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Peace and Unity March

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.

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Ah, the smell of rebellious spirit in the evening. It is rather refreshing. Granted, many of the scruffy protesters here are students who know nothing about anything, but there are some older faces in the crowd too.

The only problem is, he's on the wrong side of this particular fence. Mogget slinks along Whitehall following a hostile encounter with Larry the Downing Street cat and he suspects his evening is only going to get worse from here. As ever, he's Samantha's eyes and ears in a dangerous environment, hoping to find a quiet corner to observe the spectacle without being noticed.

"The last election was a sham!" Someone with a loudspeaker is getting very passionate. "Vampire and vampire is not a choice. We the people demand a real choice!"

He manages ten minutes hunched on a step opposite the Night Council HQ before someone hurls a bottle at him. "Fucking spy!"

Mogget leaps aside with a yowl as the bottle (thankfully plastic, not glass) bounces off the step and tears off, but it's a big crowd and an awful lot of legs to get through. He has to find somewhere to hide, and quickly.

1. On the Sidelines
Desmond has no real plans of participating in the march at all, but he's showed up the way one does when one sees a large group of people in one place, trying to figure out what's going on -- something that doesn't take him very long, once people start shouting at the Night Council. It's loud, to his ears, and naturally he can't help but wince at the anti-witch invectives hurled, but more than that? What's impressive to him is the magic it's got to be taking to keep this hidden from normal human eyes. He can't even figure out how something like that works. The best he can do is convince people not to notice him when he's in a crowd.

As soon as the Guardians start to disperse the crowd, though, he spends too much time dithering about where to go next -- meaning one of the departing protestors shoulders him aside roughly, sending him reeling right into someone else.

"Sorry!" he grunts, trying to pull himself away, steady his feet. Hopefully he hasn't knocked them down or anything.

2. Evening
Finally escaping the crowd, Desmond decides the best course of action after that is to grab a drink. Unfortunately for him, he happens to pick a place where some of the rowdier, anti-Night Council protestors trickle into later in the night. Unwilling to see things turn into an outright brawl, he considers just leaving his drink unfinished, but dammit, he paid for that.

So he'll keep nursing it at the bar, shoulders steadily rising to his ears as he hunches and the voices behind him grow louder.

Edited 2017-07-09 03:05 (UTC)

One of the pubs is close to Cole's alleyway. Good. He can still visit this, he can still come to see, he's not too far gone, pulled in too many directions that he can't visit (but man, does he need a new anchor. Every day he's reminded of that). So, there's a pub, filled with a bunch of happy drunk protesters and some angry drunk protesters and Cole. Cole looks a bit out of place compared to everybody else. He flits among the crowd, mostly unseen, as he whispers thoughts into the ears of people.

"You're drunk enough, you shouldn't be drinking that," he whispers to a particularly intoxicated were. "Let her talk," he whispers to a male witch who's been dominating the conversation with a female witch. "It's okay. You made a difference," he whispers to a student, and so on and so forth. Some of his whispers are to ordinary humans who can't even hear him entirely, but some are to members of the supernatural community, too drunk to realize what whispered in their ear but sober enough to actually consider it.

Sometimes though, he does manifest, and there's a skinny blonde boy in the far corner of the pub just watching.

Natasha had to give the march itself a pass for logistical reasons—the timing wasn't friendly to her. Summer was always a difficult time for vampires, the challenge was exacerbated working across communities. But she is here for the students, even if many of them aren't here for here, and she does hit the bars in the area after the fact to keep an eye on things.

She stops in at the pubs and bars, having a drink here and there before moving on, sparing a few moments to check in on anyone she knows.

Hello, yes, large crowd means that there are pickpockets on the loose. Most of them, young boys running amok through the crowd, but Nancy is there amongst them, too. She likes to keep her skills sharp, despite her legitimate job. Her touch is light, practiced. But she doesn't let her guard down.

Wandering amongst the crowds, Nancy tries to keep a low profile, large sunglasses. She didn't want anyone that shouldn't to recognize her for her relationship to Cooper. There had been photos of them together in the papers and on the internet. And given the large anti-vampire and anti-witch sentiment in the crowd tonight, in addition to the pile of wallets in her purse, it was best to lay low.

