Ganesh (itsticking) wrote in we_float, @ 2010-06-28 19:38:00 |
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Current music: | "Tomorrow Comes Today" : Gorillaz |
"The digital won't let me go..."
Who: Tom Sturbridge and Ganesh Surendar
When: Sunday, June 27
Where: the server room, then the common room at the Anhalt
What: Tom has some ideas about how to work with the virtual club. Ganesh is curious.
Status: Closed; complete
Tom knocked on the server room door, then peered inside when the door cracked open upon the light impact. "Hello?" He stepped in further and saw Ganesh in one corner, rearranging books on a bookshelf. He smiled and waved. "Hey! Do you have a minute? I wanted to talk to you about your virtual club idea thing."
"That." Ganesh's face turned a sickly yellow for a moment but he took a step down off the stool he'd clambered up on, an uneasy-looking contraption of bolts and spare parts. With a hop over to Tom, he let the last book- 73h k0MPL373 1LlU57r473D w0Rx 0f w1LL14M 5H4k35p34R3- fall to the floor with a dull thud.
"Okay- what do you need?" He wondered if Matt had told anyone about what had happened a couple of nights previous.
"Well I was just thinking," Tom said, looking at the book curiously. "I know that you're planning to go in and try to root out hate groups, see what they're up to, that kind of thing. But I wondered if you had any plans to do the opposite? With different avatars, maybe? Go and look for supporters and see about organizing that way, as well as in the real world? I mean, I thought maybe it might be a good way to talk to people, when it's not quote-unquote real so they don't necessarily have to feel like they're really committing to something right off? They might be more willing to listen." He shrugged.
"I hadn't thought of that," Ganesh admitted, taking a seat on the floor and gesturing at the chair that remained in the corner. It had wheels - wheels that had not yet been sabotaged although, he thought, glancing at the reply scrolling over in his journal, he might have to attach a small remote control unit shortly.
"I didn't make the best choice of avatar going in. It felt... bloody odd, being something that I wasn't." He frowned. "I think this is a good idea- yours and the original one- but it's... we need training in that as well. The V-clubs aren't what we expected, going in."
"No? What did you expect? And what are they actually like?" Tom asked, sitting down, his long limbs sprawling. He twisted back and forth in the chair absently.
"I thought- well, to be honest, I thought it would be like a simple party room. A lot of sex, teenagers trying to sneak in, that sort of thing." Ganesh looked down at the floor, eyes staring down at the hardwood. "It's not like that. It's... real. It feels real and yet, it isn't."
He had no words for what he'd seen, not to Tom whom he didn't quite know. He might have been better able to talk to Matt about it- Matt who had been there. Or to Alec, who understood well what the human brain was capable of when hidden behind a screen of code. But Tom seemed- well, goodhearted. And he wasn't sure that he'd understand.
But Ganesh believed in trying.
"Imagine that you could do anything you wanted to anyone," he said. "And it didn't count, because it wasn't real. That. That is what it was like."
"I've heard that a lot of people have affairs there, go there to cheat on boyfriends and girlfriends, that kind of thing. With a lot of people my age, there's definitely a feeling like it's not cheating. Some people will go there with their girlfriend or boyfriend to hook up with other people. Which, I guess if you're going to have meaningless sex, probably better to do it where you're not going to get pregnant or catch something." Tom twisted around more in the chair. "I've heard there are things like that old old movie, too. Fight Club?"
"I think we were in Human Sacrifice Club," Ganesh muttered, looking ill again. "And it was very, very real." He sighed. "There was this woman there- she called herself a fixer and offered to be our guide. For credits."
Tom's jaw dropped. "Human Sacrifice Club? What kind of sick..." He shook his head, looking ill. "I'm thinking maybe there has to be better places to go than that. That's just..." He shuddered expressively.
