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

Right now I want to get out of the rain, [he says bluntly, pointedly adjusting the brim of his hideous hat.] And I don't want to find out that someone got hit by a taxi when I was gone.

[Again, "been worse" does not actually mean "doing fine"!!]

( Well, doing fine has been way out of reach for a while now. So there's that. Been worse is as good as it gets.

But she does exhale and shrug at his point. Fine. Whatever. )

Weren't gonna get hit by one. ( She grumbles, but she's walking in the direction of the store regardless. )

I believe you! [he says cheerfully like an absolute liar as he sets off towards the convenience store. He doesn't look back or force any conversation until they reach the store, at which point he pauses briefly under the small overhang to take his hat off and shake his hair out.]

Sorry, one sec. [He's more apologizing for any stray drops of water as he wrings out his hat, then jams it on over his hair again.] I don't want to drip all over the floor, but I should keep the hat on.

[...he should keep the hat on because his face is on the poster for the stupid movie the Sutokus were stuck watching. With his half-assed disguise back in place (and with no explanation at all for Kate), he steps in front of the doors to let them slide open in front of them.] Let's see, umbrellas, umbrellas...

( Okay then. It's probably a good job she's just looking to get this over with and, more honestly, still squinting at the spot on him where the lizard shaped whatever exists.

They get about halfway into the shop when the sight of it becomes too strange to not comment on, the alcohol in her system loosening her tongue enough that she doesn't think about the information this reveals about herself in the process. )

What's with the lizard?

[Maybe it's a little mean, but Natori gets a bit of entertainment over watching how people ask about the lizard-- a sort of self-deprecating entertainment, sure, but he has to take what he can get. The huge downside of being in the ayakashi realm is that everyone he meets can see it, so he might as well get what he can out of it.

He pushes his sleeve up a little further for a better look at it (currently around his wrist, like a strange skintight watch)] Haha, well. How familiar were you with ayakashi before you came here? Or youkai, however you want to refer to them.

( It's truly kind of fascinating. Her power's use back home had been limited simply because of how few people actually possessed powers outside of the military — she wouldn't have even known it had been successful if she hadn't bumped into a soldier off duty and been hit by the colour he radiated.

Something like this is a whole world away from anything she's known before. )

Never heard of 'em.

( Shrug. There's no point in denying that one, at least. She's too tipsy and too fascinated to try to find a workaround to answer with. So the truth it is. )

I see. Well, I hope all of this [he gestures to the store around them with his other arm] isn't too hard of an adjustment for you. I'm an ayakashi exorcist back home, so let me know if you have any questions-- this offer stands in the morning, for the record.

[He tacks that last one on wryly, since he has definitely been a drunk teenager in the past and doesn't expect her to be on her best 'twenty questions' game right now. But back to the matter at hand.]

Simply put, they're what you'd call spirits-- monsters from folklore. For example, the Enma and Tamamo-no-Mae are both pretty well-known in Japan. It's just that most people think they're only stories. Back home, most people can't see this. [He taps the lizard on his wrist twice; it doesn't move or respond in any way, as if he's just tapping any other part of his body.] But we're in their territory now, so people like you are able to see them too. This one just happens to live on me.

( People like you, huh?

A wave of relief hits her with that comment before she really takes in any of the rest. He simply thinks it's a case of her having seen the thing before it scurried under his clothes.

No need to blab about the rest, then. )

So, what, y're one of th' chosen ones or summat?

( Special enough to have a lizard spirit living on him? Weird, but she guesses her world would probably sound pretty weird too, if she bothered to describe it.

Hm. Where are those brollies... )

[That question catches him off-guard to the point where he laughs out loud in surprise, looking over his shoulder at her and letting his arm drop absent-mindedly to his side.]

What, like in a cartoon? No. It doesn't do anything. It's like... the spiritual equivalent of a birthmark, I suppose.

[If a birthmark were a living creature, maybe. It's a little more complicated than that, but it's certainly not a good thing. It just... is.]

I guess that's a rather boring answer, after everything!

( Huh. That perhaps makes it even weirder. Kate's expression settles into something almost thoughtful for a moment (well, as thoughtful as anyone can look after one too many pilfered drinks) before she speaks. )

It got a name?

( Ah, but as she asks that, she notices something; )

Brolly's behind you.

