jigokulogs | May 2022 IC Mingle

May 2022 IC Mingle

1. WELCOMING COMMITTEE

The influx of fresh Lost Souls means the factions need to have a little welcoming party for them. The leaders realize things have been chaotic in the city. So some recreational activities are in order. All Lost Souls will receive a message from their respective faction leaders with orders to go have some fun.

The Shuten Clan are given an advance on their first paycheck and told to go to the Celestial Phoenix Casino. A big sign on the half boarded up door proudly proclaims UNDER NEW MANAGEMENT. What happened to the old management? It doesn't matter and stop asking questions! The important part is that all games and machines are half-price and there are special prizes available in exchange for your chips and tokens. Games range from the traditional Western style (poker, roulette, slots) to Japanese favorites (cee-lo, koi koi, cho-han).

As for prizes, they have a selection of designer goods, including some particularly nice bracelets, necklaces, and watches!

The Tamamo Clan are given a considerable number of drink vouchers for Crimson Moon Karaoke, where they can sing their hearts out and while absolutely smashed. Private rooms are cheap to rent and they even offer a special discount for groups of two or more. The karaoke machines have any songs you could possibly want, which is a little suspicious, but don't question it! Just get drunk and have fun. By all means, extend your time as you wish and drink up to get in the proper mood. This is an important bonding opportunity.

Oh yeah, as an important note: the rooms are soundproof. You can get as loud as you like, be it with singing or... something else. Don’t do anything Tenko-hime wouldn’t do!

Members of The Sutoku Alliance are given tickets to Fiance of the Funeral Procession at the Pluto Theatre and Cafe. The tickets include free food at the cafe, including beer. Sure, the star may not be a Sutoku member but that doesn't matter too much: getting butts into seats at Sutoku-owned theaters is what’s important. The Daitengu rented the theater out for the day, so there is plenty of time to mill around both before and after the show.

Make a day, or night, of it!

A funeral-based romantic comedy melodrama as the viewing fare is probably a tasteless joke on the Daitengu's part. But hey, y'all aren't still mad that they crashed their own funeral and then took off laughing, right?

Right?

The Department of the Enma members are told that they're going to be doing a team-building exercise. What exactly does that mean? That's right, it's community cleanup time! You get to clean up cans and trash in the street! You get the honor of using a department-issued bike with an attached cart to wheel around the city and pick up trash! How exciting! Teamwork is encouraged, of course. Teams that collect enough garbage will get one (1) voucher for mini-golf.

Please be aware of the local homeless population as you work, they won’t be happy to see you. They normally collect the cans in the mornings as a meager source of income that you’ll be dipping into. They're probably just not happy with Enma officials in general though. Sorry!

2. IT'S RAINING, IT'S POURING...

By the time you're done with your faction-sponsored fun, the sky has decided to open up. Hope you brought your umbrella! The rain is bad enough that walking home might not be an option right now. So take refuge in one of the many nearby nightlife spots.

Not in your faction's home territory? Doesn't matter! Make some friends outside your group or maybe get into a fight and cause some trouble. There's always the third option of ignoring everyone and drinking yourself silly instead! The rain has to let up eventually… right?

Hopefully you aren't caught near one of the cursed Haniwa figures that have been popping up around town. Their aura really dampens the mood and may even start to cause some dramatic and frightening hallucinations if you and your rain-stranded friends stay near them for too long. But remember! Do not break the figurine. Just try to move it somewhere else? And hopefully not get drenched in the process.

Welcome to the IC mingle!

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[It's luck that has Kamui in a waterproof coat today, but that luck isn't holding out completely. The cheap 100 yen shop umbrella he's using can only be buffeted by the storm for so long, so he walks down the sidewalk angling it carefully against the wind, his hood pulled up to shield his head from the storm. It looks a bit silly, and the fur-lined hood gives the effect of horse blinders... so, definitely, he isn't noticing any deerstalkers plummeting through the air.

Until he hears Sholmes call out, of course.

He looks up, and everything unfolds in a tragic, slow-motion second and a half. With a wet splat, the man's cap smacks Kamui square in the face; startled by the impact, his umbrella slips out of his grasp, where it spirals away in the wind never to be seen again; now un-umbrella'd, Kamui's hood blows back, and the downpour almost immediately drenches his exposed head.

The hat is still on his face. He's gonna need a second to process this.]

