Kingsley Shacklebolt (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
alt_kingsley) wrote2010-05-30 05:20 pm
alt_kingsley) wrote2010-05-30 05:20 pm
Order Only: Out and about in the camps
Benjy's still sulking about being away from Jacinda, and we still miss Victor's cooking. But the Players are starting to hit their stride and enjoy being back on the road.
Getting back into some of the camps has been difficult, though. Lucius Malfoy really isn't kidding about the unrest, and the administrators are reluctant to let us perform anywhere that they think they don't have complete control. But there are other places where we can get in where it's clear tensions are simmering just under the surface. We've adjusted the scripts on a few of the pieces we perform to try to gauge the temperature of the populace, and the point has not been missed. There's laughter, but with an edge, with people shifting in their seats and catching each other's eyes and nodding to each other--and to us. I talked to one of my regular informants, an infirmary matron at Harlow, in Essex, who recounted a long conversation she'd had with a man, a newly awakened Sleeper, who had been brought into the infirmary because he'd been badly hexed for attempting to punch a camp Enforcer. Seems he didn't take kindly to the suggestion that he would be working the rest of his life gutting fish to supply the camps. 'I'm an electrical enjinher,' he kept insisting--whatever that is--'and you're telling me I have to kiss the arse of any puffed up ponce who shoves a stick in my face? What the bleeding hell has happened to this country anyway?'
It's a good question, she told me ruefully. The Sleepers' appalled reaction to the situation is making a lot of people look afresh at our so-called blissful existence under the Beneficent Lord Protector. And they're realising that they really don't like what they see.
I think that Yaxley's estimate that Malfoy reported (that 5,000 Muggles may have escaped into the countryside) is probably a significant undercount. The Sherwood group has split, and split again, but Davidson says that two or three escapees are arriving at their enclaves every week. More wands are desperately needed, especially to help with concealment charms. We saw John and Lucinda and they are busy but happy. John is using his knowledge of how Moddey Dhoo is run to help Davidson's leadership map out plans for establishing these enclaves splintering off. So far we've been powerfully lucky. None have run afoul of Snatchers or Aurors. Yet. But like I said, more wands are needed if we want to keep our winning streak golden. Although Davidson is also worried about the politics of giving wands to some but not to others.
Sirius, your name is a talisman of hope to many. Remember that while you're on the run. People believe what you have to say.
Emmeline is poking me in the shoulder, reminding me that it's my turn to cook dinner, so I'll sign off for now.
Getting back into some of the camps has been difficult, though. Lucius Malfoy really isn't kidding about the unrest, and the administrators are reluctant to let us perform anywhere that they think they don't have complete control. But there are other places where we can get in where it's clear tensions are simmering just under the surface. We've adjusted the scripts on a few of the pieces we perform to try to gauge the temperature of the populace, and the point has not been missed. There's laughter, but with an edge, with people shifting in their seats and catching each other's eyes and nodding to each other--and to us. I talked to one of my regular informants, an infirmary matron at Harlow, in Essex, who recounted a long conversation she'd had with a man, a newly awakened Sleeper, who had been brought into the infirmary because he'd been badly hexed for attempting to punch a camp Enforcer. Seems he didn't take kindly to the suggestion that he would be working the rest of his life gutting fish to supply the camps. 'I'm an electrical enjinher,' he kept insisting--whatever that is--'and you're telling me I have to kiss the arse of any puffed up ponce who shoves a stick in my face? What the bleeding hell has happened to this country anyway?'
It's a good question, she told me ruefully. The Sleepers' appalled reaction to the situation is making a lot of people look afresh at our so-called blissful existence under the Beneficent Lord Protector. And they're realising that they really don't like what they see.
I think that Yaxley's estimate that Malfoy reported (that 5,000 Muggles may have escaped into the countryside) is probably a significant undercount. The Sherwood group has split, and split again, but Davidson says that two or three escapees are arriving at their enclaves every week. More wands are desperately needed, especially to help with concealment charms. We saw John and Lucinda and they are busy but happy. John is using his knowledge of how Moddey Dhoo is run to help Davidson's leadership map out plans for establishing these enclaves splintering off. So far we've been powerfully lucky. None have run afoul of Snatchers or Aurors. Yet. But like I said, more wands are needed if we want to keep our winning streak golden. Although Davidson is also worried about the politics of giving wands to some but not to others.
Sirius, your name is a talisman of hope to many. Remember that while you're on the run. People believe what you have to say.
Emmeline is poking me in the shoulder, reminding me that it's my turn to cook dinner, so I'll sign off for now.
no subject
As for wands, there we have some headway. Not much, but I think Marguerite and Aleks have managed to put together a nice bundle of, say, another couple dozen, that we can bring through when we meet at Midsummer's.
Transportation is a little more difficult. I heard from Marguerite and I don't know how, but that extra budget allocation Crouch and Malfoy mentioned recently must have gone directly to seeding their European payroll. We'll keep trying, but it doesn't seem like it's very safe on this end. I was right about their anticipating another run - which also means they may have realised the weakness in their own wards.
Frank, mate, if you're reading, be extra careful when you set out - I strongly suspect they'll have fortified the borders, maybe even protections on any vessel coming too close to the ward lines - or going too far out from the coast.
no subject
that's bad luck, them stepping up their security. but you got to figure, that's an awful large bit of sea to patrol, even with extra teams out, as long as we're careful. we've painted the hopeful black so she'll be harder to spot at night, we don't need any lights to go by, and she doesn't create any sort of magical signature -- all muggle engines and sails all the way.
so that should help.