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Sup guys! Here's where we're going to be going over ~secret info~ for the Royal Pain mission.

I was thinking the way we'd run this would be similar to a D&D sort of thing. I give you guys some scenarios. You tell me what your characters would do. If I think it's particularly difficult or risky, we'll do a skill check, but that'll probably be rare (unless you want to TRY for something particularly unlikely and REQUEST a skill check). I'll tell you what information your characters find, and they can relate it to the rest of the game as you wish. Sound good?

FIRST OFF all your guys' names will be absolutely impossible to pronounce for French people... except for you, John Neige. For Daenerys, it might be a good idea to just go as Dany, since the name Danielle exists, though it's very rare at this time in France. Ashitaka... well, people will probably assume Ashitaka is at least partially Chinese, so you can really do whatever. Basically: if you want to come up with names for your personas, lmk! Or if you wanna handwave it, that's cool too!

ALSO for the benefit of transparency, once this mission is over, we'll be making the post public so players can see everything that went down behind the scenes!

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Lafayette has taken a special liking to you, perhaps because of your generally peaceful demeanor, and in Jon's case, obvious experience. However, he is strangely secretive some days, going to his office to spend hours alone and not allow anyone in under any circumstances.

After these sessions, usually lasting around an hour, he'll immediately leave for the royal apartments of the Tuileries. Searching his office will reveal nothing of note. Tailing him will be difficult-- he is after all a career military man-- but not impossible.

Otherwise, well, he likes you guys, and he's a pretty lonely guy. He hasn't seen his beloved wife and children in months since he sent them from Paris for their safety, and it makes him yearn for someone to confide in. He can't with any of his troops, that's immediately clear; they do not have the loyalist sympathies he does.

OK, after talking this over a bit, we think that the first thing Ashitaka and Jon would each try to do is converse and develop a rapport with Lafayette and see how it goes. Sneaking around would come after that, depending on whether or not they had to do it. Both of them are pretty good hunters, and while the situation eventually went south because he didn't kill her like he was ordered to, Jon snuck up on Ygritte, who was essentially a fairly seasoned guerrilla soldier.

If this infiltration group were not given explicit orders not to contact the Commander, Jon might have waited for a very private moment and then quickly sent a text message asking for the name of an obscure distant village that Lafayette is unlikely to know, or might have asked for one before going into this, just so that he has a bit of a backstory to use in conversation. He might speak to Lafayette of being the bastard of a large family and becoming a soldier to make a name for himself, if that were to come up.

It maaaaay also come up that Jon's sympathies are probably a little more divided than most people's... I can tell you more about that if you think it would make a difference, but Jon keeps a lot of stuff close to the chest, especially when he thinks it's important to, so it might not even come up and I think it would be situationally dependent. However, if he comes into any contact at all with the royal children and interacts with them, he's kind to them (which may hint at divided sympathies); it is also feasible that he's unable to interact with them at all even if they do come into contact. tl;dr he wouldn't be out for the blood of the royal family at the time being and with things as they stand, and Lafayette might pick up on that.

Later, once Dany tells them about Marie's secret and how she alludes to "getting imprisoned last time" he would have contacted the Commander to ask what got them imprisoned there, or possibly asked among the other guards if he could -- a lot of that would depend on how they were reacting to him and how generally it seems to be known why the royal family is imprisoned there. It may also be knowledge he picked up soon after arriving in Paris or something. (I'm assuming it was probably the flight to Varennes, but he wouldn't know that.)

Jon would disguise any interactions with Dany as a flirtation between a young guard and a maid, and would not have much trouble being convincing doing so.

Edited 2017-11-02 02:58 (UTC)

This is mostly a +1 to everything since Ashitaka functions very similarly to Jon in this scenario. When it comes to some things more unique to him, Ashitaka doesn't do too much expounding on wherever he is from, instead leaning on the novelty of his not-being-European to avoid too many intricate details. As for what they will call him... he knows just as much about French naming conventions as they know about Japanese ones, so he will just accept whatever name they give him. Ashitaka feels that being as genuine as possible and seeking to gain information from Lafayette (and other guards, if possible) by proving dependability is the best route, though if it ends up running dry, he will agree to some sneaking and subterfuge (though a little begrudgingly). He would work together with Jon to increase their chances of success, having one or the other cause distractions if necessary.

Ashitaka will handle his duty as guard with seriousness (to a point of severity...), but (if this comes up at all) he will speak to anyone with his usual openness and understanding, though tempered by degrees of respect for those hierarchically above himself. I can specify any reactions or responses if necessary.

