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Perebendya, old and sightless,
(Surely you all know him?)
Playing on his kobza ever,
Far and wide he’s roaming.
People all know who ’tis plays so
And thank him sincerely;
He drives their grief away although
For him the world is dreary.
Frieze-clad wretch, beneath the fence
Day and night he tarries
There’s no home for him on earth;
And misfortune harries
Jesting, over his old head
- Yet he endures his burden!...
And he sits and sings his song:
“Meadow, do not murmur!”
He sings his song, recall that he
Lone in the world must live now,
So he sits beneath the fence
Sorrowing and grieving.
That is Perebendya, old,
So changeable and moody,
Now he sings the song of Chalyi,
“Horlytsia” now he’s choosing,
With the girls out in the pasture,
“Hryts” or “Springtime ditty”,
With the lads down at the inn,
“Serbyn” or “Barmaid pretty”,
With young husbands at a feast
(When in-law trouble’s looming)
“The poplar-tree” – adversity –
And then “In woodlands gloomy”.
Sings “Lazar” in the bazaar,
And – so folk learn the story –
Sings, weary-dreary, how the Sich
Was ruined, robbed of glory.
That is Perebendya, old,
So changeable and moody,
Sings his song and smiles his smile,
And then in tears sits brooding.
-Taras Shevchenko
Translation by Vera Rich
BREAKING NEWS: SEVERAL ARRESTS MADE IN CONNECTION TO IAT LEAK, 
French Albania NATIONAL AMONG THOSE ACCUSED OF ESPIONAGE
Paul Philippe von Hohenzollern
The French President rn is Francois Hollande (and soon to be either Emmanuel Macron or Marine Le Pen)
They mounted at once and they came to the battlefield.
They hissed like dragons, they roared like lions,
they soared like eagles, and the two clashed.
And then you could see a fight between fine brave youths.
In the heat of the battle they struck continuously,
and from the great clashing and the cut and thrust
the plains grew fearful and the mountains re-echoed,
trees were uprooted and the sun was darkened.
Blood flowed down over their horse-trappings
and their sweat ran out over their breastplates.
Constante’s black horse was speedier,
and its rider was a marvelous young man.
He charged at the emir and struck him a blow with his stick
and then the emir began to tremble and flee.
A Saracen addressed the emir in his own tongue:
"Baseborn, seize the youngster, to beat him speedily,
so that he doesn’t take your head off with a sudden turn of his.
He has made a fine attack on you, and now he might bring you down.
I don’t think, o baseborn, you are going to do him much harm,
but don’t let him boast that he routed an army."
When the emir heard this, he withdrew some way from the youth,
he threw away his spear and pointed his finger at him,
and with this gesture he said these words:
"May you live and rejoice, young man, victory is yours."
Oh, my bad. I just read up on him.
Emperor of the French and the Byzantines when?
Sup
ORBITAL WEAPONS
i had a long, glorious, beautiful post that dealt in exquisite detail with the Thalasian accusations and really just further solidified my use of IAT intercepts of French Albanian communications as The Thing I Was Going to Keep Doing
then NS ate it because it 'failed a security check' or something equally stupid
i'm never typing it out again
so here is a very brief summary instead
'Security Minister Sebastian de Vaillancourt officially denounced the Thalasian claims as rumor-mongering, and urges that the innocent and injured party in this, Mister Parsman Guramiani, be freed at once, and not subjected to the mistreatment so common in Thalasian prisons, or as we know them, 'enhanced interrogation' chambers.'
Thalsus y must you never be calm.
Drink some tea
You know that if a post fails, you can just click the go back button to regain that text?
believe me if that worked I would do it
it used to, but I changed computers about 2 months ago and have been too lazy to re-install my old addons
also you probably use Chrome or something, I use firefox which...starting to regret but hey it eats less ram than chrome
Ah. On chrome it works.
Sup
So, for anyone that saw my last message about the Town of Salem game, I did not get around to organizing it this previous weekend. My apologies, I had some "housekeeping" to do for another project here on NationStates. I plan on doing some research tonight and trying to get it set up sometime later this week. Send me a telegram if you're interested!
existence is pain
Three men were gathered in a small boardroom, at an undisclosed location somewhere on the wealthier side of San Salvacion. Surrounded by aides and security guards, they watched a high-definition LED TV screen as news footage about the recent arrests was played. First, a large group of nine men and women in suits, walking quickly and shielding their eyes from the all-devouring cameras as they were escorted into a police station by a small army of gendarmes.
