ktiseos | [pcs] su jiuqing

[honestly, emet-selch is a pal, because jiuqing is one of the shortest people here and i, britt, have personally never had a problem with reaching things on bookshelves so i keep forgetting that people of her height would.

anyway, she is in fact eyeing a book on the top shelf, and for a moment she looks like she might actually try to climb it, but -

emet's got her covered! she blinks, looking surprised, and then she smiles as she takes the book. it's about how to modify guns. huh.]

Thank you.

[he's just not acknowledging that ignore that he did anything. thanks.]

Doing a bit of study, are we.

[he's peering at the book, curious. jiuqing why are you modifying guns.]

Yes.

[she smiles.]

I've run into one of your roommates several times while reading at your apartment. I thought he might be interested in these, and, well... I'd like to understand more of what he talks about, so I thought I should read up on it too.

-ah. Percy, then.

[he's heard about them from him, too, nodding as he looks at the book's cover.]

He has given some explanation, but they are still quite unfamiliar to me as well.

That's right. He's easy to get along with.

[

is he?]

We don't have these things where I come from, so it's very interesting to learn about them.

I have found him to be the same.

[clearly you just have to be a fucking nerd.]

'Tis likely for the best you have had no need of such things, however.

From what I've been reading, it sounds like having just a small number of them could end a war rather quickly if the other side didn't have them...

[she taps her chin]

But... once both sides had access to that type of technology, wars would get much bloodier.

...so they would, yes.

[a slight furrow of his brow, there.]

Is conflict common, for your home?

...it happens occasionally.

War had just broken out a few months before all of... [she gestures at her surroundings.] ...this. I was with the army at the border before I showed up here.

Fairly recent, then.

[hm. he's quiet, a moment.]

For what reason was it waged?

[i went back to double check, and:]

There had been some political tension Daxing and the country of Yan for some time, so they married one of our princesses to their country's prince. [...] A few months later, she stabbed him.

At least, that's what what Yan said. I wasn't there, but that was their justification for coming over the border and trying to take our land.

[he's listening to that, just sort of. staring. they what? and she what? and then they what??]

...I suppose these matters do become quite involved, [he mutters, with a little shake of his head.]

[yeah mood that was me reading the chapters]

It also didn't help matters that the princess had quite a temper. The emperor really shouldn't have sent her if peace was what he was trying to accomplish.

[it is probably treason to shittalk the emperor like this but what's he gonna do? pop out of an archway and have her arrested?]

If that is the case, then do you think that was what he meant to accomplish?

It's hard to say. On the one hand, he's definitely an ambitious man.

...on the other, starting a war with Yan on purpose would have been a risky move. He'd recently taken the right to command the army from a general whose family he felt had too much power, so plunging the country into a situation where we were at war - and constantly losing battles, which is what happened when he wouldn't let General Lin fight - didn't work in his favor. He ended up having to give the right to command the army back to him, which wasn't what he wanted.

...mm. Poor judgment in either case, then, and certainly not indicative of a strong enough leader.

[not someone who can be counted on to make the most appropriate decisions, as they ought to.]

[she nods]

...I can't say I'm altogether impressed with the imperial family.

Then surely some among you ought to raise a motion that they be evaluated and replaced, if they cannot be relied upon to guide you effectively.

[empire? he doesn't know her.]

That would be treason and unless we were very careful about it and used force to remove him from power immediately, we would likely be executed.

How in the world do you establish your leadership that this should be the case? Such positions should only be held by those whose people entrust them with the honor, and such honors ought to be revoked if, stars forbid, it should prove necessary.

...

They don't have empires where you're from, do they.

...no. No, we do not.

[she sighs]

It usually starts with one ruler who did earn the right to rule. But then the ruling power passes from that person to their children, to their children's children, and so on... unless they don't have any, or unless they die before they can have heirs. Then the succession is a little more complicated.

What reason is there in simply passing rule from one individual to their offspring-- there certainly is no guarantee that child will be the one best suited to it, or that their own talents are not better applied elsewhere.

That's just how it's been for as long as I've been alive.

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ktiseos - 2022-02-23 05:03 (UTC) - Expand

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