I never really wanted to be political. Politics aren't a big interest of mine, and I prefer to stay out of them when people talk about the latest news from the government. Sure, they affect me, and I have to live with the results, but my one little vote is never going to be the difference between a liberal democracy and a totalitarian regime. If the people want authoritarians in charge of the country, I'm not going to be able to stop them no matter what I do. The fact that my family seems to think so every other day around dinner time does not increase my interest in the subject. It's at its worst on Thanksgiving and Christmas, when more relatives show up with more ideas and more loud voices.

Ah yes, Thanksgiving, the time for insisting that such and such is a Nazi or that this or that is communism in disguise. It's the one day of the year when the volume of whipped cream on your pumpkin pie directly correlates to how closely your political beliefs align with those of the person serving you and, more importantly, how loudly you proclaim that. Since all politics is, in essence, arguing over who gets the most and the biggest slices of the pie, as well as just how much pie there is, I find it the most interesting that my own acquisition of pie is what's most at stake.

Christmas is worse, especially if you open presents later in the day. If your family has just spent dinner talking, or arguing, about how many people are going to be sent to extermination camps because of the latest policy of insert supposed dictator here, your participation in the debate, and on which side, determines how hard your breakable gifts are thrown at your head. Staying out of these conversations does not protect you, and often makes you a target for everyone. What was meant to be the best day of the year quickly becomes a nightmare, and it is because of politics.

And so it is with great regret that I have found myself standing on a stage in front of a crowd of eager political activists, a speech in my hands, as a newly elected government official. I'd normally just sigh and accept my fate, but this isn't what I wanted and I never agreed to it at all. I literally woke up one day to find myself elected to government, having no idea why anyone voted for me, but with everyone expecting the best out of me. I have campaign promises to keep, and I have no idea what they are. I've been thrust into this against my will. How did this even happen, I hear you thinking. Well, if you've seen any anime from the past half a decade, this story might sound familiar.

---

"That looked painful."

"What?" That was all I could think of to say before my surroundings took me away from the state of mind where I could reasonably communicate with someone.

I was still in the seat of my cousin's car, buckled in nice and safe, but the car looked a bit different. Aside from everything being darker than it had been only seconds ago, there seemed to be bubbles all around me, rising up as though to the surface of the water. I realized that my eyes weren't lying to me, and I was indeed strapped to a seat inside a sunken car, at the bottom of a river. The windows were shattered, and the passenger side door was caved in horrifically next to me. Afraid for my cousin's safety, I looked over to the driver's side, only to see it empty. For some strange reason, though, I still wasn't panicking. I thought this situation would make me panic, especially since I have had nightmares about drowning before, and crossing bridges has always made me close my eyes and wait for it to be over. But now that I'm down here, I guess, it doesn't seem so bad in reality.

"Hey. Pay attention. We don't have much time."

I heard someone snapping their fingers in front of me. That didn't seem possible underwater, but then I've never tried it myself. I looked to see who could be doing this, and it was a girl. Like, big shock, girls exist. I've lived as one for twenty-three years, so this doesn't actually come as a surprise to me, but the fact that I'm pretty sure I just heard her speaking underwater is a little peculiar.

"You can open your mouth, you know? You won't drown."

That's absurd. If something happened that resulted in me being down here at the bottom of the river, then I will absolutely drown if I open my mouth now. In fact, I should unbuckle myself and swim out through the broken windows. Air is in short supply down here, but it exists in great quantities up above. That's where I want to be, so I just need to reach down and undo my seatbelt.

Any time now.

My arms won't move.

"There's no point trying to move your body. It's dead."

Oh… that would explain why I'm not panicking. Would it? I guess I already knew I was dead, somehow. It just didn't occur to me, but now that she says it, yeah, that makes sense. So I'm dead. I guess I already drowned.

I relinquish whatever air might have still been in my mouth and try to say something. I can't feel any water entering my mouth as I speak, so that must mean it was already there. I was holding on to something I didn't have. So I ask the girl, "Who are you?"

She smiled, sharp canines flashing in the dark of the river bottom. "I'm the angel of death, and I'm here to make sure you get where you're going to."

Come to think of it, yeah, that would make sense. I just died, so here comes the reaper to carry off my soul. She doesn't look like I would have expected, but now that I'm dead I can see that it makes sense how she appears now. The deep red eyes are frightening, and the flowing hair is beautiful. The fangs and… ears… are like a coyote or wolf. I think she has a tail too, which isn't something I would have ever thought an angel would possess, but I think she can probably choose what her body looks like. Now, as could be expected, she is indeed holding a very large scythe, but she isn't covered by black robes this time. No, not black robes, but golden armor. She's not just some angel; she's a high ranking angel of heaven, serving the duties set before her by her creator.

Oh yeah… I'm an atheist. As someone who's just died, facing the grim reaper, and realizing that I ignored the possibility of God all my life, it doesn't take a genius to figure out where she's taking me. Obviously, on the off chance God just likes me a lot, I have to ask. "So am I going to heaven?"

She shook her head. "I'm afraid that's not possible at this moment."

Yeah, I figured. This is not going to be fun.

"But you're not going to hell either. Not yet, anyway."

Come again? That sounds like a good opportunity is about to come my way. "What do you mean? What other option is there?"

She floated down through the windshield, reaching out with her scythe and cutting away what I had thought was my seatbelt, but now realized were chains. She explained what had happened, how I had died, which I was not aware of. "Enraged by a bumper sticker on the back of your cousin's car, another driver slammed into you. You were killed on impact. Your cousin is up above being rescued from the water as we speak, and she'll be fine. The other driver will face legal repercussions, but it won't bring you back."

Well, I guess that's good at least. I'm the only one who died, and justice will be served. "So what happens to me, then?"

"You were not supposed to die here. Through their hatred, the other driver has ended a life before it was meant to end. So I will be taking you away from here to finish your life elsewhere."

Woah. "You can do that? Like, I know physically, it's within your power, but are you actually allowed to do that?" Surely I had my chance, right? How is it fair that I've died this way and get to continue somewhere else, but others don't? Unless… "Does this… do you do this for everyone?"

She laughed, wrapping her arm around me and pulling me free from my seat, dragging me out into the water around my sunken grave. "No, no, not everyone. Only those who never had the chance to repent."

I'm pretty sure I had the chance. I know about God, I know all that stuff, I just chose not to treat it as reasonable or realistic. "You're kidding, right? I knew what I was doing when I rejected the truth. You have to be able to see that."

"It is unwise to act as your own lawyer. That said, those who reject the truth, knowing what it is, do not get this chance. You may think you knew what you rejected, but you did not. You rejected a flawed and false reimagining of truth, and that was all you were ever presented with. Now, you will be given the opportunity to accept the truth as you should have, in another life, in another time."

I've seen enough anime to know where this is going. "Am I getting Isekai'd?"

"No, that won't be necessary. It would be fun, sure, but I think somewhere around seven thousand years will be enough time. You will still be on Earth, and the nature of mankind will be no different than it is now. It is left to you to find the truth there."

Seven thousand years? Wait, in the past or in the future?

