There was serial music that did not fit opera or symphony Ha wanted to revive for Rammstein's record producer. Members of Rammstein or one of their associates and Shoegazer instead chose Spring and the French capital early on. Jason was free to take any of Ha's ideas and collaborate with RammyTeens or work on his own. Rammstein over the years tended to lean into Jason's simplified renditions because those were written down by him and submitted for Rammstein in two installments within four to six weeks in April-May 1993. Rammstein had no direct access to Ha, who was sent back to Thomas to compose music with him and not for anybody else. Jason was left out of military matters beyond company between Ha and Thomas, such as political society of multistate regimes. But with his father, national policymaking would get easier for him to do.
    Perhaps, maybe, possibly, Rgo Trio would stop Ha from finishing Seasons and work together to stretch out, oh, the Spring one for a state concert gala and just retitle it “Season” was the joke. Summer in February 1994, Jason gets to go shirtless while Ha barbarically wears mink and Thomas has rabbit-lined goatskin gloves. Never happened. Instead, Ha gave instructions about wearing animal skins for the Rammstein video “Deutschland”.
    Inspiration for the Seasons suite included the life of Sir Thomas More, who was portrayed in the film A Man for All Seasons (1966). Extremely, extravagantly far removed from referencing Thomas Ewing. His Rgo catalogue initial is R, and he was called “Richy Rich” as a nickname by Jason and then Ha. Rich was a bookish man who needed More's favor to attain a position at Court, but More refused him. When Cromwell led a plot to separate King Henry VIII from the Pope for a marriage annulment, More refused Cromwell. The many beheaded wives of Henry VIII, plus a future Catholic saint who gave no legitimacy to the splintered royals leading their new heretical Church of England. Jason had ignominiously “disemboweled his father and beheaded his uncle in the catacombs of Deustchland”, though he was certain he was distinctively Celtic and not particularly Germanic.
    Ha felt morally obligated to absolve Jason for his foray into impious wishful art, even though she had said her worst to Thomas already, her rosenrot (label by Shoegazer and Jason). Revolutionaries with dying roses. She told Jason about Thomas More, who was not a priest. Jason was not convinced about saintliness, but he was moved by a statesman's devotion to the people in his country and overseas in the Catholic Church above a king's litany of failed marriages. A father can be beheaded though he was Lord Chancellor of England. To Jason, extending from Ha's seminar on magic, might, and mystery, there was no mystery with Thomas is what Ha ought to not squander.
    Thomas More was like a cause for Rammstein in a larger cultural flow. The Catholic Church maintained its multistate regime with many small subnational polities, such as Maryland and Louisiana in the USA. She told Jason about being disturbed by foreigners, Europeans, at Arlington National Cemetary. The Europeans had a mild debate, quite cordial, though long-lasting resentment was evident, which was the debate. Part of the identity of the buried person was unknown, their family did not know if they were part French somehow or raised Protestant in Germany but speaking Scottish for awhile, many different mixes of family origin, upbringing, and cultural experiences.
    Rammstein's Früling in Paris is close enough to RammyTeens'. The setup is the German Punk (Till) goes to Paris for political connections. He meats with a well-to-do lady who knows his task but not his mission. Meanwhile, upset by the German patron's wilted rose, Richard fans out in Paris to take care of money matters. Socialist-communist Ha magically transports herself to Paris to reform the hussies, who are local groupies of comminterns, struggling artists, and new business leaders. She told Shoegazer she was in the wrong timezone but she would do the same thing for a Parisian in D.C. She blocks Richard and gives him spending money while he waits on Till but says nothing about helping the Spring weather. That scenario became a poem instead of a song, which spawned “Toxic” the same day as “Rosenrot Dunklenacht”. A disturbance happened when she first did guitaring, had her first guitar lesson that day. It was the week of her birthday anniversary. Before her family moved from Arlington to Alexandria. She was shown a Gibson classical guitar strung with steel strings and only told about a Martin guitar. She had two teachers to choose from and two guitars to choose from, both Vietnamese with Western guitars. One was a professional teaching musician. The other was her half cousin from her grandfather's first wife who was mixed Cambodian. The cousin was a year younger than her mother, had gone to divinity school for nine years but was one year short of becoming a Catholic priest. Her mother had made the only formal speech she would ever give, which was at Arlington National Cemetary, the cemetary for soldiers that was converted from the losing general's in-law estate during the American Civil War. Ha was the only one among her siblings who was invited. She was escorted by Marines and met with her service “uncles”. They prepared a plan for her.

