jigokulogs | [open] no strings attached

[ He takes a deep inhale that he holds for a moment. He doesn't like being vulnerable like this in front of people. He's clutched together a facade of functionality for a long time -- not a convincing one: depression smudges under his good eye, cheekbones a little too gaunt. But it makes him feel better to pretend that he can handle everything. Admitting otherwise is not a thought he even likes to touch upon, even scrunched up small in a haunted grove.

He looks at her with a wary expression. He can still half-hear the murmuring spirits, but just having someone else's face to focus on puts it at a lower decibel, like whispers from a different room. ]

Nah, it's... shoulda taken 'em more seriously when they said this spot was haunted.

[Remembering all the times she had curled herself in a ball upon waking up from her nightmares or even the few times that were embarrassing to think back on now when she freaked out in public was enough for her to standby patiently while he inhales and eventually glances back at her.

She makes an affirmative noise at his response, nodding with a knowing expression. While the whispering she could hear definitely still bothered her on some level, even with the effects of her food.]

Normally, that kind of thing would bother me too, so I get it.

[Clearly, the best solution was to probably get the hell away from the trees, but LB didn't want to hurry him either. She considers holding her hand out - as LB was pretty sure she couldn't accidentally harm someone through contact at this point - but instead decides to ask first.]

Are you able to stand up? Maybe we, uh... should walk a little farther away?

[ Being understood is uncomfortable being it implies something ugly. He never wants to exactly know how deep it goes because that means the Hole opens up in the back of his mind and he starts to remember things from his year there. The imaginary cage he was groomed to believe in at least keeps that away... but there's no one maintaining it in Jigokucho. It's just Majima and his nightmares.

He hesitates for a moment, chin lowering with a frown. But he starts to get up, putting out a hand to steady himself on the tree. His shoulders remain stooped, but he's up and he brushes some of the dirt off his slacks. Standing make it more obvious that he has a fairly thick serpent's tail that the back of his shirt is tucked around; white scales that shine in the watery overhead lighting from the path. The same scales are thinner but dispersed over the rest of his visible skin. ]

Sure. Let's get outta here...

[Even if it is for a moment, LB worries as the stranger hesitates. Not being used to trying to comfort people, she wonders if she just wasn't cut out for it - or at the very least, perhaps she needed to rethink how she approached this kind of situation in the future.

However, as he manages to pull himself up to his feet, she pushes that thought away for later. Pushing herself back to her feet, she manages a faint smile, though curiosity quickly overtakes her expression as she spots the tail spilling out the back. Oh, so he wasn't quite human, then? Not that it bothered her any, when she had long gotten used to the yokai around the place.

She knew it was impolite to stare, though, so she manages to wrestle her eyes away back to Majima's face making certain to match his pace, so she didn't step too far ahead.]

Of course. This place is fucked anyway.

[She wonders if she should introduce herself now, but decides to wait on it a bit, give the man a bit of time to recover. As they get a little further away, though, they get close to one of the refreshment stands. She wasn't certain if he'd actually want any food after going through some obviously depressing shit, but maybe a drink?]

Oh, do you want anything before we get too far? [She nods toward the stand in question.] I'll buy.

Edited 2022-04-06 02:43 (UTC)

[ He's not real great at comforting people either. Every interaction with it -- giving, receiving -- makes him think of Makoto wrapped around his leg and crying while he tried to decide how human he still was. And that was before the snake even got to him.

He's fairly comfortable as half-yokai. Maybe he was all along, Chijoku would certainly tell him so. Maybe that a lot of the people on the gokudo have picked up more than a little demon by eschewing civilized society and its protections and rules. ]

Whole town is.

[ He agrees faintly, but also this den of sin is what he considers home. There's just none of the familiar faces, no Tojo Clan to bury his identity in to. No Shimano to guide his lead. Toraguma's too nice for the job. ]

...Takoyaki's always good.

[ The ultimate comfort food. ]

Don't worry 'bout payin', I should bring some extra home or th'roommate's gonna put up a riot.

Edited 2022-04-07 02:19 (UTC)

I suppose it is technically, hmm?

[Given that this was apparently hell and all. But yet, even so, she found that she preferred it here in Jigoku-cho over her home world. Though not entirely peaceful here, it at least wasn't a constant battlefield. Not to mention that since she was no longer useful as a tool to be used in war, she wasn't even certain what she even had to return to anyway.

Perhaps she felt a little directionless here as a result, but at least it was a clean slate - no one else (or close to no one) would ever have to know the things she had done. Even if that much did little to ease the guilt constantly weighing in her mind.]

Still, I think there's parts I like. Just... maybe not the freaky whispering.

[Her expression perks up at his choice of food, though. Even if she didn't have the chance to try takoyaki back on Earth, as the resident octopus connoisseur, it was one of the first things she had to try in Jigoku-cho upon learning of its existence. Considering the trauma she had to face just because of eating octopus in the first place, learning how celebrated a dish containing it here was one of the many reasons she had more fondness for this literal hell over the figurative one on Earth.]

Oh! That's a good idea, I want some too, now! [Though she was originally trying to keep her manner more subdued, her face lights up in a more animated fashion as she speaks.] I'm trying to experience as much new foods as possible, but I really have a weakness when it comes to octopus.

[She finds the nearest stand selling takoyaki, making certain Majima was following her as she stands in line.] I can't say I blame your roommate though, I'd probably be sad if someone ate takoyaki in front of me and didn't even bring me any.

[Granted, she had no roommate, mostly because she was too self-conscious over her compulsive laughing - even if it was being subdued for the time being.]

Jigoku's just like home, which... Shoulda figured, I guess.

