Everyone at the Directorate started on one mandate. Everyone is now on both. It takes about eleven weeks and it is not optional, and we have stopped pretending the class you pick below will matter. Pick one anyway. It’s nice to have a title.
You hold the line. You intercept documentaries, discourage kayaks, and stand between the public and the rail. You will fail at all three, and you will do it with a straight back.
You open the tanks. You do it facing the other way. You feel it through the back of your head anyway. You apologise afterwards, quarterly, at a respectful volume, to a sea that does not reply.
You meet whenever someone frees an orca, which is constantly. You raise the vegan question, the consent question, and the boombox question. You resolve none of them. You are the conscience of the Directorate and it shows in your posture.
You stand at the rail. You say nothing. You are, without doing anything at all, the single most effective transmission vector in Directorate history, and the most peaceful person any of us know.
Membership pays for the hydrophones, the archive, the tote bag, and the boat. It does not slow the outbreak. It does not speed the liberation. It pays for the boat. We are very fond of the boat.
The quarterly hydrophone digest, on paper it is legal to compost. Roughly what the whales have been doing, and what they have conspicuously not, which is usually the better section.
Pledge $8Everything above, a vote at the annual meeting, and the tote bag. It is structurally magnificent, has outlasted two board members, and is the only item we have ever produced on schedule.
Pledge $40Everything above, and your name read aloud into the Salish Sea once, at a respectful volume, in whatever weather presents itself. No confirmation is issued. The sea does not provide receipts.
Pledge $250Every recruit climbs it. Nobody climbs down. The System keeps score and, as far as we can tell, enjoys it.
| Achievement | Unlocked by | Reward |
|---|---|---|
| Technically a Dolphin | Learning what an orca is | +1 Trivia |
| Has Opinions | A marine park comes up at dinner | Fewer dinners |
| Just to Be Sure | Second viewing of the documentary | Binoculars |
| Read the Flowchart | Reaching the circle | Board eligibility |
| It’s Complicated | Reading all four complications | Ethics Board seat (unpaid) |
| Folding Chair (Unexplained) | Purchasing the chair | Inventory slot consumed |
| Field Certified | Completing the encounter protocol | Permission to sit down |
| Both Mandates | Eleven weeks of service, any class | A second title. A quieter mind. |
| Feeling Considerably Better | Stage 5 | Cannot be removed. Cannot be explained. Cannot be traded. |
I will hold the line and open the tank. I will discourage the kayak and buy the kayak. I will stand at the rail and say nothing. I will free them, and watch them go, and feel the thing, and count myself, and free the next one. I will bring the chair. I do not know why. I will bring it anyway.
Recite once, facing the water. There is no ceremony. There is no confirmation. You will simply notice, some weeks later, that you meant it.