The Journal of Bashir Khatara

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 11th, IY 7788

Ahmet won the election! What a surprise! Seems like he got all of the Accord on his side... Reminds me of Domhnall's scheming promises... Hopefully he didn't promise too much, and hopefully that's one of the few similarities that they share. I don't want another crazy boss! I've had enough of those!

Selwyn played an impromptu game of Efuddy with me... The word was "Bashy"! I wasn't able to guess it. It's kind of a new nickname... Everyone else calls me Bash, Big Bash, Bashi, or a bitch, so, I probably could've guessed those rather easily! Also, Selwyn tried shaking hands with me... I don't like that! I don't like shaking hands with closer friends, even... Even hugs need time. I don't trust folk to keep their hands to themselves... I hope they weren't offended! It's not them, it's me and decades of trauma!

Shaking hands is real weird in general, though. Cultures that hug and kiss instead have it right! But I guess that'd be even harder with strangers...

Anyhow... Whenever there's a new Legate, we have to familiarize them with a ton of stuffs and things. Thankfully, Ahmet seems like a fast learner. I hate repeating myself, and I didn't have to do that a single time!

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 12th, IY 7788

Today mostly just involved showing Ahmet the Divan, and familiarizing him with the War Council a little. The Terrace certainly wows a lot of folk when they first see it, for understandable reasons! Surely one of my favorite places around here... I wish I got to visit more, well, I mean properly, I take papers to the Divan daily, but to the Majordomo and the Princesses...? Relatively rarely. I like the garden... I took a nap there once... not by choice... and surprisingly, nobody cared. Maybe they just didn't notice me due to my petite frame?

I did take a lot of naps in the Divan, too, when staying home was too dangerous... Gave me a lot of strange dreams, due to all the shaking and trembling.

As for the War Council, I'll probably have to give up my seat to someone else. Being the DCS is just so much work, and logistics involves a lot of numbers. And since as DCS, I work with logistics, and on the War Council, I also work with logistics, I have to cut down something so that I can work with a toleratable amount of numbers! That sort of thought involves numbers, too, it seems... I hate it!

Anyhow, I hope that I can still continue being the correspondent to the Princesses, though. Very few numbers involved, and I still get to hear all the juicy gossip and such! It's a wonderful position... For some reason, people don't really share much with me lately, unless they want it to spread around the Well...? I don't share the top secrets, only the bottom secrets, the ones that are simply intriguing, but don't endanger the Well, or the desert as a whole, if they're shared!

They also seem to think that it isn't completely and utterly obvious that they want just that... Which is where I want them, myself. Being seen as the ditz makes things far easier!

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 13th, IY 7788

Apparently, Jamileh's moving...? I think. I thought that she was living with the Torchbearers, or in that room at the fore of the upper corridor in the Krak, but the latter belongs to Dante, I think. I don't know why she's moving...? Did the Torchbearers and her have a big ol' fight...? I wouldn't be surprised, everyone involved with such would have quite a volatile personality. With the exception of Eclair, I suppose... She's just a little strange.

Triffi's back in the Well. It's a little awkward, because she seems to have realized that I don't take well to relationships that simply assume an element of friendship from the get-go...? It's the assumption, really, some friendships can start real quickly, like the one I have with Richo! But that's just how everything with Richo is... fast! Anyhow, I don't really know what to say to her. I don't know what to say to a lot of folk that assume that I'm their friend...? It's just so awkward.

Some of the fan letters that I get...? Even they make such assumptions! Either calling me their friend, or themselves my best friend, or both... It's all so awkward and strange. I kind of just thank them for liking my books or my latest designs...? Oh, yeah. I have to categorize my fans, now, so I don't confuse what they like. Some like my books, some like the fashion, some like both, some just have the hots for me...? Thankfully, Inky helps, because they love organizing paper.

ALL MUST BE COMMITTED TO THE ETERNAL MEMORY, AND WITH AN ORGANIZED PROCEDURE. THE PECULIAR INTERCONNECTIONS BETWEEN PERSONAGES REVEAL MUCH ABOUT THEIR NATURE. MANY MALES CRAVE BASHIR OF KHATARA WITH A MOST INCULT TENOR, DUE TO THE RAW AND UNREFINED SENSUALITY CONTAINED WITHIN YOUR AESTHETIC QUALITIES. LIKE A GEMSTONE UNCUT, YET CHIPPED.

Oh, shut up!

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 14th, IY 7788

BARK.

STONE.

SILVER.

STAR.

THESE ARE OF THE AGES.

Oh, don't you start doing that, too! I've had enough mystical... mysticism... to last a lifetime!

They kidnapped me! Shot a sleeping dart right into my neck... Then absconded with my petite form, and threw me on an ash sail! Wanted me to take notes about the Titan's recovery! Why can't someone else do that...? I don't want to be anywhere near highly aggressive constructs that are a thousand times bigger than me! Thankfully the thing didn't wake up... If it had, I would've ran far out into the dunes, and prayed to Warad to guide me!

It wasn't all bad, though... There were plenty of cute little critters abound, and foliage, and such! Apparently, that's what these Titans bleed...? Nature? I don't really get it... Well, I kind of get it, I think. Also, there was a big ol' peacock, running about! So, I chased him around for a bit. I named him Pearis. He had been there long enough to molt a few feathers? So, I gathered a big ol' pile of them. I've a few ideas for such beautiful plumage! I miss Pearis, though.

