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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Oct 15, 2018 21:46:52 GMT -8
University of BerkeleyLocated in San Francisco, attended by Andro de Flores from 1999-2001 and Hope Van Dyne from 2000-2003.
Events occurring from 2000 to 2001. |
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Oct 23, 2018 1:00:35 GMT -8
* Student Council Room *
Information seminar of SpUp (SpeakUp), closed workshop
"During the last years, in which I have stumbled upon the faultiness of our social system a lot of times, I have read a great many books and articles. Articles, in which an attempt has been made to set up The State as an entity having conscience, power, and sublimation above human limitations, and as constituting a tutelary genius over us all." Andro let a deliberate pause following his words, having a severe look over his audience. Partly he received affirmative nods, partly no reaction at all. These speeches towards potential group members were no one-step effort. For him, it was of high importance that people not only were listening but internalizing what was going wrong in their society. And so it was not only his task to recruit but also to select. What this group needed was sanity, as there was enough blindness among humanity already. "After reading and listening to a great deal of this sort of assertion", Andro finally continued. "I find that questions form, and should form, themselves with more and more distinctness in our minds. Who are those who assume to put hard questions to other people and to demand a solution to them? How did they acquire the right to demand that others should solve the world-problems? Who are they who are held to consider and solve all questions, and how did they fall under this duty?" And yet again Andro paused for a moment of allowing his words to let his cause for thought sink in, silently starting the selection on his own whilst looking from one to another. He might never have been a good reader as for what was going on behind facial features, but the last years had taught him how to make out liars, hypocrites and people that simply do not have an understanding for what he said. For now he didn't know any of these people personally for it would be only a handful of them getting an invitation for session two anyway. This session, session one, was more like a semi-public lecture. "At this point, I am going to close my little discourse in hopes to see all of you at my next. You will be kept posted as for the specific date." That was a lie. Well, at least half a lie. Andro wasn't interested in seeing each one of them again and also wouldn't give the date for the next session freely, but only to a chosen few. A good-natured functional lie. While his audience started to depart, Andro drew his attention away from it to have a look out of the window instead. He didn't watch something outside, but rather silently recalled his impressions during this last half hour. Andro never needed to annotate them, as his memory was nearly eidetic. No more than three, maybe four, from all these people he saw as potential new members. |
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Dec 23, 2018 0:41:32 GMT -8
Hope had slipped in and seated herself at the back, remaining relatively unseen behind a couple of tall men seated in front of her. Her observation of this secret meeting had been limited to hearing, though she'd caught a quick, brief glimpse or two of the speaker. She hadn't needed a visual to know that the speaker was passionate about his cause. It resonated in his voice.
Intrigued, Hope shifted to an angle and relaxed into her seat, resting an arm on the back of the chair while crossing one leg over the other, observing the back of the speaker through the gaps of people shuffling out between them. She waited in silent patience and once only the two of them remained, she made her presence known.
"Your aspirations are commendable, though I question your method of execution."
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Jan 25, 2019 16:20:51 GMT -8
"Your aspirations are commendable, though I question your method of execution."
Andro was taken by surprise for once. The other participants had left not long ago, but for a moment he really had been in the believing that he was alone. He would have lied if he said that this fact wasn't impressing him at least a bit.
With slow movements, Andro turned to the only person left, a girl with an outstanding intentness on her facial features. During his lecture, she obviously had taken place in the back of the room, probably hidden behind a couple of tall men. Otherwise, Andro would have taken notice of her, he was sure.
"That is a good thing.", he suddenly said, not smiling but with a soft tone in his voice. "No one should just blindly believe anything without questioning." Andro was doubting though that this girl really knew anything about his methods.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jan 26, 2019 19:35:07 GMT -8
"Very true," she said in agreement. "But you can't open the eyes of those who are blind to what is going on if you give your speeches in secret meetings to people with eyes already open. Change can't be made by airing your grievances of the system to a small, private group," she said with a passive shrug. "That's just preaching to the choir. There are more effective ways."
She left it there, opening the door for conversation to see if he was open minded and interested in her opinion enough to walk through it or if he would close the door on it just as he kept the door closed on his group.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Feb 27, 2019 0:36:40 GMT -8
"Very true," "But you can't open the eyes of those who are blind to what is going on if you give your speeches in secret meetings to people with eyes already open.
Andro's features were showing not the slightest reaction while inwardly he was disagreeing. These people's eyes are not already open, not by far. Nevertheless did she hit a nerve with her words, and more than with her words, with her thinking. Could it be that he was just talking to someone with her eyes really wide open?
"That's just preaching to the choir. There are more effective ways."
