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Soshi Masami Masami cocks her head, raising her eyebrows. She comments, rising and dusting herself off, "It should go without saying that nobody else should hear a word of this, of course. As you can see: I have no control over this man. I certainly would not speculate what would happen if word got out."
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Jun 22, 2014 05:45
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| # ? Apr 26, 2024 12:56 |
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Utaku Natsumi Natsumi pauses, then keeps eating. "I'm finishing this. We can't arrest people on an empty stomach." Roku DID invite us to dine! No reason we can't 
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Jun 22, 2014 06:53
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Kaiu Ginzo Ginzo's eyes widen at his companion's display as well. "Spoken like a son of Hida, Otomo-san," he says under his breath, with something very near to awe in his voice. Then, turning to their host, he adds, "Now that we have your attention, we may as well get down to business. I suggest, Roku-san, that you tell Otomo-san precisely what it is that he would like to know. That should help you to avoid all manner of unpleasantness stemming from raising the ire of an important samurai of the most important Imperial family. "Or, at the very least, you may wish to say everything important that you can think of right now, before Natsumi-san eats you out of house of and home." Playing good cop to Hayuma's bad cop. Let's see if we can't get Roku to talk about his plotting and scheming. Since Nana already mentioned that our boss might have a few skeletons in his closet, I'm particularly interested in anything he has to say about the personal vindictiveness of Hirosato -- though I am not, in fact, going to feed him suggestions along these lines. If he comes up with relevant testimony along these lines, however, that would be most interesting.
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Jun 22, 2014 10:35
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Roku slumps over to his seat and sinks into it, pale. "I swear to you I have committed no treason against the Emperor," he begins. "I swear it! You want to know what happened, and I can understand that the play has upset you, as well it might. You must know, first, that you yourselves are but pawns in this - none of you have personally wronged me, the way that Bayushi Hirosato, the man you worked for, has wronged me." His face miserable, he continues. "I told you before of my injury in battle. What I left unspoken was the name of my second in command, an ambitious young officer who stood to replace me should I fall. Hirosato-san," he spits the honorific, "was of course quite happy to take the lead in the battles following my unfortunate injuries, and to take the credit for my lord's ultimate victory. I was left with injuries which, as he had of course been careful to be the one who found me, I had no way of proving had come from one of my own archers. By the time I had regained my wits and my consciousness, you see, the arrows had been removed, and I was in no position to dispute Hirosato's account of what had happened. If nothing else, the man is talented at ensuring that he himself appears beyond reproach." Roku sags - the mask of good cheer has been stripped away, leaving a fat, depressed and utterly helpless man before you. "My own wife eventually confessed to me that she had, on his prompting, included certain 'medicine' which he had provided her to speed my recovery in my food--a drug meant to ensure that I remained in a witless haze long enough for him to secure my position and advance beyond it. I truly do love her, foolish as she is, but you see he is not above any level of conduct when it comes to his own rise. Once I had pieced together what happened, I swore a vow of vengeance. I may be a warrior no longer, but I remain a Scorpion, and so I hired young Nana and her growing network of informants to provide me with information on two things: others who Hirosato had stepped on or wronged in his rise to power, and Hirosato's own movements." Roku reaches out, hand trembling, for his tea, and takes a drink before continuing. "Hachiman is an insufferable fool, but he too had made an enemy of your employer some years after my own fall from grace. Had circumstances not been what they were, I would never have worked in concert with the idiot. It seems, however, that he too had hired Nana-san for very similar reasons." Roku smiles faintly. "If you do not kill her, that one will go far. Regardless, Hachiman was the one who approached me after we had been informed by Nana-san of the untimely demise of Matsu Kondo, and suggested that it was Hirosato's hand behind his death. We needed to prepare to discredit these new catspaws of Hirosato. He proposed the plan, and offered his theatre to house the play. I wrote the play, and ensured that the finest actors money could buy would be performing it, to guarantee that the largest possible audience would take it in." "I ask of you, what was the crime of Matsu Kondo? Where was his treason? I knew the man, and I knew his wife - Matsu Kondo was many things but a traitor, never. A ludicrously honorable and stiff Lion, absolutely. His wife, lovely woman, was an Otomo--as you well know, no doubt," he adds, nodding to Hayuma. "Only a fool would suggest that a member of the Imperial Families would dare incite treason against the Emperor. And yet, Kondo was manipulated, clumsily, into destroying himself on the blade of one of Hirosato's political allies. Had he only been a little less stiff, he might have known that Doji Saito is deceptively dangerous as a duelist, but alas, Kondo-san never understood the value of a spy network." Roku closes his eyes. "And so here we are. I admit it, the play was mine, and the purpose of the play was to discredit you, and indirectly, to discredit your employer. There is no conspiracy against the Emperor, no treason hiding behind the web of manipulation, and you may threaten me and mine, but there is nothing you can threaten me with that will compare to what I would earn should I have betrayed the Scorpion Emperor - so you shall have no confession of treason from me. Do what you will."
