capencowl2020 | "Resisting is worth doing."

Entry tags:

!ic,
!log

"Resisting is worth doing."

Who: Jane Porter & YOU.
What: Open prompts for Jane, currently involving midnight graffiti-art and subtle protest.
When: During the event.
Where: All over the city.
Warnings: None yet.

i. midnight graffiti art (any date, 1am - 3am)

[A small shower of glass follows the crash and pop of a street lamp being put out with a well-thrown rock. Below it, Jane Porter lowers her arm from above her eyes and smirks in visible satisfaction.

Then she bends down to the rucksack of spray paints and pre-cut stencils, selects a few items, and sets to work.

Her art, always done in the dead of night and always anonymous, ranges from the not so subtly metaphorical, to the deliberately pointed, to ones which are quickly scrawled when she feels like she doesn't have enough time to do anything else.

She's already been noticed by Georgia, and the offer given is something of a tempting one... but until the two of them meet she'll keep up what she's doing on an almost nightly basis.

Jane disappears the moment she hears anyone coming, leaving little evidence that she was there at all. A spray can, or a used stencil. She'll linger nearby, just to see who's there... and maybe she'll come out if it's safe to do so.

ii. the library (any date, daytime)

Hmm... what do you know, someone's been putting pro-Meta flyers in library books.

[That person is, of course, Jane herself. Now and then she'll find them already there, unsure if she'd been in that aisle already or if others are doing the same thing. It's peaceful protest, in its own way, for someone who prefers to keep herself as far under the radar as possible.

Jane removes the leaflet, gives it a small once-over, then slips it into the book and sets it back on the shelf.]

How utterly scandalous.

iii. wildcard

[Want to find Jane somewhere? Anywhere? Did we discuss something I forgot about (likely)? Hit me up on hardtostarboard or drop me a top level ;D]

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[ Late night is a good time for fighting. But more to the point, he doesn't sleep half as well as he used to, shadows under his eyes making him look more like the Boar than he ever wanted to.

All he has any more is fighting, battling one person after the other as though it'll provide an answer. Why are you so focused on becoming stronger? Byleth had asked him back when the professor was still new at Garreg Mach, back when his biggest problem was Dimitri trying to pretend he wasn't a monster under that charming smile.

Heh. How long has it been since he even thought of that life?

Maybe it's just the moon, or the talk of the Porter working again. Who knows. It doesn't matter once he hears the shattering of glass, distracting him from the prowling of nearby alleyways and monitoring the duo chatting just out of the pooling of another light.

He's still for a while, not willing to lose this tail just yet, but then two taxis take them in opposing directions and Felix's curiosity gets the better of him, heading in the direction he remembers the noise being.

And almost immediately running into a young woman hiding nearby. ]

... What are you doing?

[ The words are blunt and rough and his expression is a glower, but there's no real threat in his stance. Not yet. ]

Scandalous indeed.

[Anders has been in the non-fiction section, secretly doing a little literature planting of his own. In his case, it's pages of a pro-meta manifesto he's writing. When he's not doing something more direct, every little bit helps.]

I won't tell if you won't.

[One night, as she's tagging her latest masterpiece, she might get the feeling she's being watched. Because indeed she is, with two red eyes glowing in otherwise undisturbed darkness.]

If you really wanted to make a statement, might I suggest C4.

[ Lando is often out late at night, making smuggling runs between meta friendly safe houses. It's always easier when he teams up with Han, because Han has the ride, but Lando makes do on foot when he's on his own. Like he is tonight. He hears the rattle of a spray can from around the block and pauses, peering out from behind a wall. Looks like the artist is at it again. Lando's seen her work around, but never has he caught her in the act before.

Sounds like he's not the only one who's caught her in the act. He hears a mechanical whir from overhead and spots a CCTV camera, swiveling to point towards where the graffiti artist is working. If they get her image, she's done for.

He darts out from behind his wall and rushes over to the woman, holding up his hands in an "I come in peace" gesture. ]

Hey. Your work is great, but I think you're starting to attract the wrong kind of admirers. [ He points up toward the camera. ] If you want to live to spray another day, you'd better come with me.

It certainly is.

