advocacy | ❥ 001 video

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[Daneca has spent the first few hours going through the posts to the network. She...]

[...doesn't know how to feel about any of this so far. People going missing and others turning up dead. Zombies, vampires. And Cassel. Realistically speaking, Daneca knows she should probably be more anxious over a potential serial killer running around than the prospect of speaking to Cassel again, but that's what gives her more pause than anything. (At least she's not totally surprised by the idea of a serial killer on the Barge, she figures. Still in the realm of sanity for now.) She thinks maybe she should send him a private message or try to find him and speak one-on-one, in private. But that seems like too much even for her right now.]

[So, she settles for just introducing herself to everyone else. If he wants to talk to her, he can. If not...]

[Well, he doesn't have to. It's not like Cassel owes her anything anyway.]

[With that resolved, she can go back to being properly more anxious about people turning up dead, zombies, and vampires. And apparently also werewolves being real as well.]

[Daneca appears a little stiff and tense. Being on camera and broadcasting like this makes her a little nervous in ways that are harder to cover up than other things that make her nervous or uncomfortable. But it doesn't paralyze her or make her smile seem like a disingenous cover for nerves that ends up looking more scary than pleasant. Daneca is not someone who can lie very well. It's nervous and small, but her smile is no less sincere. She's trying desperately to channel her mother right now.]

I know I'm coming in at a really bad time, but I thought I should probably introduce myself anyway. My name is Daneca and I'm new. [She flushes a little and says a little softer:] Obviously.

[She shifts a little uncomfortably and finds the strength in her voice again.]

I'm a warden for anyone that might matter to.

[She's sure it does especially to some of the inmates. She'll lie about other parts about herself anyway. Might as well be honest about some things that might make people uncomfortable.]

Anyway, I guess I'm just looking for a tour. Or advice. Whatever anybody can spare.

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

Sort've. Everyone in our grade knew Cassel. He used to run this bookie operation. [It's hard not to roll her eyes at that, but she manages to instead just have a slightly nostalgic smile.] And I ran a student pro-workers rights club. We didn't exactly hang out in the same crowds.

But I started to date Sam and Cassel and I just became friends after that. I helped him out a few times, but he saved me from a potentially really bad situation. I don't think I'll ever be able to repay him for it.

[There's a small hesitation after he says the word lycanthrope and then she's thinking about wolf behavior.]

Complicates in that you have a hierarchy with alphas, betas, and omegas and get territorial with outsiders who aren't in the pack or am I just stereotyping?

Some of that, yes. We have hierarchy in the pack, but I'm only territorial when another dog turns up, which isn't often. It complicates how I interact with the people who are friends with packmates.

Cassel is dating one of my higher ranked members, which means Cassel is under our protection.

What goes into being pro-workers' rights?

You just do what you can to prevent anti-worker legislation from being passed. Don't give money or votes to people who would push things like that, attending rallies and protests.

Most of it was talking though at our club. I mean, we're just kids and no actual ability to vote so we just try to spread awareness about the issues to people who have a little more say.

It's nothing glamorous.

[Except that one time that Daneca is not talking about because that was awkward and terrible and she was almost exposed.]

Does Cassel know? That he's under your pack's protection?

Why is there such a need for that sort of legislation?

[This interests him mainly because of that attorney thing he mentioned earlier, but there are other reasons, too. He loves when people from the same world show up...]

Cassel knows. I keep in touch with him almost as much as I do with the pack. This place has a way of...making you trust people. Making you rely on them, anyway.

[Daneca speaks somewhat at length and with a deal of passion in her voice. She's said the same thing to people who grew up in her world countless times - simply because they didn't know much better or chose to keep their heads in the sand about it until they had a kid that was a worker - but she never repeats it like it's just rote memory.]

[She cares.]

[She cares a lot.]

The argument most of them make is that they're trying to keep everyone safe.

They criminalized curse work right around the same time alcohol was criminalized and all the known workers were tossed into work camps in the 1930s. They eventually legalized alcohol and let the workers out of the camps, but they never legalized curse work even though historically speaking, it's never been seen as a bad thing before. That gave crime families like the Zacharovs power to protect families like Cassel's in exchange for their services and loyalty.

If they would just legalize it again though, kids wouldn't feel so pressured to turn to crime when they find out they're a worker. I think most of them figure the rest of the world looks at them like they're a criminal when they say they're a worker and the only way you know you're a worker is by committing a crime accidentally, so they must be criminals.

[She pauses there. But rather than ask another question about Lark and his pack:]

Good. I don't think Cassel's really used to things like that. I mean, he might be now for all I know, but the Cassel I knew was just...

He was one of those people who could be standing in a crowd and still be all alone, you know? We were friends, but he never let me or anybody else in. You could only get so far with him before he'd shut you out and start lying again.

