Cathal's Journal

29^th April 2013

So today is or was the 29th April. At least it was when I was collected although whether that is true of where I am now is another issue.

The invite I'd been sent said I would be collected. It didn't actually say how. I'd assumed not knowing any differently that it would be by car. That was not to be the case. At the appointed hour a trump gate had formed. How I knew it was a trump gate I have no idea, although it might have been burried in the engram my mother left me. Anyway, out of the gate steps Cordelia Chan, a little older than her Time magazine picture but recognizable all the same. Why she was armed with a Katana I have no idea.  Her greeting was afferable enough even if it did take me a few seconds to recover from the manner of her arrival. She inquired as to whether or not I was ready, and having gathered my rucksack and holdal I said I was. She then proceeded to form another trump gate which she ushered me through.

And so it was I arrived here, at her Mansion, where ever here actually is. Upon arrival I was introduced to her houshold staff Hou-Jin, a wilely looking oriental gentleman of later middle age who is her butler come steward and from his looks more besides, Choi Lee, another oriental, female this time, possibly in her mid twenties, who is her PA, and several others from which I was to select a "Personal Assistant" for the duration of my stay. They all appeared pleasant enough but I was struck by the cuteness of Caitlin so picked her.

Cordelia then gave me a quick tour of the Mansion, whilst Caitlin took my bags to my room. The Mansion is certainly impressive, especially the roof top swimming pools, it appears Cordelia has her own private pool above what appears to be, at least on the upper floors, her private wing. Tour over she escorted me to my room, Feldspar, on the first floor, before excusing herself as she had somebody else to collect. Exactly how many people has she invited? I suppose I shall find out at the meeting in about 10  minutes. In the meantime I'm going to explore a little more of the technology that exists in my room.

04 Jux 45

So I'm going to use the local date for this update. It's shortly after 4:30am local time and about 90 minutes after we finished the two meetings, the one convened by Cordelia and the followup sort of orchestrated by the playboy type. I have to admit some of Cordelias indroductions of my cousins, something I'll get to in a minute, were somewhat rude and condescending, whilst other were somewhat intriguing.

The 9 of us on Cordelia's invite list are all, according to her, and given I know who my father is, so I have no reason to doubt her, cousins; sons or daughters of her father's bothers, sisters, half-brothers, and half-sisters. Her father is Tiberius for the record. The validation of this will occur in a little over 48 hours when we will all be required, and she made it very clear we have no choice in this, to walk the Pattern. There was almost no concealment of the threat that if we used it to go anywhere other than back to our rooms here she would come looking for us but not with the intent of retrieving us alive. I am as yet unsure exactly how to interpret this as it doesn't sort of ring true with everything else she explained.

The revelation of the above, that we were all cousins, went down like a lead ballon with a number of others, strangely though with neither of the two from Japan(question the same Japan, or different Shadow Japans? And the same father? Since one posses an Arden Hound and the other asked about Arden in relation to his mother.). It also appeared that some of them weren't even listening to, or maybe just not comprehending, anything Cordelia said, repeatedly asking questions that she'd already answered.

What came out of the discourse with Cordelia, aside from the fact that serveral people didn't believe a word she said, clarified a lot of things I already knew, or atleast which I had information on but which I didn't know was real or not, but also added a considerable amount of new information I wasn't aware of, some of which does shed some light on a few things that were lurking in the periphery of my mothers engram, things which I don't believe she intended to gift me, and others which have raised a whole barrage of new questions.

Unlike the others, or at least one in particular, I don't think her purpose in bringing us here is to use us as any form of "cannon fodder" in some coup. Unless answering some specific question targeted at her she always used the term "We" or "The Family", and her reaction to one incident in particular indicates she had, and probably still has, a considerable degree of loyalty to both the now deceased King, and what remains of the family.

That said I still get the impression, she's not telling us everything, which begs the questions, waht is she hiding and why?

The meeting after the meeting, or rather the discussion that followed after Cordelia left, was almost as enlightening. I'm pretty sure Mr Playboy (must remember to try and get his name) is another Choasite. Cordelia hinted at it, but he wouldn't go so far as to actually admit it. This also begs the question why? What's he hiding?

04 Jux 45

Another entry this time at the end of what turned out to be a very busy day. After completing my last entry I spent some time getting to grips with the VR AI system. It seems years ahead of anything I've heard of, not that I keep up to date on such things. After a slight embarrassment over the means of inputting my body measurements into the system, I was able to order a whole new wardrobe of made to measure clothing, everything from the best outdoor exploration clothing, through everyday jeans and t-shirts, to a bespoke tuxedo for the ball in  10 days time, local time that is.

After I'd finished playing with the AI system, I took a brief look at the game Mizzurian is launching but it holds no real interest, I joined the others for breakfast, a very diverse and complete spread I have to admit.

