It was the group of death. First up was Veldgouwen, who had given the Spaamian old timers a run for their money in the World Cup qualifiers, and were near-certain to do well here again. Afterwards was Kitsunia-Deesse, an all-Kitsune outfit that had previously won a tournament for nations that were not partaking in World Cup qualifiers. And then finally was Brenecia: runners-up at CoH 66, the best side in town, and likely to finally pull off victory in the Cup. When you consider the opposition, Tinhampton was set to fall like a stone, unless the team acted fast. Everybody was worried, and yet thankful, at the same time. Training was overshadowed by worries of spying (accusations as of yet unproven), and dinnertime had high spirits and higher confidence levels still, but now was not the time to be fussy. Now was the time to prepare to get down to business.
It was then that Ian Jones, the player-manager of the team, decided to do something, perhaps unprecedented, in the world of football. "OK, I'd like to read a story to everybody. A bit of a diary in places, a bit of a historical record here and there, a bit of future-foretelling in others, a few blatantly obvious bits that I wrote for the rest of it, and one pretty political plotline. Are you all ready?"
The Other Campaign Trail:a springtime tale of university politics -- PART 1OOC: Based of this RP I posted for World Cup 77. Story status: TSU Uberprotest Report, Part 1 (YOU ARE HERE).
MOAR OOC: Tinhampton is being roleplayed in the present day. This is a one-off foretelling of the future. I had to, in order to round off the TSU storyline.
PREAMBLE: BEWARE THE TIDES OF MARCH
"Harry" -- 6th March 2017 -- Tinhampton University, Metropolis CampusThe main election in Tinhampton? Don't get me started on the main election in Tinhampton. Sure, it might have seemed quite exciting at first, but both the excitement and the chances of the Mayoress' lead changing significantly have fizzled out to near-zero. Instead, we need to focus our attention onto another political plane: Tinhampton University.
Now, you may be wondering: "What in the name of Margaret should I be following a university? Everybody knows that Tinhampton University is basically a hyperliberal SJW meshpit!" Well, that would be correct if you looked at Northside Campus. Each of the campuses have a distinct political tradition followed in the main by most students: Northside leans left, whilst Metropolis (my campus) is centrist in outlook. Coastal has always leaned centre-left, whilst Perpetua is the opposite. Although Newlands is a haven for extreme but legal politics of all stripes, Vertos and Mounts have never really bothered with politics (instead focusing mainly on student life and practical skills). And finally, Gateway Campus - currently the most significant of all - is libertarian. This makes for a very interesting - and confusing - political mess.
So anyway, back on track: unless you have been living under a rock for the past couple of weeks, you are aware of the "uberprotests" that struck Gateway on the 23rd of February. Almost no damage, but certainly 21 arrested. A diverse variety of protests, but all in favour of the "Seven Demands" of the "Tinhampton Student Unity", which is some sort of left-wing organisation that the Coastal and right-wing Newlands types enjoy complaining about. About 12 have been arrested in other campuses since - looks like
the Herald was right once again. A quick scan through their article will reveal that everyone really *is* talking.
And now to your regularly scheduled interruption - seven "caucuses" (that's political parties to you and me) hold sway over the Committee of Students, a democratically elected organisation whatchamacallit comprised of 120 students that
the Herald covered in much better detail than I ever could have. From left to right:
the Socialists (20 seats), the Progressives (11 seats),
the Environmentalists (8 seats), the Democrats (15 seats), the Alliance for Security (9 seats),
the Conservatives (25 seats), and
the Freedom Caucus (21 seats). There are also 11 independents. All 120 are up for re-election in a week or so.
It's the first half of March, and you know what that means: It's nearly the end of the campaign trail over here. From what I've heard, this is meant to be a boring time, full of get-out-the-vote stuff, but it's totally the opposite here. Given the recent protests, we've had a tonload of politically-charged speeches, mostly about the Student Unity people. The conservatives attack the Student Unity, the liberals attack the conservatives and their partners, the conservative's partners attack the liberals... what next? I'd like to quote from
the Herald, who quoted from one of the Independent Committee Members: "What is happening in Gateway right now could lead to a vicious cycle of hatred." This election season is sure to be good.
