Peace and Unity March

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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

[cabins]

"I know, I know- I'm just giving you a hard time," Laura assures Girl. "You'd be surprised- I've been arrested a few times. And held more than a few press conferences." She smiles, it's always nice to surprise young kids.

"I truly hope so, but there's no way they will work if we don't try to make them listen.

[thelastjoy]

"Arrested?" Her eyes widen. Some of the others that would be easy to believe about. If Ghoul were to start telling prison stories, she'd just start laughing. But Laura- "No way. Why? What could you have done to get arrested over?"

"Don't they have to want to listen first? I don't know, but I think if they were at all interested in what we had to say, they would have put someone like us on the council 'lready." She chews on her lip, sighing. "I always thought the people who had power felt like they didn't need to pay any mind to the people that had none. How they kept it all."

[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."

[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.

[cabins]

"It was a rally for legalizing marijuana." She'll be open about it. She doesn't see anything wrong with partaking. "Some protesters got drunk and started a fight. The police came in and arrested a bunch of us. If they'd stuck with just pot none of it would have happened." Laura laughs, shaking her head. "It was a long time ago."

It's good to know that Girl agrees. "If we have others on our side, they'll have to listen."

[thelastjoy]

And that's not what she expected from Laura. The appraising gleam to Girl's eyes may just be showing a newfound respect. "Never would have taken you for the type," she says, smiling. "Rebel past and all. How 'bout that."

The smile drops. "Maybe. If they'll stick on our side and not just try to help themselves."

[cabins]

"I have always lived a relatively calm life," she explains. Calm, but filled with unexpected twists, like her arrest record, and sleeping with important people in the magical government. Oh, and her regular enjoyment of canway, the magical equivalent of marijuana, even now.

"Which is why you offer to help them in exchange."

[thelastjoy]

"Got a feelin' we got some different definitions of calm," Girl says, lips pressed together to suppress a smile. An arrest doesn't sound calm. Neither does turning a wolf.

"Mmm. But I thought our Alpha was more interested in allyin' with the witches."

[cabins]

"Other than that, I mean," she amends. She'd said relatively, at any rate.

"There are more witches than just in Daybreak," Laura says with a small smile.

[thelastjoy]

She huffs out a quiet laugh, a little amused and shaking her head. "Are you talkin' 'bout specific ones? Cause I know there are, but I'd think they'd stick with Daybreak against us, right? Sisterhood or somethin'?"

[cabins]

"No, no one in specific. There's a cross-over, of course, but, let's just say there have been meetings." She'd spoken with Sylvia Redbright herself, about an alliance in the days ahead.

"And there are those who dislike the Mother of Witches enough to go against her."

[thelastjoy]

She turns her head toward Laura, eyes sharper. "You've been talkin' to someone," she says, pointing a grubby finger at her. That sounds like plans were already in the works. Girl assumed, from her poise and age and other mostly unfounded things, that Laura would have it in good with the Alpha.

"Has Katherine got you talkin' to people?"

[cabins]

Hah. She'd nearly gotten bitch-slapped by their Alpha. But she was determined to get into her good books.

Laura holds up a hand, intercepting the point. "It's rude to point," she says in her most teacherly way. She neither confirms, nor denies Girl's statement.

[thelastjoy]

She frowns, a pout really, and drops her hand to cross her arms over her chest. "That's not an answer."

But not answering kind of is answering, isn't it? "You're not gonna tell me who, are you?"

[cabins]

That gets Laura to crack a smile. "No, I'm not. I'm not sure what I'm at liberty to discuss and what I'm not- I'm sure you understand."

[thelastjoy]

Understand? Well, yes. In the way any kid understands an adult's word was final. It didn't mean she liked it. "I could ask Katherine."

Deep down, Girl knows she won't.

[cabins]

"By all means," she says with a dignified nod. "What Katherine chooses to disclose is her own business. But I'd rather not get in trouble if she'd prefer this to stay quiet. I really don't fancy getting punched."

[thelastjoy]

She grimaces, feeling a little bad. She glances off to the side. "I'm not angling to get you in trouble or nothing."

Girl sighs. "It just kinda sucks thinking you're left out of stuff, you know? Everyone used to do that 'cause I was the youngest, but I'm not a kid anymore."

[cabins]

"People want to protect you, Girl. Take it as a complement, that we care enough about you to look out for you, to want what's best." She smiles sweetly at her.

"No one means any harm. I certainly don't."

[thelastjoy]

She wrinkles her nose. Girl knows that, somewhere underneath the teenage desire to whine and complain about the treatment. It's almost embarrassing knowing that, in that way any bit of happiness felt a little awkward.

She scuffs her boot on the ground, hands jammed in her pockets. "I know," she says quietly. "But you guys don't have to. I'm here to be part of things, not make work for anyone."

[cabins]

Laura reaches a hand out to gently place it on Girl's shoulder and looks at her straight on. "Girl, you're not work for anyone in this pack. I want you to remember that. We're a pack. We stick together, all of us. No one is any more or less a burden than anyone else."

[thelastjoy]

She flushes, color rising high on her cheeks. "I know, I know. I'd wanna look out for all of you guys too. It's just- you know. Being the youngest and all." She scratches at her warm cheeks. She clears her throat.

"So. Not planning to get arrested at this one, are you?" It's a quick change of subject, an attempt to take attention off her embarrassment.

[cabins]

"There will be a time and a place," Laura promises, hating how cheesy the words sound, even as she says them.

She tosses her head back, laughing. "Oh, no, not my plan. I don't think that was ever a plan of mine."

[thelastjoy]

Girl grimaces, shrugging. "You sound like my uncle. Telling me I just got to be patient. Sometimes I don't think I'm that good at it."

"Sure about that? Maybe you dreamed of being a jailbird," she teases, laughing and shaking her head.

[cabins]

Laura laughs. "Maybe-!" Girl gets a very warm smile for that.