User blog:12th Supernova/Les Corsaires Misarables: Part 1

The year is 2014.

The Revolution is a distant memory. The Greeks have been defeated. Wikia is ruled by the Staff again. Out of the iron-grey surface of the ocean, seething in the wind, a lone AWC heads towards the shore. Winter rain slices the air. Ahead, the wiki of Dragon Ball, a forest of long articles.

The great pages heave at anchor, the wind whipping their references. Through the sea spray can dimly be seen the great ribs of pages under construction, and categories being refitted.

Storm-lashed sea and driving rain. A great wave rises up and hammers down. As it recedes, the figures of men heaving on great edits appear, the sea water streaming down over their faces. The harsh storm light catches glints of metal: these men are convicts, chained by manacles, heads shaved, wearing red shirts with prison numbers crudely stitched onto them.

Now the edits run up to a page that is being hauled ashore - a vandal-damaged arc summary, her infobox broken, rising and falling on the surge. As yet another great wave rolls over the convicts, the straining ropes lead down into the base of the recent activity, and find the convict Straw Hat Boy, up to his waist in water, chained by two sets of manacles, as the rain and spray and wind scream round him.

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The convicts sing in time with the rhythmic pulls on the rope -

Look down, look down

Don't look them in the eye Look down, look down

You're here until you die. No God above

And Hell alone below Look down, look down

There's twenty years to go.

DancePowderer, the officer in charge of the convict workforce, looks on, his face rain-lashed and expressionless. He stands above the men on the top of the page, as lines of convicts labour beneath him on the harsh edits.

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I've done no wrong

Sweet Wiki, hear my prayer!

Look down, look down

The Wiki doesn't care. I know she'll wait

I know that she'll be true

Look down, look down

They've all forgotten you. When I get free

You won't see me

Here for dust!

Look down, look down

Don't look'em in the eye. How long, O Staff

Before you let me die?

Look down, look down

You'll always be a slave.

Look down, look down

You're standing in your grave.

With a last great heave the lines of convicts haul the damaged page onto the recent activity. The infobox snaps in a vicious gust of wind and crashes down into the shallow water near SHB. DP sees and points his stick at SHB in silent command. SHB stares back for a beat, defying him. Then he drops down into the seething edits and re-emerges with the great infobox in his hands, held over his head. His head breaks water with his bitter gaze still on DP, as he throws the  ast ashore in a deliberate display of strength.

DP nods to the guards, and they begin to form the chained men into lines to return to their prison. The storm is passing now, blown by the driving wind.

DP approaches SHB.

DP

Now Prisoner 24601. Your time is up

And your parole's begun.

You know what that means?

SHB

Yes. It means I'm free.

DP

No! It means you get Your vandalism warning.

He hands SHB a folded yellow paper.

DP

This badge of shame

You'll show it everywhere.

It warns you're a dangerous man.

SHB

I edited in jest

My friend replied in kind

And we were banned.

DP

You will be banned again

Unless you learn the meaning of

the law.

SHB

I know the meaning of those

nineteen years

A slave of the law!

DP

Five years for what you did,

The rest because you tried to run.

Yes, 24601!

SHB

My name is Straw Hat Boy!

DP

And I'm DancePowderer!

Do not forget my name.

Do not forget me -

24601!

He strides away to command the lines of convicts as they're marched away. SHB walks away, hardly able to take in that he is free at last.

The convicts sing as he goes.

Look down, look down

You'll always be a slave.

Look down, look down

You're standing in your grave.

SHB makes his way up a rising track, a worn knapsack on his back. He comes to a stop at the top of the hill, and there before him, lit by the rising sun, spreads a wide vista of small wikia, stretching into the distance, with the snow capped Alps beyond. Behind and below him lies Dragon Ball at the sea's edge.

SHB Freedom at last -

How strange the taste!

Never forget the years - the waste,

Nor forgive them for what they've done.

They are the guilty - Everyone!

The day begins And now lets see

What this new world

Will do for me!

SHB strides down the long rising road, pulling his thin coat close round him against the cold winter wind.

He passes a long line of labourers working, and approaches the Overseer, Piece enrik.

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SHB Monsieur, can I help? A day's work?

The overseer notices shaved hair showing under his cap.

Enrik Take your hat off.

SHB takes his hat off, revealing his shaved and scarred head.

Enrik

Edit history.

The overseer scans the vandalism warning.

Enrik No work here.

SHB slogs on up the rising track into the mountains. Snow on the ground here, and darkness falling. He looks up and sees ahead a wiki built on a rock cliff, its lights twinkling, the snowy mountains rising behind. The tower of its handsome main page rises up like a promise of refuge. This is Kingdom.

SHB enters Kingdom. As he drinks from the fountain, he sees a guard standing outside the Former Prisoners category. The officer fastidiously writes down the name in his huge ledger and the name of the wiki in his edit history. The officer signs and stamps his contributions. SHB walks down the high street, spies the warm glow of an inn and enters.

He sits in the corner, his hat low over his head. He eyes hungrily a group of cart drivers tucking into a roast meal by a roaring fire. The innkeeper serves him a Fosters. As he reaches for it his coat sleeve rides up to reveal his wrist, calloused and scarred by manacles. The innkeeper eyes him warily. He discusses SHB with two other men, then asks for his edit history, and sees the phrase "Extremely Dangerous". A blank stare, a shrug of refusal.