"The rank and file," said the Director of the IAT. "Middle-ranking defectors, people who were either giving out files discretely to other operators, or being careless enough with classified information that they will still probably wind up in prison. A few of them were caught trying to leave the country: the rest were caught off guard." The other two men nodded.
Next, shaky smartphone footage of a apparently lower-class blond kid in a hoodie being violently removed from a police van and dragged into another station appeared. He was laughing as the police pulled him along, and before they threw him through the doors he managed to get a wink at one of the cameras. The Director chuckled and shook his head
"Derek Colt, better known by his screen name of 'redweb05'. Age nineteen, male, Thalasi national of British descent. Dropped out of school at fourteen, supposedly to pursue coding and hacking skills. It must have worked for him, because nowadays he has a reputation as a genuine class-A hacker, having discovered eleven confirmed zero day exploits for financial institutions and governments around the world, and rumors are circulating that he has dozens more of them somewhere. He has numerous international connections of varying relevance and strength, including some in 
Allouxia, Yevraziyskaya rus, Escanthea, and French Albania. Quite a character, that one. Finally nailed him when we broke one of his encryptions and found that he had hundreds of messages with some of the more guilty IAT players."
"Right." Kali Caine, the temporary Manager of Cybersecurity for the Villa Thalasus, sighed. "I tried hiring him a while ago. He has a real problem with authority though, and he was too closely connected to anarchists for our liking."
"That's because he is an anarchist. An anarcho-communist, specifically.”
Caine grimaced. "Ew."
"Hey." General Van Guillermo, the commander of military intelligence for the Thalasi Army, smirked. "It's a free society."
"Unfortunately," Caine responded sarcastically.
"Everyone be quiet," the Director said. "The pièce de résistance is on."
Armored police were quickly escorting a ethnic Frenchman through a crowd of press and yet more police. The man was in his mid thirties, green eyes, slightly taller than the average Thalasian, and his short beard was prematurely dotted with white and grey. An aide came forward and handed the Director a black file, laminated with the IAT logo.
"Parsman Guramiani. Age thirty seven, male, university educated, no known history of radicalism. French Albania national. Came to Thalasus to work on software for the Beylani Corporation in 1998, but he quit about three months ago."
"Did he give any reason?"
"Yes, and no. The day he quit, Parsman told the head of his division that he was 'exploring opportunities elsewhere'. At this point, he started regularly making contact with a few of the IAT insider suspects and three instances of contact with Colt."
Caine leaned in, interested. "That's it with Colt? Only three instances of contact?"
The aide nodded. "Three instances of contact, twenty-five messages. All of them are unreadable right now. A joint investigative team with the PF is still searching his flat and the surrounding, but we believe we have everything."
"Damn." The Villa Thalasus official slumped back.
The Director tilted his head. "Something wrong?"
"French Albania is already clamoring for us to release Guramiani. I was hoping we could get a stronger link to Colt, but..."
"It's strong enough," the Director said standing up. "I know it's not a lot, but the fact that the messages are encrypted with a custom-made key is suspicious enough that I'm not willing to waive Guramiani's arrest."
"Fair enough." Caine stood up as well. "I suppose I should have Villa Thalasus tell the Falbanians that their man was associated with communists?"
"Hm. Go with the anarchist connection more. Thalasi communism might be a distasteful joke here, but those nutjobs overseas honestly believe that our government is secretly waiting to break out the hammers and sickles at any time."
"Very well." As the two left the room, General Van Guillermo balked.
"T-That's it? This meeting wasn't just an update, was it? Shouldn't we be planning some kind of action?"
The Director blinked, while Caine ignored him and walked out into the hallway. "What action is there, other than calming the Falbanian aristocracy? The arrests were literally just made. We haven't even interrogated these people yet."
"If that's the case, what am I supposed to do?"
"I don't know. I'm not expecting any military systems to be found compromised. I was just going to go out to the hotel bar and get some drinks... Wanna come with?"
The general sighed. "Sure. Why not."