The only other thing I'd tack on is that he would just claim any conversations with Jon or Dany to be for the safety of the estate and the royalty. He's... not a very good liar.

Ashitaka will probably end up with the nickname Monseuir Machin, which more or less means 'Mister Thingie', since nobody can pronounce his actual name. But he's reliable, dependable, and he does his work well; people like him and accept his oddities, for the most part. Though they keep assuming he's Chinese.

His outright honesty and lack of any sort of pokerface do mean he gets teased a little, but it's largely in good fun.

For the most part, people trust Ashitaka, and it means they let him in on various secrets, thoughts and random feelings, because they find him easy to talk to (they also comment that his French is very good for a Chinaman...) They talk about the queen (who most of the guard think very little off), the king (who is often called 'the clockmaker' as a mocking nickname), the children ('the little brats'), and that strange man who keeps coming in and out of the castle. A few posted soldiers have noted François Gamain's irregular patterns, being requested by the royal family to come, and then leaving very abruptly. It annoys many of the soldiers, because they have to break formation to let him in and out. "If he were to fall and crack his head open on his hurry out of the tower," one soldier confides, "I wouldn't be too broken up about it."

Ashitaka quietly accepts this nickname, thinking it could probably be worse. He's not going to split hairs about the assumption of his nationality either.

He's gotten used to that sort of teasing, and he picks up that it's not done in a malicious way. It actually reminds him of the banter and bickering of the men and women living in Irontown, so in a way he actually seems to bizarrely enjoy it.

Anyways. Having commonly conversed with Jon and Dany and learning about what they have been finding out, Ashitaka decides to use his rapport with the soldiers to begin to lay some groundwork for figuring some stuff out. Setting the royal locksmith aside for the moment, he recalls Dany mentioning one of the staff remarking others among them were acting "oddly," just like them. He doesn't ask any outward questions, but he tries to keep mental tabs on as many members of the guard as he can. Who seem the most integrated into the main host, complete with friends and habits and stories, who seem very at home in this environment and role? More importantly he keeps an eye out for those who don't fit this mold, who might've been new "odd" additions, just like himself. As of right now he's not asking any direct questions about it, he's just trying to get a rough idea to move forward with.

As for the locksmith, Ashitaka agrees strongly with the soldiers, saying that his patterns and mannerisms were very inconvenient to the point of rude. He asks them if they have any idea what he's being called here so often to accomplish, feigning lack of understanding of what his overall purpose is (which isn't really feigning, because he really isn't very sure what all a locksmith might do). He recalls from Jon's information that the locksmith ends up at the king's private study when he visits, and he keeps this information to himself, though he's very interested in figuring out what he's doing there.

(Also, not super involved with the plot, but when the conversation turns to the king, the queen, and the royal children, Ashitaka is interested in the men's emotional responses and asks them a few gently leading questions, trying to get them to explain their reasoning for how they feel. He genuinely seems interested, as he is—he's always interested in trying to understand conflicts, and the tension in the palace is palpable. He won't pry too much, just trying to get a feel for it all.)

If Ashitaka is careful and clever, and pays a fair amount of attention to detail, he may notice some of the guards have similarly... odd backgrounds. At least two are new, and while they aren't from China, they certainly aren't from around here. There's nothing to confirm it outright, but clearly someone's been poking in at the royals in the same way COST has. At least one soldier, Antoine Colin, seems especially strange. Whenever Ashitaka enters the room, he stops talking and immediately leaves. Most of the other soldiers assume this is because Antoine is afraid of foreigners, but there doesn't seem to be fear or hate in Antoine's eyes.

The soldiers tell stories of how the locksmith leaves in the middle of the night, and sometimes can be seen pacing from the windows. His behavior has changed-- he used to almsot never come by, to the point that, at first, many didn't know they even had a royal locksmith. Now he's here almost daily. And he is so rude.

The men are happy to boast of their political opinions-- their fathers,they say, weren't even allowed to have any. But many have read various books (pamphlets, magazines, newspapers) on politics now, and love discussing them. Several attend Jacobin meetings whenever they can. They say that France was historically a free country-- that's what the ancient word for 'French' means!-- and they wish to return to that time of democracy and freedom. The royals have contributed nothing to France for too long, but expect everything! They talk about the bread shortages, the famine, the loss and the hunger, and how the royals did nothing and didn't care. One man pulls out a very dog-eared copy of a pamphlet he's clearly very fond of, and says Ashitaka can read it. Another fellow just reads one of his favorite magazine issues aloud one night, and everyone crowds around to listen, laughing and cheering him on. It's clearly something they do often, reading magazine issues aloud, arguing, commenting, pretending to be various characters described. It's something very important to all of them.

