jigokulogs | May 2022 Mini Event

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May 2022 Mini Event

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As the Haniwa continue to pop up in the city and the turf war rages on, life goes on in the city.

1. SHUTEN CLAN

Remember the Isonade? Yeah, those guys. The surly shark-dudes who were no doubt involved in some black market smuggling along the banks of the Sanzu. They were too tough to fight off in order to figure out what they were up to, last time.

Well, Toraguma has caught wind of them now. Despite the ongoing turf war, he’s not about to lose out on an opportunity here! He wants his Shuten Clan operatives to scour the river looking for these guys. They will be a lot harder to find without the rabbits’ help, though. If you find them, you are to “inform them” that the Shuten Clan will be taking over their operation. If they have problems with that, well… you know what to do.

Don’t forget that they’re quite strong and that they aren’t too keen on giving up the information on their supply line without a fight. You’ll need to use teamwork to get what you need out of them.

Should you manage your way to their warehouse, you’ll find a fresh shipment of their products: specialized herbs, mineral-rich clay, and rarefied ore. None of these products can be found in the city naturally. The Isonade won’t dare name their primary buyer but they will let slip that all of this is being smuggled into the city from the outer Wastelands.

The Shuten Clan will demand their cut out of this operation, but you may get the impression that this is only one small piece of a much larger shadow creeping over the city…

Art by Alejandro Gonzalez Agudelo

2. SUTOKU ALLIANCE

The death and subsequent “rebirth” of the Daitengu has caused a considerable amount of chaos. Many of the subsidiary tribes have struggled under the weight of uncertainty during this debacle. The Daitengu has decided that an apology tour is owed. It’s good for the sake of the Alliance, after all.

Oh, but they’re not going to be doing it themselves. You, the Sutoku Lost Souls, will be fully responsible for it. ૮ ˶ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ˶ ა

Sutoku Souls are tasked with going to various businesses and tribe centers with an offering of gifts and deference to any and every group within the Alliance who will agree to meet with you. The gifts have been provided by the Daitengu, and are mainly snacks and coupons. Which will not be enough to please everyone. Some clans will demand more and some, in their rage, will try to take their anger out on you. You are an (lowly) ambassador right now, better to turn the other cheek.

This all boils down to be less of an apology tour and more of a bribe tour. What the Daitengu has provided won’t cover everything and you’re going to have to go out of pocket to truly placate the other clans. If you don’t have enough cash on hand, you may be asked to do various unpaid tasks and labors: washing dishes, scrubbing floors, cleaning windows, taking out the trash, serving kids’ birthday parties; any amount of the lowest work you can imagine.

It’s rough! But somebody’s gotta do it

3. DEPARTMENT OF THE ENMA

The chaos of the Night Parade has caused a resurgence of unaffiliated gangs popping up around Jigokucho. They can usually be found identifying themselves through the use of basic colors and mascots. They are made up almost entirely of violent youths with uncertain futures, who are lashing out at an uncaring world. The antics of the Daitengu, the accusations against the Enma, and the squabbling between Shuten and Tamamo is not inspiring their confidence nor loyalty.

In addition to this problem, the retrieval of the Haniwa is going poorly. Most residents are too uncomfortable to even touch the statues and their appearances don’t seem to be slowing down. There are too many for the Department to collect.

With an abundance of cursed objects in town, the petty gangs have decided this is an ample resource for them. They are using the Haniwa to harass the general public and against one another. They have weaponized the excess Haniwa and are using them as “curse bombs”, hurling them at both each other and the residents they want to intimidate. It’s getting nasty.

It’s the Department’s job to keep the Haniwa figures from falling into the wrong hands and to keep some semblance of order. The official orders from the Office of the Enma are directing all hands to converge against the youth gangs. Use any force necessary and retrieve those figurines.

4. TAMAMO CLAN

How inconvenient! In addition to the complications of the turf war, an extremely important time of the year has arrived for the Tamamo Clan.

It is time for the yearly visit of one of the clan’s greatest benefactors: the Tennin. These Celestial Immortals descend from the Heavenly Realms to spend time (and incredible amounts of money) in Hell’s Playground, Jigokucho. Hell simply offers the sort of delights you just can’t get in Heaven. Due to Tenkohime’s connections with them, the Celestials have had her host them for several years in a row now. She emphasizes how incredibly important it is to keep them happy.

