Unexpected Partners

[Triyun]

OOC: Set the day after this: http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=99429&st=0

IC:

Jia had spent the afternoon and into the night receiving formal congratulations and well wishers from across the Federation. In many cases it reminded him of Michael Corleone in the final scene of Godfather Part I, aside from his loyalists many of these men struck him as leeches, weak and ready to follow the strongest. Many governors who had been siding with his political opponents were now scambling to preserve their positions under Jia's new absolutist order. By the time it was over at 2 am that night, Jia was exhausted and had fallen to sleep uncharacteristically easily for him only to be awakened at 6 am by one of his aides, he was informed he had a meeting in two hours and needed to get ready and then have a briefing. He groaned getting out of bed and showered and then dressed. [i]$%&@, more nuisances.[/i] he thought to himself, wondering when he'd get back to the business of governing he thought as he exited the shower.

Putting on his formal uniform he fixed his collar before placing his new insignias on, they seemed shinier than his ones as Chairman. He smirked. He had held three titles as head of state now but this one though seemed different. It had been the one he had been trained for, a sense of completion for doing a long goal set over him. He checked his watch and stepped out of his quarters into his personal study just off his official office in Zhongnanhai. A large cup of french roast black coffee was waiting for him. He picked it up and took a long sip setting it down before his aides began to talk. "So has the Mayor of Qingdao made a road to damascus conversion from the RCP and now wants promotion?" he asked dryly. The now emperor often took a much more open tone with his high level senior staff than his publicly reserved demeanor showed.

His chief of staff, a middle aged entering into old age man named Qi Fanxi smirked, "No sir." the man said, "Grand Vizier Wei ordered his arrest last night after you went to bed, it appears coast guard forces found letters bearing his seal on some opium smuggler's boat." "What are the odds?" Jia replied. "Remind me to send the Grand Vizier an early bonus. So what am I here for then?" the Imperator asked.

"The Austrian Princess, you told General Chou to arrange a meeting, he contacted me last night this was when we could get her in." Qi said. "Ah yes her." he said. "Whats our intel on the austrians, I remember we've had mixed reports, friendly relations with the Athenians, also friendly relations with the fair weather Idahoans." he said. "And it appears possibly the Nords and Timurs." Qi chimed in. "So they are important enough to actually read the PCIA briefing memo instead of surf internet porn this time?" Jia asked.

"If its not too much of an imposition." Qi said back. "Also I'd like to take this time to once again remind you that you are head of state now and no longer a ranger and that it might help to act like it when its more than just us in the room."

Jia nodded, "Heh, yeah yeah. Is that the file?" he said taking the document from his chief of staffs hand. "Yeah." Qi said. "Ok. By the way, her body guard he was shot, see if he made it. Get me that info before the meeting." "Yes your imperial highness." Qi said. "Oh and draft me a decree to impose the death penalty on anyone who uses those words." Jia said.

Qi motioned to the rest of the aides to leave the room with him as Jia examined the file over the next hour or so reading over several pages of intelligence reports, regional history, as well as dossiers on all three of the Hapsburg sisters. Ding had given a fresh report on Angelika's cohorting with the new PI Emperor and the UKIM King. [i]Interesting[/i]. he thought to himself. Reports from the embassies in Nordland and Athens had plenty of reports about Maria. Thereisa was lower profile than her two sisters. Qi entered briefly about half way through with a refill on coffee and a note, with a single character on it. [i]Dead[/i]. Briefly thanking Qi, Jia continued to study for another fifteen minutes before exiting to the much more spacious formal office, now redecorated with flags of the new order on the walls behind him. One of the diplomatic liaisons came in. "August Imperator Jia, may I present the Princess of the Duchy of Austria, her highness Princess Thereisa." he said gesturing for the princess to come into the now Office of the August Imperator.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Princess Theresia?" An elderly Chinese man said as he poked his head out from behind a large, red wooden door. "The August Imperator will see you now."

