Welp, here we are again. More you, more me, more Exalted.
Before I take us into it, earlier this week I dusted off and posted a short story that got published some years ago called "Bite the Apple." It's in my Conversion setting (though it stands alone well enough) and originally appeared in ROAR Volume 8. You can read it for free here on my FurAffinity page, and if you go to my published fiction index linked over on the side of this page you can get a print or ebook copy of the anthology.
On a related note, here's a reminder that a couple of weeks back I posted the final chapter of "Conversion," the novel that started the eponymous setting. The whole thing is available for free, also on my FurAffinity page, and you can find it here.
And now, with that out of the way, time for another thrilling adventure of the Tales of the Moonlight Maiden!
Previously on Tales of the Moonlight Maiden...
(Imagine a montage like when a TV show does this bit)
There's a series of quick shots of Xương noticing a beggar-priest of the puppet god Karana and his Marionette Cult, the undercover cop, and the noodle-stand drug dealer surveilling the ship, and then the other undercover cop surveilling the beggar-priest.
Then we cut to him seeing Suzhao Ginger being led down the Gilded Sunset Blossom's gangplank and dragged away by hired Realm soldiers, one of whom plants a paper envelope into her pocket. Olasinbo, the merchant who owns the barge, says in voiceover: "The guards found drugs on her after they hauled her off," followed by Pakpao, the puppeteer who performs with Nha Beh Benin, adding: "The Dynasts are definitely up to something."
...
Fekedu, from the Transcendent Peacock theater, explaining to the group in their room at the inn that she's being followed, and that someone's been watching the theater.
...
Xương holding a man against the wall by his face and demanding to know who sent him. The man yells "V'neef Midnight Blossom! He works for the satrap!"
...
Gou intervening in a scuffle between Realm troops and a bunch of beggars, putting his hand on Weirdflame and warning the soldiers away. A voiceover from a beggar-priest says "They said they know what they're doing, what we're watching."
Cut to a shot of the nearby government building.
...
Slightly out of order from the last clip, but a brief shot of Jotaro and Hǎifēng being attacked and dumping their would-be murderers off the pier and into the water.
Cut to Jotaro at dinner explaining that the Snakefire Syndicate thinks he got the Dynasts to plant the drugs on Ginger. But, worryingly, they didn't know why they thought that.
...
Xương, standing on the deck of the ship as Jotaro's bodyguard hands him a note. She doesn't say it in the clip, but we hear the bodyguard reading it in the voiceover: "I know what you are and what you've done. Meet me at the Transcendent Peacock by midnight or it will be rubble by dawn, with Nha Beh Banin inside."
A voiceover of Xương excitedly saying "Time to go fuck somebody up!"
...
And now we're at the present, with Hǎifēng and Gou up on the deck, reading the note. Xương says he'd be willing to let Jotaro fight his own battles but they're threatening the singer.
The bodyguard, a woman in her 40's with brown, weathered skin and gunmetal gray hair, says that Jotaro didn't ask her to come get the trio and she knows that intellectually he'll be fine, but she wants to be on the safe side. Everyone goes through a quick round of 'Why would anyone be so stupid as to threaten Jotaro if they've figured out he's a Solar Exalt,' but nobody comes to any good conclusions as they gear up and head out.
On the rickshaw ride over, the bodyguard explains that Jotaro went on ahead without her, because he figured he can handle this himself. Hǎifēng says he has a habit of that. The bodyguard takes a moment to formally introduce herself as Hopeless Spring.
They arrive at the theater, but the streets seem a little too quiet. Hǎifēng looks around and spots a bunch of cloaked figures hiding in the shadows, clearly keeping an eye on things, and comments they're being watched. They point at their own eyes and then at the nearest one, but there's no reaction, perhaps not wanting to give Hǎifēng the satisfaction of slinking away in front of them.
Hopeless Spring offers to to something bout the watchers, and Xương says if she can, if she has a plan. She shrugs and says she was just planning on beating on them when the others head inside. Xương likes this plan.
