[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

[pure_havoc]

[oh man why didn't his cooks ever think of that?]

I love plums. I didn't know they could be pickled, that's...quite interesting. [a thought hits him which makes him chuckle dryly] Perhaps this really is hell, if it's a place bent on not giving us the things we love the most. At least, not easily. I take it Master Rastus is doing well at getting your tobacco.

[evulsed]

[ Gene. It isn't like Vanitas didn't call him by name, but somehow it seems— different. Personal in a way Vanitas doesn't want to admit outloud, and certainly not to Riku, who is supposed to be on the other side.

But that man had been there when Vanitas woke up screaming. Told him about that place he was from just to do it. Made him feel— nothing, in the place of all that pain, if just for a little while. Vanitas' eyes jump between the candle flames, all that fire that doesn't give off the same kind of light that he craves. He recalls what it felt like to be held while he cried and curls both hands into fists. ]

I don't have anything better to do.

[equinoctials]

[ They fought at different sides of the same war, but that war is over. Vanitas pits himself at odds with them because he seems to believe that's where he belongs - the darkness kept in the prison of Sora's heart.

There isn't much that view of Vanitas's back can tell him. Riku hasn't exactly made every effort to understand Vanitas, his motivations, but he can guess at some things. Like what the clenched fists at his sides might mean in this context of recent loss, knowing that beneath what war hardened in him, Gene had a certain soft compassion.

How lonely the Darkness is. How powerful and how painful its desolation, ever-hungry. ]

...

[ Riku's slow and silent approach ends. They're not friends. There's no trust or bond built up in between them that this should be any of his business. Yet he's connected to Dawn. And Sora, each of them in ways that remain mysterious to him. Riku knows this: Mickey hated the Darkness, and then they met. That changed the King's mind, and changed Riku's life.

So he takes a chance, his fingers touching the other boy's shoulder. ]

Maybe he'll come back.

[callada]

So far, yeah. Cigarettes and makeup. He came through with more than I'd asked for, so hopefully this next time around he'll be able to keep that up.

[Man, he does miss umeboshi now that he's thinking about it. Damn. There were pickled cucumbers at the general store last time he'd been there, but those weren't remotely the same.]

Did you ask him for anything on the next ferry?

[pure_havoc]

[Cao Pi finally tastes his tea. Hm. Not much of an improvement. Oh well.]

No, not yet. I haven't decided whether I want a brush and ink that badly or if I can live without it. Make no mistake, I like the pens with ink inside them but...well. Maybe I should make the request, so I can demonstrate the difference visually.

[well! now they're sitting and chatting nicely, what a good time to bring up terrible topics and really get to know each other.]

So. Were there any other unique experiences worth relating, out there in the forest?

[callada]

Nothing I hadn't seen before. Mostly quiet, like what you and I saw. Just a lot of trees and darkness. I know if you keep going instead of crossing the fence, there's a trail that runs out that way to what Winters said was some sort of museum. Maybe I'll go there next.

[He tries the tea again, and yes, all right. This time it's easier to drink.. He thinks it's fine, but again, he's just not that picky so long as bread isn't involved. The tea is hot, a little sweet, and the little pick-me-up the caffeine will provide is always welcome.]

[pure_havoc]

A museum? Hm. [what kind of valuable information might be waiting for them out there? sign him up for a trip out when things have settled down in town]

So many secrets all around us. We learn one new thing, and five more mysteries arise around it. I do enjoy unraveling puzzles but this is...far more monumental than keeping up with the imperial court.

[callada]

Funny. I think I can see why, though. When you're in charge of things, you still have people advising you, and a whole history of how it's been done before to draw from. Here, we've got...

[He looks around the tavern, then shrugs. Yep. This is what they've got, all right.]

An antagonistic lighthouse tender and some darkness. And free beer.

[paletteswap]

Someone here might.

[saibot]

Something I highly doubt.

[catholicisms]

Is she? I thought Rastus was in charge of supplies, it's good to know who is responsible for what.

[pure_havoc]

[god it's so true, isn't it? Cao Pi practically snorts into his tea]

The perks so far are not at all worth the headache, the wine is barely passable. But you seem to have made the most of them already. Tell me, commander, is there anything else you miss? Anything more poignant than pickled plums?

[callada]

Yeah. Of course. People I cared about back home. The open sea. Sunlight.

[He's never been particularly claustrophobic, but the world feels so much smaller than the one he knew. When you can't see even a hundred feet ahead, when there's no horizon, everything feels too close. Too isolated.

