125 - The Locust University Students’ Union

Cabal: The Locust University Students’ Union

A student government body straining at its bounds, transforming under experimental political practices and emerging magick. A storm threatening to overflow its teacup and overwhelm the official and symbolic boundaries of its limited jurisdiction, it is poised to assume recognized statehood by consuming the higher tiers of local government in a fit of titanomachy. Those at the helm couldn’t be happier with the turn of events. So long as they can stay on top.

Once a mundane students’ union it has been hijacked by a project that is the brainchild of opposing avatars. By shaping it into sympathetic relationship with higher levels of government their plan is to cocoon the governing body in a magickal chrysalis so that it can later emerge to cannibalise city government and propel them into positions of temporal power. In doing so they have lit a fire that has signalled to every disenfranchised would-be political operator that it is the ground-floor for sympathetic conquest of local and eventually state government, even - dizzyingly - the potential prospective for nation-state control. Every freak with nothing better to do has made a beeline to leave their mark on this million-to-one shot.

One complication that has nosed its way in is the injection of liquid democracy as an experimental form of government. A system seldom taken seriously or practically explored, liquid democracy allows for voting on issues directly or the investment of voting power in a chosen delegate who can vote or in turn invest theirs in another. It differs from representative democracy in that this investment is transitory, if you’re unhappy with your delegate (or theirs) you can withdraw your support at any time. In practice this has turned the microcosm of political process into a perpetual popularity contest. Constant electioneering is the means by which proposal becomes policy. Despite the difference to conventional political systems, this drama seems to have strengthened the symbolic embodiment of modern politics.

The cabal’s current goals are:

• Maintain their position at the helm of student government, in a liquid democracy this means keeping voters happy in both the short and long-term or at least portraying their opponents as a worse choice.
• Build the chrysalis and shape the union to fit inside of it (their, local, objective at 45%. It currently gestates in the basement of the student union building).
• Convince the “Baker’s Street Irregulars” (a local hacktivist cabal obsessed with freedom of information) to run interference on a trio of city council urbanomancers who could be a threat to their plans.

Keira Poninski is a staunch libertarian, computer science undergraduate and avatar of the Guide. By building the union up she wants to dismantle excessive government, removing the barriers and entrenched capture that stand in the way of social progress. Although not everyone agrees with her on what that is no one can dispute that her leadership has yielded impressive results on the small stage of student government. This has led to a strong following of people who would delegate their votes to her if she didn’t expressly forbid it, instead she exercises indirect power and emphasises individual responsibility and choice as virtues which has been great for her connection to the Guide.

A blonde, spectacled, briefcase-carrying nerd, Keira doesn’t desire leadership for herself but acts out of political imperative. She sees straight through Meyer’s bullshit but thinks she can keep him under control and steer him but resents Isa’s intrusion even though his initiatives have been useful to her. She both admires and pities Wanda.

Meyer Lorant is Keira’s opposite, an avatar of the Demagogue who espouses the belief that people need firm guidance from a leadership-class and that society cannot properly function without it. A keen student of anthropology he argues that the Iron Law of Oligarchy is an inevitable, de facto equivalent to divine right. If people are going to end up being ruled by a select class anyway shouldn’t we be open about it and focus on that class doing the best for everyone? Having learnt from a young age that so long as he keeps talking long enough people will eventually agree with him, Meyer thinks this obviously should include him.

Meyer comes across as an everyman. Average height and weight but also handsome and well put together in a way that impresses without intimidating. He knows how to be everyone’s friend and has most fooled that he cares about supposed principles of public good over personal power. He sees his cabalmates as either potential co-conspirators or dead weight to be eventually cut loose, his opinion on which category they fall into changes with the wind. His supporters are fewer than Isa or Keira’s but far more dedicated and he’s not above sending them off on underhanded errands.

Isa Kouri is a law student and joymancer obsessed with the rule-changing democratic game of Nomic. Responsible for the introduction of liquid democracy to the student union he has parlayed the spearhead of this initiative into a seat at the table with the rest of the cabal. That and his father’s law firm and money buying him entrenched support and status from the Locust Student Law Society contingent. Isa is abrasive and legalistic in person, almost nobody likes him for who he is. Nonetheless he is razor-sharp and unburdened by principle or pretence beyond service to the law/rules which makes him both useful and formidable.

A short, full-bodied man, Isa carries himself with a pride and presence that makes him seem bigger and more impressive than he physically is. To him the student union is the practical expression of the game he’s been playing all his life and he sees all the other participants in terms of being other players. He likes them well enough but can’t conceive of their relationships any other way. This game is for keeps.

Wanda Gaylon is just delighted to be here. She wasn’t a student to begin with (now she’s taking night classes and learning Mandarin) and has little interest in politics, but she is - for lack of a better term - a professional cultist with a long history of subordinating herself to occult organisations in search of meaning. The Sisterhood of the Dying Flesh, the Sleepers, the Sect of the Naked Goddess, she’s spent time in them all and half a dozen smaller cabals over the years. She wants only to belong to something greater than herself, but has yet to find something great enough. Ironically, her experience as a follower in these groups has manifested as an indispensable form of leadership in keeping the other three cabalmates together when their differences threaten to tear them apart.

Wanda is a cheery, middle aged woman who looks enough like Susan Sarandon to get comments on it. She’s always fussing over details in the background, making sure things get done and being the workhorse of the union. To an extent she treats the rest of the cabal like the children she never had. None of them know that her dedication comes with the expectation that the exultation of their ascendance will finally fulfil her and that she’s burned many for failing to meet her standards.