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mariana-oconnor · 1 year

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The Red-Headed League Pt 2

until the comical side of the affair so completely overtopped every other consideration that we both burst out into a roar of laughter.

Professional people being professional. Mmhm. You'd think a doctor would be better at keeping a straight face, I'm pretty sure humans have been sticking inappropriate things in inappropriate places since time immemorial. But these two are giggling like school boys. A lovely image, but I'd be a bit mad if they did it to me. I can't blame Mr Wilson for being mad at them.

Finally, I went to the landlord, who is an accountant living on the ground-floor, and I asked him if he could tell me what had become of the Red-headed League. He said that he had never heard of any such body. Then I asked him who Mr Duncan Ross was. He answered that the name was new to him.

Surprising no one at all. I said it in my comments about the first part, but I love how this whole scam has been echoed in heist shows/films right up to modern day. Acquire offices under false pretences, create hype around fake business, use office to make business look legit, pack up shop and leave an empty office behind and no one with any clue what the mark is talking about.

"I went home to Saxe-Coburg Square, and I took the advice of my assistant. But he could not help me in any way. He could only say that if I waited I should hear by post.

I mean, honestly, for someone who is supposedly unassociated with the league in question, that's more than he should be able to say. A more normal response would be 'That's fucking weird, boss. I think it might be a scam.' But clearly Victor is entirely trustworthy, so I shouldn't question him. Totally trustworthy.

On the contrary, you are, as I understand, richer by some 30 pounds, to say nothing of the minute knowledge which you have gained on every subject which comes under the letter A.

I expect that pub quizzes weren't around in 1890, but if they were, Mr Wilson would be an excellent addition to your team.

The internet tells me pub quizzes only date back to the 70s. Which seems late, as I swear my Mum's dad and brothers used to go religiously to their local league when she was young, but maybe I got the timeline on that wrong.

Further investigation has found me to be correct as the very league my family used to frequent is apparently referenced in an article from the early 60s. In fact it quotes someone who absolutely must have known my grandad and might even be in the picture of the quiz team on top of our bookcase.

This tangent has been brought to you by my love of trivia... Pun intended.

Back to the 1890s

"Why did you pick him?"

"Because he was handy and would come cheap."

"At half-wages, in fact."

"Yes."

A lesson that stands to this day: if something seems impossibly good value, it probably is. And if someone is willing to work for less than they're worth, one of you is the bad guy.

"As a rule," said Holmes, "the more bizarre a thing is the less mysterious it proves to be. It is your commonplace, featureless crimes which are really puzzling, just as a commonplace face is the most difficult to identify. But I must be prompt over this matter."

This reads like a contradiction, but I'm pretty sure it's true. It's the weird things that make crimes stand out and lead to the people committing them. The crimes that are completely run of the mill, like house burglaries, are one of a thousand almost identical crimes. But if a juggling clown robbed a shoe shop and rode off on a unicycle, that would cut down the suspects drastically.

"To smoke," he answered. "It is quite a three pipe problem, and I beg that you won't speak to me for fifty minutes."

Infamous line is infamous. All problems may be measured by how many pipes it takes to solve them. The standard SI unit of mysteriousness, I believe.

"Sarasate plays at the St. James's Hall this afternoon," he remarked. "What do you think, Watson? Could your patients spare you for a few hours?"

"I have nothing to do to-day. My practice is never very absorbing."

Let's hope no one has stuck a candlestick anywhere unmentionable... But seriously, you can just ditch your patients for the day? And I complain about waiting times for the NHS!

Watson is just: 'My bff asked me to play hooky. Lol. Byeee!' and these people are paying him.

"Smart fellow, that," observed Holmes as we walked away. "He is, in my judgment. the fourth smartest man in London, and for daring I am not sure that he has not a claim to be third. I have known something of him before."

Holmes, the man is a terrible con artist. He's the most suspicious and he was so obvious it was embarrassing. And you're putting him right behind you in the list? (I assume Mycroft is number 1)

I guess that being intelligent doesn't mean you have to be good at conning people, but really, he's terrible at it. He couldn't have been more obviously involved if he had a sandwich board on saying 'The red-headed league is a con. Ask me how!'

I know Mr Wilson didn't work it out, but literally everyone else did. I bet that 14 year old child labour maid Mr Wilson hires knows he's a con man and just doesn't care because she's not paid enough to.

"Not him."

"What then?"

"The knees of his trousers."

I have been on this website too long, because my mind absolutely went into the gutter here. Which, incidentally, was also one of the places I thought of his knees being.

"Let us now explore the parts which lie behind it."

Is it a bank? Please be a bank. I honestly can't remember. But I want it to be a bank. Just for that good, old-fashioned bank robbery shenanigans. Although I will accept jewellery shop.

