[Network] - WEEKLY BULLETIN - open

[inthenightmods]

WEEKLY BULLETIN

announcements

• What do you get when you combine a Catholic and a spirit child? I don't know, it's not a joke, it's just an announcement that one of the spirits-- a baby, it looks like-- has been adopted.


• What an awful week, though. Both the exploration group and the distraction group did so well, and honestly? It made a difference. You guys should be proud.


• On a lighter note, autumn is just around the corner! Look for temp drops and gusty weather cropping up in the next week or so.

classifieds

• None.


• If you wish to submit an advertisement, please drop them by the post office.

obituaries

• Capt. Ben Winters: at least he died as he lived: doing something worthwhile. Thank you, Winters.


• Number Five: clever right to the end.


• A whole host of people have gone missing since the party... We haven't found their bodies or their lanterns yet, but I think it's safe to assume they're probably gone. Here's the list: Melisandre, Yaeris, Gene Hicks, Ahven Sychantus, Scott Ryder, Nathan Drake, Brienne of Tarth, Raylen Givens, John Constantine, Chloe Frazier, Irwin Wade, Elisha Harper, Dick Grayson, Aragorn, Rafe Adler, Billy Russo, Ben Hargreeves, Kyna Midha, Washington, Sam Drake, Daniel Riordan, Replica Riku Dawn, Eleven, Shadow Moon

[Worthy of note: this bulletin comes to you not via a newspaper, but by the network, now that Robin's connected with you guys once more!]

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Comments

[callada]

[Modern (for him) royalty sex lives are something crazy too from his limited understanding. He's happy not knowing the details.

Anyway, he shrugs.]

Can't please everyone. I know that's a cliche, but I imagine for the leader of a large kingdom it's doubly true. People who desperately want to be liked probably aren't good leadership material, anyway.

[Take Sengoku, for example. Excellent leader in his wholly unbiased opinion, but even he has questions. How in the hell was what happened to Flevance acceptable? Even from an objective, security and order-minded point of view? He'll never get to ask, now.]

[pure_havoc]

[Zihuan's eyes narrow slyly]

There is much more to you than meets the eye, commander. I've thought so for a while, but you still surprise me with such wisdom.

[in other words, all totally true forever]

You didn't come here to listen to me talk about myself all day. It wouldn't be fair if I didn't hear about you in turn. You mentioned loved ones, after all.

[callada]

[There is in fact some cleverness beneath the floofy bangs and tendency to trip over his own limbs, it's true. He just doesn't go out of his way to expose it all that often. He finds himself doing it on occasion here purely because there is no reason to hide and nobody to hide from. He had even admitted to Gene, when the younger man pried, that he was a spy of sorts, but Gene's gone now, so. Back in the bag that one can go.]

It isn't like I mind, though. It's healthy for all of us to get the opportunity to talk about what we left behind.

[As in, you know. Go on, talk about yourself so he doesn't have to. He finishes off the last of his tea and has a draw from the cigarette.]

I don't have much to say, anyway. Just family. Not anyone like you had.

[pure_havoc]

Just family. They aren't as important to you as my wife is to me?

[note that for all he mentions his father, he sure hasn't said he misses the asshole]

[callada]

Doesn't quite seem like the same thing.

[But leaving it there would be too obviously evasive, and anyway, he doesn't mind twisting the truth into something simpler and easier to relay to people here. Something that dodges his origins entirely. They're not relevant here and never will be.]

My father was the head of the military. So he was always busy, but he made time for me when I was younger, and I respected him enough to follow in his footsteps. I actually haven't seen him in a few years. I was hoping to soon.

[pure_havoc]

[dammit another thing they have in common, sort of]

Ah, I can see how that would be. Busy with your own careers, and I'm sure the military life in your world is as all-consuming as it is mine. [casual sip] Is filial duty as important, too?

[because good lord could he go into a long round of kvetching if they can commiserate on that too]

[callada]

I'm... you mean, obedience and duty to one's father? I think that's right. It's not mandated or anything. Not always expected. We have a lot of freedom. But I think it's looked on as a good thing anyway, to respect your father and learn from him, and to take care of him when the time comes. Not everyone does that much.

[The chain of command was overriding. It's hard to have a personal, familial relationship with someone you are duty-bound to obey. It worked for them since Rosinante always maintained some distance even from Sengoku, who he trusted most. Worked until it didn't, that is.]

[pure_havoc]

Yes, like that. You're lucky...or, well. It may not be fair to say so, there may be some who genuinely care for their fathers.

[unlike this dickhead who trolled his dead father by pretending to hide his tomb]

Family can certainly be complicated, at least.

[callada]

That it can be.

[AND DOES HE KNOW IT. But. That's for another time, or maybe never, if he's lucky.]

What was your father like? Pardon me for saying so, but you don't sound fond of him.

[pure_havoc]

[well, he opened the door to that topic, so he might as well. Though he gets all dramatic about it, lifting his eyes toward the ceiling and swirling his tea around in the mug.]