---

It was like waking up from a dream, but I knew that I was somewhere unfamiliar. I was in bed suddenly, with morning light shining in through the window and attempting to blind me. At least the sun was no different now. As my senses returned, I slowly became more aware of my new surroundings. I was in bed, which was soft enough but not great, under a blanket that was thankfully both soft and warm. The room around me looked shabby, but not impoverished. Mostly just small, and in need of some repair. Naturally, I quickly noticed how cold it was. I guessed it was Winter here, which was why my face felt frosty. The other thing I immediately noticed was that I wasn't alone in bed.

At first, I thought maybe I'd been put in the body of someone who had a husband, which would be quite the experience for a virgin like me, but something about the arm, which wasn't mine, that was wrapped around my body told me that wasn't it. I briefly considered I might be the husband, which would be even more awkward, but then the arm moved and pressed against my chest. Two things became obvious then and there; first, that I had breasts, which told me I was a woman, and second, I was naked.

Considering all possibilities before risking waking anyone, I realized that the nakedness was most likely the result of being poor. You don't wear good clothes to bed, and you don't wear dirty clothes to bed, so it's either a nightgown or the like, or you don't wear anything. If we couldn't afford nightgowns, then that would explain everything. My bedmate was hugging me pretty closely, so I could feel their breasts now as well, which were pressed up against my side. Thinking about it, I doubted I was put in a lesbian relationship. A poor family probably meant I was sleeping with my sister, maybe mother… possibly daughter?

Ready to take a small risk, I turned my head to look at my company, only to find that while I was definitely not alone, neither were we. There were three others besides myself, all crammed into a small bed. The blanket was pulled up to their chins, one had even pulled it up over her face for further warmth, but I could see that all four of us were definitively women. Not girls, either, we were definitely adults. Or at least pretty close, I suppose. What gave me hope that I'd in fact been properly Isekai'd was the features these girls had. Though their hair was pitch black, it was well kept at least, and moderately clean, I could see poking out from their hair that each of them had pointed ears. It was a bed full of Elves, and I was ready to bet that I was one as well.

Since I was on the end of the bed, I was able to move my left arm without disturbing the others. I reached up, taking care not to move the blanket too much as I went, and took hold of my own ear. It was pointed, just the same as theirs. Pleased as punch to be an Elf, I took a handful of my hair and held it in front of my face to see what color it was. Healthy black hair, the same as the others. It was looking pretty good that we were all sisters, but I wasn't going to start calling them 'sis' without some sort of confirmation. Of course, it would be strange if I started asking them about all this stuff, so I needed to learn about the world I was in without outright asking about it.

As soon as the girl on the far end of the bed from me started shuffling around, I could tell my near future was going to be full of nudity. I've been in change rooms before, so I wasn't super uncomfortable with the thought, but it was a little awkward to think that these girls expected they'd all seen each other naked probably hundreds of times, and none of them suspected that there was someone among them who in fact hadn't… but was about to. I wouldn't say I'm a lesbian, or even bisexual, but I know how to appreciate a woman's body, so these next few moments were going to be precious.

The girl on the far end suddenly sat up, she just shot upright, her body's momentum flinging the blanket away from her. My prediction had been accurate, and the legendary beauty of Elves did not disappoint either. That's all I'll say in regards to her body at the moment, but one day she'll be the wife of a very happy person, that is for certain. Now, with the blanket slightly removed, the girl who had pulled it up over her face was left shivering in the cold, her chest exposed to the frigid air. The cold roused her, and she covered herself up with her arms, more for warmth than for dignity, but not before I confirmed that she too was quite the looker.

That left only the one hugging me asleep. I turned over under the blanket, facing in her direction. My movement woke her up, and her eyes fluttered open to see me, unable to hide my smile, a mere two inches from her face. Neither of us had time to say any sort of good morning, though, since our two neighbors immediately scrambled over top of us to get off the bed, knocking me onto the floor in the process. If we'd had a nightstand or something, I would have hit my head on it, but as it was I only slammed the back of my skull against the hardwood floor.

No one was talking, which I thought was odd, but the others were all focused on finding their way to the door right at the foot of the bed. A moment later, just as I'd extricated myself from the blanket and stood up, I heard the sound of running water. This fantasy world had plumbing, which I could hear rumbling through the walls. It wasn't very modern, but it existed, and it was working. That was more than enough for me, and a shower or bath sounded like a great proposition. I went to the door and joined them in the other room.

It was a small room, immediately recognizable as a washroom, and I was surprised to find it stocked with several nice clean towels. Cleanliness was a thing here, which is a blessing I will never be ungrateful for. All along one side of the washroom was a counter, which had a sink on the far end next to a small door. I assumed that door led to a toilet, keeping it separate from the rest of the washroom. More interesting was the bathtub at the other end of the room, which was slowly being filled with water. One of the others had her hand dipped into the water, testing the temperature, which told me that there would be a warm bath to look forward to. This is exactly what I needed.

Between me and the girl at the bathtub, the other two stood shivering with their arms around themselves. They were waiting for the word, and I was as well, that the bath was ready for us all. As I waited, I did my best to take in more of my surroundings. I saw a small mirror on the wall behind the counter, and that was the first time I saw myself in this new life. I'd seen the other girls already, fully in the nude, so I knew full well that they were all beautiful young Elves that any Tolkien-esque fantasy fan would adore and cherish as a wife, but that hadn't prepared me for the girl staring back from the mirror. Unless I was fooling myself or my eyes were playing tricks, I was the prettiest of the bunch.

One of the others glanced back at me just in time to see me curiously cupping my breasts in my hands. "Oi, Josie, are you gonna eat 'em?"

I took my hands off, holding them up innocently. "No. What?"

"You looked like you were gonna start sucking on your own tits."

I wasn't, and I'm pretty sure that's not what I looked like, but now the other two were also paying attention and I had to say something. I think she just said my name, so that's a lucky break. Of course, knowing that I'm called Josie doesn't tell me what their names are. I had to say something to them, but I didn't know what would be fitting. Maybe I could tug on their sympathy for a bit, until I was filled in on enough to get me through a day in this new setting. "I'm… I'm sorry, I'm just a little dazed."

The girl sitting on the side of the tub gave me an understanding nod. "I get it, you're nervous. That's okay, we'll… We'll do what we can to make sure you get through the day in one piece. Right, girls?"

The accuser, the one who had almost caused me a crisis just now, shrugged in spite of herself and nodded in agreement. "Yeah, sure."

The other girl, the one who had been hugging me when I woke up, agreed as well. "Of course! We've got your back!" That was heartwarming. She's the cute one of the group, I can tell.

"Okay, now everyone get in the tub before it gets cold."

At her prompting, we piled into the bathtub and the warm water. It felt good, having a bath, even if it was utterly weird to be sharing that bath with three other girls who I still did not know my relation to. There was playing in the water, soapy goodness, and shampoo for the next few minutes, but the water was quickly turning frigid. Without time to waste, we rinsed all the suds off our bodies and hopped out of the tub, with our apparent de facto leader pulling the plug to drain the water. The towels were waiting for us, one each, and we put them to good use.

Whatever this was, there was a strong sense of close intimate community between the four of us, which I learned when one of the others grabbed my towel and started helping me dry off places that I don't normally let other people touch. It was still cold, and everyone was obviously hurrying to get into something warm, so I guess I might have been holding everyone up. It was about this time that I realized I was going to have to get dressed and I didn't even know which clothes were mine, or where the clothes even were.

