revised intro

bg = newsfeed showing riots

(narrator, NVL mode) Once again, the TV was showing more images of the protests that had been taking place at the city center every night for the past few weeks. Large groups of people smashed windows, threw rocks and chanted political slogans while clashing with a cordon set up by the riot police in front of the Senate. The crowd charged at the fence again and again, trying to bring it down, while the police tried to disperse them with a water canon and rubber bullets. It didn't look as if the battle would end soon, and every charge got more and more violent, leaving a trail of unconscious people behind each attack. I felt as my eyes were glued to the screen.

bg = dining room, night, lit
ADV mode

(sis) -Your food is getting cold.
(sis) You haven't been eating much lately. Can I have it?
Oh, um, sorry. I must have been daydreaming. I keep getting distracted a lot lately.
(sis) -Mom called earlier... She said their flight got cancelled. They don't know when they'll get back. Are they gonna be ok, stuck at the airport? They’ve been gone forever...

a) Yeah, the airport’s not the worst place to be stuck at, right? They’ll be back in time for your birthday.

b) Probably. Things’ll be alright I guess.

(sis) response a) You think so? That's great!

Your sister has gained hope. (+1)

(sis) response b) Uhm... ok. I hope they get back soon.

(sis) You're worried about what's going on over there, aren't you?
-Yes. I've never seen something like this before.
(sis) I think it's normal by now, heh... it's been like this pretty much every day for the past few months. That's why the school started summer vacations so early. They said the streets were getting too dangerous.
-Do you know what started all this? We hardly ever hear about this on the news back home, but I try to keep up to date.
(sis) Sorry... I don't really know. But I can tell most of those people aren't from around here. They must have come from the hinterland, where the large plantations are. Dad used to tell me that every year the monsoon season always causes trouble for them, and they travel to the capital to look for jobs.
-What about the navy mutiny earlier this year?
-I don't know about that. Sorry.

bg = troops

NVL mode
(narrator) Although my sister didn't know, a lot of particularly bad things had been happening that year. The armed forces had had to deal with several mutinies, which came as a shock. If people couldn’t depend on the men who were meant to defend us, who could we trust? In the worst incident so far, the 700-men crew of the country's flagship refused to leave port. Some of the conscripts that participated were later interviewed on the TV a few times, and they complained about mistreatment, lack of pay and poor living conditions. There was a lot of discomfort in the armed forces, and even though incidents were resolved quickly the government never really recovered from the media backlash. People were getting more scared as the days passed, and tried to stay inside as much as possible.

bg = dining room, night, lit
ADV mode

-Well, it's not like you can blame those people right? My friends tell me that it's getting more and more difficult to find jobs in the city.
(sis) But I'll be fine right? the teacher said that we won't have to worry about it if we go to college.
-Yeah... about that.

bg = generic riot
NVL mode

(narrator) The truth was, even though college graduates had it easier, finding a job was not a walk in a park. The recent spike in tuition fees didn't help, and a lot of people felt robbed of their equal chances. There were frequent fights between the police and the students in campus, which usually sent a lot of people to hospital. Against their best interests, the government insisted on mandatory military service, giving a lot of these young people the training necessary to cause trouble.

bg = dining room, night, lit
ADV mode

-You shouldn't worry so much. Until a few years ago you didn't need a degree to find a job... remember when most of our neighbors' parents worked in the factories on the other side of the city?
(sis) Ehh? What factories?
-Heh. You're too young to remember, but we could see the pillars of smoke from the balcony. I think that was way back when we still shared a room.
(sis) That must have been like... 8 years ago, right? Before you moved away with mom.

bg = pillars of smoke
NVL mode

(narrator) I remembered that day clearly. The entire class was in upheaval. Although I don't remember exactly what caused it, the night before there had been some big announcement on the TV, and the next day everyone was talking about how a lot of factories and companies would have to close. I think it might have been related to something about tariffs, or a new law, or maybe something else, like a spike in the price of some raw material. I was only 12 back then, and I didn't really understand what was going on.

