The Imp's Speech [DiP] [MPC#34]
Nov 18, 2016 13:18:04 GMT
Post by Colin, Luke & Bellamy on Nov 18, 2016 13:18:04 GMT
This is an MPC entry for the "Digivolve into President" prompt.
Well, it was official. In what was probably the longest night of Bellamy and Luke's lives, the votes had been counted. It was at least 4am in the morning as the two brothers stayed awake in their campaign headquarters, dressed in now sloppy looking shirts and ties. But, both were filled with a feeling of not jubilation or celebration, unlike their friends and supporters. No, they felt like two digimon that had climbed the tallest mountain in the world, and now found that from there they had to control it.
Heck, even their titles would be different. Yesterday they were simply "Bellamy the Impmon" and "Luke the Elecmon", but now, they were "Presidential-Elect" and "Vice Presidential-Elect".
Yes, they could digivolve higher than that, but, for the most part, both of them had campaigned in their Rookie forms. Mostly to win over the independent digimon voters who wouldn't vote for a digimon who flounced around in a form that was subservient to a human's whims, so the focus groups said.
That was a particularly big issue in this election. The Digital World was currently in a state of severe flux. A faction of fanatical Independent digimon saw the arrival of Humans as a bad thing, and were now fighting severely against what they saw as a human invasion - them coming to the digital world and enslaving digimon with their 'digivices' to turn themselves into 'Tamers' who held digimon as their slaves. While of course vile lies, the envy that the independent digimon had of partner digimon was real. And Bellamy and Luke, they had promised to bring a stop to this conflict.
And in the end, they had won. 56% the official tally was saying. More than half of the digital world had voted for them. It had been a hard fight, in fact it was a miracle that the previous president had even held an election at all. Undoubtedly he would currently be in a state of shock, wherever he was. Probably in hiding after he realized that he had no more power to defend against the atrocities he had done.
"How's Colin holding up?" Bellamy eventually spoke the first words that had been uttered in the room for about an hour.
"Asleep, along with the rest of the team" Luke answered, quietly. Bellamy nodded, standing up. He walked over to the window, looking out at the streets of Terminus City. His tail shivered as it normally did when he was nervous. Honestly, when he pictured this moment a year ago, he thought it would be more than that - crowds of admiring voters cheering for him, showering him with admiration. But now... seeing the smoldering ruins of the result of the previous President's regime, well, it just didn't feel so sweet when it looked like he was just going to rule over ash.
"Alright there, Bellamy?" Luke asked, walking over to his side, putting an arm around him.
"Yeah, just thinkin'" the Impmon answered.
"Well... you'd best do it over here" Luke said, the Elecmon guiding him back to the sofa in the middle of the room. "You know, just, the security team said you shouldn't stand so close to windows right now"
"Oh, right" Bellamy said, realizing how vulnerable he was and what sort of world he'd need to fix. Luke sat on the chair opposite him. The brothers said nothing for a little while more, then Luke eventually said something.
"You know... if I hadn't grown up with you, Bellamy, and been with you every step of the way, I'd swear I was talking to a completely different person right now" Luke remarked. Bellamy nodded.
"Yeah, I know. This whole journey changes us, Luke" Bellamy said to his brother, smiling. "Remember when we first decided to run for office?"
"Heh, yeah. You said 'Hey this guy's such an asshole, even we could do better than him'" Luke answered. Bellamy grinned and nodded. "And then Colin said we should actually run for office, because he thinks we're the best"
"Yeah... that Colin, we owe him so much" Bellamy sighed. "We should give that kid a good job. What do you think of Secretary of State?"
"I think Special Advisor should be good" Luke said, carefully. "While, yeah, you're the president, if he's your advisor, he can be with you all the time and give you, well, advice"
"Yeah, but, that doesn't reward him with any sort of power does it?" Bellamy asked, really wanting his partner to be rewarded for his help by having some sort of say in the digital world's operations.