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Jun 26, 2014 14:54
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Kaiu Ginzo Ginzo takes in Roku's confession -- and accusation -- and contemplates a moment before responding. "The Crab are not generally known as scholars of the Tao, but I seem to recall Shinsei saying something along the lines of, 'Petting scorpions only gets you a sting.' Hirosato-san stabs you in the back, so you return the favor, so he seeks to end your little dance in a more decisive fashion, and now you would use us in a similar manner to bring him down. Around and around, the pincers of the Scorpion fighting against its own tail. I find such base action to be distasteful, but also unsurprising, given the players involved. "If what you say is true, then Hirosato-san is squandering precious resources while a grave threat from the Shadowlands assaults the Empire. I find it to be a personal affront to be used as a tool in this manner when I would be of much more value standing alongside my brothers and cousins on the Wall, improving the infrastructure of our defenses. Nevertheless, it could be argued that deciding upon the allocation of such resources is Hirosato-san's prerogative as the head of the Inquisition and a high-ranking official in the Scorpion Emperor's court. It seems to me that, at worst, what he has done is no more treasonous to the Emperor than your own actions were. Foolish, short-sighted, and dangerous, yes -- but directly treasonous, no. So given Hirosato-san's status, I'm not certain what you expect such an accusation to accomplish. Unless there is weightier testimony declaring that Hirosato's personal vendettas have more wide-ranging and serious consequences..." Ginzo is pretty turned off by this petty bickering and infighting, but he is nothing if not loyal. Unless there's a really good reason to go after his boss, he could give a poo poo about some random underling -- especially a Scorpion -- complaining that someone else played the game better than he did. Nevertheless, there is precedent for the Crab seeking to clean the Emperor's house, especially in times of existential crisis for the Empire. But at this stage, he remains unconvinced that letting Roku swing for his "crimes" is worse than upsetting the existing power structure.
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Jun 27, 2014 03:31
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Utaku Natsumi Natsumi nods. "So. Unless I missed something-" and she was eating the entire time, so... "-Roku-san's story matches Nana-san's, and neither of them have actually done anything illegal. Is that right?"
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Jun 27, 2014 05:21
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Kaiu Ginzo "If Roku-san is to be believed, legal or illegal does not seem to be the central concern for Hirosato-san. Now if the parties to this dispute were the sort concerned with honor, I would suggest a duel to resolve the matter. But I suspect such a proposal would not be seriously entertained."
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Jun 27, 2014 07:36
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Roku shrugs. "Hirosato is bound by the expectations of the Imperial Court. He would not so readily decline a duel, but he doubtless has many champions to call on, and of course the master of a branch of the inquisition is unlikely to rely solely on the skills of another--if whoever challenged him made it to the duel at all, it is a certainty that they would not do so unimpaired."
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Jun 27, 2014 15:49
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Kaiu Ginzo "Well then, given that your recent attempts at embarrassing Hirosato-san only ended in compromising your own position, what was to have been your next attempt upon his...sterling reputation? Were you going to continue to ally yourself with the others in further actions?" Pumping Roku for more information; let's see how chatty he really is. And I'm still undecided about whether we attempt to confront Hirosato or not.
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Jul 7, 2014 03:46
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Soshi Masami Masami presses two fingers to the bridge of her nose through her mask. "And so all of this is a personal dispute. Treason this may not be: but you divide our clan against itself, in a time when we face assault on all sides. That disloyalty, at least, cannot stand, you must know."
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Jul 7, 2014 03:57
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Utaku Natsumi "Maybe we could get Hirosato to bury the hatchet and focus on the Shadowlands threat," Natsumi muses. She's probably devoting a lot of attention to the food right now. Idealistic! 
