Harrison gave a small smile. No hysterics this time. That was good. "Yes and no sir. As you know it is not yet your time to move, but I and other officers and citizens are aware that many Secondaries don't have the time or the reslurces to be able to move their stuff in time. I have been designated to offer my assistance to any Secondary citizens that think they may require help in their... relocation." He explains, letting the smile grow a bit at the fact that the guy hadn't shut the door in his face yet. This is going good. Let's hope nothing messes up.
But when he addresses Lloyd's other query, he was forced to let go of his small smile, giving a sigh. After a few moments, he gives a mental shrug at trying to be tactful at this point. "I think we both know what happens to Secs that get caught even toeing the line. The people up high are making this a very public event. Anyone refusing to move is most likely going to be made an example of." He answers solemnly, head down. He knew it was wrong to question those that kept the world a safe place, but he just couldn't see the reason for a relocation of all things! Haven't they opened a history book?
Looking back up, he looks into Lloyd's eyes. "So, you wanna let me in or slam another door in my face?"
Lloyd nodded. "I wouldn't have been surprised if you decided to pluck us up before we're ready," he muttered, though this officer actually seemed pretty chill. Even the nicest people had to follow orders, though. He kept eye contact as much as he could with the officer, trying to figure out if he had any bad intent. He couldn't see any, so he let himself chill a little.
He sighed a little. "I don't know what I was expecting," he mumbled. Liam would probably get himself put in jail, then, and there was no way anyone would be able to pay the bond. He shook his head. "We don't really need any help," he said. As much as he'd like some - they wouldn't lose the computer they'd worked so hard for - if either of his remaining roommates noticed that stuff was being packed up, they'd flip their shit.
Dominic had been playing by all the rules Quinn had given him since the trial. He hadn't broken curfew once, he had kept his head low, and he had even given his gun to Matt for safekeeping, since there was no way he was actually getting rid of it. With the relocation coming, Dominic and Olivia had spoken many times, her reminding him over and over that he was not to resist the move when it came. Dominic wanted to be indignant, but to be fair, he understood why she didn't entirely trust his temper. But he was entirely in control of himself. When his relocation date arrived, he had all his things packed neatly into three boxes, ready to go. The perfect little Secondary. It almost made him sick to think about.
Despite his changed behavior in the past weeks, it wasn't any sort of surprise when not one, not two, but three officers showed up on Dominic's doorstep to 'assist' him in his relocation. Their guns weren't drawn, but their forms were tense, anticipating a fight. Dominic Kingston was volatile and unpredictable, everyone knew that. It gave him the slightest bit of satisfaction that the local police force still considered him somewhat of a threat. Maybe it meant he hadn't completely sold out after all.
"Mr. Kingston?" one of the officers called with a knock on the door. "We're here on behalf of the Secondary Relocation Committee. Please open the door." She waited only a split second before knocking again, clearly tense and expecting a fight. "Mr. Kingston, if we have to use force in this-"
Before she could finish the sentence, though, Dominic had opened the door. "I was across the room," he said coolly, looking up to meet the tall police officer dead in the eye. "Forgive me for not sitting here waiting for your arrival. I have everything packed up, all I need is a hand loading it onto the relocation vans. With the four of us, that shouldn't be too much of a struggle, should it?"
The woman blinked in confusion but quickly recovered. "No, of course not," she answered with a frown. "Let us in and we'll assist you in the moveout."
As Dominic stepped aside to let the police enter his apartment, he felt their curious looks drilling into his back as they wondered what sort of game the hotheaded revolutionary was playing. But there was no game, no trick, Dominic thought bitterly as he watched the police pick up all his belongings, his whole life, and carry them to the curb. He wished there was. But no, it was just him caving. He remembered what Matt had told him. Hold off now, there would be time to resist later. Easier said than done, but he amazingly managed to keep himself in check.
"We appreciate your cooperation," one of the cops thanked him, setting the last box down. "The buses will be by shortly to take you to the relocation community, where your things will be waiting for you."
