Les Drapeaux Nouveaux

[Radilo]

Les Drapeaux Nouveaux

Ne nous dupons pas dans pensant nous sont de bons hommes.
(Let us not fool ourselves into thinking we are good men.)

- Chairman DeVain


DeVain had been dead for ten years, he had succumbed to the Parkinson’s that had crippled him in his last years in exile. His wife, Lulu, had died a few months after, not being able to live without her love.

Empress Alexis IV, though, still lived in exile in Arendaal with her daughter-in-law Josephine and grand-daughter Alexis V. The three of them had been shuffled around from palace to palace amongst distant royal relatives. They were accompanied by Jane Oslo, the long ago deposed Prime Minister of the UENR who was now reduced to being their personal aid.

From afar the Empress watched as her old empire waxed and waned under the increasingly grim fortunes of her deranged son, Nutty IV. The Empress believed that her son had long ago died… for that the infant she once held in her arms had grown up to be a psychopathic megalomaniac. As far as she was concerned the boy she had loved was dead.

The Nuttian Empire, though, was weakening, everyone could see that. Her economy was flat and her armies burdened by costly and useless campaigns. Few were satisfied under the Reign of Nutty IV, and so he shunned any comparisons to his father: Nutty III, Nutty the Great. This was of no use; there was a building chorus of dissent, so even his iron fist could not silence it.

He suspected, with good reason, that many in the upper echelons of government were looking for an opportunity to usurp him. He did not expect, though, the way that they would do so.

 

[Radilo]

“I am cautious of any man who is an agent of my son,” the Empress said.

“He seems credible, besides just a dialogue will not hurt you,” said Jane.

“It’s not the immediate threat I fear, it’s the possibility that Nutty will catch on to us.”

“If we don’t meet with him, there will be no chance… everyone else in the government is too afraid to even look at your correspondence.”

“That’s fair,” said the Empress biting her lip, “where and when will he meet with me?”

“Tomorrow at noon he will meet with you in an office at the Arendaal Foreign Ministry Building, well out of the public view, and under the watchful eye of your daughter-in-law’s family.”

The next day the four women got into a limousine and headed for the Foreign Ministry. Emyn Arnen was indeed a beautiful city; it had a eloquent delicacy not unlike the finer days in Chanton, but those fine days were long gone.

The limo pulled up to the back gate and they were let out by a small contingent of escorts, who led them into the Ministry Building. Once inside they were directed to a small parlor where a very formally dressed man was waiting.

 

[Radilo]

“Monsieur,” said the Captain of the Guard, “C’est l’Empresse de Radilo, Alexis IV.”

“Merci, vous excuses.”

The Captain bowed, and with that the escorts left the four women and the man alone in the parlor. There was a long pause

“Are you Lord Hennessy?” The Empress asked.

“How rude of me, I should have introduced myself to your highness,” the man said standing up. “I am Jean-Jacques Auguste, aka Lord Hennessy,” he said bowing, “leader of the Imperial Senate.”

He was a short man with dark brown hair, he was round and somewhat pale. He wore a designer suit and many large rings. His posture was overly formal, and rather stiff. He smelled of Cognac and expensive cologne.

“What does my son want?”

“Your son… I do not speak for him here, I speak for myself.”

“What the hell do you mean?” Oslo interrupted.

“Ladies sit, we have much to talk about,” he said pouring them each a glass of wine.

The four women sat nervously, as he began to pass out the crystal glasses. Again there was a long pause.

“My my… your grand-daughter is beautiful your highness, and it is such a pity.”

“Why is it a pity?” her mother asked.

“Well Lady Josephine, your daughter is blood heir of both Nutty III and IV, and she grows up in exile… her father does not ask of her, and does not seem to care, for such a lovely girl it is a shame not to have a father.”

“Papa is still not better then, is he?” nervously asked the teenage girl.

“No my dear, he is sicker then ever.”

“Answer this for me, Monsieur Hennessy, why would Nutty IV allow you to come here if you did not speak for him?” asked the Empress.

“As far as he knows I am not here, I’m in the Einland securing an economic treaty.”

“What will happen when you return without the treaty in hand?” Oslo asked.

“This shows my trust in you… if the little plan your highness concocted does not work, it will be both of our necks on the line.”

“So you are accepting my proposal?” said the Empress.

“Yes,” he said with a twisted smile, “and signing my own death certificate.”

 

[Radilo]

ooc

OOC: I hope you don't mind Arendaal, that I'm doing a tad bit of god modding, but I figured your country would be a good host for the initial part of this rp, being that's where the heir to the throne is from.

