Welp, here we are again, welcome back and such!
First off, if you found your way here you probably know me well enough elsewhere to know this already, but I've recently gotten a Blue Sky account. I'm not leaving either Twitter (which I insist on calling that as long as the URL redirects) or Mastodon for now, but it's always good to have options.
In other news, in case you missed it, I recently completed the novel I've been writing for the past decade, Conversion. I used to post chapters here but it was kind of a hassle and I don't think anyone was reading here anyways, but regardless it's done and the whole thing is available for free on my FurAffinity page. I invite anyone who reads it to let me know what they think.
And now we get into it. This is another talky session, so I remind you of my inconsistently-applied disclaimer that I don't record my sessions and my notes are sometimes spotty, so I might misquote characters or miss little bits. If you play in the game and I get something wrong, feel free to correct me.
Xương greets the morning as he often does, sleeping in a hammock on the deck on the Moonlight Maiden. However, unlike most mornings, he greets this one because someone's yelling at him. It's a pimple-faced teen from the inn where the character have rented a room (and have since only used as a point of communications away from the ship), carrying a letter from Jotaro of the Flowing Silk. He hands the letter to Xương and then waits in case he wants to send a response back.
Written in unnecessarily flowery court-speak, the letter lists and vaguely describes Jotaro's restaurant recommendations.[0] Xương just lightly skims the letter and grumbles at the request that if a response isn't sent immediately, to at least get back to Jotaro by noon. That's just so early for Xương's liking. He looks at the names of the recommended places -- the Crystal Boar, the Akathic Stranger, and a place called either Pangu Spice or the Season of Pangu, depending on who you talk to (there are translation issues with the name). Xương arbitrarily chooses Pangu Spice because of the name and tells the kid to take that response back with him.
The runner from the inn leaves as Gou wakes up and comes up to the deck, and Xương gives him the rundown of what he just missed. Gou, being from Goldenseal, has heard of Pangu Spice; it's a noodle and rice bowl place in the style of Pangu Prefecture on the Blessed Isle.[1] It's got a reputation as having the best noodles in Goldenseal, though it's a little 'street level' for someone with Jotaro's resources, one of those 'in it for the love of cooking than the money' sorts of places. If this were the real world, he'd describe is a mom-and-pop sort of operation rather than a chain or franchise.
Hǎifēng wakes up, asking if they're hearing people talk about dinner and being confused because it seems a little early for that. Gou tells them about the message from Jotaro as Xương waves the letter around. Hǎifēng's a little concerned about having to tell Jotaro they've got their own deal with Teng Serey regarding Beh Banin's contract -- the dinner's about finding a mutually beneficial situation for everyone and Jotaro's already said he's willing to bend things to help the Circle, but it's still likely to be awkward.
But the group's got some time to kill -- most of the day, in fact, as dinner's going to be a little before sunset. So Hǎifēng wants to find something they could potentially use against V'neef Boru, the satrap, in the negotiations. They proceed to find the building where his offices are and case it, shifting into the form of a mosquito to fly through the building. They eventually get to his chambers and manage to squeeze through a crack in the door without the buzzing being heard by the guards or his secretary.
They find Boru at his desk in his lavish office, doing some sort of paperwork, and poke around in some side rooms. To one side of the office is a bathroom with an attached wardrobe, but in the other is a study and private library. The library contains both fiction for pleasure reading and nonfiction for research, as well as a lot of compiled reports and records pertaining to the Realm's interests in Zhaojūn. Hǎifēng reverts to human form and spends about an hour quietly rummaging through, looking for anything salacious that could be used as leverage against him, even if just to get under his skin later.[2]
They find a bunch of stuff that makes it pretty clear that his primary qualification for satrap is his ability to court Crown Princess Zhao Mnemonrai Feiyen, to procure a marriage alliance between the royal family and House V'neef. There's a bunch of stuff -- letters tucked into books and correspondence buried in the library, that sort of thing -- that make him come across as a little desperate in his efforts. It's nothing that's going to destroy his career or would even be that embarrassing in some social circles, but it'd make him look like a weak suitor and might make him look bad to Beh Banin. They memorize all that they can and then duck out, rather than try to smuggle out the paperwork.
Elsewhere Gou is wandering around the city, looking for interesting things to get into, getting to know Goldenseal again from his new perspective. As he does so, he stumbles onto a commotion -- there's a bunch of Realm troops hassling about a dozen beggars in a small square. This isn't any sort of official thing -- Zhaojūn has its own law enforcement, which is not handled by the Realm. This is the equivalent of a bunch of soldiers from the local army base causing trouble because they know they're going to get away with it. Gou quickly picks up that at least some of these beggars are beggar-priests of the Marionette Cult. (There are others who seem to have just gotten involved once the fighting started.)
He approaches and zeroes in on a soldier who's stomping on a beggar's puppet, trying to smash it to pieces. The soldier sees him coming and tells him to back off and that this doesn't concern him. The man turns his attention back to the chaos and Gou collects what he can of the puppet to return it to the cowering beggar it seems to have belonged to, and he fishes out some coins for them. As soon as the coins come out, the Dynast grabs his shoulder and tells him to back off unless he wants to suddenly be a part of this. It's pretty clear the coins have gotten the soldier's attention and if he has his way he's going into his pocket instead.
