PUBLIC Diagnosis: Disquiet on the Piazza




Location Watson
Time of day 1300hrs
Weather sunny with a wintery chill


Today was an important day, for Tsubaki Medical, for her father and most importantly, the people of Watson.

So why were there protestors? Luna had not filled this role before, being the face of Daddy's company and opening a new facility on his behalf and despite her coaching, she didn't entirely know what to expect. As her limousine had swished into the Piazza that was surrounded on three sides by the new medical outreach centre, she had been surprised to see people with placards with Tsubaki emblazoned on them, and accompanied by rather unflattering slogans. Her minder had told her not to worry, and the numbers did seem few as far as she could see, but it was hard for the teen to not let it play on her mind as they pulled in and went into the small area behind the platform where she would give her speech.

The new medical outreach centre, spearheaded by Tsubaki, and joined by several of its partners would serve a very large number of people in the local area and had been built on an area of a mostly disused brown site. It would allow the companies represented to bring cutting-edge and potentially life-saving facilities right to the doorstep of some of the most needy people in Night City, and Luna would be the one to open. She shifted in her seat adjusting her red dress before stepping out of the limousine and onto the base of the platform. It was about 15 minutes until she would speak but the crowds she intended to address were growing quickly. She tried not to think of how many people would be out there. Other staff milled about and respectfully greeted her as she mostly focused on the datapad in front of her that contained her speech.


What Luna had no way of knowing was the growing unrest in the street, the majority of people were here to celebrate the coming of an important medical option to their neighbourhood, but a lot knew, or at least thought they knew what this meant. A predatory company hoping to turn their misfortune into a tidy profit, for the kind-hearted staff to treat the poor and needy, but their employers to saddle them with onerous financial debts from which they might never recover. She also had no way of knowing that "mostly disused" was just city speak for "we don't care". Several ad hoc drop-in centres and areas used by the homeless had been quietly de-located by the city before the area was sold to her father.

By the time Luna made her way to the platform, the Piazza was a hubbub of activity with many faces looking back up at the young woman. The Protestors were peaceful at the moment and had mostly been kept a little further back by the police so did not drastically interfere with the mostly happy faces that Luna was going to address.



"People of Watson" She began, with a soft voice amplified by the speakers, giving the impression of a prepared speaker rather than a natural one. "Thank you for coming out today. I am Luna Rothschild representing Carter Rothschild, CEO of Tsubaki Medical and it gives me great pride to be here.

Your community is one of the beating hearts of this beautiful city. You live and work in this neighbourhood and without that heart, the rest of the city is weaker. But like any heart, if it is not taken care of it will fail. My father and his associates envisaged this facility as the shot that is needed to ensure that the people here today can be healthy and not held back from their full potential simply by lack of suitable healthcare options."


Luna's script continues for a few minutes with her growing in confidence and her pretty warmth being lapped up by the more malleable members of the crowd, just as her father had planned.



OOC information

The company sub has information on how Tsubaki operates and how they are perceived Tsubaki Medical. They are not openly evil, and their staff are known to do great things even if the company itself might be the medical bogeyman, so going total bloodbath riot should be avoided.

At this exact moment, Luna is mid-speech and my next post will have her finish it or at least try to. There are other medical electives from various companies on the stage or milling about in conversation amongst the security. There are civilian well-wishers in the crowd and most of the people openly protesting have been pushed to the fringes by the police like with any protest of this type.

If anyone wants to confront the people on stage, the people who planned this are much less naïve than Luna so will have prepared a ring of steel to protect their rich charges. So feel free to enjoy doing what your character does but bear that fact in mind.
 
Today was a rather unremarkable day. Most of them were since the teenager had found school feeling more like a prison sentence since she'd been unceremoniously relieved of her financial standing. Weekends were the one bright spot, bookending endless days of balancing classes she no longer felt as driven to achieve in with whichever temperament she'd go home to after it all. Sometimes she just felt like getting on her bike and driving away from it all.

Some people made a life that way, she'd heard. Some people lost their life that way, too.

Watson seemed as far away as Lace dared to venture. The clinic opening hadn't been on her radar immediately, only when she heard the name Rothschild over the radio did the event seem to insist on her attendance. She revved the bike with a fervor that her teachers would have demanded for themselves had they spotted her. Another bonus for having weekends, Lace decided as she parked her bike and slipped off to join the crowd.