[Cassel still has issues letting people in. Lark still doesn't trust him fully, but it's better to have Cassel on his side than actively against him, so he generally sets aside his suspicions.

He smiles slightly at Daneca, which is as much as he'll do to indicate that Cassel is still quite likely to shut them all out if the wrong flood or the wrong port happens to them.

That's something she'll learn with time. Right now, he wants to gather information, and he wants to keep her talking.]

When did you find out he was a worker? I still don't quite understand how that happens--how do you know what you are?

He never told you how he found out?

[That does give Daneca pause. It's not her place and she won't spill about that if Lark doesn't already know.]

He did. He- it's complicated, but yes, I know how he did. I guess I assumed his story was unusual.

[She nods.]

It is. I guess he didn't mention the first few times he worked things though.

[Daneca wonders if he can even remember those clearly at all or if Barron altered the memories beyond repair.]

It's an accident when it happens and you first find out. Everybody usually wears gloves all the time, but around family or people they trust, it's okay to take them off. [She does glance at his bare hands a little uncomfortably. She's been notably not looking at them this entire time.] You might not even realize you worked someone or something until you start to notice the blowback.

[He looks down, too, surprised to realize he's never thought of gloves. Even when he's murdered people, he hasn't needed gloves; wolves don't leave fingerprints. A life spent wearing gloves sounds...disorienting.]

...Blowback? What does that tend to look like?

[Lark's basically walking around without any pants or underwear without gloves to Daneca, so. Fair.]

Memory workers start to lose memories, emotion workers get erratic and extreme mood swings, parts of death workers die; it depends on the work.

[Most of that sounds familiar enough that he can just nod it off, but the bit about death workers...]

...Hands and feet fall off?

Sorta. It's like the tip of your finger will die and then more and more of it until your whole finger is dead. That kind of thing.

...Horrifying. There's adequate psychological help for those people, I hope? [Given what he's seen from Cassel, he may sound like he's joking, but he's not. He's really not.]

You only know you're a worker if you've committed a crime.

[So, no. There's really not much by way of resources.]

Have you ever committed a crime?

[Which gives her an out, sure, but also poses the question: what are you?]

Not directly, no. I mean, I've helped Cassel with things I probably shouldn't have gotten in the middle of, but no.

[It's a big fat lie. But Daneca doesn't tell anyone she's a worker.]

[He chuckles, because Lord, Cassel and Chris are good at getting people to shirk good judgment.]

How did he manage to talk you into that?

You know, he didn't really have to do much talking.

[Of course, the first time she helped him, she thought she was just picking up a cat for him and it would be no big deal. But that was far from the case. And it's not like he told her everything every time he asked for help either.]

He was a friend and he was in trouble. I couldn't exactly turn a blind eye to that.

No, you could have. From what I know about the place you're from, no one would have blamed you if you had.

[Most worlds, in fact, have a high tolerance for betrayal.]

I would have.

What you know about the place I'm from, you know from Cassel, Lark. That's not exactly a normal upbringing even for a worker.

[Ah, now this is something he's very curious about.]

What is it normally like? Why did he get such a rough time?

Cassel's family's been really close to the Zacharov family and worked under them for generations now. Cassel was being used by his brothers to try and take the family over. They'd use him to transform someone into inanimate objects, killing them, and then change his memory so he wouldn't remember what he did. They even had him transform Lila Zacharov into a cat to get her out of the way.

It's screwed up, but in a way they were protecting him by altering his memory. Transformation workers are the rarest kind of worker. If word got out he could do it? There's no telling how many people would be after him or what they would do to him to get him on their side.

And his mother isn't much better.

[Daneca makes a slight face at that. It's hard for her not to. She's an emotion worker herself and she could never imagine being like Shandra. Not in a million years.]

She's an emotion worker and has zero problem using working someone to get what she wants. Cassel doesn't talk about it a whole lot, but it wouldn't surprise me if she'd worked her own kids a few times. She pretty much groomed them to be pathological, ambitious liars. Though, I don't think she got to Cassel that much. Not like his brothers, anyway. He seems to actually have a moral compass. But Barron and Philip?

[She shakes her head. There's just no way to put it with those two.]

Really, Cassel wasn't exactly destined to have a normal life with his family. It's a wonder he came out of it okay or alive.

...From what I know, he's come a long way here on the Barge. I don't know who he was in your world, but I think you'll find he's not that same person here. I have to protect the member of my pack he's involved with, you see...and as protective as I am, I trust Cassel. It doesn't come easily, but he has earned it.

Did you know about his family when you met him?

[She shakes her head.]

Like I said, he and I really didn't get all that close until I started helping him out.

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