"You know Colin, Bellamy" said Luke, smiling. "He doesn't want any power for his own" the Elecmon sighed, leaning back on his chair. "Back then, like now, it was always the same. He'd raise his digivice and we'd evolve and crush whoever was threatening him. Now this time, he raised us as a political force and we crushed that evil bastard that was threatening everyone in the digital world"
"And that's the reason why I picked you as my Vice President right there" said Bellamy, leaning over and clapping his brother on the knee. "Well, that and the 10% polling boost that I'd get from a Data attribute running mate" Luke giggled here. "But, the main thing. We're nothing without the other, ya know"
"Kind of defeats the purpose when my main job is to take over if you die" said Luke, a little morbidly. Bellamy laughed though, they had both had some celebratory cognac. But that was fine. As Vice President, Luke would simply be there to back Bellamy up if he messed up. Even if the main purpose of successor was kind of out of the question, as their opponents had pointed out repeatedly - that if Bellamy did die, then Luke would be a shadow of his former self, the bond he had with his twin broken.
"Why don't they do this on Earth anyway? Have family run as running mates?" the Impmon asked, crossing his legs as he sat on the sofa.
"Some sort of constitutional amendment" Luke explained, not knowing much about this sort of thing. Other than what Colin told him.
They lapsed into silence again. Honestly, it was an experience that was huge for anybody. It started off as an idea, then as they gathered support and publicity, their campaign soon became what it is now. Sure, when they started, they thought they'd be just a novelty that would only get a few dozen votes from their friends.
But soon, they realized just what people saw when they looked at them. When Bellamy stood up at rallies, his brother at his side, telling digimon he would make their lives better, they believed him. Hundreds, thousands, and now half the world had cast their vote for him and wanted him to do what he said.
Exactly how he was going to do that, he didn't know just yet. Bellamy and Luke had centered their campaign around several key promises though.
The first, was peace with honor. He would seek to cease these pointless conflicts raging around the digital world as soon as possible. He would not surrender of course to the fanatics, but he aimed to placate them enough to accept that fighting is not the answer to get what they want. He had his ally Independent digimon like Jay and Kylie to thank for that.
The second would be that he would introduce a system where the finest minds of the digital world would use their sensibility and fairness to maintain the wealth of the digital world. A Treasury, of sorts, and a system where digimon would always have enough food to live and survive; something that was badly needed in these hard times.
And the last - the most important. Under Bellamy, Dignity for all digimon would be inviolable. No matter their type, their attribute, their background or where they came from. He would put a stop to innocent Virus digimon being shipped off in secret to the Dark Area. He would make it law that digimon would be punished if they hurt another digimon for no reason but their differences. And all would have the right to a fair trial - where power or wealth could not protect the guilty.
With these in mind, Bellamy had changed as a person so that he tried to be the candidate that all these digimon wanted, but kept just enough of his personality and ability to make friends to shine through. He made the rallies laugh with his wit, he made them cry with his personal stories, he set the narrative. And once and for all, he had to prove to himself that he was not a horrible person. He had been once, but that was a lifetime ago. He had Luke to remind him how he was now.
"Well, they probably want a speech out of you by the morning" Luke said. "Bellamy, you'd best get some rest. I'll write something up if you want"
"Yeah, you do that" Bellamy said, nodding. His brother had a better way with this sort of thing. With that, the Impmon yawned and laid down on the sofa, taking the opportunity for a few hours of sleep before events took their course.
Later that Morning
Here everyone was, another crowd. Only... Bellamy could feel how happy and excited they were even before he made his way onto the stage. He shivered a little, but his feet moved by themselves. He could not stop, the audience were pulling him toward them. Even when Luke and Colin wished him luck, he kept moving.
And then he saw them, and they saw him. He was almost deafened by the wall of sound. But, seeing those digimon, and all those humans too - the partners, the friends, the admirers. He waited for what seemed like hours as he made his way up to the podium for them to quiet down. Colin and Luke joined him, standing far enough from him to not steal the limelight, but close enough to be there for support.
"My Fellow Digimon. It has been a difficult four years, but, it seems my message has come true. Despite the horrors that you and your loved ones have gone through, despite our fears that the worst would happen, that the people that hated us would make us disappear... we beat them. My fellow digimon... We Are Still Here."
The wall of camera flashes that was facing him, it was like he was facing some Divine Judgement. But Bellamy simply read the words in front of him, he was used to this world by now.
"The first thing I want to say to you..." Bellamy continued, speaking in a calm, resolute voice, but filled with a gentle warmth. "Are words you've probably been wanting to hear from your President for quite a long time. It will probably sound weird and awkward, but, I think this needs to be said. From the bottom of my heart... I love you all" he gave a sad, tragic little chuckle. "I only wish I had arms big enough to hug you all, but, I guess instead since most of you are watching... go and give the closest person to you a big hug, eh? Come on, let's share this moment together, the whole world".
