Well, here we are again. Another visit with the crew of the Moonlight Maiden. I can't think of anything clever to add to this; no real announcements or anything.
I will say that it may be worthwhile to go back and check the mini-fic I posted a good long while ago, or the flash of memory fragments Hǎifēng experienced a couple of sessions back. I mean, I think it'd be worthwhile, but I wrote all that so I'm clearly biased. Up to you whether it would add to your enjoyment.
Anyhow, let's get into it.
"Hey Boss, Olasinbo's here."
Jotaro half-opens one eye to peek at the waking world before he fully opens both and sits up. He looks over to where his bodyguard leans against the wall and impatiently chews on a fingernail. He frowns.
"Has she been waiting long?"
"No, but she's here for breakfast. Brought Beh Banin and Pakpao with her."
"So it's about yesterday."
"Prob'ly."
"Anything more specific than that? The problem seemed handled to me."
The bodyguard shrugs without looking up from her improvised manicure.
He frowns again and climbs out of bed, crossing the lavish bedroom. His steps are even and heavy, like he's grimly walking into the open jaws of a waiting beast. He reaches the fine wooden dummy holding his kimono and with a flourish he sweeps it his around his shoulders, the magic already freshening him up by the time his arms fill the sleeves.
"Need me for this?" the bodyguard asks.
"I'll be fine. Though whatever this is, I suspect I'll want to talk to Sifu about it over lunch, if you can sort that out."
"I'll make the arrangements, Boss." She spits the fingernail into the trash on the way out.
The smell of eggs and tomatoes fills the air as Jotaro of the Flowing Silk walks into the dining room like he wandered in by accident. His movements are wobbly, especially when a gust of wind outside rattles the floor-to-ceiling windows and startles him. If the weather had been good enough to dine on the balcony, the breeze might have been too much for him, but the overcast sky was a good argument for eating inside today.
Three women sit at the table with steaming bowls of rice and eggs in a tomato sauce sitting before them, each with a cup of tea. A short man with blue hair sets a fourth bowl down for Jotaro before bowing and stepping back. An elaborate spread of fresh fruit covers the rest of the table.
Jotaro sits and the servant approaches to serve him tea, but the negotiator dismisses him with a wave before pouring his own from the pot. The well-fed woman with warm brown skin sitting across from him, her age anywhere between ten and twenty years older, watches him with forced calm. To her left sits a slender woman in her 30's with long straight hair and lighter features suggesting a Tengese origin. To her right sits the youngest of the three, a short, curvy woman in her early 20's with blue hair so dark it looks black in most light. All three are dressed plainly for discretion but still in fine fabrics.
"What happened yesterday?" the woman across from Jotaro asks, her tone harsh, her voice not yelling but still slightly too-loud for someone hung over. Jotaro obligingly winces, his chopsticks halfway to his mouth and almost dropping his food.
"Please, 'Sinbo, give me a second, my head's killing me," he whines.
She narrows her eyes at that, and stares as he takes a couple of bites of breakfast.
"Your wife outdid herself today," he casually says to the servant as if he weren't in trouble. "In fact, go tell her that." He flicks his chopsticks to dismiss the man from the room.
"I figure it's obvious," he says once the door closes and they're alone. "Ginger overdid it, took up with yet another man young enough to be her son, and he probably said something that wormed its way into her pickled brain, and..." He trails off and gestures at the side of his head with the chopsticks.
"She was sleazy, but that was a bit much for her," the youngest woman at the table says, still thinking about the slap she received.
"And I'm sorry again about that, Beh Banin, if I'd known she'd ever have done that..."
"Do you think she was high?" Olasinbo asks. "The guards found drugs on her after they hauled her off."
"Anything illegal?" he casually asks.
"No, but a good bit, and it's in very bad taste if she was..."
"Dipping into her own supply?" he asks, an eyebrow raised at Olasinbo. "We all know who she works for."
"You'd think she'd know better," the puppeteer across from Beh Banin remarks. "Or have a better tolerance."
