We don't hate being micros chapter 7 - Mutually Beneficial
We don't hate being micros chapter 7 - Mutually Beneficial
"Do you think it's safe for him to be with les gardiens? You know their track record with us... sure, help us out with the war effort but then turn around and ensure that we remain second class citizens..." speaks a ferret, frowning from beneath the cloak he wears.
Evette smiles a little. "Veir will be safe with them. He might not like it much, but he will be safe. Besides, Din and Veir have been friends for a long time. Maybe, just maybe he won't make the same judgements that his father liked to make. Perhaps having met Veir with his cloaker on, instead of while he is in his normal state, will force Din to approach this differently."
"You're probably right. At the very least he will be kept safe. I just hope he can deal with them is all. They might not treat us entirely poorly but they... they have their own quirks to work out for certain."
"My son is smart and we need him to stay out of this for as long as possible. This should work, we should hope that it does. Now, you didn't call me over to the micro-sect for nothing. What is wrong, Ilo?"
Ilo motions and walks with Evette through the streets of the underground city. "You haven't been here in a while but I can understand why. I called you here because it's almost ready. If we keep going at this rate then it will be ready to fire soon. We need your husband's cloaker to be kept safe as it is the final piece we will need."
"It will be safe. Veir has it but he doesn't know what its true nature is. When we need it, we will simply have les gardiens bring him over. I'm sure they'll oblige if we offer to renew our ties with them."
Evette walks into a small house with Ilo. Ilo walks ahead and grabs a small pack from a table, handing it to the wolfess and giving her a hug.
"I hope you're right... your part begins now, Evette, goodluck. I have waited 65 years for this..."
--
Veir holds onto Din's hand as he walks, frowning to himself at what his mom had said before. The rabbit brings his arm up and pulls the wolf to him after wrapping his arm around Veir's shoulder.
"Don't worry, your mom is smart. I'm sure she knows what she's doin'. Besides, I think you're going to have a lot of fun at my place!" He turns onto a walkway and leads the wolf up the stairs to his door.
"I hope so, Din. It seemed like she was in an awful rush... this doesn't look like your house. I thought you lived on the other side of the city."
Din opens the door and walks in, closing it behind him and locking it. "We have a few houses, actually. This is where we keep micros." He moves Veir forward though the wolf resists just a little bit, confused at what Din means.
"Keep micros?" Veir ducks out from Din's grasp and frowns. "What do you mea-" Something powerful wraps around torso from behind and picks him up. Veir yelps and struggles.
"Din!"
"Calm down, Veir." Din states, walking towards the wolf held by his father. "It's alright, just calm down. We aren't here to hurt you, we're just going to take care of you."
Veir growls. "Take care of me!? You call this taking... wait!" He feels Din hold his arm still and begin to slip his bracelet off. In mere moments, the wolf is pressed deeply into the fur of the rabbit whose arms had held his torso before.
Din's father lets the wolf roll into his palm, smiling gently down to the canine while Veir simply crab-walks back into the curve of the rabbit's cupped fingers. "W-what's going on!? What're you trying to pull here, Din!?"
Din settles Veir's armlet into a little box before walking over again and picking the wolf up. "We're taking care of you, Veir. You don't need your cloaker here. Don't worry, we're not going to do anything with it but if you want to fit into your new home you have to be at your natural-born height."
Din's father pets the wolf's head with a finger. "I guess you haven't heard of us, eh? Your mother must've kept it a secret."
Veir looks up at Din's father and frowns. "A secret? What do you mean?" He notices the same tattoo that Din wears marked in the exact same place on Din's father: Right beneath the muzzle. He looks to Din and then Din's father again before clenching his fists and looking down. He can't stop them anyway, even if they answer all of his questions. It pisses him off and makes him afraid all at the same time. 'Maybe telling Din was a mistake...'
Din nods to his father. "Don't worry, dad, I'll talk with him and get him set up myself. I know the procedure." His father nods and walks off. "It's good to have you with us, Veir. Please understand that this is for your own good."
Din walks up to his room with his new charge, settling onto his bed and letting Veir slip out of his grasp down to the soft mattress in-between his crossed legs. Veir shivers and looks up at Din again, feeling betrayed and yet he doesn't try to run. Part of him knows he won't escape and the other part wants to know why Din would do this.
"You're probably pissed, most micros are when they get here. I promise you this isn't a bad thing, we just want to protect you guys. We know how terribly you're treated and we want to change that. Micros, to us, aren't toys or slaves. They're like younger brothers and sisters that need guidance. This world is run by us normals but it doesn't mean that micros can't have a respectable place in it. That, in summary, is what we think. To help achieve our goal, we find micros, get them a place to live among us, and teach them their place in society. We also help other normals to come to terms with their sick behavior and rehabilitate them to treat micros as they should."
Veir feels adrenaline coursing through him. He can hardly believe what he is hearing. To be certain he understand what Din is saying he poses another question. "What is our role, Din? Specifically... and how did your father know?"
Din removes a small device from his ear and settles it down next to Veir. It's a microphone. Din's dad must've been listening in. "Micros are difficult to catch. You have to react quickly." He says in answer to the first question before addressing the second, "lets say you and I lived together in a place of our own. I, as well as my mate, would ensure that you are always fed, clean, given a clean place to sleep, and any other affordable luxuries you might want. In return you would help keep us company, do as we ask, and hopefully enjoy, or learn to enjoy, living out your life with us. Perhaps, if you wanted, you might even raise your family along with ours so that your children could be brought up in an environment that would teach them how to maintain a mutually beneficial relationship between micros and normals."
Veir cringes, realizing Din had been lying about not having seen a micro before. What else had he lied about? He frowns but can't think too hard on that just yet. He looks to Din again and frowns. "So we're just pets to you?"
