[Week 2] Early morning day 320

[desperate_times_right]

[Chloe’s mental voice sounds weak and disoriented, as if she’s in shock]

Can someone come to the caves? I need help.

I think Hana’s dead.

Comments

[desperate_times_right]

Chara’s always been starry-eyed about old technology, maybe he is too.

[capital_asset]

Old technology, or old power?

[desperate_times_right]

If they’re really royalty, is there a difference?

[capital_asset]

For her, there might be. For him, I'm not so sure.

[desperate_times_right]

I don’t know much about him. Hana thought he was a creep.

[capital_asset]

He certainly seems to be living down to that impression.

[Gil is going to be horrified.]

[desperate_times_right]

He was trying to control who his sister could date, which I guess makes sense if they’re royalty.

And he’s got those weird guys Dreampushing for him, but they’re not like this.

[capital_asset]

No, this is several steps beyond.

She feels part of her purpose is making sure the line doesn't die out. And to support her brother in every way.

[desperate_times_right]

What an awful way to live.

You think they’re planning a coup?

[capital_asset]

Yes.

[And Thorne is likely to be horrified by it after the fact, too. It reminds Raidou all too much of what he knows of her time with Dr. B, in terms of the mindset he forced onto her.]

It wouldn't surprise me. Ghalib and Chara likely were brought up on stories of a very idealized version of Malion's reign, and I could see them coming to believe that a return to rightthink and the Overmind could stave off or even reverse the decay of their world.

[desperate_times_right]

[This is an absolutely weird commonality but a nationalist paramilitary group in India has spent actual decades trying to kill Chloe for the crime of being descended from a king they don’t like, so in some ways she kind of gets it]

Yeah, that’s definitely the impression Hana got from Chara. Lots of gushing about trains and centuries old dresses, very little acknowledgement of why the god-king fell in the first place.

[capital_asset]

The version of events that they know is probably... judiciously edited.

[desperate_times_right]

I suppose ‘your ancestors did war crimes’ probably doesn’t make a very good bedtime story.

[capital_asset]

Probably not, no.

[youandyoualone]

In truth, I believe Qabil would prefer to use her instead of her brother, given that Cabal no longer has the time to see her with child and to raise that child to be less flawed than Ghalib. I believe Anaf, specifically, was to have charge of that child's upbringing--he was to come to Fallenheart with Faris if Qabil decided it was time to cut the Cabal's losses with Ghalib. They did not anticipate the Nation-eaters returning.

[capital_asset]

What is Qabil hoping to accomplish?

[youandyoualone]

What all of Cabal is trying to accomplish: to unite the Vale before the slow death of its people becomes irreversible. A royal figurehead was deemed a useful enough tool for this... but I suppose a return to the High Tables might do as well, if something productive comes of Hypatia's quest.

[capital_asset]

It... would probably be less politically fraught, at the very least.

[youandyoualone]

It would be. But at the time, the royal figurehead seemed the best path.

[capital_asset]

Do they know of Ghalib's... activities?

[youandyoualone]

To Anaf's knowledge, not that he'd tried to create a cavosophia. That he had done something to the minds of his followers? Yes and they did not much like it. They see Chara as a more fitting tool--but Chara does not seem to wish to become Protector in herself, merely to support her beloved older brother.

That said, Ghalib would have likely not remained in his position of power very long. Accidents happen, even to Protectors, and although Chara will not pursue her own claim, duty would compel her to take her brother's place once he is disposed of.

[This is said all very blandly.]

[capital_asset]

So she lacks the ambition they want, and he has far too much.

[Private; Psychic Protection II]

I feel like this Infiltration is going to bother Thorne a great deal after the fact.

[youandyoualone]

In short: yes.

[Privately:]

I do as well. She is being used by nearly everyone in her life, with the exception of her adopted grandfather and her former lover, who she gave up at her family's bidding--and he has since moved on to another woman, which she does not know about. Worse, her clever and capable mind has been allowed to lie fallow, for she believes her only purpose is to breed an heir and support her brother's cause.

All that and Chara's beloved older brother is doing what that man did to Thorne on a much larger scale.

But if it will be hard on her, it will be even harder on your young man, having been the one that has done such horrific acts.

[capital_asset]

Are they liable to try to make her take her brother's place, once they find out about this, or are they considering other plans?

[Private; Psychic Protection II]

Is her former lover another Traveler?

[He greatly hopes not, but...]

I don't know how much time we'll have to help Chara, with everything else that's going on. But it's not right to just... leave her to that, and not just because she's Thorne's overlay.

I know.

[And he is not sure he wants to discuss Gil's state of mind with Delaunay, given that neither of them much care for him. He's mostly willing to discuss Thorne because Thorne does, and will need his support after this.]

[youandyoualone]

Less 'make' and more manipulate or persuade. But yes, I think this may force them to consider alternatives.

[Privately, with protection:]

Her former lover is an Infiltrator, yes. Joscelin currently lies inside him now, although I wonder a little at what would have caused him to possess such a vicious bravo as Ioskelaino.

If it will make you feel more at ease, she is in fact being helped now, by Alcuin--or Al-Quinn as he is calling himself here. He is teaching her written language and the scientific method and many other such useful things and if the end of Jaunt will ultimately leave her bereft of her newfound lover, he will at least give her mind an ample seedstock for the days to come. That is not nothing.