The patronizing tone made Dominic bristle. He couldn't force a smile, let alone a thanks, so instead he nodded tightly, mouth set into a thin line. 'It's just for right now,' he reminded himself. 'It's not giving up, it's picking battles. Just for right now.' This hadn't been at all how Dominic had pictured his relocation day. He didn't like letting Olivia make the plans. Then again, he wasn't currently on his way back to prison. He supposed that was something, at the very least.
Olivia was more nervous about Dominic's relocation than her own. She knew that he was trying hard, but he had a reputation and she was worried for his safety. She tried to talk every decision by him, since he'd thrown her in charge, and she knew he hated not doing more.
She hated that they couldn't do more other than just... sit and wait for her relocation before something more could happen.
Her relocation was uneventful. Her things were already packed up. She refused to let them in and they simply went and got the apartment manager to unlock her door. The whole thing was anti-climatic. She knew she would have to move, but she didn't want it to be easy for them. Her boxes were haphazardly thrown around into the moving fan and the furniture that Sandra hadn't taken was squished in as well. She was going to be rooming with a complete stranger, since Sandra had abandoned their "household". She was moving in with her boyfriend and Olivia was stuck with someone else. No idea who or what their cleaning habits were.
On the drive to her new home she scrolled through Facebook and everything stopped.
A news article from the Boston Globe had been shared over and over and over again.
Anabel Wallace Marries Dwarf in Secret Canadian Ceremony
The details went on to explain how the daughter of the United States Secretary of State had run away to marry a full-blooded dwarf in Canada. She didn't get a chance to read the complete article because her data is limited, but she quickly saved the link to read for later. The elf's heart was racing at the news and what it could mean.
Quinn was reading the same article, in it's entirety, quietly sobbing in the ladies restroom at the courthouse.
Dominic had been trying, really trying, to let Olivia and Matt take the lead on the resistance effort. But damn it all, he was going to snap if something didn't give soon.
In an utterly shocking twist of fate no one could have forseen, the relocation community was nothing like the luxurious, spacious neighborhood that had been described in the glossy brochures everyone had been delivered. Everyone had been packed into tiny apartments, most of them not much more than a common room and a bathroom. The ceilings leaked at the slightest spill of water, and the thin walls provided little protection from the autumn chill that was already starting to set in. After only a week of being occupied, the complex had begun to take on the run-down feel of a slum... or a prison.
What didn't help the prison atmosphere at all were the guards that constantly patrolled the community's streets. Dominic thought they came from the greater city police department, but he couldn't be sure. They roamed the city, weapons always ready, looking around as though they were looking for a reason to start a fight. When he had mentioned it to Matt, though, he had been met only with 'Don't give them a reason, then.' Dominic had already been stopped on the street, searched, and questioned twice since the move, but he hadn't been doing anything wrong and he had managed not to start anything. Outwardly, he had given all the proper 'yessirs,' but inside, he was seething.
The community was on edge, restless, a loaded gun ready to go off at any given tap of the trigger. Dominic knew he wasn't the only person who was scared, knew he wasn't the only one who kept his shades tightly drawn when the guards were doing a 'random search' of his building. It hurt him on a nearly physical level to see his people suffering the way they were, but what was he supposed to do? It wasn't like he had any great plan to liberate them. There were whispers of American Secs trying to make a run for it, get over the border to Canada, especially after the news about the marriage had broken open.
The news had caused stirrings of interest in the mundane population of the States, and had actually been followed by several sympathetic articles in major papers. It almost seemed as though the tide was turning, like more people were starting to see Secondaries as actual people. But reflexively, the US had been tightening its borders, passing more and more laws further restricting Sec travel, removing legal protections, and restricting working rights nationwide. Crossing the border was looking like more and more of a pipe dream by the day.
Change was coming, Dominic was sure of it. The whispers were gaining momentum, even without him urging them on. The people would need to stand and fight soon, or risk missing their chance.
The quality of the living arrangements was not a surprise (although how they managed to make actual living spaces that were worst than her last apartment, was impressive).
The constant patrol was... mildly surprising.
The thing that completely shocked Olivia when she entered her cramped, shitty apartment? Was Quinn standing inside in the kitchen putting things into cupboards. The elf cleared her throat and the attorney turned. "Ms. Reid?" She asked, confused.
