Chrysalis

[The Grim Reaper]

Arcadia Civil Airport
The August Province of Arcadia Bay

Lovely Arcadia Bay. Storms and chill winds were commonplace in the small island, a lightly populated outpost of ancient Imperium. The beloved inheritors of the timelost traditions that had once been introduced to Alba Longa by the Augustine Household, it was in many ways more authentically Latin than Imperium itself. However, it was a culture ravaged by the harsh conditions of their longitude. Still, they'd gotten away easy. Not too far away was the wartorn wasteland of Cronaal, a nation that had upon it a war wrought by modern-day imperialism and its own kin. It had been a war Imperium observed an arm's length away. The aid that Imperium offered was minimal, informal, hidden away - refugees had been accepted sparingly, supporting the escape of only the most privileged of Cronaali society in the early days of the war. They did so knowing of the steep price to be paid for Imperium's patronage.

With possible the harshest border controls in all of Eras, those refugees who entered Arcadia Bay did so at the cost of virtually all they owned. Their properties in Cronaal - if they still existed, and if there was even a trace of ownership - were turned over to the August government. Their personal belongings were turned over to Imperium, along with their Cronaali currency exchanged for August Libra and labour debt.

Those who would be flying into the Arcadia Bay Conference were piercing a veil. The Novrith Pact would be holding a meeting with the delegations of the Stan Yera, and their selected representatives of the Cronaali people, all of whom would be seeing a land almost invisible on the international stage. Even within Imperium, Arcadia Bay was little known - a silent shadow war, waged to secure the Latin communities in the land from the Cronaali spillover. With this conference, Arcadia Bay would be changed forever.

Disappearing into the Novrith Chrysalis, a new world would be born.

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza stepped off the helicopter, having just made a brief flight over from the Crol mainland, where he had been talking with Kiara Algen regarding the disgraced nation's future. He hardly noticed the chill, having been brought up in a colder climate than anywhere on the islands. The rotor's draft ruffled his hair as he rubbed his jaw, noting that he had forgotten to shave that morning. He placed his Diplomatic Corps beret onto his head, tapped the holster on his right hip, and set walking to the main buildings.

His phone buzzed in his pocket, prompting him to check it. There were two texts, one from Sfan himself. He opened it:

Sent: 1423
The conference starts soon. Once it is done, you are to fly back the Stan Yera and report to myself and 'Ayaz.

He didn't respond, noting to himself that there would be no point in acting as if there was a choice as to his return. He closed the window and checked the other. His eyebrow raised as he noted the sender. It was Kiara.

Sent: 1403
As I suspect Sfan will wish to speak with you after the Conference, I would request that you meet with me for a discussion after that.

He replied, curious as to the subject matter of the discussion the woman proposed.

Sent: 1425
I would be able to arrange that. Where do you propose we meet?

The response back was nearly immediate. He was surprised despite how often he knew Kiara checked her phone.

Sent: 1425
The best location would be Varîh? courtyard, on the southern edge.

Tanza knew the location well; it was a rather spacious park next to the diplomatic corps wing of the Yeran Capitol building in Kolyan, and his office looked directly out onto it. He responded, still curious as to the nature but unwilling to probe further.

Sent: 1426
I have no objections. I will be there as soon as permitting following my meeting with the Generalissimo.

Noting the time, he turned off his phone and hurried inside.

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Arcadia Bay was not a well-funded outlet for the August political elite by any means. It was the closest thing Imperium had to a philathropic posting, and most of the staff on the island base were locals. Even Imperium's usual military structure started to break down, when you shone a critical eye on the lackadaisical lifestyle of the Arcadians.

As Tanza entered the building, he was welcomed by a hastily furnished reception. It looked like a garage - albeit, competently refurbished. A few marble busts had clearly been requisitioned from surplus, here and there. A common part of August decor, they depicted individuals of many time periods and backgrounds, some clearly from different artists. One or two looked as if they were hasty repair-jobs. The floor was a hardwood veneer. With a bit of care, the sound of soles on the ground would reveal a concrete foundation underneath. The sounds of the old-fashioned, wood-carved ceiling fans were dulled by curtains. The work of a quickly-drafted upholsterer, probably more used to working with the native coir fibres.

