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#PennedPossibilities 937 • Which of your characters is the most controversial? Why?
In the Laundry Files, probably Fabian Everyman MP, who becomes Prime Minister of the UK after book 8.
I mean, "Strong and Stable Goverment Under the New Management" sounds like a reasonable campaign slogan until you realize he's the living avatar of Nyarlathotep, the Black Pharaoh, and he's basically farming us for our souls! Also, pay no attention to the giant skull rack at Marble Arch, or the mass executions!
@cstross The important contribution of Fabian Everyman was that he was a great communicator, he really understood the public’s needs and wants, and could marshall the power of the state to deliver a programme of change. And he did literally save the country from a foreign threat. He’s Churchill for the 2020s.
@grievousangel "Churchill, only he occasionally eats someone he disagrees with" is definitely what we need this decade!
To be 100% fair - he was the best of a bad lot. If your country is going to be run by a Lovecraftian superpower, there are far uglier choices. Hells - Nyarlathotep was fairly tractable and reasonable if you weren't a threat or in his way.
@cstross So, a slight improvement over the real world?
@cstross
Angleton.
From a human rights standpoint his methods of dealing with rogue employees are questionable.
Then there are those faceless auditors.
Are you sure Fabian is that different from the likes of Zuckerberg, Musk or whoever is behind ByteDance?
Why take over governments if you can take people's souls without so much as a raised eyebrow from what we once called "authorities"?
@cstross possibly still better than the Frog Faced Fascist Fekker as PM, sadly...
@cstross Our souls? More perks for the uber-rich and news editors who already sold theirs.
I think I'd still take that over the lot we've had in the last couple of decades
