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!

If you have any questions about the mingle content, please ask them here!
If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.
For Rewards, threads in the Mingle log count for One (1) point!

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

( Squint. It... might be a slightly fairer playing ground if he's as unfamiliar with the songs as he says he is.

Of course, he could be lying. )

Why do I need t' sing? Can't you do it yourself?

[He scoffs a half-laugh at the notion.]

If isn’t much of a game, or a bet, if only one person participates. And I should hate for these drinks to go to waste.

[He isn’t about to foggy up his faculties with this particular excess.]

Come now, it’ll be interesting, if nothing else.

( She swirls the last of the drink in the bottle, glancing between this dude and the karaoke machine.

He's really not gonna let up, is he? )

... You go first.

( Kate combs back her hair with a hand and drains the last of the stranger's drink, nodding over at the machine. )

[He has been known to be annoyingly stubborn about even more menial matters. But at least this is in relatively good spirit, though he’s quick to correct—]

Gladly, but first, let us pick a theme in which to filter our selection of songs, or we may be here all day. I’ll defer to your judgment, as long as it isn’t too mundane.

[A word, a phrase, anything, really.]

( Ah. Shit...

Her choice is entirely driven by the first thing she lays her eyes on: someone's coat. )

Blue?

( Good enough, right? There's lots of ways this guy could take something like that. )

[Ah, blue. Perhaps not as thrilling as he would have chosen, but Sholmes’ also would have picked something like “Bunsen burner tube” or a “metro bobby’s hat”, so they’re likely better off for it.]

Very well. Blue.

[It takes him a moment, crossing over to the screen and fussing with the controls. Somehow, with the speed of a boomer trying to peck and hunt at the monitor, he filters the list of songs to those with “blue” in the title.

There are plenty, of course. And he recognizes absolutely none at all, which leaves him at a pointed disadvantage. So what’s a man to do? Pick one with an interesting title.]

What do you say to… Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea?

[It rather sounds like the title of one of Iris’ stories.]

( Yeah, they might be out of luck trying to find a song called "Bunsen Burner Blue". But Kate's perfectly content to go with this, apparently, though watching this guy try to find songs is painful. )

... Sure. ( Shrug. Not her taste, but whatever. ) Do your best.

[Probably not to his tastes, either, but there's something to be said about nothing here being his tastes: all is guaranteed to be new and unusual.]

Certainly.

[And to his credit, he does the best he can, with what he can work with. The song is about as foreign as possible, but musical knowledge is foundational -- the chord progressions are unusual but repetition turns them predictable. The lyrics are... not sung accurately until they're repeated, but it's enough to carry him through to the end.

His score, given somewhat arbitrarily by the system, is middlingly average, but not a spectacular failure. Sholmes does not appear to be the kind to wither under the spotlight, either, and his departure from the stage--when it's done--is just as easy.]

( Well. He actually carries through with it, which is impressive. He wasn't lying when he said he wasn't familiar with any of the songs here, apparently, but he's doing it.

She'd applaud it if she wasn't making sure she was drawing no attention to herself. And so Kate waits until she thinks this guy's attention is more focused on the karaoke song — the words on the screen, the beat, whatever gets his attention off the audience for a moment — and...

Well, she slips out of the room entirely.

She said she wasn't doing karaoke! Though, given all the Tamamao members milling through the building, it may take her longer than she'd like to get through the hallway. Hopefully that guy doesn't notice her empty seat until she's well and truly out.

(Probably not, though.) )

[Unfortunately for her, despite Sholmes' strange mannerisms and tendency to appear... well, single-mindedly oblivious, there is rarely a moment where his observational powers are not running at full throttle. He's in the last verse of the song when he notices her shifting just enough to hint at slinking away. A second glance as the song reaches an end, revealing only an empty spot where a young woman once sat, only proves it.