------------------------------------
While Parsman's anarchist connections were made visible to both the Thalasi media and to the French Albanian government, interrogations (of the non-enhanced kind) were underway. A French-speaking IAT agent appeared before Guramiani, who was handcuffed to a steel chair in a stereotypically cold and unfriendly interrogation room. Without waiting for a word from Parsman, she began.
"First, I would like to confirm your identity. You are Parsman Guramiani, correct? And you are, in fact, a university-educated male from French Albania?"
*rips the tea leaves to shreds and eats them*
*drinks the boiling water*
*crushes the sugar cubes on my forehead and snorts the powder*
NO YOU BE CALM
FAIS Outer Circle agent SIERRA NOVEMBER FIVE (SN5) (alias 'Parsman Guramiani') has been apprehended by IAT on suspicion of links to the terrorist agents.
SN5 was to perform espionage work within Beylani, for industrial purposes to pre-emptively secure a competitive advantage for domestic aristocorps (Appendix A1), to plant backdoors and find 'Zero Day Exploits' for FAIS CyberSec use (Appendix A2), and to uncover and pass along any sensitive government information that may be put through Beylani hands (Appendix A3). SN5 was very successful in this (documented in his dossier, attached as Appendix C), and looked likely to continue in this. However, this mine appeared near tapped out, particularly after securing positions for ALPHA JULIET FOUR and HOTEL WHISKEY FIVE to continue his work.
Fortunately, he was contacted by DEREK COLT (alias 'redweb05', dossier Appendix E), who has been on Outer Circle watchlists for some time as a destabilizing force in Thalasus thanks to his anarcho-communist sympathies. SN5 was directed to work with Colt, and a suitable impetus for his resignation from Beylani was acquired (a 'death in the family' (Appendix C2), followed by a very public 'spat' with his 'live-in girlfriend' OSCAR BRAVE FOUR (Appendix C3, Dossier Appendix D) and a 'psychological break'. This was devised such that if he should be picked up by IAT for his association with Colt, there would be a 'clear pattern' that could be followed; successful engineer has severe emotional problems, cannot maintain his job or relationship, experiences a severe mid-life crisis, and turns to anarcho-communism for answers. There would be very little review of his case, and minor pressure would allow us to secure him and redeploy elsewhere.
However, Colt has also been picked up, as have many of the IAT defectors. Securing SN5 is now imperative, as if his status as an Outer Circle agent is discovered, that may jeopardize the 783 Outer Circle agents within Thalasus proper, as background checks may quickly become more stringent than FAIS can economically fabricate. Additionally, a rash of arrests in Thalasus risks other states stepping up their background checks, and could lead to the collapse of worldwide operations.
It is imperative that we continue to play to the public's impression of Thalasus as a communist state in waiting, and use that as leverage to reacquire SN5 ('information leaks' about 'communists cleaning house' to The Tributary and VDI News are suggested; emphasize SN5's cover story as a depressed, emotionally broken man who made a poor decision - can subsequently be spun into counter-communist propaganda).
Given the publicity now surrounding this case, however, SN5 is compromised as a field agent. Accordingly, he will be reassigned to Inner Circle operations for the most part, with the occasional public reminder of the 'perils of communist life' and the 'mercy of the Exarch'.
Parsman blinked owlishly behind his overlarge spectacles (frames chosen to soften his features), alternately looking for all the world as if he had never anticipated such a question in his life, and terrified at the dread specter of 'the infamous Thalasian tort-er, 'enhanced interrogation' chambers' French Albanian citizens were told so much about. Inwardly, though, he was thinking intensely hard; snippets of his FAIS training running through his head, Maxim Seven predominating. Maxim 7: diffuse suspicion through the appearance of incompetence.
He fidgeted uncomfortably, shifting his weight in the chair, testing the reach of the handcuffs with the one arm as he reached up with his free hand as if to wipe some nonexistent sweat off his brow, settled instead for a calculatedly awkward removal of his spectacles. He could see perfectly without them, of course; they were entirely for show (doubtless IAT knew this already, but perhaps it would suggest he was attempting to look more intelligent than he really was, when the opposite was in fact the case). But 'blinding' himself like this would cement the interrogators' belief that she had him by the balls, when in fact he...had a cup on? There wasn't a good place for that metaphor to go. He shouldn't think like that. Might risk smiling. Maybe a pained smile, make it appear as if he thought he could get out of it?
