Chapter Text
On Friday, Shane got to the office as usual at 8AM sharp and after his usual routine of bringing Rose her caramel macchiato and chatting with her for a few minutes, he sat at his desk and began writing the article on the forest occupation. He had sent emails with questions to the office of the minister of transport and was pleased to see that there was an answer in his inbox.
The article came surprisingly easy to him, easier than writing summaries of hours of parliament discussions. For the first time in forever, Shane wasn’t bored to death while writing an article.
Even though he had forgotten to take notes of the majority of the interview with Wolfbird, he remembered most of what the activist had said.
What Shane couldn’t wrap his mind around was the fact that his experience with the squatters was not at all what police and the minister of transport had described. All of his encounters with them had been nice and he had really enjoyed talking to Wolfbird. He couldn’t really imagine the man being aggressive or dangerous. And they lived off of the support from the locals, surely the locals wouldn’t support them if they were dangerous.
But the police wouldn’t lie, would they? He knew that the minister might lie, politicians lied all the time, but police?
When it was time to grab lunch with Hayden and Rose, he was almost finished with the article. It wasn’t as neutral as the Prophet’s standard but he had included the police warning, just to be safe.
“So, how was your trip to see the criminals?”, Rose asked after they were seated at a table in their favorite Syrian restaurant.
“Great”, Shane answered at the same time Hayden said “Horrible”
Rose raised her eyebrows in confusion.
Shane sighed “They were actually pretty nice and we had a great talk. And we were really impressed by the treehouses”
“You only say that because this arrogant prick was flirting with you the entire time”, Hayden snapped.
Rose shot Shane a questioning look that Shane chose to ignore.
“And you only say that because you couldn’t behave. I was afraid you would get us kicked out”, Shane snapped back and after a short pause he added “And he’s not an arrogant prick”
Hayden rolled his eyes “I cannot believe you Shane. You‘re a journalist, you talk to politicians all the time but you let yourself get lured in by some communist or whatever they call themselves-“
“Anarchists”, Shane interrupted him
“Fine. Anarchists”, and Hayden spat out the word anarchist like it was a bug that just flew in his mouth.”What ever, point is: He thinks he’s something better for this whole ‘saving the forest’ shit. But he’s not. I’ll give you that the treehouses did look impressve, but how can they even believe that they save any trees when they are putting nails and screws in the trees with their treehouses.”
Shane shrugged “I was thinking about going there again, I can ask them.”
Hayden’s mouth flew open in shock. “You were thinking what?! You cannot be serious Shane, you cannot-“
“Alright you boys. Enough with forest occupation banter,.”, Rose interrupted him. “I want to talk about my new favorite TV show. I told you about it Shane, the one with the hockey players”
Shane nodded and silently thanked her for the topic change. But the look on her face told him that she would definetely want to talk about this later when Hayden wasn’t there.
Rose went on a rant about this Show, but Shane didn’t really listen. The thing was, yes, Wolfbird had been flirting with him, that was an undeniable fact. And yes, Shane was a bit flattered by that and he genuine enjoyed talking with him. But Hayden didn’t have to be such a dick about it. Shane was still a professional journalist and would definetely not fall for a guy who’s real name he didn’t even know and who’s face he’d never seen, just because the guy was nice to him.
And no, Shane had actually not thought about going back there, he had just said that to provoke Hayden. But now he thought he could actually go back there. He was interested in how the activists lived and he wanted to see more of their treehouses. There would be no harm in going back there and bring them some donations. Maybe they would even open up to him more if he went there not as a journalist but as a supportive person.
“You still have to send me the pictures you took”, Shane reminded Hayden when they were back at the office.
“Yeah, yeah”, Hayden said as he waved Shane off and went back to his desk.
Five minutes later, he had the pictures in his inbox. Of course Hayden had also sent the pictures he had taken without permission, Shane made sure to only add a picture of the tower and the tree of life into the document, finished the article and sent it off.
