Test Drive Meme!

[hey35andholding]

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* Tag into this post with a pup you're thinking of apping to the bar with a brief EP set within Milliways and/or its universe. You can be new to the game, or simply want to test out a fresh pup.

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* Mingle, post, and have fun!

Comments

[pickledtribute]

There's a decidedly disgusted look at the term 'politics' - there is no love lost between Haymitch Abernathy and any one of Panem's politicians.

If he were a little more sober, he'd be thinking about how it'd be great if, in one of these hallucinations, a politician gets stabbed. Seems white alcohol has its uses after all.

[peacethroughpower]

Kane is still smiling, but his lips narrow.

"Oh, believe me, I'm not that kind of politician," he says. "The work I do has been called 'propaganda of the deed' by some. The powers that be have another name for it, of course."

[pickledtribute]

"There's only one kind. You-all just call yourselves different things to feel better about yourselves." No, that's not bitter at all.

In the way water isn't the slightest bit wet.

[peacethroughpower]

"All the politicians I know call me a terrorist. I can't say that makes me feel better about myself. They ought to try looking in a mirror sometime."

[pickledtribute]

And Haymitch makes the 'and there you go' hand gesture. They're calling him names, and he's calling them names.

Though, he admits he finds this more entertaining than the times that Snow has shown up in hallucinations.

[peacethroughpower]

"What I do is as legitimate a political tactic as any other," Kane continues. "Sometimes, it's the only legitimate option. Especially for the people I represent."

[pickledtribute]

"Does that excuse ever sound noble, or is it always such complete bullshit?" Haymitch asks, though from the contemptuous sarcastic bite in his voice, it's fairly clear he knows the answer to that one.

[peacethroughpower]

"Tell me, do you know what it's like to be forgotten? Ignored? Abandoned by a global consortium of technocrats that arrogantly claims the right to govern you, electing to serve their own interests as your family starves, your crops die, and your children grow up to be mutants? And all the while as your brothers and sisters die around you, they constantly bombard you with turgid propaganda and insipid human interest stories designed to make you look the other way while they rob you blind?

"What sort of justice would your heart cry for then? A blue-ribbon commission? Another round of tepid legislation by the same band of slithering cowards who brought this misery upon you? Or would it cry out for vengeance?

"I provide my people with hope for a better future. A future free of the malignant influences that govern the world. A Tiberian future. And I will bring about that future by any means necessary. That is what my politics are."

[pickledtribute]

Haymitch smiles. It's not a nice smile. I's forgotten, a bit, how to do nice smiles. Effie will teach him again, right before the next Games.

He leans in, alcohol heavy on his breath.

"Yes, I do. And I do not need, or want, any justice that might come from a politician. I've had enough of that already."

[peacethroughpower]

"Understandable," he says. "There are few sorts of men more worthless than the political officeholder. It's why I've never bothered running for it.

"Perhaps you should consider broadening your political horizons? I've always preferred the bullet to the ballot myself."

[pickledtribute]

"Shockingly, I've heard that one too. And it was my family that caught the bullets." Haymitch growls, no longer amused.



Not in the slightest.

[peacethroughpower]

"And I've survived two world wars," Kane says. "I've taken a spear to the chest and been at the epicenter of an ion cannon blast. I've seen many brothers and sisters pay the ultimate price for our cause. Yet from each of these wars the Brotherhood and I have emerged stronger than before.

"If you would seek to create a just world, you must first take stock of what you cherish most, and imagine yourself losing it. If it is not a sacrifice you are willing to make, then perhaps it would be best if you continue to be a slave.

"But fight or no, tyrants have a way of taking more and more from their servants as time goes by. When the day comes that their people no longer have anything left for them to take, that is when they meet their undoing."

Kane himself has sacrificed little, of course. As thoroughly as the GDI was fooled by his apparent deaths, his survival was never in question. And no matter what, there would always be more Initiates willing to die. But rest assured, they will receive their reward just as surely as Kane will.

[pickledtribute]

"My God, do you ever shut up, or do they pay you by the word?" Haymitch asks, sounding pained. Because honestly?

He doesn't buy a word. And he's a bit (a lot) annoyed at this politician lecturing him about pain.

[peacethroughpower]

Kane smiles at this. "Rhetoric can be useful on occasion. Though I prefer a car bomb, scud missile, or stealth tank any day."

[pickledtribute]

"Am I supposed to be impressed that you like killing people?" He asks, bluntly.

[peacethroughpower]

"No, you don't seem the type to be so easily impressed," he says.

"What I am, and what I always have been, is a man who favors direct action. But to simply hear a stranger talk to you about direct action is no use to you, or indeed, to anyone. Better to see it yourself, or better still, to do it."

[pickledtribute]

"... So basically, you like the sound of your own voice." Because so far, he's fairly sure he hasn't shown any sort of enthusiasm for what this guy is saying. Rather the opposite. And still he's going on, like President Snow with a caffeine addiction.

Now there's a frightening thought. He resolves not to have it again.

[peacethroughpower]

Kane chuckles. His tone grows friendlier and more relaxed. "I know the feeling isn't mutual, but I think I like you. You believe half of what you see and none of what you hear. That's good." Except when it came to his Fanatics, of course - they were the sort who needed to believe fervently.

"I can tell I won't be able to convince you of anything. But I'm a lot older than I look. I've seen enough earnest revolutionaries get lined up against a post and shot to understand why you regard me with cynicism. I could tell you how the Brotherhood's mastery of tiberium ensures our success. But your world doesn't have tiberium, does it? What good would those words do you, in the depths of your cynicism?"

[pickledtribute]

".... You're still talking." Haymitch observes, watching this guy like the bloodbath at the Cornucopia - with something approaching morbid fascination.

[peacethroughpower]

"Yes, I suppose I am," he says. In spite of everything, he's beginning to find this amusing.

"People on my world listen. They're all either brothers of the revolution or they're terrified of me. But you're neither, are you?"

He chuckles again. He hasn't walked into a room without being recognized since he was carrying papers for Stalin - and that anonymity had been deliberate.

[pickledtribute]

"... You're only just realizing this?" Wow. He hasn't met a politician like this since the years right after he won his Games.

[peacethroughpower]

"I've known I wasn't on Earth since the moment I came in. But it's been nearly a hundred years since I've talked to someone who didn't know who I was. The reputation I've earned does a lot of heavy lifting for me."

Even Prophets make mistakes every now and then.

[pickledtribute]

"... How the hell did your ego fit through the door?" Good grief. He can't even call the guy egotistical - that'd make the highest bar so high that everyone else in the universe would seem humble.

[peacethroughpower]

"Believe me, as many words as I've said to you, I can back up each one with a thousand deeds. I've murdered corrupt officials, destroyed tank divisions, and raised villages whose inhabitants were eating nothing but dirt into thriving industrial centers. My reputation on my world is entirely deserved, even if it means nothing to you."

Yeah, you've got a point there, Haymitch. The man's on record saying he's a close second to God Himself.

[pickledtribute]

"... Do I have to hit you to get you to shut up?" He finally asks, because this guy sounds like a Career on off his head on a bad batch of morphling, which is a deeply, deeply disturbing thought.