Yohoho and a bottle of rum

[scrapgege]

WHO: Xie Lian, OPEN
WHEN: All August except for the protest and the poison incident
WHERE: Around the seediest parts of Taravast
WHAT:Xi Lian is attempting to channel a Pirate King. Keyword : 'attempting'.
WARNINGS: drinking, gambling, stuff like that.


A.DARK ALLEYS

[So, Xie Lian is supposed to be a pirate, right?

Right.

What do pirates do, really? They are, supposedly, criminals who steal things that don't belong to them and resell them to other people or something like that. Honestly, he doesn't really know.

The only thing he has found as a way to pass for what he is supposed to be is to try and emulate Hua Cheng's clothing and mannerism. The clothing looks mostly fine. The mannerism... he's working on it. He simply does not have the swagger and air of superiority Hua Cheng can invoke in a second. He's also not very tall, and outwardly at least he looks pretty thin, so if not for his supposed reputation, he probably would have been mugged already.

And he decided to go to the taverns because, well it sounds like something a pirate would do.

Those alleys are dark and disreputable, and full of beggars and peddlers of all kinds, and if Xie Lian is a sucker for something, it's a person who looks like they need help. One sob story and he is taking out his money pouch to give some coin to the beggar.]

Here, have some. I know it's not much, but it will help.

[Someone please attempt to save him before he literally gets swindled out of all his money.]


B.GAMBLING

[So, once they are in taverns, pirates drink and they gamble, right? Right. This is just like in Ghost City.

And just like in Ghost City, Xie Lian's abysmal luck manifests, such as he keeps losing. A lot. Repeatedly.]

Haha, I don't think I really understand the rule of this game. Have I lost again? Really?

[Thankfully for him, the people around the table seems to be half frightened by his reputation, so his words might interpreted as vaguely threatening instead of the genuine inquiry they are, so no one has asked him to pay up yet... but they might soon.]


C.THE RUMOR

[Why oh why, did he have to go an invent that pining, unrequited love for Xiao-daozhang? He had only meant it as a soft way to discourage more female advances, and that had been the first name he thought of, but somehow the story seems to have take a life of its own, and now...]

Aaaaah, I'm going to need to apologize to Xiao-daozhang. I didn't mean to bring him such trouble.... I hope no one has been bothering him.

[Don't mind him, he's talking to himself while pacing in the garden of the palazzo.]

Comments

[sergeant_slick]

...I mean, I might actually have one, so that could work. [But he wasn't forgetting things any more than normal. ...Right?]

[scrapgege]

[Immediately, Xie Lian looks concerned.]

Oh no, did you get hurt here? What happened?

[sergeant_slick]

What? No, not here. I am actually a soldier, not just playing pretend for these people. Got my bell rung a few times, it happens. [He doesn't think it should, not without a really good reason at least. But brushing it off is his knee-jerk reaction anyway.]

[scrapgege]

Oh. Ah yes, well, getting hit on the head does happen a lot in battle, haha. So it should be fine to use it as an excuse?

I didn't know you were a soldier. What army are you from?

[There's a few people trained for combat that he has seen, but he doesn't remember seeing Slick fight during the farmhouse siege.]

[sergeant_slick]

Yeah, I guess you're right. I can make that work. [He's not entirely fond of the idea, playing up injuries more than he actually got hit. ...But if it gets him out of difficult conversations with the locals, he'll take it.]

I'm a clonetrooper. [Has anybody here actually recognized what that means when he says it? No.

Has he gotten used to that? Also no.]

[scrapgege]

[... Do you see that slightly confused headtilt, Slick?]

... What does that mean? Did someone else make you?

[He is, in fact, familiar with the concept of clones, because gods do that. But not being used as an army because it requires too much energy.]

[sergeant_slick]

Wh--? Oh. You don't know either. Alright. [Does nobody on this planet check the news? Seriously, this is getting ridiculous.]

Right, so, the quick version: the biggest government in the whole galaxy ordered the creation of an army, grew us, and then gave command over to the most powerful Force users in the galaxy. They neglected to pay us or give us an option to leave. [And when he puts it like that...]

I'm the only idiot I know of who decided that was wrong, and I tried to take on the whole system. It didn't go well. [And he was even more of an idiot for wanting to go back and try again, but he had to. There really wasn't another option, as far as he was concerned.]

[scrapgege]

[Well, Xie Lian doesn't know what army of what government this is in reference to, but it's actually not that important.]

... Yeah, armies are like that. It was a bit like that the last time I was conscripted in one. I also tried to get in the middle of things and ended up basically trampled to death.

[sergeant_slick]

Well sorry to hear that, [Because that does sound like it sucks], but you've got it wrong. Conscription would at least mean the Republic was sending its own people to fight, but they aren't. We're slaves they had cloned for the army. The Republic treats us as disposable so their people don't have to sacrifice anything.

[scrapgege]

Haha, the Banyue army didn't really pay either, to be honest, but they didn't make clones, at least. The only people who can are Heavenly Officials or ghosts, and even they couldn't make enough for a whole army. Plus, a clone isn't really an actual person where I am from, they're just a being sustained by energy, and they dissipate if not taken care of.

... I guess people are people everywhere, huh?