novelraw Chapter 148 – Public Eye
Chapter 148 – Public Eye
Chapter 148 – Public Eye
“What is the point of making a law that is just going to get shot down in court? Seriously people, this is a waste of time and it only serves to alienate us further from our constituents.” Senator Randy Gordon in a special committee meeting about new anti para legislation.
“You didn’t say this meeting was in a basement.” Kurt grumbled.
“I didn’t know.” Penny replied.
“You said it was in a library.”
Penny looked around at the library atrium. “It is a library.”
“Yeah, a library basement. There are a lot of problems with fights in the basement. Number one being fighting in a god damn basement.” Kurt sighed before just giving up on channeling his inner Aldo Raine.
“Well, what do you want me to do about it?” Penny threw her hands up in exasperation.
Kurt shook his head. “Nothing, I just wanted to voice my displeasure to the universe and whoever will listen.” He then turned toward the signs that said ‘public meeting rooms’ and followed the arrow down the wide stairs.
The girls followed after him, heads up and alert in the surprisingly busy library. Kurt wondered if this was normal or if everyone there was a para. He could smell a few paras, but it was hard to tell how fresh the scent trails were in a public building with unfamiliar air circulation.
According to the official posted library hours, it closed at 8 but the meeting rooms had negotiable hours. That was clearly evident since the meeting was set to start at 7 and according to the signage, was reserved until 10.
At the bottom of the stairs was a small open area with a few hallways running off it. One led to archival storage, another to photograph catalogues and the third led to meeting rooms 1 through 6. They took the third path and stopped at the open door to room 3. There was a printed sheet of paper that said it was reserved for the ‘Peoples Parliament’.
Kurt could see people inside, so he just walked in. The half dozen people in the corner stopped and looked at them, pausing mid argument it seemed. Kurt just waived awkwardly while looking around while Penny stepped around him.
“Hi, we are here to meet…” She looked at her tablet. “Meeting a mister Evan.”
A tall human looking person stepped away from the group. “I am Evan. Who are you?”
“AH, hi.” Penny met him halfway and extended her hand. “I am Penny with the Order Stabiltas. I am the handler for one of our teams and we are answering your request for consultation.”
Evan startled and rushed to take her hand in return. “Oh! I didn’t think you would be here so early… or at all.” He looked over Penny’s shoulder at Kurt and the girls. “I assume that is the team you manage?”
Penny nodded and turned, gesturing to the rest of them. “This is Kurt, Val and Kristi.” Each of them waived as their name was said. “I see we are quite early?” She asked hopefully. They were all of five minutes early for the meeting and to see so few of this group in attendance was disappointing.
The man let out a sigh and crossed his arms, looking a little defensive as his jaw clenched. “Yeah, we try to set a time that everyone can attend but we still have stragglers for fifteen to twenty minutes after the official start time regardless of when we set it.”
“I see.” Penny frowned. “Well, nothing I can do about that so we will find some seats. Are any reserved or is it all open?” She pointed with her tablet at the rows of chairs and tables facing the podium at the front of the room.
“Nope, sit where you like. We normally sit in the front since we end up speaking the most, it makes it easier to get to the mic.” Evan said, relaxing as the topic of tardiness was glossed over. “But first let me introduce you to the others. We kind of act as the leadership portion of the council despite everyone having an equal say.”
“How does that work?” Kurt asked as they joined Penny in the walk across the room.
“Poorly.” Answered an older woman who’s stature suggested dwarf and clothing suggested grandmother or possibly antiques shop owner. “But we try to keep things in order and moving along. I am Susan Greene, I act a little as treasurer.” She reached a hand out and Kurt confirmed she was a dwarf.
“Felix Michales.” Grunted a tall broad shouldered man with blonde hair who looked to be in his late twenties. He didn’t offer his hand to shake, barely giving them a nod. He then promptly went back to ignoring them and staring at his tablet. He then excused himself, leaving the room quickly.
“Ah don’t mind old grumpy-butt-Michales.” Said a younger woman who flashed her elven ears from under her long, straight brown hair. “Apparently werewolves are all cranky like him.” She looked at Kurt and the girls before suddenly realizing what was supposed to happen. “Ope, sorry. Farah Caine. I do some social media stuff and general coordination.”
Kurt and the girls shook hands with her, but his mind was focused on Felix. Kurt could smell everyone in the room. He got whiffs of human, elf, dwarf, some sort of demon and a changeling but no werewolf. One of those even smelled familiar to him for some reason. “Heads up in case you can’t smell it, there isn’t a werewolf here besides me.” Kurt told his group through the implant and then filled them in on what he did smell.
“Shocker, not everyone is being honest.” Val commented dryly, her mental voice having an implied eye roll.
The next person to greet them was another woman with a couple pink braids in her otherwise blond hair. “Hi, we have already met. I’m Jessica or Jess.” She shook hands with everyone. “I came up to scope you out at the game.”