After the march, though, she'll be stopping in at one of the pubs. Who was she to turn down a pint or two?

It's not a random departing protestor that shoulders Desmond- rather, one of the taller of Fagin's boys. The shove is planned, Nancy stepping into Desmond's way just slightly so that he's colliding with her. Nancy plays at getting her balance, and in the process manages to go for Desmond's wallet.

With any luck and quite a lot of skill, she'll be able to slip it back into her pocket without him even knowing.

"No, no, I'm sorry," she says, hands on his rather impressive biceps to steady herself needlessly. "I should have been watching where I was going." Over Desmond's shoulder, her partner in crime disappears. She'll meet up with Georgie later.

WHAT DO WE WANT?

Werewolf Representation on the Night Council!

WHEN DO WE WANT IT?
RIGHT NOW.

Of course, Laura had yet to actually join in any of the chants, but she was behind the sentiment 100%. It's a good idea to keep an ear to the ground, see where others seemed to stand on similar subjects.

Besides, someone's got to watch out for the younger members of the pack around here, right?

It's the yowl that gets Laura's attention. She swings around, in time to see a bottle and a dart of something white. "That's no excuse to throw a bottle at an animal!" Laura scolds the general area where the bottle came from.

Carefully, she makes her way towards where she'd seen the cat start to walk.

"Are you alright?"

It's at one of the pubs, the pub closest to his alleyway, that Cole spots Natasha. He doesn't really know what she is, having never actually met a vampire before (at least, he thinks he's never met a vampire before). But Cole knows that it's easier to show himself when he's around this woman than when he tries to manifest among other people. That's weird. Isn't it? Maybe it's normal and he just doesn't know.

So, Cole walks over towards Natasha, regarding her with a confused look. It's pretty apparent just what sort of being he is as he walks through a table and some people to get near her.

"Are you dead too?"

He's a bit blunt.

Marching, peacefully chanting, holding clever signs- none of these are any of Ghoul's favorite things, although he is here. At least for the sit-in part. He's parked his butt on a curb, looking about as enthused as a kid at Antiques Roadshow.

He's all about rebellion, sure, but this method is so tedious. Where's the shoving? The angry yelling? The riot police?

Ghoul sighs dramatically. With his focus on the phone in his hands instead of his surroundings, he hasn't noticed Party is no longer four inches away from him. As a result, his next loudly-asked question seems to be directed at no one in particular. "Can I break stuff yet?"

The wallet Lydia's fingers manage to liberate will feel disappointingly light -- the contents are just a few receipts (the backs scribbled with practice pentacles) and a punch card for a cafe (with three lonely punches). A healthy amount of paranoia about his personal belongings means you don't tend to keep anything valuable on your person within easy reach.

Still, Desmond feels someone sliding the wallet out of his pocket; it's just that it's hard to tell who, exactly, has gotten it. But he doesn't get a chance to dwell on it, or catch the offender, because hey, there's a girl shoved right into him.

"Little hard to do that here," he grimaces, as indeed they're still in the middle of a whole bunch of people moving around.

Cats, it turns out, are rather good at looking grumpy and/or pissed off, and the look Mogget gives the approaching werewolf is the definition of unimpressed. He's crouching between two wheelie bins with the stink of rubbish all around him: does he look all right?

"Intact," he says tersely. "No thanks to those yobs."

Big sunglasses. Who does she think she's kidding? Mogget knows Nancy's face, for a variety of reasons. One, he has met her. Two, she's on several watch lists given her association with a member of the Night Council amongst other things. Three, she's a traitor in Samantha's eyes and that's another list Mogget knows rather well.

"Hiding from someone?" he asks, appearing rather suddenly on a wall behind her. Would Cooper approve if he knew his girlfriend was out here committing petty robbery?

"Please do." Hi, Ghoul. It's your favourite cat. "I'm sure the Guardians will be quick to arrest you."

And Mogget will happily watch. He's down at pavement level now, trying to stick with the peaceful protesters rather than the awful ones who threw stuff at him. Always difficult to tell which is which.

