He does take the seat, a little bit awkwardly. Once he's seated and takes a deep breath, he looks her in the eye and his confidence comes back.
"You should endorse me for governor as opposed to someone else because I have a complete plan for what needs to be done and how it needs to be done, because I have no illusions about what it will require, and because I am fast gaining the support of a party of professionals." He raises a hand and begins to gesticulate.
"You see, I've already talked this over so many times that I have it down to rhetoric. It's my six-step plan - emancipation, tariff, debentures, literacy, security, and referendum."
"Step one is if I am elected, I will stand on a podium and say, 'Effective 48 hours from now, all slaves and indentured laborers are to be free, the use of coercion against employees will be made illegal, and at that time I will announce a comprehensive new set of labor laws.' He can only look into one of her eyes, having only one eye himself, and as he says this he shifts from one to the other. He quiets down for a moment, but continues speaking.
"I remember very well what you said. You said it would be absurd and that it would never work. But I saw what you did just now with the watch. If you're just a figurehead, and if you're powerless in a city full of gods and demons and sorcerers, then why bother discharging him' Why even bother having him in the first place" However impotent our efforts to do right, we must do what we can. And freeing the slaves, even if it's just going to drive the slavers underground, even if nobody will actually be freed . . . if it rescues one person, if it happens to prevent one person who would otherwise be kidnapped and forced to work or raped, it'll be worth it."
"I was a slave for 20 years. They called me a heroic soldier defending the motherland and the socialist future, but I was a slave. I was taken from my home when I was still a child, 15 years old. I was beaten and humiliated by my senior officers, sometimes just for fun. They put me under the knife and conducted surgery on me to install military equipment. And in no uncertain terms, they told me that my only purpose in life was to kill and to destroy, and if I made any mistakes or hesitated then my lieutenant would kill me first. Needless to say, madame Governor, I have been there. I have no intention of ever going back. And I want to save as many people from it as I can." He had started to rise to a crescendo around the words 'kill and destroy,' but he reigns himself back in and returns to his mask of calm. He's utterly sincere in all of this - either he's telling the truth, or he's a liar with supernatural assistance.
"That's step 1. The rest are all very fiddly. Step 2 involves a currency conversion and import tax. After all, foreigners are always coming here to dodge the law and live like kings - why not tax them for the privilege" Not only will this hopefully curb the tendency, but it will also raise a tidy sum for us."
"Not tidy enough, though. Step three is the sale of debenture bonds, which I will authorize the bank to print at a compounding 6%, payable annually for three or five years. Ideally, the high interest rate will encourage people's faith in the bank, but the real point is that it will give us some liquid money to spend."
"Now that we've got money, it's time to spend it - steps four and five. Step four is education, which I regard as being absolutely essential to the health and well-being of the city and the people. I plan to subsidize Ravensheart Academy considerably, and get them to open up slots to educate people to become teachers. This will be done free of charge to the students, of course - I'll be covering the bill with all this new money. I'll turn this into a basic education plan for the West End and other poor parts of the city, allowing them to get the three Rs and especially to literacy. If they can't read, they don't have access to the wider world and are stuck in an intellectual ghetto."
"Step 5 is to beef up the watch, both by expanding their training and recruitment budgets and by trying to work with the paramilitaries around the city. With the Scathachians, I plan to give them block grants and ask only that they itemize them. As others pop up, I'll evaluate them, particularly if I can integrate them entirely. Psychopaths that they are, they're already here and I may as well try to make something out of them."
"Step 6 is to watch and wait, and at some date - we haven't decided yet, but we're thinking July or August - hold another referendum, open to the public, about our next move. Our plans for the referendum are still up in the air, because we're seeing how well our plans work and how well the people take to them." He sits back, as though this whole speech was some kind of coital act and he is now enjoying the afterglow.
"So, in conclusion, you should endorse me because I've got a complete, well-realized plan, because I intend to carry it out, and because I already have people from different walks of life, making up the nucleus of my Social Unity Party, who are similarly committed to it." He moves his hands up his jacket as though looking for a cigarette, but then refrains.
"Also, I think I look like a proper politician."
