[open] no strings attached

[no_kyouken]

Who ⬤ Majima & Open
What ⬤ Night Parade
When ⬤ April
Where ⬤ Around
Content Warnings ⬤ Cross dress, violence, alcohol, probably smut somewhere.

Prompts in comments, wildcard me with anything else you want. You can catch me in the discord or DM me at itsabee#1072. OOC plotting comment Feel free to double up prompts, I will tag you however many times you want. majima 🎶 goromi 🎶

Comments

[paperpusher]

Mm. As strange as it might be to say 'welcome to hell,' it sounds like an improvement. [A part of him is curious about what happens after-- whether returning back to where they came from was part of their contract payments, if they knew where they were going afterwards-- but contracts were a deeply personal, and about dead last on his list of small talk topics.

Natori's long since gotten used to everyone here being able to see the lizard-- it was hardly a surprise that it'd be visible within the ayakashi realm, and doubly so for someone who looks like Majima does. He gives Majima a small, resigned smile and taps his jaw, right on top of it; the lizard doesn't react to his finger.] It's not the same as your situation. Mine's quieter, for one.

[no_kyouken]

[ He frowns behind his cigarette for a moment. ]

What is it?

[paperpusher]

Who knows. [He shrugs, sticking his hands in his jacket pockets. His voice is light, as if it doesn't matter. Just some idle small talk.] It's some sort of ayakashi, but beyond that... And yes, before your friend says anything, it's very funny that I'm an exorcist and I can't identify it.

[Since he can't side-eye Chijoku directly to cut him off, he shoots Majima a conspiratorial look out of the corner of his eye, like they're both in on the joke. Easier to point it out and make fun of the sore spot than leave the low-hanging fruit out there.]

It doesn't do anything. It just crawls around. I don't think it can even perceive the things around me.

[no_kyouken]

It is very funny.

[ Chijoku agrees cheerfully. ]

Shut up, Joku.

[ The snake just chuckles, a whispery sound like paper. Majima refocuses on Natori, still frowning thoughtfully. ]

Where'd ya pick it up, then?

[paperpusher]

[Natori just raises his eyebrow, as if to say "case in point."]

I don't know. I might've been born with it, or else it showed up when I was too young to remember how it got there. It's just always been somewhere on my body.

Ah, though do you want to hear something creepy? It's never once gone on my left leg.

[no_kyouken]

No parents t'tell ya, one way or th'other?

[ Not a shocking thought to Majima who was born to the usual miserable, poor family that wasn't really equipped to raise him and thus didn't. He ended up on the streets early, he was always going to be yakuza and that's the only family he required. ]

What's so creepy 'bout it? Got some cursed limb ya ain't coppin' to?

[ This has humor to it, a weary and mellow sort. ]

[paperpusher]

Ah, well. No one else in my family can see them. [Which isn't to say that his family didn't believe him, at least not eventually. It just probably would have been easier for him if they hadn't.] My ancestors were exorcists a long time ago, but it's been generations since they lost the ability to see ayakashi and quit the business. I didn't meet another human being who could see this until I was in high school.

[He gestures again towards his face, where the lizard has scurried a little further up onto his cheek.]

Seems like it, right? There's a betting pool going on whether I'm going to lose that leg. [He says this just as cheerfully, like it's just a running joke among the exorcist community. Like he hasn't spent years of his life obsessing over it. It's fine.]

[no_kyouken]

Huh.

[ It makes him ask, not for the first time, if there had been yokai and exorcists mucking around in his Tokyo too, just out of his sight and awareness. He doesn't know what to make of it but doesn't find it worth wallowing over. This is his life now, for certain. All the yokai and exorcists he can shake a stick at. ]

Guess ya might. You'll live, probably.

[ Majima's making it without that eye. It's a fucking trial and it changes your whole life losing a part of yourself... but you can keep limping on. ]

[paperpusher]

...Yeah. I guess so.

