09-05-2024, 04:42 AM
2024/09/03 07:08; Hwagang CR, Emiline Pierre Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office Building, Room 220
The Ministry of Caxcanan Affairs was perennially understaffed, Huenyan language education in Haesan was never really up to the standard that it ought to be, which meant that in a room of 10 MCA staffers, about 8 of them were Eiria or Auria specialists. The remainder were nearly all on the Xiomera/Huenya beat, which meant the entire team of Southern Caxcana experts in the MFA neatly fit in a little two-desk office tucked away in a nondescript hallway in a nondescript office building on the left bank of the National Canal. Of those fated to labor in Room 220, Jihun was a specialist in Doatia, and well, Haerin drew the wrong flag at diplomat assignment. So when the news of Neina Arana's election finally reached Haesan, it was first received by a mom more stressed by her toddler's inability to fall asleep than geopolitics. Well, in that moment at least. She would have larger problems soon enough.
Her short night of sleep was cut shorter as a memo needed to be drafted, to pass on to her boss, the Deputy Foreign Minister for Caxcanan Affairs, who would pass it on to his boss, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who would send the relevant info to brief the President and PM. As she swiped her card at the entrance of the Neoclassical stone building, the time read a very optimistic 5:28 am, and she started sifting through the briefs compiled by HSIS, the MFA, and the HPGI about the elections. Once she had a handle on the situation she fired off a brief overview memo with the rough* outline of:
This is a historic event for Milintica. Obvs.
1. Arana's election poses a critical threat to Milintica's stability.
a. We cannot afford to be involved with this.
b. Even if she gets nukes like she's wanted to, we cannot afford to get involved with this.
2. This is bad for us.
a. We are not historically friendly with Communist nations or parties.
b. We should probably recall our diplomats before she calls us a capitalist devil and gets rid of them first.
3. The UCS is dead, RIP.
a. It was nice while it lasted.
(*creative liberties have been taken by the storyteller. Kim Hae-rin is a graduate of a very prestigious university (Albarine U! Go Mariners!) and knows how to write a memo)
And with her very eloquent, diplomatic, and definitely not coffee-sustained memo sent out into the world at 7:08 am HST, poor Haerin had no idea the mess that she had just created for herself. And well, potentially the whole of the IDU.
2024/09/03 08:00 sharp; Hwagang CR, Emiline Pierre Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office Building, Room 200
In the second floor bullpen of the Pierre, every weekday morning crisply at the toll of 8:00, the Ministry of Caxcanan affairs meets to discuss the most critical matters of national importance relating to the Caxcanan continent. Those thirty minutes were functionally its raison d'etre, to use a Northern term. But for the ten minutes before the meeting, the room was the intellectual battleground for two dozen of the most educated diplomats to wage war about their superior conceptions of the "Xiomeran mindset". But on that particular Tuesday, the room was abuzz about the chaos of Milintica, a chaos where the only person in the room who actually knew what was going on was leaning against a column for support, nursing a vanilla latte, and fighting the urge of every cell in her body to fall asleep. However, those who were blessed with divine knowledge of "the lightness of Eirian political balancing" were dead focused on memo point #3.
So when the meeting is actually called to order, the discussion goes like:
"The UCS is dead to rights, and Eiria is left adrift. Relations haven't been the best between us, but maybe there's something we can do?"
"It is the Eirian mindset to turn to others in moments of duress. Can we move first?"
"But what about Laeral, they're so good at working diplomacy behind the scenes!"
"Ah, Laeral's like a boulder, slow to get started, impossible to stop once they've started moving, but it's impossible to change their direction either. We'll be fine."
"So who can we round up?"
All while the only person in the room who actually had an incentive to care about the, like, actual survival of the Milintican state, could barely summon enough energy to get a word in edgewise. So when Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Ji-hwan received a memo from the Ministry of Caxcanan Affairs, it looked a bit like this:
1. The Union of Caxcanan states is surely dead now.
a. This is a huge opportunity for us!!!
b. Eiria is super desperate right now. (probably)
c. Xiomera will be shaking in their boots at the intellectual might of the Haesanite diplomatic corps!
d. There are some other concerns:
i. Arana might get nukes (but they can't hit us!)
ii. We might want to get diplomats out (but we did that in Roucourt not too long ago!)
iii. Did we mention that huge opportunity earlier???