And then... when the Titan was being lifted high above... we were surrounded by strange mists! And fell into a deep sleep... and dreamt a dream of curious portents! At first, I thought it was just the sleeping dart, messing with my mind, but everyone else had the same dream! And in that dream, I saw...

...a tree that wasn't a tree!

...a face that wasn't a face!

...a mask that wasn't a mask!

I suppose that doesn't make much sense, but it's dream logic, so, it only makes sense within the dream...?  Who knows. I'm not a dreamologist. What I do know, is that I don't ever want to have such horrid dreams, ever again! I want to have pleasant dreams... Like the one where I just ride an unicorn across a big ol' rainbow. That's all that happens, and it's simply grand!

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 15th, IY 7788

What an annoying Allotment! When everybody gets to ask for money, it just turns into another Assembly... And then they have the gall to complain that there's no Scribes on the floor, immediately! I always make announcements regarding the happenings first, and this was the first time that there's ever been complaints regarding that! But if you don't make at least ten bellows, some folk will complain that they had no idea that something was happening... They'll do that, anyhow, but might as well try to reduce the number of such dinguses!

Some student from the Sandstone asked for a loan of ten thousand to buy an entire alley... First of all, alleys cost way more than that, unless it's like, the tiniest, shittiest alley to ever alley! Second of all... How's a student supposed to pay back? They make no money. Unless they sell drugs! Third... there was no talk of interest! If there truly was to be no interest, then that'd effectively be the same as just giving them the alley, because it belongs to the state, so, transfering all that money around would be completely meaningless...?

Also, Azimi spoke about hypersomething. I think my doctor, Vijaya Bollimunta, said that I have bouts of that, well, I thought so, but apparently this time, it's related to money...? I wasn't really paying attention, I think finances are real boring, unless they bring a lot of money to the treasury, because that means that folk can have nice things. I think this hypersomething means that folk can have less nice things for the same amount of money...? Maybe. Again, it's real difficult, and dull. That's awful, though. Folk should get plenty of nice things!

At least me and my colleagues got paid! That's great! Slightly less great if the hypersomething is real...?

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 16th, IY 7788

Jamileh dyed her backpack with a most horrid pink! Most of the time, I approve of pink, but it was simply too much, and clashed with her outfit to such an extent that even the blind would shoot judgmental glares at the eyesore! So, I volunteered to help her a little, to steer her onto the path of righteous fashion! Yet she kept suggesting further crimes against color coordination... In the end, she agreed to a light brown, with ochre detailing. The day was saved!

Then there was a War Council meeting up on the Divan... It really made me realize that despite not knowing a whole lot, I still know just a little more than most! Well, regarding some things, at least... I kind of wish I didn't, though. Ignorance is bliss! At least sometimes... There's a careful balance to knowing about the right things, and not knowing about the nightmarish stuff that keeps you up at night.

They're building a big ol' cannon... I kind of don't understand why some were opposed to it...? Can't win a war without a big ol' cannon or two! Well, maybe in the past, but as the Wheel turns, so does the exacerbation of violence! Which is horrible, but what are you going to do about it...? Not much, since people are kind of fucked up.

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 17th, IY 7788

Az-Rans the Choker was such a menace, choking everything and everyone he could get his disgusting hands around... including my poor goat friends! They have it hard enough already... Thankfully, the Choker choked himself, for some reason. It was real weird. He's dead now! Hooray!

Oh! I've considered a choker for myself, but my androgyny is a most deliberated harmony, where going too much in one direction or the other will ruin it! So, no choker for me... Unless I go lighter on the kohl. That works!

Anyhow, the menace of the Choker was soon replaced by the Scorpion, however... Barfa the Scorpion! What a truly disgusting orc he was... Somehow even worse... Anyhow, I went along with the raiding party, just to make sure that everyone would be okay, especially my goat friends! But it all went awry, when a Titan stomped into the orcan fortress! It also stomped on a bunch of people... It was horrible! I kept far away from that horrid creature! I'm not going anywhere near them, because I don't want to be a pancake, I just want to eat them!

That Titan kept chasing folk around until it seemingly saw something, and wandered off... Where did it go?

[Fabulous Secret Powers]

Tesrin Hray 18th, IY 7788

I haven't slept... I can't. Bought a bottle, but I just ended up giving it to a wounded Janissary. Maybe it'll hold off the pain, if even for a moment.

Not mine, though. I'm paralyzed, by the anxiety, by my own stupidity. Just following orders isn't an excuse... neither is ignorance. Especially when I really should know better.

Are the gates of Baz'eel open...? I don't even know if I care anymore. I'm too deep into this. Like a rat escaping the flood... Yet it just keeps rising, and rising. Hop on whatever makeshift raft there is, and you simply find out that the stream only goes in one direction.

I don't know if there were any other choices. It doesn't matter. I would still shoulder the blame.

And then...

I let them in. What's wrong with a little hospitability in times like these...? Everything, seemingly.

The doors are closed for a reason. I've learned little in the past year or so... Still a refugee, still an idiot, still the ditz... Even if I exaggerate it. In the end, you can only emphasize what is already there.