[It's not as if Natori's been unaware that Majima is wearing an eyepatch, but he's used to that not necessarily meaning the same thing it might in the human world. Between Majima's snakelike features and the fact that Natori spends a fair bit of time with a man who wears an eyepatch to ward off future danger rather than to cover a past injury, it's hard for Natori to remember that the most straightforward explanation is probably the correct one: that Majima is missing an eye. That last comment, of Natori being able to live with it, is like a reminder that he's being self-centered. Wallowing over what-ifs is bad enough, but it's worse to do so in front of someone who's actually gone through it.

He glances away for a moment, looking up at the path ahead of them as if he's just checking out the scenery.]

Sorry. I'm going on like this when you probably just wanted a quiet night. There's not much I can do for now, but if you ever do find yourself in need of an exorcist... I'm Natori.

[no_kyouken]

Quiet wasn't doin' me no good anyway.

[ He's prone to wallowing in his own self-pity himself. He's not over the loss of his eye, he's not over the year of torture, he's not over Hakagemachi. Really, Jigoku-cho seems to just rub salt in his wounds: a town just like home that still isn't home and he's not really who he used to be either. ]

M'Majima. Ain't an exorcist, but I'm pretty good in a fight.

[ He considers it to be his only real skill, but it undersells all that he knows and is. ]

[paperpusher]

Well, hopefully there's no need for either of our skills any time soon. [Every inch of Natori's body screams at the idea of attending the Night Parade in the first place, much less doing so with nothing but a single paper doll to his name, but that's the situation he found himself in. All he can do is hope that it's really the sign of cooperation and celebration the leaders want it to be. He's not holding his breath.] ...Shuten? I know it might be a stereotype, but. Well.

[no_kyouken]

Shuten.

[ He agrees mildly. ]

Tenko-hime probably scooped ya up for yer magic.

[paperpusher]

Among other things, [he agrees easily, if not without a hint of self deprecation. He is extremely aware that he is very pretty and that people will pay money to look at him, because:] I've appeared in a few romance movies as a side job, so I wouldn't be surprised if that was just as big a factor.

[no_kyouken]

[ He buries his smirking laughter behind his cigarette. ]

Ya don't say, a movie star too. Maybe, think th'Sutoku's got all th'talent agencies though.

[paperpusher]

[He nods in acknowledgement, but lets out a large, self pitying sigh.] I'm at a host club instead. It's really not that different from acting, I suppose. The truth is I reuse a lot of lines from my previous roles.

[no_kyouken]

Used t'run a couple cabaret clubs, in Osaka.

[ Fancy hostess clubs. So... he probably knows the job better than Natori does. ]

It's a certain kind of performance, yeah. Even as th'manager I had t'act right.

[ Here, allow him to unslouch his posture, holding his cigarette out of the way and off to the side. His lilting Osaka-ben leaves him entirely, turning clipped and proper. ]

Welcome, customer-sama, how may I serve you.

[ He returns to his cigarette with a roll of his eye and twist of his lips. ]

[paperpusher]

Ah, really? [If Natori had any lingering doubts about Majima's profession before arriving here, this seems to settle them. Another actual yakuza, then, not like the rest of them who have fallen into it by circumstance.] You've got more experience than I do, then. Usually the person I'm flirting with is also getting paid for it.

[He's not shocked by how thoroughly Majima changes his entire demeanor, but he does appreciate the skill involved!] I'm impressed, Majima-san! You could make it in showbusiness if the circumstances were reversed. [Those circumstances being Majima finding himself stuck in Natori's profession, instead of vice versa.] Your Tokyo-ben sounds very natural.

[no_kyouken]

[ It's the Osaka-ben that's fake. He's Tokyo born and raised, but the family he joined had an oyaji from the West. So his family speaks as he does, that's just how it is. Majima's gotten much better at it after living in Sotenbori for several years. In general, he is an actor. Someone who puts himself aside and slips on any role required of him. For survival, not fame, and when he inevitably cracks and loses his mind, it's mostly just for fun pretending to be anyone other than himself.

At the moment though, he just points at his eyepatch, ]

Ain't doin' any actin' with this thing.