"You have my attention.", Andro suddenly said, calm yet inwardly intrigued to hear her out, as he eyed her with an intensity that had yet his personal own brand of coldness included.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Mar 11, 2019 22:27:55 GMT -8
Hope grinned with appreciation. She'd spent her free time of her first weeks of college checking out the different clubs and groups and had found one disappointment after another. Most of the men who lead groups like these didn't usually care to hear the opinions of others, especially not from a woman. They'd mostly been misogynists who just wanted to shout while they beat their chests like the big, dumb apes they were. Something was different about this guy though. He hadn't stood up there whining out a list of injustices like she'd seen in other groups. He'd questioned who was behind them and why they were allowed to be the ones in control. And when she approached him with her interest to discuss, he didn't dismiss her with a roll of his eyes, or worse, steamroll over her words to leer and hit on her like a couple of the more lowly lifeforms had done.
Hope leaned forward and turned the chair in front of her around to face her while she spoke. "I admire what your trying to accomplish with this group. You're going straight for the root of the problem." She gestured for him to settle in as a show that she was willing to give her time if he was willing to give his. "This is bigger than David versus Goliath and sure as hell won't be a fight as easily won, but it's worth fighting nonetheless. I'm just not so sure secrecy is the best strategy."
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Mar 30, 2019 15:44:56 GMT -8
"I admire what you're trying to accomplish with this group. You're going straight for the root of the problem."
Andro's reaction to her flattering words, which was no more than a duly noting expression, was just as little typical as his willingness to hear out a woman that was not only no part of the community but also a total stranger to him. But different from most men who were leading a club or a social group in general, Andro didn't care for his own fame but instead only for the impact he might be able to unleash.
Then suddenly there was a moment that his lack of social conventions became obvious on his facial features. Of course, he understood the woman's gesture to take a seat while he would hear her out, but this understanding just took him a second too long to not make his conversational partner wonder. After all, Andro took a seat in the chair she had offered to him.
"This is bigger than David versus Goliath and sure as hell won't be a fight as easily won, but it's worth fighting nonetheless. I'm just not so sure secrecy is the best strategy."
"Pray continue.", he called on her to go on, by now noticeably sparing with words, a flaw of him when it came to social interactions that included a dialogue.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Apr 8, 2019 23:00:45 GMT -8
"A handful of people going up against the system will easily be silenced and snuffed out, the world oblivious to the valiant attempt that had been made." Hope gestured to the small room in reference to the small number of people who'd occupied it. "And not everyone will be willing to do more than just complain about the injustices." Hope settled back into her seat, getting comfortable for the deep discussion. "There's strength in numbers. You need to build a group of believers as big as you can. Don't hide in here, talking to a select few. Go out there," she gestured to the large open area in the center of the school, many times used for events and other assemblies, "and be heard. Get their attention." She gestured outside again. "They're walking through life in happy oblivion to what's happening outside their own little bubble and that's what the people in power want. Ignorance keeps the people quiet and submissive, just rolling along whatever currents the powers that be create.
"The people backing up your cause become an audience and with an audience, those in power can't quickly and silently crush you under their heels with none the wiser. And from a larger gathering of supporters, you have a wider selection of candidates to choose from, to build the strongest, most capable army of men--and women," she said with a confident smirk that clearly said she counted herself as one such capable woman, "to stand beside you, take action. Create waves that disrupt their currents."
Hope leaned forward, taking only a moment of scrutiny to see that he had the full potential to go the distance. "So what do you say? Shall we make waves, Mr..." She waited to see if he'd take a step toward potential acceptance by introducing himself or if he'd excuse himself, effectively shutting her out.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on May 3, 2019 13:30:55 GMT -8
Other than the woman sitting opposite him, Andro wasn't growing so comfortable with actually having a dialogue but deep down with having found someone who was as enthusiastic about this as he was. She truly had a point there that up until then Andro had been a lone fighter, speaking to an audience and at the same time speaking to no one.
Yet as inspiring as her words were sounding to him, by now Andro had no idea that her visions would mean a lot more stress and strain to him than he thought they would, as going out and build up an army meant to use social tactics that he didn't have; or that he didn't have yet that was.
"...""So what do you say? Shall we make waves, Mr..."
"I accept.", he suddenly answered her whole speech with only two words before reacting to her hidden question regarding his name. "And it is just Andro."
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on May 5, 2019 1:08:59 GMT -8
Hope smiled, happy to have found what she thought was a noble purpose during her college years. She'd heard his speech and more importantly, the impassioned conviction with which he'd delivered it. So many people stood up at a podium and gave their speeches but talk was all they did. This one seemed the rare sort that would do more than just rile the crowds. "I have a feeling you have the potential to be so much more than 'just Andro'," she said, playing on his words with more sincerity than humor. She introduced herself, so used to her own name that long ago, she stopped thinking about the double meaning the two simple words held. "I'm Hope."
