monsters | riverdale

The Town

Veronica stands from her seat, "If I may. Babylonium's employees are all citizens of Riverdale who are paid a generous living wage. Also, we have the potential to bring in out-of-towners. Guests who would spend fresh cash across all of our businesses."

"Nice try, Veronica, but we all know who truly profits from a casino. It's its owners. And I mean, when is the last time a Lodge has done anything good for this town?"

"What the hell does that mean?" the casino-owner frowns deeply.

"I think you know exactly what that means," Alice deadpans.

"Well, Mickey came back to help us save the school. She's not involved in anything illegal," Toni states. It's her way of trying to defend her friend, who has the unfortunate luck of having the Lodge last name.

Alice mutters, "That you know of."

Archie stands next, wanting to end the casino debate. "Can we cut to the damn chase here? Who wrote that article?"

No one fesses up.

"Oh, come on. Whoever it is, if you're going to attack our town, at least have the guts to own it," the fiery red head presses.

"It was me. I wrote it." A man in a purple suit rises from his seat. "I wrote the article," he admits with his posh accent. "I...I know I should have had the courage to put my name on it. I guess I was just concerned that if you saw the name Pickens on the byline, then, you'd dismiss my words out of hand because of what my great-great grandfather did."

Toni narrows her eyes at him. "You mean a genocide against my ancestors? Yeah, that's a strike against you."

Mickey remembers the riot the Serpents conducted in high school and the aftermath of that. General Pickens' head being chopped off, Mickey siding with her father and blaming Jughead, and Jughead sleeping with Betty because of that.

"I'm sorry, you've been living here, what, four days?" Archie's trying to cast doubt on Percival's opinion of the town. "And we're supposed to care what you think?"

"Well, sometimes it takes a recent arrival to see what's really wrong with the town," Percival states.

"Yeah, well, all I see, is a Johnny-come-lately talking trash about our town without offering any real solutions."

Percival sits back down and crosses his legs. "But I do have solutions. If you're open to hearing them."

"Buddy, I'm open to resolving this outside. You and me, right now." Typical Archie Andrews.

Frank cuts in, "Okay, Archie. We do need to let Mr. Pickens speak."

"Oh, with a town that's in such dire straits as Riverdale, where do you even begin?" Percival taps his chin with his index finger to mock thinking. "I know. The homeless encampment you call 'Sketch Alley.' Poverty begets more poverty, begets drugs, begets crime, begets more crime until no one is safe."

Murmurs of agreement are soft but audible. Frankly, the lack of disagreement speaks loud as well.

"We can't just bus them out of town. And I'm sorry, but that's not who we are, and it's not what we do," Archie declares. "Riverdale takes care of their own. And the people that live in Sketch Alley, are citizens of this town just as much as all of us."