Chapter 47 : The Debate - Part 2
“Yes, it was truly a terrifying time to be a MAJOR. Nothing you said or did could remain unknown, and even the most benign act could be twisted into some malevolent behavior, which ended ruining the lives of thousands of good peoples who were just unlucky enough to be with or around minors” explained Waid, who looked quite happy saying that.
“Not unlike social media now, I guess” said Margaret, who didn’t seem to realize that she was giving him new ammunitions to shoot at Shannon, who had started as a social media mogul.
“I find it rather hard to believe that they were that dangerous, considering how easily they were driven to the brink of extension in a handful of years” replied the giantess, letting herself fall back in her sofa, to look more relaxed than she was. “And I can tell you, as someone dealing with social media and new technology that, more often than not, online scandals amount to a blimp in the lives of the powerful, who are the first target of such backlash.”
She hoped she didn’t sound too dismissive or arrogant. It came easily to her to feel out of touch with the common MAJOR, being a gigantic young billionaire black woman. But she had to court them now, if she hoped to preserve her campaign. She had to come out on top in this debate, or the resistance she would be met with would be too massive to be easily dealt with. She couldn’t countenance the idea of having to curb or renege her promises to Minorkind. She was every bit like the majority of today’s humanity in that regard: she hated losing, even just losing face.
“But Shannon… don’t you think that this hivemind is extremely frightening? I wouldn’t want everyone to know what I’m doing with my free time at home, just because a minor would happen to be there!” giggled Margaret.
“I can understand this concern” admitted the behemoth. “But…” she added slowly, leaning forward toward the hostess, and thus displaying a mighty amount of her tit flesh, while leveraging her absolutely massive height advantage to look superior and thus in the know, “there is two reasons which will forever prevent Minors from ever having such an ability – if they ever did to the extent that Howard says they had in ages past.”
“Really? I would very much like to know which those are” huffed Waid, dismissively but with an amused tone – clearly, he felt extremely confident about the situation.
“Firstly, because of sheer numbers and genetics” she explained gently, doing her hardest to not sound arrogant doing so. “Minors have suffered such heavy losses of life during the Dark Age that even today, they are extremely rare. How many have anyone seen in their life. I travel around the world, I see a lot of peoples from the wealthiest portion of society, for whom a Minor is not an expense at all, and yet before launching my campaign, I could count the number of them I personally met on the fingers of my two hands.”
“And that’s a good thing” grumbled Howard, whose face was darkening.
“Is it now, when they barely manage to preserve their numbers? If nothing is done, it is almost certain that their population will decrease once more over the next few decades, because of the number of abuse they endure and the way they are seen by a lot of people as glorified pets more so than people. It could lead to their erasure from the genetic make-up of the world, and it would be a terrible loss.”
“I don’t see how erasing weakness from our genes would be a bad thing” stated Waid.
“Because Minors actually allow us to see things differently, which means that we can discover new ways to solve problems, something we’ll always need!” hotly replied Shannon, letting her temper flare for a split second, before getting it back under control. “We, MAJORS, are breeding them out, because we live a lot longer, are more fertile and tend to give birth to our kind more so than Minors. Therefore, the risks to see them rise in power over us because of sheer number is inexistent. And even if it was…”
“Even if it was, there would come the second reason, I guess?” asked Margaret.
“Exactly!” confirmed Shannon, feigning more enthusiasm and cheerfulness than she felt. “You see, what made MAJORS afraid of Minors during the Dark Age was apparently their ability to link with each other’s mind, something that we were said to lack, save for the lucky few. Who all painted it as an incredible communion, something unique and profound, which touched them to their core and…”
“You’re speaking of the Bond!” spat Waid, interrupting her rudely, his face turning red, as if she was professing insanities that he couldn’t stand. “You’re talking ab…”
“Howard! I let you talk very politely. Surely you can reciprocate?” she huffed back in mock outrage.
The old MAJOR seemed to choke for a second but he let out a long breath and seemed to deflate, anger living his feature, even if the gigantic woman believed that it was still there, hidden beneath this old flesh and bones. She felt a pang of anger at the idea that she had to debate with him at all. She was so much bigger, so much stronger than he was. She could have crushed him underfoot, broken his twiggy arms and legs without so much as sweating. But she had to play pretend with the old rascal because of her own message – truly an infuriating situation.
“Excuse my outburst” he finally said, apologizing half-heartedly. “I just can’t stand this… practice. It demeans us. But by all mean, continue your explanation.”