Tanza was met by a somewhat bored looking young lady, shock-blue bangs framing her face as she scrolled through her smartphone. Noting his appearance through the mosquito screen, she did an admirable job at seeming present, dropping her phone on the table from her already limp hand, freeing it to take Tanza's hand. "You'd be Tanza, then. You'll be meeting Ms. Valeria Caligula - got here from Alba Longa yesterday." Holding her glare just enough to acknowledge Tanza's expected confusion, but not enough to offer an answer, she motioned to a diminuitive door behind her. "You can come behind the desk."

Tanza would have likely seen some briefings in his time, but Ms. Caligula was not a woman he'd have ever heard of. Before he could inquire further, the young lady put up an "Out for Lunch" sign, stridently wandering past him, buried in her phone. As she passed, Tanza would catch a glimpse of the screen, as she scrolled through a music playlist. Stepping behind the desk, making his way to the door, he'd find that it was clearly a facade of a reception - papers and files strewn here and there were mostly copies of international newspaper articles from the current day. He noticed some spreadsheets filled with numbers, but it did not require careful observation to note that their headers identified them as publically available annual records for various Cronaali corporations. Knowing enough about August culture let him know that such a blatant ruse was a matter of politeness, rather than deception. Such white lies were the habit.

Pushing forward, he was met with a conference room that seemed altogether like the ones he was used to.

It seemed like the Hand of God had torn a hotel room out of an - admittedly lower class - Albanese hotel, and dumped it in impoverished Arcadia Bay. The natural windows had been tastefully papered over with some Sillish art, concealing what Tanza strongly suspected to be incense sticks to hide the natural scents floating in with the air. Around the table were some August diplomats, too disorganized to be described in the manner one would usually expect to ascribe to the August cohorts. Even their number was uncertain, as they intermingled with the local handlers - handlers? - and staff. At the head of the table, however, was Valeria Messalina Caligula.

She seemed strangely familiar.

Valeria smiled warmly, and it drew you into Alba Longa. The warmth of its streetside breezes, between marble columns and alabaster walls, painted in bright colours on unblemished white screens. The splashes of red and green and blue in her cheeks and eyes and dainty veins simply accentuated a natural radiance. Her golden blonde hair seemed to shimmer with trims of platinum as she offered a hand to Tanza.

"Good morning, Tanza. How was your trip?

A long, crimson red sleeve rolled lazily down her arm as she stood, constituent of no uniform recognizable to Tanza.

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza raised his eyebrow at the lazy reception and apparently hastily thrown together decor, but remained silent. He entered the conference room, removing his hat and bowing slightly, not much more than ten, maybe fifteen degrees. He gazed around for a few moments, tapping on his briefcase, as he waited for his arrival to be noticed. He smiled politely at Valeria, but did not step forward to shake her hand.

The informality of his reception stood in stark contrast with the gravity of the matter he was prepared to discuss, irking the man more than he let on to the Augustans and Crol in the room. He removed his cap as he returned Valeria's greeting, "A morning not unlike one up north, I feel. My trip had no real delays, which was wonderful. I had heard you had only recently flown in as well? I would hope your preparations for my arrival were not too hasty in nature, no?"

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Valeria gave Tanza a surprisingly genuine apologetic look, allowing herself to blush slightly - a bizarre sight for an August diplomat. Her out-stretched hand neatly dipped down to push a manila folder over to Tanza; subtle enough not to draw attention, but with an obvious ends towards defusing the situation. "No, well...Arcadia Bay is not well-supplied. The airfield you landed at was only recommissioned for this meeting - it was a refugee camp until recently. Money is tight here, and I'm really the only officer who's been in the area since the Cronaali conflict." She smiled suddenly, looking for something to salvage the awkward silence. "Did you like the marble busts? I brought them with me."

For a moment, her sudden topic-change seemed like was blurting things out for the sake of filling time, but there was no such uncertainty in her voice. Genuine sympathy, perhaps, although not many people really knew what sympathy sounded like in an August accent.