The corners of the lawyer's lips quirked upward, but it wasn't quite a smile. The elf was starting to wonder if a smile was possible. "Olivia, hello." The elf stood there awkwardly until she was moved aside by the rest of her things being carried up by the movers (other Secs). "Please, call me Quinn." She said after a minute, "Ms. Reid is a little formal for roommates."
"... Roommates?"
Quinn nodded and turned back to the barely existent cupboards, trying to fit some cans in there. The movers froze and eyed each other, and then Olivia. She was human...
Annnnnd.... that's how she ended up living with the all too serious attorney. She'd sent both Matt and Dominic a text with a picture of Quinn in their kitchen and the caption "Met my new roommate...?" None of them ever got an answer out of Quinn about why she was there, though.
In the end it wasn't so bad, just confusing. But Quinn was clean, almost obsessively so, and she was hardly there. When she was home, she was in her room or in what served as their dining room, with research usually spread around her. It was then that Olivia realized Quinn worked... alone. No employees to help file motions or write briefs, and no partners to help with the legal problems when she got stuck.
And there were a lot of cases, Olivia would learn, that Quinn took pro bono.
The first weeks in the new community passed with hardly any issues. There were a ton of disagreements between those who lived together, and sometimes their neighbors, but nothing got too heated. The constant presence of the police, though, and their obvious boredom had tensions running high and it was only a matter of time before something escalated.
She, Matt, and Dominic were seated in her little living room (Quinn hiding in her room with work), discussing their next move. Olivia wanted to announce Matt's run for the District Board of Commissioners; they had about a year in between then and now but she felt it important that they start getting his name tossed around now to 1) remind people that Secs weren't obsolete, just because they'd been tossed away, and 2) because there were already other people claiming their intent.
There was also a stirring in the Sec and mundane population alike and they were in the middle of discussing the best way to capitalize on that when they heard a commotion from outside. There were loud voices, and then someone crying. Olivia peeked out the window to see a woman holding a baby, confronted by two officers. Despite the thin walls she couldn't hear what was being said, but she did see the officer swing his baton directly into the woman's face. The woman who had posed no threat.
"Oh shit!"
Then she was running out the apartment without an explanation to her two guests other than, "Grab Quinn, too."
Dominic hadn't been facing the window, so he hadn't watched the whole scene unfold. But he heard the crying, the muffled shouts, and then the sickening crack of metal hitting bone. He jumped up along with Olivia, her urgency fueling his own as they rushed out into the hall and tore down the three flights of stairs at a breakneck pace.
It was Matt who lagged behind, pounding on Quinn's door. He had seen the whole thing, and while he wanted to be caught in disbelief, somehow he wasn't able to find the situation at all surreal. "Quinn! Come quick!" He glanced out the window again, where Dominic and Olivia were just getting out onto the street. "One of the officers just attacked an unarmed woman!" God, he hoped Olivia would be able to keep Dominic in check once he'd put together the pieces of what had happened.
---
It didn't take Dominic long at all to put it together. A small crowd was already gathering, but the officers didn't seem to care much. The one with the baton was on the ground with a struggling and sobbing woman, wrestling her wrists into handcuffs even as blood streamed down her face from her clearly broken nose. The baby she had held clutched to her chest lay helpless on the ground nearby, screaming nearly as loud as her mother. The second officer was keeping the crowd back, but none of them seemed about to offer any resistance. They were all too terrified, fear holding them paralyzed.
"Please, please, Elsie," the woman was crying, her words garbled by her position and the mess of her nose. "My daughter, please, someone grab my daughter, don't let them hurt her!"
"Get the kid," Dominic told Olivia shortly. He didn't trust himself to hold a child right now. He was angrier than he had ever been in his life, and it was taking him everything he had not to go in fists swinging. Had he any means, Dominic was sure he could have easily killed the police officer right then and there. As it was, he didn't like his chances of doing anything more than getting himself beaten and arrested as well. "Get her somewhere safe and then come stop me from doing something I shouldn't. I swear to God..." Without waiting for an answer, he sprinted towards the crowd of people.