Except Antoine, who is just never around when Ashitaka is.

Ashitaka pays careful attention to those that he discovers are new to the guard, similar to himself and Jon; this is particularly true for Antoine Colin. He doesn't make any efforts to follow him. On the contrary, he tries to act as oblivious to his obvious avoidance as possible. In the most casual way possible, however, he asks the other soldiers if there is anything else strange that they have noticed about Antoine's behavior. If asked why he's interested, he will do his best not to act suspicious of the man, instead couching his curiosity in confusion to his severe aversion to himself.

If possible, Ashitaka wants to learn more about Antoine's schedule for guard duty and patrol. Just because. If it's not something he can observe from afar, without arousing suspicion, however, he will hang back.

From discussions with Jon, Ashitaka has learned that the locksmith's final destination is always the king's private study. With his knowledge of general guard detail and patrols, he will try to sneak into the study when it is in use by neither the king (nor in danger of being visited by the locksmith). If I need to roll anything, please let me know! He's going to be looking around for anything of interest and anything that looks like it's seen regular use.

Ashitaka's interest in the men's views is a personal one that he indulges on in his free time. Such concepts are so completely different from social constructs he's familiar with, so it takes a lot of discussion to start to wrap his mind around them. When it's talking about abstracts, Ashitaka is calm and interested, but the different forms of literature and the energy about them are slightly different. The pamphlet is a little difficult for him to digest, so his thoughts are not as defined on it, but he worries about the inflexibility it suggests between the different classes and resolving their issues. Ashitaka is also in attendance when the magazine issue is read aloud, though his reaction is a bit different. His face remains still, tense, and his left hand moves to clasp his right forearm as the demon mark reacts to the wild word so brazenly suggesting revolt and warfare. (Multiple times he thinks that the royal family very poorly chose their guards.) Regardless, he certainly seems a little more withdrawn and unconvinced when such violent methods are brought up, though he is cautious of questioning it, not wanting to rock the boat too much, particularly since he sees how much it means to these men (and probably knows how difficult their lives, and lives of others they know in the city) have been.

After some time, he does ask as gently as he can if they felt society could only be changed through the shedding of blood, or if they would accept a more peaceful solution. Just because he's interested... and worried.

It turns out that Colin is also new, and also pretty oblivious to a lot of the political concerns of Paris. This is because, of course, he's from the countryside away from Paris. They don't know much about Colin or his opinions; he's always carefully neutral. He has an odd habit of disappearing when it's not his turn to be on guard duty, however. No one really knows where he goes. But when it's time for him to do his job, he does it, and what more can they ask?

Let's say they successfully make their way into the king's rooms. None of it seems particularly out of the ordinary, beyond an assortment of various locks, all with adjoining keys. The king is famously a hobbyest for technical equipment and puzzles of that sort, from clockmaking to locksmithing. Each key has a lock to match it somewhere on the king's workdesk... except one.

How odd.

The soldiers indulge Ashitaka-- he's a strange man, but they like him for his strangeness and his honesty and his obvious strength. They don't think a bloodless conclusion can be reached. The nobility refuses to give an inch. The time for change is now, and if the nobility keep ignoring it, well... that's their fault.

Lafayette has been a noble all his life, and has very little understanding of, or sympathy for, the low peoples. That said, he does understand the zeal to prove oneself, and hearing Jon's story will make him congratulate him on his vision and drive, if a little... condescendingly. He means well, really.

If his sympathies are anything Lafayette would notice, he'd appreciate sympathies toward the royalty, who he believes deserve to rule France wholeheartedly, just in a diminished, non-authoritarian capacity. Lafayette believes in democracy, he'll say, but the common people cannot rule themselves, they're a mob, uneducated and impossible to control.

The royal children, Louis-Charles and Marie Thérèse, are precocious if spoiled children, who largely seem to have no idea of the danger they're in. They occasionally escape their minders, and it's not impossible that they run across the guards attempting to protect them. They have many questions, like how many peasants have you killed, and what's your name, and where are you from, and have you ever ridden a horse, and what's your favorite animal. Overall, they seem much more interested in Jon's private thoughts and motivations than Lafayette. They are somewhat bored children. Louis-Charles, Dauphin of France, will ask for a piggyback ride.