    Two men prayed over a burial. They asked for guidance from the dead. They debated their future in the military. They were told by the dead's family to civilly adopt Ha. And if that was not possible, to culturally cross-adopt her. And if that was not possible, to pay for educating her in the Republic to maturity. And if nothing came of that, they could lose their citizenship and their children would not have citizenship. They imposed that on themselves. They were not allowed to keep her unpeacefully in the USA was the treaty proper, for then they would stifle their liberator. As far as they knew, Ha did not believe in dual citizenship, perhaps one at a time from marriage, and one change-out a lifetime was more than enough, for wayward peoples scattered around the globe. There is no loin pretty enough that had suddenly stopped a war. Yet, it was better there was no way for them to lose citizenship, which meant upholding the treaty on Ha's side was nearly the same as co-governing, with or without China. He did not need his citizenship reattested by an Asian blood-wise. The industries of Europe were finding out how difficult it was to attain to living in a proper nation with a proper people. A machinery was persistently lying on the radar across the Atlantic Ocean.
    The USA and a few other countries had a flimsy treaty involving Vietnam is how they felt their predicament. Dan Hague, Netherlands was becoming a familiar court of moot trial and error inferior to a real court at Hue, Vietnam. France and Britain dragging out old scores for two hundred years. The opening of Europe was going to test them, his entourage wanted to take their children with them and go home to central Europe. The British-speaking one with a Commonwealth accent, his child was younger by blood to Ha, his wife was a royal in her own right. He was deeply in love with his wife when Ha met him, had been married a year or so. He was a father already.
    NATO was washed up in D.C. after warring in Korea. They could not step out of the area and suddenly go on private holiday and squander U.S. state money. Well, everybody in the area was from everywhere and felt like a collection of the Ottoman Empire. All that to speak English and take turns teaching the Anglos how to cook? Italians were on rotation. Scandinavians were next, then the Eastern Bloc countries until the Wall comes down, which they told Ha they were working on tearing it down. Farming, tools, natural sunlight, everything they needed. They let their people spray paint, and he sounded adorable saying so. She guessed he was important enough to his people to seek out expertise in the USA.
    Do you know where our government is? he asked her. Ha would be seven years old in a couple of weeks and had been mute for six months living with the Pentagoners' family. She considered carefully before speaking. The Catholics no longer come from a single country greater than other countries in Europe, she said. He was sure about Ha then and there. The Catholics might know and join your government to lead a country. They would have to be nearby already, near to your government, because too many people have moved around already. You would not ask me if you needed only the government in Washington, D.C. Which nation does your children belong to? One said for both of them. His government can take care of him and any French children in France. I have a bank but not a government in Scotland. My people have a commonwealth but it is not Virginia, it is the British Commonwealth. Those nations have governments: Canada, New Zealand, Australia, those countries you were told about already. They were there at a row of tombstones of dozens of the buried dead after the formal ceremony next to the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
    Scotland is not my home country, it is a kingdom and has a bank I belong to. We stopped paying the British Commonwealth out of Scotland, you understand why? Ha thought of China and mentioned them. Right you are, Ha, the bank's territory is now unionist, not nationalist in total, it can only take care of the UK and the navy. Canada has a good bank of its own. I ask you because a bank and a navy together is still not even the State department in D.C. Right you are, one state department relies on the other so people belong to the country where they are from — and live there. Because so many people have been uprooted, I cannot move my bank to my government, and the Americans still owe France. Are you supposed to live in the bigger part of Germany? Nein! That means N-O no. I can govern it, but I do not want to live there. But it is my nation now. Are you from Scotland? Only a little, I am from south of greater Germany. Not so great, not Great Britain, not long enough to be that great, I'm older.
