A group of them had gathered outside of the Theater, their voices carrying over throughout the streets and bleeding out into much of the rest of the Theater District. A worst case scenario, attention drawn towards the theater that wasn’t related to the expected hype surrounding a performance that was slated to take place, the typical wave of hype and excitement that came about. One could have even equated the excitement to that of an expected tidal wave of anticipation that only seemed to build and build and build with each passing day. Those were the performances that the Marigold Theater had become famous for, those that could draw in crowds of not simply hundreds, but thousands. Thousands of people that as much wished to see a performance for the ages, a historic type of show that would transcend anything that they had seen previously. The shows that made careers and in the same right, inspired completely new generations to pursue acting.

162/2000

But that was nothing of what was going on right now. This were not something that was to be celebrated. It was not something to be appreciative towards. If anything, it was the one thing in which more than anything else, they sought to never see. People gathered, not out of celebration or excitement, but instead out of anger, frustration, disbelief. Words could not quite describe the sentiment that was felt by the people, all of whom seemed to equally share a level of disdain and anger towards the Theater. But, not to the Theater itself. No, the anger was directed towards something else. Something else that was as perhaps as damning to it as any actual sort of criticism that could have been thrown its way. The people, the work that was done within it, the people’s collective fury had been driven towards it, most notably the recent string of performances that had begun to become far more common, the performances that stoked the radical anti-foreigner politics that Fiore was being infected by.

336/2000

It had been something that had long been brewing, not just within Marigold, but throughout much of Fiore at this point. Racism. National pride. Fear of a loss of identity. There were no shortage of reasonings behind it, justifications crafted whether through fear or ignorance, bred to manipulate or otherwise to genuinely try to turn the minds. It had been a growing issue for a long while, and while in some parts it had been handled with a bit more grace and elegance than others, within Marigold any efforts to try to squash and put down this behavior were instead met with bewildered cries. If there were one thing that was true about Marigold, or perhaps more appropriately about the Theater, the main centralized part of the city, it was that it had the capability to sway and play to the politics and feelings of the people better than anything else could.

488/2000

And for quite a while now, that sentiment had been brewing and was being pushed within the Theater. Not from the perspective or reasoning at first because of a strongly held belief, but rather that out of an unfortunate accident, if it were to be described as anything else. The Theater, always willing to test out projects, recognizing that many ideas submitted would never see the light of day, had done its own research, had recorded data on much of the submitted ideas, and a growing theme coming out of numerous denied projects were the same thing, carrying the flag of racism. Hatred for those whom were different, whether of a different nationality, of a different race entirely, or in some cases, even as petty as simply just someone who were just not from Marigold. This was not isolated as they had once felt it, and as time went and it became more and more commonly submitted, eventually someone within the Theater had the idea to tap into that potential. If this hatred and rage were something that the people felt, there were nobody better than them to present it for them.

680/2000

The first play had been a success, much like the one that followed, and the ones that came later. It had shown itself to be a proven hit with the people, drawing in not only those whom truly did feel the racially-charged opinions that the performances were intended to try to try to appeal towards, but also those who were as much in disbelief that something like this could have happened. That the Theater would actually go ahead and produce such material, not even art as far as they were concerned. But, for every person whom felt that, there was as much a potential that someone may have felt somewhat sympathetic towards the story being told, perhaps swayed by the actresses and actors whom were putting on the performances, in some cases even being swayed by the performers themselves, in some cases people whom did actually feel as strongly as the plays made them appear to be.

837/2000

It was hardly inconceivable that there were those whom believed in what they were performing. This behavior, this “new wave” of thinking that some tried to sell it as, had existed for quite a while before the Marigold Theater had ever tried to capitalize on this shifting demographic, but it did not seem to much matter to the people. Either there were those who supported it, initially or otherwise became tolerant towards it, or there were those whom hated it, who despised everything that the Theater stood for. And that was perhaps what riled the people more than anything, including the people whom were outside of it complaining about it presently, were that the funds that were being brought in were being used to further fund projects that others more cared about. For much of what was presented within the Marigold Theater, outside of the most premier performances that were set up and fully prepared months beforehand, the greater amount of their funds had been coming from performances like these.