Due to the covert nature of the BCE, Jon can contact the commander, or his fellow operatives, at any time, even recording conversations with Lafayette if he so chooses. The use of the BCE cannot be seen by non-time travelers, and it is possible to text through rapid eye movement over the keyboard, though it may look as though you're having a bit of an eye spasm if someone catches you. Still, they won't see the holographic interface or anything like that.

Conversations with the Commander, or anyone else, via the BCE are highly encouraged at any time.

Anyway, you hit the nail right on the head, it was the flight to Varennes, organized by Lafayette and the Queen. The most relevant information Jon, Dany and Ashitaka would be given: They disguised the royal family as peasants and attempted to shepherd them out of the country. They were caught when someone recognized King Louis' face from a bank note, and have been imprisoned in Paris ever since. This caused a massive amount of unpopularity for the royal family, as the people of France felt the royals were 'abandoning' them. This is probably a major factor in.... everything that's going to shit right now.

Anywho.

The flirtation between Dany and Jon would be noticed, and not really discouraged, though Lafayette would have a stern comment about marrying her before any 'mistakes' were made, and some fellow soldiers might ask for lewd stories. One jokes about how someone with such a 'plain' face like Neige could get someone so pretty to notice him, does Jon have any tips? Another asks if Dany has a sister with similarly bad taste.

Fortunately the kind of condescension Lafayette is dispensing is something that Jon has been familiar with all his life, and he no longer goes black in the eyes when he's on the receiving end of it... in all honesty, it's not dissimilar to his own behavior when he joined the Watch. So he gets it, nobles just have a limited point of view sometimes, etc. It doesn't affect his interactions with Lafayette, which he does record once it's suggested. The first recording is a little off: I mean, now these mind ravens can also act as scribe and witness?

Jon more or less agrees with those sympathies. What with being a king who has a thing for a queen, he's kind of a royalist; but having also been a democratically elected commander (and, honestly, someone who became king by acclamation rather than hereditary right), and having a lot of opinions about what makes a good king/lord or a bad king/lord (which he would not express here except maybe as "a king should be for his people"), he's also pretty much fine with limiting the power of bad monarchs, bad monarchs abdicating, etc. Basically, the system Lafayette is advocating doesn't sound too bad to him under the circumstances. He wouldn't say this stuff where guards other than Ashitaka might overhear him in conversation with Lafayette, though.

As for babysitting: His name is Jean Neige, he's ridden a horse but not lately, he's from [obscure village], his favorite animal is LE LOUP (duh), why do such charming children want to talk about killing when they could talk about the names of the stars in the sky or why they think their favorite animals are better than wolves, and yes, gods help him, that piggy-back ride is go. (This is so much easier than climbing the Wall.)

He does what he can to develop a rapport with other guards, asking them about their stories, families, sweethearts, etc. If the piggyback ride gets him side-eyed, he explains that he has a brother around that age. He bears the teasing about "Danielle" somewhat bashfully -- was he a monk or something before he became a soldier? To Lafayette's comment, he says "if she'll have me."

At least they're not mocking his height.

He tells the Commander that they believe the royal family is trying to plan another escape.

When Dany tells him and Ashitaka about the change in the locksmith's demeanor, he finds it weird, along with the gossip about secret boxes and hidden keys. He keeps as close an eye on the locksmith as possible when the locksmith is there, but he tries to do it subtly; I think probably it might be a matter of joint coverage between him and Ashitaka at the very least, though I haven't double-checked that with Alex yet, and I'm not sure even that would be effective! Jon would be trying to notice if the locksmith is moving around systematically or going to a specific area all the time or what.

Lafayette did fight fairly prominently in the American revolutionary war and was one of Washington's adopted sons, so honestly his political opinions probably align almost 1=1 with Jon's, give or take the odd cultural confusion that can be easily breezed over because, again, condescending nobles. All in all Jon probably does a pretty good job ingratiating himself with Lafayette for this reason. He might be able to ask some favors or questions, depending on his mood and timing (get that man a drink).

The children want to know why his favorite animal is a wolf, before Marie Therese supposes it's because of the Roman wolves, and then both of them are fighting each other to tell a very disjointed version of a story they were told by one of their tutors-- the one about Romulus and Remus being suckled by a she-wolf.

