yinyangwizard

yinyangwizard @ 2021-01-25T13:51:00

2021-01-25T19:33:24Z

Seimei's package for Wen Qing includes a letter, a waxed paper packet, and a small felt bag containing something that makes faint clicking sounds when it's moved. The letter reads:

Wen-yīshī,¹

I hope you will excuse the presumption of a stranger in writing to you this way, but it would have been worse to impose upon you during your convalescence with a visit. I had the privilege of knowing your brother, and I consider Lan Wangji (who is kind enough to deliver this on my behalf) a respected colleague.

(They are in reality more than colleagues, though perhaps less than friends: it is difficult for Seimei to accurately describe their relationship without reference to Lan Yuan, who he has agreed to keep secret.)

For the sake of your brother's memory, I offer you whatever help I can give to aid your recovery. To this end I have sent you a packet of ground ginseng and a lapis mala to aid in your prayers for healing.²

I hope that we may be formally introduced when you are in better health. If you need anything, please do not hesitate to ask.

The signature, 安倍晴明, is read as "Anbei Qingming" in Mandarin Chinese.

¹ "Yīshī" is a very formal honorific for a doctor.

² Lapis lazuli is associated with the Medicine Buddha.

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Winter Holiday Gifts

2020-12-07T02:48:19Z

All of Abe no Seimei's gifts are wrapped in furoshiki cloth and accompanied by a small handwritten note in the recipient's native language.

Any Bar patron not on this list will receive a box of mochi in red, green, and blue colors if they can eat it, or a Kyoto snowglobe if they can't.

Gifts for Abe no Seimei's friends and acquaintances at Milliways
Recipient	Gift	Note
Gabumon	Box of holiday-colored mochi	A good holiday to you! If it is not too much of an imposition, please ensure that Yamato-kun trains to use his gift.
Jin Guangyao	Bottle of Maker's Mark Bourbon Whiskey	To share with friends and loved ones at home.
Lan Zhan	A high-quality calligraphy set, and a generous supply of paper	For your son's education. I hope to see some examples of his calligraphy some time.
Lupin	New set of lockpicks	Because you will need a replacement for your current set.
Sunshine	Cookbook of traditional Japanese desserts, including methods for making different varieties of adzuki bean filling	Thank you for the taiyaki! They were delicious, if a little messy around the edges. I hope you will enjoy baking these other desserts as well.
Teja	A metal block, such as one might use for material to forge a tool or weapon - but the metal has a slightly opalescent sheen and rings like a bell when struck	This is for a special project. You will know what to use it for when the time comes, but that time may not be soon.
Yamato	A dozen kunai, which can be used for many purposes	With the sort of situations you get into, you and the other Chosen may find these useful.
Yrael	Book of piano sheet music by the Japanese pianist and composer Joe Hisashi	I hope you will enjoy playing these, and that I will get to enjoy hearing them.
Zenigata	Box of 25 corona-sized Cohiba cigars	To have at home - you are are always welcome to have one of mine when you are here.
Zuko	A copy of The Book of Lord Shang, an ancient Chinese treatise on governance and administration	You may find this useful in your efforts to build a just and prosperous realm.

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The Bearer of Bad News

2020-11-10T13:31:22Z

Lan Zhan has had his injuries treated, and after some protest, has been convinced to take some time to recover. Or perhaps it's more accurate to say he was guilted into taking the time.

In any case, Lan Zhan and Lan Yuan are now asleep on adjacent futons in Seimei's room. Seimei has left his retainer Shizuka, the seven-tailed fox, to wait in attendance in case they should need anything. Someone needs to deliver the bad news to Zenigata, and in Seimei's view, giving Rae Seddon this task - when she is already so weary from her own grief and the other burdens she has to bear - would be selfish and unkind. So he takes it upon himself.

Seimei goes up to Inspector Zenigata's door, takes a deep breath, and knocks.

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Peace Offering

2020-10-02T16:26:05Z

At the Bar is a package for Wei Wuxian, consisting of a letter written in neat Chinese (on cream-colored paper with a fountain pen) and a small, glossy black stoppered clay bottle wrapped in a folded furoshiki cloth.

The letter is short and to the point, since the sender understands that the recipient probably prefers it that way. It reads:

To the Honorable Wei Wuxian,

I owe you an apology for my behavior at our first meeting, which I feel obligated to deliver in person at a time and place of your choosing. Until then, I hope you will find this rice wine from my homeland to your liking. It is meant to be consumed hot. Removing the enchanted stopper will heat the wine in the bottle to the optimal drinking temperature.

安倍晴明

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Poetry

2020-10-02T16:17:58Z

There is a package at the Bar for Lan Zhan. It includes four items: a letter, a Japanese language primer specifically for Chinese readers, the volume of Lan An's poetry that he loaned to Abe no Seimei, and a small card inside the cover of said volume of poetry.

