Kalistan

[Doc]

Melanie Ananto finds a Second Chance at House Ananto
The fallen former Chancellor talks about her life after scandal and her friendship with the Empress
Luxon, Grand Duchy of Ananto
July 3, 5726


Lady Melanie Ananto-McLinn, with her Chief of Staff, Ms. Jane Sharpe, seen here having just told an x-rated joke about a nun in preparation for the photo

Her Highness, Princess Melanie Ananto-McLinn was once the second most powerful individual person in the world, behind Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Carolina II Ananto. Then a scandal and a subsequent conviction removed her from office and sent her into exile. She was re-enlisted into National Service as she neared 40, and was required to spend most of her own personal fortune paying restitution to victims, who spent her entire time out of power working to exonerate her. She got a significant assist from the incoming Chancellor, her replacement, Sir Johnathan Mickelson, who requested clemency on her behalf in honor of her long service to the Empire, and Her Imperial Majesty granted it, rescuing her from exile, and adopting her as a sister.

Ananto-McLinn, a distant descendant of the Fourth Dynasty, was initially unsatisfied with most of the policies of the Empress of the Fifth Dynasty. "I think it is fair to say that I thought the Empress made a good many missteps during her early years," said Lady Ananto-McLinn. "I didn't really make a big secret of my distaste for her policies, and did what I could to make sure that the damage I thought she was doing to our nation was contained. I was forced on the Empress, following the death of my predecessor in a car accident, and it was no secret that she didn't want me because I was a very outspoken nationalist and rather hard headed." With a smile, she added, "I did what most nations in Terra did--I underestimated her. And I am very sorry for that. It wasted a lot of time that could have been better spent working together for the people of her nation."

When Ananto-McLinn fell from power and was disqualified from public service forever, she thought she was finished. "I was using a lot of drugs around that time. I don't blame my actions on that, but lets say they didn't really help me out much. And when I was arrested and dragged out of my home out into the streets, in front of Kaliburg, I was so messed up I didn't even know what was happening. Oh god, that picture... its embarrassing to see it now." Ananto refers to the photo of her arrest published in The Republic at the time where she appears on the street in front of her home in handcuffs surrounded by KPD officers. Close inspection reveals that her eyes were almost fully dilated.

Lady Ananto said she was using a lot of cocaine and MDMA at the time, and was losing weight because she wasn't really eating well, and covers her face as she thinks of the photograph. "I remember waking up in a holding cell in Kaliburg after I had been arraigned. I remember a cop asking me if I was 'conscious enough to finally talk to my lawyer.' When he said the word 'prostitution' I knew I was done for. I plead no contest, because I didn't really want those people I knew exposed in the press. Our arrangement was based on trust, and I know I messed everything up, it was my fault, so I just took the rap and prepared to do the time."

Ananto-McLinn, then Alvarez-McLinn actually was re-inducted into National Service. She was not required to go to basic training, but instead spent her time as a laborer with the State Housing Construction crew in Southern Suldanor. "You aren't allowed to do anything in National Service," said Ananto-McLinn. "So I had to detox at the same time as I was doing labor at building sites in Sulari... It was miserable. But that sun helped me sweat all that junk out of my system. By the time the Empress granted me clemency, I was over the withdrawal, and had squared my mind to stay clean." She was returned to her sinecure on the edge of the Lucid Morass, and planned to spend the rest of her life swatting mosquitos and removing snakes from her house.

But the Empress had different plans for her. When Lady Christina Ananto-McKinley announced her intention to retire early and travel, the Empress called Lady Alvarez-McLinn. "It was very confusing for me," she said. "I had harbored such ill will toward this woman for so long, and throughout my entire career, she has only ever held the hand of friendship out toward me. And I went, prepared to slap it away once more, but she is a very persistent person, and she believes that if she can't do something, it is merely a matter of time and not of effort. She spoke to me not as an Empress and not as this annoying pollyanna who wants to be everyone's friend, but she reminded me that we are both Brethrenists. She takes her faith and practice very seriously: if the Brethren had nuns, she would probably become one," Ananto says with a laugh. "Anyhow, she reminded me of the testimonies and said that this was the basis of her forgiveness."

