[1 / open] you snuck into a club for the first time 'cause you wanted to feel free

[bratherine]

Who ⬤ Kate & maybe your character?
What ⬤ Substories and part time gigs!
When ⬤ Now? Throughout May?
Where ⬤ Various locations
Content Warnings ⬤ None for now, probably.

— mochi-lly.

prompt reference

On May 16th the gyokuto returns for the moon viewing. This time she is testing medicinal mochi! It goes about as terribly as one might expect, given her proclivities.
[...]
Some mochi hits you with a chill so deep it can only be relieved by the warmth of another body, compelling you to shove yourself right against the nearest person regardless of who it is.

( She's not much for sweets, really. Never has been. But the Gyokuto promises they're not sweet, they're herby, they're medicinal. They're something for all tastes, so try this blue one!

Kate ends up staring at it for a long time after she's escaped the sales pitch of the woman, carrying this single blue mochi in the palm of her hand like she's not entirely sure whether she'll drop dead if she takes a bite. Thankfully — well, thankfully for RPers who like shenanigans — she sees someone else down a blue mochi and live, which is all the encouragement needed for Kate to take a bite of her own. )

... What the fuck?

( The chill hits her so suddenly and forcefully that her teeth feel like they've been dunked in ice. Or like she's just drank ice cold water after brushing her teeth. It's so immediate a sensation that she looks for the nearest bit of cover, as though expecting an arctic blast of wind to come next.

... The fact that the nearest bit of cover is a person who has body heat is just coincidence, okay? )

Shut up. It's cold.

— mr. vendman, vend me a man.

prompt reference

A local shirime wants a particular item from a particular vending machine. Which one, you might ask? Who knows!

The only thing that the shirime will tell you is the button combination: A5. A nosy kejourou can be bribed to tell you which machine, but first you have to provide them a photograph of a certain popular host from one of the clubs. To obtain this picture, you must first bring food from a preferred street vendor to one of the hitobashira who live under the bridge. This vendor will normally only take payments in barter or trade...

This continues throughout the city, a seemingly endless chain of trades and barters, until you finally encounter someone with an easy request to move forward with. Then, at last, you might find out which vending machine you need.

Turns out, it's one that vends porno magazines in a backlot. The item in question is a rare printing of a magazine called “Juicy Peaches”. You can probably figure out the content based on the name alone – no wonder that spicy shirime wanted it!

( The story so far...

She gets to this vendor the hitobashira are so fond of and he asks her to get the ingredients for this dish, which is annoying but fine. She's already ended up on this trail, so she may as well. This better fuckin' be worth it though. If this guy is just trying to get a drink of water she'll dunk his fucking head in a river for the trouble.

Now, back to the list. Noodles, check, prawns, check, squid, check... )

Konjac? Isn't that booze?

( That's cognac, Kate. Someone may want to direct her to the actual Konjac before she ends up trying to talk someone into giving her spirits. )

— michelin star service.

( It's pretty obvious that a job is essential. The flat she's been assigned is a dump, and while she's not exactly looking to live the mansion life, it'd be nice to not live somewhere that has water dripping from upstairs 24/7. Not to mention the paper the building calls walls.

She already knows way too much about her neighbours for comfort, thanks.

So... Jobs. A lot of the Tamamao district is— well, to put it bluntly: incredibly horny. Which is whatever, but she's grown up knowing and expecting rules about that kind of stuff, and when it comes down to it, she'd rather just try to pretend she's at all suited to work in one of the fancy restaurants than lie about her age and get found out.

Which is how she comes to be stood at the door of a restaurant where one dish would probably cost more than the rent on the place she's been given, wearing smart trousers, and waistcoat and a shirt, her hair scraped back into a neat ponytail. It's a trial period for a shit job, but it's money, and so when someone arrives to be seated, she asks an incredibly polite; )

What d'you wan— ( And catches herself before she completes that sentence. Shit. ) I mean, uh. Do you have a reservation?

— wildcard.

( hit me with something else? message me at exits / exits#8071 if you wanna talk about stuff or just write your own starter! )

Comments

mochi-lly.

[shurajodo]

( Unfortunately for her, Gara doesn't have much body heat.

He's undead, after all. Kind of, anyway.

He does recoil, feeling his skin crawl at skin contact; he's not used to that from anyone, not even Yuki. )

Aye! You wanna get bit?!

vend man hook hand car door

[metafictions]

That’s cognac, actually. Konjac is a root.

[says a helpful young Japanese man, at the same vendor with his own shopping bag full of ingredients.]

They should be over here. [Kamui, brushing his bangs out of his eyes to reveal the odd, somewhat unnervingly silver one, gestures toward a pile of little brown things on the other side of the vendor’s setup.]