    It used to belong to Austria, it is still Austria, so I'm Austrian. She believed he was a prince or such in trouble. So she asked what was the proper title for his rank status. Like a steward, a caretaker, he said, he told her in his language, something that sounded like stadtholder but perhaps even more courtly formal. Well, he seemed serious and not lying. Do you speak Dutch or French? You do not speak the German I know, he speaks normal French, nothing fancy. Right you are, he speaks French, he must not avoid me, so I speak German to him. I know he does not understand everything I say, does not matter. I do not speak Dutch to him, he is not family, but you say I do not speak German? Of course I do, does it sound Dutch? Yes, Ha said. German is your father's everyday language at work? Yes, he has to speak a form of German. You do not speak Scottish? Not anymore, I might never have spoken Scottish anyway. I do not sound like I am from England, do I, because I am not from England. You have not been home in some time? Four years with this army, it is like every other army.

    Your government is still in Vienna but you are not there? They are, but I do not have to serve in Vienna, so technically that is not my government. Serve as civil government or serve with military? My father serves in Vienna. He spoke openly next to a junior man from France, and he refused to speak French in front of Ha. Your government was in West Berlin but they have moved, Ha said. I would not know where they are, the leaders. Cadre is still there, every winter, waiting for their leaders. Do you have your crown to present your staff and them to yourself? I do, I would not use it in Berlin, you know. It is silver, mostly silver, there is some gold. The staff in Vienna is more important.
    The Wall must come down, but even then it is not appropriate for ceremony to see the Berlin staff and be so showy. I do want to be there when it happens. Is that a good idea? What does your friend say? He introduced Ha to the Frenchman, first and last name, nothing fancy. The Frenchman was expecting to not have obligations to the other man when the term would expire. The Austrian said, I could keep him for a long time, until his sons, if he has. They would later be old enough and I can have his sons continue and serve with me. It could happen in three years, the Berlin Wall coming down (seven years to 1989), that is not too soon.
    I could have them bring it back (his princely crown) to Vienna and let my father decide where I should keep it, but I do not want to stay there either. It is a big city and I would not have anything to do. I would rather my own staff decide my crown with me. Would you consider freeing your staff from privation to be German cadre for your father or politburo of Germany? Oh c'mon, not in front of the French subordinate. She forgot the señor's name until he mentioned his father by name on paper the next time they met. He formally requested to make an appointment with Ha outside of the Cemetary. That they could do. He left her with his staffer.
    Who proceeded to chastise her. You do not even speak French, he said in a really thick French accent. You will never speak French. You cannot say [the stadtholder?] he does not speak German. Yes, he does. Is there a high German and a plain German? she asked. Have you heard his father? Someone must speak high German, he did not use any with me. How do you know? You never heard Austrians speak anything to you until today. True. I expect they enjoy the poetic side of their language outside of their national state house. Perhaps these days they could bring high German back to the state assembly to their peers and then to their people, that is an ordinary reason he speaks plain German instead. Efficient enough in the military, but he does not speak military, does he? The Frenchman had fun. No, that is my job. She said that the British-sounding guy, his mother has a shrinking land army, they have to be integrated now. Will you be doing that for him? I am on probation to serve him directly, only as a bodyguard. He told me, but he does not trust me. Maybe somebody else is doing that job. He is a really good boss, but he argues with me too much. And I like arguing back to him. He does not approve of my children. I have children, he keeps them. I do not have children, he keeps me. So don't tell me more. Five men will attack us, I cannot defend against that many all at one time.

    Four men arrived for her first guitar lesson. The teacher and her cousin. After thirty minutes her uncle, a Scandinavian who was married to her youngest aunt, introduced Ha to the same gentleman she met at the Cemetary. They spoke above a whisper in private. He quizzed her. What is the capital of Austria? Vienna. Where is Austria by compass direction from Germany? West is your... that is not true? Belgium we have, headquarters of NATO, but I am from where? South, she said. You were born where, he asked. In Vietnam, she said. You must remember where on the map. Two hundred and more kilometers southwest of Saigon on the Gulf of Siam, the Gulf of Thailand. He told her how many kilometers south and by which offset east or west or straightly from Berlin to his provincial home. That is where I am going to govern. Like a duke? she said. Give back to your father his crown and the territories east and north, all of Germany up to the seas. He does not need his crown, the gentleman said. I have no true brother to give it to. No cousins in Russia? I am from the countryside, rural, absolutely not. She wanted to speak about his father, he wanted to speak about his government still in Germany somewhere it was too vague for Ha. But you do have a brother, I cannot judge those wives, she said. He had the broken part of Germany to take care of, he wanted to stop drifting too far away. He told Ha he was ordering his wife and son back to Europe immediately. As soon as he was done planning, he would start his plan.