The Celestials want entertainment and delights of every variety. It’s up to the Tamamo Clan’s Lost Souls to entertain them. Your entertainments can take many forms: keeping the Celestials company, putting on a performance, showing off your cooking and skills, tea ceremonies, and other exhibitions. Should you choose the carnal and kinky route for entertainments, know that you won’t be laying down with any Celestials themselves. Oh, no no no, they’re Heavenly, after all! This is still performance, so you may need a partner to help you out.

Keep in mind that the legends are true! The Celestials are deeply deeply fond of peaches. Both literal and metaphorical. 🍑

The Celestials love to chat and gossip, so keeping them entertained is also an excellent way to hear some interesting information. Tamamo artisans will likely learn that many Celestials openly trade with Tenkohime. In fact, the aphrodisiac goods that the Tamamos so famously deal in come, in large part, from the Celestials. Tamamo isn’t the only clan they do business with either. They also have connections within the Sutoku Alliance and are the land owners of several Alliance properties. They are considered one of the primary sources of capital in the real estate market.

Why would the Celestials want properties in a world they literally can’t live in? Doesn’t that just reek of capitalism.

5. TURF WAR (ALL FACTIONS)

The turf war between the Shuten and Tamamo clans is at a simmer right now. Which doesn’t mean that it’s over – not even close. Minor magical traps, similar to those found in the sewer, have been found in Shuten territory. Frustrated Shuten enforcers have been taking out their anger on anyone that so much as looks at them funny. Bars in both districts are regularly getting smashed up. Knife fights are breaking out in the streets. Cars known to belong to members of both clans turn up with slashed tires. There’s even rumors of hits being taken out on higher ranking members.

Watch your step if you’re out and about in either territory. Faction affiliation doesn’t matter when tensions are running high. What’s more, rumors are flying all over about which of the two warring clans is going to be the one to escalate the violence further.

Will tensions boil over at any moment? At what point does the Department of the Enma have to step in? Why haven’t they already?

It’s all getting too much to handle…

6. CURSED OBJECTS (ALL FACTIONS)

The presence of the Haniwa is having increasingly frightening effects. There are whispers about blood coming out of the walls and the floors in apartments, about black ooze pouring from faucets and coming up from storm drains. There are even whispers of terrible household hauntings.

These aren’t just rumors though. Bars are having to close early due to the presence of wailing ghosts inhabiting the toilet or blood pouring from the taps. People run screaming out of alleyways pursued by ghostly hands.

These curses and hauntings seem to be fairly localized; kept to one building or one block at a time. Unfortunately, there doesn’t seem to be much rhyme or reason as to when these accursed sightings will take effect.

Be careful out there! Who knows what could happen with so much terrible energy running rampant.

Welcome to the mini event!

If you have any questions about event content, please ask them here!
FOR THE PURPOSES OF REWARDS, since all of these prompts tie into the main plot in some way, we will count all qualified threads in this post as 2 point threads!
If you have questions about the game itself, please check out the premise, FAQ, and rules pages.

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[ Honestly, she doesn't know what the rest of Enma's lot wants. She's barely met another from her own faction — which is mostly her own fault, and something she's been thinking about more lately. It didn't matter, at first. She didn't give a shit. She still doesn't, really — not when it comes to Enma's designs — but power can be used to protect, and maybe that she does care about.

Outwardly though, she just gives a little shrug, lighting her own cigarette and taking a drag before answering mildly: ]

Guess we'll find out. [ Smoke wisps around her words as she talks. ] It's not as if I'm fucking keen to come out here and fight any of you.

[ A half-beat, then she amends: ]

Not like that anyway.

Make ya feel better if I owe ya a drink for th'inconvenience?

[ His smirk is particularly crooked with the way he keeps hold of his cigarette with his lips. Only been on the job a couple weeks and you're already a crooked cop, Andy? Too funny. ]

Or I can pay ya t'look th'other way.

Pay me? [ A little scoff, half-amused and shrouded in smoke. ] I think our relationship has enough moving parts without adding transactions.

[ Still, she's not really here with the serious intention to interfere with people she knows. And she doesn't feel guilty about her priorities either. What loyalty does she owe the Department outside of the contract that wasn't truly her choice to begin with? Besides, it isn't as if her faction is any better than the others. Their goals aren't any more noble just because their fucking motto is "order and justice."

With a dismissive wave of her hand: ]

Buy me a drink sometime, but not over this shit.