Watching to see where the others placed their towels after using them, I put mine there as well and declared. "I need help."

"Help? With what?" Our brave leader put her hands on her hips and looked around the room, as if she would be able to find what was troubling me. Unable to find an answer on her own, she reiterated her question. "What do you need help with?"

Okay, if I can pass this off as just nerves, whatever I might be nervous about, then I should be able to at least get ready for the day and get out the door. Here goes nothing. "I have no idea what I'm doing. Just… consider me as having dropped my brain. That's how much help I need."

"Oh." Her hands dropped off her hips, like she instantly believed me that I was completely lost. "Well… uh… okay." She stiffly turned to the others. "Aura, get Josie's clothes ready. Chrys, help me tidy her up. If she's freezing up now, we can't trust her to do her makeup either."

Thank God. If makeup is also going to be a thing, there's no way I'd do it right. I'm sure I'm halfway decent with the makeup I know, but I'm in a totally foreign realm here and I have no idea what is and isn't acceptable for a girl to put on her face. Although, I will say, looking at myself in the mirror again, any woman who looked like this without makeup, where I'm from, would never need makeup a day in her life. Still, if it's as serious as they make it sound, then I should let them handle this.

They sat me down in front of the mirror, and the makeover began. I guess Chrys was her name, the one who had been covering her face when I woke up, and she was setting about drying me off all over, putting more effort and care into getting every little spot. Our leader was going after my hair, brushing it and styling it. I wouldn't have expected styling with the kind of poverty it seemed we lived in, but money or no money, these girls took care of their appearance.

"Clothes are ready, Mina!" That must have been the hugger, who was preparing my clothes. I have to thank and applaud these girls for doing all this for me while foregoing their own preparations.

Mina, I guess that was our leader, waved Aura back into the room. "Okay, let's get them on her." It was time to get dressed.

I was expecting underwear. I don't know why I wouldn't have been expecting underwear. There wasn't underwear. At least, there was no underwear as I know it. There were these puffy soft things that I'd have put down as pajamas shorts, but that was apparently my underwear. At least they were comfortable. In retrospect, I wish underwear in my previous life was like that. On the other end of the spectrum, or at least that's what I expected it to be, the next piece was a corset, and I was not looking forward to it. As it turned out, however, that piece didn't smother me any more than your average bra. It was padded on the inside so that the stiff material didn't hurt my delicate skin, and it pushed my breasts up to emphasize them as much as possible. As Mina tightened it from behind, Aura was pressing it up against my breasts and making me fear that they would pop out and we'd have to start over. They took it just to the edge, where I could feel it was about to go wrong, and then stopped. As soon as they took their hands off and my body was left to rest on the corset itself, I realized that it was much more comfortable than it looked.

Then the real makeup came out. It wasn't mostly what I was expecting, though they powdered my cheeks several times to make my skin appear paler and then put a soft blush on top of that. Then, while Mina was carefully tending to my eyelashes and eyebrows, which I didn't think needed much work but I guess she thought differently, Chrys went to work curling my hair bit by bit until it all looked professionally done, and Aura saw fit to repeat the powdering process for my breasts. That felt excessive, but when everyone got out of my face and I could see myself in the mirror, I looked like a sex icon. With a touch of something I'm going to generously call rouge on my lips, their work was just about done.

There was probably a few things I missed during the whole process. These girls worked so fast and so precisely that it was impossible to keep up. I had been worried that all the work they'd just done was going to go to waste as soon as I put on a shirt, but as it turned out none of it would be going on over my head. There was a shirt, I think it'd be called a blouse, that they wrapped around me and started buttoning up the front while I put my arms through the sleeves, though I noticed they left it unbuttoned just below my pushed-up breasts to show off cleavage. Clever girls.

Next came what I think is called a petticoat. It was a small jacket or coat that went over my shoulders and I put my arms through the sleeves of that as well, but it wasn't even big enough to wrap all the way around my chest. They still did up the buttons on the lower half of the thing, once again leaving my cleavage in plain sight. I wasn't all that concerned with showing off some skin, especially since it'd be a waste to hide something Aura had just applied makeup to. I had been no stranger to revealing clothes in my past life, but one thing I had never done was leave a big window above my breasts in weather this cold. If I'm going outdoors, it will be worse, I guarantee it.

I had been expecting a skirt. I'd actually been expecting a full dress that went from my shoulders to my ankles, but with the top half so layered of many smaller parts, I had to assume I would be wearing a skirt, probably multiple layers of skirt at that. Then I heard the sound of Aura shaking out a pair of pants. I don't have a problem with wearing a skirt, but I like pants. Now I was finding out that I would be wearing pants all day. A surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.

I'm not too sure how I feel about what happened next. The pants were nice, they fit very well, and the puffy underwear hidden beneath them kept everything very comfortable, but then the skirt came. I thought I wasn't wearing a skirt, but I guess I was. Two skirts, actually. I was right about that. I just didn't realize there were pants to go along with them. As it turned out, though, this was just because of the cold. I was actually quite warm under all those layers, and I think I wouldn't have been so warm without the pants. They kept a cold draft from coming up under my skirt.

Near the end of the process, I noticed both Aura and Chrys were stepping out every so often to get their own clothes on. It was sudden and effortless in appearance, how they quickly transformed from naked girls to colorfully dressed butterflies. Now that I was done, however, they were starting to shove me aside so that they could use the mirror. I acquiesced and stepped out of the washroom, leaving them to pretty themselves up for the day. Mina did a once over, making sure I was good, and then left me to take care of her own preparations.

The whole process had taken maybe five minutes, which both felt like an hour and only a few seconds. Then it was another few minutes while I watched them get themselves ready. I think it was maybe ten minutes, since each was only focusing on their own business and they were fighting over the single mirror. At some points, I was almost expecting them to start trading blows, but no such luck. It would have been funny to see, but I guess we're too close to be hitting one another over makeup.

They came out of the washroom one at a time, first Mina, then Chrys and finally Aura. It surprised me that Mina was done first, since she was the last one to start, but she does have a lot of authoritative charisma that probably made it easier for her to get more time with the mirror. Aura did seem to be the less assertive of the three, so it made sense that she would be forced away from the mirror the most.

"And that's that." Mina announced. "We're ready to go out."

That was great news. I didn't look forward to braving the cold, but at least I wasn't wearing one of those ugly tall hats Victorian ladies had to put up with; one of those ones that looks like it has a bird on top of it. There was never any purpose for those. If I have to put one on before we go out, I'm not doing it. I do have two problems with this idea that we're 'ready' to go out, though. First, I'm hungry. We just woke up, and I haven't seen any sign of food in here. Second, I have no idea where we're going. I guess I can just follow them, but that's assuming something I don't really want to assume. What if I follow them only to find that they're going to work, and I work somewhere else? That wouldn't look good, and it might get me fired.

I decided that it was probably best to get that cleared up in private rather than in public. "Great. Where… are we going?"

"Oh dear, you really are hopeless." Chrys sighed. She looked to Aura and the two of them quickly made their way to the door, leaving me with Mina.