“Thank you” she answered through gritted teeth. “As I was implying, yes, I’ll be talking about the Bond. Because something fundamental has happened after the Dark Age. We MAJORS also started to exhibit this capacity, as anyone who has ever met a Minor or had his or her level tested will know. We are ALL able to Bond with each other, even just between us. I know it’s not common, but it’s a possibility. And while Minors can have finer control or even greater raw Bonding ability than Tiers 1, or even some Tiers 2 like myself… well, there’ll always be a Tier 3 around to make sure that us MAJORS have the upper hand in this game. Meaning that there is next to no chance of Minors forming a secret hive-mind if their number grew – and I think they shall grow, for they deserve to be far more numerous than they are today!”
As she talked, she never looked away from Waid, scrutinizing his every reaction. She saw utter disgust, loathing and even hatred flash in those cold eyes of his, but his face itself remained inscrutable. It was always impressing for her to meet another fellow who had learnt to hide his emotions as well –perhaps even better- than she had. Most of the more massive kind of humans were brutish and never bothered about hiding their feelings and instead acted on them. As for Minors, with the exception of Alejandro – who was thawing quite quickly with her, at least- they were open for all to read, in their joy and sorrow.
“So you’re praising the fact that we are turning into Minors?” he finally asked, sounding quite incredulous. “Surely you’d recognize weakness and abomination when you see it? You’re an incredibly fine specimen of what MAJOR’s true evolution should be! Not those Tiers 3 freaks of nature!”
His voice had almost gone shrill at the end, and Shannon did her best to not smile. She leant back in her sofa, switching her shoulders to better snug into it and deal with the rather easy to wear –for her- weight on her torso. She had him, she could almost feel it. Of course there would soon be a pause, so advertisers could use the brains of those who had chosen to watch the debate, which would give him plenty of time to put a brake to his volatility, so she had to make sure he wouldn’t be able to do so. No matter how sanguine he was, she was certain that the next argument would make him apoplectic.
“What a rude language! But for your information, I don’t consider myself like the pinnacle of MAJORKIND, nor do I see Minors as inferiors. After all, if I did, I wouldn’t be able to look at my future husband in the eyes – and not because of our rather immense size difference!”
He had to have known already. If not the early rumors, that she hadn’t debunked them would be proof enough that she was indeed in a committed relationship with a Minor. But, as she suspected, he couldn’t truly believe that it was true. She couldn’t really blame him. Until a little over a year ago, she would have pursued something like that just to flaunt it, and attract taller, studier males. Her whole Campaign would have been a giant add to bring people to her brand and nothing else, if she had even thought about starting it. Alejandro had made sure she was genuinely fighting for his kind, and it made her all the more effective in this duel, if she managed to keep her own head calm and clear.
“Wow, did you just announce a marriage on-air, with a minor?” asked Margaret, who looked ecstatic, probably at the idea of how high the audience would be now. “That’s something really huge we’ll explore after a short pause! Stay tuned folks, it won’t last long and we’ll be back for you!”
“And the adds are up!” said someone in the background, immediately allowing for the tension to decrease on the show, as the three MAJORS breathed in relief.
“I need a cup of tea!” barked Margaret to her assistants, extending a hand to grab the first one which had been brought to her by a young looking guy. “Where’s Martin?” she added, looking suspiciously at her aide.
“He… he was held off, Ma’am. Jackson said that… he said that he didn’t want him to stumble on stage and ruin the whole debate. His words, not mine, Ma’am, I swear!”
Margaret glared at him for a moment and even looked ready to slap him, but she closed her eyes and let out an angry breath. She gestured for the poor lad to get away and started to drink her cup of tea. She didn’t offer anything to her guests, but Shannon didn’t want to ask for anything, even a bottle of water, if Waid didn’t. They were playing a difficult and dangerous game of “blink first” and any weakness displayed would be used against her. She needed to get and keep the upper hand, because Waid was proving far craftier than she had assumed he would be.
“You can relax a little, we have several minutes of advertisement, really” said their hostess, looking at them over the helm of her little cup. “From what I’m hearing, the ratings are through the roof, the best I ever had here? Thank you both for that!”
“A pleasure” replied Shannon just as Waid said “It’s an honor” and the next several minutes were spent in tense silence, albeit from the sounds of many conversations in the public.
A ding finally announced that the pause would be over soon. Margaret handed her cup to the same aide who had brought it to her and went back in her gentle but serious mode as a renowned anchor. She looked straight at the main camera, as Shannon shifted uncomfortably in the sofa and Waid straightened himself, as if to look taller. The two of them avoided eye contact, and placed fake smiles on their faces. He’s probably already starting to think how best to tear me down, she thought. Hopefully he’s too bothered and angered by what I said before the cut to think efficiently.
