Mending Wounds

Lord Jeymz leaned forward, not bothering to stand this time, “I can tell you honestly that Dragonia has no ‘real’ issues with moving both the headquarters and the bank to Sani Bursil,” he pauses and holds up a finger, stopping anybody else from speaking, “but,” he paused again, “has anybody really thought about what would happen in both Aura and Tarov if ‘we’ moved to Sani Bursil?”

“How many local Auran’s and Tarovan’s work in the current buildings? Does anybody here really know? No?” He looks at all the dignitaries seated at the table. “I personally can not give you the exact number, but I do know it is well over 60% of the people employed here in this building alone, are from the local area.” He paused and took a sip of water, "60%. What happens to that 60% when we ‘arbitrarily’ " he ‘air-quoted’, “decide to move the headquarters and bank to Sani Bursil? The vast majority of those working here can not or will not be able to move to were the new site of the headquarters and bank would be. What happens to them when they lose their jobs, what happens to those families that are depending on the employees working here for their income?”

“That will have to be factored into the decision making process as well.”

Woodrow Taft, filled with anger and hatred, was about to go jump the table and sock Le Roy in the face, but restrained himself as to not get escorted out of the building so he says instead; “The Xagrurgian administration was actually about to offer a formal apology for the people affected by the devastating conflict and the actions the military junta took during the war. Hell, we were even going to offer engineers to help clean up that mess down in K-O as an act of goodwill. But the Oan Isles decided to get reactionary and announce their split-along with many other nations-from the ACA literally hours before Erwin’s administration was going to publish their apology and offer to the K-O government. You are partly to blame for this Mr. Le Roy, you just can’t go willy nilly and jeopardize diplomatic relations like that. Nevertheless, I will acquiesce to your request to offer counseling to the victims of that stupid war. Do not jeopardize our already fragile relations however, it’s already cold enough as is. Now to Mr. Jemymz here, I agree that we must keep the local inhabitants in mind for the staffs of the UNAC and ACB buildings. In my personal opinion, we should keep them as is, as to not throw the local communities into chaos because of some bureaucrats from Aura said they’re going to move their livelihoods to some city in another nation. Hell, we should’ve invited representatives from those communities to see what they think of this possible move,” then sitting back down.

Bernhardt Florstedt, continuing to sit, spread his hands, and said, “There is not much for me to say that has already been said. However, I will agree with Mr. Jeymz and… Mr. Taft that we should keep the facilities currently being discussed where they currently are. Other than that, I have nothing else to say.”

“Mr Taft, how noble!” Le Roy retorted, “What actions did the Oan Isles take to prevent your nation from apologising to the Morstaybishlians and their sovereign for nearly blowing his brains out? With regard to His Grace’s position relating to the employees: companies and organisations move their headquarters all the time. The employees will be retrenched and paid a lumpsum and benefit from unemployment insurance until they get new work. When half of the members of the ACA pulled out, the ACA lost a large part of its funding anyway, so would assume austerity measures had to come into play. How exactly will the ACA or UNAC fill that funding gap if some of your biggest donors pull out? With all due respect, Your Grace, I am not moved”.

“If I recall correctly from the police report on the sniping incident, the sniper was planning to assassinate Erwin Pipua, not the U.K. sovereign. For the funding issue, we can always gather funding from external sources like trade agreements, commerce and such. About the UNAC administrative buildings, there’s a famous saying known by everyone that can be applied to this: ‘Don’t replace something if it isn’t broken.’ Also, your aggressive attitude isn’t helping matters here. All of us gathered here to work on a peaceful union, not get into a confrontation and start bickering like little children.”

“I believe that the attempted assassination of Erwin Pipua took place in Lessau when peace negotiations were being facilitated by that country. The Ethalrian assassins were clearly under Axis orders”, Le Roy explained, “Mr Taft, you are correct in the sense that we should stop bickering. That is why we should all accept the move to Sani Bursil so we can move on to other topics such as agreeing on the structural framework of the new union”.

“Still, I firmly believe that the ACA building in Aura and the ACB building in Tivot will suffice for the UNAC’s needs. We mustn’t waste any funds we can utilize for future endeavors for the UNAC, though it is nice we can finally agree on something on that we should bickering for once.”

Buzzy Bergmann, on his final assignment before turning over Absurdistan to the next corporate leadership, wanted to make the most of it. He had seen the protests in Sani Bursil regarding the split between the ACA and the AU, and watched the protests turn to riots after the delegate from the Oan Isles had spoken. The penchant for that nation to rile people up is unparalleled, look at what this man is doing to the delegate from Xagrurg right now, he thought. Buzzy observed Le Roy and Taft go back and forth, cringing with the name calling and the constant streams of bickering. Buzzy attempted to clear his throat to get the attention, but fell on deaf ears. He decided to do something more noticeable, and he pulled out his phone and selected an airhorn ringtone. He blasted it, full volume, the sound reverberating around the room. That stopped them from bickering.

Aware of the glares in the room, Buzzy began to speak. “Look, Absurdistan is not a party to either of these groups, but would very much like to join one. Right now, Aurora is too divided with two multinational organizations, so I’m glad we are discussing ways to bring it together. Problem is that we seem to be at an impasse, over the location of a building… Let’s look at another option, which may be appealing to everyone here. Or, maybe will just allow people to tolerate it.”

