[21:46] 14There's a calm that falls over the land when the world faces death. It's not a good thing. It's a mask for the end. [21:48] 14Stranger Visits Heaven sits in the farthest corner of the teahouse 'Great Talmouse,' sipping a green blend and watching the door. [21:48] 14He's already petitioned the kitchen for dumplings. [21:48] 14Things were much simpler when it was just him, walking some place. [21:50] 13A lot of things used to be simpler. Worse, but simpler. [21:50] 14He has a private room, squared off by curtains. If Xia Lan wishes, he'll arrange for her to enter by the kitchen. [21:51] 14Or we can just press the flesh for two hours. [21:55] 13She slides in through the kitchen door, relatively unassuming in an oversized jacket with stark leggings underneath. A glimpse of her face would give her away, which is why she snuck in the back rather than making her entrance known. A quick toss of her hair back over her shoulders, and she sits across from Stranger, back to the rest of the teahouse and hidden partially by the curtains. [21:55] 13She sighs heavily, both in fatigue and in relaxation. "Hello, Stranger. Thanks for setting this up." 13It's been a rough week, goes unsaid. [22:00] 14Stranger: "It was not a problem. How were you, getting here?" [22:01] 14After a moment: "I like the handbag." [22:01] 13She shrugs. "Little slower than I'd like. People were --" 13she searches for the word -- "eager to see me up and about. All sorts of rumors, I guess." [22:02] "We are a bit too famous." [22:02] 13She brightens. "Thanks! I'm never sure when to break it out, but it just felt right." 13To his second point: "...I mean, there are alternatives. It's just a lot of effort on my part." [22:04] 14He grimaces. "There aren't that many alternatives. The officiousness of all this is...cloying." [22:06] 13Xia Lan: "People are really only looking for what they want to see. Show them something different, they'll lose interest." 13She opens the handbag, grabs a fake moustache and holds it into place. "Ridiculous, right? But, change the hairstyle, posture, drop your voice -- nobody pays attention anymore." 13She replaces it in the handbag. "Not saying it's not a hassle, but, hey, it works." [22:07] 14Stranger blinks. "Fair enough. Keep the moustache thing in reserve." [22:07] "...but I didn't come here to exchange tips for avoiding the public. Although I can help some more if you need! Tsuka'd probably suggest leaping across rooftops or something where they don't look anyways--" [22:08] 14Stranger: "How is Tsuka?" [22:11] 13Xia Lan: "Oh, he's great. I think he might be kind of stressed out, what with the--" 13she waves a hand vaguely, "everything going on, plus the increased training load, but he's managing. We both are, really." 13She is unable to hide her slight blush. [22:11] 14Stranger smiles as he sips his tea. "Good. That's good." [22:13] "How are you doing with the Emissary seat?" [22:14] 13She straightens, suddenly, and digs into her handbag. "Which is -- one of several reasons I wanted to talk to you! I just--" 13where is it "wanted to ask you-- 13ah yes here we are. She lays an arcane legal tome on the table next to her. "...how do you do it? I can talk to people forever, but... I'm constantly reacting, I never have any real idea beyond morals what I'm doing..." [22:16] "The entire time I argued with - Nogare - it was all morals against cold hard politics. If they hadn't wanted to listen to me, we would've gotten crushed. And I'm still not even sure that would've been the worse option, considering..." [22:16] 13She trails off. Pellicia. [22:18] 14Stranger: "Morals are a good start, but that's all they are. And Nogare isn't how you should evaluate all of this. Nogare..." 14He grimaces. "There was no procedural solution to that piece of shit. He wanted people to die." [22:21] 13Xia Lan: "Not forever, no. But, in that moment --" 13She straightens again. "Some of it was me. He didn't like me already - women in general, I think, and I was somehow worse - but he had real, tangible arguments. Benefits to promise to the city. He didn't show up looking to kill anyone - he just... didn't seem to have a problem that it turned out that way." [22:21] 14Stranger: "Why did he attack you?" [22:22] "What was the specific reason?" [22:25] 13Xia Lan: "After I disagreed with his proposal - tried to delay it more than anything - he told me I'd run like - well. I responded by telling him I'd be there for the people of Nexus, today, and the next. This infuriated him so badly that..." 13She spreads her hands helplessly. [22:27] 14Stranger: "You disagreed, you responded, he was infuriated--" 14He sips his tea again. "He hates women." [22:28] 13She nods. "The language he used made that fairly