And this time, Lady Melanie said, it got through to her. "She was the only one who remembered me when everyone else forgot about me, and she said she thought about me everyday and missed me while I was back in Suldanor, and wanted to find a way to talk with me without making a huge problem for everyone. Me, a person who only checked my contempt for her because it is against the law to express it publicly. I was friendless and she reached out to me. And she offered me the opportunity to serve the Empire once more. And even promoted me to royalty, which was beyond my wildest dreams. I didn't know what to say, but then she showed me one last stroke of compassion and asked if her daughter could speak to me, because apparently, I was something of a mentor to her daughter and my loss hit the Princess hardest."

Lady Ananto-McLinn, having been granted the right to use the name of her ancestors once more said she went home and prayed for the first time in a very very long time. "I really did. I sat in silence and waited for the still, small voice that we Brethrenists listen for as we contemplate the Truth. And it spoke to me and called me an idiot for not jumping at the chance when I first heard it." Ananto rolled her eyes. "Yeah, duh. I went immediately to Cliff House and told Her Imperial Majesty that I actually prayed and that I want the job. And I asked her finally to forgive me for being a bad friend. She smiled, we hugged and cried together, and to be honest, this was really the first time I had ever felt even comfortable being around this woman." Lady Ananto said she was not sure which the Empress was more surprised to learn: "That I wanted the job or that I had been sitting in silence praying."

Brethrenism is a strange practice, said Lady Ananto-McLinn. "The Brethrenists don't really concern themselves with what happens to us after we die. Their faith and practice is for what we are doing while we are here on terra. They take the Book more seriously, I think than most Hosians, because the Brethrenists take the words of not only Elijahu, but all religious thinkers, as expressions of the same truth from different perspectives. And the Brethrenists will tell you not to worry about what happens after you are dead because you can't do anything about anything then anyway. You should focus on what you are doing here, how you are treating people here, how you are living your life. You should not hurt others, you should not treat others are means to your ends, you should treat all others as your equals, titles and protocols not withstanding."

She said she used to reject offers of friendship from the Empress, who she said made countless offers over the course of their relationship. "Her Imperial Majesty would tell me we were Friends," said Lady Ananto-McLinn. "I mean, yes, in the strict sense that we were both birthright Brethrenists, yes, we were technically friends. But I always thought that an Empress and a member of the nobility couldn't necessarily be friends because there is a power differential there, which perpetually sets one as the Empress, her obviously, and one as the subject. I was not her equal. I could not rely on her to do anything for me, because even though there is a little difference in rank between countess and grand duchess, there is an immense gulf of power between Empress and subject. And I always had to call her Your Imperial Majesty, even as Chancellor of the Empire. That is not how friends are around one another. So whenever she told me that she thought of me as her friend, I would correct her and inform her that I was merely a loyal subject, and nothing more."

But the new Director of House Ananto said this is not what the Empress meant. "She meant we are friends, in that we were meant to look out for one another. When she called me her friend, she was telling me that I was her sister, the sister she never had. I think the loss of her brothers and mother when she was a little kid changed her sense of family to be far more inclusive that most people really have. Her aunt adopted her as a daughter when Carolina was a small child, and raised her as her own. The Empress then adopted the King of Hutori as her brother, and she sees him regularly. She lost her birth family and was the only one left, and the nation almost lost the Royal Family. So she built herself a new one, with her adopted siblings and her own kids, she intends for the Empire to go on forever. She made her feelings explicit for me when she adopted me as her sister. At first I thought that was so strange. But after it was done, and she called me Sister rather than friend, all the animosity and resentment I felt toward her, all the jealousy, it left my heart in that minute."

Ananto-McLinn says the experience has given her a new lease on life. "Here at House Ananto, I don't have to worry much about politics." She says she still maintains her membership in the Nationalist Club. "But more often these days, I sit back and listen. I am under no pressure to lead any causes into the National Assembly. I am not the face of the movement anymore. I can have my opinions and I am allowed to keep them to myself. Its a real opportunity for me to become the kind of person who can listen rather than speak, and observe rather than be the center of attention. It is the kind of life I never knew I wanted for myself."

