Godiva Protesting

“This man wants young women to protest outside of Schnee Headquarters... in the nude.” Blake repeated tonelessly.

Weiss just nodded silently, face covered with one hand.

Blake paused to really let that statement sink in, and then because she didn’t want to rely on surface level reading, asked deeper questions.

“How is this supposed to raise money for the fund?”

Weiss winced and looked at Blake beseechingly, clearly begging not to be made to entertain this farcial proposal any longer, but she held firm, and Weiss took back the Scroll with a defeated sigh.

“From the looks of it, Mr. Chartreuse has already put the fund-raising account in place and he and a few of his friends have set up some automatic deposit lines. You, and I assume any girls who’ll join you, show up at Schnee Corp, and surveillance will track how long you’re there. Once the protest is over, a set amount is wired into the fund from their bank accounts. The amount due is determined by the length of the protest, the time to money exchange rate outlined here is 300 lien per hour per person.”

“What does he mean by surveillance?”

“He’s got a camera crew from a news company he’s a shareholder of currently on standby in a rental property overlooking Schnee Headquarters. They’re going to wait for you to show up and then broadcast the protests. He also wants to make a full news story out of the first rally which will include information about the fund and its purpose to encourage common people to donate directly as well.”

Behind Blake, Yang snorted lightly as she held back a quip about how aristocratic that last sentence was. Blake soldiered on.

“So that’s the deal then?”

“The salient details, yes.” Weiss confirmed, “It’s a fairly straight forward transaction model. It’s the service being held for exchange I am having issue with.”

Blake let out a breath and walked to the window. She had been involved in protests since she was a little kid, including some “gimmick” rallies, but never something on this level. Corporate-paid protesting felt dirty to her, and that’s before dwelling on the specific details, which honestly just sounded like an elaborate veneer for some rich creep’s Zenra fetish.

And yet, if it was honest and panned out as promised, she could make a real start in raising money and awareness for the plight of her brothers and sisters trapped in Jacques Schnee’s OSHA-dodging mining operations. If she raised the money to buy the freedom of even one miner, she will have accomplished more good than in all the years she wasted running away from home and LARPing at being a domestic terrorist with that psycho Adam Taurus.

But even with a promised 300 lien per hour, it would take a long time to raise any substantial percentage of the needed money. She’ll need to involve other girls if she wants to make a dent in her lifetime, but who can she ask, if anyone? This demand for direct fundraising action against the SDC was all her, is it fair of her to pressure others into getting involved? Maybe it would be less presumptuous to go by herself at first and let anyone who wants to stand in solidarity find their own way to her side afterwards.