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza waved his hand, shaking his head slightly, "No, no, I understand completely. Trying times, especially in this impoverished country. I am certain this meeting will proceed smoothly regardless." He gives another polite smile, and pulls the folder to him without looking downwards. He glances at it and flips it open, sweeping over its contents while tapping the table.

He responds to her non-sequitur without looking up from his reading, "I am no connoisseur of Augustan art styles, but I would assume from their appearance they are by and large well made."

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Valeria smiled bashfully, averting her eyes for a moment. "I live near one of the little marble communes in Alba Longa - this is all their doing." She seemed to reminisce for a moment, her tone indicating a suppressed, discomforted pride.

Noting him taking interest in the folder, she peered over helpfully. "One of the local administrators prepared that. The first pages or so are about Arcadia Bay itself - the population we have here, some demographic breakdowns. Immediately after that, there's a commentary from the capital, a statistical analysis of the refugee intake by Arcadia Bay that is largely reflective of our core assumptions about the situation in Cronaal itself.

For the most part, we've taken a somewhat counterintuitive view of the situation - in Imperium, we have an analogy from the war with Alainn. At first, factories would look at planes coming back from the war and ask for funds to armour those parts where they had been penetrated by bullets. However, the Augustine Office pointed out that given the accuracy of guns at the time, bullet hits would have been effectively randomly distributed - those planes that were coming back were ones hit in the least critical areas. Those areas that were presenting without bullet holes were those that, had they been struck in combat, would have made the aircraft unable to function.

We've taken a similar view as to the refugee intake - those cities and departure points from which we're taking refugees are those that are most capable of sustaining a standard of living where people trafficking can take place. The cities least represented in our data, we surmize, are those that currently have the largest population of the destitute - or that were most totally destroyed during the war, which we can identify from local media prior to collapse and with satellite data. From there, we extrapolate based on interviews and focus groups with the successful refugees, assuming more or less extreme conditions for those cities not represented.

After that commentary, we have some work from the Medical Service, detailing the statistical nature of the population we have available here. There's some language breakdowns, educational breakdowns, accustomed social class - although such have likely degraded since, as the population was largely of a higher income background that cannot really be maintained here in Arcadia Bay. Generally higher education and military experienced too. We believe that we have a greatly disproportionate intake from culturally Latin areas, which had largely established families and norms towards both education and government service, including the military.

A number of refugees on the island left family in Cronaal to seek better opportunities from Arcadia Bay. For the most part, those who have been able to do so are those who already held higher education or military & public service credentials. While many of them have not been able to move to the mainland, as they had hoped, they are accorded a small pension and form the bulk of Arcadia Bay's administration.

I'm currently the most senior officer from the mainland - the Proconsul is nominally responsible to Arcadia Bay, not for it, which is why she had to delegate this meeting. Under and above me, Arcadia Bay has virtually its own governance structure of locals and refugees - much like Imperium's, in that it basically mirrors the population's military ranks from the former Crol military, where such is relevant.

It's largely just a means of divvying out a pension to support particularly important individuals. The local government under the Proconsul handles most of the legislative and administrative work. That's on the page after the demographic breakdown.

Finally, there's a logistics plan for approaches between Arcadia Bay and Cronaal. This is largely based on our understanding of safe approaches by refugees from Cronaal to Arcadia Bay, although the plan comes in both directions. The other - from us to Cronaal - is somewhat adjusted for climatological and oceanographic phenomena that make the trip assymetric, although there is a much higher margin of error that does not account for potential human factors, like combat, piracy, or unfamiliar navigators."

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza nods, silently absorbing the information being brought to his attention by Valeria and the contents of the folder. He was impressed, certainly, by the extensive note-taking of the Augustans regarding the situation, though he guaranteed himself that this was only a portion of what they were letting him see. Flipping to the demographic page, retrieves a map of Cronaal from his briefcase, making brief notations on it reflecting the demographic information shown to him. He studied it for a few moments before inverting it to display to Valeria, "I would assume you have not made extensive inroads onto the mainland for the purposes of census and are relying on information retrieved either immediately pre-transportation or immediately post transportation to Arcadia?

