Sunitha Barimen
Acknowledged daughter of Florimel. Is seen schmoozing in Court often on behalf of Random and her mom. Something of a political animal. Sister to Sage and Ty.
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A Question of One's Relations
Ah, where to start?
Back to neutral Strathclyde. Fiona pinpointed-ish the location of the stolen weaponry. It was in or around the southern town of Southport. So off we went—Sage, Theo, Blake and myself—to that hamlet. Like most of the towns in Strathclyde, this one was full of pirates. Also, like most of the towns there, not so fond of Amber.
I feel a theme emerging. #sarcasm.
Before we left, though, Blake wanted assurance that if things went pear-shaped, Amber would have his back. I easily gave it, as of course we would, but the stipulation gave me pause. Under what circumstance would Blake feel he needed blanket indemnity? The answer that popped to mind was unwelcome, but possibly valid: if the BTA were involved. Another answer is more benign, but would reveal a distinct and real distrust of The Family—basically he thinks he’d be thrown under a bus if something happened.
Either way, it caused me to take an emotional step back. I can’t combat distrust when the counter is to have the family to be different than it is, and refuses to understand that change is almost entirely generational due to the Pattern, as well as the abandonment and abuse most of the generation before mine grew up in. Family who have been steeping in the Pattern for hundreds or thousands of years can’t take a hard left because there are no lefts or rights available. They’re driving in a tunnel, and until someone can literally breakthrough the wall—as in, of late, Fiona’s case—they are as inflexible as the sigil burned into their mind and body. Does abuse and imprint excuse their behavior? Sort of. People from Shadow have flexibility of mind and spirit that the Elders literally do not have. Can they change eventually? Yes. Do they first have to understand that change is necessary? Also, yes. Will they? Only time and circumstances will tell.
And what has Blake’s broken pattern imprint given him? Does he see it, or is he as blind to the effects of his upbringing intertwining with his ingrained broken pattern as my elders are to their tunneled ones.
I have no judgement against broken pattern use. Only, ouch. But every pattern reforms its user. We have to be aware of that, and rise above it, if we can. Our Pattern imprints are the template for who we are or become as surely as our upbringings. It takes mental and emotional fortitude to move beyond those lines. And, maybe, a lot of therapy.
Does any of this make our actions morally or ethically right? No. But there are so few denizens of our universe who are always morally and ethically right. I know I’m not. Is Blake always morally or ethically right? Given his job description, I’d say no.
And that’s what I wish he would understand. None of us are perfect, and all of us can only do the best we can with what we have. Even him.
Blake is stranded, a long way from all that he knew, and mostly alone. I have no doubt that the Family and the Monarchy have been painted in an unflattering light by his friends in Begma. He needs more friends, even if he doesn’t realize it. I wonder if he can be a friend in return.
I guess I needed to get that off my chest. It’s been weighing heavy.
Back to Strathclyde. A very long story short, after the pirates, missile launchers, explosions, failed interrogation attempts (for fuck’s sake Sage!), and negotiations, the guns were found, retrieved and locked up once more. Oh, and I guess Theo took out Lady Brine with a crossbow bolt to the chest.
Yay.
Why do I feel the reclamation was a hollow victory? It’s not, if we look at it from a security perspective. But I feel we’re no closer to finding our proof.
One positive (besides retrieving the guns and surviving the explosion) is that Dworkin told Blake and me that the magical effect we sensed was “Dream Inclusion.” His capitalization. When I asked her later, Fiona had no recollections of any power with that name or supposed effect, but that may only mean it is not modern. But inclusion, such as sand within an oyster’s flesh, or the surrounding of a person by their friends (or tormentors) makes sense to me. It’s an insertion, and possibly a retraction. But what is “dream”? Is it part of the power reflected in Tir? Is it a metaphor? Research is in order.
Ty, Sage and I had a long talk with Random after the reclaiming of the guns. We brought him up to speed. He still doesn’t think he’s getting information from us quickly enough, but I don’t know how we could do it faster. We were a little busy in the moment. I tried to impress upon Random that in the public relation department, we are our own worst enemies, and how events are being spun to our detriment. This was specifically about the recent attacks, but also about Blake. Regarding Blake, Random gets it, but lays the blame at both Bleys and Blake’s feet in different ways. And Martin’s. Going back to my earlier diatribe, it’s all about people, and people are messy. We can forgive their frailties, or avoid them.