“And we’re back on stage friends!” chirped Margaret as soon as a second ding was heard. “I hope you’re ready, because huge bombs have been dropped minutes ago! For those who weren’t here, we learnt that ancient minors possessed a hive-mind – yes, just like those monstrous aliens hordes in your games- and that Shannon Matthewson was planning to marry one! How shocking! And something’s telling me it’s not the end of the revelations, isn’t it Howard?”
“You’re quite right Margaret. Indeed, now that I know how Shannon feel about Minors in her personal life –something I wouldn’t dare to judge, mind you!- I think it’s important, for all our safety, but especially hers, that I bring some more information to the forefront! I hope it won’t sound too pedantic, but I can be a little too focused when it comes to our kind’s genetic future!”
“By all means, do!” offered Margaret. “I’m sure everyone’s willing to learn more!”
“Well, I hope you’re right” chuckled Waid. “As you know, there is two main evolution for us. The first is the mimicry of minors, the loss of our individuality, replaced by a crazed lust for minors – the Tiers 3. Those people, through no fault of their own, of course, have basically become the epitome of what went wrong after the Dark Age. They over-emotive, unable to keep their mind for themselves and always seeking companionship. This is not who MAJORS are. This isn’t WHAT we are!”
“Then what is the future of MAJORKIND?” asked Margaret. “Because I can tell you that I would have loved to be a Tier 3. Those mind powers sounds great! I could get any paycheck I’d want with those!” she laughed, earning a similar reaction in the public.
“Shannon is one such fine specimen, perhaps the finest” simply said Waid, gesturing toward the giantess. “Look at her! Massive beyond anything us old MAJORS ever believed was possible, dominant and sure of herself –someone who wouldn’t be able to push her ideas to such a physique to back it up. Who would contest dare challenge her?”
“You seem quite able to do that, and you are far smaller than me, Howard” noted Shannon, sounding amused –and she had to admit that the vainglorious part of her was happy to be praised, even by him.
“I am not. I’m merely trying to help you, to preserve you! What you said about marrying a minor… surely, you must realize it’s an aberration? How could the two of you ever work together? He could never be your equal, no matter how much he tried or how much you would wish for it.”
She almost jumped on him to choke him, right here, right now. How dare he insult her Alejandro like that, before millions of people? She was certain that her anger flashed on her face, because he smiles smugly. That old bastard had managed to turn the table on her again. It was infuriating, but she had to keep her calm. Any outburst would be a disservice to her cause. So, she had to destroy him, utterly, with her words. Hopefully, she knew how, otherwise she would end making a fool of herself. Even if it meant exposing some of her intimacy – but none would learn today that she was pregnant.
“Did you know the one time I felt the best in my whole life, Howard? It was when I proposed to him and he said yes. Perhaps you find it shocking, but he gave me so much ideas, so much possibilities to expand my business. Minors possess troves of imagination, which can be used to better all our lives. Perhaps you don’t believe it, now. But truly, I think they can all make US better. And what kind of MAJOR wouldn’t want to be her better self?”
“YOU proposed to HIM?” roared Waid, shocked beyond any pretense of keeping a gentle face. “You would debase yourself that much, for what? A rat in human form!?”
“That’s how you see them, when politeness is dropped, right old vulture?” hissed Shannon in response, as Margaret and the public looked too stunned to react.
“What I see is a perfect specimen of our Kind who has been so hollowed out and corrupted by the society we live in, which elevate the beings who tried to usurp us and had to be purged to prevent MAJORS from being made subservient beasts of burden!”
“Please, PLEASE!” screamed Margaret, trying to stop the tension to totally boil over, and salvage her talk show from descending into a one-sided fight. “I know that you have very different opinion on minors, but please, try to remain calm and civil!”
“I’m sorry” grumbled Waid as Shannon was still fuming. “I just… it’s really hard for me to see the fight of my life, and of my father’s and uncle’s, to be tossed away because the government which used them discarded them to build a society of lies.”
“The lies said were that Minors needed to be protected and treated like babies or pets all their lives. They may be fragile, live far shorter life than ours, but they deserve to be heard, to not be mistreated or considered like toys for us to play with” explained Shannon, calming down a little.
“They certainly don’t! They are cowardly, traitorous little things! This minor that you claim love you will use you to his ends – clearly, he already did, what with your campaign to give them rights they never had, for good reasons! How could I let you destroy yourself because you are too young and blind to see the truth standing before you?”
“I have heard a lot of people saying that they knew better than me Howard. All of them ended incredibly wrong and lost a lot. I can certify that on this matter, precisely, I am dead right. Minors are not slaves, no matter how much some peoples would like them to still be that. They aren’t goods given to African peoples toiling in plantations, so they would have power of those who were poorer and more miserable than themselves, and wouldn’t revolt because of it. They are people, who suffer in their everyday lives a constant barrage of unfair laws which prevent them from expressing themselves and reaching their full potential.”