Well, its fans are calling it 'Lizard-tan,' [he says dryly-- because of course it has fans here (he also has fans here, but he's used to that). He tugs his sleeve back over his wrist before any of aforementioned fans who happen to be in the store might hear about it.] If it has another one, it's never shared it.

[He's also aware that he hasn't shared his name either, but. Maybe when there are less people around.]

--Who? [who.... is a brolly.]

( Fans? Okay, more questions there, but for now... She's just gonna push past him and yank an umbrella from the stand just behind him before holding it out to show him. )

Brolly.

( Obviously. )

Oh. Well. [Umbrella... brolly... okay, cute. Sure. He shrugs to himself before picking up a second umbrella for himself.] Alright. Is that the one you want?

( It's a surprisingly bright umbrella, a block of sunshine yellow colour that Kate looks at, regards for a moment, and then shrugs. )

It's fine. ( It's just for keeping the rain off, not making a fashion statement. Though... she does like the yellow. )

[Not necessarily what he would have expected from her, but whatever. He clearly doesn't know much about normie teenagers, since he's still assuming she is one. He just gestures for her to hand him the umbrella so he can get in line to pay for it, though as they approach the line he starts looking idly around the floor as if avoiding eye contact with anyone around them, and he stops making a stab at smalltalk while he's at it.

Incidentally, there's a poster with his face on it hanging on the front of the counter, which might explain why he's studiously not looking up at the cashier as he shoves the two umbrellas forward across the counter.]

( He can keep thinking that. It's fine by her. And she does hand it over, equally glancing around as they wait — though not at the floor, but the surroundings.

And... Hold up?

S q u i n t.

Is she drunk (yes) or is that...

(also yes)

Thankfully for this guy, she's quiet about it until they've paid and are outside. )

Were tha' you?

( Or does this guy have an identical twin floating around in hell, too? )

Haha, on the poster? Yes. [Which is why he appreciates the discretion! She may be a drunk teenager, but at least she waited until they were outside, where people were a lot less likely to hang around gawking thanks to the giant rainstorm.] While my true profession is working as an exorcist, I've appeared in a couple movies as my day job. For whatever reason, Tenkohime saw fit to bring my latest film to the city. [He digs into the bag to pull out her bright yellow umbrella, offering it to her handle-first.] Which is why I can spot people for umbrellas in a pinch.

( It can never just be a simple answer, can it? No, this guy also has to be an exorcist (????) and a movie star.

She hasn't been here long, but this city is already giving her a headache that has nothing to do with all the booze she's consumed so far. )

Is it any good?

( The movie, she means, as she takes that umbrella and opens it, stepping out from under the lip of the building and into the portable cover it provides. )

Well, it depends on your tastes. [He gives Kate a wry look before he admits] You're probably not the target audience, so. Unless you're a fan of romantic mystery stories?

[He's making assumptions, but at the same time he's pretty sure that she'd leave the theater after the first time he sparkles on screen. Which happens quite a lot. It's not like he needs to move tickets that badly, not after the Daitengu apparently bought out all the showings (??)]

In any case, you'd probably make fun of me for it. But I will say that my costars did a great job. [They don't deserve to be dragged for this.]

( It may come as a shock but...

...Yeah, it's absolutely not her taste. )

Probably. ( She's not going to disagree with him, either. After all, he knows just how embarrassing his role is. And maybe it's a good thing she let this guy get her a brolly, because it somehow seems that the rain is getting heavier.

Apparently hell is just British weather. Tracks. )

Where you going?

( If this keeps up, this umbrella is going to not be enough, so she's thinking it's time to get into some shelter. )

Back to the Tamamo apartments. [He considers the state she's in, and then the heaviness of the rain around them. She was suspicious of his offer of buying the umbrella for her, but since she asked...] You've just arrived, right? I can show you the way if you want. It's an easy city to get lost in.

( Ugh. She would much rather go home alone than with someone else, but they will be going in the same direction either way. And he did buy her an umbrella.

(And the umbrella is pretty hefty, for a corner shop thing.) )

...Fine. Let's go.

[AND THEN THEY WALK BACK TO TAMAMO HOUSING IN THE NORMAL, NON-BLOOD RAIN AND NATORI GETS TO PAT HIMSELF ON THE BACK FOR HELPING SOMEONE.]

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May 2022 IC Mingle

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