For the first time in for-ever he was able to leave work early. Having decided to drive back to the forest tomorrow and deliver some donations, Shane stopped to buy some canned and preserved food on his way home. -Before he got home he stopped at the store and bought canned and preserved food. He would drive back to the forest tomorrow and leave them some donations, he had decided.
—-
Wolfbird hadn’t expected to see Hollander again. He was just an other journalist that came to ask questions and would leave again.
And journalists came by often these days. At some point the work group for public relations had decided that they would have to talk to all the newspapers now if they wanted people to see that they were not just chaotic criminals.
Wolfbird didn’t know if that campaign was working, but he had tried his best to wrap them around his finger. Flirting with Hollander had maybe been a bit too much but Wolfbird hadn’t been able to stop himself at the sight of his freckles and almond eyes.
And then Hollander had asked about those stupid vehicles, like all the journarlistsasked about the stupid vehicles. There was a silent consensus around the forest not to talk about them and Wolfbird was annoyed by the question – especially after opening up about the dangers they were facing and how bad last years eviction had been. So he snapped and stopped the interview early. He was sure that wouldn’t look good and that Hollander would write something about it.
So no, Wolfbird had not expected to see Hollander again, but when he rappelled down from Irina in the morning a couple days after Hollander‘s visit, he was surprised to see a familiar head with dark brown hair coming towards the barrio.
Since Wolfbird was the only one in Oaktown at the moment who had declared himself willing to talk to press, he made sure to quickly unlock the carabiners from his Prusik and his rescue eight as he arrived at the ground and walked towards him before Hollander could bother anyone else. He didn’t bother getting out of his climbing harness so the metall jangled loudly as he walked.
“The stuffy journalist from Montreal”, he said as he stopped in front of him. „You have more questions for your article?”
“No it’s, uhm..”, Hollander answered as he scratched his neck. Why waas this guy nervous? “You said you needed preserved food… uhm, eviction food you called it? So I brought some.”
Woldbird scrunched his eyebrows “You brought us food?”
“Uhm, yes… I have some in my backpack but there is more in my car. I might need help carrying it here.”
Wolfbird was surprised but he tried to not let it show. He had thought that he had scared Hollander off with his excessive flirting and the abrupt ending of the interview but here Hollander was with donations for the forest and the up coming eviction.
“We need wheelbarrow?” he asked
Hollander shifted on his feet “We might need more than one.”
Now, Wolfbird was really surprised. “Let me check”, he said and turned back towards the barrio. On the way, he wiggled himself out of his harness and clipped a carabiner into the still hanging Prusik on the climbing rope that hung from one of the trees that Irina was built in, leaving his harness under the treehouse.
They usually stashed their wheelbarrows next to the tower and he was glad to see that people had actually tidied up for once and there were two wheelbarrows waiting there. Under the tower next to the fire pit sat Hase, who was just about to start a fire.
“Hase , come. We have donation we have to carry”, Wolfbird told him.
Hase let out a yawn. “Donation? Before coffee? Wolfbird, it’s very early, I just woke up.”
“Come”, Wolfbird said firmly but surely.
Hase let out a sigh and stood up “You guys are gonna kill me at some point”
Wolfbird smirked “Probably yes, unless cops don’t do it.”
Wolfbird showed Hollander where he could empty his backpack and on their way they went. Hollander with his backpack and Wolfbird and Hase with a wheelbarrow each.
On their way they started talking.
“So, my colleague, Hayden Pike”, Shane said as they walked. Wolfbird had to force himself not to roll his eyes at the sound of that name. Pike had been fucking annoying when they had visited the other day “he was wondering about the treehouses and how you probably put screws in the trees, so I promised to ask about it.”
Now, Wolfbird really rolled his eyes. Even a blind dove could see that there were no screws in those trees.
“We don’t”, Hase explained patiently “we use special rope – polypropylene to be exact – and knots to attach the beams to the trees. And we put pieces of wood between the rope and the tree for bark protection. We try to cause minimal damage to the trees.”
