lieutenantantichrist | [21] Video/Action for Goldenrod

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[21] Video/Action for Goldenrod - "I'm gonna rule this world."

[In a square in the center of Goldenrod City, a small crowd has gathered. A show is about to start.

There's a crude stage that's been freshly hammered together. Near the back, a little Snubbull is tapping in the last few nails. The platform wobbles but holds as a man climbs up it, then takes a place at a podium in the center. He's wearing a white button-up shirt and, in concession to his ambitions, a tie. He looks toward the camera.] Hey, Newt. You got that thing running?

[The camera's view nods up and down.]

All right.

[He holds his arms up for silence. Then, when no one quite pays attention, he barks,] Hey! All of you! Shut up!

[That's much more effective. When the eyes of the curious onlookers are on him, he plants his hands on the sides of the podium and clears his throat.]

All of you. Locals, people from the real world, people from the fuckin' moon. You know me. See, I've been here a long, long time. Two damn years, and I know some of you have been here longer. I was thinking about that, and you know what I realized?

[His voice gets louder and clearer as he finds his rhythm.]

I realized I'm not a fuckin' tourist. None of us are. This is our world as much as it is theirs-- and nobody is doing dick to run it.

Look around. Everybody does whatever they damn well please, and that's real nice right up until the minute some idiot starts planting bombs around. The closest thing to somebody in charge is the police, and they're a goddamn joke who give terrorists a week picking up garbage and then set them loose again. There's nobody calling the shots.

That changes today.

[His boots thud on plywood as he tramps back and forth along the stage, and his speech takes a turn toward harangue.]

When bees and sharks came crashing through people's windows, who smacked them right back out? Me. When some moron went around shooting lasers at the city, who knocked him out of the sky? Me. When a couple armies of fire and water idiots tried to wreck up the place with giant monsters, who went out to stop them? [He jerks his thumb to his chest.] Me.

[His voice is getting louder and louder. The cords stand out on his neck.]

And I'm not some jumped-up fourteen-year-old who thinks he's magic. I've been around the block in the real world. I have decades on the front lines. I haven't just lead people, I've lead them into tenements full of crackheads with shotguns. That has to mean something, even here.

Somebody around here has to get shit in order, and I'm done waiting.

[His tread takes him back to the podium. He grips the sides with his coarse-knuckled hands and leans over it to look straight into the Gear.]

I'm not asking you. I'm telling you.

From now on, I'm the head honcho around here.

[He jabs his finger at the camera.]

Stand with me or get out of my way.

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[...Well. Well. That's... there are no words for this. Except there are, thousands of words he first used for the Earth Federation, for the Vagan government. He never imagined he'd someday have to use them for Blake, too.

A small, traitorous part of Ash thinks his father would have done it better, would have made the whole world cheer as he spoke. He strangles it with a vengeance.]

...Fucking hell.

[That's as close as he'll come to verbal coherency for the next five minutes, thank you.]

[That could mean a lot of things. Blake isn't deterred. He's got his mind set, no matter what anybody thinks.

It'd be nice to have a friend on his side, though.]

Well?

[He spreads his hands.]

You plan on helping or not?

[Get in on the ground floor, and you could get a street named after you!]

[Like hell he's getting on the ground floor. Not for an amateur effort, and not without a Gundam to keep everyone in the vicinity safe.]

Look, don't take this personally, but unless a miracle happens and you acquire both a loyal, organized army and the addresses of every potential political opponent you might have within the next twelve hours, your plan is way beyond help. You can't just declare a dictatorship like that and expect it to work.

[Oh look at me and my big fancy giant robot. Some of us have to make do with riot shields and batons.]

Political opponent?

[He sweeps his arm at the murmuring crowd.] Have you been paying attention? There aren't any of those. That's the whole point. There's nobody to stand in my way. It's a power vacuum, and I'm here to suck it up.

It's a chance to do some good, here.

There are none that you know of. If anything can bring a shadow government or a political conspiracy out of the woodwork, it's a threat to their power. What did you just give them? An excuse to see you as a threat, to have you eliminated or disgraced. And right now, you have nothing to counter those potential attacks. You're a sitting duck.

[Part of his vehemence is born from anger, from disappointment. But a much greater part is born from worry, from the memory of the look in Flit Asuno's eyes after Grodek Ainoa had been found dead.]

I hadn't thought about that. That changes everything.

[The determination in Blake's face firms.]

If that's true, then I really need to be here.

Would you be happy just letting some shadowy conspiracy control everybody's life?

[He spreads his hands.]

If there's an underground cabal of dickheads somewhere, then somebody has to fight them. They can come on out and play. I'm right here, and I'm not scared.

Edited 2015-03-12 08:57 (UTC)

No I wouldn't, but the last time I got anywhere near some shadow conspiracy we had proof and detailed plans and guns to put to their heads!

[They'd had trusted soldiers, loud public accusations, equally public confessions. Everything a coup d'état might possibly need.]

Don't try to tell me that your grand idea comes with any of that, because I won't believe you. Sure, you can fight to stay in power with your Pokémon's help, but everyone who might disapprove can do so just as well.

