Empire of Fashion

[Panache]

Oh bother does this mean I have to start writing again now too?

Cheers

Jamie

[Southern Breeze]

oh bother does this mean i have to start writing again now too? :d

cheers

jamie

yes!!!!

[Wompet]

Oh bother does this mean I have to start writing again now too?

Cheers

Jamie

Yes, yes it does.
In at least one or more realities.

Mr. Brown, Madame Pleater - please do continue with your narrative. A multiplicity of me are finding it most entertaining.

[Pleater]

Oh bother does this mean I have to start writing again now too?

Cheers

Jamie

Ah, Mr Panache, Madam gave me a message for you - though I must confess that in the confusion of her departure I neglected to obtain clarification after I realised that I was not entirely sure of what I was to convey.

Perhaps it is some personal code.

All those Panaches! (she said) Perhaps when Jamie's latest adventure is over one or more of them would care to take a sabbatical at MHICE and assist in this paradox rectification. He fences, you know. That would be useful.

I trust this is somewhat comprehensible to your good self.

I too must return to the narration with which I am entrusted, but I find myself somewhat fatigued after a hectic morning and rather good luncheon. I can hardly keep the eyes open, don't cha know. I think a short nap is called for to replenish the energies.

J.B.

[Bugbear]

I'm still following your storry, Pleater. Thank you.

[Livingston]

Oh bother does this mean I have to start writing again now too?

Cheers

Jamie

No Jamie, you need to FINISH writing. You already started, just need to finish that story.

[Pleater]

Apologies for the disappearance from my task - I was quite caught out by the Remembrance Sunday observance.

It had slipped my mind that it is no longer Armistice Day, on the 11th of the month, but the closest Sunday. Luckily I was reminded yesterday in time to prepare for it.

Here at the House it is observed by a solemn procession to the Grotto, at dawn. The gentlemen of the House put on sombre garb, the younger ladies wear either green or white, the older ones wear either lavender or gold, and they carry little baskets of violets and tiny lanterns on small rods so as not to burn their fingers.

There there is no sound other than the hems sweeping the ground and a soft pattering of feet. As the light strengthens it illuminates the wall where the names of the fallen are set in stone, and a pool in which gray carp and waterlilies abide. The water for the pond is taken from a small stream which flows past in a shaped channel - it is most evocative, the separation of the still pool and the flowing stream, and the procession pauses as there is a small bridge where the lanterns are placed into the baskets, and the baskets are placed in the stream, and float slowly away into the darkness beyond the wall. The warmth from the lanterns releases the scent of the violets.

There was an unusual incident this day, as our senior director, determined to make the pilgrimage, rose from her wheelchair to place her basket in the stream, and as it left her hand she gave a sigh as she collapsed and died.

There was no fuss. One of the medical men knelt beside her for a few seconds, and shook his head - we lifted her and placed her on the stone bench below the wall, and stood at her head and feet until the ceremony was over and she could be returned to the house. We carried her along the pathway beside the stream where the baskets were sailing sedately along in the gentle current, and then through the formal gardens and in through the front doors which had been opened to receive us.

It was a most affecting day, and the House has been very quiet.

J.B.

[Pleater]

The 9:30 soviet has been canceled for today, as the business of the House is suspended. I can therefore spend the time in resuming the narration, though it is somewhat difficult to determine just what to reveal.

The local inhabitants of the House in that continuum obviously caused Madam to study patience and forbearance, as they retained the attitudes of the Victorians.

Once the convoy reached the house it became clear that many of the passengers were injured and required time and in some cases assistance to enter the House.

There had been an accident on the railway and a great number of the rebels had been involved, as had their ponies, vehicles and other equipment. The more seriously injured had been left in hospitals, but the walking wounded had come to the House to recuperate.

The women, including the three ladies were engaged in caring for the menfolk, and although it gave them access to the senior individuals it did not bring information, as they were regarded as interchangeable pairs of hands and feet, to fetch and carry but little else.

Madam regards the Chairman of the Committee - the local version of herself as a dangerous individual who should be set to some task requiring much energy and mental ability but without any possibility of destroying the world.

Even when unable to rise from his couch, the Chairman was organising the rebels activities and attacks on Fashion Furs. They had stolen and stockpiled vast numbers of the meals, taken ponies and horses - though they were hard to come by as the Fashion Furs world was more technologically advanced, though thankfully not along the same lines as this world, or they might have decided to release some deadly agent into the atmosphere to destroy all resistance.

Possibly they regarded the attacks as a small irritation which could eventually be suppressed and normal subjugation restored. The rebels seemed to be restricting themselves to things Fashion Furs or their own environment provided.

They had managed to discover how to adapt the devices we now call pins, the beacons to assist in locating particular spots for placing rings, and they set them to a different frequency which their equipment could detect, but was outside the normal range of the Fashion Furs activity.

The three male versions of Madam, who had not been hurt beyond bruises and strains, were interrogated for any information they had gleaned about how the equipment opened portals between continuums, but it seemed that they had been involved in the organisation of distribution and storage of the spoils, and had little contact with the rings, even for transportation around the world, and probably knew less than the ladies.

As the winter weather brought cold, rain and gales, the locals found that their last set of clothing was inadequate, and beginning to wear out.

The rebels had found that the low velocity urban ammunition the Fashion Furs paramilitaries used was unable to penetrate the pelts of the Acryli beasts, as the fibres were so strong, and so had made long hooded coats for themselves, which were warm and cosy.

The women were far less fortunate, so the ladies began to disassemble old clothing and fashioned crochet hooks from twigs in order to create shawls and warm jerseys, and to teach the women of the House to make such things for themselves. They had no 'high tech' items such as a weaving loom or knitting needles, but a crochet hook can be created from most basic materials, and Madam even describes making flint tools in order to carve the hooks, as steel blades were simply not available.

J.B.

[Weasel Mender]

Oh bother does this mean I have to start writing again now too?

Cheers

Jamie

Yes it certainly does!ith:
Weasel