The Right - Setting up
Sep. 23rd, 2024 09:49 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xp_trance posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
xp_logsHope goes to put the first part of her plan in place, namely to recruit a 'victim'. Enter Kyle...
"Hi Kyle!" Hope poked her head around the corner of the small office, a serious expression on her face. "My apologies for just dropping by, but I was wondering if you had a moment."
"I have like, eleven moments and if you tell me it means I can stop trying to grade essays, I'll give you like twenty moments." Kyle had his laptop open and docked, one monitor on a written document - and one playing some baseball highlights. "Tigers are not winning, or making this round of grading easier."
"I bring quite a bit of distraction, so probably no more grading essays or favorite teams losing, but I am afraid either of those might end up preferable to some of what I have to ask." Hope stepped inside, leather folder firmly hand. "It might take a little explaining though."
"There's not much you can ask me that's worse than grading first semester English Lit essays." Kyle replied. "Plus, lets be real, if you're asking me for a favor, it's probably serious or something worth doing, otherwise you'd have grabbed me at the rec center after swing class."
"You know me too well." Taking a seat, she opened her folder and spread out some papers. "I know you recently helped me to explain the impact some laws might have on education in Pennsylvania. I am afraid that this is an extension of that. There is an organization called The Right which I would describe as a pro-human ACLU. They support their certain laws that are currently making their way through the Pennsylvania legislature. From my research I learned that they are working with the Friends of Humanity on this. You can imagine I am not too fond of this idea."
"Pro-human ACLU. So they're the... " Kyle thought for a moment. "They're those Heritage Foundation fucks, basically. That law shit you were asking about, yeah, we just pulled like, six kids into some home and remote schooling because of that shit. Two of those lit essays I'm avoiding are because of that."
"Frankly, Kyle, compared to some of the other groups I have been researching, they appear to be eminently balanced and reasonable. But that is also what makes them even more dangerous. Someone could think they just may have a point." Hope let out a sigh. "What has me worried most though, is their link with the Friends of Humanity. Alone, they are just a small, fairly local group, but with the power of the FOH behind them the balance gets shifted. I intend to do something about that and that is where I can use your help."
Kyle paused visibly, carefully pushing his mouse away from his hand. "Oh, this isn't like, Institute stuff, this is X-Teams stuff." He shifted in his chair, went upright, feet planted on the floor, a clear division from the almost lounge from earlier. "What nonsense do you need me to get myself into here?"
"It is not the teams either, Kyle, though I do ask for assistance from them." Hope straightened a little in response, firmly laying out the basics. "The Right strictly disavows violence against mutants, including working with other organizations who tolerate this. Part of their eminently reasonable image, I believe. I want to deliver irrefutable evidence that the Friends of Humanity do not disavow violence... And I want you to help me get that evidence."
"And I have a healing factor." Kyle said lazily. "I see where this is going, I bait some bigoted shits, there's a convenient security camera that records it, that gets leaked by, I dunno, one of your two favorite hackers, and my face is just lightly blurred so nobody realizes it's actually me?" He picked at his claws idly, voice flat and all business. "How careful do you want me to be? Just a general jump and beating, or do the optics play better if I fight back a little?"
"Not just a convenient security camera. We are making sure that if you are doing this, we are getting everything we need." Hope stated quietly, but decidedly. "If everyone goes to plan, there will be a drone and someone close by to gather evidence." Tilting her head a little she considered the second part of his question: "If you want to struggle some, that would be good, but I absolutely want to minimize the risk of detractors crying self-defense. Which they are prone to doing in regards to mutants."
"So I just have to exist as a mutant, we're gonna have to avoid any mutie panic defense." Kyle looked down at his hands, and slid his claws in. "I think... if we're avoiding the self-defense angle, I should outta trim this down hard and wear shoes. We want an innocent dude with fun ears and weird hands, not scary guy with two inch claws on his fingers." He waggled one hand at Hope, and let the claws slide all the way out. "I can definitely pick a fight without making it look like I'm picking a fight. Hell, in the right place, a couple of pride buttons will do the trick."
"The more harmless you appear to be and the more the violence appears to be senseless, the more effective the material will be." Hope turned a little more grim now that she considered the practical side. "Would you like us to find a couple of possible locations or did you have a place in mind? Probably somewhere people will not know you, just to be sure..."