"We didn't pick the right door." His eyes closed for a moment. "Something." They opened again. "The thing is..." He couldn't voice it- his conviction that those kinds of places were where they would find the dangerous. And yet... Tom's idea didn't have to take them there.
But he couldn't back down either. He wasn't an ace. This was the only thing he had to offer.
"I know better now," he said. "But yes. There've got to be better bloody places." He reached out, grabbing a can of Zamphour and cracking it open, taking a swig from it, before leaning down to toss Tom another one.
"Thanks," Tom said, opening the can and taking a sip. "It just doesn't seem like the best place to really get to talk to people," he said. "I don't figure there's a whole lot of talking going on when people are too busy, y'know... killing other people. Not that I have any idea where a better place might be, but... just kind of thinking that's the sort of place that sane people, however hateful, avoid."
"Yes, I think so." Zamphour was sour to the taste and Ganesh couldn't decide if he liked or hated the tang. Probably both. It wasn't one of Seattle's best microbial brews. He'd still be tasting it in another hour. "I don't normally go online and talk to normal people." He shrugged. "Other than gaming but I'm not sure that it counts."
"Well, the whole point is that it's not you, right? You've got to become someone else to deal with these people. Maybe it's like you said; you just need more practice. Maybe it'd be better to find one of the social clubs, just to kind of get used to talking to people, work out who you're going to be in there? I mean, any time you try anything new, you don't really generally just jump into the deep end." He grimaced at the taste of the brew, inspecting the can to see if it was past its best by date or something.
"You don't," Ganesh grinned. He took another swallow of the beer. "I'm just not that smart." He shrugged. "I'm practicing more now but I think that eventually, I'll go back. Just not immediately."
Tom nodded. "Well, if you want any help with it, I wouldn't mind working the ally angle. I don't think I'd be any good dealing with the hate groups, though. Although right now I'm trying to focus on the radio show thing. I'm hoping maybe to get it up and running before Del's show. We could advertise it, maybe. I'm honestly not sure exactly what we're going to do with it. It's supposed to be so Wild Cards can call in and talk about what's going on, I think. Maybe get advice? I don't even know. I just agreed to do it, and we haven't really talked about it since. I think it'll be cool, though, once we get it going."
"We should talk about that." Ganesh pushed himself up, finishing the last swallow of beer before tossing the can in the garbage behind him. "I've got a setup but ham radio's much easier for me. Digital encryption's something that I'm not sure I can handle to the level that it should be."
He frowned. "Mechanical's what I'm best at. When Maxxie wanted a communications set, that's bloody easy. I'm worried about the radio but I don't want to disappoint Del."
"Well Alec should be able to do the encryption, shouldn't he? What are you worried about with the radio? I mean, all we really need is a microphone of some sort, right? I don't actually have any idea," Tom said with a laugh.
"Oh, it just seems like there's potential to bollocks it all up," he muttered. "I haven't done this level of transmittal for anything on earth- wait." Ganesh's face lit up visibly, thinking out loud for a moment. Then he shook his head. "No. Satellites won't help us here."
"Uh... if you say so," Tom said. He really had no clue about the technical side of things. He could operate a personal computer and that was about it. "Basically, we need to be able to broadcast out live, and we need to be able to take live audio input from callers."
"Okay. We can do that." Somehow. Ganesh decided that it wasn't quite worth it to trouble Tom with the details. "Have the two of you worked out how you'll be getting the information out? We should have it set up in a week."
"No, we haven't. I'm thinking maybe we can just do, like... guerrilla flyering? On the streets and online. Maybe talk it up in the v-clubs, if I can figure that out before then. I'm thinking, though, we're going to have to be pretty... what's the word?... circumspect? about it. Otherwise we could get shut down before we even start."
He nodded. "And of course, there's the question of where to broadcast from. I'm not sure this is a safe bet."
"From the house, you mean?" Tom asked. "Isn't there a way to mask where a signal is coming from? But yeah, maybe it's not the best idea. Trouble is, where else would we do it from? It's not like we have access to many other places where we could set up the equipment." He frowned. "Definitely something to think about, though."