Theresia stood up from her seat on the leather couch outside from the door and straightened her dress. After Jia had left her the day before she had fallen fast asleep in the arms of the nurse inside the APC. When she awoke, Theresia beheld an entirely new world, her eyes opened to a large bed where the feathers in the pillow were gently fluffed making it feel as though she rested on a cloud. The sheets were thin and the air blowing in from the outside was warm, while the scent of the storm the day before cooled her smoke stained nose and eyes. Under the orders of the August Imperator she had been brought to Zhongnanhai where she would wait for her scheduled audience with Jia.

Walking through the hallways towards the Imperator's office, Theresia moved slowly. The stitches she had received the night before were still keeping her wounds together and parts of her legs, her face, and arms, gave her the appearance of a rag doll. Yet for all her damages, the Princess still held herself with a strength and beauty that had been instilled in her since birth. The brightness of her eyes had returned, her irises like snow danced around looking at the marvelous architecture of the Chinese Imperial Offices and as he mind drifted back to the palaces of Vienna, Theresia was sure that Zhongnanhai had a much longer history than any palace she had stayed at previously. Finally, the aide stopped and bowed his head as he handed the Princess off to another Chinese official, this one held himself with a stronger sense of importance and power as he cast his hand towards the center of the room where Jia sat.

[i]"August Imperator Jia, may I present the Princess of the Duchy of Austria, her highness Princess Thereisa."[/i]

Stepping inside of the room, Theresia straightened the black dress she wore that came to a frill right below her knees and twisted the red cockade at her shoulder, designating her as holding the status of an Austrian Ambassador. She pushed her golden hair back behind her ears and stepped forward, curtsying first, and then extending her hand towards Jia in friendship.

"I'm glad to see you made it out of the carnage of Beijing Your Excellency, though it seems like you got out with a few less scratches than I did." Theresia smiled and straightened her back, standing both proud and tall in front of the Imperator. "I also want to thank you for your hospitality in letting me rest in your residence, you have a beautiful home and I am sure a beautiful country that I have yet to see, but that I hope to make myself acquainted sometime in the near future. However, what I wanted to speak to you about, Excellency, is the creation of relations between the Federation and the Duchy that would result in friendship for us both."

Her smile was as sincere as it was beautiful and for as uncomfortable as the wounds made her feel, Theresia showed no sign of weakness or fatigue.

[Triyun]

European royalty was always something else. It never ceased to slightly bewilder the Chinese, who had much of their ceremonial tradition lost in the bloody years of the 20th Century, the degree to which the Europeans maintained theirs. Not that Jia would complain of course.

"Your highness." he said rising from his seat and taking her hand and kissing it. "You clean up nicely and please feel free to call me Jia, " he said jokingly noting her significantly more elegant appearance, even with stitches, than he'd seen her last. "I hope our doctors have given you good medical care.... I was sorry about your body guard, he performed his services valiantly, his passing was a tragedy."

"Please sit." he said gesturing her to the couches in the front of the office. Taking a seat on one of them himself he spoke, "I'm certainly open to the prospect of closer relations with you. What did you have in mind?"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia sat across from the Imperator and rested her hands on her lap, she was at ease over the fact that they had gotten past the formalities already, but the tragic death of Adolf was making it incredibly hard to stay composed. "When my sister, Duchess Maria, sent me here a few weeks ago, her intentions for me was to form an economic bond between the Federation and the Duchy. Austria at the moment is recovering from a recession, our economic downturn has existed about since independence was declared, but thanks to our diplomatic outreach program, trade and the opening of our nation to investors from across the world has really turned the economy around. I will be blunt with you Jia, the policies of the Federation are still a bit nerve racking to most of Austrian society, especially because of the power of Red Dawn. At the same time though, my sister and I, both understand that the Federation is one of the premier powers on the planet, to simply shun the idea of an alliance, because of ideological issues, would be stupid."

The Princess groaned as she leaned back on the couch and massaged her cheek where one of the line of stitches were located. "So what I was hoping to propose is at least an economic alliance between Austria and the Federation. We are already allied to Athens, Timuridia, and finalizing an alliance with Dalmatia, nearly all of your allies."