"You said something about that yesterday after it happened, Pakpao," the singer comments, eyes wide.
Jotaro glances at Beh Banin and then at her performing partner in-between bites, as if he hadn't overheard the conversation in question at the time. "You suspect someone drugged her or something?"
"Maybe someone gave her something stronger than she's used to."
"A new supplier?" Olasinbo asks. "Betraying Snakefire?"
Pakpao raises her hands defensively. "I wouldn't go that far, though who knows how they'll take it. But it could be that she and someone else was hammering out a side deal and someone offered her something..."
Jotaro narrows his eyes at Pakpao, who gives him a meaningful look with just a glance. He sips his tea.
"Whatever they found on her, I'd suggest seeing if there was a package or an envelope or something that suggests a source," he says to Olasinbo between bites. "Bet you a full dinar that it came from a House Sesus plantation."
"You seem sure about that," the merchant says suspiciously.
"What can I say, I like the theory, and if the facts fit..."
"I'll take that bet, then," Olasinbo says with a firm nod.
Jotaro half-chokes on a piece of fruit, quickly washing it down with tea. "I meant that rhetorically," he coughs out.
"We've got witnesses, unless you actually think you're wrong."
"I just... don't want to take your money, is all," he chuckles nervously. "But sure. Look into it. Lemme know how it pans out."
"Why would the Sesus drug Ginger?" Beh Banin asks.
"Could be they were trying to embarrass the Syndicate into dropping out," Olasinbo comments.
"Or it's an alliance that is now about to go bad because they gave her something beyond her tolerance at the wrong time," Jotaro comments as he empties his bowl.
"Either way, the Dynasts are definitely up to something," Pakpao says, giving Jotaro another meaningful look.
"Certainly looks that way, doesn't it?" the negotiator muses as he leans back in his seat and sips his tea. He glances out the window towards the city harbor with a wry half-smile. "Certainly looks that way."
"What are you looking at out there?" Olasinbo asks, her tone bearing the edge of suspicion.
"Just thinking that after breakfast I'm gonna head down to the Gilded Sunset Blossom and go over it with a fine-toothed comb, just in case someone left any surprises behind." Jotaro gets up and walks to the balcony doors, his thoughtful expression reflected in the glass as some itch in the base of his skull reassures him there's at least one surprise out there waiting for him.
The camera moves to focus on the cloudy gray sky, and then a few moments later pans down into an establishing shot of the docks where the Moonlight Maiden is tied up, swaying in the strong breeze. Xương sleeps soundly in his hammock up on the deck like a caught fish on display, and Hǎifēng shuffles up onto the deck and starts to prepare some tea. The sound of this wakes up Xương, who clambers out of the hammock and takes a few minutes to clean himself up. By the time he's done, Gou's come up top as well while Hǎifēng pours tea for the trio while smoking their pipe. The little pipefox spirit they smuggled out of Heaven dances about in the smoke.
Hǎifēng just gets right into it, saying that the group has a problem to deal with -- Jotaro. The group gets to talking about the situation, and Gou comments that Fate can be cruel, putting Hǎifēng in a situation in opposition to their First Age mate. (Sean jokes about Venus noticing that comment and thinking that Hǎifēng would like it) Hǎifēng says they know they won't be able to avoid Jotaro forever while also helping Copper Orchid.
So the group starts to go over who's left to deal with to help Copper Orchid out. First, there's Princess Zhao Mnemonrai Chulin, who as near as they can tell is trying to get the singer's contract as an attention-grabbing thing, maybe some sort of a tantrum, but also to make sure the satrap V'neef Boru can't hire her.[0] So they shift to talking about Boru, and Hǎifēng talks about just killing him. Naturally, this breaks Gou's brain. We have this little exchange:
"Hǎifēng," he begins, "You're an educated person..."
"I've had no schooling."
"Hǎifēng, you're an intelligent person..."
