>>
|
bfb318.jpg
Magic Circles
bfb318
More time begins to pass, and Guitar Knight doesn't help simplify matters. As though he can do nothing but leech off of the entrepreneurship of others, he begins siphoning off graduates by creating his own little projects. He lets would-be shopkeepers go into his territory to start their own shops, and perhaps encouraged by not needing to pay protection fees, are able to sell for cheaper.
This does cut into Chief's own ability to collect protection fees, as shops start to claim that they no longer have the business to pay for it.
Scanner reports that Guitar Knight is starting to branch out from the protection business to creating a different sort of society, one that runs more on goodwill and communal interests than gaining tickets. His propaganda starts talking about how Chief's rewards of tickets is soulless and has created unfair situations, and how his society will create workers for the common good, where everything is for, and by, the people. Chief begins to wonder if Guitar Knight is familiar with the term 'communism', but doubts this. He expects Guitar Knight is unaware of the things he is setting in motion.
Guardsman, apparently, is becoming increasingly difficult to control, and wants to smash something.
Chief has an idea to match Guitar Knight's actions, as well as solving.
"Succubus, I'd like to start a rumor that Mamba is Alison 1700. Just a seed of it, nothing overt."
>"Oh, there already is. I can have it gain traction, if you want."
"No, this is fine for now. I have something bigger in mind anyway. At this rate, Mamba is to overthrow me. Normally I could combat this fire with more fire, but this is going to lead to a drawn out power struggle."
>"Probably. Is that a problem?"
"It's boring is what it is. Right now, the gang is more of a loose organization with me only supposedly at the top, but the fluidity of our presence just means that either I stay vigilant at the top, or fade away slowly. There is little that can truly stamp me out to nothing. And what I want far, far more than to win, is to have closure. Win or lose, I want it to be decisive. Therefore, I must evolve this gang into something more rigid. Something that even if we still call a 'gang', is in actuality more of an established government. I must be indisputably at the top. I'm speaking rather abstractly, are you following me?"
>"I think I get what you're saying, though you make it sound more complicated than it has to be. You'd like a monarchy? A dictatorship, perhaps."
"Yes. It doesn't matter too much, but I must be indisputably at the top, and removal of being at the top would be catastrophic for me. I see two options. One is that I keep things more or less as they are, but set it up so that people in the gang are loyal to me and me alone. This will mean that removing me from power, or challenging my power, will create a terrible schism, hopefully one which has no clearly drawn battle lines, and therefore ends in one clear winner and one clear loser. The second option is create a disconnect between myself and the power of the gang. A throne, that is. The throne's power will be the power of the gang, and that can wax and wane, but he who is at the top of the throne will control it absolutely. That way, if I am removed from the throne, I am removed absolutely."
>"Removed by force, or by vote?"
"Hmmm... by vote may be most difficult for me to survive against, while by force would imply that I consider myself the absolute ruler, here to stay forever. Allow me to ramble and think to myself for a moment. The two original options of either me as the indisputable leader, or the throne as the seat of the indisputable leader, have only subtle differences. The former would be drawing battle lines between those loyal to me and those who are not, and I would be declaring myself the law, the gang, and everything it rules. It would be a big ego move, and would offput many people who think that I am here as some kind of benevolent person representative of people's wants, rather than a megalomaniac.
"The latter option, the throne, would allow me to treat the gang as its own entity that I just happen to be the ruler of. The throne itself must have absolute power over the entire gang either way, so that Mamba is forced to pursue the throne instead, rather than treating her school as its own faction to slowly overshadow the rest of the gang. Again, either option for this is subtle, as both involve forcibly glueing the gang together, declaring the ruler absolute, and saying that ruler is me. The challenge here is that if I just blindly and forcibly unify the gang under a single entity, such that any independent action or outright disobedience could rightfully be called treasonous, it would look like a petty display of dominance on my part, transparently looking like I fear that Mamba is eclipsing me. To veil my intentions, I would need a convenient excuse, some sort of external threat, that makes the gang seem threatened to the point that it must unite or be conquered in some manner. I apologize, I realize I'm rambling, and there may be plenty of other options entirely, but the point all returns to the fact that if I am removed from power, I must be removed absolutely."
|