If so, while this information is invaluable, it is not necessarily representative of the actual state of various population and demographic centers, and more direct censuses will have to be taken to grasp the scope of things. Your approach, and the analogy behind it, is definitely a valid approach to these matters. Commendable.

How exactly are you operating trafficking between Arcadia and Cronaal, if officially at all? By your concern with piracy and combat, I would assume Civilian vessels are the main transports, which is to be expected. Bringing a naval flotilla this far north and past so many countries would only serve to anger them."

He opens another folder in his briefcase, obscuring its contents from Valeria as he read them. "Is this an operation solely run by Augustan oversight, or are there other Pax Latina or Novrith Pact states working in conjunction with your administration in Arcadia?"

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Valeria poured herself a glass of water, from a jug apparated out of nowhere. She passed it to the middle of the table, sipping silently for a moment. For a moment, it looked like she was thinking - for the next, it looked like she simply felt a pause was desirable. For the flow of the conversation. She placed a finger lightly on the dossier, as if to bring attention to the first question. "No; August statistical research is quite complex and sophisticated, by international government standards, but our greatest advantage is also our greatest weakness. We tend to focus on mixed methods research, which plays well with a highly fluid and emotional bureaucratic system, and produces data many nations miss through traditional quantitative methods. However, it means that we tend to select subjects which can be meaningfully understood in a qualitative manner. Arcadia Bay doesn't have the resources to produce the qualitative data that would form a crucial hemisphere of a mixed-methods research operation in Cronaal. We simply can't afford to safely send in the necessary specialists to conduct interviews, or produce spaces conduicive to our particular epistemological concerns. So we focus on producing data on the refugee population.

In terms of...trade, between Arcadia Bay and Cronaal, we generally do so using repossessed vessels. Arcadia Bay was a fairly small operation, but there are nevertheless a lot of vessels that we purchased in return for repatriating wealthy mercantile interests to Imperium. We also have an informal relationship with people smugglers - necessary to maintain our multidimensional statistical research projects, but also useful in helping us to direct the flow of refugees and to control it where convenient. There are a number who operate, functionally, as extensions of the Arcadia Bay Civil Defense Force.

At the moment, we're cooperating on Track II - the informal understate between well-placed individuals - with Tolima's funding bodies and merchant navy. We also have some work with Plembobrian private interests, particularly those interested in hospitality - Tamerlan, the hotel chain based in Plembobria, is closely associated with Arcadia Bay's interested parties, and we have a limited amount of international clout with accomodation chains. We've used this in limited cases, to assist in repatriating refugees by securing them tourist visas through their accomodation providers - we simply have our contacts in the people smuggling trade coordinate with our reaccomodation project, and then bribe government officials in underdeveloped nations to allow the refugee in question to overstay their visa, or purchase a longer-term visa."

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza glances briefly at the water, appreciating the gesture silently, though he was not thirsty. He nodded at Valeria's confirmation of his suspicions. This new plan would take more work than he imagined. "I see. A national census should be among the first items to accomplish if we're to progress to any form of rehabilitation for Cronaal. I will see if I might arrange one with the Diplomatic Corps and Yeran army as soon as our business here is concluded. A simple run-through of the country's former major population centers, as I suspect most civilians would remain relatively sedentary after the collapse and not move away from population centers. Your assistance in these matters, as well as determining the specifics of each region in your particular manners, would be appreciated."

As I suspected. No matter then. Perhaps a few transport and hospital ships might be diverted from our Crol flotilla to assist in this ferrying and assistance towards refugees, if that is acceptable? We are currently not operating under any major threat so we have a large number of available naval resources to field.

You will then have to raise this issue with the entirety of the Novrith Pact and Pax Latina then, rather than your current methods of dealing with the crisis. As you are aware, the Yeran government has been cooperating with Toliman investors over the past few years since the unfortunate deaths of the Kray siblings regarding rehabilitation efforts in the Auburn Isles. This funding, while commendable on its own, is simply not sufficient. You know this my reason for being here today?"