Straightening herself back up and pushing the pain out of her mind, Theresia smiled back at the Imperator. "It would be mutually beneficial, a new market for Federation investors as well as opening up Austria to the wealth of the Far East. As to military ventures and defense, I'm sure that we will be able to help each other out in someway, you probably much more than us, but Austrian ingenuity is quite a marvel, we'll come up with something creative."

[Triyun]

"Red Dawn." Jia said with a bit of a chuckle. "Don't worry about Red Dawn, it won't effect you." he smiled, "At the end of the day, a lot of people forget the old saying of Lenin's 'scratch a bolshevik and underneath you'll find a Russian.' Its still true, most of the revolutionary regimes in the world still will put traditional politics first. Here in China thats especially true because we just arrested or shot the ones that weren't like that. So long as you're good with us and the Athenians, nothing is going to come from Red Dawn at you, and at the moment there sure as hell isn't anything coming from us." he said. "Red Dawn is a lot less an ideological bloc than people think. I won't permit it to become some crazed mob, I doubt the Athenians or Novakians would either. The only people who really should worry about Red Dawn are the people looking to pick fights with it."

"In regards to the other things, sure, I can help you out. We're open to favorable trading relations, there are strong markets for European luxury goods in Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Taibei, there was in Beijing but this city has taken a hit for a bit." he said with a slight grimace. "We could probably also get some foreign direct investment into your economy to help jump start it, although sadly not as much as normal." he said. "With regards to military what did you have in mind?"

[Sarah Tintagyl]

"Well, in all truth, Austria does not have the military capabilities that could probably aid the Federation in most conventional warfare, however, what we do not have in numerical strength, the Duchy can make up for in molding through diplomacy. From communication with my sister, I know that what we cannot afford on our own, we are making up in the purchasing of mercenary divisions from other nations, or at least attempting to. Perhaps it might be enough for our mercenary armies to support your men if trouble would strike the delicate balance of the world. Of course, there is always the possibility of Chinese training of the Austrian Regular Army as well, something I'm sure my sister would be very appreciative of. Everything else seems like a relationship that our peoples could build simply as we go along with time." Theresia sighed and rubbed her hands together soothingly. "Its our voice, more than our muscle that has gotten our nation known in the world, I'd be lying to say otherwise."

"Though I am happy that Red Dawn isn't the aggressive pact that the world has made it out to be. My sister Angelika is touring in North America now and with the events in Alaska, I was very worried for her safety. Hearing from one of the bloc leaders that the aggression is not what media sources make it out to be, really makes me feel at ease."

[Triyun]

"The Alaskan Conflict had little to do with ideology. Its often spun that way, but its not really true. The UFE was allies with a rightist government there: The North Pacific Commonwealth, for several years before they collapsed. The Alaskan problem still hasn't been entirely solved but its underlying issue is that there isn't really a stable regime in Alaska that we can count on. Chaos in Alaska would mean potential greater instability in the whole North Pacific. The FRA couldn't keep things under control so the ASPR will have an opportunity under careful supervision. The North Americans are you mostly younger nations. I think if you told your sister to speak to some of the larger North American nations that are older like the Holy American Empire and Pravus Ingruo, they'd reassure you our intentions are mainly for stability and not anything else." he said reassuringly.

"For your armies, do not worry about contributing to our armed forces right now. But your voice diplomatically has peaked our interest. It seems that your sisters are included in half the after-incident reports from formal functions across the world. How they don't collapse from jet lag is beyond me. I haven't seen a face time diplomacy blitz since we started the United States of China. Having your voices in support of our goals is more than enough, we'll can help train your army while your nation is still growing." he said.

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia couldn't help but laugh as Jia spoke about her sisters, he nearly had them right, but making them seem so responsible brought a smile to her face. "Well Maria has adapted to her responsibility quite well over the year since independence, but honestly Jia, I think we all try and combine pleasure and politics. Makes the boring conversation of diplomacy and power much more light-hearted. As to the jet-lag, you get used to it eventually, sleeping when and where you can, its actually a lot of fun when you get used to it, diplomacy and traveling that is. Of course, I could say differently when you get trapped in a hotel besieged by revolutionaries, but..." Her voice drifted off, grief being caught somewhere between her throat and stomach.