"There is Mortimer's, the tobacconist, the little newspaper shop, the Coburg branch of the City and Suburban Bank, the Vegetarian Restaurant, and McFarlane's carriage-building depot."

Oh yeah. Got to love a bank robbery. Classic.

This has been copied so many times in media it's difficult to tell whether contemporary audiences would have been as able to work it out as modern readers. But it's a classic for a reason.

Also worth noticing that there's a Vegetarian restaurant in London in 1890. You'd have been hard pressed to find a vegetarian restaurant in most parts of England in 1990, so that's ahead of its time.

My friend was an enthusiastic musician, being himself not only a very capable performer but a composer of no ordinary merit. All the afternoon he sat in the stalls wrapped in the most perfect happiness, gently waving his long, thin fingers in time to the music, while his gently smiling face and his languid, dreamy eyes were as unlike those of Holmes, the sleuth-hound, Holmes the relentless, keen-witted, ready-handed criminal agent, as it was possible to conceive.

Watson's crush is showing again. 😆

This description keeps going in a further totally heterosexual way. Look, I'm not saying straight guys can't appreciate their bff's 'languid, dreamy eyes', but when directly compared to his descriptions of other characters... This is exceptionally effusive is all I'm saying.

And, I say, Doctor, there may be some little danger, so kindly put your army revolver in your pocket.

Must. Not. Make. Joke.

#Letters from Watson #Sherlock Holmes #The Red-Headed League #long post

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sapphia · 3 years

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An unfortunate side effect of terf-ism is that feminism has, for quite some time, reached a stalling point where you must either be mainstream feminist or you must be a radical feminist - except in this day and age, being a radical feminist means that you believe 100% in sex or gender essentialism and therefore are inherently transphobic.

And that's true now. But it wasn't always. I know because I saw it happen. I watched radical feminism become terfism. I watched the discourse go from "violence against women is perpetuated by the patriarchy" (reasonable; some good points to be had) to "trans people are the greatest enemy we face" (which just... what the fuck).

Radical feminism was once a useful extension of mainstream feminism. it asked important questions and followed them to interesting conclusions. If women are oppressed in all walks of life, don't men benefit from that oppression? Example, if a woman is socialised to be demure in a workplace, is her male colleague not benefitting from that socialisation? And if a woman fears violence from a man because of the prevalence of violence in our society, then do men not benefit from the violence committed by other men? Whether or not a woman has been raped, it is something she has been taught to fear - might all men not benefit in some ways from that threat that hangs over every woman?

And those are all interesting questions that entire books could and have been written on. But the issue that we now face is that radical feminism took these arguments and streamlined them all into one particular direction: that men are violent/aggressive as biological imperative and benefit from the oppression that they perpetuate against women. That men are the enemy. That they must be overthrown.

One half of the problem is that the exclusionary nature of their new direction is directly hostile to trans people; that this flawed ideology has been used to focus all their resources against a fight against a group who, even if they were an enemy to feminism (which they're not), it just would not be worth fighting against. The idea that trans women are men trying to hustle in on women's spaces is incorrect, but combatting it is also a huge waste of resources given the much more serious problems that women and feminism actually faces.

Which leads us to the other half of the problem: the resources. Because for about 5 years (in the public eye - about 15 years in feminist circles) feminism has been at war with itself. Rad fems are wasting so much time and energy arguing that trans people aren't real, and of course feminists have to argue back. There's so much less room for discourse when half your discourse is just asserting the fact that transwomen are women and transmen are men. It pulls focus away from the radical right, and it waters down discussions of other feminist issues. And it's correct that we do argue this, and trans people deserve their time in the spotlight, of course, but it's so incredibly frustrating that the attack on trans people is coming from within feminism, from the very people who should be allies to the cause. In fact, I would argue that a large part of mainstream awareness of trans issues comes from radical feminism; I don't think radical feminism has helped trans people or their acceptance, but it's certainly brought the issue to the forefront and into the sphere of public debate.

And while we're busy arguing over the right of trans people to exist, extreme rightwingism and fascism are gaining in popularity, and actual radical discourse of feminist ideals are being left in the dust. WHERE is the mainstream discussion of the predatory beauty industry and how it's disguised itself as feminist when actually it's anything but? WHERE is the shift away from the non-tradition, non-nuclear families and relationships? WHERE is the push within radical leftism to marry radical gender ideals with those on race, sexuality, disability, etc? There are a lot of "formerly radical" racial discourses that have made their way into the mainstream in recent years, especially regarding colonialism and it's lingering effects, and feminism is lagging behind because without radical sects exploring new ideals, it is very hard for new concepts to trickle into the mainstream!

