#( victoria & credence )

[rcsplendent]

closed starter          —           victoria windsor. ( @hcrexcellency )

location :  outside the palace at the base of a hill.     time : evening, just before sunset.

" hurry up, vic, you're going to make us miss it. "  cre glances over his shoulder & waves his hand to beckon her, his footfalls ceasing as he arrives at the base of the hill. he's been coming here a lot, recently — sometimes to read, but mostly to think. prior to his injury, he'd even come here to practice archery at the top of this hill — that was how he'd discovered how incredible of a vantage point the hill is for watching the sunset. it occurs to him, in the back of his mind, that now that his hand is no longer immobilized its splint & sling, perhaps he'll be able to start practicing archery here again.  " it's about time you got out of that god forsaken library. come on. "  it's been a long-ish walk — about a mile — but he'd insisted it would be worth it if she followed him, & even if they did miss the sunset he intends to show her, at least he's gotten some quality time in with his sister.  ( not that he'd ever admit that. )  once she catches up, he turns on his heel and starts up the hill.  " anyways — go on. you were saying? "

[hcrexcellency]

@resplendcnt

[ewingstan]

Going into Ward, one of the things that interested me is that pretty much everyone who read it, no matter what the felt about it as a whole, seemed to like what it did with Tattletale and incorporate it into their understanding of the character. To a certain extent this makes sense, outside of Amy people's problems with Worm usually aren't that characterization had been changed. But few other aspects of Ward have been talked about with so much relative positivity, or influenced so much retroactive analysis of Worm.

After reading her interlude, I'm starting to understand why.

From the bat we're given blunt and effective portrayals of how alone Lisa feels. Half of her descriptions of other characters focused on how they reminded her of people she's lost. The Heartbroken are primarily described by the ways they do and don't resemble Alec. Aiden by how he does and doesn't resemble Taylor. Imp and Rachel get mentioned but don't get to make an appearance at all, furthering the effect—reminders of her closest connections are everywhere, but the connections themselves are nowhere. She's left with the "expanded Undersiders," and is painfully aware of how they either dislike her or will never form a close connection with her.

There's a lot more emphasis here on how her power is a separate entity than there was in Lisa's Worm interlude. She's snarking at it, talking about it as something that interjects, drawing a clear divide in her head between what it figures out and what she figures out. Is that her knowledge of its nature developing, or simply a new way of looking at how it always worked?

The framing in the passage above seems to suggest that its encouraging her to distance herself from others, pushing her to interact but specifically feeding her information that will prevent close connections. Questions of agency and identity aside, I do like this as an aspect of powers-as-coping-mechanisms: she was triggered by failing to save someone she was close to, not recognizing the signs that he was unwell. Her power helps her see the signs she couldn't before, but it also seems to try to prevent those close connections from forming so she can't be hurt the same way. Not that its successful. Can't stop betting on losing dogs and all.

What she calls people internally is interesting. I figured she had been calling Sveta "Garotte" earlier to needle her, but she continues to call her that in her own thoughts, as does her power. Valkyrie gets to be "Valkyrie," and Vicky isn't called a cape name at all. There's a few ways to interpret this; I'm tempted to say that Lisa sees Victoria as a relic of pre-Gold Morning days, and sees Sveta largely in that context. Though I also feel like there's some refusal to see her or Rain as people who are separate from what they've done in the past. A lot of the comments I've read while reading the last few chapters are people debating whether she should've gone "white-hat," and I get the sense that she sees something dishonest in that. Leaving behind the things you've done isn't something she can do—even Lisa Wilbourn can't leave behind the failures of Sarah Livsey.

That might be something to think about in the context of Victoria claiming Tattletale is awful because she represents "giving up on something better." Its kind of baffling in that context; many people have pointed out that cutting the number of overdoses in half was way better than anything the heroes ever did, but Victoria resents that TT saw merely halving it as acceptable. She prefers methods that highlight a certain attitude towards a problem over methods that are effective at dealing with a problem. Having zero tolerance for overdoses and being able to do fuck-all about it becomes preferable to halving it, because not giving up on an ideal world is better than actually making the world better. As little regard as I have for Victoria's position, it seems that the text is giving it some credence by positioning Lisa not just as pursuing the methods that will make an actual difference, but also as rejecting the idea of "something better." Sveta can't be more than Garotte, overdose rates can be halved but not lowered further. Its weirdly reifying of Victoria's position, making Lisa a foil to it rather than a reflection of an entirely unrelated worldview.