"What's going on here?" he demanded, shoving his way through to get to the officer doing crowd control. "What the hell did she do? She's unarmed, she's barely conscious. She has a damn kid, for the love of- she needs a doctor. You're treating us like animals, but there are even laws against animal cruelty. Let her up!" The last sentence was shouted loudly enough for the officer holding the woman down to hear, Dominic's voice shaking with barely controlled fury.
Olivia nodded and ran to pick up the baby who kept crying and crying. "Shhh, it's okay." She tried to soothe, rocking the baby carefully. She was trying to look over the infant for any injuries from when it had ended up on the ground, but as far as she could tell, the baby was alright.
"It's getting past curfew," A police officer said, instead of answering. They searched the crying woman and came up without a weapon. The officer stepped closer to Dominic, a nasty look on his face. "Are you disrespecting me, dwarf?"
Olivia found someone else who had gathered, an older dwarf who was, admittedly, much better at calming the child than she was. Then in long strides, the elf returned to Dominic's side because he couldn't end up in jail again. "Dominic," She whispered, tugging his wrist. Like it would make a difference.
Quinn wasn't prepared to see people and so when she tossed open her door, giving Matt a glimpse into her room filled with stacks and stacks of paper, she was dressed in sweats and a hooded sweatshirt. It was not how she liked to look when in the presence of others and she gave Matt a hard look, "Not a word." Considering the circumstances and the fact that Dominic, her client, was out there, there was no time to change.
She followed Matt out to the street level and moved in front of Dominc and Olivia with her usual authority, regardless of the fact that she was not dressed in her suit. "Excuse me, officer." She snapped. "What is this woman being arrested for?"
The police officer snarled at her but Quinn held her glare. Olivia had flinched. "It's not your business."
"As her lawyer, it is my business. Have you read her her rights?" The officer looked at her confused. Lawyer, but Secs couldn't be lawyers.
"You aren't no lawyer," he snapped back and then helped the other officer haul the woman to her feet. "We don't have to read her rights."
In a flash Quinn had her ABA card out and she leaned forward to read the name tags, "Officer Simmons, Officer Tines. Quinn Reid and I am this woman's attorney. What is she being arrested for?"
"Well," Stuttered the first one, confused. She was human. What was she doing here, with the Secs. "It's getting past curfew."
She checked her watch which was a minute past curfew, "Olivia."
"Yes, ma'am."
"At what time did you see these men attack this woman?"
"Five minutes to curfew," Olivia answered in a small voice.
"So you hit this woman before she had made it home for curfew?" Quinn tilted her head to the side, "And you are arresting her for not being home in time for curfew, though you are the reason she was delayed that five minutes?"
Dominic wanted to shake Olivia off, but as Quinn and Matt came rushing out of the building, he very reluctantly took a step back. Quinn had already more than proved that this was her domain. While Dominic's aggression might hurt more than help, she was a professional. And as long as something was being done, as long as they weren't sitting there on their asses taking it, he could control his temper. Mostly.
---
The officer looked back at his partner, at a loss for words. "Well- she was- she was disrespecting us. When stopped for questioning, Secondary Citizens are required by law to submit to Relocations Officials' searches. She was noncompliant, and Officer Tines only used force when he felt threatened." It was a weak excuse and everyone gathered knew it, but Simmons also knew that it didn't need to be a good excuse to get him off the hook for any possible police brutality charges.
He raised an eyebrow at Quinn. "You can try and take this to court if you want," he said in a lower voice. "We both know how the case would play out. If you even got it before a judge."
---
Matt couldn't believe the ease with which Quinn reduced the police officers from intimidating thugs to stammering, confused fools. Her confidence took them aback, and then when it was followed by her citizen status, he was sure they had won the battle. First getting Dominic off the hook, now this? Matt was more and more impressed with Quinn Reid the more he saw of her.
His hands balled into fists by his side at the obviously bull excuse, and although he couldn't quite make out what Simmons said more quietly, he could make out the gist. Matt didn't know law, but he did know politics. Maybe he could use that here. Stepping forward to stand with Quinn, he fixed Simmons with an unwavering stare. "Besides going to court, we can report this sort of conduct to your superior officers. We have half a dozen witnesses who will sign off with us. Let the woman be."