Gou stands up, with the man's hand still tightly clamped on his shoulder.
"Make it my business? You don't know what my business is." Then he puts his hand on the handle of Weirdflame, his artifact flame piece, as he takes on a Righteous Devil stance with the Form Charm. He's not producing the weapon, but doing that 'nudging the jacket aside, ready to draw on someone' bit you see in Westerns. "But if you and your friends don't stop harassing these people, I'm going to show you what my business is."
Gou's using personal motes, so it doesn't flare his anima banner or even do anything overtly supernatural, but Righteous Devil Form gives off an intimidating aura that can be leveraged a couple of different ways. So now he's become the dramatic center of gravity of the scene, and all eyes are on him. The soldiers are now instinctively aware of the increasing likelihood of violence -- almost certainly more violence than they can handle, at that.
The officer in charge says "We're done here," and leads the rest away, trying not to look like a single random stranger has a couple of them ready to soil their armor. One of the beggars comes over to thank him, but adds that was brave and foolish. Gou says the only danger is if they'd have continued what they were doing. He asks the beggar if this is where they congregate, and they say sometimes. He says he's assuming the guards had some sort of excuse for this?
"They said they know what we're doing, what we're watching," the beggar-priest says, and that gets Gou looking around. The square is a little off of a main road, but there's a building nearby housing a number of government Ministry offices and the square is an ideal spot to surveil said building.[3] Gou shakes his head and asks what the world's coming to, as he once thought the Realm was a beacon of hope for the people.
He takes out a couple more coins to give to the beggar and says he can't imagine where the troops' delusions come from, but he hopes the money will help offset the inconvenience they've suffered. The beggar wishes Karana's blessings upon him, and Gou responds in kind.
We jump ahead to the trio showing up at the restaurant with Copper Orchid. Jotaro's bodyguard, whom I'm not sure the group has ever been formally introduced to, is standing outside drinking from her jug, and tells them he's inside in the private dining room. So they head in and find him in there with tea -- the fancy high-end stuff that Hǎifēng's had in An-Teng and more recently in Heaven, Cherry Riddle. They make sure to sit between Jotaro and Copper Orchid in case they need to referee things.
They get into the regular greetings as food and drink are ordered and delivered, and once the food is on the table Jotaro asks who wants to start. Hǎifēng defers to Xương and Gou when it comes to business discussions, so Xương just tells him up-front about their deal with Teng Serey and the Transcendent Peacock. Jotaro approves of this deal, and says that he can definitely see himself approving of that -- all that matters is that Beh Banin is paid what she's worth, the Guild gets a little compensation for not casually having her on call, and he can massage whatever needs to be massaged to make it work. (And yes, he does use that phrasing, causing Hǎifēng to choke on their food.)
Gou says he's glad that Jotaro's viewing things amicably, and Jotaro explains to them -- as did to Hǎifēng the night before -- that he's representing Beh Banin in this more than the Guild itself, that the Guild does not have his loyalty and he's in fact trying to undermine its expansion into the Southwest. He reminds the group that anything that gets said in the room stays in the room, all that matters is that the deal looks good on paper.
I can't recall exactly how Jotaro makes the conversational pivot, but as a preamble to a more current topic, he talks about the incident with Ginger the other day, pointedly looking at Hǎifēng and Gou as he does so.[4] Apparently as she was escorted off the boat he says that the Dynastic soldiers working security that hauled her off found a bunch of drugs on her. Nothing illegal, but it seemed to come from House Sesus -- which he suspected it might -- and that's gotten her in trouble with her employers. In fact, she's no longer running her establishments -- one of her sons has suddenly stepped up.
But he brings this up to talk about being attacked by the Snakefire Syndicate the night before. He interrogated one of the Snakefire goons a little more after Hǎifēng left[5], and determined that someone gave them the idea that it was Jotaro who put the Dynasts up to planting the drugs. Which is frankly absurd, and a little worrisome because they didn't seem to know why they thought this or who told them. But somehow the idea got into their heads.
Jotaro asks if anyone knows anything about that, but nobody's got any idea -- though Copper Orchid does talk about rumors about all manner of debauchery (he gives Hǎifēng a look when he says this) that goes on on the Guild pleasure barge. Jotaro remarks that at any given time there's a lot that's going on in the city, and most of it is pretty fun -- except for the bits with knives.
Which reminds him of a rumor he heard... Gou reminds him of a story he heard about the Kojo family's son supposedly being killed and replaced by a Lunar Exalt. Gou starts nervously chugging the tea even though it's actually very hot. He assures Gou that his secret is safe with him, but thought he'd want to know. He's also quick to point out he doesn't know if Gou's family started the rumor, but... at this point Gou excuses himself to get something stronger than tea, and Hǎifēng gives Jotaro the run-down of the whole thing with Gou's brother during the tournament.