There's a few team leaders in the parahumans-verse who get characterized as encouraging and benefiting from chaos within their ranks. Jack Slash had a self-image of himself as a master manipulator who knew just how to keep the Nine at each others throats to keep them in line, though of course his power was pulling heavy duty there. Trickster exulted in sowing chaos, but while he could use it to his advantage when working alone it explicitly got in the way of the Travellers as a whole during their operations. Lisa incorporates aspects of both; she seems to be cultivating a "this chaos is all part of my design" air for Faultline and Victoria while actually always being on the cusp of losing control of her own team. It seems less like something she's doing deliberately and more like something she has to deal with, even if she later frames it as part of preparing Aiden or something similar.

Man, her relationship with Aiden. First explicit mention of Taylor we've had since the beginning and its for a blunt confirmation that she sees herself as failing Taylor in the same way she failed Rex, and is terrified of doing with Aiden. It feels both like she's holding him at arms length and that she's desperate for a close connection with him.

[thepaleys]

Joining Ella and Serge at Ilinskoye, where they usually arrived each August at the start of their high summer idyll, was Serge's younger brother, Grand Duke Paul. Although to some it seemed an odd sort of arrangement, the bachelor Grand Duke lived quite happily with Ella and Serge at this time and at Ilinskoye would continue to do so even after he married. As his sister Marie told Queen Victoria, Paul was 'very discrete and [is] never in the way; his great pleasure is riding about the country for hours. It is the pleasantest exercise here, as the roads are all soft and the woods very shady and cool". When they gave gala balls of their own – greeting their guests at the top of the white and cream panelled double staircase that was laced with elegant black wrought-iron balustrades, incorporating Serge's monogram picked out in gold – Ella, either through vanity or simply because she loved showing off her wardrobe, would disappear at midnight only to reappear shortly afterwards in a new gown and a different suite of jewels. Wherever she went she was, by general consensus, the belle of the ball – and she was undoubtedly perfectly well aware of it. Flirtatiously happy, she danced until dawn, choosing her partners at Serge's suggestion, or so it was said, from among his fellow guards officers, but most often with her brother-in-law, Grand Duke Paul, who was an accomplished dancer. There is a story, told by Princess Radziwill, that Serge had warned Ella not to be 'too friendly' with Paul after Grand Duchess Vladimir, with heavy innuendo, had gossiped about how often they danced together and set off yet another rumour for society to savour. It is another of those tales that may or may not be true but, given the fact that the three of them lived quite happily together – something that had already given rise to sufficient gossip – it is one that should not be given too much credence.

"Ella: Princess, Saint And Martyr" - Christopher Warwick

[warsofasoiaf]

Do you think there is any credence to the US and/or the EU orchestrating Euromaidan?

None. Absolutely zero. That's a myth concocted by Russia to deny Ukrainian protesters held legitimate grievances against the Yanukovych government.

The Euromaidan started over a trade agreement between the EU and Ukraine. This had displeased Russia, who had felt that Ukraine was drifting out of the Russian sphere of influence and threatened Yanukovych with harsh trade actions to back down from the agreement. However, the agreement was extraordinarily popular among the Ukrainian people, who were positively disposed to the EU and sought to join it. So when Yanukovych killed the deal in November 2013, this provoked large protests at Yanukovych, who was seen as betraying the people's policy desires to appease Russia. When Yanukovych responded to these protests with riot police and anti-assembly legislation, this further emboldened and enlarged the protests. Europe had attempted to broker a compromise deal where the Ukrainian Parliament's (the Rada) power would be increased, the Presidential powers reduced, and new elections to be held later in 2014. This did little to help the crowd, as there were roughly a hundred protesters killed primarily by riot police and snipers (another conspiracy is that this was a false flag was debunked five years ago by Carnegie Mellon). The Rada moved to impeach Yanukovych, who fled to Russia. The Rada considered Yanukovych's flight to be an abdication and organized emergency presidential elections, which is a provision in the Ukrainian constitution. Some constitutional scholars said that it didn't meet the threshold, but all agree that his flight was unprecedented and was difficult to apply an established constitutional threshold. So what happened was a President faced popular protest due to unpopular policy action, sent in the riot police to brutalize them, was impeached by the Rada, then fled the country to avoid arrest. The Rada then used pre-existing procedures to organize a new presidential election which were certified as fair by international observers.