[ He shoots that sharp grin of his at a pedestrian who rounds the corner not realizing what they're walking in to. The yokai takes a couple steps onto broken glass, sees him, and then backs away to take another side street. ]

Th'Sutoku's wanna negotiate. Either their proposal is good... Or I'll finish this shit up, sooner rather than later.

[ The longer it's allowed to go on, the more people will be hurt, the higher the discontent will become. He doesn't particularly want that either, but the tools at his disposal if negotiations fail are weapons. He has pull with the Shutens, he'll get what he needs out of them.

He indicates the busted up store front. ]

This one is just a warnin'.

Does it count as a warning if nobody gets hurt?

[ It's not a critique, exactly — just an observation. She knows restraint when she sees it. Or mercy. She's not sure how much it'll motivate the other side at the bargaining table without blood, but it does leave room to escalate. If it comes to that. Honestly, she'd rather prefer it didn't. ]

Seems like a lot of work either way.

They're payin' th'Tamamo for protection. With a scene like this, they won't feel like payin' this month, will they.

[ This is yakuza fuckery 101: messing with your enemy's revenue stream. ]

An' if they're strugglin' for collections in every one of their lil neighborhoods... They feel th'sting.

[ The only place where it matters: their wallet. ]

Trick is, not lettin' 'em do it back to us.

[ Dryly: ]

Like I said — sounds like a lot of fucking work.

[ When she'd first shown up here, her original plan had been to just resentfully rot. She's still not one hundred percent sure that's not the best course of action, and any caring that she does about the larger goings-on these days is halfway begrudging. Might have been better to stick with the first thing. She's not so good at being mortal and more likely to get herself killed than anything else. ]

This was the shit you were doing before hell, and now you're doing it again. Aren't you fucking tired, Majima?

[ His mouth twitches. Why is she always calling him out like that. He's exhausted, whenever he just acts like himself he's exhausted. The only way he gets out of it is like this: the yakuza mask, the hostess mask, the boyfriend mask. Just a little of his resentment shows in the way his lip curls. ]

Got a contract t'work.

[ He left something unfinished. He promised Makoto that he would save her. She deserved to be saved, she'd been through enough. And once she's saved, he'll stay here in Hell; toiling away to repent for breaking his promises to Saejima. ]

[ She knows. She knows he's exhausted because they're alike enough, and she's fucking exhausted too. Has been, for a long fucking time. And she's seen it too — unintentionally, she's met him now at various intersections of his life in this shithole, and she's witnessed the parade of masks. Nobody living like that could be anything but tired. Nobody living like that is okay. ]

Yeah? [ A bit distantly: ] Must be something you give a real big shit about then. Or something you feel real fucking bad about.

[ Otherwise, why bother? In the absence of either motivator, Andy's given up plenty of times. The only the curse of immortality kept her from doing anything permanent. ]

[ His face is unimpressed with this assessment, not a difficult one to figure out, and he's not going to spill any further details just for the call out. ]

Must be. That's how it goes: they offer ya somethin' ya want an' then they bleed ya out for it.

[ He doesn't actually believe they'll honor that contract and certainly not any time soon, but he also can't forgive himself for not trying. ]

[ She glances at him, her eyes focusing back in a little - as if her thoughts had wandered somewhere else before the sound of his voice called her back. ]

But it’s not always something important. Or to pay a debt owed. [ She shrugs, looking away again as she tilts her head to exhale a mouthful of smoke. ] Wasn’t for me. You’re just the responsible type. You’re beholden to obligation.

[ The terms of her own contract, put simply, are as such: That she be allowed to go home and die in quiet obscurity. ]

Turns out I got a lot of debts.

[ They have a way of piling up. He ambles forward with his bat, rotates it with his wrist once and then squares up to smash out the headlight of a parked scooter. ]

Today we're makin' a down payment with th'Shuten Clan.

[ He turns in the broken glass with a clatter, spreading his hands: anything else, officer? ]

[ She watches him square up, knowing what's about to happen — but she can't really be assed to urgently intervene on behalf of a fucking scooter. Instead, this agent of the Department takes another leisurely drag off her cigarette, glancing down at the shattered glass on the ground in front of her before looking back up at Majima again. ]

Alright. [ Dryly: ] Are we going to have this the fuck out?

