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There’s a big ol’ chunk of knowledge that pops into the heads of baby cities when they get reborn—a lexicon, compiled by the other living cities to give the babies at least a fighting chance.
It’s missing a lot of important shit, too, which is why they also send the next-youngest city to help out and explain.
Target an ethnic group to please his base, then take their stuff to make the landlords and businesspeople happy. The latter will keep him in power for a while.”
Sometimes Brooklyn wonders what it was like for her ancestors who survived these thoroughly American pogroms, building lives and futures for themselves again and again only to have it all shot and lynched away.
Maybe he thinks they’re just paintballs so no big deal, but it’s not the first time Brooklyn’s seen cops ignore a violent incident if the wrong kind of person was on the receiving end.
how’s Staten Island going to pay for everything if it doesn’t have the city’s money to help out? But these are minor worries. Political expediency has to fudge the truth sometimes, she knows. Politicians always lie, so why not elect one whose lies will get you what you want?
that the eldest in any family usually has to grow up the fastest.
That’s how equals work out problems, but you don’t think of us as equals. Everything you’ve described—segregating us, manipulating us, stealing our fucking children, remaking us—is what people do when they are absolutely convinced of their own superiority. That’s what makes us unable to coexist—your fucking arrogance.”
There is a message here. “Family looks out for family, no matter what.” “Well, yeah. But gotta remember family ain’t always the one you get born with. Real family’s the people who are there when you need ’em.”
She is a woman who has never been beautiful in the way that most men prefer: there is no fragility to her, no smallness, no self-diminishing smiles or attempts to lessen her height or presence. She looks powerful and dangerous.
