Author Topic: Question of Faith (Read 111 times)
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Question of Faith
« Jun 19, 2009 5:29:45 GMT -6 » 		Quote
He had seen it all that day. On top of one of the buildings in the perimeter of the Collective's grounds, he was a witness to the massive failure in communication that Director Navarro orchestrated. A faint smile was on the corner of his lips that day as he observed disorder ignite at his footsteps. He was tempted to knock the trembling scales off balance, enabling the situation to degenerate past the point of no return, but his aching body begged to differ. It had been four days since he had last slept and he was barely able to keep himself standing in his current state. His last job in Iran demanded constant attention, and he was too excited about passing through Tokyo before arriving to California to consider sleeping as a viable option. Alas, the time between his flights was too little for him to leave the airport, but he managed to console himself with a large box of almond crunch pocky, devouring its contents at the present moment.

Why was Bishop here? It was because of a minor job in LA, transferring precious data from Iran to the local community in the city of angels. Once he was done, he decided to take a peek at the most important stronghold of the System in the region, for nostalgia and curiosity's sakes. It all would've been an event-less affair, with him satisfying his taste for recalling the good ol' times and living on his life, had it not been for the massive fiasco that went on that fateful day. It was then that Bishop remembered how much he hated the system.

He hated it alright. He hated it a lot. If he was what he was now, it was all thanks to said system. A walking corpse with a neurotic grin. Charming, no? So, instead of continuing his worldwide guerrilla activities, Bishop decided to stay in Chula Vista and to orchestrate a heavy blow onto Navarro's little darling deity. And so, the day after the infamous Navarro's dramatic speech, a completely unknown character would give one of his own. At noon exactly, across the halls of Knox academy, Fremont high and O'Hare University, a male voice made its presence known through the intercom.

"Question." It began, pausing for a moment to release half a chuckle. He couldn't believe that he was about to do this. He was past the point of no return. "Are you a god-fearing person? Do you wonder if there's a greater force out there, do you wonder if there's anything after death? Do you thank a force high above for allowing you to be what you are today? If the answer is yes, then humility is the virtue that guides your steps through the many obstacles ahead of you. If you said no, then pride if the vice that drives you to succeed. No matter where you stand on the matter. You see, there is no wrong answer in the matter of faith."

A short silence followed, Bishop took a deep breath before raising his voice.

"None, except one. There is one, single, unjustly all-powerful flawed faith. And that is faith in the system."

The tone descended.

"Some of you might disagree. It is your opinion, and I respect you for forcing me to elaborate on my point. But even you were shaken yesterday. Over five students - five, the number of fingers on a single hand - Director Navarro forced all of you, even the most faithful among your ranks, to take a moment from your classes to witness some sort of public execution. And for what crime? Violence? Sexual harassment? Theft? No! Over a simple disciplinary matter involving the refusal to wear your uniform. I am not here to judge whether this infringement on the dressing code was because of a noble cause or not. I am here to say that the method used to resolve this matter is wrong, as you have all seen yesterday. Tell me, was it necessary to bring out a squadron of security personnel? Considering the huge crowd and the need for control in case of some unexpected crisis, maybe. But was it necessary for them to be armed with firearms loaded with rubber bullets? Think about it."

A pause was given, allowing all who listened to take a moment to ponder on the matter.

"You know what it means when someone decides to bring a sword to the discussion table? One thing: he doesn't trust you. He doesn't care if you have good grades or not. He doesn't care if you're a boy or a girl, black or white, straight or gay. Because you are not him, he doesn't trust you. For someone that proclaims that the System is God and that he is its highest symbol of authority, therefore a self-proclaimed pope, the man sure has issues having confidence in his flock. A god is supposed to represent an ideal, a flawless entity, a state of perfection. When one depends on a bunch of savage goons to silence any voice that would dare come out of his herd of disciples, it's quite obvious that he is desperately trying to deny the fact that there are flaws in his faith, that there are cracks in his cathedral, that his dogma is disconnected from reality. Let's face it, this guy doesn't have the solution for a better education. He proved it to you yesterday. So one asks, who does?"

Another pause, the man on the other side needed a sip of water.

"The answer is quite simple: you do. Unlike your director, I believe in you. Unlike your director, I am aware of the existence of that wonderful potential hidden in every single one of you to change this world for the better. Unlike your director, I know that you have it in you to take the step in the right direction and set the building blocks for a new system, one where you are considered as a full human being. You might wonder what gives me the conviction to make such optimistic claims. I say that I have faith you, because yesterday, you opened your eyes, all of you, and saw how wrong this system is. So I tell you, to each and every single one of you, to do your part in making out of your school a better place, somewhere that you'd actually look forward to coming every day."