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Jul 10, 2014 13:20
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Soshi Masami "While that is more important in the broader scope," Masami says with a shrug, "I don't know that it's at all within the scope of his own duties. A futile avenue to persue, I think." Masami leans her head back briefly, and says, "If he knew all of what was going on here before we even arrived-- his local agent must... you have a leak, Roku-san. Or..." She chews on her lower lip behind her mask. It was awfully convenient that someone had approached Roku with this, plan and agents in hand, wasn't it? "... or this is an even bigger set-up than you think."
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Jul 10, 2014 17:40
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Roku quails. "This is entirely about self-defense, you must understand! If I had enough to go on to remove Bayushi Hirosato from the position he has climbed to, if I had the position and allies and power, do you think I would have resorted to discrediting his pawns? What of Hirosato's disloyalty to send you against his enemies in such a time?" Masami's conclusion causes the corpulent Scorpion to pale. "You suspect one of my conspirators of betraying me? But...why?"
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Jul 24, 2014 06:03
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Soshi Masami Masami pinches the bridge of her nose. "Because every last one of us can swim. Because Hirosato-san is a man of means with a history of targeting those he sees as enemies. Perhaps one of your conspirators was never your ally in the first place and all of this was a trap to lure you into open action. Or perhaps Hirosato-san subverted your ally, with either carrot or stick." Masami shrugs. "You realize, of course, that you didn't have to either remove him or discredit his pawns, yes? His asendancy rankles, of course, but you are acting against the interests of our clan, if nothing else. Certainly walking into a trap is a stain upon us all."
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Jul 24, 2014 06:34
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Kaiu Ginzo With little patience (and far more contempt) for the ineffectual Scorpion, Ginzo interrupts Roku's self-justifying complaints. "If you are quite finished vomiting the sound of weakness, I would know whether you have anything further of substance to say to us. If not, we shall continue on with our investigation, and you can be handed over to those who have a more hands-on approach to questioning."
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Jul 25, 2014 02:38
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Soshi Masami "Hmm?" says Masami, stretching out slowly. "Oh, I think Roku-san has told us everything we need. I could explain to you later, if you like. But as I see it, it's just a question of how we proceed. It would be a waste to kill someone who knows his way around a battlefield when the Wall is in such dire shape, after all."
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Jul 28, 2014 05:30
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Kaiu Ginzo "Duty upon the Wall might sound like punishment to one such as yourself," Ginzo says darkly, "but it requires a certain amount moral fibre, and a willingness to die for others, that this one clearly does not possess. No, I think the situation there would only get worse if we were to send such a sorry excuse for a samurai there." Oh, were you trying to threaten him? Sorry to ruin your little plan or whatever, but Ginzo has no patience for reducing the sacred Duty of the Crab to a punchline.
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Jul 30, 2014 03:42
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Roku does not look happy, and somehow does not look relieved when 'rescued' by Ginzu. "I have told you truly everything there is to tell," he states. "There will be no need for further...questioning, I swear it."
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Jul 30, 2014 03:52
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Hayuma Hayuma, still angry but also thoroughly exhausted from the emotional effort, says, "Enough! We have too much to do to argue amongst ourselves. Roku-san, you are convicted out of your own mouth. What you say about Hirosato-sama might be true, and it might be true that the Lion Kondo never did anything worthy of death. But, from your own mouth, you admit your guilt. You claim that Hirosato-sama used his powers to pursue personal vendettas, but did you not do the same thing? Because of your dislike for Hirosato-sama, you conspired to discredit Imperial agents, and to turn both us and Hirosato-sama's very position into objects of ridicule. I don't know if what you did constitutes treason or not, but it was hardly correct behavior. Do the right thing, Roku-san. Tell us anything else we need to know, and then do what you must do to restore your honor."
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Jul 30, 2014 04:09
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Utaku Natsumi The Unicorn looks up from... some kind of bird wing, hopefully. She's been studying the food a little too much as her mind starts thinking about Kondo, and she's a little behind. "So if he does, would that benefit Hirosato-sama's allies or his enemies? Or... the enemies of the Empire? The Wall isn't the only duty that needs doing."
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Jul 30, 2014 15:57
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So to clarify are you going after Hachiman at this point? Or do you have other plans?