2024/09/03 08:57; Hwagang CR, Seo Ju-yeon Executive Office Building, Room 104
The President needs to be briefed every day, and in Room 104 of the stately SJY building, the bigshots gathered to figure out how to do it to the greatest extent possible. Five of the heavyweights of Haesanite policy: Defence Minister Lee, Home Minister Moon, Director of National Security Seo, Director of Secret Intelligence Avery, and of course Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho, duked it out to see whose perspective would rule the day. Of course, near the top of the agenda was the absolute bombshell out of Milintica, and, as always, the quintet disagreed vehemently.
Lee and Avery were very hyper-focused on the defense implications and Xiomeran expansion, while the more inward focused Moon and Seo were adamant that Haesan should protect its domestic interests and ignore the rumblings in a small nation far from the homeland. As a result, Cho was quite pleased when he was able to coerce the room into agreement with the simple statement: "This crisis presents itself as a unique opportunity, and the reason why is due to the imminent collapse of the Union of Caxcanan States."
The rest of the logic followed beautifully, and well, the madness had reached the very pinnacle of government.
2024/09/03 09:30; Hwagang CR, Dalseongjeon, Briefing Room Twilight
Kim I-seul usually enjoyed her daily briefings, they were a break from the miserable vortex of bad politics which otherwise surrounded her on a daily basis, but she liked them even more when there was the possibility of something interesting resulting from it. And when she heard the proposed response to the events in Milintica, she instinctively understood that there indeed was an opportunity. Her only question was: "Will we have the funds earmarked to get this accomplished?" Her Chief of Staff simply responded: "We'll contact Sabrina."
2024/09/03 09:18 (WHT); Suyang, Sunseong-gu, outside the Reformist Celestine Temple of Gongbaek-dong
It was a pleasant morning for the Prime Minister, she always relished the chance to get out and interact with constituents, and this outing inspecting newly installed heat relief infrastructure in northwest Suyang was definitely one of those gratifying experiences, in seeing a community's resilience after a tragedy. Between stops on her tour, an aide pulled her over quickly and whispered, "Iseul was wondering if you'd be able to find the budget to support this initiative," and gestured towards her Seollim Slate 3 tablet. She put her hand towards her head reflexively, shook her head a bit, and then responded, "Tell her I think we can get that done. But stars above, just what is she up to?"
2024/09/03 12:15; Various
Three couriers set out just past the toll of midday, their destinations being strictly Eirian in nature: the Hwagang Embassy, the Suyang Consulate, and the Chancellor's Manor in Geminus. The three carried identical letters on official Haesanite government stationary, all containing the following missive:
Regarding the Unfolding Situation in Milintica
Given that Neina Arana has promised to withdraw from the Union of Caxcanan States, a move which would only leave the Union with two members and would functionally render it a fairly standard bilateral agreement, the Commonwealth of Haesan urges the Democratic Republic of Eiria to adopt a different approach. Recent Xiomeran foreign policy blunders have led to a shift in public sentiment across the Eastern Hesperidan region, an area whose economic and geopolitical significance needs no explanation. As such, Haesan proposes the formation of the Promethean Sea Council, an international organization in the greater Promethean Sea region whose stated goal is to promote democracy, maritime security, and economic prosperity in the broader region and whose implicit goal is to counter Xiomeran expansionism and aggression.
The letter continued with details of the organization's administration, of a Suyang headquarters and a startup cost funded by Haesan for the benefit of the broader regional community. It outlined the proposed plans of recruitment and potential expansion, of course, beginning with the Federation of Huenya. It outlined rules of procedure and contribution rules and punishments for non-compliance. A twisting labyrinth of rules and procedures outlined the following: an organization that can can ignore the Arana firestorm without risk. The only thing the letter seemed to lack was a response.
For once in a decade, some audacious policy had finally emerged from the ever dense and self-interested web of Haesanite bureaucracy. But behind saccharine promises, what strings lay hidden in the background? Or was it truly just an offer of goodwill, to try and put a mutual foe in its place? The truth lies buried the reams of paperwork, and of anyone, maybe only Haerin in her caffeine induced haze knows the real answer.