Mina approached me, reaching up and adjusting my clothes some more as she spoke. "You must be really nervous. I don't blame you either, it is a big night for you. It's okay, I'll walk you to the pub." Wonderful, I work at a pub. I dressed up like this to serve drunk people who will most like be throwing up all over the place. I'm so not looking forward to this. Mina gave my shoulder a reassuring squeeze. "I'll explain to Megan and Moira that this has been really rough on you, and they'll take care of you from there. Okay?"

Great, more people. Well, I don't know who those people are, so I'll be relying on Mina to introduce me. If she thinks they'll take care of me, then that should be good enough. I've decided that Mina is a good egg, so I'll trust her, and if she says Megan and Moira are going to take care of me, then they will take care of me. She held up her hand, offering it, so I accepted and took her hand. Holding hands, she led me out the door.

Now, we apparently lived in an apartment which consisted of the bedroom, the washroom, and a narrow hallway where all our stuff that didn't fit in either of those two rooms was stored. That's not a problem, and getting past it all wasn't a problem either, since between the four of us there wasn't really all that much stuff. At the end of the hallway was another door, and this one led us out to a stairwell. We went down to the ground floor, three floors down by my count, and out the front door of the building and into the cold evening air.

I was sure it hadn't been that long. I thought for certain that I'd been roused from sleep by morning light. But the sun was gone now, only a faint glow from over the horizon lighting the sky up. Night was fast coming, and morning was far away. We surely hadn't spent that long preparing, so I deduced that I'd seen a sunset, not a sunrise. That didn't explain why we had been sleeping all day, but either that was normal or we had a good reason, and in either case I couldn't just ask straight up.

"Come on, this way." Mina tugged on my arm, pulling me down the street. "I don't want to be late, and you definitely don't want to be late."

I let her drag me away, and I briefly noticed that Chrys and Aura were not with us. I let Mina guide me, taking in the town I lived in. I soon realized it was probably a small city, as many of the buildings in this area were three, four, or even five stories. A light layer of snow covered the ground, and horse-drawn carriages rolled down the cobblestone streets. It was a Victorian, or perhaps post-Victorian paradise, for as much as that can be called a paradise. If I didn't know better, or if I hadn't seen Elves already, I'd think I was looking at a recreation of the early twentieth century London, or at the very least somewhere in England.

Mina was going off talking about things that interested her, or I assumed they interested her. Possibly, they were things she knew Josie was interested in, so I had to pay some attention to her. "I'm just so excited to see the results of the election. We were old enough to vote last time, but what a waste. That bill they passed last year changed absolutely everything, and I think parliament is going to look completely different now that us Dark Elves can vote."

So… I'm a Dark Elf. I didn't think we looked particularly dark, and in fact we're all really pale. I guess our hair is dark, but is that enough to call us Dark Elves? If that's all it is, then okay, that sounds… honestly really messed up that we couldn't vote because our hair is dark. Interesting, though, that being women isn't what prevented us from voting. I guess that got taken care of already. Still, this is politics, and I really hope Josie isn't a political activist and I'm expected to follow in her footsteps. Wait… the results? Vote? Oh no… we're going to an election party, aren't we?

This is a disaster. I hate politics, I hate getting into it, I hate being around people who are into it. This is going to go so terribly, everyone will know I don't want to be there and they'll take it as opposition to whatever party or candidate they're behind. Oh, of course I have my own opinions and ideas and thoughts, but I don't tell them to anyone. I go in, vote for the lesser evil, and get out. I sleep through the rest of the day. But now I'm being dragged into a situation where I'm going to be expected to be excited for political positions I'm not even aware of. If people sniff me out as not being ecstatic enough there's going to be pitchforks and violence unless I can prove I believe the same as them. The worst part is that I can't even fake my way out, since I don't know any of the relevant issues or anybody's positions on them. I guess the right for Dark Elves to vote is the one thing.

I had to voice my concerns in some way to Mina before we arrived and it was too loud for me to say anything. I was also apparently going to be handed off to some others I hadn't met, and I had no way of knowing if they would understand anything I tried to tell them. The easiest way to convey my concerns to Mina without giving it all away was by being vague yet specific. "Mina, wait, please slow down! I… I don't…" Play up the uncertainty for added effect.

It worked, and she stopped dragging me through the street to turn and face me, putting her hands on my shoulders. "It's okay, I know you're nervous. I would be too. But you got this."

I don't think I got this. "I think this is a mistake. We shouldn't go. I'll be totally out of place."

"Don't say that. Sure, you'll be out of place, but that's to be expected. But you've come this far and there's no going back."

"But I… I don't know what to say-"

"You don't need to think about that. Megan will take care of you."

It sounds like this Megan character is reliable and a good responsible friend. If she'll really cover for me in this sort of situation, then I will stick by her side the entire time. I won't like it, but if Megan gives me an excuse not to speak at the party, then she'll be my guardian angel indeed. I might be able to survive. I just need Megan to pull me through.

"So you good?" Mina looks like she's a bit impatient right now. I understand that, she wants to be there on time, and here I am holding her up. Well, no point in dragging her down if there's a way to keep myself afloat at the party.

I swallowed my worry and nodded, smiling to reassure her. "I think so, yes."

"Then let's go." She continued to drag me along.

We finally slowed down when we reached a pub that had a bustling crowd outside, overflowing from indoors. It was too late for us to get anywhere to sit inside the building, for sure, so I was about to say that I could just give up and go home. That's when another woman appeared from down the side of the building. Black hair, pointed ears, I guessed another Dark Elf. Mina handed me off to her without a second thought, and then bolted away like she was a wanted woman. I had to hope that this was Megan.

"Come on, hurry up!" I could only barely hear her voice over the crowd, even with her shouting. She took me down the side of the building, to a side door that let us in behind the bar. There was a hallway that led from one end of the pub to the other, running all the way along the back of the building. It was only about three feet across, poorly lit, and also crowded. And then the strangest thing happened. Megan, at least I think it's Megan, hugged me. It was a bit more than the kind of hug you give a close friend. "I'm so glad you're here. The results should be here any moment."

I didn't know how to exactly process this. Firstly, we're essentially backstage here, this is the kind of place we shouldn't be if we're simply supporters. I'm beginning to think we're more than that here, possibly campaign workers. If that's the case, I've actually got responsibilities I need to take care of, and I don't know what those are or how to do them. Major problem right there. Second, maybe Elf culture is more intimate in general than what I'm used to, considering how I woke up today, but she's definitely hugging me in a way normally reserved for someone you're romantically involved with. Or she's European. Well, aren't all Elves European?

A boy shoved his way past several people to reach us. "Josie! The crowd's restless. You gotta say something to them, let them know you're here."

Do I? Oh no, oh no, oh no no no, I'm supposed to go up in front of a crowd of political activists and talk to them on election night. What do I even say? "I… uh…" I was staggered.

She came to my rescue just as I was floundering. Breaking off the hug, possibly-Megan put a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Cam, we're all good. Moira can handle that. We need to go over the speech."

It's a bit frantic, trying to remember the faces and names of people I'm supposed to know already, but I think I've been managing pretty well. This isn't Moira, and since I was told it would be Moira and Megan taking care of me, this should be Megan. I still can't assume that until I hear someone else say it. Also, hey, wasn't Mina supposed to let her know I was anxious? That never happened. I'm gonna give her an earful about that next time I see her.

