Oh wow; I didn't get ANY flames or hate mail after that last chapter. And, surprisingly enough, the bulk of the commentary on its political subtext came from international readers. (Step it up Americans. Canadians and Europeans showed more interest in whats going on in our streets...that's jut embarrassing...)
On that note:
Robin For Exalt
"Dey Terk Urr Jerbs!" -South Park-
"Three cafes, two apothecaries, a salon, a jeweler, and a clothier," Sumia confirmed the list of businesses destroyed in the rioting.
"…I liked that clothier…" Lucina was going to need to find a new place to buy atrocious, polka-dot print dresses for the women of the royal family. (Sumia wondered if it would be in poor taste to celebrate that particular establishment burning to the ground)
Anna's Law (Robin in an unsolicited moment of helpfulness had hinted it would be a tactful name for Chrom's penal code reforms) had gone into effect with popular support. And there had been no further rioting since Frederick had been stripped of his knighthood (if only to placate the mobs; behind closed doors Chrom continued to insist he had done nothing deserving of a demotion to steward). But Ylisse still very much bore the scars of civil unrest.
"With order restored, there's still this business of holding my throne." Chrom considered his next move. His crisis leadership had won a fragile peace that he did not think could survive the headline that was supposed to knock Robin out of the race. Gangrel Endorses Robin for Exalt; No Comment From Plegian-Born Grandmaster would have been a hilarious way to win, but that whole plan was now on hiatus. "What are my numbers?"
"Narrowly leading Robin," Lucina had the latest polls. "Vaike's in distant third; he came out of the riots looking like he didn't know how to lead in a crisis. In a roundabout way, you got your take-down."
"…So we're right back where we started." Sumia didn't like the sound of that. She remembered the Shepherd days; Robin would back them into no-win scenarios and pull off impossible wins just for the fun of it. A Robin within a 5-point swing of taking the lead was as good as Exalt.
"We are and we aren't." Chrom mused. "I've learned how to govern and Robin's learned how to not come across as a raging bitch. We're playing a much more interesting game now."
"If this is a game, then what's your win-condition?" Sumia asked. "The Gangrel effect was going to get you there. You need something else now."
"Gangrell Effect?" Lucina blinked
"SUMIA!" Chrom couldn't have been more explicit in his don't tell anyone.
"…Oh like it matters now…you aren't going to do it…" Sumia scoffed.
"Do what?" Lucina pressed.
"Nothing. Don't worry about it." Chrom downplayed. "But I've been thinking; maybe we can get the same effect without going scorched earth and burning bridges. A strong positive endorsement to raise me up, rather than a powerful negative endorsement to knock Robin down."
"You will need a VERY strong positive endorsement to match the boom of Gangrel endorsing Robin."
"…oh my god….you didn't…" Lucina was judging him.
"Damn it Sumia." This is why Chrom couldn't tell her secrets.
"Don't damn it Sumia me; YOU should have told her in the first place!" Sumia chewed him out the way that only a wife could. "Stay focused. That plan was going to work because rednecks already think Robin is an illegal Plegian, or some such nonsense. And because Gangrel is so universally HATED that anything he endorses is worse than Hitler. Who in the world is so beloved and so identified with what people love about you that they can give you the same turn-around."
"Ummmm…Helloooo…I'm Blood of the Hero King and Champion of the Divine Dragon. Tiki."
"Oh. That's…actually a really good idea…" Sumia was shocked by how many of those Chrom seemed to be having lately.
"It's a GREAT idea," Chrom reached for a serving girl's tray and grabbed an exotic cocktail to celebrate his new-found insights. It tasted of mint leaf and tropical fruit. A foreign-looking, heavily accented serving girl that Chrom had never seen before carried the serving tray; she must have been new. "And now we only need it to beat Robin. Vaike is done; the only way he stays in this race is if an issue that gets the plebs even more riled up than knight brutality comes along and Vaike gets ahead on messaging before we get our talking points up. GODS; this drink is FANTASTIC! What's it called?"
"Es un Mojito , Senor Chrom."
"Why have I never had this before!?"
"Es nuevo to Ylisse; just come from Plegia with 10 million trabajadores." The serving girl left the room.
"That's the best news I've heard all—wait—what did she just say!?"
"These god-damn Plegians keep coming to OUR country, taking OUR jobs, and it's the Ylissean worker who's getting shafted!"
"That's right!"
"You tell 'em Vaike!"
"Ylisstol is selling us out!"
"They eat OUR food and use OUR toilets! Meanwhile there's no bread and the sewers keep backing up!" With an undereducated and bigoted electorate of old-fashioned country folk and an economy still in shambles, Vaike didn't have to be particularly articulate or charming or in command of facts for his talking points to catch on like wildfire. "Chrom don't care; fancy nobles just want cheap labor to staff their castles. Plegians sweep their halls and trim their hedges for half of what a Ylissean will work for. And ROBIN ain't gonna help ya. Robin wants MORE Plegians 'cause she knows they'll vote for her. First day I'm Exalt—I'll tell you what—Teach is gonna put up a big ol' wall and kick out all the Plegians and GET YOU YOUR JOBS BACK!"