[She might recognize that face if she turns around. He was mentioned in George's recent article, a Reptilian who was with the rebellion until he was taken and tortured, then came back as one of the government enforcers.

He pulls the book back down, pulling the pamphlet back out.]

Don't want just anyone running across this.

[ Lillie jumps, looking up to the woman who spoke with a nervous smile. She nods politely. ]

Oh, um. Yes. It's very scandalous.

[ It hadn't been very long since she came to this world, and all she knew was that she was apparently a meta, and that people didn't like metas. She had gone to the library in hopes of getting her groundings, but goodness knew the young girl was terrified of being found out, and she wasn't that good at hiding it. ]

[Many people find that the nights are the best time for fighitng, though Jane tends to stay away from those kinds of people when she's trying to put her marks on the city. They draw too much attention - and, simultaneously, they draw attention away from the places that she is occupying.

All the talk of the Porter working again, and something that Jane has already confirmed for herself as the truth, has already begun to stir people up in ways that had almost been forgotten in the past years. Had they grown so used to this already? Jane is sure that no one who knew her from home would recognise her now.

She isn't hiding, not when he comes across her. She's pulled the cap from her head and shaken her jaw-length brown hair free, and is settling a light beige coat around her shoulders.]

Doing? [Looking up, her blue eyes wide, she clutches her bag to her chest and deliberately allows her voice to take on a more breathy quality.] Why, nothing. Only fastening my coat against the cold.

[Jane shoots Anders a small, wry smile. What she's sliding into the books isn't her own writing - something of Georgia's, most likely - but the punishment would be the same for the both of them if they were caught by the wrong person.

Her nose wrinkles when she smiles, and she sidles over to him to loop her arm through his entirely nonchalantly. The movement blocks the view of anyone to that side of him who might be getting a little too curious about what he's doing.]

A lady never tells, Anders.

One finds ways to make statements without needless loss of life.

[Jane replies calmly, despite the way her insides jumped when he spoke and the way her heart is now pounding in her ears. She doesn't startle easily; not like she used to.]

Any act of resistance is worth doing, though I do draw the line at unnecessary bloodshed.

[She's usually better at it than this - at not getting caught out. She's usually better at keeping track of where the cameras are, too, but they've been putting up new ones faster than she can mark where they are.

But that's why she has her hair tucked up beneath a black cap and a dark scarf wrapped up against the bridge of her nose. That's why she wears clothes that hide her shape, and a heel inside her shoes to disguise her real height. There are all kinds of ways an image might be used to track the person in it.

Her skin jumps when she hears his voice - too close, thank you - and her hand goes to the small firearm at her belt. The CCTV camera swivels, she adds the last couple of letters to her latest piece, and she steps back enough to be entirely out of its range.]

I've been dodging those bloody cameras since I started doing this. [A woman's voice - English, though not as strongly as it used to be - and sharp blue eyes narrow at his 'suggestion'.]

And I dare say I don't have to go anywhere with you. Just who do you think you are?

[Anders smirks at Jane, allowing the contact and leaning just slightly to further block the view. He's going to have to start actually stapling his manifesto pages together and slipping them in between the books and on the shelves.]

I should hope not. Nor does a doctor.

[Using the word 'doctor' over 'healer' tends to draw less attention and won't single him out as a meta.]

[She turns around with a sweet enough smile, deftly disguising the way her blood runs chill at the sight of him. Of course she knows who he is, and she pities him as much as she very suddenly worries for her own safety.

The loss of one piece of paper means very little. There are over a hundred others scattered through the library.

So, she smiles.]

Of course not. Imagine the outrage.

[He starts ripping it up.]

Guess I'll have to spend the day looking for any other contraband someone might have left here. Sorry you had to see that, ma'am.

[Is it possible that she could have been the one to leave that? Absolutely. Should he be suspicious of her and possibly ask more questions? Probably, but the government requires him to do their dirty work, they do not require him to employ critical thinking skills, and he's honestly only going to do what he absolutely has to. And so he gladly walks over to a trash can to throw it out, glad to spend the day looking through every single book. Because the more time he wastes doing that, knowing full well the fliers will be back the next day, the more time he's not actually hunting metas.]

