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 Post subject: Description
PostPosted: Mon Oct 02, 2017 12:31 pm 
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The more or less rotund Pan has long had two faces. The yang of it, closer to the Crescent Quarter, is the sprawling Promenade and the spacious Plaza, basking in radiance and bright colours enabled by urban forethought and aesthetic considerations. The yin, stretching toward the Waterfront, consists of ever-busy markets, inns, workshops, food stands and dens of varied vices cramped together into a simmering, smelly pot of an all-you-can-find soup. Now, however, the dividing line has been drawn more starkly, as two stakeholders moved in to carve out their domains of influence.

The area down from the Seppun Compound has been defined by the influence of the governor's wife, Seppun Chouko. True to her commitment to Crane artistic superiority, she has nurtured a bulwark against whatever distasteful influence would creep into the area. Amid the vivid floral hues of the Chrysanthemum Plaza Crane artisans and performers have been much more frequent to spot. Awned gazebos earned Kakita-style sculptures, while music and poetry rarely go silent across carefully gardened alleys, even on cooler days. The well-policed Promenade, now adorned with a carpet of red foliage, sports shops offering only elegant seasonal snacks (stupendous presentation and design, acquired tastes, low nutrition) while boasting many stands with ikebana materials and coloured paper for origami. Because ikebana and origami are everywhere around there. Chouko has had a faithful partner-in-crime to enact all this, Doji Gokku of the Bihada, a most beautiful man with refined tastes who's proven to have a penchant for knowing how to spend governor's money on art to please his wife. His beauty parlour has prospered to the point of expanding into surrounding areas, outsourcing catering to the Sweet Nook with its hit pastries and fizzy drinks and seeing the Baths refurbished into a more elitist place, with tasteful xylographs on wooden walls, where some of his spa therapies could be applied. Even the most famous local sushi bar, once a great value-for-money place, has turned more gourmet, and expensive. The clienteles and audiences are assured as more and more high-profile residents have moved into the area due to the special role of the city in the designs of Hantei Jama.

And then, there's Yasuki Shingen's domain, extending from his headquarters in the Smiling Carp. Business knows no vacuum, koku must flow, and once Tortoise influence over the commercial sector of the city was cut short in the wake of last year's incidents, Shingen and Gusai Shumpei have expanded their merchant kingdoms, with the Crab securing a good share of the Pan. These days not only does Shingen directly own or control many workshops like The Steel Pincers, but he also has a stake in most other retail and services enterprises in the Market regardless of their size. His own enforcers 'helped' the magistrates to take care of the notorious criminal den of Bow Wow Chow. In its place Shingen has opened Master Tiger Shrimp that has attracted much of the former budget patrons of Sushi, Baka!, serving big prawns in many forms, from tempura to okonomiyaki. There is no open discussion about business model of Shingen's emporium, though some vendors can be found quietly complaining about protection fees or whispering that someone similar to the goons from Bow Wow Chow is now patrolling markets at night with a carp-and-mum headband. Shingen keeps the peace, pays his due and keeps the magistrates friendly, not least by all-you-can-drink invitations to his monthly sake festivals at the Smiling Carp when he introduces seasonal blends. To the point that rumours about dens of gambling and chirp booming behind the facade of legitimate businesses are largely ignored.

Especially that there just might be a graver concern the Seppun law enforcement has so far failed to address directly or by turning it over to the Jade Office. Each month for the last year, after a full moon, a mutilated and blood-drained body is found somewhere in the district, usually of someone without social relevance. Those are often, though not exclusively, young women. An urban legend has arisen that the district suffers from depredations of a dreaded creature called pennagolan, a flying vampirical head that leaves her body behind but drags its bloody entrails with her. It is strongly advised in the neighbourhood not to wander after dark for those one-two days a month when Lord Onnotangu shines brightest. The heimin have tried to deal with it on their own, so far with little success. The pennagolan remains elusive.

The Wheel owned by Agasha Sanjuro is perhaps the sole yang dot in the Yasuki yin. The Dragon inventor conscientiously rebuilt it after it exploded last year, keeping its triple nature as his house, his smithy and the staging ground for his inventions. However, his involvement with the Imperial Explorers has captured much of his spare time he had once devoted to his own projects and when he does not assist in their individual endeavours, these days revolving mostly around indigenous gunpowder weapons, he is called to repair something on this or that vessel at the docks. It is the fate of men who have a better grasp of gaijin technologies than those eager to introduce and use them. There are two people, however, who he makes time for no matter what, locking the Wheel up if needed. One is his elder brother Ryuden who's been invited to be a visiting sensei at the Imperial Naval College. The other is the chief taxonomist of the Explorers, Doji Koharu.

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For more information on mentioned locations, please check this forum.

Since it is a multi-location forum, separate threads in same timeslots are allowed.



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