I think I've covered everything here, but it's time for me to go to sleep. If you absolutely must have a name, you can call me Harry. It might be much different to what my actual name is, but it's still a name. Which gets me thinking: What exactly is in a name? As final food for thought: Is Tinhampton Student Unity really uniting us students?
PART 1: The Week Before The Vote
7th March 2017, 10:15 -- SupaShop, Coastal CampusPete Woolcock was the popular Centre Officer for the Coastal Campus, who was set to run for a second term - one of the eight "Kings of the Sitting Ducks", the Officers that were elected but which had little power other than to help students in general. Yes, he had some power, but not significant power. It therefore came as a small surprise to him when he noticed a lack of free-range eggs in the shops. After all, Pete was one of the most environmentalist Officers, being in Coastal.
"I'm sorry, sir, but we've been ordered to stop calling our eggs free-range. Every single chicken in the country is legally required to be caged for the next few months. You might want to return at the end of April, when we'll be all-but-closed." A while later, Mr Woolcock was to rush over to the fresh aisle. A couple of splats would come out of it at the end. Nobody - not Jemima, not Pete, not the disinterested security guy watching Camera 18F, nobody - could have expected what was to come next.
7th March 2017, 10:30 -- Lecture Room 178, Gateway CampusTinhampton Student Unity originally occupied Lecture Room 178 as part of the "Uberprotests" that occurred a week and a bit back. The original focus of the sub-protest was about the University's investment (small, but regardless an investment) in DrillBabyDrill, but once the banners had gone down, it started being used as a communications centre for TSU. It may not have been in the best position, but it certainly was in a good one.
"Now, who's with us?" rhetorically questioned one TSU leader, who had been preaching to the elder converted about boycotting the cross-university student survey. "WE ARE!"
"Who will fight for you, the student, the ethnic minority, the woman, the homosexual, the deprived?" "WE WILL!"
"Who will fiercely resist the reactionary charges against our freedom of protest? Who will demand free university or no transportation? WHO will never stop until we get what we want?" "WE WILL!"
"OK, now, altogether... DOWN WITH ANDERSON! DOWN WITH ANDERSON! DOWN WITH ANDERSON! DOWN WITH ANDERSON!..." The rallying cries could be heard all over. It was now a popular joke that attending TSU meetings affected two things negatively: Your social conservatism, and your hearing.
7th March 2017, 18:00 -- Student halls, Northside Campus"...This is Jon Ling, with the news at six on TUFM. Reports are now coming in concerning an attack motivated by protected characteristic in Northside. The man reportedly yelled "illegal or else punishable messages", before coming into fire at a grouping of students. The shooter has been apprehended, but their identity is not yet known."
Alison Trincham was the kind of woman who prepared early, delivered late, and got the results right on time. She had prepared early, but the schedule would not exactly be followed today. She knew that the words she heard on the tinny radio were not quite confirmed, but she decided that it was much too important, and much too soon to the election, to complain. She had not heard any shots or seen any masked men in black, but compromise appeared necessary if she wanted to appeal to the average voter. She was genuine in the belief that the rarely experimented-with blend of confidence and scepticism would pay off.
8th March 2017, 13:05 -- Public square, Metropolis Campus"...and let's face it: Why should I care about this cause or that cause when A: it's not going to be implemented, B: its main proponents haven't even visited Tinhampton, and C: very few of us are successfully converted? I shouldn't have to go vegan even if I get a gazillion-and-one notices from these animal liberationists, so why should you have to give in to the TSU if they're basically comprised of a bunch of loonies funded by the Social Democrats?" Liam Wright was the incumbent leader of the Freedom Caucus - up for re-election because it is tradition for elections to be held between newcomers to the political scene when the mandatory step-downs occur - and was a man who was not afraid to speak his mind.