Yeah, cause yours existed.

[He throws his arms open, indicating the whole world around them.] Have you ever seen anything that even hints there's something like that going on here? Even the nuts who believe in the Illuminati say it puts its pyramids on the money.

[He stands firm.] Conspiracy or average Joe, anybody who has a problem with me can come say so to my face. They can be my guest.

People are people, and power is power. I doubt you're the first to have had this particular idea. If there isn't a group out there that secretly has power over the locals or is trying to grab it, I'll eat my own boots.

[And if there wasn't, well. He supposes there is now.]

Sure they can, if they want to make things easy for you. Think they'll bother showing that much common courtesy?

I'll hold you to that.

If there's somebody secretly in charge here, they're doing a whole lot better job of being secret than they are of being in charge.

Did you forget the local rules? Nobody dies. They can't do the usual shadow government thing of putting a bullet in my head.

That just means they have to get creative with political opponents. And with all the nasty critters at their disposal, I really don't want to see their sort of creativity. Seen more than enough of that already, without even involving easy sources of fire and mind control.

I have my own critters, and they're nastier sons of bitches than anything a bunch of hiding pussies can throw at me.

[Just check out that bloodthirsty motherfucker Steve Buscemi, having her ear scratched by a little girl.

Blake's just gonna focus on Ash.] So that's it? Nobody should ever do anything because somebody might come after them?

You never struck me as the kind to sit locked up nice and safe in the basement, Ash.

...I'm not, believe me.

[This would be so much easier if he could simply say "You're doing exactly what my father would do except without an army as your safety net, and it worries me."

But Asemu Asuno does not exist as far as anyone in Johto or Kanto is concerned, and he's not about to change that.]

But I don't think declaring a dictatorship with no stable backup is the best action you could take. For everyone else and for yourself.

[Blake puffs his chest out.]

I'm willing to take that risk. If I can dig up people with the guts to stand by me, that's great, but I'll do it all with my own damn hands if I have to.

People need a leader, whether or not they know it.

The leader that people need is rarely the one they want. Or the one they get.

[He sighs, with something that resembles sadness in his voice.]

And leaders do need the extra hands, whether they want them or not. Do you have any idea how many people it takes to properly take over even one city?

Well I'm what they need and what they're getting.

I've thought about that. It takes six thousand to keep my hometown under control, but that's a whole different world. That's a lot bigger population, and a lot less quiet and well-behaved. These guys, [he waves his hand at the crowd, and the guy near the front who is adjusting a sweater on his big fluffy dog] they're not about to slug anybody or toss Molotovs through the window. A handful of people with a will could keep them all in line.

It's not really an invasion, either. There's no standing army to oust. The whole place is up for grabs.

They're not about to shoot at people in the streets, sure. But each and every single one of them can potantially ask their pet dog to set someone on fire, and you're talking about changing the way their society has worked as long they've lived. Never allow yourself to forget that.

[His voice becomes harsher for that last sentence. It's not quite a blessing; more of a 'don't die on the job'. Weary acceptance that Blake will do this no matter what he says.]

Sure, everybody's packing heat. That doesn't mean I'm going to go around too scared to make a move.

[Ash isn't just kneejerk telling him off here. He can hear in his voice that he's taking this seriously. His own is firm.]

Every society in the world has to change sometime, otherwise we'd still have Pharaohs and mud huts. I'm bringing in the future. They'll deal with it.

May they deal with it rationally, and may history remember you kindly for it.

[It's the best he can hope for Blake. It's the best he can hope for many people.]

...And if not, well. I could write a book on vanishing and lying low.

If this place even has history that isn't about sea monsters.

[Ash's pessimism is just a little unnerving, though. He doesn't sound like he's offering opposition on reflex - he sounds like somebody who knows what he's talking about.

The bombast retreats from his voice. Now he sounds like a guy talking to a friend.]

Look, I'm going to be careful, here. I'm not going to end up with a bullet in my back.

Or whatever the local version is.

Maybe it prefers to remember its makeshift politicians as sea monsters, instead of normal people. A creature from the deep almost destroying Goldenrod makes for a better story than a mere riot.

[It also ensures future generations won't be inspired to riot and dabble in politics. Which would explain a lot about this whole place.]

You'd better not. I'm not sure the nurses even know how to treat that.

[That's a new one.] You think it's all some kind of metaphor? That'd be a fuckin' weird history class.

[A determined look settles over his face.] But from now on, we write the history books.

Better write them properly, then. Without skipping the unpleasant parts, the ideas that didn't work out, the people that were upset. Forget to write about those, and you're just asking for trouble.

[Maybe that's sadness in his voice. Maybe not.]

Hell, who'd leave that out? The ugly stuff's the only interesting part.

[Not as though his own records back home have a lot of ugly things conveniently elided...]

It's not just interesting, it's important. People who forget their past screw up their future.

[If there's one thing to learn from that fiasco the Earth Federation caused, it's that.]

[21] Video/Action for Goldenrod - "I'm gonna rule this world."

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