I've seen some stuff around tirfs and the tran inclusionary radfem movement, but so much of it is still gender essentialist and so much of it is still trans exclusionary in many ways - and the tirfs that aren't either of that are consumed with infighting just for their right to exist and be considered trans-inclusionary. so again, no extra resources to deal with non-trans issues. It's a hangup of the direction the discourse has gone recently, and I'm not surprised to see it. I think tirf ideals are flawed to begin with - they've been heading in a bad direction basically since germaine greer went mainstream - but there's some concepts there that could do with working their way into the general leftist consciousness because there's some nuggets of truth in there that I'd like to see debated by a wider audience. But I think radical feminism is now just always going to be too closely associated with transphobia, both in people's mind's and in the idealogical base on which their beliefs are founded. It's a poisoned chalice.

What I really want to see is a new near-mainstream movement of far-left extremist feminist discourse unassociated with radical feminism; not because I think I'll agree with them but because I think it's healthy and needed for feminism in general and for the progression of gender equality towards a better future.

#feminism #anti terf #tirf #social justice #leftism

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toku-explained · 3 years

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Evil Sentai

Because of Stacaesar, going to quickly cover some evil Sentai. For simplicity sake, we'll be leaving out the monster teams, as well as evil copies, and focus specifically on these characters who stand on their own merits as evil rangers.

Bio Hunter Silva is not officially considered a Ranger, but is one of a number of showa era characters to hold some similarity to them. Unassociated with Gear, Silva and his partner robo Balzion had been part of the war that ravaged Bio 500 years earlier. Silva had come to earth to retrieve Balzion, coming into conflict with the Bioman team and Gear in the process, aiming to eliminate all Bio Particles.

The Hana Kunoichi Gumi are the elite warriors of the Youkai Gundan, serving first Gashadokuro and later Daimaou.

Jaden Sentai Neziranger are cyborg counterparts to the Megaranger team, possessing similar weaponry to their counterparts. Dr. Hinelar created them draining the energy for Javious to do so. The suits themselves were essentially prototypes for Megaranger created at INET before Hinelar's defection. Each was fixated specifically on destroying their counterpart, and possessed a monster form they would take on being damaged enough.

Nakadai Mikoto was a genius surgeon who excelled at everything he did, having saved the life of Ryouga merely to prove he could. However that skill left him in a near constant state of boredom and apathy. Finding excitement in the Evolian's battles with the Abaranger, when he found the prototype Dino Minder as well as TopGaler's egg he decided to join in on the fun, learning that the Dino Minder would some day exploded only increased his amusement. Together they sought amusement, he brought Stegoslidon to their side, made Yatsudenwani his servant, and eventually assumed leadership over the Evolian forces.

Wolzard, the Dark Knight was the most loyal of Infershia's forces to N Ma, acting in the interest of reawakening him. Having tamed Barikion he could grow to merge with him as WolKentaurus, and later WolKaiser. Even having leant his magic, in the form of the Wolzaphone, to Vancuria, he remained a serious threat to the Magiranger, having been responsible for the death of MagiMother in his first battle. Despite this he had a nobility to him, refusing to eliminate the Magiranger's when they were defeated, and acknowledged MagiRed's growing strength.

Kurojishi Rio was responsible for the re-establishment of the RinJyuken Akugata, while RinJyu Chameleon Ken User Mele was one of the first Rinrinshi he reawakened, leading her to become his loyal number 2, falling in love with him despite his coldness. Rio sought true strength above all else, finding a challenge in GekiRed, and eventually leading him to accept leadership of Genjyuken, joining alongside Mele.

Dark Buster is the ultimate form taken by Enter after completely absorbing Hiromu's data, completely replicating his abilities as Red Buster, and even those of his teammates.

D, the Knight of Destruction, was the first Deboss Knight born during the original battle between Deboss and the Zyudenryu. By replicating the Zyudenchi technology he was made into a fake Kyoryuger, Deathryuger, armed with the Flute Buster boomerang and riding the D-Racer bike, and kidnapped Meeko to use her inherited ability to awaken and then forcibly control Tobaspino.

Naga Ray, Hebitsukai Silver of the Kyurangers, longed to experience emotions in defiance of what his people considered the natural order of their world. Saddened by his continuing lack of true emotion as he saw it, Naga was tempted by Akyanba with promises of releasing his emotions, which she did in a fashion, accentuating his negative emotions. The result was a wild, sadistic Naga completely unlike his usual self, loyal to Jark Matter and Akyanba. His Seiza Blaster and Kyu Sickle took on a black colour as the Dark Seiza Blaster and Dark Kyu Sickle, and he was granted two new Kyutama, the Dark Kyutama and the Black Hole Kyutama, giving him various abilities as Hebitsukai Metal. Naga was eventually freed from his brainwashing, but retained the new Kyutama and access to his darker emotions, now able to use a slightly different Hebitsukai Metal form on the side of justice.

