This choice: Protesting for Your Rights • Go Back...Chapter #3Protesting for Your Rights by: Alistair   The weather report that was half way finished when you turned the tv on ended, and the first story to come up immediately took your interest.
“...And now we go to Cindy Harper, who is live at city hall, where an impromptu rally organised by the prominent pro-tiny politician, Miles Jacob, is taking place. Mr Jacob organised the rally to protest the fast tracking of an amendment to the controversial Baker’s Law, that would make the increasing number of court rulings that have issued usage licenses to offending tiny men standard practice. This amendment, described by many pro-tiny political activists as “inhumane” and “cruel”, has been defended by many of those attempting to push it through, who say that in states where assigning usage licenses as a sentence has become common practice, it has acted as a deterrent to potential criminals, and has reportedly seen incarceration of tiny prisoners at record-low levels, saving taxpayer money from being spent on tiny male-tailored prisons.”
As the anchorwoman stopped talking you couldn’t help but stare in bewilderment at the tv screen. Her report had been so biased it was incredible, of course tiny incarcerations were down, they weren’t being sent to prison, instead they were being reduced to objects!
This was clearly being pushed through by politicians who didn’t even view tinies as human and wanted to force a usage license on as many people as they possibly could. A big part of why you wanted to become a lawyer was to fight against the very people who were trying to push this amendment through.
You cursed Amy Baker for getting Baker’s Law pushed through in the first place. She seemed like a nice woman, and at least appeared to have tiny men’s best interest at heart but she was clearly very misguided in what she thought was best for them. Hell, you wouldn’t have been surprised to hear that her very own thong, Thomas Swift, ended up in his current situation as the poster boy of Baker’s Law by some misunderstanding on Amy’s part.
“Hi Jan, I’m here at city hall, where Mr Jacob has yet to arrive, but as you can see, a considerable crowd has gathered already...” As the broadcast cut to live footage, you ignored the reporter who in all honesty was just regurgitating the same points the anchorwoman had just made. You instead focused on the rally going on behind her.
You saw that there was a decently sized crowd gathered at the base of the stairs leading to city hall, all of them standing with signs and chanting various slogans decrying the bill. You noticed a decent number of normal sized women, but they were outnumbered by the massive number of tiny men who the camera had to zoom in to be able to see. You also noticed a wooden podium being set up on the steps, with a tiny sized podium sat on top of it, clearly for use by Miles Jacob.
The normal sized women present seemed to be gathered in a half circle around the men, with the men being completely blocked in between them and the steps leading up to city hall. The women seemed to be facing outward in a defensive stance, which confused you until the camera panned across the square in front of city hall and, on the opposite side of the large fountain in the middle of the square, you saw the counter protest.
The crowd that was squaring off against the protest rally probably contained the same amount of people as it, but it was hard to tell because the fact that it was made up almost entirely of normal sized women made it look much, much larger.
The counter protestors were jeering and throwing insults to the women and tinies in the other crowd, and many of them were raising their shirts or mooning them, among other things, to reveal tan articles of clothing that were clearly tiny men moulded into those shapes.
The sight of so many women hell bent on ensuring that as many tiny men as possible were reduced to little more than objects terrified you. The fact that this news channel seemed to focus on them so much more than the actual rally was also incredibly disconcerting.
Seeing the crowds gathered and recognising how much of a slippery slope the passing of this bill could be for tiny rights in the future, you decided you needed to attend the rally, at least that way you couldn’t say you sat by and did nothing.
You briefly considered asking Sarah if she wanted to go with you, since she was also fairly passionate about tiny rights and politically active, but you remembered she was working, so you would have to go yourself.
You called a taxi from a specialist service for tinies and arranged for it to pick you up in front of Greentower apartments in twenty minutes.
*****
The drive to the centre of town, where city hall is, was uneventful. You were sat in a small box, designed as a room for you to be comfortable in on your journey, which was sat in the passenger seat of the taxi you had called.
You felt the box shift as it was lifted by a handle on the top of it, before being lowered to the sidewalk next to the car. As you felt the movement of the box stop, you undid your seatbelt and exited via a small door on the side.
Looking up to your driver, you thanked her, before looking over to the rally you had come to attend off in the distance, not more than a ten minute walk for you.
Your driver glanced towards the counter protest, which seemed to have grown in size since you saw it on the news, and also had seemed to have moved slightly closer to the other crowd, as she placed the box back in her car.
“Good luck, look after yourself,” she looked to you with a worried expression, before getting into the car and driving off, leaving you alone on the sidewalk.
You briskly walked towards the group of your fellow tinies, hoping you could avoid the gaze of the counter protestors, scarcely able to imagine what could happen if they spotted you before you made it to the protective ring of the female protestors.
As you walked you couldn’t help but take in the general disdain the counter protestors were expressing towards the women who were on the opposite side of the square from them. You saw them holding signs with various slogans on them, all displaying the message that tinies belonged as objects. Some instead displayed cartoons depicting bras and underwear with smiling faces on them.
Every second you spent looking at the counter protest scared you, so you were relieved to finally come under the shade of the closest woman in the protest crowd, she had been scanning the ground for approaching tinies and smiled warmly at you as you passed underneath her and entered the crowd of tinies.
Walking amongst a large group of people like you was strange, you spent most of your time with normal sized women, so walking amongst a group of other tiny men made you almost feel normal, although that illusion was shattered whenever you noticed one of the many women also present in your peripheral vision.
You walked around and chatted with your fellow tinies, trying to make your way closer to the stairs so you would have a good view when Miles Jacob showed up to speak.
After a short wait, during which you were able to make your way to very near the front of the crowd, only two rows away from the steps, you saw a woman approach, carrying the sharply dressed, tanned tiny man that you instantly recognised as Miles Jacob.
As he was set down on the podium, he approached the appropriately sized microphone and cleared his throat, but before he started to speak, you see him look across the square in front of city hall. You and many others turn to look at what has grabbed his attention.
1) The arrival of several police officers, most likely anticipating a disturbance, but which side of the protest are they on?
2) The instantly recognisable form of the architect of Baker’s Law, Amy Baker herself! She has come to debate Miles Jacob on his stance on the amendment.
3) You panic as you see the counter protest push their way through the wall of pro-tiny women, and start crushing and grabbing men by the handful. You run for cover, but can you find safety?  indicates the next chapter needs to be written. |
| Members who added to this interactive story also contributed to these: |
View Portfolio
Visit Notebook
Send Gift Points
Awards
Badges
Send Email
Community Newsfeed
General Discussion
Sponsored Items
Book of Trinkets
Static Items
Books
Groups
Interactive Stories
Audio
Campfire Creatives
Community Notes
Crossword Puzzles
Documents
Folders
Images
In & Outs
Madlibs
Photo Albums
Polls
Product Reviews
Quizzes
Survey Forms
Web Pages
Word Searches
More by this author