clear, yes." [22:30] "I use the present tense because I'm not sure that he's gone for good." [22:30] "I hope he is." [22:31] 13She shakes her head. "He'll be back. Hopefully after the crisis rather than during, but I don't have high hopes." [22:31] 14Stranger nods. "I agree." [22:31] "...So you want to know how it works the rest of the time." [22:32] 13Xia Lan: "...yes." [22:33] 14Stranger: "What do you know about who likes us on the Council and who doesn't?" [22:36] 13Xia Lan: "Kratz. Uh. Keldar, technically. Udelph and Hayle. That leaves Gen, Ephiselle, Thalevar, right?" [22:38] 14Stranger smiles slightly. "It does. But Thalevar will support us if we go to war for the docks, and Gen is willing to put aside his own conceits to keep the greater Nexus together. Meanwhile, Hayle and Udelph have extreme concerns about the measure of control we exert over the Council. So these alliances could change in a moment." [22:40] 13Xia Lan: "So how do we stop that?" 13Political novice, through and through. [22:43] 14Stranger: "Stop it? Why would we want to stop it?" [22:44] 13Xia Lan: "But you just said--" [22:44] "No, no. This is good for us. We can mold them." [22:44] "Sometimes we need Thalevar and Gen. Other times we need Hayle and Udelph. But what if we need Thalevar and Hayle? Now we can assess that." [22:50] 13Xia Lan: "...I guess people don't agree on everything all the time, right, why would politics be any different." 13She sighs. "Okay, walk me through it. What if we need Thalevar and Hayle?" [22:55] "Hayle is the Midday Husband. He's concerned with bigger-picture social health, which is why he sides with Udelph so often. That means food. Thalevar is the August Councilor of the Eclipse, but that title is meaningless -- he's the dockmaster. He cares about what's coming up the rivers and going down the rivers. So if we need both Hayle and Thalevar, we're going to make an argument [22:55] about granaries." [22:57] 13Xia Lan: "And - it'd have to be something Udelph disagrees with, for whatever reason... power trip, I guess. And then Gen and Ephiselle disagree on principle?" [22:58] 14Stranger: "Ideally, we'd have all of them on board." [22:58] "They're not bad people." [22:58] "...Well, maybe Keldar." [22:58] 13Xia Lan: "Then - I mean, we're fairly persuasive." 13Some more than others. "Why wouldn't we?" [22:58] 13She purses her lips, but doesn't disagree. [23:00] 14Stranger finishes his tea and pours another cup. "The real trick about politics, I think, isn't winning." [23:01] "It's convincing everyone else that they're not losing. And, ideally, making that true." [23:02] 13Xia Lan: "..." 13She taps a finger to her chin, deep in thought. "So I was playing wrong the whole time," 13she offers, eventually. [23:03] 14Stranger: "I don't think so." [23:03] "There's a limit to what you can accept. There's the concept of good faith." [23:04] "If there's no good faith, there's no politics." [23:04] 14He sips the tea. "Then you just start killing people." [23:06] 13Xia Lan: "Like our misogynistic 'friend,'" 13she offers. [23:07] 14Stranger: "Don't call him that even in jest." [23:07] "Next time we see him he'll hang high." [23:08] 13Xia Lan: "Do you think you're the first person to say that? I mean, Sun willing, you're right, but..." [23:09] 14Stranger: "Doesn't matter if I'm not." [23:09] "Ten thousand nations might have died at his hands. But he's dealing with us now." [23:11] 13Xia Lan: "...let's stop talking about him. I'm sorry I even brought him up." 13She refocuses. "You said - convincing everyone else they're not losing." [23:12] "How?" [23:12] 14Stranger: "Ideally, by making that true." [23:12] 13Xia Lan: "And when, say, you're on the rhetorical back foot?" [23:14] 14He sips the tea. "The whole point is to minimize the chance of being on said foot. Being caught off guard is bad politics. The vast majority of this job is learning things. Research. Widespread understanding." [23:15] "If you're caught off-guard, it's time to start lying. But that's your last resort." [23:15] "What you want to do is know enough that you can put your interlocutor on his own back foot. And that means a wide base of knowledge." [23:16] 14He pauses. "This is all theory." [23:16] 13Xia Lan: "My knowledge is mostly historical, and not particularly relevant to present day political squabbles. I've been trying to change that --" 13she gestures. "But it's... slow going." [23:17] "I've set up a Judiciary that might as well be a spy network and a secondary bureaucratic office specifically for monitoring the Council and giving legal advice. I didn't just do that out of the goodness of my heart." [23:17] 14He motions with the cup. "These are resources. You can use them." [23:20] 13Xia Lan: "...so it's like an