Ex parte

[viditlibertas]

Who: Al Saiduq (NPC version), generic NPC civilians, and you!
Where: Libra Ward, anywhere within it.
Summary: There still seems to be some civil unrest in Hinoto-Ri. You may want to help that floating albino guy deal with it...
Warnings: Possible discussions of the Anoli attack, NPCs being NPCs.

Saiduq was not one who...walked. He could do the motion like most other humanoid-beings, but it felt awkward and unnatural to one who was not beholden to gravity. If he wanted to go from point A to point B, he teleported, or flew. That was it. Even Hinoto-Ri hadn't given him a need to alter that pattern.

Apparently that had drawn the ire of a few people, however, given he'd been all but dragged in to an anti-Guests conversation. And yet, despite the nature of the conversation, he didn't seem aware that his hovering and curious, neutral speaking tone were just irritating the citizens even more. If anything, he just seemed to grow even more confused as the civilians grew more aggravated. Dare you get involved?

((If you tag in, we'll set up the overheard conversations. So, please wait for both the NPC and this account to tag before responding!))

Comments

NPC get together?

[firstofthefallen]

Ah. There you are.

Louisa had been looking for Saiduq since her arrival. Truth be told, it had been annoying that she'd been unable to find him until now. A bit even more so since he seems to be so engaged in discussion with the inhabitants of the city. Well. Discussion, perhaps, was a bit misleading; to say he was standing there (floating there, truth be told) and doing his best to calm the people without understanding their feelings entirely would be more appropriate.

Louisa was one to talk. She wasn't a pinnacle of understanding man herself. But she could see where Saiduq might be erring at the moment. She thinks about leaving it at the moment, and leaving him to his discussion with the rabble, before finally stepping in.

"My, is there a problem?"

[justanothermachine]

While Rock was still learning some of the intricacies of human behavior, he at least knew enough to realize that this weird hovering guy's methods weren't doing him any favors with the locals.

Maybe this guy knew what he was doing? Maybe he didn't. With all that was going on, though, trying to lower the frustration level was probably a good idea. So he goes up to Saiduq, and lightly tugs on his sleeve. "Hey, mister...?"

[hinoto_npcs]

"Of course there is!"

The one who spoke seemed to be the 'leader' of this little unhappy rabble. A young man, barely in his twenties, with a stubborn set to his jaw and firmly squared shoulders. His face was a bit red, probably from his increasing frustrating with Alcor, and gestured a bit violently.

"It's about time the citizens of Hinoto-Ri got answers - and I mean the true citizens! Like the ones who were born here!"

[hinoto_npcs]

"Yes!" A woman spoke up from somewhere behind the ringleader, her voice clearly impassioned. "We want to know why we're being treated like second class citizens in our own city! The visitors are getting benefits we don't!"

[hinoto_npcs]

Sadly, Rock's voice was drowned out by one very irate sounded teenager, who had clearly been worked up into a right state. Seems his sneaky appearance was so far either ignored or unseen. "It just isn't fair! We're struggling to get enough housing and food - and all the visitors are getting it for free!"

[viditlibertas]

The bewilderment at those accusations seemed to be stuck to Saiduq's expression, his hand barely covering the frown on his face. The man and woman had been ping-ponging their accusations back and forth too fast for him to properly respond. The small break in tempo that the mysterious blonde stranger gave seemed to at least get him to drop his hand.

"Ah. It seems you're here." However, his comment was directed at Louisa, not at the citizens. Of course he was aware, but he hadn't expected their meeting to be during something like this. "I have tried to explain the situation of the Visitors to these people, but they do not seem to see my perspective."

alcor thats a gross understatement

[viditlibertas]

"I understand these concerns, however I-"

Saiduq stopped mid-sentence, glancing at the tug and tilting his head towards Rock.

"Do you require assistance?"

[awww_yeeeeeaaaah]

...Uh oh. He was far enough away from the crowd to not catch what was being said, but it looked like Saiduq was about to get into some trouble or...something. So, at first, he walks over to quietly pull him out of a jam.

Unfortunately, the closer he gets, the more snippets of conversation he hears and the more uneasy he gets. It was becoming more and more obvious that Saiduq probably just stumbled upon something already happening and, honestly, the theme of it was pretty familiar to him...

What to do...

[hinoto_npcs]

"What is it about the Visitors that make them a higher priority than us?!" the ringleader of the group was yelling, gesturing very passionately as the crowd behind him murmured in loud agreement. "All of the jobs, all of the housing, all of it is being pushed to them, while most of us are barely scraping by, homeless, and starving!"

[hinoto_npcs]

"Yeah! How is that fair! We should be getting most of the help!" A young teenager shouted his agreement, and quickly shouts rose amongst the crowd, everyone beginning to shout their own thoughts and agreement on the matter.

[ghost_shield]

Hmmm.

Seems like things are getting a little firey around here. That's no good. He wonders if he should get involved in this. Still, he supposes it couldn't hurt to try, right?

"Excuse me, folks, what seems to be the problem here?" he asks, looking around, his posture in as non-confrontational a fashion as possible.

[lighter_flick]

If there was one thing that Tatsuya became really really good at during the course of his adventure, it would be eavesdropping on other people's conversations. You kind of HAD to do that while listening for any potential rumors, plus he put in a decent amount of effort to not be noticed by other people.