As Cam shoved his way back through the hallway, maybe-Megan pulled me in the same direction. The others who were crowding the hallway, most of them were other dark-haired Elves, tried their best to make room for us, which they hadn't done for Cam at all. We reached the far end, and there was a small area that almost counted as a room, maybe six feet in every direction, with three steps up to a door that went out onto a small stage in the pub. I saw the stage when Cam went through the door, probably to find Moira.

Ostensibly-Megan took me to the back corner of the small room and fished some papers out from her coat pocket, handing them to me. "Here's the speech. I tidied it up so you can make out what section is which. Just stick to the sections we memorized, and you'll be fine."

The what? Memorized? God help me. "Uh… shouldn't it all be here in the speech?" Why would I have to memorize something I can just read off this script? If I can't take the script with me, why do we have it written down? Or does she want me to brush up on it right now? Why am I giving a speech? I am not nearly drunk enough to speak in front of a crowd.

She gave me a blank stare, then suddenly prodded me in the chest altogether too hard. "Of course it is, and I made the key words the most visible. That way you know what's next." She stopped, and the smile that had been on her face since I first saw her disappeared. "Please tell me you remember the speech."

I do not remember the speech at all, because I never knew it. "I don't know if I'll remember it when I'm up there in front of… how many people are here? A hundred? Two hundred?"

"Uhh, probably closer to seventy, but still, that's uh… Shit, that's not good, um, I uhh…" She took the speech back and was flipping through the pages, looking for the important parts most likely. "Okay, okay, here." She held up one page for me to see. "You need to talk about continuing to push for equality, to make our voices heard, and to not stop speaking out about injustices inherent in our society. You need to reassure them that we will take what support they give us and use it to lobby the local and regional elected officials on their behalf, to raise the standard of living for all Elves in Ealand."

Wonderful. Aside from the fact that this all sounds like empty promises, the sorts that all politicians give and then never follow through on, it also sounds very revolutionary. While I appreciate the sentiment, revolutions rarely go well, and I'm not looking forward to being in the middle of one. I'm supposed to spout this stuff off to a crowd? I'd rather tease a shark with a fish head. The other problem is that this sounds like the kind of thing the party leader should be telling a crowd at this stage of an election. The person they voted for should be the one saying this to them. We can't be that dumb, so that means I must be the one they're voting for, which is the worst news I've heard all day.

Also, something that sounds a little off with the way she's wording this, and I can't shake the feeling this isn't how it's supposed to be. "This sounds a lot like we're expecting to lose."

"Of course, but we got a lot of support, a lot more than we expected. I think we might get that sweet one percent that puts us on the board. Maybe even five percent, which would be amazing."

We're aiming for one percent of the vote? What kind of lunacy is this? "Why can't it be more? Why not a majority?"

"Maybe you've forgotten the situation, Josie, but basically nobody gets a majority. Trust me, I've been studying for this. Okay? Remind me which of us can read and write?"

She looked like she wanted me to say. She was waiting for me to tell her which of us was literate. I'm literate, and I don't want to lie to what might be my best friend or possibly lover, but she looks like she really expects me to praise her for being a smart girl. "Uh… You?"

She leaned in closer, smiling as she cupped her ear to hear. "What was the name? Who was it you're speaking of?"

I really hate to do this to her. Instead of risking it all and saying the name that I thought was hers, but didn't know for certain, like she wanted me to, I took the paper out of her hand and started reading it aloud. "Friends, comrades, brothers and sisters, while we have not won this election, we have made our voices plentifully clear to those in power." I looked up at her somewhat surprised face. "You only put one 'L' in 'plentifully'."

She suddenly looked absolutely infuriated, grabbing the speech from me and looking over it. "What the hell, Josie? I… I did not, there are two just like there's supposed to be. One at the beginning and one at the end."

"There's two at the end. It's a double." She glared at me, silently seething. I shrugged. "I'm not completely illiterate." She needed some comforting after that obvious blow to her ego. "That said, there's no way I'm going to be writing speeches and stuff like that."

She softened finally. "I suppose I shouldn't be that surprised. We did spend weeks working on this thing. If you're going to be able to read anything, it'll be this speech."

"Okay, so remind me again why we're expecting to lose?"

She sighed the sigh of someone who had explained all of this time and time again. "Because there are something like two dozen parties in town, and we're both the newest and the poorest. If we get one percent of the vote, we technically have a voice, we become an official party. If we get five percent, which is our ceiling, we have the potential to be the deciding factor in a coalition. Our voice will be stronger, but we'll be muddled up in a lot of other parties' voices, and the biggest party will actually hold the seat. You could probably wind up in London like that, as an assistant or aide to the coalition leader."

That sounds like hell for so many reasons, but okay. "Then what happens if we wind up with a higher percentage? Like, say, ten, for example."

"I don't even want to think about that." She waved off the notion very quickly. It actually looked like she was worried about that result. How ten could be worse than five is beyond me.

"Why, what's wrong with ten percent?"

"Uh, because there are other parties who would want our votes. With five percent, they can either ignore us or bully us if we don't do what they want. If they don't want you, they'd just have our party replace you as our leader with someone more copacetic. With ten percent, you're an actual threat, and it's possible, however unlikely, that you could put together a coalition of your own. Besides that, you could also easily be in the position to deny any other party a coalition majority. With ten percent, you could blow up the entire local election."

Honestly, even for me, holding an election hostage and blowing it up sounds like a lot more fun than politics usually is. Plus, the possibility of actually being in charge, why isn't that a good thing? "How would that not be good?"

"Because there's a time between the election results coming in and all the coalitions forming. In that time, you've been assessed as a threat to the other parties, including some that are led by, funded by, or controlled by rich bastards who want to be in charge of everything. We would be a threat, but without any official position of power, so they would want to shatter us and scatter us to the wind. We, my dear Josie, are Dark Elves. No one will care what happens to us."

That sounds dark and sinister, and I don't like where she's going with it. "You can't be serious."

"I am. There's nothing stopping them from using violence to get you out of the way. But if we're around five percent, there's no reason to act against us like that. You understand?"

Violence… to get me out of the way. Like crashing into a car and sending someone off a bridge. This is a total nightmare. If we get a high enough percentage of the votes that we could be the center of a coalition, I'm in danger of being assassinated. That's too much. I am not going to die for someone else's political career. If we get ten percent, I'm fleeing the country. Which will be harder than I would have thought. It seemed like this place was rather English, and the accents everyone has fit that pretty well, but I assumed my reincarnation adapted me to the location so I could understand people. She said London. She said London. This isn't just a very English looking place, this is England. With Elves. England with Elves.

So we want a low percent, but a full percent. One to five percent means we're there, we're in, and we have that voice, for what it's worth, but we're not big enough to be the driving force behind a coalition, so we're not seen as a threat. We're just a piece in someone else's game, with maybe a minor amount of influence if we're on the higher end of that safe zone. On the other hand, a high enough percentage to lead a coalition makes us dangerous, so other strong parties will want to break us up before we can form that coalition, which could mean assassination attempts against at least me, probably our whole party leadership. But that leaves one thing, no matter how unlikely, standing out on the other side of that huge danger. If ten percent is dangerous, twenty would be too. And so would any other higher percent that's still a minority.

