TEL VISHAN BEACH PARTY

[akito]

Characters: OPEN
Date: Saturday, August the 9^th
Location: The Shell 'Coastline' nearest the Water Sector
Situation: Baby Turtle Beach Party!

-

At the edge of Asti's shell there are coastlines of natural deposits that make up the closest thing to a 'beach' that they'll ever find in Keeliai. It's here that the official Tel Vishan Beach Party is set to take place. All turtle 'parents' will have gotten a message from their respective hatchlings about said party (perhaps a nice change from the whining and the temper tantrums).

Temporary shaded areas built with poles and sheets for weary parents or hatchlings who do decide to come, and some simple snacks and refreshments have been set up as well. There's a fishing net set up to act as a volleyball net for the day, and a ball waiting in the sand for some players.

The rest is up to those who come.


((ooc: feel free to comment under the headers, or start your own top-level comment!))

Comments

[gistful]

I was admiring your tattoos.

[Anton answers completely unperturbed by the glare.]

Guan Yu I recognise, but are the others Zhu Que and Qing Long or Fenghuang and Huang Long?

[He speaks fluently, if with an older accent than Jackie might be familiar with.]

[jinzhong]

[Huh. Now there's a surprise.]

Fenghuang and Huang Long, [Jackie says, a little admiration in his voice.] Man, I didn't think anyone was gonna get it.

[gistful]

I have spent significant time in China.

[The first was before Mevolent's war, some of the others were during; but he makes frequent trips there in the Hotel too, if only for nostalgia's sake. The tattoo of Guan Yu looks particularly foreboding, so the man was most likely a member of a triad--not that it meant much here. The others are not unexpected in light of that, but are interesting nevertheless.]

Why did you choose those?

[jinzhong]

[Jackie shrugs.] Didn't really get a choice. 'S expected.

[Some arcane bullshit that Old Salty Crab had been talking about. He hadn't really been listening to the exact significance. That's just what you did in the Sun On Yee.]

[gistful]

[And that also explains a great deal.]

So you wear them without understanding their significance.

[In spite of the words, Anton's tone isn't judgmental. It's a statement, more than anything else. Head-cant.]

Of which triad were you a part?

[jinzhong]

[Ya perceptive, Anton, ya damn perceptive. Even though Jackie wants nothing to do with them anymore, his narrow chest puffs out a bit with long-instilled pride when he answers.] The Sun On Yee.

[He cants his head in kind.] Why'd you ask? [No reason to assume he's part of an enemy triad. No gweilo would be initiated into a triad.]

[gistful]

You are obviously a member of such.

[Anton wondered whether the Sun On Yee was a corollary to the Sun Yee On. Possibly, given the nearness of the name.]

Fenghuang is a symbol of virtue, grace, and the Empress, or yin. Huang Long represents power and the Emperor, or yang. In wearing both of them one claims to strive for balance, virtue in power and fidelity to a cause.

[If the tattoos have become expected without much in the way of understanding, Anton has to wonder how much of those traits the Sun On Yee encapsulates.]

[jinzhong]

[It's the 'please don't sue us' corollary, Anton, so yes, actually!

Jackie nods.] Yeah, well. Lots of us got these tattoos. Upholding them's a different matter. [Big Smile Lee? Dogeyes? He is totally talking about you.]

[gistful]

[There's an undercurrent there Anton recognises, but which he can't quite define. It can go a number of ways.]

Indeed. Has attempting to do so gotten you into much trouble?

[jinzhong]

[Jackie smirks, but it's tempered by the pain of his betrayal by those who had sworn to protect him.] You have no idea.

[gistful]

Perhaps I have some idea.

[He takes a seat on a rock, back straight and not proper so much as prepared, still gazing at Jackie. It is, very much, an invitation.]

[jinzhong]

[Oh. Normally when he says something like that, people take it as an invitation to, uh, stop prying.

He's momentarily nonplussed.] D'you think?

[gistful]

I was a mercenary. Then I was a soldier in a war. It is very difficult to uphold such tenets when one is either.

[jinzhong]

Yikes. You're not kidding.

[Beat.]

It's probably about what you're expecting. The trouble.

[gistful]

They objected to your actions and classed you betrayer.

[It was a guess, but the extreme end of a guess, so anything under it would be easier to divine. Anton had seen it happen often enough, seen ideologies change so much that those who strove for what had been were considered traitors to what was now.]