“Well, I’ll be damned. An honest changeling.” Val’s surprise was palpable between the necklace and the implant.
Penny’s eye twitched but she didn’t otherwise betray her emotions. “I resemble that remark.”
Kristi finally finished up with her task of outlining the floor plan to Jade’s team via the implant and hopped on their current conversation. “Yeah, but we like you.”
“Fair.”
“I would say it’s nice to see you, but that would be a lie.” Kurt said flatly. His reaction was clearly unexpected, and the idle chit chat of the others all came to a screeching halt.
“That is… regrettable.” Jessica admitted while ducking her head and having the good graces to look ashamed. “Is it too late to say I am sorry?”
Kurt shrugged but Kristi answered. “It would be the first step to getting off our shit list.”
“We don’t like people that play games like that. If you want a good working relationship, it isn’t founded with lies and deceit.” Val added.
Jessica frowned and did a sort of half bow, half curtsey. “I understand and will try to make things right in the end.” She then stepped away, putting herself at the far edge of the group behind the dwarf.
The last man introduced himself as Andrew. Self admittedly a bad influence due to him being a lesser incubus. That being said, he was rather charming and handsome but the spell was broken as soon as his nature was announced. That just left him as a rather handsome regular-looking person with great hair.
Evan came back around with a few bottles of water and a to-go jugs of coffee from one of the larger chains. “I forgot to mention, I act as the leader or maybe president. I am a mage by hobby but not a very good one, so I am mostly an ally.”
Kurt took the offered water and even poured a coffee for himself and Val while Kristi and Penny just took water. “Are there many allies in this group or is it all paras?”
“We have a few. Mostly close friends and S.O.s” Evan answered and put away the coffee. “Our group, at least the regulars, is pretty small, only thirty or so. But we have a couple hundred members.”
“That’s a pretty large group then.” Kurt said before sampling the coffee and finding it passable.
“Not for a city with over 200,000 residents.” Evan shook his head and sighed. “Haa, and that’s before you count the outer metropolitan area and suburbs which make that ratio even smaller.”
Kristi cocked her head to one side with a confused expression. “Umm, how many paras are there? Like, I know other worlds have more nonhumans, but still there should be a good number.”
Shrugging, Evan leaned on one of the chairs. “Nobody knows. With how the laws are, despite them being repealed, nobody is going to self-identify. If I were to guess, it’s got to be closer to 2000 or so, between all the various races. Maybe 2500 if you count all the human variants like mages, warlocks and such.”
At that point they could hear some voices coming down the hall. They decided to take some seats toward the back at the far edge of the seating area. The people that entered were an eclectic bunch just on clothes alone, let alone their nature as paranormals. Unfortunately, as people entered the room, they noticed the unfamiliar faces and came over to introduce themselves. That little act gave Kurt a lot of information that he didn’t realize he needed.
This group had a tendency to introduce themselves by stating their name, what they did for the group and what they were. Or rather, what they claimed to be.
What Kurt had been expecting was the regular mix of paranormals that Earth had to offer. Mages, dwarves, elves were pretty common and even the demi-humans like lycans and vampires were not exactly rare from his understanding. Given the number of people claiming to be in the group, he should have seen plenty of each and perhaps one or two of the rarer ones, yet that wasn’t the case.
Half of the people that introduced themselves were just plain humans. Oh, some claimed to be half this or quarter that on their mother’s side and blah, blah, blah. If that were the case, Kurt’s ring would tell him. One even had the audacity to say she was a kitsune wearing a glamor which almost made Val laugh out loud.
On the flip side of that coin was the numerous ‘allies’. A fair number that claimed to be humans were any variety of fey and demons who were wearing a glamor of one type or another. Only one of those was honest and had leaned in to whisper that they only pretended to be an ally to get out of having to do things. While Kurt thought that was a shitty thing to do, he respected their stance on the matter as their own.
Throughout the process of meeting all the people, Kurt and the girls never actually told them why they were there. They didn’t even make references, just letting the people make assumptions that they were locals looking to join the club.
Finally, at half past seven, people stopped arriving and the seats were about three quarters full. Evan walked up to the podium, ignoring the microphone and just speaking a little louder since the room was small enough.
“Thank you all for coming. I am glad to see we have a good turnout tonight.” He pointed a clicker at the screen behind him and a slide popped up with an agenda. “I guess we should start with the old business then move on after we recap.”
Evan ran through a short list of items that he considered old business. It was mostly minor things like the state of the social media pages, the local rumor mill and the general state of the club such as finances and membership. After a quick summary which had many people nodding off, he moved on to what he called ‘new business’.
“Of course, the big news is still that the Supreme Court has ruled that the Paranormal Identification act is unconstitutional and by extension the Societal Integration amendment has also been removed. The legislation officially sunset on the first of last month.”
