Seeing the other side

I won't deny that I disagree with the perception that all those who might be part of organizations which claim to oppose the Empire or the Empire's policies are all psychotic monsters hellbent on murdering every believing man, woman and child. I aso don't think that all those poor people should be left to try and feel their way about on their own devices, without any guidance or place to ask questions they might have...








...but lately I am running into an aweful lot of them.





For starters, there's Marius. Crossed paths with him a while back at the Skyhook, and he finally got around to saying Thank You for my saving his sorry corpse. Poor man, I don't even think he considers himself Amarrian anymore... at least when he was just an angry Amarrian, I hoped I could convince him...


But if he is... apathetic about it... I mean, what can one do to make someone care? Get him angry? That would be kind of counterintuitive compared to my final objective.






Then there is Zuzanna Alondra... I keep running into her. Once was fate - the incident with Marius outside the bar - once kind of my fault - I found my way to a Fraction-owned bar where she was; the place turned out to be some sort of filthy "house of pleasures." Nearly a whorehouse, and the girl was drunk... But the last... Well, I can't say it was my fault, since it was deliberate, but I called her up. Wondered how she was doing, but then I asked her about my project. The one with the Insorum. It didn't go so well - she's thoroughly behind the damn fractionists in her views. But I managed to convince her in the end. Just to help.

Why do I feel that is going to come back and bite me in the rear?

Oh, and then there's Zophia... nice young Matari girl, apparently thought it was a good idea to dive into combat in an expensive ship in her first day of combat, in Amarr space no less. Now she's trapped in Amarr until she can get some new money to fix her boat, and is discovering first hand how damn thickheaded our people can be when it comes to Matari...

She does not yet hate us, but every humiliation she experiences - being overcharged for her repairs, being forced to wait last for a place on the transport, they charged looks everyone throws at her - each one brings her closer, makes her angrier... Perhaps I will be able to mitigate this? I do not know...

Finally, there is Seraphim. Poor woman... she's another Amaterasu. Scarred physically by a whip, and scarred emotionally by that and more. She cannot even sleep well without having nightmares of her time; if someone is with her, it helps some...

As I said to her, everyone seems intent on taking what the Empire represents and push it one step further than it should be? One step beyond the law? I wish I knew...