A side note from yesterday’s excursion re following Dalt. Delwin was there. That was a plot twist. What is Delwin’s game? He let drop that he is working for a group called Agent of Change. Cain said that they are a conservative faction who doesn’t approve of Random’s governance. But WHO are they? Also, Delwin? He hasn’t been seen by anyone in … forever. Why crawl out of the woodwork now? The fact that he is able to use the slip-slide power has me wondering if he recruited the Cat Girls™ and taught the power to them. And now he is trying recruit Dalt. I feel Delwin is playing at “Join me, oh enemies of mine enemy!” Certainly, he was treating Dalt’s recruitment as a game. Smarmy. But with Amber-thick arrogance. His presence in all this makes everything worse.
Ty and mom visited Harla to see if they could contact Delwin through her. Harla claimed no knowledge of either Agent of Change or her son’s involvement, and she didn’t know where he was, but she’d take a message. Mmmph.
What is next, then? A long lie in with breakfast in bed would be nice. But even I wouldn’t take that bet.
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.
A Case Of Trust
Sanguine. Bloody, yes. Optimistic or positive, especially in an apparently bad or difficult situation, no.
The 36 hours has stirred in me something between disquiet and dread. It is obvious--and I believe everyone sees it--that a force/cabal/interest is moving specifically against Amber and our infrastructure. This is not the out-and-out warfare of the war with Chaos. This is bloody terrorism, and the terrorists have some new/old power we have no defense against. Not yet. Their ability to slip in and away in a heartbeat doesn't even register on our senses, magical or otherwise.
How do you fight against something like that?
They haven't even released a manifesto or demands or anything that outlines why they're doing this. They are running this underground, which, damn them, is smart. The more who know a secret, the sooner it will be known to all. It is a plural entity. I'm fairly certain of that.
What we know so far is:
They are utilizing some sort of transportation power that is unknown to us. It has to be based on something, though, even if Aunt Fi can't sense it. It doesn't run on Logrus or Pattern, but that's not the limit of powers in the metaverse.
The attacks are specific. Their targets are both in the public eye and serve as warning that Amber cannot protect its own let alone the general public.
They have a historically Amberite mindset which considers those outside their group as not worth consideration. Their lives are grist for the mill. Consider the savagery of the attacks on the caravan and especially the shipyard. If the ships were the primary focus, they ringleaders could have blown them up without such a cost of life. Since that wasn't the case, the attack was statement, and a vicious one at that.
They did something which pissed off Dalt. The information I have on Dalt is extremely slim, but generally his rage is focused on Amber, and specifically the Family. I surmise that the terrorists tangled with something within his purview, and he took umbrage. Or they made overtures to him, as kindred spirits, and they were close enough to the Family that it set him off instead. I lean toward the former only because he didn't attack me, even after I importuned him, so he's not without reason. What is interesting is that Red Mask begged Ty and Blake to help her get away from the madman. As if she was surprised Dalt came for her. As the kids say, LOL.
Both Red and Black Mask are female facing. They have a thing about matching catsuits, which is, frankly, stupid on their part.
All this does nothing to disprove my hunch that the BTA is involved. Jasra and Julia fit all the criteria. A possible source for the power could be the Keep. It feels unlikely that Jasra or Julia would dip their toes into that particular power source (after what happened to Brand), but when grasping for greater power, would they leave one in Jasra's control untapped? I'm trying to not focus on Jasra, Julia and the BTA. We don't have enough information to nail them to the crimes, even though the attacks do benefit them directly. In the absence of any other group we are aware of who might profit by the attacks, they must be our focus. No, they're not the only group. I would consider the remnants of old Kashfa's family. Both Amber and BTA screwed them over because we wanted their mineral resources.