 

[The Grim Reaper]

Valeria ran her fingers over her porcelain chin, her index finger lingering. Suddenly, it flicked down, pulling a page away, rubbing its corner against the table. Her left hand came to run through the leafs of paper, her eyes scanning over the pages as her left hand deftly manipulated the graphs and charts hidden within. It seemed as if she was, to some extent, comprehending the constant flow of information, the experienced eye of an archivist firing connections off with the synapses that had previously, liberally highlighted, and annotated the pages.

"In relation to the navy, Imperium's is capable enough at filling the gaps where necessary. Our main concern is that, while the coast facing the Stan Yera has some limited holdover bluewater infrastructure, the brownwater shipping infrastructure on Arcadia Bay is not able to scale up arrivals. On the flipside, Imperium has ample, native naval aviation. However, we don't have the capacity to operate larger vessels from Arcadia Bay. The options, therefore, would probably involve either the diversion of your vessels for cross-strait shipping between Cronaal and Arcadia Bay, in which case we would be required to expand temporary landing bays across the coast; or, alternatively, to operate August craft out of the Yeran-held ports in the east, and to develop aviation facilities in Arcadia Bay. The first would be far, far cheaper - but it may be both environmentally and economically unstable, if we are not able to also upscale permanent infrastructure to supply the growing population. That would threaten to balloon the costs to be comparable. August naval aviation tends to come in the guise of 'amphibious assault vessels' - they would be able to efficiently effect a large-scale evacuation or emergency resupply effort, allowing the second option to cover the weakness of the first. I have not been informed of the nature of Yeran shipping in the area.

You understand, of course, that the state of the Novrith Pact and Pax Latina is one of...ah, dynamicism. Many of our members are built on government structures less subject to the whims of international trade; as such was the impetus for the creation of the Novrith Pact, and of course, the smaller microstates that form the Pax Latina. Funding opportunities are often difficult to secure. That being said, we are open to it - in particular, we understand that Plembobria may be better positioned than Tolima to help support reconstruction, as would Imperium itself. Silly String is a much more complex actor to negotiate - an immense battery of cultural, economic, and diplomatic power, not to mention fairly extensive wealth reserves and the potential FDI to match. But their political structure is as dynamic as the rest of the Novrith Pact and Pax Latina combined, and their foreign policy interests are a tapestry of virtually all possible opinions to varying amounts.

Neither the Pact, nor the Pax, operate in a manner of formal voting. They are informal structures, designed for consensus building between states that largely exercise unilateral government policy. It is generally less a forum for discussing unifying our national interests - more, a discussion for actions that can help to achieve those national interests previously defined. It would thus be necessary for us to fit a funding plan for Cronaal into the national interests of our partners - to such an extent, outlining a measurable goal in the region would be useful."

 

[MacSalterson]

Tanza nods, idly tapping his fingers on the tabletop. "Considering much of our investment to date has gone into repairing port cities to make full use of not only their shipyards and docks but population and non-naval infrastructure, I would find the latter of your two proposed ideas much more agreeable. I'm sure that if a consensus can be reached regarding funding from your allies that these costs will be relatively insignificant compared to operations controlled by only our two states.

"It is also entirely possible to encourage... private investment into Cronaal. I'm sure a relatively large labor source with not much in the way of employment, a good number of port cities with, from our reports, quite impressive manufacturing centers, and ideal location for distribution to many major markets would surely bring in shipping and manufacturing companies should we offer the Crol market to them. Of course, we would prevent their government from further stepping in, but they as private investors would be welcome, even encouraged I would imagine.

Lastly, my department, with the oversight and approval of Sfan, of course, have been drafting a loose plan as to funding and where it would be directed in Cronaal. I have my preferred draft, unfinished as it is, here if you would wish to peruse it. It is, of course, extremely rough in wording and concepts, but I'm sure the legislators of your nation and mine can work out a much more elegant plan."

Tanza pulls a thin tablet out from his briefcase, tapping on its screen for a few seconds. A short document in a text processor pulls up, simply entitled "The Arcadia Plan".