    Your attendant the Frenchman told me about the court in the Netherlands. You are not happy? I would never use that court. The Hague is like a schoolhouse, not my job. I am a military man for now. The court is near the headquarters (NATO's SHAPE in Belgium) is what your council wanted? Yes, it was a compromise, but everything French and French-British falls outside of that court. Perhaps Italy also. He drilled her through Dan Hague in five minutes. Prisoners, genocide, everything but political asylum, it was lousy. They are learning, they have to have stamps from the United Nations, so they are learning like desk clerks. Did you receive your birth record papers from your uncle Seagerssen? Yes, she said. Is everything in order? She did not want to quibble, saying, The school in Alexandria has received my papers, it will be adequate for them. The USA is not given a vouchsafing, they are to copy the information as needed, she said. They may not challenge me anymore, he said. Your uncle and aunt need to retire. She knew they worked for both the Vietnamese and U.S. state departments since before she was born. I told your bodyguard to do something about your mother's army, Ha said. Your uncle wants to retire from that also, he replied. Señor L'Roh (from West Point, second husband of a Vietnamese lady she and their three families lived with in Arlington) has a new child, have you seen her? Her name is Theodora. Ha has no idea whether Señor L'Roh's name was spelt French or Danish or Norweigen or anything from over there.
    There were American GIs who married Vietnamese people, such as her future husband when he was in the army. He changed his American English name back to a German family name and committed to his father's side, not his super-blonde Nordic-Scandinavian mother and sister who splintered out to Nubia with a mixed Afro nephew from his sister. He does not use his first name, which Ha gave to him, which he styles simply R. And then there were NATO country people with borrowed state militaries who remarried Vietnamese people. She was concerned for the gentleman's situation in West Berlin back in the 1980s.
    He was finalizing his plans to sledgehammer down the Wall, so he could tell his children he was part of unifying his family. Does cadre miss you, she asked? They will pardon me, it is tough love. I decided with my family to give West Berlin some time. Are you missing academies, factories, national guard, honour guard, outdoor workers, teachers, professionals, farmers, artisans, artists, attorneys, medical doctors, anybody? she asked him. Americans must farm, factories we can take care of those. Navy I do not have, which was why I had to spend some time with the British. It is not punishment until recently. I do not want to tell you today what I know from the Roman navy and Genghis Khan. There is a way to get everything done, for America to stop owing France. I am a communist national. I cannot be a unionist, you understand? It is getting popular. Have you been to Annapolis, the Naval Academy? Yes, he said, I understand.
    You do not have, you do not want, she said, but you understand. You have to register in Vienna (personally get out of the western hemisphere side of NATO). Even if you delegate command of the army to govern in the lowland, you will need a lieutenant in Berlin for the navy. Is Finland neutral? Scotland can do something. We want unification in Germany as peaceful as possible. I have asked teachers to help. Is your family still conjoined with... I do not know the French name on the one side, it could be Hungary on the other side. I do not know who the people are south of Austria (Yugoslavia). To your earlier point, Lorraine, yes we are, one of my in-laws are Swiss. How many people will you govern? Without a navy, under one million is good. Will you rule when your father becomes deceased? That depends on how sucessful I am at planning.





    What Prince Henri (son of the Grand Duke of Luxembourg) wanted to accomplish was a tall order. Knock down the Wall, sell the bank in Scotland back to Scotland or Canada, fix his brother's French troubles and absorb some of that army into NATO, take back his Bavarian and sundry troops and renationalize them, move a small amount of German factory money out to law school and support his dissident cousins in the Netherlands and Benelux countries, be involved with the partisans who were popularizing a pan-European union beyond the European Commission (towards the EU), which was what he wanted to do next. He told her it was a secret he was a revolutionary and the people in East Berlin can thank him later. He had to drop one or two cadet houses who were doing a shoddy job, delegate the best commanders to resize French military brigades and NATO, and step away from the Anglo-American navies.