"Hm. It's something to think about, certainly." Ganesh motioned Tom towards the door. "Let's sit somewhere more comfortable before Alec comes in to see who's wandering through Oz."
He meandered towards the common room, flopping down in a chair. "As far as going elsewhere, it doesn't matter to me. That's between the broadcasters. But we might want to think about protection either way for whoever's doing the talking." Ganesh was sure that job was going to Del and Tom.
Tom sprawled on the couch. "What do you mean? Like... code names or something? It's not like Tom is an uncommon name, and I won't give my last name. Del isn't exactly a dead giveaway, either."
"No, not that." He shook his head. "Physical. I don't know if either of you's got a power to stop it but if you're in a sound booth and someone was coming, they could seriously hurt you or take the place before you were aware of it."
"I can stop time, which would maybe help. But... who is going to come after us physically? Are people really that dedicated to shutting us up that they'd try and hunt down where we were broadcasting from to attack us, rather than attacking the site to shut down the broadcast that way?"
"I'm not sure," Ganesh admitted. "But don't we want to plan for the worst?"
"I guess so, yeah." Tom wrinkled up his nose. "I tend to be kind of an incurable optimist, and I don't like to think about the worst case scenario, but I probably need to start thinking in those terms."
"Did you do that self-defense class this morning? It's a good idea, I think, but I had to miss it because of Maya." He curled up in the chair. "Maxxie's got a point with needing to do it but I'm not sure how Zadkiel'll take it. I've been watching her journals to see how the conversation turns- you?"
"Yup, I was there," Tom said. "I've actually been taking Tae Kwon Do since not too long after I met Maxxie. So almost two years now. And yeah... he seems pretty set against it. Which I can understand on some level, but at the same time... if he doesn't have any idea how to handle himself if something comes up, then it means we have to cover for him, make sure he doesn't get hurt."
Ganesh nodded. "He's got his reasons, I'm sure, but I'm not sure how much luxury we'll have for it." He considered, then said, "Are you one of the trainers then?"
"Not officially, but Maxxie did use me to help demonstrate some of the stuff, because I know how things are supposed to work. Are you planning to take it? I kind of had a hard time imagining most of the people here in any kind of self defense class, to be honest."
"Yes, I'll be there the next time." He grinned. "I'm not going to do well but I'll try. I don't want to be the one that the rest of you are standing in front of, trying to protect."
Tom nodded. "It was a pretty small class this morning. I think probably because it was such short notice. I'll try to remind her that if she decides to do another session to maybe bring it up more than a day in advance, so people can plan for it. Maybe set a standing time for it... maybe even more than once a week so that if people have obligations on Sunday morning they could do it Wednesday night or something."
He leaned back against the arm of the couch. "You probably won't be as bad as you think. I mean, most of the actual self-defense things really aren't that complicated, y'know? Breaking holds, that kind of thing. I mean, I'm a complete klutz normally, but I do pretty well in TKD because I really focus on what I'm doing. And the main thing is making things muscle memory so that if you're in a situation where you need to use it, you don't think, just do."
"I don't think that I need to be brilliant," Ganesh said. "Just decent enough not to get killed or to make a situation worse." He watched Tom for a moment, then added, "We're not in this to kill... as far as I know."
The truth of that was, he realized, that he did not know. With their first mission failed, and so spectacularly, there had been death. It could have been Zadkiel himself--or Matt--if things had only gone a little differently. Ganesh didn't know enough of the specifics to know what happened but he knew enough.
"I'm certainly not in it to kill," Tom said. "I'm pretty sure no one here is. I think mostly we're trying not to get killed if a situation where we're physically threatened arises. I'm still really not sure what exactly we're here for," he admitted. "I'm just trying to go with the flow. Which maybe isn't the best idea because it means someone else is making decisions for me, but... that's just kind of how I am." Much to his parents and teachers chagrin his entire life.