"We like Vaike! We like Vaike!"
"…Ridiculous…" Robin had a rare moment of unfiltered, un poll-tested honesty. "The guilds are waiting to see how the debt crisis resolves before they start hiring again and the hierarchs let the merchants who fund their conclaves write the wage laws, and you think immigrants are the reason there's job shortages and stagnant wages!?"
"Boooooooooo!" The crowd jeered
"Why do you hate Ylissean workers!?"
"Go back to Plegia!"
"Every Plegian working in Ylisse is one less job for a Ylissean. You think that's fair!?"
"That's not how this works! That's not how any of this works!" Robin attempted to give team Vaike a basic education in economics. "Immigrants aren't just units of supply in the labor market. They're also units of demand in the market for goods and services. People are both laborers and consumers, and when people consume they create the demand for new labor. That's how you get growth; more people doing more jobs, buying more things. Immigration is a BOON to our economy. You don't get 10 million new jobs if you kick out the Plegians; you get 10 million fewer persons demanding Ylissean goods and buying from Ylissean businesses , then you get…"
"Boooooooooo!"
"LIAR!" DIRTY PLEGIAN LIAR!"
"My son can't get a job at the royal palace and a Plegian woman pours Chrom's drinks! Don't you DARE tell me THOSE PEOPLE aren't taking jobs away from good, hard-working Ylisseans!"
"…Yeah…Fuck This…" Robin cut her losses and retreated to HQ. She knew she shouldn't be touching the immigration issue with a 10-foot pole, unless to say something to the effect of what Vaike had just said. It was a political landmine.
Robin had long since accepted that she was going to have to dumb down her arguments and shamelessly pander to the unlearned and the backward to win the race, but damn it, she still had standards. One thing she would NOT do was agitate for a policy that she knew to be toxic to the health of the halidom, just to appeal to nativist angst and popular prejudice.
…Or would she?
Vaike was going to get a shit-ton of votes doing it; votes Robin needed to beat Chrom. Of course to Vaike it wasn't pandering; the oaf actually believed every word he was saying. Robin on the other hand would be lying through her teeth if she played that angle, but really, It was just one more fib (why did this one feel different?). It was bad policy. She knew it was bad policy. And she would never, ever act upon it. But it was all for the good of the halidom if it put her on the throne; she WAS the best suited to lead, right? No harm, no foul...
…but what if there WAS harm? What if people REALLY believed the lies and the scapegoating? What if words weren't enough to walk it back? What if they took matters into their own hands?
"Owain; help. I think I'm having a moral crisis."
"You have morals?" Owain gave her the evil eye.
"There is an issue where the position I know is right is extremely unpopular, and the position I know is popular is completely wrong." Robin ignored the slight. "Do I pander, do I take the hit, or do I just ignore it?"
"You're actually asking for my opinion?"
"Believe it or not, I value your opinion."
"Pfttttttttt."
"Really; I do!"
"Let's pretend for a moment that I believe that." Owain indulged her. "What's this about?"
"The immigration issue."
"…Oh lord…"
"I want to tell voters that Plegian immigration is good for them. Talk sense into me."
"If you tell voters that Plegian immigration is good for them, you are going to lose. Badly." This would have been true before Plegia and Ylisse fought two wars; now it was just a no-brainer. "ANY candidate who tells voters that Plegian immigration is good for them is going to lose badly. But you especially have to control your image. You already have a certain…reputation…"
"But it IS good for them! Do these people have any godly idea how many Ylissean businesses would be out-of-business if 10 million customers just up and left the country!?"
"No. They don't. And you're not going to convince them, so don't even try." Owain advised. "People believe what they want to believe. People want to believe that there are easy answers to hard problems; it makes them feel safe. Nothing is easier than everything is wrong because of THESE PEOPLE; get rid of them and everything will be better. It's stupid and bigoted and it doesn't make sense. But it is what it is, and you can't change it."
He was right. Robin knew he was right. But…
"I'm a LEADER! Leaders lead. If I'm just following public opinion on every issue, I'm not leading!"
"You wanted democracy. You got democracy. If you just wanted to pass whatever laws your smarts and your education informed you were good for the halidom without public opinion being a problem, you should have kept the monarchy."
"...Shit..." Robin grumbled. I think I liked this country better when it WAS a monarchy.
Authors Note: Zeek72 suggested all the way back in Chapter 3 that I should bring Tiki on board. As a Robin surrogate rather than as a Chrom surrogate...but still...Props to Zeek for feeding me a good prompt.
All feedback is helpful feedback. That being said; taxation, public spending, jobs, police brutality, and immigration have thus far appeared as unprompted campaign issues. Give me an issue prompt you'd like to see me play around with, and I just might play around with it.
