
Amongst the numerous guests of the Winter Palace and the Vasilevs'es other numerous residences and retreats, one particular guest became a common sight. This guest attracted a great deal of attention from the Taraskovyan yellow press that could not cease speculating on the account of that person's presence by the side of the Vasilevs on such numerous occasions. And due to her status as a foreigner, she also attracted a great deal of paranoid citations from nationalist Ros movements, even if the National Christian Patriotic Alliance, the country's leading far right political party and a prominent player in Imperial politics, surprisingly did not criticise the Vasilevs for that particular choice of guest.
And that particular choice was none else than Princess Helen of Pantocratoria. A prominent Pantocratorian bachelorette and niece to Emperor Andreus, her frequent stays at the court of the Taraskovyan Vasilevs have sparked a great deal of speculation first in her homeland, where the press buzzed about the future possibility of a union between the houses of Shakhovskoy-Karetsah and Bourbon-Comnenus-Palaeologus. And later on in the Taraskovyan press as it became more and more apparent that the Vasilevs'es interest with this particular woman had by far outdone his previously known interest spans for other women. Mikhail and Helen were often seen in public to attend various private and non-official events, even if for all ceremonial and official business the Vasilevs attended alone.
But as time passed and no august union was in sight, the Pantocratorian side of the world of press began to question the exact reasons for the Princess'es stays in Taraskovya. On the other hand, over the oceans and far away, Taraskovyan press suddenly realised that the first ever Vasilessa of Taraskovya just could be of foreign origins. And as Taraskovyan media began to buzz about the implications of the union of an Orthodox monarch to a Catholic princess, their brethren back in Pantocratoria also picked up on the previous speculations of a union and debated the implications of such a union. Of course, on each side of the world, everyone speculated from their own point of view. Taraskovyans wondered whether the Princess would have to convert while the Pantocratorians wondered what faith the children would grow in.
So one can correctly guess the outburst of activity in the media of both countries when the Emperor's Household announced an impending visit by His Most August Majesty the Vasilevs to the Pantocratorian Empire. The press release published by the Emperor's Household was not generous in detail. It was mentioned that the visit was planned by the efforts of the two sides and that a meeting between the Taraskovyan Vasilevs and the Pantocratorian Emperor was part of the agenda.
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[OOC: Pantocratoria can add in any planned public events if he so wishes. Otherwise, the visit shall be purely private.]