1007/2000

As she walked about the streets of Marigold, as much fascinated by the disappointment being echoed throughout the people in the crowd, she wondered where this was before. It were not her first time in Marigold, as she had now found herself arriving here seldom often. The benefit of being close enough to Hargeon to where neither the cost to travel was much of a hardship, nor would be a thing of concern towards Blue Pegasus, confident that the Demi-Human venturing there, despite being beyond Hargeon, was not in great risk. It was hard for them to have her remaining within the city following the incidents at the Hargeon Docks, and to a more private company, knowing what had occurred with the Witch Hunters. That in particular, had them as much willing to travel, to see the world, in part as a means to recover, but as much as well to dispel whatever fears she may have had towards the world.

1168/2000

But the fear was there. It would have taken much longer for any hope to see that fear dispelled out of her eyes and heart, but this was a good attempt. Marigold in particular, being a place in which was considered far more relaxed relative to the busy nature that was Hargeon in the spring, was probably one of the best places that the Demi-Human could have been around, when all was taken into account. But unfortunately, the timing of her trips had seemed to coincide with performances from the Theater that were of the more racially-aggressive type. This lent to a great vexing feeling from Vyra, not sure if having seen this sort of performance was going to be a good thing. She had often seen discrimination firsthand, more than what most of these people had ever realized or could have appreciated, but it would not have changed their opinions or their likelihood to put on the show just because of her.

1331/2000

No, the reality was Vyra herself would have done little to be able to sway the opinion of people within Marigold, save for maybe the sympathetic onlooker who may have viewed her as someone who could have inspired some level of enthusiasm or belief that the world would stand to change, though in reality even a single voice had done little to be able to actually sway the hands of influence. Especially against an entity like the Theater; that was its own creation, run by the people whom as much defined it and made it. Even those who may have found Vyra’s story tragic, their efforts would not have allowed for much success, and even those within the Theater would have had a great deal of challenge in trying to get anything actually achieved. In reality, the racially charged efforts within Marigold’s Theater were becoming something in which very few were able to control, going forward until something was going to derail it. And though efforts in the past had been made towards it, seldom had they seen true momentum.

1511/2000

Vyra had seen some success though, though hardly in the manner that people would have liked to see, that being the infilitration and disrupting of attempted performances. It was a gamble, her involving herself within what was considered a sacred ritual, something that few were allowed in that were not of the Theater itself. After all, it was a complete divide in terms of the world around it; the only thing that was absolutely apparent being that the efforts of those that sought to break through were seldom responded in kind. Especially under this environment, it would have been very easy to believe that if Vyra were discovered that there were would inevitably lead to there being a production that painted as a monster, something that if it were to come out as an actual production, it would lead to serious ramifications, namely that it would perhaps lead to the situation where Blue Pegasus could be involved, and that would be something that Vyra would not want, for fear of the public display that would be cast upon Alisa.

1690/2000

Fortunately, Vyra had been put in a great position given the past jobs that she had done for the Marigold Theater and some miscellaneous jobs that she had done for them. It had built her in good standing, especially given that during her time which saw her build a good standing relationship with one of the most premier actresses, and although she had moved on towards other parts, having built up a better reputation thanks to Vyra which allowed her to begin touring the world, it still gave her a great chance to maintain a level of relationship with the people who were working there, and whether it had been because of just who she was, or what it was that she was considered a nice person, whatever the reason may have been, it did certainly enable her to go ahead and secure a unique position that otherwise would not have been allowed, one that let her venture into the Theater without question.

1853/2000

It was ideal, her being able to go in there, and thanks to others that she knew, she was also able to go ahead and head into areas that she shouldn’t have been able to go into, which included the area where the scripts were in. Inside there, it was easy enough to go ahead and cause some damages to it, including but not limited to the removal of scripts and tearing out pages to cause problems. If there were one sure way to ruin a production, it was to kill the script and who was to be who. Her time was limited though, maybe a few minutes at best, but that was more than enough time for her to cause some serious problems, ruin a few shows, and whether it not it would have been something that was felt immediately or down the line, it was sure that it would have at least been a few performances where there would not have been any racially-charged content.

2020/2000