Gaisoulg was an armour with a long history with the Ryusoul Tribe, and in fact preceded the Ryusoulgers, being created by Valma during the original war with the Druidon. Valma became drunk on the armour's power for a while before being defeated by the time displaced Kou and brought to his senses, and is implied to have created by the Ryusoulger technology afterwards. However, the armour slowly acquired a malevolent will of its own, resurfacing in the modern day during the Super Sentai Strongest Battle, where it possessed several rangers and learnt their techniques, before being defeated and left on Nemesis as the Rangers left. However, someone retrieved it, and Gaisoulg would appear on earth, assisting the Druidon on some schemes.

#toku explained #super sentai

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chiseki · 5 years

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Figured I’d make this an intro post, since I’m pretty much using this alternate url as an “out” url compared to my usual vagueness.

I’m Joshua. Yes, that matches the sidebar, so it’s not really surprising here.

And that would surprise an entire two people following my main blog that know me irl because the rest were previously informed. Maybe three people, I forget if the last one is on tumblr or not.

Which is, by the way, ““““““““fun”““““““““

Yup, having like three local friend circles that had relations to each other outside of myself, and only one of them being in the know is fun.

You can basically stop reading at this point, because from here on out is just gonna be a massive time rewind to.....jeez, fuck if I know when, my childhood? I promise there will be time skips, we don’t need that mess played at normal tempo. (Also some funny stories after the giant gap in the text, if you want to scroll for that).

Most of this story is actually located in college, but the only real indicator (aside from having a general dislike of dresses) was way back when I was in all of second grade--apparently I was so damn insulted I burned all these facts into my memory--and an older kid was brought into the classroom, gave us this cool sales pitch about do we want to learn to shoot a bow, go camping, build campfires, etc

and then was like “OH YEAH THIS IS THE BOY SCOUTS IT’S BOYS ONLY”

I was so hyped lol.

Wound up being in a mediocre girl scout troop later, and my brother obviously got directed into boy scouts. At which point I got to find out that their camping trips were mostly getting rained on and finding black windows and getting taught woodworking by a dude missing a chunk of finger.

So more suffering than child me would have expected, but they still got to build fires and go REAL camping and shoot bows and rifles and shit.

Meanwhile, in girl scouts, we went to this one set of cabins every year. We never stayed in the damn cabins, because someone would find A Bug in there, or a spider, and then someone ELSE would have the same issue, and no one wanted to be in a cabin alone let alone be the only one in the cabins at all, and we always wound up sleeping in the air conditioned lodge that was visible from the damn cabins.

Except the one year where we went to a different camp, stayed in the legendary caboose, and there was a bat sleeping on the outside of the window so no one wanted to sleep there except me.

My scout group was weak.

I miss the cookies, though.

Anyway, due to not being forced into gender-targeted toys and getting to play with whatever the fuck I wanted, I also have jack shit for anything resembling an early warning sign aside from the above.

Actually, scratch that, I was not really a fan of dresses. I mean, this was fair in general, since they were usually scratchy, didn’t fit my arms/shoulders right, were designs I had no say in, and everyone would get on my case if the dress might get even a LITTLE dirty. Had some skirts I liked in middle school, but even that was a mess of having to wear tights because my genes have never resulted in anything resembling a thigh gap.

And I was like, constantly trying to play with the guys in grade school. And they’d periodically get that “NYEHHHHHHH GUYS ONLYYYYYY” shit going on. That was never not infuriating tbh.

Flash forward to high school, still basically left to my own devices. Only indicator here was that I was just tickled fucking pink whenever I heard that I either passed at cons or was at least tossed in the “maybe.......?” zone.

Flash forward to college. I honestly don’t remember what set me off on thinking about it, but started eyeballing my gender with a microscope. Unfortunately I couldn’t apply a litmus test like sexuality, so there was a lot of “uhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhfuck” going on.

Actually, I think part of it was that on the forum I hung out on, a lot of the old regulars had assumed I was a dude until a childhood friend had dropped a pronoun several times in succession & asserted its correctness, which then led to a discussion along the lines of “whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaat”.

But yeah, started testing the waters.

Also tried going to a LGBT+ club like, once. With the gal I was either dating at the time or was about to be dating, my memory is shit tbh. “HEY SO HOW ABOUT WE ALL JUST COME OUT TO EACH OTHER, A BUNCH OF STRANGERS <33333333″ still freaks me out, honestly. I get why it’s generally done, but like, no thanks. But I was horrendously obvious in ducking about the gender question and she totally called me out on it later in private lol. Also got me my first binder, but I digress.

