[open] open 24 hours

[metafictions]

Who ⬤ Kamui and you
What ⬤ The extremely cursed 7/11 night shift
When ⬤ throughout May
Where ⬤ that one Sutoku/Shuten 7/11
Content Warnings ⬤ n/a for now, will update
Notes ⬤ please see Kamui's permissions to opt into having him sense your character's criminal power!

A. convenience store;

[It's 2 am, or thereabouts, and you are on a street where Shuten and Sutoku territory just barely overlap-- so it's a bit of a dodgier visit tonight. However you managed, you've finally bypassed the oni punks squatting outside the automatic doors and made your way into the waiting fluorescent arms of the 7/11, only to find...]

Welcome.

[this guy, dispassionately welcoming you to the store. Like, has he even blinked? It's like they've seated a cryptid behind the counter in a silly uniform. His lack of enthusiasm, his unbroken stare, and the strange presence his silver left eye seems to radiate all combined make this late night convenience store visit feel especially unnerving.

Sometimes, he pauses to stock the shelves, but it always sort of feels like he's watching you. Not that he's a rude cashier, or treating you like you're going to shoplift: he'll ring you up just fine. It's just his terrible vibes. Sorry.]

B. toilet dungeon;

[There's also a public restroom in this 7/11... if you can find it!]

Oh, welcome back. [says Kamui breezily, as his customer emerges from the 7/11 back door for the second-- or third?-- time.] Did you find the WC yet? I'm sorry for the inconvenience, it was cursed last week, so the hallway has gotten longer. You need to follow the directions exactly or you'll just be sent back here right away.

[In one long, breathless sentence, Kamui repeats the directions:]

Go through the door in the back, take a right, go through the fourth door, turn through the first hallway on the left, then keep going straight until you take a right at the intersection, go through the second door and you'll get to a staircase, so go all the way down and through the emergency exit on the right, take the stairs all the way up to the top, and you'll hit a T-shaped hallway, and you'll find the WC just past that.

[He blinks, head canting ever so slightly to the side.]

Please take your time.

C. hani-uhh???;

[There's a haniwa figure that has cropped up right next to the magazine aisle. Fortunately, this is one of Kamui's earlier shifts, so he's not the only employee around and won't be abandoning the register for this-- but they've still got to figure out what to do with this distinctly-cursed looking little guy before one of their oni regulars kicks it over, right?]

Erm...

[Except that, especially with his ability reactivated, it really, really feels like a bad idea to touch the clay figurine. And yet, he definitely can't just leave it there, can he?

Kamui's brows knit together with concern as he stands over it, armed with one of the tongs for hot food. He clicks them together, uncertain, before he crouches down to get a better look at it. He might be poking it with the tongs. Give it a few moments-- he's making up his mind.]

D. wildcard

[here for a vending machine substory task (or another substory)? just wanna generally harass your friendly neighborhood 7/11 cryptid? go wild my dude]

Comments

[horrifictie]

[ Harry opens his mouth. Then he shuts it, throwing his head over the shoulder to spot a particular someone who may be around. ]

I'd be happy to tell you, but... [ He brings his head back and lowers his voice with conspiracy. ] Kim really doesn't like it when I talk about the Pale. I don't think it exists here, but I think it bothers him.

[ He could be wrong. Kim treats it like a fact, something that is and cannot be changed, which is fine and well. Harry just assumes there must be more to it than that. Everyone has an opinion, whether they share it in full or not. ]

[metafictions]

[He thinks back to his conversation with Kim about his death-- deaths, plural. It wasn't that Kim hadn't been willing to believe him, but he had seemed... uncomfortable with the idea of something so surreal. Maybe it's like that with the Pale, too. Whatever this Pale is, anyway.]

That's okay. I'll respect Kim's feelings, then.

[But also, the secrecy makes him want to know even more, somehow. Filing that one away for later.]

Is there anything else strange like that in your world?

[horrifictie]

Nothing quite like these guys. [ He gives the Haniwa in his pocket a little pat, gently so against his breast pocket. ] I'm finding Revachol is actually very normal compared to everything here! Unless you've ever heard of cryptids?

[metafictions]

Yes! Kim told me about those too, actually.

[Not as exciting as the alive umbrella Kim had also mentioned running into during his first week here, maybe, but as basically a cryptid himself... he wants to know.]

Like... Bigfoot and Issie, and the Jersey Devil?

[horrifictie]

[ ENCYCLOPEDIA - Uhhhh.
INLAND EMPIRE - Focus on the Jersey Devil one!
CONCEPTUALIZATION - No, no. Issie! What's an Issie? ]

I have literally never heard of any of those.

[metafictions]

Um...

[Oh yeah. Alternate universe.]

Okay. The Jersey devil is a flying, hoofed beast from the forests in a certain part of America; Bigfoot is a big, hairy man-like creature, also found in the woods; and Issie is sort of like a Japanese Loch Ness.

[Wait. He wouldn't know about the Loch Ness if he's not from Earth, either. Kamui rewinds.]

Both of them are reptilian, dinosaur-like creatures that live in lakes.

[horrifictie]

[ LOGIC - You know "America" is a nation that exists in many of the worlds people originate from in Jigoku-cho. The same for "Japan" -- hence Japanese. Is "Jersey" also a nation, or is it a place within a nation? Inconclusive.
RHETORIC - Do people from "America" call themselves Americanese or something else? ]

Ok. Bigfoot feels very straight-forward. Loch Ness and Issie less so, but if they're in lakes... maybe they are named after the lake? [ Asking this like Kamui would have all the answers to his questions. ] But I'm lost on the Jersey Devil. Is it from Jersey? And what is Jersey?

...

I think you've given me more questions than answers.

[metafictions]

Shoot... I keep forgetting about the separate planet thing. Sorry.

[Aren't we still pretending he's not Harry, Kamui???

Harry is more or less right about the water ones, but he. He has to explain New Jersey now, he supposes?]

New Jersey is one of 50 states in a large country called the United States of America. Jigoku-cho resembles my world's Japan, so if we were really in Japan right now, America would be across the ocean and on the opposite coast of the land mass.

[a beat.]

Maybe I should stop confusing you, now.

[horrifictie]

Yeah, I almost understood nothing you said.

--But, hey! I still learned something. Sort of. [ Then, after a beat, he puts the shades back on. ] You didn't see me here today.

[metafictions]

[Well, they're down one haniwa, and he got to kill some time during a slow hour at work, so he's calling this one a win. Kamui shrugs at Harry, as if to say: saw who, exactly?]

Thanks for coming in, sir. Your secret's safe with me. Just... be careful with that thing.