    On that matter, if he were to attend international parliament in central Europe, shaming the imperialists who still had subjugated colonies was what he wanted to do. If they push him back to his ducal estate in Luxembourg, he would be fine. He had a clear conscience about his own portfolio, though he was snagged by the Catholic Church. Ha told him so, that getting Confession from the nearest archbishop is self-loathing in front of the administrators of Europe who no longer respect monarchical republican rulership. There is no way to get rid of us humans, he said confidently. They will war and war against us. They want to use machines to test us and invent new superslaves, themselves. If you cannot free them, I do not know how either, he said. Are they part of the species? She was surprised that was the limit of his temper. You use the international court to save them, to gather them back to the human people? she asked. Only if they were that good. Some libraries are better than courts, education helps. Ha set aside his quandry over a navy for the moment.
    How is the environment in your home country? Do people celebrate nature and plant trees? Factories do not need commercial advertising, do they? I want our traditions to continue to matter, yes, he said. He might have thought more and more of letting go of Austria in favor of Germany and partying with France to gain access to some form of navy and to stay in touch with the American frontier. He spoke kindly of his younger brother. He spoke about the water in his country, the air quality, that he was going to choke himself in administrative facilities while delegating a Green Hand position to a leader in his country. It could be his brother (Jean), who was a fraternal twin with his sister. Lucky us, you have fraternal twin siblings also. There was nothing to disagree that her eldest siblings were geniuses at paper math but lacked communication skills because they had French Catholic teachers in Vietnam. French was only a humorous exposé of state administration to her, easy to understand in translation but difficult to acquire any meaningful fluency without taking a national exam. Oh, stop it, later you can skip writing those exams for other people's cadre. Write letters to your friends and to your family in Vietnam. I do have a proposal for my father. I will speak to my brother.
    You will sacrafice the Americans for your republic? Nein, nein, not true. They have to work, everybody has to know how to work. You will leave Austria and let them be a synthetic nation not even a defrocked Catholic congregation can save them from losing sovereignty? I have options, I cannot give them any more European country that I do not have. We simply do not lose Austria. France and Britain can completely stop. Austria is no longer the bait they wanted us to be. That was offensive. Do you know what that means? You pardoned cadre in West Berlin, yes? I promise I shall. So they are poor, so nobody but this duke wants them to get better, but I am not their duke. Then the other people are neutral and not family, are they, where you went to military school, how you know the French language, why you are always safe in the Netherlands. Yes they are family, but one hundred years is only as old as one grandparent's lifetime. We are older than individual trees, Ha. Two big wars, East Germans need to stop stepping into my family, I do not grant them permission that way. Because they wanted to war again? Watching in-laws fight is like filing for bankruptcy by lying that fighting saves money at court! Juridical courting is lying by undiplomatic means. You do not need to know the German language to know. The bed is in the dining room, the benches for sitting is next to the bathroom, the bathroom is a corporation of sick workers, the closet is somebody else's fashion, the garden is the latrine but all the plants die, the soldiers do not know how to march. Ha said, Chaos is offensive.
    Has my uncle Seagerssen been one of your attendants? He has. Is his anatomical immunity strong? Not good enough. There is no problem with food and clothing and sleep hours? Camping was the only way, I enjoyed that. He took me camping here in USA, that was refreshing. And the children of staff are better not in school all the time. Urban housing, hoteling, condominium units in the city, they are not good for your attendants? My wife does not tolerate it anymore. She wants to work by staying with me at state. The condominium staff has to live there, not republican, and our children are suffering, my small staff here. The children need to go to the countryside soon. Republic is neat service, she is not gifted. Oh well, I have the children. Your wife would be happy helping the people in East Berlin? Do you propose to her a job she wants? Administration, registrar clerkship, community officer, welfare chief of volunteers, superintendent of teachers or factory workers? She would like that, I will propose she must take a job she can be good at motivating workers in Germany or Austria. She does not have to do work that West Berlin can do. She has decided to wait for me and she will go to work. She has no initiative, she waits with the children, I have to be the parent again. I am missing a mother and a worker at the same time, the same as the divide in Berlin. Russia, Ha said. If anybody leaves any of your nations now, there is no need to come back, the former Soviets (who returned to local nationalism before the coup against Gorbachev) can absorb gifted people who need a nation. But they must never be dissidents either. You would not fight unionists leaving you for the Russians? Oh, they are few, not that many! They have no initiative, so they wait on Europe to open. They will be surprised, they are the first ones to swiftly close empty closets of Europe and stay in the state for their convenience. Their contributions are not serious. Their happiness is limited.
