eastbound | un: lockwood - audio - Discussion post Threadjacking encouraged!

[ Having not been quite as discreet as perhaps he should have been when he visited Messalina, Lockwood has recently found himself on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to Caius Justus' orders and mandates. Lockwood isn't unused to being on the wrong end of the stick when it comes to authority figures, and while he's never had to seriously go underground to avoid being hauled in by the law, he at least knows how to keep his head down.

For the past few days, as Caius Justus has been upending the landscape, Lockwood has been observing from deeper shadows. Caius' first few moves had been alarming, but it had been the aggressive stance he'd ordered the Hand to take with its own civilians that had finally tipped the younger man towards his decision.

Lockwood uses audio for a few reasons. First and foremost, his voice always sounds older; particularly when it is separated from his youthful features. Second he's somewhere in the dark so no one was going to see anything anyway. Third ... it just seems safer not to provide any visual clues to his whereabouts. ]

Hello team. [ All these months, he still doesn't know what their little group calls themselves. ]

I'm not going to waste everyone's time with a long pontification. I know that we all had varying opinions regarding Messalina and her request of the Senate. All of us brought up good points in that argument, even if our views opposed. But now, I hope, we can all agree that events have now gone well beyond those discussions and have taken a turn that is alarming to us all.

Caius Justus is harming his own people through his use of the Hand. We have a dictator who now has the taste for absolute authority, in command of an enhanced army headed by an individual with a zealot's loyalty to said dictator. History has shown us, time and again, that a scenario like this never ends well and it is the innocents who suffer the most.

I had an opportunity to speak with Apollonius and I asked him about the Hand and Narula. In the spirit of transparency, I was looking for a way to separate the Hand from Narula. No luck on that score. What I did learn was that Narula's fanatical worship of Caius Justus is such that should he -Narula- suspect betrayal from Justus, he is going to react badly.

Initially I wasn't sure what leveraging this information might accomplish. But as Caius Justus continues to close an iron fist around this city, I think I have my answer. We need to drive a wedge between Narula and Caius Justus. We need to fracture Caius Justus' control over the city's military and help these people take back control of their Senate.

But I am only one voice and a move like this would need to be a group decision, as it will affect all of us and, well, frankly it may take all of us to mop up the aftermath IF we are able to come up with a way to implement this idea. As such I am reaching out to everybody who can hear through our network to ask;

Should we try to fracture the relationship between the head of the government and the leader of the military, and restore power to the Senate as a whole?

If yes, does anyone have any ideas about the best route to make Narula believe he's been betrayed by Caius Justus?

[OOC: This is the network post to help kick off the coup. Lockwood is making it, but it is meant to be a place for open discussions to please threadjack to your hearts' content!]

Threaded | Flat

What was the long term goal of this?

I think Narula is too far gone to control, at this point, and Caius Justus is obviously a risk. With that in mind, I've been looking for a replacement for Narula and I may have found one. If, for some reason, he was given to believe that Caius Justus also wanted to replace him he may begin to feel betrayed.

We'd just have to make sure he went for Caius Justus first, not my replacement.

[ It would need to be a group decision, he says?

And here Ratonhnhaké:ton was thinking about plotting assassinations out by himself. Maybe that's not the best idea, though. ]

Perhaps the senate could be of help stirring up rumours.

The Senate. These are the same men that bore their leader. Are they not?

( Solution: Kill the whole Senate. )

There are people among us who were assigned to act as members of the Hand, correct? Does anyone think that Narula would connect the dots himself should the proof of Caius Justus' betrayal be dropped into his hands, or do we need someone to talk him through it?

[ Five isn’t one to ask the group, but more because this kind of open scheming is bound to be overheard. Since it can’t be helped: ]

There are options. [ His sister being one of them that he won’t suggest for now. ] I’d say there are consequences if you’re found out, but that doesn’t land us in much worse shape than we are now.

What’s your plan b?

un: Black Prince; text

[Voice, un: howl in one]

un: absterge

audio;

un: ut malum pluvia | audio