Kindness: One of Heart

Gallagher accepted Justified's hoof to help him up. "Well isn't this a conglomerate of comradery we've got going on here. What's up?"

"Everybody's crazy sometimes" shimmer shrugs. "This however is ether really stupid or really well thought out, probably both.  " he says heading for the door before holding it open for the rest of the group, only to give a small nod towards Justified as he mentioned possible fireworks. "We ether get lucky and its a peaceful yet boring day or we end up with a exciting yet stress filled riot "

"Well then, let's not waste any more daylight. Ponies love that stuff. I'll get ready." Gallagher quickly grabs the essentials, notably his reading glasses container, notepad, and a bulletproof vest with the words "WRITER" printed on them. "That's everything. After you."

When the group reaches the area where their assigned protest is taking place, there are more tents than ponies visible. Considering the protest started at midnight, many of them are probably still asleep, but there are a couple of ponies sitting around without a tent or anything else except for cold/wet weather gear. The protesters fill up both sidewalks and all but one lane of the street, which seems purposeful considering the cones along it. The lane is far from straight, making a few loops through the crowd, but it at least allows cars to pass through. Unfortunately, this isn't a one-way street, but traffic is still low - for now.

The buildings in this area are primarily belonging to Fortune 500 companies, with a few exceptions, which seems to be why this point was chosen for one of the 8 protest sites.

"I should have know the tents would protest after decades of being used by us," joked Gallagher. Probably. He takes out his notepad and starts taken notes...

Blanket rolled her eyes at the griffon'so comment, but said nothing. Instead, she stood poised, scanning the crowd, and the sky.

Wet weather gear. Slightly annoying, especially if things did start to get out of hoof... but there was a world of difference between some light rainfall, and what a particularly determined Pegasus could whip up with the right tools.

Of course, not needing that would be better by far. But still...
She twisted her neck, working out a creek.

Justified takes a seat and stands by, waiting for anything to happen.

Winter bit his lip. He had expected the protest areas to have more... protesting. But it was early, they didn't seem woken up either.

Brass at first is a bit confused by the lack of protesting but soon gets back into gear and porceeds to keep an eye out for any suspicious activity.

Roll(1d20)+15:
12,+15
Total:27

Eye Spy:
Of the protesters that are awake when the rest of the party arrives, most arrived about the same time you did, and the rest came out of their tents in the meantime. One pony went around spray-painting messages on tents and leaving boards with messages on them around the area, but all of that was done apparently with the permission of the ponies inside the tents.

Protestors, perception roll: 25:

Suspicious Activity, perception roll: 27:

Justified, immediately bored of standing around, heads over to the main protest area. He rolls his eyes as he passes a few tents with questionable sounds coming from within, but bypasses them and heads for the ponies without tents. "Mornin'. I notice you fellas didn't bother to camp out last night. I ain't huge on following politics and current events- can I ask what it is that has you up so early on new years to come yell at business ponies?"

---

Persuasion: 7+14=21

Using Empathetic, on random Pony number 1:

Empathetic:

17+9=26

Eye Spy had spent several minutes wandering around under the safety of the cloaking spell. Not much to see yet, he decided. Or not much I'd like to, he thought as he passed a tent containing a particularly noisy couple. Time to get proactive.

He de-cloaked behind a (quiet) tent and stepped out, approaching the pony with the spray paint.

"Excuse me!" he called out. "I'm Quick Question, with the Sea Addle Times? I'd like to ask a few questions."

Persuasion:

Justified
One of the ponies, sipping at some steaming hot chocolate, gives Justified a funny look. "Geeze, just how old-fashioned are you? Everypony knows what the protests are for, if they've been within ten feet of the internet in the past month or two." The pony seems generally annoyed, both at you and the state of affairs against which he is protesting. "Don't be such a ****, Dick, he just said he doesn't follow up on current events." The mare turns and gives Justified a smile. "Sorry about that. We're protesting in favor of the Robin Hood bill, which would not only raise taxes on the rich and lower them for the poor, but would channel money in the direction of Poverty Aid programs. We're 'yelling at the business ponies' because most of these corporations are considered to be ponies, when it comes to taxes."

Eye Spy
"The Seaddle Times? Uh, sure, though last I checked they were a swimsuit magazine..."

"Corporations are ponies? Well, I'm glad I didn't major in economics, this sounds a bit way over my head. Thanks for the info, enjoy your protest." Justified shrugs and tips his hat to the mare, then nods at the stallion, and makes his way along, now back towards their staging area. "Well," he says to his teammates, "I have very little idea of what's actually happening here, but these ponies don't seem like the type to start burning shit. We might have a calm day ahead of us."

Winter bit his lip, mulling over the situation. "So, right now, we keep watch, and try not to look to threatening. We move when they do, right?"

Best to have instructions as clear as possible, especially if his...tiredness was interfering.

Brass nods in agreement, "It would be rather safe to assume so."

Bleary-eyed protesters didn't look like much of a threat, but it wasn't them Security was worried about. The Pegasus mare kept up a stony position on the lines, staring at the crowd, and offering any who ventured a glance- or who looked like prospective troublemakers- a harder look.

She wasn't much of a talker.

Spoiler:

Copper Rose wrote:Eye Spy
"The Seaddle Times? Uh, sure, though last I checked they were a swimsuit magazine..."

"Haha! No, that would be the Seaddle Illustrated," "Quick Question" responded with a laugh. Inside, Eye Spy resisted the urge to facehoof. Dumb stuff like that were why he couldn't have nice things.

"Anyways. We all know, of course, about the protest itself, but what's the general attitude like so far? Do you think today's protest will be successful?"

"Well look, from what I heard right now they're having more fun than us. I ain't saying today's gonna be easy, but I doubt it's gonna get violent. If I were a cop I'd be more on the lookout for ponies looking to exploit the situation, pickpockets and so-on." Justified goes to take a seat. "I think someone should mingle with the protests once they get underway, watch for anything suspicious."

Copper Rose wrote:Eye Spy
"Just today's protest? No way, that's just too hopeful of thinking for this protest to work. The only way to get this protest to actually work is if we carry out the full year of protests, the whole reason for why we're starting this on New Year's Day."

Oh, merde. That's no good, he thought silently to himself. "A whole year's worth, huh? That takes some organisation, I imagine. Who's leading this year-long protest?"