    We will still be there even if all the Protestant preachers wanted nationality and must serve without the stale storybook, the Bible. They say they have nationality in England because of Germany, not because of Austria. And Germany because of France, not because of the Protestants. They have navy, not nationality. So they are selling navy military service to get national work. I am sick of American navy doing it to France and avoiding the less expensive way. She said, Not Spain. Exactly, he said. If they hear me, I challenge them all the time: they sail the seas and oceans far more many nations than UK and France, much, much more, with only small army posts entirely dependent on the navy. What about the Phillipines, you know about that country? I do not know, she said. Was Ha supposed to study international relations all the way back to Asia Pacific? Your aunt and uncle want to retire to Hawaii.
    I want to step down and govern. Larger than a dukedom or smaller? About the same but it is like a province. Then you are demoting yourself? No, I do not have to. To govern, you have to move out of your mother's place? I have not thought of that. The nation is divesting its national corporations. Those, not all of them because it is not legal, they have to be managed by younger people but those people are the people I have to consider. I might have to govern them. Why do you speak German, your father sided with the nation in Vienna? Oh, please, you cannot say that. No matter how much my father and I disagree, he knows where he needs to be. You are married with children? Yes. One son, our first. He was born before winter last year in November, seven, almost eight months now. You will have more? One is lonely. Definitely, I want four or five like my father.
    You accepted being assigned to be in the USA with our military? You volunteered where you want to be? I am selecting something for you. Get a sheet of paper and a good pen. I am writing an arrâté for you, which your uncle will deliver after he goes to the bank for me. It is a decree. I know what air-ra-tay is, I do not know what decree is. Is it out of court? He corrected her, arrâté. Same, he said. Invisible ministers, Executive, Judicial, not same in the USA, Ha considered. The American courts suck. American consent decree, the U.S. attorney-general's holy grail, has always been twenty degrees short of standard — legal power, legal standing, plain ol' legal, normal, right, true, realistic. It was a cordial chat and nothing more. Like a quaint postcard instead of an education. An “enforceable” decision is not an arrâté. A decision to do something is workable, feasible, or not. A decree is seldom used as an endorsement. The holy grail of lying, of mad, ignorant denial is psychiatry, a type of warfare.
    Ha forgot what exactly he wrote, but she remembers what he said. He said it was going to have five parts. He was ordering the city's schools to not challenge his attestation, for the city to set aside reasonable tax revenues to be redistributed to maintain Ha's academic welfare and the welfare of similar children (a challenge would cause uncollectible taxation, which would become a cost upon the school administration budgeted directly by the city's own income, which they should not challenge the moneys they receive), to accept a monetary donation from Benelux nations through his father the head of state Grand Duke of Luxembourg (Henri was a working royal at the time, apparently at a multinational level), that matters considered public by the public school in Alexandria would be a lowered priority for Ha. He signed his father's name. He said he wanted to practice and showed to her his cursive “Jean”. It did look European.
    She thought to ask about vaccination records but decided to ask Uncle Seagerssen instead. Who decided with Ha's aunt to stay with her family in Alexandria for six more months, to lend immunity and raise the children with homeopath Marine medical knowledge of common childhood growing pains. Time at the Atlantic Ocean beaches proved Ha and her siblings were still a gaggle of weakling children like they were still living on the beach refugee camp in Thailand three years earlier. In Alexandria, Seagerssen definitely cleared Ha's problems with communicable diseases in Arlington when he did not visit often enough. Mumps, measels, chickenpox, she had all of those short of deadly smallpox. She was the only one within miles to suffer but had absorbed and stopped the diseases, because she did not have a French laboratory cocktail in her body. So nobody could get those diseases from her.

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By 1993 Thomas smoothed out his situation over his four children with his family, the Church and the immediate community, and with Rgo.