"My apologies," the Princess cleared her throat and regained her posture. "However, if Austria's voice and China's strength are equivalent terms between our countries, then I am sure that my sister would approve of such an alliance. We currently have Athenians and Timuridian helping train the regular Austrian Army, the Chinese system will surely as well be received with open arms. As to North America, I'll be sure to let Angelika of the Chinese side of the story, she's old enough to make her own decisions on world politics, she's older than me after all."

She smiled and crossed her legs with a slight groan. "But I appreciate the comparison of Austria with the United States of China, one can only hope that Austria's rise to power is equally dramatic to your own."

[Triyun]

"I suppose beautiful women such as you are invited to all the best international parties and such as part of your travels. It is probably more fun." he said with a smile. "Presuming your sister approves it, I think we can send advisers fairly soon, the Athenians have been asking us to deploy a forward operating force to the Med, we can establish a side mission to help train Austrians."

"Are you sure you are okay?" Jia asked concerned, "I'm sorry it must be hard for you, you went through a lot yesterday."

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia sniffed and tried to clear her head, though to no avail as the tears began to steadily drip from her eyes onto the floor below. "I...I told myself that I wouldn't let myself fall apart like this in front of you, Your Excellency. I'm disrespecting you, disrespecting myself, disrespecting Austria." Then the flood gates opened as the Princess put her head into her hands and began to weep. "Everything just happened so quickly, one moment I was being dragged down the staircase and we thought everything was going to be okay, then I screwed everything up. If I hadn't looked through that window, they never would have spotted me, those protesters never would have shot at us, Adolf would still be alive."

She lifted her head up, her eye shadow and mascara running down her cheeks like black rivers. "I've never been shot at before in my life and worse, I killed some of those men, I'm a murderer no matter how I look at it."

Theresia tried to shake away the grief and taking a deep breath wiped the tears from her eyes again. "I'm sorry, Your Excellency, I didn't mean...I...I'm sorry." She stood up and bowed her head softly. "I don't want to bother you with my emotions, I'm sure you're a very busy person and we've covered what is necessary for and Austro-Sino Alliance. I think it would be best for me to take my leave, its just been a very hard time for me. A lot to take in all at once."

[Triyun]

Jia went over next to her and put his arm on her back rather awkwardly trying to comfort her, admittedly this wasn't his strong area of expertise. "Its alright there is no need to apologize." he said. "You're not dishonoring your country, if anything the dishonor is mine. It is our nation which you went through your ordeal in." he said trying to comfort her. "You aren't a murderer, you feeling something is what makes you human. Soldiers spend weeks having their instincts desensitized, and even still... the first one it sticks with you." he said. "But that doesn't mean its not justified or make you a bad person." he said. "The important thing is to take these experiences and learn to live with them rather than keep living them, it will make you stronger."

Edited March 17, 2011 by Triyun

[Sarah Tintagyl]

Theresia sniffed and coughed as a smile eventually came to her face as she tried to look through the tears, to see something good. "Just moving on I guess. Well I do appreciate your concern Jia. It means a great deal to me. China is lucky to have a leader with sentimentality, too many people today try to do nothing but put up a wall of steel and never let anyone inside, or never talk to anyone on the outside." She swallowed and stopped at the door. "If you don't mind, I think I will stay a few more days in Zhongnanhai before I return home, have your nurses finish taking care of my wounds."

She reached back and cupped his hand and nodded. "It was a pleasure meeting you Your Excellency, hopefully, if its any consolation, the better our friendship, perhaps the friendship between the Austrian and Chinese people will be just as strong. Maybe even saving each others lives once or twice." Theresia bowed her head and turned back through the doorway. "It was a pleasure, Imperator Jia, we will have to speak again soon and I'll be sure to let you know when I make contact with Maria in Vienna and let her know about the treaty."

[Triyun]

"I'd like to see you again before you leave." he said. "Please do not be a stranger. I look forward to hearing how your sister reacts to the proposal."