 

[Radilo]

Emyn Arnen International Airport, Arendaal

“Are you sure about this Alexis?” asked Jane Oslo as she paced nervously in the terminal.

“It’s the only chance we have; besides Lulu* called me last night and assured me that Hennessy is trustworthy.”

“I’m surprised she is still alive, your son has not found her yet.”

“He did kill her brothers, and as far as she is concerned her mother and father as well.”

“I can see how a grudge could be built up.”

“Aye.”

* Lulu DeVain (named after her mother) is the only surviving relative, the daughter, of Michael Douglass DeVain, the last Chairman of the old UENR. She has been acting as a go-between for the Empress, trying to silicate members of her son’s government to help over through him. She has been living in hiding, as a farmhand outside of Mielle.

“Are you ready your highness?” asked Hennessy.

“I suppose so,” said Alexis, taking a deep breath.

“Goodbye grandma.”

“Goodbye dear,” said the Empress, hugging her namesake. “Take care of yourselves… if I don’t return do not worry, just keep living.”

“Flight 504 to Chanton is now boarding…”

 

[Radilo]

Several hours later, at the Imperial Palace in Chanton, Nutty IV was preparing himself for a banquet of prominent aristocrats, nobles, and business leaders.

“Your Highness,” said his aid, “Lord Hennessy is here.”

“Ah, good send him in.”

“My lord,” said Hennessy bowing.

“What of the Einish?”

“I was told in a very polite manner to go fuck off.”

“I expected as much,” said the Emperor, fiddling with a bow-tie, “we are not terribly popular.”

“I concur, your highness. Who all is coming to the banquet?”

“Other Senate leaders, CEO’s, and some nobility… I want to keep a watch on all of them tonight.”

“Why is that sire?”

“I feel something… something odd… I fear there are traitors afoot.”

“You worry too much your highness,” said Hennessy confidently.

The Emperor cast a sharp glance at him, “hardly.”

“Of course sire,” Hennessy bowed and left.

One fear of anyone seeking to take a grip of the Empire was the lingering cult of Xagnon… the group who did the final warping to Nutty IV’s diseased mind. This fear though is mediated for the moment. In his paranoia, the Emperor had killed most of the groups leadership… fearing they would usurp him for being a half-blood. The Emperor now found solace in no god or gods… only in his own power.

The banquet was underway, celebrating nothing in particular. The emperor sat at the center of the main table, flanked by Lord Hennessy. The elites of the empire conversed in a causal, but somehow tense way… they were around the emperor, but they could not show fear, not on this night.

The Emperor did not say a word.

“Pinot Noir, your Highness?” the server asked.

The Emperor nodded silently, holding up his glass; the server poured the wine in.

Sipping the wine, the glass broke spilling wine all over the Emperor. The conversations halted and the room fell silent.

“Fucking old china,” the emperor mumbled. “Hennessy I’m going to change my shirt, I will return soon.”

Hennessy nodded… the brittle glass was a wise choice by him; it would all be over shortly.

The Emperor walked alone up the stairs to his suite. He hastily opened the doors and headed towards the dresser.

“Son,” a soft voice said from behind him.

He turned around and saw his mother pointing a gun at him.

 

[Radilo]

OOC

OOC: I know this is going a little fast and is not the most poetic rp, but I need to tie up this loose end before I can continue with re-establishing the UENR.

 

[Radilo]

“Mother…”

“I want to say that I love you, at least I love what you once were,” said Alexis as tears began to flow down her cheeks.

“I have always loved you Mama… is this for the better?”

For the first time in many years a tear crept out of Nutty’s eye.

“I am going to free you and this country of your disease.”

In the final few moments of his life Nutty realized something… for him to die, his country would be reborn… this was for the better.

Nutty IV stood poised and proud.

“Deus serva Imperium,” were the last words he uttered before the bullet pierced his heart ending his life.

He and the Empire were now free.

…

Everyone had heard the gunshot. Hennessy ran upstairs to see that it had been done. There he found the Empress clinging to the body of her dead son, weeping.

“Lord Hennessy,” she said through her tears, “send for my family, and alert the press of what has happened here.”

“Yes your highness.”

 

[Radilo]

OOC

OOC: Well I guess this is the last scene in the long and storied history of the Nuttyland and Radilo.

Read the poll thread in the RP commentary secion to see why.

I am starting a new nation, still called Radilo, but it will be quite different.

Anyway,

THE END.