“Okay, so have the central bank, the ACB, headquartered in Sani Bursil. Now, before you go all Judas on me, Mr. Taft, let’s do this. To alleviate the strain on personnel and logistics, let’s split the bank’s duties up. The East Bank will be located in Tivot, and the West Bank will be located in Aura. As you may imagine, the East Bank handles duties originating from the East of Aurora and its various island nations, and the West Bank will head duties originating from the West of Aurora. The bank in Sani Bursil is the central bank, headquarters and source of direction for the entire duties of the UNAC. Sani Bursil would also be the dividing line between jurisdictions, with the United Kingdom as well as Xagrurg falling under the auspices of the West Bank.”

As for the location of the ACA, in ancient times, many city-states would move their legislatures around, so as one city-state could not dominate the affairs by virtue of location. Perhaps you should do the same? Every time there is an election of representatives, the location of the ACA will also be submitted with the elected officials, and the location with the winning votes receives the ACA for the time being. I would propose that the first location be in Sani Bursil, as there is symbolism in its central location, and for ease of operations as the UNAC is just getting started."

“Anyways, this is what I think, it’s nbd if you don’t go with it. But really though, we don’t want this argument to continue devolving. I run a company that receives billions of Chirps a day, and they can be quite vicious. Let’s make sure we aren’t a bunch of online commenters and trolls during these talks.”

Turning to see Buzzy talking, Woodrow thought to himself, “Great, it’s the new guy.” After listening to his recommendations, he replied: “ Your advice is appreciated, even useful, but is flawed. The idea of splitting the Auroran Continental Bank into two is a bit drastic in my opinion, with the possibility of two financial powers trying to compete with each other arising. Now for your idea of the location of the ACA legislature, you do realize the election’s votes can be biased right? For example, since no one really likes Xagrurg but everyone likes the UK, everyone would want-and stay- for the ACA building to stay in Sani Bursil. That isn’t very representative am I correct? Again, I thank you for your suggestions but they aren’t very practical. Now, who else would like to suggest their ideas?”

((OOC: Oh my glob XD lmao))

“I believe that we develop Mr Bergmann’s idea”, Le Roy said, “Why don’t we make Sani Bursil the seat of UNAC and the ACB, but we retain Aura and Tarov as regional offices?”

“Why would we want to decentralize the UNAC? What the UNAC needs is a strong, centralized government in my opinion, with a neutral attitude towards all of the Auroran nations. After all, it was nationalism and imperialism that started this whole mess in the first place.”

“The regional offices would serve as branches of the body. I agree with you: centralised power must be seated in Sani Bursil; but the regional offices will help execute, administer, implement and enforce the decisions, complement and supplement the staff, resources and expertise, and extend the reach of the Secretariat in Sani Bursil”.

“As Ms. Polly Newman pointed out earlier in this meeting, centralizing power in Sani Bursil will show a clear bias, as they have been a combatant in the Auroran-Pacific War. Aura, Tivot, Weyrcliff, or other neutral locations would be more suitable for the capital of the UNAC. Though I can see the effectiveness in regional offices however.”

“The Oan Isles will not support a union where the seat thereof is not Sani Bursil”, Le Roy said, “It seems clear to me that Xagrurg is only interested in salvaging any fragments of power rather than reconcilliation. Why is Xagrurg so opposed to the move to Sani Bursil? As the nation that started the war, it is Xagrurg’s duty to fix the “mess” as Mr Taft said, that the continent has become. It is your responsibility to put your ego aside and compromise”.

“Have you seen or heard me recommending the seat of the UNAC to be anywhere in Xagrurg or the former Axis? No? That’s because I’m trying to be as least biased as possible here, instead recommending nations that weren’t involved in the war. Meanwhile, you’re extremely adamant on Sani Bursil as the designated capital. Why so? Is it because of your special alliance with the UK? Is it because you want ensure you can circumvent the voices of the former Axis nations? Is it because you want to ensure the Oan Isles has near complete control over UNAC politics with the backing of the UK? From my standpoint, it looks like you’re the one with an ego and need to be more negotiable,” Woodrow’s voice gradually growing louder and terse.

“How typical!”, Le Roy retorted, “When asked straightforward questions, Xagrurg pins the blame on others. When Xagrurg invades a country, somehow that country is responsible for dominating Xagrurg. These are the sort of self righteous remarks that attest to the fascist nature of your government. Clearly you want to weaken the UK as they are your enemy. Invading South Staynes did not satisfy the Xagrurgian appetite for power nor did a change in government temper that desire. Mr Taft, thank you for revealing your true intentions: your aim is to destroy the UK, and by extension extinguish democracy on this continent. Clearly the impasse to reconciliation is your nation’s stubbornness”.

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“For fuck’s sake!” Taft blurted out in anger. “The UK is not my enemy, but I do not want most of the UNAC’s political power to be centralized in the leader of the Allies. I simply want a least-biased administration here so not one nation in this union has an advantage of another. I do not want to extinguish democracy on this damn continent, I am trying to preserve it. And for the land grabs, that was WAR. You can try to say the same thing for the rest of the APW. The Staynish invasion of Northern Xagrurg, the Ethalrian invasion of Calthrus, Furnifold’s attempts to take Eidenburgh-you know where I’m getting at. Now, take a moment to listen to yourself for one second. I did not try to start this insult match. YOU did. Now, can we all sit down and try to get some work done? I already have a headache from a brick hitting my skull back in Imperium during a speech, I would not want everybody else here to get one as well from these pointless insults back and forth from either of us.” Afterwards, Woodrow Taft takes a seat and drinks his water bottle. Now speaking with a more somber tone, Woodrow asked, “Who else hasn’t gone up yet?”

“Clearly this will only be solved in some time. For now, since Aura has the building and the staff, it may as well serve as a temporary office until we convene a meeting to move it”, Le Roy concluded. “Let’s move on. The Oan Isles has the following proposal”.

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