She's sitting underneath some red-faced man shouting about representation, watching the chanting crowd just as much as their loud leader. Girl looks confused, unconvinced, like she can't quite grasp why the people are agreeing so fervently. Still, when he stops, she's up and cheering as loud as anyone else. The words are pretty enough, even she can admit that.

"You think he's right?" Girl asks the person next to her once she catches her breath. "Really, I mean. Does anyone think this will really make the council change anything? Isn't just as likely they'll get pissed and blame people for tryin'?"

That is not the voice he expects to hear. Ghoul's head snaps up and he casts a puzzled glance around, if puzzled can also look vaguely annoyed at the same time.

Well. Mogget may not be the piece-of-shit redhead Ghoul had in mind, but he'll do. "You gonna bail me out, Snowball?" Still sitting, he leans closer. "I mean, you gotta. You must've had a change in heart, since you're here'n all." Yeah, right. He's sure Mogget is only here to be a snitch or to barf on peoples' shoes when they're not paying attention. "That's fuckin' cute. Where's your little protest sign?"

Speaking of rowdy anti-Night Council protestors, one of them shoulders through the noisy crowd at Desmond's back and climbs up on to a bar stool immediately beside him. Literally climbs, too- because high bar stools are rude.

"Well, shit." Does Desmond recognize that voice? Probably not. But he will soon. "If it ain't my favorite new friend. How the fuck are you?" Ghoul rests his elbows on the bar as he leans forward, eyes fixed on Desmond and grinning in a mildly menacing way. He hasn't even had a drop of alcohol in him yet. He's just naturally this obnoxious.

Ghoul's actually standing at the moment, but he's still scrolling through that fucking phone.

To his credit, he is paying attention. Sort of. He's listening, and after a round or two of chants, he's come up with his own version. Each time what do we want? rolls around, he's taken to murmuring, "To overthrow the Night Council," in response.

That's just as good as werewolf representation, isn't it?

It's not that she's surprised to see Laura here, except-no that's exactly it. The protesting has been peaceful enough and she gets why any of their kind would get into the sentiment, but Laura seems so together to be out here.

"Didn't think you'd be in to this kinda thing." When in doubt, go with honesty.

She jumps when she feels something brush against her legs, knocking into the person beside her and earning a few dirty looks. She whirls around with a muttered apology, thinking it must be nothing more than someone's coat. She sees white fur and she follows. Girl has always loved animals, especially cats. That's why she tries to pick Mogget up, thinking he's just some sweet little stray about to be trampled.

"Don't run! I'm not dangerous," Girl coos. "But you'll get hurt 'round here."

Of course, Nancy won't stop to look at the wallet until she's far from the actual scene. She doesn't want to risk it- looking right away is a rookie mistake.

So Nancy laughs, because he doesn't seem to notice anything, and pushes a lock of red hair behind her ear. "Yeah, tell me about it. I'll have a dozen bruises from all the shoving that's been going on around here. It's not usual for London, I'll tell you that much."

She assumes he's a tourist.

It's pretty impressive to be on so many lists. Especially considering Nancy didn't have any sort of paper trail until recently. Now look at her- she's slept with two members of the Night Council, and is close personal friends with the Duke of Islington.

Nancy gasps at the sudden appearance of the cat, and turns around to glare at him. She recognizes him- the cat from the pond at Samantha's coronation. "No," she tells him. "It's bright out."

"Throwing bottles." She shakes her head with obvious disdain. "I'm sorry about that. Jerks. They didn't hit you, did they?" She tilts her head, crouching down a bit to try to get a better look at the cat.

"Overthrow the Night Council?" Laura asks with a raised eyebrow. How anarchistic of him.

"And what would take their place?" She'll humor him. Besides, she's curious about the thoughts of her fellow pack members.

"Me?" Of course Girl is talking to her.

"Why? Too old for this sort of thing?" She's making a joke at her own expense, she knows how ancient she must appear to the younger members of the pack. "I like to keep my pulse on how other members of the community feel, and I thought I'd come to support the idea of equal representation on the Council."

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Peace and Unity March

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1- hope this is okay!

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works for me! hope this is okay, too

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