34th Vipers Comms: Believer

## Believer

### Description

Specialist Vincent Vaughn, a Praetorian Guard who defected to the 34th Vipers, explains the processes by which Skyler Brooks keeps a hold over her followers.

### Speaker(s)

Vincent Vaughn John Clark

**Vaughn:** I don't understand what talking about this will accomplish. The past is the past.

**Clark:** Vaughn, you're the only one of us who was a True Son before this. You've been close to her; you know how she works. And the fact of the matter is, despite what some of the others might think, killing every True Son isn't going to end them. It'll only make them martyrs; it'll inspire more people to follow Brooks.

**Clark:** If we have any hope of winning this war, a big part of it is going to rely on knowing how people are being brought into Brooks' ideology, how she keeps a hold on them, convinces them to follow her. If we know her methods, we can find a way to counter them. Bring some True Sons back from the brink. And no one else here knows more about that than you.

**Vaughn:** *(deep sigh)* Fine.

**Clark:** Thank you. Why don't we start with the beginning? Can you tell me what brought you to her in the first place?

**Vaughn:** It's...it's a hard thing to explain if you haven't met her. She has this...way of making you believe her. Of getting you to trust her. It's something in her words, I think.

**Clark:** Can you elaborate?

**Vaughn:** She makes you feel loved. She makes you feel heard. Understood. Like you truly belong, like you finally found a family. In a world where it's so easy, even now, to be swept aside, to feel like you don't matter, to feel like no one sees you or cares about what you're going through, she manages to convince you that she's the only one who truly values you, truly loves you.

**Clark:** You're saying she preys on the vulnerable?

**Vaughn:** I wouldn't put it like that, exactly. It's more that she has a way of breaking down your walls, getting you to tell her everything that you've kept buried. All your lingering feelings, all the things you've felt but had never been able to express. Kinda like a motherly figure. And when you do, she always knows exactly what to say to make you feel better. To make you feel safe. The world is so chaotic, especially now. Regardless of what she's done, regardless of whatever propaganda you might put out there, when you're living in a difficult time, there's a great appeal to someone who comes in and says, *"I alone can fix it all."*

**Vaughn:** She doesn't need to rule by fear. Tyrants so often rely on keeping the population in line with torture, secret police, death squads. That works for a time, but the moment the people see a crack in the armor, when their anger and pain at what you've put them through overrides their fear, it all comes crashing down. Brooks doesn't need that. If you never want to leave, if you feel you have a purpose and a reason to live, if you feel you have rulers who care about you, listen to you, understand what you're going through, you have no reason to resist.

**Clark:** Are you saying the NAE is a good thing?

**Vaughn:** I'm saying in a world where even before the outbreak it could be very hard for some people to find a real sense of comfort, safety, a reliable food source, access to medical care, and now those problems have increased tenfold, they're willing to make compromises. People are afraid. They're afraid for their children. For their partners. They're afraid that when you walk out that door in the morning, there's a good chance they might not come home. They're afraid that a simple cold or a sprained ankle might be a death sentence. And so, when the True Sons come along and offer food, medicine, safety within their walls...most people are going to overlook a lot of things if it means they can have that sense of stability again.

**Clark:** I believe anyone who willingly sacrifices their freedom to live under a genocidal maniac are either morally weak or a spineless coward.

**Vaughn:** They're not the problem! It's because no one else is offering them a better alternative! What are the 34th Vipers offering that people can't find in the NAE, huh? Freedom? Do you think that matters to the father of a dying girl? Do you think a good father would choose a vague notion of "freedom" over the group that can provide the medicine his daughter needs? Ideologies don't matter to most people compared to what you can provide them. In a world where's there's gunfights in the streets of most major cities, where disease is still rampant, where even finding clean water and stable shelter is a difficult task, what the NAE offers is far more appealing than what groups like the Division, or the Commonwealth, or the Vipers can give them.

**Clark:** It sounds like you're still indoctrinated.

**Vaughn:** For the love of God! You're not getting it! Listen to my words. You wanted to know how people get brought into the True Sons? You wanted to know how to counter it? You need to offer them something more than vague platitudes of "freedom" and "democracy". You need to provide them with a better alternative. You need to give them a reason to turn away their offer, you need to show them that the NAE isn't their only option. Because if you don't, if you only focus on destroying the NAE without offering the people something better, you're not going to be seen as liberators fighting for the people, freeing them from oppression and populism and whatever bullshit term you read in a psychology textbook. People are going to hate you! They are going to fight you! That isn't because they're all some sort of zealous delusional mobs like you claim. It's because you don't offer them anything! It's because you insult them and see them as insane and irredeemable instead of seeing them as people! It's because your entire argument centers around critiquing what Brooks has done when *you* are guilty of as just many sins as she is! That is why the True Sons are winning and the Vipers are losing!

**Clark:** Enough! I've heard all I need to hear. You're dismissed, Vaughn. And for the record, I'd watch your tone around a superior.

**Vaughn:** *(bitterly)* Yes, sir.