Metropolis Campus was the swing campus - mostly central in outlook, but with all parties coming to win over voters. It was the worst analogy of a turn-based game you could find anywhere in the Federation of Fictitious States - he who made the good proclaimations won the favour of the university, whilst he that made the bad ones was likely to fail. Until these end-of-days, most other campuses were ignored (certainly Vertos and Mounts were always ignored, for they knew their preferences, or lack of thereof). This year had seen many high-quality speeches, but I am kidding you not when I tell you that this speech was probably the most well-received of the lot.
8th March 2017, afternoon -- Computer suite, Vertos CampusVertos were not the kind of campus willing to vote. They had consistently held out, or otherwise gone independent, for as long as modern democracy existed in the University. Their main affinity was sports - the whole lot of it. It was therefore not a surprise when Matt, willing to slack off on a boring Tuesday afternoon, chose to visit arguably Audioslavia's most famous creation, RLStates. The chat there was diverse and varied; a small but tight-knit community of about 210-odd users. The sports headlines included the rankings for one "SheBelieves Cup" - what could this be? Immediately, he noticed the great colours and hopes around the Everything Thread - there was little point in making a ton of threads for a four-RLState tournament, after all.
A bit more digging, and he learned that this was comprised of perhaps RLStates' four biggest womens' football outfits. As for "SheBelieves", it was basically a promotion to get more young women involved - not a bad goal, but it was confusing to see it spread to other nations. Matt ended up wondering: "Where is the Algarve Cup where you need it? Probably being contested by a bunch of unknown teams I've never heard of before now..."
9th March 2017 -- news stands across Tinhampton University"THE SPLATTENING." This is what the Tinhampton Enquirer - the student newspaper for Tinhampton University - wound up reporting on the front cover of their election special. In the small student-owned stalls, and the larger corporate ones, across the university, you had a strange feeling that stuff was generally happening. This was often weird stuff, with the odd outbreak of peculiar and otherwise odd stuff. Regular stuff, with perhaps the exception of the election's happeningness, was tugged to Page 38. Pete Woolcock was almost certain to lose his election, but all else hung in the balance.
9th March 2017, afternoon -- "Lil' Digger", Mounts CampusMounts was the other great abstainer. In the scheme of things, their 15 nominees were the only people to bother about politics in the campus; seen as a voice for the marginalised by some, and as just plain lazy by others. Being a north-eastern campus with the main focus on practical skills, there were about 25 to 30 volunteering undergrads (who had been pre-trained, but were hopeful as ever) working at the mine that they had come to deliver from. They called it Lil' Digger.
"OK - you put on your flashlight, then you turn it on, then you walk with your picket and bucket thingy, then you investigate deposits, then you attack any suspiciously tin-like ones, then you bring 'em back to momma! Understood?" The man who taught, an ex-miner in himself, was unforgiving (a bit like Tinhampton's Cup of Harmony group, some would say, or this month). It was out of this confusion that one student questioned why they were doing this; he bluntly replied with "You're here to get the metal, get the money and get yourself out of this sorry hellhole of a safe space and into the real world!" It was clear for many to see why Mounts were the silent conservatives of the University.
9th March 2017, 18:00 -- Student halls, Metropolis campus"...This is Jon Ling, with the news at six on TUFM. Earlier reports of an attack motivated by protected characteristic have been revealed to be a practical joke. The Delta Epsilon Gamma society, which is taking responsibility for the prank, stated that it was conducted deliberately to "show how easily people could be manipulated"..."
Ryan Baker was the novice leader of the Progressives - a man who knew that, to win things, you had to spin things. Despite being the leader of the leftist moderates, he knew that he would have to go all out if he wanted to improve on the previous year's performance. They coddled up to nobody - they had to - and, with the latest edition of the Enquirer having been published, he needed to get some alternative facts out, and fast. The result, stapled to power cables and lecture room doors in Trincham's home campus overnight, were among the most controversial publications ever seen in the University.