My arrival appear to be somewhat untimely, as it appeared that one of our number was in the middle of arguing with Cordelia over his ability to go into town rather than use the AI to obtain the tuxedo he needs for the Carnelian Ball. Part of this seems to stem from the fact that the towns, I'll need to investigate this further at some point, are populated either by people who speak "Thari", (question:- is the languge more widespread than just Amber and the Courts then?), or who speak a dialect of Chinese similar to that spoken by the household staff. Whilst the language barrier is currently a minor problem, it will vanish when we get to walk the Pattern. My understanding is the Logrus provides a similar capability.

Having filled my plate and settled down I thought to finish my breakfast without further surprises until Cordelia's dog spoke audibly in English, or so I thought. It turns out, as Cordelia explained, that he use somes form of  telepathic projection, as opposed to actual speach, and whilst this is rare, his ability is not unique. The only person who didn't react was the Japanese girl, almost as if she already knew he could. Does her dog also speak then? Cordelia was ambigueous in this regard in her answer.

I didn't get to finish my breakfast either. I was about half way done when there was a scream, the sort uttered by somebody subject to intense sudden pain. The AI, indicated it had come from the Scotts girl, who'd been in the library. We arrived, followed shortly after by Cordelia and her PA, to find her collapsed on the floor. Cordelia's diagnosis was "Sensory Overload". I have a vague recollection of something about "Trump" in the meeting in the library, and both her and the Canadian did follow Cordelia out after she said she needed to speak to them. Maybe she'll explain further when we get to our "Trump Basics" lesson.

With nothing scheduled and no firm plan by anyone, I chose to explore the immediate surrounds of the mansion. My first reaction is the ground on which the mansion sits is not natural. Yes it's a limestone escarpment capped by a limestone pavement, but it's proportions are wrong, it's somehow too high above the valley floor in which the town sits. The fact that it is an escarpment would explain the proliferation of greenhouses and kitchen gardens and the way the remainder of the vegetable plots are laid out. I suspect there must be some form of permeable membrane under the topsoil, to stop it all leeching away, and all the soil in the garden has obviosuly been imported, probably from where the town is. Not a mean feat given the  depth of soil and it's extent. The enclosed area that forms to Estate is not small in the least.

The estate also has some really capable agriculturalists/arborealists. I've never seen Coffee, Cinamon or Vanilla grown under heated glass, in fact I wasn't aware it could be done. According to Wei Gang, the only one of the gardeners Caitlin could locate that spoke the same Chinese dialect as she did, this was all and experiment to start with, Cordelia wanting local supply of the more exotic spices used and a local source for coffee. There are plans to set up more aboreal houses in town to expand production, especially in respect of growing coffee. Wei Gang also said that these exotics can only be grown under glass here because the winters are continental, and serveral feet of laying snow for a couple of months is no uncommon.

The rest of the estate is an intersting mix of formal gardens in an oriental style, and apparently natural gardens, although given the elevation and the basic terrain geology they are anything but. At soe point I'm going to have to venture further afield, both into town, and out into the wider landscape, but for today I satisfied myself with just exploring the estate.

There are several things I should note before I get to the meeting on the terrace after dinner. Lunch was an interesting affair and not at all what I was expecting, indeed I was actually surprised at how good it was. Perhaps I need to change my outlook in regards to oriental cuisine.

Dinner was equally as good. I'm both surprised and happy that the menu also caters for vegetarians. I wasn't expecting that.

Cordelia's household staff is far more extensive than it appears, especially if you take into account all the estate workers who work outside, and those who whilst attached directly to the house, operate businesses from the garage and workshops which serve both the house, the Mizzurian office in town, and the town in general.

The after dinner meeting was obstensively held at Edward's (Mr Playboy) request, although a number of others were also interested in the Trump pictures of the family.

I pretty sure the roof terrace was chosen, because it was further away from Cordelia's suite, the proximity to which seems to affect the Scotts girl, Alana, and the Canadian, and according to the Canadian's commentry both have an affinity to Trump. Logically this would indicate that there are significantly more sources of trump in her suite than the deck she brouht with her to the roof. Since this also distressed both of them there must be soming in particular about her deck. Maybe Cordelia will enlighten us when we get to the Trump lession..

In a number of ways looking at the pictures was both fascinating and pointless at the same time. The fact that so many of her family, our? family, are dead at their own hands, was more revealing. Cordelia's commenty on the Courts was even more stunning. Her half brother rules it because the Logrus, and 2 prime Chaos Lords wanted it so, now that is a piece of information to launch a thousand ships.

There were also other interesting snipets and insights in what she said, the ages of Balthazar an her father. Stuff about Dworkin, what did she mean when asked if he were dead, when she said "well he no longer inhabits this plane of existance"? Calling Edward out on commenting on what she said about the Courts and then denying he knows anything..The question is what does he know, and how much control does he have over his ability to shift and adapt? We have other cousins that Cordelia knows about but can't get to because of the state of shadow, but she also implied that there are likely to be others that are still unnown, both to her, and probably to the rest of the family.  If we can live indefinately, then what would happen as those around us age but we don't, surely that must lead to complications and problems, especially in a technological enviroment where everything is tracked and recorded.

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