Newsflash! Earlier this morning, Stollenian dragoons stationed along the frontier apprehended a messenger from Zichenau as he crossed the Lesser Zwischen Rover. He was discovered to be carrying a communiqué to agents widely thought to be established somewhere within the borders of the Grand Duchy. Repeated tickling of the soles of his feet with a cock’s tail feather has failed to produce the names of these agents.
In the meantime, a courier was immediately dispatched to Krankenstadt, carrying the intercepted message, which was presented to Stollenian authorities mid-afternoon today. It reads:
Strike while the iron is hot! With an obviously half-witted Grand Duke and a terminally befuddled gaggle of ministers and advisors, now is the time to overturn Stollen and annex its territories to the Electorate of Zichenau. Set our plan in motion, so that everything is in order for Prince Ruprecht’s return to the throne. Don’t lose another second!
Herr Stefan Julius von Paternosterwitz, Minister of the Exterior for the Electorate of Zichenau
Whether this outrageous message is genuine or another elaborate hoax remains to be seen. Representatives of Zicheau in Krankenstadt claim ignorance. Nevertheless, security at entry points along the frontier between Stollen and Zichenau has been strengthened. Strangely, Grand Duke Irwin-Amadeus II seems untroubled by these developments, taking the fresh air and one of several strolls around the palace grounds this afternoon, dressed in a handsomely laced toga, resembling those worn by ancient Roman senators. The situation is most perplexing!
-- Katrina Bettina von Heffelfinger, Der Krankenstadt Tageblat
Comments
- Primus: the removal of the lobster costume, necessary as it was, was a real trauma for the patient. Given his apparent taste for the marvels of Mother Nature in general and anything arthropod in particular, his current behavior may belong to the 'butterfly from chrysalys'class of psychotic reaction. That is, the patient tries to overcome the suffering of the forced moulting by interpreting it as a gratifyng metamorphosis. An already fragile mind could even feel it as an apotheosis.
- Secundus: such reaction is predicative of a worsening of the ill. The patient has to be pulled back to reality, but very progressively and taking benefit from his very own symptoms. Given that all started -or became obvious, at least- with the lobster costume, one suggests to having the subject dressed in 3/4 'lobster' armour. Obsolete maybe, but a firm part of our sane reality, while in the same time directly enough connected to the patient's lobstermania to elicit, hopefully, more than a passing interest. Remind him that characters such as Louis XV and de Saxe *love* to be portaited in such lobster armour.
In the hope one can help to a bettering of the Hrand Duke & thus of the future of his charming Grand Duchy...