And from there, Gou gets into the obvious issues that come with assassinating the satrap.[1] Or at least talking about the difficulty of doing so -- or, as Xương especially points out -- the difficulty of getting away afterwards. Hǎifēng concedes that killing Boru isn't an option (Xương goes 'aww') but maybe they can scare him off. Like just sneak Xương into his bedroom and warn him off the singer or something. Gou voices a concern that they don't know how powerful/tough Boru is, and what might happen if he decides to retaliate.
Hǎifēng asks Gou why he hates all of their ideas, but Gou points out that none of them are trained in assassination.[2] Hǎifēng says, thoughtfully, "Trained, well... okay, we're shelving the idea. How would you take care of him?"
Gou suggests finding a way to break things off between Boru and Princess Feiyen, whether to get him interested in someone else or to get her to reject him so he doesn't need Beh Banin's contract. But then that comes around to the subject of Sesus Chay Darim, the Realm's garrison commander in Goldenseal, who's also courting the princess. Gou briefly considers offering to kill Boru as a favor to Darim if he backs off of the contract. Or at least forming an alliance with Darim against Boru.
Xương points out the biggest wrinkle in that plan is that it assumes Darim's willing to betray the Realm for the princess' hand. Hǎifēng suggests they could get a taste of Darim's blood and take his appearance and assassinate Boru with the help of some 'Lunar anathema allies,' arranging to be seen just long enough to make sure things blow back on the real Darim. They go back and forth on elements of this plan for a bit, until Hǎifēng says they think they've taken something straightforward (help Copper Orchid secure the singer's services for the wedding) and made it complicated (throw the country's government into chaos by assassinating important political figures).
As they continue to consider their options, Gou recalls once when he was a kid attending a party at V'neef Boru's place with his family, where at one point they tried to arrange things with a girl from the Realm, and he got into a fight with her that went to blow. It's not a pleasant memory, and he doesn't recall every little detail, but it does mean he knows where Boru is.
Continuing their previous thought, Hǎifēng takes a moment to check to see if everyone's okay with, y'know, assassinating the satrap. Xương chimes in that this all might be a bit much to help Hǎifēng's 'weird friend.' Hǎifēng then turns to Gou and tells him that he shouldn't enable them like this, it's just lazy of him. That breaks Gou's brain and he's just gobsmacked for a few moments.
As the group starts talking about other plans and strategies, Xương mentions that Copper Orchid asked them for help hiring a singer, and within a day they're talking about overthrowing the local government. Which, your humble narrator agrees, is quite the escalation. Hǎifēng wonders aloud what Copper Orchid was expecting[3], and they kinda recognize that they've gotten pretty comfortable defaulting to killing as a solution because it's worked out so well so far.
As the group becomes aware they're spiraling a bit and could use a lead, Xương suggests that Hǎifēng approaches Jotaro. After all, if he's as good as they say, and possibly isn't a monster, then maybe he could be an ally. Hǎifēng points out that Jotaro doesn't know they're there, that they hid from them the whole time they were on the boat. But maybe they might be able to get Jotaro to get the Guild to back off, though it might be awkward to meet him and immediately try to squeeze him for a favor. (Phrasing)
Xương says they could combine some of their previous plans -- Hǎifēng could get a taste of Sesus Chay Darim's blood and approach Jotoro wearing his form, and feel him out. (Hey, phrasing) Hǎifēng's not sure what Xương and Gou could do while that's going on, though, maybe scare some of the other competitors off perhaps. Xương says they should focus on one target at a time and regroup after each one. After all, there's a delicate political situation they might not want to risk upsetting.
But the idea of Xương and Gou doing some recon comes up. Gou volunteers to scout out the Transcendent Peacock and take the measure of Teng Serey, the manager and a bidder for Beh Banin's contract. Xương's a little afraid to do anything because nobody that matters has seen him yet, and he wants to maintain the advantage of surprise. That said, he's been wondering what's up with the beggar-priest with the puppets who was watching the barge, and that leads to a brief conversation about the Marionette Cult and the god they follow, Karana -- mostly just sort of reestablishing what happened by the barge and who the cult is. But after that Xương heads out to go talk to a handful of local contacts and see what he can dig up.
