Laying out the Civil War

[kiya]

So.

Bellatrix is organising as the force who will take over, heavy emphasis on blood purity (unsurprising), but that actually makes her a better ally to Rod with his creepy dynastic castlebuilding (only blood lasts) than they have been in a while.

There's clearly a subset of DEs who want to keep being horrible people (see conversation about Yaxley).

Barty and Tosha reveal that they are relieved to be free of the Mark.

Bella wanted Tosha to "turn himself in", Tosha is communicating with her in friendly fashion in the journals, ish, but will not object to her turning up dead. Barty appears thrown in entirely with the DE side, Tosha is less clear to me.

Tosha appears to not have issues with blood status among people raised in wizarding community but may have muggle/muggleborn problems. Various people are poking his buttons to see which way he may jump. (Siz, Sally-Anne, and Justin - "father" and "patron" are in his latest, according to Google translate, my! - but I think also Rachel got him, with the 'the people I'm with have been working for years to protect children from people like you' line.) I am deeply curious to see how that plays out for sure.

Montague appears to me to be cheerfully playing both sides in order to see which way he wants to jump. I hope Rachel is assuming that's what he's doing. I hope Bella isn't.

The DEs seem to be amusingly underestimating Rachel.

Alice wants less mayhem. I'm not sure she's likely to get her wish, there. The Order/remnants of Dogstar cooperation appears solid, though I wonder how much is left other than Inderpal and Haruman at this point!

Justin appears to have an assassination target.

Also, the last aftermath thread was nearly full of comments.

Comments

[stinaleigh]

And all the feels with Sue and Draco and Kingsley/Colin.

[aedifica]

I think Jason may be Dogstar--his PM to Freddie reminded me of Rachel's old PMs to Johnny, who we later learned was her Dogstar contact. I hope he is. Eagerly watching to see what happens!

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

Which raises questions about the journal magic--would he be unable to see Bella's PMs to 'loyal members of the Council' if he did decide to jump ship?

[stinaleigh]

I think a good part of that bit of journal magic depends on the writer, so as long as Bella believes he is loyal, he will be able to read such. Otherwise, people couldn't just write to "Mum and Dad".

[stinaleigh]

I went back and reread this bit and yes, I think I agree. Esp as my brain is telling me (but not so I could prove it) that his father is dead.

[kiya]

Ooh. Which would make for an interesting angle on why he's encouraging the other DEs to think of Rachel as basically ridiculous.

Though Rachel said she couldn't have joined when Ridley was active, because she couldn't be read and Ridley didn't let anyone in she couldn't legilmise. Which means they'd have to have joined up at the same time.

Prediction: if you're right, we'll discover it because he drops the passcode that we now know because Rachel said it to Haruman at a critical moment.

[(Anonymous)]

Which makes the Miss Minx thing make more sense. But why start a new thread? Unless Bronwen is not the dead sister and instead someone who he wants to be listening in (e.g. Dogstar)?

qwerty88

[kiya]

Okay also this is much funnier to me if Dogstar, in a sort of "argh" way because the entirely realistic differential commentary for male and female agents:

Compare:

Jason on Rachel.
Rachel on Jason.

If both Dogstar, are they both picking up an extensive collection of lovers for data-collection purposes?

[aedifica]

Hee! That gave me a mental image of Dogstar recruiting among swingers. "Have sex with lots of people and take down the Protectorate!"

[kiya]

It seems like Freddie is a more interactive sort of person, maybe? He's being mentioned to other people, which I don't recall that Johnny ever was.

The plot plottens, in any case.

[alt_player]

Bellatrix doesn't want Tosha to turn himself in; she was checking with Barty to make sure that he wasn't thinking of doing that.

-B's player

[kiya]

Ahhh. I was parsing that as her following up on "Is he going to let me investigate him for what his softness let happen under his nose".

[stinaleigh]

Dolohov has replied to Justin re: muggleborns. But is still cagey.

I'm reading it as that they wouldn't be enslaved as such but would be fostered a la half-bloods. And we know how well that program worked. And the adults would be "supervised".

ETA: Justin is calling him on his BS. Will be an interesting conversation if it continues.

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

Always here for Justin calling people out on their BS. <3

[batrachian]

I continue to eagerly await Tosha's headsplosion when Justin announces Being Muggleborn.

because /aiyyee/.

[stinaleigh]

Justin just did! Did you see?

[batrachian]

Oh. Oh my. That's beautiful. Oh, Effs.

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

All I got is :D:D:D:D

(Well, that and laughter about Tosha's wounded indignation--"I have dealt honestly with you," oh, please, Tosha.)

Also loving Hydra and Justin's discussion afterwards.

[kiya]

... the last thing Tosha addressed Justin with was "my little son", according to Google translate.

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

...Oh, Jesus. Oh, Toshenka. No other Alternity character manages to make me so furious but also explode with so very many FEELS. In this I suspect I am not much different from his students.

[(Anonymous)]

"My little boy", with the connotation of affectionate, playful exasperation -- like you'd speak to a small relative who needed correction. ;)

~ Tosha's player, whose dictionary of Russian endearments and the many, MANY nuances is much larger now than it was several years ago

[alt_player]

Thanks! But just a note on timing.... Justin and Hydra's discussion was last night, before Justin and Tosha's last two comments (which were this morning). (Also note the times of Justin's post to Rachel and his comment to Tosha....)

