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September 22, 1993:
A man from Missouri stood at a podium, addressing a packed room of congressmen and women. He had come there that night to speak primarily on an issue that had been spearheaded by his wife, Hillary, that issue was healthcare, a stance very near and dear to her. Her husband Bill stood addressing the House of Representatives, who were somewhat apprehensive of the man. He had recently passed the Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, and was now seen by many as a champion of the poor man. He would bring that to a head tonight, not simply by his oratory regarding healthcare, but by another plan that had recently undergone a breakthrough in Research and Development.
"And now it is our turn to strike a blow for freedom in this country, the freedom of Americans to live without fear that their own Nation's health care system won't be there for them when they need it. It's hard to believe that there was once a time in this century when that kind of fear gripped old age, when retirement was nearly synonymous with poverty and older Americans died in the street. That's unthinkable today, because over a half a century ago Americans had the courage to change, to create a Social Security System that ensures that no Americans will be forgotten in their later years.
In addition to what I have spoken on Healthcare reform this evening, I wish to bring up one final matter." The man stumbled awkwardly over the somewhat unprepared portion of the speech. "Our intelligence agencies have recently innovated a new technology which will eradicate any future natural threats that will come upon our lands."
It was these words that hearkened in a new era into American History. Soon, the Department of the Interior formed the subcommittee: Weather Modification Operations and Research Board, which set about a groundbreaking project which would change the appearance of the United States for the duration of history, though in no place moreso than in one island, located in the Delaware Bay, between the states of New Jersey and Delaware, the newly-appointed capital city of the nation's first state, the city of Samhain.
-----------April 25th, 2012--------------------------
An audience applauded loudly, waking up the sullen man known to onlookers as a 'creepy hobo', and known by friends as 'Henry Beltane'. Henry looked around, confused regarding his current whereabouts. He was surrounded by other members of his Family in a dark theater, a stage in front of them with several actors upon it taking a bow.
"That's right... That kid Jeremy invited us here... " Remembering his invitation and the pretense of what it meant, Henry took out his program and looked at the list of events; what he read caused him to sigh as he saw that the play penned by their host had not yet come on, and would only do so after a brief intermission. Leaning back briefly in his chair, Henry shook his head to further wake himself up; he rubbed his face to find the stubble had begun to grow into more well-defined hairs, and he thought to himself that he would need to shave soon. His mind couldn't be further away from the events that were taking place in Beira Performance Hall of the Samhain Arts Institute.
Standing up, Henry left into the lobby of the Performance Hall. Though the place was well-decorated and ornate, Henry and the other inhabitants of the building stood in stark contrast in the clothes they wore. They were a motley crew of bohemian apparel, as was the custom for the college, whose grim motto read “Grâce à la souffrance, beauté”, which Henry knew the meaning of, a particularly grim motto for a college, but one that fit the Institute well.
Henry moved over toward the food tables in the lobby, seeing that they had Triscuits, a small pleasure of his which he had not indulged in for some time now. As Henry moved toward the table, he was blocked by a young student, the one who had invited him to this event; a young man named Jeremy Hanover: an aspiring jack-of-all-trades artist that wanted to truly catch the essence of what it meant to “live on the street”. Because of Henry’s connections with the homeless and his own impoverished state of living, he was an easy target for Jeremy to interview, and while Henry was more than happy to talk about how hard his life was (though it wasn’t), he only did so at the promise that he could come to the opening night of the play and eat as much food as he wished, a dream which Jeremy was currently standing in the way of.
“Mr. Beltane, I just wanted to thank you before the play once more, it’s been really great working with you all this-“ Jeremy began
“Yeah, dat’s nice kid” Henry interrupted, trying to muscle his way to the food “It was great, but what can I say? I live for deh sake of deh pou andair plight.” He said the words as carelessly as he could muster, hoping that Jeremy would catch some of the sarcasm and leave him be.
“I’m just so grateful.” Jeremy beamed “These other people don’t know what they’re writing about. A tale about the struggle of colored people in modern America is so… old hat. This’ll blow ‘em out of the water! Don’t you think?”
“Yer a regulah William Shatneh, kid. I tell ya yer gahna go fah.” Henry took Jeremy up on the arm and spun around so that he would be beside the table as he let the young playwright go. Glad to be rid of this student, Henry took a plate and began to pick out foods for himself. He ate slowly, savoring each bite of the delicious crackers and cheeses that were available. Slowly, he looked around the lobby, relaxing once again for his Family members, who had also been invited to the plays this evening and had decided to attend.
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