While he's doing that, we follow Gou to the Transcendent Peacock. It's kind of a mid-level theater in a good location, nice but not ostentatious. He gets a distinct vibe that someone's very carefully cultivated a 'good but not great' aesthetic here, like they're holding themselves back from being noticed. Which is a valid choice if someone's got their reasons, but it seems odd someone like that would be bidding for Beh Banin's contract.
He heads in and talks to a couple of people in the front office, including a day manager, and soon enough the main manager of the theater, Teng Serey, is leading him back to his office. Serey is an older man, with skin like old paper and white hair with a Fu Manchu mustache and a short, well-trimmed beard. The office features a desk covered in papers, with old posters on the walls, and some well-stocked bookshelves. A pair of puppets -- an old, dusty one on the bookshelves and a newer one on a shelf just inside the door, next to a lantern -- catch Gou's eye because of the recent conversation about the Marionette Cult and the god of puppets.
Gou explains that he's there as a favor for a friend, whose friend is bidding for the Nha Beh Banin's contract. He's trying to convince the others to drop their bid, and Serey raise an eyebrow and asks what incentive he has to drop the bid. Gou says that before that, he's got a question -- why does Serey want the contract?
He explains that she used to perform at the Transcendent Peacock, and they've always felt she was a good fit, and he wants her back. Gou says that seems a little expensive for a place like the theater. Serey asks what he's getting at, and Gou says the theater could be much bigger with the right advertising and a little work. They could be performing for aristocrats and the like, but it feels like it's kept at a level the upper class could ignore, so why make a move like this now?
Serey says that 'some of us' are very fond of Beh Banin, and maybe getting her out of the Guild's clutches is (or should be) enough, regardless of anything else. Gou gets a vibe that this is a prepared response -- not that it's untrue, but it feels like it's something someone's fed him to get used to saying. Gou asks if he has a problem with the Guild, and he snorts and goes on a little bit of a mini-rant about the Guild's tendency to reduce everyone and everything to objects to be treated like commodities. There's a real 'actor breaking character' vibe to his tangent, before he steadies himself and says that 'some of us' think Beh Banin deserves better than being a songbird in a cage.
Gou consider's that and says that his friend's friend doesn't need her for more than a single gig -- they don't know when that would be, but maybe if Serey could work things out with his friend to allow her the freedom to handle that, maybe they could help Serey out. The impresario asks if he's proposing an alliance to help Gou's friend's friend procure the contract, but Gou corrects him and says it's more like they'll help the Transcendent Peacock get the contract if Serey could give her the freedom of schedule to make that work. Serey considers it and says he'd have to talk it over with some people, and Gou leaves him some contact info to do so (through the inn).
Serey asks him, with a sly smile, who Gou's representing in this matter, in sort of a "I didn't catch your name" tone. Like he clearly expects Gou to dodge the question but he just wants to see how he does it. Gou just nods and smiles and says he hopes to hear good news, and goes to leave.
"Oh, but just one more thing," he says as he comes right back. He points to the puppet by the door and says he's a bit of a history buff, and knows that Zhaojūn has a history with marionette puppetry. And he asks where Serey got it. Serey says it's a gift from a woodcarver showing their gratitude for the theater giving them a job making props and other materials (including puppets) for the theater and its performers. Gou comments that's nice of them, and as he leaves the camera lingers on a shot of the puppet, as if watching just in case it turns to see him leave. It remains still.
Now we rewind a bit and cut back to Hǎifēng as they leave the planning session to go find something decent to wear. They examine themselves in the mirror, and start pressing on their face and figuring out what they want to do for a disguise. As they do so, essence flows through their body and the pressing and shaping starts to stick as they reshape their face to look like someone different -- perhaps a distant relative, but definitely someone else, someone kinda like Zhu Li from Legend of Korra.[4]
In this new guise, they head out to the pleasure barge on the assumption that Jotaro's going to be there. There isn't an event going on, but they do get a glimpse of him from the shore, apparently supervising a cleaning and maintenance crew. They stop and psych themselves up for this before pulling out their pipe and heading up onto the barge like they're supposed to be there.
