Melbourne Crisis

Year: 96 CE

The NLE suddenly asked Lineland why it had control over the city of Melbourne, to which Lineland gave the historical explanation of it being a compromise in return for them returning the rest of Victoria to Luxuria. The NLE tried to convince Lineland to hand it over now that they had a much larger homeland in Linelandic Russia, which Lineland refused, prompting the NLE to try to begin manipulating them into handing it over by using the detatils of Zack Naps' death, blaming them for the landmine he stepped on as they demanded control over Melbourne in return for forgiveness. Lineland pointed out the flaws in this logic, leading to the NLE simplifying their demand to simply demanding the city to avoid consequences. As Lineland continued to refuse, Luxuria began to actively threaten the usage of force to take control of the territory, freaking out Lineland as they began shows of force in the city such as army parades in an attempt to intimidate Luxuria, though quite suspiciously a largescale Coronavirus Outbreak occurred during these parades to the point of causing somewhat of a crisis. The NLE offered to Melbourne itself that if it joined them they would cure them of the virus, prompting Lineland to shout about why it's wrong that the NLE has been keeping such a thing from others. Lineland began intense efforts to maintain control over the territory via largescale lockdowns while propaganda pamphlets rained down from above supporting reunification with Luxuria, with a notable point being avoiding being dragged into any Linelandic wars, which Lineland countered by saying the only time Melbourne was damaged by war was when Luxuria attacked it during World War 3, which motivated Melbourne not to go along with Luxuria's demands. Luxuria continued trying to convince Melbourne to join them to no avail as Lineland intervened and shut down their attempts once more, prompting the NLE to simply start publishing maps where Melbourne is a part of them in an attempt to convince the world they're the rightful owners, which Poavak and New Luxurian Spisos recognised as true. Lineland noted how its not surprising that the NLE's only ally and one of their coloniees agreed with them, using Sipedro recognizing Lineland as evidence. With no other countries recognizing them or staying neutral on the issue such as Islandia, Luxuria suggested asking the countries of world's opinions on the issue once more, but Lineland refused as it talked over Melbourne's thoughts. Luxuria decided to try to convince Lineland to let Melbourne decide, but Lineland kept going on and on about how it was rightfully theirs, slowly making Melbourne become sympathetic to Luxuria's cause.

The crisis would become much more urgent as it went beyond merely diplomatic arguements as a group of Luxurians moved to tear down the border walls, leading to a standoff. The increasing Pro-Luxuria tendencies and border incidents soon lead to martial law being declared in the city as the Linelandic military seized direct control