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milliways_bar2020-11-21 08:55 am
yinyangwizard) wrote in milliways_bar2020-11-21 08:55 am
Entry tags:
Funeral for the Denizens of Yiling
The plain non-denominational chapel next to the library has been transformed into a small Buddhist temple. A large statue of Amitābha Buddha sits on the altar, flanked by vases of flowers and with a small censer full of sandalwood burning before it. Some platters with fruit offerings have also been placed on the altar are four little memorial tablets: one for Wei Ying, one for Wen Ning, one for Wen Qing, and one that says simply "The Wen family," in the manner of an ancestral tablet.
The walls are hung with saffron drapery. Between the drapes and in the rafters are polished brass lanterns shaped like lotus flowers. The wooden pews are set with red cushions, on which are little paper books titled The Smaller Sukhavativyuha Sutra.
When the funeral rites are finished and the mourners return to the main bar, they will find other changes. One of the booths has been turned into a sort of small family shrine that holds the memorial tablets of the recently deceased and a brazier for burning spirit money. There is also a table where mourners can do various things to transfer merit to the deceased and help provide them with a good rebirth. A couple of large tables have been set with food and drink for the funeral guests.
[OOC: This is structured like an All Skate or party post, in which there are multiple top-level tags for different areas and activities. The ceremony in the chapel is only the beginning.]
[Tinytag: Inspector Zenigata]
[Tinytag: Wormwood]
[Tinytag: Jin Guangyao]
[Tinytag: Phoenix Wright]
[Tinytag: Jonathan Sims]
The walls are hung with saffron drapery. Between the drapes and in the rafters are polished brass lanterns shaped like lotus flowers. The wooden pews are set with red cushions, on which are little paper books titled The Smaller Sukhavativyuha Sutra.
When the funeral rites are finished and the mourners return to the main bar, they will find other changes. One of the booths has been turned into a sort of small family shrine that holds the memorial tablets of the recently deceased and a brazier for burning spirit money. There is also a table where mourners can do various things to transfer merit to the deceased and help provide them with a good rebirth. A couple of large tables have been set with food and drink for the funeral guests.
[OOC: This is structured like an All Skate or party post, in which there are multiple top-level tags for different areas and activities. The ceremony in the chapel is only the beginning.]
[Tinytag: Inspector Zenigata]
[Tinytag: Wormwood]
[Tinytag: Jin Guangyao]
[Tinytag: Phoenix Wright]
[Tinytag: Jonathan Sims]
no subject
"I bear him no ill will," Jin Guangyao agrees. "I talked to people who were there at Qiongqi path. He only wanted to go to his nephew's three month celebration, my miserable cousin ambushed him, and Wen Ning slipped his control and killed my brother who had come to make peace, along with our cousin who totally deserved it."
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(When he finds out the truth, there will be hell to pay. But for now, this is a comforting lie.)
"I hope that some peace can come to your lands," Zenigata says, hoping for the best as he always does. "Perhaps as you grow in both skill and stature, you can provide some good influence on your Sect."
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The last of his paper goes up in smoke. On it, he had been sending chilies to Wei Wuxian. Among other things.
"We need to stop fighting among ourselves and start remembering what we are there for," he then says. "We need to once more provide the services for which a society as complex and old as ours keeps cultivators around in the first place, instead of thinking we're the end, and not a means."
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They're as close to Cultivators as Japan allows, but for this metaphor they work.
"However, Samurai without masters, ronin, they often turned to lawlessness," because every group given power eventually lusts for more. Zenigata knows this well enough, having uprooted corrupt cops by the dozens. "So farmers and peasants eventually created their own defenses, those who would protect against the sword carriers, and would look into crimes among the populace. In time as they grew, they became 'police,' and some even gained the right to carry weapons when Samurai became a threat. I bear my great ancestor's jitte, as he was one of Tokyo's very first police officers, and revolutionized protecting the people and guarding against crime."
He tilts his head, and says, "People would always do well to remember: if they don't provide service for food, eventually, poison will find their way into their meals. If they leave people unguarded, the strings of their bows will become frayed, and the shores of their defenses weakened and left uncared for. I hope that you can guide your Sects toward these ends as they seem to have forgotten that."
