. What kind of impression he wants to leave. What expensive things are nearby. He waves the question away with his free hand, watching her with careful attention. "Y'think they deserve it? They're only animals that can't control themselves. Just as bad as the fae, even." There's nothing funny about it- these are things he's heard, some of it even today. So, no, it's definitely not funny... However, he's still smirking in a secretive sort of way. Just a little bit. "You gonna advocate for dog representation in Congress, next?"

Maybe it's a shitty, shady method of digging opinions out of someone, but whatever.

[stauncherhearted]

Her boyfriend. Nancy raises an eyebrow.

"What's it to you? He doesn't need to know where I am every minute." She's told him she was going with her brothers.

[ghoulaid]

He won't throw a bottle at him, no, but he will stretch forward and try to poke him in his tiny kitty chest. "You could wear one around your neck." Like one of those shame-signs that animals wear for the internet.

"Even if you ain't sick of vamps or witches, you gotta feel some type of way about fae not bein' on the Council, yeah?"

[bellbound]

The cat's eyes are sharp. "He might want to know in this case. There are people here protesting against the Night Council. Are you here to join them, or merely to relieve them of their wallets?"

[stauncherhearted]

"I'm not against the Night Council." She's against Samantha. "There are also people here who are against vampires and I'm not one of them, either. My brothers wanted to come. I'm keeping an eye on them."

She isn't going to say anything about the wallets.

[ghoulaid]

"I figure so. Ain't like any of this," he gestures to the crowd, "is a secret." Werewolves and fae being the odd guys out, shifters and metas lumped together, ghosts remaining forgotten about altogether... None of this is new. "If they wanted to change somethin' on their own, they woulda by now."

Granted, a lack of wolf representation may have more to do with the fact that no suitable candidate has made themselves known yet, but...

He grins down at her. Time to ruffle her feathers. "You sayin' we need to ditch this shit and get violent, tiny tot?"

[bellbound]

Mogget backs off out of poking reach, almost colliding with another sit-in protester. He hunkers down next to someone's rucksack, ears pricked as he looks back at Ghoul.

"Indifferent," he answers. He honestly doesn't care one way or the other about fae not being on the Council. "I doubt you care either."

He supposes that if the werewolves were going to protest about anything, it might be their lack of representation on the Council, especially now that it's run by a vampire. He can see why that would get their backs up.

[bellbound]

He licks a paw. "And there are people here who will be against you. Tread lightly."

After all, who knows who might recognise her next. Her cover story is a plausible one. He's not sure whether he believes it, not when he's here himself as a spy. He'll be reporting back everything he sees to Samantha. It's not hard to imagine Nancy doing the same with Cooper.

[ghoulaid]

Boo on him. Ghoul can't reach any further without sliding himself off the curb, so he gives up and sits back how he was before. "Kinda care," is what he answers with, shrugging. "I know some fae. They're nice, don't wanna see 'em get fucked over."

Mogget, however, is not nice, and he's already been fucked over. So he's an interesting case. Maybe an interesting, illegal case? Might as well ask. "If the summoning thing ain't allowed anymore, how come you're still workin' as a pet?"

[bellbound]

His ears flatten at being called a pet. That is not what he is.

"I have not been summoned. There is no law forbidding witches' familiars."

The renewed ban on summoning magic ought to stop most witches from summoning and enslaving new fae. But it does nothing for those fae already in service. The spell binding Mogget is ancient and it still holds.