The Ministry of Caxcanan Affairs was perennially understaffed, Huenyan language education in Haesan was never really up to the standard that it ought to be, which meant that in a room of 10 MCA staffers, about 8 of them were Eiria or Auria specialists. The remainder were nearly all on the Xiomera/Huenya beat, which meant the entire team of Southern Caxcana experts in the MFA neatly fit in a little two-desk office tucked away in a nondescript hallway in a nondescript office building on the left bank of the National Canal. Of those fated to labor in Room 220, Jihun was a specialist in Doatia, and well, Haerin drew the wrong flag at diplomat assignment. So when the news of Neina Arana's election finally reached Haesan, it was first received by a mom more stressed by her toddler's inability to fall asleep than geopolitics. Well, in that moment at least. She would have larger problems soon enough.
Her short night of sleep was cut shorter as a memo needed to be drafted, to pass on to her boss, the Deputy Foreign Minister for Caxcanan Affairs, who would pass it on to his boss, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, who would send the relevant info to brief the President and PM. As she swiped her card at the entrance of the Neoclassical stone building, the time read a very optimistic 5:28 am, and she started sifting through the briefs compiled by HSIS, the MFA, and the HPGI about the elections. Once she had a handle on the situation she fired off a brief overview memo with the rough* outline of:
This is a historic event for Milintica. Obvs.
1. Arana's election poses a critical threat to Milintica's stability.
a. We cannot afford to be involved with this.
b. Even if she gets nukes like she's wanted to, we cannot afford to get involved with this.
2. This is bad for us.
a. We are not historically friendly with Communist nations or parties.
b. We should probably recall our diplomats before she calls us a capitalist devil and gets rid of them first.
3. The UCS is dead, RIP.
a. It was nice while it lasted.
(*creative liberties have been taken by the storyteller. Kim Hae-rin is a graduate of a very prestigious university (Albarine U! Go Mariners!) and knows how to write a memo)
And with her very eloquent, diplomatic, and definitely not coffee-sustained memo sent out into the world at 7:08 am HST, poor Haerin had no idea the mess that she had just created for herself. And well, potentially the whole of the IDU.
2024/09/03 08:00 sharp; Hwagang CR, Emiline Pierre Ministry of Foreign Affairs Office Building, Room 200
In the second floor bullpen of the Pierre, every weekday morning crisply at the toll of 8:00, the Ministry of Caxcanan affairs meets to discuss the most critical matters of national importance relating to the Caxcanan continent. Those thirty minutes were functionally its raison d'etre, to use a Northern term. But for the ten minutes before the meeting, the room was the intellectual battleground for two dozen of the most educated diplomats to wage war about their superior conceptions of the "Xiomeran mindset". But on that particular Tuesday, the room was abuzz about the chaos of Milintica, a chaos where the only person in the room who actually knew what was going on was leaning against a column for support, nursing a vanilla latte, and fighting the urge of every cell in her body to fall asleep. However, those who were blessed with divine knowledge of "the lightness of Eirian political balancing" were dead focused on memo point #3.
So when the meeting is actually called to order, the discussion goes like:
"The UCS is dead to rights, and Eiria is left adrift. Relations haven't been the best between us, but maybe there's something we can do?"
"It is the Eirian mindset to turn to others in moments of duress. Can we move first?"
"But what about Laeral, they're so good at working diplomacy behind the scenes!"
"Ah, Laeral's like a boulder, slow to get started, impossible to stop once they've started moving, but it's impossible to change their direction either. We'll be fine."
"So who can we round up?"
All while the only person in the room who actually had an incentive to care about the, like, actual survival of the Milintican state, could barely summon enough energy to get a word in edgewise. So when Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho Ji-hwan received a memo from the Ministry of Caxcanan Affairs, it looked a bit like this:
1. The Union of Caxcanan states is surely dead now.
a. This is a huge opportunity for us!!!
b. Eiria is super desperate right now. (probably)
c. Xiomera will be shaking in their boots at the intellectual might of the Haesanite diplomatic corps!
d. There are some other concerns:
i. Arana might get nukes (but they can't hit us!)
ii. We might want to get diplomats out (but we did that in Roucourt not too long ago!)
iii. Did we mention that huge opportunity earlier???
