Okay guys, so I've been taking longer breaks simply because I've been thinking about what to do for this story. And because life got busy. I recently took a part time job working in a gun store alongside my full time job. So my weeks are pretty busy. But on another note, just picked up a Colt King Cobra. And its my new conceal carry piece, yes I know its kind of a boomer thing to carry a revolver, but I love it.
Also in the process of buying my first house. But not gonna lie, even with my Vet benefits, dealing with the bank has been a PAIN in the ass.
Winter and Ironwood
"You seriously mean to tell me hes seriously running?" Ironwood honestly thought this was a joke.
He knew Jem could be a bit eccentric but this was taking it a little too far. He didn't even know about it until the council members called is office in a nervous fit. He was willing to brush it off at first, but he remembered how they originally sent the Ace ops to one of Jem's prepper sessions to spy and make sure he wasn't planning an armed coup against the government. Jem was already on the Atlas watchlist because of Lost Liberty. The government didn't take kindly to his speeches at all. Sadly however there wasn't much they could do about it. Currently Atlas was trying to limit the amount of weapons a civilian could buy but due to the lower crime rates ever since Jem started teaching pistol courses, it was highly unpopular with the people.
"I'm completely serious Sir. He made a big announcement and even filed his intention to run within the system. So far he is still far behind Robyn Hill, however his actions improving Mantle have caught the intention of the people." Winter didn't know how to feel about this situation.
On one hand she should have been happy that Jem wanted to do something constructive to help the people of Atlas, but she also knew about his ideals beforehand. Se did like her boyfriend, but she would also be the first to admit that he could be a dangerous candidate. Jem had a heavy distrust of his own countries government. As did at least half of his countrymen. Anyone with a severe distrust of the government running for office was bound to cause chaos regardless of if they actually were elected or not. She didn't know how to feel about this. She had seen how chaotic things got when Jacques Schnee started running for office in the later seasons of RWBY. How would this affect things?
They may have avoided a lot of the chaos at the Vytal Festival but it still wasn't enough to stop panic from spreading across the globe. She didn't know how this would complicate things. But as long as Watts didn't hack the machines and change the votes again, it would insure that Robyn Hill won. She would be the first to admit that she did not think Jem had a chance in hell of actually winning.
But she would humor him for now. After all, there didn't seem to be any harm in it. And regardless there was no way Jem would be able to take on seasoned politicians head to head as an outsider.
"Winter, I want you to keep an eye on him, regardless of his unorthodox ideologies, it would do no good if any harm was to come to him. Even if he had a fraction of the supporters Hill or any of her challengers have, if they believe he is being unfairly targeted it could cause issues." Ironwood said as he took a sip from his flask.
"Don't you think thats a little paranoid Sir?" She asked as he shook his head as he looked out the window of his office.
"Winter, we can't afford to not be cautious, we've seen the future, but this throws a monkey wrench in everything." Ironwood didn't expect Jem to last a month of campaigning.
They would keep a close eye, but they wouldn't do anything to negatively affect his campaign. They would just let it run its course. No reason to get involved.
"Sir, I believe one of Jem's rallies is being televised." Clover came in as Ironwood snapped out of it.
"What? How is that possible? Theres no way he has the funding for that?" Ironwood knew Jem didn't have a lot of Lien. He only worked a small time job as a firearms instructor down in Mantle.
"He didn't need it, the media considers him interesting enough that they decided to send a camera crew down to monitor his rally. He's not paying anything for it." Clover said as Winter couldn't help but feel that giving Jem free coverage was the exact opposite of what they wanted.
"Well whats he saying?" Ironwood said as Clover brought up the rally on the Holographic screen.
The crowd at his rally consisted mostly of members of Lost Liberty, but there appeared to be some new faces in the crowd. That wasn't surprising considering Jem was still an unknown in the political arena and Winter was certain that he was only running as a joke. Jem came out to the podium. He wasn't dressed in his usual plate carrier. Instead he was carrying a standard Colt Revolver in a pair of tight jeans and a cowboy hat. Looking more like he was starring in a western bounty hunter film versus a post apocalyptic hellscape film.
Jem waited for the crowd to quiet down before he began his speech. He reached into his coat pocket and pulled out a speech.
"Normally this would be the part where your elected representatives would pretend to speak from the heart and read off of a prepared speech written by a member of their staff. They would say whatever you wanted to hear with complicated words to the point where you don't understand that their words are nothing but empty promises, and their speech lacks the passion of a man who truly wants to help the people." Jem emphasized his point as he showed the paper to the crowd.
Showing nothing but an empty page.
"Ladies and Gentlemen of Mantle, I am not a politician, I'm not a speech writer, I'm not a great military general, and I've never held anything other than your regular blue collar job a day in my life." Ironwood didn't understand where he was going with this.
"The truth is I didn't even grow up in Mantle, I grew up in a country far away from here, a country that I still love to this day, even if every day her people lose sight of the very things that made that country great." Jem almost seemed to look sad at this.
"When I first came to Mantle, I saw a people who were down on their luck, it wasn't until I helped a woman one time with a thief that I realized that the people here needed help. When I first started teaching my first students how to defend themselves, I listened to their stories. I knew I was coming from a different culture, and I needed to learn how to understand them if I was to teach them." Jem took a sip of water as he got out from behind the podium with the microphone in hand.