It was just her luck that the darling of the Tsubaki empire, and a couple years ahead of her in school rankings and years, Luna Rothschild was making the address. The crooked grin wore itself on her face as the green-haired teen found her way near the front of the crowd, catching parts of the senior's speech over the idle grumblings of the people around her. Her people, from the sounds of it. Lace folded her arms, feeling more at home in a while among others who voiced their complaints about the insurance multi-corp.

"Great pride? Since when does she even know what a clinic does?" Lace commented, only loud enough for those around her to hear. She felt emboldened when they chuckled and grinned at the remark, people who didn't even know her name were agreeing with her. Did they know she was far younger than them? Maybe it didn't matter.

"Kinda funny she talks about heart when her dad's Corp doesn't have one." Now she was actually getting a little riled up, much like the throng of protesters around her. Lace was starting to take notice of their signs and expressions, some of them looked far more pissed off than she was to be standing in front of a monument to an insurer's greed. She raised her voice, maybe a few more heads would hear her reason for standing among them today. "My dad's an addict because of them, they wouldn't pay for the treatment that would have spared him a ton of pain."

That one seemed to make even more of an impact. Lace could already hear a couple others shouting more than just agreement. It was surprising how many life stories could be told in just a few words, and just how horrible one Corp could be treating the people of this, as her schoolmate at the podium had put it, beautiful city.

It would have been enough to make a girl pissed off at the world, if she hadn't been already.
 



Location Watson
Time of day 1300hrs
Weather sunny with a wintery chill



As Luna continued to speak she began noticing that more people were shouting and actively heckling her before, the suits on stage seemed to be changing their demeanour too and when she came to the end of a paragraph she paused for breath and looked around trying to gauge what was happening. Sure there was a large number of happy people here for healthcare reasons but she could feel something simmering.

Where was she... she looked back at the prompter to find her place again. "With the introduction of this facility, Tsubaki can show the people of Watson just how much it cares and..."

"Bullshit!!" a voice right next to @Lace rang out across the crowd and stopped the blonde in her tracks again.

"How much it cares and how much it can do for you, the wonderful and beautiful people of this city."

"Ha! Beautiful my ass." There was a ripple of laughter around amongst the crowd who would likely see the compliment as a sign of detachment, not the friendly gesture it was meant to be.

Luna was so confused, she had not expected this kind of reaction and had not been briefed on it. She saw the end of her speech coming and would be relieved when she could leave the stage.

Lace would feel an elbow on her side to encourage her own comments "Someone should slap that smile on that silly girl's face right?" he said to the younger teenager, egging her onward. The crowd were moving and there was beginning to be more and more boos and jeers towards Miss Rothschild as she completed her speech.



 
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@Luna Rothschild @Lace

Hai Ma reclined in his chair at the café's periphery, inhaling the blend of synthetic coffee and the distant hum of drones above. His gaze shifted to the gathering crowd of people from all walks of life some with severe cybernetics and many more with hidden ones beneath clothes and other accessories.
The atmosphere within Watson District was grim, marked by protest against the encroaching influence of Tsubaki Medical, a medical conglomerate who held sway not only within Night City but in other regions such as Asia.
He held no animosity towards the corporate world, in contrast to many others in the city, as his family had served as Corporate Executives in Japan until they tragically succumbed to poisoning at a press conference. This incident left him with minimal support until he was rescued by a passing pirate fleet at one of the numerous shipping ports, which subsequently became his new family.
Hai treasured these memories, reflecting on them with affection even as he navigated his own modest career as an executive, having acquired a noodle company in partnership with his friend Muramoto Teruo.
The Piazza buzzed with energy as Luna Rothschild, the young face of Tsubaki, prepared to address the crowd. Hai could see her adjusting her red dress, a stark contrast to the grim reality many of her future patients faced.
He took a sip of his drink, the bitterness of the brew echoing his thoughts. How could someone so sheltered understand the struggles of the people before her? The placards waved above the heads of the protestors—messages scrawled in bold letters, "Healthcare for Profit is Still a Crime!" and "We Won't Be Your Experiments!".
He had heard many stories from customers in the alleys of Night City: families crushed under the weight of medical debt and lives ruined by the very systems designed to help, it was a facade unlike any other.
As Luna stepped onto the platform, the crowd's murmurs mingled with the distant sounds of traffic. She began her speech, her voice amplified yet distant, like a ghostly echo of corporate promises.
"People of Watson," she said, and Hai watched as the crowd's mood ebbed and flowed with her words. Her charm was undeniable, but so was the skepticism etched on the faces of those who had suffered.
The protestors, though peaceful for now, were a powder keg waiting for a spark.
 
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