"I ... can definitely find some guys who want to fight someone who looks like me." Kyle pulled both feet up onto his chair. "Might have to hit up the fight club guys, see what bars are extra shitty right now, but at worst I borrow Marius' tight pants and get some guys who don't want their sexuality questioned and then let the ears show."
"So we need to make sure that your surveillance to capture the fight is mobile enough to handle that." Hope pulled out her phone, making a few quick notes. "That should work fairly well with what I already had in mind."
"I think tech is the least of our problems. I think the real issue is gonna be going in and making it look like I'm a totally innocent victim of an attack, and avoiding the mutie panic defense." Kyle noted. "I mean we're not looking to take these guys to court, but it's gonna get held in the court of social media."
"Your concern is valid." Hope acknowledged with a nod. "But it might help to reassure that I am not planning to release it on social media. Not in the initial stages at least. With Doug's assistance it will go directly to the leadership of the Right, all anonymized as much as possible of course."
"I mean, won't that just get them off? It's just people beating up a mutie, they love that shit." Kyle asked.
"Not the Right." Hope gave a firm shake of her head. "Their whole identity is built on strictly condemning any violence against mutants. Legal action, non-violent action... it is all fine, but no violence. They have actually revoked the membership of people who were involved with this. Fired one or two even."
"Huh." Kyle tilted his head. "So we're gonna force them to acknowledge it happens, and make statements. Aim that in the right direction and then there's infighting."
"Exactly. Are they going to stick to their principles or bend to keep all the new advantages? If the last one happens, we will have to take some further steps, but I will discuss that with you if it becomes necessary." Hope quickly filled in the final pieces of the picture.
"And we need a backup plan in case things get real messy. I can heal from being shot in the gut, maybe not shot in the face." Kyle said, voice cut with a little growl to it. "But shit, if your favs are gonna get this on camera, then they'll be close enough to bail me out." He let out a deep huff. "Okay, give me a couple days to figure out where, and I can run the plan past you and whoever you'll have with cameras. Gotta go get me a haircut and tight pants too."
"A few days we can do... closer to the weekend makes more sense as well." Hope quickly consider. "Kyle, thank you for doing this. It is quite a thing you are doing."
"Hi Kyle!" Hope poked her head around the corner of the small office, a serious expression on her face. "My apologies for just dropping by, but I was wondering if you had a moment."
"I have like, eleven moments and if you tell me it means I can stop trying to grade essays, I'll give you like twenty moments." Kyle had his laptop open and docked, one monitor on a written document - and one playing some baseball highlights. "Tigers are not winning, or making this round of grading easier."
"I bring quite a bit of distraction, so probably no more grading essays or favorite teams losing, but I am afraid either of those might end up preferable to some of what I have to ask." Hope stepped inside, leather folder firmly hand. "It might take a little explaining though."
"There's not much you can ask me that's worse than grading first semester English Lit essays." Kyle replied. "Plus, lets be real, if you're asking me for a favor, it's probably serious or something worth doing, otherwise you'd have grabbed me at the rec center after swing class."
"You know me too well." Taking a seat, she opened her folder and spread out some papers. "I know you recently helped me to explain the impact some laws might have on education in Pennsylvania. I am afraid that this is an extension of that. There is an organization called The Right which I would describe as a pro-human ACLU. They support their certain laws that are currently making their way through the Pennsylvania legislature. From my research I learned that they are working with the Friends of Humanity on this. You can imagine I am not too fond of this idea."
"Pro-human ACLU. So they're the... " Kyle thought for a moment. "They're those Heritage Foundation fucks, basically. That law shit you were asking about, yeah, we just pulled like, six kids into some home and remote schooling because of that shit. Two of those lit essays I'm avoiding are because of that."
"Frankly, Kyle, compared to some of the other groups I have been researching, they appear to be eminently balanced and reasonable. But that is also what makes them even more dangerous. Someone could think they just may have a point." Hope let out a sigh. "What has me worried most though, is their link with the Friends of Humanity. Alone, they are just a small, fairly local group, but with the power of the FOH behind them the balance gets shifted. I intend to do something about that and that is where I can use your help."