Quinn and Matt presented a united front. Together, they presented a fight that wasn't worth having. Right now there were just the few officers and the large, restless crowd. The two men exchanged a glance; things had quickly taken a turn for the worse for them and they were weighing their options. "Fine, go." They uncuffed the woman and Olivia dragged Dominic forward so they could help the woman and take her to the child. Giving him something to do would give him something else to focus on.
"Perhaps you should continue with your patrol, officers." Quinn snapped. "There are a lot of anti-secs in the nearby neighborhood. You are here to protect us, yes?" She waited, staring them down with a penetrative gaze until the officers move forward. "Curfew has started folks." One of them snapped, but his spine didn't stand quite as tall as it had before.
Quinn stood where she was until the officers had rounded the corner and already the crowd was dispersing. She turned to Matt and smiled. "Nicely done." She nodded and then she was headed back to the apartment she shared with Olivia, because she was still in sweat pants and these are not outdoor clothes. The woman was cuddling her baby, crying, her thank you barely audible.
"Things are getting worse," Olivia whispered to Dominic. Matt and Quinn had made a good team and Olivia was just glad they were on her side.
Matt nodded to Quinn, but before he could even say 'you, too,' she was off- likely to hide the shame of wearing anything less than a full pantsuit out in public. He shook his head bemusedly, heading over the woman to help her up and check out her broken nose.
"Hey, there, I'm Matt," he introduced himself with a soft smile. "Can I take a look at your nose? Hold on, let me..." he tipped her chin up gently then let it go with a sigh. "I think we should get this taken care of by a real doctor. Not that the Sec Clinic entirely counts as 'proper' medical care, but..." he trailed off, glancing over at Olivia and Dominic. He wanted to be a part of the conversation he knew was about to happen, but someone needed to escort the woman to the clinic. "Alright, let's go before it gets too dark, come on," he said with a sigh, keeping any anger or fear from his tone. There would be time for that later. For now, his focus was not the problem of the messed up world they lived in, for now his focus was the terrified and hurt mother in front of him, and getting her to safety.
"Everyone go home, its past curfew," he called to the straggling crowd. "Means everyone," he added, glancing back at Dominic meaningfully. "Don't give them more of a reason to attack us than our very existence." A couple heads were nodding, and the crowd started to disperse as Matt helped the mother off.
Dominic's jaw was still tensed, his hands still shaking slightly with adrenaline. "Let's talk inside," was all he said, voice low.
Olivia nodded. The woman was with her baby and Matt would be taking her to get checked out. Quinn, she knew, would be changing into something more presentable before going to visit the woman. "Come on," she gestured for Dominic to follow her into her apartment, regardless of curfew. Once seated comfortably inside, she'd offer Dominic a drink before letting him speak. Only when she had tea in hand did she allow the conversation to start.
Dominic took the offered tea, wishing more than a little that it was whiskey. It was soon set aside, though, as he began to pace the room. "You can't expect me to just allow this to keep happening," he said finally, stopping to look at her. "I mean- God, Olivia, we have to do something, we can't just- just- hold our peaceful protests, and get Matt elected Vice Secretary to Nobody Important and keep hoping things will change. They're attacking us, damn it! You have to see that.
Olivia sipped at her own drink but it did nothing to calm her. Setting her own drink aside, she nodded and ran her fingers through her hair. "I do see it, Dominic. I just don't know what to do, how do you change the minds of thousands of people over night? How do we stop that violence?"
Dominic bit back the angry retort he wanted to fling. Instead he took a long, slow breath, placing his hands on the back of the chair he still could not calm himself enough to sit in. "I don't know," he answered quietly, dropping his head. "We don't have the numbers. If we tried to fight, we'd be outgunned and outmanned a thousand to one."
And there was the problem. There was only so much they could do and anything more required... more. "If we could capitalize on the marriage thing..." she sighed, "we need to fight but we also need them on our side. Normals, like Quinn." It was strange for Olivia to declare a need to fight but it was becoming more and more clear to her. "We need to work on the numbers. Finding enough of our people willing to fight but also expanding beyond Secs. People are starting to see we are being treated wrongly." She was good at talking to people, so was Matt. Maybe they could... "what if we started canvasing nearby neighborhoods? They're in shitty places too, they'd be most able to relate and understand. Get some people on our side. And you start getting our people prepared to fight?"