There was a round of clapping and a few muted cheers before Evan continued. “That being said, we don’t know if state and local legislature will try to push things but now there is precedent that can be referenced and will hopefully deter any follow up legislation.”
“How do we keep that from happening here?” Asked one of the elves sitting near the front.
“The typical strategy has always been a campaign of tolerance and acceptance.” Evan answered then gestured for Jessica to stand up and join him. “I think Jess can speak more to the issue of civil rights.”
“Thanks Evan. He is right, the normal play has always been a slow and steady integration process-“ she was cut off by another member of the crowd, a half-elf sitting near the aisle.
“Yeah, and that has always worked out so well in the past. Hell, those people were human, their own race, and it still took decades to get anything done. How long are we going to wait? Are we just going to be-“
“Dankat! Thank you for your opinion but please wait in the line until Jess is done, then you can have the podium.” Susan scolded him, causing the young man to shrivel like he was just caught doing something by his mom.
“Yes, Susan.” He then stood and walked over to a mic stand set just off the side of the front row. It seemed he wasn’t the only one with an opinion and two more joined him to wait patiently. It was then that Evan moved over and got in line behind the third man. The whole process fascinated Kurt and he watched the line slowly build after that.
Jess continued a moment later. “That is something we can address, the strategy of our own integration. We also have to know that, as of now, there is no program or assistance for the para community to integrate with humans. Some states have introduced bills to address that, but Michigan is not one of them. It seems that Lansing is taking a wait and see approach.”
She finished speaking and looked around for a moment but stepped off the mark a second later when no hands went up with questions. Dankat took her place a moment later and muttered an apology as they passed.
The young half-elf took the podium and cleared his throat. “Ahem. I apologize for my outburst but it’s a hot topic.” There were a few chuckles in the crowd, more than one of them nervous ones. “What I should have said is that we can’t just wait on the benevolence of others to see this done in this century.”
Kurt noticed that Felix was leaning forward, like he was anticipating something as Dankat continued. “We need to find allies, real ones not just friends, no offense. WE need to pool our resources and contacts to come together and get someone in the government…” The aura wafting off Felix was… intense. It was like a kid on Christmas looking at the stack of presents but having to wait.
“…Do we or anyone we know have a contact at any level in the state government? Do you know a township supervisor, mayor, congressmen, literally anyone who would be amenable to our cause and put actual good legislation on the books? If not, what can we do to buy the time of these people? Lobbying is still legal and we might be able to sway some minds with dollars if not sense.”
Ignoring the chuckles at the pun, Kurt watched as Felix slumped back in his seat, his aura suddenly losing its anticipation. “That Felix guy is one to watch.” Kurt said over the implant and got a round of agreement. The podium was ceded to the next in line. A man claiming to be a wizard but didn’t have a hint of mana about him. While powerful magic users could hid it, Kurt doubted he fell into that category.
“While a legislative approach is an option, we also need to consider direct routes. I propose we organize awareness days and community action events like cleaning up parks or something. If that doesn’t work, then we can look at more forceful options.” Once again that spark lit in Felix’s aura. “We can have protests, sit in’s and other forms of civil disobedience, to borrow from other civil rights movements that were successful.”
“And what if we are attacked in the open?” Felix said loud enough for the pretend mage to hear but not enough to be too disruptive.
“Well, if we are attacked then we defend ourselves.” He waved his hand at the crowd. “I am sure there are many here who are powerful enough to deal with a counter protesters aggression.” Kurt saw one of the fey shrink down in her seat while a lesser demon sat up straighter.
Felix apparently wanted to push his luck and spoke out of turn again. “Or we could just take what we want, not like a human can stop us.”
“FELIX!” Susan scolded. “You should know better!” Yet as much as she rebuked the man, the implication rippled through the crowd. The wanabe wizard then got a look like he had bitten into a lemon and stepped away from the podium, giving it to Evan.
“I think this is a good time to throw out the agenda since we have already moved to the public topics. But before we do, I ask that you listen to our guests.” Evan gestured for Kurt. “We have some members of the Order Stabilitas to help us with the issues we face in the city.”
Every head in the room turned to follow Evan’s hand and look directly at them. “Well, fuck.” Kurt thought over the implant and got a round of agreeing sentiments from the girls. Still, his group stood up and slid out of their row to walk to the front.
While they walked up, Evan continued. “We reached out to the Order recently and asked for their help with this matter. The leadership council has invited them to the meeting to talk and help organize us. I would like to change our format for this part. We will give them the stage and those with questions and counter opinions can use the speaking line for those while they hold the podium.”
They made it to the front of the room amidst the sea of murmurs and whispers. Penny stood toward the front while Kurt and the girls stood behind her. When Evan finished speaking, their handler stepped up to the podium and began her introduction.
While her attention was on the crowd, Kurt was focused on Felix and his unusual aura. He got the feeling that there was something going on with the guy that he should know about. He also got the impression that he would be finding out sooner than later.