Work Text:
You are a little wary of the city this late at night, especially in the dark alleyways, but it’ll be fine.
You have an abandoned warehouse to get to for a meeting of a radical political society that would obviously be frowned upon in the daylight by conventional authority, and things like safety kind of go out the window when you’re taking a risk this huge.
You approach the address someone had whispered to you a few days ago. It seems... unmarked, which doesn’t bode well.
You check your watch. 10:20. Ten minutes until the meeting is supposed to start.
There’s a little door by the side of the building. You knock politely.
The door screeches open. Is no one there? It’s dark inside...
Suddenly someone has you in a lock, pointing a gun at you. How did they sneak up behind-?
“What are the Beatles’ names?” they hiss furiously through some sort of voice modulator.
“Th-th-the Beatles? You just put a gun to my head and asked me to n-name the-”
“Answer the fuckin’ question! What- are- the Beatles’ names??”
You take a deep, shaky breath. “Uh, there’s four- Ringo Starr, uhh... John Lennon... Paul something- Paul McCartney...? The fourth...”
You rack your brains, but the other one’s name is evading you like a dropped bar of soap. You can’t count them off on your fingers because your hands are held behind your back.
“Th-the fourth one! I don’t know what his name is DON’T KILL ME PLEASE!”
“Yeah, yeah, keep your voice down, alright? You’re fine. You passed the test correctly.”
You are released from your hold, and with it a huge breath.
“What do you mean, uh, correctly?”
Your assailant walks around and reveals themself. Not much to reveal. Most of them is covered by a black hoodie with matching black mask.
“In this day and age, no one actually knows those guys. I mean, it’s been centuries since they were active. So that’s one of our tests.”
They laugh a bit.
“The only people going to these meetings who could rattle off all four names instantly are the ones who have specifically put in an effort to study human culture. In other words, ya know, the imposters. You clearly haven’t, so... welcome to the Human Independence Front, pal. I hope I can trust you.”
You nod solemnly. The Overlords stop at nothing to keep eyes in the human population they rule.
Thank FUCK you had only barely scraped by in your human study course.