Marie Therese will demand a piggyback ride if her brother gets one, and then he'll have the children's loyalty forever.

The locksmith acts in a very paranoid manner; he definitely is hard to follow, and takes alternate routes through the palace whenever he arrives. He's rude and surly and suspicious to anyone he encounters. His end location is always the same, though: the King's private study.

Jean Neige has accepted his destiny as a giver of piggyback rides to royal children. Gosh, it's a good thing he has younger sisters, too. And why yes, his favorite animal is the wolf exactly because of Romulus and Remus [and for no other reason whatsoever]! What smart kids.

He'd be careful to select his time and place for any remotely suspicious questions... a drink, or deep in a conversation. He is, in fact, suspicious of that locksmith. Is Lafayette sure the locksmith isn't some kind of spy? What is he doing there? What possible need could there be for a locksmith to be about the place so much when the place is already so well-guarded? Should the guards be keeping a better eye on the locksmith... or anyone else?

[TWM you, the player, know exactly what's going on, but aren't 100% sure of a reasonable way for your character to get there.]

Jean Neige has proven himself especially adept at calming Marie Therese, which will earn him the endless affection and thankfulness of the queen. She summons Jon into royal apartment and privately informs him of her gratefulness-- Marie Therese is a famously difficult child-- and that she will pay Dany's dowry in full as a token of her gratitude. The king is present during this, and gives his ascent. The entire thing is very official, and goes on as though the royals are not prisoners within their own palace as Paris spins out of control not a mile away.

The idea that the locksmith might be a spy has clearly never occurred to Lafayette, but he's incredibly wary about this possibility. He assigns Jon a special mission: tail the locksmith, don't be noticed.

[#historyspoilers]

Jon tailed the locksmith and, as we already know, he's been ending up at the King's study.

What do, Lafayette? Did you want him tailed outside of the building?

Jon finds the very official dowry meeting kind of baffling but goes along with it.

A rundown of what they find in the king's study is in my reply to Ashitaka!

And the wedding is set for next month, please invite surviving family and decide who your best man is, Jean.

/thousand yard stare about that wedding. But, like, you know: in private. Publicly, he's just waiting to hear about messages he's tried to send out to his siblings, who live very far away. Strangely, Jean and Danielle seem closer than ever since around the time of Dany's network post.

Of the three of them, Jon is best suited to tail Colin: he's a strong guy who's also been hunting successfully his entire life (like, actual animals, in the woods, with his "father" and "brother"), and Colin is already explicitly avoiding Ashitaka. But Jon is also recognizable as a Tuileries guard, so he'd go with the Commander's decision as to whether he should be the tail or someone who hasn't been working in the palace should.

He's also sent video of the mystery key to the Commander. His best idea if a copy is needed is to make a wax or clay impression to bring to whoever she'd choose as a middleman, but that may not be necessary... the real key is right there, after all.

[Had to think briefly about whether or not it would occur to Jon to take an impression of a key, but 1. He watches smiths work in canon, and they are shown to be using molds and similar techniques, and 2. The doors in the show's version of Winterfell lock with keys.]

Look, let the royals smash their barbie dolls together, ok. It's their right as divinely chosen leaders of men, or, like, whatever.

Colin acts like a normal soldier at almost all times, blending in, let's be honest, much better than Jon or Ashitaka or Dany do. He raises little suspicion, and always has good excuses and convenient explanations when things do get weird. However, sometimes he'll sneak away to just... stand there. Doing nothing. Careful, careful observation will find that he's blinking his eyes rapidly while he does this. In general, watching his eyes might reveal some interesting tidbits; sometimes he'll start blinking rapidly, or turning his head to survey entire scenes during his work, even if it seems like nothing should be drawing his gaze. It's easy to miss, but once you know it's there, it's hard not to see.

The Commander says a wax copy is a good idea if they can't find a matching lock nearby. What's the point of having a key if you don't know where the lock is? And judging from the king's study, he likes to keep all his toys in the same place. That said, the pictures are appreciated, and filed away carefully. Good work, team.

Colin is reported to the Commander as an almost certain Regency spy, unless she knows of a third group interested in this sort of thing.

They make the wax copy and get it out ASAP, and look around the King's study when they can for a place to use the key.

For the rest of it, waiting on coordination with anyone who needs coordinating with, I suppose.

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ROYAL 🍞 SECRET PAGE.

ASHITAKA & JON.

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man I thought I replied to this!

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