[b]Apostle:[/b]

“Just have insane amounts of privilege.” Apostle says without a hint of irony. “It’s great, cops apologize to me before they have to touch me. Highly recommend it.” 

Aren’t they kind of transhuman looking, part of the targeted minority? Well, yes and no. It’s kind of analogous to being Asian in the Western tech industry in the 2020s putting you both outside of and at the top of white supremacy depending on the context, Apostle’s aesthetic mods squarely places them as a rich Thrones eccentric. They're biomodded, sure, but it's only to make their blood dry like movie blood so it looks prettier. Normal blood sucks to write poetry in. 

“Junta has more experience with them. He’s better at the whole using privilege to work with government thing. He said uh, shit, what was it? Cops see the world like they’re sheepdogs, and there’s only wolves and sheep. So if you’re not acting like a sheep, then you’re a wolf. So trying to talk them out of things or outsmart them isn’t sheep behaviour, and they’ll make it violent. Which is why I thought you’d get hardcountered if you can’t use force, but if you can actually punch a cop then like, you’re good I guess? I think.” They think harder. “Have you considered being a small business owner though? Cops see those as bratty sheep.” 


[b]Fiona:[/b]

Fiona thinks about her play here. There’s going through the trauma with someone to recontextualize it and make it feel safer, addressing it and being there for someone, or there’s symptom management - trying to prevent the situation needing to feel like that at all. Pink’s already trusted her with the extreme, so.

No, definitely needs to be symptom management in this case, she decides. Pink needs a way to tap out if she changes her mind. Same reason you don’t put a gag in if you’re relying on verbal consent. 

Fiona pulls the chip out of her phone, then tethers it with her left wrist and draws the right wrist line out to Pink. “Microphone, speakers, camera, and most important - control over the music player. At least what’s downloaded, there’s no internet right now.” She wipes kiss-mark oil from her lips with the knuckle of her left thumb. “It’s not much, and I’m still going to be your only way to get back. Just, if it gets too much, you’ll have a way to tell me, and I can talk you through.”

She half thinks Pink wants to do this as a way to test something, maybe to prove she can handle it, or just see if she can. The offer of the phone is going to bite into that, taint the purity of a trial by fire, lessen the trust being shown. 

She’s still got to suggest it, though. Because the alternative way of finding out she’s done something not okay here is after having already done it. 


[b]The Evacuation of Aphrodite:[/b]

Crystal finds Orange with the Valkyries, negotiating resources for the heavy cavalry. While Leather leads the team commandeering emergency supplies, someone’s got to negotiate with the staff that [i]someone[/i] will pay for it all, one day. Orange is in the best position for it - she’s on good terms with management after dragging Eli out of the fountain that first night. 

“I’m so proud of you,” she says in a gap in the conversation, and awards Orange for it by pinning a ceramic orange-anarchism flag to her breast - fittingly, the symbol for mutualism.

Black can instead watch the colour-groups roll out a huge sheet of the thin, waxy paper they use to diffuse the large stage lights and instead use it as canvas to draw a giant street map, each group drawing their lines and planning their route. There isn’t too much of a focus on this, this all relies more on tactics than strategy, but the more that can be decided on before you leave is the less decisionmaking that needs to be made in the heat of a moment. It’s a lot easier to remember than to decide under pressure. 

The group leaders all have enough walkie talkies to communicate between each other as well, squad-based decentralized sharing of information in the field. Leadership is still important, one trusted person making decisions saves a lot of mental load across the group, but this will be for sharing information - not orders. And the mob is its own kind of rapid response democracy if anyone were to lose the mandate of heaven. 

The Ultimate Werewolf takes Ares and point, first in, last out from the station. They’re your grenadiers and they’ll be pushing the main boulevard hard, getting to the station first and trying to secure it. Apollo follows them and does aerial recon with drones, Hermes and Zeus takes the main side streets, Gaea with the least and most vulnerable members takes the longest and safest side streets and diverts back into Hermes or Zeus groups if they meet resistance, Aphrodite follows as a rear action to support and cover and keep backchannels safe for Valkyrie support as they go.

Like you said, moving this many people is more a plumbing problem, and the wide spread helps the crowd drain through faster. Everyone knows that these are lines drawn in sand, not set in stone. 

When everyone’s satisfied, the Ultimate Werewolf looks at the leaders and asks if he can… he can? Sure, great. Hey, the soundproofing in here has to be good right, for the conventions? Like can he…? He can? Because he doesn’t want this to go down like that banner thing did- Someone closed the main doors, fantastic. 

The Ultimate Werewolf lets rip a howl like the one from that first day that shook the exhibition hall under the light of a blood moon, and everyone - everyone - is compelled to watch. And he has the shameless of doing it that comes from a professional heel. 

“This is your ten minute notice!” His voice echoes clear through the halls, from the front doors to the stained glass at the back of the exhibition hall. “Grab your things, find your teams, and be ready to go. Tell whoever you need to tell that you’re safe, and then turn your phone off and take the battery out. I’m serious. You think you need it for anything, you come to your team leaders and they’ll sort out an alternative that works, but you do not want to get hit by a pineapple today. If you get scared, just remember that anyone who wants to get to you has to go through me. And nobody ever has.” 

He holds his chest out proud and hammers it hard with a fist. The other team leaders stand proud beside him at this, but they don’t match the Werewolf for his raw, confident violence. 

It’s different from what Yellow was doing because he’s doing it as a heel. He demands no allegiance, asks no one to follow him - you’re safe because the scariest thing on the station is on your side. 

And then he just finishes. No thank you for listening, no final notes, he’s done now. He hopes it’s the last time he’s even relevant today, because if he’s the focus of attention again it’s because his authority as Chief of Violence is needed. 

Ten minutes, then. Black and Orange might not even have anything they need to do here.


[b]Red:[/b]

The command centre in Aphrodite is a lot more like the one Crimson Tower found herself in for the Goddard Pump situation, a series of four interconnected solid-cement tenement style buildings made to withstand a direct hit from an artillery strike. If you remember that situation, then you remember what the inside of this building is going to be like - a multilevel basement top-to-bottom filled with lanyards.

It’s just, it’s Aphrodite, so the exterior walls have street art permits and the art cycles around a lot. Today it’s a butterfly in a soap bubble being whirled in a vortex that’s ripped through a field of tulips, the inside building being the eye of the storm. They’ve extended the contract for this one out a bit because it’s been a favourite. 

This place isn’t going to be targeted by the riots, it’s only overwhelmed by its duties. 

Crimson Tower will have no trouble getting in and taking a position of duty here. The question is more what she wants to do: Is she taking a position of open leadership in the chaos, or is she using the chaos to steal a work desk with the permissions she needs and try to go unnoticed, to be in a central location to justify herself if she does get noticed? 

Like commandeering a pod to get here, neither of these require a check against the cover identity because they’re both actions established as within her remit. It’s only when she starts acting outside it that things could get difficult.