In Consideration of Bad Theatre

Back home on Mom’s earth, there were several campaigns—military campaigns—that claimed to be waged for the hearts and minds of the people, with varying degrees of success. PR rather than bloody mayhem, though there is plenty of the latter going around as well.
 
BTA, who I assume are behind the attacks, has a much better spin master. They know their audience, even if we don’t.
 
 Amber can’t protect the shadow ways for which we pay taxes. Check.
 Amber can’t protect their own shipyards or the people working there. Check.
 Random is perpetrating grievous harm on the Unicorn, and has been disowned/disavowed/disenfranchised by her. Check.
 Low-level poisoning of a well that serves an entire neighborhood. Check.
 Nepotism is alive and well in Random’s government. Check.
 
The last was aimed at Random through me, and I resent it very much. I laughed with incredulity when my “source” was revealed to be a known gun runner/fence. But after the startlement of the ridiculous charge of gun smuggling laid at my door wore off, I was incandescent with rage. In the privacy of my own room, of course. Comportment, as always, must be maintained. I’m past the white-hot unthinking part of my reaction, but I have settled into a steady burn.
 
I’m trying to decide how Bayon Cho will die.
 
Luckily for his lifespan, I have bigger fish to fry.
 
The shadow overlay in church garnered, again, incredulous appreciation of its execution. Ballsy. Extremely so. Also, high level magics were involved, which is concerning. Afterward, back at the castle, I drank some very white and sweet coffee to combat weariness and, admittedly, some dejection. We’re putting out fires, many of them in the last two days, with no practical end in sight as we can’t see the campaign. As much as I think it’s Jasra and/or the BTA (aka Julia), I have no proof. We can lay no charges at their door without some. We can’t even hit them as they’ve been hitting us, as we don’t know with certainty who them is, or even what conclusion they are aiming for. Discredit Random so a hardliner can take the throne? It seems farfetched.
 
Also, retaliation without proof—solid, hard, proof—would verify the worst things people think of the Family. We can’t step out of Random’s kinder, gentler Amber without destroying what he has worked so hard to build.
 
Ah, me. Stewing on it right now won’t help me shake this mental weariness. There are no answers to have yet, only more questions.
 
…..
 
And Fiona just trumped the lot of us. The guns are back in reality. Go, Power Rangers, Go.
 
Sigh.