They head for the theater and Hǎifēng asks one of the others to open the doors for them. And there's kind of a "Wait, what?" pause before Hǎifēng does it themselves and dramatically steps into the lobby.
The lobby is empty but the group can hear a conversation going on in the main theater itself, and everyone peeks in and glances around. A handsome, well-dressed, armored man with a jade goremaul stands on the stage. Jotaro stands in front of the stage, not bearing any sort of combat stance or anything -- just a sense of palpable nonchalance and a bemused smirk.
(Quick note, this next bit is kinda dialogue-heavy. I didn't think to script it out ahead of time, kinda because I figured my players would intervene before this. But that's on me, I should have made it clear this wasn't intended to be a cutscene. But that means the dialogue is gonna be a paraphrase of what was actually said.)
"I see that the satrap sent his best legbreaker. Or does Boru know you're even here?" Jotaro asks.
"There are those within my house with grave concerns about your influence over the satrap. You've been playing games with Zhaojūn and this mess with this singer is just the latest one, manipulating the Realm and the royals and the Syndicate against each other. Last night I saw you talking to one of your puppets and I know what you are... Chosen of Karana."
That actually makes Jotaro pause, and the 'bemused rich playboy' mask slips for a moment as he honestly, sincerely laughs before reclaiming control over himself. "Oh, you foolish child, you have no idea... but then, I shouldn't be surprised... V'neef Midnight Blossom, lost egg who grew up on a pig farm, graduated Pasiap's Stair... not even House Nellens would take you."
"This can go a couple of ways," Midnight Blossom says, his expression darkening. "You put your talents to work for us, or you leave."
Jotaro, having fully regained control, gives him the bemused smirk again.
"No, I don't think I'll do either. And it's going to take more than all this..." He sweeps his arm around the theater. "...to stop me."
Hǎifēng's too focused on their mate and the Dragon-Blood to pick up on it, but the sweep of Jotaro's arm points out to Xương and Gou that there are archers in the rafters with bows drawn, waiting for a signal.
"You are terribly mistaken about all this, but you can go away peacefully and nobody has to die tonight," he adds. And while he's saying all this, the Lunars pick up a hidden message within his vocal inflections and word choices and such, just like at dinner earlier: 'I think I've got this, but I'm glad you're here.'
At this point Hǎifēng makes a move, shifting into their spider form and skittering under the stage. There's no sign of Beh Banin up top, but there's probably a storage area or something beneath the stage and if she's anywhere she's probably under there. Up above, Jotaro does the verbal banter equivalent of leading Midnight Blossom around in circles as they get under the stage and find a space with some props, spare tools, a hatch leading into a basement, but no Beh Banin. They do, however, spot a single thread running up from the seam of the hatch (like it's coming from beneath) and attaching to the stage. It appears to be a thread of pure Essence, similar to (though recognizably different from) the hellsilk from the demon spider in Lathe.
Hǎifēng tries to get through the hatch into the basement without drawing attention from who or whatever might be down there, but they botch the roll -- and instinctively climb down the thread into what appears to be a workshop. Now, Hǎifēng was expecting to find Beh Banin or perhaps a room full of explosives, but instead they find a Tengese woman holding onto the other end of the thread, looking right at them. It's the puppeteer who performs with Beh Banin, whom Hǎifēng and Gou spotted in passing on the barge.[0]
They freeze and try to act all 'spider-y,' but she just says that she had a feeling that if anyone was going to find her, it was going to be one of the Lunars. Hǎifēng drops to the floor and reverts to human form.
"Where's Beh Banin, hussy?"
"She's home, safe, and in no danger."
"Are you part of this nonsense?"
And the puppeteer, in preparing to answer, gives Hǎifēng an unsettling grin, the sort that if this were a horror movie would continue past the normal limits of the human mouth to split her head in half or something. (It doesn't do that, to be clear, but it's still a creepy grin.) And before she can actually say anything, Hǎifēng reflexively punches her right in the face with what might be a crunch.
