[Exalted: Planet Earth] Thomas - The Road Not Taken

Esbilon

Esbilon

Seven Thousand Club
John F. Kennedy International Airport, New York; Tuesday September 17


Many things have surprised Thomas after his... change, but even after all he has seen and done, he had not expected the ability to sleep uninterrupted on translatlantic flights to be among his new abilities. Thus it is without jet-lag or other small annoyances he comes face to face with a medium-sized annoyance, the United States Customs and Border Patrol. Getting through customs is also surprisingly easy, and he has trouble shaking the feeling that exchanging a few words with a bored custom's officer and having his passport looked at could be enough, but so it would seem.


He breathes in the air of the arrival lobby, it's strange to be back in this blight on the Earth that is also his home. He begins walking towards the AirTrain when he is stopped in his tracks by a poster that has somehow managed to stay on top of an overcrowded posting board: "Shakespeare's MacBeth at the Belasco Theatre," when his eyes drift automatically down the list of actors, they stop at a fateful line; "Lady MacDuff: Lavinia Brown." Hardly has this sunk in before his gaze is torn towards another posted: "Save the East Coast from ExxonMobile's oily greed!" Apparently Greenpeace is organizing a huge demonstration in... he looks at his watch... two hours.
 
"Hmm... nine thirty, the play's not until six... yeah, I have time."





He heads out of the airport, and starts taking a roundabout route to the site of the protest. He explores side streets, climbs walls and ladders, and generally engages in urban exploration as he relearns the paths of the concrete jungle. Once or twice, he ducks out of sight and turns into a bird to fly over the streets and get his bearings. With a feral grin, he almost hopes someone is dumb enough to try mugging him.
 
The demonstration will start in front of the Brooklyn public library and end in front of ExxonMobil's. The police have already started trickling in, but honestly in smaller numbers than Thomas would have expected. As he takes to the skies in the shape of a bird, he finds the reason for this. There is another announced protest on Wall Street and apparently the police expects much more trouble their so they have divided their forces less than evenly.


As for muggers, it is daytime in New York and there are people everywhere. Even if he didn't look like an elite athlete, he would probably be safe.


By the time he has finished familiarizing himself with the area, several hundred people have gathered both in Brooklyn and Manhattan, ready to march when the call goes out.
 
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At thirty minutes till noon, Tom approaches the Brooklyn Public Library. Finishing off the last bite from the least-greasy street vendor he could find (though the processed food still makes him feel a little gross after a month of fresh prey and rural Indian cooking), he smiles widely at the sight of the massive crowd gathered in support of the Cause. Even here in the heart of civilization, people remember their Mother.


He passes through the crowd like a a ship splitting waves, mingling and backslapping, encouraging and congratulating, and generally stirring the crowd's fervor to new heights for a few minutes. Then, he decides to take a step back and watch things unfold. He heads around the library, and swiftly climbs one of the trees behind the massive structure, then easily makes the long jump from branch to the library's roof. He perches on the edge, and looks down at the crowd, waving cheerfully to anyone that notices him, holding up one of the Greenpeace flags that somebody was passing out.

Image linked for bigness:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b7/Brooklyn_Public_Library.jpg
I'm aiming to wind up right above the window on the left-hand side, just right of the flagpole. Any rolls I need to make?
 
No roll necessary, climbing buildings is one of those things full moons do

;)
The crowd doesn't part for Thomas, it accepts him as part of it. He hasn't felt camaraderie like this in a long time. It feels good to be part of something greater again. It's a bit like the Marines, but without the focus on violence, these are people who want peace, who want justice and who care about the Earth as a whole.


The man passing the flag looks like a cross between a Kennedy and Bob Marley, underneath the joint, the dreadlocks and the Rastafari clothes, there's a nice young college kid that grandma would love to welcome to her table. But he calls Thomas 'brother' and gives him a symbol to light the crowd's hearts on fire. When people notice him climbing, they cry out, some in fear, some in adoration, some just from the sheer awesomeness of the act, and before he knows it, he is looking down on the mass of people, waving the flag above his head. The cameras are quick to follow and in an instant, the young man who so recently prowled the jungles of India has made himself a symbol of the fight against ExxonMobil.
 
Well, that's a little more attention than I planned on getting. Can't complain, though, Tom thinks to himself. Here I thought tigers were lone hunters, and now I've got the biggest pack in the world. He hadn't really been trying to become the center of attention... but he's learning that following your impulses can pay off. Now, he just needs to give them the right nudge.


He springs to his feet, throwing in a totally unnecessary backflip that sets the crowd roaring again. He plants the flag on the building, and raises his fist into the air. He takes a deep breath, expanding his chest, enlarging his lungs and subtly changing his vocal chords to project loud enough to reach the entire crowd. "Brothers, sisters!," he calls, taking a cue from the guy who gave him the flag. "Here we stand in the so-called greatest nation on Earth, and yet the government bends over backwards to help the people doing the most to harm the Earth! That's why we're all here! To show them that we do not agree! That they do not represent us! We care more about the planet and her creatures than filling some greedy businessman's bank account!"


He pauses to let the crowd react before going on. "Even as we speak, one of those companies is planning to drill yet another hole into our Mother's skin and suck out her blood to fuel the machines that choke the air and foul the water! Are we going to let them?!"

Social attack, Charisma + Performance. Full Cha Excellency, plus Third Appearance and Perfect Symmetry (giving me effective App 8 and a max MDV penalty on the crowd of -6).


[dice]2020[/dice]


[dice]2038[/dice]


7 successes total.
 