The latter, of course, rarely worked for him, being almost six feet tall and having a noticeably pretty face, but hey, details.

[greatseal]

This whole situation doesn't look good to Minako, but she doesn't immediately engage the crowd. Instead, she moves around the edge, trying to get a feel for the conversation while getting closer to the mysterious floating guy. He was pretty obviously a Visitor himself, although she'd never spoken to him before.

[andcarryabigknife]

Gale didn't want any trouble, really. He only wanted to ask the strange young man how he was floating like that, without any visible wings. Alas, with his clothes, his hair and his eyes, he stood out maybe a little too much...

[viditlibertas]

"To be honest, I have not agreed with their stance on that either. While there is some sense to be made in handing supplies to those who are capable..."

Saiduq seemed to frown even deeper than he had been, hugging his elbows.

"...ultimately, this society will not survive."

alker you should probably not try to philosophy your way out of this

[linefacingforever]

Yu was pretty sure he would have been able to hear the commotion even if he was inside the house instead of poking around the garden, checking to see if the soil would be okay for growing later in the year, despite having changed locations. He craned his head around, curious as to what was getting so many people that annoyed, but he couldn't see anything from his vantage point. He glanced back down at the dirt, noticing a bug starting to wriggle its way out of the dirt. He debated for a moment (that bug would have made good fish bait...), before finally, carefully standing up, brushing the dirt from his pants and stepping out onto the sidewalk, looking around for the source of the complaining.

[awww_yeeeeeaaaah]

Yeah, this was definitely sounding really familiar.

Kaito immediately tries to walk through the growing crowd toward Saiduq. He doubted that either of them would be able to quell any concerns since...it didn't really work the last time this came up in their world. Maybe Saiduq wasn't getting that and...goddammit, the last thing that Saiduq said just proved his point.

[determinedhowl]

He'd just been wandering the town, minding his own business and being worried for those who'd vanished when suddenly a lot of people arguing and near-riot conditions. Guys seriously what is going on? What did he wander into and why does he have a bad feeling about this?

Yeah, he's just gonna listen and maybe record audio if he can...figure out how to do that again. ...Yeah. Wait, was that guy floating?

[whereibelong]

She was beginning to regret coming to visit Libra ward, no matter how stir-crazy she had been. This... had been exactly what Xion was terrified would happen. Ever since she'd heard the Anoli leader's speech, blaming the Visitors for so much of what had happened...

She isn't good at public speaking, and she's especially not good at defending herself (you would have to think yourself worthy of defense for that), but she's keeping an eye on the conversation for now. The person they were talking to... he seemed to be a visitor and maybe if things started risking getting too out of hand she should help... though with her arm still immobilized (and the other holding an umbrella) she'd probably be restricted to defensive spells.

At least the umbrella would work as a decent medium? Insert witty commentary about Days joke weaponry here.

[jumyouboshi]

Meanwhile, sitting on top of a nearby building, is another albino, watching...himself? Apparently so. He pressed a hand to his mouth, waiting for the humans to disperse. They always did. Somehow.

Granted, he did think to help Saiduq deal with the situation (it seemed that he was trying to clear those humans' doubts, but when it came to clearing doubts, he knew more than anyone else that that was not his forte), but thought it would do more harm than good. Saiduq's mere existence already caused them to harass him, and Alcor's presence would surely bring up even more questions and raise what seemed to be already high tensions. Humans tended to fear what they didn't understand, and with fear came anger (and in more extreme cases, conflict and bloodshed). He couldn't blame them, really, but...

If it ever came to that, he knew Saiduq could easily escape, or deal with it as needed. They could only hope it didn't come to that. And upon overhearing more of the conversations and arguments (that hit a bit too close to "home" for his taste), the thought of such paths they went down in crossed Alcor's mind once more.

Alcor simply sighed, watching the crowd below, waiting for a certain someone, as he always did. Distant yet not quite so. He was patient, if anything. Very, very patient.

[hinoto_npcs]

“Are you saying that we’re all doomed?!” A young woman shouted from within the crowd, and, oh dear, the angry shouting started to take a panicked, uneasy edge. The situation was devolving rapidly.

[hinoto_npcs]

“The problem?” the ringleader snapped, turning upon the newcomer instantly. “The problem are people like you! You’re one of the visitors, aren’t you?! You’re the cause of all the trouble in the city!”

[hinoto_npcs]

“Yeah!” another young man crowed. “The attack on the stadium was only because of you visitors! The Anoli would have left us alone otherwise!”

[hinoto_npcs]

“-and you’re all doing nothing!”

The woman sounded distraught, but even despite her obvious grief, her voice was strong with righteous fury. A few people murmured in mutinous agreement, shifting angrily as the woman wiped at her eyes and continued, her voice snapping like a whip.

“My- my husband died in that attack! All because the visitors were there! It, the Anoli never would have attacked us if the Mayor didn’t think- the visitors were supposed to help defend us, but they just made the entire situation worse! And now they’re just doing nothing?! Where is the justice in that?!”

[hinoto_npcs]

“What is it that makes the visitors so special?!” the ringleader was demanding, backed with a very angry sounding crowd. “Is it just because you all have Persona? That doesn’t make you any better than the Anoli!”