-Justin's player

[stinaleigh]

Interesting.

[atheilen.livejournal.com]

Crouch and Hydra are kind of horribly hilarious. I am loving how Hydra is just 1000% done with the DEs' bullshit.

Also, oh, Draco, my darling. I hope before this game ends, he has a chance to see both just how loved he is and what a good man he has become.

[keshwyn]

...what is Rockwood up to now? I wonder if he thinks that the OoP folks will actually help him? Or if he knows something's about to break with the wards very messily?

[stinaleigh]

I think/hope he is worried about what happens if the wards suddenly fail, i.e. earthquakes, etc. And knows they are damaged enough with Voldemort's death that they would have to come down no matter who comes out on top.

[kiya]

Okay. Draco is in charge of the Protectorate treasury (see earlier comment about how Harry left him everything).

Justin's assassination target was chosen for PR reasons.

The DEs are moving to impose martial law wherever they can, basically....

[stinaleigh]

I think they are killing the Sleepers too. Perpetual rest. :-(

[keshwyn]

Looks that way. :-/

Good tactical sense - tactically, they're denying the OoP a potential resource *and* cutting a loss, since the Protectorate was devoting resources to keeping the Sleepers alive for future use. Given that the DEs have no use for them now, it's simpler to just kill them.

I worry about Luna's Dad, though, given that they're also offing the folks in the Vale. The OoP may be kicking themselves for waiting so long there. (Poor Luna.)

[keshwyn]

I missed the comment about Harry leaving him everything - link? I saw that Harry's trunk opened for him, but not the "leaving him everything."

Poor Draco - he's got the Judas guilt on him now, betrayed by a kiss. (I once read a story told from the perspective of Judas, where Judas was a reincarnationist, and "betrayed" Jesus at Jesus's request, much like the current situation. Judas was similarly fucked up by the act, though, even believing in reincarnation.)

[kiya]

The Harry's trunk opening for him, he commented "I assume because Harry left me everything", I believe.

[keshwyn]

HAH! I'm amused by the names.

"Private Message to V. Quash, C. Lowe, S. Douse"

Quash it, lay it low, douse the fire!

[aedifica]

Yes, I was just coming here to say the same thing! :-D

[stinaleigh]

And at this rate, half the country is going to be under Fidelius.

[aedifica]

Can a Fidelius'd property be unFidelius'd? I would think it would have to be possible or there would be no land left after centuries of occasional use...

[kiya]

I think there are a couple of routes for it (both in canon and in Alternity).

1) The Fidelius dissolves when the secret-keeper dies. (Alternity reference, Tosha recently commenting to Barty that he'd forgotten Barty had the secret to the Potter house in Godric's Hollow and he was surprised it was still there with the SK dead, not that he is.)

2) A sufficiently powerfully cast Fidelius becomes heritable, with the people who had the secret becoming secret-keepers, and presumably this diffuses it over time? (Canon: what happened with Grimmauld.)

3) The secret-keeper can voluntarily dismantle the Fidelius. (Alternity reference: something someone said about Rookwood attempting to find a potions-oriented way of dismantling them, and how they'd never heard of that sort of thing working without the assent of the SK.)

[aedifica]

Thank you!

[stinaleigh]

So I was talking to a friend about Alternity, and pointed her to the pdfs of the early years. That made me sentimental so I started reading. And I have just gotten to January of first year and I came across this comment from Neville in response to a comment from Draco on Pansy's post about getting hexed in the AK game.

Oh of course, because it's better to be dead than to
be alive.
I think in some cases, that's actually true.

{blinks} Is it dusty in here? I think I got some dust in my eyes.

[sugarjet03]

New comment to Raz from Siz.

Her loneliness makes me so sad :(

[stinaleigh]

Ditto.


{Lol, see below}

More dust...

[stinaleigh]

Aurora wrote to Raz again.

My heart is hurting, so real.

[kiya]

"Unfortunately we just don't know so much about werewolf physiognomy, and the studies over the years have been poorly designed and thus highly inconclusive."

Tweak that phrasing just a tiny bit and make it crankier, and I swear I hear Snape coming out of Hermione's... quill.

[stinaleigh]

Of course you can. She almost channeled him in canon. Working so close in Alternity makes sure that many things will have rubbed off. :-)

[kiya]

Oh Siz.

I am totally not personally informed about the wards and the Octoboros, oh, no, not at all, do please explain them to me from first principles. Tell me the fiddly bits that we haven't worked out yet what we need to know to take everything apart fix the solstice lockup, I am earnest and harmless.

[stinaleigh]

+1

[ursamajor]

I know. Maybe some of that hanging around Slytherins has helped her more than she realizes. ;)

Seamus

[stinaleigh]

Is asking the wrong questions of Draco at exactly the wrong time.

Draco, just don't let him know the Order has his father.

Re: Seamus

[kiya]

"You're funny, Finnegan."

Seamus, you may have just earned yourself a spot on Draco's special shit list, the one that gets some very cranky hexes attached....

Edited to Add: Okay, aside from the "Do not taunt Happy Fun Ball" factor here, am I the only one who's really worried that Bella will go on another murder rampage against the goblins when she learns that the treasury has gone? I really hope they take precautions....