He made a pause here. Bellamy was expecting to sit here in dignified silence, but then Luke had to reduce it all by giving him a big hug. All he could do was smile and pat him on the shoulder when it was all over.
"Heh heh, easy, Lukey" he said to him, smiling. Even though Luke was the Vice President, he would still be his brother.
"I know not all of our friends and family made it. I know... that the last four years can never be erased from our memory. I know... most of you suffered unmentionable horrors and I'm so very sorry it ever happened..." some tears welled up in his green eyes as he said this. "But it did. And we must never forget. So that it can never happen again".
Damn it, he didn't want to bring the mood down here. So, he went on to the subject of why most of his supporters were here today - the tyranny of his opponents, the ones that spread hatred and division; violence and chaos; that had made the digital world so much of a hell that it seemed that they'd prefer to have an Impmon as president.
"I promised justice, and it's justice you'll get, every digimon on this planet" he said. "Those that did the right thing... and those that did not. Everyone will get what they deserve".
Bellamy was so caught up in these words that he didn't realize he was saying this as a Rookie level, so it probably didn't sound as threatening as it would from a Beelzemon. But the crowd gave its approval regardless.
"So then... let's meet back here in four years, eh?" Bellamy asked the crowd. "By then instead of smoking ruins, we'd have a new gleaming city. The capital of a good, fair digital world"
Little more could be said after this. The speech was short and sweet and seemed to give his supporters what they wanted. There was thanking and waving and acknowledging. Bellamy did what he could, then, eventually, he walked off the stage.
When the noise of the crowd faded as Bellamy was led by his security detail to his new home, he pulled Luke and Colin close.
"Guys..." he muttered to them, trembling a little again. "Please, whatever you do... make me keep what I promised them"
"We will, Bellamy" Colin said, patting him. "Or should I say... Mister President?"
Bellamy mulled over it for a moment, but shook his head.
"Nah, stick with Bellamy" he said. "Well, at least in private, heh heh"
That's what his name meant after all. He didn't want to be seen as a boss or a ruler, but for what his name meant - a Fair Friend.
[The End]
[Requested reward: Post Counts]
Well, it was official. In what was probably the longest night of Bellamy and Luke's lives, the votes had been counted. It was at least 4am in the morning as the two brothers stayed awake in their campaign headquarters, dressed in now sloppy looking shirts and ties. But, both were filled with a feeling of not jubilation or celebration, unlike their friends and supporters. No, they felt like two digimon that had climbed the tallest mountain in the world, and now found that from there they had to control it.
Heck, even their titles would be different. Yesterday they were simply "Bellamy the Impmon" and "Luke the Elecmon", but now, they were "Presidential-Elect" and "Vice Presidential-Elect".
Yes, they could digivolve higher than that, but, for the most part, both of them had campaigned in their Rookie forms. Mostly to win over the independent digimon voters who wouldn't vote for a digimon who flounced around in a form that was subservient to a human's whims, so the focus groups said.
That was a particularly big issue in this election. The Digital World was currently in a state of severe flux. A faction of fanatical Independent digimon saw the arrival of Humans as a bad thing, and were now fighting severely against what they saw as a human invasion - them coming to the digital world and enslaving digimon with their 'digivices' to turn themselves into 'Tamers' who held digimon as their slaves. While of course vile lies, the envy that the independent digimon had of partner digimon was real. And Bellamy and Luke, they had promised to bring a stop to this conflict.
And in the end, they had won. 56% the official tally was saying. More than half of the digital world had voted for them. It had been a hard fight, in fact it was a miracle that the previous president had even held an election at all. Undoubtedly he would currently be in a state of shock, wherever he was. Probably in hiding after he realized that he had no more power to defend against the atrocities he had done.
"How's Colin holding up?" Bellamy eventually spoke the first words that had been uttered in the room for about an hour.
"Asleep, along with the rest of the team" Luke answered, quietly. Bellamy nodded, standing up. He walked over to the window, looking out at the streets of Terminus City. His tail shivered as it normally did when he was nervous. Honestly, when he pictured this moment a year ago, he thought it would be more than that - crowds of admiring voters cheering for him, showering him with admiration. But now... seeing the smoldering ruins of the result of the previous President's regime, well, it just didn't feel so sweet when it looked like he was just going to rule over ash.
