Finally, me, King Osa. Have chosen a car that will become the national car of Kingdom of Kala. Tomorrow I will fly out and meet with the executive of Garuda. The deal I’ve offered is cash incentive for building the factory in exchange for share of the local company branch, the deal went very smoothly, and the company accepted without hesitation. Especially because they’re struggling in the area with declining sales due to poor economy.
The plan went forward very quickly, the plant was established in lightning fast time aiding by the current presence of the brand in the country. The car was debut with a very attractive pricing caused by tax subsidy that I’ve given. This well-designed product with excellent performance is surely destined to become a hit with people especially when it’s cheaper than comparable automobile, vital in such hard times.
I will be hiding this because some of you may not be interested in it. Disclaimer: It's just a story, it does not represent any real life personalities or nation. I also did not encouraged any ideology, it's just a story. I personally also think it's a bit crap, but hey ho, it was done in 2 hours. There ought to be mistake and plotholes.
“I have an anecdote to tell you. Once upon a time, a motorcade of a politician was going down a deserted road at great speed, ignoring the traffic rules and not caring for anything in the world. But when it got to one intersection, there was this old Garuda Pesona park at a red light, not a single car in sight coming or going. The motorcade was blasting the horn, telling the driver of the old Pesona through PA system to move over and run the red light. But that car didn’t move, it stay still. One of the leading car’s driver got out and knock at the driver’s window of that old Pesona, but when the window rolls down, he just collapsed to the floor in a fright. An old, thin, grey’ed out man was in the driver seat allegedly said “Why are you in such a hurry? Even I am not in a hurry.” The Politician got out of his luxurious German car and came to have a look, and there he collapsed to. The old man was King Osa, on his way to the airport to visit an undeveloped area up north. But even when there’s no one looking, the rule is the rule. Even the ruler has to stick to it, no one is above the law.”
“Have you heard about that man, Toh? Professor Toh. He’s a goddamn communist alright. He’s been blabbing about the republic and shit. And he’s been trying to defame the king Osa. Before you knew it, he disappeared from his house in the capital. No one ever knew what happened to him, no one ever said anything. The only witness saw a black Garuda Pesona coming up to him and no one ever seen him since. Oh well, that serves him right for not being loyal to the King Osa. Some people probably couldn’t stand him no more and took him out. I’m glad for that.”
“All Garuda Pesona should be preserved! How can you destroy a car that the great King Osa has given us?!”
“I know that in the current economic trouble, Garuda might be considering to move out of the Kingdom of Kala. But please, do not do that. The company is serving it’s people. Employer of the many thousands worker building the car in the factory. Please, don’t go. I know the demand is not ideal at the moment but it will subside. In fact, can I purchase one? You may let the workers take their time with it, hand building it even. But please, let them being able to keep their job.”
“I reckon it’s a great car this, the Pesona. Excellent drive, excellent performance.”
2020
“They’ve shot Mr. Jiang, and now they’re blaming me for it. Saying it with a ridiculous, preposterous premise but people are going to believe it! A killing because of a conflicting love affair becoming exposed, what a terrible bullshit!.. They executed Mr. Jiang in broad daylight. I’m sure the government official did it. They knew what we have, they knew we can use it and it’s going to bring everything down!”
You speak with a tremble, it’s clear that you’re quite horrified of what happened and what’s been reported in the news. I’m quite horrified too, but less at the idea but more of the thought that people is going to believe it.
“And that’s exactly why there was a Garuda parked near your car, observing and ready to pounce as soon as they saw you. It seems that they haven’t caught on the fact that I picked you up in a Mitsushita Polly. I saw you parked your Baltazar in a secluded place in hope to not attract attention, but the officials were hot behind your tail and knew it was your car. Not many people would park there since it’s a far away walk. A black Garuda was so obvious that I’m surprised you didn’t caught it on."
“Yes! Exactly!..” You proclaimed, with a bit of embarrassment.
“So what exactly have you done? Why are they pinning that on you?” I asked as I pointed at the television screen showing the news report on the murder of Mr. Jiang. “I am assuming it’s not true at this moment.”
“Well, as you may have heard, I am a reporter now for the South East Chronicle. I have been situated in Thailand for a bit of time now due to the circumstances. Of course, you would know…” You stop for a bit and look at me in the eyes. “I will be telling you this because I knew you from back in the day, and I hope your opinion on King Osa have not changed in the decade we haven’t met.
"Mr. Jiang and I have the reports from a lead in the royal palace of King Osa. You know how in the recent years he have been going batshit?..”
“I know.”
“Yeah, about that. It’s not proven, it’ll never be proven. No one is willing to speak out and no one would be able to get out. Apart from a single person. A servant by the name of Yong. Have you heard the rumour floating around about the guy? That he has a dissent murdered in the palace by drowning in a lake?”