Anyway, basically spilled on “I’m.....probably..............? a dude...........? jsyk??????” to my immediate friends, which was met with a lot of “.....YEAH ACTUALLY THAT MAKES SENSE” and a “hang on I need a dictionary........ok I get it”

I think I was the least smooth part of anything resembling a coming-out just due to like, me not wanting to have to tell people to do things for me? It’s something I find extremely awkward, like I know it’s that horribly stereotypical dating thing of “what’s wrong, bby, what do I have to do” “I DON’T WANT TO HAVE TO TELL YOU WHAT TO DO” but.

And that’s an entire digression about how my relationship with my mother often included me saying a lot of shit I had to say convincingly, but didn’t mean at all, and probably led to me having fuckall faith in what people say, most especially when under a forced prompt. I could do an essay on that, but not here.

Which, admittedly, I’m gonna rewind here because I think it’s funny in hindsight, but it means the dictionary reaction went like “SO...........I’M.............TRANS?” “What?” [thinking this is pushback on the idea] [PANIC MODE] “UH” “Like, literally, what does that word mean, I've never heard it in my life.” “OH. WELL. Heh. Uh. That internal reaction I had was embarrassing then, oops.”

Anyway.

Then the collective action was, “well, have you picked a name what do you MEAN you haven’t picked a name, we can’t just run about calling you by your deadname after all that”

And I tossed some names out, that I’m not going to list, because they were just fucking awful. So I got interventioned and the method became throwing names at me until they stuck.

Adam? Nah I knew an Adam and I can’t unassociate with that

Noah? Violin teacher’s third kid was named Noah. Same issue with Gabriel and Caleb.

Benjamin? I fucking grew up with a Benjamin he would kill me.

you get the idea.

And those were like, actual reasonable rejections. At least half the time I was just like “I DON’T LIKE HOW IT SOUUUUUUUUUUUUUUNDS.” Take, for example, Josh. I 1) knew one in high school and he was a piece of work and 2) I just, inexplicably, don’t like how the word sounds.

Which is part irony and part masochism that JoshUA stuck.

I mean, that name had pre-existing connotations for me. I had played..........a game.........in high school. And given that my options were pretty shafted to Stereotypical White Boy Names if I didn’t want to stick out like a sore thumb, some positive(?) pre-existing connotations were going to be needed.

Incidentally, I had a v. sweet trans girl offer me her deadname, which was a cool name, but just, like, didn’t fit me in particular so. She also picked her name by RNG tournament, with the top 10 baby names for her year being the competitors. Which was neat and worked well for her, but I know I would have just re-run the fucking tourney if I didn’t like the winner lol.

But anyway, continuing on to a less flowery story. I’ll add some blank lines so it’s skippable. No need to set off every other person with gender issues here.

Decided to come out to my family. Apparently time fuzzed down my memories of being devoured by mosquitos outside while my parents were trying to decipher that their kid was holding hands with a girl in the back of the van and that girl had been planned to sleep over that night, and despite the fact that booth teens wouldn’t be jumping to sex that fast nor had the equipment to make a kid between them....it was Reason For Concern like a straight couple sharing a bed.

I mean, my mom was convinced that anything touching the nether regions was SEX and PREMARITAL SEX was EVIL. But I digress.....again.

So. I tell them. And the reaction ranged from “well ok I mean you’ve always been weird” (thanks, bro) to “uh I guess my last name’s odds of getting inherited just doubled........?” to “HOW COULD YOU DO THIS TO ME”

Yeah. That last one was word for word. Some stuff was thrown, lots of crying (”I CAN’T EVEN DO MY MAKEUP AND IT’S YOUR FAULT”)--both of which were not my doing, though I got shocked(?) into my own set of tears iirc.

I think I set a speed record for climbing back into the closet. Like, a week later, everyone was pretending it never happened. I sorta emotionally cut ties with my mom at that point--kept it civil, but Did Not Want to discuss my life or friends at all with her or in any way that would get back to her.

So obviously, no one in my family knows I go by Joshua. If they asked, I would tell them, but lo and behold, zero questions, they never brought it up again, etc. And I’ve been very careful about not letting that knowledge spread, not putting it on the internet in a way that connects back to my legal name, being primed at any point to pretend “Joshua” is a mutual friend and to not respond to that name if someone accidentally calls me by it.

Incidentally, during Yet Another Family Counseling that was at least performed at an individual level this time, my mom apparently told the counselor that she thought she handled that well. Last I checked, making the situation about yourself and doing the whole “woe is me, the mother, with a child like this” shpeal was not “well”.

