The East PacificBoard

His truck flew down the old road at light speed, his high beam headlights casting a yellow-ish beam that stretches down the road, fending off anything that could come his way. His face never showed it, but his discontent with those around him had nearly reached a boiling point. The elderly customers that made his day go ten times slower than usual, racist coworkers that would never give him a break for being part Myehnese, behind his back or right in front of him. His family snuck out of Westmore during the terror of the One Republic, and claimed they “couldn’t afford” to take him back.

And every morning reminded him of this. Every aggressive turn of his steering wheel, every hour spent moving boxes from trucks reminded him how he had not much to look forward to when he got home.

While not everything was bad, nothing seemed to get any better either. After months of living like war was still at his doorstep, life had only begun to normalize months ago as electricity, fully stocked grocery stores, reconstructed homes and businesses were brought back to the East. However, nothing could have lured his family back to Aislada to restore things to what they once were.

As Hyari pulled into the lot, he took a deep breath in before looking at the swarms of people flooding into the Sklavenitis store. All new faces that he’d soon have to interact with one way or another once he clocked in. But before he could open his car door, his phone vibrated in his pocket.

A private message in Deltan was displayed on his phone’s notification bar, coming from the self proclaimed “Free Knights of Omonia” account on Bleater.

<<Γειά σου! Έχετε ένα λεπτό να μιλήσετε για την πολιτική της Ομοσπονδίας?>>

Hyari scoffed at the message. Who could it have been this time, The DDP? SMPD? Westmorean Intelligence agents? Whatever agency this group belonged to made a crappy attempt at trying to oust him as some kind of extremist. Hyari left his truck, grabbing his belongings from the backseat and walking off into the store.

As he walked towards the employee only area, his phone vibrated again. Another DM from the account, but in Valish.

We’ve seen your posts and your threads, you’ve been talking about Ioannis before the East was annexed. You’d fit right in with us.

Things had gotten out of hand. Hyari’s suspicions were confirmed, and now he had to say something. He opened Bleater and went straight to his private message list, and started typing furiously.

<i don’t know or care for what agency you work for, but you feds REALLY need a new training program 💀💀💀💀>

He turned off his phone again, and this time, he powered it off in oder to stop getting notifications before scanning into the employee section. He walked over to the tablet beside the locker room, and typed in his name. Just as he was about to clock in, another employee had walked right beside him, almost uncomfortably close to his shoulder.

Liam had decided to get up to his antics again. Ever since Hyari was chosen to get the promotion, Liam decided to be a pain in the ass a way to get back at him. Since Nepotism never worked out for him, that’s all he manage to do in retaliation.

“Mornin’, Shift Manager” He said with a smug tone.

“You can keep being a smug prick all you want,” Hyari said while focusing on his locker to avoid eye contact. “it wont get you anywhere near where I am.” Hyari slammed his locker shut, locked it, and went out of the break room.

Hours of sitting around and waiting for anything to come through semed to be more of a laborious job in itself than actually doing any heavy lifting. As much as he didn’t want to be bothered by federal agents on Bleater, the comotion of the shopping center was getting to his head, even though he’d gotten used to it. Hyari made the walk back into the break room and grabbed his phone. As soon as he powered it back on, he was met with a wave of notifications from the same people he told off. He looked around to make sure no one was watching him before opening his phone to read the messages.

<<We aren’t feds, we’re just looking for opinions.>>

<<There’s gonna be a rally in Sydney later today at around 4:30, thought you’d be interested.>>

<<You have the same ideas as the majority of the Knights among us.>>

Hyari’s eyes widened slightly, and he got straight to typing.

<A rally about what exactly?>

…

<<We’re demonstrating because the second coming of Hart needs to step down, that’s what it’s about.>>

Hyari had gotten a bit tense. He’d seen the wave of criticism that Ioannis had faced every time something went wrong in the Federacy, but no one had ever called him a Hart copycat. His name was all over the global news months ago, and now he’s fallen into obscurity. Any doubts that the people he’s talking to could be feds left his mind, as he became fully immersed in the conversation.

<you really think he’s that bad?>

<<You don’t? You seem to be a confident critic of him. It’s ironic that we’re becoming the people that we’re sanctioning..>>

<<First, he lets Humanists engage with our regional governments after they’ve been allowed to take part in their wildest fantasies with no kind of intervention from the government, I guarantee you they won’t stop at marriage.>>

<<Then, an entire alliance sanctions us and its cronies join in. Even if there’s no economic effect, we’re still on a downwards spiral towards socialism. His lazy ass has gotten good, and honest businesses that aren’t anything like DemGas shafted out of deals in Unistan. Deals we can never get back. >>

Hyari found himself agreeing with a lot of what he was saying, and was waiting for what he had to preach next. He was past the point of needing more convincing but wanted to see what else he had to say.

<<The Federacy will NOT survive another 6 years with him still in office, and anyone with common sense knows that. But you seem to have common sense.>>

<<Will you be joining us?>>

Finally, after processing everything he had to say, he had only one thing left to say:

<<damn straight i will.