“Oh? I have heard about that. Didn’t think of it much. A lot of rumours going about and you cannot be sure which is true and which isn’t.”
“Yeah that would be the case, if it was not for the technology. It’s true. Yong took a video of King Osa personally ask his soldier to throw the guy in the lake.”
“Sorry, what?”
The look you’re giving me suggested that this isn’t a joke.
“It’s not the only atrocity this absolute twat has been doing that’s been caught on camera either. Plenty more evidence this isn’t as nice of a guy as people would be lead to think. Yong took a few, as much as she could have… Poor girl…”
“Huh?”
“She was caught, not before she uploaded the videos to cloud though. I haven’t heard from Yong since the day Mr. Jiang got the files. Presumed dead I reckon.”
At this moment, your face turns red from anger again. But I see you’re trying to suppress it.
“The files are on a storage device in the hotel Mr. Jiang was staying. I couldn’t access it now, obviously. I think the police would’ve gotten to it by now… All is completely lost even though we had a chance to bring down this… this…”
You couldn’t even finish the sentence.
But then I thought of something.
“What if I tell you, I could get it back?” I said that which makes you look up from trying to wipe the tears that’s now raining down your cheeks.
“What? How?”
Hotel Sibi, near King Osa International Airport.
Mr. Jiang, a journalist from South East Chronicle has been shot with a 9mm handgun this morning while walking out the hotel. The area’s been fenced off, the forensics team have been on the location. The press have gone to release the terrible news and the body has been moved away for further examining.
Lieutenant Jim has been a police officer for way too long. Seeing this country fall from grace he knew when he was a child is painful. But like everyone else, he’s numbing it by trying not to think about it too much.
He thought at this point that most of the work have been done. He’ll be returning home to his wife soon. Open and shut, it seems. He’s wondering though, the superior officers were very hand on in this case despite it not being that important to his opinion. Lieu. Jim knew that usually it would be his duty to handle it, but not this time. Superintendents were coming down from their fancy chairs and did everything. Telling him what to do, and what was what. Jim didn’t believe a single bit of it. But oh well, what can he do?
Time to go home now. As soon as he’s able to find one item that he was assigned to. A storage device. He didn’t ask what’s on it, where it is, or why does it have any importance. Only told to do exactly so.
He walked to the room the victim was staying in. It’s not been searched just yet probably due to bureaucratic bullshit somewhere along the way. But when Lieu. Jim got to it, there is already another officer going away from the room. He didn’t recognised the man, but he knew the guy was his superior despite looking 10-15 years younger.
“Oh hello. Are you collecting evidence?” The man asked Jim.
“Eh, yes, sir.” Jim replied, although feeling a bit odd to say so since the man is younger than him. “I have been notified to collect some stuff from the room.”
“Ooh! Good, good… Your name is?”
“Jim, sir.”
“Well go and do what you’ve been told to. I’m just checking some stuff and will be going now.” The man told Jim, prompting him to do a salute.
But as the man walk pass, Jim saw something. It was a patch on his shoulder. It’s the old style patch that was phased out since 2017. But because Jim usually don’t get to meet a superior, it didn’t click until the man was walking into the elevator, at which point it was too late for Jim to do anything other than shouting towards him.
Jim ran down the staircase trying to intercept the young man in police costume. By the time he reach the hotel exit, he only saw a Champagne coloured Garuda Pesona driving away at great speed.
Jim ran to his Garuda which was parked nearby. And start chasing the Champagne Pesona.
While Jim has taken many offensive driving courses. He knew, that the man driving the Champagne Garuda is clearly a force to be reckon with. His driving is precise and fearless. The man drives very much like a stunt driver with racing being a hobby.
With a bit of a head start, the Champagne Garuda was pulling away although Jim tried to catch up. He starts to try cutting corners a lot more and catches back up.
Jim trying to get another look at the fake police officer who has just stolen what he was ordered to collect. But he didn’t notice a parked car there.
After the crash, Jim was taken to hospital. And the Champagne Garuda Pesona was put on a wanted list. The reason being “It was an eyewitness report seeing a Champagne Garuda leaving the scene of crime this morning.” Of course, that was totally made up.
And by the time the news able to report that, I have already hidden the Champagne Garuda away at my storage with the cover on. Thank god my uncle was a police officer. Although I realized after the fact that had Lieu. Jim was being more observant, I’d have been screwed.
