Scotland forever!

[unmerged(8545)]

As James drifted away, Cheryl smiled. She had outsmarted him, and she would arrive home first. He couldnt interfere with her private business, and she would make sure there were no proofs of anything he could accuse her of. It would be his word against hers.

Suddenly she noticed she was accelerating, as if James weight had slowed her down. Now she had been relieved of this weight, she gained new speed.

She rejoiced, as she longed to get home. She felt this whole enterprise to raise some clandestine money to get rid of her debts was spinning out of control.

But to her chagrin, after a while she slowed down to her old crawling pace.

 

[unmerged(8545)]

It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for subtlety. series.

-Pat

The ending of this story has been staring into your eyes for over two years ;-)

 

[Lord E]

Well, well so she thinks she has outsmarted James, I think we might still see James return to outsmart her instead. Shall be interesting to see

 

[unmerged(8545)]

"Jack!"
"Yep?"
"You remember how energy consumption fell down miraculously a few days ago?"
"How could I forget? But is has been rising steadily and back at its original level by now."
"Right. But if we forget the first maximum and draw a curve from start till where we are now, it does fit forrmulas."
"Which formulas?"
"The ones I showed you, which allow to build corridors through time."
"These formulas are only worth something when they can predict what we need over the coming days and weeks. What will we end up with?"
"With a need for more energy than we produce on this planet."

 

[unmerged(11600)]

"Jack!"
"Yep?"

The Project should get rid of that Jack and hire Samuri Jack instead! He'd find some way to fix things right!

And to think, you started this AAR back about the time I first joined the forums...

-Pat

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Somehow James had always assumed that the weather could never ever be worse than in Scotland.
That was, before he gained first hand experience on the weather on London.
On this, his first visit to The Hague, he learned that no matter how bad things are, they can always turn for the worse.

Friday, when he had arrived in Amsterdam, there had been a steady downpour of celestial water.
Yesterday, during his trip to The Hague in a completely inadequate coach over what seemed roads of mud and holes filled with water, the elements had poured their superfluous stuff all over the country.
Even the coach, which presumably was built for this weather, was leaking. In the evening he had met with the raadspensionaris, or secretary of state, Jacob Cats.
The man had calmly and systematically informed him about the state of warfare.
The man had also arranged a meeting with Prince Frederick Hendrik, who acted as commanding general, for sunday evening.
Today he was happy to be in church. Here it was dry. It wasn't axactly warm, but it wasnt really cold either, probably because of great number of human bodies assembled here.
The massive, slow singing by the congregation differed from his native Scotland, and though the melodies were identical, the strange tongue made if sound foreign all the same.
They called this the "Kloosterkerk", he learned. A number of attendants were seated on either side of him.
Of course he couldnt make head or tails of the sermon in this barbareous tongue, but his attendants seemed to be satisfied with it.

James hoped to meet Amalia/Betsy after the service. Probably urged by the torrential rain outside, after the service people lingered in the church chatting with each other.
As a visiting King, there was no lack of people who wished to meet him and shake his hand. Why didnt these people have a normal separation between royalty and commoners, he wondered? Why could everyone just adress royalty like a commoner? He had heard great stories about how Amalia had tried to lift the prestige of the Nassau dynasty among the Europea royalty, but judging from how people dealt with him here they still had a long way to go.
James had hoped to meet Betsy, but catched a glance of her only once, as she fleeted away, while he tried to move in her direction. He was tugged at the elbow by a man. James felt irritated and wanted to get politely rid of him, until the man introduced himself as Prince Fredrick Hendrick.
This man, James knew, had started out as a junior officer to his half-brother Maurits, and at Maurits death was still virtually unknown. There had been much doubt about his ability to lead the Dutch armies succesfully in the field. But Fredrick Hendrik had built himself a top reputation as one of Europes most outstanding siege specialists.

"I will leave tomorrow for the battlefield in France," Frederick greeted him, "And I would be most pleased if you could at least tonight visit me, so that we may learn to know each other better."
"That would suit me very well. I too intend to take off for France after my visit to you."

 

[Lord E]

Nice update. Interesting to read about the bad weather in Holland and James’s time there. Now I wonder how this meeting with the prince will end and if he will be able to see Betsy at all. Looking forward to it

 

[unmerged(8545)]

"Please quit whining about our energy," Jack asked.
"Because that robot promised more energy?"
"Exactly"
"A robot will lie if lying will prevent los of human lives."
"I dont know why but I tend to trust this robot. So quit sobbing and get back to work."