The letter, written in neat Chinese characters with a fountain pen on cream-colored paper, reads:

To the Honorable Lan Wangji,

Thank you once again for introducing me to the work of the founder of your sect. I found many of his poems deeply moving, and I daresay even the great Du Fu would have admired them.

I dare to hope that you find the poetry of my homeland to be so worthy. Our poems are written in a phonetic alphabet called katakana, in which a character represents a syllable (rather than a word, as in the Chinese system). The waka poems I have recommended to you are written in a pattern of 5/7/5/7/7 syllables. It has occurred to me that Milliways' translation effect may obscure this form. Therefore I have included, along with your book, a primer intended for Chinese people to learn katakana. May this gift serve you well.

安倍晴明

The card inside the cover of Lan An's poetry is blue, and the only thing written on it is a waka poem, like an offering:

Tare ka yo ni nagaraete mimu kakitomeshi ate wa kiesenu katami naredomo

As life flows on, who will ever read it - this keepsake to her whose memory will never die?

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A deal's a deal

2017-03-11T20:02:30Z

Seimei enters the bar in the wee hours of the morning, when there are very few people downstairs. He pens a note and leaves it with the Bar for delivery to Jim Moriarty.

It simply says: All is ready. Meet me in the library.

And then Seimei heads there. Needless to say he will have plenty of books to keep himself occupied until Jim arrives.

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After Childhood's End

2016-04-23T19:58:34Z

All childhoods must, at some point, come to an end. Magically induced ones end more abruptly than the regular kind.

Abe no Seimei wakes with a start. Not that he was sleeping until now. He was...what exactly was he doing before he found himself here? And where is here, anyway? Who is that person off to his left?

He leaps back from the stranger, leaves crunching under his feet, and gets a defensive spell into place - all before he quite realizes that he's done it, or that the stranger he's reacting to is just as startled as he is.

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A Delicate Operation

2016-02-21T16:22:05Z

Seimei leads the way into the cavern, which is lit with little oil lamps and festooned with shimenawa rope hung from little hooks drilled into the walls. After Ragnar comes through - looking more comfortable than Seimei expected in his ceremonial white robe - Seimei ropes off the entrance behind him as well.

"To keep bad influences out," he explains. "Like when you sat under the waterfall earlier."

He's pretty sure that Ragnar gets the gist of what he's saying, even if the translation spell he's hammered out isn't as good as the one in Milliways. Even if it isn't, he explained everything to Ragnar (and Gyda) before they left the bar.

At the far end of the cavern is a pool fed by a natural hot spring. Between Seimei and the pool are two of Seimei's assistants, dressed in their own white robes - a Japanese macaque and a (rather anthropomorphized) tanuki. They kowtow in unison as Seimei and Ragnar enter.

The pool behind them glows faintly with an enchantment of Seimei's own devising. In the pool is Gyda's new body, floating on her back with her face just above the level of the water. She's dressed in white robes, like Ragnar and Seimei, and her hair floats in a corona around her head. It's longer than Gyda's hair in her Milliways body. There are other differences as well: her skin is paler, and any scars from childhood mishaps are gone. Still, the body is very similar to what she's used to.

Gyda herself is in a small jade jar that Seimei carries before him. He gives it to the tanuki, who holds it at the ready by the side of the pool. The macaque fetches a stool and a wand covered in paper streamers. Seimei directs Ragnar to sit on the stool and hold the wand. The macaque brings him tattoo needles and a pair of latex gloves (Seimei believes just as much in biological sanitation as he does in ritual sanitation).

"If you've changed your mind about where to put the geas tattoo, now would be the time to speak up," Seimei says. There's a bit of levity in his tone, but he isn't kidding. They're already committed to this, and the location of the tattoo to anchor the geas is really the only thing that they can change.

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Is This Your Card?

2015-11-08T22:01:33Z

For the most part, Abe no Seimei's project to develop a Japanese reinterpretation of the Tarot has been going smoothly. He has developed very specific concepts (even sketches) for most of the cards, and general ideas for the rest that a certain artist of his acquaintance can help to flesh out.

There is, however, one card that is prompting much wracking of brains, ripping of paper, agitated pacing, and chain-smoking. Seimei has considered getting around the problem by leaving the card out of his deck entirely, but that's not really an option. When it comes to magic, one must commit fully or not at all.

So Seimei has devoted considerable time and energy to researching this card in the Milliways library. He has broadened the scope of his research beyond books on the Tarot - even the most obscure and esoteric ones - and is now hunting for references to the card's imagery and meaning in prophetic visions.

At some point he realizes he is very far back in the library, past some kind of event horizon where said library loses its coherence and becomes tangled up with other libraries in other realities and times. The air is thick with magic which doesn't flow so much as swirl around in eddies and whirlpools. Seimei can feel the books watching him, and suspects that they may be planning an ambush of some kind.

While he is all in favor of doggedly pursuing knowledge, he is beginning to think that he may have pursued too doggedly and too far.

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