They approach Jotaro directly as he's talking to someone, spotting his bodyguard leaning against a rail and apparently not paying attention. They produce a scroll form their back pocket with which to take notes as they approach, and Jotaro spots them and holds up a finger as he finishes speaking to a servant of some sort. After that, he turns to them with a 'should I recognize you or was I too drunk last night' look on his face, definitely selling the 'bored socialite' schtick.
Hǎifēng says they're representing another party interested in Nha Beh Banin's contract. Jotaro says, with a glance at his bodyguard, that he's got a lunch date to get to shortly but he has a few minutes to talk now. Hǎifēng asks if they can go to his office, and Jotaro says he's got no problem talking out on the deck, but he just shrugs and leads them to a private sitting room.
So they start with the pretense -- Hǎifēng's representing another bidder who wishes to remain anonymous and Jotaro asks if they've got an offer ready. Hǎifēng asks why the Guild is so interested in the contract, and Jotaro says that having Beh Banin perform at Guild-run functions has been a boon for business dealings and such and they'd like to continue that relationship. Hǎifēng takes a moment to clarify that the singer is working willingly for the Guild, given the organization's reputation, and Jotaro looks offended for a moment before regaining his composure.
Hǎifēng takes advantage of the opportunity to get a read on him, drawing on flashes of memories they've gotten for insight. They barely manage to pierce the mask and recognize that he's genuinely disgusted at the implication. But he quickly (and noticeably, to Hǎifēng's keen social senses) slips back into 'company man' mode and says that he totally gets the Guild's reputation, and this isn't like that -- that things are very different when you've got someone with serious skill and talent. I can't remember if I had him point this out, but he may have mentioned that he comes from a family line of Guild-affiliated master artisans.
Hǎifēng asks Jotaro why someone with his seeming moral fiber would work for an organization like the Guild. Jotaro admits that the Guild isn't a great or even a good organization most of the time, but someone needs to get goods and resources around Creation to people who need it.[5] And at least the Guild is (relatively) honest about what they do, unlike the Realm who justify what they do with claims of near-divinity or virtue or both.
Hǎifēng says they've gotten off-topic, and they say they're sorry for offending him (though they are, in fact, not at all sorry), and he gives a dismissive 'don't mention it' wave. They ask what it would take for the Guild to give up on the contract. Jotaro says that they'd need something to compensate them for the loss of her services -- financially, certainly, but favors and such are also their own currency. Hǎifēng presses Jotaro for a number as a starting point, and the Guild negotiator says at least 100 dinars of silver.[6] Hǎifēng asks how much the boat costs, and Jotaro says that it costs enough he doesn't want to think about it because it's not his boat and he doesn't want to get ideas. But it belongs to a Guild factor, which means that its value would be beyond simple wealth.[7]
Hǎifēng, annoyed, mutters that they're 'just going to have to sink the boat.' Now, as they said this out loud, Jotaro gives them a confused look like he thinks Hǎifēng's making a joke and there's a punchline coming up.
After a moment, Hǎifēng stands up from their seat and reveals their note-taking scroll is blank. They then ask Jotaro if he's ever left somebody to die alone. He's very confused, and starts to stammer out a response, until he picks up on little details of body language and such that suggest Hǎifēng's in some sort of disguise.
"Who are you?" he asks, eyes narrowed.
"I am the Demon's Laughter on Ocean's Tides. Hǎifēng."
Jotaro's eyes widen as something suddenly clicks in his head. (As I type this, I realize it probably looks a lot like Link having flashbacks in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom.) His memories remain his own secret for the moment, but it's obvious to all that he's having a series of flashbacks like Hǎifēng did.