Being as he's dead, Rosinante doesn't expect to see Law or Sengoku or anyone else ever again. That world is gone for him, and it's sad, but he did what he could to make it a better place. Kind of failed, and he'll probably dwell on that for as long as he's here. But this world might at least get some sunlight back some day if they work out how, so that's something to look forward to seeing again at least.]

[paletteswap]

Did you think Quan Chi capable of this before he did it?

[paletteswap]

[That's not quite what he meant, but he nods anyway.]

So a face to face meeting is not likely to happen.

How is she getting food? Or supplies? This doesn't make sense.

[callada]

On the ferry, same as us. The spirits take it to her. They're all very intent on keeping her happy, isolated, and permanently in that lighthouse from the sound of it.

[So yeah, they guard her, but they also bring her things. It makes for a strangely comfortable prison, but it's clearly a prison nonetheless. Being unable to leave a lighthouse for twenty years would drive anyone insane. It doesn't excuse her, but it does explain a few things.]

[paletteswap]

[he frowns, clearly not understanding. He feels like some crucial piece of a very obvious puzzle is missing. Maybe he should read the network more often.]

How does the lighthouse benefit them in any way?

[callada]

I guess they don't want the world to die any more than we do. I don't know what that entails, but like I said earlier - if there's no light in the lighthouse, everything goes belly up. Apparently.

[Look, he doesn't have any idea either. He has so many questions and nobody has answers - or is willing to give them. It's the sort of thing that makes him want to take someone by the shoulders and shake them until they cough up a reply, but he knows that's not going to work in this situation. Still, even his long-enduring patience is wearing thin, and it's only been a couple months.]

[saibot]

Quan Chi was capable of a lot of dark magic and was working with Lord Shinnok.

[pure_havoc]

[he makes a soft noise of commiseration under his breath. God, sunlight. He can't even begin to describe how badly he misses sunlight but. Hmm, that's a lot of vulnerability. You first, Rosinante]

The people we care about are better off alive, I think. I'm actually quite glad that my wife isn't here. Even if I do miss her terribly.

[there, that's enough vulnerability to get started with]

[evulsed]

[ That was being comforted, he knows it, even if he doesn't have any sort of barometer for what it's meant to look like. His Master never showed him an ounce of compassion, and whatever he saw between Ventus and his friends, that stuff had only ever been a weakness. Vanitas isn't convinced that whatever he might have felt about Gene was just the same— something soft to be exploited and snuffed out.

Riku comes close. Vanitas can feel him even before he touches him, that hyper-vigilance a constant thrum under his skin. It's strange, to feel the heavy weight of his palm on his shoulder, to hear his voice go low when barely a week ago it had been full of hatred and rage.

Maybe he'll come back.

Vanitas shakes the hand off his shoulder and slinks away from that feeling, the one coming from Riku that isn't caustic and dark, the one that brushes up against him with the same feather-light sensation he's gotten from Sora, the one he got from Gene. He ducks back into the shadow under one of the support beams. ]

Don't you have somewhere else to be?

[callada]

[So he was married? It's not much of a surprise, thinking on it now, even though Rosinante hadn't given one thought to anyone's marital status here. But of course, an emperor probably had an empress. The culture he's from - even though he doesn't know a lot about it, he can guess at it based at some of the royal traditions in his own world. It would be important to have a wife and to have heirs in line for the throne.]

I'm sorry. I hope she's faring all right. What's she like?

[pure_havoc]

As do I. [well, the rest of his retainers will take good care of her, he guesses, so long as his father doesn't do anything gross] My lady is the most beautiful woman I have ever laid eyes upon. I fell in love with her the moment I met her, you know. On a battlefield. She tried to kill me.

[and that says A LOT about the two of them really]

She is extremely talented in playing the flute. Her music was always an inspiration to my writing.

[callada]

[He chuckles a little at the description of their meeting as he sips at his tea. That's... kind of adorable. Really. Huh. In a warrior way.]

I always hear stories about nobles having arranged, political marriages. What you have sounds much nicer. You're lucky.

[He doesn't say had. It doesn't feel right. Cao Pi is still very much alive and in love with her. She should move on if she likes, but he's not about to suggest that Cao Pi should think of the relationship as over.]

I'm sure she'll remember you for your bravery and your poetry. That's an honorable legacy to leave.

[pure_havoc]

[oof, opening up like this carried the risk of being too personal, and there it is. Cao Pi takes it in stride but there are definite cracks in his usual calm veneer.]

I suppose, had things gone far more sour for Wei my father might have reached for that tactic to shore up alliances, but he never had to. Thankfully. Zhenji is the only woman for me, he can keep his harem of concubines.

[ancient royalty sex lives are a trip, y'all]

Is it? Well. She may remember me far more fondly than some. I can be honest with myself about that.