Gary Nieves
<infobox>
<title source="name"><default>Gary Nieves</default></title>
<image source="Image"></image> <image source="image"></image> <group><header>Basic Information</header> <label>Civilian Name</label> <label>Aliases</label> <label>Gender</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Death</label> <label>Age</label><default>Unknown</default> <label>Post-timeskip</label> <label>Ward start</label> <label>Relations</label> <label>Family</label></group> <group><header>Professional Status</header> <label>Occupation</label> <label>Classification</label> <label>Unique Features</label> <label>Alignment</label>
<label>Status</label><format><label>Location</label> <label>Teams</label> <label>Previous Team(s)</label> <label>Base of Operations</label></group> <group><header>First Appearance</header> <label>Worm Debut</label> <label>Ward Debut</label></group> </infobox>
Gary Nieves was a political organizer and mayoral candidate on Earth Gimel.<ref>Mr. Nieves, another prospective mayor, though he didn’t have the footing the others did, his chances were better than Ms. Kiley’s. - Flare Interlude 2</ref>
Personality
Nieves was skeptical of parahumans and viewed them negatively, as "wolves" that unpowered humans were trapped with.<ref>Nieves didn’t sound casual. “It’s one more thing. Ninety-nine times out of a hundred, it’s the parahumans. It’s wolves people like me are trapped in a cage with, and they’re gathering into packs and reverting to their feral programming.” - Interlude; Citrine</ref> He opposed having parahumans in any position of power over unpowered humans.<ref>“These wolves killed billions,” Gary Nieves said. “I don’t think we can afford to give them more power over us. We don’t have that much left to spare.” - Interlude; Citrine</ref> He also advocated for an organized resettlement of Earth Bet as a major part of his political platform. <ref>“I serve a dwindling base. Every day that passes that we don’t go back to Bet to rebuild is a day I lose the faith of my supporters.” - Interlude; Citrine</ref> Nieves had an extreme distaste for authority figures who weren't capable of competent leadership.<ref>When he’d been in fourth grade, an abysmal teacher had left him so stressed out that he’d gotten an ulcer. It was the kind of person he was. He could remember the ambient pain across his stomach, the distended way he’d felt, as if the stress had gathered inside him and was stretching his skin, and he could remember the acid taste in his mouth. That teacher and that experience had shaped him, driving home a distaste for authority figures who couldn’t lead. - Interlude; Gary</ref>
Relationships
Nieves participated in several informal meetings with the other mayoral candidates, including Jeanne Wynn and Sierra Kiley. At one meeting, he met with the representatives from Earth Cheit, where he was skeptical of Cheit's arrangement to supply Earth Gimel in exchange for "goodwill"<ref>“They’ve been giving us supply for nothing?” Nieves asked, raising his voice. “You idiots. You’ve profited off of their so-called generosity, but you’ve been selling us out.” - Flare Interlude 2</ref>. After quitting the mayoral race, he was still willing to work with Mortari and with John Druck's organized labor in order to maintain the portal network.<ref>The ‘heroes’ did their own thing. Other factions were serving their own leaders. Druck’s labor, Mortari reporting to Wynn. That left a share of maybe twenty or thirty percent who were citizen volunteers, serving under him. - Interlude; Gary</ref>
Appearance
Nieves was middle-aged and portly.<ref>Gary Nieves was a little on the portly side, and if he wasn’t at least forty, he certainly looked it. Otherwise, the man looked after himself and portrayed a good face to his constituency. - Interlude; Citrine</ref>
History
Early-Ward
As a mayoral candidate, Nieves participated in the informal governance of The City, attending meetings three to five days a week.<ref>Every time I come, three to five days a week, something new. - Interlude; Citrine</ref>. He eventually withdrew from the meetings, and from the mayoral race, rather than work with Jeanne Wynn.<ref>“I’m done,” Mr. Nieves said. “You don’t need to worry about me anymore. I’m not a general who can handle this war that seems so inevitable, and I’m not someone who can come up with computer programs that break something this chaotic into something deceptively elegant-” Interlude; Citrine</ref>
Post-Fallen fall
After withdrawing from the mayoral race, he concentrated on staffing the Earth Bet portal with his followers, totaling twenty to thirty percent of the work force there. He still intended to try recolonizing Earth Bet.<ref> Twenty to thirty percent of the people at this station were people he’d recruited or people who worked alongside him. Ostensibly, they were largely in support of recolonizing Earth B. - Interlude; Gary</ref>
Nieves was present when the Gimel-Bet portal was attacked by an unknown force which killed many of the workers and refugees.<ref>Things were still creeping forward when a sharp sound cracked through the air. His first instinct was to think it was something like the truck jackknifing. A mechanical failure, a backfire-
He heard the screams. The parahuman that had been perched atop a truck hit the ground, luminescent purple blood splattering to the ground around him. - Interlude; Gary</ref>. After Dragon and Defiant repulsed the attack, he criticized both them and the Shepherds for their handling of the attack.<ref>“It’s not where we are overall, but it’s where we were that moment. You want to open a dialogue, but- you weren’t here. The Shepherds weren’t here. In my limited interactions with parahumans, I keep on noticing- over and over again, even the good ones, we’ll hear you say that you forget our names, or we all sort of ‘blend into each other’. Again and again. There’s a disconnect, where we don’t even rate.” - Interlude; Gary</ref>
A few days after the attack, Nieves was approached by Erwin Daeyoung, who offered him evidence that his fellow mayoral candidates Jeanne Wynn and Sierra Kiley were both associates of Tattletale.<ref>Gary looked. It was Sierra Kiley, one of the other past contenders for the mayorship. She too had stepped down. In the picture, she stood talking with the leader of the Undersiders and Citrine- Jeanne Wynn.
Gary nodded. “The game was rigged.” - Interlude; Gary</ref> Daeyoung attempted to recruit him on behalf of an unknown faction, proposing that Gimel should accept a state of vassalage rather than rulership by parahuman criminals.<ref>“Think, Gary. What do these other Earths want? Why do they threaten war and pick at our weaknesses with increasing viciousness? They want the territory. A world of resources, and a network of portals.”
“And?”
“We give it to them. We promise leadership without parahumans in charge, stacking the deck. We turn to an established government we’re on friendly terms with and we invite them in. We become a vassal state.”
“Who are you thinking of?” Gary asked.
“Nobody. That would be a decision for you to make without my input. If I told you one or the other, you would think I’m working on their behalf. There are options. It’s an idea that takes some getting used to, but if you’re thinking you’d like to go home… perhaps a middle-ground solution would be to open communications and borders with a world that has hints of our old amenities and culture.” - Interlude; Gary</ref> The result of this recruitment attempt remains to be seen.
References
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