"I think you have to find your own reason to be here. I'm here because I can't think of living in a world where there are no jokers." It was that simple. "And this is the first time in my life that anyone's asked me to change the world. Me, personally. Not a robot. Not a plan. Me."
"Not what I meant, exactly," Tom said, sitting back up to look at Ganesh directly. "I mean, I know why I chose to sign on to this. I'm not going to let anyone make me or my friends or my brother less than anyone else. I won't let anyone tell me that I never should have been born or that I don't have the same rights as anyone else or that I shouldn't be allowed to have children or any of that. No one has to right to make any of us afraid. What I mean is I'm still not really sure exactly what we're supposed to be accomplishing here, or what tasks are going to get us where we want to be. But we'll figure it out. I hope."
"I don't think it's a set series of tasks," Ganesh said honestly. "Back home, there was a civil rights movement in the 1950s and 60s where you'd all of these different people working together to bring rights to anyone who wasn't white. And it wasn't one type of thing." He paused, not sure of America's history in that regard. "I don't know what it was like here but we'd Paul Stephenson who organized a bus boycott. And other people who wouldn't leave pubs until they were served. It was... it was a bunch of small actions that did it. Not one thing."
"But it's not like- that solved the problem altogether. The virus helped, a bit. After all, I don't think people care so much about the color of your bloody skin when they can see someone with two heads." Ganesh glanced down at his hands. "But the names still exist- the ideas..."
"I think this is a job that can't ever be finished, Tom," he said. "Maybe that's why they're not telling us what to do. They don't know." Ganesh sighed. "Or maybe it's worse. Maybe they do know and they're holding us in reserve for something worse to come."
"We had something a lot like that here, too. And children who were pretty much the only black kids in their school when they were desegregated. I guess I feel like the difference then versus now is that it seems like then there were more people speaking out? More people willing to protest and get involved? But I guess that's why I feel like we need to reach out for allies as well as enemies. Because right now, there's the group of us, but to be totally honest? I don't feel like less than a dozen of us are going to accomplish much of anything. The odds are too overwhelming. We just have to figure out a way to get the ball rolling."
"I think you're right," Ganesh said, but he was frowning. "Sometimes, I worry that things have to be worse before they get better." He wondered what had been the final step in the civil rights movement- had a certain action set it off? Or had Stephenson simply been exceptional? He wished he'd paid more attention to history in school.
Tom frowned too. "I... kind of worry the same thing," he admitted. "I mean, even us here are pretty complacent... and look where it got us." His shoulders slumped. "It's like it all still seems sort of distant and abstract, and it hasn't really hit home that things are going to get bad. But I don't really want something horrible to happen to shock us into action, either."
"Me neither." He didn't say that he was affected less-or had the possibility of being- than any of them. Because in his eyes, it didn't matter. "Well, let's follow your plan then and we'll see where it gets us. They can't fight the whole bloody country, right?"
"Who do you mean by 'they'?"
"The powers that be. Not us." He was including himself in that count of wild cards.
"It would be pretty awesome if we could get the whole country on our side. I'd settle for just over half, though." Tom grinned.
He laughed. "The half in power?"
Ganesh stood up and stretched. "Let's get started then. I'll have a bloody long night ahead to get the radio up and I don't even want to think of what I'll have to build Alec to persuade him to encode the signal." He scowled. The betrayal of the robot still stung.
"Isn't it his job?" Tom asked. "You shouldn't have to do anything for him."
"With great power comes great responsibility," quoted Ganesh with a grin. "Don't question our ways, mortal." Though Tom did have a point.
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"Well, good luck with that, anyway," Tom said with a grin. "See you around."
"Give us till Thursday," he said. "Friday, actually. It'll be done by then." With that, Ganesh wandered out of the room, humming to himself offkey.