[Sholmes isn’t sure whether to categorize what he sees as a compounding comedy of errors, pure tragedy, or infinite luck. In the end, he decides on the latter — after all, cheap umbrellas can be replaced, and clothes and people alike can be dried. But his deerstalker is very irreplaceable; not only an article from home, of course, but one that’s been a dear companion over the years, seeing him through thick and thin through the most complex of cases.

So, he trudges through the downpour—already long-soaked to the bone—straight towards the man with the cap planted on his face, reaching out to pluck it off of him.]

My good man, [he starts, having to speak up over the downpour] a very good catch, indeed. You’ve saved me the trouble of fetching it myself in this wretched weather.

[He places it back on his head, dripping wet or otherwise.]

At the expense of your own comfort. Ha!

[With the sopping wet hat peeled off his face, Kamui wipes some of the water off with his sleeve-- fruitlessly, of course. He'd seen the storm clouds gathering overhead, but a downpour of this level? Umbrella or not he's stuck getting drenched with the rest of the poor youkai and lost souls out in this mess.

When he replies to Sholmes, his words are dry. At this point, they're the only part of him that still is.]

I'm... happy to be of service.

[Soaked as it's quickly getting, however, he does still have a hood. He reaches back to flip it inside-out, shaking out some of the water, then pops it right back on his head, holding it steady so it won't simply blow off his head all over again.]

We should find some cover. I don't think we'll be getting to our homes unless we swim there.

[He's got his eye on a nearby shop's awning: it's streaming rain on either side, but it's got just enough dry space under it for two people.]

[He suspects this man's umbrella is very much a lost cause, but if it is to be found once the storm clears, likely it's stranded atop some wayward rooftop a block or two down, given its very high-flying trajectory. Noted for later -- maybe.

For now, Sholmes' mood barely seems dampened by either rain or this man's deadpan delivery.]

Quite so. Come then, before either of us catch a cold.

[There is something to be said about catching a cold in hell, but it doesn't sound terribly pleasant no matter the irony. Sholmes has spotted the same patch of cover, and doesn't indicate the space so much as he moves straight for it. Water briefly sluices off his shoulders as he ducks into the space; once beneath, the faint spray of rain hitting the awning above dusts them from above.]

Now, would you like to hazard a guess as to when this rainstorm will stop?

[As soon as Sholmes moves, Kamui follows. He's not especially eager to stand out here any longer than he needs to.]

Yes, let's.

[Now sheltered by the awning-- it's over a candy shop, closed for the day but with bright little baubles of sweets visible in the dark through the glass storefront-- their cover it provides is scant, but just dry enough. Kamui glances up at the taller man; he's seen most of the lost souls around, but not this one. He turns his gaze back to the downpour, which seems to be far from letting up.]

Not sure, really. I've been here a couple of months already, and it's never come down like this. Seems like we'll be stuck for a while.

[The confectionary shop is vaguely distracting to Sholmes, but many new things are to the man. It takes an effort to filter the storefront away from his immediate focus, though his eyes do linger a moment to count the number of displays present, before shifting back to his new acquaintance.]

Hm?

[Right. He was listening.]

Perhaps I've taken some of London's weather with me, upon my excursion down [down? sure.] to hell.

Two months. Tell me what you make of this place. Have you tried—

[He throws a thumb back to indicate the candy shop. Yes. Distracted.]

—any of these?

Maybe you have. We don't have many Londoners: most lost souls seem to be Japanese, for whatever reason.

[There's a lot of them! One of the walls is mirror and nearly all the candy containers are clear, to keep every multicolored sweet and chocolate ball and gummy animal most easily visible from the street. The effect is a vast, almost kaleidoscopic world of candy. A light flickers in the back office: some youkai getting all the receipts together to close up for good in this storm, maybe.]

I wouldn't take it for a 'hell' if I hadn't been told, for one. If you've been to Japan, this whole place resembles some of the larger cities there.

[Kamui, fresh from the 21st century and thoroughly inured to candy shops, only gives the inside of the store a second glance when Sholmes points it out.]

Hm? Uh, yes. I've tried a lot of them-- they're all pretty common sweets. There's some Japanese ones behind the counter too. [A beat, then:] Are you from somewhere that doesn't have them?

Then it's clear you hail from a time well departed from my own. I should like to travel to Japan to visit a few friends of mine, but even without personal experience, I know for certain it looks nothing like what we see here.

[He would hazard a guess that neither do the confectionary shops!

Speaking of— The candies exude such a pastel color, stark against their white containers, producing a sight that is uncommon to Sholmes' 19th-century eyes. When the conversation turns to it properly, he chuckles.]