A couple months later
Hope stood in a curtained off area of the large grassy square in the center of the college buildings. A sort of makeshift backstage for the small stage set up for a special event. The area was usually sparsely occupied with students on break between classes studying, socializing, having lunch, or catching a nap under one of the few trees offering shade. Today, nearly half the square was occupied with students waiting for the special event. Between her classes and studies, Hope had worked hard to get Andro's fight out. Interest had risen has the months passed and when enough attention had been taken, Hope had begun work on today's event. It was to be Andro's first public speech. Peaking through a small opening in the curtain, Hope was proudly impressed with a crowd even more massive than she'd anticipated. It was a vast improvement over Andro's closed group of an exclusive, handful of people hidden away in a room. She'd done a good job of getting people's attention, but really, she felt it was Andro's vision that was the draw. A nervous Andro shared the small curtained off area. "Andro, you're gonna do just fine," she encouraged. |
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Jun 2, 2019 6:11:38 GMT -8
The more Hope had gotten him hooked on the idea to walk out into public to share his vision with the world or at least half the student body instead of only a handful, the more excited he had gotten with it. In the same breath though, the closer this day of his first public speech had been approaching, the more nervous he had become about it.
"Andro, you're gonna do just fine,"
Andro's head turned up at Hope. Usually emotions weren't well to read on his features, maybe this time they were a little bit, so the fact that Hope was actually able to sense the rising discomfort in him might have flown from rather the many days and weeks they had spent training his social abilities just as from the circumstance that both might have grown to each other more than they would admit to themselves.
Instead of reacting to Hope's words of encouragement, Andro's head turned back aground. He wasn't shivering or swallowing like most people did when they were getting nervous; it was actually only a little change in his gaze that gave this feeling away.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jun 8, 2019 10:22:43 GMT -8
Hope moved to stand before him. "Hey," she said gently, placing her fingers under his chin and lifting it. "You've never been one to cast your eyes to the ground. Don't let those nerves bury who you are." She began making minor adjustments to straighten his suit into perfect order as she continued. "The Andro I know always holds his head high. You are strong. You are brave. You are determined. You are a fighter." Jacket in order, she reached up and straightened his tie then looked him in the eyes. "They're all here because they like what it is you're fighting for. They're already half won over."
Hope felt the reminders and reassurances ease the tension in their little curtained area. But then the announcer quieted the crowd and began his introduction. Nothing set nerves right back off as the moment to step out arrived. Even Hope felt on edge and she wasn't even going out there. She reached up and took his face in her hands with a look of strength and determination that she willed to him. "You've got this." Standing in front of a crowd wasn't easy. Hope knew that very well and her experience had only been facing a board meeting. A person tended to be overwhelmed by allowing all their thoughts and concentration to hone in on just the fact the crowd was there, all watching and waiting on you. The key was to broaden your thoughts to things beyond the audience as you stepped out then once you started to speak, things would fall into place and the crowd blend into the background. He needed something to distract him. On impulse, Hope leaned up and pressed her lips gently to his. "You're up," she said, smiling confidently as she heard Andro's name ring out over the speakers.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Jun 9, 2019 12:58:03 GMT -8
"Hey,"
This time his head didn't raise into her direction yet he was willed to listen to her words of encouragement when suddenly she forced his gaze upon her by gently lifting his chin. This sudden physical contact was new. Odd. Yet not in a negative way. At least not only.
"You've never been one to cast your eyes to the ground. Don't let those nerves bury who you are."
His eyes wordlessly followed every move of her fingers adjusting his clothes, and back to her.
"The Andro I know always holds his head high. You are strong. You are brave. You are determined. You are a fighter."
And almost as if her words were coming to fruition already, with every further step building up a picture of himself that he had never seen this way, Andro's head rose up. Strong. Brave. Determined. How was it possible she had such an effect on him, he wondered in silence.
And then suddenly their eyes met. Andro wasn't sure what to see there, but it was something that hadn't been there before. Or so he thought, for the words she had been giving him had worked up his self-confidence immensely.
"They're all here because they like what it is you're fighting for. They're already half won over."
By then Andro was actually feeling calm and grounded when the voice of the announcer coming from behind the curtain was bringing at least half of his stress back at once. Then suddenly Hope was reaching out to take his face in her hands. And yet again he felt her soft touches setting him somewhat back at ease.
"You've got this."
And just as he finally was going to speak up as well, she was leaning up to him as close as no one had ever leaned up to him before. As close so that their lips were actually going to press against each other just like in a...