To confirm the math, I asked my friend who might be Megan. "In that regard, ten percent could get us hurt, or worse." I tried to avoid using the 'A' word, just in case I was reading too much into it and that was actually not what she meant. "What would we be looking at with, say… forty percent?"

She froze for a moment, then let out a long sigh. "Worse. While it's possible we'd have made too much of a mark for anyone to safely take us out, at a certain point our political opposition might just not be concerned for their own safety anymore. It'll be about revenge, basically, and yeah, you could be assassinated, I could be assassinated, Cam, Cam's sister, my sister, pretty much anyone even close to you could be a target. That'd be if someone totally snapped, though. Even then, we'll be dead, sure, but Moira would pull it all together. I don't think it'd be the same under her, but it'd be something, even though we wouldn't be there to see it."

And why wouldn't they just kill Moira off too? I feel like that's something that should be obvious, so I won't ask, but I badly want to know why she gets to not be an assassination target. So, anyway, in all that doomsaying, I did notice she changed from the certainty of someone trying to hurt us to the possibility of someone trying to kill us. Meaning it's not a given. Like she said, if we've made too much of a mark, it might not be worth risking an assassination on us. That's the best news I've heard all day. Maybe.

"Wonderful. Glad there's a backup plan." I was being sarcastic. If I die again this soon after reincarnating, I hope the world is vaporized in a solar flare. "So what does happen if we win a majority?"

"Mmm, I told you already." She shook her head. "That's essentially impossible. No way anyone gives a majority to a brand new party, especially one run by Dark Elves."

"Okay, but hypothetically. Are we in danger?"

She paused, thought it over, tilted her head from side to side to shift the thoughts around a bit, then answered. "You'd automatically be the winner. You'd be a member of parliament, and all your opponents would have to go on the record conceding. They'd have no real choice in the matter. Assassinating you would achieve nothing for them. Of course, any elected official has to worry about assassination to some degree, but a representative from a small party coming out of a relatively insignificant town, most political enemies wouldn't be rivals anymore. They'd be after you because you're an Elf, a woman, or a darkie."

I'm white, she's white, Elves or not, I'm used to being white from my last life, so when she just casually said 'darkie' I almost checked over my shoulder to see if there was any black people around. It totally freaked me out, I was ready to shout at her or cover her mouth with my hand, but two things occurred to me quickly enough to keep me from making a scene that was completely unnecessary. First, I realized that it probably is a slur, but it probably means Dark Elves here. I don't like it, I'm not going to use it, but holy hell. Second, given the era this looks like, it probably wouldn't make anyone bat an eye to hear that word used like that. I guess I'll just take solace in the fact that it wasn't… that word. You know which one I mean, and I'm not clarifying.

Right… racism. Absolutely wonderful to hear that it's still around. I've never really been the target of racism, so this should be a new experience for me. Who am I kidding, the nightmare is just getting worse. I'm a racial minority too, which is a whole other can of worms I don't even want to think about. Maybe assassination wouldn't be so bad. Well, violence because I'm a Dark Elf… I can only imagine what that would entail. I hope imagining is all I get to do, but I doubt I'm that lucky. On the other hand, I might have the opportunity to make some progress on this. She did say that my being a woman could also gain me some enemies, so I guess just because we can vote doesn't mean there isn't discrimination. This is the first time Dark Elves have been able to vote, too, so I think we're right in the middle of a cultural revolution. If I'm careful with my steps, I could make a big change for the better here. I could end up as an icon for women's suffrage, racial equality, and probably also a very nice obituary picture considering how things go for cultural revolutionaries.

No sense crying about it now. If we don't get a full percent of the vote here, we probably don't get to try again, and my life goes in a totally different direction. Once I'd narrowly avoided a heart attack, my friend whose name is conceivably Megan handed the speech back to me. I looked over it, reminding myself that we had no contingency for victory, and decided that I wanted to have that option open in the event we did win. "So realistic or not, what do I say if we win?"

"You're way too hopeful." She took a moment to run her fingers through her hair before answering. "I suppose you could just do the speech, and then finish with saying 'That's the only speech we had prepared because we weren't expecting this win.' How does that sound to you?"

It's better than nothing. "I'll play around with the presentation, but that works."

"Good, cause we do not have time for another speech. That one took forever to write."

The door to the stage opened and Cam joined us. "Megan, we need someone out there. Is Josie ready?"

The girl who I've finally had confirmed is actually the Megan I hoped she was answered, openly irritated. "I told you to get Moira to do that. You were out there this whole time without Moira talking to the crowd?"

"I was trying to get to her, but she flipped me off and mimed hanging herself." Geez, that's extreme. And she's supposed to be my friend?

"Why the hell would she do that? You got the right girl, right? She's the one whose hair looks like a plum."

"I know who Moira is, but her brothers are here."

"Oh for fucks sakes." Megan looked down the hallway, suddenly near frantic. "We need someone out there now. Where's Ned? We don't have anything to say until he gets here."

Another person, great. Who's Ned? How do I ask who Ned is? "I'm sorry, why do we need Ned?"

"Ned's at the town hall, waiting for the election results. Once they're done counting, he'll come back and give them to us. We'll know then if we live or die." How optimistic, Megan. You're just a bundle of joy, aren't you? "Okay, Cam, go back out there and just… I don't know, butter the crowd up, thank them for their support and for coming out to join us." She turned to me, whispering furiously. "I can't believe Moira's brothers are here. Those assholes are just going to be obstructive and a disaster for us. If they get out of hand, we'll have to move out of here quick."

I'm concerned that Moira is our friend and her brothers are so much trouble. I guess they're just rabble-rousers or something, and if she's their sister then she probably just has to tolerate them because they're family. I feel for her there, but it sounds like she's completely useless right now. Cam clearly can't hold the crowd together either, so someone needs to go out there and keep them happy. I can't let Megan do it, cause if she goes out there and leaves me here, I'm gonna freak. So the only option left is me. How and why does it have to be me?

There's nothing for it. "I'll go out there and see what I can do."

Megan was startled. "You… you sure?"

No, I'm not sure, but someone's got to, and I've got to be that someone. "I'm relying on you to give me the results as soon as Ned gets here."

"Okay, okay… yeah, go, just…" Just as I was reaching for the door, she turned me around. "Don't take any shit from those two." Her eyes went wide, and I realized she was now looking me over. "On second thought, you need to take off your clothes right now."

"I'm sorry, what? You've gotta be kidding me." I'm not taking my clothes off in the back of a pub. I'm pretty sure half the people in that hallway are guys, though I'm not completely sure since they're all Elves and I'm not quite there yet on telling the men from the women.

Megan called over to the two nearest people down the hallway. "Dane, Evan! Quick!"

The two, clearly guys, made their way over to us. "Megan, what's up?"

"Josie's roommates tried to sabotage her. We need a change of clothes right away. Dane, turn around and block the hall so no one sees. I'm going to give her my clothes. Evan, get me something wearable please." Evan rushed away, pushing through the crowd as Dane turned his back to us, blocking us from the view of everyone else in the hall. Megan pulled me back so that we'd be behind the door if it opened again, then started stripping. She stopped for a second so she could pull open my top. "Take those off, you look like you should be standing outside a brothel."

"And your solution is to make me look like I'm in a room at a brothel?" I do not want to be naked in public.