The smoking gun that's used to "prove" that it was a US-backed coup is an intercepted phone call between SecState Victoria Nuland and Ambassador to Ukraine Geoffrey Pyatt, which is alleged to be plotting to replace Yanukovych. However, actually listening to the call shows that they're actually talking about negotiations between Yanukovych and the opposition for a Prime Minister - not a President (Ukraine has both). So when these disinformation peddlers say that the US was organizing a coup d'état, they're actually saying that a deal that Yanukovych was himself seeking to make for an entirely different political position was a coup. Far be it from me to say that parliamentary governmental systems can form new governments in response to pressure and political dealings, but if people can't figure that out on their own despite it happening in multiple countries across the world, I guess I have to.

The US and the EU did support the Euromaidan protests, including having several members of Congress make speeches and visit after the sniper massacres, but that's...not a coup. Hell, it wasn't even surreptitious, it was a public visit. The conspiracy theory about it being a "CIA color revolution" have no evidence - no case officers named, no intercepted operational plans, no flyers for the next CIA bake sale. This is the conspiracy rationalization I mentioned earlier, where an elaborate deception campaign is invented to justify a population turning away from the movement in a way that denies the population's ability to make their own decisions and absolves the conspiracy's backer of blame. The public couldn't have protested against Yanukovych's demonstrably unpopular policy decisions, they had to be tricked into doing so. If the Euromaidan was legitimate, it would mean that Russia had failed to maintain Ukraine within its sphere of orbit, that they had elected to move toward a different path, that it was a Russian failure. And if there's one thing these conspiracists are loathe to do, from Putin's revanchist dreams of a powerful Russia collapsing as Russia loses its near-abroad to Chomsky's anger at his movement's increasing irrelevance, it's admitting failure.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

[hcrexcellency]

@rcsplendent

[rcsplendent]

closed starter — victoria windsor. ( @hcrexcellency ! )

location : the infirmary.

the last thing he remembers is whacking the absolute shit out of his head on a rock, & all of a sudden, he's waking up in an infirmary bed with the gnarliest headache on god's green earth. he groans, cracking his eyes open & lifting a hand to press the heel of his palm to the spot between his eyebrows, wincing & attempting to roll onto his side, away from the light. he peeks his eyes open, then, grimacing when he's met with the sight of his very worried sister looking back at him. " vic, " he mutters, his eyes rolling back slightly & then slipping shut as a throbbing pain envelops his skull. " oh, god... "

[xwingace]

(Trying to figure out the pre-show timeline. Potentially spoilery so under a readmore. But actually I'm mainly asking a lot of questions.)

On the subject of Tazer's mum, Kemi Amusan: Krazy says 'they kept her there for years'. But Dionne says they lost contact with her only a couple of months ago.

Tazer claims his mother abandoned her kid and although it would still be true and most especially feel that way if she left at 16 that's still pretty late for it to be true abandonment (and it's not like she had full and proper choice).

It would work better if Tazer only started to run with Krazy after she left, which does lend more credence to the 'several years ago' theory. Probably more than two in that case because then also the whole Krazy getting arrested and going to prison needs to happen between Kemi Amusan leaving her son and escaping to be killed in the series opening.

I guess that can work if we basically regard Dionne's 'we lost contact with her a couple of months ago' as Dionne pretending she had a legitimate reason to talk to Tazer's grandma, because she was actually digging into Kemi's disappearance because of her abilities. Which does kind of fit with what Dionne's been doing all series up to that point, actually.

The whole 'weekly contact with family' arrangement is a bit weird, anyway. We hear Tazer's grandma claim that Kemi was doing it, and we hear from Jasmine's parents that she's been allowed to do it for a while.

I guess it makes sense to allay suspicion and to keep people from being reported as missing -- except they were still reported as missing anyway. And what incentive do these people have to not pass messages about what's going on to the outside? We see and hear from Jasmine how she's being treated, that's not treatment likely to elicit cooperation. If they treated Kemi the same way, then I can easily imagine she'd want to escape, but why would she be cooperative beforehand? And then talk about 'until I'm human again'? If you don't want to create suspicions, why allow that phrasing?