THE TRUTH ABOUT TRINCHAM
No student can truly call themselves a politician unless they have proven themselves, time and again, to have integrity - Michael Yeoman (Democratic leader, 1996-1998)
DEAR UNIVERSITY:
We, the students, have been made aware of various egregrious campaign breaches by Democratic leader Alison Trincham, who is running for a second term in office. Of course, a second-year political science and economics student should know better than to carry out the following horrendous disregardments of the election rules, and of past custom:
- She is lying about the supposed terror attack at Northside. Although Trincham might have thought otherwise, it was clear to her Tuesday that, having heard the news about a hate-motivated "attack" at Northside Campus, she would have nothing better to do than write a speech condemning it. In actual fact, she was condemning something that was a practical joke. The kinds of candidates who make 20-minute long speeches about events that never even happened are the kinds of candidates that we need to emphatically defeat this March.
- She wants to destroy Tinhampton University as we know it. We have acquired exclusive documents, emanating from Trincham and sent to a progressive die-hard purporting to be a confidante. In these letters to "Dwayne Long", she stated a demand for Mayor Anderson to relax border regulations on refugees, to the point of enforcing an open-border, sanctuary-campus policy. This is the most left-wing position possible; an over-the-top decision to make for a supposedly "common-sense moderate".
- She is a decency-hating hippie! Despite these private letters to "Dwayne" showing her true colours, she has consistently gone out in favour of so-called "Civil Liberties". She has consistently supported like-minded wishy-washy candidates in the big city elections, but went out of her way to defend the far-right candidate in the recent United Federation election, under the pretences that he would "defend their Constitution!" All this, combined with her current coalition status with the ideologically-opposed Freedom Caucus, makes her the wrong choice for students of colour, Violetist students, undocumented students, students with special needs, etc.
- She is implicit in vote-buying. We currently hold exclusive proof (to be released on Saturday 18th March) that Trincham has, time and again, disobeyed rules about bribing voters (mainly with foodstuffs). Whilst all other prospective candidates are using their lawful resources usefully, it is not in the spirit of the University to purchase votes or voters through audacious and non-approved funding campaigns. We at TinU must show that our values, our votes, our hope is not for sale! We already spunk $3,000 a year on tuition fees, and about $200 a month on room and board, so why should we pay any more?
- She has voted against her own party line! On important votes for bills like the Solidarity with Nationstateless Peoples Act, the Soda Levy Act, and the PASTA Act (Preventing All Suspected Terror Attacks), Trincham has consistently voted against the party line that she set out for her caucus - they fight for security, she fights against them! In fact, she was the only Committee Member to vote against the PASTA Act! This is the wrong sort of person to lead Tinhampton into a new future, which is supposed to involve all parties moving forward together in harmony.
Alison Trincham CM is supposed to be a centrist, but winds up instead as being an incoherent mish-mash of various political ideologies. This election season, we urge you to vote for somebody different. Consider voting for Ryan Baker's Progressives, who will push for real change in the Committee, and in the University as a whole.
Do it for the University!Printed by James and Company Printers, 13 Elephant Street, Tinhampton.
Promoted by Jane Simpson, of Student Hall 381, Newlands Campus; on behalf of Ryan Baker, of Student Hall 484, Northside Campus.
Of course, very little of it was true - there was no road in Tinhampton called Elephant Street, Alison Trincham had done none of this, the PASTA Act passed 57-49, and Student Hall 484 actually led to the residence of the leader of the Krytenia Appreciation Society - but it was to be a deathknell for somebody's campaign. The only question: For whom?