Oh, London has its sweet shops. And what sweets they are.

[British confectionaries with will rot one's teeth out if overindulged. Ah, the comforts of home.]

But I have never seen a candy shop arranged like that— [Mashing a finger against the glass storefront almost accusingly.] —nor much of what's on display! We should pop in before the owner closes up shop for the evening.

I thought that might be the case. Try the year 2005.

[So another time-tossed Londoner. The only others he's met have been the chief justice and Mr. van Zieks, both employed by the Enma. He wonders idly if they're from the same span of years, though he's never quite confirmed whether the other two even know each other, really. ~~oh boy do they ever kamui~~

It's Sholmes tapping the glass that catches the attention of the shopkeeper inside. The light back there finally clicks off... only for the lights in the rest of the store to turn on instead, showing off all those bright sweets more clearly. The owner soon emerges: a woman whose mouth and nose are largely covered by a surgical mask, waving at the two of them.]

Good idea. It's better than waiting out here.

[She unlocks the store and welcomes the two of them in, her kind smile only slightly muffled; strangely, the corners of her mouth are wide, peeking out from behind the mask. She didn't think she'd get any customers today, she explains-- too wet on the street for anyone to make the trek over.

Standing beside her is stifling to Kamui's senses, actually. He's stunned enough by the surge of malevolent energy from her that he momentarily hesitates. He recovers quickly, though, taking a step backward for Sholmes:] After you.

Edited (oh god my small tags) 2022-05-22 17:47 (UTC)

[There is a pause, of course, that passes between them like a knife slipping through, sometime between the masked youkai's greeting and Kamui's brief but visible hesitation. Sholmes may sometimes appear distracted, or oblivious, or even loudly obnoxious, but he is always observing, and it is impossible for even him--especially him--to miss it. Quite curious, he thinks, his gaze once more flicking to the shopkeep, whose wide smile slightly pries out from the confines of her mask.

His own smile is unflagging for now.]

Thank you.

[-he states simply, slipping past the entrance just far enough to spin on his heels and beckon Kamui to follow. Does that same flicker of hesitation exist when it comes to acting as a patron within the walls of this bright confectionary?]

I would appreciate your recommendations, old sport. [It takes every inch of his willpower to not fling himself immediately toward the pastel displays of colors and eye-catching candy wrappers, thank you very much.]

Edited 2022-05-25 13:29 (UTC)

[Though Kamui's observant himself, the smoke screen of Sholmes' usual facade holds fast. That, and he's fully distracted by the criminal power radiating off the kuchisake-onna shopkeeper-- his eyes follow her, expression uneasy, as she meanders back to the counter to turn the register back on again. This youkai owns a candy shop. Surely, no matter what his senses say, and no matter what old wives tales he remembers from Japan, she wouldn't attempt to attack her customers. Right?

It's only when Sholmes calls out to him that he breaks that gaze. He dismisses those thoughts quickly to properly introduce himself at last--]

Kamui is fine. Kamui Uehara. It's nice to meet you, Mr...?

[He takes a moment to smile politely up at him, and now that they're inside and well-lit, it's even more apparent that Kamui's eyes aren't the same color. Though the right's a very commonplace dark brown, the left is a bright, unnatural silver. He blinks, then, finally recalling the actual request Sholmes has made.]

Ah, right. Well, do you like chocolates? Other types of sweets? I have a few suggestions I could give.

[And it's the kind of place that lets you buy a bag of candy based on weight, so he could have all of them if he really wanted.]

[Sholmes gives an introduction with ease, as he often does. He pushes the brim of his deerstalker up with the tip of a finger, which perhaps loses a bit of its flair, given how drenched it is and how it musses strands of already-messy, wet blond hair poking out at the edges.]

Herlock Sholmes. At your service, Mr Kamui.

[If "Kamui" is fine, then he will be called Mr Kamui, because how can a Victorian man drop a title upon first meeting? It is simply habit to latch one on.

Well, then. Distraction abounds in this place; Sholmes finds himself caught between the very distinct difference between his new acquaintance's eye colors, the stark interior of the candy shop, and the obvious thread of something shaped like tension strung invisibly through this moment. All observation with no current data to string them together, and so he casts his net a little wider.]

I do very much like chocolates, especially caramel chocolates. However, I am open to experimentation, as one should always be — that does include any recommendations our very helpful shopkeep… [He gestures over at said youkai.] …may wish to produce, as well.

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May 2022 IC Mingle

rain!

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