What changed, that made Kemi Amusan want to escape now, anyway? Why was it several years of at least partial cooperation and pretending that she was undergoing medical treatment? Did she see and say something that made the organisation cut her off entirely? Or force her hand? If she was not voluntarily 'undergoing treatment', then why did she cooperate for so long?

Was the change Victoria coming in and taking charge now that the clinic's been built and opened? That seems to have happened a lot more recently than the underground operation at least

[hcrexcellency]

@rcsplendent

Lilo and Stitch 2: Stitch Has a Glitch (2005)

[cto10121]

Finished my re-reading of New Moon and I’m in an ocean of feels and no land in sight. Des notes:

Edward leaving was definitely necessary and impactful. But Meyer’s execution…could have been better. Jasper’s attack being the catalyst is meaningful, but not powerful enough, maybe? It works on the level of foreshadowing and relationship tension. I’m fully convinced Bella could have talked Edward into staying with her had Edward given her the chance. I think Victoria returning should have been the catalyst…except that the Cullens and Bella believe that Victoria was after Edward. That would change everything. Edward would definitely urge his family to relocate and hunt Victoria down, leading her away from Forks and Bella. When Bella resists, that’s when he decides for the clean break. Most of New Moon would remain the same, with the slight change of Bella being horrified at Edward’s possible demise at the hands of Victoria (cue nightmares on that front). And then of course Laurent returns and tells Bella that they got it all wrong: Victoria was really after Bella all along (either she changed her mind or her tracking Edward was a feint). Bella would be relieved because now she knows Edward was safe, Victoria is after just her (typical Bella logic). It would also work re: Romeo and Juliet retelling.

That said, the anti argument of Edward being stupid for leaving Bella when Victoria is out and large is still dumb. For one thing, he didn’t know Victoria would return. No one did. Victoria’s return is a mid-book plot point. For another, he was hunting down Victoria anyway, which he wasn’t good at.

Also, also: Bella believing Edward didn’t love her anymore so easily was way too convenient for me. Psychologically true to her character, yes (the insecurity) but…this is the same Bella who could tell Edward was lying in Book 1 at a few weeks’ acquaintance, right? Who could tell when Alice and the Cullens were keeping stuff from her? I guess homeboy really hit her where it truly hurts. At some level Bella just wanted to believe it.

Bella and Jacob being bros and Jacob reading her better than Edward and Bella lowkey crushing should make me want to ship them…but I still don’t, lol. It’s hard to describe; there’s the bro-ing, for one thing. Their banter is pleasant, but not very deep or significant or even charged with any kind of tension. That, and Jacob does become more jerkish as a werewolf, if only because of Bella’s love for the Cullens. Interestingly enough, Bella also has no problem arguing and getting angry with Jacob; she explicitly dislikes werewolf!Jacob’s rudeness and hostility. Contrast that with her great tolerance of Edward’s temper or her inability to get angry with him for a long length of time. Homegirl really got the ✨fascination✨, didn’t she?

Also…Bella really struggles to accept the werewolves fully, doesn’t she? She is still scared of them even when she finds out they aren’t the ones killing hikers, even in Eclipse. She also gives a lot of credence to the idea that Jacob has been murdering the hikers (!!!). Bella is a vampire girl through and through. I don’t dislike it, though; had Meyer really made Bella ditch Edward and the Cullens and truly be a wolf girl, that would have killed the series for me.

I am still convinced that even had Edward had returned later and Bella and Jacob were in a relationship, Bella would have still returned to him. Ditto if she had met and befriended Jacob before she met Edward. I guess it would have been another Alina-Mal-Darkling debacle, except that knowing Bella she would have beelined for Edward the moment he flashed his crooked grin at her. Possibly hate herself for doing poor Jacob dirty, but oh well. Look at Sam and Emily, they’re the same. I wonder if there a fanfic on that AU? I actually would be interested in reading it.

Speaking of which, the Sam/Emily and Bella/Edward parallels begin here!!! Bella can’t even hang around with Emily with Sam there. With Leah as the Jacob, of course. Only imprinting fate can untie this knot, alas.

