Day One-Forty-Three: Court is now in session

Welllllllll, today didn't go QUITE as planned. The last half did, but this morning, not so much.

Don't worry, though, diary! Nothing BAD happened. It's just, ah, well, I didn't get to follow Captain Cedric around much, 'cause all of us guards got called to stand watch over an emergency meeting of court. Why they needed ALL of us I don't rightly know, but that included me.

The whole topic of the fortress to protect the queen is pretty hot lately, mainly 'cause Driscol's been trotting it out for discussion every chance he gets. Now, today, he decided to propose it to the nobles - and that had The Baron spitting mad. The old guy kept insisting that the redirection of troops and building supplies would be impossible, and anyway, it was impractical to build a fortress, like, a couple hundred feet from the front of the castle.

Then DRISCOL went off on a big tangent about how we should be protecting the queen! She's the monarch, he says, and who are all of us to deny her the safety of walls? It was irresponsible of The Baron (notice he doesn't blame King Jeffrey) not to build out and cover the queen in the first place, and since it's too late now, well, we're all obligated to give her a fortress of her own.

He also insists that he'll oversee the building of the fortress from start to finish. THAT I find weird, 'cause nobles don't usually care 'bout that sort of thing.

Then THE BARON exploded again, saying that he was listening to the queen's wishes, and that Driscol should be ashamed for going against her. She's strong, we all know it, and she likes the way things are. How can Driscolattackt the monarchy in such a blatant fashion? It's uncouth and foolish, blah blah blah. Lots more arguments between the two followed, and after a while I got sleepy.

Fortunately, the same went for a lot of other people in the room - and that includes our beloved King Jeffrey, whose once bald scalp now bears a crop of gentle peach fuzz. After a solid twenty minutes of arguing he threw his sceptre at Driscol to make him stop talking, and the count shut up at once.

"This is dull," he started, "and you're dull. Both of you. But we guess we must rule on this, so here's our decree." Yeah, he's started referring to himself in the third person. It's kinda annoying.

The king rose and stretched out his hand, looking at everyone in his hall. "We have decided that there shall be a vote. Nobles and commoners, men and other men, candle makers and smithees and pencil-pushers, all shall gather next Friday to decide whether or not to build a fortress outside our castle. The side that receives the most votes shall be the victor. Thus we have decreed; thus it shall be. Change the name!"

And one of the king's lackeys ran over to a giant chalkboard at the side of the hall, wiped out 'Castle TooEarlyForThis' and changed it to 'Castle DemocracyIsCool'.

Then the king sat again. "Now everybody get out. We're doodling a tiger on our throne, and you're all distracting us."

That was the end of the meeting. A lot of people were milling out of the court in the aftermath, so things were pretty hectic, though I caught sight of The Baron for a brief second, and boy howdy did he look pissed. Had a vein poppin' out of his forehead the size of Libby's ponytail. He's normally so chipper!

Well, that's that, anyway. There's gonna be a vote. Sounds like we're living in the Imperium now, diary. How weird.

The rest of the night went like yesterday. Followed Cedric, learned his patterns, took some notes, schemed. Will carry on like that tomorrow.

Sincerely,

Dragomir the Snoop