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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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Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

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.

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.

[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?

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.]

[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]

[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?

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.]

[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.

[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.

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]

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.

[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]

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.]

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.

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.

[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.

[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.

[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.]

[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.

[yeah uh huh sure it is.]

Ah, I see. I don't know that my imperial life is truly exemplary of our time. After all, I never made any claims that I was ordained by Heaven to rule. In my experience, Heaven is a terrible judge of leadership.

Is Heaven an actual, literal thing where you're from?

[Seriously, better ask. Apparently some of these people come from places with actual gods, or something. So they say, anyway, and he's open-minded enough to at least consider that they might be right. Most people here seem to come from places wholly unlike his own world, and that's probably for the best.]

That depends on what you believe.

[he rests his chin on his fist, ready to throw some sass. As an atheist, he has quite the perspective, considering he's also fought demons and met the creator goddess. Dad tried to hit on her.]

As far as I'm concerned it's nothing but a fine metaphor, for the meek to rely on when they die. It can be quite a burden for those left behind, though, to ensure that someone is properly mourned and worshipped so they can make their way through hell and reach heaven at last. [a slight raise of an eyebrow] There are no less than three competing religions in my country at the moment. Is it anywhere near as confusing and complex in your world?

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