bg = foreclos
NVL mode

I think that's when things started to go downhill. I'd go as far as saying that it was the day the fuse was lit. It took me a long time to realize what was going on, but for a lot of people it was getting harder to pay for living costs, and the streets were filling with a frightening amount of homeless. A lot of streets and parts of town were becoming slums, some places were so bad that most normal folk wouldn’t risk traveling through them.  We had pretty much imposed our own curfew - we were too afraid to go out at night, with things as they were. That's when my mother decided to move away to the neighboring country of _________ (note:  we can always reword this to avoid having to use any names, and keep the situation vague and abstract) which had always been considered more stable, and getting a job there was not as difficult, but their immigration laws only favored those with higher education. Despite this, my father refused to go and stayed behind with my sister, who was still very small at the time.

bg = dining room, night, lit
ADV mode

(sis) Are you feeling ok? you're daydreaming again.
-I was just thinking, why didn't Dad want to come with us? He knew life was going to be easier there.
(sis) I used to ask him that question all the time.... I'm not really sure. He always said he had his reasons. "I'm not giving up yet" and all that.
-But, has he said anything about all the violence lately? The protests have been getting worse every day. There are rumors that the coalition government will break apart soon.
(sis) I'm not worried! That's why mom and dad sent you here.
-What were they thinking... going on a trip in times like this...

no bg change
ADV move

My sister usually has an innocent air about her, but I don‘t think she's oblivious to the problems around us. I think seeing the problems in the streets and on the TV has hardened her a little to the impending reality we might have to deal with. Maybe that's what my parents were counting on. But, I wasn't exaggerating when I told her about the growing levels of violence. A lot of government officials had resigned recently, and it was rumored that a lot of higher ups were making arrangements to leave the country, as the unrest had become completely unmanageable.
Still, I couldn't really blame them for trying to run away like that. Things had already been bad before the current government was elected. Yet, I always figured they had a responsibility to us, and if they dropped out on that, a lot of us would suffer for it. However, looking back, it was hard to blame any government in the previous ten years for this. It was too unusual. Everything had taken a literal nosedive, so people were acting rowdier and more aggressive than I had ever seen, and to be honest, I didn’t know how to react either. When a large part of the country was acting like that, how could the government deal with it without hurting a lot of people in the process, whether by accident or on purpose? In fact, maybe this whole thing had been set in motion decades before I was born and no one could have ever done anything about it. But that didn’t matter now.

NVL mode
(sis) I think all they had to do was do was take care of some papers where Mom lives... did they tell you anything?
-Nothing.
-Wait, does that mean Dad finally decided to move?
(sis) I don't know... I hope not. All my friends are here. I can't just leave them.
(sis) Don't you miss your friends?

bg = living room dark

-I'll go get some candles. Why don’t you head up to your room?
(sis) Th-the door’s locked, right?
-Yeah, don't worry about it.

sfx = footsteps

NVL mode

We were used to power cuts, but I we had never had so many. I had had to throw away a lot of good food during that week. Luckily the longest ones only lasted a couple hours at most, so I usually just waited them out and then went back to playing games or watching TV.
...
...
sfx = clock ticking

ADV mode

-I guess it's not coming back until tomorrow. Not much to do except go to bed.
-The heat isn‘t helping either. Sitting in the dark, no power for fans, or even anything to help me take my mind off of things.
-I wonder how my sister is taking this?

bg = black

...
...
(sis) <bro>! Wake up!
(sis) Can you smell that? Something is burning!
- Inside?
(sis) No, outside I think!

bg = living room

I quickly climbed out of my bed and ran downstairs. Everything was fine, but I could smell burnt plastic in the air. I was relieved to find that there weren’t any fires nearby.

-What's going on? Are you alright?
(sis) I’m ok, but I don't know what’s going on - the TV still isn’t working!

I opened a window, and looked outside.

bg = city with pillars of smoke