„Really? But is that actually safe? Some of your treehouses are very high up what if the knots losen?“
„No treehouse ever fell down, Hollander“, Wolfbird chuckled „We know what we are doing“
Hollander nodded „Thanks for the explanation, Uhm… I’m sorry I didn’t catch your name.“
„It’s Hase“, Hase supplied
„Hase? As in the German word for rabbit?“
Hase nodded enthusiastically. Happy that someone got his reference. „You know german?“
Wolfbird wasn’t so sure if it was smart from Hase, who was from Switzerland to give hints about where he came from with his forest name, but Wol wasn’t one to judge forest names. Especially because his name was just a stupid anectode of a time when he was a bit stupid.
„What does Wolfbird mean?“, Hollander asked.
Nope. Wolfbird was not doing that. He didn’t need some Journalist to make fun of him.
„I’m not giving out private information to snobby journalist. I’m sorry.“
„No, it’s okay. And I’m not snobby or stuffy or whatever you call me.“
Wolfbird grinned under his mask „Ah yes, is very modest to begin mail to a bunch of chaotic anarchists with `dear ladies and gentlemen`“
Abashed, Hollander‘s face turned red, his freckles disappearing under the blush and Wolfbird instantly regretted making fun of him.
„I’m sorry. I should not have mocked you. You bring us food and I am making fun of you. Is not nice. And not smart, you will write bad about us now.“
Hollander’s smile returned, which was a look on his face that Wolfbird definitely preferred.
„It’s fine.“, he answered and then he let out a small laugh „Yeah, that was stupid probably. I’m used to sending mails to politicians, not to chaotic anarchists. And don’t worry, the article is already finished and I didn’t write bad about you.“
They kept talking on the way to the car. Ilya and Hase told Hollander a bit about what it was like living in the forest, Hase told Hollander about the Banner he started drawing yesterday and they talked about the highway and more about what kinds of donations they needed. Wolfbird really enjoyed talking with Hollander. He seemed kind and smart and not at all as stiff as it had seemed ar first impression.
He even thought that it was too bad they had Hase with them. Wolfbird would have loved to talk to Hollander alone, if only just to flirt with him some more.
„Holy shit, did you rob the store or something?“, Wolfbird asked as Hollander opened the trunk of his car when they arrived there.
The whole trunk was full with canned and preserved food, beef jerky, granola bars and even different fruit juices.
„No. I mean, you said that you needed… eviction food you called it? And since there’s so many camps I thought you might need a lot of it. I can give the rest to charity if it’s too much.“
„No, no, it’s great. We will need it. Thank you, Hollander.“, Wolfbird reassured him .
Wolfbird really wanted to give him a hug, but he didn’t want to take it too far with him. Hollander seemed to be easily flustered.
They quickly filled up Hollander’s ackpack and the wheelbarrows and headed back to the barrio.
When they arrived, there were already a few people under the tower and the fire was lit. Everyone quickly pulled up their masks when they saw that Wolfbird and Hase had a stranger with them.
Woldbird invited Hollander to join them around the fire and drink some coffee, but Hollander quickly declined, mumbled something about his routine already being broken and left.
And Wolfbird found himself being sad about the fact that now, he was surely never going to see Hollander again. Hollander had written his article and had brought his donations, Montreal was too far for him to become a regular supporter and he had no reason to come back. His sudden departure didn’t feel reassuring, but Woldbird hoped that he managed to win the journalist over.
It's time to introduce you to Irina, formally known as PowerBottom. I chose this treehouse because... Let's say I knew this one pretty well.
As you might have suspected PowerBottom has already been destroyed by cops, like all the structures I'm sharing here because they are no longer important, have already been posted on the internet and cops already know how they looked like from every angle.
Next chapter I'm going to give you some links as sources but for this one you'll have to do with some pictures of a very nice treehouse