Andro's eyes were wide open, his pupils following each little movement of her approaching as all of this was happening in slow motion. And although this gave rise to an alarming feeling deep down inside him, there was also a different feeling. One that actually kept him from backing off. A whole new feeling. Odd. Yet welcome.
The moment that their lips actually met was long gone before Andro really had been able to capture it.
"You're up,"
With her voice, everything seemed to change back into its natural track. Sounds, motions just as time itself. He saw a smile beaming over Hope's features and then heard the voice coming from outside calling out his name over the speakers.
She was right. He was up. This was his big moment. The moment they had worked towards this last couple of months.
Andro threw one last look at Hope, giving her a slight nod, before finally starting to step out of his private little comfort zone in which he had locked himself up for too long. The time had come to really speak up. Loud and clear.
"Thank you.", was the last he said before disappearing behind the curtain.
*** Andro stepped out to the audience, delivering a speech that would be outstanding and honored with loud applause ***
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jun 16, 2019 13:09:06 GMT -8
Hope watched Andro take his place at the microphone. She still saw a bit of nerves in the slight stiffness to his posture but it was far better than the bundle of chaotic nerves he'd been moments before. At first, Hope half listened as common sense and apprehension caught up with her impulsive action. What had she been thinking, kissing him out of the blue like that? He hadn't given her any indication of feelings toward her that went anywhere beyond teammates fighting for the same cause. She knew that she had meant it as a friendly gesture without expectations beyond that moment, but there were a million different this sort of action could go, all depending on how the other person involved interpreted the interaction.
What were her own feelings toward Andro? She hadn't really considered that before but there must have been some part of her that felt a draw to have gone in that direction on impulse. She studied him as he spoke. He was good looking. He had that dark and brooding quality that intrigued and fascinated many women, apparently including herself. There was an off limits, dangerous air about him that gave the impression he was the type of guy parents warned their little girls about. Her father would hate him but that only made her want to like Andro more.
Stumbling into daddy issues territory pulled Hope back to reality. That was a road she always avoided. Hope put her concentration on Andro now as he spoke of the injustice of those in power with no right to have gained such a position that allowed them to hold control over us. Had she just ruined their companionable relationship and the chance to continue working together to fight against this? Hope continued to listen and was quickly caught up in his speech, held rapt just as the students in the audience. She brushed her worries aside. They would talk later. However things panned out, it wasn't worth giving up this important mission over a simple kiss.
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Post by DarkSideCookie on Jul 7, 2019 17:38:06 GMT -8
When Andro had finished his speech, there wasn't left the slightest sign of unsureness upon his features. He did great and for the first time, he knew he did. For the first time, he had the feeling that what he was doing was not only the right thing but something people were listening to. He could make a change. And so he would. This day should become a day he will always remember. And not only because of the vast applause that was suddenly belting him all around...
Andro didn't allow anyone to see the fire that was arousing in him though. Or maybe he actually just wasn't able to show it on the outside. And so, with one last nod, he walked back behind the curtain, where Hope was still waiting.
Wordlessly Andro stepped closer towards his companion, pausing right in front of her. He watched her for a moment and then did something out of an impulse that he never had done before. He pressed his lips against hers just like she had done before, yet a lot more passionate and clearly not in a platonic way.
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Post by Hollywood Heidi on Jul 27, 2019 17:48:29 GMT -8
Hope had gotten caught up in the speech just as the audience beyond the curtain had. She grinned with pride and clapped along with the audience from her spot side stage. Then he turned toward her and her hands stilled as she was once again struck with the reminder of her impulsive action. There was no more pushing it aside for later. The moment of what impact her action had made on what had been a professional political campaign relationship had arrived. Her hands slowly fell to her sides as he made his way back to the curtained area. She watched him closely, trying to scrutinize what was going on in his head, but as always, his expression was serious and unreadable. Emotions never played a role on his features. Hope held her breath as he took the last few steps and stopped right before her. He didn't say anything, just stood there and watched her. She couldn't help starting to think that she'd made a mistake, that he was about to tell her she'd overstepped. Just as her brain started working overtime on explaining she hadn't meant it as more than an innocent distraction, he took her by complete surprise and kissed her. Before this moment, she'd only felt such passion from him when he gave his speeches. Hope was too swept up in the moment to wonder if this was real. It would be some time before she'd start to wonder if the overwhelming flood of passionate support the audience had sent Andro's way was flooding over into this moment.
A COUPLE MONTHS GO BY. SCENE PICKS UP AGAIN
IN HOPE'S STUDIO APARTMENT, JANUARY 2001
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