And I mean the WHOLE shpeal. If you’ve ever had the misfortune to see the posts by parents of trans kids that wax soliloquy about losing their child and mourning their “death” (especially the ones that aren’t all “but I got a new kid!”) like, the ones especially cut from the same cloth that would be like “my child is autistic but ~I~ am the inspiration for waking up in the morning” like no, your kid is the inspiration for dealing with you.

And if anyone is wondering, this is basically the Midwest Stereotype for....LGBT, interracial dating, etc rejection imo. Seemingly ok with it, but NO WAIT HANG ON, NOT MY CHILD. Like, I legit had trans kids explained to me (albeit without terms for it) at a relatively young age by my mother and yet. “X exists but not in our good christian neighborhood” attitude. Ugh.

So where was I? Hmm, yes, funny Joshua stories. Ok I have like ONE story. One of my friends that was in the know finally got me to play Trails in the Sky. Now, this sucker has a chunk of text lead-in with a ~mysterious~ boy that young Estelle’s father has brought home, and the whole discussion skips his name, ending on “my name is....”. Then it time-skips to present day, finally casually dropping this dude’s name, which, obviously, is Joshua.

My friend did not tell me this.

No warning, nada. Only Estelle had really come up in conversation.

And then we collectively dragged another friend into the abyss with us, except he wasn’t in the know. We also had him streaming his playing sessions when our schedules coincided, which led to--because of a shitty accuracy stat--him yelling (as we did) “JOSHUA!” frequently in combat.

I debated on just responding “Yes?” randomly one day in the most casual closet-exit possible. Then procrastinated by deciding to just be out with it at the end of the first game since he’d also played twewy.

Some of you have probably started to eye my avatars with judgement in your hearts. That’s fair.

Anyway, we had forgotten about another character that practically had his name, so at least I had someone to share my weird feelings with.

And then, he started the second game, and I didn’t hold back on responding “yes?” every time “Joshua” was used as an interjection.

Also because of that one post about biblical names, I will respond to any use of “Jesus”.

#chiseki talks about chiseki

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jreedmx · 7 years

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The Chronicles of Loon

Act One: Scene One: The Chronicles of Loon

"Bring me the Head of Quarrk! The Emporer Loon bellowed out into the crowd. "He has taken my son HungGin away to the outskirts of the Kingdom." The crowd roared: "Kill Quarrk". The emporer then adjusted his crown so it sat squarely on his big bald head. "Go to every corner of the kingdom - find the usurper and his clan." With that Loon turned to his wife Hackcha and asked: "Did I do alright honey?" Hackcha answered: "You forgot the line about the Destroyer". The Emporer stared blankly into space. The minions in the room were wondering: "What's Father going to say next?" "Oh bugger it - I'm just not in the frame anymore." He replied.

Scene Two: Enter YoungJim

YoungJim I made you my successor didn't I? Yes - Father Don't you remember? YoungJim replied. "I thought it was HungGin I made the heir to the throne?" Hackcha replied: "No honey - that was before your knights and I decided it wouldn't be a good fit." Just then a messenger came in, whispered something in the Kings ear; then went over to the other ear and whispered it again. Loon stepped forward: " Send word out to the leaders of the Kingdom. Let it be known in the hills and in the valleys, over the hills and over the dales. I just heard the Washington Chines Newspaper is for sale." "Quarrk and clan will give it up for 32 million dubloons your majesty." The messenger replied. "Then go to the Royal coffers and pay the ransom he ordered - at least six million dubloons. Put a spin on it for the kingdom dwellers. Tell then I brought it back for a dubloon." "As it is written so shall it be done your majesty." And with that the messenger turned and left for the castle deep.

Scene Three: Meanwhile at Quarrks Camp

"I told that senile old bugger that Prince HungGin was the heir to the Kingdom of Loon!" Quarrk yelled at his son. "Get me an audience with HungGin immediately - I fear all may be lost. We must gather our forces and prepare for battle. The Kings son in the east - Prince CoukGin the Great has weakened us over the past year, cutting off our lifeline from the kingdom of Chappan. We had to deliver the Washington Chimes into his hands. Even now he re-establishes his Generals, and is amassing fresh forces at the Chimes." "What is it Quarrk?" Prince HungGin asked. "My Lord we must act now if we are to wrest the Kingdom from your brother YoungJim's hands." said Quarrk. "I fear the Kings wife is colluding with YoungJim and the duchess InGin and have the upper hand. Their Generals are turning the people away from you and strengthening their base of operational support." "We must rally the people Quarrk! Rally like we've never rallied before. Send a message out to our supporters: “Behold I am coming - New Leadership for a new Era." HungGin shouted.