Dominic looked up, surprised to hear Olivia willingly admitting the need to fight. The words somehow didn't give him the hope he had thought they would, instead filling him with a cold, hollow resignation he couldn't understand. He hid it well, though. He couldn't afford weakness, not at this stage. "I can do that," he nodded. "But I'll need help with the spellcasters. My own magic isn't the strongest. And we'll need mundane weapons, too, for those who can't cast."
This was real. So fucking real. "Yeah, okay. We need to find a decent caster who can help teach..." she took a deep breath and when she looked up at Dominic her brown eyes were filled with fear. Their conversation was interrupted, though, as Quinn appeared, appropriately dressed. She was on the phone, listening and then a second later out the door. "Bye," Olivia said to the door.
Dominic slowly settled down into his chair, looking at the door Quinn had left through in order to keep from looking at Olivia. "I'm scared, too," he admitted quietly.
"Really?" Olivia looked at him in surprise. "I kind of thought you'd be... I don't know, not excited, but I know you've been looking for a fight for a long time coming." She sighed and slumped in her seat. "But we have to do something."
"I'm not scared for myself," Dominic shrugged, now slightly embarrassed. "But I don't want to see people hurt, I never did. I've just seen this as our only option for a while now." He rubbed his face, looking for a moment very tired. "People are going to be hurt, and people are going to die. Good people. Our people. And I'll be asking them to do it. So yeah, that... that scares me."
"I'm scared for you," Olivia admitted. Dominic had become her friend since they'd started working together, regardless of whether or not he felt the same way. "And for our people but it feels like we are running out of options, like we are seconds away from being erased..."
"I know," Dominic said quietly. He shook his head, trying to clear it of the fear and guilt clouding his mind. "But no one will have to fight if they don't want to. We can't force them to do this, but we can offer them a fighting chance if they want it. And I think more of them want it than we think."
She nodded. "In the morning then, I'll get Matt to go with me." Door to door. They had to make people see. "Quinn should be getting pictures of that woman, too. So we can use that." It made her sick, using that woman's pain for their gain.
"We should get the word out over The Anarchist, too," Dominic suggested. "If this is a nationwide thing, maybe we'll stand more of a chance. I still don't know how we'll find enough firearms, but that'll get us some numbers, at least."
Olivia nodded, "I can email my friend and see if she can get something into the anarchist. It would be better if I could have a direct line of contact..." She sighed. "It feels like we've been at battle for years but this is only the beginning."
"Tomorrow, we can't talk like this," Dominic warned, a reminder as much for himself as for Olivia. "When we're alone, of course, we can say what we need to say. But when we're out there, with the people, we're leaders. We can't afford to be scared, or they will never follow us."
"Of course. Wouldn't dream of it." Olivia sighed. "Tomorrow is going to be a long day. We should... Get some sleep. You're welcome to stay, of course." She'd hate to have him in jail again before they even get started.
"That may be a good idea." Dominic nodded. He didn't know if he would be able to talk himself out of any trouble he might run into being caught out after curfew. "And Olivia..." he had meant to say thank you, but at the last second his words betrayed him. "...I'm sorry."
The elf had already rose from her seat and was picking up their mugs when Dominic called for her attention. She paused to look at him, confusion etched in her features. "For?"
Dominic chuckled humorlessly. "I really wanted you to have been right."
Her smile lacked any real mirth. "So did I, but that's hardly your fault." She picked up his mug and headed for the kitchen. "You know where the blankets and stuff are."
Dominic went to the closet to dig them out, taking the moment to get his traitorous emotions under control. He was getting what he wanted, wasn't he? Come the morning, they would truly start the fight anew. Dominic truly believed in the new world they wished to build. He just wished he could find another way to get there.
The above was written in a collaborative effort by myself and @inkdragon
_____
Quinn did not come back until very late. Both Olivia and Dominic were asleep. The next morning Olivia got with Matt and filled him in on their plan to go knocking door to door in the surrounding neighborhoods. It was the best place to start since their conditions were only marginally better. "Prepared to have a bunch of doors slammed in our faces? She asked the caster.