Kyle paused visibly, carefully pushing his mouse away from his hand. "Oh, this isn't like, Institute stuff, this is X-Teams stuff." He shifted in his chair, went upright, feet planted on the floor, a clear division from the almost lounge from earlier. "What nonsense do you need me to get myself into here?"
"It is not the teams either, Kyle, though I do ask for assistance from them." Hope straightened a little in response, firmly laying out the basics. "The Right strictly disavows violence against mutants, including working with other organizations who tolerate this. Part of their eminently reasonable image, I believe. I want to deliver irrefutable evidence that the Friends of Humanity do not disavow violence... And I want you to help me get that evidence."
"And I have a healing factor." Kyle said lazily. "I see where this is going, I bait some bigoted shits, there's a convenient security camera that records it, that gets leaked by, I dunno, one of your two favorite hackers, and my face is just lightly blurred so nobody realizes it's actually me?" He picked at his claws idly, voice flat and all business. "How careful do you want me to be? Just a general jump and beating, or do the optics play better if I fight back a little?"
"Not just a convenient security camera. We are making sure that if you are doing this, we are getting everything we need." Hope stated quietly, but decidedly. "If everyone goes to plan, there will be a drone and someone close by to gather evidence." Tilting her head a little she considered the second part of his question: "If you want to struggle some, that would be good, but I absolutely want to minimize the risk of detractors crying self-defense. Which they are prone to doing in regards to mutants."
"So I just have to exist as a mutant, we're gonna have to avoid any mutie panic defense." Kyle looked down at his hands, and slid his claws in. "I think... if we're avoiding the self-defense angle, I should outta trim this down hard and wear shoes. We want an innocent dude with fun ears and weird hands, not scary guy with two inch claws on his fingers." He waggled one hand at Hope, and let the claws slide all the way out. "I can definitely pick a fight without making it look like I'm picking a fight. Hell, in the right place, a couple of pride buttons will do the trick."
"The more harmless you appear to be and the more the violence appears to be senseless, the more effective the material will be." Hope turned a little more grim now that she considered the practical side. "Would you like us to find a couple of possible locations or did you have a place in mind? Probably somewhere people will not know you, just to be sure..."
"I ... can definitely find some guys who want to fight someone who looks like me." Kyle pulled both feet up onto his chair. "Might have to hit up the fight club guys, see what bars are extra shitty right now, but at worst I borrow Marius' tight pants and get some guys who don't want their sexuality questioned and then let the ears show."
"So we need to make sure that your surveillance to capture the fight is mobile enough to handle that." Hope pulled out her phone, making a few quick notes. "That should work fairly well with what I already had in mind."
"I think tech is the least of our problems. I think the real issue is gonna be going in and making it look like I'm a totally innocent victim of an attack, and avoiding the mutie panic defense." Kyle noted. "I mean we're not looking to take these guys to court, but it's gonna get held in the court of social media."
"Your concern is valid." Hope acknowledged with a nod. "But it might help to reassure that I am not planning to release it on social media. Not in the initial stages at least. With Doug's assistance it will go directly to the leadership of the Right, all anonymized as much as possible of course."
"I mean, won't that just get them off? It's just people beating up a mutie, they love that shit." Kyle asked.
"Not the Right." Hope gave a firm shake of her head. "Their whole identity is built on strictly condemning any violence against mutants. Legal action, non-violent action... it is all fine, but no violence. They have actually revoked the membership of people who were involved with this. Fired one or two even."
"Huh." Kyle tilted his head. "So we're gonna force them to acknowledge it happens, and make statements. Aim that in the right direction and then there's infighting."
"Exactly. Are they going to stick to their principles or bend to keep all the new advantages? If the last one happens, we will have to take some further steps, but I will discuss that with you if it becomes necessary." Hope quickly filled in the final pieces of the picture.
"And we need a backup plan in case things get real messy. I can heal from being shot in the gut, maybe not shot in the face." Kyle said, voice cut with a little growl to it. "But shit, if your favs are gonna get this on camera, then they'll be close enough to bail me out." He let out a deep huff. "Okay, give me a couple days to figure out where, and I can run the plan past you and whoever you'll have with cameras. Gotta go get me a haircut and tight pants too."
"A few days we can do... closer to the weekend makes more sense as well." Hope quickly consider. "Kyle, thank you for doing this. It is quite a thing you are doing."
