SAISON : FALL / YEAR : 2022 / PHOTOS : @tomhgn_ 

CHAPTER 1 - RESISTANCE

I wonder through the streets whilst waiting for my next client. I’ve fallen back into dealing… My good resolutions really didn’t last long. But the climate made business boom and it was too hard to resist. Resist is the word the people have been repeating non-stop for weeks now. After many attempts, the extreme right wing has finally made in to the top and the consequences were immediate: a social fracture like no other in a climate of civil war. The fatalistic are hiding in their homes, working, gaming, pinned to their beds, scrolling on their phones as if they were brain-dead. The streets aren’t the same as they used to be, they are deserted. The people you meet are misfits, a few skaters, and enraged protesters, shouting in the streets like gorillas who tip up everything and anything that’s in their way. In the distance I can hear the sirens of firetrucks, no doubt called to put out another flamed-up car or luxury boutique. The people are resisting, there may still be hope.

CHAPTER 2 - NIGHTMARE

Leaned up against the fencing of the local primary school (one of the only places I can hang out without risking getting accidently shot), I overhear the unreal story of an 8-year-old. His classmates, gathered around him, are attentive and scared. He imitates the punches, the screams and the tears of his parents and his sister. They were evicted from their home by one of the latest riot squads. No surprise, the local police welcomed the new extreme right wing's policies with open arms. Galvanized by the new measures, every day more and more restrictive, the only ones left are power-hungry racists, rooting for repression. This little lad was unlucky, his parents, Moroccan, hadn’t paid their rent in two months. He tells his classmates how he fought until the very end: plastic bow and arrows, Nerf, but that wasn't enough. He proudly shows off his arm, still covered with the bruises from the riot squad's violent grip, who sent him waltzing out of the building. Yesterday’s nightmares have become today’s reality.

CHAPTER 3 - CRUSADES

The Akrapovic exhaust, no doubt without any baffle, echoes like a deafening din. Those who were once criticized and mocked by the uneducated townsfolk have become the knights of the resistance on their metal steeds. Supported and idolized by the angry citizens, they are the only ones who can pass the police barriers, thanks to their t-max handlebars. A genuine motorized army who regularly drive straight into the constabulary like a sunny Sunday in Baltimore. The more agile ones are able to pass by the skin of their necks on their back wheels as bullets ricochet from underneath their feet. Others, foodies, use their sharp swords to serve up hundreds of pig skewers to the people, starved of justice. What could be more normal for a nationalist politic than to plunge its people back into the Middle Ages.

CHAPTER 4 - HOT CHICKS

Quickly, the riot squads were no longer enough. The protesters had become wild beasts, and the resistants no longer hesitate to fire at the squads without any warning. The government had to find a solution to maintain order without having to send its soldiers to the slaughter house. And so, in this society that was becoming more and more absurd each day, which according to me couldn’t fall any lower, sexy cop women made their entrance, hired from Instagram or in some shady strip-clubs. Ridicule had reached its highest point. Even the craziest protesters could not damage these beautiful creatures, and the more violent delinquents fell in love at first sight. With their thongs up to their armpits, the government managed to perfectly put on the frontline the stereotypes of the country's intellectual decline, waving against us a weapon we created ourselves.

CHAPTER 5 - LIQUOR STORE

The bravest store owners didn’t give into the panic. In a world where people don’t leave their homes anymore, frightened that it could cost them their lives, Amazon is king, and the more courageous local stores blend in, transforming themselves into gun shops or deal corners. Some skate shop basements have become shavy clandestine dens to keep providing gear to the only urban culture that faced this wanker's pandemic. Skate culture has survived worse: the upcoming of BMX, rollerblades, scooters, and more. It’s not some little civil war that is going to scare it.

CHAPTER 6 - REBEL

Months have passed, and what started as a simple civil rebellion has now become a true slaughter. Working-class neighborhoods are regularly bombarded to annihilate the resistance, and the last rebels have taken refuge in the sewages or the subway lines to avoid meeting their creator too early. Is this cause worth it? Is violence the best way to fight? It’s time to fall back, in order to return stronger, organize ourselves, think. There are no more men brave enough, violent enough to defeat better equipped soldiers, with their technology always more advanced. The ambient insecurity gave reason to the power in place: people are scared, asking for more and more security, no matter the cost. The brainwashing was a success, and the more docile citizens are now ready to embrace a new era, where social media, robotics and digital money will bring them a gruesome future.