"I'm a Sec in politics. You get used to it," Matt chuckled. But despite the joke, he couldn't dispel the dark air that hung over their duty. After what they had seen last night, Matt understood where Olivia and Dominic were coming from, but he still worried they didn't know what they were getting into. The Secondaries couldn't seriously win this sort of a battle. And without a real army, it was effectively mass suicide. But that was the mission of the day. They needed to be successful in recruiting mundanes if they wanted to even stand a chance at changing anything through revolution.
"Shall we?"
They had reached the first apartment complex, a run down old place that looked hardly any better than those of the Relocation Community. With a confident air Matt didn't feel, he pushed open the main doors. "Start on the first floor, work our way up?"
When the pair knocked on the first door, it took a while for someone to answer. They had almost given up and left when it opened to reveal a man, middle aged and balding, his tank top stained with sweat and... well, Matt couldn't entirely say what. He realized he was staring and quickly pulled his gaze away. "What'ya want?" the man asked irritably. "If you're selling, I'm not buying. Do I look like I have the cash for that?"
The way Olivia had explained it was they just needed enough people on their side and things would have to start changing. One person starts to see them as more than just second rate, then it could spread. She knew they would have to fight, and she knew that she had admitted as much to Dominic the night before, but that was as far as she was willing to go about it for the time being. She smiled brightly, nerves on full display. "Let's." She agreed, following him to the building and nodded.
They'd have to start somewhere.
"We're not selling," Olivia was quick to insert. "Really, we'd just like... a moment of your time to talk. There's nothing for you to sign up for, nothing for you to buy." She held out their empty hands, glad that they had not brought out the petition paper for signatures. She tried to keep her smile warm but she was full of anxiety and fully expected this man to slam the door in their face any second.
Matt gave Olivia a look. This wasn't his idea, he wasn't even entirely on board with it- she needed to get it together and pull her nerves under control. His career and schooling had taught him how to talk to people, sure, but he had skipped out of 'Inciting Rebellion 101.' He couldn't do this alone.
"We're here in friendship and solidarity, sir," Matt said respectfully, nodding his head in a slight bow. "We speak on behalf of the Secondary Rights Movement, and on behalf of the impoverished full citizens who are treated little better than our people. We see a future where no one will have to live as we do now. But to get there, we need to work together, to stand united as one power against those that would hold us back. We ask not for your money, sir, but for your voice, your help in fighting for a new time. Separated, we are helpless, but together, our anger at the injustice of our world could be a force to be reckoned with." God, Dominic was so much better at this than he was. Matt decided to quit talking while he was still ahead.
"If you're get a leg up in the world, where does that put the rest of us who are already living in shitty conditions." The man snapped, "You get out of your little communities and get better jobs and that's less work for the rest of us." The door was slammed in their face and Olivia kept her smile painted on. "That's just the first one," She encouraged both herself and Matt. "It could have been worse? We can always revisit him."
A deep breath and they moved onto the next door, and somehow it was easier. If the worst thing that happened was doors were slammed in their faces, she could do this.
The next one to open the door was a woman. Her hair was stringy, unwashed. She had a newborn in her arms, and a small child poking out from behind her legs. She looked like she was about to cry, too, as she asked, "Can I help you?" Suspicious, especially when she realized she was talking to one, maybe two, Secs.
Olivia smiled, "Hi. I'm Olivia, this is my friend Matt. We were just hoping to have a minute of your time..."
"I've barely slept in a week, lady. I don't have time." The small baby in her arms started crying which started up the one behind her legs.
"Um. Perhaps I could...?" She offered her arms to hold the baby and, surprisingly, the woman let her. After a moment the baby settled, and the woman sighed.
"What do you people even want with me?" the woman asked on a tired sigh as she led them into the kitchen. The whole apartment looked as run down as it had from the outside, the kitchen dingy and dimly lit. Still, the woman dug through her cupboards to produce three glasses for water. "I don't have time, or money, I don't have anything to offer you. If you're looking for handouts, you're in the wrong area." She set the glasses down on a rickety card table that someone had tried unsuccessfully to dress up with a stained tablecloth. "And look... not to be rude, but my husband and I..." she didn't meet their eyes as she sat down. "It's not right, the way you folk are treated, but we have so little already, we can't afford- we work so hard- things would be even harder on us if we were to be Secondary sympathizers." The words were hushed, as if the woman was terrified to be overheard in her own home.