He isn't in a hurry to follow; he considers, for a moment, not doing so at all. But if someone thinks they're being sly, Sholmes rather enjoys proving that they aren't quite as clever as they think -- and given that the room leads only to one crowded hallway, he concludes that she'll not cover as much distance, or as quickly, as she believes.

Easy enough to finish up and slip into that same hallway, weaving past the crowd on the opposite side. When she runs into him, it's as though he's appeared out of nowhere.]

Give up on our game already? I'm disappointed. Surely my performance wasn't that bad.

( Making it through the constant interruptions of dancing around people, she almost, almost thinks she might make it scot free.

And then she all but runs into the guy she was getting away from. )

... Ugh. ( Dammit. No one said this fop could teleport. ) Weren't bad.

( That's high praise by Kate's standards. Managing to pull off even a middling performance when you've never heard the song is pretty impressive. But that just means she definitely isn't singing.

So the logical, obvious answer for what he wants is for her to fish around in her jeans pocket and give him her vouchers. None of them have been used, either. )

You win.

[Sholmes makes a noise at the back of his throat, barely holding back his clear amusement. He fishes in his pocket for his pipe and brings it to his mouth, balancing it between his lips. He makes no attempt to light it just yet--some of these establishments are rather fussy about smoking indoors, a concept very strange for a Victorian man used to fogging up the room with shag tobacco smoke--but it's a familiar gesture all the same.]

I admit it isn't how I would perform if given the choice, but there's something very bracing about being on stage with so many lights flashing about, and the lyrics so clearly on display for a man to see.

[Here, he does laugh. And if Kate hopes that he's considerate enough to not take his winnings, she would be wrong. Sholmes takes the vouchers with a sense of satisfaction; perhaps they'll work as further bargaining chips down the line, depending upon who else he stumbles into.]

Are you really so arrested by stage fright that you'd give up all your free drinks to avoid my little game?

( She did lose — well, forfeited, but same difference. It's annoying, because she was hoping to clear out in time to lose this guy, but apparently she wasn't subtle enough. It's annoying but maybe she's spent enough time here.

Maybe she'll just head back and see if this was enough alcohol to knock her out without having to think. )

... Are you smoking a pipe?

( Sure, she could give him a non-answer to his question, but first things first:

Yeah. Uh. What's with all of... /gestures. This? )

It is a pipe, but I'm not smoking it. Not just yet!

[The item continues to hang at his lips; he hasn't packed it with tobacco nor made an attempt to light it just yet.]

I find that there are some who… disapprove of smoking either indoors, or nearby. A rather odd development, I must admit.

[He wonders if it is indicative of the future of his own world; or just a strange twist of cultural differences in this one.]

( ... Development?

Is this another case like that Ryouma guy? That'd explain the outfit, and the pipe, she supposes. )

When you from?

( He looks some sort of vaguely historical but Kate's idea of attending history class was "not going". So she's not the person to ask for specific details on any of that. )

[Vaguely historical, at least, is not incorrect. He has the look of a Victorian man through and through, if sprinkled with the smallest amount of steampunk enthusiast.]

When I am from is the turn of the century, my dear girl. The twentieth will soon be upon us in the blink of an eye. Where I am from is none other than the foggiest of all cities, or so everyone should have you believe -- London.

[She did not ask for the latter, but he gives it freely.]

I suspect you ask for a reason.

( ... Ah. Yeah, somehow the London part doesn't surprise her either. The accent is still clear, even with the over a century's difference apparently between them. )

You called it an "odd development".

( Her northern accent eases up on the words, the last two stressed in a decent imitation of his own. It wouldn't be weird if he was from a more modern time, right? )

Flat | Top-Level Comments Only

May 2022 IC Mingle

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i'm sorry about her lmaooo

it's amazing

(': he got to wow the audience and she didn't have to sing

win-win? minus losing all her vouchers :')

eh she's drank enough of other people's drinks she's fine

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i somehow missed this, so sorry!

no worries!