10th March 2017, 14:10 -- on the roadIf we're being frank, the University was doing everything it could (through both political and non-partisan methods) to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions. And so we come to this scene on the A3742; the three party leaders of the coalition sharing a taxi to Perpetua Campus; each addressing a like-minded group, trying to win them over to their side for perhaps the fifteen-zillionth time.
On the left was Premier Josh Wilkinson, planning a talk about the future security of Tinhampton, and how some compromises would have to be made to stay safe. On the right was Liam Wright, proposing to speak about reinforcing the PASTA Act, and fighting against any repeal plans that might have been in the pipelines. And sandwiched in the middle was Alison Trincham, target of much controversy in the election season, hoping to defend herself and attempt to forward civil liberties. Each of those plans needed to pay off that afternoon. I will leave you cliffhanging about what happened next. That's a story for the next bit.
10th March 2017, 14:30 -- Public square, Gateway CampusMeanwhile, Henry Rach (the leader of the Environmentalist caucus) had no such problems in Gateway, mainly because he wasn't the biggest fan of powered vehicles. His speech was one that took good care to appeal to all, and so it carried valuable information for all. For the die-hards, there was to remain a focus on saving the planet, drinking soy lattes, and free university (one achievable, one harder to get, and the final one near-impossible in the face of stern resistance from the big people at City Hall). For the newcomers, there were plans to make freshers' fair better, greater, greener and generally more environmentalist-packed, as well as demands for divestion from fossil fuels and investion into renewable energy. For the vegans, there were audacious ambitions - not rock-solid plans, just ambitions - to get the canteen off meat. And for the TSU protesters... well, he didn't need any promises. He was one of their favourite candidates, anyway. However, this was not a feeling shared with the rest of University.
10th March 2017, 17:20 -- Public square, Coastal CampusIn all this time, it is surprising that I have failed to mention the Alliance for Security, and their leader, Leanne Potts. The AFS was a small but tight-knit grouping, the second-smallest caucus in the Committee, and were "uncontroversially controversial". They voted for measures to improve security and crack down on offenders of all sorts, whether they be commonly seen as conservative or liberal manouvers, whilst abstaining from anything that did not have a vague connection to security (which wound up being not a lot of bills). It was here, away from her now coalition-occupied campus and in a land which had almost opposite views to her politics, that she was to give possibly the biggest speech of her life.
It was make-or-break time. Now, or never. To hope, or to fail where many more would join her ranks. A knell that would send her to heaven, or to hell. Almost immediately, she kicked off. "It is a basic truth of Tinhampton University that outright fabrication of the truth is not desired, and the recent leaflet we have seen cropping up across the University as of late - "The Truth About Trincham" - is one of those fabrications. Whilst I might not be the biggest friend of Alison Trincham, and I certainly disagree with her on security, I will defend her manouvers on this podium, and attack those that purport to be the friends of the truth. Firstly, on the attack at Northside, and the subsequent controversy..."
11th March 2017 -- across Tinhampton UniversityIt was soon to be time on election season, and so the speeches were made, and the people were listening, but few had their minds changed, and fewer still would be converted by these last-ditch pleas. The Conservatives spoke of how important it was to keep secure, whilst the Socialists were busy attacking the Conservative stance on the TSU, and the Progressives demanded reform of other sections. The Democrats demanded sensibility, while the AFS demanded security. The Environmentalists wanted a divestion-investion of what little the University held in fossil fuels, whilst the Freedom caucus were the main proponents of civil liberties. There was little remarkable to speak of, apart from perhaps the conclusory clauses of the speeches. Friday was soon to tick over into Saturday; with it, a suspension on campaigning. Here went one whole week of nothing.
"OK, people. That was Part 1, if you've forgotten from earlier on. Part 2's about the actual election; Part 3's a bunch of legalese, by which I don't mean the co-host of World Cup 68. I'll let you have a break for 10 or 15 minutes. Use your time productively." Jones then disappeared into the darkness; only he knew where he was heading. But as for the team, that was a matter for the following day. The danger was only just starting to loom for the Miners.