Interlude: Narrator

The tensions are building now between the camps. King loon has retired to his country estate in the nearby Kingdom of the Lost: Veygus. A place he has frequented now and then over the past fifteen years. Veygus authorities are always happy to see the King. They even call him their own King: The King of Veygus. He always brings an entourage and frequents the local entertainment houses which the locals appreciate. The King has a long line of credit with the local business moguls and can always increase the taxes in his own Kingdom if he needs more. The King has a vision for that Kingdom. To have the people there acknowledge him as their King. Veygus is considered a neutral territory amongst the different Kingdoms and is always a nice place to go and relax and to get away from the rigors of Royal responsibilities. The King wants to restore the place and establish a satellite base there to increase his influence and expand his Kingdom. And what goes on in the Kingdom of Veygus stays in Veygus.

Scene Four: Bad News From Afar

"Your majesty, your majesty!" A messenger cried out. " YoYo Island has fallen." The King stood there motionless. "How could this be? he asked. "Quarrk has entered the city and has razed the buildings to the ground" the messenger replied. The King turned and stared at the messenger. "Not YoYo island - is nothing sacred?" "Apparently not your majesty" answered the messenger. "Quarrks special WHY22 forces have wrestled it from the local generals under your son Prince CoukGin the Great." "I thought that ground was safe for a hundred years" the king uttered in dismay. "The buildings are gone your majesty - there's no hope of rebuilding, or recovering the losses." "How much are we talking about? asked the king. "Billions of dubloons your majesty" replied the messenger. The king fell back into his chair.

Scene Five: DayMoGin the Spook

In the far eastern corner of Loons Kingdom there is a region called ChungDung where resides DayMoGin the Spook. So called because of the countless legions of invisible friends she commands. She is notorious in the Kingdom of Loon as a Seer beyond the physical Kingdom into the invisible Spirit Kingdom. She has a retreat center along the lake at a great marble palace, near a steep mountainside. There is an infirmary along the winding road that leads to the Palace. Loom believes that the mother of his wife Queen Hackja speaks through DayMoGin. Twenty years ago past DayMoGin was staring at a picture of the Loon family when she suddenly went into a trance and met with Loons relatives in the Spirit Kingdom. They told her she had a great mission to beat the evil Spirit Kingdom horde from the inhabitants of Loon's Kingdom. She visited spiritualists and several years later started sessions of singing and chanting, getting the people to beat themselves and each other to get the evil spirit legions out of their bodies. Once driven out of their bodies they would then attend lectures given by Loon's son who had taken up residence in the Spirit Kingdom. DayMoGin commands the multiple billions of Spirit Kingdom dwellers including all the great people who used to live in the surrounding Kingdoms who have attended the workshops given by the King's son. She is a great asset to Loon and encourages her followers to attend him.

Scene Six: The Kings Jewel: UnityCorp.

For fifty years UnityCorp and it's umbrella of lower level companies have been an instrument of economic support for King Loons reign. He had established the company early on in his monarchy . This was a much needed support for the local government who were reeling from a recent war with renegade forces in it's Northern Province. The local government contracted a company within UnityCorp called UnityCorpHeavy to manufacture and supply armaments for the military forces. The weapons were based on designs from the Kingdom in the West. UnityCorpHeavy, as well as other unassociated companies were subcontracted by the local government to supply machine guns, artillery and vehicle parts. Theses weapons were used by most of the army. The King had recently put his son Prince CoukGin the Great in charge of the businesses there in the Eastern Kingdom. This was met with mixed reactions from the locals some of whom were dismissed from their long held positions in the many companies under UnityCorp. There had been financial problems in the Eastern Province and the shakeup was in part a result of the economic climate. This didn't go down very well with the peasants - most of who had been with the companies from the beginning and had started as slaves and worked their way towards better working conditions as serfs. The Prince had a different perspective on the continued development of economic might. He had been trained in the Kingdom of the West and wasn't sensitive to the people within those companies of the East. This was in part the motivation behind Quarrks rebellion. They had invested themselves and built those companies because they were loyal to the King and were inspired by the Kings great vision of one day establishing a unified kingdom bringing all the kingdoms of the earth under the Kings dominion.