Oh, not at all.

[Hell. Hell.

And her standing here with no way to get this news back to anyone until she hits base again. She makes a frustrated face at Jonathan's retreating back, carefully smoothing it out before he can turn to see her.

Then, her heart in her throat, she clasps her hands behind her back and moves closer to him.]

Do you often spend time walking through libraries searching for rebel contraband?

Of course not.

[She leans her head on his arm, giving the impression - to anyone watching - of two people simply enjoying each others company a little too much. Victorian levels of embarrassment endure even in this day and age, and it's enough to make most people look away immediately.]

Do you have a copy for me? [Spoken quietly, behind another smile.] I do so enjoy your writing.

[She's a child, and meta or not, Jane is not impolite to children. She straightens the book on the shelf and looks around them both.]

Are you all by yourself? [Jane asks, quite gently as she crouches down and holds lightly to one of the lower shelves to keep her balance.]

... Are you alright?

[Most people are uncomfortable with public displays of affection, even platonic ones, so he just goes with Jane's lead.]

I might just have an extra copy, yes.

[Reaching his free hand into his jacket pocket, Anders takes out a small pamphlet. Today's pages of the manifesto are all about sapping people of their free will is very bad, and that the government shouldn't get to dictate how people use their gifts, whether those gifts are ones they already had or that the porter gave them.]

I mean, the government prefers I keep busy, and it's either this or go out and hunt metas.

[And honestly, he'd rather do this. He really doesn't enjoy hunting his former allies, and this just hinders the dissemination of ideas. It hurts their cause, but it doesn't scream for help as he tries to take it in.]

And I didn't have any leads on any metas, and we had reports on pamphlets like this being found around here, so checking for pamphlets it was.

[ Lillie forces a smile, though she still wrung her hands in front of her anxiously. ]

I, um, yes-, yes ma'am. I mean, I'm not all alone, [ mostly a lie, and from the sound of her voice, an obvious one, ] b-but I am alright.

[ She was trying to look alright, to look normal, but this was quite a lot to handle, and she had never been good at dishonesty. ]

[ There’s steps. A tall, thin young man, mess of blonde curls just barely hidden by the hood of his jacket. Tiny little black and white dog merrily trotting by his side. Not an unusual sight, certainly not to Jane. Hell, there were a couple of times where he popped in by surprise, using his powers, to test her her reaction. Or, well, mostly he did it as a prank.

Walking around at night felt a lot safer, not that Adam was the most careful sort. Maybe he’s just clearing his head. Maybe he’s on the way to stir his own brand of trouble. But he stops when he notices the work, looking up at it for a good half a minute. He smiles.]

Needs a little more red, I think. [ Almost looking like he’s talking to himself.]

Ooh, lovely.

[She hides it away quickly, folding it and tucking it inside her blouse. Somewhere no one was likely to attempt to look - at least not in public. Jane grins slightly up at the other Meta, then looks back over her shoulder.]

I think we've made everyone in the vicinity suitably uncomfortable. Should we move to the modern history section?

[And it hurts their cause far less than the government thinks, given the amount of times a week someone might come in here doing exactly what Jane was doing.]

Hmn. I see.

[She watches him curiously, and presses her lips together.]

You don't enjoy hunting metas? I always thought it must be rewarding, for people to do it.

I think that sounds like a good idea.

[Gently tugging Jane along, Anders guides the two of them in between more bookshelves and to the modern history section.]

Uhh...

[A brief looks of panic flicks across his face. He's supposed to encourage compliance. Letting on that he hates hunting other people like him is literally the opposite of that. He quickly plasters on the biggest, fakest smile that she has likely ever seen. After all, they're always watching. He needs to be careful with what kind of front he puts forward.]

Well, you know how it is with any job. It's important work, but day in and day out...sometimes it's just nice to mix things up, that's all.

Hmm...

[She isn't so sure of this girl's honesty, but sometimes it's just not a person's place to pry...

But Jane is a meddler by nature, so she puts a slim hand gently on Lillie's shoulder and looks her in the eyes.]

If you need help, sweetheart, I promise... I'm a safe person to tell.

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"Resisting is worth doing."

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