"Hurry, you can not go out there like that!" She wasn't nearly as dressed up as I was. For this era, I would say she was wearing men's clothes almost. A sweater, pants, a heavy jacket, and all of them were off of her now. "Take those off and put these on! Now!"

What a bossy lady. She left me no real choice, so I tore off my clothes as fast as I could without actually tearing them. If those girls actually tried to make me look bad in public, I'm going to have words with them. I think Megan was exaggerating with the brothel comment, since a lot of other women were dressed not so dissimilar to me on the way here, but it was starting to feel a lot more formal and less business. The moment I had everything off up top, Megan shoved her sweater on over my head and pulled it down. It hung just past my hips so while I wasn't what would be considered decent just yet, I wasn't flashing anyone who looked down the hallway. She gave me the pants, and I hopped into them, letting her do up the belt since it was a little wonky around the clasp and stuff.

She draped her jacket over my shoulders, helping me quickly put my arms through the sleeves. Once I had the clothes on, she turned me towards the door right away and sent me off. "Reassure your constituency. Go!" The door opened in front of me and Cam stopped cold, seeing Megan behind me. She was still very naked. I could feel the heat coming off her face from a tremendous blush.

I grabbed Cam and turned him around, marching him back out onto the stage ahead of me. "You need to introduce me to the crowd, real fast."

"Ruh-right, uh…" Stepping to, Cam jumped out ahead of me and stood up in front of the audience. "Ladies and gentlemen, the woman you've been waiting to hear from, Josie Wales." He stepped aside, holding out his hand to present me. But hold up… my name is Josie Wales? You gotta be kidding me. Like the Clint Eastwood character?

On some level, it was gratifying to hear the clapter all for me. On the other hand, I reminded myself that this was all for someone who wasn't here anymore. Someone whose body I was inhabiting. Wherever the real Josie has gone, I wish her well. I hope she doesn't have to deal with any of this nonsense. Who am I kidding, she probably likes this. No, screw it, she got me into this, I do hope she has to deal with this madness, whether she likes it or not.

I also have to keep in mind that this is maybe eighty people, plus another twenty outside maybe. I don't know how many people actually had the option to vote for me, though. It could be hundreds, thousands, even tens of thousands. I doubt it's multiple tens of thousands, though, and the number of people who actually voted for me is probably closer to a couple hundred. Come to think of it, if it's ten thousand people, a couple hundred would in fact be between one and five percent. If everyone here voted for me, then it wouldn't be that many more to reach a full one percent, so I think we might actually have that number Megan is looking for. Which sucks, but is also kinda great, but sucks.

Cam waved at everyone, telling them to lower the volume so I could speak, and I hoped I didn't look as uncomfortable as I felt. I tried not to plaster a fake smile on, because that would be too obvious, but also not to be too awkward and looking at the floor or the ceiling or whatever. I had to be looking at the people and, oh boy, eighty people is a lot more than it sounds. Most of these people, now that I look closely, have black hair and pointed ears just like Megan and I. Dark Elves, mostly. I do see that head that looks like a plum at the bar, so I guess that's Moira, and the two men next to her must be her brothers. They don't seem to want to hush down with the crowd. I guess her brothers disagree with her politics, but I'm more interested in the purple hair. They all have it, so it means something, but I don't know what.

I also see a couple people without pointed ears in the crowd, so I guess there are Humans. I'll have to remind myself that I'm not one of them. There's also some Elves, or at least I think they're Elves, that have neither black hair nor that deep purple the plum heads have. Not many, but there's some scattered through the crowd with brown hair. I wouldn't have noticed if not for the light, which actually looks like electricity. I'll have to learn what all of this means discreetly somehow, but for now the real prize is the tall redhead looking in through the window. She's pretty pronounced in this sea of dark colors, even in the darkness outside. I wonder who she is.

Cam motioned for me to step up, now that the crowd was appropriately quieted. I went to the edge of the stage and took a deep breath. I had to project my voice here, which Josie was hopefully practiced at. If she'd spent any good amount of time doing public speaking, then her body should be well suited to this. If not, I might destroy my voice here. So the key is not to shout, but to talk very loudly. So that's what I did, or tried to do. "Hello, everybody. Thank you for coming out to support us tonight."

First thing I was glad about was that my voice didn't hurt when I tried to do that. It worked, though I could only hope that the people in the back could hear me, and the people outside even more. Second thing I was glad about, there was a resounding cheer in response, and I could hear it come from outside just as much as in the pub. They were energized. A small crowd, if energized, could be a better sign than a much larger crowd that lacked any real enthusiasm.

"Show us your tits!"

And there it was. I didn't see who shouted that at the stage, but I could tell where it came from. There's no way it wasn't one of Moira's brothers. Seeing them laughing and elbowing each other at the bar, I knew what this was going to be. They were here to hinder everything and make the most memorable part of the night their own misdeeds. From the uncomfortable response they got from the audience, I could see that they were sitting in some sort of position that made them untouchable, or near to it. Behind their backs, I could see Moira clasp her hands together and give me a bow, apologizing for them. That's fine and good, girl, but apologizing doesn't repair whatever damage they do.

So I pointed at Moira. "Excuse me, ma'am? Are these two yours? Isn't it after their bedtime?"

One of them waved me off, going back to his drink, but the other brother had a retort ready. "Darkie's got a mouth! Why don't you use it and suck my cock?"

Oh yeah, I bet that was real original. Also, he called me the 'd' word. I bet that means he's not a Dark Elf. So what is he then… "Your cock? I didn't realize that was a chicken sitting next to you."

Apparently, that stung the one who had backed down earlier. Judging by Moira's reaction, clasping her hands over her mouth in shock, I was either doing really well or really poorly. I'm not sure what exactly the situation is here, but I sense that it's some of that racism going on. With that in mind, I've decided I'm going to take this opportunity to deal a blow to the ego of some obviously spoiled brats.

The second brother, who had initially stood down but was spurred back into action by a verbal attack, stood up and pointed at me. "Fuck you, bitch!"

What a wordsmith. As much fun as this is, there is at least one child in the room, not counting Moira's brothers. I see a kid at a table with their parents, I assume those are the kid's parents. This kind of crude language in front of a small child is unacceptable. I looked him dead in the eye. "Sir, you and your brother are not welcome here. You can stay, if you like, that's your right. But you are no longer welcome."

He pointed at me, or my general direction. He's drunk, so I presume he pointed at one of the several of me. "You can't tell me what to do, you cheap whore!" Though he pronounced it like 'hooa'.

He's pretty stupid, isn't he. I just said I'm not telling him what to do. Actually… let's put that to test. Let's give them that platform. "Why don't you tell us what you think, then? Since this is a gathering of a political nature, what do you and presumably your two acquaintances there think we've all got wrong that you've got right?" I get that Moira is stuck entertaining her brothers and they might not realize she's not on their side, so I'm maintaining her cover, at least until I find out if they know she's a member of our party.

"Ha! That's easy!" Sounds like he wants to share. "Listen up you darkies, you got a hear this and pay 'tention." I can already tell I am going to hate that word. "Y'all think you're people jus' cause you got the vote, but yer not! When our ancestors found you, you were hidin' in holes like bugs! Yer not even real Elves! So you should be grateful we even found a use for you!"

