A/N: Holy Lord. This One Meeting has reached over 300 views. That's over 100 views in 2-3 days. Holy shipwrecks. (I mean the Minecraft shipwrecks – Hetalian ships are too awesome to be wrecked.)
Besides this, Poems for the Peril and The No-Maj Path have both surpassed 100 views.
So to celebrate that, here's a plot bunny generated when I was rereading Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's occupy movement uncovered by Jason Y. Ng. Enjoy!
Disclaimer: Hetalia does not belong to this teenager who hasn't even reached 14.
Chapter 2: Velvet Revolution – Spark of the Rebellion
Warning: All information is not first-hand as I was 9-10 when the Movement happened and barely remember what was said on the news on TV. This chapter involves mild injury and very politically-sensitive subjects (I will try to gloss over the very complicated political part and focus on the social part instead). Remember that I do not wish to offend anyone. I will try my best not to express radical opinions of any sort and stay neutral in terms of politics. If you feel offended, please do not leave flames. Thank you for your consideration.
Of course, since all the drama happens on the days of World Meetings (or is it the other day round?), a Meeting had to fall on 28th September, 2014. During an unidentified Nation's speech on who-knows-what (because hardly anyone pays attention anyway) – probably a non-canon Nation –the clock struck 6pm for UTC+8 (in simpler terms, in HK Time), and a certain SAR said, out loud:
"Oh s**t."
Then he outright pocketed his smartphone and hurried out of the Meeting room…even though the majority of everyone else was asking WTH is going on. Hong Kong ignored them. He had a plane to catch home.
Several hours later, a text popped up on several phones: CCP let my ppl choose btwn given candidate A, B, C 4 boss. Some hate it. Protest. Tear gas.
Translation: the Chinese Communist Party only lets [his] people choose between certain given candidates to be the next Chief Executive ([his] Boss). Some of [his] people protest against this because they were promised universal sufferage (everyone that can vote can vote for their choice candidate for the next Chief Executive) and the CCP broke that promise with the 8/31 Framework. So there's a mass protest going on and tear gas was fired. Note that tear gas had not been used to quell crowds since 2005.
News was also churning out as time passed. Blame human social media.
19 Hours Later
Someone who appeared to be a teenage girl wearing a light pink bossini (1) t-shirt was dropping off some lunchboxes from the nearby Café de Coral (2) when she was approached by a similarly-aged boy with messy dark hair. Both of them have almost identical gold eyes.
"Let me look at your arm," the boy insisted, holding onto the girl's shoulder.
"Don't worry about me, Lewis," the girl replied, shifting her shoulder so that she could put down the siu mei (3) rice boxes in plastic bags. The pepper spray burns had all but disappeared from her right forearm. She took out her smartphone and checked for texts. Nothing, but she was sure that the word had spread to her stepsiblings.
Then another boy showed up, but with gelled dark hair instead, and he was wearing a formal short-sleeved shirt and dress pants instead of a t-shirt and jeans like the other two. "Hallo, Vicky."
"Hello, Owen. Getting ready for work so soon?" The boy called Owen shrugged and said, "And you're not going to work today?" His eyes shared the same gold colour as his fellow triplets, only with a more 'knowledgeable'-and-artistic glint instead of his sister's professional-and-serious(-but-not-all-the-time) shine and his older brother's more casual vibe.
"Not until this is over. Our people's needs are more important than our own," the girl, Vicky answered, wincing as her temples seared in pain for a moment. As a third of the unofficial capital of Hong Kong, as well as the location of government headquarters, she was the one of the whole family most connected to the government, not counting her Ah Gor (4). And since the government and these people were technically against each other, it was practically a miniature internal civil war going on within her.
The other boy, Lewis stifled a chuckle. "Who are you, ehn whot (5) have you done to my Ga Jeh (6)?"
"I'm not just business, finance, politics and luxury, Dai Dai (7)," Vicky reminded him. "You're talking about Central. This is Admiralty."
After that, Owen parted ways with his older triplets, while Vicky set out to talk to the protesters present and Lewis went to the nearest 7-11 to buy some drinks. On a usual day, Harcourt Road would be at rush hour, with vehicles rumbling away at who-knows-how-many kilometres an hour, since it's lunch hour. Instead, the street was cleared. There were only small groups of protestors chatting and passively protesting in peace.
After all, this is not a usual day in the heart of Hong Kong.
#1-Bossini is a local clothing brand, which may or may not be covered in the future. This t-shirt mentioned is inspired by this one with the spaced links: www. bossini en/ short- sleeve- print- tee/ FW18-320803070. html? dwvar_ FW18- 320803070_ color=25
#2-A chain HK-style fast food restaurant. This topic will be covered in a future chapter. Also, this is here because I searched Harcourt Road on Google Maps. This may not be historically/geographically accurate.
#3-Cantonese barbequed meat. This will be covered in the future too.
#4-Unofficial Cantonese Romanization of 阿哥, or Older Brother. Usage is casual. Also used in Children of War.
#5-Kind of how you pronounce "and what" in a HK accent.
#6-Unofficial Cantonese Romanization of 家姐, or Older Sister. Usage is casual.
#7-Cantonese Romanization of 弟弟, or Younger Brother. Usage is slightly more formal than the other two above. Approximately pronounced digh digh, without considering tones. And no, it is not pronounced die-die when pronounced correctly.
A/N: Occupy Central with Love and Peace (OCLP) was launched at 1:40am on 28th September 2014, Hong Kong Time – three days ahead of planning due to events not expected by the OCLP 'founders' (aka the Occupy trio). OCLP kind-of unofficially ended later that day at 6pm, when police fired tear gas into the crowd, when before that it was mostly pepper spray and stuff.
More notable incidents that occurred during the Movement will be covered in later chapters, most likely from the Districts' PoVs. Also, this Meeting took place in a city where the time is behind Hong Kong due to the unfortunate timing of events.
And here you have slightly more insight on the Victoria City triplets, who have the physical 'human' age of 15. (Note that most 15-year-olds here study and not work. The Bauhinia 22 is a special case, which will probably be covered in more detail in another chapter.) They are, if you don't know, the oldest three excluding Hong Kong/Leon himself, who was born nearly three centuries and a half before them.
Thanks for reading and I'll see you in whatever chapter I post next.
TTFN,
-Talons
Sources of the Chapter: Umbrellas in Bloom: Hong Kong's occupy movement uncovered by Jason Y. Ng, Wikipedia, As I See It, South China Morning Post (HK online edition), The Encyclopedia of Virtual Communities in Hong Kong, Other Websites