“It said that there was something deeply wrong with me…Why else would I care so much about them that it would tear big chunks right out of my chest when they went off along their mythical ways?” —>Bella’s narration continuing to be the best, I see

“Felix and Demetri were both of slightly olive complexion—it looked odd combined with their chalky pallor.” Unless Meyer means their features are ethnic while their skin is pale, POC vampires are canonical from New Moon on at the very least. So why do I hear from about Meyer’s supposed “vampires can only be pale-white because venom sucks out melanin?” racism? Did she actually say that or is that a fandom myth? Regardless, it’s contra canon, and Breaking Dawn debunks it entirely.

I guess I am ambivalent about Meyer’s decision to play up the Volturi’s coded villainy (yeah, I’m a fan of them, they’re fascinating). In-universe, they are very much a necessary amoral/legal body. But it does fit into the series’ anti-colonialist politics as a whole (evil white European vampire police vs. good American whites vs. morally pure natives).

The most beautifull part of the series still has to be the journey back to Forks. Bella refuses to shut her eyes just so that she doesn’t miss a moment with him and Edward holds her and kisses her every so often…it’s so damn soft

On the opposite end of the spectrum, Bella convinced Edward being with her means she’s dead/dreaming is funnier than most comedies. For a girl that gets a lot of male attention Bella has the most pessimistic view of her charms. Her narration is definitely unreliable in that sense—no doubt that is the core behind the mindless anti hate of “some basic bitch pulling all these hunks, unrealistic!!” shit. Meyer is very good in keeping the objective truth all subtext, but freakin’ Rosalie in Eclipse calling her pretty is revealing enough.

“Before you, Bella, my life was like a moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars—points of light and reason…And then you shot across my sky like a meteor. Suddenly everything was on fire; there was brilliancy, there was beauty. When you were gone, when the meteor had fallen over the horizon, everything went black. Nothing had changed, but my eyes were blinded by the light. I couldn’t see the stars anymore. And there was no more reason to anything.” No comments, no notes, just 💯

“‘I’m only eighteen.’ ‘Well, I’m nearly a hundred and ten. It’s time I settled down’.” That line has been living rent-free in my head for literal decades, no joke.

[tina-mairin-goldstein]

five comfort characters, five tags

I'm starting a new chain before the old ones gets too long (I also was not alerted to being tagged!). So thanks for the tag, @zeldamacgregor! Can't pick favorites, so the list is no particular order.

Newt Scamander

I was so skeptical about Fantastic Beasts when I heard about it, but then I saw the trailer, and then the movie, and was instantly hooked. He's goofy, awkward, loves animals, and doesn't care what people think. Also, bless him, he has no clue how to woe Tina, when he doesn't even have to try. I KNOW there are problems with JKR and I do NOT support her, but that can't change the fact I like Newt.

2. Tina Goldstein

Badass female Auror who does what's right, even if it costs her her job. She protected Credence and went after his abusive mom to protect him (and his sisters), and though she was a little misguided with wanting to arrest Newt, she's awesome. She was able to go toe-to-toe with Grindelwald, and I just love her.

3. Will Graham

I like him because I guess I can relate to him a little. I love his dogs and his backstory, and though he's really dark, mad, and twisted, there are still good qualities about him. He gets his job done and kept wanting to do it because it felt good to catch the monsters, even when it and illness (and Hannibal) were driving him insane.

4. Alyssa Victoria Gardner

Main character of my favorite book series, Splintered. She goes to Wonderland and learns how to be tough, plus learns that she has magic, that there's a wild dark side to her, and embraces her madness and darkness. She's a queen (literally) and fights for both her guys and her family, and isn't afraid of her powers or that dark, twisted side of her once she's embraced it.

5. Alain from Pokemon XYZ anime

I found his character really fascinating, along with the story. His companion, Mairin (like the Mairin in my url), is also here because for me they're joined. They got their own special episodes and the whole Sycamore lab staff is his family. He's older than Ash, which lends a sense of maturity to things when they're together, and got mixed up in the wrong things, because he wanted to protect those he cared about. I love reading fics about them and their family, and rewatching the episodes.

Bonus:

Jayfeather from Warrior Cats

Grumpy med cat who doesn't give fuck. I do not need to say more.