Matt listened sympathetically, nodding along as the woman spoke. She was saying the same things the last man had, but she had invited them in. She wanted to listen, she wished she could help. He knew enough about people to see that. "I understand, ma'am," he said gently, joining her at the table. "We aren't so different, you and your friends and me and mine. Our lives and specific struggles are different, but we struggle under the same system, we fight the same fight. There is a reason we chose to come here, and it isn't because we think you have money to give us."
"Not 'ma'am,' it's Jackie." The woman looked up to watch Olivia with the baby, not directly acknowledging Matt's words. "Call me Jackie." She rubbed a hand tiredly over her face, pinching her brow before she spoke again. "Look, your sentiments are great and all, but what am I supposed to do about it? This is how the world is, we just drew the short end of the stick. If I could change it, I would, but... the problem is, anyone who has power to make any real change is benefiting from this system, they won't want to. The only people you're going to get on your side are those who can't do anything about it anyway."
Olivia rocked the baby, gently as she listened to the woman. "That's not completely true," The elf spoke up. "There's a lot you can do. Simply recognizing that we are treated unfairly... the people we're trying to get on our side are the ones who will be the most likely to understand what it is we're going through. You have it rough, you get judgemental looks when you go to the store, the other parents at your kids school talks about you... they look and they point. You should see the way we're forced to live."
Olivia sighed, "We have been dealt an awful hand in life, but things are at a turning point. There are people who are starting to recognize that we're not less than simply for being different. We just need more people on our side who can smile and meet eyes with a Sec, who won't scoot away when they see one of us walking down the street. All we're trying to do is get someone, anyone, to see that we're not so different and to treat us right. It starts with one person and it can simply spread from there. Speak up when someone makes a derogatory remark about our kind. We are suffering together, and to step out of poverty we need people to notice us. Our kind and yours; people need to pay attention..." She smiled at Jackie, a sad smile.
"Most people don't think there's anything they can do, we're not asking you to join in a fight or to lobby for changes and reform... just to simply recognize us, vote for people who are most favorable to Secs."
Matt gave Olivia a sideways glance, but he didn't say anything to contradict her. He didn't like to lie to people, and telling this woman they weren't planning on a fight, that felt too much like lying for his comfort. Still, he knew it was a necessary... bending of the truth. They would have to work in baby steps, gain the people's respect and friendship before looking for anything more. At this stage, the slightest compromise was cause for optimism.
Jackie chewed her lip, clearly uncomfortable. "Look, I just... I mean. You're asking the wrong person, anyway. No one cares what I think, who I vote for. I'm nobody, even around here."
"But that doesn't mean you're not important," Matt countered. "It's a cultural shift we need, bottom up. It isn't you we think is going to change the world. It's you and a hundred like you who are gonna convince a thousand. And a thousand who are gonna convince a million. Even that million is just made up of individuals. People like us."
The woman seemed to consider that for a moment before slowly nodding. "I do think it's wrong, how they treat you," she said quietly. "People just like to have someone to blame, is all. I don't know. It doesn't really make sense, but that's the way things are. But you shouldn't be- you aren't secondary. You aren't inherently inferior. You're just... different." She looked up, meeting Matt's and Olivia's eyes solidly. "You're people, too. I don't know when the world forgot that."
Olivia was glad Matt had come along. He had said better what she had been trying to explain and she smiled, first at the Caster and then at the human woman. She felt... slightly guilty, but it hadn't been a lie exactly. They needed people on their side but they weren't asking, yet, for people to fight for them. Just... speak up.
For now.
The idea made her itchy and she offered the wo--Jackie her baby back, now sound asleep. She seemed relieved to have the child sound asleep. Olivia's own eyes pricked with tears and she blinked them away. "That's... that's all we need. People like you to say and believe things like that." It was a fairly promised start. "We won't take up anymore of your time and we really do appreciate you taking some time to talk to us," for not shying away from letting them into her home.
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