Scene Seven: Enter General Chang

General Chang was a relative newcomer to the Kings court. He had risen through the ranks in the Kingdom of the East to become one of the Kings favorite Generals. Chang was an educator and businessman who was involved in several major projects that the King had developed throughout several kingdoms. He was the Kings choice for a political leader to one day govern the eastern kingdom. Recently when the King was travelling through the Eastern Kingdom he made an announcement one morning that the General was to be his overall representative with authority over the princes CuekGin and YoungGin. According to an eye witness acount from an attendant of the court Prince CuekGin flew into a rage after hearing this and threatened to go back to the Western Kingdom unless the decision was rescinded. The King remained firm. Prince CuekGin felt threatened by the loss of power that he would experience and conspired with a local commander to find any kind of evidence that would cause Chang to be out of favor with the King. Meanwhile the king was talked into visiting Vuegas for a while. While the king was gone a letter was circulated accusing the General of all kinds of indiscretions - involving money and women and accusing him of mismanaging the Kings Finances in the Eastern Kingdom. He was also indirectly implicated and blamed for the loss of Yoyo island to Quarrk forces earlier in the year. This letter was leaked to sympathetic anti-loyalist forces in the west who distributed it through the channels of resistance to people in the western Kingdom. This caused concern by loyalist forces in the west who immediately responded by giving the impression that there was no appointment of Chang by the King, and even going so far as to downplay Chang’s role in the maintenance of the Eastern Kingdom. People following the situation were even wondering why the King would appoint Chang in a position over his own two sons. Had he lost confidence in them for some reason? Chang was now facing accusations from the within his group fueled by the assertions of a few through an distribution of letters sent to the people in the Eastern Kingdom. It seemed like his career was over and he would fall out of favor with the King. The Kings closest aides advised the king to extend his stay in the Kingdom of Vuegus until the commotion had died down. Even though the King had issued a royal degree it was downplayed and even dismissed as false by the Kings sons and loyalists in the Western Kingdom. The king hearing of his son CeukGin’s defiance sat back in his favorite chair. He was tired. The General now pondered his next move. Opposition had opened him up to public scrutiny. To join forces with Quarrk would definitely cause disfavor with the king. But what could he do but bide his time and wait for a favorable development.

Scene Eight: The Two Kingdoms

The King had been hesitant about naming his successor to the crown. There had been situations amongst his many children that caused him to hesitate before choosing the new regent. This may have been unfortunate as he was now well into old age and he needed someone to take charge who he considered to be a close embodiment of his ideals and qualified enough to assume the responsibilities involved in governing his many provinces throughout the Kingdom. Throughout his reign the King had inter-married several of his son's and daughters to the children of his closest Generals who had stood by him throughout his many campaigns and had great responsibilities in overseeing the Kingdom.

To his son Prince CuekGin the Great he entrusted the wealth and power of the Eastern Kingdom on the foundation of financial accomplishment of his business in the West.

He divided the responsibilities of the Kingdom of the West between his son Prince HungGin and also his daughter Princess EmoGin the Grand Duchess of Neork. Prince HunGin was married to Quarrks daughter and EmoGin was married to a son of another of the Kings top aides: General Embellishment the Communicator. Several years earlier the King had crowned his son YoungJim his successor, crowning him the new King governing the entire kingdom. YoungJim was a younger sibling and sincere in his pursuit of following in his fathers footsteps. He was also a friend of the General Wholly Spirit whom had been away from the Eastern kingdom for thirty years. YoungGin was introducing the General to the many Kingdom dwellers in the East and the West.

Scene Nine: Tension in the East

The people in the eastern kingdom were talking amongst themselves. They were confused over the great princes reaction to the Kings proclamation that General Chang was now the leader. There was a report from the eastern city of Kcarpsite that the Great Prince had called his own meeting with the leaders who had attended the King that morning. He wasn't happy with his fathers announcement. He made that clear to the leaders. He said: "If someone blocks my attack then I will strike at them hard. If someone attacks me then I will retaliate with deadly force." The commanders were astonished. One stood up and said: "I will not follow anyone except the King! If the King gave the order then the Great Prince should comply with it." General Chang also stood up and said: "Great Prince you severely attack your brother HungGin accusing him of not listening to your father the King - but you do the same thing!" It was then that General Chang realized that the prince would go out of his way to destroy him. He made a determination that if this was the situation now then he would not concede easily, but continue to fight the prince and destroy him. The leaders were afraid of the prince. They had seen how he had gone after his brother HungGin and Quarrk. They knew that he controlled the royal treasury for the eastern kingdom and they were concerned that they would have their lifelines of support cut off in retaliation for not uniting with the prince. Some felt that the people should be aware of the situation. They sent messengers to Kcarpsite so that the people would know. The small city of Kcarpsite was inhabited by around four thousand loyal followers of the King who were concerned about events in the Kingdom. The Prince had tried to destroy the city but wasn't able to stop it from operating. He had singled out several people to be tried for heresy but the local judges threw the cases out of court and Kcarpsite continued to flourish much to the dismay of the prince. The information was out and was quickly sent by messengers to the Kingdom of the West.

John Reed 2010.

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