What’re you using them for?

[bratherine]

( She doesn't like it either, but she's fucking cold. )

Want to get warm, dickhead.

( Tch. Why the fuck is it so cold all of a sudden? )

[bratherine]

( ... Okay this guy looks and sounds like he knows what he's talking about. And Kate wants this done soon as, so— )

Uh... ( Huh. That eye's different. There's a lot of weird people here, though, so Kate manages to keep her surprise to a blink and a moment's silence before she remembers what she was doing and snatches up a root. ) Never heard of this before.

( read: thanks. )

Dunno. Guy wants food. Cook wants ingredients. ( she waves the list she's been given as proof of it. )

[metafictions]

[He's used to the weird looks, so he isn't even bothered by the bit of hesitation.]

They're pretty common in Asia. [A beat.] If you're from a world that has an Asia. Think of them like a yam.

[Weird errand. But this sort of smells like... fetch quest? Kamui peers at the list as Kate waves it around, trying to get a glimpse at some of the words on that list. Sort of looks like oden, but he'll need to get a closer look.]

Hang on. Is this related to that, er, yokai from the vending machine? [THE BUTT ONE...?] I was doing a kawauso's groceries for them-- they said they knew someone who knew someone who knew what he was talking about.

[bratherine]

( Well, she does have an Asia in her world. But that's not as important as the current topic.

AKA this stupid yokai's chain of quests. ) Aye. That guy.

( knew someone who knew someone sounds like the gist of what she's been hearing too. ) You ever get to th' end of that?

( or is it just left up in the air of a guy who knows a guy whose cousin is friends with a guy... )

[metafictions]

Nope.

[HE'S BEEN AT THIS FOR HOURS, KATE.]

But I have a feeling that I'm getting warmer.

[And he's willing to put in the work. There are no shortcuts in detective work, right? He taps his chin, looking at Kate and her newly-gained root vegetable...]

What else do you need to do? Maybe we can work together. It'll certainly get done faster that way.

[bratherine]

( Oh, good. She looks so happy about this :|

But if he's willing to get this work done faster, she'll agree. Most of the physical ingredients seem to be in this shop. The question is... )

Need this, uh, broth base.

( Here. The list is actually crossed off apart from the broth flavouring parts. She is helplessly British about cooking, okay? Why couldn't the fetch quest be beans and toast bread? She could have done that herself! )

[metafictions]

[Kamui hums quietly to himself as he reads down the list. Kelp, bonito flakes, dried anchovies, dried shiitake--]

Ah! They're trying to make dashi.

[Although Kamui has the familiarity, he's also not so well-versed at cooking, either. Like, he can feed himself-- and he enjoys a good meal as much as anyone else-- but his time in hell has been the most practice he's ever gotten in properly feeding himself like an adult.]

Let me just... [Here we go, there's the kombu. Kamui grabs a stiff bundle of dried kelp, bags it, and passes it to Kate.] There.

I'm guessing you don't cook much Japanese food?

[Hazily, he remembers one timeline's trip to England; he remembers the case far, far more than what he ate. Who knows how easy it is to find a good restaurant or Asian grocery over there.]

[shurajodo]

Pfffftahahahaha—

( His laugh is guttural and kind of wild. )

Too bad ya won't get much. Don't run hot these days.

[bratherine]

( There's Asian grocery stores. She just never goes in them. That would require a dedication to food that Kate never really learned. But since this guy knows what he's talking about, she's going to let him find these things.

One more ingredient down, thank fuck. Who needs this much stuff for a meal? This is why she doesn't care to cook. )

What d'you normally cook?

( That attempt to sidestep answering wasn't even subtle. She just point blank ignored the question. :|

But uh. That shelf, the one where jars of dried shiitake should be... That looks pretty empty, doesn't it? )

Fuck.

[bratherine]

( Is this chill getting worse or is she just imagining it? Ugh, hold on. She's checking her phone, because she already argued with that half-yokai guy about it not being as hot as he thought it was.

... Yeah. The temperature hasn't changed at all. )

Then find a blanket. ( Because the most logical solution to this annoying situation is to gripe at this stranger. Yep. That's the choice she's making today. )

[metafictions]

[The honest answer is not much-- a lot of reliance on convenience-- but there's only so much to do in Jigoku-cho after work, so he's been trying as of late.]

Nothing this involved, usually...

[But, ok, the lack of answer is in itself an answer. Don't worry, Kitkat. He'll handle it.

Except W O W, way to sell out of your shiitake exactly when they need it?! Kamui frowns at the empty shelf and clicks his tongue disapprovingly. They better not get another lengthy errand out of this: in fact, he wants to circumvent that entirely, if he can. This isn't a video game anymore, in his case, they can go off the quest's rails.]