No-pressure tagging: @keepmeinmind-01, @creative-girl, @inastarlesssky, @pragnificent, and @ajdrawsig

[hcrexcellency]

@rcsplendent @jcdedsins

[ragnarokascendant]

So speaking as someone who remembers when LeMarc made that sporking thread about Victoria and got the impression that he was somewhat sane... What the fuck happened?

Dude is that very particular kind of right-wing fella that likes to hype up how 'rational' and 'intelligent' he is, while disseminating bigotry or misinformation under a 'I'm just asking questions' type of performance - think Ben Shapiro except slightly smarter. If you contradict him he'll seize on something to make himself the victim in the affair. Just typical toxic behaviors.

As far as the Victoria sporking, he was sane - in comparison to William S Lind, the UberRacist.

I cut off contact with him about a year ago when he kept trying to give credence to bullshit talking points about trans people and deeply hurt one of my friends, though he was very good at pretending to be a decent person before then, good enough to fool me at any rate. I sincerely doubt he's gotten any better since.

[ricardian-werewolf]

A princess lost to the sands of time.

This post is purely indulgent about my whole-cloth original character, Cecily-Anne Plantagenet, daughter of Richard, Duke of Gloucester, and Anne Neville, Duchess of Gloucester.

(Cecily-Anne, played by Kate Beckinsale in Cold Comfort Farm) Born in 1473, the twin of Edward of Middleham, Cecily's early childhood was a remarkably undisturbed and peaceful one. She grew up in Middleham for a large portion of her childhood, and was raised similar to her mother, Anne Neville, was. Baptised a few days after her birth for her nameday, She was christened Cecily-Anne, for her maternal and paternal grandmothers, Cecily Neville, Duchess of York, and Anne for Anne's own mother of Anne Beauchamp. Cecily-Anne became especially close to her half sister Kathryn, who was roughly a year or two her senior, and their similarities in dress and style proved sometimes difficult for their head nursemaid, Mistress Burgh, to figure out who was who! When Richard took the throne in 1483, things changed rapidly. Unlike Edward, who did not attend the coronation, Cecily did, and sat amongst the audience. Due to the fact that the Princess of Wales is only a marital title, she was simply known formally as Princess Cecily-Anne.

Edward's death in early 1484 rocked the Gloucester household to its core, and Cecily, like her mother, grew ill with grief, which only worsened with the death of Anne Neville in 1485. Cecily, just months shy of her 12th birthday, followed her father to Bosworth field - something that is wholly historically inaccurate but relevant thematically for what comes after. The Historical record the tudors wrote in the wake of Redmore Plain/Bosworth Field, claims that Cecily was taken under Tudor custody, died in captivity in the tower and her name was written from the Plantagenet history like her parents and siblings. What actually follows this is of my own idea: Kim Newman (of Anno Dracula) put forth the idea of Richard III as a vampire - why not, the biggest villain in all of English literary canon as a bloodsucking monster? the Tudor propaganda machine would have a field day.

I didn't buy it. I wanted to honor what Richard really was at his core and would have done if offered vampirism not from a mercenary choosing to fight alongside him at Bosworth - which alongside the whole idea of Richard as a bloodsucking monster, lends credence to the argument of "my kingdom for a horse." Richard, the coward. Instead, I made Anne Neville the vampiric parasite of a stripe that can be traced to tuberculosis, which in historical records across Europe and America, was linked to vampiric scares. And in a Pre-protestant reformation world, as well as the dissolution, Catholicism and vampirism would not be well-entwined at all. Richard, at Bosworth, died with the vampiric infection in his blood, harbored for months from when Anne was still alive, and at the point which he laid with her in the months prior to his discovery of her illness. Edward's appendicitis was also dead with the vampiric blood of his mother in his system, a reclusive part of his DNA that went from dormant to active as he died. Cecily did not die with the vampiric blood in her system - she was turned by Richard in 1491, after he, Anne, Edward and Cecily had fled to Margaret's court at Burgundy, which gave them open sanctuary from the maelstrom of Tudor's breakdown of all things related to Richard's reign. Johnny and Kathryn came to Burgundy along with George of Clarence's children, who were kept safe under Richard's careful watch. From there, Cecily and her family played a waiting game that lasted from 1485 until 1838, when in this universe, an england reigned by Queen Victoria and her Prime Minister, Lord Melbourne, set their sights on the elder princess, and Melbourne moved to seize her as a bargaining chip to disrupt Richard's laid plans of a Plantagenet overthrow. She has not been seen or heard from since. Her parents still hold out hope that this is just a temporary kidnapping, but if Lord Melbourne is the one behind it, then hope is a thing loath to be spare.