Meanwhile, outside, Gou finds their server (who's not a local, it seems) and asks her for the strongest booze they have, and tips her well.
As he comes back in, Jotaro apologizes profusely and Gou tells him not to worry. He keeps apologizing and Gou cuts him off as the server comes back in with more tea and a bottle with just a picture of a skull on the label. Hǎifēng begins pouring booze for Gou.
Since they seem to be past the immediate business (there'd probably be more business talk but the last thing anyone wants to see or hear is me having two NPCs hammer out the terms of a contract), Jotaro asks the group what their larger plans are, once the whole thing with the contract is sorted. Xương says they're planning on tracking someone down to kill them, and Jotaro's intrigued. Xương asks if he's heard of the Captain of the Ashen Umbra, and Jotaro says he's only heard the name in passing, but that sounds like someone exceedingly unpleasant. He offers to put some feelers out through his information networks if they need intel -- he's got a very particular skillset, and he wants to use it to help Creation, and recognizes that whatever they're up to is definitely in line with that.
Xương's fine with that, as he says that at worst Jotaro's an appendage of their enemies, no offense. Jotaro's not offended -- he's often an appendage of someone's enemies, one way or another. Xương says he's not terribly worried about the Captain finding out about them. Jotaro, realizing he misinterpreted Xương's initial comment as implication that he's unknowingly working for the Captain's allies, says that's not likely to be an issue. But as Xương as definitely conveyed the gravity of the situation he's going to do what he can to help.
Jotaro then gets into talking with Copper Orchid about what's going on with this wedding in An-Teng, and it's just boring business small talk. What's less boring is that the group can register that in Jotaro's half of the conversation, between word choices and vocal inflections and the like, there's an actual coherent message hidden within that only the three of them can pick up on.[6] He's asking Hǎifēng (but not wanting to exclude the other Lunars) if they'd be fine with him keeping in touch with Orchid as a business contact in An-Teng, which Hǎifēng is fine with.
After that, the dinner starts winding down. Gou's drunk enough to slur his speech, and Jotaro asks if he's okay, and Xương says he's not Gou's dad -- which definitely gets a reaction from him -- and Hǎifēng keeps pouring him booze to see what he's going to do next. They comment they're waiting to see how long until Gou pulls out the gun, and oh, hey, Copper Orchid suddenly remembers he has to take care of something and he'll see everyone later!
After he excuses himself, Hǎifēng remarks on how easy it was to get rid of him, and Xương says that if he knew that Hǎifēng wanted Orchid gone he'd have done it himself, and there's some back and forth until Hǎifēng explains that they felt Orchid was getting uncomfortable about being the only mundane mortal in the conversation. Gou is sloppy drunk right now and tells them they're all his family and he loves them.
And oh, hey, Jotaro realizes he should probably be somewhere as well. He tells the group he's got dinner taken care of and they can take their time finishing up but he's gonna head out. Before doing so, he tells Hǎifēng that if they still want to spar with him he's got a private practice space at his home. Hǎifēng blushes and says perhaps tomorrow, and Jotaro gives them the address before he heads out.
After that, the group hauls Gou back to the boat to sleep it off.
And we le-- wait, we don't leave it there. Because a few hours later, Xương's resting in the hammock on the boat and hears someone running up. He sits up and there's Jotaro's bodyguard asking to come aboard, in a panic. He invites her aboard and she shows him a note that turned up at Jotaro's place:
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.
Xương starts yelling for the others, announcing that it's "Time to go fuck somebody up!"
And that's where we leave it.
-----
[0]-- As a quick reminder, Jotaro is meeting the group (plus Copper Orchid) for dinner, and for their comfort he insists on letting them pick the restaurant. As only one of them has any experience with Goldenseal, he hit on the idea of letting them pick from a number of suggestions.
[1]-- Incidentally, I did come up with descriptions of all three restaurants. The Crystal Boar is cuisine in the style of Chiaroscuro, which I describe as being like North African as a shortcut. The Akathic Stranger is a Prasadi-style restaurant -- think Indian food, lots of curries and the like. These are all my approximations and headcanon based on cultural notes and coding in the setting.
[2]-- Also, in case they ever have to fight Boru, there's a Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style Charm (Vindictive Concubine's Pillow Book) that gives you bonuses if you know any embarrassing or ruinous secrets about someone and they know you know.
[3]-- I do feel it worth noting that in Xương's own investigations of things in Goldenseal, he found reason to believe the Marionette Cult has heavily infiltrated many government and business organizations in the city.
[4]-- He actually doesn't know for sure that they're responsible, but he's pieced together enough to suspect what actually happened.
[5]-- Admittedly, I kinda mishandled the scene where Jotaro and Hǎifēng encountered the gang last session, and I didn't convey what I wanted to convey especially well so I took advantage of the opportunity to do so here.
[6]-- Just as Hǎifēng has a Charm called Glance-Oration Technique that lets them surreptitiously deliver a message with body language and gestures, Jotaro has a Charm called Subtle Speech Method that lets him -- well, you read the description above.
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