And this brings me to my issues around trust. Who can I trust? Or we, rather. We have the new entries to the family. Blake has ties to the BTA, and probably no love for Amber. Bleys placed us all in a very bad light with Blake. If basic respect of personhood can't even be managed, why would he stick with us? Again, the Elder's propensity for seeing everyone as not worth consideration has bitten us in the arse. I thought Blake was going to try to blast Bleys there and then. On top of that, Blake seems to be respected by the BTA--Jasra and Julia specifically. Respect goes a long way. If I am right, all that Blake has seen in this side of the Family is extreme entitlement. Is that the norm? Of course. Is it something that hurts us? Yes it really does. Will it change? Probably not, as the Elders don't see a problem. It isn't as if I can drag them to therapy.
How about Theo? I have barely exchanged a handful of words with him, but trust isn't something that is second nature to him. Even if he had an abundance of trust, being yanked out of his world and into our freaky-deaky renfaire without so much as a "by your leave" doesn't instill anyone with good feelings. Thanks, Dworkin. Dworkin has an excuse, though. He's insane. The one thing we know about Theo is that he's a extremely well-trained killer, much like Blake. Watching them work the ambush scene made that abundantly apparent. When one is always looking over one's shoulder, one has issues with trust. Everyone's an enemy and a target. Which all comes back to around to the fact that we don't know enough about them or the way they'll land to put our trust in them. Theo might not have backing by the BTA, but it doesn't follow that he's willing to follow the Royal Family with any loyalty. At best, the gentlemen are neutral parties.
Lastly, we can't trust our Elders. Not that they're consciously working against Amber's interests, but their old worldviews make them our own worst enemies. Bleys and his inability to respect anyone's person. Caine's inability to see anything but targets. I wasn't expecting him to go after Dalt like a hound after a rabbit, which in retrospect was a miscalculation on my part. Fiona has a difficult time seeing possibilities of power or ways of living that aren't based in the static nature of what is and used to be. She's the avatar of the Pattern, and it doesn't give her any flexibility of mindset. Even mom, who is known for her flexibility as a survival skill, can't see possibilities out of the hierarchical norms. I could go on.
I respect Random's giving us the job, unprepared as we are, simply because we can look outside the box if needed. Even we "young ones" see everything as rocks befitting our particular hammers.
Does this mean that our attackers have a rightful grudge against us? Quite possibly, but until they announce their demands, no dialogue is possible. All we can do is try to stop the bleeding. And suss out their next target. All of this means we can't lean on our parents/aunts/uncles in this matter. They're not suited. We might not be either--I certainly don't feel that I am--but there is no one else. I think the question we "kids" have to ask ourselves is: What do we hope to achieve in fighting back the terrorism? Return the status quo? Understand the issues we've ignored for too long? Or simply retribution against our enemies? This is important for us to know.
Thus, pot of coffee in hand, I'm in the small library trying to figure out what public location with military or faith significance within the GCKs might be. This is an exercise of searching for a needle in a haystack. But it's the only defense we have to mitigate the bleeding.
I do not feel up to this challenge.
The Journal Entry’s title
Begin writing your story here...
A Cause of Concern
Mother's Spring Ball = 1, Diplomatic Relations w/ Begma = 0
The ball went off splendidly, as is the usual. This is despite Dworkin gifting Ty a box of trump portals with a new Relative inside. And then the Begman Trade Authority showed up with another Relative in two. This time it's (probably) Martin's son. The ramifications of Martin's child, Blake, being in Amber and acknowledged (at least casually) by Random makes for an interesting dynastic future. That's putting the cart before the horse, but it is still A THING.
Ty's new Dworkin-given responsibility is named Theo. He spent the better part of the night thinking he was tripping, as we were obviously not real. I get it. It's a lot. WE'RE a lot. No one was surprised when he ran away, though Ty was taken aback that we actually expected him to mentor Theo. Ty thought that his responsibility ended with the opening of the gift box but, I'll be honest, that "understanding" was self-serving. Ty is allergic to being told what to do, let alone impinging on anyone else's privacy or independence. If it had been anyone other than Dworkin, I would have agreed. But it was. Grandfather has a way of turning whimsy into a storm's harbinger.
