[Saiunkoku] Melodrama
May. 22nd, 2009 04:57 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
runicloreMelodrama
By: Amber Michelle
Prompt: vicious
Character(s): Reishin
Words: 587
For:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
imanewme (original request post is here)
......................................................
Lights still blazed in the Civil Administration office two hours past sundown, and Reishin sat back in his chair when the next watch was called, watching his reflection in the window tap the desk with his fan. There was an argument in the far corner, near the door, about whether some document or other merited his attention - it didn't, and they must be new to even consider speaking to him - and Kouyuu muttered at the next desk over, bent almost double over his letter. His inkstone clinked against the sides of its ceramic dish when he pushed it around with the brush. Everyone at court was talking about the emperor's proposal to allow women to take the civil service exam, and the office was flooded with petitions as a result.
All these people knew how to do was whine. He was stuck here well after the evening meal to sign and seal documents while the slugs in his employ took their sweet time writing them up, all because someone else's underlings - Justice and Public Works, though he wouldn't name names - couldn't hold it in until their respective department meetings. They had to leave their posts in protest and make dramatic exits. They had to waste perfectly good paper and ink writing letters to him when they should know Reishin didn't care about anything that concerned them.
Maybe he should fire them, all of them, and give them something important to complain about. If only his authority extended far enough to fire their incompetent emperor, Reishin would be a happier man.
Someone poured tea into a ceramic cup at the corner of his desk, and the sweet, grassy scent overwhelmed the must of paper and ink for a few moments, curling and fading with the steam. He reached for it, sipped, wishing for something calming to color the air - sandalwood incense, or lavender, or slender branches of cherry blossoms freshly-cut and smelling of both perfume and green wood.
Reishin was still sitting with his chair facing the window, tea in one hand, the yellow slats of his fan spread in the other to show their carvings, when a shadow darkened the polished finish of his desk and he looked up to see one of his palace agents. The man bowed, held out a message; the paper was folded six times, the calligraphy in cheap brown ink and perfect enough to be a stamp, rather than hand-written.
Our agents around the imperial villa are in place. When shall we extinguish the lights?
He looked up, past the unadorned green robe worn by his agent, to the stacks of paper on each desk waiting to be read, responded to, and filed. If his underlings continued to work at their current speed--
In two hours, Reishin scrawled at the bottom of the page with a brush offered by his agent. One of Kouyuu's, by the quality of the bristles. Writing implements were one of the few areas his son had a smattering of taste in. "Be sure to report on the results," he said, waving the paper to dry the ink. "Every detail, no matter its importance."
His agent bowed, took the paper, refolded it. Reishin waved him away and spread his fan again, this time to cover his smile. Let the emperor labor in the dark with the rest of them.
He leaned back, reached for his tea, and waited for the panic to set in.
.
By: Amber Michelle
Prompt: vicious
Character(s): Reishin
Words: 587
For:
imanewme (original request post is here)......................................................
Lights still blazed in the Civil Administration office two hours past sundown, and Reishin sat back in his chair when the next watch was called, watching his reflection in the window tap the desk with his fan. There was an argument in the far corner, near the door, about whether some document or other merited his attention - it didn't, and they must be new to even consider speaking to him - and Kouyuu muttered at the next desk over, bent almost double over his letter. His inkstone clinked against the sides of its ceramic dish when he pushed it around with the brush. Everyone at court was talking about the emperor's proposal to allow women to take the civil service exam, and the office was flooded with petitions as a result.
All these people knew how to do was whine. He was stuck here well after the evening meal to sign and seal documents while the slugs in his employ took their sweet time writing them up, all because someone else's underlings - Justice and Public Works, though he wouldn't name names - couldn't hold it in until their respective department meetings. They had to leave their posts in protest and make dramatic exits. They had to waste perfectly good paper and ink writing letters to him when they should know Reishin didn't care about anything that concerned them.
Maybe he should fire them, all of them, and give them something important to complain about. If only his authority extended far enough to fire their incompetent emperor, Reishin would be a happier man.
Someone poured tea into a ceramic cup at the corner of his desk, and the sweet, grassy scent overwhelmed the must of paper and ink for a few moments, curling and fading with the steam. He reached for it, sipped, wishing for something calming to color the air - sandalwood incense, or lavender, or slender branches of cherry blossoms freshly-cut and smelling of both perfume and green wood.
Reishin was still sitting with his chair facing the window, tea in one hand, the yellow slats of his fan spread in the other to show their carvings, when a shadow darkened the polished finish of his desk and he looked up to see one of his palace agents. The man bowed, held out a message; the paper was folded six times, the calligraphy in cheap brown ink and perfect enough to be a stamp, rather than hand-written.
Our agents around the imperial villa are in place. When shall we extinguish the lights?
He looked up, past the unadorned green robe worn by his agent, to the stacks of paper on each desk waiting to be read, responded to, and filed. If his underlings continued to work at their current speed--
In two hours, Reishin scrawled at the bottom of the page with a brush offered by his agent. One of Kouyuu's, by the quality of the bristles. Writing implements were one of the few areas his son had a smattering of taste in. "Be sure to report on the results," he said, waving the paper to dry the ink. "Every detail, no matter its importance."
His agent bowed, took the paper, refolded it. Reishin waved him away and spread his fan again, this time to cover his smile. Let the emperor labor in the dark with the rest of them.
He leaned back, reached for his tea, and waited for the panic to set in.
.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 04:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-05-23 05:19 am (UTC)Anyway, good challenge. XD Glad you liked it~