The Solar's body language drastically shifts as he gets up and staggers back, grabbing his chair to steady himself. "Maybe you should come along on the lunch date. Someone's going to want to talk to you." His face is unnaturally calm, placid even -- an expression that Hǎifēng already recognizes as how he looks when he's scared. The fact that the look in his eyes could be interpreted as 'It's you' doesn't help.
"You want me to go where?" Hǎifēng asks.
Jotaro thinks quickly. "You pick the place. Me and a friend, peaceful. Bring as many friends as you want."
Hǎifēng takes a couple of steps back and says they'll send a messenger with the place. Jotaro carefully stands so Hǎifēng can see he's unarmed (but not like he's being held hostage or anything, if anyone were to burst in), though they both know that if he's even vaguely proficient with Dreaming Pearl Courtesan Style, that means nothing. But the message is clear -- he's not going to interfere with Hǎifēng leaving. In fact, as Hǎifēng takes off, Jotaro follows them outside a few moments later just to wave to his bodyguard that everything's okay.
But we leave off there.
-----
[0]-- V'neef Boru, in case you've forgotten, is courting Crown Princess Zhao Mnemonrai Feiyen, Chulin's older sister. Boru wants the contract to impress her.
[1]-- I don't think any of us actually say 'assassinate' or any derivation, but as the Realm's appointed official managing their interests in Zhaojūn, Boru's definitely important/powerful enough to classify.
[2]-- About 2,100 miles northeast of Goldenseal, Rashmi the Dancing Blade looks up from where he's cleaning and sharpening his knives, like he heard someone trying to get his attention.
[3]-- I've mentioned this before, but Copper Orchid was thinking "Well, my friend Hǎifēng is unnaturally good at working a room, in addition to having all sorts of sneaky stealth/infiltration tricks. Their friend Xương has actual experience as a negotiator against folks like Guild merchants, and Gou's the scion of a shipping family with a lot of experience in business matters in addition to actually being from Goldenseal, so he's got useful knowledge and connections." He was expecting the group to just steamroll the negotiations with social skills. In his defense, he didn't know his biggest obstacle was another Exalt with supernatural powers of persuasion (seriously, Solars get some potent/scary social charms). Also, the last time he saw the group, they were Essence 1 or 2. They weren't "slay gods and win secret martial arts tournaments in Heaven"-powerful yet.
[4]-- So as I've house-ruled in some of the stunting benefits from Exalted Essence, one of those is the ability to spontaneously buy a Charm. So Hǎifēng's taken advantage of an opportunity to purchase Many-Faced Moon Transformation, a basic appearance alteration Charm.
[5]-- This is admittedly me paraphrasing. I should have anticipated the question and prepared a response, but this is at least the gist I was going for with it.
[6]-- Funnily enough, I hadn't initially intended to give an actual number, and I was just going to couch in terms of how many dots of the Resources Merit you'd need to afford it, and found it plain as day in the book: Two dots of Resources indicates 100 dinars of silver, which is explicitly listed as an appropriate income for "famous mortal artisans and performers." For context, 100 dinars is four pounds of silver coins. As per the core book a single dinar, normally seen divided into quarters or eighths for use by commoners, will cover the monthly food budget of four adults (or three adults and two growing children) with a little left over for other necessities.
[7]-- Now, admittedly, this is Chris covering for the fact that the third edition core book doesn't actually have a guideline as to how much things cost, aside from weapons and a handful of thaumaturgically-produced substances. If I want to put a catapult on a ship, page 245 has me covered, but I can't even find how much a boat trip costs, let alone the boat itself. And I don't feel comfortable just saying 'Jotaro estimates an obscene value for the ship' without something to contextualize it, like a Resources rating, so I went with the way you see above. Incidentally, while typing this up I took a moment to check 2nd edition's core, which does have a detailed equipment list. Resources ratings seem to be consistent across editions, so I guess that's another reason to have that PDF handy. Boats are a Resources 4 purchase, BTW -- which means that if you can buy one out of pocket, you probably count as a oligarch.
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