"I," he eventually began haltingly, while rubbing the lenses of his glasses increasingly frenziedly as he went on, "I...I...y-yes? Yes, I a-I...wait, no, I don't thin-I understand I have th-the r-r-right to legal council. I...I can't say, I wo-I can't talk with-without a lawyer present. I nee-I need to speak to the, to the embassy, they, they will. Get me th-the lawyer. I c-can't speak without the la-lawyer. Yo-you ca-can't, can't hold me like this a-anyway, it's a-against the la-law."
Although otherwise an uninteresting affair, the Imperial Government's eyes collectively popped out of their heads when they found out this Anarchist, Derek Colt, had associates within Escanthea. Immediately the foreign minister, who had been going to and from Thalasus anyway to attend lavish corporate parties and enoucrage foreign investment, was told to inform the Thalasian government in the most non-panicked words possible that they would very much like to see who some of those associates are so their political aspirations can be...contained.
President Lazar Aleksandrovich and Prime Minister Yelena Voronina held a press conference shortly after revelations came out of the Thalasi intelligence leak as well as the actions of Guramiani and a plethora of rumors. The room was filled with sounds of professional cameras going off as they answered the first question, "what is the Eurasian Rus's reaction to reports of Thalasi activity during the Soviet Civil War and in Soviet and Eurasian elections?"
"It is one of strong condemnation" Aleksandrovich said calmly. "The government of the Eurasian Rus' is shocked at the activities committed by Thalasi intelligence during the conflict. This war, the war that killed tens of thousands of our brothers and countrymen is still a traumatizing topic for our union. Thalasus's role in it - Though a role that played no part in the casualties - Can be considered nothing less than an act of imperialism against the peoples of our union. Their activities in our political system is a hijacking of our democracy and the path the Eurasian peoples chose. It is hypocritical for a democratic nation, a nation that prides itself on its democracy to destroy the democracy of others. It is a betrayal of democratic principles in its most blatant form. We strongly demand an apology from the Thalasi government in their role of playing a contributory role in the instability during the Union of Soviet Sovereign Republics and later the Socialist Union of Eurasian Rus'."
Prime Minister Voronina carried on "Nonetheless, we also strongly condemn the actions of Eurasian vandals and arsonists in destroying Thalasi businesses and private property in our nation. We hold no support for vandalism, we hold no support for arson and we hold no support for retribution against Thalasi businesses in Rus. The government of Eurasian Rus differentiates between Thalasis and the Thalasi government. The former is not responsible for the actions of the latter. And any response on behalf of the Eurasian people must address this, unless we address provocations with provocations."
"Rumors are spreading that one of the suspected hackers in the leak has ties to Eurasian Intelligence. Could you tell us if the Eurasian government knows of the identity of the hacker and the length of their ties to Eurasian intelligence?"
"Absolutely not." quickly replied Voronina. "That is strictly confidential. We will however say that whoever this hacker is, their actions against the Thalasi government is not the doing of the Eurasian government. In order for any diplomatic channel between two modern nationstates to exist, we must first establish a mutual respect of the sovereignty of our respective states, without which the channel will collapse. We have no interest in undermining Thalasi sovereignty. We are not engaged in a Cold War with Thalasus-I'd like to repeat that: We are not engaged in a Cold War with Thalasus. Whether or not this hacker might have connections to our intelligence, I am not going to entertain a rumor. but I will say this: If a person who works for the Thalasi government commits murder, is the Thalasi government responsible? We have no involvement in the intelligence leaks, that is the key point here. Whether or not this hacker has worked with Eurasian intelligence doesn't matter."
A faint voice from across the room spoke up "Some Thalasi officials, as well as a growing number of Eurasian officials are expressing concern that the upcoming trial of Mateo Ferez will be undermined by the current wave of anti-Thalasi sentiment. Will the Eurasian government maintain its position of inaction in regards to the case in light of recent events?" President Aleksandrovich answered "Yes. The principles of Eurasian Federalism will not change anytime in the future. This is for the Donbass government in Donetsk to decide, not the Kyivan government. We will not take any action on this case. That is all there is to say on the matter."
Welcome, my friend!
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