Let's just pay for what we found and go to another stall.

[bratherine]

( Well, it makes sense. This is a guy who's making food to sell to people. At least they know he does it fresh?

Still, this endless line of errands is ridiculous, and it better be for a good reason in the end. (Spoiler: lolno) )

...Aye. ( This is like, 90% of the stuff they need. Which means the last one's probably gonna be the bitch to find, isn't it? ) Bet we'll need to find and dry them ourselves.

( That's about how this day has been going so far! )

[shurajodo]

You get a blanket.

( This is silly. )

You bein' cold ain't my problem, damn aliver.

[bratherine]

( Being cold makes her extra cranky, okay? )

Aliver? Fuck's that s'posed to mean?

( Like. It sounds obvious but the obvious answer is still so strange to her that she asks anyway. )

[shurajodo]

Fuck does it sound like? Means you're alive and brainwashed.

( He still doesn't disengage from her. )

You got some kind'a illness or whatever? It ain't that cold out.

[bratherine]

( Jesus fuckin'...

Rubbing her arms is less than useless, and this guy has about as much body heat as the nearest fridge. )

No. ... I don't think so.

( She's used to being sick coming with headaches, or stomach pains, before anything else.

She did eat that— )

's the fuckin' mochis.

[metafictions]

That, or we’ll need to trade with an older kappa gentleman who grows and dries his own shiitake, but he’s looking for a specific hat…

[Sigh. Even for him, this is getting a little crazy.

At least the shopkeeper’s taken note. Waving them over to take Kate’s payment, he mentions another spot to get the mushrooms: an elderly kappa mushroom seller who grows and dries his own—]

Sorry. [Kamui raises a hand to interrupt.] Is there an easier way to do that?

[“Oh, just go check one of the other shops. There’s no shortage of shiitake or anything, we just ran out.” The shopkeeper shrugs.

Kamui gives Kate a quietly prideful little grin.]

I think we dodged that bullet.

[bratherine]

( crazy, but entirely on point with the way this whole series of quests has gone. She tsks under her breath when handing over the cash — the guy was at least nice enough to give her money for it but he seems to have counted out to the penny what this should cost. Which means she can't pocket any of this.

Which means they better hope none of the other shops are selling these at a more expensive price point.

Though, finding out there's shops nearby that sell them is, at least, a bit of a relief. )

... Nice.

( She'll give him that. Alone she would have definitely ended up on that whole quest detour. )

Too many ingredients. ( This bag is pretty hefty as is, but just one more left. So! Off they go to the nearest shop. Please let this one be a more successful outing. )

[shurajodo]

Pfft. 'course this place has the sweet stuff all poisoned.

( That's why you gotta eat raw meat, like him. )

Let's duck inside somewhere if you wanna get warm. Yer shiverin 's drivin' me up a wall.

mochi-lly

[sleepinglyra]

[The nearest human cover is a tall young man with long blonde hair sleeping against a tree, which he carefully chose due to its location away from the main crowd of people. His brow furrowed slightly when he felt someone brush against him but he found himself leaning into the nostalgic feel of someone resting next to him with a quiet hum. Until Kate spoke, which he answered with a sharp exhale.]

I didn't say anything.

[And if she had stayed quiet he might not have minded her company but she broke that illusion. Maybe if he kept his eyes closed he could try to hold onto it a bit longer.]

[bratherine]

( this is embarrassing, and seeing as how it's so embarrassing, she is doing what any sane person would do: make it a bigger deal than it needs to be. With her eyes screwed shut and teeth chattering, Kate would quite like to evaporate into the floor. Or at least be back in her crappy apartment where she can wrap twenty blankets around herself and not be caught out looking this weak. )

... Good.

( Well, she has to say one more thing, but at least she seems to be shutting up after that? As long as he doesn't mind the way she seems to be huddling up closer, trying to get any amount of body heat she can off this dude. )

[bratherine]

( She'd rather avoid both of those, thanks. )

... Fine.

( Where... oh look, is that a cafe? As in coffee? Piping hot coffee? Please god. )

Weren't that sweet.

( Because that's the point that needs to be contested while they duck into this cafe. Yep. )

[metafictions]

A friend taught me that lesson once. [Okay, maybe not literally-- they're not slamming a cheat code into this quest, but.] If you don't keep a flexible head, you won't crack anything.

[In other words, work smarter, not harder!

Although the hitobashira haven't called out this next street vendor specifically... cheat code: what they don't know won't hurt 'em, especially when their prize was out of stock. Kamui starts searching for those mushrooms again, but takes the opportunity to turn to his young companion this time.]

I'm Kamui, by the way. Are you new to hell?