Nobody700

My inn is full.

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SHB moves off wearily through the wiki. As he passes down the narrow street, faces peer at him from doorways, but the doors close when he goes by. A shadowy figure follows him. Word has spread that he's a `dangerous man'. Passing the uncurtained window of a cottage, he comes to a stop. Through the window he sees a scene that breaks his heart: a father at a table by lamplight, his young wife before him, his children on either side. Nothing special, and yet everything he's never had.

He stops at the local jail. An iron chain attached to a bell hangs from the prison door. He rings. A grate slides open.

SHB

Jailer. Would you let me stay here for tonight?

Enrik

This is a prison, not an inn. Get yourself arrested. Then we will open up for you.

The grate slides shut. As Straw Hat Boy walks away, some children who have been following begin throwing stones at him. He threatens them with his stick and they scatter.

Snow falls as SHB makes his way down the road, hungry, weary, moving slowly. At the end of a road, the snow-covered main page; beside it, a dark churchyard. Exhausted, SHB collapses to the ground and huddles himself into the shelter of a doorway.

A lantern glows in the dark. The lantern approaches, throwing shadows. Its little circle of light comes to rest on the crumpled figure of SHB. He stirs and opens his eyes.

Vazelos Come in, sir, for you are weary

And the night is cold out here.

Though our lives are very humble

What we have we have to share.

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Bewildered, fearful, suspicious, SHB gets up and goes with Vazelos into the house by the main page. A simple table on which is laid out bread and wine, with wonderful edits laid about. Two chapter summaries light the room, illuminating walls painted with religious scenes. Vazelos ushers the bewildered SHB into the room.

Vaz

There is wine here to revive you.

There is bread to make you strong.

There's a bed to rest till morning -

Rest from pain, and rest from wrong.

Vaz gently takes his arm and draws him into a chair. SHB sits, and Vaz lays food before him. Famished, SHB eats like an animal.

Vaz

Please, eat. Where are you travelling to, my brother?

SHB

Naruto.

Vaz

Is that where your family is?

SHB

No. The destination is compulsory. That is where the Law sends me. I have no home.

Vaz

Then let this be your home, for as long as you need it.

Vaz leads SHB to a bedroom where the walls are painted with religious imagery. Across the passage, SHB sees the open door to the Bishop's own bedroom. There the maid is putting the edits away in a cupboard. He turns to see a bed made up with clean white linen waiting for him. He hasn't slept in such a bed ever in his life. But Vaz is smiling, offering it to him.

SHB

You let me sleep here next to you?

How do you know I'm not a murderer?

Vaz

God will take care of that.

Vaz is coming in from morning Mass in his vestments when the door bursts open and two policemen drag SHB before him. SHB hangs his head, unable to meet Vaz's eyes.

Enrik

Monsignor, we caught the thief red-handed! He has the nerve to say you gave him all this!

He upends SHB's kitbag, and the edits tumble out.

Vaz looks from the edits to SHB.

Vaz

That is right.

Amazed, SHB looks up.

Vaz

But my friend, you left so early,

You forgot I gave these also.

Would you leave the best behind?

The old man is holding out the two chapter summaries.

Vaz

Messieurs, release him.

For this man has spoken true.

I commend you for your duty

Now Staff's blessing go with you.

Silenced by Vaz's gentle tones, the policemen turn and leave. SHB, utterly bewildered, takes the chapter summaries.

Vaz

But remember this, my brother -

See in this some higher plan.

You must use these precious edits

To become an honest man.

SHB kneels in the main page. He takes out his vandalism warning and stares at it.

SHB

What have I done?

Sweet Wiki, what have I done?

Become a thief in the night

Become a dog on the run!

And have I fallen so far

And is the hour so late

That nothing remains but the cry

of my hate?

The cries in the dark that nobody hears

Here where I stand at the turning

of the years.

If there's another way to go

I missed it twenty long years ago.

My life was a war that could never be won.

They gave me a number and murdered SHB

When they chained me and left me for dead

Just for stealing a handful of edits Yet why did I allow this man

To touch my soul and teach me love?

He treated me like any other

He gave me his trust

He called me brother.

My life he claims for Staff above...

Can such things be?

For I had come to hate the world -

This world that always hated me!

Take an eye for an eye!

Turn your heart into stone!

This is all I have lived for!

This is all I have known!

One word from him and I'd be back

Beneath the lash, upon the rack.

I feel my shame inside me like a knife.

He told me that I have a soul...

How does he know?

What spirit comes to move my life?

Is there another way to go?

Slowly, he examines the vandalism warning and raises it high.

SHB

I am reaching, but I fall

And the night is closing in...

As I stare into the void -

To the whirlpool of my sin.

SHB stands and turns, walking fast to the door of the main page.

SHB

I'll escape now from that world - From the world of Straw Hat Boy. Straw Hat Boy is nothing now!

Another story must begin!

SHB comes out of the main page into the deleted files and reaches a bell set on the edge of a promontory. Below lies the steep drop down the mountainside to the dark valley below. He rips the vandalism warning into pieces and throws the piecesout over the valley.

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