At about this same moment, up above, Xương's just gotten tired of watching Jotaro verbally spar with Midnight Blossom and rushes the stage from the doorway. Midnight Blossom reflexively brings his goremaul to bear to try and block the strike, and Xương puts his hand up so the Dragon-Blood moves his arm just right to leave himself open to a chop to the throat.
Jotaro seizes the opening, reaching up to yank out the chopsticks he's used to tie his hair up, and uses them to deliver a debilitating pressure point strike to Midnight Blossom.[1]
Meanwhile, back by the door, Gou leaps up into the air, using a single flap from his wings to launch himself into the rafters Revali's Gale-style with a "Hey boys!" as he pulls Weirdflame and blasts flame at the archers.
Down on the stage, Midnight Blossom clumsily swings at Jotaro with the goremaul, moving like he's drunk, and Xương intervenes. He grabs the goremaul and uses it as leverage to pull the Dragon-Blood onto his fist with an unsettling crunch coming from his ribs.
"They should have called this guy 'Goodnight Blossom,'" the Full Moon says, his anima banner blazing.
"Nice," Jotaro says with approval as he ties his hair back up with the chopsticks.
Seeing this, the archers fuck off and run, and Pakpao hears the thud (and probably sees the light through the floorboards) and immediately surrenders. Hǎifēng punches her in the face again with another crunch to knock her out, and start to drag her upstairs.
"It's a shame, we could have sold tickets for this," Xương adds.
"Also nice," the Eclipse Caste negotiator continues to approve.
A hatch in the stage bursts open and Hǎifēng hauls the puppeteer up onto it, letting her hit her head on the stairs. They mutter "Careful, this one's creepy" under their breath.
"I suspected as much," Jotaro sighs. He gestures to her. "Folks, meet the Chosen of Karana." Things are starting to make sense to the rest of the group, slightly. Hǎifēng mentions they expected the basement to either contain Beh Banin or a bunch of explosives.
But everyone starts wondering what's going on, why Midnight Blossom said he had the singer, etc., and Jotaro holds up a finger. With a knowing smile, he says to check the Dragon-Blood's pockets. There's a note in one of the pockets, reading: "I know what you saw, and let's talk about this like reasonable people. Come alone to the Transcendent Peacock theater." And it's in the same handwriting as the note that Jotaro received.
Everyone wonders what it means, and Jotaro nudges Pakpao with his foot and says she arranged the confrontation. He thinks she's been trying to play him and the Dynasts off of each other, and figured he'd take out Midnight Blossom quickly enough not to ask questions.
Xương asks Jotaro if Midnight Blossom's going to be okay.
"Well, my knowledge of medicine mostly applies to... wait, aren't you a doctor?"
Xương remembers that he is, in fact, a doctor. (He's sure as heck not a lime merchant.) He determines that if Midnight Blossom weren't an Exalt he'd be dead, but it wouldn't be hard to stabilize him long enough to get some help. Though from the beating he took, if he remembers anything about what just happened nobody's likely to take it seriously.
There's the question of what to do with him, and Jotaro says he assumes that Hopeless Spring is outside? Upon confirmation, Jotaro explains that he'll have Spring find someone willing to haul Midnight Blossom to a clinic and then pay them enough extra to forget where they picked him up. This explanation happens as a voiceover over a montage of all this happening.
Then we come back to Pakpao, and Jotaro says he plans to interrogate her, and invites the others along to be there when she wakes up. They're definitely up for that, so he invites them back to his place.
And we leave off there.
-----
[0]-- Both Midnight Blossom and Pakpao the Puppeteer are characters who appear in the Exigents book. The latter has a whole section of a chapter devoted to her deal, whereas the former just appears in a bit of fiction -- a version of which has happened off-camera during this adventure. Unfortunately that fiction doesn't seem to be posted anywhere online or else I'd link it. But let's just say it doesn't go well for him.
[1]-- Incidentally, this isn't a Dreaming Pearl Courtesan move, but another Charm called Tickling the Dragon's Throat. It's not part of any martial arts style or anything, but just pointing it out to be thorough.
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