@kate.bishop

[fledges]

hey guys. clarke and i have been trying to figure out more about the una soldiers. where they come from, who recruits them, that sort of thing.

so, a couple of things. it seems like most of recruits are young. 16 at the youngest, and never any older than mid twenties. a lot of them are also poor. the una apparently focuses their recruitment efforts on lower income parts of the city, trying to rope in kids who might not have much of a family or a place to live. clarke also found out that a lot of the kids were the kind whose families were given retroactive approval for a pregnancy, or whose families had serious issues with addiction or illness.

i've been working at a coffee shop, and as you can probably guess, our clientele is very rich. as you can also probably guess, most of our customers don't seem to know of anyone who was recruited by the una, unless those recruits did really, really well and rocketed up in social status. so, super predatory and super gross. most of those kids probably felt like they didn't have any other choice. i don't know where that leaves any of us, but i think it's important to keep in mind.

Comments

[strove]

You have to wonder who the show really is for.

[selfimage]

Anyone who may not want to look too deeply. It seems to sate the masses, at least.
Well, aside from Morningstar.

[strove]

I don't think we're giving people enough credit if we truly think they're sated.

[selfimage]

That's not necessarily what I mean. It took you a while to see out of your own confines of experience. Culture grows, but its traditions and consequences reach across lifetimes. This place has had a long time in the claws of subtle oppression.
There are certainly those who see through the window, but they're still here, and these things are still happening.

[strove]

I've helped end bad regimes like the one in this world.

[A very, very pretty way to own the atrocities she committed at Mount Weather. She won't go into detail.]

It helped that it was more centralized. It was in one place, rather than spread all over. And it wasn't easy, knowing what I had to do.

Here, it's in everything. To end this, it feels like you'd need to raze the world down to the ground.

[selfimage]

When change isn't allowed to happen, it will find a way, eventually. Violently, if it must.

[ he knew that all too well, but the words themselves are a bit esoteric, so he bridges the gap. ]

While I've been an accomplice in the rises and falls of various civilizations, and as much as I'm in favor of the "burn it all down" sort of thing-
There is always another way.

Not intended to come with my normal arrogance, but I think we may be it.

[strove]

We have to understand this world fully before we can begin to think we can change it.

[selfimage]

We won't, before we do. If you ask me, we've already begun to change it.
Besides, how would you gauge how much understanding is enough before we act on something? How much time passes, and how many people disappear?

There is a scale of complexities, rather than ends.

[strove]

Fair point.

But how much change do we deserve to enact without people realizing it's happening?

[selfimage]

The question may be how much can we stop it, and do we want to?

[strove]

If we're aware of it, that awareness offers us choices.

I think we should consider the people of this world regardless of what comes next.

[selfimage]

Aye.
There is something in this world that needs to change, regardless.
Even if my senses are dulled, I can feel it.

[strove]

I don't think that's a godly thing. I think that's the part where bad things keep happening.