The crowd wasn't originally this loud; before she had arrived, they'd actually only been talking quietly amongst themselves, curiously asking each other what their leader could be planning and why it was so important that she had them gather in an empty warehouse to explain it to them. Few had noticed the torches, lighters and lighter fluid stacked behind a hastily-built stage (she may have been powerful, but she was shorter than most of her followers and therefore had to find a way to be seen by the whole crowd). The ones who had were confused, but didn't question - they'd been around long enough to understand that explanations would come quickly and that they had no reason to try and figure it out.
When she stepped onstage, the building fell silent. She wasn't a cruel, tyrannical leader, but a kind and gentle one who only lashed out when truly angered and otherwise treated every follower she had as an equal. They saw themselves as inferior, even when she told them it was unnecessary, and yet it continued. Eventually, she gave up.
She gave the crowd a gentle smile, before opening her mouth to speak.
"Usually, I would send out a coded message to explain something important." She had no need for a microphone. "This is far more important than sending out a messenger with no real clue of what they are involved in can ever show."
The crowd hadn't even moved, she noticed. She smiled fondly and continued. "Today is the day that we take down our enemy.."
Suddenly a guitar started playing from somewhere behind her. The crowd all tilted their heads in confusion. This was new.
She started singing.
"The lion and the wolf
Old gods and the new."
She'd never done this before, and was afraid her followers would be confused, but they weren't.
"Battle of the bastards
Trying to break through
A back and forth pendulum
We can't seem to stop
Ticking like a metronome."
Some in the first few lines started nodding to the beat. Others behind started to grin. This was the effect she'd hoped for.
"Can't kill the clock
Somedays I feel like we're just symptoms of our system
Black hole, no hope
Psycho syndrome."
It started to seem as if everyone understood; the people at the very back were at least nodding, some stamping a foot onto the floor with the drum beat and the front rows were clapping to it.
"Hey, feels like we're caged animals
Looking for the antidote
To break the chains they put us in
Yeah, you can call it cynical
Maybe I'm just miserable."
Everyone was reacting in some way, by now. She noted that the first five rows had started jumping slightly, with the back ones stomping and clapping harder.
"But there's no way I'm giving in
To their lies I'm gonna fight
And put it all on the line tonight
So light the gas with some matches
Let's burn the old empire into ashes."
She pointed out of the darkened windows of the warehouse. In the near distance stood the castle in which the king resided, likely asleep and dreaming of ways to make his rule more tyrannical than it was the day before.
"Woah, woah
Let's burn it all into ashes."
She jumped, hard, landing with a resounding thud on a particularly powerful beat of the drums.
"The young man dreams while he sleeps in his bed
Death keeps an eye while he's waiting for the dead
If life is a needle then my soul is the thread."
She raised her fist, high, the other one clenched tight and remaining by her side. She let it drop and pointed from the crowd to herself on the next line.
"My mouth is the poison, my tongue is the lead
Somedays I feel like I'm just stuck in my own skin
Try to break free but I can't escape me."
This time, she gestured for the crowd to join in.
"Hey, feels like we're caged animals
Looking for the antidote
To break the chains they put us in
Yeah you can call it cynical
Maybe I'm just miserable.
But there's no way I'm giving in
To their lies I'm gonna fight
And put it all on the line tonight
So light the gas with some matches
Let's burn the old empire into ashes."
They all shouted the last line with her, anger and hatred for a cruel king expressed in a single sentence.
"Woah, woah
Let's burn it all into ashes."
The music fell quieter. She stopped shouting and so did the crowd.
"Let's turn it all into ashes
Sometimes I feel like we're just symptoms of our system
Black hole, no hope
Psycho syndrome
Psycho syndrome."
She slammed one booted foot onto the floor, encouraging everyone to join in once again.
"Hey, feels like we're caged animals
Looking for the antidote
To break the chains they put us in
Yeah you can call it cynical
Maybe I'm just miserable
But there's no way I'm giving in."
The crowd didn't even hesitate in singing with her. When she repeated her previous words again, they grew impossibly louder.
"Hey, feels like we're caged animals
Looking for the antidote
To break the chains they put us in
Yeah you can call it cynical
Maybe I'm just miserable
But there's no way I'm giving in!"
For a short second, she worried that someone might hear. Then she realised that she's the only one to have acted on her feelings toward the king.
"Woah, woah
There's no way I'm giving in!"
She ends her song on a lower, calmer voice, giving the crowd a gesture that says not to sing with her.
"Woah, woah
Let's burn it all into ashes."
