Iremipoli, Kingdom of Meliougi
December 8th, 2017
The capital of the Kingdom of Meliougi was abuzz with rumor and anxiety. In mid-November, elections had been held, and an unexpectedly high turnout had come out for the elections. Normally, these elections had been rather droll affair, with the National Restoration Party and its allies using the elections to cement its "mandate". In truth, most Meliougians knew that the elections were fixed to favor the NRP, with the NRP always assuming a majority of the seats in Parliament, with its allies having a few seats to secure that supermajority, whereas the opposition, which could not organize political parties and thus ran as non-aligned independents, always had just enough seats to portray a democratic opposition, but not enough to cause any real harm to the government. But for the past couple years, something had come over the Meligougian people. It wasn't rebellion, not entirely. It was a sentiment that people were fed up with the status quo: the Chancellor, Andreas Mavromichalis, had ruled Meliougi for thirty years, as the second post-1938 crisis Chancellor; the National Restoration Party continued to push the same policies and ideologies on the people; too much free will led to disappearances and executions; and the economy stagnated under the austerity measures of the NRP government, all while the Government's leaders seemed to be doing very well for themselves - the opposition would allege that this was due to corruption, while NRP members would roll their eyes and move on to the next item of business...all while punishing those MPs in ways that would discourage further acts of sedition. But five years ago, Basileus Ioannis VII, passed away. He was a rather unremarkable, but stiff, man. His son, on the other hand...well, Basileus Nikolaos VIII Angelos, who was eighteen when he ascended the throne, would prove to be an altogether different monarch. He insisted on giving monthly radio addresses to his people - the Chancellor felt that the Monarch should not make speeches or addresses via television, so the Palace used the Palace Radio station that was under the control of the Crown in order to get out its message without too much government tampering - and, rumor had it, would frequently grill Chancellor Mavromichalis on the state of the Kingdom. He was handsome, was kind, and apparently made it a habit to walk out into the capital to see how his subjects fared, a far cry from his great-grandfather who had welcomed the NRP into the government in 1938.
So, the Meliougian people, most of whom were fed up with the status quo, dealing with a stagnant economy, feeling crushed under austerity measures and a government that insisted on involving itself in every manner of life and limiting free will and discussion, and feeling reinvigorated by a young basileus, went to the polls. Unofficial polls had suggested the most unusual and unsuspecting thing: that the opposition would win a slight majority in the Parliament, 218 seats, to be exact. Expectations were high, there were talks of a new government...perhaps, even, a new future. So, on November 25th, the Meliougian voters went to the polls...and were met with something unexpected, yet at the same time, what were they expecting? On November 30th, the Election Commission announced that the National Restoration Party won 275 seats, with its two allies winning 50 seats collectively...whereas the opposition won 110 seats. Allegations of ballot stuffing, vote rigging, police and military intimidation, and outright thuggery were made. Chancellor Mavromichalis released a statement promising an "investigation" into the allegations, and shortly thereafter arrested many prominent opposition leaders and activists. The tension had been boiling for days...
In Theotokis Square, one of the main squares within the capital renamed for the first NRP Chancellor, a crowd began to gather in the morning. It was small, at first, barely one hundred people. They were waving Meliougian flags, holding posters and signs calling the NRP Government thieves and brutes, and shouting anti-government slogans. Security forces had deemed the gathering a nuisance, but higher ups decided that as it was a Thursday, the protestors go to work after letting their steam out. The problem was, no one had taken into consideration the 15% unemployment rate, nor the post-election frustration. In a matter of hours, as word spread through social media, that crowd in the square grew into the thousands...and by the evening, it had become the largest post-1938 protest to take part in Meliougi. Needless to say, everyone, including the opposition, had been caught off guard. Official government estimates that were shared with the Crown and with the state-run press put the numbers at a few thousand...in reality, there were one hundred thousand demonstrators filling up the square and blocking the roads. It was here that people began to call for new elections. At 8:45 PM, security forces moved against the protesters in the square, firing tear gas and charging the crowds with truncheons and riot shields, firing rubber bullets and spraying water hoses at concentrations of demonstrators...
A young woman, a student at Iremipoli University, was running from the police. Her name was Cassandra Eleftherias. She had come onto the square with her friends, and wasn't particularly political. In truth, she had come to see what was up after classes had concluded. But the police had broken the protest apart, charging in using everything at their disposal, save live rounds. So Cassandra ran. She ran and ran, through alleys and side streets, hearing police officers chasing other protesters, screams as people were beaten and arrested, the wailing of sirens. She made a turn left...right...right again...and ran right into an officer. "You, you're under arrest!" he screamed, spittle shooting from his mouth. "Please, no, I was just with my fri-". Before she could finish her sentence, her explanation, a truncheon was swung at her face, she could feel her jaw cracking from the blow...and soon she didn't feel anything else, with blood crawling out of her wounds onto the pavement. Realizing what had been done, the officer fled in his car, leaving the body of Cassandra Eleftherias to sit there. What neither Cassandra nor that officer knew was that a resident of one of the apartments bordering the alley had recorded the entire encounter on his phone, and he had unwittingly broadcast her murder in live time to his social media account. The footage would be circulated, and in a matter of hours, Theotokis Square filled up again. Now, two new battle cries were being shouted from the megaphones: Remember Cassandra, and Down with the regime.
. I am writing another post right now. If you'd like, you could write up a post concerning the recent developments.