Cao Cao, styled Mengde, Prime Minister of the last gasp of the Han. He is intelligent, shrewd, capable, charismatic, and a decent poet in his own right. He is also ruthless, cold, and dangerous to cross. He took the Emperor under his protection, to keep him safe and alive when usurpers wanted to destroy our country and entire way of life. Which, I will admit, is just a nice way of saying my father puppeted the Emperor for a number of years and got away with it.

[he sips the tea and then sets his mug down so he doesn't keep fiddling with it]

I suppose some part of me cares for him in some way, I was upset when I thought Orochi had killed him. But I also know him all too well, and I understand fully why some people dislike him immensely.

[callada]

[Well, it's just as he'd said, then. You don't have to be liked to rule well. Or to rule at all, in these systems where rulership is by birthright. The king, or queen, or whoever - they rule because they were born with the right to do so and that's that, so long as you don't inspire a rebellion.

But this is a large part of why he's never liked royalty and why he prefers to stay out of their way, at home, where these things matter. Here, getting to speak with an emperor who is in fact ruler of nothing now and very much equal to everyone else is sort of indulgent.]

Complicated, as you say. Nobody should be required to like their parents, anyway. You can respect someone for their role in who you've become without liking who they are.

[pure_havoc]

[at least your father wasn't the asshole, Rosi. Just your brother.]

Yes, I suppose you have a point. It's something I've come to grips with, really, but it's not something that can be said or shown publicly where I come from. Filial duties are sacrosanct and if I do not fulfill mine where people can see, I could be overthrown out of outrage.

But here we are, talking about me again... [his lips curl in another sly smile, but this time he doesn't pose another question. Merely a note to say he notices how easily Rosinante deflects conversations away from his own personal life.]

[paletteswap]

And you know everything about those here to say none of them could do the same?

[paletteswap]

Hm. Well with the lighthouse off the table as far as actual places to explore, I suppose our best course of action is the forest. With how much has been uncovered I assume there may be much more that we simply haven't found yet.

There's always some hope.

[But he sounds like he's starting to not believe that anymore.]

[saibot]

If you actually believed that to be possible you would have interrogated the people here already to find out.

[paletteswap]

You don't know me at all Bi-Han.

[saibot]

I know you far better than you think I do, little brother.

[callada]

[Oh yeah whoops, casual coincidence, you know. He shrugs, ready to dismiss it as nothing meaningful.]

I guess I just like asking questions. I've never gotten to ask about the life of an emperor before. Not directly, anyway. It's a far cry from what I'm used to.

[callada]

The bridge past the fork leads to an area that must have been important once. Important enough to have a bridge, anyway. But we need to get working on it first. If you're looking for something to do, there's always that. Or helping us build boats, since I still think traveling by water will be the fastest way to explore the shoreline.

[And there's always the option of both. It's what he'd choose. There's more to see out there but stumbling blindly around in the woods doesn't sound like much fun. Sure, he has a compass and the stars, and they can use rope again, but landmarks are nicer.]

[paletteswap]

We shall see.

[paletteswap]

[ He nods, glad for the suggestions.]

I could use the distraction. I know nothing about boats, but the bridge I could likely handle.

Has anyone gone out on the lake yet? I seem to recall someone saying not to go in the water, but I can't remember who or why.

[catholicisms]

Hot, and vaguely burned. Don't forget that part.

( that's all Matt can taste off it and his dumb taste buds are pretty sensitive. it's still better than nothing. and probably better than his instant coffee, honestly )

[callada]

Riku and some of his friends did briefly but I don't know whether they went far. The boats we have are small and we'd need several together to make a longer trip. Or one much larger one. As for why not, mm. Winters and the Keeper have both said we shouldn't, that it's too dangerous. No real reason except that in death, the lantern can't be recovered if it's in the lake. Doesn't seem any more risky than sailing normally is.

[So what if it's dark? He's crossed entire oceans overnight in nothing more than a single-sailed dinghy. Darkness and the unknown won't stop him. And he has the stars to navigate by - stars he's been studying for weeks now, that he has hourly photos of, in case something happens to his compass. Once he has something he trusts is able to voyage for more than a couple days, it will be hard to keep him off the lake.]

[paletteswap]

The light in the lanterns is similar to that of the Bonfire, and the bonfire survived a direct downpour of rain for days. I'm not sure the flames are affected by water at all - though I'm not going to douse mine to try. It seems an odd reason to keep people off the lake, there must be something more.

If they're saying we shouldn't that almost seems all the more reason that we should.

[callada]

Oh, I believe them when they say the lanterns can be drowned out. The bonfire is huge, tons of lights in one. The lanterns are a tiny fragment of that kind of light. I can see why they'd be swallowed up by a whole lake.

[But maybe it's easier for him to understand as someone who would only have to set foot in said lake and be rendered totally useless. Rain he can deal with. Bodies of water, not so much. Still, it has absolutely never stopped him and he's not about to let that change.]

Doesn't mean we shouldn't do it anyway. I agree, they've sounded like they're arguing too hard for our safety when otherwise Robin in particular doesn't seem to care about killing us.