hextraterrestrial | Entries tagged with paris

From the very archives of Dreamwidth:

Mutant Rights AU - Background Article
27 Mar 2014 11:15

prefers_magneto

Three years ago, the fame - or maybe infamy - of Xavier and Lehnsherr started with the now well-known outburst at a senate debate on mutant issues, including a possible 'mutant registration program' and the development and possible implementation of the controversial 'inhibitor collar'. They were not the only mutants to show up in the public gallery, but were the ones inclined to speak and already appeared to be prominent members of the mutant community when they took the floor as concerned citizens, Xavier looking kind and earnest, his companion sharp-featured and uncompromising, as the debate turned to the most effective way to implement a 'Mutant Control Act' that would require mutants to identify themselves.

Xavier started with a calm, reasoned argument against required registration and public identification of mutants; arguments based on asking the members to look at it from their point of view and consider what they would feel in the mutants' place. He urged them to see that a gross overreaction to the very existence of mutants wouldn't solve the fundamental problem of finding a way for humans and mutants to live together in peace and would only drive them further apart.

Lehnsherr stood at Xavier's shoulder, his cold, steely gaze watching the senators like a hawk. It was the first mention of the inhibitor collar that loosened his tongue, but when he spoke, it wasn't to the attendants, it was to Xavier.

"I told you they weren't interested in peace, Charles."

Xavier gave him an exasperated look that suggested this was an argument they'd had many times.

Lehnsherr wasn't surrendering in this instance, though. "Inhibitor Collars," he pressed. New evidence. "Registration, neutralization. They're lining us up to be exterminated from the planet like a cockroach infestation."

It was then that anyone watching might begin to realize that Lehnsherr was more fire than ice, despite outward appearances.

Senator Rogers scoffed. "Paranoid extremism. We're talking about controlling dangerous weapons on our streets, here. Nobody is talking about 'extermination'."

Lehnsherr's eyes went hard, but at the same time, he seemed to come into his element. "No one ever talks about it," he retorted without missing a beat. "They just do it." He waved to the public gallery above, humans and mutants alike. "And you just go about your lives until one day, when the night has fallen and the air is still, they come for you."

"Erik..." Xavier began to interject.

Lehnsherr only raised his voice a little and continued.

"It's only then that you realize that, while you were talking about petitions and committees, the extermination has already begun."

The gallery and the attendants erupted in a cacophony of both outrage and cries of support, but Lehnsherr continued, now clearly addressing the mutants specifically.

"Make no mistake, brothers and sisters: the humans will draw first blood. The only question is, when that day comes, will you stand up and fight or lie down and die?"

Xavier grabbed his arm, then. "Erik, what are you doing?" A low hiss of a question, but the microphone picked it up.

Lehnsherr answered at normal speaking volume, with absolutely no shame. "This is the truth of the situation, Charles. Let it take nobody by surprise."

The impromptu speech, the parallels to Lehnsherr's own past, the implied promise of a mutant response to any legislation they consider a threat has been broadcast and rebroadcast and quoted and analyzed many times since then, cementing Lehnsherr and Xavier as the faces of the Mutant Rights Movement: one compassionate but firm, one driven and severe. Two intelligent, charismatic men representing the mutant proposal for peace and the stark and looming 'or else' behind it.

( prefers_magneto) wrote in mutant_rights 2014-05-13 06:55 am

Behind Closed Doors [Narrative]

"Gentlemen, you asked me here to talk about Xavier and Lehnsherr. Could we stick to the matter at hand?"

David Morton was one of Washington's most gifted political strategists; a name the public didn't know, but nobody who had any influence in the corridors of power could say they hadn't used his services at one point or another.

And Washington needed a strategy to deal with the mutant threat. Xavier and Lehnsherr were the poster boys and were gaining quite the cult following. They couldn't let public interest in them turn into public sympathy for the mutant cause.

"At every turn they're disputing your measures to protect the public from the threat the existence of mutants poses, using inflammatory language that invokes both the civil rights movement and the Holocaust. If they can make the public see this as a suppression of a people's God-given rights by the government, you've lost the battle. They need to see these men as unsympathetic outsiders with their own agenda."

"That's what we've been pushing," one of the President's advisors asserted.

"No. That's what you've been saying. Those men stand up and command a room and you think just saying something is going to make people listen to you over a guy who brazenly refers to you as genocidal fascist in a speech that is still being quoted?"

The advisor fell silent.

"But that's where our advantage is," Morton continued, satisfied that he had their attention. "That image is frightening. Now you take that fear and you focus it."

"We need people to realize that what they're saying is crazy," another of the President's advisors piped up.

"No. For the love of God, you don't want people to listen to what they're saying. They're going to realize it makes sense. You want them so frightened of mutants that they don't hear a word that comes out of their mouths. And that's an uphill battle at the moment, gentlemen. My suggestion is devoting your attention to Lehnsherr. Look at the guy," Morton suggested, pushing an open file into the middle of the table. "He's fucking terrifying. What you need to do is make sure everyone knows that he's the most dangerous creature on the face of the planet. When he opens his mouth, all they need to be is scared."

"What about Xavier?" The President, this time. It was the first time he spoke since the meeting began.

"Xavier will take care of himself," Morton revealed smugly. "Whatever this bizarre friendship of theirs is, he'll stand by his man. They're inseparable. Any credibility he has, he'll wreck it himself when he steadfastly defends the monster."

Morton leaned forward, his hands on the table.

"Trust me, Mr President. You only need to take one of them out for this to work. If you kill them, you have two dead heroes to the mutant cause who can never be silenced. Make Lehnsherr into the bogeyman and you've got them both by the balls."
________________________________________

On the Level : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bqFb6VXW86Y