[ All the overindulgences, greed, violence. All the yakuza know they're going to hell and they do what they do anyway because civilized life just isn't for them, for one reason or another. He resists the urge to take a cigarette, since they're on their way to eat, but the impulse is strong. He stuffs his hands in his pockets instead, slouches along. ]

Sometimes ya just need some easy fried food t'cheer ya up.

[ He says that, but this snack still brings him some melancholy. He doesn't know what happened to the blind girl who he brought takoyaki while he was trying to hide her from the yakuza. His contract is that she'll be safe in the end, but he knows he hasn't earned it yet. That he might never, knowing the way yakuza like to operate. His face is... really fucking depressed even as they approach the stall and the great smell wafts over them. ]

I've been hearing that a lot from others I met here, actually. As for me? Eheheh... this is nothing like anything I've known before.

[Mostly because most of the people she had spoken to were Japanese, but also for about a decade or so, she had either been transported from warzone to warzone or was just not in a good place mentally. She still wasn't in a great place now, but she at least had some semblance of sanity now.

Her smile widens a bit at his comment - it would be nice if fried food was all it took to truly calm her mind, but she didn't want to say anything in case that really was the case for Majima. However, looking upon his expression, LB was still unconvinced.]

Somehow, I get the feeling that you're going to need more than fried food tonight. But, perhaps it's a decent start, hm?

[LB closes her eyes for a moment, enjoying the scent of food in the air. She never got to enjoy a festival like this, being from a very small town - so the new experience was at least welcome to take her mind from the fate of her home village.]

I don't know if you're the kind of person that feels better from talking out your problems, or if you need a distraction. But, I can't imagine you'd want to spill everything on a stranger like me either.

[ What he needs is to somehow go back in time and stop that hit from ever being discussed. Keep himself and Saejima out of the politics that they didn't understand. Keep his eye, keep his oath brother out of jail, keep them together with Yasuko. But that's not how things work, and even if Hell offered him that contract he wouldn't believe it. All he can do now is suffer his punishments.

But still, he hesitates. He responds when people are earnest with him, he's much more trusting and sentimental than he wishes he was. He scuffs his shoe while the takoyaki cart works on frying up the dough, turning each dumpling. ]

Ain't gotta worry 'bout a guy like me, just some thug who's seen too much shit.

[ It's easy to self-deprecate, he really loathes himself. Started out life as an unwanted street kid, became an unwanted yakuza. All he's good at is fighting and fucking things up. ]

Comes with th'territory.

[Even if Majima doesn't give her much, she still glances over with a solemn kind of understanding, nodding her head.]

You and me both... [Perhaps "thug" would be a new term for her. But honestly, she had been called much worse than that. It'd be easy to wallow in her own memories, and perhaps she would if she were on her own. But in the company of someone else - even a stranger - LB still felt compelled to try to hide the more depressing part of her personality the best she possibly could.] ...but as far as I'm concerned, you don't look like a thug to me.

[Considering that the worst people to her were cultists and everyone else that she went against were typically military of sorts, perhaps LB didn't even know what a thug was supposed to look like. Nevertheless, she's at least honest in that remark before turning to thank the vendor for the takoyaki. Once she receives the food, she walks away from the stand with a thoughtful hum.]

Do you want to go see if we can find something not shitty to look at?

I'm about as yakuza as they come.

[ He rubs the back of his head sheepishly. In Sotenbori, no one had believed he wasn't yakuza even when he was technically a civilian. He looks like a thug, but at least around Jigokucho that's par for the course. He looks like any other yokai clan member around Shuten territory. He's almost unremarkably normal in this town.

But he does accept the tray of food, glancing up the street to see whether they're about to be run over by a kanamara float or if there really is anything worth seeing. ]

River's probably quiet this time'a day.

[LB's brows raise for a moment, if only because "yakuza" was a term she had learned not all that long ago from Soma. Though she hadn't heard of it before coming to Jigoku-cho, it was at least common enough to be tied to two people she spoke with here - perhaps it would be worth it to learn more about the subject in her free time. Nevertheless, LB makes a mental note to herself and puts that to the side for the time being.]

Perhaps I don't look like it, but I used to be a military contractor of sorts... not all that far off from a mercenary, I suppose.

[She apparently looked so much like a Tamamo kind of girl, that multiple people had been able to guess on their first meeting with her - even she knew that she wasn't really all that well suited to the militaristic part of her former job. She too rubs her shoulder in a self-conscious sort of way.]

So, um, we really don't fall all that far from the same tree, I suppose.

[As they get farther away from the trees, LB takes one more look to appreciate the beauty of the pink visage - it really was too bad that the whispering from the dead was a thing here, because otherwise she'd might like to take in the view for a little longer. However, the alternative presented did sound more appealing.]

Oh, probably is! Sometimes, if I can't sleep, I'll come down to take my mind off of things... it's nice.

[ Maybe. Mercenary implies that she fights for whoever, for the money or the prestige or whatever it is. Yakuza implies that he is bound to one family, that he's promised his life and his blood to one particular 'father'. It doesn't feel quite the same in Jigoku. In Tokyo, you know the reputation of your boss. You hope to be chosen by then and to live up their expectations. In Jigoku-cho you are simply assigned out to someone you have never known before. He puffs a sigh, none of it feels right. ]

Never been military.

[ He loathes government authority, of which the military is a part. If he felt like the government cared or would ever have looked out for him, he wouldn't be yakuza at all. He's been failed, left out and let down and driven to the only part of society that would have him. Yakuza thrived after the war, when the government and the military were at their most crippled and most fallible. ]

Guess it's rough though.

[ He doesn't feel any need to argue with that, that violence is violence. He glance around to get his bearings for a moment, then leads the way down towards the banks of the Sanzu. ]

I'm sure neither of us sleep great.

[open] no strings attached

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