The man looked at his laptop, he had talked for a few minutes through his microphone. It was time for him to step out of the Collective's intranet and erase any footsteps he had left by committing this daring digital infiltration. Before shutting down the screen of his portable device, the man uttered a few parting words.

"I am the Black Bishop, and my faith lies only in humanity's infinite potential."

For good, and for evil.

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fryman
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Question of Faith
« Jun 19, 2009 15:46:06 GMT -6 » 		Quote
For lunch Conrad thought it would be a good idea to go outside to have some lunch. He had submitted his transfer papers earlier that day, and now it is only matter of time when he leaves this school and goes to Knox. Until that happen Conrad would have be in Fermont for a few more days.

Taking a step outside at noon Conrad ears blare with the noise of some random person making an announcement. The first thing that enters Conrad’s head is that people at this school sure love to make themselves self-important and make long dry out speeches. Most of the time people are just spouting a lot of BS. This person is no better.

Taking an empty seat Conrad places his gym bag down and opens it. Pulling out a sandwich and a bottle of water, Conrad began to eat his lunch as he listens to the guy’s speech. To be honest Conrad agrees with a lot with what the student says except for the side about the system. What is obvious is that the director made a d_ck_sh move that had little planning. Yesterday was a pointless announcement, and he should be replace due to his incompetence. Another thing is that he went a little over board with everything. It seem like the director purposely wants the entire student body to hate him. The director should make the student body fear him, which will not happen.

The only thing Conrad disagrees with defiantly would be the whole comment about students knowing what the education system should be like. That is bs, the students know next to nothing. That is why we are in school. The staff needs to change, but giving the power to the students is wrong since students do not care about the school. They just want to have fun and get ahead in life. The system is not the issue, but merely the idiotic director who made that assembly yesterday.


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torque
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Question of Faith
« Jun 19, 2009 17:43:10 GMT -6 » 		Quote
Insanity.

Torque had been outside of his class for moments and a voice blared to his ears, catching him off guard and leaving him feeling less than able to stand. Moving quickly to a wall, he almost collapsed against it, aware that his system had slowly stopped functioning. This was the inevitable part of leading a junk heavy lifestyle, in the times between your next hit, your body shut down, rejected you until you gave it that next needle it desperately needed.

And yet, he was on the campus at the moment and as a fairly decent student, there was little reason to risk his entire life on one needle. It felt like it was worth it though, it felt like it so much. Soon he would be home. For now, all Torque could do was lie there against the wall and listen in on the words of insanity, if he'd had any choice he would have been out of there, just another stupid kid maybe thinking he's incredible for figuring out the PA system.

This wasn't a kid though, this was someone different. The voice was clear, it had emotion and passion and most of all, it attempted to make sense. There was no talk of war or immediate violence apart from calling the Director out. What did remain in the speech was the same insanity, the same ignorance every rebellious student carried. The ability to ignore reality in a feeble attempt to "Bring down the system".

People had been living through the system for years now and they'd come out the other side better people. When kids were answering questions by throwing chairs and tables at each other and where bumping in to someone in the hallway meant getting knifed in the back, what were teachers meant to do? Rubber bullets weren't excessive, the sad truth that nobody seemed to grasp was that they were required.

If on that day when the Director had revealed to the students everything they wouldn't expect, there hadn't be armed guards at every corner, riot would have been guaranteed. Add a bunch of angry and moronic kids in to a room filled with mob mentality and there would be a lot of blood before there would be any words.

Two girls passed Torque, looking briefly at him. He grinned back upwards, barely able to lift his eyes open. The girls were part of his ICT Class and he often chatted with them during lesson when he'd become bored of working and yet they walked on, not even attempting to help him. They all knew he'd done it to himself, he didn't deserve help, that was the honest truth.

Back on the topic of the speech though, Jonathan was amazed it had carried on for so long and yet nothing important had been said. Everything he had heard was a fancy dressed up version of everything which had been said in the assembly, the man was well educated but sounded as immature as everyone else.

What was school for? You went there, you got your grades, you left and got a job. What did students do? They went there, beat a load of people up and spent the rest of their lives dealing smack on the streets. If the system redeemed even one person, it was better than any other reality the schools could face.

The system was bad but it was the lesser of two evils.

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