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"No!" The crowd yells back at the rhetorical question. The Rabble is officially roused, it is intoxicating to feel them responding in this way, to make their will an extension of your own. Thomas is a man for direct action, but this isn't bad at all either. He can easily see even the big name TV cameras tuning in on him, and the choppers in the air come closer. His face will be all over the news today.


The crowd is eager to get moving, hell it even looks as if some of the policemen are wanting to join the protesters. The organizers are trying to get them to hold back for another hour until the official starting time, but Thomas is quite certain that if he gave the word, these thousands of people would start moving.
 
"Then what are we waiting for?!" He throws the Greenpeace flag into the air, spinning the long staff like a baton, and leaps off the roof! Rather than falling to his death, Tom grabs the American flagpole with one hand and spins around it, slowing his descent, then springs off and lands on the lamp-post, sliding down it the rest of the way to the ground. He throws up his arms as he sticks the landing, one fist clenched, the other catching the flag he tossed. He takes a bow for the crowd, then points the staff downtown, and leads them towards the Exxon-Mobile building.
 
Raising their fists in response and giving a wordless yell, the crowd follows Thomas down the street. The demonstration was scheduled well in advance, so the police has made sure to clear the way for it before hand. However, it was not meant to start quite so early, so they are frantically scrambling to clear the few cars on this side of the road.
 
Not even trying to resist grandstanding a bit more, he leaps up onto the hood of one of the cars, and climbs to its roof, waving his followers onwards. He leaps to the next car, then to the top of a short wall, running along it before going back to the ground... and so on. At one point he goes an entire block without his feet touching the street.


Let 'em try to stop this.
 
The police are flanking the demonstration with motorcycles, and a few of those have rushed ahead to divert the traffic, so soon they walk unhindered (though also without material for cool tricks on Thomas's side). Thomas keeps waving the banner, shouting out to the people in the streets and singing the songs of his people, of all the people of Earth. He notices pedestrians wavering, and then joining in, after a few blocks, he even sees people storm out of their apartment buildings and joining the growing mass of people behind him. His heart swells with pride, this is a worthy endeavor, this is a great thing and he has contributed to it.


There is a lull in the shouts and the songs, but the sense of community, of belonging remains. He glances around and to see the same in everyone there. They are proud, they are happy, they are making a stand for the Earth itself and they are making their voices heard. When his gaze returns to the road ahead, he notices a pretty blonde girl in a Greenpeace t-shirt beside him, she is looking at him with disbelieving adoration and says, "who are you?"
 
He gives her a wide smile. "You can call me Tom. My name's not important though. I set the spark, but it's not about me." He puts an arm around the girl's shoulders, and waves at the crowd behind them, and the road ahead. "This is about all of us, standing up for what we all know is right!"
 
She puts her arm around his back, "of course, but you're really helping a lot! I haven't seen you at any of the prep meetings for this though, are you new in town?"
 
"Yes and no," he says with a shrug (incidentally flexing the muscles under her arm). "I grew up in New York, but I've been out of the country the last few years. I just got back today, actually, and saw the fliers, and knew I had to be here. Must have been fate," he finishes with a smile.
 
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"Not fate," she says, her voice getting undertones of religious fervor, "the gentle touch of Mother Earth." After a moment, she continues, looking up at Thomas's face, "so, are you coming to the after party too?"
 
"Is there really a difference? I haven't made up my mind about the party yet, kind of playing things by ear. I was hoping to surprise an old friend here in town later, before I heard about the rally and duty called. When's it supposed to be?"
 
She tugs a flier into his shirt pocket and gives me a suggestive smile, "it starts whenever the demo fizzles out, but we're going to be at it all night."
 
"Oh, I might be convinced," he says with a smile. "There's just one more thing I need to know before we get the main event started, though."


"What's your name?"
 
"Oh, I'm Suzy," she says, smiling adoringly up at Tom, "I'm a biology major at Columbia."
 
"And you're bringing those people to the cause," she says gesturing around her. And Thomas has a hard time disagreeing with her, this isn't his first demo, and seeing people come out of their apartments in tens or even hundreds is a definite first. Could he, personally, really be making that much of a difference? Perhaps there's more to this change than the ability to change shapes and fight tooth and claw for mother Earth.
 
He tries to play it off with a grin and a shrug, but is inwardly both excited and... something else by what she points out. Unsettled? Humbled? He can't really put a name to the feeling. This energy I feel... it doesn't just make me stronger and faster... it makes me more everything, he thinks. I'd never have had the guts to try something like that a month ago. Now it just came naturally, as easy as the hunt.


"Maybe. I can't really take all the credit, though. I'm just working for a higher power."
 
She smiles widely, "the greatest power there is. We'll show them all just how great She is, and they will never dream of doing things like this again. We can and we must live in harmony with Mother Earth, or it will surely doom us all." She glances up at Tom again and blushes slightly, "I'm sorry, I come on strong."
 
"Don't apologize, you're absolutely right. Everyone in this crowd believes it, or they wouldn't be here. Man has strained the Mother's goodwill too far, and for too long; now, it's past time to set things right. One way or another, we'll reap what we sow."
 
Thomas, Suzy and the rest of the protesters cross a hill and can now see the ExxonMobil New York office in front of them. It is a fairly large building, but nothing like the skyscrapers that dominate the city's skyline. Its front is covered in glass and decorated with the company logo in large, imposing letters. In front of the building, about twenty police officers are looking around, mainly in the direction of the protesters.


"We're here," Suzy says with a grin, "we'll show them. We'll make them see!"
 
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