[grandmaster-anne]

Court Circular | 23rd March 2023

Buckingham Palace

His Excellency Mr Yannis Tsaousis was received in audience by The King today and presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the Hellenic Republic to the Court of St James’s. His Excellency Mr Koray Ertas was received in audience by The King and presented the Letters of Recall of his predecessor and his own Letters of Credence as Ambassador from the Republic of Turkey to the Court of St James’s. Mrs Ertas was also received by His Majesty. Sir Philip Barton (Permanent Under-Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs) was present. The King this afternoon officially opened the new London Headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development at Five Bank Street, London E14, and was received by Colonel Jane Davis (Vice Lord-Lieutenant of Greater London), the President of the Bank (Mrs Odile Renaud-Basso) and Mr Peter Curwen (the Board Director representing the United Kingdom). His Majesty toured the Bank, escorted by the President, and met Ukrainian and Turkish staff before viewing an art exhibition of paintings from Ukraine and joining a Meeting with the Board of Directors on green transition. Mrs Derek Cross was later received by The King upon relinquishing her appointment as The late Queen’s Diary Secretary. The King was represented by The Duke of Kent at the Service of Thanksgiving for Field Marshal the Lord Inge KG (formerly Chief of the Defence Staff) which was held at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey, today. The Queen Consort was represented by General Sir Patrick Sanders.

Kensington Palace

The Prince of Wales today undertook the following engagements in Poland. His Royal Highness this morning laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Plac Marszalka Józefa Pilsudskiego, Warsaw. The Prince of Wales afterwards called upon The President of the Republic of Poland at the President’s Chancellery, Warsaw. His Royal Highness this afternoon met Ukrainian refugees who are settled in the Polish community at Hala Koszyki, Koszykowa 63, Warsaw. The Prince of Wales subsequently met Ukrainian staff at Hala Koszyki who have been displaced from the British Embassy in Kyiv. His Royal Highness later arrived at Royal Air Force Northolt from Poland. Mr Jean-Christophe Gray, Mr Lee Thompson and Commander Robert Dixon RN were in attendance.

St James’s Palace

The Duke of Edinburgh, Patron, The Duke of Edinburgh’s International Award Foundation, this morning chaired a Trustees’ Meeting at 7 More London Riverside, London SE1.

St James’s Palace

The Princess Royal this morning visited Viridor Waste Management’s Dunbar Energy Recovery Facility in Oxwellmains, Dunbar, and was received by His Majesty’s Lord-Lieutenant of East Lothian (Mr Roderick Urquhart). Her Royal Highness, President, Scotch Chef’s Club, today visited the Monitor Farm Scotland Programme at J. R. B. Wilson and Sons, Cowbog Farm, Morebattle, Kelso, Roxburghshire, and was received by Mr John Jeffery (Deputy Lieutenant of Roxburgh, Ettrick and Lauderdale).

Kensington Palace

The Duchess of Gloucester, Royal Colonel, 7th Battalion The Rifles, this evening attended the Rededication Service of Queen Victoria’s Rifles’ Book of Remembrance at the Parish Church of St. George, Hanover Square, Lodon W1.

[equinoxts2]

Troubleshooting is done for the apartment crashing issue! I worked out that the landlord outfit DR I had was causing the game to throw hissy fits when trying to generate a landlord. Switching to the older version works absolutely fine! Go figure.

Speaking of which: introducing Harmony Victoria, the NPC landlord guardian spirit of the Lake Lulla region! She was spawned by the game following much 50/50-ing and restoring backups sent by the god Luna to guide the inhabitants of Kulo Seeri and Credence, as they are set to be major players in the next era of Juvash... I really like her and her randomly generated name, so I gave her a quick makeover and wrote her into the story instead of blocking her with the Visitor Controller. However, I’m not sure Serani here quite understands the nature of this contract she’s signing, since very few Nuidya can read...

Once I’m done handing out traits, I’ll start playing this lot and possibly have a post or two to prepare! Exciting ^_^