"...he proclaimed triumphantly that really made Holly want to punch him."
Author'snotes:
Yep, that's Holly and Artemis, all right. Even if they weren't in this alternate universe, that's still how they would act.
Hello, people. I'm not dead!
I've just had a real busy month (wow, has it really been a month?).
Firstly, there was Occupy Central, which is a huge thing for me, since I live in Hong Kong. You really should look it up, for two main reasons. One, Hong Kong never - and I repeat, never - has such an event like this. A protesting crowd of what happened the first week (the week before October 1st, which is the Chinese National Day) hasn't been seen since basically the British handover of 1997, and I don't think violent force has ever been used in recent history (police used tear gas and pepper spray on one of the first nights, which really enraged the crowds and forced Hong Kong's economic centers to a standstill). I stopped following a couple of weeks ago, but I think there rumors about something like the government hiring Chinese Triads to harass police and make the protests less justified.
Anyway, the second reason is Hong Kong is setting a world example in the aims and the execution of the protest. For one, the protestors really wanted to stay nonviolent. There are pictures of volunteers sweeping the streets (and one really iconic one of a guy with two umbrellas standing in the midst of tear gas), a story of how they set up a 'humanitarian passage' for emergency vehicles, and just overall nonviolence. In fact, I think any violence that's come out of this has either been on the police end, or ANTI-Occupy protestors (if you're keeping track, that means there are three factions: pro-Occupy, and police and anti-Occupy, which do not necessarily agree with each other).
In terms of the aims of the movement, Hong Kongers want full democracy. This is really crucial, though I don't think China's backing down at all. In 2017, voting will change to a psuedo-democratic approach, where we can elect who we want to be leader but then China has to approve. This really rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, since (I think) China promised to leave HK alone for fifty years. This meant, of course, that students (who are Hong Kong's future) made up the bulk of the protests; in fact, the leader was just 17 years old at the start of the movement.
Personally, I'm not sure how I feel about this. Part of me says that Occupy was a good thing, because I feel that the Chinese government is quite corrupt (though it may just be local branches), but another part of me really doesn't care because I will likely be in the States by the time voting reforms happen. Besides; it will take a long time - if ever - for HK's culture to change. Most people will be unaffected.
But I digress. Why I've been missing for a month.
As many of you know, I've been complaining about college apps. Well, guess what? They're done! :D
...The earlies, at least.
But that's okay! I've suddenly got a load less work, which means I'll be finishing this story soon. In the future, I promise to finish stories before I publish them so you won't be waiting like this again.
So yeah. A quick (or not so quick) update for you people. Chapter 4 is - again - inspired by Avatar, but I hope it turns out well.