The Resurgent Dream
02-10-2006, 23:45
((OOC: Dammit, a typo in the title. If a mod could change it to Road to Resurgence: Shieldcrest, I would be much obliged))
Narich, Shieldcrest
It had only been a few weeks since Entente forces had mobilized in Biernes but already a protest of a few thousand had been called outside the Pantocratorian Consulate in Narich. The speakers included the Honorable Arthur Baron, Member of the Assembly for Shieldcrest, Baden Abernethy of the Revolutionary Communist Workers Party, Tomos Bach of the Republican Peace Union and almost a dozen others, some only known within radical circles, some nationally known entertainers and some local organizers picked to give the entire demonstration a certain grass roots feel.
The entire affair started like most such demonstrations. People begin milling in carrying signs with radical slogans a few hours before things were supposed to start. A great many of them were college and high school students wearing t-shirts with pictures of Elizabeth Fletcher, Vespasian Hunter or some other revolutionary. Because of the Emperor of Pantocratoria's various titular claims, quite a few of the protesters were wearing the image of Maximillian Robespierre or simply of a guillotine while others wore that of Sultan Mehmet II or of Brutus. One rather odd young man even worse a representation of King Turnus. There were about a hundred different radical groups and parties, most of which had fewer than a hundred members but all of which had a newspaper being hawked by an annoying eager not only to sell you one for a Sterling but also to criticize at great length the political line and actual practice of every other group at the march. A few of the oldest and larger groups even had little stands set up selling books about Finara, about the Entente and about all sorts of other current issues as well as a few older works of the extreme left, written by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky or whatever other revolutionary some group or other might have canonized.
The Grand Ducal Guard, charged with the protection of foreign consulates within Narich, was present both on horse and on foot in full uniform. The local constabulary, charged with both protecting protesters and keeping them in line, was also present around the edges of the area marked off for the demonstration. A few hundred yards away, there was a counterdemonstration chanting slogans supportive of the Panto-Danaan Alliance, the Entente and the action in Finara.
As the crowd arrived, the speakers went on, blaming the terrorist attack in Biernes on Pantocratoria or the Finaran Government or the Resurgent Dream, accusing the Entente of imperialism, suggesting that Biernes was now being repressed under martial law and going through a whole string of accusations familiar to anyone who’d ever been to a protest. Tortured links were formed between the war in Finara and a host of issues including the death penalty, abortion, gay rights, police brutality, labor disputes, discipline corsets, Rent Day, the Beyke tragedy, and even meat-eating. The crowd at this particular demonstration was more diverse than most as far-right Protestant groups had also shown up out of solidarity with Protestant rebels and protesters in Finara.
Once everyone was there, the crowd marched along a pre-arranged route, chanting political slogans as the local residents watched them march by. Despite their alleged working-class orientation, the crowd was much more affluent than the people who lived in the city. The slogans were generally simple and relatively formulaic and most of them were slight modifications of chants used at every left-wing demonstration. It wasn’t until they were arriving back in front of the consulate that things got interesting. A few men not affiliated with any specific group suddenly, loudly and firmly began to chant “Death, death, Sarah Sacker! Death, death Thibault Drapeur!”
Narich, Shieldcrest
It had only been a few weeks since Entente forces had mobilized in Biernes but already a protest of a few thousand had been called outside the Pantocratorian Consulate in Narich. The speakers included the Honorable Arthur Baron, Member of the Assembly for Shieldcrest, Baden Abernethy of the Revolutionary Communist Workers Party, Tomos Bach of the Republican Peace Union and almost a dozen others, some only known within radical circles, some nationally known entertainers and some local organizers picked to give the entire demonstration a certain grass roots feel.
The entire affair started like most such demonstrations. People begin milling in carrying signs with radical slogans a few hours before things were supposed to start. A great many of them were college and high school students wearing t-shirts with pictures of Elizabeth Fletcher, Vespasian Hunter or some other revolutionary. Because of the Emperor of Pantocratoria's various titular claims, quite a few of the protesters were wearing the image of Maximillian Robespierre or simply of a guillotine while others wore that of Sultan Mehmet II or of Brutus. One rather odd young man even worse a representation of King Turnus. There were about a hundred different radical groups and parties, most of which had fewer than a hundred members but all of which had a newspaper being hawked by an annoying eager not only to sell you one for a Sterling but also to criticize at great length the political line and actual practice of every other group at the march. A few of the oldest and larger groups even had little stands set up selling books about Finara, about the Entente and about all sorts of other current issues as well as a few older works of the extreme left, written by Marx, Engels, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky or whatever other revolutionary some group or other might have canonized.
The Grand Ducal Guard, charged with the protection of foreign consulates within Narich, was present both on horse and on foot in full uniform. The local constabulary, charged with both protecting protesters and keeping them in line, was also present around the edges of the area marked off for the demonstration. A few hundred yards away, there was a counterdemonstration chanting slogans supportive of the Panto-Danaan Alliance, the Entente and the action in Finara.
As the crowd arrived, the speakers went on, blaming the terrorist attack in Biernes on Pantocratoria or the Finaran Government or the Resurgent Dream, accusing the Entente of imperialism, suggesting that Biernes was now being repressed under martial law and going through a whole string of accusations familiar to anyone who’d ever been to a protest. Tortured links were formed between the war in Finara and a host of issues including the death penalty, abortion, gay rights, police brutality, labor disputes, discipline corsets, Rent Day, the Beyke tragedy, and even meat-eating. The crowd at this particular demonstration was more diverse than most as far-right Protestant groups had also shown up out of solidarity with Protestant rebels and protesters in Finara.
Once everyone was there, the crowd marched along a pre-arranged route, chanting political slogans as the local residents watched them march by. Despite their alleged working-class orientation, the crowd was much more affluent than the people who lived in the city. The slogans were generally simple and relatively formulaic and most of them were slight modifications of chants used at every left-wing demonstration. It wasn’t until they were arriving back in front of the consulate that things got interesting. A few men not affiliated with any specific group suddenly, loudly and firmly began to chant “Death, death, Sarah Sacker! Death, death Thibault Drapeur!”