at his casino tables or looking for entertainment in the flesh.

He removed a small, red notebook from his breast pocket and took a plum-colored pen from its binding. Flipping through to find a blank page, he dated the top and wrote in shaky Hiragana "Initiative A – yes." He blew on the page to dry the ink and closed the notebook. Holding onto the pen, he slipped the notebook back into his pocket.

"Next, I would like to congratulate Councilwoman West and Royal Viceroy Macek on the commercial success of the Unit 1 Initiative. Their brand sponsors have reported a median increase in sales of roughly nine percent! This stands as further proof of the effectiveness of joint private sector—State advertising. As well, network news viewership has spiked some thirteen percent in the week follow...

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