>>@SGT | TO: @ALL.

[byhand]

I usually reserve these communications for private networks, but it seems necessity has hastened our meeting. For the safety of myself and my family, I would be of no uncertain gratefulness if you would refer to me as Sargent, and little else. Though I am sure, with time, some of you will come up with more colorful nicknames.

Pleasantries aside; welcome, new faces and old, and I must ask this with all seriousness and kindness: What have you done?

Things are moving at the wrong speed. The prognosticators were not expecting to compensate for such a load. Several droids have begun misfiring, our protochron readouts are gaining sentience, a prophet is missing, and the birds are growing increasingly agitated. This is not the series of events your ancestors knew, much less my progeny.

To put it simply: things are not moving apace. I cannot say for sure if this is your influence, or the influence of an outside power, or perhaps both. And yet:

Mary Wollstonecraft, who was not supposed to enter Paris until next month, is already here.

The King's Trial has not even been proposed by the revolutionary government.

Mirabeau sleeps still in a place of honor.

I will put more work into discovering the source of this snarl in history. But you must be warned: every action you have here changes the lives of untold million not yet born. Tread carefully, for as the poets say: you walk upon dreams.

Comments

[hakanai]

@SGT Ha. Perhaps. I shall consider thinking of it in such a way.

I am a strategist on small and larger scales; this is what I am good at. Different culture, different time, yes, but there are still certain things that remain common across humanity with great consistency. At the very least I have that to work with.

Judging by the talk I have heard, what's happened since I arrived and the publications I have read? Well, you mentioned the King's trial. That should happen, quite possibly after a massive and bloody raid on the palace happens, and the King found guilty of treason. He will be sentenced to death which will not really solve many of the problems here and there is likely to be civil war in the future. Food shortages, invasions and even slight differences in opinion on the question of 'how this country should be run' tend to result in such things.

This Marat might incite something too. His fire and rage ignites fire in many hearts; I can only imagine he has already led a rather interesting life where he has made others very angry about either life or himself.

I can explain why I suspect these things, if you wish.

[byhand]

I cannot imagine you think happiness or luck comes from war; it has never seemed too much a stretch in my thoughts, at least.

Why do you think the king will be found guilty of treason? It's a very specific detail.

[hakanai]

@SGT If you want to get rid of a King or ruler, or even a 'mere' noble, judging them guilty of treason is simply the best way to do so. Speak of a man or woman as a traitor to the country or cause and you're more likely to convince your people that the execution is legitimate.

It was a common way of disposing of troublemakers or enemies in my own time, right or wrong. My first Lord was killed by his brother-in-law under such a charge. I have no doubt that after my own death, the army I supported shall be portrayed that way by our victorious enemies in order to justify the seizure of land and power from our families as well as executions of surviving male heirs in any group that refuses to bow low.

Can't trust those 'traitors' with leading the brave new world, after all.

Combine that with the sheer rage and anger towards the King, and the calls for their execution from several sources, it simply seems like the most likely charge in a trial. What else would they attempt to pin on him? Unless, of course, you are going to tell me he will commit some grand and obvious murder.

I did only settle on this once you confirmed a trial, however. Had you not I was still not certain if he would simply be killed via invasion of the palace. The crowds that gather outside there sometimes and the tension in the air suggests a certain level of blood-lust.

[byhand]

As you see this outcome as inevitable, you have no qualms in aiding it?

[hakanai]

@SGT I will aid it as the flow demands. Or requests, perhaps.

[byhand]

I am not, as you put it, the flow. I do, however, have requests.

[hakanai]

One might say your request is moved by the flow, especially as the work we do is to restore it to its natural course.

No matter. Make your requests and I will see if I am capable.

[byhand]

I would request you keep an eye out for orders on the horizon. The flow, as you are apt to call it, is one to change rapidly.

[hakanai]

Very well.