The storage device is now retrieved. But there’s still a few preparations to do before you can make your escape to tell the world of the atrocities that is happening in Kala…
Ah the Pesona Garuda, huh. The infamous national automobile of Kala. I’ve driven a few of them in my stay there and I have to say, it’s really a fantastic car. Surprisingly fun to drive, and quite spritely performance too. Introduced in 1997 as a measure against the collapsing economy. The Garuda Pesona 1.8 was a personal project of King Osa Rajasingha. Selling on the premise that it’s a National Car. Garuda was not a local company, obviously. But since King Osa endorsed it, there’s no reason people wouldn’t buy it. That alone tells the influence King Osa had on his people.
Not only that though. The car in general is fantastic, as I’ve said. But it was also good 30-40% cheaper than it’s rival. And this was during the time Kala was an open market before King Osa stepped in and meddled with the economy too. The Pesona as we know it in Kala stayed on for much longer than it was supposed to be. And it spawned a lot of variation too. But what started out as a very viable option for the people who’ve chosen it for it’s merit alone. Started to become a pet project for the mad king.
You see, after it was introduced and people gets attracted to it. By some point nearly 50% of the car in Kala was a Garuda Pesona. And the other cars, even the cheapest, direct rivals to it was seen as a cult product for rich people. It was that bad. And it got worse when those cars started to have bigger and bigger tariff on it so people would buy more Pesona.
There was attempts to replace the Pesona, but by 2018, it was the ubiquitous car of Kala. The country did not improve, it actually got worse and worse. The economy tanked, massive inflation arised. But the Pesona stayed. 20 something years after it was first introduced it was still used as a taxi cab, as a police car. And a relatively luxury for the people of Kala who, unless you were a middle class, this was the only option you could’ve got.
Like I said, it’s not a bad car. But 20 years in the market made it very obvious that this car isn’t as good as the imports. Mitsushita, Ananda, Znopresk, Baltazar, Komodo, whatever brands you can think of. Even the newer Garudas are much better than the Pesona which was produced in Kala until 2024! 27 years after it’s introduction.
I cannot fault the car for its merit alone, it’s a good car. But what it stands for now? The collusion, the brutality, the corruption of the people. King Osa was not a person, he was a god. And he was able to do everything he wish to.
In 2022, a reporter of South East Chronicle, Ms. Yuan. Reported the terrible crimes of King Osa. The king who was supposed to be the smiley people. The world didn’t know he was ready to personally get rid of the people who didn’t agree with his reigning. Immediately, the reports were said to be fake by the official. King Osa, by that point, was pretty much nearly in the deathbed. But his mind was still sharp. He appeared on television to appeal to the people again. And people believed it.
But the seed has already been planted. The dissenters grew more and more everyday. And eventually, there was an uprising of the people after King Osa passed away in 2024. With the troubled ascension due to the questioned of legitimacy, and the revealed atrocity of King Osa. Even the military wouldn’t stand for the façade anymore. Overthrown, very quickly.
Overnight, a military government was instated again. And a proper reform was done by a relatively progressive government which saw the need to stop the chaos happening in and around Kala at this point.
The Garuda Pesona went away almost immediately after the tariff on other cars were reduced.
But still, Kala is a long way away from resurrection. It will be a while before the investments from the rest of the world starts pouring in again. With the doubt remains as to the intention of the current military government.
Pesona… by Garuda. The start, and the end. I wished you hadn’t got caught up in the mess that is Kala. But the same can be said for its people.
It’s time for you to rest now. For your job is finished.
-
Goy has been a truck driver for so many years now. He’s works as King Osa’s personal cars delivery. And King Osa has a lot of cars. One day, Goy was assigned, along with a group of few truckers to deliver some economical car to the royal airfield outside of the city.
At the seaport, Goy was picking up the cars, he could’ve carried about 6 of them. But one of them he saw was very peculiar. It was a bright chrome car with way too large of a body.
“Is that supposed to be here?”
The manifest said yes.
Goy was troubled, he knew the temper of King Osa when something that is not correct. But King Osa isn’t very bright. Clearly, he’s been duped by somebody and that was the mocking statement. Maybe it was the work of the dissenters.
Goy didn’t know what to do, thinking quickly. He thought that if King Osa was to see this car, he might throw a “tantrum” at him. And decided that since there were more than 30 cars. If a single car were to be disappeared, he wouldn’t notice.
Apparently, Goy was right.
The Xenos 5k was unceremoniously dumped into the nearby forest by Goy. It was not to have been found until much, much later. After King Osa passed away.
And that’s it folks! The CSR86 is over.
It was a really taxing round to write for. But I hope it is of good enough quality! Was it a joy to write? Yes! Absolutely! And I hope you guys like it too.
I am not sorry for the wall of text that this round is. I will only be sorry for any mistake that was made in it. For being an ass sometime, and also for obvious I dun goof’ed moments.
The result, of course, is as followed.
I hope it doesn’t go further than that.
Thanks for participating, and I wish the next host of CSR a not very salty round!