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"That is basically what I have been saying," he nods. "Cultivator gentry exists to protect the people from ghosts and monsters; they should be there when there is a problem of a supernatural nature, never mind if that specific village can pay them or not. The system in which the great sects and the lesser sects under them split up the territory is moronic and gives rise to laziness and arrogance. What we need is something like watchtowers: - a system that is designed to cover remote areas that most cultivators are reluctant to go due to their inconvenience and the lack of means of the people who live there. That system would assign cultivators to different posts, give aid to those previously forgotten, and if the people are too poor to pay what the cultivators demand, the great sect whose territory it is would just have to pay for it, because it's their damn responsibility to begin with."
Jin Guangyao has talked himself into something of a rage, just as Zenigata had before, and now takes a deep breath, eyes glowing.
"We can't exist on the back of farmers growing food, artisans crafting all the products a civilised country needs, merchants moving both around so everywhere has access to the same grade of civilisation, and still think we're so special we don't need to do the job people are tolerating our existence for. Especially after our war which affected a lot of mundane people, there is absolutely no excuse for our continued arrogance and laziness."
no subject
"I'm glad you see the truth of it. I would be happy to help you, seeing as I've eight generations of police work bred into me." His laughter is dry, tired, no where near as boisterous as before, but it's still risen from the dead. "You might also add in training for a peasant core -- for mundane guardsmen who handle police work so that the people of cities and towns and villages have some autonomy to enforce their laws, and with some training, larger threats to their freedom, so they're not entirely defenseless if a Cultivator dawdles about over payment."
no subject
Pause.
"Are you thinking volunteer guards from the area for supernatural threats, or for mundane threats including arrogant, unhelpful cultivators?"
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He stops. He breathes. Zenigata remembers this is not the time or the place, and feeds a few more sutras into the fire to focus for a moment. He's so sorry, Wei Ying, but this makes him so angry. But if there's any way to stop what happened to the now-gone Cultivator, he'll figure it out.
"Both," he says, sticking to the actual topic at hand now. He continued speaking, though there are some pauses between the lines when he has to feed a paper into the flame and think about just what is needed. "Obviously to handle rogue cultivators you'd need people that are nearly as good, but not Cultivators themselves, and for the lower-level supernatural stuff, they'd need the same training. Of course, you'd need them to be educated in logical deduction, policework, combat..."
no subject
"I suppose training up the locals would be something for the watchtower people to do while there are no actual incidents, but that puts a crimp in the plan that they should help defend the people against cultivators that fail to do their duty."
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He starts ticking off on fingers, counting out the forces. "Japan has the JSDF -- our military Defense Force. Then we have federal officers and investigators, and then we have cops with boots on the ground. I've been all three, in my day, in a way."
A few more papers go into the fire, one by one, as Zengiata thinks back to his own brief military service, and then answering the family call to go be a good cop like a Zenigata should.
"The JSDF deals with matters of war, but in counter-terrorist action, you wouldn't' actually want to call on them. You'd want to call on the Special Assault Teams, which is a branch of the police. A very highly trained, specialized branch," he adds, as he considers how they might do things. "The average detective? Never going to make it to the SAT, but an investigator might have information and need to work with them for certain things, yes? They still serve a purpose. You'd just need to have those layers and decide how they would work together as you put together your chain of command and duty lists."
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Loyalty and respect for one's elders being what they are, in his society.
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"Things might be difficult, though," he he says, murmuring as he ponders over how you'd set up training and cirriculum. "The Lan for instance, with their rules and strict obedience, may have trouble when justice requires flexibility and mercy. The letter of the law isn't always the spirit of the law. Cultural norms will be pushed. What is legal in Gusu may be illegal in Yunmeng."
Those are the only two land names he's very familiar with, so they're the only ones he uses.
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"A good example, though. Hopefully this will broaden horizons," Zenigata says. "I'd love to help you with this, but -- discuss at a more appropriate place, at a later date."
When they're not at a funeral. He shouldn't really talk shop here, even if he thinks of trying to prevent what happened to Wei Ying and his Wen family when he does it.
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"I'll find you in the next few days and talk about this again," Jin Guangyao promises.
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He feeds the last of his papers into the flame, gives his Japanese bow, and says, "If you'll excuse me, I've got to check on some other people," and makes his exit.
no subject