"Alright there, Bellamy?" Luke asked, walking over to his side, putting an arm around him.
"Yeah, just thinkin'" the Impmon answered.
"Well... you'd best do it over here" Luke said, the Elecmon guiding him back to the sofa in the middle of the room. "You know, just, the security team said you shouldn't stand so close to windows right now"
"Oh, right" Bellamy said, realizing how vulnerable he was and what sort of world he'd need to fix. Luke sat on the chair opposite him. The brothers said nothing for a little while more, then Luke eventually said something.
"You know... if I hadn't grown up with you, Bellamy, and been with you every step of the way, I'd swear I was talking to a completely different person right now" Luke remarked. Bellamy nodded.
"Yeah, I know. This whole journey changes us, Luke" Bellamy said to his brother, smiling. "Remember when we first decided to run for office?"
"Heh, yeah. You said 'Hey this guy's such an asshole, even we could do better than him'" Luke answered. Bellamy grinned and nodded. "And then Colin said we should actually run for office, because he thinks we're the best"
"Yeah... that Colin, we owe him so much" Bellamy sighed. "We should give that kid a good job. What do you think of Secretary of State?"
"I think Special Advisor should be good" Luke said, carefully. "While, yeah, you're the president, if he's your advisor, he can be with you all the time and give you, well, advice"
"Yeah, but, that doesn't reward him with any sort of power does it?" Bellamy asked, really wanting his partner to be rewarded for his help by having some sort of say in the digital world's operations.
"You know Colin, Bellamy" said Luke, smiling. "He doesn't want any power for his own" the Elecmon sighed, leaning back on his chair. "Back then, like now, it was always the same. He'd raise his digivice and we'd evolve and crush whoever was threatening him. Now this time, he raised us as a political force and we crushed that evil bastard that was threatening everyone in the digital world"
"And that's the reason why I picked you as my Vice President right there" said Bellamy, leaning over and clapping his brother on the knee. "Well, that and the 10% polling boost that I'd get from a Data attribute running mate" Luke giggled here. "But, the main thing. We're nothing without the other, ya know"
"Kind of defeats the purpose when my main job is to take over if you die" said Luke, a little morbidly. Bellamy laughed though, they had both had some celebratory cognac. But that was fine. As Vice President, Luke would simply be there to back Bellamy up if he messed up. Even if the main purpose of successor was kind of out of the question, as their opponents had pointed out repeatedly - that if Bellamy did die, then Luke would be a shadow of his former self, the bond he had with his twin broken.
"Why don't they do this on Earth anyway? Have family run as running mates?" the Impmon asked, crossing his legs as he sat on the sofa.
"Some sort of constitutional amendment" Luke explained, not knowing much about this sort of thing. Other than what Colin told him.
They lapsed into silence again. Honestly, it was an experience that was huge for anybody. It started off as an idea, then as they gathered support and publicity, their campaign soon became what it is now. Sure, when they started, they thought they'd be just a novelty that would only get a few dozen votes from their friends.
But soon, they realized just what people saw when they looked at them. When Bellamy stood up at rallies, his brother at his side, telling digimon he would make their lives better, they believed him. Hundreds, thousands, and now half the world had cast their vote for him and wanted him to do what he said.
Exactly how he was going to do that, he didn't know just yet. Bellamy and Luke had centered their campaign around several key promises though.
The first, was peace with honor. He would seek to cease these pointless conflicts raging around the digital world as soon as possible. He would not surrender of course to the fanatics, but he aimed to placate them enough to accept that fighting is not the answer to get what they want. He had his ally Independent digimon like Jay and Kylie to thank for that.
The second would be that he would introduce a system where the finest minds of the digital world would use their sensibility and fairness to maintain the wealth of the digital world. A Treasury, of sorts, and a system where digimon would always have enough food to live and survive; something that was badly needed in these hard times.
And the last - the most important. Under Bellamy, Dignity for all digimon would be inviolable. No matter their type, their attribute, their background or where they came from. He would put a stop to innocent Virus digimon being shipped off in secret to the Dark Area. He would make it law that digimon would be punished if they hurt another digimon for no reason but their differences. And all would have the right to a fair trial - where power or wealth could not protect the guilty.
