DAY 1 - Flower Child

[ChronoCatfish]

Elenga hesitated. She had taken this shortcut back home to her apartment hundreds of times since moving to the city. But this time was different. It was something about the atmosphere, the tone, the way the shadows moved.

Although it was probably the giant scrawl of graffiti across the wall reading ‘GREYSKINS GO HOME’. Elenga was intrigued. She had never really encountered racism before. When she first came to Neo Factory, she found that she had had no trouble getting along with anyone. Employers actually seemed more likely to hire greys than not in some cases, and so she hadn’t had any trouble getting a job as a project counsellor. Someone had needed to explain to her what racism was before she realised that it existed.. Grey was, after all, just another skin tone.

‘GREYSKINS GO HOME’. It was written in large, intricate lettering, unlike most of the other graffiti scribbles she had seen around here. Someone had wanted to cover the entire wall. It had clearly taken hours. Fascinated, Elenga walked up to the wall to take a closer look. Someone really cared.

It hadn’t occurred to Elenga to be afraid. It might not have mattered if it had.

“Filthy alien.”<br>
For a split second, Elenga was painfully aware of all the air she could no longer breathe. After that, there were no seconds.

[ChronoCatfish]

"Hm." said Rose. There was no point in saying anything else. It was another step closer to cleansing the planet. She could have said that, but there was no one to hear it, and even then she didn't feel like talking.

Another of the planet's unwanted, now its food. That was all. Rose supposed she should feel some pleasure, but it was so slow. There wasn't going to be any progress at this rate. Rose was tired of waiting.

She considered brushing her hair out of her eyes, but didn't see the point, and headed back to join the rest of the Cult.

[ChronoCatfish]

Cult rallies tended to have decent turnouts, but this had been a particularly good month for recruitment. As poverty grew, so did the cult. People joined when they couldn't pay for food, when they couldn't breathe the air, or didn't see the stars. It was a place to spend a cold night. A place where you could meet other people who, like you, knew that somewhere along the line it had all gone somehow wrong.

People joined the cult when life had trodden them into the ground, to be something more than food for the ants. Maybe even to help the ants along.

But there were extremes.

"Why haven't we attacked yet?" The anger in Rose's voice was the only emotion she seemed to be showing. Her stance was neutral, her the expression in her eyes dead.

"Haste is unnecessary. The great oak was no more impatient to touch the sky than we should be to avenge it." proclaimed the cult leader, Exram. He paused for effect and met his followers' blank stares. "...and in one week we shall reclaim the city!"

Everyone cheered.

"And you shall be at the forefront, Rose. We will have need of your... talents."

"Hm."

[panda]

Duana was sitting near the place of the Cult's rally, writing a new song when she was interupted by the racous cheering of the crowd. She had a very neutral opinion on the Cult, but as the days went on, she wondered if maybe she should join. The basic beliefs of the Cult were like her own and she could use the oppurtunity to share her story and to share more word about the places technology has pulled the world down to.
So, she slung her guitar over her shoulder and moved in with the masses to have a better listen.

[ChronoCatfish]

"Should we ignore the suffering of the soil?" shouted Exram, waving his arms madly. A vaguely negative amalgam of cries came from the assembled masses.

"Do we want to allow the earth to be brainwashed and our children crushed to make room for roads?"

If uninterrupted he would continue on much the same vein for most of the night. Rose, meanwhile, had moved to the back of the crowd and appeared to be murmuring something to a potted plant. A bulboid contemplated crawling onto Duana's shoulder to get a better view.

They all seemed oblivious to the banging sound coming from a sewer grate.

[panda]

Duana looked around her as Exram ranted on and on, the sound of his voice becoming a distant buzz in the back of her mind. She turned to her side and saw a small bulboid looking up at her. She smiled at the creature and surprisingly returned her attention to Exram.

After listening to a whole slew of questions Exram had to offer, Duana became bored. It was this boredom that brough her to raise her voice.

"And exactly how do you propose we change all of this?" shouted the musician at the top of her voice, praying that she could be heard.

[ChronoCatfish]

Exram beamed. He had been waiting for that question.

"Young sapling, you couldn't possibly have chosen a better time to ask that."

He raised his hand dramatically, as if to seize the sky.

"At the week's end, we shall strike. The earth's rightful denizens will rise up and crush their unworthy overlords! We will fight, and we will win!"

Cheering filled the square, but was cut off abruptly.

"A week. You want to wait an week." Rose's voice shouted, showing no other sign of her rage, "We aren't going to destroy the subjugators, and why? Because you wish to stroke your small, fragile ego a while longer."

Rose straightened up to her full height. Unimpressive in size, but this was clearly a challenge to Exram's authority. The crowd waited breathlessly to see the outcome.

[panda]

Duana was shocked and somewhat confused at Exram's statements. She looked down for a moment and when she returned her eyes to Exram again, she felt she needed to do something to defer a fight.

So, she spoke up again.

"All this talking about crushing unworthy overlords and striking and rightful denizens and stroking egos doesn't make any sense," she shouted. "I asked how to do these things, not what is going to happen. It seems unorganized."

She crossed her arms in front of her and hoped that the fight wouldn't happen, especially a new one between her and everyone else.

[ChronoCatfish]

"Let's just say that thanks to our most dedicated member-" Exram acknowledged Rose, "We have a weapon."

Whether or not he had intended to elaborate on the subject, the attention of the masses was now somewhere else. The noise from the sewer grating was getting louder and louder.

The grating fell away, to be replaced by someone's head.

"Hi! Are any of you Melleville Brunt oh crap it's the wrong park we're going to die" The newcomer had quickly become aware of his surroundings.

[panda]

Duana was about to raise more questions when the sewer grating fell. She turned quickly, instantly on the defense.

She couldn't help but laugh at the head out of the grating, but then a message blinked inside her lense, telling her to take caution of this unknown person.

[ChronoCatfish]

"What happened?" a female voice shouted from the sewers, "Do you see him?"

"It's a Cult rally. We just crashed a bulb-assed Cult rally."

"Have they noticed us?" yelled the girl.

"Yes."

"Crap. What do we do now?"

"Evasive Maneuver 402-A."

"What?"

"RUN!"

The newcomers disappeared. Exram smiled malevolently.

"Capital! We have had a stroke of luck, brethren. Three of you trail them. Perhaps we shall be able to deal with one obstacle preemptively."

Two bulboids hopped through the grating.

"I'll go." said Rose.

"No, you won't." replied Exram, "You will need to remain here and conserve your energy. We cannot afford to take risks at this stage."

[panda]

Suspicious at this point, Duana quickly followed after the bulboids, wondering who this Mellville Brunt person is.

[ChronoCatfish]

Duana and the bulboids found themselves at a triple junction. Pipes jutted out at awkward angles, and what had once been water flowed past them at a speed that was almost quick enough to be dangerious, but not quite.

Voices came from the center junction.

"You go ahead. I'll see if I can stall them."

"You sure you'll be okay?"

"If they're not careful, they'll be lucky if they have any bark left. Just find the bureaucrat and take him back to base."

"What if someone follows me?"

"What- Look, I'm taking care of that. Don't let anyone see you this time... just go."

"Fine."

The girl whose voice they had heard came into view. She was wearing some sort of loose camouflage uniform, with her unusually shiny brown hair tied up with a bandana. And according to Duana's glasses, no vital signs.

As they watched, she casually took off the bandana, and held it in her right hand. The bandanna flared up in a sudden flash of blinding light, and was gone. She disinterestedly proffered another bandana, and started to replace the first one.

"So... are you done here, or did you want something more?"