The Blessings of Liberty, Part 3
by heyjupiter/Renata of Doom (renata@frowl.org) 1/8/04
Summary: The third part of a West Wing/X-Men movieverse crossover. Senior staff talks strategy following a mutant attack on the President. Sam's POV.
PG
TWW Season 3 & X2 spoilers
The news was a constant presence in your life, always on in the background somewhere in the office. You usually just tuned it out, half-listening, but there were four words that could always capture your attention: "We interrupt this broadcast...." You heard them, then, and instinctively turned your head to watch. "... the mutant terrorist Magneto has escaped from..." Eyes wide, you reached out and grabbed your phone, it seemed, before it rang. "Sam, get down here. Magneto--"
"I heard, Toby, I'll be there in a sec." You sighed. It was going to be a long day.
You were, somehow, the last of the senior staff to make it to the conference room, which earned you a glare from Bruno. "I'm sure you've all realized that this is not good news for you guys," he said. "We're still reeling from the MS disclosure, and the attack on the President-- by a mutant-- is still fresh, and now the most frightening mutant of them all is free again. None of these inspire confidence among the American people."
You didn't need Bruno to tell you that you needed a spin, and fast. You hated the mutant controversy, mostly because you didn't understand why it was a controversy in the first place. People were people, to you. "Look, what about an education campaign? It's helping with MS, maybe if we could just... get people to realize that most mutants are harmless?"
"Easier said than done," said Bruno, with a lifted eyebrow.
"The biggest problem is that we don't have any positive statistics about mutants," Josh said thoughfully. "People only hear about mutants when they commit crimes or when they've been lynched."
"There's so much we don't know about mutants... a lot of these anti-mutant zealots probably know mutants and aren't even aware of it."
"Yes!" Josh snapped his fingers. "What we need is... some high profile person to be a mutant. Um."
You all realized the problem with this at roughly the same time. "Of course... that means we need someone to be willing to reveal themselves as a mutant. And for someone to actually be a mutant."
"It would be career suicide."
"Kinda like announcing you have MS?" Josh asked Bruno.
"Kinda like that."
"Look," you said, "We're getting nowhere with this. Let's just focus on the Magneto thing."
"It's not really our problem," Toby said, entering the conversation. "He was in a state prison, he--"
"Doesn't matter, CJ's going to get questions asking if we think the attack on the President was orchestrated by Magneto." You hated to admit it, but Bruno had a point.
"Do we?" asked Toby.
Josh shrugged. "FBI's looking into it, but I don't think he would have been able to plan this from prison... personally, I think it's more his style to come here and drop a car or something on the President himself."
"But officially... 'We're looking into it'?"
"Bingo."
Bruno looked impatient. "Look," he said, "I'm sure you guys know that the easiest thing for Barlet to do would be to support the Mutant Registration Act."
"No way," said Toby.
"Definitely not," Josh agreed.
You nodded. "The Registration Act is unconstitutional."
"That's up for the courts to decide! If Bartlet could just support it, or even refrain from denouncing it, it would be a good step."
"A step towards, towards fascism!" You were getting worked up, and you knew it. "If the President supports an act requiring mutants to identify themselves, even if they have no criminal history, no reason for suspicion... that's a very, very dangerous precedent. After that, who's to say it won't end with camps, or ghettos? Or how about a yellow 'M' on their sleeves?"
"You're overreacting, Sam."
"Am I, Bruno? Am I? I just... I don't see why, if the only way to win is to be like the other guy, is it really worth it?"
"I don't think the only way to win is to be like the other guy," Bruno said levelly. "Fine, I understand if you guys don't want to support the act. But it's just making this more of an uphill battle for you."
Josh shrugged. "We've fought uphill battles before."
"I'd rather fight the good fight and lose than win by supporting this act." You were aware of your tendency to resort to aphorisms in the heat of the moment (you'd never let something as cheesy as "fight the good fight" stay in one of your speeches,) but you couldn't help it. You knew you weren't alone among the senior staff in hating this feeling of helplessness. With the campaign, it had been, yes, an uphill battle and a good fight, but you didn't have these suffocating handicaps. But this... MS, mutants, even Josh's tobacco gaffe... Bruno was right. Even though you still resented his presence, he did make good points.
Toby let out a deep breath. "Okay. I think Sam was onto something with the mutant education thing. As far as... uncloseted mutants, that's out of our court. Right now we're 'looking into' a connection between Magneto and the President's attack, still trying to avoid comment on the Registration Act but if we have to, we're opposed."
Bruno gave a terse nod.
"Sam, you go tell CJ, then meet me in my office. We need to work on a statement about, well, all this."