With these in mind, Bellamy had changed as a person so that he tried to be the candidate that all these digimon wanted, but kept just enough of his personality and ability to make friends to shine through. He made the rallies laugh with his wit, he made them cry with his personal stories, he set the narrative. And once and for all, he had to prove to himself that he was not a horrible person. He had been once, but that was a lifetime ago. He had Luke to remind him how he was now.
"Well, they probably want a speech out of you by the morning" Luke said. "Bellamy, you'd best get some rest. I'll write something up if you want"
"Yeah, you do that" Bellamy said, nodding. His brother had a better way with this sort of thing. With that, the Impmon yawned and laid down on the sofa, taking the opportunity for a few hours of sleep before events took their course.
Later that Morning
Here everyone was, another crowd. Only... Bellamy could feel how happy and excited they were even before he made his way onto the stage. He shivered a little, but his feet moved by themselves. He could not stop, the audience were pulling him toward them. Even when Luke and Colin wished him luck, he kept moving.
And then he saw them, and they saw him. He was almost deafened by the wall of sound. But, seeing those digimon, and all those humans too - the partners, the friends, the admirers. He waited for what seemed like hours as he made his way up to the podium for them to quiet down. Colin and Luke joined him, standing far enough from him to not steal the limelight, but close enough to be there for support.
"My Fellow Digimon. It has been a difficult four years, but, it seems my message has come true. Despite the horrors that you and your loved ones have gone through, despite our fears that the worst would happen, that the people that hated us would make us disappear... we beat them. My fellow digimon... We Are Still Here."
The wall of camera flashes that was facing him, it was like he was facing some Divine Judgement. But Bellamy simply read the words in front of him, he was used to this world by now.
"The first thing I want to say to you..." Bellamy continued, speaking in a calm, resolute voice, but filled with a gentle warmth. "Are words you've probably been wanting to hear from your President for quite a long time. It will probably sound weird and awkward, but, I think this needs to be said. From the bottom of my heart... I love you all" he gave a sad, tragic little chuckle. "I only wish I had arms big enough to hug you all, but, I guess instead since most of you are watching... go and give the closest person to you a big hug, eh? Come on, let's share this moment together, the whole world".
He made a pause here. Bellamy was expecting to sit here in dignified silence, but then Luke had to reduce it all by giving him a big hug. All he could do was smile and pat him on the shoulder when it was all over.
"Heh heh, easy, Lukey" he said to him, smiling. Even though Luke was the Vice President, he would still be his brother.
"I know not all of our friends and family made it. I know... that the last four years can never be erased from our memory. I know... most of you suffered unmentionable horrors and I'm so very sorry it ever happened..." some tears welled up in his green eyes as he said this. "But it did. And we must never forget. So that it can never happen again".
Damn it, he didn't want to bring the mood down here. So, he went on to the subject of why most of his supporters were here today - the tyranny of his opponents, the ones that spread hatred and division; violence and chaos; that had made the digital world so much of a hell that it seemed that they'd prefer to have an Impmon as president.
"I promised justice, and it's justice you'll get, every digimon on this planet" he said. "Those that did the right thing... and those that did not. Everyone will get what they deserve".
Bellamy was so caught up in these words that he didn't realize he was saying this as a Rookie level, so it probably didn't sound as threatening as it would from a Beelzemon. But the crowd gave its approval regardless.
"So then... let's meet back here in four years, eh?" Bellamy asked the crowd. "By then instead of smoking ruins, we'd have a new gleaming city. The capital of a good, fair digital world"
Little more could be said after this. The speech was short and sweet and seemed to give his supporters what they wanted. There was thanking and waving and acknowledging. Bellamy did what he could, then, eventually, he walked off the stage.
When the noise of the crowd faded as Bellamy was led by his security detail to his new home, he pulled Luke and Colin close.
"Guys..." he muttered to them, trembling a little again. "Please, whatever you do... make me keep what I promised them"
"We will, Bellamy" Colin said, patting him. "Or should I say... Mister President?"
Bellamy mulled over it for a moment, but shook his head.
"Nah, stick with Bellamy" he said. "Well, at least in private, heh heh"
That's what his name meant after all. He didn't want to be seen as a boss or a ruler, but for what his name meant - a Fair Friend.
[The End]
[Requested reward: Post Counts]