“So you would have them granted special status? Because it’s how it’ll end, and we both know it!” huffed Waid, throwing his hands in the air. “They aren’t as smart, they aren’t as strong than us. They’ll start to complain about the difficulties to find jobs, they’ll say they are still treated unfairly and good MAJORS will have to go jobless or in jail because places needed to be made for those inferiors to them, who will throw lies and slanders at their betters! Our whole world will collapse!”
“There is less Minors worldwide than the population of New York, and that’s being generous, some counting says there is only slightly more than people living in Brooklyn. I think that our economies can absorb it without throwing the average MAJOR in the arms of debt, poverty and other scourges of existence like that. Meanwhile, giving more rights to Minors mean they’ll be able to live the lives they want. Some will be content with the current status quo and will remains as they are, and that’ll be fine. But those of them who wants other lives will be allowed to have them. Combined with measures tailored to help them, their number will grow back their numbers enough to meet others of their kind to fall in love with, to stop to experience a world where they are just an afterthought, dependent on us for everything – because we made the world that way.”
“Wow, that’s a very profound reflection here, this idea that they experience the world so differently than we do. Would I be right to suspect that it’s your mysterious fiancé who’s made you have those ideas? I don’t think much MAJORS would think of those by themselves – I know I wouldn’t have at all, and I interact with Minors everyday!” concluded Margaret, giggling.
“I don’t see where else such ludicrous fantasies could have spawned” grumbled Waid, whose anger seemed to have turned less burning rage and more cold disdain. “The gall of this… man, and I use the term loosely to manipulate a young woman who is blinded by the attraction –not love- that society pretends we should all have for those ridiculous beings… What he did to you is truly despicable Shannon, and I hope that someday, you’ll realize it. He’s just using you for his own goals and will end hurting you terribly when you’ll be of no use for him. He’ll probably ditch you for some minor female to whom he’ll try to outbreed us and rebuild his pestilent breed!”
“It’s true that the idea to have minors meet minors… are you sure it isn’t just you using your feelings for him –which must be genuine? It would be terrible, wouldn’t it?” asked Margaret, who looked a little disbelieving but perhaps also enticed by the prospect that Shannon was laying out before her.
Shannon expected much resistance against her idea to have Minors live the lives they wanted, but especially the fact that they could fall in love with other like them instead of ending in the arms of MAJORS. It was only natural, she had been terribly jealous of Izzellah Ivory when she had discovered that the smaller girl and Alejandro had also feelings for each other. But her lover had chosen her in the end, and it comforted her idea that love was the deciding factor – love and acceptance from the taller humans. But she couldn’t say that just yet, she needed to remain mum about it, so that it could all be delivered by her fiancé. He would need all the arguments he could have, she suspected.
“I’ve been Bonded with him – not a lot, he doesn’t like it too much, for reasons I won’t disclose. If he feel like explaining it, he’ll do it someday. But when we Bond, sometimes I have delved deep inside him, and I knew everything he felt, what he wanted, what his hopes, fears and passions are. And I can testify, with absolute certainty, that while my campaign has been inspired by him and his plights, he has played no role in it, yet. Not in design it, not in launching it, not in running it. And I already know for sure how deep and pure his love of me is. He won’t ditch me, ever. And I won’t either.”
She felt good saying this. It may sound ludicrous to some, especially those MAJORS who never had the opportunity to form a Bond with a Minor. How could she describe to them how she felt more powerful than ever when their minds became one? She couldn’t. And she had accepted it; what she needed was to convince them that for them to have a chance to experience it, and they wanted to, even if they didn’t know it yet. And when she looked at Waid face, she saw that he was beyond shock, lost to utter disbelief, which was something she would use against him.
“That’s some very strong words here!” said Margaret, who seemed really excited now.
“Well, it’s how I feel, really!” replied Shannon, smiling genuinely perhaps for the first time this evening.
“In any case, I think it’s time for us to have our secondary guests coming up here, after a short pause! But I can tell you that it’ll be something you’ll want to see, because it’ll be a real confrontation between peoples who have a lot of bad blood together! It’ll be Old Creek native vs native! Alejandro Ferrand facing off Ada Mac Ferlan!”
The sound signaling the start of the ads sounded like a terrible death knell. She hoped that she had managed to not appear as shocked and utterly terrified than she was in that split second where she realized what was happening. Unwittingly, she had thrown her Alejandro in a pit with a venomous viper and she wouldn’t be able to help him. He would be alone, even with her standing so close.
Waid looked at her and smiled hideously, contempt and perverse joy both apparent on his face.