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

[hurtcomfort]

"For some people, it is a good thing." Cole doesn't remember much about his life alive. But some of the things he does remember make him all the more happy that he's actually dead. He's useful now. He can help. He's a new Cole, a different Cole, a Cole that can actually help people.

"Hurt, pain, all the problems of the world vanished like smoke." Of course, there are new problems. That much is obvious. But it's all a matter of which problems someone thinks is worse.

[outstandingbalance]

"You'd be surprised how often the problems are actually the same problems. Could be that's just me, though." Vampires, or Natasha specifically. "The older I get, the more it seems like the problems never really change."

[hurtcomfort]

"I think it is just you." Cole doesn't realize how blunt that statement is. Sorry, Natasha!

"My dead problems are a different. New thoughts, new feelings, new ways to deal with something and someone."

[outstandingbalance]

"Well." She takes the dissent gracefully not inclined to argue it. Different situations. Along with the fact that she has reasonably clear memories running throughout, give or take some experiences with mind control. Maybe more experiences with mind control than she realizes. "That could be. Ghosts have other challenges. Being intangible only the first one."

[hurtcomfort]

Cole nods, making a small 'mmhmm' of acknowledgement. Natasha was right. He had...plenty of challenges, more than he realized when he first died.

"What are some vampire challenges? Blood and daylight, but is there anything else?"

[outstandingbalance]

"Silver. Making sure no one notices you're not getting older." She smiles a self-deprecating smile and shrugs. "And the fact just about everyone else tends to hate us."

[hurtcomfort]

"Don't worry," Cole can't help but remark, with a small smile of his own. "I wouldn't know why to hate you in the first place."

[outstandingbalance]

"In your case, there's not much to hate me for." She shakes her head. "At least you don't have any reason to be afraid of me. Vampires can't do much to people who are already dead."

[hurtcomfort]

"You all drink blood, don't you?" It's again, asked as a question. Cole's not entirely sure how vampires work but he remembers various stories about vampires, various bits of fact and fiction and folklore all mixed up in his head.

"Can you drink anything else?"

[outstandingbalance]

"We can, if by that you mean can we physically drink a beer or some tea." She tilts her head, angling him a wry look. "But we don't get much out of it, and we can't live on it. We can live on animal blood instead of human, but it's not the same. And not indefinitely."

[hurtcomfort]

"That's good though," Cole can't help but muse. "That way you have variety."

Drinking the same thing for all eternity would be terribly dull. At least if Natasha could drink a beer or have some tea, she wouldn't be too bored.

[outstandingbalance]

You'd think that. And maybe to some degree, it's true. The thing about being a vampire, though: they really enjoy blood. Natasha doesn't feel like airing that, though.

"It is nice to be able to get a coffee or a beer from time to time, it's true. Makes having a social life a lot easier too. Most people would rather hang out over a beer.""

[hurtcomfort]

Cole's not the most complex of ghosts. His train of thought is something like 'this will give Natasha more options, people are usually happy with more options, Natasha will be happy.'

"Like they were at the pub," Cole offers. "Gathering places, full of warmth, full of friendship. So many people and all of them together." And then, without even realizing it, he continues talking, vocalizing what's on his mind. "I wish I could haunt somewhere like that."

[outstandingbalance]

"You can make it there. Why can't you haunt it?" Seems like he could, if he wants to. Though she doesn't know how long his tether might be. "At least seems like you can visit. That's not so bad."

[hurtcomfort]

"I can't haunt it like I do my alleyway. If I leave it for too long I feel...odd. Not whole. Restless and worried." As much as he would like to, Cole can't really leave his haunt for too long before he starts feeling off.

[outstandingbalance]

"I guess that's not so uncommon. Inconvenient, but not uncommon." There's a little sympathy in her tone. She can imagine there are a lot of ghosts trapped places that weren't pleasant to spend their afterlife, however long they lingered. "At least you can visit?"

[hurtcomfort]

"I can. I don't know for how long, but I'm going to visit while I can." His voice hitches there a little in the middle. The idea of not being able to visit, not being able to go places just absolutely terrifies Cole. And yet, he knows it might happen one of these days.

[outstandingbalance]

"Is there a particular reason to think that might change?" That's among the things Natasha doesn't know that much about when it comes to ghosts. A lot of the details about hauntings seem to be individual, anyway.

[hurtcomfort]

There's a pause, as Cole frowns. How best to describe this...

"You're less as a ghost. Occasionally you get someone who can make you more, who can fill in the blanks, make you healthy and whole. I had someone like that but they had to leave. Now I'm becoming less myself."

You never know what you had until it's gone and, unfortunately for him, that is entirely the case for poor Cole.

[outstandingbalance]

"I'm sorry to hear that. But you could find it again. As long as you're here, there's hope." She'd like to believe that, at least. As long as they can keep going, there's always the possibility of things getting better.

It just might not be all that likely.

[hurtcomfort]

"You're right," Cole simply responds, with a nod. Because she is. He'll find a new anchor, he'll find a new person to help, he'll become better.

Because he sure as hell isn't going to be that person he used to be again.

"Thank you. It's nice to hear other people say that as well."

[outstandingbalance]

"Don't mention it. At least I'm good for something." It's really the least she can do, and she feels like at this point, it might more or less fall within her responsibilities as part of Redbright. At the very least it's within the spirit of her role there.