Din smiles. "Now, Veir, don't do that. We would treat you better than one would treat a pet, you know that."
The wolf can hardly keep himself from shaking at this point. How could Din believe his own words?
"Why can't we be treated as equals, Din? Why do we have to live with a normal? Fair treatment is what we want! We want to be treated like people."
Din stays silent for a moment and then sighs slightly. "Look, Veir, you're... 4 or 5 inches tall, right? There is no way you could be our equal. Even if we made laws to protect you, it's far too easy to abuse or kill someone your height not to mention that micros have no money. In order to even begin looking out for your safety we need to change the infrastructure of every populated area in the world just so that you could walk among us without being stepped on or something. It's simply not going to happen without money. You all are just physically too small and dependant. No matter what you do, or how hard you work, your height always overcomes your will. The micro wars proved that. How many different strategies did you all use? How many micros joined your army? How many were killed before -we- had to save you from your tormentors? It was our group, les gardiens, that stopped that war from being a complete defeat for you micros."
Veir stares up at Din for a moment longer but he can't keep it together. He growls and looks down, unable to counter any of his points. The giants would have to accept them before anything could happen. That, or micros would need to somehow defeat the giants and the micro wars proved that military power would not come through for micros.
"You just have to learn how to live with what you're given, Veir. It's not such a bad life, is it? You'll live for free, you get all of the necessities and even a few luxuries in return for being what you would term a 'pet'... and you know I wouldn't abuse you or anything, we're friends. This is what we want other normals to do. Treat micros with respect and love by defining our relationship as mutually beneficial" Din cringes a little, feeling a little awkward at his own wording. How could he think of his friend as a pet or anything related to a pet? He shakes it off, though, knowing that this is the right way. Society can't just change for micros.
"You don't understand what it's like, Din. What if someone took away your freedom? Would you ever be satisfied until you got it back?"
"Just give it a chance, Veir. Here, I'll take you to the training room. We teach micros and normals how to treat one another there." He picks the wolf up and smiles, "You'll get used to it, believe me! Besides, I want you to stay with me..."
The look on Veir's face isn't happy, but the notion of staying with Din does stir a little joy into the wolf's spirit. "Okay, Din..." is all he can muster out of his muzzle.
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"Les gardiens: A group of normal-sized micro supporters that managed to defeat General Horus in several battles," the female badger speaks to the class. "Despite still losing the war, the micros, with a lot of support from les gardiens, were able to negotiate an ending that guaranteed their continued 'freedom' at the cost of losing their bid to ever become citizens or win protection beneath the law."
George grumbles; he always hated talking about that war. Terry stares down at him with a sympathetic gaze and pets over the wolf with a finger. "I think you're a person, George." He smiles a little bit and George can only smile back.
Feeling a little better, George hugs against Terry's finger. "Don't get in trouble because of me, Terry. Pay attention... thanks, though. It means a lot."
Terry looks up at his teacher again while rubbing his finger down George's back.
"The aftermath of the war is devastating to the micro population. With most of the smaller cities destroyed, many of the micros end up stealing or working for normals in order to obtain food or even a place to live. The animosity from the war took years to even partially quell. Some micros attempted to keep fighting using poisons and other non-physical methods to kill normals. Many micros are abused, harmed, and killed during this period, perhaps partially in reaction to the poisoning. Soon, they started disappearing from the cities altogether. Some relegated themselves to the wild while others were driven to try to create small cities in remote areas. Many micros, even to this day, are unaccounted for."
"Excuse me"
The badgeress' head turns and she peers down to George. "...Yes?"
"Do you think I could say something? I... I am a micro after all. Perhaps I could explain our perspective a bit?" George shivers but doesn't falter. 'This is my chance, right? Maybe I could make them think a little...'
The badgeress smirks, "Alright, sure." She walks over and holds her hand down to Terry's desk. Terry gives George a worried gaze but watches without intervening as he climbs into the teacher's paw.
She carries George to the front of the class. "Speak loudly now, little one. You're lucky this room isn't as large as the other classrooms."
George nods and stares out at all of the massive and yet young-looking faces staring back. "My father was in the war. He saw horrors that I don't dare repeat here but one thing he never did was hate giants... I never understood how he could accomplish something like that. At least, I didn't until very recently. He didn't mean that he never hated a giant. Sure, he hated every giant that tried to smash, eat, or otherwise kill him, his friends, or his family. What he didn't do, however, was lump all giants together. Some of them... some of you are kind to us. And it wasn't you who did this to us, it was the military and the government. I guess what I'm saying is that we don't feel like you are all our enemies. Sure, you scare us sometimes and we try to stay out of your way, but we don't hate you all. We just don't want to suffer or feel as if violence and death are the only options to achieving our goal. I don't want to make this a speech but there are more of us than you might think. The next time you see one of us, don't chase us but help to build trust. Leave some food out, offer to help if we're in need of it and you're able."
The badgeress smiles a little, letting the wolf finish while the students watch. Some look bored but many seem attentive. "I don't think many of my children have gotten to meet a micro before." The teacher states while George fights to keep his nerves about him.
"I'll leave my bird feeder closer to the ground!" A child states with a grin. "Then a micro could reach it."
"Think a micro would want to play Godzilla?" another laughs. "Err.. friendly godzilla..."
"A micro might be fun to play with! Maybe they'll come out if we're nice."
George grins sheepishly, wondering if he has perhaps made a difference and whether it's a good thing or a bad thing. They are kids, after all. He blinks and looks up at the badgeress, tilting his head.
"I'm... surprised you even let me speak, ma'am... now that I think about it."
The teacher moves to give George back to Terry who grasps the wolf while talking excitedly to his friends.
"You said it yourself, didn't you....?" She asks with a smile. "We're not all bad."