Blake, conversely, seems completely at home with the idea of Amber, the Family, and our current reality. He keeps his cards close to his chest, though, as he should, so perhaps he is less sanguine than he appears. Meeting half of your family and having it be this family can't be easy. I am glad he has the proper level of paranoia about him. It will keep him alive. I'm grateful that he's lending a hand with our investigation (more of that anon) despite having been s materially assisted by the BTA, even so much as becoming one of their economic advisors. He owes us nothing. Neither does Theo, for that matter, but they both have, heh, "real world" skills that we will sorely need in the coming days. Competency is a sterling quality, and is sexy to boot.
On to the real meat. Whilst the ball sparkled, someone ambushed a BTA caravan in the shadow way between Begma and Amber. A little later, the same someone (assumption, but a good one) blew up ships in the docks of Strathclyde. Here's some of what we know:
A group of mercenaries armed with assault rifles were moved into the shadow way. When the largest caravan of the day came through, shots were fired. The mercenaries to their pick of easily carried valuables.
The guards posted at either end of the way never saw the group enter or exit.
Caine was on the scene very quickly after.
Jasra informed Blake about the attack quickly after. How she heard of it, when no one had been in or out of the way after the ambush is ... curious.
Caine handed the case over to we junior family members: Blake, Sage, Tiberius, Silke, Theo, [ed: and Danny's character]. His rationale is it will seem like a less catastrophic incident if the Elders aren't publicly involved. I question that rationale, but Random and Caine seem to think it's solid.
Jasra and Julia attended the ball TOGETHER. My cynicism says such an appearance gave them a rock solid alibi for the two attacks, but that's supposition. Let's get back to facts.
Strathclyde's docks were blown up using--wait for it--C4.
Caine was at the docks immediately after the explosions. That fellow is truly Johnny On The Spot. I rather wish he hadn't been.
The mercenaries' rifles, the bullets they used and the C4 all came from the Amber armory. Quelle surprise.
The wards on the armory entry (just the entry, or surrounding the entirety?) were made by Fiona after the war.
Supposedly no one did an inventory for the last century. We have no idea when the materiales were stolen.
Fiona was wholly unconcerned by her ward being breached. She seemed to take it as an irritation rather than an immense political/security issue. Can you at least pretend to care, Aunt?
Random has been informed of we know.
After I finish this cup of coffee--and maybe more of this leftover artichoke dip--I'm heading to Strathclyde to see what can be seen.
Beyond the basic question of "Who Done It?", here are the questions for which I want answers in no particular order:
Was the entirety of the armory warded or was it just the vault's front door?
How was the armory ward breached?
What is up with Jasra and Julia. They hate each other, so why did they attend the ball together? It seems awfully clumsy if that's what was going on. Never underestimate either of them.
Who are the attacks meant to target, truly? Amber and/or Begma? Both? Doubtful. My money is on Amber, its current policies and leadership.
I know Caine has his fingers in all of the pies, but how did he learn about both scenes so quickly. I'm certain he has trumps of key locations, so getting there quickly isn't so much in question. It's how did he know? Or--and here I sigh--did he know because he set it all up?
Is this a move by Begma to discredit Amber and weaken us? That would be the first step in a takeover. It isn't as if they don't have a history of annexing neighboring nations. I mean, as apex imperial colonizers, we annex all the things, too. But we're status quo. Someone, I believe, wants to change that up, perhaps to bring us back to status quo ante.
I'm certain I have more questions, but the coffee hasn't kicked in yet.
As far as motive, the only one that makes sense to me currently is that someone (or a group of someones) wants to discredit Amber's authority and ability to keep the GCK secure. Whilst the big loser of the evening would seem to be Strathclyde and BTA, it is Amber that looks like a bloated, self-serving, decadent, anachronistic entity. We can't even rely on our own people to keep Amber and her policies safe (I'm looking at you Fiona). It feels like a coup's ill wind is blowing. If we didn't have the events themselves to paint a dire picture, Dworkin took steps to gather the party together and put us on notice that we need to step up. While he's erratic at the best of times, protecting Amber has ever been at the top of his list. It's interesting that he appeared to Ty ... and not to an Elder.
And none of this wondering will solve the issue now. It's time to see the political damage stolen C4 has done.
... TBC
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