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Aug 11, 2014 04:34
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Soshi Masami "Punishment? You wound me. A man who is trained to battle might regain a shred of dignity there, if he had a will to do more than be slaughtered. And you know the state of the place better than I, but it seems quite clear to me that it is our duty to the whole of the realm to do whatever we might to beat back the forces that assault the place. And if that means, yes, offering it to a man who would in better times have only his wakizashi as an option... then I will say to drat your pride, before it destroys us all." She half-turns, and says, offhandly, "Hachiman works for our employer. I'm quite certain of it by this point. If you must hear it from his own mouth, then let us to it, but I myself have no need. And I think if he dies of this, it will be our own lives on the line."
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Aug 11, 2014 04:48
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Kaiu Ginzo Ignoring the Soshi's complaint, Ginzo replies simply, "By all means, let us finish this most important exercise on behalf of our august superior Hirosato." Ginzo's patience with all players in this sordid drama is at an end. While his contempt for Roku has already been given voice, simply omitting the honorific from his employer's name is sufficient to convey his disdain for that one as well. Do we have to lock this POS up, or bring him with us? I don't trust him nearly as much as I do Nana. Assuming the group can keep Roku from doing anything foolish like skipping town, then Ginzo is moving on to Hachiman in order to complete the follow-up interview with the last of the trio of wannabe conspirators.
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Aug 11, 2014 12:10
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With Roku suitably detained, the final player in this little charade is Hachiman, the Noh fanatic. It is now quite late in the evening, and it is only your status as magistrates of the inquisition which eventually opens the doors of his estate to you once again. All the same, he keeps you waiting for several minutes before appearing, dressed and coiffed hastily. He looks quite irritable. "I already told you everything there is to know about this foolish Kabuki play. What is so important that it could not wait until morning? Did that bumbling merchant Roku sell you lies about me to save his own fat hide?"
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Aug 12, 2014 06:26
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Utaku Natsumi "He told us your Kabuki theater is only barely turning a profit," Natsumi says helpfully. "I can't say I approve." Anyone want me to cast Benten's Touch on you on the way here? 
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Aug 18, 2014 12:57
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Kaiu Ginzo "Interesting that you would assume such a thing. Why would Roku-san seek to do you ill, and what damning information could he possibly possess about you in any case?" Keep talking, buddy... I'd say that Natsumi should use Benten's Touch on someone who's actually competent at social interaction, like Masami.
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Aug 20, 2014 17:46
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Hachiman pauses. Surprised? Marshalling his excuses? "Why, because he is a miserable merchant, and full of lies. Anything he said is clearly not trustworthy. It is as I feared, then!"
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Sep 4, 2014 03:49
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Utaku Natsumi "And what do you fear?" Natsumi prompts
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Sep 7, 2014 14:01
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"Why, that he has fed you lies and slander!"
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Sep 7, 2014 19:35
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Kaiu Ginzo "And if Roku-san had, for example, accused you of being party to a conspiracy against a superior within the Imperial Bureaucracy, what then would be your response to such calumny? Surely his status relative to your own would indicate that his testimony would be the more trustworthy, would it not? In such a case, our hands would, unfortunately, be tied." I don't actually know -- nor do I care -- whether Roku has higher Status than Hachiman or not. But actually coming out and stating that Hachiman is inferior in some way will hopefully rankle his pride, and goad him into a more substantive response. If not, we actually do have testimony against him already, so in the absence of any defense on his part (apart from empty denials), we have grounds to subject him to questioning at the very least.
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Sep 8, 2014 01:48
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Hachiman snarls. "You've come here already knowing what you're going to believe. Execute your damned sentence and know that I curse all of you!"
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Sep 29, 2014 03:09
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Kaiu Ginzo "On the contrary, we came seeking Truth, so as to enact Justice. Since you will not voluntarily provide us with substantive testimony as to the truth of the matter, we are forced to acquire it by other means." Yeah, I'm done with this guy. I'm going to physically restrain him and lead him off for questioning; if he actively resists, the weapons are coming out.
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Sep 29, 2014 03:22
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Utaku Natsumi Natsumi tchs. If this weren't her Duty, she'd be calling in favours to get a better job. She moves to help Ginzo as much as she can without touching anyone. "Suit yourself."
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Oct 6, 2014 11:45
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And I think I am just about brain dead on how to wrap this in a satisfying way. Anything further just...ends up dragging it out, I think. Sorry and thanks everyone!
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Dec 1, 2014 04:44
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