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“Summer” (De. sommer) was composed for Thomas, he on his Dean resonator with the lipstick pickup mod, Ha composing for viola harmony. She did not want to sing that one, and Thomas had a lovely voice. She was embarrassed for basing one of the guitar active humbucker's vixxies (“voices”) on his voice, plus hers and Jason's. She wanted to redo the humbucker for a second active set, based on their instruments instead (became Seymour Duncan's MortalCoil). The viola on the synthesizer was popular, almost like a choir. Jason would have to be assigned to a wind instrument, because Ha discovered he can whistle quite well. She chose the trumpet for him, which would not be difficult to learn. Shoegazer approved Ha's Seasons and assigned the workplan to Ha, prioritizing at least one short one for Rammstein, not all four like a mini Wagner Ring cycle. Ha simply wanted original Rgo music, something to keep for themselves. Jason told Thomas what Ha was working on, Thomas was glad.
    What really hurt Thomas was Ha was short on hand skills in her left hand, but she could definitely move him, and she feared they were canceling out one another. Which was why he invited her to his house. She needed to mend her sorrifulness and lack of discipline, he lectured her for almost eight minutes. He did not believe for a moment that she could cancel him. And then he was sorry for her that she was not formidable, simply right and true. He wanted to show to her he knew how to guitar, he had a place to start with her music.
    She was in a creative funk letting go of simple fingerpicking and moving on to World classical guitaring. Something intricate for both hands for Thomas, which came out easier but had that Rammstein chug problem. Could not repeat the first eight measures, it would sound exactly Industrial Fancy Noveau Germania Rammstein Totally Hardcore. Thomas played with it, he did not mind. He made it much more elegant. As long as it sounded like Thomas's guitaring and not Shoegazer's pianoing, and he achieved that. And then the lyrics. Ha quit on him immediately and went home. It was a lovely evening for a walk, she got to sit outside on his porch and watch the afternoon fade into evening. Full circle, no need to call for a taxi. Being polite to Ha's mother was unnecessary; the state military should have ignored the widow and moved Ha out.
    She later told Jason that Thomas's idea of lyrics was like Walt Disney drawn with a crayon. There were gaps in his stream of consciousness on paper, he was much stronger with instrumental music and did not need words anymore, not for the music he was happy about. But he's a good singer who does not want to brag? She guessed from his singing he was as good of a genuine singer as he could really lead an army force. He simply stopped singing to jam with Ha and liked the rhythm and liked not interrupting her so he could be a peacock, where his thick stream of consciousness was. Context limitations was part of the discipline that went nowhere between them. They would be out on a battlefield committing suicide was their problem. Thomas disagreed. He would let her flounder on a battlefield like he never knew her. It was precariously impossible to de-armatize them when they worked on their own music together. She stopped singing to let him hear himself guitaring. He was holding back and enjoying himself with the acoustic mode of the guitar.
    Oh, it's impossible. I cannot teach him anything he does not want to do, I can speak and then we have music together. We order one another around. He does not linger to teach me anything, he likes to speak out my problems to me. If he wants you to feel he's formidable, you will know it. The guitar has to be plugged in, chewed up, slammed onto the sidewalk, stomped on, and b**ching at the amps. With one lipstick pickup! The guitar is made of steel. He could flatter that guitar like his wife would be jealous it might be French, the “Dean-Ha” guitar. Wrecking it would not be violent at all, that's how he muses with no troops there. If Rammstein could spend two days with Thomas, they would make a lot of money afterwards. Or a lot of babies. Why do they have me? Birth control? Not enough testosterone, my invisible balls hang weak and low? Those young Germans can buy fresh gonads smeared with lipstick for a sixpence on the deutschmark. It was not Ha's job to pressure Thomas to do more. It was not his job to do less, she and Thomas agreed. Thomas had more to give. He had more to be.
    Basically, he needed his own army. He outgrew a division. He outgrew commandant posts of other two-stars his age. He was not ready for Sam Grant's old rank, the three stars. He should have been given command of the U.S. Army posted in Korea. The U.S. Marine Corps were already in good hands under a four-star. She wanted to offer command of D.C. Regiment to Jack Guyker, and she would not do it with a flimsy consent decree on a thin sheet of copy paper. Or she would assign Thomas to Korea and NATO without shipping him out, to break the impasse there and get diplomatic solvency underway.