"I learned that in many parts of Mantle that crime was just a daily part of life, muggers were confident enough to steal from people in the daytime, and the police officers were so overworked that they couldn't make a difference. You went to your elected officials begging for an answer. And you had faith that they would uphold their oaths and do everything in their power to help you out."
"A leader who I look up to once said "What truly matters is not which party controls the government, but whether our government is controlled by the people."
Winter couldn't help but feel that Jem was being a little negative in his speech.
"I look at the news the same as you, I see politicians promising great things, but they never deliver. How many times have you seen one of your leaders being questioned only for them to not only completely ignore the question, but somehow they manage to get onto another topic? The other day I was watching the news and the local mayor was talking about their 'big plans' to reduce crime in this city. But whenever someone asked them about their plans, they would only talk about what they THINK their plans would do, and at no time at all did they think to tell the people about the actions they were going to take."
Ironwood could actually agree with that. Too often he had seen council members pose for photographs or interviews and they barely talked about the actual issues facing the people of Mantle. Only choosing to promote their own self image.
"So how could anyone blame you for feeling downcast? How could anyone blame you all for being miserable in your own neighborhoods? You trusted your politicians. I am not saying this to mock you, in a perfect world we could trust them. Sadly however, we don't live in a perfect world. So eventually you have to say 'ENOUGH IS ENOUGH!" Jem yelled that last part out to emphasize his point.
"I knew I had to take action when I first arrived. And when I took on my first student, I never realized just how much of a firestorm it would create, Lost Liberty started off as a small group of 50 men and women, human and faunus, different creeds and religions, but all citizens of Mantle!"
Winter recognized that last line.
"Did he just quote 'We were Soldiers'?" (1)
"Within months of the people taking their fate in their own hands, crime went down, the police had breathing room, and citizens could feel safe walking the streets at night. Do you know what this shows?" He let the crowd mull it over.
"It shows that its not the politicians who control your fate, its you! The people! The people of Mantle are a lot more than crooked politicians sitting in a council room ignoring the common plight of the everyday citizen. And when the government ignores the plight of the people, then they have lost the right to govern at all!" Jem took a small break to catch his break.
"When a long train of abuses and usurpation, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty to throw off such government and provide new guards for their future security."
Winter recognized the last line, that was taken straight from the Declaration of Independence.
Jem wasn't just trying to inspire the people of Mantle.
He was trying to give himself hope for his own future back in the United States.
"Well this day I say to you that the time has come to throw off the career politicians and to rally behind someone who's been where you've been! I'm just a blue collar worker from a small town trying to make his way in the world. I know how life can kick you while you're down. But I promise you this, I will never forget where I come from, and I certainly would never forget about the thousands of people just like me in this kingdom! The career politicians in their ivory towers have forgotten about the struggle of the people of Mantle, and to that I say that they have forgotten the very oaths they took to serve the people!" The assembled crowd actually cheered at that last statement.
"I'm not perfect, I'm not made for politics, I'm just a simple man who wanted to make his own mark on the world, I have no interest in riches or fame, I have no interest in behind closed doors shady business deals. Hell, I never wanted anything more than to have my own land in the middle of the woods with a cabin. I'm not in this for the money, I'm in this for the right of the people to be able to live the life they choose! I want the people to be free to believe in these three values 'Life! Liberty! And the Pursuit of Happiness!"
The crowd roared in approval at that last part of the speech and Ironwood seemed to zone out for a bit.
"General?" Winter said as he looked to her.
"This isn't good..." He said as he did not like where this was going.
"What do you mean? That seemed reasonable." She thought he could have gone without the quotes from the American Revolution, but it wasn't a bad speech.
"Thats the problem, I was expecting Jem to act like a crazy candidate, a crazy candidate would disappear in a month, but he said something that can resonate with the people, which means they might take him seriously." He turned to Clover.
"Keep an eye on him, I get the feeling he's going to cause a stir." He said as Clover turned and walked away.
"Sir, don't you think you're taking this too serious?" Winter believed in her boyfriend, but Jem as a politician? You would have a better chance of convincing Ronald Mcdonald to eat a Salad.
"Winter...the whole of Mantle just saw that speech, you tell me if there is absolutely nobody who wouldn't support him after that speech attacking the people that have left them behind for years?"
Winter thought about it...
And then she realized the General had a point.
Jem wasn't acting out of an irrational hatred of politicians.
He was acting as the rational anger of the people of Mantle.
And that was dangerous.
(1) That line is a rip off of the scene where Col. Moore is giving a speech in doughboy stadium to the men of the 1st Cavalry.
Anyways, so forgive me for my speech writing. I usually am better at coming up with things in the spur of the moment versus writing my thoughts down.
Anyways, when it comes to Jem talking about how bad crime is getting and how the politicians seem to ignore it. That is based off of one place in particular.
Chicago.
Look I'm from Illinois, and I'll be the first to say Chicago is a horrible place to go. I used to love visiting Chicago to visit the museums.
And even though I'm a packers fan, you know Chicago is getting bad when even the BEARS are trying to leave.