ambush. Go in against your opponent with an element of surprise, then seal the deal." 13Her tone is measured, hard to read. [23:21] 14Stranger: "You kill the enemy in an ambush." [23:21] "That's not what we do here." [23:21] 13Spoken like someone who never left someone alive to spread fame and fortune. [23:23] 14Unless you're willing to kill them, you have to come into work with them the next day. [23:23] 13That's the political ambush. Not the caravan robber ambush. [23:24] 13Xia Lan: "Of course not. Just -- asymmetric info." [23:24] 14Stranger frowns. "You've got a hangup about betrayal." [23:25] 13Xia Lan: "What?" 13Hard to read anything into that. [23:35] 14Stranger: "Not betrayal you've done yourself. You dislike that others might be betrayed. You've been hurt before by it. By the Sun. By your friends. ...By me. I've got to own that, and I do." 14He pauses. "I want you to reckon with the idea that it's fine to lie to these Councilors, but also still like them.." [23:35] "Lie to them even if they're good people." [23:36] 13Immediately: "No." 13Then: "...not yet." [23:37] 14Stranger nods. [23:37] 13Xia Lan: "Maybe not ever. But -- I'll take it under consideration." [23:40] 14Solemnly: "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke." [23:42] 13Her hands twitch as if seeking out a notebook, but she gradually quiets them. There's a teapot on the table, after all, and she hasn't partaken at all. [23:43] 13After a steady pour, and a long sip, she changes the subject: "So. Xu Sim and the Scion of the Sevenfold." [23:43] 14Stranger grins. "How are they." [23:46] 13Xia Lan, smirking: "Upsettingly adorable! And I get the feeling they're stuck pining - we've got to work on that, I think," 13she smiles. [23:47] 14Stranger raises his eyebrows. "Well. I'd never interfere in---hahahahah." [23:48] "We've got problems with the Governor, though, so we need to figure out how to keep her alive and with him while we do what needs to be done." [23:49] 13Xia Lan: "That's the way less fun part. Maybe Scion herself can handle the Governor's -- whatevers." 13She waves dismissively. "A girl can dream, right?" [23:50] 14Stranger: "I can't speak for how girls dream, but I doubt they dream about handling the Governor's 'whatevers'." [23:50] 13She makes a face. "That is absolutely the opposite of what I meant and you know it." [23:51] "Just saying." [23:52] 14More seriously: "We need to protect her." [23:53] 13Xia Lan nods, seriously. "Sun only knows who's got it out for her. Or - I'm no doctor, but I don't think you can look like she does and be, um, medically healthy." [23:53] 13Please correct "um" to "ah" [23:54] 14Stranger: "She's probably dead. Medically." [23:54] "And if that's what Xu Sim is into, I'm not judging." [23:55] 13She waves that off. "Still walking and talking. Unless that's tied to - gross - unless that's tied to the Governor, think we're still all right." [23:56] "What is she? And how much of what she is is - her?" 13Xia Lan shrugs. [23:56] 14Stranger: "Death isn't the end." [23:57] 14He sips his tea. "It does make her an enemy of Creation, of course." [23:59] 13Xia Lan: "I've yet to see her act like one." 13She shrugs. "You're not wrong, but..." [00:00] 14Stranger waves a hand. "I meant categorically." [00:01] "And categories become important, in raw discussions like these." [00:01] 13Xia Lan: "Yeah. You're not wrong. Just..." 13She shrugs. "...lot of things could've turned out differently, for any of us." [00:01] 14Stranger: "Oh?" [00:02] 13Xia Lan: "Yeah." 13She doesn't elaborate. [00:02] "I'd have banished the True Fae that murdered my village or I'd have died there. But the Sun told me I couldn't have died there." [00:03] "So." [00:03] "Sometimes you don't get a choice." [00:04] "Because the thing is: I think Gary would have wanted to die there." [00:06] 13After a moment: "...you ever think what would've happened, if it wasn't the Sun that talked to you then?" [00:08] 14Stranger: "Yes." [00:08] "Too much." [00:08] 13Xia Lan: "...yeah." [00:09] 13Long sip. Good tea. Might be a little cold by now. [00:09] 14No it's not. Stranger is an expert at manipulating the hot coals. [00:10] 13Then Xia Lan sips at her excellent tea, and considers alternate futures. [00:10] 14Stranger: "I think Xu Sim deserves our support in this. Even with the Governor." [00:10] "As does Seven." [00:11] 14That last sentence seems a bit difficult for him to say. [00:11] 13Shaken from possible futures: "Of course! Yes. Xu Sim and Seven both." There's a notable absence. [00:11] 13Shaken from possible futures: "Of course! Yes. Xu Sim and Seven both." 13There's a notable absence. [00:13] 14They talk for awhile longer, and Stranger covers the tab. They both leave, staggered, through the kitchen.