    Starting with: Koreans must return to Korea without Protestant sponsorship. The Greens in Korea at the Demilitarized Zone, a misnomer, were winning, so that was easier for Thomas. Protestants and Catholics can do secular civil work without a taint of their religions' frictions. She told Jason to work on that and to work with her about bringing a non-NATO national corps to Thomas. Either that or task Thomas to bring the area's Air Force to muster at assembly, whichever corps or division was causing a manuevers preparedness gap in the echelon, Thomas's regular rally job. Worse comes to worse, Thomas would have to hand over a corps to some other commander, most likely a three-star. The transfer of command pageantry would officially start D.C. Regiment for Jack Guyker's federal cadre to protect Thomas Ewing. Ha hinted to Thomas those could be his upcoming state duties in the summer. He was glad and prepared for anything. He was ready to get back into his dress green uniform. It was better not to quarantine Thomas like some evil, giant Venus flytrap carnivore potted plant. Or a prickly succulent. Thomas laughed at the comparison. She did not know how to allocate budget money directly to the Republic because she was not married and was too young. He could at least try to guide her through another Treasury task. Or Congress would tax Team Rgo by reducing command, which made fungibles more valuable but onerous to troops. More time with attorneys? Oh well, Thomas had just barely enough federal credentials to muster federal safety officers as the rookie, a humble little shark cruising for blood with talented bodyguards. Sitting outside on his porch at his house by candlelight brought out by his wife that spring evening, they never worked together as a musical duo afterwards.
    The next week, Thomas's plan for Ha was seriously hopeless. She had to be ready to sit down at a national concert with him, under a roof, and it would not hurt he could dress just as well without a tuxedo. She should stop abandoning his company class but get to know them nationally. Well, it was all strange that the Brits were there before the Americans, U.S. was a subsidiary of USA, she went to the Kennedy Center with Señor Patrick Welsh before Christmas, was in D.C. recently. She would never get to know them naturally without co-managing in the environment, she ran out of time.
    The plan bumped her back to patrons twenty-plus years older and would begin to professionalize her. The socialistic “big brother, big sister” who were five to ten years older were doing a good job, and they kept their drama neutral about their underlings. They still flashed the money and education, the affiliation, the fancy car, the Yuppiness (young urban professionals). They became slower and slower than the internationalized section of the state, slower in wit, cruder in wisdom by hopping into their cars, more and more expensive as tax attorneys who still remembered to coupon to the side for Ha's cohort. What a great administration, such lively bureaucrats, who spewed tyrannical instant disapproval encumbering family and company at the same time, constantly building out an imagined community. Nothing saved money for skipping hassles, harassments, or unnecessary disagreement, ‘because we can get it cheaper’ at XYZ Co. in Country Zebulon. Nobody lived anywhere else but on half a cog of city tuned by a Carmen Sandiego wall of other big world cities. Ha told Thomas about her chagrin over them. She did not say it but she quietly disavowed the urban Yuppies. The car, the voiture, was a modern service situation in a modern infrastructure, neither a wealth feature nor a work credential as commuters to Thomas, and they had no car within Team Rgo. Yes, Rgo never had a car.
    Thomas did not lecture her about the Yuppies. He clued to her that she was simply stubborn. He told her that he at state had gajillion cars and a few good drivers. It was embarrassing how to pull the Pentagoners out of the Big Office and see if they really could jog where they live rather than only inside an Edison telephone machine. He was simplified over their complication, nothing about Ha. Ha was distressed, yes it was a problem for her. He was sincere and she was candid. Do you want me, to be about them? he asked, because his answer was one-sided, bifurcated. You have a civilized answer coming from the military, Ha said. And I use my answer, he said. You can ride around in limousines, Jeeps, and Humvees. The Punks and I have telephone poles to climb. You and your buddies cannot ride more than you can chat through balancing the budget. As we take down the monstrosity, you will be riding less and less. Calculations say you could be suicidal because your peers oppose you. Stay with us, we will outlive them. Or be by yourself at a tangent to your West Point peers, you can lead a short line out to sanity but will die sooner. He countered, I doubt you would listen to any man who tells you to climb a telephone pole, you are not strong enough to follow. Thomas, you were not born in Vietnam where there are no telephones snaking to people like you and me. I rather surround Saigon with Vietnam than pretend New York City was there in my tanks. You should not bring a city into our military, the eternal empire into the homestead of Romana. Ha was preaching to a different choir was all.