Asked if she still mourns the loss of the Southern Kingdom, she seemed far less animated over the subject that she ever was in the past. "Eh, they deserve the right to go their own way if they want, I suppose. We met their king when we went to Gaduridos for the coronation. He seemed like a serious fellow, and the nation is taking steps to carve its own national destiny out. As a nationalist, I can at least applaud that. But the sentimental attachments I myself felt for the Anantonese Empire's death have faded a bit. The Empress doesn't seem concerned about it: she's making new links in new places, and letting Gaduridos alone. If its not a problem for the Empress, why should I be concerned?"

The Director of House Ananto says she is too busy anyway to pay much attention to politics. "First of all, you would be amazed what you can get done sober..." she said with a laugh. "I've had lots of opportunities of course: this is Kalistan after all. But the only drugs I consume these days are in tea with the Empress. And then I only do that if I am not quick enough to abstain before she doses me. I think she gets kind of a kick out of that, like she thinks its funny. But it also helps me stay on my toes around her. She is a functioning opium addict, as every monarch of this nation eventually is, but she's been using it for so long that it doesn't really affect her much at all anymore. It's like how some people just put salt on their potatoes before they even taste them to see if they need salt. She does it out of muscle memory, rather than craving. I don't think she really even thinks about it anymore, but she never drinks coffee or soda, or water really, and never takes tea without opium. Never."

Politics take a backseat to administration, says the Director. "I have so much to do every day, I don't know how Lady Christina did this AND was the CEO at Miramar." (Lady Ananto-McLinn, who is disqualified as a penalty for her conviction, from ever serving in a position of public trust again, merely advises the board selected CEO of Miramar, as the representative of the controlling bloc of stock in the company. She does not actively attend board meetings or make executive decisions for the holding company.) "Right now, we are starting to prepare for a wedding between the Crown Prince and Ms. Casey Leigh-Campbell, and between then and the coronation, we may have two other weddings, and an abdication, and that's just the special stuff. Day to day House operations are a sun up to sun down matter."

Lady Melanie said she would be lost without her assistant and Chief of Staff, Ms. Jane Sharpe. "Jane runs a very tight office here: She is the best Chief of Staff a person could ever want. Organized as the day is long, and people like her and respect her. And she has the most vulgar sense of humor I have ever experienced. I found a kindred spirit in Jane." Lady Melanie Ananto-McLinn was a guest at Ms. Sharpe's recent wedding, and offered her and her new husband her home during their honeymoon, while Lady Ananto-McLinn visited the Empress in Eveari.

Lady Ananto-McLinn has received permission to move House Operations to Luxon so she can live closer to her work. "Well, I was deeded the Late Princess of the Empire Nicolette Ananto-Connor's home, where Her Imperial Majesty spent time as a child, and then Nicolette retired to. This home is such a beautiful home, with a view of the Luxon Swell as it rolls into Ananto. It's near everything, the nightlife here is fascinating, the people are beautiful and the Global Music Hall of fame brings tourists every week. I had no idea that Luxon was such an amazing spot, and the Anantos knew it all along. This is their island after all. Of course they know where everything is: they put it here."

She says she is eternally grateful for being given another chance. "I know I did not deserve it. I spent two decades of my life hating the one person who only wanted to be my friend. And yet it was she who stood by me, when I was at my lowest. When I had turned my back on her and everything she stood for. That makes me want to be a better person to those I care about, and care about more people than I ever did before." Lady Ananto-McLinn says she attends Meeting in Luxon weekly. "And I now make the effort to go visit the Empress at least once a month. Earlier this year she invited me to Meeting in Eveari. This time I had the sense to say yes. And despite everything that is known about me, those Brethren welcomed me and told me they were happy to see me come to Meeting with the Empress and the Consort. How gracious of them. They even called me Friend Ananto-McLinn. I almost broke down crying."

Lady Melanie Ananto-McLinn said she still occasionally has her fill of the Empress, despite their much improved relations. "Well, she is still both extremely intelligent and extremely arrogant," explains Lady Melanie. "I will give it to her: She knows her own faults, and always apologizes after the fact, but she takes pleasure at making it known that she knows something about just about everything. And knowing how everyone loves a pedant, sometimes when she gets rolling, you just sort of have to step out of the way, and let her go, because if you try to stop her, it just makes it worse. But. She always makes you feel very uneducated with a smile. I used to hate that smile. Now I find myself looking forward to seeing it as often as I can."

@Orthodoxo