 

[unmerged(8545)]

That evening James was received cordially. Prince Hendrick received him in his private chamber, with only a bare minimum of servants present.
The topics of their discussion ranged from local folklore, the inevitable weather to the war in France. The staff of Hendrick served them an excellent white Mosel wine.
Hendrick himself spoke, aside from his native Dutch, excellent English, German, Spanish and French.

James watched the expressions on Hendricks face, but despite his training he couldnt read very much on it. He wondered where Betsy was. But this man was her husband, and he had been off with his wife under what must have been very mysterious circumstances. James didnt like to make up a story to this man. From a practical point of view: if he was good enough to hide his own deeper emotions, he would probably als be able to tell if James told a lie. And he didnt know what story Betsy would have made up, if any. He might ruin Betsys story. He had to tell the truth. But he could not tell the complete truth, or they would both run the risk of being accused of witchcraft.

 

[Lord E]

James has to be careful here, this man might think he have been having an affair with his wife and that is bad, but if James tells him the truth James is certain to be executed, so he has to be careful now. I wonder what happens next…

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Cheryl watched her slow progress. She felt certain her slow pace had something to do with the crown she had with her. It could have aroused suspicion of others. She felt glad she had taken a precaution for the case that people might be waiting for her, even if the precaution was only a small one.

 

[Lord E]

This AAR is still running, that is nice. So Cheryl is still having problems with the crown I see, wonder if she ever gets back. Looking forward to more

 

[unmerged(8545)]

"Jack, energy is now at 120% of the planets energy production. If that robot Daneel hadnt taken care of the energy problem, we would have had to cut of the kids."
"I knew it would work."
"The girl has arrived."

 

[unmerged(11600)]

Another update! Only four... lines...

Need... more...
...reading!

-Pat

 

[Lord E]

These small updates are nice, but they also leaves some questions open and wants us to read more…evil cliff-hangers
I look forward to see the girl arrive and what happens then.

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Have patience, there are some lengthy contributions ahead.

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Cheryl opened her eyes. Around the bathtube several men were waiting for her. They all looked at the crown she was holding in her hands.
She noticed Jack was among them.
"Jack, what's on?" she asked. She refused to get out of the milky soap in the bath tube with all the men around her, she knew when it paid to be prudent.
"We had a problem, so I organized some help. We had a very narrow escape from a universal diasaster."
"Please leave the room for a moment so I can dress. Then you can tell me all about it."

 

[Lord E]

So she is back, well at least we may now get to know what almost happened. Looking forward to it

 

[Battle bunny]

Maybe it's just me, but since when is this a EUI AAR? Can someone please explain?

 

[unmerged(8545)]

Maybe it's just me, but since when is this a EUI AAR? Can someone please explain?

A good question. Let me try to give a summary of what has happened and what the story is about.

On a world in the future, settled by colonists from earth, the society has drifted towards a rigid division between techs and management. A class with kids gets management training by being sent back mentally through time to the era 1492+, where they take control of the leaders of the most important countries. How well they do with their countries determines their grades at school. This is where Europa Universalis comes in.

I am playing Scotland, and have advanced to about 1640. In the story, Scotland is run by a boy called James. Other main characters are:
England: Cheryl
Netherlands: Betsy
In addition, there are some less important characters who have played a role
Isabella? - Spain
Dick - Sweden
? - France
(From the ?-marks you can conclude that a) it is a long time agon I had them play a role in the story, and b) that their role wa s minor one)
Though taking items from Earth back home was strictly forbidden and technically inhibited, thanks to help from chief engineer Jack Blutenberg, Cheryl managed to take the crown of England back home. She has a lot of debts, and hopes to get rid of it by selling the crown. Jack is fed up with the soft tyranny of the managers class.
Cheryl escaped London just before it fell to a combined Scottish - Dutch siege. She escaped London with the crown, and took the crown home just when Betsy and James overtook her after a long and desparate adventure in besieged London.
Scotland has a very longstanding alliance with the Netherlands. Together they form a major powerblock in Europe, having conquered all of England, and now still at war with France, Austria, Nubia and Persia.
The alliance between Scotland and the Netherlands coincides with a friendship between James and Betsy, though James often felt himself falling in love with Cheryl, one of the most popular girls in class.

A major motive in the story has been that transporting material objects requires lots of energy, and the crown took more energy than the planet could produce. A robot called Daneel (If you dont know him, do a search on wikipedia) solved that problem, and also prevented a war between Aurora and the planet where James and Betsy come from. How, I have not yet revealed how he did this.

The story has been extremely long running, you will have to start at the, uh beginning, to get all the details.