maskormenace | video.

[Kate actually knows she shouldn't do this. She knows she shouldn't, but she goes ahead and does it anyway.]

A year ago, I made a post on here. I talked about a different world, and I talked about a different registration act. In my world, good people who refused to register were assaulted, brought down, and meant to be delivered to a dangerous and terrible prison until they submitted. My friends and I were among the first to refuse to register, and we were lucky enough to be rescued. I never registered, and it turned out that everything associated with the act was ... bad.

For that reason, among others, I've refused to register here. We don't belong in this world, and our hands are being forced on the matter. The government has used us without divulging information openly, and they've even put us into psychological games. Just last April, everyone was asked to play a game. Did you feel like a rat in a cage? And last June, people were asked to play a war game without being told of the very real consequences: that with every shot, we'd feel what it was like to have a real bullet tearing into us. And at the end of the game, you either won or you experienced true death before you woke up.

[Her voice here intensifies in its anger.]

And now ... now, a year later, we're in another game. We're in the reality of that paintball game. See, it was imPort versus imPort, and here we are again. We're having our hands forced because even if we've been helping one another, and helping the citizens of the world, we should be brought in. None of the vigilantes I know kill. We all help, doing what we can, and it's the government who defines our behavior, and who decides that we should adhere to their laws. And why? Is there any reason that we should? We didn't consent to these tattoos. We've been going along with what they've wanted for ages.

So, this is what I'm asking the government to do. You have the list of vigilantes. Why don't you bring us in yourself? Why use other imPorts? You can capture us, right?

Because honestly, that's what I'd like to know. Obviously, you want something for this, so everyone, let's guess! Because it looks like they want a Civil War among us. I guess they really didn't think it through, even with cautionary tales already ready in their midst.

[When she cuts the feed, it switches to text, providing a link to her previous words on the matter. Cautionary tales are even sourced!]

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[ She's encouraged by that. And she nods, and relaxes enough to confess, not without a bit of wryness: ]

Anyway, I've got to admit that I don't really even understand the whole vigilante thing. If they were standing up to the government as vigilantes - all right. But most vigilantes just seem to be hunting down criminals, which they could do while registered, which means they'd be getting a really good amount of money for doing the exact same things. And it's money that's going to put a stop to crime, way better than any one person heading out there with super-strength. They could donate that to anti-poverty initiatives. I think registration's stupid as anything - I think this whole system is stupid as anything - but you can turn it to your advantage.

Hey, Kitty! I know I asked for an open discussion, but shouldn't you be having this with me? Or, I don't know, in Mr. Pinkman's private inbox?

Instead of passively criticizing my life choices, as you just did.

[ Oh. Oh - ]

Oh, I'm - I'm so sorry. I didn't...

[ Kitty bites her lip, very visibly embarrassed. It takes her a moment to collect herself and stop stammering, but even once she does, her cheeks are still pink. ]

Sorry, Kate. It wasn't criticism - just me thinking aloud, because I'm afraid I really don't get it.

Do you really think it okay to torture people in a paintball game that was offered to everyone as a bit of harmless fun? Do you think it just fine to send people out to Alaska without any resources to see how the imPorts might handle it? I mean, that has to be what was done, right? No one allows an operation without resources, but that is, from what I understood, what happened. Not to mention that we have tattoos that, like it or not, do brand us as AWOL, like soldiers, even if we haven't registered. AWOL to what? It means absent without leave. What leave? Who are we asking permission from?

We're commodities, and we can be used and reused.

That is why I don't register. I don't want to swear to the government that doesn't live up to your expectations of "terrible."

As for being a vigilante, I'm a hero back home. Vigilantes, the ones who go out and hurt people and kill them to keep them off the street, are on another level. There is a difference between the two. But here, they're put within the same limiting category.

I mean, it says a lot that you can only be a hero if you're loyal to the governing body that, while struggling to keep some hold on this situation, is branding us and putting in poorly defined expectations of our behavior.

[ She still looks chagrined, but a bit of her normal earnestness creeps back in. ]

But you'd be a hero regardless of what you're called, and regardless to who you're sworn to. Who you are doesn't depend on who thinks they have your loyalty. It might depend a bit on who actually has your loyalty, but a few words don't actually guarantee that. Like you said, with that paintball - they've lied to you for their advantage; why not lie back to them for yours?

[ Kitty's more recent attempts to be a better, more honest person go more than skin-deep, but not that much more, apparently. ]

Kitty, if I asked you to align yourself with your government, would you do it?

Don't try to tell me to be dishonest to use them, especially when I don't trust what will eventually come from the expectations of that oath. Conspiracy against the government by a person who has sworn loyalty is much more troubling than someone who has been honest from the very beginning.

You're not going to change my mind on this. It's been a year, and while it was a year of wondering if I would ever be proved right: I have been. Right here. Right now.

Now, I have to be prepared with what comes from that.

Of course I would. I swore loyalty to my government every day at school, didn't I, along with the other kids, and thanked the magicians that shoved me out of their way on the street. You remember talking with Lizzie, little sycophant that she was. But - [ She taps her forehead, a demonstration of where her intentions lay. ] It didn't change for a moment what I had intended. And it kept me from going to hang before I could carry it out.

If I don't change your mind, that's fine. I do respect that you're so principled, to be sure. But if the government's as wicked as you think it is, then loudly declaring your principles makes you into a target. And I'd sooner have a good, brave, live hero than a good, brave martyr.

If they were going to do something about me, they'd already be doing it. The real question is why they aren't. You're right in that you're not going to change my mind. I'm not into anarchy back home, but I did have a problem with the registration act there. Here, I have the same problem, and the things have been piling up for the last year. They're doing this in the name of discouraging vigilantism, but that doesn't even make sense. Nothing makes sense, so I can't step down, and I can't stop having my principles.

The moment I do that, I feel like we've lost. I don't think this revolves around me. I'm not stupid to believe that. But I want to ... be there for people who see the injustice of this, and I don't want to be dishonest in the process.

That's just how I do things. I don't like when it happens at home. I don't like it here. I'd rather be consistent.

[ She chews on her lip a moment, then nods. ]

Well, I respect that. If you're going in aware of the risks. Honesty tends to be overrated, a lot of the time - I like diplomacy, and survival, and results, a lot better, but...If it came to it, your principles wouldn't prevent you going into hiding, right? If their campaign against vigilantism turns into something a bit more...Well, a bit more aggressive.

I know how to go into hiding for these causes. I've done it before. I never wanted to have to do it again, but here we are. It's on the table, and I'm fully prepared.

Thankfully, I can teleport. [So if she has to keep Billy out of things (which she knows she won't be able to do, but she would like to try given ... how much has changed since then), she can.]

[ An mm of acknowledgment. Practically: ]

Better to rely on your smarts before your powers, though. If they're going to go to war against us properly, the first thing they'll do is weaponize their power-nullification technology.

Sure, but I'll rely on it until then.

And if not, then there might be technological wraparounds.

Either way, I'm not too worried.

[ A shrug; no more than that. ]

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