"Right," you said. Another day, another impossible fight. But sometimes the impossible became merely improbable, and sometimes the improbable became merely unlikely... and your job was to turn the unlikely into the sure thing. And you were damn good at it.
by heyjupiter/Renata of Doom (renata@frowl.org) 1/8/04
Summary: The third part of a West Wing/X-Men movieverse crossover. Senior staff talks strategy following a mutant attack on the President. Sam's POV.
PG
TWW Season 3 & X2 spoilers
The news was a constant presence in your life, always on in the background somewhere in the office. You usually just tuned it out, half-listening, but there were four words that could always capture your attention: "We interrupt this broadcast...." You heard them, then, and instinctively turned your head to watch. "... the mutant terrorist Magneto has escaped from..." Eyes wide, you reached out and grabbed your phone, it seemed, before it rang. "Sam, get down here. Magneto--"
"I heard, Toby, I'll be there in a sec." You sighed. It was going to be a long day.
You were, somehow, the last of the senior staff to make it to the conference room, which earned you a glare from Bruno. "I'm sure you've all realized that this is not good news for you guys," he said. "We're still reeling from the MS disclosure, and the attack on the President-- by a mutant-- is still fresh, and now the most frightening mutant of them all is free again. None of these inspire confidence among the American people."
You didn't need Bruno to tell you that you needed a spin, and fast. You hated the mutant controversy, mostly because you didn't understand why it was a controversy in the first place. People were people, to you. "Look, what about an education campaign? It's helping with MS, maybe if we could just... get people to realize that most mutants are harmless?"
"Easier said than done," said Bruno, with a lifted eyebrow.
"The biggest problem is that we don't have any positive statistics about mutants," Josh said thoughfully. "People only hear about mutants when they commit crimes or when they've been lynched."
"There's so much we don't know about mutants... a lot of these anti-mutant zealots probably know mutants and aren't even aware of it."
"Yes!" Josh snapped his fingers. "What we need is... some high profile person to be a mutant. Um."
You all realized the problem with this at roughly the same time. "Of course... that means we need someone to be willing to reveal themselves as a mutant. And for someone to actually be a mutant."
"It would be career suicide."
"Kinda like announcing you have MS?" Josh asked Bruno.
"Kinda like that."
"Look," you said, "We're getting nowhere with this. Let's just focus on the Magneto thing."
"It's not really our problem," Toby said, entering the conversation. "He was in a state prison, he--"
"Doesn't matter, CJ's going to get questions asking if we think the attack on the President was orchestrated by Magneto." You hated to admit it, but Bruno had a point.
"Do we?" asked Toby.
Josh shrugged. "FBI's looking into it, but I don't think he would have been able to plan this from prison... personally, I think it's more his style to come here and drop a car or something on the President himself."
"But officially... 'We're looking into it'?"
"Bingo."
Bruno looked impatient. "Look," he said, "I'm sure you guys know that the easiest thing for Barlet to do would be to support the Mutant Registration Act."
"No way," said Toby.
"Definitely not," Josh agreed.
You nodded. "The Registration Act is unconstitutional."
"That's up for the courts to decide! If Bartlet could just support it, or even refrain from denouncing it, it would be a good step."
"A step towards, towards fascism!" You were getting worked up, and you knew it. "If the President supports an act requiring mutants to identify themselves, even if they have no criminal history, no reason for suspicion... that's a very, very dangerous precedent. After that, who's to say it won't end with camps, or ghettos? Or how about a yellow 'M' on their sleeves?"
"You're overreacting, Sam."
"Am I, Bruno? Am I? I just... I don't see why, if the only way to win is to be like the other guy, is it really worth it?"
"I don't think the only way to win is to be like the other guy," Bruno said levelly. "Fine, I understand if you guys don't want to support the act. But it's just making this more of an uphill battle for you."
Josh shrugged. "We've fought uphill battles before."
"I'd rather fight the good fight and lose than win by supporting this act." You were aware of your tendency to resort to aphorisms in the heat of the moment (you'd never let something as cheesy as "fight the good fight" stay in one of your speeches,) but you couldn't help it. You knew you weren't alone among the senior staff in hating this feeling of helplessness. With the campaign, it had been, yes, an uphill battle and a good fight, but you didn't have these suffocating handicaps. But this... MS, mutants, even Josh's tobacco gaffe... Bruno was right. Even though you still resented his presence, he did make good points.
Toby let out a deep breath. "Okay. I think Sam was onto something with the mutant education thing. As far as... uncloseted mutants, that's out of our court. Right now we're 'looking into' a connection between Magneto and the President's attack, still trying to avoid comment on the Registration Act but if we have to, we're opposed."
Bruno gave a terse nod.
"Sam, you go tell CJ, then meet me in my office. We need to work on a statement about, well, all this."
"Right," you said. Another day, another impossible fight. But sometimes the impossible became merely improbable, and sometimes the improbable became merely unlikely... and your job was to turn the unlikely into the sure thing. And you were damn good at it.