I don't know how much of that is actually true, but I guarantee not all of it. This part about being found in holes, or not even being real Elves, I don't know. But I do know we're people. Living, breathing, standing, talking… and now glaring. The three purple-haired Elves at the bar are getting a lot of nasty looks from the crowd now, though a lot of my constituents here are trying to be somewhat subtle about it. To simplify the situation, it's kinda like a bar full of black people just after the American Civil War, and a couple white folk are spouting racist trash. Freedom has just been gained, even if not equality, and these people are holding back in part because they're used to not saying anything about being treated this way, and part because they want to show the world that they deserve to be treated as civilized. You don't prove you deserve that by lynching someone who insults you. So these people are in a tough spot, where they have to endure this injustice. What might as well be former plantation owners are in here trying to destroy what they've finally achieved.

I'm about to kick this guy's ass, but here comes someone to the rescue. Someone who can stand up to them without making a headline. Moira got up off her barstool, picked it up, and slammed the seat into the back of her brother's head. He hit the ground fast. She turned and did the same to her other brother, presumably so he didn't figure out who did it, and then put her barstool back down. She might have just been fed up with the negative attention they were drawing to her. I understand that.

She flipped her purple hair over her shoulder and proclaimed loudly. "Deary me, my brothers drank so much they passed out! Can someone see them home?" The kind people of the pub picked up the two unconscious men and passed them towards the door, where waiting hands took them from my sight. Share the love, people. This is what caring looks like.

Amid the muted cheers and the understanding that Moira was not their enemy, I clapped my hands to regain the attention of the crowd. "Everyone, listen up! What you've just witnessed is the quality of the people who want to shut us up! This is what they're like, what they have to resort to, and how we're going to have to deal with them! Not by some messy violent revolt that only makes everyone want to press their boots onto our necks even harder, but by voting! Our voices are heard when we stand together!"

I appreciated the attention I was getting. I don't really know where I'm going with this, but I have to say something after that display. I can not let this sit and stew into hatred of these… purple-haired Elves. They're clearly a classically recognized higher class of some sort, and the only reason they would come to a place like this would be to try and intimidate the Dark Elves. I can only imagine how many of them stayed home or didn't vote because of these goons, but the emboldened crowd with me now was nodding and murmuring in agreement. That was good. I didn't want to take any part in a bloody uprising, and if I could, I would take any opportunity to head one off.

"Yesterday they told us no one would listen, today they tell us we don't know what we're doing, and tomorrow they'll tell us we're the bad guys! When I'm elected to the House of Commons, I won't be looking out for the interests of the Dark Elves, I'll be there representing your wishes for a better nation and a better world for everyone! I won't be working to make sure you get a piece of the pie, I'll be fighting for your right to make your own pie! The way forward is not government handouts or reparations, it's the removal of regulations that hold everyone but a select elite few down! On even ground, everyone has the same chance, and they just can't let that happen!"

There was a resounding whoop from the crowd, and as the message sunk in, the surprised faces turned to cheering faces. Whatever I said, they decided they liked it. There's one more thing I want to make clear, and I really hope I'm hitting somewhere close to Josie's running platform, otherwise Megan is preparing to murder me herself, I'm certain.

"We've been held down for so long, but we do not win by dragging them down to our level! That not only admits that we belong down here, but you do not climb to the top of a ladder by toppling the ladder! You do it through effort, and a desire to be better, and a knowledge that you can be better! And we definitely do not win by getting the government take care of us, like some babies! I'm not going there to get us more money, to make government programs and institutions that will raise our children, feed us and clothe us, and build shelters for us! People can make their own way, and care for themselves! If we can't do that, if we have to rely on someone else to hand us everything, then we might as well be pets! That's not what we are, so that's not what we want! We want to stand shoulder to shoulder with them, and through our actions prove that we belong there!"

The cheer that one got was a lot louder. It seemed like a few of them were a bit more cautious when I told them I wasn't going to get them free stuff. Government programs are a drug, and governments who get their people addicted to them might as well be hooking them on morphine or heroin. It's insidious, but this world, or this nation, it looks like these people haven't been tainted by the poison yet. They like the idea of free stuff, but they're content enough with working for what they get that they aren't attached to the idea. All I can promise is that hard work will get them the same thing as anyone else would get doing the same work. Right now, that would be a miracle in their eyes.

Cam appeared on stage and tapped me on the shoulder. When I turned to him, he handed me a small book. He headed back to the door backstage, and I could see Megan and some guy who I haven't seen before but if I had to guess I'd think he was Megan's twin. Maybe that's Ned. Inspecting the cover of this book, I saw that it had a title. 'Voter Record Feb. 8, 8912'. This is it. This tells us who won.

Standing alone again on the stage in front of all these people, I opened the book and flipped through the pages. Every page was a full list of names, followed by their address and date of birth. Every line was highlighted in a different color, which I realized indicated the party they voted for. I didn't know what color meant our party, so I flipped right to the front where the tally was on display, with each party next to a number representing their total votes received. I still wasn't sure what my party was actually called, so I decided I'd go down the list.

"If you'll all indulge me, I'll go through the results of this vote. From the top, the Abolitionist Party received 0.3 percent of the vote. The Brotherhood Party received 0.5 percent of the vote. The Centralists received 1.4 percent of the vote. The Community Party received…" I had to stop to reread that one, cause Megan had told me no one was likely to get a majority. Sure enough, and looking over the low numbers for everything else, it seemed to check out. Everyone had been politely quiet for those first three, and I don't think they really cared, but this quiet was almost pregnant. It was like they were holding their breaths. Well, what I was reading looked to be what was written, so I said it. "The Community Party received 61.9 percent of the vote."

I was going to continue with the other nineteen parties' numbers, but the bar erupted in a loud cheer. Everyone liked that. I guess we like the Community Party. …That might be us. I saw the name and immediately assumed it meant communism, but now that I think about it, building a community is what I like. The government should keep the people safe from threats that can cause physical harm, which is violence, theft, and slander. That's pretty much all of its duties. Everything else the government can do is just interfering in the lives of the people, who just want to live their lives in peace and build a community. I want to encourage people to build their own communities, with as little help from and reliance on the government as possible.

I cleared my throat, and the joyful cheers quieted enough for me to continue. "The Democratic Socialist Party received 3.4 percent of the vote." They all booed, though there was enough laughter to make it clear that any disdain they had for the Democratic Socialists was far outweighed by how happy they were to hear that other number. Sixty-one percent. Almost sixty-two, actually. "So what I gather is that you don't care so much about the rest of the parties now that you know the Community Party has… gone ahead and taken the whole show." More laughter and clapter and cheers.

I looked over to where Megan and the boys were peering through the door from backstage and waved them over. I might be wrong and this Community Party is just everyone's second choice, but it sure seems like we won. They came out, and Megan shyly approached the front of the stage. She looked breathless, and she was avoiding making eye contact with me, probably to delay the inevitable 'I told you so' that I was absolutely going to wait a year and a half to hit her with.

"This is my friend Megan! I don't think any of us would have made it here without her! Why don't you tell her how you feel!" They cheered her, and she blushed. How sweet. Once they finished their cheer, I turned to her and held the book out to her, open to the first page. "Why don't you tell us all what this means?"

Megan looked like she wanted to elbow me, but she played it to the crowd perfectly. "It means we have won the vote by a vast majority!"