[ Andy's never been the type to crack her knuckles or roll her sleeves up — nothing so overt. Makes no difference really. After all this time, all those centuries fighting, her body moves mostly by memory and instinct. But there is... Almost an intention to the way that she stands, something in the posture that says she's more than willing to throw down. ]

Thought ya'd never ask.

[ She hasn't seen him fight yet. Hasn't gotten that first hand look into why Nishitani fell in loves with him in the first place. It's not just that he's good: it's that he loves it. He lights up with all the energy that is bottled up and suppressed the rest of the time. He tosses aside his bat in favor of summoning her over with empty hands. He's a street fighter, to his bones, what he lacks in age old techniques he makes up for in vicious intuition. ]

[ This is probably overdue between them. Words can be had, sure, but some things can only be communicated between two people by blows. Besides, Andy’s never been close with anyone that didn’t draw her blood at least once. She was born of warrior stock, weaned from teat to blade, and seven thousand years hasn’t been long enough to kill her love of a good fight. This is where she comes alive.

Even if she’s never seen Majima fight, something in her recognizes a kindred spirit, and she knows this will hurt. He’s going to make her earn everything. Wouldn’t be any fun otherwise.

When she moves, it’s fast - thoughtlessly fast, that wild mane of black hair whipping behind her as she lunges, closing distance with a sharp right hook that carries more force than a woman of her size should reasonably be able to produce. She strikes recklessly, unrestrained by the fear of hurting herself to hurt someone else. ]

[ She's assuredly had a lot more practical experience than he has. Muscle memory that he can only dream of, but the way Majima has always impressed his tutors has been in how quickly he picks up on the rhythms of his opponents. A snakelike ingenuity for reinvention on the fly. She only has to hit him once, twice, before he's started to intuit where to block.

They are both quick and willing to fight in full vicious faith.

He's been fighting for his place in the world all of his life and this is the part of himself that fits like a glove. All other distraction in the surroundings is left behind in favor of total focus on the struggle at hand. The burn of bone and muscle.

He actually laughs with a wild brightness that most people never hear from him. This is fun, Andy. ]

[ He reminds her of Noriko — fast as a fucking viper, instincts sharp, never letting her get away with the same trick twice. It forces her to push herself, to do more than just rely on the same old rhythm of motion that's become innate to her after all these years. It's impossible to ignore the limitations of her mortal flesh like this — how her muscles start to ache, her heart throbbing violently in her chest — and fuck, but it makes her feel alive.

His laugh — that bright shining sound, it resonates with something inside her, striking a chord with the wild, savage creature that lives deep down, and she can't help laughing too, teeth bared with it, her dark eyes gleaming even as she catches his next blow straight on. It sends her staggering back a few steps, still laughing even as she tastes a hint of copper in her mouth. Like dogs, they are — dogs at play, biting and howling without another fucking care in the world. ]

[ In the absence of any further shattering, people have begun to peek out from the nearby buildings. An unfettered throw down between an Enma and Shuten draws them in closer to watch with curiosity. They start out quiet, but their investment grows into whoops and cries. Majima is used to this and really only smiles wider. What kind of yakuza would he be if he didn't take an opportunity to expand his fucking mystique?

Any time he spins or pivots, the heavy muscled weight of his tail comes at her and slams into arms and legs. He is irritatingly nimble and tireless in a way only an amped up 25 year old boy is. It measures out when he gets older, settles into muscles and weight and power.

For now he still kicks like a horse and his strings of attacks go on and on and on. ]

C'mon, Andy.

[ Shit talk is requisite. ]

[ Maybe it doesn't even matter who wins — whatever winning would even mean. She's not so sure she cares about that. That, or the growing attention of the onlookers. Her attention is focused on him and him alone. On the exchange of blows. The rhythm of it. How it jars her fucking bones every time that heavy tail collides with her body. He's fucking relentless — but she's stubborn too. Stupidly stubborn. And capable of ignoring pain in a way that only centuries of being repeatedly mutilated can really teach you.

She'll take the blows. Protecting herself stopped being instinctive a long time ago. Whatever it takes to keep close quarters, to compensate for his longer reach — to make sure every time he gets a hit in, she takes the opening and strikes to pay him back in full.

C'mon, Andy, he says — and yeah, maybe that makes her predictable, but she's never been good at backing down from a challenge. Win or lose, she's living for the fight. For the moment. The fucking rush. It'll be worth the blood and bruises. ]

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May 2022 Mini Event

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