2024/09/03 08:57; Hwagang CR, Seo Ju-yeon Executive Office Building, Room 104
The President needs to be briefed every day, and in Room 104 of the stately SJY building, the bigshots gathered to figure out how to do it to the greatest extent possible. Five of the heavyweights of Haesanite policy: Defence Minister Lee, Home Minister Moon, Director of National Security Seo, Director of Secret Intelligence Avery, and of course Minister of Foreign Affairs Cho, duked it out to see whose perspective would rule the day. Of course, near the top of the agenda was the absolute bombshell out of Milintica, and, as always, the quintet disagreed vehemently.
Lee and Avery were very hyper-focused on the defense implications and Xiomeran expansion, while the more inward focused Moon and Seo were adamant that Haesan should protect its domestic interests and ignore the rumblings in a small nation far from the homeland. As a result, Cho was quite pleased when he was able to coerce the room into agreement with the simple statement: "This crisis presents itself as a unique opportunity, and the reason why is due to the imminent collapse of the Union of Caxcanan States."
The rest of the logic followed beautifully, and well, the madness had reached the very pinnacle of government.
2024/09/03 09:30; Hwagang CR, Dalseongjeon, Briefing Room Twilight
Kim I-seul usually enjoyed her daily briefings, they were a break from the miserable vortex of bad politics which otherwise surrounded her on a daily basis, but she liked them even more when there was the possibility of something interesting resulting from it. And when she heard the proposed response to the events in Milintica, she instinctively understood that there indeed was an opportunity. Her only question was: "Will we have the funds earmarked to get this accomplished?" Her Chief of Staff simply responded: "We'll contact Sabrina."
2024/09/03 09:18 (WHT); Suyang, Sunseong-gu, outside the Reformist Celestine Temple of Gongbaek-dong
It was a pleasant morning for the Prime Minister, she always relished the chance to get out and interact with constituents, and this outing inspecting newly installed heat relief infrastructure in northwest Suyang was definitely one of those gratifying experiences, in seeing a community's resilience after a tragedy. Between stops on her tour, an aide pulled her over quickly and whispered, "Iseul was wondering if you'd be able to find the budget to support this initiative," and gestured towards her Seollim Slate 3 tablet. She put her hand towards her head reflexively, shook her head a bit, and then responded, "Tell her I think we can get that done. But stars above, just what is she up to?"
2024/09/03 12:15; Various
Three couriers set out just past the toll of midday, their destinations being strictly Eirian in nature: the Hwagang Embassy, the Suyang Consulate, and the Chancellor's Manor in Geminus. The three carried identical letters on official Haesanite government stationary, all containing the following missive:
Regarding the Unfolding Situation in Milintica
Given that Neina Arana has promised to withdraw from the Union of Caxcanan States, a move which would only leave the Union with two members and would functionally render it a fairly standard bilateral agreement, the Commonwealth of Haesan urges the Democratic Republic of Eiria to adopt a different approach. Recent Xiomeran foreign policy blunders have led to a shift in public sentiment across the Eastern Hesperidan region, an area whose economic and geopolitical significance needs no explanation. As such, Haesan proposes the formation of the Promethean Sea Council, an international organization in the greater Promethean Sea region whose stated goal is to promote democracy, maritime security, and economic prosperity in the broader region and whose implicit goal is to counter Xiomeran expansionism and aggression.
The letter continued with details of the organization's administration, of a Suyang headquarters and a startup cost funded by Haesan for the benefit of the broader regional community. It outlined the proposed plans of recruitment and potential expansion, of course, beginning with the Federation of Huenya. It outlined rules of procedure and contribution rules and punishments for non-compliance. A twisting labyrinth of rules and procedures outlined the following: an organization that can can ignore the Arana firestorm without risk. The only thing the letter seemed to lack was a response.
For once in a decade, some audacious policy had finally emerged from the ever dense and self-interested web of Haesanite bureaucracy. But behind saccharine promises, what strings lay hidden in the background? Or was it truly just an offer of goodwill, to try and put a mutual foe in its place? The truth lies buried the reams of paperwork, and of anyone, maybe only Haerin in her caffeine induced haze knows the real answer.